The Abandoned Sorcerer

by Nefarious

  After walking for a few minutes, Madam Rischei stopped and faced her faction.

  “Alright. I think it’s time we split up; I know a lot of you’ve got work to do. Either way, good luck,” She bowed her head. Only her personal guards and the mages stayed put as the faction split, members leaving to prepare for the coming battle whichever side they were on.

  The two Seekers dispersed with the rest, quickly coming to Hexham’s road and running along it. The streets were peaceful in a way they wouldn’t be for the following months: the guards unsuspecting, the traders calling wares, the people smiling. They reached the Seeker’s building and rushed in to find Maya’s table empty. Going upstairs, they found Smith shouting orders by the contracts’ board.

  “Smith, Rats is going to attack the Palace,”

  “I know,” he said while rubbing the creases on his forehead, “Your contract has changed. It’s now to kill a 4-star monster or to kill one of the Underkings. Killing Rats or Fatso will put you up to 5-stars, but I’ve already set people to hunt them.”

  When he saw them standing still, he shouted “Doubletime,” and turned his attention to another group of Seekers.

  As they walked out, Orion shook his head. “What do we do? What are we meant to do?”

  “We’ll struggle with a 4-star monster, especially in the city, but we should be able to do it. 5-stars is a whole another thing though. You know the vampire I pointed out?” Kora said.

  He nodded.

  “That was a Laeshi, 5-stars and one of the strongest monsters in Visgamar if that group was a reflection of the whole company,”

  Orion couldn’t hide his curiosity. “So why did you hide? Is he after you?”

  “No, but I left without telling anyone. They probably sent a search warrant for me to all the vampires, not that they’ll do anything even if they find me. Still, they will follow me to make sure I’m safe, and through that…”

  “They’ll find me,” he finished.

  “Yeah, but it’s fine. We got out unnoticed. But we need to focus now.”

  “Hmm, we can’t kill Fatso, Rats, or Madam. What about the other one, Grima? Didn’t Skitters say he worked for someone who knew a lot about the city and who told him to prepare? He’s definitely got something to do with Grima,”

  “Oh shit, yeah.” Her face scrunched up with thought, “We need to find him now,”

  *****

  A distance away, from the top of a dilapidated building, the Laeshi watched. The Seekers were blurry figures even with his vision, but he was fairly certain one of them was Bian. While he had only caught vague glimpses of her at the human leader’s pavilion, the luscious scent of blood she emanated made her different from the humans she hid between.

  In truth, he had no idea what Bian looked like as she had kept to her House like the rest of the Cruorems. So, the girl here could just be another higher-vampire, maybe a Varishi. Either way, considering the scent of her blood, following her around would benefit him much. So much.

  The blurs moved again, zipping across the finger-sized road - they were running, rushing to get somewhere. His lips curled into an unsavoury smile, the type he gave the noblewomen when he was alone with them after a frustrating session of charming. He leapt from the building and entered the air, his domain, and flapped his fleshy wings.

  Tens of metres from the ground, the difference in the two sides of Visgamar became even more prominent. The Palace stood tall, made of chalk-like rock, a pure white. The surrounding area was clean and colourful, in particular a lot of greenery. On the other side of the city, it was dull, bleary and muck covered the streets. Here, green became a colour of luxury as even the vegetation grew dull brown.

  The Laeshi was surprised to see the two running into the slums after having left the human leader’s pavilion so brazenly. In fact, he was confused why no one else had paid attention to them switching sides. He dove lower as the bleariness began to misguide him. He continued to tail them for several minutes.

  From his vantage he could see the growing unrest in the city. It seemed the revellers had been told the plan, and they seemed enthusiastic to get back at the nobler sort. The Laeshi was sure that emotion would feel foreign to them in a few minutes when the attack actually began. The city guards and everyone on the streets still seemed unaware, but the Laeshi noticed the Palace guards weren’t as ignorant.

