Chapter 42 (2 of 2) Affliction of an Atlantean. (Patreon)

That had been how it had gone in the past. Back then, she had barely interacted with him, and so they weren’t familiar enough that he would’ve listened if she tried to explain herself.

But she was going to go about things differently this time.

“The Distorted Depths Navy isn’t a place you should be in,” she replied to him.

As in the past, Caspian appeared very hurt by her answer. He went silent, and then eventually, after a few minutes, he got up from the ground, brushing grass off his pants.

“I don’t know what you’ve heard, but I’m not as weak as you seem to think,” he said quietly, before turning around and beginning to walk away.

But her words made him freeze.

“I’ve met a member of the Atlantean bloodline in the past who explained why Atlanteans don’t like to travel outside of their Capital City.”

She put her hands behind her back as she turned to look at the magical winged wolves. “He described the sensations they experience when monsters are in their presence.”

Caspian turned around to stare at her as she continued, “A primal feeling of revulsion. A feeling of deep abhorrence and intense disgust. A sensation of physical and mental defilement and illness, making them sick to their stomach, giving them severe nausea, pain, dizziness, chills, finding it hard to breathe, and more symptoms.”

He took a step closer to her as she glanced at him.

“The rulers of water, the seaborne, spend their days in the Capital City of Atlantea because their Sanctum of Purity, the source of one of the most powerful water-element natural treasures in the Tower, is the only thing that can erase the feeling from them. With their natural authority over water, Atlanteans use water as something like a second limb and merge their senses with it. They are capable of sensing the very environment around them at all times, and only need a monster to be on the outermost fringes of their perception to experience the sensation.”

She crossed her arms. “The Distorted Depths region is not somewhere an Atlantean is supposed to be.”

Caspian gave her a weak smile as he spread his arms. “But I’m only quarter-Atlantean. Shouldn’t that make it easier for me?”

“The man I spoke to was half-Atlantean,” she replied. She glanced in the direction of the main command building. “The only thing a purer bloodline gives you is greater control over water and heightened senses. He said the sensation remains the same.”

He went silent again as he looked at her with a troubled expression before he sighed and crouched down. He patted one of the wolf pups. “I thought you didn’t know, but that was clearly the wrong idea,” he muttered with a bitter look on his face. “I had hoped there was at least one more person who knew me who didn’t have to pity me every time I use my abilities.”

Then he stood back up and frowned at her. “That doesn’t mean it’s up to you to say I have no place here. I don’t believe someone who hasn’t even been an Officer for a full month yet can comment on my decisions when I’ve spent the last six years as a member of this Navy.”

She gave a slight sigh. “I wasn’t referring to before this. The Commander has made a decision that will make things harder for you from now on, though.”

He gave her a confused look, but she didn’t explain. Instead, she crouched down and held out her hand for one of the winged wolves. It smelled her, but then it whimpered and ran away to hide behind Caspian.

“They’ve never reacted like that before,” he muttered with a frown.

She stood back up once she had seen them act how she expected. “The Main Navy Admirals made an important decision before my training camp,” she suddenly said.

Caspian blinked at the sudden and strange change in topic, but she continued, “The M.W.S. Dawnlight, the special warship containing the elite training camp’s crew of the last three years, is going to sail again in February. I’ve been told I’ll be in charge of its crew.”

He stared at her in surprise. “Oh… wow, you must be impressive then…”

She gave him a sideways look. “Judging by the Commander’s actions these last few weeks, who do you think he’ll place as my second-in-command?”

The green-haired man opened his mouth, paused as the realisation came to him, and then he closed it. He rubbed the back of his neck as he gazed at the ground in thought. “… is it me?” he finally asked with hesitance.

She nodded. Her silent response made him gain a thoughtful and complicated look on his face as he considered the idea. “That’s… I never expected to be given a responsibility like that…”

She placed her hands on her hips and frowned slightly. “And you’ll be seeing my magic today.”

He blinked. “Oh, right, the Commander will be watching you… wait, what’s wrong?” he said as he saw the look on her face.

“The Commander has done a very cruel thing by placing you with me,” she stated as she glanced in the direction of the main command building. “Even if he thinks it could-” she hesitated and just sighed as Caspian frowned at her.

“Cruel? Adrianna, the Commander isn’t someone who’s ever done something that could be described as being ‘cruel’,” he said, sounding uncomfortable.

