Retrieval

“Please, come in,” Tavix boomed. He projected his voice down the huge cavern, but Tienne was still far enough away that it was unlikely she had heard him clearly. Much more useful in that regard were the cultists who led Tienne down the stairs and along the path to the dais.

“Tienne! What are you doing here?” Ash shouted, the moment she thought the Valkyrie was in earshot.

“Rescuing you, obviously,” Tienne responded through gritted teeth. She did not look directly at Ash, instead focused entirely on Tavix and the massive statue behind him. She gripped the Keystone tightly, as if she were afraid that she might drop it.

“You can’t give them the Keystone! They’re Star-cursed demon worshippers,” Ash protested.

“I had noticed.”

“Hostages don’t get a say in the matter, I’m afraid. Do be quiet,” Tavix said, sharply. Ash suddenly felt very motivated to shut up.

An instant later, Tavix’s faux-welcoming voice was back, and Tienne reached the dais. She climbed the short steps, but did not fully approach Tavix.

“I am pleased to see that you and your mistress decided to see sense. This exchange needn’t be more difficult than it has to be,” he said.

“Will you keep your promise or not?” Tienne asked.

“Exchange the keystone for the girl, and let you go? Of course,” Tavix said, without a hint of dishonesty. “We servants of the true gods have no need to rely on deceit, such is the extent of Their power.”

“Fine. Just take it, then.”

Up until that moment, Ash had been desperately hoping that there would be some trick, some plan to get out of this without giving Tavix what he wanted. Surely, she assumed, no Valkyrie would ever just give in to the bad guys. But then Tienne placed the keystone in Tavix’s waiting hand. The fact that Tienne’s own hands were visibly shaking did nothing to change that fact that it was done.

Tavix gave the keystone a leisurely examination, leaving everyone else to squirm with anticipation. Evidently, it was to his liking, and he gave a short nod. The signal given, a cultist Ash hadn’t even noticed behind her cut her bonds. Ash barely had the chance to think about standing up when Tienne darted over and pulled her to her feet hard enough that Ash almost fell all the way forwards.

“We are leaving, right now,” Tienne hissed. Ash saw no reason to argue.

With no further comment, Tienne pulled her roughly by the arm, along the path back to the main stairs. Ash considered pointing out that she could walk just fine on her own, or simply that Tienne’s grip was too tight, but couldn’t seem to find the chance. The most important thing was to get out of the temple. Anything else would have to wait.

“The Princes bless you for your visit,” Tavix called from behind. “Fear not, you will not have to wait long for enlightenment to be brought to this city.”

Tienne just moved faster, forcing Ash into a near-sprint to keep up. Neither girl looked back until they were up the stairs, across a long tunnel, back through the trapdoor in the tattoo parlor, and out on the streets of Mearn once more. Only then did they stop to take a long overdue breath. There were many things that Ash imagined happening next: an angry lecture, being cursed for her foolishness, or even simply being abandoned for outliving her usefulness.

What Ash did not expect was for Tienne to slap her across the face.

“Idiot,” she said, her voice shot through with genuine, unconcealed worry.

Ash really wasn’t sure how to respond to that. Mostly, her cheek stung from the armor.

“What did you think you were doing?” Tienne demanded. “What did you think was going to happen?”

Ash could have protested, could have defended herself. She wanted to point out that someone needed to do something, and that she couldn’t let her home come to harm. She wanted to remind Tienne that, with Solenia hurt and most likely out of action, the two of them were the only ones who could do anything. She needed Tienne to understand that she just wanted to help.

But as Tienne glared at her, eyes hard with furious concern, all those words melted away. Nothing seemed appropriate. Ash found herself unable to meet Tienne’s eyes. Her head dropped.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I just…I just couldn’t wait any longer. Solenia said we needed take it slow, and I couldn’t just sit around while I knew those guys were out there, and…”

Ash’s voice trailed off. There was nothing more meaningful to say, anyway.

“This is why Lady Solenia wanted you to stay with us! Because running off alone is dangerous, even for us! The reason our Order always sends at least two Valkyries on missions is so that they can watch each other’s backs.”

Ash didn’t have an objection, not really. But even so, some part of her demanded that she not just take this lecture silently, no matter how deserving.

“I just thought—”

“You just thought what? That you knew better than a trained, experienced Valkyrie? Lady Solenia has been doing this work for decades, you know. If she says something is the right thing to do, then it is.”

Ash could not think of anything that necessarily contradicted this statement, and yet something about it did not sit right with her. Arguing without another side would be pointless, though, so Ash bit back those feelings.

“I suppose I don’t get to stick around, after this,” she said instead.

“Your mistake is the sole reason the ‘Star-cursed demon worshippers’ have the keystone. I am going to personally make sure you take responsibility by fixing the problem.”

Tienne said this like it was a punishment, but Ash felt only relief when she heard it. Tienne must have noticed, because she swiftly turned away, but not before she could hide the blush forming on her face.

“Now come on, we need to report back to Lady Solenia,” Tienne said, perhaps a bit more stiffly than was necessary. She spun on her heel, and started to march away with artificial poise. Ash followed, with a bit of lightness returned to her step.

