by Devon Vesper
“And were any of them successful?”
He frowned. “You know they were not! And that is why we should not send Aesriphos straight out of Valiant training!”
“Did you ever think those failed attempts might have been your fault?” Isophel asked, her calm seeming brittle now. “Did you ever think that if you had not made them wait until first thaw to begin their mission, they may have had a higher success rate?”
“But—”
“There are winter clothes for a reason, Brother,” Isophel went on. “There are provisions for the horses. There are supplies and measures our men and women can take to be as safe as possible in sub-freezing temperatures on a mission. And if the mission is thought to be a long one, we send them with these provisions in case they get waylaid and cannot make it home before the weather gets frigid.”
“And,” Valis said, reminding them that he was still there, “I’ve used my own personal gold cache to fund these provisions for myself, my husband, Seza, Zhasina, the Kalutakeni warriors, and the mercenaries, because I am well versed in traveling in cold weather.” He stared into Brother Bachris’s eyes, trying to press his point. “We arrived during a brutal blizzard if you remember, and we didn’t have half the gear necessary for that climate. But we made it anyway. With the proper gear, we shouldn’t have any casualties due to the climate.”
The Patron Priest blew a long breath out through his nose and turned back to the Grand Master Aesriphos. “You are entertaining these children and it is giving them the wrong idea!”
Isophel rolled her eyes. “These two bested two of my best reliquary guards, Bachris. They’ve also seen battle. Valis, himself, has personally killed four men before his twenty-first birth anniversary. No one returns from killing another human being with their childhood intact. You should know this by now.”
“That is—”
“I refuse to back down,” Valis said as calmly as he could. “I will go after my father whether this mission is sanctioned or not. I would just prefer a sanction so that I have more Aesriphos on my team, because while I am strong, I know quite well that with only four Aesriphos, we are not strong enough to go against some of the larger Qos nests we may come across.”
The Grand Master Aesriphos perked a cherry brow at him and smirked, the action tugging her scar in a way that looked painful. “I like you.”
“Grand Master!”
“Hush, Brother.” Isophel cast him another warning look and turned back to Valis. “I have a proposition for you, if you will hear me.”
Valis gave her a wary nod. “I’m listening.”
She gave him an intent stare that made Valis feel small. He straightened his spine to stand taller under her regard to try to shake that feeling. It didn’t work.
“If you can win in a battle against my wife and I,” she paused to give him a menacing grin, “I will gladly sanction your mission and grant you fifty reliquary guards, one-hundred Aesriphos, and three-hundred laymen warriors to aid you.”
“Isophel, you cannot be serious!” Brother Bachris rounded on her, getting into her personal space. “This is ludicrous!”
“Stand down before I have you arrested, Bachris.” She rose to her full height, towering over the Patron Priest by several inches until the reed-thin priest looked like a toy in comparison. “This matter is officially no longer in your hands. As Aesriphos, these two men are under my purview, and I will deal with them accordingly.”
“But if they win—”
Isophel laughed, the sound jarring but joyful, as if this was the most fun she’d had in ages. Her eyes twinkled with mischief when she finally calmed. “Exactly. Thrilling, isn’t it?” She shrugged and stared hard at Valis. “I would, of course, stay on as his adviser.”
“What do you mean?” Valis asked. He looked from the Patron Priest to the Grand Master Aesriphos and back again, trying to find an answer to his confusion. “What’s going on?”
Brother Bachris grimaced and looked distinctly like he might be sick. “If you win against the Grand Master Aesriphos, you unseat them from power, and thus become the next Grand Master Aesriphos. Thus, you gain command of the entire monastery and are under no one but the Sovereign Priest, herself. But, if you fail, you might well die, my boy. Choose very wisely. This is not something you want to go into just to prove your worth or the worth of a mission.” He frowned deeper. “This is serious boys. You have no idea how serious this is.”
