The Court of Souls?

“In Asturias and León mythology the Cuélebres are giant winged serpents, which live in caves where they guard treasures and kidnapped xanas. They can live for centuries and, when they grow really old, they use their wings to fly. Their breath is poisonous and they often kill cattle to eat. Leonese language term Cuelebre comes from Latin colŭbra, i.e., snake.”

- The Journey to the Afterlife

***Dedessia, the Sea of Souls, Draconis***

***Shade***

“It's really an oversized jellyfish. Up until now I didn't really believe it, but the reports are true.” I tap the ground with my foot. Seems like the people of Draconis built their city on top of a living balloon. “Is this thing using magic to stay in the air? It must, I don't think that it would be able to carry a whole city otherwise.”

Doreen nods. “Most likely. These jellyfish are one of this world's very few species which can be tamed. Moonray brought it from one of his expeditions to the far south. Myrt is Moonray's pet, akin to how Yggdrasil is mine. There are also the leviathans which are used by the trading clans, huge whale-like creatures.”

That's interesting. Maybe I'll try to tame one of these beasties for myself. I am not that much into pets, but it would be cool if it could carry one of my laboratories. Of course I could always grow a floating fortress, but something that actually lives would be cool too. “How do you get such a pet?”

Doreen shrugs her shoulders. “The leviathans are pretty much exclusive to the trading clans. They guard them like their balls. It will be hard to get one of those; you would have to steal a baby. As for Myrt, Moonray never told me where he got it. And if you want to have your own tree, then you need one of Yggdrasil's seeds. I could give you one if you want to. But it has to be supported with a lot of your personal mana until it is large enough to live on its own. In exchange, the tree will be like an extension of yourself and you will be able to command it with your mind.”

The connection goes that deep? I am not sure if I want to be connected like that to a plant.

Our discussion is interrupted by Moonray and a group of his goons. They hurry to reach us while the common citizens are ogling us like zoo animals. The plaza is filled with people. I can't discern any malevolence towards us. There is just curiosity among the citizens, which may be a good sign. All we get are interested glances and open concern. Since we arrived here without notifying our hosts of our intentions, it is only normal that the attention is focused on us.

We teleported here with fifteen people. First of all me and Elona. Then there are her parents and her grandmother. Of course my parents also decided to join the party. Quianna and Antonius are also here. With Aswang and Manti we count eleven people. That's pretty much everyone who wields a crystal weapon. I am not sure if I can trust others with such power.

Antonius alone is already a high leap of trust, but Quianna vouched for him.

The remaining four are Titho, Doreen's closest friend among her higher immortals; then there are Araven and Sasperhagen, two of the freed gods from my clan; and finally Miraven.

Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't even waste a thought on taking this traitor with us. But it reduces the suspicions against us if there are people who actually have a reason to be here. Miraven has her family to visit and she swore on a set of magical oaths to serve us with her life from now on. All we have to do in return is to try to keep her family safe.

Magical oaths aren't perfect, but they are pretty damn close to putting a slave collar around her neck. Actually the slave collars are just a magical oath which is forced onto an individual by means of binding an oath of servitude to a physical object.

The original version of a magical oath can't be removed by freeing the individual from the object. The oath is forced directly upon the soul. The downside, or upside, is that it has to be freely given, so it is much harder to bind someone that way.

If the person in question is smart with the wording of the oath, there is a lot of room to wriggle out of it.

We also got all three of Miraven's true names in case she finds a loophole around her vows. True names hold a lot of power over an immortal. They can change with time and are composed of the names an individual identified himself with.

My true name would be composed of all the names I've worn during my lifetime. When I've spent a long enough time as Shade, it will become a part of my true name. The same way I am Angrod, Ascathon and Gideon.

Finally Moonray reaches our group and spreads his hands. “Doreen, Tisha, everyone. Why didn't you inform me of your visit? Did something happen? We haven't heard from you for a long time, but the irregular visits between our clans brought us a lot of mysterious stories.”

Ishaan steps closer to Tisha and glares down at Moonray. I notice that Moonray's expression changes ever so slightly, turning from a half hearted mask into a complete mask of friendship. His mouth may smile, but I can see in his eyes that he isn't happy at all. Finding out that Ishaan is with us must be a real shock to him.

“Hello, Ishaan. I didn't know that you joined up with Semper Fidelis.”

Elona steps forward, Seria in her arms. “We thought that you might want to see the newest addition to the family. Seria descends from your bloodline after all.”

“B- b- baby!? How? It hasn't been long enough...” Moonray's voice trails off as Elona presents the small bundle to him. Our daughter is wrapped in blue cloth. The threads are spun from the finest crystal segments I can grow. It is more like chain-mail to be honest, but the segments are so small that it actually feels like cloth. In addition the fabric is imbued with teleportation runes. A single thought from any of the family members and Seria is spirited away to our city where Tisha's harem girls can take care of her.

I was totally against bringing Seria with us, but what can we do? We have to keep this charade going as long as possible. And having the baby with us heightens our chances to trick Moonray a lot. The fact that we brought our child with us means that we aren't suspecting him of anything. Even if he believed so far that we may suspect something, this should take his mind off things.

In hindsight I regret bringing Seria. If Moonray's reaction was truthful, then he didn't know about the baby. We could have padded Elona with some cushions to make her look pregnant. Miraven was sure that he knows about the pregnancy, but we intercepted the message about the baby.

We still didn't dare to change the facts in case that there was a second spy aside from Miraven.

After a few moments Moonray collects himself and gestures towards the huge skyscraper in which he seems to reside. “Of course! But you really should have told me that you were coming! We have to prepare a party and I need to introduce Shade properly to everyone. My granddaughter became a mother, what joy. I would have never imagined that it will happen so fast.”

Doreen steps forward and pushes Moonray towards the skyscraper. “Old fool. Don't waste time with blabbering and get going. How can we inform you beforehand of our visit? It would defeat the purpose of being a surprise!” They take the lead and the rest of us falls in line behind them.

I take my place at Elona's side and put a hand around her hips to pull her closer. “Don't forget to never let go of Seria,” I whisper.

“Of course. She will never leave my hands, that's for sure,” Elona answers with a smile plastered to her face. Somewhere among Moonray's followers she catches sight of Lirian, the slimy bastard whom she originally should be coupled with. Elona raises Seria to her cheek and rubs herself against the baby as if to mock him.

Lirian doesn't take it well and storms ahead of the group.

I purse my lips and track him until he is out of sight. “Do you think that was a wise move? If you antagonize him he may target Seria.”

“I won't let go of Seria and if there is even a hint of trouble I will activate the teleportation. But believe me, Lirian is the first whose head will roll when the fighting starts. All our intelligence points out that he is one of the main message carriers between Draconis and the slavers. He must be involved as deeply as Moonray in this shit. And he has offended me more than once.”

I clear my throat and nod. “If you say so, my dear.”

We follow the group towards the skyscraper where our whole group is issued quarters at one of the higher floors. Then we settle in for the night and wait for tomorrow.

Everything depends on making our accusations at the right moment. Preferably in front of all of Moonray's higher immortals.

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