Defying Destiny

by Andrew Rowe

  The Wandering War looked even stranger now that he wasn’t wearing his cloak. His height was conspicuous, but at least tall humans existed. No human’s flesh had a metallic sheen like his.

  Taelien looked miserable. His long hair was wildly askew, and from Taelien’s sunken eyes, it looked like he’d slept even worse than Jonan had. He was the only one of them that looked human.

  If Jonan had to guess, Taelien was probably the least human of any of them. He hadn’t confirmed his suspicions, but perhaps the meeting with Aayara would be illuminating, provided she even allowed him to stay and listen.

  They left on foot, rather than by horseback. Their destination was only a day’s walk away, still far from either of the main cities in the region.

  They approached the village at nightfall, after a few stops due to Taelien’s injuries. It was too small to even have a signpost indicating its name.

  It reminded him of home.

  He pictured it ending the same way as his home had, with broken bodies littering the dirt paths and buildings burning until they collapsed.

  Nothing I can do if she wants that, he told himself. But burning villages isn’t in Aayara’s character. Her horrors are of a completely different variety.

  It wasn’t hard to find their destination. It was the largest building in the town, and the exterior was swarming with Thornguard in full uniform.

  Jonan paused and turned to the others. “Wait here for a moment.”

  He approached one of the Thornguard members and waved. “Hey, Conrad. This is the group that Lady Aayara asked for. Is she in?”

  Conrad nodded. “Yep, she’s in there. Looked like she was in a pretty good mood, too. You can head on in if you’re ready.”

  “Thanks, just give me a minute to, um, brief the others on proper decorum.”

  The Thornguard gave him a knowing look. “Of course.”

  Jonan wandered back to where the others were standing. “We’re clear to head in.”

  Taelien folded his arms. “That’s it? I expected a bit more security for someone as high profile as she is.”

  Jonan laughed. “What would the point be? Even the guards there aren’t for her protection. They’re mostly to keep her from being annoyed.”

  Asphodel nudged Taelien in the arm. “Do not be rash.”

  Taelien raised his hands in a defensive gesture. “I’ll be on my best behavior. Aren’t you more worried about what War will do?”

  The Wandering War tilted his head down toward Taelien. “You are...concerned about my behavior?”

  Jonan turned toward the towering giant. As much as he hated to admit it, Taelien actually had a point. The Wandering War was a potentially dangerous factor to introduce into a meeting with Aayara. “Please do not take any violent actions in Aayara’s presence. She would react poorly, and not in a way you would enjoy.”

  War stood up straight, speaking toward nothing. “I would not dare to insult one such as she. She is the architect of great things both past and present, and I would not survive antagonizing her.”

  That...was not the response he had expected.

  He’d have accepted that answer from almost anyone without a thought. Aayara was, in his opinion, probably the most dangerous entity on the planet. He included gods in that evaluation — because gods were predictable.

  Aayara was just as physically dangerous, but every time he thought he understood her, she’d find a way to defy his expectations.

  The idea that The Wandering War — an entity from another plane with a completely different way of evaluating the world — was intimidated by her?

  That was a little terrifying.

  “Right. Good. Let’s not make her mad. Let me introduce you, then she’ll guide the conversation. I’ll try to smooth over anything that gets awkward. Any questions?”

  Taelien glanced at the Thornguard, then back to Jonan. “Can we trust her?”

  “Of course not. She’ll honor an agreement if she makes one, but she won’t make a deal unless it’s advantageous to her. That may mean that you’re offering her more than you realize, or it may mean that what she’s giving you is worth less than you wanted.”

  “Sounds like a typical merchant. I can handle that.”

  Jonan rolled his eyes. You go ahead and think that.

  “All right. Any other questions?”

  There weren’t, so Jonan waved a hand and led them to the building. They weren’t escorted inside. One of the guards simply opened the door and gave them a look of sympathy.

