Douglas Miller
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MiP B2 Chapter 62: Division
🕑 Added 2025-12-30 20:25:36 +0000 UTC<< First | < Previous | Next >
Carlos's mind raced, his perception of time running many times faster than normal, and several of his contingent spells were a hair away from triggering. King Elston deciding to eliminate them as intolerable threats to his power was among the possibilities he had speculated about, and he had prepared for it. He hadn't anticipated the final wrinkle in what had just developed, however, and he held off from interrupting.
King Elston Kalor, resplendent in his orichalcum raiment, gaped at his daughter Lornera. His right arm was transformed into a gleaming steel sword, coated with dense mana and essence that seemed to scream of danger to Carlos's senses. Lornera's arms—both of them—were transformed into a thick shield, filled with similarly dense essence that spoke of unyielding protection. Elston's blade's tip was embedded a quarter-inch into the surface of Lornera's shield, and Lornera's soul quivered with the strain of blocking the blow.
The two royals stared at each other, Elston scowling and Lornera pressing her lips tightly together, grimly defiant. Elston shook his head and sighed. He spoke softly, yet sternly. "Daughter, stand aside."
Lornera firmed up her stance, and her mana tried to push Elston's sword out from the shallow cut. "House Carlos is a priceless and irreplaceable asset for the Crown. Without them, you might not still live. Destroying them would be an unconscionable waste and would risk our destruction at the hands of a second like Nyralis. I cannot let that happen."
Elston glared a moment longer, then gave the smallest of nods. "Their knowledge and skills are valuable, yes. But they are not of House Kalor and thus cannot be trusted. I trusted the nobility to follow my laws, and they repaid my mercy with rebellion. I trusted the enchanters guild to equip my forces, and for my riches they gave me sabotage and betrayal. I have no trust left for any outside of House Kalor. A second truly royal house could threaten me in ways Nyralis could only dream of. That danger must be eliminated while it is still weak enough to be vulnerable. Now stand aside!"
Elston swung his second armblade, turned to strike with the flat of the blade and merely swat his daughter out of the way. Lornera shifted her armshield to angle it toward her right and braced. The two collided with a ringing crash that sent a shockwave of mana throughout the room.
Lornera slid several inches, but kept her stance. "They have demonstrated their loyalty through their actions, and we need them! A successor of Nyralis is the true potential threat we face, and House Carlos is our best shield against that!" She glanced over Elston's shoulder toward her siblings. "Brenelle, Patrimmon, surely at least one of you understands their importance to us. Help me!"
Carlos refrained from commenting about how this argument happening right in front of him would surely impact his loyalty. Brenelle and Patrimmon looked at each other and shifted uncertainly. The lines of royal guards stood motionless, silently witnessing the confrontation.
Elston shook his head and called out over his shoulder without looking, "You two stay out of this. Lornera, you were there when I offered marriage into our house to them. You saw and heard how they responded with reluctance and hesitation. How their mana churned in turmoil at the idea of it. They helped in that battle, yes, but they hold their own house above ours in their hearts. Now drop this stubborn defiance and stand aside as I command!"
Lornera shoved hard, and Elston moved back a fraction of an inch. "You drop your stubborn insistence on destroying our own critical asset! Yes, they hold their house separate from the Crown, but so does every house! If they wanted to seize rulership, they would have done it two days ago when the most perfect opportunity in history dropped into their laps! Instead, they actively worked to support our continued primacy."
Elston drew back his right armblade and hammered it into Lornera's shield again, slamming it twice as deep into her transformed flesh, and shouted, "That is enough Lornera! The decision is mine, and I have made it. You are a Kalor, loyal to the Crown above all. Obey the Crown's command to stand aside!"
Lornera took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment, then glared back at him with stern resolve. "No. I stand here for the Crown's best interests, and I cannot do otherwise."
Elston stared for a long moment, then pulled both of his armblades back and settled into a ready stance, his focus squarely on Lornera. He spoke calmly and evenly, an edge of steel in his tone. "You defy a direct command of the Crown? You are no Kalor. Tell me how you subverted your loyalty soul structure, and I will make your end quick."
