Heretic Spellblade 3

by Robertson, K. D.

  “But that will also distract his armies.” Nathan rubbed the bridge of his nose. “The other archdukes are marching on Aleich while Milgar’s nobles are scurrying to defend the east. Do we know what’s happened in Amica?”

  The state of the former Federation was paramount to their plans. Aleich sat close to the center of the original territory of the Anfang Empire, with Milgar and Anna ruling the east and the rebellious archdukes in command of the west. Tharban’s county was in the north.

  Amica could determine the fate of the civil war, given the sheer amount of land within it. To say nothing of the horde of demon lingering past its borders.

  “Anna is still trying to work that out,” Seraph admitted. “Dukes Terrius, George, and Ilmarn openly support us. The rest is a mess. Some support Tharban openly, particularly due to the beastkin slavery situation. Others will swing to support whoever is winning.”

  “I’m surprised George isn’t in that list. He supported us because Torneus was done,” Narime said.

  “He always wanted to rejoin the Empire. Making him a duke gives him status his family has lacked since it seceded.” Nathan grimaced and looked at the map laid out on the floor. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but our enemies border Falmir, don’t they?”

  “Yes.”

  “That feels important somehow.” He bit his lip. “But I can’t make sense of the timing of the attack. Tharban and his closest supporters are the only one in position to lay siege to Aleich. The archdukes will need weeks to reach it. Falmir can sweep in behind them.”

  “Can they?” Seraph asked. “If winter is on the horizon, you’d be crazy to send your armies into foreign territory for a prolonged campaign. The villages and towns are full of food right now, and we’re well supplied, but foreign invaders will need to set up supply trains for hundreds of miles.”

  “Damn. You’re right.” His eyes widened. “I’d love to live in a world where everybody is incredibly stupid and every strategic decision is easy to see through. I’m beginning to think my enemies know what they’re doing.”

  “You’d die of boredom within a week, Nathan. Overthinking is ninety percent of what you do.” Narime laughed.

  “I wouldn’t mind if our opponents made more slip ups at least,” Nathan grumbled.

  “We are talking about some of the wealthiest and best educated men in the Empire, with armies of advisors at their beck and call,” Alice said. “They’ve been planning this for years, if not decades. You’re brilliant, Nathan, but it’s their territory. If they want to rule the Empire, they need to prevent Falmir or Trafaumh from sweeping in and conquering it afterward.”

  “If only Falmir had been that smart,” he said, remembering what had happened in his world.

  All of that pain and suffering. The destruction of the entire world. Everything came down to politics. Kings, emperors, and conquerors who wanted more territory caused nothing but ruin.

  “Narime, what’s the situation at our fortresses?” Nathan asked, shifting the focus to immediate concerns.

  “We’ve mobilized soldiers everywhere, but only Castles Tartus and Forselburg are in danger,” she explained, her tails flowing behind her. She pushed away the reports that Seraph tried to give her. “The enclave is also in danger, but we don’t have a fortress there.”

  Gasps rose up from the beastkin in the room, as well as over the wireless.

  “Quiet,” Nathan said. “We prepared for that.”

  Fei’s expression remained distraught, but she didn’t say anything. Plans were one thing, but her home was in danger.

  “Narime, continue,” he said.

  “Nationalist forces are moving in from the south to the enclave. No Champions sighted and no unifying banner. Closer to an armed mob of soldiers from various nobles. Up north, it’s different. Several Bastions and Imperial Army units have defected and are waving around Tharban’s crest. They’re going to blockade Forselle Valley.”

  “You mean, they’ll try. What, are they going to enter the Spires’ territory?” Nathan scoffed.

  “They already have. For whatever reason, the dark elves haven’t responded.” Narime scowled.

  That sounded bad. He heard the Champion at Castle Forselburg say something on the other side of the wireless, but he tuned her out.

  “So that means they’ll launch assaults on Leopold’s and our fortresses,” he said. “I’m guessing Tartus is because of the instability nearby? What about Vera and Kravum Rock?”

