Chapter Two: The Scholar

Chapter Two: The Scholar

I had a feeling that Lana might have been the cook of the group, but I was so hungry for real food that I had no complaints about the admittedly bland stew. Al went back to watching the woods while Pierce sat back and let me eat. He was kind enough to give me time to devour two full bowls before he started with his questions.

He seemed more relaxed, but I noticed his hand hadn’t left his sword once. “So, what’s your story?”

I leaned back, enjoying the feeling of a full belly. “Always been a bit of a lone wanderer. Seemed to be going well until I ran into a pack of green-eyed wolves.”

I heard Al curse behind me. “Blightwolves? Out here? I told you we should never have taken this job, Pierce.”

As badly as I wanted to ask what the fuck a blightwolf was, I didn’t want to tip them off to my ignorance just yet. Luckily, Pierce’s expression told me all I needed. He was begrudgingly impressed. “You survived an encounter with blightwolves? You’re either very lucky or very strong.”

Something told me that confessing to killing all three of them was a bad idea. “Definitely the former. I barely got out alive.”Yôur favorite stories at novelhall.com

Pierce snorted. “Let me guess: you stabbed one and your sword melted?”

Well, that confirms that theory. If I hadn’t been swinging around an indestructible scabbard, I would have been in deep shit. I wonder if that’s why Allura didn’t bother with a normal weapon. She might have saved my life if that was the case. “Something like that. They were busy enough with my supplies for me to sneak away. I’m pretty handy on my own.”

The only response I got was another grunt. Clearly something didn’t add up in my story, but he didn’t call me out. Then, finally, “Listone is about two days southeast.” He jerked his thumb towards where I’d assumed southeast was thanks to the sun. “Best way is to head straight east till you hit the road. Shouldn’t take much more than a day to clear the forest from here, then it’s a relatively straight shot.”

So I’d been going in the right direction. Even if I hadn’t stumbled across the group, I’d have found the town eventually. I thanked him, then looked towards the packs that were still packed up. “I need some supplies. Don’t suppose you’d be willing to sell me one of those?” I jerked my thumb at them.

He looked, then let out a long sigh. “I suppose right now they’re just dead weight, and with Lana still out they’re more hassle than they’re worth.”

“My thoughts exactly. Like I said, I can pay.”

He rubbed the stubble on his chin. “The smaller pack I’ll sell to you for seven silver. That’d be enough to buy a new one when we get back to town, at least.”

I took a good look at the other pack. It was twice the size, and my eye was drawn to a velvet case sticking out of one of the pockets. I did my best to hide my excitement. If that case was what I thought, then stumbling across these adventurers might have been a boon after all. “And the other one?”

Pierce scowled. “Won’t be of much use. It’s a lot of books.” When I turned a questioning eye towards him, he huffed. “We were paid to escort a scholar to some old wizard’s tower, only we didn’t know it was going to be filled with all sorts of traps. Our fifth, an idiot boy named Dern, set off some of them. In the chaos, Lana got hurt and Dern and the scholar ended up dead. We waited a while, but she never came out.” He shrugged. “I can protect her from beasts and bandits, but I can’t keep her from sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong.”

Instinct told me there was more to the story, but I didn’t want to press too much. Not when I was certain I couldn’t take all three of them at my current level. “I do like books. How much?”

Pierce’s eyes narrowed. “Three gold for the scholar’s pack.”

“Three gold! You’re out of your mind.”

He stood. “Sorry, but that’s the deal. I know plenty of people who like books, and she’s got enough to make it worth even more than that. So, just the smaller pack then?”

I got to my feet as well. If I was right about that case, then three gold was a pittance. I wasn’t going to let him know that, though. I reached into my jacket and used my shadow pocket to deposit four gold in the palm of my hand. I held them up, one between each finger, and his eyes went wide.

“Four gold for both, and you point me towards the tower.”

The pause after seemed to stretch on before Pierce shook his head. “Fine, they’re yours.”

