Chapter 24: Choose

Chapter 24: Chapter 24: Choose

The blood in the silver bowl began to move before Amelia could even touch it.

The liquid in the bowl formed thin strands as they climbed up the sides. Each droplet of blood that had been in her hand a moment before vanished as it touched the bowl’s surface.

The blood seemed to be sucked down into the center of the bowl where a large rune had been etched into the silver.

Her voice stayed steady. Her fingers did not.

"Usually by this point in the ritual, people start screaming at me to stop."

Allan stood just outside the circle. Usually, when someone performed blood magic of this sort, they were in the midst of some sort of crisis. Doing it in a chapel at midnight was not typical.

A faint smile appeared on her face. "I’m not in denial," she said.

"Clearly. Hence the forbidden magic." His tone was easy. Something in her eased at the sound of it.

"You’re strange. Has anyone ever told you that?"

"Usually right before they tried to kill me." His gaze flicked to her brother’s still form on the stone.

She ran the knife across her palm again, and the cut was as clean as the first time. This time she didn’t even flinch.

"The curse laughs at everything we throw at it," Amelia said, her eyes back on her brother’s pale face.

"Healing potions, purification, priests, alchemists. Every time we manage to push the curse back, it just sinks deeper into him. He hasn’t walked in six months."

Her grip tightened on the knife.

"Blood magic works, Allan. It’s the only thing that does. I need you to know that," she said to him.

It was something he recognized. A cost for the use of certain tools, in a game to survive among gods, that he had paid in great measures of time, sanity, and names he could no longer call his own.

Her brother’s face looked still too pale, but color was returning to his cheeks.

Allan felt the air change. A cold, wet pressure pressed against his skin. Something inside him shifted, aching uncomfortably.

His System flared.

[Warning.]

[Foreign Curse Signature Detected.]

He had expected the curse. But not these lines.

[Secondary Host Compatibility Detected.]

[Searching for suitable anchor...]

[Suitable Anchor Found.]

[Target: Amelia von Arclight.]

[Probability of Successful Curse Transfer: 87.4%.]

It was already choosing.

He stepped into the circle.

"Amelia.."

Amelia’s head snapped up. "yeah?"

"That ritual wasn’t intended to remove the curse. Rather, it would search for another vessel, and it has decided upon you, Amelia."

Her face broke into a thousand pieces, and the knife fell from her fingers, hitting the stone floor with a clatter.

He could have ended it all then by breaking the circle or by scrubbing out the runes. But he saw the panic in her eyes.

He didn’t.

Blood flowed from her feet. Black veins shot upward from her arm like roots. The liquid in the bowl began to twitch and squirm as if it had caught the scent of something sweeter.

"Amelia—"

"I didn’t do anything. I don’t know why it’s reacting to me. Help me." She was clutching at him with fingers that trembled.

He caught her in time as a thin red strand shot out of the circle to wrap tightly around one of her wrists. "I’ve got you," he said, but her pain was too much, and her fingers dug hard into his arms as another strand shot out to tie around her other wrist.

[Curse transferring to Amelia]

[Transferring: 66.9%]

"I’ve got you," he said. "I’m here."

Her whole body was shaking. He could feel the effect of it in his own bones.

"Allan, I’m sorry."

"Your brother will live," he said. "Hold on to that."

Her eyes widened and the whites turned red as blood vessels erupted beneath her skin in sickening loops. Her body radiated intense heat, as if she had contracted a fever.

"Thank you. I’m so scared. Don’t let me turn out like him."

"You won’t."

[Curse transferring to Amelia]

[Transferring: 89.4%]

A thread of blood reached for him as well.

[Investment Detected.]

[Target: Amelia von Arclight.]

[Investment Type: Life Preservation.]

[Required Resource: Host Vitality.]

[Estimated Cost: Significant.]

[Potential Return: Extreme]

Allan almost smiled. There it was.

"Take it," he said under his breath.

[Vitality: 289]

[Transferring...]

[Investment Succeeded]

[Current Vitality: 189]

The feeling of relief washed over her like cold water after fever. Her body felt lighter. The red tinge that had been in her eyes faded. She looked up at him, perplexed.

"What did you do?"

"An investment of spectacularly bad quality," he whispered, and as his energy drained away in a single pull, the air grew cold and his vision began to narrow.

Then the circle shattered.

In an instant, every candle went out. The bowl shattered in a perfectly straight line, the blood from it rising in a pale mist.

Amelia fell to the ground, but Allan caught her before she hit. He knelt there on the cold stone floor, holding her to his chest as her breathing grew shallow. Dark red hair spread out across his coat. Her heart pounded furiously in her chest.

The chapel fell silent.

The System returned.

[Investment Successful.]

[Target: Amelia von Arclight.]

[Corruption Stabilized.]

[Fate Deviation Lowered.]

[New Relationship State Detected.]

[Shared Curse Bond Established.]

Allan stared at the last line.

"Well," he said quietly. "That’s new."

Amelia slowly got to her feet. She looked at him with blood-stained eyes, then down at her wrist in disgust. There was a thin line of red where the pale skin had been cut. The same mark was on his wrist.

She brought her other wrist to his, touching her skin to his. "You helped me."

"Apparently."

"You could have died."

"Because you were shaking, and I felt it. Because you needed someone there."

"Why? Why go that far for me?"

The edge had gone from Allan’s voice. "Because you were shaking, and I felt it. Because you needed someone there."

She had nothing clever to say. She looked down.

