AO 4 Ch 27 (Patreon)

Chapter 27

I sat sprawled in a lounge chair while Maribelle fed me crackers and cheese.

Zuri walked in a moment later and raised an eyebrow. “Having fun?”

“A ton of fun. Being important is great, right Maribelle?” I asked her.

“I want to make sure you have energy for tonight.” She answered honestly and stuffed another cracker with cheese into my mouth.

“Exactly.” I said around the snack and sat up before she silenced me in other ways. “How’d the shopping trip go?” I eyed the sack and the other two who came in with her wearing heavy red fur coats.

The fur was even a little more vibrant than I’d remembered, or perhaps the woman had worked some magic and made them such a lovely red.

“I think Vivi is wearing yours.” Zuri said.

Turning to the woman she spun around in it. “What do you think?”

They looked heavy, with fur trim spilling out of the sleeves, hood and bottom. Meanwhile, they had a faint ribbing around the chest and strips trimmed in them to create a vertical pattern that somehow made them look even more plush.

“Lovely.” I smiled. “You can wear it for now. I think I’d fall over wearing that thing.” My eyes shifted to Eva who looked about ready to collapse from wearing one that was a little large on her frame.

Maribelle walked up to the smaller mage and held out her hand. “Mine.”

“Of course.” Eva hurried to get out of it and Maribelle threw it on like it weighed nothing. “We were just helping Zuri bring them all over.”

“One of the king’s concubines tried to fight Eva. Her two anchors died as a result.” Zuri explained.

I paused and the whole room was quiet for a moment. “Oh. Well, that was a poor idea to pick a fight with Eva.”

“Sorry for causing trouble.” She dipped her head.

I waved it away. “In case you haven’t realized, there’s an internal struggle about to come to a head. When Carmilla fails to take The Enclave, shit is going to fly. Oh by the way, Carmilla sent Claire Thorne to the party last night to seduce me. She did some life magic thingy and made me very amorous. She seemed to think she could use it to have my babies.”

There was the sound of metal scraping behind me and I looked over the couch to see Maribelle playing with a knife. “I’m going to cut that bitch. May I take the evening off?”

“And miss your night?”

She paused, clearly torn.

“I’d do it for you.” Zuri offered.

Emlyn took that moment to step into the room. “Who’s Maribelle going to kill?”

“Claire Thorne.” I didn’t explain further.

“Must have done something bad. Well, she was kind of a bitch, may she rest in peace.” Emlyn wasn’t bothered and picked out some cheese and crackers before finding a spot on the couch.

Eva’s head swiveled back and forth. “You are all taking things quite well.”

“I’m an old hand at these things now.” I tried to steal Emlyn’s snack only to have my hand smacked away. She stuffed the rest in her mouth so I couldn’t get another chance.

“You’ve been at this for less than a year.” Vivi pointed out and decided to continue wearing my coat, sitting on the other couch. She looked good in it.

Maribelle was running her hands over her own coat, looking murderously out the window. “I’ll stay tonight, Zuri, you don’t take her from me.”

Zuri held her hands up. “Was just trying to help. Ard’s right, things are getting more complicated by the day. News around the city is that the King is returning for the Elder trial.”

“Oh, that changes the situation. Quite a bit.” I leaned back and cupped my chin. “They’re really going to make a push to take over the Enclave. If he’s coming back, Carmilla might be playing nice and hiding her fangs.”

“Or she could strike at her father.” Emlyn offered a rather incorrect opinion.

“Even I know she’d need to wait until the very end of the war to spring anything on him. By the time news spreads of his death, the war effort would be in shambles.” I said.

“We can’t always rely on our opponents being smart.” Emlyn shrugged.

“In that case, don’t we just win by default?” I glanced at Zuri. “Or do they get a pass?”

“A stupid opponent can still ruin your plans.” Zuri offered. “I think in this case, we can assume that Carmilla is passably intelligent. The question is which goal will she prioritize? Her father could also be used to galvanize the kingdom if say his death was staged to be an attack from Garrish. I would expect her focus to be on winning the Elder competition though.”

