“Keep dreaming because I don’t know where it is.”
“I believe I do, but I will need your help. Mr. TA?”
TA took a breath and continued his exposition.
At the peak of a mountain in Ceiha, there was a castle that didn't belong to any king or princeling. The locals couldn't remember anyone having lived there. They thought it was haunted. While there are no confirmed reports of ghosts, all scholars stayed away from it because the first one fell into the town at the mountain’s base as a charred corpse. The next several were crushed by rocks. The only one to survive suffered a breakdown and abandoned the lair for the mountain itself.
No one knew anything for sure about this castle, but there were several factors that made the scholarly community believe it belonged to Dengel. 1) It was in Ceiha and Dengel is believed to have considered the country to be his home because he spoke fondly of it in surviving documents. 2) Ceiha is the only country in the world that is not rumored to host a hidden elf village and thus it would be attractive to Avalon’s most wanted. 3) Fog hung above the castle, and the mountain it stood on was far from any fault line. A similar mountain was a stone’s throw away and was entirely cloaked in Fog. If Dengel researched chaos magic in the area, it would explain this phenomenon.
“I hope your memories will be both a key that unlocks this mystery for me and a shield that protects me from what happened to my predecessors.”
“Traveling to another country, breaking open a mage's lair and investigating delicately,” Basilard said. “That's a rank B mission and beyond the scope of novices.”
“I have reason to believe that Eric is the only one who can enter the lair because of shared memories and spiritual resonance. Also, International Property Law says that he has the strongest claim to whatever is inside,” Haburt replied. “Naturally, you will be well compensated.”
“Who is your sponsor? I doubt you can pay such a fee on a teacher’s salary.”
“Her Majesty Queen Kasile is interested in Dengel’s final lair. He is the oldest known and most famous researcher of chaos energy and so she believes that there may be something related to mana mutation and/or its treatment to be found there.”
Kas?
I need SOMETHING to replace the failed sea mission! When you’re done with whatever it is you’re doing, come see me. I need to let off steam before the next meeting of the Noble Council.
“Mr. Watley, are you listening?”
“Sure, I am. Her Majesty is using you to beef up her reputation in time for the Summit.”
Haburt cleared his throat. “I have also received a grant from the University to study the day-to-day life of commoners during his time and find physical evidence to either confirm or deny various speculation concerning him.”
“Anyone else?” Basilard asked, eyes glowing red.
“Yes, there is one more. Harry Butchin arranged for a ship to take me to Ceiha.”
“Nulso!” Eric stood up. “There’s no way I’m getting on a boat he chartered!”
“I am aware of his confrontation with you, Mr. Watley. While you only see an enemy called Nulso Xialin, I see my old friend and colleague, Harry Butchin. We were roommates in college and so I don’t believe he would sabotage a boat that I would step in. Furthermore, he used to be a pioneer in mana mutation research, so his interest is not unreasonable.”
“I assume he told you to tell us this?” Basilard asked.
“Order does not abide lies. This includes ones of omission.”
“Tasio, Tasio, Tasio.”
The Trickster appeared next to his summoner.
“Yes, Basilard?”
“I need to talk with you, in private.”
“Sure.”
Tasio grabbed Basilard’s shoulder and both of them disappeared. While Eric waited for him to come back, he talked with TA and his fairy friend about subjects such as orc culture and their responses to tricksters. Both of them expressed their sympathy for his tragic condition and offered to stomp on Tasio when he came back. It was a tempting offer. When he did come back, TA gut-kicked him into the wall and reduced him to paste. He bounced back immediately and said, “What was that for? I haven’t done anything yet.”
“Yes, yet.”
“Fair enough. Basilard, are you satisfied?”
“Yes, thank you.”
“Oh, and by the way, you know I have to overturn your fortune because of this chat, right?”
“I know. I’m ready.”
A frightening grin lit up The Trickster’s face. “Oh no, you’re not. Nobody’s ready for what I have in mind. You’re going to love and hate me for this. I guarantee it.”
