image [https://i.imgur.com/yFu9mOD.png]

XVII

Beneath the Ruins and Frost

‘I humbly introduce Mel of Icevein, myself, Theodore of Frosthollow, and my son, Martin. We greet you, Warden.’

The representatives being mostly reeves was no surprise. The suddenness of my order combined with the settling chaos outside left them with little time to prepare, let alone wear anything besides some half-clean rags. Yet, despite their appearance, I could tell these men had experience. Age had not worn out Mel and Martin’s posture and all three lacked the accent of the common folk.

The older man I’d chewed out an hour ago rose and placed a hand on his chest. ‘Indo Moreton, Your Excellency, as you already knew. I bring with me a selection of the merchant company’s finest: Marco Ballemaker and his son, Harrison. And to not suppress the minority, I requested the attendance of one of our smaller merchants, Diego.’

Their indoor robes were fitted with fur and a lining of silver, and gold adorned their ears and wrists. They were a stark contrast to the reeves. However, somehow, they lacked the subdued yet rigid presence. Indo’s shoulders were slumped, and both of the Ballemakers wouldn’t have been able to run for their life if they tried with their stomachs protruding so far. Diego was the sole exception, I thought. He was skinny for someone that had wealth (however moderate in scope). His glasses didn’t help sell his toughness either. But.

‘No last name?’ I asked.

‘I have discarded my last name, Warden,’ he said, voice clear.

I nodded. ‘Leah, you’re ready?’

‘Yes…Warden.’ She was seated on my right, holding a notebook and quill.

I stopped a smile. With clever intimidation and calling up memories of a certain promise, I made her refer to me in my official station when in public. Now, I could’ve made Fernando act as minute-taker (and he was the person better-fitted for the role), but a Leah who was biting her teeth was too much of a treat.

I briefly turned to Jaeger, Fernando, and Levi, who signalled their readiness.

‘Then, let us not dally,’ I said.

The floodgates burst.

‘Your people are dying, Warden,’ Theodore stated. ‘They will not survive the night without sustenance.’ The old reeve’s gaze flicked to his left.

Moreton was leaned back in his chair and the Ballemakers stared straight ahead. And though Diego’s head was turned to the floor, he didn't respond.

Martin’s knuckles whitened around his armrest. ‘You disgusting—’

‘Keep it civil,’ I said. I regarded Moreton. ‘You have good reason for not sharing your wares.’

‘As you know, Your Excellency,’ Moreton said, ‘our goods were not meant for the West alone.’

My attention stayed on him, and his frown grew slightly as my silence held on.

‘Our company starts in Vrost and travels the country to supply the domain,’ he added, unsure. ‘We cannot give our merchandise away however we please. Especially since we’re only halfway through our campaign. Moreover, though they like to make us out as “demons”—’ a turned up his nose replaced Moreton’s frown ‘—we already supplied them with their share.’

I turned to the other group. Theodore looked like he wanted to punch a hole in the floor. Martin was already exacting a similar fate on his chair.

‘This is true, Warden,’ Theodore got out through his teeth.

Moreton and the Ballemakers snorted.

‘But,’ Theodore continued. ‘With everyone hellbent on fleeing for the safety of the castle, we had no choice but to leave behind our storage.’

‘And that,’ Moreton said, ‘is not our problem. We delivered on what was expected.’

Levi had his arms crossed as he listened. ‘Sometimes, we need to deliver on more than our expectations.’

Marco rubbed his belly. ‘With all due respect, servant of the Faith, we already did. We sold them our wares at an alarmingly discounted rate.’

From Theodore’s grave face, this was another truth.

‘You said you left your storage behind?’ Jaeger said. ‘Why have you not sent a small delegation to retrieve it?’

‘We tried!’ Martin said. ‘But it was already too late by the time we returned.’

‘Too late, how?’ I asked.

‘Bandits, Warden,’ Mel said. ‘The Black Hearts.’

Levi breathed out sharply.

‘Explain,’ I said.

Theodore held up his hand to stop his son from launching into a furious explanation. ‘They are scum that force us to pay tribute to “keep us safe”.’

I frowned and glanced at Fernando, who shook his head.

‘We cannot be everywhere at once, Warden. They also know our patrol schedules so they keep low when we near.’

‘Their hideouts?’ I said.

‘Spread all over,’ Fernando said. ‘Though there are rumours of a leader, we don’t know who it is or where they reside. Some whisper the Giantswood. Others claim the western mountains.’

‘Levi,’ I said. ‘These are the same ones that attacked you on your journey to Snowspire?’

‘Yes,’ he snarled. ‘That our own could do something so ugly…’

‘Long not everyone shares your conviction, Priest,’ Martin chuckled.

Levi said nothing. The way he spoke up for them before must be grating.

