Chapter 89 – Acceptance

Chapter 89 – Acceptance

Emily and Juliana sit in silence, enjoying each other’s company, for the first hour of the night watch. Not a single beast approaches their camp and, eventually, Juliana breaks the silence.

“Why do you need to leave?” she asks quietly, catching Emily off guard.

Emily opens her mouth to respond but has to pause for a moment to work out an explanation through the twistings of guilt and grief threatening to choke her again. Juliana notices her hesitation and continues quickly.

“It’s not that I’m blaming you or anything. I understand the Mandrago family did some horrible things and you need revenge. But, why does that mean you have to leave The Covenant?”

“Ah,” Emily breathes a small sigh of relief, her emotions calming a little. “Since I’m a vassal of their house, what I want to do will be seen as insubordination and betrayal. The royal family and The Covenant won’t take kindly to that. It’s likely I will be sentenced to death or life imprisonment if I don’t flee afterwards.”

“Why can’t you tell everyone about what they’re doing and just leave them then?” Juliana asks, pulling away a little to turn to face Emily. “I looked into the law about conflict between noble households and if you separate and get granted a noble title then, even if you attacked them unprovoked and killed several of their members, you’d only get a slap on the wrist. There’s even a past example of someone getting let off for slaughtering an entire noble household right after being granted their title.”

Juliana’s face scrunches in distaste at the end.

Ha, that’s probably Jenny.

“Unfortunately, it’s not that simple,” Emily says with a pained smile as she reaches up to push a few stray strands of hair out of Juliana’s face. “There are a lot of households doing the same so they’ll likely support them and try to cover it up. Also, even if I separate from the Mandrago family, it will still be seen as a betrayal if I turn on them afterwards. There will be a lot of pushback from their faction, which will likely make my sentencing harsher than the past cases, and nobody, allied to them or not, will look positively on me assassinating one of the kingdom’s fourth circle mages. Also, they believe I’m brainwashed right now. If I request a noble title, they’ll realise I’m not and will probably expect me to come after them. That, and they could target Anna instead, who they currently have no reason to harm.”

Tears start to form in Juliana’s eyes as she looks for a way out.

“Can’t you go collect Anna, then request a title? That way you can kill them with the least punishment and risk.”

“I’m not confident I can take a fourth circle mage head-on, especially if they’re expecting me and given time to prepare.”

“Then wait till you can! You can take your sister to my family’s territory. We’ll happily protect her while you grow, and I’m sure, seeing how talented you are, it won’t take long,” Juliana says desperately, her eyes begging Emily to say yes.

“And turn the hostility of a marquess on your family as well?” Emily whispers sadly. “Would your family go to war for me? Fight the Mandragos, maybe their allies as well, so that I can get revenge? A surprise attack is my best change. The longer I drag this out, the more variables are introduced, and the more dangerous it gets.”

Juliana falls silent for a few seconds, holding Emily’s gaze with an expression of heartbreak and sorrow. Emily feels herself starting to cry as a hollow, selfish thought gnaws at the back of her mind, weeping for a suggestion she knows will never come.Cheêck out latest novels at novelhall.com

Did she never even consider the possibility of coming with me?

“Is that it then? Are we done?”

Juliana’s words fall like a blade on Emily’s heart, severing her final hope as she wipes the tears from her girlfriend’s cheek with her thumb, her mind alight in a blaze of chaotic thoughts.

I want to tell her no. I want to say we’ll live long lives and I’ll be back in a few years. But I also don’t think she’ll ever be able to keep up with me. Or want to. I want to fight strong opponents. I want to explore the wonders of magic. I want to go to space. I need to progress... She doesn’t...

Emily’s emotions churn and the mana around her reacts to her plight. It bubbles into water, forming a shifting cloud of sadness around the two of them, small artificial raindrops joining the natural drizzle. Juliana doesn’t even notice, her attention fixed solely on Emily.

“Yeah. I think so,” Emily finally answers, the icy lump forming in her heart once again.

Juliana’s barely restrained tears turn into a torrent as she grabs Emily and pulls her in tight, sobbing into her shoulder.

