48 – Risky plan

Ishrin barged into the mansion like a storm, the rest of his team following behind him. He slammed the doors open with his telekinesis, and sent the guards at the sides sprawling on their backs, keeping a pressure on their chests as a reminder that they better not try to get up until he was gone, or they were going to suffer. Sitting on his regal throne, a mockery of a real throne made of ornate marble and golden motifs etched like the decadent decorations of the rich part of Semiluminal, Duke Elstrom was waiting for him. He rose to his feet to greet him with a big smile, not caring about what had happened to his men or about the destroyed door behind Ishrin.

“Greetings, adv—”

However his voice was quickly stilled when Ishrin grabbed him by his throat, and not with telekinesis but by closing the gap between the two men with one impossibly fast dash. The duke thrashed and kicked, but Ishrin watched without expression as the duke’s face grew red and purple, his eyes bulged out of his skull, and his limbs went limp. Behind him, the girls and the boys, as well as all the guards, could only hold their breath.

Then he released him, and the man gasped for air and spasmed on the floor for a few seconds before regaining a sense of where he was and tentatively crawling on the smooth floor, using his throne as a crutch to drag himself up. All traces of dignity were gone from the man, who stood hunched and in pain, massaging his bruised neck while his face was wet with sweat and his hair and clothes were crumpled and messy.

“This is for trying to kill me, you fucker. Now tell me why I should spare you, and be quick.”

The duke coughed. “You can’t kill me.” he spat.

Ishrin’s eyebrows went up like the duke just said something outrageous. “Excuse me?”

“You can’t kill me.” the duke repeated himself in his strained voice, his vocal cords no doubt damaged by the violent squeeze. “If you do, he will come after you.”

Ishrin’s hand went back to the duke’s throat, and he lifted the man up into the air with one arm, staring at his contorting face.

“I want to see him try. Who is he?” he asked calmly.

The duke tried to move Ishrin’s fingers with his hands, but the vice around his neck didn’t move a millimeter.

“The… guild… master.” He croaked.

He fell to the floor, released once again.

“Syrma?” Ishrin asked. Behind him, he heard Melina begin to murmur.

“You’re a hero, aren’t you?” the duke said, not bothering to get up from the floor this time, watching the intruder from below with a gaze full of spite and hatred. “People like you need to be eliminated.”

There was such hatred in his eyes that Ishrin felt something, like danger, for a moment. The hatred of the foolish, for this man had no idea whether Ishrin was going to be able to contain his wrath or not, if Ishrin was going to lash out at him and kill him or not. Seeing the foolish hatred made Ishrin’s mind flare with rage. How dared this puny man, who ruled with wealth and bribes, who had no actual power of his own, talk to Ishrin like he had some power over him? And the shame, for Ishrin had been scared for a moment that maybe this man on the ground here had some ace move he was about to unleash. But there was no such ace up his sleeve, and all that was left now was the sensation of having been played for a fool. Once again.

“What?” he picked the duke up by the back of his clothes and lowered his face to match the height of his. “What are you talking about?” He said.

“Your destiny.” The duke spat. “You will get what you deserve, hero. The hunters will find you eventually.”

It was at this point that all of the pent-up rage and frustration came bubbling up in Ishrin’s mind. Unable to contain it, he felt his vision contract into a tunnel, where all he could see was the laughing, manic face of the duke as he slithered on the floor like a serpent. He wanted to kill him, to crush him, to utterly—

“Ishrin!” Melina’s voice rang in his ears.

He turned around.

“Let’s get out of here.” She said.

He narrowed his eyes, and tried to argue with her that he was not done here, that unless he showed the duke what happens when someone crosses him, then everybody will think that they can do whatever they want to them. But Melina was steadfast, not giving in an inch.

“It’s not worth it.”

Ishrin fumed. “You are telling me,” He began, smacking his tongue. “That I should let this worm live?”

“What happens if you kill him?” she said. “What changes?”

“I don’t know?” Ishrin shrugged. “I feel good, maybe?”

“Sure, you will. Like you did when you killed the merchant, or Lucius, or when Lisette killed Goddard?”

Ishrin let her speak, but she seemed done. “Your point being?”

“Revenge doesn’t help. It never does.”

“Oh,” Ishrin said. “You say that because you never—”

“You don’t know shit, Ishrin.” She growled. “Revenge doesn’t help.”

Ishrin stared at her. There was an intensity to her gaze that he couldn’t refute. It was like she was staring right at his soul. All at once he felt ashamed of what he was about to say, of what he had said and of what he was willing to do. From his pocket out flew the tiny hologram of Liù, small and barely large enough to cover her cubic body. She flew up to his face and nuzzled against his skin, and the touch was warm and tingly, like tiny pinpricks of electricity.

“Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

On the way out, Melina forced Sir Westys and his team to follow them. The guards stood helpless at the sides of the private road leading to the mansion, and nobody came to stop them all the way to the outer gates of the city, and into the surrounding fields. At a certain point all three other members of Sir Westys team asked to be let free to return to the mansion, making it clear that their allegiance was not with the boy but with the duke. The boy too asked to be freed, so that he could return home, but was quickly made to see reason. If he wanted to return, Melina told him, he was free to do so but he would also encounter certain death. His father, it was obvious now, did not see him as more than a worthless pawn to be sacrificed, and his failure meant that he was going to be punished. With death, or worse.