  “I’ve already sent Fyre there,” Seraph said. “Even with your wards, losing a binding stone is too great a risk.”

  Nathan only hoped that Fyre wasn’t what he feared she was. He needed her power as a duogem Champion.

  On the other hand, getting her away from Anna allowed him to rest easier.

  “So Aleich is under control, but the enclave and Tartus are in the expected danger,” he summarized. “Can’t say I expected Forselle Valley. That’s—”

  “Bastion!” a voice squeaked over the wireless from Castle Forselburg. “I’m getting really strange readings from the energy reading device up here. We don’t recognize it.”

  Before terror filled the room, Nathan dove into his mental world. He quickly checked the state of his binding stones and the attached leylines. It took him a matter of seconds.

  When he returned, he shouted, “Calm down.”

  Everybody remained calm.

  “You didn’t even give us a chance to panic,” Sen said with a smirk.

  “There’s no cascade,” he said, ignoring her. “Are your readings coming from the northern leylines?”

  “Yes. How did you—” The Champion cut off, likely realizing how Nathan knew. “Um. Yes, it’s the northern leylines. The ones from the Spires.”

  “Then it’s not a cascade. That would be the disaster to end all disasters. If another one happened, I would go there and murder the remaining dark elf Bastions myself.” He rubbed his nose.

  “Can we do that anyway?” Nurevia piped up.

  She and Astra had remained silent until now. Their eyes focused on Nathan, aware that something was wrong.

  Did Astra already know what he was about to say?

  “Don’t look at me like that, Astra. I bet you can already guess,” he said.

  “Messenger.”

  Grim faces rose on everyone’s faces.

  “Most likely. Leyline disturbance, strange readings, no contact from them. Messengers can mess with the demonic energy of a portal before they appear. They’re like a mini-cascade. It’s what makes them so dangerous.” Nathan glared at the map.

  “I’ll go,” Astra declared, standing up.

  “And do what?” he asked.

  “Kill the Messenger.”

  “It’s that easy?” he asked coldly.

  “Someone has to.”

  “It’ll take days to get there. Especially with the blockade.”

  Shit, was this arranged in advance? Nathan doubted it. The Twins told him that Messengers needed chaos to invade. Most likely, the outbreak of civil war created enough chaos for a Messenger to invade for the first time, so they seized it.

  But Nathan remembered how a series of horrible coincidences caused the fall of the Empire in his world. How the Federation had been unable to contain the Messenger they let into the world, and Falmir and Trafaumh kept the Imperial Army away from Aleich long enough to doom everything.

  By the time Astra reached the Spires, it would be too late.

  “Teleport.” Astra pointed at Narime.

  “It might work,” Narime said, her tails lowering as she looked at Nathan nervously.

  “No,” he said. “I’m not ignoring a Messenger.”

  “There is a war on,” Seraph said. “It only just started, but I imagine it’s fairly important.”

  Nathan clenched his fists and held back the words he wanted to say. This wasn’t the time or the place, and Seraph didn’t mean to push his buttons.

  “If a Messenger gets out, or a cascade is caused for any rea
son, the civil war won’t matter,” he said. “A repeat of last winter would kill more people than I care to imagine. And don’t start, Astra. We don’t know how strong the Messenger is. You’re immortal, but you can’t win every battle.”

  The dark elf pouted.

  “Won’t it take days?” Ciana pointed out gently. “Nathan, send Astra and Narime. We can deal with the Nationalists.”

  Nathan stared at her. Of all the people to downplay Messengers, it was Ciana. Nathan couldn’t blame her. She was trying to support him.

  “No, I think Nathan is right,” Alice said, after remaining silent for so long. “The Empire isn’t going to collapse due to a few days of infighting. Tharban and the others aren’t strong enough to accomplish that. But Nathan knows Messengers. I saw what happened to Leopold. We cannot take a threat like them lightly. Nathan, fulfill your duty to the goddess.”

  Ciana’s expression darkened. She looked away.

