To keep things visible down in Noreko’s laboratory basement, he utilized an aura-infused lighting system with aura-infused lamps hanging from the walls. He contorted his fingertips in such a way that light began to occupy the lamps. The space itself inside here wasn’t all that large. It was just spacious enough to accommodate for some kind of contraption at the center of the room.
His contraption—or rather—contraptions were a mix of things all somehow connected together in some manner that he couldn’t completely comprehend. To an esteemed sorcerer, it must’ve made complete sense, while to him, he couldn’t fully wrap his mind around it.
At the center of the room which was made up of dark smoothed-out rock for every surface inside, a slew of geometrical lines and shapes ran along the floor in a hexagonal formation. Chalk must’ve been used to create these markings judging by the white texture. At each endpoint of the hexagon, there was a circle there with a slender device grasping onto a semi-translucent crystal sitting within the chalked circular space.
“So this is what will form a link to the central pillar?”
The sorcerer nodded his head. “These crystals here have been manipulated in such a way to link with the other crystals I intend to replace in that altar. Once we have replaced them with mine own, I need only return to this place here and prepare the proper ritual.”
“And you’ll have enough power to accomplish this?”
“Of course. This is admittedly a more temporary solution to our problems. Eventually we will want to come up with a more stable solution but it will work in the meantime. What’s important is that we remove the queen’s monopoly on this power. Once her connection to the pillar is severed, we will then have the responsibility of powering it ourselves.”
He hadn’t thought about it until now, but if the queen wasn’t going to power it, and the coalition was to power it in her absence, then that sort of meant they would in a manner of speaking, have a monopoly on this responsibility. Whether such a monopoly could ever be fully removed, Kiran could not say. He thought it unlikely which meant whoever was responsible for powering the central pillar, had to be not only capable of doing it but continue to do it regularly to maintain it.
“Hypothetically,” Kiran said, “let’s say something goes wrong and we’re not able to successfully power the pillar ourselves. What happens then?”
“Nothing catastrophic if that’s what you’re thinking. Those chambers beneath the city along with whatever energy is inside the pillar itself has enough residual energy to keep itself powered indefinitely for at least a month by my estimation. It’s of course never a good idea to miss a day to power it since it might struggle to operate sufficiently. As long as I keep up with it, it shouldn’t be a problem.”
“And what if a significant period of time goes by and we’re not able to ever get it powered? Surely that would pose a serious problem for maintaining the pillars and their stated purpose.” Without the pillars, Liall would quickly be in immense danger. The green fog that the pillars projected outward across all of the fifth domain’s lands was crucial in suppressing the spawning of gruesome creatures that came from another plane of existence.
Noreko smiled finding his questions perhaps silly. “I understand your concerns, Kiran. I would be concerned as well, but I have been studying the nature of these pillars for many years. It has always been my intent and purpose to one day power it myself knowing that it will be our only real way of freeing ourselves from the queen. If I were you, I would not worry about it. Leave the pillar to me while you focus on your own important task.”
I’m just trying to come up with something to justify pulling out, aren’t I? There were plenty of ways for this entire plan to go wrong after all. He could easily justify or come up with a good reason to not go through with it. But if the inhabitants of this city were to in fact be free from her, then they had little choice than to act.
While the day itself was far from over, night ruled over the fifth domain. The starless and moonless sky made for incredibly dark nights. He practically never wandered through the wasteland back in the day when it became dark since he couldn’t see a thing ahead of himself. Lar could see a bit better than himself but even she never really wanted to travel in the dark back then. That was also when monsters would be much more dangerous if they ever ran into one so when night settled out there, they stayed put wherever they ended up at.
At least in Liall, the streets had aura-infused lights and residual light coming out of the various occupied buildings. It made wandering through the dark much easier but it was still incredibly dark since there was no moon up there to shine down upon them.
After seeing Noreko’s unique contraption, he decided to visit Lar.
They lay in bed half awake. He held onto a candlestick to provide the interior a bit of light. She went to her side to look at him while covered in blankets.
“I hope I didn’t wake you,” he said quietly near her bed. “I just wanted to stop by to see whether you were awake or not.”
“I was already mostly awake before you came in.”
He sat the candlestick down on a table near Lar’s bed. He then pulled over a chair and sat down so he could relax a little.
“Something on your mind?” she asked.
“Yeah. Just thought I’d check in with you and see whether you’ve encountered any further stalls with your progress.” Lar spent most of their time here. Every now and then she came out and wandered about, but even doing something as simple as that was quite draining for her. I owe her big time for having to go through all of this. How will I ever repay her for saving my life I wonder.
She scratched her scalp. “It’s hard to tell day by day, but I think I’m mostly improving bit by bit, but to be honest with you, I’m having mostly a rough time. Saving your sorry rear end cost me a lot it would seem.”
“The damage isn’t permanent is it?”
“What? No, it’s definitely not permanent.”
“Are you sure?
“Of course I am.”
He felt somewhat relieved to hear that. Lar had sacrificed so much to save him when the queen dealt what should’ve been a life-ending blow to him. Had it not been for Lar’s immediate action out there, Kiran would be dead like the rest of all of those people who fell victim to her actions that day.
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“Don’t worry,” she said, “I’m made of tough stuff. I’ll be back to normal eventually. Plus, I come from a family of familiars who aren’t weak unlike a lot of other familiars out there so you’ve got nothing to worry about.”
“A family of familiars, eh? Say, now that I think about it, you’ve never really talked about this family of yours.”
“To be honest I don’t really want to talk about them.”
