Chapter 9: 9: Expendable

Brio bowed as the hooded man and his guards entered the room, "Greetings, Prince Salem. I hope your journey was a safe one."

Salem was a tall and lanky man, with a light sand skin and wet sand hair. His face was harsh and sharp with oddly round eyes that were black as the cloak he wore. He stood in a way that made it seem like he was about to fall at any moment, like he was never taught how to stand up. He barely seemed to move downwards when he returned the bow to Brio, "Greetings, High Defender Brio. It was quite safe, though I will ask: I heard rumors from some of the villages I passed through. Are they true?"

"Unfortunately. They seem to not be the work any of the known terrorist groups, so we are at a loss. Even the patterns and methods used don't have a pattern."

"Well, once our wish is made, such things won't matter."

"I suppose." Brio turned his head. He still had no clue what this wish would be. Of course a prince would know but he would have thought as High Defender someone would have at least given him a hint.

"Have you secured the Keys yet?"

"Soon. I have no doubt that the three we sent will be done with their missions soon."

"Hmm. Who did you send?"

"The Bloody Knight, my... cousin, and a simple guard."

"Your uncle had a child? Why wasn't I made aware of this?"

"Adopted a child. Similar situation to what happened with me." 

"Ah, I see. How many of those sent are..."

"Two. Though it will be three when they return."

"Oh? How so?"

"I assume in the course of the mission, the choice will come up."

"Oh? Is that so?"

The two of them began to walk down the hall towards the meeting room. The halls around it had been cleared out and the only other people beside Brio, Salem and his guards were a pair of sentries stationed outside the door. They saluted and pulled the large doors open. The two of them joined the table while the two guards went to stand by the wall.

"Prince Salem. Welcome. It is an honor to have you here."

"It is a great honor to be here, Lord Galahad. I only wish I didn't have to come because my father's habits."

"Hush, princeling. The Emperor can do as he pleases." A woman in purple robes and with dyed purple hair said. Even her nails and makeup were purple.

"Isolde! Don't address a prince like that." Lord Kaga reprimanded her.

"He's not even the crown prince."

"Yes, those brothers of mine are above me, but they joined father so here I am. The highest in the line of succession left here on the mainland."

"You should be two down, if those two hadn't been disowned."

Salem looked down, "Yes. And honestly I sometimes wonder why father only spared me."

Brio coughed, "Uncle. We should begin."

"Ah, yes." Lord Galahad stood up and began to speak, "Cysgod. Listen to us and make sure our path does not stray from the one you have made. Listen, my fellows, listen close. From reports the keys should be in our hands in two days. Well, in our operatives today, but they won't be here for a couple of days. Also we will have a new member and a certain someone's mistake when they joined will be rectified." He glared at Brio, who turned away. "Of course we will only have two keys at most."

"How so?"

"The Ruskalykan spies plus I'm sure that somehow those savages will take one. But even if worse comes to worse and we only get one key, our dream will come true."

The members murmured among themselves.

Lord Galahad let them chat for a moment more before continuing, "Now, beyond that. We have received more information about those attacks. They seem to be from two faction. Whether or not they are related is yet to be determined, but for now we are assuming they are not. One seems to be made up of savages who attack in groups. They have yet to kill anyone and only seem to be causing chaos. The other is made up of a few hooded individuals who have been brutally killing soldiers around the empire. The methods they use are unknown, and each one seems to kill in different ways."

"Ugh, great. Just what we need right now." Isolde groaned.

"It matters not. They aren't going to affect our plans regardless."

Salem spoke up, "Shouldn't you care more? I mean they are citizens of the empire."

"Why? Letting it continue or ceasing it won't matter in a few days. If somehow it continues after that, well... It won't continue for long." Lord Galahad replied.

The meeting adjourned, but Isolde called over Brio.

"How is my precious apprentice?" She asked. Despite her looking only a few years older than Brio she was in her late sixties, or perhaps older. Her jet black hair was twisted into multiple large braids, some of which wrapped around her head like a crown. Her skin was the same shade as the ravens that often followed her around. She had been the strongest mage in the empire for so long most people treated her like a myth. She had taught Brio more about how to use runes than his books had. Even though she couldn't use them, she knew how they worked from the former rune users she had been acquainted with. She even taught him to use regular casters.

"I am fine, Isolde."

"Really? No emotions for your sister?"

"Llama is of no concern."

"You could address her properly."

"Lyrica is not my sibling."

"Yes, that's the excuse you gave for letting her live. Well, not that someone like her would cause trouble. Unless she had a caster."

"I doubt she'd be that reckless. She might not be my sister, but Lyre only used a caster once outside of training."

