Heretic Spellblade 5, page 2
“I expected Anna to stay behind,” Nathan said quietly, watching Baudelaire and Gorthal as they struck up small talk.
“She left with Grandpa Milgar. Even though we’re not holding any post-funeral events, there are still many nobles to assuage. I’ll need to make it up to her later.” Alice winced at the reminder that she’d dumped a lot of work on Anna, who had known Leopold for many years.
“I suspect we’ll be busy as well.” He nodded his head at Baudelaire. “The funeral isn’t the only thing that’s been delayed. Trafaumh will only wait for so long.”
Nathan motioned to Fei, who then slipped away to talk to the nearby Royal Knights. They then separated, as if to form a pathway for Nathan, Alice, and the others to leave.
Accepting the gesture, he then began to leave with his entourage.
Mae spotted him leaving from her position behind Gorthal. Her mask was firmly in place, and she hurriedly trotted over to his side. Two dull gems sat in her collar and were a reminder of what she had once been.
“May I?” she said, looking back at Inquisitor Baudelaire and her retinue.
A bald young man with burn marks over one eye stared back at them. His name was Deverese, and his overdecorated uniform made it clear that he was a Bastion of Trafaumh. Nathan knew him well. The same went for his two Champions, Ester and Ysabelle, who stood behind him.
“Of course,” Nathan said.
There was good reason for Mae to stay close to him while Baudelaire was present. While she had once been Leopold’s closest Champion and lover, she had also been one of Baudelaire’s experiments. With Leopold’s death, Mae was effectively powerless and ripe for recapture.
Nathan refused to let that happen.
They left the cemetery. The Royal Knights would take care of Gorthal.
Outside, a pair of horseless black carriages trimmed with gold awaited them. Royal emblems encrusted the outsides and a small army of Royal Knights kept watch. They saluted as Nathan and Alice approached.
Several knights opened the doors and lowered stairs. They even placed carpets under the damn stairs. Nathan held back a grimace, but knew that this was something he needed to get used to.
He was now engaged to the Empress. Where before he had merely been an accomplished Bastion, now he was treated as royalty.
The carpets were a bit much, though. His boots were coated in dirt and muck from walking across the damp cemetery grounds all morning.
Alice stepped inside the carriage, but turned and stared at everyone from the doorway.
“I think you might need to make some decisions, Nathan,” she said, her voice straining to remain calm. He could hear laughter trying to bubble up from her chest.
Looking around, he knew what she meant. Ciana and Fyre now clung to both of his sides, which drew stares from the Royal Knights. They were under no illusions about his relations with the women around him, however. The slow swishing of their tails suggested these knights might be thinking other thoughts, even.
But Nathan’s other Champions were just as interested in joining him in the carriage. In particular, Fei was being held back by Sen. The busty catgirl writhed in the spellblade’s grip, but wasn’t trying that hard to escape. If Fei wanted to, she could send Sen flying.
Unlike the others, Sen didn’t have any gems. Instead, the thick streaks of white hair in her messy brown ponytail and red eyes indicated she was possessed by the spirit Ifrit. She wore a baggy black cloak over her ceremonial uniform, which hid her lithe, toned figure.
“I think others need to be with Nathan right now,” Sen told Fei.
“But I wanna,” Fei whined. “Ciana is with him all the time now.”
The unicorn in question pointedly ignored Fei’s accusation and angry gaze. Probably because it was true. Ciana clung to Nathan so much that she tended to scare off the palace servants.
“We’ll eat together for lunch once we’re back,” Nathan said.
“I thought you had to finalize deployments to most of Leopold’s and Maylis’s binding stones… former binding stones?” Alice grimaced at her own words.
“I do, but Fei has her own army of chefs anyway. I can work and watch her eat.”
“You’re supposed to look at your paperwork, not your overindulgent Champion,” Seraph drawled, crossing her arms. “But so long as she’s willing to eat in one of the nicer rooms and not make a mess, she can join in.”
