Chapter 55.5: An Unusual Tapestry

Indolyn’s heels rang against the empty stone corridors as she made her way toward the Lord’s manor. She had been given a monumentally important task today, one Magnavex would probably have preferred entrusting to almost anyone else. Lucarion was finally going to see something of Eclipseran society beyond the library, council chambers, and whatever handful of rooms Magnavex had managed to keep him confined to. Indolyn and Splendith were to introduce him to it without allowing anyone to discover who he actually was.

It was an opportunity Indolyn had no intention of wasting.

She slowed beside an oval mirror and adjusted her collar. She had dressed carefully today, enough to impress without looking as though she had dressed to impress. Lucarion had noticed her before. Not as much as she would have liked, but his eyes had wandered enough to tell her the strategy had potential. She did not need to completely seduce him. It was too early for that. She simply needed him comfortable enough with her that, when important matters arose, her voice was one he listened for. Dormathis might ultimately be the one whose interests she represented, but it would be Indolyn whispering into Lucarion’s ear.

Splendith complicated things. Magnavex made certain the girl was present whenever Indolyn spent any meaningful time around Lucarion. Splendith was seeking his favor too, although her approach was embarrassing. She hovered around him, fussed over him, praised everything he did, and treated him with the overbearing enthusiasm of a doting sister.

Foolish girl.

Lucarion might be a child, but boys still wanted to be treated like men.

Indolyn made one final adjustment to her neckline, exposing a little more of her collar, and continued.

The corridor widened as she approached the manor entrance. She knocked calmly and waited. A moment later the door opened, revealing Magnavex’s imp.

Borrowing him again, is he?

Indolyn stepped inside without comment and allowed the imp to lead her deeper into the manor. She had seen him plenty of times before, usually hovering near Magnavex with all the unobtrusiveness expected of a properly trained servant, but something about him was off.

His clothes.

He still wore the same pinstriped style, but the suit was new and actually fit him.

Indolyn’s eyes narrowed.

Magnavex had bought the imp new clothing?

That was unusual. Magnavex maintained her Wroughtborn properly, of course. She was far too meticulous to tolerate a servant who reflected poorly on her. Rewards were another matter. Magnavex did not lavish things on Wroughtborn for merely doing what they had been summoned to do.

They reached the stairs. The stone had been recently cleaned, polished to a shine. Indolyn followed him upward, watching more closely now.

wings that had once hung statuesque behind him now shifted as he climbed. One pulled closer to his back as they rounded the landing.

Indolyn studied him from behind. A new suit. More mana. Enough that his manifestation was visibly improving.

What had this imp possibly done to earn that from Magnavex?

The question followed her to the Lord’s chamber.

Indolyn straightened her back as Sebastian opened the door for her. The room beyond was empty.

She waited for Sebastian to offer her a seat or explain where their lord had gone. Instead, the imp crossed the chamber toward one of the walls.

Something large hung there.

Indolyn had assumed it was a tapestry when she entered, but looking at it properly, she had no idea what it was supposed to depict. A thick brown column climbed from the bottom of the cloth and split into crooked lines. Uneven patches of green surrounded the top. More brown lines twisted across the bottom, into another uneven patch of green. The paint was rough, the shapes uneven, and several of the colors had bled together.

Indolyn stared at it.

Whatever it was, it was terrible.

Whatever wroughtborn painted this did a terrible job.

Sebastian approached the strange tapestry with considerably more care than Indolyn thought it deserved. He lifted one side, revealing a simple door behind it.

“This way, if you please.”

Indolyn glanced once more at the ugly brown-and-green thing before stepping toward him.

Then she stopped.

Metal struck metal somewhere beyond the door.

The sound carried through the stone, followed almost immediately by another.

Indolyn looked at Sebastian.

The imp did not appear concerned.

Another impact came from the other side.

Indolyn followed him more cautiously now.

The passage was only a few steps long before it opened into a circular chamber. Indolyn recognized its purpose immediately. A meditation room. Bare stone, open floor, and enough space for concentric summoning and mana exercises.

A concentric circle surrounded most of the chamber.

Indolyn slowed.

The inner circle was enormous, taking up almost all the usable floor. Far larger than anyone needed for ordinary meditation.

The stone inside it was scratched.

Not badly, but repeatedly. Fresh marks crossed older ones near the center. A few deeper gouges cut through them.

Then Indolyn saw what was happening now.

Three Lesser Barghests sat along the edge of the circle, spaced apart and watching the center. Two Lesser Dullahans occupied the middle, Their dark armor nearly disappeared against the dim stone as they moved, blades flashing whenever they caught the light. She could not immediately identify what the Dullahans were attacking. The creature was small. Imp size, perhaps, but without a tail or wings. Armor and clothing covered most of it. If not for the shape, Indolyn might have taken it for some strange armored imp.

Indolyn frowned.

