Chapter 181: Jayde's Test
It was only during that night that Elder Terrakeep found out that it had all been a lie. Iveanne had long been in love with Elder Terrakeep, but due to his betrothal hadn't pursued the young man. Iveanne had been aware that even if Elder Terrakeep had returned to his family, she would have been forced to honor his betrothal.
It was only after his engagement was canceled as the young noblewoman had given up on her dreams of marrying the silver ranked mage after decades of waiting for him, and had found another high ranking young man to marry. It was then that Iveanne believed her chance had come.
She had tracked down Elder Terrakeep convinced that she could sway him to love her, but no matter what she did, Elder Terrakeep never looked at any other woman besides Banca. Finally, Iveanne decided that the only way to win Elder Terrakeep was to get rid of Banca—which she did by slowly poisoning the woman.
Elder Terrakeep had been devastated when he found out that Iveanne had murdered his beloved woman. He had always believed that she had died due to illness. It was the one thing he had resigned himself too when he was younger, was that he would lose his beloved early, with her only be a copper mage, Banca's lifespan would be a lot shorter than his. Even though the thought of losing Banca earlier had devastated the young man, he was still happy to spend the years that Banca had with her.
If it hadn't been for Taera, Elder Terrakeep most likely would have followed his wife when she left this world, but he had promised Banca to always look after their daughter. It had taken him years to convince Banca to have a child. Banca had always been worried that their child would take after her and be a copper ranked, and she couldn't bear the thought of her daughter being made into a servant.
When Taera was declared a dual bronze elemental on her Reading Day, Banca had sobbed out of relief. Even though Taera was a bronze ranked mage, Banca had refused to risk having another child, so the two had only ever had their daughter. The guilt of knowing that Iveanne had killed his wife simply to try and gain him had nearly driven the old man insane.
It was only with Charliye reminding him that Taera and her unborn child needed him that had helped him retain his sanity. Iveanne had been filled with jealousy as Elder Terrakeep still didn't pay her any attention even after his wife died. He had given all his love and attention to his only child, even after Taera married and moved into her own home, Elder Terrakeep hadn't allowed Iveanne to move into his house, but kept her at arm's length.
When Iveanne had found out about Taera having a stone ranked child, she had believed her chance had come. She knew that the penalty of hiding a stone ranked child was death. She had assumed that by telling the Inquisitors about Taera would get rid of all her problems. Taera, her husband, and her child would all be given the death penalty. She had gambled on the fact that the Inquisitors wouldn't kill a silver ranked mage.
What she hadn't counted on was that the Inquisitors would reveal her to be the informer, she had known as soon as Elder Terrakeep had found this out, that her dreams of marrying him and leaving the Lower Realm had ended. The day the Inquisitors left Shaihshire, Iveanne had begged them to take her with them.
The woman had arrogantly believed herself safe in Erstonia, thinking that Elder Terrakeep would never seek her, mainly since the Inquisitor's were known to protect their informers, and should anything happen to her, suspicion would immediately fall onto Elder Terrakeep.
Elder Terrakeep had already taken this all into consideration when he came up with his plan for vengeance. It had only been a week since his severe beating, but he had dragged his tortured body out of his sick bed and with Charliye help had made his way to Erstonia in a day. The Inquisitors would never believe that Elder Terrakeep been able to pull this off, they knew the condition he had been in when they left.
It was due to this that Elder Terrakeep had taken the chance to go after Iveanne, he knew he only had a small window to carry out his revenge, Elder Terrakeep had been resolved that he would kill this woman. There was no way he could live sharing the same sky as this traitor.
But after finding out that this bitch had killed his beloved, Elder Terrakeep had been torn. He wanted to drag out her painful death as long as possible. It was only Charliye's argument that made Elder Terrakeep realize that he needed to end it as quickly as possible and return to his sick bed. Very soon, someone in the village would realize he was missing, and all his careful planning would be for naught.
Knowing that Taera needed him, Elder Terrakeep quickly dispatched the traitor, before burning her body to ash. Then he and Charliye promptly returned to the village. With Charliye's help, Elder Terrakeep was able to return to his house with no one the wiser that he had left.
A few days later, when an Inquisitor did turn up to investigate Iveanne's disappearance, just looking at the sick old man burning up with fever in his bed, he quickly laid his suspicions to rest. And with the villagers testifying that Elder Terrakeep had never left his sick bed. The Inquisitor returned to Erstonia to inform his superiors that Elder Terrakeep had been in no condition to leave his bed never mind travel to Erstonia to abduct Iveanne — and just like that Elder Terrakeep was cleared of all suspicion and the disappearance of Iveanne became a mystery that was never solved.