‘So,’ I broke the silence, ‘the bandits stole the food you left behind under the pretence of “tribute”?’

Theodore nodded. ‘Some of their men remain in the towns, abusing our homes and holding those who were too weak to make the journey here hostage.’

‘They offered us part of our food back,’ Mel said.

Jaeger scoffed. ‘I don’t even want to hear the price.’

‘You don’t, Sir,’ Theodore agreed.

‘Fernando,’ I said. ‘Do we have an indication of their numbers?’

If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

‘Our most generous estimate is five hundred.’

The room quieted with my thoughts. Those numbers would be spread over multiple territories, which meant a single hideout wouldn’t be more than fifty bandits at most. It made sense, too. The group would draw attention if they were too numerous, no matter their discreteness.

All we need is a location. If we had that, we could raid it and recover the towns’s supplies. Even if we didn’t, Leah could read any bandits we captured to find the leader, whom I doubted had the same mind protection the orcs did.

Time was the biggest wrench in that upstart plan. The hideouts may be days of travel away if not weeks. The refugees were dying now. Forcefully conscripting the merchant company’s storage was an option, but that would solely lead to problems down the line. So, too, would buying part of their goods on my family’s tab. Not only was I not aware of my family’s accounts and if such a thing was at all possible, but the other regions would suffer the same as the West if I tapped into supplies meant for them.

I needed an immediate stopgap to the starvation—something that would just buy us a few days at the very least…

I exited my thoughts. The room was waiting on me as it always did. However, for the first time, an easy answer escaped me.

My head rotated to find the window. ‘Let us take a break and have lunch be served.’

image [https://i.imgur.com/z6G5s0x.png]

I did not join the others in the hall. Instead, I strolled the castle grounds, partaking of the fresh air (for so far the smog allowed it). Leah was at my side, notebook in hand.

‘What do you think?’ I said.

‘“She has two goddamn hands, why am I holding this notebook?”’ she said.

‘What else?’

‘“I’m killing her if there’s no more food when we go back inside.”’

I smothered a smile and waited.

The tall beauty sighed. ‘It’s a sticky situation.’ She turned to the pyres behind us. ‘Death is never comfortable. But death due to starvation is a fate I wouldn’t wish even on you.’

Her tone was stable, but the rhythm of her walk had changed subtly, like her body was reliving a memory.

‘You have experience?’ I asked. ‘With starvation.’

‘None of your business.’

I hummed and quickened my step. We passed frostguards busy with various activities and reached the castle gates. Here the goings-on was at its peak. Crumbled parts of the wall were being carried off and new stone took its place. Some of the damage was being ignored for favour of patching up more critical defensive positions, I noticed.

‘How many minds can you read in a day?’ I said.

Leah looked around. ‘Unprotected ones? Dozens. I doubt anyone here would know of the hideouts, though.’

‘Perhaps,’ I said.

She slowly raised her brow. ‘You think different?’

I looked ahead. From our vantage on the hill the castle was on, the sprawling refugees were like ants crawling over sand, hungrily hovering near the wagons housing what they so desperately wanted.

‘Castle lords can be obtuse,’ I said. ‘Yet they are not fools. From what Fernando told me, the late Lord Medarda wasn’t an exception.’

‘I don’t follow.’

‘Think,’ I said.

Leah deadpanned. ‘You’re acting like my Master. He can never give a direct answer.’

‘Great minds,’ I said and waited.

She tutted her lips but thought it through anyway. About a minute later she said: ‘You think there’s a traitor.’

‘Why would I think that?’

Her eyes rolled into her skull. ‘Because Medarda would suspect the bandits were avoiding her and routinely change her patrol schedule to catch them offguard.’

I nodded and patted her shoulder. She slapped my hand away.

‘Luck exists,’ I said. ‘Avoiding the guards for some time may be possible, but they would’ve ran into them eventually. If that never happened—’

‘—then someone’s been feeding the bandits the schedule,’ Leah finished. Her lips nearly turned blue as her eyes found the frostguards once more. She flourished her arm, and a bubble of air settled around us.

‘A privacy spell,’ she said.

The guards were too far away to overhear us, but I appreciated her diligence.

‘So, dozens, you say?’ I said.

‘Dozens,’ she repeated. ‘But if you want me to inspect all the guards, I will also need to make them forget any session they have with me without touching their other memories. It will drain my energy reserves.’

That, and searching everyone would still take days, which brought us back to the original problem I yet had no solution for.

It was when we were standing before the gate, contemplating quietly, that a muffled voice caught my attention. I’d left Malakai with the captain of the hired guards to discuss their numbers and organisation. He was climbing the hill to the castle with a woman in tow.

