Heretic Spellblade 7 - Ch3

Chapter 3

Nathan dreamed of his vision of Ciana’s death. But not merely as he saw it.

Most times, it played out as he recalled it. Artemis pounced on Ciana’s misstep, leaping past her defenses before she activated her trigem barrier and killing her in a single blow. The raw power of a Messenger couldn’t be denied. Nathan had forgotten just how tremendously dangerous these beings were with how prepared he’d been for each encounter.

Sometimes Artemis didn’t need to deflect Ciana’s duogem ability to strike. Other times she knocked the greatsword aside physically.

In one rather horrifying sequence, the Messenger even planted a kiss on the dying Champion while gazing into Nathan’s eyes.

But not every “memory” matched his recollection, or even reality.

Ciana once tried to use some sort of regeneration ability after being stabbed, as if that had been her duogem ability instead of projecting a gleaming silver barrier. In another, her black and gold Champion uniform was instead pitch black, along with her horn, and she had blood red eyes like Fyre.

And in one occurrence, Ciana didn’t die.

It started out the same. Artemis pounced. Ciana raised her greatsword and it was knocked aside. But this time, she’d only been holding it with one hand.

With her spare hand, she projected her trigem barrier, folding space and preventing Artemis from reaching her. Except the catgirl Messenger was only inches away from Ciana, her hands poised to pierce the unicorn’s heart.

And Artemis froze. Her entire body appeared caught in the infinite bends of space that Ciana’s ability projected. Only her legs remained free and she kicked them wildly.

Then Tarako appeared, as if proving she’d been eavesdropping the entire time, and turned Artemis into chunks.

The memory ended with the Messenger’s detached green eyes staring up at Nathan in utter fear, as if aware he was staring at her from another world.

Because, somehow, he knew that’s what this was. These weren’t figments of his imagination.

Nathan had witnessed this exact phenomenon twice now. First, when the Twins had attacked. The second time had been when Charlotte tried to redo her encounter with him at the Torrovium Fields.

These were visions of other worlds. Ones almost identical to his own, but that played out differently. Ciana’s different duogem ability had been the one world that significantly deviated.

Had he somehow jumped to another world upon witnessing Ciana’s death? How? He hadn’t felt a thing, beside the magic searing his veins as he tried to cast a spell to stop Artemis?

Plus, neither Tarako nor the Twins had reacted. Maybe Tarako would be unaware, but it appeared Artemis had noticed in the fight. Surely the Twins would as well?

There was only one person who might help him if the Twins appeared confused.

He rose at dawn, which meant he’d barely slept. Ciana murmured something as he slipped free from his grasp. Ignoring her, he entered the bathroom and began to shower.

“You’re up early,” she said, following him inside a minute later with a change of clothes.

“Go back to bed. I just have a few things to do,” he told her.

She pretended he hadn’t said anything and instead set his clothes down. A moment later, her arms closed around him from behind and she planted a kiss against his neck.

“Are you alright?” Ciana asked. Her horn glowed so brilliantly that it almost hurt to look at. “You’ve been having nightmares all night. Worse than they’ve been since you first gemmed me. I can tell Alice if you need to take the day off and—”

“It’s fine, Ciana.” He turned, carefully avoiding her horn, and clasped her cheeks. “I just need to talk to… somebody.”

Her eyes locked onto his, full of love and care. But the flash of darkness from her horn told him that she understood who he meant and disapproved.

The Twins weren’t the only succubi under Nathan’s control. But while his Champions had grown to begrudgingly approve and get along with that pair of rambunctious succubi, the other one was a different story.

In Soreaux, Nathan’s long-term benefactor and the succubus who had brought him here from his dying world had finally joined him in reality. Her name was Kadria, and she’d killed all of his Champions in his original world.

Safe to say, relations between her and everyone else remained tense. It didn’t help that the Twins and Tarako hated her, poisoning the well from the start.

Also, Kadria was a master of condescension. She could make somebody feel like an idiot for asking her to pass the butter.

So Nathan sighed and rubbed his thumbs across Ciana’s cheeks. “You can come if you like.”

“She’ll throw a tantrum,” Ciana said. “She called me Fyre’s plus one. I don’t need to know what that is to understand what it means.”

“The Twins can explain it.”

“They did. In way more detail than ever.” She frowned. “They’re not here, and probably not eavesdropping, so I’ll say it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Maura and Laura so obviously threatened by somebody else. They never take any of us except you seriously, even Tarako, but bring up Kadria and it’s like trying to steal food from Fei.”