***
Jayde, stared at the distracted looking stone mason, wondering what he was thinking about as various complex emotions flashed across his face. Charliye shook his head slightly before his dazed eyes cleared as he looked at Jayde.
Seeing Jayde looking at him inquisitively, Charliye felt his cheeks heat up slightly.
"Ah sorry about that, I was just surprised hearing that Elder Terrakeep and his family had already blood sworn themselves to you," Charliye said, trying to come up with a reasonable excuse why he had been staring dazedly in front of him for so long. He couldn't very well admit that he had been distracted due to old memories filling his mind.
Jayde smiled faintly. "Master Andire while I don't expect an answer today regarding the blood oath, I would like a response to my proposition about you and your sons repairing the buildings and warehouses."
"Oh, of course," Charliye said. "I agree... to both—the work and the blood oath," he clarified.
"Excellent," Jayde said, hiding her shock. She hadn't expected Charliye Andire to agree so quickly to the blood oath.
What Jayde didn't realize is that it was Elder Terrakeep allowing Taera and Camryn to blood swear themselves to Jayde that had made up Charliye's mind. Ever since that past incident, Elder Terrakeep had become very more protective of Taera and Camryn, and Charliye knew that even if it cost him his life, Elder Terrakeep would protect those two. Elder Terrakeep allowing them to take the blood oath was an indication of his support and trust in Jayde as far as Charliye was concerned.
Charliye wouldn't have been so quick to decide to take the blood oath, if he had known that is wasn't really that Elder Terrakeep had approved or trusted Jayde that he had taken the blood oath. It was only due to Taera taking the blood oath, and knowing just how stubborn his daughter could be, Elder Terrakeep had known that he wouldn't prevent Taera from blood swearing herself to Jayde — that had been the only reason why Elder Terrakeep blood sworn himself.
Without given himself much more time to think about it, Charliye retrieved his small dagger, slashing his palm, he quickly made his blood oath. He didn't want to give himself any time to think about what he was doing, as Charliye figured he would lose his nerve if he had time to think about it.
After Elder Terrakeep witnessed his oath and the glow around his dagger had died down, Charliye asked Jayde to give him time to speak to his wife and sons about the blood oath. Charliye assured Jayde that his wife would unquestionably take the oath, especially once she found out her husband had blood sworn himself, but Charliye didn't want to force his sons—they had to make up their own minds about it.
Jayde promised Charliye that even if his sons decided to leave Shaihshire, she would give them each a hundred gold pieces to resettle elsewhere. Charliye smiled gratefully at Jayde offer. A hundred gold pieces would be more than enough gold for his sons to start anew in another village.
Since Charliye was now blood sworn Jayde decided to come clean with the rest of her plans, removing a privacy stone from her satchel Jayde activated the privacy ward. She had previously activated it when she had discussed her plans with Elder Terrakeep, except at that time she had done it secretly.
No one besides herself had known that she had raised a privacy shield around Elder Terrakeep's house earlier. But then her whole plan today had been to test everyone loyalty. Jayde had been astounded when not only Elder Terrakeep and his family had taken the blood oath, but Raven, Ash, Nova, and Maianna had also made a blood oath. Jayde had always intended to reveal her plan about freeing the slaves she and Maianna were going to buy, the big reveal was designed to test everyone's loyalty.
Jayde had even dug up the small green stone buried in her back garden at her cottage at the school and bought it with her. She had intended to conceal the gem here in Shaihshire, to use it to teleport directly to the village if she suspected Elder Terrakeep was going to betray her.
Maianna had spoken of the Elder, and Jayde had already made a plan to eliminate the man if he didn't blood swear. She had been thrown slightly off balance when she entered Elder Terrakeep's cottage and found Taera and Camryn waiting there as Maianna hadn't informed Jayde that Elder Terrakeep's daughter and grandson lived with him.
For a while, Jayde had even considered changing her plans, but this opportunity had been too rare for her to bypass, and Jayde desperately needed to know if she could trust the people around her. Her future plans depended on what trusted allies she was able to amass.
Jayde wasn't naive; she realized that what she was attempting to do wasn't a solution. The only real solutions were either for the people in power to change and start to defend and protect the weaker members of their society, which Jayde had already concluded was never going to happen.
The noble and royal families were too reliant on their slave force for cheap labor, and it wouldn't be financially viable for them to free their slaves. Their greed would never allow it. If they had to pay for their labor, it would mean less profit for them. The one thing the corporations in the Federation had taught Jayde was that profit was the only thing rich and powerful people cared about.
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