Chapter 30: Relegate

“Unfortunately, events are falling out faster than anticipated.”

Despite the early hour, Mistress Via’s face was still shrouded in darkness. Only the light from her own communication mirror lit up the curve of her lips and the sharp lines of her cheek bones. Rel still didn’t quite grasp the concept of the mirrors, the wonder of captured light. It remained yet another miracle.

In the back of Rel’s head, her skill chimed in, S-she’s waiting for y-you to say s-something…

Rel coughed. “Yes.” She cleared her throat. “Llen thought that Hawkwright would just take advantage of normal migration patterns to drive monsters towards Lady’s Port, but to hear that he’s capturing them outright…”

“I need you to focus more on our defenses.” Via shifted, her back pressed against roughly cut stone. “I’d come, but getting out of Silverwall right now would be a bit…tricky.”

“Then surely I should come to you, Mistress.”

Y-yeah. Lady Via needs our help.

Via rolled her eyes, whites flashing in the scant light. “Did you miss the part where the whole city is locked down?” Her lips twitched into a wan smile. “It wouldn’t surprise me if they have a small army watching Lady’s Port as well, after what happened last time.”

“We put their sentries to flight before—”

“Doing so again isn’t useful.” Lady Via’s expression hardened. “Right now, Hawkwright still thinks he can win with these ‘indirect’ attacks, but if he decides to just raise the militia and march the guardsmen down to Lady’s Port instead of bothering with all of this monster stampede nonsense…”

Rel ducked her head, pulling on a strand of her dark hair. “I thought you said he wouldn’t do that because of…” She stopped speaking when she made the connection.

“Because of Arlo?” Mistress gave a wry chuckle. “Yes, well, if I hadn’t just emasculated him in front of his most trusted guards, maybe that old man would have made some trouble for Hawkwright. As it stands now, I’d count myself lucky if he didn’t volunteer for the militia himself.”

B-but as long as M-mistress is still in S-silverwall…

Rel nodded once, unhappy. “But as long as you remain within his reach, he will try to capture you himself.”

“Got it in one!” Lady Via grinned. “Really, I’m not even mad that he decided to betray me, I was just hoping it would come at a better time.” She sighed. “Now everything is so… complicated.”

“All the more reason I should be at your side, my lady. Danger or no.”

“And leave who running my town, exactly?” Via raised an eyebrow.

Uuuwwww… Dream Sequence gave a discontented moan. It was a perfect summary of Rel’s own emotional state.

“Ishanti—”

“Can manage the defenses and our own militia on top of everything else?” A second brow joined the first. “And here I thought you were so upset with me for trying to take on too many responsibilities.”

“W-we’ve done a great deal to streamline all of our efforts!”

“Great. Capital.” Lady Via shook her head. “You’re going to need it, because we’re in crunch time.” She ran a hand through her hair. “I’m a bad boss, but I need you there right now.”

UUUUUUUUWW

Rel wilted. “I…understand.”

“Good.” Lady Via sighed. “Don’t worry about me, I’ve gotten out of worse scraps before.”

“The entire city is hunting you!”

Via only smiled. “One city? My darling, you should see my track record.”

This time Rel did blush. Via laughed quietly.

“You…talk differently now.”

“Do I?”

Rel nodded. “To me.”

Via tilted her head.

From the side, Rel heard Electra chime in with a muted ‘she’s got you there’

Rel stiffened.

She h-heard everything?

“Sorry, Rel.” Via noticed her embarrassment, because of course she did. “But privacy is hard to come by right about now.”

“Where are you, Mistress?”

“Hmm?” She smirked. “Hiding in a graveyard.” Rel blinked in surprise. “As for your other question,” Via continued, “I tend to get…tunnel vision about the things I care about.”

“You don’t say,” Electra muttered.

Via punched the other woman. “I suppose this is just one more of those things.”

“Oh.”

After a moment, Lady Via sighed. “I would love to spend more time focusing on this.” She made an abortive gesture to the space between Rel and herself. “But unfortunately, time is also in short supply right about now.”

Rel swallowed. “I understand, Mistress.”

It still stung, but the pain was eased by the direct admission that Lady Via cared.

“How many mirrors do we have?”

Rel straightened, running a quick hand down her arm. “Nearly a dozen. Maarin has…perfected a system to allow different mirrors to connect to each other, but it is complicated. And it requires a person to manage the connections.

“Yes, setting up a grapevine was always going to be the hardest part of this endeavor,” Via muttered. She looked up, meeting Rel’s eyes. “I’m going to need you to make something complicated for me as well.”

“For the mirrors?”

“Yes.” Via nodded. “This is the real reason I need you in Silverwall. No matter how detailed I make the instructions, you are the only one I trust to be able to implement them.” She pinched the bridge of her nose. “Also, we’re going to need a lot more than a dozen mirrors. This battle with Silverwall won’t be decided on a single axis.”

“How many mirrors?” Rel asked.

“How many feathers do we have?”

“Ah, quite more than we anticipated.”

Via cocked her head. “How many have you killed?”

Rel shook her head. “Ishanti and Llen determined a method to harvest the feathers without killing them.”

“How does that work?”

“Well…” Rel shrugged. “Ishanti took one as a pet, and realized that they shed feathers quite often. It is just a question of not…”

“Getting poisoned and dying.”

“Yes, that.”

Via gave a laugh. “About time something broke my way,” she said. “Get me as many as you can. One for each squad leader, each ranger.”

Rel bit her lip. “Understood.” That would be very many mirrors.

