Chương 102: 36 – Interlude: Cold Snap - Part Two

We left the carriage behind. My cousins decided they'd rather return to the capital. Just me, my mother, and my uncle. And the ever-present guards that I barely even noticed anymore, of course. They weren't very happy about the change, but we weren't prisoners. We were… tourists, finally visiting far-flung corners of the country. The guards doffed their armor and acted as a separate group who just happened to be traveling in the same direction, while we traded our fine clothes for peasant wear.

The open road felt wide and free in a way that the stifling air of the capital never had. I knew this would only last for a short while, but I intended to make the most of it.

"I honestly can't believe it," I said, three days after we'd left the carriage behind. My legs were a little sore from riding. Mother and Uncle's were surely worse.

"Believe what?" Mother asked.

"You." She blanched.

"What did I do?"

"It's not what you've done. It's what you haven't done," I said happily. Mother rolled her eyes, but humored me. Clestar was more a father to me than anyone I'd ever known, and Mother… perhaps, without the shadow of "The Chemist" hovering over her, there might honestly be room for a relationship between us. Beneath all the long-winded speeches and the burden of leadership she'd struggled to remove even after being forcibly placed outside of society, there was a surprisingly entertaining woman there.

She tended toward dry sarcasm, but occasionally she cracked a joke. She had an obsession with honey biscuits that I'd never known about before, and practically salivated when she saw they were being served for breakfast at a local inn.

"You haven't once snuck off to talk to a local Thesk, or even so much as a town cryer! I honestly wasn't sure you'd be able to handle it." Mother's eyes lit with mirth.

"I confess. I had your uncle tie me to a tree the first night, but it does grow easier." Clestar laughed. The trip wasn't only good for Mother and me. My uncle and my mother's relationship had been strained for a long time. Mother's withered talent had only served to widen that gap further in the years since she'd retired, as he had not been skilled enough to safely reach her abode.

"My Lady," said Nordan, interrupting the good cheer.

"I must caution us against this destination. We truly should return to the capitol."

"That's the same thing you said at the last three towns!" I said.

"Can you not just enjoy the trip? How often do you get away from the capitol, anyway?" The man sighed. My bodyguard was a dour sort. We usually got along fantastically, but it was beginning to seem like he took a personal affront to my attempts to reconnect with my mother.

"Now, daughter. Let the man say his peace," Mother said.

"What concerns you, Ser Donovan?"

"The same as ever, my lady. The border–!"

"Yes, yes, the border disputes," I said.

"Would it ease your worries if we went south toward the rift instead?" I could see him trying not to roll his eyes.

"The rift is always a danger, but I feel it's a well-known risk. These skirmishes with Tacuria are not. Land disputes have been going on for years and more and more border towns are growing angry with the lack of attention from the council or the Tacurian Crown. Word I've received from reliable informants tells me that these lands are not safe. To be blunt, my lady? Yes. The rift seems safer to me. At least allow us to carry our blades openly!" Blades.

As if blades would hold a candle to the eruption of power even now held back by my will. Mother's talent sang in my veins, held completely under my control. At a whim, I could turn the landscape into a thorny hive, filled with murderous creatures the likes of which even the Rift couldn't replicate. Sometimes I wondered what it might have been like to have a more normal talent.

Mother and I had done the arithmetic, and discovered that even were I to find no other cases of the Hysterics to control in the next two years, I'd still likely be ahead of even the greatest of elite talents. Every month after that, though, I would fall behind. Mother wanted to tackle the problem politically. Change the attitude of the people towards Hysterics, so they would do their best to keep them alive until I could reach them.

I personally thought that they'd only done so for her as much out of fear as they had out of love. The Cedovan Artifact made them slightly less dangerous. But only just. I personally thought that was shortsighted. If I didn't manage to find a way to cure or reverse them in my lifetime, then the people would have to return to the old way when I died. I remembered the way Mother had scoffed when I brought it up, as if the idea of me fixing the problem was already a forgone conclusion. I'd…

devoted my entire life to it, and even beyond my mother, I did have a passion for it. I wanted to work with the lost. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. I cared for the lost. Just as my talent screen said.

"Very well," I said finally.

"We will change our route tomorrow. We are already far too close to Scelasta to turn back now. We will veer sharply southeast and see the rift, far away from these dangerous Tacurians." The man let loose a sigh of relief so profound that it almost made me rethink my decision. We'd been allies with Tacuria for… for longer than even Mother's life. Yes, there had been some rising tension on the border, but I had assumed it was just farmers squabbling over land. The area was fertile.

