Chapter 554: Far Too Early

That name...

Two "Kirs," within as many days... Aban felt in his gut that he could no longer ignore it. Worse still, he’d learned from the mutterings of that idiot Owyn that he’d woken the giant inside the Veil at only a few hours past their midnight, far earlier than it should have been if the time there was staying at half the rate of the world outside.

At first, he’d thought it was just a miscalculation on his part, but now it felt like an omen that things in the world inside the Veil was synchronizing... and if it ever came into alignment, it would unleash whatever was inside... whoever was inside.

And if that most powerful person inside the city was Kiryu-fucking-Nasumi, then that left Aban only one choice...

I have to destroy him...

But how? He wasn’t even sure it was him in there. He needed more information...

Should I send someone in? No... the technology there might be too tempting. Or too ubiquitous. What kind of security do they even have? Aban had toyed with a few spells to enhance his ability to see and hear long distances, and if the city was more advanced with that sort of magic... He considered his friends. None of them was particularly bright, even if they were loyal. They’d just get themselves caught...

Going himself felt like too much of a risk now. But if the communication stones worked between him and Owyn, other such stones might work. Maybe I can convince that Veria woman...

That felt right. She was an unknown, but clearly a fanatic of some kind and entirely expendable to him. But first, he needed to know what she had to offer. He wanted every advantage he could get-

"Hey!"

A sudden shout drew his attention. In the distance, one of the villagers, drunk by the look of him, was shouting at the demon man the Imperial expedition had brought with them. As Aban watched, the drunkard tried to grab the demon, only to catch nothing but air and a fall onto his face as the agile demon dodged him with a flourish, tossing something that glinted from one hand to the-

Fuck!

It was the comm stone.

Aban was on his feet and striding toward the demon before his allies could react. Before doing something rash, he remembered that the stone’s functioning was a secret, as was Owyn being alive, and so he affected a dark smile as he helped the drunk giant - one of the menials from the village, unfit for titan hunting, to his feet.

"What seems to be the problem?" Aban asked.

"He stole that shiny shit," the drunk said. "Saw him take it off the stage."

The singing stage where Aban had hidden the damn rock, so Owyn could get his fucking songs for his "friend." How did this asshole find it?

Restraining himself, Aban held out a hand. "I’m sure our guest meant nothing by it," he looked to the demon expectantly as his new retinue finished catching up and forming a semicircle around them, some holding their weapons as if expecting violence. "Give it here, and tell me your name."

The demon, with a rakish smile, tossed Aban the stone with a flourish. "Cem Tidal, bard, at your service. I’m afraid my nose for treasure got the better of me," he laughed. "Really, though, one shouldn’t leave such valuable things in the dirt." From nowhere, the bard pulled out an acoustic guitar, the first Aban had seen since his rebirth on Ayther. "Perhaps I could provide some songs of my own, as an apology."

Aban didn’t have time for this shit. "Do go ahead. But try to steal from our kingdom again, and it will be you in the dirt." He turned on his heel and strode back to the stone and log greathouse that was all his now, feeling the vibrations of the stone in his hand as sound tried to come through from the other side, only to be muffled by his tight grip.

That was when Atla caught up to him.

"Is everything alright, Aban?" she asked, rosy-cheeked from having imbibed her fair share of mead.

"I’m fine," he snapped, before remembering the act he still needed to put on. "I’m just... stressed. I didn’t mean to kill my father... if he’d just listened..."

Atla stepped closer. Close enough that he could practically feel the heat radiating off her face as she hugged him. "I could help take your mind off things," she offered.

"I’m not in the mood," Aban replied. If he wasn’t holding the damn comm stone, he would have loved to stuff his cock in her, if only to further cement her loyalty.

"Maybe tonight then?" she persisted, even after he gently pushed her away.

"Maybe," he said, entering his father’s, no, his room and shutting the heavy door behind himself. He tossed the stone onto the bed, about to muffle it when he finally caught some of what was being said. An unfamiliar, female voice, screaming.

"How could you do this to yourself?! Why the fuck-

*

"-are you trying to tell me it’s no big deal when you’re bleeding?!" Arc shouted at Owyn.

It was all going wrong. After being woken up far too early, Owyn had managed a few hours of listening, writing down familiar songs and ballads and dressing himself in the lulls, before something had happened, and he couldn’t hear anything but muffled sounds and arguing. In a panic, he’d tried surging his mana into the stone, turning the small cuts he received from stabilising the connection into large gashes that dripped all over his floor. He was barely able to staunch the bleeding when Arc burst into his room, took one look at his arms, and started her angry interrogation.

Maybe it was the blood covering the comm stone that allowed him to hide it behind his back before she closed with him, swearing and tearing his sheets as she wrapped them around his shallow wounds. "It’s fine, Arc. Really, it’s-"

"No, it’s not! I felt it happen."

"With those thread things?"

"Yes!" She jerked a knot of bedsheet around his forearm tightly. "I can see them through the floor. What did you even do? It’s like the night of the incursion."

There was no getting out of it now, Owyn realised. "I’m... not supposed to be doing magic," he muttered guiltily. "Something happened to me when I came through the Veil. I didn’t really understand what your moms told me, but it’s bad. I might lose all my magic or... transform into something."

"And how long were you planning on keeping this from me?"

"I was still thinking about it!" he said defensively. "I found a type of magic I could do and-"

"And you still wound up this way? What the fuck were you thinking?" Arc’s voice peaked with worry and anger. "Get up. Keep pressure on your arms."

It was all Owyn could do to keep the stone hidden as he gathered up his arms in the sheet. Arc paid no attention to the stares as she pulled him along, her face a mask of pure anger that made people get out of her way.

"Where are we going?" Owyn asked as he shifted the comm stone beneath the sheet, trying to discreetly shove the bloody thing into his pocket.

"I’m taking you to the nurse, and then you’re going to tell me everything!"

Owyn started to panic, but he didn’t dare resist and draw more attention to himself. All at once, he realised that having the stone on him was probably the most dangerous thing he could have done, short of running. He needed a way to get rid of it, or at least keep it undetected...

No opportunity presented itself by the time Arc banged on the door to the locked office.

"Fuck, it’s too early," she facepalmed as she thought for a moment before, "Fuck it."

Pistoning a magically reinforced kick into the door, Owyn was shocked when, instead of bursting the door in like he expected, Arc was thrown backwards into the wall, where she landed in a heap.

"Arc!" Owyn rushed to her, unable to do more than awkwardly push her to a seat with the bedsheets swaddling his hands.

She groaned, but didn’t seem too incapacitated, just stunned. The noise of it drew curious students from all around the hall, and Owyn reddened with embarrassment at how suspicious the situation looked.

A moment later, the air split with a crack as someone appeared, only a blurred afterimage and the disturbed hangings indicating their path over the students using the walls as a walkway.

It was an orcish mage, dressed rather strikingly with lightning-themed accents around his black uniform, one Owyn didn’t recognise. He took one look at the situation and said, "I was at a breakfast party, you know. One of you had better be dying."

"He is," Arc groaned, pointing at Owyn, who’d just succeeded at pushing the comm stone into his right pocket.

"Aw fuck," the orc crossed his arms. "Well, today’s your lucky day then. We’ve got one of the strongest healers in the city on campus right now." He turned and managed to glare a path through the students clogging the hall. "Assuming they don’t just have me arrest you two."