Heretic Spellblade 7 - Ch4

Chapter 4

“Aren’t you underestimating Nathan?” Ciana interrupted.

The unicorn knight glared down at Kadria from where she stood overlooking the mist surrounding them.

Refusing to take the bait, Kadria simply rolled her eyes. “Don’t butt into conversations you don’t understand. This isn’t something you can fight off with a sword or deflect with a barrier. If Nathan barrels on with this course, he’ll fuck up everything. I’m worried that’s…” She trailed off, biting her lip.

“Your employer’s plan?” Nathan asked, leaning back and draining his coffee. More appeared in his cup with a flash of his magic. He’d gotten better at this.

“Former employer,” she corrected, but inclined her head as her eyebrows shot up. “I’m surprised you caught on so fast.”

“If you’re worried about this… multiverse stuff, there aren’t many candidates. And I just got a warning to worry about Messengers, not Charlotte.” He stared out into the mist and let his thoughts wander afar. “Artemis’s warning was direct, but felt restrained. Why warn me, then tell me she was my enemy? No. She was telling me to worry about your old boss and the partner. The outer beings.”

Kadria nodded. “I agree. And we’re now at the point where you don’t need to rely on me for so much, partner.” Her eyes flashed with amusement as she reached over with one hand and stroked his crotch. “Which is why you can’t jump worlds. Ever.”

Back to this, then.

Nathan stood up and joined Ciana by the edge of the mound, but turned his back to the mist. Twirling her sake vessel, the succubus stared up at him, as if waiting for his questions.

“Why?” he asked, starting simply. “You’ve done it before.

“Yes, in a world without an active prophet, before anyone knew my intentions… or was willing to act against them.” She grimaced at the thought that she’d been allowed to rebel against her former boss. “You’re forgetting the scale of their power. Charlotte is a shard of the true being. When you step out of this Doumahr, you’ll be in the space between worlds. Prey, in other words.”

“I… don’t understand.”

Kadria had once told him that the outer beings existed between worlds. He hadn’t understood it then, and didn’t know.

“The multiverse is everything that exists. Every possibility, in every instance. An infinitely large cosmos, spanning out in infinitely many directions. But tell me, where do you think we exist, right now?” She stared into his eyes.

A frown marred Nathan’s face. “In… my mind?”

“Are we in Doumahr?”

“Well, of… course…” He froze.

Hadn’t he been told they weren’t? Wasn’t that the point of using spatial and mental magic, to place them beyond the reach of others?

Kadria had even said that if he had somehow changed worlds, thanks to Artemis, she’d be unaffected.

Because this space wasn’t in Doumahr.

“Shit,” he breathed out.

“Ah. Finally understood the gravity of what we’ve been doing all along? Of what it means to walk around in some pocket dimension inside your own head? Maybe talk to that hag of a fox of yours about this place and see what she says. I bet she creams herself every time she steps inside.” She grinned at him.

He said nothing this time.

Kadria continued, “You’re safe here, because it is a pocket dimension in your head, much as that fox’s is in her gem. But the outer beings similarly live outside reality, except that don’t appear to be bound to it. I don’t know if the false goddess counts as one, but you’ve felt her presence.”

“And you think they’ll grab me if I try to jump worlds?” he asked.

“At minimum, they’ll be able to redirect your attempt.” She made a gesture with her hands, like somebody moving, only to abruptly shift in another direction. “You’ll think you’re going back ten seconds in time or something, only to find yourself in a wasteland.”

That counted as an appropriate warning to Nathan.

The idea of trying to fix everything, only to fuck things up worse…

“I get it,” he said, firming up the mental image of the disaster that had caused him to accept Kadria’s aid in the first place. “I only get one shot.”

“Yes. The risks are far too great, no matter what happens.”

Nathan had the answers he needed. After draining his coffee and unsummoning his mug—and Ciana’s once she finished hers—he moved to the staircase down.

Without turning, he said to Kadria, “Make sure you join us in the control room. We need to talk plans.”

Even though she only made a noncommittal noise, he took that as an affirmative. He and Ciana left.

Stepping outside, he encountered a strange trio.

