Why are you doing an impression?
Dross dropped the hair and the eye color, returning to normal with a shocked look on his face. [So I wouldn’t distract you! Didn’t you find it amusing and relaxing?]
I feel like you could have shown me a perfect simulation almost instantly.
[Almost instantly. Now you can watch Northstrider while also learning from me! Also, there’s no creativity in replaying exactly what happened. No soul.]
I’m perfectly all right with that.
Dross grumbled further, but Northstrider had already broken out of the memory. He looked at his palms as though they belonged to someone else, and he seemed dazed.
[He’s asking the oracle codex if this is a trick. Probably questioning his own memories to see where he changed. Would you like an impression?]
No, thank you.
Northstrider looked up again, and something about him seemed…lost. Lindon lifted another chair with aura and sent it sliding over to him.
Lindon hadn’t been sure the Monarch would actually use it, but Northstrider collapsed into the chair a moment later.
He leaned forward and put his head in his hands. “If you wanted to shame me before sending me off in defeat, you’ve succeeded. Do what you will.”
[He’s going to justify this,] Dross predicted. His tone was much more serious than before, which Lindon appreciated. [If we give him time, he’ll come up with a story about how he was right all along. He’s done it many times before.]
“I don’t want to send you off in defeat,” Lindon said honestly. He waited until Northstrider looked up to say, “I want to send you off in victory. You won a long time ago.”
Over time, Lindon had Consumed quite a few of Northstrider’s memories. He knew the Monarch better than even Lindon himself had ever realized.
Northstrider had justified his position a million different ways, but the truth remained: the man was simply afraid to ascend.
“I need time to set my affairs in order,” Northstrider said.
Lindon nodded. “All right. Swear that you will fight with us and that you will ascend immediately on my command, and you can have more time.”
Northstrider remained silent.
[He’s looking through the loopholes in that oath,] Dross said.
The loopholes were traps, and Lindon wanted to see if the Monarch would fall for them. In the end, Northstrider shook his head.
“No. I will make a clean break.” The shining black sphere of his oracle codex appeared over his shoulder. “I am sending Dross a set of instructions. Make sure they are taken care of after my departure.”
Dross received them and whispered to Lindon, [I don’t think he knows what a ‘clean break’ is.]
They were mostly instructions for how to best take care of Northstrider’s facilities and the people that relied on him for protection. For a Monarch without an established sect or clan, Northstrider certainly had a lot of people counting on him.
“I will make sure they are taken care of,” Lindon promised. “Now…pardon the disrespect, but I would like you to ascend now. I give you permission to open the Way within the labyrinth.”
Northstrider gave him a flat look. “Now you care about disrespect?”
“I’ve always respected you. You mentioned many of those responsible for my growth, and I owe them a great debt, but no less than the one I owe you.” Lindon bowed his head. “Thank you for your guidance, Monarch.”
Northstrider surveyed Lindon for a moment and snorted.
His ascension was not so dramatic as Fury’s. He didn’t have a family’s worth of people to bring with him, and he had more experience manipulating the Way than Fury ever had. He simply gestured as though brushing aside a curtain and a swirling dimension of blue opened before him.
“I find it hard to believe that someone like you could force me out of my own world,” Northstrider said.
And, despite what he’d said about respect, Lindon found it hard to resist a parting shot.
“It’s my world now,” Lindon said.
Northstrider scanned him once again. He stood before the portal into the Way with black-scaled arms crossed and messy hair stirring in the portal’s wind.
“Yes,” Northstrider said.
Then he vanished into the Way.
Inside Windfall, Lindon set up the doorframe into Emriss Silentborn’s prison space.
Northstrider had sent Dross the memory of tossing it into the water, but even he didn’t know its precise location. And Lindon couldn’t go search himself. He’d needed to send Yerin into the Trackless Sea with the labyrinth, flying for hundreds of miles while scanning with her spiritual sense.
Which didn’t delay them long, but it was an annoyance.
The door opened onto a dark ocean, but Lindon had expected that. For a sacred artist with no water aspect to his Path, Northstrider certainly stuck to his aquatic theme.
Lindon took a bubble of air into the water and moved using aura. It didn’t take long to release the wide, scripted bubble of glass containing Emriss Silentborn.
She was reclining on the chair in the form of a dark-skinned human woman, though it was slightly different than the body she’d used before. This time, there was gray in her hair and wrinkles in the corner of her eyes.
She wore a crown of flowers although, on closer inspection, Lindon couldn’t tell which part of her hair was made of plants. Patches of her skin seemed to have the consistency of bark.
Emriss didn’t react until she saw him floating up to the glass, and then she slid off the chair immediately.
“I was worried I would have to wait,” the Monarch said. “Northstrider did not last, did he?”
Lindon tapped a finger against the scripted, reinforced glass and shattered it. He held the water back from rushing in using aura, then moved his bubble of air closer to the prison so Emriss could climb in.
“Apologies,” he said, “I tried to get here sooner.”
“I was prepared to wait for years, if necessary. This does not count as a wait.”
Lindon had expected more questions, but he had underestimated Emriss’ patience. Despite having been captured, she seemed as though she was waiting for the world to move around her. He supposed that, rather than asking for answers, she would sense the world herself once they arrived.
But she looked to him, and he felt a scan pass through him like a gentle breeze. “You didn’t Consume Northstrider’s power.”
“I persuaded him to ascend,” Lindon said.
“Pity. If you had taken it, his strength would have gone to good use.”
Lindon wasn’t sure whether to take that as a compliment or not.
Dross spun out next to him and gave a fake cough. [I would just like to say it’s an honor to meet you again.]
“It hasn’t been so long since we met, Dross.” They were aboard Windfall now, and Emriss’ awareness spread out. She made a relieved sound and pressed a hand to her chest.
Lindon noticed the concentration of her spiritual sense on the other side of the planet. “None of the Dreadgods have made it to Everwood yet, and the Monarchs haven’t attacked.”
He’d somewhat expected them to, but apparently everyone had enough chaos of their own to deal with.
“Northstrider told me that my people were being taken by the Bleeding Phoenix. I assumed he was lying, but there was always the chance.”
“Pardon my rudeness, but I would like to know. How did Northstrider catch you?”
Lindon could feel Emriss’ spirit now, and he would never have expected her to lose to Northstrider. Even if she couldn’t match him in raw power, she had the knowledge and experience to make up for it.
“It was him and Reigan Shen together,” Emriss said sadly. “I saw how it would end, so I allowed it instead of burning my strength fighting against it.”
“Well, we will be grateful for your help.”