Book 3: Chapter 28: True Treasure

Book 3: Chapter 28: True Treasure

Arthur dearly wanted to run to the shelf and explore the plethora of enchanted items, but he forced himself to wait until Cressida safely descended the ladder. Then, he placed the ladder back into his Personal Space. But they weren't done yet.

There was still the issue of the gaping hole in the ground, which, from the right angle, would be visible from above. Yes, it was hidden within the shadow of a rock, but there was no reason to take undue chances.

Working together, he and Brixaby sealed the hole with a very thin, brittle sheet of stone—so brittle that he doubted it would hold weight if someone were unlucky enough to step on it.

A throbbing headache erupted behind his eyes as the last of it sealed away. Stepping back, he massaged his forehead. "I’m out of mana."

“I’m almost out as well,” Brixaby said, unconcerned. “We have hours of the Earth Manipulation spell remaining, and time to refill our mana.”

“If we don’t get caught.”

The dragon turned to look at him. There was no light in the room except for a few candle-flame-sized bears thanks to Cressida. The light played oddly off his scales, black one second, purple the next. “Then let’s us be sure not to be caught.”

Flashing a smile, Arthur finally allowed himself to turn to the floor-to-ceiling shelf stacked with enchanted items.

The few minutes he’d taken—as well as the headache— had given him a moment to think. And to get a handle on his greed.

With chagrin, he realized that he had almost been an idiot. All he had seen were the objects, not the security surrounding them. Because, of course, there was. Glowing green and blue runes covered the shelving, etched into the vertical and horizontal slats. Additional runes were sprinkled around the wall that the shelving was anchored to. He didn’t think that they were decorative.

“Don’t touch anything on that shelf,” he said.

Both Cressida and Brixaby gave him looks as though that was completely obvious.

Cressida had spent the last couple of minutes inspecting the shelf while Arthur and Brixaby had worked. She shook her head. "These are a lot of weapons for people to claim to be above combat."Witness the debut of this chapter, unveiled through Ñôv€l--B1n.

"They are likely selling them to other Kingdoms at a large profit,” Brixaby said.

Arthur stepped for a closer look. Cressida was right. Most of the shelving space was taken up with knives, daggers, arrowheads, bows, arrow shafts, a glaive or two, as well as bats with vicious-looking spikes sticking out of the top, and various other weapons of war.

He wanted them, but...

“I don’t suppose you have the skills to disengage these security runes,” Cressida said, half resigned.

Arthur gave her a sheepish look. “Until you said something, I wasn't even sure they were security runes."

"Of course, there are security runes,” she said, with a bit of impatience in her voice. “Haven't you seen them in your—" She stopped, and though the light was dim, Arthur spotted a blush crawl over her cheeks. She had forgotten he wasn't born in some fancy noble's estate.

“They didn't have much need for security where I came from,” he said, easily. Though... it stung at his pride. What if Cressida thought he wasn't good enough for her because of his birth? His blood was as good as hers—depending on how one counted that sort of thing, but... not his background.

He forced that thought away. It wasn't important.

“So, you’re certain that these are booby traps?” he asked, turning back to the shelving.

His fingers itched to grab one of those daggers.

He didn't have a single active combat skill in regards to daggers, but properly enchanted weapons could substitute for a weapons or skill-based combat card. The main benefit was that anybody could use them.

If he had weapons, he wouldn’t need combat cards.

“I’d say so, yes," she said. "I've seen this repeating pattern of three," she pointed to several runes with indecipherable sigils on them, "in my father’s study, locking away what he dearly didn’t want us to look at.”

With a frustrated sound, Arthur made himself turn away. Even if they weren’t trap runes, they most certainly were alarm runes. They couldn’t risk it.

Cressida’s small flame bear acted as a candle, illuminating that side of the room in soft light.

Another shape stood out in the semi-gloom on the opposite wall. “What’s this?” He started to walk toward it, and within a few steps, his mood brightened. "Books?"

Behind him, Brixaby made a dismissive sound, unimpressed. But Arthur was intrigued. “Cressida, bring your bears over here.”

Cressida joined him and the titles were illuminated—most written in gilded scripts on the spine.

“These are enchanting books...” Arthur said.

“What?” Brixaby zipped over so fast it was as if he had teleported there.

The dragon began to eagerly scan the bookshelf from top to bottom. Then, on the second shelf down, he pointed one claw at a book. “I simply must have this. Don’t you dare say no.”