“They left me.” the boy said between sniffles when the reality of the situation was finally too much to ignore. “They just went back.”

He was talking about his companions, that once he thought his friends.

“I’ve been treating them like shit. And now they just left me alone.”

“Listen, boy,” Ishrin said, much to the surprise of everyone else, Melina included. He sighed, sounding so tired and spent that he could barely speak. “I can perform a ritual on you. It’s going to consume all of your magic, send you back to tier 2 or 3 or something. But it will change you, your body and your aura, make you into a new person. A free person. Free to start again, from scratch. To do better.”

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Melina smiled. “You would do that for him?” she asked Ishrin.

He nodded slowly, and her smile deepened.

“You are a good person.” She said.

“I’m not.” Ishrin replied. “Not yet. But you are making me into one. I think.”

The ritual took the rest of the day to perform. The boy just went through the procedure in utter silence, looking down at his feet, crying and whimpering but never once changing his mind. And in the end, he thanked Ishrin and apologized.

“You can do anything you want now, you are free.” Ishrin told him.

Melina gave the boy a bag of supplies, and by dawn of the next day he was gone.

***

“We need to talk about what happened in that mansion.” Melina said.

“The implications of what the duke said,” Ishrin asked, “or my behavior? Because if it’s the second thing, I… I am very sorry, Melina. I don’t know what happened to me back there.”

“I forgive you. But I want you to promise me something.”

“Anything. Within reason.” Ishrin said.

“It’s reasonable.” Melina grinned, lightening the tone all at once. “I want you to do meditation with Lisette, and work on your mood swings. Investigate what’s going on with your mind.”

Ishrin paused. “There’s stuff there, in my mind. Stuff I don’t want to—”

“There stuff in my mind too.” Melina said softly. “But I dealt with it. And you need to too. Hells, even Lisette is dealing with her own demons. You better do it too.”

Ishrin inhaled deeply. “They are going to come back,” he said. “The ghosts of the past.”

“You won’t be alone in dealing with them.” Melina said.

Ishrin realized that Lisette was sitting next to them, silently watching with her usual stoic expression, but clutching the book in her hands. Around her flew Liù, and he felt that all these people were here for him now that he needed them, that truly he wasn’t alone.

“Okay.” he said.

After dealing with what the girls felt was the important thing first, the conversation moved to the other matter at hand. Namely: Syrma’s involvement in the attack, and the mention of the hunters. Two quite disturbing pieces of information, especially because unlike everything the team encountered so far, Syrma was completely out of their league and therefore was a threat that could not be underestimated.

“I am surprised that the guild master would ever do something so risky.” Lisette said. Ishrin hummed. “If he wanted to kill you, he could have done it personally without effort.”

“That’s not nice.” Ishrin protested.

“It’s true.” Melina said solemnly. “The tier disparity is too great. 4 whole tiers? He would obliterate you.”

Ishrin conceded that it was indeed true, however he also raised another point. That these were all conjectures based off the ramblings of a duke who was being threatened with his life. He could have said anything just to shift the blame off from him and onto someone powerful enough to scare Ishrin off. Eventually the conversation reached a standoff point, where it was evident that lack of information was preventing the team from making an informed decision about what to do next. Of course, they could keep going as usual. Try to grow in power while keeping a watchful eye for attacks. Thanks to Ishrin their growth was fast enough that in a matter of months, perhaps even weeks, they would be able to stand their ground even against Syrma. On the other hand, doing this left them completely vulnerable to unknown variables.

The possibility of just getting out of here, to go somewhere else was also mentioned. However, together with it, something else was also mentioned. The unknown variable: the Dynasty that was on its way to this planet from outer space was brought up by Lisette. She was unaware of the looks she got when she mentioned the name, because this forced Ishrin and Melina to reconsider everything. Liù even pitched in at times. The consensus was that a Dynasty was more than capable of reaching them no matter where they hid on the planet, and there was no way to flee the planet at their current level of power. The minimum requirement, which Ishrin had mentioned when he told them team he wanted to visit Mekano to investigate the SPAWN AI and its hidden data, was reaching Tier 15.

“We could go into the volcano realm. It’s still open.” Ishrin said.

Melina shook her head. “That won’t be enough.”

“So… what’s the actual probability that Syrma will be directing the Dynasty against us? Realistically.” Ishrin said.

“High.” Lisette said.

“Yeah,” Melina confirmed.

“And we don’t know why.” Ishrin said. “Which leaves us quite vulnerable. Any ideas?”

“There is one thing I could do.” Melina said. “I can ask him directly.”

Ishrin was caught by surprise. “Eh?”

“I’m serious.”

He fought as not to break into a nervous laugh. “What’s with you being so reckless all of a sudden?” he asked.

“I’m not reckless. He can’t kill me if I approach him at the guild, in broad daylight. And even if he tried… I’m Tier 13. I’m not easy to kill. As long as I move before the Dynasty arrives, that is.”

“I do not understand.” Lisette said. “What is the benefit in confronting him? He will deny everything.”

Melina bared her canines. “It might force him to make a mistake. Reveal something.”