Calamity Unbound
TARALIS, BALSAMU
'You actually knighted the vermin?" Lorelei's tone was more incredulous than scrutinising.
"Yes, Mother." Corrado Truetide was the only figure in her immediate family who could stand up to her, and she always took a liking to him because of that.
To be fair, Arn Skulason actually performed all too well as a commander, considering that he was only five seasons older than Corrado - or that was what Lorelei had heard.. The Southpaws had been dismissed, and almost all of them were relaxing in the city. Strangely, for a band of mercenary vermin, they had actually obeyed the order to leave all within the walls untouched. That meant that the inns that night were crowded, but the city was untouched, winning a victory against the Valerans without even fighting a battle.
"Lord Guido escaped though, and we don't have the gold and soldiers to finish him if he is entrenched in his home territories." The battle in the straits was a resounding victory, though it was a close-run thing. A quarter of the Garlean ships were actually repurposed ships from a merchant fleet bought from Arn's father, and a quarter of all twenty eight galleys were either destroyed completely or were awaiting repairs.
"Well, we can finally get him to stop harassing Parman soil, though he will refuse to bend the knee to his rightful king." Lorelei replied, her mind clearly not where it should be.
"Niels." Like Thordan, Corrado was raised by the kindly healer when Lorelei had had enough of him and his antics. "I may wish that we have a better king, but we have to make do with what we have got."
"Then why don't you declare yourself King of Parma here and now?" Lorelei raised a brow. "Your troops love you, you crushed Aldabreschi while Niels talked and talked, and you are King Thordan's grandson!"
"Parma doesn't need me." Corrado dismissed his mother's plea with a swipe of his paw. "With all of Grandfather's conquering and consolitdating, the realm needs peace more than anything. Who better to give peace than the most peaceful otter in the whole realm?"
"Who, your brother Thordan?" Lorelei flinched at the name.
"Mother, we don't even know where he is. Those Southards have carried him away to who-knows-where. The fiends!"
"Well, I know where he is." Lorelei gave a poisonous smile. "Though getting to him will be difficult, considering who is holding him prisoner right now. I have a rescue mission organised, and the beasts responsible shall depart tonight."
"Tonight?" Corrado's eyes widened. "It could be too late by now. Thordan could have been feeding fish right now, and nothing good will come of a mission that fails!"
'Just don't worry and we'll be together again. I can promise you that, at least." With that, mother and son parted ways - only to find that the beasts they seek were talking to one another.
"Eduard? A word." As Corrado led his bard away, no doubt to discuss wages, Lorelei gestured Hersent to her side.
"Do you know how to open Pathways? I think I need you quite a bit."
"I know, the Isangrim business." Hersent showed determination - an emotion that was born to her when she discovered that Thordan and the fox were abducted. "I need to know where he is first. Or where he is around, anyway."
"The Bond tells me that he is somewhere in the Dravain Hinterlands, and there is only one fort of any importance around there. That's where they're spanking Isangrim. Gates! You don;t know how much I want to pay that idiot measure for measure!" Aside from the black fox's physical punishments, Lorelei felt all of his sadness, anger and hopelessness as his bottom was studded thrice a day.
The vixen nodded. "Viksten. You told me about it. What is it like?"
"I have no idea, but I know the town around it." Lorelei's mind drifted back to much happier times. "Erlend showed it to me once. When I was carrying his child. Buildings dotted the riverbank, while the grass grew around the mountains. Three bridges crossed the river, and-"
"I got it!" The vixen laughed with glee as she opened a Pathway - to Vargo Palace. "Well, we could find paintings of Dravain towns in the collection King Erlend gave you. Then I can study it and open a Pathway there.
"Sounds annoying, but we do not actually have a choice." Lorelei sprinted into her home, with the fox in tow.
HOLMINSTER, CROWNLANDS, KINGDOM OF SOUTHSWARD
The marten slinked behind the squirrel and spoke. "Everything alright?"
Ralos jumped up with surprise, but soon relaxed when he saw that it was Slyte. The two had worked together, yes, and though Ralos carried the Southard dislike for vermin of all sorts, he was the only Thaumaturge on their side.
