Page 112 of The Sundered Realms

Of course when the chance came it was double-edged.

Of course Liris couldn’t say no. Freedom at the expense of her principles was no freedom at all.

Void it, maybe Serenthuar had raised her too well.

“I’m the only one proficient enough in both Thyrasel and spellcraft to have a chance at stopping Jadrhun, which means since he’s moving now it has to be me that tries, and that means I’m a target. All Jadrhun has to do is take me out, and he’s home free,“ Liris said flatly. “Whichever way you look at it, I’m a sacrifice. Do you have another option for me?”

“Aside from an attitude transplant?” he asked sarcastically.

“Then don’t pretend I have any real choice. I know what I have to do, and I don’t want to talk about it.”

Vhannor’s expression iced over. Liris almost regretted putting it to him in those terms—of course now he’d be worrying about what he’d made of her and not wanting to push anymore. But void everything, she was the one most hurt by this and didn’t need to manage his feelings on top of hers.

“Fine,” he said, in a way that made plain he did not in any way consider this fine. But Vhannor did as she asked, and returned to silence, and let her stew, and Liris was going to scream.

Thank the gods the detection sphere flared.

Liris froze, nearly tumbling off the skimmer as the feeling of being hunted, of being made into a target, made small, overwhelmed her.

“It’s fine,” Vhannor said, slowing beside her. “There’s no one anywhere near who might wander into whatever that is, if it even is a trap.”

Oh good, she thought distantly. More tests.

More tests, endless tests, until her death, and these ones might actually kill her.

“We can just keep going,” Vhannor said.

Was he serious?

Void it, was she serious?

Tests were the one thing Liris could pass every time, even if it got her nowhere. But this time, for once, she didn’t have to worry about pleasing the adjudicator.

Liris changed direction abruptly, heading straight for the spell.

“Liris!”

“No,” she snapped. “I will not just keep going like this.”

Liris crested a hill and then slid down straight toward the spell, taking it in at a glance while Vhannor stopped above.

A demon portal after all, but a pitiful one. No, the trouble was it was situated within another spell, which was clever, and what looked like the outer layers were a whole separate pattern with one purpose:

Capture anything that crossed its boundary and hold them there. Presumably assuming she would be so fixated on investigating the spell she wouldn’t see it.

Savagely, Liris thought, Void that.

And then stepped deliberately inside, triggering the trap on purpose, while Vhannor had frozen, like she had finally gone so far that he wouldn’t even try to help her.

Well, she’d always known she was on her own. Liris gritted her teeth and bulled ahead, she and had already traced control of the spell when silvery magic-vines erupted from the ground.

With an oath, Vhannor finally decided he couldn’t just watch and flung beautifully aimed bolts of magic at one vine, knocking it away from her, and another, more disc-shaped, sliced off at the root. It grew back, but Vhannor kept it from advancing.

Liris moved quickly, surely, her voice dripping disdain with every word of dispelling.

Jadrhun thought he could terrorize her? She would end him.

The spell was simple, its notable power coming from the Thyrasel line. No surprise there: Jadrhun had evidently abandoned pretenses. Liris dispelled it with no trouble, but the vines that it had already manifested didn’t vanish, reforming as Vhannor cut them even though they no longer multiplied.

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