Chapter Thirty Four

Validus found himself back in Aurulin’s office, sternly disgruntled. It hurt his ego a bit, having the witch escape yet again. To make matters worse, she seemed to have gained some more allies, with one of them at least being a fairly powerful mage.

Is that what she came to Lancrin for? To gather allies? I haven’t heard of any major robberies like in Rockmarsh, but I haven’t been in Lancrin for very long. Maybe Aurulin will know, but can she even be trusted?

At that moment, Aurulin herself walked into the room. She had told him to wait in her office while she handled something, and against his better judgement, he had. Now she had returned, and walked over to her desk where she sat down in an ungraceful slump.

“Well would you look at that, you actually did what I told you to do. I guess even the Celestial Orders most undisciplined dog can still follow commands.”

“I am here at my own will, not because you told me to. Why did you stop me? If you hadn’t, then it would have been unlikely that they would have escaped.”

“Yeah, and then all we would have to worry about is the most powerful dragon outside of Draconia asking what we did to her daughter. Do you have any idea how bad it would have been if you chopped off her arm or some shit? Neither of us would get out of that situation alive.”

“Dragon? Do you mean the archmage, Servianna? I was not aware she had a daughter.”

“Yeah, you don’t seem to be aware of a lot of things.”

Validus ignored the comment and thought about what that meant for a bit.

Was that woman a dragon in disguise? No, it would have been undone when the anti-magic zone was activated if that was the case. She must be adopted then. Does that mean Vondoom is involved, or is she even related to him now that she isn’t an orphan? Whatever the case may be, the witch now has the support of an archmage, even if indirectly. Along with the support of the Thieves Guild and whoever that new illusionist is, her influence is expanding at a worrying rate.

“Do you know why Archmage Servianna has chosen to support the witch? While I admit I may not be an expert on matters outside of the empire, I have not heard any unsavory rumors about her.”

The corner of Aurulin’s mouth twitched slightly

“You’re not an expert on matters inside the empire either. As for why she would support Shuka? I don’t think she is. Maryam, her daughter, is a bit… wild and impulsive. Servianna might not even know of her daughter’s recent escapades, and if she does, I doubt she approves of them. That doesn’t change the fact that there would be hell to pay if something happens to her though.”

“So what am I supposed to do to her then? Give her a stern talking to then send her to her mother to be grounded? She won’t get special attention just because her mother is important.”

“Just don’t do anything permanent you halfwit. Hit her with your shield, not your sword.”

While Aurulin seemed at least a bit nicer than their earlier meeting, Validus still didn’t appreciate her tone, or her words. He wasn’t sure how much he wanted her help if it came at the cost of constant insults and condescension

“Is the only reason you called me here to insult me? Because so far, I have heard much criticism and not much of anything else.”

“You want something useful? Fine, here you go. Around a week ago, Shuka, Xorvos, and Maryam, that’s your witch, her Quanso friend and Servianna’s daughter, in case you’ve already forgotten their names, had a meeting with Visia. What the meeting was about, I have no idea, and Visia isn’t likely to snitch. Then, yesterday, they had another meeting with Visia. Apparently something went wrong though because later that night Visia raided their room. I don’t know the details behind that either. What I do know, is the entire time they’ve have been in Lancrin, they haven’t contacted the Thieves Guild, and have committed no known crimes.”

“Where did you get all of this information?”

“Partly from my own spy network, but mostly from the Thieves Guild. That’s the business I was attending to while you were waiting for me.”

“The Thieves Guild? Why would you go there for information, they’re just going to lie to you. And that’s only if they even let you through the door without stabbing you in the back first.”

Aurulin raised an eyebrow. She obviously didn’t agree.

“If you don’t want to get shanked every time you talk to them then maybe you should stop being such an asshole. As it turns out, they don’t hate members of the Celestial Order, they just hate you. I can understand why.”

Validus bristled at the comment, but forced himself to stay calm. He knew she was just trying to get under his skin. The problem was, it was working.

“Even if they’re a bit more willing to work with you rather than me, what reason would they have to help in this matter?”

“What reason would they have not to? In case you have forgotten, which given your tendency towards stupidity is worryingly likely, there is an alliance between the guild and the order. Not a truce, or a cease fire, but an alliance. We help them, and they help us, that’s how it works. I asked them to help me with Shuka, and they did, because I have helped them before. They don’t help you because you sneer at them harder than I am sneering at you.”

True to her word, Aurulin was indeed sneering and it wasn’t subtle. She was being very clear about her distaste of him. Although, Validus realized, he wasn’t much better. If not in words, then in his facial expression at least. Even now he found his face was stuck in a displeased grimace, and it had been since she had entered the room.

“If you hate me so much, then why are you even helping me with this? You wouldn’t be the first to hear my plea and ignore it.”

