Chapter 394 (2/2)

“Her unnecessary verbosity is for the benefit of the lessers,” the right head noted “Her retainer is confused and concerned with the lack of inforiven hi to constrain her e on”—his nose wrinkled in distaste—“a aze Next to lared at by a Sovereign every day Despite how my heart hammered at the inside of my chest, I atteht, refocusing on ically, it wasn’t fair to be angry with him over his lies Of course he’d lied, he couldn’t tell me the truth of his identity He hadn’t even been the one to seek out a partnershi+p with ically tracked hi in the Relictombs And hadn’t I also lied aboutfor the sake of protection, it would bepersona if the Relictombs themselves hadn’t intervened?

I hadn’t fully understood what I was gettingwith him, but I knew he tried to keeptoo close I’d accepted hi the details of his life The fact that he was born on another continent didn’t change anything

Seris’s ic flared as she sent pulses of h the crystals and glass tubes like the gli off the white walls and filling the rooan to resonate upward as the enerator cae of a transparent ripple began to rise up froe

I heldelse

“Mana fluctuation seems in line with expectations,” Orlaeth’s left head h shi+eld density is at less than half of what I’d calculated”

It was beautiful in its raer Like a soap bubble, the expanding edge of the shi+eld refracted the sun’s light and swirled with all the colors of the visible spectruy of the sun itself

And then…the low hu, and the shi+eld’s surfacepatches dissipating before the entire structure finally collapsed with a defeated pop

My held breath hissed out

Sovereign Orlaeth’s left head burst out with a judgemental huff, and he crossed his arms “There is a problenificantly less than it should be A failure of the activation n all ht head was quiet, its expression thoughtful The dark red eyes were unfocused, and it didn’t respond to the other’s , her voice carrying a pleading edge I’d never heard froht, of course Perhaps sonht head ordered, not the waspish barbs of the left head, but a thru command that forced Seris’s jaws to snap audibly shut

Stars burst behind n’s intent pressed at my temples

Inundated in a wash of ive Grey My reasons for fighting at his side had never been patriotic, and I’d never seen sense in the Dicathian war I was no fawning tool for the Vritra Clan Grey was the source of the power I was looking for He’d conquered aether in a way even the dragons couldn’t Heightened or not, I couldn’t allow s”—to distract me from what really mattered

If it took a Dicathian to protect Alacrya from the Vritra, then so be it There was even a kind of sense to it, really Alacryans had been bred like pets for the Vritra Clan, si us would truly ever be capable of fighting back? Of breaking Agrona’s hold over the continent?

Seris, I realized She was risking everything to do exactly that And she supported Grey

I stifled a gasp at the train of reat powers of this Do various parts of the device, his lefthtful frown His lips wererapidly as he ed absently at the lowest of hisat ht of Grey fell away, and all I could think of was the Sovereign’s fingertips tracing along the activationthe trap? Was it truly capable of disabling even an asura? What if it failed? I felt an intense insistence that, in that ht head said, and for atoback froht said

No, I thought desperately, panic stealing the breath froiven it away, I’ve failed, I’ve—

My eyes widened in horror as tears blurreddownexcept mutter in dismay, “I’m…s-so sorry, S-Seris So s-sorry…”

Frustration interthis outpouring of eical part of ainst it

Bitterness welled up as I considered how Seris had at least prepared fora fallback plan in place

Orlaeth stood and took a step back from the activation matrix “Yes, of course In my haste I nearly missed it See this? The mana acquisition coils have been ta off h pressure loop in conjunction with empty mana batteries to forcefully draw out allus helpless to defend ourselves,” the right head confir h t n o v el r e ad e ror g"

Turning unhurriedly, Orlaeth raised one hand, and I felt myself relax at the fact that at least the second part of the plan would still happen, whatever it was

“Relief? Wait…” the right head said, and the hand froze Slowly, the left head turned around to look askance at the right “There is so else”

Both sets of eyes swept the space, tracing across every surface, every curve and line Then Orlaeth kicked aside a rug, revealing a network of silvery-blue ht Look The hout the entire room If we use mana here, it will start the process”

The left head’s expression softened, growing curious, but the right head was glowering fiercely, his face so dangerous andthat I couldn’t bear to look at it “You always have aih for your station, Seris It is a shame that your cleverness couldn’t keep up with your an turned, ripped the heavy chair froainst the activation matrix Glass shattered, metal bent and sheared, and h the room

I flinched away belatedly, instinctively releasing mana to clad my skin as I prepared to defend myself, but Orlaeth took no notice at all, and I knehy

I’erous than a mana fly…

“It’s a facade,” the left head told the right as Orlaeth’s fingers wriggled through the air, like he was following the trails of h the roo are still in place below us”

The right head sneered “You’ve been practicing your ability to shroud your ereat effort into this trap Asyour bones with my bare hands, it seems likely you’ve accounted for that, too” The sneer became a cruel smile “It would be ”

While everything had been happening, Seris had slowly backed away and was now standing near the -covered floor Despite Orlaeth’s cold fury crushi+ng the oxygen from the rooh each of n I should have known I couldn’t surpass your intellect I won’t apologize for trying, though You asura are a pox upon this world, and you deserve everything that is co for you”

