Stealing Sorcery

by Andrew Rowe

  Velas smirked. “Good. Give me the best of them. Unless we’re fighting the other platoons – in which case, give me some raw material to work with. I could use a challenge.”

  “Don’t worry, Velas. We’ll make sure you’re more than adequately challenged.”

  If you’re putting me on a team with Lan and Salaris, I sincerely doubt that. Unless these other applicants are legendary heroes and demigods, I’ll wager we’re going to come out on top.

  Velas felt the knock before she heard it. She deliberately slowed her reaction – turning too fast could be startling to others.

  The door swung open before Lydia even had a chance to respond. A younger paladin was standing at the entrance, his forehead drenched with sweat, his breath ragged. He barely managed to raise his hand into a salute before beginning to speak. “Major Hastings! Please come with me, there’s been an incident.”

  An incident? What the resh does that mean?

  “What happened?” Lydia stood up straight, adjusting her sword belt.

  “House Theas. There’s been an assassination attempt –”

  Lydia pushed past Velas and broke into a run.

  Chapter II – Lydia I – A Taste of Poison

  Lydia shoved her way through the heavy doors to House Theas’ manor, racing down the halls toward the fevered sounds of Aladir’s incantations.

  “Let Lissari’s light live within your body, and let the spark of her love —”

  Gods and monsters, he’s casting a Spark of Life. The victim must be...

  Her steps carried her faster, ignoring the startled looks of servants and the numerous signs of wealth that lined the building’s floors and walls.

  “—renew you, and let your heart beat once again!”

  A flash of green illuminated a distant hall, and Aladir’s voice rose again.

  “Let Lissari’s light live within your body...”

  Lydia came into view of her companion sitting with a corpse laid across his lap, a pool of blood beneath the pair. Not all of it belonged to the victim.

  “Aladir, stop,” Lydia commanded, only noticing the other figures standing nearby a moment later. The two women watching over Aladir were similar in visage, albeit separated by many years, but their demeanor could not have been more distinct.

  The elder woman had been shattered by panic and anguish, her makeup smeared by freely-flowing tears. In another circumstance, she might have been quite beautiful. In this, her image was that of grief itself.

  The younger stared downward at Aladir and the deceased man with a hawkish glare, scrutinizing with a mixture of inquisitiveness and anger.

  “...and let the spark of her love...”

  Lydia ignored both of the women, grabbing Aladir’s hand and pulling it away from the dead man’s torso. Aladir raised his head, seeming to notice Lydia for the first time. The Rethri’s once-brilliant green eyes were the dullest she had ever seen them, and a stream of blood ran from his nose down his chin.

  “Aladir, you need to stop. It’s too late for him, and you’re going to kill yourself if you continue.” She wiped a line of blood out from under his nose, showing it to the Rethri to emphasize her point.

  “The healer will stop when I tell him to.” The tear-stained woman hugged herself, shivering as she spoke. “If he dies, at least it will even the scales.”

  The younger woman – just a teenager, Lydia realized at a second glance – turned to the elder, folding her arms. “I told you it was too late, mother. Putting another grave beside Kae’s will not comfort his spirit.”

  The mother took a step closer to her daughter, raising her hand – and then her eyes narrowed as she spun on her heels, retreating from the room.

  Left alone with Lydia and Aladir, the younger girl knelt down, putting a hand on the victim’s forehead.

  “Kae was always fragile,” the girl explained, moving her fingers to close the deceased man’s eyes. “Father sheltered him, pampered him. As the eldest – and the boy – he was the only heir.”

  The girl moved her fingers to the man’s hair, straightening it with careful motions. She moved her gaze upward to Lydia. “He will be furious when he returns. You are the other paladin, yes?”

  Lydia nodded.

  “My name is Nakane Theas. My brother was fragile, yes, but not fatally so. He seemed so happy this morning – he just wanted a breath of fresh air. And then when he pricked his finger on that thorn – no, a single wound would not kill a man. Not even poor Kae.”

