Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 49. Ice and Fire.
“I don’t know if you heard my name yet from those two or not,” the old woman continued, the welcoming smile disappearing from her face and turning into more tranquil, yet at the same time extremely tired expression. “My name is Flora, I am… or rather, I was the Mage Protector of the Faren Republic,” she said grimly, the look in her eyes clouding as the weight of the responsibility and the graveness of the failure weighed upon her heart and mind.
Flora closed her eyes and breathed out, then looked at the newcomers once again. “I assume you two youths are the decision makers in your group?” she asked if only to confirm what she was sure of. With the kind of cultivation bases those two had it would be strange if they weren’t the ones calling the shots unless perhaps one of those men was a member of their family whose task was to take care of and protect them.
“We are,” Laien answered, restraining the amused laugh that was about to come out of his mouth at the thought of what kind of expression was probably on Ruan’s face.
“Mm,” Flora nodded. “You should be familiar enough with Claire and Darcy already,” she said with a slight smile. “That girl to my right is called Amber. She is a daughter of my old friend. Due to certain circumstances, she decided to stay with me instead of leaving with her family. As for that woman to my left, her name is Lucinda. She never was the talkative type, now she rarely speaks at all. Just like all of us here she had suffered the loss of many people dear to her in what came to be known by two names; Ikarians call it the Day That Was Promised, we call it the Bloody Dusk,” she introduced the two, then finished in a very apparently pained, but also vengeful tone.
“That’s right,” Liza cut into the talk. “Could you tell me what exactly happened here in the spring? We heard the rumors, but we don’t know the details,” she requested, wondering if the people she knew were all right. Flora and her friends were very powerful and influential individually so it was to be expected that they were okay, but what about everyone else?
“Wait for your turn to speak, child,” Flora reprimanded harshly, but in contrast, the look on her face turned gentle. “Let me hear the names of those two youths first. Claire, take out two additional seats for them,” she said in a tone that was neither a request nor an order.
“No need,” Laien said with a smile and waved his hand, causing a medium-sized sofa to appear between Claire’s and Darcy’s seats. The five armchairs were placed a fair distance from each other to begin with so there was more than enough space for this piece of furniture.
“I’m Laien.”
“I’m Yin.”
The two of them said one after another and without waiting for Claire or Darcy to move, walked around the sofa and sat down on it. As far as Claire didn’t mind and headed to her seat at the same time as they did, Darcy appeared to be rather angered by their lack of respect and manners.
“You should uncover your faces already,” Darcy said coldly after seating herself. “It’s impolite to speak with that cloth covering your heads,” she added with a quiet snort of contempt.
Flora glanced at Darcy and sighed inwardly. This little girl had been too proud for her own good ever since she learned how to talk. She couldn’t weigh the benefits and losses and allowed her mood to influence her actions too often; she wasn’t suited for politics or any sort of refined social interaction.
“Well, sure,” Laien said with a smirk and untied the white cloth and removed it with one sweep. He didn’t like that woman’s attitude, but despite having gotten used to the cloth he preferred to not have it on his head.
Yin appeared to be of the same mind as he took the cloth off at the same time Laien did. He never was one to allow silly provocations get to him so he pretty much ignored Darcy’s attempt to get to them.
“Wow!” Amber exclaimed and leaned forward in her armchair. “A good-looking boy and a beautiful girl! That’s a surprise! I was sure you were boys,” she said brightly, for once livening up. “Say, are you a couple? Or are you family?” she asked excitedly, her imagination working overtime and suggesting her many amusing scenarios and settings. As an adolescent woman she obviously was interested in romance and love; it was only that she very rarely had the chance to think about such things nowadays.
Laien and Yin chuckled and exchanged a glance, after what Yin said merrily. “I’m happy you think I’m beautiful, but I’m a boy.”
“Eh? For real?” Amber asked, squinting her eyes and eyeing Yin strongly. Was he a boy? But he was better looking than any girl she had seen before! If he really was a boy then fate was really unfair!
