Chapter 34
In the aftermath of Rys’s spell, Avolar’s army scattered. Or tried to.
The League mages vanished like smoke, and Rys didn’t risk any more infernals to catch them. There had been dozens of them present, to say nothing of what Mave’s or Graem’s ability. Once Absolute Disruption wore off, they were as dangerous as before.
The return of sorcery didn’t restore the morale of Avolar’s soldiers, however. They began to surrender en masse, or simply run for the hills. Grigor rounded up everyone he could.
Just like with Compagnon, many of these soldiers would become citizens once Rys took over. Slaughtering all of them would only increase resentment.
In the Empire, some infernals had slaughtered everyone who opposed them. They had thought that would quell future rabble-rousers by instilling fear of consequences.
Then the angels incited riots and open rebellion and proved that theory wrong.
By making the consequences so high, the Empire had stopped weaker rebellions. But the anger remained and even grew. There was no outlet for it, and nothing for the infernals to clamp down on. Once it boiled over, the consequences had been catastrophic.
Ultimately, the entire Empire had been brought down. The dragons had wisely bided their time and played along until they had an opening. Then they had struck, and the angels had destroyed the portal, and that had been the end of everything.
Rys had no intention of failing in the same way. Many of these soldiers would hate him and oppose him when he took over. They’d form a movement and fight back, recruiting supporters.
That outlet of rage for his opponents was exactly what Rys needed for a newly conquered territory. Mina could prevent them from succeeding at anything important, preventing his enemies from achieving anything to celebrate. All the while, he’d improve Avolar and win over the hearts and minds of everyone else.
Then he could crush the rebels and start the process over again. Rinse and repeat, ensuring that he didn’t let any infestation fester for too long.
It was similar to the approach he wanted Alsia to take for the Kinadain. Rys needed to be careful not to step on her toes, as he wanted her to handle the dains from Avolar herself. But he planned to control Avolar.
In any case, Rys’s job at Lapisloch was done. Casting Absolute Disruption had consumed an immense amount of magical energy. He felt the reserves of power in the castle draining away and decided to leave. The spell had worn off by now, and everything was under control.
“Fara, I’m leaving. Are you going to stay here, or—” he began to ask.
“Don’t be stupid. Why would I stay here?” She gave him a look, as if to emphasize her opinion of his question. “Grigor has this in hand. I’m your… bodyguard? Right-hand fox?”
“You can come up with a fancy title. But I get it. You’re staying by my side,” Rys said, then held out his hand for her.
She took it, and he pulled her against him.
His fingers shifted against her skin as he fired off a sending to Grigor. The demon prince was now in command, and Rys would return to the palace.
Then he teleported away, leaving the craters, blood, and bodies of the battlefield behind.
This time, he didn’t overshoot. They appeared only a few hundred feet away from the palace. He and Fara retired to rest.
The cleanup after the battle took several days, and there would be even more to resolve over the coming weeks and months. Winning the battle was the easy part.
What truly needed attention was the region that Rys had just “protected” from Avolar. The fleeing soldiers needed to be rounded up; escorts provided to the residents of Lapisloch and their food supplies returned; damage repaired, especially to the roads—Avolar’s army had torn apart many villages and much of the town itself in anger.
If Rys intended to conquer Avolar, he would ignore Lapisloch and send Grigor north. The reinforcements from Torm Ridge were too few to win a battle. The war could be ended overnight, with two battles that crushed all of Avolar’s forces.
But like Rys had said, he preferred when prizes were presented to him. Taking Avolar by force was easy, but politically complicated.
Convincing the city-state to surrender would be a good test of Mina’s skills, anyway. Rys looked forward to the results, even if he had to step in himself, eventually.
As such, he ordered Grigor to focus on Lapisloch and its surrounds, and not to attack Torm Ridge. Avolar’s remaining soldiers clustered in their largest fortress—at least, those that hadn’t been captured or killed in the Battle of Lapisloch.
Nearly a week after the battle, Rys held a meeting with his cabinet. Grigor remained in Lapisloch, given it would take him most of a day to get over the mountains between the palace and the town.
