Chapter Thirty Three

The four of them didn’t stop riding after they escaped the city. Ralisdor re-cloaked everyone and they kept on riding for the next couple of hours. Shuka was worried Validus was going to find them again, but it never happened. Whatever spell he used to track them before had either only lasted for so long, or they were outside of its range. They set up camp an hour or so after the sun went down with Ralisdor setting up all of their usual precautions. It gave Shuka some time to think of what she wanted to say to him when he was done.

I really want to know what happened while everyone was out, but somehow that isn’t the most pressing issue right now. I still don’t even know what was up with him and Visia. Is that my first question? Or do I ask about the spell he used to put a hole in the wall. It could just be an advanced transmutation spell, but… Ralisdor isn’t a transmuter. He would have to be as good at transmutation as he is at illusions to pull that off on a enchanted wall, and I’ve barely even seen him use transmutation. If it's not that… then it can only be a true illusion.

Shuka was so caught up in her own thoughts that she didn’t even notice Maryam walk up to her.

“Hey, can we chat?”

“Huh? Oh, sure.”

“Great.”

Maryam sat down in the grass next to her. She was looking a lot better now. Whatever affliction she seemed to have back in Lancrin was gone and she was back to being her usual energetic self. Xorvos was also nearby, although it didn’t look like he was involving himself in the conversation yet. He was listening though.

“What do you want to talk about?”

“Alright, so don’t freak out, but I think we should ditch Ralisdor.”

“Why would I freak out?”

“Uhh…”

Maryam didn’t seem to expect Shuka’s response. She looked prepared to give a big argument and fight tooth and nail to convince her, but Shuka wasn’t all that opposed to the idea in the first place.

“I’m not fully on board with the idea, to be clear, but I am willing to hear you out.”

“Alright, well first of all, he has clearly been hiding his identity and his full capabilities from us.”

“Right, I’m pretty sure he is actually Archmage Sandrin.”

It was a conclusion Shuka had come too while they were riding away from Lancrin, although the thought had crossed her mind after the night Visia kidnapped him.

“Well… yes. That was going to be my next point. But do you know how Sandrin supposedly died?”

“He was killed when the celestial order raided his home for an unspecified crime. Since we have no idea if the raid was justified or not, I’m just going to go with what I have seen myself. Which is that it wasn’t.”

“Alright fair, but he’s an illusionist right? We know how you got cursed doesn’t add up with how they actually work, what if it was all just Ralisdor tricking you.”

“He certainly could if he wanted to. Still, even with all that, I want to believe it wasn’t him. I can’t think of any reason why he would curse me, and he isn’t that kind of person anyway. I’ve known him a lot longer than you Maryam, and he wouldn’t waste his time hurting others like this. Besides, we kind of need him right now. No one else can stand up to Validus and he is the only person who knows anyone in Sidus.”

Maryam was out of arguments to make and achieved… approximately nothing. Xorvos decided it was time for him to give his own argument.

“Shuka, there is something you don’t know. When Maryam and I got caught, Ralisdor saved us. But he only came to save me. He wanted to leave Maryam behind. The only reason why she is still with us is because I saved her without him.”

That… that can’t be true, can it? But Xorvos wouldn’t lie, especially about something as serious as this. I know Shuka and Ralisdor don’t get along, but that goes too far.

“If he did it once he will do it again.” Maryam commented. “And besides ditching him in the middle of the night may be rude, but if he really is innocent then it can be fixed by an apology. But if he really is behind the curse, then the consequences of staying with him might be too serious to fix.”

“…You’re right. But what are we supposed to do without him?”

“My mother contacted me today. I thought she wouldn’t be willing to help, but apparently, I was wrong. We can go to her instead of Sidus and she can lift the curse. Probably. At the very least she can hire someone to do it.”

“Really? In that case… I guess your right. When do we leave?”

“Tonight. Not right now, we’ll wait until he is asleep, but it looks like he drained his mana with that big spell from before. Since he kept us all invisible all the way here his mana regeneration must have been slow, if he gained any mana at all. Best case scenario we don’t get noticed, but if we do I would prefer to run away from him while he is drained rather than at full mana.”

“Alright.”

