The Soul Engine Ch. 18 (Original Fantasy) (Patreon)

A/N: A perfectly normal slice-of-life morning in the safehouse, nothing to see here...

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Given the situation they find themselves in, Thayla is essentially the only one among their number who can leave the safehouse through the front door and actually walk the streets of Alether unmolested. Avina is still being hunted by the City Guard, albeit not quite so hard because of Mikael’s antics. Meanwhile, Mikael could technically go out into the city, but there’s too much risk of his Soul Engine being exposed in some way. According to Avina, Zadicus knows enough about her project that he would definitely recognize it if word of the device got back to him.

As such, Thayla not only spends her days going out and helping the common folk all over the city, but also brings breakfast each morning for her and the ‘old seamstress’ she lives with. Two big hearty meals, with the understanding being that Thayla is eating the lion’s share of the food due to her physical activity. Seeing as Mikael doesn’t need to eat anymore and only does so for pleasure, two breakfasts split between the three of them tends to work out just fine.

That’s where Mikael and Avina find themselves two mornings after his battle with Bula, waiting for Thayla to return with the food. Which she does… but she doesn’t come back with just the food. The door to the small home they’ve been using as a hideout is damn near knocked off its hinges as the Knight of the Rose comes barging in. Both Mikael and Avina leap to their feet, thinking they’re being attacked, but relax upon seeing that its only Thayla.

Meanwhile, the Dame blushes as she sees their reaction, quickly closing the door behind her.

“… Sorry. But it’s happened.”

With that said, the female knight quickly sets the fresh basket of food on one side of the table, before also pulling out a rolled up piece of parchment that she quickly unrolls and spreads out on the other side of the table. Avina is the first to lean over and read it, only for her eyes to widen and the pale, freckled young woman to pull back and let out an uncharacteristic whoop of joy.

“Yes! Finally!”

Mikael raises an eyebrow at that and leans over to read as well. He quickly understands why Avina is so happy. The parchment is a pronouncement of sorts… basically an old fashioned promotional poster for an event. And the event in question… well, at the top of the parchment in big bold stylized words, it says ‘THE GRAND MELEE’.

They’d done it. Mikael sits down, feeling a little shocked at that. It seemed… fast. Just two weeks of burning down warehouses and they’d already forced Zadicus’ hand? He can’t help but voice his disbelief.

“Isn’t this a little too quick? Is he planning something? Is this some sort of trap?”

Avina shakes her head, still smiling.

“It only seems quick to you because you haven’t lived in Alether for years, Mikael. Zadicus has always been a prick. And while his rule has always been relatively ironclad before, he’s still had his detractors and dissenters. The thing is, while the general population of the city might be discontent with his actions, it was fine so long as he didn’t look weak. The people of Alether could hate him as much as they wanted so long as the merchants who use Alether as a trade route still liked him.”

Coming back over to the table, Avina lets out a laugh.

“But suddenly, Alether isn’t safe for foreigners OR locals. I’m betting that Zadicus did his best to suppress news of all the warehouse fires, but that some merchant or one of his other detractors finally got word to someone higher up the food chain. My guess? Zadicus just got a stern talking to from a member of the Council of Lords and is freaking out. The city’s population being all riled up as the guards have been pulled away to guard the warehouses hasn’t helped either. The city is a powder keg that’s been ready to go off for a long, long time. We’re just the match that lit the fuse.”

That sort of made sense. Mikael was left wondering what exactly Bula told Zadicus. To be fair, he’d been very careful not to give her much. And… he liked to think that Bula wouldn’t offer up any information for free given her circumstances. Which meant Zadicus would have to know to ask the right questions in order to learn things like how Mikael absorbed the energy from his fallen foes. Hopefully.

In which case, as far as Zadicus knew, he was under attack by someone as strong as a half-orc. Someone who seemed intent on burning down his livelihood and damaging his reputation as City Lord. Meanwhile, Mikael’s fires weren’t the only ones in the city that needed to be put out. Hence the Grand Melee. Because as he reads the proclamation over, he thinks he understands why Thayla is so upset. The Knight of the Rose confirms it a moment later with a disgruntled huff.

“Never mind all that! Read the other part!”

Avina furrows her brow and leans forward, her eyes taking in the entire proclamation. Mikael, having already read what has Thayla up in arms, lets out a sigh.

“They’re not just opening the Grand Melee to volunteers. They’re putting every single criminal they have locked up into the Colosseum. Anyone can enter, but if you’re in prison already, participation is compulsory.”

Leaning back again, Avina shrugs her shoulders.

“That… makes sense. I don’t really know what else you expected, Dame. For as long as Zadicus Quinn has been Lord of the City, the criminals of Alether have been used as fodder for his arenas. This isn’t really any different than that… just on a bigger scale.”

Thayla scoffs at Avina’s blithe attitude, her eyes glittering with anger.

“Bigger scale, certainly. Because it’s not just the criminals they currently have in their prisons. It’s anyone they can get away with snatching off the streets right now.”

