Memoirs 506 - Ustrum (Patreon)

(Chapter simply took longer than expected to finish this time)

Evelyne’s gaze dropped to the construct in her hands.

Was it too late to reject it? Would he be offended if she tried to return it now?

Would he kill her on the spot?

But…she didn’t understand. The man walking ahead of her had acted nothing like she would have expected from the leader of the Undead Council. The Council was the sworn enemy of the empire and all those who still drew breath. Why would he have spared her—let alone helped her—if he truly was Ustrum?

And he had mentioned enemies here in the Steppes, where the Council itself made its home. What enemies could its leader have that would care about reaching Evelyne?

Ustrum slowed. His head turned slightly as he looked back at her, and Evelyne could have sworn that something like interest passed across the markings of his mask. The serrated mouth shifted into an uncanny facsimile of a smile.

“Fascinating,” he said. “You possess a keener sense of discernment than I would have given you credit for. Good.”

Evelyne tried to keep the surprise from showing on her face.

He knew that she had realised who he was.

Despite that, he did nothing. He simply turned away and resumed walking.

Evelyne stayed where she was for a few moments.

The Undead Council had always been mired in mystery as far as most citizens of the empire were concerned, and no one had truly known the identity of its leader. At least not as far as Evelyne was aware. Even so, there was no denying what it meant if her conclusion was correct.

She was standing in front of perhaps the most infamous mage ever to have walked the continent.

She had heard about Scarlett’s encounter with him in Beld Thylelion. Even Arnaud Astrey had been wary of this man. If one of the finest swordsmen in the empire couldn’t be certain of victory against him, then what was Evelyne? Did she even register as an ant in the eyes of someone like this?

Evelyne had already recognised that he was powerful before knowing his identity, but this was different. What she knew about Ustrum and his past clashed with the man she had seen in front of her so far, and her fear warred with a confusion that she couldn’t quite put aside.

But beneath both of those emotions was something else that she never would have expected to feel here, in front of someone like this.

Curiosity.

It sat stubbornly at the back of her mind, uncomfortable and cloying. Evelyne tried to suppress it, but it refused to disappear.

Before she knew it, she had started moving again.

“Why did you do it?”

The question left her lips, and it took a second for her to realise she had been the one to ask it.

“Do what?” Ustrum replied without looking back.

Evelyne quickened her pace slightly. She didn’t want to catch up to him, but neither could she bring herself to stop again.

“Betray the empire,” she said. “Betray everything you stood for.”

It was a stupid question. Almost unequivocally so.

Evelyne wasn’t someone who willingly provoked possible threats. She wasn’t someone who would even interact with someone this dangerous. Yet the same curiosity that had pushed the question out also left her with the strange conviction that Ustrum wouldn’t hurt her simply for asking. He hadn’t seemed offended by her ignorance itself. If anything, he seemed more contemptuous of people refusing to think at all.

In the end, maybe he was a wizard above all else.

That didn’t mean Evelyne could afford to be careless. She had no intention of making it seem as though she was interested in the magic he practised, or that she could be tempted by the dark secrets he might keep. She didn’t want to appear as if he could easily use her.

She only wanted to understand.

What could make someone who had stood at the very height of magic, founded institutions, forged legends, and accomplished more than almost any mage in recorded history simply abandon all of it?

Even if Evelyne could never sympathise with what Ustrum had become—or what he had done since—she wanted to at least know what a man with those talents could possibly have valued enough to throw everything else away.

Was it just fear of dying?

A low, chilling chuckle escaped him.

“Betray?” Ustrum repeated. “I suppose that is how you would see it. Those whose ambitions extend no further than the world they know often struggle to imagine why anyone would wish to leave it. And when someone does, well…betrayal is a convenient explanation.”

There was no anger in his voice. If anything, he sounded mildly amused.

“You don’t think you betrayed anyone?” Evelyne asked.

He had established the Ustrum Assembly. He had been one of the closest companions of the first emperor. He had sworn oaths to both the empire and its people. And while the empire believed Ustrum to have died of old age more than two centuries ago, the truth was that he had gone on to become the leader of one of its oldest enemies, tied to some of the most harrowing events in imperial history after shedding whatever remained of his mortal life.

What was that if not betrayal?

