"I'm certain you don't know what this is…"
"Burrowing grub, used by Galbatorix and his agents in torture, from Vroengaurd, it leaps into smaller grubs when it feeds, they respond to orders in the ancient language."
"…"
"Can we get on with it? I already know the injuries they cause are not fixable by healing."
Faris's new injuries in today's torture session were less intense than the sessions earlier, he had been hit with another severe dosage of anti-magic drugs, so he had assumed it was because they needed him alive now that he'd earned the relatively good graces of the prisoners and thus couldn't be killed off that way. They had tried solitary confinement for a week but it had proven ineffective, Faris had sat against a wall, starving himself to allow his magic to return to heal himself and to put on a ghost of a light so tiny it drained less energy than he recovered through light resting. He inspected his room and made out the dimensions before cutting off the light. Satisfied, he waited for his next meal. His wounds from the burrow grubs were by now dull aches, he was used to such pain by now, his fingertips had healed from the damage, he'd have to wait for the nails to grow back though, without the magic to spare to accelerate its growth it would take 6 months, a whole year and a half for his toenails. Closing his eyes, he didn't know when he fell asleep, or that a pair of bright green eyes peered at him.
"So, how did our little Damien do?" A dark-skinned handsome man with close cropped curly hair and a curt beard was fastening his tie to his shirt, he put on a stylish suit jacket as he turned to his wife, a woman in a dazzling red dress, she had two attendants, one working on her wavy black curls, and the other on her nails, she herself applied on makeup.
"The servants say that he achieved first placing in the math placement exam for his school, and third for the nation."
"Only third?"
"I was flabbergasted as well darling." The woman frowned, mashing her lips together to get the lipstick applied evenly. "I didn't think our boy would allow himself to slip."
"What would a fitting punishment be?"
The man pondered for a bit, "What was that stupid thing he enjoyed doing?"
A servant piped up, "Oh the video games? Yes, young master Damien has taken a shining to the pass-time, he pooled his 15-minute leisure time a day into a one-hour forty-five-minute session on Saturday."
"I see, what did he request removed from the schedule to have that happen?"
"It seemed he got rid of the ten-minute rest sessions in between his language and philosophy course, reducing them to 3 minutes each."
"That's still only 85 minutes accounted for, where does he gain the other twenty minutes."
"Don't you remember dear? He's 14 now, so we extended his curfew another 30 minutes. He now goes to bed at 8:30 sharp."
The man nodded, "I see, how's he doing in his other courses?"
"He has gotten the hang of equestrianism and swimming, his fencing instructor states he is talented, but that he sometimes deviates form and slips into the martial stances from his eastern studies instructor, so he needs to learn to differentiate those for each course. His language teachers state he's showing great enthusiasm learning the different languages, and the coding professor states he's made some head way into teaching the boy C#"
A servant spoke up, "He also made the dean's list for mathematics."
The man chuckled, "Even after only achieving third?" He mused, "Well we don't have time to talk to him, we have dinner with the Senator in an hour. Take it away."
"The video games sir? Excellent idea, he'd be better off spending his leisure time doing-"
"No, I mean remove leisure time, it was wise of him to reschedule a large partition like that, reschedule his math tutor, have him come on Saturday's now as well."
"Sir?"
"I did not stutter, no son of mine will be satisfied with third place."
The servant bowed and turned to leave. Faris watched the entire thing through the tiny camera on the toy car he programmed. As the servant turned to leave, he merely sat in bed, he had dreaded this the second he heard the news, he had achieved a perfect score but had failed the second extra credit question, which had been a question about a popular movie. His eyes blurred as he remembered the question: 'What is a recurring catchphrase in the Star Wars original and new Trilogy, often used to wish someone good luck.' He hadn't been allowed to watch most movies rowing up, he had only barely been able to gain the permission to play video games. He sat back against the bed, angry and humiliated as he waited for the servants to come in and confiscate his systems.
"That was a dumb memory…" Faris chuckled to himself, he'd really been a pansy growing up, he hadn't had the spine to tell them the question he had gotten wrong was a current even extra credit, the math instructor had found out after some prodding and relayed the information to his father and mother, who then had him watch every movie considered an acclaimed classic or that had a decent cult following, after watching the movie he had been forced to write essays summarizing it, identifying key themes, and identifying what characters said whatever iconic phrase. He would have grown to despise the movies if not for the fact they offered him a short escape from his rigid life. Through these movies he also realized that many people would likely rather live the way he does. But he couldn't judge for himself, as he had only one experience. Though now, in this dark and cold place, injured and weak, he was somewhat split fifty-fifty between that and his old life.
