Oathbreaker: A Dark Fantasy Web Serial-Chapter 29Arc 8: : The Two Guardians

“Defy Umareon?” I asked. “To defend… this?”

I looked to Nath and the briarfae, to the monstrous Lord Chesh on his throne and his congregation of man-eating monsters.

I did not understand. All of those inhuman gazes staring back at me were unreadable, providing no immediate explanation.

“The Choir is fractured,” Urddha said bluntly. “It has been in the process of fracturing for some time, in truth, but Nath’s battle with Umareon turned those cracks into a fissure.”

“My sister had but one role imparted to her when our Queen left us,” Eanor said in a forlorn voice. “But it is of vital importance.”

It was heartbreaking, the ageless sadness and sense of loss in her words. I shook that feeling off in irritation, knowing it was part of her angelic nature. I needed to be feeling my own feelings right now, thinking my own thoughts. “That role being to protect the Briar?” I asked. “But what’s in it? You said power… What kind of power? Is it some kind of reservoir of magic? Or is it like the seal Alicia broke when she killed Tuvon, some kind of door?”

Silence. I looked around at the gathering of immortals, feeling the weight of their gazes like the pressure of deep water. There was a lot of power gathered in that place, enough to make it hard to think, to focus.

“It is a thing that must not be disturbed,” Maerlys said. “More than that, Headsman, we cannot say. Our lips are sealed.”

“Literally,” Urddha added. “It was one of our earliest bindings. Suffice to say that what you know now is more than any mortal save for the Brothers have known since Aureia still walked this land in the flesh.”

“You are the Doombearer of the Choir and the Sidhe,” Baraqel said. “Yet your loyalties are divided between those powers and your own dedication to mortal kind. It places you in a unique position. You are no single faction’s tool, and unlike us you are not prevented from acting directly.”

I glanced at Urddha. “You told me once before that some amongst you wished to groom me into a Power in my own right. I’m guessing those are all here?”

Urddha nodded and indicated the gathering of immortal beings. “This is the faction that desires this, yes. Many of our brethren wish you dead. A majority have yet to decide one way or another.”

I realized then how many times this faction of immortals had been alluded to. Even Chamael had indicated their existence, by being one of the onsolain who saw me as a threat.

All very confusing, and elaborate, and I was getting a headache. I needed to get back on track. There would be time to understand all of this later, or try to. I needed to think.

But before that, I needed to focus. I’d come here for a reason.

I looked again at Nath’s wounded state, her exposed ichor. “Why did you and Umareon fight?”

I suspected I knew, but I needed confirmation.

Nath shivered with rage, her many wings rustling in agitation. “Because he demanded my champion’s death and tried to prevent me from interfering. Because I know why he desires it, and I shall not allow it.”

“The Briar King…” I made a guess. “He’s important, isn’t he? To the way this place functions.”

“He is to the Briar what Tuvon was to the God-Queen’s seal placed in Seydis,” Eanor told me. “He is both the keybearer and the key. Should he expire, then the Heart will be vulnerable… for a time.”

“For a time?” Emma asked archly, not missing that choice of words.

“It is a mantle,” Chesh said. “Just as the Alder Knights were both Tuvon’s servants and wardens, the Briar King is both our pawn and a check on our power. One we accepted, as it benefited us in turn. We may do with the King as we wish, so long as he protects the Heart of the Briar when called. It is his only duty, and one he is uniquely suited for due to the power bestowed upon him by the role. The Brothers are his shadows, but he is the lynchpin.”

“Why would Umareon want his death?” I asked.

“Our brother means well,” Eanor said with a tone of apology. “He was tasked to defend this land by any means in his power, and he has watched it bleed for a very long time. He believes that what is locked within the Briar must be released. Many agree with him, especially after the attempted incursion by the Zosite. We are besieged by threats, unable to defend humanity or ourselves except under specific conditions.”

Emma spoke up. “And would, by chance, the breaking of these ancient seals allow the Onsolain and the Sidhe to act with more freedom?”

