MEMORIES OF AN OVERLORD
by Victar (vctr113062 [at] aol [dot] com)
Victar's Archive: https://www.vicfanfic.com
"Sometimes I'll get this... anxiety... that it's going to happen all over again, to anyone I let myself care about. I can't even say anything. What would I say? 'Incoming, more death'?"
Chapter Six
Memories of an Overlord: Awakening the Priestess
For the journey to Cynthia's shrine, Overlord Yusis had the dragon Sasha pull a recreated miasma-coach carrying himself, Anemos, and Laminah. Anemos did not play music; instead, he kept wind magic beads close to hand, ready to invoke their element if needed. Laminah maintained a silent vigil.
The coach closed in on the coast of a rocky ocean island. From the driver's seat, Yusis spared a quick glance over his shoulder at his two passengers.
"We've arrived. This landing should be smoother than the last one, but don't let your guard down," Yusis warned. "I can't do anything to help you if I screw this up. It's one of the Voice's rules. %The Overlord may not show mercy to the living.%"
"I am prepared," Anemos affirmed with a nod.
"As am I," Laminah added.
Sasha swooped low, and a large, blanket-like violet cloth suddenly appeared; thick violet ropes attached its corners to the coach. The billowing violet cloth seemed to slow the midair vehicle with far more than drag from the surrounding atmosphere.
Sasha and the coach decelerated to a virtual standstill. The dragon touched down on the rocky coast just past the tide's ebb; the coach settled on the ground with scarcely a bump. As the coach's occupants disembarked, the violet ropes and cloth dissolved away.
That augmentation did not revert to miasma vapors, Anemos silently noted. It was not shaped from dark magic. The temporary effect it had was similar to that of a slowing-bead, yet far stronger.
Overlord Yusis Orzand is more than the wielder of miasma. He also wields another type of magic.
Dawn had not fully broken, but nascent sunlight from the cloudless sky outlined the island's most distinctive feature. It was a jet-black castle resting atop a moderately distant hill, and surrounded by aimlessly milling figures.
Monsters, Anemos realized. More than could easily be counted. One monster towered above the others; it appeared to be a reptilian quadruped with three, long-necked heads.
The bard exchanged a sidelong glance with Laminah. Then he noticed something else troublesome.
There was no plant life on the island at all. Not even a speck of algae, on the rocks that jutted out of the nearby ocean.
Yusis waved his arm; the coach and the jet-black harness connecting it to Sasha became drifting miasma-smoke. He looked into the dragon's glowing yellow eyes. Darkness crept into his voice as he told her, %I need to awaken my third Primary Servant. Stay here. We will be back for you.%
Sasha scrabbled her claws listlessly on the rocky ground.
Yusis approached the island's only other edifice, the shrine that was the group's destination. He stopped at the entrance of the magic-crafted structure where Cynthia Klaus, the previous cycle's Priestess of Salvation and the current cycle's third Lesser Seal, slumbered.
Yusis closed his eyes and pressed one hand against the side of his head.
A long moment passed.
"Yusis," Laminah addressed.
"Yeah, what is it," he grumbled, lowering his hand.
"That hilltop fortress is the Overlord Orzand's castle, is it not? Your castle. Where you were imprisoned for ten years."
"Yeah."
"Cynthia's shrine is here, yet you took a long detour to awaken the two of us first."
"Yeah, I did. Deal with it."
"Now, you hesitate."
"What's your point."
Laminah spoke in a low yet resolute tone. "Cynthia is alive. She has not become a monster. What worked on us has worked on her. I would stake my soul upon it."
%Don't gamble with your soul like that. Not in this miserable world, overrun with monsters whose souls are trapped in a fate worse than death,% Yusis starkly returned, entering the shrine. %I can't set them free, not on my own. Monsters can't destroy monsters; miasma forbids it. Only the living can release their souls, and Kreisia's living population has been decreasing because of the cycle. Because of the Overlord's massacres, every ten years.%
We know, Anemos silently thought, as he and Laminah followed the cycle's current incarnation of the Overlord. We know all too well.
