by C L Walker
“Why?” I said, but Bec had already left the bar and gone to welcome her guests.
I drained the bottle while I waited. If I was going to have to kill the king of the vampires like I’d killed the old king, then I wanted to be as drunk as possible before his blood washed over the tattoos and took away the option.
Chapter 23
“You said you wanted to turn the bar into a neutral space,” Bec said when she’d shown Artem and two of his men to the small room out back. “For meetings and things.”
“That was before getting wrapped up with Invehl and the heavens,” I replied. “That was before things went crazy. I also didn’t mean to do it while you had a bunch of people standing around listening to whatever this is supposed to be.”
“I think it’s music,” Roman said. I glared at him and he shut up.
“We’ll have to work with what we have,” Bec said. We were standing at the back of the bar and there wasn’t anyone nearby who could hear us. “Besides, I’m tired of vampires turning up here and yelling at me. I figured, since you’re here, maybe we could get some closure.”
I was too weak and too drunk to deal with politics, and too angry to sit and have a meeting. This was a bad idea and Bec was pissing me off just suggesting it. I had better things to do.
One of those better things was destroying another large heaven, though, so I kept my mouth shut and followed her out back.
“Hello again,” Bec said to Artem and his men.
The room wasn’t big enough for what was happening. A single bed took up most of one wall and the corner was lost to a desk with an old computer on it. That left Artem and his two bodyguards standing on one side of the room and Bec and I standing on the other, with about a foot of space between us.
It was uncomfortable, but more so for the vampires who were eyeing me like I might pounce at any moment. So that was good.
“I wasn’t expecting the crowd,” Artem said. His voice had changed and grown more cultured, with a vague European accent added for effect. Vampires never showed who they truly were, covering up their appearances and background with expert illusions. Since becoming king, Artem had chosen to be more like his predecessor, Jeremiah.
“Sorry,” Bec said.
“Live with it,” I added. We were talking to vampires, important ones at that, and weakness wasn’t a good thing. “This is what you get tonight. If this goes well then next time might be different.”
“I don’t think there’s going to be a next time,” Artem said. He bowed his head before speaking, an odd, old-fashioned sign of respect that I appreciated.
“Oh, come on,” Bec said. “This will be perfect for you guys. You get a place you can get angry and yell and hash things out, with no chance of anyone trying to kill anyone else.”
“Because your friend is here,” Artem said. “And he’ll kill anyone who steps out of line.”
“Exactly.” Bec sat on the bed, happy to crane her neck to look up at us. “We’re Switzerland, only with nukes.”
“It doesn’t matter, Rebecca,” Artem said. “You will never get the rebels here. Besides, I have another plan brewing that will crush them. I don’t need a safe space.”
I hadn’t wanted the meeting but if I was going to be forced into it anyway, I figured I might as well throw a wrench in Invehl’s plans for the city. It would annoy him, and that was about all I had in my arsenal at this point.
“You are being manipulated,” I said.
“How so?”
“Invehl is planning to unite you with the witches to crush the rebel vampires. Once that’s done he will drive a wedge between you to maximize the war to follow.”
“And Invehl is?”
“A god,” I replied. I said it plainly, as though he should know these things, but it was clear he didn’t. “He styles himself a god of war and he’s working to bring strife to the city. You are going to be his troops.”
“We have no plans to ally ourselves with the witches,” Artem said, though he looked a little worried, letting his illusion slip a little.
“Yes, you are. And if you’re not then the rebels are. I’ve seen the plans, with troop movements and skirmish locations laid out in advance. You will go to war and no matter who wins everyone will lose.”
“Gods,” one of the bodyguards said. His illusion lacked control and his true feelings were showing. “This is ludicrous.”
“Be quiet,” Artem snapped.
“These people are going to drive us out of this city and—”
I slapped him. He was close enough and even being mostly human I was still fast enough that he didn’t see it coming. He reacted quickly, baring fangs as his claws grew.
“Stand down,” Artem said. He had his hand out to stop the guard from pouncing.
“No,” I said calmly. “Let him do it. I’ll crush him like I crushed Jeremiah.”
“You shouldn’t have said that,” the guard said. His muscles tensed, ready to go.
“Think it through,” I said. I was walking a precarious line; I didn’t have the power to actually win a fight with a vampire, but they didn’t know that. “Could you have defeated your old king? If it came to a fight between you, would you have won? Because if not, then how do you think you’ll be able to beat me?”
He stayed where he was but his claws were still out. Artem didn’t look happy either; I had stopped his man from attacking when he couldn’t. It wouldn’t look good to his court that I had more strength than he did.
“I’ll have to think about this,” Artem said. He glanced back at his bodyguards, who were quietly seething and glaring at me, then looked back up at me. “You really messed things up in this city, you know that?”
“You were hunting me,” I replied. “I told you not to and you did it anyway.”
“You are responsible for what happens next.”
I didn’t like what he was saying and had every intention to explain that to him, but Bec stepped in before I could start yelling.
