Vince Riker

“Valeria, before you answer, the general’s words have nothing to do with the doll,” Anna said in a rush. “No one’s going to use that ever again.”

Anna got a few weird looks, including from me. But the girl stopped chewing her bottom lip, took a deep breath and leaned her forehead against the chair back.

No one spoke while we waited for her to collect herself.

When she did lift her head she was looking at me with amber eyes that swirled in the room's lighting.

“When I had that curse the worst part was the wait. Knowing the next moment could paralyse you with pain. Lying awake at night because you didn’t want it to wake you up. I called you a liar because there’s no chance you believe differently and a good liar because you smiled while saying it.”

Being openly called out on anything wasn’t something I was used to, even before I was voted into the ducal seat. I wanted to argue with her, shout that she knew nothing of what I was going through. I’d felt like saying that to Morris and even Janette every day this week when they’d pat my shoulder and treat me like a boy who’d scraped his knee.

But, if I was being honest with myself—and I was trying to be. She was right, the moments in between could feel worse. The sleepless nights and panic attacks at the start of stairs I thought I might fall down. Even going to the bathroom was an ordeal since I thought someone might have to come help me. Her first few words caught my attention though. “When you had the curse?”

She sat back down normally and went for the knife. I had no doubt there were some very focused individuals watching her every muscle twitch. “Annalise thinks I was taken from my family but that can’t be right. The witch—I called her Mother—was kind to me when I was younger when she was teaching me to be like her. Alchemy, curses, how poisons affect the body, hexes. It was all I knew then but even now I still think she was caring.”

Valeria sliced at her thumb with the fruit knife. The browned apple half split down the middle and then again before she wiped her thumb across one. “I thought it was supposed to be this way, that I was supposed to do magic. So, when I managed to use my mana I went to go show her. She was…disappointed.”

The knife was placed back down and she got up with the apple slice. “Mother started giving me all these different potions and testing her curses on me. The ones that needed mana didn’t work on me but the one you have uses the body as its source.”

I eyed the apple slice that she was holding out to me. “Blood is the cure but it’s not as strict as it seems. It’s just the key, it’s not like a potion that needs to do something. I share part of my Mother’s blood so that’s how I know I wasn’t kidnapped. The willingness part probably means something to do with how blood is different if the person is living.”

“Maybe it has to be aerated?” Morris asked but Valeria shrugged.

I took the piece of apple and ate it quickly without thinking how gross it was. Because she was right, the worst part was constantly waiting. I felt that not chewing properly was a mistake as I felt the lump go down my throat.

The knife in my gut twisted and jerked but slowly slid out and I breathed deeply for the first time in weeks.

Anna was massaging her temples. Janette was looking to me for a verdict while the others were looking at the girl with either suspicion or in Morris’s case, contemplation.

“Thank you,” I said and the suspicion in the glaring eyes of Faraya lessened slightly.

“Truly,” Janette said with a long sigh. “Let me get that for you.”

She held out her hand for Valeria, to help heal the small cut. “The bleeding has already stopped?”

“That’s not normal?”

“Not this quickly,” Janette said while turning over Valeria’s hand. “Morris, how did you get the spell to work? Mine’s not latching on.”

“You have to exclude the mana targeting aspect,” Anna said. “Make it target the area instead.”

Morris also went to fuss over the cut until the skin was unblemished.

“What’s your plan now Valeria?” I asked. She looked at Anna.

“I told her she’d get some gold for helping and I’d see about getting her a job in our stables.”

I didn’t know for certain if Valeria was from the seed I’d given the witch. But it seemed very likely, especially now knowing she was the witch’s daughter and the girl had just saved my, the duke’s life. I felt justified in providing a greater reward, but it had nothing to do with feeling guilty for something I didn’t know about and had no control over.

“Sir,” Jeremy said quietly from my partner’s side of the bed. “On behalf of your election Chief, who isn’t here and will hopefully never find out about all this. I have to advocate for getting this child as far away from the castle as possible. She, quite literally, used to be a witch’s apprentice and should be nowhere near us.”

“Anna, how many people know about her relationship to the witch?” I asked my daughter, who was trying to talk to a very sheepish Valeria.

“Ah, the Mayor and a few of his guests and maybe a group of Remnants think she’s a victim of kidnapping. I may have also threatened them into silence over the other names in the book. I had no idea”—she glanced meaningfully at Valeria—“that she was her daughter. According to what I gathered from the mayor, they don't look remotely alike, so it hadn’t crossed my mind. I guess the doll also convinced me of that since I couldn’t comprehend a mother doing something like that.”

“We’re going to have to speak on this ‘doll’ at some point because right now you sound deranged,” Faraya said.

“So?” I asked, wanting to get through this so we could do exactly that. “No one knows?”

Anna nodded and I raised an eyebrow at Jeremy.

“It’s still in our best interest to keep her at arm's length, get Kylepo to give her a position near the military stables,” Jeremy said. The nearby general grunted at that but didn't push back on the suggestion.

Yanla opened the door after knocking. “Sir, your next meeting is here.”

