Chapter 222 – A Walking Red Flag

Lilyth - Day 11 - 110 Days Remain

Our hastily erected camp was not much to look at. Just a circle of sleeping bags with a provisional fire pit in the middle. We sat down our guests right by it and began our interrogation.

I must say that my initial suspicions about there being more to Navahl than it seemed at first glance were proven right by his reaction upon seeing Phosi sitting on her sleeping bag and pretending to read some novel she took from the keep. I didn't need my old supersenses to hear Nevahl’s sharp intake of breath and notice him immediately tense up and narrow his eyes while looking straight at our blue-skinned friend.

I wasn't the only one to notice that, either, as the rest of our group immediately started to pay closer attention to the man. His mask further slipped when he began trying to pretend he was not casting furtive glances at her.

Phosi, meanwhile, seemed more interested in Princess Zaevi than in him, which suggested to me that Nevahl knew about her, but it wasn't a mutual thing.

Now, admittedly, he could have just heard stories about her. By now, the stories about a cute blue-skinned elven girl with a lure on her forehead who could turn into a horrible acid monster and her association with us were probably spread far and wide, so Nevahl just connecting the dots was a probable explanation.

Am I just looking for reasons to distrust him?

The story about how he and Zaevi met caused another pair of red flags to pop up.

Does he honestly expect us to believe he defeated a group of men much younger and fitter than him all by his lonesome?

Then I remembered that it sounded like the man knew magic.

That's a massive force multiplier. Like… There were eight of us back in Ror-Bhyk, and we killed hundreds of Sanguine.

A much bigger warning sign, and one I just couldn't ignore, was the convenience of the whole thing. Princess Zaevi heading to us to get help was believable enough. We were adventurers of some repute, after all.

Though perhaps “infamy” would be a better word here.

Where it got sus was her capture by the Red Masks, or rather, what happened after Zaevi was kidnapped. I couldn't help but think that her rescue by the Travelling Red Flag was not exactly a spontaneous event. I mean… a travelling mage just happens across a princess in distress? One at death’s door, too, so her recollection of events is sketchy at best? He also happens to be heading the same way? Oh, and her captors made references to the fate and the location, some prison colony or another, of her brother, too?

This was either the luckiest break we had ever got OR the juiciest and most obvious piece of bait I have ever seen.

Persephone then delivered the final blow to the man’s credibility.

‘Fuck me…’ the sorceress exhaled while she was inspecting the swordcane for fuckery, and, having found some, pointed to the glass thingie that served as the weapon’s pommel. ‘I think that's a Luminary Orb. Those are Light Arcana spell foci. Insanely rare. As in “only given as a reward to those the Light deems worthy” insanely rare.’

Nevahl didn't flinch when he found himself staring down the barrels of our guns.

‘Are you a fucking Lightie, Old Man?’ Persephone asked in an accusatory tone.

‘I do use Light magic, yes,’ Nevahl explained slowly. ‘But I do not worship the Light. It is more the side effect of my having access to the orb. It, well… the whole sword really, is a family heirloom.’

Suuuuure.

I was about to deliver my verdict of “let’s knock them out and leave”, when I remembered an old saying.

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

If the old man was dangerous, it was better to keep an eye out for him. So, with that in mind, I asked Aki and Sav for a sidebar. They both agreed with my assessment of Nevahl, but weren't sure whether taking him with us was a good idea; ultimately, they conceded that out of the two options on the table, it was a better one.

A far bigger problem, and what ultimately ended up deciding our approach, was the task itself. A succession crisis could easily turn into a civil war, one that a return of the rightful heir wouldn’t necessarily avert. After all, what if one of the pretenders to the throne was behind his disappearance? They wouldn’t be happy if we returned him. Especially if there was some sort of larger conspiracy at play. If anything, we could make things worse. Also, what guarantee did we have that the current royal family was actually the “good guys” here? What if Zaevi’s brother was another Kojiro?

We also had no way of knowing whether going to Mavigan would actually be the right play to begin with. What if all the Red Masks wanted Zaevi for was a trade for some item?

Ere, will you be mad at me if we sit this one out? This crisis strikes me as a massive “DO NOT TOUCH” thing.

‘On the “my agent” front - I would never ask you to get involved in solving something like that. On the personal front - I think you made a very good case for “stay neutral”.’

Thanks. Love you.

I relayed Ere’s opinion to Aki and Sav, which adjusted our plan on how to handle the Nevahl issue. We then hashed out a few more things, figured out some extra checks, and then went back to the camp to deliver our verdict.

Zaevi - Day 11 - 110 Days Remain

As they waited for the group's decision, the Princess realised that even in her worst nightmares, she hadn't imagined the meeting with the Witch Queen going so poorly. Weren't adventurers supposed to help those in need? Or was she expecting too much?

She was about to ask Nevahl about it, but then the Kitsune and her two companions returned.

‘I am afraid we must reject your request for aid,’ the Queen began. ‘There are too many unknowns, and we are afraid that we will do more harm than good. As such, the Kingdom of Ror-Bhyk will remain neutral in the matter of Maviganian Succession.’

