The Tale of Daemonica

Traitor

   It would seem that Daemonica had plenty of time to think more deeply about what she had learned from Vassiles during her several weeks lasting journey back to Cedris. But the opposite was true. Before they parted, Daemonica told the other members of the High Council of her intention to stay in Andala and use the trip to Cedris to develop old contacts.

From Redviolet she had learned many useful things on the roads on which she had often and gladly accompanied her, and soon Daemonica had the same trust Redviolet had earned from the people. So she tried to make it clear in the right places that Cedris had the King's favor and take advantage of the unique chance to recruit the new warriors they would need so much in the fall. Innkeepers in towns and on the road, bulletin boards on muddy marketplaces, satisfied merchants, and ordinary people were a more effective way to get reinforcements than the unreliable promises of mercenary groups, which were even more expensive. This was mostly the job of members of the broader Council, but Daemonica wanted to see personally that Redviolet's many years of work were not wasted. As fruitful as her efforts were, she had to admit to herself that they were largely delaying the inevitable. That is, her return to Cedris and the ensuing unpleasant confrontation with reality. Eventually, however, she was prompted to return by a report in which she was invited to attend a regular meeting of the High Council, so she was now approaching the wooden gate of the fortress on Rascal's back.

On the way to the stables, with a faint smile, she answered the greetings of the city's garrison along with the ordinary people. Daemonica had long since enjoyed their respect and affection, not least because of her role in the battle with Vaah. Vassiles's words about the traitor inside the ancient Cedris therefore weighed on her all the more. The task she had taken on seemed too hard. She wondered why she was not allowed to simply come home. Home. Cedris was home, and though the house she used to share with Redviolet breathed emptiness on her as soon as she opened the door, it was still home. She felt that if she tried to unravel the tangle of intrigue and betrayal, this unique experience for her to have a real home was in danger. With a little luck, she knew, her rank would help to defend Cedris and convince the Council of the need for measures to keep it safe, even if someone tried to stop her. But she would have done so knowing that if the same thing was happening in other parts of Raia, it was absolutely inevitable that the already weakened border fortification system would collapse altogether. She had to decide whether to remain blind to that fact or to embark on a quest for which she could pay a high price. But if she succeeded, the Cedris case could alert other forts, giving them a chance to survive.

That's why, as she climbed to the top floor of Keep the next day, she was racked with righteous indignation. She wondered how she would ask the High Council members to explain what she had learned during the day. But the moment she stepped onto the roof of Keep, the first person her gaze met was that of Mehtar. She realized that she had been delaying her return for weeks being uncertain to meet him, too. She missed him. She missed their conversations, as well as his knowledge and the stories she loved to listen to. To her astonishment, she also lacked his somewhat condescending and detached nature. Even so, her heart warned her against him.

'Welcome home, Dae.' But just those few words and the hint of a smile on his face were, for reasons beyond comprehension, enough to make all her anger disappear. She thoughtlessly answered the greetings of the other members of the High Council, while her gaze kept returning to Mehtar, who did not take his eyes off her with an unreadable expression on his face. The tension between her and the wizard was so obvious that it did not go unnoticed.

'Shall we begin?' Thaedis cleared his throat after a moment. Mehtar finally dismissed her from his stare and nodded. Daemonica sobered up and forced herself to focus on the discussion, which nonetheless revolved around minor issues that she felt would suffice to address within the broader Council. After a while, she couldn't take it anymore.

'Why are the warriors who are coming driven from our gates? I spent weeks on the road so we'd be ready for the fall, and now I'm learning that for nothing?'

'We don’t have the resources to hire new reinforcements.' Mehtar answered matter-of-factly.

'Didn't the King promise to help us?' Daemonica wondered.

'The King promises, but that's about all he does.' Mehtar replied.

'I don't believe it!' She exclaimed in exasperation. Daemonica was outraged by his words because, as the daughter of a general, she did not think that soldiers could be so devoted to a commander who could not keep his word. Mehtar gave her an angry look that had nothing to do with the way he had looked at her a moment before.

'You don't think Arnvin's the 'Willie' promises had any other purpose than to impress another naive girl.' Mehtar said mockingly. Did she wind up a trace of jealousy in his words?

'That's enough.' Thaedis stepped in again. 'The King has sent troops beyond Fire Pass, no money, Dae. We can't afford to hire any more recruits. It's been a lousy year, and we'll be lucky to make it to spring.' The Council’s vote to accept more warriors went against Daemonica, and she had no choice but to deal with it.

'You're no fun these days, Dae.' Vidarfry took a mighty sip from his tankard. That of Daemonica had been half full for some time. He and Axtios had been trying in vain to distract her for whole evening. Her gaze met the silent Necro for the umpteenth time during the evening. Lately, Daemonica had been wondering more and more about his behavior and why he had joined Roses.

