Discordant Note: Crescendo | TBATE

Chapter 293: The Scythe's Mistake

Thank you to my beta reader and editor, GlassThreads!

Toren Daen

I stepped out of the bathroom, feeling cold despite the fire mana clinging to my body. Thoughts of my oath—an oath I wasn't sure I could keep—stung my skin like needles, each syringe sinking deep into my veins and injecting liquid uncertainty there.

At my side, Aurora was silent. I'd closed off our bond for a time, unable to process all I felt in regard to Chul in her presence.

Instead, I allowed myself to listen and hear, using the neverending tumult of the war camps and rushing servants within this castle as a grounding beacon.

The entire upper floor—where Seris had stationed herself—was mostly empty of people. I could sense the mana signatures and heartbeats of a few familiar people as I strode with hunched shoulders through the cramped tunnels.

Lusul is here, I thought with surprise, sensing the young son of Named Blood Hercross further down below. Most of Seris' captains were here, too. Dromorth, Alyx, and a few others spoke in a room a ways away.

As I improved with my use of Sonar Pulse, it was getting easier and easier to craft full, three-dimensional images in my head of my surroundings. Each pulse of my heart sent out subtle weaves of sound magic that wouldn't even disturb a blade of grass, before the particles rebounded back to me.

Combined with my sense of heartfire and intent, it painted this entire castle—which was otherwise dark and decrepit from disuse—in a wash of mental color and life.

But there was a blank spot, somewhere far below. In the deepest reaches of this castle, before the stretching tunnels of Darv that wove like burrows in every direction, there was a place where my sound mana went and did not return. There, a perpetual blank spot welcomed my senses.

Powerful wards covered that place. The dungeons.

I was certain that if I tried, I could punch through those wards. I could tear them apart and know what was kept deep in those dark reaches.

But I didn't. I wouldn't.

When I returned to Seris, Cylrit was already waiting for me. In the time it had taken me to wash up and put on fresh clothes, he'd found himself another suit of black plate armor.

I almost chuckled in amusement upon seeing him in the familiar, inky black plate. It had no adornment or visible runes across the outside, unlike many of the gaudier attires I knew. It was strict, utilitarian, and denied anything that was not its purpose.

"Do you just have spare sets of the exact same armor lying around in storage?" I asked, amused despite myself.

Cylrit's eye twitched. "Do you have spare limbs to regrow in storage?"

I smiled sardonically. "I just might."

I slowly loped to the side, leaning against the far wall. I could sense Seris within her office, moving about and arranging papers and writing reports. She was a master of organization and bureaucracy in a way I could hardly fathom. Cylrit had given her his report barely a minute ago, and already my Scythe was sending out orders and restructuring her spies in response.

I allowed my eyes to close, my earlier exhaustion returning slightly. I dozed lightly as I leaned against the stones, waiting for what I knew was to come.

Seris finally opened the doors of her rooms. She strode out with perfect poise, her intent finally more even and controlled.

"I received a mission report from Cylrit that told me much of what transpired," Seris said, staring up at me. "But it seems something else takes the most precedent for you right now, outside of what else you need to tell me."