Chapter 776: Make It

The trace beneath Thepes’s chest weakened before Vesa heard Alucard’s voice break.

She flew closer to the wall and settled her small clawed feet on a broken brick, keeping outside the runes around the restrained body. The ice still held his joints, and his blood remained inside the boundary Alex had left.

"Master?"

The answer came as a faint sound without clear words.

Vesa stopped pulling at the connection. She had kept it open through the exchange and the fleet’s withdrawal, afraid of losing him if it faded too far. Now every attempt to hear more made his voice less stable.

She reduced the contact until only the familiar presence remained.

Thepes turned his head toward her.

"Who are you calling?"

Vesa looked at the blood gathering slowly around his damaged left wrist.

"My master. The reason his artifact is still inside your chest."

His expression hardened.

"You mean someone who helped them put me here."

"Yes," she said.

She had wanted him killed. Master had asked her to preserve the artifact for examination, and she had done it while the pair cut his supply and broke Lolth’s hold. If Thepes expected gratitude because he was still alive to complain, he would wait a long time.

Thepes pulled against the restraint at his shoulder.

The rune brightened. Thepes stopped pulling and studied the mark instead. Vesa kept it in view until his blood settled, then called Alex.

"The connection is weakening. I can still feel Master, but I can’t keep asking him to speak through it."

"Is Thepes breaking the contact?"

"No. The trace is there. The answer is getting weaker."

"Keep it light. We’ve had the wounds bound. We’re coming."

Vesa lowered her hand. A moment later, the familiar voice returned.

"That’s better."

She straightened at the sound, relief rising before she could hold it back.

"You can still hear me?"

"For now. Don’t widen it to make the voice louder."

She obeyed.

There was so much she had wanted to say after the battle. She had imagined having time to ask where he was and what had happened since they last found his essence. Instead, she was measuring each question against the strength needed for him to answer it.

Thepes watched her face.

"Is it in me?"

"The connection passes through the artifact at your center," Vesa said. "He’s somewhere else."

Thepes looked down as far as the restraint allowed.

For the first time since the fleet left, he stopped testing the ice. His attention stayed on his own chest.

Could he feel that trace too? He had been built around the artifact, but he might know even less about it than she did.

Alex and Mingyue entered through the broken doorway.

Fresh cloth covered Alex’s right side beneath his damaged clothes. Mingyue’s left forearm was wrapped, and she kept that hand near her waist rather than resting it on a sword.

Neither looked recovered.

Alex checked the marks along Thepes’s chest and knees before coming to Vesa.

"The yard barrier?" he asked.

"Still holding. The guards are outside it."

"Keep them there. No one goes into the smoke."

He crouched beside the wall, close enough to examine the rune nearest Thepes’s shoulder without leaning over him.

Mingyue remained by the doorway. She watched the restrained Progenitor’s hands.

Vesa let Alex and Mingyue hear the exchange again. Alucard’s voice was faint, but they could make out his words.

"Is the artifact failing?" Alex asked him.

"The body at my end is the difficulty. It was not made for this much talking."

"A separate body?" Vesa asked.

"A small one. Thalia lends the strength when mine is insufficient. She dislikes how quickly I spend it."

Vesa lifted her head. Thalia was with him. She had to stop herself asking for her voice too.

"Then widening this would draw more from her?"

"And more through a body that already needs rest. Keep the path narrow."

Alex looked toward Thepes’s chest, then back at Vesa.

"So feeding this artifact won’t make you stronger."

"It will feed what is around the artifact. I suggest you remember how much trouble you had stopping that."

Thepes bared his fangs. Vesa kept her hands clear of the restraint.

"The body around the artifact is holding together?" Alucard asked.

"Slowly," Alex said. "He’s repairing what he can. We kept his blood moving inside the restraint."

"You sound disappointed," Thepes said.

Alex looked at him.

"Keeping you contained doesn’t require making every wound worse."

Thepes’s gaze moved to Vesa.

"Let me hear him."

Vesa hesitated. Her old master’s artifact was inside this person, wrapped in power taken from others. Thepes had used it to attack them and feed on the dead. Hearing him demand access to Alucard made her want to refuse before she considered whether keeping the voice from him would help anyone.

Alex glanced toward her.

"If we discuss taking it out while he can only hear half of this, he’ll fight the restraint again. Let him hear."

"And let him answer for himself," Mingyue said from the door. Her injured arm stayed close to her body.

Vesa had assured them before that Alucard meant no harm, even when she knew too little to answer their questions. Now he could answer for himself. She wanted them to hear why she had trusted him.

"Let him hear," Alucard said.

Vesa carried the faint voice into the room rather than keeping it within her link to the pair.

"Can you hear me?" Alucard asked.

Thepes stared at her.

"Yes."

"What do you call yourself?"

"Thepes."

A short silence followed.

Vesa kept the connection narrow. She could feel the effort behind his voice. Whatever he needed the pause for, she would let him have it.

"Thepes," Alucard said. "The artifact at your center was mine. That doesn’t make the life built around it mine to take back."

The blood beneath Thepes’s wrist shifted.

"Do you want it back?"

"No one is taking it out now," Alex said.

"I asked him."

Mingyue moved one step nearer to the restraint.

"Listen to the answer, then."

Alucard spoke again.

"Taking it apart would mean taking you apart. I am not asking them to do that."

Thepes looked toward the broken ceiling, his jaw working. He had refused every suggestion that he belonged to someone else. Now the owner of the thing inside his chest was speaking through someone standing over him.

She understood why he had asked whether Alucard was inside him.

"You didn’t make me," Thepes said.

"No."

"Then don’t speak as if I belong to you."

"You are speaking for yourself. I can hear that."

Thepes turned his eyes back toward Vesa.

"I am no one’s heir."

"Good," Alucard said. "The last two have proved expensive enough."