The Bell Tolls for Me 92: Zero-Sum Game

Arthur walked out into the snowy courtyard of the Balat family’s palace. He exhaled, watching his breath rise up into the air. Then, he turned around.

“You’re following rather intently,” Arthur said to his follower.

Lady Allison of House Balat stood there, watching him with a smile. “And you’re running rather intently.”

“Running?” Arthur scoffed. “I apologize if it seed that way. If you had sothing to say to , you’ve been awfully silent about it.”

“I wasn’t talking about . You’re running from life,” Allison said, walking closer. “The princess gave a particular task. Making sure that you stay alive.”

“I can defend myself,” Arthur said in confusion.

“Not in that manner.” Allison shook her head. “You’re dying, she claid, but you’re doing nothing to mitigate that fact. It’s as if you’ve accepted it.” She went silent for a minute, watching Arthur’s expression. He betrayed nothing. “At first, I worried that you were fabricating that to manipulate her. But as the days have passed, I’ve had dreams.”

“Dreams,” Arthur repeated.

“The devil you saw once granted my house specific abilities,” Allison said. “My sister and I are the dead-ends for that legacy. She can predict death. I can predict where life can take root.”

Arthur wouldn’t have been so quick to accept that explanation had he not seen the devil first hand. He shifted on his feet as he asked, “And what has your dream shown you, Allison?”

“It was a dream about you. You were a dead, smiling husk. From your corpse sprouted a beautiful garden that fed millions and millions.” Allison stepped closer. As she did, tears started to flow. “Your death isn’t sothing preordained. It’s sothing you’re planning. It’s a sacrifice you feel you have to make. I’ve never had a sadder vision.”

Arthur felt uncomfortable when a woman started crying in front of him. After looking around to be sure that no one was watching, he reached forward tentatively. “Co on, don’t…” He sighed in exasperation. “Let’s go sowhere else to talk.”

***

Arthur and Allison had relocated to a more private venue. Arthur shut the doors to the private greenhouse and looked back at her. She had managed to calm herself.

“Have you told Isabella about this?” Arthur asked, walking forth to join her. “Have you told anyone else?”

“No, though I intend to,” Allison said, shaking her head. “I wanted to hear your side of the story first. I’m right, aren’t I?”

Arthur sat down in the table across from her. “In a manner of speaking.” He sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “I wasn’t dishonest in what I said. My soul… after travelling back with Isabella, it can’t exist here indefinitely. It can last for about eight years—the ti that Isabella can revert ti.”

“But that doesn’t explain what I saw,” Allison said, leaning forward and taking his hand in her own. “Don’t tell that I’m wrong, Arthur. I’m not. Please don’t lie to .”

Arthur exhaled, vexed. “Why do you care about this at all? We’ve t only days ago. You said yourself that plenty of people were sustained off of my sacrifice.”

“Isn’t it natural to wish others to live well? Even if it isn’t, it’s natural for .” Allison squeezed his hand. “Please. Just… explain what I saw.”

Arthur closed his eyes. “My soul is interwoven into the link between Isabella and her father. So long as I can touch him but once, I can shatter both our souls. That’s all I need to bring this conflict to an end.” He opened his eyes and smiled bitterly. “A beautiful garden that feeds millions sprouting from my husk… hearing that, I’m beyond satisfied. I’m dead regardless. If that is how I might be rembered… I believe it a fitting manner in which to spend the rest of my life.”

“Why must another’s happiness co at the expense of yours?” Allison asked.

Arthur looked to so of the plants in the greenhouse. “Wellbeing is a zero-sum ga.” He looked to her. “For soone to be happy, another must suffer. For people to have cheap goods, there must be cheap labor.”

Allison shook her head. “My sister and I have seen the tides of life and death as clearly as anyone can imagine. It’s true that life and death are closely intertwined, but you’re wrong. You’re simply wrong. I have labored long and hard to improve the lot of our people here in the north. I did not need to deprive my people to have our territory reach greater heights. I did not rearrange pieces on the board, causing myself to suffer so that they might prosper. I simply changed the board we played upon to increase everyone’s share of wellbeing. As a spellcaster, I’d have assud that you understood this principle—innovation breeding prosperity. In what way could that possibly be called a zero-sum ga?”

Arthur pulled free his hand of her grip. “You can’t expect to defeat soone like Edgar without sacrifice.”

“And why not?” Allison asked.

“Because countless before us have tried. They failed, all because they were unwilling to do what was necessary,” Arthur insisted.

Allison stood. “If his defeat is without precedent, Arthur… then we establish the precedent. Why must we make compromises when compromise could be unnecessary?”

“This is too important,” Arthur said.

Allison raised a brow. “If it’s so important, then why have you remained silent on this subject?”

“Because…” He chuckled grimly. The simple truth was, he never planned on telling her. He simply intended on doing. “It doesn’t matter.” He looked over at her. “But you’ll be telling Isabella, I suspect.”

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Allison nodded. “She needs to know.”

Arthur sighed. “Very well. Better from your mouth than mine.”

***

From her brief discussion with her father, Isabella ca to the conclusion that Edgar was far more vulnerable than she had been predicting. Despite his monstrous abilities, he was human. In a way, he was infinitely more human than anyone else. He thought himself infallible, soone who wasn’t permitted to make even the smallest of mistakes. That made him blind to his own flaws.

Only one problem remained: the people behind Bernadetta, the so-called sages. Isabella had thought to speak to the devil Balat for further insight on that matter, but…

“It seems like a proper lead has finally co into the Eagaliteh mber I was first seeking out,” Felix told Isabella and Valerio. “They found a… the reports call it a ‘forest of ice.’ It surrounds a giant castle made of the sa material. It took one of my best n just to get a glimpse of it, and he’s very nearly dead from the journey. He’s badly afflicted by frostbite, so much so I question if the report is rely a delusion.”

