To say nothing of the downsides to gateways that he knew about from his knowledge of the future.
Eventually, Vera led them into a separate room in the second-highest room in the tower. This room was still windowless. Wisps bumbled about near the ceiling, filling the room with soft light. A single table dominated the room, and a map of the nearby region was spread out in plain view. The leylines were drawn over it, as were the region’s borders.
“I see you know why we’re here,” Nathan said. He walked up to the map.
“I know why Anna says you’re here. Whether you’re worth my time is something I’ll decide,” Vera replied.
“Let me cut to the chase then,” Nathan said. “Why aren’t you dealing with the bandits? Anna says you had an agreement. It sounds like it goes back quite a while, possibly to whoever held this tower before you. The two of you even seem to be friends. So I’m surprised that you’re so keen to blow me off when I’m helping Anna with your job.”
The temperature in the room dropped several degrees. Vera’s face darkened, and she only barely avoided glaring at Nathan or baring her fangs at him. The wisps sensed the anger building, and scattered to the corners of the room, casting shadows over the map.
Nathan threw up a ball of light in the center of the room. Vera blinked at his casual use of sorcery.
“It’s rather impolite to use sorcery in another’s domain,” Vera said.
“I’m a Bastion. I can’t say I care,” Nathan responded.
Vera stared at the ball of light. She looked down at the map and kept her gaze fixed there. Her fingers crept out and ran over the leylines on the other side of the pass, close to Trantia and the Empire.
“I haven’t been able to talk with Anna as much as I’d like,” Vera said. “The leylines have been disrupted and—”
“Bullshit. Anna is sending messengers on fast horses to you. It’s not even a day’s ride.” Nathan sighed. “Look, I’m not stupid. I’m a Bastion. Part of what I can do is sense major movements of magic. And I know that the Federation’s Champions have been slinking around nearby. Have you seen them? Do they have a base of operations here?”
Vera seemed taken aback by the change of topic. She looked up at Nathan with a blank face, her mouth opening and closing several times.
“What?” Vera eventually said. “The Federation has a fort just to the north, but it only has a Champion there. I don’t know if there’s even a binding stone there.”
“There is, but it’s inactive,” Nathan interrupted. “There isn’t enough activity coming down the leylines.”
“You can sense that?” Vera asked, surprised. She leaned back, placing a hand over her chest. She was breathing deeply, and each breath drew Nathan’s eyes to her substantial cleavage.
Vera was beautiful. Genuinely, strikingly beautiful. Nathan wondered why she was out here, living in a tower in the middle of nowhere, instead of working for a powerful noble deeper in the Empire. Pride? Politics? Some sort of secret? Was the tower and this land part of her family line?
Because Vera could easily have found success elsewhere. Sorcerers were in high demand everywhere in the world right now. Her summons outside were proof that she was a highly competent sorceress, and her looks could easily win over some doddering fool of a noble.
“I don’t understand why you’re focused on the Federation,” Vera said. “Their Champion is likely poking around, but isn’t that normal for you Bastions? You’re investigating the leylines as well.”
“I wouldn’t dream of crossing the border of another nation without their permission,” Nathan said. “I could start a war. But the Federation doesn’t seem concerned about that.”
Vera stared at him. “You think they’re up to something?”
“I’m wondering why you don’t think so.” Nathan crossed his arms and placed a finger on the map, pointing at Gharrick Pass. “Kuda explained the situation regarding the tariffs. You know Kuda, don’t you?”
“Anna’s adviser. He’s older than he looks and helped raise her when she was a teen,” Vera said.
Nathan filed that piece of information away. Given Kuda’s handsome appearance and angular features, Nathan had guessed that the beastkin was a few years younger than himself, but for him to be hired to raise Anna well over a decade over, and be as educated as he was, made that impossible.
“The Federation appears to be supporting the bandits. I’m told Bastion Leopold agrees.”
“Bastion Leopold says a lot of things,” Vera said, her face splitting into a scowl.
“You don’t like him?”
