Deathseed: Epilogue (Patreon)

It was always a bad day when Shalanaitir ai Mercury needed to go directly to the empire's throne room. On average days he remained with the intelligence service and did his work, on good days he was invited by the Mercury Court itself, and on excellent days someone came to him. Walking to the throne room of his own volition meant taking risks, and Shalanaitir hated risks.

He considered it one of the ironies of his position that his job entailed nothing but evaluating risks, and the remark had earned him polite chuckles at many court events. Even though his goal was to eliminate them, he still spent all of his time staring at risks.

Aside from assisting everyone in the high court who needed his knowledge or calculations, Shalanaitir was an assistant to the Emperor himself. One of many assistants, but still a desperately sought after title. He maintained that position by bringing forward obscure potential threats, even when he might be spinning out the metal too delicately and risking himself. Each visit was a delicate balancing act.

When Shalanaitir reached the grand staircase that led to the very heart of the Mercury Court, he stepped onto a silver platform instead of the stairs. It required a Ruler's cantae to use, and reaching that tier had been immensely tedious, but it was better than huffing and puffing his way up so many stairs.

Reaching the top in excellent time, Shalanaitir stepped off and bowed politely to the two guards at the double doors. Those doors themselves were heavily fortified and he wouldn't have been able to budge them on his own. The Emperor's Guards were Dominion-tier soulcrafters, however, and pushed the door open with one hand.

Shalanaitir was always polite to the guards, but he forgot about them the next second as his mind shifted to his meeting. While he walked through the grand hallway, empty as usual, he repeated what he intended to say to the Emperor of the entire Mercury Court. Technically one of four, yes, but the only leader the Mercury Court had for years now.

The name was a foreign one, fitting an outsider leader. Most took it for granted, because power was the best introduction, but the sounds wriggled in his mind. He'd once consulted with a soul translation expert who believed that it had some sort of resonance that failed to fully translate. It remained a mystery.

A trivial mystery. Shalanaitir shook his head and resumed ordering all the facts in his head.

Finally he stepped into the grand throne room. Even now, after years serving in the highest halls of power, entering the soaring chamber made him feel small. The ceiling shimmered high overhead, each column along the pathway was wider than his body, and it all tilted upward to the four enormous silver thrones that dominated the room.

His Emperor sat sideways in one of them, his legs over the armrest. He toyed with a slate-like armament in his hands, a device of his own making. A long time ago, this Emperor had been notorious for the inventiveness of his soulcrafting. The flat slate that he had created, and now constantly spent time with, appeared to be some sort of toy. He claimed that it gathered information for him, but Shalanaitir was skeptical of the way he tapped at it.

"What is it?" the Emperor asked.

"Mighty Emperor, I have brought you word of a-"

"There's nobody here to impress, Shalanaitir. I'm going to interrupt you every time until you start calling me Dave." Emperor Dave swung his legs off the armrest and looked down at him. "Really, what's up?"

There had been a time when Emperor Dave was the most feared of the four Siblings, but the years had softened him. He had never been as cruel and capricious as many of the leaders Shalanaitir had worked under. At worst, if he was disappointed he'd tell Shalanaitir to stop wasting his time. The problem was that failing often enough would lead to a loss of position in the Mercury Court.

Years of conflict had made him wiser and stronger. Still, at times Shalanaitir wished that the other Siblings would return.

"I bring you word of another outsider who may be from Earth... Dave." Shalanaitir took a step closer as he relaxed into his role. "Recently his actions have had an affect on Deuxan, so I thought you might want to be informed."

"It doesn't hurt to monitor them," Emperor Dave said, "but mostly I don't care."

Long ago Shalanaitir had been puzzled by this attitude, then he had met some of the other outsiders. They had ranged from remarkably pretentious to affectedly humble, in all cases behaving as if they were the protagonists of a cheap novel. Remarkably different from the Emperors and Empresses, both in personality and in their connection to one of the Mercury Court's greatest enemies.

Emperor Dave had returned to poking at his armament. Shalanaitir swallowed and decided to reveal his most important facts quickly.

"In this case, there is no evidence that he has any connection to Vistgil." Shalanaitir cleared his throat and straightened. "The records were very unclear, but an agent observed him during that incident where Fleshmaskers were taken to Fithe. I can confirm that he has no Artifact of Elghiera."

The instant Vistgil's name was mentioned, Emperor Dave's eyes lit up, and now he leaned forward. "Alright, this is getting interesting. But that was a while back, why bring it to me now?"

"Because it wasn't actionable. We lost him to weirkey usage and only recently obtained more information. There was a-"

"Is he stumbling around confused? Has he started soulcrafting?"

"He's allegedly reached Authority."

"Without involvement from Vistgil?"

Shalanaitir bowed lower. "Because we have limited information, it is impossible to be sure, but he bears none of the hallmarks you have reiterated for us."