He snapped his fingers and disappeared.
Basilard clutched the hilt of his family sword and muttered, “Ancestor, give me strength. Okay, Professor, let’s negotiate.”
“YES!” Tiza pumped her fist in excitement. “We're gonna raid some fossil's lair!”
“That 'fossil' is one of the most powerful mages in the history of magic and, according to Eric, paranoid,” Nolien said. “It's going to be very dangerous.”
“I know!” Tiza said excitedly.
Haburt cast a strange look at the sub-room and Eric laughed nervously. Basilard did the negotiation so he could join them. Nolien was doing all of the organizing. He looked like he’d done this clerical thing before. Tiza was fighting a shadow with intensity he rarely saw in her. Shortly afterward, Basilard joined them.
“Congratulations, novices. You're about to make more on this one job than you have on any five put together.”
Tiza smiled brightly and high-fived Nolien.
Team Four left their client to his preparations to begin their own: They had food to collect, equipment to prepare, and plans to formulate. Most importantly, Eric had to figure out how to break the news to Kasile that he would be physically unavailable for the near future.
Tiza untensed as soon as they were out of the building. She wouldn't shut up about how excited she was to go tomb raiding. Eric grinned as trickster mode activated.
“I'm looking forward to it as well,” Eric said casually. “In addition to finding more dirt on Dengel, I might find one of those cool amulets like Nolien wears.”
“Impossible,” Nolien said proudly. “This symbol is the crest of the Noble House of Heleti. It wasn't founded until after the creation of Roalt in 0 AA; 20 AA, to be precise. Dengel has no association with them. They were humans under the patronage of the Wind Goddess, Wiol, and only those close to the family received such a flawless treasure.”
“Then why do you have one?”
“...ahhh...”
“And why was the professor suddenly cooperative when he saw it?”
“...ummm...Look; Miss Annala!”
When Eric's attention diverted, Nolien bolted. Tiza, Basilard, and a third mystery person laughed at his mistake. Cheeks burning, he ran after the healer.
It was harder than he thought. Months of training with Basilard had made him far less squishy than he remembered. He didn't catch up to Nolien until he arrived back at the Dragon's Lair and that was only because Nolien was waiting for him. To add insult to injury, he opened the door.
“After you.”
Eric walked in, followed by Tiza. The moment Basilard stepped through, all his clothes disappeared. His hands descended to cover himself and his face turned a shade lighter than his hair.
“Mia!”
“I didn’t do it.”
The receptionist was grave faced. Then she pulled out a camera and, in a flash of light, preserved her uncle’s embarrassment for her friends online. By the time he reached her monitor, it had been shared several times. The veteran mercenary face-palmed and then his clothes fell on him.
“However, I was forewarned that it would happen.”
As Basilard put his clothes back on, Eric cloaked himself and slipped out of the room. Whatever problem Kasile was dealing with, it couldn’t be worse than a grumpy mentor could be before a training session. He was
several blocks out before Basilard realized he was gone and, by then, it was too late. He decloaked and crossed the drawbridge into the castle town.
He proceeded unmolested to the castle proper and there he saw Retina and Sathel. The former was staring at a wall and the latter stared into space. He stopped just long enough to ask what they were doing. They replied that they were on duty. Her Majesty hired them as an independent review of the castle’s security because of the ruckus caused by Gruffle. Then they went back to staring. Shadow Dengel joined him as he approached the main castle’s gate.
Confused? I know you are.
Of course you do. You're a figment of my imagination.
I could tell you if you asked nicely.
I'd rather trust a book.
Why bother? I wrote it.
In a moment of weakness, Eric stopped and kneed the illusion in the groin. It bent over and made a funny noise, but to others, it looked like the Trickster's Choice attacked a random piece of air. The guards looked warily at him.
“Her Majesty is expecting me.”
“We know, but he's not invited.”
Eric didn't look behind him. He knew who it had to be. “Why are you here?”