I hadn’t seen her before. She sported a black fur hat, coat and boots, which was the signature style of the wealthy and noble of the Duchy. But she was a foreigner. Her dark skin and rough-textured hair could not make her out to be anything else.

The bubble vanished and I could once more hear Malakai clearly.

‘Warden! I bring word of…’ Malakai glanced to the side. ‘The Black Hearts.’

The intensity of my attention doubled.

The woman smiled, bowing low. ‘Frost Warden of Vrost, I greet thee. My name is Miranda, and I come bearing a gift.’

‘A gift?’

Beside me, Leah angled subtly so she could draw the wand tucked under her coat.

The woman straightened and stepped aside, theatrically motioning behind her. I peered. I’d thought them merchant caravans, but the wagons at the bottom of the slope were foreign. Their guards also wore black leather.

‘Through fortunate circumstances,’ Miranda said, words flowing like silk, ‘we have come into possession of much-needed nourishment.’

‘Fortunate, huh,’ I said.

Her teeth contrasted against her skin. ‘Indeed. After all, it would be tragic for it to go to waste. That’s why we deliver an initial batch, free of charge.’

I see, I thought. A smart move. Since the refugees were on death’s door, they knew I couldn’t refuse their gift; even I wouldn’t be able to stop the resulting riot. Moreover, by coming in peace, they were effectively stopping me from taking violent action. Not only would it damage my reputation to do so, but their remaining stores would not be near here. If I killed or imprisoned them, the rest of their company would simply refuse to negotiate further, which would lead to a riot a few days down the line anyway.

The timing was too good to be true. Moving those wagons must’ve taken days.

I glanced at Leah, who tipped her chin, then turned back to the Black Heart representative. With her inside information and current bartering position, it was no wonder she strolled in here, going as far as to place her guards within range of the castle. In their eyes, this was the easiest payday of their lives…

Or it would’ve been, had I not had means beyond their imagination.

I held out a hand. ‘Miranda of the Black Heart, consider yourself welcome. Let us head inside so we can speak business.’

I smiled wide as she shook on it and followed me in.

Sometimes, fate brought the answer to your questions to your doorstep.

image [https://i.imgur.com/z6G5s0x.png]

Sepharin K. Vrost =

{

Skills =

[Lesser Frost Necromancy, Lesser Frost Manipulation, Minor Miasma Control,

Minor Necromancy, Minor Frostmancy]

Racials =

[Icy Veins, Goliath, Overbearing, Callous, Vorst]

Miasma =

995/995

Skill Points =

7

}

Night had advanced upon the Duchy.

I was in the castle’s master bedroom, getting my daily hour of meditation out the way. The cool and dark energies collected and swirled within me, washing away my concerns like a river cleansed the valley, and my thoughts flowed.

Miranda had accepted my offer to camp near Frostmouth. Leah would investigate them over the coming days. What would come from that inspection was for Ruelle to decide, I supposed. I would deal with the result.

So my thoughts turned to other matters as my senses spread beyond the confines of the room into the dark. I saw frostguards patrolling the damaged walls and ground, torch in hand and jumping at every moving shadow. The possibility of an orc attack wasn’t all that put them on edge, for my soldiers stalked amongst them. And though the humans avoided them like the plague, I couldn’t help but feel odd at the sight.

I had never been fond of living beings. For my old, Necron-self, they were nothing but a nuisance waiting for me to add them to my ranks. However, as the new Sepharin, there was no call to usher in death wherever I went.

Was it a result of our differing race? Maybe. Perhaps it was something else altogether.

My senses looked out over Frostmouth, over the broken walls, over the sprawl of townsfolk—huddled around campfires, brewing stew, fighting against the frost for their lives. This morning they’d seemed like just another problem.…but there was something beneath the ruins and growing tension.

The West did not have a major city like the South and East did. Yet here its people were, all in one place, ready to hide underneath a single banner.

Yet that was only part of the opportunity.

My week stay in the Duchy had seen me dragged from one end of the country to the other, with no time to catch my breath. That wasn’t my style. It didn’t befit a ruler to chase problems; I had to prevent them. And to do so, my reach must extend across my entire domain to every problematic region. For that, I would need a base of operations.

And where better to start building that base than a city I could shape from the ground up?

I glanced over my shoulder. Durak was standing near the door with his back to the wall. The glow of his eyes cast off his armour, but the light did not reach the corners of the room, where a ghost hid in the shadows, and ethereal tentacles of black frost crept forth from the dark.

The undead Caster had become was staring straight at me. It followed my every move—like a cub would its mother to reenact her movements during a hunt.

I breathed out deep and fell back into my meditation.

The ritual and missing people, my promise and the bandits, and all the other problems that were no doubt heading my way…to challenge and overcome them I must be a pillar—an immovable beacon of strength capable of being in multiple places at once.

Luckily, I had the perfect method for such a feat.