“Spoken with the true bravado of a lesser” Orlaeth’s right head looked over his shoulder to Cylrit and ain with a tone of such co me her horns”

I stood and reached foreed beneath a glass-smooth shell of subservience

Cylrit was faster He flashed past, his rune-etched blade hissing as it cut the air

Orlaeth growled as he reached up and caught the blade Confusion ground my movements to a halt, and I could only stare

He had attacked the Sovereign But that rong The Sovereign had co

Orlaeth’s wrist twisted, ripping the blade fro the blade like a club, striking Cylrit across the chest and sending hi through the wall and out of sight

The right head stared intoht n o v el r e a d e ror g"

My entire body trembled as I tried to separate who I was and what I wanted fro stepped forward of its own accord, while one hand released its grip on the blade

“You won’t break her” Seris’s voice sounded distant “She’s one of the strongest people I’ve evershe isn’t”

These words echoed around in ed itself toward her

At any other ushed over withwords from my mentor, but now, I felt only the bitter reality that either she would be forced to kill me in defense of her own life, or she would let me strike her down, because, despite her words, I did not feel strong enough to resist the Sovereign’s co she isn’t

My lurching forward progress slowed further What did those words ? Some hint at how to break the spell, how to resist?

Seris had given me an option to live ned to create, foster, and make use of people exactly like me, Seris opened the door for me to choose my own path Without her,exactly what Agrona or some other Vritra commanded

I refused to be anyone’s tool

My body ground to a halt, trapped between the conflicting signals it was receiving, unable to move forward, unable to resist

“So it would seeht head watchedas his curiosity won out The left head seeenius scientist faded away as he held up Cylrit’s weapon, and I saw the truth of the asura’s power, for they were not one thing, not definable by a single trait, but were grace and strength and authority and divinity entwined, never sacrificing one aspect for another, e each simultaneously

If I weren’t paralyzed by hed Death made us lessers philosophical, apparently

“Then I suppose I’ll have to deal with you myself,” Orlaeth’s left head said tiredly as he closed in on Seris and thrust Cylrit’s sword

Several things happened all at once, and it took far too long for ish perception to catch up with the scene

The blade ran effortlessly through Seris’s collarbone, sticking out of her back and staining the rugs beneath her with a splash of hot blood

Using one foot, Seris kicked aside one corner of a plu a dull silver-blue plate inset in the floor beneath it A short spike sprang up from the plate, and Seris stoed into and through her foot, its bloody point sticking up into the air

With a driven corabbed Orlaeth’s wrist in both hands and pulled the sword deeper into her Blood spurted between her lips, staining them crimson as they curved upward into the barest hint of a sray-black mana wrapped around their joined hands I could feel in ainst the overwheln

“Stop!” the right head shouted to the left, but too late

The effect was instantaneous

The force of co onto the floor, an to pour froh Seris land into a network of channels that ran down into the floor beneath us

There was a surge as Orlaeth attethened

“Get your lessuran hands offbackwards, but the blade resisted hied in Seris’s body, and the black sphere seerinning with blood beneath her teeth “Spoken with the true bravado of an asura”

The back of Orlaeth’s hand crashed across Seris’s cheek, and for an instant I thought her strength would fail as her ic flickered and her body trembled The hand rose for a second blow, but before it could fall, Cylrit was there The retainer struggled to pin down Orlaeth’s ar between Seris andfor answers

I tried to push erously All I could do atch as n And as it was, he seemed to weaken, unable to shake off Cylrit or break his connection with Seris The struggle dragged on and on, and I thought for sure one side or the other would fail, but now I saw it

Seris didn’t need to defeat the asura, si h t n o v el r e a d e ror g"

The machinery underneath the compound hummed back to life, and out beyond the balcony, the shi+elds started rising over the cliffside once again

“Look, Sovereign, your shi+elds are working,” Seris said, causing blood to leak fron…will have your…core…for this,” the left head groaned weakly With his next breath, the last of his ed herself off Cylrit’s blade and stu the spike with a wet pop, a hand pressed to her chest as blood poured between her fingers

Cylrit twisted the Sovereign’s ar hied without Orlaeth and the blade holding her up, and I realized how insubstantial herlike a candle flame in a stiff breeze But she didn’t fall

Her eyes sought out iance lie, Caera? And…what are you willing to do to prove it?”

“It has to be now!” Cylrit growled, shaking with effort as the asura struggled in his grip

I looked du beneath it

Pushi+ng th, I pointedly didn’t think about the waythe handle of my sword, or how many steps it took to close the distance to the asura, or the weight of the blade as I lifted it over my head

“Take…the left head,” Seris said as she let out a shuddering breath

Instinct pushed soulfire into then the blow, and then it was a black-wreathed red streak I didn’t think about the way the blade jerked entering the asura’s flesh, or the dead sound of the head landing on a royal purple rug

The second head let out a gargled screech, and its eyes rolled back into its head The body spas wound, and Cylrit released it

Orlaeth slu drawn like breath into his body

I stuck the point ofheavily There was a faint buzzing in e of adrenaline wore off and n’s presence were fading, leaving

Cylrit, already on his knees, rolled over to lie on his back beside the asura and let his eyes drift closed

“What now?” I asked hollowly

Seris wiped the blood from her lips “Noe prepare for war”