“…This got very awkward very, very quickly,” Ruby muttered, looking at Phynis, as Phynis looked back.
“You could say that,” Phynis replied, taking a deep breath. “I didn’t expect her to… just say something like that.”
“I can’t say that I blame you. I didn’t either,” Diamond spoke softly, studying Phynis, and Phynis began to study the priestess in turn.
Most dawn elves were shorter than dusk elves, though there were always exceptions. Diamond was ever so slightly taller than Phynis, and the woman was also more… shapely than Phynis was. She was fairly sure that some of that was artificial, since all of the other women seemed to be almost made in the same mold physically. She was certainly beautiful, if in a far different manner than Phynis or Sistina. The elf mulled it over for a bit, then sighed.
“This is very hard to address. I admit I found myself somewhat distressed when Amethyst hugged Sistina,” Phynis finally explained, rubbing her hands on her legs nervously, looking at the tree. It took her a moment before she added, “But when I think about it, I feel bad about it. I chose to stay with Sistina because my life had been ruined by Kelvanis, and my homeland… while it didn’t outright reject me, I found myself adrift, with no real choices and partially ostracized. How unfair would it be to do the same to you?”
“How do you mean? I think we are hardly in the same position as you are in. Or maybe it’s the position you were in?” Ruby asked, slowly settling down onto a patch of grass.
“How do I explain?” Phynis murmured, frowning. Her explanation was hesitant as she tried to give voice to her thoughts. “You are the servants of Medaea. Unless my lessons were completely wrong, she’s a virgin goddess of purity, and her priestesses are required to be in the same state. So with what was done to you, you’ve had that stolen away. Your home temple was violated, and you were forced to destroy it, after the goddess herself was somehow… stolen. That part frightens me, I must admit. But you were also branded, and I have to wonder if with everything else you would be well-treated by your church? No matter how open-minded your sister priestesses might be, I expect that suspicion and anger would be focused on you.”
“I didn’t think of that.” Emerald paled slightly, looking at Diamond in concern.
Diamond let out a soft sigh and nodded. Her voice was soft as she spoke. “I had my own suspicions, but wasn’t willing to actually speak of them. I suspect that you may be far more correct than I would wish. In particular, that we failed to safeguard our own goddess will likely be held against us.”
“But we didn’t do anything wrong.” Opal’s voice was plaintive, but Phynis could see the acceptance in her eyes.
“That’s not what we’re here to talk about,” Amethyst mumbled, looking up to meet Phynis’ gaze. “As bad as our situation is, Sistina wanted us to figure things out. Princess? What can I do to get you to… to let me stay near Sistina, and you?”
“I… give me a minute, please?” Phynis asked, swallowing. She took a minute to gather her thoughts and think. A part of her rebelled at the idea of sharing Sistina, but there was something about it that felt wrong as well. And it was then that she remembered something that one of her cousins had said.
Looking up at the others, Phynis smiled hesitantly and sighed. “I suppose I’m going to have to take the advice of my cousin. He’s in a relationship with a man and woman. One of the things that he once said was that to make a relationship between multiple people work, you had to talk. To get to know one another, and to compromise. Part of me doesn’t want to. Part of me rebels at the very idea… but I don’t know any of you. So I think I’ll give you a chance. I think we just… one at a time, we need to get to know one another. Is that… can you all accept that?”
It was Sapphire who nodded first, smiling slightly. “I think so. Thank you.”
Sistina touched the priestess’ brand and closed her eyes, losing herself in it as she worked to free yet another woman from the shackles that Kelvanis had imposed on them. This was the third woman, and instead of taking close to an hour of time, she was down to only a dozen minutes or so. Each of them was vibrant with life and mana, and the hope on their faces as the first few had reacted had been priceless to her.
A small part of Sistina felt bad, though. She wished that she could free them entirely, but that was beyond her. The only solution she had was to claim the brands, and that merely put them under her own power, while giving Sistina more power.
