Oathbreaker: A Dark Fantasy Web Serial-Chapter 30Arc 8: : Plot, Plan, and Mission

There was little drama in our exit from the Briar’s domain. We simply stepped out of that grave of a forest and were back outside, in the fresh spring with sun-dappled green all around us. It was almost grotesque, the starkness of that transition. Like waking up from a bad dream.

I had to stop a moment, and found myself leaning against a tree as a wave of tiredness hit me, I rubbed at my left temple, trying to ease away the dull ache drumming through my skull. My fingers traced the edges of the scars there.

“Are you alright?” Emma asked me.

I glanced back at her. Funny she would ask me that, when she was still pale from blood loss and favoring her broken arm.

I considered the question a moment. Was I alright? How did I even answer that?

“What about you?” I asked her. “You seem to be taking all of this pretty well.”

Emma shrugged with just the shoulder of her unbroken arm. “It’s not much to me. I already believed all the gods were cowardly, lying bastards, so having that confirmed does not come as much of a shock. Sorry.”

I snorted. “We need to get back to the others. Get your injuries treated, see to the next step.”

“And what is that next step?” Emma asked. “You implied before that you knew where we needed to go.”

“I do,” I agreed. “Or at least, I have a pretty solid guess. But there will be time for that. For now, I’d rather get back to the others and explain it all once.”

I pushed off the tree and started to shuffle away from the cave — it was still there, though it looked more warped than before, the transformation that’d overtaken it having left a permanent mark. The seam in reality was stitched shut, but there’d probably always be a scar.

“Alken…”

I glanced back at Emma. She hadn’t moved yet, just stood there and watched me with an unusually concerned expression.

“Are you alright?” She asked. “It might not have moved my soul, but I know it’s not the same for you. What we heard back there—”

“Doesn’t matter.” I took a steadying breath and glanced down at my axe a brief moment before letting it slide back into the shadows. “It doesn’t change what we need to do.”

“And after we find Rysanthe?” Emma asked.

After… What did come after? Did I dare dwell on that? I’d made a brash choice back there, telling the Choir I was done. I knew that’s what Emma referred to, that she understood the significance of that choice.

Done being the Headsman. Somehow I doubted they’d allow it, but they’d also given me power I didn’t have before. The power of knowing, of having leverage. Perhaps it didn’t count for much, and yet…

Who even was I, without that mantle? Would I be able to recognize myself?

“We’ll survive the next battle,” I said in a voice that emerged hoarse. “After that, I’ll have some decisions to make.”

She nodded, and without further words we started off in the direction we’d left the rest of the group. In the far distance, we heard the cry of Emma’s demigryphon calling us back into the sun and away from that blighted place and its secrets.

We’d been gone far longer than it felt like. We’d entered the Briar’s domain in mid morning, but by the time we found the lance, evening had already started to rear its head over the distant horizon. We’d been lost many hours inside the Wend.

The others were, understandably, distraught. The transformation that’d sucked us into the realm of the briarfae had spread across the forest, and some of Lord Chesh’s people had tried to make sport of our companions. They hadn’t succeeded, but Hendry’s hammer had some faerie blood on it, and Penric needed to carve new arrows.

We made camp, and Lisette took time to tend to Emma’s injuries. My squire stripped out of her red armor and sat on a log, dressed only in trousers and tunic, while the cleric worked threads of pale golden aura into her flesh, re-knitting the bone beneath.

Hendry and I had both also doffed our gear and were taking the time to clean and maintain it, so we all sat around a crackling fire in our underclothes as dusk settled over the borderlands of the Banner. Vicar lay in a bundle at my side, and Penric worked with a carving knife on new arrow shafts, his ever-present hat hung from the low-hanging branch of a tree. The group’s chimera lay around us, forming a boundary of warm fur and feather.

“So let me get this right,” Penric said without lifting his face from his work. “That hobgoblin from the inn is actually the King of the Evil Elves, and the protector of some ancient spring of faerie magic to boot.”

“His title is King,” I said in agreement. “But he’s more like their slave. They torture him, and sometimes he escapes and causes trouble. This time he made friends with Hasur Vyke’s faction, though I’m not sure of all the details of that agreement beyond some guesswork.”

I’d filled the group in on our misadventure with the Briar, though I’d been vague on some details. I did not tell them about the Choir’s presence or the fact that the Briar was sanctioned by them, or about the schism amongst the Onsolain. I hadn’t been sworn to secrecy on the matter, and yet I understood there hadn’t been a need. If I told my comrades the whole story, it would paint targets on their backs. I only went over the important details.

