by Elian Tars
Was she testing me or was she telling the truth? What was more important to me at the moment: the principles of humanity that I had formed in my former, more comfortable society, or methods necessary to survive in this dark world? If Bouyon was an enemy, would I waver? Hmm…
“Do what you need to do,” I answered calmly. If Rugus were in my shoes, he wouldn’t hesitate. I’d never let my people be slaughtered.
“As you wish, my dear husband.” Tiara bared her teeth, cutting her right thumb from the palm up to the very tip. The skin parted like a drawbridge, and blood poured out.
Without wasting time, she touched Bouyon’s lips with her wounded finger, slathered them with blood, and then forced her thumb into his mouth. He started coughing and twitching. Tiara smiled, taking out her miraculously healed finger.
“He’ll be conscious to the very end,” she clarified, looking at me, “it’s necessary.”
“What are you…? Where am I?” Bouyon wheezed, but at that very moment, the curved dagger sank into his liver up to the hilt. “Aaaa!!!” the poor guy cried.
Smiling, Tiara pulled out the dagger, and the blood gushed out of the wound. There wasn’t as much of it as I expected it to be; it was probably because of the ritual.
Tiara began to cut intricate patterns on the man’s stomach and chest. Bouyon didn’t stop crying. I felt sorry for him. In any other circumstances, I would’ve preferred not to be present at a ritual conducted by a Disciple of Mavia, but being squeamish was unacceptable in this world. There was a lot of evil, chaos, and death here, and if you couldn’t handle it, you’d soon end up dead yourself.
The door of the prison creaked open. Turning toward the sound, I saw the enraged duke. His son was half a step behind him. Four high-leveled fighters (probably Caer’s guards) were accompanying them.
“Father, please, wait. I’ll explain everything,” Tiara said, not even looking at the duke, and cut an oval around Bouyon’s nipple. “I’m almost done,” she continued, turning to me. “Take out the Part.”
I hesitated. It was one thing to risk taking out the artifact everyone needed only in Tiara’s presence, but it was quite a different thing to take it out when there were six more people present. They weren’t necessarily my enemies, but they were definitely not my allies.
Without saying a word, the duke stopped at the cell’s entrance. I felt his gaze piercing through the back of my head.
“Hold the Part to his side. Don’t be afraid, my dear husband. I’ll cover you,” Tiara said without hesitation, standing between her father and me. I couldn’t help myself and turned around. I couldn’t see her face from that position, but she stood proudly, like a hero ready to fight a monster.
Don’t wait too long, boy. The man will die, said a feeble, but familiar voice.
“Simple Call of the Patron” has been activated.
You have spent 20 Faith Points.
I felt the connection disappear at once. The Old Man spent twenty of my Faith Points to say five words. But these words gave me confidence. My patron was always watching me, which meant that I was doing the right thing.
Without taking the Coffer out of my inventory, I opened it and took out the Part of Zurtarn. Doing that required extra concentration, but after all the training that I’ve had, I did it without a problem.
“Is this… A Part of Zurtarn?” I heard the duke’s voice behind me.
“No, father, please, I beg you… Don’t…”
I decided not to tempt Caer any longer and put the artifact to Bouyon’s wound.
It felt like I got electrocuted. I jerked, involuntarily closing my eyes. And then...
From a bird’s-eye view, I saw a big city on green hills. Suddenly, the picture changed, as if it was zoomed in, and instead of the city, I saw a beautiful castle on the highest hill. It differed from the duke’s castle not only by its enormous size, but also by its appearance — it looked more like an impregnable palace. I even thought that I saw a blooming garden on the roof of one of the towers.
The vision disappeared with a new shock, only for a new one to appear a moment later. I saw a city in the middle of a desert. Most of the buildings reminded me of cubes and parallelepipeds due to their sharp sides and flat roofs, except for a few that had domed roofs. People with a bronzed complexion and turbans were walking along the streets.
The picture began to zoom in. I thought that it’d show me a certain palace again, but the image sank into the sand in front of the gates adorned with a green coat of arms. For a couple of seconds, it seemed like I was rushing forward in total darkness, until I saw a familiar triangular shape.
