SILVERYMOON
Chapter 11
Mitala had learned they were home, so he arrived with three scrolls showing that they had three one-year sessions of free training, compliments of Silverymoon for their service to the City. Of course, he asked how it had gone and learned they had killed the Green Dragon and that he was just about the size they had been told. Five lightning bolts and one fireball later, he was dead.
That was when they showed him the maps they had brought back. "This is Waterdeep." Mitala's brow furrowed in concern. Why did a young Green Dragon have a map of Waterdeep?
"Can you read the markings?" Rick questioned him because he couldn't.
"No, but I'm fairly certain that they're Draconic. I'll get the markings translated. Good work. What you found is yours. What about the Druids?" He didn't care about any treasure they had found. He knew that all Dragons had a treasure hoard. It was the nature of the beast.
"We encountered four of them," Kate replied. "Though after killing the Dragon, we didn't search the entire place, so there might have been others. One of them was brewing something in a big black cauldron."
"Witches use cauldrons like that one," Rick told him, thinking about movies back home like Hocus Pocus.
"It's possible. There are such things as Witches, both White and Black Witches. Did you bring a sample?" He could have it analyzed.
"None of us even thought of that. Sorry." Kate could kick herself. If Lanie had been there, she would have taken a sample. That immediately made her sad. She missed Lanie and everyone else so very much. But she lived here now.
"It's not an issue, but try to think about it if there happens to be a next time. I need to get these back to the Palace. Again, nice work." Mitala left them to open their business. Something called Christmas was coming up soon.
Alexis chose to go home with Corimin so she could answer his parents' questions and thank them for giving him that Staff. Her dad had praised just how powerful his Lightning Bolts were, compared to his little Wand.
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That left Rick and Kate to go find out what they had and if they wanted to sell anything to recover the cost of those three wands. Though, they had gained a good number of platinum pieces. At that time, one platinum piece was worth ten gold.
They sold the War Pick and the scroll and gained 7,300 gold. Next, they found out about the Crystal Balls.
One: Crystal Ball. Two: Crystal Ball of Mind Reading. Three: Crystal Ball of Telepathy. Four: Crystal Ball of True Seeing.
"HOLY SHIT! Does that mean what I think they mean?" Rick asked him and got a quick lesson in what each Crystal Ball could do.
"OH-MY-GOD! He could spy on everyone with these things. Anywhere." Kate was glad that Dragon didn't have them any longer. "Give us a minute." Kate pulled Rick aside. "What do we do with them? I know I'm pinching pennies, and these things might be worth a small fortune. But what do we do with them?"
"Is keeping them and maybe using them ourselves an Evil act?" Rick asked her since he was thinking of keeping them.
"Back home, yes, without a search warrant. Around here, I don't really know. Just what would we do with them? We sell them and we could buy something else. I know you love to buy things." Kate dangled a carrot to see what he did.
"Decisions, decisions. You know, since we knew that Dragon's name before we went, we could have spied on him before we even left," Rick pointed out.
Now Kate had a problem. Money versus information, so long as they didn't misuse it like the Dragon probably had. "Let's find out what we might get for them first and then decide."
Forty thousand if sold, 49,000 if sold, 75,000 if sold, and 85,000 if sold, in that order.
Rick whistled, and Kate dragged him to one side again. "That's a fortune, babe. That's, that's…" Kate tried to do the math in her head only to have Rick beat her to it.
"Two hundred forty-nine thousand," Rick told her and then found Kate resting her head against his chest. Now Kate had a new problem. They were making pennies with their business, but this wasn't pennies, even if they had barely opened their doors.
"Do we need all of them?" Kate offered a compromise to him. "Maybe keep just one?"
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They left there with theCrystal Ball of True Seeing and 164,000 gold they could spend later. It was almost what they came here with in the first place, and look what they had done with that.
"Did we just do the right thing, babe?" Kate didn't want to second guess herself, but they were leaving with something worth 85,000 gold. Think what they could do with that kind of money!
"We can always change our minds later. We can't just go back and buy those three. They'll sell them for a profit, even if it is to us," Rick told her.
"Good thinking, babe." Kate felt better about it. "Now, what was on those maps?" Kate had a mystery for which she had no answer.
