Six || Dealings

The next morning, they convened in Klaus' basement.

Correction: work room.

What had once been a basement – a wide space, reinforced with concrete and stonework, that had clearly been built to store supplies – had been converted into another room stuffed with artifacts and old papers, and was in a distinct state of disarray. The space under the stairs was filled to bursting with old documents and odds and ends that were badly shoved into place in a desperate attempt to contain them, and it was apparent that this had been done explicitly to make room for the books they had gathered from the library. Even then, the corners were stacked with books and reference material.

Klaus himself was at work on a large desk shoved up against one of the walls. One side of the desk still bore a smattering of books, half-open and propped up and scribbled in and marked; the other half of the desk was overloaded with references and glossaries and maps. Klaus himself was trapped between them, hunched over another set of books, deep into his studies when Rue walked down the stairs and into the basement.

Seeing Klaus obviously at work, Rue stood near the back of the room, waiting for an opportunity to interrupt. After a few minutes, Klaus still had not looked away from his work, and finally Rue stepped forward.

"Sir?"

No response. He tried again, louder this time; "Doctor Adler."

This time Klaus flinched, and he spun in his chair to face Rue. Once their eyes locked, Klaus exhaled and relaxed back into the chair. "Ah, sorry," he said. "I wasn't expecting you for a bit."

"That's all right," Rue said. After a moment of consideration, he frowned slightly. "Klaus, did you get any sleep?"

It was a legitimate question; Klaus' gaze was heavy and he looked a little bedraggled. But Klaus waved his hand in the air, dismissing the question. "I've gotten enough," he said. "Anyhow, I found what I was looking for."

Rue perked up. "You did?"

"Yes." He scooped up one of the books and flipped it open to a mark he had placed. "Now, fair warning; Cadomon was working under assumptions just as much as we are. However, his notes suggest that he found a lot of interesting information about one of the magicians who lived here before him– about five hundred years ago." He looked down at another one of the books briefly, then back to Rue. "Not long after he began his research, Cadomon was stricken by a debilitating disease. He couldn't walk, much less carry on his investigations. He dedicated himself to deciphering everything he had found, but... well... he died without being able to validate anything he had learned."

"That sucks."

Both of them looked up to the stairs to see Mint leaning over the railing, watching them.

"What, you were starting your briefing without me?" she asked. "I'm hurt."

"Just making conversation," Klaus said. "But your timing is excellent. Come here, both of you." Klaus scooted his chair to the side, giving Rue and Mint a little more room to see what he was pointing at. As he did so, he gestured to the map they had found, now sprawled out across his desk, and then pointed to the note Cadomon had left, the word 'atelier'. "I know where this is. I just wanted to make sure that Cadomon was certain about its location before I could ever ask you to go here."

"What is it?" Rue asked.

"An old cobalt mine," Klaus said. "It was abandoned a few decades ago, when the miners broke into a natural cavern structure that happened to be populated by monsters. They're photophobic, thankfully – the monsters, I mean, not the miners, obviously – so they never ventured out onto the surface, but the area is still considered dangerous and the mines themselves are sealed."

"Sounds like they just broke into a monster nest," Mint said. "Why'd your guy think there was anything else down there?"

"Cadomon actually pinpointed the area well before the mine was established," Klaus said. "As far as I can tell, he stumbled upon the information while he was working on book restoration– found some old documents that mentioned Grand Magician Elroy and suggested he had settled somewhere out here. He canvassed the island on a lark and happened to detect a knot of magical entanglements somewhere underground, although he could never quite figure out how to reach it."

"And he never shared his research," Rue sad, "so nobody else ever thought to press further into the caverns."

"Correct."

Silence descended for a few seconds, only to be interrupted by a sudden cry of revelation from Mint.

"Elroy!" she said. "That guy– I think he tried to take over East Heaven Kingdom. Idiot realized it wasn't going to work and fell off the face of the planet. We talking about the same Elroy?"