Maerlys turned her burnt features on my apprentice. “Indeed it would… But mortal kind would not like that future, I can promise you. If you think the fae are predatory now, then consider what shall happen if we are allowed to hunt with impunity as we did in ancient days.”

“Many would no doubt defend humanity,” Eanor said, casting a chastising look to the faerie queen. “But both the Briar and many of the other darker kindreds of the Sidhe would revel in their newfound freedom. It would also strengthen demonkind and many other dark beings, especially the undead.”

“The dead wouldn’t have to ask permission to enter homes or the light of campfires anymore,” I mused. “Roads wouldn’t be protected. Rivers and city walls wouldn’t act as natural barriers to night creatures. I bet gargoyles draw their power from these same magics. It would be a bloodbath.”

“There would be nothing stopping my kind from stealing yours away in the night as we once did.” Maerlys’s voice held a dreamy quality. “We must ask for permission now, but once we took what we desired. Your blood, your treasures, your hearts. Your flesh and souls are more… warm than ours. We have a great desire for them.”

I had to turn my back on the burnt elf to hide my disgust. Another thought struck me, one that made me frown. “But… That hasn’t happened? At least not from Tuvon’s death and the Alder Table being broken.”

“That is my doing,” Maerlys said with a frightful grin. “Many of my people have started to revert to their old ways, but they suffer my wrath if they cross lines they shouldn’t.”

“We are grateful to Her Majesty's efforts,” Urddha said. “But it is only a stopgap. Even with the Archon in the east dead, it is not a simple snap of fingers that destroys all of Aureia’s mandates. It is a slow process, an unravelling, one that is still playing out. Queen Maerlys is attempting to slow this process, as are the rest of us.”

“It is a great reason why we needed you,” Eanor told me. “And why we have been so absent through these recent years. I believe this was Reynard’s intent, to cause so much damage that we would be left too distracted for whatever he schemed next.”

“As for the other seals,” Baraqel said. “Draubard guards the Laws of the Dead. So long as it remains unbreached, then they are kept in check. Rogue shades and corpse-born are not as dangerous as they could be.”

“And the Briar is the final one,” I noted. “But none of you will tell me what happens if it gets destroyed.”

No answer. Not that I’d expected one.

I paced a few steps, lifting a hand to my chin in thought. “Let me sum things up. The Choir ordered the Briar King’s death. He’s a mortal given powers similar to the Alder Knights, a sort of guardian of the Briar’s magic. If he dies, then the thing he’s protecting becomes exposed. Umareon wants that, because it will let him buck the restrictions placed on all of you by the Heir.”

“All true,” Lord Chesh confirmed. “At least until my people crown another mortal as King.”

“Why does it have to be a mortal?” Emma asked. “Why not just select a Briar Elf to do it, or even one of them?”

She gestured to the onsolain.

Nath directed her many eyes to her godchild. “Each seal must be balanced between mortal-kind and elf. The method is different for each, but it is the same reason why only mortals were made Alder Knights. This was my queen’s will.”

I’d known that much, though not until relatively recently. The Alder Knights weren’t just Tuvon’s servants; they were also tasked to watch him in the event he turned on humanity. Reynard and Alicia had subverted that dynamic, used it as a loophole to murder him.

“Nath objected,” I continued, “and this caused a fight with Umareon and forced her to take refuge here, with her allies amongst the Sidhe. But there are other members of the Choir here…” I looked to Urddha, to Eanor — who was Nath’s twin — and to Baraqel and Maerlys. “Because the Choir and the Briar Elves haven’t actually been enemies all this time, because they’re guarding something you’re all afraid of.”

Another round of silence. That in itself was an answer. I strayed close to the correct questions, even if there were some they couldn’t answer. Like what the Briar actually concealed, why it was a secret that required such an elaborate conspiracy to protect.

Urddha scowled in impatience. “All true! I am pleased to see you are keeping up, Headsman, but we do not have time for a full accounting.”