I gave him the gold and he pointed towards the opposite direction of town. I thanked him once again and went to grab both packs. The first was a very run-of-the-mill adventuring pack, which was exactly what I needed. The second nearly knocked me over when I tried to pick it up. The damn thing must’ve weighed half as much as I did!

“Best of luck, Ren.” I tried not to be annoyed by the amusement in Pierce’s voice.

He clearly expected me to have too much trouble with the scholar’s pack to bother, but I just turned and gave him a wide smile. “Appreciate all your help.” Then I let my shadows wrap the scholar’s pack and shift it into my pocket dimension. In the blink of an eye, it was completely gone.

Al cursed and Pierce’s back straightened, but I just gave them a lazy salute and shouldered the small pack. The first rule in the wilderness was to never underestimate your opponent. There was no telling how many levels even a scrawny guy might have packed away and at with six-and-a-half feet of a fairly broad and muscular build, I was hardly scrawny. I knew for a fact that Pierce and his crew could wipe the floor with me, but my little trick made them hesitant enough to let me walk away from their camp with a bellyful of stew and two packs’ worth of supplies. Not a bad haul for four gold and a chunk of mana.

# # #

“Fuckin’ Pierce.”

The velvet case was exactly what I thought it would be. A holder for a very rare set of spectacles that allowed one to see the flow of magic. I’d seen similar artifacts before. Unfortunately, it was empty. I was willing to bet Pierce knew that. The books might have been valuable, but considering only one of them was in a language I could read I had no way of knowing. The only one I could read covered ancient history I was either already familiar with or completely uninterested in. Nothing after Grimsbane was mentioned.

The only silver linings were the bedrolls and cooking supplies. Even the rations were somehow worse than what I’d been eating so far, and the clothes inside were many sizes too small, though the frilly underwear I found was enough to send my imagination racing against my will. If I wanted to make that four gold worth it, I needed to track down the scholar’s body and see about recovering those spectacles. Maybe I’d get lucky and they’d have already set off all the traps for me.

Yeah right.

Most of the day passed by uneventfully. I stopped at a small stream long enough to refill my waterskins. I had a tinderbox now, so making a small fire to boil the river water was no real difficulty. After that it started to snow, so I pulled my cloak up and kept trudging. I didn’t fully trust Pierce, but it turned out I didn’t need to. In their haste, they hadn’t bothered to cover their tracks while they fled from the tower. It was around midday when my destination came into view.

A couple of dilapidated buildings clustered around a tall ornate tower made of dark gray stone. The moment I looked at it I felt the magic coming from the place. It was a familiar chill. Experiments had happened here, and I was reasonably sure they hadn’t been humane. Misery caused by magic left a taint on the land, and I’d

lived in that taint long enough to recognize it. The sooner I could get out of this place, the better.

It didn’t take more than a glance to know that the buildings around the tower weren’t worth my time. I doubted they’d even be any good in a rainstorm. It was only the magic in the tower kept it so pristine looking. What it was doing all the way out here, I had no idea, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to know. Luckily for me, the last group through had left the door open. Massive reinforced wood doors that looked tall enough for a troll to walk in.

I thought briefly of trying to loot the tower, but I was still a poor little level six wretch. Without being able to use the cursed blade effectively, this kind of spelunking was best left for another day. No, the smart thing would be to follow the party’s steps, get in, get the spectacles, and get out. I still wasn’t fully recovered from the blightwolves.

The inside of the tower was dark and foreboding, and I stopped long enough to pull a torch out of my new pack and light it. Either Lana or the scholar clearly knew what they were doing, as I could see signs all over of disarmed, disabled, or intentionally set off traps. There was thick dust over the floor, so I was careful to step only where I could tell the party had stepped safely. That allowed me to make it to a stairwell in the back and ascend to the second floor.

