Blood Bond

By the time we made it to the slums, I had changed into the dress that Tamas had gotten from my chambers. I'd asked for something simple, which I should have known he'd interpret as merely anything without a train. The dress wasn't puffy, but it had layers of black frills and intricate needle work. At least it was red, deep red.

I'd only had time for a quick wipe, not a proper bath, and I was grimly aware that the deep red fabric probably matched the leftover flecks of dried blood still clinging to me.

I looked over at Tamas, narrowing my eyes beneath the large hood that covered my head. Did he choose this dress because I had worn red when I danced with him?

Tamas sensed me looking and arched an eyebrow back at me.

"I asked for simple, as in light. This is too heavy to fight in," I snapped at him.

"I think that's the point." He shot Kael, who had been silent the entire time, a conspiratorial grin. When Kael didn't respond, Tamas nudged Cassian who was clutching the sword I'd made for him. "Don't worry, you got plenty of swords at your beck and call."

"Why are we here anyways?" Serine whined, wrinkling her nose. Her eyes surveyed the huddled figures by the smoldering fires before quickly darting away. The usual smell of rot and excrement suffused the air.

"I have to deliver something. You can still leave if you want to. Where we're going will smell much worse than this."

Serine huffed, shooting me a defiant glare before snapping her head away and hurrying over to Cassian's side.

Even with my face shrouded by a cloak and hood, Celrian spotted me the instant we got close to Scrap Crow's tent. Though I suppose I was the only one all covered up.

"Your Highness." He rushed over and got down on his knees before me, several other urchins followed his lead. Kael stiffened, edging in front of me. All other eyes turned to me. Serine looked confused, while Cassian looked stunned. He frowned at Celrian.

Did he not approve of me mixing with commoners? Well, I don't care what he thinks.

I brushed Kael aside and helped Celrian to his feet. He was hesitant to take my hand, but his eyes widened when he peered beneath my hood.

"I'm fine," I insisted before he could say anything. I waved the servants pulling a cart behind me forward. "Here are some provisions for your sister and those taking shelter outside."

Celrian had a dazed look in his eyes as he beheld the stacks of wrapped rations on the cart. I dropped a pouch in his hand. "This is the pouch with the beads that I mentioned before." I pulled him downward by his arm and leveled my gaze with his. "If you can't find a way in, just leave it. It's not worth getting hurt over."

I only released Celrian once he gave me a firm nod. As he backed away, I noticed Cassian glaring at him, his jaw tight with an unreadable expression.

I gestured to figure in the purple robe behind me. "Master Alarc, this is Celrian, the kid that I mentioned. He can sneak you out of the city once our task is done."

It was my last possible gamble. Theron had been one of Alarc's pupils. Please, convince him!

Master Alarc acknowledged the plea in my eyes. "I will scold the boy the best I can. He'll see the light."

—

Drip… Drip…

Small drops rippled upon the murky stream as an elf patrolled the walkway beside it. He stopped at a T junction in the sewer tunnels and grimaced at the foul wind that blew out of the side tunnel.

He covered his nose in the crook of one arm, but as he did so, his boot stepped on a spike in the ground.

"Ouch!" He jerked his boot back, hopping on one leg.

After the pain subsided, he lowered his foot gingerly back down and crouched, sweeping his glow lamp over the slick, damp ground. The beam of light revealed a dead rat, lying sideways in a congealing pool of its own blood. His eyes caught sight of the spike he had stepped on. It was green like a large thorn from a plant that had somehow managed to sprout from the cobbled ground. The thorn was coated with blood. His eyes drifted lower and found that his boots were standing in the same blood.

THUMP!

My blood consumed his, spreading up through the veins running along his leg. His heart stuttered, then pumped my blood outwards. My blood flooded his brain. The elf slowly stood back up under my control.

"Hey, over here. I've found something," I called out through the elf's lips. My practice with Becker had paid off.

Several figures appeared, sauntering lazily through the dark tunnel. "Yeah, what is it?" one of them growled in annoyance.

Meris materialized from the shadows behind one of them, while Kael moved with silent steps behind another.

A blur of movement, a clamor of bodies hitting the ground, and the cry of alarm and pain that was instantly cut off. Then silence.

"That was too easy," Serine announced as she dusted her hands together, looking far too proud of herself. I resisted the urge to point out that all she'd done was knock out an already distracted elf with the hilt of her sword.