The first time Ralos saw him was in a visit from Dagbert to the general after Macolt. It took five and a half decades before he knew that he was a seer, with more than three being stuck in army work. He was not a good seer, but he was one, and liable to be attacked by all who stood against Southsward - and himself as well.
Seers are the only beasts who are liable to be possessed against their wills by those who have left this world, but were stuck between the living and the dead, so Ralos was trained for a while in defending against all that seek to harm him. His scythe being an Amplifier was also a deciding factor, though the most Ralos could do with it was to make banners move withoit help of the wind and fanning the smallest of fires.
But he found his talent, or Gift as it was called. Battlefocus, it was called, and with it the ability to bolster the will of allies was his. If his beasts needed encouragement and will, then Ralos would give it to them, as befitting his duty.
"No, Slyte, everything is not alright. And stop bothering me."
"Well, I'm tasked t' deal with this problem here." The vermin pointed at the unconscious Erlend Swalestrom. His wounds had gotten so bad that he had to be kept unconscious at all times, with the help of herbs and medicines. "Arbert, or was that Dagbert? No. it had t' be Arbert." The marten scratched his head. "Arbert wants him a bit on the dead side. He says that Lorelei would be deprived of an ally while this would prevent her from birthing more seers. Pah! A bunch of nonsense! That otterwife is too old to create half a pup!"
"She is not fifty yet, and even older wives have birthed," said Ralos, rolling his eyes.
It was then when footsteps were heard coming from the door. Before Ralos could whisper 'hide under the bed' Slyte hid under the bed, a mere three seconds before Garrion and his bodyguard appeared from the doorway, alongside Dirk. The three otters shared some sort of friendship now, and
"I see that Erlend has not awoken yet." Garrion spoke first. 'I wanted to talk to him, but I fear this should wait for another day."
Ralos waited a while before speaking. "He was your kin, and should be treated as such, despite being our enemy."
"Can you tell me what you know about him?" The younger otterlord's voice seemed to creak. "I barely knew him at all, close in blood that we may have been."
Ralos sighed. Memories of earlier days, months and seasons were coming back to him, whether he wanted or not. "He was a brave warrior and a good friend to all who would approach him, but he was as humble as a lord could be. He loved his subjects too much, and this led him to prefer them to his liege. He may be a traitor, but he made the choice he thought was right."
"He's dying, is he?" Galen spoke out of turn too much, it seemed, yet Garrion seemed to see him and Dirk as more of equals than subjects.
"I fear that he would not live to see tomorrow's dawn." He himself wondered if the statement was actually more than a half truth. Even without Slyte to help him to the Dark Forest, his condition seemed to turn worse day by day.
"Oh…" Garrion was not in the best of moods himself, having taken a wound in the recent battle as well. His arm had healed, yet his bad mood continued to express himself. Seeing his uncle fight to the death against his best friends must have contributed to it.
"Lord Garrion!" A messenger awaited him near the doorway. "News from Dravania!"
As the three otters moved to the mouse herald, Dirk made sure to wink before stepping out. Whether it was signalled towards Ralos or the marten under the bed was a mystery for later.
The door was closed, and Slyte soon leapt into action. He grabbed a vial from his belt, and prepared to pour it into Erlend's muzzle - just before Ralos stopped him.
"You killed his paramour with this, did you not? Tell me."
Slyte nodded. It was this marten that killed the beast responsible for Erlend's mental wellbeing. It was this beast that started a war that killed thousands.
But this was also the beast who was crucial to save millions, and millions more. All grievances could wait for later. "Use something else. Erlend Swalestrom deserves a painless death."
In a way, he did deserve one. Within seconds, Slyte produced another flask - one to kill himself with should his mission fail. He could escape from chains, yes, but he had no idea what tortures could await him. Then the foul liquid was poured down the otter's throat.
"Sleep well, Your Highness." It really seemed like the spear-holder was going to sleep, though his chest seemed to go up and down more slowly. Then it stopped moving - he stopped moving.
"Another job well done." Slyte smiled as he prepared to climb away from a window. "Arbert's here to pick us up, and we'll be good to go."
But the old squirrel was not in the mood to smile. Not because of the otter's death, but due to something else.
