Herald of Shalia 5

by Tamryn Tamer

  “Doesn’t that mean that individual runes are more like lines in a letter,” Ka asked while drawing an invisible letter with her wing. “Each movement is a different rune, yes.”

  “I suppose that’s also accurate,” Lysandra said as Ka nodded along.

  “Smart Ka,” Meri said cheerfully.

  “Thank you,” Ka said proudly as she stretched her wings out for the class. “I am very smart, yes!”

  Lysandra helped the class with their spells to make sure they could all cast crisp barrier spells but she took special notice of Ka. The golden-eyed harpy was creating barriers one after another in rapid succession in targeted locations.

  “Ka,” Lysandra whispered as she approached the harpy. “Maybe you should take the normal divine magic course.”

  “Sister Ka,” the harpy corrected. “You teach this course so I’ll take this course, yes,” Ka said as her eyes darted back and forth. “You’re a very good teacher, yes.”

  “I’m just thinking that you might be able to learn much faster in another course,” Lysandra said. “What exactly are you doing?”

  “I’m making sparkles, yes,” Ka answered as she continually created tiny barriers.

  Lysandra watched as Ka created several more translucent barriers. As she focused on the barrier, she realized what Ka meant by sparkles. The barriers were created with solidified magical energy and as the magic solidified it shimmered.

  “It’s very pretty, yes,” Ka said as she continued casting barriers, completely entranced by the tiny shining lights inside of them. “Magic is fun, yes.”

  “Ka very tal-ent-ed,” Meri said, repeating the word she’d recently learned.

  “Very good, yes!” Ka said while patting the slime woman with her wing. “That’s because I am blessed by Twi! She is the best goddess! Yes!”

  “Twi?” Meri tilted her head.

  “Ka,” Lysandra shook her head. “We’ve talked about this. You can’t run around trying to recruit followers.”

  “I’m not,” Ka said defensively. “I am merely stating a fact, yes!”

  “Fine,” Lysandra sighed while shaking her head.

  She finished up her class by walking everybody through everything they learned and then handed out picture diagrams of the runes along with images of the types of barrier each spell corresponded with.

  Ka waited excitedly at her table until the rest of the class left and then rushed over to Lysandra.

  “Sister Lysandra!” Ka shouted excitedly. “Now that class is over let’s go find the other sisters and lunch again, yes!”

  “I’m not sure if they’ll want to do that again after last time,” Lysandra said nervously.

  Their previous lunch went well but quickly became uncomfortable when Ka started asking Brynn about why she was such a naughty girl and repeating things she heard about her. The harpy, despite her lovely personality, had very little in terms of filter.

  “Very well,” Ka said. “I will find Renna and spend time with her. She said there were many fun things we could do, yes!”

  “Wait,” Lysandra said as she grabbed the harpy’s shoulder. “I suppose we could at least ask the others if they wanted to have a luncheon.”

  “Wonderful, yes!” Ka shouted excitedly as she began shoving Lysandra. “Let us find the others, yes!”

  “Okay, okay,” Lysandra sighed as she left the classroom.

  Lishri had returned from Linna village so they met with her first at the tailoring guild. She was showing a group of journeyman crafters the differences between various fabrics. She demonstrated how one silky fabric was fantastic for lingerie but was useless in coats and compared it to a fabric that was similar but much better for outerwear.

  The Arachne practically jumped with excitement when Lysandra and Ka invited her to get food. Lysandra didn’t realize it until that moment but it was extremely rare for anybody that wasn’t a member of the tailor’s guild to invite Lishri anywhere.

  “You’re very social,” Lysandra said while staring at Ka.

  “Thank you,” Ka said, taking it as a compliment. “I’ve been getting along very well with the predators…I mean the Arachne! They make very beautiful things and Twi is a goddess of beauty so it’s only natural that we would be friends, yes!”

  “You like beautiful things?” Lishri asked while staring at the harpy’s dress.

  “Very much,” Ka said as she spun around, showing off her golden tunic with silver toggles closing the sides. “My dress is very shiny and beautiful, yes!”