  Switching back to his golden goose, he saw the two Seekers stop in front of a building. All of a sudden, Kora turned around, facing up. In fear, the Laeshi flapped further up and hid behind the roof of a building.

  29. Trial

  * * *

  The Seekers pushed through waves of revellers, fighting to keep moving against the tide. It was obvious Rats had riled them up as they chanted ‘Death to the rich,’ and began running en masse onto Hexham’s road.

  It was only after several minutes of struggling, almost an hour, that they made it out of the riot and in front of Skitters’s home. The two-storey building was old with mould growing over the wooden beams. Even the recent lick of paint couldn’t hide the damage below as it had peeled off in large sections, revealing walls on par with brittle bones.

  They were about to go in when Kora turned and scanned the skies. She searched and searched but found nothing but scribble-like clouds above the city, causing her face to scrunch up.

  “What is it?”

  “I feel something staring into my back. Could it be the Laeshi? They do have wings,”

  “But you said it hadn’t seen you,”

  “Yeah, but…” She paused and the creases on her forehead dug deeper. “Yeah, you’re right.”

  Orion looked at her expression, then at the sky, but stopped when he saw less than she had. He walked over to Skitter’s home and looked at the door, a surprisingly solid addition to the run-down house. He checked the windows, and seeing none open, stepped back and rammed the door. It clicked open with little force, sending him barrelling to the ground.

  Dusting his jacket off, he let Kora take the lead as she explored the house. There was a kitchen with bits of food out and dirty plates strewn around. There was a small, unused storage room holding dusty brooms, though most were bedridden with rot. Then, there was a large room lit by natural light. As they walked in, a figure on a chair became prominent with his back to them, facing the sunlight. Despite the figure continuing to face away, the wavy hair hanging off the top of the chair and the walking stick leaning against it made it obvious who it was.

  “Skitters,”

  The figure stood and picked the chair and the walking stick. He turned and sat back down, smiling at the Seekers. There were large hollows below his eyes and a note in his hands.

  “Jax and girly. I mean, Kora and Jax. Welcome to my home, though y’know you didn’t have to barge in like this? Should’ve just called for me from outside,”

  “You knew we were coming,” Kora said.

  Skitters nodded. “A certain person told me to wait here for you two kids,”

  “Grima?”

  “The very same, heh heh,”

  “We need to find him,”

  “He knows what you wanna do,”

  “And what’s that?” Orion asked.

  Skitters opened the note and read through it again, his finger soon finding the words. “Kill him,”

  Orion kept his face blank, but Kora smirked. “It seems your boss isn’t as smart as people say he is,”

  The thief raised his eyebrows once more and nodded. “It’s what he told me you’re here for. As for if he’s what people make of him, you can judge that later y’know,” he said while throwing the note to them, landing a distance in front of their feet.

  “Sorry, could you pick that up?” he said.

  Kora picked it up and showed it to Orion. It read:

  The Seekers Jax and Kora will come to you soon. Await their visit. They are coming to you to find me. They are looking to kill me. Welcome them and tell them I’ll be in Lilch waiting. I have business with them. />
  Orion remembered Lilch was a village a few days off Visgamar. Considering Rats had said Grima had been involved in the planning of the attack, it occurred to him as strange that one of the organisers was days away from the plan he had so much riding on. Or maybe he didn’t - maybe that was the benefit of keeping your face hidden from all men and women.

  “Lilch? The shabby village full of peasants and farmers? What does he have to do there?” Kora asked, ignoring the fact Grima had correctly named them Seekers. It seemed there was credibility to the man’s reputation after all.

  “I’m not sure, girly; I only know what’s in the letter, y’know. The boss only contacts people when he needs them and to reward them,”

  Seeing as there were no other clues, Orion re-read the note, trying to find any hidden messages. But then it occurred to him Skitters could have very well received several letters, only that he was instructed to show one to them. The best way of getting information would have been through threatening or torturing the thief, and while Kora could and maybe would do that, Orion couldn’t handle the thought of doing that to someone he knew for such a flimsy reason.

