M.D.Syl
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Chapter 102 colorless
🕑 Added 2023-08-01 14:54:07 +0000 UTCChapter 102 Change.
Making good deals.
This is the art of making everyone happy.
This is the art of giving everyone a win.
This is the art of preserving everyone’s pride.
When you make a good deal, everyone walk away happy.
Kilako, the Golden Prince of Gains.
Tiara shakes her head slowly. “Take me as a hostage, let Phoebe go. She’ll bring Kolag here and exchange him for me.”
“I thought you said you aren’t an idiot. What’s stopping Janara from leaving you here to die by my hand? Not to mention that you’re worthless to me as a hostage.”
“U-unlike you, Inara, I don’t l-leave my friends to die!” Janara chimes in from the side in a brittle voice, her teeth chattering.
I turn to her. She is still encased in ice, with Jerro’s hand on her shoulder. “Oh? And I do?! Did you miss the whole point of this negotiation by any chance? Why did you imprison Kolag? Didn’t you listen to what he had to say? Didn’t he tell you that I didn’t kill Purson?!”
“Purson’s death was your fault! You and Kolag’s! You both got him killed! Even Kolag admitted to that! Master Rushmia’s death is also on your hands… and you killed Oshi.” She sniffs, her voice breaking.
So she talked to Kolag and still… Oh, I bet he went into that conversation with all of that pointless guilt he carries around… apologizing… Ugh what an idiot… Bucket head… “Yes, I killed Oshi. The person who manipulated you, and used your grief to turn you against your best friend. And Rushmia?! She was a monster, we both saw…”
Janara screams at me. “You don’t know Oshi like I did!” she whines in a broken voice, tears trailing down her cheeks. “She was lonely and insecure and scared… she had a good heart and…”
“You still buy her acts?! Janara, Oshi was a scheming madwoman, she used you!” Why can’t she see what’s right in front of her?!
“You’re the only scheming madwoman here! Oshi loved me in ways you can’t imagine… and now she’s dead… you always kill the people I care about, Inara… always!”
“I don’t know about Purson, but I’ll have to agree with Inara about Oshi,” Tiara says dryly. “That woman was a blight. She used you, she used Nalfit before you, and she used Maia before her. Oshi loved to find a naïve girl and toy with the poor soul. She tried it on me and failed, so she went to Maia and Nalfit. You were her playground Janara, I tried to tell you.” Tiara shrugs as if she doesn’t care whether or not Janara believes her words.
“You didn’t know her like I did!” Janara declares.
“You poor thing, I knew her better than you did, we’ve…”
“D-don’t patronize me! I hate when you do that.” Janara trembles, I am not sure if it’s due to her pain, anger, or the cold, it doesn’t look like fear though.
“Then wake the hell up!” Tiara shouts with fury. “Ahem…” She regains her composure and smooth her robes, shaking her head. “Your only way out of imprisonment or worse is me. My life is on the line because of you, which means I have to take extra measures to keep you alive. But I’m not omnipotent. If you keep sticking to your childish view of the world, and pull the tiger’s whiskers with your head in its jaws, we’ll both end up dead.”
The words don’t seem to calm Janara, quite the opposite. “It-It’s not like you care about m-me! You care a-about yourself! You’re just a-a selfish bitch!”
“You bet I’m selfish! You’re selfish too. Everyone is selfish!” Tiara shouts back, losing her cool again.
Janara looks like she has something else to say, but keeps it to herself. This seems like an argument these two had before. Tiara turns to me again. “Do we have a deal?”
“Jerro?” I turn to my prophet, nursing my broken arm. I missed his useful predictions, and this is the best time for a prediction.
The tanned man stands with his left hand on Janara's right shoulder and the other leaning on his cane. “I know where the knight is being held, but it won’t help us. The knight is not invincible, and he will drown before we get to him. The rival will keep her word should you release her, and she will give you the knight unharmed upon her release. But if you would heed my advice, I’d slay your rival, even if it means the knight’s death.”
No way! “Why?”
