No, it was the cascade itself that troubled Nathan. He needed some way to investigate the Aurelian Spires to find the truth.
The days that followed the invasion were a blur of activity. Nathan needed to confirm the safety of every fortress on the eastern border of the Empire, and also that the Spires hadn’t fallen.
There was an outside possibility that the cascade had been due to the worst-case scenario. Namely, a Messenger breaking through and the Spires shutting down the portal to cut off the Messenger’s army. If that were the case, Nathan would need to identify any escaping demons and alert every Bastion possible.
Any Messenger capable of defeating the Spires’ trigem Champion was far beyond Nathan’s current capability. The Twins had been powerful, but nowhere near the strength of the Messengers that Nathan had fought in the past. It was clear that they had invaded too early.
At the same time, Nathan needed to prepare for war with the Federation. If their armies marched on the Empire while communications were down, he needed to counterattack before it was too late. Losing Fort Taubrum was not an option.
Fortunately, no news arrived of Federation armies crossing the border, but he remained on edge.
The sheer size of the cascade made Nathan’s life more difficult. The leylines remained disrupted for days. Sunstorm was the only Champion he had that could quickly move between fortresses. Everything else had to be conducted the old-fashioned way: by horseback.
Not even the horseless carriages worked. While the interference didn’t affect most common spells or enchantments that relied on ambient magic, most newer inventions relied heavily on the density of magic that leylines propagated.
A mage could cast spells away from a leyline, but a horseless carriage failed. For that same reason, the carriages became gigantic decorations following the cascade.
It was for this reason that modern magical barriers around fortresses and towns were unreliable. They relied on the same concepts as horseless carriages and were prone to failure during cascades. Messengers had often triggered cascades in advance of land invasions. Right now, Anna’s hometown of Trantia was effectively defenseless.
Bastion fortresses were unaffected, as binding stones used a separate source of energy. The same went for mage towers built atop cairns, as the cairns allowed access to the leylines despite the disruption.
Nathan prioritized contacting Leopold’s fortresses and the various mage towers along the border. If evacuations became necessary, they would be the only safe havens available. Nathan would be required to focus his defensive efforts around them.
On the third day, Nathan received the news he had been waiting for. One of Leopold’s Champions arrived from Forselle Valley. She brought news from the Spires.
“The Spires are intact. The Council of Aurelia has placed the entire city under lockdown. Supposedly, there were riots on the first day, but those quieted down when the Council deployed the army into the streets.” Leopold’s Champion shook her head. “There are thousands of Aurelian soldiers in the valley, preventing anybody from going in or out of the Spires.”
The only time Nathan had ever heard of the Spires going into lockdown was when it was about to be attacked by land. The sprawl was large enough that its citizens wouldn’t notice an entire city being dropped on top of them. With well over a million residents, the Aurelian Spires were more than twice the size of any other city on Doumahr.
But that news wasn’t the real reason that Leopold’s Champion was in Gharrick Pass.
Leopold was. He had only awakened this morning, after two long days of constant medical attention from Vera and a local healer. His wounds would take weeks to fully heal. His armor was magical, and that magic had done a lot of damage to his body when Maura had fused it to his chest.
Nathan wasn’t entirely sure if he would have survived an attack like that. He knew some regeneration magic and could repair broken bones. But a spatial attack of that magnitude was intended to be lethal. To Nathan, the goal had always been to block them. That was always why he kept his binding stone reserves available when fighting a Messenger.
The old man’s face was pallid, and he barely opened his eyes. He gave his newly arrived Champion the weakest smile that Nathan had ever seen him give.
Nathan turned away, teeth gritted, and headed for his office.
Inside, he found Alice sitting in his chair. She was wearing simple clothing, but considerably more girlish than her usual fare. A black ruffled skirt that fell to her knees, stockings, flats, and a collared shirt with plenty of gold frills and ruffles along every seam and button.
