Chapter 93 What goes around.

Viv expected much from the aftermath of the Herald’s death, most of it bad. The village had lost almost one person in five. It was a tragedy, one that should logically lead people to be dicks and blame her for not doing more. It did not happen, however. In fact, the villagers were abjectly grateful and treated her like a complete hero. She was blessed in the name of every god and called a champion of good and civilization.

 

It felt nice.

 

The villagers did not stop to grieve. While a few burly men built a pyre for the deceased, the rest of them dedicated their efforts towards harvesting spider parts and conserving them. Between Viv, Solfis, Arthur and Marruk, the group had made enough meat to last the village through winter. The air was thick with wood smoke and grilled… seafood.

 

Viv had sort of given up on horror after watching Ardek, the remaining hunter, dismantling a carcass. She was beyond that. As expected, the creature didn’t share the biology of its earthen counterpart. It had lungs. And a large brain. It was weird as hell, because the outside was similar but the innards were completely different. It asked some metaphysical question Viv had no answer for.

 

The interesting part were the leg muscles. The corded, pale flesh reminded her a bit of crab and she was kind of missing it, so she finally decided to give in and requested spider to be prepared for her. The villagers were absolutely delighted to oblige. They made a feast out of it and gave her perfectly seared skewers with fresh vegetables and the juice of something lemony.

 

It was absolutely delicious.

 

Viv decided that after all that bullshit, eating your dead opponent was an acceptable form of revenge after all and realized she was missing white wine terribly. And mayonnaise. In the afternoon, with a table placed in the middle of the field and Arthur kept entertained by the village’s small children, Viv placed her back against her rustic chair and finally relaxed.

 

Viv gave herself two days before leaving. One reason was that she was tired from over a month on the road. It was not just physical fatigue. She was fed up with traveling every day through forest, forest, and more forest. Also trees. Occasionally meadows and copses. Fed up, really. The second reason was that Ardek directed the food preservation efforts as someone whose path dealt with being scrappy and efficient. He was the star of the show and his insights would make a huge difference.

 

They had a nice ceremony on the first evening to spread the ashes of those who had fallen as victims to Octas and her machinations. The alderman named Kordek among the first victims of his deranged wife.

 

Her patience (it was patience and totally not laziness) was rewarded on the second day when the villagers brought her sauteed queen face muscles in vinegar sauce and a large core attuned to brown and life mana, with just a bit of dark. Honestly, it was hard to say which one pleased her more. They were both magically active.

 

“Can we use this to refill your energy?” Viv asked Solfis while rubbing Arthur’s belly. The dragonette was gorging from dawn to dusk and Viv thought she had even grown a little bit.

 

//Yes, Your Grace, but it would require time and effort to readjust my frame.

//On a related note, you could not recharge this specific core efficiently.

//Because its attunement to black mana is very low.

 

That was one thing she had not considered. The core on her dagger was black attuned and so she could charge it without isse. Solfis’ core used to belong to a dragon and was apparently attuned to every form of mana. The queen’s core could only be recharged with transparent mana, and that was extremely inefficient. She would be stuck with manually recharging Solfis for a while and hope they didn’t come across anything too problematic, because he had less than a minute of autonomy at normal power and that wouldn’t get them very far.

 

Finally, it was time to leave. Viv regretted that she would not get the full culinary experience of oven spider, sauteed spider, spider skewers, roasted spider and crispy spider, but duty called. Or to be precise, she wanted to get to fucking Helock. The villagers sent her off with prayers and demonstrations of affection but even the most naive earthling would have realized that they were glad to see the back of her so they could fully focus on rebuilding the village. As promised, Ardek guided them.

 

Viv still got spider sandwiches with a leafy green that tasted a bit like garden cress. Quite nice.

 

The group left north east, towards lake Hydon where they could take a ship. At first, they avoided the few isolated villages on the way, but Ardek convinced Viv to go to the nearest town for supplies after a week of travel.

 

“We will get fresh food and I can get information on what is happening locally. Moving with you is not like moving alone. We are slower and we are out of rations.”

 

“What do you usually do alone?”

 

“I forage for food. You three just eat so much. Just your Arthur can eat three harriens per day! Per day! We will run out long before reaching the lake.”

 

Viv debated going with him, but she was still wanted. Revealing herself just before boarding the ship was one thing. Letting every bounty hunter know of her approximate location while she had no way to move fast was another. As for Ardek committing an indiscretion, he had sworn an oath not to reveal her presence so she wasn’t too worried.

 

The town itself was called Lesso, and they stopped in a prairie not far from its walls. Viv relaxed there while the hunter purchased what they had to get. He returned laden with provisions and significantly more relaxed.

 

“The posters are still up, milady. They’re pretty good!”

 

“Yes,” Viv glowered, “I noticed.”