“Have them sent to my office but we’ll wait till after that to see about resuming normal duties around here,” I said.

She glanced around the room. “You’re cured?”—I nodded—“Congratulations, sir.”

“Yanla can you please get someone to organise a staff room?” Anna asked with a hand on Valeria’s shoulder.

I cursed myself for feeling too guilty to think about accepting Jeremy’s advice. “Sorry, Yanla, please take Valeria here and get her situated in one of the guest rooms in the west wing. We have some more matters we want to discuss quickly before the next meeting.”

I ignored the looks thrown my way, Jeremy’s in particular. Janette and Anna looked pleased and I hoped they’d stay that way when I told them a story later.

“If that’s how this is going to be,” Jeremy said and removed the necklace with the crystal that made most think he had mana reserves. “Catch.”

He threw the necklace to Valeria, who almost fumbled it to the ground. The crystal immediately drained as soon as it touched her fingers and it might have been my imagination but the mana in the room felt slightly denser.

“What the fuck,” someone muttered, and I ignored the impropriety since I was thinking something similar.

Valeria looked like she’d just eaten a whole bag of sugar and was trying to shake herself out of the stupor it had induced.

“Whose mana was that?” she asked, grimacing as if the sugar had been hiding some especially bitter tincture.

“My partner infused it this morning…what happened?” Jeremy asked.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“It looked like she drained the crystal,” Janette said.

“Why are they mad at you?” Valeria asked while looking at Jeremy with pity.

“What do you mean?” Jeremy said with a raised voice we hardly. “He was not mad at me, we were just having a small disagreement this morning.” It seemed for once he was somehow on the back foot of the information game.

“No, he was very mad at you.”

“Let’s see that for a moment,” Morris said and plucked the small crystal out of her hand before Jeremy could investigate further. He infused it again and placed it back onto her palm.

Valeria looked like tears were about to roll down her cheeks. “Why are you so sad? Over…me?”

We looked to the older man for an explanation. “I’ll explain in a bit once Yanla takes her. Let me infuse it again for you.”

Morris did as he said and placed the necklace on Valeria so that it sat between her shirt and overalls. He explained why she would need to wear it and then why it was best to keep it a secret. We watched and waited for it to drain but it didn’t.

“I would say she was a mage with a lower than normal mana reserve for her age,” Faraya said and we all agreed with her. The mana crystal gave the impression of a noticeable mana reserve. On Jeremy, it worked well for most novice mages but on Valeria, it was almost impossible to tell.

“Valeria, right? Do you want to come along with me so we can get you settled in?” Yanla asked. Anna and Janette hugged and thanked her before nudging Valeria to go with Yanla. Aaron held out his fist for her while the others gave her a more official thanks contingent on the cure working long term.

Right before she got to the door Valeria spun around and looked at me. “You should look into using the town I met Annalise in for your new grape fields. The baby treants there would like having a new type of plant to grow.”

I was still working through how she would know that and why there were treants near a settlement when the door closed on the two of them.

“Sir, if I may,” General Kylepo asked. “We have to find out what that witch did to get her mana like that. It is of an importance I cannot even begin to describe. Imagine an entire cohort of trained mages like her behind enemy lines or getting close to field commanders.”

That brought Jeremy out of his mood concerning his partner. “You brutes all think the same. How is espionage not your first consideration for a talent like that? Information gives us leverage and advantages that violence does not. It wins elections and wins wars ”

“You’re okay with her being around now?” I asked, not impressed with either of them but did understand the merits of what they were talking about.

“Sir, that was your decision. I’m just rolling with the punches.”

“I seem to recall saying we were officially recruiting her,” Faraya said and swiped at Captain Leonarda for his smug look.

“She’s wasted on glorified guard duty.” “Shut up, Fay.”

“Shame on you four,” Janette said, standing with her brows furrowed. “Her mother may have just been executed. She’s been dragged across the country and is now staying in a glorified prison until we deem it all right for her to leave. Did you not see the same fragile and traumatised child I did? Shame on you for even suggesting anything of the sort.”

I lamented on why these people needed to ruin her perfectly good mood right before I had to tell her something that might get me thrown out of a fourth storey window.

“I want to hear about this ‘doll’ and these incidents,” Morris said into the following silence. Which got everyone but Anna to agree.

“The spell I used on her was one I tangled together, especially for the Duke’s case. A variation on a pain diagnostic spell to try to tap into how the body remembers the pain it experiences. While I’m not sure on the extent or accuracy since I had to do what you said and target the area rather than her. I am horrified by the results I was able to sense. Especially what’s happened these last few days.”

“I…”

“Captain Riker, consider this your formal debrief, don’t bullshit me,” Faraya said and looked to me as if to dare me to intervene in one of her duties. I wasn’t going to.

“Yes, ma’am,” Anna said and stood straighter. “We found the witch’s cottage during the late afternoon, Valeria wasn’t there at the time so I left my three apprentices there while Ian and I went to see the mayor. It was supposed to just be a meeting but he’d turned it into a full event that—

…

“Annalise, tell me where this accursed thing is right now,” Janette said. “And if I even suspect that that girl is here under threat of its use I’ll…arh.”

