Tristain – Count Mott's mansion
The three instantly appeared in front of the Count, while Louise and Mott were caught flat-footed Zanven and Aeron had no ill effects and acted fast.
Shaking of his surprise Mott lunged for his staff "WHO AR-"
Aeron waved with his hand "Enslave."
Mott's eyes instantly glazed over and his body relaxed. The noble walked towards the necromancer and knelt before the man who robed him of his free will "What is thy biding master."
Both Zanven and Louise were speechless. Louise was amazed that a triangle mage could lose so easily, but then again she also defeated one.
Finding his voice Zanven looked at Aeron "That was the Enslave ritual?! B-but how can you cast it as a spell?! You didn't prepare no material components! No runes and bindings were placed! How!"
Aeron smirked "I never use material components Zanven, I thought you already figured that out since you saw me cast spells often."
The elf was shocked, yes he did see him cast spells with nothing but a wave of his hand, but all those spells were pretty simple, this was a RITUAL, to be able to cast it as a spell you would have to be either a genius unmatched in the arcane arts or a god. What the hell! If he is truly that powerful, why would he serve anybody? What is he after?
"Count Mott, It's a pleasure to finally meet you. I'm sorry for our overly dramatic entrance but we are short on time. I hope we are not bothering you too much?"
"No bother at all my Lord, how can I be of assistance?" the noble said even as he struggled to break free of the spell, all in vain.
Zanven frowned "Aeron why the theatrics, he can't disobey your orders so there is no need to be polite."
"My, my Zanven, I'm polite because it would be shameful of me to be rude. Friend or foe, everybody deserves respect."
"...and then you kill them" Louise deadpanned.
Aeron grinned and turned to his new puppet "Now Count, we are in need of your residence here and would be very pleased if you would donate all your belongings to Miss Vallière here, you will still remain the Royal messenger however and will work with us to further our goals."
"Yes my lord" he moved to his table to make the necessary documents.
"Now that's cleared up, I will do some changing of the interior so it better suits our needs, and then we will get right down to business Louise. As I explained earlier I will take up teaching you magical theory and additional skills like using daggers, and a myriad of other useful things to know, while Zanven here will teach you divination as well as magical theory."
Louise frowned "Why would I need to know how to use daggers when I have magic?"
Aeron chuckled "Louise do you know what is be the biggest cause of death for mages?"
After thinking for a minute she shook hear head "I don't know...war maybe?"
He chuckled again "It is true that a lot of mages die in wars, but most mages statistically have died from daggers in their back or a slit throat. Before you summoned me I did the same thing to an elf mage, a poisoned dagger in the back and a clean cut through the neck. He failed to see it coming, so I will train you to not make such a fatal blunder to your health, and the first step to that is knowing your enemy. To catch a thief you need a thief so to say."
To say Louise was shocked would be an understatement, her familiar just admitted that he killed an elf mage with no effort at all by using a mundane piece of sharp metal. The only thing she could do at this point was nod "W-what about the academy?"
"Ahhh yes, the academy," drawled the assassin as he opened his bag of holding and pulled out a small crystal. The necromancer placed it on the floor, next to it he added a flower from a nearby vase, a few drops of water and diamond dust. He then turned to Louise and pulled a single strand of her hair.
"W-what are you doing?" she asked as she rubbed the place on her head he violated.
Ignoring her question he began a spell "Mitosis puppet"from the crystal a tulip emerged and soon it reached Aeron's height. All present stared as the flower opened up revealing a naked Louise, standing with her eyes closed.
Zanven was the first to gather his wits "...errrr Aeron, care to explain?"
"Naturally, you see the spell 'Mitosis puppet' creates a clone of the creature whose genetic material it is given. The clone shares a telepathic link with the original and everything it learns is automatically learned by the original, and vice-verse. In essence it's not so much creating a new individual as a puppet who is controlled by the original subconsciously so no effort needs to be put in its behavior, and also no fear of it rebelling. The drawback is such clones have an abnormally high energy consumption and if they don't eat large quantities of food they wither. To prevent themselves from wilting they actually regress to their base nature and start consuming all living things around them. To negate that I put one proteum crystal as its core to give the needed energy, so you don't have to give me that terrified look Zanven."
His smug face was soon replaced by sweat when he felt killing intent coming from behind him, he didn't have to be a genius to guess who it was.
"Y-YOU DOG!" Louise pulled out her wand and pointing it at Aeron screamed "Fireball!"
