Next, he made his intentions known to all in his retinue, carefully selecting twenty-two subordinates to accompany him into the forest.
"I’ll co as well," ca a calm, steadfast voice.
Maels suppressed a sigh as he saw Arienne dismounting from her horse, the lean, sowhat tall woman removing her scabbarded sword from the saddlebags and sliding it through a loop in her belt.
"You will stay here," he said in a stern tone, faking a bit of concern. "You’re the most capable fighter among us. In order to assure the safety of the county’s citizens, I want you to watch over Peimon and the rest."
Her shoulder-length blonde hair jostled as she shook her head, her expression brooking no argunt. "His Eminence the archbishop ordered to stay by your side, and I intend to do that. I swore an oath to him, after all."
"You’re not a part of our faction," Maels said frankly as he adjusted his clean white robes. "What we do is none of your business. Do you intend to go against my orders?"
Several of the knights around him suddenly grew tense, each of them ready to confront Arienne should the need arise.
"Do you intend to go against the archbishop’s orders?"
The knights hesitated under her sharp gaze, at which point Maels relented. "If it’s so important to you, then you may accompany us." Turning to those around him, he said, "Hurry and finish with your preparations! We’ll set off in a few minutes."
Everyone in the vicinity scrambled to heed his orders, leaving him alone with his thoughts.
As a subordinate of Archbishop Vestach for the duration of this trip, Arienne could willingly refuse to carry out Maels’s orders if she didn’t agree with their contents, unlike the mbers of his retinue. Thus far, over a hundred people had undergone his curse of compulsion in order to rise in station with him at the helm, a forbidden practice that was mimicked by almost all of the senior mbers of the clergy. Considering the contents of the rituals that he planned to carry out, Maels couldn’t afford to have soone bear witness to them if they weren’t forcibly compelled into secrecy, and he had only brought twenty-two such people with him on this trip.
Leaving Arienne behind as the woman began to strap on light armour of hard, boiled leather, he approached Deena and spoke to the high arcanite in a hushed tone. "Deena. It seems that Arienne is destined to die at the hands of this demon. Do you understand ?"
"You speak as if you’re asking an easy task of ." Fingering the butt of the half-staff that hung from a strap that was tied to her leather belt, her astute gaze flashed with a bit of fury. "She could just as easily kill , you know."
"You’ll be generously rewarded, of course."
"How much?"
"Two hundred golden lucets."
"Humph, only two hundred? I’m supposed to risk my life for just that much, and a few weeks off from my duties?"
Maels wanted to laugh. Even after all of the ti they had spent apart while he had been in the Kingdom of Cessia, Deena was still the sa selfish, anger-fueled girl that he’d originally purchased when her father’s assets—and his family—had been liquidated to pay off his monuntal debts. It’s a wonder that their house fell into such dire straits, he thought with a bit of amusent as he gleaned a glint of greed in her dark, sable eyes.
"You’ll do it for the gold, or you’ll receive nothing at all. Either way, you’re going to do as instructed. Am I clear?"
Looking as if she would like nothing more than to hit him, she smirked and stalked away with rapid strides.
Maels connected eyes with Arienne, who was never far off from him. I wish things didn’t have to be this way. In her early twenties, it was no exaggeration to say that she was the most prodigious swordsman that the empire had seen in decades, having already reached the peak of the warrior stratum and thus earned the right to lead armies on behalf of the church if ever such services were necessary. Unfortunately for her, she owed Archbishop Vestach a favour after he had helped her to solve so sort of situation within her family, and so now she was repaying him by keeping an eye on Maels for the duration of the delegation’s travels.
Watching Arienne as she continued with her preparations, Maels began to wonder. Why would Vestach call in his favour so soon? Arienne was destined to beco a knight of great renown in the future and thus a person with substantial influence within the empire and on the continent as a whole. Even now, her na was already well known. Why not wait until she could be of more use to him? On that note, why hadn’t he sent soone that had been subject to his curse of compulsion? She wasn’t officially one of Vestach’s people, and was very likely to join Cardinal Varus’s camp based on the circles that she associated with, so Maels was almost certain that she hadn’t been sworn to him in the context of said curse.
That sly snake, he thought as he ca to a sudden realization. You can’t have her, so no one can, is it? Given the sensitive content of Maels’s assignnt, the presence of a morally upright knight like Arienne would naturally be a hindrance to whatever he might be planning. Not only would Vestach prevent one of his enemies from gaining a powerful pawn, but he would also gain a hold over Maels that could potentially implicate him in the future should the archbishop decide to expose the culprit behind her murder.
Poor girl, he sighed, knowing that regardless of his personal opinion of her, he could only follow through with his plan to the very end. Such a waste of talent. As for Vestach, there was nothing he could say if Arienne was unexpectedly killed by a demon.
A short while later and Maels was following a vanguard of swordsn through the dense underbrush that filled the surrounding forests, the Winding Road having long disappeared behind their backs. They stopped at the centre of a small clearing after about half an hour of travel, at which point Maels had several of his n form a loose periter about ten paces beyond the treeline. He ordered them to deter any unwelco guests, including anyone from the delegation regardless of their status within the clergy.
"Why have we stopped, Your Grace?" asked Gartur, who had approached him with Ser Asten in tow, the young lad slung over the arcanite’s armoured shoulder. "Have you located the demon, by chance?"
"In a sense." Turning to the knights that had been walking directly beside his carriage throughout the last stretch of their journey, he said, "Place that down at the centre of the clearing, then go out and join the others in forming up a periter. Rember, no one is allowed to approach, regardless of who."
"Yes, Your Grace."
After an echoed response, the n placed their load on the ground at the spot where Maels had indicated and then quickly left the area, leaving him alone with Gartur, Deena, a wary Arienne, and seven of his most capable arcanites. Approaching the large cage, he removed the tarp that covered it to reveal the frightened faces of the sun-deprived Ket children, all of them covered in dirt and gri despite the cleanliness of their clothes as they huddled together like a group of frightened rabbits in the midst of a vicious storm. The mont the tarp was removed, all of his subordinates froze up at the sight of the young Inverted children and the peculiar blacks of their eyes. The girl from before was the only one that suppressed her cowers and whimpers, her gaze doing a rapid sweep of their surroundings as if looking for a possible escape route.
"Your Grace," said an arcanite after a mont, a tall, bald man with a thick black goatee. "If we really intend to threaten the demon with the lives of its kin, couldn’t we have only brought a couple of these devils along?"
Another arcanite spoke up, her voice as uneasy as the first speaker. "Your Grace...why are there so many of them? This is beyond the scope of gifts."
After a mont’s thought, Maels called all of his guards back into the centre of the clearing. "Listen closely," he said with a sombre tone, eyes trailing over each of them in turn. "I sense the demon’s presence in the area. It should be masking itself with so sort of invisibility spell, which is why none of you seem able to detect it."
"It’s here?" said the woman, who looked around with a worried, inky gaze. In a quieter voice, she added, "What would you have us do, Your Grace?"
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