  “I tried to save him,” Aladir muttered, his voice weak. “I tried everything.”

  “Your everything, it would seem, was insufficient,” Nakane replied. “But you can still be useful. You both can, in fact.”

  “You think your brother was murdered,” Lydia surmised, glancing around the room.

  Nakane tilted her head down, giving Lydia a cold look. “Oh, I am certain my brother was murdered. The only questions are who and how.”

  Not why? I suppose there are some obvious potential motives – the man was Edrick Theas’ son, after all.

  Edrick Theas was among the most famous sorcerers on the continent – and one of the few publicly known for having found a method to extend his life. He was certain to have many enemies, both among the inherently long-lived Rethri – who might fear a human with a lifespan comparable to their own – and other scholars that were envious of his discoveries.

  Lydia stood up. “I’m going to look around. Aladir, can you stand up and come with me?”

  The man nodded weakly, pausing for a moment set the body gently on the ground.

  “May Lissari guide your spirit to its rest,” the Rethri muttered, bringing a bloodstained fist to his heart.

  “May Lissari guide your spirit to its rest,” Lydia echoed, closing her eyes. When she opened them, she found Aladir and Nakane standing, both looking at her expectantly.

  “You should wait with your brother,” Lydia instructed the young woman, who quirked an eyebrow in reply.

  “Why? He’s dead. He’s not going to get any less comfortable.”

  “I just thought it would be respectful—”

  The younger woman shook her head at Lydia. “I don’t think you fully comprehend the situation. When my father hears of this, someone – possibly several someones – are going to find their heads separated from their bodies. Unless, of course, we find and deal with the culprit before he returns.” She folded her hands together in front of her. “Surely, as an agent of justice, you would rather handle this matter expediently and cleanly?”

  That’s a strange way to react to the death of your brother, but I suppose she’s not wrong. If my brother died—

  She shook her head, dismissing the thought before it could progress any further.

  “All right, fine. First, can you give me any more details on what happened? When your servant arrived at the Citadel, all he said was to come quickly because your brother had been badly injured.”

  Nakane disentangled her hands, raising one of them to her chin. “Well, Kae had just gotten out of bed, and he was in such a golden mood… Normally, we would have spent much of the day reading, but it was lovely outside. He wanted to feel the dawnfire’s rays on his skin.”

  The young woman paused, sealing her eyes shut. “I’m not giving you anything useful.” She took a deep breath. “He pricked his finger on a plant. We should start there.”

  “Just a moment, before we do that.”

  Lydia leaned down, putting a hand against the dead man’s skin. “Dominion of Knowledge, I invoke you.”

  Dominion of Life.

  Dominion of Poison.

  Dominion of Water.

  Dominion of Protection.

  The words that appeared in her mind were unsurprising, but she grit her teeth nonetheless. Poison. Aladir’s attempts at using life sorcery would have been useless – in fact, depending on the type of poison, they may have expedited the victim’s death by spreading the poison faster. Water sorcery was better for treating poiso
n, but if that had been Aladir’s work, it hadn’t been strong enough to neutralize the toxin.

  Lydia decided to omit telling Aladir that the life spells may have worsened the victim’s situation– the Rethri paladin was undoubtedly suffering enough. She could reveal that information later if necessary.

  “What are you seeing?” Aladir tilted his head downward, brushing an errant lock of hair out of his eyes.

  Jarred out of her introspection, Lydia hesitated for a moment before answering. “Evidence of the healing attempts. He also has an aura of protection sorcery.”

  Nakane pointed to the ring on her brother’s hand. “His signet. Father makes them for us. They protect against physical attacks and direct sorcerous attacks.”

  Lydia nodded. It probably works similarly to my shield spells, then. That would imply the poison was administered through something the ring wouldn’t stop – ingesting food, perhaps, or contact with an everyday object coated with a toxin.

  The female paladin stood, glancing around the room. “Dominion of Knowledge, illuminate your sources.”

