Heretic Spellblade 6 - Ch22

Chapter 22

Building a castle for the first time turned out to be a little more difficult than using gem abilities. Twilight fell by the time much progress was made.

By then, Nathan had allowed the Twins to wander. More for his sanity than anything else. When they’d started nattering about all sorts of random topics in the most annoying drawl possible, he’d faced a choice between disabling them with mental magic or letting them keep themselves entertained.

So long as they didn’t try to take over anyone’s minds, he let them go.

In the meantime, Seraph worked at her first domain.

The basements had been the easy part. They were surrounded by an excavated area of open dirt, thanks to the Twins, so Seraph just needed to create the structural foundation.

“Do you have any advice?” she asked, biting her lip as she considered how to first create something.

“It’ll come naturally to you, so don’t try to fight it,” he said. “The binding stone can do a lot of the work. In fact, start small. Try to create an object you know well. Just visualize it and try to ‘project’ it using the binding stone.”

“I know. We went over this.”

They had. While Nathan couldn’t exactly give Seraph live practice, there were countless mental exercises that Bastions went over.

He had two sets, even. Those from his time apprenticing in Falmir and his training from the academy in the Empire. Seraph even had her own from Kurai. Between all three sets of lessons, he felt confident that Seraph knew what to do.

The hard part was doing it. All the dry runs in the world meant nothing compared to actually using a binding stone.

Practice makes perfect.

Nathan watched as a cheongsam appeared in front of them, complete with a dress stand. It looked a little plain.

Clicking her tongue, Seraph banished the cheongsam.

“You can modify it without getting rid of it,” he told her.

“I tried that. It just… didn’t change.”

“You’ll work it out eventually,” he told her. “But it is harder to change things than create them anew. Especially something that’s been in the world for a while.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Is that why you don’t abuse this power against enemies? I’ve always wondered why you don’t just erase armor or weapons. Even if it’s expensive, many opponents would be greatly weakened.”

“There’s a bunch of reasons. One, an enemy Bastion can often counter reality shaping. Although I guess that’s probably not the case with me anymore.” He shrugged with a lopsided smile. “Same with the other big reason, that you’re often far from home. The third reason is what I mentioned: things that have been around for a while are resistant. If it was created by that binding stone, it’s usually easier to manipulate, but the world doesn’t seem to like being messed with.”

“These all seem like problems that power can solve. Power you have in spades.”

“True. So let’s get to the one you’re really focused on. It’s extremely difficult to shape anything attached to humans or any humanoid. I can make the floor lava, but I can’t turn your skin into lava. Same applies to what you’re wearing. Life itself is magic and you naturally resist attempts to alter your being, which spreads to objects on you. That’s the province of entirely different branches of ascended magic.”

“Mental, life, and whatever the succubi use to transform their bodies,” Seraph said. She smirked at his look of surprise. “I’m no sorceress, but I pay attention. You know the first two, but not the latter. And our rambunctious succubi only seem to use the first one much.”

“They all specialize in different disciplines. Falmir’s succubus, Beatrice excels at physical transformation, but I doubt she can easily do it to others. Kadria can’t use mental magic well.”

Seraph’s expression darkened at the mention of those succubi. She made the cheongsam reappear with a far more elaborate pattern. One that merged Omria’s wings with that of a great cat that stretched along its blue and gold length.

“Going for Falmir’s colors?” he asked.

“Last I checked, they don’t own the color blue,” she said drily.

Even so, she concentrated. The blue transformed into a deep black. Seraph ran her fingers along it and frowned.

“It’s not as soft as I’d like. I suppose I need more practice. Do you think I should practice more before starting with the castle?”

“You can rework the castle later if you’re not satisfied with the results, Lia. The whole point of being a Bastion is that you can modify things on the fly.”

Her cheeks colored.

Finally, she began work on the basement. It took an hour. Nathan needed to remind her to build stairs and to make the rooms a little smaller when one ceiling nearly caved in.

