128 - The Problem With Pyronis

Arielle met Vittoria at the Khor City Inn. Vittoria was disguised as a young woman with short dark hair, brown eyes, and nondescript features, except for a small, wistful smile as she watched a singer intently on a stage made out of a pile of crates.

The woman was tall, with a long dark braid rolling down her back, and eyes that were squeezed closed as she belted out a ballad, her fingers strumming the lute she had balanced on her knee, with one foot braced on the last rung of the stool.

There were only a few other people in the inn, and most of them were having broken conversations, dividing their attention between each other and the singer. Only Vittoria paid such close attention that she didn't even notice Arielle's arrival, a sack slung over her shoulder, her chest of clothes floating in the air behind her.

Vittoria really only looked at Arielle once she was right in front of her. Then she blinked as though surprised she was there.

“Arielle,” she said. “Sit.”

Arielle obeyed, but she didn’t know why they were here. Usually they met at a spot outside the inn, and teleported immediately. But Vittoria had used the portal bird to tell Ari that she should meet her here instead.

“Why are we here?” Ari asked.

“No particular reason. Mostly because I like the food,” Vittoria said, gesturing to the covered plate that was on the other side of the table. “And the entertainment.”

“Yes, but aren’t there more important things to do?” Like going to see the dragon.

“Not till tomorrow,” she said. “I’ll explain later. Eat for now.’

Arielle uncovered it. It was a bowl of beef soup, like the kind she would sometimes have at Vittoria's home. She reluctantly tried a spoonful of it, and she made a face. “Inara’s is better.”

“Yeah, well…” She wasn’t watching Arielle anymore, her eyes travelling back to the singer who had begun a new ballad.

“It’s very loud in here,” Arielle said.

“Not too loud.” Vittoria took another bite of food and then asked, “Do you have it?”

Ari nodded. Professor Woden had given her the dragon draft before she left, and he'd told her with a heavy sigh, “This is the best I can do. I have tested a variation of this on a Phoenix, and it did work, but with a dragon...it won’t cause harm at the very least."

Arielle took it out of the sack: five test tubes on a rack.

“Is that all of it?” Vittoria wondered, her lip curled.

Arielle nodded. The dosage was much smaller than a creature that big should need, but since it was just supposed to affect the organs on the junctures of the spirit path, Woden thought it was good enough.

Vittoria eyed it apprehensively, but said nothing disparaging. “Let’s finish our meal, and then we can go.”

Arielle didn’t eat much, but Vittoria ate and watched the singer for the next few minutes. When the singer was done, Vittoria clapped loudly and gave a gold coin to the server to give to her.

The singer smiled at Vittoria before she walked off stage.

“Do you know each other?” Ari asked Vittoria.

“No," Vittoria responded, sighing wistfully. "She just looks like someone I know, who would probably kill me if she knew I said that."

Ari cocked her head, but Vittoria didn’t elaborate. With a snap of a finger, she took them home.

“I spoke to a couple of people on the council, and they agreed to urge the other members to allow an emergency evacuation tomorrow before I break the ritual circle,” she said. “I want it to be unannounced beforehand, because I want to catch the people behind this off-guard. See how they react.”

“Okay.” Arielle still had her disguise up when she entered the home, although it used up more of her essence than she would like. It might be relatively pointless since Inara probably knew it was a disguise, but she wanted to at least continue to conceal her true appearance, if only from the demons that they were going to meet in Vittoria's basement.

They walked through the door and saw Inara playing with Sir Spendulon. The dragon was rolling on his back with his legs stretching and wiggling in the air, as Inara made cooing sounds and rubbed his belly.

At their entrance, the dragon froze. His head snapped to the side, and he sniffed the air intensely in Arielle's direction. Then he began making chuffing noises, struggling to roll to his feet and wobbling over to greet her.

When he reached, Arielle patted him on the head. “Hello, Inara. Hello, Sir Spendulon.”