Maerlys was here too, and she was an honorary member of the Choir even if not Onsolain herself. She’d known all of this and hadn’t informed me back in her court. She’d instead given me some sparse clues, then allowed me to make the logical assumption that the briarfae were the most likely suspect for whatever trouble Rysanthe was in, knowing I would eventually make contact with them… At which point they would gain the opportunity to drag me here.

Probably because the Choir was watching. They were everywhere. They were the clouds and the birds, the comforting feeling one feels when entering a church, a vision of clarity in a drunkard’s cup compelling him to change his ways.

They’d needed secrecy and elaborate schemes to move me into position without the other onsolain realizing the ploy. It was elaborate, overly complicated, a set of coincidences and assumptions that somehow played out to their will. Exactly what I’d expect of the Choir. This all stank of an effort to keep the truth of this encounter secret. From the outside, anyone spying on me would assume I was acting on my own, that I’d contacted the Briar Elves of my own volition and fallen afoul of their anger as a result.

“Does the rest of the Choir know about this meeting?” I asked. “That you’re all here?”

Urddha smiled. “No. I’m certain they suspect Nath is here, but they cannot enter this place while Lord Chesh and his people guard it.”

I nodded slowly. “Because Nath is in exile again over her fight with Umareon. And the rest of you are helping protect her, because it wasn’t the Choir as a whole that wants the Briar King slain, is it? It’s Umareon himself.”

“Umareon,” Eanor agreed, “and many of those who agree with him. He is not a rogue agent, Ser Headsman, but the voice of a strong majority amongst us. We represent a counter to his plans, and then there are many of our brethren who remain neutral in this disagreement.”

“The Choir is not meant to disagree,” Urddha said. “But right now, we’re not singing with one voice. If Umareon succeeds in his goals, then Aureia’s Laws shall be broken. All immortals will be free to act as they wish. It will be chaos.”

Vicar spoke up then, and he sounded unusually disturbed. “Umareon is a child of the Second. To break the very decrees of the divine should be anathema to his very being.”

Urddha tilted her head in acknowledgement of the devil. “To a servant of the Iron Tribunal, I imagine the blatant shattering of law and tradition would be unsettling to you. But consider that Aureia is but the Heir of Onsolem, and has yet to take up that mantle in truth. These mandates were always meant to be a temporary solution, to create a stable environment that mimics the old order, yet also provides the very keys by which the chains might be unlocked if needed.”

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“We were given conditions under which we are permitted to allow our Queen’s edicts to be discarded,” Eanor agreed. “This was also Her will.”

“And those conditions?” Emma pressed.

“You,” Eanor said.

And I got it. “That’s why there are humans involved in every single one of these bindings. You said it yourself, that we have the power to choose… To choose to discard the Heir's law and free the Onsolain and the Sidhe from their restrictions.”

Which would make them able to act… To provide us with their power, to fight with and for us, to battle Ager Roth and all his demons. They wouldn’t need me to fight their battles for them anymore.

They would be free to do as they please, even to kill. They could rule us. They would rule us.

“We make a single choice,” I said quietly as the realization dawned. “And then we never need to have to choose anything again.”

The reigning silence over the dust-hued forest was answer enough.

“Umareon and his followers believe the time has come for us to shirk our Queen’s bonds and reestablish order over this world,” Eanor said in her soft, sad voice. “They believe we have waited too long. Reynard told Alicia Wake much of this, yet he twisted certain truths and poisoned her mind. He convinced her that it was humanity’s potential that had been locked, that you were the ones diminished by Aureia’s Law. She murdered her Archon prematurely, without the proper rituals, and in doing so shattered one of the bindings that hold this world together. You saw the result.”

Ager Roth had slipped through the crack in reality along with a horde of demons. The Alder Knights were driven mad, the Great War of Urn spread unchecked across all the realms.

An apocalypse.

That was just one of three.

“So…” I took a steadying breath. “You want me to side with you, to help stop Umareon and maintain the current status quo.”

The one that involved letting the Briar exist, the one that kept all the souls of our dead locked in a cage that didn’t have enough room. The same one that hurt Catrin and so many others who hadn’t chosen to be cursed as they were.

