Chapter 10
We learn of her plans
Finding the place proved to be no problem, and we made our way past the walls and into the structure without effort. It was a pretty typical warehouse, with shelves, crates, tables, oil lamps burning, barrels, garbage cans, the usual security zombies wandering the place, rats, cats watching the rats, a few cute li'le mice-
"Uh, that's not good," Malachite decided.
"Are we 'ure they're zombiths?" Snarly asked, clearly desperately hoping for a no.
"They're undead all right," I told him. "I recognize them anywhere. You can tell by the classic 'shamble' they employ rather than walking, and note the distinctive-"
"I'm not looken at 'em!"
"They are useful tools you've said though, right?" Malachite asked.
"Sure. Don't need to pay 'em! But having the undead around, it's a risk. And illegal inside the city walls according to the mages I talked to earlier. Doesn't prove anything but careless intent, it's not enough to storm the place." And get guard members killed.
"Agreed," Hanz told us. "Let's keep looking."
We discovered about a dozen zombies wandering the place, and came to her office which fortunately or unfortunately for us was occupied. Jekserah was sitting there, flanked by her bodyguards, sitting at a desk working on something.
"All those zombiths and she still needs her two bodyguarths?" Snarly asked. "Give them tha night off or 'omething."
"Is that not the scroll we recovered for her?" Hanz asked.
"Yeah, that's it," I agreed. Watching her she seemed to be consulting a book of some kind, going back and forth between it and another which she was writing stuff in.
"Ah, she is decoding the message. That book must contain the key for the cipher."
"So we wait around until she leaves and check up what's she's doing in a warehouse full of the undead?" Malachite asked.
"That's the plan," I agreed.
We waited several hours until she finally closed the place up, but Hanz wisely decided to wait even longer in case she came back. We got another little tidbit of knowledge as she was cleaning up, as she used a spell to turn the lamps off. I hadn't realized she was a magic user, there had been no reason for me to check and it would have taken touching her anyway. She didn't have any magical items on her person I would have sensed as a matter of course. Because if you're a secret magic user, you don't go announcing it with magic items that might make someone curious. Oh Jekserah, what exactly are you up to? Hanz's decision to wait paid off, as she did return some minutes later after leaving, the bodyguards clearly unhappy with the situation. But they stood there while she took care of something and once again the place was empty of life. We waited a bit, and finally stepped back into the world. I put the lamp on low and looked around now that I could see clearly. It was a fairly simple office space, a few shelves, a desk, but our main interest was the chest she had locked what she had been working on into. Snarly and I looked it over, Snarly announcing it didn't look physically trapped. I on the other hand had a problem.
"It's magically trapped all right," I told everyone. "I think I can suppress the magic but it feels, I don't know, different from what modern magic feels like. Give me a second." I gathered what ambient mana I could and carefully cast my suppression spell on the chest. The casting was well and truly done, one of my better casting I believed. But I had to be sure. Feeling around I was astonished to discover I hadn't suppressed the spell on the chest at all! "What in the world? I know I'm not the greatest magic user ever, after I got comfortable with each planetary school I focused on learning new spells, not simply improving my ability to cast better. So there's certainly room for me to improve but I thought I had done fairly well. Whoever put the spell on this chest was much more skilled than I am."
"So is it hopeless?" Hanz asked.
"Maybe. I'll try again." I did so, and this time was rewarded with the magic feeling muted and suppressed enough I nodded to Snarly to begin working the lock. Good thing he knows his way around a lock-pick. I wouldn't want to try maintaining this spell and then trying unlock magic on the chest.
"It's a 'trange lock too," Snarly remarked. "Kind of old?"
"Where did she dig up this old fossil?" Hanz asked.
The lock clicked open. "There ya go!" he announced, stepping back. "Leth see what we've got."
What we had was exactly what we had seen her put away. A half finished spell formula, the book she was working to break the code from, and a journal of personal notes. Pocket spellbook volume 14was the title. Sheesh, this is a 'pocket' spellbook? I hate to see the size of the normal ones.I started there, and I didn't like what I discovered. "We know what the diamond is for," I announced.And why she needs such a big one."She's going to use it in this spell somehow. Don't ask me how, it's not a traditional enhancer in the way I understand them. But somehow it's going to allow the spell to be cast on a massive scale."
"But a spell to do what?" Malachite asked.