An apt analogy.

Nathan turned Ciana around and began washing her long, golden hair. She turned her head and smiled at him, but let him pamper her. For now. He knew that she’d get her revenge.

Any attempt he made to be nice to Ciana would be returned a hundredfold.

“They weren’t nightmares,” he said. “They were…” Biting his lip, he pushed himself to be genuinely open for the first time in years.

How many times had he kicked himself for not simply telling his Champions and loved ones the truth to start with? They trusted him. He should trust them.

“It’s fine. You don’t have to tell me, Nathan.” Ciana grasped his hand as it weaved through her hair.

He shook her off and kept up his ministrations. “No, I need to. The truth is that I saw something last night when we saw Artemis.”

“… I knew something happened. You froze, and then suddenly your emotions went crazy and Artemis shuddered. I just assumed you used your time dilation power and something happened between the two of you. Fyre’s told me that she and the Twins can speak to you when you use it, after all.”

“It wasn’t that. Instead…” He sighed. “I saw you die, Ciana. Somehow, I saw all these different worlds that Messengers talk about. The infinite variations of the same thing, and then made something different happen. That’s why I need to talk to Kadria. She’s the only person who might know what the hell happened.”

Ciana nodded. “I don’t really understand. Narime and Tarako seemed to, but all that matters is that you’re with me, Nathan. But thank you for telling me. I wish I’d been able to do more last night.”

“You did enough.” He wrapped his arms around her.

As he’d expected, Ciana took advantage of his weakness by seizing control of the moment and washing his entire body and his hair. Once thoroughly clean, they stepped out and cleaned. Or, really, Ciana cleaned him, then herself while he dressed. She’d forgotten to bring her own change her clothes in.

When they stepped into his bedroom, they found Sunstorm and Tarako inside, glaring at each other. Sunstorm glared at the other woman, while the fox was mid-yawn when Nathan stepped in with a naked Ciana. She blinked cutely at them.

Sunstorm had managed to find her clothes this morning. She wore a skintight black uniform with a pair of wicked short swords gleaming from her hips. A pair of onyxes and a single jade sat in her collarbone.

By contrast, Tarako remained in her white nightgown. The gold trim around its edges was of an old-fashioned cord that must have taken hours for somebody to craft and painstakingly bind to the gown. She bared her legs to the world, but the rest of her trim, muscular figure was kept a secret. Three zoisites glittered above her slim bust, looking almost like sapphires.

“It seems I missed something interesting after I stopped listening in,” Tarako said, an impudent grin crossing her face.

A thunderous scowl crossed Ciana’s face and her horn turned pitch black. Nathan placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Get dressed,” he told her. “Tarako, don’t make me increase the wards to cut you off. Especially as I’d prefer to find a way to key you and the succubi into them so you can teleport around. Last night was a warning shot. Messengers are roaming Doumahr, and both Bauer and Artemis are far more insidious threats than Beatrice.”

“Fiiine.” Tarako shrugged. “But I did overhear something very interesting, so I won’t apologize.”

“Rather than an apology, why don’t you explain how the hell you got in here,” Sunstorm ground out. “I’ve been on guard all night and just switched out with Nurevia, yet you somehow got past us.”

“I arranged my own entrance,” Tarako said, turning to look at the empty portrait that had appeared in Nathan’s bedroom last night. “Nathan blocked teleportation, but if I’m to guard him then I need a way to be here at any time. The last time I had a Bastion, I slept in his room, even when he was taking other women. That would be ideal but—”

“I am absolutely not adding other beds to my room,” Nathan said flatly.

Ciana’s eyes had lit up the moment the idea had come up. If he gave an inch, his bedroom would become a dormitory for his Champions.

Row upon row of beds, as far as the eye could see. That’s what he imagined his bedroom would become. He’d be woken up every morning by Fei flopping onto him asking for breakfast. To say nothing of how often others would join in his nightly activities.

“Hence the portrait,” Tarako said. “It’s one of the many artifacts in my pocket dimension. It’s similar to a portable gateway. Although it only works over a short distance and needs to be connected to a binding stone. Far less useful than the gateways you humans invented, but extremely useful for moving around within a fortress. Or for traps. A warlord or ruler might place one in a closet, so that his guards could spring from one to eliminate assassins.”

“Until the assassins find the other end and use it to kill the ruler,” Sunstorm drawled.