It was good that their conversation ended there because Ralisdor had just finished setting everything up so they wouldn’t be found. He came over to the group and sat down on the ground near them.

“That should hold the night. I was extra careful with the illusion this time since we are so close to Lancrin, even a detect magic spell wouldn’t be able to find us. I also set up anti scrying measures around the entire camp.”

“Could you always prevent scrying? That’s definitely not an illusion spell.”

“You’re right, it isn’t. Ralisdor couldn’t cast it, but I have no need to pretend to be him anymore. I am sure at least some of you have figured it out by now, so let me re-introduce myself. I am Sandrin, Archmage of Illusion.”

It wasn’t exactly a surprise to Shuka, but it still shook her a bit hearing him say it.

I can’t believe an archmage has been training me this whole time. I also can’t believe I’m going to go without his help. How much can I trust him though? He didn’t trust me enough to tell me he was an archmage. I guess I can understand that if his identity getting revealed would put him in danger, but he didn’t trust me enough to tell me Visia was looking for him either.

Ralisdor, or Sandrin, continued after a sufficiently dramatic pause.

“I would prefer it if you continued to call me Ralisdor though. ‘Sandrin’ is dead, and there are some people who would go to great lengths to keep him that way. Please understand though, that I am no more guilty of my supposed crimes than you are of yours, Shuka.”

“What… were the crimes you were being accused of?”

“Demon summoning. Apparently, they though I was on the verge of summoning an archfiend or some such thing. How they came to that conclusion I haven’t a clue, but I suspect I was being framed. Of course with the Celestial Empires… history with demons, it is no surprise that they are so jumpy on the subject.”

Shuka was no historian, but even she knew that eight hundred years ago the northern half of the Celestial Empire was nothing more than a demon infested wasteland.

If the Celestial Order thought someone was trying to put the empire back into the demon’s control, then it’s no wonder they reacted so harshly. Still, how many innocents have they wrongly convicted? No wait, Ralisdor was only wrongfully convicted if he’s telling the truth. I still can’t dismiss the idea that he might be lying.

This time, Maryam asked him a question.

“So if you got caught for demon summoning, what got Visia so mad at you? I doubt she would have cared much even if you did plunge the empire into chaos. Did you dogear one of her books? I bet that would have pissed her off.”

“I did nothing. I just happened to have some of her borrowed books when my tower was raided. Books on illusion magic mind you, not all of her tomes are illegal, but they are all high quality. Apparently the ones I had didn’t survive the attack though, and so now she hates me. I did not think it would be a problem since as far as she knew I was dead.”

“How did you fake your death anyway? I’m sure they would have brought plenty of ways to check for illusions if they were raiding the archmage of them.”

“Well it’s quite simple. The corpse of me they found was real. As real as you can get. Not a trick of the light, or some mental hallucination, it wasn’t even a mana construct. It was real flesh and blood that even had a soul leaving its body, since I knew at least one of them would probably check for that.”

Shuka knew what he was talking about, and the words left her mouth without her even meaning for them to.

“It was a true illusion.”

“A what?” Maryam asked. “What the hell is a true illusion and why has Shuka heard about it but not me?”

“She knows about true illusions because I have given her many lectures on the subject. I do not blame you for not knowing what it is though, it is a rare magic for even archmages to learn. The last known user of it died centuries ago.”

“Ahh, but you are just so talented and special you learned it no problem, right?”

“I claimed no such thing. I am not even capable of casting true illusions. Well, not true true illusions. The spell is not yet complete, and so I cannot claim any great accolades just yet.”

“What even is a true illusion?”

It was a good question, and one that Ralisdor/Sandrin was more than happy to answer.

“True illusions are illusions so realistic that they trick reality itself. When properly cast the only limit to what the spell can do is your own knowledge of the world. If you want something created, you can create it. if you want something taken away you can do that too. If you want a wall to have a convenient hole in it, all you have to do is tell the world that there should always have been one there.”

“That’s nonsense, an illusion can’t put a hole in a wall. It can make it look like it did, but it can’t just remove a chunk of stone like that.”

“And yet we all rode through that hole unimpeded.”

“That could just as easily have been a transmutation spell. And besides, didn’t you just say you can’t even cast true illusions?”