I could always trust Zuri’s tactical mind. “Just more chaos for her to use to give her cover for her plans. Our focus should still be on supporting House Aldis and then moving to Chillwind. Eva, could I talk with you for a bit?”

The Zenovian mage perked up. “Privately?”

“Yes, I think that would be best.” I stood up and motioned for her to follow me. “Someone make sure Aurelia gets back.” I said to my anchors before leading Eva down the hall. “Everything going well with your stay?”

She had that cute button nose and she was even shorter than Maribelle. Something about that gave me an innate need to hold her and protect her.

Though, she was very much a feared mage.

“I’m sorry about killing those two anchors.”

“Huh?” I blinked. “Oh no. That’s really fine. I wanted to talk to you about something else.” Once we reached a meeting room, I closed the doors. “I wanted to talk about how Vel’shae are made.”

“That's…” Eva trailed off.

“You see. I bonded Emlyn, defying the rules of the enclave. However, when I let Missy look at the bond, she said it was incomplete and that both your method of making Vel’shae and our bonding of anchors are both incomplete versions of what old True Mages used to do.” I explained.

Eva took on a thoughtful expression and nodded with her hand on her chin. “I see. So you want to understand how Vel’shae are produced to see if you can get a deeper understanding of how to bond your anchors?”

“Pretty much.” I smiled. “The information is probably a closely guarded secret of Zenovia, but I was hoping in private I could at least get some understanding of it. If you don’t know the whole thing, then just what you do know is fine.”

Eva frowned and shifted her weight between her feet before nodding and sitting down. “I couldn’t make one of your anchors a Vel’shae. What I do know is that the ritual is split into several parts. First there’s the cleansing. Both parties spend the morning cleansing their minds and bodies. It’s important that both are clear of worries and distant thoughts that might interfere with the process.

“Next there’s a ritual or an invocation at the altar to a goddess.”

“Which goddess?” I asked.

“Syr, the goddess of life and renewal.” Eva made a motion at her chest.

“Yes, the big titty goddess. Every teenage boy knows her well. You use her statue for the transfer?”

“I only know that it’s involved to transfer the sphere over and then the one receiving the sphere spends several days sealing it into themselves.” She laid out what she did know.

“The actual methods for any of these are unknown to you though.” I stated, my mind already churning with the new information.

Some of Missy’s words mixed with Eva’s in a way that actually made quite a bit of sense. There was a burning question in my mind about this goddess though. Missy had mentioned a Freya that had taken what she’d given to Zenov. In return, she gave them the spheres.

I wondered if that god that Zenovia used to perform the ritual had any connection to this Freya. After all, she was the one that gave people the spheres in the beginning.

The cleansing ritual wasn’t that different from what Avente did, bathing and using the paste to transfer. It was about getting people in a mental state to perform the transfer.

Sealing the sphere into the new person was interesting. What if I could create such a bond where I could turn Emlyn into a single sphere mage for a period by giving her a sphere?

Because if I was going to figure this out, I was going to do more than give my anchors nearly unlimited magic to tap. No, I was going to empower each of my anchors to the point that no one would dare think about harming what was mine.

Yet, I didn’t want to end up bonded to four corrupted.

“Correct. What are you thinking?” Eva asked.

“I want to make them as powerful as I can. If this bond has the ability to make Vel’shae, that’s something, but the goddess said even the Vel’shae were incomplete.” I waited to see if Eva had any more thoughts.

“If the Vel’shae are incomplete, then I’d love to see what you come up with.” Eva huffed.

I guess I had just insulted people that her country worshiped as their protectors. The first step would probably be to expand these connections I had with Emlyn and Maribelle as best as I could.

“Is there any soul magic that connects people?” I asked.

“Like reading another mind? You’ve told me you can do that.” Eva said.

