Astra ground her teeth. “All of them?”
“Yours and one that retired,” Torneus said.
“Then that means your only active connection is dead,” Nathan said.
“Plausible deniability,” Sureev said.
“Yes.”
“I won’t ask what happened, but that sounds convenient.” Torneus shrugged. “I’m sure you can work out how the cascade happened.”
“Falmir wanted a large enough war to distract the Empire so it could invade. I stopped them at Gharrick Pass. Then I nearly achieved peace. So they triggered the cascade. Presumably, they’re also working with Tharban to agitate the Bastions here. Nurevia knew Gareth’s name, and he’s…” Nathan sighed. “Well, he tried to openly assassinate somebody in Aleich.”
“So what will you do?” Torneus asked.
Nathan stood, then walked to the exit. He banished his wards.
“What I’m already doing. It seems to be working well enough,” he said.
Then he left.
The Council summoned Nathan and Astra later that day. This time, there was nobody else present other than their guards. The chamber appeared eerily empty.
The councillors appeared to be grumpy, save for Veleria, whose face was a mask.
Nathan and Astra stood in the center. Sureev left when instructed.
Leaning forward, Veleria spoke softly, “After much deliberation, the Council has made its decision. Grand Marshal Astra, you are to be exiled.”
Astra tilted her head in confusion, her eyes widening. The faces of the guards stiffened, and their grips tightened on their weapons. But they didn’t look at Astra. Instead, they glared at the various councillors.
A pit formed in Nathan’s stomach. Was he about to witness another coup, days after stopping the first? Astra was a legend.
Or was this intentional? Nathan had no idea what was happening.
Despite that, he intervened and stepped forward.
“That’s a mistake,” he said.
“This does not concern you,” Veleria said.
“It does. Because I’ll claim Astra as my Champion the moment she leaves here,” Nathan said.
The dark elf in question turned and stared at him in shock.
“How dare you—” Ivo said, rising from his seat.
“Shut up,” Nathan snapped. “I killed the Bastion. If you punish Astra for it, then I’ll take her. But I don’t think you want that. She’s your legend. So why don’t we cut a deal?”
Ivo’s eyes bulged.
The young councillor, Dmitri, spoke up. “Alright.”
Everybody stared at him, including the guards.
Dmitri grinned. “It’ll be awhile before we can find a Bastion our legend can trust.” His eyes glittered, and Nathan suddenly realized what was going on. “Why don’t you hold on to her for the time being. In exchange, you won’t speak a word of what has happened here. The Spires will maintain its alliance with the Anfang Empire so long as you hold up your end of the bargain and help us defend our portals if necessary. She is our legend, after all.”
He winked.
“A fair deal, given the circumstances,” Doran grunted out.
Veleria nodded.
Nathan relaxed. This felt almost too easy. As if their intention had been to get Astra out of the Spires to begin with.
Out of reach of their current Bastions, that is. And it gave them a convenient excuse to support the Empire.
“Hold on, that’s not what we agreed,” Ivo said.
“Agreements change,” Doran said. “I feel that we’re done here.”
“We are. Until next we meet, Lord Nathan, Astra.” Veleria gave Astra a sad smile as her mask slipped.
One of the councillors, Laechrias, remained silent. He looked to the chamber entrance for a long moment, as if looking for someone.
The Council stood and left as one, taking their guards with them.
Nathan and Astra stood alone in the chamber, surrounded by the cold, unfeeling stone of the Spires.
Astra stared at the empty balconies in shock. For the first time that Nathan recalled, her green eyes looked lost. She clenched and unclenched her fists.
“Astra,” he called out, before placing a hand on her shoulder. She turned to face him, unshed tears shimmering in her eyes. “It’s time to go.”
Chapter 24
Nathan remembered his first meeting with Astra all too well.
She crossed with him during his first visit with Charlotte and the others, back in his original world. With one look of her piercing green eyes, she dismissed him.
“Weak,” she said, and strode off.
Gareth and Vala had chuckled, while Narime and Charlotte gave him sympathetic looks. Astra’s rebuke had been directed solely at Nathan. His younger self had done his best not to take it personally, but it had stung to have a living legend insult him.
He should have realized that having any attention paid to him at all was special.
During his next visit, he ended up sparring with her while Charlotte negotiated. The Council still refused to help with the Federation. The clock ticked away. Nathan passed the time in the training halls of the Jormun Spire.
At some point, Astra showed up and began to repeatedly floor him. It became a ritual of sorts. The moment she showed up, everybody cleared out, and she beat up on him. It pissed him off, but he learned a lot. Vala laughed from the sidelines.
“Why fight?” Astra asked him.
“Words,” he grunted out, trying to dodge her palm strike. She feinted and sent him sprawling with a knee.
“Why do you fight?” she corrected. For whatever reason, she got worse at talking the more time he spent with her. Wasn’t it usually the other way around with her type?
“You mean here? Against the demons? For Falmir? Philosophically?” he asked while lying on his back.
She kicked him in the ribs for being a smartass. He coughed up a lung, then did his best to use regenerative magic on himself. Once he recovered the ability to talk, he grabbed a cold drink and sat down.
