Chapter 124: The last stretch.

There was a trail up leading to a ridge facing the entrance to the lone mountain. Viv knew they would have to climb that then walk down to the merl’s hidden city. They immediately set out, Sidjin strangely giddy.

 

The trek led briskly uphill. With their gear, it would have been an extremely challenging task, but here Viv had a power of 21 and she was fit. It merely counted as more than a nice afternoon stroll.

 

The Deadshield Woods smothered them with its pervasive aura, yet Viv never felt it move and they were never sidetracked. The path was rocky and most barren, leading her to believe that the woods might only teleport them around if they couldn’t see where they were going. Kind of like… quantum thingies. She was in an uncertain state so long as she could not observe the treeline.

 

Given how magic here worked, it might even be true.

 

The morning turned into afternoon, then into early evening as they proceeded to basically climb a small mountain chain. They didn’t see any merl or signs of them, but Viv fully expected that they’d be spotted by sentinels far above and would soon receive a visit.

 

The pair set upward into a small valley cut off from the wind. It was already chilly here, but Sidjin was a dear and soon they had a ward system complete with temperature control and, at Viv’s request, non-lethal measures. They fell asleep side by side, confident nothing out there could pierce their defenses without waking them up.

 

The next morning, there were still no signs of the merls.

 

Viv led the way as they approached the ridge. She recognized some of the rocks and gullies she had passed on the way down almost four months before. The stiffly inclined terrain made progress challenging. Thankfully, her lover came in clutch once more. He would shape stairs out of the mountainside on regular occasions with nothing more than a wave of his hand. That was probably for effect too. Viv let him flex and teased him when he did so. Even then, the pair was starting to worry.

 

They reached the last hurdle when they stepped onto a plateau with a small pine forest and a very deep lake of glacial blue water. Viv felt some resistance and looked down, finding a transparent thread drifting in the cold wind. She shivered.

 

“Hmm, I think I stepped into… a spider thread. And it might have been an alarm.”

 

“It was definitely a spider thread, darling.”

 

Sidjin pointed up. There were webs around some of the trees, the dense lattices still holding morning dew.

 

“Oh,” Viv said. “Oh no.”

 

A moment later, a massive eight-legged creature emerged from the edge of the meadow. It was similar to the warrior spiders Viv had faced back at the village, though lighter in color and a bit leaner. The monster clicked and hissed.

 

On its back, a merl sat.

 

“Hello hello!” it said in Enorian.

 

Sidjin greeted him happily in a tweeting tongue. it felt strange in the mouth of a human, but it was obviously working. The merl seemed excited.

 

“He says he’s normally posted below but they retreated when the necrarch roared. Sometimes, it goes out to hunt and the merls who stay are never found again. He’ll gladly lead us to… are you alright, darling?”

 

“I hate spiders I hate spiders I hate spiders I hate spiders I hate spiders I hate spiders I hate spiders I hate spiders I hate spiders I hate spiders I hate spiders I hate spiders I hate spiders I hate spiders I hate spiders.”

 

“It’s perfectly fine. Our friend Gillis here says the shamans have domesticated a brood mother. The merl are using the spiders as mounts and beasts of burden. It is perfectly safe!”

 

“But why? Why?”

 

“I didn’t realize you had something against spiders, darling.”

 

“They tried to eat me. Many times. Does that count? Also, giant spiders? How are you fine with that?”

 

“It will be fine. Gillis offered us to ride Spindlecalf. That’s… how he calls the spider.”

 

“Fuck the hell no.”

 

“He’ll gather his squad and then we’ll get on our way.”

 

“Do they also ride spiders?”

 

“… yes?”

 

“Can I burn the entire valley down?”

 

“You don’t have the red mana to do that.”

 

“Dammit.”

 

***

 

The merl patrol walked back on their mounts. It annoyed Viv that eight legs made the monsters much more stable. They moved effortlessly while Viv… did not. Sidjin and herself had to accelerate to match even their slowest speed. This changed after they passed the ridge and the ground flattened a bit more. Giant spiders were apparently not that fast on flat ground, a bit like the merls themselves. Or at least, not their cruising speed.