“More like making a permanent bond.” I went ahead and shared the Avente process for bonding an anchor.

“Seems like a very watered down Vel’shae ritual… the idea of using Azurebloom is interesting. Do you mind if I tell Uncle Valken about that?” She was at least considerate of the information that I was sharing.

“That’s fine.” He probably already knew. My father would have learned all of this at the very least. It was certainly less controlled information than the Vel’shae rituals.

There was a knock on the door and Maribelle poked her head in. “Aurelia is back.”

“Wonderful. Also Maribelle, come in. I’m going to try some things with you.” I said and she pranced in with a giant smile. “It’s not sex. I’m going to use you to experiment with soul magic.”

She shrugged and her smile only got wider. “I’m yours to do with as you wish.”

Eva stared at us for a moment. “I feel like I’m intruding.”

“Up to you if you want to stick around. Not sure how much there’ll be to see. Maribelle, sit down in front of the couch here.” I spread my legs so she could sit in front of me.

My intention was for her back to be to me, but instead she knelt facing me.

I shrugged and then reached forward to brush back her hair. I stared into her eyes as I delved into my soul magic and fished for the bond between us.

I could feel her soul because I was touching her and had a sense on my own. A very thin connection became apparent as I searched. “Starting.” I gave her a little warning.

From Soulgard, I reached through that connection to touch her mind rather than focus on where my fingers touched her.

She shuddered in front of me and I felt a strain. The connection was too thin for what I was doing, but it opened up the harder I pushed.

“More.” Maribelle’s eyes went wide. “I need more.”

Rather than my pushing having an effect, her desire made the connection swell and nearly swallow the bit of my consciousness that had been pushing through.

Maribelle’s entire soul was pushing through the channel like she was going to move her entirety into Soulgard.

“Stop. I have no idea what’s going to happen if you do that!” Her soul was leaving her body, but she didn’t seem to care one bit.

I could feel the drive and desire inside of her to become one with me to put her soul completely under my control, and suddenly she was shoving herself into Soulgard.

Maribelle let out a groan of bliss and her eyes rolled up into her as she passed out and slumped into me.

“Uh… was that supposed to happen?” Eva asked.

“Can you check her? I think her soul has quite literally left her body.” I growled, upset at the anchor who had gone too far.

Eva came over and touched Maribelle’s head, frowning. “There’s no resistance and no soul for me to reach. It’s like she’s dead.”

“Hold on.” She was inside Soulgard just like Cyam, so rather than pulling Cyam out of my shadow, I grabbed onto a squirming Maribelle and yanked her soul up through my shadow, filling it with magic and plopping her on the floor. “What the fuck was that? I told you to stop.”

“Sir.” She knelt, dipping her head. “Now I will never leave you. I will always be beside you and serve you for the rest of your long life.”

I rubbed my forehead.

She was twisted up inside and her serving me was a huge part of her personal drive.

This wasn’t the plan though.

“Serve me where I say you can.” I’d moved souls around before.

This would be the same as when Cyam died and I stuffed the wrong soul in his body. Only this time, I wouldn’t mix up the souls. That could go badly.

The Maribelle made of shadows in front of me was still kneeling.

“Sir. I don’t want to leave you.” Maribelle dipped her head.

I needed to be firm with her. “You will listen to me.” Grabbing the soul in the construct of magic I plucked it out and the darkness collapsed into the floor and rejoined my shadow.

Her soul was in my grasp, but she didn’t fight me at all.

Instead she was incredibly pliable, and I was able to stuff her back into her body. It was only when I pulled back that she resisted, wanting to cling to my soul.

In the end, when I pulled my soul back there was a massive connection between the two of us.

Maribelle leaned against my thigh. A moment later she blinked and sat back up straight with a slight pout on her face.

“You didn’t listen to me.” I glared down at her.

“The chance was too tempting.” She blinked and stared at me, tilting her head slightly.

“What?”

“I can feel you.” She breathed.

“Of course you can. My magic is in you.”