She went silent again and just shook her head. “He said if everything’s fine with my magic then you’ll also be placed on his warship for December and January,” she informed him.

Caspian considered it, then gave her a slight smile. “That’s a surprise, but it’s not something that could be considered ‘cruel’. I’ve done it several times before.”

“I’m not talking about that.” She shook her head again. “Never mind. You’ll understand in a few hours regardless.” She gestured to him. “Anyway, just so you know, Commander Arkenast said there’s something he wanted to show us after 3 o’clock.” She turned around. “I’m going to head back now.”

She saw Caspian stare at her for a couple of seconds through her perception, making her confused, before she realised it was because she had bothered to explain what she was going to do before doing it. She ignored him and walked away.

Hopefully, this will mean we have a better start than last time.

But Caspian’s Atlantean bloodline was only half of the reason why he was the worst person the Commander could’ve chosen to be her second-in-command.

…

“Commander, where are you taking us, and why are Riftmire and Wharifin here as well?” a dark-haired man complained.

The footsteps of the four of them echoed, bouncing off the stony walls as they were led further and further down the tunnel. Caspian and her were walking behind the two older men as they discussed the Commander’s decision to take them on a walk.

The blonde-haired man gave Ross a toothy grin. “Just be patient, Stanhope. We’ll get there in a short moment.”

“We’ve been walking for the past ten minutes already!” Ross replied, sounding annoyed. He frowned as he looked around the tunnel again. “Also, I don’t recognise the path we’re taking. And I’ve been an Officer here for sixteen years already.”

“Well, you’d need to be an Officer for nearly fifty years or longer to recognise this path,” the Commander replied cheerily.

“Fifty? Wait….” Ross’s eyes widened. “Are you taking us to-”

“Here we are!” Commander Arkenast suddenly exclaimed, gesturing to a large metal door set in the wall. A circular design was engraved on the front. There were no doorknobs or handles to open it.

The Commander placed a hand on the door, and with a glow of blue light, his mana filled the channels of the engraving. A hum sounded out as a magic circle generated in front of the engraving, slowly rotating in place. The door unlocked with a click and then swung backwards. Commander Arkenast gestured to it. “Follow me.”

Ross, Caspian, and her did so, following the burly blonde-haired man through into another dark hallway, this one with walls of dark stone brick. They came to a second door, but on the wall beside it were several smaller mana-circles. The Commander gestured to them.

“Because I’m the chief commanding authority of this fortress, the mainframe is already keyed to my mana, so I can go anywhere I please. However, you guys cannot.” He pointed to the wall. “So, if you don’t want the automatic wards to activate and kill you before you can blink, insert your mana here so the room registers that your presence is allowed.”

They did as he asked, him inserting mana into the next door as well to authorise their entrance. Then the door unlocked. They followed him through it and saw what was on the other side.

Standing on a tall lookout surrounded by protective barriers, they were faced with a massive cavern. Complex metallic platforms and supporting structures were joined to the cave walls, extending towards the centre of the cavern. It was dark, and they barely had enough light from the closest mana lamp to see their platform, let alone what the construction was attached to, although they could hear water lapping against the stone below them. Then the Commander grabbed a massive lever attached to the wall beside the entrance door and pulled it down.

With the hum and buzz of mana, small lights flickered above them. Then, with a slow increase in the intensity of the sound, more lights began switching on. The cavern was eventually flooded with light, and they could finally see what was below them in the darkness.

Below them was a magic warship made of wood and metal. And painted along its side were the words, ‘M.W.S. DAWNLIGHT’.

“Welcome to the holding room of the M.W.S. Dawnlight!” Commander Arkenast announced cheerily.

He gestured to them to follow him as he started walking down some steps, leading them to where the Dawnlight sat on the water below. The strange port surrounding the ship connected with it in some places, while at other times was disengaged from the port holes and other sections of the ship.

“The M.W.S Dawnlight,” the Commander began to explain, “Is one of only 300 ships created by the Empire to have the word ‘Dawn’ in front of its name. And for the Empire, with how large it is, that means this ship is very rare.”

As they came closer they could see the hull of the ship was plated with dull grey metal, while the deck was covered in a dark brown wood. Not to say the wood was weaker than the metal, however, because the sheer amount of mana emanating from the ship showed the wood was at the level of a strong natural treasure, with high rarity.