  Green auras manifested around Aladir and Nakane. Neither was surprising – she had known Aladir’s sorcerous capabilities, and a daughter of House Theas being a sorcerer was hardly unexpected.

  The glowing trail across the room’s white tiled floor was somewhat startling, however. She reached up to adjust her glasses, deliberately extending the spell beyond the moment it normally lasted.

  Inspecting the boy, Lydia noted a light glow around the ring Nakane had mentioned. There was no evidence of other enchanted items on his person. She looked away, turning her gaze back to the sorcerous path.

  “There’s something odd here.” Lydia could not detect the form of sorcery in the glowing path she saw without casting another spell, but it was intense enough that she could discern the directions that it led. “An aura of sorcery that does not belong. We can investigate the flower you mentioned in a moment, Nakane, but I need to follow this.”

  Lydia moved toward the source of the aura, and as she drew closer, she was able to distinguish more detail. The path consisted of glowing footprints with additional splotches of green, like droplets of paint, falling beside them. She knelt down for a moment, hearing Aladir and Nakane following quietly behind her. She measured the size of the footprint – more accurately a boot print, she realized – and decided it belonged to a large man.

  A backward glance showed that both Aladir and the corpse of Kae Theas were wearing shoes. Probably not their trails, then.

  Sorcerous auras normally faded quickly – she had never seen footprints leave a mark of this kind. The level of power it would have taken to mark the floor with every step was staggering, and she briefly debated methods by which it could be accomplished.

  Deliberately dipping one’s boots in dominion essence doesn’t sound like a very likely tactic, but I don’t like the idea of something powerful enough to leave this kind of trail on its own.

  The trail led in two directions, and she followed it first to the left. The path led up a circular stairway draped with red carpet and past a series of paintings – one of which seemed to depict a younger version of the murder victim, a bright smile on his pale face.

  They arrived at a closed door shortly thereafter. “My brother’s bedroom,” Nakane explained. “What are we doing here?”

  “I’m following a trail of sorcerous energy that is visible to me,” Lydia explained, only realizing in that moment that she had failed to provide the others with any information.

  Aladir slumped against a wall, using a sleeve to brush blood off his face, and Lydia gave him a concerned look.

  “I’ll be fine,” he insisted. “Find the bastard that did this.”

  Lydia nodded, opening the door to the room.

  The bedroom was surprisingly plain for the residence of the heir to a famous noble house.

  A moderate sized bed with immaculate covers. There’s a small desk near the wall with a glass of water on it, half-consumed. Opposite the bed, there’s a bookshelf and a table. At the table, a chair, tucked in.

  The room’s large window was open, and the light that streamed inside somewhat obscured the glow from the trail. After a moment, she discerned that there were footsteps leading to two places – the bedside table and the open window.

  And the liquid in the cup next to the bed was glowing.

  Touching the cup should be sufficient for this, given the strength of the aura.

  Lydia moved beside the bed, touched the glass, and incanted again. “Dominion of Knowledge, I invoke you.”

  Dominion of Poison.

  She winced, in spite of the words providing exactly what she had anticipated.

  She turned to the others, noticing that her concentration had failed as she processed the latest spell, and the trail had faded from her view.

  “There’s poison in the water.” Lydia raised a hand to indicate a glass.

  Nakane let out a low hiss. “Poison is a coward’s tool. Exactly the sort of thing Hartigan would use.”

  Hartigan. Blake Hartigan. Edrick Theas’ rival. The pair argued sorcerous theory and philosophy in every possible format – letters, books, and even public gatherings. While Theas was primarily famous for defensive sorcery, Hartigan was the city’s foremost expert on flame sorcery – one of the deadliest dominions for attack spells.

  Like Edrick, Hartigan was one of the few sorcerers who had discovered a method of prolonging his lifespan. Aside from flame sorcery, Hartigan was well-respected for his mastery of alchemy – and it was broadly speculated that he had discovered some sort of potion or elixir to stop his aging process.