Zaevi felt nauseous. That couldn't have been true. Her last hope… dashed.

She wanted to protest, but Nevahl put his hand on her shoulder and shook his head.

‘We’ll figure something else out.’

‘I’m sorry,’ the Witch Queen shook her head. ‘There is also a problem of timelines involved. As I understand, we both are working under fairly strict deadlines and since we don't know if our paths necessarily align, sooner or later we would have to split up, regardless, having wasted a considerable amount of the precious resource that is time.’

That was… true, actually.

‘I am not ruling out the possibility of us working together. If our investigation leads us your way, we may revisit this discussion.’

‘That is probably the best I can hope for,’ Zaevi sighed dejectedly. ‘So, I guess we will head our own way.’

‘About that…’ The Kitsune smiled, and then Zaevi heard movement behind her.

There was a flash of green light, and she knew no more.

Lilyth - Day 11 - 110 Days Remain

‘I really want to keep that,’ Persephone remarked while still clutching the swordcane.

‘I get it, but leave the cane be,’ I said. ‘We are technically a royal party. It would be a bad look for us to rob an old man we just knocked out under the flimsiest of pretences.’

‘Aww,’ she pouted. ‘You are no fun.’

‘Part of the job, dearie, I am afraid. Though this wouldn't sit well with me even if I didn't let myself get talked into keeping that shitty position.’

‘Come on, babe,’ Aki said in a reassuring tone. ‘You are doing a fine job.’

I wasn't sure whether my Dark Lady actually meant that, but Rennie quickly rushed to support her so that, for reasons I couldn't fathom, not be an isolated opinion.

‘You knew well enough to leave people with actual know-how in charge and decided to just be a figurehead. That’s a commendable decision.’

‘This is probably a bad time to mention that, but when setting up the regency before I rejoined you, I named you as my heir for when I inevitably kick the bucket,’ I said with a smile.

Or fake my own death and go live with Ere and Phoebe, anyway, I added silently.

‘You what,’ Ren responded in a flat tone.

‘Your mom is my regent. It will be a natural transition of power.’

‘What about Phoebe?’ Aki asked.

‘We discussed this with Ere. Not a good idea. There is a decent chance she will inherit a lot of her mom's powers. That includes the ability to view people's sins. Can you imagine a ruler being able to do that?’

Everyone shuddered at the thought.

‘For now, you are the heir presumptive,’ I continued. ‘Should you or Aki have children with me, the throne will pass to them instead. Fair?’

Both of them nodded, and we started taking down our first steps on a road that would likely take us to our fates.

Ren - Day 14 - 107 Days Remain

Thanks to Phosi, we were able to get to Denyr in less than a fifth of the time it would normally take.

If all our destinations will have river access, we will be done in a few weeks.

I was happy to visit the city again, as I had a lot of good memories associated with it, mostly of shopping trips with either or both of my parents and later on with Leera. In a way, this was the end of a year-long quest for me too, because I wanted to visit the city with my wives ever since we defeated Kojiro.

The city was different from Ror-Bhyk like night and day. Where our capital was an architectural and societal mongrel caused by people from all walks of life intermixing, not that there weren't rich and poor areas, Denyr was fully segregated into three concentric rings.

The inner ring, surrounding the royal palace, was reserved for the nobles and other people of note. Our small group, likely viewed as nothing more than filthy commoners, would likely not even be granted access there.

The middle ring was for people well-off enough to afford to live there and was also the place where you could find good food, comfy inns and all the merchants carrying the better quality or luxury goods.

It was hard to define what the outer ring was, though it was closer to Ror-Bhyk in appearance. There were sections of it that were basically slums, but others rivalled the middle ring in wealth. I even heard rumours of an opulent mansion or two hidden somewhere, but the area of the ring was so massive I never got to see it, and, given the time constraints, I doubted I would get a chance to see it this time around either.

Maybe on our way back.

The first potential hurdle was getting past the city gates. Denyr wasn't locked or anything like that, but we had a fair bit of notoriety, so the chances of us staying beneath notice were basically nonexistent. Truth be told, we were such a travelling freakshow that even if we were still small-time adventurers, we would likely be the talk of the town for weeks to come.

It showed too as the guards looked at us wide-eyed, before their gazes focused on Lilyth, and they just waved us through. I could have sworn I heard one of them whisper that they were not being paid enough to deal with us.

Of course, someone high enough on the totem pole would hear about us sooner rather than later and well… things then would get very interesting and, most likely, incredibly messy.

There were actually two groups we were concerned about. The government and the Ghosts. With the Clan out of the picture, our biggest rivals, already present here in massive numbers, could move in on Denyr with little to no resistance, and likely would view me as a perfect target of opportunity. After all, anybody who could deliver my head to the Aernyan, as their leader was exclusively referred to, would be handsomely rewarded.

So, with this in mind, we had to operate under the assumption that, in all likelihood, by the time we were done in Denyr, the only thing left of the city would be a smoking ruin.

At least that's if we are lucky.