III
The Winged Crusaders at Kier Fortress
From atop her gleaming chariot, Lara heard the latest news from the owls.
“You saw the dead with your own eyes, then?”
The owl nodded vigorously, eyes still alight with the terror of the sight.
“I thought hell had broken loose on the earth. I can’t get the voices of those things out of my ears. It wasn’t a cry or a moan, but something else...”
Lara turned without a word to look at Johann, who appeared to be deep in thought. Beside him, Historia stared at the owl with disbelief clear in her eyes. From hearing Darmés’s declaration of his succession to the imperial throne inside their heads, to the horde of the dead dragging themselves from the ground, the story might well have invited Historia’s skepticism. But the owls did not make false reports. As a mage herself, Lara came to the obvious conclusion that Darmés too was a mage.
If he’s a unique type, I can’t rule out the possibility that he could be manipulating their very thoughts. Best to take every precaution.
Lara clicked the fingers of her left hand. Her Holy Adders mage circle gave off a flash of green light too brief for ordinary eyes to perceive. In the same moment, a wind gathered around the owl, carrying with it motes of green light.
The wind shows nothing suspicious. They don’t seem to be compromised. The motes were visible only to Lara. While the owl looked alarmed at the wind that whirled around only them, Lara turned to Johann.
“What would you do under these circumstances?”
“Retreat is the only option, surely,” he replied without a moment’s hesitation. “Even if it is only temporary, the Azure Knights have formed an alliance with the Eighth Legion. Twin Lions at Dawn has failed.”
Lara was satisfied with this analysis. Darmés might have declared himself the new emperor and branded the Azure Knights rebels, but that did not mean Felix would sit back and allow the Eighth Legion to treat this as an invitation to invade the imperial capital. That he was a man of honor only made it more certain.
This is getting messy. All the more reason...
Lara felt someone staring openly at her. She looked down and saw the driver, clad in golden armor, looking at her with a curious look on his face. She planted her boot on that face, keeping it there as she continued to question the owl.
“Have you sent word to the seraph?”
“Yes my lady. Commander Zephyr is going to make the report directly.”
“Then hurry back and see Zephyr knows that the Winged Crusaders will be moving to withdraw from Kier Fortress.”
“Yes, ser!”
For Lara, all of life was a battlefield. Now, she felt in her bones that the fighting was moving to a new stage.
Johann twirled the tips of his bangs around his finger, listening to the sound of retreating hoofbeats.
“Still, an imperial mage appearing now? We’ve got more trouble on our hands, don’t we?”
“You think this is a mage’s work too, then, Johann?”
“Yes, of course. Who but a mage could pull off a feat like manipulating the dead?”
Lara’s smile was openly scornful. “Olivia might be able to do it. I mean, magic is far more powerful than magecraft, isn’t it? You said so yourself.”
“It isn’t her.”
“Quick answer.”
“Olivia doesn’t use magic against people. She promised that ‘Z’ person that she wouldn’t.”
“I am aware of that. But I don’t know any guarantee that she will keep that promise.”
“Olivia will,” Johann said with certainty. Lara narrowed her eyes.
“What makes you so sure? What is your evidence?”
Johann was quiet for a moment. “I danced with her, walked around eating at the market with her. I engaged in mortal combat with her. Well, all right, it was only mortal combat for me...but in any case, all of that is my evidence.”
“It’s flimsy to the extreme,” Lara scoffed.
Johann knew very well he hadn’t presented anything concrete, but it was all but impossible to explain how he felt to someone who hadn’t interacted with Olivia without any preconceptions.
To be fair, I doubt Blessed Wing Lara actually thinks Olivia used magic to raise the dead, he mused. She can be surprisingly childish at times.
For one thing, such an explanation would be at odds with the owl’s story, but Johann also knew that Lara had watched Olivia like a hawk over Sofitia’s shoulder for the whole time the girl had stayed in Mekia. Lara of all people couldn’t have missed that Olivia was diametrically opposed to any kind of scheming or deceit.
