Lord Sorcerer: Singularity Online: Book 3

by Kyle Johnson

  It took him longer than he’d expected to find Meriel of House Luzeiros. He didn’t have the best description of her, but it should have been enough to locate her within fifteen minutes or so, at least if she’d been in the Stronghold. It took him nearly an hour, though, which meant either something was blocking him from contacting her, or she had fled the Stronghold and was traveling somewhere else.

  The woman who appeared was tall and muscular, her arms speaking of the sword training that made her House famous. Her hair was a glossy black color that was rare among the elves, who tended to fairer colorations, but her eyes were ice-blue and hard as agates. She clenched her fists when she saw him and took a step forward, but he froze her with a simple act of will.

  “Merial of Luzeiros,” he said flatly, inclining his head. “You know who I am?”

  The woman straightened and relaxed, a smile appearing on her face. “Y-yes, my Lord,” she said smoothly. “Forgive me; I was startled by my surroundings. Where are we, and how did you call me here?”

  “You know exactly why I called you here, Meriel,” he replied, gesturing at the woman. Three tendrils of flame erupted from the ground, circling around the woman but not quite touching her. “Don’t you?”

  “My-my Lord?” she gasped, her face wide and blank. “I do not understand! Please, what did I do?”

  Aranos was almost tempted to believe her, but his Sense Intent Skill was screaming at him. “If I have to tell you what you did, Meriel,” he whispered, deliberately projecting menace not just into his voice but into the dreamscape around him, “then you’re going to be too busy screaming to hear me. Why are you here?”

  The woman looked about in seeming panic for a moment, but her eyes took in Aranos’ implacable face, and the veneer of innocence slid away in an instant. “Yes, I know why I am here, false Lord,” she spat, her voice a hiss. “I regret nothing that I did! Those who were slain had betrayed us all, betrayed the Realms by working for a pretender such as yourself!” She spat at him, but it vanished at Aranos’ whim.

  “That’s enough for now,” he said calmly. He flexed his will, and bands of steel wrapped around the woman, binding her securely. A similar band sealed her mouth, and a chain snaked out, attaching to her chest. Aranos grabbed the chain and began concentrating on the image of Ghilanna that Lorsan had described for him.

  The trip to the Matriarch of House Luzeiros also took longer than Aranos would have liked, primarily because he had to spend part of his willpower to keep Meriel’s form solid and attached to him. The farther he traveled, the more difficult that became – apparently, her image didn’t want to travel far from her actual body – but soon enough, his travel slowed, and a figure started to resolve itself before him.

  The Matriarch of House Luzeiros looked every inch the Warrior Aranos assumed she was. She was encased in steel, with a gleaming longsword at her side and a heavy shield bound to her arm. Her chestnut hair was bound tightly against her head, and her face was scarred from what was likely more battles than Aranos could imagine. “What is the meaning of this?” the woman demanded as she glanced around herself. “Where am I? Who dares…?” She broke off as she saw Aranos, and her eyes grew flat as she noticed the bound form of Meriel behind him.

  “My Lord Evenshade,” she spoke tonelessly, although her hand drifted down to the sword at her hip. “You bring my wayward daughter to me in somewhat less than ideal condition. Should I ask what this is about?”

  “Two of my facilities were attacked by Luzeiros swordsmen yesterday,” Aranos told the woman bluntly. “Meriel here confessed to being part of it. I’m seeing how far up your House this goes so I know what I need to do about it.”

  The Warrior eyed him for a moment before breaking out in a full-throated laugh. “Ah, Lord Evenshade, you have the soul of a Warrior, and you move swiftly to the attack, testing my weaknesses! I take it you can sense untruths?”

  “I can,” Aranos prevaricated slightly, secretly chuckling at the irony. “What did you know of this?”

  “Nothing,” the woman said simply. “However, when Lord Morric of the House of Blades spoke to me, I suspected what you no doubt intend to prove to me. Meriel had gone on her own to join your House, but her motives were unclear to me. As she was one who was close to the Fallen House Exxidor, I had my suspicions.”

  “And you didn’t think to tell me about them?” Aranos asked archly.

