Herald of the Nine

by Tiger Hebert

  The awkward man nodded. “So, how can I help you?”

  Vacinne smiled at him. “I have an idea for something like a pair of vision stones, but a little different. No projections, no vision, just to be able to hear conversations that happen in a place.”

  The man slid the spectacles further up his nose. “So, you can spy on them.”

  “Shhh! Not too loud.”

  Arrett quickly looked past her to the shop door that was closed behind her. He nodded, then said, “You don’t want vision stones. You want sound stones.”

  Vacinne grinned excitedly, “Sound stones, exactly! That’s just what I need.”

  “So, I can make you one and you can key your vision stone to it,” said Arrett.

  Vacinne grimaced. “That’s going to be a little bit of a problem. I got in a tussle with a demon in Drenamere, and my vision stone got smashed.”

  “What!” said Arrett, his voice rising.

  “The demon attacked me during a conversation with Grand Master Jherenon. The stone was shattered. I’m sorry Arrett, I know you work so hard on them.”

  The man grumbled something under his breath. “I’ll make you a pair of sound stones.”

  Vacinne said, “I need them to stay on for a long period of time. So, once I place the devices and open the connection, that it just stays open. Oh, and I want the sound to only travel one way. We only want to listen. The last thing we want is for anyone to hear us and know we are listening in.”

  “No problem,” he replied.

  “Oh, and on the stone that we listen from, can you have a means of amplifying the sound?”

  Arrett asked, “What do you mean?”

  “If I need to allow the Grand Master and his council in on the plans of a traitor, I’ll need something that can deliver a loud message if needed. You know, for larger audiences.”

  “Oh, I see,” said Arrett with a nod of understanding. “Sure, I can have it ready for you in a week.”

  “A week! No, no that doesn’t work at all,” said Vacinne.

  He gestured to the shelves around the shop and said, “I’m buried in requests here Vacinne. I’m sorry, it’ll take some time to get to it.”

  Vacinne’s face twisted with panic. “What? If this can’t be done tonight, then I have to go. I better let him know now. He’s going to be livid. The temple is in danger. I’ve gotta run!”

  “Woah, woah,” stammered Arrett.

  Vacinne’s hand grasped for his and she blurted, “Lives are in danger Arrett! We don’t have time.”

  “I’ll do it!” he shouted as his eyes fell on her hand holding his.

  With excitement in her eyes and voice she said, “You will?”

  He stammered, “I... I will. For you.”

  “For the temple,” she was quick to correct.

  “For the temple,” he said with a nod.

  Vacinne fluttered her long lashes at him and flashed her best smile as she squeezed his pale, clammy hands in hers. “Arrett, you’re the best. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

  He squeezed back and grinned like a fool. “Anything for you... and the temple.”

  He released her hand and spun back toward his shelves. He rummaged through his shelves like a madman, pushing and tossing stones aside as he hunted for the right stones.

  “Ah ha!” he said with glee. “I’ve got them. I just need to work the runes.”

  “Lives are going to be saved by the work you are doing,” she said as she built him up.

  Arrett set the stones upon the workbench. The two were both bluish gray stones that were otherwise unremarkable in every way. Arrett then ducked down and disappeared behind the workbench that doubled as his counter. He was out of sight for several seconds, but Vacinne could hear him rummaging through more stuff. Then he popped back up with tools in his hands and a childlike grin upon his lips.

  As he laid out his tools he said, “The Grand Master should know that I’ve prioritized this job over a week’s worth of jobs.”

  Vacinne replied, “Oh, yes, he is incredibly appreciative of everything. And that is one man whose gratitude is hard to earn.”

  “Tell me about it,” groused Arrett. “Fifteen years of running this shop, providing visions stones to every Warden in the temple. Every time they break, it’s more work for me. Do you think anyone ever says thank you? Do you think the Grand Master himself would ever grace me with his presence? Of course not!”