Human kit, are you alright?
Faris snapped his head upwards, through extremely thin slates he saw someone peering at him.
Solembum?
Who else would it be? The president?
Faris chuckled, that's an unfair joke, you know I could very much do with one of those presidential pardons.
You are in quite a quagmire, men and women run the streets decrying your name, and Rumors of the crimes have even reached your parents.
Shit, how are my parents?
One of my cousins was once dumped into a barrel of cold water by a pair of drunk soldiers who mistook his sleeping form for a particularly large yet simple house cat, the level of wrath displayed by him on that day as he exacted his revenge is but a candle to the fury of your mother, they are only held back by the delicacy of the situation, and hope on the fact that the people's minds could be changed due to an almost equal rising advocacy group going about speaking to the people about the truth of the matter.
Faris sat up. The truth?
There is a mounting suspicion that the human you all seem to dislike may have had a bigger hand in this situation than you may have realized.
Faris shook his head, that would explain some things yes, anyways, how are you? And how are Angela and Elva.
Angela and Elva are both fine, Angela is confident you would still be sane, Elva is a little worried, while she is given the ability to see other's from experiencing pain, she doesn't know how to do the same for herself, and her foresight only goes so far, so she yet does not know the best outcome, as pain will come to a great many number no matter who wins this political debacle. Solembum licked his paw. As for me? I am cold, miserable, and annoyed, Elva chose to not mention it was going to rain heavily today when she helped me sneak into the prison.
Faris grinned, he and Solembum continued to speak with each other whenever Solembum returned, Faris spent the time in-between the sessions exercising in some way, they had to make sure he ate well for the drugs to take their full toll, and he had already proven that he was willing to subject himself to time without his magic. Whenever Solembum returned they'd talk, trade tales they've picked up, or regaled each other tales of previous battles.
More than your combat ability, I'd like to see how your cooking improved, you took over the making of the oatmeal, and you did quite well, I would like to try your fillet mignon dish.
Of course, as soon as I get out. Faris smiled. How many days has it been?
It has been 9 more days; you have about 2 weeks left.
Oh? That's longer than I thought. Faris smiled, Thanks for staying for so long, I gather it's time for you to leave?
I'm planning on helping your fellow den mates find the papers that lead to your innocence.
And who says cats are unfeeling. Faris joked. Good luck out there and try not to get anyone killed.
I'm sure your friends are capable of taking care of themselves, unless you mean…
Yeah, I mean the poor shmucks hired to guard whatever it is.
Solembum's mind did not hide its amusement as the cat leapt up and out of the covered ditch. He ran through the streets; the only ones out now would be night watch guards and drunk men and women enjoying the anonymity of the dark. He continued down the wide cobbled streets, taking in the various smells that flooded the streets, he'd need to bathe himself after this was over.
"How is he?" He turned to the group in front of him. Six human youths stood kneeled beside him, the tallest, a blond human had a grim look as he asked.
He's alive, they've tortured him, but he's able to stand, sit, and eat, his mind shows signs he's been drugged heavily, but he shows high resilience. He wishes you all good luck and to take care.
Morgan smiled, "That's good." He turned to the rest of his friends, "Do you all have the plan memorized?"
They nodded, Nya for herself looked at Morgan with new eyes and respect, she had known he was a strong mage, likely more skilled in casting and utilizing spells in general than she was. But he had truly taken charge when they began formulating a plan.
Eight individuals sat on a bed, it belonged to their friend, who was currently jailed. They were debating how to best approach the situation. The capture of the forgery went off without a hitch, Venka easily captured and silenced them with magic, and Seya was a likely more effective interrogator than Faris, she was at least a more skilled mental duelist. They traced the forgery document to an old lord's manor; it had been repurposed into a publishing house.
"I didn't think you would have known, seeing as you're technically still a country bumpkin." Bartholomew smiled, chowing down on one of Faris's cakes. "This is delicious, it would be a crime to keep that boy locked up." He savored the sweetness.
"Okay, so what is this publishing house?"
