Florette VIII: The Binder
Twin trails of flame lit Fernan’s face with an eerie green, making him easy to find. He was sitting cross legged on the ground with his back turned, facing out at the dark city below.
“Anything good?” Florette asked, coming up behind him. “Camille knows her history, so I’d hope she has something to offer.” Even if it’s delivered in an unbearable manner. “Any weaknesses?”
Fernan turned his head back, then rotated to face her. “A few things we can use, maybe. A few more we probably can’t.”
“But it couldn’t hurt to know.”
“Yeah, exactly.” His mouth twisted. “You came up, actually.”
“Yeah, I bet.” Florette folded her arms, mostly just to keep them warm. “Let me guess: she twisted herself into a scheme so convoluted that it’s already falling apart, and she wishes I was there to just cut through it?”
Fernan smiled for an instant, then abruptly shifted his face to a more neutral expression. “It was more of a warning. She said I shouldn’t trust you for anything important because you’re liable to do something reckless and mess up the whole plan.”
“Hah! What did she do when you told her where to stick her advice?”
Fernan opened his mouth, then closed it.
“Seriously?”
“It’s not a totally irrelevant point. You have been known to—Look, you don’t hesitate to do what you think is right. That’s great. I admire it, even. But…”
“Fuck,” she muttered, sitting down on the ground across from him. Can I even blame him? “Look, it’s not going to be like that anymore. We’re going to make a plan, and then we’re going to execute it. No improvising, and no surprises.”
≋
Magnifico’s Cloak of Nocturne was… uncomfortable, to say the least. Wearing it cast its bearer into shadow, which was all well and good from the outside, but from within it was exerting a pressure, like it was trying to drag Florette somewhere she might never return from.
And he wore it for hours to be sure he could ambush Soleil…
Really, the more thought she gave it, the crazier this king was. The last guy died in battle, so this one thought he’d one-up his dad by sneaking in alone to stir shit up. Avalon even had infiltrating shit-stirrers like Jethro to do it without the fucking king intervening personally.
Although considering Jethro seemed like a traitor to Avalon, maybe the personal touch was slightly more understandable.
Still, I’m surprised he was willing to part with an artifact like this, even for a limited time. Florette had sworn before Corro to return it to the crater she’d found it in, provided it hadn’t been taken from her against her will, or destroyed, and amazingly that had been enough.
“You’ll have enough trouble succeeding without ridding yourself of my help,” he’d said. “And it’s for a good cause. I’d lend you the Gauntlet of Eulus too, but either your fox-boy got his paws on it, or it’s lying in some chasm, picked at by birds.”
It was almost as if he actually wanted her to succeed, and wasn’t setting her up for some kind of trap. Almost. It made Florette wish she’d spent more time asking Captain Verrou about it when she’d been aboard his ship, since that would give her a lot more ways to verify Magnifico’s claims now.
Instead, she’d had no choice but to test what she could and try to cross-reference the rest. The sword was particularly bad, on that front. The Blade of Khali, a bound sliver of the spirit of darkness that persisted here after her exile. Fernan had at least managed to confirm it was the sword used to kill Soleil, which meant that it should work as needed here, but it was shaky. No one else had any information, and testing it against regular materials revealed it to be… a sword. Not even a particularly sharp one; it had taken several swings to get through a melon.
Still, everything the fake bard had said about the specific ritual had fit with what the Great Binder’s book said, and what Corro remembered from fighting binders in the past. Florette had even tracked down Corva to ask about her partner’s death in the hopes it would better help her find the gauntlet he’d been bound to. Which her account will help with, too, it just also lets me verify.
“They’ll never breach the castle anyway. What does it matter?” A scratchy voice echoed from around the corner, prompting Florette to press herself against the wall and hold still.
Florette activated her cloak, sinking into the abyss as she felt herself disconnect from reality. She grabbed the cloak firmly as she slipped beneath the floor, hanging beneath it, out of sight.
The Cloak of Nocturne hides you in darkness, but the cloth’s still there. Hard to notice in the dim light, blended with shadows, but still present. She’d tested it with Michel, and no trace of him had been visible save a black rag, lying on the ground in a heap. Easy to miss, so long as it wasn’t moving.
It was possible to hide the cloak with you in darkness, even to push the abyss away from below and walk the ground above. Truly hiding and even able to move, with nary a cloak to see.
But the pull to the other side was much stronger. Florette had only managed about ten seconds in practice before she’d had to release its hold on her.
If the Fallen had been able to come, it would have been even more useful, since they’d be able to walk her through without needing to risk the call of the void. But, as suspected, too many of Glaciel’s children wanted revenge for the Winter War. The Fallen would be busy flitting around the battlefield, consuming the energy of those slain for such a purpose.