His gaze landed on Vala, who was teaching a monogem Champion how to focus her gem ability better. Despite himself, he felt his gaze soften. How many years had he been with her? Even with his new Champions, and the affections of Nurevia and Ciana, he still cared deeply for her.
“Better. Strong eyes,” Astra said, smiling. “I get it.”
He looked back at her. “What? No, I fight to protect everyone. Vala is… well, she fights to protect me, and I protect her.”
Astra shook her head. “So young.”
Her comment annoyed him, so he sparred with her again. Naturally, she beat him up.
Time passed. He saw her from time to time. They never became close. But he talked with her often enough to understand her, even when she was being uncommunicative. The giddiness of being close to a living legend wore off, and he eventually found her bad habits and anti-social behavior more irritating than endearing.
Then everything went to hell. Narime killed Torneus. The Federation collapsed. Arcadia exploded in civil war. Messengers and demons tore across the eastern stretch of Doumahr.
Falmir and Trafaumh initiated their plans for mass evacuation and a defensive line along the Gharrick Mountains and the remains of the Anfang Empire. Charlotte returned home. Gareth became busy preparing defenses at Gharrick Pass.
Nathan’s job was to defend Forselle Valley. That also meant he needed to convince the Spires to evacuate. Millions of dark elves were in danger, to say nothing of dozens of powerful warriors. The Spires weren’t a fortress. Defending them was insanity.
“Our decision is final,” Veleria declared, and stormed off along with most of the council.
Dmitri remained behind, playing with his bejeweled hair. Nathan raised his hands, as if asking why.
“Our ancestors claimed this home with blood and anguish. They slaved in the mountains for thousands of years for the faeries,” Dmitri said, his genial demeanor missing. “This is our l
egacy, left to us by the goddess. Omria’s will granted us glory. Perhaps it is by her will that she takes it from us.”
“I don’t think the demons have anything to do with the goddess,” Nathan said.
“Perhaps. But my race was born here. I will not abandon our home. Good luck, Nathan. May Omria guide you.”
With those words, Dmitri left. The dark elves refused to abandon the Spires in the face of the incoming demonic horde.
That night, Nathan drank with Astra for the first time. He learned of her obscene alcohol tolerance. Nurevia loved vodka, but this was his first time drinking it straight.
“I don’t get it,” he growled. “This is insanity. You know how huge the horde is. You’ve fought Messengers. They’re obscenely strong, and getting stronger.”
Astra drained her glass and poured more. “This is home.”
“I know that, but… Can’t you find a new home?” He scratched his head. “If you’re dead, that’s it. I have Champions who lost their homes. But they have a future. You’ll lose yours. So will everybody else.”
She didn’t answer. Minutes passed in silence.
“Why do you fight?” she asked.
It took him a while to remember that she had asked him the same question months ago.
“To protect everyone,” he said resolutely. “My Champions. My princess. The people fleeing across the mountain range. The soldiers. All those people who will die.” His expression darkened. “All those people who shouldn’t have died.”
“Really?” Astra asked.
“Yes.”
She sighed and seemed to pause to think. “What about Vala?”
He stared at her. “She’s… Like I said, I’m fighting for everybody. Even for you.”
“Mmm.” Astra looked away. “You asked. This is home. I fight for it.”
He opened his mouth to argue, but she raised a hand. Her face screwed up in concentration, which he knew meant she wanted to say something longer.
“All of the people I fight for are buried here,” Astra said with a sad smile. “Generations of Champions I trained. Bastions I fought for. Councillors I hated. People who trusted me. I am Astra. Legend. This is home. My home.”
Nathan stared at her. Slowly, the truth crashed home in his head.
Astra had watched the rise and fall of countless generations of dark elves. To Nathan, Falmir was his home, but only because he had grown up there.
By contrast, Astra had buried several lifetimes worth of friends here. She didn’t speak of distant ancestors who bled for her sake. Only of her precious memories.
Nathan couldn’t understand. But he realized that was alright. He hadn’t lived Astra’s life. And she was old enough to make her own decisions.
The next day, the nightmare worsened. A cascade rippled through the Spires. A Messenger nearly broke through the portal in the mountains next to the Spires. A dozen dark elf Champions died and Astra’s Bastion had been killed. They had been reduced to a single Bastion now, in command of the valley binding stone.
Nathan had stopped the Messenger only by taking control of the binding stone in the mountains. The remaining dark elf Bastion rapidly took back control of as many Champions as possible, but he wasn’t strong enough for Astra. A trigem Champion was too much for him.
“Help me,” Astra asked Nathan once she cornered him.
He stared at her as her request slowly sunk in. Caravans of dark elves poured out of the city behind him. Although the military and Council remained, the close call with the Messenger had spooked the civilians. A general evacuation began.
“You’ll die,” Nathan said. “You can still leave.”
Astra didn’t repeat her words from the other night. Instead, she simply stared at him, her piercing green eyes pressing him to help.
“You have a chance to walk away,” he said. “You’re not a Champion. But if I claim you…”
She shook her head. “No.”
