Strongest Incubus System

The return to the mansion was slow.

Not because there was no urgency. There was too much urgency. The problem was that Toma could barely stay awake, Elin trembled every time anyone mentioned a bell, Vara Leth was unconscious and bound, Maeve Korrin remained far too silent for someone captured in the middle of a ritual, and Damon needed to stop every few minutes so he would not fall.

Ester hated every stop.

Not out of impatience. Out of fear.

She did not say that, of course. Ester turned fear into orders, medicine, and medical threats. But Damon could already recognize the difference. When she was merely irritated, her sentences had poison. When she was afraid, they became short.

"Breathe."

He breathed.

"Slowly."

He obeyed.

"Do not pull through the root."

"I know."

"Then stop doing it."

"I am trying."

Ester held his wrist with two fingers, guiding the circulation as if she were holding a crack to keep it from opening. The needles she had placed earlier were still stuck in the pressure points, but two of them had bent. Damon did not ask whether that was bad. Judging by her face, it was.

Morgana walked a few steps ahead, with Toma now in a guard’s arms. She had tried to carry the boy as far as she could, but he needed someone with more physical strength for the descent down the trail. Even so, she stayed close to him and Elin. The red-haired girl held her brother’s hand and would not let go for anything.

Aria came behind with the maps, breathing badly and looking at the mine entrance every few steps, as if expecting it to stand up and follow the group.

"That was not in the reports," she murmured.

Elizabeth heard. "What?"

"The feeling. The maps talk about cold, heartbeat, crystals, cold fever. But they do not talk about will."

Damon looked at her.

Aria noticed and made a face. "Not will like a person. I know. But there was direction. As if the mine was... trying to continue."

"Root," Ester said. "Nera said that."

"Root grows."

"And searches for a path," Damon completed.

No one liked the sentence.

When they reached the horses, the sky was already darkening. The guards formed around the children and the prisoners. Ingrivid tied Vara to a horse without delicacy. Vara woke up in the middle of the process and spat blood onto the ground.

"You wasted time," she said.

Ingrivid pulled the rope, making her stumble. "And you lost teeth. Everyone has their problems."

Vara smiled, even with her wounded mouth. "The Heart heard the boy."

Morgana turned. "Which boy?"

Vara looked at Toma.

Damon felt Ester tighten her grip on his wrist.

"The Heart heard everyone," Vara said. "But some sounds are sweeter."

Morgana walked up to her and stopped one step away. "If you try to scare those children again, I will cut out your tongue before we reach the mansion."

Vara held her gaze for an instant, then looked away.

It was the first small victory of the night.

The road back was traveled in near-total silence. Only the horses’ hooves, the creak of the wheels from the improvised cart for the prisoners, and, from time to time, Damon’s heavy breathing broke the night. Elizabeth rode beside Morgana. Ingrivid stayed at the rear. Aria was in the middle, far too protected for someone complaining about being treated like fragile cargo.

Damon was in a saddle, but Ester held the reins of his horse. That was humiliating. It was also necessary.

"Do not comment," he said.

"I did not say anything," Ester replied.

"You are thinking."

"I am thinking of several ways to keep you alive. None of them involve preserving your pride."

"My pride is wounded."

"Good. Less work for me."

He almost smiled. Almost. The pain in his chest did not allow it.

The Heart’s beat was distant now, but it had not disappeared. It was worse like that. In the mine, at least, it made sense. Away from it, he could still feel a faint echo, as if his body had learned a frequency and refused to forget it.

When the gates of Arven appeared, night had fully fallen.

The mansion was awake.

Lit torches. Guards on the walls. Servants running carefully. There was no panic, but there was organized tension. Morgana dismounted before the horse had even stopped completely. Ingrivid handed Vara and Maeve over to the guards with instructions for separate cells, runic cuffs, and double surveillance. Elizabeth went straight to the administrative wing. Aria nearly ran to the archives, but Morgana called her name.

"First, the children."

