V-25 Heartbreak

People lie to themselves. For the sake of their broken hearts; hence religion comes to be. We lie to ourselves, and we call it a story. We imagine ourselves to be champions and heroes. We reduce our enemies and challenges down to caricatures and featureless shadows.

And we do it all because we are such fragile, evanescent little things.

Because to embrace the truth is to maul your mind. It is to accept that you don’t matter. That you are but an animal, even touched by the system and granted magic.

That your story holds no weight beyond your belief and your strength to force its truth, and in the end, the songs you sing will be regarded as little more than incoherent noise, and your faith, less than the braying of a dying animal.

Nothing is true. Nothing is sacred. Not unless you manage to impose your will above the system. But you can’t. No one tries.

There is only me.

-Udraal Thann

V-25

Heartbreak

A war took shape behind Magnolia's eyes. Her facial muscles tensed, and her breath ceased to flow. Her right hand instinctively went for one of her axes, but she pulled away when she realized what she was doing. Magnolia was a martial Pathbearer to the bone. Violence was the first and easiest solution she could think of. But violence wouldn't save her against the Inquisition, nor was it a tool that could prevail against a superior killer.

Despite how it discomforted her, she knew the harsh facts lain before her. If she raised her blade, she would find herself dead at Adam's hand. But all too often, minds developed wounds when rational understanding came to clash against one’s desired truth. It might be easier for her to die swinging her axe at Adam. It might give her some measure of peace—a final, acceptable end.

Seconds passed. Caradah looked upon Magnolia with increasing worry, and Adam prepared himself for any kind of reaction, be it emotional or volatile.

And then, the master-tier shifter's face hardened into a mask of anger. "No," she seethed with the hint of a rageful growl. "No, it was the fault of that bastard bloodless boy. It was the fault of Marcus Unblood that we suffered. It was not my doing."

"She's bullshitting us," Shiv said. "Ask her to tell you what happened in detail."

"How do you know?" Adam replied rapidly.

"Because I know that look on her face. I make it sometimes, too. That's not the look of someone coming to terms. That's the look of someone giving in to their anger."

"Anger? You sure?”

“I make that face sometimes, too."

Adam let out a breath of dismay. "Very well. Tell me everything that happened during the expedition."

Magnolia swallowed. Caradah looked faint, like she was on the edge of tears. "I have already reported this to your Inquisition, Master Interrogator."

"Yes, but they are not me," Adam replied. He lowered his voice toward the end. "And I have many things I still wish to know. My colleagues were in charge of what happened during the expedition, and now, it seems the events there involve Marcus Unblood substantially. Even if not directly useful, it will give me insight into my subject of interrogation. So, if you would please give your accounting of events.

For a few beats, Magnolia stared ahead. Her eyes were blank, and it was as if Adam wasn't there at all. And then, all of a sudden, she began to speak. She told him about the day of the expedition. How far it was from Old Brunswick to the capital. How perilous the mountains were in the coming summer season. 

Living on the fringes of the Republic exposed one to a great many dangers. The swell of monsters would wake with the coming summer. And the change of the ecology also brought with it disasters. Avalanches, monstrosities, new diseases being released into the air. Then there were the primal gates that sometimes formed. And the Dimensionals that spawned from it, seeking violence.

But most of all, there were the Jotun and pale lurkers. Frost Giants who seek to prove themselves to the court of the Shattered Moon. Raiding the Republic's territory and slaying its people. They reap death, and when they brought corpses back, they earned prestige and mithril, depending on how many they slew, and how high their victims’ tiers were.

This was also the reason the expedition was necessary. It seemed the Yellowstone Republic had a great many advantages over their bestial northern neighbors in terms of resources and population, as well as number of high tier Pathbearers as well. However, the Republic was also stretched wide, and the Jotun were exceptional at intercepting jumps. Travel would only begin once they reached the threshold of Stag's Death. 

A fortress outpost meant to monitor the northern border, and a place so well guarded that any jump interception would be intercepted itself and swiftly turned into a bloody slaughter. Yet there was quite a distance between the shifters' mountain holds and Stag's Death: a whole mountain range needed to be crossed before they reached the outskirts of the Republic’s core.

