AO 4 Ch 38 (Patreon)

Chapter 38

I sat on Cyam as the supply train rolled out of The Capital amid the sunrise. We had hurried out before most of the revelers from last night’s ball woke from their stupor. The drinks had really flowed well last night. Not to mention Aurelia’s father had snuck in two kegs to the ball.

A man after my own heart. I bet he knew how to smuggle a battle axe in better than Emlyn.

The supply train trundled along into the forest road.

Emlyn and Aurelia were with me while Zuri looked after Maribelle’s body in one of the carriages. Maribelle’s soul was busy elsewhere.

“So, do you think she’s going to set the whole place on fire?” Emlyn asked.

“At least she waited until we left.” I shrugged. The only thing that really bothered me was that the collar that I’d given her to formalize our courting apparently went with her soul.

Claire, or rather Claire’s body with Maribelle’s soul, had been wearing it when she left.

I have no idea what Missy did to that collar or what Maribelle had requested. I couldn’t help feeling like it was outside my depths and that those two colluding could never end well.

“I’m surprised that you aren’t covered in scratches and bite marks.” Emlyn commented, poking at me from her horse.

“A life mage doesn’t leave any signs of the night before. Why? Curious?” I asked.

“She’s gotta be rough, stupid rough.” Emlyn muttered.

If only she knew. “You’ll just have to convince her to join you sometime.”

“Pretty sure she’s a one woman show. Not all of us can be so magnanimous to share a night.” Emlyn bounced her eyebrows. “But you really seem to like it when Zuri and I double team you.”

“What’s not to love? And you don’t double team me. I fight one versus two. I win, might I add.” I flashed a smug smile.

“No you don’t. You cum tons when it is the two of us.” Emlyn said.

“If that’s not winning, then you are playing wrong.” I laughed.

She rolled her eyes at me. “Well… no fires yet. Let’s join the caravan. Let you parade around long enough to make people happy and then stuff you in the carriage to sleep.”

“I don’t look that bad.” I huffed.

“No, you look great, but I know you well enough to know that if you don’t get a nap on the road, then you’re going to be cranky by this afternoon.” She kicked her horse into a trot ahead of me.

“Hey, I don’t get cranky!” Urging Cyam with my mind, the shadowy horse bolted forward to catch up with her.

She leaned forward and her horse picked up into a gallop to race ahead.

“Nope!” I shouted and Cyam’s strides hammered in the air and the horse launched himself into the sky and raced over Emlyn.

I realized a belated second later that I was rushing over the caravan and all the people in it looked up at me with a mixture of awe and relief.

Emlyn tricked me and had already slowed down waving at me.

Everyone else saw the noble four sphere mage who killed two elders riding a pitch black horse in the air.

They were relieved that their journey would be safeguarded by me.

I was just happy to get out from the thumbs of my grandfather, mother and the Royal shits.

Cyam slowed to a trot at the front of the column, happily staying in the air.

Aurelia looked up and yawned. “You are far too cheery for how little sleep you got.”

“I feel refreshed.” I let out a big sigh. “A perk of my personality being so charming perhaps.”

“Yes. I’ll remind you of that charming personality when you hit mid day.” Zuri said, her head poking out before glancing back into the carriage at Maribelle’s prone form. “Did she say how long she’d be?”

“She’ll be as long as she needs to be. We’ve got a few days even if I keep healing the horses so we can push them the whole way. Which I am going to do, because I’m excited to be back on the road. One week?” I rolled my eyes. “I’ll destroy that.”

Cyam huffed as if to say he was the one doing all the heavy lifting.

“With the best horse ever.” I rubbed his withers. “Isn’t that right? Who’s a good boy?”

He resisted only a moment before happily tossing his head and trotting with lighter steps.

***

Maribelle walked around with dainty strides, imitating what little she’d seen of Claire’s movements.

“Claire, you look happy today.” A House Thorne attendant said.

Maribelle was all smiles, because her plan worked and because the collar around her throat had performed as she’d asked the goddess.

It was hers down to her soul. That meant that even if she was in another body, another form she would still be claimed by her Sir.

She was bound and claimed. Every time she repeated that phrase to herself, she wanted to squeal like a maiden and rush off to find Ard and make him squeal too.

The good kind of squeal, where he got aggressive and took more.