“Betrayal requires a promise broken, child. Not merely an expectation disappointed.” Ustrum continued walking as he spoke. “I gave your empire more than most of its rulers ever could. I laid its foundations, served its people, and kept faith with those who stood beside me. But it did not bring me contentment. And I knew the empire we had built would only remain ours for as long as those who shaped it remained. Others would inherit it, lend it their own purposes, and call those purposes duty. I bore them no ill will for that. But my ambitions were never so accommodating. I had accomplished what I set out to do, and chose to pursue something beyond it.”

He made a small, dismissive gesture.

“There is a peculiar conceit to loyalty that you would do well to recognise. Give people enough of yourself, and they begin to regard whatever remains as theirs by right. Deny them that, and suddenly all you have given counts for nothing. They call it betrayal, as you did just now, but that is only because entitlement sounds uglier when spoken aloud.”

Evelyne remained quiet for several long seconds.

“And…what are your ambitions?” she finally asked.

“Apotheosis.”

Apotheosis…

That was similar to what Scarlett had told her. Scarlett had presented it as if the word itself was explanation enough. As if elevation into divinity were something that you could reasonably achieve.

This was one of many things where Evelyne felt she and Scarlett didn’t look at the world in the same way. Things that seemed self-evident to Scarlett often felt anything but to her, and Evelyne still wasn’t sure she even understood what it meant to reach divinity like the Undead Council supposedly sought to.

Gods were fundamentally different from mortals. At least, that was what she had always believed.

A passage came to mind.

What is fitting for the eternal is not thereby a blessing to the mortal. For the heart that finds no peace within the days allotted to it shall find none in a thousand ages.

Evelyne had never thought much about those words before. She couldn’t recall the exact chapter or verse, only that they appeared somewhere in the writings of Edras. Now, though, they felt strangely relevant.

“Do you truly want to become a god?” she asked. “What do you hope to achieve with that? Do you think you’ll be happier if you can replace Ittar?”

Ustrum laughed.

It was a strange sound, hissing and reverberant. It was terrifying, but also surprising, because it sounded genuine to Evelyne.

He turned, the glowing eyes on his mask narrowing at her.

“Oh, please. You think I seek to stand on the same level as Ittar’s stagnant ilk? No. I seek true power.”

Evelyne held his gaze for a moment before looking away.

He was insane. No matter how lucid he sounded, he had to be.

Beyond his sheer strength, she was beginning to understand Scarlett’s fear of this man.

What had Evelyne landed herself in? Maybe it had been naive to think she had ever had much choice in this situation. Naive to believe Ustrum had left her be out of indifference, or because he held some strange appreciation for talent and intelligence. Even if that had been before she knew his name.

Had she been doomed from the moment she had touched the construct he offered her?

Evelyne kept walking, maintaining several steps between them as they crossed the desert. Eventually, Ustrum stopped again. Evelyne did the same, unsure what had caught his attention. He appeared to be staring at a point somewhere ahead, but all she could see were dunes.

She mustered the determination to ask what he was doing, but was silenced by a flat, ‘Silence’.

With little else she could do, she waited.

Several minutes passed beneath the punishing sun. Wind carried dust into Evelyne’s hair and across her face, and the exposed skin around her cheeks and neck was beginning to sting from the heat. Her throat felt dry, but she endured it, lifting one hand to shield her eyes.

Then figures appeared on the horizon.

A heavy weight settled in her stomach.

They were in the Unresting Steppes. No one who walked these lands was normal. Could these be the opponents Ustrum had mentioned? Were they coming for Evelyne?

If they were, would he even bother protecting her? Or would he simply kill her first and spare himself the inconvenience?

Ustrum didn’t move as the figures approached. Evelyne shifted the construct uneasily in her hands, wondering whether there was some way it could help even despite her apprehension.

Would she have to defend herself here?

She squinted into the glare, preparing herself for almost anything, when one of the approaching figures began to look familiar.

Evelyne focused harder on them, then she looked at the others. As they drew closer, her eyes widened.

Was she seeing things?

She had read that travellers lost in deserts could sometimes fall victim to mirages, seeing shapes and people where there was nothing. But surely she wouldn’t mistake this.

Confirmation came once she could finally make out their faces.

At the front walked Skye, most of her body covered in loose layers of cloth that shifted in the wind and protected her from the sun. Beside her to the left was the First Princess, dressed similarly, while to her right walked a woman Evelyne didn’t recognise, wearing a cerulean cape over a set of armour. A few steps behind them came the Countess, her familiar bandaged features partly concealed beneath a hood and scarf. Finally, there was a gangly figure wrapped in dark clothing whose face was hidden beneath a deep hood filled only with shifting shadow.

