Trial by Fire: A LitRPG Dragonrider Adventure (Archemi Online Chronicles Book 2)

by James Osiris Baldwin

  Life magic relates to all matters related to the generation, manipulation, sabotage, and restoration of living things. It is exceedingly rare. True Life magic has not been seen on Archemi since the Invasion of the Drachan during the Reign of Dragons. There are no Life-based Words of Power currently known to humans – however, it is known that there must be Life Words, as alchemical and herbal potions can restore HP, cure disease, and even regrow limbs.

  Knowledge relates to learning, but also to all magic that affects the mind, senses, and perception.

  Shadow is the ‘pure’ darkness element: Darkened Aether which manifests as the freezing energy of the Void. It is both generative and destructive. All Darkness spells have a Shadow element, but pure Shadow energy can be used to form damaging attacks, create curses that inflict debuffs, reanimate or destroy the undead, manipulate shadows, etc.

  Darkness-aligned creatures take extra damage from Time and Gravity effects. They take reduced damage from Light and Aether effects. They gain +5 to most attributes during the night, and -5 to most attributes during the day.

  “Well, aren’t we just a couple of special snowflakes?” I chuckled. “Here’s me, chosen by some old god and saddled with the Mana Spear, and you’re apparently the first dragon since the Drachan showed up to be able to do any kind of Life magic. If we get any more special, I might as well change my name to Gary Stuzin.”

  “Wat?”

  “Don’t worry,” I replied. “Let’s have a look at these spells of yours. I want to have them by the time we accompany King Tightass to see his jeweler.”

  Karalti only had access to Level 1 spells. She would gain access to higher spells every five levels from here on out: Level 2 spells at Level 10, Level 3 at Level 15, and so on, all the way up to Level 10 spells at Level 50. Well, spell. There was only one Level 10 spell slot on Karalti’s character sheet. I was guessing it was going to be something like ‘Nuclear Darkness Obliteration Five-Ways Kaboom’. Archemi seemed like that kind of game.

  Whatever that spell was, it was a long way off. We currently had a list of eight to choose from:

  Dirge

  A curse that slowly damages enemies every turn and has a chance to cause the Deaf and Mute debuffs. (3 Lexica required to learn)

  Bioscope

  Analyze an enemy and learn their strengths and weaknesses. (3 Lexica required to learn)

  Sense Aether

  Detect and assess magical effects, artifacts, and locations. (1 Lexica required to learn)

  Cursebreaker

  Cure one ally of status effects and debuffs. (3 Lexica required to learn)

  Haste I

  Increase speed on the ground or in the air. (3 Lexica required to learn)

  Dark Power I

  Double your Attack Power in the next physical attack. (3 Lexica required to learn)

  Dark Focus I

  Double power of next magical attack. (3 Lexica required to learn)

  Shadow Veil I

  Cause an obscuring Area of Effect Darkness effect. (3 Lexica required to learn)

  Sense Aether was a given. So was Bioscope. I knew from playing my fair share of JRPGs that these two abilities were indispensable for strategizing battles and for planning farming expeditions. Dark Power and Dark Focus were both good, because leveling the spell led to triple, quadruple, and eventually quintuple damage - not bad when a strike had the power of a dragon behind it already. Cursebreaker was useful, because if I were disabled - or if Karalti were disabled while we were flying with something like Blind or Concussion - then removing the Debuff quickly could make a huge difference in battle. It was also a prerequisite spell to others down the line that would be even better.

  The others were all pretty solid choices. Dirge screwed with Mages and ranged attackers, and a quick check on Curse damage confirmed that it was similar to the Poison debuff, except that it couldn’t be removed with antidote potions – it had to be cured with Light magic. That was handy. Haste and Shadow Veil would both be good for evasion, but of the two, I preferred Haste. Karalti could already vanish in dark environments, a natural ability I suspected would only become more prominent the more she leveled. A bubble of darkness flying around was far more conspicuous than her natural camouflage.

