“You said Ifrit simplified things,” Nathan said. “Explain.”
“If you promise not to get mad if you don’t understand,” Kadria said.
He gave her a look. She rolled her eyes.
“Right, let me give you a short version that you can hopefully still understand,” she said. “Nobody’s controlling you or what you can do. There’s no fate or other such nonsense.”
“You said otherwise last time,” he accused.
“No, I said that worlds have events that are constant. I mentioned there are like a million billion different timelines of this world, right? We call those archetypes. You call this place Doumahr. Its existence is an archetype, and a lot of stuff happens in it. But there are timelines where it doesn’t exist, and other stuff happens—that’s a different archetype. I come from one of those, and it doesn’t have magic or demons or other crazy shit,” Kadria said.
“Then how do you know about magic?” Nathan asked.
“It’s, uh, complicated. Long story,” Kadria said, looking away from him. “But let’s just say there are big boy magical beings that make me look like an insect. They’re so fantastically powerful that they can’t even enter a world without ruining the fabric of reality. They basically exist between worlds. Crazy shit. They give Messengers their power and are responsible for demons. I’m betting your pal Ifrit left them out because he finds them spooky.”
“Or maybe they don’t exist?” Nathan suggested.
“Uh, I’ve met them. Interdimensional invader, remember?” Kadria pointed at herself. “Anyway, there is no fate, but these big boys do mess with things. Your worlds constantly get worse because my boss is actively invading your archetype. The more a timeline spirals out of control, the easier it becomes for him to interfere. Then a Messenger like me pops up and, poof, end of timeline. That’s why things feel predetermined, even though they’re not. Because there’s a very powerful being trying to end this timeline and he’s orchestrated a lot of little things to ensure he gets his way.”
Nathan stared at her. “You just admitted that you work for somebody trying to end all life.”
“He’s not really my boss. I don’t care what he thinks,” Kadria said, rolling her eyes. “Messengers are in this for themselves. I’ve already earned my freedom. We’re partners now.”
“Let’s move on from that topic,” Nathan said. His head hurt.
Ifrit had said that events played out the way they did because people were actively working toward war, and that happened to destroy the world. Now, Kadria had revealed that there was an even greater being at work.
The theory was the same, but the player Kadria spoke of was so grand that Nathan had no chance of stopping him.
Kadria seemed to think they could succeed. That would have to be good enough.
“Okay. Let’s talk about your latest squeeze.” Kadria grinned and leaned toward him. “That’s always a fun topic.”
“You mean Anna?”
The Messenger blinked. “Err, no. I don’t care about the boring noble. Give her a thousand kids for all I care. When she has one with magical potential, call me. I’m talking about your fox. The one with the big—” Kadria made grabbing motions in the air with her hands.
“Thank you for the mental images. Both of them,” Nathan drawled.
“No need to thank me,” Kadria said. “So, are you bringing her to visit me for a refresh?”
He stared at her. “Why?”
“Because you want your old love back, the fox of your dreams that saw the end of the world from beside you, and who is longing to be with you again,” Kadria said.
“Don’t do that,” Nathan said, tone dropping. “That Narime is dead. And the Narime with me isn’t and is with me by choice. Why the hell would I betray her?”
Kadria raised an eyebrow at him. After a few moments, she said, “Huh. I guess you really are learning fast. I figured I’d have more time to screw with you, but that’s part of the fun with you. You keep things exciting.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means that you’ve moved on from your old timeline faster than I thought you would,” Kadria said. She gave him a soft smile. “It took me a while to give up on the idea of returning to my old life. The idea that I could become a normal girl again and resume my studies. Learning to roll with the punches is hard. You seemed to like the fire girl a lot, so I figured…”
“I do like Sen,” Nathan admitted. “But she also helped me realize that I made a mistake. Sunstorm is less affected because she was always a bit…”
“Bloodthirsty? I love her collection of heads, by the way.” Kadria cackled.
“Yes, that,” Nathan said. “But Sen is completely different to both the bandit girl I captured and the timid, traumatized spellblade I rescued from the ruins of the Empire. Her energy lifts me up and I love her, but she’s nothing like the woman I loved in my old timeline. That Sen is dead. Gone forever. They’re all dead.”
Nathan looked up at the ceiling.
Giving him some peace, Kadria looked away.
After a few moments, Nathan said, “And that’s why I’ll learn to love and work with the women in this world. I won’t give up on them, because I still have all of my memories of them from my timeline. A second chance is better than no chance. But I can’t bring back the dead.”
Silence.
Nathan realized that he had long since stopped looking at the books. He couldn’t read them anyway. The languages they were written in ranged from vaguely familiar to complete nonsense.
He wandered over to Kadria and leaned on her head. It was a difficult thing to do, given her curly horns got in the way, but he managed it.
“I’m not an armrest,” Kadria grumbled, but she remained still. “Look on the bright side, you get to experience some new people, as well. Like that Seraph. She’s great.”
“She’s grown on me,” Nathan admitted.
“I can’t believe you’re not banging her,” Kadria said.
“She’s not interested in me.”
“Bullshit,” Kadria spat. “She wants you bad.”
