by Steven Drake
“I have already told you what must be done to defeat the Demon King, precisely what we are doing at this moment. There is no military strategy that will succeed. Your enemy plots over centuries while you cannot see beyond your life’s span. Defeat his armies, he will raise new ones. Invade his lands, and he will reappear elsewhere. No, the only path to victory is to cut off the head of the snake.”
“A grim assessment.”
“An accurate assessment.”
“You make this mad quest sound like the only sensible choice,” Oswald commented. “Your reputation as a strategist is not exaggerated. I do not know if you recall, but I was present at your arrest. Tell me, had it come to a fight, would we have been able to take you alive, or kill you, or even force you to draw that sword?”
Darien smiled wickedly. “There is always uncertainty, but, most likely, no. Had it come to a fight, I would have killed your entire company, excepting those who had the good sense to flee immediately. But, you misunderstood my intent from the beginning. The only reason I threatened you at all was because I didn’t want my companions arrested. I suspected all along I would be captured.”
“Really, so you planned on just surrendering all along?”
“It was the easiest way to get into Trinium without unnecessary bloodshed.”
“You really believed that you could convince us of your intentions?”
“I took a risk. There is always a risk to any course of action, but I felt that my value as an ally would outweigh whatever moral outrage you might harbor against me.”
“Geoffray was right then. You were never really under our control at all. You just allowed us to believe that you were.”
Though his face remained unchanged, Darien smiled inwardly. At last, they were coming to the point of this conversation. “Your Marshal has many faults, too numerous to discuss at this point, but he was not wrong about that. He assessed the situation correctly. I was manipulating the situation from the beginning, hoping to get the information I needed without drawing unwanted attention.”
“Instead of force, you prefer to use wit and guile to accomplish your purpose. I think I see why you get along so well with the Inquisitor.”
“Ah, so that’s why you’ve been so generously blocking the sunlight for the past half hour. Trying to see how I fit into your intrigues against the Inquisition. I honestly don’t care, so tell Geoffray whatever you want.” Mercifully, it seemed Oswald’s questions were coming to an end. Darien was quite ready to end this tedious conversation, but Oswald seemed less hostile, so perhaps he might provide some useful information. “So since I have answered your questions, answer one for me. Did Geoffray really believe he could beat me in the arena?”
“No, but he felt he had to try.” The large man looked forward, to make certain Geoffray was out of earshot before whispering in as low a tone as he could manage. “He expected to die in the arena. He is convinced that the inquisition plans to move to take over the order, and soon. He thought you were part of that plot. Once he saw you had the Demon Sword, he knew you were not working for the Demon King, and he thought you must be plotting with Traiz or Barris, perhaps both, in order to secure safe haven from your enemies. He had spies in the guards that witnessed the duel. He intended to make the manner of his death public knowledge, and he hoped that once the people saw who the inquisition was using to do its dirty work, they would rally against them.”
Remarkably straightforward and honest. Surprising that he would volunteer so much information. Perhaps he is not as loyal to his superior as he appears. “And then I ruined his plan by not killing him,” Darien said thoughtfully. Oswald nodded and smiled. “So that’s why he decided to go with us. He wants to see if he was wrong about me, or whether his enemies have another plan. I take from your presence that he has come to a decision on that matter.”
“Not yet, but I have, and I hoped you might convince him of your sincerity,” Oswald said in a hesitant, yet hopeful voice. “You’ve already made quite an impression on him, more than I would have thought possible. Earning his respect is not easy. He may have his faults, but he is true to the cause, and he commands the loyalty of most of our armies.”
“No doubt you will now tell me not to trust the inquisition, especially Traiz,” Darien interrupted, his voice suddenly darker and more threatening. “I will warn you only once, Oswald Olivier, and you may repeat this to your Marshal. I do not trust any of you, the Inquisitor included. Up to this point, Traiz has simply been more useful to me. I will judge whether, and to what extent, I will extend my trust. I have no interest in the intrigues and power struggles of the Golden Shield. Frankly, they disgust me, and remind me why I have so little regard for the race of men. If you want to change my opinion, then perhaps you should start focusing on the success of this mission. That is my one, and only, concern.” Somewhat to his surprise, Oswald did not protest, but instead nodded grimly, accepting the warning without comment, and quickened his pace to join the rest of the party.
