“No. Long presence. Link strongest between.” Sistina paused, then seemed to carefully consider before pointing between their heads, and asked uncertainly. “Speak for me?”
“Oh, that makes more sense.” Lily looked relieved and took a step closer. “But how can I speak for you?”
“I share,” Sistina replied simply, gesturing Lily toward her.
Phynis watched in fascination as the dryad guided the dawn elf down to her knees and gently pressed her forehead against Lily’s. She felt something odd pass between them, something Phynis could almost grasp, and then Lily pulled away, choking as she looked at Sistina with wild eyes filled with disbelief. It took her a few moments to pull herself together and speak.
“Dear gods… how you expect me to put all of that into words is beyond me, but I’ll do my best,” Lily finally managed, shivering visibly. Slowly climbing to her feet, she turned to Desa and the others and smiled nervously. She took a deep breath, her confidence growing as she folded her hands in front of her and spoke. “Sistina’s rage at what has happened is impossible to describe, so I will not even attempt to do so. Suffice to say that if your queen were present, I doubt she would have survived your explanation, Captain Desa. It surges white hot in her veins, and it will not soon cool. She is patient and old, and you would do well to know that Sifaren has lost Sistina’s trust. However, the ones truly at fault are in Sifaren itself, far outside of her reach, so she will set aside exacting vengeance for now.”
Desa’s face had paled, and Alissa’s face looked like she’d eaten something foul. Evrial simply looked resigned. Desa opened her mouth to speak, but Lily held up a hand to forestall her, and Phynis marveled at the confidence that Sistina had instilled in the dawn elf as she continued. “I haven’t finished. Sistina may be setting it aside for now, but she will not forget what has happened. However, she is allowing Phynis to demand her explanation from you before I speak her final judgement on what has happened.”
Taking the cue, Phynis looked at Desa and spoke softly, her voice oddly calm. “What do you have to say for yourself, Desa?”
“I wish that you had never been placed in harm’s way. I wish I hadn’t been placed in the middle of conflicting loyalties. I wish to the gods themselves that you had never been betrayed to begin with. And I’m sorry, but I viewed my decision as the least damaging of bad options.” Desa spoke without hesitation, a single tear trickling down her nose. “I’m sorry, Your Highness. But no matter how I may feel, what’s done is done.”
“Yes, it is,” Phynis replied softly, taking a deep breath and shaking her head. “And I suspect I would have been… less understanding before my near-death experience. But during it, I was able to see things differently. And I think that helped me put everything in perspective. I’m going to forgive you, Desa.”
“Thank you, Your Highness,” Desa replied, relief in her eyes. “I—”
“Before this goes further, I need to finish what Sistina wished me to tell all of you,” Lily interrupted, her gaze worried as she looked at Phynis, then at Sistina. She paused before asking Sistina softly, her voice anguished. “Really, Sistina?”
“Yes.” Sistina’s voice was hard again, but she gave Phynis a gentle squeeze. Phynis could feel both her sorrow and underlying resolve.
“As you wish,” Lily acknowledged softly, turning to Desa as she continued. “Sistina no longer welcomes the forces of Sifaren within her caverns and halls. Upon breaking the siege that has begun, all of those who have come here must depart. Only those who have had their slave brands claimed by Sistina may remain, and only then if they accept an order from her to not betray Sistina or the inhabitants of the dungeon. Others may undergo a similar binding ritual if they so choose, but such a decision is permanent, and not to be entered lightly.”
“Sistina!” Phynis gasped, her eyes going huge. “But what about everyone in Sifaren? All the innocents there?”
“Broken trust. Consequences,” Sistina replied softly, shaking her head. “Outsiders weaken dungeon. Have ignored. No more.”
“Sistina, I apologize, I never meant to cause you to lose trust either!” Desa protested, taking a deep breath, worry obvious on her face. But before she could speak, Sistina shook her head again.
“No. More.” The dryad’s voice faintly rumbled this time, glaring back at Desa. “Consequences. Choices. Siege’s end.”
