Chapter 466
Chapter 464: The Order
SETH MILVIEW
It was a cloudy day, a good day for a fight. Deep red clouds hung low overhead as if they were laden with blood about to spill over us. Is it my blood, though, or my enemies? I wondered idly, hand clenched around the hilt of my blade.
“Se-eth! Se-eth! Se-eth!” the crowd chanted, my name becoming two syllables as they roared it loud enough to shake the soil beneath my feet.
I looked across the battlefield at my opponent. Her thin and bedraggled hair hung down over her drowned-pale and puffy flesh, a tinge of green to it. She looked like she’d wrapped herself in an old bed sheet, or maybe a curtain, instead of clothes. Sickly waves of poisonous mana wafted off her, but I didn’t mind.
I wasn’t scared. Not even a bit. I couldn’t quite escape the feeling that I should be, but with my sword in my hand and my name in the air like thunder, it was impossible to be afraid of anything.
Giving Bivrae of the Dead Three a winning smirk, I sauntered forward. Only...my feet didn’t move. It was as if I were rooted to the ground, stuck fast. My hand grasped the hilt of my sword, which was in its sheath, but the blade wouldn’t come free. I tugged and tugged, but it was futile. Then, suddenly and with undeniable certainty, I understood that I was going to die.
My body was frozen as the nightmare woman scuttled across the stadium floor toward me. I tried to shout, but the noise choked off in my own throat. Mana swelled in the atmosphere, building and building until—
I jolted upright, blinked rapidly against the sweat stinging my eyes. Groggily, I looked around, struggling to make sense of what I was seeing.
The dimly lit interior of a simple one-room dwelling opened to an outside shaded by twilight.
I jumped off the rough cot and grabbed my turnshoes, slipping them on and hurrying to the door. “Seth, you fool, you fell asleep!” It had been a long couple of weeks—maybe a bit more, I couldn’t be quite sure—since the Sovereign’s appearance and the attack. I’d only meant to lie down and shut my eyes for a minute, but...
Glancing westward, the sun had already gone beyond the distant mountains. I’d slept away the entire afternoon!
As I looked around in search of Lyra Dreide, a deep frown worked its way onto my face. Something was wrong. Everyone had stopped, and they were staring south. My own gaze followed theirs, and I suddenly felt it: mana, so much mana that I could hardly make sense of it. It swooned and swelled, battering back and forth, casting a distant pink glow against the twilight sky.
“Vritra’s horns, but it can’t be a battle,” a young woman I didn’t know said from a few feet to my right. Sensing my gaze, she met my eye. The color had drained from her face. “What kind of battle could cause such a...a...” Her words trailed off as she struggled even to think of an appropriate description for the sensation.
Then we all, as one, ducked or flinched, cries echoing across the encampment as a shadow fell over us, dim in the wan light. Looking up in fright, I watched as two huge, winged reptilian beasts flew by overhead, leaving the encampment behind in a moment as they sliced through the air toward the distant battle.
I swallowed heavily and unrooted my feet, an echo of my nightmare momentarily quickening my pulse. I needed to find Lyra or Lady Seris!
As I burst into a run, the unmoving scene around me unfroze as well, and people hurried to find their blood—their families—with a few others shouting out for leadership, and some eagerly grouping up to discuss the event. More than one, I noticed uncomfortably, watched the southern treeline with hungry expressions that seemed out of place with everyone else’s fear.
I hadn’t run far when Lyra Dreide strode around the corner of a larger family-sized building, her brows knit, her expression intense as she watched the dragons melt away into distant dots before being hidden by the horizon.
“Lady Lyra, something’s happening,” I said breathlessly. “A battle...in the Beast Glades.”
Her red eyes settled on me, and a strange expression softened her features. Goosebumps rose along my arms and neck, and I took a step back.
“Come with me, Seth,” she said, her voice soft, a kind of...ache half hidden within it. Without waiting for me, she walked past, heading for the southern edge of the encampment.
There, we found most of the villagers—those who stayed there permanently and a large number who were only there for a couple of days to help build a few new houses—already gathered, and they were almost all still staring south. Many turned to watch us, and a few shouted out in response to Lyra’s appearance.
“Retainer Lyra!”
“What is it, what’s happening?”
“A dragon! I saw a dragon!”
“High Sovereign Agrona has finally come!”
The crowd went silent, and all eyes turned to the young soldier who had shouted this. She seemed to realize her error immediately and shrank under so much attention—most of it clearly hostile.
“Please, I must urge you all to be calm,” Lyra said, her voice projecting across the small town so it sounded to each person as if she were standing right next to them. “Do or say nothing now that you may regret in an hour's time. We must trust that the dragons are protecting us as they’ve agreed, until such a time that we are given reason not to.”
“Where is Lady Seris?” a man with short black hair and a slightly ragged beard asked, stepping forward out of the crowd. “Surely she would have more to tell us than that!”
“Sulla,” Lyra said, placatingly. “I understand your fear, but regardless of what is happening to the south, we cannot panic.
“I’m not suggesting we panic, but perhaps we should do something besides sit here and wait to be saved,” he shot back.