Maribelle stopped at a mirror and fluffed Claire’s hair for a moment before hurrying out of House Thorne’s estate.

She wanted people to see her and waved at several passersby before walking towards the palace.

From what she already knew of Carmilla’s plans, and what she had overheard at the ball, it was clear that these people wouldn’t leave Arden alone. While she could root them out herself, there was a far easier way to resolve Carmilla’s remaining organization.

“Claire, you look lively today.” A young mage came up and touched Maribelle’s arm. He was being overly familiar.

Her skin crawled at the touch and she slapped him away, death magic trickling at her fingertips. A plus of her new connection to Ard meant she could impersonate Claire to a terrifying degree.

“Don’t touch me.” She snapped, smacking away his hand and giving him a small warning of death magic that left black marks on his hand.

He jumped back. “What the fuck! You just touched me with death magic!” He rubbed at his hands as if to scratch it off. His own magic fought it until the small specs stopped trying to spread.

It was only a touch and though his skin turned gray on those spots, it didn’t have enough to bleed through and kill the rest of him.

“Did I say you could touch me?!” Maribelle growled.

“You seemed to like my touches the other night.” He snapped back.

They were in the street and more than a few people were watching. Yet insinuating that she’d been with anyone but her Sir made her want to wring his neck. What if somehow it got back to Ard and he misunderstood?!

Never, there could be no such misunderstandings.

Maribelle stepped up in the mage’s face and gave him a soft look. “Let me heal that for you.” She took his hand, her entire demeanor shifting.

The mage let out a sigh as she took his hand.

Then she flooded his entire system with death magic. “Don’t ever say things like that.”

In an instant he turned into a gray corpse like one that had been left out in the sun for weeks.

She let go of his hand and let him drop dead in the street.

People screamed and Maribelle skipped towards the palace. She had some work to do.

“Halt.” Guards at the front gate tried to stop her.

But she twirled, ripples of death magic rolled off of her and through the guards like they were made of paper before she straightened up and started skipping through the front gate.

Mages really didn’t use their powers as much as they should.

If Ard lost a little of that pesky conscience he could tear right through the capital.

Well, there were those stronger than him here, but he could just pop their heads and the old fogies who clung too hard to life would back away.

“Capture her!” A handful of anchors rushed through the hall and Maribelle tilted Claire’s head to the side with a look of innocence.

They flashed down the hall in the time it took a mage to blink.

Just when they were about to reach her, she moved with uncanny speed for a mage.

Maribelle dodged the first two and smashed her fist into a third, throwing him into the fourth before she took hold of the fifth with her legs. Death magic rolled off her in sticky waves and turned him into a corpse by the time she slammed his head into the ground and flipped over the several that had fallen to the ground. “Boys, you’ll have to do better than that.” Maribelle curled a finger at them.

They hesitated.

Maribelle giggled. It worked. All the magic was in the soul, which meant even in Claire’s body she was an anchor, an anchor with access to a four sphere’s serpent sphere.

Her strength was more akin to a Vel’shae than a mage or an anchor.

The four remaining anchors hesitated.

She used that chance to kick up the fifth’s sword and catch it before twirling it side to side. “Too late.” She charged into the four anchors.

They weren’t the cream of the crop. Palace guards were those who couldn’t get a mage to themselves, but they were the best of what was leftover.

Her bluesteel sword radiated death as the anchors tried to stay at the edge of their reach and outside of her slightly shorter range.

Maribelle was less cautious than them, charging headlong into their swords and forcing one away from the pack.

The others used the opportunity and slashed at her back.

One got a good swing at her neck and she could see the one she’d singled out sigh in relief.

Unfortunately, the collar of her dress exploded with the swing, revealing a bluesteel collar that not only stopped the blow, but stopped it dead without even bothering Maribelle.

She used the moment to slash deep into the anchor and spin around as the death magic now in him ate him alive.

Meanwhile, the cuts on her back healed over as she squared off against the now three anchors.

“Life and death at the same time?” One asked, an incredulous look on his face.

Maribelle only smiled. “Of course. Why would your meager limitations affect me? The one I serve is far greater than you could imagine!” She picked up a second sword and charged into the remaining three like a whirling dervish.

