PreCursive
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Chapter 75 - Reunion
🕑 Added 2023-09-01 17:00:12 +0000 UTC“Our preparations seem a little silly, at this point,” Silvia said to me later. After the reunion in front of her war wagon, Silvia, Grey, Azarus and I had retreated to our personal section of the camp near Gren’s lead wagon. There, we pulled up a few chairs around our firepit and started a conversation.
I hadn’t failed to notice that a few people among those Silvia had brought had followed us. Among them were the Gnoll, the possible Antium, and another human. For now, they were standing off to the side silently watching us.
Silvia had eschewed a chair and was sitting on the grass in front of Grey, leaning back on his wheelchair. Grey had his hands resting almost protectively on her shoulders. I didn’t think these two wanted to be separated again any time soon.
I coughed, a little embarrassed. “Ah,” I started awkwardly. The last time Sylvia and I had seen each other, she’d told me that she was going to be bringing a force back to Addersfield. Once there, they would do the hard work of freeing Grey and I, along with Azarus. The only problem was….
Well.
I’d reached a breaking point where I just couldn’t handle being in Addersfield for one more goddamn day. So, we’d done everything ourselves.
“Sorry?” I said insincerely. I wasn’t very sorry.
Sylvia shook her head. “No, no, It’s fine.” She said, smiling at me. She still wasn’t wearing the mask I’d typically seen her wearing, during our lessons before she had left. “Everything seems to have worked out well.” She reached up to grasp one of Grey’s hands lying on her shoulder and squeezed it. Grey returned the squeeze, gazing down at his adopted daughter lovingly.
“Yes,” Grey said, sounding more relaxed than I had ever heard from him. “Now, we just need to regroup and see what needs to be done to settle the unrest within the Kingdom.”
One of the people that had followed stepped forward at that, causing everyone’s attention to shift to him. It was the human. I didn’t fail to notice that this guy was the first real dark-skinned person I’d met so far on Vereden. Tall and lithe, he wasn’t kitted out as a warrior like the others. Rather, he was wearing a set of green and white robes, with a prominent seven-armed spiral stitched in gold on the front.
“Blessing of the Gyre upon you, Headmaster,” The man said, making an odd, but familiar gesture. He held up his right hand, palm facing us with his fingers tightly held together. Then he laid the index and pointer finger of his left hand across the bottom of his right palm. I furrowed my brow slightly, trying to remember where I had seen this before. After a moment, I remembered that Rachel had mentioned something before about a ‘Church of the Gyre’ and done the same thing. I’d totally forgotten about that, and had never remembered to follow up on whatever that was.
The man continued speaking, but what was odd was Grey’s reaction. Ever since the man had stepped forward, Grey’s eyes had snapped to him with an almost hungry slant to his gaze. “But, I believe we have more immediate concerns? There is the obvious…,” He trailed off awkwardly, gesturing to Grey’s non-existent legs. “Which I can assist with. However, there is still the matter of your bound Status. Young Miss Sylvia informed us that House Savoy succeeded in inflicting you with a slave bond?”
At those words, the Gnoll that was still standing off to the side let out an audible animalistic growl, while the possible Antium shifted slightly from his near statue-like pose. The near-perpetual smile that Sylvia had been sporting since her reunion with Grey dimmed slightly.
I think all of them were a little confused at the reaction of Grey, Azarus and I. Grey merely smiled at the others, while Azarus and I exchanged a pair of smirks. “That will not be an issue, Preceptor Eduard,” Grey said, amused. “You see, my slave bond has already been dealt with.” He raised a hand, palm to the sky. From that palm arose a representation of the moon, eclipsed. A sphere of swirling dark energy, Mana to my senses, with a ring of bright silver somehow surrounding the edges of it, no matter the angle you viewed it at.
