Chapter 532: A Tempting Idea
After the banquet, Roland called Lotus and Wendy up to his office.
“Did Sleeping Island hold together while Tilly was away?” He smiled at Lotus. “I hope I didn’t cause you trouble by my absence.”
“Not at all.” Lotus shook her head, then dropped her voice. “Oh—you gave me a scarf last time, and I never properly thanked you.”
“Don’t be formal about it.” Roland waved off the apology. He knew what a stretch of distance did to familiarity—it put a chill in the air that had nothing to do with feeling. It was only temporary. Treat them as you always had, and the warmth came back. “A great deal has changed here, but at the core it’s still the same place you left. Make Neverwinter your home.”
“You’re still our sisters,” Wendy added gently, her hand touching Lotus’ shoulder.
Lotus bowed her head—embarrassed, but visibly relieved.
“When everyone was arriving,” Roland said, shifting the subject with deliberate ease—he’d noticed the way the two unfamiliar witches had held themselves apart, civil but closed, while Evelyn and Candle laughed freely with the others, though perhaps with slightly less ease than usual—“I couldn’t help noticing something. Iffy and Softfeathers—they’re from Sleeping Island, aren’t they?”
“They are. But they’re… a little different.” Lotus chose her words with care and gave a brief account of the Bloodfang Association. “I honestly don’t know why Lady Tilly sent their witches here.”
“Iffy is a combat witch?”
“Yes. She can summon a cage of pure magic—large enough to hold even Ashes, if Ashes isn’t carrying a God’s Stone of Retaliation. Once inside, there’s no way out.”
“And Softfeathers?” Wendy asked.
“Not a combat witch, but no less powerful.” Lotus seemed to weigh her words again. “Anything she touches becomes adhesive. Irremovably so, unless her magic fails—and she says the bond can hold for a very long time if she uses enough power.”
“That ability has an enormous range of applications,” Roland said, and meant it. “I’m surprised Heidi Morgan agreed to send witches this capable.”
“The Bloodfang Association has always been strong—many combat witches, and the non-combat ones are exceptional too. They did much of the heavy work in building Sleeping Island.” Something tightened in Lotus’s expression; she clearly found the admission galling. “The trouble is they’ve always felt superior to everyone else, and they act on it. The weaker witches suffered for it. Without Lady Tilly working constantly to hold the peace, the Fjord Islands would have lost more than half their witches.”
That explains why Evelyn and Candle looked the way they did. “All right. Get some rest tonight.” He turned to Wendy. “Can you see to the room arrangements? Keep the Bloodfang witches separated from the others. I’ll test their abilities properly tomorrow.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
After they left, Nightingale materialized beside him, a strip of dried fish in her mouth. “Do you want someone watching them?”
“They’re still Sleeping Island’s witches—it shouldn’t come to that.” Roland shrugged. “The Fjord witches have never had to survive together the way the Cooperation Association did. They’re a composite of many groups; factionalism is natural. Even the Witch Union will have it eventually, when it grows large enough. The competition can be healthy, if it stays that way.” He frowned. “What I can’t work out is why Tilly sent combat witches at all. If she’d wanted me to train witches for her, she could have sent any of the others. Even Breeze she kept.”
“Her letter probably explains it.”
“Her—” Roland slapped his forehead and pulled the envelope from his desk drawer. Between the arrival of the five witches, the stack of ancient books Tilly had also sent, and the banquet, he hadn’t opened it.
He spread the letter on the table. The first half covered the books in detail—their provenance, the strange discrepancies Tilly had noticed—and what unsettled him was the implication: texts from different eras and different places, gathered and deposited in underwater ruins. Someone had reached those ruins before them. Who?
The letter’s second half introduced the two new witches briefly, then ended on a paragraph Roland read twice.
What we know of this world remains vague and fragmentary—less, even, than what the Union understood four centuries ago. To defeat our enemies, we must first know them. In this regard, their abilities may be exactly what we need.
He set the letter down and stared at the ceiling.
Know your enemy. Offer help. What is Tilly actually suggesting?
He read the ability descriptions again. The idea arrived the way dangerous ideas always do—quietly, then all at once, impossible to unthink.
Does she want…
He shook his head. “No. That would be insane.”
But the thought refused to leave. The reward was extraordinary. The boxes of magic stones Agatha had brought from Taquila—if they could be worked into Sigils, they would rival the steam engine in what they changed. He’d turned the idea over before and set it aside as impractical. Now, with Iffy and Breeze, the shape of it looked different.
“What does it say?” Nightingale bent forward and pressed her palm to his forehead. “You look unwell.”
“Not my best moment.” He laughed, though helplessly. “Tilly has managed to hand me a decision without actually saying what the decision is.”
“What kind of decision?”
He let the words come out slowly, one at a time. “To capture the demons.”
Chapter 532: A Tempting Idea
Translator: TransN Editor: TransN
…
After the banquet, Lotus and Wendy were called into Roland’s office.
“Did everything on Sleeping Island go well?” he said to Lotus with a smile, “I hope I didn’t bring you any trouble during Tilly’s absence.”
“Of course not.” Lotus nodded and then whispered, “Oh… well, you gave me a scarf as a present last time, and I haven’t thanked you yet.”
“Don’t be so formal.” Roland waved his hand slightly. He knew that they would become less familiar with him after a period of time away, but this did not mean their personal relationship would be broken. Actually, this unfamiliarity was just temporary… He believed they would soon be able to be comfortable in this union again as long as he treated them as usual. “It seems that a lot has changed here, but it basically remained the same as when you left—please just make the City of Neverwinter your home.”