After climbing the stairs, things got a little more strenuous. There was no sign of another flight, which meant I had to go looking for it if I wanted to keep going up. Even more annoyingly, the traps seemed to increase in deadliness here, and I could see scorch marks where some had exploded. I was more cautious than before, and was rewarded when I was able to duck under some kind of slicing ward that nearly took my head off. Whoever had owned this tower really didn’t want people getting in. There must be some secret key to turn them all off, but I didn’t have the time or patience to go looking for it.

It was halfway to the stairs where I caught up to the party’s progress. I knew the moment I saw poor Dern, his upper half about six feet away from his lower half. The cut was clean, and I figured it must have been caused by whatever sliced poor Lana.

“Sorry, Dern. Hell of a way to go, buddy.” Now that I was actually on speaking terms with a goddess, I figured I might as well pause long enough to say a quick prayer for the poor sap. Once that was done, I went through his pockets for anything of use. What? He wasn’t going to use any of it, and I didn’t see Pierce coming back for the body any time soon.

A few minutes of careful looting later, I stepped away with a longsword, a hunting knife, and an extra waterskin. The rest was either covered in blood and guts or otherwise useless to me. I sent a silent prayer of thanks to Dern and strapped the blades on. With two packs, a cursed sword, and three waterskins, my storage was getting a little crowded. Besides, the weight of a blade at my hip was reassuring.

There were no other bodies in the hallway, so the scholar hadn't died here. I could see the trail of blood where they’d carried Lana off and the pools and spray from Dern, but no sign that anyone else had even been injured. Pierce had lied. If he’d truly seen the scholar die, their body would be near Dern’s.

So the scholar had survived. Longer than Dern, at least. Now that I was looking for it, I could see a single set of footprints in the dust. Scuffles where they’d stopped to look at or disarm further traps, then more frantic tracks that must have been where the traps had started to go off and the survivor booked it. The scholar had been the one who got them this far after all. As soon as Pierce lost them, he must’ve given up. I figure he didn’t like his own odds at trap busting.

With only one set of footprints to follow, things grew easy again. They were considerably smaller than mine, but as long as I stepped exactly where the scholar stepped, I was fine. I passed more closed doors, but after seeing Dern my sense of curiosity was thoroughly sated. I might get my hands on some skills that would give me an edge against magic traps later on, but I was weak as a kitten now.

It was on the third floor that I found her.

She was good, but even she’d fallen prey to the tower eventually, it seemed. I’d been through a dungeon or two in my time, and I was willing to bet she’d been lulled into a false sense of security by repeated patterns or similar rune designs only to be tripped up by a trick trap. This one had erected two barriers that went from wall to wall—one on either side of the girl—that had left her trapped inside.

She was slumped against the wall with her knees pulled to her chest. Her head was between them, which meant I couldn’t tell if she had the spectacles on. It was hard to make anything out thanks to the distortion caused by the semi-transparent blue barrier walls, but I could at least tell that the girl wore no armor.

I examined the barrier, then tapped a finger on it. A simple force wall. Not overly dangerous, but incredibly durable. I could see scratches in the wall and floor where she’d tried to dig around it, but all the runes were on my side of the barrier.

Her eyes flicked back to me, but other than the wetness in them and the sag of her shoulders she showed no outer emotion. “It seems that I am in your debt, Ren.”

Great. I had a sinking suspicion that her idea of debt was going to be as taxing as her views on punishment. That being said, her not being a corpse did create more than a few possibilities. “You’re here for a reason, right? In this tower?”

She nodded. “The wizard who created this tower was powerful and knowledgeable. I’d hoped I might find something of his on one of the top floors.”

Figures. Still, if she was capable of navigating the traps, then going a little deeper could be a good opportunity. “Do you still want to keep searching?”

She brightened, but quickly hid it. “I don’t know. Without the others, it could be dangerous.”

“No risk, no reward,” I told her with a shrug. “If you think you can get to the top, then I say we give it a shot. You’ll find I’m a bit lighter on my feet than the others you were here with.”

Her fists clenched, and her eyes practically glowed. Well, she was a celestial, so there was a chance they were actually glowing. “I can disable most of the traps! And if you can handle the ones I can’t however you handled that barrier, then we could probably make it.”