The vision ended. I was in the prison again. I breathed out heavily and shook my head…
“Come on, quickly,” Tiara cried. “Give me the Shard while he’s still alive!”
Returning the Part into the Coffer, I took the other artifact and touched Bouyon’s wound with it. The blood was gushing out of it faster than before; his skin was becoming paler, and his face seemed to grow very thin.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to take a closer look at the poor man — I was electrocuted again, and I saw the same hill and castle. Are both artifacts at the same place? I wondered.
Another electric shock. I was hoping to see the same desert city, but was shown a tropical island instead. I flew over the uninhabited beauty, and then the image zoomed at the sandbar, where a giant, black Sea Serpent was basking in the sun.
I heard a strained cough, and the picture disappeared. I winced, shifting my gaze at Bouyon, who let out his final breath. During the ritual, he got distinctively thinner and he now looked like a skeleton covered with pallid skin. The entire floor of the cell was covered with fresh blood. Tiara’s and my clothes were also covered with it.
“Will you now explain to me what all of this was about?” the duke demanded. I turned around and looked at him. He was glaring at Tiara.
“Father,” she said. “My husband turned out to be a worthy man. He managed to escape his fate, and then the Great One reached to us. She showed us another way.”
“Another?” The duke raised his brow. “And was it Mavia who ordered you to lure in this...” Nodding in my direction, he stuttered, trying to find the right words. “Gloomy minion of Rugus’s?”
“Father,” Tiara said strictly. “He’s my husband. By showing disrespect to him, you’re showing disrespect to your own daughter, and thus to yourself.”
“Tiara, how dare you?!” Corry roared, but the duke gestured him to remain silent.
“Let it be so,” he said, not looking in my direction. “So, you’re not going to sacrifice my son-in-law?”
“I’m not,” Tiara nodded with restraint.
“I saw the blood stain.” The duke screwed his face. “So, you’re officially wedded now?”
“Yes,” Tiara repeated. The duke screwed his face even more and gritted his teeth.
“And you brought him here... Would I be wrong to assume that you’ve conducted some sort of a searching ritual?”
“You wouldn’t.”
“So you, my son-in-law,” I was finally honored to be looked at, “know where the rest of the Parts and the Shard are?”
“I do, Mister De Bleit,” I answered. “As soon as you decide that I’m worthy of your time, I’d like to discuss something with you. I’m sure it’ll be interesting for you to hear me out.”
The duke’s face contorted with rage. It was definitely unpleasant for him to talk to me. I doubted that it was because I wasn’t an aristocrat, but because I was safe and sound, instead of having been turned into a weapon that could be used.
He obviously felt sorry for his daughter, although Tiara didn’t seem to be against our marriage.
I couldn’t help but notice that he didn’t know how to treat me. I doubted that Gods told their Followers about the Ancient and their Followers. These people didn’t know about the Ancient, which is was why Caer called me Rugus’s minion — Guer-Shui didn’t tell his Disciple too much, unlike Mav
ia. Remembering what Tiara said, I was sure that she knew more than her father did.
There were so many thoughts in my head again. Nobody said a word while I pondered, and then the duke’s expression suddenly changed.
“All right, let’s go to my study,” he said, getting ahold of himself. Did he listen to his voice of reason or his God’s?
Chapter 16
The Offer
A small library — according to what was considered small by the “real world’s” standards — served the duke as his study. Though typography existed in this world, the amount of books in the library was pitiful. I was sure that Caer was secretly (or not so secretly) proud of his collection.
The duke took his seat at a massive wooden table coated with dark varnish. Tiara and I sat opposite his working place, in the armchairs with carved armrests, the seats and backs of which were upholstered in red velvet. We looked much tidier now than a few minutes ago.
When we walked out of the prison, a lackey had already been waiting for us; he sprayed our clothes with the same fir-scented agent the barber had used when he was preparing me for the wedding.
“So, my son-in-law, what did you want to discuss?” Caer asked, wetting his throat with wine that had just been brought in by the lackeys.