“I’m no architect. How am I supposed to know how much load everything can bear?” she asked. “How do you know?”

“You can use magic to tell, actually. Same with all the measurements. The binding stone can give you a sense of distance, densities, weights, and basically anything you might want to know,” he explained. “Although you will just have to get a feel for things at first, as it becomes more helpful the better you become at working with it. It’s essentially a living thing.”

“I can feel it in my mind. You don’t need to tell me that.”

The next hour went far slower. Building an above ground structure proved much harder.

Especially with the ominous portal entrance standing nearby, reminding Seraph that she needed to protect it. Ciana had wandered into it at some point, in order to clean out the demons within it.

Nathan didn’t worry about her. With her monogem and his sheer number of binding stones, he was pretty sure she couldn’t even be harmed by ordinary demons now. Ciana and he shared the same toughness and strength. If Deverese broke his hand punching him earlier this year, what chance would a weak demon have?

He pictured her wading through an endless tide of demons as they uselessly battered against her with their weapons, as she scythed through them with her greatsword as though they were wheat.

When night began to fall, a gateway opened nearby. Seraph had barely erected the tiniest castle. Her failure to build something proper frustrated her immensely and Nathan saw that in her eyes, even if she kept her cool.

“There’ll be time to return and keep at it,” he said, placing a hand on her shoulder.

“We’re heading to Soreaux as soon as we can. How can I be calm about this?” Seraph said. Anger—focused on herself—laced her voice.

“Because we’re likely not heading to Soreaux so fast. I rushed up here because of the cascade, but now we have to clean up at least two breaches and that cascade is dealt with. Not to mention our soldiers will be utterly exhausted. Rushing in is foolish. So let’s rest. I’ve sealed the binding stone against anyone who might try to steal it from you, so you can return tomorrow to keep building. We can also organize a garrison.”

There wasn’t much point to a fortress without people to man it, after all.

His reminder that they couldn’t rush Soreaux thanks to the breach calmed Seraph, however. She looked away and closed her eyes. Deep breaths escaped her.

“Sorry. I lost my cool,” she said.

“It’s fine. I can’t exactly judge you given my actions earlier today.”

“Deverese needed that punch, even if I’m worried you would have sent his head flying across the battlefield if Ester hadn’t been there.”

That was something he had tried not to think about. Nathan had lost his temper and very nearly killed a Bastion. Only Ester’s gem abilities saved Deverese.

Ciana returned, somehow realizing they planned to use the gateway. By now, Fei had trooped through. As always, she looked pristine despite how many demons she’d assuredly slain.

“Nathan, it’s dinnertime,” the catgirl whined as she dashed over to him and slammed into him. “I’ve been waiting for you at camp forever.”

“Shouldn’t you be dealing with the breach,” he asked her.

She looked pointedly at the door that Ciana walked out from.

That told him a fair bit, he suspected.

Reine’s message in his mind told him the rest.

The bulk of the threat has been cleared, Reine said mentally. Narime is working with some foxes and a reduced roster of knights to hunt down those remaining.

That will take days, at least, he replied.

I imagine that Trafaumh will need to handle the remaining demons. We simply do not have the resources to track them all down.

Reine was right. While Nathan wanted to help as much as he could, the more time he spent here, the longer he’d be bogged down.

He ruffled Fei’s hair and scratched behind her ears. A happy giggle escaped her, her tail whirring in pleasure.

Before they left, Seraph gripped his arm. The others trooped through with knowing glances at them.

“Nathan, I know I haven’t quite acted like myself here,” Seraph said, rubbing one arm with the other. “But…”

“It’s difficult. I said I understand,” he said.

“That’s not the problem.” She sighed and took a few seconds to recompose herself, then wrapped herself around him. Her heat bled into him as her breasts crushed against his chest. He felt one of her feet rub against the back of his calf. “This is something I’ve dreamed of. You made it real. I feel like an impertinent child, getting frustrated and annoyed as I can’t instantly master something I’ve always wanted to do and finally got given the chance to try. So I need you to know that I am truly, deeply thankful. And always will be. I’ve never regretted accepting your offer that day in Fort Taubrum, and allowing you to become the love of my life.”

