Interlude: Clevis Revenar

Clevis looked out the window of his mother’s office. The rain had cleared up, but the sky was still almost pitch black aside from the stars, glittering pinholes in the dark canvas of the heavens.

His mind drifted to women as it was wont to do whenever he was feeling particularly thoughtful. His lips curved upwards when he imagined Brynn’s flowing black hair and gorgeous, intelligent gray eyes that seemed to see right through to your soul.

She hadn’t been injured at all in the fight against the monster they encountered in the Blue Dragon’s basement.

And thank the gods for that. Too bad Julian lived.

It was hard to believe that the innkeeper who had served him lunch so many times while he’d taken a break from work had in fact been a depraved monster in disguise.

And it seemed to want to kill Julian specifically. Is that why it captured his consort? As a hostage? No, that doesn’t make sense. Why capture some classless woman for ransom when the only person who cares about her was just launched out a window to his likely ****? Maybe the thing just liked devouring its prey alive.

He shivered at the thought.

She is beautiful, though. I’ll give the Tenlani that.

The dark-skinned woman had looked awfully familiar. He hadn’t been able to place her face, but he knew for certain he’d seen her before. She was gorgeous, with a body so enticing that he could scarcely believe his own eyes when he gazed upon her. And she had been completely naked. Her eyes had roved over him, narrowing slightly as if assessing him. A shiver had run down his spine then, but he’d quickly calmed himself down. The woman was classless, he reminded himself. She was no threat to him.

Then she’d launched herself into Julian’s arms and pressed her lips into his. Julian had returned the kiss readily, seemingly uncaring of the fact that they had almost died!

He tried to clamp down the tremor of jealousy that had snaked through him then; after months of courting Brynn Imerdan, he still had yet to do more than kiss her. He still had yet to see her unclothed. He’d met more traditional nobles who fanatically guarded the “purity” of their daughters, yet even those women had resisted the influence of their parents; eagle to sample life’s natural pleasures before they were married off to secure a political alliance. Clevis himself felt fortunate his parents were not high up in the Revenar family hierarchy, and so he was free to court who he wished so long as he did not sire a child out of wedlock. No Revenar had sired a bastard in over a century, was the official line.

Complete and utter horseshit. There are probably dozens of bastard spawn of my family in Rona alone.

For a moment, he imagined Brynn smiling at him, her hands cradling her pregnant belly housing their growing child. He imagined taking her every night, making her beg and scream his name. He pictured Julian looking on helplessly as he made his twin sister orgasm.

A traitorous thought sliced through his fantasy like Velri’s sword.

Brynn still won’t let me touch her. Even after everything I’ve done for her. And yet this foreign woman – Izel, her name was – has no compunction about letting Julian rub his grimy hands all over her naked body while she kisses him like she’s some street whore.

He snorted mentally.

Amazing how a woman like that could fancy such a weak, pathetic, undeserving man. There obviously must be something wrong with her, mentally. I mean, she is classless, so I suppose there is that. They’re so easily impressed by even the most worthless among the classed. And gods, how ridiculous is it that Julian fucking Imerdan somehow manages to pull a class out of his ass now of all times!

His mind flashed with a memory of Julian sending bolts of red magical energy at the monster, with one of the bolts blasting its knee apart and severing its lower leg clean off. Clevis had been near-flabbergasted at the time despite the urgency of the fight. He’d been prepared to accept that Julian had finally classed at an age at which it should have been impossible, but the idea that he was already powerful enough to significantly damage a monster much higher in level than himself was too much. A monster than had absorbed the damage from some of his most powerful mana arrows and kept fighting.

He grit his teeth angrily.

It's not fucking fair!

Unbidden, another memory slithered through his mind like a worm. It was one he thought he’d long-since suppressed. He saw a much younger Julian smirking down at him triumphantly, a blunted steel training sword held at Clevis’ neck. Clevis’ own weapon was clutched in Julian’s other hand.

“Looks like I win again, Clevis. Try to keep a firmer grip on your sword next time, will you? I’d like to actually break a sweat one of these days.”

He banished the memory as soon as it appeared, his stomach burning with shame at his own weakness.

No, I’m not weak! I’m not that stupid, pathetic boy anymore!

He was classed now. Much stronger than he had been when he and Julian had been children.