At this point, Shiv had his own inquiry. "Well, why do people live out there?" Shiv asked. "Just make them move closer to Stag's Death. The way I see it, it's not that hard to travel around when you're a Master-Tier. Location shouldn't be that much of an issue."

"Because it's been their home for generations," Adam replied.

"People change when you hold a torch," Shiv said, still lost.

The young lord understood why his friend thought that way. Shiv never had anything. With how ostracized he felt at Blackedge, "home" was little less than a nebulous concept. Filled with more noise than meaning. Comparatively, Adam's heart was still filled with sourness. Sourness for all who suffered during the destruction and death his town faced during the attack; the torment his father endured and the brutality of the vicar.

Adam understood what it meant to fear losing a home—to refuse to lose a home. "Because they've lived there for centuries, Shiv. Because they told themselves stories about how the place belongs to them. And the stories make them part of the place as well. Because they were there even before the Yellowstone Republic was a thing, their patron deities and spirit animals they adhered to there. To flee is just… sacrilege.”

The Gate Lord hesitated for a moment, and he tried to come up with a better analogy. "It's like this. If someone tried to force you out of the Swan-Eating Toad, how would you respond?"

And the Deathless finally understood. "Oh. Yeah, no. Someone’s gonna die and it isn’t me.”

“There we go.”

Magnolia carried on now. She spoke of how their expedition was formed early in the morning before the sun even came up upon the sky. It was important to move at night because should one cast a silhouette, even in the far horizon, someone might get a shot at them. It was uncommon for people to go missing at high altitude and be found days later with a frost giant's javelin buried inside their torso.

The expedition started two hundred strong. The students bound for the Academy were only a small portion of the main contingent. The rest were traders or travelers making their way from mountain holds to Stag's Death and seeking security escort to slip free from the harshness of the Republic's periphery and return to its core. Magnolia and twelve other shifters were tasked as shepherds for the expedition.

Things would have gone fine if the weather stayed placid like the Aeromancers claimed. If the scouts were right about the conditions of the land and the potential positions of monsters and Jotun, it would have turned out fine. If so many things unfolded in accordance with Magnolia's expectations.

For the most part, they did. 

However, there was one variable that seemed to compromise everything. One thing that you couldn't send away was the infamous Marcus Unblood.

"I had to move right across from the mongrel as well. I don't know why, but the Academy's representative favored him, selected him as a Wild Card."

"You don't know why?" Adam scoffed. “The Wild Card Program is not granted on a whim. Take this seriously.”

Magnolia snarled, but decided to elaborate. "Yes, the cursed-blooded boy was caught in an avalanche. Yes, there was a girl along with him, and perhaps his meager skills kept her alive. But it didn't matter, we would have saved them before either expired. Well, at least the girl, her physicality was sufficient. It was unnecessary.”

"Thank you," Adam cut her off, unwilling to waste any more time on her ranting. "So, he earned his place through a heroic action. He was selected for a feat of emergency surgery. I understand now.”

Magnolia looked as if she had swallowed a toad, and seemed desperate to recontextualize Marcus' merits in some fashion.

"Right, I see. And so, Marcus Unblood was a participant in the expedition. What did he do to make things go wrong?" Adam gestured for her to go on.

Magnolia clenched her teeth and spent a moment centering herself before she continued. "Caradah is not the only girl of our hold to be sullied by the bastard’s seed," she hissed. The Master-Tier Shifter's glare at the girl was a knowing one, and there was no warmth there. Not like how her brothers looked upon her. 

Caradah flinched away from Magnolia as a crushing pressure radiated out from the latter. Magnolia was trying to keep the girl silent. Adam forced himself to remain calm. He was usually understanding, even if he had something of a temper. But the scene unfolding provoked him. The gall for one strong to be blaming the weak, for one old to condemn the young. Magnolia was distraught, but that didn't give her the right to forsake all decency. She was a Pathbearer—there were standards.

"Don't do that again," Adam said coolly.

Magnolia blinked. "Excuse me?"