I glanced between them rapidly, momentarily stunned by his attitude before remembering that Lyra wasn’t a retainer anymore, just as Seris wasn’t a Scythe. They had made themselves our equals, but that didn’t stop most of us from looking at them like our leaders. In Alacrya, she probably would have flayed the skin from his bones without a thought, but then, that was exactly what we’d worked so hard to escape.
“If it seems as if danger is—”
I fell to my knees as the world trembled. The skin of my back burned as if I’d been branded, and a presence—a consciousness not my own wrapped in a sheath of power—clawed into the space just behind my eyes. I tried to look around and see if it was just me, unsure if it would be better that way or not, but I couldn’t focus, could hardly see, as if a thick, gray woolen blanket had been pulled over my eyes.
And then I heard the voice, and I knew it wasn’t just me, because all around me, people screamed. The rumbling baritone made my bones quiver with desperation, like my skeleton wanted to rip its way out of me and run away. Even if I’d never heard that voice before in my life, I’d have known right away who it was.
“Children of the Vritra,” it began, rumbling so I couldn’t tell if it was in my head or booming out of the air itself, “you have waited. You have bided your time so very patiently, and now your long wait is at its end.”
My vision slowly returned, and I saw dozens of other Alacryans in the same position as me. As if I’d been forced to kneel before the High Sovereign himself, I thought wildly. A few had stayed standing, swaying on their feet or leaning against a wall or fence, but only Lyra seemed physically unaffected. The way she focused into the middle distance, staring blindly at nothing at all, was enough to tell me she could hear the voice as well, though.
“The time has come. The war begins anew, and you will be the edge of the blade that will slit your dragon overlords’ throats. You will lift up arms once again, and your subjugators will become but dust and blood trod into the roads on your way to victory. It begins with the one who put you here, who stole your strength and your freedom.”
Without looking at me, Lyra’s hand took hold of my shirt and lifted me uncomfortably back to my feet. It stayed there, clenched into the fabric like the claw of some mana beast, as the color drained from her face.
“Find Arthur Leywin. Find the Lance they presumptuously call Godspell, and bring him to me. Alive if you can, but his core will suffice just as well.”
Like a stone falling from the sky, a figure slammed into the ground nearby, pearl hair fluttering around her horns before falling back down over her black battlerobes. Seris’s dark eyes tracked over the crowd, settling on Lyra. She looked grim.
“Do not refuse me.”
I flinched so bad I might have fallen if not for Lyra’s grip as the same man from before shouted into the sky. “But I do refuse!” His voice cut across the stillness like the noise of a sword clashing against a shield, then hung there uncomfortably.
“Sulla, be silent!” Seris hissed, taking a step toward him and waving for him to settle down.
I mulled over her words, thinking if I—or anyone, for that matter—could be that companion. Or was I just one of the many looking up at him on that pedestal.
After a beat of silence, I opened my mouth to offer her words of consolation that I hadn’t decided on yet, but all that came out was a ragged gasp. A warmth spread out from my runes, and my mana seemed to gust and swell, only half controlled.
And then I heard the voice, unguent and violating. “Children of the Vritra, you have waited. You have bided your time so very patiently, and now your long wait is at its end.”
My eyes flew open, and I stared in horror at Alice and Ellie. They both stared back, reflecting only growing confusion. Pushing my chair away from the table, I stumbled toward the door into the sitting chamber, but as the voice grew in strength, my control seemed to weaken, and I barely made it to the opening before I collapsed against the frame, looking across space as if I were seeing Agrona’s face in a projection, his sneering, smirking visage looking down on me as he continued, explaining everything.
“No, no that’s not possible. I won’t—can’t!” I gasped, lunging toward the front door.
A bulky brown shape appeared before me, and I bounced off the furry wall, collapsing onto my rear, only half understanding. The bearish creature let out a low, dangerous growl as he loomed above me.
“Boo!” Ellie shouted, horrified. “What are you—”
“Find Arthur Leywin. Find the Lance they presumptuously call Godspell, and bring him to me. Alive if you can, but his core will suffice just as well. Do not refuse me.”
“Arthur...” I moaned. He knew, but how? How could he have foreseen this? “I have to get—get out of here,” I said, staring up into dark, wet, beady eyes. “But I won’t do that. I won’t. I refuse. I’d rather die.”
“C-Caera?” Ellie stammered, hovering above and behind me. I could almost feel her hands extended toward me, frozen just out of reach. “Wh-what’s going on?”
Through clenched teeth, I tried to explain, but a sudden surge of pain and power from my runes split the words into a scream. I threw myself on my back, writhing. Alice grabbed Ellie and pulled her away, and Boo roared and leapt over me, putting himself between the Leywin’s and my body.
My body...but was it, even? Or did my Virtra blood make it Agrona’s body? Was it even a body, now? Or had he turned me into a weapon, a bomb? And I had planted myself exactly where I shouldn’t be. I’d have cursed if I could have gotten a word out through the pain.
My mind flashed for just as second to my adoptive blood—my family—and I hoped beyond hope that they were okay, but even that thought was swallowed as wind began gusting around me, turning my body half about and then lifting me up and slamming me against the wall. Heavy paws pinned me to the floor, teeth bared in my face. I felt a blade of wind cut a line across my cheek.
