Spell 11 : The Meeting

So. Given that all the scrying spheres within and outside of the castle failed to pick up any signs of the thief, this meant that the thief must have had some sort of invisibility or a certain ability to mask himself from magic. Once hidden, this thief must have infiltrated the castle either in the day and hid it out till nightfall or he must have found some way to enter the castle undetected when security had tightened. Sneaking in during the day would have been more likely, since it was the less risky option. Once inside the castle, it was easy for him to enter the throne room to steal the banner. The thief must be someone who had entered the castle on countless times in order to be so familiar with the routines of the castle staff. Otherwise, he could not have known at that time that all the servants were having night snacks in the kitchen, and that the hallways were all empty. He must have had an accomplice. Or he could even be one of the members of the castle as well!

If the thief is indeed one of the guild members or the castle staff, this clearly was sabotage! But why...?

Another thing I could not figure out was that black smoke that smoked up the entire throne room. The hissing emitted gave clues that a smoke bomb was used, likely one of a rogue's or hunter's design. Clearly, the thief had proven himself capable of shielding himself from any of the scrying spheres, so why was that black smoke still used then?

Unless...

But before I could come to any conclusion, a group of people entered the room. I recognised some of their faces, while others were hidden behind objects like masks and helmets. There was one face, however, that annoyed me the most.

'Woah! Is that you, Julius? Oh boy, such a surprise seeing you here! Never could have expected a loser like you to be playing this game!'

Like I said before, typical Tidus and his usual snide comments. I wasn't that surprised in seeing him here though. He was the celebrated 'bad boy' in school that every foolish girl loved. Good looks, good grades and typically filthy rich enough to buy his way into every girl's heart, he was the epitome of charm. For him to be playing in this game, I wouldn't be surprised that he paid someone to do all his homework and projects so that he could spend all his time playing this game. From the look of it, he seemed to have reached a decent level.

'Says the one who lost the position of Council Chairman to some other guy in the school. Shouldn't you be preparing for your next Chairman election? Oops! Sorry, I didn't realise you'll be rejected too next year anyway, so there's no need to prepare.' I retaliated. That wiped off the smirk on his face.

'I didn't lose; I chose to give it up to Dennis. It was a meaningless position anyway. Well, well. Look at you. A mage? And quite a low level one too. Sorry, Benedict, Keith and Jay, looks like you got yourselves a leech. Don't get your hopes up guys, he'll only become a slightly more useful at later levels.' Tidus replied, clearly singed from my earlier remark.

I was just about to make my response when Benedict got ahead of me before I could stop him.

'A leech? Slightly more useful? You gotta be kidding! Ju here will thrash you in a duel, anytime!'

There. He said it. Benedict had officially just sent Tidus a challenge on my behalf. Tidus looked at Benedict with wide eyes, and then broke out in laughter. His band of supporters all laughed along with him. They continued their mirth until Tidus sobered up and wiped his eye.

'Julius, challenging ME to a battle? Have you forgotten how he lost to me during the basketball inter-class games last year? And you want him to compete with me on a tougher scale? Surely, you jest! Fine! I accept! We shall have our duel in a reality's month's time. That should be enough time for him to prepare to lose in a less uglier way! HAHAHA!' Tidus said, with glee in his eyes.

This was it. There was no turning back. I had to pound this guy's overbearing pride in once and for all.

'Sure. No problem. Let me know when you've decided a place for me to kick your ass. I'll definitely be there. Bring your friends to watch too.' I replied, almost nonchalantly.

Tidus had obviously not expected me to take this so calmly. He opened his mouth again to say something, but thought better of it, and walked away in a huff with his band of endearing supporters. I watched him go without a word, bearing my eyes deeply at his back. I realised, as I thought deeply to myself, this was perhaps the first time I had stood up against someone, albeit admittedly it was Bambsie who issued the challenge on my behalf, but nevertheless I stood by that challenge. Reality me could never have gotten the courage to stand up against a much stronger person. Here in RoyalRoad, I was stronger. My abilities alone outshone most of the people in my level range. Furthermore, I could use Tidus' underestimation of my ability against him, much like how I used Gabriel the Berserker's attitude against him back in the Forest of No Return. However, Tidus is not a stupid person. Knowing fully well that this match could cost him his much desired fame and popularity should he loses, he would definitely come prepared to win, no matter the costs. I had best be prepared as well.

