Chapter 36: Reliant

Chapter 36: Reliant

Rel watched Dee leave with the mirror.

Her arms hung heavy and listless at her sides. She wanted desperately to reach out, but Lady Via wasn’t here to touch; she was only a reflection on a looking glass.

Dream Sequence moaned and whined in the back of Rel’s head, tying itself in knots. I-I-I don’t like this...

Rel said the first words that came to her mind. “Can we take the city instead?”

Ishanti and Dum turned to stare at her. The big man scratched his bald head, wiping away lingering traces of rain. “Ah, little tricky, that...”

Ishanti, as always, was more direct. “Impossible. Even if we manage to breach the walls due to a lack of guards, we will still be outside the actually defended inner wall.”

Rel’s stomach twisted. “And wind up caught like rats in a sinking ship.” Just like Lady Via was right now. “Maybe if we bypass the walls entirely—”

“On what, flying kites?” Ishanti shook her head, long silver hair whirling. “Do you think they lack archers and ballista? Do you think the monsoon itself will not drag us from the sky with the storm’s own spite?”

“We have to do something!” Rel slammed her hand against the wall of the Mirror Nest.

No one else had a suggestion.

Dave, Mistress’s newest demon, pulled himself out of his little nook in the center of the room. Rel watched as he wiggled across the floor, before laying one tentacle against her thigh. His eyes blinked out of sync, taking on a sad purple hue.

Relia sighed. “Thank you, Dave.” She reached down, finding a piece of skin to scratch. Dave was cool to the touch, and the eyes on either side of her finger crossed happilly before rolling back in their sockets. It startled a laugh out of her.

“Your problem,” Ishanti said, “is that you cannot make a decision independent of your Mistress.”

Rel’s head snapped up as if she’d been struck.

Dave wibbled, going a deep red as he reached for her retreating hand, but Rel was already past him. “What did you just say?”nôvel binz was the first platform to present this chapter.

“I believe you heard me.” Ishanti replied. “But if I must, I shall repeat myself.”

“I make decisions on my own all the time.”

The princess simply raised a brow. “Do you believe I haven’t surmised the nature of that skill? The one that allows you to perfectly predict your lady’s desires? Who, I wonder, is truly making your decisions.”

W-why y-ou! Dream sequence gave an angry squeal.

Rel squeezed her eyes shut for a long moment. “I am the one making my decisions,” she replied. “I simply trust in something other than myself.”

“Trust in others is fickle.” Ishanti hummed. “Would that end better for you than it did for me?”

Rel crossed her arms. “Is that what this is about, then? You’re worried that Lady Via will betray you like Seneschal Hawkwright did?”

“More that I fear her arrogance will deliver me, and all of her adherents, into his clutches.” Ishanti turned towards the open door, where the steady beat of rain drowned out any other sound. “You would not be acting as such, if you did not fear the same.”

Rel shook her head. “I trust my lady. She will...she would let me know if I was needed.”

“Didn’t stop you last time, did it?” Dum shrugged. “Maybe if we knock over a few more scouts, they’ll stop sending em. And me and my brother’ve gotten real good at makin’ our way through the jungle.”

Rel pointed towards the open door. “In the rain?”

“Not worse than we’ve done before,” he replied. “An’ it’ll make it easier to sneak past any lookouts.”

“As long as there are few enough of you,” IshantI added. “A large party will find itself mired down, even though the distance to Silverwall is short.”

“A day and a half on a wagon, more than that on foot.” Dum tapped the side of his nose. “But once we get there, Lady Via showed me a way into the city.”

“How?”

“She dug a hole under the wall, and then hid it. Bet it’s still there?”

“In the pouring rain?” Rel crossed her arms. “If it hasn’t collapsed, it’ll be completely flooded by now.”

Dum chuckled. “It’s...probably fine?”

“Are you willing to bet on it?”

Ishanti took a step forward. “Are you willing to bet that Lady Via will survive without you? If so, you need simply remain here.”

Rel hunched her shoulders. “So I should trek through the pouring rain, dodging enemy scouts, and hope that a flooded tunnel is still open in order to save Lady Via?”

Ishanti spread her arms. “Would she do the same for you?”

Rel slumped. “In a heartbeat.”

“Hmm.” Ishanti turned away.

Rel said nothing as the door shut behind her, leaving her alone with Dum and Mistress’s newest acquisition. Speaking of, Rel turned to Dave. “What do you think?”

He shifted, tentacles coloring in alternating bands of red and blue. Indecisive as she was.

“Do you think the tunnel will have collapsed?” Rel asked Dum. “I don’t think it will be as easy to get back out again.”

He shrugged. “Might not be big enough for me to fit, but a little thing like Miss Rel? Easy as a breeze.”

Relia let out a shuddering breath. “Okay.” She ran a hand through her hair. “Okay. I can do a little swimming.” It would be worth it, if Mistress needed her help.

Dum squeezed her shoulder. “Meet you at the gate.”

Rel nodded, then turned to Dave. “You won’t tell Mistress, will you?”

Dave scratched his head with a tentacle and gave a perfect shrug.

A startled laugh leapt from her lips. “Tell her what indeed?”