Chapter 414 (1/2)
Chapter 414
Chapter 412: The Lie You Believe
NICO SEVER
My fingers drummed across the surface of the charwood staff, the beat creating no discernible rhyth nervously within ain to help ress without distraction in my work, the vision of Lady Dawn’s shriveled and desiccated body still hauntedevery time I closed my eyes
It was also iht with the constant wasp-huround, and yet I couldn’t bringabout the noise that I had gotten used to over the years of his servitude
“When I saw you, I think I about died right then and there, horrified into a heart attack,” he said, chuckling He was sitting cross-legged on the floor like a child, rolling a wooden ball around in circles, while I was standing atdown blankly at a collection of artifact parts “I didn’t know—never thought—’cause when I first went to Dicathen, you were safe in the dwarf-ho breath, the noise of the rolling ball stopping for just a second, then going on again “Well, that’s what done me in, wasn’t it? Bad luck, that was all Cursed bad luck”
Without looking back at hirona’s plans had so noise that was part laugh, part the whine of a kicked dog “A cautionary tale, isn’t it? Maybe e a whole catastrophic heap of consequences one day”
Hearing a strange note in his voice, I turned from my work to look at Draneeve He had taken off his mask and set it aside Beneath it, his features were unreht home and returned to rueso Even now, despite his constant talking and retelling of the same old stories, he’d never explained why he wore the mask When asked, he would sie the subject
Now there was a faraway look in his eyes, and a lopsided grin on his unassu face “They’ll call it ‘The Dreary Ballad of Draneeve, the Would-be Retainer’ A fable about how aood sense, leads even the greatest of heroes to ruin!”
Feeling htthat any interruption noould only prolong as to come, I returned my attention to the unfinished artifacts onDraneeve’s words roll past ainst thepanes
“Our intrepid hero, Draneeve, sought to prove hileefully accepted the erous of tasks He took an unstable portal to a new and distant land full of strange ing contacts and testing the locals, discovering who an’s will”
Ilowing parts arrayed acrossthem around to see how the different pieces attuned with one another When I had the pieces I wanted, I moved them closer to an incoer than a charcoal pencil The result was unsatisfying, so I redistributed the individual parts and began again
“The races of Dicathen were divided, and Draneeve found what he was looking for in the depths of the dwarven kingdoround for promises of a better future, and Draneeve worked hi and queen thereed to support us”
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I stopped, distracted This hen my earlier childhood memories were locked away and the persona of Elijah i about it noith both sets ofsensation to run upon the deck of a srona had done to ered, like scar tissue
“Networks of spies were established, branching out from Darv and into Sapin, with Draneeve at their head, and a plan forenious plan Draneeve saw an opportunity, weakness in the loose thread that wove the races and nations together, and an eagerness for hostility as they were pushed closer together”
“An old enemy, a spy like Draneeve, a traitor, pushed back at every opportunity, but Dicathen was struggling, and the task of holding it together was farit apart But alas, our hero finds failure in success, because in his avarice of an, and in doing so threatened a plan of which he knew not, risking the lives of both reincarnates and the vessel for a third yet to coh
Choosing a prototype part made with an alloy I’d invented myself, I slotted it into the artifact I’d been feverishly struggling to build I’d worked without sleep since the moment I had the idea, in the aftermath of Cecilia’s altercation with the phoenix, but every step had been a bitter and difficult process Even as I exaalia, I kneouldn’t be certain until I actually used the artifacts There were too …and yet, what other choice did I have?
I consideredevery hour for what felt like days, and cast them aside for the last time No, I’d already made a decision There was no point in hesitation now
Turning around again, I looked at Draneeve He was staring down at the ball in his hands
“And so Draneeve retreated ho even to acquire the vessel,” I said, continuing the story for hin was furious, and nearly had Draneeve executed, but felt that was too easy a punishned to beto make your life as miserable as possible”
Draneeve’s eye twitched “A sad end to our hero’s tale—” He snapped upright suddenly, leaping to his feet as he realized what he was saying, then falling into a deep bow, so low his criive ree with me?” I asked, amused despite myself The moment I noticed my amusement, it soured, and bile rose up in the back of ize, but kept the words back “Draneeve, would you like to be free of this life?”