Aria stopped. "Yes."

Lia was waiting in the inner wing with Mara. When she saw Elin and Toma, the girl got out of bed. The doctor tried to stop her, but she slipped under his arm and ran to the two of them. The three children looked at one another for a few seconds, as if recognizing something no adult would understand.

Then Lia hugged Elin.

Toma stood still, too tired, until Lia pulled him in too.

Mara covered her mouth with her hand.

Morgana stood in the doorway watching. She did not enter immediately. Maybe to avoid turning it into an official scene. Maybe because she was too tired to promise anything without knowing whether she could fulfill it.

Damon stopped beside her, leaning against the wall.

"You saved all three," he said.

Morgana did not look at him. "For now."

"For now counts."

"It counts for little."

"It counts more than nothing."

She stayed silent.

Ester appeared behind him. "Bed."

Damon closed his eyes. "Now?"

"Now."

"There are prisoners to interrogate."

"Elizabeth interrogates."

"There is a report."

"Aria writes."

"There is Morgana deciding important things."

"Morgana decides better without you fainting on the floor."

Morgana looked at him. "She is right."

"Betrayal has become official policy in this house."

"Yes."

Damon tried to move away from the wall on his own. His knee failed a little. Ester caught him before it was visible to the children. For that, at least, he thanked her with a look. She pretended not to see it.

In the room, Ester wasted no time. She ordered him to sit, pulled off the gloves, removed the broken needles, and examined his wrist. The skin around the points was bluish. Not like a normal vein. The blue of trapped ice.

"Bad?" Damon asked.

"Do you want the gentle answer?"

"No."

"Then yes."

"Great."

"It is not great."

"That was irony."

"Save energy."

She applied a bitter paste over the points and wrapped a dark bandage around his wrist. Then she placed her hand on his chest, right in the center, where the root seemed to pulse more deeply.

Damon went still.

Ester closed her eyes.

The examination lasted too long.

When she opened her eyes, she looked more tired than before.

"It is active."

"The root?"

"Yes. Not out of control, but awake. Before, it answered when provoked. Now it is... listening."

Damon remembered Nera’s sentence. "So am I."

"That is the problem."

"Ester."

"No."

"I did not even speak."

"You were going to ask if you can learn to listen without answering."

He went quiet.

She let out a humorless laugh. "I knew it."

"Can you teach me?"

"No."

"Because you do not know how or because you do not want to?"

"Because this is not a common technique. I can teach blocking, conduction, flow cutting, meridian isolation. But listening to a world root without answering it? That is something else."

Damon rested his elbows on his knees. "Nera survived open."

"And look at her state."

"I did not say I want to imitate her."

"Good."

He looked at his bandaged wrist. "But if I do not learn, every bell, every beat, every attempt from Valcair can pull me."

"Yes."

"Then we need someone who knows more."

Ester did not answer.

Damon looked at her.

"You are thinking of Xue Lian," she said.

He did not answer either.

Ester stood, went to the table, and began mixing another medicine. "Her memory nearly destroyed you once."

"She also gave me the root."

"That does not make it safe."

"None of this is safe."

"Useless sentence."

"True sentence."

Ester slammed the cup onto the table hard enough for a drop to splash out. "Truth is not permission for stupidity."

Damon stayed silent for a moment. "I know."

She looked at him.

This time, he was not arguing.

"I do not want to dive into sealed memory alone," Damon said. "Not today. Not tomorrow. But maybe there is something in her about roots, Hearts, ancient cold. She was a Heavenly Demon of Ice. If anyone knew how to listen to cold without being swallowed, maybe it was her."

Ester took a deep breath. "Maybe."

That was the most he would get.

Before she could force him to drink the medicine, someone knocked on the door. Ester opened it with a threatening expression. Aria was on the other side, holding a paper and looking guilty for existing.

"I know he should be resting."

"Then go away."

"But this is important."

"Everything is important."

Aria looked over her shoulder at Damon. "Maeve talked."

