Chapter 12

Freya folded her arms and stood before her Portal device, a small smirk on her face. One foot was thrust forward, her hips tilted provocatively. Before her, light flared as energy surged, and power turned inside-out as a Portal entrance was formed from the central gemstone of her device.

A shadow raced from the distance inside the Portal tunnel and resolved itself into the shape of an old Mage and his staff. The Mage stepped forward, his face twisted into a glower. Freya's lips curled further.

The Portal closed with a resonating boom behind him. He planted the end of his staff on the floor of the chamber, causing a tiny blue spark to snap at the air.

"Grandfather," said Freya.

"Granddaughter," said Q'yros.

"Yes, I can see you are just as teary-eyed with joy to see me as I am you. All right, reunion over. Do you have what I want?"

The Mage frowned. "You are extremely fortunate that I actually found a use for an Empiricist." He reached into his robes and extracted a single blue pearl.

Freya's eyes glittered. She held out her hand eagerly. Q'yros paused, then slapped the pearl into Freya's hand with a sense of resignation. Freya felt a small tingle as the magic in the pearl was activated.

"A Farviewing pearl," the Mage said in a tired voice. "Now bound to you."

Freya looked at the pearl and closed her fingers around it. "And?"

Q'yros clenched his teeth. He reached into his robes again and pulled out a second one. This one was etched with several small runes of a deeper purple color. He held it between forefinger and thumb to the light. "The control pearl," he announced with obvious resentment. "Which you use as if it were a Farviewing pearl. Except this is tied to the first. It will allow the first to convey sound to you on your command undetected."

"Only sound?"

"The transmission of visual images is difficult magic, granddaughter, and requires a line of sight to the scene being viewed. If I were to add such a thing to the pearl, you would likely receive the image of the inside of a drawer or a cabinet."

Freya did not look convinced, but nodded. "I suppose I will have to make do, then." She held out her palm.

Q'yros handed over the second pearl. Freya smiled and pocketed it. She then took the first pearl and presented it to the Mage. "Take it. You will need to deliver it for me."

Q'yros gripped his staff tightly. "I agreed to no such thing!"

"You will now if you expect to go beyond this point in my Manor."

The Mage held the staff level before him. "I would like to see you try to stop me."

Freya laughed. "And you think that would stop me from contacting your Guild and telling them you came on false pretenses? My my, I wonder what they would say?"

Q'yros' teeth ground together loud enough to be heard. He withdrew his staff and thumped it hard, a blue flash illuminating the interior of the chamber. "And just how to you expect me to do this? You truly think Roquan will accept something from me without question? He will be more suspicious of me handing this to him than if you did!"

"There is a merchant clan headed to Roquan's Manor now. It will be there very shortly. Let them deliver it. But there is something else."

"There always is with you."

"The merchants are to find the Urisi Ambassador and give him the pearl first and tell him to use it to contact me."

Q'yros frowned. "To what end?"

Freya gave him a shark-like smile. "You are that interested in the machinations of the Overlords? Isn't that outside your venue?"

Q'yros was about to answer her but stopped himself. Anything he might say of his interest could be interpreted as a move against Q'ixanna. "I withdraw the question."

"Good. After the Ambassador contacts me, he's to give the pearl back to the merchants and have them deliver it to Roquan. The explanation will be that I believe the old pearl to be worn out since he has not contacted me for so long."

Q'yros snorted. "You expect him to believe that?"

Freya smiled. "You expect him to suspect that the pearl will let me listen in on his private conversations without his knowledge? You yourself said he does not have a high grasp of magic."

Q'yros nodded reluctantly.

"Every Overlord pledges to maintain a means to contact all the others. He cannot refuse it."

Q'yros took the pearl from Freya. "Fine. I will do your hellfire-spawned work for you. Now, will you let me pass so I may do my work?"

Freya tilted her head. "And just what are you doing? I mean, really doing?"

Q'yros smiled humorlessly. "Now who is it that's getting curious about matters outside her own venue?"

Freya smirked. "I know you, grandfather. You may like to think we're not of the same blood or mind, but we are. You can be just as ruthless and devious as me."

"If you are changing the bargain further, granddaughter, you must let me know now. Otherwise, let me pass."

Freya considered, then nodded her head once and stepped aside. Q'yros did not pause. As soon as she began to move, his staff was in hand, and he barreled past her and out of the chamber without a backward glance.

Freya smiled. She had one part of her plan set in motion. Now she had to begin the next part, which was waiting for her in her private quarters.

She walked out of the chamber with a swing to her hips and a swirl of her dress about her thighs.

Z'haas leapt from his throne. "What do you mean he is gone?"

Q'holan tried his best not to cringe. "Your Master Agent did not report in after he staged his move against the foreign agent. No one has seen him since that time a few days ago."