“He’s the Emperor’s right-hand man, responsible for keeping the peace at home while the Empire focuses on Trafaumh. Leopold is a political animal. How can I trust anything he says, especially when he does nothing to help?” Vera huffed and waved a hand in the air.
A curious interpretation. She wasn’t wrong, however.
Leopold Tyrim was the oldest Bastion in the Empire, and a close friend and ally of Emperor Gorthal. In Nathan’s timeline, Leopold had fought to the end and died defending Aleich. He was sung as a hero by almost every Bastion who knew him, and every Champion who had anything to do with the Empire. At the same time, those not from the Empire had more negative opinions of the man.
Nathan had never met him. Leopold was now Nathan’s direct superior, which made everything far more complicated.
“I’m inclined to agree with Kuda and Bastion Leopold on this,” Nathan continued. “Especially with a Champion sniffing around near your tower. Bandits attacked Trantia. The leylines are being disrupted. The Empire is distracted up north. War is coming.”
“War? Are you insane? The Federation is a gathering of merchants and minor nobles. What would they have to gain from a war?” Vera sneered at Nathan.
This was the argument Nathan had worried about the most. Anna had seemed to understand that the Federation was interested in the Empire’s territory, but that was because she had been fighting them for years. But to most people, the idea that a smaller nation would attack the Empire was insane. The Empire might be weakening, but it was still easily one of the greatest nations on Doumahr.
But Nathan knew that the Federation would attack, and that the Empire would collapse.
How to get this across to Vera? Nathan wasn’t a politician. And he definitely wasn’t the brilliant noble that his false past painted him to be. He had spent almost his entire life as a Bastion, fighting in wars and stopping demonic invasions.
“I don’t know,” Nathan said. “But I know what I can see.”
“You’ve been here a few weeks, what can you possibly—”
“I know that the leylines are being deliberately disrupted and have been for months. If this continues, there’s a risk of a demonic invasion outside of the portal at Gharrick Pass,” Nathan snapped.
He’d had enough. Who cared if Vera Nair was supposedly a valiant defender of the Empire? Right now, she was actively sabotaging his attempt to save her life and the world.
“You’ve holed yourself up in your tower for some inane reason, probably to work on your summons in some silly attempt to crush the bandits as if you’re a Bastion, while the county you’re supposed to protect is tearing itself apart,” Nathan raged. “If the leylines aren’t restored, then it doesn’t matter if you think the Federation wants a war or not, because a horde of demons will bring it anyway.”
Vera stared at him.
“You didn’t know that, did you?” Nathan asked coldly.
“How could I?” she said, voice barely audible. “You Bastions never tell anybody your secrets.”
“Well, I’m telling you now, aren’t I?” Nathan sighed.
A hand ran through Nathan’s hair. He looked over to see Fei standing on her tiptoes, reaching up to pat his head. Her ears sat flat against her head and her tail almost brushed the floor.
“I’m fine,” he said, removing Fei’s hand. “Look, Vera—”
“There is a cairn not far from Trantia,” Ve
ra interrupted. “It’s huge. Much larger than the small ones you may have seen elsewhere in the county. If the bandits are hiding anywhere, it’s here.”
Vera pointed a shaking finger at a precise point to the north-east of the Trantia. It was deep in the forest, if Nathan remembered correctly.
“What’s a cairn?” Fei asked, tilting her head.
“They mark locations where the leylines are easier to reach for sorcerers,” Nathan explained. “The bigger ones often have runes in them that also pull magic. It’s common to build towers or camps on them, if you’re a sorcerer. Given our bandits have a powerful sorcerer with them, and they’re disrupting the leylines, they’re likely using the cairns to assist them.”
Vera nodded. “I’ve been preparing my summons so that I can take them out in a single fell swoop, but I didn’t know… I’m sorry.” Her voice nearly dwindled away completely.
“Like you said, nobody told you. I never told Anna the danger of the leyline disruption either,” Nathan said. He crossed his arms. “But if I know where at least one bandit camp is located, I can slow things down. Can you mark down the other cairns? That will save me a lot of time when patrolling?”
