by Eric Vall
“Did he say that?” Deya asked with a smirk. “That does not surprise me. Rhys is very proud of his family, and House Fehryn have done well independently, but their standing relies wholly on themselves rather than bloodlines. He would not want the leader to know of any trouble for them.”
I understood where Rhys was coming from, but I couldn’t see how I was meant to gain an allegiance in arms without mentioning Rhys’ House if the Master’s next target was House Fehryn.
So, I just sighed and watched the leaves that sprouted from the floor while we waited in the silent hall, and I ran through everything I’d heard from Dragir since we’d returned to House Quyn.
I knew so little about the many elemental lines available in the craft, but once I understood rune magic more fully, there was virtually no limit for me in this realm. I could control fire like Aurora if I wanted, or harness the power of the air or anything I wanted. As the list grew longer, I began to understand the dangers of that potential for power, and with the endless possibilities overwhelming me, I decided to narrow it down to the most immediate applications.
Having a more acute sense of the balance of the runes through any metal I was engraving would mean I could use it with my own weaponry beyond the bazooka alone. I would probably need Dragir’s assistance at first, but if he’d continue to work with me, I could learn enough to form things I’d never imagined would be possible in this realm.
Power and ammunition would be as simple as harnessing the forces of the elements rather than seeking out exact materials, and if the weapons I created could be made to function exclusively, all of my worries would be absolved.
Not to mention the prospects of branding. I was tentative on this point knowing the long term effects, but there were some things I didn’t want separated from me if I could possibly create them. Accelerated healing would mean I could withstand whatever the Master threw at me, so long as he wasn’t trying to boil my fucking blood.
I drifted off into thoughts of offensive and defensive elements I wouldn’t mind toying with, and I vacillated between pendants and brandings with everything so many times, I lost track of how long we waited there.
The hazy sunlight that filtered through the vines cast a warm green glow that lulled me into drowsy state after a while, and eventually, Aurora slumped to lay on my lap.
We were all nearly asleep when a low creak caused us to jolt to attention.
Two elves exited the doors at the top of the stairs, and as I recognized them from the meeting with the Elven Council, I began to think I might already know who the head of House Orrel was.
If I was right, then it was honestly amazing he was still alive.
We mounted the steps to join the guards at the doors, and they eyed my shirt with disdain before they turned to lead us into the next chamber.
The walls of the room stretched up to the heights of the circular tower, and there were several round windows that spiraled around the stonework as far up as I could see. The design reminded me a bit of House Fehryn, but a few owls perched sleepily in the windows here.
There was no finery or velvet in sight, and mostly vines and broad-leafed plants decorated the chamber where they spilled in through the openings and small cracks.
The only doors were the ones we’d entered from, and a single stone table spanned the width of the room at the far end. It was raised on a platform much like the tables at the hall of the Elven Council had been, and the same aged elf who’d conducted the meeting sat looking down on us.
Sort of.
His milky gold eyes stared listlessly from his weathered face, and they seemed to fall not quite on us, but somewhere above our heads. His white hair blended seamlessly with the white of his robes, and I recognized the same silver stitching around his collar as my own shirt had.
He took a long and haggard breath as we slowly came to the center of the circular chamber, and while he worked on gathering his abilities, I eyed the stonework of the walls.
Unlike the hidden fortress by the sea, the seams of the large stones that were laid to create this hall were clearly defined, and it looked like they had been stacked one by one all the way up to the peak of the chamber, which towered a good two hundred feet above our heads. The whole effect reminded me of a cathedral, except instead of stained-glass windows, bits of moss and lichen crept through the cracks of the walls and bloomed wildly in various shades of sea green, blue, and teal.
The two guards who led us here remained posted at the doors behind us, and I wondered if they were the sons of the head of House Orrel. Several of the guards from that meeting had been the sons of their leaders, but it was hard to be sure in this case since neither of them fawned for Deya’s admiration, and I doubted anything could physically bare a resemblance to the elder seated at the table before us.
He looked just as ready to drop dead as he had when he conducted the meeting with the Elven Council, and the old guy still hadn’t managed to draw a substantial enough breath to speak yet.
Deya smiled lightly and shrugged after we’d waited for a few minutes. Then she walked forward, and she spoke in a gentle voice to the head of House Orrel despite never having been addressed.
His eyes remained drifting around the hall, but I thought I saw the shadow of a smile flicker on his face for the briefest second. Deya waited patiently for him to respond, but instead of speaking, he slowly raised a frail and trembling hand to her.
The beautiful elf quickly climbed the cracked steps that led up to the stand where the table was mounted, and she leaned across the stone to place her slender hand in the aged elf’s.
His voice was raspy and weak when he finally spoke, but whatever he said caused Deya to let a silvery giggle fall from her lips, and she let the leader cup his other hand over hers to hold her there.
The aged elf made a noise that sounded like it could have been a chuckle, and they continued to speak slowly to one another while Deya giggled here and there.
Aurora and Cayla exchanged amused glances while we waited, and it felt like five minutes had crawled by when Deya finally pulled her hand back and turned a sparkling smile our direction.