“Before we get to that,” I said, taking a sip of the burgundy liquid, “I’d like to clarify something.”
“Just don’t take too long,” Caer warned sharply. “Almost everyone in the castle knows that the ritual had failed. Corry won’t be able to handle the guests on his own for too long.”
“I understand,” I nodded. “Tell me, is Longera situated on the hills?”
The duke frowned in surprise, but quickly put on his feigned poker face again.
“Yes.”
“Thank you. Now,” I said and fell silent. For a couple of seconds I thought about how to express my thoughts. I decided to tell the truth. “I’m not a Follower of Rugus. My patron is his ally. Only in the broad sense of the word,” I added quickly, seeing that my companion’s face got dark with anger. “We take no part in the war. I came here to find out where to look for the next Part.”
“I see.” Caer scratched his gray cheek thoughtfully. “And who’s your patron?”
“Unfortunately, I can’t tell you that.” I spread my arms. “That’s a secret kept by the Gods. Maybe Guer-Shui will tell you — he knows who my patron is.”
The duke shifted his gaze to the picture hanging on the wall. It’d seem that he was watching the attack on a gray, three-towered castle, panted by an unknown to me artist, but if you looked closer, you’d see that he was deep in thought.
“Now, I have an offer for you,” I spoke again, making him turn back to me. He was ready to soak up any word that’d come out of my mouth, but I wasn’t sure if he’ll like my offer. “One Shard and one Part are in the castle of Leor IV in Longera.”
I fell silent again, appraising Caer’s and Tiara’s reactions. Tiara chuckled thoughtfully, but her father clenched his fists and lowered his head, eyes closed. The two of us sat in silence, assuming that he was talking to his patron.
“That so…?” he finally said. “It was to be expected... Rheingeit found out about your search and decided to protect himself as best as he could by ordering Leor to quickly find one of the Parts.”
“Father,” Tiara said in astonishment. “Were you talking with Guer-Shui just now? Those were his words, weren’t they?”
The duke chuckled for the first time since he became my lawful father-in-law.
“Yeah, the Great One is not the talkative type, but he had honored me with his attention for the second time already. Yes, it was he who told me that.” Caer turned to me. For a few seconds he was silent, but then he spoke quickly. “Some time ago, the Great One told me to keep an eye on the Followers of Rugus in the Lier County. He said that they’d have an artifact or even several parts of an artifact. He ordered me to get them. Do you understand what I’m talking about?”
“About Tsunter and the Iron Faced.” I nodded. “So Lade was really your man?”
“Yes. I made him spy on the vassal of my vassal. I can’t tell whether you know it or not, but in Longoria, the relationship between a lord and his vassal is pretty loose. It’s not like in, let’s say Oruel, where even the lowest ranked knight is loyal to his duke first, and only after that to the baron or the count he got his land from. You see? It so happens that here everyone decides for themselves who they’ll serve. On one hand, some people think that ‘the vassal of my vassal is not my vassal,’ but on the other, there were times when knights rebelled against their true masters on request of a more superior master.”
I listened to his every word and drew parallels with my old world. As far as I remembered from class and educational TV shows, “the vassal of my vassal isn’t my vassal” philosophy related to the feudal system that had been established in France. You could rule only over the people who pledged an oath to you, but not over their subordinates. Another version of this system, one going by the “the vassal of my vassal is my vassal” philosophy, had been established in England. Something similar to that was apparently being practiced in the Duchy of Oruel. But here, in Longoria, neither of these systems worked.
“So, Carl Tsunter,” my father-in-law continued, “was loyal to me and he followed my orders.”
“And that’s why the count of Lier didn’t dare to bring his baron down a peg when the latter took Ekheim...” I nodded, figuring out where he was going with this. “You gave him admonition?”
“Yes.”