"The very one." Klaus leaned in his chair, his eyes not quite focused on the map. "Which leads me to believe we may be on to something. Elroy had reached the peak of his power when he suddenly gave up his assault on East Heaven. He hadn't been able to do much damage on his own, but if he believed a Relic was somewhere on this island he might have been willing to pursue it under the assumption it would give him the edge he needed to usurp the throne."

"So how do we get there?" Rue asked.

Klaus pointed the route along the map. "The main path through the forest will lead you straight to the mines. Just follow it down south and you'll eventually find the space they cleared to open the tunnel. Oh, but... Mint." And he looked at her. "I assume you can fight."

She snorted and flipped her hair over her shoulder, almost disdainful of the question. "Of course," she said flatly.

"Rue." And Klaus' attention turned to him. "You're going to need a weapon. Your..." He petered out, considered his words carefully, and started again; "I'd like for the two of you to stick together while you're down there. Your normal tactics might not work very well."

Rue closed his eyes and nodded. "Understood."

Mint shot a look between the two of them, cocking an eyebrow. "What?"

Rue waved the word away. "Don't worry about," he said, and looked back to Klaus. "There's a blacksmith in town?"

"Not a blacksmith, but if you head to the other side of town square there's a man who deals in weapons. You'll be able to find something there."

"Thank you." He paused then, realizing something, and tilted his head. "You're... not coming with us?"

Klaus smiled wanly. "Not this time," he said. "I'm not a fighter. Even ignoring what I did to my leg, I wouldn't be of any use against the monsters that live in there. I'm going to have to leave this up to you two."

"Quick to trust, aren't you?" Mint asked. Her tone was joking, but the question was at least somewhat serious.

Klaus took it in stride. "I've been working with him for the last few months," he said, nodding to Rue. "And I trust him to keep you in line, young lady."

Mint regarded him carefully, trying to determine how much of that had been in jest.

As she contemplated, Rue was already at the stairs, climbing back into the house. He stopped and looked over the railing, and called down to Mint; "I'll meet you at the gate."

He emerged from the basement and into the house proper, blinking a few times as his eyes adjusted to the much brighter room. Once they had, he headed out the front door.

Well, he opened it, at least.

But before he could actually leave the building, something sprang out from his peripheral vision. He jumped slightly, surprised, and spun to face it only to find himself looking down at a young girl. He exhaled, forced himself to relax again.

"Sorry," he said. He regarded her for a moment, dug through his memory, called up a name. "You're Elena, right?"

"Mm-hmm," she said. "I remember seeing you at dinner a coupla nights ago. And bringing in all that stuff yesterday. Ah... Rue, right?"

"That's right."

"I saw Mint go by a little earlier, too," she said. "Are you both gonna help Dad?"

"Looks like."

Her smile widened, and she squeezed her hands together. "Oh! That's so great! Say, um... Mint's still here, right?"

He shot a glance to the back of the house., although the answer was obvious. "Yeah," he said. "She must still be talking to Klaus."

"Good!" This time she hesitated for a moment, her gaze briefly flickering to the floor before returning to meet his. "I was hoping to maybe talk to her and show her around and take her out by the lake but I didn't really see anybody around yesterday. Um, since you're helping Dad, too, did you maybe... maybe want to join us?"

He was a bit surprised by the question, and not at all sure how to address it. He couldn't really judge, of course, but it seemed odd that Mint would have agreed to go on this proposed tour. But after a moment of consideration, he realized that she hadn't; Elena was making the offer right then.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I won't be able to. I don't think Mint will, either. Klaus sent us off on some important work, and we can't really wait to do it."

Elena crumpled slightly. "Oh," she said. "Oh, right, 'course." But her expression didn't last long; almost immediately she perked up again. "Maybe later, then! When you're done with what Dad needs."

"Yeah. If we get back early enough."

"Where are you guys goin', then?"

"Down the island path," Rue said. "To the old mines. Although–" He stopped himself short, a thought striking him. "Actually, Elena, Klaus was telling me that somebody here sells weapons. I haven't really taken a good look around town and I don't know where he is. Could you take me there?"