The conversation with Oswald had shed considerable light on the motives of the Marshal of the Shield Knights, if it was honest. Any of them might accuse the others for their own reasons. These men needed little encouragement to plot against one another, and seemed to be ready to jump at whatever shadow they happened across.
Chapter 24: Moonlight
It was never easy, seeing his mentor in pain, tortured by nightmares, unable to sleep, but it happened so often, Jerris had become accustomed to it. This must have been something worse than usual. With blank, lifeless eyes, and a distant, empty expression, Darien stared aimlessly forward at nothing in particular. Jerris wanted to help, but had no idea how, such problems being far beyond his youthful understanding, and he felt powerless to do anything. Darien had helped him so much, in so many ways, but he could not even think of something comforting to say.
The terrain changed once they crossed a river whose name Jerris had already forgotten. The neatly groomed farmlands gave way to rolling hills of green grass and broken forest. The road undulated up and down, but on balance, climbed steadily upward. There were no more comfortable evenings spent at village inns. Instead, the party camped outdoors under the sky.
With the change of scenery, Jerris began to feel the reality of the quest. They might run into anything out here, and he needed to be ready. He practiced his new augmentation spells long into the evening. He quickly gained confidence in his new abilities, but felt a more acute need to push himself. Since there was now no one around to take notice, Jerris prevailed upon Darien to practice some of his more advanced magic.
It was in the early evening, and the party had camped under a copse of maple trees in a dell nestled amongst a cluster of hills. Darien and Jerris practiced a few dozen yards away from the group, near a willow tree that overlooked a small pond.
Shortly after they began, Nia came to watch. She seemed particularly interested in Jerris’ star spheres, or perhaps more accurately, with the shadow voids Darien used to dissipate them. Jerris felt a pang of jealousy that Nia’s attention was again directed at his teacher.
During one of the short breaks in their practice, Niarie asked Darien the same question she had asked before. “Um… Darien… sir… Now that we’re out here on our own, do you think you could show me how to make a shadow void?”
“This again?” Darien groaned. “Why do you want to know so badly?” Jerris watched the conversation acutely, wondering why the girl was so fascinated by this spell.
“It’s just…um…well, I’ve asked my grandfather, but he always said I couldn’t do it, but, um… I just thought if maybe I had an expert to show me, maybe I could surprise him.”
“I see,” Darien replied. “He didn’t ever explain why you couldn’t do it, did he?” The young woman nodded vigorously. “Well. How do I explain? The shadow void is a highly unnatural thing, which never occurs on its own. Most magic is about manipulating things that are already there. Elements like fire, earth, wind, and water, are all around us.
Augmentation and domination work upon the magical energy of our own living bodies. The existence of all these things is quite plain, but the shadow void is emptiness, something that does not exist anywhere in the world outside of us. It only exists in the minds of intelligent creatures, and not just anyone. Beyond that, only extremely gifted mages possess enough magic to force the shadow void to take physical form.”
“So why can’t anyone do it? How does it work?” Niarie interrupted. Jerris and Darien exchanged a rather knowing look. The student had asked his teacher a similar question several months ago, and found the answer more than a little disturbing.
“True emptiness is a somewhat difficult concept to understand. It is not simply empty space. Instead, it is like a hole that can never be filled, no matter how much is placed into it. No matter what you put into the hole, it never fills, and never shrinks. That is what emptiness is.”
“I…how can that be?” Niarie questioned. “There’s no such thing as a hole that can’t be filled up.”