'The poet probably doesn't write.' Axtios spoke softly to Vidarfry, covering his mouth with his hand, but at the same time so that she could hear him. Daemonica glared at him, her face covered in blush. Vidarfry chuckled.

'And the wizard doesn't talk to her.' He put in a laugh. Daemonica sprang to her feet, but Vidarfry, seated beside her as usual, caught her and, with a careless movement of his strong arm, forced her back to the bench.

'What's bothering you?' Axtios asked seriously. There was a twinkle in Necro's eyes under his hood.

'Autumn.' She snapped irritably.

'But the King's soldiers patrol the entire area between us, Morghat and Xianis.' Axtios objected.

'Yes. But just wait till it gets cold. The soldiers would not be allowed inside our walls; they would have to return to the fortresses in Raia. When spring comes and the starving raiders attack our stores, we won't have the strength to contain them completely, because I don't believe the royal soldiers will return.'

'Um...' Vidarfry frowned.

'Arnvin, however, will look like someone who keeps his promises.' Daemonica continued calmly. 'Mehtar was right, he can't be trusted. But all the more reason for us to do everything we can to be ready.' Daemonica spoke harshly into the ensuing silence and rose from the table on which she had laid several coins.

'Good night.'

She was awakened from her restless sleep by the open maw of a snake with emerald eyes in close proximity to her face. Her empty bedroom was too tight. She needed some air. Daemonica walked thoughtfully through the gate in the inner circle of the fortifications, which always remained open, though carefully guarded. She went to the library, of course. She realized, however, that for the first time she had not done so in her desire for knowledge, but that her thoughts were preoccupied with a certain wizard, at that time the leader of the Black Rose Society. He had avoided her since their encounter on the roof of Keep. To her own displeasure, she had to admit that she missed his strange nature, as well as their sometimes rather heated conversations, more than ever. She ran her fingers absently over the backs of the books, their titles merging before her eyes into a blur of nonsense. She pulled out a book, then tucked it back in. She did so several times, her thoughts torn between the desire for his presence and the fear of how she felt. Daemonica had not forgotten the lake at Middar's temple, or why she had promised Vassiles what she had promised. When she returned home, however, she did nothing but try to convince herself that she was wrong or that Vassiles was wrong. She felt lonely, she missed Red, and she didn't like how difficult her situation was. Why is he avoiding her? Another book, which she absently returned to the shelf, almost slipped out. But before that happened, a wide-sleeved hand caught it.

'Careful, Dae.' A velvet voice spoke in close proximity behind her. His fingers met hers as he helped her put the book back on the shelf.

'Whatever the book did to you, it's been here for centuries. I'm glad it survived you, too. Next time, please be more careful.' Daemonica let out an inaudible sigh as soon as she heard the familiar haughty tone of Mehtar's words close to her ear. Despite this, she freed her hand from his all-too-pleasant grip and turned to face him.

'Are you here to lecture me or just can't sleep?' They stood close together. His exotic scent hung all around her, and their eyes drank into each other. All her efforts to resist his spell were futile at the moment, even if she tried.

'I could teach you things you never dreamed of.' He smiled, as amused as ever, when he managed to unsettle her. 'But I think we should talk first. Are you up for a short walk?'

Together they came out of Keep. The night lightened, sinking into the deep silence of the last watch before dawn. Shortly thereafter they passed the cave where her trial had taken place, and now they were climbing the unobtrusive steps beyond the cave, the existence of which she had no idea yet. They walked in silence, concentrating on the path. At the top of the stairs they stopped. They stood on a rocky plateau, formed, no doubt, by human hands long ago, in the center of which crumbled a vast stone signal fireplace, overgrown with green grass. Perhaps it had once been part of the common defense of borders from ancient times, of which she had read more than once. Beneath them lay the still-sleeping Cedris, but in some of the windows the lights were already on.

'Why isn't it used anymore?' Daemonica headed toward the fireplace in amazement.

'No one would answer.' The wizard replied simply and started slowly toward her.

'We can't possibly know that.' She looked at him with the defiance on her face. 'We could...'

'You think too much, Dae.' She was interrupted by Mehtar, who joined her, gently but emphatically. 'Too fast have you ascended to where others have gone in times as long. You're looking for answers to things we've been trying to solve for decades. The situation of Cedris and the entire frontier is complex, locked into stereotypes. It is not in our power to overcome them. Not in traditional ways that have failed so many times in the past.' Daemonica disagreed with him and was surprised by his resignation. He wasn't such kind of a man. He was right the opposite. It was his inner strength and determination what drew her to him so inevitably.