%If the cycle continues, then all of Kreisia will become like this island - nothing but barren rock and eternally condemned monsters - in less than a thousand years. Maybe in only a hundred years, or sooner.%
Most of your brief life was on another world. Have you spent ten years of undeath contemplating the pall that hangs over our world?
%After that, without a new Greater Seal or new Lesser Seals to contain Kreisia's miasma, dark magic could overflow into outer space and poison more worlds. Maybe even my world, who knows?%
"A grim prediction," Laminah acknowledged, "but not the only possible future. I will never surrender the war against Orzand."
"And I will not abandon our dream of ending the depredations of the cycle," Anemos quietly added.
"I didn't really think either of you were giving up," Yusis muttered. "The Voice tells a lot of lies. Over and over."
The three travelers arrived in the deepest chamber of the shrine.
"Aldea's last pommel stone is over there. One of you take it," Yusis directed, waving at an altar with a shining ruby gemstone. He leaned against the far wall, keeping the crystal encasing Cynthia within his peripheral vision.
Anemos collected the gemstone, then turned to regard the preserved priestess.
Cynthia was a Lunarl, a race well-known for their innate magical talent. They were also known for their long ears and bushy tails, covered in luxurious fur, though the rest of their bodies were furless.
Anemos barely held back a sly grin, as he thought of the day when Yusis had learned - in a moment of complete and utter mortification - that looking too intently at a Lunarl's ears or tail, let alone attempting to touch Lunarl fur, was a shockingly shameless act.
Cynthia appeared almost as she had ten years ago. She was a slip of sixteen-year-old girl, clad in a humble, frilly dress. Her thick red hair, accented with a feathered ornament, reached well past her shoulders. Two slight trails of her hair on either side were light green instead of red, the only visible indication that she had a smattering of Altean ancestry.
Overshadowing the light green trails and clashing sharply against her red tresses was a jagged jet-black stripe; it ran through the center of her bangs, across her head, and down her back. It was the one change in her appearance, and twice as wide as the black mark in Laminah's white hair.
If Laminah and Cynthia both have that...
Anemos squinted at the crystal prison, and glimpsed enough of his own reflection to confirm the awful truth. My hair as well? How dreadful. I will definitely have to use some dye.
Anemos looked back to the priestess.
Cynthia's eyes were closed; her hands were clasped and held near her chest. Anemos could see the residue of tear-trails on her cheeks.
He remembered the time, at once both ten years ago and scarce hours ago, when he had seen her shed those tears. The time when they had heard Yusis' final, agonized scream, shortly before accepting their own fates.
Cynthia's face was serene. Peaceful. An expression of heartfelt faith, befitting the Priestess of Salvation.
She believed in Yusis. We all did, but her trust was absolute, Anemos reflected. Laminah's 'gamble' would bear no risk at all.
Anemos spared a quick glance toward Yusis, who had not yet acted to break the prison.
"Anemos, stay back," Yusis flatly commanded. "Cynthia could lash out when she's awakened, and her magic is powerful. Be ready to counter any spell she tries to cast."
The bard strummed his lute and replied, "Very well."
Do you still fear that she is a monster? Can you not discern her face, because you are half-blind? Do you doubt her feelings for you, or your own worth?
Yusis kept the crystal prison at an angle to his line of sight. "She might fall when I break her out. Laminah, I want you to catch her. If she is a monster, then I know you won't let her kill you."
"As you wish," Laminah assented. She approached the crystal and stood next to it.
"I'll keep the miasma away from you."
Yusis didn't move, but black fog slowly curled about the transparent prison. Cracks appeared in the crystal, until it broke apart to a snap from Yusis' fingers. The black fog receded, whisking the crystal's shards to the floor without inflicting a single scratch on either Cynthia's or Laminah's skin.
