Valkyrie's Shadow

Empire in Chains: Act 1, Chapter 20

Empire in Chains: Act 1, Chapter 20

Chapter 20

In the wake of Glasir’s scream, Lady Aura appeared out of the Dryad’s tree.

“Uwah?!”

Her eyes widened in shock. She stopped herself just before she collided with the nearby wall. Lord Mare appeared behind her.

“Owah!”

Lord Mare crashed into his sister, and together they tumbled into a heap.

“Ow…” he groaned. “Why did you stop like that, big sis?”

“There’s a wall here!” Lady Aura said, “Did you get the wrong tree?”

“I-I don’t think that’s possible…”

Ludmila came forward. Despite her understanding that the two young Dark Elves were vastly more powerful than she, concern still rose within her over their safety.

“My apologies, Lady Aura, Lord Mare – we had to move the tree indoors with us. Are you alright?”

At her question, the two royal courtiers untangled themselves and rose to their feet. They brushed themselves off as the Undead servitors bowed their heads. Ilwé Linum already had her forehead pressed to the polished granite floor. Ludmila swept her skirts out into a curtsey.

“Welcome, Lady Aura. Lord Mare.”

“H-hello, um…”

Lord Mare turned his attention to Glasir.

“This is Glasir Gel Gronvidr,” Ludmila said, “the Dryad you were contacted about. Glasir, this is Lord Mare Bello Fiore, a Druid. His elder sister here is Lady Aura Bella Fiora, a Ranger.”

Lady Aura and Lord Mare stared at Glasir for a long while.

“She looks kinda different.”

“The Dryads at home look different from one another too, big sis.”

“That’s not what I meant! Hm…”

Glasir leaned back as the Lady Aura leaned forward to examine her. Lord Mare looked over her shoulder, clutching his staff closely.

“Ah, I get it,” he said. “Their trees are different. The ones at home are all Oak trees.”

Lady Aura’s gaze went over to Glasir’s potted tree.

“Come to think of it, these leaves look familiar…”

After several moments, a furrow appeared on the girl’s brow.

“Mare…”

“W-what?”

“Just to be sure, what kind of tree is this?”

“Divine Ash.”

Lady Aura’s eyes grew wide at the revelation. She reached out and grabbed Lord Mare by the shoulders, shaking him violently.

“Mare! Why did you plant a Divine Ash here? Where did you even get them from? T-the seeds…the seeds…”

“They’re cuttings from home!” Lord Mare dizzily replied, “We didn’t have any seeds. Lord Ainz told us to look for ways to increase our strength, so I took a few and put them in pots…a-anyway, I put them in different places to see where they would grow best. Since they’re the only ones in the area, it makes them perfect for teleporting around.”

“So that other potted tree in the Lizardman village is…”

“Divine Ash.”

“…where else did you plant these cuttings?”

“Um…on the island in E-Rantel’s Demihuman Quarter.”

“And?”

“That’s it.”

Silence fell over Ludmila’s makeshift hall. With a rustle of leaves, Glasir tentatively raised a hand towards Lord Mare.

“Excuse me…you’re a Druid, right? Can you tell me what’s going on? Is there something wrong with me?”

“N-not at all!” Lord Mare came forward excitedly, taking the Dryad’s hands in his, “This is great! None of the other cuttings has a Dryad! You might be the only one of your kind in the world!”

Glasir opened her mouth, then closed it again. She looked down at the floor shyly. Lady Aura cleared her throat.

“So,” she said, “what are we going to do with her?”

“Hmm…I wonder.”

The Dryad looked up with a hopeful expression.

“You mentioned other Dryads,” she said. “Maybe you can take me to join them?”

“We can’t just bring anyone with us,” Lord Mare said, “plus there must be a reason why none of the other cuttings has a Dryad. You were born here – don’t you want to stay?”

“Maybe it’s because her tree is in a pot,” Lady Aura said. “She was born as a portable Dryad.”

“But if she was born here,” Lord Mare looked over at his sister, “that must mean it’s a good place, right? Pinison and the others said something like that – Dryads don’t just pop up in any old place.”

Glasir turned her head to look out the window towards the village square.

“It’s all rock!” She said, “I need a place with good soil so I can transplant my tree.”

“You don’t want to stay in the pot?” Lord Mare asked, “I think it’s pretty neat…since you can move around with your tree, you can help out around here.”

“H-help out?”

“Un. We’ve just started building this city, so there will be plenty for you to do.”

“Hold up,” Lady Aura held out a hand. “Before you two get swept up in your crazy city planning again, we need to talk.”

