Rieren had entertained the suspicion that things wouldn’t be so simple. With the decision to separate the tournament’s actual competition into three components, it was inevitable that those in charge of each component would try to twist their aspect into a shape that would benefit them the most. She certainly couldn’t blame any faction for ensuring their best chance at victory.
Kalvia didn’t elaborate. She admitted that the message she had received didn’t contain any details. All she had learned was that the missive the Clanmistress had received was dire.
Considering Avathene wasn’t one to embellish the truth, it had to be serious.
They met the Clanmistress in her office in the Stannerig estate. It was far busier than before. People were hurrying about, guards awaited at every junction, and cultivators were present at all corners of the grounds. The Stannerig clan had turned into quite the hive.
“There you all are,” Avathene said as they entered. “Please, take a seat. I have important information I must disseminate so you can think on it quickly.”
The room was a little stuffed. There were members from each of the group Rieren had first met after arriving from the Abyss—members of the Ordorian clan, the Tarciel and some of the important clans, and the dissidents who officially refused to support either of the Archnobles.
They all bowed as Kalvia entered. While Rieren certainly wouldn’t have generated such a reaction—even after the Empress herself had anointed Rieren as the “saviour of the Shatterlands”—nor would Rollo and Amalyse, Kalvia was a different matter. One had to show deference to the Empress.
“What is the urgency for?” Kalvia asked. “I understand the rules of the competition are not ideal but are they requesting that we join the tournament this instant?”
Avathene sighed. She looked tired. Rieren wondered when she had last had a proper rest. “Well, that is something we must decide, depending on how we intend to handle the new rules.”
The Clanmistress went on to lay out the particulars of the message from the imperial clan and the northerners. While the former had decided to arrange the layout of participants, the latter had taken up the exact particulars of the competition itself.
According to the imperial can’s overarching rules, the tournament could only be participated in teams of three from each faction.
“That’s insane,” Kalvia said, giving voice to Rieren’s thoughts, and that of several others as well, considering how most of them looked. “Is this going to be a tournament of only nine competitors?”
“That depends on how many factions are allowed, doesn’t it?” Oromin said.
Avathene nodded. “Correct.”
“How are they defining these factions?” Kalvia asked.
The Clanmistress pulled out an official-looking scroll. “The details state that each team represents a single faction in the competition. The number of factions is unlimited, but teams can be no more and no less than three participants. Each faction may face any other faction in the competition. The draw will be randomized.”
“So even if we create multiple factions, we might end up knocking each other out of the tournament entirely.”
“Yes. I believe that is what they are counting on. Infighting. If we end up reducing our own numbers, there will be less of them to ultimately deal with.”
The nefariousness of the plan was starting to imprint itself in Rieren’s mind. It was ingenious in a way. While the particulars of the competition itself couldn’t be set by the imperial clan, it would likely end up being something that would display the proper use of the participating cultivators’ powers.
The only way to do that would be through rigorous battle of some sort. In other words, as Avathene had said, there was a great chance they would end up eliminating themselves.
And not just from the tournament.
“Do you think they might be cooperating with the northerners to rig the whole thing?” one of the dissident Elders asked. What was his name? Ah yes, Sturmin. Rieren recalled him from the settlement she had helped reestablish. “This sounds suspiciously targeted.”
“We cannot say,” Avathene said.
Kalvia frowned. “The northerners didn’t send the competition’s particulars, yet?”
Lord Sturmin growled. “I knew it. This whole thing is nothing more than a ploy.”
“No information from the north yet,” Avathene confirmed. “Until we receive the details about what sort of competitions we will be participating in, forming a team seems hazardous as well. However, we were given advance notice that there will be an elimination bracket, of sorts. In other words, despite teams of three being the primary participant, the tournament will crown one, sole champion.”
Thorn after thorn. Someone was clearly trying to twist things so that instead of bringing unity to any faction, this tournament would sow nothing but discord.
Of course. Rieren had to hold back her grin. Something about facing devious opponents tended to unhealthily excite her in a strange way. It was as though she relished the prospect of eventually facing them head-on and claiming her victory despite any trickery they might do.
For it was obvious here that their enemies were smart enough to hit them on multiple fronts. While the Emperor claimed to use this tournament to settle their differences without needless bloodshed and slaughter, it was obvious he—or at least, others—were intent on using it to reduce the threat they would have to deal with.
After all, it would be far easier of a battle if they were all fighting each other instead of a battle against two separate and powerful coalitions who might end up allying with each other.
If only the Arteroth and the rest of the northerners hadn’t gone ahead and agreed to the imperial clan’s demands.