Lornera mended the shallow cuts in her armshield and moved back slightly. "I have done no such thing. I am loyal to the Crown, and that loyalty is precisely why I must do this."
Elston gestured dismissively with his left armblade. "Tell me how you concealed it from my senses, too. Your soul still feels the same as when I first confirmed your faithful construction of the Kalor soul plan, but your actions prove the lie. Obedience is the foremost core of loyalty, and you have disobeyed."
Lornera shook her head. "I disobeyed you. I did not disobey the Crown."
Elston roared, "I am the Crown!"
"No. House Kalor is the Crown."
Elston blinked. A chuckle escaped his mouth. He laughed, dry and humorless. Slowly, his laughter faded, and he pressed his lips together. "I see. You think yourself part of the Crown, and so you believe you can decide for yourself what the Crown wants." He abruptly darted sideways and tried to charge at Carlos again, but Lornera blocked him once more. "Last chance, daughter. Persist in this wrong way of thinking, and you will cost the Crown another scion. I will ensure this perversion of loyalty is purged from the future of our house, and if I must soul-kill you to achieve that, then so be it."
Lornera cocked her head. "You truly believe that? Do you also not see how your own inflexibility and refusal to compromise contributed to the rebellion?"
Elston raised his right armblade, preparing to strike. "The Crown's authority—my authority—is absolute and unimpeachable. Defiance against the Crown cannot be tolerated. There can only be obedience and treason."
Lornera sighed and nodded. "I'm sorry, father, but you have allowed arrogance and pride to blind you to reason. Your rule would lead us to ruin, and so you are unfit to rule. For the good of the Crown, I must remove you as king. Brenelle, I… I hope you understand. You are next in line. You must become the monarch."
Brenelle stared dumbly and stammered, "I–I– Wha– Huh? What is– I… don't know?"
Elston imbued more and more essence and mana into his right armblade, sharpening the already-deadly edge to cut even a royal soul of Lornera's Level. She didn't wait for him to finish. Lornera rushed forward and slammed her two-handed shield into Elston's right bicep. He shifted to take the hit on his shoulder and shoved back right when the blow hit. Lornera bounced ten feet back from the impact.
Elston flew after her, so fast that Carlos's eyes could barely track him despite his accelerated perception. Elston's armblade shone with an orichalcum aura, fully ready to execute Lornera.
Before the attack could land, Carlos and Amber took action as one. Several layered Force Barriers snapped into existence in Elston's path, waves of force flowed sideways to push him off course, and a ghostly layer of essence and mana wrapped Lornera protectively.
Elston's essence lashed out even faster than his physical movement and cracked the spell structures of the first two Force Barriers before they could finish forming. The rest barely slowed him as he simply sliced straight through them all, and he compensated perfectly for the attempt to deflect his course. He slashed his right armblade horizontally at Lornera's chest, and for a moment it seemed like nothing could save her.
Lornera spun and began to duck, but she wasn't fast enough to fully dodge Elston's speed. His sword cut through the Mage Armor spell almost like it wasn't there and went on to hit her shield. The blade sank four inches of its tip into her shield, but it was at a shallow angle. Lornera angled her shield away from the cut's path as she hastily flew back, and Elston's sword emerged back into the air. A small piece of metal fell, carved from Lornera's shield, and she winced. The metal transformed back into flesh as it fell, and royal blood stained the marble floor.
A faint shimmer came with Elston's armblade, and a concealed spell unfolded the moment it lost contact with Lornera. The shimmer expanded to enclose Elston, part of it sticking to his armblade to prevent him from simply moving away. It was a copy of the trap spell Nyralis had used, but improved by the last two days of work; the methods used to breach Nyralis's traps would not work on this version. Carlos hoped desperately that it would suffice to contain Elston a second time.
