by John Bierce
“Did you really think you could silence me tha…” Bakori began to say through a nearby imp, but Sabae launched a blast of water from her flask right into its face. Not enough to knock it off the ceiling, but enough to make it splutter and shut up.
Enough to know it was an insult, not an attack.
The imps below shrieked, redoubling their efforts to get to them. Hugh’s spellbook was darting around in midair gleefully, knocking thrown imps out of the air.
To Hugh’s distress, however, imps had begun to pour up the walls and onto the ceiling from all sides. Some of the smaller imps were moving faster while crawling along the ceiling than the three of them were while running on it.
He just focused on the spellform and the running. Ignore the imps screeching above— below?— their heads. Ignore the fifteen foot demon taunting them. Ignore the fact that his spatial mana reservoir was most of the way empty. Ignore the rapidly constricting circle of imps rushing up the ceiling towards them. Ignore the way his spellform was…
No, Hugh decided, it was definitely not a good idea to ignore the way his spellform was degrading and falling apart in his mind’s eye.
Hugh desperately started designing a new levitation spellform to hold them on the ceiling, but it was like wading through mud. He could feel Bakori’s influence seeping into the spellform, like corrosive gas.
He was so focused on maintaining the failing spellform and constructing the new one that he didn’t even notice when Godrick’s hammer passed right in front of him, sweeping an attacking imp off the ceiling before it could get to Hugh.
He just barely managed to draw the final line of the spellform and start channeling mana to it in time. He felt a brief lurch upwards— or downwards— he supposed— as the first spellform collapsed and the second took over, but he recovered with hardly a stumble.
“Now, Godrick!” Sabae shouted, blasting several more imps off the roof.
Hugh really hoped his guess about the wards ahead of them were correct. The battle mages had established a cylindrical barrier surrounding the central spiral staircase, stretching from the floor to the ceiling. There were couple ways they could have done it. First, they could just have the ward spellforms describe the barrier as going up to the ceiling. It was the easiest and most reliable way to pull off a ward of that style, and Hugh was betting that they’d used it.
That would make it easy enough to pass, with Godrick on their side— he just needed to sculpt the stone of the ceiling ahead of them into an arch right along the ward line, and the ward should just recognize the top of the arch as the ceiling, letting them run straight through.
Of course, they also could have just defined a specific height for the ward, which would mean that raising an arch would do nothing, and they’d be stuck on the ceiling, running low on mana, with an army of imps about to descend— or ascend?— onto them.
Ahead of them, the stone started to shift and twist as Godrick began lifting the arch.
Which made for a perfect time for a massively obese imp to projectile vomit caustic bile ahead of them.
Hugh cursed as he and Godrick dodged around the patch of bile dripping up towards the floor. He really hoped the lost second or two wasn’t going to cost them.
Sabae, however, took a different approach.
She windjumped straight up to the floor. Hugh could feel the drain on his mana increase as she did so. She slammed into the obese imp, detonating her wind armor and releasing a burst of wind that send dozens of imps hurling outwards in a shockwave, crushing the obese imp against the floor.
One particularly heavy armored imp resisted the shockwave and tried to grab at Sabae as she fell back towards the ceiling. She twisted out of the way as she fell, spinning her wind armor back up.
A particularly inane thought ran through Hugh’s head— if he was going to spend much time upside down in the future, he should really develop an absolute, rather than relative, system of terminology for vertical directions and movement.
Hugh could feel the second levitation spellform failing as they approached the almost-completed arch. He frantically drew a third spellform in his mind’s eye as he maintained the second, and prepared to switch from his about empty spatial mana reservoir to his stellar mana reservoir.
He failed. Both the second and third levitation spellforms collapsed as his spatial mana ran out. He felt normal gravity reassert itself, and Hugh’s feet slipped out from above him as he started to plummet headfirst towards the floor.
Which was when Sabae jammed her shield against the ceiling and kicked Hugh and Godrick through the arch with a gust strike. The shield stuck to the ceiling kept her from flying backward.