  “It is,” Lishri said while forcing a smile. Lysandra knew what the crimson-haired Arachne was thinking. She could make a dress that would make the simple gold tunic look like a drab cloth by comparison. “You know sister Ka, if you’d like I can make you some very nice clothing…”

  “Just because something is prettier does not mean something is not pretty, yes,” Ka said, leaving Lishri and Lysandra both speechless. “A very nice elf worked very hard on my dress. She did a very good job, yes!”

  Ka had moments when she said things that were remarkably insightful which caught Lysandra completely off-guard.

  The group found Desdemona at the temple and Brynn was in her office working on paperwork. Lady Olivia was in her bedroom reading but once she realized Brynn was joining them, she decided to join the group.

  “Wonderful!” Ka said while wrapping her massive wings around the group.

  “Oh my,” Lishri said as Ka narrowly managed to hug the enormous Arachne. “You’re very soft.”

  “I am the softest lover, yes!” Ka said proudly.

  “Where are we going exactly?” Desdemona asked as Ka pushed them toward the market district. “I’m not sure…”

  “The place with pastries, yes!” Ka said happily. “Delicious pastries covered in fruit and then to the place that serves fruity drinks that make me fly funny, yes!”

  “So, we’re looking for pastries and then heading toward the Happy Garden,” Brynn said. “Why does she get to pick?”

  “She’s the one that invited us out,” Lysandra said while patting the white harpy.

  Lysandra couldn’t help but notice the improvement in Brynn’s demeanor over the last week and suddenly found herself feeling foolish. She’d been so obsessed with trying to get Brynn to talk with her about her problems that she didn’t bother to do little things with Brynn like take her out. Simply socializing with her publicly with Herald Frost’s other wives significantly improved how the villagers saw her. More importantly, it reminded Lysandra that Brynn wasn’t some patient that she needed to heal. She was, as Ka would say, Sister Brynn.

  “Why are you looking at me like that?” Brynn asked while glaring at Lysandra. “If you’re worried about me skipping our session I’m all caught up on paperwork.”

  “It’s not that,” Lysandra said as she stared at the petite bard. “I was just thinking how much I enjoy spending time with everybody here.”

  CHAPTER 32

  Frost spent most of the evening and the next day gathering any information he could on the Herald of Niri before his dinner at the castle.

  Herald Luciana Sortilega wasn’t simply the Herald of Niri. She was the governess of Goldsail. As the governess, she massively increased the funding for services in the demihuman districts and the demihumans adored her for it. Every demihuman man, woman, and child that Madam Gardenia talked to had nothing but good things to say about the herald and they were all proud followers of Niri.

  The information Cassia gathered was less wholesome.

  In the ten years since Herald Luciana Sortilega had been summoned into Nivara, she’d enacted six military drafts and despite demihumans only accounting for thirty percent of the population, they accounted for seventy percent of the soldiers. More specifically, the soldiers that were assigned to the front lines.

  The same trend appeared when Nir was in need of laborers. The demihumans would be called up and the humans would be left alone.

  In addition to that particularly unsavory pie
ce of information, she also gave the order to assassinate Desdemona. Frost was still a little bit sour about it, even if it did happen before he met Desdemona.

  Finally, there was her military prowess.

  Cassia kept hearing the same rumors about how King Darius had killed the herald but she kept coming back. She would die on the frontlines, often as her soldiers watched, and later show up somewhere in the country completely unharmed. Then she would march back to the frontlines and secure a victory for Nir.

  To Frost, the real concerning part was that she’d managed to hold off King Asmund for years despite him having a vastly superior force and more resources. The forests and swamps along the northern border would make invading difficult but, by all accounts, Darius still should have crushed her.

  Then again, technically he had, several times. She just kept coming back to life and neither Frost nor Cassia had any idea how. Unfortunately for him, there wasn’t any more time to find the answer.

  “Is there a spell for cloning?” Frost asked as ten armed guards escorted his party toward the castle.

  “Cloning?” Cassia asked.

  “Duplicates,” Frost said. “Making a perfect double of yourself.”

