[TLQ-B2] 14. Once a Student (Patreon)

XIV

Once a Student

Malakai put down his bowl and inclined his head at Master Circe. “Thank you for the meal.” Then he regarded the room. “We’ll leave once everyone finishes their meal.”

“Should we not get the rest of the army down here?” Leah asked.

“Won’t work,” Malakai said. “It’d take hours for an undead to reach Camp Tauron. Even if they arrived faster, I cannot speak through the dead like the Warden can. I’d have no way of letting them know what’s happening.”

“The useless Lady strikes again,” Leah spit. “Is she really sleeping through all of this?”

“I would’ve told you if I knew. Entering the ruin may have done something to her.”

“She cannot be dead…right?” Jaeger asked in a whisper.

Which made Malakai jerk in place. “…no.” He smoothed out his frown and added with more confidence: “I don’t think her undead would still function, otherwise. But that’s just a feeling.”

And it really was. He didn’t share a pinkie’s worth of the connection that the Warden had with her undead. His newfound powers mainly worked through the command the Warden had over her dead. If she died, he didn’t think he could still control them.

For now, at least. From what she’d said, there still was a lot more room for him to grow.

“So we’re on our own,” Jaeger muttered.

Malakai nodded. His gaze went to the corner of the room, where the Tina, Radi and Wraith were sitting quietly. Together with Durak, these four made up the strongest undead in the Warden’s arsenal. Only Ellen was missing.

‘If we cannot beat them now, we won’t be able to.’

The Warden was powerful. However, from what Malakai had seen, her undead were stronger than her. She wouldn’t be able to make up the difference between them and the demons.

No, if anything, the deciding factor would be him.

His gauntlet squeezed shut. How precisely could he give orders? How well could he use the dead? Those would be the key factors that’d decide this battle.

And the life of the Warden’s brother depended on it.

Nerya looked up at the sound of leather contracting. Light from the campfire fell on Malakai’s face. Folds in is cheeks created pockets of existence for shadows as the guard captain stared at his fist.

What manner of dark thoughts were going through his head? She could hazard a guess.

Her eyelids dropped, and her own fists balled as well. This was all—

“Stop beating yourself up.”

She turned towards the aging voice. Her old master scratched Krog behind the ears, who purred like a cat (though the sound was anything but alike). Nerya supressed the ache in her chest. Once, she’d been similarly close with her master. But their bond had deteriorated in the last few years of her mentorship—a result of her Father trying to keep her away from her mentor.

Her teeth gnashed. She should’ve never let him come between them.

Unfortunately, regrets didn’t undo mistakes.

“I’m not beating myself up.” Nerya looked away.

The older woman snorted. “Did you forget I changed your diapers? You cannot hide what you’re thinking from me, child.”

Nerya’s chin lowered to her breast. “…can you blame me?”

She knew Varrick like no one else—she should’ve known that he wouldn’t waste any time grabbing Levi. If she had just gone to Levi’s home right after speaking to Father and left a golem, or at least searched for Varrick, their situation would be drastically different.

‘All of this because of a few hours of sleep.’ Her fingers pressed into her eyelids in an attempt to wipe away the burn.

“You’re overestimating yourself,” Master Circe said. “You’re nothing but a pipsqueak with some magic, how can you be responsible? It’s your father you should be blaming.”

She knew that. She did. But that didn’t chase away the curses her mind was throwing at her.

A hand falling on her shoulder made her stop rubbing her eyes.

“Don’t worry,” Master Circe said. “We’ll get your foolish little brother and the others.”

Nerya smirked. She stopped the beginnings of another tear (seriously, she was teary-eyed today). “You say that like you have a plan.”

The crone smiled, too. “Why’d you think he kicked me out? I’m not known as the Ice Witch for nothing.”

“Kicked you out?” Nerya’s brow rose. “Didn’t you leave on your own?”

Master sighed. “I knew that’s what he’d tell you. Never had any spine, that brat.”

