Chapter 40 - That's Settled... For Now

The vote wasn’t unanimous, but it wasn’t close either.
Willow’s hand was the first to go up, and for the barest of moments, I thought she’d be the only one. Both Willem and a man from Daniel’s original crew that I only knew passingly named Gavin kept their hands down, as did a few from the newer faces that I didn’t recognize.
But then Garth raised his hand. Thomas followed and Bram practically threw his hand up like stretching it higher really mattered. After that, the rest made their decision rather quickly.
Frederick, still shaken by his inability to command Dawn, sputtered out refusals but stopped when something in his interface presumably warned him about the grace period still being in effect.
Though he looked like he wanted to argue, like he wanted to try and drag Gwendoline and me with him… he didn’t. His eyes kept flickering out of focus at the one thing in this world that I’d learned was more stubborn than Prince Frederick, heir apparent to the Dawnmere crown… the system interface.
After loudly claiming he was only retrieving it, the system let him pick up and sheathe his sword. He made a “this isn’t over” comment–because really, of course he did–and then marched his way out of town.
I didn’t trust him to simply leave and not linger somewhere nearby, but Daniel wasn’t about to let me out of his sight either. Not immediately. Not while he was still trying to gather everyone closer after the prince’s departure. Instead, somewhat surprisingly, Lord Drake’s men offered to escort him to Gold’s Lodge with only the request to speak with me once they returned to finish their investigation.
While I still really didn’t want to deal with the fallout from Gryphon, I accepted their request and they went chasing after the sullen prince.
I definitely would need to talk to Daniel. But I probably needed to go through the regional interface and figure out how to grant ownership over the whole thing to the town first. That worked out though, because the others had already encircled him, and the sound of chatter rising around them made me think it wasn’t the time to insert myself.
Gwendoline had briefly looked like she was going to run after the investigators… but she grasped at the gem on her neck, looking at it with an intense stare as she muttered to herself. I walked over cautiously, yet she still jumped as I approached.
“This… What have I done, Corbin? What have you asked me to do?” she asked in a low, fearful voice. “To turn Dawn against the crown… to cut Dawn’s Chosen off from the force itself… has Dusk tainted me?”
She held the gem tighter, her eyes watering as she looked down the street at the retreating forms.
“Shouldn’t the Dawngem tell you that?” I asked, nodding at it. Her grip loosened just a bit, revealing the clear, cloudless cut of crystal.
“They can be fooled… Dusk can linger and influence without invading my heart,” she suggested and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. “You… are you truly the Lord of Dusk?”
“In the flesh… I guess,” I said, looking down at my rather unimpressive form. “I could put on my Cloak if you’d like, but that might scare some people.”
Between the fact that she could see the title under my name and, well… I’d publicly called myself it, trying to claim I was just using it as a distraction technique was both pointless and far more effort than it was worth.
“For what it’s worth, I meant what I said. I’m not after anything the prophecy says the Lord of Dusk is after. I just want to live and be left alone,” I said. Gwendoline looked conflicted and she grasped at her necklace again. “I’m sorry I put you in this position… Frederick isn’t going to let this go.”
“If you’re the Lord of Dusk… and you’re not going after the Jewels… Corbin, what does this mean for the prophecy?”
“I don’t know and I frankly don’t care what it means for the prophecy,” I said, maybe just a bit too loud. I realized that I’d raised my voice and took a deep breath. “Look, I know it’s hard to believe, but you just watched Frederick declare he was going to cleanse this place over next to nothing. The prophecy is all he has. If this has proven anything, it’s that he will make anything fit it. And that’s more dangerous than anything I’ve tried to do here.”
Gwendoline stared at me and I instinctively felt the need to squirm. It wasn’t quite the same way that Willow had been able to get under my skin–which I still wasn’t sure why I even let her do it so easily–and I was already starting to feel uncomfortable while Gwendoline seemed to take a moment to decide something.
I noticed that we’d somehow drawn the attention of the crowd around Daniel, their chatter dying for just a second before Daniel let out a sharp whistle, snapping most of their attention back to him. I wasn’t quite sure what that was about, but I was really tired and didn’t exactly care to investigate.
I just wanted to make sure the place wasn’t going to blow up, get things squared away with Daniel, then go and find my actual bed.
Willow was in the crowd, further away from Daniel than I might have expected and unlike the others, she was still looking my way, only snapping her head back to her brother when our eyes met.
There was another beat of silence, Gwendoline still watching me carefully.