  “Not that I’m aware of,” Cassia smiled. “But be sure to let me know if you discover one. I bet we could have a lot of fun with that.”

  “Remember what we discussed,” Madam Gardenia said sweetly. “We are here as guests of the herald herself. We must be on our best behavior and that includes inappropriate talk. Jasmine, Iris, Zinnia, do I need to remind you of what constitutes inappropriate?”

  “No ma’am,” the women said simultaneously.

  “Why wasn’t Periwinkle included in the warning?” Jasmine asked, glaring at Erena.

  “Because I know how to conduct myself, Lady Jasmine,” Erena said. “I am a paragon of virtue.”

  “Yeah, right. You left your virtue all over Lord Sebastian’s bedsheets,” Jasmine muttered.

  “At least I don’t drunkenly piss the bed like you three,” Erena said smugly.

  “That was Herald Frost’s fault!” Jasmine snapped. “It was those damn cocktails!”

  “So embarrassing!” Iris said, covering her eyes with her ears.

  “Girls,” Madam Gardenia feigned a laugh while grabbing the two women’s biceps. She squeezed them both tightly, digging her nails into their arms. “Enough of your silly jokes!”

  “Ha…ha..ah..ha,” Jasmine laughed nervously while flinching.

  “Yes, silly jokes,” Erena said timidly as Madam Gardenia gripped her.

  The castle was smaller up close than it looked at a distance. He attributed some of that to the fact that it was a white stone building. White had a tendency to make things appear grander than they were. Additionally, the walls around the building were a fair distance away from the main keep, making the overall structure appear bigger.

  The central keep was impressive, probably about three times larger than the keep in Blackwater, but still just a keep. The design was simple and cubic. The only real decorations were the various stone figures carved into the walls as well as a few small planters full of colorful flowers hanging from window sills.

  “Announcing Lord Sebastian and entourage!” the lead guard shouted.

  The double doors in front of them opened, revealing a beautiful grand foyer with a marble statue of a bearded knight in the center. A well-dressed man waited in front of the statue and bowed the moment they entered.

  “Welcome my lord and ladies,” the man said. “If any of you have weapons or enchanted bags, I would ask that you leave them with me.”

  “We didn’t bring any,” Frost said politely.

  “I’m afraid I inform you that I do detect one weapon,” the man said as the entire group turned to Cassia.

  “It’s hardly a weapon,” Cassia said defensively as she hiked up her skirt and pulled her wand from a garter. “It is a tool used to heal the wounded. Would you call a bandage a weapon?”

  “Bad Mitty,” Frost said, snatching the wand from her hand and playfully tapping her on the head with it. “You know better.”

  “As do you,” Cassia said, crossing her arms. “Walking unarmed into a castle filled with guards.”

  “And you know that I’m never really unarmed,” Frost said smugly while staring at the butler. “This wand is very valuable to Lady Mitty. You might think that since this belongs to a demihuman it might be fine to conveniently lose it. I would advise against that.”

  “I would never dream of angering a guest of the herald,” the man said as Frost handed him the wand. “I assure you that the wand will be returned in the exact condition you are leaving it. Now, if you would follow me, I’ll lead you to the dining room.”

  Frost and the others followed the man up the stairs to the second floor. Frost noticed there was a large dining room located just off the grand foyer and wondered why they weren’t eating there.

  “You will be dining in the private dining room,” the man said without looking back. “To answer your question, Miss Bloodtail, we are aware that the frame of that painting is significantly more valuable than the painting itself. And also, very good eye Miss Whitetail. That other painting is indeed a forgery but the herald happens to be a fan of the forger.”

  Frost scanned the man and noticed God’s Eye Lvl 4 pop up above his head.

  “Please refrain from scanning without first asking permission,” the butler said politely. “It is considered impolite.”

  “You seem to be scanning,” Frost said.

  “The God’s Eye ability gives me vision of my surroundings without looking,” the butler answered. “It does not allow me to see beneath the surface of things.”

  “It allowed you to see under my skirt,” Cassia argued.

  “But not beneath your undergarments,” he said. “And even if it did allow me to see through clothing, I am a gentleman.”

