The Third Step: Chapter Forty-Seven (Patreon)

Power. 

The Sekhem Court respected power above all else. This wasn’t entirely the law of the jungle, but the concept of might makes right was ingrained into the vampiric culture of the region. 

These guards were vampires, each of them with massively empowered bodies. I was guessing that meant they weren’t actually Sekhem vampires, but rather, Khet vampires. Those tended to have massive amounts of strength, speed, and self-empowering spells. Both of them were peak third gate. That, in addition to their higher social standing, was probably why they thought they could do this. 

But I needed to make an appointment with the Sekhem Court itself, and if they wanted to play petty games of power, I’d play.

“Get out of my way,” I said, striding forward. One of them moved with the speed and grace of a serpent, snapping their arm out to block my way, and I simply teleported past them. They turned, and one of them raised his hand, blood magic beginning to coalesce between his fingers. 

“I don’t think I like your tone, fox.” 

“And I don’t like yours,” Ivy said, putting his hands on the shoulders of the two guards and flexing his spirit. His power bore down on the pair, and they staggered for a moment. 

“We have business with the Court,” I said coldly. “Stay out of our way.” 

With that, I turned and walked into the palace, Ivy following behind me, and Kene a few steps behind him. The palace was beautiful, in its own way, but I barely saw it as I marched through the halls. The palace was a maze that I would have had trouble navigating on my own, but I wasn’t moving at random. I was following Orykson and Aerde’s information packet.

As we walked, human servants scattered out of our way, and the occasional vampire moved to watch us, but nobody stopped our group. I put that more on Ivy’s immensely powerful presence than I did to myself. We were able to make our way to a large, open chamber. It looked to be similar to a ballroom or an entry hall, and it was here that the packet locked onto a butler. He was tall, human, and pale for this region of the world, with long limbs. 

He felt incredibly dangerous. Despite his low social station, he was a false Arcanist, and his spells felt more cohesive than any other human I’d seen within the court. His physical mana gave me the feelings of overwhelming force born through incredible precision, like a magical garotte wire or razor blade. Truthfully, the sensation he gave off was more dangerous than even some true Arcanists I’d felt before, like Gakodi. 

As I approached, he smiled, and I gave the man a respectful bow. Meadow had made it clear that I was to bow and scrape to people with power I couldn’t match, and if it came down to it, I would prefer to avoid fighting this butler. More than that, I needed to put myself in position to speak to the true powers of the Sekhem Court, not the lesser vampires milling about the palace. 

“How might I help you, sirs?” the butler asked with a smile on his face, returning a slightly more shallow bow to me, and then a deeper one to Ivy. He gave no bow whatsoever to Kene, and didn’t even seem to recognize that Kene was standing there. 

“I need an appointment with Prince Dhruv Kumar,” I said. “For purposes of the Sekhem ritual, or at least its components.” 

“I’m sorry sir, but we aren’t currently willing to create any more Sekhem vampires. I know that the Khet are, however, and with your beast bodies, you would likely make fantastic recruits.”

“I don’t want to become a vampire,” I said, which seemed to throw the man. I used his moment of wrong-footedness to press forward. “I am interested in the Sekhem ritual for the purposes of constructing an artificial soul.” 

“I… see. I suppose I can pass the message along, and if Prince Dhruv agrees to meet with you, we will get in contact. And you, sir?” 

“I’m here for trade,” Ivy said. “I have a variety of enchantments, and would like specific natural treasures that are local specialities of yours, or of the Khet. In particular: undying bone, gestalt-nadis, and regeneration focused kanda-stone.” 

I shot a glance at Ivy, curious about those treasures. I wasn’t familiar with any of them, but judging from the names, at least two of them seemed to be body empowerment treasures, and maybe all three of them. Why would Ivy need those? His strength was immense.

“Ah, of course. A potent young man such as yourself would greatly benefit from such things. I believe that Princess Maneet’s merchants would be more than happy to discuss such a thing with you. If you’ll follow me to the sitting room, I can arrange for one of them to be there within the hour, at least to open negotiations.” 

I glanced at Ivy, who nodded, and followed the butler away, leaving Kene and I standing there, alone. I frowned, and we began making our way out. We were accosted twice by vampires, but Kene and I were able to push them out of the way and leave. Once we were out on the street, I sighed. 

“I suppose we should find a hotel. I can’t exactly leave a portal open all night. Too much of a security risk. Are you alright?” 

