Blurb:
What does it take to turn your life around? Death, of course!
I died in this lame ass world of ours and woke up in a completely new one. I had a new name, a new face and a new body. This was my second chance to live a better life than the previous one.
But goddamn it, why did I have to be a witch? Now I don't just have to be on the run from the Inquisition that wants to burn me and my friends. But I also have to earn a living?
Follow Elsa Grimly as she:
- Makes new friends and tries to save them and herself from getting burned
- Finds redemption from the deeds of her previous life
- Tries to get along with a cat who (like most cats) believes she runs the world
- Deals with other slice of life shenanigans.
—
Chapter 157. Borrowed Tactics
The Forgefather's curse was kinder than any curse that I'd encountered yet it had made the direst of all demands any other curse had made. I turned to Smokewell. The cat stared at me with a level gaze. She didn't want to interrupt the proceedings between the Forgefather and I. But I knew what she would've said: Clear thinking is a witch's strongest weapon.
I turned back to the golden steam hovering in the air in front of me. I nodded and said, “I agree.”
VERY WELL.
I wrote the conditions down on the goatskin parchment. Then I tore a shred of the primordial fabric, pricked my finger with my ritual knife and pressed a drop of my blood to the fabric. Then I tied the fabric around the dagger hilt and laid it on the goatskin parchment.
The golden steam swirled in the air before flying at the dagger and disappearing inside the edge of the blade. There was a flash of light and then there was darkness. When I looked back at the dagger, the parchment had disappeared. That's what I thought at first. It had actually fused with the dagger, wrapping itself around the blade. And unlike other cursed items that were made from goatskin parchment, this time its color was gold instead of silver.
I took the dagger in my hand and eyed it curiously. I wielded the power of a god right here, in this blade. It felt so…mundane. So ordinary. As if I could actually wield it properly.
I gasped when I realized what I had been doing. It was that power, the temptation of it. It wasn't seductive or euphoric. It was trivial. It didn't convince me to use it by triggering my greed but by triggering my confidence. Corruption begins when a person starts to think they have everything figured out. That was dangerous territory. I mumbled an excuse to my companions and entered my Library of Shadows. I made my way to a walled off area where I kept a trunk. The trunk was mostly empty except for a single lacquered box. This contained the black key that Eidolon had given me a while ago. The key that could free the god locked in The World Beyond the Veil. The same key that Merryweather had tried to take from me. How Eidolon had gotten a hold of it, I didn't know and couldn't imagine. But it was important enough that people wanted to kill me to acquire it.
It was safe here for now. As safe as it could ever be. I put the knife next to the lacquered box inside the trunk. Then I exited my Ruler's Land.
Back underground, my companions were casting worried gazes at me. Lily stepped forward and touched my arm. “Miss Elsa, you…agreed to His demand.”
“What other option was there?” I said.
“Maybe further negotiation?” Smokewell suggested.
I looked at her as if she had made a joke. “Negotiate with a god?”
“A god’s curse,” she said. “It's not the same thing.”
“Didn't you say they were dangerous and powerful?” I said.
Before the cat could answer, Caelum spoke up. “If you fail to keep your promise, the Forgefather's curse will use the drop of your blood to take control of your soul.” He eyed the primordial fabric that was lying on the floor in front of us. “The curse left behind is in the form of soul steam. Your blood is the key that allows you access to Forgefather’s power and in turn, allows Him access to…your malice. That’s how He will take over your body. This was the transmutation that Filius was talking about.”
I nodded grimly. “I figured as much. That's why I used the fabric. Couldn't think of any other way to create a conduit between the curse and I.”
“And you felt it, didn't you?” Smokewell said. “The urge to use the curse. It was like holding something dangerous but something that you could control.”
I pursed my lips and stared at the cat.
“That's what I was talking about,” she said. “This is how curses play with your mind. And this is only the first of these curses that you've taken in your possession. How many more are there?”
“Five,” Lily said.
“How are you going to handle five more curses that are that powerful?” Smokewell asked.
“And we still haven't talked about the other elephant in the room, Miss Elsa,” Lily said. “You talked about fighting the angels.”
I sighed. “Let's go back to the surface first. I need a drink.”
Smokewell used one of the herbs from her stash to keep the people we had rescued under sedation. We locked them in a room at the Radcliff mansion and headed for the dining room. I used the communication charm to call Lenora, Gregory, Asmod, Myrtle and the Radcliff siblings in for a meeting. The only member from the guild council that wasn't there was Mirabelle. We were going to discuss a highly sensitive topic after all. Mira was trustworthy but not that trustworthy that I could discuss my plans against the angels while she was in earshot.
Everyone arrived in half an hour. Gregory had a large trunk in his hand and Lenora carried little Eudorn in her arms. The boy was asleep. She sat next to Caelum with the boy on her lap and they talked in hushed voices. Gregory put the large trunk on the dinner and opened the lid. Inside were nine lunchboxes loaded to the brim with a stew of vegetables and beef. He passed a lunchbox to everyone along with half a loaf of bread.