"Hi,” Inara responded shyly as the dragon bumped into Ari’s abdomen and started trying to burrow under her. When she erected a wall of air between them, he complained loudly.

“He looks healthy,” Ari said.

“That’s because he had a lizard buffet this morning. He was sick most of last night,” Vittoria responded. "You can play with your son later, Arielle. Let's go."

She started to go into the basement, and Arielle frowned.

"He's not my son," she said as she followed.

They walked down the twisted vine staircase into the echoey dungeon hallway, moving past the first demon's cage.

Arielle paused.

The Overlord was conscious for the first time since she'd seen him here.

He had been looking down, slow breaths passing through his lips, but at Arielle's pause, he looked up slowly and met her gaze.

Then he smiled.

Arielle felt a jolt of anger. That smile reminded her of everything that demon had put Elric through. It reminded her of Elric bleeding, drooling, gasping from the pain.

It reminded her that Elric was still in demon territory, hunting them down.

"Arielle," Vittoria called her attention. "Come."

Arielle stared at the demon for a second more and then began to close the gap between her and Vittoria.

She knew she would return to him. She was going to have to dedicate all her time to soul sessions for Lyra, but so far all her sessions were performed while the creature was unconscious.

She wondered if it would be better to try it while it was awake, although Vittoria thought that would be too dangerous for Ari at this stage.

As they ventured deeper into the dungeon, Vittoria finally began to talk. “I've managed to narrow down what I believe is happening with the ritual."

“What do you mean?”

She paused, turned to Arielle, and said, “The Kingdom of Pyronis is really a collection of semi-independent city-states that were conquered by Algernon the Conqueror, the first Emperor of Pyronis. He was pretty expansionist in his time and was obsessed with the idea of conquering the world, a power-hungry lunatic through and through. Worse is that he was smart about it. He managed to get most of the continent under his direct or indirect control before he was defeated and ousted. That was when his son came to power. King Giorgio Gregor, the recently deceased father of the young Calor Princess.” She said the name without inflection, although there was a grimace that suggested she had certain feelings about the person she just mentioned. “King Gregor inherited a mess, and he had a much softer touch than his father, caught between the whims of the other heads of state. Most of the problems in the area stem from that and the fact that there was a lot of ambiguity on ownership of land and border disputes. It’s too long and complicated to really get into right now, but one of the primary disputes is the Horca mines, which are one of the major sources of gold, diamonds, and calorites, the material from which we obtain most of the Calor in the atmosphere.” She held up four fingers of her left hand. “To make it easier, there are four important factions to pay attention to. The Camhanach family, which you mentioned your friend belongs to, are loyalists. They’re a heavily militaristic faction and are one of the major reasons why the Empire was able to expand as it did. They’re responsible for resolving most of the disputes, and they’re the primary protective force for the region when it comes to rifts and such. They're interested in the mines because it's technically on one of their military bases, offers them advanced surveillance, and historically the mines have been one of the sources of wealth for the monarchy, before the previous king's death, when it was reportedly sold to the Salvos."

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"Who are they?"

"They're a powerful family native to East Pyronis. While they have no problem with the Monarchy, they have quite a bit of influence and attain power and independence by building their wealth and gradually buying land, and also buying off a few of the ministers close to the crown. They also secretly control a criminal syndicate known as the Blue Dragon sect.”

Arielle frowned. Blue Dragon sect. She’d heard that before, while trading elven gems in the Khor black market. The man in charge of the trade, right after she’d stopped him from stealing from her, had accused her of being sent by the Blue Dragon sect.

She was tempted to mention it now, but then Vittoria might ask her how she had gotten elven gems in the first place, which would lead to a longer story. She decided she would say it if it became relevant.

Vittoria continued talking, “They’re one of the largest criminal syndicates, dealing mostly in foreign illegal gem trade and arms. They want the mines for obvious reasons: access to pure Calor to make batteries, control of mining rights, and perhaps for other things too. Before King Gregor died, he made a controversial decision to loan ownership of the mines to the Salvos, to settle a debt and strengthen his alliance with them. At least that's what it said in his will."

