The Fortress was a patchwork of repeated efforts to use what little Red knew to combat a horrible illness. Formations covered every inch of the Fortress grown into the wood itself, flowing at random for use instead of reverence. With a flick of her finger, formations would bring water up from the depths of the Fortress. A few alterations from outlying formations would alter its temperature. In some rooms, the formation work was better than in others. Sections of the formations had been replaced several times as Red grew in skill.
Emily knew she should feel disdain when she traced her fingers over a formation to warm the water pouring from a faucet. To use formations, especially the Prophet’s law, in such a way was, if not heretical, highly frowned upon. If another interrogator or Prophet forbid an inquisitor saw this place, they would sanction them immediately. They would be on a one-way trip to the tribunal of high lords to be judged.
As it happened, if there was an inquisitor nearby, they were busy dealing with the demon’s invasion of the Barony and its neighbors. So locating the Baron and his family would be secondary to ridding the countryside of the demon infestation and ensuring faith in the Prophet remains strong. Well, that would be the case if not for the phenomenon outside.
Emily tossed some ground leaves in her cup, filled it with boiling water, and stirred them in with one of the many wooden spoons found in the Fortress’s kitchen. She took the implement out of her cooling cup of tea and inspected the tiny formations circling the utensil. Many of the formations escaped her.
Red had sacked the hidden caches of dozens of private sects. After amassing such a collection and building this place, he had used his time to pour over the confiscated knowledge and took notes. Emily couldn't guess what he had learned from so many different sources. But she knew it would be heretical and so best left to the imagination. They were under siege and far from the Prophet’s light. The scene outside couldn’t come from anywhere blessed.
She took a sip and tasted spiritual energy within the tea. Emily hadn’t tasted such refined herbs before and knew they must have grown in the land surrounding a haunted house. There were many spirit-rich herbs and produce in the Fortress’s larders. A door attached to the kitchen led to an underground room containing the most heresy she’d seen in one place.
Red had defied nature itself and played God. Oh, he didn’t have acolytes actively worshipping him and making a heartfelt sacrifice. Legions of rabid followers weren’t genociding villages in his name. Below formations carved in the floor, she stood upon poured their yield of captured sunlight. Water dripped down upon a field of spiritual herbs and produce at Red’s command. There were even temperature control formations that were particularly blasphemous. The herbs planted there seemed to grow at Red’s command beyond the limits of day and night. Even the season would have no hold over Red’s garden below. Still, that didn’t compare to the blasphemy outside.
“Why are they pulling the lions into the moat?” Washington asked.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Emily turned her gaze to see an annoyed Maddie Prescott. “They’re paying tribute to their liege lord. Even peasants know they have to respect their betters, so why wouldn’t these human spirits? I don’t see a beast among them, so all of them are orthodox. They also seem to hate the demons. It's too bad you already have a fire spirit. I’m sure these spirits are destined for heroes.” Maddie said.
“Spirits aren’t supposed to be this coordinated. Most hunt each other down to conserve resources. These spirits are pulling slain demon hosts into the moat. Only Lord-class spirits should be able to produce this behavior. At most, I see a few medium-class fire spirits.” Emily said.
This situation demanded investigations by powerful interrogators or up-and-coming inquisitors. From the black flames flowing through the moat calmer than the most tranquil pool, spirits of fire emerged and formed bodies of ash. But instead of fighting each other, they worked in tandem to gather the demon host corpses and return them to the moat. When other ashen gathered, these spirits fought them and gave the spirit cores collected to the flames in the moat. Some ashen shored up the outside of the trench building a high damn. Within the moat, Emily watched the lion carcasses burn slowly like charcoal. All the while, streams of fire qi flowed out from the moat into the world, drawing in the native ashen like flies to shit.
“First the King of Kings in Gemini hatches, then a demon suddenly becomes active, and now we have a moat of incredibly powerful fire pouring exceedingly pure fire qi. This will attract the nobility of the ashen hills.” Emily said.
“Of course, they will come to see if this Fortress belongs to a rival, peer, or a weakling. When they come, it will be in force, and we’ll either live or die. But who is the master of this Fortress? I don’t think it's you, and it certainly isn’t, father.” Maddie said.
“Why aren’t you spending time with your family? I’m sure the Baron would rather you remained close after the ordeal.” Emily deflected.
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“They are mourning my dearly departed little brother. Not that a fourth son really mattered much to father, but he’s putting on a show for mother.” Maddie said.
“What the hell happened to you, Maddie? Before, you weren’t like this. You were always so quiet and easy-going.” Washington said and approached the amber-eyed girl.
“Keep your distance, or I’ll have you flogged again. You’re lucky my brother likes you, or my father would have made an example of you.” Maddie said.
“I see this is about your arranged marriage. But, don’t worry, I’m growing stronger and learning under my teacher, the master of this Fortress. Under his guidance, I’ll quickly grow strong enough to duel that bastard.” Washington said.
“Go ahead, my Charles is the Duke of Duchy Sagittarius in the heart of Astral kingdom. He’s already in the great circle of the nascent realm and will soon cross into the Majority. Do you think this pitiful treehouse intimidates me or will mean a thing to a Duke?” Maddie said.