Seraph wore an intricate black and gold cheongsam, with the wings of Omria embroidered across the entire garment. Unlike her usual attire, it covered far more of her olive skin and didn’t slip aside to reveal her long, luscious thighs.
It wasn’t the most formal of attire, but she’d mentioned that her preferred funeral attire was a stark white for cultural reasons. Seraph was from the Kurai peninsula, which had fallen to demonic invasion over twenty years ago.
A pair of jades were Seraph’s Champion gemstones. Of those present, Nathan considered her to be his second-in-command. He controlled the equivalent of six binding stones right now, and that number was about to grow rapidly. She helped administer his many fortresses and commanded his growing armies.
Nathan knew he needed to formalize her position, but had held off for his own reasons. Crazy ideas had been forming in his mind over the past several weeks as the new year approached.
“I don’t make a mess,” Fei mumbled.
Seraph shot her a look, and the catgirl winced. There were more than a few stains on expensive upholstery due to Fei’s clumsiness.
“Given the situation, I think it’s best if Fyre and Ciana sit with me,” Nathan said. “People will talk if the prophet appears to be avoiding the Empress. And I want Reine and Mae with us. That fills up the carriage.”
Fyre tried not to preen at the news she could continue to cling to him. The eyes of the Royal Knights suggested they were growing increasingly suspicious of the interests of their almighty prophet.
Unsurprising, given Fyre hid her interest in Nathan less and less with each passing day. Omria wasn’t known for her chastity, fortunately. Nobody expected her prophet to avoid men, given the goddess was the reason polygamy was legal on most of Doumahr.
As Fyre, Mae, and Ciana boarded the carriage after Alice, a second masked figure stepped forward from the grouping of Champions. She wore a simple black dress and a formal headpiece with a black shroud covering her mask. Black wolf ears pricked up from long, messy black hair, and a bushy wolf’s tail swished back and forth behind her.
“How are you doing, Reine?” Nathan asked her, deliberately taking her arm.
Reine’s entire book seized when he touched her, but she quickly relaxed and allowed him to lead her to the carriage. The tails of the Royal Knights became substantially more active—many of them were wolfgirls themselves.
“I am fine,” Reine said, speaking in her actual voice. Her mask had a function to magically filter her voice, but she wasn’t using it. “It was less discomforting than I expected to be so close to so many people. But the mask helped.”
Until recently, Reine had lived in almost complete seclusion and secrecy. She was the Imperial Spymaster—even if she now insisted she was Nathan’s personal spymaster—and one of the most dangerous people in the Empire.
But the real reason she hid herself away was her eyes. Behind that mask were a pair of eyes engraved with the golden wings of Omria. Both Mae and Reine bore the divine eyes that Trafaumh had created with experiments. Reine’s eyes allowed her to scry anywhere on Doumahr, and even penetrate most magical wards.
Reine had been freed from Baudelaire’s grasp by Maylis when she was young, but Gorthal had kept her secret to preserve peace with Trafaumh.
Like with Mae, Nathan didn’t care if Baudelaire was pissy about Reine. He refused to force her into hiding for his own sake. But she still needed more time to grow used to the wider world.
Before stepping into the carriage, Nathan turned to face his other Champions. Other than Fei, Seraph, and Sen, there was a single dark elf among them. Nurevia had remained quiet all day, but he knew that was out of respect.
Nathan had originally come from an alternate Doumahr—one where demonic invaders destroyed almost the entire world. In that world, Nurevia had never shown respect for any fallen Bastion. She’d strongly disliked Nathan’s friends and mentors, and admonished him for getting attached.
So seeing her wear conservative clothing for once was a shock to him. Either Leopold was truly that great of a Bastion, or Nurevia had truly changed compared to the version that Nathan knew. The latter possibility troubled him, as he’d taken Nurevia’s personality for granted since reuniting with her.
A few Champions were missing from the group. Narime was assisting with problems in the Amica Duchies to the east, and Astra had returned to the Aurelian Spires to explain the events of the civil war. Sunstorm had elected to remain in the palace, as funerals weren’t really her thing.
“I’ll see you all back at the palace,” Nathan told his Champions, looking pointedly at Fei.
