Chapter 41: Repetition

Subject: Caim Location: Maliscade - Blightbane Guild

“So… it’s time,” Alice announced. “Ya can’t draw it out and keep us waiting. Tell us how your first contract went! I’m excited to hear how the mage I scouted handled an Initiate-level task.”

Her eager eyes made Caim feel guilty. He didn’t want to let her down, but there were no tales of glory to share.

He remained distracted by other thoughts. He felt oddly calm about the problems of yesterday. Quite literally yesterday, as hard as that was to believe.

“You may have your crazy magic, but you’re still my rookie. You can’t escape it,” she grinned.

He forced down the last of his vegetables.

I’m eating and sleeping, but I’m so tired...

“Sorry to disappoint you, but I struggled,” he shrugged.

Alice was dumbfounded, quickly demanding a better answer. Mille stopped her and asked a more direct question.

“Did you struggle because the challenge didn’t meet the height of your ability? If that is the case, you should remember that-”

“I got beat bloody,” he admitted. “Your armor saved my life, and two cartemi seekers healed me. Actually, one healed me. His sister protected us. Without them, I’m not sure if… Well the fact is that I’m alive”

A bright flash erupted from Mille’s violet conduits.

“You are either lying or…”

He was too tired to lie. He just wanted to be elsewhere, exploring the ins and outs of the third spell. The description wasn’t very clear, and that meant learning through trial-and-error.

Caim revealed that he had learned a new spell. A spell that augmented a body’s regenerative abilities, also improving stamina. He didn’t tell them everything about Catalyst, but it wasn’t as if he knew the details all that well himself.

“Flourish Catalyst, it’s called. It’s been really helpful.”

In fact, he’d used Flourish Catalyst enough to the point where he could target other people and even inanimate objects.

It has the most fascinating effect on flourishflora especially...

“I went back to the same contract because I could use what I learned to do better. I was able to use Flourish Catalyst to hasten my progress. But I know what that seeker in the hallway meant now. ”

They waited for him to go on, but he got distracted and started playing with his fork absentmindedly.

“What seeker?” Mille was the first to ask.

“What? Oh, I forget. She said something weird though and I just remember that she was right. The Blight is not how I expected it to be.”

His mind drifted off again.

It was harder to remember the second contract, probably because it hadn’t been as eventful. And the contracts after that all blended together, stepping stones to where he was now.

“You claim you went back despite nearly dying?” Mille asked, looking like she was working out some things in her head. “Why wouldn’t you ask for help?”

“I lived and I learned. I fought familiar enemies to put those lessons into practice. Oh, but it’s hard when it feels like it’s learning from me too.”

He struggled to form the words. It wasn’t easy to articulate the feeling he’d been getting.

“The festerfonts have those mindless things protecting it, and it is true that they don’t adapt on their own, but… I don’t know. There are patterns I can’t track… and it’s a lot harder to win when we don’t come back, but they do.

Caim glanced up at Mille and realized she hadn’t moved or looked at anything but him in quite a while.

Oh, she knows. She has to know how many times I went back. She’s just trying to figure out why.

“Hey… so why does it look like you both realized something?” Alice asked, a little annoyed to be left out. “At like the same time, too! Open up or I’ll force it out of you.”

Alice slammed the handle of her fork against the table. Preferring to eat with her hands, this was the first time she’d picked up the three-pronged utensil.

Seeing Alice’s animated posture, Caim couldn’t help but grin. Her eyes met his and the false front crumbled. Feeling rather silly, she cracked an embarrassed smile.

Mille ignored her friend. With a somewhat more relaxed tone, she dug deeper.

“How many times did you decide to go back, Caim?”

He smiled and playfully dodged the question.

“Well, my third time went much more smoothly.”

“I saw you requisitioned a lantern. Did you get any sleep at all?”

Caim put his hands on the table and interlocked his fingers.

“I swear on both of your lives, I met my body’s needs.”

He chose his words carefully, but it sounded more awkward out loud than he intended..

“What a funny way to put it.”

But Mille wasn’t laughing. Why would she be?

“It’s funny? I thought some of Alice’s humor would have rubbed off on you from your close bond, but your jokes are even less recognizable. You really want me to count my contracts, too. If I were to respond with a number like ‘two’, would you burst out laughing?”

This was actually something Gwen had shared earlier. ‘Two’ was apparently unlucky. There were two Strangers, the adversaries of the Hexaline deities. More than unlucky, two was unholy. Seekers probably wouldn’t have a problem stopping at two contracts for the day, but merchants always had to pay careful attention to the number.

There was also the fact that he’d just admitted to going on at least three excursions.

Completely unexpectedly, Mille’s conduits pulsed green and she looked away, touching her fingers to her face and biting the corner of her lip.

“Wait a second… he basically calls me a weirdo and says a number and it makes you laugh?!”

With Alice’s confirmation of his success, Caim beamed pridefully. Seeing this, she grabbed Mille’s shoulder and started shaking her. Back and forth.

The clerk non-combatant went limp, passively playing along.