"The intimidation," the Gate Lord grunted. "I saw that. I know what you're doing. My sympathy is not infinite. Your pain does not give you leave to lash out. You flail like a wounded child. You are a Pathbearers. We are Pathbearers. And our responsibility is greater because of it."

Caradah looked upon him with surprise. And Magnolia was really at a loss for words. "I..." Magnolia wasn't sure if she wished to sigh in outrage or apology.

"Save it," Adam said. "I'm not trying to chide you like a master would an apprentice. I'm just reminding you that you sit in an inquisitor's presence. I will not abide by rank displays of manipulation. Now go on."

Magnolia told him how the first day of the expedition had gone on without too many issues. They moved slower than expected due to encountering a Hive of Skindrinker Termites along the way. After the hive was put to the flames and its warriors were butchered, and they pressed down the mountain, and had to make camp for the day as the sun rose.

It was during this time that a certain event followed. It appeared that Magnolia's family, Opal and Caradah, didn't know about each other's relationship to Marcus before. When they confronted him, his reluctance to talk with either of them on the journey was uncovered in a most disquieting scene that came with a lot of shouting, crying, and histrionics.

Caradah's brothers attempted to pitch Marcus off the side of the mountain. Opal stopped them, and then Opal returned, confronted by her mother, and they dueled entirely in public. By this point, Magnolia was taking breaks every few seconds, pausing every few sentences. Her eyes were darting about, and it seemed she was on the edge of something, but she held herself back, even though the lump in her throat got more and more obvious.

"Last time we talked, I should have brought her out on more hunts," Magnolia said with a near-smile. "I should have had my apprentices watch her, or move her to another mountain hold. I should have killed the bastard when I caught them together the first time… and that was my fault. That was my true fault. But everything that followed…”

Magnolia bristled with anger, and her silence grew dark and bitter. 

A feeling of awkward discomfort rose up inside Shiv, and merged with the anxiety pressing down on Adam. The Gate Lord could handle a great many things. Challenges, projects, reports, combat—all fine! But personal drama made him cringe. Violently. He nearly succumbed to overwhelming second-hand embarrassment, he warred against his urge to stick his fingers in his ears and loudly hum to himself, pretending he couldn't hear anything. 

Adam had done that more than a few times during his days at the academy. But right now, there was no avoiding this. He was getting a full dose of drama, and he hated it.

"I said, I said some things to my daughter. Some things I cannot take back," Magnolia admitted, her voice was barely louder than a whisper. "And I did something unbecoming. I shamed her in front of too many eyes. I pushed her, and once she couldn't take any more, she pushed me back, admitted that she was carrying his child.” Magnolia then looked down at her hands and she clenched them into fists. “I struck my daughter, and she ran after that. She ran. I called her bloodless in the presence of the whole expedition. I claimed she was a bastard now too. But it was just a cry of anger. I didn't mean that. I didn't mean that. I didn't mean that."

She repeated these words several more times. And then she hid her face from Adam and Caradah. But when she looked up again, her gaze was maddened with pain. "I ignored her for hours. But Marcus went after her. He went after her first. I waited with the expedition. But then… but then I grew worried after hours. And my anger died and my shame grew. I told the expedition to hold in place and then I…”

And the rest of the story came flooding out of her. "I pursued her. That bloodless bastard Marcus did as well. Stupid fool was blind. He didn’t know where he was going and found himself lost. But I did. Dawn's light was high, and soon it would be morning. I knew my daughter's scent. I was not sure how she could keep me from finding her. But within minutes, I smelled something wrong. I smelt the taste of blood on the wind. And I knew it. I knew it. When there was enough blood, it drowned out all other tastes as well.”

She wrapped her arms around herself. "She'd been caught in a Jotun trap. By the time I reached her, her leg had nearly been severed clean. It was a trap meant for dire bears. And I know how the Jotun fight. I know their foul ways. They smear their traps in feces. They pour diseases and poisons upon the metal, tainting wounds beyond mere injuries of flesh."

The shifter paused, and she looked at Adam. There was a certain sense of clarity in her eyes. "Do you have a child, interrogator?"