Did she? Nathan didn’t think of himself as oblivious, as he had slept with plenty of women. Maybe Seraph was his blind spot. She had shown some interest in him, but he had written it off as teasing so far.
Maybe he would explore it later.
“Also, she’s like the minioniest minion to ever minion,” Kadria said. “I can’t believe her type. She’s reveling in everything you do.”
“She’s not a minion.”
“No, she’s merely your spymaster, administrator, general, former strongest duogem Champion, and is unquestionably loyal. Her gem abilities even ensure she rarely goes down before you do,” Kadria said, grinning.
Realizing that this conversation had been reduced to teasing, Nathan turned and began to leave. As he reached for the door, Kadria called out to him one last time.
“Oh, one more thing.”
He paused. Waited.
“How long has it been since you’ve prayed to your goddess?” Kadria asked, her voice filled with mirth.
Nathan left.
Then blinked as he stepped out into an occupied office.
Two mystic foxes turned to him. One was Narime, and the other was a man with four red tails. For a moment, Nathan thought his cover was blown.
“Nathan! I didn’t see you there,” Narime said, sounding flustered.
The other fox grimaced and looked away. He looked familiar.
Very familiar.
A pit formed in Nathan’s stomach.
“Kuda,” Nathan said. “Nice tails you have there.”
“Thank you. They take a considerable amount of effort each morning to maintain,” Kuda said, voice as smooth as always.
“You’ve never asked Anna to help? I imagine she would have jumped at the chance to brush four fox tails, instead of a single wolf tail,” Nathan said, face expressionless.
“I agree that she would have, but
her father and I agreed to keep it a secret,” Kuda said.
“Her father knew, but she didn’t?” Nathan asked, raising an eyebrow.
“I never intended to remain with the family for so long.” Kuda shrugged. “Then things worsened, and I felt obliged to shift from tutor to adviser.”
Narime looked between the two of them. “That’s your entire reaction?”
“I’ve suspected something was wrong from the beginning. Kuda doesn’t act like a normal wolf,” Nathan said. He took a seat. “But he’s been reliable and loyal to Anna. Unless you have reason to distrust him.”
Waiting patiently, the red fox looked at Narime. “Do you?”
Narime rolled her eyes. “I don’t. I just didn’t want to hide the fact I knew about Kuda from you, Nathan. But it also seemed easier for Kuda to reveal himself. This isn’t how I planned for it to happen.” She flushed, embarrassed at the idea she had somehow not noticed Nathan in his own office.
At least Kadria’s magic worked on the foxes. Not that he knew how it worked. It was probably mental magic.
Something occurred to Nathan at the thought of Kadria. “Kuda, Nurevia mentioned that you had suspicions about Falmir.”
“Ah, yes.” Kuda appeared thoughtful. “It was while we were sheltering in the basement. The princess’s Champion was far too jumpy for my liking. She seemed to be eyeing both Anna and Princess Alice in a way I found discomforting. If I were unkind, I’d say that somebody had been listening to you when you said that the Messengers could attack without leaving the portal.”
“They were in the safest place in the fortress,” Nathan snapped. “Why the hell would I buy that excuse?”
“I’m sure that would be cold comfort after the Champion has already killed two women, because she felt they could get away with it,” Kuda said. “In the end, I showed more of my power than I usually do, in order to scare the Champion. It worked, but I suspect she became more suspicious of you.”
“Like I care,” Nathan grumbled.
But that was worrying. Not merely because an assassination attempt might have taken place. That was par for the course when Falmir was involved, and Nathan had been foolish not to consider it.
No, the worrying part was that Princess Charlotte had been present when it had nearly taken place.
Nathan questioned many things about the princess he had once served unquestionably. Now, he questioned whether she was his enemy.
If Torneus hadn’t been responsible for the cascade, who had been? Emperor Gorthal had pulled off a heroic political victory. A large part of that had resulted from the failed negotiations, which had forced Nathan to invade the Empire. The Spires had even backed Nathan.
And present at every moment was the Kingdom of Falmir. They interfered while the Diet debated the war. They accompanied Alice, even if they avoided the negotiations themselves.
Nathan had finally changed history. There was no danger of a massive war destroying the Empire and the Federation collapsing into a demon-infested wasteland. Torneus had surrendered peacefully, instead of instigating a civil war. Somehow, Nathan had even risen to massive political power and gained the approval of the dark elves.
Yet, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was stuck in the middle of something much bigger. Nathan didn’t know what was coming next.
His next steps would be entirely blind, just like in his original timeline.
Narime smiled at him, and Nathan remembered why he was doing this. He was older, wiser, and more experienced now. But some things never changed.
“Let’s have some lunch,” Nathan said. “Maybe put your tails away, Kuda. Although you should probably show them to Anna.”
Nathan was taking back the life he had lost in that brief, awful night. For the time being, he allowed himself to enjoy it.
END OF BOOK 2
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Also by K.D. Robertson
Heretic Spellblade Series
Heretic Spellblade 1
Heretic Spellblade 2
An Empire Reforged Series
Emperor Forged (Book 1)
Emperor Awakened (Book 2)
Heretic Spellblade 2 Page 39