He may be classed now, but I’m still definitely much higher than he is in level, and far more experienced in combat. He may train frequently with that Nyrosian oaf, but training’s nothing compared to practical experience. Any fight between him and me would be utterly hopeless. For him, of course.

He'd have to find a way to humble Julian somehow, to remind him of who of the two was superior to the other while also stifling any notions he’d have of seeking **** against him. He’d have to be discreet about it. Too many people would be watching now that Krevos and Maela’s only son had finally classed.

There must be something I can do. Something I can use against him to put him back in his place.

“So, that’s everything, then?” His mother’s voice jolted him from his thoughts. He glanced at her. Jora Revenar sat behind her large wooden desk, a quill in hand as she scribbled on a piece of paper in front of her. She was beautiful; he’d caught more than one of his peers within the Enforcer Corps leering at her, to his disgust. Thankfully her armor covered her impressive bust; she so enjoyed wearing dresses with plunging necklines and high hemlines to show off her flawless legs during the regular gatherings they held at their mansion in the city. He bit his lip.

Relax, Clevis. You can appreciate your mother’s beauty without treating her like you do most women.

He nodded, his face settling into an impassive mask.

“Yes, that’s everything that happened at the Blue Dragon. What I was around to see, anyway.”

His mother pursed her lips.

“I still don’t understand why you didn’t come back here for backup,” she said. “That monster took you and all of the Imerdan children to defeat. What were you thinking? You should have insisted that they wait until you were able to assemble a proper Enforcer squad to exterminate it with minimal risk to the lives of our allies.”

Clevis swallowed his indignation. He hated being questioned, especially by his own family.

“I told you before. Julian would have gone in regardless since he wanted to save his consort. And his sisters being who they are would have followed him. There’s nothing I could have done to stop that aside from physically restraining Julian, and I seriously doubt his sisters would have been on board with that,” he said, silently imploring his mother to listen to him.

Jora’s eyes flashed with a cold anger. She leaned forward slightly, and Clevis had to suppress his instinctual glee when her cleavage came into view.

“Perhaps he would have been more willing to listen to reason had you not attacked him last night.”

A shiver ran down his back as his mother stared at him. He felt like a doe in the forest being stalked by a hunter. The yellow-orange mana torches in the room brightened sharply, as if sensing their master’s fury.

“Mother, I-”

“Silence.” It shouldn’t have been possible for anyone to snarl while whispering, but somehow Jora Revenar managed.

She stared at him, her gaze hard and unforgiving.

“I put myself and my position at risk lying to protect you from your own stupidity. Julian may have been classless, but he was still under his family’s protection. If Lady Maela suspects I was less than honest with her when I spoke up in your defense, the alliance between our two families could be in jeopardy, to say the least. I don’t think I need to tell you what that means.” She lay her hands on the table. Her fingers dug into the wood, leaving small indents and cracking the desk.

Clevis flinched.

His mother smiled thinly. She did so love her displays of power, and she had that in spades. It was one of the few things he admired about her.

“You could have arrested him or taken him to the redoubt for his own protection. No one would have questioned it and you might have even come out the hero. But thanks to the near-fatal injuries Julian sustained that night, his family will always have questions. Doubts as to your ability to let your previous acrimony with Julian go when the situation warrants it,” she hissed.

He swallowed; his fists clenched.

“But you said Julian had no memory of that night. That the… what happened to him caused him to black out,” he muttered. He hated how pathetic he sounded. Like a child clinging to any excuse that would get him out of trouble.

Jora snorted.

“He did claim that, yes. But I could sense he was being less than truthful. Perhaps unlike you, he realized that telling his mother what really happened would do far more harm than good. Before you start blaming Julian for the events that transpired at that inn, it would benefit you to reflect on how your own actions may have helped cause all of this,” she said, her eyes boring into him like two of Brynn’s lightning beams.

Clevis bit back an enraged retort.

My actions? I’m not the one who left his family home against the wishes of his mother. I’m not the one who recklessly tried to rescue some classless whore, putting myself and my sisters in danger! If you want to punish someone, mother, let it be gods-cursed Julian Imerdan!

He kept quiet. He’d learned long ago that when either of his parents wanted to lecture him, it was best not to talk back. To keep his own thoughts to himself.

Instead, he nodded obediently, like a good son should. It had taken him many years to understand that was what he would have to do if he wanted to stay within his family’s good graces, but he’d learned.