  Vacinne cringed at the strange little man’s outburst. Then she lied. “I had no idea you felt that way! Clearly, you don’t know how much everyone appreciates you. I hear Wardens say it all the time, how much they value the great work you’ve done here. Especially the Wardens that spend time in the field! Your vision stones are what allow them to accomplish their missions.”

  Arrett stopped messing with his tools. He just stood there, his mouth agape, listening to every honey drenched word that fell from her lips.

  “R... really?”

  Vacinne slapped her palm down on the counter top. “Absolutely! The Grand Master himself was just singing your praises as we discussed my whole mission. He said, and I quote, ‘What are you waiting on. Get your ass down to Arrett. His inventions are going to save the temple’.”

  “H... he said that, Grand Master Jherenon?” stammered Arrett.

  The pitiful man broke Vacinne’s heart. He was so desperately seeking approval and validation, and even just simple appreciation, that he drank up her lies like a sad little sponge.

  When this is over, Arrett, I hope you do see that your creations truly were instrumental in big things.

  Vacinne smiled at him and lied again. “Not even half an hour ago.”

  The man’s childlike grin widened impossibly before he threw himself into his work. And he did it with everything he had. He worked with a fervor and skill that she’d never witnessed, at least not with stone work. The chisel and hammer moved in his hands like a masterfully orchestrated symphony, carving runes into the once virgin stones. No angles or hardlines would be found here, every line of the runes spun and twisted with fluidity. Vacinne studied him intently in silence as he worked.

  As the engravings were finished Vacinne marveled at the skill of the craftsmanship. The runes carved into the stones before her in some ways resembled a large S with a smaller, backwards S overlaid crossway. Inside the curve of each of the four curves were a series of three concentric circles.

  Arrett blew any remaining dust and debris free from the stones, before reaching below the workbench. With no small amount of strain, the scrawny man pulled a medium sized container from below and hoisted it to the workbench. He popped the lid open. Foul, sour odor quickly escaped the container.

  Vacinne recoiled at the potent smell. “What in the Nine Hells is that?”

  “It’s a home brewed elixir that I invented. It helps with the inscription,” said Arrett.

  Vacinne wiped fresh tears from her eyes and pinched her nose closed. “Damn that, it smells worse than rotting flesh.”

  The man just smiled as he took the stones, and to her horror, doused them in the putrid substance. The thick yellow-gray goo oozed over the stones until they completely covered them. Arrett plunged his bare hands into the goo and began massaging it over the stones. “Gotta work it into the runes. Works best when it’s freshly carved.”

  “What in the Nine does it do?”

  “It helps the magic flow from the atmosphere into the stone,” said Arrett with a grin.

  Vacinne said, “This is done with all enchantments, is it?”

  “Nope, but it’s why I can work faster than anyone else. This little elixir of mine speeds the process up drastically.”

  “When will it be done?” she asked, trying not to gag.

  “It won’t be too much longer. Now I need silence, so I can begin the infusion,” said Arrett.

  Vacinne fell silent.

  Once he was satisfied, Arrett began chanting. “Ak tu thesalong, tu car sordo. Ak tu demi theoso sonim, basu.
”

  Over and over again, he recited the same strange words. Words that Vacinne had never heard before, words of arcane magic.

  Arcane magic was something that Vacinne had heard about, but until now she’d never experienced it being performed before. From what they’d taught her in the temple it was another form of magic that certain individuals could call upon, but it was not granted from the rifts. It was also supposed to be dark and dangerous, like sorcery. She still didn’t understand what the difference was between the two, but she’d been told to steer clear of both. Or at least that’s what she’d been taught by the Wardens, who knew what the truth really was.

  Renlar knows, no doubt, she thought.

