Riven never had any intentions of stopping the car but then Mhell had to pop up. They had left Tollisett somewhere far behind and had driven into the wilderness in some random direction just to put some distance between themselves and Orbray’s soldiers. Somehow, Mhell had not only located them, but had gotten there before they did. Riven assumed he’d been driving in a circle or something and Mhell had done some fancy guesswork.
The other implication that the witch had known preternaturally was a little too frightening to consider.
“Is that… are you working alongside a Deadmage?” Aross asked, the word “Deadmage” falling like a heinous curse.
Riven pulled the car to a stop. It ground to a halt so completely, he feared he wouldn’t be able to start it again. The engine went silent a little too quickly and the minute vibration and thrumming possessing the car all died as though it had frozen solid. “That’s Mhell.”
“Mhell?”
Riven got out of the car then held Aross’s door open as well. No forgetting his manners as a gentleman. “Yes, an ally. We’re hoping we can work together. She helped free you, after all.”
Aross took her good time getting out of the car. She stepped out and walked towards Mhell for a moment, then stilled, crossing her arms. There was a stiffness to her posture, and Riven remembered how reluctant she had been about coming along with them in the first place. Her own son was an Essentier working for Orbray. No wonder she hesitated.
Mhell took the initiative since no one else was doing so. “Well, hello there.” She approached them, floating on the ground and her tumbling violet dress hiding her feet. There wasn’t a single sign that she had been in a deadly struggle against an Essentier who had hemmed her in. How in the world had she extricated herself from that mess? “You must be the renowned Invigilator Aross! I have heard much about you, mostly from these two over here. As you may have heard, I am Mhell. I hope we can work together to achieve our shared goals in these fraught times.”
Mhell might have been bubbly and upbeat, but Aross definitely wasn’t. The Invigilator didn’t even react to Mhell’s little introduction, her face stony enough to put Viriya to shame.
“I am not here to work together with a Deathless,” Aross said. Riven cringed at the tone. She couldn’t have insulted Mhell any further even if she’d tried. “I wasn’t even supposed to be pulled away like this. Kidnapped like this. Do you understand how much all of you have pushed me back? How much trouble you have landed me in?”
Riven had gone cold. He’d expected Aross to be frightened, to be reluctant even, but this sounded far worse. Those weren’t the words of an ally. No, they were the words of a neutral party who was looking out only for themselves. “That can’t be right. We met the two Essentiers you sent out. They said that you were being held captive by Orbray, that our next agenda needed to be to meet up with you and get you out from under Orbray’s influence.”
“And did they specify that it all needed to involve an all-out assault on the convoy bearing me? Did they say that you were to put not only my life in danger, but the life of my son as well? The lives of the people who inhabit my Demesne too?”
Riven cringed even more. If Aross had aimed to wound, she had done a good job of it. He had been berating himself from the moment he’d left Tollisett for abandoning those poor townsfolk. He had wheedled them into joining the fight, and then he himself had left them for dead. It wasn’t right. It couldn’t have been right in any sense of the word.
Damn it all, but Riven was one selfish, predatory bastard.
“I think you’re being a bit uncharitable, Invigilator,” Mhell said. Her cheerfulness was now forced, the smile sending up more cracks across her granite-grey face. “Look on the bright side. You are now free. You have all the space to act however you see fit. You can move forward and do what you want to do, not what you think you need to do.”
Aross didn’t move. “Bullshit. My son is still under Orbray’s yoke. My entire Demesne has been taken over. And judging by the fact that neither of the two Essentiers I sent out is with you, they are either incapacitated, or dead.”
“One has been captured by Orbray’s people,” Viriya said, doing her best to make things not better.
“Perfect.”
They lapsed into silence. Riven realized he had been riding a high for a long while now. Despite his damn wounds and the loss of his brother, he had come out victorious against Essentiers. By all rights, he should be dead by now considering the people he had faced, yet here he stood. Alive, and reasonably well, his wounds nowhere near bad enough to incapacitate him. Riven was on a winning streak. Which made this moment, this little spot in time tasting like defeat, all the harder to bear.