That sealed it for him. If Astra wouldn’t leave no matter what, he would honor her wishes. He conducted the gem reactivation ceremony. It was immensely difficult, given she was a trigem. The process exhausted him.
Once it was done, he topped up her opals. Her gems felt odd, but he didn’t pry.
“Astra, if you’re staying, I’ll—” he began to say.
She cupped his face in her hands and leaned forward.
“Become strong, Nathan,” she said. “Thank you.”
A small part of him understood what she meant. The rest of him ignored it, and he simply left. Astra watched him go with a gentle smile.
When the demons came, he defended Forselle Valley with everything he had. His defenses slowly wore down, and he knew his efforts were hopeless. He felt Astra’s gem constantly, as well as the invasions that struck at the Spires through the binding stone.
Then she vanished. His heart stopped. The world seemed to compress in on itself for an instant. His eyes turned to the mountains in the distance, where the shadows of the Spires could be faintly seen.
The air shattered with an explosion of purple and blue flames. More explosions rippled outward from the Spires. The earth rumbled, and parts of the mountainside fell away. The home of the dark elves became consumed in a magical detonation miles wide. Gusts of wind flattened the grass and whipped at Nathan’s face.
The Council of Aurelia had activated the final failsafe within the Spires. Everyone and everything within them was dead. The binding stones became inert. With their sacrifice, and that of Astra’s, the defense of the Gharrick Mountains held.
Nathan refused to let the history of his world repeat. Astra had given everything for him.
He had become strong, and he knew what he fought for. It wasn’t for everyone. It was for those he cared about. His Champions, Anna, Alice, the beastkin in his castle—the people who made up his day-to-day life.
Now, it was his turn to protect Astra.
She sat next to him in the carriage as they returned to Castle Forselburg. Sureev had lent him an extra carriage for the return trip, and Nathan used it to gain some privacy. Astra’s mental state concerned him. The last thing he needed was one of the other Champions causing problems.
Her eyes stared blankly at the seat opposite her.
“Do you want to talk?” Nathan asked her.
She stared up at him. Then she blinked. “Why?”
“Didn’t you want to talk to me? Or have I become boring now?”
“You’re not…” she trailed off. “It hurts.”
“I know.” He threw an arm around her. “But your home is still there. You’ll go back. That’s the important part, Astra. Nothing is forever, so long as you’re alive.”
“Can you kill me?” she asked him.
“No.”
“Liar.”
He grimaced. “I know that you can die, despite how strange your gem ability is. But I don’t know how.”
She poked his side. “How?”
“I’m from a world where everything ended. Falmir’s plot succeeded. Messengers destroyed the Empire, then the Federation and Arcadia. The Spires then activated the failsafe inside the council chambers, and vaporized everything in the vicinity,” he explained. “Not the most effective way to weaponize a binding stone, but nobody even knew it was possible until then.”
Her eyes bore into him. “I died.”
“Yes. Either from the explosion or something else before it. It’s possible your death is what triggered the failsafe.” He shrugged. “I wasn’t there, obviously.”
“You’re here,” she said, and poked him again.
“I… saw the end of it all. I came back.” He scratched the back of his head.
“Liar.”
She had him there.
“I’m not a Messenger. But their power is the only way to save Doumahr,” he said. “I’m not even sure there’s any difference between a Bastion and a Messenger. We’re all connected to binding stones in some way. If you’re right that my ascended magic feels like a Messenger, t
hen it only proves my point.”
The only reason Nathan felt confident telling Astra this was because she couldn’t pancake him at will. Her immortality remained, but her superstrength was muted.
Despite that, she didn’t appear to be angry.
“Makes sense,” she said.
“It does?” he asked.
“You know things. Your magic.” Astra looked him in the eyes. “I believe you.”
Oh, she was talking about how he traveled through worlds.
Astra’s eyes turned to the window. She stared at the passing landscape with a blank expression.
“Will you fight for me?” Nathan asked her.
“Yes,” she said.
“Sincerely?”
She laughed. “You are strong. Yes. Nurevia says your dick is big.”
“What if it’s not?”
“Then no.” Astra smirked at him.
He hit her and she laughed again.
Despite the jokes, shadows remained in her eyes.
“Did Omria give you your immortality?” Nathan asked.
Astra’s expression dimmed. She looked away.
“Not now,” she said sullenly.
Either Omria wasn’t the paragon of virtue her legends made her out to be, or that was a “no.” Nathan wondered if that was why she accepted him so easily. Astra knew things even he didn’t, even if she wouldn’t talk about them, so it was a big deal for her to trust a man who worked with Messengers.
Another day passed. Astra’s communication skills waned further, to the point where she barely said more than one word to anyone else. Fei and Ciana kept her company despite that, although Nathan noticed some furtive glances being thrown his way by the younger beastkin.
He made a note of that. Ciana had been openly horny lately, and it concerned him.
Narime curled up next to him, while Seraph paced in the distance.
“I think being away from her paperwork has driven her mad,” Nathan said.
“Don’t be mean,” Narime said, her tails batting him in the head. “She’s been arguing with me about everything you dumped on us.”
“Really?”
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