The Beginning After The End novel Chapter 448

Chapter 448

Chapter 446: A Cage Opened

Ascender-targeted shops and inns passed by on either side as I moved without purpose along the main thoroughfare. I was pulled back to my first foray into this microcosm of Alacryan culture, each aspect of it so hyper-focused, remembering the thug’s ill-thought-out attempt to mug me, my run-in with “Haedrig,” and my eventual—unfortunate—pairing with the Granbehls.

It’s a shame this all was built under Agrona, for no reason other than his own search for power, I thought, mentally comparing ascender culture to the adventurers of Dicathen. This place could have been truly great. Even as I thought this, however, I realized that the idea behind the ascents was too far removed from the djinn’s original intention to bring any real insight into the Relictombs’ inner workings.

After all, one didn’t study a book by ripping the pages out of it.

Recognizing the melancholy of my unfocused thoughts, I intentionally shifted back to the next task on my list.

Seris was ready to speak to me. It had felt important to see my companions before, however, and although I hadn’t run across Caera, I knew it was past time to learn what Seris had planned for her people.

After checking back in at the Dread Craven, the fortified inn turned base of operations for Seris herself, I received directions from a guard to a particular tower Seris often retreated to when she needed to think but didn’t want to disconnect herself from the people under her care.

I was surprised when I found the tower in question, which I had expected to be some wealthy highblood’s status symbol or perhaps an intimidating guard tower. Instead, I found a plain silo tucked away in the farthest corner of the zone amidst buildings that would have looked more at home on the first level among the industrialized areas.

A bare metal staircase spiraled up the outside of the seventy-foot-tall structure, and I could sense Seris’s mana signature on the top, stationary.

The metal rang and creaked as I ascended, and when I crested the flat roof, Seris was watching me. She wore dark, flowing robes and a distant expression. At first, she didn’t say anything, only waved me over to where she stood looking out over the Relictombs.

Taking her cue, I didn’t speak, only took in the view as she did.

The Relictombs looked different from up here. The faux-sky couldn’t quite maintain its illusion when you could see the entire zone spread out around you, looking more like the inside of a painted dome than the sky itself, the edges not quite aligning properly with the ground and buildings.

Except for a couple of parks, nearly the entire zone was built in, giving it a condensed, claustrophobic air from above. Even the highblood compounds looked small and cramped from this angle, the size and grandeur a carefully constructed illusion.

My thoughts must have shown on my face, because Seris’s gaze slowly swept across the city as she said, “Like a mana beast enclosure, painstakingly designed to disguise the fact that its residents are, in fact, penned in a cage.”

I knew she was talking about more than just the Relictombs; it was the Alacryans’ entire way of life that penned them in. One illusion of choice layered atop the next, thoroughly caging them all while simultaneously making them feel free.

“What does it look like if you open the cage doors then?” I asked, leaning against a railing that wrapped around the silo roof.

“That’s what I intend to find out,” she answered. Swaying slightly, she shot me a chagrined half-smile and eased herself down onto the cool metal, holding onto the rail for support. “I had hoped to allow my strength to fully return, but…”

I sat down beside her. “Agrona’s message.”

“Yes.” She stared out into the zone for several seconds before continuing. “His offer—and ultimatum—will put pressure on those who support my cause—the ones who aren’t already in the fold here, especially. But the cracks are formed, the wound dealt. Alacrya has seen gods bleed and beg. This will fester in their minds and hearts, and later, when a choice must be made to die for their High Sovereign or live for themselves, more will choose themselves than would have otherwise.”

We watched as a man in the black and crimson uniform of a Relictombs clerk exited one of the nearby buildings through a back door. He eased the door closed behind him then leaned against the wall, sinking down it as his body, tiny in the distance, racked with sobs.

“The Legacy is, it turns out, exactly what Agrona said she would be,” Seris said softly as she watched the man in the distance, her expression curious but not uncaring. “I had thought, perhaps, that Agrona hadn’t sent her to the Relictombs yet because he didn’t want to have her fail so publicly yet again, but now I think I understand his true reason.”

When Seris didn’t immediately continue, I prodded her gently, saying, “What do you think his true intentions are, then?”

“I’m afraid that the division of Alacrya has played into his hands,” she said severely. “I suspect that he wished for this portal between our world and Epheotus to be opened. We have helped to make him look vulnerable, ensuring that the dragons finally came into play.”

“But that’s what you wanted, right?” I said, recalling her speech to the highbloods about their grand purpose. “Agrona and Kezess are each working to outmaneuver the other. Meanwhile, we have to figure out how to make sure our people—both the Dicathians and the Alacryans—survive the coming war.”