"You have my attention. Go on."

"There was an incident with the Armeau family from the Anguedan Court. They-"

"You realize that means nothing to me." Emperor Dave blinked down at him. "If that's a major court I feel bad, but if it's one of the minor ones, I can't keep track of all those."

"Of course you can't, Emperor. That's why you have assistants." Shalanaitir had prepared an extensive report, but having the Emperor's undivided attention was electrifying. He'd even addressed him by his title without complaint. Keeping the report at his side, Shalanaitir instead jumped to the critical parts. "The Anguedan Court is a minor region on the moors of Socirro. We only took notice because the Demon Court took interest in them."

"In such a small court? How strong are the soulcrafters on Socirro again?"

"Few of the cultures there even know the Dominion barrier can be broken."

"Then that doesn't make any sense. Even if this doesn't pan out, you were right to bring this to my attention." Emperor Dave sat forward. "Alright, so a family from this little court gets involved in a vendetta, as they always do. Somehow an outsider gets involved. How does this end up catching the Demon Court's attention?"

"Socirro may not be an important continent, but it is the source of the..." Shalanaitir coughed uncomfortably. "The ai Teraeves situation. The family, minor as they are, was acting as though they had information about the ruins. They got involved, and even though no vaults were opened or mysteries uncovered, word made its way to me."

For the first time that Shalanaitir could remember in recent memory, Emperor Dave stood up. He rarely flew, despite his power, just walked down the staircase from his throne. Having the Emperor so close forced Shalanaitir to swallow, but he wasn't afraid anymore. This was the moment his life changed. He'd brought information that might actually be critical.

"Alright, we don't take a heavy hand with this." Emperor Dave paced back and forth in front of the thrones, chewing on his thumb. "Gather information without expressing public interest, just in case Vistgil is involved after all. I want to talk to this guy, but if he's smart enough to reach Authority, he'll probably be paranoid about me. We wait for this vendetta to cause trouble and then get involved carefully."

At this point, the Emperor was speaking mostly to himself. Since Shalanaitir had so much favor, he decided to venture a question. "Emperor-"

"Dave."

"Dave... why do you care about the ai Teraeves vaults? They were a more powerful family than modern Socirro, yes, but I doubt they could contain any sublime materials worthy of you. The Siblings acting in concert could no doubt have broken into the ancient vaults yourselves. Why flag it for our attention?"

"Because Vistgil made a mistake." Emperor Dave stopped walking abruptly and stared at him. "Sometime before we entered the Nine Worlds, he fumbled one of his schemes. You've done enough work for me that you know how he operates, right?"

"Traps for hubris, empires serving as proxies, and so on." Shalanaitir hoped he didn't sound foolish, since the Siblings shared relatively little, but Emperor Dave snapped his fingers approvingly.

"Exactly. Usually he holds back, even when the real powers of the Nine Worlds are involved. But years ago, this Teraeves family gets his attention. He shows up and annihilates them in person, going to great pains to do so. That kind of work is clumsy for him. Whatever the Teraeves family did, he needed to cover it up. Then he left the vaults intact and ensured their name was anathema so that any time it comes up, it turns into a messy ordeal."

That was more information than any of the rumor mills at court knew, and normally Shalanaitir would have been eager for it, but in the moment he remained focused on his Emperor. It was so strange to see him animated, tense, even eager.

"So..." Shalanaitir took a deep breath and attempted to return to his primary job. "You need more information about the local courts and their involvement. We'll monitor the Demon Court and investigate if they've gotten the Salebrante involved."

"Vistgil controls the Salebrante, or at least I suspect he nudges them. Doesn't matter, you're right, go on."

"I'll keep you informed, of course. We'll investigate and see how the Armeau family's vendetta escalates. Extend branches to get involved if necessary and learn who is manipulating who. But if it all goes well and you get them here without attracting attention, then what happens?"

The Emperor of the Mercury Court closed his eyes and ran his hands through his hair slowly, gathering himself. When he finished, he smiled. "Then I get to have an interesting conversation for once."

-

And there you have it, that's the book! I already said my piece about plans last time, but please look forward to the next book wrapping things up in a way I hope will be both unexpected and satisfying. ^-^

Now, right at the end of the month, I have to say that there won't be chapters for a while. In the past I've done polls about closing down the Patreon between books, but people consistently vote to leave it open. But for those who are here for chapters, I'm letting you know before the end of the month that they won't resume for a while so you can drop if you want. Also in the spirit of full disclosure, I don't have anything as elaborate as the Nine Worlds Anatomy set from last time.

I wish I had more content, but I can only stretch so far, and I think everyone would ultimately prefer that I focus on writing the ninth book. That said, there will still be some fun posts! We have the cast blueprints coming eventually, future insights, fanart, and some other fun things. Rest assured that I'll always keep you informed about progress.

All of that said, thank you for reading The Weirkey Chronicles. ^-^