"Well, I can't believe that actually worked!" Alexei exclaimed as he stood up from his heap in the sand. "I don't wanna hear it!" Risa snapped, she shot him a glare from her own position on the ground. "that was a genuinely terrifying experience and I never want to even think about it again!"Alexei fought the impulse to roll his eyes, he was sure that would make an angry Risa even angrier and he didn't really want to risk something like that. "Alright, alright, fine," Alexei said, "I'll defer to you now, then. What should we do next? Head straight back to Alandria or tell the old man what happened to his dragonhorse?"Risa stood up from the sandy ground and shook her head, which made sand fly in every direction. "Obviously we need to tell him what happened," Risa said, "otherwise he'll never know whether his dragonhorse is dead or not and I find that quite sad."Alexei nodded, he didn't disagree with her.It had seemed like the old man had a pretty strong relationship with both of
“How could they do this?” Risa breathed the question more than said it. “I don’t know,” Alexei replied, his voice was as hard as steel. “He was old… He was just trying to make some money where there was no money to be made,” Risa said, trying to rationalise what had happened, “And why did the dragonhorse have to die? The beast hadn’t done anything.” “Because the old man helped us, I imagine,” Alexei said. There was a wave of anger bubbling up in Alexei’s chest the like that he had never experienced before, not even when he had been cast out of the Royal Defence Corps and the Academy. He had never expected the world to be so… cruel. He and Risa had never done anything to the people of the village, and yet here they were doing anything they could to destroy the two of them and anyone who had helped them. Just average everyday people, corrupt and dark. Almost as bad as the Demon Lord. Alexei wondered, just for a moment, if perhaps the Demon Lord had been right about humans. Maybe
“Alexei… are you… okay?” Risa asked as the dark haze dissipated into the night time air. “Yeah… that was a bit weird, but I’m alright,” Alexei said, “Not sure what really happened there, but it was something to do with the tapestries I bonded with in the tomb. It shouldn’t happen again, though.” Risa looked at him warily, almost as if she didn’t trust him anymore. They didn’t have time for that. “I managed to convince the townsfolk that I was a demon of vengeance that was summoned by them killing the old man and his dragonhorse,” Alexei explained, “But we probably don’t have much time before they get over their fear and start looking around again, so we should get out of here while we have the chance.” Risa nodded, she was just glad that he hadn’t killed any of the townsfolk. When he had looked that scary it was entirely what she had expected to happen. They moved quickly and stealthily through the town. They were less worried now about sticking behind fences and more about get
They had only been away for a day and part of a night, but to Alexei it felt like they had been in the desert for weeks upon weeks. He was exhausted. After telling the Grand Mage what had happened he staggered off to his room and stumbled through the door. He had tried to be as quiet as his tired body would let him, but the moment the door creaked and the light from the flickering lanterns in the corridor flooded into the bedroom Neave woke up. “Hey, don’t worry, it’s only me,” Alexei said as the girl rose up out of bed with a panicked look in her eye. As she saw it was Alexei the girl immediately calmed down and a smile tracked its way across her lips. “Yeah, I missed you too,” Alexei said, meaning it genuinely even though he had only been away for a day, “I’d tell you all about it, but I’m absolutely knackered.” He walked heavily, each step thudded on the ground. “I think I just need to sleep for a little while,” Alexei yawned and then collapsed into his bed without even rem
As Alexei came to he couldn’t help but feel at least a little bit annoyed. He’d only just removed the Nilbog from the presence of his dreams, and now it seemed that the Demon Lord could simply step into them whenever he wanted to. However, there was also something to be happy about in that revelation. The Demon Lord certainly seemed unable to affect him in any meaningful way while they had been in the dreamscape. The evil ruler could pull his spirit to him and push it away again, but as for actual consequences for being brash and consequences for escaping him, well, there had been none. Overall Alexei considered that to be a win. There was something more concerning than the Demon Lord’s presence in his night, anyway, and that was the presence of the dark entity that the Demon Lord’s tapestries had been so fearful of. Alexei hadn’t necessarily believed that such a thing existed, but after hearing its voice for himself there was no denying it. The thing had so much more spiritual
Alexei’s life had fallen into a predictable routine. He woke up in the morning, aching and tired from the day before, and was always slightly disappointed to find that Neave had woken up before him to begin her own day. He would go and shower, and then make his way down to the hall for breakfast. This was usually where he would find Neave tucking into what was still her favourite food, eel kebabs. They would eat their breakfast together and discuss the coming day, in the strange silent way that Neave communicated her thoughts and feelings. After that, he and Neave would go their separate ways again, though they would both end up doing similar things. Learning magery. Neave was with a group of other children who had the gift of high level magery. It wasn’t a large group, and from what Alexei had been told she was one of the most adept in the class. She took to magery like a duck took to water, seemingly understanding it on an instinctual level in a way that the other kids in her
Alexei landed hard on the ground and rolled in the dirt of the sparring arena. He used his momentum to flip himself back onto his feet, but Risa was on him in an instant, with her lightning-based magery flashing around her in arcs of power. She gave him no quarter, lashing out with melee attacks and ranged arcs both at the same time. The attacks forced him to keep on the move, ducking and weaving and swinging with his staff to deflect as many as he could. This was how most of the fights between them had gone since they had returned from the desert two weeks ago. But Alexei had improved a lot over that period of time, and now he was able to hold his own much better. As a punch came in from the right and an arc of electricity came in from the left Alexei stepped toward his attacker and swiftly jabbed upward with his staff, followed by a blast of empowered air that sent Risa careening through the air. He followed his attack up with a trio of empowered water blasts to block off Risa
“So you want to take the fight to the Assassins of Delsi,” Grand Mage Kryte said, it was a statement more than a question. Alexei and Risa had gone to speak to the man and he had silently ushered them into his private offices so that the other members of the Grand Mage council couldn’t overhear their conversation. That had made Alexei curious. “That’s my plan,” Alexei said with a nod, “Though I have to ask, why did you bring us in here? Are you worried about spies?” The grand mage sighed deeply, “Your case is a very complicated one, Alexei. One that threatens war to break out at any moment, just because we are giving you safe harbour here.” Alexei knew this, it was the whole reason Risa wasn’t allowed to help take the Assassins down, and the whole reason he hadn’t gone out there to take out the Assassins himself. “And that means people may be willing to do things that they may not have done before to put an end to the tensions,” Alexei said, “I’m quite aware of the psychology.”