Evelyne could see the surprise on both Skye’s and the princess’ faces as they recognised her as well, though it was tempered by wariness when they looked at Ustrum. They came to a stop a few metres away, and for a moment, the two groups simply watched each other.

The princess was the first to break the silence.

“Lady…Evelyne. Is that you?”

Evelyne glanced at Ustrum.

How wise was it to confirm that she knew some of these people? It might have been better not to reveal that, but perhaps hiding it wouldn’t even have been possible. Regardless, the princess had already given away as much.

Evelyne nodded. “It is, Your Highness.”

Even in this situation, she couldn’t completely ignore the instinct telling her to curtsy and show proper respect to a member of the imperial family.

“Lady Evelyne, why are you here?” the princess asked.

“I…don’t know. If possible, I would have liked to ask you the same question.”

Evelyne was aware that Scarlett had sent the princess’ group on a mission into the Unresting Steppes, but what were the odds that she would encounter them here by sheer coincidence? Not very high, she imagined, which meant there was probably more to this than chance.

Skye shifted her attention from Ustrum to Evelyne. Evelyne had only met the woman once before, but she had been left with the impression that Skye wasn’t someone who went out of her way to hide what she thought or felt. That was certainly evident now, given the suspicion clearly written across her face as she studied Evelyne.

Eventually, Skye raised a hand and pointed at Ustrum. “We’re here because of him. We’ve been tracking him through Oveth’s magic. It’s been four days.”

Evelyne stared at her, then looked towards the gangly figure at the back.

That was ‘Ovethatake’, then.

She had heard about him before. According to Scarlett, he possessed a genius for magic that very few could match. But would even someone like that truly be capable of tracking a mage of Ustrum’s calibre? Even if he could, why were they tracking Ustrum in the first place? Scarlett hadn’t sent them here to fight the leader of the Undead Council, had she? That would have been deranged, even for her.

Surely she wouldn’t have placed the princess’ life at that much risk.

Ustrum still hadn’t spoken or even moved. His attention did appear to be fixed on Ovethatake, though.

It struck Evelyne how similar the two of them seemed. While their outward appearance wasn’t the same, both of them concealed their faces and carried an atmosphere that left those around them slightly on edge, even if it was difficult to say exactly why.

…Evelyne seemed to recall that Ovethatake had supposedly once been a member of the Undead Council as well. At least according to Scarlett.

“You still persist in this, then,” Ustrum finally said. “Striving to atone instead of pursuing what still lies ahead. You waste yourself on penance.”

The shadows beneath Ovethatake’s hood sharpened slightly, and Evelyne caught the faintest flicker of his eyes as they rested on Ustrum. “There are things beyond power and ambition worth living for.”

“There are. But precious few that compare to what lies within our reach. You were once capable of seeing beyond the world as it is. It is disappointing what has become of you.”

Ovethatake offered no response.

Skye stepped forward, and two circular blades shaped like crescents shimmered into being in her hands. Beside her, the woman in the cerulean cape raised an empty hilt, and a deep-blue blade made entirely of light sprang from it. Both women looked ready to move against Ustrum at a moment’s notice.

“Let that lady go,” Skye said.

Ustrum turned his attention to her. “If I intended to keep the girl captive, do you truly think you could persuade me otherwise?”

He laughed, but it didn’t sound as genuine as the one Evelyne had heard earlier. “How typical. You see her in my company and presume the worst, without considering that she might owe her continued existence to me. She is free to leave whenever she wishes. Whether she makes anything of the opportunity she has been given is entirely her affair.”

Skye frowned slightly and glanced towards Evelyne as if looking for confirmation.

Evelyne hesitated, then nodded.

She couldn’t be entirely certain how true Ustrum’s description of things was, but it wasn’t a complete lie.

Skye looked back at him. “Alright, sure. Your life’s rough because everyone keeps bullying you for being a walking bundle of suspicion. Whatever. Now that we’ve finally caught up with you, we want the clavis.”

“Ah.” Ustrum sounded almost bored now. “I had been wondering what made you daring enough to believe following me was worthwhile. I see now.”

To Skye’s apparent surprise, he extended one hand. A small object appeared above his palm.

It looked like some strange blend of stone and metal, roughly the size of Evelyne’s forearm and shaped like a many-sided spindle. Its surface had a dull metallic sheen, broken by narrow seams of rough stone running between its facets. Hundreds of tiny inscriptions covered it from end to end, layered so densely that Evelyne couldn’t follow any one line for more than a hair’s width before it crossed beneath another.