She picked at her fingernails as I spoke, but froze when she seemed to realize what she was doing, then slowly lowered her hands. “It will be important that they both continue to think they have the upper hand, yes. I know Agrona as well as any, but you understand Kezess Indrath far better than I do. Do you think he can be convinced to limit the scope of his war against Agrona?”

“He wants something that, for now, only I can give him: deeper understanding of aether.” I paused, watching as the crying man in the distance stood, wiped himself off, and went back through the door he’d appeared from. “As long as he can keep me friendly with minimal effort or sacrifice on his part, he’ll do it. But I have no doubt that, as soon as the equation shifts, he’ll just as quickly betray any promise he has made. No, he can only be relied on to do what will get him closer to what he wants.”

“Agrona and Kezess are much alike in that way, then. Despite any shreds of wisdom these asura may have gained over their long lives, their inherent selfishness and self-assuredness is a weakness we will have to exploit. For example, I am now firmly convinced that Agrona is intentionally pitting you and Cecilia against each other. It would seem foolish to us that he risks his greatest asset in skirmishes with you, his strongest adversary outside of the asuras themselves, but Agrona is a scientist at his core, and he operates on a timetable of centuries, not days. What is a few months of civil war or tens of thousands of lives lost to such a being? If he can learn something new about mana—or aether.”

“She said something about him wanting my core,” I remembered. “I guess I finally got his attention after all.”

Seris drummed her fingers across the metal railing. “Kezess wants to drain the knowledge from your mind, while Agrona wants to dissect you and see how you work. Not an enviable position. But I’m trusting that you are strong enough, or will become strong enough, to handle that pressure. And it does give us an opportunity. If Agrona is going to keep sending the Legacy after you, it means will have another chance to defeat her.”

My mind was forced back yet again to my battle with Cecilia. Despite the small insights I had gained, I knew bigger steps were required. No, not steps, leaps. It was now necessary that I find the third keystone as soon as possible and gain insight into the godrunes contained in both the third and fourth keystones. It could no longer wait, and nothing else took precedence.

Only…

There was so much else to do, so many people who were relying on me to protect them. Like all the people currently trapped in this zone.

Even though the Alacryan loyalist forces under Dragoth had so far failed to penetrate the shielded portals cutting this level off from the first, I couldn’t be sure that Cecilia wasn’t capable of doing so. All I knew was that if anyone could, it was her. Which meant, as Seris said, that Agrona had chosen not to send her here, allowing the situation to continue despite potentially having means to stop it.

Just like in Dicathen.

We lost the war to an army composed mainly of slaves and unadorned soldiers. It had only taken the involvement of a couple of Scythes to ensure our defeat. Agrona’s Wraiths—even a single squadron—could have demolished our continent in a week, and not even the Lances would have been able to put up a fight against them. He had the means, but instead he’d created a sense of conflict, allowing us to imagine ourselves in a battle that we could win, when the reality was anything but.

We hadn’t been lambs to the slaughter. We had been fish in a net.

“Optics,” I muttered.

Seris nodded as she closed her eyes and rubbed the bridge of her nose, supporting herself with one arm. “Yes, I think so too. A carefully choreographed stage play, although not for our benefit. I won’t give him more credit than he deserves, however. I don’t imagine your appearance and actions at the Victoriad were part of his grand design. I’ve never seen him so angry as when you vanished out from under his very nose.”

I smiled, and Seris gave a small laugh. She wobbled slightly as she did, and the laugh died away as quickly as it had come. She shifted to the side, trying to get more comfortable, and so I turned as well, putting my back against hers.

She went stiff, clearly caught off guard, then slowly relaxed and eased into me so that the weight of our bodies was supporting one another.

“I won’t blame you for our current situation, but I could, you know,” she said, wry humor lacing her words.

I looked up at the blue sky, watching the atmospheric aether move to its own strange whims all around us. “That’s what retainer Lyra thought. That you’d started the rebellion to force Agrona’s eye homeward and give me time to retake Dicathen. Do you regret it, knowing that that’s probably exactly what he wanted?”

“No,” she said without hesitation. “As I said, we’ve wounded his image. Optics, as you said. Even a small wound can change the course of entire future battles. And I can’t let you take such credit either, Arthur Leywin. I only adjusted things forward, I didn’t invent this entire movement for your benefit alone.”

I chuckled, my shoulders moving against Seris’s. I could feel each of her breaths move through me, but we were both comfortable, relaxed. That was strange. There were very few people I could have had this conversation with and felt so at ease. It was hard to imagine that I had once watched her rip the horns from a retainer’s head—a retainer who had defeated Sylvie and me together—as easily as pulling the wings from a fly.

The landscape of the world’s power dynamic had changed significantly since then, or at least my place in it had.