Adam opened and closed his mouth several times, and then he shook his head.

"You do not. I can see it on your face. You are powerful and you are young. And this is not a slight, but a child is a weakness beyond strength, beyond power. When you have someone, someone made of your flesh, someone made from your love, someone you care for... you can't just let them go. The anger you feel towards them is greater than anything you can imagine. But so is the affection, and so is the pain. I pray you never hear your own child's screams, your own child howling for you. She screamed ‘mama, mama,’ even though I called her bloodless. Even though I struck her. It was like it didn't happen at all, because she howled for me. Me.”

Magnolia swallowed and she teetered on the brink.

"I managed to force the trap open. But then the Jotun were upon us. They were in the ice, hiding beneath the snow. They had been drawn by her cries. I was not the only Master-Tier there. There was a javelin-wielding Jotun, one that could travel through the stones themselves. He emerged, he flung his weapon at my girl. I barely managed to deflect it in time. But then it burst apart, and the air filled with smoke, and in the chaos... in the chaos..."

Magnolia stopped talking, and Adam leaned.

"In the chaos, I think... I think one of them used her as a shield, and I think I struck her with my axe." Now the Master-Tier Shifter spoke with a flat affect, as if she was separated from herself, lost in a trance. "I let the rage take me after. I let the wolf in, but when I returned to myself, my daughter was gone, and over her body there was Marcus. There was only Marcus, and I... and I..." She looked at her hands again and she began to shiver.

Shiv sighed. “Ask her if she killed Marcus in the aftermath.”

"What?" Adam replied with startlement.

“She keeps looking at her hands, and she just told us that she went wolf and slaughtered all the Jotun. So. No one left to kill Marcus. He went after Opal too, and she probably found him cradling the body of her daughter after she came out of her trance. After that, well, not hard to guess, right?"

“Oh, gods.”

The Gate Lord clenched his teeth and forced the question out. "Master Magnolia, did you slay Marcus Unblood in the aftermath?"

Caradah let out a cry of alarm, but Magnolia kept staring through the Gate Lord, and even before she admitted it, he knew.

Deductive Reasoning 2 > 8

"I saw him kneeling over my daughter, crying, crying as if she meant something to him. But she was my daughter… he caused this." Suddenly, Magnolia seethed. "I didn't use my hands, I didn't even think he was good enough for that. No, I forced him to drink a poison, one that shouldn't be curable, one that would simply make the body shut down; make his lungs stop working. It was more peace than he deserves. I just watched him fall, and after that, I laid him there. And... and..."

"Then you would claim that he was another casualty during the frost giant raid." Adam sighed.

"But then, the expedition… and they were attacked while I was gone," Magnolia said, clearly disturbed. Her words were getting increasingly incoherent. She shook her head and a groan came out of her mouth. "When I descended the mountain to come and save my daughter, my own people were left exposed. And in my haste, I must have made too much noise, drawn too much attention. I found the survivors, my caravan, locked in desperate struggle by the time I got back, and so I threw myself into the fray as well. I fought, I saved who I could, but the other Shifters who came with me… they died. Bots. Men. Women, friends I had known for years, left open and butchered because of the actions of one boy."

"And she's still blaming him," Shiv said, telepathically. "It might be the only thing that's keeping her sane right now.”

Adam leaned back in his chair and pinched at the bridge of his nose. He didn't know what the system was trying to do by this point, if it was the system's doing at all. 

Instead of an odd, quirky story about a boy who couldn't keep it in his pants, and two unfortunate girls who needed to make a decision regarding the children he'd sired, it was the tale of a collective chain of bad decisions. A Master-Tier Shifter in utter denial about her part in the whole matter, a slaughtered expedition, a very real murder committed upon Marcus Unblood, and now the renewal of the conflict with his “holy” resurrection. 

No wonder Magnolia was so willing to swing her axe on him. She wasn’t just trying to avenge the death of her daughter, she was trying to keep her guilt and the actual truth buried as well.

"Dearest Ascendants,” Adam sighed. “This is such a godsdamned mess…”

“Fucking tell me about it,” Shiv breathed.

