Chapter 154: Book 7 Chapter 15

“Joan, wake up,” Bauteut said, shaking her arm.

“What? Huh?” Joan asked while groggily opening her eyes. She glanced at the window, though she couldn’t see any light filtering through the wood. “What time is it?”

“That doesn’t matter,” Bauteut said. “Get dressed. We’re going.”

“Huh?” Joan asked. “Are the rest of the clothes done?”

“Joan, pack up,” Bauteut said before she turned to go.

Joan quickly reached out to take her hand. “Wait, what’s wrong?”

“A messenger just arrived,” Bauteut said. “Emergency situation. I don’t know everything, Korgron is using Andreas’ spell to talk with Hardwin and find out. But as soon as she’s done, we’re leaving.”

“Leaving?” Joan asked. The drowsiness evaporated and she slid out of the bed before letting Bauteut’s hand go. If Hardwin sent a messenger and it had them this panicked, it had to be pretty serious. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know, yet,” Bauteut said. “Mostly. All I know is that the last weapon of the Chosen has gone missing. The gauntlets are--”

“That’s great!” Joan said, unable to keep the excitement out of her voice.

That made Bauteut pause before slowly turn around. “Wait, what? How is that great?”

“If the last weapon is gone, that means only Chase could have moved it. Unless one of the other Chosen grabbed it, but I find that unlikely because they’d have said something.”

“How are we supposed to find him, then?” Bauteut asked.

Joan just stared at Bauteut and gave a soft sigh. “You mean how are we supposed to find one of the most powerful magical items in the world, when we have access to the most powerful mage in the world who specializes in long distance magic like that?”

Bauteut paused and stared at her for a few moments before sighing. “Okay, good point. But how is this any better than before?”

“Because that’s like having a giant beacon on him,” Joan said. “If he has the gauntlets then his power has been awoken and he’s going to be a lot easier to find than a random changeling who happens to be pretty powerful. This is the best thing that could happen! Why are you so worried? This means we won’t have to do the party.” A moment later she felt a small bit of sadness when she realized she wouldn’t need to do the party, which meant no need for the dresses. “Oh… I guess we won’t need to do the party…”

“Joan,” Bauteut said before giving another sigh. “I don’t think that’s all. I heard mention of a golem, and some tigers made of fire and a field turning to ice. There seemed to be a lot of things going on, not just the gauntlets. Get dressed, grab your stuff, meet us at the teleportation circle.”

“Fine,” Joan said before she started packing. She didn’t see what all the panic was about. This was great. If Chase had his weapon then they’d have him back in a few days.

------

“Huh,” Joan said softly. “Well, it’s not that bad.”

“What do you mean ‘not that bad’?” Korgron asked.

“I mean, Thalgren can handle the flaming horses. They weren’t that strong at all and he’s way more powerful than them,” Joan said. “I’ll need to write Andreas a letter, the whole pillar of light thing really isn’t a big issue. All flare, no actual threat. Make sure nobody goes into it, though. If anything comes OUT of it, let us know. But no matter what, let him know to NOT go into it. There’s a whole weird time thing and he’d likely be stuck in it for months, maybe years. The yetis I could deal with myself, if I could take them one at a time. I’d just send Searle and Bauteut. The hardest part of all that will be keeping the mine safe. The wyverns aren’t going to be much of a problem on their own, just let everyone know to stay away from their tower and they’ll be fine. Hardwin is already at the front lines, so I’d send Neia, err, Myrin to support him.”

“And then what about me?” Korgron asked.

“And me?” Zorn asked.

“Or me?” Qakog asked.

“Oh, right,” Joan said before giving a shrug. “I guess send Zorn to help Thalgren and have Qakog help Searle and Bauteut. That leaves you to figure out a spell to track Chase.”

Korgron took a slow, deep breath before reaching up to pinch the bridge of her nose. “Joan, don’t you think you’re being a bit dismissive about this?”

“Eh,” Joan said with a shrug. “This stuff used to happen all the time. Honestly I’m more concerned with the fact it hasn’t been happening until now.”

Korgron paused, staring at her for a moment. “What do you mean, happened all the time?”

“I mean, giant threats popping up all over the world,” Joan said. “I’ve been trying to be pretty proactive about this, but when I was the Hero it was a lot more busy. I think that’s the right term in this case? It felt like there was some new threat popping up almost weekly. We have Korgron earlier too. Which means we can just send people directly to them. I really don’t think it’s all that big a deal. The yetis usually showed up a lot sooner than this, but they were usually gone by the time we arrived.”

“What are you going to be doing during all this?” Korgron asked, her eyes narrowed on her.

Joan perked up. “Wait, does this mean you’ll let me help?”

“You’re not going to try and force your way into any of this?” Korgron asked.

“Not this time,” Joan said before giving a soft sigh. “The Demon Lord is obviously making some kind of move if he’s sending weird ice demons onto the front lines. I’ve got to try and find out why. I don’t think there was anything going on around this time that would draw his attention, but I can’t be sure. Besides, we’re almost to the end. If you can track down Chase, that’s all seven of the Chosen. All we need to do is break the spell over the world, make sure there’s nothing I needed to know, then go stop the Inferno God. As much as I don’t want to wait patiently for everyone else to return, it’s the smart thing to do now.” Joan gave a soft whine before taking a deep breath. “It is the smart thing to do, isn’t it? It’s the thing I don’t want to do, so I assume it is.”

“Probably,” Bauteut said. “I’ll be honest, I didn’t expect you to behave, though.”

