Chapter 43: Rivals

Chapter 43: Chapter 43: Rivals

By afternoon Allan was back at his desk. All his leftover work and all the correspondence sat in a stack, mostly unread: invoices, supply requests, two letters from the capital, and a note from the steward about grain stores.

He couldn’t help but sigh, but that was the job. He worked through the first few sheets without really seeing them. Numbers, signatures, requests for more iron fittings and another barrel of oil. Routine. Safe. All the work which was essential to run the state for the time being.

But no matter how much he worked, the memories were still there: the way Lira had looked at him in the corridor that morning when Amelia arrived.

He’d told her he would come find her again tonight, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to keep that promise, because he knew Amelia would not listen to him at all. She was a whole new... he didn’t want to say problem, but it was reaching near that statement.

He was still turning that promise over when the servant tried to announce something.

"My lord, a guest has asked for an audience?"

"Who is it now?"

"It’s the adventurer, Diva, my lord..." The servant got about half her name out before she was already past him. Metallic scent, faint but unmistakable. Her control running thinner than she wanted him to see.

"I have a mission, Allan. I can’t finish it alone."

There was no greeting, not even a wave of hand. She came right in and glared at him, like he owed her something.

"The Berserker state’s getting worse. I thought I could control it, but I can feel it sitting closer to the surface every second. I need you with me, just in case."

"Just in case, huh? You said you were done with me?"

"Shut up. You made me this way, and now you are going to..."

"Manage it?" Allan finished the line she was trying to say, buying himself a few extra seconds he didn’t really need. He already knew what his answer was going to be, and he resented it ever so briefly.

"I told everyone I’d sit and eat with them tonight."

"Then you’ll break that instead of getting me killed." Diva didn’t soften it. "I’m not leaving without you."

A small System flicker crossed his vision:

[Trust standing: Lira - projected decline if commitment unmet. May affect investment returns]

Looking at the system, he finally had a reason to not face the storm brewing in his house.

"How long?"

"Three days if the weather holds. Four if it doesn’t."

"And if the berserker state takes you halfway through?"

"You are strong enough, and put me down hard enough that I can’t come back."

He believed her. He looked below at the table, at all of his paperwork, like he didn’t want to leave it.

"Give me ten minutes." He finally said and stood up from his desk.

He didn’t go looking for Lira to explain in person, and he didn’t go towards the room Amelia had taken. He told himself there wasn’t time. He knew, riding out through the gate a short while later, that wasn’t entirely true.

Sorry girls, need some adventuring to do, he thought.

The road narrowed once they cleared the estate and hit the tree line. Diva didn’t slow down, and Allan matched her, watching the tension sit in her shoulders, the way her hands flexed on the reins at irregular intervals that had nothing to do with the terrain.

He could feel her breathing. His sixth sense acted in caution as her breathing stayed even, but the metallic edge in the air grew sharper every time the path forced them closer together.

Allan knew it. She was holding. Barely.

They stopped once, near a stream. She drank first, then stood with her back to him checking her gear: blade, spare knives, the short spear she favored when the state started pushing. Everything was in its place, everything was ready, but she still checked twice.

"How close is it?" Allan asked about her state, trying to break the silence.

"Close enough. Kael gave me some potions to control it." She said, showing three vials of blue liquid. "With this, I’ll hold it until the valley. After that, no promises though."

"Didn’t ask for any..."

"Haha, good."

"What’s the mission really? I thought it was some monster busting call."

"Something like that..."

They rode on. The light shifted. Shadows lengthened across the track. By the time the valley opened ahead of them, the grass lay in long dark bands and the far tree line looked like a wall.

"I told Kael about the evolved mimic. She said they would need more data on this to warn other adventurers."

"Oh, so she sent you? A single A-rank adventurer."

She looked at him. The scent sharpened for a second before it settled again. "That’s why I brought you."

They went in on foot as the last light drained out of the sky. From the shadows, certain individuals kept following them. Not one, not two, but hundreds.

On the balcony, Lira, Seris, and Amelia watched the road, hoping he would come back. But no. Only darkness followed.

Amelia spoke first, light, almost pleasant. "You were right. We do have competition. Who is this Diva?"

"A highly trained and capable adventurer. One of the few A-rankers."

"I see. She just took him away. Then you were right, she needs to be handled."

"Handled, my lady," Seris added, and looked at Amelia directly. "Say what you’re actually here to say, instead of circling it."

Amelia’s smile didn’t move. "I don’t mind sharing what’s already been shared with you both. I do mind discovering how much there is to share after I’ve already unpacked."

"That’s why I sent the letter, my lady. With you, he can only be yours," Lira said, an edge in it that surprised even her. She left it there.

"Indeed," she replied, but something colder passed under it. "I don’t lose gracefully. Everyone in the city knows it."

Nobody answered that. The three of them stood a while longer, not touching. The road below was empty.

Lira’s hands stayed flat on the stone railing, a smile appearing at the edge of her lips. Meanwhile, Seris kept her eyes on Lira, not able to understand what she was trying to achieve here. Or she did, but didn’t want to interrupt.

In time, Lira went downstairs first, citing the steward and the grain note that still needed answering. Seris waited until Amelia drifted back inside, then followed more slowly. She did not go to the steward. She went to the east wing to confirm that Amelia’s rooms had been settled the way the housekeeper had been instructed that morning.

They hadn’t been.

The guest room assigned to her sat untouched. Trunks still latched, curtains still drawn, the bed untouched. Amelia’s maid had moved everything instead into the small adjoining room off the east hall, the one two doors down from Allan’s own chambers.

Closer to him than either Seris’s room or Lira’s. The trunks were open. Seris stood in the doorway a long moment, and after she confirmed that nobody was coming, she went inside and opened the trunk. Inside were many dresses, beautiful, absolutely gorgeous gowns.

She took one, a silver one. It was unnecessarily revealing, with a long cut at the sides to the thighs.

She wants to conquer him in bed?

Part of her was relieved. Allan wasn’t here. She didn’t know why. After a while, Seris closed the door carefully and left the trunks where they were. She found Amelia in the smaller sitting room off the main hall, reading correspondence as if the afternoon had been entirely ordinary.

"Your things were moved," Seris said.

Amelia looked up. "They were. The other room faces the yard. This one is quieter."

"It also sits two doors from his chambers."

"Does it?" Amelia set the letter down. "I hadn’t counted."

Seris held her gaze.

A small pause. Then Amelia’s smile returned, thinner this time. "You and Lira both seem very invested in the arrangement of furniture. I find that interesting. Most houses of this size don’t treat guest rooms like contested territory."

"This isn’t most houses."

"No," Amelia agreed. "It isn’t. That’s becoming clearer by the hour."

Seris left it there. Pushing further would only confirm what Amelia already suspected: that the ground under all of them was shifting, and no one had a clear map of the new lines.

So she went to find Lira instead.

"What is she thinking, sending her of all people the letter?" Seris muttered.

Lira was in the steward’s office, the grain note open on the desk, her pen still in her hand though she hadn’t written anything for some time. She looked up when Seris entered.

"She’s moved her rooms," Seris said. "Closer to his. And I checked her trunk."

"And?"

"And? She is readying herself, bringing those slutty dresses, ready to seduce him and possibly take him from us for good. Is that what you want?"

Lira turned. "Seris, I know you were the one who pulled the trigger for her feelings towards Allan. I am just seeing it through, hopefully closing what you started in shambles."

As she said those words, her eyes turned darker and darker. Another book appeared in her hand.

"Don’t worry. Allan will only be ours, no one else."