He grabs my arm roughly, jostling me against the tip of the spear that is still being held against my back.
“Stop, Captain,” a sweet voice says from above.
Chapter 13
A gorgeous, serene, youngish woman in a cream and brown gown comes gliding down the stairs to us, stopping the captain of the guard in his harassment. She shares the same dark hair that Crowhurst wears, but her eyes are warm where his are chilly. She smiles at us as she descends the stairs to greet us. Is this Queen Vivian who we have been taught to fear?
“Captain Crowhurst,” she says, “I hope you haven’t been planning to execute these guests of ours without informing the Queen or me, have you?”
“No, ma’am, I—”
He stops himself when he sees her expression, clamming up.
“No,” she says, finishing his sentence for him. “You were just going to imprison these poor travelers. Is that the impression we want to make in Camlan? Is Castle Nennius a place where new people will be jailed and interrogated without cause?”
“I … The queen—”
“Tell me, Captain. Do you speak for the queen?”
“No.”
“Do I?”
Captain Crowhurst takes a deep breath before answering, looking away from this woman and glaring at me. As if it is my fault that he’s getting upbraided.
“Yes,” he mutters.
“That’s right. I do.” The woman has reached the foot of the stairs now and pauses when she gets to Balderdash13. “Oh, dear. You have a smudge of blood on your chin.”
Balderdash13 puts a hand to her chin, feeling for the spot, but the woman pulls out a lacy handkerchief, reaches to the tank’s face and cleans it herself. Balderdash13 takes the cloth from her meekly.
Name: Morgana Avery
Level: 45
Description: Queen Vivian’s advisor and right hand. Madam Avery acts as an extension of the monarch in the castle and surrounding land.
“Thank you,” Balderdash13 says.
“Not at all, my dear.” She beams at the tank before turning her attention to the soldiers surrounding us.
So, not the queen. Kinder than the queen, so far at least, but with nearly as much power. I wonder why Brother Xavier didn’t tell us about her.
“So, now, Captain. Please tell me what you were doing with our guests.”
“I was only doing what I need to do to protect this castle, milady,” the captain of the guard says sullenly.
“Which was …” she prompts.
“Which was to take control of the situation. This group of armed strangers appears out of nowhere in the entrance of Castle Nennius and I shouldn’t immediately be suspicious? Look what they have already done to my men in just a few seconds.” He gestures to the body on the floor.
I look around surreptitiously. Callidus’s Stealth has probably needed a cool down period, but I don’t see him anywhere. Smart kid.
Morgana’s gaze follows where the captain points, her expression impassive.
“You killed this man, did you not? Not them?” she asks, gesturing to Sergeant Alley.
He returns her look but doesn’t respond.
“Very well, Captain Crowhurst. I understand your point. Let us not have any more bodies today, please. I do not want you making decisions about extinguishing anyone, stranger or not, without first apprising Queen Vivian or myself of the situation. I cannot properly advise the queen on what steps to take if I am not fully informed of what steps have been taken. Do you understand?”
Captain Crowhurst looks down, and would I swear I catch him rolling his eye before he hides his face. “I understand.”
“Wonderful. Now, friends. Follow me.”
This last phrase is directed at my party.
“Wait, what?” I know I should be grateful that this captain is no longer allowed to just kill us, but I’m unnerved at how quickly things have changed.
She passes through our group, past Captain Crowhurst, and toward the entrance. After a few steps she pauses and turns back to us. “Follow me. That is, unless you prefer to be surrounded by … weapons.”
“No, we’re coming,” Balderdash13 says, already making her way to the advisor’s side.
As we reach the start of where the long rows of tables begin, Callidus appears back into view, casually leaning against the head of a table.
Madam Avery pauses at his appearance, but smiles and takes it in stride.
“Well. You belong with this group?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Alright.” She nods. “Follow me.”
We follow her to the end of the room, where a pair of doors stand open leading into a long, low-ceilinged room full of bunk beds. As we cross the threshold, I smell the roaring fire burning in the fireplace to the right of the door. Morgana walks straight to one of the leather armchairs in front of the hearth, and the soldier sitting there jumps to his feet, offering the seat.
“My guests and I need some privacy, please,” she says to the soldier, but only to the one soldier; she doesn’t raise her voice to tell the room or make any demands. She just seems to take it for granted that her short statement will give her the result she wants.
Within seconds, whispers spread the news throughout the room, and soldiers file out the door.
“Welcome to Castle Nennius. All of you,” she begins.
The last of the soldiers scramble to gather their things as Madam Avery talks, shushing each other and pushing one another towards the doorway. As the final soldier makes his way through the door, he bows to the advisor and closes the door behind him, leaving us in total privacy.
“Now, that we are alone and away from the suspicions of Captain Crowhurst, why don’t you tell me why you are here.”
“We have a note from Brother Xavier for your professor. We were hoping to learn about Alchemy,” I begin.
“Alchemy?” She tilts her head, looking at me. “Yes, well, Professor Dove is one of the best teachers for Alchemy on this side of Camlan. You certainly can’t go wrong there.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“But I still don’t understand how you ended up here.”
