“Jamirh! Are you okay?!”
Jamirh looked up from the white warg whose ears he was scratching to see Jeri practically fly into the courtyard, her dark uniform and long pale braid a sight he had sorely missed the past few days. He was surprised by how tired and frazzled she looked, as though she had rushed straight here from Pitesh as soon as she heard the news.
“I’m fine,” he reassured, his long, pointed ears twitching upward. He gave the warg one last scratch before straightening up. “Welcome back. How was your trip?”
“What happened?” she exclaimed, stopping short and looking him up and down, clearly trying to determine if he had been injured. He guessed that was fair; she had spent quite some time and effort to ensure his safety in Tarvishte only for him to be attacked as soon as she was gone. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
He ran a hand over his head self-consciously, checking that his ruby-colored hair was still in its ponytail. “Well… a lot happened, actually,” he began, considering how best to explain in a way that wouldn’t panic her more.
The warg whined, trying to push its head under his other hand for more attention as it ignored his attempt to straighten his vest.
“Things have changed a little around here since you left,” he added, waving a hand at Frir, who was lounging on the other side of the courtyard on a marble bench. Frir waved back.
Jeri’s green eyes narrowed as she took in the other Vampire. “Yes, I was told the Black Watch has been keeping a close eye on you,” she said, her voice cooling. Jamirh wondered if she was remembering how Frir had accidentally revealed to Jamirh the Vampire belief that he was Ebryn Stormlight, the famous Avari Hero reborn.
Jamirh still didn’t know what he thought of that. It was complicated. On one hand, they had good reasons to think what they did – he shared looks and abilities with the long-dead Avari, and their goddess had told them he was Ebryn reborn. On the other hand, he hated Ebryn and everything he stood for. But then, there was also the other thing…
“We need to move, or we die. Again.”
Jamirh repressed a shudder at the memory and a voice that was his, but also not. Had it been Ebryn, or his imagination kicking into overdrive as a result of stress? He wasn’t sure. No one seemed one hundred percent sure, not even the goddess herself. He still, after everything, had more questions than answers.
He could leave that part out.
“I was attacked by an Abomination, which turned out to be one of the super-secret bionics the Empire has been rumored to be creating, but Ander and Vlad killed it pretty handily after I spent several minutes flailing about in the dark with it. Then I found out Hel is Hades – and that was a surprise, let me tell you – and then we had a conversation and I currently have possession of the Crystal Light Blade because of it. Everything has been in a sort of lockdown since, and there is always a member of the Black Watch in visual range of me.” The warg made a quiet woof. “And I’ve been hanging around the wargs more, on Ander’s recommendation.”
Jeri stared at him like he had grown a second head. “What?”
Had he cut too much out of that explanation? Maybe, though he thought that covered all the high points. It had been a rough couple of days. Jamirh had thought about the attack so much that everything was starting to blur together. He really needed to stop thinking about it for a while, but how could he?
The warg gave a slightly annoyed huff and pushed its head under his hand again. He automatically started scratching behind its ears.
“The Abominations are being manufactured by the Empire, from what we can tell. They are combining Avari with tech.” Jamirh sighed. “Avari have been going missing for years. I guess we sort of found them. Or… what’s left of them. Ander could probably tell you more; he’s been studying the corpse.”
Jeri winced. “And it was the Abomination that somehow knocked out power in Pitesh and Tarvishte? I found evidence of one being in Pitesh, but not what it did.”
Jamirh nodded. “According to Ander, yes, though he’s not sure how yet. Apparently Hel saw something similar happen shortly before she lost her avatar. She says it also disrupts magic at short range, and they use a UV weapon against Vampires so there’s a whole bunch of problems they can cause.”
“It would have been too much to hope that they would be easily dealt with.” Jeri turned another glare on Frir that Jamirh wasn’t sure he deserved. The other Vampire wilted, then disappeared into a shadow. “Why the wargs, though?”
Jamirh shrugged. “Ander thinks they’ll act as extra protection, or at least a warning. They were all very agitated while the Abomination was on the grounds; it’s possible they sensed it before it revealed itself.”
The warg blinked up at him in contentment as it leaned into him, its considerable weight almost knocking him over.
“Interesting,” Jeri responded slowly, eyeing the warg with a frown.
The warg wagged its ridiculously large tail.
She grinned suddenly. “Remember when you were terrified of them?”
His ears flicked down in annoyance. “You mean when you showed up as a four-foot-tall wolf-creature after spending the previous couple of nights howling at us? You’re right, I have no idea why that would have been terrifying.”
Her grin turned sheepish. “I was howling for you, not at you, for what it’s worth.”