“And that is not all,” Avathene said. “While this next matter does not concern us all to as great a degree, it is still important. My lords and ladies, I ask that you think on the issue of the three-member teams a moment while I deal with this.”
She hadn’t needed to ask. Sturmin and the other Elders and dignitaries already had their brows furrowed in deep thought. But while they conferred among themselves, Avathene beckoned Amalyse and Rollo to her.
They each got a letter, no less official looking than the scroll sent by the other two contingents of the tournament.
Rieren’s unease grew as she watched them read through it. Both their faces turned troubled. When Rollo finally finished, he crumpled his letter entirely, while Amalyse held hers like a blade that might slice her hand open if mishandled.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
“I understand that this is all quite a lot of information in such short notice,” Avathene said, not unkindly. “Please, take however long you need to consider the messages. We will accept whatever you decision you come to.”
Kalvia frowned, though she didn’t say anything just yet. Rieren understood her feelings. She also wanted to argue against the Clanmistress’s statement, for Avathene didn’t speak for Rieren or Kalvia in the same way she might speak for the clans under her care.
It was clear the messages were from Amalyse and Rollo’s respective clans. The right thing to do would be to abide by whatever decision they made, regardless of the messages’ contents were. But then, their last conversation with Kalvia had clarified that the Empress had no scruples against making use of the fealty Amalyse and Rollo had sworn to her.
Amalyse turned to Rieren. “She wants me to come back. They’re…”
“Allying with the imperial clan?” Rieren asked.
Amalyse nodded tightly.
No one was truly surprised. The Arraihos clan’s lands lay adjacent to that of the imperial clan’s, and all geography and history claimed they had always maintained a good relationship with their neighbours. With every faction in the entire empire forced to pick sides, of course they would go with those who would cause them the least harm in such circumstances.
“She assumes you still have free will,” Kalvia pointed out.
“Well…” Amalyse bit her lip. “I might have mentioned that I wasn’t restricted in any real way.”
“I see. Well, there is much to think about. I hope you will inform me of your decision when you finally make one.”
Amalyse nodded again, even more rigidly than before.
“I suppose we all have some thinking to do, then.” Kalvia nodded her farewell at the Clanmistress. “I will inform you when I have made a decision.”
Rieren wished to ask what sort of decision Kalvia would have to make that had her leaving the meeting prematurely What could she come up with that couldn’t be solved through further discussion with each other? After all, finding a solution to this quagmire would be best done through careful cooperation.
But then, there was no need to do all or even any of that right at this moment. Some thinking beforehand, some settling of emotions and intents, would do them all good.
Avathene had come to the same conclusion. “We all will adjourn for now, then. In two days, at the same time, let us meet again and come to a proper course of action.”
----------------------------------------
It was strange that for all the decisions and plans that others might make, Rieren herself had little to decide. All she needed to settle on was whether to answer the tournament’s summons. She could, after all, choose not to participate at all. Like Rollo.
It looked like that letter from his clan had changed Rollo’s mind, however.
That had reminded Rieren that while she might not have a ton of pressure from higher-ups or other considerations to take into account, her friends did. If Rieren refused, the only ones she would be disappointing were her companions, and those who she had cooperated with in the Shatterlands like Avathene and Oromin.
Even then, the latter might just be relieved since she would be one less person they would need to consider when forming these restrictive, three-member teams.
But while Rieren might not have much to think over for herself, she could certainly help her friends with it.
“I’m staying,” Amalyse said, skipping another pebble across the lake she was visiting. She’d brought Rieren here once, so it wasn’t surprising to find her at the same spot.
“Oh?” Rieren came to a stop next to her taller friend. “And here I was thinking I would come help you decide.”
“Well, it has been over a day. Maybe if you came yesterday, I’d have been a little more troubled.”
“I… got preoccupied. Apologies.”
Amalyse shook her hand as though to say it was nothing. “Preoccupied… with Her Majesty?”
“What? No, with cultivating. The tournament is nearing. That means we all should get to our next closest advancement as soon as possible. Which means you need to hit Peak-Enlightened.”
“Yes, yes. I didn’t decline my clan’s invitation only to be mothered by you, Rieren.”
They shared a little laugh at that.
“I am sorry it has come to this,” Rieren said.
Amalyse leaned against a nearby tree, though her posture was far from relaxed. “It will be fine. I doubt the imperial court will ruin an important alliance by forcing her hand. Not unless things turn truly dire. I just… wish she wasn’t put into this awkward state because of me.”
And yet, Amalyse had chosen to remain here, to continue supporting the would-be-Empress. Rieren had to appreciate the strength it took to take a stand against one’s own kin.
She squeezed her friend’s shoulder. “You are doing what you believe in. None can find fault in that.”