"Each guild has smaller divisions and guilds within the larger complex, the publishing houses are groups of 20-30 mages who work together with a group of weaker mages and nonmagical users. They go about collecting information and publishing them, as well as collecting manuscripts from authors of fiction and nonfiction works, reprinting them on uniform and neat sheets of paper with magic, it's a much faster production than hand drawing each and every word and picture. Lady Nasuada believes the people have a right to information quickly, so a portion of the taxes is put into a group, who then oversee which publishing houses gain access to the funds, due to how cheap it is to publish, most publishing houses with a decent amount of mages are able to keep ahead, especially due to the fact that many larger merchant businesses pay for spaces on the larger newspapers in order to advertise their guilds in order to attract customers and new apprentices." Morgan turned to Bartholomew, "If you are going to help us you better be respectful about it."
"What's really important though is the fact that this particular publishing house is the Iron Caste association, they were the first company to publish papers about Faris, they are a predominantly anti-mage corporation. They are known for provocative hit pieces on many notable mages, my uncle was set back because of them." Bartholomew ignored Morgan's glare, turning to Venka, he continued, "If we can find the real documents, that's a lot of opponents now under our mercy."
"I don't care, I just want to save Damien." Venka continued, "Okay, so we just bust in, take it, and go."
"No can do, we have to sneak in, take it without anyone noticing, then sneak out safely. If the guards catch wind and apprehend even one of us, it would be really easy for them to argue that we attempted to sabotage them, and we'd end up in a similar limbo as Faris. We also cannot damage their property or hurt their personnel; such actions will merely fuel the anti-magic sentiment."
"Why can't we just say this is a forgery in the ancient language?"
"Because we say that merely because we believe it to be true, we don't know for certain, this could be a way to throw us off." Morgan said, "And they can easily hire someone, tell them that it is real, then tell them to announce in the ancient language that it is real, most people don't understand all the nuances of the ancient language so just saying something in it doesn't always bring the truth." He pulled out a map, "My contact got this for us, it shows us exactly what to watch out for, that they know of, and what we can do to bypass it, the room before the room full of tax documents is a blind zone, so we'll have to prepare for that." He turned to Alanna and Dusan, "Sorry, I'm going to have to ask that you can't come with us, I need you here for the most important part of this entire thing." The twins nodded.
Nya still marveled at Morgan's thinking, the hallway was bugged with a tracking crystal, so it would notice them leave, but the bathroom did not have such an item. Bartholomew had prepared the perfect tools for the job, first he walked in and put down 6 clay dolls, placing in 8 mana crystals charged by Venka he turned them into life-size dolls. He then molded them to look like the first-year pearls, in order to do that they used the fairths and full body sketches Faris had done for each of them. They would then enter the room one at a time in order to fully calibrate the dummy to their movement, all while pretending to play a card game, eventually it got to Alanna and Dusan, who took care of three dummies each, casting illusions on them to fully look like and move like normal people. Once that occurred Venka walked in, turned invisible, and the fake Venka walked out and started playing in her place, over the course of an hour each student walked in and their replacement walked out, once they were all gathered in the room Venka set a timed barrier that blocked light, heat, and sound from escaping or entering it, grabbing her friends she teleported them outside, right into the middle of the forest, from there they gathered the tools and supplies they smuggled away in order to make this trip and worked their way back into the city. This is where they met up with Solembum.
"Remember, in five minutes the guard shift will occur, giving us a 20-minute window to get in and out." Morgan smiled grimly as his friends nodded. "Let's go then."
The first wave of defense was an alarm spell littered around the grounds, even the slightest movement triggered it and it had a ward that kept all living creatures from even attempting to enter it.
"There…" Seya pointed towards a statue of a dragon in the center, it had dulled red eyes. "Those crystals contain the magic keeping this ward up, destroying them will end the ward, but they'll trigger another alarm when that occurs."
"That's where I come in." Bartholomew took out another clay doll, "this little guy can touch a crystal and change its enchantment, courtesy of the newest batch of research into the ancient language and enchanting tools. The stuff is stupid expensive and really hard to make, so there's no reason to use it in a duel. Of course, getting it to there still takes magic, and there's the whole movement thing, that crystal probably has a solid barrier as well.
