13.

Keys to the treasury

“Dominic!” Thelo called with open arms, an expression of pure celebration gracing his face. “You’ve really done it!”

He pulled Dominic into a tight hug. He still reeked of poison, but his mood was absolutely jovial.

“That old son of a bitch is really dead!” he shouted, pulling away and holding him by the shoulders. “How’d you pull it off?”

“That’s a secret,” Dominic said.

The fact that healers had a way to kill so easily was supposed to be very, very forbidden. No one he’d ever met had ever mentioned hearing of healers being capable of anything but good. It was possible that they knew more in Hesia than in Vaine, but there was no point in sounding the whistle.

“I understand,” Thelo replied. “We’re all allowed our secrets. Anyway, you did an amazing job. Since you’ve given so much to me, it’s only right that I do the same.”

Thelo reached a hand into his sleeve. He produced a thin, metal rectangle with two characters engraved on it and a red silk tassel.

“This will give you access to the estate’s treasury,” he said, holding it out. “You can have absolutely anything from there.”

“I have no need for lavish gifts, though,” Dominic replied. He was hesitant to accept anything from a noble in such an unfamiliar place. ‘Rewards’ often came with political binding.

“Just humor me,” Thelo said, handing the key to him. “At least take a look so I can say I didn't rip you off. If you really need anything, then you can just tell me what it is later.”

Dominic pursed his lips, but eventually nodded.

“I’ll make good use of it,” he said.

“It’s all yours.”

He slid the metal tag into his sleeve.

“You must be busy with the succession, so I will be taking my leave now.”

“Yes, go on.”

He turned and exited the room, leaving the scent of poison and celebration behind him. He withdrew his mana again in the halls. Frantic servants, still unsure of how to deal with their long time lord’s death, passed him with hurried steps, not noticing his presence. It would be too troublesome to be seen in the castle. He was supposed to be a dead man, and he intended to maintain that status to them.

It was easy to locate the treasury. It was a place stacked with ancient heirlooms, complex magic alarms, and—naturally—grudges. It reeked like a beacon.

He followed the trail. The location seemed to be rather far from everything else, so it took a bit of time to navigate the halls. He observed the servants and the corridors and the city outside as he walked, savoring the change in the air. The estate didn’t smell good, but it was definitely better than before.

A pinprick of a scent caught his attention. It was a familiar one. He stopped at a window, glancing out the glass panes. A black speck was perched on a roof in the distance. Dominic undid the latch and pushed open the window.

The speck seemed to start as it realized his eyes were staring right at it. Dominic smiled.

“Come here,” he said, holding out a hand.

After a moment of hesitation, it finally gathered up its courage and soared over to his window. As expected, a crow landed on his arm, looking mildly embarrassed.

He moved back into the hall, closing the window again. The bird stiffly shifted from foot to foot, waiting for Dominic to say something.

“Want to go raid a rich man, Aster?” he asked.

That made him perk up immediately. He hopped onto Dominic’s shoulder with enthusiasm.

“That would be a dream,” he replied.

“I thought so.”

They continued down the hall together.

The treasury was heavily guarded, as expected. He calmly swept past the sentries, a few giving Aster quizzical looks before brushing their presence off as a passing wind. When he reached the opulent doors, he wasn’t sure how the metal rectangle Thelo had given him would work, but held it up near the handles and waited.

He felt a magic mechanism begin to move around the frame and beneath his feet. Something clicked, and the doors slowly began to crank open by themselves.

He stepped through, and they automatically closed again behind them, leaving the two of them alone in the treasury.

Aster hopped off his shoulder, shifting back into a boy in midair. He looked up with glittering eyes.

“Dominic,” he said, staring slack-jawed at the shelves of glistening gold and silver items on display, “I’m going to follow you wherever you go.”

“Don’t regret it.”

Dominic moved past him, gesturing towards the shelves.

“Thelo said I could take whatever I want,” he said. “Try not to look too much like a burglar.”

“I’ll do what I can.”

Aster seemed full of energy as he zoomed between the aisles and crates of goods. Dominic turned his attention to them too, scanning the items on display. They were impressively opulent, but after having looked through the lighthouse basement, everything before him felt lackluster in comparison.

It was a relief, though, that Aster was putting more thought into his selections than Dominic had expected. The boy had ignored the heavy jewelry filled with gemstones and instead fixated on the simpler bracelets and necklaces—probably gifts for his siblings.

He looked over Aster’s shoulder, studying what he was going through. He seemed to freeze up a degree at his gaze.

“There’s nothing that good here,” Dominic commented, “unless you want something that’s just pretty.”

“How can you tell?” Aster asked, raising an eyebrow.

He tapped his nose. A look of understanding crossed the boy’s face.

“This is all just regular metal,” Dominic explained.

Aster pursed his lips and pressed the bracelets in his hand to his nose. He took a deep breath.

“Yeah…I can’t tell at all,” he said. “It’s all the same to me.”

Dominic shrugged. He raised his head, panning around the room, parsing the scents that were reaching him from the stale, unmoving air of the treasury. There was a lot going on, but most of it was boring. Things like plain gold and silver didn’t mean anything to him when Thelo would obviously give him as much money as he wanted if he just requested it.

“Do you need a weapon, Aster?” he asked, eyes fixed on a couple shelves by the far wall.

Aster stared up at him, eventually shaking his head.