Everybody else came in person, and the war room was busy once again.
Almost everyone surrounded Alsia, who looked the same as always. Rys sat with Fara, watching the women chatter.
“You’re sure you’re pregnant?” Vallis asked, staring at Alsia’s slim form.
“We’ve confirmed it with magic.” Alsia’s smile glowed. “It will be some time before others can see, but the infernals told me weeks ago.”
“Oh? They can see a soul already?” Maria asked.
Tyrisa huffed. “We don’t see souls, despite being called soulsight. We see concentrations of magic outside the material plane, and our minds understand patterns in them that you mortals cannot begin to conceive.”
“Ah, yes, emotions. The most ineffable and mysterious of all concepts.” Vallis rolled her eyes. “I always needed a devil to tell me when I feel sad or happy.”
The knowledge devil stuck her tongue out at Vallis, before saying, “But you can’t see emotions, and even if you could, you wouldn’t know what they are. Anyway, I can see that Alsia’s pregnant because there’s another source of magic inside of her.”
“You know, I was wondering how this all worked,” Mina said aloud as she poked Alsia’s stomach, provoking a giggle. “Is Alsia just creating a soul in her body?”
“You see, Mina, when a man and woman love each other very much—” Vallis began to say.
Mina’s tails attempted to suffocate Vallis, cutting off her next words.
“I’m asking about the metaphysical side, you idiot,” Mina said flatly. “Rys, how is life created?”
“You see, Mina—” he began to say.
She pouted at him, and her tails and ears flattened. Fara laughed when Rys paused.
Part of him wished that she had tried to hit him, like Fara would have. He should have known better. While Fara and Mina shared what appeared to be an almost familial feistiness, Mina melted around him while Fara would happily melt him.
“It’s complicated,” he said. “The biological process is related to the conception of a new soul and magical essence, however. We don’t fully understand the process, mostly because the creation of new souls and essences takes place outside Harrium itself.”
“So, you’re saying that pregnancy is basically magic, even to mages?” Fara summarized.
“A lot of magic isn’t well understood. If it was, then it wouldn’t be called magic.”
“That seems a bit cheap.”
“I was taught that magic is called ‘magic’ because it is fundamentally not understood. It’s possible to come up with working theories that describe non-magical behavior, such as physics. But one of the main types of magic—astral power—is based on individuals bending reality to their will.” He shrugged. “If nothing is consistent, then general laws and theorems can’t be created. Only vague understandings and a lot of trial and error.”
Tyrisa darted over to the table and picked up her tome. She began to scribble in it, then paused.
“I remember hearing once that infernals never successfully cast the mating ritual on Harrium,” she said. “Is that because it’s not well understood?”
Rys nodded. “Ariel had banned all future attempts, and even Malusian agreed. One of the few things they agreed on, given the price of failure. I know that part of the reason she hated Kauros so much was that he ignored her ban.”
“Kauros…” Fara muttered. “You said he was behind the creation of vampires?”
Wide eyes all around. Rys had forgotten he mentioned that, and that Fara had been the only person present.
“Yes. Also helldragons,” he said. “Kauros didn’t believe in barriers to experimentation, and given the ridiculous spells he knew, nobody could really stop him.”
“He reminds me a little of the Malus League,” Maria said, tilting her head. “I get the feeling you dislike Kauros.”
Rys grimaced. While he sometimes got an odd feeling in his missing memories about Kauros, his opinion of the archdevil ran much deeper.
“Kauros was both the perfect devil, and the antithesis of one,” he said, choosing his words carefully. “He was driven entirely by his own desires, became enormously powerful, and could never be trusted. At the same time, he didn’t care about power, social status, or enforcing his ideals on others. The Empire worked because the infernals at the top controlled those below them. Kauros never cared what others thought, unless he respected their intelligence.”
And even then, Rys doubted that mattered much. He had always steered clear of the archdevil out of an intense sense of unease.
“Ah, so he’s the anti-Rys.” Vallis nodded knowingly. “You only care about power, and knowledge is a tool for that. But he saw power as a tool to gain knowledge, and often did things that weakened his position. Right?”
