Chapter 446 (1/2)

Chapter 446

Chapter 444: Scarred

ARTHUR LEYWIN

Rolling onto my back, I turned away fro nearby was issuing a faint but worrying huarden: the teh heat that it had withered the flowers it had crushed only seconds ago

I stared at the artifact for far too long, struggling to co about the tempus warp at all Rather, my mind was split between the battlefield in Nirmala and the core inshroud to toss over the rest ofthat had just happened

There was movement from the corner of uise her fear Her hands pressed against h me, driven by the concentration of Cecilia’s htly shut, and I sensed herfor the vivum arts she’d learned in Epheotus, just like I could feel the eic’s response

Her aether affinity had changed Her insight had been rewritten

I grabbed her hands, and her eyes flew open, startled I’m certain I’ll be fine, I just need a moment to heal

‘But your core, what if—”

“I’ve healed from a lot worse,” I said out loud, a sentiment that was undercut when the effort to speak sentfit, and I spit up a mouthful of blood “Is Chul…”

“Unconscious,” she said softly, her voice tight orry “Backlash, I think, fro to hold his phoenix forers of pain clawing through hts flared from a dozen directions Wards activated athe doors and s of the , however, before the front door opened and the ward fell again Darrin Ordin stepped out, draped in a robe and rubbing sleep froht; clearly, oken hi down on us di from the mansion’s s “Grey, what’s—Vritra’s teeth!” he breathed, rushi+ng across the yard to my side He looked from my wound to my face, then to my coet you inside, that wound needs—”

“No,” I said, forcing myself up onto my knees “I’ll be okay Just…need aonwith aether; the violet particles pressed into the scratch, where they co into the surface of the core All the while, aether poured out of the core as well, fueling the slow healing Only a trickle returned, the at drawn into the wounded core for purification

The strike to h to pierce the hard exterior It had been a long tiht it back in full force

If she had ht have been crippled

‘Absorbing ht about the interaction betweenher lip ‘I’h’

Beside Sylvie, Darrin’s eyes stayed on my side, where the blood continued to flow

She wrapped enough mana around my blade that she was able to force it back on uard, and when the second burst of h me, I reacted too slowly

I felt a sudden cool coan to trickle away froether the an to slow

Around h the healing had left a faint scar behind and consumed most of the aether in my core The scar itself itched, more a referred sensation in the back of my mind than on the surface of the core itself I couldn’t pullat a freshly healed wound in theinto the discomfort as I tried to understand it

Only when the lacerated skin of an to heal over did I turn away fro for my Godrunes Not to activate theled on ht the at us They worked as expected, although both were…heavier than they should have been

I’, I released the channeled aether and closedmyself the time necessary to heal

I heard Darrin return to his ho Sylvie leftin the back of h our connection

By the time my wound was healed, I felt well and truly exhausted I couldn’t re time, and certainly not since the formation of its third layer I would need tier at ain at the telow of leaking arden bed, I realized that it ar down the side of the haer supply of aether to channel the rew more pronounced

The teht at even that et more than a use or two out of that now,” Darrin said, reappearing in his yard in a si tunic and breeches When I looked at hi, even the powerful ones like that Not sure I’d trust it at all with that crack in it” Saze lowered to where s weren’t as bad as they looked”

“I’his smile half-heartedly “Sorry to have stirred up your hoiven the situation ere in But we can’t stay long I just need to get my companion back on his feet and—”

“Grey—Arthur, there are things you need to know,” Darrin said, his voice low and urgent, his expression tense “Alaric is here Wasn’t woken by the perimeter alarm, of course, the old drunk, but he should have crawled out of bed and put on a pair of trousers by now Before you run off, you should hear what he has to say”

Darrin’s serious delivery gave me pause After athe tempus warp, we hauled Chul’s unconscious body into the house and laid him out on a couch I left Sylvie to watch over him, and Darrin sent hisa frustrated Briar

When we entered the study, Alaric was already there, and had, of course, already poured himself a drink Behind him, just where I’d left it, was the active ascension half of the Conorance of all that had transpired since the last time I’d used it

Alaric eyed me warily as I sat down across fro in on rizzled ascender was just as tired as me

