Since it was early afternoon, the streets near the gatehouse were crowded pedestrians and wagons. Thus, it took us longer than usual to reach the mage tower. Making matters worse was passing by The Trade Wind, where Kalistra simply stopped walking and gave a forlorn look at. It took Bila and me all our strength to pull the cat girl away from the tavern, along with promises of all-she-could-eat for dinner.

When we arrived at the Magic Guild, some forty minutes later, we saw Councilor Delkon standing with a young apprentice in front of the building. And the look on his face was one of annoyance at being kept waiting.

I bowed deeply to him and said, "The streets were quite crowded this afternoon."

The blue mage shook his head and sighed. "It's fine. I assume your mission has been completed?"

I turned toward Kalistra, who quickly took the jester's mask out of her sack and showed it to the councilor.

Delkon smiled and said, "Please put it away. We'll talk further back in my apartment. Now, what scroll does Brother Mulligan wish for?"

"Mass Invisibility," I answered.

The councilor's brows shot up. While it was an advanced spell in the Air sphere and thus, something the guild inventory had in stock, Delkon did not expect me to ask for that scroll. Nor did he realize that I had Air affinity to even learn the spell, to begin with. The mage wondered what, exactly, my elemental affinities were. I couldn't possibly have all six affinities . . . right? Nonetheless, Delkon turned over to Trye, his apprentice. "Please get a Scroll of Mass Invisibility from the guild inventory and bring it to my apartment," he ordered.

"Yes, Councilor," the boy bowed. He entered the building and suddenly vanished.

Once he confirmed that the assistant was gone, Delkon turned his attention back to his guests. "Please come inside. I will take you back to my apartment."

The group stepped through the automatic doors and entered the lobby of the mage tower.

After the guests joined hands, Delkon used his secret power word to teleport the group back to his apartment. The mage was careful to allow only a select few people know the power word to reach his apartment. Trye was his personal apprentice and given this responsible but Delkon was careful to provide the boy with enough magic items to avoid being coerced into giving up this secret.

When the group reached the hallway before Delkon's apartment, the councilor was the first person to recover from the dizziness associated with the teleportation magic. He opened the door and invited them in. "Please come inside."

I was the second person to recover and quickly entered, followed by my bodyguards a few seconds later.

Delkon entered after us and closed the door quietly.

I walked over to the living room and sat in the middle of the two-seat sofa. My two companions sat down next to me. It was uncomfortable for me because we were squeezing one guy and two gals into the sofa but neither cat girl wanted to relinquish her place beside me.

"Care for some tea?" our host asked while hiding his amusement.

I shook my head.

"Okay, let's get right down to business, then," Delkon agreed and sat down directly across the table from us.

Kalistra opened her sack again and placed the white colored jester's mask on the table, along with the flower pin and the blackened ring.

I activated my Magic Sense and confirmed that all three items were imbued with magic. "Magic sense SUCCESSFUL. +75 XP."

The councilor took the ring off the table and examined the runes along the band. "It looks like a Ring of Summoning," he noted. "What exactly did the Black Jester summon?" Delkon asked.

"Six demons," I replied solemnly.

The mage's eyes bulged at my answer. To his credit, the man quickly recovered from his surprise. "Six demons?" he repeated incredulously. "How in the name of Lady Musa did you three survive the encounter?"

I smiled at him. I rolled up my left sleeve and showed him my forearm. I cast Unveil and then pointed at the mark of Bane. "The demons belong to Lord Bane and I happen to be his servant. Once I showed the demons their lord's mark, they obeyed my command to destroy the Black Jester," I explained.

Delkon whistled. While he had seen the marking during the second Leadership Council meeting yesterday, he did not appreciate what exactly the grant of Bane's brand meant. The mage certainly didn't realize it carried the weight of the God himself in the eyes of his minions. This meant, in turn, that if I had a Ring of Summoning of my own and if the item had enough charges, I could summon the minions of any of the Gods I was a branded servant of. If there was sufficient charge in the ring, even an army of demons could be summoned if I wished.

Delkon Jawsul felt a shiver up his spine at the thought of such an army appearing in Southampton. The destructive force I could unleash on the seaport could easily wipe the city off the map. Thus, he made a decision right then and there to avoid giving me a Ring of Summoning. Otherwise, I would be far too powerful to deal with.

Furthermore, if I turned "rogue" at a later point, I could leverage the divine brands and the power of the Gods to challenge the Church itself for the right to rule the kingdom. If that occurred, then the Church would rightfully blame the Magic Guild for helping to overthrow the Church from its governance over the entire kingdom. Another devastating guild war could result from this.