  The other Champions nodded grimly. All of them had fought a Messenger. Even Kara had been present in the fight as a knight, and had seen the terrifying result.

  “The goddess, huh,” Nathan said. He sighed and looked up. “Well, this is going to be fucking awkward.”

  Everyone stared at him, especially those who didn’t know his secret.

  “There is a way to get to the Spires instantly. Fei and Sen saw me use a similar trick to save Vera over two years ago. It involves transforming an active portal into a gateway,” he explained.

  “Nathan,” Narime said, her tone lowering as her tails rose into the air.

  “Depending on how it’s done, it causes a cascade. The demonic energy needs to go somewhere, as it closes the portal in the process,” he said. “I’ve never done it before, but I’m certain the process can be done in reverse. I can create a teleportation gateway from Gharrick Pass to the active portal in the Spires.”

  “You just said that will cause a cascade, Nathan,” Seraph snapped at him.

  “It will. Which is why we need help from someone who specializes in cascades,” he said.

  The black door in the back of Nathan’s office beckoned. It was time to make a deal with a Messenger.

  Chapter 34

  A gaggle of Champions followed Nathan to his office. He left Kara behind to keep the war room running, while Alice resumed managing affairs in Aleich.

  “You can’t see anything?” he asked, staring at the pitch-black door looming behind his office chair.

  “There’s a wall, Nathan. You’re certain this isn’t in your head?” Seraph asked.

  “Funny you say that,” he said.

  Sunstorm and Sen made odd faces as they stared at the wall, then tilted their heads.

  “I… I remember this,” Sen said. “I’ve been in there. That’s where you brought me back. Then you…” Her face reddened.

  Nurevia laughed. “So it’s Nathan’s secret sex dungeon?”

  Narime stared at the room. Her tails weaved patterns repeatedly.

  “I can’t see it, but I can feel it,” she said. “It’s like there’s something disrupting the flow of magical energy there, but it’s not in space. The closest thing I can think of are the doors that lead to portals. We can see and feel those doors, but the entrances themselves don’t exist in this world.”

  Nathan stared at her. “They don’t what?”

  “You didn’t know that?” she asked, surprised. “It’s part of how foxes learn spatial magic. The portals are a different world, but the connection to this one isn’t a spatial one. We don’t fully understand it. Mystic foxes define it as an unknown ascended element.”

  Recalling his conversation about the nature of ascended magic, Nathan wondered who made the portals to begin with. They all had an eerie similarity to one another. The Messengers shaped them, but didn’t control them.

  “Well, that’s disturbing,” he said. “Especially given what I know about the world past this door. It’s a mental space that connects to this world. Kadria—that’s the Messenger I’m working with—describes it as a combined mental and spatial domain that only I can see. She’s basically creating a physical version of a mental world, then connecting it here.”

  “That doesn’t sound safe.” Narime glared at him.

  “Don’t take this the wrong way, but Kadria is the most powerful being I have ever met. She could destroy the Spires by herself even if we tried to stop her,” Nathan said. “Safety doesn’t matter when she had her chance to vaporize me years ago.”

  Nobody said anything.

  “She was the one who killed everyone?” Fei asked, being the only one brave enough to say anything.

  “It’s a difficult situation,” Nathan said, his expression stony. He didn’t want to be pushed on this.

  “This might have been something worth bringing up earlier,” Narime said.

  “Maybe, but it doesn’t change anything,” Seraph said. “We’re committed, aren’t we?”

  After she took several steps forward, Seraph turned and stared down the other Champions. Narime’s tails flared up.

  “Don’t you dare question me,” the fox hissed. “There’s a difference between what I feel for Nathan and being upset at him for not telling me everything.”

  “Then we can talk about this after the Spires are saved,” Seraph declared. “Are we going in?”

  “I am,” he said. “There are two to three succubi in here. I’m fine, but you won’t be.”

  “Succubi?” Nurevia’s eyebrows shot up. “Is this what you really do in here? Slip away through the back door of the office and have long sessions of sweaty sex with your secret sex pets?”

