Book 6: Chapter 43: Bloodlines

Book 6: Chapter 43: Bloodlines

Victor and Valla watched the Glorious Ninth march away from the keep, a long column of armor-clad individuals wending its way east and north along the beach toward a gap in the hills where they’d turn toward the center of the contested lands. Victor let his gaze drift that way, proud of the clear air and bright sun in the vicinity; he’d been responsible for removing the sickly haze, allowing him to see the heavy curtain of mist that hung in the eastern sky so clearly. It was distant, days and days of travel away, but it was there. Even in the morning sunlight, he could make out the faint green glow of the Death Caster’s “veil star.”

“They’ll be all right.” Valla had mistaken Victor’s angry scowl for one of concern.

“Yeah. I just want to get these undead assholes out of here. It stresses me out to think he’s got an open portal there, but we don’t know what kinds of limitations he has on calling more troops through.”

“Limitations?”

“Remember what Victoria said? I mean about the portal repelling those beyond a certain threshold of power.”

“Oh, yes, I remember.” Valla frowned, watching the distant column of marching soldiers. “I hope Lam keeps a close eye on that woman.”

“Lam and Kethelket will both watch her. Kethelket won’t let her surprise him.”

Valla turned to lean an elbow on the parapet, looking more fully at Victor. “Did you suspect there are other limitations?”

“I suspect, but I don’t know. The System seems to have rules for this invasion. Hector already has far more troops than we do. Well, he did before the forest fire and our recent victories. Still, if he had the resources back home, would he be allowed to send out the call to bring another fifty thousand troops through? It doesn’t seem that would be fair, so would the System deny their passage through its portal? Of course, the System might consider us as part of Fanwath as a whole. It might think we could gather more troops if we tried our hand at diplomacy, begging the Ridonne or the free cities for aid.”

“Or it might just consider the number of us who have the quest it issued in the pass . . .”

“Well, that’s what I’m getting at. We just don’t know. Hector might have already pulled through all the troops he has access to. We might be about to wrap this whole thing up.” Victor shrugged.

“I can see it’s the frustration of not knowing that’s bothering you. I suppose all we can do is find out, and that starts with you and me eating those apples.” She stepped close to him and gazed over the parapet at the waves crashing against the beach. She leaned her head against his arm and entwined her fingers with his. “Are you ready?”

Victor squeezed her hand and nodded, though she couldn’t see the gesture. “Yeah, let’s get this over with.” He led the way off the parapets, returning the salutes of the guards stationed on the wall. When they’d crossed the bailey into the inner courtyard, he saw Uvu reclining on the cobbles outside his travel home and felt a surge of fondness for the big cat. He was lying on his side, soaking in the sunlight, his head just at the foot of the steps leading up to the house. Victor wondered if, in his mind, he was guarding their home. “Good boy!” He squatted to scratch the lazy cat’s ear, eliciting a twitch and a partial yawn.

“He’s enjoying the sun.” Valla, too, paused to give the cat some affection, hugging him around the neck before following Victor up the steps and into the house. He turned and, pressing his finger to one of the runes next to the door, activated it with a trickle of Energy, securing the magical locks. A few minutes later, he and Valla were in his bedroom, kicking off their shoes, hanging up their armor and weapons, and then reclining on the bed, propped up by pillows, side by side.

“Hope these apples work fast. I mean, I hope they have a big effect, but we don’t lose weeks in the process.” Victor produced the two gold-wrapped fruits, handing one to Valla.

Valla lifted it, weighing it in one hand. “Do you remember the racial advancement rewards for sale in the Warlord’s token store?”

“Yeah, of course.”

“Remember how he sold them in tiers—advanced, epic, legendary?”

“Oh, yeah. You’re wondering what tier these might fall under, huh?” Victor regarded the apple as Valla nodded. “Well, I guess we don’t get to know. If they’re only ‘improved’ or whatever, then it won’t affect me as much as it does you.”

“Well, I hope they’re potent, as you said. Then we’ll both make good strides.”

As he thought about her words, Victor nodded and stood up, moving to the foot of the bed. “I think I’ll lay on the floor. There’s no way my Alter Self spell will last through this process, and if this process does add a lot to my Quinametzin bloodline, I might grow even more. Don’t want to break the bed . . .”

“Okay, but I wasn’t trying to hint at that.” Valla began to run one of her sharp nails along the gold foil’s seam. “Ready?”

I’ve been listening to you, Valla.

The voice seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at the same time. Valla was just grateful for a change in the empty, nothingness. “You have?” Again, she formed the words and spoke as she would at any other time, but she couldn’t feel her mouth, her lungs, or her ears. Did the words take shape?

Yes. You’re a kind and strong woman, and I’m impressed by you.

“Who are you?”

I’m a fragment of your lineage, a tiny bit of your ancestry, a progenitor that has faded to near nothingness in the dilution of your bloodlines.

“The dilution . . .”

Many are the peoples who make up your history, Valla. My time was long and long ago. I faded in your ancestors’ blood even before my people began to die out among the larger population. Still, I was there, near the beginning, an ancient spark that traveled through history to bring you into existence.

“You’re my ancestor? Who are you, though?”

So little of me still exists. Heranya was my name, and I rode the winds around the Tarcris Peaks.

“Tarcris? That was in the old world, on Alurath? I’ve never met someone with that name; is it Ardeni?

Alurath, aye. Ardeni, nay, Valla. I was Ordeni with the Rihven bloodline.

“I had Ordeni ancestors?”

At least one! As you drifted here, I searched your thoughts for my people, but they’re gone, aren’t they?

“They were small in number when the worlds were joined. They were the first to come together to build a new civilization. I wasn’t alive, but it’s taught that the Yovashi, a species from another world, called down pieces of the moon to destroy their city, all but wiping them out.”

As I feared. I saw glimpses of your world, and not a single Ordeni face graced the crowds in your memories. I feel great sorrow, Valla, this fragment of me that lives in you. Will you help to revive the memory of my—our—people? Will you take up the mantle of an entire species and carry it forth into the worlds?

“I . . .” Valla could feel the sadness lacing the words of her ancestor, and she struggled with the impulse to immediately agree. “Will I have your bloodline, too? Can you tell me about it?”

In your memories, I saw many Shadeni and Ardeni but only one Ridonne. Do the Vessi and Ridonne no longer wage war?

“The Vessi are dead. The Ridonne have wiped their bloodline clean from the world. I’ve only seen one Ridonne because they rule from high places and don’t mingle with those they deem lesser.”

What a tragedy! The worst of us lives on, then. No Vessi and no Rihven—a fallen world.

“It’s not that bad . . .”

Forgive me, Valla, daughter. Little of me lives on in you, but it's enough for me to feel—enough for sorrow and rage to war for space in my fragmented heart. You’ve consumed something potent, daughter, something that wants to wake a bloodline. You have more and newer contenders. You could spurn me, and something else will wake in the place of your Rihven heritage, but I beg you to embrace me!

Again, Valla grappled with emotion and the impulse to say yes. Her ancestor hadn’t answered her question, hadn’t told her what a Rihven was. Still, she’d given her a hint—the Ordeni had been the strongest Energy users from Alurath, driven to extinction by the jealousy of the Yovashi, though they’d been few in number before that. Had their Rihven bloodline been the cause? Had they been brought low because of the Ridonne’s obsession with exterminating the Vessi and, apparently, the Rihven? Valla stopped deliberating and answered her progenitor with her heart, “I will embrace the Rihven bloodline.”