Chapter 36: Reliant

Rel watched Dee leave with the mirror.

Her arms hung heavy and listless at her sides. She wanted desperately to reach out, but Lady Via wasn’t here to touch; she was only a reflection on a looking glass.

Dream Sequence moaned and whined in the back of Rel’s head, tying itself in knots. I-I-I don’t like this…

Rel said the first words that came to her mind. “Can we take the city instead?”

Ishanti and Dum turned to stare at her. The big man scratched his bald head, wiping away lingering traces of rain. “Ah, little tricky, that…”

Ishanti, as always, was more direct. “Impossible. Even if we manage to breach the walls due to a lack of guards, we will still be outside the actually defended inner wall.”

Rel’s stomach twisted. “And wind up caught like rats in a sinking ship.” Just like Lady Via was right now. “Maybe if we bypass the walls entirely—”

“On what, flying kites?” Ishanti shook her head, long silver hair whirling. “Do you think they lack archers and ballista? Do you think the monsoon itself will not drag us from the sky with the storm’s own spite?”

“We have to do something!” Rel slammed her hand against the wall of the Mirror Nest.

No one else had a suggestion.

Dave, Mistress’s newest demon, pulled himself out of his little nook in the center of the room. Rel watched as he wiggled across the floor, before laying one tentacle against her thigh. His eyes blinked out of sync, taking on a sad purple hue.

Relia sighed. “Thank you, Dave.” She reached down, finding a piece of skin to scratch. Dave was cool to the touch, and the eyes on either side of her finger crossed happilly before rolling back in their sockets. It startled a laugh out of her.

“Your problem,” Ishanti said, “is that you cannot make a decision independent of your Mistress.”

Rel’s head snapped up as if she’d been struck.

Dave wibbled, going a deep red as he reached for her retreating hand, but Rel was already past him. “What did you just say?”

“I believe you heard me.” Ishanti replied. “But if I must, I shall repeat myself.”

“I make decisions on my own all the time.”

The princess simply raised a brow. “Do you believe I haven’t surmised the nature of that skill? The one that allows you to perfectly predict your lady’s desires? Who, I wonder, is truly making your decisions.”

W-why y-ou! Dream sequence gave an angry squeal.

Rel squeezed her eyes shut for a long moment. “I am the one making my decisions,” she replied. “I simply trust in something other than myself.”

“Trust in others is fickle.” Ishanti hummed. “Would that end better for you than it did for me?”

Rel crossed her arms. “Is that what this is about, then? You’re worried that Lady Via will betray you like Seneschal Hawkwright did?”

“More that I fear her arrogance will deliver me, and all of her adherents, into his clutches.” Ishanti turned towards the open door, where the steady beat of rain drowned out any other sound. “You would not be acting as such, if you did not fear the same.”

Rel shook her head. “I trust my lady. She will…she would let me know if I was needed.”

Now if only she could convince herself of that.

“Actually, Miss Rel.” Dum took a step forward, floorboards creaking under his massive feet. “Not sure she would.”

Rel flinched.

Dum shrugged. “She looked rough, last I saw her. Miss ‘Lectra too. Been running ragged trying to stir up a gang war with the Tarnished.”

“There you go.” Ishanti waved a hand. “Your lady, the object of your utmost devotion, is beset on all sides, and here you stand fretting about orders.”

Rel’s eyes narrowed at the other woman. “Yet you just claimed my devotion was the problem.”

“I claimed your inability to decidewas the problem,” Ishanti replied. “If you wish to pledge your life to this woman’s altar, then I can hardly claim she’s done nothing deserving of it. What I find so galling is that when someone threatens all that she stands for and created, you instead stand here, paralyzed by a face in the looking glass.”

Rel looked away, biting her lip. “What should I do then?”

“Is it not plain to see? Make a choice on your own for once.”

Rel shook her head. “And go directly against what Lady Via needs of me?”