“It is hardly a choice,” Urddha told me sternly. “You have already realized what will result should Umareon get his way.”

“Yeah…” I scoffed and glanced down at my axe, which I still hadn’t dismissed. “So what then? You want me to kill him?”

I’d meant to say it as a dark jest, but a strange thrill ran through me as the words left my lips. At the same time, a wavefront of threat slammed down at me from all directions. A deep, dire silence had fallen over the council.

“Tread lightly, mortal.” Baraqel’s words were quiet thunder amid the trees. “You may hold power, but it will be centuries before you stand equal to us. That assumes you survive so long.”

Nath laughed, an uncanny sound like many voices overlapping that caused all her wings to shiver. Eanor looked horrified, and Urddha watched me with eyes narrowed to slits.

“You cannot kill an archangel of Onsolem,” Urddha told me in a hard voice. “And besides, his role is as vital to this world’s stability as Nath’s. All we need from you is to know what he and his followers want, so that they cannot trick you into achieving their end. We require you to do as you have been; to doubt, to fight for the sake of humanity and what order we may preserve.”

“You already have a task, Headsman,” Baraqel said. “It is of great importance that you retrieve the Faen of Draubard.”

“Why?” Emma asked. When even I threw her a surprised look, she shifted and shrugged. “Why?” She asked again. “There’s another who’s already taken her place, from what I understand. Why is it of such great importance?”

“Because,” Vicar said in a thoughtful voice. “She isn’t just a Doombearer, is she? She is like the Briar King.”

Emma frowned. “But she’s an elf. I thought mortals had to be the guardians of these seals?”

“Tuvon was an elf,” I muttered as I chewed on the problem. “Only the paladins were human.”

“Each seal is protected by both mortal and immortal guardians,” Urddha said. “Tuvon and his knights, the Briar and its king, and then the Lords of the Underworld and their reaper.”

“The Silver Council are all mortals originally,” I said, remembering what Urawn had told me. “There are Onsolain and Sidhe in Draubard who advise them, but the Dead Saints are entombed humans. It’s like the reverse of my order and Tuvon’s dynamic.”

I looked at the gathered immortals. “I’m guessing this mantle isn’t something you can just throw around? Even if Urawn Aarlu is the current acting Doombearer, Rysanthe is still the one who guards the God-Queen’s seal in the Underworld?”

Eanor nodded in agreement. “That is so. Hers is a unique story. It was originally her role to simply guard the gates of the Realm of the Dead, but it came to be that she also earned the name Death To The Deathless. She became the guardian of two sacred responsibilities. Dangerous, but for a very long time there was no being in all Urn more dangerous than the Lady Miresgal.”

“When she was dispatched to slay the Briar King,” Maeryls said, “it was expected that she would succeed.”

“That places two of the guardians of these seals in conflict with each other,” I said in realization. On a hunch I asked, “What would happen if they fought?”

“It would be quite dramatic,” Urddha noted, “but not world shaking. They are given great power to protect their respective spheres, but outside of specific circumstances they are merely very strong. However, should either die…”

“Then the magics they protect will become exposed,” Maerlys said. “Another can always be selected to wear the mantle, but it takes a being of rare ability to be qualified. There would be a window in which the seals are vulnerable to attack.”

“Worse in Lady Miresgal’s case,” Urddha said with a nod. “She is the guardian of the Gates of Draubard. Her very spirit is the key that maintains the locks on its innermost depths, where the Silver Council and the Seal of Aureia are entombed.”

“Killing one of these guardians is not easy,” Maerlys stated. “They are tantamount to true immortals. There is a good reason why Reynard needed the cooperation of Alicia Wake to enact his treachery. Even strong as he is, he could not have slain my father on his own.”

“So it needed to be Rysanthe who went after him,” I said in understanding.

“Others could accomplish it, if they are deeply tied to the powers that bind this land’s laws together.” Baraqel looked directly at me and once more I saw a light spill from his flat teeth. “You could do it.”