“And the White Squall Fortress is the only place in the region allowed to house the M.W.S. Dawnlight,” the Commander continued to explain. “That’s because the Dawnlight wasn’t given to the fortress.” He gave them a broad grin. “The fortress was built for the Dawnlight.”

Ross and Caspian’s eyes widened, while she observed the ship. Painted with the theme of dark navy and grey, it followed the traditional colours of the Empire’s Navy Battalions. While the three large blue sails were lowered, suggesting the ship used the power of the wind to drive itself, she knew that was only to take advantage of the powerful natural mana storms that occurred in the region. She was aware that below the surface of the grey waters of the cavern, five massive propulsion engines were attached to the ship, one larger one below the rudder, and two smaller ones on either side of the ship, front and back. Not even the Main Navy’s huge warships used advanced ship technology like this.

Commander Arkenast gestured to the ship as they approached one of the platforms extending out to it. “The M.W.S. Dawnlight is also one of only two ‘Dawn’ ships to be found outside of the Mystical Realm, both here in the Beast Realm. I know another is in the Aquaristel Capital region.” He placed his hands on his hips. “This brings me to what the real purpose of the special force’s creation is.”

He turned to Adrianna. “I told you the special force is a ‘test’ of sorts,” he said. She nodded, and so he continued, “That’s not wrong. However, what’s being tested is not the crew…” He smirked. “But the ship.”

She pretended to look surprised as Caspian raised his eyebrows, and Ross frowned slightly. “But sir, from what I know, this ship…” he said, as he turned to the M.W.S. Dawnlight, “Is roughly 600 years old.”

The Commander’s smile widened. “And yet, apparently it’s still a prototype and work-in-progress.” He turned to the ship again. “Now, even though I’ve been offered transferal a few times, I chose to remain a Commander in the Distorted Depths to avoid politics, so I haven’t heard much of the real details, not that I want to.” He pointed at the Dawnlight. “But for some reason, they haven’t created more of them. These ships don’t get replaced, nor decommissioned.”

He shook his head. “Again, I don’t know why, so don’t ask me. And I suppose the reason why the special force is going to run this year is because of the Millennium Chapter somehow. Maybe they plan to use a plane with lots of water as the Event battlefield, although I doubt it.”

The blonde-haired man stepped forward and off the platform onto the ship. “Come take a look,” he said to them.

He gestured to parts of the ship as they looked around, observing the structure and layout of it. “While the training camp was on, some Magitech Battalion engineers came down from the central Empire to check everything is in working order. They returned without needing to do much, so this is set for sailing at any time.”

“About that, sir…” Caspian spoke up, making the Commander look at him curiously. “How does the ship leave the cavern?”

“Well, I won’t do it now…” the man replied, “But you see that massive metal circle in the cavern wall over there?”

He pointed, making them all look to see the metal circle in question. “That opens up to the sea through a switch, letting the Dawnlight leave, as we’re at sea level right now. With how high the waves get outside sometimes, that doesn’t mean it can always leave, but we wouldn’t be letting a new crew sail in those conditions anyway.”

The battle-scarred man gestured to the deck below them. “This ship has been designed so as few people as possible are needed to man it. With the design emphasizing speed and manoeuvrability, the ship is used for the primary purpose of getting into and out of situations very quickly. Not to say it can’t protect its crew, however.”

Commander Arkenast walked over to the mainmast and placed a hand on it. “The ship uses Ancient ranked wood found in the Endless Jungle, from some of the oldest trees there. It has extraordinary hardness for its weight. The metal plating the ship is a special alloy made to absorb the mana surrounding it at an increased rate compared to most natural magical metals. I heard it was Epic-ranked when it got here, but it’s now Ancient level. Normally it would take about two thousand years for that kind of strength increase.”

Then the blonde-haired man walked towards a small door set into the quarter-deck, the raised deck at the back of the ship. It was one she recognised well.

“And this,” he said, swinging the door open with a wide grin, “Is the Captain’s cabin.”

They followed him in, seeing the room. At the other end of the cabin, large windows were set into the walls, allowing someone to see the view behind the ship. Alongside one wall closer to the entrance was a long carved desk, a chair behind it. There was a large four-poster bed with dark blue curtains as well as several wardrobes.