“In that case, get us to the top and I’ll consider your debt paid in full.”

# # #

I’d hoped I might be able to pump Rhallani for information about where and when I was, but I quickly became distracted. I didn’t know what she’d been through, but I desperately wanted to. I’d seen a glimpse of who I thought the true Rhallani to be when I’d used my skill. Inquisitive. Eager. Warm. Even now, as she flitted from trap to rune to trap, I caught flashes. She liked to mumble to herself excitedly as she puzzled through them, and the particularly tricky ones simply enraptured her. More than once she’d take one apart and turn to me, beaming, only to quickly hide her joy and return to the meek and submissive girl who could barely look me in the eye.

It didn’t help that the tower had gotten warmer the further we delved into it. I knew celestials were physically cold natured and therefore didn’t mind lower temperatures, but I was caught a little off guard when she shed her thick outer scribe’s coat and, after I insisted, allowed me to throw it over my shoulder. Underneath she wore a skirt that didn’t quite make it to her knees, showing off long slender legs, and a tight fitting top that left a patch of her navel bare just above her waist and sleeves that didn’t go much further down than her shoulders. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t keep my eyes from drifting over the creamy white of her skin. Especially since she seemed completely unaware of how much of it she was showing off every time she knelt, crouched, or crawled around taking apart the runes that dotted the towers.

I desperately needed something to keep my mind occupied as she knelt in front of a door that apparently had runes lining the knob with her legs slightly to each side in a pose that looked disturbingly like she was about to—focus, Zaren. “So, Rhallani, mind if I ask you some questions?”

She froze, but continued moving so quickly I might have imagined the pause. “Ask me anything you like, sir.”

I bit back the impulse to correct the “sir” again. Baby steps, Zaren. Baby steps. “You seem to be quite the expert at all this. Where’d you learn runebreaking?”

I thought I caught a brief smile. “Actually, I’m self taught. I had a lot of free time on my hands growing up, and I’ve always been drawn to magic.”

She taught herself runebreaking? Even with a teacher, the art took dedication. “That’s amazing. I’ll bet your skills are in high demand then.”

Her face fell, which meant I’d said something wrong. She spoke under her breath, but I was able to make out: “my skills? Surely. Me? Not so much.” She opened the door and knelt on the floor, beginning work on whatever trap was meant to be sprung by the person who walked through. Then, loud enough for me to hear, “thank you for saying so, but this is the first time I’ve left my home. As you can see, I’ve done a great job so far.” The last part she added bitterly, kneeling over another rune.

That just wouldn’t do. I decided to give in to my impulses just a little and walk over to her. I was careful to only step where she’d stepped so far so as not to set off any traps. She looked up at me with wide eyes, and I felt a spike of fear come from her. She winced when I reached towards her, but didn’t move. Not even when I gave her head a soft pat, though her eyes went wide.

“I’ve seen fully trained runebreakers who couldn’t hold a candle to you. If Pierce hadn’t chickened out, you guys would be at the top floor already.”

Her cheeks seemed a bit rosy, but she kept her meek demeanor. “You’re too kind, sir. Now you should step back. I wouldn’t want you to get hurt if I make a mistake.”

“Nah,” I jammed my hands in my pockets, forcing myself to look her in the eye lest my gaze wander southward where I would have quite the view, “I trust you. I’ll be fine.”

She opened her mouth to say something, then promptly shut it. She didn’t speak until she’d finished dismantling the rune in front of her. She stood to move on to the next rune, but I stayed right behind her. If she was still bothered that I wasn’t hanging back, she didn’t say anything else.

She stopped at a window and began work on something that must have been etched into the sill. I shook my head at how close together the last few runes had been. “It can’t be normal for there to be this many traps. How would the asshole who lives here even get in?”

She let out a breath that might have been a laugh. “They’re dead-man sigils. The owner of this castle probably spent years placing them all over, and when he died they all became active. It was likely meant to act as a safeguard against anyone who might kill him for his secrets.”

