AO 5 Ch 25

There were a few clangs of metal in the distance and shouts. However, the fighting was being taken care of by the rebels. Only a few hiding soldiers were being discovered in what little remained of the depot.

The estate that served as a depot itself was barely standing. Only a corner of the building had actually survived the fight, which was saying something in and of itself.

Boss walked up to me with an older woman in tow. I could tell instantly she was the mage that had been floating on the ice sheet above. She bowed to me, dipping her head low. 

"Thank you for your assistance," she said, with the poise of nobility. "Without your help, we wouldn't have made it this far."

"I don't think you would have made it at all," Emlyn decided to be rude, most likely because I couldn't be in this situation.

I had to be noble. Later, I’d thank her for it. "Don't worry about it. I just took a liking to Boss here," I gestured at the knight turned bandit.

"Whatever the reason, you have my thanks," she said. "Clarence here doesn't get to take any of that credit away from you."

"What do we do about the supplies?" I said, gesturing at the ruined depot. 

"If you would be so willing to use the earth magic I had seen previously, we might be able to recover what was in the cellar." Lady Bandit Mage because she was most certainly a noble.

I winced and looked at Eva. "The cellar was pretty much a horror show, wasn't it?"

Eva nodded. "I don't want any supplies from down there and I don't think we should let them take anything from down there either. It should all be burned."

The woman bit her lip and shook her head. “We need those food supplies, even if they to smell like blood.”

"Do you have any ability to lift some of the damage?" she gestured at the destroyed estate and then to me.

I shook my head and waved my hand, moving large chunks of stone.

We'd comb through that, but really it was never about the supplies. We always knew that this battle would shrink their number to the point that supplies wouldn't be an issue. Any positive feelings about her just evaporated with that realization.

She wanted the food to sell, because this had to be most of their forces.

The bandit mage must have misread my face. "Is there anything else to discuss?”

“No, it had to be done. Not just this place as a supply depot, but what they were doing here was very..." Emlyn searched for the word and no one tried to help her. We were all stunned at what had happened here.

It had truly been an atrocity. 

"So, you have our thanks." The bandit mage seemed to want to move on from that commentary.

I got the sense the woman wanted to talk more and raised an eyebrow at her in question.

“Could we talk in private for a few minutes, perhaps?” The bandit mage asked.

That request had Maribelle bristling and stepping closer to me. The woman nodded at my anchor. 

"I understand it might be difficult to be entirely alone with a mage of your status," she said, glancing nervously at my anchor.

Maribelle seemed to have that effect on everyone. 

"Of course," I smiled, "Maribelle with me. Emlyn, Zuri Aurelia, you are free. Please make sure not to cause too much trouble." 

Emlyn snorted. "Funny coming from you. Alright." She grabbed Zuri and walked with the other anchor. It wasn't unusual for those two to pair up as a team.

Aurelia hesitated, looking over her shoulder, before trudging after them. All three of them seemed to be heading for the fortified manor itself.

I hoped there would be something worthwhile that would come from the rubble.

The older mage bowed to me once we were alone. "I really can't thank you enough." 

"Nonsense." I held my chin high, knowing that she was regarding me quite warily. Most likely, my use of multiple spheres caught her eye. Amid all of that, it was hard to hide the magic I was using. I cast a glance over my shoulder at Maribelle to see what she thought.

My maid had her usual stoic face on, waiting and watching the other mage carefully. 

"Of course, what they were doing was terrible," the woman said, "However, this is war." 

My eyes nearly popped out of my head as I put my attention back on the older mage. "That is no excuse for what they've done. Each and every one of those corrupted," I pointed over at where the abomination had melted, "was once a fellow serpent mage of our kingdom. You and I both know they're all gone. And they had to go somewhere. That somewhere appears to be right there, dead." 

"I am aware, Sir..." She trailed off, clearly prompting for my name.

"Trevor Shalman," I introduced myself, "I’m just a Merchant, not a Sir." That statement earned me a scoff. 

"You can pretend if you'd like. There's no hiding the magic you performed here today. You're a three-sphere mage. And I have never heard of one of those amongst the merchants. I would like to know which of the esteemed noble families you hail from, so I know who is supporting the rebel efforts." 

"You're not getting another name," I said calmly.

During the fight, I’d been forced to use multiple different elements in order to protect our group. It was clear now that I had overstepped and aroused her suspicion. Yet, she’d be the leader of the bandits considering her status as a mage, even if she wasn’t acting in a noble capacity.

For the moment, she at least pretended to respect my desire for anonymity, bowing her head. What she really wanted to know was how to get in touch with me and use my firepower for her cause in the future. We both understood the dynamic playing out.

