Second Skin Omnibus

by M Damon Baker

  Several days passed after that where I almost felt comfortable with things. Nothing of note occurred, and our first Cabinet meeting with Líann present actually went off without a hitch. The Queen was able to offer some very useful insights, and even Tási seemed impressed with how well-mannered Líann had become. Then, on the eve of Gilfri’s scheduled arrival, Tási let me in on a surprise she wanted me to spring on the elf King.

  “You said that you were looking for a way to unsettle Gilfri,” Tási said as she led me downstairs.

  “You’ve got something in mind?” I asked in eager anticipation.

  “Not something, someone,” she replied cryptically as she led me through the Palace.

  Tási refused to answer any more questions as she brought me to a small side room on one of the lower levels. She motioned for me to have a seat, and one of the kitchen staff served us some tea while we apparently waited for this mysterious person to arrive.

  “How long before your surprise guest arrives?” I asked impatiently after we’d been waiting for a while.

  “She’s been here the whole time, Dreya,” Tási smiled back at me.

  The only other person in the room was the woman who’d served us our tea, so I looked at the liveried servant closely to see what Tási could possibly have in mind for her.

  It took me a moment to recognize the woman. The only feature I remembered from our last meeting was the cold blue-grey color of her eyes. The fact that those eyes had a tinge of warmth to them made my identification of her take longer than it should have, but finally the icon above her head popped up and clinched things for me.

  ‘Unidentified Assassin.’

  “Why have you brought me to this piece of shit?” I growled at Tási as I got up from my chair.

  “Please, Empress,” the elven woman responded as she fell to her knees before me. “If you’d let me explain?”

  “This better be good, or I’ll kill you myself,” I threatened her.

  The failed assassin heeded my words and began speaking immediately.

  “You broke me, Empress,” she confessed. “Completely. When you finished with me there was nothing left of the woman I once was, but as excruciating and painful as it was for me, you also set me free. You liberated me from the life that led me to do some truly awful things, and now I’m asking you for the opportunity to redeem myself.”

  “I want to serve you and your Empire in any way that you see fit. Commander Tási asked me to participate in your meeting with Gilfri, and I am willing to do what she wants, but I will need your permission as well. So, I am here, on my knees, begging you for a chance to remake myself into someone better than I once was.”

  “You expect me to trust you?” I responded with disdain.

  “Show her,” Tási commanded the elf.

  The assassin remained on her knees but withdrew three long blades from beneath the Palace livery she wore and laid them at my feet. The elf said nothing else, but Tási spoke on her behalf.

  “She could have killed you easily while we sat here in this room. I’ve been working with her for some time now, and I’m convinced that Saibra is sincere in her desire to repent. I wouldn’t have even considered bringing you here if she wasn’t.”

  Gilfri had already used his blood clauses to kill the elven soldier I’d tried to save. If I was willing to give that nameless soul a chance at redemption, could I really refuse Saibra’s plea for clemency? Saibra startled when I pulled Retribution from my arm and its limbs sprung to life, but then she looked up at me and met my gaze.

  “You have a great deal to atone for,” I told her solemnly. “And I am willing to set you down that path, but first, you must swear your oaths to me.”

  Saibra nodded and took hold of Retribution. As she did so, she winced as if in pain, but then recovered and recited her pledge to me.

  “I was once known as Insleí, but have forsaken that name and all that it represents. Now, reborn as Saibra, I pledge my life and my service to you, Empress Dreya Sintári. All that I am I owe to you, and you shall have no more loyal servant than myself for the rest of my days.”

  I’d cast See Truth on her when she knelt before me, and as she spoke her oath, her words came forth in the deepest, richest hues of blue I’d ever seen. If my Spell had any power at all, this woman had spoken every word with the most sincere sense of conviction. But I also recalled our previous encounter, when she’d managed to throw me off; lying about her daughter being Gilfri’s captive, so I pushed her a little further.

