Then I addressed Saffron directly, putting on a veil of false confidence. “Please stop that, Saffron. My master has made something of an investment in that one, and I’ve been asked to ensure she isn’t harmed.” I casually waved the stick in the air, hoping it would get his attention.
He turned his head toward me. “What master are you… Wait, how are you standing?”
I raised my hand and showed him the ring. “A small gift from my master protected me.” I considered my next words closely. “Sterling would not be pleased if I was forced to do the bidding of others.”
“Sterling.” He almost spat the word. “This girl is one of his projects?”
I nodded with the utmost confidence, having zero idea of what I was talking about. “Of course. Can’t you see why?”
He glanced at her, then back to me. “This is a bit perverse, even by his standards.” Saffron grinned. “But I can see the appeal. There is one problem, however.”
“Oh?”
Saffron turned back to Elora. “I’ve always enjoyed breaking my brother’s toys.”
I heard a snap.
Elora’s fingers.
And then she vanished.
Saffron’s shoulders sagged. “Really? She can teleport?” He blurred again, appearing at Carter’s side. “Idiot. You didn’t tell me they had a teleporter.”
“Forgive me, Lord Saffron. I assumed you knew.”
“Deflecting blame? You’ll be punished for that later. But for now, I should finish here, hmm?” Saffron turned to me. “Now, tell me your name, rank, and authentication phrase.”
The ring activated, sending me command to obey.
I appear to have made a terrible mistake.
I’d purified the rune that was responsible for filtering when the ring activated.
At the moment, that meant that it would activate if anyone gave me a verbal command. I could fix that eventually, but it would require making permanent modifications to the ring.
My previous command to ignore Saffron was still at work. The end result was that a surge of pain flooded through my body as the commands conflicted. I wasn’t ready for it like I had been when I’d activated the ring in the first place, and I ended up falling backward in surprise.
Saffron stalked forward toward me. “I said now, boy.”
I fought to resist as the compulsion activated again. A few moments later, I would have failed.
Elora Theas appeared next to me and grabbed me by the arm.
I didn’t resist in the slightest.
She snapped her fingers, and then we were elsewhere.
We appeared right outside of Derek’s mansion.
Elora fell forward and vomited noisily. I managed to steady her enough that she didn’t fall into her own mess.
My own head was still swimming, but I was clearly in better shape than she was.
“Door.” Elora managed to say.
I grabbed the handle and pulled the door open.
By the time I turned back to her, Elora had fallen to the ground. Not in her mess, fortunately. But her eyes were closed.
I picked her up and shouted as I walked inside. “Derek! Keras! Help!”
I carried Elora inside, only managing a few steps before Derek came running down the stairs.
He was unarmed.
He looked like he’d just gotten out of bed, wearing nightclothes, a silver bracelet on his right wrist, and a crimson bracelet on the left. He was also wearing a necklace that looked vaguely familiar.
“Corin? What’s…?”
He took a moment to process what he was seeing. “I’ll take her.”
Derek ran over, gingerly slipping his arms under Elora and lifting her. “Close the door and tell me what happened.”
“Get Keras. Now.”
I ran back to the door, lifting the horizontal bar across it. This manor was built like a fortress, and the door was designed accordingly.
“Keras isn’t here right now. Why?”
A fist burst through the front door.
“Because there is a slim possibility we may have been followed by a Child of the Tyrant in Gold.”
Derek stared at the door. “Oh. Yeah, that’s bad.” Derek looked from side to side. “Take her somewhere safe.”
Elora groaned in his arms. “…No. Down.”
Derek set Elora down gently on the floor, then put his hand on the crimson bracelet. “Delsys, I summon you.”
A crimson-skinned figure appeared at his side, blazing winds whipping around him. Derek pointed at the back of the room. “Find Keras and bring him back here immediately.
The flame creature nodded, then seemed to condense as it shifted in form to a blazing bird and flew out straight through the rear wall, leaving a bird-shaped hole.
The door flew off its hinges.
Saffron stood in the doorway. “I do not like it when people leave me in the middle of a conversation.”
Derek took a step forward. “Sir, you’ve just broken my front door. I do not appreciate that.”
Saffron turned his gaze toward Derek. “I’m terribly sorry, I mean no offense. I just need to dismember those two a little bit, then I’ll fix your door…” He shook his head. “No, I probably won’t.”
Derek’s aura brightened to Emerald, and he put a hand on the silver bracelet. “Tavare, I sum—”
“Stop, Derek.” Elora grabbed his leg. She was still having trouble standing. “He absorbs magic. It works on summons.”
Absorbs?
I’d seen him make those monsters vanish, but I hadn’t understood what was happening.
Derek nodded. “Get yourself and Corin out of here. At least until you recover enough to help.”
Saffron took a step forward. “Those are my prey.” His eyes narrowed. “I did not give them permission to leave.”
Saffron vanished again.
When he reappeared, his fingers were an inch away from punching though the center of Elora’s chest.
Saffron’s expression was perplexed. He struggled to move further.
Derek had grabbed him around the wrist. “I think not.”
Then Derek slammed a fist into Saffron’s face.
The Child of the Tyrant fell backward with a bloody lip.
Saffron raised a hand, wiping away the blood with an already-filthy hand. “Now that…is interesting.”
“Derek. Be. Careful.” I managed. Then I ran for the stairs.
From the corner of my eye, I saw a fight that was little more than a blur.
It was immediately evident that I had never seen Derek use a fraction of his true strength.
When Derek flew past me and crashed into the stairwell, it became apparent that even his true strength might not be enough.
Derek was moving again in an instant.
And I was running again a moment later.
When I was on the second floor, I paused. What could I even do in a fight like this?
The first order of business was pulling off the Ring of Derek Controlling. I dropped it back into my bag, along with the stick. I’d look into modifying the ring later, but for the moment, it was a liability if anyone could command me to do anything.
If I wanted to escape, that seemed fairly simple. I could go to the roof, jump off, and use the ring of jumping to flee to safety.
But would that even work? This thing had followed us all the way here in moments.