The Twins stood alongside Astra, the legendary dark elf trigem Nathan had claimed over a year ago.

Now that Nathan wasn’t in the midst of combat, he had the chance to properly appreciate the Twins. Something he did more often and with far less guilt these days, given he regularly pressed the two of them together on his bed, buck-naked.

Maura and Laura had obscene figures. Tits larger than their heads, massive thighs, curly goat horns, and hourglass figures so stretched they needed a new word. Their bronzed skin matched Kadria’s tone and appeared to be a racial feature of succubi. Unlike Kadria, they wore somewhat more conversative clothing: monochrome dresses in either black or white, with a trim in the opposite color.

Maura went with black, and Laura with white. Neither wore underwear, and their cleavage threatened to spill out at any moment. Their eyes differed as well. Both had red eyes, but Maura’s sclera were solid black. Nathan had once considered that a sign of danger.

These days he knew better. The Twins were a unit, and the strengths and weaknesses of either woman were alleviated by the other. Although they certainly enjoyed playing the fool.

Astra’s figure wasn’t anywhere near as voluptuous as the succubi’s, but remained impressive. Like all dark elves, she possessed lustrous dark skin. She wore a revealing outfit consisting of dark plate armor and a violet cape which allowed Nathan to appreciate her curves. She’d tied her white hair behind her head in a short ponytail. Three luminescent opals shined from holes in her breastplate.

In ordinary times, those would mark her as a legend by themselves. Trigems had once been as rare as hen’s teeth. Each nation had one to three, and they could destroy armies and shake the foundation of the world when they moved. Astra had been a legend for being both a trigem and immortal, as she’d been alive when Omria herself walked Doumahr last.

But Nathan now had as many trigems as the rest of the world combined. Astra remained special, for many reasons, but had faded to the background lately.

He’d been so busy lately that while he’d noticed Astra’s retreat from social activities, he’d done nothing about it. Stupid of him, but with Doumahr burning down around him and Astra not one of his lovers, he’d let things slipped.

So the fact she’d shown up here raised an eyebrow. And hope.

“I take it you’re here to ambush me?” he asked the three.

“No,” Astra said. “To talk.”

“Yes,” the Twins said, then pointed at Alice’s bed. “We can fuck right here if you want that sort of ambush.”

Astra swung her arm through the air and two of her opals lit up. Smacks rang through the room as she slapped the Twins using her psychokinesis.

Spluttering, the succubi tried to rush Astra. Opals still glowing, Astra held them back without even looking. Maura and Laura ran on the spot, unable to move forward as they were held back by an invisible force, arms windmilling against the air.

Ciana giggled at the sight, while Nathan sighed. They were playing around, but at least Astra was getting involved.

“To talk about different things, I assume?” he asked.

“I mean, we’d still like to fuck,” Laura said. “We can talk and—”

This time, Astra clocked her and she fell to the floor. “Just talk. Then eat. You fuck after.”

“Nobody’s fucking at this time, on that bed, in this room, let alone before breakfast,” Nathan said.

“Aww,” the Twins whined. Then their expressions turned thoughtful. “What if we convinced Alice?”

“Good fucking luck,” he said. When their expressions turned devlish, he added, “And if you even try anything questionable on Alice, I’ll let Kadria loose on you. I’m sure she’d appreciate some revenge.”

The moment he mentioned the smaller goat, all amusement vanished from their faces. Laura shot to her feet and the Twins moved as one. They stood shoulder-to-shoulder, locking gazes with him.

“It’s the goat we want to talk to you about,” they said.

“Me first,” Astra said. She stepped in front of the Twins, fire burning in her eyes for the first time in weeks. “Visitor last night. She escaped. Why?”

So that’s what had her going, huh?

“Because we can’t kill her. With Ciana’s new trigem ability, we fought her to a draw and she retreated.” Nathan nodded at his bodyguard. “I take it you have a problem with that.”

“Restrain her. If I’d arrived—”

“Artemis would have kept screaming and screaming. Her wail paralyzes people, even if she seems to dislike using it. Her trigem ability can shatter any restraint. Tarako might be able to kill her, but—”

“I can kill her!” Astra snarled, taking a step forward and pushing her face only an inch away from Nathan’s. She snapped something in dark elf, but Nathan only recognized the curse words she used. Colorful ones at that.

