Page 97 of Cast in Conflict

“You are correct,” Karriamis said, to Bellusdeo. “My assumption about polite company was clearly an overabundance of optimism.”

Bellusdeo’s face would have cracked had she smiled; the question Kaylin had asked was the heart of her concern. Kaylin realized, watching her, that although the gold Dragon had seriously considered captaining a Tower—this one—the reason she’d come here was to ascertain that the Tower itself hadn’t been dangerously corrupted.

This world wasn’t the world she’d ruled at the end, but she’d been born here, and if she had a home—if she could make herself a home—it was here. What had happened to her people on their world must never happen here.

The Avatar of the Tower met and held Bellusdeo’s gaze. “I did allow it.”

“Why?” It was Kaylin who spoke; Bellusdeo said nothing.

“Candallar had done, for me, a great favor, and my thoughts were turned towards that favor, and the possible outcomes of it.”

“You were willing to risk Shadow infiltration for those outcomes? Why did you volunteer for these responsibilities in the first place?”

“I understood the danger Shadow presents.”

“And yet you allowed this? We don’t know enough to—” Kaylin stopped, snapping her mouth shut over words she might be unable to easily retract.

“I would tell you not to interrupt me, but you are deliberately choosing to keep the words to yourself. You think, however, very loudly.

“We do not know enough, yes. But in our ignorance, in the risks we take, we have changed the constitution of the High Halls, and returned to that building the capacity for defense that was thought to be lost at the dawn of the long wars between our people and yours.” This last, he directed to Mandoran.

“It is often considered crucial in times of war not to see one’s enemies as people. But I will note that, according to Kaylin, those who were combatants in time of war greet former enemies as if they are comrades. Your Teela, your Nightshade, your former Arkon. Death lies between them all, but those deaths no longer define them. Causing death is no longer their reason for interaction.

“You are at war,” he continued, watching Bellusdeo. “And I understand, now, the reason for its continuation. But Spike—that is the name you gave them, yes?” When Kaylin nodded, he once again turned his focus to Bellusdeo. “Spike, in the end, was freed. I believe it was through the efforts of your Terrano,” he added, obviously to Mandoran, although he didn’t look away from Bellusdeo. “But it may well have been through the combination of Terrano’s effort and the effort of your Chosen.

“Regardless, the outcome was positive.”

“That wasn’t your intent.” Kaylin’s eyes narrowed.

“My intent, as you must suspect, was to save the Academia. And Candallar’s work to bring students to the Academia gave Killianas just enough power that the Academia could, finally, leave the stasis in which it’s been trapped. Much of my power, and much of my thought, has turned to the Academia of late.”

“Candallar’s effort was to kidnap people and toss them into what was basically a prison,” Kaylin snapped.

“And yet there are students there who considered it a blessing. As you yourself thought you once might.”

Leave, Nightshade said quietly. This Tower is far more of a danger than your Helen. What Helen wanted was the patina of domesticity—

That is not what Helen wanted. It’s not what she wants now.

—but Karriamis is not Helen. He knows far, far too much; you have not consciously been thinking of all of these things during your visit. What he has read is deeper than even what the Hallionne would read. He is dangerous, Kaylin. Do not remain.

Kaylin didn’t reply. No answer she could give wouldn’t cause a deepening of the argument; she wasn’t leaving without Bellusdeo, and Bellusdeo wasn’t leaving.

“The Academia is awake, and it grows stronger as the chancellor finds those students from whom the very institution draws life and power. And no, Corporal, the Academia is not feeding on them. As the Academia grows stronger, much less of my power is required to stabilize it. I am content.”

“Is that your way of saying that you’re not going to let the next fieflord fish Shadows out of Ravellon?”

His eyes were now orange-red, rather than the obsidian they had originally been; it was a Dragon warning.

But...Kaylin felt she had to ask, because Bellusdeo couldn’t. And in the end, Bellusdeo lived with her. They were friends.

“In a fashion, yes. But consider this, and consider it carefully. Spike did not choose his captivity or his enslavement. No more did Bellusdeo, hers.”

Silence.

Bellusdeo had come out of Ravellon. Just as Spike had.

“They are both free, and I cannot imagine that their freedom is not more preferable—for all of us—than their enslavement was. You think of all Shadow as one will. Even if experience has now taught you more, you are still wed to that mode of considering a war. You will take no risks, or rather, would counsel that none of us do.”

---