Chapter 15

Keep on hopping you can never stop

It was the moment of truth. We stood in the cave again, key in hand. Alveindros had given us the key with little incident, digging through his personal hoard as he kept some treasure about his person like a normal dragon. He was apparently feeling much better, and had moved back into his cave from the sick-house he had been stuck in while under the effects of the curse. He thanked us for before, saying that portion of his hoard had been moved and there had been no out of the ordinary behavior from his neighboring dragon. So all was well that ended well. Including this. He found the right rock, I got the key out of it, and we flew back to the cave for hopefully the final time. The crystal seemed to flex and retract as we walked in with it, so I had to figure we were on the right track here. It was clear by the time we got to the door, but it seemed whatever was on the other side was getting a bit impatient. It physically grabbed the key, surprising me that the seemingly solid door could be turned into a putty like that, and put the key in the now revealed keyhole all by itself. We took a step back and waited.

"So now what?" Hanz asked after a moment. "Did it work? Is it free?"

"Not really sure," I admitted, taking a tentative step forward. I turned the key in the lock just as a point of interest and the door melted away.

"Finally!" said a voice from behind. The being we had seen all those years ago floated over to us, forcing us to shade our eyes from the glare. "I don't want to hear it. Deal with it on your own. Goodbye!"

"Gah! Buh!" Malachite orated, making a pretty compelling argument in my eyes but you never know with beings like this.

"Yes, was there something?" the Enlightenment asked, dripping with sarcasm.

"Do you know what we went through to get that key and free you? We're not at fault here, we did what we could to help you and preserve our future at the same time."

"I know. I was watching you for much of it, in the limited way I could."

"So fix her!" He pointed at me. "That's what this is mostly about anyway."

"Humm?" The being turned and looked me over. "Oh yes, I see what you mean now. My apologies, it seems some of my crystal did indeed fuse with you. I wondered what you were doing back here poking around. But I did see an opportunity. Yes, of course, I can remove that sliver of my power from her at once. If you agree, of course?" A ghostly appendage hovered near me.

Oh. So much for choosing between more and less, or whatever I once thought. Becoming some kind of elemental would have given me pause. But the poem- "Yes, please take your power back, thank you." I mean why would I refuse at this point? That would be… very silly.

"No, thank you. I suppose it really is the least I can do." They touched me, and I felt lighter again. I touched my head, finding wonderful long hair again, as though it had been growing this whole time.

"My hair is back! But it's blue?" I gathered it up and looked at it.

"I couldn't get every bit, there may be a few minor, cosmetic, side effects. Now may I finally get out of this awful place?"

"Would it change your mind at all if we said the Gloom was back and we wanted your help again?" Hanz asked hopefully.

"It would not," they said with finality. "I'm sure you'll be able to handle it."

"The four of us. Handle it. You could only drive it back the last time, how are we supposed to deal with it now without you?"

"I'm sure you'll find a way. Goodbye!" They shot out of the cave and vanished.

We all stood around a moment, in shock.

"So, that's it then?" Malachite asked, looking me over.

"I guess?" I agreed. "It feels... wrong somehow. But I have just skin again, and hair, and I could finally wear those fire proof boots we got instead of just sandals all the time. So I guess curse- Oh my gosh!"

"What? What is it?"

"We need to go shopping, I'm going to need all new clothes now that I can actually wear something that's not a tent."

"She's a woman all right." Hanz was nodding their head. "First thing she thought of."

"Well look at me, I can't go out like this!" I indicated my torn up clothes. "And with a boyfriend to play porter who wouldn't want to go shopping?"

"Porter?" Malachite asked with some trepidation.

"It's gonna be so fun! I'm going to shop all day and get so many nice outfits! Maybe I'll even let you preview some. Oh I haven't gone shopping in ages, and I have money now too which helps. I can't wait to get back to town!"

Hanz patted his arm. "I'll pray for you."

We stayed the night in the cave, getting my new skin all dirty and yucky but that's what I had cleaning magic for! We headed back early the next day and I went straight to get my hair looked at and taken care of. I got it shortened a little bit, I wanted to have long hair for now after so long having none. I could put it up when we were fighting, I was sure. With that taken care of Malachite spent the rest of the day following me around to various clothing shops, where I picked out a bunch of new outfits, most of them pretty revealing. I had smooth skin again and I wanted to show it off a little. Pity it was coming up on the cold season, but I could make withstand weather spell tokens, and I had the cloak Malachite had bought for me, and the boots fit me! Not the dragonscale boots, those were still illegal. I was not walking around town in illegal boots. The other ones. I cut quite a figure, looking in the mirror in my room. I was preening and wanting to try on all my new outfits, still a bit weirded out by how things had worked out, but figured I could only accept them, and move on. That poem though, it really built up the whole thing about choice and nexus and all that, and in the end it was just "here you go, bye!" Still, I was very pleased with the result, even if hugging Malachite now seemed much more prickly to me than before. I can swim in water deeper than I can stand in, and while I'll probably still disguise myself when I go out because it's just fun and I have the spell, I don't have to anymore. I'm not slowed down by being so heavy, my arms feel so light now. It's going to be great!