"Drat." The pine marten turned to Ralos, who banged his fist on the nearest table. "We forgot about the spear Augmenter! We forgot about Heavensward!"
VIKSTEN, KINGDOM OF DRAVANIA
Isangrim sat on the ground, waiting for another session with Dagbert.
The room, or more accurately, cell, he was in was completely and utterly devoid of light, and Isangrim had no Augmenter or Amplifier to light up his surroundings. The luxury of lamps, torches and candles were denied him as well, to 'teach him a lesson', as the mole told him.
There was no rational reason for him to be left in darkness. He was not afraid of the dark - foxes see well in dim light. They did it just to humiliate him.
Isangrim moved slowly to the corner, weakened by an entire week of hunger. The otters gave him water, but nothing else. The fox's paws curled around his footpaws, as he was still naked from the cold. Another attempt at resistance would result in either his fur being shaved off or his tail being hung up in the main square in Duncton, and the choice was not his.
Tears formed at the corners of his eyes, but they were swiftly wiped away. He will not cry. He is one of the Heaven's Ward, and crying is for lesser beings. But the humiliation was more painful than anything the fox had ever faced. He remembered all too vividly how he was turned on his knees and spanked like a disobedient child. Only one beast did that before, and Isangrim by then was indeed a disobedient child.
Now he was the most powerful being in the Source. And Dagbert's sole reaction was one of mere annoyance! Annoyance! He treated Emmeroloth - a Warder - like a pebble in his path, barely worth the slightest of notices. How? How had he lost control of the situation so quickly and abruptly?
They will pay. They will pay! I am the Darkening Cloud!
In the end, he had spilled his secrets. The stoat, the otter, Dalagab, the Aetherochemical Research Facility, how the Ward was pulling beasts back from the grave, and Thordan Swalestrom. Revealing the last one's nature and Gift was the straw that had broken his back, and now… the less said about him, the better.
Pickner the mouse told him that there will be no session tomorrow, and he will finally be given food the day after! Food! What he had taken for granted had seemed like a good of luxury now.
"Emmeroloth."
The fox's ears perked up immediately. Had he imagined the voice? It was like a swift chill, after all, and these things could be illusory.
"You have failed greatly, Emmeroloth." He was here.
From the shadows crept out an otter and a stoat - his bodyguard, though not a Bondbeast yet. As of this moment, only vermin bonds were stable enough to be created without any risk of failure, and this time the Bonder and Bondbeast were both technically woodlanders.
After a gesture, the stoat was sent back into the shadows, leaving only the otter. "You have failed to protect the boy, who suffered much, much more than a mere spanking." He could have sworn that the dark furred otter was holding in a laugh, and the thought infuriated him, but now was the time for submission, not rage. "You have revealed yourself and lost secrets that are all too valuable for the Ward." Emetselk shook his head as he approached the fox, cards slowly being taken out of his pockets. "Perhaps most unfortunately and importantly," the fox twinged visibly at the last word, stressed by the Angel of Truth as he was healed, the cards forming an imitation of a starry sky surrounding the Thaumaturge. "You let yourself get captured by your enemies, and allowed yourself to be broken."
The stoat returned with a new set of clothes, and a little figure of a wolf made of glass. An Amplifier. Not an Augmenter, but it shall do fine in the meantime.
"You have been given one last chance." The otter spoke like a corpse, which he technically was. "Do. Not. Fail."
"We shall be heading back to Dalagab in the meantime." Isangrim's ears perked up once more as he finished putting on his new clothes. "We shall meet where the mole flees."
The otter walked back into the shadowy corridor, yet the stoat remained here. Then Fandaniel spoke - the first order from him entered Emmeroloth's ears.
'Keep my brother safe, or I swear by Great Seasons that my paw shall warm your bottom for every single day of your miserable life." He left, trailing after the otter.
Isangrim decided that obeying the other Warder was a very good idea.
KALDOS, LORDSHIP OF KALDOS, KINGDOM OF DRAVANIA
"I am all too glad that all of you have come today." Gustav Strandsor's normally joyful look seemed to have withered away and grounded into dust in the last week. The Southards had smuggled a king from right under his shoulders, so he had reason and cause to stave off sleep for days on end. "Dravania cannot stand alone, you see. WIthout Thordan Swalestrom, we are all too vulnerable here."