"And no one has a Farviewing pearl bound to him?" the Emperor thundered, his face livid. "Must I do the thinking for everyone at court?"

"No, my Emperor, we do not. It was he that always contacted us, as by design."

"I had released three Imperial soldiers into his command! Where are they?"

Q'holan had dreaded this moment. "They're dead, my Emperor. Their bodies were found near a river outside the town of Jassa. They were killed with daggers. Our best guess is..."

"Your best guess? I do not want guesses, I want answers! I want action!"

"We're doing out best, my Emperor!" Q'holan cried. "There were no witnesses, so we have to piece together what we can. All we can figure is that his move against the foreign agent went wrong."

"But what of my Master Agent? Where is he?"

"We don't know. Either he was captured by the foreign agent, or he escaped but is being pursued. Both would keep him out of communication."

The Emperor stepped up to the Mage, nostrils flaring. "We were betrayed, Q'holan."

The Mage looked confused. "I'm sorry?"

"Betrayed! Someone gave information to the foreign agent. Someone alerted him. I have another traitor in my midst!"

"But ... my Emperor, we don't know that. We don't know..."

"I know enough! I have seen this treachery before. I have seen first hand what happens when someone you trust lets your enemy in the door when your back is turned."

Q'holan did not understand the reference. He knew little of the Emperor's personal history. He did not know that Z'haas had witnessed over Farview his own brother's murder by a foreign agent, or how that had fueled his obsession with the threat from the Far West and his paranoia for the security of his realm ever since.

"You are to have my agents drop whatever they are doing and look for the Master Agent. He may know who the traitor is."

"My Emperor, most of your agents are watching for movements of soldiers in the northern provinces. Do you wish to take all of them off that duty to..."

"Stop questioning my orders! Do as I have commanded!"

Q'holan bowed his head quickly. "Yes, my Emperor, it will be done."

Forgetting protocol, the Mage fled before being formally dismissed. The Emperor was too furious to care.

Jollis left his mount by the gate for the guardsmen to return to the stables, much to their annoyance. It was generally the responsibility of all travelers to handle their own beasts and approach the gate on foot. But the Wanderer had bigger concerns, and his general mood was not one of cooperation.

He rushed into the Manor. One of his Cohorts approached at once and bowed his head in respect. "Master, it is good that you are back safe. We..."

"It will wait," said Jollis curtly, rushing past him.

The Cohort was taken aback, so much so that he hesitated and had to jog to catch up with the merchant. "My apologies, Wanderer, but Overlord Gronnus wished to speak with you as soon as you get back."

"He will wait. All will wait. I have a more pressing matter. Do not disturb me again."

The deadly tone of Jollis' final statement made the Cohort come to an immediate stop. "As you wish, Master," he said softly, though Jollis had already taken a bend in the path through the Manor gardens and was out of sight.

Jollis was breathing heavily by the time he entered his quarters, but more from anxiety than exertion. "I accept the summons from my most esteemed and wise Master."

In the small space of Jollis' quarters, the image of Master Kyllos came into sharp relief. Jollis bowed slowly and reverently. "Your humble apprentice is here to serve."

Master Kyllos folded his hands before him and regarded his apprentice with an appraising look. As always, despite the resolute hardness of the lines around his mouth, a soft and almost affectionate look in his eyes bespoke of his true emotions.

Jollis had come such a very long way. The enormous pressure of this task would have destroyed lesser men. It distressed him when he needed to contact Jollis in this manner. "You honor me as always, my Wanderer," said Kyllos, his voice firm but kind.

"What may I do for you, Master?"

"I am to request your timetable for sending more of the Overlords' slaves to us."

"Had not Overlord Freya been generous enough in her last transaction?"

Kyllos paused. It was very brief, but Jollis picked up on it and tensed. "I would defer to your judgment on that."

Now Jollis would be forced to make the admission that he was not on top of some crucial element of the plan. "I beg forgiveness. I had not checked with my cohorts. I have been distracted."

"I see."

"An unforeseen complication," said Jollis heavily. "An attempt by an Imperial agent to either kill or capture me. However, I present that as an explanation, not an excuse. Once the crisis had passed, I had ample opportunity to check on the status of that transaction. The fault lies with me."

Jollis felt a great weight upon him. He had never divulged anything about his feelings for Amanda to his Master. His Farview with her had affected him far more emotionally than he wanted to admit. Little else occupied him on his trip back to the Manor. He saw it as an unpardonable sin.

"That will be a matter for another discussion. Neither of us must let anything distract us," declared Kyllos.

"Agreed. You wisdom is, as always, far greater than mine."

