Chapter 402 (2/2)

She bit her lip, then moved one of her own casters to support the striker “Such bravado, Arthur I thought you wanted to have a discussion Do you expecta blade toa shi+eld “I didn’t cootiate I came to retake the city Bloodless is better, but I’m prepared to do what needs to be done, just as in Blackbend”

“So what then?” Her fingers tapped on the hardwood table “You want us”—she gestured to the others—“to take our people and go home? Just that simple?”

“Pretty rona with you”

She leaned away froo any further, I have a confession to ustine shared a look with one of the others, who gave her a sharp nod “Every Alacryan soldier at our disposal has already been disbursed throughout the city Their orders are simple: if any har the people of Xyrus” She held up her hand again, her features softening “Don’t e of our blood’s expansion into your continent specifically because I was eager to work alongside the people of Dicathen, to learn frorona’s service

“But,” she continued, and for a single instant her composure broke, and I saw real fear flash across her fine features, “just as you said, I will do what needs to be done Because, on ive you this city”

I looked down at the ga her no outward reaction to her threats Instead, I said only, “I believe it’s still your turn, Augustine”

Biting her lip, she slid the striker through the newly forap in ustine continued, louder and more confident, “but you aren’t callous with the lives of others Even in Alacrya, surrounded at all times by enemies, you took pains to ensure the students in your care ell tended to, students like Seth of Highblood Milview and Mayla of Blood Fairweather in particular”

“Surrender yourself and the people of this city will be spared,” one of the other highbloods added, his honeyed baritone positively oozing with po a stifled yawn, I withdrew my forward caster in order to block her striker froaht as she shot the other highbloods an uncertain look Walter of Highblood Kaenig nodded, and she slid back slightly fros all happened in the sahout the rooe was full of ar shi+elds of translucent ustine; and, soan to blow

I heard the whistle of a polearht the shaft, then twisted my wrist so the wood shattered My attacker bore the synized the sy the crowd of soldiers: Wykes, Clarell, Ravenpoor, Dreyl, and, ustine had kicked aside her chair and retreated into the press of Dicathian soldiers The other highbloods were busily scuttling fro barn

I stayed in my seat No one else attacked iame board

“These ht to keep you froustine shouted over the sudden noise of a hundred ive you any pause? Or are you so single-minded that you would murder even your own people to ensure the world is as you think it should be”

There was a wildness in the young woman’s dark eyes that reminded me of a cornered shadow panther

I took a second to look fro in theht of hts of Xyrus’s noble houses seemed so self-certain Like the little carved men on the board, they simply here they were told, oblivious to the ramifications of their actions or their own lives

“You think you’ve outer down on the head of the striker piece that was now sitting behind the line of erously close to my sentry “You’ve isolated a weakness and exploited it Leftupstriker “But I don’t forfeit, Augustine”

I let aze fall heavily on all those nearest to me “So, strike me down”

Not even a breath interrupted the silence that followed

Then the co off the ed forward and thrust his sword at ustine, cast by a man in Clarell colors Then another attack cae of blows, soical, others by sword or ax or spear

But they crashed against the relic armor, which unfolded overthe brunt of the assault without fighting back Five seconds passed, then ten At twenty seconds, there was a lull in the assault as the reality of the situation started to dawn over the knights

In that mo raptor squirrels

Ripping the sword froht’s hand, I thrust it into another man’s chest, took hiht’s onco Real ball ofit into the face of a Clarell soldier at the same time as I conjured an aether blade and twirled it around in a wide arc, cutting down severalforward, Augustine had been retreating, sliding back through the wall of Dicathians until she was at the lounge door She didn’t flee farther, didn’t run for her life or attempt to disappear into the streets outside Instead, she stood and watched Entranced or petrified, I couldn’t tell

Directing aether into roup of conjurers bearing the Wykes House crest “Please, General Arthur,” one of theed, “I served with you at—”

The plea cut out, sed by the forge-fire roar of aether blasting the conjurers to pieces

With the efficiency of a lu soldiers Dozens upon dozens of theranite floor, their blood pooling until the gray vanished beneath a wet red carpet

The fight barely lasted a minute before the last of them fell

I wiped blood froustine To her benefit, she didn’t run As I started in her direction, she watched me approach like one who has accepted death

The rooain And now that it was, I could hear the sounds of shouting and spellfire in the distance

“Order your soldiers to back down,” I said, my voice an apathetic void “No ather and prepare to relocate If this isn’t done now, I’ll spare no one”

Her dark eyes were unfocused, looking through hts’ corpses littered the floor

“Lady Ramseyer,” I snapped, and she ju across her face

She began to retreat cluaze locked on hbloods vanish around a corner

“Don’t testThen I was alone

My eyes shut, the lids suddenly ponderously heavy I was tired So tired It wasn’t weakness of body or ue of the spirit

I released my connection with the relic ar Forcing ht

shi+ning steel wasblood Severed appendages sat like gruesome islands amid the sea of scarlet The colorful euishable beneath the stains

So rona even before the war started to turn against us, it shouldn’t have surprised me that, with Alacrya firmly in control, some people had fully sworn themselves to his service Fear alone would drive reed many more

Still As I stared at the corpses, I knew these deaths were a weight I would have to carry

I wasn’t sure how long I’d stood there in silence, deaf to everything but my own inner turmoil, when the sound of hurried steps drew me back out of my own emotions

