AO 4 Ch 33 (Patreon)

Chapter 33

I stood on the roof watching the battle between my mother and Carmilla with a new appreciation for my mother’s magic. I might not be able to mimic what she was doing.

“See? She’s terrifying.” Emlyn said from the side.

“No. I could do that if I had half the time she’d trained.” I crossed my arms, refusing to admit defeat in this matter. Though, I had watched some incredibly powerful magic so far. There was a lot I wanted to practice.

“Oh? Is it ending?” Zuri noticed the storm slowing first.

The light around Carmilla became brighter, her grand spell missing more than half of its wings and cracks ran along every inch of the glowing shield.

Yet it was my mother’s state that concerned me the most.

From here, I could see that she slumped in her seat and her eyes had lost focus.

I looked for blood, but saw nothing. It was Eva that noticed what was happening first.

“Her soul’s been struck. I’d recognize that daze anywhere.” Eva said.

“No.” I breathed. Carmilla couldn’t win.

There was no world in which Carmilla’s victory was anything but a disaster.

Yet…

No, I pushed everything aside and reached for my magic, past the spheres and into my soul. At the same time I prayed. Dear Mistress of the Night, please help my mother endure this. I have only just returned to her life and it isn’t time for us to be separated yet.

Missy’s acknowledgment was instant and my mother sat back up, blinking.

I was going to pay for that and what I was about to do, but there was little time to think about the consequences of my actions.

Carmilla’s shield might seem in poor condition, but my mother’s own spell had faltered significantly. Even now, rather than return to that thick storm, petals gathered into a massive form to crash down on Carmilla.

It was a paltry spell compared to the two that my mother had used so far.

The princess’ shield caught the giant rose easily as several of the blades reformed themselves and the shield recovered. Carmilla had regained her footing in this fight.

The rose spun, grinding on the shield but across the field darkness bubbled up behind my mother.

I could see it happening. I knew that my mother was going to lose.

Carmilla’s dirty trick of attacking her soul had worked well enough.

And that was just not a reality I was willing to accept. I focused on Carmilla and tried to lift her body with soul magic.

There was more resistance than even the Creslin, but I didn’t care. I pushed with everything I had inside of me to move her.

Carmilla cast her eyes about, looking for what was attacking her. The woman grabbed her chest and coughed up blood. Her shield faltered and the spinning rose suddenly broke through her spell as if it were nothing more than parchment. The giant frozen rose came crashing down.

In that last instant before it smashed into her, I saw Carmilla’s body rip apart and spin inwards.

I had to wonder a moment later if it was my imagination. Because at one moment there was a fight down below me, and the next was instant slaughter as the rose ground Carmilla and anything that had been on her person into the ground.

My mother canceled all of her magic and sagged in her chair. From Carmilla’s spell failing to my mother’s current state it had been less than a blink of an eye.

Yet, that’s all that mattered at times.

There was a small pit where the rose had been, and there wasn’t even a recognizable limb inside.

Carmilla had been hit by a powerful spell and her defenses had completely failed her. Not even an earth anchor could have survived a direct hit, for the defenseless Carmilla she’d been utterly obliterated.

Emlyn caught me before I even realized I was falling. My head immediately cracked into a splitting headache.

“You okay?” Vivi was there checking my forehead.

“Must have locked my knees watching that.” I lied as a number of Aldis House members turned my way.

“Don’t blame you. That was intense.” Zuri helped cover for me. “But I don’t think we’re done.” She pointed up to the sky where King Thyrendor stood from his throne, looking down at the scene with a face that was growing increasingly red.

“There might be some deaths. Even he said that.” I rolled my eyes.

“Yeah, but to him, he and his blood are more important than the rest of us peasants. It’s like being upset with a horse kicking in your child’s head rather than watching horses go off to slaughter when their time is over.” Eva said in a rare bout of insight. “To him the rest of us dying is just a passing event that he expects. His children however? He expects everyone to bend over and not kill them.”