Hopefully she would come up with a better solution in time, but for now, this would have to do. So she opened her eyes and met those of the priestess in front of her, giving the woman a smile and nod.
Tears streaming down her face, the priestess gave her a hug, speaking in a breathless voice. “Thank you so much! I didn’t think… just… thank you!”
Sistina gave her a gentle hug before pulling away. As bad as she felt, all of the priestesses were in bad enough of condition as it was. She would not make them wait any longer than she had to before giving them at least a bit more freedom.
Chapter 28
As the mist within her mirror swirled and began to take form, Queen Constella tried to control her anxiety. The messenger birds that traveled between Sifaren and Yisara had brought her word of the recent raid on Yisara, right about the time she’d received word from her spies about the troop movements within Kelvanis. Considering that Queen Diane was calling her through the mirror, the situation couldn’t be good.
Finally, the mist cleared, and Queen Diane appeared in the mirror. The dawn elf queen was shorter than Calath, standing about five and a half feet tall and with the golden hair so common to her people. The queen was pretty, with a slightly hooked nose as her most notable flaw, though her blue left eye and green right eye brought a marked distinctiveness that drew others, and her refined manners did even more to give her an air of authority.
“Diane. My sympathies about the attack on Golden Vale. I don’t have details yet, but I just got word about Kelvanis’ movements,” Calath quickly spoke. The mirrors took a large amount of mana and were not the most efficient of enchanted items. She heard that Kelvanis had better ones, which was even more depressing.
“Please wait, Calath. This is going to be an unpleasant conversation, and I have to keep it short,” Diane replied, and it was then that Calath saw the darkness in the other woman’s eyes. Her back was straight, but there was something wrong about her posture. “First and foremost, do not say anything you consider to be sensitive information.”
“What happened, Diane?” Calath asked. She was about to say more, but chose instead to wait for the other monarch to reply.
“I imagine the dispatch hasn’t reached you yet. Kelvanis has generously offered to return all of the captives save my daughter if I hand myself over. They’re even willing to sign a ten-year peace treaty that they’re Fate-bound not to break as part of it.” Diane’s voice was positively caustic, Queen Calath noticed with a wince, and the other woman continued. “Certainly, Yisara is allowed to break it, but that’s hardly comforting. As Kelvanis captured the heirs of nearly a third of my nobility, including those of Duke Crownglade and Duchess Firlyth, I had no choice but to consult the nobility on our options. We had approximately two weeks to respond in essence, and I feared the result would come to what it has.
“The consensus of those who did not lose their heirs is that we have no other choice but to accept their offer. If I refuse, it is entirely possible that Kelvanis will be able to turn as many as half the nobles whose heirs they possess to their side, causing a civil war in the process. Those who lost their heirs were even more strident as a whole, though some were still defiant.” The Yisaran monarch’s voice grew tired as she paused again, taking a deep breath as she looked Calath in the eyes, obviously worried. “Worse, I find that I agree with them. I can’t see any other choice in the time that we have.”
“Gods above! Are you certain, Diane? I mean, turning yourself over to them?” Calath asked, her mind racing. “I knew that t
hings were bad, but… to let them get their hands on you could be an utter disaster.”
“Yes. And the fact that I suspect that the intention of the peace treaty is so that they can focus on Sifaren is the primary reason I contacted you.” Diane finally smiled ever so slightly, a vicious gleam in her eyes as she added, “And I’ve decided to take measures to ensure they get as little useful information from me as possible. After I’m done talking to you, I have an appointment with the Royal Healer. She’s going to render me barren, and then I’m allowing her into my head. I’m going to have as much sensitive information and memories as I reasonably can erased. Hopefully, it will be enough, but part of the bargain is that I have to be in good health, so I can’t go as far as I want to.”
“That is…” Calath paused, absolutely aghast, both about what Diane was willing to do, and at what she was willing to do to herself. After a moment, she continued. “You are far, far braver than I am, Diane. I thank you for the warning, but is there anything I can do? You’re the one who is in such dire straits.”
