JACKAL AMONG SNAKES-Novel

Argrave stood before a door, taking a deep breath to prepare himself. Then, he swung it wide quickly. In the room, a tall, blonde-haired woman stood at attention while a young girl with black hair, dressed in green, waited… a young girl by the nof Sophia.

She turned her head at the sudden noise, then jumped off her chair. “Argrave!”

His heart was warmed beyond compare as the young girl ran across the room, and he kneeled down to catch her in his arms. He picked her up, beckoning Anneliese to join him in this reunion.

It had been stsince Argrave spoke with Sophia. It wasn’t for lack of trying; it was because of child labor. In the Vasquer family, even seven-year-olds were forced to work. Then again, the child yearned for the burden of employment. Generally, this was where the reasonable adults stepped in and set boundaries—working was for adults, not seven-year-olds. Perhaps Argrave and Anneliese weren’t such model parents after all.

But their child labor program had been remarkably successful. They had assigned strusted Veidimen guards to her, assigned Vasilisa of Quadreign—whose A-rank ascension was uniquely suited to a role as a bodyguard—and then sent her off to the wider world to heal those who couldn’t be healed by ordinary means. Elenore had been keeping tabs on the girl, and she had earned something of a reputation around the nation.

A girl with the ability to restore limbs, sight, and bring the broken-minded back to their full spirits… it was a tale that aroused hope in these dark times. Since Gerechtigkeit spurred the undead of the Order of the Rose and the golems of the depths to attack passersby, there hadn’t been much hope to go around. Miracles seemed few and far between, yet Sophia… she was a miracle. And even given attempts to conceal her identity, speople did link Sophia back to Argrave, indirectly.

Argrave smiled, then held her with one arm. “I missed you more. From the floor, to here.” He held out his free arm as high as he could reach up.

Sophia thought for a moment, then her red eyes brightened with smischievous competitiveness. “I missed you all the way… all the way to the moon and back!”

Argrave laughed. “Alright. You’ve gotbeat, Sophia. But you don’t have to miss anymore, because I’m here. Let’s talk.”

#####

Anneliese, Argrave, and Sophia spent a brief afternoon discussing about where they’d been—a long preamble to the matter with Dario. They couldn’t well tell her the truth of the grueswar, but they told her enough to satiate her curiosity. She, in turn, told them all kinds of tales about the people that she’d been helping—about how rewarding it was to restore people back to themselves, about the people that she’d met, about the stories that they’d had, and even sanecdotes about ‘Miss Vass.’

When Danext awoke, Argrave was sitting in a chair near him.

“How do you feel?” Argrave asked.

“…a little hollow,” Daanswered. “Is it… is it done? I mean…”

Argrave grabbed a wooden knife and tossed it at Dario. The man flinched and reacted quickly, catching it by its handle in a panic. When he comprehended it was a toy, he exhaled deeply and tossed the thing to the ground.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Seems like you’ve still got sof that edge you had.” Argrave smiled wickedly.

“…that hurt,” Dacomplained, caressing a sore part of his arm. He was stunned into silence as he noticed his skin rejuvenated, his arms normal and functional.

“But you didn’t break anything, did you?” He rose to his feet. “Best hope not. We’ve too many things in motion.”

Daleaned back into his bed, staring up at the ceiling. Argrave walked to the door and knocked it twice, then Melanie opened the door.

“She’ll explain things,” Argrave said. “Me… much as I’d like to stay, things are moving fast. The Qircassian Coalition won’t rest on their own, so I’m going to give them a rest. Remember this gift I’ve given you rather well, Dario. Traugott needs to die.”

Melanie patted Argrave’s shoulder and promised, “I’ll teach the ugly, wretched bastard a lesson he’ll never forget. I’ll teach him just how useless he is. After that, we’ll deal with Traugott.”

Argrave smiled at her joke, gave her a serious nod, then left the room. He shut the door behind him, leaving Melanie and Daalone.

“Heard you asked for me.” Melanie walked up to his bedside.

“You caught me. Stuck in my mind,” Daadmitted.

Melanie surveyed him. “You still look absolutely terrible. Suppose that’s just how you look. Even the wonderchild can’t fix bad genes, it seems. Or the heat from the forge warped your face, maybe.”