Lisette spoke up from where she sat by Emma. “We know Ildeban — the Briar King — was at Tol this past winter, where Alken fought him. That implies he’s allied with the demon lord in the east. Now he’s in the Bannerlands, where he made his presence known at Fife.”

“Which drew Evangeline Ark’s attention,” Hendry said as he set his freshly cleaned hammer down. “You think that was his intention?”

I nodded. “I think Ildeban left some kind of message at Fife, probably with the monks. I didn’t get the whole story there before those vampire hunters interrupted, but I imagine it was a ploy to lure Evangeline out. It worked, and whatever the Council of Cael wanted from her, it provoked her into turning Fife into a death trap.”

I leaned forward and laced my fingers together. “And I think I know why. I understand what’s going on now.”

They all turned their attention to me. Penric didn’t look at me directly with his false eyes, but I knew by his posture he was listening. Emma looked up from Lisette’s work on her arm. Hendry braced his hands on his knees.

“I don’t have the whole picture, not yet.” I was still trying to sort it all out in my head, and I knew I didn’t have every piece of the puzzle, didn’t understand each motive. “But here’s how it all looks to me. King Ildeban has been doing his duty for centuries, guarding the Heart of the Briar. He’s bound to it, and he hates it, so he acts out when he can, runs amok and causes strife in the outside world. My guess is that the briarfae allow this, because it makes his reputation more imposing and in a roundabout way better secures what he protects.”

“Elves never seem to do anything without eleven extra steps, do they?” Emma winced as Lisette tugged at one of her ethereal threads, and the cleric flashed her an apologetic look.

I thought about Maerlys, and how she’d tried to set up a new system of control over the southern kingdoms that would have taken decades, perhaps even generations to play out. “But Ildeban didn’t fight for any particular side during the war, and went quiet after. My guess is he was approached by Hasur’s faction around then, and they gave him the means to elude the Briar, even Nath herself.”

“But the King of Talsyn is dead,” Lisette said with a frown. “Dead even before the summit at Garihelm, killed by his own children. The Council is down to just Ildeban and that other one, Lillian.”

“There might have been other members of their alliance I never encountered,” I said. “Recusant nobles who’ve kept quiet all these years. And…”

I glanced at Emma, who nodded. She finished the sentence for me. “And Reynard.”

A long minute of silence passed over our camp, broken only by the pensive crackling of the fire. Behind me, Morgause lifted her head from where she lay resting.

“He’s the only one besides Hasur Vyke I can think of who would have the power to free Ildeban from the Briar’s control,” I said. “The Gorelion too, I suppose, but I can’t know who’s actually in control of all this. I’d like to say the demon lord…”

“You would rather a Lord of the Abyss be our main foe than a human wizard?” Emma asked with a raised eyebrow.

I nodded without hesitation. “Of course. A fallen angel is frightening enough. One of the magi with the power to bind that creature?” I met all their gazes in turn. “I saw the Gorelion at Tol. He overpowered one of the Onsolain’s strongest warriors with ease. Trust me, I’d much prefer he be our greatest enemy. I don’t want to think about something worse.”

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Reynard had the power to break bindings. If he was behind as much of this as I thought, then he’d done it to Ildeban, to the Alder Knights, and to Saint Perseus. Dis Myrddin too — the crowfriar had known what would happen beneath the Basilica, had betrayed his fellows, and his chains had been crafted by Zos, the God of Hell.

What else was the Traitor Magi capable of, if he could remove the restrictions placed by gods?

Emma recovered from her brooding quickest and hummed. “Well, if we’re facing some kind of cabal, then I imagine my great-grandmother’s handmaiden isn’t acting alone either. Probably there are other nobles from the Westvales, old Carreon loyalists who’ve been laying low all this time, waiting for their heir to return.”

“My father…” Hendry paused a moment as Emma glanced sharply at him. He took a deep breath and looked directly at me, speaking in a firmer voice. “My father was in contact with a number of dubious characters over the years. He never let me know who they were, but I think Emma might be right. I think my family were acting as liaisons with Westvaler nobles.”

A larger conspiracy to hide the remaining Carreons made sense. No doubt Brenner planned to tie his own fortunes to their resurgence, if things had gone that far. I suspected he was mercenary in all that, an outside party to help obfuscate the true powers behind the survival of House Carreon.

“So how does Evangeline play into all this?” Penric asked.

“That’s been my question too,” I said with a nod to the archer. “And I think I get it now. When the Choir dispatched Rysanthe to hunt Ildeban, they didn’t realize that he’d tied himself so deeply to this larger faction and all its resources. The Choir sees and knows a lot, but demons are very good at hiding from them, and Reynard is said to be the Shepherd of Demons. He was able to blind them to certain things, such as his own survival. Why not Ildeban’s ties to this faction?”