It would be wonderful if she could sing Ard’s name, tell them the glory of her Sir. Tell them all that she belonged to him. Yet, she couldn’t, that went against her plans.

She didn’t care what cuts they landed on her. They healed over in moments only for her own blows to deal certain death.

In short order there were five cooling corpses.

Maribelle stabbed the swords into the floor for a moment as she tore off strips of Claire’s dress and tied them around her throat to hide her collar and to make sure she was decent.

By the time she was finished, the hallways were flooding with more guards both mundane and magical.

She grabbed both swords by their hilts and then with two quick life magic powered kicks she snapped the blades in half. She far preferred something shorter than a full longswords, especially in a hallway.

“Stand down.” One shouted.

Maribelle stared at him. “Catch me if you can.” She grinned wide, hiding the revulsion of what she was about to say. “I serve Carmilla and for the King’s failure to protect her, our standing orders are to kill him and ruin this country!” She pointed a broken sword at the anchor.

Every inch of her crawled, like ants lived under her skin.

To say that she served anyone but her Sir rankled her enough that her face turned into a bitter grimace and she threw her body forward into the mass of guards, taking out her frustration of even saying such a thing on the men.

The two broken blades shattered dozens of guards and anchors.

Her death magic rolled off her in waves and ensured those that didn’t deserve to be in such a fight paid a hefty price.

The ultimate price some might say, for the only thing they had left to offer was the corpse of a failure.

She flashed down the hall using both a mage’s and an anchor’s magic.

Blades stopped against her flesh while her own magic projected out of her reach and ripped through the guards until the hallway was a bloody mess.

Down the hall a contingent of mages had formed. Walls of light stopped Maribelle from going further.

She spun the blades in her hand as she thought about what she should do next.

Her goal had been accomplished. Several guards had run after hearing her words. Now all that was left was to do as much damage as she could before this body couldn’t take it.

Even with Maribelle’s life magic, Claire’s body was untrained and straining at every joint and muscle from the exertion. She’d already stumbled from the woman’s weak tendons twice.

If she could take a few mages with her… that would guarantee the king’s ire.

“I serve a greater purpose. Even in death, I shall make this kingdom shudder for wronging my master!” She pointed both swords at the walls of light and started to fill herself with death magic as she rushed the magical walls.

Mages were forming spheres of light to shoot her down, but that was fine.

Maribelle felt powerful beams of light tear through her legs and torso.

At the last second before hitting the wall of light, she juked to the side of the narrow hall, smashing into the wall before spinning and stabbing one of the broken blades back through the wall on the other side and dumping all of the death magic that she had accumulated behind the magical walls.

Those mages screamed as Maribelle sagged to the ground in Claire’s body.

It was a bloody heap, holes blown through it like swiss cheese that weren’t closing fast enough.

If she had been in open ground she could have taken them all.

With the infinite amount of life magic she could pull from Ard, she could always retreat and recover for another round. This time though, she had taken too much damage at once.

Maribelle smiled from her experience in letting loose her new power. Sir would be even easier to protect now.

“We got her.” A voice said from her side.

But her vision had already gone dark.

“At what cost.” Another somber voice spoke, the volume fading as if they glanced to the side as they spoke.

Maribelle wondered how many mages she got with that last gambit.

Hopefully enough to make the king spitting mad and rushing to destroy anything that Carmilla had ever touched.

She felt her connection to Claire’s body snap, and her soul jerked back like a horse sprinting when they caught sight of their stables.

***

I felt Maribelle return only a few hours into our journey and then pulled her soul from Soulgard to stuff back in her own body. After showing off for the supply caravan, I decided to sit in the coach with her and the rest of my anchors.

One of them would cut off and go scout every so often, but for the most part they were keeping me company.

Maribelle sat up slowly with a giant smile on her face, the collar back on her throat. “Mission complete.” She said, her smile only growing as she checked her hair to make sure the bows were still in it and her curls hadn’t become too tangled.

She didn’t appear concerned at all that she’d just probably died and did some interesting body hopping.

“Care to share?” Zuri asked. “I assume Claire’s body is deader than dead?”

“It’s rather used up.” Maribelle admitted. “I took it for a spin to test my new powers.”

“Your bond?” Aurelia was curious, taking a break from oiling the already gleaming axe. It was definitely the right gift for her.

