Chương 108: Chapter 96 - The Introduction

++It is amazing how much a single moment can change everything around it. ++ - From the writings of Isabel Vornholt, 'The Great Lich'. 1, 891 A. E. I was almost slow to react when the girl spoke next, with my present situation being what it was a great amount of my mental ability was being directed purely to trying to find an escape route. That effort was not going well.

"My name is Sethira," she began.

"I am the leader of Orapathaqi's rebellion, and I have been waiting to speak with you for quite some time."

"I am Isabel Vornholt," I replied.

"What do you want to speak to me about?" The ceiling was not durable, but I did not need to look at it to feel the hum of powerful runework. Reinforcements, no doubt. Barriers and magic-banishing effects given that I had already tipped my hand by using magician-killers in combat before this Sethira's subordinates. They would not have bothered with magical defenses that could not weather all my tricks.

"No particular reason, you're just an interesting person," Sethira continued idly.

"A very interesting person. The great prodigy of Garamon, with a future ahead of her as bright as a star, and yet you turn to necromancy, just as I did when born into a land of it. You must admit, there's a lot of interest in that story. And I think we should get to know each other. That's all."

"You tried to capture me, actually did kidnap my brother, and are now holding me prisoner," I pointed out. It was more to distract her than anything else. Mana shot out through the soles of my feet and deep into the floor, slow, probing waves of it. No empty spaces. Not just that, it seemed to be solid stone all the way through. I would not be tunnelling out in less than a quarter-hour. It would still take a minute if I moved over to stand right beside a wall.

"That was just to talk," Sethira shrugged.

"You kidnapped me." She rolled her eyes.

"All the reports I've heard indicated you were one to understand such things. Do you know how difficult it is to find good conversation? I can hardly be blamed for resorting to such measures. Besides, you did something similar to get the assistance of that Priest girl, didn't you? Nesariyah."

"That is different," I snapped. The walls were obviously thin enough for me to blast through, but I did not know what would be waiting for me on the other side and the enemy had seen me do so already. I left that as a plan B, and aimed to push it down to, at the highest, plan D by the time I made my move. If the enemy predicted it, that move was almost guaranteed to fail.

"How?" Sethira challenged me.

"Because I am special," I told her.

"What a coincidence, so am I." It was almost distracting me from my escape plans, now. The urge to kill this rodent. She was smiling like she knew it too.

"You won't be able to get away," she warned me.

"You can stop trying. If you're really desperate for freedom, the best way to get it is to just… negotiate with me." I hesitated, pretending to think about it. We had made plenty of noise in our fighting—there really is no such thing as a quiet method to sundering several tons of stone—but we were also rather far from Garamon's power centres. More pressingly… she was confident.

I knew she could not have overlooked the risk of search parties heading for this location at the clearly-magical blast, which meant she had good reason for that confidence. I did not like that.

"If you want to negotiate, it is because you yourself have a proposal you think will require negotiation," I noted. If I could keep her talking, I would prolong things. At best that would let the response forces arrive, but assuming they proved as laughably inept as normal it would still leave me with more time to find a way out. I began pacing, like I was nervous. Hopefully this would put the girl at ease, but the main benefit was that it let me send my magical vibrations through other sections of the ground.

And it only took me thirty seconds to locate a hollow space. I kept my face neutral and simply walked over it like it was not there, quickly using more waves to map out its dimensions and… It was a tunnel under the building, going far from it. Garamon did not know about this, of that I was sure. Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. No wonder Sethira was unconcerned by wasting time, she could vanish from here as she pleased.

"You're right of course," Sethira said as I worked.

"You're talented. Genius, really. I could use that." I shot her a look, letting her think she had my attention. The sandstone covering that cavity was not too thick. I could break it easily…

"You would make use of a Garamon coloniser?" I asked, like I was interested by the question.

"I would make use of anything useful," Sethira sighed.

"Practicality is one thing I've learned over the years." Over the years… If I used my magic to break into the tunnel now, I would probably be struck down before I could do anything else. My enemies were too alert. I needed an opening.

