Chương 155: Book 3 Chapter 33 - A Fair Question

Victor motioned Shian toward the exit.

"Come on, we're leaving." She broke out into a smile, then ran up and wrapped him in a big hug.

"Thank you," she said sincerely as she pulled away.

"I knew you could do it." He nodded, a small smile of his own forming on his lips. He really had done it. He'd been scared going in, but willing to try, and now? He'd defeated one of the strongest warriors in the entire Central Kingdom. Elsa Undril had been known kingdom wide, possibly further, as someone not to tangle with. She had a storied history, making a name for herself, even as a tier 4, over the last few decades.

She had fought with and killed some impressive opponents, especially once she advanced to tier 5, and had never been scared to flaunt her skill and power. The leader of the Silver Serpent Clan was also tier 5, but not quite as strong. It was a mark of a powerful house to have a tier 5 member or retainer on the books. Having more than a single tier 5 was more rare, especially when one was as powerful as Elsa had been.

Her advancement to tier 5 had pushed the Silver Serpent Clan to new heights, above the reach of many other powerful houses. It was only a select few houses that could boast a tier 6 retainer, or more than two tier 5s. Those houses were the ones that steered the fate of the kingdom. Victor's own family was one such house. The royals and some of the ducal houses were other examples.

Had Elsa advanced to tier 6, which Victor harbored no doubts would have happened in the future, the Silver Serpent clan would have suddenly been untouchable by all but the most powerful forces in the kingdom. Victor didn't like politics, and actively avoided it as much as possible, but he had no doubt that Elsa's demise would change the power dynamics and political landscape in The Central Kingdom for decades to come. This wasn't something that would be overlooked.

Like it or not, he had stepped back into the public spotlight momentarily. He wasn't sure now if he wanted to continue in it. His mode of operation for the last four or five decades had been to avoid attention, stay far away from The Capital and politics in general, and stick to his research. He was at a crossroads now. He could leave, and continue in that lifestyle, or he could stay. House Yountal was headed for the spotlight, he had no donuts about that.

Coupled with his actions today, if he stuck around, it wouldn't be long before his past caught up with him. Those thoughts could wait, though. Right now, he needed to get Shian back to her estate, at which point he had some serious questions for her, which she had promised to answer. They stopped at the metal box, which was still venting heat into the sky. If Victor left now, the box would dissipate, and the clan headquarters would take irreparable damage.

He didn't blame the clan members for Elsa's actions, and didn't think it would be fair to destroy their building. He pressed his palm to the side of the box, then began pumping ice mana inside, along with wind mana to help push the air into the pipe leading to the sky. He stayed like that for a few minutes, until the heat in the box dropped to manageable levels, then he dropped his control of the box. Heat instantly flooded the room, but not dangerously so.

If they opened some doors and windows, it would air out in no time. Speaking of which, he didn't want to deal with the enchantments on the front entrance. The building itself had protective wards too, but not as strong or complex as the ones on the entrance. Victor widened the small hole he had made in the wall for venting heat until it was large enough for them to step through.

The protective wards on the building normally would have prevented such an action, but he was able to create temporary mana circuits with his domain to keep the enchantments active until he and Shian were outside the wall. Once they were outside, he put the piece of wall back in place, using his domain to merge the material back with the structure around it, restoring the original rune circuits. They weren't quite the same as before he messed with it, but they would be good enough for now.

The clan could repair them over time. * While they made their way back to her estate, Victor filled Kiara in on how Zoey had come to request his help, as well as his own thought process for how he came to the decision to do so. When they made it back, Zoey met them at the gate as they came in. It was obvious to Kiara that she had been waiting there since Victor left, pacing back and forth. She rushed up to Kiara first, lifting her off the ground in a tight hug, spinning her around multiple times.

Her eyes were wet with tears of joy and relief. She put Kiara down, then hugged Victor next. He pretended not to like it, but Kiara could tell he secretly did. He didn't protest too loudly or try to pull away too hard.

"Thank you! Thank you! I knew you would help, and I knew you could do it!" she said in a muffled voice, since her face was pressed against his chest. Victor chuckled and patted her gently on the head.

"I'm glad you were right." Zoey pulled back.

"Of course I was right! I knew that snake would be no match for you." Victor grimaced.

"It was a lot closer than you might think." Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Zoey studied him, then sombered up a bit with a nod.

"Well, thank you one thousand times. Without you, we would all be on the run." Victor mulled that over silently for a moment. He took a deep breath, then turned to Kiara.

"It's time you and I have a talk, I think." Kiara nodded. She had promised him answers, and after how much help he'd been, she was happy to provide them. At least as much as she was able. Zoey looked at the two of them questioningly, and Kiara smiled at her.

"Why don't you come too, Zoey, I think you'll want to hear some of this. Go grab Dustin, too, let's meet in that far guest house." Zoey nodded once, then ran for the main house to collect Dustin. The four of them settled into the living room of the guest house, away from the rest of the estate. Word was already spreading that Kiara was back, and that the evacuation efforts were no longer needed.

