Forging Divinity (34 page)

“Don’t give it to him yet. He has some questions to answer first,” Myros demanded.

What?
Taelien shook his head, trying to regain his focus, but he was so tired. With a jolt, he realized he was still clutching the Sae’kes in a death grip in his left hand – and only one rune on the surface was still lit.
Oh, gods.
He fumbled with the new sword in his scabbard, unsheathing it and discarding it onto the floor, and noting that the silver dagger had been lost at some point – presumably during the swim.

He sheathed the Sae’kes immediately thereafter, feeling its drain on his strength cease, but regaining none of the energy it had already stolen from him.

“What’s this about, Myros?” Edon asked, his question mirroring Taelien’s bleary thoughts. “Is there a problem?”

“There might be,” Myros said. “Someone visited me last night. That someone claimed you’ve been sacrificing Rethri for immortality.”

Oh, the Rethri. I knew I was forgetting something important. Guess Jonan or Lydia has been busy.

Edon quirked a brow. “That’s quite a claim, and absurd. I do have Rethri guests in the city, as you already know – but they’re here of their own volition. Sacrificing people for immortality? That’s nonsense.”

“See, that’s what I thought – until I read the journal they gave me. I didn’t read it quite the way they did. I don’t think you’re doing ritual sacrifices. I think you’ve been using the Rethri as test subjects for making some kind of dominion bonds, and telling the Rethri it’s for their benefit. And you’re killing them with your tests.” Myros shifted the Heartlance into a combat stance, preparing to strike.

Edon frowned, looking down. “It’s not like that,” he mumbled. “I never wanted anyone to die. I just need to understand how they work. Without research, without testing, I’ll never know enough.”

Myros stood a little straighter, and Taelien shuffled the gemstone to his left hand, moving his right to the hilt of the Sae’kes.
This is a really bad time for a fight, at least for me.

“So, you admit it, then? You’ve been killing people with your tests?” Myros sounded shocked, perhaps even a bit sad, but it was difficult to judge with the sound-augmentation from the helmet.

“It’s more complicated than that,” Edon insisted. “I’ve been testing on people who are already ill. Sometimes, those tests are too strenuous for people in their condition. I had hoped to be able to save everyone, but my progress has been too slow. I’ve had my failures. I admit that. But I’ll figure out how to cure them soon – it will be a net positive on lives. I will save more than I lose.”

Myros growled, taking a step forward. “And do these people know you’ve been risking their lives?”

“The ones who are conscious, yes,” Edon replied, shaking his head. “The others were brought by their families. Families that needed hope, and had nowhere else to turn. They needed something miraculous. Divine intervention.”

Taelien wearily lifted a hand and pointed at Edon. “That might be true for some, but what about the Esharen you were keeping under the bank?”

Edon spun toward Taelien, raising a clenched fist. “You – you’re the one... I should have known. That Esharen, like all Esharen, was a monster. It deserved no better. And I was making valuable progress with my studies on it.”

“It,” Taelien pointed out, “Was a him. A living, sentient creature – not an object for your studies. If you were really just taking volunteers, I’d think about helping you, even if there were risks. What you were doing to that Esharen wasn’t research – it was torture. Taking notes on torture does not make it research.”

Myros looked to Taelien, then back to Edon. “You had an Esharen prisoner? And you didn’t think that was worth mentioning to the rest of us?”

“You’re fixating on the wrong things, Myros. Calm down. I’m sure you don’t tell me every little thing that happens in your day. Where would you be if I hadn’t found you? Still in Valeria, playing politics with petty nobles? I gave you a part in something greater – a purpose. That’s the same thing I’m doing for these test subjects.” He was no longer stumbling over his words – he had raised his voice, nearly to yelling.

Myros set the Heartlance against the floor. “You’re right about one thing – I wasn’t much of anything back at home. You taught me a lot, and I’m grateful for that, I really am. But there’s no excuse for torture and taking lives – and if you’ve been lying about that, I can’t trust that you haven’t been lying about anything – or everything – else.”

“If you’re not satisfied with my progress – or my methods – help me. If you turn on me, you’re just throwing away all the progress that I made from their sacrifices. Help me, we can finish my research. We can make things better,” Edon offered.