An even larger gray warg wandered into the courtyard. It padded over, sitting next to Jamirh and looking at him hopefully.
Jeri shook her head. “They are attention hogs, that’s for sure,” she drawled as Jamirh shifted so he could pet both at once.
“They kind of remind me of the pigeons in Lyndiniam. I mean, they’re a lot bigger, and furrier, and more interested in people than the stuff they find on the ground, but they’re everywhere to the point where you just get used to their presence,” Jamirh explained. “And sometimes they look at people the way the pigeons looked at the shiny things they found,” he added with a laugh.
Jeri rolled her eyes. “They can also be very interested in shiny things on the ground, so I wouldn’t discount that as a similarity.”
Suddenly, both wargs looked off into the distance for a moment before getting up and trotting away without so much as a single glance back.
“And there they go.” Jeri sighed. “They definitely have minds of their own. Very appropriate creatures to be associated with the Lady.” Her eyes slid towards him. “You said Hel lost her avatar?”
Jamirh gazed after the wargs as they wandered off. “Yeah.”
Several moments passed.
Jeri coughed. “You said Hel lost Her avatar?” she tried again. “I thought you said–”
“Yeah, but I’m still calling her Hel,” he interrupted. “She said it was okay.”
Jeri’s mouth formed a small “o.” There was another minute of silence as she processed that. “How did you find out? Did She tell you? She wanted it to come from Her.”
“Yeah, no, it didn’t quite work out that way.” He looked down, trying to brush the warg fur off his clothes.
The Vampire winced. “And you said you have the Blade now, too?” she asked hesitantly.
“Yup,” he drawled, popping the “p.” “Like I said, things have happened around here.” He turned, beginning to walk back to the palace. “Though I have to say I’m impressed that the government didn’t lie to the citizens about what happened.”
“Why would it?” Jeri asked, sounding baffled as she followed.
Jamirh shrugged. “If something like that attack happened in the Empire, there is no way the truth would be reported. They would release some cover story, like ‘a gas line exploded’ or ‘this very important part failed and exploded’. Reassurances that it wouldn’t happen again would be given, and that would be the end of it.”
Jeri stared. “People died.”
“And?” he asked wryly as they entered the Palace of Dusk. The grand entryway and architecture of the building always made him feel small. “That wouldn’t stop them. ‘Those people died when the gas line exploded.’ See? Logical conclusion.”
The look of horror on her face was almost funny. “And people would believe that?”
Jamirh snorted. “Oh hell no. We’d know it was a coverup; we just wouldn’t know what for. I don’t know how much gas lines are even used in the Empire anymore.” He considered that for a minute. “Actually, theories about bionic super-soldiers were pretty popular when we left Lyndiniam; it’s very possible that the real explanation would have accidentally been floated around. People really like their conspiracy theories.” He hummed. “I actually thought Hel was bionic when I first met her. Her magic was easier to accept as very advanced tech instead of, well, magic.”
“That’s a little ironic, all things considered,” Jeri snorted. “She is so, so very terrible when it comes to anything even remotely tech-based. She doesn’t seem to understand it at all, and it doesn’t seem to like Her, either.”
“I also had no idea that they looked like the monstrosity that attacked me, or I would have never made that mistake,” Jamirh added with a shudder as they approached the quarters he had been staying in since Jeri had brought him to Tarvishte. “There was so little of the original Avari left. So much metal, and just… the strangest feeling of wrongness.”
“Demons can cause that feeling too,” Jeri mused. “I wonder why, if these Abominations are artificially made, they have the same effect, or something very similar. At least it makes it easier to determine if they’ve been through a place recently.”
Jamirh blinked. “That’s what you were tracking, when you went to Pitesh? You were looking for that… feeling, specifically?”
Jeri nodded. “The Lady and I both sensed it on the border of the Waste when we were coming north, so I know what the current problem ‘feels’ like. Such things can sometimes leave a residue of sorts in places it has been, if you know what you are looking for. So I was sent to Pitesh to look for it.”
“I thought you were…” He stopped, thinking about it. “Never mind, I have no idea what I thought you were doing. Something magical, I guess, but that doesn’t really make sense, does it? You don’t have that kind of magic.”
“No, I do not,” she laughed. “Just a Vampire’s better sense of the metaphysical. And occasionally the senses of a warg.” She paused. “Very occasionally the senses of a cloud of bats.”
“A cloud of bats?” Jamirh hadn’t seen that one yet. “As in a whole group of bats? One person becoming multiple… how does that work?”
“It’s hard to explain, but it does make perfect sense when you are a cloud of bats,” Jeri said thoughtfully. “It’s not a form I choose very often, but it is popular among some of the other Vampires.”