Her ears drooped, but she nodded and stuck her tongue out. At least she was able to lift the mood after such a miserable morning.
Once inside, the carriages took off, driven by magical engines. Nathan sat opposite Alice, and between Fyre and Ciana. Reine removed her mask with a look of relief while Mae left hers on.
Immediately, Fyre said, “Did we have to bury Maylis at the same time as Leopold? She betrayed us.”
Grimaces crossed everyone’s faces.
“It was Grandpa’s choice,” Alice said. “Leopold might have been his oldest friend, but Maylis had always been close to him. I think he blames himself for what she did.”
“He shouldn’t,” Nathan said flatly. “The Maylis we defeated wasn’t the one that everyone remembered. We don’t know how long that succubus, Beatrice, was damaging her mind. Aleich can remember the Bastion who defended it for over twenty years, not the twisted ruin we put out of its misery.”
The others nodded, but Fyre seemed put out more than anything else. The massive ceremonial sword in her hand wavered in her grip.
“But because of her…” she mumbled.
Nathan shot her a sharp look. “Whatever you think of Maylis, I want you to keep it to yourself. You’re not just my Champion, Fyre. You’re the prophet of the goddess. Your words will shake the foundation of the world and can’t be said lightly.”
She winced and abruptly clung to Nathan’s arm. Her sword fell down, causing Alice to squawk in surprise. Ciana snapped it up, then froze in shock.
“Ciana?” he asked her.
“I’m fine.” The unicorn knight seemed to shake her entire body loose. “My entire body felt strange when I touched it.”
“It’s a remnant of Omria,” Fyre said, trying to regain her composure and scowling at the sword. “Supposedly. It feels alien to me, and I know I have her power. But… she doesn’t tell me anything.”
To everyone else, that mysterious “she” would be interpreted as Omria herself. Fyre had direct access to her power and claimed to speak to her.
The truth was more complicated. Fyre and Nathan shared a mutual friend and mental parasite, a succubus known as Kadria, who had brought Nathan to this world after his was effectively destroyed. Her aid had allowed Fyre to claim Omria’s power, despite an attempt by the supposed goddess to claim it herself.
“That’s because it’s a relic, not a true remnant,” Nathan said, glaring at the sword. “While Trafaumh claims they’re ancient hand-me-downs from the goddess, they’re a product of their experiments. Baudelaire stopped creating them when she took control of the Inquisition, but there are enough floating around.”
“What sort of experiments?” Alice asked.
“The sort that involves sacrifices,” Mae said. “They create our eyes with the same process.”
“Which is…?”
Mae looked at Nathan, who scowled.
“Officially, nobody is supposed to know. Trafaumh guards its secrets ruthlessly,” he said. “But you’re the Empress now and I guarantee Gorthal knew.”
Alice nodded. “If it’s so secretive that Trafaumh would act against the prophet, it must be abhorrent.”
“That depends on how desperate you are,” Nathan said, feeling tired suddenly. “But there’s only one source of the goddess’s power on Doumahr. Or was.” He looked at Fyre, who puffed up in pride. “Champions. Gems draw on power from binding stones, and that bleeds into their bodies over the years. That’s why they can never go back to being normal people. The power transforms them.”
A chill fell over the carriage, and Reine closed her eyes. Fyre’s jaw dropped.
“They… they harvest Champions?” she asked.
“Yes. I’m certain that’s why Baudelaire stopped creating relics. She would have run out of Champions and started weakening their defenses if she tried to create both relics and divine eyes.” He sighed. “Until Mae revealed her eyes, and that she was an older experiment, I hadn’t known how long Baudelaire had been at work.”
Fyre’s eyes grew fierce as she looked at Reine, and there was a mixed sense of protectiveness and fury in them. Nathan knew that he needed to be careful about how much he told her about Trafaumh’s experiments.
That was likely why Kadria hadn’t told her how relics were created. Fyre reacted on emotion. As useful as that was for her firebrand tendencies, she could and would destroy alliances and start wars. Fortunately, her obsession with Nathan kept her in check. Mostly.