"But they’re criminals," Ari blurted out. Sure, she had worked with illegal gem traders in the past, but it was all right for someone like her to make a deal with them. Not so much a king.

“Yes, but they have a front as legitimate businessmen. They’re allowed to operate because they control a vast and extremely complex region, and it's easier to keep them in power to subdue the other malicious forces in the area and ease trade. They're by far the lesser of the evils. Now they still have ownership of the mines, on paper, but it's currently being disputed by the other three factions, for their own reasons, and the fact that the King supposedly gave it away the day before he died makes this whole thing very murky."

She let one finger down, leaving two up to symbolize that she was moving to the third faction.

“There are also the Borbons, who historically controlled the central part of the region. They are a scattered force of previously unconnected tribes that all fought each other for various reasons, but they've been uniting in the more recent years. Though they're not necessarily powerful or wealthy, they're pretty mercantile and run the adventurers' guild in the area. This gives them a lot of connections, and they also hold a vast information network. They don't have any claims to the mines, and they wouldn't even be in this conversation, except for the fact that Lord Watersky, who is the son of the owner of the Adventurer's Guild, was acting really nervous when I spoke to the council about my findings. That made me suspicious, and he's the one I have a door on right now. He's how I've been tracking my information."

She put down one finger.

"Then there's the Southern Duchy of Lethamons, which is the primary opposing force against the monarchy. They were the last nation to be conquered by the Emperor, and always maintained some kind of partial independence. They signed a peace treaty with King Gregor in return for greater sovereignty, but that turned out to be a mistake because they attempted to wage a war against him the next year and broke the treaty by doing so. After their defeat and subsequent punishment, the Lethamons offered King Gregor another treaty, giving up some sovereignty and lands in the process. The King accepted, but now and then, the Lethamons like to throw their weight around and show off their might, mostly by engaging with the Camhanachs."

"Ah. That must be why the two were always at war, according to Lacey."

"Yes. The mines are simply one in the long list of disputes the two have had over the years, one that was supposed to be solved with a wedding that ultimately culminated in a messy and bloody divorce. Anyway, they also have pretty fierce fighters and powerful mages on their side. They’re secretly allied with the Southern Rebels, who may or may not have planted people close to the king as well. Though King Gregor was on relatively good terms with the Duke Lethamon, his son, who is set to take over after his death, is significantly more anti-monarchy and maintains that Pyronis is an occupation that should not exist. He also appears to believe his father is a puppet King and that all the mines belong to them, as they were found in their former territory. If you ask me who I think is behind the ritual, they would have been my first guess. The Blue Dragon sect would have been the second. I'm just not sure yet how the Adventurer's Guild is tangled in all of this.”

"Maybe they're all working together," Ari suggested.

"Maybe," she said. "But their goals hardly align. Over the last few weeks, the Guild has sent mercenaries and adventurers to a list of places, retrieving pieces of an old totem. They also talk often of someone called Nio, but it's unclear if they're a demon, human, or some other species. Whatever this thing they're putting together is, it's very valuable, and it can be used to control the giant. But they're not the ones running the show. There's someone else, someone linking them with the demons, who has all the information that I need. That’s who I have to find."

"What about the free mini-orb trail? Did you find out anything about it or where it leads?"

"Nothing for now," she said. "It’s also unclear why they’re helping the demons raise the giant, except perhaps to prove their power and to have a stronger bargaining chip. But it still seems so excessive, and I feel there's more to it. Or maybe that scheme is simply for the demons alone, and they’re being tricked. Ironically, the information guild talks very little of the ritual, which makes me think they don’t know exactly how it works, only what it results in.”

"Did you figure out whose blood was used in the ritual?"