"That's where I come in." Nya took out her arrow, it had runes of speed and accuracy and piercing on it, and it glowed slightly with its spell piercing ability, "I call it my ward piercing arrow, can bypass the detection of a ward and hit its target before they even know I was in the same city." She grinned, taking the doll and tying it to the blunt arrowhead, stringing her bow she pulled back, adjusting her arrow slightly to account for extra weight and wind pressure. They had already practiced for this so she was ready. She fired off with a magically muted twang, striking the statue in the right eye, immediately the clay surrounded the crystals, a dull grey shifting back into the dull red. Immediately the group ran in, using the bushes and low walls as cover as they reached the eastern wall. Venka lifted the group into the air using magic, and they slowly made their way up to the top floor with a damaged window.
"Alright…" Katya closed her eyes, a few seconds later she gave the go ahead as the window silently slid open, the group carefully flew in, not touching the floor Morgan lit the room with a were light. The pale yellow illuminated what seemed to be the ink room, the group flew towards the exit, just as it flew open and a guard walked in. He peered around the seemingly empty room, face near Morgan's panicked, invisible face. After a few more seconds the guard shrugged and closed the door, it stopped just short and emulated the door shutting sound through Seya, who took the lead as they hovered out.
Remember, stick together, know your role.
They continued to bypass alert after alert, making their way down the building until they reached ground floor, then the basement, then the level below that led to the room full of documents. The cavern was large, big enough for them to fit a house in. In the center of the room was a large metal statue in the shape of an odd-looking knight, his torso was too long, the limbs were too long, and they were segmented into three joints instead of the normal one elbow joint.
"What is that?" Venka asked curiously.
"Whatever it is I'd rather not deal with it. Bartholomew, do you recognize it?" Morgan turned to the fat boy, who shook his head.
"I don't sense any enchantments either."
"Then I'll just destroy it, Venka, cut off any connections to above." Venka nodded, casting her spell. Nya cast a large fireball, she marveled at its size, it was greater and stronger than what she used to be able to conjure, and even though she put more energy into it, it wasn't as draining as it used to be, she launched it towards the statue, which began to glow a dark green and chant in a deep voice. The air exploded around them as a field of green energy began to overtake the floor and ceiling,
"M-magic jamming…" Bartholomew whispered.
"What?!" Morgan tried casting a spell, but nothing happened.
"The Golden horde has a type of weapon that can bypass a mage's wards and spells, it's really rare, maybe one in one million of their troupes have it, but apparently the enemy count had reached one hundred million, and continued to rise. He said one could no longer cast spells but any spells or enchantments they had before the being cast its field would be ongoing. Of course, conjured spells like flames, or levitating items would also end."
The knight began contorting oddly as several spikes jutted from its back, like an outward spine, it reached its spindly hands back and pulled out two of the spikes, revealing wicked looking swords glowing the same ominous dark green.
"Those weapons can pierce through our wards."
"How do we beat it?!" Nya pulled out her bow, Katya pulled out her sword, Morgan took out his spear, and Venka took out a dagger. Seya for her part merely slipped the spiked knuckles unto her gauntlet, brandishing them fiercely.
"They have a power core somewhere in their body, until it is destroyed, they will continue to put themselves back together." Bartholomew took out a large shield and tossed out a few clay dolls, which swelled in size before clumping together and forming a large vicious looking cat with razor sharp long claws and elongated fangs. A second clump formed what appeared to be a winged woman, wielding a sword of stone with glowing blue runes covering it, an air of cold covered her, while heat radiated from the cat. The group faced the knight, who had stood to its full height, a good 20 feet tall, thin and spindly, and extremely terrifying looking as it cocked its head at them. The first person to break the standoff was Venka, who launched two armor piercing arrows in rapid tandem with each other, the first one stabbing the knight in the head, the second one piercing and severing its thin right arm. The broken pieces began to reform, but not before Seya leapt forward, hair glowing white as her fist slammed into the monster's torso. It broke apart even more but Seya had to contort her body in the air as several spikes emanating from the creature's warped and torn metal stomach shot up to skewer her. She smacked a few away as she landed, retreating quickly just as Morgan, Katya, and Venka charged forward towards the monster. It wordlessly opened its visor, and a black liquid spewed out, the three dodged it barely as the acid hissed and bubbled on the floor.