“That’s. Not. Fair. I worked for years to get you to laugh like that and this traitor tramples on my dreams like a meanie.”

Is that what a laugh looks like for Mille? Is it really that rare?

“Relax. If she laughed it was either entirely coincidental, or it was only because you’re here, Alice.”

“Making fun of me again, are ya’? Oftly secure all the way on that side of the table.”

Alice released her innocent prisoner and reached out menacingly for Caim. He pretended to shrink away in fear.

“I totally get that violence can be funny, but are you so much of a hack that you lean on that method with all your weight? It’s no wonder she begged me to come to her rescue.”

Alice froze.

“While you put all that effort in, she was unsatisfied. All those years of planning so I could come into her life were worth it. In fact, the plan involved numerous secret societies, and magic, and other things you wouldn’t believe. From now on, she will only ever laugh at my jokes.”

Caim just opened his mouth and let words spill out. All this planning was stressful. He needed this nonsense right now.

He leaned over the table and began to chuckle softly.

“That’s… dumb!” Alice said.

It really was.

“Is it? We’ve been caught and we have no defense, Mille. The truth is... I’m not here because I’m unlucky or pathetic. I’m here to tell better jokes than you could ever dream of devising.”

The story was getting more ridiculous, but Mille coughed lightly and a glimpse of green crept through from her covered-up conduits.

“I won’t help you anymore,” Alice threatened, letting go of her helpless friend and pointing in Caim’s direction.

“That’s my line, my poor outclassed seeker. Just give up and admit defeat.”

Mille must have been bottling up her emotions for some time. That must be why she was acting differently today.

Caim smiled, glad he could help her let go for just a little while. But it couldn’t go on forever. He had to let her do her job.

“It’s your fault, you adorably ignorant seeker.”

This time she really did grab him by the cloak and pull him close.

“It’s my fault for being a bad friend?”

He looked his captor dead in the eye and told the truth from his perspective.

“No, I mean Mille only ever loosens up around you. I don’t know either of you all that well, but you remind me of… some people I used to know. Maybe it took you that long to get her to laugh, but you put in the effort and opened the door for ‘real talent’ like me. You two need each other. In my eyes, you’re the most genuine people in Shroud.”

He smirked after the fact to hide how much he envied their bond, feeling a little embarrassed.

Alice let go, stunned. The message had gotten through. She radiated warmth, difficult to describe other than to say it was the comforting appreciation of understanding.

Subject: Caim Location: Maliscade - Blightbane Guild

“I understand what he’s thinking about,” Caim heard Alice arguing as he was just returning from clearing the table.

They hadn’t noticed him yet, so he slowed down to listen in, leaning against a pillar to appear inconspicuous. Whatever it was, it sounded serious.

“You just want someone who meets your standards,” Mille refuted. “He is kind, I’ll give you that. I just don’t want you to get hurt when the truth comes out.”

Was Mille really that suspicious of him? He’d entrusted her with pretty much everything up to this point. The rest couldn’t easily be put into words.

“I’m not an idiot. We all have things we don’t want to talk about. He is dedicated... And what about my own problems? Seekers are all weirdos. Give him time.”

“Fine. I have to get back to work. Oh, but before I do… There are at least three promoters in Maliscade. I shouldn’t have to tell you why that could be a problem right now.”

Three promoters? What are they talking about?

“I have to go too. We have to trust him, Mille. This could be a good change. That’s how I feel.”

“Unless this change is the reason promoters are here in the first place. Some risks aren’t worth taking.”

Caim returned to the table and slumped down.

Mille looked cornered. She obviously wanted to continue the interrogation, but Alice had kindly asked her to stop. But, something about the way Alice defended Caim had made Mille particularly hesitant. It put her on the defensive.

It made Caim think about that time in front of Arbe’s Shrine, when Alice opened up about her past.

“I think it is about time I should head out,” he announced and slid some coins over to Alice. “Thank you for the meal.”

“No,” Alice tried to refuse payment for his portion of the meal, but he looked her dead in the eye and she stopped to listen.

“I’ll make it back and more on the next contract. You better watch out, though, I’m gonna’ catch up before you know it.”

Alice had been preparing to be more forceful in insisting that she’d pay, but his threat just made her grin aggressively.

Caim remembered what this girl was capable of. It would be no easy feat to approach her level. His magic couldn’t hold a candle to the glowing blue “avatar of destruction” he’d seen in Shimmerden.

“That’s my rookie! I’ve been getting stronger too, so prepare to be disappointed.”

“Do you know how many contracts this ‘rookie’ has undertaken in the short time I’ve been gone?” Mille suddenly spat.

Mille clenched her hands and looked away.

Alice looked surprised, finally understanding more of what had been going on inside Mille’s head. Then, wide-eyed intrigue bubbled over into excitement.

“How many?” she asked, sizing Caim up.

He saw no use hiding it. Rather than wasting effort denying the truth, he opted to retreat inward and silently reflect on his progress.

“Twelve,” Mille replied.

