40 – A Day at the Beach

The sun was warm on Victor’s face as he sat in the sand, watching Deyni, Cora, and Dalla playing in the water. The Silver Sea shimmered in the afternoon sun, making plain how it had gotten its name. Efanie and Edeya were out there, too, playing along with whatever made-up game the girls had come up with. It looked like they were taking turns being “it,” chasing one another as they dove and swam. Their panicked giggles carried over the water, making Victor smile.

They’d been at the beach most of the day, and he’d taken plenty of turns playing with the girls, amazed by their energy and seemingly endless zeal. Of course, there’d been plenty of breaks for snacks and more relaxing activities; an enormous, elaborate sand castle was evidence of their efforts.

Thayla and Tellen had been there for most of the morning, but Tellen had been called away on clan business, and Thayla had gone along, but only after wringing a promise out of Victor that he wouldn’t leave sooner than planned. He had no intention of doing so; it felt too good to be there among people he cared about. The war on Dark Ember could wait a few days, as far as he was concerned. Besides, it would take at least that long for Bryn and the others to organize things there.

He chuckled softly when his keen ears picked up Deyni complaining to Cora that she needed to share her magical bracelet. Cora was a good sport, though, and agreed immediately. Efanie told her to give it to Dalla first, so she could see what it was like. Victor watched, his smile threatening to grow painful. Cora had already pressured him to try on her bracelet, and he’d learned that it did more than allow the wearer to submerge without needing to breathe: it clarified his vision, bringing the underwater world into crystal-clear focus.

“Won’t they ever tire?” Lam asked, approaching from the trail that led back up toward his estate.

Victor laughed. “How was your nap?”

“Much needed! I’ve been too long on Sojourn with its gentle sun and long evenings.”

Victor nodded, gesturing for her to sit down with him on the blanket. “The sun was bright today, that’s for certain.”

Lam settled down beside him, folding her legs beneath her. “Didn’t seem to bother you.”

He shrugged. “I’m Quinametzin, and temperatures don’t really affect me.”

“So modest.”

“Hey!” He nudged her shoulder, nearly knocking her off balance. “You’re the one who brought it up.”

Lam smiled but didn’t respond. Instead, she shielded her eyes from the glare and watched the girls for a few moments. After a while, she said, “I think she’ll do well here, don’t you?”

“Definitely. Deyni took to her immediately, and I’m sure Cora will too; she’s just more reserved.”

“It’s hard for me to believe Deyni is a year younger. She’s almost a foot taller than poor little Dalla!”

“Yeah, well, Deyni’s hit a growth spurt when she and Thayla joined Tellen’s clan.”

Lam nodded, but she was frowning. “When I first met Dalla, I thought she was probably around seven. I think she was actually ten or eleven at the time. Do you think she’s malnourished?”

“Judging by what you told me about her father and how she was responsible for her younger siblings, I wouldn’t be surprised.” Victor paused, wondering if he should bring up something else for Lam to worry about, but then he remembered who he was talking to—she’d surely thought it through. “You don’t think the father will misuse the funds you gave him, do you? Dalla’s siblings will be all right?”

Lam chuckled. “I’m not naïve. I gave him some funds up-front, but the bulk of the gift I gave to his family is in a trust, managed by a broker in Sojourn. He’ll need to spend a percentage of it on the children in order to get the next installment. In fairness, he didn’t seem a bad fellow—just overwhelmed and bad at managing his finances.”

“That’s good, at least.” Hearing Lam mention the first time she met Dalla had him thinking about the little charm she’d given him, and Victor reached into his spirit space to retrieve some of his dimensional storage rings. As the handful of rings appeared on his palm, Lam raised an eyebrow.

“I was going to ask you where you put your rings! When you were swimming earlier, I didn’t see any jewelry on you!”

“Didn’t I tell you about my spirit space?”

She shook her head, shifting so she faced him more than the ocean. “Is it something to do with a Spirit Core?”

“No, it’s something everyone has. You’ll learn more about it when you reach level one hundred.”

“Oh? It’s a steel-seeker thing?”