“Yes.” Wendy touched her head. “You’re still our sisters.”
“Okay.” Lotus lowered her head in a show of embarrassment, however, she seemed to be more relaxed.
“After you arrived at the castle, I saw something weird… Aren’t Iffy and Softfeathers witches from Sleeping Island?” Roland changed the topic because he had noticed that, whenever they discussed and talked about the old days, the two witches seemed alienated from others. Although they would speak now and then, they appeared to be less communicative than Sylvie, Evelyn, Candle and other witches who talked with each other joyfully. He
did not know if it was just an illusion, but he felt that Evelyn and Candle feared these two witches a little.
“Yes, they did come from Sleeping Island, however, they’re a little different…” Lotus briefly introduced their background. “I don’t know why Lady Tilly sent witches from the Bloodfang Association here, either.”
“Iffy is a combat witch?” Roland asked a little shocked.
“Yeah. She can summon a cage made from magic power and thereby capture more powerful enemies than herself. Even Ashes, if she’s not wearing the God’s Stone of Retaliation, would find it hard to get out of, once trapped.
“What about Softfeathers?” Wendy asked with curiosity.
“Although she is not a combat witch, she is also powerful,” muttered Lotus. “Any object she is touching becomes sticky as long as she touches it, and they can’t be separated once they’re stuck together unless the magic power fails— but according to what she said, the stickiness can last for a long time as long as she uses enough magic power.”
“This kind of ability could be widely used, right?” Roland was very surprised and exclaimed. “That’s unbelievable! The Wolfheart Kingdom’s witch, Heidi Morgan, agreed to send these powerful witches to us?”
“Well, the members of the Bloodfang Association are very powerful. They not only have many combat witches but the rest of the non-combat witches have superior abilities as well. They did a lot for the quick construction of Sleeping Island.” Lotus sighed and appeared to be very reluctant to admit this. “However, they always feel they’re superior to others, and often bully the witches with less abilities. The number of witches in the Fjords would have dropped by more than half if it wasn’t for Lady Tilly’s great efforts to stop them.”
“So, this may be the reason why Evelyn and Candle looked afraid in front of them,” he thought. “OK, I got it. Just have a good rest today.” Roland comforted Lotus and then looked at Wendy, saying, “Well, please arrange for
their accommodation and keep the witches of the Bloodfang Association away from them. I’ll test their abilities in detail tomorrow.”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” Wendy said while stroking her chest.
After the two witches left, Nightingale appeared beside him with a fillet in her mouth and asked, “Do we need to ask someone to keep an eye on them?”
“There won’t be much of a problem since they still belong to Sleeping Island.” Roland shrugged and said. “The witches to the Fjords have never had to experience life and death together like the witches of the Witch Cooperation Association. They’re blended with many other witch groups. In reality, it isn’t strange for them to have such opinions.” As the saying went, it was very odd for a party to form without any smaller factions. Things like this will also happen in the Witch Union sooner or later when it expands. However, the competition among factions also has its merits. Internal competition will make the Union become stronger as long as the competition is benign. I’m just puzzled about why Tilly sent combat witches here. If she just wants me to train them on behalf of her, she can also send assistant witches here, not to mention the fact that Breeze still stands by her.”
“She probably clarified it in her letter.” Nightingale guessed.
“Oh, you remind me of the letter.” Roland patted his forehead and took the envelope from the drawer. He spread it out on the table. In addition to the five witches, Tilly also brought a stack of ancient books and a letter in her own handwriting. Due to the banquet, he had yet to check them.
In her letter, Tilly introduced the background of the ancient books and the odd parts of these books in detail. Then, she put forward her ideas about Sealine and hoped that Roland could help Thunder build a ship that could go against the current. Actually, Thunder had told Roland himself about the latter part. What Roland was shocked most was about the first half. He thought to himself, “The books are from different ages and places and they were collected and put into these remains. Some of the contents of these books had even disappeared for hundreds of years, which meant someone had come across the remains on the seafloor. Who were these people?”
On the back of the letter was a brief introduction to the ability of the two new witches, and what Roland cared about most was the last paragraph at the end of the passage.
“What we know about this world is still vague and obscure, and our knowledge is not even as thorough as the Unions four hundred years ago. If we want to defeat our enemies, we should know about our enemies first—In this regard, their abilities could probably help us.”
After reading the letter, he couldn’t help but fall into his thoughts.
“Know about your enemies… offer help… what’s Tilly trying to say?” He thought.
Roland read the introduction to their abilities again, and suddenly he came up with a shocking idea.
Does Tilly want…
“Oh, no, that would be insane,” thought Roland. He shook his head quickly. However, once the idea had crossed his mind, it would not leave. “Though risks do exist, the reward would be very handsome. In fact, those boxes of magic stones left by Agatha are really tempting. If they are made into sigils, then they would be as significant as a steam engine…” Actually, he had thought about it before, but it was very difficult to put into practice. So, he had to give it up. Now, with the help of Iffy and Breeze, he seemed to suddenly get closer to his goal.
“What does the letter say?” Noticing his strange look, Nightingale bent down and touched his forehead. “Hey, are you all right?”
“Not very good. I almost have a heart attack.” Roland laughed helplessly. “Unfortunately, Tilly just left me to make the decision without any explanation.”
“What kind of decision?” She asked curiously.
“To capture the demons,” Roland said slowly, one word at a time.