“You and I both know what cleanse means to him when he thinks Dusk is involved… or, I don’t know… maybe he hasn’t tried to do that in front of you until now…”
“I… know about it in theory,” Gwendoline admitted, a look of concern in her eyes. “But I don’t think I ever truly accepted that there would ever be a place so tainted that he’d have to actually do it, and I’ve never seen it in action.”
I looked down the road, Frederick and Lord Drake’s men becoming harder to see the farther they went.
“To Dawn’s Chosen… there’s only one way to cleanse a place of Dusk, and it’s reducing everything back to nature… Cleansing this place… it would mean the destruction of everything and no amount of prayer would protect the people here that aren’t Activated for that.”
Silence lingered as I felt a chill move along my spine.
Too many towns… And I was always the one blamed. The one accused of genocide… I’d killed people. I’d destroyed fortresses packed with armies of all ages. I’d even taken advantage of towns for their resources when I didn’t stupidly let myself get mildly attached to the places. I wasn’t innocent, I knew that.
But I was the Lord of Dusk… I was the one who was supposed to believe the ends justified the means. Not the Hero of Legend.
“Thank you…” I said, looking back to Gwendoline. She jumped just a bit when I broke the uneasy silence, then offered me a small smile and nod. I didn’t elaborate, because she knew why I was saying it… and I was grateful for that.
“I’ll stay here long enough to establish the Church, then make sure it’s watched over by my fellow Sisters. If the presence of Dawn can prevent war, it’s the least I can do,” Gwendoline said, letting go of her crystal, the gem swinging lightly.
“I’m not sure if it will be enough to stop Frederick forever, but it’s a start,” I agreed.
“Besides, I’m sure the Council of Dawnmothers will be eager to decipher what the Lord of Dusk willingly accepting the Church of Dawn into his territory means… and that may also act as some buffer towards whatever’s to come,” she said, her attention hundreds of kilometers away. “I’ll have to send word to the Council of Dawnmothers at Graham’s Rest with some haste… I can’t imagine the Grand Sanctum will react well if Frederick’s tale is the only one they hear…”
“Well, whatever you have to do, I’ll try to make it easy to get done… As long as it doesn’t affect me too much. I’m sure the town will appreciate a new Sanctum,” I said, deciding there wasn’t much more we could say.
There was no guarantee that she had finally seen reason and wouldn’t go back to Frederick the first chance she could get, but if I could convince her I wasn’t a threat… well, I could only hope that would be enough.
“I had some cut stone set aside for my brewery, but I think that can wait a few extra days. Use what you need from the stockpile to start your building. Yurick can point you in the right direction and I’m sure Daniel will allot you a plot of land.”
“Thank you, Corbin,” Gwendoline said, the worry still lingering.
With little more to say, I just nodded, then turned and walked a bit to the side, only for Daniel to whistle and wave me over when it was obvious I was no longer occupied. I lifted a hand in a wave.
“I’m still figuring out the interface… there’s no setting to just assign the land claim to the town as a whole so I’m trying to decide how to do this,” I explained, maybe jumping to conclusions as I walked over to the crowd.
“Didn’t think there would be if I’m being honest,” Daniel said, shaking his head, then looked around the crowd. “And see, I don’t think any of us really want the pressure that comes from thinking we have a greater right to the land than anyone else. No one needs a royal family here and since you keep saying you don’t want to be royalty, it seems like a dumb choice to have you reassign it.”
“Huh?” I said, then my eyes went wide. “Daniel… I can’t be the one that owns the land… you saw Frederick, he’ll be convinced this entire place has fallen to Dusk…”
“He already thinks that,” Thomas chimed in before Daniel could brush it off. “Never thought the Prince would be so blinded…”
“But…”
“He’s got a point, Corbin. And we’ve already talked about the alternatives,” Garth offered, cutting me off before I could object. Daniel looked at Garth briefly, then nodded.
“You’re right… We talked about it in general, but let’s actually make it official. Settlement Vote, who wants to leave Neverdusk under Corbin’s ownership?”
I briefly felt confused until I realized I’d never looked at just what the system had chosen as the designation for the territory I’d annexed. Something stirred in me at the choice, though I shouldn’t have been surprised that Daniel would have taken note of it the moment Danwood became seated under it. His interface probably even alerted him to the town’s new oversight.
The crowd surrounding Daniel all started to put their hands up rather quickly. Once again… it wasn’t unanimous, but I was starting to accept that some people were just never going to trust me. And truthfully, that was fine. They lived here too, and distrust wasn’t the same as betrayal.
Once it was clear that there were enough votes that I was going to be stuck in control, I let out an annoyed sigh. They had to realize the contradiction here right… they didn’t want a royal family but they were fine leaving someone with the literal Lord of Dusk title in charge with little more from me than “nah, I’m not gonna do evil stuff…” I opened my mouth to say something, unable to really help myself from pointing out their idiocy, when Daniel let out another bark of a yell.
