Looming Shadow: Journey to Chaos book 2 (25 page)

“You want to become a
god, do you?” Eric asked.

Haburt shook his head.
“Of course not. A mage of my stature would destroy himself in the attempt. What
I’m interested in is
academic
worship. You see, Dengel’s final lair is a
Sage’s Stone among my peers. If I could find it, I would be the envy of the
academic world!”

“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.”