Seraph stood on her tiptoes and leaned in for a kiss. Nathan met her halfway. Their tongues wrapped around one another while their hands wandered and he squeezed the taut ass beneath her cheongsam.

The moment ended too soon. She rested her head against his chest.

“Thank you, again. But we should go,” she said.

“I know. There’s no end of work to be done.”

They both sighed in annoyance, but broke the hug.

Once through the gateway, Nathan briefly took in the camp that had been erected.

Simple fortifications ran along its length, consisting primarily of trenches and simple wooden walls. Tents and large open spaces dominated the camp. Nathan estimated that at least two thousand more soldiers had been brought in, and these were most likely veterans from the Imperial Army. Likely beastkin plucked from his own fortresses.

He couldn’t spot Rosewald’s banners, so her forces likely hadn’t reached them. Unsurprising given she would need time to muster her private soldiers.

Torchlight lit up the walls, and he spotted plenty of soldiers on patrol. Despite being in relatively friendly territory, his officers risked nothing.

Hundreds of soldiers sat around eating. Large magical lamps dotted the area. As it was the middle of summer, roaring fires would be too hot, although Nathan saw more than a few for cooking food. The cooks manning them had stripped off more clothing than they probably should, but he wasn’t going to give them grief.

More than a few eyes followed him. He tried to make himself known to some groups, particularly when he recognized somebody. Which was less often than he liked. Many of his soldiers were new and he simply couldn’t know everyone.

The knights weren’t shy, however. Those that had retired after the longest 24 hours of their lives were enjoying hearty food and plenty of booze. Somebody had already told them that they weren’t marching tomorrow, even if they’d almost certainly be deployed on some sort of shift.

With so much alcohol splashing around, Nathan endured the very unsubtle flirting. Fei glared at her subordinates as they made very explicit propositions.

It was at this time he remembered that the Twins had wandered off and he hadn’t brought them back.

Groaning, he checked where they were.

“I’ll be back in a minute,” he told everyone, then teleported away.

He found them standing on top of a hill, staring at multiple companies from Trafaumh battling demons.

They were up north, near Tortoffen. More accurately, they were close to the breach itself. Nathan could even see the ruined remains of the tower that had let the demons out. Fyre had already arrived and closed it.

“Oh, so you finally remembered us,” Maura said.

“You got here fast,” Nathan said.

They looked at each other, then grinned at him. “We did tell you that we can teleport, it’s just that we’re bad at it. If we make a mistake, then we’re dead.”

“I remember. Yet you did it to check out somewhere that Reine could have brought you.”

Somehow, Nathan suspected they’d lied to him. Or at least overstated the likelihood of their untimely demise when they teleported.

The Twins had bragged that they could end worlds themselves, after all. Also, they almost exclusively used spatial magic in combat if they couldn’t rely on mental magic.

Whatever had caused Laura to mess up when fighting him had nothing to do with being bad at spatial magic.

They winked at him, then went back to staring at the ruined castle.

“So?” he asked.

“This breach is weird. After that revelation about you being…” Maura grimaced. “Fuck, I don’t even want to say it aloud. I’m worried who might overhear it. Anyway, we wanted to check up on this. The breach is just a bunch of demons, right? So who cast the illusion.”

Damn good question.

“I think an agent did it,” Laura said. “But that means a Messenger blew their chance to breach. That’s dumb. With this cascade, there’s no way every Messenger ready to go wouldn’t blow their load.”

“This fortress is tiny. How could it sustain a Messenger at all?” Nathan asked.

“How did a dominion hit the bald guy’s one? Why did the evil titty kitty attack five seconds after Siv? You said it yourself. The boss is going nuts, and he can do so because the slut goddess’s power is out of control.”

Nathan wasn’t sure that answered his question. Mostly because it annoyed him that it might be accurate.

“Could the illusion be a distraction?” he asked.