“Well, we heard about Queen Vivian, of course. Her power is legendary, so, I guess we figured her alchemist must be powerful, too.”
The rest of my group keep their faces impassive at my invention.
“I see.”
“Yes, ma’am. Madam Avery. We were actually hoping for an audience with Queen Vivian, if possible. We have a … Um. A gift for her.”
“You’d like to meet the queen?” She seems amused by this request.
“If possible.”
She pauses, and looks away, into the fire. There’s no sound for several moments beyond the crackling of the logs in the hearth. She smiles to herself, and then to us.
“Well, that sounds like a lovely plan. The people of Castle Nennius will be happy support you in those goals.”
“Oh! Great. Cool. So, then, we can just … go?”
“Oh, no. Of course, I’m going to support you in your quest to learn Alchemy, but if you want an audience with Queen Vivian, you need to do something for me first.”
Of course we need to do something for Morgana before she’ll do something for us. Of course we do. I should have guessed that.
“That seems fair,” I say cautiously. “What kind of help do you need?”
The queen’s advisor beams at me. “I knew you would see things my way. It’s really just a small thing, something that I can’t trust to one of my soldiers. They’ll just want to hack and slash at what they think the problem is. I would handle it myself, but since you’re here you seem perfect.”
“Really? Perfect?” Erinocalypse asks.
“Yes, my dear. I saw the way you cast a spell to stop the soldiers from harming you. The magic you wield is the perfect tool to solve this problem for me.”
“And what exactly is the problem?”
“Oh, just a small thing. One of the maids has had tro
uble sleeping lately. She claims it’s one of her roommates snoring, but I’m not sure. Could you go find her find out what has been disturbing her sleep?”
Quest Offered: In the Middle of the Night I
Description: Something more than snoring is filling the maid’s nights. Find out what it is.
Reward: +300 XP
“Yes, we can do that,” I say, accepting the quest. “Do you know where we can find her? Will it be on our map?”
When I pull out my map, I notice several blinking yellow dots throughout the castle indicating where we need to go for all the quests we have open. The Throne Room, the Library, and now one of the towers.
“Yes, you should see the servants’ quarters at the tops of many of the castle’s towers. Hers, in fact, is in the same tower as the library.” Morgana looks at us knowingly. “You can stop by and visit Professor Dove on your way to talk to the maid.”
These quests have us going all over the castle, up and down stairs. The more we can streamline the faster we can get this done.
“And then, once we find the maid, and figure out what has been disturbing her sleep, you’ll get us an audience with Queen Vivian?”
“Absolutely. That’s perfectly fair. Guardians of Camlan deserve the best.”
“Alright. Okay.” TexBadass nods vigorously and stands, ready to be on his way. “We’ve got a library to find.”
Chapter 14
The soldiers glare at us as we exit their barracks and cross the great hall to the entrance and the stairs going up to the galley. Captain Crowhurst waits at the foot of the stairs and holds a spear across the width, blocking our ascent.
“What?” Erinocalypse asks. There is no patience or conciliation in her tone. Maybe Morgana’s praise of her Petrify spell has given her more confidence. Or maybe she is just ready to take him on.
“I recognize that you have somehow deceived Madam Avery into thinking you are to be trusted, but do not think for a second that you have me fooled as well. I have men all over this castle and I will know where you are every moment.”
“Great. You’re spying on us. Got it.”
He narrows his eyes at her. “Do not forget.”
“Okay.” She sighs. “Anything else? Can we go now, or should we tell Madam Avery that the task she explicitly asked us to do because you can’t took us so long because you held us up.”
He raises the spear, clearing our path but doesn’t say anything more. Erinocalypse gracefully raises the hem of her cloak and starts her climb up the stone stairs, the other five of us just behind her.
At the top of the stairs, I look back down to see if any of the soldiers have followed us, but a small group remains at the bottom just watching us. It’s a little unnerving to know how closely Captain Crowhurst is going to be paying attention to us here. I don’t like that we’re already on his bad side.
Callidus consults his map, getting ready to scout ahead if necessary. Ahead of us is a long galley that looks down onto the great hall on the left, with windows on the right. Every twenty feet or so is another soldier standing guard, but they don’t seem to be paying us any attention.
“Looks like it’s up another level,” Callidus says. “I think I see stairs at the end of this corridor. Everyone stay close, but let me keep an eye out for traps.”
Morgana was as good as her word, and we remain safe and unmolested as we cross through the castle to the next set of stairs. This stone staircase winds around in a wide spiral up to the next level. Two windows high up in the tower let in tiny shafts of natural light, but mostly we feel our way up the stairs by torchlight. Erinocalypse slows her steps and lets the tanks climb ahead of her.
“Nice to not have to light every single torch this time, huh?” I joke to Erinocalypse.
She grins. “Yeah, I’m feeling a bit lazy.”
“What do you think about that quest Morgana set for us? Is it a trap?”
