by J B Drake
“Stupid cow,” he thought. “You lucky not here to kill you.”
He kept all this from his face, however, and held on to the sad frown upon his lips.
“Really care for you, Maline,” he said. “Came to say sorry, yeah, but also came to warn you and your new man.”
“Mardaley not me man,” Maline muttered.
Fargus smiled. “But he look after you, though. He good to you?”
With a furtive glance at her feet, Maline nodded.
Fargus’s smile grew.
“Good.” he nodded. “Good.” Then his smile faded. “That Tip’s not what you or Marsha think he is, you got to trust me.”
“What you mean Tip’s not what me or Marsha think he is?” Maline replied, a deep frown upon her lips.
“Let me in, pet,” Fargus replied. “Will tell you everything.”
In response, Maline glanced behind her once more, but she remained unmoved.
“The bloody hells is wrong with you,woman!” Fargus snapped in his mind. “Bloody move!”
“It’s really cold out, pet,” Fargus said at last. “Won’t you let me in?”
At this, Maline shook her head and straightened.
“Can’t just let you in!” she hissed. “Not me place!”
Fargus smiled. “Yeah, know that. It’s your new man’s house.”
Maline’s cheek reddened at this. “Look, Fargus, Mardaley and me not—”
Shaking his head, Fargus widened his smile. “Sorry, he not your man. But he treating you nice, so he got to hear this too.”
“Look, Fargus—”
“It’s okay, pet, already told you. Don’t blame you for going to him. Never treated you right, so only fair you go looking for it somewheres else.”
“No, Fargus—” Maline began.
“Let him in, Maline,” a voice called out from behind her.
Fargus stared past Maline as the sound of footsteps reached him. Before long, Mardaley came into view. With the calmest smile he could muster, Fargus nodded, even as his grip upon his blade tightened.
“You Maline’s new man,” he said.
Mardaley stared briefly at Fargus before turning to Maline.
“Look, Mardaley—” Maline pleaded.
“It’s quite alright, Maline,” Mardaley replied. His tone was calm, even, and completely at odds with the coldness of his stare. “Marsha told me all about you and Fargus.”
It was at this point Fargus felt a ball of dread come into being within the very pits of his stomach. If the tale came from Marshalla, this Mardaley would know just what he was capable of. And yet the old man was asking Maline to allow him in.
“Look,” Fargus said, fighting to keep his smile upon his lips, “not want to bother you, so—”
And it was at this point that the ball of dread within Fargus erupted into full-blown terror, for as he stared into Mardaley’s eyes, he felt a force claim him, a force similar to that which held him rigid when Maline’s other friend came to her rescue. Except this one didn’t defile him, though it did more than just hold him rigid.
“It’s no trouble,” Fargus heard Mardaley say as he felt himself lose control of his own limbs, his lips holding onto a smile that was not his.
“Please,” Mardaley continued, “I insist.”
With every ounce of strength he could, Fargus tried to turn to Maline, to plead with her to save him. But his gaze remained upon Mardaley.
The old man smiled, turning to Maline. “Why don’t you show your friend to the sitting room?”
Confused, Maline stared from Mardaley to Fargus and back again.
“You sure?”
Mardaley nodded.
Maline turned to Fargus. “Come on, then.”
With a smile still upon his lips, Fargus felt his feet move of their own accord, carrying him deeper into the house. For a brief moment, his eyes were his again, and in that moment, he turned to stare down the street. Perhaps there was someone who could come to his aid, someone who could save him. But there was no-one. Where was a peacekeeper when you needed one?
Then, Mardaley closed the door behind him.
*****
Sighing, Magister Meadowview smiled as he watched the majestic swans glide across the lake before him, one of many within the Gardens of Taith. Of all the birds of the air not bound by, or imbued with magic, the swans were the most majestic in his eyes, and this bevy in particular he’d been visiting ever since its matriarch was just a chick gliding behind her own mother.
