The Soul Engine Ch. 39 (Original Fantasy) (Patreon)

A/N: Time for the Big Talk~

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As the Knight-Superior, Thayla’s father, leads them deeper into the Citadel, Mikael is admittedly very conflicted. On the one hand, he IS upset that Thayla kept this from him. It was one thing for her to be a Knight of the Rose. It was another entirely for her to be the daughter to the Order’s Grandmaster. On the other hand, even if he might be a little angry with her at the moment, he also can’t help but be unbelievably proud of how Thayla had handed that Nathaniel bastard his ass.

The way she’d taken him apart and made it look so damn easy while doing so had impressed Mikael beyond measure. It’d really driven home just how ridiculous both he and Bula were as well, because of the three of them, Mikael would have said Thayla was the weakest fighter. And sure, maybe the female knight WAS the weakest physically… but in terms of skill, she might just be the strongest.

Having to keep up with him and Bula over these last couple months, Thayla had been stuck in a sink or swim type situation… and in the end, she’d refused to sink, hadn’t she?

So yeah, Mikael was mad but also proud. More than that though, his anger was further tempered now that he’d met Thayla’s father himself. Even as he leads them further into the Citadel, Knight-Superior Dawnguard is… something to behold. Indeed, the way he silenced the courtyard commanded everyone’s attention, and just all around filled that entire area with his very presence had been quite eye-opening.

Not just because Mikael now saw how dangerous the older man was, but also because he could now understand what sort of upbringing that Thayla had likely had. If she’d grown up in a place like this with a father like that… Mikael could understand why she might not have mentioned her parentage. It must have been quite… intense.

At the same time of course, Mikael is still very much on edge. Even though it SEEMS to be just the four of them and the Knight-Superior, he can’t help but keep his eye out for ambushes all along their journey through the Citadel. He keeps expecting more knights to be lying in wait, to try and throw shackles onto him and his companions, or just try and kill them straight up.

But no. While he can sense other souls moving throughout the halls around them, none are waiting for them. There are no ambushes. And when they finally reach their ultimate destination, it’s to find that Knight-Superior Dawnguard has brought them to his office, where it seems he intends to meet them with no guards.

Admittedly, that only increases Mikael’s tension, rather than lessening it. After all, even if the Knight-Superior is on the up and up… for him to have the confidence to meet with them all by himself is a little frightening. For all Thayla’s dad knows, he’s sitting down behind his desk and basically leaving himself wide-open to a half-orc murderer, an undead abomination, and the necromancer who spawned him.

And yet, he’s not worried. Not remotely. That… hopefully bodes well. But Mikael can’t be sure. One way or the other, he does know he’s not letting his guard down. They were already one for one on old men from his lovers’ past turning out to be evil monsters in disguise. If things were going to turn out badly, Mikael planned to be ready this time.

Meanwhile, the Knight-Superior just looks at the four of them… and then lets out a sigh.

“Chevalier Ironshield may have overstepped, but he told no lie as HE knew it. Word from Ocreatha reached the Citadel over a week ago. Unfortunately, it was not sent through the proper channels. If it had been, then the contents of Foss Sangrey’s letter would have been for my eyes only.”

Knight-Superior Dawnguard’s eyes narrow and he frowns most severely.

“Instead, Ocreatha’s new Supreme King accidentally mislabeled his missive, resulting in others reading its contents before it was finally brought to my attention. By that point, keeping the information under wraps became impossible.”

Avina can’t help but scoff at that, her arms crossed over her chest.

“I highly doubt it was an accident.”

The Knight-Superior’s eyes flash over to Mikael’s Soul Mechanic, the same icy blue as Thayla’s. But then, it’s obvious that her father was where she got her eyes in the first place. The intensity of his stare reminds Mikael of the way Thayla had looked at him the first time he’d met… back when she’d killed him in that arena. Instinctively, he shifts himself in front of Avina, taking up a protective stance.

Seeing this, the Knight-Superior huffs and shakes his head.

“No, I don’t think it was truly an accident either. I believed that Sangrey’s aim was to keep me from choosing to suppress the information, considering how it cast my daughter and our family name in a bad light. Now though, I’m not quite sure what to believe. After all, if the missive were true, would you all have been so foolish as to come here, to this bastion of righteousness and justice? I suspect not.”

That causes a hopeful stir among them, though before any can speak, the Knight-Superior continues on.