  Despite being tempted by Cursebreaker, I decided on Bioscope, Sense Aether, Dark Focus I, and Dirge. If Karalti cast Dark Focus, and then cast Dirge in the next action, then the affliction rate of the curse spell would become doubly effective. She could potentially blind and mute an attacker while their health dribbled away, which was always good if you were a DPS character like me.

  Dark Focus had another perk: it could be used with Karalti’s breath weapon, which counted as a magical attack. That was indispensable. Her Ghost Fire currently did 199-205 damage, and she was now up to five blasts before she had to take half an hour to recharge. Doubling her firepower per round could only be a good thing.

  When I confirmed the selections, I felt my dragon’s body heat against my legs, a flare of energy that prickled the hair on the back of my neck.

  “Oooh...” She shivered, rustling her wings. “Yeah... Those are good Words. I gotta eat and sleep before I can use them, though.”

  We were coming up on the Market District now. The smell of food made my stomach growl, but we weren’t here to eat. I took a piece of Venison Jerky from my bag, and chewed on it as the procession cleared a path through the winding streets toward our destination: Stefin Milosovic’s jewelry workshop.

  Chapter 21

  The Captain of the Kingsguard swept up the short flight of stone stairs to Stefin’s apartment, and banged a mailed fist on the wooden door, rattling it in the frame. “Open up!”

  Something metal and heavy smashed on the floor inside, followed by cursing that grew louder as the man inside stormed for the door. My hearing was sharp enough that I could hear him from inside. “Cursed son of a mosquito-bit whore...”

  A balding, beetle-eyed man with a beer gut pushing against the front of his fancy silk tunic opened the door. The color drained from his face when he saw who it was. He paled even further when he saw Karalti.

  “Hello, Stefin.” Andrik lifted his hood so that the man could see him better.

  “Your Majesty!” The jeweler bowed deeply. “What are you... Why do you grace my business with your presence?”

  “A private matter. We must discuss it indoors.”

  “By all means, Your Majesty, though my wife and child are upstairs.” He eyed the Royal Guard Captain nervously.

  “Thank you, Stefin.” Andrik swept inside, followed by the thunder of hard-soled boots across the floor.

  “Stay chill, girl. Keep an ear out.” I dropped down off Karalti’s back, and clapped her shoulder.

  “Okay.” The dragon withdrew under a nearby awning and lay down like a cat, unselfconsciously bringing traffic to a screeching halt - but also keeping gawking onlookers away from Stefin’s store.

  The door opened into the jeweler’s storefront. A shirtless, tattooed man with a cudgel who had been idling near the glass display cabinets stood up straight when all of us poured in. Behind the displays was the workshop, where Stefin had clearly just been working. A teenage apprentice, a thin, sallow boy with short dark hair, stopped grinding a stone against a lathe and stared at us as the jeweler led us upstairs to a sitting room.

  Stefin wrung his hands as Andrik swept his hood back. “Your Majesty, I was not expecting a royal visit. I have not prepared any sort of reception. May I offer hospitality? Wine? We still have a bottle of that-”

  “It does not matter. We will not be here for long,” the Volod replied curtly.

  The craftsman led us to a parlor crammed with rich furnishings and landscape paintings. It was set up for noble guests, with gold and red velvet chairs, oil lamps, a bookcase, and a bowl of mixed grapes and apples. We filtered in, and Andrik casually plopped down onto one the chairs. Stefin stood by, wringing his hands. He struggling not to stare at Suri, and the looks he were giving her were not
friendly.

  “We need to ask you some questions, and we expect you to answer truthfully,” Suri said to him, as the Kingsguard stomped in and took their posts.

  Stefin swelled up another couple of inches. “And who are you to be speaking to me in such a fashion?”

  “This is the pair investigating the slaughter of our clergy by the Slayer of Taltos,” Andrik replied before we could, crossing one ankle over his other knee as he leaned back. “And you will abide by their demands, Stefin, or you risk my ire.”

  Stefin swallowed nervously. “Yes, Your Majesty.”

  I stepped forward. “Some Corvinus Rubies turned up where they shouldn’t. We're trying to find out how the Slayer got his hands on them.”

  The jeweler began to twist the edge of his leather apron. “So, you’ve flushed out the killer, then? Khors be praised.”