The princess skimmed through the reports on his desk, while writing something with a spare hand. Before the invasion, Nathan would have found the sight odd. He had figured Alice to be more of a flighty princess. The sort to avoid formalities, paperwork, and the dull side of her Imperial heritage.
Instead, she had proven better than Nathan at his own job. At least when it came to the paperwork.
Seraph slipped in behind Nathan and gave him a small nudge. Dropping off a few letters, she picked up a small pile of completed paperwork without saying a word.
The door slammed shut behind Nathan, and he found himself lost for words. The scratching of Alice’s pen kept him company.
Eventually, she looked up and blinked at him with wide brown eyes.
“Did you want to sit down? This is your office,” Alice said, gesturing to the table in front of her.
Said table was covered by a map and more markers than any sane man could keep track of by himself.
Nathan shook his head. “I’m just lost in thought. It’s been a busy few days.”
“My father’s courtiers say ‘It’s been a busy few days’ after a couple of long sessions of court. The nobles at the Diet said ‘It’s been a busy few days’ after they accomplished absolutely nothing a month ago.” Alice fixed Nathan with a glare. “You’ve been doing the job of ten men. Have you even slept since the invasion?”
Nathan nearly answered honestly, his mouth half-open, before he thought better of it. The ability to extend time with the binding stone meant that Nathan could power nap and refresh his mind in minutes. His body needed actual rest eventually, but he knew spells to put off sleep for up to a week if necessary.
“Don’t even think about lying,” Alice said. “Fei and Sen have already spoken to me. They’re worried about you. Sleep, Nathan. The world’s not about to end.”
“It could have,” he said, admitting aloud his worries for the first time.
Alice stared at him. After a few moments, she lowered her pen. Again, she gestured to a chair.
This time, he took it.
“How?” she asked.
“You know about Messengers?” Nathan asked.
“You and Leopold just killed two.”
“One, technically,” Nathan said. “They were Twins, so I’m counting them as one. And I’m not sure they’re dead. The records indicate that the same Messenger has invaded several times. Only defeating them outside the portal seems to work.”
Alice bit her lip. “Okay. So, they might be back? Is that it?”
“It’s not about the Twins.” Nathan sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “I mentioned that Messengers are an existential threat to humanity. One possible cause of the cascade was that the Spires had been breached by a powerful Messenger. If that happened, what do you think comes next?”
No answer came for several seconds. Nathan looked at Alice to see her staring back at him with wide eyes, her lips slightly parted.
“I thought you said that Torneus was behind it?” Alice whispered.
“That’s the assumption, but there’s a saying about those,” Nathan said, trying to temper his tone. He didn’t want to sound like a smug asshole in front of Alice.
Alice frowned, recovering from her shock. “So, you’ve been worried about the worst-case scenario?”
“That’s my job as Bastion. It would have been Leopold’s job, but he’s…” Nat
han trailed off, a pained look on his face. He stared at the wall, and his eyes caught on a shield that bore the emblem of the Imperial Army.
For some reason, he couldn’t tear his eyes away from it.
“No, your job is to protect your binding stones. Leopold’s is similar, but he also provides advice and support to Grandpa.” Alice scowled. “Not that I have any right to say this to you, after the negotiations. But aren’t you taking on too much, Nathan? I’m your princess, and it’s my duty to worry about these issues. Grandpa—both of them—is responsible for the Imperial Army and responding to major threats. You also have Anna, who controls the county.”
Officially, that was how it was supposed to work.
Bastions were officers in the military. They operated under the nobles and protected their nations, but they weren’t supposed to run things on their own.
“If I did leave things be, where would we be with the Federation?” Nathan asked.
Alice picked up her pen and tapped it against the table. “In open war, probably with the situation flipped. We’d be trying to take back the Gharrick Mountains, instead of the other way around.” She rolled her eyes. “I get it. Like I said, I don’t have the right to say anything. But I want to be an Imperial Princess who helps you, instead of one who flounces in, acts bratty, and asks you to be her hero whenever anything that goes wrong. Isn’t Anna in the same boat?”
