COF 3: The Fallen Dynasty

6 | Shards (I)

Elred pursed her lips and looked at her hands clasped atop her lap. Hesitating. Reeca allowed a small grin. Thought so. "Or if you can't, consider this deal off," she added. "I will call off the armaments too."

"Fine," Elred snapped. Her tone wasn't amused nor pleased. Eh. Bargaining when one was desperate was never a good thing. Especially with people like Reeca. "You drive a hard bargain, varichria."

Reeca unleashed the smug grin she had been holding back. "That's what I do for a living."

Elred heaved a heavy breath, slapped her thighs, and dragged herself up her couch. "Stay here," Elred said to Reeca without turning as she headed towards the door. "I have to deal with the pressing issues in my kingdom that piled up in my absence."

"What are you going to do?" Reeca kept her eyes on the shard fairy's back.

Elred reached out and grasped the door knob that glinted against the faint light. She turned to Reeca. "We are going to Entobern first thing in the morning," Elred said. The door slammed in Reeca's face before she could ask Elred what that meant.

The silence that ensued was loud. Reeca crossed her arms and muttered under her breath for a whole minute. How dare Elred string her around like some play-doll? This wasn't part of the bargain!

What in the afterlife was Entobern? Was that where the army was? Oh, wait. Helinfirth has no standing army. A groan escaped Reeca's lips as she let herself plop down on the bed. The view of the ceiling was...calming. Like the view of the walls, the tables, and everything that wasn't water or food. There's something about the glass in Helinfirth that looked peaceful yet at the same time dangerous.

Evacuating whole cities of shard fairies? Was that retribution for Reeca? Reeca has had enough of palace nobles but it looked like it wasn't done with her. It's never really over.

Reeca blew a breath and sat up. First, she has a call to make.

She cast her eyes around the room, past the empty bookshelves, the bare walls, the murky floor, and the dusty chair by the door and nodded. Good. No strange magical activity. Trails swam in vivid colors as soon as Reeca dropped into the trail dimension. The glass that made up everything offered their own bright trails but beyond those...nothing.

Good.

Reeca bounced farther into the mattress until her legs sank into the soft down. Okay, she took it back. Not everything was made of glass. She knitted her eyebrows. Or did Helinfirth develop a new type of glass that no one knew about?

She shook her head and massaged her temples. Focus.

Reeca spread her hands and felt the energy around her. Her fingertips brushed ancient trails, as if the whole room was alive since the beginning of time. She sucked in a deep breath and summoned her magic. Her weaving energy wove through the trail and formed a net around the bed in some kind of cocoon. A rysteme command slipped through her lips, making the net howl for a moment before blinking out of existence.

Reeca cursed. That should be good to hide any kind of magical activity she would be performing in this room but, damn, intangible trails were the worst to work with. Reeca drew her trailwhisperer from the folds of her armor.

The hollow metal dug into her palm as she wrenched the top half of it open. Inside, as a series of dials and gears laced with her and Rhys's weaving energy. It's their only direct link to each other and most of the time, Rhys doesn't answer. Reeca prayed to every god that this was not one of those days.

She focused on the innermost dial which displayed Rhys's name. She pressed her finger into it before moving it in a downward straight line until she reached the outermost dial.