“Whoa, language,” Maura drawled. “Maybe talk about skullfucking the hag in private.”

When Astra didn’t deny the claim, Nathan understood the issue.

“The issue isn’t you vs Tarako,” he said.

“Because I’m better than her. I’m the one Omria trusted, not her—” Astra began to say, more emotion in her voice than Nathan recalled hearing since the days leading up to her death in his original world. Except those emotions had been dour, not blazing.

Ciana pushed between the dark elf and Astra, fury filling her face. Her diamonds flashed as she shoved the other trigem back. In return, one of Astra’s opals glowed and she responded in kind.

Only for the dark elf to stumble backward anyway. Shock filled her expression, and then her entire face reddened.

Immediately, regret flashed across Ciana’s face before she schooled her expression. She knew she’d gone too far.

The entire diorama had played out in a second or two. During which time Nathan had been preoccupied by the usual immense mental presence that assaulted him whenever he or one of his Champions said Omria’s name aloud.

Except this time, the being seemed weakened. Or wary. He knew nothing about it, other than the shadow it cast over his mind whenever it appeared. Yet he knew it was acting differently. Rather than railing against his mental barriers, it simply hovered nearby. Like an orbiting satellite, to borrow a term the Twins had explained to him.

He refused to reach out to it. When Fyre’s power rushed through her link with him to get rid of it, the strange thing left of its own accord. He felt confusion fill his mind from Fyre, followed by the usual emotions of care and love from the horsegirl prophet.

A mystery for him to puzzle out later.

Because the situation in Alice’s bedroom needed his attention right now.

“Why are you strong?” Astra asked, a strange mixture of anger and mortification battling across her features as she looked at Ciana. “How? Those are diamonds. Barrier gems. I am immortal. I’m… Astra.”

Ciana merely bit her lip, and looked back at Nathan. Even the Twins seemed wary of the situation.

If this were Nurevia or any other Champion doubting themselves, the succubi would be grinning from ear-to-ear, ready to pounce. Instead, fear filled their eyes and they split up, moving toward both doors.

Maura’s voice slipped inside his head, which was a new occurrence. One he’d gotten used to, given Reine and Fyre sometimes spoke with mentally now.

Be careful. If she destabilizes, this might be what turns her into a Messenger, Maura said.

What? he asked.

No time for a proper explanation, unfortunately. Astra began to shake her head and took a step backward.

“Astra, power as a Champion is about more than what type of gems you have,” he began to say.

“I’m weak then,” she said.

“No,” he said quickly.

“Then—”

“Shut up and listen.”

“Why? So…” Astra screwed up her face, tears forming in the edges of them.

He knew she was about to shut down, just as she had when he’d first taken her away from the Spires. This outburst was entirely unlike anything he’d dealt with in the dark elf.

When she turned and tried to run, the Twins were ready for her. Their arms glowed with the strange darkness of their spatial magic. They caught Astra. The dark elf tried to fight back, but her heart wasn’t in it. Even so, the succubi kept their distance.

Nathan approached her, Ciana immediately beside him.

“Astra, calm down. We need to talk,” he said, kneeling down.

She kneeled on the ground, restrained by the Twins’ magic. Blood dripped down her chin as she bit into her lip. “I don’t need you to lie to me,” she said, clearly focusing to speak so elaborately. “I spent my youth being lied to. Told how important I was to the Spires and my Bastion, despite being so mediocre. I was one of dozens of useless Champions. I’m… Astra. The only trigem of the Spires. If I’m no longer that, what am I?”

Nathan struggled to match up the woman kneeling in front of him, breaking in front of his eyes, with the indomitable dark elf he’d known and respected for his entire adult life.

When Astra had faced her death and the destruction of her home, it had been with a determination to see out the end, no matter what it meant. To go down fighting. The fact she had been unable to stop the demons and knew it failed to faze her.