“Girl, calm down a little,” Lucinda reprimanded with a frown, failing to understand how this teenage girl could get excited about someone’s looks in the times they were living. There were many more important matters to think about, why waste time for those pointless things?
“Cut her some slack, Lucinda,” Flora said with a slight smile, very satisfied with the appearance of those two youths. She didn’t exactly need them to be as gorgeous as they were, especially Yin, but everything would be much easier if they weren’t ugly. “It’s not every day you see someone with naturally green hair. I must say though, neither of you looks like southerners,” she brought up and elaborated right afterward. “If my eyes don’t deceive me, you Laien have some typical northern traits; from the northeast to be precise. One of your parents must have been from there, while the other was indeed from the south. As for you Yin, I must admit I’ve never seen such features before. You don’t resemble people from anywhere in particular.”
Laien and Yin smiled at Flora’s words. They needed to admit this woman had her fair share of experience; she could recognize from where their parents were just from taking one look at them. Admittedly she said she couldn’t tell where Yin was from… but she probably didn’t want to make any wild guesses. It was common knowledge that the Forbidden Lands were to be feared and reckoned with; no one would willingly provoke them or trespass their territory.
“Can you tell us more about the civil war?” Laien requested now that the introductions were done and over with.
“Right,” Flora sighed bitterly. “You probably want to know… it’s a shameful thing, very shameful,” she said with a grim look on her face. “The history of the Eulean Union might not be as ancient as of some northern Kingdoms and Empires, but we still originate from ten thousand years in the past, or maybe originated I should say. There were many wars in our history, be it with the Ikarians to the far west or the barbarian tribes to the north. Yet, the past five hundred years we managed to avoid any wars; I was so proud of it as I had my hand in the negotiations of most of the peace treaties. I never thought it wouldn’t be a war that brought our Union down, but the peace.”
“I guess it has something to do with all the Ikarians on your streets?” Laien asked, unable not to make this guess after seeing the state of things on the streets of the capital.
“Both yes and no,” Flora replied with a pained expression on her face. This whole explanation was pretty much equivalent to pointing out her own mistakes, which all led to a disastrous conclusion. How could she possibly find this subject easy to talk about? “During the five hundred years of peace, many Ikarians came to live in the southern half of Eulene. The northern countries of the Union were in a huge disagreement with us about the matter of allowing Malazans to live amongst us in high numbers; the Kartian faith was always much stronger in the north. They couldn’t tolerate Malazans,” she said with a slight self-mocking smile. From the perspective of time the northerners were right, but who could have predicted the events of the last century?
“In the beginning, there was some trouble with the arriving Ikarians, I admit. However, that much was normal. After a few hundred years the conflicts became less frequent as Malazans became more like us, with less focus on the Gods and more on the worldly matters… until fifty years ago, their so-called Great Prophet appeared and united the far west.” Flora pursed her lips, the mere mention of that cursed man causing her to boil with anger. “We… I should have realized what was happening sooner, I should have been more decisive and acted while there was still time,” she said in a pained voice, very much regretting her old indecisiveness.
“One hundred years ago there was about fifty million Ikarians living in the southern half of the Eulean Union. Within the last century, however, fifty million became two hundred million. What’s worse, many of them returned to their old religious lives and began demanding we act in a way that doesn’t insult their God… and we agreed to it,” Flora laughed bitterly at her own words. That was the worst decision she had made in her life; she thought Ikarians would be satisfied as long as some concessions were made, but before she noticed they had taken over their country and demanded for their Sarkar Law to be followed by everyone under threats of violence and something they called Razia; a huge additional tax on all non-believers.