“I was hoping to sneak past the bouncers,” Tasio replied.
“Go away, you pest.”
Eric walked past the guards, who were counting down the seconds until Tasio's counterattack. It never came. What did instead scared them even more; The Trickster looked sad.
“Sorry about calling you guys 'bouncers.'” He snapped his fingers and vanished.
“We live in strange times, my friend.”
Said friend shivered.
On his way to Kasile's room, Eric heard gossip about the queen and how much happier she appeared lately. One courtier, to impress a lady, waxed poetically about water that enriched lives instead of ice to hold them together and ended it with couplet merging the queen with the sun. Then Eric noticed that the lady had pointed ears and her feet didn't quite touch the floor.
Kasile's guards opened the door for him and Kasile herself welcomed him with poise and grace. She dismissed the guards. It was only when he sat down across from her that he saw her legs jittering underneath her heavy skirts.
“The Knight of Education is an insufferable ass,” she said while pouring tea.
Eric sipped it. “You don't say...”
Kasile made an unqueen-like groan. “Yes! She created a new scholarship centered on a trading card game just so her grandchildren can attend a private high school at taxpayer expense.”
“A trading card game? That’s ridiculous.”
“I know! My auditor protested that she had the gall to play the ‘diversity’ card and accuse him of discrimination against the non-athletic.”
“Are we talking about a political maneuver or the card game?”
Kasile rose without elegance and hiked up her skirts so she could round the table and smack him on the head. Then she slumped back into her chair.
“She’s the kind of smug, entitled, and entrenched bitch that my dad warned me about before he was possessed by an enforcer. That condescending tone she took when I summoned her…! ‘You’ll understand when you’re a grandmother, my little queen’ GRRRR! She makes me want to splash this tea in her face!”
Eric munched a biscuit. “What are you going to do about it?”
“I’m going to host this card game tournament of hers and personally invite the best players I can find. The prize will be the scholarship. If her smothered brats want it, then they have to earn it!”
Eric drank more tea and poured himself some more. “Why don’t you just say ‘no’?”
Kasile threw her fan at his forehead and, after it impacted, she held out her hand in a silent command for him to return it. He pushed it back into her reach without a thought.
“If I did that then I’d open myself up to ‘the queen is anti-education’ propaganda and I don’t need that kind of press right now. Besides, Ataidar is not an autocracy and my status as a demi-goddess does not entitle me to ignore the free will of others. Indeed, my divine ancestor is the Goddess of Desire and as such –”
This was followed by a summation of over two thousand years of political philosophy mixed with fire-themed theology. It went all the way back to the founder of Ataidar and earlier. Eric involuntarily tuned it out. It was a habit from listening to Dengel all day and all night. Because of this, he didn't realize she asked him a question until she smacked him again.
“Are you listening?”
“You lost me around King Steiner IX and Queen Fran the XII. Why do all your ancestors copy each other’s names?”
“Irrelevant. Besides, the card game is trendy right now, and so I can use it as a fundraiser for mana mutation projects.”
“Like me going to the Mana-less Abysshole to look for Dengel-era research.”
“I don’t expect you to find anything. The point is that I’m making an effort.”
“You are making an effort?”
“Yes, me. As queen, I am an administrator. If a god wants to get something done, they don’t descend from the Celestial Realm to do it themselves. They tell a monk or a nun to do it. I work through agents like you and Gruffle. I stay here in my heaven while you go out into the world to put my plans in motion and watch my enemies.”
“So that’s why Gruffle is following Nulso.”
“Of course. Arresting a mana mutation pioneer who turned to ordercraft is also bad press I can’t handle right now, so I assigned someone to watch his movements.”
“You trust him to do that?”
“Of course not. That’s why I placed a Fire Blood spell on him. If he breaks his parole, then his blood will turn into fire. This means he can’t leave Nulso behind or work against my interests.”
“Couldn’t Nulso negate it with his own power?”
