[TLQ-B2] 2. Doomed (Patreon)

II

Doomed

“D-doomed?” Nerya stammered.

“Doomed,“ Jaeger repeated. His words fizzled out into the quiet lurking in the corners of the cabin. Jaeger chose his words. “My time with the Warden has been relatively short. I also don’t see her that often unless we’re on a mission, and our interactions are mostly formal. Even so, I’ve picked up on a few of her quirks.”

She waited for Jaeger to continue.

“One, she’s a terribly hard worker. I think she only sleeps because it’s a necessity.”

That was something Nerya had already noticed. From what she knew, the Warden had undead all over the Duchy and multiple problems to deal with at once. Yet she was always there when one of her men needed her.

“Second, and more related to you, is that she takes her duty seriously.”

Jaeger turned back towards the windows. His eyes shimmered as he recalled a distant memory.

“At the start of the orc invasion, a peasant girl in the streets threw a rock at her. The child cursed her for not saving her family. The Warden had barely been corronated for a few weeks at that point, and no one could’ve predicted an invasion like this.”

Of course not. The orcs breaching the Wall? Not in anyone’s wildest dreams. Yet it remained more of a possibility than the portals.

“Can you imagine what she did?” Jaeger asked.

Nerya shook her head.

“She dismounted her steed, knelt in the dirt in mud, and lowered her head to apologise for a situation she couldn’t possibly have averted.” Jaeger rubbed his arms to ease a shiver and continued. “She gives her men the same respect. Not once, despite all the rumours about her being a witch, and all the necessary excuses to do so, did she do anything to disparage the frostguards.”

“Nerya—”

He spun so his stare fixed her in place, and she held her breath.

“—compared to Levi, we hardly mean anything to her.”

She bit her teeth. Was there anything else to expect? She, too, would turn the world upside down before she let anything happen to Varrick.

‘Oh, varrick, why’d you have to go and do this…’

Her mind threatened to sink into a dark depth it wouldn’t claw itself out of, so she jumped to her feet. “We need to find him.”

“That was my intention from the start,” Jaeger said. “The Black don’t leave each other behind.”

“His tracks are still there,” she said. “Do you have any idea where he may be headed to?”

Jaeger cupped his chin. “I do.”

There was an explosion going off somewhere. Somewhere close and above.

“That’s your head, brat.”

Blearily, Leah turned towards the sound of the voice. Some crone of a figure was sitting on the opposite end of the chamber she was in, using a mortar and pestle to mix herbs.

“Crone? You’re lucky you’re indisposed. Otherwise, I would’ve frozen your tongue.”

Leah managed a frown despite the pain in her skull.

“It’s written all over your face, you little brat.”

She pushed herself up to her elbows to get a better look. Sleek black hair which shimmered. Not with a full sheen, but with a glimmer akin to an afterglow—the last rays from an afternoon sun hurrying to hide from the night. Parts of her head had lost hair altogether. Her cheeks were hollow. The rings around her eye sockets dark. Yet, for all that the woman in front of her was a victim of passed time, the aura she was gave off was that of a sorcerer at their peak.

Forehead scrunching up, Leah tried to recall the last thing she remembered. ‘The spirit disappeared. Then I blew up the chamber…’ Everything after that was foggy, but she distinctly remembered being dragged. ‘So that was this woman?’ The figure didn’t look human, though…was that her tired mind?

Leah let her head drop back on the floor and closed her eyes. “Thank you, Elder.”

“Mmh, finally found your manners, have you? Don’t thank me though. Krog was the one who carried you to safety.”

Leah blinked. Krog? Only then did she notice the shadow lying down in the corner. A humanoid beast half her height, with skin the colour of frost. It wasn’t wearing anything besides a loincloth.

‘A trogg…’

Her saviour turned onto its other side and rubbed its belly as it snored.

Thousand of quested roved through her mind. “Where—” breath rasped through her airways and cut her off. Leah leaned onto her side and covered her mouth. When the coughing attack finally finished, she did her best to regulate her breathing. A sticky warmth on her palm drew her gaze.

‘Blood…damn it.’ She’d slung too many spells. Something she knew beforehand. ‘I’m lucky I got off this well.’ The dryness in her throat made her reach for her belt. She grasped air; she’d lost her canteen during the fight.

“Here.”

A flask floated towards her on a tray of ice.

“Thank you, Elder.”

The old woman waved her away. “We’re in one of my hideouts. The demons won’t find us here—or were you asking about Krog?”

‘Both.’ But Leah decided to focus on what was important and surveyed her surroundings. Layers of ice covered the walls, so the small chamber gleamed in the glow of the campfire in their middle. This wasn’t like the spirit’s chamber—without the campfire, they would’ve been cloaked in a deep, eternal darkness.

‘The place is warded.’ Runes carved into the frost guided the mana inside the chamber, rotated it along the circumference, and created an insulated room. ‘She’s skilled.’ It wasn’t the tier of the enchantment used that made Leah think this, but the lack of imperfections. Even the best enchanters usually had a chipped rune channel here or there. Leah couldn’t spot a single mistake in the woman’s work.

Here, was someone who’d mastered the fundamentals beyond what was considered ‘expert.’ Leah wasn’t sure if she could engrave those runes better herself if she trained for ten more years.

A content sigh exited her throat as she gulped down the cold water. She caught her breath, then asked: “Did you see what happened to the halfling?”

“Halfling?”

“A female orc with human features. She should’ve been caught in the explosion.”

“Ah, that one. I believe one of the demons carried her away. Didn’t stick around to see where.”

Leah grimaced. ‘I’m not looking forward to fighting her again.’ Better yet, she didn’t want to fight her at all. The trick with the mountain spirit wouldn’t work a second time.