“Maybe,” Daagreed, closing his eyes tiredly.

“Still… told you it’d work out,” Melanie leaned up against the wall. “Pay your dues, bend the knee… the king won’t let you down. Mostly.” She crossed her arms. “Now, we just have to make sure we meet his expectations.”

Dalifted his head. “Traugott dies, or I do. I won’t allow him to—"

“Take it easy, master martyr. You just got done crying about how dying is hard—don’t go making another death vow. You suck at keeping those.” She walked up and tipped the bed lightly, forcing Dato get up lest he fall out of it. “Now, move those feet. Long week ahead of us.”

“Yeah, yeah, woe is you, the burden of the world is on your shoulders…” Melanie walked to the door, then looked back and smiled wide. “Con, master martyr. Let’s go.”

Dalooked at his limbs, returned to form… then looked at Melanie, still smiling. He watched for a moment, then followed.

#####

Argrave saw the brilliance of the Great Chu’s bureaucracy manifest as the whole of a country worked to get the gang together to go storm a fortress. The process was further spurred by urgency—the sky tower continued to bombard all settlements across the continent, and while its people had settled into an uneasy acceptance of bombings, the fact remained that all its people would like it to simply go away.

Armies travelled across the canals en masse, repairing any damage along the way with extrprofessionalism. Governor Zen and Emperor Ji Meng worked in tandem to shepherd the powerful from every corner of the continent to its center. Though neither governor nor emperor liked one another, they were nigh unstoppable working together.

Given the narrow paths leading to the Palace of Heaven, they couldn’t exactly lob troops on the great fortress, but they did amass a staggering amount of powerful people. In days, they had enough S-rank spellcasters in their rank for them to be considered an army unto themselves. The remainder of the troops were sent north, to abate the threat caused by barbarians poking into the border at Erlebnis’ behest.

In the meanwhile, Argrave conferred with his divine allies. Fortunately, it was rather easy to bring up his suspicions about Zen’s association with Sataistador organically. Each and all of the gods thought that the god of war was being unusually quiet, and the evidence presented was strong enough that they agreed to follow Argrave’s recommendations. From the beginning the gods’ primary purpose had been to separate the arenas of the mortal and divine, so dividing their troops in this final assault wasn’t such a major issue.

Still… they kept knowledge of Traugott’s little secret to themselves. Galamon had scrutinized the vulnerability he’d given them with druidic scouts of his people. Countless birds gave their life scouting the mountain—the Stormfield calive with the presence of birds alone—but in so doing, they did spot and confirm an opening, precisely where Traugott claimed it would be. Questions still hung in the air; questions mainly posed by Galamon, who brought up good points about Traugott’s character and the potential of a trap. At the stime, Argrave was hesitant to write it off, relying instead on Veidimen consigning themselves to death.

Sataistador’s gambit, whatever it was, seemed still far out of reach as the days ticked down toward the inevitable assault of the Palace of Heaven. That was, until the governor made a very unusual request.

“I’d like to stand on the front lines with you.” Governor Zen stood tall and proud as he requested this.

“The front lines?” Argrave repeated. “From how you made it sound, your A-rank ascension specializes in something non-combative—creating arrays like the Stormfield and the divine-warding array beneath the imperial palace.”

“I can’t make one, but even still, who better thanto deal with the Stormfield should we reach it?” Zen held his hands out. “And what if I told you that I could help you combat Erlebnis? What if I told you that I could restrain him, and help gain control over the battlefield, as we fought, using my divine-warding arrays?”

Argrave looked to Anneliese, standing at his side—the ssort of revelation seemed to be going through her head as his. A trap for Erlebnis, yes… yet at the stime, a trap for all the others. If Zen was walking about, placing those arrays everywhere… it would appear that Sataistador was greedy as could be. He was only less greedy than perhaps Argrave himself.

“Tellall the details,” Argrave insisted. “Leave nothing out. The battle’s coming soon. A grand orchestra, so many instruments working in tandem for the song that begins the cycle of judgment in earnest. I have to make sure each and every player has tuned up.”

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