She tried to smack him a fourth time, but Eric caught her wrist. Then, noticing that the biscuits were gone, he moved her fingers into his mouth and mimed chewing them. She made a face and pulled her hand back, wiping it on a napkin.
“I am a divine being. I have divine blood, which means I use divine magic. Furthermore, I am the lawfully designated authority in this country and I administer punishment for crimes occurring within my own home. Put these two facts together and Nulso cannot touch my spell.”
Until the meeting of the Noble Council, they spoke of other things. There were other knight departments giving her grief, nobles that hounded her with proposals, the Summit projects, and the soon in-coming suitor line. This led to talking about Siron and his honoring ceremony that very night. He was a brilliant hero during Tasio’s prank and she wanted to make sure everyone knew it.
“Thus my excuse for why I summoned you: I need your opinion on the Tazul attack.”
“Here's my opinion: 'Tasio is a pest and I had nothing to do with it.'”
Kasile smiled warmly enough to melt anyone's heart. “Thanks for coming, Eric. I didn't mean to pull you away from your training, but the knight made me so mad I was about to ignite again.”
“Don't worry about it, Kas.” A mischievous idea spread a smile across his face. “Now, about my payment...”
Her face clouded. “Payment?” The chilled hurt in her voice made him wince.
“Yes, payment. For my payment, I want...your laughter.”
Her face cleared and she stepped back. “Don't you dare!”
Eric wore pants and flat work shoes. Kasile wore heavy layered skirts and fashionable heels. It was no contest. The mercenary grasped her waist and tickled his payment out of her. She put up a brave resistance but ultimately gave up and laughed out loud. The guards outside did nothing but smile.
As usual, Eric woke up the next morning to the sound of traffic on the bridge above his house. What was unusual was the roar that jolted him out of his covers. He reached for his staff on instinct and raced to the front door's peephole. A giant eye stared back at him. It retracted to reveal a giant serpent and opened
its jaws wide.
“Oh, bugger.”
The beast enveloped Cutlass Bridge with its mouth but failed to break its connections to the streets. It chewed and pulled, but the bridge remained intact. Safe inside his shell, Eric yawned and looked for an energy shot. If this was how his day was starting, then it was going to be a long one.
He changed out of his pajamas, munched an energy bar, and stretched to limber up. All this time, the giant serpent roared in frustration because it failed to reach him. He chanted a spell involving gas, smoke, and nausea until he carried a sickly green sphere in his hands. Then he opened his mail slot and chucked the magical sphere down the serpent's throat.
It reared and choked. Its skin turned from green to purple and it sagged in weakness. This made it easy prey for other early raisers in the warrior community. When one of them struck the killing blow, it collapsed into the alley on the warrior side of the bridge, right on top of someone's roof.
“Abyss take you, Trickster's Choice!” shouted the owner of said roof.
“It's not my fault it attacked me!” Eric yelled back.
“Thanks, Trickster's Choice!” the victorious warrior shouted. “This thing will feed the neighborhood for a week!”
“This is great leather...!” her husband, Ax, mused. “And these teeth are just what I need…”
“It's not my fault it attacked me!” Eric repeated. Tasio was waiting for him at the top of the stairs. “This is your fault, isn't it?”
Tasio put his hands on his hips. “Look at the leaf calling the grass green. I had as much to do with that as you did.”
“Then why are you here?” Eric walked past him. Tasio followed.
“I wanted to say good morning.”
“Anything else?”
“Now that you mention it...” A warrior girl walked past them both, holding a piece of leather and fashioning it into a purse shape. She paused to smile at Eric before moving on. “Being my choice isn't all bad, now is it?”
“I guess not, but I still don't want you hanging around me every morning.”
“I know... I know...baby steps.”
He disappeared before Eric could say more. It was Shadow Dengel that accompanied him to the Dragon's Lair and he taunted him about his status the rest of the way. He did his best not to respond because too many people were looking at him.
Looming Shadow: Journey to Chaos book 2 Page 22