“From who… Oh.” Maura sighed. “The slut prophet.”

“Charlotte excels at illusions according to Fyre. She needs to distract and weaken the Inquisition long enough to take both western Trafaumh and march over here. And she did help start this mess.”

“If she’s working with the boss…” Laura shook her head. “That’s insane. I reckon she might be crazy enough to cause the cascade, but the boss is capitalizing on it. That titty princess is dumb enough to think she can handle the full wrath of an elite Messenger or two going in dry while demons ravage half the world.”

Satisfied, the succubi returned to the camp with Nathan.

Getting food was the highest priority. Nathan found himself forced to eat near Fei, who consumed a week’s worth of supplies. Mountains of chicken, pork, and potatoes piled high on a pair of plates. While they had plenty more meat at this time of year, Fei still cost Nathan a fortune to feed. To say nothing of the logistical challenges.

She needed a dedicated wagon of food supplies for this march. At least the knights expected this. They’d even helped Fei build her food mountains. Sometimes, Nathan wondered if his knights had a gambling ring based around his favorite kitty’s eating habits.

Once he’d eaten, he allowed himself a moment of rest.

The exhaustion from filling up Seraph’s new binding stone had yet to fade. Whatever supplied his new source of energy either didn’t rely on natural sources of energy or his food had barely helped.

“Do you want another plate, Nathan?” Fei asked him, cheeks splattered with gravy.

Before he could clean her face, Ciana beat him to it with a large cloth. Fei made a face as her friend rubbed at her cheeks.

“I’ll clean myself when I’m done eating,” Fei whined.

Both of her plates were almost licked clean. Did she plan to grab another?

“You’ll get fat,” Ciana chided.

“I haven’t yet.”

“And what happens when you do?”

Fei glared at Ciana, while Sen laughed.

Most of his Champions were still busy elsewhere. Nurevia, Astra, and Sunstorm appeared to be with Reine, presumably in the command tent. Narime was still handling the breach, and Tarako had joined her at some point. Possibly to relieve her.

After centuries, or even millennia, of inactivity, the ancient fox desired to keep busy.

If Ester had returned with the others, she wasn’t here. Nathan suspected she might be with Reine as well.

“I’m sure we can help Fei remain trim,” Fyre said. “All that food will stop going to her tits one day.”

“They’re not that big,” Fei muttered, while hefting them with her hands and proving otherwise.

Nathan hadn’t had the chance to check when Artemis showed up—what with everyone nearly dying and all—but he felt certain that Fei outclassed her evil self in the bust department. That spoke volumes to the effect of her diet.

“Can’t you transform your appearance?” Fei asked Fyre. “If you’re so jealous, why not give yourself something for Nathan to drink from?”

Fyre’s face reddened. “I don’t want to go that far! And I don’t think Nathan wants to drink from them anyway.”

Three pairs of eyes turned to him.

No, he corrected, every pair of eyes in earshot did so. They were surrounded by veteran knights, which meant they were all beastkin women that might become Champions. While the Royal Knights still had a few humans, the proclivities of the beastkin meant they didn’t always move in the same social circles.

“I’ll worry about that when somebody gets pregnant,” he said, trying to be diplomatic.

Somehow, he felt that made things worse. They narrowed their eyes at him.

He coughed. “Why don’t you change your body that much? You’ve given yourself wings and horns? And you’ve smoothed out a lot of minor blemishes—”

A shriek escaped Fyre and she reached over the table to clasp her hands over his face. “You’re not supposed to tell anyone that.”

Laughter erupted. Many knights knew Fyre from her days as his Champion, so they might have noticed the same thing he had.

Muttering beneath her breath, Fyre straightened her uniform and sat back down. “I still want to be me. The woman you know and love. If I become somebody else entirely just because I have the power of Omria, am I really using it properly?”

The hush that fell over the group held an awkward quality. One that worried Nathan.

After all, Fyre had openly admitted she loved him. While her relationship with him was the worst kept secret in the palace, not everyone knew he’d claimed the prophet.