Rick shrugged. "Ask Mitala next time we see him."
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Alexis sat next to Corimin and held his hand while talking to his parents.
"Can you recharge a Staff when it no longer has that many charges in it?" Alexis asked them.
"You can, but you need a Wizard, and those guys cost money," Ivron, Corimin's father, answered her.
Alexis rattedCorimin out unknowingly. "He came home with almost 7,000 gold pieces and three emeralds worth 1,000 gold each."
Corimin sighed. He had planned not to tell his parents about all of it. He wanted to keep some of it and spend it for himself.
However, Alexis felt him squeeze her hand, and she looked at him, mouthing the word SORRY to him.
"Almost 10,000 gold!?" Raltasa, Corimin's mother, was shocked. Suddenly she didn't just like her son's girlfriend, she LOVED her.
Ivron tried to say something, but first, he needed to clear his throat. "We can find out by asking. Though we need to talk." He was thinking about talking to his wife and son about moving and finding a better place to live. They had 10,000 gold pieces!
"So, you killed a Green Dragon." Ivron was immensely proud of his son. It made paying for all that yearly training worthwhile. Plus, Corimin's final year was free because of it. So they didn't have to spend over 6,000 gold for his last year. That made it over 16,000 gold they had to use!
"Don't get used to it, Dad. He was a little one," Corimin cautioned him and listened to Alexis chuckle.
Amoment later Alexis heard the clock on the mantle chime. It was time for her to leave. "I have to go pick up Mops and get back to sewing. We have a Christmas event coming up shortly, and we need more decorations."
"I'll be over soon to see what you have and learn more about this Christmas," Raltasa told her.
Alexis made it simple. "Christmas is mostly a celebration of life. It usually takes place during winter and brightens up a cold, dreary day."
"I need one of their bedrolls if we do that again. It got cold up there." Corimin knew on what he wanted to spend a little of that gold.
"It's called a Prestigious Bedroll. I'm not sure what one costs any longer, though. They're really nice." Alexis loved hers. "We had to pry the gold out of Kate. She watches every copper piece."
"Sounds like us," Raltasa commented.
Raltasa and Ivron watched those two kiss at the door just before Alexis left. And once she was gone, Corimin was peppered with more questions, all of them about Alexis.
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Ivron eventually found out that it cost 160 gold per charge to recharge that Staff of Power. Since it had nine charges now and could hold twenty-five charges maximum, it cost 2,560 gold in order to recharge it. Now they had a little less than 10,000 to figure out what they would do. Corimin got his reward with the charges, but he hoped there would be some way he could still buy that sleeping bag.
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They had only been home for two whole days before Mitala showed up, requesting that they come to the Palace at nine the following morning. They had questions for them.
"Does this have something to do with those maps?" Kate queried.
Mitala nodded. "It does. We want to learn about anything else you found but decided to keep or sell. Not that we're upset about that, mind you. That was the deal, but we have questions."
Kate agreed to the date and time. "We'll be there."
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Corimin got the same request, and all four were escorted to a room that they had never been in yet. They found Mitala, High Lady Alustriel Silverhand, and three others waiting for them.
Kate's hands were shaking, and she was deathly afraid that they had found out that Rick and Alexis were Demons and she was an undead Vampire. But then they were seated at the same table with the others.
"Thank you for coming. I see that you have chosen to embrace living in Silverymoon. For that, I thank you. We have something we wish to talk to you about." Lady Alustriel motioned for Mitala to take over.
"The maps you came back with have given us a problem that needs solving. It was indeed a map of Waterdeep. We had the symbols interpreted since they were Draconic, as I suspected. We believe they are locations of spies embedded into the City of Waterdeep," Mitala revealed. "More than one is even part of the Government of the City. We have sent representatives to Waterdeep to inform them. They are already there and have reported back."
"OH, BOY!" That sounded incredibly bad to Rick.
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but a young Dragon had this? Why him? He was a juvenile." Kate didn't understand.
"That is why you are all here," Mitala told them.
"Acquaint us with what else you found, no matter how small or insignificant. It might not sound important to you but three of you are not from this realm." Lady Alustriel remembered what they had told her in their first meeting.