“There’s also the war that broke out in Osheim,” Hendry said. “The Gorelion appearing there, and in the Baern Cities last year. There’s the crowfriars trying to open a portal to Hell, and that mess in the capital.”

“Our enemy has been distracting the Onsolain,” Emma said with a nod to the young knight. “Barraging them with crisis after crisis.”

“So Rysanthe goes to hunt a rogue champion,” I continued, “but he doesn’t bother trying to fight or hide from her. Instead, he leads her into an ambush… Into Evangeline and a horde of vampires. But even that probably wouldn’t have been enough. Besides the Gatebreaker and some of the stronger Onsolain, there’s no single being in Urn stronger than Rysanthe that I know of. My guess is they were given some means to bind her.”

Penric was frowning and scratching at his wiry beard. “I don’t get it. That mess at Fife made me think this cabal of villains was at odds with House Ark.”

“That’s also a mystery to me,” I said. “This is just my guess, but it seems the most likely based on all the facts. They are not in full cooperation. Evangeline has her own ambitions — she captured Rysanthe with the help of Ildeban’s allies, but now she has the Grim Reaper to herself and isn’t handing her over. The Council of Cael wants Rysanthe, because she’s the key to unlocking the inner depths of the Underworld.”

“And why would they want that?” Penric asked.

“I could think of a few reasons,” I said. “To free all the dead would be to spread chaos. It would be like a necromantic apocalypse — vampires and ghouls would be stronger, ghosts would spill out like a damn deluge. Reynard was behind the Fall of Seydis, so this tracks with his history at least. As for his end goal… I’ve got no fucking idea, but I can imagine none of us would like it.”

Penric was quiet in response. I gave him a hard look. “None of us. Those same magics are also what give the dead protections from demons and necromancers, Penric. Without them, it would be a jungle.”

“I get it!” He held up his hands. “Just thinking, is all. It’s a lot to take in, especially for a daft peasant like me.”

I sighed and braced my hands on my knees, mimicking Hendry’s pose. “So we’ve got potentially two factions of villains. Evangeline has Rysanthe, and is keeping her as leverage against the Council of Cael. I think that Lillian and Ildeban tried to threaten us at the Backroad half because they wanted to know who was sniffing around their business, and half because Lillian Rue expected her mistress to be there and back them. That would have secured her a better position against Evangeline, also.”

Emma let a cold smile creep across her face. “I did enjoy seeing that old crone seethe so.”

Lisette shook her head at the other girl and twined some shining thread around one finger before breaking it, leaving my squire’s arm crawling with a lattice of softly glowing lines. Emma lifted her arm, winced, then let out an appreciative hum as she moved it through a wider range of motion. Lisette slapped her good shoulder and gave her a hard look, at which Emma lowered her wounded arm and sighed.

Penric looked to me. “So what’s the mission, boss?”

“Get Rysanthe back before Ildeban and Lillian do it, or before Evangeline enacts her own scheme.”

“Any idea what that might be?” Hendry asked.

“I’m still trying to figure that part out,” I admitted. “I got some information about vampires from the Keeper, but it’s all just conjecture at this point. It’s very possible that Evangeline Ark is possessed by a demon. It would explain why she’s so powerful despite being less than a year turned.”

When all the members of my lance traded looks, I frowned at them and asked, “What?”

“We might have seen something,” Lisette said with a chagrined look. “It honestly slipped my mind, with everything else and all the rushing about, but…”

“We saw a demon,” Hendry told me. “It crawled out of a Bannerlands knight we fought in Mirrebel. A small one, but it was… horrible.”

That would have been good to know, I thought, but didn’t feel much frustration over it. Even had I known, I would have still gone through the same steps to put all this together. “If that’s the case,” I said, “then it’s very likely that Evangeline’s actions are actually those of an ancient, powerful spirit from beyond our plane. She might know more than we’ve assumed, possibly even how to use Rysanthe to access the Realm of the Dead. Breaking the God-Queen’s seal there would make her and her minions much stronger, allow her to swell her ranks and become more than a petty feudal lord with some extra tricks.”

“A Kingdom of the Dead, on the surface of our land.” Hendry let out a breath and closed his eyes. “Forsaken Throne.”

“I don’t understand,” Lisette said. “If Evangeline is possessed by a demon and shares the same goal as these others, then why do they seem to be at odds?”

“I’m not sure,” I said. “You’re assuming all demons are on the same side, but from what I understand they’re all singular and tend to feud to with each other. It’s only powers like Reynard’s and the Gorelion that keep them in cooperation.”