“No, there isn’t, as I said a moment ago. There is no such thing in the world outside our minds, but in the minds of some, it does exist,” Darien replied, smiling a rather pained smile. “There are two ways it can be learned. Most who have the ability, like the Black Council, are taught the ability by a master, who introduces the idea through domination magic. It is violent, penetrative, and said to be immeasurably painful. The mind of the victim must be completely broken and then warped by the master’s power. I’ve only heard of the Demon King teaching this way, though I suppose I could make an attempt. I possess sufficient knowledge and strength.” Nia gulped and shook her head vigorously, looking queasy and even a bit scared. Jerris knew Darien was joking, but Nia would not realize that. The former Shade had been in a dark mood the past few days. Jerris found himself caught between irritation at his mentor for frightening Nia, and hope that perhaps this would discourage the young woman’s attention.
“So, um, there’s another way… right?”
“Yes,” Darien smiled. “It’s extremely rare, but certain mages can learn the shadow void spontaneously, instinctively. This happens when a mage of sufficient natural strength loses someone important to them. That leaves a gap, a hole where that someone used to be. If the loss is significant enough, or hurtful enough, or violent enough, the emptiness, the sense of immeasurable loss, remains, and can never be filled.” Darien shut his eyes and took a deep breath. “It is difficult to describe in words. The shadow void is a living manifestation of a certain kind of hopeless despair. The caster must transfer that emptiness from himself, out into the world, through his magical energy. That bottomless void consumes and obliterates whatever else is around it. That is why it is so destructive. If it did not take so much concentration and magical energy, a mage could use a shadow void to consume anything, and everything, imaginable, a man, an army, a city, a mountain, a dozen mountains. It would consume them all, and never would it fill.”
Niarie now had a look that was something between horrified and guilty. She seemed to have lost her enthusiasm for the subject. Jerris recalled a similar conversation some months ago, after which he’d tried to cast the spell, reasoning that perhaps the loss of his mother would count as a severe enough loss. After several hours of unsuccessful attempts, he gave up, after all, no power was worth having something as awful as true emptiness inside oneself. Nia must have just realized about her grandfather what he had realized about his teacher. Something really bad must have happened to him.
“I didn’t realize it was something so awful,” Niarie said with an apologetic tone. “No wonder he wouldn’t tell me.”
“If your grandfather can do it, he must have lost someone important to him. Do you know who it was?” Jerris suddenly asked, hoping that he could at least offer the girl some sympathy.
“I… it may have been my father,” Niarie stammered. “He… he never talks about it. Every time I try to ask he just… just… well, never mind.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to pry,” Jerris apologized. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to, but, um… if you do want to talk about it, I’d be glad to listen.”
The girl looked over and smiled rather sadly at him. “I guess I just never realized that it hurt him so much when my father died. You’re really kind, you know.” Jerris did his best to remain cool and detached like his teacher, but despite his best efforts, he blushed at the girl’s compliment.
Niarie plopped herself down in the grass in front of the pond and looked out over the shimmering water, where the two moons reflected like a pair of half-closed mismatched eyes looking out at them. Jerris shot his teacher a frantic look, straining with all his might to wordlessly explain his earnest desire to be alone with Nia. Fortunately, his teacher grasped the message, rolled his eyes, and stalked back off to camp. Relieved, Jerris sat down next to her, leaning back on his hands, and speaking, “Thanks. I may not be as good a mage as Darien, but I’d like to think I make better conversation.”
“Obviously,” she giggled, her spirits momentarily lifted. “It can’t be easy, I guess, learning from him. I thought my grandfather was a tough teacher, but he’s just…. Well, does he ever really smile?”
“Well, yes, but it’s usually not the nice kind of smile. He usually only does it when he’s laughing at one of his own dark jokes, or when he’s trying to frighten someone. I think I’ve only seen him smile out of genuine happiness a couple of times.”
“I suppose, being a Shade, he doesn’t have much to be happy about.”
“He’s not a Shade anymore,” Jerris quickly rebutted, defending his teacher. “But, yeah, he’s had it rough. He’s told me some of it, at least the parts he remembers, and it’s pretty awful.”
