Looming Shadow: Journey to Chaos book 2 (23 page)

Basilard introduced the
team to him and Eric launched into a half-hour speech entitled “Dengel is Evil.”
While bored at first, the eyes of both father and son lit up once Eric began
the section of Dengel's elfish arrogance. When Eric paused for breath, the
elder mentioned that it coincided nicely with what Annala shared during the
meeting of the Pan Human-Elf Cultural Awareness Club. In addition to the
interview fee, they promised Eric a free copy of the issue, as soon as they
found someone to outsource their printing and distribution.

“Annala was delightful
to converse with – for a non-human,” Darwoss the Elder said. “Considering what
her deity did to my press, I’m not sure whether to curse him or praise him.”

“Studying with her
might not be a waste of time,” Darwoss the Younger said.

If all his Dengel
Missions ended that way, Eric would have considered it a great day of work.
Instead, he met people like the teacher at Annala's school.

These people did not
see Dengel-the-brilliant-but-deeply-flawed-person. They thought only of Dengel-the-Inspiring-Magecraft-Codifier.
When Eric tried his “Dengel is Evil” routine, most of them cut him off and
asked him direct questions. Some pointed out that it was because of Dengel’s
work that the rebuild of the city was progressing so smoothly. Others told him
he was simply wrong and jealous and trying to make Dengel look bad to make
himself look better in comparison.

In any case, they
weren't interested in slander but in mining the self-praising monologues for
factual details. No Dengel scholar ever had access to a primary source more
direct than tall tales from the Dragon’s Lair, so picking the brain of his
vessel was a golden opportunity. Eric was their chance to validate their
theories and/or learn unknown aspects of his personal history. By the time Team
Four returned to the Dragon's Lair, Eric wanted to scream.

“Go ahead, Dimwit,” Tiza
said. “You'll feel better.”

“Don't,” Nolien said.
“It's not dignified.”

No one in the media
industry cared about them; Tiza was nobody and Nolien refused to talk about his
connection with the Noble Heleti family (because it didn’t exist!) and so they
were ignored. While they waited for Eric to finish slandering his one-time
mentor, the healer practiced buffing and debuffing; casting various spells on
her and then removing them with Dispel. The fighter worked on resisting the
latter while shadow boxing. When it was all over and the four of them stood in
the shadow of the Mother Dragon’s statue, Basilard sighed and made a decision.

“Eric, I have something
you should see.”

“It involves Dengel,
doesn't it?”

 “What else? Come on.”

Inside the lobby, Mia
was slumped over on her desk. She cradled her head in her arms, fast asleep.
Basilard paused long enough to pull out one of her blankets and drape it over
her. Then he gestured for his novices to move as quickly as possible across the
lobby. Through the hallway to the courtyard and past the door at the other end,
Basilard intercepted another sword as it flew his way.

Raki squatted on the
ground and clutched the crown of her head while Aegis stood over her, holding
her other sword. Blood dripped from his cheek.

“She's getting better,”
Basilard remarked.

“There should be a
statute of limitations for this sort of thing,” the lieutenant said in reply.
Then he helped Raki to her feet and said, “As we agreed, you're paying for ice
cream.”

“Fine! But I’m going to
hate every minute of it,” she replied with a slight blush.

After they left,
Basilard told Eric to take a look around.

In the courtyard, four
statues stood in each corner of the room, representing the original five
captains. In one corner was a fairy sitting on an orc's head, and both wearing
scholarly robes. Next to them was a monstrous canine wearing armor and a pair
of swords at its flanks. Across from him was a human girl holding a flower
daintily before her nose while a dagger was clutched behind her back. Opposite
the orc/fairy pair was an elf holding a bottle in one hand and a quill in the
other.

“...No way...”

“Yes. Dengel Tymh
co-founded the Dragon's Lair. He was the First Captain of Squad Three.”

 Eric could see his
former mentor immortalized. The hair, the pointed ears, the clothing, the
haughty smile, and disdainful eyes were there. The statue seemed to stare down
its nose at him.

Show respect to your
captain, private.
I'm still better than you are
.

Brandishing his staff,
Eric shouted, “I'll show you who’s better!” Mana rapidly collected at his
crystal's tip and fired. Basilard stepped in and stopped it with an open palm.
He looked sternly at his student, who suddenly felt sheepish. Then he heard the
statue laughing.