With a simple motion from Ustrum, the object floated across the space between them towards Ovethatake.

He caught it and immediately began examining it.

“Consider it yours,” Ustrum said. “Now you have no reason to trouble me any further. For your sake, I suggest we do not meet again soon.”

“Wait, hold on—” Skye straightened, lowering her weapons slightly. “You’re just giving it to us?”

“Evidently.”

“But—” She looked from him to Ovethatake. “Oveth, you said this thing was incredibly valuable. Is that actually the real deal?”

Ovethatake continued inspecting the ‘clavis’ for several more seconds before giving a small nod. “It is.”

Skye turned back to Ustrum. “Did you put some kind of trap on it?”

Ustrum shook his head. “I simply have no use for it. Hoarding resources without purpose is a habit for misers and fools. In your hands, that object is far more likely to create difficulties for my enemies than for me, so I have little incentive to lace it with crude artifices merely to satisfy your paranoia.”

His voice cooled.

“Now, I have indulged enough witless questions.”

He turned towards Evelyne.

Her body stiffened as she felt his attention settle on her.

“Girl,” he said. “Seize hold of your own potential. It is yours to realise, your ambition yours to rouse. No one else’s. Fate is a crutch for those who lack the will to forge their own path, but if you are one who places your trust in it, then you may consider our meeting its way of telling you to forge yours.”

With that, he gave Ovethatake one final look before lifting a hand.

Black sand suddenly surged up around him in a dense cloud, swallowing his figure from every direction. It churned for not even one second before falling away again, scattering across the dune. The space where he had stood was now empty.

Evelyne stared at that spot, nearly reeling from how sudden his exit had been.

Skye scowled and swept her eyes across the surrounding dunes, apparently not quite willing to believe he was truly gone. She then motioned towards Ovethatake. “Can you make sure the clavis is safe? And that nobody else can track it?”

“Yes.”

Ovethatake dipped his head. He swept one arm towards the ground, and the sand around his feet shifted, sinking into narrow grooves that spread out to form a complex array of runes.

The hairs along Evelyne’s arms rose as she sensed his mana.

Without a word, Ovethatake brought out several different reagents and arranged them at specific points throughout the array before placing the clavis in its centre. The inscriptions in the sand began to give off a faint glow as he worked.

Skye, meanwhile, walked over to Evelyne.

She tugged down part of the cloth covering her own face and stopped only a step away. Her brow drew together as she spent several seconds looking Evelyne over before clicking her tongue.

Evelyne blinked, not quite sure what to make of the sound. Was there something wrong with her…?

Was Skye suspicious because she had been travelling with Ustrum?

That would be understandable. If Evelyne had been in her position, she probably would have hesitated to—

Skye reached into a small pouch at her waist and pulled out a long strip of cloth. Before Evelyne could react, the woman reached forward and started wrapping it around her head.

“How long have you been walking around out here like this?” Skye asked, sounding halfway between annoyed and incredulous. “You look like a lobster someone forgot in the pot. Did you seriously come out here without any protection or enchantments? The sun in this place will cook you faster than you can say SPF fifty.”

“SPF…what?”

Skye didn’t answer as she adjusted the cloth, leaving enough to shade the sides of Evelyne’s face, then pulled out a light scarf and looped it around her neck.

Evelyne didn’t know whether to protest or thank her.

Skye reached into her pouch again and produced a small tin. When she twisted off the lid, Evelyne saw a thick brown cream inside. Skye scooped a little onto one finger.

“This helps with the burns,” she said as Evelyne instinctively leaned back when the finger approached her face.

“T-Thank you,” Evelyne managed, holding still as Skye dabbed some of the cream across her nose and cheeks. “I…are you sure this is what we should be focusing on right now, though?”

“Yes.”

Skye took a step back and looked over Evelyne’s clothes again before shaking her head.

“Seriously,” she muttered. “How could you be dressed like this?”

A little heat rose to Evelyne’s cheeks, though she couldn’t tell how much of that was actual embarrassment.

“I was just in Elystead,” she mumbled in response. “I wasn't exactly planning to find myself in the middle of a desert.”

“What, so you just spontaneously self-teleported yourself here?” Skye asked. She crouched down and grabbed one of Evelyne’s hands, placing it on her shoulder for balance. “You’ve got to be seriously unlucky for this to be where you end up.”

“Unlucky…?”