"Master Shifter." Magnolia didn’t reply to Adam. “Master Shifter!”

But Caradah did. "You can't blame Master Magnolia. She suffered. She isn't—"

"I don't need you to defend me." Magnolia snapped, her eyes wide and blazed with fury. "I don't need to be defended. I am not wrong. I am not the one who did wrong. I am not wrong. I am not wrong." And with each time she repeated the word, she clutched her head tighter and tighter. It was as if she was trying to hold back from breaking from the fear and pressure, as if she was doing everything she could to stop herself from going insane.

"What do we do now?" Adam asked Shiv.

Shiv hesitated, uncertain himself. "Now? We try to give her whatever closure we can and get her to stop hunting Marcus.”

“But she bloody killed him, didn't she?" Adam hissed.

"Yeah, I know. But if we bring this out in the open, we're probably going to keep having problems with the old Brunswick boys too. The actual Inquisition will definitely be looking into it."

"So what should we do? Just cover up the murder?" Adam sounded incredulous.

"Maybe," the Deathless grunted, also displeased. "It's not ideal, but—”

“Gods, Shiv. It’s still a life.” Adam groaned. "Marcus Unblood might be a shitty layabout who never used protection, but he didn't deserve to be murdered. He didn't deserve all this."

"So what should we do, Adam? You want me to kill her? You want me to beat her to death?"

"No," Adam almost cried verbally. "I just want some measure of justice to be done."

"I don't know what that looks like," Shiv said, and that hit Adam in a brittle spot, too. “Not for this. There’s no breaking this woman anymore. I can’t hurt her any worse. I don’t  know what to do.”

"Me neither."

Silence followed. Silence between Shiv and Adam. Silence between Magnolia and Caradah.

"I think we should ask Irons. I'm sure he would have a suggestion.” Shiv grunted.

"Might be a good idea," Adam replied.

"Am I to be judged, Interrogator? Am I to be judged for defending my daughter's honor? For striking down the one that led us to ruin?"

Adam hesitated for a long moment before he spoke. "This was not my place to say. However…" he stuttered uncomfortably.

"However," Shiv suggested helpfully. "You tell her and the other Old Brunswick people to stay far away from Marcus Unblood. For he is of interest to the Inquisition, and there is an internal trial pending with regard to him as well."

"Marcus Unblood is no longer your concern," Adam began once more. "He is the concern of the Republic's Inquisition, and we will see that he will be properly punished or absolved once our investigation is completed. I say this again," Adam leaned in. "I must insist you do not go near him. Not until I or someone else from the Inquisition grant you the proper exemption."

"I don't know if I can stand it," Magnolia said, her breath airy and raspy. "If he is allowed to live free in this world, to live without burdens after all he inflicted..."

"He is not free," Adam stressed again. "I said an internal investigation is pending, and also we don't know if it's the same Marcus Unblood either. We haven't ruled out," Adam leaned in closer, "Necromancy."

Both Caradah and Magnolia flinched back, broken free from their own worries and woes.

"Necromancy," Caradah whimpered in fear. She painted a cross before herself and split it in half, making the sign of the Ascendants. A moment later, Magnolia repeated the same action with greater reluctance.

"Are you sure, Interrogator?" Magnolia asked. “That he is… undead?”

"We are not sure. That is why we are investigating," Adam said flatly. "But I am going to be blunt, I have never encountered a boy who woke up in the morgue, despite the urban legends. Awfully convenient, don't you think? And did he seem different to you? Bolder? Crueler? Kind of a bastard.”

“Ouch,” Shiv muttered.

Magnolia's mouth opened and closed several times, but she finally offered an understanding nod. 

Caradah, however, clutched her chest. "Does this mean that his soul is still trapped between worlds?"

"Uncertain," Adam sighed. "But it's best that you keep your distance. He could see you and your unborn infected if he is. The Inquisition will contact you and administer proper reparations."

"Reparations?" both Caradah and Magnolia said at the same time.

"Yes. As you are associated with the subject, and he owes you a remittance, we will see you compensated for… losses. As is Republic policy.”