The eyes of ‘Preceptor Eduard’ nearly bugged out of his head at the display of magic, but he didn’t get a chance to speak. The Gnoll instead lurched forward to stand in front of us with blatant shock evident on their vulpine features. “H-how,” The Gnoll said in a surprisingly feminine voice. Oh, she was female. I tried not to let my surprise show on my face, but I don't think she was paying the slightest attention to me. “How is this possible? Did you devise a way to break the slave bond, even in your own bound state?” There was naked hope evident in the Gnoll’s voice.
Grey shook his head. “A way to break the slave bond was created, yes. But not by me. Rather, it was the work of my new apprentice that saw us freed from bondage.” He said, gesturing to me. Four sets of eyes fell on me instantly, mostly with disbelief. I tried not to fidget under the weight of their gaze. “Everyone, this is Nathaniel Hart. I suspect he might become my Terminal Apprentice, so great is his potential.”
“Uh, hi,” I said to them awkwardly. “Just call me Nathan.”
The Gnoll took a stumbling step towards me. “Can…you do it again?” She asked me haltingly.
“Yesss?” I said to her slowly. I wasn’t even lying. I may have given away the original Bond Breaker to Bleddyn, but that hadn’t stopped me from making another in my free time. I was lucky that Azarus had grabbed the Enchantment blanks I hadn’t used yet when he was throwing together supplies from his house. You know, before he burned it to the ground. I’d been pretty relieved when I found the blanks rummaging through a bag.
You see, in my haste to let Bleddyn have the original, I’d overlooked the fact that he hadn’t freed all of the slaves before we left. There had still been a few stragglers that were bound and very upset by that fact. I’d been scrambling to put together another when I found the blanks. Once I had them back, I’d wasted no time in making two more Breakers to free who was left.
They hadn’t been very upset after that.
Actually, you know what. I had one on me.
Rummaging around in the pouch that I never took off anymore at the small of my back, I withdrew Bond Breaker number two. I held it up to the Gnoll. “This is what does it. Break the skin over the bond with one of these, press the activation rune, and bam! No more bond.”
The Gnoll, whose name I still didn’t know furrowed her brow at the oversized fork in my palm. “That…looks familiar…”
The Antium finally spoke up. “It is a Ward Breaker.” He said in an oddly flat tone of voice. The Gnoll turned to face him. He took a step forward, laying a concealed hand on the hilt of one of his swords. I tensed at his surprising reaction. “A weapon of terror.”
When the Gnoll turned to face me, it looked decidedly less friendly.
Before anything else could be said, Grey spoke up. “It is not, in fact, a Ward Breaker,” He said calmly. The Antium turned his head slightly in Grey’s direction while the Gnoll turned to face him completely. “Peace, Illuvia. Peace, Venix. I am aware of the similarities, and it is because the design of Nathan’s ‘Bond Breaker’ is based on the design of a Ward Breaker. In a feat of ingenuity, he turned the design of a weapon of terror,” He nodded at the Antium, apparently named ‘Venix’. “Into a weapon against it. I’ve examined the device closely, and feel quite foolish that I never saw the connection between both applications. It is quite capable of completely dissolving a Slave Bond, while being completely incapable of destroying even the weakest of Ward Stones.”
The Gnoll, ‘Illuvia’, relaxed at Grey’s words and directed an almost hungry look at my Breaker. Venix spoke up again, however. “And where did the human learn to create a Ward Breaker, in order to alter it?” He said evenly.
Grey somehow locked eyes with the Ant-man, even though his eyes were shrouded by his hat. “I taught him.” He said simply.
Venix was silent for a moment. “As you say, Grey-sworn.” He said simply, before stepping back.
Our group descended into a tense silence for a moment. I decided to break it. “Uh,” I said, causing everyone to look at me. I was looking at Illuvia, though. “You can have this one. You know, if you want.” I extended the Bond Breaker in my hand to her.
Her mouth parted in surprise, revealing a mouth full of extremely sharp-looking fangs. “You’re just giving away a device that can free slaves?”
Wouldn’t be the first time.
I shrugged, though. “They’re not hard to make, and I have another. I’m…not exactly looking to keep how to make these a secret, you know. If I have my way, there’ll be thousands of them across the continent by next year.”