 

Spring was slowly progressing. Every tree was in bloom, which made their trip rather pleasant. Whatever fucked up deity had created this world had not included magical mosquitoes or perhaps they were not endemic to this region. In any case, things were pleasant enough while they moved through smaller paths and secondary roads. Ardek still had them give most villages a wild berth, since the bounty hunters were looking for a witch, a Kark, and a ‘drake’.

 

“I am not sorry for being me!” Marruk grumbled one evening after looking constipated for an hour. Viv had been wondering what was wrong with her.

 

“If you were not here, they would still be looking for a witch and a drake,” Viv replied.

 

“Yes. Yeah! I’m not making it worse,” the proud Kark told herself.

 

Ardek interrupted them, then.

 

“We should stop here for tonight, this is a good spot.”

 

Viv saw a small brook where they could wash, and there were trees blocking the sight. The forest was growing thinner and cultivated land more common the farther they went. They currently stood on a slope that extended for at least a kilometer, leading to a small town. Light was falling and a few torches already shone in the distance.

 

“This is Seldon-upon-Tane. From here on, it’s full north all the way to Losserec, the capital city. We are east compared to the path I’d normally take but don’t worry, I can find our way.”

 

That didn’t fill Viv with confidence. The scrappy youth was unfazed by her clear display.

 

“What I don’t know, I can ask.”

 

Viv shrugged and busied herself setting camp and loading Solfis. The golem had been on low consumption mode ever since the battle. Even with Viv working on him every night, he was still very low on reserves. The issue here was that she didn’t have a charging station he could use, and just pushing mana manually was a slow and inefficient process. Marruk soon called to say that food was ready. Viv helped herself to a bowl of porridge and hoped they’d get something less boring next town over. She got a spoonful in when a bright light shone near her hand.

 

“What the fuck?”

 

A sleepy Marruk just gawped at the source of light on Viv’s finger. Viv’s danger sense was still silent. It took her almost a second to realize what was going on. She stood up in a rush and fell forward, head swimming.

 

//The antidote, Your Grace.

 

“Fuck. Poison. POISON!”

 

Fortunately, she was still prepared from the spider days and grabbed a phial from a pocket on her chest. She downed it and felt immediately more alert. The spoon fell from Marruk’s hand. The mighty woman tilted forward.

 

“Dammit. Ardek! Ardek?”

Only now did she realize that the boy had disappeared. Panic flooded her system, waking her up. Her heart beat frantically. She jumped on the Kark woman and forced an antidote dose between her red lips.

 

“Come on come on come on.”

 

Marruk reflexively gulped it down and blinked.

 

“Whu?”

 

“No time. Take Solfis, we gotta run. What the hell?”

 

Just then a flare took off from a nearby thicket. Viv turned her head quickly enough to see Ardek’s illuminated face. He looked awfully calm. It pissed Viv off.

 

She sent a net his way and was rewarded by a scream of pain. Fuck that guy.

 

“We got to run. Now!”

 

Arthur was out hunting so there would be no help there. Marruk stumbled but managed to grab Solfis and strap him to her back. They moved, leaving most of their belongings behind. Viv barely took the time to grab her pack, minus the tent. Around them, torches were lit in the distance. Viv’s sight was still blurry as the general-purpose antidote fought what must be a powerful sedative. There seemed to be a lot of them. She might have gone so far as saying a metric fuckton of them. Had to be the drug. Same with the voices. So many of them. And horns.

 

“That doesn’t feel like bounty hunters.”

 

“Whu?”

 

“You keep going Marruk, you’re doing amazing.”

 

“Oh.”

 

The mighty Kark was drooling, running up the slope with somewhat hesitant steps. There were torches in front of them now. Viv had a quick look around. There were torches everywhere. An illusion, maybe.

 

“We need options,” she said in Harrakan.

 

//There is a gap there with fewer torches.

//By that cliff.

 

Yes. The terrain was difficult here and there was a small elevation higher up. That could help. Viv ran more. She heard cries of alarm. She spotted men in uniform far to her right, shining brightly under the radiance of magical light. They wore armor. They were not moving, just standing there watching the darkness with apprehension. Then they were gone, hidden behind a fold of the land. She kept going.

 

Pretty sure they had been wearing loyalist uniforms. They were the right shade of blue. Inside her addled brain, panic bubbled to the surface and she ran faster. A scout spotted her on the left next. He whistled but didn’t approach.

 

A moment later, something stabbed her in the arm. Danger sense warned her, but it felt muted somehow and she was too slow to react.

 

“Arg, MERDE.”

 

Wait no, not stabbed. But hurt. Pain lanced her with every step she took. Something clattered on the ground, an arrow with a round head.

 

“Easy peasy…”

 

A hastily put up shield blocked a second arrow. She could not stop running.

 

“… sneaky cloaky.”

 

The next projectile hit her leg but disappeared with a hiss. She grabbed her wounded arm to prevent it from dangling around. Fucking broken, no doubt.