“Can’t you sense them?” the sorceress asked.
“Not while the leylines are disrupted. I know that your tower is built on top of a large cairn, but my side of the pass is unreadable.”
“I see. I’ll prepare a map then.” Vera turned toward a desk in the corner.
“Then I’ll be off.”
Vera spun. “Already?”
Already halfway to the door, Nathan and Fei didn’t stop. Instead, Nathan raised a hand and waved goodbye.
“I’ll visit you another day to collect the map,” he called back. “I have bandits to get rid of.”
And a Champion to recover. Nathan was going to recruit Sen to his side, whatever it took.
Chapter 12
“Wait!” Vera shouted.
Nathan turned and saw her run out the front of her tower. He and Fei stood outside. Their horses sat in front of them, waiting to be mounted.
Vera carried a staff tipped with a chunk of obsidian. It looked expensive.
“Wait,” she repeated, then doubled over to catch her breath.
“We’re waiting,” Nathan drawled.
Vera shot him a glare, then winced and tried to look less angry. After a few moments, she calmed herself enough to speak.
“I’ll come with you,” she said.
“I gathered,” he replied, nodding at her staff. “Do you have a mount?”
Vera opened her mouth, but then saw the automaton horses. She gulped and looked away, a grimace crossing her face.
“Not one that will keep up with yours,” she muttered. “My summons are more like golems. Slow, sturdy bulwarks that can punch a hole through steel plate. Not tireless steel draft horses.”
“You can borrow one then,” Nathan said. “I’d create another, but the expense this far from the binding stone is too great, and we’re going to battle today.”
He waved Fei over to him. The beastkin’s bushy tail wagged back and forth once, before freezing as she understood what she was being asked to do.
“Eh? But that’s my horse,” Fei protested. She whined for a few seconds while creeping over to Nathan’s side. He scratched behind her ears and enjoyed the sight of her face melting in pleasure.
The sight of Fei being petted bothered Vera, but she suppressed her annoyance and mounted a horse. Nathan lifted Fei up and got up behind her, her tail tickling his chin as she unconsciously begged for more attention.
“It’ll be a rough ride, so hold on to the reins,” Nathan warned.
Then they were off. The gates opened when they started moving, and they bolted through them without pausing. The ground became a blur as the horses galloped without rest or making noise.
Clouds, dark and brooding, had formed while they had been inside. Nathan doubted they could escape the rain much longer. He called the group to a halt before entering the pass. They found a rest stop that somebody had constructed years ago. The stonework was overgrown with ivy, and the wood decayed to a severity that he doubted it could keep out the rain.
“Let’s eat now,” Nathan said. “If it rains on the way through the pass, I’d rather try for the cairn.”
“Eh? Shouldn’t we go into the keep?” Fei tilted her head in confusion. She pulled out the pack full of food from the saddlebags.
“The bandit spellblade used fire heavily. That’s likely her primary affinity,” Nathan said. “We shouldn’t waste the opportunity to catch her with her pants down.”
A strange smile crossed Fei’s face at Nathan’s comment, even though she still looked confused.
Vera huffed. “You haven’t explained anything about sorcery to her, have you?”
“She’s a Champion who uses a sword, not a sorcerer,” Nathan said with a shrug.
“All the more reason she should know. How can she defend you if she doesn’t know her opponent’s weaknesses or how to defend you properly?” Vera pressed. “Also, that’s far too much food.”
Fei gave Vera an odd look and kept pulling food from the saddlebags. Dried fruit, jerky, slices of salted meat, and cured cheese covered almost an entire table. In normal circumstances, Nathan would have agreed with Vera, but almost all this food was for Fei. As it was, Fei would probably complain about the portion Vera ate of her lunch.
“Why don’t you explain it then?” Nathan suggested. “And maybe mention the reason behind your change of heart while you’re at it.”