Cheers, Bleddyn.
The Gnoll rocked back in surprise at my words, before extending a gauntleted hand to take the Breaker from me. She just gazed down at the large bident for a moment before looking up at me. “Thank you.” She eventually whispered.
Before another awkward silence could descend on us, ‘Preceptor Eduard’ spoke up again. “Praise be to the Gyre for this miracle.” He said fervently, making the symbol with his hands gain. “If you are no longer afflicted with such evil, then I can easily provide for you the reason Miss Silvia requested my services. A full regeneration of your missing limbs. I made sure to bring the necessary reagents.”
His words brought an air of unexpected anticipation to the group. Looking around, I found that the new arrivals, including Silvia, looked tense. But in a good way, as if they could barely restrain their enthusiasm for something. I looked around in confusion, but the Gnoll of our group provided the answer.
Illuvia looked up from the Bond Breaker I’d given her. “And then the Grand Marshal can put an end to this damn war once and for all.” She nearly hissed in anticipation.
Grey held up a hand, however. “There is, however, a problem. The Bond that I was afflicted with was so strong, and I possessed it for long enough, that my Status has yet to fully return to me. I am fine,” He said, raising his voice to cut off any queries. “As I am now, though, I fear I’m not much stronger than my dear Sylvia is. However, I’m confident that my strength will fully return to me in time. I can feel a little more of it, every day.”
That deflated the mood among the apparent rebels.
“Hmm,” Venix hummed enigmatically.
“I-I see,” Eduard said stumblingly. “Be that as it may, we can still perform the regeneration for you. We…can begin the procedure at any point.”
Grey patted Sylvia on the shoulder, causing her to wordlessly stand up from her seating position. He wheeled away from her over to the Preceptor. “Now, if you please.”
Somehow, I got the impression that wasn’t a request.
Preceptor Eduard didn’t seem to mind, though. “If you’ll follow me,” He murmured to Grey. “I have a station set up in our Ironclad, Headmaster.” I heard Eduard say, as the two of them walked and rolled away.
You know, I was always surprised at how easy it was for Grey to roll around on rough terrain like this. Especially in his bare-bones wooden wheelchair.
Guess I won’t be seeing that anymore. Good for you, Grey.
With Grey and Eduard gone, that just left Azarus and I with Sylvia, Venix, and Illuvia.
Sylvia spoke first. “I believe I’ll go and support father,” She told us. “He’s more than strong enough for it, but I’ve heard the procedure to regrow limbs for you…Organics can be quite painful.” She paused for a moment, before turning and addressing me. “Thank you again, Nathan. I’ll never forget what you’ve done for my family.” At that, she turned around and walked away, quickly catching up with Grey and Eduard. I was able to see the moment that she linked hands with Grey, unconcerned with the stares from the rest of the camp.
“Yeah,” I breathed. “No problem.” I shook my head slightly, before looking over at Illuvia and Venix. “So…I never got introduced to you guys.”
Illuvia had fallen to inspecting the Bond Breaker again, but my words knocked her out of it. “Ah, my apologies,” She said, bowing slightly. When she straightened up, I noticed that the Breaker had disappeared somewhere on her person. “I’m Vanguard Illuvia, of the Order of the Eclipsed Dawn. And that’s…” She trailed off, turning around to find that Venix was already walking away. “That’s Venix.” She finished, slightly exasperated.
“Nice to meet you,” I said, amused. “What’s his deal, anyway?”
“Oh, he’s sworn to the Grand Marshal in some way,” Illuvia replied, waving a hand seriously. “Neither of them will talk about how, but the going thought is that the Grand Marshall saved his life somehow.”
I nodded, before pausing. “Grand Marshall? What’s that about?”
Illuvia looked at me strangely, but answered anyway. “You…don’t know? Greycton of Hollow Hill isn’t only the Headmaster of the Academy of Mystic Arts.”
“He’s also the Grand Marshal of the Order of the Eclipsed Dawn.”
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