Chương 383: 10.3

The days traveling north since the disaster in Terminapolis were undertaken with a heavy step, a dragging weight pulling her down into the saddle of her horse and an overwhelming burden to her limbs. If this was ten years ago Adelyne might have been able to distract herself with the sheer concentration it took to keep her seat upon the soft gait of the hackney. But it was not, and so her thoughts could grow without respite. Had Adelyne inadvertently started a war? The idea felt too big, too absurd to even contain.

Adelyne, daughter of the streets, orphan who stole her daily bread. Could not possibly have started a war. The very idea that such acts could be done by so small and insignificant a person made her want to laugh. But she'd not been that girl for years now had she? The Guildmistress of the Beggars Guild? That woman who commanded the boon of a wizard's spell? That acted as the hidden eyes and ears of the Countess Wyrm of Viznove? Oh that sat in her belly like she swallowed stones.

That kind of woman sounded like she could absolutely have started a war. It was just so unfair that they had to be the same person, and more importantly that they had to be her! She'd thought she was wiser than this! had properly learned the lesson poor dead Ginter had always tried to teach her. Think before you speak! Look before you leap! Stop rushing ahead so fast you couldn't consider until long after it was too late. Adelyne thought she was doing that!

But there was now a war with Magarska coming, that terrible thing only whispered of from the old men in her youth. A war like the one that had haunted Ginter in the colder nights in Kaeketeh's alleys. And worst of all she'd seen the kind of things they were going to be fighting just days ago guarding the Capital of their now enemy. Giants twice as tall as a man, garbed in Magarskan Armor. Wielding great hammers large enough to take off her head!

Armored upright wolves with bared fangs and flights of Gryphons in all sizes! The sight of them brought to stark solidity things she'd only heard in stories. And had Adelyne tipped the scales? Plucked one too many coins from the pocket, drawn the ire of a mark just a bit too dangerous for them all? Turned her Countess and Lady's plans for peace into a desperate flight back home with missives of War as their harbingers?" Hold!" Her thoughts shattered as the voice of Jewel called out a command.

Not a request, not a gentle plea, not even an order in restrained gentleness. But an absolute command that cut through her spine and stilled her horse almost before she even tried to pull at the reins. Standing in the road, stood a single man with yellow colored armor. Leather and metal. He had no weapon, but rather held aloft a banner matching his garb. A prominent black hawk was center, holding a curious shape in its beak.

A black symbol, it bore a pair of curving tines ending in leaves at the top, then a broad single line splitting into three at the bottom. The figure stood still, the chill wind of what the Dacians called winter tugging at the cloth. Her countess strode forward toward the figure. Towering over him, face tense beyond any Adelyne had seen in Jewel's face except once. Neck curved tight, wings held strictly folded.

All the marks of her lady trying to restrain her deep desire to flare and rear back like a heraldic wyrm rampant.

"I am Jewel of Rochford, Countess of Viznove, Lady of Valasek, Representative of the Realm of Cantor Reborn." She had chosen to speak in the court language of the Realm, not Magarska's. She no longer struggled to understand it, but still the words were disconcerting, so very similar to Ridgevaulic, but with some very rough and peculiar choices of which words to use and a more rambling nature to the syllables.

The figure looked up at her and then bowed low, keeping the standard clear and visible leaning against a shoulder while bending at the waist, head down. And then the voice spoke, a man's words in a perfectly precise mirror of Jewel's choice in tongue. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"Shining Wyrm of Viznove, Vassal and representative of The Realm of Cantor Reborn. I am Etele, Asherah Sworn Son of the Vlach Lands. Here to beg truce and parlay on behalf of the house of Basarab, The Count Vladimer Tepes and my homeland." It took Adelyne a moment to recognize the meaning, the familiar words after so long in foreign lands with foreign speakers. To hear it in the Realm's words she almost didn't recognize it, but Jewel's snarl shocked recognition.

"What does the patricide hope to gain in treating with me? What affords you the right to dare trespass here in your enemy's lands, Vampyre?" Vlach Lands. Wallachia. And the man who Jewel named as Vampyre stood up from his genuflect and removed his helm, all in a single fluid motion to reveal a rough if not handsome face. Eyes shining like freshly spilled blood, hair a dark burgundy, the color of old scabs. Skin pale as snow.

Adelyne called upon her boon, she made the motions and whispered the words under her breath as Fizzbunches had instructed. And all around her the attention of everyone and everything came into sharp, grating focus. Like scraping stones upon her skin.

"Word travels fast Countess of Viznove, Already the Gryphons of Magarska spread the news of their muster for war with the Realm of Cantor Reborn and the betrayer wolf prince. Magarska is my mother land's enemy, yes, but so too have they become your own as well. And by the word that has reached my count's ears you have finally learned of the treachery of Magarska and its slave master Murad the butcher." Adelyne had seen glimpses of the Vampyres when they assaulted the camp. Felt their gazes sweep around her.

She had hid from their frenzied, cutting sight, the way their eyes snapped from one target to another and then focused. The way their ears picked up on heart beats and foot steps. The sheer speed of their attention flitting through the night like a cloud of flies around her. But to every intuition and sense of her boon now? this was nothing like those things. Jewel stared down at the calm face of the Vampyre, her attention narrowing to a focus on him so tight Adelyne could have slipped under her wing.

Wisely she did not approach any closer, getting so close to two beings of the speed that she knew the wyrm and vampyre could move was a foolishness she apparently had learned to avoid." Butcher!? And what of your count? What of all the blood spilled and drank by him and yourself? What of the horrors you enacted in the rise of the Vlach Lands? What of his father?!" The Vampyre did not smile, did not frown, merely stared up at Jewel with a serenity, no, a placid stillness.

Not even a hint of attention settled anywhere but Jewel's face.

"What of the late son of Murad? What of the eldest of his sons that was murdered before him for daring to try and usurp the throne? My count killed his father out of mercy for the Vlach Lands and her people, Murad? He has put down his own children twice now simply for threatening his power. He murdered both of my count's brothers for the crime of daring to oppose him." The voice turned soft, gentle.

But the attention remained utterly fixed to Jewel, with not even the slightest sway or fuzz that would normally accompany any mortal man's vision.

"Your mercy and wish to lessen the suffering of the slaves of Magarska is a thing praised by my count. But what of the Vlach Lands? What of the men, women and children of my mother land and her children whom Magarska bled for four generations oh Shining Wyrm? Where is your mercy for them?" Jewel was silent, glaring down at him for a quiet moment. Only the wind gave voice for tense moments. Dragging on until finally broken.

"What does Count Vladimer Tepes of the Vlach Lands want?" The Vampyre finally smiled, not falsely, but warmly, and yet the expression made the Shining Wyrm of Viznove flinch ever so slightly in her neck and shoulders. Not enough to be noted by most but obvious to Adelyne.

"The Vlach Lands and the Asherah Blessed Count Lord Vladimer Tepes offer their support and forces to the Realm of Cantor Reborn in the coming war. As well as the service and escort of the order of Asherah's children in your traversal from the lands of Magarska." Adelyne knew quite a few things about her lady, the Countess of Viznove. It was hard not to after so many years of service. One thing she was absolutely confident under all her pleasantries and adherence to courtly acts.

Jewel of Rochford absolutely detested what the Magarskans called Vampyres. Always had as long as she'd known the wyrm. Which made her absolute shock quite justified with what Jewel then said.

"As representative of the Realm of Cantor Reborn, I provisionally accept this alliance. But any sign of treachery will be met with swift and absolute justice, Vampyre." Adelyne wondered when had the world gone insane?