Episode 34

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Choices and consequences 

EMILY WATSKEN

The steady rumble of carriage wheels was usually enough to put me right to sleep, but there was no way I could sleep sitting across from Oleander Brone. The Alacryan Instiller would go through long bouts of sullen silence, during which he simply glared at Gideon and me, and then would break into boring monologues about our work, or the failings of Dicathen, or the glory of the Vritra, and go on and on and on.
"It's a shame to see what had been done to the Adventurers Guild Hall in Blackbend City, wasn't it?" he said, breaking a silence that had lasted at least an hour.
"That disrespect for even your own culture and wellbeing is why Dicathen never could have stood on its own, not for long. The fact is, you people needed the Vritra to keep your civilization from crumbling around you."
I could tell he was trying to bait us into an argument, but I wasn't interested in debating him...or speaking to him at all, if I could help it.
Gideon, on the other hand, never missed an opportunity to engage Brone. "Yes, Oleander, what this continent was really missing was an overlord. Too much freedom, that was our problem."
"It was," Brone agreed. "Beasts enjoy 'freedom.' Men require direction and purpose—and control."

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"How much farther?" I asked, rubbing at the bridge of my nose beneath my glasses as I stared out the carriage window. We were two and a half days from Blackbend City, where we had teleported from Vildorial. Brone hadn't explained where we were going, only that we would be testing a new weapon based on the fire salt combustion Gideon had invented.
Brone sneered. "Another day. Tedious, this manner of travel, isn't it? Well, the good news is that when your people are fully subjugated, even the most remote destinations will be accessible via tempus warp. For now, though..." He trailed off, gesturing to our carriage.
To Gideon, I asked, "But why do we need to go so far for a weapons test, anyway? The facilities in the Earthborn Institute—"
"—are not ideal for a full assessment of the capabilities of these new devices," Brone answered firmly. "We have something special arranged. It should give us a much more robust understanding of the weapons' damage output."
What's that supposed to mean? I wondered. ***

 The next day passed slowly. By the time the caravan came to a halt and shouts announcing our arrival went down the line, I was more than ready to be out of the carriage.
I enjoyed about four seconds of relief as I hopped out and stretched my back, looking around our remote test site.
The Grand Mountains were blue silhouettes in the distance, half hidden by the rolling hills. The row of carts and soldiers had pulled off the road into an unplanted field. Opposite the mountains, I realized there was a small town.

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Unadorned soldiers were already unloading the carts under Brone's careful direction. Gideon had wandered a little away from the commotion to stare blankly at the village.
I slipped between a couple of soldiers carrying a long, narrow box and ran up to Gideon. "What are we doing here?" I demanded.
"Testing the new weapon," Gideon said without looking at me. His tone was dry, his face unreadable.
I felt my control slipping. Despite everything that had happened, everything that I'd been through since the Alacryans won the war, I'd managed to keep up some kind of illusion that we were still working to make things better. And that entire time, I had kept a firm grip on myself, holding onto an aloofness that I needed to keep myself sane—and alive. I had placed my faith in Gideon, assuming he had some kind of plan, some reason for his actions.
But this was too much.
Gideon snapped his fingers right in front of my nose, making me flinch. "No time for that now. What exactly are you going to do, Miss Watsken? Rush over there and fight off a dozen Alacryan battle groups and forty unadorned warriors? By yourself? Unless you've been hiding the fact that you're now a white core mage with Lance-level destructive capabilities, you're just going to need to keep it together, understand?"
I watched as more long boxes were unloaded from the carts and pulled apart. The rune-covered tubes within them were set up with horrible efficiency.
"We could warn the villagers..." I said halfheartedly.
"They already know. Look." Gideon nodded toward the village. A few small figures on the outskirts were rushing into the village, their distant voices ringing out in alarm.

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I grabbed Gideon's sleeve and tugged at it. "There has to be something we can—"

 The old inventor pulled himself free and gave me a sour look. "What can be done, has been done. Now step away. We don't want to be this close to the firing teams."
My mentor turned his back on me and walked well away from the teams of mages and unadorned that were setting up and preparing ten weapons, each one pointed right at the village.
With Gideon proving himself worse than useless, I scanned the Alacryans and found Brone. He was standing right at the heart of the commotion, speaking confidently to his men. I rushed toward him.
"—buildings will provide the perfect live fire test for our new weapons. You should each have received your assignment en route to this location. If you did not, please speak to me immediately. There are—"
"There are still people in that village!" I shouted, cutting Brone off.
All heads turned toward me. Most of the soldiers looked surprised at my outburst, though some stared at me with open hostility. Brone merely looked amused.
"Indeed there are, girl, but they are not innocents." He continued speaking directly to his men. "The people of this village are guilty of treason and sedition, and of the assault, capture, and possible murder of a high-ranking Alacryan official. As you well know, the punishment for high-crimes is execution."
I stared around at the Alacryan soldiers but found no sympathy there. Even Gideon, still standing well away from the rest, wouldn't meet my eye.

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Well I'll be damned if I'm just going to watch this happen.
Turning, I sprinted toward one of the cannons, thinking I could disable it somehow, but I didn't make it more than a few feet before a heavy, gauntleted fist struck the side of my head, sending my glasses flying. Stars burst before my eyes and I lay face down in the dirt, breathing heavily.
A firm hand took hold of my hair and pulled my head up, stretching my neck painfully. I wrapped myself in mana, but a sharp kick to my ribs knocked the wind and fight out of me.
"You will watch the fruits of your labor ripen, girl," Brone hissed in my ear, roughly forcing my glasses back on my face. "Although I suspect the old fool Gideon demanded we keep you alive out of kindness rather than need, I want you to see what your effort has wrought."
I closed my eyes, but Brone yanked my hair so that I couldn't help but open them again. The line of soldiers in front of me had finished preparations and were all looking to Brone expectantly.

 "Prepare to fire!" he yelled.
The Alacryan mages began to infuse fire and wind-attribute mana into the tubes. The runes would channel the mana into an ember of fire salt, which would combust and launch an enormous fireball into the village, engulfing buildings and incinerating anyone who was caught in the blast.
And I couldn't do anything to stop it.
 

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