“I… I see. As you wish, Sistina.” Desa’s voice was subdued as she bowed her head slightly. A moment later, she turned to face Phynis directly and went on her knee before asking softly, “And you, Your Highness? Will you still have me as your guard, until the siege ends and we return?”
Phynis had to hesitate for a moment at that. The shock of Sistina’s decision still echoed within her, but she couldn’t honestly blame Sistina. And it made her own decision waver for a moment, but the moment passed. This didn’t change anything, so she tugged the blanket up again and spoke calmly. “I will allow you to guard me for now, Desa, if you so choose. It will take ages for you to gain my trust again, if you even can, but I forgave you. On the other hand, I’m not going to remain in your charge anymore, either.”
“Y-your Highness?” Desa asked, looking startled, faintly relieved, and worried all at once.
“Sistina, is there any way for us to get a messenger out past the current besiegers?” Phynis asked the dryad, looking up into the woman’s deep eyes.
The dryad nodded, then pointed almost directly upward. Phynis nodded in satisfaction, then scooted back to lean into her with a sigh.
“In that case, I will take the only option I feel left to me. With the next messenger, Captain Desa, I am going to send my mother a letter.” Phynis felt at peace with herself as she smiled, ever so slightly. “I’m going to renounce all claim on the throne or lands of Sifaren, as well as my citizenship thereof. I will be simply Sistina Constella, descendant of the Constella Earldom of Everium. And I will stay here, where I can feel safe at last. If you choose to guard me after I have sent the letter, it is your own choice. Decide where your loyalties truly are, Desa.”
Chapter 44
“Well, look on the bright side, Daniel. At least you have more time off!” Eric tried to console Daniel, slapping the smaller man on the back and almost causing him to spit up his ale.
“Watch it, you big lug!” Daniel groused, shaking his head. “And I might have more free time to practice with you three, but it also means I’m not drawing pay anymore. At least I own my weapons and gear, but it puts a definite time limit on how long I can stay here, if I don’t get my position back.”
“You could always choose to camp out of town,” Sayla suggested, nodding her head in the direction of the woods. “It isn’t that dangerous in these parts, since there’s the town here. That’d cut down on your expenses.”
“And then they might dismiss me from the military entirely.” Daniel shook his head again, more vehemently. “Until I have something I can properly make money at, I don’t dare risk my job like that.”
“Well, army boy, it sounds like you’ve got a problem,” Darak interjected with a grin, taking a long pull from the table next to theirs. “So you’d best do something about it.”
“And what would you suggest, Darak? Unlike you, I don’t have an earth spirit to draw on, and none of us are magi,” Daniel protested, gesturing at the other three of their training group. “And I’m Daniel Fisher. Son of a fisherman! This town is a long damn way from the professions I know how to do.”
“Sure, sure… but how long can you afford to stay here?” Darak asked, glancing at the others as he added. “You three too. Can you manage to stay, say, three weeks?”
“Ahh… yeah, I can manage that. It’ll take a bite out of my savings,” Daniel admitted, frowning. “I might be able to work again by that point, though.”
“For us… that might be a bit too long,” Eileen spoke hesitantly, her face troubled. “We aren’t all that well-off. We were mostly counting on getting something out of the dungeon.”
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“Hmmph. Well I’ve been keeping an eye on your training and you’re doing well, but there’s only so much being brutally stomped on by Penelope can do for you. I swear that girl has a sadistic streak.” Darak shook his head, grinning wryly. “You’re all a lot more coordinated than before, and more skilled, too. Anyway, other members of our Guild are on their way here, and should be here in three weeks. Possibly sooner, but I wouldn’t count on that. Our guildmaster decided to set up a guild outpost here in town, at which point we’ll finally be able to get our finds appraised and sold. None of the stuff we’ve found is terribly common, I’ll tell you that much.”
“Ahh, doesn’t that just mean we’ll have even more trouble getting inside at that point?” Sayla asked, a troubled expression growing on her face.