“Yep. It’s very nice, though, because you essentially get a dimensional space where you can put things, even other dimensional containers.”

“Oh! That will be nice!” She pointed to his hand. “What are you doing?”

Victor clicked his tongue as he picked up one of the rings and began to look through it. “I wanted to find the charm you gave me. The one you bought from Dalla. I didn’t want to admit earlier that I’d forgotten where I put it!”

Lam slapped his knee. “Victor! That was supposed to bring you luck on Ruhn!”

He nodded, shaking his head, chagrined. “I know. I kept it in my pocket for a while, but you know how it goes. I put it into a ring at some point, probably when I was bathing or something, and then it kind of slipped my mind.” He put the ring back into his spirit space and began looking through the next one.

Lam leaned back, closing her eyes as she turned her face to the sun. “I’m just teasing. Roots! Doesn’t the air smell good here? Doesn’t the sun feel good?”

Victor started on the third ring. “Fanwath is a beautiful world. In a way, I can understand the Ridonnes’ desire to keep it tucked away and kind of…innocent, I guess.”

Lam sat up. “Bite your tongue! They’ve kept hundreds of thousands of people oppressed! Opening the System stone here in the Free Marches has already led to so much enlightenment! There’s a university being built in Rellia’s capital! I have experts on agriculture partnering with my people to develop Energy-enhanced crops. I mean, seriously, every day I get reports from my governor about the interesting opportunities coming through that System stone!”

“I’m not saying I agree with the Ridonne or that I condone their actions. I’m just saying, I can kind of understand wanting to keep things…” He grasped for the right words, and then shrugged, gesturing to the ocean and the playing girls. “Like this.”

“We’ll simply have to be judicious and measured with the advancements we make. You control a huge amount of land here, you know. You can limit growth as you see fit.”

He nodded, putting the ring away and moving on to the next one. “Yeah, I know.” Almost immediately, he saw the pale little stone, and he snatched it out. Holding it up between his finger and thumb, he said, “Aha!”

“Well done,” Lam said, lying back, smiling.

Victor looked at her for a moment, noting the red tint to her cheeks. She didn’t seem to mind the sunburn; her eyes were closed, and she was basking in the afternoon warmth. There was little to worry about, in any case. Someone like her, rich in Energy compared to an unlevelled, natural person, would probably turn that burn into a golden tan after a few hours of rest. He rubbed the stone again, feeling a definite tingle of Energy. It had a peculiar quality, like a static charge, almost.

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“Hmm,” he muttered, opening his inner eye to study the little charm. With his magical senses, he could see a glyph on the stone’s surface, invisible to natural senses. It pulsed with that vibrant Energy that, he realized, reminded him of the potent, potential-attuned Energy he’d encountered when he drank the ivid royal jelly. “This girl has some damn interesting Energy.”

“I know!” Lam opened one eye, peering at him. “Why do you think I wanted to bring her here?”

“I mean, I thought it was because you felt sorry for her and wanted to give her a better—”

“Oh, stop! Of course, I wanted to help her, but I also want to ensure she receives proper training to develop her talents. As more people learn about her abilities, there’s a genuine risk that the wrong people will try to take advantage of her.”

Victor saw the truth in her words as he continued to study the little charm in his hand. It was an elegant bit of enchantment, and apparently, something Dalla had taught herself to do. He changed his perspective to his normal vision, rubbing the stone as he turned to look at Lam. “I’m glad you’re looking out for her, and you’re absolutely right. Imagine if someone like Arona’s old master got ahold of her?”

Lam’s eyes closed again, and she sighed, visibly relaxing. “Glad you see what I mean. Speaking of your little pale-fleshed sidekick, where is she?” Official source is novel(ꜰ)ire.net

“If you think her flesh is pale now, you should have seen it before it was animated with her spirit. Anyway, Olivia talked her into going with her to First Landing. I let them borrow my portal array.”

Lam sat up. “Where was I? I didn’t know Olivia was going home!”

“She’s just checking in. They’re supposed to be back tomorrow.”