Evelyne stared as the woman lifted one of her feet and started removing her shoe, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world to do. Once it was off, Skye peeled away Evelyne’s woollen stocking and shook her head again at the sand and grit that had worked their way inside and rubbed her skin raw.

Evelyne flushed and glanced towards the princess and the others, suddenly very aware that they were all standing there watching this. None of them seemed to find anything strange about it. The princess even offered her a small, amused smile. Evelyne bit her lip and looked back down as Skye pulled a pair of light boots and thin footwraps from her bag.

“Not sure how well these’ll fit you, but they’re better than tearing up your feet in those shoes.”

Evelyne fought down another wave of embarrassment as Skye helped her into the footwrap and boot before moving on to the other foot.

“So,” Skye said once she was finished, glancing up at her, “how did you end up here? Did you actually teleport?”

Evelyne blinked again, then nodded. “I did, but I don’t know how. It was against my will. One moment I was in Elystead, and the next I was standing in the desert.”

“No one cast a spell on you or anything?”

“…Not that I saw.”

“Lady Evelyne.” The princess stepped closer, glancing at Skye as the woman stood and tucked Evelyne’s shoes away in her bag before turning her attention back to Evelyne. “To be clear, are you saying your presence here has nothing to do with Baroness Hartford? She didn’t send you here? It seems rather unlikely that we would encounter you out of sheer happenstance.”

Evelyne hesitated a bit, considering how much she should say.

“I…can’t guarantee that my sister isn’t involved somehow,” she said. “But she didn’t send me here. I’m just as surprised as you are that we found each other. I touched a letter that I found in our mansion, and somehow that brought me here. I probably would have died if that man from earlier hadn’t appeared and saved me.”

The princess regarded her. “Do you know who that man was?”

Evelyne was quiet, then nodded. “Do you?”

“We do. Which is why it is somewhat suspicious that he would help you. I hope you don’t take offence at me saying so.”

“No, not at all, Your Highness.” A faint, disbelieving laugh escaped Evelyne. “I’m still having trouble grasping that I was speaking with the leader of the Undead Council. He was very different from what I had imagined.”

“That wasn’t the Council’s leader,” Skye said as she brought out a waterskin and held it towards her.

Evelyne accepted it, giving her a confused look. “He wasn’t…?”

“Nope.”

“But he claimed that he was Ustrum…”

Hadn’t he?

“Yeah, but he’s…weird.” Skye gestured vaguely. “Might be hard to believe, but that guy has a bunch of different copies of himself walking around. The one you met was one of those.”

“I…see. So he was a simulacrum?”

“Wait, you knew already?” Skye stared at her, then slapped her forehead. “Never mind. Of course you did. You’re her sister.”

“Mm.” Evelyne agreed absently as she processed that information, uncapping the waterskin to drink deeply.

Scarlett had told her that Ustrum had somehow split himself into several different identities, but it hadn’t even occurred to Evelyne that the man she met might have been any other than the original. He had felt so…real.

Could that explain why he had seemed so different from what she expected? Or were all versions of him like that?

Her thoughts returned to the people he had alluded to who might have found her instead. Evelyne doubted he had meant Skye and the others.

Was it possible that he had actually been talking about the Undead Council?

Ustrum didn’t strike Evelyne as the sort of person who would willingly take orders from anyone else. What if that extended even to himself? Could his simulacrums be fighting among themselves?

Movement off to the side caught Evelyne’s attention. The Countess had been keeping an anxious eye on their surroundings, occasionally glancing down at a mirror clasped tightly in one hand. Now she walked over to Skye and pulled lightly at her arm.

Skye turned to her. “Did you sense something?”

The Countess nodded.

That was enough to wipe the last of the easy air from Skye’s expression. She looked over at Ovethatake crouched beside the array. “How much longer do you need?”

“Five minutes.”

“Alright. Five minutes, then we move.” Skye turned back to Evelyne. “There’s a lot of dangerous stuff wandering around out here, and staying in one place too long is usually how you get its attention. We’ll figure out what happened to you and go over everything properly once we’re somewhere safer.”

Evelyne looked from her to the Countess, then towards the distant dunes.

“Okay,” she said eventually, tightening her hold on the strange construct Ustrum had given her. “I’ll follow your lead.”

Skye gave a short nod and turned back towards the others.

Evelyne drew the borrowed scarf a little closer around her neck. She felt confused, tired, and more than a little unsettled by everything that had happened, but for now, getting somewhere safe would have to be enough.