Tempered by the Will

17 - Examples

In truth, Vica had no idea what she was doing. But equally true was that she did not care. She had come to the Capital expecting trouble, hadn't she? She had come here expecting conflict and clashes with the Order, had known that she was not going to be able to persuade everyone to reform themselves and take up principles of fellowship instead. Beneath the surface, she had always known she would need to resort to violence to get her point across to the right people.

She just hadn't expected to get a dozen innocent victims caught in the tangle, too. Well, if these Order mages and their peculiar beastmen wanted to hurt harmless people just to get their way, she was going to show them what it felt like to be on the other end of it, too. They weren't the only ones capable of tormenting those weaker than them. Anyone could do that, and she intended to prove it.

"I thought I told you to come here," she snapped, and with a still-flaming hand, she pointed at the man with a bull's head on his shoulders. The creature was enormous, towering well above seven, perhaps eight feet with bulging muscles and a hulking frame. The metal shoulder plates were the only thing that covered his rippling torso, other than the light coat of fur that faded at the base of his neck. He was dangerous. She knew it. If she let him put his massive hands on her, she would be crushed to a pulp. The same went for his friends, the one with the ram's head, the one with the boar's head, and the one with an eagle's head.

Provided that they got to her first, that is. But she was all the way across the grand hall from them, and she was willing to stake her life on the probability that she could hurt them far worse than they could hurt her from that distance. Come to me, she thought. She would burn them up before they could lay another finger on anyone here.

She had to believe that. The night above the Steps on that high hilltop, she had to believe she could summon that strength still, the strength to move the earth, bend rivers, and sweep away whatever came to block her path.

Even if under the scrutiny of everyone in the massive hall, including Constantine, she thought she could feel herself threatening to waver. It was too quiet, and no one was rushing at her with swords and spears drawn. She didn't understand - why weren't they attacking her? The man with the bull's head remained exactly where he stood instead of pawing the ground or whatever else she'd expected from someone who looked like that. Stiff and motionless, he was neither cooperating nor was he resisting.

But she wanted to fight. She was angry. She wanted to teach someone a lesson, yet she could feel the moment sliding away from her as the hollow silence persisted. With her flames flickering and dancing over her hands and arms under dozens of pairs of eyes, she suddenly felt far out of her element.

"Vica, I think that's unnecessary. We should send for healers and have Duke Aventine's staff tended to."

It took her a second to realize that it was Bren's voice she was hearing. Still half-under the sway of furious, nervous adrenaline, she had forgotten all about him. Of course he had followed her out of the cellar; he had said himself that he would.

Unwilling to take her eyes off the intruders, she stepped to her right, the side opposite the injured woman on the wooden floor. "Fine," she said, although in fact, nothing was fine. She pointed at several of the congregated mages still huddling by the doors. "One of you had better be a healer," she said loudly, making sure her voice projected far enough for them to hear her. "Come here and get to work cleaning up your mess."

"Unfortunately, I think they're all acolytes. Their skills won't be enough." Bren moved forward to stand beside her, and she noticed out of the corner of her eye as he glanced down at the crumpled woman next to his feet. He didn't seem concerned in the least, but then again, he was a little strange like that..."But I'm sure they can communicate through their Charter to request assistance. As soon as Constantine removes himself from them."

He hadn't spoken nearly as loudly as she had, but Constantine must have heard him anyway. Her eyes darted over to where he stood by the alcove on the left side of the circular hall, just in time to see him step away and release the man he had been restraining against the wall. The unfortunate man in rumpled robes staggered away toward his comrades with his hands around his neck.

That was surprising. She hadn't thought he would ever listen to anything Bren said. She stared at the assassin for a moment, wondering if there was something that she was missing: even from here, she could see a tightness on his face that she had only seen so rarely before. The man who never let anything rattle him didn't quite look like himself.

And then her gaze dropped from his face down to his dark, tattered cloak. That thing had been in a lot better condition the last time she saw it, which had been only a little while ago just before she entered the cellar.

He was wounded, she realized. It must have been one of the enormous beastmen who managed it, though why he had ended up fighting one of the helpless mages instead, she didn't know.