The Grand Master nodded, agreeing. “Quite serious. Especially for me. Think of all the jeers I would have to endure if I am bested by a team fresh out of Valiant training. But…” She smirked at Valis and turned it onto Tavros next. “But… if they did win this challenge, think of their future. The youngest Grand Master Aesriphos in history, and one wields black magic alongside his gold. It would be historic.”
She shook her head as if she couldn’t believe she was doing this, huffing a soft, amused laugh. “The things I do…” Then she waved at Phalin who stood guarding the reliquary doors with his husband, Shyvus. “I will guard your post. Please go fetch my wife.”
“At once, Grand Master.”
As he hurried out of the temple, Isophel narrowed her eyes on Valis. “So, lad. What will it be? Abandon your quest for a proper sanction and face expulsion from the Aesriphos Order should you fail in your attempt to rescue your father, or fight me for my title?”
“Valis,” Brother Bachris hissed, “you do realize what this means, yes? She has not been defeated since she has risen to the rank of Grand Master Aesriphos, and she beat the Grand Master before her!”
“I’m aware,” Valis said. He took a deep breath and stared into Isophel’s good eye. “I’d like to take a moment and discuss this with my husband.”
Isophel gave him a curt nod. “You have until my wife arrives.”
“Thank you.” He led Tavros to the other side of the room and took a deep lungful of air because it had felt like there was none to be had while he stood so close to her.
“What do you think?” Tavros asked, he raked both hands through his shaggy black hair and sighed. “Do you think we can beat her?”
Valis glanced back at Isophel with a critical eye. She was large, and she hadn’t come upon her title by accident. Nor had she come upon that scar by accident, either. She was battle hardened, but when was the last time she had actually seen a good fight? When was the last she had seen battle?
Another critical look, and Valis knew she still trained, and trained hard. She couldn’t keep muscles that size by letting her title make her lazy.
But had she been training with the reliquary guards? Had they taught her and her wife the lessons he had taught them? There was really no way of knowing, so he sighed. “I’m not sure.”
Tavros stepped closer. “Then I have a better question. Do you really want to be the Grand Master Aesriphos? We will keep that position until we are bested, just like her and her wife. And we will constantly have hopefuls throwing down their gauntlets at the chance for our title. Especially due to our age. They will think we got lucky because we’re young.”
Valis pressed his mouth into a tight line and hung his head. “It’s the only way to get this sanctioned. We’ll have to, Tav.”
His husband let out a quiet groan and looked toward the ceiling as if searching for answers. “At least it isn’t a death match. She won’t actively be trying to kill us, just knock us unconscious or put us in stasis.”
Valis’s shoulders drooped so fast he thought he might lose them. “Thank the Gods for that. That worried me the most. I don’t want to kill her, and I thought to best her, we’d have to kill her.”
“No, no, no,” Tavros said. He took both Valis’s hands in his and stepped closer. “No, love. I wouldn’t allow the fight if that was the case. I’d have called it off the moment she posed the question to you, no matter if you hated me or not for it. I won’t lose you. Especially not for something like this.”
“I’d never hate you,” Valis whispered. “I’d be angry,
hurt, but I’d never hate you.”
“I know.” He took a deep breath and squeezed Valis’s hands. “Regardless, it is still a very serious fight, and we’ve never fought anyone at her level of battle before. Do you think we can win?”
Valis stared into his husband’s eyes and squared his shoulders. “We can win. We’ll just have to use everything in our arsenal, everything we’ve been training with the reliquary guards every morning.”
Tavros frowned. “It may not be enough…”
“It may not, but it’s worth a shot,” Valis said, putting his determination in his voice. “What have we got to lose? I was prepared to go without a sanction, and I still am. If we beat her that’s definitely a great bonus. But if we don’t?”
“We can do it,” Tavros said. “I’m with you. Forever and always.”
Chapter Twenty-One
The doors to the temple opened. Valis and Tavros turned to see who entered at the same time, and Valis couldn’t hold back his gasp.