“Your plan could’ve succeeded, but something that you couldn’t have foreseen happened.” I decided to let the duke see that I could think logically. “Einar appeared and made Tsunter his Disciple. Tsunter chose him instead of you. And so, doing his patron’s bidding, he brought the artifacts to the king, and not to you.” I looked him in the eyes and put my next words as mildly as I could. “If Guer-Shui had been more talkative, he might’ve told you that Lade should’ve been the one to pick up the Part.” The duke clenched his teeth and I realized that I made a mistake. “Though, it could be that he told you about that. You passed the order to Lade, who told Tsunter, but the latter didn’t obey, wishing to hand you the artifacts personally.” This time, I was sure that I hit the target. “In the beginning, your patron didn’t stress the importance of the order, so no one insisted on following it word for word. As the result, a Follower of another God touched the artifact, and their God felt it at once. Full of astonishment, they immediately came to our world.”
The duke didn’t answer. I glanced at Tiara, who nodded approvingly.
“I’ll continue, with your permission,” I said but didn’t wait for an answer. “Your patron started looking for the Part at the same time as Rugus. Guer-Shui now knows that I have a Part, but when the ritual failed, you didn’t try to capture me. Either you are sure that I won’t be able to run away from you, or…”
“Heh, my son-in-law,” Caer sighed and emptied his mug in one gulp. “Today’s a truly extraordinary day, or night, to be exact. I don’t remember how long ago I became a Disciple of the Great One, but only now have I realized what it really means to be a Disciple. You and I are talking, and he’s listening through me. He shows and explains. Even now, he’s explaining to me why he had been silent for so long. He’s the God of Balance. The ideal balance, according to him, doesn’t need to be directed. All the events in the world are striving to reach it. He wanted to believe that. He thought that if Rugus put Zurtarn back together, there would be no balance again. That’s why he wanted to stop him. He wanted it to be in the hands of those loyal to him. Even if a tiny part of Zurtarn is missing, the artifact is as useful as a piece of rock. He wanted to stop them, but everything changed too quickly. Decay got incredibly faster. Looking at it, he realized that he was going against his own principles. By trying to stop Rugus, he was actually preventing the world from reaching the balance. He’s not going to stand in the way anymore.”
> The duke fell silent. I spent some time reflecting on his words. He was an interesting character, this Guer-Shui, using fancy words to say that this whole affair was none of his business, and turn himself from an impassive coward into a thinker. Of course, I was exaggerating, but still.
“Thank you, Guer-Shui,” I bowed, looking the duke in the eyes. “Mister De Bleit, I think you have no reason to take part in the war. I’m sure that you’ll like my offer.”
The duke chuckled. “Maybe you could quit stalling and tell me what you have in mind already. Though, I think I know…”
“I’m sure that we’re on the same page,” I smiled broadly. “My offer is a simple one. Why don’t you make an alliance with the Duchy of Oruel, take all your allies, and attack Longera? You’ve some issues with the king, don’t you?”
Tiara quietly chuckled. The duke scowled at his daughter and shifted his heavy gaze to me. He thought for a long time. Neither of us rushed him.
“An alliance,” he repeated after a while. “Do you think that such a thing is possible?” he asked indifferently. It seemed to me that he knew the answer, but wanted to see what I’d say. Perhaps he needed a bit more time to think about it. Perhaps he really was interested in what I’d say. I didn’t know.
“Why not? Your war with the Followers of Rugus has lost its meaning. You have neither a Shard nor a Part. Of all the things that you have and that the God of Control needs, I can name only the roads in the Duchy of Oruel that allow you to get to the Free Beldera County, and then to the capital and the king’s castle. And…”
“My son-in-law,” Caer interrupted me, scratching his bald head. “You’re being a little too idealistic...” I didn’t have time to be surprised when he continued his thought. “Yes, the ruler of Oruel, Duke Zhalvin Cleuney, is a high level, so he’s bound to Rugus for the rest of his life and he’ll never betray him. It’s clear that he’ll carry out his patron’s will. Everything he does is for Rugus and in his name. But you shouldn’t forget about personal profit. While accomplishing his patron’s task, he could take by force nearby lands, joining them to the territory of his duchy. You’re right, Rugus probably doesn’t care about me and the Duchy of Urhon, but Cleuney doesn’t mind plundering in my domains.”
