Roxas awoke with the distinct impression there was something... different.
The room he'd rented looked the same.
He looked the same.
The view – if it could be called that – was the same.
But he couldn't shake the feeling all was not the same.
A clock on the wall showed it was still fairly early. The locals might have been wary of him, but maybe they'd consider cooking him some breakfast.
The bar was quiet, but at this early hour it was hardly unexpected. The same barman was tending the bar, holding a quiet conversation with two men, presumably locals. Roxas didn't recognise them, but then he didn't recognise anyone around here.
He glanced up as Roxas joined them, nodded to them and came over.
"What can I get you, your lordship?" he asked in a considerably more polite, almost a servile, tone than he has last night.
"Do you happen to do breakfast?"
"Of course. Anything in particular you want?"
"I don't suppose you have any waffles?"
"Waffles? We don't get much call for them, your lordship. I'll see what I can find for you though, just take a seat, and I'll have it with you in a jiffy. I'll just put it on your tab, you can pay it off whenever you want."
Roxas nodded, somewhat uncertainly, and moved to the table he'd taken the previous night. Now he was certain, something strange was going on here. They hadn't called him 'your lordship' last night.
Not long after, the barman came bustling out with a plate of waffles, and a glass of water for him.
"Anything else I can get you?" he asked, smiling with a bob of his head.
"Not right now... I don't suppose you know what happened to Darik though? The guy I was talking with last night?"
"He signed himself out a few hours ago, saying he had to head for his home in the next town, Dariksville."
"Named after him, or is he named after it," Roxas mused.
"There's two schools of thought about that, your lordship. Some think he's their wizard, and the tower there is his, just like the one here in Roxille is yours."
Roxas hid his surprise at this. There hadn't been any tower here last night, even the bad weather couldn't have hidden anything like that from him – let alone any tower being owned by him.
"A wizard, huh? Well now... isn't that interesting..."
The barman nodded and left him to attack his breakfast.
Once finished, he sat considering his situation for a few minutes, then left the bar to look for this tower he supposedly owned.
It was hard to miss. In the centre of town, where he'd seen a central market the night before, was a massive stone tower, reaching up to overlook the town. A spiral stair wrapped itself around the outside, a guard rail on the outside edge to prevent people from falling off.
Another new feature of the town were smaller towers around the edge of the town. It made the town look like a giant sundial.
The market was now arranged around the base of his tower, with clear routes to it at two points only. One was to the stair that people apparently would climb to reach him, the other was a doorway into the tower down here. It was not exactly a door, more just a door shaped opening in the wall. It seemed to have some kind of semitransparent barrier set into it with strange designs on it in reds and blacks.
He watched as someone else tapped on it, tried to walk through it, and found it blocked her entry. They apparently gave up, sighed, and started up the stairs instead.
Now Roxas approached it, and found that it let him through without resistance.
On the outside, the woman who'd tried to gain entry this way noticed.
"Wizard Roxas!" she called after him, but he pretended not to notice, quickly moving out of sight. Maybe they thought him a wizard, but he had no idea if he could do what they thought he could.
Inside the tower here seemed to be mostly empty but for a few crates scattered around, and a bright light in the center shining down from above.
He stepped into it warily, then blinked.
He was now stood at what he assumed was the top of the tower.
There were no interior walls except that of the outside one, and even that was mostly windows, resembling a lighthouse. There were shelves of books, tables with strange instruments, maps, charts and documents all over – and a lectern, carved to look like a great eagle, with two small metal boxes on. One was blue, and the other green.
They caught his attention immediately. They were the same ones Darik had given him last night.
As he approached the lectern, he noted that at the top, just behind the eagle's head, was a small, red gem. Written in a black, ornate hand was '20'. On either wing, there was a small slot, one labelled 'Library' and the other 'Graveyard' in the same ornate hand.
There was a note under the boxes.
'Roxas,
I'm ready whenever you are. This round will be more interesting – I guarantee it.
Darik.'
He searched his pockets quickly, and found that, yes, the pockets he'd put the boxes in were empty. These must be those two then.
Somewhat hesitantly, as if expecting a trap, he opened each and checked the cards. They looked exactly the same as he remembered them.
He thought for a few minutes, then with a strangely detached feeling, he shuffled the blue and green cards into one deck and placed them into the Library slot.
The eagle lectern glowed for a few moments, the first seven cards from the deck flying up to his hand, then vanishing again. Somehow, he knew that all he had to do was will them to reappear and they would. He also found he knew many other things, among them the way the books and artefacts in the tower were sorted, and what some would do.
Something nearby caught his eye. A set of shelves he hadn't noticed before was right beside him, each shelf lined with identical transparent orbs.
"Wizard Roxas," someone gasped. He turned to find it was the same woman from before again, clearly out of breath. "Didn't you hear me call you downstairs?"
"No," he lied. "I had other things on my mind." Rather reluctantly he also added, "Can I help you?"
"You absolutely must do something," she told him, shaking her head violently. "Some awful boys have bullied my son into drinking a foul brew, and now he's writhing in pain. Even the doctor can't find any way to cure it."