  “I’ve cast a Spell on you that lets me know if you’re telling the truth,” I revealed to her as she remained on her knees. “But you almost defeated it the last time we met. How can I be sure you intend to keep the oath you’ve just made to me?”

  “That was Gilfri’s magic at work, Empress,” she explained. “Or at least it was the lingering magic of the Evoker he hired to cast the blood clause on me. With the magic of the clause gone, I no longer have the power to deceive you.”

  Her words were still tinged with blue, and she was beginning to gain my confidence, but I had one final, and very risky test in mind.

  “How much do you trust her, Tási?” I asked her over my shoulder.

  “I allowed her in your presence with those knives, Dreya,” she said as her answer.

  Well, she’d better get ready to hold on, I thought, because this next bit might be a little intense.

  I knelt down and lifted Saibra up to stand in front of me. Along with raising her to her feet, I also picked up one of the blades she’d left lying on the ground and pressed the hilt of the long dagger into her palm as I laid the blade against my neck.

  “Here’s the moment of truth, Saibra,” I said as I stared into her blue-grey eyes. “Now you get to let me know just who you really are.”

  I felt the blade twitch as Saibra’s hand trembled, and she slowly pulled the razor-sharp edge away from the delicate skin of my neck. The dull clattering of the metal hitting the stone floor echoed through the room as she let the dagger drop from her hands.

  “I am Saibra,” she said, and chills ran down my spine as I recognized the tone of her declaration.

  “Saibra will be attending our meeting with Gilfri,” I announced to Tási as I held the elf’s gaze in mine. “You can inform me of the precise details of your plan later. As soon as she has performed that service, she is to be placed on my personal guard. I trust that you can smooth things over with those who might not remember meeting her former self too fondly.”

  I saw a tear form in Saibra’s eye as she heard me grant her request, and in that moment, I whispered to her softly so that only she could hear my words.

  “I have given you nothing, Saibra. You’ve earned this second chance.”

  I turned and left quickly before Saibra’s emotions could get the better of either of us. Her rebirth mimicked my own emergence on this world far too closely, and witnessing it had stirred powerful feelings within me.

  Tási remained behind, I assumed to discuss what had happened with the assassin… I mean Saibra. I realized that I would have to get used to thinking of her as a completely different person, if only because that that was the truth of things. She had been reborn, not in the exact same way that I had, but at least it was close enough to not make much difference to me. Knowing that breaking her as I had, and the continued influence I’d exerted over her even from as far away as her prison cell were the catalysts that brought it about, only made her renewal all the more poignant.

  Much to my delight, Talína let me know that there was nothing that required my attention when I eventually made it back upstairs, an occurrence that was becoming increasingly common, and I retired to my room to rest with Bane for a while.

  He’d returned from his training earlier that day, but would only tell me that he had made some progress, meaning that he was still not ready to show me what he could do. Apparently, controlling both the intensity and dimensions of his flames was proving to be a rather intricate thing, and acquiri
ng the level of understanding of his new ability that was required for him to master it was proving to be quite elusive.

  Tási joined us a short while later, and the three of us lay together for a while before she spoke to me.

  “I trusted her completely, but I have to admit, I couldn’t help but feel a bit terrified when you let her hold that blade against your throat.”

  “Me too,” I said. “But I think I already knew that she wouldn’t use it against me.”

  “Did you notice her flinch when she took your bow?”

  “Yes,” I replied, remembering Saibra’s look of pain when she first grasped Retribution.

  “Insleí pledged herself to Raithe and dedicated her kills to the Goddess of War,” Tási explained. “She betrayed that oath when she abandoned her past life. When Saibra took Raithe’s gift to you in her hands, Raithe could have killed her through the connection it gave her. Saibra told me that she recognized the weapon’s origins, and fully anticipated her death would follow when she touched it.”

  “What happened?” I asked in utter astonishment.

  “Raithe chose to only send Saibra a subtle reminder of her displeasure,” she began before hesitating.

  “What?” I prompted her when it was clear that she was holding back even more.