"Yes, right before Lyrica and you went your separate ways. Poor Deidre though, I wonder how conflicted that girl is."

"Probably not that much, I suspect she'll view Lyrica much the same as I do."

"Oh hohoho, I see. Not aware are we? Then again, I suppose it will end up that way. And our precious Leannan? Will she have what it takes, to do what you could not?"

"Well, she won't have to kill a family member to join like I was. I worry more about Lara honestly. I really doubt she cares about joining outside of making her father happy.

"Well, I'll leave you now. Congrats in advance on your only child status, or reunion." She glided away leaving Brio alone.

Reunion? Only child? What exactly did she mean by that. He shook his head. Isolde was just messing with his head as always. 

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Mors stared at the cave entrance. It had been a few minutes since their targets had entered the cave and she was already bored. The two tribe members standing watch looked towards them, without seeing the two Ruskalykan's in the bushes. 

"I wonder when they'll be done." Rabo said.

"I am hoping it will be of the sooner times."

"Well, hopefully they leave a key for us."

"Hmm, nah. There's only two left. One for them and one to pay off the tribe." A voice from behind them spoke. They nearly jumped before realizing that would alert the guards, and slowly turned to a masked and hooded figure.

"Hey, Morsie. Rabo."

"Who are you and why are you claiming there's only two keys left?"

"Because there is. Oh, and my name is... ah, no. Not this time. Besides, I have better things to do than bother with that drama."

"How would you know that?"

"Are you seriously asking that? Even with my knowledge here, it's not that hard to guess, Rabo. Maybe you're stupider than I remember."

"Do we know each other?"

"Ah, ah. Not important. But anyways, there's no point in waiting here. Those two will come out without my Lyrica and with their singular key, and leave."

"Gay? I mean two?"

"Singular key?"

"Yeah, Rabo, only one. The tribe already sent people in to collect their key. As for Morsie, yes, I am and you can find a key at that address I gave you."

Mors looked down at her pants and pulled out a piece paper. "When the fuck did you give this to me? This is an address."

"Yep, with one key somewhere in it. It's where she always leaves it."

"Why are you giving to me this information?"

"Just setting up the board. I could just let them have this message and have the empire get two wishes that way."

"If you are of the lying I will find you and I will be the killing person of you." Mors and Rabo decided to act, just to be sure. A key in a house was a much safer option than whatever the cave likely held.

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The figure exhaled, "Geez, they actually left. I wonder how she'll turn out this time?" They turned to the cave. A few more minutes and the next stage would begin. They closed their eyes and began to meditate. Soon they were motionless like a statue, empty and hollow.

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Lyrica stumbled, causing Leannan to grab her. "Are you okay?"

"We- I am fine. Ugh, words. I think I just got vertigo from that last trial."

"Come on, there's only two trials left." Deidre said. "If the first seven were any indication this was the easy path."

They moved forward along the path, lit by the glow of moss that covered the ceiling. They were at least a mile underground now, and had already done more trials than any of them had expected. Leannan was beginning to suspect Deidre took them down the longer path at the beginning.

The next room was a weirdly shaped circle, with an altar in the middle. There was runes on the wall which Leannan translated for the other three: 

"Seven past and two before you. The eighth requires a sacrifice at the altar of stone. Give up thy person and cast them aflame."

Deidre turned her head, her usual look of confusion on her face, asked, "One of us? Aflame?"

Lara looked nervous, "I don't feel like burning myself alive."

"Well, you're gonna have to. One of us has to burn at least." Deidre told her.

Lyrica smiled and shook her head. "Not exactly. Deidre, if you could- sit on the altar."

"Why?"

"Just sit. Don't worry, I won't set you on fire."

Deidre stared at her before walking to the stone altar and sitting down.

Lyrica turned to Lara and Leannan: "Take her sword, just to be safe."

Deidre reluctantly gave up her blade and turned to Lyrica who was smiling at her like a fox. "Well? I'm sitting. What are you going to do?"

"Set you aflame." Lyrica said before squatting to be eye level with Deidre. "Your mother deserved to die. I mean what idiot takes on a whole village solo? A worthless woman just like you. A hot headed bloodlusting demon that loses reason too easily and can be tricked like a baby who has yet to develop object permanence. A garbage human who is just a worthless tool to be used by those who direct her like the dog she was. And you're the same. Following people who don't care about you while all those who do are driven away by you. You deserve to die alone, since no one should have to deal with you at your worst- which is most times. You are a puppet just like your mothe-"

"Shut up!" Deidre yelled, her face red and veins popping. She was ready to kill Lyrica before she heard the sound of stone against stone, dragging behind her. A new path opened up and she stopped her face inches from Lyrica and hands around her neck.

