The crowd's roaring cheers slowly came back into my realm of perception. I looked around at the audience and knew what they were expecting from me, raising my fist high into the air to show that I'd won the fight.
"And the winner is: Thoma Fayren!" Sabura announced, igniting the crowd's thunderous reactions even further. I accepted their applause with a deep bow but knew we still had a long way to go before this was all over.
With a brief, questioning glance toward Sabura and Kalia, I got permission to use mana again to drag the alternate out of the arena using a tendril of mana to lift it off the floor and drag it behind me.
"Hey, shit-bird, why did you have to worry me like that?" Bernar asked from a short distance. "I thought it had gotten into your head for a minute there," he said, clapping my shoulder, but I averted my gaze. "It did. The thing about alternates is that they not only learn the techniques used by the original body, but they also carry a lot of the same thoughts and emotions," I said, giving everyone a glance to read their expressions.
It was evident they hadn't known that, given Eirenne and Haldir's reactions. "Well, I guess that explains why it commented on me dying my hair," Haldir chuckled as he rubbed the back of his neck.
"So you do dye your hair! Hah! Pay up, Vyra," Bernar said, holding out his palm toward her with a wry grin as she pulled out a small coin purse and handed it to him with an exasperated sigh.
Meliss gave me a curious glance, but I could only shake my head and shrug as if to say that I didn't know either.
"What did it say to you, then?" Bernar asked, surprising me with the amount of care in his tone as he weighed the pouch in his hand. "Nothing I can really explain right now, but I'll need to have a good talk with Ed when this is all over," I shook my head, earning me a look of disbelief that was ultimately topped off with a grunt and a nod of understanding.
"Alright then. Let's get this over with. The longer we wait, the more of a pain in the ass it's going to be when it wakes up," he said. "Come with me; I'll take you to where we will perform the procedure," Buruz interjected, gesturing for the others and I to follow behind.
"Thank you," I heard Meliss whisper as we followed behind the hegraphene. "Don't mention it. I'm sure he would have done the same for me if our places were swapped," I said with a half-hearted smile. "I don't think he would have had to slam you into the ground that hard, but I suppose he would have done whatever he had to," she said with a bit of relief in her tone.
"Oh, no. Trust me, he would have done much worse," I chuckled, though I suspect my comment was ill-timed because the look I got in response was one of utter shock.
Yeah, I probably should have watched my words a little there, I mentally sighed.
A few moments later, Ysevel and the others came to greet us. She wrapped me in a tight hug and held my face in her hands as she searched my eyes. I didn't have to tell her everything, since she already knew through our connection, but it was always one thing to feel it and another to see it. "I'm fine. I promise," I said with a weak smile, turning my head to kiss her hand.
"I know, I know. I just wanted to make sure," she said with that beautiful smile of hers that somehow always managed to bring me peace. "I see you haven't forgotten your lesson from Kanarin after all," Syldir said with a small amount of pride on her face. "I guess I just needed a reason to remember it," I replied with a nod. "It was a good fight, to be sure, but for a moment there, I thought you'd crushed his ribcage," Mom added with a raised eyebrow.
"If there's one thing I've learned from Athar, it's that an alternate's body is surprisingly resilient to physical damage. Not so much slashes from a master swordsman, though," I added with a raised eyebrow and a wry grin, getting a chuckle from her before a heavy silence fell between us.
"Are you ready for what comes next?" Kalia asked, breaking the silence. "I am, but I know I'm going to need yours and Sabura's help again once he wakes up. Athar, that means you, too," I said, giving him a nod. "Y-Yeah, of course. I'll do what I can to help him manage the bullshit that comes with being in a different body," he said, allowing his alternate's voice to slip a little. "Thanks," I replied with a thin-lipped smile.
With a nod, we all followed Buruz to a secluded room in one of the far corners of Tason'Gare, away from prying eyes and already primed with a barrier for extra safety. The Mouth was already there waiting for us, with a pair of guards near the door.
There wasn't much in the way of instrumentation as I thought there might have been, but then again, after having seen what both the Mouth and Syldir could do with mana, I began to suspect there wasn't much of a need for them.
"There you are. I was wondering how much longer it was going to take," the Mouth said, raising an eyebrow at the alternate suspended just behind me. "Let me see it," he continued, motioning me forward. I did as he requested and gingerly placed the alternate on the kataki table in the middle of the room. He inspected it for a few moments, using a bit of mana here or there for reasons I couldn't discern.
