Heretic Spellblade 5, page 38
“Alice, I received some advice that taking beastkin Champions with you might cause a stir,” he said, stretching the meaning of Dominic’s words a little. “But you know politics better than I do. Who do you want to protect you? And you need at least one trigem.”
Before Alice could answer, Sen waved an arm. Sunstorm nudged her friend in the side, but was ignored.
“Uh, is it fine if Choe and I are excluded?” Sen asked. “I have a letter of recommendation from Harrum for the local Sorcerer’s Lodge, and I plan to keep Choe out of trouble.”
“Out of trouble?” Sunstorm bared her teeth at her friend.
“A letter of recommendation? Are you defecting, Sen?” Narime asked, amused.
Sen winced. “Uh, I think that’s what it is? Harrum said it should give me access to their facilities, including the library and workshop. After Siv, I don’t want to waste a second I can spend training.”
Nathan kept his expression neutral. Even though he planned to gem Sen, this meant she had no intentions of slowing down with her plans.
“Nathan?”
“Fine,” he said. “Choe, keep Sen out of trouble.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t be doing much until my lungs stop burning every time I take a deep breath,” Sunstorm said, grimacing.
Alice polished off her plate and pushed it away from herself. “In that case, I believe taking Astra and Ciana might be best.”
The unicorn knight shot Alice a look that suggested she had no intentions of leaving Nathan.
“Ciana,” he warned.
“I’m your bodyguard,” she protested. “What if somebody attacks you?”
“I’ll have—” he began to say.
“It’s fine, Nathan. Perhaps Seraph or Nurevia then?” Alice interrupted.
Seraph blinked, then shrugged. “I wouldn’t mind the change of pace. Seeing the inner workings of Trafaumh will be interesting, and helpful in the larger scheme of things.”
“Fyre, I expect you plan to preach,” he said.
She nodded, her earlier hesitation nowhere to be seen. “But I can spend time with you. Unless you have plans?”
On any other day, he’d ditch Fyre and her proselytizing, but this morning stuck in his thoughts.
“I do, but we have a long day ahead of us before the banquet. Plus, I suspect Falmir will show themselves around you if they plan to sabotage you,” he said. “Does anybody else have plans?”
Everyone shook their heads.
Their plans made, they arranged for carriages to take them into the city, and to escort Alice around. They traveled to an extravagant riverfront market, where Alice waved goodbye, and the knights hopped in the carriages while Nathan and his companions left.
The street buzzed with activity despite the early hour. The carriages vanished across the grand bridge that spanned the river, and Nathan found himself surrounded by a crowd.
But not quite. Nobody missed their uniforms or Fyre’s wings. No matter how claustrophobic he felt, the passersby never got too close.
“At least we’ll be able to spot any pickpockets,” Nurevia said. “Do they hate us or are they just scared?”
“We’re foreign soldiers with a bunch of beastkin. I imagine both, with a healthy serving of suspicion,” he said.
Fortunately, the street vendors and restaurants held no such biases. If anything, the metaphorical jingle of coin seemed to cause the merchants to salivate as they approached.
The vendors happily took Nathan’s money despite the wary eyes they shot at the beastkin with him. He forced Fei to take turns with the others after she gobbled down the food at a terrifying speed, and the vendors did their best to keep up with her.
After the first few stalls, she tried to wander off on her own, but quickly came back. “Nathan, they’re ignoring me.”
He frowned. The issue wasn’t money, as Fei carried her own stash of cash. Rather, it was Fei.
Fyre’s wings flared out once she understood the situation. His hand clamped down on her shoulder and she glared at him.
“Take Nurevia,” he told her.
Despite the grumbling of both women, they wandered off to the vendors with Ciana and Fei. This time, the vendors accepted the money. Whatever their opinion of dark elves, they weren’t willing to pick a fight with one.
