Chương 15: Work, Goddamn It, Work!

King Trinov Escar took no time in curing himself of tyrexis. Lilikan stood proud on the kingdom's balcony, flashing a bright smile in front of thousands of citizens as he presented King Escar with tyrexia—the medicine that would cure him. It only took a moment for the aged, wrinkled man's pale white skin to regain color, and there was a large wave of mana that circled into his core. The feeble king stood, taking a breath before the crowd, and a paid actor amongst Amia's denizens chanted, "Long live the king!

Long live the king!" Soon, there was a full procession of chanters. A percussion. A rapturous turn as the king took a deep breath with a wide smile and lifted his hands. Sara thought the clapping would never end. Prince Markine reveled in his father's health, glad that he would get further grooming from his father before he took the throne one day.

The Bastard Prince, Halter Escar, stood with a stonish expression beside the bald advisor, Lord Carrigan, who was smiling despite his plans to usurp the kingdom being thwarted. Sara stood beside Edico and Aelia.

"It seems!" King Escar boomed.

"That I will be your king for some time to come!"

"Long live the king! Long live the king!"

"And this is all due to one of this kingdom's Chosen, Lady Sara Reece! Who I will now knight both a Hero, sycount, noble, and margravine today. Lady Reece, please take a knee." Sara knelt, dreading the ceremony. She fought thirteen years to run a tavern with Kyritus. Now, she was becoming everything that she was forced to be in her last life.

"In the name of Emanasa, and the grand wisdom and fortune of Delina, the authority of the Escaran Kingdom, and love of its people; in the name of justice, loyalty, and respect, I give the title of sycount to you, Lady Reece, and make you a head sycount of this kingdom." The king took a ceremonial sword and tapped her left and right shoulders. (Edico's doing.)"And for your grand achievement of finding the elusive silvermoon bloom, I bequeath to you the southernlands, where you will rule, with Margrave Nariko, to protect the Escaran Kingdom from the Hikan Empire." Darthmith wrapped a necklace around her neck that might as well have been a noose. (Sara's doing.)"Thus, today you become a Margravine, a noble of the highest class, a person who I will recognize as my own daughter." (Necessary.)"Please rise, Margravine Sycount Sara Leina Reece, Chosen Hero of the Escaran Kingdom, and accept your titles."

"With pride, your grace," Sara said, rising to the sound of thundering applause. Edico stood stoic, preventing eye contact. He likely warned King Escar that the power of the Chosen would be too great to handle. So, instead of letting her run amok, he gave her a full march, the equivalent of a dukedom, to give her freedom to do what she wanted while also tying her to the role of protecting the kingdom from the Hikan Empire. It was a good move. Haligara's lair was there, and within it, Halcyon, Jason's sword.

She was in no shape to fight the basilisk that killed Emma, but so long as she controlled the territory, Jason, who could kill it, wouldn't have access. It was good enough. Upon leaving the balcony after the ceremony, Edico said, "Do you still plan to carry out your plan?"

"I do," Sara said.

"Then you have my silence, Margravine. Bless Emanasa that I am sworn to serve you, too." He winked lifelessly and walked away. A good man, Sara thought as she turned away. A good man…

The zinconia crystals came at nine p. m., hidden in a crate of ordered wine. It was well known that Lady Reece (now Sycount Margravine Reece) was a raging alcoholic. So, no one questioned the supply. She opened the bag inside, revealing large, glowing stones, the densest supply of mana in the world. She was looking at over a million hawks' worth of goods. It would be more than enough for regular teleportations for one person.

Sara plastered six-layer mana-dampening wards onto every wall, a necessary precaution for teleportation, which otherwise released a shockwave of mana sycounts could feel. Finally, she used her Divine Eyes on the periwinkle bottle of tyrexia in a small box. After observing it, she carefully opened her silvermoon bloom case and clipped a portion of the petals off before returning the flower to its floating state in the case. It was a shame such life-saving medicine would blow away in the breeze, but it was a must.

Her daughter, as Sara viewed Tiber, was dying. The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. This was a small price to pay. The sensitive petals quickly withered, and Sara scattered them out her window. Sara then locked the window, dampened it with a ward, and pulled out the secondary access array that connected to the one she left in Break Alley. Whether it was still there or in a thief's den, she was ready to teleport.

She would do so when the clock struck ten, and the guards outside her room did their nightly exchange. —Kyritus Senaco— Heian approached Kyritus from the other side of the bar.