  “Don’t deflect, Stefin,” the Volod drawled.

  “Y-Yes, Your Majesty.” He looked between us fearfully.

  “Let me handle this,” Suri said to me by P.M.

  “N.P.” I hung back, curious to see how she worked.

  Suri regarded the jeweler with cool curiosity, hands folded behind her back. “How long have you worked for House Corvinus?”

  Stefin blinked. “We have been the Royal Gemcutters for three generations, my… lady.”

  Suri nodded as she strolled forward. “Then I imagine you have a very secure system for the jewels. You don’t store them here, do you?”

  “Of course not. We keep the rubies in a special vault, as we have for generations. They are, uh, magically active, as I’m sure you know, so we must carefully bleed off some of the mana from the raw stone before they are safe to polish...”

  “Who brings the rubies to Taltos?”

  Stefin blinked a couple of times. “The Volod’s own men mine the jewels in Dakhdir, and once a year, an armored caravan brings them to the shop.”

  “Did they make a recent delivery?”

  “Y-Yes. Three weeks ago. It is always in the summer.”

  “Was the delivery or the store compromised in any way? No robberies, no trouble on the road?”

  “No, there was no trouble.”

  “And the Volod is the only one who buys these rubies?”

  Stefin nodded. “Yes, of course. It is expressly forbidden to sell them to anyone else. Your Majesty, you would not believe that I sold some of your rubies to another buyer? Even if I had the stones, I would not betray my father and grandfather’s heritage.”

  Andrik flinched, startling up straight in his chair. “What do you mean ‘even if I had the stones’?”

  “I mean… that the vault is empty, Your Majesty? You ordered them cut and polished and bought up all of the last delivery yourself. Your emissary collected the last batch.”

  “Excuse me?” The Volod leaned forward, staring at Stefin.

  Stefin shrunk back under the scrutiny. He looked uncertainly at Suri and me. “Yes, Your Majesty. It was only the other week. You do not recall?”

  The young king’s face drew into hard lines. “I am not in the mood to be toyed with, Stefin. My city is in chaos, some undead monstrosity is preying on my duchy, my clergy are being murdered, and now my jeweler is lying to me.”

  “I am not lying to you, Sire!” Stevin held up his hands, backing away a step. “Please, not under any circumstances would I dare. I-I have the letter, I have the receipt stamped with the royal seal!”

  “Keep going.” Suri nodded to him.

  “A-A Royal letter came with an emissary dressed in the colors of your House requesting that we cut all of the rubies and send them to the Keep,” the man stammered. “The letter was of the usual sort, so-”

  “Was this emissary a Mercurion?” I asked.

  The jeweler nodded his head, swallowing hard. “Yes. She was fully clothed from head to toe in red, but I knew what she was by way she spoke.”

  “How?” Suri asked.

  “Mercurions are simulacra. To someone who works with machines all day, the sounds they make while speaking do not sound human,” he replied. “This one had an unusually rough voice. She did not give a name... but she claimed to be the senior apprentice of a Mastercraftsman who works for your court.”

  Rin? A nasty sensation curled in my gut, twisting like a knife. Suri lifted her chin, eyes narrowing, and then flashed me an I-told-you-so look.

  The Volod sighed. “Bring me this letter and the receipt.”

  Stevin scuttled off. While we were waiting, the Volod helped himself to one of the apples in the bowl, but before he could bring it to his lips, one of his bodyguards shook his head. Grimacing, Andrik put it back.

  “Such are the times,” he said, heavily. “Ahh, Suri, Hector... I apologize for my foul temper. It is unbecoming of a Volod to be so curt with his subjects and guests. I only wish that you could have visited during saner times, instead of during this madness. Did you find anything else we didn’t discuss at the Keep?”

  “No. What we do know is that any of the priests who confessed their sins to Father Toth and who are not living inside of Vulkan Keep are in danger,” Suri said. “We need a list of men who’ve spoken to him since the murders began.”

  “I shall have it ordered tonight,” Andrik replied.

