Chapter 378: At All Costs
In High Lady Erna’s luxurious private box, Nyrielle leaned back on her gilded throne, turning to look behind her at the other guests and waving one of them forward.
"Ignatious," Nyrielle said, her voice crisp and free from worry despite the inferno engulfing the arena below. "These men, how do they compare to members of your Inquisition? Do their flames approach the ones you wielded in your war against the Vale?"
"Their flames are strange, Mistress Nyrielle," the red and golden-robed vampire said as he moved to the private box’s rail to get a better look. Behind him, Ashlynn glanced briefly at Nyrielle, raising an eyebrow in silent question. Though she had been briefly introduced to the former Inquisitor, she knew very little about the man and she was curious why Nyrielle had asked for his opinion now.
"Strange how," Nyrielle prompted, hoping to draw more out of him while she had the opportunity. She had her own opinion after fighting several Inquisitors and Templars over the years, but people in the private box like Erna’s brother, General Aleser, had no such experience. "Strange in a way that makes them more dangerous than yours?"
"They’re impure," Ignatious said, frowning at the dark, smoldering embers where the ground had split and burned or the cloud of dark smoke that poured from one of the willow trees still burned. "Their flames are mixed and muddied. Whether that makes them weaker or not, I cannot say until I’ve stood against them."
"They’re flames of the earth," Ashlynn added, though her eyes never left the arena as Heila revealed herself to counterattack. "They form more complete devastation. The Inquisition is famed for Holy Fire that will burn anything to ash. These flames won’t just burn you. The sulfer will choke you even if you can survive the heat burning your flesh and they’ve turned the smoke, soot, and ash into weapons of their own."
"Then you think that human Inquisitors are just as deadly as these men," General Aleser asked, rising to the bait that Nyrielle had laid before him. "But in different ways?"
"I’m not entirely sure," Ashlynn said, glancing at the former Inquisitor. "I’ve never fought an Inquisitor and the only demonstrations I’ve seen of their flames were from a time that I was too young to understand what I was seeing," she said, carefully concealing the fact that even a year ago, she wouldn’t have understood the magic Inquisitors used.
"But I feel like the danger these men represent is their ability to share strength with each other," Ashlynn added. Her emerald eyes glowed faintly as she watched Heila’s icy retaliation tear through the bonds that connected each trio to each other.