Elston watched the cage unfurl and snorted contemptfully. "So you were in league with Nyralis after all? Unfortunately for you, you lack his strength." His essence grasped the section of the spell that was attached to his armblade and squeezed, crushing it utterly. While that section disintegrated into motes of dust, he pulled in all the sections connected to it, and the sections connected to those, and more. In a blink, he had drawn the entire spell into a merciless grinder that overwhelmed it.
Lornera tried to capitalize on his distraction by splitting her right arm off from the shield and instead attacking with it as a blade, but Elston parried and counterattacked with his left armblade in the same moment as he crushed the would-be trap spell. He stabbed his left sword toward Lornera's heart, and she desperately aborted her attack to deflect. Elston's sword hit the combined defense of both of Lornera's arms, one as a shield and the other a sword, and another mighty clang of forcefully colliding metal rang out.
For a fraction of an instant, so briefly Carlos almost didn't catch it, Elston's soul shook with strain between the two simultaneous efforts. A patch of microscopic scratches showed itself to Carlos's senses, then disappeared again as Elston finished destroying the attempted trap spell and turned his full attention to Lornera.
Carlos felt tempted to believe that Elston's lingering soul injury meant they actually had a chance of beating him here and now, but he knew that was nothing but wishful thinking. Lornera might—might—possibly be in slightly better health than Elston, but he was too much stronger than her. As things stood, she could only slow him down briefly before he would kill her, and Carlos and Amber together would have to be lucky to even achieve the same—and that was if Brenelle, Patrimmon, and all of the royal guards and mages continued to stand by rather than aid the king. Their continued passivity did seem likely, with how the mana on all of their souls roiled with confusion and uncertainty, but he really didn't think that would matter in the end.
It was time to resort to their final contingency—with an on-the-spot adjustment. Carlos cast a Voice Projection spell to deliver a sped-up message directly to Lornera's ears, and only to her. "You can do more for the Crown if you escape than if you're dead! Come with us!"
Then he triggered an already-formed Teleport spell that had been waiting only for a flick of his will. On impulse, he extended its targets to include Lorvan and Ordens as well as himself and Amber, and of course Princess Lornera. The mesh of the teleport's boundary wrapped around the five of them, its structure already formed. Elston tried to cut it, but Lornera flew backward away from his sword, and the small part he managed to connect with slipped away.
Power poured through the spell's structure and slammed headlong into a permanent dimensional barrier built into the rooms walls, floor, and ceiling. For one heartstopping moment, it seemed like they would be trapped by the sheer power of the enchantment forbidding teleportation. Elston began to swing both of his armblades at Lornera, both of them empowered to cut her royal soul, and aimed so that she couldn't possibly dodge both with her inferior speed. There was no time to hack the enchantment.
As powerful as it was, however, that enchantment had never been meant to stand up to the determined efforts of a high-level royal. Its barrier, though strong, felt soft to Carlos. He poured more mana into the spell, Amber pressed against the barrier as well, and even Purple joined in to assist. The block tore like tissue paper under the combined strength of three Level 50 royal-tier souls, and suddenly they were elsewhere.
Lornera exhaled sharply, let her arms return to flesh and blood, and bent over, breathing heavily. Lorvan and Ordens had both accepted the teleport as well, and they stood respectfully at attention. The roiling confusion in their mana was settling rapidly and turning into firm resolve instead.
Carlos looked around at the buildings they had already set up in their wellspring and sighed. "Well, I guess it's time to see what this world has beyond Kalor Kingdom. Maybe we'll find out what the Voidlands are."
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END OF BOOK 2!
Comments
MrWheelsOfMime
Glad you made him consistently unreasonable. Puts the whole rebellion in a different light.
AceHW
>loyalty I think he means slavery
AceHW
Based on how the other guy had soul structures in enchanted items, could they allow people to temporarily use or gain some benefit from soul structures in items even if their personal soul structures are full? could they at least store massive amounts of information either in text or database form to share?
AceHW
I look forward to more. I wish it would come soon.