“Settlement Vote! Raise your hand if you think we should form a council that Corbin answers to before he makes any more decisions that affect Danwood or this land as a whole?”
It was such a stupid, pointless thing to do. Unless I accepted their authority, they could make every council they wanted and it wouldn’t matter in the slightest. But… maybe that was the point. Things could have gone very differently here had I been the only one making choices… and I could even argue that my unilateral choices saved lives in the end… but I was only in this position because I’d let this annoying place affect my decisions.
So… maybe it wouldn’t be a bad thing to have to run things by them. Maybe that would make all the difference to prevent more death and fighting. I couldn’t help but smile as every single hand in the crowd went up at Daniel’s call… I might have even put my own up as well, causing Willow to roll her eyes as a smile tugged at her lips that were otherwise pushed together into a thin line.
“Good, that’s settled for now, though I guess we need to figure out the right sort of punishment for the Lord of Dusk if he breaks that rule… Stars, that’s just going to be weird to get used to…” Daniel said, shaking his head with a laugh. I wasn’t positive, but not everyone seemed to be comfortable with his casual joke about it… Though no one actually complained. “We’ll talk tomorrow, Corbin.”
“Um… okay, sure,” I said, feeling like I was being dismissed far easier than I should have been given… well everything. Daniel looked around the crowd, then jabbed a thumb over his shoulder at the Consortium.
“Come on, no point wasting sunlight just because the Prince of Dawn tried to wipe us out, unsuccessfully I might add! We’ve still got work to do.”
Anyone else would have taken the events of the day and decided to build a fire, sit by it, then maybe drink ale until the world started to make sense again. Not the people of Danwood…
There was a cheer of enthusiasm before the crowd started to disperse and I fought back the headache that was starting to form. Was I really about to complain that they weren’t needling me for more? That would be stupid.
I turned, looking back toward my cabin. I fought back a yawn that wanted to escape, though, I really did deserve a good nap, didn’t I? I mean, I just stopped Frederick, even if just temporarily, and didn’t die in the process. If that didn’t earn a reward, I don’t know what did.
“Hey.”
“Quiet’s Hearth looks nice,” I said without looking over at the soft greeting.
“You haven’t even seen the inside with all the furniture yet,” Willow replied. I could feel her staring at me… an almost electric edge to it.
“Well… I’m sure that looks nice too,” I said, feeling way more awkward than I had in… well, actually I wasn’t sure I could remember. Unfortunately for me, she just kept staring.
I waited another second, hoping she’d say something else before it became clear she wasn’t going to let me avoid eye contact. I turned and her emerald eyes bore into mine. I stared back… but knew exactly what she was waiting for.
“I only left because otherwise–”
“Otherwise nothing! Look what happened anyway! So just shut up and be sorry for once,” she said, her calm breaking when she cut me off before I did exactly what she’d probably been expecting me to do. I decided to try again anyway.
“But… Willow you have to–”
“If you wanted to give me that boarshit about how ‘it was good for me or Danwood,’ you should have done it before you decided to vanish without a word,” she spat with real anger before I could actually get going. “I know I’m pushy and I’ve invaded your space… maybe I’ve even demanded things from you that I shouldn’t have… I don’t know… I thought…. I’m not even sure… But you’re a selfish, condescending jerk that refuses to actually let others in even when it affects them. But even though I said that I can’t work with someone if all they’re going to do is turn my life into chaos… that inn is as much, if not more mine than it is yours.”
“That’s… I mean of course it is. You’re the one that’s put in the work…” I said. Her eyes softened just a bit.
“I really, really want to hate you, you know… But even with all of your boarshit, I don’t know if I can…”
“Willow, I–”
“How did you know to come back?” she demanded, cutting me off again and giving me just a bit of whiplash. This girl… I was sure I’d known plenty of women like her over the years… but it’d been so long since I actually let one bother me like she had.
“I…” I started, only hesitating for a moment. “I was listening… with Eavesdrop like I did in Gold’s Lodge. Not all the time but… well I knew the investigators and Frederick were supposed to be here and I just… I just needed to know,” I said, flexing my hands and looking at the ground. “I heard him threaten you… threaten to cleanse the town and I–”
A soft pair of fingers fell onto my lips, silencing me. I looked from the ground to Willow, who stared at me with an odd intensity.
“Thank you, I don’t forgive you for everything… but thank you for coming back,” she said, then nodded toward the inn. “Now come on, the Grand Opening is tonight and that jerk just put me behind schedule. So, you can be on dish duty.”