They each kept interrupting the other to add a little something as they began telling them about all that they had found. "Tell me about these statues," Lady Alustriel requested.
"The first was a human wearing a simple dress, carrying two halves of a broken staff. The second was a human clad in long flowing robes and bearing a unicorn-headed staff. The third portrayed a human with long, wild hair and wearing flowing robes. And the fourth showed a Drow in elegant robes with hair down to her ankles."
Rick and Kate noted the shocked look on each of their faces and looked at each other. "Not actual people, of course, but statues made of stone," Kate told them hurriedly.
Lady Alustriel turned to one of her aides. "I will arrange for a team to retrieve them, My Lady." He bowed slightly and quickly left.
"They mean something to you?" Rick was naturally curious and ignored Kate hitting his leg with her foot as best he could. But it showed on his face since it had hurt more than a little.
"There were Seven Sisters chosen by Mystra...or are Seven Sisters chosen by Mystra. All seven statues were in this City and housed in the Temple to Mystra. Perhaps you have found that Temple?" Rick, Kate, and Alexis weren't entirely sure that they had.
"Anastra Syluné Silverhand, Lady Alustriel Silverhand, Alassra Shentrantra Silverhand, and even a Drow Qilué Veladorn was chosen by Mystra. All seven used to be in the Temple. Then one morning, years ago, those four were found missing," Lady Alustriel told them.
Corimin spoke for the first time, besides telling them what he saw. "That should have been impossible."
"We believe those Crystal Balls you found and came home with had something to do with it," Mitala responded. "Not to worry, you may keep the Crystal Ball of True Seeing." Mitala also gave them a warning. "Be very careful how you use it. We have trusted you to date. Do not betray that trust."
"Oh, we won't. I mean, we'll be very careful." Kate almost wished they had sold the damn thing. It was worth a lot of money.
"I'm curious. You didn't need to tell us all this, only to tell us to be very careful with that Crystal Ball. Why?" Alexis asked since it looked like anyone could say something, even with Lady Alustriel present.
"We needed the information about the Sisters of Mystra that we knew nothing about and we may have need of your help yet again once we get final answers back from Waterdeep," Lady Alustriel explained.
"It's not part of our agreement, but I'm offering one more year of training for free for information about those Sisters of Mystra. They will be back in the Temple before the end of the week," she added. Then she looked at Mitala to make arrangements, and he nodded back to her.
It told the four of them that what were just statues to them meant much, much more to the others present.
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Their meeting was over, and even Corimin had come home with them. But they needed to reopen their business, so Alexis and Corimin were downstairs tending to any customers while Rick and Kate were upstairs.
"Just what did we find, babe?" Kate asked him. "Spies and those statues were full height. They had to weigh tons, and I don't remember them looking broken or chipped in anyway."
"I asked my Master about Dragons in this realm," Rick told her. "Would you believe that most can live to be several hundreds of years? And yes, they can grow bigger than our house, which doesn't include the spread of their wings. Think something that can fly that's bigger than a Humpback whale."
Kate shook her head. "I'd rather not."
"That's the point." Rick wanted to stay on topic. "That Green Dragon was just a baby, so how did he get all four Crystal Balls? How did he get his hands, well, claws, on four large statues stolen out of a Temple in the middle of this City?"
"I'm beginning to really miss my whiteboard if we're going to talk about this." Kate felt out of place. "All right, he's a kid, and all kids have a mommy and a daddy. But how did a Dragon that big even get into that City? Yeah, they could get in, but I mean into a Temple?" Kate wondered aloud and thought about it.
"He had help. Our kid had a few Druids helping him. Mommy and Daddy have help," Rick replied. "The question is who?"
"Whoever it is, they were powerful enough to infiltrate Waterdeep, and we haven't even been to Waterdeep." Kate had no idea just how big a City it was. Why was Waterdeep so important?
Rick snapped his fingers. "David Copperfield! He made an entire commercial airliner vanish before your eyes. Who says these can't do better with real magic?" he challenged her.
"Maybe." Kate couldn't discount it. "So what's next? Even our new Crystal Ball doesn't work without a name, and we don't have one. They didn't even ask us to investigate."