"Is everyone here deaf?" she asked. "You people need to hurry up and get healers here. Now."

"Y - you're to come with us to the Court," a lone voice quavered back, and her eyes zeroed in on the source with a flinty grimace. It was one of the men near the front of the group, and she noticed how all his friends drew back slightly from him. Smart. "With the authority vested in me -"

"I will absolutely put you in the ground," she warned. "Don't waste my time. I don't know what an acolyte is exactly, but I'm assuming that means if you and I are in disagreement, you're the one that's going to have a very bad time."

"You can do what you want to us!" he squeaked back, clearly hoping that she didn't take him up on the offer. "But our master already knew you would have a Resistant with you. So there are more of us waiting at a distance, and if anything happens to us, they'll burn you and this whole place down with fire from the sky!"

Oh. That wasn't good. She didn't know how to create barriers, and she doubted Bren could either. If they were alone, they might make it out with Constantine, but Felix's staff were all still here and in various states of injury...

"Vica, I'd like to point out that even though Constantine was attacking them along with the attendants, we have not been charred to a crisp yet." Bren's voice was a quiet murmur in her ear, and she thought she heard a small smile in his words.

"So they're bluffing?"

"No. This is common practice for when mages know they may be walking into range of a Resistant. But I believe they will refrain from anything too drastic except as a last resort, perhaps if they detect that everyone has been killed. I think they would rather have you alive."

"So what do I -"

"Make an example of several of them. They are only acolytes, so even if you dispose of a few, whoever their master is will hold back instead of retaliating. Meanwhile, you will make these ones afraid of disobeying you, and you can convince them to cooperate as far as they can."

Her face blanched. It had been one thing to threaten the intruders in order to stop them from continuing to hurt the defenseless servants, but what Bren said - to make an example of them - sent a repulsed shiver down her back.

And yet if she didn't, those same servants could die. She glanced down at the injured woman once more and noticed that a small pool of blood had formed on the floorboards under her parted lips.

Maybe she could just - scare them, then. Maybe they wouldn't make her hurt them.

"Bren, stand back. I don't want..." She lifted her hands away from him instead of finishing her sentence, and he obliged with a nod and several steps backward. With her lips pressed together, she turned her head to face the now-terrified mages again, who couldn't have heard the quiet conversation but seemed to have deduced what would come next.

"Wait!" the same mage from a moment ago exclaimed. "We don't want trouble. We only used force because we didn't know what had happened to you, and how could we have known they didn't have you captured -"

"I'm really bad at controlling this," she interrupted, and she took a step forward with her arms outstretched. She couldn't go any further; Constantine's anti-magic was fluctuating madly now and threatening to snuff out the fraction of power she still clung to. But she could stay back here and look just as intimidating, she hoped. "So what that means is, if you keep being difficult -"

"Vica."

She jumped. She hadn't expected Constantine to say anything, as quiet as he had been all this time. With wide eyes, she looked over at him, but she didn't lower her arms that continued to flicker with blue fire.

"Wh - what."

"Felix is on his way. He's coming with several others."

She blinked. "Where is he?"

"Still several miles out, but he'll be here soon. He's coming through the canal, and it's moving fast."

...The canal? The slow-moving waterway that they had all taken that gondola on to get here? That thing was far too slow - but he'd said Felix was moving quickly. She didn't know if she had any other choice but to trust his judgment.

"But what about -"

"No one's dead. Whoever owns these idiots must have told them not to kill anyone. Her, too. She'll make it, just some broken ribs. When Felix gets here, let him handle summoning the healers."

She didn't know how he could ascertain anyone's condition when he was so far away, but she didn't know if she was in a position to argue that either. Already, between the impact of Bren's shockingly gruesome advice and Constantine's urging for her to stop, much of her anger had become mottled with uncertainty. Her indecision frustrated her, but - maybe this wasn't the right time to make such an entrance.

"Then...all of you stay here," she said, and swept her pointed finger at the group of acolytes as well as the beastmen. "Until I  know what I'm going to do with you."