The return trip to the inn proceeded in haste and silence, though the tension and sense of impending calamity had hardly vanished. Indeed, Ash was aware that every second they spent walking was another second that Tavix had to use the keystone for his nefarious purposes. The only solution Ash could think of was to walk faster.

Some time later, a thought occurred to Ash, striking her hard with the absurdity that it had not come to her sooner.

“Thank you,” she said. “For saving me, I mean.”

Tienne paused only briefly, and didn’t even fully look back. Yet Ash had no trouble at all telling that the young Valkyrie was smiling.

“Of course. It’s what we do.”

. . .

Not one word was said between the girls the whole rest of the way back to the inn. They were hurrying, then, close enough to their destination that any further delay was intolerable. When at last they made it to the Valkyries’ room, Solenia was sitting at the table, deep in thought over some documents. She was still out of her armor, wearing only simple underclothes, and there was a noticeable patch of red on the bandages.

The moment Tienne and Ash entered the room, Solenia leapt up and hugged Tienne tightly, much to the girl’s apparent surprise. She then placed a comforting hand on Ash’s shoulder, accompanied by a warm relieved smile.

This gesture of kindness and safety apparently signaled to Ash’s body that it could finally relax, which came with the unfortunate side effect of a wave of utter exhaustion slamming into her. All she could do was let herself flop onto one of the beds.

She decided that Tienne could handle explaining what had happened to Solenia well enough. The young Valkyrie took to this task in total and exacting detail. As she talked, Solenia’s face fell into a frown, which only deepened with every word out of Tienne’s mouth. By the end of it, Solenia was thinking hard, and plainly very unhappy.

“Well, this is just about the worst-case scenario,” Solenia said. “Ashreida, tell me about the man you met.”

Ash groaned at the indignity of having to contribute while she was still in shock, but nonetheless complied. She brought up every detail she could recall in no particular order, and almost certainly made a mockery of all the titles Tavix had given himself.

“Oh, a Hierarch is here. This is the worst-case scenario,” Solenia muttered. She was pacing around the room, rubbing her temples.

“Who could have guessed that there would be demon-worshippers of all people involved,” Ash said, to no one in specific. “I mean, I barely thought the Nathrendi were real.”

“Actually, I did guess they were involved,” Solenia admitted.

Both Ash and Tienne’s heads snapped up and around to look at Solenia, the demand for an explanation readily apparent without a word. Solenia sighed, as if she had said something she shouldn’t have.

“Scribing the bodies of people to create dim-witted but brutally effective soldiers was a favorite pastime of the ancient Nathrendi Princes,” Solenia said. “I had my suspicions when you first told me about the man you fought last night.”

“My Lady, why did you not tell me?” Tienne asked, both offended and pleading.

“The Red Lily Order keeps secrets for a living,” Solenia said, ruefully. “It’s a bit of a habit to do so automatically. Don’t worry, dear Tienne. You’ll start doing it to, before too long.”

“So, why does this guy being a ‘Hierarch’ or whatever make things worse?” Ash asked.

“As you’ve probably gathered, there is a longstanding cult that worships the Nathrendi as gods, and work to supposedly bring about their return to bathe world in doom and darkness, and all the good stuff. The Emerald Hand will be some local offshoot of the larger whole,” Solenia said, apparently as eager to move on from the awkwardness of her admission as Ash was.

“The actual power of said cult has varied over the years, but one thing has stayed the same: they’re very evil, very determined, and very crazy. The Hierarchs are their leaders, and the evilest, most determined, and craziest at all. If one of them is here, that means the whole matter is very serious, and very dangerous for everyone involved.”

Ash let that sink in for a moment, and immediately regretted it. She only felt worse.

“Well…I suppose it’s a good thing that there are two Valkyries already here to deal with it, right?”

“Ash, you saw how many of them there were down there. There’s no way we could deal with them all, even if Lady Solenia were unhurt,” Tienne said.

“So what, we just do nothing?”

“No, of course not. Thankfully, the Orders have systems in place for dealing with unexpected problems,” Solenia said, with a deep, loud sigh.

Tienne’s face lost its color in response to Solenia’s words, horrified by some secret that was utterly lost on Ash.

“But Lady Solenia, isn’t she the closest—”

“Yes Tienne, of course she is. Why do you think I’m so excited about the idea?” Solenia’s voice was pained, and it sounded like each word was costing her a great deal of willpower and even physical health.

“A—are you sure you want to do this, Lady Solenia?”

“Of course I don’t. But we hardly have a choice, now do we?” Solenia said. “You’ll have to take care of it for me, dear Tienne. I’m in no condition to be Scribing right now.”

Tienne nodded, still hesitant, but obeyed all the same. Once more, Tienne went to the luggage in the corner. This time, she retrieved a small, folded-paper bird and brought it to the table. The paper was already covered with intricate Words, but Tienne took out her stylus and, with slow, careful movements added a few more hashmarks to the ‘body’ of the bird. The process took only a handful of seconds, but it seemed to leave Tienne physically drained. Tienne then took the bird to the window, which she opened. With a tap to the bird’s wings, the paper lifted out of her hand, and shot out the window as a blur of light, trailing Cinders.

“Will someone please tell me what just happened?” Ash asked, when she could stand not knowing no longer.

“We just called for help,” Solenia said. “And made thing a great deal more complicated.”