  Jonan led them to the door at the end of the hall where Aayara would be located. He’d only been in this particular location once, but he remembered it.

  He knocked once for propriety’s sake. Aayara probably knew they’d arrived the moment they stepped foot in town. Possibly sooner. “It’s Jonan. I’ve brought Taelien, as you requested, and he is accompanied by two companions.”

  “Come in, the door is open.”

  Jonan opened the door.

  Aayara was sitting behind a desk, running a cloth along an unsheathed rapier. It wasn’t necessary; the blade was already pristine. Luck’s Touch in one of its guises, he realized. Oh, this is not going to end well.

  He suppressed the urge to flee, pausing in his tracks instead of stumbling back like he might have when he was younger.

  She was dressed in an unremarkable gray tunic and pants, with her hair pulled back in a neat bun. With the bandolier of tools stretched across her chest, she fit the image of a young thief ready to break into some wealthy noble’s mansion.

  This was ridiculous, of course, because Aayara owned virtually every mansion in the region — and most of the land in general.

  The image was pure theatrics. She was presenting the image that most people imagined when they thought about the legends of the Lady of Thieves. If he didn’t know any better, he might have thought she was trying to recapture some of the fun of her youth.

  But he did know her better. She was the closest thing he had to family.

  Fortunately, that meant he knew how to play her games, even if he knew she’d always be a few steps ahead. “Symphony.”

  He greeted her by her old guild “ess” name to acknowledge her current guise, and bowed at the waist. “Allow me to present Taelien Salaris, the current bearer of the Sae’kes, as you requested. He is accompanied by Asphodel, a Paladin of Tae’os, and The Wandering War, a Harvester of War.”

  Aayara stood up, set down her polishing cloth, and sheathed the rapier at her hip. “Thank you, Scribe. And thank you all for coming at such short notice. Please, have a seat.”

  There were three seats across from her. Not enough for all of them, if Jonan included himself. But he understood the intent, and instead drifted to Aayara’s side of the table to stand next to her.

  The others took seats. Taelien, to his credit, managed to keep his hand off the hilt of his own weapon — a rarity.

  Aayara drifted around to the opposite side of the table, extending a hand to The Wandering War first. “A Harvester of War. It’s been some time since I’ve seen one of you. I thank you for the visit.”

  The Harvester hesitated.

  He’s afraid. A moment later, he realized why. She’s a vae’kes — she can absorb dominion essence. He’s primarily, if not entirely, composed of that essence.

  Could she kill him outright, just by touching him?

  He’s probably wondering that same thing right now.

  Moments passed. The Wandering War accepted her hand. “It is an honor to meet one such as you.”

  Aayara smiled. “Likewise.” She moved to Asphodel next, extending her hand. “And a delaren! How delightful.”

  “You’re wrong.” Asphodel’s expression sank into a frown.

  “Pardon?” Aayara tilted her head to the side.

  “Everything about you...it’s wrong. Your destiny is...I don’t understand.”

  “Oh, you refer to your oracular insights! How fascinating. May I see what you see?”

  Asph
odel visibly recoiled. “I...”

  Taelien shifted to the side, offering a hand toward Aayara. “Lady Aayara, I’ve been hearing about you since I was a child. It’s such a pleasure to finally meet you.”

  Aayara turned her head just slightly toward Taelien. “I’ll get to you.” She turned back toward Asphodel, grinning broadly enough to show teeth. “About those visions.”

  “You would not like them.” Asphodel shook her head, then reached out and took Aayara’s hand. “But in any case, they are mine.”

  “A pity. Perhaps later.” Aayara accepted the handshake, patting Asphodel’s hand softly with her other hand.

  Jonan stepped back into the corner of the room, trying to get as much distance as possible, just in case something happened in the next exchange. Sadly, the plain room didn’t offer any protective cover.

  “Taelien Salaris. An unusual name, don’t you think?” She accepted his offered hand by clasping it at the wrist. “Full of so many layers of meaning.”