“Well, in that case.” She yawned and stretched. “It seems they’re sort of kindred spirits, don’t you think?”

Victor looked at her, tilting his head to the side. “How do you mean?”

“Oh, a pair of powerful women, strong in their affinities, both obscenely interested in academics. How could they ever find something in common?” She chuckled, shaking her head.

“Damn, take it easy!” Victor laughed. “I see what you mean, and yeah, I’ve noticed it, too, but I was wondering if there was something more.”

Lam stretched like a fairy-winged cat and fell back onto the blanket, closing her eyes again. Victor looked back at the water and saw the swimmers starting toward the shore, so he stood up, tucking the little stone into the pocket of his loose, comfortable linen pants. While he waited for them to approach, he picked up the matching shirt and shrugged his arms into the sleeves. “I think we’re gonna head in.”

Lam opened her eyes and turned to regard the approaching girls and women. “Edeya’s face is bright red!”

“Heh. You should see yours.”

“Roots!” She laughed, gingerly touching her cheeks. “I envy those Shadeni girls with their red and purple skin!” She looked back at the water. “Now I can see why Efanie and Cora are so well-tanned.”

“Yeah,” Victor agreed. “I think they swim every day.”

Lam clambered to her feet and stooped to grab one side of the blanket. “Help me shake this out and fold it.”

By the time they’d folded the blanket into a neat square and Victor had tucked it under his arm, the girls were charging out of the water, racing toward him. “Can we cook outside?” Deyni asked, breathlessly.

All three looked at him with expectant eyes. He reached down to smooth Deyni’s soaked hair away from her face. “You look like a bunch of drowned rats.”

“Can we?” she pressed.

“What do you mean by cook outside?” Lam asked.

“On the beach,” Cora replied, stepping up beside Deyni.

“We can make a fire!” Deyni said, nodding. “Dalla’s never had a campfire.”

“And what will you cook?” Lam asked.

“Miss Efanie will make skewers,” Cora said.

“Meat and vegetables,” Deyni agreed.

Victor looked at Dalla, who was hanging back a little. “And you, Dalla? Does that sound fun?”

She nodded. “Very much so.”

By then, Edeya and Efanie had approached, and Efanie said, “I think it’ll be fine, if you agree, Victor. The girls do it often, but I thought perhaps you wanted them to spend the evening closer to home, seeing as you’re here.”

“It’s fine with me. No more swimming, though. It’ll be dark soon.”

“No—” Deyni started to say.

“We’re already tired of swimming for now,” Cora finished for her.

Lam laughed. “About time!”

“Well, walk up with us, get some juice, and I’ll put together a basket for you,” Efanie said. At the mention of a basket, Victor turned to collect the one they’d brought down earlier. He held it out to the girls. “Anyone thirsty? There are some cookies left in here, too.”

All three crowded close, and Efanie helped by pouring each of them a glass of water from the bottle inside. It was small, but it held an absurd amount of water, thanks to a simple dimensional enchantment. Of course, with dimensional containers, they didn’t need baskets filled with treats and drinks, but it was one of those little things that just added to the fun of an outing, especially where kids were involved. It hadn’t been Victor’s idea; Efanie had established the routine, and he thoroughly approved. He thought it built character and added to the memories the girls were creating; they’d had to help pack for the day at the beach, after all.

When they’d drunk their fill, Efanie pointed further down the beach, toward the trail that led up onto the town’s central street. “Can we walk through town? I’d like to stop by the butcher to get some fresh huldii; I’ll ask Lunna to cook us a roast while the girls are having their cookout.”

Victor started walking, trudging through the warm sand in his bare feet. “Yeah, sure.” His governor, Gorro ap’Dommic, had spent some of his tax revenue to improve the road and the public access path down to the beach. The result had been a stone pathway and steps with a sturdy wooden rail leading down to the sand. Victor mounted the steps and climbed them, two at a time, chuckling to himself as the girls who’d been trying to hurry past him fell behind, crying out that it wasn’t fair.

“Hey, I’m carrying this blanket and this basket. It’s not my fault you’re slow!”