She held her breath as the first Hiverrien walked around the corner, looking surprisingly normal save the five red rings around each arm. He looked slightly pale, his features just a hair more angular, but could have easily passed as human.
“The Queen will not look fondly on your tardiness, should she become aware of it. I do not look fondly on it, and I am aware.” Another walked beside the first with far more graceful steps. She was more ethereal, her skin visibly reflective.
“But you’re tardy too. I had to shake you awake when you slept through the announcement.”
“Ice endures, unmoving, unassailable. It’s only as a reflection of that, that I…” She stopped, right in front of Florette. Her head turned downward with eerie precision, putting Florette’s eyes right in line with hers.
If this fucking thing doesn’t work on Glaciel’s upper ring children, and she can see through it…
The worst part was that now it was too late to pull the cloak into Nocturne, since it would visibly disappear before their eyes. And I might tumble inescapably into Khali’s world.
“Something wrong?” the first one asked.
The Hiverrien frowned, eyebrows so straight they formed a triangle. “Someone left their cloak on the floor.”
“Oh, first we’re so late we’ll be entombed, and then suddenly you have time for cleaning? Someone dropped it. Who cares?”
“It’s unbecoming.” She squinted. “But someone else will suffer for that. We must be going.”
The lower-ring Hiverrien sighed, then continued, the other mercifully following after him.
Florette didn’t let out her sigh of relief until it was impossible to hear them bickering.
This is only going to get harder as I ascend the castle. But there was nothing else for it. The moment the explosives went off, she’d only have a brief window to act while Glaciel was distracted.
No time to waste.
≋
The collapse was glorious. Seeing that frigid asshole’s ostentatious domain collapse in on itself wasn’t just satisfying, but fitting. It kicked up a plume of icy dust into the sky, circling above like rainwater in Malin’s street drains.
If she’d just left well enough alone, she’d be sitting pretty in Hiverre right now, power growing with every day in darkness. Instead, Queen Glaciel was in for her worst day since the Winter War.
The instant that the tower collapsed, Florette was ready with the Cloak of Nocturne, disconnected from the physical reality of the crumbling construction.
In the moments after, as Hiverrien cries filled the air, Florette could calmly shuffle away from cracks in the floor, the cloak hidden with her in darkness every time she moved.
When she and Eloise had blown up that tunnel for the train job, they’d had to carefully craft a durable fuse from candlewick, long enough to set the powder off without dying, and durable enough to carry the flame that far without going out.
Endless tests and practice, making sure it wasn’t just good enough to work but good enough to work every time, perfectly reliably… Worth it, for sure, but it had taken forever.
I didn’t have a spirit of decay on my side then. Florette grinned as the cracks in the floor grew wider, the whole castle of ice threatening to collapse.
Streaks of pure ice shot back and forth across the walls and floor, Glaciel trying to stabilize it. Even if she succeeded though, the whole thing was stuck in a hole now. Fernan and Mara had clearly done their jobs too, since an even circle formed the top of the pit, ensuring that none of the humans above were at risk.
Then tendrils of purple snaked their way up through the remaining cracks, eating through any ice they touched.
Corro hadn’t just survived a detonation in his face, he’d gained power from it.
Disadvantageous ground for Glaciel, to say the least. All Florette could do was hope it was enough.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Glaciel’s children had finally recovered enough to respond, stabbing into Corro’s appendages and trying to freeze them in place. Some of the higher rings looked like they were succeeding here and there, but they were stabbing at the toes of giants.
And this is the top of the tallest tower. I can only imagine how it is below.
Glaciel popped up occasionally to give an order, but the bulk of her focus was keeping the castle standing, which to her credit she was managing. Even as Corro tore more holes, the shaking and settling largely stopped. Once or twice a minute, a curtain of water would fall from above, probably a result of some interaction between gecko fire and ice, but whatever it was wasn’t enough to outdo Glaciel’s efforts.
But with luck, it wouldn’t need to. The hope was that this would leave her occupied enough to attack, to fix her in place just long enough…
“Come out and face me, coward!” The winter spirit’s words were sharp and shimmering, yet scraping and raw, more powerful and emotive than any of the children had ever come close to. “It’s time I sent you back to Flammare in thirteen pieces.”
“Very well,” Corro rumbled back as one of his tendrils sprouted a gaping maw. “It is past time we spoke.”
The Hiverrians began jabbing at it with their icy spears, but Glaciel erupted from the ground in a human-sized body, waving her arm for them to stop. “Let him talk.”
“So courtesy has not abandoned you entirely. I must confess some surprise at that.” Corro’s form condensed further, his color darkening.
“Corro.” Somehow there was more venom in her voice than that of the poison spirit. “I am disappointed to see you once more as a servant to an unworthy master. Was getting that girl killed truly so demoralizing that you would prostrate yourself before Flammare?”