“It was then, three years ago when the northern half of our Union, still unofficially, separated from us. Our relationship had been strained pretty bad for a long time, but when the Bolan Kingdom’s King changed the wave of built-up rage exploded in the north along with it. Whatever little Ikarians and… Slaahs, that lived in the north were mercilessly killed or driven out. The new King of Bolan even trespassed onto the Guode Federation’s lands with his army and laid waste to one of the large cities there. In normal times a war would have erupted because of it, but… we no longer had the power necessary to stand against the north. We weren’t unified, while they were stronger than ever!”
“With all of that said and done, all that was needed for the catastrophe to begin was one word.” Flora shook her head helplessly. “Perhaps in revenge, perhaps because he saw taking the north peacefully would be impossible, the Malazan Great Prophet called for the purge of all infidels and all Malazans who didn’t follow their faith strongly enough. The few dozen ships arrived from the west in early spring and carried a small portion of their elite warriors into our three southern countries. Those warriors joined with the Ikarians living here… and the brutal civil war began. All I could do was protect my closest ones, just like the rest of us. Stopping the war? Impossible,” she said weakly, almost finished with telling the sad story of her mistakes.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“I fear we don’t know the exact numbers, but we estimate over one hundred million Euleanians were killed in those two months with just as many falling into slavery,” she revealed the shocking numbers, causing the adults in Laien and Yin’s group to tremble a little. One hundred million people... all dead? Those figures were so abstract that Laien and Yin themselves couldn’t quite begin to empathize with them; they were simply too unreal.
“Liza… I’m sorry,” Flora lowered her head a little. “I would have protected more people if I could, but I fear most of those you remember had been killed… it was especially bad here in the capital. I think only Marcia is still alive from your old circle of friends,” she revealed unhappily, visibly distressed by the entire topic. Those things needed to be said… but it wasn’t easy to say them aloud.
Liza’s lips trembled when what she feared was confirmed by Flora. “All of them? Are you sure? Mark and Sasha… didn’t they have two little children? Anna had a young daughter too… they wrote letters to me…” she brought up hopefully, willing to go as far as she could to at least help the children of her old friends. There were things they disagreed about, but in the end they were her only friends from back then!
“Do you think Ikarians spared children and elderly?” Claire asked with a sarcastic laugh. “Many of my nephews and nieces died. All I could do was to protect my little sister and her family… but yesterday I failed even at that,” she said and laughed helplessly, all the while shaking her head. She had thought herself to be Flora’s successor, but as it turned out she was nothing more than one weak woman who couldn’t protect those important to her! It was so sad she didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
“I… I’m sorry,” Liza apologized quietly, for the first time ever seeing Claire in an outburst of anger. Flora had often yelled at her when she had done something bad or refused to listen, but Claire always talked calmly and took the time to explain everything. If Flora was a teacher to her, then Claire… Claire was a little bit of a mother.
“It’s not your fault,” Claire said resignedly. “You had nothing to do with how this country operated, while we had everything to do with it. As for my nephew and Flora’s grandson getting kidnapped from my own house, it was my fault for not learning the Grand Palace called for an urgent ‘delivery’ of young slaves to celebrate the soon visit of a Grand Yimar,” having said so, she clenched her fists in fury. She had been telling her little sister to leave the country, but she refused to leave her alone in this mess. Yet, now her little sister’s son was put in great danger due to her own lack of ability.
“It wasn’t just your own fault,” Flora said calmly, but with stern conviction shining in her eyes. “None of us could predict them giving the order the moment they received the news. We didn’t have time to act. However, it’s still not too late. Aren’t we here now to plan how to rescue those two?” she reminded, allowing Claire to calm down a little and reign her emotions in.
“They are kidnapping children? What for? To be slaves?” Laien asked, feeling a bit bad for those two guys that Claire mentioned.
“If only,” Flora shook his head. “I fear they are gathering children for their harems, for their warriors and priests to use,” she explained in soft, but very much disdainful words. She could have said they were gathering children to be used as toys to be raped and discarded, but as her own grandson had been abducted such words refused to pass through her throat.