Commander Arkenast patted Caspian on the shoulder. “This is reserved for the leader of the crew, so your room won’t be quite as nice, Wharifin.” He turned back to the door. “I’ll show you the rest of the ship.”

The three men walked out, although Caspian hesitated and glanced behind him when he didn’t hear her footsteps behind them. He blinked as he saw her looking at the Captain’s desk. “Adrianna? What are you doing?”

She narrowed her eyes as she thought about the hidden compartment she had found within the desk.

Griffin caught me opening it one time, so he’d bound to try to get to it to see what’s inside. I doubt he’d discover much with just the ‘Dawnbreaker’ note, but I need to replace it with sufficient clues to the Fernfall Estate Dungeon before he tries to access it.

“It’s nothing,” she replied as she followed the men. They spent the rest of the hour inspecting the ship, the Commander explaining all the functions and responsibilities of the crew of the Dawnlight.

Eventually, it was time for them to go back up, so they could board the Commander’s warship again. When November ends, she’d be staying on his ship for the next month, have one week of break, and then would be out at sea again until February came along. From that point onwards, she’d be dealing with her past crew, Catherine Sherwood, and Griffin until Griffin chooses to leave the Navy. She didn’t know what she’d do after that, but her current efforts would be focused on performing well for the Commander during December and January.

Ross spoke up once they had left the cavern, “Sir, I can understand you wanting to show Wharifin and Riftmire the ship, but why did you bring me down too?”

“That’s because you’ll be responsible for managing the Dawnlight’s operations when it’s at White Squall Fortress,” the blonde-haired man replied.

Ross raised an eyebrow. “Me?”

Commander Arkenast nodded. “I’m not always going to be giving the crew of Dawnlight orders,” he said, glancing at Caspian and Adrianna to check they were paying attention. “It’s true that sometimes the Main Navy have specific tasks they want the Dawnlight to complete, or the Dawnlight’s speed is useful in some circumstances, however, I won’t always have something for you guys to do. And as a Commander, I do still have my work to complete.”

“But remember, it’s the ship that is being tested and not the crew,” he continued. He pointed at the dark-haired man. “And it’ll be your job on my behalf to select what jobs they need to do. Which means, Stanhope…” The Commander grinned at his subordinate. “You’ll be meeting with the members of October’s elite training camp quite often.”

Ross stared at him, aghast. “Sir?! Do you have to?! Could you not give this task to someone else?!”

Commander Arkenast laughed. “Of course, I can’t. This was why I promoted you to Head Officer in the first place, after all.”

“If we’re on that topic, please demote me, sir.”

“No can do. You’ve already shown to be excellent at being Head Officer, so why would I ever demote you?”

Caspian and her just followed silently as the dark-haired man tried futilely to persuade the Commander to remove the position of Head Officer from him. They made their way back up to the top of the tunnel, emerging into a room with several different paths, the junction point between all the different pathways to other parts of the fortress, deep within the cliff.

Commander Arkenast turned to her and Caspian while Ross was glaring at him. “Now, I may have shown you the ship, but true familiarity with it will come along with time,” he stated seriously. “I have confidence you’ll both succeed at your jobs, but mistakes are normal when working in a new position for the first time. Just ensure your mistakes won’t cost your crewmates their lives.”

The Commander nodded to her. “Riftmire, you may now continue your break. And Wharifin…” He turned to the sea-green-haired young man. “Come with me to my office. I want to have a little discussion with you.”

_______________________________________________________________________________

The Commander sat down in his chair behind his desk as Caspian stood in front, hands behind his back. The blonde-haired man leaned his chin on a hand as he looked at Caspian.

“So, Wharifin… what do you think of Riftmire?”

Caspian blinked. “What I think of her, sir?”

Commander Arkenast nodded. “Yes. What do you make of her personality, her temperament, anything you experienced while working with her this last month.”

Caspian considered it for a moment. “She’s a strange person, sir.”

The man raised a bushy eyebrow. “That’s the first word that comes to mind?”

“To be honest, I can’t say I had any real conversation with her up until three days ago,” Caspian replied, not sure how to explain his interactions with her. “She’s always expressionless and doesn’t bother with small talk, plus she never struggles with any of the work, so we didn’t have much need to talk outside of passing information to each other.”

“Hmm. Well, what did you think of her before you had a proper conversation with her?” the Commander asked curiously.

“Indifferent. And… focused,” Caspian replied.