“Both the knight and the rival will bring you trouble in the future, they both need to die if you are to live. This is a perfect opportunity to kill them both,” Jerro explains coldly.
Ok… maybe I didn’t miss his constant predictions of doom… “If I hand Janara over, Kolag will be returned to me alive, correct?”
“Correct,” Jerro confirms.
I turn to Tiara. “Then I agree, but I want two more things with your surrender.”
“Name it.”
“Hand over two of your cities, the closest ones. I need to know you two won’t declare another war on me, and having more resources and armies will prevent that.”
“Done!” Tiara says without hesitation, and Janara snorts loudly. “What’s the second thing?”
“I want Janara’s ring. If I’m not mistaken, she got it from the hag… the golden-eyed archmage, correct?”
“That’s correct,” Tiara confirms. I knew it!
“That mage is my master, she planted you here as an obstacle for me, and that ring is supposed to be my reward for defeating you.”
“N-not e-everything is a-about you, I-Inara!” Janara calls out angrily. “Y-you are like the e-evil villainess from the t-tales who thinks everything is about her. E-even your face look l-like villainess now!”
I look at her. Her hair is disheveled, there is a bleeding scratch on her cheek, a collar on her neck, and half of her body is frozen. The stuttering only emphasizes how defeated she is right now. My face is probably worse… I bet it looks like a piece of grotesque gore… I really need to fix it somehow… at least my eyes didn't get damaged...
“True, not everything is about me, but this ring is. Otherwise, explain to me why my master, gave you a ring, which is enchanted with my main element? Or why she went to such lengths to put you in the same location she sent me, the gray islands are big enough, aren’t they?”
“Y-you really think everything i-is about you, d-don’t you?! Maybe she l-liked me? She said she might take me as her apprentice if I win the t-trial here.” Janara declares proudly while Tiara shakes her head with clear frustration.
If you want to be the hag’s apprentice then be my guest… “I don’t care, I’m not letting you leave without that ring. I shouldn’t let you leave anyway, the only reason you’re getting away is Kolag.”
Janara smiles at me, her face covered in tears, and blood trickles from the edge of her mouth. “T-then kill m-me! I know y-you want t-to!”
“Just give her this cursed ring Phoebe!” Tiara loses her patience.
Janara turns her head toward Tiara, twisting as much as she can with her body half frozen. “D-dear selfish T-Tiara! How a-am I supposed to hand o-over a ring when m-my hands are fro-frozen?!” She has a point there, she’s an ice statue from the shoulders down. Although the ice is rapidly melting, and small chunks fall off by now, I figure it’ll melt off in less than five minutes.
I really wouldn’t want to be in Tiara’s shoes right now… being stuck with safeguarding that crazy girl… wait! I have the perfect solution! An epiphany strikes me “Tiara!” I call out. “What were my master’s exact words?”
“Uh?”
“The archmage. What were the exact words and conditioning she gave you about leaving the Gray Islands alive?”
“I believe I already told you. If Phoebe dies, I can stay on the Gray Islands, since I won’t be leaving the place alive.”
“Did she say anything about working for Janara? Supporting her cause? I have a new deal to offer you. Join me, become my ally. I won’t be treating you like she does. I’ll hand Janara over in return, she’ll become your prisoner. It’s much easier to keep a prisoner alive, than a hypocrite queen who treats you like the mud on her shoe. You can take over three of the cities Janara rules and rule them in her stead. When this period is over, you hand Janara over to the hag… I mean my master, alive and well.”
Tiara looks at Janara as if she’s considering what I’ve said.
“I’ll kill m-m-myself!” Janara threatens, her stuttering finally sounding like fear and not cold or anger.
“There are ways to prevent that,” I say quietly.
“I’ll b-b-bite off my t-tongue!” Janara continues threatening.
“We can chop off your tongue, you talk too much anyway,” I say, feeling much like the villainess from the bards' tale she described me to be just a minute ago. She’s the one who imprisoned Kolag who only went to her as an ambassador. She’s the one who marched thousands of soldiers on my city over a pointless grudge. Soldiers who raped and killed hundreds of innocents! All for some senseless need in revenge, and I am the villainess here?!