“Ah, but where are my manners. I am Knight-Superior Timothal Dawnguard, Grandmaster of the Order of the Rose. And you are?”

Mikael and Avina both grimace at that, but Bula doesn’t hesitate to step forward, tossing her head and jutting out her chin.

“I am Bula. Warrior.”

“Hm.”

Avina is next, hands clasped together before her as she seems indecisive for a moment… before letting out a soft sigh.

“I am Avina Reyalis… Princess of Ocreatha.”

Mikael can imagine the conflict that was going through her mind. She no doubt wanted to introduce herself as a simple Mechanic, perhaps… but they had to put their best foot forward with Thayla’s father if they wanted to succeed in their aims here. And hey, he hadn’t turned out to be evil yet, right? With that in mind…

“And I am Mikael. Summoned Hero.”

For a long moment, Timothal Dawnguard takes them all in, silently assessing them. Judging them, perhaps? Mikael honestly couldn’t say for sure. Only that the older man’s gaze is intense enough that even Bula squirms a little bit under it.

“… Then not all of Foss Sangrey’s missive was a lie. But then what was fact and what was fiction? Who abused the Hero Summoning Ritual, if not the Princess? Who practiced Necromancy in the depths of Alether, if not the Princess? And who killed Zadicus Quinn, if not the warrior Bula? Daughter. I would have the answers from you.”

Thayla straightens up at that and steps forward. But Mikael… Mikael has had enough of being sidelined if he was being honest. He had let Thayla take the lead up until this point, but now that they were in the thick of it, he wanted to speak for himself. Stepping forward as well, he puts a hand on Thayla’s arm. She looks surprised at him, but when he gives her a smile… she smiles back and bows her head.

The clear deference makes her father’s eyes narrow, but Mikael pushes right on through, not hesitating to take center stage and stand before the Knight-Superior’s desk.

“I feel like I am best suited for discrediting the so-called Supreme King’s lies, Knight-Superior.”

Timothal frowns, tilting his head to the side.

“Oh?”

Nodding, Mikael spreads his hands apart.

“The answers to all of your questions are interconnected. I was summoned to Alether by none other than Zadicus Quinn himself. The Lord of the City tore me from my world with the hero summoning ritual and cut half of my memories from my mind. He replaced them with memories of battle and war… and then sent me into his arena to die. When I found out that he threw my stolen memories away and that he made it impossible for me to go home… I killed him myself. With my own two hands.”

That gets Timothal’s attention, just as Mikael knew it would. Mikael had just professed to committing the crime Bula was accused for. He knows that the Knight-Superior can tell that he’s telling the truth as well. Unfortunately, while that answers two of the older man’s questions… Mikael has conveniently left out the third.

“And the charge of necromancy?”

Wincing, Mikael… deflects.

“What makes an undead an undead, Knight-Superior? Is it the lack of intelligence? Is it the lack of blood flowing through the corpse? Is it the inability to feel the elements, to feel the heat of the sun on your skin or the cold of crisp night air on your body? I still eat and drink. I still think and feel. Am I undead?”

He feels like he’s doing pretty well convincing the other man, but at the same time… Mikael truly doesn’t know enough about this world’s magic and necromancy in particular to say for sure. But apparently Thayla either doesn’t agree with his optimism, or she just can’t hold herself back any longer.

“Father… Avina would not have had to bring Mikael back if not for how I dishonored myself. It was only because my blade carved out his heart that she had to replace it in the first place!”

… Well, that cat was out of the bag. Mikael valiantly resists the urge to groan and cover his face with his palm as Thayla passionately tries to defend them. Of course, Timothal is not so easily swayed, not when she’s just dropped a couple of bombshells in her father’s lap.

“Excuse me? Explain.”

This time, Mikael knows that he can’t step in. The Knight-Superior only has eyes for his daughter now, and while she quails a bit under his gaze, Thayla doesn’t back down. To her credit, she stands tall and with a straight back as she describes the events in Alether that led her to Avina’s basement laboratory. Telling her father of how Zadicus Quinn tricked her into dishonoring herself by slaying Mikael in one of his arenas couldn’t have been easy, but Thayla does it all the same.

“… And so I swore myself to the Hero’s service, father. I did not know at the time whether he was truly a good man or not, but I knew that the only way the stain on my honor could ever be erased was through him. A life for a life. It was his choice to let me keep mine, rather than slaying me as I slew him. And I can tell you, having served him in my full capacity ever since, that Sir Mikael IS a good man. A man worthy of my pledge.”