Dustin had been hard at work to prepare for that potential outcome, and had shuddered visibly with relief when he saw Kiara. It had clearly been weighing on him, more than Kiara had realized.

"Victor," Kiara asked, "would you mind providing us with a sound bubble for privacy?" He raised a questioning eyebrow, and she added, "These secrets aren't ones I want to burden the rest of the staff with. Some things are better left unknown for now." Victor nodded appreciatively.

"Fair enough. It's done." Kiara smiled at him gently.

"Thanks." He looked at her quite seriously.

"Let's start with that artifact that Elsa showed me. What was that?" A fair question. And as good a starting point as any.

"That was a [Talisman of Temporal Deceleration]," Kiara answered honestly. The World Engine apparently didn't mind her using the name of the talisman, and she was able to complete the sentence without choking on her words. Victor suddenly jerked his head to look through the walls of the guest house in the direction of Portish, toward the Silver Serpent Clan headquarters in the city.

"Oh! We should have checked the rubble for it, I didn't even consider it while we were there. Tsk" He grimaced.

"Although, I doubt it survived that battle. Elsa's storage ring and everything in it were likely completely destroyed." Kiara nodded.

"The talisman didn't survive. I felt it when it was destroyed." He gave her a curious look.

"Explain." Dustin and Zoey were both looking at her strangely too. Neither of them knew what talisman she was talking about. She took a breath.

"It was a soul-bound item, so I felt when it was destroyed."

"Hold on," Victor said, raising both hands to pause the conversation.

"What is a soul-bound item?" Kiar shrugged.

"I'm not sure about all of the details. All I know is, as the owner of the item, only I could use it."

"That's not possible," Victor started, but then he trailed off, looking thoughtful. He began stroking his chin.

"Hmm." Kiara continued, "Activating it would have created an impenetrable bubble of space around Elsa, trapping her there for an hour, giving us time to evacuate our estates."

"Impenetrable?" Zoey asked.

"Even for someone as strong as Elsa?" Kiara thought about how the World Engine had so easily ejected Elsa from her mind, then upgraded her mental defenses to the point that the subsequent attack felt insconsequential. She shrugged again.

"I don't know how it works, but believe me when I say that it would have worked exactly as described." Victor pursed his lips.

"So it's a prison?"

"Kind of," Kiara explained.

"That's just one aspect of the functionality, though. It slows down time inside the bubble, so that by the time one minute has passed inside the bubble, one hour has passed outside." Victor looked stunned.

"I knew it," he whispered.

"Time-based magic. H-how… no, no. Where did you get something like that?" Kiara sighed.

"I'm afraid I can't answer that." She could already feel her throat tightening up just thinking about answering the question.

"Singrasa?" Victor asked with a knowing look. Kiara had literally no idea what he was talking about, although the word sounded somewhat familiar. Wasn't that the name of a place somewhere? Her confused look was apparently contagious, because soon Victor was giving her a confused look of his own.

"No?" he asked.

"Um. I really have no idea what you're referring to."

"Hmm," he said with a sigh.

"Okay, I can take a hint. Let's move on. Do you have more of those artifacts?" Kiara pulled the [Talisman of Temporal Acceleration] from her soul space and held it out. This one was a bright yellowy-white. She was fine if he looked at it. He reverently accepted it, his eyes filled with unbridled wonder.

"Wha…," he never finished the thought, lost in the beauty of the artifact.

"Oh!" Zoey said brightly as the sphere appeared.

"You had those when we went to Lakeshire, I remember you letting Ava check that one out." Kiara nodded. Victor looked up, stunned.

"You let a child handle this? Do you have any idea how valuable this is?" At the mention of money, Dustin snorted from the side, choking on the water he had been drinking. He knew that Kiara wasn't worried about the cost of things. Victor gave him a strange look.

"Eh," Kiara said, "I'm the only one that can activate it. It was fine if she looked at it for a bit." Victor turned his attention back to the artifact.

"This one speeds time up inside the bubble," Kiara explained.

"One hour inside is only one minute on the outside. I only had the two of them, now I only have this one." Victor was peering intently into the shifting colors of the artifact, but his eyes were unfocused, like he was looking at it through his magic sense instead or something. They sat in silence for a minute and let him be. He finally pulled back, taking a deep breath.

"Whoa. That is some complex runework. I'd love to meet the artificer someday?" He glanced questioningly at Kiara, but she wasn't able to respond. He nodded to himself after a second.

"Got it. No more questions about who made this or where you got it." He handed it back to her, but stared longingly at it until it disappeared back into her soul space.

"Okay," he said as the artifact disappeared, "next question. What did you just do?" She looked at him in confusion.

"What do you mean?" He gestured wildly to where the talisman had just disappeared from her hands.

"That! You aren't using your storage rings, the item just… disappeared. Where did it go? What's happening there?"