The older woman’s hand whipped out and struck the top of Nerya’s dome. “Did you really believe I would leave my student to fend for herself? I’ve been preparing for this for a long time.”

Like a good little girl, Nerya rubbed her skull and waited for her Master to continue.

“I spent the last decade memorising the layout of these tunnels.”

‘The last decade…’ Nerya did some Math.

“You started as soon as you left?” she asked.

“Before I left,” Master corrected. “Though he got better at it after Eirwen joined, your Father wasn’t very good at hiding his excavating back then.”

Nerya’s mouth almost fell open. She’d been monitoring them the entire time? But then—

“Sorry to interrupt.” Leah, who was leaning against the wall with her eyes closed and arms crossed, spoke up. “But doesn’t that mean you could’ve stopped all of this? You could’ve alerted the authorities.”

Master rolled her eyes. “Winterforge is too important an asset to the Duchy. While I may be known in the village, to the courts I’m just a random sorcerer. Do you think they would’ve accepted my accusations over Arnok’s word?”

Which made Nerya swallow her bubbling accusations. Never mind it being her words against that of her Father, if anyone had told her her village was conspiring with demons years ago, she would’ve laughed in their face. The Great Wall had kept the demonic threat out for generations. Accusing Winterforge would just be seen as another ploy to gain control of their village—the gods knew the nobility had made enough attempts at that.

“I made Arnok believe I fled the Duchy after being exiled,” Master continued, “and studied their machinations in silence. That gave me the greatest chance at striking when the time was right.”

The blonde mage blinked but kept her expression passive. Nerya couldn’t tell if Leah agreed or just didn’t care. She didn’t press the issue further, at least.

“How will knowing the layout of this place help us, though?” Leah said. “We already have an idea of where Levi and the others are.”

The mountain spirit had told them they’d only need to traverse a bridge to make it to the demon stronghold.

Master Circe rose to her aging knees and huffed. “You think the only things in this tunnel are some demons and a mountain spirit, girl? Things living here long before any of them showed up.”

She pointedly scratched Krog one more time. “We’ll need some reinforcements to eradicate those demons.”

Waltzing between the demons, Levi cast a look over his shoulder. The great bridge extending past the horizon was cluttered with red as if someone’s child had been unable to draw within the lines.

The demons must’ve numbered in the thousand.

Beside Levi, Varrick and his fellow clan members kept their heads aimed at the floor. Though they tried not to tremble, they couldn’t help it. Levi understood them all too well. With this many demons between them and salvation, no matter what army tried to save them, they’d not be able to fight their way through.

Especially not with the demon overlord guiding them.

Cebas rode the back of the poor four demons delegated to be his steed.

“Beautiful, aren’t they?” Cebas smiled. “Lesser demons are my favourite. They’re mindless jockeys that do whatever you say. All you have to do is feed them some mana.” He kicked one of the demons carrying him with the back of his heel. The demon didn’t yelp or even whimper.

“What a poor existence.” Levi shook his head.

Cebas’s smile grew wider. “Right? I pity myself, too. Being surrounded by unintelligent fools all the time is an attack on one’s soul. It’s hard.”

Levi glanced at Varrick, who glanced at him. Both chose to remain silent.

They passed a set of Brood-Mother demons which took up the entire width of the bridge. With that, they’d finally passed the backline of the great demonic army. In front of them, double-doors rising all the way to the ceiling of the great cavern parted and they waited on a landing strip for the entrance to open.

“How did you even find this place?” Levi said.

He still couldn’t believe all of this was down here. Surely, the demons had not built this themselves. But if not them, what civilisation had?

“It’s not so surprising,” Cebas said. “When you’re old enough, you hear many rumours. We merely followed up on them. Also—”

The great doors revealed a circular chamber with walls of crystal clear ice…or so they must’ve been in the past. The blood creeping up the walls was like the many veins walking through the human body.

“—having been here before helped,” Cebas said, then walked inside.