Was Lucarion having Wroughtborn fight for sport?

Boys enjoyed that sort of thing. Competitions, staged fights, deciding which summon could beat another. She supposed she should not have been surprised.

Except Lucarion had never struck her as that kind of boy.

Soft was the word that came most readily to mind. The first time she met him, he had been frightened of practically everything around him. He had even peed his pants just from seeing a Behemoth. He can barely be in the same room as some of the wroughtborn serving him. Indolyn had difficulty imagining that boy sitting somewhere comfortably while wroughtborn beat one another apart for his entertainment.

She scanned the room for him.

A figure sat cross-legged near the edge of the circle.

There.

Indolyn approached, already preparing to ask what exactly Lucarion thought he was doing, only to realize the seated figure was not Lucarion.

It was Splendith.

She sat on the stone with her legs folded beneath her, eyes fixed on the fight. Her hands rested tightly against her knees. Her mouth hung slightly open.

Strangest of all, no words were coming out.

That was considerably more alarming than the fighting.

“Where is our lord?”

Indolyn did not bother with a greeting.

Splendith did not look at her. She raised one hand and pointed toward the center of the chamber.

Indolyn followed her finger.

One of the Dullahans struck the strange little creature hard enough to knock it from its feet.

Indolyn tensed.

The creature hit the stone, rolled away, and got back up before either Dullahan reached it. It turned, sword raised between itself and the nearest opponent.

Indolyn stared.

The creature looked toward her.

Recognition crossed its face.

Then Lucarion grinned and waved.

“Hey! I’m almost done. Sorry for the wait!” he yelled breathless.

Indolyn’s mind stopped.

Lucarion turned away from her as one of the Dullahans swung.

He ducked.

The blade passed over his head.

“What?”

The word barely left her mouth.

The second Dullahan came from the other side. Lucarion scrambled away from it, retreating quickly enough that Indolyn thought his legs were going to tangle beneath him. The first followed. Both were nearly on top of him now.

“Splendith, stop your summons before he gets hurt!”

“I can’t.”

Indolyn tore her eyes from Lucarion.

“What do you mean, you can’t?”

Indolyn’s gaze dropped to the circle.

Splendith was sitting directly beside its inner boundary.

For one frantic moment Indolyn thought to shove her across it. If Splendith had lost control, breaking her concentration might collapse the summons before one of the Dullahans buried a sword in their lord.

Indolyn shifted forward.

Then stopped.

Splendith was not inside the inner circle.

She was outside it.

Indolyn looked down again. The glowing boundary passed just in front of Splendith’s knees.

No.

Her eyes swept across the chamber.

Sebastian stood behind them.

Three Lesser Barghests waited along the perimeter.

Two Lesser Dullahans were fighting.

There was nobody else.

Indolyn slowly looked back toward the center.

Lucarion.

Her mouth fell open.

He was the summoner.

The boy was maintaining five Wroughtborn while two of them actively tried to beat him into the floor.

One of the Dullahans struck again.

Lucarion jumped backward. The blade missed him by an uncomfortably small distance.

Indolyn made an involuntary sound, she glanced down, to find her own hands gripping her clothes.

Lucarion moved again, luckily it seemed like the dullahans were always in a line, with one being stuck behind the other.

His shield was lying several paces away.

One blade came toward him and he threw himself aside. The second Dullahan advanced before he had completely recovered. Lucarion stumbled backward, caught himself, and moved again.

Indolyn’s fingers tightened around her sleeves.

“What is he doing?”

Splendith did not answer.

Lucarion ducked another swing and backed away. His breathing was visible now. Sweat had darkened his hair against his forehead, and yet he had a bright smile.

He looked nothing like the boy who had hidden behind people the first time she met him.

The Dullahans pressed closer.

Lucarion suddenly rushed forward.

For one horrifying instant Indolyn thought he had finally lost whatever sense he possessed.

The nearer Dullahan raised its shield.

Lucarion ran straight at it.

He planted one foot against the shield.

Then the other.

Indolyn’s stomach dropped.

Lucarion climbed the front of it before the Dullahan seemed to understand what he was doing, pushed himself over its shoulder, and came down hard against the second creature behind it.

Metal crashed against stone.

Both disappeared briefly from Indolyn’s view.

Lucarion emerged first.

The second Dullahan staggered.

Lucarion drove his sword into a gap in its armor.

The Dullahan froze.

A heartbeat later its body collapsed into ash and smoke.

Indolyn stared.

Lucarion straightened slowly.

His shoulders rose and fell with each breath. Sweat ran along the side of his face. His sword remained in his hand.

Behind him, the marks covering the floor suddenly looked different.

This was not something he had done once.

Lucarion had been doing this here.

Again and again.

He looked toward the three Barghests waiting along the edge of the circle.

None moved.

Lucarion clapped his hands once.

“That’s enough for now.”

The surviving Dullahan immediately lowered its weapon.