 

//Your Grace, they are trying to capture you.

 

“I noticed!”

 

//I mean that they will not use lethal force.

//Do not hesitate to exploit it.

 

Viv’s mind tried to process what the golem had said, understand it so she could use it, but the persistent poison clouded her mind. It was so hard to focus despite her high focus. She suspected that only this allowed her to function while Marruk coped on endurance alone. She was a one-eyed idiot guiding a blind person. And Solfis had almost no battery.

 

They were so fucked.

 

No, she had to persevere. Find an out. The cliff came closer. For some strange reason and although they were surrounded, no one came to her. The few soldiers who spotted her just whistled and signaled, but they never approached. Speaking of which…

 

[Enorian Infantryman]

 

The inspection skill returned a vague impression of southern force, but she could not pay it much attention. More blunt arrows hit her armor, disintegrating on contact. They hit her legs, arms, chest, testing for weakness. An arrow at the back of the knee made her stumble. Another hit her wounded arm, eliciting a hiss of pain. All the while, Viv was fighting down terror. They reached the base of the cliff and angled right into a small ravive. The cries behind her had gone closer. She could swear she could hear horses.

 

//Your Grace.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

//There is a spellcaster ahead we should go to.

 

“Fuck.”

 

//Your Grace, I apologize for not seeing through the deception.

//I considered Ardek’s oath breaking unlikely.

//Right now, we should consider… alternative options.

 

Viv refused to accept that. No capture. No letting others decide for her. She had killed a fucking prince. They wouldn’t be nice about it. She had always told herself back in Afghanistan, that if she ever was at risk of being captured, she would blow her head off. This didn’t feel much better.

 

The ravine was not empty, there were torches far, far ahead. In front of her. Near the exit. And in front of that, there was a familiar figure.

 

“Aspect of fire. Firewall.”

 

A crimson circle lit under Eteia’s feet. Flaming columns ignited at the mage’s back, blocking the path. The heat was so intense that Viv had to turn her head, letting the heat disperse on her mana coating. Marruk slipped to a halt.

 

Eteia was clad in her own armor, with a shimmering of light that indicated that a shield was already in place. It kind of stung to be trapped in return after trapping the woman so thoroughly.

 

But Eteia was not gloating. In fact, she looked more distressed than anything. Her mouth was half open and her eyes searched the shadows of the night behind Viv’s back. The witch’s mind went into overdrive, perception of time slowing.

 

She was done for. It was obvious now. She never had a chance. Whoever wanted to trap her had been very, very thorough. Illogically so. She suspected that it was… what was his name again? Constable Tarano, current head of the loyalist faction. And she knew why Solfis had guided her here instead of to another doomed passage.

 

Eteia was still under oath not to hurt Viv personally, an apparent oversight on the part of her attackers. It meant that there was a brief window where Viv could ask questions and plant the seeds of a future escape.

 

“Why do they want me alive?” she asked in a rush.

 

The mage was eager to talk. Perhaps she was worried about Neriad smiting her on the spot, but Viv thought there might be more to it.

 

“Not to execute you. I think Tarano wants your research. I don’t know anything more.”

 

Sympathy. Fear. Conspiratorial tone. Guilt. Viv filed all of this and came to a conclusion. She had to give herself a breathing space, and she had to do it fast. Intimidation would not serve a purpose here, so she shelved it. Eteia would not be bluffed and she most definitely had high focus. Better to try and sway her.

 

“Let them go and I will surrender peacefully,” Viv proposed.

 

It was more a test of character than a real negotiation. Viv didn’t have a leg to stand on, and Eteia knew it as well. The mage could just step to the side and let Viv get stopped by the next group. Thankfully, it worked. The mage nodded to the side.

 

“They can try to climb.”

 

//Your Grace, it could work.

 

“Then do it.”

 

Solfis whispered to Marruk. The Kark went to the base of the shear wall and got lifted by a pair of bony arms until they disappeared. Viv heard a few arrows clatter against the stone but she could no longer see anything.

 

That was it then.

 

“So… how do we do this?” she asked, keeping her voice under control.

 

“I have silverite manacles. Put them on.”

 

Eteia removed a pair of shackles from a bag at her back and looked like she would hand them to Viv, but a glance to the side dissuaded her. She tossed the things towards Viv who inspected them summarily. They were simple circles covered in runes, with a basic steel chain that could be attached to immobilize her. She deactivated her cloak then put them on with a grimace. It was a necessity in those circumstances, but she hated it anyway.

 

At first, she didn’t feel any different. Mana was still there and she could still move it through her conduits. Her core felt normal as well.

 

“It will inflict pain if you try to draw glyphs or if you let mana spill out of the limits of your body. Don’t try it, because it really hurts,” Eteia whispered.

 

“Speaking from experience?”