  Ghilanna shrugged. “Politics is war, my Lord. If you do not know this, learn it well. Had you naively accepted Meriel into your House, the lesson you would have gained would have been well needed. As you did not, I assumed the lesson one you understood.”

  Aranos nodded. “So, you weren’t close to Keryth of Exxidor?”

  Ghilanna snorted. “So far as I know, none were close to Keryth, not even his wife and son. I dealt with him, if that is what you mean, because he paid well for our blades, and his House trained the few Wizards we produced without rendering us beholden to the House of Stars. It was a fair exchange.”

  The woman’s face darkened. “When he took our younger blades and enslaved them into an army, one that then assaulted the Guards of the Tree-heart…then, he betrayed us all to the Darkness. I broke from Exxidor when it became clear what had occurred, and should any of that House come to me, I will answer their words with my blade!” Her eyes flashed. “We of Luzeiros are mercenaries, but always do we serve the Light first and foremost. Exxidor failed the Light by allowing such evil to be done in its walls. Elder Golloron showed them more mercy than I would have, for I would have gladly executed the lot myself!”

  Aranos smiled in relief; both his instincts and his Sense Intent assured him that Ghilanna was speaking the truth; the passion in her words was unmistakable. “We agree on that, my Lady. I had the chance to show mercy to Vulred of Exxidor, but in my eyes, he’d earned his death.” He turned to Meriel. “Do you want proof?”

  “If you have it, I would see it,” Ghilanna sighed. “Say, rather, that I should see it. You know, though, that if you free her, she will deny anything she has said?”

  “This is the Realm of Dreams, my Lady. One thing I’ve learned is that anything that happens here stays as an echo. The High Dreamer used that, long ago, to recall an altercation I’d had here. I’m pretty sure I know how to do it.”

  Aranos reached out to the struggling Meriel with his thoughts. He focused on the scene he wanted and pushed his awareness into her mind. He almost recoiled; the woman’s thoughts were so filled with hate and rage that it was almost painful. He quickly mastered himself, though, and willed the image of her words to appear. As he heard her voice speaking in the dreamscape, he opened his eyes.

  The scene wasn’t quite as he recalled it. Meriel looked taller, more confident; he appeared smaller, his face sly and his words more sibilant. That made sense, though; he was seeing this through Meriel’s eyes, not his own. We’re all the hero in our own story, he thought silently. And the villain in someone else’s.

  Ghilanna watched quietly as the scene unfolded before turning to Aranos. “How accurate was that?”

  “Fairly,” he shrugged. “I bullied her into confessing, and she said those same words, mostly. They sounded nastier in my recollection, but you know how that is.”

  Ghilanna nodded. “Will you free her to speak?” she asked quietly. “Hopefully, by now, she knows that she will not convince me of her innocence.”

  “Of course.” Aranos concentrated, and the steel band around the woman’s mouth vanished.

  “Meriel,” Ghilanna said ominously, the lack of a House name in her address somewhat conspicuous to Aranos, “what have you done?”

  “I have done what you and the doddering elders should have in my place,” the woman spat. “Allowing this pretender to sit in the home of Exxidor disgraces us all!”

  “Pretender?” Ghilanna repeated. “His appointment was granted by Elder Golloron through the agency of the Tree-heart, child. It would be impossible to fabricate.”

  “Yes, foolish Elde
r Golloron appointed him, but surely treachery was involved! Just as he tricked Lord Keryth into betraying us, he has somehow ensnared the Elder to his will!”

  Both Aranos and Ghilanna snorted at that. “If you think that, you’ve never met Golloron,” Aranos chuckled darkly.

  “That is a truth!” Ghilanna agreed heartily. She turned back to Meriel. “Perhaps you do not know what that fool Keryth attempted, child. Had he succeeded, he would have dragged Eredain into the foulest of slavery. His poison might have spread to other Tree-hearts; he may have doomed the entire race of elves to be servants of Darkness! No greater treachery has been played against us in my memory; Keryth deserved his death and far more.”

