T.A.M – academy stables
Using the cover of night Louise managed to reach the stables undetected. With Aeron's suggestion she only packed the necessary items since their destination is only two days away from the academy if traveled on foot.
The snake watched with interest as Louise prepared the saddle for the horse. Usually the servants would do the task, but since stealth is required it would be counterproductive to have people know about it.
"Louise, a question if I may?" the snake hissed.
"Yes, what is it?" she was not in a mood to talk right now, the saddle was proving trickier to strap on the horse then she assumed.
"Why are you saddling a horse?"
"You don't expect me to walk to the count's home, this way we will be much faster."
"...Didn't I teach you how to summon mounts?" he inquired.
The question stopped her in her tracks. Slowly she turned to look the snake in the eyes, she had to fight the urge to kill the thing.
"You can summon horses and you tell me after I have done most of the work?!" she hissed.
"...well not just horses, but yes. Hmmm...I was positive I gave you the scroll."
"Well, you didn't. Why don't you spare us both the trouble and get us to our destination" she demanded angrily.
"..ah very well...how ab..."
His words were interrupted when a large pillar of earth slammed in front of the stable entrance. Picking Aeron up Louise went to looked what happened outside. She was surprised to see a twenty ft tall golem punching the academy wall. On its left shoulder stood a hooded person, obviously the mage who created the oversized lump of dirth.
"Great...just great, who ever the guy is, he just made the whole thing more complicated..." Aeron hissed in displeasure.
"We have to stop him!" Louise proclaimed, eager to prove she can help.
It took a minute for him to grasp what she wanted "...what? why?"
"It's expected of a noble!" but I didn't learn any evocation spells...only illusion and enchantments...THAT'S IT!
Rushing behind the unaware golem and its master she took a deep breath and started the chant "Sleep", and all of a sudden the hooded figure fell like a puppet with its strings severed. Only the crumbling of the golem saved him from falling and breaking his neck, instead slowly descending on the dirt of the golem.
Well that was...boring... "Congratulations Louise, you just defeated...a triangle or square mage with only one spell."
Happy with the praise she completely forgot about her plan to leave the academy until she heard voices that were fast approaching, turning around she could see professor Colbert and other teachers rushing with their staffs.
Both Aeron and Louise sighted, so much for that plan now.
"Miss Vallière what happened here?"
"I-I'm not completely certain. I went for a short walk to clear my head and the next thing I saw was a tall golem attacking the academy walls. I didn't know who the attacker is but I felt it's my responsibility as a noble to stop him, so I put the person controlling the golem to sleep with my magic" she explained to Colbert, while hoping she won't be caught in the lie.
"Ummm very good, very good Louise. A wonderful bluff" telling lies was one of the things that Aeron always supported.
Colbert's eyes widened "Impressive. Most impressive, I must say you are turning in a formidable mage, even for me putting a person to sleep is difficult, how did you manage such a spell?"
"I...I was experimenting with my magic and stumbled upon it...I still need more practice so it won't explode though."
He nodded, remembering how her spells often failed. Turning to the sleeping figure now resting on the pile of earth he grabbed and pulled the hood away.
His eyes instantly widened when he saw who the thief was "Miss Longueville?!" he gasped.
"Colbert, what's this all about?" said Osmand in a sleepy voice, as he approached them still dressed in his night clothes.
"It seams Miss Vallière has apprehended a thief. If I may ask headmaster, how did you go about hiring her?" he pointed at the sleeping figure.
"In a tavern. I was a customer while she was a waitress there. Where I slowly caressed her from her hands down to her buttocks…"
"Then what happened?" Mr. Colbert asked again, though he was more than a little disturbed by the old man's words.
Headmaster Osman embarrassingly confessed, "Because she wasn't angry at all after what I did, I asked her whether she wanted to become my secretary or not."
"Why?!" asked the bewildered Colbert.
Osman started coughing, and said sedately "And she could use magic, too."
"Yeah, magic that could kill" Colbert mumbled to himself.
Personally the statement was a no brainer for Aeron. Magic that could kill?..Duh!
