Interlude: What I Can Do for Her

After all the meetings for the day had wrapped up, Reginald discussed his plan moving forward with Groul.

“Don’t you think we should be doing more than this, Groul?” he asked the knight sitting across from him.

The prince’s lord-in-waiting had set out tea for the two of them, and Groul paused just as he was about to bring his cup to his mouth. “I suppose I do have my misgivings.”

“It’s true that we forced the enemy to retreat. Just as Gina’s intel would suggest, Salekhard had no interest in dragging the battle out and withdrew their troops early, and Llewyne had no choice but to follow suit once Kiara had whittled down their numbers. However, I believe Llewyne only turned tail and fled due to two miscalculations on their part.”

Reginald paused, holding up two fingers.

“One was assuming they had an easy fight ahead of them because Farzia was down a spellcaster. Not once did they imagine that Kiara would turn on Llewyne while she was still a captive of Salekhard’s. Perhaps your average girl would have kept her head down and stayed in line, but this is Kiara we’re talking about.”

When he witnessed her golem stand up and plunge straight into enemy lines, Reginald had burst out laughing. There had been a good chance she was pushing herself too hard—but it had been an inspiring sight to see. It meant she hadn’t given up yet.

“I have to agree with that assessment,” Groul conceded. When the knight first heard that she had picked a fight with the king of Salekhard as she sicced her golem on Llewyne, he had been absolutely speechless.

“The second was that Lord Credias was more obsessed with Kiara than they’d bargained for. He was throwing around his defective spellcasters without a care for anything but attacking her.”

“True. Lord Alan said he didn’t get the chance to clash with a single defective.”

Alan had been well prepared for the inevitability, but it turned out there was no need to have Gina on hand to deal with them. Salekhard, meanwhile, had been so terrified by the new golem’s design that setting the oversized Lila on them was all it took to make them retreat.

“That made it much easier to recover Sir Horace, of course. The enemy was afraid to come anywhere near a golem thrashing its limbs about. However, now that Kiara is back with us, we can’t count on them letting their guard down again. What’s more, we’ve run into one more problem.”

“Yes. We lost a great many of our forces in the battle before this one.”

The total number of casualties—dead or injured—from the last two battles combined was about 3,500. Given how dangerous it was to be incapacitated within enemy territory, all the wounded soldiers and corpses had been sent back to Delphion posthaste. Considering the enemy could just gather up their soldiers scattered throughout Trisphede, it was going to be difficult to pull out a win with sheer numbers.

“Is Dior around? I need him to send this out by messenger bird.”

“I see. You want to call upon them.”

As soon as Reginald held out the letter he’d written, Groul figured out what he was up to.

“I’ve talked it over with Alan. He has a good sense for war, and he agreed with me on this one. Once everything is set in stone, I’ll inform the other generals as well.”

“I see. Right away, sire.” Once he’d taken the letter out of the prince’s hands, Groul gave a puzzled tilt of his head. “Then what else do you think we should be doing?”

“Bring too many defective spellcasters into the fray and we won’t have any means to deal with them. As long as Lord Credias is around, there’s a limit to how much Kiara can handle herself.”

Groul agreed with that assessment. So long as the viscount was around, Kiara’s options would be limited, meaning she couldn’t replicate her overwhelming displays of power from Clonfert and Sorwen. Meanwhile, the enemy had unlimited defective spellcasters at their disposal, leaving Farzia at a disadvantage in terms of numbers. Ordinary soldiers couldn’t be expected to take them out, so Farzian forces would dwindle as they expended their knights in vain. Even supposing they made it through the next clash, marching on the capital was going to be a struggle.

“Still, we can’t spend too much time in Trisphede.”

If they deferred the attack until spring, the lack of farmhands would hinder the next year’s harvest. Plus, if the war dragged on too long, the economy of the downtrodden territories would deteriorate even further. The circulation of goods was already quite stagnant due to Llewynian interference.

When it was first decided that they would head out on an expedition, Reggie had drawn up a rough plan in his head. He realized now that Kiara’s presence had made him a little too optimistic. Her magic was just that powerful.

In all the wars up to this point, magic had never been used with such frequency. When sorcery did come into play, it would usually amount to maybe one large-scale spell per battle.

If they didn’t want to lose that advantage, Reginald knew they had to rush this war to a conclusion.

“It would be best to finish this by the end of the year,” Groul agreed.

“Yes. At the very latest, I’d like to settle this by the start of winter.”

Unfortunately, they still had to deal with Kilrea, the territory west of Delphion that had been occupied by Llewyne, and the province of Patriciél, which had taken over the royal domain. Even after removing those two territories from the equation, the Llewynian army would be lying in wait for them in Sestina.

