Chapter 205: Sovereign of Conceit pt.1
Did Sey and I waste time having more than a little fun?
…Probably.
I’m gonna regret this, aren’t I?
When we emerged from the… enlarged cave system, Quiraxa was waiting for us, dressed to the nines in a flowing suit. The way she’d been peering into the cave, tails up and neck tilted forward, I had a distinct impression she may have been listening.
I rubbed one hand on the back of my head, thankful for my wondrous magic armor. “So, uh, did you—”
Seyari elbowed me, and it hurt even through my armor.
“Does your Sovereign wish to meet us?”
Quiraxa raised one eyebrow, having already shifted back into a prim and proper posture. “You will follow me to her castle.”
On one hand, we needed to get back to Astrye. On another hand, we ought not to piss off our ancient and powerful southern neighbors when I was already on thin ice with the humans of my homeland.
Seyari fixed me with a “you say it so I can tell you I disagreed when it all goes wrong” look and I half-forced a smile.
“We would be honored.”
“Certainly.” Quiraxa spun, kicking up a plume of snow. “I will not suffer the indignity of being carried.”
In response, I bared my teeth. “Run fast then.”
A glare of challenge was the pride demon’s only response before she took off at a dead sprint. I’d seen humans run plenty of times—the fittest and strongest amongst them. Seyari with her wind magic and before our vow included. I’d fought greater demons of several flavors moving as fast as they could.
Quiraxa made them look slow. Long, hooved strides on a flat plain of compact snow tore up a small cloud of ice crystals leading to a shrinking blue speck. Seyari took off first with a whoop that jolted me into action next.
Unfortunately for Quiraxa, as fast as she was, she couldn’t outspeed on land a Sovereign Demon and her wife in the air. But it was a near thing; near enough that I didn’t dare to make good on my threat for whatever miniscule time it might save.
More than anything, I knew now why Quiraxa was the Sovereign of Pride’s chosen messenger. Is it pride or conceit? I suppose if the Sovereign calls it “Pride” then that’s the final word.
Meeting Utraxia instilled no small amount of fear in me. I knew about how strong I was now, and the thought of someone much older and much stronger… Sovereigns were monsters. At least in some sense.
Beside me, Sey was quiet, but I could feel her magic, pushing and testing the wind around us and pulling both me and her into a slipstream. We had no problem keeping up with Quiraxa as we were, but I gave her a cordial nod instead of a cheeky smile when she looked back up at us.
I reserved that smile for Seyari. She flashed her own sharp incisors back at me and I felt my cheeks heat up despite our recent escapade.
Soon the plain folded into rising undulations, glaciers filling the valleys. Over shining blue crevasses, Quiraxa jumped with nimble confidence. Seyari’s magic intensified, and I could feel myself how unstable the frigid winds were up here. We’re heading even further south.
Just in case, I let my wife take the lead and followed her crimson feathers while keeping one eye downward. When the folds turned to mountains, we lifted up and Quiraxa hardly slowed up the slopes.
Windswept rock, snow, glacier, more rock. Hours passed and I began to wonder just how large the Sovereign of Pride’s demesne truly was when the mountains before us rose up like an icy wall.
One immense mountain topped all the others, surrounded by sub-peaks and lined with ancient-looking glaciers. Its top was truncated, lopsided, and jagged. Not just with rock but great spears of ice.
Quiraxa moved through a gap I belatedly realized was a massive gate and into a garden of ice sculptures. Several grand buildings of stone paled in comparison to the towering, many-turreted castle that rose out of the center. Like something out of a fairy tale, it was made of deep blue ice.
And the magic was so thick it felt like I’d been doused in syrup.
Another moat of glittering ice spikes surrounded this inner castle, and Quiraxa stopped in the square outside just as the drawbridge—also ice, including the chains—began to lower.
We had a crowd as well, all demons. Some looked similar to Quiraxa, and some had a centaur-like body shape that tickled some faint memory I couldn’t put my finger on. Particularly the larger ones that stood across the moat in glittering armor, flanking the fairytale-villain-looking castle’s spiky moat. All the demons were dressed well, and even if I couldn’t sense the emotion, the contempt they radiated was obvious. I forced my chin high, content to hold the higher moral ground even as the appraising looks at me turned to glares at Seyari. Glares and quickly rising fury.
Doubtless they could sense what she was, and doubtless they hated it. Quiraxa opened her mouth and drew breath to speak when I felt a flash of stronger wrath from the crowd. Quick as I could, I dashed behind Quiraxa and threw up two hands to shield my wife.
Fast as I was, she was only a second behind, wings and magic flaring.
No attack came, only a… wet spot.
I looked down; spit rolled in a thick glob down my hand, between the fingers. Repulsive. Through a veil of fire I looked for the demon who’d dared to spit Seyari.
“Please welcome,” Quiraxa said just loud enough for me to care, her voice strained, “the Sovereign of Wrath, Zarenna, and her wife, the Angel of Wrath, Seyari.”
Did we tell her that name? Not the time, I reminded myself. Still, it was enough to hold my hand for now, though I burned the spit away with enough heat to damage the magic ice we stood on.
Immediately, the crowd parted around one of the blue-skinned tauric demons. They already knew what I was, some paled, and a few sneered. Including the large blue woman who’d spit.
Seyari walked past me with a sidelong look that said “they’re mine.”
I looked rapidly between our guide and Seyari who was now at the edge of the crowd, her steps purposeful and magic building enough to distort the air.
“Please limit the damage you cause,” was all Quiraxa said, disgust written on her face.
Seyari wound up a hand, a fireball forming, and the demon opposing her bent her forelegs and tensed, claws coming alive with hissing frost.
