Chapter 16 The Heart #4
Kraghtol hadn’t thought of that, and had an uneasy feeling growing in him. There was one explanation, but…
Wyrdroot chuckled in amusement before breaking out in laughter. “No, no, I could not. I was unable — impossible even.” A sharp look from the queen doused his madness, but the chuckle remained.
“You really want to know it all. Fine. You shall have your answers.” The demon behind her growled, but she gestured for him to back off.
“An alchemical seal like this can only be undone by someone carrying within them the seed of the Principe it was forged with. This seal was forged specifically to prevent me from breaking it, and only a human — or someone with human blood at least — could hope to shatter it. And that does not include my servant. He is but a Mandrake grown through a crack in the stone that I animated.”
Coldfire silence engulfed them like a blanket, broken only by the amusement of the queen’s servant.
Kraghtol felt dizzy from the revelation, but it made sense.
Everything from the miraculously fast healing to the way Wyrdroot talked and moved.
Even his name. And then, his eyes grew even wider.
The ‘revolutionaries’ who imprisoned the queen so many years ago hadn’t just built a prison; they had created a perfect confinement, in a perfect place.
The only creatures capable of reaching this place were the ones who couldn’t open the seal.
It needed someone like him — or the most unlikely alliance of races he could think of — to free her.
Suddenly, he felt cold. He had been used without his knowledge, for this very purpose, ever since he had left Mistpine. The queen’s gaze rested on his face, piercing it, and he might as well have had his doubts written on his forehead.
“Has… all of this been your doing? The potion? The expulsion? Virex’s death?” he croaked.
The queen shook her head, a slow and deliberate movement. “No. Wyrdroot’s potion allowed me to touch your mind. Send you dreams. But the effect has long since waned, and everything you have done, you have done yourself.”
That meant each of his failures had been his own. Kraghtol didn’t know if he should feel relieved or horrified. “But you used me. Manipulated me into coming here. Because you needed me to open that seal for you.”
The queen looked at him for a long moment, and Kraghtol could feel his friends’ gazes on him as well.
Finally, when she spoke, her voice was colder.
“I did not use you. Every single human could have broken the seal. I chose you. Because I saw your potential, Kraghtol, bastard of the beast. I was going to invite you to join my court, but now I see you don’t trust me.
You could have been the greatest alchemist who ever lived, under my guidance.
You could have been my general, my advisor, you and your friends alike.
But not like this. Without trust, there can be no obedience.
And without obedience, there is no place for you under me.
” She paused, and her voice became warmer when she continued.
“I will give you a chance to reconsider. Do you want to throw that all away? Every chance of greatness in my retinue? All you need to do is obey me, and trust me. Is that too high of a price?”
Kraghtol’s eyes darted from the submissive demons to the cackling Wyrdroot, the wide-eyed Dagna and, finally, Valir. The noble looked vulnerable and tired, worn out from everything that had happened. And still he had followed him here.
“I appreciate the offer,” he said slowly.
“And I have little doubt what you say is true. You possess a command of alchemy I have never seen before. Learning from you would be… all I’ve ever dreamed of.
” He hesitated and looked at Valir again.
“But I can’t. I have recently promised to be myself, and free.
What you are suggesting isn’t that. I would break that promise. ”
Valir shook his head. “Kragh, you don’t need —”
Kraghtol didn’t hear him out. “So, no. I can’t take your offer. As much as it tempts me, it’s not what I want to be.”
The queen looked straight at him once more, and this time, even Wyrdroot had stopped his cackling.
“I see,” she said, her voice cold and emotionless.
She didn’t sound angry. “I would have assumed you wiser, but alas; you shall have your way. I won’t force you.
Let us agree on one thing, though. If you don’t want to work with me, promise at the very least not to work against me.
We go separate ways, and you don’t interfere with my plans.
That is all I ask. In exchange — and as a token of goodwill for freeing me from my prison — I shall grant you my blessing, and promise not to hurt you. ”
She extended a hand, a gesture that seemed out of place, like her acknowledging him as an equal, not as a prospective servant. It wasn’t a hard decision. Kraghtol didn’t know what he wanted to do next, but leaving this swamp and its inhabitants behind sounded more than agreeable.
“Gladly,” he said and grabbed the extended hand.
In an instant, blue fire erupted around the handshake, rising to life without sound or heat.
