171 - Book 3: Chapter 36: Interlude - Rebellion

171 - Book 3: Chapter 36: Interlude - Rebellion

"Vex better be grateful for this," Helix muttered.

He didn't mean it, of course. At this point, he was fighting for far more than just his brother. It had taken him time to see that Vex had been right all along, but he'd figured it out eventually.

He owed it to his team the most; Larok in particular, the one member of his team that was with him today.

Helix hadn't known Larok particularly well when he'd first started talking to the man; Larok had just had the misfortune of being nearby when Helix learned that Vex had left. Lacking any particular ability to hold back, Helix's first reaction to the news had been to turn to the nearest available figure some commoner orc drag him to the closest pub, and then spill every thought he had about his younger brother to the stranger.

It was a miracle that Larok had listened to him at all.

But he had. Larok paid attention to every word he said, and he'd done so genuinely, unlike all the servants that Helix spoke to that only listened to him because they were obligated to. Or because they were being paid to do so. It was the first time Helix had felt like someone was actually taking him seriously.

And then he'd looked Helix in the eye and told him he was wrong.

He'd been furious at first, of course. He'd been the scion of their House until Vex had come along and shown his particular knack for magic, and now that his younger brother had left, he was once again the heir but his place in his own family had never felt so precarious. He was uncertain, thrown off.

He'd been happy and proud of Vex, and then his younger brother threw it all away for what Helix had seen as nothing more than a phase. And now this stranger was looking him in the eye and telling him that his brother had been right to do so?

"Who the fuck do you think you are?" Helix had asked. The fireball that lit up in his hand gave him a dangerous look, he knew. He'd never been able to control his use of magic particularly well. He spent mana like water.

"No one." Larok hadn't seemed even slightly perturbed. He'd even taken a sip of his drink, looking Helix in the eye. "Hurts, doesn't it? That a nobody like me disagrees."

There had been a certain self-loathing bitterness in his voice that had cut straight through Helix's anger. He'd paused, staring at Larok, the fireball flickering out in his hand; the rest of the tavern had paused to stare at them, and a glare from him sent them all back to looking at their drinks and gossiping with one another.

He wasn't interested in all of that. He was interested in Larok, and whatever it was that made the man so brave.

And foolish, arguably.

He'd invited the man to his house that night, and to his surprise, Larok had accepted.

Without the barrier of nobility and commoner between them, they'd had a surprising amount of things in common. They liked the same books, seen the same plays; Larok even knew a little bit about magic, even though his own class was related to administration and basic clerk duties.

He'd elaborated more on his point of view, too. Helix had never told him the House secret, of course; he'd just explained that Vex left to protect his brother, and all his opinions about the divide between the nobles and the commoners.

And Larok, in turn, talked about what it was like for them. It was a perspective that had been entirely foreign to him at the time, and even now he found he kept learning more things about the class of people he had once considered beneath him. Larok had eventually brought him around to meet his friends, and Helix had slowly been exposed to a perspective that was far different from the one his parents always spoke of.

Anyone could be a noble, his parents had said. They just had to work hard enough and find something a new House could be founded around.

Helix saw how hard Larok's friends worked, in every spare scrap of time they had. He saw how they achieved nothing. The materials they needed were too expensive; a single drop of the reagent they needed took weeks for them to earn. They could have done it in a week, with funding from a noble house, but then they would be relegated to a sub-branch of that house, and would be no better off than before.

And slowly, he'd changed his mind.

His brother had been the catalyst, certainly, but he was fighting with the Elyran rebels for his own reasons, now.

That was what had led him here. Larok stood by his side, a sheaf of papers folded under his arm. Talking to the Adventurer's Guild had changed things for them dramatically it put them into contact with J'rokksur, and the people in that village seemed almost proud of the way they broke apart the system's skills for their own ends.

Now that was a power they had, too. Some of the secrets J'rokksur had shared freely could easily have earned them a noble house in Elyra themselves.New novel chapters are published on

"I'm sure your brother would be grateful," Larok said, smiling at him. "Pity I missed the opportunity to meet him."

"It's cooler."

"Not when you're talking about paperwork!"

"Shut up," Larok grumbled, but in the same motion he pointed, and Helix reacted instantly; a flash of mana gathered into a runic circle that blasted out a powerful jet of water. It slammed into something invisible, and there was a cry of pain. A twist of his hand made the water-aspect mana dissipate before it could saturate the still-falling paper.

"One," Helix said.

"They know we're onto them, now," Larok commented. Helix laughed.

"Doesn't mean they can stop us, does it?"

Another spell sent the remaining pieces of paper swirling around the garden in a wide circle; the guard stumbled out of the way, anticipating a trick, but Helix slammed the base of his fist into the base of his helmet right as he moved. He cracked his neck, tossing the dagger he held to the side.

He wasn't his brother. Fighting with a dagger felt like a small tribute to Vex, but it wasn't really what he preferred.

"There," Larok said, and this time Helix struck out with a different spell entirely; threads of mana burst out of his fingers, spooling towards the spot Larok had indicated. The Herastul spy tried to step out of the way, but threads were far harder to dodge than a single jet of water; they caught around the spy anyway, and Helix's expression changed to something a little more grim.

A simple [Aspect Realignment], and the threads of mana changed to lightning.

"Two." Helix ignored the scream, his eyes flicking back towards the guard, who had gotten up again and was approaching with an unsteady sword. He stepped forward, striking into the center of the armor with both his hands; mana coursed down his hands and pulsed into the armor, slamming it inward.

"One more?" Larok said.

Helix inclined his head towards the entrance to the garden, where he'd left a number of small runic circles embedded in the ground. Spikes of earth erupted from the ground a second afterwards, cutting off a strangled cry.

"Three," Helix said. Larok shivered a bit.

"You can be pretty scary."

"Thanks, I try." Helix remained tense, his eyes looking around the garden. One guard and three handlers; it matched the reports they had, but this still all felt a little too easy. Herastul wasn't exactly a combat house, but they should have been better than this. It had taken one blow each...

Granted, every one of his spells were loaded with more than enough mana to take out most tanks, and if they were low on health from one blow, they would be smart enough to stay down.

"Your family doesn't make you immune to consequences, Ashion."

The words wisped by an ear, and Helix reacted quickly; fire burst from his body in a sphere, powerful enough to roast anyone standing nearby. He had to cancel the spell just as quickly when Larok stumbled, pushed into him.

And then the rest of House Herastul unveiled themselves. There were a dozen of them, standing in a circle around the pair, and one member of Wisfield.

That explained a lot. Wisfield's ability to keep them all connected mentally would let them coordinate perfectly.

"Why don't we try this again?"

The head of House Herastul was an old orc, but there was no humor in his smile. "What are you doing here, Ashion? With one of my clerks, no less?"

Helix sighed dramatically.

It was a good thing they were just the distraction.