"If I'm reading this right, she's going to reanimate all the dead for leagues all at once, giving her a massive army, far bigger than the one I made in our first encounter with the cultists." Ah, and that's why she was upset about the bodies being burned. Less undead she can make!
Everyone gasped, even Hanz, doing so electronically probably to not feel left out.
"That's how she's going to overpower the guard and take over," they surmised.
"Exactly." And why I got a 'no' answer to the diamond being used for evil. Simply raising a lot of zombies isn't evil. Heck I did it myself on a small scale. But on the other hand, doesn't the scope of the spell change the parameters a little? Maybe I'm further gone than I thought, not believing such an action would be evil. But at least we did get a 'yes' answer to her taking over being a bad idea. Imagine trying to get rid of all those zombies! Maybe I should have asked if Malachite or Snarly would think it evil? Or maybe a priest? I guess I can't ask every question I would never do anything because there's always another question that could be asked.
"I guess we can tell Argise the evidence she's looking for of wrongdoing does exist," Hanz announced. "She just has to get into this chest without being blown up, or whatever that spell does."
She would take the key from Jekserah I would imagine. "Eh," I hedged. "Just doing magical research isn't illegal. If it was, Fladdermus would have been razed long ago. Without a list of steps detailing a plan to use this spell for a specific aim, the government would have a hard time proving any wrongdoing here. You can't prosecute someone for what you think they're about to do, only what they've actually started doing or have done. I mean can you even imagine the society that made thoughts a crime instead of deeds? I mean really!"
"Especially against 'omeone as rich and powerful as her," Snarly agreed.
"Exactly," I agreed. "Look around for more evidence while I get started looking over this other book."
"Right."
The smaller volume (but thicker) was a researcher's notes. Research to uncover the secrets of the various magical factions during the mage war. Seems fairly recent, and wordy, typical scholar writings. I flipped through it, finding it discussed the ciphers used by military researchers and some history of the war. Would be a fascinating read, but we're in a hurry. "Just a regular book," I told everyone. "She bought it just to translate the spell from this coded form to something she can actually cast. Not evidence I can point to of wrongdoing."
"Same here," Hanz told me. "She's not stupid enough to leave something like that laying around. The only real physical evidence here is the zombies, which may simply be frowned upon for someone of her station and not enough to charge her on. Also I see no indication she has anything to do with the cult of the Gloom, despite their similar penchant for raising the undead. She's acting independently."
"At least we won't have to worry about any black flames then. Let's get out of here and meet Argise. We can tell her what we found here, she'll have to decide if it's worth the guard trying to bring her in. The law is on her side so it's going to be tricky."
"Proving her intention would be difficult," Hanz agreed. "Though I suppose it could be done magically?"
"Possibly." If she doesn't have some kind of magical counter measure going. But even if she's studying ancient magic, it still feels like magic. She wouldn't be able to hide it from today's mages. Right? Still, have you looked up lately? Those floating cities are still up there, and we have no idea how they were made. So magic from that time might not even register because I don't know what I'm looking for, so to speak.
We put everything back in the chest and Snarly fiddled with the lock to lock it up again. I stood as far away from the thing as I could and ended my suppression spell. Nothing happened, so we stepped back into the astral and headed for the inn.
"Why don't you biologicals get some sleep?" Hanz suggested as we went inside. "As I do not do such, and we do not know exactly when Argise will return, and I can relay what we discovered as well as anyone, there is no need to incur further sleep debt on your part."
"Sounds good to me," I agreed, stretching. "I'm bushed. Ancient magics, sneaking around, those hours in the astral. It takes a toll."
"I'll see you all in the morning."
"Thanks Hanz. See you."
The next morning a messenger appeared with a letter addressed to Hanz as Malachite and Snarly were having breakfast, so they took it and broke the seal.
"So what's it say?" Malachite as they were staring at it.
"Oh my," Hanz replied, putting a hand up to their "mouth" part, "it's quite personal, but if you insist." They made a throat clearing noise. "My dearest Hanz, I simply had to write you first thing this morning to thank you for the wild time you showed me last night. Every time you *beep*ed my *beep* I achieved new levels of orga-"
"Give me that!" he growled, snatching the parchment away from Hanz.
"Organization, I was about to say," they huffed.
"Wait, what was that beeping 'ou were 'oing?" Snarly asked.