“Watching the swans today?” a voice called out from behind him.
Turning, the Magister’s gaze fell upon a smiling Mardaley.
“I felt sure you’d be by the fountain again, reading.”
Magister Meadowview smiled. “I didn’t think I’d be here long.”
Smiling, Mardaley walked over to join the Magister upon the bench.
“You seem in a good mood,” Baern said as his friend sat.
Mardaley frowned. “Do I?”
Baern nodded. “Maline come up with a new delicacy?”
Grinning, Mardaley shook his head. “No, but she is working on one.”
“Oh?” Baern asked, sitting up straight.
“Still experimenting, though.”
“Oh,” Baern replied, pulling a face as he turned to the swans.
Mardaley chuckled in response.
“So what’s so urgent that I had to drop everything and come meet you, anyhow?” Baern asked after a brief spell. “And why here? Why not at your store?”
Mardaley sighed. “Because I’ve taken on a new helper.”
Baern frowned. “Why is that a problem?”
“That helper is Thane.”
The Magister’s eyes went wide. “Thane?”
Mardaley nodded. “It was Maline’s idea. The boy came over yesterday looking for work. I turned him down of course, but Maline was most insistent, and I…well…she can be quite persuasive.”
Baern smiled. “I can imagine.”
Mardaley sighed. “Yes.”
“Have you told Marsha yet?”
“Oh, gods, no!” Mardaley exclaimed. “That’s for Maline to do. It was her idea after all.”
Baern laughed. “I would gladly give you a viewing stone for when she does.”
Mardaley shook his head. “Don’t, please.”
Chuckling, Baern shook his head at his friend.
“So, what’s so urgent, then?” he asked after a spell.
Mardaley sighed. “I had a visitor last night.”
“Oh?”
Mardaley nodded. “Yes. A man by the name of Fargus.”
A deep snarl parted Baern’s lips.
“You know him?” Mardaley frowned.
Baern nodded. “He tried to rob Maline once, and would’ve done so had I not come along.”
Mardaley’s gaze darkened at this. “When was this?”
“The day I came to talk to you about the highland baron’s request.”
“She never mentioned anything.”
Baern shrugged. “I’m not surprised. She swore me to secrecy after she begged me not to hurt the scum.”
Mardaley smiled. “But you did.”
“Only a little.” Baern grinned.
Chuckling, Mardaley shook his head.
“Where’s he been hiding anyway?” Baern asked. “Tirelin said his agents searched all of Merethia for him.”
“He wasn’t in Merethia.”
“Oh?”
“No. Apparently, there’s some cavern or somesuch not far from Merethia. He hides there whenever people are after him. He got wind of the Fairshrouds hunting him and fled there. He only returned after hearing of their fall from grace.”
“The sly serpent.”
Mardaley nodded. “Indeed.”
Then, a thought occurred to Baern. “He told you all this freely?”
An innocent smile parted Mardaley’s lips. “By freely, what do you mean precisely?”
Baern cast a side-ways glance at his f
riend, a smile dancing on his lips. “What did you do…?”
“Nothing!”
“Mardaley…”
“I didn’t hurt him, Baern. I couldn’t, Maline was there.”
“Ah.”
Mardaley nodded. “Precisely.”
“So, he’s unhurt, then?”
Once more, Mardaley nodded. “Mostly.”
“Mostly…?”
Again, Mardaley nodded. “His mind should be his own again by nightfall. Although I can’t say what he might get up to between now and then.”
“His mind…? Wait, you didn’t…”
Mardaley’s innocent smile returned.
Shaking his head, Baern sighed. “So what did he want, then?”
“To rob me, believe it or not.”
Baern’s eyes grew wide as a snort escaped his lips. “Rob you?”
Mardaley nodded. “And probably kill me.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive. Marsha told me all about him, and when I heard the words he was saying to Maline when he came to the door, I knew his intent without a doubt.”
