[Severed Divinity] 79. Impossible

Isen stared at Welco’s shadow puppet, which hadn’t noticed them exit the third floor lift. He reflexively activated shadow cloak and hoped that Allezin would trigger his own invisibility.

To his relief, Allezin caught on. Isen saw two tiny blue flares peeking out from within the invisible helmet. Allezin must have activated a technique to see Welco’s shadows.

Now that they knew the shadow mage was on this floor, catching up to him was only a matter of time, and there were a few ways the encounter could go. Isen could reveal himself, and only himself, now. He could alternatively reveal himself and Allezin. And finally, both he and Allezin could hide themselves until they found Welco’s physical body, assuming Isen could maintain his shadow cloak for long enough.

He had to decide fast.

Isen walked up to the warrior, standing on tiptoe, and whispered into the elf’s ear—or where his ear should be, beneath the helmet. “I’m going to reveal myself to Welco. Unless my safety is in question, do not show yourself.”

Allezin grasped Isen’s shoulder and squeezed. Swallowing, Isen approached the shadow puppet again. When he was only a few feet away, he pulled down his mask and dropped his shadow cloak.

“Welco,” Isen said. “We need to talk.”

***

Pretty much the last thing Welco expected was to see Isen in Lumina Eldrassin’s palace.

The boy appeared to be alone, but it was impossible for him to have come this far without assistance. Welco’s shadow puppets were fallible. Another could be present and using techniques to hide; Welco couldn’t know for sure unless he was physically there.

Maybe someone had kidnapped Isen and was going to blackmail Welco... But no, that didn’t make sense either. Welco was under no formal oath to protect Isen, and he hadn’t officially taken the boy on as a direct disciple. Moreover, who, aside from Allezin, even knew about Isen’s existence? Isen had entered Eldrassin City—and Clan Femera—less than a week ago. He was only a tier two.

Sure, Isen had heard the conversation between him and Allezin regarding the disastrous situation at hand and Lumina Eldrassin’s legacy... But nobody else should know about that.

Another possibility, that this Isen was merely an illusion created by an adversary, didn’t make sense for the same reasons. Who would form an illusion of Isen versus someone like Jorin or Kelsina?

Could Allezin somehow be involved in this?

It was possible, but unlikely. Allezin should be tracking down whoever killed the queen, or doing whatever else headstrong cultivators did to ease the monotony of existence. Anything, really, aside from breaking into the queen’s palace on the very night Welco unsealed the impenetrable vaulted doors.

He’d been so careful to hide his presence and mask his movements. A perk of his aspect. Nobody should have known he was here.

So how?

“Isen,” Welco said, plastering a fang-filled smile onto the shadow puppet. “Please excuse my language, but why the fuck are you here?”

“To save you,” Isen said, “and to save the city.” He walked as he spoke, continuing down the hallway.

The words should’ve sounded like insane dribble coming from the mouth of a prepubescent human hardly a month into the hollow ring stage... And yet. There was a bizarre gravity to them. Perhaps it was the boy’s bearing, the severe look in his eye. Maybe in the way he spoke. As Welco had noted before, Isen spoke to him with unusual familiarity, without the obsequiousness lower tiers reserved for their betters.

But even when Isen spoke to him now, it was slightly different. It almost felt like someone of his own tier, or higher, rebuking him. It shouldn’t have worked. It shouldn’t have made sense. But it did.

Welco’s laughter echoed from the puppet as the shadow construct zipped ahead, keeping abreast of the teen. “Bold words, but I’ll bite. Nothing about you, or this entire situation, makes sense. Please, fill in the blanks.”

Isen smiled, but it was a cold expression, unfit for a child. “Lumina Eldrassin is alive.”

Welco’s steps faltered, his puppet cocking its head. “That is impossible.”

“She was resurrected,” Isen continued, the words increasingly unbelievable, yet delivered with that unwavering gravity. “Saved by a vestige of the power she studied in her research to perfect the legacy you seek—a legacy that remains unfinished.” He smiled grimly. “You won’t find what you desire tonight. It doesn’t exist. Yet.”

“Did she send you here, then?” Welco asked. “Is that your explanation?”

Impossible, impossible, impossible. How could the ageless witch be alive?

Isen didn’t answer. He walked calmly, unfalteringly, even as more shadows appeared around him, following him through the corridors. He didn’t appear the least bit unnerved.

He doesn’t fear me because I agreed to protect him, Welco reasoned. The audacity. If Isen was a true threat, Welco wouldn’t hesitate to end him, promise or not. If Allezin asked after the boy, Welco would explain what happened.

The longer Isen walked, the more convinced Welco became that the boy was somehow homing in on his location. Isen should never have been in the palace before; he should’ve been lost, confused, unless the queen herself was feeding instructions into his ear. But for that to happen, she’d need to be physically present... and know where Welco was.

What if Lumina Eldrassin was physically present, though? If she had resurrected, Welco understood why she’d lay low. She’d lure out her enemies and destroy them.

He didn’t know if she’d win against Devon Aran, but he’d bet on her against the divine beast from the north. She probably had elemental superiority against the cold-dwelling monster. Regardless, if she chose to assassinate her enemies from within the palace, she’d be attacking with the upper hand, on her own turf.

Suddenly, Welco’s stomach clenched. Was all this a trap, and he the first, unlucky person to fall for it? If he were a drayavin, or an Aranite, would Lumina have already killed him?