“Yes, Mother. You’re right. I acted stupidly, and I’m sorry.”

That seemed to mollify her somewhat. She took her hands off the desk and nodded back at him.

“Good. You’re dismissed, unless there’s anything else you’d like to add?” She raised a red eyebrow in challenge.

And risk saying something that’ll earn me another lecture or perhaps another stint scrubbing floors with the disgusting classless servants? No thank you.

“I’ve said all I wanted to, Mother.”

She waved her hand, dismissing him.

Clevis didn’t need to be told twice. He spun around on his heels and left the room. His mother had already begun sifting through papers before he shut the door behind him.

Finally free of her, his mask slipped again. His face contorted angrily.

She thinks she’s chastised me, but I know her. She cares only about family politics. About the Revenars’ standing among the noble houses. She thinks we need the Imerdans if we want to keep our enemies at bay and prevent them from seizing the throne. Thankfully she’s not the matriarch of our family, and that there are so many of us who know better. Gods, I wish Uncle Vaelior were here instead of in Cam-Nedion. He’d set Mom straight so fast. I wish I’d been allowed to go along with Elora when she’d fostered with him.

He sighed. It’d been months since he’d last laid eyes on his older sister.

He felt the eyes of his fellow Enforcers as he moved through the building. Most were out patrolling as a show of **** or investigating the situation at the inn, but a token garrison had remained. A few had congratulated him when he’d returned, impressed that he’d helped kill such a powerful monster that it had fought Velri Imerdan to a standstill. Others, however, stared at him suspiciously, and he knew they were judging him, wondering why he had cut them out of their share of the potential glory. After all, it had been years since a monster and its brood were discovered to have lived in the city for so long, killing and feeding on its inhabitants with none the wiser. The worst, however, was when he heard one of them praising Julian for helping to fell the monster, as if he hadn’t been a prisoner in that very same building the night before.

Clevis growled angrily, tired of his colleagues. Perhaps it was time to finally pay Brynn a visit. Seeing her usually cleared up his mind.

---

It didn’t take long for Clevis to reach the mending ward Brynn and her siblings had gone to. Yellowish mana torches provided nighttime illumination. The place was bustling with activity, though that wasn’t necessarily unusual.

Especially these days, with riots and crime in general becoming more commonplace. And it seems even the riffraff classless have been engaging in tavern brawls more frequently lately. Meanwhile raids from Serithar are seemingly happening more often and rhetoric from Nyros is becoming increasingly bellicose. Everyone seems to be collectively losing their heads.

He agilely avoided two rag-clad classless men as they stumbled past him. Their breath stank with ****. He glared at them, wishing the laws against public drunkenness were stricter so he could punish them for their insolence.

“Are you injured, sir?” A feminine voice drew his attention forward. A pretty, purple-robed Mender with light blonde hair and deep orange eyes stood a few feet away from him. A fellow elf, she was likely in her mid-to-late twenties. Dark bags under her eyes belied her open exhaustion. Still, the woman’s eyes were sharp. She surveyed him clinically, as if trying to gauge his condition. Something about her seemed oddly familiar.

Clevis gave her a once-over. Her robe was perhaps a size too large on her, but even that wasn’t enough to disguise the woman’s appetizing curves.

The woman’s eyes narrowed slightly, but she said nothing.

He shook his head. “No, I’m actually here to see someone. Brynn Imerdan. She came in with her sisters Velri and Rila, though she herself wasn’t injured. Is she still here?”

The Mender paused for a moment, her expression becoming thoughtful.

“Yes, I think so. We have Rila Imerdan down that hallway, in room 16. She’s still resting.” She gestured towards the end of the large lobby, where people with relatively minor injuries were either waiting or being seen to by Menders and then escorted into one of the hallways, ostensibly to a room to provide more rigorous care.

She opened her mouth to say something else, but he cut off her off, thanking her with a nod and brushing past her. He was conscious of people in the room looking at him, as they were wont to do when an authority figure passed within their vicinity. People just couldn’t resist staring. Judging.

Clevis quickly trudged down the hallway and found the room the Mender had directed him to. He knocked on the wooden door, idly wishing that the florist shops near where he worked hadn’t been closed. He would have liked to have been able to bring Brynn a gift.

It doesn’t matter. I’ll get her something tomorrow and she’ll forgive me. She always does.