Reginald didn’t want Kiara working too much harder, either. Despite the brave front she’d put up the previous day, she had to have been anxious. Considering how much time she’d spent alone with no one around to back her up, it was only natural.

In truth, Reginald had wanted to stay by her side. He simply wasn’t sure if he’d be able to hold himself back. When he kissed her right after rescuing her, he’d been oddly relieved that she hadn’t run away. It had made him genuinely believe that she returned his feelings. As a result, he found himself wanting to ask more and more of her. He wanted to see how much she would let him get away with.

Kiara’s outfit had been to blame, too. It wasn’t see-through or anything like that, but seeing her in something different from her usual fare had made her seem all the more attractive. It was to keep her from running, sure, but what had the king of Salekhard been thinking? Knowing that he was previously acquainted with Kiara made Reginald want to berate the man; he really should have known it would take more than that to make her back down.

No matter how hard he’d tried not to look, it hadn’t made the tips of Kiara’s little white toes go away. Despite his efforts to avert his gaze, he hadn’t wanted to let go of Kiara either, leaving him in a predicament of his own creation.

“If we’re rushing this, that’s all the more reason not to wear Kiara down.”

The moment he said that, there came a knock on the door. Reginald’s lord-in-waiting, Colin, rushed over from his seat in the corner of the room to answer it. The name he gave was that of the knight who had left Reginald’s side a while back.

After ushering him in to listen to his report, Reginald promptly took Groul with him and left the room. He was headed for an area just behind the fort. The girl had designated a small pond enshrouded in trees.

Although Reginald was in a hurry, Groul insisted that he bring along at least a dozen cavalrymen if he was going to be leaving the fort. The knight’s concerns were justified; seeing as they were just coming off a battle, there was a good chance Llewynian soldiers were lurking about. Thus, Reginald chose to wait. Ultimately, they managed to grab a handful of soldiers on standby, so he didn’t end up having to wait that long.

Upon arriving at his destination, Reginald had the cavalry wait far enough away that they couldn’t hear him. He would be taking Groul and only Groul along with him. That had been another instruction of hers.

Even in the middle of the day, it was dim inside the grove. Right underneath where the canopy of leaves tapered off, there was a pond surrounded by thorny vines bedecked with a trailing stream of pale pink flowers. Standing just before the pond was a girl with long, silver hair. Dressed the part of a traveler, she was wearing a hooded cloak of a dull, tawny hue over her black dress.

As one might expect from a girl said to have eternal life, she hadn’t aged a day since Reginald had first met her two years ago.

“It’s been quite a while, Thorn Princess. I didn’t expect you to come meet me in person.”

Frankly speaking, this had taken Reginald by surprise. According to what he’d heard, the Thorn Princess never stepped foot outside her forest. Even in the “potential future” Kiara knew, you couldn’t recruit her as an ally until you fetched her a certain item from the royal domain.

Reginald hadn’t found anything for her, of course—yet still she had taken the initiative to come all this way. She had come all by herself, informing the knight who had brought her Reggie’s letter of the date and time she would meet him and nothing more.

When Reginald took a step forward, a smile rose to the Thorn Princess’ face. The wisdom in her expression was at odds with her youthful countenance. “I thought it might help Farzia moving forward, so I came to answer your question in person.” She giggled. “I must say, it’s quite fascinating what’s become of you.”

“You can tell just by looking?”

“Hmm. Perhaps I’m the only one who could tell from over your clothes. The shards of the contract stone stand out quite clearly on the surface.”

Reginald had written the Thorn Princess to inquire about the bits of contract stone that had seeped into his body through his arrow wound. If spitting sparks every now and then was all he had to worry about, it would be nothing worse than a spot of discomfort. Unfortunately, his frequently ailing health was bound to get in the way of what he had to do.

When Horace learned of what was happening to him, he had recommended that Reginald seek a second opinion from another spellcaster. There was no guarantee that they would know anything themselves, but it was worth a shot.

“I heard it was Kiara who did that for you. You didn’t bring her along?”

Reggie placed a hand over the scar on his shoulder. “I don’t want her to worry.”

At that, the Thorn Princess smiled wistfully. The reaction struck Reggie as curious, but he had more important questions to ask.

“By the way, is there any way to weaken the influence of one’s mentor?”

“Why do you ask?”

“Kiara ingested part of a different contract stone before she became a spellcaster. It’s given an enemy spellcaster, Lord Credias, undue control over her.”

“Hmm... That’s a tough one. Whoever took in a larger amount of the stone will inevitably be the one who holds all the power. If you hope to combat that, the only option is for Kiara to ingest an even greater portion of the exact same contract stone. There are other ways to escape his control, I suppose, but they’d prevent her from fighting.”