Her determination had driven him for the rest of his life. He considered his failure to save her and the Spires during the defense of Gharrick Pass to be the turning point of his life and the shattering of his “hero” mentality, even if it was too little, too late. Astra died for his failures, alongside the countless millions of Arcadia and the Federation.

Yet she seemed reduced to a frustrated child here, one furious at the fact she seemed unable to single-handedly live up to her own legend. What was the difference? What had changed?

He had, Nathan realized.

In his old world, he’d been a young pup with potential that Astra had taken an interest in and helped train. Maybe in her eyes, he’d been like all of the many friends she’d seen buried before her. The ones she’d spoken of that one night they’d drunk together, when she’d explained why she could never leave the Spires.

Now Nathan was the one with the power and the drive to protect everything.

She wasn’t the legendary Astra anymore. She was just Astra, one of many trigem Champions.

“You are still the only trigem of the Spires,” he said. “And you are always Astra.”

“It’s just a name. Everyone’s called Astra these days,” she muttered.

If things weren’t so serious, he’d almost laugh at that comment.

He kneeled next to her. While he wanted to wrap an arm around her, they weren’t so close that he could do so. Astra sometimes flirted with him, but only in a sexual way, and he suspected that was just for fun. She appreciated the position and power.

That much was obvious from her words here. She enjoyed being the legend everyone built her up to.

“You’re not mediocre, Astra. You never have been. If you were, I’d never be the man I am right now,” he said. “Gems, magic, power—they don’t make people who they are. They simply allow them to reveal their true selves. And you’ve done nothing but protect and help your people with your immense power. You don’t need to be a legend to be great, Astra. You are great.”

Tears built up in the edges of her eyes and she finally looked at him.

This time, she spoke to him in dark elf. He couldn’t understand a word until Maura’s voice spoke in his mind to translate.

“But I wasn’t great. Not until I…” Astra said, her fingers brushing her third opal—the one that granted her immortality. “He offered me the ability to protect my people. To be the hope of the dark elves. To be everything that Omria had denied them, he said. The hero of a forsaken people, who would eternally guard them, until…” Her body shook.

He didn’t want to ask the obvious question, but the Twins prodded him mentally.

“Until?” he asked.

“Until there was nothing left, or hope wasn’t enough.” Astra gulped. “I never understood the last part. Thought it was meaningless. But it means…”

Nathan understood immediately. He also knew who had given her immortality.

The partner. Kadria had said that the partner spoke in stories, riddles, and prophecies, and that he twisted heroes into Messengers.

With Nathan’s knowledge of Doumahr and Omria, he was able to puzzle together the riddle before him.

Omria had once used the dark elves to fight demons and Messengers, but failed. So they were ignored and left to die when invaded, preventing them from gaining truly powerful Champions. Hence they were a forsaken people. Astra was their hope.

And if Astra became unable to protect them, that meant hope wouldn’t be enough.

Or if Astra thought she was unable to protect them, the same might apply.

Was this how she died in various worlds? When the Spires were destroyed or enough dark elves wiped out, her immortality failed?

And if Nathan failed to convince Astra she remained capable of protecting her people, what would happen?

“You’re still here, Astra. Still fighting. The Spires still stand, and you protected them only a couple of weeks ago.” He wrapped one of his hands around hers. “I can promise you that we will never stop, and I will do everything I can to help you accomplish that. Because you are always Astra, the guardian of the Spires.”

She hiccupped. “You can do that without me. Even she”—she glanced up at Ciana—“can beat me.”

“Nobody can defeat you. You’re immortal. That’s what makes you Astra.”

A giggle escaped her and she finally gripped his hand.

“But… it’s not my power,” she mumbled. “Omria knew it. After I became a trigem and defeated a Messenger, she appeared and saw right through me. Told me she knew the price I’d paid.”

Nobody said a word. This was a part of the story nobody knew. Probably not even Kadria or Tarako.

“And she… hugged me. Told me she understood. That she’d done the same, but that I couldn’t give in again.” A sob racked Astra’s body. “I… It’s so hard. Especially as I know she’s returned. And she’s… Why… She was my friend and everything is her fault! My people will die because of her and I can’t do anything. How could she lie like that?”