Ester went still.

Damon raised his head. "What did she say?"

Aria entered just enough not to seem like she was invading. "Elizabeth did not get much at first. Maeve kept repeating that the third ear did not need the three children, only three confirmations. Lia, Elin, and Toma were the best options, but not the only ones."

Ester closed the door. "Continue."

"Maeve said Seraphine is coming to Arven."

Damon went quiet.

Aria tightened her grip on the paper. "Not as an open invasion. As part of the Council’s delegation."

"Lord Joren Mael," Damon said.

"Yes. She will arrive with him, perhaps as an observer, perhaps as a patron interested in regional stability. Officially, Seraphine is coming to help mediate the debt crisis."

Ester let out a low curse.

Aria nodded. "That was what I thought, with less elegance."

Damon stood.

Ester placed a hand on his shoulder and pushed him back onto the bed.

"You are not going anywhere."

"I only stood up."

"You sat down again."

Aria continued quickly, before the two could argue. "There is more. Maeve said Seraphine does not need to descend to the chamber to try opening the third ear. If she has a bell, a cold conductor, and a marked child within a certain distance of the mine veins, she can provoke a partial response."

Damon looked at the window.

The mansion was far from the mines.

But not as far from the north as it seemed.

"What distance?" Ester asked.

"Maeve does not know. Or did not want to say. Elizabeth thinks she is hiding something."

"Of course she is."

Aria handed the paper to Ester. "Morgana is calling a meeting. She told me to say Damon only participates if you allow it."

Damon looked at Ester.

Ester looked at him.

"No," she said.

"This is about Seraphine arriving."

"You heard enough."

"I can stay seated."

"You almost fell in the corridor."

"Now I am in bed. Better strategy."

"No."

Aria raised a hand. "I can take a message."

Damon breathed, irritated, but did not explode. "Tell Morgana that Seraphine will try to turn the Council’s arrival into cover. She will want legal access to the mansion, the archives, or the children."

Aria wrote it down.

"Tell her to separate Lia, Elin, and Toma into different rooms, but with equal protection. Do not put them all together in one place."

Aria wrote faster.

"And the bells need to stay away from me and from them. Ground-stone box, no metal nearby."

"That is already being done."

"Tell Elizabeth to find out if Seraphine is traveling with musicians, priests, doctors, or anyone carrying silver objects."

Aria stopped. "Musicians?"

"A bell can be hidden as an instrument."

Aria pointed the quill at him. "That is good. Horrible, but good."

"And tell Morgana..." Damon stopped.

Ester watched, suspicious.

"Tell her I am going to rest."

Aria blinked. "Really?"

"Before Ester kills me and makes Valcair’s job easier."

Ester crossed her arms. "Sensible for the first time."

Aria smiled a little. "Should I say that too?"

"No."

She ran off.

Ester handed the medicine to Damon. "Drink."

He took the cup. "You are far too satisfied."

"I am less furious. Do not confuse it."

Damon drank. The taste was horrible, as always.

"Lie down," Ester said.

He lay down.

For a few minutes, the room was quiet. Outside, the mansion kept moving. Low voices, footsteps, doors opening and closing. A house preparing defense without declaring war.

Damon closed his eyes.

In the dark behind his eyelids, he heard it again.

Thum.

Distant.

Weaker than before.

But present.

The root in his chest tried to answer.

Damon held it.

Not with the lock. It was broken.

Not with force. Force called force.

He simply breathed and let the sound pass through him without grabbing it.

For an instant, it worked.

It was little.

One breath.

Maybe two.

But the beat passed, and the root did not follow.

Damon slowly opened his eyes.

Ester was looking at him.

"I heard it," she said.

"I did not answer."

She did not praise him.

She did not need to.

She sat in the chair beside the bed, exhausted, and picked up the book she had not been reading since earlier.

"Do it again," she said. "Without dying."

Damon closed his eyes.

This time, when the Heart beat far away, he listened.

And stayed still.