"Yep!"

He stepped out of the door frame as she went by, her step bordering on a skip. "He's not far!"

That wasn't saying much; Rue might not have taken a good look around town, but one look at the layout of the walls and it was clear even without stepping through the gates that Carona was a fairly small settlement. He knew he didn't strictly need Elena's help, either, but he felt somewhat bad about cutting into her plans – she'd seemed so exuberant about it – and figured he could at least try to accommodate her.

"This way!" she said, pointing across the pathway.

"Go on," he said, and Elena took off. Rue gave her a few seconds leeway, then fell in step behind her.

"So you and Mint just met, too?" she asked suddenly.

"Hmm? Oh. Yes. When we all had dinner, in fact."

"I know a secret about her."

She said it in a low, sly voice that made it apparent she was just bursting at the seams to continue. Rue wasn't going to stop her; quite the contrary, he found himself very curious about that statement. "Do you?" he asked.

"Mm-hmm." She spun to face him, but didn't stop walking, instead moving backwards toward their inevitable target. "When she got me out of the ruins, she told me she was a princess."

Rue blinked. "She said what?"

Elena grinned and nodded. "S'true!" she cried. "Said she was Princess Mint. But then she didn't tell anybody else in the house that she was a princess so I figured she must've been keeping it a secret." She held a finger to her lips. "Don't tell anyone I told you."

He put one hand over his heart and raised the other one, open-palmed, like he was taking an oath. "Your secret's safe with me."

Not that he had any idea what it meant, but he had a sneaking suspicion that Mint might have been messing with the poor girl's head. She'd put on airs of false humility at dinner, but her confidence was palpable, and she'd explicitly shown Elena her magic ability– greatly impressed Elena with it, too, the way Elena's face lit up when she said Mint's name was plainly visible. Maybe she'd taken advantage of the adulation, played herself up.

He tucked the information away. There was no sense speculating; one way or the other, Mint hadn't brought it up to anybody else, either at dinner or in the library, and if she didn't want to discuss it that was her business. Besides, it wasn't as though he didn't have a few things he was wary of discussing, too.

Elena smiled at him and turned on her heel, leading him the rest of the way facing forward. Not a few minutes later, she led him up to the front of one of the shops. It was another wood-and-stone building, same as most of the town, although the front of this one was marked by two large windows bearing a small collection of decorative weaponry on display. A wooden sign swung just above the door, bearing a single word: TONIO'S.

"Here you go!" Elena said.

"Not coming inside?"

She shook her head. "No thanks. Tonio's nice, but his shop smells all... metal-y." She wrinkled her nose at the idea. "Anyway, I'll see you later, 'kay?"

"Okay. Thank you, Elena."

"No problem!" She smiled broadly, but her expression suddenly turned stern and grim, and she pressed her finger to her mouth again. "Remember, secrets."

And on that note, she spun and practically bounced back on her way to the house. Rue watched her for a few seconds, making sure she was well on her way, then turned back to the door and entered the building.

Elena had been right; immediately he was strung by the scent of iron. The shop itself was not particularly overflowing with weapons – there was a decent selection, lined up neatly in shelves behind the main counter – but he could hear the sound of a blade being sharpened somewhere behind them, and it was this equipment that filled the shop with the scent of metal.

There was nobody behind the counter, but there was somebody in front of it, a broad-shouldered man wearing dark blues stitched with leather, a belt around his waist pocked with satchels and pouches, another strap of leather looped over his shoulders and adorned with a small selection of knives. He was leaning nonchalantly on the counter, humming to himself.

Then the scraping stopped, and another man emerged from between the shelves. Compared to the man waiting at the counter, he was small and almost bookish-looking, and even not compared to the man at the counter he didn't exactly cut an imposing figure, between his average stature, smaller build, and pince-nez. As he walked back to the counter, he was returning a sword back to its sheath, which he then placed on the counter in front of the waiting man.

"It didn't need much," he said. "You take good care of your weapons, Graham."