Roxas sighed, closing his eyes for a moment and leaning on the lectern. "Bring him here," he said finally. "You'll be able to bring him through the barrier and use the light in there to get up here quicker." As soon as he said it, he knew exactly how to make them work for others.
"Can't you just..." she waved one hand.
"Not from here, and not without examining him first. Just trust me and bring him to me."
She turned to leave, but he called her back, and pointed to the glowing spot on the floor that would get her down the same way he'd come up.
Once she'd gone, he started making preparations for his new patient. One table was turning into a makeshift cot. On another table nearby, he opened the volume he now knew was the index of everything in the tower. It led him to several more tomes on various kinds of illness or disease, which were stacked nearby to be called on as needed.
The index mentioned one artefact that would cure any ill – but at a cost. If everything else failed, at least he'd have something to offer them.
After some more searching turned up an entire book dedicated to healing elixirs, another table nearby was set up with various instruments, making it resemble a chemistry experiment. He'd never tried any chemistry before, but with the specific instructions in the book it wouldn't be any trouble.
While he waited, he started examining a book on poisons and similarly harmful drinks. He was reading about one brew that seemed to have the same effects as described, along with several other symptoms, when the woman returned, supporting a young boy with the aid of an older man.
"On the cot," he told them, nodding to it as he continued to read. He glanced up, noting that it was indeed accurate – the boy's skin had turned ashen, and he was having muscle spasms he clearly couldn't control.
A hand to his forehead revealed that he'd sweated a great deal – yet he had a dry mouth, a high temperature, and also appeared to be suffering from dehydration.
The book fortunately mentioned Eudephese, a curative elixir. A few moments search in his index turned up the exact page number in the book he'd found before.
It was a simple recipe, the ingredients all being stored somewhere in his tower – though why some of them were there, or what some were was a mystery to him. Toenail of an Orgg and Kezzerdrix tooth both from creatures he'd never even heard of, but he apparently stocked them.
The resulting brew was finished not long after, a foul looking bubbling green liquid. It was diluted to one-half strength with water, as it was being administered to a younger person.
"Hold him still," he told the two adults. "Or at least try. If he can't drink it himself, I'll have to do it myself."
They tried, managing to get the writhing boy on his back. Roxas had to pinch the nose to get him to open his mouth, allowing him to pour it in.
"What will it do?" the woman asked him.
"Cure him, of course. He'll still be mildly ill for a few more days, but once it takes effect about..." he watched, as the writhing and spasms began to subside, and continued, "now, he'll be out of any immediate danger. If you get the chance, tell the kids that forced him to drink it that I want to see them. Don't tell them they're in trouble or anything."
"What will you do?"
"Explain to them that I'd rather they didn't do it anymore," Roxas shrugged.
"Will they listen?" the man asked.
"If they want to leave in the same shape they entered it, they will. He'll be unconscious for a bit. You may want to take him home again."
They looked at him questioningly. He bore their looks for a few moments then turned back to his index to find something that would help them.
What he found tested his belief somewhat. An ordinary looking carpet with a rather ugly design on it.
He rolled it out on a clear patch of floor and told it, "Up." It rose up. "You can return it when you have the time," he told them.
"Thank you, Wizard Roxas," she said, bobbing her head in respect again. "We're in your debt."
"Nonsense," he waved it aside. "Don't I watch out for all of you?"
"That you do, and we're all grateful for it."
They manhandled the boy onto the carpet, then directed it out through the doorway.
Roxas sighed, shaking his head and clearing up again.
When he'd finished, he returned to the eagle lectern.
The red life-crystal still showed 20. As he looked though it seemed to pulse, emitting a small red wave in the air with a sound like a gong rung underwater.
One more card from the library disappeared into his hand.
"A game?" he murmured to himself. "And it's my turn..."
He summoned his hand, wondering how to actually 'play' any of them. Experimentally, he laid a Forest land card on the lectern. Nothing happened, so he picked it up, then flicked it out of his hand.
The card flew up and out through a window. Roxas followed, looking after it then fetching a telescope to follow it further.
The Forest card continued out of town and to the north, where it settled on the ground. It glowed, emitted a green pulse, then with an immense roar of leaves, a forest sprang up out of the ground.
Another pulse behind him, with the same odd gong-like sound got his attention. One of the orbs was no longer transparent. Instead it was filled up with a miniature forest in it.
"A mana count," he said, realizing what the shelves were for.
Next he picked out a creature card called Elvish Lookout. Unlike the Forest card, this one settled in front of him, forming into a slender, pointy-eared figure. As it did so, the orb for his newly created Forest dimmed, showing he'd used it.
"You called, Wizard?" it asked him in a soft, almost songlike voice.
"Take to the Forest to the north and keep watch. Alert me if anyone from Dariksville attempts to enter or harm it."
"As you wish. Is there anything else?"
"Just stay alert, and alive."
It nodded, stepping into the light on the floor and vanishing.
Roxas turned back to the collected orbs. Beside the one for his Forest was the orb that marked the Elvish Lookout. It showed the scene around him, showing his passage through the town below. None appeared to be bothered by the appearance of this creature, clearly out of place among the more normal human folk that lived here.
"I guess I'm done... your turn, Darik."
The life-crystal pulsed again with another of the gong sounds.