I had a hard time understanding that level of delusion, but it didn’t matter because I was about to see the outcome of his rage.

“FIRE!” The king shouted at the top of his lungs, lashing out.

Every mage on the king’s floating platform fired beams of light down upon my mother. There had to be two dozen mages.

I tried to draw on my magic, only for pain to lance its way through my head.

Emlyn held on to me and Vivi shook her head. “You should stop trying to do anything until you’re feeling better.”

That meant going and fixing Soulgard, but I didn’t want to miss what was happening.

Thankfully, my magic wasn’t needed. Ice and fire swirled to protect my mother, sent from House Aldis and House Virel.

Meanwhile, House Trevis slammed their feet on the stone in unison, making the whole Enclave boom as thunder peeled in the sky.

They were missing their elder at present, but were doing their best to stand with us.

“Now now.” The old matriarch of House Graystone floated up on a platform. “There’s no need to lash out. Didn’t you say yourself that injuries and deaths may occur?” She was clearly throwing in with our side of the aisle.

“That’s preposterous and we all know it.” Elder Brighthaven appeared in the sky. “The difference between a noble and a royal dying is the same difference between water and blood.”

“Well, I feel strongly about you killing my blood.” My grandfather shot into the sky to join the growing contingent of old mages as tension spiked to a new peak. “It was clearly a fight that took everything both sides had to offer. If my daughter had held back, she would be dead.”

“That would be the preferred outcome.” The King said without an ounce of humor.

My mouth hung open. “What the fuck.”

“They think they are better than everyone else. Not just in capability, but value.” Eva sighed. “I know the mentality well.”

“I want to visit Zenovia less and less.” I said dryly.

“The current queen is a harsh woman. People with personalities like him are… pruned.” Eva made a face. “You should repair your soul. I’ll wake you if you need to be here.”

I grunted, not wanting to hear a bunch of old men argue and closed my eyes with Emlyn supporting me.

Soulgard had another massive chunk destroyed. I really needed to get better at using my soul magic.

But to my surprise rather than dig deeper into my fortress, the blow had stopped where Maribelle’s soul form stood, like she’d been protecting it from going deeper.

Instead, everything in front of her soul form had been reduced to a fine powder.

“Thank you my prey.” I said, landing next to her soul form that shuddered with my words.

“It is my greatest desire to help you, Sir.” It spoke but the voice sounded distant.

With a wave of my hand, the powder was lifted back into the air and used to reassemble the wall and defenses of my fortress. “This isn’t enough.”

I frowned.

“Killing a mage that could have killed you in an open duel is not a bad trade for injuring your soul in a manner that you can repair.” Missy floated down to where I was working.

“When you put it that way, perhaps I should be thankful.” I grumbled. Hurting myself to stop another wasn’t ideal.

Yet, she was right. If an anchor could take a wound to take down a mage, they’d do it every time. Doubly so if their mage had a serpent sphere and could put them right back together.

Unfortunately, it made me like a crossbow with a finicky wind. I was only good for one shot. Reloading took too long to be viable in a fight.

“Thank you for helping my mother.” I said.

“It was just a nudge. She had protected herself, but lost control of her magic.” Missy said. “You could have just ended Carmilla.”

“Yeah, well if she inverted and exploded all over the field it might have looked suspicious.” My focus had been elsewhere as well. Concern for my mother had overridden some of my logic.

Even thinking back, I realized that I should have only tried to lift her tongue. But I wanted to kill her.

The walls came back together and rather than stone, I decided to focus and make them out of bluesteel. It took longer for me to form that section of the wall into bluesteel, but it was the toughest materials I had ever experienced.

“Good. I’m glad you are starting to think outside the box.” Missy winked. “There is much happening outside. You should return quickly.”

I pulled myself back to my body, only to feel a huge quantity of magic charged in the air.

My mother had floated back up behind my grandfather and The Virels had come out in force to stand next to him.