While the others wandered along the riverfront, purchasing a variety of sweets and savory tweets, Nathan found a table at a small café. Narime and Reine sat down with him, and the staff swiftly brought out a platter of steaming baked goods and fresh butter.
“You can join them, Reine,” Nathan told the wolfgirl while buttering a croissant.
She shook her head. “I am happier here with you. But I do wish I had brought my mask. Too many stare at me.”
“You’re not hiding yourself away,” Narime chided. “This is your home. You should feel free to walk around it however you wish.”
“This isn’t my home.” Reine’s tail brushed against Nathan and he knew she was staring at him, even though her head didn’t turn. “But this is something I need to face.”
“All the more reason not to wear a mask. Force them to witness what they did to you.”
“They seem awfully good at staring past that which they do not wish to see.” Reine stared at the vendors serving the others. “Somehow, that feels ironic.”
Their conversation paused while the café staff brought out coffee for each of them, and Reine added plenty of sugar to her own cup. Her tail wagged as she sipped it.
“I did need to talk to you about something, Narime,” Nathan said. “Ciana, namely.”
Narime’s tails fanned out behind her, and she hid her expression behind her cup. “Oh?”
“I know you’ve sensed the same thing I have. I’m worried something is wrong with her, as she’s showing physical reactions to events around us,” he said.
“Physical,” she mused. “Why ask me?”
“Because if it’s physiological, then you’re the most likely person to know about it. You’ve been around the longest, and you’re the most knowledgeable.”
Her tails lowered and she smiled at him. “Well, I’m glad someone thinks so. These days, I can’t say I feel the same.”
“I believe you are overly harsh on yourself,” Reine said.
Before beginning the serious element of the conversation, Nathan protected them with wards. His experience in casting them allowed him to avoid using spell frames, which was useful to avoid raising suspicion.
Sure, he might get away with casting spells in public, but he attracted enough attention as is. Openly casting spells in public was a bridge too far. Nobody cared if his hands glowed for a few seconds, however.
In the distance, both Fyre and Ciana turned to look at him. He waved to them, and they waved back. A small crowd had begun building around them as they traveled farther along the street.
“I’m not sure if they’re being followed because Fyre is the prophet, or they’re interested in Fei’s bottomless stomach,” Nathan said.
“I’ve heard that some restaurants here challenge guests to eating challenges during the warmer months,” Narime said.
“Really? I know they have absurdly large banquets and fine dining here, but that’s a new one.”
He chalked that up to external influence, as Trafaumh typically favored style over quantity. If Fei managed to find such a place, the vendor would be eaten out of house and home.
Confident that nothing had gone wrong yet, he turned back to Narime. “I’ve spotted Ciana’s horn producing a dark glow over the past few months. Nobody else seems to react to it, except you. That tells me it’s likely magical, and I’m observing something due to my connection to her.”
“A glow…” Narime bit her lip. “You’re always so savvy about these matters. Yes, that matches what I had feared.”
“Which is?”
“Are you aware of what a bicorn is?”
“I know the vague idea of the myth. Ciana’s talked about them… recently… Fuck.” Nathan rubbed the bridge of his nose, while Narime shot him an amused look.
“I assume that is not a coincidence,” Reine said.
Narime rolled her eyes. “Never change, Reine.”
“I believe change is inevitable.”
“You’d think so, but I still haven’t gotten my seventh tail despite being due for years now. And Nathan remains his chiseled self.” Narime reached across the small table and brushed his cheek, then frowned at the stubble on it. “Were you truly so busy this morning that you couldn’t shave?”
“Yes. You try shaving when there are three women pushing and shoving at you in the shower.”
“I’ll pass,” she said. “We can skip the myth. Bicorns do exist, but they’re not the twin-horned beasts that unicorn beastkin believe they are. That’s why no evidence can be found.”
“Then what are they?” he asked, aware that he’d run out of coffee.
He raised his cup to flag a waitress, and one waved to him before ducking inside.