  Alchemy, of course, was also famous for producing deadly poisons.

  “Hartigan hasn’t been in the city for years,” Aladir offered, breaking into a fit of coughing a moment later.

  “You think that he couldn’t hire a travel sorcerer to move him from place to place? Please, Aladir, don’t be foolish.” Nakane waved a hand at the Rethri dismissively. Her expression softened a moment later, even as she folded her arms across her chest. “You should stop following us. You’re clearly too weak to continue.”

  Aladir raised a hand in a gesture for them to wait, finishing his fit of coughing before he spoke again. “Doesn’t matter. Kae was my friend.”

  That’s news to me. I didn’t realize they knew each other – although I suppose it shouldn’t be that surprising. Edrick himself is a life sorcerer, and Aladir is the best of our generation. Maybe Aladir was one of Edrick’s students.

  Lydia rubbed her temples in frustration. Murder was never an easy thing to trace, especially when sorcery was involved. As potent as her information gathering spells were, a competent enemy sorcerer often had concealment abilities that were on-par or superior to them. She had spells designed to counter nearly every type of direct obfuscation, but certain types of sorcery could inhibit an investigation without involving direct concealment. Levitation spells, for example, were an easy way to hide tracks – and they left too small of a trace for her own spells to discern.

  “We can speculate about the culprit later. There’s still a trail to follow, and it’s fading. I need to gather as much information as I can before that happens.”

  Nakane nodded in agreement. “Proceed, paladin.”

  She could call me by my name...except that I never offered it.

  “It’s Lydia, by the way. Lydia Hastings,” she added awkwardly. “May Lissari give your family comfort.”

  “Yes. Now, go ahead with the detection spell.”

  Lydia turned back toward the window, and then repeated the spell that had detected the trail. “Dominion of Knowledge, illuminate your sources.”

  The footprints reappeared, leading out the window. She moved to the window, looked outward, and discovered a sheer three-story fall to the ground below. The glow of additional footprints was faintly visible outdoors.

  “We’re going to follow the path the other way,” Lydia declared, turning to mov
e along the trail in the opposite direction. She continued after reaching the point where they had started, tracing the footsteps as they headed to another door – which led outside.

  “He pricked his finger not far from here.” Nakane’s voice was quiet, barely above a whisper. “And then he collapsed in the fountain.”

  “Show me.”

  Nakane led Lydia to – and then past – a large series of hedges. They might have been at the entrance to a maze, but Nakane did not lead her inside. Instead, she took the paladin to a simple rose bush, pointing at a spot where a drop of blood highlighted one of the thorns.

  “No additional sorcery here,” Lydia explained. “The thorn was not the cause.”

  Nakane nodded somberly. “The glow – is it over here?”

  Lydia shook her head. “No, it was back near the door.”

  “Let’s head back that way, then.”

  They returned to the doorway, and then followed the path further, finding that it led around the side of the house – and intersected with the path that led out from the window. The footsteps were going opposite directions, meaning that whoever had infiltrated the house had done so through the path they were following, and then retreated through Kae’s window and returned to their starting point.

  The path they chose was hardly concealed, Lydia realized. They had to have opened a door, crossed several well-traveled rooms, gone up a flight of stairs, and opened Kae’s door – all without being noticed. Could the assailant have had access to some sort of invisibility spell, like what Jonan uses?

  She briefly considered the possibility that Jonan was the killer, but that was ridiculous. He wasn’t even in the city, and he had no motive.

  The path moved deeper into the grounds outside House Theas, leading into a large forested area. The trees were thick enough that she could barely see any buildings in the distance. For the first time, Lydia felt a pang of concern that they might actually stumble upon the killer – it had been well over an hour since the attack, but it was plausible that the assailant was still nearby.

  Lydia shifted her belt to allow for an easy draw of her saber. Her own protective sorcery was already in place, but she paused to extend a hand to Aladir. When he accepted her hand, she spoke familiar words. “Dominion of Protection, fold against his skin.”