She spoke in Elvish as her eyes trailed over us all, and the head of House Orrel gave a listless harrumph that Deya ignored.
When she finally descended the few steps to join us again, she was all smiles and grace.
“Luir will see you now,” she told me, and when I mounted the aged steps with Deya beside me, the elf at the table slowly dragged his eyes from the wall to me.
He spoke in haggard Elvish, and I just stood there since I assumed he was addressing Deya.
She didn’t respond at all, though, and when I noticed her smiling at me, I shifted slightly as I cleared my throat.
“I don’t know if you remember me,” I began, and I bowed a little to show my respect to the nearly dead elf in front of me. “My name is Mason Flynt, Defender of the Order of Elementa. I was sent by King--”
“I recall,” the elf interrupted with a long breath. “You once sought … the Council’s … deliberation.”
“Exactly,” I replied. “I don’t suppose the Houses have reached a verdict yet?”
I tried not to smirk as I asked the question, but when the elf stared blankly back at me, I couldn’t help it anymore. He clearly didn’t remember they were supposed to be deliberating and getting back to me, and I was glad I hadn’t bothered to wait them out.
I nodded and continued. “Things take time,” I allowed. “I get it. That’s not why I’ve come here today, anyway.”
Deya cleared her throat lightly, and I glanced to see her send me the tiniest shake of her head.
I furrowed my brow and looked back at the milky gold eyes of the elf still staring blankly ahead.
“Thank you,” I tried instead, “for receiving us in your House. It’s a great honor to experience such an ancient establishment. This hall alone is truly staggering. It must have taken an unimaginable feat of magic to create it.”
The el
f harrumphed once more, and then he drew a painfully long breath before he responded.
“No magic … was needed,” he said shakily.
“None?” I asked skeptically.
Deya leaned in to mutter quietly to me. “House Orrel was built before the ancients discovered the power of rune magic,” she explained.
I looked up once more at the towering chamber with its sturdy stonework so meticulously stacked, and I couldn’t help but speak my mind.
“No shit … ” I mused, and I turned in a full circle.
It was a magnificent structure, and as I remembered the ancients had discovered rune magic thousands of years ago, I realized I was standing in a building that had been there longer than any other I’d ever encountered.
I couldn’t resist sending my magic through the stonework just to feel the makeup of the place, and my senses tingled as the ancient hall hit me with a nearly archaic presence. The amount of time since they’d been moved felt like an endless void even more dense than the belly of the mountains of Orebane, and I reveled in the sight for a moment longer before I turned back to the leader.
“That’s impressive,” I told him bluntly. “I mean, if magic created it that would be impressive enough, but this must have taken ages to piece together. Plus, climbing as high as that with each stone, and then keeping it all from collapsing in during construction--”
I trailed off as I realized I’d gotten off on a tangent, but I couldn’t help it. The gilded and diamond crusted charade of the other Elite Houses seriously paled when compared to the sheer artistry of House Orrel.
Still, I made an effort to throttle down while the leader blinked at last.
“Yes … ” he breathed. “Ninety-three … years.”
“Damn,” I sighed. “That’s … more than impressive.”
My grin stretched from ear to ear, and Deya giggled before she spoke to the leader once more.
Whatever she said brought a glow to her cheeks, and the same tired chuckle managed to escape the aged elf’s lips.
Then he drew a rattling breath to respond. “Enough,” he sighed.
I furrowed my brow as I heard shifting behind me, and I turned to see the two guards dismiss themselves and leave through the doors. A flutter of wings followed, and as I looked up, I saw the tail feathers of the few owls disappear as if the smallest bit of noise below had completely disrupted their rest.
The three women still standing in the center of the room sent me nervous glances, but my attention was called back to the head of House Orrel as he wheezed and strained to stand.
I felt like someone should probably give him a hand, but Deya’s eyes flared at me when I moved to help.
So, I just stood there while his bones cracked ominously in retaliation, and his withering body swayed like he may collapse any second.
After a few minutes of death-defying effort, the head of House Orrel was sort of standing, and he supported his weight on his frail arms while his knobby hands splayed painfully across the stone tabletop.
Then he stared somewhere past my elbow with the hollow look of the dead, and I figured this was it.
This was how he was going to die.
Even Deya began to look disconcerted as his wheezing became watery, and just as she reached out to take his hand, the head of House Orrel began to shake.
Not like Deya did whenever she was remotely scared, but like a box of loose bolts rattling around on a bumpy road. His jaw unhinged while his teeth clicked against each other, and his head bobbled freely as his shoulders shook more violently every second.
Deya clasped her hands to her gut and stared with wide eyes, and she grew pale as the leader’s tenuous hold began to slip across the surface of the table.
Then, like someone had slammed a book shut, everything stopped, and the elf took a long, clear breath to fill his lungs before his exterior melted away entirely, and what stood before me could only be described as a fucking charming guy.
Chapter 10
Deya gasped, and her hands flew to her cheeks while the elf gave a deep chuckle.
“It’s you … ” she breathed.
