Blood Shaper - Book 4: Chapter 47

An uneasy murmuring rumbled through the assembled army at the base of Avalon’s wall. Most of the soldiers and leaders that had been recruited expected the campaign to be an easy fight they could half-ass their way through and reap glory from. It didn’t matter how easily you won if winning was a big deal, right? Very few of them had expected Avalon to have any fortifications at all, and the few that did hadn’t expected a wall that wouldn’t shame major cities in the more developed nations. It wasn’t at the scale of a true capital city’s walls in those countries, but it was more than enough to stop the army in its tracks. They had limited siege engines since no one had thought they’d needed them, and they didn’t have the necessary numbers to besiege the city if this was the level of defenses they had.

Edric noticed the Crusader General, who had been staring up at the walls in silence, nod once. “This turn of events has reinforced my previous decision. Signal parley.”

High Crusader Vexler opened his mouth to protest, probably a continuation of the same tirade he burst into when Eahn had told them his decision to at least attempt a negotiation, but the stern glare from High Crusader Hearthbreaker, plus the intense mood rolling off of the Crusader General after he’d already had to dress Vexler down once was enough to make the young orc hold his tongue.

A runner took off to convey the order, and the standard flag of parley soon waved through the air. The visible defenders on the wall didn’t react, though, with his exceptional eyesight, Edric was capable of seeing movement farther down the wall, headed in their direction.

He frowned and let his thoughts turn inward as the army waited for a response. The points that Eahn had made when he’d quietly taken Edric aside were a mixed bag of compelling, hopeful, and potentially mad. Not that he thought that Eahn was mad, but for the things that Kay of Avalon had declared to actually turn out to be true, it felt like the entire world was being pivoted. Edric had spent so much time preparing himself to be able to kill the monster that lived in his daughter’s body; to hear someone he respected believe that there may be a chance his daughter lived was heady. And it was terrifying. Was Alice alive? Or was “Alice” a monster? Would giving her a chance to prove she was herself be a good decision, or would it provide an enemy a chance to kill him? He didn’t know what the answers were, and he didn’t know what to do.

It was unfitting of himself and of his position to rely on the regimented space of following the orders he was given, but it was something to hold onto while his mind writhed with indecision, doubts, and desperate, pleading hope. He would watch over the negotiations that were about to begin and make sure no one caused trouble. If Avalon agreed to the necessary terms needed to make sure a battle didn’t occur, then he would have to make decisions and act. Until then, he would watch out for trouble and try to soothe his irritated thoughts.

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“That’s surprising,” Curcius muttered as the signal for parley went up above the invading army. “I was expecting them to either attack without caring about the walls or retreat to decide what to do. Asking for parley after they ignored all the messages we sent during their march is…”

Eleniah snorted derisively. “They probably saw the walls and started sweating. I only see three siege weapons out there, and they aren’t even trying to put one of them together. Bet they expected us to be a little podunk town with a little palisade they could easily climb over, not an actual city with real fortifications. Now that things aren’t going the way they expected, they have to change tack.”

“I hope their new plan is more reasonable than the last one of marching an army down to kill a handful of people,” Kay said as he stared down, his eyes locked on the invading army. “Thoughts on who I bring with me?”

“You’re bringing you guard detachment,” Eleniah immediately insisted.

“I meant besides them. If I were to bet, I’d bet on them hoping that with an army at our walls, our leadership would be more willing to go against the terrifying vampyr and turn us all over to them to be dealt with. If I go with just me and my guards, it sends a certain message; if I go with someone, that sends a different one; and if I don’t go and we send someone else, that sends a completely different third message.”

“While it would be smart for me to go with you, I don’t know if I could make it back behind the walls without a lot of difficulty. We’re in siege mode, so the gates would take forever to open.” Curcius started working through the options. “Our non-combatant leaders are all safely away, and bringing them here isn’t a good idea, for the same reason I shouldn’t go, plus a few others. I’d say Eleniah, you’re the only one we could reasonably send with him.”

“Which adds an extra layer of protection for you.” She nodded in agreement enthusiastically. “Me, then.”

Kay glanced over his shoulder at the high-level members of the Blood Guard who had been temporarily moved from different assignments to be his bodyguards for the potential battles to come. “Anyone worried about making it back up one way or another if things go sideways?” They all quietly shook their heads. “Great. Let’s be impressive about this then.”

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Streamers of blood trailed out of his arms and pooled in midair, just off of the edges of the wall. The pool solidified into a platform that floated several stories above the ground, level with the crenelations atop the wall. Kay stepped onto the platform and turned to look at everyone. “All aboard.”

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“What is that?”