"The transaction was completed as the Overlord had agreed. We received the number of slaves that she had promised. But we still do not have a great enough variety. These expand our list of targets to only three more additional Noble Lords."

Jollis wanted to sigh in exasperation, but this would be a sign of weakness. He wished to make no further doubts in his Master's mind. "I will push Overlord Freya into providing more worldly slaves."

"Was that not the original request put to her?"

"Yes, I carefully stipulated this. But Overlord Freya is duplicitous. She will cheat when it is to her advantage and she believes she can avoid detection. She believes she can claim that her slaves are well-traveled and that no one could conclusively prove her wrong."

Master Kyllos frowned. "Most unfortunate."

"In some ways, Master, she is more difficult than Overlord Gronnus."

"Nevertheless, I must ask you to use whatever means at your disposal to obtain a greater variety."

Jollis thought it was an impossible task. Freya was difficult to manipulate to any great degree. Gronnus was weak-willed enough to be browbeat or bribed into compliance. Freya was too cunning. Yet his Master had given him a task, and he would not refuse it.

"It will be done, Master," said Jollis with a bow of his head.

Kyllos nodded. "Now, I wish to know how concerned are you about this incident with the Imperial agents?"

"There is some danger, yes," admitted Jollis. "I will restrict my movements from this point forward. I do not believe that the Emperor will mount any sort of overt military move towards me. He is too distracted with the civil war. His recent westward movements suggest he is preparing for an engagement northward, but the D'yoran Manor is not along any likely route of advance."

"But you would agree that time is short?"

"Yes. But I have known this. I will push onward. I will not fail you."

Master Kyllos hid his concern beneath a neutral expression. While he wanted his apprentice to succeed, he did not want it to deteriorate into obsession. Such men rarely succeeded. Driven as they were by their own passion, they failed to see obvious signs of impending failure in time to correct their course.

"In that case, my Wanderer, I will leave it in your capable hands. I am, however, reminded of a saying that I believe applies in this case, and that I wish you take to heart. The best plans come from the mind of the wise man, but it is the fool that accepts them without question."

Jollis was too stunned to reply.

Master Kyllos smiled gently. "Good fortune to you, Jollis." His hand lifted and gestured. The image faded from sight.

Jollis silently contemplated his Master's words. Such sayings were not dropped into conversation simply because they sounded good. They were spoken to make a point, or a subtle suggestion, or a hint to help guide one's path forward.

But he was not sure how exactly to apply this one. Who was the wise man? Who was the fool? Surely he was not calling upon Jollis to doubt the Inonni plans? That was the whole basis of his work. No, it had to be something else.

He headed out of the his quarters and found the Cohort he had brushed aside earlier. "I was unpardonably disrespectful to you earlier. I ask forgiveness."

The Cohort bowed his head. "It is forgotten, Wanderer."

"I will see what the Overlord wishes of me."

The young teen was restless, but the Overlord was not the cause. Ever the headstrong and inquisitive child, she was not as accepting of the old admonishments against misbehavior. She stopped believing in the dyrrgos well before puberty, thus the inherent fear was absent. She was far more afraid of making a bad impression.

She understood the reality. The Overlord was responsible for providing the land they cultivated, and her platinum brought steady prosperity for her village. While the brazen nudity of the Manor's slaves did repulse her, she thought she could get used to it.

She had just sat down again when the door opened. She leapt to her feet. Freya gave the young girl an appraising look.

She tried not to let the Overlord's shocking apparel distract her. She raised her eyes to Freya's and lifted her head. "Good day to you, esteemed Overlord," she said in a high, steady voice. "I am Fina. I was sent to you by the Maiden Elder Mianna."

Freya smiled and stepped forward. Fina's eyes widened at the unbridled sensuality with which the Overlord swung her hips in just those few short steps. "How old?"

Fina tilted her head. "I'm sorry, my Lady?"

"How old are you? How many years?"

"Oh! Fourteen, my Lady, since last season."

Freya's eyes swept the young woman's body in a very obvious manner. Fina clasped her hands before her and tried not to quiver.

The young girl was wrapped in a full-length frock. It was loose-fitting, but some of her maturing curves clung to the fabric at the hips and betrayed the round swells of her breasts. Her hair was quite lovely. Dark waves of deep brown hair flowed over shoulders and back. It was far more lustrous and clean than Freya remembered seeing on most peasants. It was obvious that the girl wanted to impress her.

"Please, sit down, Fina," said Freya.

Fina nodded once and sat heavily into a cushioned chair. She looked uneasy and out of place. She was not used to such luxury.

Freya casually crossed the room towards a set of cabinets over a long shelf. "So tell me, Fina. What do you think of the prospect of working in a Manor?"

Fina clasped her hands tightly in her lap to prevent herself from fidgeting. "I'm not sure what you mean, my Lady."