Cynthia swayed. Her lips moved, mouthing silent syllables. Laminah helped her settle upon her knees.
"Cynthia is alive," the warrior stated. "She is not a monster."
Yusis nodded, without facing them.
Cynthia opened her reddish-brown eyes. She gazed upon Laminah, Anemos, and finally Yusis.
"Yusis..." she trilled, in a light, high-pitched voice with a natural lilt. Renewed tears welled up in her eyes, and spilled down her cheeks. "You saved us. All of us. I knew you would."
Yusis winced and clutched at his head with one hand, still not looking directly at her. "I wish that were true."
"What do you mean?"
"Ten years have passed. The cycle has turned. The miasma is rising; Kreisia is on the brink of destruction again. You're alive now, but there's no guarantee any of you will be alive tomorrow. And... I'm the Overlord."
"I know."
"Cynthia, do you hear the Voice of Orzand?" he asked, in a haunted tone.
"Um, no? Is that something you hear?"
"Right now it's saying, %YOU HAVE SAVED NO ONE.%"
Cynthia did not appear startled by the harrowing darkness that overtook Yusis' words. Instead, a troubled expression appeared on her face.
Anemos quietly suggested, "I could play some music."
Yusis listlessly removed his hand from his head. "No. Not this time."
"Yusis, we're all together again, but you're acting so unhappy," Cynthia worriedly called. "Like you feel sick inside."
Yusis stopped leaning against the wall, straightened his posture, and turned toward Cynthia and Laminah. He looked Laminah in the eye and told her, "Ten seconds."
Laminah nodded once. She drew her halberd but did not hold it ready for battle, instead resting its haft on the floor.
Yusis' illusion of a living appearance faded. His clothing changed color to dull grey and sludge-black; his form reverted to a bloodless-pale figure with blazing yellow cat-eyes, serrated fangs, triangular claws, and miasma trails spilling from a jet-black vortex in his chest. Darkness and despair permeated his voice as he said, %Cynthia, that's what the Overlord is. A temporary seal on Kreisia's terminal illness, that wears out after ten years. My time is almost up.%
Cynthia did not show any trace of fear, but her eyes blinked rapidly. "Yusis, does that hole in your chest hurt?"
%What?% Bewilderment drifted across the Overlord's monstrous features.
"Ten seconds have passed," Laminah observed.
%Uh, right.% Yusis resumed his illusion of a living appearance, leaned against the wall, and nervously folded his arms over his torso. He looked downward, keeping Cynthia in the corner of his eye. "And, uh, no. No, it doesn't hurt. Undead monsters can't feel physical pain."
Cynthia's lips spread in a happy expression. "I'm glad for that."
Yusis weakly returned the slightest and briefest of smiles. "For ten years, I've been searching the memories of destroyed monsters for information. Something, anything I could find that would help break the cycle."
"You searched...?" A note of curiosity touched Cynthia's musical voice.
"Kreisia's miasma preserves the memories of monsters. I can't see any monster memories from before the cycle began, and I can't see anything from the monsters' former lives as people or animals. Only the memories of monsters that have been destroyed are open to me, but that includes the memories of every previous Overlord and Lesser Seal."
"You've been looking for a way to bring our world true peace for all time," Cynthia affirmed, clasping her hands over her heart. "For ten years, you've been looking, and you've never given up."
"Uh, it's not like there were a lot of other things to do. I couldn't leave my castle until yesterday." Yusis' eyes darted down and to the side. "I learned that dark magic can't destroy itself, just like undead monsters can't kill each other. Monsters draw on miasma for the power to move or cast spells, but even if I commanded all monsters to use up as much miasma as they could, it would be like trying to empty the ocean with buckets. I'm not planning to change my current %Overlord's decree,% anyway. I want the monsters to stay away from settlements, animals, and people, so they're ready to be summoned if I need them.