Alice didn’t need to speak to communicate how happy she was. Her green eyes seemed to grow more vibrant. She clenched her fists to try and contain her racing thoughts, but she was just a ball of energy and there was no helping it.

“Is it that many? If you say so,” he shrugged.

Caim tried to downplay his compulsion to improve. To advance.

“Which ones did you go to? I mean, there aren’t many options for freshbane, but you take what you can get and you improve… Know what I’m sayin’?”

“Riventread.”

“Just Riventread?”

Caim nodded.

“Your prey?”

“Carapasers.”

“That it?”

Again, Caim only nodded.

“I wanted to get a feel for the festerfonts before I took on anything unexpected.”

Mille slid a four-fingered hand across one side of her face, coming to rest with a finger on the conduits above and below her left eye.

That’s one way to do it,” she nodded contemplatively.

“On the first contract, the cartemi twins taught me how to read the seekerstones. When I came back, I just circled around, clearing out the isolated carapasers.”

“You couldn’t read the pillars?” Mille and Alice both exclaimed, conveying different emotions.

Alice paused in place, confused, while Mille hugged her arms to her chest in restrained shame.

“When I was reading the handbook and listening to your explanation, I thought they were just landmarks. I didn’t know I was supposed to literally read them because it’s not like the symbols are your standard written language... And they are markers, but I guess they also describe a lot more than they seem to. It was a short chapter, but I completely skimmed over it.”

A remorseful blue surfaced on Mille’s face.

“Occasionally, we get candidates who rush to join up after hearing one of those outrageous tales of heroic seekers fighting evil, but a normal civilian wouldn’t normally rush into service like you did,” she explained. “You seemed surprisingly competent, intelligent, and I failed my duty. It was too much to expect.”

She expects the world from herself.

“But you can read them now and you’re alive,” Alice stated, conscientiously trying to ease her friend’s guilt. “Actually, you do look a lot different, Caim. I thought it was just in my head, but did you find out how accumulation affects your body? Could it possibly be strength?”

He shook his head confidently.

“No. It’s something to do with my magic.”

Mille was silently reading a folded up paper she’d retrieved from her uniform pocket.

“That explains…” Mille mumbled, and Caim could only make out some of the words. “...but this here….”

“I’m fine and I’m alive, Mille,” he assured her.

“And you’ll stay that way if you want to catch up to me,” Alice ordered, flicking Caim in the forehead unexpectedly.

He rubbed the sore spot and glared at her.

“I expected a punch.”

This felt better. It had been uncomfortable since the conversation started, but even Mille seemed to be relaxing.

“You don’t get to choose. Stay alive and maybe you’ll get a punch next time.”

“You call that incentive? I don’t want either!”

She cracked an evil grin.

“I could give you special training lessons. You want some?”

Her expression made it impossible to believe whatever she was talking about could be anything he’d want.

“I don’t need this ‘training’ of yours.”

Then he shifted the conversation to how he was deciding to move forward. If they were going to be here a moment longer anyway, why not?

In summary, he vaguely articulated his evolving goal. Mille paid particularly close attention to his energized demeanor.

He still felt fatigued, but there was a reason he’d been pushing so hard lately. Answers, strength, security… all of it was in sight. At least, that was what he hoped.

“I can do it, I really believe it this time. This magic is incredible. It doesn’t even feel like what I thought magic would be, but it is a useful tool.”

This third spell, especially. It’s like it read my mind.

Something buried since his transportation to Shroud surfaced. His body reached out to grab Alice’s arm, but stopped just short of making contact.

Mille shifted in her seat, but he wasn’t focusing on anything around him.

“When I was killing them, they reacted like that and it got me thinking. The festerfont looked like the constellation. All of them are probably networked like those inky black orbs.”

He was mumbling, still trying to work through it in his mind.

“It reconfigures itself based on external stimuli, learning and getting stronger. It’s just a guess, but it feels like... Vera.”

“It feels like what? Your teacher?” Alice asked.

“More like my captor… but she isn’t… well I’ll get the opportunity to ask her soon…”

He lost his focus and stopped there.

“How can a festerfont be like a person and a… constell-what?”

Mille’s curious violet conduits indicated her curiosity had been piqued.

“Constellation. I believe it is a scholarly title. From context… that is my interpretation.”

Caim thought he remembered talking to someone here in Shroud about something like this with no trouble, but he might have been blending his memories. It didn’t matter, explaining would take too much time.

“No. It doesn’t matter. Anyway, I tried to use my magic catalyst back in my Initiation, but it didn’t work for some reason.”

Mille looked away at something else in the room. Caim followed her eyes, but he couldn’t pick out anything special.

Please pay attention, this is actually important. he wanted to say.

“I managed to do it during my contract, though. I have no problem activating it and learning about my magic. That’s why I feel confident in taking the next step.”

Instead of telling Alice and Mille what he stupidly blurted out to Gwen in Novette’s shop, Caim told them his new, most immediate and less controversial major hurdle.

“I’m going to thoroughly cleanse the Blight from Maliscade.”