"So that’s what gem abilities are like," Fei said on the ride back. "I thought a monogem Champion would be stronger."
Vera gave Fei a look of disbelief.
The three of them were riding back on the horse automatons, with Sen tied up on a third one accompanied by the hoplites.
The storm had taken a few hours to pass, and it was late afternoon.
By the ti they returned, August expected that dusk would have fallen.
’
"Stronger?" Vera rolled the word over her tongue as if trying to understand Fei’s ntal state.
Evidently, the sorceress ca up empty. "She deflected third rank spells like they were pebbles. And what was that explosion you caused, August? It took out half the valley, but she barely felt it."
"Third rank?" Fei repeated.
"The triangle spells," August said offhandedly. "You really haven’t learned anything about sorcery before, have you?"
"I grew up in a fishing village to the south." Fei bit her lip and looked away.
"It’s fine. I just need to teach you more," August said.
He knew about her upbringing, but sohow it hadn’t occurred to him that the reason she knew so much in his tiline about sorcery was because of her experience, not because she was taught it as a Champion.
Vera looked between the pair of them, an annoyed expression on her face.
When August looked at her, she glared back at him as if to say "So what?"
The sun rolled over the horizon while they rode. The keep wasn’t in sight yet.
"Fei, you’ve felt the power that your enhancent gives you, right?" August asked.
"Um, among other things." She blushed.
"I an in battle."
Fei nodded, her blush fading.
"The binding certain level of power to Champions on top of the enhancent itself. That applies to as well.
Magic now runs through your veins. Strictly speaking, Champions and Bastions are no longer human.
Or beastkin, in your case." August eyed Vera, who was listening intently. Much of what August was explaining wasn’t common knowledge.
Everybody knew Bastions were inhumanly powerful. But Bastions kept a lid on the exact reasons why.
"Oh. Does this relate to how I was always warned that once you beco a Champion you can’t turn back?"
Fei said. "I never really had a choice, but lots of people got cold feet when they found out. The isters spoke to everybody in private several tis before we left the academy."
Vera’s eyebrows shot up. August gave her a warning glance, and she raised a finger to her lips with a nod.
At least she understood that he was being kind by letting her hear this.
Perhaps he could chase her away, but the conversation had otherwise been fine up to this point.
"More or less," August answered. Fei shifted in front of him.
She tried to look up at his face from her seat on the horse. "Gems cannot be removed. And each gem increases your bond with the binding stone, and with your Bastion."
"My bond," Fei whispered.
"That’s why a monogem Champion is powerful, even if her gem abilities don’t seem as dangerous as they appear.
The Federation Champion not only had a base enhancent as strong as yours, but she had more power from the binding stone and her shadow ability from her gem."
August bopped Fei on the head to make her pay attention. "So a straight fight between you and her would have been extrely dangerous."
Fei scowled up at him. "You ca out fine."
"I can draw directly on the power of the binding stone. I used a lot of it to enhance my sorcery so that I could overpower her gem." August sighed.
"That’s going to cost if the Federation attacks soon. I planned to use that power to slap a barrier over the keep."
Dusk arrived.
The keep ca into sight, and a patrol of guards wandered out to greet them.
At the sight of Sen, bound and tied to an automaton horse, the guards signaled the keep using a lantern.
Lights flashed from the walls in response. The gate rolled open, and more guards spilled forth, saluting August as he entered.
"I saw it from afar, but you really have been busy," Vera muttered.
"This place has been a ruin for as long as I rember."
"Feel free to stay the night. I can send you back with a horse if you’d prefer," August offered as they dismounted in the courtyard.
He waved off the guards when they attempted to carry Sen off. August wanted to deal with her personally.
Despite his gesture, they milled about nearby, still wary of the bandit spellblade.
For how long had Sen tornted this county that the guards recognized her so readily and glared at her with such ferocity?
"No, I’ll stay. A hot bath would be nice." Vera ran a finger through her matted locks of hair.
While she was still beautiful, the storm had dulled her glossy appearance sowhat.
Fei was in a similar state, moaning at the state of her tail. She shot puppy dog eyes at August in an attempt to convince him to brush it later.
August gave Vera a nod while waving off Fei. "We can talk in the morning then. I need to interrogate this one."
He gestured to Sen. "And then contact Bastion Leopold. Now that I have confirmation that a Federation Bastion is involved, he may be more interested in acting. If not, I’ll continue as planned."
"What about the leylines?" Vera asked, biting her lip.
"It will be a few days before I can tell if this lot were the only ones behind it. Unless I find out more."