"Got to, don't I?" the other man said. He picked up the sword and pulled it gingerly from the sheath, examining it in the light. "Thanks for havin' a look at her."

"Not a problem." The man behind the counter seemed then to notice that Rue was standing in the doorway, and he smiled and waved. "Ah, hello! Didn't see you there! Come in, come in!"

The other man, Graham, looked up as well. "Well, mornin' to ya," he said. "Haven't seen you around here before. New in town?"

"Just visiting," Rue said, approaching the counter.

"But still in need of something sharp?" Graham asked, laughter bubbling in the back of his voice. "Sounds like some dangerous visiting."

"Ignore him, please."

Rue couldn't help but smile faintly. "It's okay."

Graham laughed and placed a few coins down on the counter. "Well, I'd better get goin'. I'll see you later, Tonio."

"Take care!"

At that, Graham left the store, and Tonio turned his full attention to Rue. "Sorry about that," he said. "How can I help you?"

Rue looked past him, to the weapons on display. "I just need something functional," he said.

"Well that doesn't help me much," Tonio said. He tilted his head to the side. "You're not much familiar with weaponry, are you?"

Rue shook his head. "I can use it," he said. "I've fought plenty of monsters. Just most of the weapons I've used were scavenged. I haven't really gotten to choose before."

Tonio leaned on the counter, regarding him curiously. "Now that's interesting," he said. "What d'you do that you get to scavenge weapons? Treasure hunting?"

"You could say that."

"Hmm." Tonio stood fully upright, regarded Rue for a moment, then turned back to his stock. "I take it you've got a specific idea of where you're going, if not what you want to use. Where would that be?"

He hesitated, then decided there was really no harm in mentioning it. "The old cobalt mines."

"Really! That's unique. Ah... here's something." He selected one of the short swords from the rack and turned back to Rue, placing it on the counter and unsheathing it. "The mines have been sealed off since before I got here, but I imagine you won't have a lot of room to maneuver. My best guess for what you'd want is a gladius– an excellent thrusting weapon, and decent reach for slashing without being cumbersome, especially in closed quarters."

He removed his hands from the weapon, and Rue reached out to take it. He examined it in the light and gently hefted the blade. Even if it turned out not to be ideal, he would be able to make do; he was accustomed to his scrounged weapons being rusted and dulled, so already the gladius was a massive improvement over his usual repertoire.

"I think this'll work," he said.

Tonio smiled. "Good!" He told Rue the price, and as Rue went to fish out the necessary money, Tonio asked; "You're really going into the mines? Those were sealed off ages ago. Lots of nasty things in there."

"That's why I'm arming myself," he said, perhaps a little too lightly, and placed the money on the counter. Tonio counted it out and scooped it up; Rue, in turn, picked up the sheathed gladius and worked on attaching it to his own belt.

"Well, best of luck," Tonio said. "And be careful out there, okay?"

"I'd planned to be. Thank you."

He gave a final wave before departing from the building, adjusting the sheath's strap as he walked until he had it reasonably comfortable. It still felt weird, though; when he picked up the old weapons from ruins and ateliers, it was always a temporary situation, keeping hold as long as was necessary, and almost always without some kind of holster. Having something new and sharp strapped against his hip was going to take some getting used to.

He made his way to the gates quickly enough, and as agreed Mint was standing next to the doors, leaning nonchalantly against the wall, doing her best to pretend she hadn't noticed his approach. She herself was unencumbered, but there was a pair of rucksacks splayed out at her feet.

When he was close enough, he finally asked; "Supplies?"

"Some food, some water," she said. "Mostly they're for carrying anything good that we happen to find." She looked up and smiled. "Klaus just wants books and anything that gets mentioned in the books. We can keep anything else we find."

"Sounds like him," Rue said, taking one of the rucksacks and slinging it onto his back. "Ready?"

"Of course."

She picked up the other pack and adjusted it onto her back. Then, with Mint taking the lead, they headed out the gate.