A giggle escaped Tarako. “Indeed. But I’m no fool. The painting has a spatial ward over it coded to me, so nobody else can use it. I tried coding it to any of Nathan’s Champions, but while I am a nine-tailed fox, I’m quite rusty at spellcraft. The Twins interrupted me while I was trying last night.”

“So that’s what that was about,” Nathan mumbled.

She raised an eyebrow at him.

Sunstorm shot him a look. “You’re not bothered by this?”

“I just said that I need to start taking security seriously. Artemis’s plan last night appeared to be to wait for me to go to sleep, then assassinate or abduct me. She somehow infiltrated the castle and suppressed all my alarms and detection spells. Tarako’s portrait and eavesdropping may have saved my life if I hadn’t detected Artemis earlier.” He inclined his head at the fox in thanks.

She flicked her tails toward him, their tips wiggling. “Well, I am your Champion. It’s my duty. Whatever my disagreements with some of your decisions and allies may be, you are the one protecting Doumahr and I placed myself into your service. You’ve proven yourself far more capable than I ever anticipated.”

Now dressed, Ciana returned to Nathan’s side. She looked pointedly at the door that led to Alice’s suite.

His bedroom joined his fiancee’s, with only a wall and a door between them. The separation was for political and personal reasons. Alice disliked the idea of sharing her bed with Nathan’s other lovers, but she also couldn’t risk the appearance of having a joint bedroom with Nathan.

After all, Alice was the Empress and he was the count and Bastion. Even after he married her, he’d be in service to her. Although the politics meant nothing to their actual feelings toward one another.

“I take it Alice is still asleep, Choe?” he asked Sunstorm using her real name.

She shot an annoyed looked, glancing at Tarako. The fox rolled her eyes in return.

“I’m not merely from your country, brat, but the very highest echelons. You think I don’t know the names of every Champion from Kurai, even those barely old enough to flee?” Tarako’s expression darkened. “I knows yours and Li—”

Nathan shot the fox a sharp glare, but she froze mid-sentence before he even looked at her. A sharp burst of mental magic rippled along his link with her before he even realized. Wincing, he released the spell.

“Don’t say Seraph’s name around others without her express permission,” Nathan said, voice laced with thunder. “Sure, both Ciana and Sunstorm know it.” He was pretty sure Ciana had picked it up simply through clinging to him 24/7. “But that doesn’t excuse you.”

“You’re right. My apologies, I let my temper get the better of me.” Tarako bowed stiffly, and her tails fanned out flat across his bed.

“It’s fine,” Sunstorm said. “And Alice was dressing when I patrolled earlier. Visiting her grandfather.”

Nathan grimaced. “Gorthal’s been holding up, but the news of the war and demonic invasions has stressed him. I’m worried he won’t make it to the wedding.”

“He’ll make it to the wedding. His spirit is too strong to pass before he sees his beloved granddaughter on her happiest day,” Tarako said.

Ciana and Sunstorm looked at the fox, as if amazed by the sappy words. They rubbed the backs of their necks, as if ashamed they hadn’t been the ones to cheer Nathan up the same way.

“I can believe that,” he said. “He’s bounced back every time before. But…”

Gorthal wouldn’t survive another winter. That much was certain. He’d barely survived the last two.

Which left the gnarly problem of holding an Imperial wedding during the most turbulent era the Empire had witnessed since the secessions.

He shook his head. One problem at a time.

“Choe, let the others know I’ll need to talk to them after breakfast about last night. Not just Artemis, but also a warning Gareth gave me. Make sure Alice comes. I need to talk to Kadria first,” he said.

“Are you joining us for breakfast?” Sunstorm asked.

“Probably. The topic will be too much for an empty stomach.”

She left, while Tarako walked into the painting on the wall. The fox’s figure merged with the painting, leaving a gorgeous depiction of her fluffy tails and nightgown on it for several seconds before it returned to normal.

“Let’s go,” he told Ciana.

Alice’s bedroom looked similar to Nathan’s. Both contained massive beds, a small dining set, a small lounge suite, and various cabinets. There were differences, however. Nathan’s room used the extra space for more couches and a large buffet table, as well as a large dresser to contain his Champion’s spare clothes. Alice possessed a bulky wireless set to communicate with nobles and separated a corner for changing into extravagant dresses.

Of course, the greatest difference was a dark blue door on one wall. Bright, glowing runes shined along its surface. It slid open upon his approach. A white void lay beyond it.