 

The squad stopped around mid morning to feed their mounts from gourd containers filled with some sort of slurry that smelled strongly of fruits and nuts. The humans swapped fresh veggies for their own meat jerky, much to the merls delight. Those were young ones, Viv realized. They were at the edge of the third step. It was possible that they had changed recently to match their new spider-handling capabilities.

 

Soon enough, the first of the tree-built structures and hanging fields appeared, a sign of return to merl civilization. The laborers showed the same mix of excitement and fear they had the first time Viv had passed through. There were no signs of more spiders, which comforted Viv.

 

“He says the spiders live in the deep woods, not far from the capital city of Peace-at-last. Sikoua in their language. He says that the spiders accept a symbiotic relationship, that is, he used a metaphor to indicate that. However, there are limits to what the brood mother is willing to do. Relocating is one of them. There are a few spiders in Sikoua. They are used to move goods quickly between floors. Oh, and make silk.”

 

“If I find a spider in my hair, I’m burning the whole place down.”

 

“I’ll make a repulsor ward, it stops anything below the weight of a small nut from entering. You’ll be fine.”

 

Viv grumbled incoherently. Spiders. She hated spiders.

 

Sidjin was recognized for the first time in the outskirts. A female Merl came and touched his hands, caressing the fingers with reverence. She also showed him her first grandchild. Viv found the moment moving. After that, a small procession followed Sidjin as he moved closer to the pit where Sikoua was hidden. More and more adults came to pay their respect, to express their gratitude. The name of Sidjin was on every lips, well, beak, and runners carried the message far and wide.

 

Tweek waited for them by the city entrance.

 

When the two saw each other, Sidjin raced forward to hold the reverent shaman in his embrace, while Tweek took only a few stumbling steps forward. Viv watched the old merl’s thin arms lock around her lover’s broad back with an indescribable feeling of pride. She could see from an angle that Sidjin was crying.

 

It took a minute for them to separate. When he did, Viv caught the fallen prince’s expression on the smooth part of his face, the one without the scar. Like that, in the shiny light of noon, he appeared so young and so hopeful, a far cry from the hardened survivor she had grown to love. He must have looked like that in the early days of the beast tide, full of hope. Before his nation cracked them on the bottom of Glastia’s long wall. He really had the prince charming persona going for him.

 

Viv felt a strange feeling of possessiveness fill her heart. She wished she could capture this happy Sidjin to preserve it in amber when he woke up in screams in the middle of the night. She also felt a little envious that someone else could trigger such a reaction, but it was an ugly feeling and she smothered it quickly. That envy was soon replaced by anger at those who had made a bleak world bleaker through the selfish blade of self-interest at any cost. It made her a little bit mad.

 

She saved that tiny ember of wrath for later, choosing instead to wear her most brilliant smile. Today was a happy day. Revenge had no place in it. Instead, she mingled and talked with those few who could speak Enorian. It was a bit difficult to admit being ‘Sidjin’s mate’ instead of Viviane Saint-Lys, certified badass and teenage dragon wrangler extraordinaire. It would be fine for one day. Three hours at least. Two hours.

 

There was, of course, a party. At first, Sidjin tried to translate for her but she insisted he just had fun. This was his moment. Tweek and himself spoke in a mix of merl and northerner. It was the first time she’d heard him speak his native language for so long. His voice felt deeper, but maybe that was his imagination.

 

They talked, they drank, they moved to the statue where Sidjin both laughed and cried. They teared up talking about the departed and drank to every saved family, every recovering clan. They feasted on meat and fruit and a strange bread made from a tree’s inner pulp. Viv was content staying as an outsider, for now. Towards the middle of the night, Sidjin made a spell demonstration to the amazement of the locals. The celebration spread throughout the city like a wildfire. By the early hours of dawn, the primitive rendition of Sidjin had been replaced by a cartoonish version of himself by his own hand. He had even spelled the chin to be as square as a brick for ‘extra virility’. The two humans made love until dawn then they promptly fell asleep. The party calmed down the next day.