“You’re aware that beastkin contain magic within their bodies? It grants them strength, endurance, and exceptional physiques,” Narime explained.
Reine blinked and physically turned to face Narime. “I am unaware of the full details of this. I thought the magic within my body was produced as part of the experiment conducted on me. But it is natural?”
“Some of it is.” Narime’s tails rubbed against the front of Reine’s dress, causing the wolfgirl to gasp. “I suspect you would have competed with Fei given the same upbringing.”
“I fail to see how that is relevant.”
“Fei can only move the way she does because she’s beastkin,” Nathan said. “If we transplanted her chest onto Sunstorm, things would go much more poorly.”
“Don’t tell her that,” Narime said. “I’m certain that Sunstorm would take a larger chest in exchange for a third gem.”
That was news to him. He knew some of his Champions barely hid their jealousy over Fei’s curves, but that seemed extreme.
“Let’s move back to Ciana,” he said. “She has magic in her body like any beastkin. What does that have to do with this?”
“Everything. Each species of beastkin is different. Unicorns are horse beastkin, but with stronger magic potential. But that is driven by an underlying desire for purity. They’re skittish around men, but mate for life when they find their chosen partner. In fact, unicorns become more powerful the deeper their love.”
Nathan blinked and felt a dagger in his heart.
His old Ciana had given her life to protect him when Kadria had attacked. He’d always taken her devotion for granted and now wondered if that had hindered her.
“I see,” he said, masking his true emotions.
More coffee was delivered, and he used it to buy time to straighten out his emotions.
“So this darkness is… corruption of that purity?” He frowned. “I’ve noticed it occurs when I do… less than positive things, but it also appears when Ciana is interacting with other Champions.”
“Purity for unicorns isn’t just about men or sex,” Narime said. “So that would explain her behavior. I haven’t been able to understand what is happening to her myself, but you are around her more often. Something in those interactions is forcing Ciana against her nature as a unicorn.”
“How do I stop it?” he asked forcefully.
Narime gave him a harsh look. “You don’t. I know corruption sounds bad, but this is a natural process. Nobody else can see the darkness you see. If she were a magic-user, this would affect her affinities, but that doesn’t matter here. She loves you, Nathan. I don’t see that ever changing, whatever she’s going through.”
But something was wrong. At least he knew it shouldn’t harm Ciana.
“If you say it’s not harmful…”
“I am saying that.”
He nodded. “Then I’ll talk with her about it later. If it affects her magical aptitude, her gems may need retuning, and I’m certain it’s affecting her mental state.”
Narime agreed to that, and their topic of conversation shifted to something more pleasant. Namely, the progress her clan had made with Milgar recently.
Reine’s attention faded. Nathan suspected she was scrying on something with her eyes, and was proven correct soon enough.
“We are being watched,” she said abruptly, interrupting Narime mid-word.
“By?” The fox’s tails moved around and she looked up at the sky.
“A number of suspicious individuals. They arrived in a group a block away, in unmarked carriages, and split up. Several are watching us, but most have joined the crowd around Fyre.”
They looked over in the distance at the other Champions.
By now, Fyre had shifted from sight-seeing to proselytizing. She stood atop a decorative wall that ran along the riverside, her wings glowing as they stretched out behind her. Nathan couldn’t hear her, but knew the rough content.
There weren’t many beastkin slaves here, given the wealth. But those present scarcely hid their rapt attention, and more than a few stalls had been abandoned as the slave sought to hear Fyre more clearly. However, even the human crowd listened intently to Fyre’s every word.
“Have they heckled her yet?” Nathan asked, noticing a number of guards lingering nearby.
“No.” Reine hesitated. “I am unaware of how to point them out to you.”
“If somebody starts causing trouble, tell me if they’re part of that group. I’ll deal with them.”
Narime shot him a look. “We’re not the authorities here, Nathan.”