During our 'friendly exchanges', I had not noticed the increase in the number of people in the room. Apparently, Cluck had, while searching for Redrow, sent out invitations freely to everyone who played RoyalRoad in our school to take up the quest as well. All these people were probably the ones interested to take up the quest and were subsequently sent here to look at the footage as well. Redrow's authority was probably limited, seeing that he could only allow a few people out of the entire school to participate in this quest.

Most of them look like they're in the high levels. I mean, just look at that knight! His armour seems decent, with those dragon tattoos all over. Wait, it looks familiar...

I stared at the knight, recalling where was the last place I saw him. His helm concealed his entire face and seemed to be the leader of another band of players from the school.

'Crow, hey buddy, I think you should rewatch something from the clip here.' Cluck called from the sphere.

I walked towards the sphere where Cluck was standing. He played the footage from the start, then paused it after a few seconds in.

'There! Look at those creases! The whole entire room is carpeted, so if someone were to be standing on the carpet, there would be creases along his feet where his body weight is exerted on the carpet, right? So then, why did he still use the black smoke to cover himself? Was there something in the room that could give him away? Man, this is confusing.' Cluck whispered as he scratched his head.

'Yeah, it sure is. I need to take a look into the room myself. But Redrow's already said no, so...' I said, my voice trailing off as I suddenly had an idea.

Of course! Mistcloak! What was I thinking?!

I could sneak into the room myself at night, and do my own snooping using Mistcloak! Now that the banner was gone from the throne room, it would likely be unguarded. In fact, security may have been tightened in other parts of the castle instead. It would not be too difficult for me to do my own investigations.

Just then, Redrow entered the room with a bunch of other people, most of them teachers that I recognised, as well as the school principal. He stood forward and cleared his throat.

'Alright, most of you are here. Right, I know you guys do call me Principal Palmer back in Rose High, but do address me as Palm here in RoyalRoad. I would like to thank you all for stepping forward to investigate this case. I would have encouraged the whole school to participate in this, but as it is right now as Redrow has informed me, the castle is supposed to be closed to most people, except to the leaders of the school guild which are incidentally your teachers in Rose High who play RoyalRoad. Redrow did not wanted to risk having any tension with the castle, so he could only invite a few of the students in, which happen to be only you people. Still, I am very grateful to all of you. Fann here, whom is Ms Fanny in reality, will explain to you the rules in the castle. Please do listen up.' He said, indicating an extremely muscular Barbarian woman on his left.

Well, she is the Head of Physical Education in school after all...

'Okay, guys. Welcome to the castle. Enough chitchat. You have all been given guest rooms each to sleep in. Breakfast and lunch will be at the dining room, while dinner will be at the great hall on the second level. Baths are mixed, no choice about that, ladies, but I still expect the guys to behave. Otherwise, I'll personally discipline you myself. Curfew's at the 22nd hour, so anyone caught after hours will be handed over to me as well. You are free to exit the castle at any time, but please do come back by nightfall. You may do your investigations within anywhere in the castle, except the throne room.' She paused, and then continued.

