Captain Conrad was an imposing man, but it was hard to put my finger on why. He just radiated an aura of calm competence, despite being a fairly plain looking older man. His hands had thick swordsman calluses though, and he moved with surprising grace. I had the suspicion that he was absolutely incredible when using the unadorned sword at his waist.

He’d served on the Royal guards for longer than I’d been alive, so I bowed slightly upon entering his office, despite my rank being technically higher.

Conrad bowed back, matching my own bow exactly. “Wizard Jason, I wish we could meet under less difficult circumstances,” he said somberly.

“The king’s health remains unchanged?”

“If anything it is gradually getting worse,” Conrad admitted, “Without the intervention of the healers, he might already have died, and no one is closer to determining the root cause.”

“I would like to conduct my own investigation, see if I can determine anything.”

“I read Lance’s report; you plan to study the king’s magic defences?

When had Lance had a chance to send a report? The man must have woken at the crack of dawn, I thought to myself, somewhat impressed. “I would also like to take a look at the king himself,” I told Conrad.

Conrad looked pensive and did not reply for a bit. “It would be easier for both of us if you only examined the wards and defensive items. I could have the king’s enchanted jewelry presented to you, so you can inspect them. But to see the king yourself could be seen as casting doubt on the Healer’s Guild, and could invite criticism of both of us,” He explained.

I knew what he meant. By stepping the Healer's Guild toes he’d risk angering a powerful faction at a time when he could ill afford it. When the time came to cast blame for the king’s condition, this decision could be used to tarnish both of us. The Healer's Guild would be desperate for a scapegoat. Was it really worth the risk? There was a high likelihood that seeing the king myself would not tell me anything the healers had not discovered on their own. To avoid risk, I could go along with Conrad’s recommendation. But what if the king died or didn’t recover? Could I live with myself if I didn’t try my best?

“I would still like to see him myself, just in case there is something I might notice that others have missed,” I said finally. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Lance nod slightly in approval.

Conrad leaned back in his chair. “Wizard Jason, protocol is not clear in this situation, we both serve the king, I can’t refuse your request without a good reason, but I could still record my objection. This would, as they like to say, cover my ass.”

I nodded, “If that’s what you wish to do,” I said, “go ahead.”

“Such an objection would protect me, but make you easier to tar and feather. If I agree to your request, I would be shielding you with my own reputation, saying I trust you.”

I was getting impatient, “I’m just a commoner, sir Conrad, I am afraid you will have to be a bit blunter with whatever point you are trying to make.”

Conrad laughed, “Well then, I will cut to the chase. I have a niece, she’s eighteen, a very talented mage who is currently working in the royal guards, but she’s already failed the admission exam for the Magnus Academy once. She is allowed to retake the exam but the issue is her lack of control. The next exam is in eight months; she is in need of a tutor.”

“Captain, I don’t know that I have the time to do much tutoring...” I hedged.

“I hear you already have an apprentice. It would hardly be that difficult to take another.”

“Ah.” This was technically true, one could teach both apprentices at once, saving time, but Lily’s lesson plans were radically different than the ones an out-of-control mage would require. “Why me?” I asked.

“Why not you? You are top of your class, and you have successfully mastered your own overly large mana core, she needs help to do the same. Also, I can assign her to be a member of Lance’s squad, she could be useful to you.”

How useful would a mage with control issues really be, I wondered. It was pretty rare to have that problem, even with a large mana core. In fact, the most common case of that happening was...

“What’s her affinity?” I asked, dreading the answer.

“She’s a pyromancer, fire affinity,” Conrad said with a wry grin. “I understand this makes my request… challenging. But, I would be grateful if you would accept it. I would owe you a favor beyond the small matter of supporting your request to see the king.”

Damn it. I really should say no, I thought to myself. For most mages, it didn’t really matter what their affinity was, they were just mages. But there was a good reason there was a special name for a fire affinity mage. They tended to be very difficult to train, for reasons outside of their control. They also tended to have fiery tempers due to the way their out-of-control mana affected them. Worse still, they tended to have tragic backstories, given the likely outcome of their first spell being fire-based. But… it could be useful to have the captain of the royal guard indebted to me, even if a half-trained pyromancer wasn’t useful at all. And, well, I felt bad for the poor girl, even if I had yet to meet her. Her situation must be difficult indeed if the captain of the guard was willing to owe me a favor over it.