And, to everyone, that was how it would look. Nathan had two fiancées and a whole mess of Champions sharing his bed. Not to mention the tamed Messengers that looked like sex on legs and acted like it. If Fyre loved him, she merely added herself to the pile, regardless of her status. Even if Nathan found himself giving her plenty of time due to that status.

“Shouldn’t Nathan love you no matter what you look like?” Ciana asked, tilting her head so that her horse ears flopped over. “That’s the fantasy, right?”

“Does that apply if I turn myself completely into…” Fyre grimaced as Ciana smirked at her. “Oh.”

“Those horns are very pretty, aren’t they?” Ciana teased.

“I still look like me.” Fyre looked down. “But maybe these horns aren’t really mine, huh?”

The two horsegirls looked eerily alike to Nathan, and always had. But ever since Fyre had become the prophet, those similarities had grown, even as Fyre had ensured she became the “prettier” Ciana.

But Nathan had stopped caring much by now. Both because the differences ran more than skin deep, but also because they truly still looked different.

Ciana had a single horn, and it had been showing bicorn changes that Fyre lacked. Ciana had platinum-blonde hair, while Fyre’s was a glossy and golden blonde, as befitting of a prophet whose emblematic color had been gold throughout history. Not to mention Fyre’s piercing red eyes, that contrasted against Ciana’s vivid blue.

“I think you’re too worried about appearance,” Nathan said. “I love you for who you are, not what you look like.”

Excited whispers broke out among the knights, followed by giggles. He realized he’d misread the room earlier.

“Kiss!” one of the knights called out.

Nathan recognized her as one of his senior lieutenants. She ducked her head away when he looked at her.

“Wow. Didn’t think they were that naïve to think Fyre needed to kiss you,” Sen said. “If the Twins were here they’d be telling everyone about all the hot, sweaty threesomes you have with her and Ciana.”

Ciana reached for Sen but lacked the several feet long arms necessary to strangle her for saying that aloud. Lending her a hand, Seraph clapped Sen on the back of the head. At least Nathan didn’t need to worry about keeping his sex life with Fyre a secret now.

With food in their stomachs, they moved to the command tent.

As he’d expected, most of his Champions stood inside it. Only Tarako and Narime were missing.

And the Twins, he supposed. They’d vanished once he returned to camp, presumably back to their mental fortress as he couldn’t find their presence in Doumahr. Maybe they were wrangling Kadria.

As one might expect from the command tent, a map table dominated it. Or, really, a large table with a map on it. It matched the one from Rosewald’s castle and was probably the same one. Many more tokens had been placed on it, although there were different varieties now.

Rosewald herself stood next to Reine as the two fiddled with various tokens, keeping the table up to date. At a guess, Nathan assumed they were marking which fortresses were known to be safe.

But that wouldn’t explain all the token varieties. There were a multitude of them and far too many to be binding stones. Trafaumh had a lot in the area south of Soreaux, but not this many. If they did, then they’d be the most powerful nation on Doumahr by an order of magnitude.

Haverman and another pair of much younger inquisitors stood to one side, buried in conversation with Ester and Sunstorm. Not exactly the grouping Nathan expected to see.

Astra sat in a corner, her eyes fixed on Reine. She nodded at Nathan when he entered. Something her visage reminded him of this old world. And not in a good way.

There was just one Champion missing.

“Where’s Nurevia?” he asked when he entered.

“Outside,” Astra said.

He frowned. That was unlike her. He checked his link with her and felt that she was close by. Perhaps she had exhausted herself using her new trigem ability and needed rest. Or was simply sick of all the strategizing.

Whatever the case, he needed to worry about the here and now.

“Rosewald, Reine, tell me the current state of Trafaumh and our forces,” he asked.

- - - - -

Commentary: An interlude chapter that just sort of happened while I was writing. This book is kind of intense with the plot, lore, and action, so softer scenes are a nice break at times. Even if they're largely just about the characters being themselves.