Thoughts of the trapped deity made her think of the other survivors. Releasing the mist shouldn’t have put them in danger, but returning to the spirit’s chamber brought them back to square one.

They had no way out of there.

‘If only we had a certain undead army…’ her arm whipped out to strike the ground. “You useless fucking woman,” she said through gritted teeth.

The older woman raised a brow.

Leah coughed. “I wasn’t referring to you, Elder.”

A snort, then the elder continued mixing her herbs.

Leah relaxed her clenched fist as the hardness of the frozen ground reverberated through her bones. Under her breath, she still cursed the Warden’s name. ‘Protector of the North my fucking ass.’ Where was she now, huh? Leaving her to do all the hard work. She was probably lounging in her office with her feet up on a chair.

The mere thought of Sepharin like that while she’d nearly died two times in the span of days was enough to make her entire body tense again.

Grabbing the frozen crystal from her pouch, she crushed it in her grip…or tried to. The crystal wasn’t breaking. Which only served to make her more angry.

She raised it overhead. “You…worthless…!” She exhaled through trembling lips and lowered her arm to her chest. ‘Calm down. Getting mad at the Warden, who’s surely doing everything possible to defend her land, won’t do anything. Even if she abuses you like a workhorse, is constantly messing with you, and is an egoistical bitch…’

A smirk pulled onto her face. ‘Yeah. Yeah. She’s doing all of those things.’

The older woman stared at Leah from over her mortar, lightly shook her head, and muttered something about “bad personality.”

It took everything within Leah not to throw the shard against the ground anyway. Which was why she put it back in her pouch—

Her fingers paused as they slipped underneath the fold of her satchel. She peered. And yes, she confirmed, the crystal was flashing. Leah took the crystal back out and held it in front of her nose.

“What is that?” the woman asked.

Leah glanced to the side. “A useless acquaintance of mine. Don’t jump.”

Annoyed, Leah held out her hand as she’d done before fighting Theldaris, and injected her mana into the shard. It expanded with a snap into an orc sitting on his knees.

Leah held her nose shut. “Look who finally decides to show up. You couldn’t possibly have been anymore late!” She jabbed her finger in the undead’s face.

It didn’t move a muscle.

“…you have seem to have a penchant for taking your anger out on inanimate objects,” the elder said.

Leah’s cheeks heated up. “This thing is not inanimate! You can see that at a glance!”

They both turned back to the orc, who literally hadn’t moved an inch since appearing.

“Right,” the woman said. She continued mixing while keeping an eye on the creature from the corner of her sight.

“Say something!” Leah screamed. She panted for breath as the echoes of her voice faded.

Still, the orc didn’t budge.

Leah frowned. ‘Is she not here?’

She swiped her hand across the orc’s field of view, but its pupils didn’t dilate to show someone was attending to her. Saying Sepharin’s name didn’t do anything either.

Her frown deepened. Had she given her a dud?

‘Unlikely.’ She must be sleeping or something. A rare thing, Leah knew, for the Warden almost never slept. Whatever the case, she’d have to wait for the woman to wake up and respond.

There was a lot she had to explain.

“To think this was down here…” Nerya breathed. The walls rising around her weren’t even fit for giants.

“I know right,” Jaeger said.

Behind him, the last of his soldiers jumped down the frozen staircase Nerya had created and landed in a cloud of dust.

“We tailed a beast here a while ago,” Jaeger said. “We never figured out where it went.”

“A hidden entrance?” Nerya said.

“So we think. But if there is one, it’s hidden well enough neither Leah nor the Warden could find it.”

Nerya grimaced. She was no fool to think her general knowledge of magic was on par with either of them. That said, if it was something related to ice, there was a chance she could figure it out.

‘It can’t be anything destructive.’

The footprints left from Varrick’s party indeed led down here. However, the tracks stopped in the middle of the room. There was no sign anything had moved.

‘Neither had there been in our cellar.’

Sight was one of a sorcerer’s weakest senses. To rely upon it for information was like relying on a babe to solve complex problems.

Standing in the centre of the chamber, Nerya breathed in deep and relished in the frosty air entering her lungs.

“Levi,” she mumbled. “Where did you go?”

Tall walls cornered them into the narrow path, leaving one way forward.

Levi didn’t resist the pull of the rope around his wrists. “I’ll admit. This is a lot better on my back than those golems.”

His captors hadn’t been rough during the transport, but golems didn’t make for comfortable horses.

Varrick turned to stare at him. “…How can you be so calm? You’re about to be handed over to demons.”

Levi smiled. “We needn’t be pitiful in the present because our future is dark.”

His words echoed off the walls. Varrick kept his gaze on him for a moment, then looked away. His lips pressed together and he clicked his tongue.

A chuckle escaped Levi. “You’re having a harder time dealing with it than I am.”

His lips pressed together even more. “It’s not like I’m doing this because I want to.”

The other villagers looked at the floor.

“I know,” Levi said. “That’s why I’ll give you a fair warning: whatever deal you’ve made with the demons, it won’t turn out the way you want it. The only deals the forces of evil honour are with those stronger than them, not those who are desperate and vulnerable.”

Varrick’s fist slammed against the wall. “You think I don’t know that?!”

Everyone jerked to a stop.

“You think I don’t know that,” he repeated, though softer this time. “Even so, we need to do this…” His nails screeched against the walls to the point that trickles of blood dripped down his fingertops.

Levi closed the distance between them and raised his arms with great effort to take Varrick’s hands in his own. “I pray our Lady protects your loved ones.” He would’ve pressed the villager’s hands against his forehead but he lacked the range of motion.

Varrick paused. Before he responded, Levi let go of his hand and moved down the tunnel.

“Come,” Levi said. “Let us go.”