The look on Laien’s face turned stern, and so did the look on Yin’s face. They knew slavery was a fairly common practice in the world, but that was mainly when a country lost a war. For citizens to have their own children taken from them and sent to some harems, they could barely imagine a place so degenerate existed.
“My grandson, Nathan, and Claire’s nephew, Louis. They were both taken by them,” Flora spoke bitterly. “The Grand Palace is strictly protected. We have a few people inside so we know that our boys were taken to the main harem, not some secondary one. Saving them in a straightforward manner with the number of Ikarian and Slaah experts in the Grand Palace is a pipe dream. The only saving grace is that Yimar Sharu took one-third of his forces and went to the sea to receive the Grand Yimar. That gives us a chance,” she explained, wanting Laien and Yin to understand the situation well.
“I was originally planning to feign an attack on the Grand Palace with all of our remaining allies and have our insiders save Nathan and Louis, and as many others as possible. With some preparations and at the cost of my treasured runic formations, we should be able to escape from the pursuit. However, one problem remains. We don’t have anyone capable or trustworthy enough with a direct access to the main harem,” she elaborated, but sure enough didn’t expect the reaction she got as soon as she finished speaking.
“And you want us to help?” Yin asked with an expression on his face that was by no means friendly. “That’s why you were so happy when you saw how we look, eh?” he asked again, angered that this old woman invited them in with intentions like those. They didn’t know her or any of the people here, so why would they put themselves at so much risk for no gain? To save the children? If the plan was reasonable then perhaps, but not when the idea was so incredibly risky!
“You brat, show some respect to your elders!” Darcy almost shouted, heavily angered by Yin’s presumptuous words. What could a child like him know? How could he behave like that when Flora didn’t even say anything yet? That was beyond disrespectful! That was unacceptable!
“How about you show some respect first?” Laien snorted, wondering where did that short-haired woman get her attitude from. What, were they supposed to be ecstatic to risk their lives and offer themselves for the role of infiltrating the harems? By the looks of it in form of another two slaves? Yin was right; if there wasn’t something worth the risk in it for them then they shouldn’t play with their luck and ask for something bad to finally happen to them.
“You…! Do you understand the position you are in?” Darcy hissed through her teeth, involuntarily releasing a large amount of fire-element spiritual energy. The armchair she was sitting on began shining with a runic light as the protective formation on it resisted the high temperature. The air around Darcy, however, began fluctuating under the extreme heat. Many tongues of flames began flickering chaotically in the area of a few meters from her body, forcing Laien and Yin’s guards to retreat further to the back. At the same time, the heat and the dancing strands of flames began creeping upon the sofa, threatening to burn everything in their part to crisp.
Whereas Amber appeared to be excited and Lucinda appeared to not care at all, Flora and Claire both had ugly looks on their faces. For a spiritual master to control his spiritual energy it was of utmost importance to perpetuate a healthy mental state. What it meant for the mental state to be healthy differed from person to person, but Darcy displayed anything but the symptoms of a healthy mental state. The events of the spring… they must have left too big of a scar on her psyche. At this rate it wouldn’t be surprising if the Spiritual Core began cracking, resulting in Darcy’s body imploding with devastating power. Of course, it would take years for that to happen, but if she continued as she was… then one day she would inevitably self-destruct.
“Good grief.” Flora began raising her hand, ready to offset the surge of fire-element energy directed at the boys. Yet, she halted the moment she sensed a few strands of aura entering her body and probing her cultivation base. This split-second of hesitation was enough to change the course of events.
“Hmph.” Laien raised his hand, drawing upon his spiritual energy. With his soul as strong as it became, he could clearly sense how the water-element power was surging out of his Spiritual Sea. It was clear, extremely pure and powerful; he could finally evaluate himself as he met with a genuine energy belonging to a spiritual master. “Wanting to burn me at this level…” he said disdainfully and allowed the spiritual energy to seep out of his body, instantly transforming it into a freezing mist.