“What do you mean?”

“If she were to locate a stone larger than a person, ingest a fragment of it, and stick close by, it would become difficult for any other spellcaster to exert influence over her. The stone is a greater source of mana, after all. Unfortunately, you don’t come by one of those quite so easily.”

“It would be risky to walk around carrying it, too,” Reginald muttered, drawing a grin from the Thorn Princess.

Naturally, it would be hard to go into battle carting around a contract stone the size of a person. Even assuming it could be done, it would be rendered useless the moment it was broken or stolen, and it wasn’t going to be easy to keep a giant boulder protected.

“If everything was as it had been in the past, I would have hunted down a sizable contract stone and told Kiara to hold on to it, but here we are.”

“What do you mean, ‘in the past’?” Reginald asked, sensing something strange about her phrasing.

The Thorn Princess, however, acted like she hadn’t heard him, instead holding out two thumb-sized, dark red stones she’d been hiding in her cloak.

“I carry these on me as a lucky charm of sorts, so you might as well have her hold on to one. That said, there’s a good chance it won’t provide anything more than peace of mind. Make sure she knows that.”

As he took the stones off her hands, Reginald gave up on the idea of somehow mitigating the viscount’s control over Kiara. Instead, he chose to look into his alternative approach.

“So? Can my wound be healed?” he asked.

The Thorn Princess gave a firm shake of her head. “No.”

Groul’s shoulders dropped in disappointment. Reginald, on the other hand, had been more or less expecting that response. I figured as much, was all he thought.

“Perhaps you’d be better off waiting for Kiara to grow stronger. Her ideas can defy even my own imagination.”

Of course, that was exactly what Reggie was hoping to avoid. Given the toll it was taking on him, he was all the more cognizant of how much magic could take out of a person.

Thus, Reginald responded, “In that case, is there a way to use it to my advantage?”

“Your—?!” Groul started to shout from his place a step behind Reginald, but he quickly clamped his mouth shut. Given the number of times the knight had pleaded with him to stop, that reaction was hardly surprising.

The Thorn Princess’ answer was an unexpected one. “There is.”

Considering he’d been about 90% sure she would say otherwise, Reginald’s eyes widened a fraction. “What is it?”

“The stone disrupts your mana. As more and more of it accumulates, that energy then looks for a place to go, ultimately escaping through your fingertips. Your element is lightning, so that just happens to manifest in the form of sparks. What we’re going to do is create a path for it to flow to your fingers of your own free will. I’m afraid we’ll have to wreak havoc upon the mana in your body to do it, however.” The Thorn Princess smiled, her gaze softening. “I’ve been waiting for you to ask me. It’s not something I ought to do against your will, after all. I should caution you, though... Whenever you make use of it, do expect something of a backlash.”

“As long as it isn’t going to kill me on the spot, I don’t care. Or are you saying my number of uses will be limited?”

“No. It all depends on how much you can handle.”

That made sense enough to Reginald. Just like Kiara, he would have to determine the limits of exactly how much magic he could use without turning himself into sand.

“Either way, I’m better off having the option than not.”

“Alright, then. We don’t have much time, so let’s settle this quickly. Give me your hand.”

Reggie held out his left arm at her command. Her tiny hand curled around his fingers.

“Get ready. This is going to hurt.”

As soon as she’d warned him, the Thorn Princess began casting her magic. Reginald could sense it, too. Pain ripped through his left arm, so agonizing that he thought it was being torn apart.

“Ggh!”

Clenching his teeth had managed to keep him from screaming, but he crumpled down to his knees, unable to stay on his feet. Still, he kept his eyes cracked open just enough to see for himself what the Thorn Princess was doing.

Thorns had extended from around her feet, twining themselves around Reginald’s arm. As the creeping vines tore into his skin, they eventually found their way to the scar on his shoulder, only to melt into the wound and vanish. A tingle of pain remained.

When he took a proper look, he saw the mark of a vine crawling from his fingertips all the way up under his clothes.

“There. The path is open to you now. Remember, using the power too many times will destroy your body. If possible, you should ask Kiara to help you out, seeing as she’s already supplied you with mana before. That should make the burden easier on you.”

“You want me to ask Kiara?”

“Letting Kiara’s mana flow through you will allow you to cast powerful spells more efficiently, and it will reduce the strain on your own mana.”

If he used stronger spells, would he be able to rival Kiara’s own magic? He knew how much Kiara would hate this, though. He’d have to keep it a secret for a little while longer.

“Your magic will flow along the mark I left on you. If you try to send it through any other part of your body, you’ll end up fried for your efforts. Be careful.”

He nodded at the Thorn Princess’ advice.

“Reggie!”

It was then that Kiara spotted him.