"Huh? What?" She looked confused.

"What? I set you aflame. Your emotions. Did you think we actually had to burn someone alive?"

"You mean you insulted me and my mother just to make me mad enough to open the door?!"

"Well, I wasn't sure if the other option would work even with Lara to help me."

"What other option?"

"What other emotion would make on go aflame? Can you let me go now?"

Deidre released Lyrica, who jogged to join Leannan and Lara."

"Hey, Lyrica? Did you mean all that?"

"Yes. It's all true." She turned to Leannan. "Have you ever seen her in her Bloody Knight mode?"

"No... I have not."

"Well if you saw that you'd know I only told her the truth. Also it was kind of therapeutic, you know."

"You did look like you were enjoying insulting her."

"Yep."

"Are you gonna apologize?" Lara asked.

"Not gonna have to at this point."

"Huh?"

Lyrica continued forward through the tunnel, leaving behind Leannan and Lara still confused by her actions as the still upset Deidre caught up to her and began discussing among themselves. Lyrica knew the last one would be the last of the rooms, and wanted to reach it as soon as possible. No point in delaying the inevitable.

The final room was a simple large area, much too large to exist naturally, yet the walls and ceilings seemed less man-made than any previous room. A large canyon separated the two sides. With no clear path across. A cage much like the ones meant to keep birds in but sized more for a human prisoner. It was surrounded by two walls, as if it was trying to hide itself from the view of the rest of the room. As the other three entered, Lyrica was already approaching the cage. A large rock in her hands. She tossed in into the cage and from the top a thing of spikes came down a third of the way and then the bottom swung open sending it down below where it crashed with a deafening thud.

"Yep. Yep. Same as it ever was." She walked over to the others, "Well whatever this room is, the cage isn't part of the solution."

"Maybe it doesn't like rocks." Lara suggested.

"If you want to sit in it, go ahead." 

"N-no." Lara backed away.

"Leannan, where's the instructions?"

"Hold on I'm reading them. The handwriting here sucks. I think it says: 'Reach the other side, and thy journey will be done. To reach the summit one must go down, and to reach the peak you desire you must rise to the occasion. Two choices lay before you. Sacrifice one of your fellows in the cage or take a leap of faith below.'"

"Looks like that cage is important and used after all." Deidre smirked.

"Oh, which one of us do you want to kill?"

"You right now."

"I mean I'd rather just risk jumping off."

"That's clearly a trick. There's probably a mechanism that activates when a body hits below the cage."

"I doubt it."

The four decided to hold a vote for the choice. Lyrica of course choose the leap of faith and was overruled by everyone else. 

Deidre called over Leannan to discuss something. 

"Yeah?"

"Lyrica. It's Lyrica. I don't want to do this."

"She's the only expendable one, just remember whatever the mission you had was."

"But I was so close. To have all my cr- friends together again."

"Even after all that she said to you?"

"I... right. Let's get this over with." She sighed and coughed, "Lyrica."

"I got it. I guess you win, I'll go to the cage." Lyrica began to walk, before Deidre grabbed her. 

"Leananan. Cast a rune to make sure she does what we told her. I don't want her running."

Leannan shook her head and using a rock and her magic burned a rune of pathing onto the arm of Lyrica. She didn't scream though they could see she was fighting the rune. They watched as she disappeared behind the walls. They then heard the squish of metal against skin, a scream of agony, then the sound of the bottom falling out and a thud from the bottom. The three waited, nervously, guilt threatening to rise until suddenly a stone bridge materialized. The three said a prayer to Lyrica as was common practice and crossed.

The only sounds were the fall of their feet, the beat of their hearts and the steady breaths which they took. The three fresh from a death which they caused, of a friend old and newshould no regret or emotions to it. As the Cysgod declared it to be. They went forward, steady yet slow, across the bridge created from the sacrifice of Lyrica.

The final chamber had only a stair case up, and a large chest on a pedestal. Deidre turned to Leannan, "You have passed."

Leannan breathed out. "Thank you. I am honored to join the two of you in Cysgod."

"And I am glad that mission of mine went so smoothly." Deidre said as she opened the chest. One Key rested, though another one clearly had been there.

Leannan looked tried to look under the pillow but the Keys still only numbered one. "Those natives, they must have collected early."

"Probably from the other path. I wonder who they killed to get across."

"Who knows?"

"And who cares. We'll take it back. Lara!" She called without turning around.

The man did not respond. She tapped her foot. "Hey, Lara, when I speak, I expect you to-"

The voice of a dead woman spoke, "Hard for her to reply when she's busy dying."

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