Aritane was gone for quite some time, but when he did return, Alisia swept into the room behind him, her face a mix of disbelief and worry.
“What happened?” she asked as she came to sit across from Grevail. “What is all over your face and clothes?”
He shook his head and paused, trying to remember everything. From the moment he walked through Seirod’s door to meeting Aritane in the street was a blur. “I’m not sure. I found my friends…they are alive. They’re alive, Alisia, I have to save them!”
“At Seirod’s?” Alisia asked, confused. “Where are they now?”
“I don’t know. I…ash and embers, I lost them during the fire.”
Alisia’s jaw dropped with a faint gasp. “The fire?”
Aritane spoke, taking a seat on the settee beside Alisia. “There was a fire behind Seirod’s house—some kind of warehouse, I think. I heard an explosion from where I was in the street. It was so loud, I’m sure they heard it at the Urucan gate. Whatever it was, it brought the party to a premature end. I saw Grevail being chased through a crowd on Seirod’s lawn and helped him escape.”
Alisia spent a moment studying Aritane’s face before furrowing her brow at Grevail. “How did the fire start? Did you have anything to do with it? Why were you being chased?”
“I found my friends. We tried to escape, but we were discovered. A fight broke out and the fire started when a lantern broke. It was during the fire I lost my friends.” It was hard to believe that it had happened. It seemed unreal. “I was spotted. I had to run. I abandoned them.” He cursed, slamming a fist down on the arm of his chair.
Auphen rushed through the linen sheet over the door. “Well, you sure put on a show,” he said to Grevail. “What happened in there? Our Delphines have their hands full trying to keep eyes on everything tonight.”
After filling in the copper-haired young man on the events inside Seirod’s house, Auphen spoke to Grevail. “Thanks to the descriptions Aritane got us we have an idea of what happened to your friends. We had several people watching Seirod’s house tonight, along with our usual positions around town too. I saw the red-headed girl, Raela. She was carried out of there by a giant man right after the fire started. In the confusion, I don’t know that anyone paid much attention to them with everything else that was going on. Very strange thing to see, even on a night like this.”
The relief Grevail felt upon hearing Raela had not been burned alive was quashed by his stomach turning over at the thought of her in the hands of Noz and Vaik. “Noz.”
The others exchanged glances, likely wondering who Noz was, but Auphen went on. “We believe Adellus is still at Seirod’s. He was last seen with the Pictay fellow.”
Seirod hadn’t hurt any of Grevail’s friends so far. He could only hope the man didn’t fly into a rage over what he had done and take revenge on Dell.
“Our Delphine at Erphele’s spotted Tessyn. Apparently, she tried to escape from a carriage just before it entered the woman’s home, but was captured again and taken inside.”
Grevail didn’t think Erphele would hurt Tessyn, no matter what he had promised her, but Articia, he wasn’t so sure. Articia seemed as cold as a winter wind, much more so than Erphele, and Grevail would bet all the ess in the world Articia would do whatever necessary to get that relic. It would be a no small task freeing his friends from the hands of all these people, but he had what they all wanted. They won’t hurt them so long as I have this relic.
The Delphine’s faces twisted in confusion as Grevail arched his body into the chair back, digging into his pocket to wriggle out the Emberstone. The odd slanted triangles in the small glass circles on each side of the cube were lit by the soft blue glow now. The golden filigree around the edges of the black metal glittered in the light of the lamps spread around the room. He held it in front of his face, watching them over the top of it.
Alisia leaned back as if he had brandished a weapon at her, eyebrows jumping. “Is that what I think it is, Grevail?”
“Yes. It is an Emberfolk relic.”
Aritane cursed. “Why do you have that? Are you a Dawnbreaker?”
Grevail met his eyes. “No. I’m not. I want my friends back. The people who have them want this relic. I will trade the relic for my friends, but I’m going to need your help.”
“If they all want that thing, how are you going to—” Alisia gasped. “You mean to lure them all at the same time?”
“I don’t like this, Alisia,” Aritane said and frowned at the relic like it was about to jump out of Grevail’s hand and attack him. “You and Auphen are not Sacar. You don’t follow the Accord, but I do.”
Alisia patted the dark-haired man on the shoulder. “The Accord says you can’t touch it…so don’t touch it. Nobody will ask you to do that.”
Grevail set the Emberstone on the table between them. “I’m sorry, Aritane. I do not mean to worry you, but this is the only way I’m going to get my friends back.”
Aritane wrinkled his nose at the relic, dark eyes glittering with suspicion. “I understand. I do not like it, but I understand.”
“Seirod and Erphele are Breakers?” Auphen asked, dumbfounded.
