Arc 7: Chapter 25: Boundary
Vicar deposited me on one of Castle Tol’s tower balconies. I landed heavily, and had to lean against the railing for a minute to catch my breath and steady my reeling vision. I couldn’t get my heart under control.
I thought perhaps I’d taken a head wound during my repeated skirmishes over the last hour, or lost too much blood, but I quickly realized what this sensation was. Bitter frustration, impotent rage. Tol spread out before me like a sea of fire and shadow, framed in drifts of tumbling snow and ash. Darting silver and gold lights, warrior spirits from the Fences, battled ogres in the sky and on the ground. Cyril’s banners flew over the eastern gate, but there was still combat in the streets. I could not see what was happening in the square anymore.
I hadn’t been able to do anything. I couldn’t save anyone.
Vicar, back in his monk form, moved to the balcony door and checked inside. Seemingly satisfied there was no one within, he broke the lock with a murmur of aura and let it swing open. “We have little time,” he said. “Now that the Choir is here, the Gatebreaker will not waste much more time strutting. We are fortunate he decided to indulge in his taste for melodrama, rather than focus on his goal.”
“His goal…” I turned from the sight of the burning town. “You said he’s here for the same reason we are.”
Vicar glanced back at me and nodded. “Somehow, he’s learned that my order lost the Zoscian. Ager Roth is a god on the battlefield, almost unstoppable, but Orkael has his true name. With the artifact and proper preparation, we can bind him.”
I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to think through the sensation of rushing water in my head and the distant noise of the battle. “But… how did he know to come here? We thought we were trying to pick up a cold trail.”
“The Dark Lord of Elfgrave is not omniscient. We have no idea what kind of information network he has built or how much he knows…” Vicar considered the question, his burn-scarred hand lingering on the door latch. “The mirror. You recall how it was acting strangely?”
I understood what he was thinking. “You think the abgrüdai in the mirror called him?”
Vicar nodded. “I think he was already in Kingsmeet, preparing this war. The elven raiders we’ve been hearing about, those were corrupted Seydii the whole time. When we took the mirror out of that room… yes! The sigils we found there were auratic dampeners. Once freed of them, the mirror was able to contact its own kind.”
At which point Ager Roth had come out of hiding early, believing there was a threat he needed to respond to.
Which meant all of this was my fault. And Lias’s.