“They didn’t even look at me,” Kene seethed. “It was… I expected to be insulted for humanity. But it wasn’t even that. It was like I didn’t exist to them. I’m almost a peak fourth gate mage! I was stronger than half the vampires there! But that just didn’t matter? It’s utter…” 

I listened to them vent their frustrations as we walked, making our way to the poorer outskirts of the city, since neither of us wanted to put money in the hands of the vampires, but when I caught something at the edge of my senses, I held up a hand. 

“Do you feel that?” I asked. 

Kene paused their rant and shook his head, so I looped closer. As soon as Kene felt what I had, his face grew stony. 

A child was dying. It was a slow thing, an infection that had grown out of hand, and spread through the lungs to the rest of the body. There was also something wrong with the liver, though I wasn’t sure what. I wasn’t a healer, not like Kene, but I knew that if I didn’t do something, it would absolutely kill the child. The woman who was holding the kid couldn’t be older than Kene or I, and she looked terrified. 

“H-how can I help you?” she asked, and Kene raised their hand. I retracted my presence, not veiling myself exactly, but not splattering the street with my power. 

“Your child. He needs help,” Kene said gently. “His infection is getting severe.” 

“I… yes. I’ve given him heart-leaved moonseed with turmeric and tulsi, but the fever just keeps getting worse.” 

“The moonseed,” Kene said darkly. “It’s what’s in his liver. You’ve been using an adult dose, not a child’s dose.” 

The woman shook her head, then nodded, before eventually just staring at him, eyes wide. 

“I’m not an alchemist or healer. Normally, Keerthana would do the work, but she’s been called away by the honorable and powerful Sekhem Court.” 

“Honorable,” spat a tired looking old man a ways down the street. “They constantly call for the only healer in this entire district that’ll treat us, and they never bother to send a replacement. They’ve got as much honor as a pack of wild dogs.” 

The mother’s eyes went wide as she stepped away from the man and I pressed my lips together. I wanted to agree with him, but I needed the Sekhem Court, at least for now. As Kene placed his hand on the child’s head and began to channel solar mana into the baby, I stared up into the sky. 

“Is there an empty space where I could set up shop?” Kene asked. “I’m not a doctor, but I am something of a healer.”

The woman was staring at Kene again as he removed his hand from the child’s head. After that, things moved very quickly. Kene was brought to a warehouse, one that had been long abandoned, and was mostly used by people to dodge the rain or have a place to sleep, and within an hour, Kene had a makeshift alchemy workshop up and running, and was brewing cures with one hand while spellcasting with the another. 

Two days flew by like nothing, as I was put on the task of assistant, removing parts of the plant that weren’t needed and manning the simpler, ungated recipes for things like fever reducer or painkillers. It was on the third day that Keerthana, the healer, arrived. She was a middle aged woman, wearing a worn dress, and she absolutely radiated power as she entered our temporary abode. Despite her power, however, the people seemed to cling closer to her, and she had an entire entourage as she entered. 

“I hear you’ve been looking after the people here while the honorable Sekhem Court called for my aid,” she said. “Thank you.”

“It’s the least I could do,” Kene said, while I gauged Keerthana’s advancement. She felt like she was near the peak of sixth gate, and it didn’t feel like she had broken anything in the advancement. If anything, she was stronger than most sixth gates I’d felt, if entirely benevolent. 

The cynical part of me wondered if her power was why the Sekhem Court called her away. It gave them time to try and convert them to their cause, allowed them to cull the human population, and worked as a reminder to everyone that they were the ultimate power of this region. If she made it to seventh gate, even if she wasn’t ever able to form a Title, she’d still be a serious threat to them in a political sense. They needed her dead, on their side, or under their power before that happened. 

I let the winds of fortune begin to blow in my spirit alongside the winds of resolve as I watched the scene. I was no oracle, able to predict the future, but judging from the web of goodwill around her, it was clear that Keerthana was building a power base of common people. I just didn’t know if it would be enough to defeat the Sekhem Court. 

As Keerthana started to take over from Kene, the pair starting to dive into topics of alchemy that were way over my head, I teleported out of the building and began to head to the Sekhem Court’s palace once again. As I approached, the guards stepped forward again. A different pair, this time, but they must have recognized me, given what they said. 

“Prince Dhruv has stated that you are not to be allowed to disturb him. If you wish to air your grievances, do them elsewhere.”

They hadn’t even bothered to send me a halfhearted rejection. They’d just kept me in the dark, because they had unlimited power. And I could do something about that. Not much, but I could shake up the Sekhem Court. It might even give Keerthana a bit of a nudge. Just like with getting entry the first time, I was going to need to rely on the thing the Sekhem Court loved so much: Power.