Both Mikael and Avina jolt at that, leaving Thayla to smile bitterly.

“I saw it with my own two eyes as I made my way here. The guards are out in force… it would seem Zadicus has given up on defending his warehouses, because I haven’t seen so many members of the City Guard in weeks. He’s putting all of his effort into this… this Grand Melee of his. And that means grabbing people off the street for the slightest offense.”

Scowling in remembrance, Thayla clenches her hand into a fist and looks to the side.

“… I very nearly got myself arrested. By all rights, I should have stepped in and stopped the injustice in its tracks. A woman literally knocked a piece of bread off of a market stall with her hip and the guards arrested her for thievery! Then, when the stall owner tried to come to her defense and say it was nothing but a harmless mistake, the guards arrested HIM too for questioning their authority!”

A bark of angry laughter leaves Thayla’s lips.

“Bah! As if questioning someone’s authority is a crime! I wanted so very much to draw my sword and… and…”

The anger rolls out of her and she visibly deflated as she looks to him.

“… But I didn’t. Because I swore to serve you, Sir Mikael. And I know you would never ask it of me… but I turned my back on those people all the same. Because I know that you are the only one who can truly stop this madness. You’re the one destined to stop Zadicus Quinn.”

Well. Shit. On the one hand, Mikael appreciated Thayla’s faith in him. On the other hand, that was an awful lot to put on his shoulders.

Avina seems to agree, given how she scoffs.

“Destiny has nothing to do with it, Dame. Sure Mikael is a Summoned Hero, but you forget that Zadicus was the one who summoned him. And I highly doubt the Lord of Alether was thoughtful enough to make his Summoned Task be ‘defeat Zadicus Quinn’. Whatever it is that he is ‘destined’ to do on this world, it’s certainly not that.”

Thayla flushes at Avina’s words but before she can respond, Avina continues on.

“Still, you were smart to keep your blade sheathed and your head down. You can’t beat every guard in the city, especially not if they’re all out in force rounding up ‘competitors’ for the Grand Melee. I guess Zadicus wants to make this one even more of a spectacle than the last… and that by arresting random people, he can also arrest the people he doesn’t like the most and have it go under the radar. Regardless, you would have either been killed or imprisoned yourself, and while that WOULD have wound up with you in the Grand Melee anyways… you likely would have been stripped off your armor and weapon.”

The Knight of the Rose’s eyes widen in outrage at that. However, her outrage is not for herself.

“Are you saying that the so-called ‘criminals’ that they’re going to stuff in the Colosseum won’t even be provided with arms or armor?!”

Mikael clears his throat, feeling uniquely qualified to answer that one.

“I wasn’t.”

Thayla’s eyes move over to him, before widening in remembrance.

“If you’ll recall, they gave me a single rusted sword and nothing else when I faced you, Thayla. I imagine the criminals in the Grand Melee will be lucky to have their shackles removed before they’re forced out onto the sand. I certainly wasn’t.”

That brings Thayla up short. Silence falls and lasts long enough that Mikael begins to feel a little guilty for rubbing their first meeting in the female knight’s face. Thankfully, he’s saved from the awkwardness by Avina of all people.

“Right. Either way, this is big. The Grand Melee is happening, and while yes Zadicus will be on high alert… this is exactly what we were waiting for. You two are both going to sign up for the Grand Melee, but before that happens… I need to go and get Mikael’s new armor.”

Mikael and Thayla both blink at that, only for Avina to smirk slightly and toss her hair over her shoulder.

“What? Did you think every time I went out via the sewers that I was just going for a stroll or talking to my crier friend? No, I have more contacts than just that. And one of them is a Blacksmith who I spent no small amount of coin on to get Mikael a decent set of gear for when the Grand Melee finally happened. I need to go and get it now, so I’ll be right back. No need to worry, I have access to his forge via the sewers, so there won’t be any danger.”

Mikael narrows his eyes at that… and shakes his head.

“I won’t worry… because I’m going with you. You’re not going alone, not now.”

Avina looks surprised by that, but Mikael just stands up from the table and grabs one of the muffins that Thayla brought back for breakfast. He tosses it to Avina before grabbing a second one for himself.

“In fact, I’m instituting a new rule. None of us leaves the safehouse anymore without at least one buddy. Even Thayla. I don’t want to see how far her status as a Knight of the Rose gets her if the guards are as nasty as she says they are.”

He’s not usually so forceful or domineering, but it feels right in this moment. Things are ramping up and getting more dangerous. Letting Avina go off alone wouldn’t just be foolhardy, it’d be neglectful. Mikael isn’t going to let anything happen to her OR Thayla.

As the two women share a glance, Mikael rolls his shoulders and moves to get his leather jerkin on, as well as his sword sheathed at his side. Then, he nods to Thayla.

“Stay here and hold down the fort. We’ll be back soon.”

“O-Of course, Sir Mikael!”