Florette moved as fast as she dared from the stairwell. She needed to get there before her grip on reality weakened too much to risk.
“Her life came to an end, as all things must.”
Glaciel tilted her head back, an impression of amusement carrying through the movement. “As must the day, the Arbiter of Light, the sun. You ought to know better than any.”
“And yet such ends can come before their time. I am decay and ruin. I know my place and I know where I am not yet welcome. Have you any such restraint?”
“You are not welcome here.”
“I know.”
Florette cracked a smile as she kept dashing across this far-too-large room. .
“Human wars are great, destructive things. So many think them beneath notice, empowering followers with no thought to how it amplifies the deterioration. You know better, Glaciel.”
The ice spirit stood unnaturally still, the air free from the chill of her words.
“You who are Queen once served as well, and saw the value in it. While Soleil remained in the sky and Pantera in the deep, you claimed the South in the Fox-Queen’s name, and only after her death did you make it yours. You took humans for your lovers, and mixed your blood with theirs.”
“And Flammare dares to oppose me for it. What right has he?”
“None. I say this in the hopes that you will understand.” He paused, his ooze growing even darker. “Out of Pantera’s old domain, a threat continues to grow, a nation of humans dedicated to ending our very existence. Already they have driven those of the islands to hiding or extinction, and yet we do nothing, foolishly believing that any spirit so killed is exceptionally incompetent, that such a thing might never happen to any of us. Lunette’s power has shriveled more in two decades than it grew in two centuries because her offerings dried up, undertaken only by the most determined, at risk of death each time. Even after the death of Soleil, on the eve of the Convocation to choose his successor, none yet have so much as uttered the name Avalon.”
Glaciel remained still, though the temperature of the air dropped noticeably. Some of the lower-ringed Hiverriens even started to shiver.
“I have taken one small action to fracture it, but I cannot know if it will succeed, nor for how long. If we do not take action, their entropy may well consume us all, bit by bit. An end to the age of spirits long before that of humanity, or Terramonde. I fear that you might be the only spirit capable of understanding this threat, of being willing to act before it is too late.”
Corro slid closer to her, slicing through the floor as he moved. “Retreat back to your true domain before the Convocation, and I will follow you. We can collaborate against them, ready the world. Leave now, and the sages and children of another flame spirit will have carried the day. Flammare could not easily contest Gèzarde of the Mountain, and perhaps never become the Arbiter of Light at all. He is absent today as another fights the threat he so despises. Who could respect a spirit such as that? Certainly, the will of the others to deal with your nation so urgently would diminish. Appetite to consume you would fade.”
Glaciel was turning her head down to face him as he approached, still silent as the air grew colder. Is she actually considering this? All Corro had said was that he knew how to stall her. That much was certainly true, but he’d never implied that there could be a way to get her to back off.
Florette began to approach Glaciel, ready to execute her plan. If I even should anymore. The rule had been no improvisations. No surprises. And it wasn’t like Glaciel didn’t deserve it, after all she’d done. An ‘elegant’ monster, from a more brutal time. The world would still be better off without her, wouldn’t it? She didn’t just get to walk away because she finally started thinking of her self interest longer-term.
“You impress me, Corro.” She clasped her hands together, spindly fingers interlacing like a rippling spider’s web in the wind. “And yet you underestimate me. My victory will mean the end of all humans who are not of my blood. This threat will fade to nothing, decay just as you of all spirits should most desire. Flammare will not stand in the way of that, and neither shall you.” She raised a hand into the air, signaling her children.
And I’m not close enough. Fuck!
Glaciel reached to the ground and pulled out a massive spear of ice, twenty feet long and two feet thick. She twirled it behind her, forcing Florette to jump back just as she was getting close enough to strike, but the spear wasn’t there for long. Glaciel lightly flicked her wrist and sent it flying towards Corro.
The spearhead landed in his mouth, rapidly freezing his form in place. The ice traveled down the tendrils rapidly, but the core of Corro was far below. He would be safe, hopefully. They had planned around this.
At the very least, he was performing one amazing distraction. Directing his appendages in from the sides helped to flank, but it also made sure that most of room wasn’t looking as Florette lunged for Glaciel, including the spirit herself.
Florette had to jump over the sweep of another enormous spear as Glaciel twirled it anew to throw, but she somehow managed to make it over. Even if her foot did slide out from under her on the ice right after, sending her painfully to the ground.
Pain radiated up her side, but there was no time to dwell on it. Florette pushed herself carefully off the ground, getting her feet back under her just in time to see another massive spear headed towards her.
Why does she have to do the stupid spin? It doesn’t do anything except look cool. She’d be faster without it!
She barely made it out of the way, at least keeping her footing this time.