Hugh and Godrick hurtled through the arch and crashed down onto the broad spiral staircase with bruising force.
Sabae gracefully jumped onto the inside curve of the upside down arch, then jumped onto the staircase. Hugh’s spellbook flew in behind her, chewing on an imp.
“Collapse the arch!” Sabae said to Godrick.
Godrick groaned, but the arch exploded out into the room, sending chunks of rock hammering into imps. Several imps on the ceiling that had been about to pass through the arch slammed into the reformed ward instead, and were sent tumbling back into the sea of imps.
Hugh could hear shouting from the battlemages below. He wasn’t sure if they were angry at them for going through the ward, or happy they’d made it through, but waiting around to find out probably wasn’t a good idea.
“Let’s go!” Sabae said.
Godrick and Hugh picked themselves up from where they were lying on the staircase with almost identical groans of pain, then followed Sabae up.
The last sight Hugh saw before ascending out of the circular hall was thousands of imps clinging upside-down on the ceiling, staring at him hatefully.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
The Council Broken
Sabae had warned Hugh and Godrick about how intimidating the council chamber was, but they still gaped in shock at the chamber’s agoraphobic grandeur.
Which meant they didn’t see the lightning bolt coming.
Sabae lunged for the lightning bolt, knowing she wouldn’t make it in time.
A long strip of spellform embroidered silk got there first instead. It burned up in the process, but completely blocked the lightning.
“Those are students, Dyne, not demons!” a familiar voice shouted.
Anders Vel Siraf.
Several councilors strode out from the circle of thrones in the center of the vast open space that was the council chamber. Sabae recognized Anders, Tarik, and Dyne Sul, the head of internal security for Skyhold.
While the councilors were bickering, Sabae confidently strode forward towards the circle of thrones, ignoring Hugh and Godrick’s whispered questions.
Before the bickering councilors even took note of them, she was already into the circle of thrones. She gestured at Hugh and Godrick to wait for her between two empty thrones. She came to a halt atop the massive, spellform enhanced seal in the center.
The plan wasn’t done yet, and Hugh and Godrick still had a part to play, but all Sabae could do was hope they pulled off their part of the plan correctly. If they didn’t…
Sabae cleared that thought out of her head. She just needed to focus on her end of things, and trust the other two.
The three councilors followed her into the ring of thrones, still arguing. Dyne demanded to know what the students thought they were doing here, but Sabae just ignored them.
Anders, catching on quickly, seated himself in his silk-draped throne. Tarik quickly followed, seating herself on her massive, undressed stone seat.
Dyne glared at Sabae for a moment longer, looking like they wanted to yell more, but one of the seated councilors— Rutliss the Red, Sabae noted with dislike— interrupted.
“Just sit down, Dyne. We’re in the middle of the biggest labyrinth breakout in Skyhold’s history and half the council is gone. Now’s no time to engage in petty games of pro
tocol,” Rutliss said.
“Now’s no time to indulge some apprentice with an overlarge ego, either!” snapped Dyne.
While the two of them argued, Sabae slowly turned, taking stock of the councilors that were there.
Headmaster Tarik. Probably not a traitor, but Sabae wasn’t quite willing to risk her life on that. She looked exhausted and stressed.
Anders Vel Siraf. Definitely a traitor, but it was an open question whether he was working with Bakori, or just selling out Skyhold out of greed. He looked genuinely curious at why she was here.
Abyla Ceutas. A strong chance of her being the traitor. She was glaring at Sabae like she’d like to attack her here and now. She probably did actually want to, most likely.
Rutliss the Red. A strong chance of him being the traitor as well. If Sabae was being honest with herself, it was hard to say whether she would rather Abyla or Rutliss be the traitor. He was still caught up in his silly argument with Dyne.
Yves Heliotrope. Staunch opponent of Kanderon’s on the council, in charge of the Skyhold docks. Almost certainly not a traitor, from what the Librarian Errant analysis claimed. Light, shadow, and force affinities. A particularly dangerous and versatile combination— her illusions could actually pack a punch.