"Magic that affects time, like some bardic magic does, can't destroy miasma or anything else. Neither can mind-related magic, or minor magic like divinations and illusions. Bardic magic isn't exactly its own thing; it uses music to channel other types of magic, and it can't destroy anything unless it channels something like an elemental attack. I can't cast any bardic or elemental spells, but I've learned enough about elemental magic to confirm that it can't destroy miasma. Elemental attacks will only transmute miasma to smoke. The same is true of physical attacks.
"Only holy magic can destroy dark magic, as far as I know, and straight-up throwing holy power at monsters, liquid miasma, or miasma-smoke doesn't destroy very much. Priests and priestesses have tried, without any real success."
Cynthia softly remarked, "I tried too, once. I exhausted myself trying to purify the miasma from a single rabbit-monster. The smoke drifted away before I could hardly affect any of it."
Yusis' eyes darted to the priestess, then away again. "Even the Holy Brand Aldea can't do much to the miasma animating monsters, the liquid miasma in fonts, or miasma vapors. Holy magic doesn't let the undead wield it, anyway. I can't use the power of the Overlord to eliminate Kreisia's miasma; it's just not possible. I can only control or shape miasma, but maybe... well, here's what I've learned."
Yusis made an open-palm gesture with one hand. Miasma sprang from his fingertips, pooling on the floor and coalescing into a small object.
"A book?" Cynthia asked. Still on her knees, she reached tentatively for its jet-black cover.
"I'm going to have Laminah carry it for now," Yusis gently admonished.
"Okay," Cynthia acceded, retracting her hand.
"I am not a scholar," Laminah stated, retrieving the book.
"Yeah, well, I'm not a writer," Yusis said with a shrug. "Everything in there is copied directly out of my mind, through magic. There's also a teleportation spell on the last page. The spell can transport up to four people to the gates of my castle, but Aldea's required to cast it. It's just Aldea's teleportation ability with a specific destination patched in."
Anemos examined the book's cover and quoted, "'Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Miasma, But Were Afraid To Ask'."
"It was the only title I could think of. Don't take it literally."
"'By Yusis Orzand, the least terrifying Overlord ever'."
"Aldea called me that. I might as well own it."
Laminah ran her hand over the book, and gave its cover a light tug. The book remained closed.
"You have sealed this tome, Yusis," the warrior observed.
"Yeah, you can't read it yet," he acknowledged. "There's a condition to meet first."
"Which is?"
"One thing at a time. Just keep the book on your person for now. I shaped it to be permanent, and extra-durable; it won't turn into smoke unless it takes a lot of damage. If you're hit with enough force to destroy that book, then you probably won't be among the living anymore."
Laminah tucked the small book into a compartment within her armor. "Yusis, there are certain matters that you said you would explain to all three of us at once."
"Yeah. I said that," he muttered, his eyes darting back and forth.
"We are all ready to listen." Laminah gestured to Anemos and Cynthia. The bard nodded once. Cynthia glanced at Laminah and made a slight frown, but said nothing.
Yusis resumed his arm fold over his chest and relaxed a little, as he refocused his attention on the three members of his audience. "Okay, here goes."
Cynthia's frown vanished. She looked to Yusis, and paid rapt attention to his words.
Yusis spoke slowly and carefully. "Ten years ago, I protected your lives with a spell that stopped time - or more accurately, paused the progression of certain forces relative to the flow of time - for both you and the miasma fonts you sealed. The miasma fonts didn't have 'time' to kill you, or turn you into monsters. You don't appear to have aged at all."
Anemos mused, "A spell that stops time? Only Yumarac is known to have wielded true Chronomancy."
"That depends on your definitions," Yusis returned. "Time is the fourth dimension of space, and all teleportation magic is a stripped-down form of time manipulation that only affects space. Monster summoning is a form of teleportation, even though wards to block monster summoning and wards to block the living from teleporting are completely different; monsters have dark magic bodies and the living have physical bodies, so a ward that blocks one won't block the other. And... every Overlord in history has had access to one specific time magic spell. When we fought Overlord Clize ten years ago, did you notice that his %Slow% spell was more powerful than the bardic magic version of %Slow% that Anemos can cast?"
