38: The Princeling
Liam
"What in the name of the great divines is going on here?" Conrad asked, his hand immediately going to the sword at his side.
He didn't draw that sword, but it still wasn't great that he was reaching for the thing. Liam had never been a big fan of Conrad, the little princeling, but he always thought it was particularly ridiculous that he always walked around with that sword. As though there was anything on Baron Rivan's estate that could possibly be a danger to him that required a sword.
Running into a boar or something like that out in the Felwood definitely didn't require a sword. And if he ran into the scourgelings, then he was probably going to be in far more trouble than a sword could take care of. At least not a felblade.
Liam sighed despite how utterly ridiculous and dangerous the situation was.
"Conrad, would you get your hand off your sword?"
"I will not," he said, his voice a low and threatening growl. He looked down to Liam's side, and his eyes went wide rather than narrowing.
"What are you doing carrying a sword, commoner?" he said. "You don't have an Ascension, and you aren't of the nobility."
Liam looked down at the sword, then over to Albert, then to Ana, and finally back to Conrad.
"Well, shit," he said. "I'm pretty sure this was my father's sword."
"I'm pretty sure I could kill you where you stand for even daring to put on a sword, commoner," he said. Then he looked behind to Andrea. His eyes went from wide to narrowing again.
"You know, you're really going to pull a muscle around your eyes if you keep doing that," Liam said.
Conrad blinked. “Keep doing what?"
"Narrowing and widening your eyes like that," Liam said with a shrug. "It looks ridiculous."
"I won't have you talking to me with such insolence," he said. "I've put up with it so far, but I will put up with it no longer. You are a commoner, and I am the son of a viscount."
"And I am a demoness of the..."
Ana cut off as Liam reached out and put a hand over her mouth. Now it was her turn for her eyes to narrow. Then she bit his hand, her teeth going sharp in that odd way they seemed to be able to do when she was in a foul mood.
But those teeth didn't dig into his hand despite how sharp and dangerous they looked. Again, Liam remembered stories he'd heard from people returning from the war. Stories of demons in humanoid shape ripping through common soldiers because they had a higher Ascension and they were able to use their teeth and claws to destroy men like so much tissue paper.
But he figured he was at least Third Ascension in the infernal sense. He had the feeling his Arcane Ascension was a little less than the infernal in him. But either way, it was more than enough for the mana that pumped through the channels in his body to reinforce his skin to the point it didn't harm him when she bit down.
"Would you please stop that?" he said.
She looked up at him. She said something, but it was difficult to hear because her mouth was currently full of his hand.
"I said stop it," he said.
"What in the hells is going on here?" Conrad said, his eyes darting all around.
"Conrad, you need to leave," Andrea said with a sigh. "Just go back to the manor house and forget you ever saw anything here."
"I will not," he said, stepping forward into the cottage and pulling his sword.
The cottage was only the one room, and it was a comfortable one room. Which was a polite way of saying it was a rather small space. For all that it was a space Liam had all to himself, and so he rather liked it.
But Conrad stepping forward and pulling his sword presented a danger. Ana's glowing eyes darted to that sword, and he could sense her claws coming out. She tried to move forward, and again he reached out and grabbed her wrist.
He held onto her with a strength that surprised even him. He could feel the strength she was using try and break free. He knew on an instinctive level that it was far more strength than he ever would have been able to bring to bear at any other point in his life before Isai. And yet he was able to hold her as though it was nothing.
"Stop," he said. And he wasn't sure if he was saying it to her or to Conrad. He just knew this entire situation was starting to frustrate him.
"You will release that demoness to me," Conrad said, raising his sword. "Or I will do what we're supposed to do to a demon who dares come into human lands. The Inquisition will be very interested in her."
"I won't let you do that," Liam said.
He was surprised as the words came out of his mouth. They came unbidden. One moment he was staring at Ana and thinking about how frustrating she was being, and the next he'd turned to Conrad and he knew with a certainty that went down to the very core of his being, though he figured it was the very cores of his being at this point, that he wouldn’t allow anything to happen to her.
And he would kill anyone who tried to harm her.
"Excuse me, commoner,” Conrad said, glaring at him. "You don't tell me what to do. Now release that demoness to me, or I will do what needs to be done."
"I'm not going to do that,” Liam said.
Releasing her would be as good as a death sentence. Not from Conrad. The princeling was woefully outmatched and too stupid to realize it. But if the Inquisition was here…
He couldn’t leave her to that fate. He’d heard the stories of what they did. Some of those stories were worse than the tales of what the demons did in the war.
"You will follow orders from your betters," Conrad said.