  Taelien nodded. “Unlike Aayara, which is largely a meaningless combination of syllables in any modern language.”

  Aayara laughed. “Quite so! I do get tired of the excessive vowels at times, but it suits me.”

  “More than your original name?”

  Aayara released his wrist and waved her hand. “Oh, you’re a bit devious, aren’t you? I hadn’t expected that. But you won’t win that little tidbit out of me, I’m afraid. Certainly not today.”

  “A shame, I was hoping to get to know you a little bit better.” Taelien gave a sharp grin of his own.

  Taelien was not devious.

  Not normally, anyway.

  But Aayara loved it when people tried to tease things out of her.

  Has he been coached for this more than I’d expected?

  It wasn’t impossible. He’d been close with Velas for a time...but that was before their fight. And before that, she hadn’t told him who she was, had she?

  Jonan put his pondering on hold to continue watching the exchange. The others seemed content to listen to Taelien and Aayara, too.

  “Oh, I’m sure you will.” Aayara sat atop the table. “A little bit, at least. But forgive me, I’m being inhospitable. You’ve come a long way. Would you like anything to eat or drink?”

  Taelien offered a strained smile. “I wouldn’t mind some water to start, and maybe some food after we finish discussing things.”

  Aayara nodded. “Scribe, be a darling and fetch some water? Not the swill from the well — go get some from my carriage.”

  Jonan frowned. This was a calculated way of getting him out of the room, if only briefly. “Of course. But before I forget, I have a little something for you.”

  Aayara put a hand over her chest in mock surprise. “A gift? For me? Whatever for?”

  He reached into a pouch at his side, retrieving a pair of earrings. “Silk knew she wouldn’t be able to see you for a while, so she asked me to help her make some gifts and to give them to you.”

  “Oh, how lovely!” Aayara accepted the earrings. “I love them. Which of you made which?”

  Her question implied an immediate understanding of what he’d just handed her. That was useful, but also somewhat disturbing. As far as he was aware, they’d made something unique. “Left is from me, right from her.”

  “How wonderful. When you see Silk, please give her my best wishes. Perhaps I’ll have a present for her to hand you later. But we’re being rude to our guests! The water?”

  “Yes, of course.”

  Jonan left the room.

  “And close the door behind you.”

  He did.

  Then he slipped on an earring from his bag, matching the left one that he’d given Aayara.

  She could easily dispel the sorcery inside, but he didn’t think she would. He’d countered her movement, and she’d reward that.

  He sent a spark of essence into the earring and activated it before exiting the building and heading to find the carriage outside.

  “...Now then, it’s much less crowded in here, now isn’t it?”

  The voice came from within his earring, but it wasn’t audible to anyone else. That factor made it superior to most traditional listening enchantments.

  He was able to bypass the normal limitation through a bit of stolen ingenuity. Traditional enchanted items were made with dominion bonds that tied them to a single dominion. That limited the variety of functions that were possible; an item bonded to the dominion of sound could copy or transfer sounds, but it had little other functionality.

  These earrings were more complex, made through researching the dominion marks that Edon had used in Orlyn. Jonan had studied Edon’s notes, and Velas had seen Edon work directly on a number of occasions. When he’d last seen her a few months ago, they’d worked on a couple enchanting projects together.

  The pairs of earrings were a result of their combined efforts. They involved four runes enchanted with different functions; sound transference, silence covering the area around the ear to prevent the sound from escaping, an activation rune, and a final rune that could be used to make the earring invisible.

  Jonan had only performed the fourth enchantment, but they agreed that it was integral to making the device useful; he could drop one of the paired earrings somewhere, make it invisible, and listen to the area remotely.

  For now, he’d just turned on the function that would let him continue listening to the part of the conversation that originally Aayara had intended for him to miss.

  He heard Taelien’s voice next. “I didn’t mind the company, but if you’d prefer to keep this to a smaller group, that’s fine by me.”