“I have access to Ard’s serpent sphere even while in another’s body. Meaning I have an anchor’s soul and a mage’s magic. Not that different from a Vel’shae. Only when I die, Ard can bring me back as much as he wants.” Maribelle had a giant smile on her face.

“Uh. Where exactly did you take these powers for a spin?” Emlyn looked very concerned. “As for Vel’shae, Uncle Valken has rejoined us, Eva is with him in another carriage but you could ask him for some tips. Wait, are you Vel’shae? Will you get pointy teeth and lose your hair?”

Maribelle cocked her head to the side. “No. I’ll stay me. The sphere of Ard’s magic isn’t within me. It’s more like I’m sucking on it.”

“Ah.” The other anchors seemed to understand.

Emlyn raised an eyebrow at me.

I could only shrug. “The important question though, where did you fight?”

“The Royal Palace.” She dipped her head in my direction. “I must apologize, I spoke aloud, claiming to be serving Carmilla during the fighting.” She pulled herself off the seat and prostrated herself before me. “I have wronged you and spoken such disgusting words. My soul, my entire being, serves you Sir.”

Not knowing exactly what to do, I patted her head and raised her face by her chin. “You did it to serve me and confuse our enemies. In this instance I shall let it pass. But who do you serve?”

She clearly needed a chance to reaffirm her commitment to me. Even knowing it was a lie, saying that she served someone else bothered her all the way down to her core, because I could feel it from her soul.

“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.” She intoned her oath to me.

Zuri was taking notes. “Very nice oath.”

“Taking notes for your own?” Emlyn teased.

“Well, I have yet to bond with Ard. I can only hope my bond is half as strong as Maribelle’s. It would be nice to know that in defending him I don’t have to care much about my own life.” Zuri said.

“I really don’t want to have to bring you all back to life. Isn’t there a rule against this in place?”

Zuri pointed at Maribelle. “The powers you’ve given her are beyond tempting.”

Aurelia nodded in agreement. “Also, once you are that intimate with our souls you won’t make a mistake, right?”

“Hey, I thought we all agreed. No soul stuffing.” Emlyn looked between the other anchors with wide, disbelieving eyes.

“You can’t argue the perks are strong.” Zuri countered her. “Besides, he’s getting better. He only had to try twice to get it right back at Aldis Manor.”

“Remember the time he put a corrupted’s soul in Cyam’s body?!” Emlyn looked around for support and found none. “Then he swapped the two Aldis mages.”

“He would never make a mistake with my soul.” Maribelle said with conviction.

It was tethered to me, so it did stick out quite distinctly. “I don’t think I would either.”

Maribelle nodded sharply. “Anyway, I set the stage. Acting in Claire’s body as an agent of Carmilla I rushed the palace and killed dozens of anchors along with a handful of mages. All while cursing the king for failing to protect her and swearing our organization would be his downfall.”

The carriage was quiet for a long moment.

“A dozen anchors and several mages?” Zuri asked.

“Well, there were six there and it was my final moments. I know I got some of them, but not sure how many.” Maribelle admitted.

“Damn.” Aurelia nodded and looked down at her axe. “Not sure I could pull that off.”

“I used death magic, sacrificing myself to dump as much of it as I could past their shields. It was a final gambit.” Maribelle said and tilted her head. “Not really a final, but you understand.”

“The king is going to be pissed.” Zuri rubbed her chin. “He’ll tear through House Thorne and anyone associated with Claire to find the rest.”

“That means he should find plenty of incriminating evidence. After all, Claire was working for Carmilla.” I smiled. “You’re using the king to clean up Carmilla’s mess.”

Maribelle bowed as gracefully as she in the carriage. “Hopefully he can weaken himself a little more in the process. This skill is quite useful.”

I nodded. “Let’s not overuse it or people might start to suspect something is amiss.”

“Understood.” Maribelle nodded.

The rest of the carriage had thoughtful expressions on their faces, especially Zuri, who I knew was starting to incorporate the new abilities into her strategies.

Even Emlyn had stopped crying about stuffing souls back into their bodies.

After all, a dozen anchors and six mages was a terrifying force to take out by herself. Maribelle was quite special in that regard. Not everyone would be able to throw themselves away to cement such a victory.

AN - The book ends at Ch 43 + Epilogue.

Returner 2 will start after that.