ARC 7-Cursed Fates-119 (Patreon)

Lady Lourianne Tome,

If you are reading this note, then we have successfully raided the Teppin estate. We assure you that we wish no harm to you or your family. Our intentions were to retrieve the occupants of the house peacefully. If anyone came to harm, rest assured that they will be healed to the utmost of our ability and treated respectfully.

It is regretful that we had to resort to these measures but your insistence in involving yourself with the March left us no choice. We do not know your secrets, but you have proved a powerful and unusual adversary. We admit, we are unsure what it would take to bring you down or if such a thing is within our power.

However, we do not think that you are as irrational as Duke James and the northerners. We believe that you can understand our position. The March can demand everything we own. No object is worth more than the lives of our friends and families but without those things, their lives will be harsh, perhaps unbearable. We are willing to pay to prevent war, but we must be able to negotiate, to preserve our future.

You, Lady Tome, are preventing that. You are the reason the James daughters are so confident in their position. If an unkillable warrior with the physical prowess to match a master caster is leading the northern armies, thousands will die. Quest may never recover. We cannot allow that, even if we must become villains.

Our terms are simple. If you wish for your family to remain safe, you will sever your ties with the March and leave Quest until the matter is concluded. Once we have settled our grief with Victory, they will be escorted out of the city and our business will be concluded.

If you are thinking of retaliating, we understand that you and your allies can cause significant damage but we are not afraid of your anger. We are poised to face annihilation anyway. If you do attack us or delay leaving the city, we will kill our hostages without hesitation. Their blood will be on your hands.

We urge you to make the right decision.

“Lou.”

I stiffly raise my head from the note to find Geneva in the doorway of the kitchen. Her expression is grim. “Fendelheim has been recalled to Burning Earth.”

“…how do you know?”

“When a contractor dies, the bond that keeps us on this plane is severed and the Guardian drags us back to our native realm. The process is nearly instantaneous…nearly. We have developed a system. When we are unexpectedly recalled, we leave behind a special scent marker.”

“Then Junior’s dead.”

“Yes.”

“Do you think they—no. Tell me what you believe are the three most likely scenarios for his death.”

Her smile is unnaturally wide and shows far too many teeth. “The most likely scenario is that Fen faced opponents beyond her power and ordered Junior to kill himself. If they raided the Teppin estate after you took out the Teppin knights, they would have enlisted multiple master casters for the job. If they had any sense, they would have someone with a skill that could exhaust a succubus’ regenerative ability and would take her hostage. We are creatures of secrets. Anyone that knows our nature would have good reason to suspect that we know the secret behind your strength and while they could face backlash for interrogating human hostages, elementals have no such protection. She would be the perfect target but she would never allow herself to be captured.”

“What else?”

“If the enemies were weak, Fen would have ordered him to fight. He could have been taken off guard and killed too quickly for her to intervene. My last theory is betrayal. Junior somehow communicated enough to the attackers to convince them that Fen was too dangerous to be allowed to live and they killed him to stop her.”

“How more likely is your first theory compared to the others?”

“Incredibly. The second scenario assumes the hunters are utterly senseless and the third assumes that Fen’s control was flawed.”

The hunters might be stubborn, but their institutions wouldn’t have persisted through the centuries if they were completely incapable of learning. Succubi may not be infallible, but they are masters when it comes to the mental affinity. There might be someone out there that can slip through their control, but it certainly wasn’t that redheaded ape.

So. The party tonight was a trap. I don’t know whether Slaid said the wrong thing to the wrong person or if he’d been played, but the Swords’ meeting was a distraction. Seeing how ruthless these people are, they could have even killed him to sell their plot and keep him from accidentally giving away their plans.

While I was slaughtering their rivals, they came here and attempted to take everyone in the estate hostage. Or everyone connected to me. The Teppin family was likely rescued and sent on their way. If I know nobles, they’re on their way to the capital to throw around their influence and stir up trouble for me. Fen is back on Burning Earth and Junior is dead. That leaves the Stars, Yulia, Allen, Earl, Anna, the fluffs, and Talia.

…they targeted the children while their strongest guardian was away.

This is what I held back for? I spared these people so they could kidnap fucking children? I’ve been agonizing over self-proclaimed villains that, at this very moment, could be torturing my steward and ripping apart Anna’s mind?

Something in me, something that has no form but I can feel anyway, trembles.

“Do you think they will keep up their end of the bargain?” I ask in a voice softer than a whisper. “If I leave the city and abandon the March?”

“You know the answer,” Geneva answers without hesitation.

And I do. This is my first time in this position personally, but I know how leverage works. When someone has a hold of your weakness, they don’t simply let it go. If they think they can control my actions using my family against me, why would they ever let me go? Leave me free to enact my vengeance?

Just as the Tomes existed at the whims of the Grimoires, I’d be their tamed dog for the rest of my life. Worse, anyone else I care about will be in danger, as they would be another knot keeping my leash in place.

If I give in, if I hesitate, it won’t be just hunters targeting my loved ones. The crown will get the same idea. Maybe the north. Saints, perhaps even Marquis Guiness, the merchant desperate to use my wife to reach the elven markets.

“Are you a dragon, Lou?” Geneva says, echoing Kierra’s fateful words. “Or are you an exotic lizard?”

Even those bastards were willing to become villains for their loved ones. Am I so weak I can’t match that resolve? Who are they that I should protect them over my own family?

No more hesitating.

No more saving them from themselves.

No more mercy.

My explosive anger that has been escaping me lately explodes, growing until I think I won’t be able to control it. But then it contracts, growing cold and dense. That strange thing inside of me that trembled under the force of my emotions shatters under its weight.

“And so we play a new game,” Geneva says with a chuckle.

“No more games,” I growl. I stand, folding the note and slipping it into my pocket. “Search the city. The note claims that they took everyone in the house, but I find it hard to believe.” Victory’s knights are not so easy to take down and my steward is abnormal. There is a chance some of them escaped the hunters’ net. “Do not engage the hunters but look for traces of them. Confirm if the contents of the note is true. If you find anyone the hunters haven’t captured, do whatever you must to bring them back safe.” I glare at her. “This is not the time to take liberties. Don’t make a nuisance of yourself.”

“As you wish, my summoner.”

Once she’s gone, I make my way to Lord Teppin’s office and sit behind his desk. His chair is a shit piece of furniture, with a straight back and a minimal amount of cushioning. Putting my feet up on the desk isn’t enough to make me comfortable but I do what I can to relax, closing my eyes and breathing deeply. I find my anger…and I feed it. I nurture it and wrap it around me. I let it mold me, change me.

And I think.