“Yes, I did. A real true illusion is permanent and becomes a new part of reality, where I can only maintain the spell temporarily. My version of the spell is also much more expensive, since I am essentially recasting the spell every second to keep it up. It also takes far too long to cast. Since I must target a location and not a thing, moving objects, especially erratically moving objects such as people, become near impossible to target. If that wasn’t the case then I would have simply turned Validus into a chicken. That requires me to know the exact location he would have been in at the end of the spell though.”

It might have been hard for Shuka to believe if Ralisdor hadn’t already taught all this during her short apprenticeship with him. Xorvos knew it was impressive, but all the magic talk was going over his head, so it was only really Maryam who was struggling with the concept.

“I still don’t believe it, even if you are an archmage. Maybe if it was a transmutation spell, or even a conjuration spell it would make sense, but not an illusion.”

“Well if you say it then I suppose it must be true. After all, I am only the Archmage of Illusion, what could I possibly know on the subject. Please, teach me the ways of this school of magic that I am sure you must have extensive knowledge of.”

Maryam got the message and shut up.

“Now, are there any other questions you have of me?”

“I have one.” Xorvos answered. “How did you know Maryam and I were in trouble?”

“I know it may seem like I was spying on you two, but in fact it was Validus I was spying on. Since we knew he was in the city, I was keeping an eye on him to see if he was on our trail. As it turns out, he was not, but ran into us anyway.”

His answer made sense to Shuka… if it was the truth at least.

Do I really have to question every single thing Ralisdor says now? I want to believe in him, but should I? If he lied once, he can lie again. But everyone’s lied at least once in their life, right? Well, maybe not Xorvos, but I know I have. And Ralisdor had a good reason to lie at least. If his story about why he had to hide his identity is true that is. I just want to know the truth. Was it him that cursed me? Was it someone else? Is Ralisdor getting framed again, or was he ever even framed in the first place? And why did he only want to save Xorvos? It can’t just be because he was the more convenient person to save, can it? Or is his grudge for Maryam really that deep?

The questions swirled around in Shuka’s mind as the conversation died down. There was no end to the things she didn’t know, and the answers she got, she didn’t know if she should believe.

*

It was late into the night when Maryam cam to get Shuka from her bedroll. She was a bit proud of the fact that she had not, in fact, fallen asleep while waiting. It had come a bit close a few times though. Shuka got up as quietly as she could, and sneaked with Maryam to Xorvos. He had managed to stay awake too. With all of them ready, the three friends stalked their way over to their horses. Luckily, they had been kept saddled and prepared for riding in case Validus found them and they needed to leave quickly. After a few minutes of them very quietly packing up their essentials and loading them onto their horses, the three of them were ready to leave. The horses, thankfully, seemed to be too tired to be making much noise. How long that would last though, was anybody’s guess.

Leading her horse by its reigns, Shuka was slowly walking out of the camp. She half expected to see Validus jump out of a bush and point his sword at her the moment she left Ralisdor’s illusion, but that didn’t happen. Then she expected Ralisdor’s voice from behind her asking her where she was going, but that didn’t happen either. Nothing happened in the first minute. Then the first ten minutes. Then after the first hour of slowly creeping away they finally mounted their horses and rode. Shuka was tired, but the tension and anxiety kept her awake all the way until the sun rose.

Crap, is it morning already? I’m so tired, but we are still so close to Lancrin. If they find us while we are asleep, there won’t be anything we can do. Maybe we should have waited a few more days to leave. Or not leave at all.

“Maryam, what’s the plan? We have to sleep at some point, but we are too visible with the sun out. I don’t know if we’ll be able to last until night like this.”

There weren't a whole lot of places to hide. Some hills, and maybe a few trees, but no thick forest or rocky outcropping that might actually hide them from people searching for them. It wasn’t a problem with Ralisdor, he was an illusionist after all. But now they didn’t have him and they needed to hide the old fashioned way. Maryam didn’t seem worried though.

“That’s what we’ve got this for.”

Maryam took out a small smooth stone from a pouch and showed it to Shuka. It was a bit hard to see it clearly since they were still riding, but it looked like it had an arcane rune engraved on it.

