*Kethryl*
Below us, the Yuwens were already making their way back with our two Halflings, now tightly bound to the back of a white horse. The Halflings had been remarkably fast for non-magic users, but sadly Janus was faster.
Sigh.
I didn’t need eyes in the back of my head to feel Miriael’s stare. I’d planned it, and though it worked—mostly—the taste of failure lingered on my tongue. One target survived, saved by Ruby Yuwen’s interference, and they caught our two little helpers because I wanted to see if the spirit could handle the Yuwen brothers. It couldn’t. Not even a scratch. The spirit was still young, barely a century since its ascension, its color a pale, uncertain green. The older ones are always deeper, richer, like lush, dew-heavy green fields. But this one? Not even a single real wound. I almost wondered if they’d be fine even without Ruby’s help.
A sudden kick jolted me from my thoughts, this time landing squarely on my backside. It was a bit more forceful than the last one.
“Don’t zone out; what’s the plan? Are we going to kill them or not?”
“The Halflings?”
“No, the Yuwens. That family gets trickier the longer they exist. If it weren’t for them, the Country would be in complete uproar by now from invading Ibasans, marching undead, and loads of dead nobles; instead, we only have a few dead nobles and the elder council breathing down our necks.”
“We can’t.”
“What? But didn’t you try to kill them earlier?”
“The brothers would be fine, but Ruby Yuwen and her brood are off limits.”
“Since when?”
“Since yesterday.”
“And you didn’t tell me because?...”
“You are always with him.”
I said, pointing at her son, who had finally found the courage to stand up, though his legs still sometimes shook with fear.
“He doesn’t have clearance.”
Mirirael narrowed her eyes in suspicion,
“Aren’t you a great and mighty wind mage? Something like blocking out a little conversation shouldn’t be too hard.”
“Fine. As for the Halflings, I think we should probably do it together with our prison raid, which will be your job. Now for the rest.”
With a snap of my fingers, I sealed off the boy’s ears and mouth. I didn’t really need to silence him, but the quiet felt safer, like a pause in a storm. He tried to protest, but his muted voice made it futile. Maybe I should make a habit of this; then I wouldn’t have to hear his grating teenage voice.
“I don’t really know myself since he didn’t care about her at all when I sent the last few reports. But something in my last report must have set him up, since he not only declared her not to be touched; he even advised me to make sure she and her kids stay safe.”
“Really? Why would he care about some upstart healing mage? He is way more capable than she is.”
“I know, right? But then I looked a little closer. Aside from the usual talk about politics and missions, the last report included your findings on the stone.”
“You mean the one in the middle of the crater? But that thing vanished…!
“That’s right.”
“But based on the size of the crater it formed during its descent, that demon was deemed so powerful it could destroy this whole side of the continent if unleashed. But nothing of the sort has happened yet.”
“I know, and that makes it weird. She couldn’t be that demon since she even set foot in that monstrous cathedral. If she really were a demon, the cleansing of her corruption would have disintegrated her soul, and yet she was fine.”
Mirirael lost herself in thought for a moment, something that rarely happened, since she usually followed her uncanny intuition.
“Does…no…Wait! Does he think she is immune?”
“No way, no one’s immune to corruption. Unless… Hmm… If I remember right, even though the stone should have been a dormant demon inside it, we weren’t able to sense any corruption from it in previous research missions, correct?”
Mirirael nodded; she had done a mission like that herself.
“If she is the demon we are talking about, and the stone is inside her, then is the corruption sealed inside the stone?”
Our gazes wandered, almost against our will, to the one at the center of it all. She moved among the wounded, laughter and gentle words falling from her lips as if nothing dark could ever touch her. Watching her with her family, I felt a chill settle in my chest, and for the first time in millennia I felt fear.
What if it breaks out?