Catherine
Elston's actions here come off as so stupid that he's actually mentally unstable. At least to me. I can understand him being afraid of their power but his reaction to it is so poor I truly believe he's insane. How could he have ever been considered a good King? And I dont mean morally good. If he were a competent king he would pretend to accept their choices and use their reward to plant spies amongst them or something. He could even have done that after trying to kill them the first time by faking that Lornera got through to him. Then he could plan to take them down when they dont expect it. Not lose his mind and try to kill them all including his daughter in front of witnesses and fail. Even if the guards cant tell anyone, they all saw it happen and that it's possible to serve the Crown by serving the House not the current king.
ShadeByTheSea
Honestly now I hate all the chapters spent in other povs even more since we're leaving Kalor. Also disappointed because having purple setup a base was something i was very much looking forward to.
kapo
I feel bad for purple who was just getting excited about a stable home 💔
Irakli Jishkariani
Stupid nobles and their marriages.
Jahith_Voice
So it WAS the rejection of marriage that led to his outburst! If he asked Carlos WHY he hesitated king could learn that Carlos like a dumb peasant wants to marry out of love not politics he could solve the entire kerfuffle by adopting Carlos Founder and then marrying him off to his beloved. This is why people need to talk to each other more.
John Vistica
In the next book I wouldn't mind seeing Trinlen infiltrating the University and digging up more info on maps and the state of the world like other kingdoms and where the Voidlands are and the stories behind them...maybe maps of where the wellsprings were. All he has to do is browse the books and Purple can record everything. Other kingdoms were suggested by a comment made by the King at one point. Princess Lornera should have a lot of pertinent info on the world at large.
Worros
For executing a new house that turned out to be treasonous? and in league with the Enchanters Guild. Proof - the are able to modify enchanted items including the guards armour. Nobody can hold the Crown responsible, let alone accountable.
Worros
I think he was going to pick up most of what he ordered on his return to the city - and the King derailed his time to make it happen. He does have a "vassal" with a very wealthy father he can use as a proxy though.
Tezla
No wonder the royal guard loyalty is so trusted! They must have a similar loyalty structure in their soul plan
a passing Fnord
IIRC part of the oath was reciprocal. So the king is breaking the oath of protection. Since there is no power that can hold the royal family accountable, their word is only worth value if it is reliable. I'm surprised that the Princess didn't make the argument that by doing this the king is devaluing the words and oaths of the Crown and that no other noble family or merchant would trust them after this.
unmellow the gamer
I was worried early on when people were shown to be mostly immortal. But damn have you found a way to add stakes to the story. This is exciting.
John Vistica
I wonder if Purple can sense the dry wellsprings in the Voidlands by the metals left behind. I suspect that the Voidlands exist because the wellsprings were in the blast zone of a negative spell nuke. Perhaps there is a means to coax a wellspring back to life. There was certainly hints of a bigger system at work with Purple's exploratory probe of the wellspring. On other notes: Did the artisans and craftsmen arrive to help out with Purple's house architectural skills? Would Purple be able to defend the current wellspring from a Royal attack? Is there something interesting with Nyralis' blue gemstone that Carlos could use such as the location of the enchanter's secret lab? I do like Purple's enhanced telepresence through their upgraded links to Carlos and Amber. A great way to leverage Purple's capabilities in helping the team while still anchored to the wellspring.
Irakli Jishkariani
I'm suspicious about lorvan and ordens. That loyalty soul structure, they surely have it too. So beware of backstab!! Hmmm, I expected king's stubbornness but him trying to kill lornera? Damn, what the f*k?
MoonlitShade
You know exactly what you did with that chapter name, sir. You know *exactly* what you did. Good chapter, glad to see the royal guard duo are on board!
M
I bet they'll find a wellspring in the voidlands and somehow manage to reactivate it!
Connor Mcharg
Christian here: You can’t disprove the existance of our God, any more than you can disprove the existance of a teapot orbiting the Sun - though neither of those things are proof of their inverse either. I have seen enough to consider my God to be undeniably real, but it’s all based on personal stories, and I don’t expect it to be enough for others. Otherwise, I can’t fault your logic - the display at Kalor Barrens would’ve had to have snapped something, and I haven’t seen any evidence that that could be King Kalor’s (or anyone else’s) soul structures.
