August smiled wryly. "It's more accurate to say what she'll ask us to do for her."
"Eh?"
The next staircase was too dark to see down, as there were no cracks in the roof for sunlight to stream through.
August summoned a ball of light with a snap of his fingers. The beastkin stared at the hazy glowing ball in wonder.
"Like I said, we keep the peace. The ruling noble of the region does the same, so she'll try to offload her duties onto us.
She'll grease some wheels and help us run the fortress and feed ourselves. But we don't need most of what she can provide.
Once the binding stone is operational, I can use its magic to build the fortress myself, and summons make better soldiers than humans for the most part."
August gave Jafeila a nod. "And I have you, my Champion. With a boost from the binding stone, you can probably defeat Lady von Clair's army single-handedly."
Wide green eyes stared back at him. He looked away before her adorableness mesmerized him.
"So why is that message so important?" Jafeila said. "She seemed to think it would be the first thing you'd do."
Ignoring her for a moment, August stared down the dark, damp tunnels.
Centuries of rain had caused water to seep through from above, but there had been no signs of recent rain. The flooded tunnel from earlier must be above them, and the water slowly seeped through the earth and stone.
Once he activated the binding stone, his next steps would be to clear out the underground and make this place safe.
He worried that it might fall in on him at any moment. A dim light emanated from a room at the end of the current corridor.
Making his way toward it, Jafeila followed closely behind. "We're about to find out," August said.
"Find out what?"
August stood at the doorway and stared at the glowing monochrome orb in the next room.
Although it looked like it sat on a pedestal, he knew better. The orb was fixed in place.
If he smashed the moss-covered limestone pedestal beneath it, the orb would hover there, perfectly still.
This was a binding stone. Nobody knew what they were made of, where they came from, or what powered them.
But the Bastions knew how to control them.
The binding stone was roughly half of August's height, and perfectly round. It glowed a very dull white, almost gray, color.
Two bands of black ran across its surface. Those bands were a good sign.
Binding stones could be sealed away, made inert.
Legend had it that the Watcher Omria sealed away binding stones that were not in use, preventing miscreants from abusing them.
Once sealed, only another binding stone's power could break the seal.
August didn't have a stone so he couldn't awaken a binding stone. If this one had been sealed, he would have needed assistance.
"Find out if the binding stone was still inert," he explained, answering her question from earlier.
He walked up to the stone. It didn't react to his approach.
Jafeila remained standing at the doorway, staring wide-eyed at the glowing orb. Her ears flattened against her head.
"Is that safe?" she asked.
"For me? Yes. For your average person? Also, yes. I suspect it's still not active," August mused.
He placed his hand against the binding stone. It still didn't react to him, even when he probed it with magic. "As I thought."
"Oh. So is that why Lady von Clair wants to see you?"
"Probably. This binding stone has been warded against intrusion. An untrained Bastion or casual intruder cannot easily activate it.
Most likely the Bastion who unsealed the binding stone placed the wards on it to prevent anybody from using the stone, unless they were from the Empire."
Fortunately, August knew how to unravel most of the protections the Empire used.
As the workaholic he was.
Falmir and the other nations had uncovered them over the course of the war, as they claimed the Bastions and binding stones that had once belonged to the Empire.
Later, Falmir did the same to other nations, as the demons destroyed country after country.
A few minutes passed as he used a few spells and runes to connect himself to the stone.
Jafeila watched from the doorway at first, before creeping up next to him.
Her tail batted against his legs with every swish, but he couldn't slip out of his focus to tell her to stop.
Luckily, he had years of experience with beastkin physically distracting him with their fluffy tails and ears.
A single tail brushing against his legs was nothing.
Then, success.
He dove into the new binding stone and tethered it to himself. Time slowed down around him.
A rush of sensations blasted into his body. Cold, freezing cold. Everything was so damp. He felt like he was frostbitten and decaying away. Like he had been left to rot in a tundra.
August pushed away the sensations from the binding stone before they overwhelmed him.
Old binding stones were dangerous, as the world around them was often in such disrepair compared to a normal binding stone that they physically hurt the Bastion.
Normally there would be an older Bastion coaching August through this, but he didn't need one.
Chances are that was what Lady von Clair's role was. Wait for August to arrive, then let another Bastion know that he's ready to have his binding stone activated.
She could spend a few days helping the new Bastion familiarize himself with his surroundings, and the more experienced Bastion wastes less of his time with a newbie.
Win-win.
But August wasn't a newbie and didn't need help. Plus, he didn't want to waste a day without access to a stone.
August scanned his surroundings. Then he scanned the power now available to him.
Nobody had used this binding stone for centuries, so its reserves were overflowing. He immediately put them to work.
The underground area needed to be cleaned up and reinforced. Then the keep repaired, given he and Jafeila would live here.
Afterward, he'd clean up the rubble and vegetation outside. Only after all of that was done could he rebuild the fortress proper and fortify the pass against external assault.
The tasks assigned, August withdrew from the binding stone.
Moments later, the keep groaned. Water vanished from the ground, stone shifted, and lamps sprung out from the walls.
Jafeila jumped. She grabbed August's arm. "We need to run! It's collapsing," she screamed.
He held her in place and started. "It's fine. Calm down," he said.
"Eh?"
He briefly explained what he had done while the binding stone did its thing.
The stonework appeared to repair itself as magic poured into the keep.
His brief explanation turned into a long one about how binding stones used their internal magic stores to control and manipulate reality in their vicinity.
He didn't know how much of it sunk into Jafeila.
"Now, I believe we have somewhere important to be," August said. He stood up and brushed off the dust from his uniform.
"Oh, so we're still visiting Lady von Clair?" Jafeila asked.
"Not yet." He frowned. "We need to check on the fortress's demonic portal."