The Undying Emperor [Grand Conquest Fantasy]

6-30 - And The Mouse Ate The Cat



It had been a tense journey of some days from Forum, during which both sides played a careful game of positioning and lying. The tactic is rare, but well-known by nature. Like the turtles within the grotto beneath the keepers of the reaping blade, the prey is lured in by a presentation of weakness, while hiding the jaws ready to seize and shred. Both sides played a game of lies, each attempting to draw their blade to the other's throat, but only one side knew that both were playing.

The ancillary characters of the scene were thrown out from the mountain hall as the man calling himself Samuel was thrust into one of the dining hall chairs. He attempted to rise when he had his senses and Leomund pressed down on him with the force of his new stigmata. Inexorable weight bound him to his seat, straining the old wooden frame as blood dripped down his face.

For his part, Lucius dragged over another chair and sat across from him. Days of tension had been released at last, and a euphoria had seized him as though he had been smoking exotic pipes. "Surprised?"

"Have you gone insane?" Samuel asked, his voice choked with blood as he sat like a man awaiting a torturer's flaying blade.

"Drop the act, Theo," Lucius said and he shook his head. "Come now, of all people in the world who would consider that somebody would have the gall, the audacity to lie about what their stigmata is? That they would hide the fact they can change their appearance? You think I wouldn't consider that?"

Samuel's face changed from fear to cold frustration. Without saying a word, the glamor was dismissed. The flesh from his face flaked off like a skin molting and, most curiously to me, the size of his body increased. He grew physically from the small body of the doctor to his proper figure, as though he was able to store his mass outside the realm of this world. The effect was not merely an error of the mind; the clothes he wore strained to their utmost and shredded at the seams. In an instant, he very much looked the part of a prisoner, even if his bindings were invisible.

"We should have killed you months ago," Theo Montem said.

"It would have saved your life, but it wouldn't have changed anything. The king isn't a fool, that's why he told you to leave me be," Lucius said as he drew from his coat a proper Giordanan dagger, the very same blade he had cut himself with before hunting down Rodrick during the revolt.

Theo snarled and tried to jump up. Once more, gravity shoved him back to his seat. Leomund had little patience for the man, and removed his belt. Looping it around Theo's neck, he cinched the man to the chair's back and held him with merely a grip. "So you did kill Valerie, and Brume too."

"And I got Ashlynn reassigned, and I got Lyam arrested. Had I more time, I would have found a way to deal with the Gorgon Blade and the Troll Blade too. I could have had your head long ago but you were much easier to handle than they would have been. You really thought you were clever, didn't you? I suppose only a narcissist would have acted the way you did."

"What!? Narcissist?"

Lucius had been waiting for the man's defense and he laughed in his face. "I still can't believe you told everyone you had an eidetic memory. Is the word so rare that people are afraid to challenge you on it? Why would a man who can remember anything he sees need so many books in his office? To visit the library so often?"

"Actually, I do have a perfect memory. Having a perfect memory doesn't mean you know everything in the world. You still have to learn it all."

Leomund said, "He's got you there, boy."

Lucius ignored his sword instructor. "Maybe you should have learned what laudanum in wine tastes like before declaring it evidence in a murder. You must love when people treat you like a genius, Theo. You must not realize that people are just intimidated by you. You cowed them into silence so they wouldn't speak up when you ran your mouth and that made you think you could get away with anything. And naturally, how could Forum's serial killer ever be caught when you were the one in charge of finding him?"

Theo turned his head and spat blood from his mouth. "Who are you, really?"

"I'm Lucius von Solhart."

"That's a load of shit and everybody knows it."

Lucius leaned forward and stabbed his dagger into Theo's thigh, scraping the bone and making the knight hiss. "Calm down. The real Sammy taught me exactly where the femoral artery is. You're not going to die until I will it. I am Lucius von Solhart. Every achievement of note Lucius von Solhart ever made was me. Every battle fought, every victory won. I was the governor of the Misty Isles. I brought peace to the central kingdoms. When the rebels used Acheliah to slaughter the nobility, I was the one that put a stop to it. I may not have been born Lucius von Solhart, but I stepped into an empty seat. All you people who think there's some mystery about where I came from are blind to the facts. The armies I led don't give a rat's ass who I was before I gave them victory. They don't even know what the nobles look like. You get on a battlefield and everyone's the same, unless you're standing in the back screeching orders for other men to die on your behalf."

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Theo gave a bloody laugh until Leomund tightened the belt. "Vassermark is a kingdom of nobles. It is they who have the right to lead. You stole an identity because of that fact. Take it away and nobody will follow you."

Lucius released the dagger and sat back in his seat. "Is that why they're hanging nobles in the night now? Because the common folk need such vaunted blood to show them the way?"

Theo lunged against the belt, his temper blinding him to the fact that Leomund had loosened the strap. "Because you're leading them! You anti-royalist scum."