“I don’t know if I will make it back—” Rel’s heart caught in her chest, “—before Hawkwright marches on you, so I’m going to be relying on you quite a lot.”

“I wish you could rely on me to be by your side…”

Via smiled. “I forgot how cute you were when you were moping.”

Rel huffed, looking away, but she couldn’t stay mad for very long.

She k-keeps complimenting us~!

Rel had long since gotten used to having another voice in her head. Still, sometimes she wished she could lie to herself a little longer.

“There’s one last thing I need,” Lady Via said.

Rel sucked in a breath, before letting it out. “Name it, my lady.”

“Have the boys checked in?”

Rel nodded. “Once; they are posing as merchants.”

Via shook her head. “Better than I hoped. Tell them to keep their heads down and avoid the Tarnished if they can. I’ll approach them with those plans I mentioned, and then hopefully they can get out of town before things get too hot. They’ll need a sloop to pick them up.”

“Mistress, you need all the help you can get.”

“I have this dunderhead.” She pushed Electra, still just out of view of the mirror. “That’s more than I usually get.”

Electra poked her spike head of blonde hair in front of Lady Via. “Don’t worry, I’ll get your girl back to you in one piece.”

Rel nodded. “Please.”

“I’ll be fine, thank you very much.” Via shoved Electra back out of view. “We’ll talk more after I get out of this town alive.”

“You do have a plan for that, right, Mistress?”

Lady Via shrugged. “Ostensibly, Hawkwright doesn’t know I’m in his city, so it shouldn’t be too difficult.”

Rel frowned. “Unless Arlo…”

“Well, if he decides to team up with the law, then I’ve already lost. Right now, our only advantage is that Arlo wants to avoid drawing attention almost as much as we do.”

“Don’t jinx us!” Electra hissed.

Lady Via tossed her hair once. “We’re already trespassing in a graveyard, Elenor.”

“Yeah, but during the day, it doesn’t count!”

Via made eye contact with Rel, as if to say ‘look what I have to put up with.’

“And if Arlo does tell the guard you are in Silverwall?” Rel asked.

Via hummed, drumming her fingers against her cheek. “I have an idea or two. There are three ways past the walls, after all.”

“Three?”

Lady Via grinned. “Over, under, or through.”

Rel sighed, when that was all her lady was willing to share. “Please, take care.”

“I already said I would,” Via replied. “Now, unless you have something to share, the two of us need to catch some shut eye. It’s going to be a late night.”

Via shook her head. “Sleep well, Mistress.”

“Good night.” The woman’s lips curved up into a devilish smirk. “Or maybe ‘good morning’ is more appropriate.” Then, with a click the mirror went black. A second later, it shimmered once, before reflecting Rel’s face back like a perfectly normal mirror.

Rel gently closed her own mirror, the small circular case sitting lightly in her palm. She clenched her fingers tightly against the metal, knuckles turning white.

“That cannot be good for the enchantments.”

Rel’s head snapped up, and she was halfway to her feet before she saw Ishanti standing by the door. Rel sank back into the chair behind Via’s desk. She had been using the room in her Mistress’s stead, and the creak and crackle of the Lightning Mill had masked Ishanti’s approach.

“How long have you been standing there?”

Ishanti pondered that question for a moment, turning to look at the hummingbird perched on her raised finger. Where its feathers had started a deep emerald green, the edges had lightened to gold since Ishanti had taken it into her care.

“Not long.” The pale woman’s voice was quiet, with a princess’s decorum. “Enough to hear you planned to leave Lady’s Port.” She ran a hand through her long, silver hair. “I admit, it is heartening that both of my…benefactors are so willing to delegate power. It is a trait that the good Seneschal never embodied.”

Rel paused for a moment, before shaking her head. “How is your little friend?” She gestured towards the bird.

“He is doing well.” Ishanti raised her other hand to the hummingbird’s beak. It jabbed its head out, easily piercing her skin. The woman didn’t flinch as a drop of blood welled up from the skin, and the hummingbird eagerly lapped it up. “Ranger Llen was correct that they gained their venom from the flowers.” She pulled her hand away, and the tiny creature did not pursue, content to sit silently on Ishanti’s finger. “And quite intelligent as well.”

Rel nodded. “Smart enough not to bite the hand that feeds them.” She paused, eyes flicking to Ishanti. “Figuratively.”

“Yes, it has quite the parallels to my own situation.” Ishanti gave a vague smile. “I find it deeply amusing.”

Rel frowned. “Our Mistress would never—”

“I put little stock in what men and women ‘would never’ or ‘should always’ do.” Ishanti met Rel’s gaze, eyes flashing. “For such claims turn invariably false. For now, I am grateful for your lady’s patronage, and intend to repay it fully.”

Rel rose to her feet, slowly. “But you still think you’ve traded one cage for another.”

“Betimes.” Ishanti gave a languid shrug, earlier fire leaving her. “But then, I am well used to cages, and much prefer this one’s shape.” She reached out again, this time ruffling the hummingbird's chest, her finger nearly as large as its whole body. “Do you think my little friend feels the same?”

Rel shook her head.

“Ah, what a pity.” Ishanti turned. “I find most comforting, the knowledge of where one stands. I would share it with my pretty jewel.”

“Why did you come to see me,” Rel asked.

“Why, to see where I stand, of course,” Ishanti replied. “It seems we will be fighting a war, after all.”

“We will be fighting,” Rel said. “You seem less invested.”

“Did I not already explain myself?” Ishanti raised a brow. “Perhaps it is you, Relia, that does not know where she stands.”