Phalin entered, and the woman who followed was nothing like Valis expected. Where Isophel was a beast of a woman, broad and tall, her wife was a petite thing, a head shorter than her wife, and while still strong looking, half as broad. She had her blond hair pulled up into a severe bun at the crown of her head, and her blue eyes seemed so kind that Valis could imagine easily becoming her friend.
She didn’t wear the heavily ornate armor, but a normal set with dents and scratches all across the steel, proving it was her training set. The woman seemed so unassuming that Valis almost couldn’t see her as Isophel’s wife.
“Ephala,” Isophel purred. “We may have a fight to attend.”
Ephala brightened and went to her wife with a long, confident stride. “Fantastic. Anyone good? It has been so long since we have battled anyone worthy.”
Valis gawped at her. She no longer seemed so unassuming.
“The little fish over there,” Isophel said with a wave of her hand toward Valis. “He’s actually quite good. Bested two of my best reliquary guards. If he can keep from having a vision during the battle, he may actually provide us some fun.”
“Excellent!” She got on her toes and Isophel leaned down to meet her for a sweet kiss. “Hopefully this provides some good entertainment. We’ve been sorely lacking.”
“You ladies are horrendous,” Brother Bachris muttered. “I cannot believe you are going through with this.”
Isophel turned her attention to Valis, ignoring Brother Bachris completely. “Have you made a decision, Valis?”
Valis pulled in a breath and nodded. “We’ll fight.”
“Then let’s head to the arena.”
She led the way, and they soon stood in the center of the arena. Valis spared a thought to shield the entryway once everyone was inside and broke it off from himself after adding impermeability from magic and physical force to it. He didn’t want any passersby to get hurt during their battle.
“Oh, he’s full of surprises,” Ephala said as she adjusted her gauntlets. “Interesting.”
“Indeed,” Isophel said.
Then she rolled her neck, cracking it several times. “Okay. This is a magical battle, not a physical one. And there are two rules.” She lifted her finger. “First, is you do not cast the stasis spell until one of the opponents is downed. If they are down for more than a moment, you may attempt the stasis spell.
“Second rule.” She held up a second finger. “No one leaves this arena until both partners of one of the teams is disabled.”
Nodding, Valis rolled his shoulders and shook the tension from his limbs. “Both are reasonable.”
“Then let us begin.”
Valis snapped up his shield, encompassing both himself and Tavros. Isophel did the same for herself and her mate. And in the next breath, she and her mate started launching volleys of gold magic to test Valis’s shield.
Valis winced at the onslaught but added permanence and impermeability to physical and magical attacks from just one side, just like he had with the fish pen shields. Then he added another thought to siphon all attacks into his own magic reserves. When he broke it off from himself, he let out a sigh of relief and cast his first volley.
“Keep them busy,” Valis murmured soft enough that only Tavros would be able to hear. “I have an idea.”
“Hurry,” Tavros whispered.
Tavros sped up his attacks, launching several attacks at once, his magical missiles arcing through the air followed by golden lightning. Valis could feel his lover trying to break their shield. He spared his lover a stream of his magic while he worked on his plan.
Inside himself, Valis started gathering magic in his hand, keeping it invisible with just a thought. The ball gathered in size until it nearly dwarfed Valis and Tavros. With the stunning amount of magic hitting his shield and absorbing into Valis’s own magical reserves, Valis could almost imagine his magic would be able to encompass the entire monastery.
When it finally reached its peak, Valis aimed it like a spear. He launched it at Isophel’s shield with the thought to shatter it and shock those inside with the residual blast.
The moment it hit, both women shrieked. Tavros’s blasts made four direct hits to each woman, knocking them back and bowling them over. Valis was just about to cast the stasis spell when Isophel quickly erected another shield while still in obvious pain.
“What the fuck was that?” Ephala cried. “You little shits!”