But Glaciel was only growing, pulling ice into herself from the center of the floor, then the floors below, until a shaft stretched all the way to the bottom. Corro’s appendages were still burning through ice a few floors below, but the Hiverriens were fighting back, and the top few had all been frozen.
Glaciel stood above it all, twice as tall, with movement just as elegant.
Fuck!
The plan had been to stab her in the back while she was distracted. Corro was supposed to give her more time!
But he did what he could, and so did you. No point in grasping at what went wrong, the issue was what to do now.
The first step has to be not getting crushed by a spear that isn’t even aimed at me.
The movements were as unpredictable as they were pointlessly fluid, meaning there was no obvious safe spot.
Except…
Florette waited for another swoop of a spear, then sprinted over the ice towards Glaciel. She’ll hardly swing at herself. That still meant avoiding her footsteps, but that was considerably easier, since she wasn’t moving around very much.
That changes the second Corro’s too far away, though. Already, the walls of the tower were so thin they could be looked through, and the hole in each floor was only growing wider.
Florette drew the Blade of Khali, the weapon that had ended Soleil. When it sliced him in half. The blow had to be a lethal one for it to kill, unless Magnifico was really fucking with her, and somehow it seemed unlikely it would be as easy as stabbing the regenerating ice spirit in the leg and calling it a day.
Still, do I have any option but to take the chance? The first blow Glaciel felt would probably be the last Florette had a chance to make, since she could just collapse the floor.
I could try throwing it into her back. It was a long way to throw a heavy sword straight, and missing would mean she accomplished nothing, but…
Florette jumped back as the floor retreated, revealing a low-ring Hiverrien stabbing at one of Corro’s tendrils futilely. Each point of contact left a frozen patch, but one immediately consumed by the surrounding Corro ooze.
I’m going about this wrong. Florette wiped her forehead with the back of her hand, gazing into the darkness of the sword for a moment before the movement completed.
Killing Glaciel and surviving was basically off the table at this point. Hoping for a way to do both wasn’t helping, it was just exhausting very limited time.
Breathing deep, Florette closed her eyes and tightened her grip on the sword. She readied herself, watching Glaciel’s movements as the remaining strip of floor narrowed. Any moment now, she’d jump down to attack Corro, probably taking what was left of the floor with her.
Florette waited, picked her moment, and swung.
Her first thought was that she’d missed, feeling the impact of the sword’s blade into the icy floor below, but the shriek that filled the air suggested otherwise.
Glaciel plunged down the shaft, impacting the writhing purple floor with the tip of her spear, causing a wave of ice to erupt out from it across Corro’s reach. The ooze froze and it remained frozen, color fading away as Glaciel strengthened her hold.
Looking down, the blade was buried in the ice, stuck in by about an inch. To one side of it rested one of Glaciel’s toes, weeping drops of water at the edges.
Finally, something goes according to plan. Corro had made his retreat, feigned his defeat just as they’d discussed. Glaciel would live, but Florette had a piece of her.
A share of her power, to be bound.
Have to act fast; it’s already melting. Glaciel’s power was probably fading from it, disconnected from her larger body. Left alone, the foot would drip away and grow back, most likely.
Florette wrenched her sword out of the ice and sheathed it. She made sure to grab the toe with a gloved hand, but it still burned to the touch. She dropped it, then readied her bag to sweep it in quickly.
Once it was secure, she made her way towards the stairs.
It helped that Glaciel was already repairing the castle. The floor was beginning to grow back, solidifying water from above and below flowing into place and then freezing.
For some reason, Lucien’s forces weren’t putting up much of a fight from the top. Maybe they were waiting to see how the Corro thing played out?” They should have known more or less what to expect, though, and even if so, it was over now.
The Hiverriens were still reeling as Florette made her way down, many having fallen to the bottom of the tower. She cloaked herself in darkness and managed to maintain her connection to reality just long enough to make it down the stairwell, though it left her strained afterwards. Think that’s my new record. It was getting more and more unbelievable how long Magnifico had managed to do this.
The hole Corro had left for her in the side was still there, just as planned. Florette stepped into the tunnel and continued in, walking until she was far out of earshot and sight.
She opened the flap on her bag to check on the foot, only to see that the smallest of the triangular toes had already melted away.
Half tempted just to start the binding ritual here in the tunnel, Florette nonetheless decided that experimenting with magic in a space that could collapse and kill her seemed like a bad idea.
The instant she reached the surface, she set the spirit’s foot down in its bag, opening the flap without letting it touch the ice directly. From another of her pockets, she pulled an unadorned steel ring and set it down beside the shard of Glaciel.
And now’s the true test, she thought, ready to begin the binding ritual.
That was the moment a waterlogged Mara reached her, and explained what had happened.