“We do?” Glasir frowned.

“Not you,” Lady Aura said. “You.”

Lady Aura’s gaze met Ludmila’s.

“What would you like to discuss, my lady?”

“A couple of things, actually,” Lady Aura told her. “In private.”

Ludmila bid the gathered Undead return to their tasks before leading Lady Aura up the stairs to her bedroom. Lady Aura grabbed Lord Mare’s elbow, dragging him along. After closing the door behind her, Ludmila reached into her Infinite Haversack, retrieving the Silence item she had recently purchased. She activated the magic item and set it on her desk.

“Will that be sufficient, my lady?”

Lady Aura cocked an ear, remaining silent for several moments.

“I can’t hear anything outside, so it should be good enough…”

“Then, I don’t have much in the way of hospitality, but please make yourselves comfortable.”

Lord Mare looked around for a few moments before walking over to sit down on her bed. Lady Aura walked over to stand by the window, crossing her arms in front of her.

“I guess I should ask what’s been driving me crazy first,” Lady Aura looked her in the eye. “Did something happen to you?”

“Many things have happened, my lady,” Ludmila replied. “What would you like to know?”

“Your smell has gotten weaker. There are a few other weird things too. When you’re standing still, you stand still. Most people shift around or try to relax or become more comfortable. Your breathing is too regular. You’ve become less Human, or maybe you’re pretending to be one. At first, I thought maybe Shalltear turned you, but I can still hear your heartbeat and your body is still warm.”

“…you could sense all of that?”

“A Ranger’s senses get stronger the higher level they are,” Lady Aura said. “You should know that. So…what happened?”

Ludmila walked over to her desk, reaching out to flip her chair around. She sat down and took a deep breath. His Majesty said that they could be trusted.

“It wasn’t Lady Shalltear,” she said. “I died on the Azerlisia Expedition…and then I got up again. I didn’t even notice I was Undead until Lady Shalltear pointed it out to me.”

Lady Aura and Lord Mare exchanged looks. Lord Mare shifted slightly on her mattress.

“What kind of Undead are you?” He asked.

“His Majesty concluded that I’m a Revenant,” Ludmila answered. “A type of Undead being that comes back for some specific purpose.”

“Do you know what that purpose is?”

“Not precisely,” Ludmila replied. “As far as I understand, it should be some sort of duty.”

Lady Aura snorted.

“That sounds just like you.”

“Lady Shalltear said the same thing,” Ludmila smiled slightly. “I suppose it just goes to show how alike you are.”

The Dark Elf girl looked out the window, making a face.

“We need to know if there’s any way you can bring harm to Lord Ainz’s country,” Lord Mare said. “I-I don’t think you’d do anything on purpose, but maybe you have an aura or a passive ability or something…”

“I understand, my lord,” Ludmila nodded.

Over the next half hour, she shared what she knew about Revenants and their traits. Lady Aura and Lord Mare listened intently, occasionally stopping her to ask a question about one thing or the other.

“…does that mean Glasir’s awakening is due to your ‘maintenance’?” Lord Mare asked.

“I cannot say for certain, my lord,” Ludmila answered, “but I think it factors into things somehow. Perhaps it is a bit counterintuitive, but because I can sense negative energy, it means that I know where it isn’t, if that makes any sense. Life and death have a balance, and it is only when there is an imbalance do you experience the more pronounced signs of either. Both are usually always there. I suppose that I might have been throwing things off balance by being a bit too keen about absorbing negative energy.”

“Mmh…but what about you?”

Ludmila frowned as the discussion went from the Dryad to her.

“What about me, my lord?”

“Well…if you’re absorbing negative energy, and that causes life to flourish…doesn’t that ultimately lead to more death?”

“Natural or peaceful deaths don’t seem to result in much negative energy, my lord. The imprint left behind by violent, unnatural deaths or those accompanied by inordinate amounts of negative emotions is far more significant.”

“But it’s still something,” Lord Mare said. “Maybe it’s natural and not enough to tip the balance of things, but all those little amounts add up over time, right? Maybe a thousand natural deaths are equal to a murder…or something like that?”

She hadn’t expected to suddenly be trying to figure out measures for different types of deaths. Ludmila supposed that she would be eminently qualified to do so, but it wasn’t as if she ran around her demesne with a teaspoon to measure how much negative energy a dead squirrel was worth. Below a certain threshold, she couldn’t sense specific amounts of negative energy at all – just its vague existence. It was akin to dropping a grain of sugar into the Katze River and trying to discern how much sweeter the water had become.

