Chapter Three Hundred and Twenty Eight – 328
Zara Cyrene, Master Tier, Sorcerer of the Fallen Halls, and Chanter of Cantus Sodalus was very close to killing someone.
"You wish to beg for aid from Haarwatch? That backward hovel? What good will they do us, when their streets are likely as overrun as our own?" A rounded man with a drooping mustache and a gold chain of office leaned back, his gaze resolutely upon his desk. He refused to look at her.
"We are not begging aid, Lord Governor. We are demanding passage, and perhapsperhapswe may send back aid to help your citizens," Zara said through clenched teeth.
The Governor of Setoria sat, seemingly unconcerned behind his huge, Tarwood desk. Eyes down, he sorted through stacks of paper as if hard at work; nevermind that the man's hair was greasy and his eyes bloodshot while his Spirit was in screaming disarray. Had Zara been in a kinder mood, she would have felt a twinge of pity for the man. He was a petty bureaucrat delivered an impossible situation: more than half of his city was engulfed in a mystical bank of clouds. None could enter and none could leave.
"Lady Cyrene, what you ask is most irregular, and had this been a normal day I would have you dragged off in chains for bursting into my offices as you have," the Governor said with a quick, nervous glance around the room. Six other men and women were there, all armed and armored in Haarwatch's guard uniform, and he only had a single Iron Rank Guilder at his elbow for defense. He paled at the sight of Kelgan casually sharpening his spear, flinching at the open aggression in every single one of their faces. "I've only three Manaships under my purview, two of which were on loan to the Inviolate Inquisition. The other is my personal craft for matters of the Territory. Not to be used by any...person who enters my offices."
"The Inviolate Inquisition is not a concern any longer," Zara stated. "Most of them are dead."
"You fools," he whispered. His Spirit clenched up like a tattered rag, used and wrung out. "What have you done?"
"They did it to themselves, summoning a construct of solid light into the midst of their own men," Zara said with contempt. "Their Inquisitor doomed them all."
"And would they have done so, had they not been opposed?" the Governor demanded. "Would I find my city broken apart by this fog had you not struck at them?"
Zara wrestled with her own anger and frustration, and found it upsettingly difficult. In an effort to remain unobtrusive, they had followed "proper" channels and put in a case for transit. For an entire day and night they had waited, while the city had gone insane.
With the rising of the fog, panic gripped the streets. Visibility was impossible, the air as thick as it ever was in the Foglands, turning that panic quickly into riots. The Governor had united the Protector's Guild Setoria branch into action, but in addition to being generally weaker than those in Haarwatch, the Guilders' barracks was almost entirely outside the barrier. Only a few dozen Tin and Iron Ranks were left fog-side of things, more than enough to stop a few Untempered instigators, but woefully ill-equipped to stop mobs the size of entire districts.
Blood flowed through the following day, as people grew more desperate and afraid. Cries of a rising dark power, this Autarch, on the lips of everyone from High Street to Beggar's Way. Fires soon followed, engulfing an entire district, which sent people running from the fog toward the lighter half of Setoria. Unfortunately, they found the barrier utterly impassable. Thousands died before the mob stopped, many crushed and others forced to turn back toward the raging fires.
Zara was forced to rest and recover for much of that time, unable to help those that cried out in the streets. She had not many abilities that could heal, but the Chant was versitile, and had she been able to wield it Zara would have expended herself twice over to stop the needless bloodshed. Yet after confronting the Howlers at the city gates, then the Inquisitors and their powerful magic, it was all she could do to master herself. Her soul cried out for the anguished people around her, but she had a duty that she could not set down, not if the entire city were burning down around her.
The Hand and Haarguard protected them while they recovered, which proved fortuitous when roving gangs assaulted the shopfront they'd claimed as shelter. Drifting in and out of consciousness, she witness three times when the mob beyond their doors had attempted to force entry. Reed had avoided killing anyone, at the least.
"They're Untempered," he'd scowled at a Haarguard that had gotten too exuberant. "Would you murder a child? No. You teach them a lesson and let them walk away." He grinned. "Maybe bloody em up a bit."
She woke for good a bit after that. And as soon as she was able to walk, Zara had began pestering the Governor's office.
"Inquisition is one of the holy Orders, for Trackless' sake! Why would you interfere?" he demanded.
"Better than curling beneath them like a dog!" one of the Haarguard snapped. Kelgan, part of her Mind recognized.
They had been forced to wade through a mob on their way to the Governor's Mansion. The people were balancing on the razor's edge of chaos, and a single spark would ignite them into even greater bloodshed. She could feel it, even hurt as she was. Considering her convalescing state, the weight of their terrified regard sent fissures of pain skittering down Zara's Aspects, all of them strained by her use of Harmonics. Wielding the fundamental powers of Creation had a cost, and she was paying for it tenfold.
Now she gritted her sharp, shark-like teeth and shoved down her anger and urgency. She hadn't the time to educate the man on the particulars of how he was a wrong-headed ass. Her Mark was missing. She could no longer sense Felix, not his general direction nor moods. The Mark was being suppressed by a greater power. Or erased...but that, at least, is impossible at his advancement. Even for an Unbound.
At least she knew he wasn't dead. The System wouldn't have elevated a dead man, no matter his deeds. An Autarch. Avet's blackened teeth, I need to find out what happened before it is too late.