  He tapped her shoulder and whispered, “Come on, let’s go. No use in wasting time here,” He stepped to the exit when he realised she wasn’t following. The smile Skitters’s wore soured and finally dropped as he saw Kora standing strong.

  “Anything else you want, girly?” he asked. “I can help you with a decent amount but nothing more with the boss, as much as I want to,”

  “Skitters, how did your wound heal so quickly?” she asked.

  The thief gaped at her as if checking she was serious. “What?”

  “I thought your injury had been bad, but it seemed you were putting a lot of weight on it when turning around,”

  He shook his head. “I can put a little pressure on it for a little while, but not for any good amount of time. Maybe me sitting in this dusty hole all this time has helped the healing,”

  “Sure, but not this fast. You’re hiding something,”

  Orion watched from the sidelines, confused at the two of them. What did his injury’s healing time have to do with anything?

  The thief held her stare for seconds, saying nothing until he eventually broke and smiled. “You’ve passed the test, both of you, I knew you’d do it,”

  “That was a test? To notice your injury had healed?” Orion asked, his confusion clear in voice and expression.

  “Well, na. The test was to figure the code in the note, but you’ve done well enough; you’ve got my recommendation, at least. Here, let me get up,” he said, clutching onto his walking stick.

  “You still need it?”

  “Yeah, boss gave me some stuff that speeded up the recovery but nothing that made it disappear, y’know.” He moved to the wall beside him and slapped it hard, then even harder. A click came from the wall and he walked past them, through the hallway and into the disused storage room, coughing while brushing past the countless brooms. The back wall which looked like it was made of stone had gone inside its adjacent neighbour, revealing a dingy tunnel.

  “Boss likes people who sees and notices the important stuff, y’know. They’re the best workers, which is why I was chosen,” he said while waving them in. “I think you two will have the same luck,”

  30. All is not as they seem

  * * *

  As Skitters walked into the gloom, Kora stepped in front of Orion, whispering, “Be careful, something’s wrong,” as she passed him.

  Usually, he would have ignored her overly pessimistic judgement but this once, he couldn’t help but agree with her. After saving Skitters from the sailors and bandaging him up, he had believed the thief would be open and truthful to them. Instead, his allegiance to Grima was clearly greater than his gratitude to them. In fact, remembering back to how calmly Skitters had walked past the sailors to throw the flares overboard, it made Orion doubt how genuine the thief was being now, after all, he was a skilled actor.

  If he was playing them for fools, then following him down an inky tunnel was not the best idea. Yet, he was also their only lead to the Underking and it could be Orion was overthinking the test – maybe he really had good intentions for them. Either way, Kora seemed unruffled as she followed the thief into the dark, their dull footsteps sounding through the tunnel.

  Taking a deep breath, Orion moved past the brooms and followed them. The passage became devoid of light a little way in as the storage room faded away. His good eyesight meant nothing in the passage so he walked with his hands trailing the walls beside, listening to Kora’s footsteps so he didn’t bump into her - although the echoing made this a wasted effort. As for Kora, he knew she had sharper sight, especially in the dark, but he doubted she had nocturnal vision since she sounded as blind as him.

  “It’s not that far now,” Skitters called out, his voice travelling the train, his walking stick making dull comments on the ground.

  Twenty minutes later, it turned out he was flat-out lying as they were still straggling through the dark. Orion’s thoughts had made him tense but the uneventful period pushed him into a calmer state, even more so after he figured how to stop bumping into Kora.

  Suddenly, a click sounded from gods know where and Skitters stopped.

  “Remember kids, the boss knows why you wanna meet him. I say be polite to him; he lets on much less than he actually knows so you don’t wanna get on his bad side. If you become like me, you’ll benefit a lot,” he said.