Astra slammed into Nathan and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. Her head pressed against his neck as she cried, her entire body shaking against him. He could do little more than rub her back.

Minutes passed like this. Sunstorm arrived to check on them about breakfast, saw the scene and left.

Eventually, Astra straightened up. Ciana produced a handkerchief for the dark elf to clean herself up with.

“Sorry,” Astra said, finally speaking Imperial again. “It’s… tiring.”

“It helps to vent sometimes,” Nathan said. “Especially with everything happening.”

“Maybe.” She bit her lip and stared at the ground. “I… don’t like being weak. These opals are…”

“Old?” he suggested.

She nodded, then glanced at Ciana’s diamonds. “But they are mine. Thank you for listening. We will speak again.”

The certainty in her last words relieved Nathan. Watching Astra break down had struck Nathan harder than almost anything he’d seen.

She’d been a constant in his life. A living legend, unperturbed by almost anything. Seeing past her mask hurt in a way he struggled to describe. Not quite as badly as finding out the truth of Charlotte, as Astra wasn’t deceiving him, but the feeling struck a similar chord.

But he needed to be strong. He was Astra’s Bastion and it was his role to guide her and assist her. While she’d recovered for now, he needed to find a way to continue to help her.

Astra left, leaving him alone with Ciana and the Twins. He shot the succubi a look.

“This is about Kadria?” he asked.

They winced. “Uh, after that, it’s a bit hard to bitch,” they said together.

“You’re unhappy I went to her about Artemis,” he said.

“Duh.”

“Short version: I saw into other worlds while fighting Artemis. You didn’t react but Artemis did, so I wanted to check with her. Kadria doesn’t know for sure either, but is certain I didn’t jump worlds.”

They stared at him, then their jaws dropped.

“You fucking what?” Maura asked.

“Uh, holy shit.” Laura gulped. “Um, perving on our alternate selves is fine and all, but don’t get any ideas about hopping to another world, knocking us up, and then hopping back to avoid responsibility, y’know.”

He stared at them. “What? Wait, you can get pregnant?”

“Uh, no, but you’re you.” Maura shrugged. “Also, I’m pretty sure bad things will happen if you even try to change worlds now.”

“The goat said the same thing,” Ciana said.

The Twins grinned when Ciana used the same nickname for Kadria they preferred. Then frowned when they comprehended her words.

“Well, we agree on that at least,” Laura mumbled. “Anyway, be careful around her.”

He sighed. “I know you’re in some catfight with her. Just don’t let it bleed over into anything serious. If you fuck up something major, the punishment won’t be sex. I’m letting you off the leash now, as it’s too risky with Bauer and Artemis around to restrain you. But one misstep and—”

“We’re living cocksleeves. Yeah, we know.” Maura made an obscene gesture with her hands. “Anyway, we’re all in on the Dark Lord Nathan plan. Hell, you have Trafaumh under your thumb now with wolfie in charge of the Inquisition. Turn the princess inside-out and you’ll have everything except Arcadia.”

That wasn’t his plan, but arguing with the Twins was like trying to win a fight against a punching bag. All he’d accomplish was exhausting himself.

“Anyway, breakfast,” he said. “Then we have an important meeting. Gareth thinks Otto is a traitor, we need to discuss Artemis’s warning, and I need an update on the status of our fronts with Falmir.”

- - - - -

Commentary: The Astra stuff has been a long time coming, and working her character arc into this book is both important and difficult. I regret not giving her a more subtle scene at the end of last book, especially as while I'm working with her social retreat last book, it wasn't intended to be as severe (although her lack of impact in battles has been part of the growing issue).

And yeah, this Astra story has been planned, although I switched her from the boss to the partner when I decided to use two outer beings in Book 5 (there was always the idea of having multiple, but I wasn't sure I wanted the complexity). The idea that Astra was weak and wanted to become strong to protect her race, and that her immortality is tied to the dark elf race, is... I'm not sure I'd hinted, but at least consistent. It's why even the Messengers can't hurt her. They're tangoing with power granted by an outer being.

I still need a chapter that isn't as intense or plot-related, and might see if I can squeeze it into Chapter 6.