Amalyse smiled and returned the squeeze. Though, instead of just the shoulder, Amalyse squeezed Rieren herself in a bearlike embrace.
“Let’s go pay this liege of ours a visit, shall we?” Amalyse said once Rieren had struggled free.
Rieren nodded. “I hope you know where she is. And where Rollo is too.”
Amalyse coughed into her hand. “I might know where one of them is, yes.”
Rieren didn’t say she suspected which one that might be. She kept her smile to herself too.
----------------------------------------
It was convenient that their next two targets were together. Amalyse had taken Rieren to meet Rollo in his regular haunt, which turned out to be an isolated little hill near the eastern end of Falstrom. Surprisingly, Kalvia was there as well.
“I thought I was the only one who knew where you went,” Amalyse muttered when they arrived.
“Don’t blame me,” Rollo said. “I was not expecting to be followed. First by you, then our glorious Empress here, and now you’ve even brought her. Can a man get no privacy in this Abyss-cursed city?”
Amalyse and Rieren both turned to stare at Kalvia, who did her best not to flush. She wasn’t very successful.
“I was simply heading my own way when I spotted Rollo here going the same direction,” she said. “So I followed, intending to enquire after important business. I had no idea this place was private for you.”
“Perhaps it would benefit you to hang a sign, Rollo,” Rieren said. “Do not follow.”
“Yes, of course. Why had I never thought of such a thing. Please give me a moment to acquire a wooden board and stick it over my arse.”
Amalyse burst out laughing, and Rieren couldn’t help but snort at the image that brought on.
“What important business did you have in mind, Your Majesty?” Rollo asked.
Kalvia, who had smiled at the exchange, turned deadly serious. “My proposal about our tournament participation, depending on what you have decided regarding your families.”
“I am staying here by your side, Your Majesty,” Amalyse said.
Kalvia nodded in gratitude. “I was expecting as such. You, Rollo?”
“I am returning to the Karlosyne.”
Rieren started. She had not expected Rollo of all people to agree to his clan’s demands. Amalyse and Kalvia were similarly shocked. Before Amalyse could say anything, the Empress spoke.
“Did your clan threaten you to return?” Kalvia asked.
“Not at all,” Rollow said. “They informed me that my inheritance would be cut, that I would no longer be considered an official scion of the Karlosyne clan, that I was a liability they were willing to lose. They have my brother, you see.”
“Oh, Rollo.” Amalyse looked like she wanted to reach out and give him a crushing hug much as she had done to Rieren. “I’m sorry.”
“What for?” Rollo’s mouth quirked up. “It isn’t as if I wanted anything from them.”
“Then why are you heading back?” Kalvia asked.
“Why? To sow chaos, of course. They may wish they are done with me, but I am far from done with the Karlosyne clan. It is time I took a more direct hand in my clan’s business.”
They all stared at this insane man with his crazy little grin. He wasn’t doing anything to benefit himself or anyone else. His entire motivation revolved around causing his own clan as much harm and trouble as he could muster. Even when they thought they could simply excise him out of the family, he would return to throw everything into a pandemonium.
“Desist, Rollo,” Rieren said.
He frowned. “What?”
“I understand what drives you. Vengeance is an incredible source of power. But it will not last forever, nor will it take you to where you would ever be happy.”
“Does it look like I seek happiness and satisfaction?”
“Rollo, please,” Amalyse said. “Please reconsider. You aren’t wrong. The Karlosyne clan need to be brought to heel. But not this way. Not if you have to throw away your life to do it.”
Rollo shook his head. His golden hair had been tied back by a loose knot, which now fell off. “My decision is final. In fact, all I was waiting for was to say farewell. But now that it’s taken care of, I can finally take my leave.”
In fact, he began moving down the hill. Just like that, Rollo Karlosyne was heading back to his home.
“Rollo!” Amalyse said. “You’re going to go? Just like that? Does—does none of this mean anything to you? Doesn’t the fealty you swore mean anything? Your own word?”
He paused at the base of the hill. It was difficult to believe, but the bond he’d formed with Amalyse meant her words were the only ones that might make him halt.
“Rollo Karlosyne,” Kalvia said with all the imperiousness she could muster. “I do not release you from your oath.” Amalyse looked hopeful for a moment, but then the Empress dashed it away. “But I will not restrict you. All I ask is that any action you take when you reach your destination, you do so while remembering your oath. Remembering who your liege is.”
As though that had broken some invisible chain, Rollo raised a single hand in farewell before finally departing.
“Well, that takes care of one task,” Kalvia muttered. She turned back to the other three there. “But to get back to business.” She took a deep breath. “Rieren, Amalyse. Since we must form a three-member team, I want you two to join me.”