Chapter 328: Subtext

The night sky was slightly overcast, the clouds far above blotting out the sight of the half-moon and some of the stars. Despite the lack of overhead light, Jadis could still see the Brandrvald stretching out into the countryside for miles, the farmland around it dotted with the faintly glowing light of the villages and farmsteads she’d seen while sailing towards the capital. From far below, she could just barely make out the sound of the timekeeper towers chiming, the number of bells indicating that it was five in the morning.

“I do not trust that woman,” Kerr murmured quietly to Dys as the two stood near the edge of the platform where the wind was loudest. “She’s a cunt. I can smell it.”

“You can smell her cunt?” Dys asked while making a face.

“No—no, you ass, you know what I meant,” Kerr smacked Dys’ hip with the back of her hand. “She’s got a rod stuck so far up her ass I can see it poking out of her nose.”

“Yeah, I think I can see it, too,” Dys replied. “But you’ve got to be careful with your words, don’t you know?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Kerr shuddered. “I know. I’ve been hearing that from Eir more than you have. Trust me.”

Both Dys and Kerr let out a conjoined sigh in joint remembrance of the lectures they had received from Eir over the past few days. Since their little company was going to be interacting with the royal court and likely the emperor himself, their noble-born priestess had been doing her best to impress upon everyone the proper etiquette and manners for interacting with such highly positioned people. Jadis didn’t want to be intentionally rude, especially not to someone who commanded the entirety of the empire and all its armies, but that didn’t mean she was going to start curtsying to garner favor. Fortunately, Eir hadn’t tried to make them do anything like that. Instead, her focus had been on language. Cursing and innuendos were not going to go over well in the court, which meant they had to moderate their normal vocabulary.

Kerr was having a particularly hard time with that part of coming to the capital.

Lady Severina was a good test case for how to behave. The Seraphim was apparently one of three paladins who commanded an order of knights who served Valtar’s temple, an organization called The Hand of Justice. She, like Runar, was a major player in the temple and on the battlefield, though she was more than just a glorified holy knight. She was also the scion of one of the most influential noble families in the empire. Considering she was heir to a notable noble title and also someone who regularly served the royal family, at least according to Eir, Severina was someone that deserved a great deal of respect. Conceptually, at least. In practice, Jadis was having a hard time with that part herself.

“What do you think the odds are that she’s going to screw us over in some way?” Dys asked Kerr as they continued to stand near each other on the edge of the platform.

“Fifty-fifty. If she came here with the intent to fuck up our day, she would have gone about it in a more direct way. A woman like that isn’t the type to play around with sly tricks,” Kerr replied while still keeping her voice low. “On the other hand, with the way she’s staring at Alex, she might just say ‘fuck it’ to whatever mission she’s on and start smiting.”

Jadis couldn’t disagree with Kerr’s assessment. The blonde Seraphim definitely didn’t seem like the kind of person who would sweep them out of Runar’s custody in the middle of the night, playacting the savior, just to turn around and throw them into a dungeon. Severina had come to them with the express purpose of escorting them to the temple district by the order of the emperor, or so she had said. Great news, really. It seemed like the head of the empire had taken note of the situation and decided to cut through all the red tape bullshit. Or at least enough tape to get her out of the magistrate’s holding cell. Severina hadn’t brought any word of her charges being dismissed. Just that she was to be moved to the temple district right away.

Of course, that meant all of Jadis’ companions as well. That was a point in Severina’s favor, Jadis decided. Or maybe the emperor’s favor? Whoever had made the decision. Either way, they hadn’t tried to separate Jadis from her companions and that was a relief. Though that had led to the awkward moment when Lady Severina, a paladin of Valtar, had come face to face with Alex, a Demon born of Samleos. For a moment, Jadis had thought the winged woman was going to pull the sword from its scabbard at her hip and start swinging.

To Severina’s credit, she’d only glared at Alex, offering no comment otherwise. That burning glare had appeared whenever the angelic blonde had looked in Alex’s direction, but for the most part she had ignored the Demon while escorting them from the docks to the lifting tower, where they currently were.

Alex, on the other hand, had locked her attention onto the Seraphim with hawk-like focus. While she continued to act as a kind of fleshy backpack, hanging off Jay’s shoulders this time around, her tentacles were far less squirmy and her muscles were tense. Jadis knew Alex’s body language well enough by now to know that she was on high alert and prepared to either take hostile action or respond to it in kind. Clearly, Alex didn’t like the Seraphim any more than Severina liked the Demon. Jadis had to wonder if that was a product of the fact that their patron deities were so hostile towards each other, creating some kind of instinctive dislike, or if Alex wouldn’t have cared at all about Severina if she wasn’t so obviously hostile towards her.

Jadis didn’t think Alex was going to start anything. So far, the only times she ever took any aggressive action had been when others had attacked first. Still, just to be on the safe side, Jay had moved so that she was as far from the Seraphim as she could be on the platform, which turned out to be a fair distance since the lifting platform was truly huge.

Aila had not been joking about the magically powered lift being able to hold a whole caravan. While the Behemoth had not been brought along with them, there would have been more than enough room on the lift to fit five of the massive wagons, with room to spare. The tower walls were more akin to stacked arches which allowed anyone riding the platform to easily see outside. The lift itself operated in complete silence. No sound of machinery or gears came from the operation of the rising platform. The enchanted device didn’t move particularly fast, either, since it took ten minutes to go from bottom to top, but the movement was smooth and the upper weight limit of the platform was apparently high enough that is was near impossible to overload, just from a practical standpoint.

“Where’s Vraekae at?” Syd asked Eir while they waited to reach the top of the platform. “Or Hans, for that matter. I haven’t seen either of them since yesterday.”