“Hah! Not at all. Dungeons are dangerous, girl. And this one is stranger than most.” Darak paused, then shrugged. “Regardless, as Daniel knows from chatting with us before our first delve, when someone delves into a dungeon it slowly helps the body grow stronger. What, army boy, you thought I forgot that you came to chat with us, unlike your lily-livered partner?”
Daniel flushed at the challenging note to Darak’s voice and the gleam in his eye, but shook his head. “I’m just surprised that you even bothered to remember. You must have dozens of people ask you questions.”
“Heh. Not as many as you’d think.” The dwarf laughed and shook his head. “No, no, you’re unusual in that you just had the right look in your eyes. That stuck in my memory. The rest of you at least were smart enough to get out when you had the chance, and the experience didn’t break you. That’s also unusual. Now, the other aspect of dungeons is that the mana concentration inside can also help awaken magical potential too. It’s how I gained my bit of magic to summon my two spirits, Shale and Flametongue. If you think you can hold out for three weeks, and give me an oath to join the Adventurer’s Guild when you have the opportunity, I’ll tutor you four on magical basics and ask Joseph to help me shepherd you little sheep around the first floor, and maybe even let you grab a few items for yourselves.”
Grinning broadly at their stunned expressions, Darak’s eyes twinkled as he asked, “So, what do you say?”
* * *
“Diamond? How are you doing on merging spells?”
Diamond looked up with a slow blink, brushing an almost crystalline hair out of her eyes as she registered Jared’s excited tone of voice. It took her a moment to consider, then she replied calmly. “Well, Adjudicator. We haven’t failed at a spell in nearly a week at this point, and have found merging power is quite simple now that the connections between us have settled into place. Is there a particular reason you ask?”
Jared was almost bouncing on the balls of his feet, smiling at Diamond as he glanced around the library. His grin broadened as he answered. “Excellent! I’ll answer your question in a moment, Diamond, first I’ve got a second question for you. Are any of you skilled at earth magic?”
Blinking, Diamond shook her head, her voice even calmer this time. “No. Our magical studies focused on the use of light and healing, and the most common other elements were air and water. Earth magic was not discouraged, precisely, but it was not considered a priority.”
“Drat. Well, no matter.” Jared seemed to brush off his mild disappointment, the smile growing again almost as fast as it’d vanished. He nodded to himself, then spoke happily, explaining. “We’re going to Granite Point tomorrow. I’ve received a report that Princess Phynis of Sifaren was spotted near the town, and she was injured and her forces trapped inside the mountain. The passage was apparently blocked with earth magic, but if all else fails, I’m certain we can blast our way through.”
“That is… very surprising, Adjudicator,” Diamond temporized, her stomach sinking at the thought of what she was certain was coming. “But isn’t that mountain where a dungeon is located? Might they not be living inside the dungeon? That might make things much more dangerous for us.”
“Other reports indicate that the dungeon is extending downward, and all dungeons appear to be approximately spherical according the books I’ve read on the subject, which were confirmed by the Archon is his letters,” Jared explained, shaking his head firmly. “Thus I’m all but certain that the area they’re in is outside of the area of the dungeon. And even if it is, no one lives inside dungeons, unless they’re in a safe zone. And if that’s the case, we won’t have any issues either. No, I’m quite certain that we’ll be fine.”
“I see. What are your orders, then, Adjudicator?” Diamond asked, closing her book and waiting for his directions.
“You are to get the girls together and prepare yourselves to breach this elven stronghold with me. We’ll capture the princess and put an end to the outpost after our arrival in Granite Point,” Jared told her, his smile hardening as he added, “The princess may have escaped twice, but she will not escape a third time. Not if I have anything to say about it.”
“As you say, Adjudicator. I will go get the others and prepare to the best of my abilities,” Diamond acknowledged, bowing her head slightly before standing and putting her book away.
“Excellent. I’ll see you tonight, Diamond.” Jared grinned, and then he was on his way out, whistling happily to himself.