“Drunkard, right!? That
bottle was full of alcohol!”

“No, that's the first
Mana Juice. According to the guild's lore, he is responsible for brewing liquid
mana that is safe to drink.”

“Really?” Nolien asked.
“I thought no one knew its origins.”

“We don't have proof
but –”

“He can't. He's Dengel.
He definitely stole –”

“Novice Eric Watley!
You can call Dengel anything you like – power hungry, treacherous, arrogant,
evil,
ugly
– but it does not change the fact that he wrote the book that
taught you magecraft. He earned this statue and your respect.”

Shadow Dengel patted
Eric on the head.
Listen to your Daylra, child. You might learn something
about obeying your betters.

Eric ignored the hand.
He clenched and unclenched his own. He opened his mouth to say something, then
closed it again. Basilard's gaze softened.

“Everyone has a lair,
remember? While your friends are in your lair, in Dengel's was his pride as an
elf and as a scholar. He stayed true to the Mother Dragon because he had reason
to and she kept him around because she had reason to.”

“Those reasons are?”

“A long story. I'll
tell you over dinner. For now, we train.”

Tonight's lesson was
teamwork and synergy. To Basilard's delight, his novices performed better than
ever – they lasted two whole minutes before he disabled them. After an hour or
so, Raki and Aegis returned from their outing and the former offered to help.
Basilard set her against Nolien in one-on-one sparring. The healer was still
unwilling to hit a girl and so he got his ass kicked. At its conclusion, she
lifted his chin with one sword and said in a frigid voice, “If I were your
enemy, you'd be dead right now.”

Then she looked to see
if Aegis was watching and was disappointed to find him focused on his spar with
Eric. Not only did the man's shields absorb the force of the boy’s staff, but
one of them negated his magecraft and fired shots of its own. After blocking
Eric’s combo, Aegis paid him back tenfold in power and number of hits. Raki
squealed, then coughed, and turned her frigid eyes back to Nolien, who was
inching away. She pursued him with flashy moves, which gave Nolien the upper
hand and made her swear foully when he smacked her in the jaw.

“Sorry!”

“Don't apologize! I'm
the enemy!”

“Sorry...I mean...”

Tiza rolled her eyes
and Basilard socked her in the stomach for letting her attention wander.

“Eeeeerrrriiccccc!”
Mia's voice called from the intercom. “I have a rush job for yoouuuuu!”

Bruised and singed,
Eric excused himself and ran up the stairs.
Thank The Trickster.
Mia
explained that HRM Queen Kasile sent an express summons to the Dragon’s Lair
and that he was to report to the castle immediately. He ran with Winged Feet,
but when he arrived at the curtain wall, the guards still asked him what took
so long. The main castle guards said the same thing. As soon as Eric stepped
into the castle, he understood why.

It was significantly
warmer inside the castle. No soldier wore more than a light shirt with chain
mail and no servant was without a sweatband. Every lady he passed was fanning
herself and the wallflowers were wilting despite the best efforts of the
castle’s garden corps. The guards at Kasile’s door were making a heroic effort
to stay composed in the sweltering heat. They opened the door and closed it
again as soon as Eric passed through.

Inside, Kasile glowed
red light from every patch of skin and it shined through all her layers of
clothing. She sat cross-legged on the floor with her eyes closed and her gloved
hands overlapping in her lap. She breathed in and out slowly and each exhale
was steam from a furnace; literal steam heating the air. Eric wiped sweat from
his brow and called to her, but she didn’t respond. By the time he took the
five steps needed to reach her, he felt like he was going to pass out. He shook
her shoulder and said, “Kas! What’s wrong?”

Her eyes snapped open.
“Eric!?”

She sprang to her feet
and hugged him as hard as she could. Her body was as superheated as her breath
and she burned him at every point she made physical contact. Eric screamed and
she jumped back, stammering apologies, but Eric drew her back in.

“It’s okay,” he said
through gritted teeth. “I know a good healer.”