The only interruption for the day was us being approached by a rather disheveled looking fellow from the mouth of an ally. It was a rat folk, with rat ears and tail, and on the short side.

"Interesting in secrets, sirs? Or madam if it is? Muchly great secrets to be had, very unexpensively, just for the two sirs! Or if they are madams?"

"You really can't tell that I'm a human woman?" I asked, looking the guy over. To my great shame, I did recognize the man, and the rolled up scroll he had was no doubt a spell. He was a known "troublemaker" in town, though he wasn't violent or anything like that. Not everyone had the good fortune to be born as I had, so I didn't hold his current circumstances against him.

"One has no interest in such things, only business, just business," said the man.

"Just business, is it?" I said, a bit too loudly. "You come to me, looking to swindle me no doubt. Bodyguard, let us find a quiet nook and teach this filthy little creature a lesson!" I pointedly winked at him and he chuckled once, then tamped it down.

"A fine idea, my lady, come along, vermin!" He grabbed up the man who yelped.

I risked a glance behind me, there were nods of encouragement that this man would soon be getting what he deserved. They disgusted me, the whole lot of them. The man needs help, you think he does this because he likes living dangerously or something? And you approve of us going to beat him up! Is this really the way the Lord would have you act? Each and every one of you should be racing to his defense, and helping to lift him out of poverty as much as you are personally able. Is this not the lesson of the savior, son of God? I pity all your souls when asked about this day at the gates of Heaven.

"Please, no violence!" pleaded the man. "I wish no violence!"

Malachite knocked over a trash can, making it clatter over and then started smashing it. "And that's just for starters! Stand still and take your beating like a man!"

The man picked up on it right away. "Not the face!"

"Oh you want some more, do you?"

"How much?" I whispered to him.

"Five moons!" he whispered back. "Thank you for not actually beating me up."

Even the cheapest spell, purchased officially, would run me twice that. So even if it's grade 1, as long as I didn't already know it this would be a substantial savings. This guy looks like he needs the money, too. Honestly, I consider this transaction charity work. The piece of parchment the spell is written on is worth far less than 5 moons, and if I had my way any non-combat spell would be free, to help improve the world. I do this now to stick it to you, mage's guild. I've seen the world before you came along with my own eyes now. Apart from the whole war thing, which was probably begun by the Gloom anyway, it looked like things were working out for us. You brought me to this, so now how do you like it?

I slipped him the coins and he handed me the scroll, while Malachite continued to beat on the cans. He slipped out the back, and we proceeded on our way.

"So what was it?" he asked, as I looked the scroll over.

"Bah!" I spat. "We lost out. Unless you want a huge sword made of ice, or something?"

"Do I?!"

I glared at him, but chuckled. "Yeah okay I don't know what I expected otherwise. So yeah no good for me, I'm not swinging a sword around but maybe you could have a stone bracelet made that you could pull a magic sword made of ice out of. If you lost yours, or your non-magical weapon wasn't cutting it."

"Cutting it, good one!"

"You know, if you needed that extra edge."

"Okay, okay, don't take it too far now."

"The shape is up to my imagination so I could make it pretty n-ice."

"What did I just say?!"

It's any close combat weapon. Wonder how far I could take it? Is a chain made of ice a weapon? A pole would be. An ice bow? It would only shoot regular arrows but in a pinch for Hanz maybe. An ice net? I have to keep holding onto it though. I can do some tests later. I bet I could make a net with one really long rope on one side, and I hold onto that to keep it around. Yeah, bet that would work.

"Did you have fun thoping?" Snarly asked us when we got back.

"I did, thank you!" I told him. "Anything interesting happen while you were out?"

"Yeth actually. I thaved a kobald from being beaten by thome townsfolk."

"Good for you, little man," Malachite praised. "We'll make a hero of you yet."

"Yer implying that you're thome kind of hero?" he asked, not believing it for a second. "But thereth even more importhant neth to thare!"

"Don't keep us in suspense."

"I thometimeths head back to the Theeping Lion to thee how the place ith getting on. The owner told me that thereth some kind of weird thievery thing going on outhide town."

"Thievery thing?" I asked.

"Bandith are accothing merchant caravanth, but the only thing they theal is lamp oil."

"Lamp oil?" I repeated.

"Thath what he thaid. They don't hurt nobody, or theal money or thuff like that, just the oil. It's very odd."

"I'll say," I agreed.

"Ah, you're back," Hanz said, closing the door behind them. "I just had a most interesting interaction with Argase."

"We can look into the lamp oil thing if you want to help out the Lion," Malachite told him. "Let's hear what Hanz has to say now."

"Thure thing."