"We'll tell you when you're older, kid," Malachite told him. He scanned the letter. "Hanz, the city guard wishes to extend our thanks to you and your company-" He looked up. "Your company? Who decided that?"
"If the city guard has erroneously taken me to be the leader of our group I'm sure it won't take long to clear up that misconception. If it becomes necessary."
"Uh huh." He looked back down. "Your company for the part you played in performing reconnaissance for the city. Know that the guilty party will be apprehended and punished, but we cannot move against this individual without certain bureaucratic assurances in place. Additional troops are also being requested from nearby settlements to help in the effort to apprehend the individual. To that end we request you fulfill any obligations you have to this individual for the time being so they do not suspect anything is amiss. We will only need several days so the deception will not need to be performed long term. We hope this will not cause your company any inconvenience. Signed, illegible signature." He paused. "I see it doesn't say we'll be rewarded for our part or what to do if it does cause us any inconvenience!"
"I suppose once the 'guilty party' is taken into custody we can see what's in the warehouse," I told him. "She won't be needing it anymore, in jail." Like certain spellbooks, perhaps? Magical items? Stashes of gold? I mean something must be in all those boxes, it's not product for sale. In a secret hideout dedicated to illegal magical research? I think not. Hopefully the 'additional troops' are people familiar with taking in magic users who may not want to be taken in. I mean I have several ways up to and including vanishing from this plane of existence altogether if someone tried to put me in jail. So they would need someone who could lock her down and had the authority to do so. Unlike myself that could perhaps lock her down for a time but is just a normal citizen.
"Why did 'hey say it like 'at?" Snarly asked.
"In case the letter fell into the 'wrong hands'" Hanz explained, "It's called plausible deniability. Naming no names means this letter could be referring to anyone, so the person in question wouldn't be tipped off should they see it. We know who it's talking about, we don't need to be told it again, so it's almost a coded message with no cipher, to use the recent events as a metaphor."
"What's a metaphor?"
"Well 'meta' refers to showing an explicit awareness of oneself so one could look in a mirror and think, wow that's me, so meta. So if we take the opposite meaning of cluelessphor, we can thereby deduce-"
"Oh don't confuse the poor kid," Malachite broke in. "Just ignore them, metaphor isn't even a word. So what are we doing about the diamond mine?"
"I beg to differ," Hanz grumbled softly.
"We can go, but we'll have to be careful," I cautioned. "Before we set foot out of town, we'll all need to agree that we're going there to get our client the diamond, and we have every intention of handing it to her once we return."
"But we're not?" Snarly asked.
"But we must."
"But we're not."
"But we must."
"But we're not."
"But we must."
"But we're not."
"But-"
"Just explain it properly!" Malachite insisted. "Honestly what is up with the both of you today? What are you talking about Orchid?"
I sighed. "We know the client is a magic user. She probably has better divination magic than me, how else would she know this diamond exists there? But consider if she doesn't and only has a spell like mine. If she asks 'is the company I sent going to retrieve the diamond to give to me?' and gets a 'no' answer she's going to look into it more. If we head there with the intent to just keep it, she'll know something's up and magic may tell her so. Who knows what she sends after us, maybe she just uses magic to kill us in our sleep. Anyone that doesn't believe we are going to hand this diamond over once we get back to town is a risk. You must all swear, and believe, that's what we're going to do."
"Of course, should it happen that by the time we get back, 'coincidentally' she's locked up, well, we would have no choice but to keep it, right?"
"Exactly."
"Then the client comes first," he decreed. "Anything we pick up along the way is of course fair game but the big diamond is hers. No problem."
"Are we agreed?" I asked, looking around the table.
"Diamond dot owner equals the client, data processed," Hanz agreed.
"We 'ave to do the work the client 'ired us fer!" Snarly finished.
"Very well. Then we can go get it. I assume you'll be needing supplies?" I looked between the other two. "We have tents and such from coming here but you'll need a few days worth of food."
"I do estimate at least nine hours to reach the site," Hanz told them. "That will mean at least two days on the road if we rush. Three if we are careful and perhaps look around the mine to see what we can find. The client didn't say she needed it right away, after all."
"I'll pack for three days," Malachite decided. "Just in case. Come on Snarls, let's go shopping."
"Yay!"
The two left and I, disguised as an avian, or bird person, went to get my broach. I handed over the receipt and collected the opal, pinning it to my tunic as I left the place. The work was serviceable, but it could have been done better and faster if only he had let me put the spell on him. Oh well.