“And I’m trying to prevent a demonic invasion from overrunning the Empire,” Nathan said.
“Great. We both want the same thing.” Alice huffed and threw her pen at Nathan.
He caught it with one hand. It bounced on top of the pile of reports a moment later.
“I already have a lot of things in life. Everybody preaches noblesse oblige, but never follows through. Now, I have a chance to do something and you’ve spent the past few days running yourself ragged without letting me help,” Alice said. She waved a hand at the paperwork. “And this doesn’t count. Letters to nobles and mages could be written by anybody. If the job of an Emperor was to do paperwork, then you may as well replace us with a random peasant whose job it is to stamp everything in front of him.”
“Isn’t that how it works in the courts?” Nathan said, letting a little smugness leak through.
She rolled her eyes and threw her pen at him again. He let it hit him this time, as he probably deserved it.
“I said replace us. The courtiers don’t make the decisions on war, taxes, or negotiations,” she said.
Her hands ran along the pen, before she set it down again. Alice stood up and walked around the table to be in front of Nathan. “I have the best education in the Empire. Some of the best tutors. Both sides of my family are obscenely wealthy and powerful. If I’m not here to help you protect my homeland and family, what am I here for?”
Nathan took one of Alice’s hands, and she closed her other around his. She smiled at him.
For a moment, Nathan saw a different princess in front of him.
He sighed. “I get it.”
“Good.” Alice rubbed his hands. “I wish I was able to stay for longer. Charlotte’s been terrified since the invasion.”
“You’re heading back to Falmir?” Nathan asked.
“Nope,” she said. “Charlotte says she’s seen enough to know that what happened in the Diet was posturing, and she thinks the threat of demons and the cascade is more important than some stupid Nationalist insults. I’ll take her back to Aleich and report to Grandpa. Then you can bet I’ll coming back here.” She prodded him in the chest.
Nathan grabbed her hand. In response, Alice gave him a puzzled smile.
He wasn’t sure how he felt about Alice. He was less sure how she felt about him.
For now, he settled things by kissing her hand in the style of chivalrous knights of old. Alice giggled, her face glowing red.
“Well, at least I know that I’m your princess,” Alice muttered as she wandered back to Nathan’s desk.
That was a statement that Nathan had difficulty processing. He filed it away for later and left the room.
Two days later, communications had largely returned across the eastern border.
The worst of it was that Leopold remained gravely injured. His condition had improved enough that he could travel, but neither he nor Nathan had prepared the catalysts for a gateway to one of his fortresses. With the horseless carriages operational again, his Champions bundled him into one.
Before he left, he sent his Champions away from the carriage. Nathan closed the carriage door and sat down. Leopold took a heavy breath, his breathing ragged. His normally clean-shaven chin was now covered in thick stubble.
“I know we said there’d be words after the invasion,” Leopold said, voice like gravel. “That can come later. Right now, I am giving you complete authority over the Imperial Army on the eastern border of the Anfang Empire.”
Nathan’s eyebrows shot up. He opened his mouth to say something, but words failed him.
“Hah. Didn’t expect that?” Leopold chuckled, but it turned into a cough.
A triangle of magic flared in Nathan’s hands, but Leopold waved him off.
“I’m fine. It just hurts to laugh.” Leopold sighed. “Hans and Gorthal gave me the power before the negotiations, without informing anyone. They’ve been worried about Tharban and what he might pull, so ensured that any Imperial forces couldn’t be controlled by any other Bastions.” A stubby finger pointed at Nathan’s chest and prodded him weakly. “Now it falls to you. We don’t know if Tharban’s behind this, but anything could happen next. I trust you. I know that Alice does as well. However you know the things you do, it doesn’t matter. Just don’t fuck it up.”
His eyes bored into Nathan’s.
Nathan nodded grimly.
He watched as Leopold’s carriage trundled away.