“Makes sense, I guess. What is it you hope to find, anyways?”

She finished with that rune before answering. “In my studies, I found out that the master of this tower apparently uncovered information about several mythic classes. According to the correspondence I found, a little over thirty years ago he was trying to sell the information to the highest bidder. Then he disappeared, and it was discovered that all his lairs were now layered in dead-man sigils, so everyone figured he’d been killed.”

Mythic classes. I felt bile rise in my throat. My own class was a mythic. According to Allura, one of the rarest ones known to mortals. “Messing with classes is a one way trip to misery.” Even I was surprised by the bitterness in my voice. “Classes should be left up to the gods.”

She stopped me at the base of the next stairwell. I wish I could meet whoever designed the tower so that you had to make your way through the entire floor before you could go up another level and hit them in the mouth. She kneeled down and got to work on the next one. “Perhaps you’re right.” Her tone was flat, completely devoid of emotion.

“You disagree.” Her breath caught, and I frowned. “I’m not mad, Rhallani. You’re allowed to have your own opinion.”

She looked at me and I could practically see the question on her tongue, but she didn’t ask it. Instead she turned back to the sigil. It wasn’t until they were halfway up the stairs after that she finally said what was on her mind. “You call me by name.” She spoke so softly I almost missed it.

I frowned. “Do you not want me to? I’m sorry, I’m afraid I’m not overly familiar with Arelim culture. Or any of the celestial cultures for that matter.”

She looked at me as if I’d grown a second head, and I wondered what I’d said that was so odd. “Please, forget I said anything.”

She tried to keep climbing, but I grabbed her arm and pulled her to a stop. She was two steps above me, which meant I only slightly looked up at her. “Whatever it is you want to say, I think I’d like to hear it.”

Rhallani chewed on her lip for several seconds. I didn’t let her go, but my grip was light enough that she could easily pull away. “All my life, the only one who ever used my name was my father and my sister.”

Ah, I think I understood. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know Arelim names were reserved for family.”

That only made her eyes widen. “No, no! You misunderstand! It’s not that they’re reserved for family, its just that...” she trailed off.

“It’s just that...?” I prompted.

She looked away. “You’ve got it backwards. It’s not only family that can use my name, it’s that only my family that cares enough to do so.”

Almost as if it had a mind of its own, my hand traveled down her arm until it wrapped around hers. “Then what do people normally call you?”

“‘Girl’ is probably the most common. ‘Arelim’ is a fairly standard way to refer to us. Thanks to my stature, I even get ‘child’ somewhat often, but usually that one is used out of spite. Otherwise I’m typically not referred to at all.”

I climbed the steps until we were even then wrapped my arms around her. She stiffened at first, but after a moment’s pause she buried her face in my chest and wrapped her arms around me. “I’m so sorry, Rhallani. Nobody should have to go through that.”

No matter how hard I try not to, I still remember a time where me and my friends would whisper each other’s names in the dark for no other reason than to have a chance to hear them aloud. I remember the times after when I’d whisper them to myself at night just to reassure myself that they’d existed.

I wasn’t going to be the one to break the embrace. I held her until she softly pulled away and wiped her eyes. “You are a strange man, Ren. There aren’t many who would bother consoling an Arelim.”

“But I’m not consoling an Arelim,” I argued. “I’m consoling a cute girl who is way more amazing than she’s willing to admit because apparently everyone else in her life has been to much of an ass to do it.”

I could see her trying to fight it, but despite her best efforts she ended up with an ear-to-ear smile. Her cheeks took on a rosy hue, and she clasped her hands behind her back in a way that accentuated her bust very nicely. “Thank you. Come on, we should get moving if we want to get out of the tower before dark.”

I followed her up the last of the steps and into the hallway. Immediately I knew something was different about this floor, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. She reached towards a wall to disarm the next trap, but after it began to glow I felt that familiar tingle at the base of my skull. Magic activating.

Rhallani didn’t even have time to react when a blade erupted from a nearly invisible seam in the wall.