"You can reach out to the Shalman family should you need them. My father is aware of my actions and supports them. However, I would caution you against expecting too much help." 

I saw a ripe opportunity to acquire plenty of goods for my mercantile business. I decided it was better to continue pretending to be a cutthroat merchant rather than let her pull me along by any sort of moral strings she felt she could attach to me. 

"I understand," she said, deferring to me. It felt good to be important, even if she just thought I was important. 

"Sir," Maribelle bowed, "I don't think we should stay here much longer." 

If Maribelle said we needed to go, then as far as I was concerned, it was time to make a rapid exit. 

"Understood. Good day, Miss…” I held out my hand, trying to recall if she had introduced herself. 

"White. Simply, Miss White," she said. "If you have need of me, or this motley crew I seem to have been adopted into," she gestured at the bandits, "please let me know. Of course, I'm sure we'll be in touch again." 

I shook her hand and followed Maribelle as she led me to the others. As we walked, I could see the amount of carnage that had been done more clearly.

Bandits and anchors alike covering the ground, although perhaps I should call them all rebels. Many were in various states of dying. It was a gruesome scene, and I swallowed down my bile, hoping I had the willpower to not do anything about it until after we left. 

I wanted to go over and lay hands on all of the dying men, because I could heal them. 

However, Trevor Shalman could not heal these men. And revealing that he could do so was dangerous to the broader cause. I can only imagine how furious Uncle Valken would become if he learned that I revealed not only that I had a serpent sphere to these people, but I had also shown the other three spheres during the fight.

Given her reaction and knowledge that I had three of the spheres, healing these men would put me squarely in a four-sphere in her eyes. And there was only one of those in the world.

“It must have been the Hollow Mage.” A rebel rasped.

I stopped, listening to a group of nearby anchors.

One of them was holding someone who held enough resemblance that they could be nothing other than brothers. 

"We did it, brother. We must have killed the Hollow Mage. That's what that was, right?" There was a sense of desperation in his voice. Like he hoped that his death would herald the end of the war. That it would mean something. 

I stopped and closed my eyes. It was almost viscerally painful because I knew that wasn't the case at all. This was just another small step in the incredibly slow progress of the war. It was something that would take far more time to finish.

"Don't. Don't talk like that, brother." The older held the younger as he was dying, his hand pressing against the gaping wound in the side of his chest. "We did this together. We defeated the Hollow Mage. You need to be around to see Garrish bloom anew, to see rainbows. Double rainbows."

Now he was really reaching. There is no such thing as double rainbows.

However, despite being led away by Maribelle, I found my trajectory had shifted. I was no longer heading away from the wounded soldiers. Instead, I was heading directly towards them.

"Ard," Emlyn said, catching up and trying to get my attention.

I groaned internally at what I was about to do.

War was dirty; war was disgusting. Hiding my identity was important, but staying true to myself was the most important.

I was going to heal the rebels because that was what felt right to me. It wasn't a simple desire to be Arden Adlis and stand tall. I was going to heal people when they needed it.

Maribelle took my soul’s desire to heart, shooting forward like a cannonball, landing next to the wounded brothers. Her hand glowed as she used life magic on both of them. 

The brothers gasped, and the noise attracted attention. As the wounded turned to see Maribelle's healing touch, the maid gave me a look from beneath her eyelashes, warning me to stay away.

She would be my healer, protecting me from myself and from making myself a bigger target.

"A healer," Lady White gasped, coming up as if to confirm it with her own eyes.

"Yes, it seems," I glared over at my maid, "Maribelle has a bleeding heart and couldn't hide that fact."

I pretended to be angry, though I was fairly certain I failed at it.

"But I saw her in the fight. She was... an anchor. I could have sworn she was an anchor," the mage murmured to herself.

"It's a trick with life magic," I quickly grasped for an excuse. "She's using life magic to reinforce her body, and thus pretend to be an anchor."

"Like a Vel’shae," the woman said.

"No, no, no, no, no. Trust me, she's not a Vel’shae," I said. At least in that I was sure I was believable. After all, that wasn't a lie. That and I didn’t want anyone to think we were with Zenovia.

"Ah, my mistake," the mage said a touch too quickly. It sounded to me like she was humoring me.

"Yes. Yes, well, bring your wounded around. Now that the secret's out," I gestured at Maribelle, "we might as well heal everyone we can."

The mage was once again quick to agree with me. She waved down several of the anchors and bandits, telling them to gather up.

It felt good for me to do this, even though I knew I was putting Maribelle at even higher risk given the disappearance of serpent mages amongst the Garrish kingdom.