'Look, I know it is stupid that you are unable to visit the scene of crime but we haven't got a choice. The chamberlain was strict; he allows only the teachers to enter the throne room to do our investigations. Of course, if you need the teachers to do anything for you in the throne room, just do not hesitate to ask. I did not want to mention this too, but looks like I have no choice. You guys have only been given 7 days to stay here. Palm personally spoke to the castle's chamberlain, and managed to extend an additional two days for you guys to complete the quest. If we fail the quest, this castle will reject us as its owners. We could take over it again, but I highly doubt they would continue to submit to us. Taking over this castle initially was part of our project as a school to strengthen the bonds you guys have in the school and we thought this place could be our own 'Rose High' in RoyalRoad. The anniversary was supposed to be something like a house warming for everybody. So please, find the banner. Save this home of ours. We'll all be helping you guys as well, but as you know, the teachers are all busy marking your exam scripts, so we do not really have much free time. Good luck to all of you.' She finished her briefing, and withdrew back. Palm stood forward again.

'Fann has conveyed our wishes to you, so we hope you guys can really save the school. Well. That is all. It will be dinnertime in 2 hours, so you guys may carry on with what you want to do. All the guest rooms are in the third floor. You may choose your rooms freely. There are enough for each one of you.' He finished, and left the room along with Redrow and some of the teachers. The room broke into discussions. Tidus left the room with all his friends, leaving me with my gang, the knight and his friends as well as another group of people whose leader was the chairman of the student council. He saw me looking at him, and he smiled as he waved. I waved back to him, and turned back to my friends.

'Alright, here's the plan. Tonight, I plan on sneaking into the room with an invisibility spell of mine. I need one of you to stay here and observe everything from this crystal. I think that'll be you, Cluck, you're the most astute at picking up details among us. Saber, I need you to stand guard by the door to the throne room and help me distract anybody who comes into that hallway. Bambs, I need you to do the most risky thing. I would have picked anyone else in the world, but in this case, you're the best one I can think of. I need you to help me set up a diversion of some sort. Use your explosives to create a commotion outside of the castle. Somewhere probably in the gardens. It must be something loud enough to divert the attention of all the guards in the castle so that we can all get into our positions while the attention's away from within the castle. With luck, I should be able to find out as much as I want in the throne room.' I said to them in hushed tones.

They all agreed to the plan, albeitly Bambsie with a lot of reluctance. I knew he risked getting caught, but there was no choice. I needed the maximum amount of time I can get.

The three of them left the surveillance chamber to pick their rooms. I hung back to watch the crystal again. After replaying it for 4 times, I realised I could do nothing more now. The footage provided too little details for any sort of investigations to be done. I looked around the room and realised only the mysterious knight and I were left in the surveillance chamber. He was standing next to one of the pillars, knocking on it with his gauntlets. I observed him with interest, noting how skinny he was for a guy.

Something about this guy just makes me feel...

I left the surveillance chamber and headed upstairs. As I walked, I noticed how all the maidservants moved about with their heads hung low, as though afraid of meeting my eyes. Was the castle really in such a state of despair? That really puzzled me.

I chose a room that was next to Cluck's own room and entered. Much like Sleeping Beauty's own room in Beauty and the Beast, my room had a four poster bed with a wardrobe next to it. There was a small table against the wall with a mirror, like the ones in powder rooms where models and actresses do their make-up. There was only one window that looked out to the nearby Gloucest River. Like the rest of the castle, the floors were all carpeted. Just then, there was a timid knock on the door.

'Come in!' I said.

The door opened and a maidservant entered. She was very young, probably not older than fourteen years of age. She just stood there next to the door, clearly waiting for some instructions.

'Erm. Thank you very much, but I do not require anything at the moment. Actually, if it's possible, could you bring me a pot of that delightful tea Redrow prepared for me in the surveillance room?' I said, gently. I really did not want to scare off a maidservant on my first day here.

She jumped at the mention of Redrow, and quickly left the room.

So Redrow scares her huh. Funny, the guy's so nice that even dogs refuse to bark at him in school!

She came back a moment later, holding the tray shakily with a heavy pot and a cup. And just as I expected, her nervousness got the better of her and she let the tray slip. The pot smashed on the carpet floor and the hot tea spilled all over. She squealed in dismay and hurriedly dropped down to clear the mess. I stood up and rushed over to her.

