“I need a baseline.” Lady Ernas replied. “You don’t have Yggdrasill wood fused with your body, but by studying your physiology I can save a lot of time. When I get my hands on the Chronicler, I’ll have to examine solely the parts where he differs from a normal elf to be able to do my job.”
“What job?” Aalejah asked
“You are about to find out. You are also not going to like it.” Jirni’s voice was soft and motherly, but there was something in her matter-of-fact tone that gave Aalejah the creeps.
“What’s next?” Crevan asked.
“The plan is quite simple.” Lith replied. “I’m going to hurt this guy so bad that when we remove the dimensional seal, the World Tree will be overwhelmed by the sudden agony they’ll experience through their bond with the Chronicler.
“This way, I will be able to sense Solus’ presence via my Divine Beast side, and at that point, I’ll leave the Chronicler in Jirni’s hands while I fly to the nearest entrance to the Fringe with the rest of my forces.”
“And what are our respective roles supposed to be?” Friya asked.
“Once I leave, I need you to keep the Chronicler from doing anything that could harm your mother or lead to his escape. Quylla, your duty is to keep him alive and conscious at all costs. No matter how badly Jirni hurts him, he must remain awake.
“The constant pain will keep the World Tree from hiding the entrance to the Fringe to my homing instinct until we get there and throw them off their game once we get in. I’m entrusting half of the battle to you three and you have to play your part to perfection or the mission will fail before it even starts.”
“That’s horrible!” Aalejah shuddered at the thought and tried to shake Jirni’s hands off her arm.
“That’s brilliant.” Jirni held onto the elf with an iron grip. “You are staging a telepathic and physical attack at the same time.”
“That’s why we haven’t moved from the Blood Desert.” Lith nodded at Jirni and ignored Aalejah’s remark. “Even if the Yggdrasill sends someone to stop you, they’ll have to deal with Grandma’s guards first. Not to mention it would be an act of war.”
“Wait a second.” Tezka said. “If it’s pain you need, why don’t we just throw this bastard inside the little sparrow’s Pits of Agony? That accursed place prevents its victims from dying and inflicts them with inhuman suffering. There’s no need for us.”
“Yes, there is.” Lith shook his head. “Don’t forget the Guardians’ no-intervention policy. Grandma lending me the Pits of Agony for a Chronicler who did nothing to her would violate her rules.
“This way, instead, she is taking no part in my private war. Grandma is just offering me and my allies a place to stay. Also, this is a personal matter and I want to deal with it with a hands-on approach.” Lith clenched his fists so hard that his knuckles popped.
“Tezka, you and I are going to deal with the elf and force him to use all of his tricks until he has none left. Once we leave, Friya will know what to expect and take our place.”
The Suneater was about to ask how she could fill such big shoes alone when he remembered that her hair bore all seven elemental streaks.
‘I had almost forgotten that she is a dimensional mage with full elemental affinity. The kid is going a long way.’ Tezka had never learned Domination himself but in his long life, he had faced multiple opponents that had used it against him once cornered.
“Excuse you?” Quylla said. “Are you really planning to ditch us here? I thought we were friends!”
“We are, but you are also pregnant. Are you really planning to endanger your life and those of your unborn children?” Lith used her own words against her.
Quylla touched her womb by reflex, the memory of the Void Demon Dragon exploiting her condition flashed in front of her eyes, filling them with panic.
“No.” She lowered her gaze in shame, feeling like she was abandoning her friend right when he needed her the most. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.” Lith patted Quylla’s shoulder. “You play a vital role in my plan. Without you, Jirni won’t be able to inflict this bastard enough pain to screw with the World Tree’s mind without killing the Chronicler. Without you three, victory would be impossible.”
He looked everyone in the eyes and only once everyone nodded did Lith signal Tezka to proceed.
“Fair warning. Once I take the Chronicler out of the bag, he’ll know who we are and where he is. I have never tried this before so I don’t know if my array is enough to prevent the elf from sharing everything with the World Tree.
“Whatever you plan to do, you got to be quick or we risk losing the element of surprise.” The Suneater said.
“Don’t worry. I’ll save my best for the Yggdrasill.” At Lith’s signal, Tezka took the unconscious elf out of the bag and handed him to Jirni.
The Chronicler still had his Yggdrasill weapon tied to his hand not to alarm the World Tree so Jirni had to be careful not to let one iota of her mana reach the wooden staff.
She used her breathing technique, a basic version of Invigoration, to look for anomalies in Ra’ntar’s body and compare the information acquired with what she had learned from examining Aalejah.
Once Jirin was done, she established a mind link with Quylla to share her knowledge with her daughter and ask for a second opinion.
The two women exchanged several observations to better perform their respective tasks but while one spoke as a concerned healer, the other sounded like a scientist preparing to dissect an unknown animal.
Once they were done, Lith tossed the Chronicler in the middle of the room and splashed him with cold water.
Ra’ntar gasped as the water went down the wrong pipe, sending him into a coughing fit. His reaction time was slow due to his injuries and his vision blurry from the many blows to his head. Lith had woken the elf up without healing him.
“Get up.” Ra’ntar was still processing how Jiera’s wide plains had shrunk into a closed room when a stone-cold voice drew his attention.
“I said get up.”
The Chronicler’s eyes met Lith’s armored feet a second before a kick to the guts sent Ra’ntar bouncing off the tent’s wall. The spells imbued in the palace made the cloth as hard as Davross, causing the elf a concussion and several broken ribs.
The Chronicler tried to adjust his grip on his weapon and contact his master, but the rope blocked his hands just like the dimensional compressing array blocked his thoughts.
A mere chore magic spell got rid of the physical restraints whereas even the best dimensional spells the World Tree had imparted to Ra’ntar proved useless against Tezka’s dimensional seal.
The piece of Yggdrasill wood inside the elf’s body stirred from its slumber, using its resonance with the staff to amplify the telepathic signal with the main body. All Ra’ntar could hear at first was static but then came a whisper.