Alisia shrugged as if it seemed surprising to her too. “Apparently. If it weren’t for the fact that the Thava might hand us over to the Postulators along with them, I might tell the Refuge.”
Auphen grunted at Alisia’s words and leaned over the table, looking at the cube. “Must be worth a fortune with all that gold.” He showed none of the disdain Aritane had but instead curiosity, still, he made no move to touch it. “How do you plan to free your friends, then, Grevail?”
“I will send an invitation to Seirod, Vaik, and Erphele to meet me somewhere in the city. Then, I will exchange the relic for my friends.”
“I suppose they don’t want to share it do they?” Alisia asked. “What if they just kill you and take it?”
“That’s why I need your help.”
A tired sigh left Alisia. “I know rescuing your friends is very important, Grevail, but our priority is stopping Carbathe. I would like to help, but showing our hand prematurely might end in disaster. I’ve already taken great risks in helping you, especially considering you are involved with…that,” she said, nodding at the relic. “I don’t know if now is—”
“It might be too late,” Aritane grunted, as if it wasn’t the first conversation they’d had on the subject. “By the time we make our move, it will be too late.”
“I don’t think it is,” Alisia countered. “The city is boiling, but still, I think we must wait.”
“Might be boiled alive if we wait any longer,” Aritane returned.
Alisia gave a forceful shake of her head that sent her lustrous hair swirling. “We might be boiled alive if we act too soon. We need proof of Carbathe’s schemes, Aritane. If rumors were enough to stop Carbathe, he’d have been locked away years ago.”
Grevail had done everything Alisia had asked of him, and it rankled that she still seemed unwilling to help. Even so, he had to admit that he had roiled the ant’s nest tonight, which was the last thing Alisia wanted. Suddenly, he remembered the letter he’d found in Seirod’s house. He dove into his coat pocket for it. If anything convinced her to help him, it would be that. “Perhaps this will change your mind,” he said, passing it across the table.
Alisia frowned at the parchment, then opened it and began reading, her eyes growing the further down the page she went. “It has Carbathe’s seal!”
“What is it?” Aritane asked. Alisia passed him the letter and after looking it over, the man tossed his head in disgust. “Teral is in on it,” he said, handing the letter to Auphen.
“Carbathe mentions Seirod’s aid,” Alisia said. “What did he do for Carbathe?”
Aritane frowned. “All we really know about the man is that he’s rich, and I’d assume he has been supplementing Carbathe’s income…paying for his henchmen.”
“Teral is betrothed to Carbathe’s niece, too,” Grevail said.
Alisia raised an eyebrow at him. “So it was true?” She pursed her lips. “She is seeing another man behind his back on top of it.”
Auphen looked up from the letter. “He’s a weakness.”
“I’ll get to work on him,” Aritane said. “I know just how to do it. I’ve been slipping his liverymen ess since winter.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Alisia bobbed her head as if she was thinking the same thing. “If he knew what his new wife was up to, and how Carbathe was about to stab him in the back, he might be willing to talk.”
“Would he believe it though?” Aritane asked.
Alisia spread her hands. “This is too good a chance to pass up, I think.”
The room dipped into silence as the others pondered what she said.
“Getting Teral talking might take some time, and while Aritane sets to work on that, I have another idea that could make everything much easier,” Alisia said. “On the next Grievance day, I’ll take this note to Daryn. Even if Carbathe is there, there isn’t any way he can deny this.”
Aritane mulled it over. “What more proof could Daryn need? What else could force his hand? He will have to do something about Carbathe after reading that.”
Auphene scoffed. “Will he? He hasn’t done anything up till now, even after all the evidence we’ve found.” He harrumphed. “Well…I guess we haven’t found any physical proof like this to give him,” he said pointing at the letter. “Until now, nobody had any reason to believe us, but they can’t not believe that. They’ll have to if they are holding it in their hand.”
“And my friends?” Grevail asked. Their eyes were drawn to him as if remembering he was there.
Alisia centered calculating, deep blue eyes on him. “I’ll offer you a deal, Grevail. If you come with me to give this letter to Daryn, and tell him everything you saw at Seirod’s house, I will give you the full support of the Delphines in the rescue of your friends.”
“Daryn might even help free your friends himself,” Auphen said. “With that note, Seirod, Carbathe, and probably Erphele as well should be arrested.”
“He won’t arrest me on the spot when we give him the letter? After telling him how I stole it from Seirod?” Grevail asked. He didn’t know anything about this man Daryn. “He has more in common with these nobles than he does us, doesn’t he?”