"Don't want to get hit by that…" Katya murmured annoyed as she blocked the sword swing the creature launched at her, letting it slip past she shifted her stance to allow Morgan to leap over her and stab his spear into the being's neck, the metal warped toughly, but right before it opened its mouth Morgan touched his crystal on his wrist to the crystal on the spear, a torrent of lightning pushed out between before shocking the creature, Morgan cursed in pain as he dropped the spear, his hands smoking and blackened. Katya ran to his aid just as the creature leapt towards them, only to be slammed in the side as if struck by a giant, crashing into the wall. They turned to see Venka run towards them, lifting her hand as the dagger flew back towards it, before lowering it rapidly and yelping as the knife nearly cut off her fingers and clattered a few feet away.
"The enchantments work, but we normally make them so loose, just so that we can control the finer points with magic directly." Morgan picked himself up and ran towards his spear. "It's interfering with our active spells!" The knight was in the middle of trying to put itself together while defending itself from the combined prowess of the flaming big cat and icy Valkyrie, one half of it kept melting at parts under the intense heat, and the other kept slowing and stalling due to the very air freezing over at times when the Valkyrie swung her frozen sword. Bartholomew ran up to them, huffing.
"I think I know where the core is!" He winced as his flaming golem was cut in half, and as the frozen one lost one of her wings, Nya was continuously firing arrow after arrow whenever she got a clear shot, into one joint, then another, slowing and jamming it as best she could. Seya had leapt back into the fray, striking and ripping whenever she had the opportunity to, as one point when the creature opened its visor she leapt to its back and forced it shut, a weird scream emanated from the thing as the hot dark liquid splashed back into itself. It shook Seya off, knocking her in the shoulder with its blade. It leapt back eyeing the group cautiously as its body tried to fully reform, but they didn't let up their attacks. Katya had now leapt back in; it was much slower than before now and its spikes did not reach as far as it missed so much of its mass. A part of its arm lay uselessly by the entrance, too far to call back apparently. Even then it still tried to reach out for it, even while attacking and defending itself.
"Make way!" Venka sprinted forward and threw her dagger at the creature's chest, it tore open much like before, and again like before it attempted to stab whoever was closest, the closest person happened to be the cold golem, who took the attack with its final wing and both arms. Bartholomew shouted an order and the golem immitted more of the cold than before, freezing the metal to its body, immobilizing the creature fully. Morgan was right after, stabbing right into the held open gap in the creature, which resembled a cross between a burst pipe and exposed ribs, he aimed for a dark green heart-like metallic piece of metal in its center, stabbing into it he held his crystal to the staff again, this time for a bit longer as the electricity arced out of it. The creature blew back as Morgan landed, hands black and crackling. They all held their breaths as the creature did not move, then breathed a collective sigh of relief as the green runes covering the room disappeared. Katya moved to begin healing Morgan's burns. And Bartholomew walked up to his golems.
"Sheesh, that did a number on you guys, I'm gonna have to step up my enchanting, though, I'm proud." He grinned sheepishly as he cast a spell, reverting the golems into their clay dolls and collecting them. "Acting like you guys can hear me…"
"Well we can hear you Bartholomew… I didn't know you liked playing with dolls." Venka grinned teasingly, the boy merely harrumphed as he turned away. The group began to walk into the room, it was almost as big as the room that held the automaton knight, the only difference being it was filled to the brim with cabinets.
"These are all simple enchantments, just to keep out water, mold, and insects and the like, we can open them.
They began to pour through the files, hours streamed by as they made their way through the files.
"Got it!" Katya said excitedly, the others crowed around her as she held the document labelled: Rembrant.
As they compared the records to the forgery, they realized several things had been changed and edited.
"Not only did he hire the assassins, he also bribed the judge and defense team to allow the delay to continue indefinitely."
As they continued to pour through the documents, they saw several payments sent into the slums, about 'vital specimens' as they read through it said,
"The number of successful specimens in the batch of 175 only numbered 7, 18 of them proved inconclusive, and were immediately terminated, one hundred and fifty were deemed completely unchanged and returned to the specimen acquisition team. The specimen acquisition team were told to do with each batch of the 150 whatever they would like, as long as they were terminated before the month's end. Many took to it enthusiastically, while others needed a bit more coercion in the line of threats or money, luckily it has been done, they have begun collecting more specimens now, and are in the midst of collecting a newly aged batch from their location, We have been strict in requesting that the specimens be prepubescent or in the midst of beginning their change, as those were the only specimens that survived the treatment. The majority of the S. A. T. are unaware of our greater goals, as they should be. Once this is over and done with, I'll be one of the men standing over a new kingdom. Glory to Jahat."
