Heretic Spellblade 3

by Robertson, K. D.

  “I don’t know. You seem pretty convinced about this.”

  “It’s…” she trailed off. “I don’t like how I need to hold back because I never have enough reserves in my gem to use my ability. But I like being powerful enough to win fights. I don’t want to be Seraph, but I do want at least a little bit of her…” Fei tilted her head. “I forget the word you use for being able to run really far.”

  “Endurance,” Ciana said helpfully. “You want some of Seraph’s endurance.”

  “Yeah, that.” Fei grinned happily.

  Nathan felt that a decision had been made.

  The four of them dug into the sandwiches that Ciana had prepared. Fei’s vanished in two bites, and she stared despondently at the still-hot griddle.

  Rolling his eyes, Nathan slapped down pork belly on half the black cooking surface, and cracked eggs on the other half. The horsegirls tore into the pull apart, revealing the rich cinnamon and apple filling.

  Nathan had been right. This was too much food. He wanted to lie down and take a nap. The eyes on him felt devious and lecherous, but he pushed onward. Ciana and Fyre nibbled away while he sipped at a canteen of coffee. Noise drifted from the castle as morning truly arrived and everybody drifted from their rooms.

  Feeling as though he needed to run ten laps around the castle to burn off all the excess energy in his body, Nathan got up and stretched. Eventually, he got sick of watching Fei demolish the food and dragged her up.

  “But there’s still more,” she choked out around a mouthful of fried egg.

  “Eat it after I ram this gem into you,” he growled.

  That came out wrong.

  Fei swallowed her food and cleaned herself off. Then she straightened up, brushed her long black hair over her shoulders, and presented her chest. Like all Champions, she had a small opening in her uniform over her collarbone for her gems to be inserted. The new one was going to be inserted on the opposite side of her current one.

  Just like last time, Nathan channeled magic from the binding stone. The sapphire exploded with brightness, nearly blinding him. Ciana and Fyre shielded their eyes, but continued to watch.

  Unlike last time, Fei remained calm and focused. She kept taking deep breaths throughout the ritual. Her eyes were clear and held his gaze.

  The gem slid into her collarbone smoothly, with almost no resistance. It sat flush with her skin, gleaming from the sunlight beaming down on it.

  “Wow. That was really easy,” Fei said. She touched the gem.

  “There’s one more step,” he said.

  Then he dove into her mind.

  Nathan touched Fei’s mind more often than those of his other Champions. He topped her up far more often, after all. But this was the first time since her monogem ceremony that he’d gone past the initial layer.

  The tendrils of her mind gripped him as he drifted toward her core. The connection he had with Fei meant he didn’t need to fear her mental defenses anymore. The reaction was welcoming, rather than aggressive.

  No, he realized. It still was aggressive. Just aggressively sexual.

  Fei’s thoughts lingered on sexual memories of him. Rutting. A need to do fun things with him. Some interesting fantasies that he suspected Sen was responsible for. An image of Fei with a much larger belly.

  Nathan frowned. This had happened last time. For whatever reason, a lot of Fei’s emotions toward him seemed to be very sexual. He knew she felt much more for him. And that she had other thoughts inside her mind.

  He hovered at her core, which now had two satellites of his power hovering around it. Her mental world was indistinct and strange to describe. Something about these satellites reminded Nathan of something else that he’d been told about recently.

  Tendrils, he realized.

  Wasn’t this almost identical to how Kadria had described how the mental magic of the succubi worked? The Twins had a mental world and were now building a frontier fortress, and were leeching off Nathan’s mind in order to remain in this world.

  This felt similar. As if these satellites were Nathan’s frontier fortresses in Fei’s mind. They even prevented her mind from keeping him out.

  The realization bothered him. Was Bastion magic identical to that of Messengers? Was it all just a form of ascended magic, except he used a binding stone?

  Nathan gave up trying to puzzle out the answer on his own and moved on.