  Her mind continued to drift for however long it took Arrett to perform his magical evocation. She didn’t know how long any of it lasted, and for all she knew, perhaps she was enchanted by the very spell itself. She just knew that though her eyes watched the carved runes glow with the touch of magic, her mind seemed intent on drifting everywhere else. To the life that was taken tonight, to the mission that still loomed ahead of them, to the questions of what was true and what was lies, to Renlar. It lingered the longest on that last one. The corners of her mouth turned upward and she smiled as she envisioned his warm smile and stunning green eyes.

  The man’s voice broke her from her daydream. “All done. Just need to clean them up, then they’re good to go.”

  With that he pulled the stones from the goo and dropped them into some container that was just out of view, behind his workbench. She could hear the sound of the stones plopping into some type of liquid. Arrett reached down and seemed to be working to scrub the stones in whatever liquid he was using. Then as quickly as he dropped them in, he pulled the wet, and surprisingly clean stones up before her. He set them on a dirty rag on the workbench.

  Arrett rolled the wet stones up in the dirty rag and rubbed away the excess water. Then he pulled the cloth back open and the stones sat there. They were damp, but clean and freshly inscribed. He pulled the stones free of the well-used rag and set them down on the workbench before Vaccine.

  “This one is the stone you want to plant in the location you need to spy on. This one here is the one you want to keep for listening,” said Arrett with the most confidence she’d seen yet.

  Vacinne glanced at the one on the right and then the one on the left and back again. “Um, how can you tell which is which?”

  “I made them,” he replied as if her question was stupid.

  “Yeah, genius, but I didn’t.”

  Arrett bristled, “That’s why this one is marked with this little line right here before the large S.”

  Vacinne followed his pointing finger to the line. “Oh. Why didn’t you just say that?”

  “Huh?”

  Vacinne sighed, “Nevermind. Thank you.”

  “Now, how about that date?” asked Arrett, who was suddenly just bubbling over with confidence.

  “Date? What date?”

  “I’ve only asked you a dozen times. You’ve always said you’re about to go on a mission so—”

  Vacinne’s was incredulous. Are you serious?

  She cut him off. “Arrett, what are we even doing here? I am on a mission right now!”

  “If you let me finish,” he said in his nasally voice, “I was asking for a date when this mission is over.”

  Unbelievable.

  Vacinne lips were already moving before she had finished thinking. “Let’s wait until the Grand Master recognizes us as heroes first. Then we can talk.”

  Oh, that was actually clever, she admitted to herself with a mental chuckle.

  “Uh, what, um, okay...”

  “How do I work them?” she asked in a commanding tone.

  Arrett leaned back at the sharp tone of her voice, but he answered with a full and overly detailed explanation of how to make the stones work. He took every opportunity to brush his fingers over hers in his feigned attempts to touch the stones. It made her cringe, but she tried her best not to show it.

  “Thank you Arrett, I must be on my way. Oh, and no one can know about this,” she said.

  “But, I’ve got to report all work out to—”

  Vacinne shot forward toward him and snapped, “No one! If the traitors caught wind that we are suspicious, this whole thing will unravel. Lives are at stake here, Arrett!”

  “But I don’t even know who we are suspicious of,” retorted the man.

  Vacinne nodded, “That’s the only way to keep you safe! I couldn’t live with myself if anything happened to you, Arrett.”

  Vacinne really played her hand up. She reached out and grasped those pale clammy hands of his once more and squeezed them. She forced herself to give him a charming, if not suggestive smile. She licked her lips and gave him a wink.

  The awkward man offered a goofy grin and nodded far too excitedly. It made her cringe. She felt bad for toying with the man’s emotions and taking advantage of his awkwardness, but many lives were at stake. Much of what she had said tonight had been a lie, but the fear of imminent danger wasn’t one of them. If any of them survived this, Arrett would probably be left with a broken heart. Vacinne had no doubt that the lies and pain she might cause him would weigh on her conscience, but it would have to do so later. She had traitors to catch and an evil regime to take down.