"No, but my guess is a child of a union between a distant cousin of the King and Diego Lethamon, who is also a fairly distant bastard-born cousin. Perhaps combined, their blood might be pure enough. Who knows? Either way, one or all of these people of interest have been consorting with demons, and I'm going to find out who it is."

She began walking again, and Arielle followed her.

They finally entered the cell of the other demon, the imp hybrid, who was awake and staring at her with enough hatred to scorch the sun.

"Hello, my friend," Vittoria greeted, her demeanor friendly. "Are you ready for another session?

"Go to hell.”

“I won’t,” she said cheerily. “But you will soon enough.”

She walked closer, summoning a stool to sit down. "Since I no longer need your emotions to be heightened for this, you don't have to worry about me irritating you. I'm just going to ask you a few questions and feel their resonance in your soul."

"I will not answer a single thing."

"You won't have to," she said, and then closed her eyes. Arielle activated her aura-reading spell and noted the external glow from Vittoria's soul. She wished she could see exactly how the magic was working, what it was doing in her, but all she saw was the corresponding glow from the demon.

"Alright," she said. "Now, let’s begin. Diego Lethamon."

The name didn't cause his glow to increase or decrease, and his expression didn't change, but Vittoria smiled. "I see. Leonidas Lethamon.”

It was still the same, very little reaction. Vittoria remained in good spirits.

“Good. Now, the effervescent jade."

That caused his eyes to flare and his aura to spike, and Vittoria hummed to herself in triumph, reading whatever it was she wanted to read.

But as Vittoria worked, Ari saw something else. A trail of blood from his wrist, which had been scraped raw, dropped to the floor. The chains that held him had magic-cancelling properties, but from the drop of blood, a silver demon orb rose.

Then another. Then another.

At first, Arielle thought it was a side effect of something that Vittoria was doing, but she noticed that one of the demonic orbs was moving, enticing Calor and Massa from the reservoir lodged at Vittoria’s waist, moving extremely slowly but surely creating a shape.

Vittoria’s eyes popped open suddenly, and the demon jerked as she stared straight at him. “You wouldn’t happen to be casting a spell, would you?”

His eyes widened. His casting faltered as Vittoria wrapped a hand around the offending wrists, tight enough that he whimpered.

“Just because I’m focused on your soul doesn’t mean I lose my other senses. I can tell you hurt yourself on purpose and can feel your magic in this space, however subtle it is. Most of all, I can feel you trying very hard not to get caught." She smirked. "Though, you weren't the one casting it, were you? You were more of a vessel, through which the demonic blood oath inscribed inside you was acting, forming a spell. Right?”

The demon pressed his lips stubbornly, so Vittoria turned and eyed Arielle. “Do you know what it is?”

Ari nodded. She drew the spell form in the air with light, and marked out the different orbs.

Vittoria stared at it.

“Ah, how clever,” she said. “The demons were using you to attempt to hurt me. Who is it? Who is behind all this?’"

The spell form was still moving slightly, even though he wasn’t directly controlling it, but before Arielle could warn her, Vittoria used a pulse of energy to scatter his concentration and cause the spell to break.

He slumped over, unconscious, and Vittoria winced. "Shoot. I used too much."'

"Yes," Arielle said.

Vittoria stared at the spell form Arielle had drawn for a long time in concentration.

"What do we do?" Arielle asked. "Do we wait for him to wake up?"

"No," she said, looking distracted. "We should go to the dragon now."

"But I thought you said you wanted to wait till tomorrow."

"Yes, but the spell form might mean that they're going to try and kill the dragon tonight. If not, they would not have risked it.”

Arielle frowned. “I don’t understand.”

“It's a single-use type spell, and if it had worked, it would have killed the host of the oath, meaning the demon. Me, not so much. The second the dungeon recognized the spell, it would have eliminated it, so at most it would have just incapacitated me for some time. They would only use it as a last resort, which means they needed me incapacitated tonight. Which also means someone at the council might have leaked the information about what we planned to do tomorrow, and so they moved their plans to tonight. We should catch them in the act. Let's go.”