  He had a job to do. Fei’s thoughts and emotions regarding what she wanted from her ability filtered through him. He plucked out the ones from their earlier discussion, and confirmed that she hadn’t been lying to him.

  As expected, she really wanted to copy that stupid slash ability. But there was a grim realization underpinning Fei’s thoughts that she should choose something serious, and abandon her dream.

  She hadn’t been lying to him. At least, not as far as Nathan could tell. Which didn’t say much, given she’d tricked him about the sapphire in the last gemming ceremony.

  Ignoring that, he tuned the gem to the desired ability. It took much, much longer than he expected. Perhaps he had been overeager to give Fei such a strange ability for her second gem.

  But she never resisted him, and he never felt any pain or damage in the link. Her magical energies remained in balance. Slowly, he made progress tuning the gem.

  The issue was that he was subtly altering the first gem’s ability with the new gem. He had never done this before, but had discussed the theory with Leopold. Hopefully, it worked.

  Maybe Nathan should have tried this on a Champion less important than Fei first.

  When he retreated from her mind, he found Fei leaning against him. Almost fifteen minutes had passed, which was an eternity for a gemming ceremony. Ciana and Fyre stood next to him, on the verge of panic.

  “You’re alright?” Fyre asked. Then she calmed down. “Don’t do that to me.”

  Ciana gripped his arm tightly and said nothing, her eyes staring at his chest.

  Besides feeling tired, Fei was fine. Her gem ability still functioned properly, and they confirmed that it sucked up magic.

  “Wow. That felt like my gem ate something,” Fei said after she used a flame to eat Nathan’s fireball. “Like it grew a mouth and just chomped down on a big hunk of meat.”

  “Did it give you more or less energy than you used?” he asked.

  “Ummm.” She tilted her head. “I don’t know. I’m topped up. And having two gems makes it hard to tell how strong I am.”

  He sighed. Something to investigate later.

  “Fyre, you’re next,” he said.

  “Wow. I’m getting a third gem already?” she asked.

  “When did you get so cheeky?” he asked.

  She blushed and bounced over to the ritual circle he had prepared earlier. “I’m ready, my lord. You’re… finally going to make me yours.”

  That was more like the Fyre he knew.

  When he reached into her mind, he already knew something was wrong.

  For one thing, she didn’t lash out against him. Even Sunstorm had pushed back, and she trusted him implicitly after Kadria’s intervention.

  Instead, he slid right past the outer layer of her mind and drifted toward her core. This process involved severing the connection to her old Bastion and attaching new tethers to his mind.

  Her mind continued to ignore him. It didn’t caress him or press thoughts against him. Instead, it felt unnaturally still. Manicured, almost. Nathan drifted past thoughts and emotions, but he didn’t look at them.

  Something told him that doing so would be a mistake. He didn’t know why, but it was just a feeling.

  Her core looked normal, but felt wrong. He couldn’t feel the power in the tethers that led out of her mind.

  Nathan felt as though he was a figure in a diorama. He knew that everything was fake, but acknowledging this would cause everything to go horribly wrong.

  Did Fyre know ascended magic? Or had she simply found a way to construct powerful mental wards? If so, why did
n’t they protect her tethers? Nathan felt that he could sever those and reconnect them, as they seemed to be inert.

  Nathan felt at a crossroads. He wanted to confirm Fyre’s genuineness before he made her his Champion and let her in on the secret.

  But all of his senses told him that this was a trap. There was something wrong here.

  Something familiar, even.

  He assessed his options.

  If he tried to read her mind, then he risked triggering her mental defenses. He might be strong enough to withstand them. But if she was connected to a Messenger—or even worse, another succubus, then he might be attracting attention he didn’t want.

  That option was right out. He lacked evidence that she was connected to a Messenger—a quick scan using what little mental magic he knew showed no connections to her mind other than himself and the tethers he saw. But that didn’t prove anything.