Headmaster Osman coughed again then told Colbert in a prudent manner "Come to think of it, the reason that she allowed me to touch her all over the place, served me wine happily, and praised that I was a handsome man, while I was in the tavern, was just to infiltrate the academy. All those praises were most probably just lies…"
"Yes. Beautiful women are deadly mages."
"I couldn't agree more with you, Colbert."
Louise and Aeron stared blankly at the two mages "Aeron is this normal behavior for men?"
"...in this world...possibly, only two specimens are not enough to form a valid opinion" he answered.
As the other faculty staff levitated away, Louise followed the dispersing crowed to the dormitories.
"Well...this night was a fail" she commented.
"Yes...well maybe not entirely, you did impress a professor and managed to defeat a strong mage" he reaaaally didn't want to describe any spellcaster of this world as strong but Louise needed a boost in confidence for accomplishments and not nonsense like name or position.
She smiled "I guess you're right" her face quickly turned serious "so what now, have any ideas?"
"The plan stays the same if a bit modified, we will wait till Zanven returns so I can explain it in detail."
She nodded and proceeded back to her room.
XXXX
T.A.M – Louise's room
They waited for two hours before Zanven returned to her room. Aeron remained in his snake form passing the time explaining to Louise the difference between her system of runes and his. In reality it was not so different, only here and there some rune had slightly different properties and carving style.
"Evening" the squirrel greeted them as it entered from the window.
"Ah Zanven, I have a task for you" said the necromancer.
Huh...he didn't say its important so it probably isn't one of his usual antics "You have my full attention."
"We will depart this institution within a hour, we already should have done so, but unforeseen circumstances have made certain that we don't succeed. So I have a few ideas that need your help."
Zanven was certain now that Aeron was serious so he remained quiet.
"First, I will need your help with scrying the location of count Mott and his mansion, then I will teleport us there. Once we put him under our command, you will help me train her in domains I'm lacking like divination. I will leave behind a clone in the disguise of Louise to ensure she wont be missed by attending classes. We will probably change the plan later on, but for now its enough. Any questions?"
They both shook their heads.
Aeron frowned, he would be much happier if they asked even a dumb question...at least it would show they were thinking things over, he will have to punch some self initiative into the two "Very well then."
Quickly shifting his body into his assassin form he rummaged in his bag of holding until he pulled out a wand he had another mage craft for him "Zone of Silence."
He then placed the wand back in his bag "Now that that's over with, I can turn you back to normal, I doubt the Zhents will look for you here."
The squirrel pumped his fist in victory "Finally! I will be my old self again!"
"Louise, I should probably warn you since you will probably panic if I don't explain things beforehand...even if it would be much more amusing" Aeron muttered the last part almost sadly.
"What?" she asked, her interest piqued.
"Zanven here as you know is not a real squirrel, I transmuted him into it because...I felt like it" he ended with a grin.
"YOU SON OF A HARPY! I KNEW IT!" the squirrel dashed and grabbed Aeron by the throat, attempting to strangulate him, not that he would have much luck even in his humanoid form.
"Now, now Zanven it was not so bad...I had a ton of fun!"
Zanven looked directly into the necromancer's reptilian eyes "Have I told you how much I hate your guts?"
"Hmmmmm, now that you mention it...yes, yes you did."
The squirrel shook his head and leaps back on the floor, trying to reason with Aeron is like putting out a fire with flammable liquids.
"As I was saying, Zanven was not always so fuzzy, he was once an elf..." wait for it, wait...
Louise blinked
"WHHHAAAATTTTTTT!" her eyes widened until they were the size of plates.
"By Bane's rotting corpse, I think that was over 9000 Hz!" commented Aeron as he taped his ear to see if it was still functional.
Louise meanwhile found a defensive position under her blanket, shivering in fear.
Moving closer to the trembling blanket, his first thought was to ram a spear in front of her face...but somehow that would be counter productive so he decided to simply talk to her...how boring.
"Louise, I know that your people have some problems with elves, but Zanven here is really a nice guy" he send a glance to the squirrel indicating him to take over the explaining.
"I'm sorry for scaring you, but Aeron is indeed correct I really have no wish to harm you. I don't expect you to trust or even like me just like that, but I would be happy if you gave me at least the benefit of a doubt so I can prove that I'm not to be feared...who knows maybe you will be the first human in this world who can call an elf a friend" Zanven was siting on the bed, feeling truly sorry for scaring the child and a bit depressed that people would fear him simply for being an elf...he finally understood how Drizzt felt when he first came to the surface.