“I’m sorry,” Emily apologises meekly through her sorrow.

***

They cry in each other’s arms for a while until their tears run dry and Emily’s spider spots incoming beasts. Her eyebrow creases in irritation as she sends one of her birds to intercept them and moves a hand from Juliana’s hair to tap her back.

“There’s something coming,” she says gently while pulling away. “I’ll be right back.”

Juliana nods and releases her. Emily stands up and turns away to walk across the camp.

Juliana’s eyes flutter open at Emily’s words, bringing a smirk to Emily’s face.

It just takes mentioning food to wake her.

Emily slips out of the sleeping bag and stands up. She summons her body armour back into place, taking a few moments to adjust how it sits to make it more comfortable, before summoning her various pieces of battle gear and fastening them back into position.

Juliana rises as she’s gearing up, throwing on her own clothes and armour. Emily helps her adjust the body armour before they leave the tent together, meeting Dante and Hester sitting around a small fire with skewers of meat suspended above it, a barely perceptible drizzle falling on their heads.

“Morning,” Hester greets them casually as they approach.

“Morning,” they both say back, sitting down beside the fire.

“Sleep well?” Dante asks with a teasing grin, glancing towards the tent they shared.

Emily rolls her eyes and ignores him, but Juliana throws her arms around Emily’s neck, hanging off her, and responding with a cheery grin.

“Of course! Emi’s really comfy.”

Hester and Emily giggle at her answer, and Dante chuckles before turning back to the fire, unable to keep teasing Juliana after her honest response.

Ivor, Enzo, and Tom slowly join them as the skewers finish cooking, and their breakfast passes peacefully. Afterwards, they pack their tents back into Tom’s bag. Once the clearing is empty, and they’re ready to set off, Emily recalls all her scouts but one.

She has the last bird fly up to the sound barrier disc, landing on top and pressing a button. The disc hisses as the anchors are ripped free from the surrounding trees and swiftly pulled back into their housing. The disc drops into Emily’s waiting hands, and she sends it straight into her belt before leading the group onward into the forest.

***

They walk on through the trees and fog, with Emily occasionally checking the guide pose to make sure they’re going in the right direction. They encounter nothing more than small groups of beasts in their first few days in the forest. Emily has Tom, Hester, and Juliana deal with most of them, to get used to real combat, but takes over whenever the groups coming at them exceed four in number.

On the morning of the fifth day, Emily finishes working on her new spell a few minutes before the end of Dante’s watch.

Perfect! I finished it just in time to test it in the forest before we enter the caves. Let’s call it... Scattershot!

With a new spell in the third circle section of her spellbook, Emily slides out from under Juliana and leaves the tent early. She finds Dante sitting alone against a tree, his hood pulled down low to protect from the violent rain above. With a small flex of her magical prowess, a pulse of water spreads from Emily, forming a thin shield over their cramped camp, packed into a small clearing barely big enough to fit their tents.

The water shield blocks the incoming rain, giving Dante respite.

“Thanks,” he says, looking up as Emily approaches. “I wish I had mana to burn on a defensive spell against the rain.”

“Ha, your defensive spell would burn all the trees around us along with your mana,” Emily says with a smirk, sitting down next to him.

Dante clicks his tongue, as if all his plans have been ruined, drawing a chuckle from Emily as she casts cleanse to dry him off. They sit in silence after, waiting out the last few minutes till they wake everyone else.

When the time comes, Dante walks over to where Tom’s bag is left outside his tent and starts getting things out to prepare for breakfast while Emily calls for everyone to wake up, and moves back to her and Juliana’s tent. She pokes her head in, chuckling as she sees Juliana crawl deeper into her sleeping bag.

“Wake up, Jules. There’ll be no food left if you take too long,” she threatens softly.

“Lies,” Juliana grumbles, peeking her head out of the sleeping back to glare at Emily. “You wouldn’t dare.”

Emily doesn’t respond, flashing her a cheeky grin. Juliana’s cheeks puff out as she finally sits up.

“Meanie.”

Emily laughs, resisting the urge to pinch her cute cheeks, as she turns around: choosing to ignore the quietly muttered promise of revenge.