"Me? Leading them?" Lucius responded, as expressive as an actor. "Theo, you've had me under observation for months. When have I had time to do something like that?"

Theo snarled and balled his hands to fists. He was testing the magic restraints and eying the dagger left in his thigh as he said, "Magic. You're using some stigmata to communicate at night."

"What? You think I have some magic quill? And I can write a letter at my bedside and someone far away sees the words appear so they can act to my will like puppets on strings?" he asked, taunting the man. That was very nearly exactly what he and Aisha had been doing.

Theo didn't rise to the temptation of saying Lucius could have sent messages while he was summoned on the king's business. Both of them knew how obviously true that was. "When the Warden Blades get here and cut your head off, then we'll see how these revolutionaries falter, won't we?"

Lucius laughed. Leomund laughed. "I really should restrain myself here, but I've been waiting for this day for months. The way you preened yourself in those classes, the way you pretended to have the nobility you fetishistically covet. You obsessed over me like a smitten girl. Theo, I may be a player, but I'm not the leader of this revolution. If there was a leader, Acheliah would kill them and that would be the end of it. The reason she hasn't done anything about it is because every drop of violence the king uses is kindling for the fire. It just makes things worse. Every rioter killed in the street is a martyr. Every impoverished merchant or craftsman is a leader, in their own small way. The king will be brought down. The only question is by whom, and how long they'll get to sit on the throne themselves. What's important is that whoever seizes the crown, even if they smelt it down and give the money to the poor, that person will still need a commander for their army and there is none better than me."

"Charles was fascinated with you, you know that?"

"The former king?"

"He made us study your fights, your wars. People saw the inconsistencies. The way you would rush or tarry, bringing your army when it was dramatic like a theater production. Even I could smell your cravenness, but the king wouldn't hear it because you fought from the front. Quite the blinding mask your stigmata gave you, isn't it?"

Lucius nodded. "It's a shame he died."

Theo was a flash of motion. One hand grabbed the belt around his throat, holding it wide from the chair as he jerked his head back and ducked it down. Out came the blade left in his thigh, he shoved forward with his good leg. The two of them were close, enough that when he threw himself at Lucius he sank the blade into Lucius' kidney.

Lucius gave him no grunt of pain or even a flinch of surprise. "Was that your plan?" he asked as Leomund reached out and took hold of Theo by a fistful of his hair. "I thought you'd at least have poison," he added as the northman stuck at Theo's knees and drove him down. With only a wince, he pried the dagger from his side and tossed it, letting blood drip down to the floor.

Theo struggled to keep his composure, head tilted by Leomund's grip tearing at his scalp. "Believe me, I brought some."

"Go on then, hand it over," Lucius said, extending his hand. Theo did not cooperate, but the vial was found within the sleeve of his shirt. Lucius drank it and grimaced. "That's not a poison, that's… is that lizard maw?"

Theo laughed. "A rotting death is what you deserve. Can't heal that. Nothing can."

Leomund said, "He had help. Can't get lizard maw in the north."

Lucius coughed, spitting black and shaking his head. "You can in Forum. The academy has all manner of apothecarial reagents. The little thief must have broken in."

"There is no antidote," Theo said. "Just kill me and we'll die together. Not the way I wanted to go, but so be it."

"Now now, neither of us are going to be dying tonight, Theo. You're too useful. At least, your body is. Lupa, would you mind doing the honors?" he asked and the wastelander woman returned to the hall carrying a butcher's axe.

"You're going to traumatize your child one of these days," she said, resting the gruesome weapon on her shoulder. She had forsaken the fine dresses of peace and returned to the familiar linens she fought in.

"Best he doesn't see it then. Freshen me up, would you? I'm making a mess," Lucius said, patting the oozing wound in his side.

Theo watched as Lupa cut off his head. The first blow killed him, severing his spine. Removing all the flesh took more work upon the stone floor. Then she wiped the blood from his face and set his head upon the table. Putting his body back into his chair took more effort, enough to take the fight out of Theo as the man had to watch. After she put Lucius' head back upon his shoulders, she and Leomund turned their attention to the would-be assassin.

True to Lucius' words, he did not die that night. However, they cut every major tendon in his body and ripped out his vocal cords to stop his screaming. The knight's body was thus stored for Golden. The former angel had no need for the ability to detect water anymore, and his divine sleight of hand had a better target. Although, it ultimately proved unable to hide him from Acheliah. The attempt was worthwhile regardless, as it ultimately let me study a most fascinating application of magic.

With the destruction of Theo Montem, Lucius donned the mantle of an enemy of the state. The next morning he had to ride out to confront the last of the two Warden Blades, but that was a matter of violence. The battle that worried him was one of words and of hearts, for the truth could no longer be kept from Felicia.


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