Aeron was surprised she would cast one of her old spells since all they made were explosions, but the surprise faded fast as he was blown through the wall of the mansion until he hit a tree. God, that will leave a bruise. He coughed out smoke from the explosive magic, when he looked back to the hole in the wall he saw two pinkettes pointing wands in his direction "Fireball!" "Bleed!" before he was blasted again.
Having calmed down somewhat LouiseA and LouiseB went to search for some spare clothing, while Zanven and Mott were wisely hidden behind the enslaved nobles desk.
Aeron picked himself from the crater and dragged his scorched ass back to the building mumbling about rabid midgets along the way.
Mott had to convince the guards who rushed to protect their employer that nothing happened and that they should return back to their duties.
The five people...well four people and a plant, again gathered in the same room, where Aeron had to listen to a rather long rant about nobility-taboos-nudity-bad bla bla bla.
"Fine...no more Louise clones are you happy...now back to business, the clones purpose is to attend the academy instead of your berserker self. That way even if something relevant happens there you will know and be able to act upon it. Are there any objections?"
Nobody had any.
"Very well, Teleport" and in a flash of light LouiseB was gone.
After a minute Louise gasped "I-I can see my room! It's like daydreaming but more realistic" she said.
"Great now take a few hours of rest so you get familiar with having a part of your mind unfocused on here and now, and tomorrow we will begin your training."
Another nod from her and everybody went on to do their part of work.
After the document was signed Mott called his guards and servants to give them new assignments. In reality they were called to be put under a spell that forced them to ignore all unusual things they perceived.
The whole mansion was emptied of any and all valuables, anything worth selling was sold to raise additional starting capital. Even with the ability to create gold from dirt it would be unwise to flood the market...at least for now.
Aeron used magic to change the interior of the mansion resulting in the lose of a number of guest rooms that were replaced with a large laboratory with numerous crafting benches and a large summoning area. Louise was also introduced to Volkarion the Djinni, who was more then happy to sell and buy any items from the little girl.
XXXX
Louise was almost certain her familiar is out to get her. After she woke up he dragged her out into the woods, placed a dagger in her hand and commanded her to attack him. First he only dodged her attacks, commenting what she needed to correct. It wasn't hard to master the weapon, the problem was the second she was able to use it with some skill he started to go on the offensive. She didn't know what he did to his hands but even the slightest of contacts with them caused her electric jolts. When she was exhausted with sparing, he would give her a potion of Restoration before they continued. In one day she was drilled in dagger use including throwing daggers, trap making, hiding and moving silently. But it's the conversations that she remembered the most.
-Flashback-
She barely evaded two phantom daggers aimed at her back. They would not hurt her but they stung like hell. She then heard a snapping branch from her left side "Cone of Cold" a flesh of light and all the vegetation was frozen solid.
"Tsk tsk Louise, you missed" Aeron's voice mocked from above before a pair of daggers hit her in the arm.
Louise winced, they didn't hurt much but for someone not accustomed to pain it was bad. The girl rubbed her arm as she dashed behind a tree "Ow..." Louise winced when she touched the spot that was hit.
"Hmmm now would probably be a good time to explain how to deal with pain. Listen, there are a lot of ways to master pain, the easiest would be if you convince yourself that its all in your mind, that pain is only a illusion. The second way would be if you embrace it and enjoy it."
"Only you would enjoy something like this" she hissed.
"I only gave you tips how to deal with it, it's your choice if you take them or not."
She dodged another dagger "Protection from Arrows."
"Ohhh very good Louise, but how about this?" he laughed.
She didn't want to give the sadist any more ideas, so she used the first thing she learned from him – NEVER remain stationary. The pinkette zig-zaged around trees, using them as cover whenever she could. Her legs were tired but she had to persevere. Purely on reflex she dodged a bag of choking powder. Louise grimaced, those things were a serious problem for mages, it's not so much that it prevents speech but the coughing also disrupted any concentration she would normally have.
"Is all of this really necessary Aeron?" she asked.
"Sweat saves blood my dear Louise. Look, if I was a commoner assassin you would be dead over twenty times already, and I'm holding back."
"Does everything with you have to be about killing? Honestly one of these days you will get yourself in so much trouble not even Cyric will be able to save you" she commented, breathing heavily from running around so much.
"Hahahaha, you're dead funny master. Cyric would never save anyone, if you are not capable to help yourself then you don't deserve to live " he told her "Besides I thought you already made your peace with the idea of killing after Guiche's noble demise?"
"I accepted that their deaths were not a great loss, but with your magic you could have forced them to change, to become better people."
"...Louise I'm not here to enslave peoples will simply because I don't like how they act. If they are ravaging murderous bastards who go around killing and raping people I would not give a damn. As long as they don't stand in my way or have anything I need I wouldn't lift a finger. It's not my place to protect the weak, judge who is good or evil or enforce laws, that's the duty of your society, and if your governments fail to act why should I?"
