Discordant Note: Crescendo | TBATE

Chapter 274: Blindfire

Thank you to my beta reader and editor, GlassThreads!

Seris Vritra

The communication artifact in my hand pinged again, the effervescent red glow of light like the heat haze of a dwarven forge. The spherical device flashed once. Twice. Thrice.

I maintained a calm front as I stared at the fire, listening to the artifact ring. My fingers tapped across my legs, observing the low-burning fire in my rooms.

The sound of the artifact was much like a drumbeat if I listened closely enough. A thump, thump, thump that pulsed outward like the squeeze of a heart.

Cylrit has not reported to me, I thought with an undercurrent of worry. I should have heard from him. At least through the urgent line if something was amiss.

We had agreed-upon protocols in place for meetings such as the one I'd directed him toward. Cylrit was to negotiate with King Leywin on the removal of the Legacy's Vessel from this war, while also drawing Mawar into our clutches. But regardless of the outcome of my Retainer's mission, he should have sent word within several hours of his meeting. If he did not have access to his communication artifact or it was somehow damaged, there were arrangements in place for my Retainer to send word through less efficient means.

The worry that reared its head was not entirely unfamiliar. It was something I felt more and more as Toren seeped his molten touch closer to my heart. But all the same, I was practiced in such thoughts.

My communication artifact ceased its ringing, and so too did I feel my stomach clench in uncertainty. The flames in the hearth across from me dimmed, and each shadow seemed a little darker. I could not explain why. There was no logical thought behind it. But I felt a sort of cold spread along my veins like snowfall.

Worry without action will do you no good, Seris Vritra, I told myself, enforcing calm across my psyche. I did not allow my blood to freeze in my veins. You do not know enough to draw any conclusions.

I slowly stood, smoothing out my dark dress. I had several contingencies in place already depending on the possible outcomes. The best-case scenario was that Cylrit's artifact was somehow damaged or broken, but that meant that he would have faced some sort of battle or unforeseen scuffle.

I did not profile King Leywin as the sort to renege on a deal, I thought, pacing slowly. Taking into account the worst possible scenario–but also the one most likely–I might have been double-crossed by the once-king. The most likely possibility is that he has done something to capture and incapacitate Cylrit, but it would be anathema to his character to do so. At least without informing me first.

I had deduced easily enough that the newly crowned commander of the Triunion forces was parlaying for time. I suspected he did truly wish for Virion Eralith's health, but if he could buy a few months for his new 'gun' technology to develop and disperse across his military, the king would kill two birds with one stone.

Kill two birds with one stone, I thought with a subtle upturn of my lips. Strange, for that to be one of Toren's little quips from Earth, considering his phoenix heritage.

I shook my head slightly with a sigh of bare exasperation. I needed to stay focused.

In lieu of this understanding, I had tacitly agreed to stall my efforts on the northern front of this war. My spies reported that trenches were being dug all across Sapin's south in unending lines. Spikes and barbed wire had been laid down for a reason I couldn't yet comprehend.

But I had focused on the other fronts I had influence over. I'd begun granting Viessa more troops and supplies, subtly reinforcing her battlefields and diverting King Leywin's resources as I propped up her dying vanguard. My steamships conducted raids along Sapin's western and northern shores, darting in and ravaging military outposts and supply lines before retreating as fast as they'd come.