Dyne Sul. Notoriously paranoid and foul tempered, Skyhold’s internal head of security was pretty conclusively not a traitor, but most people considered their appointment a serious mistake. Sabae couldn’t say she disagreed. Dyne had lightning, venom, and gravity attunements. An odd combination, but one that had proven extremely effective in battle.
The instant Dyne and Rutliss’ argument ended, Sabae spoke up. She didn’t even wait for the two of them to finish seating themselves. Best to hold onto the initiative for as long as she could.
“Isn’t it strange that Jaskolskus would stir himself so suddenly?” Sabae asked the council. “That half of Skyhold’s council, including Kanderon herself, would be called away on Midsummer to put him back to sleep? On the day you can least afford to have half the council gone?”
“What do you know about Midsummer, girl?” Dyne snapped.
Sabae smirked at her, hoping it looked knowing and not like the bluff it was.
“I’m a Kaen Das,” she said. “That should tell you everything you need to know.”
Sabae actually had no idea what they were guarding up here, or why Midsummer was so important, but she knew it was important.
Abyla actually growled a little bit at that. “I bet your grandmother would have loved to have still been here for this. The old harridan would have loved the opportunity to seize a little more power in the chaos, wouldn’t she?”
“I, for one, would be happy to still have Ilinia Kaen Das here,” Rutliss said. Storms, he irritated Sabae. “Kanderon abdicated her duty dragging the others on the council to try and put Jaskolskus back to sleep during Midsummer. It left us vulnerable, and now Bakori is taking advantage of the chaos. The fact that thing is even still alive is just another of her failures coming back to bite us.”
Sabae couldn’t have asked for a better set-up.
“You have it backward,” she said. “Bakori isn’t taking advantage of Jaskolskus’ wakening, he set it up.”
That did the trick. The assembled immediately began erupting into shouting, arguing, and questions.
Sabae waited patiently for the councilors to settle down. Well, she at least tried to look patient. There was no telling how much longer the battle mages below could hold off Bakori.
She felt a momentary twinge of guilt at that— part of her still thought that she should be convincing the councilors to go help hold the stairs, to not sacrifice the mages below while they argued like children.
But if Sabae was right about what was going on— what had been going on all year, what Kanderon and Alustin had lied to them about, and what was about to happen— that would potentially risk everything.
She glanced over at Hugh and Godrick, who both nodded. Sabae tried not to sigh in relief at that.
“How,” Yves said, once order had been restored, “could Bakori have possibly arranged that, child? Up until today, he’s been trapped in the depths of the labyrinth for centuries. He’s powerful, but his influence can’t reach all the way out of Skyhold and across half a hundred leagues of mountains.”
“It doesn’t have to reach past Skyhold,” Sabae said. “Bakori is a schemer, a manipulator. He prefers to send others to do his work for him. And I’m not talking about his brood right now.”
“What are you saying, girl?” Dyne asked.
“That seems obvious,” Yves said. “She’s saying there’s a traitor in Skyhold.”
The councilors grew quiet at that.
“Not just in Skyhold,” Sabae said. “On this council.”
You could have heard a pin drop in the resulting silence. Sabae surreptitiously checked to make sure she was exactly centered on the great seal.
“That’s a serious accusation,” Anders said. Sabae had to admire his cool. “Do you have any evidence?”
Sabae forced herself to smile at that.
“Even better. One of you has evidence that outs the traitor, and they haven’t even realized it,” Sabae said.
She could see a drop of sweat running down Anders’ face, though it remained impassive.
Tarik was remaining silent, Sabae noted.
“Rutliss, when we last spoke you mentioned that Kanderon had already broken quite a few rules for Hugh, didn’t you?”
Rutliss nodded.
“Why would Kanderon violate rules she helped establish for some backwoods rube?” Dyne demanded. “I can’t stand her, but I’ve got to respect her for being even more of a stickler for the rules than I am, and almost as much as Tarik.”
“She has a warlock pact with him,” Rutliss said, with visible relish.