Ben Bass
TYFTC! Aww man, I am sadly not surprised about Elston, and he is really putting himself and the kingdom at a huge overall risk. I am happy to see that Lorvan and Ordens accepted the teleport, I think they will be good additions to house Carlos in the long run. Now what will happen with Lornera and how will she fit in with Carlos and Amber?
Kieran Hosty
well, that went completely opposite to how I thought it would go. Wow.
drasham
Disappointed but not surprised at Elston, good writing to set up this conflict and definitely looking forward to things to come.
Miles Sumida
He's dumb, but he's dumb in a way that makes sense. Earlier generations of the crown knew that thier governing mandate was predicated on the idea that they were functionally invincible. In order to remind maintain that perception they had to act like they could do whatever they wanted without consequence. Good kings new this was a charade, if they were really as powerful as they claimed they wouldn't need to bother with all of the pageantry and paperwork of running a kingdom. Elston just made the mistake of believing his own families propaganda. So, when actual problems arose, he just did what he felt like instead of actually addressing them and relied on his strength to be able to handle the fallout. To be frank, this is effectively his religion. Finding out that he could be beaten would be like a devout Christian receiving incontrovertible proof of the nonexistent of thier God. His world view was shattered and he is in denial.
Test Patron Plz Ignore
Fifth crown: Purple
Boss Man
If only there was a way to edit soul structures after they have been formed.
Markell
I like to think that maybe it’s actually part of the design for the Kalor descendants. Like a failsafe to stop any one ruler buggering up the entire line. Besides, what’s a little regicide amongst family?
Markell
Yess! Epilogue! I need an Ordens and Lorvan POV. Something along the lines of: “what are we going to do now Ordens?” “Same thing we always do Lorvan, we serve the crown.”
Markell
Also, loyalty soul structure? That totally doesn’t sound like it could have deep unintended psychological consequences whatsoever? Nosirree!
Graeme
Oh man, a loyalty soul structure! So harsh but makes perfect sense for the overbearing crown. So many questions too.. Is it a super structure or part of one? Is Lornera’s defiance a product of intention drift when conceptualizing it, or is it working as intended and just a byproduct of a difference in viewpoints? Does the structure become redundant to the ruler themselves in the case of succession? Or does the crown teach the first in-line a different plan? And then there’s the narrative question.. how will it affect Lornera now? Will she be unwilling to abandon the country? Will she see fleeing as a non-starter or simply a choice that must be taken to bide time? Does the royal soul plan have enough wiggle remove to create or edit a structure to remove the loyalty structure? And if so will she even permit it given the effect it’s having on her currently? So excited for what’s next!
Lee Hulbert II
Is it madness or a flaw in the King's soul structure that has led to this? I honestly hope he's redeemable without killing him, but that seems unlikely at this point.
Worros
I think I want an epilogue to give some indication that Ordens and Lorvan are likely loyal to Lornera and the crown first. I love the way the next book is set up, and appreciate the many ways Carlos and Lornera are going to conflict. How many oaths does Carlos retain now that the King tried to kill him?
Th3pineapple _
Man Elston is a terrible ruler
Markell
Oh damn! It’s happening! Civil War! As I see it; I’m preemptively titling book 3: “The War of Four Crowns”. The first crown: Elston, driven mad over the loss of his youngest and now the rebellion of his child, trusts not any of his heirs and intends that only he should rule. The second crown: Lornera backed by House Carlos The third crown: Brenelle, Heir to the crown forced against their fathers madness The fourth crown: Patrimmon. The opportunity to succeed the throne has presented itself.
Graeme
Poor Purple.. he was just getting settled
Diplodicus
Thanks for the holiday chapter!
viperfan7
I was hoping she'd beable to get through to him
Test Patron Plz Ignore
Dangit!
Kaseru
First!