“It’s definitely real,” Isabella concluded imdiately. “It matches well with a vision of mine.”

It matched up all too well with the fake reality that Balat had shown her. The devil had likely been co-opting reality to present a more convincing depiction of its illusion. She wondered if that woman she’d seen would also be lying in wait deep in that castle.

Valerio leaned on the back of Isabella’s chair. “What should we do?”

“Send familiars,” Isabella said decisively.

Felix scoffed. “Do you think I haven’t already tried that? As soon as any grow near, they’re struck down by so mysterious force. People report being struck by bolts of frigid lightning, incomprehensible as that sounds.”

Isabella thought back to the experience that the devil had given her. She had walked through the forest, not flown. Maybe that was the ticket.

“Either way, I want Arthur and myself to take a personal look at it,” Isabella decided. “As far as I’m concerned, this is the final hurdle to confronting Edgar directly. The mont that we ensure the Eagaliteh won’t interfere, we can move forward.”

***

“We need to call the royal army,” Edgar declared, hunching over a map. He repeated frantically, “We need to call the royal army. Call them imdiately.” Edgar repeatedly tapped his finger on the part of the map indicating the north. “I won’t go there until I know that it’s safe. I won’t go there until I understand Isabella’s power. One misjudgnt, one wrong move… she could have . Her ability… who knows what it does.” He frantically tapped it.

Edgar waited for a few monts. Then, he looked over, shouting, “Are you even listening to…! Oh,” he said.

Corpses were strewn all about. The Archwizard, all of his knights, countless servants in the royal palace… Edgar had killed them all. He kneeled over the Archwizard, picking up his body by the neck and studying it.

“Why could she do what you couldn’t?” Edgar asked the corpse. “Why did I languish for all those months, while she returns in weeks?”

His jaw slid side-to-side, his teeth grinding against each other. He bit his tongue hard enough to sever it, and then stood. Blood started pouring out of his mouth. His fingers twitched, and then he punched himself in the head, triggering his ring to restart at the day’s beginning.

Edgar opened his eyes in his bed. He sat up quickly, wrapping his arms around his neck.

“Good morning, Your Majesty,” his attendant said.

Edgar broke his own neck, hearing her scream for only a few seconds before he awoke again.

“Good morning, Your Majesty.”

Edgar used his tongue to dislodge a poison pill in his mouth, and ingested it. The attendant continued to speak, but he didn’t listen. Not monts later, he felt pain unimaginable bubbling up from within. He collapsed back on the bed, spasming, twitching, and foaming at the mouth. The attendant stood over him, panicked, and then went to fetch help that never ca.

“Good morning, Your Majesty.”

Edgar opened an artery on his leg with a swipe of his foot. He laid there, bleeding, as his attendant obliviously laid out his clothing for the day.

“Good morning, Your Majesty.”

Edgar raised his fist up, then slamd it down on his chest. He hit it hard enough to stop his own heart.

“Good morning, Your Majesty.”

Edgar retrieved a dagger off the nightstand and it into his eye.

“Good morning, Your Majesty.”

Edgar sat up, exhaling fiercely from the intensity of the past few monts. His heart throbbed intensely, and he could feel red-hot blood pumping through him fast.

“Are you all right, Your Majesty?” the attendant asked in concern. “Should I… call soone?”

Edgar looked at her. “I’m calm. I’m grounded, now. I feel…” He laughed happily. “I feel so much better. I’m still . I can still do whatever I please.” He threw off the covers, and then stord out. He retrieved a robe and threw it over his shoulders, throwing the doors to his bedroom open.

“Archwizard!” he shouted, then looked upon the man. “It’s ti to prepare an invasion. Call the knights. Prepare to raise the levies.”

The Archwizard, still half asleep, rose. “Yes?”

“I’m told my daughter values the lives of the people a great deal,” Edgar said. “I need to know her ability for myself. There’s no finer way to discover it.”

“Your Majesty…” the Archwizard rose up from his seat. “Is this perhaps too soon? I an, we’ve—”

“I am Edgar the Great,” he declared. “She’s nothing.”

***

Isabella and Arthur hopped across the snow-covered plains, one a green woodpecker and the other a gray parrot. They stuck out like sore thumbs in this land of endless white. Eventually they crested the top of an icy peak. Beyond was an endless field of ice, dotted with beautiful sculptures of ice wrought into the shape of trees. In the back, standing proud like a glacier, was the ice palace.

“It seems you were right,” Arthur said. “We’ve not been struck down. Even still, rote analysis of the place could have led to the sa conclusion. There’s protective magic surrounding this place in that vein.”

“You sound rather confident. Who knows? We may yet be repelled as we descend. If we do… I suppose my only other choice would be to rely upon Balat. In either case, I’ll be glad to finally put this chapter to rest,” Isabella said, then started to descend down.

Arthur followed after Isabella. “Be careful. Having your familiar destroyed isn’t a pleasant experience.” He went silent for a bit. “When you summoned , I assud it was for a different reason.”

Isabella stopped. “Did you think I had spoken to Allison? If so… you were right.”

Arthur stopped a mont after she did, staring like a child caught stealing.

“We will talk about this matter, rest assured. But until we overco this hurdle, we’re paralyzed,” Isabella continued. “In truth, my mind is spinning. But we must focus on this matter.”

“I understand,” Arthur said diligently. “And I will.”