Broadswords - 21. The Oneiromancer

Broadswords

Chapter Twenty-One
The Oneiromancer

Everything was going as planned. In a perfect scenario, of course, Harmon would have sent Jhirdyr's top-ranked slayer into Dorre. But regardless of which ranking Daegon was, it was still one less slayer in the kingdom. It wasn't like Harmon was in on the plan. He was just another unwitting participant in Elsior's scheme. A part of him might have felt a tinge of guilt for using his former lover as a pawn in his game, but any remorseful emotions were overridden by Elsior's anger.

Harmon could blame his father for that. The hatred that Elsior felt toward the king of Jhirdyr far outweighed any residual feelings from the teenaged fling he'd once shared with the prince. As far as Elsior was concerned, he had absolutely no ties to Jhirdyr. He only had resentment, and it was his only goal to remediate that.

And although he hadn't put the top slayer out of commission, he had delivered a cursed weapon to him via his accomplice, Deke. Deke was a peddler he'd met early on in his years in the cabin, and over time they'd formed a strong bond. If Elsior needed ingredients for potions, Deke would get them. When he needed certain magical devices, the peddler was usually able to obtain those for him as well. Pretty much anything Elsior required for his practice, his ally was able to provide.

Initially, the merchant had always required some form of payment. Typically, he'd request a share of a rare concoction Elsior had brewed, in order to hawk it in a distant town. But as their bond strengthened, they became more of a team than anything. When Elsior had shared his plan of burning the kingdom of Jhirdyr to the ground, Deke was slightly wary at first. But when the mancer offered Deke the ability to loot the city of its treasures after it was destroyed, he climbed aboard.

Utilizing his new partnership, and in order to knock out another dragonslayer, Elsior had tasked Deke with locating a Sanguistis. Being an ancient type of weapon, he knew it wouldn't be an easy find. But if anybody could locate one, it was Deke. Considering Deke was in possession of a pendant inlaid with Tetradite, he knew he could travel to and fro as needed. Where it might take an average man years to travel the continents in search of such a treasure, Deke could do the same in a far shorter span.

And not one to disappoint, Deke had gotten his hands on a Sanguistis in a matter of days. He'd found a shop in some tiny village that specialized in odd artifacts. The shop owner apparently had not known much about the weapon, as he sold it for a low price.

When Deke returned with the dagger, Elsior knew it would be the perfect downfall for the highest ranked slayer. From what he knew about the slayer called Elan, he was sure the man would do whatever it took to be on top. And few power-hungry men could pass up a weapon that held such intense power. He immediately sent Deke to convince Elan to purchase it. While he instructed the peddler to be honest about what the dagger could do, he made clear that Deke was to leave out one very important detail.

After continued use, the Sanguistis would begin to sap the life from its beholder. The more it was utilized, the more wear it would cause on the person using it. It would get to the point of leaving the person so frail that he would be next to useless. And if it worked on Elan like he expected it to, the kingdom would be down another slayer.

With two slayers incapacitated, the cavern of infant dragons would be certain to prevail in fulfilling his deed. From what Harmon had admitted in his letter, only the top four or five slayers were really worth their salt. The rest of them were not very tenured and didn't have the best track records. With that in mind, Elsior knew that twelve dragons would be more than enough to overtake the city.

He could have had the mother dragon produce more eggs, but he knew it would force him to push out the execution of the plan even further. And he was growing restless. He'd waited too many years to get to this point, and he was sick of waiting.

When he had still lived in Jhirdyr, he'd begun practicing Terramancy. Though his parents had died when he was young, he knew that they had both been Terramancers. Which clearly meant he had the ability within himself. While Jhirdyr did have some residents with magical abilities, he hadn't been aware of any mancers within the kingdom walls. It wasn't surprising, as most mancies had a negative connotation. Especially ones that were part of the Dark Collective. He knew his parents had been involved with the group due to the inkings they'd had marked onto their shoulders. Based on that, he practiced the mancy secretly. Even Harmon, who at the time truly had been a confidant, hadn't known what he'd been doing in private.

After his exile, his desire to learn the art grew. He put every ounce of energy into developing his powers. Though much of his growth was based on hard work, it had also been clear that he was a powerful Terramancer as his talents were quite obvious. A member of the Dark Collective had somehow caught wind of his superior abilities and had paid him a visit, during which he'd been almost instantaneously inducted as a member into the Collective. He'd been branded with the tattoo his parents had: the Dark Collective's symbol for Terramancy.

In time, the same member that'd located him in the first place had revealed something to Elsior. Through observation, she expected that Elsior was one of the rare individuals that might possess dual mancies. Elsior had been floored by the information, but was beyond pleased when the Collective member indicated that she felt the other mancy might be Dracomancy.

Dracomancy was an insanely rare form of divination. Further, no known mancer had evolved their powers past actual divination. Perhaps due to his natural abilities, or the duality of his powers, or his dedication, or his passion to destroy the Jhirdyrian king, Elsior was determined to flex his Dracomancer muscle. And he succeeded.

