This time, she sent her spiritual awareness to the sixth page. The Archlord-level madra was too much for her to handle right now, and Aunt Charity had advised her to slowly reach the peak of Overlord before she moved on.
She had already advanced faster than her aunt thought was wise, so now she couldn’t express interest in the sixth page without causing trouble. But she could peek on her own…
From the darkness of the room, Akura Malice strode out.
Mercy’s mother was sheathed in a violet dress and wore silver chains in her hair and around her neck, all set with amethysts. Her hair drifted like part of the shadows, and she tapped black lips with fingernails of purple crystal as she walked.
In shock, Mercy made her Book vanish like a child shoving a cookie in her mouth to hide it.
Instantly afterwards, she realized that it would have made her look less guilty if she had just left the Book hovering there, but by then it was too late.
Malice smirked. “Looking ahead, are we?”
“I’m sorry. I heard about the Titan.”
“Yes.” Her smirk twisted into a grimace. “It’s been an eventful week, hasn’t it? It’s hard to remember a time I’ve hated more since advancing to Monarch.”
Mercy hesitated to ask, but everyone in the city was worried about the Dreadgod. Including her. “How much danger are we in?”
“Less than we were from the heavenly invaders.” Malice pulled a chair out of the darkness and folded herself into it. “It is hard to appreciate the scale of mundane threats when one has watched the stars vanish, isn’t it?”
“That’s why I was looking at the sixth page. I don’t like these terrible things happening when I can’t do anything about them.”
“Nor should you. Let that weakness and that helplessness drive you, and soon you will never be weak or helpless again.” She bit a corner of her lip. “Or so I thought.”
Mercy appreciated any opportunity to talk to her mother as a person, rather than as a Monarch, but she was frightened by how much the war in the heavens had disturbed Malice.
Frightened, because that had been Eithan.
And she worried what that feeling of helplessness would drive her mother to do.
“I’m sure Lindon and Yerin didn’t know,” Mercy said.
“I have no doubt. I am concerned about how Eithan may have positioned them without their knowledge. How he may have positioned all of us.”
Mercy tried to appeal one more time. “I know them. I can make sure they stay our friends.”
“You can befriend anyone,” Malice said, “as long as you’re not in competition. They are valuable allies to us, and if they help us weather this crisis and join their master in the heavens, then I will remember them fondly.”
“They’d be more likely to cooperate if I could talk with them.”
Malice sighed. “Let’s assume that, for whatever reason, they began to see me as a rival.”
Mercy’s mouth fell open. Why would Lindon and Yerin consider Malice a rival? Even if they advanced to Monarch, they had never shown any desire to conquer territory. If anything, they would see Malice as an ally.
“What will their first move be?” Malice asked.
Mercy knew what answer her mother was looking for, but she also knew what Yerin and Lindon would actually do first. “Advance,” she said at once. “They don’t do much else. It’s going to be their first solution to any problem.”
Malice tilted her hand toward Mercy, conceding the point. “And then? If they have you at their side?”
“I know you think they’d use me to get to you,” Mercy said reluctantly. “Or turn me against you. But that’s not true! Yerin wouldn’t even think of it, and Lindon…”
She suspected that Lindon wouldn’t come to her with a plan to overthrow Malice. He would keep her in the dark and plan around her, or he would warn her and then go ahead with his plan anyway.
“As I said, I’m not concerned about his plans. Even if he’s a Sage now, he’s a young one, and for the most part our interests do align. I worry about Eithan’s plans, which Lindon may not even comprehend.”
“That’s…” Mercy tried to protest, but it was too likely. “…no, I could believe that.”
“Given all that, you can see why I’m less than thrilled that Lindon is on his way to our gates.”
That may have been a bigger shock to Mercy than finding out the Titan was coming. “What? He’s here?”