Chapter 23: Crisis of Faith

William slowly opened his eyes. It didn’t take long for the events leading up to this moment to return to him. With a soft groan, he carefully sat up and took stock of the situation.

He hadn’t been restrained and they hadn’t killed him so he suspected that these people were his saviors. Had they intended an interrogation, the circumstances would be very different. The room, or his cell, looked like that of a cheap inn, not too dissimilar from the room he had been held in previously. At least this one gave him ample room to move around in and it had one bed.

The only things missing were the book and the translated journal. Once the realization set in, panic seized him, but only briefly before he sat down with an exhausted sigh. It was probably for the best the book was gone anyway. He had grown tired of Lyndria’s game.

He thought back to Karl. Was he another of Lyndria’s lackeys or someone else’s? Who else had been compromised? How many people were watching him?

“Outplayed by a damn dragon,” he mumbled to his shadow on the floor. Julian had been right and he hated that the option never crossed his mind. Lyndria didn’t need to send spies if she was the shadowy leader organizing things in the background. If he had thought of that before moving forward, things would be different now. But it begged the question of her endgame if she already had a hand in all of this.

He decided that would be a question for another time. For now, he needed to know where he was, who captured him, and how could he get away in one piece.

It turned out the only door and window leading out of the room were both locked. The window provided a nice view of the town, but also revealed that it was too high to jump. And the scenery didn’t provide much information about where he was now. So to pass the time, William walked around the room and stretched his limbs, ignoring the low grumblings of his stomach.

He had no idea what time it was but given the sun had moved behind the building out of sight, he assumed late afternoon. It was then the door opened and to his surprise, Lady Lula Masterson walked in. She was unmistakable in her current getup, dressed like a woman about to go to war, and her hair still tied into the signature dry bun she always sported. He was so surprised to see her, that he stood rooted instead of showing courtesy.

She didn’t seem bothered by the matter and held out her hand. This was truly the Lady Masterson he knew; a woman who cared little for pleasantries and protocol.

“I’m glad to see you’re up and about, William,” she said sincerely. “I apologize for the roughness before. If I had known you were in that building, I would’ve ordered the men to keep an eye out for you.”

William continued to stare, unable to snap out of his stupor. Too many thoughts and revelations swirled about in his mind. Too many truths he couldn’t bear to acknowledge.

There were no chairs in the room, so Lady Masterson offered for William to sit on the bed. He remained standing, fighting the urge to dive out the window. Anything to get away from the current situation.

“William, are you all right?” Lady Masterson asked.

“You tell me,” William said with a dry croak. It was then he realized how parched he was but also found it didn’t matter. He would say his piece regardless. Either way, he didn’t trust Lady Masterson to give him the time. “Am I going to die here?”

“What are you talking about? Why would I harm you?”

“Don’t lie to me!”

Lady Masterson didn’t even flinch at the outburst. “William,” she said slowly and calmly. “It’s all right. You’re—”

“Shut up! Do you believe I’m stupid? I figured out the truth the moment you walked in here! How convenient that you arrived to rescue me when you did. You of all people.”

“It’s a coincidence, nothing more. One I thought you would be grateful for.”

“That’s what Cutter would want, isn’t it? However, I figured out her game. She keeps me alive as bait. At Osharese, she knew I would throw a wrench in Harold’s schemes and draw attention to myself. That allowed her free reign to do as she pleased. If anything went wrong, it was assumed I was involved or I was going to be. Then it happened again. I was kidnapped and the book retrieved—something I’m sure Cutter arranged. Once again, her enemies were too focused on their prize to consider anything else. Much like myself.”

“William—”

“I was far too focused on the mortal danger to acknowledge the convenience of it all. How did my kidnappers know exactly which wagon I was riding in? How did they manage to retrieve the tome before the dragons razed the entire prison to the ground? How did they overpower and outrun an entire caravan guarded by several dragons including Cutter herself? I did not consider that because I was too focused on my failings and saving my skin.”