He made a brisk foray through dragon divination and quickly developed his summoning abilities. At first, he tried creating dragons via obvious means: using pieces of the beasts themselves. Through Deke, he'd obtained scales, claws, eyes, tongues, tails, bones, organs, and meat. With each attempt to manipulate the bits of dragon, he only made minimal progress.

Then one day, it hit him. He'd already mastered Terramancy. What if, instead of trying to create a dragon out of bits of other dragons, he attempted to create a dragon using earth? After all, it was something in which he was skilled. So he began using dirt, rocks, clay, and whatever other earthen material he could find. And then, one day, he actually created a dragon. He'd been concentrating his powers on a hunk of limestone, and he'd altered the rock into a living, fire-breathing creature. Though he was awestruck, he quickly reversed his magic before it got out of hand.

When he finally decided to execute his plan, he chose to create his first full-fledged dragon out of the swampwaters that adorned Dorre's landscape. The gunky floor of the marshes was made up of enough earthen material to allow him to utilize his dual arts, and it also felt like an ironic justification for what he was doing.

The dragon was one of his own creation; he used up a lot of his power and energy to ensure that she was bigger and more overwhelming that any dragon in existence. With the small amount of spare energy he had remaining, he ensured the beast was impregnated. When everything was ready, he sent Deke back to Jhirdyr with the eggs. He told him to locate a dark, unsuspecting place to leave the unborns. Someplace that wouldn't be randomly stumbled upon by the kingdom's residents, but that was close enough that they would be a veritable threat once hatched.

Currently, the mother was standing guard over Daegon in its makeshift cave. She was a glorious beast. She would do well ensuring that Daegon didn't go anywhere. Until he gave her the command to kill him, of course.

And then there was Birten. Birten was smart. Far smarter than most squires. Elsior knew that if he hadn't separated the two of them, they might formulate a plan and get the best of him. He knew there were flaws in his concept. It was his first evil plan, after all. And keeping the brawn and the brain together could easily allow them to find a weak spot and cause everything he'd been working toward to tumble to the ground.

It could have been considered overkill to have Deke transport Birten all the way to Oestra. He could have simply locked him up in another cave, or had him brought to an uninhabited island with no way to return to the mainland. Getting Birten out of the picture in general could have just as easily worked. However, he had special plans for the squire.

Oestra was where Rea lived. Rea was the member of the Dark Collective that had sought out Elsior to induct him into the group, and had become something of a mentor to him over the years. She was an Oneiromancer, and a damn good one. She hadn't become one of the highest powers in the Collective because she wasn't skilled.

Oneiromancy was a terrifying form of magic. Even Elsior felt a fear of it. Skilled Oneiromancers like Rea could reach into a person's very dreams and manipulate them. They could change the things that occurred in their nightly visions. The target of the mancy would often be overwhelmed by the altered dreams to the point of beginning to believe them as fact.

Rea had demonstrated her powers on Elsior once, editing his dreams over the course of a week or so. Once she was done, he'd been convinced that he was actually from a long lineage of royalty. He knew facts, names, and even had a full backstory. He was utterly sure of it. But it was nothing more than an elaborate form of brainwashing. The reversal of the manipulation was much quicker, as she erased the false memories in seconds. As soon as she had done so, Elsior was suddenly aware of what had happened and was shaken by how deeply he'd been affected.

It was these abilities that he had chosen to have used on Birten. The squire was too close to Daegon, too smart. Despite the fact that they were fourth-ranked, there was a reason Harmon had chosen them. They were a growing power within the kingdom, and for those reasons it might even be a better choice to incapacitate them over some of the other slayers. Getting Daegon out of the way was one thing, but he could also use Birten's intel. He had knowledge of the inner workings of Jhirdyr's dragonslaying system as well as of the kingdom itself. If they utilized Rea's powers to make Birten believe he was on their side, they could get to the king much easier.

Getting Rea's help on such a large scale had taken some convincing, as that much mancy would take a toll on her. Oneiromancy, being such a powerful magic, was extremely draining. It hadn't impacted her too much when she'd done it to Elsior himself, since he was a willing participant. He'd gone to sleep with an open mind, to allow her easy entrance. For someone like Birten, she would have to exercise more power. Further, once he was aware of what was happening, she would have to work harder still.

Offering her a part of Jhirdyr's treasure wouldn't work on her like it would Deke, as she wasn't interested in riches. However, when she learned the full details of Elsior's plan, she agreed to help on one condition. She would use her powers on the squire as long as Elsior ensured two residents of Jhirdyr were unharmed in the attack on the city. Elsior didn't know why she cared about those two specific people, or how she knew anybody in Jhirdyr at all. But it was an easy trade for the utilization of her abilities.

Before he launched the attack, he would have Deke use his pendant to transport the two men out of the city, men he didn't know anything about aside from their names: Sal and Kep.