Vivian pressed her fingertips to the sides of her temples. For once, she wasn’t sitting in her throne room. There were no infuriatingly determined hordes of clergyn trying to get her attention or latching onto her every word as if they were the gospel itself.
She sat surrounded by nothing but the silence of her personal quarters.
It wasn’t often she got a chance to recline back, hunched over like a dried shrimp, with her legs kicked up onto her desk and the front legs of her chair raised into the air as she kept it in a precarious balance.
The sight probably would have given a few of the mbers of the Church of Repose a small heart attack. They couldn’t seem to comprehend that there was still great difference between soone that was almost a god and soone who was.
She only allowed herself to retreat here when she needed it most. The more she used it, the more likely that soone would end up discovering its location and she’d have a wall of bald clergyn waiting to et her the instant her door open.
It wasn’t easy to rest when you knew there was a wall of well-intentioned but utterly infuriating eggs with their faces pressed up against your walls.
Still, the privacy was usually enough to clear her head. A few hours here had historically been enough to let her re-focus her mind and keep her reigns over the Coral Empire.
But today was being a little bit more problematic than she’d expected.
There were only so many things she could deal with at one ti. That went doubly so when the biggest tournant of multiple centuries was being held within her empire this ti around. Dealing with the heads of the other factions was already more than enough to absorb every scrap of free ti she had, and that wasn’t even counting all the extra shit that had been happening recently.
So of it had been expected. Everyone knew that the Empire selected for the tournant would inevitably have a great deal of shit to deal with. The rewards reaped from hosting the tournant always made it worth the trouble.
At least, they should have.
Vivian wasn’t so certain anymore. The reports she’d been getting recently were… ridiculous. That was to put it in a nice way. If she was to believe her people, then the Hands of just about every other faction had sohow decided that now was the best ti to stir trouble.
Oddly enough… Vivian didn’t think that to be the case. She’d had extensive etings with the other faction heads leading up to the tournant. She was fairly certain that none of them would have been actively trying to sabotage her. If anything, they were invested in her success.
Events like this were incredibly rare. For all the butted heads and disagreents they all had, this tournant was one of the few tis where they got to see the extent of the other factions’ power without an all-out war. That was rare information. Information that wasn’t worth this petty interference.
And that ant a great deal of these problems were caused by soone else.
Unfortunately, the weak truce between the factions did not extend nearly far enough to ask for help. The mont any of them realized that Vivian’s grip over the situation was slipping, the temptation to strike would be far too great for them to resist.
She had to deal with this herself.
But she didn’t have the faintest idea of what was going on in the first place. There was simply no cohesion.
Death Mages were strolling around her empire, breaking her treaty with Sievan with their re presence, while rumors ran rampant and entire cities were under attack by forces that sohow managed to vanish without a trace.
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Several old legends had been dug up and subsequently killed, lost, or otherwise disposed of. Guild leaders were going missing. Powerful magics that hadn’t been seen in hundreds of years had suddenly started making their return… and half of them were running around with such reckless abandon that she found it unlikely that it was soone on their way toward the tournant.
Sothing else was going on.
Vivan suppressed a groan.
She let her head roll back to stare up at the ceiling — and found a shadow staring back at her.
Her eyes narrowed.
“You should not be here, puppet.”
The shadow slipped down the side of the wall to pool at Vivian’s feet. She let her chair rock back to its proper place, where it landed with a thud. The shadow bubbled up before her as it lded together into the bubbly form of a human.
Darkness twisted itself into a cloak and skin blood beneath it. Within seconds, a perfectly normal, albeit rather suspicious, human knelt on one knee before her, his head bowed in reverence.
“My apologies, Great Prophet,” the man said. “I did not an to bother you during your ti of rest. But the Mistress does not wish to break the long-standing treaty between your parties. She thinks it prudent that I report now, rather than later. But I can return at another ti if that would be more suitable for you.”
Vivian’s lips thinned. “Speak.”
“Soone in Aqua Terra is hunting us,” the man replied simply. He didn’t sound very bothered about his words. If anything, it seed like he was simply describing an unwanted haircut he’d received. “Twelve are already dead, and I suspect more to co.”
What fool would ever bother doing sothing like that? It’s completely pointless.
“Hunting?” Vivian asked, blinking in confusion. “Why?”
“We don’t know. But they’ve challenged the Mistress directly. We haven’t discovered the culprit yet, nor do we know what it is they seek. But they are powerful if they’ve had the gall to stride right up to our door with such confidence. Has anyone entered the city that we should be aware of in recent hours?”
Vivian shook her head. “No. I haven’t detected the presence of anyone powerful enough to be worth ntioning. There hasn’t been a single newcor beyond Rank 6 today. There were a few Rank 7s yesterday, but all are vouched for. I’ve been keeping tabs on them.”
“Then it is soone who slipped under your notice.”
Anger swirled through Vivian. “Or it is soone who is weaker than you think. It is not my responsibility to filter through all the dregs of society that make their way into Aqua Terra. That is what you are for. Do not pin your failure on . I can assure you that, if a Rank 7 is truly your problem, then they are not within this city. There isn’t a single Rank 7 within Aqua Terra’s walls that I am not aware of.”
The man was silent for a mont. Then he inclined his head.
“I apologize for my insolence. I simply had to be certain.”
“Don’t try it again. I am not your Mistress, and I do not enjoy being pushed. You will find entirely unreceptive to gas. And are your n not ant to be killed in the first place? I am not entirely sure how any of them being killed is an affront.”
“So of the deaths were natural. We have no issue with those. There would be no point to go fishing if the targets weren’t powerful enough to deal with the bait. But the others… over 6 badges were left behind,” the man replied. “Soone is sending a ssage. They’re killing our agents for sport.”
Well that’s a damned stupid thing to do… but that old bat is rarely wrong. I’ve never seen her overreact before. Chances are she’s right. But what moron would ever try to bother her in such a manner? To even challenge that woman ans you must know who you’re up against… and that would an they should also know that the best result you can get against her is a draw.
“I see. I’ll keep an extra eye out,” Vivian said with a shake of her head. “But that’s all I can offer. I have bigger problems than soone prodding your Mistress. Keeping the weaker mages in line is your house’s problem. Deal with it. And, if soone is powerful enough to warrant my attention, seek out at that ti.”
The man inclined his head. Then he collapsed into a puddle of shadow, fading away as if he had never been there.
Vivian blew out a slow sigh. She slumped back in her chair and pinched the bridge of her nose.
She hadn’t actually told the whole truth. Vivian knew the location of every single Rank 7 and above mage within the Coral Empire… except one.
There was one being that she’d lost track of.
The one that had been ssing with the Beyond. She hadn’t felt their presence in days. But, if anything, that just made her uneasier. Problems didn’t just evaporate. When one couldn’t tell what direction the storm was moving… it tended to be headed right toward them.
An uneasy air settled around the Prophet’s shoulders.
That person couldn’t have sothing to do with this, right?
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