Inessa stood before Martin, again giving him permission to check. She waited while he got his information, trying not to show how nervous she was. It didn’t take long, but she was terrified at any moment for him to drop his hand and give her a knowing glare. But he never did. She couldn’t sense what he did, but his nod seemed genuine enough. He still didn’t know. She forced herself to be far more in her submissive role than usual. The subservient, quiet, obedient concubine who only appeared when she was needed. The less she was on Martin’s mind, the better. And despite everything he was doing for her, she still believed he only thought about her when she arrived every night in his study before slipping away after the examinations. She could keep this game up for a few more months this way.
***
Indenuel was terrified when he opened the letter from Nathaniel the next morning. He kept pushing the line with Nathaniel, and last night had to be it. This was where Nathaniel would to be fed up with him and chastise him. Indenuel closed one eye as he opened the letter.
Indenuel,
The dog is coming home.
-Nathaniel
He let out a breath. “Ugh, that’s almost worse.”
“What?” Tolomon asked from across the room.
“Just… Nathaniel. Sending me another letter by post,” Indenuel said.
“Ah,” Tolomon said. “Don’t worry too much about it.”
“I’m going to worry about it,” Indenuel said under his breath.
“I know,” he said, again across the room, which made Indenuel glare at him.
He tried to keep order to his schedule. He met with Fadrique, who was finally anxious to start training Indenuel hard, now that there was a couple marked individuals on the loose. Indenuel was done with the basics and would now go on to the ridiculous advanced stuff, which was not what he needed right now. Tolomon smirked at the door.
“Well, actually…” Indenuel started to say, before he trailed off, trying to get his thoughts together.
“Yes?” Fadrique asked.
“I think there’s… there’s a lot of benefits to me working within a large group, as you said,” Indenuel said.
Fadrique frowned, cocking his head to one side. “What do you mean?”
“I do have a hard time working with others-” Tolomon gave a barely discernable snort “-and I think it’s important for me to learn what it’s like to work with a large group.” Fadrique didn’t seem convinced. “And then it wouldn’t have to be just us. You know how much we annoy each other.”
Fadrique’s frown changed. “I see the value in that. I’ll bring some people in.”
“A large group. I’m not used to a large group and it’ll be good for me,” Indenuel said.
“I’ll have them sent for at once,” Fadrique said.
Tolomon glared softy at Indenuel, who pretended like he wasn’t there. With so many people training, Fadrique wouldn’t be able to sense him, and if he simply kept himself distant, only used the powers that didn’t have corruption, Fadrique wouldn’t know.
Once the people arrived, Indenuel stood in the circle, paying more attention to keeping his corruption away than using his weather control. The people around him pulled from his power, changing the weather to whatever Fadrique said. Indenuel did little but contain his own corruption.
Once the training was done, Fadrique bid Indenuel farewell, and he didn’t do much else but smile before walking away with Tolomon.
“What about the others?” Tolomon asked.
“The others in the group wouldn’t notice,” Indenuel said.
“I meant the other High Elders. High Elder Fadrique might not be able to tolerate you, but I’m quite sure the others are going to catch on soon,” Tolomon said.
“And by that time, the corruption will be gone,” Indenuel said.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
Tolomon shook his head. “Stubborn ass.”
“Meddling ass,” Indenuel shot back
***
Inessa walked into the tailor shop with Adosina. Once again, Ari came out from the back, squealing as she hugged Adosina. She hugged her back.
“Your wedding is in three weeks! Are you ready!” Adosina asked.
Ari groaned. “Of course I am! At this point I just want it to be done! So much pageantry!”
“Nonsense!” Adosina said. “You are celebrating your love! It should be met with a huge celebration!”
Ari sighed. “If Tima could just hurry up with the dress, I’m sure the wedding would move along.”
“Never rush art,” Tima said from the back.
They entered the back of the room. Tima had a huge smile on her face as she held a purple velvet dress in her arms. “This one first, Inessa. I have a feeling about this one.”
Inessa obeyed. She went to a private booth and slipped out of her usual concubine dress, listening to Ari and Adosina going over plans. The purple dress was lovely to step into. It had strings to the back that she would have to have the others tie. Per instructions, they were made in such a way that they couldn’t be seen on the outside, but it didn’t matter. As she straightened her skirts, she felt her chest starting to constrict. This was the most beautiful dress she ever had the privilege of wearing. It was one solid color, according to the rulebook, and yet it was made with such care.