“I’m not sure if it’s something I can measure, my lord,” Ludmila said, “but I will keep this in mind if something does result in a tangible amount of negative energy. Beyond that, however, I don’t even know what happens to the negative energy that I absorb.”

“You mean it’s not something like Shalltear’s Blood Pool?” Lady Aura frowned, “Or maybe you could use what you’ve stored up…like running up to a city one day and going ‘Negative Energy Bomb!!!’ and blasting it off of the map.”

Lady Aura threw up her arms in a bam motion. Perhaps that was another thing she shared with Lady Shalltear. At least Lord Mare wouldn’t treat mass destruction in such a flippant way.

“I-I don’t think so, my lady.”

“Cheh, boring.”

“…do you think that’s possible?”

“Don’t ask me,” Lady Aura said, “I’m not the negative energy sponge! Why not try summoning some negative energy?”

Ludmila held out her hand out, focusing her being to summon a sphere of negative energy. Lady Aura and Lord Mare leaned forward.

“I-is there something there?” Lord Mare asked.

“No,” Ludmila replied. “There’s nothing there.”

“Maybe something will come out if we squeeze you.”

“I would rather not have anything squeezed out of me, my lady.”

“Well,” Lady Aura said, “work on it, I guess? The people around here come up with all sorts of crazy things, so maybe you can too. Anyway, it looks like you’re keeping this a secret…”

“I’d like to keep this a secret for now, yes,” Ludmila nodded. “I don’t want to do anything to destabilise the realm – things are starting to go back to normal again in the duchy, and the last thing we need is some panic about Humans being turned into Undead.”

Lady Aura and Lord Mare nodded quietly. The Dark Elf Ranger placed a hand on her hip, putting on a thoughtful expression.

“Hmm…how many people know about this?” She asked.

“His Majesty, Lady Shalltear, Countess Corelyn, Dame Verilyn and my maids…hm, Miss Nabe as well.”

“Nabe?” Lady Aura frowned, “Does that mean Momon knows as well?”

“It’s possible,” Ludmila admitted. “Miss Nabe was very kind and supportive when I consulted her on the matter, so I don’t think she would mention it to anyone else.”

Lady Aura’s face screwed up in confusion.

“Nabe was…huh? Doesn’t she usually refer to everyone around her as vermin?”

“She still calls me ‘woodlouse’,” Ludmila smirked. “I think we get along well, so it feels more like a nickname. Come to think of it, a few of the royal maids call me the same thing…”

“Can you think of anyone else that might know?”

Ludmila fell silent for several moments, reviewing recent events.

“Captain Iškur and Ruin’s Wake know about it – we met in the Katze Plains and I didn’t have my Ring of Nondetection equipped. That means the Vampire Brides that accompanied us know. As does the Death Warrior captain, the Death Knights and the Death Priests. There were a pair of Shadow Demons working with me…and everyone we came across during that entire trip…”

“That’s an awful lot of people,” Lady Aura said. “Who else?”

“Lord Cocytus, his officers and the rest of the Royal Army’s forces stationed there.”

It was an awful lot of people. Did His Majesty’s Undead servitors gossip amongst themselves? If so, her secret wasn’t a secret any more. A furrow formed over her brow as she wondered what could have been done.

“I’ll take care of it,” Lady Aura said.

“You would do this for me, my lady?”

“Yeah, no problem…I think? Mmh…”

Lady Aura placed a hand on her head.

“You said that some Vampire Brides were there,” Lord Mare asked. “Does that mean you went with Lord Ainz?”

“Yes, my lord,” Ludmila answered.

“What did Lord Ainz say?”

“His Majesty was very interested in many things, including my Undead state. He had me lead a company of Undead soldiers around while we explored the plains to help me gain levels as a Captain-type Commander. Partway through, His Majesty bestowed a new set of equipment upon me. The Ring of Nondetection that Lady Shalltear provided was left as a part of the set.”

“That so?” Lady Aura lowered her hand, “It shouldn’t be a problem at all, then.”

“Thank you for looking out for me, my lady,” Ludmila lowered her head. “Perhaps this is what having a big sister feels like.”

“Ah! That makes me all itchy! By the way, that idiot didn’t do anything weird on Lord Ainz’s trip, did she?”

“Lady Shalltear was very happy to be there, but she also had to work very hard as His Majesty’s sole escort. There was time to relax on the way back, but I don’t think she acted much differently from the woman that I’ve come to know.”

“…so she didn’t try to do anything with Lord Ainz, right?”

“My Lady possesses great love and passion for His Majesty,” Ludmila said, “but I do not think she is the type to do anything unless called upon. She only did her best to accompany him.”