  “Raithe… passed her oath on to you, Dreya,” Tási reluctantly replied. “Saibra’s kills will now belong to you.”

  “I don’t know what that means,” I responded, completely stunned by the revelation.

  “No one does,” Tási answered me, also clearly disturbed by the information. “You’ve been granted a boon reserved only for the Gods. There’s no telling what, if anything, will happen the next time she takes a life.”

  Well, if that wasn’t just the thing I needed to cap off my day… It might have been enough to put me in a foul mood, but I’d found it easier to stay calm and in control since I’d vented some of my anger with Líann. So, instead of dwelling on the unpleasant and unknown, I tried to refocus on something else.

  “Well, if Gilfri reacts badly enough, maybe we’ll find out tomorrow,” I replied with a forced smile. “Tell me about this plan of yours.”

  As Tási laid out the details of the scheme she had devised, my smile turned genuine, and I looked forward to unleashing Saibra on the treacherous elf King. Gilfri had been plaguing me for far too long, and I relished the opportunity to return his malice in the rather poetic fashion Tási imagined.

  Gilfri’s procession arrived early the next morning, and I had Venna greet him on the Palace steps, just as she’d done with all our honored guests. He and his entourage were then escorted inside and shown quarters appropriate to their various stations. The only accommodation I made for Gilfri was to ensure that his suite was far enough away from Líann’s to avoid them accidentally crossing paths prior to the meeting between us that had been scheduled for later that evening.

  As my anticipation of the meeting with the elf King grew throughout the day, I paced around my room to release some of my excited energy. I couldn’t wait for the paranoid and xenophobic little shit to see the special scene I’d laid out for him, and I fervently hoped that Tási’s special surprise would be the final thing to push him over the edge.

  But it was the consequences that might follow which worried me the most—would it lead to war? While I was sure that the defenses of the Imperial District itself could repel anything Gilfri threw against them, there were other areas where he could definitely cause some damage.

  The outpost by the main road was a prime example. Although it was fortified against any of the typical attacks that might come along the trade route, such as bandits or an orc raiding party, the outpost would never withstand a concerted assault from an organized military unit. It simply hadn’t been designed with that in mind.

  With the outpost taken, Gilfri could simply strangle us, cutting off trade and reinforcements from our allies. While the District was mostly self-sufficient, with our links to the outside world severed, my young Empire could very well crumble.

  Even if Gilfri declared war on the spot, there was little I could do. The King of Olóra was here under my promise of safe passage. The only way I could act against him was if he struck first, since the oath I’d given would be dissolved the second he took the slightest aggressive action. I just needed to goad him into making the first move before I could rip his fucking throat out.

  When the time for our conference drew near, I left my chambers and gathered all of those who would be joining me. The agreement was for only three advisors to accompany each of us—no bodyguards or other personnel would be present, save for a few servers who would provide refreshments during our discussions.

  Although I couldn’t irk Gilfri by surrounding him with my personal guard during our meeting, nothing prevented me from showcasing their varied origins during his journey to the conference room. So, I lined his path with every single one of them, reserving a particularly notable position for Rhal, my full-blooded orc protector. I could only imagine Gilfri’s unease at seeing Rhal’s bulky form along the way, complete with the special Dwarven Steel blade Georl had fashioned for him in in the orcish style. I couldn’t be there to see it for myself, but I would have given anything for one of the cameras the remnants of the dead man’s tattered memories recalled, just to see the image of Gilfri’s face the moment he turned the corner and saw Rhal standing guard at the far end of the hallway he had to cross to reach the conference room. It would have been priceless.

  I was disappointed to see Gilfri appear quite composed, however, when he entered the meeting room. The King calmly sat down across from me, while his three advisors stood behind him, ignoring the seats that were there for them at the table. I thought I detected a slight look of surprise when Gilfri saw Líann sitting to my right, a position that denoted her strong influence, but he recovered too quickly for me to be certain.