“Hmm. I think I prefer power over knowledge,” Maria said.
“I never would have guessed,” Vallis muttered.
They moved on, although Rys took note of Fara’s thoughtful gaze. He hadn’t forgotten her promise to talk to him.
After a few snacks, which were of the usual grade served recently, they surrounded the map table. Fewer figures covered it. Both sides had taken losses.
“Grigor, go through our casualties,” Rys ordered.
“Although you are already aware of any infernals lost, I shall go through them for posterity,” Grigor said. “We lost no fewer than 30 demons, including five who suffered true death. That is nearly half our number. Two of them were noble demons.”
“They were banished,” Rys added, noting the pale faces of Vallis and his duchesses.
“Half your demons?” Maria breathed. “You’re not concerned?”
Grigor chuckled over the sending device. “This is a common occurrence in serious battle. Most of the casualties were caused by the Malus League, as they targeted our demons specifically.”
“What else?” Vallis asked. “You only talked about demons.”
“Six Ashen banished, two of which are dead. One Malakin banished,” the demon prince continued. “The rest are mortal casualties, and far more numerous. Hundreds wounded, and just shy of a hundred dead. The vast majority are from the Anceston levies, as the Kinadain were experienced enough to retreat before being slain.”
Alsia grimaced. “Yes, that has been noted. As disturbing as you may find it, the fact the dains suffered relatively little has kept morale high. This is considered a vindication of my decision to support you, Rys.”
“War is war,” he said.
“What about those dead from Anceston? I believe most were from the surrounding villages,” Maria asked.
“Provide their family—if they have one—a significant payment and condolences.”
“That’s quite generous, given how many perished,” Maria said cautiously.
“I’m trying to avoid riots right now. Most of them likely fought for money, so it might salve any wounds their family has. We can skimp on death payouts when we’re large enough to absorb the fury, or against an enemy that people are fighting for a different reason,” Rys explained.
“What happens if they’re still angry?” Vallis asked. “I don’t think a sack of coins will make everyone happy when they find out their husband or child is dead.”
“That’s why we apologize,” Rys said drily. “Somebody goes there personally and absorbs the anger for a bit. Humanizing the kingdom is important. Anyone who is still angry is just something we deal with. The point is to mitigate the problem.”
“I suppose it’s only a hundred,” Maria said. “I can only imagine how bad it is for Avolar. I understand they lost many more?”
“I have allowed the soldiers and locals to recover what bodies they can, but I suspect many of those who fled will perish in the frozen hills,” Grigor rumbled. “We slew many in the battle, but hundreds perished in their mad scramble to flee after Rys’s demonstration of power.”
“Yeah, uh, I can get that.” Vallis looked at Rys.
So did everybody else. Fear, respect, and lust warred in the eyes of the women staring at him.
“If you can turn off sorcery, why don’t you do that all the time?” Mina asked.
“Because it takes over a minute to cast the ritual, consumes a huge amount of energy, doesn’t stop every type of magic, and affects allies as well,” Rys said. “If my opponent survives the minute or two it lasts, then I’ve blown my trump card and set myself back a lot.”
“Damn. I thought you might have some sort of ‘I win’ card.”
“So, Avolar lost hundreds, with even more wounded, and most of them surrendered. What is the final estimate, Grigor?” Fara asked, redirecting the meeting to the main topic.
“We have over 1000 prisoners of war. Taras suspects fewer than 500 returned to Avolar,” Grigor said. “The total estimate of dead and missing is therefore over 1000, but we are scouring the region for them. I do not wish to lose a granary to a minor raid.”
That would be brutal work in the middle of winter, but Grigor’s caution came from centuries of experience. A small group could wreak enormous devastation through raiding and sabotage.
“That leaves the next step,” Rys said. “Mina, what is the situation in the city of Avolar itself?”
“Panic. Fury. Lots of finger pointing. Hyrie’s puppet, Count Rudolph Terraph, has been invaluable. The Kinadain elders who pushed for war are being blamed for everything, and he’s in there with a history of opposing war, pushing for peace, and a desire for economic reconstruction. Nobody suspects a thing.” Mina laughed.