Hugh shifted uncomfortably under the sudden attention of the council.
Rutliss shot Hugh a nasty look. “She smuggled him into the school without paying Hugh’s entry fee, to keep anyone from realizing her connection to him. She was forced to disclose her pact with him to the academic council after the incident in the labyrinth last year. I tracked down the discrepancies in the paperwork myself.”
“And you haven’t reported this to the council why?” Dyne asked with irritation.
“I was waiting for an opportune moment,” Rutliss said. “Kanderon is too entrenched in Skyhold for an accusation like that to matter if brought out carelessly.”
Sabae snorted. “You weren’t waiting, you just didn’t have definitive proof that Kanderon was responsible for the discrepancy, no matter how hard you looked. And that’s because Kanderon wasn’t the one to alter the paperwork. I doubt Kanderon even looks over the initial test results for applicants when they arrive. You’re right that someone broke the rules getting Hugh in for the purposes of pacting with him— the size of his mana reservoirs are going to make him attractive to any entity looking to pact with a warlock— but it wasn’t Kanderon.”
Sabae stared directly at Rutliss. “You were told this last year, and you didn’t listen. You know who else wanted to pact with Hugh before Kanderon did, and you didn’t think the implications through in the slightest.”
“Bakori,” Anders said quietly.
“Bakori,” Sabae agreed. “And who on the council looks through the new admissions first? Who is positioned perfectly to look out for prospective warlock candidates for Bakori?”
Abyla chose that exact moment to release the magma she’d been brewing up beneath the surface of the council chamber.
Straight at Sabae.
Well, at everyone else too, but Sabae was mostly concerned with the cresting wave of molten stone about to crash down on her.
Sabae had taken quite the risk, pointing the blame on Abyla. Their case against her was part speculation, part intuition, and only a little bit of evidence.
Ultimately, though, three things had convinced Sabae it was Abyla.
First, she didn’t
think that Bakori would be foolish enough to work with someone who was already selling Skyhold’s secrets, no matter how hard Alustin and Kanderon had tried to convince them of that. Too much of a risk of exposure there. So that ruled out Anders.
Second was the whole mess around Hugh’s enrollment. Abyla and Rutliss were the ones who had the best chance of altering those records. It wasn’t impossible that Tarik could have pulled it off, but she was also famously rigid and rule-following— even if Bakori had manipulated her, it was unlikely that he could have forced her to break Skyhold’s regulations.
The final clue also revolved around Hugh’s enrollment. It was convoluted enough that whoever was behind of it had to be aware of Bakori’s existence. Not just being subconsciously manipulated by him, but actively working with him.
And though Sabae wouldn’t ever rely on Rutliss’ virtues, she would absolutely rely on his flaws. His greed, his pride, and most importantly, his hatred for nonhumans.
There wasn’t a candle’s chance in a hurricane a human supremacist like Rutliss would knowingly work with a demon.
Sabae’s plan, Godrick reflected, had gone almost perfectly. Godrick had spent Sabae’s entire show in front of the council carving messages into the stone of Tarik’s throne for her to read, with her responding in kind in the stone beneath his feet.
Tarik hadn’t wanted to believe that Abyla was a traitor, but she’d agreed the evidence— which Godrick was presenting to her ahead of time— was at least compelling enough to warrant being ready to defend the council from assault by Abyla.
When Abyla had started brewing magma in the stone below them, Tarik had changed her tune fast. She wouldn’t have even noticed if she hadn’t been already on the alert— Abyla was somehow concealing the magma, most likely with spellforms built into her obsidian throne, since the magma stretched up to its base. It was enough to fool passive affinity senses, but not enough to fool Tarik actively looking.
The wards Hugh had constructed during Sabae’s conversation had only held for moments— Abyla’s magma might be fluid, but it was no lighter than the rocks it was melted from— but those moments had been enough. Tarik and Godrick threw their magic against Abyla’s, and Hugh threw his against the remaining minerals in the magma that hadn’t melted yet.