Honestly, he wondered why it hadn’t moved into his bedroom by now. He’d tried, but it remained firmly in Alice’s bedroom. He’d once used his control over the palace’s layout to switch bedrooms, only for this strange door to move as well.

It was especially strange as this door led to Nathan’s mental world. Although in this case he wanted to avoid his world. There was a good chance at least one of his Champions would be there. He used the gateways to his mental world to connect up his fortresses, and with the current turmoil, they saw extensive use.

“Nathan?” Ciana asked.

He raised a hand to stall her words.

Focusing his mind, he thought of Kadria. Not just her appearance, but where she was. She liked to hide from him.

But if she hid in his mind, surely he could find her. That was how it worked, right? He was the master of his mind and mental world, so nobody should be able to hide from him there.

The white void remained unchanged, but he felt something change. A shimmer in the magic forming it.

“Let’s go,” he said. “Hold my hand.”

He worried what might happen to Ciana going in here. After all, he had no clue where this door might take him this time and he’d only ever taken Fyre into Kadria’s private fortresses.

The white void transformed into blackness, before his vision cleared and he found himself in a sea of mist. Water lapped at his feet and a soft drizzle pattered against his face and neck.

“It’s cold,” Ciana said. “I can’t see anything.”

He shot her an alarmed look, but she frowned.

“It’s foggy,” she said.

A relieved sigh burst from his lungs. “That’s all? I worried you literally couldn’t see anything.”

Near-forgotten memories of Sen and Sunstorm being incapable of seeing anything in Kadria’s mental fortress came to mind. Not that he had the slightest clue where this was.

His hand clasped Ciana’s tighter and she linked her fingers with his. The warmth in her artificial arm grew, as if the magic powering it responded to him.

They took a step forward. Something loomed out of the darkness.

Ruins. Towering metal ruins, formed of wreckage and materials Nathan struggled to recognize.

Sure, the wreckage looked like metal, but it was unlike anything he’d seen on Doumahr. Perfectly cylindrical metal tubes the size of a man stacked end-on-end teetered atop thousands of feet of rusting cables. Steel panels larger than anything Nathan had seen in Doumahr were piled like so much trash. All manner of other objects loomed from the towering ruin, including golden, copper, and strange iridescent panels made of materials he didn’t recognize.

Whatever or whoever made the thing this ruin had once been, they possessed technology so far beyond Doumahr’s that Nathan couldn’t even imagine it.

Even at the very end of his old world, when Falmir’s magical scientists had improved metallurgy and crystal manufacturing, they struggled to produce metals this large or impressive. Let alone the other strange materials.

And it stood in utter disrepair. Waterfalls ran down the tower of wreckage, often forming small pools.

Had this thing been destroyed in Kadria’s world and left like this? Or was this symbolic?

“Where is she?” Ciana asked. “I can’t see a way up.”

As if responding, the ruins shifted to form a stairway. That meant Kadria knew they were here.

He and Ciana ascended.

At the top they found their quarry, sitting on a grassy mound that formed atop the ruin. A wooden bench stretched across the mound. Kadria sat with her back to them, with what appeared to be a floating bottle of sake next to her and a small vessel in her hand.

Unlike the Twins, Kadria cut a svelte, bottom-heavy figure. She had the same bronzed skin as all succubi, four curly horns, and was short. Tiny black strips barely contained her breasts and crotch, and gave Nathan plenty to look at from the rear. If she turned around, he’d see her violet eyes and red pupils. Countless platinum hoops and bangles jangled along her body.

“You realize it’s six in the morning, right?” Nathan said, staring at the alcohol in Kadria’s hand.

“Time doesn’t mean the same thing here. I see you brought company.” She took a sip and shot Ciana a sidelong look. “I’m surprised. You and the others don’t hide your disdain for me.”

“And you openly look at us like ants,” Ciana said. “I don’t trust you. If you killed everyone in Nathan’s old world, why won’t you do the same here?”

“Because I don’t need to, and it wouldn’t help me.”

“What if you’re lying?”

Kadria sighed and turned away. “Nathan, I doubt you’re here to let your shadow play twenty questions.”

He placed a hand on Ciana’s shoulder and approached Kadria. The mist didn’t extend this far up, giving them a view of the endless fog that stretched out beneath them.

“It would be easier if you visited the palace more. The Twins retreat here, but I don’t have to go to them for everything.” He sat down next to her. “What is this place? Another of your mental fortresses? What happened to your bedroom?”

“There’s rarely a reason to be in the palace. Even if last night was an exception.” Kadria inclined her head, as if acknowledging the reason Nathan was likely here. “And this is the mental fortress I typically use when… working. The old one was more of an outpost.”