“Focused?” Commander Arkenast said with surprise. “I thought you’d say she was cold before anything else.”

“Some of the other Officers seemed to think so, but it didn’t seem that way to me. For me, it seemed like she had a goal, and wanted to put all her effort into achieving it,” Caspian said, thinking deeper about his interactions with her. Then he gained a troubled expression. “Commander, can I ask why she’s here? I originally thought she was older than me, but she’s a year younger, and she chose to work as a mercenary before all this. And the way she acts…”

The Commander tapped his fingers on his desk with a slight frown. “You’re worried about what kind of past she had before all this?”

Caspian nodded as the man rubbed his chin thoughtfully. Eventually, the battle-scarred man just sighed. “You should probably ask her yourself, but I will say that the reason she joined the Distorted Depths Navy is because it can help her develop her unique magic better.”

“Unique magic?” Caspian asked curiously.

Commander Arkenast nodded. “I’ve checked with the Athenaeum. They don’t have any subset of illusion magic like hers.” The Commander moved on before Caspian could ask any further, “But anyway, what do you think of her personality now?”

“She still finds small talk bothersome,” Caspian replied wryly. “But I’m beginning to be able to tell when she’s being sarcastic.” He hesitated. “At least I think I can.”

The blonde-haired man chuckled. “It’s hard to know with her, isn’t it? Well, better get used to being around her lots. You’ll be working together for quite some time,” he said.

“So she really is going to be my superior then?” Caspian asked, finding the situation slightly weird.

Commander Arkenast leaned back in his chair as he nodded. “Yep. Your crewmates will be those from her training camp…” The man gave Caspian a toothy grin. “And your old subordinates.”

Caspian stared at him before his eyes widened. “You mean from when I was Squad Leader?”

“Of course, some have left the Navy, but the guys from the two elite training camps I put under you last year will be with you, yes.” The Commander looked above Caspian, checking the time on a clock, then stood up from his desk. “I think we’ll have to cut this discussion short here for now, Wharifin. We both need to get ready to board my ship in two hours.”

“Yes sir,” Caspian nodded, giving him a salute.

The Commander patted him on the shoulder as he passed him. “I hope you get along with Riftmire.”

With that, the man left. Caspian left the room soon afterwards. As he walked he considered what he thought about becoming Adrianna’s second-in-command.

It’s unexpected, although I guess that explains why the Commander got her to work alongside me. It beats him trying to play matchmaker.

He shuddered at that idea and walked quicker.

He didn’t have anything against working under Adrianna. Even if she could be annoying, she wasn’t as humourless as he thought when he first met her. And the fact she knew how the Atlantean bloodline worked explained the strange reaction she had to seeing him for the first time. He was also looking forward to seeing his ex-subordinates again. His squad had only been temporary because the number of appropriate Squad Leaders from other camps hadn’t been enough that year, and as he was younger than most of the experienced Officers, he had been given the job.

He wasn’t quite sure how Adrianna would do as a leader though. She didn’t seem to be someone who’d have much patience for other people, although it seemed, from her interactions with Ross, that she could at least deal with people somehow. He expected her to avoid most of her crewmates, quite honestly.

Although, he didn’t get the chance to ask either Ross or the Commander about her magic. It was almost like they were avoiding the topic, but for what reason he had no idea. Well, illusion magic mostly dealt with the manipulation of the senses, so maybe it wasn’t a particularly nice type of magic. He could understand them not wanting to share the details until she told him.

He turned a corner and froze as he saw three young girls, wearing badges of the healers' division, standing together. They were, in fact, the three girls who had appeared in the cafeteria a few days ago while he was having lunch with Adrianna. He tried to back away without them noticing, but unluckily, one of them turned around and saw him.

“Here he is!” she exclaimed, pointing him out to the other two.

He raised his hands in surrender and gazed wearily at them as they surrounded him.

“Hi, Caspian!” one of them said.

“Uh… hi…” he replied awkwardly. “So… if you don’t need me for anything… I think I’ll be off now…”

The three of them traded eye contact, then smiled broadly. “Can we touch your hair again?” one said, asking the dreaded question.

He winced. “Um, I kinda have to do something, and it’s a bit urgent-”

“We’ll only be quick!” another said.

“But I-”

“Please?” the third asked. They all looked at him with expectant eyes. He couldn’t see an escape route.