"You know us, we're not going to leave this alone. We will investigate when we're not selling things, training, and everything else we do." Rick couldn't help but chuckle over just how busy they were. That also had Kate laughing since she felt stretched pretty thin already.
Kate changed topics since they were at a dead end with the other one. "Alexis likes Corimin, babe. He's a good kid."
"Yeah, he is." Rick had managed to talk to him and watched him with Alexis for their entire trip. What he wanted to do was scare the shit out of the kid. If he ever hurt his little girl he would use one of his Incubus powers on him. Like kiss him till he couldn't think straight.
"I'm proud of you." Kate lifted up and kissed him.
Rick grinned at her. "And you love me."
"Don't remind me," Kate teased him. But she still had plans to make love to him tonight.
"Maybe Corimin knows something we don't. He grew up here." Rick wanted her downstairs, so he needed a reason to get her down there.
"Maybe." Kate was willing to admit that he might. She doubted it, but she would talk to him, so she headed downstairs and hoped she didn't interrupt them kissing.
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Rick had one hand behind his back as he walked downstairs to join them and saw all three of them in the front room. He walked over to Kate and dropped to one knee.
"Babe, what are you doing?" Kate looked down at herself, looking for a stain or something. And then she saw him holding out a ring. "OH, MY GOD! Are you proposing!?" Kate covered her mouth with both hands and felt tears running down her cheeks.
"Katherine Houghton Beckett, I've made sure that you know that I love you. I want to love you the rest of our lives. So long as mommy or daddy Dragon doesn't eat us." Kate couldn't help but laugh while crying at his joke.
"So marry me. Maybe if we're blessed, we will have a child." Rick pressed his luck talking about children with her, but he couldn't help it. Family was his middle name.
"Just how many kids are we talking about here?" She was the one that was going to end up pregnant. "No, don't answer that. You truly want to get married?" Kate wasn't ready for this. Yes, they had lived here for almost a year now. Honestly, she didn't remember a winter here, but they must have been here for it.
"Yes," he replied patiently. "Or do you have a different boyfriend I don't know about?" Rick asked while still down on one knee.
"Say yes, Kate," Alexis whispered at her and was beaming. Kate was so much better than any other woman her dad had found, including her mother.
Kate held out her left hand. "Yes." She was still crying, and now Rick was standing as she watched him slip a ring onto her finger. She was looking at her engagement ring. But there was something wrong with it.
"Is that a shield? Where's my diamond?" Kate looked at him for an explanation.
"It's a magical ring of Protection +3. Please don't be angry, but I may have helped myself to our money and bought you a ring. It's more useful around here than a simple diamond ring," Rick said nervously.
"So you're thinking of my well-being? That's so sweet." Kate wiped away her tears and lifted up on her toes to kiss him soundly. "Yes, I want to marry you. We can talk about those children later."
"YES!" Alexis launched herself at Kate and hugged her.
Corimin began clapping, "That was great!" and caused Kate to blush. She had wanted something simple and memorable, and she certainly got it.
"Children, huh?" Alexis teased, her eyes sparkling.
"Hush, you," Kate chided. She wasn't ready to be pregnant. She wasn't even married yet.
"OH, MY GOD! You're pregnant?" Alexis thought she was reading between the lines.
"WHAT!? No, Alexis, I'm not pregnant." At least Kate didn't think she was pregnant. God knows, she wasn't taking her birth control pills since they were back home, and they weren't using condoms since this place didn't have any. And yes, they made love to each other a lot. A lot, a lot, actually.
But then Kate saw Alexis trying to hide a smile. "I am so getting you for that." Kate pointed at her but had to listen to Alexis roar with laughter. "Just when I was starting to love you too."
"I'll help plan the wedding," Alexis offered with a smile. "But the honeymoon is up to Dad," she added.
"Honeymoon?" Rick groaned; he was so dead. Back home, he had all kinds of ideas. Here, he had none. Kate was finally going to kill him. "The honeymoon is after the wedding, right?" Rick was starting to sweat, and seeing Kate and his daughter grinning at him wasn't helping.
"What's a honeymoon?" Corimin was at a loss with these three yet again. They had a habit of talking about things of which he knew nothing. Though, he did like watching them hugging and teasing each other. Theirs was a nice family. It gave him another reason to fall in love with Alexis.