At first, there wasn't much by way of conversation; once they verified the directions Klaus had given them, they set off in earnest and in relative silence, working across the well-trodden path through the forest, surrounded by the sounds of rustling leaves and insect chirring.

But after some time, Mint slowed down, abandoning her position out front and falling back until she was roughly alongside Rue. She picked up the pace once she was, keeping alongside him, and spoke.

"I think you and I need to have a talk," she began.

He gave her a sidelong glance. "Do we?"

"Yeah, we do." She adjusted the pack and regarded him coolly, levelly. "We have entered into something resembling a partnership. We go down to this atelier and start looting treasures, we've got to figure out who gets what."

"Do we?"

"We do," Mint said, gritting her teeth slightly. "Klaus already forfeit his right to keep anything that isn't filled with words, so he's basically out of the picture. Sounds like he'd be happy so long as he at least got to poke at anything we bring back."

"He will be," Rue confirmed.

"Which means that we – that is, just the two of us – have to figure out how the rest of the spoils get split. Now, as the one who's going out of her way to provide us with no small amount of magical convenience, I was thinking we could split the take, say..." She made a show of making the calculations. "Eighty-twenty."

Rue did not respond immediately. There was silence between the two of them as they continued, stretching from a few seconds to several, and Mint sighed heavily and shook her head. "All right, maybe that's a little much– seventy-thirty? Spellweaving isn't exactly easy, you know, I think the compensation's–"

"Take it all."

She was in the middle of making an unnecessarily grand gesture when Rue spoke again, and it caught her off guard. She stumbled slightly, caught herself, and half-jumped forward to fall back in step alongside him. "Wait, what?"

"Take it all," he repeated. "I don't need treasure."

She stared at him for a moment. "Okay, now– now don't get me wrong, I'm completely fine with that arrangement, but what the hell do you want out of this?" She suddenly came to a stop, forcing Rue to do the same a few paces ahead of her. She looked at him through narrowed eyes, and nodded slowly. "Ah, I get it. You want the Relic."

"Well..." He scratched the back of his neck, finding himself somewhat confused. "If Cadomon was right. If we find one. I–"

"Hup!" she said sharply, cutting him off before he could continue. "No no no. You can't just pay me off like that. We find a Relic and I'll be able to turn rocks into gold. A bunch of shiny things isn't worth giving up a super-powered magical artifact." She folded her arms and gave him an indignant glare. "That's just greedy."

For a moment, he just stared at her, and slowly decided that arguing just wasn't worth the effort.

"Sorry," he said, "I misspoke. That's not what I meant. I meant..." He took a moment, mulling over the wording in his mind, before he spoke again. "If we find a Relic – if there's one out here, and it hasn't been used up – I'd like to use it first. Once."

Her stance shifted; her shoulders when slack, she stood up straighter, and she looked him up and down, some of her glare dissipating. "Once?" she repeated. When he nodded, she unfolded her arms and her hands fell to her sides. "What's your angle?"

"No angle," he said. "I'm only after one thing. Once that's done, it's yours."

"I–" She hesitated, closed her mouth, stared at him in open confusion. Then, slowly; "You're serious."

He nodded.

She frowned.

"One wish," she said, holding up her finger to emphasize the point. "Just the one."

"That's all I ask."

"I'm not sure I believe you."

"That's fine." He turned away from her and looked back down the path. "We can discuss it later. Maybe after we've figured out if it actually exists."

"Fair enough." She started walking again, quickly sweeping past him, and looked over her shoulder to him again. "You're actually giving up your share of the treasure?"

"It's yours."

She snorted. "Suit yourself," she said.

She rounded a corner on the path up ahead, briefly disappearing behind the trees, and Rue suspected that she didn't entirely believe him. It didn't matter. So long as he could convince her of his intentions once they found the Relic.

If, he reminded himself sternly. If the thing existed, if it hadn't corroded over the years, if the magic inside wasn't exhausted, if somebody else hadn't already found it. If, if, if.

The rest of the walk was quiet.