Aeron smirked, the only true bard skill in his opinion is their ability to talk with anybody about anything. Then he grimaced, remembering that ability had no off switch, at least when Volotamp was the bard in question.
Slowly Louise peeked out of her improvised shelter to look at the small animal. It was hard to compare him to the image of the arrogant and powerful elf that parents told children to force them to behave. And now that she actually thought about it...can an elf really be worse than Aeron? He was insane, bloodthirsty, sadistic and powerful enough to even enslave elves...she concluded that Zanven could not be worse than Aeron.
Removing the blanket in an attempt to save some dignity she turned to Zanven "Y-yes I would not be appropriate if a noble didn't give you a chance to prove yourself."
"Soooo-you don't have any objections to changing him back?" Aeron inquired.
She shook her head "No."
"Well Zanven seems this is your lucky day" with a snap of his fingers a white light enveloped the squirrel.
After the light dissipated, Zanven looked at Aeron...the Shadovar was still taller, but the difference in height was much smaller than it normally was...the Shade was now only almost twice as tall. He looked down on his hands...hands...not paws but actual hands...it was a long time since he saw them. Moving closer to the oversized mirror he could only smile when he saw his humanoid features...his golden hair, his delicate handsome face, his...breasts? Quickly examining the rest of his body he could only come to the conclusion that the bastard did it again.
"I'm going to kill you!" and with his feminine battle cry he jumped on Aeron to choke the shit out of him...and still failed to do any significant damage except amuse the corpse lover.
Louise was momentarily frightened when he attacked Aeron, but since her familiar only laughed at this she presumed it was safe "Zanven? I-I thought you were male!" In front of her stood a tall, busty woman with long blond hair and the most beautiful face she has ever seen, even more than Aeron's who certainly competed for the sexiest man alive award. Her clothing was also very beautiful, a harp was strapped over her back, decorated with images of golden leaves and vines, making the gold a nice contrast to the brown wood. On her hip an elegant rapier was hefted that like the harp had leaf decorations. She wore a red and gold colored leather armor that normally she would deem to gaudy, but had to agree fit the woman perfectly. All in all her clothing and weapons were a stark contrast to Aerons plain black ones.
"I am male! This bastard found it funny to perform a little sex change on me for his entertainment" he..or rather she growled.
Aeron scoffed "Now you are only letting your emotions run loose, in a humanoid body you can easily dispel the magic."
Zanven after cooling down, released his grip on Aerons throat, flexing his fingers he than performed a "Greater dispel" dissipating any and all magic the necromancer placed on him.
To Louise the change was almost none existent, except the removal of the Kirche like breasts Zanven remained the same...he actually looked like a woman as well as a male.
Aeron smirked "Now I remember why elf birthrates were low, your woman thought they were courted by lesbians."
Zanven wanted to yell at him but a devious smirk emerged instead "Would you rather that we looked like dwarves?"
The necromancer almost whimpered imagining a happy family where the wife had a long silky beard hanging to her knees "You win."
Happy that he got some payback he conjured a basin filed with water in the middle of the room "Louise can you describe me this lord Mott?"
Instead of describing the man she decided a visual would be easier "Silent image", in front of them stood a image of a middle aged human with brown hair, ridiculous mustache and clothes that would make jesters cry in shame. "This is Count Mott, he serves as the royal messenger of Tristain and is a triangle water mage. He is an arrogant fool, personally I don't know too much about him only some gossip...he has a reputation for abusing young girls as far as I learned from commoners and lower nobility."
The elf nodded "That should be enough, Greater scrying" in the water his reflection changed to that of Count Mott, siting behind his desk presumably in his study writing some documents, the scenery changed to that of a large mansion before reverting back to Mott "Will this be enough Aeron?"
The necromancer smiled "Indeed it will, my thanks Zanven. Now both of you prepare yourself I'm going to teleport us directly to Mott, Louise since this is your first teleportation be warned that you will suffer a slight daze until you get accustomed to it."
She nodded.
"Teleport."
In a flash of white light the trio disappeared.