The Governor had continued to talk while she mastered herself. "as you see. I'm up to my ears in blood and murder, and I'll not budge even for an Adept Tier such as yourself. The entirety of Setoria is in an uproar, a wild chaos! If I let you take my ships, then what defense have I against the mob at the gates? Eh? You'll have me dead, woman!"
"You think we care about your Redcloak-aiding life? You're not worth more than the dirt it'd take to bury you. I"
"Kelgan," Zara said sharply, and the spearman snapped his jaws shut and stepped back. She could hear the haft of his spear creak under his powerful grip. "I am not asking to take your ship, Lord Governor. I am telling you. There is far more at stake here than Setoria. If you or the goons cowering behind your office wall try to stop us, then I'll tear this entire building to the ground."
The Governor flinched with every word, his soft features turning tremulous with Zara's rising intensity. When her power flared, the force of her wounded Spirit rounded his eyes in terror, while the Iron Rank behind him stiffened in alarm, shooting a wild glance at the leftmost wall. A secret door opened, and ten Iron Ranks charged into the room, swords and daggers bared. They made it no further than two strides within before they were felled, knocked unconscious by nothing more than Zara's anger.
For her part, she ignored them all, bearing down on the soft, quivering chin of her prey. By the end of her words, the Lord Governor was half-sunk into his chair and sweating enough for two men. He reached for his badge of office, fumbling with its linkage.
An aquamarine tendril of liquid light tore it from his neck.
"The right decision."
Zara marched from the room, meeting up with the rest of the Haarguard in the halls. She managed to pass through three chambers before her legs gave out. Reed, for all his faults, was there to catch her.
"You pressed too hard, Sorcerer," the Hand of Pax'Vrell muttered. "What will you do when I'm no longer here?"
She felt jittery and weak in his arms, but her Will was not inconsiderable. Zara pushed out of his arms and stood, unaided. She could make it to the roof, she hoped. "I have lasted this long without you, Reed, I imagine survive somehow. And had I pressed any lighter, he'd have wasted those Iron Ranks on a foolish attack. Better to have stopped it cold and saved their lives."
"You leave behind enemies." He snorted, drawing himself to his full height, towering over her by half a stride. "Not capable ones, but we could have move more quietly."
"And taken who knows how many weeks. We've important business to be about, Darius Reed, and I'll not be held back." Zara prowled down the hall, heading for the stairs up.
They made the roof quickly, where a special dock has been erected for the Governor's private use. The Manaship of the Territory was an emergency vessel provided to only those Territories that proved themselves worthy under the Hierocracy. Despite that lauded distinction, it was small, no bigger than a sloop. Fitting for the low concentration of Mana in the area, it was designed to function on considerably less than standard for the Interior.
"Pathetic," Reed scoffed.
He wasn't wrong. The Governor's sloop would likely carry only half their number, and at no faster pace than a steady mount. Luckily, it was not the only ship at dock. Two others were at anchor, both of them slightly larger than the sloop, but no more than Iron Rank craft at best. Each was fitted with three masts and a sleek hull, clearly built for speed and to a far higher standard of Mana than the Governor's own. They were clearly not property of Setoria but of the Inquisition, as they were built in a style that Zara hadn't seen since last she visited the capital. Zara frowned. Operating it would cost her far more Mana than she could afford, especially if she wished to maintain the speed they needed.
As the Haarguard piled aboard one of the ships, Zara unlocked the moorings that secured the vessel to the dock. The Governor's badge of office flared each time with a distinct vibrational signature, releasing the wards with a whisper of her own power. A whisper she could just barely afford.
"You're spent," Reed said and she eyed him with exhausted resolve. "You'll never make it to the Foglands. Not loaded up on one ship like that."
"We will because we must. Perhaps among the Haarguard I can find enough pilots to fuel the ship. Thangle is a sturdy fellow, and quite capable with Mana Manipulation. You've your own ship now, free to try the barrier and report back to your Duke. I shall continue on." Zara grinned at Reed, and heard the slight squirm in his Spirit at sight of her sharp teeth. "Duty weighs on us all, Reed."
The Hand was silent as Zara finished releasing both boats from their warded lines. Zara managed it all, even keeping her feet when all she wanted was to rest. Yet when she attempted to mount the gangplank, a hand landed on her shoulder, halting her steps.
"The Lady Dayne is in the Foglands, yes?" Reed asked. "That is where she...fled to, is it not?"
"Indeed. She travels with Felix." Last she knew, that is, before both of their Marks had gone silent.
"I can feel warriors gathering beyond the barrier," he said. "Even from here. They aren't strong, nothing compared to an Adept, but that'll change soon. The powers will come to challenge this place, to see this fool that declared himself king. And my Duke's daughter is caught up in all of it." The big warrior grimaced and glanced at his new Manaship in consternation before sighing. As if a great deal of tension drained out of him, his shoulders slumped before firming once more.
"You there!" he shouted, and one of the Haarguard froze in instinctual fear. Reed hurled a bundle of enchanted rope up to him, taken from the moorings at their feet. "Bind that ship to the other! Keep it loose, but secure it!"
The Haarguard gave a halting affirmation before gathering up a few others and setting to work. Reed nodded and started up the gangplank.
"What're you waiting for? We've places to be." He drew himself up and met her gaze. "One threat may be ended, but this is the chimera's mouth, and I'll have her out of it before it snaps shut."
"As you say," Zara said, grin bright and sharp. "Let us be on our way."
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