“Come on, surely—” Due to the way her eyes appeared, he chose not to finish that statement. Some doors are better left unopened. “Anyways, I’m glad to hear that you’ll eventually be back to where you once were.”
“It’s mostly because our souls are bound together. If it weren’t for that, I’d probably be dead myself. But I would’ve also not been able to save you too so there’s that.”
He remembered how skeptical he was when Lar came up to him for the first time and offered an opportunity to bound their soul to his. While not at all regretful of exercising skepticism back then, seeing how willing they were to help him out throughout their time of companionship together since then, made it all seem so ridiculous in hindsight. Ultimately, Lar had his back and had proven that time and time again. Kiran had no choice but to have the willingness to offer that to them as well.
She repositioned herself just slightly in the bed. “You look like you’re a bit tense.”
“You can tell?”
“Sure I can. It’s alright. I’m sure anyone who is willing to throw themselves towards one of the strongest people in the city will feel tense.”
“How do you feel about it? Do you think I should still reconsider doing this?”
“I think that ultimately you have to be the one to make that decision. Who am I to suggest otherwise after what she did to you and Della? If you ask me, she deserves to be put down. Now whether that means you’ll succeed or not will depend on a lot of factors I imagine.”
You’re not wrong about that. Kiran got up from his chair and sat it back down where he found it. “I’ll be sure to visit you before I set off tomorrow.”
“You better. It might be the last time we see each other!”
He smiled and left her bed chamber. Considering her condition, he tried not to bother her much since she just needed to rest as much as possible. But every now and then he wanted to see how she was doing just to make sure she was doing alright. He felt bad though for how long she was taking to recover and it appeared evident that it will be a process that will go on for quite a bit longer.
She had been by his side practically since the time he began this new life of his. It was quite an odd feeling to not have them there to watch his back more recently. At least he had the coalition to fulfill that role to a certain degree. It just wasn’t the same however to not have her with him like it had been.
As he walked through one of the lavish mansion’s hallways, he began to hear voices within a room. The door opened somewhat harshly and a short woman came bursting out with her face reddened in anger.
It appeared to be Abigail who possessed the same intensity back when he first encountered her a while back. She ended up spotting him only for Rinas to come out noticing him as well.
Oh dear, what did I just stumble into?
“Just know Rinas,” Abigail said. “I expect to take part in this little scheme you’ve divvied out to our other members. You’ve been having me sit out in far too many conflicts for far too long. I’m a fighter too you know!”
Rinas appeared half-ready to give up on life. He pressed his palm into his face.
“Should I perhaps not be privy to this conversation?” Kiran asked not sure whether he ought to just head back in the opposite direction or just stand there awkwardly as the two of them stared at him.
Abigail puffed out her chest and raised her chin. “Why of course not. You’re obviously more liked and regarded as important by Rinas considering all of the responsibility he’s given to you whilst being a relatively new member no less!”
“Abigail please,” Rinas said tiredly. “We needn’t rise to anger. This attitude of yours, especially so late at night—”
“My attitude?” I’ll have to remind myself to always choose my words carefully with her. Otherwise she’ll be oft to smack me in the face. “How about this. Since you’re so important,” she said directing that comment towards Kiran specifically, “what do you say about me tagging along with you beneath the central pillar whenever you’re all going back down there?”
“I don’t personally have a problem with it,” Kiran said.
“See?” she said.
Rinas looked down at her eager to get this whole thing over with. “Fine. But I would’ve preferred for you to handle your other responsibilities up here yourself rather than having your people do it themselves.”
“They’re more than capable of handling them. I trained them after all. And besides, I cannot begin to describe to you how much I’ve been itching for some action.”
“We might not encounter any,” Kiran said. “We just have a few wards to break and then replace some crystals and then we’ll be done.”
“Well, there’s always the possibility and I want to be there just in case. I’m a faction leader dammit. I’m supposed to be getting my hands dirty. I also can’t stand to have Frederek having all of the fun while I’m stuck in some room directing my people all around the city.”
He wasn’t exactly sure what she did for the coalition and he wasn’t sure whether he ought to ask at this time. He figured he’d find out during another opportune moment.
“Are you satisfied then?” Rinas said.
A devious smile appeared on her face. “Yes. Quite so in fact. I’ll be off now that I’ve gotten what I wanted.” He got the sense that so long as she got her way, her anger could be temporarily eliminated but not entirely.
While she wandered down the hall, only he and Rinas remained. The man looked him in the eye with a truly tired and weary face. Although he wasn’t going out there on the field, he had a lot of responsibilities in leading the coalition. He had to direct the various faction leaders, get updated on situations, and issue out orders that would affect things in all kinds of varying ways.
“It appears that Abigail will be going with you and the others as you return to those chambers.” That was assuming of course that he succeeded at taking care of the queen. “She is a capable fighter so if you do encounter trouble, she’ll be a useful asset to have around. Just try to not anger her. She tends to hold perhaps some of the most long-lasting tempers I’ve ever seen from a familiar.”
“Duly noted,” Kiran said.
“As for you, are you ready for tomorrow?”
“As ready as I can be. I’m a bit on edge but I think that’s probably normal.”
“I would be concerned if you weren’t. There’s a lot of pressure resting atop your shoulders, but know that we are all appreciative of your courage to carry out this plan.”
Hearing that from the leader of the Human Familiar Coalition himself meant a lot. The least he could do was perform well for what he knew was going to be a long day. So rather than stay up any longer, he chose to head to his own bed chamber that he had the privilege of being provided.
Whatever is to come tomorrow, let me give it my all. Let me see no other path than success and bring it about in whatever way I possibly can.