Laminah fixed Yusis with an intent look. "Your observations are astute, yet military history does not record any previous Overlord with the power to completely halt time."
Yusis matched her resolute gaze. "%Time Stop% is what I call a signature spell - a super-strong ability associated with a certain type of Overlord. My type. I'm a Time Mage Overlord. The first one ever."
Cynthia whispered, "You used the power of the Overlord to save us."
Yusis flinched, and broke eye contact with Laminah. "Uh, I can't take all the credit. My %Time Stop% didn't save you by itself. It's a magnified version of %Slow.% Battle spells like %Slow% don't normally last for very long when used on living beings, or on undead beings.
"Do you remember when I said that I needed your complete faith in me? When I told you to give all of your own strength to whatever you feel? That appeal has finished its purpose. The three of you are alive because you supported my %Time Stop% with all your heart, will, and soul. You made it last ten years, instead of twenty seconds or less.
"Now that my spell has succeeded, the appeal to believe in me no longer applies. I did not protect your lives out of 'mercy'. It was for my own reasons, and none of you owe me anything for what I've done. Especially not gratitude."
Cynthia anxiously trilled, "Yusis, that's really negative, even for you. Do you... want us to doubt you?"
Yusis looked away from her. "I'll explain the rest soon. Just remember what I said for now, and take it seriously."
Puzzlement lingered on Cynthia's face.
Yusis continued, "Even though the three of you are alive, you're still Lesser Seals. You've gained a little power from the miasma fonts you sealed, and you were part of the cycle that imprisoned me for ten years. That's had some permanent effects. I don't just mean the black stripes in your hair; you're now-"
"The what?" Laminah gasped.
"Did you think you did not have one?" Anemos remarked to her. "You can see the one in my hair, and Cynthia's."
"No. No, it cannot be..." The warrior peered at her own reflection in the blade of her halberd, and recoiled from the image of a jagged black streak darkening the bright white hair between her horns. "No-! How am I to face my king like this?"
"Don't worry so much, it looks good on you," Yusis dismissed, with an absent wave of his hand. "Anyway, you're now-"
"You are the LAST being on Kreisia I would ask about that, you half-blind, tangled-mess sloven!" Laminah raged, furiously.
%What?% Harrowing darkness overtook Yusis' startled response, although his illusion of a living appearance did not change.
"She is correct," Anemos confirmed, in a grave tone. "Your perception is impaired, and you have been unfathomably reluctant to so much as comb your own-"
%Are you serious?%
Laminah snapped, "You were blessed that my king ever allowed you to have any audience with him! Your unkempt hair was shamelessly disrespectful!"
%Is this really what we're talking about right now!?%
Anemos reasoned, "You are using an illusion. Surely you could modify it? You visualize your clothing as immaculate; why not improve your atrocious haircut a little?"
%I am the Overlord! I would drown this world in miasma if I didn't have to prepare for the next Savior, and that's what you criticize about me!?%
"You cannot remedy your illusion's bad haircut because you do not know what a good one would look like, do you?" Laminah sniffed. "Shameless."
%The Voice is saying YOUR PRIMARY SERVANTS ARE DEFECTIVE and you are not helping your case!%
"I like your hair, Yusis," Cynthia piped up.
"What?" The poisonous darkness immediately drained from Yusis' voice, supplanted by a wave of flustered confusion. "You never said that before."
Cynthia rose to her feet and displayed a charming smile. "I've gotten used to it. It's 'you'. I like your hair the way it is."
Yusis awkwardly looked at the ground.
"Laminah, let me restore your hair color with a little holy magic," Cynthia offered, encouragingly. "I'll take care of it right now." She hovered her fingertips over the jet-black stripe in Laminah's tresses.
Yusis raised his head. He reached for the glasses hanging from a cord around his neck, flicked them open with a single shake, and donned them over his eyes. His gaze focused on Cynthia.