The door opened, revealing Velri Imerdan. The statuesque woman embodied a sort of effortless beauty not easily replicated by women who spent hours working on their appearance. She wore a purple tunic that seemed a bit small on her, hugging her toned body and curves. Clevis’ eyes flicked down to her large breasts for a moment. Fast enough that she might not have even noticed.

Velri scowled at him, though he couldn’t help but notice her glare was somewhat less severe than usual.

“Revenar. What do you want?”

You’d think fighting alongside her would make her relax around me. But no. Velri Imerdan never lets go of a grudge.

He swallowed his nervousness.

“I want to see Brynn. Is she still here with Rila?”

Velri glanced to her left, frowning slightly. She returned her gaze to Clevis and shook her head.

“No, she went home to rest.”

Clevis sighed and nodded.

“Right, I should have assumed…” he grumbled. “I’ll come visit her tomorrow.”

Maybe I’ll catch another glimpse of Julian’s consort while I’m there.

Velri shrugged disinterestedly.

“You do that. Goodnight.”

She shut the door in his face before he could wish her goodnight in return. He let out a long sigh.

Well, if Brynn won’t see me, there’s plenty of other women in the city who won’t say no to the company of an Enforcer. And I truly need to let off some steam.

A smile tugged at his lips.

Yeah, I don’t feel like going home just yet.

As he left the mending ward, the gods-cursed memory of Julian flashed through his mind once more. He saw the human boy smirking down at him, both of their swords held in his hands after he had won another of their many duels.

For a moment, he had seen Julian’s eyes flash red, glowing down at him with sheer malevolence. The sight had awoken a nameless, instinctual fear in his heart that made him want to curl into a ball and hide. He felt a chill run down his spine.

He shook his head angrily.

Ridiculous! I was young. The sunlight must have been playing tricks on me.

He put the memory out of his mind and stalked into the city, where there would be many women ready to take his mind off things for the right price.

---

Julian Imerdan (lv. 7 Psion)

HP: 142/142

ST: 119/119

WP: 287/470

Skills...

Attributes…

Effects…

Julian's Skills

[Manipulation] Suggestion (cost: 20 WP): Telepathically implant a suggestion in the mind of a target to influence or induce an action, thought, or emotion.

[Manipulation] Hypnosis (cost: 30 WP) – Lull someone into a hypnotic trance. Requires the use of a pendant or other foci to draw the target’s gaze.

[Affliction] Mind Jab (cost: 15 WP): Project a weak bolt of psionic energy that attacks the mind of an opponent, causing crippling mental pain that lasts for a few moments.

[Affliction] Psi-Bolt (cost: 5 WP) – Emit an unguided bolt of psionic energy that inflicts low Psi damage to a target upon impact. It deals moderate Psi damage against targets affected by Mind Jab, but clears them of the status.

[Connection] Detect Mind (cost: 2 WP/s): Focus your awareness outward to detect the minds of sentient organic beings within ten feet.

[Connection] Connect Mind (cost: 5 WP) – Choose two minds glimpsed with Detect Mind and link them together for a time, allowing a psionic Skill used on one mind to affect the other.

[Matter] Piercing Field (cost: 15 WP) – Imbue a weapon or projectile within range with an impossibly narrow telekinetic field, allowing it to cut through armor. The field dissipates after a single attack.

[Knowledge] Safe Fall (cost: free) - You have learned how to shift your body mid-air to significantly mitigate falling damage.

[Knowledge] Meditation (cost: free) Clear your thoughts and retreat into an introspective state within your own mind. Your WP regeneration is significantly increased while meditating. Meditation is a viable substitute for the equivalent amount of sleep.

[Innate] Focus (cost: free): When in combat, enter a state of emotional detachment which allows you to ignore pain and resist negative mental effects.

Julian’s Attributes

Human - As a member of the human species, your body is more resilient than most other sapient races.

Magical Ancestry - Several of your ancestors possessed powerful magical abilities and talents. The barest hint of their talent resides within you, granting you easier use of magical items.

Psionic - You are capable of affecting physical and nonphysical reality through Will alone. You are resistant to mental effects and psionic damage. You can perceive all spectrums of psionic energy.

Fardreamer - While you sleep, you may randomly send your mental awareness to another place in the universe.

---

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/LLation