  Nathan’s own mental world had tethers he couldn’t see, after all. Now that he knew mental magic, the parasitic tendril that the Twins had attached to his binding stone had become visible at all times. But Kadria had thousands of tiny tethers attached to him that were only visible when she was using her magic. He had only seen them once. Another succubus could be hiding tendrils like that in Fyre’s mind.

  The next option was to pull out and leave Fyre as is. But that would upset her. Fyre was an ally, and a very important one in the beastkin. He lacked a reason to annoy her, and doing so on the basis of a bad feeling was kind of stupid. With a civil war on the horizon, he needed her support.

  Finally, he could convert her to his Champion. But he needed to make it thorough. Something about these tethers bothered him. He needed to ensure that his connection wouldn’t be broken, even if a succubus had her hooks in the horsegirl. So long as he maintained a connection to Fyre, he could help her or deal with her if something went wrong.

  Nathan decided on that course of action by process of elimination. Very slowly, he severed the other tethers. They still appeared to be inert. Then he attached his own tethers to her core, forming a Champion connection.

  That should have been the end of it.

  For good measure, he set up a warning system in her mind. It wasn’t anything threatening. The warning system was fairly obvious, and supposed to tell him if anybody else intruded.

  He wanted to do more, but he lacked the knowledge. His training in mental magic was too limited. Most of his ability to form magical and mental tethers was limited to binding stones and leylines.

  But he knew someone who had experience in creating them.

  Fyre showed no awareness of Nathan’s suspicions. Instead, she was ecstatic about what he’d done. She and Fei celebrated, and tried to drag Nathan away for his “nap.” Which would likely involve very little napping and a lot of naked beastkin rubbing against him.

  Ciana was more restrained. She lacked a gem still.

  “Soon,” Nathan said as he ruffled her hair.

  She pouted at him. “You’re going to the Spires soon, aren’t you?”

  He hesitated. “I’ll bring your diamonds with me when I do.”

  She perked up. The implication that he’d take her to the Spires was clear.

  After they walked back to the castle, Nathan used some knights as an excuse to shake Fyre and Fei off. Fei needed to introduce the new Champion to her subordinates, and Fyre needed to settle in now that she was officially under him.

  Nathan had a succubus to talk to. The black door in the back of his office called to him.

  Chapter 16

  Kadria’s room was empty. Again.

  Nathan poked around in search of clues but came up empty-handed. The room didn’t even smell of her. Not that he remembered if the room ever smelled like her.

  The strange door of the Twins lingered in the corner. It was made of something called plastic, apparently. Nathan didn’t know what that was, and Kadria said he couldn’t make it with the technology of his world.

  He agreed with that conclusion. Despite his best efforts, he failed to understand what the plastic was made of. Creating things using the magic of the binding stone required a basic understanding of the elemental nature of an object.

  If Nathan didn’t know what gold was, then all he’d create was something that looked like gold. The same applied with the strange new elements he found inside the mental worlds of the Messengers. At least he had worked out how to create propane gas.

  Realizing he was stalling, Nathan decided to visit the Twins. Kadria was probably talking to them. Maybe she was lonely.

  Nothing had changed in this world, either. The fake sun streamed onto his face, and an eerily peaceful field greeted him.

  The Twins weren’t grilling food this time. Instead, they lazed on wooden chairs with strange glowing devices in their hands. Bright colors flashed in front of them, and they seemed engrossed by whatever was happening. They had changed back into their signature dresses, and were showing off as much cleavage as possible.

  No sign of Kadria.

  Nathan trotted over to them. “Is this what you do all day?”

  “Can’t use the portal still,” Laura chirped, not looking up. “You’re being really boring lately.”

  “Not what I meant,” he said. “Don’t you spy on what I’m doing? Or come up with plans? Or anything? I don’t know what you really do in here.”

  “Being a Messenger means doing a lot of nothing usually,” Maura said. She grunted as something happened on her device, and she unsummoned it with a flick of her wrist. “We’re not dumb mooks who charge in during the opening scene of the movie in order to show how powerful the heroes are. We destroy entire worlds and nations. Can’t do that every day.”

