Keron
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Chapter 89 - Acceptance
🕑 Added 2024-07-01 17:00:08 +0000 UTCEmily and Juliana sit in silence, enjoying each other’s company, for the first hour of the night watch. Not a single beast approaches their camp and, eventually, Juliana breaks the silence.
“Why do you need to leave?” she asks quietly, catching Emily off guard.
Emily opens her mouth to respond but has to pause for a moment to work out an explanation through the twistings of guilt and grief threatening to choke her again. Juliana notices her hesitation and continues quickly.
“It’s not that I’m blaming you or anything. I understand the Mandrago family did some horrible things and you need revenge. But, why does that mean you have to leave The Covenant?”
“Ah,” Emily breathes a small sigh of relief, her emotions calming a little. “Since I’m a vassal of their house, what I want to do will be seen as insubordination and betrayal. The royal family and The Covenant won’t take kindly to that. It’s likely I will be sentenced to death or life imprisonment if I don’t flee afterwards.”
“Why can’t you tell everyone about what they’re doing and just leave them then?” Juliana asks, pulling away a little to turn to face Emily. “I looked into the law about conflict between noble households and if you separate and get granted a noble title then, even if you attacked them unprovoked and killed several of their members, you’d only get a slap on the wrist. There’s even a past example of someone getting let off for slaughtering an entire noble household right after being granted their title.”
Juliana’s face scrunches in distaste at the end.
Ha, that’s probably Jenny.
“Unfortunately, it’s not that simple,” Emily says with a pained smile as she reaches up to push a few stray strands of hair out of Juliana’s face. “There are a lot of households doing the same so they’ll likely support them and try to cover it up. Also, even if I separate from the Mandrago family, it will still be seen as a betrayal if I turn on them afterwards. There will be a lot of pushback from their faction, which will likely make my sentencing harsher than the past cases, and nobody, allied to them or not, will look positively on me assassinating one of the kingdom’s fourth circle mages. Also, they believe I’m brainwashed right now. If I request a noble title, they’ll realise I’m not and will probably expect me to come after them. That, and they could target Anna instead, who they currently have no reason to harm.”
Tears start to form in Juliana’s eyes as she looks for a way out.
“Can’t you go collect Anna, then request a title? That way you can kill them with the least punishment and risk.”
“I’m not confident I can take a fourth circle mage head-on, especially if they’re expecting me and given time to prepare.”
“Then wait till you can! You can take your sister to my family’s territory. We’ll happily protect her while you grow, and I’m sure, seeing how talented you are, it won’t take long,” Juliana says desperately, her eyes begging Emily to say yes.
“And turn the hostility of a marquess on your family as well?” Emily whispers sadly. “Would your family go to war for me? Fight the Mandragos, maybe their allies as well, so that I can get revenge? A surprise attack is my best change. The longer I drag this out, the more variables are introduced, and the more dangerous it gets.”
Juliana falls silent for a few seconds, holding Emily’s gaze with an expression of heartbreak and sorrow. Emily feels herself starting to cry as a hollow, selfish thought gnaws at the back of her mind, weeping for a suggestion she knows will never come.
Did she never even consider the possibility of coming with me?
“Is that it then? Are we done?”
Juliana’s words fall like a blade on Emily’s heart, severing her final hope as she wipes the tears from her girlfriend’s cheek with her thumb, her mind alight in a blaze of chaotic thoughts.
I want to tell her no. I want to say we’ll live long lives and I’ll be back in a few years. But I also don’t think she’ll ever be able to keep up with me. Or want to. I want to fight strong opponents. I want to explore the wonders of magic. I want to go to space. I need to progress… She doesn’t…
Emily’s emotions churn and the mana around her reacts to her plight. It bubbles into water, forming a shifting cloud of sadness around the two of them, small artificial raindrops joining the natural drizzle. Juliana doesn’t even notice, her attention fixed solely on Emily.
“Yeah. I think so,” Emily finally answers, the icy lump forming in her heart once again.
Juliana’s barely restrained tears turn into a torrent as she grabs Emily and pulls her in tight, sobbing into her shoulder.
“I’m sorry,” Emily apologises meekly through her sorrow.
***
They cry in each other’s arms for a while until their tears run dry and Emily’s spider spots incoming beasts. Her eyebrow creases in irritation as she sends one of her birds to intercept them and moves a hand from Juliana’s hair to tap her back.