He locked eyes with Sen, who glared at him. "If the leylines remain disrupted,
I’ll need to patrol around the other cairns and look for other sorcerers and bandits. If they begin to restore themselves, then..." August trailed off.
There was a risk of sothing much worse happening, he thought.
Now that he knew the cause behind the leyline disruption, and that a Bastion was behind it, everything had changed.
And he really ant everything.
He had always thought the demonic invasion had been an accident. That the demons had slipped through while the Empire had been weakened from a two-front war, and the Federation had been too weak to quell multiple portals opening at once.
But if the Federation was weaponizing demons, it ant that August needed to change his thought processes.
The war that consud his tiline had already begun.
He had arrived too late to stop it. All he could do was prevent it from taking the world with it.
Leading Sen to his office, August tried to push down the thoughts. The black door stood at the far end.
Sohow, August had gotten used to its foreign presence. He blocked it out most days and kept his back to it when doing any paperwork, reading, or going over the map.
Sen’s eyes scanned right over the door. Despite its foreboding appearance, she didn’t react.
August knew this was because she couldn’t see it.
The binding stone couldn’t sense Kadria’s little pocket dinsion, and nobody other than him could see it. It was as though Kadria was living in his mind.
The door scratched at August’s thoughts when he looked at it, so he led Sen to the far corner and dumped her in a chair.
He then took a seat himself and faced away from the black portal.
Sen glared at him. He removed the wooden block gagging her mouth.
"Not going to spit at ?" August asked as he cleaned off the wood with a nearby cloth.
She threw a sullen look at him. "You killed Derek."
A picture of a hulking giant wearing scratched and faded Empire armor appeared in August’s mind. "The deserter? Was he your leader?"
"My friend. And you killed him." Sen’s glare grew fiercer. "And he didn’t desert. The Empire betrayed him. Left him for dead."
August didn’t care about so random bandits.
He dropped the wooden block on the table and leaned back in his chair.
How could he go about this? The Sen glaring at him felt so different to the timid, clingy girl he had known.
"I’m August. August Straub," he said.
"I know. Sunstorm told ," Sen said. "Why should I care anyway? Why do you care?"
So much fire in her. So unlike the Sen he knew.
By the ti August t Sen in his tiline, she had beco timid.
She never spoke about her past, and all August knew was that the Amica Federation had forcibly recruited her when they invaded the Empire.
He hadn’t even known she was close to Gharrick Pass at the ti of the invasion.
"Because I don’t want to be your enemy," August said. "I’m a Bastion. You’re a highly capable spellblade. I can help you."
Sen stared at him. The fire in her eyes didn’t vanish, but a look of disbelief appeared.
"If you wanted to help , you’d have left alone," she muttered.
Looking into her green eyes, August’s heart fell. This Sen was too different from the one he knew.
What had the Federation done to her in the few years between now and when he t her in his tiline? How had her spirit been broken so badly?
Could he ever et his Sen again? He wondered if the quiet, clingy girl with white hair—the one who ca to August for comfort after a nightmare, a battle, or whenever she slled ash in the wind—was gone forever.
"Why were you working with Sunstorm," he asked, leaning back and rubbing the bridge of his nose.
"Not going to ask my na?" Sen said.
"It’s Sen."
She stared at him in shock.
"Again, why are you working with Sunstorm? I’m going to be kind and assu you don’t know what destabilizing a leyline does, but you must have had a reason to work with the Federation.
The mont the Empire cottoned on to the fact you were working with another nation was the mont your ti was up." August clicked his fingers for effect. Sen flinched at the noise.
"Nobody tells us anything," Sen mumbled.
"So, you played along for no reason?"
"The Federation promised a future. All of us a future.
They’ve been good to us in the past, back when we helped them stop the tolls. Derek trusted them." Sen bit her lip. "This ti felt different. I’d never dealt with a Champion before."
August sighed. A typical reason for bandits.
They didn’t trust the Empire, but the Federation was a different story as it was ruled by rchants.
Where the nobles of the Empire constantly suppressed bandits and their ilk, the Federation knew how to play their ga.
Bandits could beco rcenaries, guards, or even establish their own trading company in the Federation. They weren’t restricted in what they could do because of what family they were born into.
"I can promise you that future, Sen," August tried, feeling his offer was futile.
"I already told you—"
"I heard you." August sighed.
He stood up. Sen flinched and looked down.
Her eyes were wide open. Magic began to build up within her body, but she couldn’t focus it because of the enchanted rope around her body.
She tried again and again until she collapsed in her chair. Her glare tore into the back of August’s head.
The black door beckoned him.
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