I tapped my foot a few times as I considered. “Might be that Fife was a trap for Olliard, not for Ildeban and Lillian, but the way that Evangeline acted at the time made me think she didn’t trust those two either. If it’s not one of the Traitor Magi’s bound demons, that might mean we can deal with Evangeline alone. I wouldn’t plan for that, though. Best to be prepared for anything.”

Was something else going on that I didn’t yet have the means to understand? I didn’t like unanswered questions. It felt like something that would circle back around and bite me later.

“For now, we know our goal. We need to rescue the grim reaper and stop the vampire queen from breaking open the gates of the Underworld. Is everyone in agreement?”

They all murmured affirmations. Penric sighed and said, “Our lives are fucked.”

I couldn’t argue. “Then I assume you all know our next step?” I asked.

Penric thought about it a moment, then grimaced. “Ah. Shit. We’re going to that damn ball, aren’t we?”

“It does seem the most likely place for something to happen,” Emma noted. “I mean, Evangeline throwing a big party now of all times?”

“With all the nobility of the Banner there,” Lisette said in a grim voice. “And the Queen herself. She wouldn’t just leave her prisoner unguarded, so…”

“So Rysanthe will be there,” Hendry said quietly.

I nodded, glad they’d all came to the same conclusion. “Whatever Evangeline plans to do, I bet it’s happening at Carreweir. If there’s powerful magic involved, then having a lot of spectators, a lot of souls in the mix, will make it stronger. Just like at Garihelm and Baille Os.”

“So we crash the party,” Hendry said.

“And get torn apart by every knight in the Banner,” Emma retorted dryly. “There are five of us.”

“Seven, counting Olliard and his apprentice." Eight, counting Vicar, I noted silently. "But you're right that we’re probably not going to just bash the door down.”

I sat up straight and spoke in a stronger voice. This was something I had a solution for, something I could accomplish. It would be dangerous as hell, might even get us all killed, but I didn’t feel helpless in the face of it like I did with my demon or all the dark truths of angels and elves. “For one thing, many of the people there will be common servants or nobles loyal to the Accord. I don’t want to turn this into a slaughter — our enemies are Evangeline and her vampires, and then the Council of Cael if it shows up. We’ll consider them a wild card and be ready for anything. As for how we’re participating… We know Olliard will be in the city, and he’s got connections as well. We’ll correspond with him. But I’m not going to rely on him to give us our means of entry.”

“Then you have another plan?” Hendry asked.

I answered him with a grim smile. “I do.”

He just blinked at me. Emma pursed her lips, less impressed with my mysteries.

“Our enemy might have demons and vampires, but I’m not without allies myself.” I glanced to a spot of darkness at the edge of our campfire. “I trust my favor with the Sidhe is still good?”

And a voice spoke from the shadows. “Of course, Ser Knight. My queen bears you no ill will, and it is in all our interests that you succeed in this endeavor.”

There was a collective reaction of surprise from the group, with only Emma and myself refraining from shock. Penric stiffened and went for his dagger, but I motioned for him to stop. He wasn’t used to being snuck up on with his undead senses.

Tzanith stepped out of the forest, clad in a clean white chiton pinned with an amulet resembling an acorn at one slender shoulder, her dragonfly wings folded to form a shimmering cape that brushed the woodland floor. She folded her hands and smiled demurely at me.

“We need a way into the city,” I said. “And into that ball. Can your people arrange it?”

“We already have,” she said.

“And you would help us?” I asked her. “Even after what I said to them earlier?”

Tzanith tilted her head at me, her golden eye flashing knowingly. “What passes between you and the Onsolain is its own matter, Ser Knight. It is my queen’s desire to maintain an amicable relationship with you, regardless of the actions of her peers.”

Translation: Maerlys wanted me further in her debt, especially if I had a falling out with the Choir. It would make it even easier for her to exert influence on me, and without her angelic peers hovering over my shoulder I would be more useful to her in some ways.

Canny witch. I knew Tzanith saw my calculation by the way her mismatched eyes twinkled.

“Then please extend my formal thanks to your queen,” I said with a dip of my head.

Tzanith nodded. “You understand that the scales are currently balanced between her and you, and this will incur a cost?”

“I do,” I told her. “Tell your queen that I’m good for it. I’d also like a message sent through the Backroad Inn. I’ll give that to you later.”

Tzanith dipped her head. “So shall it be.”

I turned to address the lance. “We have nine days until the grand ball. We’ll be attending, and not as thieves in the night.”

Tzanith smiled. “My father’s words?”

“He was right about many things,” I said in a thoughtful voice. “Especially about this.”

“We can’t just walk up to the front door,” Hendry said with a frown. “As you and Emma said, there’s just not enough of us to fight Evangeline fairly.”

“I didn’t say it would be fair,” I told him. “Are you caught up on your fairy tales, Ser Hendry?”