Restart Again: Volume 2 by Adam Scott (hardest books to read txt) 📕

She shook her head. “Every gate to Attetsia is closed, and there are no posted guards to open them. Due to their orders, our scouts were unable to proceed further in their investigation.”

Lia turned to her with a confused look. “The scouts were ordered to...not scout?”

“Kaldan’s relationship with Attetsia has been troubled for generations. After a bloody secession from our kingdom, an unsteady truce was formed between our king and the Attetsian Council. This truce has been violated and renegotiated dozens of times, most recently by King Virram,” Valandra told her. “A main tenet of that truce states that no member of Kaldan’s army or ruling party may enter Attetsia’s walls without direct permission, aside from one appointed ambassador. Since the gates stand unmanned, our scouts could not enter without breaking the treaty.”

“What’s our plan, then?” I asked. “If we’ll be breaking the treaty when we enter, why order your scouts back? If we’re violating the rules regardless, I’d rather have the intel on what we’ll be walking into.”

“You and Lia are not official members of the Kaldan military,” she pointed out, “and as I am the appointed ambassador to Attetsia, there will be no violation of the treaty.”

I did a double take. “Wait. You’re the ambassador to Attetsia AND the leader of the Trinity Guard?”

“Yes,” she stated matter-of-factly. “I was present during the most recent conflict resolution, and the Attetsian Council requested me specifically for the role. They seemed to value my combat skills more than my diplomacy in their decision, but King Virram agreed with them, so I accepted.”

For a moment I struggled to keep a straight face, but I quickly gave in and laughed out loud. “I’ve never met anybody quite as straightforward as you, Val. It’s refreshing, if not a bit odd.”

She blinked at me silently and furrowed her brow as if I had just posed her a riddle. “What did you call me?”

“Val? Short for Valandra?” I looked to Lia for reassurance, and was comforted to find that she looked as confused as I felt. “The most obvious abbreviation of your name?”

“Nobody has ever called me Val before.”

I sat in stunned silence as I processed her statement. That can’t be possible. Does she not have friends? Or anybody who can be halfway informal with her? The implication brought up a twinge of pity in my gut. “Huh,” I eventually said to break the silence. “Well, now someone has.”

“Val. Vaallll. I think it sounds nice!” Lia chimed in, testing out the nickname a few times. “That is, if you don’t mind.”

She paused for a moment in consideration, then gave a small nod. “That is...acceptable.” It was difficult to differentiate against the dark caramel color of her skin, but it looked as though a slight flush had come to Valandra’s cheeks.

“Was there any other information you wanted to discuss with us?” I asked in an attempt to move the conversation along.

“Oh. No, that was all. We will have to discuss strategy when we arrive in Attetsia ourselves.” She looked back and forth between Lia and myself multiple times. “Thank you,” she added awkwardly, before turning to face forward on her bench.

“I actually had a question for you, if you don’t mind,” I called out to her. She stopped mid spin and turned back to us, nodding for me to proceed. “I’m curious about your shield. It’s a beautiful piece, to be sure, but I don’t see how stained glass could hold up to any sort of impact, especially one from a weapon.”

She removed the shield from her back and displayed it carefully with both arms outstretched. “This shield has belonged to the royal family since the founding of Kaldan. Countless generations have used it before me, and many more will use it after I am gone.” I could hear real passion in her voice as she spoke, which I noted as another first for her. “In that time, it has never broken, chipped, or scratched.”

I had expected as much based on the overflowing amounts of energy stored within it, but I was just as intrigued with how much she knew about it as I was with the artifact itself. “I don’t understand how that’s possible. Could I examine it, maybe? Just for a moment.” There was a long pause as she regarded me with cautious eyes, but in the end she gave a slight nod and offered it out to me.

Instinctually I braced my arms as she slid it to me, but the shield hardly seemed to weigh anything at all. Compared to the massive tower shields I had worked on in Ashedown’s forge, Val’s shield might as well have been a leather buckler. I set it down across my lap and ran a hand along the glossy surface. It felt nothing like its appearance; my fingertips identified the material as burnished steel even as the deep cerulean blue of stained glass shone up at me.

“I cannot say for certain how it works,” Val said as she watched my every move with hawk-like focus. “If legends are to be believed, this shield was one of three artifacts given to the Yorrell family by a great wizard at the founding of our nation. The first King Yorrell gifted one to each of his three most talented knights, and the first Trinity Guard was formed. They have defended the royal family ever since.”

“And you never have to maintain it?” I asked, dubious. “Not even a little polish here and there?”

“I have never personally witnessed any damage to the shield, but it is inspected whenever I return from an assignment regardless,” she answered. “Councilor Gullen and the other High Clerics pray over it for a night, after which it is transferred to the king’s armorer for an inspection of the gear systems.”

Bingo. The new information made perfect sense when I thought back to the shield’s mana signature: multiple people were putting their energy into it, which accounted for the shifting color and the impressive