11.4 Another One to Kill

General Summary

Day 106

Prior to storming the tower, I take Bran, Hella, and Kadia into the Dreaming with me to scout ahead. Knotrael, Camellia, and Alder stay behind in the waking world.   The tower is located in a heavily destroyed part of the city. Originally, it would have been ten storeys high and now only six remain. Clear defensive modifications have been made to it, and it’s going to be easy for them to defend from assault. It feels familiar, but this was never Zadiyah’s specialty.   Inside, the tower is empty save for the highest room. Zadiyah herself is there, in an almost meditative stance, surrounded by 10 figures carved in flame. They seem almost casual, though one has a crossbow trained on her.   When she sees me, she bows sincerely, and invites me to join her for tea,   “I have told them that when two people who have known one another as long as we have must cross swords, there must be a time for peace beforehand. To make sure nothing is left unsaid,”   One of the flaming creatures lays a hand on her shoulder and I can see her try to disguise the pain. As a group, they seem vaguely hostile towards her. This is what I had hoped. A best-case scenario, given everything that has occurred.   We speak, cautiously, of her situation. She tells me “I am and will always be a sword for our people,” and one of the creatures strikes her, causing her to wince. She tells me that they are on edge because I have killed Rickoff, and thus one of them. This is even better than I’d hoped, and we instantly move to strike another of them down. They swarm her, and we only manage to kill the one before they drag her out of the Dreaming.   We flee as well, and start moving towards the tower in the waking world. I explain to Knotrael, Alder, and Camellia on the way. Are all these creatures connected to the human mystic who laid the curse? Are we killing human mystics every time we recover an elf?   The small siege of the tower is simple. I use the pearl to bring down the door, and we fight our way through two heavily armoured figures. Camellia slowly kills one with vines sprouting out of his body. “His corpse will feed something of value,” she says as Bran drags it outside into the sunlight.   We take a single prisoner - a young man who demands that we engage with him as honourable people and not slaughter an unarmed man. Against my better judgement, we knock him unconscious to deal with later.   In the highest room of the tower, we find Zadiyah. She is sleeping deeply, a bottle of strong liquor beside her, along with a letter.   “My lady, it takes too much drink to quiet the voices. I have not broken my oaths”   With what seems to have become my go-to method of reaching people who seem unreachable, I forge a blood bond with her. And for the first time, the pain is too much for me to bear, and I slip from consciousness.

Day 107

I wake in an unfamiliar bed with Camellia and Knotrael guarding me. Apparently I screamed for several minutes before going unconscious, and we are now in the city dungeons with Shelor’s blessing. My head is pounding and I feel sluggish and weak - the blood bond has lapsed.   But back to business. The human captive is still unconscious - magically so. I can feel both elemental fire and the magic of a mystic inside him; I had not expected to find this in humans, who seem to have only one sort of magic at most.   Zadiyah is awake, and she kneels when I enter. Smoke curls from her shoulder.   “It’s much harder when I’m awake. I am fighting six of them,”   I hold her and feel the magic working within her - it feels like when we pull a flame creature out of one of the cursed elves. As I realize this, one leaps out of her and attacks me. It takes us by surprise, but we still manage to kill it. Bran defuses the situation with Shelor’s guards, who come running at the sound of combat.   The fight leaves Zadiyah in pain on the floor, “It took so much to deceive them…” “Give me another one to kill,” “Give me an order I can’t refuse,”   So she tells us that Nirai is one of the creatures. She is on her way to her next target, a moneylender named Ambrose. She intends to make his money show up in the trail of murders. The human man we’ve captured is another of the mystics who bound her, and Kristoss, the man who was scouring the countryside with Raelli, is another. Two more serve at the side of the Beacon.   She rambles a bit, begging to be allowed to die. I don’t know how to comfort her, but Bran steps forward with his eyes aglow,   “Your fate belongs in our house. You will serve as long as I will. This fate has been stolen from you; we will get it back for you. This, I promise,”   This, at least, is a simple set of directives. Bran leads us out of the dungeons, following a thread that only he can see. Above ground there is a fire burning somewhere in the artists’ district and I wonder if Nirai has murdered Norrick now that he isn’t useful...but that is not a mystery for right now. Bran takes us to an opulent house and easily bribes his way inside with a flash of his high master’s cord and a few coins. Then, Alder takes over, returning to us with a human man who I assume must be Ambrose.   The man is in a blood-spattered dressing gown, and he babbles a bit about Nirai and her assassinations before asking us why we got involved. Again, Bran waves the question away with an air of charm, and we disappear as quickly as we arrived.   As we hurry back to the dungeons, I make a mental note to be better at delegating. This was a two man job. Not everything requires a Dread Lady.   The remaining fire creatures are dispatched easily, from Alder’s blade in Annek’s neck to the three we battle in the depths of the archives, strengthened by rest and the magic there.   And we are left with just Zadiyah, and none of the flames.