“I nearly killed someone last night because of your lies. I nearly killed Taelien a few weeks before – again, because of your lies. I will have no further part in this...and neither will you. You will answer for your crimes,” Myros raised the Heartlance. “Surrender now, and I will turn you over to the queen for judgment. Taelien, are you with me?”

Taelien nodded to Myros immediately, plucking the red-bladed sword from the floor and stepping behind Edon. He put the sword at Edon’s back.

Edon quirked a brow. “If you were going to try to make a coup, it would have been smarter to do it before Taelien walked the path. Do you really want to do this, Myros?”

“If I had done this before, Taelien wouldn’t have had the gem. I’ve been down there more often than you have – I know how the vault works. I knew he’d find it. And I know what it does,” Myros explained.

“Well,” Edon said, “That’s comforting, that you had a plan, at least. Unfortunately, I must decline to surrender.”

Taelien tensed. This wasn’t what he wanted, but he was too tired to argue. He was too tired to do much of anything – and he was certainly too tired to fight.

Hope Myros plans to do all the heavy lifting for this one,
Taelien considered.

“Now,” Myros signaled, shifting to a blur of movement as the Heartlance shot forward.

Edon sidestepped, seeming to know the trajectory of Myros’ attack before it occurred, and Taelien was forced to parry the spear himself. He lashed out with the red-bladed sword, but the attack was far too slow. Edon danced to the side, grabbing the Heartlance’s shaft and snapping his fingers.

Myros vanished in a flash of blue, leaving the Heartlance in Edon’s hands.

“Sad, really. I always liked Myros,” Edon spun the spear playfully. “You, I have less of an investment in. And you seem to have made your choice. Eru volar shen taris.”

Taelien struggled to raise his sword as a blast of blue-white emerged from Edon’s hand, encompassing Taelien’s entire body, and his vision went white.

Chapter XIV – Forging Divinity

Earlier in the Morning of Taelien’s Trial

Lydia and Istavan had escorted the caravan the rest of the way to Coldridge, where they had found Sethridge waiting for them with a second contingent of guards. Istavan and Sethridge seemed unsurprised to see each other, indicating to Lydia that this was part of their plan.

Seems Sethridge has chosen his side, too.

Istavan insisted on staying with Sethridge and escorting the caravan the rest of the way to Selyr to avoid any “further complications”. Lydia spent the night in Coldridge, and then headed back to Orlyn on her own.

The sorceress arrived at the city gates after nightfall, so she returned to her own quarters and slept there, heading to Jonan’s house the following morning.

Lydia knocked at the door politely, hand resting on the hilt of her sword. Her Comprehensive Barrier was already active, just in case Jonan had decided to change his allegiance in the last few days.

After two minutes without a reply, Lydia knocked again, louder this time.

After another two minutes, she unsheathed her saber and opened the unlocked door.

It was immediately evident that the house had been ransacked. Nothing was where it should have been – and the glassware that had sat on the table near the kitchen had been shattered. This wasn’t a robbery – the level of disarray was too deliberate. This was someone sending a message.

“Dominion of Knowledge, illuminate that which is touched by your cousins,” Lydia spoke, and a green flicker illuminated the shattered fragments of several scattered pieces of glasswork. The faint signature of dominion sorcery was already fading – breaking the pieces of glass had apparently weakened their bond, which by Jonan’s admission was never particularly stable.

“Jonan, are you inside?” She advanced into the building, weapon still drawn.
I could cast another spell to reveal invisible figures, but it’s probably not worth giving myself a headache. It’s not likely anyone is still present – this place could have been sacked any time in the last few days. If someone wants to attack me, their first attack is going to bounce right off my barrier, and then I’ll counterattack as needed.

She scoured the house, finding more damaged glasswork, and signs that the home had been hastily abandoned.
The food is starting to smell, which is a pretty good indication that Jonan hadn’t been here recently. He’s too finicky to tolerate anything decomposing in his house.

There were no signs of blood, no signs of combat – but she did find a rug in his bedroom that seemed slightly out of place. She moved it, checking beneath for any telltale signs of battle, but there was nothing visibly amiss.

Odd,
she considered, but she moved the rug back to its proper place and exited the building.

I’ll have to get back to the high palace and warn Taelien that Jonan has been discovered. After that, I suppose I’ll report to the queen.

A grimace appeared on her face as she walked, deepening with every block.
How was Jonan’s location discovered? Is he safe?