The councilor remembered the painful experience of the Bristol branch of the Magic Guild and their short war with the Church. The result devastated the Bristol branch and killed many powerful mages in the process. He did NOT want to start a war between the Southampton branch and the Church.

While my host was holding the ring, I asked him a question. "Is it possible to replace the gemstone and somehow recharge the item?"

Delkon's eyes were glazed. It took a moment for him to register my question and refocus his attention on me. He shook his head. "This item is one-time use only. The runes were etched into the band and ruined already. The band itself needs to be melted down and then the runes need to be reinscribed. Thus, this ring cannot be reused. The gemstone, which is the container to store the magic energy to power the spell, will be discarded. I suppose you could take the ring to a smith to melt it down. But this is a brass ring. The labor cost of melting and recreating the ring will end up being greater than the cost of simply buying a new ring," he pointed out.

"I see," I replied with disappointment.

He looked at me with puzzlement at my sudden interest in recharging the ring. Then he remembered that I was traveling with a gray-robed mage. She was an Enchanter! But was her level high enough to create a new Ring of Summoning? Delkon was determined to find out. "I noticed one of your traveling companions is an Enchanter. Are you planning to ask her to recreate this ring?" he asked carefully.

I looked at him for a moment and shook my head. "She's only a Journeyman. I don't think she could recreate this ring," I answered honestly.

Delkon breathed a sigh of relief. If my companion was only a Journeyman, then her skills weren't advanced enough to create the Ring of Summoning. It required a Master ranked Enchanter to create the ring and even then, the chance of failure was high. Once we leave his apartment, Delkon will send a secret alert to all the Magic Guilds to avoid either selling the Ring of Summoning or creating it for me.

The host placed the ring back on the table and picked up the pin. The design was purple petals on a black stem. For some reason, it looked familiar to him. But Delkon could not recall which noble family the pin belonged to.

"Does it look familiar to you?" I asked with hope.

"Yes and no," the mage replied. "I know I've seen it before but I can't recall where exactly. I will consult my fellow councilors and see if they recognize it." He placed the pin on the table and picked up the mask. It was cracked. Delkon flipped it over. Just as he expected, there were runes etched on the underside of the mask. "There is magic on the mask," he announced. "I believe it could disguise the wearer's voice."

"Damn," I remarked. "Then the pin is the only clue we have to his identity," I noted aloud.

"I'm afraid so," Delkon agreed. "I would like to keep the pin and discreetly ask around. Hopefully, the pin will help us discover the other members of the Jester Group," he proposed.

"Yes, that is a good idea," I agreed readily. I was more than happy to be off the hook in this mess with the Jesters Group. Frankly, the Leadership Council should be the ones in charge of investigating this conspiracy because the guild itself was being targeted by the Jesters Group. I was more of a pawn in the power struggle between these two factions. Thus, I believed that Delkon should take over the investigation into the identities of the conspirators.

Suddenly, we were interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Come in," the owner of the apartment yelled.

The door opened and Trye entered. He quickly reached the living room and stood before his master. "Here is the scroll you requested, Master Delkon."

The host smiled and accepted the item. "Thank you for bringing it so quickly. Now, please go to my study. There is a sack on my desk. Bring it here," he ordered.

The boy nodded and left us.

Delkon placed the scroll on the table. "Here is the Scroll of Mass Invisibility that you requested. If I may ask, what level are you in Read Magic and the sphere of Air?"

"7 and 2, respectively," I answered honestly. I knew that my skill in air magic was lacking but I didn't have many opportunities to increase my skill.

The host winced. "Your success rate in using that scroll to cast the spell will be extremely low. And if you were to try to copy the spell into your spellbook, your success rate will be moderate at best. But you still won't be able to cast the spell successfully until your Air skill is at least level 5. I strongly recommend that you practice casting Air-related spells as much as possible to raise your level quickly. What air spells do you have in your spellbook?"

"Magic Missile. I also have a Scroll of Invisibility in storage; I plan to copy the scroll into my spellbook whenever I get the chance to," I replied.

Delkon shook his head. "Even if you practice casting Invisibility, you won't be able to reach Level 5 in air magic anytime soon because Invisibility is a Second-Tier spell. You need to practice casting a Third-Tier magic like Lightning Bolt." The mage slapped his thigh. "Tell you what. I will permit you to copy Lightning Bolt from my own spellbook."

"Thank you, Councilor Delkon!" I bowed deeply. A spellbook was the most prized possession of a mage and I understood how rare and generous it was for him to permit me to copy off it without having a teacher-student relationship between us.

