That was... a more difficult problem than she’d anticipated. Theira over-prepared for every situation, but this would strain even her available resources.
A woman with brown hair and serious eyes greeted her. “First-Tier Adept Theira.”
“First-Tier Adept Lysithea,” Theira greeted her in return.
Unfortunate. Lysithea had always done the exact amount required of her and no further, its own kind of resistance. Theira respected her immensely, but Lysithea did not play games.
And she demonstrated it, bluntly stating, “Korossia thanks you for creating this opportunity. We are instructed to claim this ground. It is not our remit to take you in.”
So Tychon was still mad, but he wouldn’t let that cause him to miss this chance. And Lysithea would let her escape. That was a shocking endorsement, frankly.
But it only worked if Theira stood aside and let her own people invade the Aurelian Empire, as they’d been trying to do for decades.
Theira hadn’t done all this just for the Sorcerer Ascendant to have more power.
“With regret I must decline,” Theira said.
Lysithea’s eyes narrowed, no doubt confused that Theira was deliberately refusing this extremely generous chance to escape Tychon’s wrath. “It was not a request.”
“And this is not an opportunity,” Theira said, flinging a potion from her belt that detonated in the air and spread fire in a rush. Behind a wall of flames she said, “Not for Korossia.”
The sorceresses snapped into action, and so did Theira.
She’d prefer not to kill Lysithea, as well as several others she’d thought also chafed under Tychon’s rule, unlike Kryseia and her team. That made everything more complicated—especially if they noticed.
Maybe her role was like Varius’ after all.
Fortunately, Theira could very easily make it look as though she was occupied just with trying to keep them from killing her.
The trick would be tonot, in fact, let them exhaust her resources and kill her.
Varius was busy tearing a path of destruction through his own city. She’d told him she’d handle it, and he’d trusted her without question.
She couldn’t back down now.
Shewouldhold the line on her own.
Theira didn’t hesitate, and reached for her own power.
Varius broke the lines of his own soldiers as he marched toward the city.
In his training with Theira, he hadn’t needed to worry about damage. But he wasn’t fighting sorcerers now; he was facing his own people.
Varius was glad he’d put some effort into learning how finely he could control the golems, because today, the challenge would be whether he could be careful enough.
Whether he could use his prodigious skill at destruction to free them, rather than just lead them into more death.
He didn’t deserve forgiveness, but maybe he could avoid compounding his sins. Maybe he could even, finally, give them something that mattered.
Varius had won plenty of battles, but he had never been in a position to win a war.
The lines at the border had shattered, not even a token effort to reform, without the golems doing any more than approaching at speed. Whoever Sobanus had pressed into taking his place was either incompetent or a coward.
Considering he hadn’t seen anyone wearing a legatus’ helmet, he was guessing the latter.
That, or his soldiers had already taken matters into their own hands.
They’d abandoned all attempt at unified formation, but Varius was pleased to see a significant percentage of soldiers staying nearby, following his path. He kept the golems’ pace even, allowing the soldiers to predict his movements and avoid them.