'Hey, hey it's alright! Don't cry! Look, I can fix this!' I said, looking at her already tear-fallen face.

I picked up all the pieces of the pot and put them together in a pile, cutting one of my fingers accidentally. Using Enchanting, I molded the pieces together. With the porcelain melded together, I urged it with magic to remember and reform back to its original state. Slowly, the pot took form and was back to its original state. I took hold of it and gave it back to her. She looked at the pot with wide eyes, relief sinking back in her expression.

'There. Like I said. All fixed. Sorry, but I cannot do anything about the tea though. Be more careful next time, alright?'

She nodded thankfully and left the room with all the ceramics. Soon, she came back with another pot of tea, though this time she was more confident. She also gave me some bandages, which probably were for me cut finger. I gave my thanks, and she left the room.

I took a nap until it was dinnertime, and I went straight to the great hall. The dining table was fit for kings, and it was already filled with food meant for a banquet. I took a seat next to Saber and the same maidservant immediately came forward to place a napkin on my lap. She then proceeded to pour grape wine into a goblet and handed it to me. I nodded gratefully to her and she smiled as she withdrew back in line with all the other maidservants, whom I guessed at this point, were all personal assistants to each and everyone of us. I looked up and down the table and found nearly everyone from earlier here. Dennis the council chairman was here with his friends. Tidus was sipping wine from his goblet, looking all dreamily that thrilled his girlfriends to bits. Only the knight was absent, though most of his friends were around. We all ate and discussed general things.

I finished the meal, and the maidservant came forward with a bowl of clear water with leaves for me to wash my hands with. I took the napkin on my lap to dry my hands and as a group, I left the hall with my friends. Curfew had not broke in, so we went to my room to prepare for the mission later.

'Okay. We will not make a move until Bambs has made his diversion. So Bambs, you got the thing you need?' Saber said, as he closed the door.

'Yeah, I think so. I rigged something to explode after 5 minutes, so I have all the time I need to get away from the scene.' Bambs said gleefully.

We were all happy with the plan, and Bambs left. Soon, curfew set in and we waited patiently for the signal. We did not have long to wait.

There was a large explosion and the cracking sound of fireworks could be heard outside of the castle. We counted to 1 minute before we rushed out of the room. Saber and I headed towards the throne room while Cluck went straight to the surveillance chamber. I cast Mistcloak on everyone as we left the room. As we ran, we took care to hide behind pillars at every turn, checking for any guards running towards our direction. All was clear. Bambs' diversion worked. Hopefully, he was okay.

We reached the throne room, and sure enough, the corridor there was empty. I could hear Saber transform and the sound of flapping wings indicated that he flew off somewhere.

'Cast Mistcloak!'

I entered the throne room. The door was not even locked. Everything in the room was just like how I saw in the crystal. Judging from the viewpoint I saw from within the crystal, I looked towards the top corner of the room and felt a slight trace of magic there.

So Cluck should be seeing this now. But wait. SHIT. I FORGOT TO CHECK IF THE SURVEILLANCE CAN BE DELETED.

It was too late to regret now. I had to carry on with the mission and hopefully Cluck could find some way to deal with the records. I looked around the room with my magic senses stretched out to the maximum. However, I found nothing. Clearly, the thief did not use any magic. I felt the air with my fingers, but found no specks of black dust. The thief's smokescreen was effective in removing its own trace. I walked over to the wall where the banner used to be, and to my surprise, I found a magic circle branded on the carpet right beneath where the banner used to be. It was extremely faded, but it was still active. Nobody saw it before because it was blocked by the throne from the viewpoint of the scrying sphere.

Thanks to the hellish readings I did back in the Enchantium, I recognised the symbols of the magic circle. This was one drawn to purge any sort of buffs that came within the range of the magic circle. It was large enough to ensure that if anybody wanted to touch the banner, he or she must step into the circle.

So this was why the thief had to use the black smoke! If he stepped into this circle, his invisibility would be broken!