“I’m helping you, because unlike everyone else I looked into this matter beyond the first glance. When I was at the Thieves Guild I also looked into what this witch of yours was even doing in Rockmarsh. Apparently they had her doing a job for them, and before you start pointing fingers, they roped her into it, not the other way around. The job wasn’t anything serious either, just a bit of spy work, sure as shit not the heist she pulled off.”

“I have been telling people that she stole something from the Rockmarsh vault, but all that did was raise her bounty. If it was just that you still wouldn’t care, so what’s the real reason?”

“The real reason, is what she stole. Twenty pounds of pure kallium.”

“Kallium?! How did Rockmarsh even have that much to steal, it’s meant to be destroyed on sight!”

Validus was beginning to shout. He didn’t know a lot, but he did know all about the most illegal substance in the Celestial Empire. It was a rare mineral that was extremely effective as a material component for demon summoning.

Just one pound of that stuff can summon a dozen demons. Or, one really big one. What can someone do with twenty pounds? At least this conforms my suspicions though, the Grand Priest and the Emperor will have to listen to me now.

“Look, I figured Rockmarsh probably had a bit stashed away, those greedy little fucks, but I’m as surprised as you are by this. The Thieves Guild had no idea they had so much either, I think even you know that Asheli wouldn’t leave something so dangerous just lying around waiting to be stolen.”

“I suppose… do you have any other information on Shuka or her companions?”

“Yes actually. Xorvos and Maryam came to me in an attempt to get a curse removed from Shuka. I was using a truth spell, so I don’t believe they were lying, although Maryam might have had a way to bypass it. Still, it seems a dumb thing to lie about. I have no idea what the curse could be but they said a witch put it on her. Infighting perhaps? Or maybe just a backfired spell.”

“Hmm… Shuka doesn’t seem the most… talented. Maybe she is an apprentice who double crossed her teacher and got cursed in retribution.”

“What’s that? A rare good idea from you? Don’t get too many of those, you’ll take my job and I’ll have to replace you as the idiot with a big metal stick.”

“Can you please just let it rest for one moment. We have a job to do and your abrasive attitude isn’t helping.”

“Yeah, well you better get used to it because you are going to be working with me until we catch her.”

“Let’s hope for both of our sakes that that will happen soon.”

*

Shuka was awake in an instant. She quickly looked around for the source of the sound of hooves, but all she saw was the inside of her illusion. It confused her at first, until she remembered what it was.

Good, the illusion is still up. Hopefully it’s good enough to trick whoever that is outside.

She could have peeked outside the boulder to check herself, but didn’t want to risk being discovered. Xorvos and Maryam had woken up too, and were both just as tense as Shuka was. The noise was getting louder, as the horsemen were obviously approaching their position. The ground started to shake, as what sounded like around twenty horses galloped across it. Slowly though, right when it was at its loudest, the noise began to stop. That worried Shuka more than anything else; she had hoped they would ride past them without stopping. They were close enough to the illusion that Shuka could hear the panting of their horses, and the clanking of their armour. A grizzled man’s voice cut through the noise, but it was obvious that it wasn’t directed at Shuka or her friends.

“Connor, report. Why have we stopped?”

“The trail ends here Captain. I believe they used a spell to hide their tracks.”

“Could they be hiding nearby instead?”

“Possibly, but every minute we spend searching for them, the farther away they get if they didn’t decide to hide.”

Both of the voices were unfamiliar to Shuka, but it seemed clear that they were soldiers of some kind.

“Whether they are hiding their location, or hiding their tracks, it looks like they are trying to cross the border. Why else would they be heading east so intently instead of leaving Lancrin’s search radius as soon as possible. If we reach the border before them then we can intercept them before they can leave our jurisdiction. Connor, send a message to the Grand Paladin and inform him of our findings. Tell him I want every man he can spare on the border from here to the Ashgray Mountains.”

“Understood Captain.”

Sounds like they haven’t noticed us, but did he say they are going to the border? Shit, how are we supposed to get to Maryam’s mother then? We might’ve been able to sneak past them with Ralisdor, but I don’t like our chances with just the three of us.

Hooves began to pound onto the ground once more as the soldiers started to leave. It took a long while before anyone dared to talk, and it was Maryam who did.

“Well fuck, what do we do now?”

Shuka didn’t know. They couldn’t go back to Ralisdor now, if they could even find him again, and getting to the other archmage that could help didn’t seem like it would be easy. But then Shuka had a thought.

If we can’t get to Maryam’s mother, then what if she came to us?

“Maryam, you said you talked to your mother, right?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Can you still talk to her? You could ask her to fly over to us and pick us up.”

“Oh! that’s a great idea, alright just give me a minute.”

Maryam went searching in her bag for a moment. Then a moment more. Then she starting taking everything she had out of it looking for her speaking stone. She didn’t find it.

“Shit, shit, SHIT! Where the hell is it?”

“Wait, what? Did you lose it?”