"You aren't my better," Liam said with a shrug. "If anything, I'd say you’re black to the very depths of your soul, but I honestly don't think you're evil. You just grew up in a life where you were handed everything so you assume that's naturally the way the world works, but that isn't how the world is going to work in this situation. You're not going to take her."
"Very well," Conrad said, a sneer coming to his face that was almost a grin. Like he was almost pleased that Liam was forcing him to do this. Like he almost enjoyed having the excuse.
It helped that his next move was clumsy. Maybe he had that sword he liked to strut around with and play it up to all the commoners and the servants that he was able to wear a sword, but it was also clear he wasn't actually used to using it.
Liam pushed Ana back. He meant to push her back ever so slightly, but he still wasn't used to his strength. So instead, she went flying back and she tumbled into Andrea. Both of them fell back onto Liam's bed that was still sitting neatly made where he'd left it the morning he left for the Felwood. Liam reached down and pulled his felblade out. He brought it around to catch the princeling’s fumbling swipe with his own sword, but again, he misjudged his strength as he pulled it out and brought it up.
The practical upshot being that he brought his sword up and around with every intention of stopping Conrad's sword before it could slam into him, but instead he hit with so much force that the thing shattered as he brought it down.
Conrad continued the sweep even though the sword was broken. Everything had happened in an instant. Liam had moved far faster than he ever would have thought possible. Far faster than he'd ever moved while he was taking on scourgelings.
Conrad let out a hiss as he dropped the sword hilt and grabbed his wrist. He let out a cry that didn't sound nearly as intimidating as he was no doubt trying to sound as he looked down at his wrist.
Meanwhile, Andrea and Ana also let out surprised gasps as they fell down into the bed. Liam turned and saw them lying there in a tangle, which was the sort of sight that might have been interesting under other circumstances, but definitely not under these circumstances.
"Well, that was certainly an interesting show," Albert said from next to him.
Liam turned to look at the cat.
"Do you have a better suggestion?" he asked.
"You have the ability to use magic," Albert said with a sniff. "You should solve your problems with magic if you have the ability to use magic."
"Oh, yes, I should solve my problems with magic," Liam said with a roll of his eyes. "Just like the last time I tried to solve my magic and you..."
"What have you done?" Conrad said, staring down at his wrist and then up to Liam. As Liam stared at that wrist, he had to admit there seemed to be something wrong with it. He was no healer, but he was pretty sure wrists weren’t supposed to hang at that odd angle.
“Anyway,” he said, turning back to the cat and ignoring Conrad and whatever was going on with his wrist. “The last time I used magic it ended up working out so well for me. Don't you remember?"
"As much as I hate to admit it, you might have a point," Albert said, turning his attention over to Conrad, who was glaring at them.
"Why are you ignoring me?" Conrad screamed, and it was a scream that seemed to be full of all of the pain and indignity he was suffering in that moment.
Liam tried to think of it from his point of view. He didn't like thinking about anything from Conrad's point of view, but at least he could think about something from Conrad's point of view. He'd read enough about the nobility and how things worked from Baron Riven’s library, after all.
Even if his in-person interactions with the nobility had mostly only been Baron Riven and Conrad. The latter he could’ve done without.
"I'm ignoring you because whatever's going on with you isn't important right now," Liam said.
"Why are you talking to that cat? How is that cat able to talk?"
“He’s my familiar," Liam said.
"You don't have a familiar. You have to reach an Ascension to have a familiar," Conrad said with a sneer.
Liam stared at him. This entire time, there'd been an odd feeling coming from Conrad. Something he could almost sense as he stared at the man. Though he looked more like a boy than a man now, for all that he was a few years older than both Liam and Andrea.
It was a pulsing similar to the pulsing he'd felt from Ana when they were out in the Scar fighting off demons. It was a pulsing he almost thought he could quantify, a pulsing that ...
"I can feel his Ascension," Liam said.
"Yes, you probably can," Albert said. "It's difficult for you to figure out just how far above you someone else is other than generalities, and it gets more difficult the farther up in their Ascensions they get, but it should be fairly simple for you to determine what somebody's Ascension is if they're below you. At least when you’ve met enough people who have their Ascension and start to get a feel for it.”
"I'm not below anybody," Conrad said, spittle flying from his lips as he screamed it out. "You will not ignore me and talk to me like that. I am a noble. I have my First Ascension."
"Oh," Liam said, blinking as he felt that paltry amount of mana that came from the noble. "I suppose I didn't realize that was only his First Ascension because there was so little of it."
"You will not insult me," the princeling shouted one more time, and then he threw himself across the room towards Liam with a howl of rage and murder in his eyes.