“This must be why the Choir sent that old drow to give you this order,” Vicar whispered to me. “They likely want you to kill the Briar King in Rysanthe’s place. But the friction caused by the original order made them cautious of further conflict, so they simply asked you to rescue your comrade, knowing you’d likely cross paths with her target as well.”

None of the others confirmed this, but neither did they deny it.

I rubbed at my temple, feeling the edges of the scars Shyora had given me. They felt warm to the touch, more so than usual. “I…” Goddammit. “Some of this still doesn’t make sense. Even if the Briar King were slain, there’d just be another one chosen, right? And Nath and the briarfae are all here to protect it, so wouldn’t it place us back at square one?”

“Umareon’s ploy failed,” Urddha agreed. “But that does not mean he has given up. We tell you all of this so that he may not manipulate you into achieving his aim, but this melodrama has created another problem. The Faen of Draubard has gone missing, a twist of fate none of us anticipated given her resume.”

So I’m cleaning up your damn mess again, I thought without speaking it aloud. “Where is the Briar King? Can anyone tell me that much? It’s the whole reason I came here in the first place.”

“He has eluded us,” Chesh said. He had a cheek propped on his knobby hand, and looked bored. “It happens often. He wanders the land, fights and rages against his fate, then we catch him and remind him of his place. Eventually he escapes, and the cycle starts all over again.”

I glared at the old elf. “That’s sick.”

He smiled a lazy smile, revealing red teeth. “Do you think so? He has well earned his torments, Alken Hewer, just as you have. Besides, the mantle of Briar King must be chosen by he who wears it. This was his choice, and he chose it for power and pleasure. Shame he did not share our… tastes.”

“So he’s gone rogue, and you don’t know where he is.” I brought my massaging hand to the bridge of my nose, fighting to think through the growing ache in my skull. “But he was last seen in the Bannerlands, terrorizing priests…”

Raging against the God-Queen, I realized, recalling that monk’s story at Fife.

I was beginning to get a terrible hunch. “So right now the Briar is safe, even if the King dies… What about Draubard?”

“It has many guardians,” Maerlys told me. “I believe you recently earned a glimpse of that fact?”

I recalled the horrors we’d battled through during our journey from Baille Os. That had only been the hinterlands of the Underworld. “I did…”

Another detail returned to my memory and I snapped to attention. How had I forgotten? It seemed so important now, though it had been overshadowed by everything else at the time. “The Dead Saints might be compromised. Vicar, you remember Cardinal Perseus?”

All the onsolain and wicked faeries looked to me and the devil at this, seeming surprised. Vicar was quiet a moment before his eyelights flickered to life and he replied. “Yes… We interfered with the process of raising one in our attempt to bring our own God here.”

“What?!” Baraqel took a step forward, his multiple tails lashing. “You did what?!”

“Oh, calm yourself.” Vicar’s voice dripped with dark amusement. “We followed all the rules. But that is not what your Headsman is referring to.”

“Saint Perseus had been subverted by another force,” I said. “He double crossed the Zosite. He knew what was going to happen, what Delphine…”

Bleeding Gates. How had I missed it? There just one thing I needed to confirm, one last piece of the puzzle. The disturbed looks on the faces of the demigods around me made it clear — we’d stumbled onto something terrible.

“Who is the Briar King?” I asked. “His name. Please, it’s important.”

Urddha looked at me levelly for a moment, just long enough for me to understand that I’d asked the right question. It was Chesh who answered.

“The guardian has not used his true name for many centuries, but you mortals know him as Ildeban.”

I closed my eyes shut for but a moment that felt like a small eternity as many details and many long-held suspicions slammed into place.

And I knew. I knew who my enemy was, what they wanted.

“Reynard…” I looked up at Nath and Eanor. “He’s still alive, isn’t he?”

Yith had said as much, but I’d half hoped all this time that it was just a demon’s malicious lies, a game to unsettle me.

“We have feared as much,” Eanor said with a dip of her head. “The Traitor Magi has hidden himself from us since Tuvon’s death. We had hoped him dead, consumed by the very madness he unleashed, but we have felt his hand in recent evils.”