They had rescued Aross for nothing.
“I believe it will benefit everyone if we were to lay out our goals,” Mhell said, trying to inject some upbeat positivity.
Riven smiled at her. She had nothing to gain from this other than their help, yet she was putting in an effort to make them all get along. Though it made him wonder—Mhell had said that she had corresponded with Aross, but then why were they acting as if they didn’t know each other?
His eyes widened in understanding, and he looked away so that Mhell couldn’t catch the expression on his face. She had likely used her identity when she had still been alive. Though that begged the question who she might have been to have known the Invigilator personally. An Essentier, as she herself had admitted, but who specifically?
“We need to free Rose,” Riven said.
“Rose?” Aross asked.
“Rosiene Morell. My sister.”
“Ah of course. You must be the youngest son—Riven Morell.” Aross looked at Viriya. “And you must be the infamous prodigy, Viriya Rorink.”
Mhell smiled. “It seems your reputations precedes you, dears.”
Aross cracked her first smile, though it was too jagged to have held any humour. “Reputation? More like infamy.”
Mhell cleared her throat. Probably a tic from when she was still alive. “Anyway, I will have you know, Riven dear, that trying to free your sister will now become much harder than before. You attacked here, and licking his wounds from this defeat, Orbray will redouble his efforts to make sure this doesn’t happen again. You understand, then, that Rose will be guarded even more than before, and freeing her will have now become monumentally difficult.”
“Are you trying to tell me no without telling me no?” Riven asked, frowning.
“You catch on quick.”
“What would you suggest then?”
“We go step-by-step. Since Orbray has no intention of killing your sister, let her wait a while. First, we need to consolidate Rennervation Demesne.”
“One moment,” Aross said. “I don’t understand how you can’t see that Orbray hasn’t already killed the other Morell. She is the Municipier, Rosbel Morell’s strongest Essentier. Killing her would deal a tremendous blow to his cause. It seems naïve to imagine, no hope, that she might still be alive. Working with that assumption isn’t just foolish, it’s outright dangerous.”
Riven had felt some pit for the Invigilator of Rennervation Demesne since her son was being held hostage in a way. But that pity evaporated. “Rose isn’t dead. I’m sure of it. And no matter how hard Orbray’s defences become, I still intend to find her and free her. Just like I freed you, Invigilator.”
Aross frowned. She looked to Mhell. “I am intrigued by the idea of freeing my Demesne, though I have many questions regarding who, and what, you are. I will keep them waiting for now, though. First, what do you exactly have in mind?”
Mhell splayed her hands like she was rolling out an invisible battle map. “It is nothing extravagant. Several minor forces are acting under the presumption that you are being forced to work for Orbray. That you are being held hostage, which is true, in a way. All we need to do is get in contact with those disparate forces and cause enough chaos for Orbray to divert some of his manpower and attention to Rennervation. Once his forces are divided, we strike at the heart of Ascension Demesne, where Orbray is.”
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“You’re right. The hostage bit is true. As I said, your actions have put my son in grave danger because he’s under the High Invigilator. If I take any drastic action against Orbray, he’s going to put my son to death. Or worse.”
“And that is something you need to consider while making your decision.”
Aross froze. She stared at Mhell, her face becoming stonier and eyes growing colder every moment. Riven had to stave off the sudden urge to find a suitable hiding spot.
“You think I need to consider my own son’s death?” she whispered. “You truly think I will ever be okay with my son dying because others wanted to play their game of politics? No, Deathless. You may have lost all sense of who you were as a mortal. But for me, my family comes first, as it does for the rest of us gathered here. Why else would young Morell here be so desperate to find his sister? No, I will not be assisting you in any way while my son is still with the High Invigilator.”
“And you are all right with being so selfish?”
“Selfish?” Aross was fuming now, her arms digging tighter as though releasing them might mean she’d lash out. Riven wouldn’t have been surprised to see steam coming off her head. “I am being generous. Do you think I can sit back while my son is killed when I could have stopped it? I shall not be a party to your plans, no matter how sound or beneficial or for the greater good they might be.”