“Things have happened,” she said. “Bad things and good things. We can work together to fix our problems or we can all get into a pissing match. It’s your choice.”
Artem’s illusion was too perfect for me to see what he was thinking. He didn’t let anything through that he didn’t want me to notice. I waited for him to work out what he was going to say next, grateful to Bec for keeping me out of a fight I couldn’t win.
“There was a system in place,” Artem said at last. “It wasn’t perfect but it worked. You added unpredictability to the system and now it’s broken. I would like you to help restore it before people start getting hurt.”
“Your people are not my concern,” I said.
“Then why am I here? If you’re not going to help with more than a tiny room you call a safe space, then what good are you?”
I was letting things get off track, being sidetracked by petty arguing. I needed to focus on the goal, which was keeping Bec safe in ACDCs and messing with Invehl’s plan. Both were helped by playing nice with the vampires.
I was too drunk for this.
“Set up a meeting with the rebels and hold it here,” I said. “I will keep the peace and you will do the politics. Bring them back into the fold.”
“They won’t come to the meeting,” Artem said. “But I will see what I can do.”
“Let us know when you need the bar and we’ll make sure it’s empty.”
“Hey,” Bec started. She stopped when she saw the look on my face.
“I will let you know,” Artem continued. “Inform me if they come back and cause trouble.”
“We will.”
Artem bowed his head again before leaving. The bodyguard with his claws out spent another second thinking about attacking me, glaring and baring his fangs, before following his king out the door.
“That was fun,” Bec said.
“Next time, warn me I might have to fight a bunch of vampires, please.”
“As long as you promise to be here, I’ll put i
t in your diary.”
Roman walked in with an excited look on his face.
“I was listening,” he said. “Sorry. But it gave me an idea.”
“The only thing I want to hear is where the next drink is,” I said.
I tried to walk out but he didn’t move and there wasn’t enough space to go around him. I would have pushed him but he looked so happy, and he was supposed to be my friend. I didn’t think people pushed their friends around anymore.
“Fine,” I said. “What?”
“I think I know how to stop Invehl, if that helps.”
Chapter 24
I sat on the bed, forcing Bec to get up to avoid being crushed.
“Speak,” I said. The alcohol was leaving my system faster than I was putting more in, which meant pretty soon I’d have to be responsible. I wasn’t pleased.
“I checked the lore and I didn’t find anything about heartstones,” Roman began. He was in full lecture mode, gesticulating and raising his voice as he paced around the small space. “But I think I know what they are. Now, I could be wrong, but I think they are the original concept of the heaven.”
“I know,” I said. “They are the seed.”
“Alright. You could have told me that and saved me some time. Fine, they are the seed of the heaven. From what I’ve seen, angelic and divine power works the same as magic because they are, fundamentally, the same thing being used in different ways. Given these two pieces of information, I believe the heartstones would grant a god the faith of everyone within the heaven from which it came.”
He looked so pleased with himself. If I’d been a little less drunk I might have broken the news a little better.
“I know,” I said again, starting to feel bad. “It means Invehl can give himself millions or billions of followers without them actually being here.”
Roman stopped pacing and shot me a withering look. “You could have told me that, too. I spent hours coming up with this.”
“I was a little busy. Do you have anything else to share?”
“This idea comes from some old folklore, but it has parallels in modern magic. Imagine a well of pure energy, all of it aligned to one of the great powers.”
“You’ve lost me,” I said.
“Me too,” Bec added.
“Um…imagine magic comes in different flavors?”
“Chocolate magic,” Bec said. “Vanilla magic, toe jam magic.”
“Exactly. You have a tub of pure vanilla magic.” He mimed holding the tub as he began pacing again. “You’re ready to use your vanilla magic and you’ve set everything up in preparation for the vanilla magic. Now, if I put a drop of chocolate magic in there it throws off your plans. It messes with the recipe and things come out differently.”
“I still don’t get it,” I said. “You can taste magic?”
“It’s a metaphor,” he snapped. He took a deep breath and tried again. “So you’ve set everything up and as long as it’s all vanilla everything goes smoothly. But that drop of chocolate knocks things out of whack and everything grinds to a halt.”
“That’s really interesting,” I said. “More whiskey?”
“Dammit, listen. The best witches in the world are so good because they know how to blend the different…flavors of magic together. But if something differs from their plans, if the weave is off, then everything blows up in their faces.”
“Invehl is a god,” I said. “And I still don’t get it.”
“I think the gods are the same, only they do the work instinctively and with only one flavor. Witches combine the great powers but the gods don’t. Neither do their disciples. They use only the power of their own god.”
“Alright,” Bec said. She had her hand on my arm to keep me from interrupting again. I found the action surprisingly charming. “So what does this mean?”
“Invehl is powered by faith, and he’s aligning these heartstones to himself somehow. What if we gave him something he wasn’t expecting? What if we contaminated his divinity?”
