Shadows Over Arcadia Chapter 73: 71. Disarmed

Read chapter 73 of Shadows Over Arcadia by Zacheas on NovelPedia.

I am Ren Drakemore, feeder of nations, healer of plagues, and… unintentional slayer of elven refugees, it would seem. https://shadowsoverarcadia.com/api/storage/objects/uploads/94d9f12d-768f-4ec3-a12d-51b487be4617 “How’d it go?” Alastor asks the moment I step through the apothecary door. He straightens from the shelves, where he’d been carefully spreading the last few potion bottles across the displays in a futile effort to make the shop look stocked. I open my mouth, half meaning to answer, but the truth is troublesome enough that the words die in my throat. What comes out instead is a frustrated sigh as I brush past him. “Oh no...” Lyra murmurs, watching with trepidation as she pauses sweeping the shop floor. “Relax, we’re not in jail, are we?” Maribel says soothingly as she and Shadow file in behind me, the former barely making a sound and the latter’s footsteps thudding loudly no matter how carefully he tries to move. “Right... and is the capital still standing?” Alastor asks sardonically. “The King wasn’t very happy,” Shadow says, massively underselling it. “But he doesn’t blame Ren for what happened.” His words land with the door swinging shut behind us, then the lock sliding into place. Outside, the murmur of gathered patrons turns muffled, then fades as a cohort of Hyperion guards urges them to disperse. The truth is, the King was apoplectic when he heard what happened to Briarhollow. “It didn’t help that one of our Hyperion escorts claimed we instigated the fight,” I say wearily, leaning back against the service counter. “I bet it was the elf, Vaelis,” Maribel sneered. That was my assumption too. Vaelis may have lied to keep his people from being punished for their actions in Briarhollow. I cannot imagine Kane lying to protect them after the way they treated him. “Good thing Envy recorded everything,” Maribel adds. “There is no way the King could blame us after seeing that.” “He was disappointed at the loss of so many capable mages,” Shadow says. I am not sure ‘disappointed’ is the right word. He was crying. It seemed he believed that if they had lived, his kingdom could have used them. He described the actions of my summoned monster as excessive and wasteful. He had no idea the monster and the beautiful woman smiling at me from behind the service counter are one and the same. I meet those bright blue eyes—and in my mind’s eye the memory rises unbidden: those same eyes burning vicious gold, a sharp-toothed maw slick with blood, heat rolling off her as Briarhallow burned around her. The image vanishes as quickly as it came. Willow still stands before me, composed, smiling, every inch the gentle facade she chooses to be. Sometimes it is easier to pretend that part of her is someone else entirely. Easier to believe the lie I told the King, that it was only a summoned beast, not the true nature of the one I love. The one I depend on. “Welcome home young Master,” Willow says sweetly with a genteel bow. “Good to be back,” I answer, returning a small wave from Yukiha, who sits atop the counter, carefully stacking towers of copper coins. I sigh and turn, leaning back against the counter in thought. Copper clatters behind me, followed by an annoyed little growl. I look around the room at the faces watching me like they want answers, or maybe... concern. “What happened at Briarhallow was no victory. It was horrible,” I say. “They could have been allies, but now... no one gained anything from this.” The memories of blood and broken bodies are still fresh in my mind. It was far too real, nothing like Shadow’s memories. I could smell the blood. The worst part is that I don’t understand why. If they meant to kill me, why invite me there at all? They had so much to lose and nothing to gain. Or perhaps it doesn’t make sense because there is something I don’t know. And it’s that not knowing that bothers me. “It’s a setback,” Willow says consolingly as she glides around the counter to my side. “But perhaps those known for subverting th