The Last Echo of the Lord of Bells: Mage Errant Book 7 by Bierce John

Author:Bierce, John [Bierce, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-05-14T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

Just a Weapon

WHEN HUGH FOUND Talia, she wasn’t fighting or causing mayhem. She was just sitting on the edge of one of the corridors, dangling her feet a hundred feet above the partially collapsed glass roof of one of Havath City’s famous indoor markets.

He glided down from his higher corridor to her lower one, using a levitation cantrip and letting Mackerel carry him down. He let go of Mackerel, mentally telling his spellbook to patrol nearby and keep an eye out.

Then he walked over to his girlfriend, sat down, and wrapped his arm around her.

Hugh stared down at the ruined market while he waited for her to speak. There were still goods at many of the market stalls, often lying completely undamaged, while the next stall over might have been destroyed by falling rubble or stray battle magic. His sphinx eyes could even make out some of the price signs from up here, and he found himself frowning at the costs— at least twice what he would have paid elsewhere. It must be absurdly expensive to live in Havath City.

Well, not anymore, he supposed.

“We should go find the others,” Talia finally said.

Hugh shook his head. “I can feel them on their way to us, we can wait.”

Talia sighed heavily. “I’m pretty sure Alustin was telling the truth.”

“So am I.”

“I’ve been right this whole time, then. I just didn’t know how big a weapon I really was. More fool Alustin for throwing me away.”

Hugh picked up a pebble sitting atop the corridor next to him, then idly dropped it onto the ruined market below.

“You never seem happy when you call yourself a weapon, you know that? I’m pretty sure you hate the idea, but can’t shake free of it.”

Talia gave him a confused look, but he kept talking.

“I think there’s probably a bunch of reasons the idea’s stuck in your head like it is. I think a lot of it comes from your failure to be a fire mage— your family and clan spent your entire childhood filling your head with expectations about how powerful of a fire mage you would be, and when your affinities manifested… they shattered your entire self-image.”

“I never would have guessed,” Talia muttered sarcastically.

“And I think the way Alustin used us over the years didn’t help things,” Hugh continued. “Because, whatever he claims about not seeing us as weapons, he absolutely used us as weapons. He set himself a line in the sand that he wouldn’t cross, but one at some arbitrary point that was well past any reasonable person’s line.”

“Of course it was past any reasonable person’s line. I don’t think calling Alustin reasonable is exactly reasonable, is it?”

Hugh snorted in acknowledgment at that, then rubbed at the back of his head with his free hand. “I think you’ve got to ask yourself what a weapon really is, though.”

“Weapons are made to destroy, I’m made to destroy,” Talia said flatly. “I’m a weapon, this isn’t difficult.”

Hugh shook his head. “No. It’s less that they destroy, and more that they’re wielded.

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