He began pacing, never taking his eyes off Lady Masterson. She continued to stare at him without a hint of concern.

“Then there was the book,” he continued. “Cutter knew the secrets I would unlock would be too shocking to ignore. She knew I would want to get out of my predicament and share what I learned. And of course, my survival took priority. She knew that coupled with the despair of my failings would give her the perfect smokescreen.

“And now, here I am again. Conveniently rescued and alive. She expected I would be overjoyed by our reunion so I would not expect to be attacked again. But Cutter miscalculated. Julian revealed the truth to me before he died.”

At that, Lady Masterson’s face twitched. It was a subtle movement, one William would have missed had he not been focusing his attention on her. It was all he needed to see. He tucked that knowledge away for later.

“He said the dragons had full control of everything. That they didn’t need to send spies to do their dirty work because they already control the organizations! It all makes perfect sense! Cutter, Lyndria, they had decades or even centuries to found various organizations, working from the shadows to ensure the right people were put into power.”

“If that were true, why use you at all?” Lady Masterson asked. “If Cutter controlled everything, she wouldn’t need you.”

“I applaud the effort, but I won’t fall for it a second time. Cutter needs me because her involvement must remain hidden. And I know she intends to let me take the fall for all of this once I’ve outlived my usefulness. Well, I’m done playing her game.”

He turned and bolted towards the window. He hurled himself against the glass with all of his strength. Pain exploded across his body. Lights danced in his vision as he slumped to the floor. Everything hurt, especially his head which pounded worse than ever.

Over the sound of his groans, he heard the thud of Lady Masterson’s approaching steps. A few moments later, her boots appeared in his field of view.

“The glass is reinforced to prevent anyone from breaking in,” Lady Masterson said calmly. “I’m surprised you didn’t knock yourself out, but I’m betting you wished you had.”

William had no retort. His head hurt too much.

“And now that you’re quiet, I can tell you I don’t work for Cutter.”

He felt lightheaded on top of the throbbing headache. It wasn’t a good combination. Part of him wanted to be wrong. Wanted to just be lashing out and seeing ghosts. But he didn’t believe her. She knew something, but without hard evidence, she would die on that hill of denial. All the warnings came back. There was no winning. She controlled the game from the very start. He wished he had listened.

“So how do you explain your timing?” he asked softly.

“I had been investigating some rumors of dragon poachers operating out of this town. After some careful digging, we found their hideout and decided to drive out the bastards.”

“Really? You just happened to travel this far from Diamus’ borders?”

“We’re actually closer than you think and we’re still within Diamus’ borders.” She offered a hand to help him up which he refused. “But even if we weren’t, you know full well monsters like this are exactly why our species can’t get along. Someone had to deal with them.”

He slowly sat up. Her logic was sound, but he still didn’t believe it. Why did she come to oversee this operation specifically? It was something she was known to do occasionally, but she just happened to choose the one that involved him?

He wracked his mind for how to get out of this scenario. Her guard was up and now things were dangerous. If Cutter knew he couldn’t be deceived anymore, his life could be terminated early. For now it would be best to play along and stop behaving like a madman. The time to break free would come if he were patient enough.

“Can I have some water?” William asked with a dry croak. After drinking his fill of a tall cold glass of water, did he feel relaxed enough to speak.

He told her everything and left nothing out. Finding the book, the capture and interrogation of Cutter, what he learned of Lyndria, how his hasty actions led to the fall of the prison, Cutter’s deception, and lastly his capture by the poachers. If she was in on it, telling her changed nothing. If not, then he just informed a powerful ally.

Lady Masterson listened intently, her face an unreadable mask. When her face was unreadable it usually meant bad things. Surprisingly, William wasn’t worried. After all, he had survived already, what more could they do to him?

When he finished his tale, Lady Masterson permitted him to drink more of his water, then ordered some hard liquor. She drained one-third of the large decanter that had been brought in, William politely declined any, before she spoke again.

“You should have come to me,” she said.

“You told me I was on my own,” William replied. “The Scale Guild couldn’t show any involvement.”