Anemos felt an oppressive, invisible intensity from where Yusis stood.
The Overlord was still holding one hinge of his glasses. His eyes narrowed, as he studied the oblivious priestess.
Cynthia's hand wavered. "Why isn't it working?"
A grim frown settled on Yusis' face. He let go of his glasses and lowered his hand.
Cynthia trembled slightly. "Laminah, I'm sorry. Let me try again."
Laminah patiently allowed the priestess a second attempt, and a third.
"You can't use holy magic anymore, Cynthia. Your body is too tainted to channel it," Yusis quietly evaluated.
"No..." Cynthia breathed, in shock.
"I really do 'see everything' like this, even when I don't want to," Yusis muttered, averting his gaze. His glasses vanished into miasma-smoke, and reformed hanging from the cord around his neck. The cloying feel to the atmosphere around him faded.
Laminah said to Cynthia, "Try to summon your crossbow."
"Okay," the priestess agreed. A flashing, reddish crossbow appeared in her hands. She turned away from the warrior and fired a blazing red bolt of sorcery into the shrine's wall.
Laminah nodded. "I expect that only holy magic is denied to you. 'Anemos the Dazzling' can still cast spells as well."
Cynthia's eyebrows rose in uncertain bemusement. "'Anemos the Dazzling'? Really?"
Anemos smiled graciously and bowed low, sweeping one arm and trailing rainbow sparks with his hand. Cynthia giggled, and willed her magical crossbow to vanish.
"I wasn't sure if you'd be able to use holy magic," Yusis stated, with an indirect glance to the priestess. "It's just as well that you can't. If you could, then channeling it would hurt you. Maybe badly, if it were a strong enough spell.
"All three of you are weak to holy magic now. You're not as weak as an undead monster is; carrying Aldea's pommel stones hasn't caused Anemos any problems. Cynthia, you're not as weak to holy power as Anemos and Laminah are because... reasons. You still don't want to get hit by a holy attack spell, and all of you must never try to wield the Holy Brand Aldea. Channeling Aldea's power could disintegrate you.
"Holy spells and holy magic beads that heal or cure will work on you, because you have living bodies. You also have a strong natural resistance to miasma, as much as if Aldea were warding you. I had remote control over how to apply the sliver of power you got from being Lesser Seals, so I made sure just being around me wouldn't poison you, when I came to wake you up.
"You are not immune to miasma. A high enough concentration can kill you, and turn you into monsters. Don't forget that.
"Now, there's something I want the three of you to do. Sasha is waiting for us outside. Set her soul free for me, and for her."
"'Sasha'?" Cynthia softly repeated.
"She's a monster who has suffered from the curse of the miasma for too long. You'll have to fight her. She can't let herself be destroyed without fighting back; miasma forbids it, just like miasma forbids monsters to destroy each other or destroy themselves. Miasma wants the souls trapped inside monsters to stay trapped forever."
Cynthia whispered, "Yusis..."
"Let's go." Yusis turned and led the way out of the shrine.
Dawn had come by the time they emerged. Sunlight on the island was heavily subdued, despite the lack of clouds in the sky.
This place is inundated with miasma vapors, Anemos realized. Even as the previous Overlord's territory was.
Sasha, the blue-scaled dragon, was waiting for them.
%Sasha is one of the weakest monsters on this island, but don't underestimate her,% the Overlord warned, darkness and despair curling in his voice. %Fight with all your strength. I can't help you.%
Then to Sasha, %The time has come.%
Sasha immediately lunged for Anemos, who scarcely evaded her vicious claws.
Laminah leaped, holding her halberd with practiced grace, yet before she could bring it down Sasha had already turned her body, snapping her tail like a heavy whip and knocking the warrior square in the chest. Laminah's strike barely grazed the dragon's scales.