I tried to wrap my muddled mind around what he was saying. I could see his plan through the murk, but it didn’t make a lot of sense to me.
“Explain,” I said.
“No,” Bec said, tightening her grip on my arm. “Just tell us what we have to do to pull this off.”
“Take him the heartstone of a hell.”
That sobered me up. I hadn’t considered if hells had heartstones, but it made sense that they would. They were also afterlives, and they also sprang from religions and gods on earth. If that were all true, why not a heartstone at the center as well?
“So we destroy a hell and feed Invehl the heartstone?” Bec said. Roman nodded vigorously. “And this messes with his flow? Kills him? Turns him even more evil? Or good, or something?”
“No idea,” Roman said.
“So it might do nothing at all?” Bec asked.
“Maybe.”
“And it might just piss him off?”
“Yup.”
They were chatting and I was still trying to work out why this was a plan, but there was a reason I had asked for Roman’s help and this was it. He was smarter than me and he knew more about the world I traveled in than I did. I had to try something and he had just given me something to try.
“Alright,” I said, putting a stop to their back and forth. “I’ll go destroy a hell and grab the heartstone.”
Roman’s face fell immediately and he sat heavily in the chair by the desk.
“What’s up, prof?” Bec said, putting her hand on his shoulder.
“I just realized what I’ve suggested.” He put his head in his hand. “Destroying a hell. Destroying all those souls.”
“They aren’t exactly enjoying themselves anyway,” Bec said.
“But still. All those lives.”
“Roman,” I said, putting a stop to whatever Bec was going to say to calm him down. I didn’t have the time. “When I leave here I’m going to go destroy another heaven. The souls there will die and they were enjoying themselves far more. Whether your plan works or not, the number of people hurt doesn’t change.”
“But…”
I knew what his problem was because he told me once before: now that he’d gotten involved, he felt whatever happened next was his fault. If I did what I had to do he would now feel the burden.
To me this was stupid, but I could see why it mattered to him. He was a good person and I wasn’t.
“You should prepare,” he said softly. “We don’t know what’s going to happen when you hand him the wrong heartstone. You’ll need to be ready for anything.”
All I needed it to do was confuse him or distract him. If it killed him, great, but that wasn’t necessary. I was done playing games with Erindis and I was done taking orders from Invehl. If this gave me an advantage then I was happy to take it.
I stood and approached Roman. He was biting his lip as he went over the ramifications of what he’d suggested.
“Hedge-mage,” I said. “This isn’t your fault. None of this is your fault, and even if it were the balance of lives is in your favor.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You helped me defeat Seng, and he would have caused a lot more carnage than we will to defeat Invehl. You have saved more lives than you will spend to win.”
“That’s…that…” He couldn’t get the words out and I didn’t see what was tripping him up.
“He doesn’t think rationally,” Bec said. She squeezed his arm. “He thinks emotionally, which we both know is wrong. But it makes him loveable, so we’ll forgive him.”
“That’s math,” he said. “Logic. It isn’t ethically sound.”
“I am not a professor,” I said. “I don’t have to be ethically sound.”
“It doesn’t bother you?” he asked.
I wanted to lie and say it didn’t. I wanted to hide my own anguish over what I was doing, but he was my friend and he deserved the truth. The annoying, human truth.
“It’s
driving me crazy,” I said. “But worse things are going to happen.”
“You could just let him hurt her.”
He knew he’d said the wrong thing right away. He looked down at the desk, at the computer monitor, at anything but the storm brewing on my face.
He’s my friend, I reminded myself. We don’t tear friends’ heads off because they said something irritating.
“You’re right,” I said. “I could let him hurt Erindis and then I wouldn’t have to do what I’m about to. But Erindis has ordered me to follow his orders.”
“You can ignore—”
“No, I can interpret, not ignore. I can interpret her words to mean I only need to listen to the most important orders so I can ignore the ones that have me followed around by soldiers. I can interpret her words to mean that I can come here and help with the vampires as long as I make Invehl happy. I can interpret away a lot of things, but there has to be something there and it’s going to be the most important thing.”
“You can’t just run away?” Roman looked like he was going to cry and I suddenly didn’t have time for him, friend or not.
“No. Even if it wasn’t Erindis. When Bec held the locket I went to hell to find her, because I had to. I can’t fight this curse in its entirety. Now, stop moping about this and let me get on with it.”
I pushed past them, breaking Bec’s hold on his arm as I re-entered the main room and grabbed a fresh bottle from the bar before leaving.
As I walked into the night I found myself clearer than I had been, more confident in the future. Simply having a plan, even if we didn’t know what was going to happen at the end of it, changed everything for me.
I had to recharge the tattoos and then I had to find a hell I was comfortable destroying. Then the fireworks began and whatever was going to happen happened.
Chapter 25
I walked into Invehl’s building and went straight to the elevator. The guards didn’t try and stop me and neither did the small group of people holding a meeting in the lobby. The guy waiting for the elevator doors to open didn’t join me inside.