She frowns and look at me. “A trap? I don’t think so. I guess I just assumed it was a straight-forward ask-for-help quest. Like the ones Mayor Barnaby gave us in Allynton.”
“Yeah. Maybe. Probably.” I nod, thinking. “I hope you’re right.”
At the top of the spiral staircase is yet another navy-and-maroon-clad soldier, spear in hand. He glances at us once but makes no other contact. There are two hallways on this level, one to the left and one straight ahead. Callidus consults his map again and points to the left.
“Almost there.”
As we walk farther down the hallway, I notice a pale golden glow coming from one of the doors almost to the far end. That’s the same golden light I recognize from the Camlan Challenge, indicating the location for a quest. We’re here. And the corrupted code really does seem to be contained. The game mechanics are working the way they’re supposed to again. Thank goodness.
The door is closed, so Callidus knocks, first hesitatingly and then, after a moment, with more force.
The door opens.
“Yes?” A tall, gangly bald man in a gray robe looks cautiously at us from the narrowly opened door.
Name: Professor Alastair Dove
Level: 49
Description: One of the top alchemists in Camlan Realm
“Professor Dove?” Balderdash13 says. “Hi. Hello. We’re sorry to bother you but we were sent here by Brother Xavier. We have a note for you.”
As she hands it over, I get the game message:
Quest Completed: Make the Right Friends
Description: You’ve made a new friend. Professor Dove in the Library of Castle Nennius can now teach you Alchemy
Reward: +200 XP
“Brother Xavier, of course.” Professor Dove quickly reads the note in his hand before continuing. “It says here you have passed the Axios Trial and wish to advance further in your study of Alchemy. Is that correct?”
“Yes, sir.”
He scrutinizes us over his spectacles, spending the most time examining SteelFeather, who admittedly is beginning to look like a beast or knight in shining armor with all the Strength he is building up, and not at all the kind of person with the delicacy and magic necessary for mixing potions.
“Oh, not me, sir. I’m just here to support them. I’m not an alchemist.”
This brings a chuckle out of the professor. “Alright. Why don’t you come in to the Library and I can see what we have to work with.”
He opens the door wide, allowing us to enter. Just before I cross the threshold, I check over my shoulder down the hallway. The soldier standing guard at the top of the stairs has been watching us, maybe even overhearing our conversation with the professor. As soon as he sees me looking, he averts his eyes.
I know it will only be minutes before Captain Crowhurst knows we have entered the Library, and probably why.
The Library we enter is bigger than I expect, at least thirty feet in length with high ceilings that allow for small windows to let in natural light above the tall bookshelves. In the center of the room are thick rugs, heavy tables and a large display of a map of Camlan. I cautiously walk over to take a closer look. It’s not enhanced with video game magic like the map in my inventory, but the artistic effort taken with this large parchment makes up for it. I hover my finger on the western coast of the kingdom, near where this castle stands, where we found the dungeon entrance, where the town of Allynton is.
I realize that any moment now, Toterra Online will be allowing gamers from all over the world into Camlan Realm for the first time. Some, if not all of them will populate in the same lakeside region that we did a few days ago. Which means that some of the players may be close enough to reach this castle soon. I don’t think there aren’t any beginning-level quest chains that would bring them here, though. There isn’t any reason for a brand new player to visit Castle Nennius.
Thank goodness. I am really loving having this game all to just our little group.
There’s a throat cleared right next to me. “Do you mind? Please do not touch that.”
I pull my hand
away; Professor Dove shakes his head at me.
“Now, as Brother Xavier must have told you, the science of Alchemy is more than a science. It requires faith and focus and magic. Those of you who passed the Axios Trial seem to have the skills and abilities necessary to at least be worthy of meeting me. But I have more to ask of you.”
Chapter 15
Professor Dove stands by his map of Camlan, addressing our group.
“You understand, I’m sure. I can’t teach just anyone the Alithia Potion. It is a very potent and powerful substance, and it would be irresponsible of me to pass on the knowledge of how to make it without thoroughly vetting you.”
“Vetting us how?” TexBadass says. “Didn’t we already pass muster with what Brother Xavier put us through?”
“That was to ensure you have the necessary power. This is to ensure you have the ethics. You will each be required to take the potion and answer a series of questions. This ensures you are both answering the questions truthfully, as well as gives you an idea of what your own subjects will go through if you choose to use the Alithia Potion.”
Erinocalypse and I exchange a glance. I’m not sure I like the sound of that.
“What kind of questions?” she asks.
“You’ll see. I cannot stress this enough. It is part of my duty as an alchemist to only teach this to those that are worthy. You see, the power of Alithia Potion is not transferrable.”
I frown. “What do you mean?”
“I mean whosever hand mixes and creates the potion is the only person that can make that batch of the potion work. If you brew this, only you can ask questions that will demand an answer. Someone else can try, but the person being interrogated will then find themselves able to lie and obfuscate.”
“Whoa. That is some powerful magic.”
Professor Dove nods. “We do not take this lightly.”
The chill in his voice makes me take notice. I didn’t realize how very seriously we should be taking this.
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