“I was thinking of bringing something more savory,” Lenora said in a tone of complaint. “But Gregory insisted on making that stew.”
“They've fought rigorously,” the old knight said. “They need nourishment. Cakes and tea are for celebration. Celebration can wait. Strength comes first.”
“We didn't actually fight all that much,” I said.
Gregory's expression remained as unreadable as ever. “You still accomplished the objective. You brought back those who were stuck in the dungeon. Treat this meal as a celebration.”
Lily seemed more than pleased to answer by eagerly digging into the food.
We all settled at the table, eating the stew and bread in silence. Even Smokewell seemed to enjoy the raw fish that her brother had brought her.
Then I decided to break the silence. “I am going to fight the angels.”
The sounds of chewing and the clatter of cutlery stopped gradually. All eyes turned to me. I met everyone’s gaze one at a time.
“Yes, that confrontation is inevitable,” I said. “And I'm not going to pretend that it isn't going to happen eventually.”
“But, aren't they immortal?” Lenora asked.
I shook my head. “With the kind of power I plan on accumulating, the immortality of angels will be of little concern.”
“You seem very certain that you can handle the kind of power that you are going to accumulate,” Caelum said.
I could feel Smokewell's red gaze on me as she chewed quietly on her fish.
My fists clenched involuntarily. I hated this feeling. Everyone was looking at me as if I wasn't already fighting three different kinds of temptations. There was the temptation of using the Liberation Ritual however I wanted. I didn't give in. There was the temptation of just giving in and accepting Smokewell's solution of picking up a vice and basing my entire witchcraft around it. I didn't give in. There was the temptation of just using all the resources I had and launching a raid on the angels' mansion. I hadn't given in.
I loosened my fists when I felt my fingers digging into the mark of the Liberation Ritual on my palm. Calm down, Elsa. Yes, you are Elsa. A better Elsa. Not the Old Elsa who bet her life on one gamble. You have a chance to be the better Elsa.
I looked at Caelum. His statement still hung in the air, hovering above the dinner table like a cloud of smoke. “I'm only certain about one thing in life, Caelum. And it is that you can't be certain about anything in life. Life never stops being a gamble. But you get to choose how safe that gamble is going to be. Are the angels dangerous? Yes. Are they invincible? No. Have they shown us their true power? No. Do they lie about their true power? Yes. I have a good guess about what their contracts are actually capable of.”
Silence.
After a few seconds, Myrtle said, “Miss Grimly is speaking the truth, she had talked to Asmod and I about this.”
“You have?” Lily gawked at me.
“And even Madam has seen what I've discovered,” I said. “She has seen what I'm capable of.”
The cat tilted her head at me.
“That night at the graveyard,” I said. “I was able to separate traumatic memories of the abyss from their physical form. That is basically what the angels can do. They don't actually chain the souls of those who sign their contract. It would be impossible for them to do it because souls are the property of the spirit realm. The angels would've been punished severely if they had been playing with the metaphysical laws of souls and spirits on that level. But there are mortals who can still manipulate parts of their souls. Like witches who advance to the Archmistress echelon. That's what the angels are doing. They are playing sleight of hand with souls. They aren't altering them physically.”
“So you used that same principle of soul manipulation and used it on the abyss?” Smokewell said. She sounded impressed, rather begrudgingly.
I nodded.
“And a soul has two parts,” Caelum mumbled. “The core and–”
“The abyss,” I said. “What I'm doing may look reckless but I'm not.” I steepled my fingers together in front of me. “I just want to stop the angels. I've seen them cause way too much harm.”
“That monk who was turned into a monster in Noblegate,” Lily said, her voice sounding distant.
In a similar tone, Lenora added, “The people whose lands were taken through trickery.”
Then Cynthia said, “Roland was fooled by that man, Absalom Hogwood. He works for the angels, doesn't he?”
I nodded.
“And they have held your soul hostage too, haven't they?” Asmod said.
I shake my head. “I'm not a victim. I signed their contract outside Godfrey’s domain so that Lily or Madam didn't have to. I'm only momentarily compromised. Once I fulfill the terms of the contract I signed with them, it's me against them.”
“You assume they are just going to wait for that to happen?” Caelum said.
“That's why I plan to take the people that we rescued under our wing,” I said. “I need to know more about the angels and exactly what they are doing. Those people will help.”
Gregory raised a hand. “I would like to add something before this discussion goes any further.”
I nodded at the knight.
“If what you said about the angels' contract is right, then I'd say that it's not the angels' magic at all,” he said.
I frowned and leaned forward. “What do you mean?”
Gregory's face was grave as he uttered his next words. “The soul manipulation through contracts that you mentioned is a Velorian arcane art. It is fairy magic.”
Source: r/HFY · by /u/SharpWatch1014