The older man laughed. “Aahh, no, I’m not quite that ancient, I’m afraid. I’m Councilor Gerald Lanoy, the Visage’s Adjutant. This is Councilor Lyran,” he gestured at my mother, “and Councilor Theas,” he waved at the other woman.
Keras scratches his chin. “Councilors? Meaning members of your Council of Lords?”
“Correct,” Councilor Lanoy confirmed. His tone was paternal. “I understand that you’re not a Valian native, so you might be unfamiliar with our governing process—”
The masked man waved to stop him. “I understand the basics. I must admit to being a bit disappointed, however. I mean no disrespect, but I was informed that I would be meeting with the visage. Why the change?”
“Regrettably, such a meeting will not be possible,” the councilor said. “I’m afraid that our… noble allies in Dalenos have declared you guilty of heresy and filed for your immediate extradition.”
Keras’ hands briefly balled into fists, then reopened. “This was a trap, then.”
Councilor Lanoy sighed. “Not a trap, Sir. I read your request for the meeting and approved it personally before the extradition request came to us. I admit to being intrigued by your claims, and were the situation different…”
Keras took a step forward. The guards tensed, moving hands toward weapon hilts, but Councilor Lanoy raised a hand to stop them.
Keras leaned back and folded his arms. “The situation can be different. Let me speak to the visage before you send me to Dalenos. I suspect he would be willing to dispel these claims of heresy personally if he heard my message.”
Councilor Theas raised a hand to her forehead, closed her eyes, and then turned her head toward Councilor Lanoy. “They’re waiting outside.”
Councilor Lanoy nodded in response, then turned back to Keras. “I regret to say this, Sir, but you are under arrest for the crime of heresy in the kingdom of Dalenos. I would like to ask you to cooperate. If you do so, we will provide you with one of our best legal advisors to attempt to convince them to lower your sentence.”
“In Dalenos? For heresy?” Keras barked a laugh. “What, would they lower the sentence to only taking off half my head?”
The old man winced. “I believe one of our attorneys would be able to persuade them to limit the punishment to something less than fatal.”
Keras rubbed his forehead. “I appreciate the thought, but I have no intention of being imprisoned for telling the truth. I’ll be leaving now.”
He turned back toward the door. The two guards stepped in his way, drawing steel.
Keras raised his hands to display empty palms. “Please don’t make this difficult. I’ll leave peacefully if you let me.”
“I’m afraid that won’t be possible.” Councilor Theas stepped closer to the edge of the platform overlooking the lower area. “But don’t worry, you won’t have to fight anyone. You won’t get the chance.” She pointed a hand at him. “Elias, bind him in the chains of authority.”
Shimmering green chains sprung up from the floor, surrounding Keras and enveloping him in an instant. They wrapped around his limbs, seemingly of their own will, and pulled together tightly. Shackles manifested around his wrists.
Keras turned his head toward Councilor Theas. “That was a mistake.”
He moved his arms apart. The chain connecting the shackles snapped first. The other chains cracked apart as he moved, stepping closer to the door.
“Stop him!” Theas yelled.
The first guard moved quickly, swinging his sword in a downward arc. Keras caught the blade his right hand, completely arresting the weapon’s movement. With a twitch of his hand to the side, the sword blade snapped.
Keras discarded the broken half of the sword blade in his hand while side-stepping a sword swing from the second guard, then spun to deflect a blast of lightning from a third attacker — my mother.
She’d floated down from the top floor onto the floor of the council chamber below.
“A lightning sorcerer? That’s more interesting, at least.” Keras smirked.
Mother! Oh, no…
It occurred to me in the following moments that I didn’t know exactly when this gem memory was from… and that I hadn’t heard from my mother in months.
Mother didn’t look as scared as I felt, though. In fact, she was grinning too.
She snapped her fingers, a crackling aura of lightning manifesting all around her. “You’re quick,” she remarked. “But unarmed? I don’t think you’re much of a threat.”
Keras raised a single hand, shaking it in a conciliatory gesture. “You’re right.” He kicked the now-unarmed guard that tried to grab him from behind, sending the man tumbling into a nearby wall. “Hold that thought.”
The other guard opted for a lunge. Keras side-stepped it without looking, spun, and grabbed the guard’s arm. Another smooth motion and Keras plucked the sword from the guard’s hand, seemingly without effort. As the guard stumbled backward, Keras advanced, twisting the weapon to use the flat of the blade. A wall of ice appeared between them before he could take a swing.
Keras turned just in time to deflect a hail of icy shards, nearly identical to the spell that Sera had used against Teft, but larger and more numerous. His stolen blade flashed crimson as he cut the chunks of ice apart, then flared with silvery light as he hopped atop the ice wall and looked at the source. Councilor Theas was enveloped in an aura of frost, still sending more icy shards in Keras’ direction.
He opened his free hand, running it across the blade of the sword. Fire trailed where his hand passed, igniting the edges of the weapon. He swung the sword in an arc, launching a burning crescent at Councilor Theas, but a blast of lightning from my mother smashed into the crescent, detonating the two attacks in the air.
Keras glanced back down at my mother, then back to Councilor Theas. “Two sorcerers? You certainly prepared for me.”
Councilor Lanoy cracked his knuckles. “Three, actually.” He traced a pattern in the air, leaving a glowing blue rune shimmering in front of him. “I would advise you again to surrender.”
The masked swordsman grinned. “Oh, you misunderstood me. I wasn’t complaining. I’m just starting to get interested.”
“A pity.” Councilor Lanoy pressed his hand into the glimmering pattern. It split apart into a series of spheres of mana that spread out and then rapidly converged on Keras’ location.
The swordsman spun to slice the first one with his blade, but it detonated before he managed to strike it, creating a rippling shockwave of force that sent Keras stumbling backward along the icy wall, right into more of the converging projectiles.
A dozen more blasts of blue-white light erupted as the spheres burst around Keras, blinding me for an instant with their intensity. When my vision cleared, Keras was still standing. His tunic was shredded and bloodstained, a hint of blood dripping from his lips. Burn marks were visible on his back.
He was grinning more brightly than ever. The aura around him flickered, then intensified, turning a silvery hue.
Keras vanished, reappearing next to Councilor Lanoy and driving a fist into the older man’s gut. A shimmer of silver and green erupted on the impact. The councilor folded around the punch, collapsing to the floor in an instant later.
“Elias, Warden of the Adamantine Wall, I summon you!”
Councilor Theas shimmered brighter green, a shimmering shroud of runes surrounding her as a metallic titan appeared on the floor below. The creature was roughly humanoid, but it must have been twenty feet tall, and it crackled with green energy that matched Councilor Theas’.