“Exactly. The guards are acting suspiciously. This is a set up. I guarantee that they’ll cause a ruckus, Fyre will respond with her usual fire and wit, and the moment somebody throws a punch out of religious fervor, the guards will claim she’s instigating a riot.” His expression darkened. “It’s a fairly simple tactic to remove rabble-rousers.”
In this case, it would trigger an international incident that would mar the entire visit. Whether the guards were acting on the orders of the noble running Soreaux or not didn’t matter. Baudelaire would need to intervene.
Not to mention the high possibility of a riot breaking out if the guards tried to seize a prophet. Even the Nationalists had stopped short of attacking Fyre in the lead-up to the civil war for that reason. Slaying a Champion preaching about Omria in the middle of a beastkin district would have turned Aleich into a war zone and allowed Gorthal to take drastic action.
“I don’t follow,” Narime said, her tails lowering.
He tapped the side of his head. “If Reine confirms that anyone troubling Fyre is part of a plot, I’ll shut them down with mental magic. The Twins aren’t here and we’re warded. If the guards intervene without good reason, then the inquisitorial spies lurking nearby will shut them down fast.”
Reine blinked, and her ears and tail shot bolt upright. “What? Where?”
“They’re the rowdy group in front of the mead hall.” He physically grabbed Reine’s head to stop her from reactively turning her head to face them. “Use your true eyes, Reine.”
Her face reddened. After several long seconds, she frowned.
“I do not feel your confidence,” she said.
“Trust me. I’ve been around them long enough. Once you spend enough time around the Inquisition, you get good at recognizing them. They have certain mannerisms, and spend a lot of time watching the same things we are. Also, all of them are packing weapons,” he explained.
“Weapons are relatively commonplace here,” she said. “Even in Aleich.”
“Trust me, Reine. I guarantee any of your agents would agree with me.”
She nodded. “Very well. I shall ask one of them later. They are more adept at reading social cues than I am.”
That meant she had a few agents in Soreaux. Hardly surprising.
Nathan expressed a similar lack of surprise when the troublemakers Reine identified began heckling Fyre. Before the crowd did much more than stir, he shut down each enemy agent with carefully applied mental magic.
While he hadn’t trained himself in how to manipulate minds like this, the experience he’d gained controlling Tharban granted him more than enough knowledge. Compared to the mind of a Bastion, these men and women were child’s play.
As such, Nathan kept his magic limited. He didn’t want to control them or destroy them. Rather, he simply redirected their thoughts and sent the troublemakers wandering in response to Fyre’s retorts. After the first few retreated, the rest panicked and fled.
The guards seemed confused, and a few moved on Fyre. For a few moments, Nathan feared the worst as the crowd surged in anger and the winged prophet glared down at the armored soldiers advancing on her.
“There they go,” Narime muttered, watching as a dozen inquisitorial soldiers leaped over decorative fences, swords bared and insignias flashing.
Nathan poked Fyre using mental magic so she didn’t do anything foolish, and she successfully corralled the crowd. Those guards that kept their wits about them fled, while the remaining troublemakers and guards went down under a flurry of magic blasts and heavy-handed strikes.
“Was there ever a chance that could have ended in violence?” Reine asked.
“That is violence,” he said drily. “And yes, I’d say so. The Inquisition only moved on the guards. We can only guess why, but if an all-out brawl broke out, they couldn’t have stopped the nobles from making hay from the incident. This just looks like regular corruption that they stamped out.”
If anything, Fyre stood to gain from it. She could weave this into her speech—and likely already was—about attempts to silence her, heretics, non-believers and such.
Given the Inquisition were picking fights with the nobility, Nathan doubted they minded Fyre doing the same. But he needed to confirm that this wouldn’t backfire. Somebody was stirring the pot against them and actively attempting to shut Fyre down.
“One of my agents has seized one of the strange men,” Reine said, interrupting his thoughts. “When we have a moment, I would like to take him into our custody. I imagine you or the Twins can ascertain more information.”