Kasile’s tears, like
everything else about her, were far hotter than the 98.6 human constant and
they evaporated as soon as they left her tear ducts. She nuzzled him and it
felt like being brushed with burning silk. He stroked her back and it felt like
raking coals. As the seconds passed, the temperature dropped, and the torment
faded. Kasile let go, Eric let go, and she stepped away.

“Thanks, and I’m sorry.
I’m so very
very
sorry!”

Eric shrugged. “What’s
a few burns between...I’m not burned…” He bounced on his toes. “In fact, I feel
pretty good!”

Kasile smiled
sheepishly. “Divine fire is different from mundane or magic fire. It’s more
like an ignited spiritual energy than an earthly kinetic energy. In short, it
doesn’t burn unless I want it to, at least, once I have full control over it.”

“It’s tough to be a god
in mortal form, huh?”

Kasile snorted. “If
only. It’s my blood that’s divine and only a little of it. The rest of me is as
mortal as you are. I wasn’t supposed to get it this soon, you know? The
unsealing ceremony typically isn’t performed until my twenties and after an
extensive training regime. Usually, I can prevent this sort of thing from
happening but…”

“Alright, Kas, tell me
what’s wrong.”

“That Abyss-cursed
Trickster!”

She flared again, then
immediately put her hands together and breathed deeply until the flame aura
diminished. Daintily lifting her wrinkled skirts, she walked to her tea table,
sat down, and gestured for Eric to join her. The biscuits on the plate were
charred, but Kasile nibbled on one anyway, and Eric did likewise to humor her.

 “He hasn’t done
something this big in Ataidar in ages and he chose something immune to magic!
He barely missed the Summit Approvers! It’s a logistical nightmare, people are
still panicking, I’m trying to spread the word and keep the calm, but some pond
scum sees an opportunity!”

“Really?”

“Yeah! Asks for my approval
on something unrelated! I told my aide to read through it and you know what it
was? KUAKI!”

“What’s kuaki?”

Kasile crossed her arms
and huffed. “It’s so irrelevant, I don’t even want to think about it!”

“Okay, what happened
next?”

“Even after all that I
still had my fire under control, but then I received an SOS from the ship I
sent to study mana storms. It was supposed to return home triumphantly with
valuable and rare data on the most common cause of mana mutation, which would
secure Ataidar the honor of hosting the Mana Mutation Summit. Instead, the ship
disappears and I had to send the Ordercrafter Team after it. They called me
some minutes ago with bad news.”

“No survivors?”

“Worse. See for
yourself if you want.” She perked up. “Wait! That’s it! I’ll send you and your
team and say that’s why I called you in the first place. Considering your dual
status and Nolien’s family, I’m sure a moderate number of people will buy it.”

She arose excitedly
from her chair and crossed the room to her desk. She didn’t bother to sit down.
She just pulled out her stationery and wrote out the mission bill while
standing up.

“Kasile, you should do
something about this flaring thing.”

“I am,” she said
without pausing her writing. “I have meditation and training and you.” She
ripped the sheet off the pad and handed it to him. “They’re waiting at the
harbor, just outside the walls. This note will make sure the soldiers stationed
there cooperate.”

Ten minutes later, Team
Four was assembled at the entrance of Sailor Town and, even from there, they
could see the flares of golden-brown light from beyond the second wall. They
waited while Eric investigated. Using his Winged Feet, he dashed over the water
and made a tremendous leap to the top of the wall. The guards on duty took one
look at him and groaned in unison. One of them face-palmed and muttered, “Dear
Fiol,
why
?”

“Funny you should
mention her.” Eric pulled out Kasile’s note. “I’m here under orders of her
descent and your queen. Tell me what’s going on.”

“Okay, Trickster's
Choice, look down there.”

On the other side of
the wall was a small, floating vessel. Its form resembled a personal ship but
it looked more like solid water mixed with pieces of warped wood and held
together with barnacles. Golden-brown charges ran along its length and
occasionally flared up. Onboard were the multi-color-haired girls that worked
for Kasile as ordercrafters and six others: his fellow Dragon’s Lair
mercenaries Laharg the orc and Malize the fairy, a badly injured human mage,
another orc and fairy that he didn’t recognize, and one creature whose species
was impossible to determine. Three of the girls held a glowing sphere between
them while a fourth created an opaque shield on the injured human. Kimberly
supervised them and waved to Eric.