  Astra stared at him, her eyes accusing.

  “No,” he said, feeling the need to defend himself. “Not usually.”

  They didn’t sound satisfied. Several huffy women stared him down.

  Nathan chose the manliest option in the face of his angry lovers. He turned, pushed the black door open, and fled.

  Naturally, Kadria was nowhere to be seen. Whatever her plan was, she must be putting it into action.

  “Well, they took it better than expected,” he said as he walked over to the plastic door that led to the Twins domain.

  He hoped the same could be said for everyone else.

  Nothing had changed here. The Twins lounged in the sunlight, holding silver reflectors on their laps. Wind rustled through leaves.

  All felt at peace.

  For a moment, Nathan wondered what it would be like to forget about his worries outside this world. Why was he fighting so hard to build a peaceful world when he had one right here, with two happy women who were happily peeling his pants open.

  “Nice try,” he said, bopping the Twins on the head as they pawed at his crotch. “That was a subtler attack than usual.”

  “You know what they say about the definition of insanity,” Maura said as she straightened up.

  “I don’t, actually,” he said.

  “It’s doing the same thing over and over again, while expecting a different result.”

  “I bet when you said that to Kadria, she said you were insane, not just stupid,” Nathan quipped.

  Both Twins glared at him.

  “You’re getting too cocky,” Maura grumbled.

  “I dunno. I like him this way,” the other one said with a grin. “He’s a great catch.”

  “Yeah, if we were catching him.” The grumpier Twin flipped him off as she returned to her seat.

  Nathan followed, only to find himself with a lap full of Laura.

  “So, are you here to make a deal?” Maura asked. “You know my price.”

  “What makes you think that?” he asked, sure that his thoughts were protected from her.

  “Your emotions are dark. Super serious. And if you’re coming to me feeling like that, I doubt it’s for fun.” A grin crossed her face.

  “Maybe it is?” Laura suggested. “I’d want to fuck us if things were too serious.”

  “Laura, shut up,” her sister said.

>   “No.”

  Nathan allowed himself to bask in their simplicity. Like with Kadria, he had grown accustomed to them. He knew that was a bad thing, but it allowed him to justify what he was about to do.

  A thought occurred to him.

  “Before I get down to business, I have a question,” he said.

  “Shoot. Preferably literally.” Maura reached over and ran a hand along his thigh, and her grin turned lewd.

  “Not that sort of question,” he said. “What part of the burger gives it the name? The ground meat patty, or putting something between two buns?”

  Maura stared at him. And stared. And stared. Nathan wondered if he had broken her.

  “Doesn’t it depend on where you are?” Laura answered seriously.

  “The fuck kind of answer is that?” Maura growled.

  “I mean, they called all sorts of things burgers elsewhere. And Kadria laughs at the stuff we call sushi.”

  “No. Fuck no. That’s stupid. You’re stupid. This question is stupid. That answer is stupid.” Maura rose to her feet, her red eyes glowing and horns turning black as she balled her fists. “If I slap Nathan’s dick between my ass, do we get a dick burger? People call these buns.” She slapped her huge ass, causing the bronzed flesh to jiggle beneath her dress.

  “I think they mean buns made of bread,” Laura answered, eyes wide.

  Maura shook with fury. Laura’s eyes glittered with amusement, despite her innocent expression.

  So this was what the Twins did to amuse themselves when he wasn’t around. No wonder Kadria messed with them so much.

  “I think we can move on,” Nathan said, before the two started brawling.

  “Aw, do we?” Laura whined. “But Maura just said she wants your dick in her ass.”

  “I mean, I do, but that’s not what I said,” the supposedly smarter succubus said.

  “Moving on,” Nathan said louder.

  “Okay,” the Twins chirped.

  “I want to make a deal with you,” he declared.

  Malevolent grins split the faces of both succubi. Their red eyes gleamed as they leaned toward him, their voluptuous tits hanging from their tiny frames.