“I want that ring.” Tiara says at the end.
“Done! You can have the damn ring. Let’s make it a defensive pact while we’re at it, we’ll support each other if one of us is threatened by another enemy. Halve the taxes for trade within our cities, it’ll encourage people to trade within our territory. And we’ll put our armies to clearing these damn roads from monsters and bandits.”
Tiara shrugs. “Sounds good to me. I only need Janara to be alive, but you’re right, I can just pack and hand her over like a sack of wheat. As the ruler I can do what I want and finally focus on my studies.”
No more haggling? Is this a trick? “Jerro?”
The tanned man frowns, pinching the bridge of his nose with his eyes closed. “I did not see that happening. I did not see that happening at all. That's... This is wrong.”
“Is she deceiving me?”
“No. But I did not see this route before. Now that it’s open, a lot changes with the flow of time. I see too much now. Give me a minute.” He winces as if he’s in pain while pressing and massaging his forehead.
“I just need to know if it’s safe to take this deal?” Which sounds way too good to be true… but it does make sense that she’ll agree… and as long as she doesn’t release Janara we’re fine… But that leave Janara as tool for the hag to be used later… Which I really don’t like, but it also keeps Kolag alive, and this is what’s really important here…
Jerro closes his eyes with a groan. “Define safe. You might not get your cities, but not because she didn't honor her deals... but because... I can't see clearly. You might get your cities too. There are no schemes involved, she will honor her deal. But she might lose her cities to other mages later, and the rival might get released in the future.”
Yeah… it leaves this loose end I don’t like, but I need to take what I can get. “Ok, let’s get this done. You can have Janara, take me to Kolag.”
Janara chokes, blood pours out of her mouth. She gives a victorious bloody smile to Tiara who hurries over. The expression on Tiara’s face does not change. She orders a pair of my soldiers in red to forcefully open Janara’s mouth. “Diskatu sufal” <___ heat> the bronze dagger in Tiara’s hand burns hot. She pulls Janara’s wounded tongue and cut it out, cauterizing the wound as the girl screams.
“Rinim ril” <Ice break> Tiara continues with a swift series of gestures, blue smoke coming out of her belt. The ice cracks, breaking and mangling Janara’s hands and legs beyond recognition. The crimson shards of ice litter the muddy ground. All four limbs detach from the wrists and ankles, leaving jagged iced stamps. The flesh of her arms and shins is broken, while the frozen blood doesn’t even trickle out.
Janara’s passes out from the pain. Tiara forces the unconscious girl to drink a healing potion, then orders the soldiers to carry her. All while maintaining the same expressionless face. Under her orders, the guards make a fire, and place the unconscious partially frozen Janara near it. I notice a few nasty frostbites on Janara's exposed skin.
Best if I don’t make Tiara my enemy… she’s way more dangerous than Janara…
Tiara melts some of the ice on the ground with her magic and picks Janara’s ring from the bodiless fingers on the ground.
“Jerro, what’s the current state of everyone?” I ask while Tiara takes care of Janara.
“Everyone? Define everyone.” He frowns at me. I lift an eyebrow. “Oh, everyone of importance? I, my soulmate, and the hunter are here, alive and well. The old man is alive but wounded, he lost his hand. The thief is entertaining a female orc with carnal pleasures. The apprentice went to the home of her family, most of her family died in the battle and she just found out about it. She is currently grieving and taking care of an unimportant baby. The knight is on a boat, hoping for his death.” Phew… so everyone is alive… wounds can be healed… even lost limbs and mental injuries… And Zoe lost her family... all because Janara wanted revenge...
“What happened to Loyal?” I gesture at the horse with my chin, the horse snorts and shows a row of sharp teeth he never had before. His eyes glow in an unnatural shade of emerald green. His curly mane—which drapes down almost to his legs—gleams with a similar verdant hue. He’s almost twice the size I remember him being.
How am I going to ride him now? My head barely reaches his chest! Do I even need to ride him?! I can fly now…
“He has evolved,” Jerro declares proudly.