“No. Nothing but try to be an ally to my daughter. And no poaching Torkal, hmm?” Diane took a moment to smile as she teased Calath.
“Of course I won’t poach him! He’s your husband!” Calath protested, blushing slightly at the memory of when the two had associated when they were younger.
“Perhaps so. But the point stands.” Diane’s smile faded and she stood up straight, clearing her throat before speaking again. “Even more so, though… I’m sorry I won’t be able to help anymore. I had once hoped that we could unify our kingdoms once again, but it appears that our chance is lost.”
“It didn’t exactly help that both of our heirs were daughters. While there are ways around that, they’re hardly traditional. I dare hope for some way to free you from Kelvanis in the future. And…” Calath hesitated for a moment, then told Diane, her voice soft, “If you have the chance, escape into the dungeon in the foothills of the Godsrage Mountains. I don’t know that you will have that chance, but I believe it would help you.”
“Thank you. I’ll keep it in mind, Calath. Goodbye,” Diane spoke equally quietly, giving a sad smile before her image faded.
Calath stood there for a long minute, staring at the mirror. And then finally she spoke aloud. “Hellfire and damnation. This is bad. Laila!”
Princess Jaine sat and fretted, looking at the other young women from Yisara. They were in a small manor house in one of Kelvanis’ newer cities, a place named Timberfall. Compared to the cities of Yisara, the grounds were barren, the building was drafty and cramped, and everything was crude, almost ugly. Jaine couldn’t understand why they would live in such buildings, but even those thoughts were more of distractions from her current situation.
All the girls had been separated from the boys, but it’d been fairly obvious that both groups were being treated about the same. The potent mages, like Ceres, had been fitted with collars that magically rendered them unable to speak. In addition to that, they had all been informed that a ransom demand had been delivered for all of them, but that if they tried to escape, they’d be branded.
Aside from those threats, they’d been surprisingly well-treated so far. That didn’t change the fact that they’d been abducted, and based on what Beryl had told her in other conversations, Jaine found herself deathly afraid. If Kelvanis was being so reasonable, what did they really have planned?
“Since we are all here, I want to make one thing perfectly clear,” Torkal spoke in an almost mild voice, glancing around the room at the gathered high nobles of the realm. Most of them had the good graces to look ashamed or nervous, at least.
“Yes, Your Grace?” Duke Crownglade asked, the burly, bald elf standing with his arms crossed in front of him.
“First, I will be Beryl’s First Councilor after she takes the throne. She has already agreed with me on what I am about to say, so do not think these are the words of a man who’s about to lose all power,” Torkal told them, smiling thinly as several wilted at his scathing tone. “We will accept Kelvanis’ bargain, yes. My Queen and love has chosen to sacrifice almost everything to regain the heirs of our lands. But we will not make peace with Kelvanis. For a decade, they have been a plague upon Yisara, and now they have gone too far. We will take the decade they have granted us, and we will use it. We will do everything in our power to prepare to utterly crush them when the time is right. And if any of you work against this, I will do everything in my power to crush you as well. Am I perfectly clear?”
Most of them simply nodded and murmured their agreement, but the duke snorted and grinned. “Good! I may have pushed to agree, but that’s because I didn’t have a damned choice if I didn’t want to betray my dead wife. But if those bastards are willing to target the younger generation, what else are they willing to do? I’m all for making certain that they regret ever tangling with us.”
The coarse reply, and obvious anger in the duke’s voice, made Torkal smile slightly, and he nodded firmly. “On that, you and I are in perfect agreement. Now, ladies and gentlemen, let’s start figuring out how we can go about this.”
Chapter 29
“Daniel! Focus!” Penelope barked, jarring him away from looking out the window. She glowered at him and spoke sharply. “Do you ever want to be able to use magic, or summon a spirit? If not, go ahead and leave. Otherwise, you need to actually listen when I’m talking to you.”
Cringing, Daniel nodded and apologized quickly to his temperamental tutor. “I’m sorry, Penelope. I’m just not used to reading words like this. Most of my schooling was, umm…”
“Execrable. Which means it was really, really shitty,” Penelope replied pointedly, glaring at him. “That’s why I’m tutoring you, instead of doing things that are useful or fun.”