“There’s something coming,” she says gently while pulling away. “I’ll be right back.”
Juliana nods and releases her. Emily stands up and turns away to walk across the camp.
Her bird reaches the approaching foes before she even makes it halfway across the clearing. She sees four mudscraps darting through the trees towards them. Emily quickly arrives at the edge of the barrier, looking out into the forest, dimly illuminated by the light of the moon above.
She holds out her left hand, internally casting a spell and conjuring a fine metal bow. It falls into place comfortably in her hand, the metal formed perfectly to her anatomy. She calmly shifts into a firing stance and raises the bow, grabbing the string with her free hand. A pulse of mana leaves her circles, forming an arrow on the string as she draws it back.
A pale green magic circle wraps the arrow as Emily casts an acceleration spell on it. She closes her eyes, watching the mudscraps through her bird’s vision, before shifting her aim and releasing the arrow. The moment it leaves the string, she adjusts again and pulls back for another shot, the bow automatically conjuring an arrow as she casts acceleration once again, pushing her casting speed to the limits with the simple second circle spells.
Four arrows fly out almost simultaneously, silently carving through the air towards their targets. They cut through the underbrush, drawing a straight line through Emily’s targets. Three of the four arrows fly true, slamming into the mudscraps’ heads and tearing a hole straight through them. The fourth though, hits a tree on the way, punching through but meeting enough resistance to knock it off course. Instead, it lands in the ugly creature’s shoulder, embedded down to the tip of the shaft, sending the beast tumbling.
“Tsk, the power of the shot was good, but all these trees make accuracy difficult. If only arc wasn’t so noisy,” she mumbles to herself, drawing back the bow again and sending a fifth arrow, this one unaided by an acceleration spell, sailing into the downed creature’s head.
Emily turns away from the corpses sending her bird back into position and taking one last glance at the bow in her hand.
If I change the arrows to something with less weight and add in arc’s tracking...
She adds a reminder to her notebook to continue exploring the idea later and turns back. She returns to find Juliana staring at her, eyes still red from crying, but a lot calmer. Juliana pulls Emily down before climbing into her lap and laying her head on her chest. Emily hugs her tight, shutting her eyes and relaxing.
“Are you planning on leaving the day we return?” Juliana asks after a few minutes.
“No. I’m going to convert anything we get from this expedition into useful resources first. I also don’t have transport sorted out, so I’ll have to visit the docks and ask about it, and I can’t guarantee how long that will take. I hope to leave in no more than a week if possible though.”
“Why are you in such a hurry?” Juliana asks, her tone one of pure curiosity, now that she’s accepted Emily’s decision.
Emily sighs, leaning her head back and opening her eyes to gaze up at the starry sky above through the gaps in the canopy.
“I need to see Anna, make sure she’s alright. I still don’t know how those assholes hurt her, and I didn’t even get to talk to her after Dad… That, and I feel impatient now. I’ve finally reached the point where I actually have the strength to achieve the goal I’ve been working towards since the day I awakened. It was easy to force it out of my mind and not think about it when the finish line was out of sight, but now it’s all I can think about,” Emily explains, anger and sorrow seeping into her voice as memories of the day her clock first turned back bubble to the surface of her mind, rising from the deep trenches they’d been forced into.
“I see,” Juliana says, sitting up and wrapping her arms around Emily’s neck.
She flashes her a sad, resigned smile while leaning in close.
“We have to make the most of the time we have left together then. Hopefully, then you’ll have to think about me instead.”
She leans in for a kiss, and Emily allows herself to accept the temporary comfort.
***
A short while later, their watch comes to an end. Emily stands up, lifting Juliana from her lap and pulling her towards the camp. They wake Ivor for his watch and then disappear into a tent together.
Emily sends her weapons and armour away into her storage space, knowing she can be fully equipped again in seconds, if the need arises. Juliana does the same before they both climb into a sleeping bag and she curls up on top of Emily’s chest.
“Goodnight,” Emily says, stroking Juliana’s hair.
“Goodnight,” Juliana mumbles back, quickly falling into sleep’s embrace.
Emily smiles and shuts her eyes, diving into the Spellweave to work on a new spell.
Once more in the night, during Enzo’s watch, enemies are spotted by one of Emily’s birds; this time three rocky howlers. She simply flies the closest bird over to Enzo, landing on his head once before flying towards the approaching foes. He quickly gets the message and goes to meet them, sending a few fast-flying rocks back at the monkeys and shredding holes in their chests.