I blinked and an ice spike taller than I was erupted through the offending demon. Blood sprayed in a fountain and the body twitched on the spike as the crowd rapidly dispersed. Movement lit up my periphery, and along with the fading magic came a new sort of pressure.
Seyari snapped her head up and I followed. Riding down from the castle on an icy wind was an immense, statuesque demon. She wore ornate robes on her upper body and barding on the lower, all in whites and blues and gold. Gold that matched her eyes and blue that brought out the depths of her skin’s glow.
She landed on four-clawed paws, wild white hair gathering into gold-capped braids and a whiplike, blade-tipped tail waving behind her. A shallow smirk played across her features, and I didn’t need to see the aura to know who this was.
Even without aura sight active, I could taste the chill of her aura. A gleaming gem sat centered on her forehead almost like a third eye: a marquise cut gem, blue like a glacier. She was so tall that I had to tilt my neck up to look.
Utraxia, Sovereign of Pride. Or conceit.
She shifted down in what might have been a bow of greeting and spoke behind a mouth full of teeth more terrifying than my own, if only for their size.
“Sovereign of Wrath, I offer my sincerest gratitude for your help. A pity that your greeting was marred by incident.” Her words were Ordian, with an unplaceable accent. “Should you be ill-informed, I am Utraxia, Sovereign of Pride.” And with an inclination of her horned head, she acknowledged Seyari as well.
Not quite textbook; she predated the textbook. Briefly, I thought of my etiquette tutor, and I sent him well wishes for making sure I didn’t misinterpret or step out of line.
Because behind that smirk, Utraxia radiated a fury I could taste. Not at us, surely not at us.
The body behind her attested to that, and it was also as unsubtle a warning as could be had. Which was thankfully enough for Seyari.
“You’re welcome. And well met,” my wife said in an even, flat tone.
I almost jumped in hurriedly, but I took a moment, just one moment to think. Stoicism was needed; Utraxia was almost certainly a humorless, ancient being.
“Our apologies that our prey trespassed in your demesne.” I bowed deeper—I hoped—than Utraxia had. “Truthfully, your information was a boon toward finding and exterminating them.”
Don’t mention the exploded mountain. Volcanoes do that, it’s very pretty, and it most assuredly should not be cause for concern from one of hopefully fewer than half a dozen beings on the mortal plane who entirely outclassed me in terms of raw power.
I also didn’t mention the spit or the body. Best to just remain quietly horrified at how incredibly unbothered I was by the violence.
“Quiraxa, show them inside,” Utraxia boomed, then turned to us. “I will be with you shortly.”
I expected the few remaining watchers to flee, but instead they held their chins up almost like soldiers at attention.
Quiraxa beckoned, and Seyari and I followed. Seyari in particular looked back at Utraxia, and I shared some of her anger.
“I am not some porcelain doll who cannot take her own action,” Seyari hissed.
“I know!” I winced, then winced again as I felt a sharp pain through a long, dim connection.
“I know you know…” She hissed out the rest of her breath, then drew in slowly, letting the wind guide her next words quietly. “Let’s hope we have reason not to linger.”
For a moment, I didn’t reply. I didn’t see the portcullis and the guards and the grand entranceway we surely passed through as I stared at the meticulously carved floor and felt for Nelys through my connection.
They were hurt, suddenly and badly. Is Astrye under attack already?
Uncaring if I alerted Quiraxa who was walking ahead of us with stiff steps, I pushed power through my connection with Nelys. As per the initial contract, they had two percent of my power when we made the pact. Of course, I could choose whether to update that amount or not.
I knew they didn’t want city-destroying power—as if two percent of my strength was enough to burn more than a hamlet—but I also didn’t want them to die and I could probably take it back. So I shoved power through a connection I didn’t know to a friend in dire need and desperately hoped it’d be enough to turn the tide.
“Renna?” Sey hissed again, and I realized we’d stopped in front of a door so tall and wide it made me feel like a child.
“Nelys just got hurt badly.” I didn’t bother to hide my words from Quiraxa. “I don’t mean to offend, but our home might be under attack, and I’ve vassals to protect.”
Quiraxa looked at me and for the first time I saw a bit of fear in her eyes.
Damn it all. We can’t risk offending Utraxia.
“We will meet as promised,” I reassured, “but we ought to leave quickly—I don’t know if we could accept an offer to stay the night.”
Quiraxa blinked, straightening herself and resuming a stoic demeanor. “...Very well. Fulfillment of promises is of the utmost import.” She opened the immense door with apparent ease. “Please make yourselves comfortable. Mistress Utraxia will be with you shortly.”
I don’t know why I expected austerity. Perhaps because of all the ice and snow and the simplicity of the land around Utraxia’s seat of power. This room was anything but. Cushions and lounges in a variety of shapes and sizes surrounded low tables while magic light in soft shades of blue and purple combined with the winter light coming in from floor-to-ceiling windows to create an almost dreamlike atmosphere.
My wife sat down primly on a lounge. I crashed face-first into a pile of cushions bigger than our bed at the castle. Behind us, Quiraxa softly closed the door.
Seyari sighed in an an all-too-familiar way.
I lifted my head so my voice wouldn’t be muffled by silky comfort. “She told us to make ourselves comfortable.” I patted some of the pillows next to me with two arms and a tail. “Come on!”
I could practically hear her roll her eyes, but a weight landed next to me with a poomf not two seconds later.
“See…” I mumbled into the pillow.
The reply I received was a hum and a wing over both of us. Shortly, we’d be taking flight at full speed for hours, then we’d probably have to fight an army of something. But now, in this moment, there was nothing to do but melt into a pile of pillows and Dhias did I need every second of it.