He hesitated and then groaned as he buried his head in his hands. “…fine. But only for a minute or two.”

They eagerly put their hands on his head to touch his hair, giggling. “The hair of a part Atlantean is super soft, isn’t it,” one of the girls said among themselves.

As his bad luck would have it, a tall curly-haired woman chose that moment to round the corner and stopped to stare at him with a slightly strange expression when she took in the situation.

He glared at Adrianna, daring her to say something. She did.

“So you really do have no love life then.”

“Stop saying that!”

…

The skies above them swirled with dark grey storm clouds, jagged, searingly bright streaks of lightning occurring every now and then, accompanied by the crashes of thunder. The ship rocked and tilted on the choppy dark-grey waves as the boat rode through the storm. A chillingly cold rain fell from above and hit the deck with the pounding of millions of drums.

In the distance, the eye of the storm could be seen high above, but below, a massive, colossal creature roared and thrashed in the icy waters. Multi-coloured flashes of light could be seen surrounding the behemothic monster, as the Rank-4 fighters capable of flight fought the being. Cannons fired from the warships with the red-hot explosive strength of fire-mana, hitting the side of the creature with the sounds of its pained cries only a few seconds later. Thick waves of ugly brown-green monster essence rolled outwards from it, sending a foul sensation shooting through all the warship crew’s bodies, increasing fatigue and weariness. The mana in the air hummed and crackled in the chaotic atmosphere.

The gargantuan monster, a giant sea serpent with lightning-blue scales and many layers of jagged teeth crowding its mouth, let out an ear-rending screech that sent thousands of lesser sea serpents into a frenzy, flying out of the waves to attack the warship.

Grimacing as the waves of monster mana swept over him, a sea-green-haired young man watched a tall woman with wild, glowing hair walk onto the main deck. He glanced at the battle-scarred and blonde-haired man next to him.

“So what did you bring me out here to see?” Caspian asked.

The Commander shook his head. “Wait a second.”

With a flash of blue light, he disappeared and reappeared next to Adrianna in the distance. Caspian couldn’t hear what they were saying over the howl of the winds, but she nodded, and Commander Arkenast reappeared next to him.

“Is it her magic? What about her magic is so impressive that you want me to look?” he asked his superior.

The Commander patted his shoulder. “Watch closely.”

Caspian watched silently, the winds whipping around them, gazing at Adrianna as the air around her glowed silver for a few seconds, her mouth moving to say words hidden by the sounds around them. Indigo fog-like mana billowed out of her, and she raised her hands.

Then it hit him. Caspian went green and staggered as he felt a powerful monster about to materialise right near them in dangerously close proximity. He whipped his head to the side to stare at Commander Arkenast with wide eyes, panicked and feeling queasy. “Sir! There’s a strong monster about to form! Somehow it’s able to spawn on board the warship! We need to-”

The words halted in his mouth as the blonde-haired man wordlessly shook his head and pointed in front of them. “It’s her.”

He turned back to stare as the ghastly creature formed out of the once-was purple mana. Sticky, dull, blue-grey flesh dripping freezing water and squirming, thrashing tentacles coalesced, the ghastly limbs wrapping around approaching lesser sea serpents to strangle them. The main body of the creature hauled itself upright, the muscles underneath its translucent skin twisting and distorting in horrific, disorderly ways. A gargantuan mouth filled with shard-like teeth, the many layers rotating and twisting around, opened up, and then a destructive scream like the sound of thousands of banshees was released from it, the force of its cry shredding the monsters before they could attack. The illusory being stood at nearly five times his height.

[Illusory Construct: Morphic Kraken]

“And that, is what her magic does, Wharifin,” the Commander said quietly, enough that he nearly failed to hear him.

The battle-scarred man took a glance at his white-as-a-sheet face, and sighed, walking off to leave Caspian to his own devices.

He stared, transfixed with horror, as Adrianna directed the monstrous mimicry to fight. She glanced back at him, and expressionlessly and emotionlessly, said, “I hope you understand now why I said what I did.”

Caspian did. Caspian did understand. Because if a person capable of this was going to be placed on the same ship as him for many months or more, using this creature to fight against the real horrors in front of them, and manifesting this construct and possibly worse others to practice her magic, day in and day out…

…..then it wasn’t even a question why Adrianna had thought the Commander was ‘cruel’ with his decision to have Caspian as her subordinate.