"I pray that you know what you are asking of me, Thoma. Of all of us. After all, this will not be a simple task," the Mouth said, looking directly into my eyes from beneath his dark brows. "I understand, and I accept whatever consequences may befall me," I said with a nod.
Oh, how I wish I had known the depths of the wasp's nest I'd kicked with those words.
After a few moments had passed, he shifted his gaze back to the alternate, exhaled heavily, and closed his eyes. "Remember our agreement, Hand," he said, opening his eyelids slowly to give Syldir a glance.
"I will honor it," she replied with a nod. "Very well, then. Bring me the core," he gestured with his hand, causing the jewelry to tinkle and reflect the light of the mana lanterns.
Syldir did as requested and opened the case before him. His eyes shut slowly as he ceremoniously, yet gingerly, picked up the core and raised it above his head in a gesture that reminded me of an offering made by local farmers for the gods to bless their crops.
Were they just praying to the dragons? Do they even know the difference? I found myself considering, but quickly shook the thought from my mind when he began to speak.
"Oh, Eyes of the Twilight Sea, I beseech thee to bear witness of that which I will set before thee," the Mouth began reverently as a deep, thrumming pulse of mana came from everywhere and nowhere all at once, reminding me of what I'd felt the first time we'd met.
What is this pressure? Is it a response to his plea? I asked Ysevel, but when I didn't immediately receive a reply, I realized her eyes were wide, not in surprise but in fear. I quickly glanced at the others and realized that everyone else, save Syldir and the Mouth, was in a similar state.
What the hell is happening in Tason'Gare? Is everyone in this state? I thought, but didn't act on the thought of going outside the room to verify.
As my attention returned to the Mouth, I suddenly felt a pulse ripple throughout the small room, one that would have easily brought me to my knees had it not been for the time I'd spent in the dome.
"What is the meaning of this, Mouth? You dare to summon us on a whim after a millennium of silence? Such insolence will not be rewarded kindly," an incorporated, dissonant voice of multiple entities spoke in unison, prompting the Mouth to lower his head.
"My lords and ladies, I pray you heed my Words, as a new Revelation may yet come into being," he said with no small amount of humility in his tone.
While the pause between his request and their response may have only been a few seconds, each one felt like a century had passed. I found myself unable to control my breathing, as each one felt more labored than the last.
"Hmm, very well. Speak your Revelation. We will hear it," the voice said in a suggestively disgruntled tone. "As you wish. A child of the Twilight Sea has been distorted, corrupted, and tainted by the Scourge. The only remaining piece of this child is his core, and we hereby request that you grant us your blessing to restore him to his rightful place in the Realms through the use of replacement," the Mouth said, lowering his head to a point just above the alternate's body.
That can't be good. Did we just make them angry? I thought as I felt an intense flare of mana raging throughout the room.
"You mean to place this child's core into the body of a creature that should not exist in that realm? How can you possibly expect us to allow this to happen? You know better than most the havoc these creatures have caused," the voices retorted angrily, to which I saw the Mouth's features darken, as if he already knew what they were really asking.
Another silence, another eternity passed. I noticed the Mouth balling his fists for a brief moment, then relaxing them again as he raised his head to look at them. "What is your price?" he said in a tone that almost didn't sound like reverence, but more like he was mentally preparing for something.
Naturally, the word price was unnerving, but I didn't understand exactly what he meant by it, and it wasn't as if I could ask any of the others, either. "There is no price, as all this creature deserves is destruction. If the only way to save the child's core was for his body to die after his encounter with the Scourge, then that is his fate. The alternate, on the other hand, already does not belong to that realm, and per the laws that govern the Twilight Sea, it, too, must be eliminated," the voices said with finality.
What? I thought, feeling my eyes widen in surprise.
Thankfully, Syldir stepped in before I could even open my mouth to speak. "My lords and ladies, please. As the Hand of the Twilight Sea, I ask that you lend me your attention for just a moment," she said, taking a step toward the table. "You may speak, Hand. After all, we trust you far more than this skittish wyrm," the voices said almost dismissively of the Mouth.
"Thank you for your confidence. I would like to use that to propose a counteroffer," she began with a nod of reassurance aimed at me as she took the core from the Mouth's hands.