Chapter 739 (1/2)

“Why do you seem so infuriated?” Lucretia asked, somewhat amused by the raisin-like form of her mistress’ current face.

“Bah, and how can you be so chipper about this? Are you seriously suggesting that we agree?” Alta hissed as she stared at the letter in her shaking hands. “They don’t fear me enough to hide. It’s humiliating.”

Lucretia kept the smile on her face even as the flowers of karma in Alta’s chest slowly shifted. From their thick stalks, blackthorns had begun to emerge from the fragile grey exteriors. And these thorns were deadly sharp.

The process had started the day that Randidly had descended and sparred briefly with Alta. That had lit a fire in her heart that made her wild and ferocious in a way that reminded Lucretia of Alta’s younger years. All of the jovial appreciate of life had disappeared, like the curling smoke from an extinguished candle. Sometimes, Lucretia wondered how Alta wasn’t eviscerated by the vicious trap that lay coiled in her chest.

How was it that the brief meeting with Randidly could set her off like this…? Lucretia wondered.

The Council of Fates had continued to be relatively quiet in recent months, even though Lucretia’s information network had caught the scent of their slowly waking. What she hadn’t expected at all was that the Council would send a letter.

A letter addressed to Alta directly, offering induction into the Council. The letter was very explicit that the Council at large was aware that they had captured and killed major agents of the Council, and that the Council of Fates was willing to extend the hand of reconciliation if Alta and Lucretia agreed to assist the Council with a certain task.

The excavation of the final door, resting within the Land of Ghosts.

“So we ignore it and continue with the refinement of your resonator,” Lucretia said patiently. “This changes nothing.”

“This changes everything, Creta.” Alta said. Her smile twitched as she stared at the letter as if she too was struggling to keep the amiable expression on her face. “Of course we will do. This is the only chance I’ll get to find out what they care about. And once I have that… It will be time to burn this whole farce to the ground, won’t it?”

*****

Randidly returned back to the Soulskill with a pleased expression on his face. He felt somewhat guilty that he wasn’t truly training right now, but he did feel a strange sense of peace suffuse him while he was participating in the simple work of clearing rocks from the tunnels.

Besides, in the outside world, his plants were growing. With gentle hands, he traced the half meter height of his babies. It was hard to concentrate on the excitement of overcoming the limits of his prison in such a material way, so Randidly didn’t mind giving himself a break inside the Soulskill. Even though remaining here would stretch the amount of time he experienced before the growth was complete, it was still satisfying in a separate way.

As Randidly walked out of the darkness of a tunnel and into the light of the fire, Kurag looked up sharply. “You’ve been gone almost an hour. Surely your bowels aren’t so weak as to flinch from a few days of travel rations?”

“Is there any need to play civil? We do not like each other. I wished to spend time alone.” Randidly said lightly. Of course, for him, only a few minutes seemed to pass. But he had flitted out and back into his Soulskill as quickly as possible. But to Kurag, likely it had been quite a bit more.

Kurag’s frown deepened, but perhaps it was just a trick of the shadow from the fire on his face. “Inform me going forward. You may be capable, but you report to me. And since you so detest our interactions… shall we start to work?”

Randidly nodded and the two of them expertly put out the fire and packed up camp. For all that Randidly was annoyed at how clingy Kurag had become, he couldn’t deny that the man was extremely capable. Obviously, he had spent more than a little time in the military.

From there, the two descended into the dark and desolate tunnels of a completely unexplored waystation. Randidly and Kurag were the only two individuals for a full day’s walk.

Unexpectedly, word had gotten out that Allica’s group had accomplished so much in the first waystation. Taking this as permission, thousands of refugees had set forth from the hills to the cleared space. From what Randidly could understand, the Sandstorm season should start in about two weeks, and it had been known to arrive early. And the structures built in the hills for the refugees were not designed to withstand the fury of the Sandstorm Season.

So while Allica tore her hair out trying to settle six thousand refugees, she had sent out two forward groups to check two of the nearby waystations. One was lead by Kejt and the other by Kurag. And Kurag had been so taken with Randidly’s capabilities that he announced that only he and Randidly would be necessary for their team.

Although Randidly wasn’t positive, he had a sinking suspicion that Kurag’s reasons for bringing him out here alone were not innocuous. But at the same time… was there any real chance of Randidly getting harmed in his own Soulskill…?

“We will meet back here in six hours,” Kurag announced after they clambered down the strange, near 45-degree angle tunnel to reach the main part of this way station. Unlike the previous one, this was a series of connected caves, so the piles of rubble were larger and more imposing. It seemed that several of the caves collapsed due to another cave system beneath this place. “If you run into any trouble… well, may the Progenitor be with you.”