"Come now, surely you have some thoughts on the matter."

She watched Freya remove a goblet from one cabinet and place it on the counter. "Well ... I hope that I will be a good worker for you, my Lady, and that I will represent my village well."

Freya opened a second cabinet, paused, and turned towards the girl. "Is that all? No impressions of the place? Of me? Of the slaves?"

Fina was confused. She was not sure what the Overlord meant. Did she really want Fina to speak her true mind?

"I insist you tell me before we continue. And be honest. I value that very much."

"Well ... I ... your lifestyle is very different from that of my village, my Lady."

"No stalling. Answer me."

Fina sighed. "Very well, my Lady. I am a bit ... uncomfortable ... with the state of undress of all the young women here."

Freya smiled. "That's better." She turned back towards the cabinet and withdrew a gourd. "And what of their purpose? The fact that they are slaves trained to provide sexual gratification on demand?"

Fina blushed. Hearing such things talked about so openly was alien to her. In the village, many euphemisms were employed to speak of such things, and of the Overlord and her slaves.

Freya poured a rose-colored liquid from the gourd into the goblet. "Well?"

"It's not my place to comment on such matters, my Lady."

Freya put the gourd away and took the goblet in hand. "Are you sure?"

"Yes. I know nothing of ... of matters of the flesh. It is not my time for such things."

"Ah." Freya stepped over to Fina. "You are a virgin."

Fina's blush deepened. Nor was that spoken of so brazenly. She simply nodded. Freya smiled and presented the goblet to Fina.

"Oh! Um ... no, my Lady, I do not partake of intoxicating drinks."

"It is not alcohol. It is a blend of fruit juices I am rather partial to. It is a custom of mine to offer such a thing to a guest. Please."

Fina did not want to violate any protocol. She took the goblet into her hands.

"Try it, if you would. I hope you will like it as much as I do."

Fina glanced into the depths of the deep red liquid before she raised it to her lips. The taste was dubious. It was too sweet, almost cloying, and clung to the sides like honey. As she swallowed, it left an odd bitter tang in its wake. Fina managed a faint smile. "It is quite fine, my Lady. Thank you."

"I am sure you will grow accustomed to life at the Manor. Perhaps you will even enjoy your time here."

"I will do my best to accommodate, my Lady. I only wish to do a good job." She took another sip of her drink. "Elder Mianna told me my tasks would involve gardening."

Freya chuckled. "Are you afraid I may have called you for something else?"

Fina's eyes widened at the implication, and her cheeks glowed once more. "N-not at all, my Lady. I apologize. I ... I am a bit nervous."

"In that case, please have more of the juice. It's supposed to soothe agitated nerves."

Fina nodded and took a few long swallows, tipping back the goblet. Freya's smile widened. "Rest assured, Fina, I intend to help you get settled in quite well. You will become another part of the Manor."

Fina lowered the goblet as she swallowed. "Oh, my Lady, I am not sure I would ever ... I w-would ever..."

The young teen's hand shook. Juice splashed onto the floor.

Freya tilted her head. "Something the matter, Fina?"

Fina's eyes glazed. She stared at the goblet in confusion. She raised it to her lips again, stopped, and lowered it. "What ... what is this ... what am I drinking?"

"I believe I already told you that."

The goblet suddenly fell from her hand and hit the floor with dull clang. The remaining "juice" ran red over the stone. She jumped to her feet, eyes wide with fear. "I-I don't remember what you said ... what am I doing here now, I haven't ... wh-what's wrong with me?"

"Are you not feeling well, Fina?"

"I don't remember coming here. I wasn't supposed to leave until ... I..." Fina blinked rapidly. She shook her head violently. "What am I doing here? You're ... you're Overlord Freya D'yros. Why would I be here with you?"

Freya looked on in fascination. So this was how the Draught worked. Memories unraveled backwards in time.

Fina became frantic. She wrapped her arms tightly around herself. "Th-this is not the village ... this is not my home ... this ... I can't..."

Her words could barely keep up with the unwinding of her self. She saw herself as a girl just barely entering puberty, then as a child, then a haze of her earliest memories in her mother's arms was the only thing left.

And then it vanished like mist. With her memories gone, so was the person that was once called Fina.

She shuddered once. She turned to Freya, wide-eyed and innocent. Freya stepped quietly to her. She trembled, but did not pull away.

"I ... I can't remember..." the girl said softly.

"Can't remember what, Frialla?" said Freya.

"Frialla?"

Freya gently cupped the confused girl's chin. "That's your name, sweet one. Frialla."

"But ... I can't remember ... why can't I remember anything? Please, help me. Please tell me what's going on."

"First thing's first, my dear. There is the matter of my name. You will call me Mistress Freya."