Chương 92: Chapter 27

A tense silence spread throughout the tavern as Azreon shouted his challenge to Shaya. Everyone stopped to watch the spectacle: dancers ceased their jigs, drunks dropped their ramblings, and the tavern's staff tensed up as if there might be immediate violence and property damage. Azreon's Lance surrounded the table Shaya and Bri sat at, as if cutting off their escape routes, though Oraeus, Apricot, and Samorn watched from nearby—tensed like crossbows about to go off.

The bard's jaunty tune petered out, to be replaced with a low, tense dirge to set the scene.

"Hold on a moment," Shaya said, turning back to her friend and leaning in closer to her.

"Hey Bri…" Heart thundering in her chest, palms suddenly damp, Shaya took a deep breath.

"How dare you ignore me!" Azreon shouted. Shaya ignored him, reining in her emotions and thoughts to form a simple, cohesive sentence: "Will you go out with me?" Bri blinked, stunned. Her face reddened and Shaya's heart dropped as Bri shook her head, mistaking it for rejection. A moment later she realized Bri was just clearing her head, her coppery-red hair tousling as she did so.

"Really? Now is when you come to your senses and ask?"

"To be fair," Shaya countered, "I was about to ask before I was rudely interrupted."

"I will not stand for this!" Azreon shouted, drawing his sword.

"Well, the answer is obviously yes," Bri said, grinning.

"Awesome!" Shaya exclaimed, returning the grin with a blush of her own now.

"Sorry, we'll hammer out details in a moment." She collected herself and turned back to Azreon, the naked mithrite pointed her direction firing adrenaline through her body to combat the haze of alcohol over her mind. A part of her was thankful for that; aside from the outburst being yet another strike against him in a room full of witnesses, she was worried what she might have done while influenced too much by alcohol.

The gears turned in her mind for every advantage she could think of, knowing that Azreon's abilities in a one-on-one fight outstripped her own at that moment.

"I accept," she replied levelly, "but, unlike you, I'm not immune to repercussions because of daddy and need to work to pay my tuition. If you want to fight me, you'll have to book it on the last day before our final deployment."

"You think I'll wait that long for satisfaction?"

"It's that or you don't fight me." She shrugged.

"I'm not the one with anything to prove here. Additionally," she paused as his eyes narrowed further, "I'm not a morning person, so you'll have to book the fight for mid- to late afternoon. You wouldn't want people to think you only bested me because it was during my off-hours, would you?"

"Would you like to make any further stipulations?" he growled through gritted teeth.

"No," she replied with a dismissive wave of her hand, "set the other parameters as you see fit. They won't make a difference to the end result."

"No, they won't," he said, his lips twisting into a smile that made Shaya nervous. She hid it as she responded, "Now put up your sword before my friends destroy you." Azreon's brow quirked, then he winced as he and his Lance turned to find Oraeus, Apricot, and Samorn full of aether, espers hovering behind them with menace. Shaya wouldn't have liked their odds in a straight fight against Azreon's Lance, but with the element of surprise while they were fully charged? Shaya liked those odds a lot.

Azreon's eyes met Samorn's and he flinched from whatever silent message was conveyed between them. Emotions flashed across his face in a blur that made it difficult for Shaya to catch: confusion, frustration, anger, defiance, lust, and perhaps even… guilt? Composing himself with a haughty sniff and without another look to Samorn, Azreon returned his blade to his scabbard.

"Let's go." Shaya's friends didn't dismiss their espers or the aether until Azreon's Lance had left the tavern. The whispers started well before then, the evening made far more interesting to the occupants than their normal night of drunken debauchery. Slowly but surely, the bard returned to his frenetic dance music to burn off the excited energy, drinks flowed freely again, and the tavern's atmosphere returned to normal as Azreon's miasma faded.

"We can't take you anywhere," Apricot joked as they returned to the table.

"Hey," Shaya said, holding up her hands defensively, "just be thankful I didn't start a bar fight. My friends in Kelahk still haven't let that one go."

"You shouldn't have accepted," Samorn said, her tone morose.

"And especially not without further conditions… Una is crazy, but not psychotic. Azreon though…"

"What's he going to do?" Shaya shrugged.

"Try to kill me?"

"Yes," Oraeus said, sitting across from her.

"He's killed people in duels before Shaya. He's infamous for his career as a duellist."

"Well… Titan spit."

"It's okay," Bri assured her, "you gave yourself a bunch of time, we'll all make sure you're prepared for it."

"Definitely." Apricot nodded. Samorn and Oraeus shared a look that suggested they disagreed.

"Oraeus," Shaya said, "you've been trained in a similar duelling style to Azreon. Could you teach me?"

"In two months?" He shook his head.

"I can try, but there's no way you can master it."

"I don't need to master it; I just need to know what to expect and adapt accordingly. Azreon's overly focused on the one style, I'm sure I can find a hard counter to it and exploit that against him."

"I'll do my best." Oraeus nodded, still sounding concerned.