This was an important clue, one that could only be picked up by anyone who came to investigate this room. Clearly, the chamberlain must have had some ulterior motive to bar people from entering this room. The teachers might not have recognised this magic circle since none of them were mage classes, but someone like me could. I withdrew from the circle and was going to leave the room when I noticed something wrong with the throne. There were hand rests on the throne for the old king then to put his arms on to rest, and though there were two of these hand rests, only one of them had something like a ball for the king to put his palm on. The other was missing. Puzzled, I stepped forwards towards the throne but at the same moment, the door behind me flew open and Saber hissed. I turned around and saw him beckoning to the air, as though signaling for me to leave the room frantically. I retreated from the throne and went over to him. I put my hand on his shoulder and he jumped.

'Oh! There you are. Look, we have to go. Bambs just ran past this way, telling us to leave now!' He urged.

I cast Mistcloak on him, and on myself as well. From where he was standing, I could sense traces of my own magic so I used that to pinpoint his location. Taking care not to bump into him, we ran all the way back to the third floor. Guards were rushing about the castle, and quite a handful headed towards the throne room. Pretty soon, we reached our room and we collapsed inside, trying very hard to catch our breaths. Bambs was already there, and he was in a state worse than anyone of us. His hair was singed, and explosive powder was all over his face. It looked like he blew up his chestpiece armour too.

'Woah, what happened to you?' I asked, in between breaths.

'Erm. Remember when I said I rigged my bomb to blow up in 5 minutes? Well... I kinda used the wrong fuse. So it blew up after 5 seconds. So yeah.. Anyway, lucky enough I was hidden in the bushes when the guards arrived. They said they were gonna check the throne room next, which was where you guys were, so I threw a stun grenade on them and while they were disorientated, I ran to you guys. Well, Saber saw me and he dropped down from the ceiling!'

'YOU IDIOT!!!! Lucky you weren't setting off a nuclear bomb blast or something or you could have killed yourself. Anyway, I saw him running frantically towards our corridor so I flew down in my bird form to stop him. Well, he panicked when he heard my voice so he launched a bomb at me. I took a hit and the invisibility broke. But he calmed down the moment he saw me.' Saber said.

'Woah. What an eventful night. I just hope Cluck gets back safely...'

Just then, the door opened again, and Cluck strolled in. He chuckled at all our distressed faces and went to pour himself some tea.

'Nailed it. I deleted the records off the sphere so you guys are all safe. The guards saw me, but I told them I was disturbed by the noise so I came out to check. They told me to go back to my room, that's all. Man, if you guys were half as confident as I was, you wouldn't have needed to run a marathon!' He said, while sipping his tea.

'Yeah, yeah, you deserve the award of Most Confident Man ever. Anyway, I found out why the thief had to use the smoking device. There was a magic circle near the banner, so whatever invisibility he used on himself would have broken the moment he tried to remove the banner. That smoke was his cover.'

'Hmm. That must mean this guy must have entered the throne room before. Anyway, he probably can't be any of the teachers because they did investigate the room but none of them recognised the magic circle. A person has to be a mage like you in order to recognise it.'

'No, he could still be one of the teachers pretending not to notice the magic circle. The person we need to find is the chamberlain of this castle. Find out why he barred people from finding out the magic circle. Anyway, before I left the room, I saw something funny. The throne is missing one of its balls.'

The moment I said that, all of them laughed.

'What? I'm being serious here! I mean, one of the hand-rests is missing a globe. I'm not sure if it means anything though.'

'Nah, it probably means that the throne is becoming less of a man.' Saber joked.

'Ha Ha. Very funny. Let's call it a night. See you idiots in the morning. I wanna sleep already.' I said, and logged out.

Alright! Looks like we found our first clue! I have to find some way to corner the chamberlain next...

Just then, my phone lit up with a new e-mail. I opened it up and my heart almost leapt out from my mouth when I saw who the sender was.

Vanessa had just sent me an e-mail.

Sorry guys, no new spell this chapter! :(