II
The Royal Army, Galia Fortress
Olivia called everyone important to gather in the meeting room. From what Claudia had heard beforehand, there would be five people aside from herself: Blood, Lise, Luke, Evanson, and Ellis. When she entered the room, however, she came face-to-face with the imperial traitor Felix, and Clarice, the librarian who had helped them find a book about the Valedstorms at the Royal Library. She also spotted a few other Azure Knights. Olivia was the last to arrive. From the way she cocked her head at the sight of Clarice and Felix, she knew as little about the situation as Claudia.
The Fernest party sat along the left side of the table, while the Azure Knights sat down on the right. Olivia took the seat at the head, then bowed low to them all.
“Thanks for coming today. I know you’ve all got a lot going on.”
Everyone who knew Olivia well was visibly nonplussed—Claudia among them. Olivia looked curiously around the table. “Did I say something weird?”
Blood gave a few forced coughs. “I think they’re probably surprised to learn you know how to start a meeting properly, Liv,” he said, then added, barely audibly, “I know I am.”
“Really?” Olivia turned to the three Crawford siblings. They looked away in perfect unison. “Um, anyway,” she went on, “to get straight to the point, I’m here to take down Darmés and Xenia, who’s controlling him. That’ll end the war.”
Silence fell over the meeting room at this.
“Lieutenant General,” Luke eventually said, “this is all so abrupt that I’m not really sure what you’re talking about...” At this, everyone apart from Olivia automatically turned to look at Felix. Blood had already made it publicly known the circumstances that had led Felix to seek refuge with Fernest. They all understood that Darmés was the true instigator of the war, but Claudia had never heard of this “Xenia” who was supposed to be controlling him.
Does she have information she hasn’t revealed to us yet? She stared at Olivia, imploring her to continue.
“Huh? But I’m pretty sure I used all the right words,” Olivia said. “Maybe the way I said it was off...” She folded her arms and began to make thoughtful noises. Claudia took it upon herself to ask the question they all had.
“Could you start by telling us who Xenia is?”
“Huh? Xenia’s a god of death,” Olivia replied, looking incredulous that she even had to ask. It made Claudia feel as though she had somehow erred in bringing it up. The others in the same position as herself exchanged inquisitive glances. Claudia noted with suspicion that for some reason Felix was nodding to the empty chair beside him.
“General,” she went on, “you’ve spoken of the god of death Z, who raised you. Is this Xenia somehow connected with that?”
Olivia put a finger to her cheek, then said vaguely, “Hmmm. I mean, I guess they’re not not connected. Z did say they used to be allies.”
Olivia was known and feared by the imperial army as the “Death God,” but what she was talking about now was something completely different. Claudia thought it was probably some sort of code word. Olivia often used such words to obscure information, like “rats” and “flies.” Claudia knew very well that Olivia meant no harm by it, but after being burned more than a few times in the past, she saw it as necessary to dispel all ambiguity.
“Is ‘god of death’ one of your, ah, code words, General?” she asked.
Apparently her choice of words was not to Olivia’s liking—her cheeks visibly puffed up as she said indignantly, “It’s not a code word.”
Claudia, determined to get answers, said, “Do you mean then, General, that you were raised by a real god of death? And that this Xenia you say is controlling Darmés is also a real god of death?”
“Well, yeah,” Olivia replied without missing a beat. The room erupted in a babble of voices, but Claudia didn’t join them. She leaned back in her chair and stared blankly into space.
“Lady Olivia,” came a clear voice that cut through the hubbub. It was Felix. “I have something I wish to ask you, if I may.” The room quieted at once. Evanson and Ellis were glaring at Felix with open hostility. They knew that Felix had had no direct involvement in Ashton’s death, but the human heart did not obey such simple logic. Claudia, who understood their feelings with painful immediacy, pretended not to see them.
“I guess you may,” Olivia replied. “But Felix, what are you even doing here?”
Before Felix could explain, Blood cut in in exasperation. “Look, Liv, a lot happened after you hid yourself away. Then just as you come skipping back, innocent as you please, we end up here. Explanations will have to wait.”
Olivia tried to laugh him off, but then her eyes met Claudia’s. Mouth still open, she blinked a few times, then turned away with the slow, jerky motion of a rusty gear.
After Olivia and Blood had returned to Galia Fortress following their meeting with the prince regent, Olivia had proceeded to vanish. Unlike if just any soldier had disappeared, this had resulted in a fair uproar, but Claudia had waited for Olivia to return without adding her voice to the commotion. Then, a few hours previously, Olivia had popped up again. Claudia had given her a lengthy telling-off, but that was all she had managed before ending up here.
“Oh, hey. Did you end up rescuing the emperor?” Olivia asked suddenly.
Felix answered with the height of deference. “Yes, thanks to you. Only...” He paused. “This leads back into what we were speaking of, but I met Darmés again in Listelein Palace. I ended up drawing my blade on him.”
“You what? But then...” Olivia was plainly confused. Felix seemed to understand what was behind it.