The flames crawled up his arm, under his clothes until they settled on his chest, right above his heart.
A short, searing pain erupted as the contract mark burned itself into his green skin, and he could see the same happening on her right elbow.
It was different from the alchemical contract he sealed with Thalen Virex months ago in Winterstone.
The flames were purer, the sting stronger, and despite the total lack of ceremony — or Activator, as the observant part of Kraghtol noticed — this felt bigger, more serious.
There was more. The vast hall, the island of light, the demons and everyone else faded into the background, until only the queen and he remained.
Every doubt about her authority shattered away as he caught a tiny glimpse of her true self.
Terrifyingly powerful and filled with a burning chaos.
The same chaos he knew so very well himself and distilled into the rage that had burned within him for all of his life.
The queen wasn’t angry; he could feel it in that momentary connection.
A boundless tangle of potential and ideas emerged from the chaos, every new input shifting her focus to a new frontier.
She was juggling a million moves all at once with a mind so sharp it could cut steel.
It was unlike anything Kraghtol had ever experienced, and he felt small and insignificant in comparison.
No, he corrected himself. Not unlike anything. There was a haunting similarity to one memory. When he had touched the very essence of Chaos, the Principle of Chaos, in his dream, it had felt similar. Less focused then, less alive, but the essence was the same.
The raw Chaos of the queen was overwhelming.
It filled every sense of his until he could feel and taste nothing else and his mind was begging for his will to falter, to submit entirely to it.
He was defenseless, his throat laid bare to the queen’s every whim.
If she wanted, she could destroy him easily, erase what made him Kraghtol, and fill the empty shell with nothing but chaos and her indomitable will.
He felt his legs give way under him and he stumbled to his knees, looking up to the looming, gigantic form of the queen, exuding nothing but authority.
It was searingly bright around him, and the blue light cut hard shadows onto the queen’s chiseled face.
He still was clutching her hand, the only thing keeping him from falling to the ground in a whimpering mess.
The final blow didn’t come. The Chaos that engulfed him receded, but it didn’t wash away.
It seeped into his every pore, into his very being, changing him and filling him with…
something. It hurt like nothing he had ever known, and it thrilled him.
He could not, for the life of him, tell what was happening, but one by one, other sensations returned.
The surrounding brightness subsided. He could smell the swamp again.
Hear the shouts of his friends. He was really kneeling on the ground, but the queen was just smiling at him now, in an entirely unreadable way. The connection was gone.
He scurried to his feet, his whole body trembling.
When he retracted his hand, it was slick from sweat, and only when he felt himself bump into Valir did he stop tumbling backwards.
He barely noticed the human’s soothing hand on his upper arm when he swallowed, repeatedly, trying to find back his voice.
His face was wet from tears he hadn’t realized he’d cried.
He naturally leaned into the noble’s touch, seeking anything to ground him.
“What did you do to him?” shouted Dagna, with a face of fury.
“Nothing,” the queen said in the same icy voice, entirely unfazed by what just happened. “Nothing we didn’t agree on.”
“That was an alchemical contract,” Valir stated, half-explaining to Dagna, while he still held Kraghtol’s unsteady arm. “At least I think it was one. It looked nothing like when I enrolled in the school. But why?”
The last question was directed at the queen, who raised an eyebrow. “Why not? We made an agreement, and if he is not planning on breaking it, there’s no reason not to formalize it.”
“Well, if you do anything like that again, I —” Dagna started, but Kraghtol shook his head.
“Don’t. Don’t provoke her. It’s alright. I’m alright.” His voice sounded croaky, and he still couldn’t stop trembling. “We’re good.”
The queen lowered the arm she had half raised toward the dwarf, and smiled.
Kraghtol turned towards his friends, first Dagna and then Valir. He caught the hand of the latter with his own and squeezed it lightly. “We don’t get in her way, and she doesn’t get in ours. We’ll just… walk away. You won’t stop us, right?”
The queen looked surprised. “Stop you? What makes you think I’d do that? I’m going to help you. My servant will escort you safely to the edge of the swamp. And from there…”
Kraghtol could clearly see the cruel smile of superiority. “To the country border. My plans involve all of Wardenreach, and you surely wouldn’t want to interfere?”
He didn’t answer. The mark on his chest still pulsed faintly. It was Valir who broke the silence. “I’m with you. Wherever you need to go.” And Dagna nodded.