Magister 6
They looked through the documents, and saw another passage written by the same man,
"Specimen 34 is exemplary, we were given permission to work on her from her father, and he oversaw our work, she was dying of a disease but he believed our work would bear fruit and save her, the results we got were fantastic, but unfortunately she did not survive, her father angrily demanded her corpse, but we argued that she was now our property, safe to say, he escaped with her. If I ever find him, I will be sure to exact my vengeance, his destruction of our lab set us back by nearly 6 months. Specimen 103, 104, and 105 are all coming along nicely, like specimen 34 they were just below eleven years of age, high in magical energy, and of the universal donor blood type. Perhaps the reason all three succeeded was due to their shared genetic similarities. Soon our superior humans will take over, and the world will change for the better. I just need to find a way to replicate the successes unto those of different physical traits. Glory to Jahat."
Magister 6
"What is this?" Morgan looked at the pages in horror.
"We found traces of Specimen 34, they had found their way to the combat and recon team, I knew the man would betray us, he did not see the glory of Jahat, but no one listened. Jahat in her kindness performed a great miracle, bringing his daughter back. And the fool back-stabbed us and escaped. But it matters little, the seven successful specimens are all nearly as perfect as specimen 34 was, and we have begun to make headway into adding the enhancements into those who don't match the perfect specifications. Soon I shall bask in the glow of immortality and power, and this kingdom and its people will bow before my grace. Glary to Jahat."
Magister 6
"He was a researcher of some kind?" Bartholomew shook his head, "But… experimenting on living creatures with such magics are highly illegal, and an instant death penalty! And almost as bad if the public found out…" They found two more workings.
I need a new specimen, some fool with too much time on his or her hands intercepted the specimen acquisition team and killed its most enthusiastic members. I at first feared a calculated sabotage but it was just someone with a bleeding heart and ignorance for the passions of science. Lord Rembrant instructed that Lord Jahat stated to leave the matter be, and I chose to listen, though I am keeping tabs. Without the S. A. T. my specimen acquisition goes by slower than normal, my men go into the slums, but without fully understanding the layout they have trouble finding specimens that match my specification, I'm getting tired of dumping useless specimens. As to the successful specimens? I renamed them Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Zeta, Theta, and Eta. Zeta Theta and Eta are the successful specimens 103, 104, and 105 respectfully, and I thought it humorous to name them similar phonetic name. Jahat's wisdom is so great, that she had access to languages unknown to even the wise elves. Alpha is specimen 67, she is extremely precocious, but eager to learn and powerful, the perfect leader of the squad. Beta makes an adequate second in command, and is the only male survivor of the experiments, unfortunately his younger brother, specimen 7, showed good signs of surviving, but was killed by Alpha during a test. Gamma's physical readings are successful, but she lacks the mental hardness the others acquired, I would have terminated her if not for her rapid healing trait, which I ironically found out trying to terminate her. Delta is an odd one, her readings are the lowest physically, but her magical ability fluctuates from average to above even Alpha's highest readings. All in all, I am proud of my work, Lord Jahat's happiness in my work fills me with pride, and my love and devotion to her grows by the day. It is enough to curb my anger over the foolish one's actions. I will make a request to form a new Acquisition team, at five years, the old one was getting old and sloppy anyway. Glary to Jahat.
Magister 6
"What kind of experiment is he talking about?!" Seya furrowed her brow, whoever this is, how is he still in this kingdom?! And why would anyone allow this to continue?!"
