Rubble crumbled under Dellia’s feet as she returned to the ruins where she’d left her master. New rubble.
Nothing should have changed while she was hunting down the mage.
Blood dripped from the dead men and women she passed, pooling on the dusty stone. While she wasn’t sad to see the convicts her master had enslaved meet their fate, Dellia found her composure cracking as she dashed forward. Her master relied on these scum for protection while she was away.
If they were dead…
Her only solace was that the wounds looked as though they had been delivered by her master… had he been in full form.
In the deepest chamber, where the gateway sat, she found a stranger in her master’s uniform waiting. Dellia didn’t wear the black and white uniform of the Knights Exemplar. For all that her master had taught her, he’d said their path wasn’t one that would allow him to bestow the title upon her.
As she took in the destruction across the chamber, Dellia worried she’d never earn the uniform.
Then the stranger inclined his head in her direction, a small smile tugging at his lips. “Dellia.”
It took her a terrifying few seconds to recognize that the seemingly young man who inclined his head in her direction was her master. It was the cane and the silver cross pinned neatly to the collar of his equally neat uniform. Not that his clothes were remotely intact.
Only her master would bother putting such rags in order.
“Master?” she eventually managed to get out. Despite her shock, the word was spoken without flaw, not so much as a tremor to indicate her surprise. She was thankful for that, as her original silence had been shameful enough. While she might never be granted the right to wear the uniform, she strove to embody the Knights Exemplar as best as she was able.
She owed her master no less.
“A great deal has changed while you were dealing with the child killer,” Sebastian said, tapping his cane on the floor as he turned away from her, stepping closer to the dark stone of the gate. “My former disciple visited.”
“I presume he’s responsible for the mess?” Dellia asked, making sure to step around the bisected body of the slaver who’d been indirectly responsible for her errand. There was no need to ask who her master meant. Besides her, there was only one other who had called Sebastian master. Who still lived, at least.
“Indeed. Despite my worries, he’s improved greatly since last I saw him. I dare say, you might find yourself challenged,” her master said, his humor plain to her ear as he tapped the gate even as he dropped an insult that twisted her gut. “And he left us with a gift.”
“More than one,” Dellia said, referring to the dead criminals. They’d had more than one argument about executing them. It had been clear to her that keeping them enslaved had been wearing on her master. Even so, she hadn’t expected their deaths to revert him to… to a man who seemed the same age as she’d been when she’d joined him.
“Ah, yes. I owe you an apology. You were correct. They were indeed hampering the great work,” her master acknowledged, giving her a tight smile, his good humor gone. “Now we can accelerate our plans. The Dark Walkers are within reach. Perhaps even their twisted god.”
While she appreciated the importance of their quest, Dellia did wish her master would take the occasional moment to appreciate life. Knowing that wouldn’t be received well in the moment, she asked, “Does that mean you’ve deciphered the gates?”
“Indeed. Though perhaps it is more accurate to say that Calbern demonstrated. We were close, though there must have been a mistake in the calculations.” His cane gestured towards the dial they’d rigged to the side of the gate. The slaver had information that had allowed them to attune it to the intact network that apparently existed beneath Mount Aeternia. While it wasn’t her specialty, she was certain the same dead slaver had insisted the current settings would be fatal. Considering his leaking corpse was cut so evenly it was as though it had been little more than good cloth cut by a pair of scissors - wounds far smoother than the rest of the dead criminals - it seemed he’d been partially correct.
“Will we be following him?” Dellia asked. Her master had never been open with the next steps. Too much risk of the criminals who’d been their companions for these last years of finding a way to sabotage his plans. She hoped that would end, now they were all dead.
“No. We were simply using the mountain as a bearing we knew to be true. Now that we have one heading, we can decipher the rest. Our destination isn’t so plebian as a maintenance center,” master Sebastian said, kneeling down to adjust the settings.
“Then where are we going?”
He tapped his cane once against the stone as he stood, giving her the warmest smile she’d seen in years, one that seemed entirely out of place on his young face.
“To the heart of the problem, of course. We’re going to the stars.”