If word got out, we were potentially putting a target on our backs. The rebels and their mage were not the type to be telling the kingdom Garrish.

Instead my concern was largely in gossip, rumors, and desperation. Given the utter lack of healers, I wouldn't be surprised to find at least a few of these bandits had a relative in dire need of healing. So much so that they would risk exposing Maribelle to get her assistance.

"You do understand that this is very important that this information doesn't spread," I decided to press the issue with Lady White.

"Of course," she said, nodding. "A serpent mage is highly desired right now. I think we will be in contact quickly, if nothing more, than trying to get some of our other forces back on their feet."

I grimaced, knowing that was exactly what I didn't want Maribelle doing. "We'll have to arrange something in the distant future. I think, after this, we would prefer to put some distance between ourselves and the incident," I gestured at the crumbled supply depot. "Not to mention, it would be best for us to continue our merchant route and not rouse any suspicion."

"You're heading east?" she asked, and I tensed up at the question, only for her to spread her hands. "I just asked, because I would be very willing to accommodate your travel schedule and bring those that I would like healed to you."

I glanced up at the dark night sky, thinking for a moment. My anchors were lined up behind me, waiting for me to make the decision. "Yes, we're heading east for now. I can't promise that our plans won't change. We'll be headed towards Fargo. If you wish to meet us there."

***

Freya clapped her hands together as King Martin pulled himself from the pool of dark liquid.

The liquid fell off his pale body cleanly, leaving not the faintest sheen of it behind. He took several steps, leaning against the wall and running his hands through his hair, pulling it back.

King Martin was no longer bald, short, and frail. Instead, his body had undergone a drastic change. His hair had become full and as dark as midnight, his skin as white as the finest porcelain, and his body was lined with muscle. 

"Congratulations, King Martin," Freya said, handing him a towel that had been placed here for him. "It seems the transformation was complete, though I thought it would take you a little longer." 

He wiped at his face before running the towel over his hair and hanging it on his neck. "There was a large disturbance," he squinted, staring off to the south. "It seems three of my vessels have died, two just recently." He wiggled his lips and ran his tongue over his teeth. His canines were now more prominent than they had been before, and it made him sound slightly funny when he talked. “I don’t have time to waste.”

"Well, after your transformation, do you need any more vessels, as you call them? Those strange bags of flesh that carry your excess magic are rather crude." Freya observed.

King Martin turned to her, grinning. "No, I do not," he cleared his throat. "Carmilla!" 

A woman stepped out of the shadows, a docile smile on her face. She bowed her head towards King Martin as she lowered her body to prostrate herself. The chivalrous thing to do would have been to dismiss her actions, but he enjoyed watching her grovel. 

"As you can see, the modifications I made to her are holding up well.”

They were and had turned Carmilla into a wonderful tool.

 On the other hand, the goddess Freya was another sort. She was the kind of wicked woman that would do anything she needed to get what she wanted.

King Martin would love to see her grovel right next to his master, however it seemed she was still far out of his reach. Instead, he would have to do with Carmilla, “and her mind is still intact?”

“All of her memories are as they were the moment she died. Though, above all other desires has firmly been placed the need to satisfy you," Freya said as she curled a lock of her hair. 

The woman was voluptuous beyond human proportions, and the way she held an arm underneath her chest always drew King Martin's eye. 

"Perfect. Carmilla, go and find the rest of our experiments. We'll no longer be needing them.” King Martin ordered.

“Would you like me to get rid of them, sir?" Carmilla said, rising to her feet, her legs hidden under her dress. 

"No, don't do that. Bring them to me, I will ensure that they remain useful even in their death." He smiled, and he knew this time that his fangs were catching the light. Even better, he would get to use them soon. 

As soon as Carmilla left the room, Freya turned back to him. "Of course, now that I have fulfilled this desire of yours," she gestured at his new body, "you now need to fulfill your side of the deal." The charming, seductive face she had kept plastered on disappeared into more of a hungry smile. 

"I'm aware. The Avente mage known as Arden, as well as my master.” King Martin nodded.

“When you summon her again, when you have enough power to do it, that is, I will be here, and I will help you catch her. Don't worry about defeating her. As long as we can get our hands on her, I can make her just as docile as your lovely Carmilla." Freya smiled.

King Martin grinned, once again aware he was showing off his fangs. Oh, he would love to do that to his master. He would become the true Hollow Mage, and once he had his master under his boot, Freya was next.

He knew Freya would become a problem, but he couldn't wait to turn her into his little pet. All of them. No one would use him and get away with doing so. But for now, King Martin will play along, find this mage Arden, as well as build up enough strength to summon and capture his master. Then, then all hell would break loose.