As they continued reading, they found a new document, written by Rembrant
Glory to Jahat and her great beauty and wisdom, oh how I wish I could make her mine, to touch her soft red hair, to feel the warmth of her beatify crimson eyes, to be close to her whenever she laughs, her teeth, white as snow, and sharp as blades, dancing inside her enticing ruby-red lips. To feel her body on mine is my secret desire, but nothing is hidden from her. The fact she has not attacked me for these feelings is a providence of her everlasting grace and mercy, but even then, I fantasize that it is perhaps her way of showing me her love. That fool Zachariah believes he earned her favor through his experiments by himself, who is the one who gave the funds? Who is the one who gathered his prized specimen acquisition team? And who's the one who made sure my men turned a blind eye to the ongoing in the slums under my jurisdiction?! As it is, my resources are spread too thinly, several towns under the mercy and wisdom of Jahat were enslaved back into the folds of Nasuada's wretched kingdom, done so by the detestable witch Angela and her disgusting witch-child. Funds have begun to dwindle because that idiot Zachariah still spends like he holds the assets. He argues that science does not have a budget, but I do. One hundred and sixty-five brats, and only eight of them successful, seven if one considers that the successful girl, who was the best of the batch, was spirited away by her father. I could find him if I had access to the mage's catacombs, but those are barred from anyone who isn't a council member. Damn that Jaya! He stands in my way! And now that detestable child Faris disgraced by fool of a son and forced me to dispatch my most faithful servant. I requested permission from Lady Jahat to have the boy arrested for his crimes, and I assured her that he could be captured and executed quickly, but now things are complicated. That bastard wants the boy to experiment on, and Lady Jahat has approved of it, I asked them to give me three weeks to do as I would before giving him to the man, and they agreed, before he becomes another dead body to be disposed of, I wanted to break him, and return to him the shame he brought me three-fold. Soon he'll be given to Zachariah, and "Magister 6" will do his best to turn him into his Epsilon, to complete the sequence, or into his 'Chi', because he's the key to perfecting the formula. I can't wait to hear how the boy died; I only regret that I wasn't the one who did away with him. Though on the off chance he is successful, the formula to turn any normal human into the superior being would be best in the hands of someone worthy to wield its power, like I. Perhaps with it I could earn Lady Jahat's favor and devotion. Glory to Jahat and her unending beauty.
Lord R.
"We need to leave now!" Venka looked at her friends angrily. "Whatever they did to those kids they want to do to Faris!" She turned to storm out, Bartholomew cast a spell to gather the entire stack of documents.
"Several people were in on these plots, most of them anti-mage figures, but a few pro-mages as well." He smiled grimly, "Don't worry, we'll save your boyfriend."
As they entered the room with the broken-down thing, they saw it hadn't moved. It was likely then truly broken, as they walked along Seya frowned at the entrance way, she turned around and shouted, pushing her friends down just in time as the knight slashed at them, lopping her hand off, she screamed in pain as she fell. Venka's eyes flashed red with magic as she reached out and crushed the contraption, the green blades continued to stay unaffected by her magic, but she doubled down, nose bleeding until finally one of them snapped, even then the effort was too much as she collapsed. An alarm began to sound and the doors began to lock down. As the students huddled together a flash of dark green energy took their attention, standing before them was Lord Jaya, an imperious and angry look on his face, his necklace, which he wore at all times was cracked on one side, he picked up his daughter, carrying her.
"Shhh, shhh, it's alright…" He cooed at her crying form, turning to the first years his eyes glowed dark green as he cast a teleportation spell. They found themselves within the chambers of the council of thirteen, Lord Jaya took out a vial of red liquid, giving a bit to Seya, who sipped it, calming down as her severed arm glowed a bright white light, reforming good as new. He turned to the students, then looked at Bartholomew in distaste. Bartholomew looked around confused for a second before holding the dark green blade behind his back. Lord Jaya's piercing blue eyes rolled as he shook his head slightly. "You children have done something both foolish and good."
"How did you know to find us?" Katya asked, attending Venka.
"My pendant reacts to my daughter's injuries, if she receives an injury that is life threatening or which cannot be healed by normal means, I then am able to teleport to her side to intervene. This is the first time it has ever occurred." He closed his eyes, opening them he looked tired and irritated. "I'm sure you have questions."
"…Is Seya what Magister 6 is referring to as specimen 34?"
He sighed, "I was prepared for as much when I saw you and that thing, yes, she is."
"If you knew about Jahat all this time, why didn't you stop her?!" Venka had gotten up now.
"Because child, why don't you look at those documents again." As the kids looked down, they noticed that all traces of Jahat had disappeared from the writings, instead of Jahat it stated the Scarlett Heart, Black Hand, or Priests of Helgrind.
"How is this possible?! It wasn't like this before?" Katya shook her head, Bartholomew in a panic began searching through all the other documents, sighing in relief to see they were unchanged.