"As long as you can find the time."

"I'll take Samorn's advice and cut back on my shifts a little, I can afford to now… and she's right, I do need to spend more time with the people I care about, for my own mental well-being."

"And maybe my mom will have something you can use too," Apricot added.

"With your training with her."

"Yeah." Shaya nodded.

"My next training session with her is a week away, I'm sure I'll get a better handle of things then." Then she smiled, turning back to Bri.

"But for now, I believe we have plans to hash out?"

"Oh, it finally happened?" Apricot grinned, holding out her hand to Oraeus, who placed another gold coin in it.

"I may need to charge you for the practice," Oraeus complained, "given how much you cost me this evening."

"Shush you," Apricot teased, "this is an important lesson for you too. And just think how pleased Shepherd will be."

"Shepherd?" Bri and Shaya asked.

"They called this before most of us," Oraeus explained.

"At least Ren will also have lost money to this… but the amount of favours we owe Samorn now…" The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Samorn's gaze was distant, taking none of her usual pleasure at the advantages accrued. Before Shaya could comment on it, a man burst through the door covered in sweat and as pale as a corpse.

"Fire at the warehouses!" Shaya launched out of her seat and was out the door a moment later, followed by her friends. Given the man's terror, she knew in her gut what she would find when she exited, and she was not mistaken: an unnatural green fire raged amongst several warehouses in different sections of the district. Deep down, she also knew what they'd find in each one.

"Look!" Shep shouted, pointing the opposite direction of the warehouses. In the great distance, through the bruised colours filtering down from the magical noble districts, another green fire flickered on the horizon. Where the Academy was.

"We can't help with that one," Shaya said.

"But we can help here, and we have to." She turned to the growing crowd around her and raised her voice, projecting a confidence she didn't feel: "We have to get the crates out of those warehouses! The fire cannot be put out, but we can protect you against the magic and help you any way we can!"

"Listen to the mages!" a man shouted from the back, Shaya recognizing Zymish's voice. A number of people in the crowd snapped to attention at his voice, members of his gang. They immediately shouted their assent, serving to encourage the mob to do the same. +++++"We're still assessing the situation," Inquisitor Valanar reported, shifting her feet uncomfortably.

"Have the Wardens given you their full cooperation?" Chancellor Zaal asked.

"They claim to," she replied, "but it's clear they're not enthusiastic about it."

"I'll deal with them. Have you found anything?"

"No aetheric trails were found by our forensic mages or yours," she said.

"We suspect that the terrorists stole a number of valuable devices and reagents and destroyed the rest to cover their trail. Perhaps fearing that the divination department's devices could have been used to locate them."

"And the students that did not evacuate immediately? I hear there were even first years studying late into the night, uncommon even for students like Velthos with connections to Azreon." Valanar dismissed the question with a wave.

"Word is that your curriculum is more challenging than ever, Chancellor. Though the Wardens struggled to find all the stragglers in the building in a timely manner, I believe that is due to their organization's growing incompetence. Almost anyone can become a Warden these days, given their losses in the last war."

"The same could be said of the Inquisition," Zaal cautioned, unamused.

"What are you not telling me, Valanar?" The woman shifted her feet again before responding.

"You're no longer my superior, Chancellor. We've been reminded of this fact, as have you. I'm here because of our prior relationship, but I cannot speak freely on some subjects." Zaal almost found it amusing that this woman could rend minds and bodies apart for information without flinching but did not like withholding information from him.

"There is more you're not telling me, but I won't pry. You're dismissed." She strode from his office without another word.

"You wanted to see me, Chancellor?" Bari asked as she was admitted to Zaal's office next, his assistant closing the door behind her.

"Thank you for taking the time to see me, Chief Vallosi," Zaal said and gestured at one of the chairs across from his imperious desk.

"Please, take a seat."

"You may recall I'm no longer Chief, Chancellor," Bari said as she crossed the large office and settled her large frame into the wooden chair across from him.

"I stepped down prior to accepting my position here, please call me Bari."

"Ah, yes. I believe you abdicated to Devi's first daughter—Jingyi, was it? An unusual decision, given her youth." Zaal noted Bari's repressed flinch and made a mental note to update her file.

"As you may know, Chancellor," Bari responded after a moment's hesitation that she tried to cover over by crossing her legs, "the tribes of Asharel do not mirror the hereditary monarchies of the rest of the empire, exactly. My tribe elected Jingyi to be my replacement because of her calculating nature and wisdom, despite being in her twenties. It is not so uncommon amongst Asharel, given our prominent role in the Empire's wars and the resulting casualties that inflicts."

"Are you suggesting that the Empire asks the Asharan tribes to take on an unfair share of the burden of war, Bari?"

"Yes," she replied without hesitation and without further explanation.

"But I suspect you did not fit me into your busy schedule to discuss politics, Chancellor. Did you want to discuss the attack on Arcadia last night?" Zaal made a mental note of her honesty and opinions for later as well, then waved dismissively at her.