“Run!” I gasped, ragged and desperate. “P-please, you have to—”
Small hands grasped mine, and I looked over to see Ellie kneeling next to me, tears spilling unnoticed down her cheeks.
“Agrona—he knows—searching for Arthur—using the Alacryans already in Dicathen—” I stammered, struggling to get each word out. “My runes—using my runes—-”
Ellie’s presence was like a cooling balm against my burning skin, but even as I looked at her, a blade of wind slashed across her forearm. She winced, and I tried to pull free, but I lacked the strength.
I closed my eyes, feeling tears streaming down my own face now. I needed her to understand, I needed them all to run.
I won’t be the reason Arthur loses his family, I thought desperately. Not after what happened, the things he said. I can’t.
And then...Ellie was there, not just her physical presence, but her mana, pushing into me. She was reaching for my own, soothing it and calming the storm inside me. It snapped back at her, its agitation held in check but not quelled. Her spellform was a wonderful piece of magic, but this teenage girl couldn’t match herself against the might of Agrona Vritra himself and expect to defeat him. I knew that all too well.
The spellform! My mind lurched, my thoughts only half connected to one another.
My Alacryan runes were swallowing up my mana, activating, and unleashing their pent up spells back against my body. But the spellform I’d received in Dicathen was dormant, at ease...
As Ellie struggled to control the self-destructive mana, I opened my core and pushed. As much mana as I could control flooded the spellform, and Alice gasped. I opened my eyes to see ghostly flames dancing across my body. Alice had flinched back even as Boo’s jaws reached for my throat.
“Boo, don’t!” Ellie screamed, and the creature hesitated.
“Flames—won’t hurt...” I gasped, but I couldn’t voice more than that.
Although I’d practiced with the new spellform constantly for weeks, now the flames spilled out around me and across the floor without direction. The room vanished beneath them, so it was just me, Alice, Ellie, and Boo huddled amid a heatless conflagration. And...some of the tension eased with less mana being pulled to my other runes.
Wind yanked at my heel, and my leg bent unnaturally with a tearing and cracking sound that summoned bile up the back of my throat. The flames faltered, and wind exploded, hurling Ellie back. The rest of my bones creaked as Boo pressed his weight down more fully, pinning me to the floor even as the blustering winds sought to tear me apart.
I fought through the pain, kept channeling mana into the new spellform, then hot hands were pressing against my face and neck, a silver glow suffused me, and healing magic poured through me. The agony of my back and leg cooled. Ellie was there again, her will surging against the curse activating inside of me, the force of my own runes trying to tear me to shreds.
More mana flooded out as ghostly fire, burning it all away. Desperate and wild, I activated the silver cuff as well, sending the thin spikes of silver out to hover around us all, imbuing them with all the mana my unfocused consciousness could grasp hold of.
And as my core emptied, I felt Ellie’s probing fingers of pure mana strengthen and tighten. She was taking control, holding my mana down as I burned it away, emptying this assault of the fuel it needed.
My leg shifted and popped as it moved back into place. A bloody gash on my hip I hadn’t noticed happening sealed over. My core ached as I crushed every last particle of my own native mana from it.
With the same suddenness with which the attack began, it ceased, my body purged of whatever sickness was causing it.
Ellie and Alice kept working, ensuring my body was healed and the little lingering mana in my veins remained under control, but Boo eased back, taking his paws off me. My collarbone fused back together and healed under Alice’s touch.
Minutes passed as we all lay in a heap, breathless and sweat-soaked, before Alice broke the silence. “Caera, are you okay?”
I only hummed my affirmative response, not sure how “okay” I really could be.
She swallowed and glanced at Ellie before continuing. “You...well, you said...about Arthur.”
I stiffened suddenly as Agrona’s voice once again filled my mind. “I gave you the power you wield, and it is mine. Work against me in action, word, or even in thought, and the magic that was my gift to you will become your bane. These first brave few, for acting as my example to you, have spared their bloods from the same fate, but any others who disobey condemn their mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters to share their painful and gruesome end.”
“No, oh Vritra no...” Corbett, Lenora, Lauden, and the others. They were all in danger. Because of me.
I struggled to sit up, but Alice pressed a hand against my shoulder. “Rest, Caera. You need to—”
“Vajrakor,” I moaned, pushing aside her hand and continuing to struggle. “I have to warn the dragons. They must know.”
Alice blinked in surprise, but Ellie stood and took my hand, pulling me to my feet. “I’ll come with you.”
“We’ll all go,” Alice said firmly, an expression of fierce and protective love hardening her features. Without waiting for permission or even understanding, she headed toward the door.
I stumbled after her, Ellie helping to support me.
My entire body protested the movement, but I broke into a run after Alice, through the labyrinthine halls of the Earthborn Institute, out into the city of Vildorial, and up the long highway to Lodenhold, the dwarven palace.
My heart sank when we found the outer halls full of nervously gossiping dwarves. No one stopped us even as we entered the throne room itself.
It was empty. The dragons were gone.