  “I don’t suppose you could direct me toward somebody that could teach me the ability?” Frost asked.

  “I would be happy to provide that information at a later date if Herald Luciana approves,” the man responded as they turned a corner. “Here we are.”

  The butler opened a door and bowed.

  “Thank you,” Frost said as they entered the room.

  The room was large for a private dining room but surprisingly welcoming given its size. A long table with ten chairs on each side and two chairs at the head and foot was located in the center of the room. On the wall opposite the entrance was a massive cackling fireplace and a cozy sitting area. The other walls were covered in sideboards, servers, and buffets. A pair of large bookshelves were located behind the head of the table and a portrait of a lovely woman was located between them.

  Frost walked toward what he believed to be the foot of the table and took his seat as the women rushed to get seats beside him. Jasmine, Iris, and Zinnia found themselves at a complete loss as Cassia and Madam Gardenia grabbed the best seats. Erena politely waited until everybody else was seated and gracefully took a seat beside Zinnia.

  “What do you think we’re eating?” Zinnia asked as her tail wagged through the slit in the chair. “Boar? Cow? Goat? Sheep? Oh! Do you think a herald would eat dragon meat?”

  “If dragon is anything like wyvern meat it’s not pleasant,” Frost said. “It tastes sort of part fish and part boar but only the worst parts of both.”

  “That sounds grotesque,” Jasmine said.

  “I find most of what Lord Sebastian eats to be grotesque,” Cassia said while glancing around the room. “Meat has a rather unpleasant smell to it and a very overpowering taste.”

  “I agree,” Iris said. “I prefer vegetables too.”

  “I’m more curious about what we’re going to have to drink,” Jasmine said. “What kind of wine do you think a herald drinks?”

  “In my experience, as long as there’s alcohol in it a herald will drink pretty much anything,” Madam Gardenia said playfully.

  “Oh, right!�
� Jasmine said as her and the girls laughed.

  “Ahem!” a well-dressed man with a sword on his belt stomped his foot and pounded his chest in the doorway. “All rise!” the man waited for everybody to stand up before he continued. “Now presenting the governess of Goldsail and Herald of Niri, Luciana Sortilega!”

  The man stepped out of the way and a tan woman with reddish-orange hair walked into the room. Frost glanced up at the portrait at the head of the table and realized they were the same woman. She was short, probably about Jasmine’s height, but with more feminine proportions. Her face was as innocent as a cherub’s face but her eyes were as dark as a starless sky.

  The herald’s gown was absurdly provocative for a formal dinner. It was a jet-black with a neckline down to her belly button and a skirt that reached the floor. Frost imagined if a single shoulder slipped, the entire dress would fall off. Her chest sparkled like it’d been dabbed with glitter and her makeup was subtle but present. Around her neck was a gold amulet with a black stone in the center and similarly lavish jewelry adorned her wrists and fingers. A quick discreet scan revealed it was all heavily enchanted.

  “Thank you,” she said to the man. “Please tell the chefs that dinner has begun.”

  “Yes, my herald,” the man said, bowing as he turned to leave.

  “Come along Amaya,” she said, glancing back as she shouted through the doorway. “It’s time for dinner!”

  “Yes, Miss Luciana!”

  Moments later the pink-haired Florenne came rushing around the corner and wrapped her arms around Herald Luciana. The young girl noticed Frost and the others and pointed excitedly.

  “Those are the ones Miss Luciana!” Amaya said while hopping excitedly. “The bossy lady told me that a nice looking human with an elf that was just like me would find me!”

  “I’m sure she did,” the herald said as she grinned mischievously. “Did she happen to tell you his name?”

  “Herald Frost!” Amaya blurted out.

  “Are you sure though, Amaya?” the herald asked. “How do you know that’s Herald Frost and not an imposter?”

  “Because the lady with him is just like me!” she said while pointing at Cassia. “She can hear the voices too and the bossy lady said that it would be a human with a white-haired elf that can hear voices! She said there was only one elf that was like me so if I saw her, I could be absolutely sure it was him!”