  “Mm, we’ll tr—”

  Skitters ignored Kora’s words as he counted his steps. One, two, three. He did his best to step as smoothly for his fourth one, muting the fact the path fell to a lower level here. It wasn’t a large fall in height and wouldn’t cause much damage if someone did trip over their ankles, but that was the beauty of a combo-trap; it wouldn’t hurt him if he was leading someone, but if he stood in place with his dagger, then it was a whole another story for them.

  Kora resumed walking while talking. “try but it doesn’t sou—” She stumbled over the drop and felt her body falling face-first. Luckily Skitters caught her, his blade puncturing her lung. She gasped as he withdrew, dropping to the ground as her shirt soaked up the gush of blood.

  Before her partner could react, the thief flung a canister at the ground and his walking stick at her for good measure. The canister burst open, releasing a thick cloud of smoke over the Seekers.

  Orion’s eyes stung and he coughed desperately, barely hearing the thief’s footsteps disappear into the distance. His reflexes finally came into play as he held his breath while closing his eyes, though he still tripped over the trap and fell onto her. It seemed her reflex awoke simultaneously as she wrapped her hands around his head with faltering strength and bit, drawing blood from his neck.

  He initially resisted but stopped and lay in her grasp as he realised what she was doing. Seconds later, she lifted her lips and coughed, leaving him faint. He used Giah and felt the earth’s energy fill his body, exploding the anger Skitters had ignited. Picking Kora up, he sprinted out of the smoke, finally tasting the freshness of stale air.

  Putting his right hand down, the path in front of him became a rapidly advancing sheet of ice, letting him scan for pitfall traps. Sensing none, he said, “Transform already, he’s getting away,”

  She didn’t respond but he felt her muscles growing thicker next to him, and soon, the tip of one of her talons against his chest. “Fucker, the motherfucker…” she roared, her response at last resembling what Orion expected of her.

  “Good. Let’s go,” he said as he charged down the tunnel, bending over in order to not whack his head into a low-lying roof and collapse. She followed, her muscular legs a constant thunder behind him.

  They quickly made ground, going at full-force for about two minutes until they exited the tunnel. They left the pitch-black and entered a cavern dimly lit by holes above. The path they had been following forked into a dozen in front, all of them seemingly going different direc
tions.

  Orion stared at the choices, lost on what to do. Luckily, Kora had other ideas as she went to each one and sniffed around, spending a few minutes in total doing this.

  Meanwhile, Orion stood to the side and cooled down, thinking about what had just happened. The click in the tunnel had told Skitters the trap was near, and he had been prepared to betray them as he had come with a blade and smoke grenade in hand. But why? Was he even related to Grima or was he just an ordinary conman?

  The pale Seeker shook his head and revaluated, wishing for some paper, ink, and time to put his thoughts down. Skitters was somehow related to Grima, after all, he had known what Rats would say and had known they would want to find Grima. Moreover, he had awaited them and called them Seekers – there was too much evidence stacked up against him. Then, if he wasn’t clean of Grima’s influence or just a simple informant, then he had to be a higher-ranking member, maybe Grima himself. But this didn’t work either since why would he put himself in such danger like on the ship and now?

  “It’s this one,” she finally said next to the rightmost tunnel, bringing Orion out of his thoughts, “The bastard must have dropped the dagger after stabbing me since I can only faintly smell my blood,”

  Orion nodded, and they resumed their chase. They continued for a few minutes until they began to hear noises from the other side, at which they sped up further. They heard Skitters shouting, followed by metallic clanging.

  The Seekers burst out of the tunnel, entering a Glubber’s wax-lit warehouse. The warehouse was massive with items everywhere, mostly cabinets and desks with piles of paper on top. But there were also piles of golden luxuries, lockpicks, weapons, and murky-looking drinks scattered around the place.

  With them in the warehouse were several tens of people, maybe 40 in total, who had frozen at the Seekers’ entry, in particular at Kora’s visage. Her curved horns, her red-tinted skin, her black neck-talons, her muscular body – they weren’t used to seeing an unchained monster so deep in their midst.