Cynthia shot a fiery crossbow bolt at Sasha's head; the dragon's slender neck weaved under the projectile. Sasha responded with a gout of miasma-fire. Cynthia only partly dodged; she shrieked as the miasma-fire burned her arm.
Laminah swung her halberd in a wide arc; Sasha hopped off of the ground and spread her wings. The halberd's blade scraped Sasha's feet.
"Anemos, slow her down!" the warrior commanded.
Anemos strummed his lute, and called upon his power of bardic magic to entangle Sasha's wings. Cynthia fired more crossbow bolts, this time aiming for the broad target of the dragon's body.
The bard sensed a familiar wave of oppressive dark power cloying the air behind him. Yusis had to be studying the battle through his necromantic-magic glasses. The bard did not dare turn around; Sasha was too great a threat.
Anemos, Laminah, and Cynthia closed in on Sasha and worked as a team. Anemos used his manipulation of sound, force, and magic to pull the dragon to the ground; Laminah plunged her halberd deep into the dragon's chest; and Cynthia cast a flashing spell of fire magic that burned the dragon's yellow eyes. Sasha's attempt to bite Laminah missed.
Anemos felt the intense power behind him wane, well before Laminah swung her halberd to sever the dragon's head. He did not watch the dark magic shell of the dragon's body dissolve, releasing skyward plumes of miasma. He had seen such things many times before, in uncounted battles with Kreisia's monsters.
Instead, the bard looked back to Yusis, who had closed his eyes and turned his face away from Sasha's final moments. The Overlord's glasses vanished in a puff of black smoke, and reappeared on the cord around his neck.
"If that was one of the weakest monsters on this island," Laminah remarked, "then we are not yet ready to battle the strongest."
Yusis neutrally regarded the three of them. %No. You are not.%
"I'm sorry, Yusis. We should have freed her more quickly," Cynthia sadly apologized, dismissing her crossbow. "You warned us that we'd have to fight; we should have empowered ourselves before the battle started."
%Do not concern yourself with that. There is a more important matter.% Something felt very wrong, in the way Yusis inspected and spoke to them. This time, the poisonous darkness in his voice did not come from emotional agitation; instead, there was a callous, coldly analytical quality to his comportment. It was a trait they had never seen in the living Savior they once knew.
%It is time for you three to learn why I preserved your lives, and why you owe me nothing for it. Especially not gratitude.%
Anemos used sleight-of-hand to subtly draw healing beads from his vest. Making no noise, and moving as little as possible, he restored Cynthia's burns and Laminah's bruises. The bard could not discern whether the half-blind Overlord took notice, or not.
%You are my Primary Servants. The Voice of Orzand has declared that it is your destiny to carry out my commands, just as the Lesser Seals of previous cycles have carried out the commands of the Greater Seal. You have the potential to finally break Kreisia's cycle... in Orzand's favor.%
Anemos noted that Laminah still held her halberd ready. The bard unobtrusively shifted his lute to his hands.
%I did not protect your lives out of 'mercy'. I created a weapon that no Overlord has ever wielded before - living Primary Servants. Primary Servants who can 'befriend' Kreisia's next Savior, and then betray him.%
Did my treachery inspire that idea? Anemos wondered, somberly. Did you remember how I used your openhearted friendship against you?
%On behalf of the Voice of Orzand, I command the three of you to destroy the next Savior.%
Cynthia gasped, "Yusis, what-?"
Anemos questioned, "And if we say no?"
Laminah said, "No."
%You will pledge obedience to me now, or I will batter your bodies into this lifeless rock. Kneel before your Overlord.% Yusis' illusion flickered and vanished, reverting to the undead visage of the Overlord Orzand.
Cynthia froze, motionless.
Anemos strummed his lute, invoking bardic magic.
Laminah charged, raising her halberd.
%I said, KNEEL BEFORE YOUR OVERLORD!% roared the monstrous figure, whipping his arm in a violent motion and casting a wide arc of solid miasma at the three of them.
End of Chapter Six: Awakening the Priestess