So, the old man had suspected him of knowing too much. Nathan had wondered why his slip-ups had never drawn any attention. The answer was staring him in the face the whole time.
Overlooking Nathan’s suspicious behavior and background had been to Leopold’s political advantage. And it remained to his advantage. Protecting the Empire and denying the Nationalists remained Leopold’s highest priority.
He was, after all, the right hand of Emperor Gorthal, and a man who made many mistakes in the lead-up to the fall of the Anfang Empire in Nathan’s timeline.
A day later, a much less emotional farewell took place with the two princesses. Alice swept Nathan up in a hug. She wore a dark silk skirt that showed more thigh than Nathan had seen before, and her white socks left a tantalizingly thin amount of skin open.
“I’ll be back soon,” Alice said. “I left a two-way mirror in your office. Talk to me. Anna has one as well.”
Charlotte gave no farewell and seemed terrified of showing Nathan her face.
For some reason, Nathan felt nothing as he watched the meek woman slip into the carriage. He had been pulsing with excitement when he first discovered her presence, and now he struggled to find even the tiniest hint of emotion in his mind.
A hand ran along his ass and pulled him from his thoughts. He glared at the dark-skinned elf that pressed her voluptuous breasts against his arm.
“It seems your father’s blood does run in your veins. I always doubted it, but you’ve proven everybody wrong. Or maybe you’ve proven everybody right.” Nurevia laughed. “Everybody did say that you were the best son that Tharban could ever hope to have. Maybe they knew you would bloom. And now your pollen is ripe for the harvest.”
Her hands ran along his crotch.
Nathan pushed her away, and she stumbled in the dirt for a few steps. Her amethysts glimmered for a moment, and Nathan tensed. Elsewhere in the courtyard, both Fei and Seraph took up aggressive stances.
When Nurevia recovered, an ecstatic expression overcame her. She licked her lips and stared at him with glazed-over purple eyes.
“A little weak, but there’s definitely hints of daddy in there,” the dark elf
purred. She ran a hand over her stomach, where Nathan had pushed her. “I think the best thing Tharban ever did was banishing you. I can’t wait until we meet again, Nathan.”
On the contrary, Nathan wanted to wait as long as possible. He suspected that he would be seeing Nurevia sooner than he would like, unfortunately.
Suddenly, the dark elf lunged for him. He reached for his sword, but she stopped short. Her expression turned serious. She stood on her toes and spoke into his ear.
“A word of warning. Falmir isn’t all that it seems. Speak to your little wolf butler if you want to know.” Nurevia leaned away and smirked at him. “Consider that a belated gift, in recognition of achieving your manhood.”
“I’m over thirty, you know.”
“Yes, and I’m recognizing you as a man now. Be proud.” Nurevia rose to her full height, leaving as many openings as she could.
She was twisted inside and out, Nathan knew.
He gave her a light push toward the carriage, and she pouted at him. Despite that, she still rubbed the place that he had pushed her.
The castle felt almost empty in the afternoon. Sunstorm was napping after a patrol, and Fei had taken over from her. Seraph had returned to Fort Taubrum and taken command of the eastern front. With communications restored, Vera preferred the comfort of her tower over Gharrick Pass. Anna had countless anxious nobles and merchants to deal with, although she rarely spent more than a night or two away from the castle.
Nathan found it odd that Anna appeared to have moved into his fortress, when she constantly talked about renovating and upgrading her family manor.
Only Sen was awake. She kept him company in his office, although her unfocused expression made it clear that she was conversing with Ifrit. Probably practicing spells or learning new magical theory.
A knock sounded on the door, and a wolfgirl knight opened it. Her tail wagged when she noticed that Fei wasn’t here, her eyes skimming over Sen.
Her words were a lot more serious than her reaction implied.
“Bastion, our scouts have seen a carriage approaching. Its escorts are carrying the flag of the Aurelian Spires, and the emblems on the carriage are of the Council of Aurelia,” the knight said.
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