"No, you and your healers performed well. I'm happy that your staff and the responding Wardens were able to get the few students in the building out and healed with minimal injuries. The Wardens and Inquisition are investigating how someone managed to target the Diviner's building and what may have been stolen. The lower districts are no concern of mine."

"I don't like how long it took to find some of those students." Bari frowned.

"One or two of them were missing in the building for almost half an hour, that suggests they weren't following proper evacuation protocols or that our staff need to brush up on their search and rescue skills."

"I'll pass your critique on to the Wardens," Zaal replied, voice flat.

"Anything else you would like to mention about this item?" I figured you would want to recognize the hard work and clear thinking of our students close to the docks," Bari said.

"I'm told they saved a great many lives—and a great deal of food stores with their initiative."

"Service to the Empire is its own reward," Zaal said, then steepled his fingers before continuing.

"As for the real matter that brought you here: you disobeyed my orders during the last deployment. I believe I made myself quite clear when I instructed each commanding officer not to interfere with the planning or execution of their Lance's operations." The golkah woman looked surprised for a moment before shifting into annoyance then back to neutrality.

"My Lance was assigned to hunt down a band of mobile bandits to test their ability to outthink other sapients and take their lives with minimal or no hesitation. Given the spotty information we were given, when it was discovered that they were instead facing against a cult led by potent apostates and their Titan-spawn masters, I decided the best course of action was to re-balance the scales to better reflect the intended scenario."

"You were not given leeway to do so."

"On the contrary, Chancellor," she replied, "we professors take a vow to safeguard the students of the Imperial War Academy and ensure they are given every opportunity to learn to the best of their abilities, in order to graduate and become constructive members of Arcadia's society. We are training the leaders of the future, after all, and thrusting them into more danger than I've seen previous years engage with, despite the Empire being in a state of peace."

"The Empire is never in a state of peace, Bari," Zaal rasped in response.

"It is always assailed by enemies, either from without or within. By providing your Lance additional resources they otherwise could not have accessed at their levels, you deprived them of a valuable learning opportunity of combatting a superior force and learning their own limits."

"You and the other professors believed otherwise during the grading forum, given that they still placed second overall. Despite my 'interference,' they still executed a passable strategy—prior to me offering or casting my support spells on them—and eliminated the threat they were assigned to, while my spells were hardly necessary and simply saved our healers' resources."

Bari's tone grew heated and her thick brow furrowed with frustration as she continued, "Resources that have been stretched thin since the Academy has been deploying students across the years into more challenging engagements than usual, inflicting greater casualties than usual, and causing greater burnout amongst my staff of healers."

"Challenges which the students have confronted and overcome without the direct interference of other professors, who know to follow my orders."

"Many of the students overcame those challenges by suffering significant burnout themselves, allowing their aethers to scar and influence their minds before they've built up sufficient willpower to offset the emotional swings," Bari replied without budging from her position.

"Besides which, the bandit raiders the scouting report set out as the initial target were removed from existence by Oraeus' Lance. The hidden camp Shaya and Bri stumbled upon was not part of their mission, which is why I took it upon myself to remove the threat personally—as a loyal servant of the Empire."

"You seem to believe this is a trial, Bari," Zaal retorted, his own eyes narrowing.

"It is not, I do not care for your justifications, and I do not need to explain my policies to you. You will follow my orders, or you will be removed from your position. Do we understand one another?" She recognized that his tone allowed only for a binary answer, so she nodded and responded through gritted teeth.

"Yes, Chancellor."

"Good, then you may leave," he said with a dismissive wave of his hand, already turning his attention back to the neatly stacked reports on his desk. She left without another word, closing the door behind herself just a bit harder than necessary. Once she had gone, he drew in Sapphire and felt his frustrations cooled by the cold aether as it swirled within him. With a mere thought, he had sculpted his spell and channelled the aether into it, a portal opening before him.

Through the portal stood a nigh infinite number of shelves, from which he pulled a report labelled "Devi's Associates." His quills moved through the air, adding new records to the report according to his will. In the meantime, the portal before him blurred as it moved to a different location within the demi-plane, stopping before another shelf so he could withdraw a different report, its pages less yellowed with age than the first. He sighed as he looked down at the name on the report: Shaya Amon-Velatriel.

Zaal felt a pang of frustration again, saddened that others were interfering with her development. Now he would have to ensure her next deployment would be even more dangerous, to correct for the lost experience due to Bari's interference. He had hoped that the girl's mentors would show more faith in her abilities—and those of her Lance, he supposed—but had overestimated their insight. Next time, he would remove that possibility entirely.

What was worse was that his divinations, somehow, had failed to show him the paths that had led to the current reality in which he found himself. There were few in the Empire, or beyond, that could match his skill in divination, and only one that he knew could exceed it. It was strange, then, that his spells had failed to take into account certain variables. Something he planned to look into—and rectify.