“How much food do they have?” Vallis asked.
“That’s hard to estimate. I think they’ll start running lean before winter is over. The political fight is over whether they can hold out until the ice melts and ships can start docking again,” Mina said.
“So they’re not expecting supplies from the League?” Rys asked.
“Not publicly. Privately, the League has gone to ground. It’s now public knowledge that Avolar is working with the Malus League. That may or may not have something to do with me.” The fox grinned from ear to ear. “If the League starts bringing food in, I’ll be able to spot it. The city is in an uproar over siding with evil mages. The dains are on the verge of riots.”
“That is unsurprising. There must be fears of otherkin,” Alsia muttered. She sighed. “The Circle of Brethren have formally asked me if I have had any contact with the Malus League.”
“That’s an easy answer. No, except in battle against them,” Rys said.
Alsia nodded. “Yes, but that’s not why they are asking. If the Circle believes you to be involved with the League and that I know, then any denial will be considered a reason to strip me of my rank of Sage.”
“Will they need proof?” Rys asked.
“Officially, no. The Circle is opaque to all except Saints. But stripping me of my rank and denying me the status of elder would be a de facto declaration of war against you at present. The Circle’s support of the Federation is too well known.”
“I can’t imagine the Federation picking a fight with us while the League is still active,” Rys mused. “This feels like ammunition for the future.”
“I agree. For now, I am not answering. Instead, I will reach out to friends of mine in the Federation,” Alsia said.
“If the Circle is acting on behalf of the Federation, then we can convince them to support us directly. Smart. I like it.” Rys gave Alsia the go ahead.
“I have a similar issue,” Maria said. “But it is a positive one. Queen Faeris has pressed me again to meet with you. At the very least, she is concerned that the League is active again.”
“Tarmouth is also upset,” Vallis added. “The League stirred up a hive here.”
Rys looked around at his three administrators as something slowly dawned on him.
“Well, it seems we still have an ally in the League, after all,” he said, a smile rising to his face.
“What?” Fara said. “You’re talking about Mave? He just attacked us!”
“By intervening so publicly, the League just turned the entire archipelago against themselves. Their ability to support Avolar is crippled as well,” Rys explained. “Mave warned us about Avolar, then held back in the Labyrinth. This time, they played along in battle—possibly because they enjoyed it—but their actions harmed the League’s objectives.”
Mina brightened. “Oh! That explains why the Gorgrian intelligence network has started acting so strangely. I thought that might have been due to Queen Faeris, but Mave might have given the order himself.”
All eyes turned to the fox.
“I’ve been dealing with several spy networks so far. My own, my clan’s, the Gold Clan’s, and Gorgria’s,” Mina said. “It’s been a mess and I’ve had to rely heavily on Nia and the succubi because everyone else is so established in the region. But Gorgria has basically shut down now that the League has turned up. It spooked everyone else, and a lot of agents have gone to ground.”
“They’re worried that Gorgria knows something they don’t,” Rys noted to Mina’s agreement.
“So, what do we do, then?” Vallis asked. “Sounds like Avolar is falling apart.”
“Exactly what we planned. Mina, keep stoking the fires there. I doubt those in power will relinquish it, but if our puppet can gain enough support, then we can… grease the wheels of the revolution.” Rys chuckled. “Grigor, make sure you have an elite force in place to deploy to Avolar if Mina gives you the order.”
“Understood. I will have them ready for you, Mina,” Grigor said.
Mina’s eyes widened and she looked around the room. She pointed at herself. “Wait, I’ll be in charge of them?”
“Grigor is the general. You’re the spymaster,” Rys said. “I want Avolar delivered to me on a silver platter. Whatever resources you need, ask for. But it’s your job to take it. If they prove more stable than expected, we can attack them in spring.”
Mina gulped. “So I have until the end of winter…”
“That’s what you told me earlier.”
She nodded, then gave him a grin. “Then I’ll do you one better. I’ll give you the city and the traitorous spymaster. I can’t wait to see what you do to the fox.”
Interrogation, Rys imagined.
“In the meantime, I want to meet with Mave,” Rys said. “I feel we have much more in common than I suspected.”