Just based on Deya’s expression, I really couldn’t tell if this was a good or bad development, but the man straightened to his full height, and he leveled Deya with a stern eye.
“You feel foolish,” he told her. “You should. You’re incredibly sweet when you think a man is near death, and I commend you for it, but I know you better than that.”
Then the charming elf flicked his serpentine eyes to me, and the milky gold had deepened to a vibrant shade that glistened with copper lines. He practically oozed virility, and his long silver hair was so sleek it seemed to reflect the light.
“This woman once stole my great grandfather’s sword right off my belt,” he told me in a low voice, and Deya blushed a brilliant pink as she covered her face completely. The man nodded and smirked. “Eleven years old, and she had the audacity to steal such an heirloom from the head of House Orrel.”
“I didn’t know that’s who you were,” Deya insisted as she finally showed her face, and she was nearly as pink as her hair all over. “I thought you were a friend of my father’s … ”
The elf’s grin widened, and he tilted his head conspiratorially in my direction.
“She thought nothing of it,” he assured me, and his tone suggested we’d known each other longer than the last two minutes. “Her father was and is my dear friend, and he told her exactly who I was, but this little sprite was too busy making faces at her brother to listen.”
I couldn’t help but grin back as I imagined the little thief at a younger age.
“That was the moment I knew you would be a world of trouble to Nalnora,” he told the beautiful elf. “I’ve been waiting to see just how much so ever since.”
Deya sighed and tried to shield her embarrassment, and the head of House Orrel seemed to suddenly notice what I was wearing.
He cocked a brow. “I didn’t realize we were swearing in mages now.”
“One of your servants gave it to me,” I quickly explained.
“That would be impossible,” he replied. “I have no servants. Only students.”
The many elves in identical robes began to make more sense to me, but the leader had already sprung into another topic before I’d formed a response.
“Where is your brother anyways?” he asked Deya. “You cannot have come all this way and left him behind at House Quyn?”
“He is busy,” Deya told him, but the leader shook his head as his face sobered.
“He is avoiding me, do not lie to me young lady.”
Deya blushed uncontrollably once more, but she didn’t respond.
“Yes, that is it.” The leader nodded, and he sent me the same conspiratorial glance. “A grown man of his capabilities still hiding from his own destiny. It’s a shame, isn’t it?”
“Dragir has his hands full at the moment,” I answered. “House Quyn was attacked only two days ago by--”
“Yes, I know,” the leader cut in. “This is in part why your presence here intrigues me. No man has ever fought alongside an elven army, let alone allied two southern Houses in the process. And yet, you arrive here with none other than the beautiful Deya at your side. What in the name of the gods are you up to?”
I stared and wondered if I should clarify Deya wasn’t at my side in the biblical sense, but the leader suddenly burst out with a booming laugh, and I jumped about a foot instead.
“You could have just brought the brother if you wanted my attention,” he informed me. “Now, you’ve brought the sister, and I’m forced to show off for you. Clever man. I like the way your mind works.”
I shrugged and grinned like I knew what the hell was going on, but his habit of addressing me like an equal was almost unnerving at this point.
Maybe I’d just spent too long in Nalnora.
Luir gave a hearty chuckle as he looked at me and Deya with complete openness and hospitality, and nothing about his mann
erisms would make me guess he had nearly died only moments before.
“Let me give you the grand tour!” he announced abruptly. “It’s been ages since I bothered with any of my guests, this should be fun.”
The head of House Orrel strolled around the table with his broad shoulders back and his chin confidently tilted, but he came to a quick stop when he saw my three women still waiting in the middle of the room.
“Oh,” he said with pleasant surprise. “The mutt’s alive.” Then he sent me an appreciative nod. “Now, that is impressive.”
He gestured around at the stonework of the hall and shook his head as if to say it was nothing in comparison, before he crouched a bit to address Aurora in the most patronizing way she probably had ever experienced.
“Wel-come,” he called loudly. “You are alive. Wow!”
I raised my brows as the leader lifted his arms high to exhibit his shock, and Aurora bristled.
The head of House Orrel didn’t seem to notice he was addressing her like she was from another planet, though. He flashed another charming grin and held out his arm for Deya, and he patted her hand while he led her across the chamber.
“You’ll have to forgive the unsightly entrance,” the leader said. “I couldn’t waste another moment in that rattling body, truth be told. The two of you might be the most interesting things to arrive at my House since your brother last visited.”
Aurora’s knuckles were white on the hilt of her sword when I came to her side, and I could feel the heat radiating from her as she flushed with fury.
“Easy … ” I muttered, but her emerald eyes looked ready to burn a hole straight through the leader’s skull.
Shoshanne patted the Ignis Mage’s shoulder as she sent me an uneasy look, and the four of us followed after the two elves while we kept an eye on Aurora, just in case.
Luir led us back through the doors and down the steps to where we’d waited for ages for his arrival, and then he came to a slow stop and let out a heavy sigh.
“Now … what to do?” he muttered to himself before he glanced at Deya. “What did Aeris do? I know you graced his hideous home with your presence, and he must have made an ass of himself. Come on, tell me what he did first.”