"Jahat is powerful, she had at one point woven a spell keeping people who do not know of her from learning her identity, her name, words pertaining to her identity, and even mental images of her are blocked from a person's mind, and anyone who has seen her is incapable of speaking of her unless they are about to die. Even then just knowing her name is nothing, I cannot describe what she looks like, I cannot recreate an image of her, and I cannot tell you anything about her that betrays her identity in any way shape or form unless you already know of it. Those with strong mental abilities, ala mages, have some resistance, but even then, speaking of her or referencing her is impossible, believe me, I have tried to go to Nasuada many times, in many ways. I cannot even lie about information I have on her. That is how strong this enchantment is."
"Why would she go through such lengths?" Nya asked, "Especially if she's so strong?"
"Because of the Shadeslayer, and because of the Elves and riders. They are likely highly resistant to her magic if we go up the ladder, so if they learn her identity they could likely share it, and as powerful as Jahat is, Eragon has the old king's power, and his own power combined, this makes him a literal god, capable of raising and lowering islands, and would make the energy amassed by this city seem like a candle before a forest fire." Jahat shook his head, "The only reason she's not attacked directly is exactly because all that would need to be shown was the image of a shade several times stronger than Durza to get the leader of the riders to leave wherever he has settled in to return and save Alagaesia again."
"What does she want?" Morgan asked.
"I can't tell you, in fact, regardless of whether I know or not I can't tell you, same for anyone else you interrogate, taking hold of my mind before I die would likely reveal everything I know of her, but whatever bindings hold me down would hold you down as well."
"Does Seya also know about Jahat?"
"Seeing as I can give you a straight answer you already know that is the case, I came to her to save my daughter's life, I cannot tell you the process exactly but I can at least say a similar ritual led to Jahat coming to being."
"So, she was a deceased person before, ok." Morgan smiled confidently, his smile widened as Jahat grinned, "You are a cheeky bastard, yes, she was also someone who died, the shade who trained Galbatorix was one who was reborn through a freshly dead corpse, Jahat was brought back through similar means. Though her total amount of spirits pumped into her were insane. Over 2000 souls share that body, a body that was reforged from not just humans."
"What did they do to Seya?"
"Seya was a child blessed with magic. But she inherited her mother's illness, a malady of the body, were parts of it would grow incorrectly within and sap nutrients from the parts that needed it. Jahat gave it a name, but mentioning it for some reason would betray information about her I cannot share."
"So, it is a term we've never heard. And is likely not of Alagaesia."
"Correct. As it is, Zachariah's experiment was taking a spirit and splitting it apart."
"Splitting it apart?" The children felt cold pits as they looked at Seya, who was now sleeping soundly.
"Yes, the spirit would be torn asunder, and effectively killed in a way, leaving a mass of powerful magical energy, spirits do not rely on the ancient language to cast spells, using their magic in an even more wild and natural way than the elves. This living magic would be inserted into a child, and it would grant them superhuman abilities on the level of an elf's, or even greater, all the while still holding human virility and nature. As I'm sure you realize, there are eight of them including my daughter."
"Why are you so…"
"Malicious?" Lord Jaya smiled, "Because that is my nature, and because ruthlessness is what allows me to keep my title. As for my daughter, Zachariah did not tell me that he decided to split more spirts than normal to see how many a child could hold, from the tests, one would have been enough to save her life, and that would have been that, but he decided to dump 5 within her. It accelerated her illness, and she ended up dying. He wanted to collect her corpse to see whether he could replicate it in someone else, but I ran. I ran and ran until I found Jahat, she agreed to help my daughter, and for a moment I almost was held to her allure, but the memories of my wife, and my own hostile nature gave me the strength to resist, but not without sacrifice."
"Why are you being honest?" Venka asked.
"Who says I'm being honest, I could be lying, I could be weaving a tale to make you empathize with me and my daughter. It's up to you to determine that." He smiled at her irritated expression. "As it is, I've killed more people than I can count, but I at least mean well for the entirety of humanity, and do not have allusions to control it, either directly or from the sidelines, I merely wish to amass enough power to be left alone if I so choose, and for my daughter to be happy." His face twisted into a frown, "Unfortunately part of that happiness lies in your friend Faris, so I will help you."
"Where did they take him?" Venka asked, her stamina had recuperated enough for her to prepare to teleport to the prison entrance, ready to break in and save Faris.
"I would not no, but by now it would likely be too late to get him now." Before he had even finished Venka had teleported away. A few minutes later she came back, angry and visibly shaken.
"He… he's missing."