Maribelle shook her head with a giant smile. “No. More than that.” Her eyes bore into mine like she could see straight into my soul. “So much more.” She breathed. “I understand, by your grace I have been placed in this body. From here I shall serve you until this body is no more and then I will return to your soul fortress.”

“What do you mean?” Eva asked from the side.

“I’m now tethered to it. Even though he put me back in my body, it’s more like I’m borrowing this body and my soul’s home is inside his.” She dipped her head, which competed with the fact that her voice sounded nearly giddy.

“Soulgard. That’s what I call it.” The goddess had said it was a small world. I also felt the truth of Maribelle’s words. When she shoved herself into my soul, she made a direct connection there that wasn’t going away.

“You feel it.” Maribelle smiled. “I’m fairly certain if this body were to perish, I would snap back to you. In which case, my goal has been achieved.” Her smile became a little too big. “We will never be separated.” She stood with a fluid motion and walked behind the couch to pull my shoulders back and work on a tension that had been building since we started this exercise.

“So. You bound her soul to you and then put her back in her body? But…” Eva trailed off. “Are there any other effects?”

“I can sense him in his entirety. His wants, his needs… they are perfectly clear to me.” Maribelle worked on my shoulders and I felt life magic pull from my sphere, through her and then into the knot in my shoulders.

That was enough to make me jerk and twist around with wide eyes. “You just used my life magic.”

Maribelle’s smile was manic now. “I want to be able to keep you around. If you are ever hurt, I’ll put you back together. Sir.”

“This is very unusual.” Eva watched my anchor. “I doubt everyone is going to throw their soul into yours. This level of… devotion is rare.”

“I prayed to The Mistress of the Night during it. Wished for her to help me.” Maribelle said, some of the mania in her eyes fading to a very happy contentment.

Even if I tried, I doubted I’d be able to cut the connection between her and me right now. The Maribelle figure that normally guarded my serpent sphere was gone. She’d taken it and melded her soul to my own using it.

Dipping briefly into my soul to see if I could find it, the figure appeared and turned to look up at me and smile.

Fuck me. She could come and go from my own soul?

“Eva, could you do me a big favor and probe Maribelle’s soul. You said you could feel mine before when I didn’t have defenses up.” I wanted to check something.

The Zenovian mage focused on Maribelle and frowned. “She has defenses.”

“No I don’t. Well, I do now.” She grinned. “Ard is protecting me.”

I rubbed my forehead. This was going to be a mess wasn’t it? Emlyn was going to tease me for sure. “Are you happy Maribelle?” I asked the most important question.

“Very much so.” She moved so I could see her again and knelt on the ground with her head low. “I Maribelle, have given my everything to my mage, Arden Aldis. My soul, my mind and my very person. I do so knowing that he will give me everything I’ve given several fold. In turn I give him all my strength so that we may never be separated and my success will become his and his mine. It is with my whole person that I wish to serve and be served as his eternal partner. Under the blessing of the Goddess I swear that until both of our souls are extinguished I will never stop serving.”

There was a glimmer of twilight that shined down on the both of us as Missy certainly dipped her hand into this situation, and I felt the connection between the two of us change slightly.

Without testing it, I knew I could cast magic right through her as if she were my right hand.

“What was that?” Eva asked.

“I think a goddess just blessed this bond and made it something far more.”

Maribelle rose from her kneeling and walked off. I already knew that she was going to bring me some water because she could tell I was a little thirsty.

I had just made her essentially immortal. If her body was crushed I only had to put it back together and stuff her soul into it again. This was fine, right? I didn’t just create an immortal maniac, right?

Closing my eyes, I just chose to accept this for my new reality.

AN - It's been a good writing week. 8.5 chapters and I'm on track to finish up AO 4 first draft by the 15th and stay on schedule for monthly releases. I expect 40ish chapters. Gotta get this Elder Trial moving and make it epic, I've only strung you along for thirty chapters for it...