Discordant Note | TBATE

Chapter 116: Retainer

Toren Daen

"Retainer Mawar," I said, altering my voice with sound magic. Mana thrummed through my body, strengthening it to absurd levels. I felt my heartbeat pound against my ears, my pulse quickening as I recognized the threat in front of me. "We don't need to fight."

Mawar snarled. "You know who I am, mage," she hissed, the air thrumming with weathering intent. The closest thing I'd felt was the first time I'd met Mardeth in the Fiachra Ascender's Association. "Then you know why you're going to die here." I saw void wind popping around Mawar's hands, but it was difficult to see in the near blackness.

Her mana was a cloying force. I couldn't afford to lose focus on her in the slightest. I'd been told by several people that Mawar had a deep, deep grudge against Mardeth for refusing to fight during the Victoriad, essentially putting the validity of her Retainership up in the air. I should have expected something like this.

I felt the mages surrounding me shifting to offensive stances, readying their spells. Their faces were wrapped in dark cloth, obscuring their features from my sight. Mana thrummed in the air. I clenched my hand around Oath, the dark leather comforting in my palm. Mawar was powerful. One of the strongest mages I'd sensed yet.

But this was something I could manage.

"If this retainer wished you dead immediately," Aurora conveyed quietly, "She would have already attacked. She wants something from you."

Deciding to take a risk, I took a simple step forward, brushing away Mawar's killing intent. "I don't work for Mardeth," I said, hissing slightly. "I want him dead even more than you do."

"You expect me to believe that?" Mawar laughed, her eyes gleaming in shadow. "You enter here wearing a mask of the Doctrination, clothed in black. No doubt you were sent from that new base of his along the Redwater." She shook her head, and the pressure emanating from her redoubled. I felt it in my teeth. "You're going to tell us all you know about that little base, including how you supply yourselves out of Aensgar. And then I'm going to burn it to the ground."

Okay, I thought, reassessing my choice to wear an old vicar's mask, Maybe not the brightest idea.

But this confrontation provided me with an opportunity. Renea Shorn had put her foot down in regards to helping me flush out Mardeth. But Mawar hated him personally. I could work with that.

"I don't have the information you need," I said hesitantly, "But if we could work together–"

"Take him alive," Mawar said to the nearby mages, cutting off my words. "I don't care about residual damage. Just make sure he can think and talk when you're done with him."

It was like a spark had been dropped into the bottom of an oil well. Mana flared around me as the encircling mages launched their spells in my direction.

But I was already moving. I raised a barrier of fire to divert an oncoming stream of flame, the heat licking at my bones. Simultaneously, I jumped backward, sending a psychokinetic push against an oncoming boulder. I used the massive stone to push me further, sending me hurtling toward one of the rearmost mages.

They hastily raised a short dagger in defense, their eyes widening behind their clothed face. Oath, imbued with a shuddering layer of sound mana, sheared straight through their own weapon. It cut a thin line across the mage's cheeks as they stumbled backward, just barely avoiding a fatal blow. But I had been expecting that. Using a psychokinetic pull, I yanked the off-balance mage right into my waiting fist.

Their head cracked to the side with a sickening sound. My body was far stronger than before my First Sculpting, and no normal magic user could resist me physically. The mage I'd struck crumpled to the floor as their heartfire sputtered. Absently, I hoped it wasn't a fatal blow.