The rest of the night is quiet. As Dante takes over from Enzo, Emily switches sleeping cores, and, after a couple of hours spell crafting with fresh cores, Dante calls for everyone to wake.
Juliana doesn’t stir, so Emily gives her a light shake while sliding out from under her.
“Wake up, breakfast time.”
Juliana’s eyes flutter open at Emily’s words, bringing a smirk to Emily’s face.
It just takes mentioning food to wake her.
Emily slips out of the sleeping bag and stands up. She summons her body armour back into place, taking a few moments to adjust how it sits to make it more comfortable, before summoning her various pieces of battle gear and fastening them back into position.
Juliana rises as she’s gearing up, throwing on her own clothes and armour. Emily helps her adjust the body armour before they leave the tent together, meeting Dante and Hester sitting around a small fire with skewers of meat suspended above it, a barely perceptible drizzle falling on their heads.
“Morning,” Hester greets them casually as they approach.
“Morning,” they both say back, sitting down beside the fire.
“Sleep well?” Dante asks with a teasing grin, glancing towards the tent they shared.
Emily rolls her eyes and ignores him, but Juliana throws her arms around Emily’s neck, hanging off her, and responding with a cheery grin.
“Of course! Emi’s really comfy.”
Hester and Emily giggle at her answer, and Dante chuckles before turning back to the fire, unable to keep teasing Juliana after her honest response.
Ivor, Enzo, and Tom slowly join them as the skewers finish cooking, and their breakfast passes peacefully. Afterwards, they pack their tents back into Tom’s bag. Once the clearing is empty, and they’re ready to set off, Emily recalls all her scouts but one.
She has the last bird fly up to the sound barrier disc, landing on top and pressing a button. The disc hisses as the anchors are ripped free from the surrounding trees and swiftly pulled back into their housing. The disc drops into Emily’s waiting hands, and she sends it straight into her belt before leading the group onward into the forest.
***
They walk on through the trees and fog, with Emily occasionally checking the guide pose to make sure they’re going in the right direction. They encounter nothing more than small groups of beasts in their first few days in the forest. Emily has Tom, Hester, and Juliana deal with most of them, to get used to real combat, but takes over whenever the groups coming at them exceed four in number.
On the morning of the fifth day, Emily finishes working on her new spell a few minutes before the end of Dante’s watch.
Perfect! I finished it just in time to test it in the forest before we enter the caves. Let’s call it... Scattershot!
With a new spell in the third circle section of her spellbook, Emily slides out from under Juliana and leaves the tent early. She finds Dante sitting alone against a tree, his hood pulled down low to protect from the violent rain above. With a small flex of her magical prowess, a pulse of water spreads from Emily, forming a thin shield over their cramped camp, packed into a small clearing barely big enough to fit their tents.
The water shield blocks the incoming rain, giving Dante respite.
“Thanks,” he says, looking up as Emily approaches. “I wish I had mana to burn on a defensive spell against the rain.”
“Ha, your defensive spell would burn all the trees around us along with your mana,” Emily says with a smirk, sitting down next to him.
Dante clicks his tongue, as if all his plans have been ruined, drawing a chuckle from Emily as she casts cleanse to dry him off. They sit in silence after, waiting out the last few minutes till they wake everyone else.
When the time comes, Dante walks over to where Tom’s bag is left outside his tent and starts getting things out to prepare for breakfast while Emily calls for everyone to wake up, and moves back to her and Juliana’s tent. She pokes her head in, chuckling as she sees Juliana crawl deeper into her sleeping bag.
“Wake up, Jules. There’ll be no food left if you take too long,” she threatens softly.
“Lies,” Juliana grumbles, peeking her head out of the sleeping back to glare at Emily. “You wouldn’t dare.”
Emily doesn’t respond, flashing her a cheeky grin. Juliana’s cheeks puff out as she finally sits up.
“Meanie.”
Emily laughs, resisting the urge to pinch her cute cheeks, as she turns around: choosing to ignore the quietly muttered promise of revenge.
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Big sad, the breakup is happening.
Also, side note for anyone worried, this may feel like Emily making the choice on her own, but I promise this isn't the last time they'll talk about it before the end of this expedition! There's still another 20+ chapters in this arc.
This is just the beginning of emotional processing! (And take Emily's reasoning with a pinch of salt... She's still trying not to hurt Juliana's feelings too much...)