She was about half-way back to the palace when she noted a cloaked and hooded figure walking parallel to her on the opposite side of the street, pacing her. There were plenty of other civilians around, but the hood made the man stand out – it was far too warm of weather for such a thing to be necessary.

Lydia turned left at the next intersection, deviating from the path toward the palace. As she had anticipated, the figure turned as well. She noted the figure’s height, build, and finally the glint of glass from the front of his hood before she rolled her eyes and crossed the street to meet him.

“If you’re going to follow someone, you might try being a bit more subtle about it, Jonan,” she chastised him.

“I am aghast at your accusation,” he said, putting his hand to his chest in mock offense. “I am a veritable paragon of subtlety.”

“For a moment, I was worried that you might have been killed, but I can see you’re just the same as usual,” Lydia remarked. She smiled in spite of herself, feeling a hint of her tension dissipate as they continued to walk. She turned again, leading him back in the direction of the high palace.

He slipped his hood down, smiling at her. “You were worried about me? I’m touched. But it’ll take more than a couple of goddesses to catch me – not that I minded the attention, given-“

“Goddesses? What happened?” Lydia scanned the streets for anyone that looked even close to as suspicious as Jonan did. The people nearby looked like ordinary civilians on standard business, but that didn’t make speaking about complex matters of local politics less dangerous. “And lower your voice.”

“As you wish,” Jonan whispered, taking a step closer to her and leaning in close. “Vorain paid me a little visit. You saw the evidence of that. I’m fortunate that the broken mirrors are still somewhat functional, otherwise I would never have noticed your arrival.”

“Vorain was trying to kill you?” Lydia asked, quirking a brow. “I thought she had let you go previously – what changed?”

“Ah, it wasn’t that, precisely. Actually, she wanted my help, so she broke all my things. Women are so complicated, you know? Goddesses are no different, it seems.”

Lydia made a face at him at that remark, but he only flashed a grin back at her – one that he must have presumed to be charming, but came across as more obnoxious.

“Continue,” she instructed through gritted teeth.

“Well, we had some fun breaking into the high palace, and found a few neat trinkets,” he said, reaching into his cloak. Lydia watched him warily, but what he withdrew was just a pair of books.

He leaned close, whispering into her ear in earnest now. “Edon’s research notes. Evidence he was experimenting on the Rethri.”

Lydia snatched the top book out of his hand. “Ooh, let me see that.”

Jonan flinched, shoving the second book back into his robes. “You don’t have to be so grabby, I would have been happy to show you the highlights.”

“You can’t blame me for being a little excited,” she pointed out, flipping it open. “This is probably the best lead we’ve ever found.”

Week sixty six. Morella confirms that the procedure to remove the first dominion bond has finally succeeded, although at a great cost – the subject is rapidly deteriorating. I have been attempting to find the correct syntax to renew the bond, but thus far my efforts have met with no success. If I had access to an artifact designed to create a bond, Morella and I could find a solution rapidly, but for now the only possibility is to attempt every possible combination we can think of. If we fail, I fear our subject’s life may be forfeit. We must succeed.

“Gods above,” Lydia murmured. “This is proof, but it’s more than that. It has details about the results of his studies. This could contain the secrets of how he’s faking his divine abilities.”

“It does contain a few hints of that, yes,” Jonan said. “I’ve only had a chance to skim it, so I’d like that back.”

Lydia gave him a sad look. “But – but I wanted to read it.”

Jonan folded his arms. “Really? Giving me baby eyes?”

She handed the book back to him, smirking. “You’re no fun at all sometimes. Also, I’m sure the queen is going to want to see it. She’s already been working to move against Edon, apparently for political reasons.”

“Now that’s interesting news – but I’m going to have to insist on holding onto it. I went to some fairly substantial work to find that, risking life and so on, and I might have lost a friend in the process. A very beautiful and capable friend, in fact,” he said, grabbing the book back from her.

Lydia stepped backward, smirking. “You haven’t lost me yet, silly. I’m right here.”

“Well, you are quite beautiful and competent, of course, but I happened to be referring to the goddess I was working with. I’m afraid she didn’t make it out of the palace,” he said with a grimace.

Lydia leaned over, still trying to glance at more of the writing in the book. “What? What happened?”