I turned my attention to the large, dull gray sphere resting against the tunnel wall. Its matted, non-reflective surface reminded me of military hardware from Earth—a texture and color that felt utterly alien in this world. I waved the others back. "Okay, like we agreed. I will take a look first."

We had discussed this beforehand. It had taken threats and, admittedly, a tantrum on my part, but I'd finally convinced Meris and Kael to remain behind Master Alarc and his prepared magic shield.

I approached it with hesitant steps, my heart hammering against my ribs. I may have survived one impossible blast, but I knew there'd be nothing left of me if this one went off.

My hands trembled as they hovered over the spherical surface.

What am I doing here?! I had looked up nuclear bombs and how they worked online but that didn't mean I knew how to disable them. Have I gone insane!

A few deep breaths to calm my nerves and I sank down into my Soul Seed through my blood. From there I reached out into the sphere through the molecular view.

Inside, I found another sphere, a dense orb packed with large atoms. This must be the Tamper. It was a thick shell, likely made of natural uranium, designed to hold the enriched core. It had one singular purpose: to focus the blast inward and ignite the nuclear chain reaction.

The atoms looked immense. This has to be a nuke. My heartbeats slammed against my throat.

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How did the elves get a hold of enriched uranium?

Red-tinged crystals dotted the surface of the orb. Those must be fire-affinity magic stones that they are using in place of conventional explosives. I examined them more closely and found channels of bright mana flowing between them. It was like the mana lines circuit boards in Astrid's manacles, except these were far more complex, crisscrossing each other like a giant web.

Another memory from my research online surfaced: dead man's switches. I had the sinking feeling the elves might use them here. If so, simply cutting one of these channels could short-circuit the whole device and trigger the detonation.

I zoomed back out over the intricate contraption. Wait a minute: those fire-affinity crystals, they are just magic batteries right? I remember how I had drawn on the dark-affinity crystal from Alarc's manacle to power my vorpal fang until it grew dull. So I could drain the magic stones themselves dry. I just need something to feed it to, and I have the perfect thing.

Feeling giddy at my epiphany, I scrambled over to the group huddled behind Master Alarc.

"Kael, you got my magic stone?" He dug the large red crystal from the satchel and handed it off to me.

I studied the faceted crystal in my hand. Hope had retrieved it from a flame-breathing monster; originally, it was just a backup, but it might prove essential now.

I turned to Tamas, raising the crystal to him. "You are a fire caster, right? I saw you throw up those walls. Can you drain this magic stone?"

"I can…" he gazed warily over at the dull grey sphere. "But it's probably best not to use flame spells so close to that thing."

It took Tamas a while to drain the magic stone. Orange and red light flooded the sewer tunnels before flickering out. The scent of something charred filled the air. Then Tamas reappeared and handed the crystal back to me. "Done."

I turned the magic stone over in my hand. Its fiery red had faded, leaving the crystal looking dull and cloudy. "Can you tell how much is left in it?"

Tamas nodded.

"Great, I will bring it back to check from time to time."

Tamas grabbed my arm before I could return to the sphere. "I'll go with you, it'll be quicker."

I shook my head vigorously. "No way, your father would kill me if I got you killed."

Tamas rolled his eyes. "You'd be dead as well, idiot."

Regardless, I returned to the sphere alone. I sank into my Soul Seed, entering the molecular view again. I reached for one of the small fire-affinity magic stones on the surface of the Tamper, then drew a path from it, through me, to the larger magic stone in my hand. The path lit up with mana as I pulled from the smaller crystal and pushed into the larger, using my body as a living conduit. Soon, the smaller magic stone flickered and went dark.

I repeated the process for each crystal. After draining several, I would return to Tamas to check if it was full. I could have sworn everyone's faces got darker, each time I came back and then stepped away. The process was working, but it was agonizingly slow.

When the last crystal on the orb went dark, I decided to do a final check. In the molecular view, I imagined my touch sharpening, and then pushed that edge against a mana line, cutting it. The line faded, turning dark.

No explosion.

I exhaled a breath I hadn't realized I was holding, wiping away the sweat that beaded on my forehead.

Hopefully, that did it.

I walked back toward the group on legs that felt like jelly. Master Alarc's gaze was sharp, skeptical, as I approached.

"It's done."

The shimmering barrier stayed up as he squinted past me, toward the device. "Are you certain, Your Highness? I can still sense… a profound wrongness emanating from it."

Could he sense the radiation? He is a Grand Wizard. I had no idea what that entailed.