'Let me tell you something about Xix now.' Mehtar resumed smoothly, and his compelling voice made her listen, as it had done many times before.

'We have been living locked up in our cities without the possibility of escape for millennia completely dependent on trade with our neighbors. Yes, we are immensely rich, our cities harbor great treasures and secrets, but beyond their walls there is only sand and death.' His words reminded her all too well of her own experience with the Xix Wasteland. A chill ran down her back as her fingers touched the old fire stones unconsciously. The mortar that held them together crumbled under her fingers.

'Why is it that we have nothing but worthless trinkets and sand, while beyond the walls of your cities the lush pastures grow green?' Mehtar spoke bitterly, and Daemonica knew that for once he was being completely honest.

'Many people from Xix live in Raia. You're proof of that.' She replied. Mehtar said nothing. He did so because he could see that she realized immediately after saying those words how stupid they had been. Many Xix wizards lived in Raia. Merchants from Xix were coming in the ports of Raia, and even among the king's diplomats and advisors were scholars from the Wasteland. But that was all. There were too many differences between them, and any change in this ancient order would break the fragile peace that existed between them, on which the survival of both nations depended.

'Come. There's not much time left.' Mehtar held out his hand to her. Their fingers intertwined, and she followed him up the flimsy bridge over a wide crack in the rock to the east until they were at the very edge of the overhang. Just in time to see the sun rising on the horizon in blood-red. In the distance, Silver River twisted like the ribbon in a girl's hair, and Fire Pass looked like the eye of a dragon. Far beyond the mountains and barren pastures, it seemed to her that she saw the Great Barrier, which, according to legend, rose to the heavens, and whose shadow seemed to move slowly toward them as the sun rose above the horizon. The desire to see a little further made her step forward as Mehtar's hand held her back. Otherwise she could not have resisted the ancient longing of the people of Xix and Raia to break down the boundaries of the closed world and go further even at the cost of their own lives. Mehtar's body clung to her in their mutual sympathy with the fates of the two nations confined to a small area with no hope of escape. The sun was just rising somewhere in the east, but neither of them could ever see what the east looked like. The same sun set in the west in the evening, but the west was closed to them as well as the east. Darkness engulfed the south, and the north was a wilderness inhabited by barbarians and monsters that no one in Raia dared mention even in legends. For this brief moment, their hearts resonated. In desire, in temptation to seek a way to break the ancient barriers. It didn't matter where anyone came from, because there was no escape from their cage for any of them. Daemonica felt Mehtar's arms close around her waist, while her hands had long since rested on them. She was leaning against his chest with the weight of her body. The smell of the early summer morning mingled with the heavy exotic scent of Mehtar, whose head rested on her shoulder. Together they watched the rays of the morning sun bouncing off the ever-white peaks of the Fire Pass mountains, sliding down the green hills beyond, and the steppes far to the east sinking into the eternal gloom of the Great Barrier. The sunlight before her eyes illuminated the bridge over the Silver River and the small hill beyond the pass - the memory of their already so distant victory.

'From the first moment I saw you from the walls, riding off to the Fire Pass, I wanted to see you again. I wanted to be there, but...' Mehtar said softly into her hair.

'But you couldn't, because you didn't expect anyone to come back.' Daemonica slowly broke free of his embrace. 'Why did you expose yourself to me?'

'You’d figure it out yourself, I know you. But I was hoping that before that happened, I could at least make you understand.' Even though she could see that he had really hoped so, her next words were chilling.

'There is nothing to understand about your betrayal. What do you expect to achieve?'

'What we expect to achieve. We believe there's a way to unlock the west for everyone, Dae.' He really meant it.

'But that’s insane! It's impossible!' She cried in shock. 'None of our nations has the wisdom of the civilization that locked us in to do so. We can't even understand their magic, let alone master it! And whenever anyone tried, the result was only bloodshed, which caused us to sink even deeper into our ignorance.'

'It’s strange to hear the word impossible come out of your mouth.' Mehtar replied calmly, without attempting to disguise his disappointment.

'You sacrificed the entire Morghat's fortress, and only few of us who trusted you would have returned to Cedris had it not been for chance. Were you thinking that for idle words about the hopes of dubious legends, I would betray everything I hold dear? Your ideas are misguided.'

'You lie. I can feel your doubts. But what you think doesn't matter. You won't change anything. We got too far already.' Mehtar said, staring into her eyes.

'I'll try anyway.' Daemonica returned his gaze.

'Then do what you must. I'll do the same.' Mehtar said icily. 'But don't forget that you, too, bear the mark of change, and that one day you will have to choose.'

'I've already made my choice.'

When Mehtar left her, she still doubted and still longed for it never to happen. But it was too late.