“I’m certain,” Alisia said. “Daryn is a just man.” Auphen scowled but Alisia went on. “If somehow he doesn’t act, and the Parents watch over us if he doesn’t, we’ll help rescue your friends. Please, Grevail. Just this last thing. It will be all the more believable if you are there to tell him how you found this.”
Aritane nodded in agreement. “Don’t you worry, Grevail. After reading that note, I’d help save your friends if they were with the Lady of Graves herself. We’ve spent a long time searching for evidence just like that.”
Auphen grunted to add his consent too. “You’ve done a lot in your time here. I accept you as one us.”
“If you think it will help,” Grevail said, but an uneasy feeling gripped him, as if he were again stepping into something better left alone. Despite that, he knew if he wanted his friends back, he could not do it by himself. “I’ll come with you.”
Alisia nodded as if it were decided and set about making plans with Aritane and Auphen. Grevail listened for a while, though his thoughts were inevitably drawn back to his friends. When he stood and moved toward the exit with the intention of retiring to bed, Aritane gave him another warning about leaving Alisia’s house.
He trekked tiredly up the stairs, and closing the door to his room, laid down on the bed. He set the cube on his chest where it rested in a pillar of moonlight beaming through the window. The glass circle with the odd slanted triangle was not alive with that pale blue light now. Sometimes it was there, and sometimes not, but he was relieved it was not there now. Whenever it was, more often than not, the relic was about to do something strange. Ash and embers I wish this thing was leagues away from me. Sleep tugged at him, but thinking about his friends kept him awake most of the night. When he finally fell asleep, he was staring at that leaning triangle on the glass circle, wondering what it all meant.
I stood in the trees at the edge of the clearing, watching as the wagons and tarps were prepared. Night darkened the sky as the distant shadows of men set about the work. “Did you cover your tracks at the river?” I asked.
“Of course,” came a reply from someone standing beside me. The voice was deep and confident. “Our spies tell us that no one is the wiser. They will not suspect a thing when we arrive.”
“Good,” I said, then felt a rush of excitement that pimpled my skin, but I wasn’t sure why. “Be sure that you have enough uniforms to disguise yourselves when the time comes. Steal them or make them yourself, but they will be needed. I must see to matters in Tamirra. Stay out of sight. If they so much as catch a glimpse of you out here our plans will be ruined.” No reply came back as I turned and walked into the trees. As I left the meadow, the landscape slowly became brighter. From night, to morning, then noon in a matter of moments, and from there it simply grew brighter still, until everything was consumed by a pure white.
White in every direction. Beneath Grevail was the familiar metallic chair. It seemed to be made of steel, and was polished to a mirror finish, yet his fingers left not a mark on it. Another dream. He rose and looked down at his feet. He clearly stood on something, though he couldn’t see what. It looked like the same infinite white below his feet as it was anywhere else he looked. Reaching down, he stretched out his hand. It was perfectly smooth.
He stood again and walked in a circle around the chair. It did not cast a shadow, just like before, and neither did he. He was perfectly lit as if under a noonday sun, but looking around, saw no source of light. He stared off into the distance of the never-ending white landscape, searching for…anything.
Vidian popped into existence several dozen paces away. One moment he wasn’t there, and the next, he was. The tall, impossibly thin creature strode toward Grevail with long limbs swinging and bleached white eyes studying. He wore a toga of plain white silk that stretched down to his knees and swayed with his movements. Grevail did not budge as the thing stopped a few paces away.
“I knew I’d see you again,” said Vidian. “You can feel it, can’t you?” He smirked, gray skin like ash wrinkling around the corners of his mouth. He raised a bony hand and pointed a finger twice as long as it should be at Grevail. “You should not let it out of your sight, Tameling. Your life depends on it.”
“What do you mean?” Grevail asked, surprised that his teeth were not chattering for all the fear this creature instilled in him.
Vidian scoffed. “The Aevum, of course. I know that you can sense it. I’ve given you that much at least.”
“Aevum?” Grevail’s leg hit the chair and only then did he realize he had been backing away. “I don’t know what you are talking about.”
Vidian shook his head, murmuring something under his breath, then raised his voice. “Perhaps it is this that frightens you?” he said, motioning at the whiteness around them. “Do you need comfort? I know what comforts you.” Vidian raised a hand beside his head and snapped his fingers.
There was no movement. No blurring of color or sound of any kind. One moment the forever-white had surrounded them, and now Grevail’s shack in Lowtown did. It was just as he left it, everything where it was when they walked out the door. Raela’s blankets were still in a pile on her bunk. Dell’s empty bottle of wine beside the firepit. One of the uprights of the bunk had several stab marks from Tessyn’s knife. Grevail stood beside his own bunk. Warily, he reached out to touch it. The wood felt real. This is a dream.