Emily raised an eyebrow. That was quite the leap from the daughter of a mere Baron to a wife of a Duke. She would be just one of many, and Maddie would be in a poor position with the desolation of her father’s Barony. Still, her sons would be landed knights, Lords, Barons, and Counts if any survived. Of course, that’s assuming any of them survived the sanctions of the Inquisition. If demons were on the rise after the birth of the king of kings and potentially an empire of ghosts, then the Inquisition would be spread thin. They would begin triage immediately and abandon the less valuable lands. While Terranor was rich in metals, its value paled in comparison to the northern lands of Castle County. The demon infestation in this Barony might have been ignored.
If that was the case, Maddie’s marriage prospects weren’t much better than Emily’s. Unless the contract was ironclad and overly in Maddie’s favor. Emily’s eyes widened. Maddie had just come back from certain death, and her rescue could have gone wrong. Was she in shock?
“With this armor and sword, I’m not worried. Destiny is on my side. I’ll be a hero unlike any other the world has ever seen.” Washington said.
Emily recalled seeing the boy running with Maddie in his arms and dropping her younger brother to distract the demon hosts. The Baron wanted the boy’s head, but Ser Brussel wouldn’t have it. They had too few people, and Washington had decided to save Maddie instead of the Baron’s son.
“I’m more likely to become a hero than you. All I need is a spirit, and I’ll quickly rise through the ranks in this place. Have you learned anything since coming here?” Maddie said.
“Hey, you wouldn’t be alive if not for me. Didn’t you see how teacher’s spears slew every lion in our path?” Washington said.
From what Emily remembered, Red had hit everything in range. The hostages had been marked as lost the second Red saw them. His goal was to interrupt the ritual and rob the demon of a powerful bounty of powerful emotions. The results of disrupting the ritual and slaying well over a thousand demon hosts lay in the moat.
Fire flowed like water-filled to bursting heavy with qi. Black crystals with orange centers grew like sharp parodies of flowers from the center of the moat. Spirits of fire turned into the ashen and toiled away, dragging more fuel for the moat. Purer streams of fire qi spewed into the air; some of it was cultivated by the ashen, some of it collected into crystals, and the lion’s share poured into the environment. The fire qi of the ashen hills had grown in purity with the creation of the black fire-filled moat. When something like this happened, inquisitors showed up to investigate for a reason. A place like the ashen hills may turn from a ghostly earldom to expand into a dukedom. When the average spirit in an area grows stronger, they lock in qi and transform an area. As a result, more spirits can exist in an area, meaning more lord class spirits can appear.
Of course, with the king of kings awakened in a county's capitol, the expansion of the ashen hills from a haunted Earldom to a Dukedom hardly mattered. After all, a ghostly Empire was needed to support a King of Kings.
“Yet he couldn’t save my son.” Baron Vincent Prescott said. “Now, we can’t even return to our lands to rally the people. If we had known this place existed, we could have operated the towers with archers, filled the stables with armored horses, and armed our bravest knights with armor that turned back demon claws. Instead, my son is dead, the master of this Fortress is bedridden after bloodying the demon’s nose, and we’re isolated. You might get your wish boy to marry my daughter simply to avoid incest.” The Baron said.
“I’d prefer Ser Brussel over this cad,” Maddie said.
“Too bad, boy, it seems you’ll have to find your pleasure with your hand and kill the creations.” The Baron said.
“I’ll ignore your blasphemous words as those of a grieving father. The creation of homunculi is forbidden even if they are slain after the fact. Destroying the evidence of a misdeed doesn’t wipe away the sin. You also misunderstand this place. It wasn’t built with any preparation in mind. My dear lacky acted out of desperation when I was infected. Some of the decisions he made bordered on heretical to ensure the infection didn’t take me. Red is merely a gifted battle engineer.” Emily said.
“Modesty from an interrogator is a rare commodity. So, we are merely fortunate you were infected, and your lacky was left alone to his own devices. I’m sure, alone with you and driven by fear from the demon’s aura, he must have been desperate. Desperate men will do things most wouldn’t think to try. Some of these formations resemble the qi collection techniques of the Moore family. They are meant to capture the pure water qi of the Gemini River. Instead, I see many changes in them. It is forbidden for a commoner to use the formations of the nobility much less alter them.” The Baron said.
Indeed, Red was guilty of theft and deviation from a noble family’s formation. Even if it was used for the cause of the Inquisition, there were some laws they couldn’t bypass. The badge of an interrogator couldn’t protect Red.
“Father, you can’t let our savior die. While his actions were in poor taste, they did benefit us in the end. So perhaps we can overlook this infraction and pardon him for his crime in exchange for service. A mortal lifetime as my guard would be sufficient.” Maddie said.
She measured out the Baron’s cultivation. He was just a step into the nascent realm. Emily would soon reach that realm herself but fighting the Baron would be difficult. The man was a pure earth type. The types of qi determine advantages and disadvantages in battle. A wood-type nascent realm cultivator would have higher endurance, a water type would have a vast range of applications, and a fire type like herself would have vast amounts of firepower; he would have a powerful defense. On the other hand, if she was a steel type, she could use extreme precision to pierce his defenses; as a fire type, Emily would run out of qi before she could do any real damage.
Of course, the Baron’s nascent soul was also to contend with. The immaculate form of the nascent realm soul lived within the Baron’s body, directing his movements and giving greater power to them. There were other uses for the nascent soul she wasn’t aware of. Her master hadn’t been able to use his or never used it in front of her.
Washington surprised her by drawing his wooden sword and pointing it at the Baron. And with that, the situation went from bad to worse. Pride might not allow the Baron to spare the boy this time. She would have to do something to take care of this, or else Red might wake up before he’s had enough rest.