 

***

 

Sidjin spent the next day building a teleportation circle and talking to his dearest friends. Fortunately for the fallen prince, the merl had a hangover tea that did wonders for the plastered mage. As for Viv, she had made sure to stay hydrated throughout the night and had thus escaped his cruel fate. The merl were going to be granted the tools to reach civilization. Sidjin had the right to one teleporter for personal use according to his contract, This would be it. As promised, he would not profit from it financially.

 

Viv was a little surprised since the merl had favored isolation so far, but the spiders changed the deal. The merl still had a dearth of elites after the mauling they’d taken on the walls but siege tarantulas had a tendency to even the scales on account of weighing upward to three tons. It was time for the merl to trade and obtain iron when they could. Sidjin would help them. And if anyone tried to bother them, they would have to contend with the woods, the spiders, the merl… and Sidjin.

 

Before they left a day later, Tweek and the elders gifted the couple rolls of royal spider silk. It was one of if not the most expensive fabric on Param by surface. It took to enchantments almost as well as silverite did. Viv already had designs to get herself a new battle robe. Soon after, they left, with Sidjin promising to return often.

 

***

 

Viv returned to Helock on a beautiful autumn evening. It had been cold and rainy in Losserec. Her day also felt a little shorter, the sun setting a little earlier. Viv was one of the few privileged people on this planet to experience jet lag. Or teleportation lag. She was back to having first world problems.

 

There would be no academy break for the next six months. Instead, the students were expected to travel on various missions to prove their abilities in their selected subjects. This allowed mage apprentices to serve their own nations, and for the freshly recruited wild talents to get a taste of what they could expect after graduation. Most of those would then join their patrons permanently while a few would switch allegiance, and those who preferred to work alone could take the time to find their paths. It was a well-practiced method.

 

As for Viv, she would accept or refuse Elunath’s offer by the end of the semester. She judged it unwise to wait until she started to die to do so, and Solfis had described the process in detail. Her organs would start failing one by one, at first temporarily and then for extended periods of time. Her existence would become miserable rather quickly. Even the support of the Academy and the elemental fruit she had consumed would only mitigate the symptoms. No, there was little reason to extend her agony since she would be unable to find valuable things to sell the archmage. She just had to work twice as hard while she was still hale and gaining power.

 

This led her to Elunath’s receiving room, alone, where the chiseled mockery of a man waited for her with his perfect physique and his barely veiled condescension.

 

“Hello. You are here, so I assume you have something for me?”

 

“Yes. How much would you give for this interesting find?”

 

Viv picked a sealed box and slammed it on the desk, unlocking it a moment later. A chilly aura of death and rage filled the pristine office like a stain on a porcelain cup. Elunath’s perfect face twisted even further, which Viv thought couldn’t possibly be done.

 

“Where did you — Nevermind, I suppose I can guess what kind of ruins can produce such a terrible artifact. Please tell me you have not wielded it?”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

 

“I’m more of a knife girl myself.”

 

“Of course you are. Just know anyone who touched that is probably being eaten alive and turned into an aberration right now. What a dreadful weapon. I will be conducting an aura analysis then destroying that thing, as you should have if you had any brain.”

 

Viv didn’t reply, merely smiled instead.

 

“I will buy it off you for seven years. And only because I want it off the streets. There is nothing good to be drawn from something so vile. It is an antithesis to everything this world stands for. A cancer.”

 

It was comforting to see that despite the stratospheric opinion Elunath had of himself, he still possessed some common sense.

 

“That leaves you with seventy-three years, three months.”

 

“I have a collection of texts that will allow you to decipher primitive human and ancient Harrakan.”

 

“I already have sufficient knowledge of old Harrakan,” Elunath said dismissively.

 

“Even the idioms?” Viv asked with fake surprise. “The important events as well? Cultural references?”

 

“Give it here,” the man replied in a tired voice.

 

Viv waited for a few minutes while Elunath leafed through the first of the collections Solfis had prepared. He moved faster than any scholar could, thanks to stats fuckery, but Viv could still tell when he stopped longer than usual after finding an insightful translation. He also had a quick glance at the primitive runes dictionary.