I grin. “Is that why you took him with you?”
“Yes.”
I get closer to Loyal, and put my healthy hand on his nose when he lowers his face. For a moment, my hand is stuck to his head, almost as if his skin is covered by a strong adhesive. “Can you understand me?” I ask him. He neighs and nods lightly.
My heart misses a beat. I’ve asked this question in the past, he always showed some semblance of intelligence, but this is the first time he reacts to my words directly.
“You didn’t understand me before,” I state.
He neighs but doesn’t move his head.
“Other than moving your head, is there another way you can communicate?”
His response is to use his massive tongue to lick me from head to toe.
I chuckle. Ew, this is going to take hours to wash out of my hair… Definitely a communication though… With all this blood and gore the least I should worry about is his saliva… “I don’t have sugar for you, I’ll brush you later, ok?” Why his hair doesn’t get stuck to his skin? How does this adhesive skin works? Does he control what sticks and what doesn't?
He snorts and turns around. He pounces at one of the nearby corpses and tears it to shreds with his sharp teeth, devouring the meat like any other predatory animal.
“Okaaay... You don’t like sugar anymore, I’ll bring raw meat next time.” He neighs, lifts his head, nods to me, and goes back to brutalizing the human corpse at his feet.
“We won the battle, Shaman Inara. We’ll take our spoils as promised!” Balgrum strides forward. The orcs behind him eye the group of prisoners circled by my soldiers in red.
“I believe the deal was a third of the prisoners and their riches?” I ask.
“Yes, a third to the shaman, a third to the chief, and a third to the clan. We had a deal for this battle, so my third belongs to you. The next battle we wolves participate in, we’ll take two-thirds.”
I nod. I wish he’d clarify that one earlier, but I’d go with it regardless… The orcs are the only reason we’ve won. I don’t care if Luard and Janara’s soldiers will end up as slaves. They caused enough deaths. “You can go on ahead.” The orcs cheer and swarm the prisoners, debating and choosing in their language while checking out the prisoner’s muscles, private parts, and faces. It looks like an orcish version of a slave market.
“I sent my man to bring Kolag here,” Tiara says and wakes me up from my observations into orcish culture. “I thought I’d be taking Janara soldiers back with me, but we didn’t discuss prisoners of war, have we? Regardless, those are my men now, and I can’t have the orcs take them,” she exclaims with determination.
“Balgrum!” I call out.
The burly orc raise his head in questioning.
“I claim the humans wearing green as my share, let your wolves pick from the ones wearing blue.”
“Gra. They are less than third.”
I sigh and roll my eyes. “Fine, pick all the ones in blue and a few from the ones in green. I want the majority of the ones wearing green.”
He nods and translates my words to the orcs. Some of them seem to be disappointed, but they soon hurry to the blue uniformed men on the ground.
I turn to Tiara. “Done. You'll get most of them back. I want them to help me rebuild the city before you take them back, make up for the destruction they've caused. Stay for a week? We’ll sign a proper agreement and hammer in the details of our alliance.”
“Sure. But I’ll stay on Phoebe’s shi… my ships if you don’t mind. It won’t do if one of your angry citizens stabs me in the back.”
“Suit yourself.” I touch my damaged face. “Speaking of Phoebe, who fixed her jaw? I remember leaving it in a very sorry state.”
Tiara shrugs. “Oshi healed it somehow. No idea how, might be one of her fae abilities?”
That’s a dead end…
*
The city is half ruins when I make my way toward the broken gates. I stumble from the pain and numbness, nursing my broken hand. Bodies litter the ground and painful screams fills the air with dread. People dig collapsed buildings in a desperate attempt to save others who are buried underneath.
By now, I’ve regained some of my mana and the ability to drain a few more gems. I stop here and there to help with my magic. They need to see that I care, and I can’t just stand by knowing I can help and save some lives, especially due to the fact that I am partially at fault for their deaths.