Vidian stood beside the empty fire pit, and with another snap of his fingers, a flame flared to life. One moment it was empty, and then in a blink, a brilliant blaze danced atop fresh firewood. “Is this better? Do you feel more at ease?”
Grevail urged himself to wake up. “This is a dream. This is a dream. This is a dream. It is not real.”
“It is real,” Vidian said, staring into the flames. “It is all very real.”
“You are a liar!” Grevail growled. “I want you out of my head! Do you understand?”
Vidian chuckled and raised his eyes from the fire. “I can’t let that happen. I will not hurt you, Grevail.”
The creature’s wheezing chuckle tightened Grevail’s jaw. I don’t want to be here. I don’t have to be here, creature. Eyeing the fire, he remembered that sometimes he had dreams where he would wake up when he fell or was injured. He wasn’t going to stay here in this dream with this…thing. This wasn’t real. “You can’t hurt anything. You’re not real.” He stepped forward and thrust his hand into the flames.
Only for a moment did he feel the stinging heat and surprisingly, the pain, before Vidian’s hand slammed into his chest, flinging him backward. Arms whirling, he landed on his rump with a smack, back pressed against his bed. “Fool!” Vidian barked. “I’ve told you that I will not hurt you, but I can’t do anything about you hurting yourself.”
Grevail looked down at his arm to find it angry and burning with much of the hair singed off. He touched it, wincing.
Vidian stared at him for a moment, as if thinking, then spoke, but not to Grevail. “Something is wrong. Very wrong. What has happened?”
“I don’t want to be here!” Grevail shouted at him.
Vidian returned his attention to the fire. “I know, but it must be. I need your help, and you need mine.”
Grevail picked himself up off the ground. He clung to the bunk as if it were the only thing keeping him standing. “I don’t need you. You’re not real!”
“Do you need to be convinced further? Do you need further comfort? How about this?” he accompanied the final emphasized word with a sharp clap of his hands.
Grevail flinched at the sound, and at first, didn’t notice any change, but then, a familiar soft voice filled the room.
“Caoquin strode through the forest, looking for the Shimmerbeast’s trail. He spotted its footprints and knew it would be close. Drawing his sword, Diandiar, he crept through the underbrush on silent feet, eyes skittering from here to there, waiting for the beast to make itself known but…”
Raela sat on her bunk, wrapped in a blanket and reading from a book. A book Grevail remembered well. “Raela?” he asked.
She did not look up, only continued reading.
“Raela?” he said again. “Raela, what—”
“Are you ready to talk?” Vidian asked. “Isn’t this what you find relaxing? Your friend reading to you?”
“What are you doing to her!” Grevail shouted at him, then spun back to Raela, but she only continued to read as if neither of them were there. “Raela!”
“I’ve done nothing to her,” Vidian said. “She is just as you remember, isn’t she?” He issued an abrupt sigh. “This doesn’t appear to be working.”
Suddenly, the roomed seemed to lurch as if it had been kicked by a giant. Grevail stumbled into Vidian, then pushed the creature away.
“Far too short,” Vidian said, shaking his head. “You will learn.”
The door of the shack burst open, sending splintered boards sliding across the floor. A giant form stepped inside where the light from the fire spawned blue streaks jetting across the broad black plates of their armor. Vidian did not move and instead stood staring at Grevail, but Raela jumped to her feet, dropping the book to the floor with a shriek that hurt Grevail’s ears. The black clad soldier thundered across the room in the clanking of metal to grab hold of her.
“Stop! Let her go!” Grevail moved toward them.
Vidian’s spidery arms wrapped around Grevail, stopping him. The creature pushed him backward until they both slammed into the wall on the other side of the room. “You need to keep it with you,” he hissed into Grevail’s ear.
Beyond them, the black-plated soldier had Raela’s throat clenched in a gauntlet. It unsheathed a black dagger from its belt that gleamed menacingly in the light from the fire. Grevail struggled to free himself, but Vidian’s thin, bony arms were much stronger than they looked. “Let go of me! Raela!”
“Keep it with you,” Vidian whispered again. “All of your lives depend on it.”
Morning light streamed across the Emberstone on his chest; the glass circle with the strange triangle flickered a pale blue. With a yelp, Grevail pushed it off of his body and onto the bed, then sat up, being careful not to touch it again. He stared at it, breathing heavily, then became aware of a burning pain along his arm. He raised it to his face, mouth falling open in disbelief at the reddened patch of skin stretching from hand to elbow.