“Is that an illusion stone? I’m a bit surprised you have one, they’re only really useful for illusionists.”

“Well, it’s not mine. I took it from Ralisdor before we left.”

“You what!? Maryam, that was the illusion stone that was keeping us hidden, without it Ralisdor will be completely exposed while he’s sleeping.”

“He’s an archmage, he’ll be fine even if they do find him. We need this though; we don’t stand a chance without it.”

While she had to admit Ralisdor’s chances of survival were much greater than theirs, she still didn’t like stealing from him like that. There was something else bothering her too.

“Can you even use it? It’s not the kind of magic item you can just activate, you have to put the illusion in yourself.”

“Hey, don’t try to lecture me on magic items, I know more about them than you by a mile. Why would I be the one to use it though, you’re the illusionist.”

“Me?!”

“Yes you. The only illusion I know is a basic light spell, so unless you want our camp to be glowing like a lighthouse you are going to use it.”

“But I’ve never made such a large illusion before, or one so complex. And besides, the illusion stone needs all the mana that would be used to maintain the spell all at once, and I don’t think I have that much mana in me. Not for more than maybe an hour at most.”

Shuka had seen Ralisdor use the illusion stone when they camped out in the wild enough times that she knew how it worked. The problem was she also knew it took a lot of skill, and even more mana. Two things that she lacked.

“Oh come on, you’re the Archmage of Illusions apprentice, this should be child’s play. And if you need more mana then drink a mana potion, I’ve got plenty.”

“I was only his apprentice for what, a year and a half? Actually, less than that! Most of that time was spent teaching me the basics, I’ve only actually been able to cast magic for a few months. Something like this is way outside of my skill level.”

“So, what, you’re not even going to try? It doesn’t have to be as good as Ralisdors, just good enough to trick a dullard like Validus. You’ve tricked him before; it should be easy.”

“Not on this scale. But fine, I’ll try. Your mana potion is probably going to be wasted though.”

“Better used in a failure, then not used at all. You learn from one, you don’t from the other. Or, at least that’s what my mom tells me.”

More than anything else, that adage was what motivated Shuka to try. The group found a nearby spot for them to put up the illusion. It was at the base of a grassy hill with no trees or rocks around to minimize the number of unique things Shuka would have to account for in her illusion. With the hill at their backs, she could essentially just make a grassy ball and hope it’s not seen from the side. Or hope that they mistake it for a mossy boulder or something.

This is never going to work. A mossy boulder? Is that really what I’m going for? Still, it’s better than a band of fugitives.

Shuka accepted a mana potion from Maryam, and then started to visualize exactly what she wanted the illusion to look like. She circled around the area where she was going to put it and took in every detail. Then, once she had everything figured out, she chugged the potion and immediately began casting. She knew that the potion was going to put her above her natural mana capacity and give her mana poisoning if she didn’t use the excess mana quickly, so pouring it into the illusion stone was the first thing she did. Then, once it was filled up with the necessary mana to maintain the spell, the apprentice illusionist started shaping what she wanted the illusion to look like. It was difficult, working with something so much bigger than she was used to, and even more difficult since she had to channel the spell into the illusion stone. It wasn’t anything she didn’t already know how to do though; it was just harder. Sweat poured down her forehead, but bit by bit, a grassy, or perhaps mossy, boulder started to appear around her. Ralisdor could make his illusions opaque from the outside, but transparent from the inside so they could see all around them while hidden, but that wasn’t something Shuka knew how to do. Light came through her illusionary walls, but not sight so she couldn't see outside the illusion. It took Shuka almost three times as long to make an illusion only half the size of what Ralisdor usually made, but she did it. Drained of every drop of mana, and already fatigued from a lack of sleep, Shuka was exhausted, but successful. The image of the illusion was a bit blurry, and if you looked closely you could tell that it was fake, but from a distance it was mostly convincing. Mostly. It was mostly meant to blend in with the grassy background, which it did passingly well. Xorvos and Maryam were congratulating Shuka and giving her words of encouragement, but she was too tired to care. Shuka knew that the illusion would barely last long enough for a full night’s rest, so without wasting any more time she went to bed, safely hidden. She didn’t know how long she slept for, but she was woken up by the sound of many thundering hooves.