  Ghilanna sighed and turned toward Aranos. “You know, of course, that Meriel lacks both standing and authority to have orchestrated such a plot. At best, she may have been a potential source of intelligence, a go-between for greater powers.”

  “I suspected as much. We’ll need to get that information from her. She’s not in the Stronghold anymore; I don’t know where she is, to be honest.”

  “We will find her,” Ghilanna said confidently. “Meriel betrayed us, but more so, she betrayed the one who saved Eredain from the Darkness. She will pay, with her honor and her life.” She stared at the defiant, young woman. “You understand, yes? There is no safe harbor for you in elven lands, Meriel. You will be found, and you will be broken. You will tell all you know. Your benefactors know this, and they will grant you no mercy. If you appear to them, it will be your life.

  “If you come to me, you will pay for what you have done. Lives have been lost, and my House’s name has been tarnished. There will be reparations, and it will be long years before you have regained a modicum of trust or honor again. Yet, you will live to have that chance. Tell me now who has done this and return to us. It is your only chance, now, for life.”

  Meriel opened her mouth to speak, but Aranos felt something off as she did. A strange, foreign energy descended into the dreamscape, a power that he didn’t recognize. He reached out with his mind, seeking the source, but so far as he could tell, the power welled up from within Meriel herself. He grabbed dream energy and wove a shield around himself and Ghilanna, fearing an attack, but the weird energy turned upon the woman, halting her speech. Her image shimmered, pulsed, and suddenly she screamed as the image of her shattered into shards that were quickly swept into the dreamscape.

  Aranos felt a brief stab of pain as the energy he was using to bind the woman backlashed on him, but it passed quickly, and his Fortitude Skill kept him from suffering any ill effects from it. Ghilanna stared at the image in concern, her hand once more gripping her sword.

  “What was that?” she asked a bit suspiciously. “Did you…?”

  “Not me,” Aranos replied shortly. “If I had to guess, I’d say that someone put a Spell in her mind that attacked her if she was about to tell who she was working for. How they rigged it to reach into the Realm of Dreams, I don’t know, but it means that they know I can travel here and planned for this.”

  Ghilanna grunted and eyed the spot where Meriel had been. “Is she dead?”

  “No idea,” he sighed. “If she’s not, she’s probably in pretty bad shape. Normally, nothing that happens here carries over into the real world, but if that happened in the real world and carried over to here…”

  Ghilanna grunted. “Then I must go seek her. If she is to be found, we will find her.” She turned to Aranos. “I am certain that you were unsure of my House, knowing of our previous associations. I was uncertain of your House, not knowing if a Wizard would have the strength to do what is needed to build a House. I would hope that, in this meeting, both of our fears have been allayed.”

  “Mine have,” Aranos said simply. “I look forward to working with you in the future. In fact, we’re about to be in the market to hire some guards for our facilities. I’ll have my majordomo reach out to you.”

  Ghilanna laughed. “Having your holdings protected by the House that attacked them? Do you believe that will sit well with your members?”

  “Not right away,” he acknowledged. “If we can reach a good arrangement, though, they might get used to it. Especially since I can pay you in truesilver or deepsteel weapons.”

  Ghilanna froze. “If this is true, then our blades will be yours, Lord Evenshade,” she said fervently. “Can they be Enchanted, as well?”

  “I can only make a few of them, but I can Enchant them, sure. In fact, once I’m back in elven lands, I’ll make you an Enchanted deepsteel longsword as my first project. Deal?”

  “My guards will be in place at your facilities by the end of the day,” the woman said fervently. “A deepsteel blade – those are treasures of the richest, most ancient Houses now that our ties to the Dwarven Nations are severed. For such a blade, you may count me your ally!”

  Aranos chuckled at the memory of the Warrior’s fervor. She was a mercenary at heart, there was no question about it, and her loyalty was clearly for sale. He had a feeling that once she was bought, though, she would stay bought, so long as her employer kept faith with her. In any case, he felt better having his facilities guarded, and he’d made a second trip to Lorsan to pass on the news.