“I don’t see the difference.” Sure, they looked different, but that told him nothing.

“You have your control room for work, and your little throne room for thinking, yes? Same thing. I need alone time, and this is it. I can sit, drink, and ponder between jaunts into a world. The bedroom was somewhere to stay for eons, as I was hiding there from my former employer.” She grimaced. “For what little good it did. He knew about me all along. I did manage to fool the false goddess, at least.”

Ciana appeared visibly lost, but now wasn’t the time to explain years of strange, otherworldly nonsense. Nathan tried to wave her to sit down, but she refused and instead eavesdropped while staring into the mist.

“Was this place important? Like my fortresses are to me?” he asked.

Silence.

When he looked over at Kadria, he saw her staring into nothing, her eyes focused in the distance and her mind focused inward.

The answer was clearly yes.

“I see,” he said. “Then—”

“It is,” she interrupted. “Long ago. A long, long, long time ago, I was studying to become…” She mouthed several words, as if trying to find the write one. “The equivalent of a magical scientist, shall we say. My research relied on enormously expensive facilities called particle colliders, but more were being shut down each year, limiting the work and research available. In the end, I took a job from the devil himself to do what I loved. It cost me everything. It’s why I’m here. This ruin beneath me is a memorial, built from the last collider I worked with.”

Nathan said nothing.

What was there to say?

He’d seen the mental worlds of the Twins and crafted his own. He understood the personal nature of them.

His own were reflections of his mental state and past problems. The control room was where he’d been banished after failing to save his world, and where he’d ultimately lost everyone. The throne room represented what he currently had, and the people who had accepted him.

He’d never puzzled out why the Twins had a strange mental world formed from a museum, and had never asked. Something told him it might be a dear memory. But he understood why their mental fortress had been a sunny day outside a house. It was their family home. It represented a nostalgic glimmer of the happy family they’d lost—and the abusive father they’d killed upon becoming Messengers.

Every Messenger seemed to have lived a life of pain. Nathan wondered what Artemis’s mental world looked like.

“So, you’re here about the kitten. The feral one,” Artemis said.

Nathan bit his lip. “Yes and no. Did you feel anything special last night?”

“If you count not noticing her? Yes. She has a frustrating set of abilities.” Kadria began ticking off her fingers. “Her abilities from her life as a Champion. Apparent immortality. Near-instant regeneration from any wound inflicted by a Messenger or magic from Doumahr. A paralyzing wail. And now the ability to cast an illusion so powerful it even affects magic. She may as well have rainbow-colored hair.”

“Why?”

“Don’t worry about it.” She huffed and refilled her sake vessel. “I feel her name is a misnomer, though. Sure, she’s hunting you, but the goddess Artemis hunted everything. This kitten is a purpose-built assassin that tracks you across worlds. I feel she should have been called a Hound of Tindalos.”

Nathan didn’t even bother asking her to explain.

Instead, he began focusing his own magic. Kadria hadn’t bothered to offer him a drink and if he asked, she’d probably give him sake. While she might not feel the passage of time, it truly felt like 6AM to him.

He conjured up the alluring smell of jet black coffee in the morning, the refreshing pick-me-up it gave him, and the bitter but slightly sweet taste in his mouth. More than anything else, he recalled the countless mornings he’d enjoyed it with the women he loved. Sharing it with anyone and everyone.

Two mugs full of coffee appeared in his hands. They smelled exactly as he expected and invited him to down them almost instantly.

Ciana edged over hesitantly. “Do you think it’s safe?”

“Everyone asks this every time,” he complained. “I’m getting much better with life magic.”

“You haven’t used it that much lately.”

“And I think you’ve deserved it. That minion of yours didn’t sleep for a week after you slipped her some of your special brew,” Kadria said.

“She’s not my ‘minion,’ she’s Seraph. And it was only a day,” he said.

“We’ve had this discussion before. When you die, this unicorn will bury herself with you, but your minion is the one who will carry on everything you ordered her to do until the day she dies. That’s what it means to be a minion.”

“I think that’s love and dedication,” Ciana said.

“I think I can love someone without dedicating my life to them after they die.”

Ciana said nothing. Instead, she gulped down a healthy mouthful of the coffee. Her face lit up. “It’s great.”

He nodded and sipped his own. His experiment with life magic had taken the conversation off topic.

“So?” he asked.