Edric turned to look and saw one of the minor nobles pointing up at the top of the wall. There was a floating red rectangle that hadn’t been there before, floating outside the wall, and as Edric watched, a figure stepped out onto it. After a brief pause, more people joined the first one, and the rectangular platform began to descend in their direction.

“Is that… blood?” Someone muttered loud enough to hear. The platform was a deep red coloration, not unlike the color of blood, and it was unnerving for Edric to look at. He wasn’t familiar with Blood Shaping since it was a new Skill, and he’d had no chances to learn anything about it in depth, but to make a floating platform capable of carrying people that way with Blood Magic required quite the powerful caster. If Kay was a vampyr, he was just as much of a threat as Vexler was worried he was.

As the group approached, it got easier to make out details. There was an outer ring of armored figures surrounding two more in the middle. The outer ring was obviously guards; they were scanning the gathering of leaders and nobles behind the Crusader General with care and making sure their bodies were between the two in the middle and the majority of the people below them. All of them were armored in red material that was incredibly similar to the platform they were standing on, marking them as likely members of the “Blood Guard”, the name of Lord Kay’s personal troops that their limited intelligence reports had been able to discover. Their red armor covered all of them from head to toe, including their faces. It was impossible to tell anything about them directly, and only subtle clues could be gleamed about them from the differences in their armor and their height, which made them fairly intimidating.

One of the two people in the center had to be Lord Kay of Avalon. He was wrapped in the same red armor as the rest of the figures but was obviously the one being guarded, not one of the guards. His armor was entirely seamless and completely featureless. It was like looking at a still pool of blood that had somehow risen up in a humanoid shape. He stood completely motionless, his head turned in the direction of the gathering below.

The final person was an elven woman with dark hair dressed in loose clothing instead of armor. She had on a comfortable-looking sleeveless shirt, a loose pair of pants that flapped slightly in the wind as they descended, and strips of cloth wrapped around her fists and up her arms. Based on the description and the likelihood of being near Kay, this was probably Eleniah the Indomitable Fist, a former noble of the Seramist Isles turned wandering adventurer who had originally been Kay’s mentor and transitioned into being one of his supporters and high-power fighters.

The platform stopped a dozen or so feet above the gathered leaders waiting to parley, and the guards parted as Kay stepped to the front. “You asked for parley,” A voice rang out from the faceless figure, and Edric mentally applauded at the showmanship and intimidation factor of literally floating above the people you were negotiating with.

“I am Crusader General Stonegnawer Eahn of the Itarian Crusade,” the High Crusader introduced himself as he stepped forward, looking not intimidated at all. “I am the leader of this campaign and this army.” He stared up at the platform, saying nothing else.

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Kay forced back a sigh as the dwarven man looked up at him silently. Forcing the other party to speak and say what they wanted to say and then responding would give him an advantage in negotiations, but it also made him look like a dick in most cases. With the endless mantra of “try to get us out of any wars” pounded into him by every one of his advisers, he couldn’t afford to meet the Crusader General at least somewhat evenly, not if Kay wanted to maximize the chances of no one dying. “I am Lord Kay of Avalon, [Lord of Spilled Blood]. You have marched an army to my doorstep, ignoring every message I’ve sent, every envoy sent to speak on my behalf, and every ally who has asked you what you think you’re doing. You come on false pretenses or driven by an inability to accept the truth. I know why you’re here. I know what you want. Speak your piece, and let us see if I have to kill innocent soldiers who have been dragged here by fools and the willfully blind this day.”

He needed to give them the chance to be open to being wrong. He did not need to be nice about it. Meeting them on relatively equal terms didn’t include being a pushover or acting like they weren’t total fuck heads for bringing an army into his territory and terrifying his people.

The dwarven Crusader General stared up at him impassively. “… Your harsh words are not… wrong. Those of us dedicated to wiping out the threat of vampyr suspect you are on, and suspect that your claims to have solved the issue of being turned into a vampyr by being turned into something else are merely the cunning lies of the vampyr, seen time and time again and use to draw the unwary and trusting into the clutches of evil and horror.” He paused and glanced to the side before grunting once. “But, as loathe as I am to admit my and my people’s mistakes, just because they have not been seen before does not mean they cannot even occur. I would like to speak with you and your people under an oath-bound truce to prove if your claims are true. Should they be-“

Someone burst out of the ground, a glowing green blade held aloft, stabbing down at the Crusader General. The dwarf spun in place, backhanding the red-garbed figure in the chest and sending them flying.

“Treachery!” Someone in the crowd shouted, “They’ve attacked the Crusader General during parley! Treachery!”

An orcish man wearing similar armor as the Crusader General shouted with rage, a visible aura enveloping him as he charged forward and threw himself into the air above the platform, twin axes pulled back to strike. “Attack!” He shouted as he plummeted toward Kay, “Kill the vampyr! Kill them all!”