“Why do you bother wasting your time on things you don’t even believe?” came a voice to his right. “Typical Lara, don’t you think?” Johann looked over at Historia, who turned to face the opposite direction, whistling. She was right, but on the other hand, Johann could appreciate why Lara might be tempted to be sarcastic. Few understood how all-consuming magecraft was for mages. Johann had experienced firsthand the awesome power of magic, and even he had only recently been able to admit to himself that the mysterious art was superior to the supposedly divine power of magecraft.
Lara’s only response to Historia was a quiet tsk. Likely she couldn’t come up with any legitimate retorts.
“Well, if it wasn’t Olivia’s magic, then it follows that Darmés must be a mage,” she went on.
“That is what the circumstances suggest. But don’t you think he doesn’t match the mage dear Amelia told us about?”
“True. The mage she talked about grew weary of the world and went into seclusion.”
“Exactly. And I can’t see that man lying about something so pointless.” Felix’s face, perfect as a doll’s, floated across the back of his mind. He was an enemy, but Johann liked to think he could read people well enough to know that much.
“Then that means there were two mages in the empire.”
“Two?!”
“Why would that surprise you so much? Just because the church knows how to identify people with the potential to wield magecraft doesn’t mean mages and the church are one and the same. You, Amelia, and I were all found by the church, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there were mages out there with no such affiliation. In fact, I heard that when the seraph inquired with the church about the imperial mage, they told her it was the first they’d heard of such a person.”
“I’m not denying that there might be mages the church is unaware of either.”
Johann agreed with Lara, yet in the back of his mind there was something that didn’t ring true.
“I don’t know what part of this you’re having trouble with, but debating it isn’t going to get us anywhere. The important thing is that an imperial mage has entered the game, and one whose powers look to make things extremely messy. Not only that, but he’s taken the title of emperor. That’s plenty to go off of for now.”
Johann nodded gravely.
“And,” Lara went on, “between the two, I’m more interested in Olivia’s motivation for cooperating with the Azure Knights.”
Johann shrugged. “Brooding about that really will get you nowhere. There isn’t a person alive who can comprehend the inner workings of Olivia’s mind.”
Lara looked off into the distance, then snorted quietly. “True that.”
“By the way, are you going to tell the Royal Army about this?”
“Just because we’re in an alliance doesn’t mean I’m about to turn soft. Besides, this concerns them too. They’ll hear about it themselves before long.”
“Then I’ll start getting us ready to retreat right away!” Historia never usually showed any initiative, but she had apparently decided to seize the moment. She swung up on her horse, but in defiance of its master’s wishes, the horse continued to munch on its fodder, lazily swishing its tail from side to side.
“Excuse me!” she exclaimed.
Lara chuckled. “What a fine steed. Its nature reflects its master’s.”
A muscle in Historia’s face twitched. “You can stuff your face later!” Perhaps her desperate appeals got through, because the horse promptly stopped eating. Under Historia’s skillful snap of the reins, the horse sprang away like a different animal entirely.
“Don’t make the Royal Army suspicious!” Lara shouted after her. Historia waved back at them over her shoulder. “That woman,” Lara muttered, “is a piece of work.”
“It is typical Historia, though.”
“You’d better be ready too, Johann.”
“Of course. Whether it turns out to be Darmés or someone else, this certainly isn’t the work of any ordinary mage. On which note, how fares our dear Amelia?”
“The owls should have brought her the same report. I’ll let her use her own judgment.”
“You’re hard on her as ever.”
“It’s an excellent opportunity to see how she handles the decision.”
Johann didn’t argue. Amelia’s strong proclivity for sadism honestly troubled him, but he recognized that she was a soldier of enough talent for Lara to expect great things from her. Amelia would never make the wrong decision.
Either way, I just hope no more trouble comes along... Johann thought. Though I mean, more than likely it will. If experience has taught me anything it’s that things usually go from bad to worse.
The driver, his face still crushed under Lara’s boot, implored Johann for aid, but Johann looked straight past him. He stared instead at the Blazelight mage circle on the back of his left hand.
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