Deyni wouldn’t stand for such taunting, and she sprinted past him, crowding between his leg and the rail. Neither Cora nor Dalla was so bold, however, so when she reached the top and sprinted off, she was alone. When he reached the top, Victor expected to see her running down the main road toward his estate, but she was stopped in the middle of the road, staring past the tavern on the left and the general store on the right. The focus of her gaze was clear: an elegant, blue-lacquered coach drawn by a team of four matched, white vidanii.

The great animals didn’t look at ease, their heads turning left and right, their horns tilted forward as they stared around with wide eyes. Victor immediately recognized them and the coach; they were Rellia’s. Something felt off to Victor, and as the others joined him at the top of the stairs, he said, “Deyni, come here.” Some part of his titan nature, his voice meant for commanding on a battlefield, colored his words, and the girl turned in her tracks and ran back to him without question.

As her bare feet pattered past him on the cobbles, a figure walked around the coach, and he sighed with relief when he saw it was Rellia. He started forward, but then something about her posture and demeanor made his gut twist, and he stopped, holding his free hand out to the side. “Stay here.” He glanced at Efanie. “Watch the girls.”

When she nodded, her face registering the seriousness of his tone, Victor started toward Rellia again. When he was a dozen strides away, he frowned, realizing she was wearing the livery her driver usually wore. Stranger than that, her face betrayed no emotion. Rather than a greeting, he said, “Rellia, what’s going on?”

She didn’t respond but turned to the coach, stooping to pull out the steps. Then she knocked on the door twice and pulled on the handle, opening it wide. She stood to the side and bowed toward the opening, remaining bent at the waist as a man climbed out of the coach. Victor recognized him even before his glossy white wings cleared the opening and he stepped onto the ground.

“Thoargh,” he growled, opening his hand to let the basket fall to the cobbles with a clink of glass.

The Warlord chuckled. “What a fortuitous turn of events! One might say the gods of chance have been smiling on me!” He stretched his back as he looked around the little village. He wore a polished white breastplate—either a glossy enamel or some sort of metal Victor couldn’t name. His pants were skin-tight black leather, and his handsome face was framed by a black helmet adorned with a diamond-studded golden crown. “I came to find a clutch of young girls, and here you are delivering them to me, directly. Of course, I’d thought you were off-world, but it seems my source of intelligence was lacking.” He cast a wryly amused glance at the still-bowing Rellia.

Victor stepped forward again, the beach blanket falling from beneath his arm. “What did you do to her?”

“Of whom do you speak?”

“Rellia, you pinchependejo!” Victor took another step, releasing the potential of his body and allowing himself to expand, so he loomed over the man, even from six feet away.

Thoargh never stopped smiling as he held out his right hand, and a blade composed of pure void-attuned Energy extended from it, emitting a sinister, grinding crackle. When it was fully formed, the point was less than an inch from Rellia’s stooping skull. “Careful, boy.” Victor hesitated, and Thoargh took the opportunity to sidestep behind Rellia. “Straighten up, woman.”

Rellia stood, and he shifted his blade so that the edge was a fraction of an inch from the delicate blue flesh of her neck. Her face was impassive, her body relaxed, but Victor could see the fear and panic in her eyes. She was being controlled. “Do you think threatening one of my friends is going to save you?” Victor’s voice was full of menace as he carefully built a spell pattern in his pathways.

“I hadn’t considered that question. No, what I’ve been wondering is whether I should kill her and your other little pets and make you watch. Then, as I asked myself that question, I wondered how slowly I should go about the task. You can stretch out a person’s death exquisitely; I perfected the art when I massacred the Degh. Yes, I suppose the pleasure would be halved if I were to ruin them after your death. Shall we start with this one?” Thoargh pulled the void-blade back, and it crackled as it annihilated the air. He held it there, ready to drop on Rellia’s neck.

“It’ll be the last choice you make.” Victor pulled a thread of Energy to his spell pattern, ready to activate it.

“Will it?” Thoargh grinned, and the blade crackled, slicing toward Rellia’s flesh. At the same time, Victor cast Guardian’s Rescue.