"You’re an idiot."

"I’ve been told."

The silence was broken by their breathing. In the darkness, a single drop of blood fell somewhere to hit stone.

Allan rested a hand against her back, between her shoulder blades. She buried her face in his coat.

"I was afraid," she whispered.

"Of the ritual?"

"Of failing. If I couldn’t save him, everything I’d done would have meant nothing." She glanced over at her brother. His face was back to normal. His chest rose and fell with each steady breath.

"I knew blood magic was treacherous. I knew it would change me. I just couldn’t stop."

He brought his eyes back to hers. He could see that he had understood the path her life was destined to take had been altered by her deal with him.

"Amelia."

"Yes?"

"If this starts to hurt or you start to feel alone, call me. I’ll come."

"Is that an order?"

"A condition. For continued investment."

A softer smile touched her mouth. "Still calling me that?"

"For now."

She studied him for a long moment, then gently pressed her lips to his cheek. The kiss was short and felt deliberate, almost uncertain.

Her expression lost all sign of play when she pulled back to study his sleeve. There was a large red stain spreading from his cuff, seeping from the very place where her fingers had closed into a fist only moments before. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ

"You’re bleeding."

"Clean up here and then come with me to check on your brother."

***

It worked. Her brother had woken up. Lord Arclight hugged Allan tightly, crying uncontrollably.

Later that night, Allan returned to Oakwood, but instead of darkness, a single lamp burned in the western office of the manor.

Seris was seated behind the master’s desk with two large green ledgers stacked beside her and maps of the west spread out in front of her. A cold cup of tea sat in the midst of the papers.

Her face didn’t move, but her eyes traveled from the blood on his cuff to the similar stains on his wrist.

She said nothing.

Allan closed the door. "You’re still awake."

"I could say the same."

"I had something to handle."

"With Amelia." It was not a question. "I manage the western logistics now. Did you think I wouldn’t notice the sealed letter from House Arclight or that you left alone after it arrived?"

"You’re becoming dangerously good at this."

"I’ve always been competent, Master. You’re just noticing now."

She leaned forward. "What happened?"

"Amelia was trying to cure her brother of his curse with blood magic, and it backfired. I stopped her from killing herself."

Her expression tightened. "Is she alive?"

"Yes."

"And you?"

"Also alive."

"Diva. Amelia. Bela. Lira. The thing in the Hollow Root. Every time you leave this manor, there’s a real chance you don’t come back."

Allan stepped closer. "That’s why I gave you the western network," he said.

"Don’t change the subject."

"Routes, caches, people, compartments for stores, ranking the merchants, and all worst-case scenarios," he said. "You keep track of all that while I’m out there. That is not a small thing."

Seris looked down at the maps spread out before her.

"Where do I stand, Master?"

He waited.

"Don’t let me become only that. Please." Her fingers had tightened on the edge of the desk. Her eyes were furious.

"You keep people because they’re useful. Bela with her alchemy. Amelia with her blood magic.

Diva with her rank. Lira with her own unique brand of craft. And me? I organize caravans. I mark the weakest merchants to be knocked out first. I find the safest roads to take."

Allan stepped closer to Seris, and as he moved, the lamplight caught in the lines of weariness around her eyes.

"You’re not."

She looked up.

"You’re the one I trust to keep everything standing when I’m not here."

The tension in her shoulders eased a fraction.

"That almost sounded like praise."

"It was."

"You’re getting better at this."

"Don’t get used to it."

She stood, her eyes locked on his, for a long moment. Then, reaching up, she straightened his collar, brushing away dried blood from the fabric. Her fingers were against his collar for a moment, then she let go.

"Though you are getting better at this, you’re still terrible at taking care of yourself. Even in the dungeon, I get the impression you believe you will simply get back up if something were to kill you."

"I’ve noticed the habit."

"And you keep coming home covered in blood."

"I can’t stop, Seris. You know that."

"I do."

Her hand on his collar stayed there. He wrapped his fingers gently around her wrist. For a moment, he just held her there. The moonlit room was quiet. Something lightly shifted in her expression.

He leaned in.

She felt the nearness of him, his warmth, the smell of him, blood and night air. For a moment, she was going to close the distance between them.

Then Lira’s voice echoed in her mind, and she stepped back half a pace.

"Notice anything about these merchants? I’ve been tracking them near the Emberwind border," she said, her voice steady again.

Allan’s attention sharpened at once. "What about them?"

"Three independent merchants have all upped their purchases of salt, medicinal herbs, silver dust, iron containers, and purification reagents over the last two weeks."

"That’s the base for—"

"Poison. Or something like it. A lot of it. Enough to keep a small private operation going for months."

"Who’s buying?"

"Different companies. Different owners. Different towns. Deliberately scattered," she said, laying out a map of the city on his desk. She pointed to a warehouse three streets from the eastern wall, near the border of the Oakwood and Arclight territories and on the Arclight commercial road. "Someone is trying very hard not to be noticed."

It was possible that this was the same kind of operation that had poisoned Amelia’s brother, possibly even the work of the same hand.

"Trace every shipment."

She smiled a small, sharp smile. "You gave me the western network. I intend to use it."

This was why he invested in people. Not because the System had placed a value on their heads, but because when someone of that quality chose to stand with him, he found that they were capable of far more when working together than he could manage on his own.

"Follow it to the end," he said.

Seris nodded. Then, quieter, without title or formality:

"Allan."

"Yes?"

"You won’t leave me and Lira. Will you?"

"Never."