Chương 148: Book 3 Chapter 26 - Elsa Undril

Elsa Undril stared at the clan messenger in disbelief. Shian Yountal was here to see her? Right now? She was honestly impressed – a move like this took some serious guts. Elsa still wasn't sure where House Yountal had spawned from. Kane had been insistent that they find out, as it affected how he planned to carry out his mission in Easton, but Elsa hadn't been able to find anything on them.

A few months ago, she had gone to The Capital for the annual clan council meeting, and had asked the other councilmembers, but none of them had ever heard of House Yountal, either. The rate of growth Shian's house was showing was unprecedented, so they had to have some kind of major financial backing, at the very least. If House Yountal itself was a powerful house from another nation, someone in the clan certainly would have heard about it already.

Elsa was fairly certain it was just an upstart house here in The Central Kingdom, but she hadn't wanted to stake the clan's future and well-being on that belief. Their money came from somewhere, after all… Perhaps they were backed by a powerful house? If so, who? And why? Elsa didn't have the answers, but a move like this from Shian pointed further in that direction. Elsa would need to tread carefully, just in case. Her soul oath demanded nothing less, with the safety and future of the clan potentially on the line.

Elsa crossed people every day, but they were almost always known entities. When the clan accepted a contract from a client, they always did their research first. They knew who they were dealing with, and what the limitations needed to be. For example, if someone offered her a contract to go against the royal family, she would have to decline. The clan couldn't afford that kind of heat.

Even a contract to go against Count Dremond would need approval from Patriarch Onnurt, and it would be stupid to accept such a contract. Elsa had an understanding with the count. He stayed out of her way, and she stayed out of his. Neither one wanted whatever might come of actual fighting between the Dremond House and the Silver Serpent Clan. All of that being said, Elsa had given special instructions to her strike teams to avoid killing Lady Yountal herself.

Kill some guards, destroy some property, whittle them down a bit, that was all fair game. The young scion herself, though, was off limits. When she had returned from The Capital to find that Kane had been killed by the woman, she had been furious. She had almost gone out that same day to seek vengeance. Kane was the most promising clan member in all of Elsa's jurisdiction, possibly the clan as a whole.

When Patriarch Onnurt died, Kane was one of the top candidates to fill the spot of whichever council member was voted as the next patriarch or matriarch of the clan, which Elsa was certain would be her. Even without her influence, though, Kane was a strong contender for the council. His track record was impeccable… or at least had been up until a few months ago. His loyalty to the clan was well known, and he was near the peak of strength for a tier 4.

He was honestly already stronger than two of the standing council members. Shian had ripped that away from the clan. From Elsa. She had helped raise Kane. Elsa had admired Kane's plan once she discovered what it had been. He had somehow convinced the young woman to challenge Baron Norshod to a duel, which Kane stood in for. On paper, the plan had been perfect.

Kane would kill whoever House Yountal put in the ring, diminishing their influence in Easton and satisfying the final wish of their client as the contract was fulfilled. If House Yountal lost anyone important, the clan could hide behind the fact that it was the baron who had been challenged to the duel, not the clan, and also the fact that Shian herself had issued the challenge. She would bear the blame for the outcome. Unexpectedly, Shian had apparently fought in the duel herself.

Incomprehensibly, she had killed Kane. Elsa had never met the woman herself, but Kane's reports clearly indicated that the woman was a mortal. Obviously, he had been mistaken. She must have had an artifact of some kind that obfuscated her tier, and must be at least tier 4 to have beaten Kane in a duel. Elsa wished she had been able to see the fight, the baron had spoken of it in fearful tones. Elsa loved a good fight, and she had seen Kane spar on more than one occasion. The man was a force to be reckoned with.

The baron had said the duel had seemed close, so Elsa wasn't necessarily scared of Shian herself. Obviously, as strong as he had been, Kane never would have stood a chance against Elsa. The comparison wasn't even worth making. The only thing that gave her pause was the unknown aspect of Shian's past, and whoever might be behind the sudden rise of her house. Elsa was frustrated when both strike teams had returned earlier today with reports of failed attacks.

They tried to sugarcoat it, sure, saying they had destroyed the gatehouse in Easton and part of the wall in Portish, but Elsa saw the failures for what they were. At least the teams had the good sense to flee when they were outmatched. More dead clan members wasn't something Elsa wanted to deal with right now. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

She had been considering going out herself, showing House Yountal the true terror that the clan could reign down on them. She was mulling over the potential outcomes that course of action might lead to when this clan messenger had knocked on her door. Shian here, in person, was a gift that Elsa would have paid handsomely for. The messenger said the young woman had come alone, which only made things easier.

She had the messenger show Shian into her office, after which the messenger left, shutting the door behind himself on the way out. She gestured to the chair on the other side of the desk, and Shian sat down in it after looking around the office a bit with a calculating gaze. Elsa wondered what the woman could possibly be doing, looking around her office like that. She almost smiled to herself when she realized she would find out soon enough as she rooted through the woman's mind.