“No,” he responded. “I can’t fight anyway.”

Dominic nodded. He had picked up the scent of something like black iron, but brushed it off. There was no need to force that kind of burden on a child.

“Then you’re probably looking for other kinds of enchanted items?” he presumed.

“Well, I was just looking for pretty things to give my siblings,” the boy admitted, “but if there’s anything useful, I’ll take it.”

Dominic turned his attention back to the shelves. There were quite a few enchanted items there, the mana signatures shining among the regular objects like beacons, but he wanted to be a little more thorough. He was much more familiar with the scent of the world’s most versatile metal now. It was wrapped snugly around his hands.

He searched for it—a signature like glass. Like shards of a broken window, so finely crushed that they glittered silver in sunlight, pooling together on the surface of a silent river—quietly eddying, but humming with power.

Dominic’s eyes focused on a case in the distance where several necklaces were on display. He stepped towards it, and Aster followed.

“Is it in here?” Aster asked when they arrived, glancing across the opulent, bejeweled necklaces laying inside.

Dominic shook his head, his brow furrowing a degree subconsciously as he tried to hone in on the scent. It had strangely gotten thinner and harder to find the closer he got. It was almost as if it was purposefully trying to hide from detection.

He glanced up. Above the glass case, a few less valuable necklaces were hanging on hooks attached to the wall. He focused on one. It had a single, simple pendant—a blue jewel set in a frame with wings sprouting from it. The scent of halinium was nearly gone, but he could feel energy radiating off of the piece.

“It’s that one?” Aster presumed, following Dominic’s gaze.

“No,” Dominic replied, reaching forward. “It’s this.”

The moment the tip of his finger touched the metal frame that had been holding the jewel, it inexplicably disconnected from both the gemstone and the chain. It fell onto the glass case below with a heavy ting.

Dominic and Aster both stared at it for a moment, speechless.

Had it just run away from him?

He reached for it again, and it obviously rebounded from his touch, rolling off the edge of the display case. It bounced a few times, landing at Aster’s feet.

Dominic felt more annoyed than he knew he should have been. It was just a piece of metal. Aster reached for it.

Unlike how it had reacted before, it almost seemed to leap right into Aster’s grasp. Even the boy was surprised by the unexpected movement.

“Eh?”

In an instant, the frame looked like it had almost become fluid, wings spreading and wrapping protectively around Aster’s middle finger, where it finally solidified and stayed.

“Wh…” He was lost for words as he stared at the jewelry that had just attached itself to him. “…What is this?”

He looked up at Dominic for answers.

“Do you know, brother?”

Dominic frowned, still a little annoyed that it had avoided him so obviously.

“It’s halinium,” he replied.

“Halinium?!”

Aster immediately looked shocked.

“Isn’t that like, really insanely rare? Like even for nobles?”

“That’s how it is,” Dominic replied. “But I don’t know what yours does.”

He held out his hand, a thread unraveling from his glove and whipping out.

“This is what mine does,” he explained. “But yours is…I don’t know.”

It was just a ring. The only thing it had done was avoid him and go to Aster. He withdrew the thread back to his glove, then realized something.

Perhaps it hadn’t been avoiding him at all—perhaps it had been avoiding what was wrapped tightly around his hands. ‘Staying away from other objects made of halinium’ might have been part of what had been programmed into it. If that was the case, even if he didn’t know what specifically it did, it could still fit Aster.

A weapon like Dominic’s could never be banned from coming into contact with other objects made of halinium. It would need to in a fight. That meant that the ring around Aster’s finger was not a weapon. If anything, it was something that had been made to stay away from weapons.

Dominic sighed under his breath, glancing down at the ring the boy was turning around his finger.

“We’ll figure it out in time,” he said. “You can always do some experiments with it once we get outside.”

“…Yeah.”

Aster still seemed a little nervous. It was obvious that the strange object had surprised him.

“It seems to like you anyway,” Dominic commented. “I’m sure it’ll work out.”

“You think so?”

“I haven’t been wrong yet.”

Aster seemed to be suppressing a smile that threatened to break out across his face. He was giddier than he wanted to admit at the thought that it had chosen him in particular.

“I don’t need anything, so I’ll help you look around for things for your siblings,” Dominic suggested. Aster’s expression lit up even brighter.

“Really?”

“Really. I already have all I need. Take whatever you want.”

Aster did a little happy dance, giggling to himself.

“Then let’s look at the bracelets!” he said. “I want to get pretty matching ones for Lia and Ria, and if they have nice enchantments too, then—”

Dominic smiled as the boy rambled on. He followed obediently behind Aster as he excitedly skipped towards the many cases of expensive bracelets, until something ahead of them caught his eye.

On the wall, a huge, beautifully carved map was on display. It took up that entire section of the treasury, overlooking the cases like a guardian. The stone it had been engraved into was black and smooth, lines and labels drawn with sweeping brushstrokes of gold ink. It was striking, completely different to the one he’d seen in the library.

Dominic stopped in his tracks.

“Brother?”

“It’s there.”

“What is?” Aster asked, following his gaze.

Penned in intricate detail, down to every inlet and bay and outcrop and isthmus, were borders and cities and roads and insignias on a continent that everybody was supposed to have already forgotten about.

Dominic’s eyes were wide as he stared at the familiar outline.

“Vaine.”