"Enough talk, Realmswarden." Alfyn was in an all too similar mood. "What will you have me do?"
"We need a Regent of the Realm. Whether if he is Thordan does not matter."
Lord Gustav had little time to regret his mistake as Lord Alfyn Stalwart of Meraholmer put his paws above his throat and dragged him to the wall. Apparently the elder otterlord missed a few cues that saying that his most powerful vassal's friend 'does not matter' is a very, very bad idea.
'What my father meant was for you to take your responsibilities as Regent." During the two months for Alfyn Stalwart to know Haakon Strandsor, he presented himself as a less nervous Thordan Swalestrom, but one who had more duties than friends.
Alfyn let go of the lord. "Oh. So I am Regent now. Brilliant." He snarled. "I am the second creature who you deemed worthy to declare Regent without having been asked. Your foresight is completely and utterly without fault. Well, I am not as malleable as Thordan, so get your power hungry tails out of here and be what you want to be!"
"If we were after power," Lord Strandsor huffed. "We would have got it already! Haakon here could marry Sigrun, convince Thordan to waive his rights, and get his behind on the throne!"
'What matters is that this did not happen, and will never happen." Haakon breathed a sigh of relief as Alfyn appeared to calm down.
Be like Egil and smile and laugh, veiling your thoughts from your opponent's mind. "I propose a little switch in responsibilities." Alfyn smiled. Be like Thordan and change from within, instead of forcing change from outside. "I see that you desire the position of regent, so I will allow you to take it. Be like Lorcan, and try to convince those before you that what you plan is indeed sound. "You see, I have more experience in fighting than manner of ruling a state, while you have the opposite." Kill Sir Alfyn, and let the Lord of Meraholmer arise from his broken tomb. "I say that you shall be Regent while I take the office of Realmswarden, and put a stop to Lord Becker."
"Your reasoning is reasonable, Lord Alfyn. I accept your bargain." Alfyn made a gesture to kneel before his new liege lord, but with a wave of his paw Lord Gustav commanded him to stand.
"As my first act as Regent, I declare Thordan Swalestrom, former Lord of Meraholmer and Regent of Dravania, King of the Dravanians. The Ulfingers have always watched over Dravania and the crown has always been on their heads as long as history can remember. As the realm is in a state of crisis far beyond all that we have seen before, we need a king, and desperately so."
"Long live King Thordan!" Haakon Strandsor said softly, and Alfyn found himself unable to resist repeating the sentence. Oh, Seasons have mercy. Thordan, please forgive me.
A/N: As Book II comes to a close, there are a few plotlines to wrap up, so here they are.
Responses here.
Grey 28: Ah, all the books. Sigrun knows Thordan the best out of his three half-siblings - and we still do not have a scene where Thordan and Corrado are in the same location. Alfyn whimpering was partly based on another stuck-up otterlord's reaction to important news in TBBU. Lorelei oneshotting Godred was the best duel I can ever make. Seercraft makes duels ridiculously easy... Oh, and Somerled? What Somerled?
Grey 29: Well... Arbert can't lie to Rathor because seers literally can't lie - see Chapter 19 for details. The stoat? This isn't a particularly good 'mystery' on my part... but one does realise that his demeanour isn't really of Old Thordan, though beasts change after death like they do in life... and poor Thordan. Isangrim doesn't get any better fate, but still, poor him as well.
Eskil and Arn Skulason are actually based on Eskil and Arn (who else?) from Jan Guillou's Crusades trilogy. I have not read the books (they are only commonly known about in Swedish, and I cannot find them anywhere), but I know the characters well. (thank you, TVTropes!)
I have not actually envisioned Erlend dying this late - originally Galen was supposed to challenge him to a duel, and Erlend dies, but we need more drama - and more Slyte. Oh, and the third Ralos PoV since Book I.
And Thordan's actually King of Dravania, even though the poor child does not know it yet. Speaking of which, where is Thordan?
Chapter 31 (The Edge) will be up on 27/28 October!