“And it didn’t occur to him that you, being the proprietor of a famously successful store selling arcane trinkets and whatnot, would, at the very least, have a trick or two up your sleeve to stop thieves?”
Mardaley shrugged. “I suppose not.”
“Incredible…” Baern replied, then frowned once more. “But I still don’t see what’s so urgent we have to meet this very moment.”
At this, Mardaley sighed as all levity drained from his face. “He had an…interesting tale to share.”
Baern’s frown deepened. “I’m not going to like this, am I?”
“No.” Mardaley shook his head. “I suppose not. Do you remember Toriel?”
“Toriel.” Baern mused as he stared into the ether, then turned to Mardaley once more, his eyes bright.
Mardaley nodded. “Yes, him.”
“This Fargus had news of where he is?”
“In a manner of speaking.”
Baern shook his head. “You’ve lost me, Mardaley.”
“Toriel is dead, Baern.”
“What?”
Mardaley nodded.
“Forgive me, but…how is that bad news?”
“Fargus says Tip killed him the night he—”
“Wait, what?”
“You heard me right. His tale goes that the night Toriel attacked Tip and Marsha, Tip held Toriel rigid, then rotted him alive from his limbs right up to his head, then set that on fire.”
“Dear gods!”
“Precisely.”
“What outlandish nonsense is this?”
Mardaley shook his head, his face one of supreme seriousness. “I scryed his thoughts, Baern. I asked him to recount the whole thing, and scryed as he did. He was telling the truth precisely as he saw it unfold.”
Baern stared hard at his friend. “Mardaley, do you know what you’re saying?”
Mardaley nodded.
“This is Tip we’re talking about. The boy has only just mastered conjuring an ice dagger!”
“Baern, believe me when I say I have turned this over again and again in my—”
“The man is a drunk, Mardaley,” Baern cut in. “In our brief scuffle, I could smell the drink. Are you sure he didn’t imagine it all?”
Sighing, Mardaley shook his head. “His memory was too vivid. If he was drunk at the time, it wasn’t enough to dull his senses enough to have imagined what he saw.”
Sitting back, Magister Meadowview stared at his friend.
“Forgive me, Mardaley, but I find this tale too tall to accept,” he said at last. “Even if you ignore this is Tip we’re talking about, those priests that night saw nothing untoward when they went to Marsha’s rescue, and I highly doubt they’d miss a putrid pile of elven remains.”
“They would if Tip rotted the man above the waste devourer.”
Baern moved to speak, but he had no words.
Mardaley sighed. “I turned this over in my mind all night, Baern, and again this morning. Believe me, I know how it sounds.”
“Do you?” Baern replied. “Do you truly?”
Mardaley sighed once more as he stared at his friend.
“There is an explanation though,” he said at last.
Baern nodded. “Yes, this Fargus is a drunk and a liar.”
“No.”
“What do you mean, no?” Baern demanded. “You think he’s trustworthy?”
“No, I mean…well…yes, the vagabond is a drunk and a liar, but he’s not lying now. There’s another explanation.”
“Which is what?”
“Do you not remember what you said to me the day you came to visit after our friend first broke loose?”
Baern held his friend in a blank stare for a scant few moments before his gaze soured greatly.
“Now you just insult me,” he growled.
“No, Baern, wait—”
“It was I who told you about the power within the boy, was it not?”
“Yes, but—”
“And it was I who preached caution to you when you brought up your plan to train the boy, was it not?”
“Yes, but—”
“And do you not think I have been practising the same caution?”
“That’s not what—”
“Do you not think I have been keeping a watchful eye on the boy?”
“I didn’t mean—”
“Do you not think I would’ve noticed him wielding such power right—”
“Gods damn it, Baern, would you please let me speak?” Mardaley snapped.
Baern glared at his friend, but kept his peace.
“I do not question your keen eye. Gods know you’ve seen through many a pretender in the past, and all without a single scrying spell.”