“Did you want me to explain what Tindalos is or ask you about what happened last night that has you worried?” Kadria asked.

He really didn’t need to know about some strange thing from her world. “The latter. You really didn’t feel anything.”

“No. Spit it out.”

“I…” He paused. “You know how you and the Twins can move between worlds? How the Twins did so during our fight—”

“You think Artemis did that to you?” Kadria shook her head. “We’re still in the same world. Plus, if she tried it, the Twins would have felt it.”

He gulped. “Not quite my question. I think I did it.”

Honestly, he expected Kadria to laugh. She’d interrupted him to guess Artemis had been responsible and immediately shot down the idea.

Instead, she narrowed her eyes and downed her entire sake vessel in one go. Then she refilled it and took another sip. Her cheeks flushed from the liquor.

“I’ll go slow as I explain,” she said. “I know we didn’t change worlds because I’m not in Doumahr. This mental fortress is linked to your mind and exists outside time and space. That’s why I jumped with you when the Twins pulled their nonsense years ago. I’d instantly notice if the world had changed, even if I somehow missed the jump itself.”

He nodded. That meant whatever he’d done, it didn’t involve moving between worlds.

So what the hell had happened?

“Next, the Twins would definitely have noticed for much the same reason. Messengers exist outside individual worlds. Our mental worlds and links transcend them,” Kadria explained.

“Artemis noticed something,” he said. “I saw Ciana die, then snapped back to reality and she was still alive. Nobody had moved and—”

“You think you… saw the future?” Kadria’s face paled. “But that’s it, right?”

He shook his head. “I saw more. I dreamed of dozens of other futures. Including one where Ciana had a different duogem ability, and another where Artemis actually died.”

“That’s… almost worse than I feared.” The succubus ran a hand through her long black hair, which she’d been growing out over the years. “The Twins came to me after that stunt you pulled with your minion and her binding stone. You’re doing things that Messengers can’t.”

“What? I know you can the Twins can move between worlds.”

“Yes, and finding a world where the Laura didn’t fuck up nearly killed Maura. Even I struggled to find this world, and I had my full Messenger powers.” She fixed him with a glare. “At no point can I just glance at a thousand possibilities and go ‘I’d like the future where I win, thanks.’ That’s what Charlotte tried to do after she messed up convincing you.”

Nathan abruptly realized where Kadria was going. “Are you suggesting I’m harnessing the same power?”

“Maybe. I…” She sighed and summoned a second sake vessel, then filled it.

He refused the offer of alcohol, instead focusing on his coffee.

“More for me, then.” She downed the sake and banished the cup. “I don’t see any other possibility, but it makes no sense. Part of me is wondering if I messed something up when I tapped into the goddess through you, in order to make Fyre the prophet. Or maybe I’m wrong and those idiot Twins are right.”

“What do they think?”

“I don’t know. I floated the idea you might be tapping into the false goddess’s power and they fucked off without another word.” Kadria scowled. “Isn’t it funny they didn’t tell you this?”

“You don’t get to play that card, Kadria.” His face lost all expression. “So, you don’t know how I did this.”

“No. But I can safely say you shouldn’t try to tap into it.” She stared into his eyes. “If you ever try to jump worlds, Nathan, you might ruin everything we’ve built up.”

- - - - -

Commentary: A bit of a slower chapter after the action-packed opening, but still full of lore and explanations. I'm going to need a proper "Nathan and his girls" chapter before events really kick off, I think. Part of the problem is that there's often so much that chapters become longer, even before I try to add in dedicated character moments.

Anyway, I'm trying to establish some stuff here that is relevant to the Nathan plot, because I've realized it's kind of important to keep it going. The war is important, but Book 6 was non-stop action so things should be slower. I feel I've bought a little time by opening with Artemis, much like I did with the fight at the start of Book 6.

I alluded to on Discord (hint, hint) that there's going to be a fight between Maura and Kadria for harem supremacy, at least in regards to internal Messenger politics. Kadria has the knowledge, but is difficult to trust. Maura openly loves Nathan, but isn't quite as sharp. With all the shenanigans going on, Nathan can't keep his Messengers on a leash, and he's going to be fighting a war on two fronts (Doumahr and the Messenger nonsense), and Kadria has always been a sort of "shadow queen of the harem" with the way Nathan goes off to her for help. Maura's never missed a chance to take a swipe at her.

Anyway, with Mob 2 finalized, chapters should be fairly consistent now. We'll see if there's a break in posting over Christmas, but otherwise I'm optimistic.