After several days, the city’s subjugation was officially over. The lower sector found itself thoroughly secured and any remaining banespawn found themselves either killed or captured.
As for the captured ones, well, Lucias wasn’t at all interested in being lenient towards them.
Within the grand keep, an entire group of them were hauled in by multiple armed soldiers. Their hands were tied behind their backs with heavy chains. There was no way they would be breaking out of these constraints no matter how hard they attempted to.
One of them Kiran immediately recognized. It was that same pesky banespawn who had been a literal pain in his backside. She snarled at him as a soldier pushed her forward. She twisted her head around her shoulder so she could maintain eye contact for as long as possible.
He had taken one of her eyes but only because she chose to strike him first. Now she was desperate to kill him, but every time she tried or wanted to, she only ended up ever failing.
The group of eight or so captured banespawn were forced onto their knees as Lucias gazed down at them from his throne.
Unlike the days before, he was looking much better today. His complexion had returned to its usual appearance for the most part. Lucias kept one leg crossed over the other as he eyed each banespawn individually. “Do any of you have anything to say for yourselves?”
None chose to respond. Only mere silence occupied this grand chamber until Lucias chose to speak again.
“I would’ve expected at least one of you to say something. I suppose when you’ve so heinously failed in this rather crude and silly endeavor of yours, you’d struggle to conjure up the right words to say. No worries. If you have nothing to—”
“You will pay for what you have done!” One of the lizard-like banespawn’s began to stand up but a sword quickly found itself placed at their shoulder. They puffed out their chest and slowly went back to their knees. “This city of yours, it…it will one day burn to the ground. Your people will die by our hands! We will shatter everything you hold dear and break every will and spirit that can be found.”
Lucias sighed. “I have been incredibly patient towards your kind. I have even gone so far as to tolerate your existence and what did you choose to do? You chose to attack me. A real pity. We could’ve had peace, but now it seems I must be far more unforgiving. Now you’re going to have to pay for these horrific actions you chose to inflict against myself and my people. And there is only one form of payment that will be sufficient. It will require your deaths.”
“P-Please!” another banespawn yelled aloud.
“Silence. I will hear no further words from any of you. I Lucias Velmond, hereby authorize you all to be executed immediately.”
Each of them were hauled off and dragged away. Some tried to fight against the armored soldiers but quickly found themselves overwhelmed.
“You will die!” The big lizard-like banespawn began to curse Lucias’s name in such grotesque ways, that his mind struggled to fully comprehend it. Their voice became quieter whilst being hauled away until eventually, it ceased to be any longer.
The chamber became a lot quieter as a result. The crackling wood from a nearby brazier reached his ears as Lucias appeared relieved but also somewhat regretful. “I am no stranger to death but I am always reluctant to order it onto others. I pray that I do not have to order more to their deaths any time soon. But now that they have been dealt with, let us all convene together in a more private area.”
Lucias stood up and Kiran along with Rinas and the other faction leaders began to find themselves in a meeting chamber.
Felmir entered after them along with Halmond.
“Now that Valak has been fully liberated, we can divert all of our efforts towards our most important matter at hand.” Lucias gestured towards Halmond who kept his hands behind his back.
Halmond walked towards the more center left of the rectangular table and pointed his finger to the area west of the border. “Lady Meredith will have most assuredly been bolstering her strength in the time since you all left that cave of hers. Had we not been so preoccupied with the banespawn, we might’ve been able to avoid running into much resistance, but I doubt that is possible any longer. I would expect many of the various lords who are loyal to her to have assembled their forces and perhaps even prepare to head straight for the border if they haven’t reached it already. Which if they have, spells trouble for your people who have settled near there.”
“Do you believe she would harm them?” Rinas asked. “They are entirely innocent in all of this.”
“It is possible,” Lucias began to say, “that Lady Meredith would take harmful actions towards them. If she’s willing to take actions that allow for this domain to be cursed by this darkness, then perhaps she’d do anything.”
Halmond nodded his head. “Given their relatively close position to her, we can assume she’s already reached them. I would expect a high likelihood that they’ll be used against us. I also doubt that she will have brought any actual harm against them, at least yet anyway. For her to use them against us, she will need them to be alive so I doubt any real harm has been caused to them.”
If she could have hundreds of the survivors from Liall as hostages, that would work against them quite effectively. It would be hard to carry on knowing she could have so many innocents slaughtered if they chose to take any untoward actions against her.
Despite that, Lucias didn’t appear as dismayed as one might expect. “Fear not my dear friends. Lady Meredith may have these lords of hers under her thumb to use at her behest, but what she doesn’t have is the power of words.”
“The power of words?” Abigail muttered aloud.
“That’s right.” Lucias gaze became fierce and determined. “While she has plenty of supporters and forces eagerly awaiting her command, her ability to order them will be useless if they no longer support her. We will utilize our words by convincing her allies that she is the real enemy and threat to their livelihoods.”
Frederek didn’t appear convinced. “That is no simple task. They might not even be willing to hear us out in the first place.”
“Uh huh,” Abigail said. “Do you really think they’d stop and chat with us? The minute they see us walk across that border, they’ll march forward fully intending to fight.”
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“It’s a valid concern,” Lucias stated, “although, I have found over the years that, that is not the way of her people. They certainly view me with scorn, but they’re not entirely unreasonable. I believe that if we get the chance to form a link of communication with them, we can very well convince them to side with us instead. Once they learn that she is the cause of all of their problems, their will to fight for her will falter.”
“For a familiar you sure have a lot of faith in humans,” Abigail said.