"Adam," Shiv said. "What are you doing?"

"Something foolish. We're going to need to scrounge up some mithril for this girl."

"What do we need to do that for?" Shiv asked.

"Because she's a poor, unfortunate, underage wildergirl who's carrying the child of a cursed-born bastard. Her brothers seemed nice enough, but she's going to need some resources if she wishes to keep the child and raise it well.”

"We're going to find that mithril, Adam?" Shiv said, sounding slightly annoyed. "You're going to make me steal from one of the—" And then the Deathless paused. "Oh, because that might work. Where’s the nearest bank?”

"No, Shiv, we're not stealing from a bank."

"You're damn right ‘we're’ not doing it," Shiv replied. "But you know what, I don't always keep track of where Whisper and Gone or Kura might go."

"You're talking about committing crimes," Adam hissed with near outrage.

"And they’re criminals and orcs. And I'm talking about taking personal action against the Ascendants. Ascendants, for everything they committed against us. It's righteous retribution.”

“You’d be stealing from local communities.”

“I’ve seen the local communities. They're noble, so they'll survive."

“Shiv!”

"Interrogator," Caradah said, "are you alright? Why are you making those expressions?"

Adam grimaced as he caught himself. "It's just that your story has given me a headache. It's truly bleak." He looked down at the ground and Caradah sniffled, trying not to cry again. "One of my agents will be in touch with you. In the meantime, stay away from Marcus Unblood. This is for your own safety."

"And last but not least,"... Adam stopped Magnolia as he tried to decide what parting words he had for her, if he was really just going to let her go like this. "Your daughter, you said she screamed your name. When she was caught in the trap, yours, not Marcus’s name?”

Magnolia's face almost twisted in outrage. "Yes, of course mine."

"Good. You must remember that. You must remember that she was begging you, and only you, when she was caught. And she was only there because you needed to be a Master-Tier Pathbearer, and you weren't. You needed to be a mother, and you weren't. You needed to control yourself, and you didn't. There are consequences! Consequences! And we pay them! We do!”

"Adam, don't—" Shiv was calling from the inside, but the Gate Lord ignored him. With every word he cast in Magnolia's direction, she shook as if struck. Her hand kept dropping toward her axe, but pulled away every time she remembered where she was and who she was facing. A single tear dropped from her left eye.

"You have a responsibility to her now," Adam said, pointing at Caradah. "You have a responsibility to the rest of your people, and it is a responsibility that supersedes your hatred for some unblooded boy."

"I was..." Magnolia began.

"There is no making it right," Adam shouted. He was beyond furious. "I don't care how you feel or what you think the cause of all this was. It's too late to make things right. Your daughter is dead. Your people are dead. There's only what comes after. Now," he let out a breath. "Get out. I will find you in time. We will inform you about how the Marcus Unblood situation is to conclude. But in the meantime, he is ours. You stay away. You touch him and you touch Inquisitorial property. Do that, and I put you in a small cell. Too small for you to even kneel. You will stay there for a few years until you learn your lesson. Is that clear?”

"Yes, Master Interrogator." Magnolia didn't want to nod, but she did. She refused to look at Adam at all in the aftermath And Caradah all but fled from the room as Adam released them. The Master-Tier Shifter walked on shaking legs and when she opened the door, the three boys were waiting there, listening with bated breath. 

Standing among them were members of campus security. They wore that prismatic cuirass and the beret which signaled their belonging to the academic militia. But they weren't alone. For with them was a very tired, very unimpressed Captain Harry Irons.

"Oh good," Adam sighed. "Time for me to sour his day some more, too."

“Captain Irons,” Adam called. “Come in. Please. Just you. I am finished with my interviewees. I wish to inform you of the results so that you might see the Inquisition’s will enforced.”

Irons’s left eye twitched. “Inquisition’s will. I see.” He stepped into the room, and Adam prepared himself to ruin another person’s evening.

“Is it weird that I wish we were fighting another group of Legendary-Tier prisoners instead of this?” Shiv muttered.

“Me too, Shiv. Me too.”