Vera scowled. “It’s not a change of heart. I said that I didn’t know how severe the consequences of the leyline disruption was. If I’d known, I would have intervened earlier. I can’t believe you’ve wasted the past two weeks.”
“Wasted?” Fei growled.
“It’s fine, Fei,” Nathan said.
The beastkin grumbled and gobbled down a hunk of cheese. Vera’s eyes widened as she saw Fei’s absurd appetite firsthand.
“And I’ll happily explain sorcery,” Vera said. “Put simply, all sorcerers have affinities with the natural elements of the world. The primary elements are water, wind, earth, and fire. The secondary elements are derivatives of these, such as sand and metal from earth. there are other elements, but don’t worry about those.”
“Why not?” Fei asked.
Vera frowned, and Nathan saw in her eyes what would come next. A long-winded explanation that Fei wouldn’t understand.
“Because extremely few sorcerers can use anything other than the natural elements,” Nathan explained instead. “They’re mostly discussed with regard to Bastions and Messengers.”
Vera and Fei blinked.
“Messengers?” they both asked.
“Demonic generals. Don’t worry about them for now,” Nathan said, waving them off. He should not have said that.
Vera gave him an odd look, although Fei seemed satisfied.
Sighing, Vera picked up some dried fruit and nibbled away. Fei demolished most of the food while listening.
“Sorcerers usually have one or two primary affinities. They can also have none, but that’s rare,” Vera explained. “However, the natural elements have their weaknesses, and those weaknesses suppress a sorcerer’s magic. If the spellblade we’re going to fight only has a fire affinity, then rain will weaken her fire magic immensely. The opposite can also happen. I have a fire affinity, and my flames become stronger during a heatwave.”
Nathan grimaced at the news. “Do you have another affinity?”
Vera chuckled. “I have a wind affinity. And a secondary light affinity.”
The three of them finished their lunch. They’d only packed two canteens, so Nathan shared one with Fei. He could refill it with magic in any case. The clouds continued to darken and swept in from the west. Light flashed within them. A storm was coming.
“Um, are you sure we can’t stop at the keep?” Fei asked as they relaxed for a minute longer.
“
Did you forget something?” Nathan asked.
She appeared to have everything. Her armor and scimitar were present. Unless she wasn’t wearing something underneath them. Given the way she squirmed, that was possible.
“No, no, no. I just…” Fei looked down. “I wanted to change my enhancement. That’s all.”
Nathan stared.
“I didn’t do very well against that spellblade last time. I was faster, but she was so much stronger. And her flames went fwooosh and nearly ate me up. The enhancement protected me, but if I was stronger, then I could beat her. Maybe speed isn’t everything,” Fei mumbled, her voice trailing off as Nathan continued to stare at her.
Nathan felt lost. Fei had always used a speed enhancement in his timeline. Why did she want to change it?
“Can… Can I not?” Fei asked, eyes wide as she looked up at him.
Beside them, Vera remained silent but looked between the pair with a questioning gaze.
Nathan took a deep breath. “You can. You’re supposed to try out different enhancements to see which works best. But you’ve only fought one actual battle with your speed enhancement, so maybe you should try it out for longer.”
“No, I know that something else could be better,” Fei protested. “Like when my sword got stuck in that demon and I couldn’t get it out. I don’t want to rely on the enhancement’s protection. I want to be stronger. Physically stronger. What use is being able to slash somebody nine times at once if all my attacks bounce off?”
She had a point. But that was why Fei had supplemented her speed with strength-enhancing gems in his timeline.
“You’ll get gem enhancements to help round you out later,” Nathan said. “Speed from your enhancement, the ability to punch through armor from your first gem. Something like that.”
“But we’re going into battle now, right?” Fei bit her lip and looked down. Her ears flattened against her head and her tail beat against the ground.
Vera spoke up, “I’m far from an expert on Bastions and Champions, but I thought you could change the original enhancement? Maybe we could stop by the keep? Make some additional preparations before gallivanting off?”
Heretic Spellblade Page 11