A no. Aross had settled on a hard no, and Riven understood there was no way of changing her mind. He turned to Mhell, who was looking at Aross with a strange mixture of mild anger and a lot of sympathy.
Riven couldn’t fathom what was really going on in the Deadmage’s mind, but it seemed some sort of impasse had been reached. Something they’d have to work around. Here was that crushing sense of defeat again, but he ignored it.
“Then we will do what we can on our own,” Viriya said, speaking the words in his mind, and probably Mhell’s as well. “We will gather strength and attack Orbray once we have a more secure position.”
“You will need to choose one day, Invigilator,” Mhell said quietly. There was a hard intensity in her voice and all the affability, warmth, and good humour she had stepped in with had disappeared. Nothing but the promise of death and destruction in the future. “You cannot run from it forever, cannot pretend that you might forever remain in the middle ground. Everyone has to choose one day.”
“Can my choice be to not choose?” Aross asked. Her words were quiet too, barely audible.
“I don’t think that’s an option. I don’t it ever was, not will it ever be. If you don’t pick a side, one will be picked for you.” Mhell looked like she wanted to reach out to Aross, but the Deadmage stopped herself. “You are like that game the mortals play. King of the hill. Whoever controls the hill, is king, and Orbray holds the hill now. But he will not hold it forever, and then your choice will be chosen for you again, until another king comes and chooses for you too. On and on, endless until the day you choose.” Mhell laughed softly, and though it sounded sincere, there was a lot of sadness there too. “We all choose our own strange paths to immortality.”
“I was not ready to have a philosophical lecture,” Aross said. They were all silent for a while again, frozen where they stood as though even the tiniest motion would disturb some carefully-erected balance between them. One nudge, and they’d all topple like a house of cards. “But it seems we can perhaps shift our target to my son instead.”
Riven’s smile came slow. Of course. They could simply rescue the younger Aross and be done with her concerns.
“Is that why you have none of your Essentiers with you, Invigilator?” Viriya asked.
“Yes. Orbray assumed my son would be an appropriate deputy on my behalf. In fact, I think he has done this in all the other Demesnes too. Most of the Essentiers have been spread out under individual assignments meant to keep them from banding together and trying something against him.”
“Yet again you put your personal matters before the needs of those under you,” Mhell said. “Your son has chosen his path. Will you not choose yours? Are you too afraid to escape from his shadow?”
“We don’t need to resume that argument, witch. My matters are my own and will come first. It is up to you whether you will accommodate it or not.”
Mhell pressed her mouth into a thin line but said nothing more.
“I believe the decision ought to lie with Riven,” Viriya said. Riven looked at her sharply but she was in a staring contest with the other two women. “He’s the one who has the most to lose and the one who can dictate the outcome of what Orbray ultimately wants. It’s only natural that he has the final say, especially when you two are at loggerheads.”
Aross tutted. “We’re not at loggerheads. I have made my side clear—”
“Yes, I understand. Regardless, it’s time you heard our side.”
Riven wasn’t sure interrupting an Invigilator was such a good idea, but he didn’t comment on that. What was Viriya playing at? Sure, Riven appreciated the nudge and the fact that what he wanted would be accounted for, but he was also a bit out of his depth. It was obvious both of these women knew a lot more about what was going on than him.
“I’ll free your son,” Riven said.
Aross stared at him. They all did. He tried not to appear small under their collective measuring looks, but it was difficult. Even Viriya and Mhell, who likely had a lot more faith in him than Aross ever would, had difficulty concealing their scepticism, and Riven had to admit it poked him somewhere inside that they didn’t have more faith.
Viriya sighed. “I agree.”
“And why do you not make your own choice?” Aross asked. “What is your input?”
“My input is that we should all try to have a little more faith in each other. That’s the only any we’re going to be able to beat High Invigilator. Because in the end, no matter what else you might or might not want, you do want to defeat Orbray, don’t you Invigilator?”
Aross took a deep breath. “Yes. It would be good to topple that prick from his pedestal.”