  She snatched up the sound stones and quickly tucked them away. Arrett most likely said some other things, but she didn’t listen. She tossed out a phony thank you as she turned and ran from the room. Before the words had even left the inscriptionist’s mouth, the door to his shop had already slammed closed behind her and Vacinne was sprinting down the hall back to the wine cellar.

  6

  Not Dying

  “Did you get them?” asked Renlar from somewhere in the dark.

  “I did!” she beamed.

  “It took long enough,” he muttered.

  Vacinne placed both hands over her heart and with an exaggerated expression said, “Aww, were you worrying about me?”

  Renlar stepped from the shadows with a glare on his face. “Funny.”

  “Anyways, I was able to persuade Arrett to create a pair of sound stones for us,” she said as she retrieved the stones from her pouch. “This one we can plant, and this one is for us to keep.”

  Renlar said, “Okay, so what’s the plan?”

  Vacinne said, “We need to get this one inside the Grand Master’s complex at the top of the tower. We need to see if he is communicating with anyone else. Especially if he has any other plans in the works.”

  “Okay, how do you propose we do this?”

  “The service hall will take us most of the way. There will be guards on duty, but pretty soon everyone else will turn in for the night. The temple is pretty quiet this late at night. We should be able to get all the way up there without being noticed. The real challenge will be finding a way in.”

  Renlar nodded. “So, what is the layout of those top three floors?”

  Vacinne explained, “The Grand Master keeps the first floor reserved for meetings and planning. It is like his own private headquarters. There is one entrance to that floor from the main hallways. The service passage doesn’t go that far up. That entrance is always watched by a pair of skilled guards. They are probably the most skilled Wardens, behind the War Masters of course.”

  “Are they Riftborn?”

  “Absolutely. They won’t be easy, even with both of us.”

  Renlar asked, “What if we got the jump on them?”

  “We would have to. If we can’t take them out before they see what is coming, they will raise the alarm. We will have the whole tower coming after us, starting with the War Masters,” said Vacinne.

  “Not a great idea when you are holed up some twenty-odd floors off the ground,” reckoned Renlar.

  “Exactly.”

  Renlar scratched his stubbled chin while he thought. “There’s one way in, one way out. No other passage. What about external stairs or bal
conies?”

  Vacinne thought for a moment. “Jherenon does have a pair of balconies on each of the top two floors. Each of those floors has a massive open balcony facing east and west. But there is nothing on the lowest floor.”

  “Smart,” admitted Renlar.

  “Yeah, it would be awful hard to climb from one balcony to the next when an entire floor is missing one.”

  “Hard, yes, but not impossible,” said Renlar.

  “How?”

  Renlar said, “If we can get access to a balcony that is close enough, there are a number of ways that we could try to get up to him. But I’d need to see what we are dealing with first. Do you think such a balcony exists?”

  Vacinne was quiet for a moment.

  “The War Masters live on the floors below the Grand Master. Their places are... well... opulent. Each of them has a balcony. That’s where I’d need to get us to, but the problem is they are just as well guarded as the Grand Master’s floor, not to mention they are War Masters for a reason, they are lethal. If you thought Masoc was dangerous, you don’t want to see these guys.”

  Renlar replied, “And you’re saying they are all on the same floor too? So, if we make any commotion, help is just a stone’s throw away.”

  “Exactly.”

  Renlar said, “No, we’ve got to have a better plan than that. You said they have open balconies. What exactly did you mean?”

  “Oh, just that theirs are different from the lower ones. The ones down here usually lead to a walk way or some type of shared space. They have direct access to the balconies though, right from their dwellings.”

  Renlar said, “But it’s cold this time of year. Surely they are able to close them up?”

  “Oh, yeah. They have these large walls of thick glass that they can slide open or closed if they so choose.”

  “Ah, I see,” said Renlar.

  The frustration really built up in her. “Damn it. How are we going to do this?”

  “Is there anyone, anyone at all that you can trust in this place?”