 

“Nine months for the Harrakan one, but only because it will allow me to use the ancient human translator to its utmost. I will admit… it is a tremendous find. I will give you twelve years for that, as there are some precious northern texts I can cross-reference… hmmm. Yes. In any case, congratulations. Sixty years and six months. Do you have anything else?”

 

Viv showed the core. As soon as it cleared the bag, Elunath’s eyes widened with envy.

 

“Ah, what a magnificent specimen. Necrarch, yes? An old one?”

 

“Very old.”

 

“Yes. What an extraordinary find. It is almost a waste… but no, this will guarantee the success of the operation. It is worth twenty years, as I said before. You have just saved me quite a bit of time and expenses. And proven yourself immensely resourceful. Well done.”

 

Elunath extended his hands, but Viv declined the request.

 

“I’ll hold onto it. For now.”

 

She saw a hint of fury in the man’s eyes for the tiniest moment, an instant so fleeting she might as well have imagined it. It was as if the overwhelming presence he emanated had solidified and she was hitting a wall. Yet, his composure never broke.

 

“Very well, it is your right. The end result will be the same in any case… unless you lose it.”

 

“Very few people know I have it at all, and I trust all of them to keep it secret,” Viv replied politely.

 

The two stared at each other, hidden behind their smiles.

 

“If you think this is best. Anything else?” Elunath asked.

 

Viv turned up a few precious resources, including necrarch claws and a few mana-saturated ingots of precious metal. They would have value for a smith and she supposed Elunath might find an interest in them. In the end, her time was reduced to thirty-seven years.

 

It was much better than she anticipated.

 

“That’s all for me,” she finished with as much calm as she could.

 

“Very well. My turn then?”

 

“Hm, yes?”

 

“Yes? Or yes.”

 

Viv resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She hoped there would not be any time left on their contract, or the servant contract would make her life… difficult.

 

“Yes, you may begin,” Viv replied.

 

Elunath swallowed his anger once more. It occurred to Viv that she should really try to control herself. There was no need to provoke every authority figure she came across. Just half would be fine.

 

“I seem to recall that you would not be adverse to some covert activity, so long as it remains righteous. Am I correct?”

 

“Yes, although I would prefer to learn more before agreeing to anything.”

 

“Naturally,” Elunath smiled. “It so happens that the Skaima family has been gaining a lot of influence recently. Now, I do not begrudge lesser clans the drive to improve their lot. Helock depends on a healthy competition to ensure the wiliest and most capable politicians of each generation rise to the top. Unfortunately, the Skaima’s ruling couple has been resorting to… shortcuts. Several of their opponents have disappeared recently, assassinated by a fairly competent mage. After careful observations, I have determined that the Skaima have been relying on something called a hidden branch. Are you familiar with the term?”

 

“You mean a secret group?”

 

“No. The expression is Helockian. It refers to a hidden branch of the family tree, a talented mage trained in secret so that they may follow a path of both mage and infiltrator. Someone tries this every few generations. It seldom ends well. Can you guess why?”

 

“I assume they are not treated very well.”

 

“Precisely. In order to maintain the cover, they must be pariahs with little official talent. The discrepancy between their usefulness to the family and the recognition they get in return always leads to disaster. Either they take revenge on the leaders or they make mistakes. Grow too cocky. I have identified the man whose status and attitude do not match as Jin Skaima. You will intercept his carriage as it returns from a nearby village and attack it, posing as highwaymen. Your mission is to get him to demonstrate his magical abilities in front of the other occupants, nothing more.”

 

“You mentioned highwaymen, plural?”

 

“Indeed. You will render assistance… oh, let me be perfectly honest. Your role is to manage young Sonagi while he holds Jin Skaima back. You certainly have the ability to manage Skaima yourself. Unfortunately, your brand of sorcery is too specific and you will easily be recognized. Sonagi has an even distribution of several elements he uses rather well. You need to handle everything else for this operation.”

 

“Can I bring outside talent in? I don’t have experience in brigantry.”

 

“You may use all the resources you deem fit so long as the job gets done. Oh, and another thing. Should you or your allies be compromised…”

 

Elunath let her finish the sentence.