“He lives,” Urddha said in a darkly serious voice. “We are as certain as we can be.”

I ran a hand over my mouth. “Umareon wants to undo Aureia’s Seal here at the Heart of the Briar. He would have gotten his way, but Nath objected, so he dispatched the most dangerous assassin in Urn and one of the few capable of doing the deed. But the Briar King was also one of Hasur’s allies… Which means he’s probably one of Reynard’s allies.”

“Hasur Vyke was Reynard’s apprentice,” Urddha agreed. “They shared the same goals.”

I turned and started walking away from the gathered immortals, not knowing if I was heading for an exit. My mind was whirling then, not paying much mind to that place anymore.

“Where are you going?” Chesh demanded.

I paused and turned back to the council, who were all staring at me with a mixture of expressions, some suspicious and others thoughtful. “I know where Ildeban is. I think I know where Rysanthe is and who’s responsible for capturing her. If my hunch is right, she’s still alive… at least for now.”

I turned my attention back to the distant edges of the forest where Emma and I had entered. She still stood at my side, following my lead. “I’m going to go do my job.”

“You should not act with undo haste,” Baraqel warned me. “Ildeban is a match for you, Headsman, and he is not your only enemy.”

“I know that.”

I inhaled and turned on the council. My next words were measured, devoid of bravado, yet I could not keep all the simmering bitterness in my gut from spilling out with them. “I believe I understand how all this came about, why the Choir is arguing, what you’re all trying to protect. Hell, I even understand Umareon, I think… But the fact is, you are quarreling at a time when we can’t afford it, playing games, scheming in the background like you always have. And our enemy has taken advantage of you.”

“Careful,” Urddha murmured. “Baraqel spoke the truth before, Headsman. We have given you trust, but do not think you know better than us. We have strived to protect this land for the better part of a millennium.”

“And look how good a job you’ve done,” I sneered.

I’d never seen Urddha angry, but the shadow that fell over her aged features then held danger. Eanor stepped forward and spoke in an earnest voice. “Ser Knight, we are not your enemy. You must understand that.”

I inhaled and felt a strange calmness ice over my anger. There would be time for anger later, but for now I needed focus. Before that, however, I needed to set a boundary.

I showed the ring of inhuman faces my axe. “When I took this, I agreed to serve the Choir’s will. The Choir. Not Umareon, not Urddha Curseweaver or Gentle Eanor. Certainly not him.”

I waved a hand to Lord Chesh, who sneered back at me. “I’ll help Rysanthe because she’s helped me before.” Me and Maxim, I added silently. “But far as I’m concerned, there is no Choir right now.”

I turned my back on them. “Get your house sorted. Don’t call on me again until then. After this job, I’m done.”

As I took a step, the forest suddenly boiled with motion. That giggling blob that'd threatened me and Emma before moved to suspend itself over our heads, and more masses of red liquid began to spill out from hollows in the dry trees. It looked like thick, viscous blood began to gush out of the woods, and where it landed on the ground it began to form into the shapes of Briar Elves. Dozens of them.

At the same time, no less than four Briar Brothers stepped into my path. Their monstrous helms showed nothing human inside, just black shadows, and their weapons were twisted things made to cause as much damage and pain as possible. I lifted my axe, and Emma grit her teeth as she reached for her sword.

"Enough!" Urddha called out. "Call your people off, Chesh. Let him go."

"Foolishness," the elf lord snarled. "He knows too much, and would dare defy us to our faces? He must be leashed properly. If you won't do it, then we shall."

It was Nath who spoke then. "He will leave as he is. His fate is not yet fully woven."

Chesh sputtered. "But--"

Something must have passed between them, but I didn't see it. I faced off with the Briar's monsters, both me and them waiting for the other to make the first move.

"Very well." Chesh openly seethed even as he gave the order. "Allow him to leave! Him and Mara's Heir. They shall likely die soon, in any case."

So I left, not once looking back. Arrogant, perhaps. Foolish. And yet, I felt a strange lightness as I left those mighty beings to their secrets.