  “Perhaps you’d be more worried about Jonan if you knew more about how his mind worked.”

  Jonan sighed, both at Aayara’s way of turning suspicion toward him — which she’d later call “training” or something — and the distinct lack of a carriage outside.

  He wandered over to one of the Thornguard and inquired about its location — predictably, the carriage was on the other side of the village.

  Fortunately, that was only a few minutes away, given the size of the place.

  Jonan headed toward the carriage.

  Taelien spoke again. “I was aware he worked with the Thornguard, but until recently I wouldn’t have believed he had as famous an employer as you.”

  “Oh, I wouldn’t underestimate that one. But enough about my little Scribe. We have business to discuss, yes?”

  “Of course.”

  “She sends us on an errand of death.” Asphodel’s voice. Apt as usual.

  “Oh, let’s not be quite so dramatic, darling,” Aayara replied. “There’s no need for there to be any killing on this assignment.”

  “But there will be.” Asphodel again.

  Jonan heard Aayara sigh audibly. “The future is far from fixed. You should know that better than anyone, don’t you?”

  Asphodel didn’t respond.

  One point to Aayara, then.

  “Now, then,” Aayara continued. “The task at hand. I require something simple of you, and offer something you would be quite interested in. I will not pretend that ‘simple’ will mean ‘easy’, in this case, but I am aware of your abilities and believe you will be up to the task. In fact, it’s something you may quite enjoy.”

  Taelien shifted to a more even tone. “No need to dance around it, Aayara. What are you looking for?”

  “I’d like for you to attend an auction on my behalf. One of the items available is something I would quite enjoy having in my collection of curios.”

  “An auction? I’m sure you have plenty of money to work with, and numerous Thornguard you could send. What’s the catch?”

  His mistake is assuming there’s only one catch.

  “Ah, the auctioneer is, shall we say, somewhat eccentric. We do not have the best relationship, and he is not fond of the Thornguard in general. Are you familiar with Lord Korus Kyestri?”

  Jonan’s heart sank when he hea
rd that name.

  This was, almost without a doubt, why he’d been sent out of the room. Even if he didn’t say anything, he wouldn’t have been able to avoid giving away his panic with body language.

  He quickened his pace toward the carriage. It was in sight now. He might still have time to intervene.

  “I’ve heard the name. One of the rethri prime lords. He’s a recluse, lives virtually alone in the woods. They say he keeps a menagerie of monsters.”

  “Right on all counts, I’m pleased to say.”

  “And this auction item is...what, a monster? Looking to buy something dangerous?”

  No, no, no, Taelien. You’re thinking about this all wrong.

  But he couldn’t be blamed. He didn’t know her.

  And Jonan hadn’t even tried to help him, not really.

  Jonan reached the carriage. It was unattended, so he just threw open the doors. No water in the main seating area, so he went and searched the compartment in the back.

  “Nothing so vulgar as that, I assure you. No, the prize is a curio from Lord Kyestri’s collection. In addition to his menagerie, he maintains a large museum. He’s decided to get rid of some of his item collection to make room for newer finds.”

  Everything about that sounded reasonable, but there was a serious problem that Taelien couldn’t be aware of.

  Jonan found several bottles of Liadran lake water in the back compartment. He grabbed four, holding them awkwardly, and started shuffling back toward the others as quickly as he could.

  “That all sounds fine, but it doesn’t explain why you want me in there. Couldn’t you just hire a mercenary?”

  “No, no. They’d need an invitation. You, however, would interest him keenly — he would be quite interested to meet you. He’s a collector of artifacts, you see.”

  “Ah. The sword. Of course that’s the reason.” Taelien sounded somewhat disappointed. “Very well. War, you want to come with me?”

  “I would be pleased to meet one who keeps monsters as pets,” The Wandering War replied.

  “I may have a better proposition for you, Harvester. But allow me to conclude this deal before making another.”