“But are you controlling each bat separately? Or collectively? Does your mind become many minds that all sort of work together?” They came to a stop by his door.
“Sometimes, it is best not to think too hard about how something works,” she suggested gently. “Especially when magic is concerned.”
“Don’t you need to know how it works?”
She shook her head. “No. In fact, sometimes things will… sort of break, if you think about them too hard.”
Jamirh rolled his eyes as he opened the door. “Tech is simpler to understand than magic. At least it works the way it’s supposed to.”
Jeri hummed softly. “Does it, though?” She stopped as she entered the room, staring. “That’s new.”
“Like I said, there have been some changes around here.” He walked over to stand next to the new television. Though it wasn’t nearly as sleek as the vid screens he was used to seeing in Lyndiniam, it still got the job done. “Vlad basically declared that since I am going to be here for a while, my rooms might as well be set up for it, so I got a few new things. Apparently Vlad and a few other people around here like to be able to get news and other programs from the Empire, so they set mine up to be able to do the same, which is cool. And I somehow got a whole small kitchen, which I can only assume was through palace shenanigans, since that doorway wasn’t there before.” He gestured to the small space visible through the new opening. “I don’t know that I’ll ever really use it, but it’s nice I guess.”
“Uh huh.” Jeri poked her head into the new room before turning back to Jamirh. “This feels more like an apartment now. Anything else new?”
“A few random things…” He trailed off, seeing her gaze land on the object on the long side table. “And yeah, that.”
“So you did take it,” she murmured, eyes glued to the Blade. “I wasn’t sure anything would convince you to do so.”
He shrugged awkwardly, eyeing it with distaste. “I don’t know how helpful me having it will be, but…”
“Yes, a weapon, a sword? We are good with swords.”
“…after having been trapped in a hallway with one of those things and no weapon, I figure any help I can get will be good, and Hel said the Blade will even destroy them on contact,” he finished, shaking off the memory of the voice that was almost his. “Even if I don’t know how to use it, I should at least be able to make contact, right?”
Jeri was silent for a long time, eyes never moving. “It is more than that,” she finally began. “It’s symbolic in ways I don’t quite think you understand. Whether or not you believe you are the Hero reborn, others will, and seeing the Hero with the Crystal Light Blade sends a message. What that message is will be interpreted differently by different people.” Her mouth twisted into a grimace. “Some will see it as a message of hope, since they will see you as their defender, and others of despair, because there must be something awful for you to defend them from. The Empire will certainly see it as a threat when they find out, and they will probably try even harder to kill you. Other political powers may start trying to position themselves to aid you or impede you, depending on what they think will benefit them the most.”
“You paint such a pretty picture,” Jamirh muttered, his ears drooping.
She shrugged. “What is done is done; it will be what it will be at this point. As far as actually wielding the Blade goes, however, I don’t think we need to worry too much – if Miravu is right, we just need to show you how to use it, and as a Master of Blades you should be able to pick it up fairly quickly.”
Jamirh fought back a wince, since the one thing he had not done in her absence was practice. “I still need to figure out how to use that ability properly. It helped keep me alive against that bionic monstrosity, but I don’t think I’m using it in any way like how Miravu described.”
“Thinking about it as ‘using it properly’ is probably not going to help you do so.” Jeri laughed. “It is an innate magic; this is one of those things thinking too hard about doesn’t help with.”
“Well, I can’t just not think about it,” he protested. “That’s not going to get me anywhere either.”
Jeri’s lips twitched. “And yet… well, we’ll work on it.”
“You can help me learn how to use it, right?” Jamirh asked. “Since you use swords?”
Her eyebrows raised. “You really want to learn how to use it? Properly, I mean?”
“I think I kind of have to at this point,” he admitted, picking the thing up. It was heavier than it looked. “I still don’t like Ebryn, and I definitely don’t like being associated with him, but…” His stomach twisted, the words tasting like ash.
“I understand,” Jeri said, sparing him from having to continue the thought.
“And definitely not Ander,” he inserted quickly, remembering the one bout between the two of them. It hadn’t been a fun experience, and he didn’t much feel like revisiting it.
“Well, Ander could teach you, in that he does know how to use a longsword, but I think he is a poor choice for a teacher in general.” Jeri winced slightly. “As we saw.”
“Yeah, I’d like to try to avoid that.” At least he had managed to get the better of the priest in the last exchange. “What is his deal, anyway? Sometimes he seems like he’s trying to be helpful, and then…”
Jeri settled herself down on one of the couches with a sigh. “Ander is… well, something of a mystery, for all that he’s been here for three hundred years. He never talks about himself. He’s one of the Lady’s own, so he’s trusted, but… he’s weird. We’ve never quite figured him out. And he never goes far from the Temple.”