Her full capacity. Mikael supposed he was just grateful Thayla hadn’t expanded on that at all. If she’d said something like ‘my full capacity as a knight and a woman’, then they might have found themselves in a whole different heap of trouble. As it is, Timothal takes in all of their words… but still looks troubled. Probably by the description of how Thayla had carved Mikael’s heart out and definitely killed him, given Mikael is standing before him now, seemingly alive and well.

“I must admit, I have having trouble reconciling my daughter’s words with yours, Hero. You claim not to be undead. And yet…”

Avina steps forward, arms still crossed over her chest.

“It’s true. I brought Mikael back from the dead. I didn’t just heal him or resuscitate him. I resurrected him. But I didn’t half-ass it or anything like that. Not like Foss Sangrey did to create his undead army out of all the other poor bastards Zadicus Quinn summoned. I brought Mikael back, completely and utterly. He’s alive. As alive as anyone… MORE alive than anyone, in some senses!”

Ah, and there’s the mad scientist always lurking in the back of his Soul Mechanic’s mind. Mikael grimaces and gives Avina a reassuring pat on the shoulder to try and calm her down before she can really get going and start ranting about Souls and the Weave and her Engine some more. Frankly, he’s not sure Timothal Dawnguard needs or wants to hear about all that. After all, he probably doesn’t care for such-

“Then… that would make you a True Necromancer, wouldn’t it?”

Mikael blinks, even as Avina goes stiff under his hand. Even Thayla and Bula look surprised to hear Thayla’s father using the same descriptor as Foss Sangrey did. Though, Foss had called Avina and her family ‘Trueborn Necromancers’ and what they did ‘True Necromancy’. A small distinction… and one Mikael didn’t understand a lick of to be honest.

What WAS the difference between True Necromancy and regular Necromancy? Was it merely that Avina had the ability to bring people back fully, like she had with Mikael?

Avina huffs out another breath and then nods her head. Her lips are thin as she admits it.

“… Yes.”

Well, at least the Knight-Superior doesn’t immediately declare them all criminals to be executed with that admission. Instead, Timothal leans back in his chair for a moment, contemplative. Finally, he glances at Bula.

“Hm. It would seem that of the three of you, only the half-orc is truly innocent of the accusations levied against her.”

Bula lets out a bark of laughter at that, baring her tusks and teeth in a bloodthirsty grin.

“Tch. Would have killed the bastard myself given half the chance. But Mikael had the greater claim.”

Debatable. Sure, Zadicus had ruined his life. But he’d ENSLAVED Bula. Still, in the end Mikael was just glad that the asshole was dead. And he suspected his orcish companion felt the same way.

Silence falls in the office at Bula’s declaration. Not because anyone is particularly stunned by her words, least of all the Knight-Superior. No, rather… no one seems to have anything to say, even Timothal Dawnguard. Everything seems to almost sit on a knife’s edge for a moment. Tension in the room builds the longer that the silence carries on.

Are they going to have to fight their way out of the Citadel or not? Because one thing is for damn sure, Mikael isn’t about to let anyone do anything to Avina. Not even Thayla’s father. If he decides that she has to be executed for being a True Necromancer, Mikael will step in. Immediately.

Just when he thinks it’s almost inevitable, however, the Knight-Superior surprises them all by letting out another sigh.

“… Your situation is a unique one, to be sure. By all rights, I should not doubt Foss Sangrey’s words. He has, after all, been a friend to the Order of the Rose for many years. As Regent-Lord, he is the sole reason we were even allowed to operate within Ocreatha’s borders. At the same time, he’s taken over Ocreatha with a mysterious army that came out of nowhere, disbanding the Council of Lords and declaring himself ‘Supreme King’. Ostentatious, to be sure.”

Abruptly, Timothal stands from his seat. Mikael just barely manages to hold back the urge to draw his sword at the sudden motion.

“There is only one way to truly separate fact from fiction. Only the Truth Above All can see through the lies and deception that turn these waters murky.”

Thayla chokes on her own spit the moment she hears the words ‘Truth Above All’ fall from her father’s lips. Mikael, on the other hand, is simply confused. At least Avina and Bula look just as confused as he is for once…

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A/N: So Thayla's dad Timothal doesn't seem to be a bad guy. Just a guy restricted by his own sense of duty and responsibility. And now we have this 'Truth Above All' spoopy thing announced. Wonder what that could be~

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