“He prevented me from dealing a killing blow by means of some art that I know not. It was not magecraft. I wondered if you, Lady Olivia, might not have some idea as to its nature.” There was a hint of desperation in his eyes as he spoke.
“He wasn’t corporealizing his Odh?”
“No, that I can deny with confidence. Darmés’s Odh is decidedly ordinary.”
Claudia thought that there couldn’t be anyone else in the room apart from her who had any idea what the two of them were talking about. Seeing the others looking at one another and shaking their heads confirmed this.
“Hmmm...” Olivia, staring up at the ceiling, mused, “If it wasn’t magecraft, and it wasn’t Odh, I guess magic is the only thing—”
Felix jumped up so fast he sent his chair clattering to the ground. “Magic?!” he cried. “What is that?!”
Felix’s question sounded like the beginning of an interrogation. Claudia, unable to let this stand, opened her mouth to speak, but then she met Blood’s eyes.
That look said, “Shut up and leave them to it...” Claudia stopped halfway through standing up and sat down again.
Olivia, leaning away from Felix, said, “Um, magic is, like...”
“What is magic?!”
“I-I’m getting there. Magic is—” Olivia began, then she stuck out her left hand. “Actually, it’s faster to show you.” No sooner had she spoken than a tiny ball of fire flared into life at the tip of her middle finger.
Ellis, bursting with elation, shrieked, “Olivia, you’re a mage?!”
“I’m not a mage—and this isn’t magecraft. It’s magic.” While Ellis looked on hungrily, Olivia made flames appear at the tips of all her fingers. And she wasn’t done. The flames left her fingers to dance around the meeting room as though they had minds of their own before finally coalescing into the shape of a butterfly often seen in spring.
“Incredible...” whispered Lise. Her face was shining with awe and wonder. The Azure Knights looked up, mouths hanging half open, to where the flame-wreathed butterfly fluttered about scattering sparks.
“It certainly is,” Evanson said, though without as much feeling as his words suggested.
“Evanson, have you seen magic before?” Claudia asked.
“Of course not,” he replied, looking up at the butterfly. “How could I have?”
“You’re very calm, considering.”
“I’m not sure how I feel about hearing that from you, Colonel. I suppose I’ve just seen so many shocking things now that they don’t faze me anymore...” He considered, then added, “Though the biggest reason is probably that it’s General Olivia.”
Blood and Luke nodded in agreement.
Claudia had seen Olivia’s preternatural powers up close on many occasions and, under her instruction, had even learned to use some of those powers herself. This “magic” ought to have filled her with awe, but she found herself accepting it without question as yet another of Olivia’s many abilities.
“That’s magic,” said Olivia. She clicked her fingers and the butterfly vanished as though it had never been.
“Thank you, Lady Olivia.” Felix could scarcely contain his excitement. “I see it is quite different from magecraft, just as you say.” He dropped into his chair as though it pulled him down.
The existence of magecraft was known to the Royal Army, but that knowledge was based on stories from the likes of Cornelius and Paul, who had fought against mages during the warlord period. In other words, their understanding was scarcely better than the common folk who regarded magecraft as the stuff of fantasy. Grasping the difference between magecraft and the magic Olivia referred to was beyond them.
There’s far more to him than meets the eye—his vast reserves of Odh are just the beginning. Claudia unconsciously gulped.
“So anyway, here’s my idea,” Olivia said. “We’ve got an alliance with Mekia, right? What if we added Sutherland into the mix?”
At this, the light of intelligence returned to the glazed-over eyes of the others. Blood was the first to respond.
“That’s another idea out of nowhere.”
“I mean, they do say to strike while the iron’s hot.”
“I didn’t know we were in such a hurry. Also, as I’m pretty sure you know, an alliance has to offer something to both parties.”
Sutherland’s collusion with the empire was common knowledge. They had nothing whatsoever to gain from reneging on this secret agreement to ally with Fernest. And with the failure of Twin Lions at Dawn, it seemed only a matter of time before word arrived from Mekia to dissolve that alliance too.
Presented with this sensible point, however, Olivia said smugly, “The alliance between Sutherland and the empire is broken.”
“Say what?!”
Olivia proceeded to give an explanation, every detail of which strained belief. The empire had torn up their treaty with Sutherland, then sent an army of undead against one of the city-states, which had been destroyed. In response, Sutherland had mustered all its armies and was, as they spoke, in the midst of battling the undead.
“Personally, I don’t like the Sutherland army’s chances,” Olivia finished. The way she spoke made it sound as though she’d actually been there.
“General, did you see this battle?” Claudia asked.
“Mm-hmm.”
“So when we couldn’t find you anywhere...”
“Yep, you’ve worked it out.”
“You could have told me beforehand...” Claudia was hurt to learn only now that Olivia had gone off by herself without even confiding in Claudia, her aide.
“I’m sorry,” Olivia said. “It was just that this time, I wanted to see how things stood for myself.” She turned to look at Blood. “Anyway, that’s the situation. I feel like right now we could work out a pretty good deal. Even just getting them to resume sending us food would be a massive weight off.”