“Vraekae is at her own estate here in the city,” Eir explained, motion with one hand upward. “She has a mansion that she maintains separate from our family property. I believe Hans is with her. She offered rooms for all of us as well, but we declined since we did not want to be so far from you.”

“I appreciate that,” Syd smiled down at the red-skinned priestess. “Though I don’t blame Hans for taking up Vraekae on her offer.”

“I don’t think he’s liked being out of the kitchen for so long,” Eir whispered conspiratorially. “If Vraekae’s house cook lets him, I’m sure Hans will be already up and making pies for breakfast this morning.”

“Oh, absolutely,” Syd agreed without missing a beat. “That man has a gift and he’s not about to squander it. Do you think we can stop by Vraekae’s place for breakfast? I could absolutely go for one of Hans’ meat pies.”

“That won’t be possible.”

Syd turned away from Eir, meeting the gaze of Lady Severina who had answered her question before the oracle could speak. The Seraphim had her arms crossed over her armored chest and was managing to strike quite the imposing figure despite being only around five foot eight inches. She wasn’t tall, but her bearing was both graceful and regal and her armor straddled the line between functional and ornate. There was something about the woman that seemed to glow, a subtle shine to her presence that both drew the eye and exuded and air of authority.

“Why not?” Syd asked neutrally, not trying to start anything with the woman but also not just backing down either. “Vraekae’s my legal representation in all this sh—nonsense. I should be able to visit her for council, right?”

“No,” Severina stated with iron in her voice. “Until the hearing is concluded, you will be restricted to the temple district. You will not be allowed to leave Lyssandria’s temple except during daylight hours and you will be under escort whenever you do leave the temple. If you attempt to break any of these rules, you will finish your stay in the capital from within the dungeon. Vraekae will have to come to you.”

Jadis swallowed the first words that came to her mind with that declaration and instead searched for something more diplomatic to say. After a short pause, she found the right phrasing.

“And how long do you think I’ll be under these restrictions? Since the emperor ordered me to the temple district, I assume that means he’s already taking a look at my case?”

“That is a fair assumption,” Severina replied with a little less prickle in her tone. “However, I cannot say how long your hearing may take.”

“Cannot or will not?” Syd prodded while keeping her own voice light.

“Neither,” Severina frowned. “I would not presume to speak for the emperor.”

It didn’t seem as though she was going to get much more useful information out of the paladin, so Jadis readied to turn away from Severina and resume ignoring her. However, before she did, a thought struck. Acting on impulse, she decided to ask the woman a direct question.

“You’re a Seraphim,” Syd started by stating the obvious. “So you have a link to Valtar. What’s he telling you about Alex?”

“You mean you’re pet demon?” Severina said with a slight curl to her lip.

“I mean Alex,” Syd reiterated with a little more force behind her words. “She’s not a pet.”

Severina didn’t outwardly respond to Jadis’ assertion, but her body did stiffen in an almost imperceptible way. Her eyes were drawn towards where Jay was standing on the far end of the platform along with most of the others. Alex clung to Jay’s back, her neon-blue eyes quite visible in the low light of the platform’s softly glowing lanterns. The Seraphim’s brow furrowed and she was silent for a long pause. When she did finally answer, her tone radiated displeasure.

“Our Father is silent on the matter,” the paladin stated with some of the steel back in her attitude. “Perhaps this is meant as a test for the faithful.”

“I don’t think I need to guess what kind of test you mean,” Syd said as she crossed her arms.

“However, tests come in all manner of forms,” Eir spoke up, inserting herself between Syd and Severina by taking a few steps forward. “Sometimes the gods test our faith by presenting us with situations where we must make the right choice based on adherence to scripture. In other cases, we must make our choices via our own discernment.”

“One with true discernment will find their answers align with scripture,” Severina replied, her X-like pupils now locked onto Eir. “Valtar’s guidance is for the good of all.”

“I agree completely,” Eir smiled serenely. “After all, as it says in the fifth scroll of his holy word, ‘change is the marrow of life, for without change all that lives weakens and withers until the soul is rotted from within.’ An unwillingness to change would be a detriment to the spirit.”

“So it does say,” Lady Severina agreed. “Though the fifth scroll also says to ‘beware the false prophet, lest ye fall under the will of a deceiver.’ I would think an oracle of Destarious would know that lessen well.”

“I do know that lesson,” the elf nodded her head. “I knew it long before I had any connection with Destarious. I also know that it says both in our Father’s scripture and my Lady’s, that one should ‘Judge through love, not anger,’ for that is the only way we avoid harming ourselves through rash actions. Ah, but I am certain that I have no need to explain such verses to one so estimable in the eyes of the temple. I speak for my own sake, so that I remember the will of our gods better.”

“An excellent practice,” the Seraphim replied, her face having turned into a blank mask. “Though I would suggest learning some discernment as to when it is necessary and when it is ill-advised to take up time with unnecessary scripture lessons.”

“Indeed,” Eir bowed her head. “We can all use more discernment in our lives.”

At that moment, before Severina could reply, the lift came to a gentle stop and the gates facing the back of the tower opened to reveal the upper tier of the capital city. Closing her mouth with a click of her teeth, Severina took a few steps away from Eir and Syd and began to call out orders to the guards she’d brought with her as part of her escort. As everyone began to gather together, Syd ducked her head low to whisper into Eir’s ear.

“I thought you said we had to watch our words around people like her?” Syd questioned with a slight tremor of humor in her voice. “I’m pretty sure you just called her a fucking bitch.”

“We do need to,” Eir replied quietly without removing the placid smile from her face. “And I did. It takes some practice to learn how to call someone a bitch without using the word.”

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