At once he realized why the book had been on the shelf. The language was odd. Some of the nouns and verbs were antiquated to the point where he wasn’t entirely sure what it was meant to say. On others, the ink on the page had faded into illegible blotches. But as he flipped through the pages and continued reading, he added to his knowledge of the basics.

Roughly an hour into his personal space, he had raised his Rune Lockpicking skill by three levels. He was starting to feel the strain, however.

Reluctantly, he exited the space, blinking.

"Did you just do what I think you did?" Brixaby asked.

Arthur gave him a sardonic smile. "Three more levels."

"I would say that’s unfair," Cressida teased, "but you are a Legendary Card user. All of your power is ridiculously unfair."

Arthur wisely didn’t tell her that the Personal Space was a Rare power.

Instead, he turned back to the lock. His approach wasn’t perfect, and he didn’t think that he could have shifted around the runes correctly without some prior practical knowledge. The enchanters would have been fools to keep a book filled with secrets used to unlock their own doors. But his prior knowledge, combined with a little luck, was enough to open the locked door.

It swung open, and Arthur half expected to finally come across the cache of combat cards.

What lay beyond was... an office. Arthur's shoulders slumped.

"Where are the cards?" Brixaby asked, clearly having hoped for the same thing.

"Now that is interesting," Cressida said, sweeping past him, as if unaware of his disappointment.

"What is it?" Arthur asked.

Cressida didn’t answer right away. Her attention was on the wall with a large, odd picture in the frame.

For a moment, Arthur wasn’t sure what he was looking at. The shapes were unfamiliar to the point he didn’t recognize it as a map at first. Only when he saw the shape of his familiar kingdom, which was right smack in the middle of a giant continent with only the bare edge touching an ocean. The rest of it was surrounded by deep gray. That was the typical designation of deadened Scourge-ridden lands.

There were several other large masses, different continents, similarly surrounded by gray, along with smaller green dots. Final strongholds against the scourgelings. These were the other kingdoms and perhaps some of the larger free hives.

All three were silent, just looking at the map for a few minutes, taking it in.

Finally, Arthur spoke. "The scourgelings own so much," he muttered. "Why can’t they be satisfied?"

"Because they’re the scourge of the world," Brixaby said.

With a shake of his head, Arthur turned away and looked to the desk which was sitting prominently in the room. There were a few papers scattered here and there—inventory and materials requests for the enchanters. Nothing exciting, but this was clearly the office for somebody in charge. One of the drawers was filled with scrolls and loose paperwork.

"Let’s go through these, Brix," he said, pushing half to the dragon.

Brixaby let out a sigh. "Do we have to?"

"There could be anything in these records." Arthur took out one of the purple apples, deftly cut it into two portions, and gave half to Brixaby. These apples helped prevent psychic damage, allowing them longer study in their Personal Spaces. It wasn’t good to overuse them, which was why he hadn’t eaten one before. "This is the last room, and there might be clues to where they keep the combat cards in here."

"Or it’s a complete waste of time," Brixaby said. "I still say we wait in here, then ambush whoever owns this office and threaten to pluck out their cards if they don’t tell us what we want to know."

"And what will we do about Joy?" Cressida asked. "Leave her up above all night to be discovered in the morning?"

Brixaby grumbled, but that was the argument that swayed him.

Arthur wasn’t looking forward to this either, but took his own half of the pile, shoved it in his Personal Space, then let his mind follow behind.

The next couple of hours made for very dry reading, and he wondered if Brixaby didn’t have a point. Lots and lots of inventory and complex contract agreements with people he’d never heard of. Bleh.

Until, as these things went, he came to the second to the last scroll. While reading the records, he’d learned that cards were as important in the enchanting process as in alchemy. Oddly though, not required in all cases. Many of the records were agreements to trade certain cards—usually elemental —between one free hive and another, because they augmented enchanting cards.

This last one was the most interesting. It was a requisition letter for a card. An unusually passionate one.

While I realize the cost is extraordinary, even for a Legendary-level card, I feel the benefits cannot be overstated. The incorporation of Call of the Heart would create an enchanted seeker tool unmatched by any other. I implore the council to reconsider...

Call of the Heart...?

Arthur didn’t need to glance at the card he’d linked with Brixaby for confirmation. It wasn’t his card, but he felt a pulse from Brixaby’s Call of The Void.

This letter spoke of another card in Brixaby’s set.