Levi and the others remained standing—awestruck as they were—but a demon’s growl knocked them out of their reverie. Their awe returned as they headed inside. A sphere hanging from the ceiling grew bigger in their sight until it dominated most of the view. The frost magic wafting off the object was so immense it chilled Levi to his bones.

The blood magic being woven together was equally formidable. Levi’s own blood curled just being near the spell. Yet that wasn’t the worst part of it all.

Levi thought he saw a shadow moving within the ice.

“Levi of Vrost, Varrick Ebonfrost, I bid thee welcome. It’s a pleasure to finally make your acquaintance.”

The greeting, amplified by magic, dragged Levi’s gaze down to the floor. Only now did he notice the extravagant ice throne in the centre of the chamber. Levi was unsure whether to call the person on it a man or a person—it was more of shade.

It also had pointy ears.

Levi frowned. How could that be?

Cebas stood off to the side and ushered them forwards. “Don’t be shy. He doesn’t bite.”

Their party stopped in front of the throne.

“You may call me Moonwalker,” it said.

The shade, whatever it was, didn’t speak afterwards and gave Levi time to think. Undoubtedly aware of the thoughts warring in his head.

‘Could he be faking it?’ He was obviously using some form of magic to project himself. However, what was the point of giving an image pointed ears if you were going to hide the rest of your visage? They’d only do that if they wanted others to know that they were an elf.

And what else was the shade supposed to be? Elves were the most prolific magic casters in the Kingdoms, and Sepharin had suspected a master mage to be responsible for the crafting of the runes.

“I don’t understand,” Levi said.

“Me being an elf?” Moonwalker said.

“No one would incriminate the elves because a shadow has pointed ears,” Levi said, “so imitating them is no use. But if you truly are an elf, there’s no reason you could possibly have for doing this.”

Highbloods and foulbloods were the only two types of elves and were opposing factions.

The foulbloods had conquered Kreed, then made the rest of the North their vassals. So, in a sense, the Duchy and the highbloods were enemies. But that was only in name. Everyone knew the Duchy was a faction belonging to the Goddess of Light in truth, which was an ally to the other Good factions in the world. That included the highbloods.

Highbloods didn’t work together with demons, and foulbloods would have no reason to destroy their own vassal state. Even if they did, they could use their own military might to do so instead of relying on the demons.

So why?

The shade chuckled. “That is the problem with you lesser races.”

Levi waited.

The shade mimicking an elf rose from his seat and strode around Levi and the others in a circle, much to the amusement of Cebas, who watched the theatrics with a smile of his own.

“In your mind,” Moonwalker said, “the world revolves around you. Anything that happens to you—”

He stepped past Levi’s field of view.

“—must be related to yourself in some manner.”

Levi’s forehead creased. Was he trying to say the reason he was helping the orcs invade the Duchy had nothing to do with the Duchy itself? Considering the idea was enough to make Levi’s insides curl.

“That’s nonsense,” Levi snarled. “Do you know how many people died? What external reasons could there be for killing so many?”

The shade tutted his lips. “That’s a secret. Perhaps if you wrack that brain of yours, you might be able to hazard a guess. Before you die, that is.”

A bucket of cold water poured over the red hot anger stirring inside Levi. Varrick and the others went still as well.

“Don’t worry,” Moonwalker said. “You won’t be killed right away. The timing isn’t quite right.”

“Are we keeping them with the others?” Cebas yawned.

“Others?” Levi said.

Moonwalker pointed to the side of the room. There was nothing beside an empty corner. Despite that, Cebas led them forwards.

Moonwalker waved after them as they left, then returned to his throne.

Levi was still contemplating the conversation he’d had when his world shifted.

A group of bound people appeared in front of them out of thin air.

‘He must’ve used a spell to hide them from view.’

Again, Levi wanted to snarl. An elf magus helping out the demons…this wasn’t even a matter of fair and unfair. What had their people done to deserve this? He was about to turn around and throw curses at the elf when his eyes fell on one of the individuals, a man completely bruised and beaten.

Was that who he thought it was?