Their trip back to the palace was uneventful. They pulled up outside the central building in the complex and stepped out.
Unlike Trafaumh’s relics, the Imperial Palace of Aleich was a genuine artifact of Omria. The palace was a gargantuan mass of stone spires and stained glass, with double doors so large they were driven by mechanized levers.
Other buildings stood nearby in the palatial complex. The largest were those dedicated to the colleges of the Imperial Diet, who usually met without the presence of the Empress. Barracks and smaller buildings for the servants hid in the shadows of the grander structures.
But only the central palace itself held Omria’s power. Nathan controlled it, and it granted him the same power as one of his binding stones—the ability to manipulate reality and channel vast amounts of magic from the world itself.
During the civil war, an alternate prophet of Falmir attempted to steal the palace’s power. Her name was Charlotte, the former princess of the Kingdom of Falmir. Nathan had cared deeply for her in his original world, but he didn’t know the woman who claimed to be a prophet.
As they stepped inside the open doors of the palace, Nathan noticed that the knights had relaxed significantly over the past few weeks. The outer walls of the complex still bore signs of the war, however. Fyre and Maylis had torn chunks from them in battle. Scaffolding covered the wounds, and laborers were hard at work repairing the stonework with the aid of mages.
Nathan scowled as he entered the grand hall of the palace. The multi-level hall was nearly empty, save for a handful of servants and knights.
And a small retinue accompanying a particularly frustrating thorn in his and Alice’s side, standing in front of the throne at the far end of the hall.
An extravagantly dressed man raised his hands in greeting. “Lord Nathan, Empress Alice, I’m glad I could catch you here.”
He looked maybe a decade older than Nathan, but his wife couldn’t have been older than Fei. His clothes were the same black as other funeral goers, but had the gold trim restricted to members of the royal family. None of his retinue, including his wife, wore that gold. Twin emblems were woven into his breast.
This man could wear gold because he was, technically, a royal. The Anfang Empire had millennia of history and was Omria’s chosen nation, so ancient noble families thought very highly of themselves. The von Salms family held an archduchy that covered much of the northwest of the Empire, and considered themselves to be just as powerful and important as the Empress.
Of course, in Nathan’s eyes, the man was a traitor. He was the son of a man who had started the civil war, and had actively supported the Nationalist rebels even after Nathan defeated them outside Aleich.
“Shouldn’t you be with the others, Otto?” Alice asked, neatly slipping next to Nathan as Ciana stepped aside.
As much as his Champions desired to be close to him, almost all of them hated politics. Even Fyre shied away, which enabled Seraph to stand immediately behind Nathan’s left shoulder. They all stopped a good two dozen feet away from Otto and his retinue. Nathan noticed a pair of monogem Champions, but they refused to meet his eyes.
Otto’s expression flickered with annoyance at Alice’s familiar greeting, but he swiftly recovered. “It was a touching ceremony, but there is pressing business to be finished. I believe it’s time we truly put the trouble behind us all, and make a decision about the future of the archduchies. War is on the horizon, and I need the support of the Empress if I’m to represent my people.”
CHAPTER 2
Of course that was why Otto was here. He had been hounding Alice since he arrived in Aleich last week. While he had inherited the archduchy, the entire point of the civil war had been so that Alice could change the constitution and the ancient rules that had caused it.
It would be trivial for her to take the land off a rebellious archduke. As reality set in for the rebel nobles, many had flocked to Aleich to appeal to Alice.
Nathan had heard more lies in the past week than he had in his life. And that was saying a lot, given the company he had kept in his original world.
“You’ve inherited your father’s title and land, Otto,” Alice said with a guarded expression. “While many things have changed in the new constitution, I haven’t been granted the right to rip away the rights of nobles at will. Even our beloved prophet lacks that power.”
Otto’s eyes wandered over to Fyre, who was standing off to the side. Unlike several of Nathan’s Champions, she was at least paying attention. But Nathan suspected that her interest was curtailed by her lack of ability to do what Alice just spoke of.