It’s already dusk when I meet Kolag at the gates. He seems like he had never left, which means he never fought Janara, and just let her take him as a hostage. Don’t get angry now… must’ve been a reason, and he just got back, alive, celebrate that… I hug him with my single hand without a word, I am too afraid to say something I’ll regret later.
He hugs me back, silently. Then holds my shoulder looking down at me from behind his metallic visor. “Your face…”
“Yeah… I’ll heal it later. I hope… if I can't, the hag will heal it once I’m back in Axero… I don’t think it’s permanent. Or at least I don’t want to think it’s permanent.” I shudder for a moment and regain my wits. “But it was already pretty bad… and the hag. I’ve lost my hand and she healed it, I know it’s possible. So it’s not a big deal. Only death is permanent… and I almost lost you today. Kolag, why did you give yourself up to Janara?”
His shoulders sag. “I’m sorry, I tried,” he says. “I’m the one who got Purson killed, all of this is my fault, I should be dead.”
“No, all of this is Janara’s fault. She doesn’t deserve someone like you taking responsibility for her. Am I clear?”
He moves his hands to my arms, and I catch a glint of his eyes between the metallic crevices of his visor. “But she lost the man she loved, wouldn’t you do the same if I died?”
I look back into his visor. “No, I wouldn’t. I’d target the person who did it, not a whole city! I definitely wouldn’t get innocents killed for my revenge. Now, stop blaming yourself and help me fix this city, many people could use your help around here.”
“You’re right…” He goes into the city without a word and joins the first group who help people out of collapsed buildings.
“Take me to general Salik.” I command a soldier in red who leans on a broken spear, watching people who help the wounded.
“As you command, My Queen,” he says and limps forward, using his broken shaft as a walking stick.
My Queen… ha! I bet you’d be calling Janara ‘my Queen’ if she had taken over the city too, you change your loyalties way too fast…
Can I blame them? They need to survive somehow… I can’t fathom what these people are thinking, how can they worship mages or ‘sorcerers’ with all the pain we bring them? Why would they serve in our armies and fight these pointless wars for us? None of it makes sense! Religion makes people crazy!
The man leads me to a small alleyway, and I find the wounded Salik inside one of the houses, with five of his men trying their best to keep him alive. His wounds look bad, his left hand is cut off at the wrist, and a broken arrow is sticking out of his chest. I make the soldiers pull out the arrow, and give Salik my last healing potion. I really need to make more of these… it’ll help more than spending mana on moving collapsed building…
Salik wakes up, coughing. “I see you arrived in time, kid. By Nuriss’ bloody jugs, you look worse than I feel. Too early for me to die, eh?”
“Looks that way. I’m sorry about your hand, I can’t regenerate that yet, but the hag… the Maven of Mysteries can.”
He looks at his arm stub. “Ha, I’ll be taking a break from fighting for a while, or I can tie a shield to my hand. Did we win? Or they’re just letting you see me?”
“We've won, I’m also taking over some of their territory, so you’ll have your work cut out for you. You still need to continue my physical training. I’ll hold you on to that promise, so don’t die on me, old man. But my hand is currently broken, so you got a break there until it heals.”
He leans his head back on the table he's laying on. “Work, work, work, my life is just endless work, isn’t it? Where’s my brandy?” One of the soldiers hands him his flask. Salik attempts to drink, then looks at the empty hole with disappointment. “Is this supposed to be a joke? Fill it up!”
“Forget that order soldier.” I take the flask. “Get out, all of you! Help with the wounded and the people who need rescue!” I order the five of them who still stand there like a group of dumbfounded monkeys, they eye Salik with clear hesitation. “What are you waiting for? I gave you an order!” I exclaim angrily. Are they obeying him or me?
They hurry out and close the door behind them.
“So now you’re not letting me drink too?” Salik sounds aggrieved.
“The opposite. Let’s go get a drink together. I could use a drink right about now, and I'm willing to bet that the palace has some drinks for us. Can you walk?”
“I’ll manage!”
*~*~*
Power level: 3rd stage apprentice.
Mana pools status:
Crown-knot: Affinity 10: connected: 1 gem replenished per minute.