“It’s so strange that someone… well… like you would be following someone… well, so unlike you.”
Jerris wasn’t sure whether he should feel complimented or insulted by this, but he understood her meaning. “He’s not a bad person, not really. He might seem scary, but he saved my life, and he helped me when he didn’t have to. He’s still helping me. In a way, he’s better than most of us, if you judge by the choices he makes, but you have to look past what he says, and the way he acts sometimes, and how he treats people.” Jerris thought for a moment, realizing that didn’t sound nearly as good when he said it out loud as it had when he thought it. “Well, I guess maybe that didn’t make any sense, but you just have to get to know him, is all I mean.”
“No, I think I kind of understand,” Nia replied. “You really see the best in everything. You could probably make a rainstorm seem pleasant.”
“Umm…” Jerris blushed intensely once again. “Thanks, I… uh… I try.” The young half-elf couldn’t think of anything else to say, so he sat there, waiting, and watching the oranges and yellows of the sunset slowly fade into reds and purples. He didn’t want to push her to talk more about her grandfather, but he wanted to give her time to say something if she wanted, and sure enough, after a few minutes, she relented.
“My father died when I was really young,” she explained. “I barely remember him. He was in the Order, like Grandfather, but he was a spy. He did really secret stuff, like scouting the lands east of the Saldean, gathering information about the Shades, keeping track of where the Demon King’s forces were deployed, that sort of thing.”
“Do you know how it happened?” Jerris asked.
“I… remember we were living on Eldheim Island, in the South Sea, and… well… we were attacked.”
“Was it the Demon King?”
“We think so, but we were never completely sure. You see, it was the dragons who attacked.”
“Dragons, like the ones we’re supposed to be going to see?” Jerris gulped.
“Well, not the same tribe, but yes.” Niarie stiffened and clenched her fists. “They came in the night, flying into our village, burning everything. We didn’t have any warning. There was fire everywhere, and… bodies, burning, in the streets. The smell,
I’ll never forget the smell, like burning meat, but it wasn’t meat…” The woman stuttered and paused, beginning to sob. Jerris reached over to her, and gently took her hand. The girl squeezed his hand and smiled weakly back. Jerris felt sparks shoot through his hand and up his arm, while she continued. “We tried to run, to the harbor, to the ships, but they followed us. We weren’t even trying to fight, but they followed us. They burned most of the boats. I think they didn’t want anyone to escape. There were only enough left for the younger women and the children. Everyone older was left behind. It was my grandfather that had to make that decision. He had to take me, and leave my father to die. My father and the rest of those left behind fought the dragons with whatever they had, just to give us cover to escape. I think Grandfather wanted to stay with them, to fight, but he was the highest-ranking member of the Order left, and the people in the boats needed someone to lead them, and make decisions. I don’t know for sure, but I think it was my father that convinced him to go with us.” Her sobs began to slow, and she seemed to recuperate, but she still gripped his hand tightly. He secretly wished that she would never let go.
“The dragons didn’t follow you?” Jerris asked.
“They tried, but there was a storm at sea. Even then, they tried to get through it. Then there were lights in the sky… like the sea itself was fighting with the dragons. I didn’t understand it. I was so frightened. It was a miracle that the storm didn’t sink us. We must have been blessed by Triton the Lord of Waters to have survived.”
“That sounds awful,” Jerris consoled as best he could. “You know, maybe you could use the shadow void.”
“No,” she shut her eyes and shook her head, “like I said, I was very young, I only remember that night. I barely remember my father’s face anymore. I don’t think I have an… unfillable hole, like he talked about.” She shuddered slightly and squeezed more tightly on Jerris’ hand, which sent waves of warmth radiating up his arm once again. “I still have nightmares, about the dragons that is… I can’t believe Grandfather made me come on this expedition. He knows I’m terrified of dragons. He knows I have nightmares. I wish I knew what he was thinking, but he wouldn’t tell me. He just said this was something I needed to do, and that I should pay attention to Darien, and learn everything I could about him.”