“Fuck no, it must have been stolen. Was it Aurulin? Or that rat Ralisdor.”

“Hold on, what reason would he have for stealing it? If he knew we were leaving he would have stopped us.”

“Yeah? Well why would Aurulin have stolen it and nothing else. If she was going to take my stuff, she would have taken all of it.”

“Well, who else could it have been? Validus?”

Tensions were high and it was causing Shuka and Maryam to argue again, but Xorvos intervened before it got too bad.

“Hey, calm down, both of you. This isn’t the end of the world. Maryam, your mother knows the general situation, right? If you go long enough without contacting her, or if she tries to contact you and you don’t respond, she is going to look for you. We just have to hide until she gets here.”

“Well sure, but how long is that gonna take? A week? Two? Ok no, she would come looking for me before two weeks pass, but still. At the very least we gotta get out of Lancrin’s search radius while we are waiting.”

“What direction are we going then?” Shuka asked. “North? North-east? West even?”

When they had left Lancrin it was through the western wall, but Ralisdor had pretty quickly changed their direction to head north-west, towards Sidus, the capital. When they left him though, the group rode straight east, aiming to get over the border and into the Karvan Alliance where Maryam’s mother lived. They were currently just north of Lancrin, with the city barely visible on the horizon.

“I say we just head straight north, maybe a bit north-west. If we are just waiting for my mom, then our first priority is to get as far away from Lancrin as we can. She will be able to find me no matter where we are, so let’s just find somewhere isolated.”

“Right, let’s go then.”

With a plan decided, the three friends packed up and got on their horses. Shuka took one last look at the City of Magic, and then rode on.

I hope I can visit again when all of this is over.

*

Servianna didn’t want for much. Actually no, she wanted for a lot, she just got most of it. But it was all simple stuff really- a mountain of gold to sleep on, some of the most powerful artifacts in the world to decorate her cave with; she even had a small country to rule and she hadn’t even tried to get that. The one thing that seemed to evade her though, was a daughter that didn’t get into trouble the moment she took her eyes off her.

All she was meant to do was make a simple transaction with a trusted merchant in Lancrin, and now she is tangled up in all this crap.

The large purple scaled dragon was curled up on her aforementioned mountain of gold staring at a small speaking stone she was levitating in front of her face. She had been doing that for the last couple of hours, wanting to use it, but restraining herself. She had just called her daughter the day before after all, and she knew Maryam didn’t like it when she was too clingy.

Maybe I will just scry her. That way I will know she is safe, but she won’t get annoyed at me calling her all the time.

Servianna put the stone down in its little alcove and retrieved something else instead. A round, glass scrying orb. It seemed a basic enough spellcasting implement, if incredibly well made, until you realised it was scaled up to Servianna’s size. This made the almost unassuming glass sphere about the size of a small house. She also retrieved a vial of red blood, Maryams blood, to increase the strength of the spell. With everything prepared, the archmage began casting. It wasn’t flashy or impressive, she had long since learned how to cast subtly, and she wasn’t a fan of theatrics. The scrying orb simply filled with a gentle fog; before it cleared up to reveal… the floor of the cave. The spell had failed. She tried again, but nothing changed, she still couldn’t scry her daughter.

What happened, is she dead? No, the spell did take hold of something, it was just blocked; I wouldn’t have even gotten the fog if she was dead. Was she kidnapped or imprisoned? My magic is powerful enough to get past amateur spellcraft, so she wasn’t caught by some bandit on the road at least. Visia could block me though, and probably the Lancrin prison too. Maybe it’s not that bad, maybe she is just passing through a scrying warded area. I’ll call her and see who answers.

Moving the scrying orb out of the way, Servianna retrieved her speaking stone again and activated it.

“Maryam?”

She made sure to hide the anxiety in her voice, it wouldn’t do to show how worried she was no matter who was on the other side. After a short moment she got a reply.

“Hey mom, what up?”

All of the built up tension left the dragons body as she heard her daughter’s voice. She then quickly gathered herself and replied with a stern confidence.

“Why can I not scry you?”

“Well, why do you think? I want my privacy, so I bought a new anti-scrying artifact. And hey, apparently I didn’t even get scammed since it looks like it’s good enough to block you. That’s Lancrin for ya I guess.”

Servianna was annoyed, but… more relieved than anything. All it was, was a misunderstanding.

“We will discuss this when you return, and please, no more delays.”

“Alright, but uhh… it might still take a bit. My friend’s still being chased, so we might need to take some detours or hide out somewhere for a bit.”

The anxiety returned, but Servianna didn’t let it control her. She didn’t let it show in her voice either.

“Prioritise your safety over speed, but I will be calling you every day to make sure you are safe. If things seem too dangerous then I will come get you myself.”

“Yeah, whatever you say, mom. I’ll be fine though, seriously. You have nothing to worry about.”

For some reason, that felt like a lie.