Neck-Bridge: Affinity 6: formed: max amount of gems drained per day: 73
Abdomen-storage: Affinity 5: formed: 11 gems. Conversion ratio: 6:1
Air: Affinity 4: formed: 22 gems
Fire: Affinity 2: formed: 11 gems
Light: Affinity 3: formed: 16/17 gems
Water: Affinity 6: formed: 33 gems
Earth: Affinity 1: formed: 5 gems
Wood: Affinity 2: formed: 11 gems
Gravity: Affinity 9: formed: 46/50 gems
Cantrip known:
Air: Shavi’s Breeze, Shavi’s Sword. Shavi’s Hair Dryer, Aria’s Enhanced Hearing. Aria’s Sonic Scream.
Fire: Nuriss’ Flame. Effrat’s Firefly, Effrat’s Fire Breath. Sorladika's Lesser Heating. Nuriss’ Ignite. Oniga's Soap Creation.
Light: Noxi’s Light. Lako’s Blinding Light. Rika’s energy hand.
Water: Water Evocation, Water to Ice, Ice to Water, Water to Vapor, Vapor to Water, Mayan’s Icy Spike, Ayla’s Water Jet. Ayla’s instant freeze. Ayla's Flowing Shield. Ayla’s Freezing Vapors.
Earth: Alice’s Oil Summoning, Reiko’s Acid Spray. Alf's Copper Bolt
Wood: Arigor’s Lesser Vines. Kolosu’s Vegetable Summoning.
Gravity: Lumina’s Kinetic Burst. Tukado’s Repulse. Tukado’s Lesser Shield II. Imari’s Minor Telekinesis. Imari’s Jump. Leo’s Pull. Leo’s Grounding. Alino’s Light Body. Alino’s Heavy Body. Alino's Orbiter.
Transmutation: Oniga's Laundry.
Spells known:
Light: Rika's Electric Channelb1
Gravity: Alino’s Weightless Bodyb1x2. Imari’s Lesser Flightb2.
Life: Brigit’s Lesser Cure Poison.
Focus capability: 17 patterns.
Social status: The Queen of Red Cedar City. Shaman of the Twin Moon Tribe. Inara, Daughter of Mysteries. Apprentice to the Maven of Mysteries. Sorceress.
Personal Wealth: 1665 Magic Gems. 136 Diamonds. 1420 Golden Peas, 45 Silver Scales, 32 Copper Bits.
Personal Items:
Magical necklace. Contains 100 gems of general mana, can be drained like a mana pool. It’ll recharge by itself at the rate of five gems an hour.
1 potion of lightning body.
1 potion of mana, medium grade.
0 potions of Lesser Healing.
4 potions of Pain Tolerance.
An enchanted belt with eight pouches, the enchantment keeps the pouches’ content fresh. Each pouch may contain 10g of petals or six potion flasks.
Fresh rose petals, 6g
Fresh lavender petals, 10g
King Luard's fresh heart.
10 soul bottles-5 filled with Luard's soul. Glass with a diamond stopper, put in scaled leather wrapping.
The Great White Egret grimoire. Dedicated by the Maven of mysteries to Inara. 26/100
Present Companions:
Salik
Kolag of House Befar
Sharlafyn Nettledew
Jerro
Berthold
Loyal
Ryon
Zoe
Languages:
Toml’a <People’s tongue> Fluent
Sinteo <Speech> Fluent
Myrsha <Gravity> 8/10
Felul <Wind> 1/10
A'arkalu 1/10 <wolf tongue>
Injuries and scars: Melted skin; face, upper chest, chain scar. Left wrist broken. Bruises. Cuts on the face. Broken ribs.
-
Kingdom’s treasury: 8,438 gold coins.
Kingdom’s citizen: 5,898 humans, 2,251 human children ?. Twin Moon Tribe: 1,243 orcs. 294 orc children. 164 sheep-slaves.
Kingdom's army: ?
Notables at Court:
Tasiya Keyholder
Jolla SilverQuill
Talbot Bookkeeper
Marasi Chef extraordinaire (spymaster.)
Old Gardner Tiom