Inessa opened the curtain and walked out. Ari and Adosina were still talking but stopped when Inessa walked out. Tima gave the smirk of a proud artist.
“Ari, the pinning. I really do have to finish that design for your wedding dress. In a week, this shop will be flooded with concubines,” Tima said.
***
Every morning Indenuel got up early to meditate before breakfast. He wrote to the children before more meditating. Emilia and Isla were easy to write too, responding to their letters and telling them how excited he was for their school. Matteo never wrote, and Indenuel felt like he was writing a letter to no one. He was careful what he wrote, since it went through two other tree talkers before it came to the boy. Since Matteo wasn’t writing, Indenuel didn’t know if he was fine or making friends. It concerned him, but he didn’t dare vocalize it with Tolomon. Tolomon would suggest what he always did.
Indenuel tried to find the good in the situation. His mark was getting better, and with it much of the dangerous anger he once felt. It didn’t bubble to the surface as quickly as before, and the corruption was slowly easing away through his meditations. But it wasn’t fast enough. And Tolomon’s constant reminder of how quickly the Day of the Devil was coming did not help either.
Navir had been almost as easy as Fadrique. Navir started off with talking about how vital it was to strengthen his tree powers, when Indenuel asked whether or not there was anything in the High Elder’s library about tree speaking.
Navir froze, then an excitement lit his eyes. “You know what? That’s a brilliant idea! There is a ton of material down there, things I didn’t even know until I became a High Elder.” Navir was already out of his study, heading toward the High Elder’s library. Indenuel smirked at Tolomon but didn’t get too close to him either. He was grinding his teeth but said nothing. As soon as they were in the library reading room, Navir handed him book after book about the theories and technicalities of tree talking as Tolomon waited outside rubbing his forehead. As the stack of books began to grow, Indenuel spent a moment or two wondering what he got himself into, but then remembered it was better this way.
The hardest was the training grounds. True, he was mostly with Captain Luiz, but it still made him terrified Tolomon would appear out of nowhere and do something. Once Tolomon didn’t do anything the entire time, and it drove him mad.
And then when he did nothing the next time, Indenuel almost let down his guard until he talked with Captain Luiz in the bathhouse again, trying to guide the conversation away from rashes when both he and Captain Luiz were doused with two large bucketsful of water. Indenuel instinctively grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled it from his chest, afraid that despite the darker color people could still see his chest. Indenuel glared at Tolomon standing in the bath. He carefully placed the two empty buckets at the side of the bathhouse before smiling. “My mistake. I didn’t see you there.” He then held his arms out before falling into the bath, hitting him again with the splash of water.
Indenuel continued to glare at him as Captain Luiz laughed and took off his shirt. “All in good fun, no?” Captain Luiz wrung out his shirt before accepting a towel from the servants with a smile and began drying himself off. Indenuel continued to hold the front of his shirt out, breathing deeply, trying to keep his anger in check. A servant handed him a towel and Indenuel barely gave him a thanks as he dried off, keeping his shirt on. It was a wet ride home.
Indenuel used practically the entire sabbath day to meditate. He meditated during the sermon, during the assigned meditation times, and skipped the social to keep meditating. Indenuel of course gave the excuse that he was still rather anxious about the marked individuals, which Tolomon tried to poke holes in the story, but he was ignored.
Indenuel waited in the seat in Dalius’ office, using the time to meditate. The mark had now changed to a light pink color, which improved drastically compared to a week ago, but still alarming, considering the Day of the Devil was three days away.
The door opened and he heard a sniff. Indenuel cracked an eye open as Dalius passed by him before his heart dropped to his stomach and he stood, backing away from Dalius, his eyes wide. Once, during the spring, Isla found a hole swarming with snakes of all different shapes and sizes, and Isla screamed so loud some of the farmers in the field could hear her. Indenuel never feared snakes, but when he looked down at the hole, he could understand how Isla would be frightened. They writhed and hissed, and there was no way to tell where one started and another began. It was simply a mass of snakes.
Indenuel was reminded of that story as he looked at the top of Dalius’ head, seeing a mass of demons swarming around him, shrieking and wailing, laughing and speaking in their black whispers.