“I’m sorry,” Daniel apologized again, bowing his head as he waited to see if she would forgive him.
Penelope paused for a long moment, then let out a breath of air. “At least you know that you don’t know excrement from shit. Now then, read off the words to me.”
“Could I at least ask why they’re so hard to say?” Daniel asked plaintively, looking at the words in the book with a wince.
“Because they’re tongue-twisters. Trying to chant spells takes clear, distinctive pronunciation. The reason Darak and I are not mages is because we can’t manage that in combat. We make do in channeling mana into items or the like, and by summoning spirits to do the difficult work,” Penelope explained, seeming a bit mollified. “You have to get far enough along to at least be able to summon a spirit or something of the sort at least once, otherwise you’ll be damn near useless in a delve.”
“Ah. That makes more sense. I thought these were words of an actual spell,” Daniel replied, looking at the words more carefully.
“Enough dawdling, just say them, Daniel.” Penelope sighed, eyes narrowing again, and a grin slowly grew on her face as she offered, “Or you can face me in a bit of sparring. Your choice.”
“No, I’ll start! Just give me a second!” Daniel told her quickly, eyes widening. Taking a deep breath, he prepared the words, and began. “Isthmus…”
“So, what exactly is it that you want, Sistina?” Ruby asked, sitting next to Lirisel as the two glanced at one another.
It’d been a couple of days, and Phynis was out chatting with Diamond, keeping to her promise that she’d try to at least get to know the different women and come to terms with them. In the meantime, Sistina had been avoiding letting any of them too close. That was why the meeting was so surprising. Normally Sistina would have Diamond or Phynis there, not meet with Lirisel and Ruby.
Sistina looked pensive, and then let out a heavy sigh, frowning. “Have request. Request, not demand. Mana is… insufficient. Need help.”
“What do you mean? From everything I’ve heard, dungeons gain far more mana than any mere mortal could. How could we help you, and why?” Lirisel asked, the other woman much more forthright than Ruby was.
“Complex. Am…
frustrating.” The dryad took a deep breath, then glanced around, as if cautiously. “Phynis. Don’t tell. Surprise.”
“I can do that, as long as it isn’t dangerous to her. Ruby?” Lirisel asked, glancing at her.
Ruby nodded firmly, smiling. “That seems reasonable.”
“Good. Phynis… born to rule. Would be queen. Stolen. Kelvanis evil. Rulers evil. Yes?” Sistina asked, tilting her head expectantly. It took Ruby a moment to realize that Sistina was honestly uncertain and was looking for confirmation.
“Yes, I think they’re evil by any objective standard,” Ruby agreed. After a moment, she frowned, then corrected herself. “Like you said, at least the rulers are. Jared… I think he was, but in part it was because he was raised in Kelvanis. Slavery has been accepted there for generations, though it only became what it is now when Archon Sorvos took the throne from the old monarchy about… six decades ago. And even then, it changed slowly by human standards.”
Giving her a blank look, Sistina frowned. Finally, she shrugged and nodded, before continuing in an uncertain tone. “You not evil. My morals… hazy. Perspective hard. I like elves. Want to help. Give Phynis throne. One solution. Make throne.”
“How can you make a throne?” Lirisel asked, fascinated. “I mean, making a chair wouldn’t be hard, but a throne is more than just that.”
“Yes. Need city. Need army. Need power.” Sistina stressed the last word, pausing for a moment, then waved her hands around her. “Dungeon. Can shape. Takes mana. Domain is mountain. Want to… shape. Not dungeon on surface. Create fortress city. Make golems for army. Can? Yes. Insufficient mana. Need help.”
“Are you serious?” Ruby asked, mouth almost dropping open. As Sistina nodded, Ruby looked at Lirisel, and the younger priestess looked back, surprised in her own right.
Spells of Old (Ancient Dreams Book 2) Page 20