Lady Aura closed her eyes and let out a sigh of relief.

“I-I told you nothing would happen, big sis…”

One of Lady Aura’s eyes opened, glaring down at Lord Mare. He shrank back further onto Ludmila’s bed.

“Y-you weren’t around to pull her off like the last time this happened, you know.”

“Pull her off?” Ludmila frowned, “Has something happened in the past?”

“Ah, um…it wasn’t Shalltear, it was Albedo. She got tossed into the Frozen Prison for a few days to cool off after that. You didn’t hear us say anything, by the way.”

As far as Ludmila had heard, Lady Albedo was some sort of powerful Demon. Lady Shalltear had mentioned her as a rival for His Majesty’s affections, but Ludmila had always thought that it was something like jockeying for a position at the Sorcerer King’s right hand. Demons and Undead couldn’t…could they?

“Wasn’t there something else you wanted to talk about, big sis?”

“Huh? Was there…? Oh, yeah – that Dryad…or more like her tree. Are you two sure you want to keep her here? That’s Divine Ash, you know.”

“I’m not familiar with that species of Ash tree, my lady. Are they very different?”

“Divine Ash doesn’t grow around here,” Lady Aura told her, “as far as we’ve seen. They grow reeeeeeeally slow, but they get reeeeeeeally big. That pot might last for a century or two, but you’ll have to plant it somewhere eventually.”

A tree that took centuries to outgrow its pot? Ludmila had never heard of the like.

“If it takes that long to grow,” she asked, “then why mention it right now?”

“Because if you plan on keeping it here, you’re gonna have to plan your city with this tree in mind.”

“…just how tall will this Divine Ash become?”

Lady Aura looked over at Lord Mare.

“I-I don’t think it stops growing. It grows all year round, too.”

“It will grow in winter?”

“Un. Big sis is right that we’ll have to plan around it growing in the city here, but I thought you would like it…”

Lord Mare drew up his knees and pressed his fingers together shyly.

“You don’t?” He asked.

“I don’t know enough to make an informed choice,” Ludmila said. “The way you make it sound, it seems to be a monumental undertaking. What was it you mentioned about increasing strength?”

“Ah,” Lord Mare brightened and shifted back forward, “Divine Ash is a great crafting material. If we can successfully grow it here, I’m sure Lord Ainz will be pleased!”

That’s not fair…

At the mention that the Sorcerer King might be pleased with the results, she was already inclined to say yes.

“Won’t Glasir take issue with being turned into crafting materials?”

“We don’t harvest the tree – there’s a certain technique to it. Even though it’s a really big tree, it’s still just a tree and responds like one. The book I read talks about making nodes for suckers along the roots and the main branches after the tree grows large enough. Then you just harvest the suckers from the nodes when they grow large enough. The woodsmen around the duchy do it. I think it’s called coppicing…or maybe pollarding?”

What he spoke of was common knowledge for Rangers, Druids, and those involved in forestry, but this was far beyond that.

“How tall are the shoots when you harvest them?” She asked.

“Hmm…about two metres? They take about a century to grow that big.”

A whole century for a shoot large enough to fashion into a spear or a bow. It sounded like the stuff of legends, where heroes underwent a great adventure to retrieve some mythical ingredient or material from a perilous locale. She supposed that if someone did try to steal something, they would indeed have several hundred legendary beings chasing after them for trespassing and theft. Maybe the origins of such stories were not so heroic.

“I don’t think you mentioned how large this tree gets, my lord.”

“I was thinking that we could plant the main body of the tree in a central location and lead the roots all over the city. It might take centuries if I use magic, but we’ll get it done eventually. We can grow ‘trees’ at regular points that are really shoots sprouting from the roots.”

Many plants could propagate themselves in the fashion that Lord Mare described, but the scale of his proposal was vast. The island that had been raised for the city had an area of approximately sixty square kilometres.

“Green spaces were planned to be abundant in the city,” Ludmila said, “but I had no idea that you had something like this in mind. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I-I would have told you eventually,” Lord Mare said, “but it felt a bit sad. You were a Human, so you’d have only lived long enough to see it barely begin.”

Ludmila smiled at Lord Mare, resting her cheek on a forearm.

“Thank you for your consideration, my lord,” she said, “but it’s not something I would have gotten sad over as a Human. If anything, I would have been happy to see that something like that was left to my descendants. Well, instead of my descendants, I suppose you’ll be putting up with me for the indeterminate future.”

“So we can do it?”

“I think it’s a wonderful idea, my lord,” Ludmila said.