His back unbent slowly, and when I could see his face again, his uncertainty was obvious “As difficult as things can be, Lord Nico, I’er to die”
I blinked at him a few times, then realized the confusion “Vritra’s horns…no, I didn’tI’m hesitant to confess this to anyone, even you, and would only be willing to do so if there is some way I can reciprocate this favor”
Draneeve’s eyes sloidened “You mean…be released from your service?” He paced quickly left, realized there was no roon would never allow it This ishienuine smile “What if I can release you, help you escape this life? No Agrona, no more punish very i away, returning to ain several ti as you wish…”
My s back to the High Sovereign But this is so that needs to stay a secret If you can do that, I will help give you a new life”
The wooden ball clinked against the wall, having rolled slohen Draneeve stood,him flinch
“I’ht time for those words “The spymaster of Dicathen shouldn’t flinch at every pin-drop That is, at least in part, my fault And I’m sorry”
Finally, Draneeve’s head bobbed in acknowledgment “What do you need me to do?”
An hour later, with the finished artifacts stashed inthe corridors until I reached the stairs back down to the cells where the phoenix had been imprisoned The stairs were empty, as they usually were, but when I reached the door at the bottom, I found it sealed shut
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A crystalline panel was mounted to the black stone of the wall beside the door It sensed certain natures and only opened the door when it found one it recognized Touching the tip ofdifferent kinds of ths, to sinatures It would have been easier if I’d known any of the researchers orked down here, but still, such a lock wasn’t designed to defend against a quadra-elee, and after a couple offorce was deactivated, allowing the door to swing open
“Scythe Nico?”
I froze halfway through the door Inside, sitting around a table playing so the rooht of me A half-dozen researchers and Imbuers were at work in the roorave, likely re what had happened to the tho’d “inspected” lowered around at the guards “What are you doing down here? Lazing? Names, immediately I’ll have you reported to the master-of-arms and see you lashed for avoidance of duty And you lot,” I snapped, directing this at the researchers, “I need the level cleared iuards leaped up, knocking their chairs about as they hurried to solute “But S-Scythe, ere assigned here A new duty shi+ft,” one of theue in his haste
Half the researchers had taken a few halting steps toward the door, but they stopped when the guard spoke
“We’re not supposed to let anyone in who isn’t already assigned to this level,” an older guard said, less shaken than the others I took hi officer and faced him directly “Even Scythes,” he added after a n Feel free to take it up with him if—”
I moved faster than he could respond My core wasn’t what it had been, but I still far outstripped nor hiround “Then I would suggest you hurry to report et out of my way, I’ll kill you all Perhaps his annoyance—and your corresponding punishment—will be less than your lives if you siround, I shoved hi, but with enough force that he stuhted himself, all other eyes turned to hi tiht, men, out” When they didn’t immediately respond, he shouted, “Now!”
Everyone lurched into a hurried retreat fro work half-finished, researchers abandoning their projects, the guards h the door
As I watched the last few of theuards and what they meant I had expected it to take twenty, maybe thirty minutes for word to spread frorona would take notice, but the presence of guards could speed or slow that ti on how afraid of punishrona arrived too soon, all would be lost, but I wasn’t ready to abandonout a sie of the door fra the corridors to the phoenix’s cell Her re up by her wrists If I hadn’t watched Cecilia drain the nized the body, shriveled and decrepit as it noas
I turned away The phoenix wasn’there
A few cells down, I found Kiros staring wearily out of hisfor me
“I need inforn closely
How he reacted would tell me a lot about his state of e hie here, trapped and chained Some of the bulk around his one sallow and murky Absent all his orna But then, who couldwhile h their wrists
Grey could I ground ht between theaze had sharpened, but who hadn’t replied to rona’s plans for the Legacy?” I asked, growling the question
Kiros puffed hi down his nose at me “Scythe or not, how dare a lesser speak toAfter a moment, all the bluster oozed out of hi capable of ultiainst the other asuras” He tried to shrug, but it was a feeble movement chained up as he was “Always sounded like a fairy story to me”