"And you think I would be useful?" I pushed. She looked suddenly bored.

"Oh, don't be difficult. We both know you would be. I saw you seize control of my reanimates. Nobody has ever done that to me, or at least not in a long time. You're the most naturally gifted necromancer I've ever seen." Flattery would get her nowhere, of course. Though I was now considering killing her quickly, rather than skinning her first. More importantly, I was killing more seconds with every sentence she spoke. Garamon's response, that would be my opportunity.

The moment their presence was known would be the moment, the only moment, I stopped being my enemy's biggest concern.

"What I mean is that you seem oddly certain I will act in your best interests," I continued, stopping my pacing right beside the hollow space but facing away from it.

"You intend to use Nesariyah as some sort of guarantee?" Her face was unreadable. A pity, I had hoped to gauge what she knew and what Nesariyah had let slip from her reaction.

"I think you have enough of a vested interest in what we're doing here that you'll want to help regardless, once you hear it." I paused, letting as many seconds tick by as I could get away with. We were probably only ten minutes away from a rushing force, five for an especially quick one, but Garamon would not have dispatched one instantly. How long would that initial period of confusion after the blast last? Damn, I had probably prolonged it with my own diversion using Agrian and the others.

We had been speaking for at least five minutes already, the initial fight lasted perhaps two more. Lots of long silences and open questions were doing their work to buy me more time. Help might arrive the next minute, or ten later. I could do nothing if it was ten later.

"Tell me then," I invited. Every second counted now, all I could do was scrape away as many of them as I could and use them as best I knew how. If Sethira suspected what was happening, she did not make note of it.

"Not here," she replied.

"We'll be taking you with us." Yet another excuse to buy more time.

"Absolutely not," I snapped.

"I am not going anywhere with you, certainly not by myself and without reinforcements." Her face did not move.

"You're speaking like you have a choice in the matter," Sethira sighed.

"You really don't. Look around you, you're surrounded. If you hadn't impressed me so far we wouldn't even be speaking this much." I was halfway through trying to think of yet another reason to win myself precious more seconds of reprieve when an alert was sounded.

"Soldiers, your eminence. There are soldiers approaching." Everyone around me was trained and experienced, but they were humans. The human brain has limits. It stutters when an inconvenience emerges, and it cannot help but divert attention. Multitasking is a feat beyond the scope of organic thought. While the room was locked in their momentary lapse—just a bare fraction of a second—I was already spinning, calling on my mana and blasting it out into the ceiling of the hollow space beside me.

Sandstone tends to break in slightly curved arcs, and my first shot, as well as blowing a hole in the surface, let me study the fracture patterns. A few mental calculations that lasted only as long as I needed to ready another missile, and I had my target. The structure held for just long enough that I was able to slip through, then it collapsed behind me. But not before another figure entered too. I recognised Sethira as she located me in the gloom, for a moment we stared at one another. She had reacted fast.

Impossibly fast, and decided just what she needed to do scarcely slower. The grin threatening to consume my mouth was a distraction I could not afford. By the time her first spell was flying for me, I already moved to deflect it into a side wall. The resulting dust cloud covered my exit. Wherever we were, it was new ground to me. But not to Sethira. That told me I would be at a disadvantage the longer this pursuit went on.

Every moment she had to think was another step she could take towards making and progressing some trap. There was almost certainly one waiting for me up ahead, anyway. I doubted she was the sort to prepare an exit through underground passageways without having people lurking deeper in them to ensure it went smoothly. By fleeing this way, I was banking on those other enemies being far enough ahead that I could make my escape before encountering them. It was a gamble.

I do not like gambles, they make me want to scream in rage and eviscerate someone. I could unfortunately not do either right now: Sethira was running too fast behind me for wasting oxygen to be an option, and she was powerful enough that delaying to kill her would buy the men behind us time to clear the blockage and catch up. So I just kept moving forwards, and, as I was being forced to do infuriatingly more often lately, hoped my luck held.