She made a strangling motion towards Anna but I think we both understood our daughter well enough to know she would never.

“It’s in the vault downstairs.”

Janette pointed at Morris and then Faraya. “You are going to go look at that thing and get that curse removed and you are going to organise some serious reprisal for those two aspirants.”

“They acted within the law,” Faraya said and held up her hands placatingly when it looked like Janette was about to disembowel her. “They were acting under lawful orders to secure the books and understand their contents. They had evidence that she was a witch who had time-sensitive information on the well being of the duke and they didn’t cause grievous bodily injury while extracting that information.”

“They electrocuted and burnt her,” Janette said and did the one thing I wished she wouldn’t do. “Vince, you’re going to let that go unpunished?”

The story was horrifying and I did think, especially in hindsight, that it was abhorrent. But it was legal and the person who would get punished for the overreach of subordinates would be their superior who was supposed to be supervising these apprentices.

“Anna,” I said to try to avoid Janette’s direct question. “You made the best decision possible at the time with the information you had. No one could have known Valeria would show up. But at the end of the day you know this would reflect on you more than them?”

“I do.”

“Faraya, can you go down there and discreetly make my displeasure at this mess known? While they technically acted within the law we don’t need knights running around interrogating people.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Knights have far too little training for how much autonomy and power they have, maybe we can take another look at incorporating them into the military?” Kylepo asked.

“Don’t push it, General. Your predecessors are the reason for our formation,” Faraya said. I did not want to get into another reorganising discussion this month, The Watch would want to get involved as well just to spite me.

“There’s still a few matters that aren’t explained with that story,” Morris said.

I let my head hit the back of the board. I didn’t want there to be more.

“Go on, Morris,” Janette said with her arms crossed.

“A week prior she seemed to have damaged her muscles, ligaments and burst veins all up her arms. There were signs her airways went through something I would guess to be smoke inhalation. And the other day something severely agitated her eyes in a way similar to what the doll does and then her ears a while later. It’s hard to tell the exact time frame.”

“I don’t know what happened to her arms,” Anna said, looking at the floor. “I think I remember an old bruise on her shoulder? Not sure what the eyes could be but the ears could be explosive spells.”

“Which of those fucking idiots used explosive spells?” Faraya asked. “None of them are year four yet, they know not to even try.”

I thought her conveying my displeasure would be a lot more effective after this depending on why they were using them. I understood why explosions were the spells the average person focused on since they were some of the most eye-catching. But there were far worse spells people didn’t know to even advocate to ban within city limits. The military had even developed new explosive spells that went past the language of the current law.

“It was the mages in Tamil that I need to talk to you about in relation to Kiteer’s Baron,” Anna said.

“Ah, yes,” Kylepo siad. “We’re discussing what to do about that mess after this next meeting. I’m waiting on a report from Jeremy that we should get this morning.”

“I’ll be attending this meeting as well then, to find out why she was even in a position to have explosions close enough to damage her hearing,” Janette said.

I wanted to get this over with and put on some real clothes before my next meeting.

“Faraya, find out what we’re missing about the eye thing when you speak with the aspirants. Jeremy please take Morris down to the vault and grab another crystal to replace yours while you’re down there before getting to that report. General, thank you for joining us, I’ll see you for that briefing later. Now, everyone but my partner…and daughter, please get out of my room.”

“Will do, sir.” “Thank you, sir.” “See you then, sir.”

“Glad you’re better, Vince,” Kylepo added on his way out.

I got up and out of bed for the first time in days without feeling dread. My body felt lighter like it knew the curse was gone. I was almost knocked back down by my daughter ramming into me.

I returned the hug. “Thank you for going across the duchy to help me.”

“Mhmm,” she mumbled into my robe. “I’m sorry I messed up with the apprentices.”

“You just have to delegate tasks sometimes as a leader. And sometimes they’ll disappoint you. It wasn’t your fault and all you can do is take the lessons that it taught you and apply them in the future.”

Janette came to join us. I felt bad I hadn’t bathed yet but as long as they didn’t comment I wouldn’t let it spoil the moment.

“I’m sorry if it seemed I was blaming you earlier Anna, I know you wouldn’t do anything of the sort. And I’m glad you’re whole again, Vince.”

They released me and I hesitated. I could tell myself it wasn’t confirmed but that only took a single spell to accomplish. I could say it didn’t matter cause I didn’t have anything to do with her. I could keep it a secret for the sake of not making any issues.

But I wouldn’t. Simply because I wasn’t going to lie by omission and I felt justified in my trade for Janette’s life. I would do it again even knowing the outcome, though I’d do it with a heavier conscience knowing the suffering that happened in exchange for Janette’s and the lives of dozens of others who benefited from the cure.

It would be mortifying to tell Anna at the same time but this conversation was one I wanted to only have once. It might also prevent me from being strangled to death.

I would try to make it up to Valeria even if I wasn’t factually her father.

“I need to tell you about a translation error that was made on this paper,” I said and held up the note Anna had given me. “But before I do, I want to start off by saying there was no physical interaction between us.”