“Alright, assign her to me, I’ll see what I can do,” I said with a sigh. “But becoming my apprentice is something she has to ask for herself,” I added, hoping for a loophole. A cocky young pyromancer might not want any help. “However, I would like to attend to the king and his defenses first.”

“Of course,” Conrad said, standing up, “I will take you to do your investigations first, then present you to her.”

After extensive probing, I wasn’t able to detect any flaw in the wards. Whomever had done this had either bypassed the wards somehow, or had been invited past them. A troubling fact. “Who visited the king on the day he was found comatose?” I asked. A delayed effect might obscure the real culprit, but was unlikely to be set to activate on a different day from which it was set. Such a delay would greatly increase the odds of it being detected by routine checks.

“Many visitors,” Conrad said curtly, “But no one we don’t have reason to trust. All of them are either members of the king’s family, or trusted advisors. I will give you a complete list.”

I nodded in agreement. Then bent to examine the enchantments of the jewelry the king wore at all times. Inside his own well warded bedroom, these defenses were redundant, but the king had been wearing them when he'd been found, so they were now suspect. Nothing seemed out of order. Whatever the attack had been, it hadn’t been anything obvious, there would at least be some sign if someone had used an attack they were designed to protect against. No poison, no mental attacks, and nothing physical. What was left? I hesitated, there was something strange, a hint that the protection against mental attacks had almost been triggered, but that could have been caused by any number of things. Just using a persuasion spell near the king, but aimed at someone else, could be enough to almost trigger those defenses, I thought to myself. Or it could have been someone under mind control coming into contact with the king.

“I’m not seeing anything conclusive, though it looks like mental magic might have been used or been in use near the king, but not targeted at him,” I admitted.

“I’d be more surprised if no mental magic had been used,” Conrad pointed out, “So long as nothing was aimed at the king himself, or his family, it’s not the royal guard’s place to interfere. There’s any number of unscrupulous people who could have been trying to charm someone or win in some negotiation, somewhere inside the palace.”

I frowned, thinking that there really should be castle-wide wards that could be placed to block that sort of thing, but that would require a great deal of effort and doubtless inconvenience someone important. Conrad was overstating it as well, for the defenses to almost be triggered, it needed to happen inside the same room as the king, but I didn’t correct him. This was a clue, but didn’t prove anything. I also wasn’t very good at mental magic, so checking people for traces of that wouldn’t be easy for me. I could at least be reasonably sure Conrad hadn’t been influenced, his magical defenses were almost as good as the king’s, and if the captain of the royal guard had been corrupted, he wouldn’t have needed a subtle method.

I spent over an hour checking the king’s defenses, trying to find more clues. Conrad stayed with me the whole time, never betraying any impatience as I repeated work his own mages must have done themselves. “Let's go see the king,” I said finally, when there was nothing else left for me to examine.

The king was flanked by an angry looking healer on the side of his bed, who resented my presence, but said nothing. It was within my rights to examine the king myself, I was the court wizard.

The king was pale, and his breathing was painfully slow and shallow. I knew that the healer was on hand because he might need to use magic to restart the king’s breathing at any time. It might already have happened once or twice. The king was on magical life support, without a healer by his side at all times, he could die.

I pressed my mana into him, searching for clues, but there was nothing I could find. Everything felt normal, except… was there something missing? I frowned and concentrated harder. Could it be? Impossible, I must be mistaken, I decided.

“Blackwing, check the king,” I instructed quietly.

Blackwing cawed in confirmation, hopping off my shoulder to land on the king’s chest. The healer looked like he was about to protest, but bit his lip.

Blackwing was silent for a bit, then looked alarmed. “Human, this is…” she started to say, then hesitated, looking at me, silently asking if she should speak freely. But I already knew what Blackwing had discovered. I cast an anti-scrying ward around the king’s bedroom, excluding even the royal guard mages standing watch outside.

“Conrad,” I said, “what I’m about to say needs to be kept quiet. How much do you trust this healer?”

The healer in question puffed up to defend himself, but Conrad gave him a long look. “Please go fetch your senior most healer, I will need his opinion,” Conrad instructed.

The healer sighed, “I’ll go fetch my master, I assume you can keep the king alive long enough for him to arrive,” he told me. Shooting me a resentful look, he left the room at a quick jog.

As soon as the healer left, Conrad turned to me, “Tell me now,” he instructed.

“The king’s soul has been removed.”