Discordant Note: Crescendo | TBATE

Chapter 240: Torn Intent

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Toren Daen

I killed the rest of the Bastards Victorious before I set back for Burim. They were destined to die regardless of my actions: separate and alone in a dangerous land, all that awaited them was to succumb to the elements, a predator, or the edge of my blade.

I simply expedited the process.

I was confident Wolfrum had told them nothing of substance about Seris. After all, the knowledge he held was the only thing that made his survival worthwhile to the Vechorian mercenaries. He'd slowed them down and made them easier to track all throughout the hostile Glades, and it would have been far harder–if not impossible–to track them without Wolfrum in their party.

Wolfrum might have been a traitor, but he wasn't a complete idiot. He knew what made him valuable, what kept him alive amongst monsters.

The wind whipped across my hair as I flew on Aurora's back, her massive bronze form glinting in the morning light. Returning to Burim was far simpler than tracking the Bastards: all I needed to do was cut south and reach the ocean. After that, my bond and I flew westward with our prisoner clasped tightly in her mechanical talons as we made for our base of operations.

I didn't worry too much about being sighted. Aurora was exceptionally fast in the sky, and superiority over the waves was held by Alacrya with our steamships.

Currently, I was edging around the southern tips of the Grand Mountains as they pierced the clouds like spears. The Earthmother's Isle visibly swarmed with activity, even from the sky. I narrowed my eyes as I watched a dozen ironclad steamships coasting about, maintaining a perimeter and effective blockade against any Dicathian ships.

Many of these ships–and people–are no longer directly under Seris' control, I thought, noting Truacian colors flying from more than a few of the steamships. At the thought of Alacrya's northernmost Dominion, my mind slipped toward the Scythe I'd recently dueled.

Aurora flapped her wings, maintaining a hovering position as I stared down at the people below, all small as ants. Something was going on in the Beast Glades that I didn't understand. I remembered Bilal's words to his brother about a plan and about trees.

Something separate from what I'd call "canon," probably, I thought. But what? Does this change the plans to infiltrate Elenoir via sentry? By Circe Milview's spellform?

My hands gripped my bond's burnished feathers as my brow furrowed, these and a hundred more worries bouncing around in my skull.

"You will not be able to parse the meaning of all that was exchanged so easily," Aurora said over our bond kindly. "We have a mission right now, Toren. Let us see to its completion before we lose ourselves in our heads, hmm?"

I chuckled slightly. Yeah, you're right, I thought, forcing away questions about Viessa Vritra and everything I'd heard in the Beast Glades between Bilal and Bivran.

It didn't take long to reach the cliffs of Burim. The waters were still as always, a few steamships sitting tensely at the dwarven city's docks. And someone was already waiting for me in the sky.

Cylrit's impassive red eyes flicked to where Wolfrum was clasped in Aurora's massive talons. The traitor had elected to pass out from the whiplash of flight rather than remain conscious, and his arms hung weakly in the air like dangling branches.

I thought I could see Cylrit's impassive mask crack slightly as a slight smirk threatened to curve across his face, but then it was gone again.

"Hello, Cylrit. I'm sure you can see that my mission was a success," I said conversationally. My face darkened slightly, however, as I thought of what had happened after I'd found Wolfrum Redwater. "But I have more important things to report."