“Now you’re the one that needs to quiet down. We should really find a more discreet place to have this talk. Maybe in Taelien’s room – if we hurry, maybe we can catch him before he has to walk the Paths of Ascension.”

Lydia quirked a brow. “Is he doing that today?”

“That’s the rumor going around the palace,” Jonan said with a nod. “Vorain and I broke in last night, found the book, and got caught by another young woman. I didn’t recognize her. Dark hair, tall, muscular. She attacked, and Vorain bought me the time to escape. I went out a window, hoping Vorain would catch up to me. She didn’t.”

“And you haven’t heard from her since?” Lydia asked. “And why did she want your help with this in the first place?”

“I put it in her head that Edon was experimenting on her brother – which is almost certainly true. And she knew I had sight sorcery, which is pretty rare, so she strong armed me into helping her investigate. Anyway, I tried to find her today. Swept the prisons, even checked the Adellan room in the low palace, but there’s no sign of her. I didn’t dare go back into the place with the books, of course. I’m not risking another encounter with that dark-haired girl – she was at least as fast as Vorain, and probably stronger,” he concluded, taking a deep breath after rambling his explanation.

Faster than Vorain? That’s bad news, if she’s working with Edon. But maybe Vorain came out on top in the fight – we have no way of really knowing at this point. And if Vorain won, maybe we can find her and get her to help us at some point.

“All right, let’s get to Taelien. He should know about this before he walks the Paths of Ascension. From what I was reading in this book, it sounds like Edon is using artifacts for his experiments, too. Maybe he’s using these ‘paths’ as a trap to get the Sae’kes away from Taelien,” Lydia offered.

“Interesting,” Jonan mumbled. “You got that all out of looking at one page?”

“I do have an epiphany from time to time,” Lydia said with a smile.

“I don’t doubt it. You’re kind of scary when you think like that, but I think I like it,” he said, pulling his robes around him more tightly.

Lydia blinked, not quite sure what to make of that comment. She thought she might be blushing, but fortunately, he wasn’t looking in her direction. They continued the rest of the way to the palace in silence.

As they approached the entrance, Jonan finally spoke again. “Should I be making us invisible or something?”

Lydia shook her head. “No need, I’ll just tell people you’re with me.”

He shrugged at that. “I suppose I won’t complain about conserving my sight for a bit.”

“Good. Now, let me do the talking for a while,” she said, adjusting her glasses.

Lydia had no difficulty convincing the guards to let them inside, nor getting directions to Taelien’s room. By the time they found it, however, the room was empty.

“That’s not a good sign,” Lydia muttered.

She turned around, seeing a servant she vaguely recognized walking down the hall.
Same servant who woke me up a few days ago,
she recognized.
He’s not wearing his earring this time, but it’s definitely him.

“Young man,” she called out, failing to remember his name. “Excuse me!”

He paused, turning around, taking a step back when he saw Lydia. “Oh, um, court sorceress! How can I serve you?”

To her side, Jonan tilted his head to the side, looking perplexed for some reason.

“The man who was in this room – the one they call the Taelien. Have you seen him today?” she asked.

The servant nodded. “Oh, yes, m’lady. He went to the Paths of Ascension about a half hour ago. Would you like me to escort you there?”

She shook her head. “No, that won’t be necessary, I know my way about. Thank you, young man. You’ve been very helpful. I didn’t catch your name.”

“Stuart, m’lady,” he bowed at the waist. “Is there anything else I can assist you with?”

“No, that’s quite all right,” she said, nodding her head. “Thank you again.”

He nodded and turned back around, hastily escaping from sight.

Lydia stepped deeper into Taelien’s room, and Jonan shut the door.

“Any of your mirrors in here?” Lydia asked.

Jonan shook his head. “No, I haven’t had a chance to plant one. I could right now, if you wanted to keep track of when Taelien returns. I’m afraid my supply is running very low, however.”

“No, don’t waste one, then. I think we should follow Taelien into the paths and make sure he’s safe,” Lydia explained.

“That...that would be quite a risk,” he stammered. “Could we perhaps wait at the entrance for him to return?”

Not willing to take a risk for Taelien? I can’t blame him, I suppose. He’s one of Vaelien’s servants, after all, not one of us.

Regardless of the justification, she couldn’t help but feel slightly disappointed.

“You can wait outside. Can you maintain an invisibility spell on me while I’m outside of your own sight?” Lydia asked.