"Shian Yountal," she said, steepling her fingers on her desk. The young woman bowed her head respectfully.

"Elsa, it's a pleasure to meet you." Hmm. Not what Elsa had been expecting. She cocked her head to the side.

"What brings you here today?" Shian looked at her earnestly.

"I want to come to some sort of agreement for you to stop attacking me." Short and to the point. Combined with the courage shown in coming here today by herself, Elsa found herself almost liking the woman. Before proceeding, though, Elsa needed some crucial information. Her magic sense had revealed Shian to be a mortal before she even walked through the door. Now, Elsa's attention was drawn to a bracelet on her wrist, a skillfully crafted artifact with hints of aura and domain magic woven into it.

The bracelet covered any sense of what Shian's true tier might be. Elsa was surprised that Kane had missed such an obvious artifact. Elsa needed to find out more, needed to know who she was dealing with here. She reached out gently with her aura, probing to see if Shian responded with an aura of her own. If not, this meeting would go much more smoothly for Elsa. Shian's eyes widened as she noticed Elsa's powerful aura coming out, instead of a verbal response, but Elsa didn't feel any aura emanating from Shian.

Shian pulled some sphere-shaped artifact from her storage ring in alarm, tossing it at Elsa. Elsa smiled. She unleashed her full aura, pressing down hard on Shian. Elsa's aura was perfect, without any flaws or weaknesses. Anyone without an aura of their own had their spirit-to-body connection completely suppressed in her presence, removing their ability to move, breath, or even think clearly. Automatic functions, like the heart beating, would continue uninterrupted, although at a much weaker state.

Shian slumped forward in her chair, and the murky brown sphere plopped harmlessly against Elsa's mana shield, bouncing off onto her desk. Elsa glanced at the sphere curiously, but wasn't sure what it was. The readings she got off the artifact were too complex to decipher right away, and she had more important things to focus on right now. Even so, the sheer mastery of its design fascinated Elsa, so she tucked the glass sphere into her own storage ring to analyze later.

She pulled a pair of mana-inhibiting cuffs from under her desk, then stood and walked around her desk to Shian's limp form. She removed the bracelet the girl was wearing, replacing it with the cuffs. Oddly, she still couldn't get a good read on the girl's true tier, but she didn't spot any other artifacts on her person that might be blocking her reading. The cuffs would limit Shian to the level of a tier 1, something any of Elsa's clan members could deal with easily.

This pair of cuffs had been extremely costly, something the clan had purchased at an auction in The Capital a long time ago. They only had three pairs, and Elsa only had one. One of the other pairs was in the Capital with Patriarch Onnurt, and the other was loaned out to the other council members as needed. Elsa kept one full time since, due to her strength, she personally dealt with the clan's most demanding contracts, and was most likely to need an artifact of this sort.

Her current situation proved that point wonderfully. Still maintaining the full weight of her aura pressing down onto Shian, Elsa reached out with her mind magic. Mind magic operated on a different paradigm than other types of magic, as the mind lived fully with the spirit itself. Elsa's aura wouldn't have any effect on Shian's mental defenses. Even though Shian wouldn't be thinking clearly, and would have a hard time operating in the physical world, it wouldn't seem that way when Elsa attacked her mind.

The conscious part of Shian's brain would feel sluggish and drowsy, unable to form coherent thoughts, but the subconscious part of her brain would still recognize and respond to mind attacks like normal. Elsa found the girl's mental defenses to be far beyond what she had expected. It was beyond any tier 4 Elsa had ever sparred with mentally, and was more on par with a mid-strength tier 5. Elsa was thrilled by the challenge.

Shian's mental shields erupted in a shell around her mind, keeping Elsa from reading even her surface level thoughts. Elsa poked and prodded, searching for weaknesses. The shell was mostly smooth and solid, with fewer and smaller cracks or divots than she would expect from a lesser mind mage. Elsa was impressed. It wasn't as good as her own mental defenses, though, and she knew how to break her way in.

She formed mind spikes, reinforcing them with the full weight of her intent, and drove them into the shell surrounding Shian's thoughts. She targeted the same points over and over, driving the spikes just a bit deeper each time. She established a steady rhythm, hitting the same places over and over, giving Shian's mind just enough time in between each attack to recover and refill the weakened points.

The mind spikes served as the perfect distraction, keeping all of Shian's focus on the obvious threat while Elsa prepared the true breach behind her own mental defenses. Shian didn't see it coming until Elsa was already throwing her full weight into the real attack. Instead of a mind spike, she brought out an anvil. She plunged it directly into the cracks created by her most recent mind spike, which had just landed.

Shian hadn't had time yet to reform the shell when the anvil hit, and it plummeted right through her defenses. The instant an opening was created, Elsa dove her own consciousness into Shian's mind, dissolving the anvil before it could cause any real damage. She didn't want to turn the girl's brain into mush, she just needed some information.