"You've been different," he said simply. Heian was Kyritus's bartender and only close friend, a true friend, as Kyritus was "friends" with hundreds of reapers who protected him and his sister. So, he wasn't someone that Kyritus could avoid—but he tried to prevent the conversation by watching Tiber. A grown man was making tiger claws and chasing the little girl around, making a few tables of grown men and hardened women laugh as she giggled.

"I already told you," Kyritus said.

"I'm not in trouble."

"I'm not talking about trouble," Heian said.

"You're like a reaper these days. And it's not anger or the drink. It feels like you'd plunge a dagger yourself." People died in The Harvest. It was rare, but local fights sometimes ended that way. And when they did, the locals would protect Tiber and often thrash the winner for threatening her life by using mana. It was an ironic establishment, The Harvest. It was a tavern that served the deadliest denizens of Helscope, yet was the safest place for an eighteen-year-old and his four-year-old sister.

No one used mana. It was against the rules. But daggers. Daggers were free game to those who had the grit to break the rules, and daggers plunged. Necks. Shoulders. Breastplates. They didn't stab. They plunged. Heian said Kyrirus was hard enough to kill someone himself. Kyritus couldn't deny it. He thought the same. Everything had changed since he met that woman. (Who is she?) That question was maddening. In his dreams he saw her. Mostly the same: their meeting, their drinking, his helping her.

Yet he also remembered other dreams. Her angered face. Her threats. That invisibility magic. He saw her running with him, cloaking him and Tiber. He saw Tiber in dire straits, carried in his arms. Then there was the blonde's body. That was a different sort of memory. Her warmth. He often woke from dreams right before touching her cheek. He cast away the thought. ("Someone you don't want to get involved with.") That woman was someone he shouldn't get involved with. His dreams were filled with terror.

Terror of Tiber dying. Cold, sweating fear. Running. Running. Running. Death. It was changing him. Twisting him into strange and sharpened shapes that he was somehow okay with. He felt like… himself. Tiber was the same. He was not.

"I don't know what's going on," he said.

"But it's not…" He suddenly felt a strange pang, an intuition of sorts. A connection, sparking and stabbing.

"Everyone out!" Kyritus yelled. Many turned to him. It wasn't even ten. The night's feast was just beginning. The fights had yet to come. The music yet to be played. The drinking yet to lull.

"Out! Right now!"

"Why?" someone said. Kyritus didn't know who.

"I don't know. But this isn't a discussion. Out. Now! Drinks are on me!" Kyritus never yelled. Kyritus wasn't authoritative. Kyritus was a songsinger who lulled the crowds when he brought out soup. So people knew something was wrong. One said, "Get you shit," and when someone complained, a local said, "Get your ass up before I break your spine!" Five minutes. That's all it took to get people moving. Heian turned to him strangely.

"What are you—""Out. You, too."

"Why?"

"Out!" Kyritus screamed.

"And take Tiber with you!" He looked at the clock. It wasn't yet ten, but it was getting close. His stomach was looping in knots, and there was only one thing that made him twist up like that: a serious fucking problem; that was what. It felt like guards were about to storm the place. That number held meaning.

"What's wrong, brother?" Tiber asked. He turned to Heian, who was lingering.

"Out! Now!" Heian had barely scooped the terrified girl up in his arms and run out the door when it happened. The clock struck ten, and then a meteoric blast of mana crashed through the entire tavern. It was so heavy that Kyritus felt the wave hit his back like a loose wagon, then blow out of his stomach.

"Tiber!" Kyritus screamed. The small girl was luckily ten feet out of the tavern before it happened, but she screamed and shook when the mana hit her. Tyrexis. That blast was gonna kill her!

"What was I thinking!" Kyritus screamed.

"Take Tiber and run!" he yelled at Heian. Kyritus knew what happened. He should've considered what would happen.

"Considered" was the right word because he thought the blonde was hiding it, not using it. The cost of doing so would be exorbitant! He turned to run up the stairs and get the array, but a barreling blur blasted out of the tavern at that moment, screaming, "Put her down!" It was that woman. He recognized her voice but not her speed. She slid in front of Heian, grabbed Tiber, and pushed him off so violently that Kyritus's friend crashed into a nearby business's wall.

"What the fuck were you thinking? Were you trying to get her killed?" She pulled out a glowing, periwinkle bottle. Kyritus recognized it on contact.

"Is that—""Hope?" she screamed.

"That was a seven layer array! The fuck you think was going to happen?" She fed the periwinkle liquid to the seizing girl.

"I thought you'd come back for it, not use it! And where else would I hide it?"

"You wouldn't. I'd just blast through some cabinet in a gambling den and then knock out the witnesses. I sure as fucked wouldn't be here doing this!" The woman screamed at the top of her lungs, yelling, "Work, god damn it, work!"