And with Thayla’s immediate compliance, it’s all decided. Avina doesn’t quite throw her hands up in the air, but she does roll her eyes and smirk a bit as she lets Mikael escort her down into the basement and then into the sewers. From there, she leads the way through the labyrinthine sewer system underneath Alether. Funnily enough, while Mikael would never know how to get where they were actually trying to go, he did recognize most of the sewers by this point. He damn well should, considering he’d spent most nights of the last two weeks in them.

There’s also a noticeably diminished amount of rats around them as they make their way to Avina’s Blacksmith. Something that his Soul Mechanic doesn’t fail to point out.

“Been busy down here, I see.”

Mikael offers a sheepish smile in response to that. It’s true, he has been. Was he happy that he effectively ‘ate’ rats now to survive? Not particularly, but at least he WAS alive to be unhappy about it.

Regardless, they arrive at their destination a few moments after that, with Avina tapping part of the wall and revealing that the same hidden control runes from the other places are here as well. As they slip into another basement, Mikael looks around and sees what can only be a blacksmith’s storeroom. Not only are there some ingots on a nearby shelf, but there’s some equipment as well for use in a forge.

Avina moves over to the nearby ladder and knocks on the wall next to it a few times.

“Francis! I’m here to pick up my order!”

There’s a brief pause… as nothing but silence comes from above. Avina furrows her brow and knocks louder.

“Francis?”

Her call goes unanswered once more, however. Finally, shooting Mikael a worried look, Avina moves to ascend the ladder… which is when he steps up and stops her.

“Wait. I’ll go first. Seeing as I’m the one who heals from fatal wounds here.”

Avina flushes at that, but also looks a little proud… that is because of HER work after all.

“Right. Go ahead.”

And so Mikael does, carefully making his way up out of the blacksmith’s basement and into the forge itself. After looking around for a moment, he frowns and nods down to Avina.

“Clear. I think something happened here though.”

She quickly climbs up as well, with him offering her his hand to get her the rest of the way into the blacksmith’s building. And then she sees what he’s seen, which is that the place has been wrecked. There’s clearly been a scuffle here and recently at that. Maybe within the last hour or two, because Mikael still sees burning embers in the nearby forge.

“What happened here?”

At his question, Avina lets out a low sigh.

“They took him. It must have been the guards. They took Francis.”

Wait, seriously? Before Mikael can ask for clarification, Avina bursts into motion. Moving forward with purpose, she starts checking in the blacksmith’s backroom. He follows after her after a moment, brow furrowed.

“Do you think they knew about his connection to you? Do you think they found out you were in contact with him?”

“… No, not particularly. If they did, they would have tortured him. And if they tortured him, they would have found out about the sewer entrance in his basement. Francis isn’t exactly a close friend. I don’t think he’ll turn on me for nothing, but a little pain and he would have sung like a canary. Which means they didn’t take him because of me.”

That… alright. But then why? Avina answers that question before Mikael can even ask.

“They probably took him because Francis has refused every smithing contract that Zadicus and the City Guard have offered him. And with Zadicus tightening his grip again, he doesn’t want to leave a blacksmith who might want to outfit a rebellion unmolested…”

Suddenly, Avina trails off before perking up.

“Aha! I’d hoped, but I hadn’t known for sure…”

Pulling out a crate from under a shelf, Avina pops it open fully and Mikael moves forward to see what’s inside. There, laid out within is a freshly finished set of armor. It looks like a combination of leather and metal. Mikael WOULD say that he doesn’t know anything about it, but that would be a lie. Immediately, he gets impressions from the dead men in his head.

It’s good armor. Not the best, but in terms of a proper balance between mobility and defense, it’s perfect. Besides, he doesn’t need full plate like Thayla is rocking, mostly because he can heal from every injury thrown his way thanks to the Soul Engine.

As Mikael stares down at the armor, Avina places a hand on his arm.

“Mikael… about the Grand Melee…”

Looking over at his Soul Mechanic, he frowns.

“What about it?”

“You can’t hold back. If we’re going to beat Zadicus, you have to be ready to kill. More than that, you have to be ready to take advantage of other people’s kills. In the chaos of the free for all, there will be all sorts of magic flying around. Yours won’t be any more noticeable than anyone else. So you need to stop holding back. You need to be as strong as possible. Can you do that for me?”

… She’s right, of course. And he knows she’s right. He doesn’t want to kill anyone innocent. He’ll avoid the so-called ‘criminals’ as best he can. But the other volunteers? They knew what they were signing up for. And… the entire Colosseum is bound to be one big bloodbath. A bloodbath that Mikael is uniquely qualified to take advantage of.

After a moment, he wordlessly nods to Avina, making her smile and give his arm an affectionate squeeze. Then, he reaches into the crate and pulls out the armor that Francis the Blacksmith made for him. Whatever the man’s fate… Mikael will make sure to put his armor to good use.

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A/N: Mikael gets some spiffy new armor, which I'm terrible at describing of course. Think fantasy armor that's mostly leather with some pieces of metal bolted on here and there, heh.

And Zadicus proves to be just as predictable as Avina had hoped. The Grand Melee is happening, though perhaps that's not a good thing considering how the people of Alether are suffering for it...

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