  “If I may, Empress,” Líann began. “I believe that I’m familiar with everyone present, so perhaps it will be easiest if I make the introductions.”

  “Please, go ahead, Líann,” I prompted her, using her name rather than her title, just to make sure Gilfri understood immediately who was serving whom.

  After a slight inclination of her head towards me, Líann began.

  “King Gilfri of Olóra, I have the honor of introducing you to Empress Dreya Sintári, ruler of the First Sintári Empire, Favored of the Gods.”

  Líann hadn’t told me of the little flourish she’d added to my introduction, but it seemed to get under Gilfri’s skin, so I had no objections.

  “Empress,” Líann continued. “Accompanying King Gilfri are his honored advisors, Othil, Neval, and Wenflé.”

  “Your majesty knows me well enough,” Líann addressed Gilfri directly, “All I need to add is to inform you that I have pledged Íforn to the Empress and serve as her advisor today. Also advising the Empress are Lady Venna, her Chief Minister, and Commander Tási, the Empress’ personal aide.”

  “Thank you for introducing us, Líann,” Gilfri replied when she was finished. And although his words were polite and well-mannered, they rang hollow, and lacked any real warmth or genuineness.

  “So, Gilfri, my friend and neighbor,” I began, eager to get things rolling along. “What brings you to the Imperial District? Have you come to join my Empire?”

  “No, that will never happen,” Gilfri replied icily. “I only came to see for myself the upstart whose managed to deceive so many weak fools into following her.”

  “The ‘upstart’ has four Kingdoms pledged to her, Gilfri,” I replied pointedly.

  “As I said, weak fools,” he repeated himself as he glared at Líann. “The sort who would reject their own kind in favor of an inferior.”

  “There’s only one inferior in this room, and I’m looking right at him,” I shot back, abandoning all pretense of civility.

  “I place no value on your words,” Gilfri replied haughtily. “You cannot insult me, human.”

&n
bsp; “Did you send assassins to kill me?” I asked him in return, cutting right to the heart of the matter.

  “You’re hardly worth the effort,” he lied effortlessly.

  The power of the See Truth Spell I’d surreptitiously cast on him revealed what I already knew. The words fell from his mouth in a sickening green shade, dripping with a noxious slime that gave away his lie more clearly than any other I’d seen.

  “You’re lying, you miserable fucking wretch,” I replied with a calmness that belied the rage that was building inside me.

  “You have some proof of this accusation?” Gilfri responded with a smug arrogance. “I’ll remind you that you’ve granted me safe passage. Any unprovoked breach of such an honored agreement would surely cause those who have pledged themselves to you to reconsider their decision.”

  I didn’t answer him. Instead, I only slid my cup slightly to the side, signaling the server behind me to fill it.

  As the server approached, I could see Gilfri’s eyes light up in recognition. His anticipation was clear as Saibra stalked up behind me, and when she drew a blade from beneath the folds of her livery, Gilfri smiled in triumph.

  That smile crumbled when Saibra simply stood by my side and laid her dagger on the table in front of me. I took up the blade and looked it over in amusement before addressing Gilfri again.

  “You are nothing but a small man who, by an accident of birth, has found himself in a high office,” I denounced him as I glared across the table. “You’re a complete and utter failure, as a King and even as an elf.”

  I’d hoped that my last comment might push him over the edge. Insulting him as a King was one thing, but to a xenophobe like Gilfri, I thought that impugning his very status as an elf just might do the trick—and it did. The words were barely out of my mouth when Gilfri rose from his seat, completely incensed.

  “How dare you judge me, you filthy human whore!” Gilfri spat his anger at me. “I will see you and your phony empire ground into dust. Líann will be begging to lick my boots when I’m done with you! I won’t allow a single elf to serve under a deviant human such as you. I know about your halfling aide, and just how ‘personal’ her services are to you. Your failure to know your place and stay true to your own kind sickens me. I would rather see my Kingdom burned to the ground than let you rule over it. I will turn Olóra to ash if that’s what it takes–”