Valis didn’t answer. Instead, he released a series of concussive blasts that knocked both women off their feet, making them fly across the arena into the far back wall with a loud crash of metal against stone. Valis’s stomach rolled. Had he killed them?
But no, their shield was somehow still up. Even as both women seemed to be too stunned to move, or unconscious.
Releasing another volley with the intent to shatter their shield, Valis started gathering his black magic into his left hand, keeping it invisible. The more he could surprise them, the better chance they had at winning. So far, it was looking to be in their favor. They had never seen Valis in a magical battle before. Isophel had only seen him really cast one or two spells during a physical battle against Shyvus and Phalin.
Their shield shattered, and Valis was a breath away from casting the stasis spell when they yet again cast another shield. It seemed somehow stronger this time, as if they hadn’t been putting the full force of their magic into the ones before.
Ephala staggered to her feet, wiped at the blood on the back of her neck that must have trickled down from the back of her head and growled at them.
“You will pay for that, you little fucks!”
Isophel rolled around on the ground, still stunned. But Valis felt her sending her mate her magic, fueling Ephala in waves that he could almost see.
The woman screamed as she sent a wave of volleys, but all she did was fuel Valis, strengthening his reserves. And in turn, he sent a good portion of that magic into his mate, fueling Tavros as he renewed his attacks.
“Concussive blasts,” Valis whispered, barely moving his lips. “Keep them off their feet. Try to knock them out.”
Valis did the same, sending out waves of concussive blasts, but somehow, this time, they didn’t work. The women didn’t move an inch. They seemed completely unaffected.
Isophel finally found her feet. She staggered a step, leaned on Ephala to regain her balance, and glared at Valis with her one good eye. Blood trickled down her face, making her even more terrifying than the scar that went from her temple to her mouth, bisecting her bad eye.
“I think they’re toying with us,” Tavros whispered. “They’re testing our magic, testing what we can do.”
“I’m thinking the same,” Valis whispered back. He studied the women as Tavros fought on. He could feel his husband’s strain, smell the sweat that slicked his skin. His grunts of effort made Valis’s heart hurt.
“Take them down,” Isophel ordered, her voice ringing like a battle cry.
The ladies renewe
d their attacks. Their magic stronger. They tried concussive blasts, but because of the restrictions Valis put on his shield, they didn’t work. It almost seemed they were at a stalemate. If they couldn’t affect him, and Tavros could no longer affect them, then there was no reason to keep on except to exhaust the Grand Master Aesriphos. And who knew how much magic reserve she had.
But Valis’s was greater and growing with every attack they launched. And it seemed neither woman realized that fact.
The fight went on for several minutes. Valis absorbing, Tavros attacking. The women were drenched in sweat, but so were Valis and Tavros. Nothing seemed to work now for either side.
And Valis was starting to get physically tired. With the nightmares that plagued him every night, he wasn’t getting enough sleep. At least he’d eaten enough at breakfast, but if they survived this, he may need to make another trip to the serving line to refuel. Hopefully this fight didn’t last until the kitchens closed.
Only you would think of your stomach at a time like this, Roba griped. Sometimes I cannot believe you.
I really need to concentrate right now, Dad.
Roba huffed in his mind. It seems all you are doing is beating your head against a stone wall.
Yeah. That’s my thoughts. I’ve got a plan, but I need them tired, first.
Yet, you are the one getting tired.
Yeah. Valis groaned. Yeah…
Use a stream of your magic to fuel your body, Roba suggested.
And Valis wanted to smack himself. If he could make Kerac’s immune system stronger, could he remedy his own fatigue?
Try it, Roba urged. No harm will come from trying.
Taking a deep breath, Valis turned his magic inward, focusing on his tired muscles and exhausted mind. He worked until he felt his fatigue draining away, his body and mind perking up, and his eyes feeling less like they were weighted down by bricks.
Then he did the same to Tavros, and his lover’s eyes widened. “You can do that?” he whispered hoarsely. “Fuck, Valis!”