  He’d planned to chat with Mathias, but there simply hadn’t been time. His dream travels had taken a lot longer than he’d intended, and he still had to return to his body. He decided it wasn’t a big deal; if Mathias was struggling with his Quest, Lorsan would probably know about it – from the complaining, if nothing else. Besides, he wanted to check on Saphielle, and since by now his Endurance drain should be gone, it was time to wake up.

  Saphielle had been unchanged when he awoke. His Sense Mana Skill could feel a knot of necrotic mana in her, but it hadn’t tied itself to her soul, so eventually she would fight it off. He helped a little, trickling restorative mana into her, but he was afraid to do too much. When restorative and necrotic mana met, they annihilated one another and released a flood of freed soul mana. He didn’t know what that much soul mana would do to the woman, so he was being cautious.

  Instead, he’d stopped to check the notifications from the battle they’d just fought. He’d actually gained a surprisingly low amount of XP from it, since despite how many undead there were, they were almost all much lower level than he was, and the XP was being split eight ways. Only destroying the pillar – the thing the lanohtar had called an azgrovas – had given him any significant XP. Even so, taken all together, it had been enough to get a level for both Silma and him. To Aranos, though, that wasn’t the most exciting notification:

  Congratulations!

  You have Redeemed the Corrupted Ability: Energy Drain

  Energy Drain has Evolved into Nourishing Aura

  Ability: Nourishing Aura

  Type: Redeemed Ability

  Effect: You can generate an Aura that grants LP regeneration to or drains LP from every living creature within it. To create this Aura, you must sacrifice LP, SP, or Physical Stat points. The radius of the Aura is based on the energy type and amount you put into it:

  Type Radius

  SP 10’ per 100 SP

  LP 10’ per 50 LP

  Stat Points10’ per Point

  You can mix the energy types freely to create a larger Aura: if you expend 100 SP, 50 LP, and one Stat point, you’ll create an Aura with a 30’ radius. So long as the Aura is active, the lost points cannot be recovered and will be deducted from your maximum total. Once the Aura is released, sacrificed points can be recovered at a normal rate.

  The Aura will regenerate or drain LP per second equal to: [(Cha – 10) / 20, rounded down]. Drained LP heal you by the amount of LP drained. This cannot bring your LP higher than 125% of your normal max.

  Redeemed/Corrupted Ability: This Ability can be used in a Redeemed or Corrupted version. If the Aura is regenerative, the user gains 1 RP per second it is active. If it is draining, the user gains 1 CP per second it is active.

  The blood is the life! Now, whose blood is
whose, here…

  Quest Updated: Race to Get Ahead!

  For evolving a Redeemed Skill, you receive: +250 XP

  Warning!

  Racial Change Imminent!

  You are on the verge of Evolving your Race: Aleen into a higher form. Be aware that any racial bonuses your current Race grants you may be lost or changed. If your new race is incompatible with your Class, you will be unable to advance in this Class and must choose a new one.

  Choose your future actions wisely!

  Enhanced Aspect Discovered!

  Aspect: Nature

  Nature mana drives the basic processes of all living creatures. It is also part of the cycle of life, including growth and decomposition. It is a particularly vital part of simpler life, such as plants and microorganisms, and it can be used to rapidly produce such organisms.

  Associated Stats: End, Str

  Requirements: End or Str 50+*, Natural Lore or Herbalism Expert 1

  *The synergy between nature mana and your Inherent and Skill Abilities overrides this requirement.

  Greater Aspect Version Discovered!

  Aspect: Vital

  Vital mana is the fundamental energy of all living things. It is the basis for every creature’s LP pool and interacts with all Physical Stats to empower a creature.

  Using Vital Mana: Vital mana can be used to heal, empower, or weaken the physical processes of any living or undead creature. It has no effect on automatons or items. Vital mana can be shifted into LP or Physical Stat points, although doing so is inefficient, and Stat points gained this way are temporary.

  Stat Damage: A caster can only use a limited amount of vital mana without taking Stat damage. You can use SP of vital mana equal to the sum of your End and Str Stats per hour. Exceeding this limit drains these Stats: you lose 1 point from the higher of these Stats per 1% of your max SP of additional vital mana you use. This damage heals at a rate of 10% per hour of rest or meditation.