“I have seen what they are capable of. Many of them in fact are in here in this room. But at the end of the day, not every choice we make in order to succeed must be dealt with by violence. Will I use violence? Of course. But if it can be avoided, I would much prefer that. We also cannot afford for an all-out war to occur. Neither of our sides will survive such a conflict and they know that as well. Therefore, I will work towards making sure we can resolve things as amicably as possible since that is in all of our interests.”
He didn’t come out and say it out loud, but he appreciated that Lucias wanted to take things in this direction. Sometimes violence was a necessity. He sure had participated in plenty of it whether with this life or his previous one, but a lot of the time, it was far better to resolve things in a way that avoided it entirely.
Rinas appeared to agree as well. “If they are using our people as hostages, then we have little other choice but to try to resolve this more peacefully for their sake.”
“Precisely. I get your eagerness to strike them fast and hard,” Lucias said while eyeing Abigail, “but more violence will not do any of us any good. I am sure some will occur no matter what we do, but if we can minimize any harm, that would be for the best.”
The most eager to commit violence amongst them might not be pleased, but Abigail Schwartz had no choice but to accept this tactic Lucias wished to employ with the coalition.
“Regardless of what happens,” Rinas said, “we should expect the cave to be heavily guarded. And even if we were to somehow convince all of these lords to turn their backs against her, we will meet immense pushback at that location.”
“That’s without a doubt.” Lucias gestured for a young man to approach the table. He sat down a small rectangular case near the center of the table and began to open it.
Four arcane roots appeared before them all. Each one was large enough to fit the palm of their hands. Immense power dwelled in each of them. Despite how useful they would end up being for them, he felt wary of having to use such power.
“I intend for us to succeed,” Lucias continued to say. “These will give us the edge we’ll need to defeat whoever stands in our way once we reach the cave. As for who will use them, I will leave such a decision for you.”
“All four of these are for us?” Rinas asked.
“Don’t worry. We have a few of our own. Normally I wouldn’t dare use these for offensive purposes, but if we can remove this darkness with their help, we won’t have to worry about their power being used up.”
“Yorais,” Rinas said.
“Yes?”
“Would you be willing to use one?”
“Without hesitation.”
“Have you ever used one?”
“No, but I am familiar enough with how they work that I shouldn’t have any issue channeling and controlling its energy the same way I would use any other mana source.”
He nodded his head. “Kiran. What about you? Would you want the opportunity to use one?”
A part of him said no. Another part said yes. “If I must.” It would act as a much better alternative than him using his soul or another person’s soul. And the fact remained, that if they were going to have to deal with Evelyn once again—which was inevitable—they needed every bit of power they could get their hands on to challenge her successfully.
As for who would end up getting the last two arcane roots, Abigail was chosen to get her hands on one and then the last remaining arcane root was going to be used by Rinas himself.
“Now that we have figured that out,” Lucias said, “let us go over a few more things so that we all know what we’re doing.”
The meeting continued for some time. They went over strategies and plans for where they would be going and so on. Yorais had memorized a decent route to get them back to the cave with the help of numerous landmarks along the way. It was no easy task, but she was quite sure that they wouldn’t have to rely on that butterfly to make it back there.
He wondered why the butterfly hadn’t appeared to him for some time. It seemed to him at least that the further away from the cave he got, the less frequently they would appear. And since being in Valak, they hadn’t appeared to him whatsoever. As he thought it, he hadn’t seen them since he left that cave this time around. He hoped that they were alright. Perhaps we’ll run into each other again on our way back.
With the passage of another day, Kiran packed up a bag full of supplies. He also carefully stashed away the arcane root he now was in possession of. He was technically in possession of two arcane roots now but only one of them possessed power.
“Heya.”
He pulled the bag off the ground and tossed it over his shoulder. “Do my ears deceive me? Did I just hear a heya from you?”
“Well of course. How else should I greet you?”
He smiled as she did as well. “I don’t know, but I like hearing the occasional heya from you. I missed hearing it.”
“Don’t worry. You’ll be hearing it more often. But you know, I’m a little disappointed.”
“Oh?”
“You guys could’ve given me an arcane root, you know. I haven’t been able to make use of any of my arcane talents for a long time now.”
“Sorry, but there’s a limited supply. But who knows, maybe if you went up to Lucias and asked him, he might be able to get one into your hands. It wouldn’t hurt to ask.”
She began to scratch the back of her head. “Uh, that’s alright. He’s a little intimidating to be honest so I’d rather not bother.”
“He’s not that scary. Behind those red eyes of his dwells a tender soul. At least that’s the impression I’ve gotten from him despite what he can turn into.”
Know a person by their actions, not merely by their appearances.
“That’s alright. I can live without it. It sounds like we might get to start using magic again relatively soon anyhow if we can succeed in this mission.”
“That’s the hope anyways. I don’t think anyone knows for sure whether we’ll also fix that while fixing the darkness but Yorais seems to think that’s a high possibility.”
Silvy ended up walking near them with the attire she normally wore underneath her plate armor. “What are you two talking about?”
“Oh you know,” Juna said, “just stuff.”
“Stuff, huh? That it? Well, don’t get too distracted. I think we’re supposed to be leaving right about now.”
“Right you are!”
The three of them left the building and headed outside. A bunch of people were gathered outside with lots of horses and supplies loaded up on carts. Many coalition members, along with soldiers and varying familiars who loyally served Lucias stood around as he stood up on a platform getting all of their attention.
“Today, we all ride together,” Lucias said loudly. “Together we shall succeed in our endeavors. Our domain has suffered long enough. Let us go from liberating our city to liberating all of the fourth domain.”
He managed to get a few jeers and cheers.
All Kiran knew for sure, was that he was eager for them to put an end to all of this madness once and for all. No one else was, so they had no choice but to do it all themselves.