“Olda fortifying drink, he sighed and dug his palm into one eye socket “So, can I assume it is your return to our fair continent that has kicked up such a shi+t stor back innot to spill his drink “What do I ed “Pushback, boy Counter-offensives Highbloods turning on us Arrona’s puckered sphincter to retake cities he’d given up on I’ains lost in a week”

Darrin was staring down at his hands Alaric’s bloodshot eyes were narrowed as he glared past htened, I realized

“Tellforward “Seris should knohat’s happening”

Alaric scoffed and drained his glass before launching into a bitter but detailed explanation of the many losses the rebellion had experienced just in the last week

Seris’s force had never been large enough to stage arns; they had relied on Seris’s control of Sehz-Clar to hting had largely happened in the shadows through spies and agents that Alaric and his connections organized After Seris had retreated to the Relictoround Due to the actions of a few brave highbloods, however, they had gained and kept control of a handful of cities in Truacia, Vechor, and Sehz-Clar

Those cities had been essential staging grounds for other efforts, pri to Alaric, attempts to retake the cities had beena handful of unexpected victories in the weeks after Sehz-Clar’s fall

But in a span of days, these cities had fallen, the highbloods in control either calling on their troops to stand down or being executed by loyalist strike teams To make matters worse, Alaric’s network of connections, inforeted and assassinated

“And not one by one, but in fucking droves,” he moaned, his cheeks ruddy beneath his unke for the hills to hide out It’s hard to make sense of, boy Like someone threw a Vritra-damned switch and unleashed a flood of death”

We continued on for a while, Alaric delving into est it all In return, I explained what Seris and I had planned and told them about the events of Nirmala

Shortly before dawn, Chul woke, and he and Sylvie joined us despite my protestations that he should continue to rest

“I’ve rested too long This body itches to redeeht,” he said, crestfallen

“You were matched poorly,” Sylvie chimed in “Had you faced any other Scythe, you would have—”

“No, he's right,” I cut in “It was pathetic—but so was I Best thing we can do is learn fro his teeth, Chul posted up in the corner of the study and glared around for the re fields visible out the study ere just turning froht ere interrupted again

A sudden and rapid banging on the study door made us all jerk around, but before anyone could call for entry, the door burst open and Briar rushed in “Master Darrin! A broadcast—quickly—frolance, then hurriedly followed her to a sitting rooe of the Basilisk Fang Mountains was speeding by across the crystal’s surface When I stepped into range of the telepathic field, I heard a wakeful, nervous voice in n himself will be played in two minutes All Alacryans must listen I repeat, a ave Darrin a curious look

Frowning, he shrugged “Enforced broadcasts aren’t unheard of, but they’re pretty rare We didn’t even get one after what happened at the Victoriad”

“The projection artifact just activated itself and started babbling about the lared at the projection

“So, a rona Vritra himself,” Chul mused as he stepped in and out of the telepathic field “If only I could punch his evil face through this crystal artifact”

Alaric’s brows rose as he gave Chul an aths and weaknesses lie”

I smiled faintly “If only we could, Chul”

We all waited in silence until the repeating e stopped and the scene melted away

A face appeared across the crystal projection

“It really is the High Sovereign hih her

Agrona appeared austere, but his severity was so ornamentation in his horns He stared out at us from the projection crystal for several seconds before finally speaking

“My people of Alacrya,” he began, his words purposeful and clear, “children of the Vritra Today, I speak to you directly…to each and every individual a you Listen closely and carefully, because lanced around the rooers were present, as was Darrin’s housekeeper, Sorrel They looked spellbound, all of them Only Alaric, Chul, and I see Even Sylvie ide-eyed, her lips parted slightly as she became wrapped up in this vision But I could sense her ehts, and hers was a very different reason for being so invested

‘My father…’ she sent tomy mind touch hers ‘I can’t help but wonder…it still seerona Vritra together?’

Even through the projection, his force of personality was clear If there had ever been a tiiven himself over to his cruel and sociopathic impulses, perhaps it was then that Sylvia had fallen for him Or perhaps he had always been the sa that wasn’t there