For a few days we keep moving. We dont have too many problems with mordret. He keeps annoying me, but as long as I don't tell anyone and keep telling him stuff about heat seeker he doesn't try to hard to take out the caravan. This all does confirm one thing that I had been on the fence about, I do not like him as a person. Mordret is childish and annoying, there is very few people I dislike more. The taunting he keeps on with are always the same, and its the worst.
"Ooooh lightning slayer"
I sigh glancing over at flame of the divine who glances over and nods at me
"what now mordret?"
He laughs
"oh we are on a first name bases now? Well then Ooooh caster"
I take a deep breath
"you know that nobody knows if the king of nothing, or prince, is actually your true name or just a thing you got people to call you, right?"
He chuckles to himself, like this all is a bad inside joke
"oh I'm aware"
I sigh
"what do you want?"
He thinks for a few seconds
"your citadel is real nice. They really know how to deck it out, I mean with all of those posters around"
oh damnation, not that.
"Are you in my room?"
There's a quiet snort
"yeah. Your bed is nice"
what.
"Get the hell off my bed"
he starts loudly laughing
"oh come now who said I was on your bed"
"get off my bed you mongrel"
he keeps laughing like this is so very funny.
"Oh come now I was technically the prince of valor!"
"You betrayed them"
he scoffs
"other way around but still"
The wagon keeps moving. Even while I am being harassed by him. Flame of the divine seems aware of my frankly stupid, enough so to cover for me. Cassia's voice chimes in my head
"theres a fallen devil not too far away can you deal with that?"
"Yeah I'll deal with it"
I hop down summoning my sword. Shouldn't be anything too hard. I start walking, each step crunching on the gravel of the road, then the leaves and grass. I rest my sword on my shoulder as I walk. The forest goes silent, its close. There's a light crunch. I duck down and I cut it in half as it attacks. I stand up fully.
"I'll have to get someone to collect this"
i start walking back, when mordret pipes up
"take 3 steps to the side in 10 seconds"
I don't give a response, frankly this seems foolish. He starts counting down for some reason. I sigh, fine fine, why not? I take 3 steps to the right and im almost knocked down. A arrow hits right where my legs would be. That would have heavily injured my leg.
"You should run"
I nod and and use my aspect to get back to the caravan. I whisper as quietly as possible
"was that?"
"Silent stalker? Yup. Dont worry about it. They won't attack unless your alone"
I sit back down, as I do I motion flame to act as a wall. It's a supreme tyrant now anyways.
"Why tell me?"
"Oh you'd be really annoying as a thrall. Oh and messing with you has been fun. Hate for it to end."
He stays silent for a while
"oh and after a little incident back in the third nightmare I am not messing too hard with anyone heat seeker cares even a lick about"
they care about me?
"No i will not tell you what the incident was"
I put the sword in my lap.
"Are they all, or just silent"
he hums seeming to check something
"not all yet. But its a little too late. A shame, seishan had good taste. Oh dark dancer is fine. You seemed to talk with her a lot"
I look down at the sword in my lap.
"She... liked a movie I was in?"
He thinks for a moment
"you mean the one with you and changing star in th-"
"shut up about that movie"
he chuckles
"oh new weak point!"
After about a day we get to ravenheart and only a few hours later, so does the valor exiles. Nightngale then calls a meeting. I arrive at it early. I nod to kai, he nods back a little awkwardly. He knows I was sent as a assassin, if not then he knows something else really important that has to be kept a secret. Soon after the valor exiles and.... Saint dread arrives as well? Kai starts the meeting
"thank you for joining this meeting. It's about the king of nothing. His attacks so far have been probing from what I can tell. He hasn't done a all out assault after the first. Only the weeping goddess and.... casters, already evacuated, citadel have been lost."
I nod. It's gone and my bed is apparently being used. Morgan pipes up
"so? What citadel is next?"
Kai shows a map of the former song territories.
"I believe these citadels will be the ones being attacks next."
It keeps going like that. Places mordret may or may not attack and all that. It stops when Cassia chimes in our heads
"the song sisters have all been taken as thralls"
theres a long and heavy silence.
"What do you think will happen now?"
"It's likely that they'll attack ravenheart. Get ready"
we all go silent, mordret, when he wants to be is terrifying, but all of the song sisters being controlled by Asterion, thats a sign that hes going on full offense soon. The meeting ends quickly after. Nobody really wanted to talk after that.
I stay mostly on the walls of ravenheart for the next few days. Kai walks over
"uh hey caster"
I nod to him
"been a while."
He chuckles still just as awkwardly
"uh since we last really talked? Yeah I guess."
He sits down next to me as ash rains down.
"Hey, do you think we are going to survive?"
"The song sisters, or mordret?"
He shrugs
"both I guess"
"we can survive mordret. He isn't going all out. The thralls, those in think we will live, but..."
"as puppets?"
I nod. Theres a long silence
"why was saint dread there?"
He looks over
"i thought someone else invited him, with him being a representative or something"
I blink a few times
"wait, you didn't even question if he should be there?"
Another long silence
"no. Still it makes sense doesn't it?"
I take a deep breath
"probably"
I stare at him, while he refuses to look at me. He suddenly stands up
"their about a day away"
"they?"
He clenches his hand
"the song sisters and the refugees"