"You're too polite, Brother Mulligan," the host smiled. He saw that Trye had returned with the sack. "Please fetch my spellbook," he ordered.

The apprentice bowed deeply and returned to the study again.

"This sack contains 300 gold. I would normally offer a 250 gold bounty for a man like the Black Jester. But I felt that you deserved a little bonus for taking care of this problem so quickly. Your plan to lure him out of Southampton worked perfectly. Neither citizen nor property was damaged due to your fight with him," the host said.

"Minor faction quest completed. +250 XP, +250 Reputation, +500 XP." I quickly read the messages and dismissed them. I bowed deeply to the Councilor. "Thank you for your reward."

Kalistra took the sack off the table. She counted out 100 coins for each of us since she, Bila, and I were the only participants in taking down the Black Jester. She passed 100 gold coins to Bila.

The tall cat girl's eyes glowed but Bila refused to take the coins from Kalistra. "Is it alright for me to take this?" she asked in a faint voice. 100 gold was more than she could earn in a month!

"It's fine," I reassured her with a smile. "You earned it by luring the knights within range of my Fire Bolts," I reminded her.

Bila smiled back at me. "Then I humbly accept my share of the bounty." She scooped the coins into her sack.

Kalistra turned to face me. She held the sack in her paw. "I took 10 coins for the dojo's cut. There are 90 gold pieces inside," she said.

"Thank you," I replied as I took the bag from her and tied it to my belt.

"You pay a 10% share of your bounty to your dojo?" Delkon asked with his eyebrows raised.

"Plus another 10% tithe to the Church," I corrected him.

"Ouch," he winced.

"But it's only fair," I replied. "Without the support of the Butterfly School of Swordsmanship and the Church, I wouldn't be where I am today. Under Kalistra's personal tutelage, I learned enough swordsmanship to become a Semi-Finalist in the Melee Tournament. And my ties to the Church has proved beneficial to me as well," I explained.

Delkon nodded politely. Oh, he was quite surprised to learn about my various affiliations. I had a relationship with a prestigious fighting school, the clergy, and the mages. The only thing missing from my portfolio was a relationship with the thieves' guild. And he wouldn't be surprised if I was actually associated with one, somehow.

Frankly, trying to keep track of these relationships was giving him a headache. But these associations only served to illustrate my importance and influence within the Kingdom of Merlin. Thus, his offer to permit me to copy from Delkon's spellbook was a smart decision and one that will only strengthen my ties to the Magic Guild.

Thankfully, Trye returned with the spellbook to break the uncomfortable silence.

Delkon took the precious book, flipped the page to Invisibility and showed it to me. "You should save the scroll," he explained.

I nodded my thanks. I took out my spellbook from my special pouch along with my writing equipment. I sat on the floor and started copying the spell. After ten minutes, I received a notification: "Read magic SUCCESSFUL. +25 XP. Air spell LEARNED: Invisibility. +50 XP." According to the instructions, the spell only required a bit of soot over my eyelids and a small incantation.

Invisibility was actually an easy spell to cast. The problem, though, was that Invisibility had a maintenance requirement after the first five minutes. A higher skill level in the Air sphere would allow greater efficiency because each point of mana provided one minute in maintenance per skill level. Thus, at skill level 2 I could maintain the spell for two minutes per mana. Factoring in my mana regeneration at a ratio of one mana per minute, the spell was virtually free after the initial cost. No wonder Tescka, the spy mage from the Double-Cross Society was able to maintain her invisibility continuously!

The host saw that I had finished copying the Invisibility spell. He took back his spellbook and turned the page over to Lightning Bolt. "Good luck," he said.

I placed the book on the coffee table again and started copying the spell into my spellbook. A half-hour later, I heard dice rolling inside my head. When it stopped, I received the following in-game message: "Intelligence check FAILED. Reroll SUCCESSFUL. Read magic SUCCESSFUL. Level 8, +50 XP. Air spell LEARNED: Lightning Bolt. Level 3, +100 XP." Phew! I was really happy that Lady Luck's divine skill came in handy or else, I would have failed my attempt to learn this spell. As a reflection of the difficulty in learning this spell, I even raised my skill in Read Magic.

I heard the sound of clapping and looked up. I saw Delkon hovering above me.

"The Gods must be with you today. I wasn't certain that you will be able to learn this spell. I'm very impressed that you managed to learn both spells back-to-back," the host praised me. "Now, I would like to help you practice using these spells. Will you accept my lesson?"

"Of course!" I bowed deeply to the master air mage.