"Lamp oil? Anyway, she's been looking for us. Maybe you should put some kind of mailbox on the side of the house or something? Then she could leave us messages. They went through the books from that warehouse they took down, much of it in code by the way, and she discovered another site she wants us to check out. It's called the Outer Ritual Chamber, so there's no doubt it's connected to the cult. At least, that's what they called it."

"Sounds appropriately cult like," I agreed. "It's been a month since Jekserah, that could keep a few days. Don't forget we have the imprisoned wind spirit to help out too. I would say let's head tomorrow to look into Snarly's oil lamp thievery problem, as that seems rather important in the short term, swing by the chamber after that, then look into the spirit thing and if we really want to release it into the world when we got back. I don't want to make them wait too long, after all."

Everyone agreed that sounded reasonable, and the next day we were off!

The attacks, according to Snarly, only happened on the east road to town, somewhat near the Dagger Forest. So we figured they probably had some kind of hideout there and headed that way to try and get the drop on them. We were walking so far, discussing our plan.

"So what is our plan?" Malachite asked.

"The one thing in the favor of these thieves is the fact they haven't actually hurt anyone," I explained. "So my idea is this; We fly down this road and hopefully spot the caravan before it gets near the bandits. We circle back, go into the astral, and follow them. Then when the thieves attack the caravan-"

"We jump out and cut their heads off!"

"NO! Bad draig!" I cried, slapping his hand. "We do nothing."

"The what?"

"We allow them to take the oil-"

"Then cut their heads off, and sell the oil back to the- don't hit me again!"

I actually shouldn't have, my hand stung now. What where those scales of his made of? Oh, right, duh. They were scales. Ow. I rubbed my hand. "We follow them back to their hideout. Then we recover all the oil, figure out what the heck they think they're doing with so much oil, and can return all of it. A small reward is acceptable to take, if offered."

"Oh. So no cutting at all, then?"

"Not if we can help it. And no breathing fire either, just want to get that out of the way."

"I'm not stupid, if I see gallons of lamp oil of course I'm not breathing fire next to it!"

"Good. They may be forced to do this by... some... elemental oil... demon? I don't know. I don't know what they need all this oil for."

"You think someone's drinking it?" Hanz asked.

"No idea, but why just oil? They aren't stealing money? They could use it to buy more oil in other places. It makes no sense. I don't like things that make no sense."

"Agreed," they agreed. "I have no issues with this plan."

"Ready to fly?" I asked.

"Ready!"

But the fates were with us, and Malachite actually spotted a group of shady looking characters huddled by the road, the bad news being they seem to have spotted us too. Not that they could do anything about it, of course. We looped back around and landed some ways from them in the forest.

"We caught a break," he told us, as he shrunk down again. "We wanted to find them, and we found them. At least, we found somebody acting suspicious around here. Let's go astral and see if these are our guys."

I had no problem with that, and we headed back, making our way to where they were in short order. There were four of them, with very odd mounts. They were stone looking dogs, with saddles, not horses. The men had a variety of weapons from swords to crossbows, and dark cloaks. They were clearly sitting there waiting for something, but not saying much.

What, are horses just too mainstream for them or what?

"I'll go scout to see how far the caravan is from here," Malachite offered. "Stay here." He took off, coming back just a few minutes later. "They're hours away at the speed they're going," he announced. "They're trying to be extra careful I guess?"

"Tho we have time, now what?" Snarly asked.

"Those dog things look to be pretty heavy," Hanz told us. "I bet they would make a trail a blind man could follow through the woods. Let's head away from them again and look for tracks. We may be able to catch them in their lair, taking them by surprise, when they return with their latest spoils!"

Of course this will be the one time someone gets killed, knowing our luck. Please, Lord, protect these poor caravans and don't make me regret trying to spare the lives of the thieves as well.

No one had any objections, so we did just that. I augmented both Malachite and Hanz, making their skill at tracking much better, and they started following the trail. And we kept following the trail. And we kept following it. And we followed it some more. And then it went on for a longer time. And still we followed it. It felt like hours, probably because it was, but still we followed it.

"How far away do theth guyth live anyway?" Snarly asked at one point.

"They do seem dedicated, to drag oil barrels so far through the woods," Hanz agreed. "Most curious."

"Do you hear that?" Hanz's head whipped back. "Quick, put us back in the astral I think we're about to get company!" I dropped the augmentation spell as everyone gathered around, they knew what they had to do by now. We were solidly in the astral as the four stone dogs thundered past us.

I guess we know why they ride those things, then?

"They're really moving," Malachite breathed. "So much for taking them by surprise."

"We've really been following thith trail for tho long they had time to rob the caravan and ride pathed us? How did that work?" Snarly asked.

"Unsure, but at least we know we are on the right track," Hanz told him. "Let us resume."

So we did. It wasn't too much longer to get to the place, and we crouched outside the crypt entrance looking the place over.

"Hold on," Hanz told us, digging some paper out of his backpack. "This can't be right."

"What can't?" Malachite asked them.

They looked around, the paper seemed to be a crude map. "There's no mistake! It's no secret they've led us straight to the Chamber!"