  Nathan felt pretty glad about that. Although their casual approach to death and destruction bothered him.

  “That means you can’t do anything while you’re here,” he said slowly.

  “Yeah, that’s right. I overheard the little goat tell you last time. We’re hitching a ride with you.” She pointed her fingers at him. “The upside is that we’re the closest Messengers to taking you for a nice, long ride. The downside is that we’re stuck with you until we break out of the portal and take control of other binding stones.”

  Nathan thought of the tendril attached to his binding stone.

  “In the end, the invasions are a battle over the binding stones,” he said.

  “Yeah, pretty much. Seems a bit juvenile when you put it that way.” Maura shrugged. “The goat would say something like ‘they are the nexus of power in this world, and our chaotic flows must be focused through them’ or some shit. But basically, we need to take them off you Bastions so we can have our fun. They’re our ticket into your world.”

  Maura’s impression of Kadria brought a smile to his face. He shook his head afterward.

  When he looked at her again, she frowned at him.

  “Where is the flat goat, anyway?” Maura asked.

  Laura looked up from her device. A moment later, she banished it.

  “Yeah, where is she? Did you come here looking for her?” the dumber sister asked.

  Or at least, Nathan imagined Laura as the dumber sister. Maura definitely seemed to know a lot more about what was going on than her sister.

  “I did. You don’t know where she is?” He clicked his tongue. “I didn’t think she could just vanish like that. She’s always been somewhere.”

  The succubi ignored him. Instead, they both rose from their seats. Lewd grins crossed their faces and he felt magic press against his mind.

  “Oh, don’t think about her,” Laura purred. Her voice echoed in his mind, as if she were somehow kissing it through his skull.

  “That’s right, the silly little goat isn’t here. We are. Think of what fun things we might do,” the other sister cooed.

  They stood in front of him, but their voices echoed around him, inside him, everywhere. Mental magic, naturally. They messed with his perception to make him hear and perceive things differently, a
nd to give their voices a seductive, ethereal edge. Strength began to leave his limbs.

  Ghostly fingers rubbed his prick, and it hardened instantly, pressing painfully against his pants. They giggled and stepped closer. Their hands lowered the tops of their dresses, revealing their obscenely huge tits.

  Close enough, Nathan decided.

  Instantly, he summoned a mass of magic from his binding stone.

  The entire world twisted forty-five degrees like a picture being torn by a child. The Twins screamed and jumped backward, but Nathan grabbed both of them by the shoulders. Their eyes widened, filling with fear.

  Their voices slipped out of his mind. He stood there, looking between the two terrified succubi.

  “I’m not very good at mental magic. But I am very good at casting wards, it seems,” he growled. “Do that again and we’ll find out how good I really am at mental magic.”

  They nodded several times, eyes wide.

  Laura slunk away and cowered in her chair, shoulders hunched.

  But Maura didn’t. She remained in his grasp, staring at him. Those demonic black and red eyes of hers stared into his. Slowly, they narrowed.

  “Damn, no wonder she’s after you,” Maura purred. “You came here to ask her something, right? Why don’t you get some help from real succubi, instead of an arrogant little goat.”

  He pointedly looked at their horns. The Twins each had two curly goat horns, and Kadria had four.

  “Yeah, fuck you. The horns are part of the whole succubus thing.” Maura poked his chest, then hefted her huge rack with her other arm. “I’m talking about these. Even that catgirl of yours doesn’t have ones as big as these.”

  “I’m pretty sure normal women don’t have breasts so large they shatter their spine with every step,” Nathan drawled.

  “They’re great, right?” Maura grinned. “One of the best parts of being a succubus is that you can reshape your body to some extent. It’s a pain in the ass, but it pays off. Dunno why the squirt looks like she does. Even if she does have an amazing ass.”