Fernest’s food shortage was gradually improving thanks to their victories on the southern and northern fronts, but there still was not enough to go around. This was unsurprising given that close to three-quarters of the kingdom’s imported food had come from Sutherland before the embargo. Claudia held checkered feelings toward the nation that had, though indirectly, run Fernest into the ground, but if an alliance could be achieved, their food problem would be all but solved. All the same...
“You’re not wrong that knowing the lay of the land will help carry the negotiations,” Blood said. “But Liv, my point still stands. Alliances are built on mutual benefit. If Sutherland’s war is going badly, I’ll bet the only benefit they’ll want is a large army, and we can’t satisfy them on that front. Or to put it plainly, we can’t spare them a single man.”
Exactly. Claudia agreed without a second thought. In exchange for an alliance, Sutherland would want ten thousand soldiers, at least. Negotiations were a nonstarter.
But Olivia said, “Don’t worry about that. The magic that I showed you before will work against the undead, so instead of sending them reinforcements, I’ll just deal with their problem.”
“What, with that trick?” Blood said derisively. Olivia shook her head.
“That was just to give you an idea of what magic’s like.”
“Ser, they will likely want tens of thousands of soldiers, if not more.” When Claudia cut in, Olivia’s gaze grew cold and far away.
“The numbers don’t matter,” she said. Claudia, looking into Olivia’s eyes, felt as though darkness itself was staring back at her. She fought back the urge to get far away from Olivia. Lise, beside Claudia, seemed to feel the same way. She hugged her arms protectively.
“When you say magic will work against the undead, does that mean it doesn’t work on people?” asked Evanson. Beads of sweat shone on his forehead.
“No, it does,” Olivia said. “But Z told me to never use it on humans.”
“Why is that?” Claudia said for all of them.
“Z says it’d upset”—Olivia considered—“I guess you’d say the balance of the world?”
The reactions to this proclamation, which she delivered with the gravity of a comment on the weather, were varied. What they shared was a look that went beyond simple terror into something else. One of the Azure Knights whispered in a quavering voice, “She wields the power of a god...”
“I can’t transport myself with magic, though,” Olivia went on, “so we need to limit it to one battlefield.”
“This is all going over my head,” Blood said, “but are you saying you want to gather all our allies and our enemies in one place for a final battle?”
“Yeah, exactly!”
Blood scratched the back of his head. “I feel like that ain’t going to work.”
“How come?”
“Well, because it’s all about what suits us best and totally ignores what the empire wants.”
There was a pause, then someone said, “I’m not so sure about that.” Everyone swiveled around to see Clarice pushing up her red-rimmed glasses.
“What are you doing here anyway, Clarice?” Olivia asked.
“It’s been too long, Comrade Olivia. I am here because I begged General Blood for the honor of an invitation.”
“Oh, okay.” Olivia took this in stride, but it was odd for Clarice, who was not in the military, to be sitting in on an off-the-record military council. They all naturally turned to Blood for answers.
“It’s fine—I made her an acting special officer. With the Royal Army so shorthanded lately, we need all the help we can get.”
This was no explanation at all. Lise, looking irritated, said, “I know her. She’s a librarian at the Royal Library. I would be ever so grateful, ser, if you would enlighten us as to why it was necessary to give her such privileges?”
“Now isn’t the time to get into the details. If you’ve got questions, you can ask her yourself later,” he retorted, leaving Lise no option but to give up. Turning back to Clarice, he said, “What do you mean, you’re not sure?”
“Our intelligence, as well as what Comrade Olivia has told us, has convinced me that Darmés has absolute confidence in his undead armies,” Clarice said.
This enigmatic explanation clearly annoyed Blood. “Enough waffling. What’s your point?”
“In short, we send Darmés a letter pledging that, should he defeat us on the field of our choosing, we will offer him our unconditional surrender. Of course, such a letter must be signed by all three nations. We thus provide Darmés with a perfect opportunity to conquer Fernest, Sutherland, and Mekia in one fell swoop. His overconfidence in his undead army will only make it harder for him to pass it up.” Clarice then added, “I’m sure if Ashton Senefelder were here, he would have suggested a similar plan.”
The unexpected invocation of Ashton’s name cast a pall over the room.
“Well, the kid did have a knack for plans that seemed outrageous on the face of them,” Blood said with a crooked smile.
“Thinking back, those plans of his always did put us through the wringer,” added Evanson.
“Did they ever!” agreed Ellis. “The guy had a face like he wouldn’t hurt a fly, and then just like that, he’d whip out some unhinged scheme. I don’t know how we survived.” Both of them smiled tearfully.
“Huh, yeah. It does sound like Ashton.” Olivia held a hand to her breast and smiled a clear and open smile. Even now, the traces of Ashton lived on among his friends, and no one could say differently.
Even after death, you’re a lucky man, Ashton, Claudia thought, but her eyes didn’t fill with tears like they once had. She had already shed the last of her tears for him—that much, she had promised herself.
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