She dodged another illusionary dagger, but a strong hand grabbed her arm and twisted until her wand fell to the ground. Louise instead of reaching for the magic tool grabbed the dagger she carried on her belt and slashed at her attacker who quickly let her go and retreated back into the bushes. She took the wand and dashed to find a better cover. Crouching behind a large rock she hoped for a few minutes of rest, she could always use Stoneskin to protect herself from his attacks but it would be only temporarily and he would probably use those damned powders on her. If she had more time she could craft some sort of trap but she only had her dagger, wand and brain to work with...and her feet, yes she did a LOT of footwork today. Then an idea came to her mind. I hope it works. "You know Aeron sometimes I think you solve all your problems with the tip of your dagger, are you so cowardly that you would not give people a second chance?"
"Death solves all problems-no man no problem. I do not see why man should not be just as cruel as nature. The joy of killing! the joy of seeing killing done - these are traits of the human race at large. I do it, your parents do it, your prince's will have to do it...and YOU will have to do it also, you call it cowardice I call it practicality" he finished his speech in a serious voice.
She frowned Not yet thought the girl as she pulled out a scroll from inside her cloak "It's a sin to take life."
"And who decides what sin is? I say do as you please. The only sin is to deny yourself what you are, to act as the people around you want. Never let others tell you what to do and how to behave, if you wish to have orgies on Tristain's main street, well who am I to forbid it. Would you give up on your loved ones simply because the other nobles expect you to do that?"
"...no" she answered, as she only half-heatedly listened to his words attempting to find his real location.
"And that's the whole point, be true to yourself even if it kills you. I am what I am, I never lie about it, I LOVE killing. Others call it evil but then again I don't give a damn. Evil is a point of view ... God kills, and so shall we; indiscriminately ... for no creatures under God are as we are, none so like him as ourselves."
"Sometimes I have the feeling you give speeches to hear yourself talk. And since we are at the topic...you are quoting someone aren't you?"
"..."
"I knew it" she smirked as she used the scroll, her wand pointed into the air "Sunburst!"
The pained scream from a tree branch made her smile in victory, Aeron really hated the light at that moment.
-End flashback-
When the training was concluded they went to the mansion for dinner and after a short rest she was dragged to the laboratory where she spend the rest of the day reading about magical theory and performing minor experiments. All things considering her first day was torture.
Zanven looked up from the book he was reading "So what do you think?"
Aeron taped his chin with his index finger before siting down on the couch "Her dexterity is excellent, not surprising when you take in account her built. But her constitution is at best average, she gets tired too fast. It's great I'm not making an expert assassin from her, so I don't have to direct so much time from her magic lessons to perfect her lacking physical skills. Tomorrow you will show her some divination spells, and let her examine the items in the bag of holding, it will be easier if she sees the results and not only reads about them in a book."
"So what will you be doing tomorrow?" asked Zanven.
"I will raise some zombies and summon some clockworkers to begin mining the mountains north from here, also I have to remodel Mott's hunting 'cabin' into an academy for commoners and create one more 'Mitosis puppet' of myself to act the part of the local teacher."
"Sooo what will you be teaching them?" the elf asked suspiciously.
He shrugged "Oh the basics. Reading, writing, mathematics, chemistry, physics, curriculum assassinorum."
Zanven facepalmed "I knew it."
"Related to our management topic, it seems that Mott was collecting too high taxes from the surrounding area under his control, I would appreciate it if you divine a good way to invest the money back to the villages. If this continues the peasants will go bankrupt and that's not productive, and have those house guards patrol the area, they are only in the way here."
"So what other skills will you teach Louise?"
Aeron smirked "The full set of basics. Balancing, climbing, concentration, crafting, deciphering scripts, diplomacy, disabling devices, disguising oneself, creating forgeries, gathering information, sensing motives, spellcraft, survival, tumbling, some skill tricks, some professions and a ton of knowledge. By the end of the year she will be able to leave the best spy masters this world has in the dust...though she would be only a novice on Toril."
"You know, I could teach her the same skills, you could focus entirely on upgrading the economy."
"The economy is not hard to fix. It's more a pain because it takes time for the new ideas and projects to kick in, so I will have a lot of free time."
"Your choice. Oh and concerning Louise's magic, it seems she used the wrong element the whole time. Maybe if we found some of Brimir's personal items, she will figure out what to do."
"Sure, why not. This void magic can't be any weaker than the elemental rubbish they teach in the academy, so do you have any idea where to begin the search?"