Jamirh blinked, not sure what to think of that.
The Vampire shook her head. “But on the topic of training, of course I’ll help you. If the Abomination can reach you here, then we should try to give you every possible advantage you can get.” She tilted her head as she studied the Blade in Jamirh’s hands. “If Ebryn was also a Master of Blades, then what a waste of potential. He did have a reputation for being extremely stubborn though, so it seems pretty in character for him to pick one weapon and then refuse to try anything else. Try to think of it that way – you’ll be better than Ebryn by the time we’re done.”
“Extremely stubborn” did sound like Ebryn, from the little he had heard about the long-dead Avari from people who had known him. It didn’t sound like the voice he had heard while trying to survive his encounter with the bionic Abomination. That voice had been trying to be helpful, had sounded like it cared about his survival. Ebryn didn’t fit that picture. Jamirh wasn’t even sure Ebryn had cared about his own survival. And he thought he’d seen an image of something very much like the bionic attacking him, but Ebryn had never fought bionics. Ebryn had fought demons.
So then, what was it? Who was it? Had it just been his imagination? The more time that passed, the more difficult it was to remember.
Jamirh hated not knowing things. But if even a goddess wasn’t sure, how was he going to find out? He had no interest in putting himself in that sort of situation again, Blade or no Blade. If he had to face the Abominations again, it would be on his terms, and he wouldn’t need a voice in his mind to save him. He would save himself.
“Everything okay?” Jeri’s voice was concerned as she studied him. He realized he had just been standing there, staring off into space, for probably longer than was normal.
“Yeah, fine,” he responded quickly, trying to hide his embarrassment. “Just spaced out for a minute, sorry.” He returned the Blade to its new home on his side table.
She eyed him for a moment longer before turning to the television. “Have you found anything fun to watch yet? Does it also get our channels, or just the Empire’s?”
“Both.” Jamirh turned on the television and sat down in one of the chairs. A pair of Human women were sitting behind a news desk, images of a mostly destroyed compound of sorts cycling to the side of them. He was about to change the channel to find something more entertaining when he saw the ticker at the bottom read “Aftermath of the Charve Military Base Explosion.”
Jamirh blinked. “Hey, that’s where Ander said Hel was being held, isn’t it?”
Jeri studied the images. “That sounds correct. Wow, She did not go down quietly.”
“You think she did all that?” Jamirh asked, aghast as he stared at the damage. Multiple buildings had been condemned, whole sections of them having been destroyed. “It looks like there were multiple explosions all across the base.”
“Well, She is a goddess,” Jeri said slowly as the anchors discussed rescue efforts. “And destruction is one of Her domains, so I wouldn’t say it’s beyond Her abilities, even if She was in a form that limited what She could do.” Her voice sounded troubled, almost as though she were trying to convince both of them that that was the case.
“I guess we could ask Ander?” Jamirh suggested hesitantly. “Would he be able to ask her?”
“Anyone can ask Her; Ander’s just more likely to hear the answer.” She shrugged. “And then he might or might not relay that answer. It honestly might be better to go to the Temple and try to ask Her yourself. He doesn’t like to be treated like a phone.”
“Maybe that Human did some of it,” he theorized, looking at the debris. “Wasn’t he supposed to be helping her escape?”
“True,” she agreed. “I guess we would have to ask to be sure, though.”
“I wonder what happened to him,” Jamirh mused. “Did he die with Hel’s body? Or did he escape? I didn’t think to ask her when we talked about it.”
Jeri hesitated. “It doesn’t look good from these pictures, but maybe he made it out?”
“…and hundreds of people found themselves trying to get onto the base just after the explosion, but when questioned, none seem to remember why,” one of the anchors was saying. “The military is still looking into the strange phenomenon.”
Jamirh looked at Jeri, who shrugged. “Could be any number of things, honestly, though it sounds like a Queen’s Challenge.”
He cocked his head to the side. “That shriek-thing she did to the door when we broke out of jail?”
Jeri winced. “Yes. Please don’t remind me.”
“I would say when you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail, but as a goddess, isn’t she technically the hammer?” he mused thoughtfully.
The Vampire twitched. “There’s no excuse for using that sort of magic on a door.”
The first anchor cut herself off mid-sentence, looking as though she were listening to something through her earpiece. “This is breaking news; we have just been informed that the massive amount of destruction at the Charve Military Base was caused by a gas line explosion,” she explained. “One of the old lines runs under the base and exploded at various points due to corrosion…”
Jeri turned very slowly to look at Jamirh, who just shrugged. “What can I say? A lot of our gas lines are apparently faulty.”