Hasn’t it? I thought, suddenly unsure. Was my growth and success just more dancing to Kezess and Agrona’s tune, or was there something else to it?

‘It’s Faaaaate…’ Regis intruded suddenly, the word drawn out like it was spoken by a ghostly apparition.

No, I thought back firmly. It is me, my own doing, my own strength. My control over aether—and my status as a quadra-elemental mage before that—wasn’t some machination of gods or fate or anything else. I worked to achieve it, built my strength in a way perhaps no one else in this world could have, I…

Trailing off, I considered my own thoughts. I had only been able to utilize all four elements because I had been reincarnated with my previous life memories intact. And although it had been my own force of will that had forged the aether core, I still didn’t really know how I’d ended up in the Relictombs in the first place. Looking at it like that, it was hard to disavow any influence of some power beyond my control, even fate…

Regis gave me the mental equivalent of an appreciative nod. ‘Damned right. Although, you have had a pretty good support structure, which has allowed you to get the most of both your natural abilities and the opportunities presented to you. For example—’

I know, I thought, biting back a small smile. I’ve never lacked purpose, and much of that has come from those around me—my family.

‘Ah, shucks,’ Regis thought back, reading the intention behind my words just as easily as hearing the words themselves.

Seris shifted against my back, tensing slightly. “But now, Arthur, it is I who need your help. Because I have decided what my people will do next.”

I waited, giving her the time she needed to formulate the words.

“All my designs for the Relictombs have failed. And even if they hadn’t, I can no longer be certain in keeping the Legacy out when Agrona finally decides to unleash her on us.” She took her time, breathing deeply, considering her words before she spoke. “I’m not ready to destroy the portals. It strikes a blow against the very people I work to help as well as Agrona. Future generations may rely on this place in ways we can’t yet comprehend. And so I’m retreating from the Relictombs.”

I had expected this. Regis’s assistance in holding the shields was a temporary solution at best. Besides, without constant supplies from the first level and the outside world, no sizable population could live in the second level for an extended period of time. “And that’s where I come in?”

“Although I will force no one to follow me out of here, I will take anyone who wishes it to Elenoir, to the wastes where you have banished the Alacryan soldiers in Dicathen.”

I took a moment to digest this, careful to hold back my immediate judgment. Inside, I was loath to invite yet more Alacryans to Dicathen’s shores, even these ones. But my willingness wasn’t even the biggest problem. “And you want me to help settle this with the dragons.”

“Exactly,” she said with a sigh. “I need you to speak on my behalf. Convince the dragons—Kezess himself if you must—to allow it, but not only that. It may be that Agrona decides this is definitive and moves against our people in the Elenoir Wastes. The dragons’ protection is also needed.”

I half turned around, looking at the back of Seris’s head, which was leaning forward. I got the impression that her eyes were closed. “This move also puts you in position to build an alliance, maybe even some good faith. It would even bring you a step closer to Kezess’s ear, which is necessary if you intend to continue feeding the conflict between the two.”

Seris’s weight vanished from my back as she stood. The wariness melted away as she looked down on me imperiously, and I saw again the woman who had saved me from Uto so long ago. “I intend to help you do so, Arthur.”

After getting to my feet as well, I was the one looking down at her. “What do we need to do then?”

***

“Here,” I said, handing Cylrit my tempus warp. _{freewebnoveℓ.com}

He looked over the repaired exterior housing before setting it on the ground next to the one Seris had brought herself—the only two allowed in the Relcitombs zone, as they posed the largest threat of intrusion from the outside. “You were able to fix it?”

The crack was sealed, and physically it was in fine shape; I had used Aroa’s Requiem on it in preparation for the journey. What I couldn’t manage, though, was replacing the magic that had been expended from within it. After this, the anvil-shaped artifact would be little more than a chunk of metal.

I explained, and he nodded as if he’d expected this. “No wonder. The devices themselves are not made so much as reclaimed from pieces of old djinn relics like the teleportation portals. They are finite, like the dimension artifacts.”

I blinked in surprise, not having known this. Mentally, I made a note to get Gideon and Wren a tempus warp so they could confirm what Cylrit had said.

Having done as Seris asked, I bid Cylrit a temporary farewell and retreated to a less crowded section of the courtyard.

People teemed around the arrival portals, which were still being disrupted by Seris’s artifacts, powered by Regis. Although Seris had briefed me on exactly how many people were present in the second level, it was still startling to see them all in one place. They spilled out of the courtyard into the alleys and side streets, and well down Sovereign Boulevard.

Most appeared varying degrees of afraid. The less well-off folk, universally employees or business owners who had been trapped here when Seris blocked the zone off from the Relictombs’ first level, were largely clustered around the disruption array. They were kept back by the many battle groups of mages that were guarding several highbloods who were also queuing around the portals.