“It’s a moment of maturity,” Joan said. “The moment we have the Chosen, though? The moment all of this is settled and I don’t have to be careful anymore? Don’t expect this. Not at all. Okay? Cause you all have no idea just how hard this is. If these things were actually that dangerous, or precursors to worse things I’d likely be panicking now. And I’m trying really, really hard not to focus on the fact that they all apparently happened as soon as the seventh Chosen appeared and how it might tie into him. I am doing my absolute best to ensure I don’t panic and miss something important. So please, trust me. Okay?”

Korgron stared at her for a few moments before nodding. “Everyone get on the circle, I’ll teleport you out. Does anyone have any objections?” Fortunately, there were none. Joan started to walk towards the circle but, after a moment, a hand rested on her shoulder. “Joan?” Korgron asked.

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“What?” Joan asked.

“Do you want to wait here for now?” Korgron asked.

“I already packed up,” Joan said before motioning to her bags.

“I know,” Korgron said. “But it’s your choice. We’re keeping you safe for now. So, you can choose. Wait here for your things, head back to that fort or you can come with me back to Kazora.”

Joan almost instantly said Kazora, but stopped herself. If Korgron was going there, that meant she was going to be focused on trying to develop who knew what kind of spell to track Chase down. If she went with her, then there were two options. She’d be a distraction at worst, at best she’d be bored out of her mind. If she went back back home she’d likely be anxious out of her mind. At least here she could do something, even if she couldn’t help them with the threats they were facing. “You know what? I think I’ll stay here.”

“Are you sure?” Korgron asked.

“No, but since when has that ever stopped me?” Joan asked with a light chuckle before sighing. “I’m just going to wait, patiently, like a good girl. I’ll see if I can figure anything out. Just let me know if you find anything. Okay?”

“Of course,” Korgron said.

Joan nodded and, one by one, watched them leave. Once they were all gone she sighed and glanced back towards Vivian. “Sorry.”

“For what?” Vivian asked.

“If you wanted to go home,” Joan said. “I should have asked you first.”

“Oh dear,” Vivian said before slowly walking forward and putting an arm over her shoulders. “It’s okay. That can’t have been easy.”

Joan gave a small nod and, well, a part of her wanted to cry. Another part of her just wanted to go back to bed. One final part of her, however, was what was most confusing to her. “Can… I tell you something? Promise not to tell them?”

“Of course,” Vivian said.

“A part of me is almost happy this happened? No. Not happy,” Joan said, struggling to find the word. “It’s like almost comforting?”

“Comforting?” Vivian asked.

“Yeah,” Joan said. “Like everything was going too smoothly. You know? No hiccups, no fighting, no sudden monsters or surprise attacks. None of that. Just smoothly, getting new clothes, all of that. It felt easy. Too easy. They even took care of everything in a few days. Things just feel less wrong when they’re going wrong. Before you say it, yes I know that’s probably not a good thing to feel.”

“I didn’t want to be the one to say it,” Vivian said with a small chuckle. “At least you understand that, though.”

“I understand a lot of things,” Joan said. “Doesn’t mean I react to them correctly or anything. I just know them.”

“At least you admit it,” Vivian said with a small smile. “Shall we head back to the manor? I’d better make sure that there’s no issues with us staying here for a few more days.”

Joan gave a small shrug. “They’ll deal with these things before you know it. We’ll have all of them back soon.”

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Joan stared up at the ceiling and wondered how often she could be wrong. Did the fates find this amusing?

Knowing them, probably. It had been three days and she, once more, felt like she was going insane out of boredom. The Chosen were doing their best, of course. It just wasn’t easy eliminating these threats, especially when some of them hid the moment they showed up. Not to mention a few more had shown up.

Joan couldn’t help but wonder if it was all coincidence. She wanted to believe it was. But all these new threats came about right as the seventh Chosen found his weapon? She couldn’t force herself to believe it for a second. Although, she still wanted to know how Chase had found it. Had it been coincidence? Had he been pretending to be someone else and ended up touching them on accident? Or something else?

Joan wished it was the first but found that incredibly unlikely. Worst, there was only one person she could imagine being able to locate him before her. How Penthe had managed it she had no idea. Or maybe it hadn’t even been Penthe, maybe it was something else. Who knew?

She didn’t.

That was driving her nuts. She hoped she did the right thing, sending the Chosen off without her. Having Bauteut and Qakog work with Searle. Poor Zorn, she hadn’t meant to be dismissive with him but she really wasn’t sure what to do with him. Hopefully Thalgren would.

Hopefully Korgron would find Chase soon and they’d all be able to put an end to this before she went insane. Break the spell on her mind, meet with the fates, stop the Inferno God, save the world, dance away while making rude gestures at the Demon Lord, gods, destiny, anything and everything. She didn’t know.

But it was coming to a close, she could feel it.

But what if everything else could too? What if this was just the beginning? Oh, what she wouldn’t give to have a distraction.

The ground shook suddenly and she let out a yelp, sitting up. “I-I take it back, no distraction, no--”

A moment later she could hear screams, the sound of splintered wood and the ground shaking once more. Come on, what now? She slid off the bed and ran to the window, shoving open the slats of wood to peer outside. Unfortunately, she couldn’t see it. Fortunately, she didn’t need to. Primarily because it let out a roar.

The roar of a Titanslayer.

“Ah crap,” Joan said before glancing down at her belt. “Okay, elemental. Let’s see what you can do. Cause I probably can’t do that.”