“So,” I said to Grey, once we were back on the streets of Blutstein. “Thoughts?”

  In response, Grey raised one hand and cast a Spell I had seen from him multiple times in the past. A ripple expanded from his open palm, and immediately all the sounds of the city around us cut out. Not only could nobody hear or understand us anymore, but I knew from a previous explanation of Grey’s that nobody could even read our lips anymore. If they tried, all a potential spy would see were indistinct blurs where our mouths would be.

  Huh.

  You know, it just occurred to me that I could cast that Spell now.

  Later.

  His Spell cast, Grey turned to face me with a furrowed brow. He opened his mouth to speak, and then closed it with a frown, all the while ignoring the curious crowds of nobles all around us in this district of the city. “I’m unsure,” He finally said. “Nothing that Wenzel von Steinmark said was…untrue, technically. Despite his neutrality in the war, his House is still generally well-regarded. While not considered one of the overall heroes of Herztal, Wenzel himself is still respected. The man has a reputation for being blunt, straight-forward, and surprisingly austere despite his family’s modest wealth.”

  “So,” I said thoughtfully as we walked through a very well-cared-for park. “Modest wealth, eh? Looks like he’s angling to change that.”

  “Yes, that seems one of his largest motivations,” Grey nodded in agreement. “If House von Steinmark were to be granted the Duchy of Elderwyck, they would overnight become one of the richest Houses in the country. And…it would neatly solve the problem of how the Assembly has had extreme difficulty in filling that seat in the past months.”

  “Why? Wouldn’t a bunch of them be jumping at the chance to become one of the biggest nobs in the bunch?”

  “Ah, but you forget, Nathan,” Grey said as we came to a stop, sitting down together on one of the park benches. Before us was an almost picturesque scene of wealthy families and healthy children playing and picnicking on the well-kept lawn of the park. It represented such a contrast to the hardship and near squalor I had seen in the lower levels that I couldn’t help but be a bit…disquieted. “The rise of a Calamity in Elderwyck was only five months ago. That’s not nearly enough time to rebuild all that was lost. The reports I’ve received indicate that the city is barely hanging on. This isn’t even counting the difficulties with the Empire. As a result, any who have been considered for the task of overseeing the war-torn city have balked at the task. Even with the financial assistance of the crown, it would inflict quite the blow to the new Duke's coffers.”

  For a moment, I was confused as to what the Kawamarans had to do with anything, but then I remembered. I raised a hand to stop him. “Wait a moment. I’ve got a question. Why the hell are there two Empires acting on both Indiqua and Vereden? Isn’t that a bit…confusing?”

  Grey blinked at me, thrown out of his concentration. “Ah? Oh, I see. You’re referring to Kawamara. Well…it’s…more of a colloquialism, you see,” He said, looking a bit embarrassed. “The official name of the government that rules the Orcs is labelled the ‘Dominion of Xilochtlan’, while its political structure is distinctly imperial in nature. Thus, it is called ‘the Empire’ in common parlance. On the other hand, Kawamara is officially named the ‘Empire of Kawamara’, and yet it has long since abandoned any imperial objectives. In truth, it should simply be referred to as a form of…of…” He grasped for words for a moment before snapping his fingers. “Ceremonial Empire! Yes, that works. Really, the reforms of Emperor Seimei in particular have placed more power in the hands of his nobility than with his throne. I’m…aware that it can be a tad confusing to outsiders, but if you wish to simply refer to Xilochtlan as the ‘Dominion’ and Kawamara as an ‘Empire’, nobody will gainsay you.”

  “Okay…” I said slowly, raising an eyebrow at Grey. He just shrugged helplessly at me in return. “Guess you can’t help the way language adapts over time. Back to the topic at hand, though, what problems are the ‘Dominion’ giving you guys?”

  “Well…” Grey sighed, rubbing his brow. “The portal was reestablished a month or so after you left, and the remaining forces of Tlatec finally received their orders from their capital of Caoita and Empress Lyneia-”

  He smiled helplessly at me when I shot him a look at the term ‘Empress’, but continued speaking.