Baern scoffed at this.
“But what I mean is,” Mardaley continued, fighting to keep his irritation under thumb, “suppose there is another Tip? Suppose this great power within him doesn’t belong to the Tip we know, but a Tip we’ve never met, one the Tip we know isn’t even aware of?”
Baern frowned. “What…like another entity?”
Mardaley shook his head. “More a different personality.”
Baern’s frown deepened.
“A different personality,” he repeated as he pondered Mardaley’s words.
Mardaley nodded.
“You mean a fractured mind,” he said at last.
Mardaley nodded once more. “Yes. What if there are two Tips? One, the sweet, innocent child we’re training, the other a magic-wielder who does not hesitate to take a life.”
Baern sat back slowly as he nodded at his friend. “That…would explain much.”
Mardaley nodded. “It would, wouldn’t it?”
“Yes…it would.” The Magister sat forward once more. “But then how do you explain this other Tip’s absence? If Toriel’s death is to be by this other Tip’s hand, given what we know of that night, it stands to reason this other Tip only shows when the Tip we know is in mortal danger. And gods know Tip’s had more than his fair share of that since then.”
“Ah,” Mardaley replied. “You’re forgetting our friend.”
A blank stare greeted Mardaley’s words, but it was soon chased away by a knowing smile.
“Of course,” Baern replied. “With her around, this other Tip need not surface.”
“Precisely.”
Baern frowned once more. “Forgive me, Mardaley, your news certainly is grave, but from your summons I was expecting something a bit more…dire.”
As he spoke, Baern stared deep into his dear friend’s eyes, and as the words left his lips, he finally saw the dread within Mardaley, and when he saw it, it spread to him.
“What am I missing, Mardaley?”
“What will happen when we part the two?”
Baern’s frown deepened. “You mean to part our Tip from the other Tip?”
Mardaley shook his head. “No, Baern. On
ce we part our friend from Tip, what will happen the next time Tip is threatened and he happens to be on his own?”
Baern’s frown deepened even more, but as he moved to speak, he finally saw what it was that had scared Mardaley so, and as he saw it, his chest tightened as his breath left him.
“Oh my dear gods,” he gasped.
Mardaley nodded, his face pained and ashen.
“If this other Tip shows up in full view of the Tower, Naeve’ll think our friend is still in him.”
“Precisely.”
“She’ll order him to be contained. Mardaley, we’ll use force, we’ll have to! He’ll fight back, he’ll have to! And if we don’t kill him, we’ll imprison him in a damned void sphere. Good gods, he’s just a boy!”
Mardaley shook his head. “It’s worse than that, old friend.”
With his heart climbing up his throat, Baern stared hard at his friend. “What could possibly be worse than that?”
“You and I both know our friend is weak. Much of what she’s done, much of what she did in that storehouse could only have been possible by wielding the power within Tip. If this other Tip were to wield that power in its entirety…”
All blood drained from the wizened Magister’s face as his shoulders sagged and his heart bled.
“He’ll kill many before we contain him,” he said at last, “if we can contain him.”
Mardaley nodded once more, a deep grimace twisting his features.
“And we can’t not separate them,” Mardaley said. “We can’t allow her to wield such power unchecked. It’s only a matter of time before she turns on us.”
Baern stared at his friend square. “Mardaley, what have we done?”
“I know, old friend, I know.”
“What have I done?”
“I know,” Mardaley soothed as he placed a calming hand upon his friend’s shoulder.
“I’ve loosed a viper in my own home,” Baern continued, oblivious to his friend’s gesture, “and with no way to contain it.”
“Baern, listen to me.”
“My own people. They will die, and it’ll be all my fault.”
“Baern, please, listen to me.”
“It was listening to you that got us into this mess in the first place!” Baern snapped.
As the words echoed about the pair, the men stared at each other, neither knowing what to say.
At last, Mardaley removed his hand from Baern’s shoulder.