“Come now?” Ishanti took a step forward. “You know as well as I do that we have become self-sufficient. The people of Lady’s Port know what is at stake, and you are not the lynchpin holding it all together, as your Lady once was.”

Rel wrung her hands before turning towards Dum. “Did she truly look so terrible when you saw her last?”

The massive man shrugged helplessly. “Not good. The deeps know I woulda stayed if I could, but…y’know.”

“It is so hard to say no, when she is standing right in front of you.” Rel nodded once.

“How fortunate, then, that she is not here at present,” Ishanti said. “Which is the cause of our current troubles.”

Rel rounded on her. “And how strange that you’re so invested in this. Is it because you’ll be the one in charge if I leave?”

Ishanti blinked. “Do I seem so self-deluded? Your mistress is the linchpin of this entire settlement. I must state plainly that Seneschal Hawkwright stands poised to sweep her into his clutches, and with her, all of us as well.” The woman shook her head again. “When you board a vessel, you inquire after the health of the captain.”

Rel raised an eyebrow. “Do you think the captain is unsound?”

“I would be more sanguine should the first mate rise to her own station.”

Rel let out a hiss of air, then nodded. Self preservation sprinkled made sense to her. It wasn’t like she wanted Lady Via to fail either, though hopefully for less selfish reasons.

S-still… Dream sequence chimed in, Can we r-really—

Sometimes, it was better to ask for forgiveness than permission.

There was one last snag. “None of this matters if I can’t get into Silverwall,” Rel said. “You said you couldn’t smuggle us back through the gate.”

Dum grinned. “Ah, well, Loncio might not be at the gates no more, but it’s not like that’s the only way to Silverwall.”

“They’ll be watching the jungle too,” Rel said.

“Didn’t stop you last time, did it?” Dum shrugged. “Maybe if we knock over a few more scouts, they’ll stop sending em. And me and my brother’ve gotten real good at makin’ our way through the jungle.”

Rel pointed towards the open door. “In the rain?”

“Not worse than we’ve done before,” he replied. “An’ it’ll make it easier to sneak past any lookouts.”

“As long as there are few enough of you,” IshantI added. “A large party will find itself mired down, even though the distance to Silverwall is short.”

“A day and a half on a wagon, more than that on foot.” Dum tapped the side of his nose. “But once we get there, Lady Via showed me a way into the city.”

“How?”

“She dug a hole under the wall, and then hid it. Bet it’s still there?”

“In the pouring rain?” Rel crossed her arms. “If it hasn’t collapsed, it’ll be completely flooded by now.”

Dum chuckled. “It’s…probably fine?”

“Are you willing to bet on it?”

Ishanti took a step forward. “Are you willing to bet that Lady Via will survive without you? If so, you need simply remain here.”

Rel hunched her shoulders. “So I should trek through the pouring rain, dodging enemy scouts, and hope that a flooded tunnel is still open in order to save Lady Via?”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Ishanti spread her arms. “Would she do the same for you?”

Rel slumped. “In a heartbeat.”

“Hmm.” Ishanti turned away.

Rel said nothing as the door shut behind her, leaving her alone with Dum and Mistress’s newest acquisition. Speaking of, Rel turned to Dave. “What do you think?”

He shifted, tentacles coloring in alternating bands of red and blue. Indecisive as she was.

“Do you think the tunnel will have collapsed?” Rel asked Dum. “I don’t think it will be as easy to get back out again.”

He shrugged. “Might not be big enough for me to fit, but a little thing like Miss Rel? Easy as a breeze.”

Relia let out a shuddering breath. “Okay.” She ran a hand through her hair. “Okay. I can do a little swimming.” It would be worth it, if Mistress needed her help.

Dum squeezed her shoulder. “Meet you at the gate.”

Rel nodded, then turned to Dave. “You won’t tell Mistress, will you?”

Dave scratched his head with a tentacle and gave a perfect shrug.

A startled laugh leapt from her lips. “Tell her what indeed?”