Riven laughed. He could afford to do that out here in the middle of the wilderness. The cracked ground ate it up, and the mist swallowed it whole. He could be whatever he wanted, do whatever he wished, for the vast emptiness of Severance held no judgement.
He nodded at Viriya, smiling his gratitude. When was he going to stop being indebted to her for all the things she had done?
“I am not sure how exactly I might free your son,” Riven admitted. “But I’ll think of something. I’m probably going to need help though, and I think the Ascension Essentiers and soldiers have turned into a disturbed beehive at this point.”
“They no doubt have,” Mhell said. “I would not approve of going back to Tollisett at this time, or any time soon, but I see that it’s the only way of moving forward. That is of course if a search party has been sent out to look for you, Invigilator.”
She looked at Aross for confirmation who only shrugged. “I couldn’t tell you, but I assume they’re doing something. My son won’t rest until he’s found me again, of that I have no doubt. But I believe you have left Tollisett and everyone in it in quite a disarray. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re still licking their collective wounds.”
“So your son might set off on his own?” Riven asked.
“It’s not an impossibility.”
Mhell considered for a moment, her gaze fixed on the distance as though she was trying to pierce the foggy gloom and find the horizon. “I can look for him.”
“How?” Riven and Aross both asked.
The witch smiled. “I have my Spectres. They are still out there, awaiting my orders. I can spread them out and make them give word of any approach. Even better, I can have them lure out your son as well and lead him toward us.” Her eyes hardened, pinpricks of diamond-like ice in her inky orbits. “But that assumes your son will be willing to cooperate. It’s what I keep saying—he might have made his choice to serve Orbray, and you may be deluding yourself that it’s otherwise.”
“I am deluding no one,” Aross assured. “Least of all myself. Do you really think I don’t know my own child? You don’t think we talked at all about any of this?”
Mhell shrugged. “I know what it’s like to have wayward children, especially those whose views differ from your own.”
Riven frowned at that. Mhell didn’t seem like she’d died at an age when she might have had children. Not grown-up children capable of going against their parents’ wishes, at least. Who in the world had she been?
Viriya jutted in before the argument could go on. “What comes next? After your son is with us again, and assuming he’s either willing to work with us or at least not be a pain in the arse, what will come afterwards?”
“Rennervation Demesne,” Aross said without any hesitation. “We will need a base of operations and as you said.”
“We were aware of that. I meant how exactly do you plan to free Rennervation Demesne?”
“I have my contacts. We can get in touch with the factions who aren’t properly satisfied by the state of things and mount a quiet assault to evict Orbray’s lapdogs. There are specific locations where they will have set up shop, and I can set up communication channels once I assure them that I am no longer under Orbray’s yoke. The actual details of any assault will need more planning of course, but once Rennervation Demesne is recaptured, we can begin the main operation against Orbray.”
Riven glanced at the older woman, hiding his smile. For all her pretension at trying to stay neutral for the sake of her son, it was clear she had prepared for the possibility of fighting back against Orbray. That was good. Once Riven had freed the younger Aross, they could start in earnest.
Mhell laughed softly. She was apparently thinking the same thing as Riven. “Clearly, your façade doesn’t extend far.”
Rose was waiting for him. Still alive. Yes, she still had to be alive. Orbray hadn’t killed Aross’s son, and he wouldn’t kill Rose either, not so long as he could use her as either a hostage or a bargaining chip.
“Then it is settled,” Mhell said her cheerful smile was back, so forced this time, it sucked out any joy Riven might have felt. “We will start on our first assignment to free the Invigilator’s wayward son.”
They didn’t get to discuss much further beyond that. One of the Spectres came rushing into the area, appearing from the gloom like the mist had given birth to him moments ago.
“Mistress,” he called.
Mhell turned. “What is it?”
The Spectre looked agitated. Riven had seen ghosts scared before yet it never stopped feeling fundamentally wrong somehow. Ghosts were supposed to be doing the scaring, not looking like they’d been frightened to death themselves.
“The Arnish are here.”
Riven went cold as he stared around at the others. The Arnish were here. They were all screwed.