But then... Why Isen? This whole situation implied advance knowledge that it would be him, Welco, who would come.

Welco stood still, waiting for the boy and his shadows to meet him, dread mounting in his chest.

Isen turned the final labyrinthine corridor and faced him.

“The queen has a proposition for you,” Isen said. “Join her in saving the city, and she will give you what you’re looking for—the means to reach tier five, should she succeed in her ongoing research.”

“Is there an alternative?”

“I don’t think she’ll kill you if you refuse her. Acting alone won’t be in your best interest, though—especially if Dray discovers your treachery against Celavee. You might get away with prototypes from the queen’s workshop, but they will only work on your subordinates. And as you said so bluntly to Allezin... Used on tier twos, without any assurance of reaching tier four, let alone tier three... the prototypes are useless.”

Welco weighed Isen’s words. If the queen was truly alive, working with her was the best choice, unless he wanted himself—and his clan—to be labeled as traitors to Eldrassin and, in the worst case scenario, exiled from the elven lands.

The queen might die in the conflict and renege on her side of the deal... but she’d already come back once. What if she could resurrect herself again?

What if she’d achieved pseudo tier-five immortality?

Welco hated Lumina Eldrassin’s self-assured superiority, the way her public acts of charity smothered how she belittled others in private. She was difficult to understand and considered almost everyone around her a waste of time to deal with. People were either interesting, or bugs.

He hadn’t mourned her. If anything, he’d cursed her for leaving behind such an awful mess.

That said, if there was really a chance to gain her assistance, her favor, it might be invaluable for his path to eternity. Maybe she saw something in him for her to approach at all. Or maybe Isen had spoken on his behalf, as crazy as that sounded.

“If everything you’ve spoken is true, then I agree,” Welco finally said.

Isen cocked his head. “You agree to join the queen’s allies for the purpose of saving the city?”

“Yes,” Welco bit out.

Isen smiled. “Good. Then let’s loot the prototypes and get out.”

Welco gaped. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d actually dropped his jaw at anything.

“... Loot?”

“Your original plan, or at least part of it,” Isen said, “except instead of you running off with the prototypes, Allezin takes them instead.”

“Allezin?”

Welco’s brow furrowed as the spear-wielding brute stepped out from around the corner. Of course the Wanderer had a way to shield himself from Welco’s puppets. Full invisibility couldn’t be cheap, though—Allezin could probably only use the enchantment occasionally, and for short durations.

The warrior’s helmet hid all expression from view, but Welco could sense the shadows underneath. He was tight-lipped and tense.

Welco took an instinctive step back. Against Allezin, he was in serious trouble. Mages were more powerful at a distance and when given time to prepare, but in close quarters? The warrior would spear him through.

At once, Welco realized the stroke of genius in Isen keeping Allezin hidden until after he agreed. If Isen had revealed Allezin before, Welco might have fled. Even if Welco had heard them out about the queen being alive, the threat of the tier three cultivator would have eliminated the illusion of choice.

Welco wouldn’t have felt like the decision was his own.

He looked at the teen again, scrutinizing his youthful features. “Why do we need to loot the queen’s palace? Can’t she do it herself?”

Allezin replied, his voice clipped, emotionless, though his jaw was clenched in annoyance. “The queen’s new body is unrecognized by her wards.”

Welco covered his lower jaw with a hand. “You mean, you actually need...” He reached for the cosmovault hidden in his robes, pulled it out, and activated the mechanism. The golden sphere turned transparent, revealing its contents. This one didn’t provide spatial compression, but it did preserve anything placed inside, including biological matter.

Isen’s breath hitched as he viewed the sphere’s contents—Lumina Eldrassin’s eye and index finger.

Now that was how Welco expected a kid his age to act. It was the first sign that he was really Isen and not some magical doppelganger.

Suddenly, Allezin stood before the mage and held out his gauntleted hand. What he wanted was obvious, but Welco was reluctant to part with the artifact. The eye and finger were beyond valuable after the queen’s passing, in particular because if they were degraded in any way they wouldn’t work.

Whoever had killed Lumina Eldrassin had come prepared. They’d probably severed her finger and torn out her eye within seconds of the woman’s death and promptly deposited them into stasis. The clean cut on her finger indicated that whoever harvested her organs had used an extremely sharp implement, one that cut through passive defenses and her body. The blade must have been divine.

Lumina Eldrassin was a mage, but she was still a tier four. Her body wasn’t as hardy as a cultivator’s, but it wouldn’t decay after her death. However, Welco was fairly confident Dray agents had stolen a piece of the queen’s body before its cremation and were unable to enter the palace. In contrast, the preserved body parts worked well. There must be something lost in death, then.

Welco couldn’t tell where the cosmovault had come from, and Dray hadn’t been forthcoming. The mage had worried that the cosmovault’s original owner had already entered the palace, but all signs pointed to Welco being the first inside.

“Can I at least keep the cosmovault?” Welco asked. With Lumina Eldrassina and Allezin involved, he felt no guilt wringing every benefit he could out of the situation.

Welco sensed Allezin’s eyes narrow beneath his helmet. “When its contents are no longer needed.”

The mage forced a smile and placed the artifact in Allezin’s hand.

Tonight, the game had changed. Welco just hoped he’d chosen the winning side.