The approaching wave of heated-up air frizzled and crackled, a vapor of moisture rising up to the ceiling as the two extremes collided. Laien waved his hand, pushing the freezing air forward and extinguishing the flames flickering in the air. The cold air easily overcame the hot air and surged further ahead, swallowing Darcy up and causing frost to converge over the runes protecting the armchair. It didn’t manage to hurt Darcy herself as she protected herself from harm… but her spiritual energy had been thoroughly suppressed.
By now, the angered expression on Darcy’s face changed into one of fear and disbelief. She might have only attacked using her Guardian Spell, but she was a spiritual master of the third rank! How could a child have overcome her magic so easily? She could clearly sense that his spiritual energy had the qualitative aura of her eighth mortal realm, but somehow it was stronger than hers!
“Exceptional,” Flora muttered, staring at the path of frost on the floor between Laien and Darcy and at the cold still lingering around the latter one, suppressing her Guardian Spell thoroughly. “I’ve lived for eight hundred years… but that’s the first time I’m seeing a young Magus so talented… he might even be stronger than the Divine Protector of the Northern Tribes Alliance when he was that age,” she thought to herself, the rays of hope beginning to shine within her heart. She knew her plan to rescue Nathan and Louis was reckless, but if that boy agreed to help her then it would have a real chance of success!
“Are all spiritual masters so weak?” Laien thought aloud, but when he considered everything about himself and that woman then it made sense. There were five small realms between them, true, but there were no insights at all mixed in with Darcy’s spiritual energy. She looked to be a middle-aged woman; she had probably reached the end of her path and exhausted her potential. He, on the other hand, was at the very beginning of his path; he used only the Principle of Energy, but considering the degree of insights he had into it and not forgetting his Absolute Water Domain, it wasn’t surprising at all that he had suppressed this woman’s Guardian Spell. His and Darcy’s spiritual energies were of around the same power to begin with, but the difference in their innate skills was simply too huge for her to overcome, even with the gap of five levels in her favor.
“Weak…” Darcy gnashed her teeth. Was she really that weak? She couldn’t protect any of the people important to her. When the Bloody Dusk began, she had been with Flora and the others. They all had split up to find and rescue their families… but she failed to do it; her husband, her children and grandchildren… they had all been killed! “I’m…! I’m not weak!” she cried out all of the sudden and raised her hand high up, then began chanting the words of a spell at a very fast pace.
“Darcy! Don’t!” Claire stood up and shouted as a grand fireball emerged over Darcy’s hand. The power of this magic couldn’t be compared to the Guardian Spell, especially with Darcy using a full chant to support it! The conditions in the room weren’t perfect or using a magic of this kind, but it would still carry tens of times more power than the fire she had unleashed before!
“This boy…” Flora opened her eyes wide when she sensed the air around Laien fluctuate with energy once again. She was about to stop Darcy, but instead of leaned back in her armchair and allowed the matter to develop on its own. There was no need for her to intervene, and she wanted to see more of what this black-haired boy was capable of to adjust her plan as well as possible. As for Darcy… hopefully, today would allow her to reassemble herself and once again become useful. If not, then she would be more of an obstacle to the rescue plan than of help.
“Stupid,” Laien shook his head. Before Darcy could finish her chant, he flicked his finger and sent five sturdy and big spikes of ice into the converging fireball. The ice magic collided with the accumulating fire energy and disrupted it, enacting a strong explosion which threw Darcy to the ground and sent the rune-protected armchair stumbling all the way to the wall of the room.
“Who is going to give you ten to fifteen seconds in a fight to finish a full chant of a spell? Are you retarded?” Laien asked contemptuously, showing no pity for the mildly wounded Darcy. He was beginning to understand why the south looked down of spiritual practitioners; unless one was a freak like him, who dual cultivated and had an Absolute Spiritual Domain to support his magic, then he would be almost defenseless in a close-range combat. If a martial practitioner closed the distance between himself and a spiritual practitioner, then the latter one would be much too easy to kill.