Back on the road, we headed vaguely towards the volcano first taking the road, then following the river south towards the foothills. Entering the narrow path carved through the rock about sunset we started looking for a good place to set up camp for the night. What we found was a rock-slide.
"This is not the ideal situation," Hanz began.
"Doesn't seem like a big deal to me," Malachite told us. "But I could see where you might have a problem with it."
"You don't 'hink itth the site of an ambush, do youth?" Snarly asked, nervously looking around.
"We'll know soon enough," I told him, and started casting my spell to look for enemies in the area. It came back negative, so Malachite offered to fly around see see what he could see.
"Sure, but you don't need-" I started to say.
"Great, see you shortly!" He spread his wings and jumped into the air, starting to climb.
"To do that," I finished. "He does like to exercise his wings… Come on, let's just go through it." I held both my hands out to the others.
"I am curious though," Hanz told me, holding up a hand. "Could your magic clear the blockage?"
I considered the pile. Brightening I actually got closer to it, just to see if any unusually colored rocks had been revealed I could save and sculpt later. But no, it was just the usual boring rocks one might find anywhere. I saw a few larger ones though. "Maybe," I told him. "I could shift these larger ones fairly easily I'm sure. But I'm no expert in… Whatever you would call clearing disaster sites without causing more issues. What if this pile of rocks is holding up the sides of this area now." I pointed to the walls. "I move them I might make it worse. I certainly don't want to bring the walls crashing down on us!"
"Still, I wonder if we should make the attempt, if we can do so safely? If this path is used frequently those that use it would thank you, even if they didn't exactly know you had done them the favor."
"But if a horde of angry goblins is chasing us this would block them," I countered. "We can count on it if it's still here when we're heading back. We could always take care of it then if we're in the clear."
"I suppose you are not wrong. Very well, proceed."
With both holding onto me I phased us, and walked through the rocks as if they weren't there. It wasn't that deep and we came out the other side. Nothing interesting on that side either, just the continuation of the path, so I dropped the spell again.
"So we just wait for Malachite," I told them.
"This would be a good place to set up camp," they decided. "Defensible, with that wall of stone at our back. We can continue to the mine from here in the morning if you wish."
"Sounds good," I decided, setting my pack down. "I'll start setting up the tent."
I had basically finished setting up our tent when Malachite landed again.
"I've got some good news and some bad news," he told us, folding his wings behind him.
"Oh really?" Hanz asked. "I am intrigued and excited to hear this news. Please, continue."
"There's another path we can take that isn't blocked. And I've spotted what I believe is the mine entrance. That's the good news, the bad news is there's a pack of wolves or something roaming around near there that- hang on."
He looked left and right, then up to find the setting sun.
"Is something wrong?" I asked politely, trying not to laugh.
"Aren't we heading in that direction?" he asked, pointing up the path.
"Yes we are," I agreed.
"But then how is the- You just moved everyone past the rock-slide, didn't you?" he asked, defeated.
"Yes I did. Thanks for scouting though. I've got the tent set up, you're of course in charge of your own dinner."
"Of course," he sighed.
While the others ate I asked questions like "are we safe from further rock-slides at this location?" and "will we be disturbed in the night" to which I got a yes and no answer, respectively. So I figured we would be safe though Hanz did announce they would watch over the camp in the night. They would be "awake" anyway so there was no harm in it. We did hear some howling as it started to get dark, so there were wolf like creatures or something else that howled around here, for sure.
But that sounded more like war wolves, not regular wolves. Goblins don't associate with them usually, it's orcs that train them. Very odd. We won't be disturbed so I'm not worried, do they use this path? I suppose they might be able to just climb it, they're the size of horses if I recall correctly. Still, the howling has stopped so they don't seem to be getting closer or rushing to find us. But just to be safe… I got up and looked around, deciding at the narrowest point nearby to cast my spell that created thick spider webs and block off the pathway. I cast a few times, filling the passage almost to the top, and nodded to myself, satisfied. If they come running down the path they're going to have to stop and try getting through this stuff, or smash into it and hopefully get trapped. Never hurts to be as cautious as possible.
That night passed uneventfully, as my magic had predicted. We were up and ready to go the next day, with some grumbling by Malachite of course, who I had to shake awake several times, both before and after I had taken the tent down. The mine awaited, it was time to claim our- I mean- the client's- diamond.