  “-and needless to say, she was alarmed that one of the surviving gods of Chaos had so nearly set foot upon the world which ‘neighbors’ her own, so to speak.”

  That’s right…the ruler of the Orcs was one of the surviving ‘gods’ of Order. Lyneia was their immortal God-Empress, and had raised the Orcs from the dirt to be the strongest force on both worlds, using her Mantle as the goddess of Prosperity.

  She was also probably one of the Netherim who had assisted Lucretia in betraying their people to steal…something. Something which granted them immortality, and a massively overpowered Mantle to LARP as ‘gods’.

  “As such, the Empress has been seeking to tighten her grip on Vereden as a whole,” Grey continued. “We have been deemed too incompetent in our stewardship of this planet to be allowed to oversee it unsupervised any longer. Thus, there have been…certain demands from the Dominion in recent months. And those demands have been placing increasing pressure on the surviving governance of Elderwyck, the Assembly of Nobles, and me. It’s only grown more and more volatile, and given them more ammunition, with our current inability to elect a replacement High King. It’s not as if they can deal with the Principality, either. They’re currently in the midst of a full-blown slave revolt that teeters on the brink of becoming their own civil war. The result of it all is that there are some…fears, and not unfounded ones at that,” He told me with a pained look on his wrinkled face. “That the Dominion might be considering outright annexing Vereden, and sending forth their vast legions to bring us in line.”

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  I sat back and absorbed all of that. “Wow,” I finally said. “What a damned shitshow. It…kinda sounds like things have just been going from bad to worse down here, while I was living it up in Kawamara.”

  So to speak. The worst I had to deal with in the islands were endless hordes of Oni, proto-Revenants, rogue Orders, surprise Calam-

  You know what, never mind.

  Shut up, Core.

  I stood up from the bench while a manifestation of my own damned Skill laughed at me in my mind. “Then we should try and get this settled as quickly as possible,” I said, smiling at Grey’s raised eyebrow. “Let’s go talk to Oskar and get his side of the story.”

  Grey laughed lightly as he joined me on my feet. “Very well. I’m quite keen to ask the Prince just why he neglected to tell me about the truth of his second cousin’s offer, in all of our dealings.”

  Well.

  I noticed, there, that he wasn’t referring to Oskar as ‘King-Elect’ anymore.

  Interesting.

  …………………………………

  Since I didn’t actually know where I was going in this city yet, I let Grey lead me out of and away from the noble district. As we essentially walked back in the direction of the administration building, we had only left a few hours ago. By now, it was, according to the position of Tarus above us, maybe an hour or so after noon.

  That meant it was time for a check-up.

  I mentally reached out and plucked the Familiar bond linking me to Fade, for lack of a better word. At a distance like this, I could only vaguely feel his presence, but that was the passive part. As the active part came alive, a full-on mental connection formed between the two of us.

  “Nate?” I heard Fade’s mental ‘voice’ reach me. “What’s up? Do you need help?”

  I smiled at the eagerness I could hear coming from the young son of Elys. “No, bud. I’m okay. I figured I would call you and ask how things were doing, back at the house. How’s Aveline? Presumably, she’s awake by now.”

  “Oh, yeah, she’s awake alright,” Fade sent back, a curious note of almost…apprehension in his metal voice.

  I frowned, which drew Grey’s attention. I just shook my head at him and tapped a finger against it.

  He seemed to get the gist.

  “Is something wrong?” I asked my partner. “Was she afraid that I wasn’t there when she woke up? Should I come back?”

  “No! No, I swear everything is alright, Nate.” Fade sent hurriedly. “She was totally fine when she woke up, if not a bit confused. But Miss Rachel seems to have taken a shine to her, and Lina was having fun with her in the kitchen till lunch.”

  “…was having fun?”

  “Ah…” Fade sounded a bit apprehensive to me, for some reason. “There’s a couple of…guests. Miss Honoka came around for lunch, and she brought someone with her. They took an interest in Lina and invited her to join them. Uh…someone who I recognized, but didn’t recognize me.”

  Oh. I…could take a guess as to where this was going.

  Shit.

  Grey had said she was out on assignment, damnit!