  Stefin came back a minute later, bearing a parchment scroll. He unfurled it with shaking hands, and passed it to the guard captain, who stepped forward in front of the Volod. The knight pushed his visor up, revealing a ruggedly handsome face with intense blue eyes. He was older than I’d expected. His mustache was long and white, face deeply lined. There were several minutes of silence as he read the document.

  “Let me see... yes, yes... and this is certainly your signature and your seal, Your Majesty.” The knight handed it down to him.

  “Nonsense, Garen. I signed no such order.” Andrik accepted the scroll, scowling as he read over it. But as he read, his expression shifted to something new: fear and uncertainty. “And yet... you are correct.”

  “Forgery?” I asked.

  “It must be.” Andrik held the paper up to the firelight, clearly perplexed. “Either that, or I was signing off on priceless jewels in my sleep. But I will admit this is exceptional work.”

  Stefin’s lip shook. “Please, Sire, I would never willfully betray-”

  “Silence.” Andrik squinted at the document. “Suri, you told me you can work some magic with a man’s fingerprints? Do you think there is a way to use the fingerprints of whoever signed this?”

  “Maybe. It depends how much the letter has been handled. Let me see.” She held a hand out. The Volod passed it to her, and I craned my head to see around her arm. There was a wax seal with a double-headed raven, the House of Corvinus crest, and a looping signature in dark reddish brown ink that looked similar to blood. Beside it was a clear thumbprint.

  “You normally sign your letters with your print?” Suri asked him.

  “Of course,” the Volod replied. “I am a pious man. The hand is the tool of Khors the Maker, so I always include it.”

  Suri nodded thoughtfully. “I need finely ground charcoal and a soft brush.”

  “I have them downstairs,” Stefin replied, bobbing his head as he looked between us. “I’ll get them immediately.”

  While he was gone, the Volod turned his attention back to us.

  “Did you know of this apprentice?” he asked.

  “She wasn’t a suspect until now,” Suri said, before I could say anything. She was kinda-sorta lying, but Andrik didn’t call her on it. “Her name is Rin. She’s Kanzo’s senior apprentice.”

  “And why, exactly, was she not a suspect? Given that she is closely associated with the murderer?”

  “She’s a fragile non-combatant who believes her master is being blackmailed,” I replied. “The evidence seems to point to that. She didn’t know what the stones were, or anything about what her master was up to.”

  The Volod was expressionless. “I see. So this harebrained notion that Kanzo is being blackm
ailed by someone came from her? How novel. I suppose she’s very pretty and delicate, isn’t she? Most ‘female’ Mercurions are. They are also consummate manipulators.”

  I opened my mouth, trying to think of a rational retort that was better than ‘my instincts say she’s innocent.’ But I couldn’t think of anything.

  “She needs to be taken in as soon as possible,” Suri said heavily. “I’d even advise you to do it now, before she has a chance to flee. She convinced us she had no part in this. We found the laboratory underneath their workshop. The address is 34 Solyom Koz, in the Tanner’s District.”

  My gut tightened like a voice with every word. This wasn’t right. This couldn’t be right.

  “Garen, go rally the city guard. You and Leo can see to this,” Andrik spoke to the older mustachioed man and one of the other guards. “These six will see me safe to the Keep.”

  “As you command, Sire.” Garen put his fist to his forehead and bowed from the neck. Before I could voice my growing unease, the pair of knights departed without any argument, clanking their way down the stairs. Stefin squeezed past them and offered Suri the bowl of powdered carbon and a brush.

  And then it hit me: the rubies that Stefin had given to the messenger had been processed. The ones we’d found in Kanzo’s stash had been raw rubies, not cut ones. Any that Kanzo had polished and ground, he’d done himself. The thief had taken them when they were cut… They couldn’t have been the same batch.

  While Suri applied ground charcoal to the Volod’s thumb, I made my decision. I opened my Player Messaging menu, and discreetly rattled off a quick message to Rin.

  “Don’t reply to this. You need to get the hell out of the Tanner’s District and hide, now. Run.” I stared at the fire so that they didn’t see my eyes or lips accidentally move, watching them from the corner of my eye.