Perhaps I hadn't given it the attention it deserved. I resolved to do just that when I returned to the capital. Scelasta was still miles from the border. It should be safe. Mother or Uncle could have overridden my decision had they wished, but both of them seemed perfectly happy to cut towards the rift. The border was boring anyway. Tacuria might once have been a superior nation and their military was unquestionably large…

but they'd become backwards barbarians, hardly advancing at all while Eschal was entering a golden age of prosperity and commerce! Truth be told, I didn't much care where we went. It was just the perfectionist in me that made me want to follow the originally planned route. Scelasta was a tiny little town, but there certainly was evidence of fighting that I hadn't expected. Burned out buildings, and blacksmiths that were churning out more weapons than horseshoes. The people seemed oddly militant.

I watched a group of men loading sacks full of ether dust onto a wagon as I entered the inn. It must have been shipped up from the Rift. No other place in could produce such large quantities. Who had paid for it? The mayor? And why? Were there enough mages here to even use it?

"Hello, miss! Ser, and Ma'am! What can I do for you this evening?" the innkeeper said.

"We'll be needing three rooms," I said.

"I also wouldn't mind knowing exactly what in the hells is going on here? Did a war start here?" The woman rolled her eyes.

"Oh. That. Bunch of fools blustering is all. Well… no. That's doing a disservice to Old Ben."

"Old Ben?" Mother asked.

"You mean Benja Lefoun?"

"Oh, you knew him! Aye. Right sorry story. He was sweet on a girl from the fortress just yonder, in Tacuria. Visiting her when he was mugged and killed!" I frowned, but Mother gasped.

"Who was he?" I asked.

"The Thesk's son. Oh, by the watchers above, how is his father? And Melindra!?" Mother asked.

"You knew them, too? My, but mind your eyes. This story doesn't get any happier. Why don't I get your rooms ready and some food in your bellies, and I'll tell you then?" I smiled and nodded as I set paper notes.

"That would be wonderful." The woman snatched them up, eyeing the large denominations, but she didn't blink before counting out change.

"Daughter, I know you don't want me to be known, but Melindra was a close friend once. We attended school together, and I–!" I scowled, and she stopped talking.

"Mother… This is the most time we've spent together in years! It might be the last time we ever get to spend so freely. Could you not just visit her after the trip is over? Her son won't be any less dead in a few weeks." Mother's eyes widened, but then softened. She acquiesced and nodded.

"I… suppose that is true. Certainly rude though. We really—!" Without warning, the front end of the inn exploded in a massive burst of flames. It engulfed several patrons. I was flung across the room and slammed into one of the wooden posts supporting the roof.

"Freyna!" Uncle Clestar screamed, but his words sounded like they were coming through water. My ears were ringing, and I couldn't understand what had happened. The… the inn exploded? How? Why? My thoughts swam. Suddenly my uncle's face was right in front of me. There was a bloody gash on his forehead, but it seemed he'd been spared from the brunt of the blast. A hole in the entire side of the wall remained. The room smelled of smoke.

Fire licked the edges of the building, and a person was clinging to the ceiling, screaming. He'd been on the upper floor.

"Uncle? I… my head hurts," I said weakly.

"You'll be alright, Snowflake. You're going to be fine. It looks like it just banged you up," he said. He was lying. I could tell. I always could, now. He was panicking and doing his best not to show it.

"H-Hold up two fingers," I told him. The man held up six and a half.

"That's… not two," I said. He grimaced.

"I'm… concussed, but Mother?" I asked. He looked up. Mother had been even closer to the blast than I had. I thought she'd hit me before bouncing off further into the inn, while I'd been stopped by slamming into the pillar.

"Fuck… just… stay awake, Freyna! Don't fall asleep, no matter what you do!" he said. My ears were still ringing. Breathing was hard, but coming back in short, shallow gasps. Clestar was gone. Where had he gone? My vision felt wavy, and I searched, finding him hovering beside Mother. Mother… was lying on the grass. That wasn't right. How could… how could there be grass? She'd been blown into the inn. It looked like she'd crashed into a table and knocked it over.

A sudden spike of clarity cut through my concussion-induced fog. I reached out with my talent, but my mind was woozy. Normally it was intuitive to use my talent's control but now it felt like doing arithmetic with the page upside down. Mother's withered talent had slipped free from my grasp.

"G-get out!" I screamed, but I needn't have bothered. The flames had set fire to the alcohol behind the bar and a roaring flame had turned the left side of the room into an inferno. I sat up and made to crawl toward Mother, hoping proximity might help me regain control. I stared at her, only to watch in horror as a wooden vine, nearly as thick as a lampost erupted from the grass surrounding her. It coiled like a snake before slamming into the chairs and tables, smashing them into the wall.

"No…" I breathed. The spiked wooden tendril rose into the air, smashing into the wooden ceiling, before it came crashing back down, straight onto me. The last thing I saw was my Uncle desperately trying to grab the tendril before the falling debris collided with my forehead.