Chapter 68: The Dreadminds

Observing the ease with which Elias could control his extremities and the obvious changes in his body, Valerius cleared his throat.

“Welcome back, boy,” he said. His voice cracked on the last word. “You look like you’ve been through a war.”

Elias glanced at him, a flicker of the old, quiet boy still there in the eyes.

“I have.”

Yseult’s gaze dropped to the purple-gold rose tucked against his hip, and her eyes tightened. She did not comment on it, not yet. Elias had surprised her by his achievements when she wanted him to just be able to trigger his unique Incursion.

With everything he was expected to sacrifice, it seemed like it was asking for too much for him to bear the burden of more power.

In this fleeting moment of distraction, Commander Yseult did not properly respond when a Divine Tool pierced through the barrier she had placed over the high spire, and the doors at the far end of the chamber opened.

Lord-Captain Veyris Kaelthar entered, flanked by two scribes and a hooded Dreadmind in black robes. The Dreadmind’s face was hidden behind a featureless silver mask, but the air around him tasted faintly of ozone and old paper. It was from him that the aura of a Divine Tool resonated.

This Lord-Captain was smarter than the Commander had anticipated. A Dreadmind was the perfect vessel to hide the aura of the Divine; there would have been no way that she would have allowed the agents of the Crown to step within a hundred miles of the Asylum.

Veyris stopped at the threshold, his eyes locked on Elias, and it widened slightly, then narrowed again.

“So,” he said. “The candidate returns.”

Elias, on the other hand, was fascinated with the resemblance between this man and Asulon’s statue, and for a brief moment, he thought the Storm Ascendant had descended to punish him for his blasphemous activities.

Yseult did not turn to acknowledge this new presence; she kept her eyes on Elias, her gaze still searching through all the changes she could feel on his flesh, and it was indeed puzzling. He had the physique of a weak Mist Phantom, and yet, the breath of power she could sense from him was barely at the peak of the Wisp Stage.

“Lord-Captain,” she said. “You were told to observe from the gallery.”

“I was told many things,” Veyris replied, using her own words against her. “Most of them are irrelevant when the Crown’s interests are at stake.”

Yseult tilted her head; the motion was slow, almost lazy, but something in it made both scribes take half a step back, and the small bit of courage rising in the heart of Veyris to take a few steps back.

“You’re the watcher,” Yseult said. Her voice was quiet, but it carried. “The one who came to make sure I didn’t cheat. Now that he is out of the Fragment, tell me, do you sense any foreign tool that does not match his essence around him?”

Veyris smiled, but it was thin and careful. He wanted to curse with anger because even while he was standing here in front of the candidate, he could hardly see anything because the aura of Yseult covered everything in a haze.

“I came to make sure the process was pure. And to ensure the city was safe from… anomalies. We do not know which Fragment he acquired or if his Incursion would threaten the lives of the people around him.”

Elias had been quiet all this while, but at the words of the Lord-Captain, he looked at him for a long moment, then he smiled, revealing his mouth that was still caked with blood.

“Safe,” he repeated, with a bit of surprise in his tone. “From me?”

Veyris smiled, “Elias, I believe it is your name, there is much you do not know of the world you have just entered, and we are here for your best interest.”

Elias knew that this man was speaking the truth, but he could also smell when someone was distorting the truth, and something inside him shifted, but he allowed nothing to show on his face.

He had just been placed inside an unknown situation, since it seems that his Ascension to the ranks of an Ascendant Candidate was not a simple affair, and one of the mysteries he knew nothing about, his Void Spawn Incursion, which he was sure was now counting down once again, was far more important than he had given it.

Elias did not know many things, but the one thing he could sense was when he was treated like prey, as if none of his decisions mattered. This was a feeling he could accept as a mortal when he had no choice but to allow himself to be fucked by the world, but now he literally had claws, and he would not be used without having an agency of his own, he swore inside.

“The Crown has questions,” Veyris continued. “About the timing of your Incursion, this is something I am sure you know nothing about, but it is important. We also want to know about the nature of your ascension. The Order has been making strange requests and moving certain forbidden goods across various borders, and we want to make sure you are not the reason for it. We also want to be sure whether certain… external influences were involved. This domain falls under the guidance and protection of the great Storm Ascendant, and his Will would not be taken for granted.”

Yseult finally turned. Her silver eyes were flat, and Elias shivered; he would recognize a killing eye anywhere.

“Speak plainly, Veyris,” she said. “Or leave my Asylum. My patience grows thin, and the addition of a Dreadmind would not save you. I will gladly pay the cost of ridding the throne of one of its dogs.”

Veyris met her gaze, and he did not back down. There was something strange happening here… the Commander was not showing it, but she was distracted, and he was a shark that smelled blood in the waters, and so he struck without any hesitation.

“The Crown believes the boy may have been… altered. Tampered with. That the Asylum may have overstepped. That a powerful Incursion would be drawn to this city deliberately, to justify greater authority for this place, and a change to the laws already written by the Ascendant.”

Valerius sucked in a breath at these accusations; a single one of them was enough to ensure that they all lost their heads, and he knew inside that they were guilty of all of them, maybe even more. The Commander does not reveal everything to him.

The tension was suddenly broken by Elias laughter, and he turned to the Commander with surprise and confusion in his eyes,

“They think I’m a weapon you built,” he said. “A monster you made to scare them into giving you more power?”

Veyris did not take back his words, only gave a small smile, and also looked at the Commander, as if saying that the ball was in her court.

What happened next surprised him and enabled him to view Elias in a new light. This child was a warrior and a leader.

Elias stopped laughing and slowly stepped forward; each step was deliberate.

“I’m not your weapon,” he said to Yseult, but loud enough for Veyris to hear. “I never was.”

Yseult’s expression did not change. “I know,” she said.

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