“And that was a mistake. Cutter is clearly a very dangerous opponent.” She refilled her glass with more liquor. “But what worries me is Lyndria. When you first told me about her in Diamus, I thought she wasn’t real or dead.”

“She isn’t real.”

Lady Masterson raised a brow as she judged William over the lip of her glass. “And what gives you that impression?”

“The book—”

“Is using fiction to hide the truth,” she interjected firmly. “Cutter already proved that when she leveled an entire prison just to get her claws on some mystical artifact. I have to give Lyndria credit, by blurring the lines between fantasy and reality, she’s given herself more power and hidden who she really is in the process. It’s genius. She can operate freely and most people will simply write off anything she does as either fantasy or embellished.”

“You sound very sure of this.”

Lady Masterson’s eyes flashed. “I’m surprised you’re not. If you took a step back and analyzed the clues in front of us, it’s very clear. We have an old book stored securely in an ancient ruin. It reveals events of a time on which we have little information. Cutter herself seems intimately familiar with its contents. Lastly, Cutter has confirmed that at least one of the things the book mentions is accurate. If I had to guess, this was her plan from the beginning. How did you learn about this book again?”

William’s face flushed. “I didn’t. I was investigating rumors of a ruin that supposedly persisted through the Great Rebellion. A place like that was sure to contain valuable historical artifacts. I hoped to secure them and shed some light on our past before a collector stole them.”

“Do you know where this ruin is?”

“I did not visit it myself, but I have the coordinates.”

“Then let’s go.” When he stared at her, bewildered, she added, “That ruin is where this all started. That place holds some importance. We need to go back there and see what other secrets it holds.”

“What makes you so certain there is even anything there?”

“Cutter thought it important enough to store a very important book inside. That place matters to her.”

William nodded slowly. This didn’t feel like a trap. One of Cutter’s subordinates would have no interest in the ruin. Perhaps he could trust her after all.

“Before we depart, I must ask: did you recover the book and the translation during your raid?”

Lady Masterson paused in draining her cup. “I still have men sorting through what we found, but I did tell them to secure any documents or anything that could be used as evidence.”

“Excuse me, but I do not feel comfortable leaving it in their hands,” William said. “The contents of that book are too dangerous to spread around.”

“But Cutter didn’t seem to mind giving it to you.”

He didn’t care. That book meant something and Cutter directed him to it for a reason. That she hadn’t taken it or simply burned it, that she filled in parts of the story herself, he was supposed to have this knowledge, but what was meant to be done with it continued to elude him.

Thankfully, Lady Masterson didn’t argue the issue and led him downstairs to where the documents were being sorted. William started to take note of the building’s layout but soon learned there was no need. The building, while large, was too simplistic in design for anyone to get lost in.

Finding the book didn’t long since it was easily the oldest-looking book among the papers. Getting the translation notes took longer even more so because the papers weren’t all in a single book. Night had fallen by the time William felt comfortable saying they found them all.

It felt oddly comforting having the book back in his arms. All the unpleasantness aside, it was an amazing historical find, and it was likely the main reason he still lived.

“You’re very protective of that dusty old thing,” Lady Masterson said.

“If this book is true as you claim, it is the most significant historical find in recent memory,” William said, hugging the tome tighter. “It teaches us so much about the lost years of history and about dragons.”

“Which is exactly why I wonder why Cutter didn’t burn it when she had the chance.”

“It’s made of dragon leather. It doesn’t burn easily.”

She shrugged and replied, “Still had more than enough time to figure something out.”

“We will solve that mystery when we explore the ruins. There may be other books located there as well.”

Lady Masterson paused for a moment, her expression showing she was lost in thought. Then she continued, “But first, we need to bring this up to the rest of the leaders. No, scratch that. We should figure out what Cutter is after before we start involving others. She’s well-connected, so the fewer holes we have to worry about plugging up, the better.”

William nodded as he followed her. “Lead the way.” Inside he couldn’t help but notice that this felt exactly like Lyndria’s situation.