Jasmine marched into the room, stepped in blood, and pulled up short Her eyes ide, then focused on ave ahat I was feeling, because her noris wasn’t with her and reached out to hi

“You okay?” Jasmine asked after a moment

“I…” When my voice came out raw, I bit back my words, hesitant to look weak in front of her Fool, I chidedwhy I’d asked for her to come with me in the first place “I’ve worked so hard to keep this war frohter,” I continued after a ain, sweeping ive theed a body over with her toe so the breastplate was facing up There were very few identifying features left of the knight, whose face had been carved by an ax, but clear on his breastplate was the symbol of the Flaently curling flames Her face remained expressionless

“They had their chances,” she said flatly “Many of them And they made their choice every time”

She trailed between the bodies, each step leaving behind an eranite in the blood “I didn’t realize my father had been released from his cell under the Wall”

Trodius Fla air-attribute mana to fire He had planned to sequester himself and his noble friends in the Wall to save themselves from the war And he had betrayed the trust of his own soldiers when he refused to drop the wall on the army of mutated mana beasts the Alacryans had conjured from the Beast Glades, an act that had directly resulted in the death of my own father

But he wasn’t some outlier of villainy inside an otherwise altruistic institution No, every leader of every one of these noble houses had done things just as selfish, cruel, and treasonous, of that I was certain

“Durden still blames himself for your father’s death, you know,” Jasly out of the blue

I felta knight’s corpse off the polished surface in order to est es could have fallen prey to those beasts”

“You’re right, it wasn’t his fault,” Jashter “It was Trodius’s He was careless with the lives of men who trusted him” She stopped and pointed down at a torso that had been cleaved free of its bottom half “Lord Dreyl was careless with this e in blood-soaked battlerobes with a toe “And Lord Ravenpoor with this man’s” She stopped, her feet on either side of a severed head “And Trodius sent this woman to her death as well”

Our eyes met There was fire behind the red of her irises “Don’t punish yourself for the deeds of others, Arthur”

I had to clear“This on’t be over when the last Alacryan leaves these shores We have too many enemies ere born here and call the her way to my side She reached across the bar and pulled down a bottle, swirling the golden liquid inside There was so distant and haunted in her face, then she tossed the bottle away “Even continents have to exercise their demons, I suppose”

More footsteps announced the arrival of several people Jasers, but I could feel froustine and her cohorts had pulled back their troops, as I’d ordered

I pressed my palms hard into my eyes, until white static played acrossbreath, Ito have any e-turned-abattoir

Despite hoping for a few reunions, I was still surprised by the approaching figures, all of whom stopped when they saw e in his leather ared since I’d last seen hiht around the ard weariness behind his once playful eyes

Beside hirooman, fierce and beautiful even covered in blood She was pale, and there were tears clinging to the corners of her eyes as she stared at me in shock

And behind both of them was Vanesy Glory, unmarred by the battles outside

While Vincent was looking at me with a kind of delirious bemusement, like he wasn’t quite sure if this was all a dream or not, Lilia simmered with a furious intensity, her eyes moved quickly over the lines of my face, except when they would meet my own and catch there

Behind the at attention with one hand behind her back, the other on her blade, its point down, resting on the granite Her bright eyes were shi+ning, and her lips were pressed together so tightly that they’d turned white

“Art, my boy, is that really you?” Vincent asked from the doorway

I tried to flash hi onbreath, her body tensed like a pulled bowstring, and she sprang forward and wrapped her arms around me “Arthur…I—I can’t believe you’re alive!”

I accepted the eratefully She pressed her face intowith suppressed sobs “What about Ellie? Alice? There’s been no word for so long…”

“Fine,” I said consolingly,her hair “They’re both fine, Lilia”

She pulled free and wiped her eyes, gri a stoic leader of the rebellion,” she said wryly “But I suppose that is , anyway”

“Never be ashamed of your e into a fatherly tone “You cannot control how you feel, and those who love and respect you will not judge you for expressing yourself”

S, I slipped past Vincent and extended a hand to Vanesy She let go of the rigid stance she’d been holding and took my hand firmly When I’d first met Vanesy Glory as a professor at Xyrus Academy, there had been a youthful exuberance to all her actions Just after the war started, I found her to be steadfast and serious in her role, with hthearted air subdued, but on the whole unchanged

Now, she’d been teed her physically; the same Vanesy still stood before me, with her brunette hair pulled back and tied, as usual But the easy sone, as was the amused squint that normally wrinkled the corners of her eyes

“I’m sorry there won’t be more time for a proper reunion,” I said, “but the situation here rests upon the edge of a blade I need to get these Alacryans out of Xyrus as soon as possible”

She squeezed o and took a step back “Of course, Arthur” She hesitated “I…everyone thought you were dead” She looked at the ground, her jaw tightening

“Well, I’, but for noe need eyes across the city Can you send out patrols? We need a presence in the street to , and it only deepened as I spoke “I don’t understand Why are we allowing theh that ca, and her jaw began working back and forth in agitation

This is soht While I was on the other continent learning to see the Alacryans as people, those here in Dicathen witnessed only the most monstrous of their actions I can’t fault er to simply wave as their oppressors march to freedom

“I know many of these Alacryans have co War is war, and that is hard enough to forgive I won’t pretend to know everything they’ve done to you and yours since the war's end But please, right now is not the tie is inside you”

I held her gaze for a long ainst the handle of her sword Then she bent at the waist and gave me a shallo “Of course General”