Graystones, Kellers and Trevis stood with them, along with a few other minor houses.

On the other side were the Brighthavens along with dozens of middling houses that were on the rise. Most likely they were rising on purpose. They had thrown in with the Royals, even if Carmilla had just been reduced to nothing in front of them, they couldn’t switch sides easily.

“House Aldis, stand aside or be considered rebels by the kingdom.” King Thyrendor demanded. “Once I let your slight go with a mild punishment. I should have known that when your daughter refused to stand she planned to rebel.”

His words twisted us into rebels of the kingdom.

“You are outmatched.” His voice continued. “Though you may have some of the few most powerful mages of the kingdom, there are dozens of mages capable of grand spells behind me. Even one more Elder than you.”

With Elder Trevis out at the war, and one seat open, we were indeed down a number in this match up.

I could help fill in that gap though. “Emlyn, Maribelle. Help me protect my soul.” Lifting myself up into the air on a piece of ice, I joined those powerful mages.

Carmilla’s dog of an Elder started barking. “Ha! The boy who just became a mage thinks he has the qualification to join this conflict!?” He was practically frothing at the mouth.

“When a dog becomes rabid after their owner passes, it’s a blessing to put them out of their misery.” This time, I focused on his tongue and tried to lift it up to touch his nose.

The pressure was far less than when I’d attacked Carmilla, but the result was just as splendid as the Elder Mage’s head popped like a watermelon smashed with a hammer.

It also felt like said hammer took a swing at my own head, but there was a force holding me together. Emlyn and Maribelle were helping to some degree.

“Really, you need to leash your dogs before they bite someone they can’t afford to offend.” I buffed my nails on my manticore coat.

Uncle Silver gave me a look from the side, but everyone else was just shocked at the casualness in which I had destroyed the barking elder.

“What?” Elder Brighthaven glared at me to the point I thought he was about to launch an attack. As an elder who focused on light magic, he might be able to reduce my head to a smoldering pile of ash before I could blink.

Though, behind these other elder mages, I was fairly confident that someone else would block it while I popped his head like a grape between two big imaginary fingers.

I had a thing about smashing fruit. Maybe I should talk to someone about that. What did fruit ever do to me?

“It was clearly a rabid dog that needed to be put down.” I shook my head sadly. “No one likes to lose a dog that way. I’m sorry you had to see that, but if I didn’t, it might have bitten me and passed on who knows what disease. Wait, has it bit you? Do we need to put you down to stop the disease from spreading?!” I pointed a finger at Elder Brighthaven.

As if my action were a threat, he launched dozens of thin lasers at me.

Ice appeared, but was too slow. Luckily a dozen little swirls of fire caught each of the lasers.

“It seems you have another rabid dog.” I lifted his tongue.

Elder Brighthaven tried to fly away but he only got a few feet before his head also exploded. This time I really had to do some work to not show the pain echoing across my body.

“Enough!” The King boomed his face bright red.

“I believe the boy has made his point. You certainly no longer hold a numerical advantage. Oh, and it seems two more Elder Seats have opened up. We already have everyone assembled. I wonder if we could throw a few more trials together today.” Uncle Silver leaned on his cane in the air. A third swirl of fire supported it along with his feet. “Perhaps we could put the boy up so that he gets the respect he deserves. I wonder if anyone would even dare challenge him after that display.” The old man chuckled.

“Nope.” I crossed my arms. “You won’t trick me into becoming a stuffy old Elder. I refuse. But I’ll pop a few more heads today if need be. It is kind of fun.” I chuckled to myself, realizing that laughing about popping heads probably just cemented any rumors of me being a callous monster.

Oh well. Sometimes you have to wear a cloak on a cold night, even if it makes everyone think you are up to no good. And it was possible Maribelle was rubbing off on me a smidge.

“It seems the option is yours.” My mother said, sounding composed. “Do we continue with our lives or do a few more elder seats open up? I for one won’t mind my tenure as the youngest elder being even shorter.”