"I think that at least one of Brimir's items is in possession of the Tristain Royal family."
"Ahhh yes the Royal family. It's a miracle that Germania and Galia haven't conquered a country with such weak rulers."
Zanven nodded returning his attention back to the book.
Aeron rose and went to the laboratory "As long as I'm here, I can still do something productive. By the way, it seems the thief/secretary Louise caught was rather infamous – Fouquet the crumbling flirt or something. Louise couldn't stop boasting the entire day about how the Headmaster was praising her or rather her clone, so when she mentions it act surprised and awed, or she will try some of her explosive spells on you, and unlike me you don't regenerate" he ended with a smirk. Not to mention that the thief got blamed for the ghostly elf and the disappearance of three nobles.
"Speaking from experience I see" Zanven commented as he turned a page.
"You're just jealous she didn't use you as target practice" Aeron said as he left.
Tristain, Genoa prison
Fouquet was staring idly at the ceiling in the city of Tristain's Genoa prison. She was a triangle earth mage, who was apprehended trying to enter the academy vault in an attempt to steal the Staff of Destruction. And because she was infamous for stealing valuable treasure from various nobles, she was placed in Genoa prison, the maximum security prison located in the city of Tristain.
She would be charged in court the following week. As she has caused a great deal of shame to the nobles all over the country she would most probably either be exiled or be given the death sentence. Either way, she wouldn't be allowed in Tristain anymore. At first, she thought of escaping, but she later gave up that thought.
Inside her cell, there was nothing except for shoddy looking bed and a table that was made out of wood. Things would be quite different if there was just something made of metal…like a spoon.
Even though she wanted to turn the prison walls and iron bars into soil using alchemy, but without her wand, which was confiscated, that would not be possible. Magicians are really helpless without their wands. Furthermore, the prison walls and iron bars are specially enchanted to resist magic, so even with the use of alchemy, she would not be able to escape.
"It's really mean of them to lock up a feeble female like myself here." Fouquet grumbled to herself.
"Time to sleep..." Fouquet closed her eyes and laid down. Just as she had closed her eyes, she quickly opened them again.
A person wearing a hood appeared next to her cell, his face could not be seen as it was covered by a mask.
Fouquet said in a rather scornful manner, "I'm surprised to see a visitor in the middle of the night!"
The man in the mask did not reply, instead he simply looked at Fouquet.
Fouquet instinctively knew that the person was hired to kill her. Some of the nobles that she had stolen from must have thought that sentencing her in court was too much of a hassle and have decided to hire an assassin to kill her. Some of the items she had stolen from the imperial family were most probably stolen goods to, and in order not to let the truth surface, the imperials have decided to silence her.
"Well, as you can see, this doesn't look like a place to entertain someone. But I think you're not here just for a cup of tea am I right?" Fouquet said.
She thought to herself, Even though I'm without my wand, I will not give up easily without a good fight. I'm not only well versed in magic; I'm pretty good in close combat to. However, I'm powerless to stop him should he decide to use magic. Therefore, I must somehow lure him inside to my cell.
Just then, the man in the cloak spoke "Are you Fouquet of the Crumbling Earth?"
His voice sounded strong and youthful.
"I'm not sure who gave me this nickname, but yes, I am Fouquet of the Crumbling Earth."
The man in the cloak raised both of his hands, showing that he is not hostile towards her.
"I have something of an offer if you would hear me out."
"What is it?" Fouquet replied in a rather surprised tone "Don't tell me that you're going to speak on my defense. What a weirdo."
"I'd be happy to speak in defense for you, my dear Mathilda of South Gotha but I don't think it would do much good."
Fouquet's face turned pale. "That's the name I had forgotten, or rather forced to forget. There should be no one in this world that knows that name anymore…Who exactly are you?"
The cloaked man did not answer her question "My identity will be revealed in time, but how things now stand, that little orphanage you protect so much will not last very long."
Fouquet, who had finally lost her cool replied, "I-I don't know what you're talking about, speak clearly or leave."
"Now, now my dear there really is no need to behave like that. I simply came here to propose a deal, we will give you the financial backing you need to help dear sweet Tiffania, and your freedom in exchange for helping our little group" the man replied.
The mention of Tifa made her instantly quiet down, was it worth the risk to decline him? She thought the proposal over "How do I know I can trust you?"
"You can't. But it's not like you have much of a choice."
Closing her eyes she gave a stiff nod.
"Excellent, now let us depart."
XXX
A/N:
There were some minor changes in the story so far but nothing noteworthy. After this chapter the story has significant parts that have been altered from the faulty original.