“Oh, I wish he just wasn’t so… invested in the traditions of Kelvanis,” Diamond murmured to herself, turning to head to the salon where most of the others were. “He might actually be a nice man in that case.”
Chapter 45
“You wanted to see me, Farlon?” Desa asked, poking her head into the reading room of the library.
The library looked much better than it had when Desa had first seen it. Little by little, almost imperceptibly, the cracks in the walls had faded away, bricks had straightened, and light-globes had returned to normal again. Even the bodies had vanished, and the researchers had sworn up and down that they hadn’t touched the bodies. Desa was certain that Sistina was behind it, but wasn’t quite confident enough to actually ask what had been done with the deceased.
The last week had been awkward, especially when Phynis had flatly refused to have more than one guard following her around anymore, and that she would require privacy when requested. In an oddly wistful way, Desa missed the more passive mood that Phynis had possessed immediately at the branding rather than this outright rebellion, but considering her own rebellion to join the military, she honestly couldn’t say that she blamed Phynis for her choice. At least Sistina was treating everyone the same, though she couldn’t say the same of all of her subordinates. The way that Sistina had eliminated the Kelvanis soldiers had been so ruthless and abrupt that more than a few of them were unnerved by Sistina’s very presence. And Sistina’s demand that they leave upon the siege being broken worried them more.
For herself, Desa was debating whether or not she would stay after the others were evicted. Evrial had quietly told her that she intended to stay, but she wasn’t certain about any of the others, save for Ilmas, Lily, and Sina. All the former slaves were staying. But no one had been as appalled as the researchers about the demand, and they’d thrown themselves into even more frantic research when they’d realized they were going to lose access to the library soon.
The researchers had asked for all the help that they could get, and she’d spent a fair amount of time down here in the library, helping Farlon and the others as much as she could. She wasn’t as conversant in ancient lore as they were, but she’d been able to help a fair amount. Farlon had been absolutely furious that Sistina had also refused to let them take any books that didn’t have multiple copies.
“Yes! I believe we’ve finally deciphered a clue as to what the source of the brands actually is, and have a potentially usable method of breaking it!” Farlon spoke excitedly, gesturing at a half-dozen books on the table, and a massive diagram on the chalkboard. On the chalkboard were diagrams of the six known brands, as well as one that was similar but not quite the same to the right.
“That’
s… that’s wonderful news, Farlon! What did you find?” Desa’s eyes lit up and excitement shot through her, turning her attention to the beaming researcher. “I was starting to get worried we wouldn’t find anything in time.”
“As was I, Captain. I’m still furious that Sistina is evicting us, but at least we’ve found something useful here. I also want to preface the explanation with a bit of caution. The tomes we had to reference were in languages we didn’t know, so we had to translate them with other books in the library. So some of the terminology might be imprecise,” Farlon warned, gesturing at the books as his smiled dimmed. “However, the method of breaking it was fairly clear.”
“Thank you for the warning. But what did you find?” Desa asked impatiently, trying not to lose her temper in her excitement. This could be the turning point of the entire damned war.
“Following Sistina’s suggestion, we focused on texts involving demonology. It was gruesome, horrible reading, but it paid off in the end. We found references to demonic sigils, which led us to demonic slavery brands, like this one,” Farlon explained, pointing at the different symbol on the chalkboard. “This one is merely one of hundreds, apparently, and none of the ones we’re familiar with are quite the same as the ones in the books, which makes identifying them difficult. Included in the texts are the methods of removing them via holy ground or holy water, which we already knew. But another method, and the most reliable of them, apparently, is that if you kill the demon that bestowed the brand, it frees everyone who possesses that particular brand. They all just vanish into nothing and everyone is freed at once.”
“That sounds… wait, I know that everyone is restrained and Kelvanis is careful to make it so they can’t witness the branding ritual, but I’m fairly certain that there wasn’t a demon involved in the ritual I was in,” Desa protested, frowning slightly. “At least, I hope I’d notice if one was summoned.”
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