The king seethed from his throne of light, but he had to know that his options were either to lose decades of strength here or to back off and grow for a future plan. “That boy—“

“His actions will be dealt with by The Enclave. You clearly forgot this event and the actions here-in are an Enclave matter, not that of the kingdom. He just killed two Elders and our punishment will be swift.” Elder Virel’s wrinkled face split into a smile. She then glanced at me and winked an eye that the King couldn’t see while giving me a stern glare with the other.

Old people were tricky.

That only reinforced the idea that I didn’t want to touch the elder council even with a spell from a distance.

I was far too young and inexperienced to deal with these people who were walking fossils. That, and I’d rather go frolic elsewhere in the world than get stuck in the Capital for my very long life.

The King let out a snort and sat back down on his throne. “You will regret this.”

“Time will tell. You certainly won’t be the one to do anything.” The old elder smiled at him. “Don’t forget the ball tomorrow. I’ve already bought a lovely dress and it would be a waste to not have the chance to wear it.”

The King nearly choked on her words.

“Unless you’d like to announce to the world that you’ve retreated to lick your wounds. Some might even empathize with you. I’m sure Garrish would love to send you an envoy to show their condolences for the loss of your daughter.” The old woman was nasty! Rubbing salt in the wound and then pouring fire instead of life magic.

“The ball will continue.” The King ground out and waved his hand for everyone on his side to pull back.

“Phew.” I wiped my brow as soon as they were gone. “That was a close one. Not sure how many heads I could pop in a row.”

“Come on.” My grandfather wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “Let’s get you back to your anchors. They look like they are going to try flying if we don’t get you back to them.”

“They’re really good for me.” I said.

My grandfather hummed. “We need to think about the future.”

“It would have been a much safer future if we had just crushed them all.” I said, somewhat disliking both sides backing down.

“We cannot afford to have a clash at this level.” My mother sighed. “We would have won at a cost. Killing half of the kingdom’s leadership lost at once amid a war with our neighbor? That’s a recipe for a pyrrhic victory, one where we celebrate as our country is swallowed by people even worse than the Thyrendor Family.” She chided me.

I rolled my eyes. “It would be so much easier if I were some loner that just killed people when he pleased, consequences be damned.”

“Yes, well, such a life is impractical, because who would protect you during your moments of weakness?” My mother challenged me. “They lost three powerful mages and not only did we gain an advantage of one seat on the elder council, but two more are up for contest that we might take to hold a decisive advantage for The Enclave. It was a great victory, even if we didn’t demolish their entire faction.”

“Sometimes a single battle turns the tide of the entire war.” My grandfather squeezed me before his ice platform set down and my anchors rushed to pull me away and check on me. The old man gave me a soft smile before striding away with my mother and starting to bark orders at the rest of House Aldis.

There was going to be a lot of movement among the noble houses as a result of what had just happened.

Maribelle kissed me and expressed all of her love and protectiveness in that touch. My head had a dull throb, one I could deal with when we were back somewhere far safer than standing across the way from people who wanted to tear my head off.

Elder Virel, the old woman, didn’t wait and appeared next to me. “We will have to punish you for killing two elders.”

I frowned at her. “I’m about to be sent off to war.”

She nodded. “That’s not enough to satisfy The Enclave. It will be enough to defer your sentence, especially with the most recent reports.”

“What reports?” I asked.

“An army is amassing on the other side of Chillwind pass. Given that we have some weeks before the thaw, chances are it will become quite large before they make a push for the fort at the first signs of spring.” She shook her head and patted my shoulder. “Once the war is over, we will deal with this situation. Know that despite having to publicly uphold The Enclave’s law, you have many people on your side given your assistance today.”

I frowned, but understood that even if amid the Enclave there was clearly a division fighting, they had to appear unified to the masses. “Fine. Let’s just finish today.”

At least the ball promised to be interesting and lift up my spirits.