"I didn't disable the core, just the explosives on the outside. They shouldn't be able to trigger it anymore."

He stroked his beard, scrutinizing me with one of those 'we need to talk later' looks. But after a moment, he gave a nod and lowered the shield with a wave of his hand.

The tension in the tunnel shattered. Tamas and Cassian whooped while Serine just shook her head, a look of grudging disbelief on her face. Kael had his hand to his chest, breathing slowly. Only Meris moved, rushing over to me. She seized my shaking hands. I let her pull my head down into her chest, and listened to her heart for a few beats as she patted my head.

Then I pulled myself up. "Come on, we have four more of these."

—

We encountered more of the same at other three sites. The lax guards were easily taken care of and disabling the bombs was a tense, but repetitive process. Finally, we came to the last one, where Jarlen was stationed. This bomb was situated in a much larger chamber, likely a main junction, where the tunnel opened into a proper room with high, slick walls.

I peered over at them through my rat vision, and saw Jarlen slumped over on a straw mat, snoring. His fellow elves however were prowling about, eyes scanning their surroundings.

They were sticking together, none wandering off by themselves that we could pick them off.

We had to take the direct approach. Master Alarc sent a cloud of green gas drifting over to the elves, causing them to immediately drop onto their hands and knees and retch onto the ground.

My rats swarmed over one of them, drowning out his screams as their bites sent my blood into him.

As the cloud dissipated, Kael closed in on another, running him through from behind before he could rise. Meris dispatched an elf trying to crawl away with a single thrown knife, while Tamas dropped the last with a sharp kick to the back of the head.

Cassian rushed over to Jarlen, who was just staggering up from his mat, his blood-shot eyes looking wildly about. "What… what's going on?"

Cassian held the steel bone sword to his throat. "What have you been conspiring down here? Are you really trying to commit mass murder?"

Jarlen blinked at Cassian and then laughed, slurring his words. "Have you lost your mind? What do you think war is?"

Cassian looked conflicted, his sword wavered. "It's not the same, we… don't kill innocents."

Jarlen threw up his hands, his voice became silky as his lips curled into a grin. "We did. Lots of them. And you were part of it."

A cold predatory glint flashed over his purple eyes. I recognized it.

"Watch out!"

I surged toward Cassian, my body blurring, activating Fluidity. I shoved him aside. Pain exploded across my chest. An ice spike grazed me, tearing through the frills of my dress and scoring an angry red line across my skin before shooting past.

Jarlen's eyes, no longer drunken but sharp with hatred, locked onto me. "Oh, it's you. Nngh."

I struck him down with a palm strike to the side of the head.

"Your Highness!" Kael cried out as he rushed over to me.

Cassian rose up beside me, guilt in his eyes as his gaze dropped to the gash in my dress.

I glanced down at my open palm, puzzled. My palm-fang had burst forth, but I hadn't felt it stab into flesh.

Down on the ground, Jarlen had no marks on his head, but he was knocked out. A necklace hung loose from his chest, its gem had shattered, leaving shards all over his shirt.

White light pushed back the darkness, and a long elegant form stepped out of a seam in the air. She was dressed in a flowing white robe and in her hand was the staff, Elderwood, with three glittering Soul Seeds on its head.

"What do we have here? You really are tenacious, Princess. Did you miss our lessons from last night that much?" Lelian's icy words pierced the air. Her smile still held her usual mask of cool serenity, but malice dripped from her eyes. "Prepare to scream all day this time."

Meris and Kael immediately moved to shield me, but it was Master Alarc that spoke. "You will not touch her again, Lelian."

Lelian shifted her venomous gaze, arching an elegant eyebrow. "Alarc. Throwing your lot with the sprouts now?"

"You need to be stopped, Lelian. Those things." He pointed to the sphere behind us. "I can sense how wrong they are. The magic in them isn't natural. They are beyond forbidden."

"Please, Lady Lelian," Cassian's voice cracked as he leveled his sword at her, the tip wavering, distorted by dark afterimages. "This isn't right. You have to stop this." Serine nodded beside him, her expression a mirror of his desperate plea.

Lelian spared them only a passing glance. A light airy laugh escaped her lips, echoing against the dark walls of the sewer chamber as she turned back to me. "Quite the rag-tag group you brought together." She raised her staff. "But don't believe for a second I'm going to hold back just because you brought the heirs of my allies. You underestimate my faith."

Her arms swept and a tide of rolling flames veined by arcs of lightning surged toward us.