  I sighed aloud, catching Grey’s attention again. This time, I didn’t wave him away. “Sylvia’s back in town,” I said tiredly, bringing him to a momentary halt. At his rapid blinking, I smiled at him. “She’s having lunch at your place with Honoka…and Aveline, apparently.”

  “Ah,” Grey said awkwardly, shuffling his feet in place for a moment. “I…see. That’s…nice.”

  “It sure is,” I said evenly, nearly monotone. “Anyway…let’s get back to it. Shall we?” I gestured towards the elevator we had stopped right in front of, so similar in appearance to the one we had taken to get up to the middle layer. Only, this one was far better guarded, and there were far fewer people trying to get up to the upper tier where Kyronkar grew from. I acted on autopilot as I followed Grey as he approached one of the guards, who scrambled to salute the old Headmaster. As Grey began a whispered conversation with the soldier, I focused back on Fade.

  I just…couldn’t stop myself.

  “Does she…look alright?” I asked him apprehensively. “Happy, at the very least?”

  Fade was quiet for a moment. “Yeah, Nate,” He replied softly. “She seems good. Definitely stronger. She even did something with her hair, which, uh. I don’t know how. She’s curious, mostly. About me, about Aveline…and about you. And, uh.” Fade paused for a moment before continuing sheepishly. “Renauld is here too, and he’s talking like he can’t shut up.”

  I swear to God, Renauld. If you say a word about Bella to Sylvia, I was going to fucking shave you when I got back!

  I was tempted to send that word-for-word, but refrained. “You have my permission to bite him if he babbles too much,” I said instead, to Fade’s accompanying laugh. “Anyway, I’ll see you later. I have more boring two-legs business to see to before I head back.”

  “Gross,” Fade immediately returned. “See ya later, Nate.”

  With that, the connection returned to its passive form, and I focused back on the world just in time to watch as the elevator reached the upper tier. Now, I say tier, but it was really just a landing with an absolutely massive pair of double doors in the distance, packed full of an almost obscene amount of Herztalian soldiers.

  All of whom were paying very rapt attention to Grey and me, in the ensuing quiet.

  I slowly leaned toward Grey and whispered to him as quietly as I could, as the many, many heavily armed and armored soldiers on the landing stood utterly still, the points of their long halberds pointing straight to the sky. “Should we be…doing anything?”

  “No,” Grey whispered back to me, sounding much more relaxed than I was. “Patience, Nathan. No doubt they’re informing the Prince of our visit, and someone will be down to fetch us shortly.”

  He was proven right after maybe five minutes of awkwardly standing around. A previously disguised, much more reasonably sized door opened on the surface of the gates in the distance, a short, squat, and frankly…jiggly form slipped out of the opening. In moments, the seemingly richly dressed…person (?) scurried down the walkway and towards us, taking two steps at a time.

  As they got closer to us, I at first mistook them for a dwarf they were so short. But no, by the time the man had come to a huffing-and-puffing stop before us, I just realized it was a very short, very fat little human man. His head was completely bald, including his many chins and eyebrows. The effect made the man look like a somewhat melted egg, one dressed in borderline gaudy robes of rich red and green velvet with gold filigree, embroidered with the mountain crest of the Eisenherz dynasty.

  The man finally caught his breath and smiled wobblingly up at Grey’s much taller form, much less my own. “Ah…ah…Headmaster Greycton. What an unexpected pleasure it is to receive you at Kyronkar. What…what brings you here today?”

  In response, Grey smiled calmly and kindly at the man. “Seneschal Stroud. I’m aware this is short notice, but my apprentice and I,” He nodded at me, causing the apparent Seneschal to shift his curious, almost porcine gaze my way. “Would like to speak with the…King-Elect. The matter is somewhat important.”

  “Ah…” Stroud blinked at me for a moment, before shifting his gaze back to Grey. “Of course, Headmaster. You are always welcome in Kyronkar. And…I’m sure His Highness will wish to see you both. After all…I believe he’s wished to meet with Sir Hart for some time now.”

  That sounded…lovely. It sure would be nice to meet the kid who had accused me of treachery on several different occasions once more.

  Ugh.