“You make it sound like you almost care about my well-being,” lord Weannu tossed up in a lighter tone. He started to like this conversation, because a few days of pain was nothing in comparison of what he would gain if the Slaver Union, no, slavery itself were to be removed.
“I don’t,” Lucas cut back quickly, “but the Order does. You have been a good ruler; the Order believes you will continue on the same path when the Slaver Union goes out of business.”
“Out of pure curiosity, what other rulers of cities are in on this?” lord Weannu probed.
“You know I cannot tell you,” Lucas refused.
“If it was just count Salazar, you would have likely said it straight, which means there is at least one lord who isn’t obvious but is in on this,” lord Weannu evaluated, “but I understand, it would spell disaster if I were to turn to the Union the minute after you leave. Very well then, I will give all my men three days of paid vacation accompanied with an order to stay home, especially if something is happening outside.”
“I shall stop stealing your time and wish you the best of luck. If all goes well, we will not meet again anytime soon,” Lucas smiled warmly.
“I just hope you don’t put half of the city on fire,” concluded lord Weannu as he raised from his chair and shook hands with Lucas once more. He was not surprised to see Lucas leave through the window.
30
Luna
“Oh come on, Yen, are you leaving so soon again?” Luna softly asked Yen. She was lying in bed, tired and happy after the delightful night. Yen was dressing up in what seemed to be a repetition of all their previous nights together. It was now the second day after her first match and if Yen saw it, she hasn’t mentioned it.
“I told you from the start that I am busy, Lunie,” Yen smiled at her.
“What are you doing all the time?” Luna asked.
“Too many things to go through them,” Yen refused.
“You always have an excuse for everything,” Luna protested.
“Of course I do,” Yen smiled.
“Will you come back?” Luna switched the topic.
“Later,” Yen breathed.
“Come back in two days at about midnight, I will likely be here and we can continue where we stopped,” she offered.
“Why so long? Why not tonight?” Luna tried.
“Because I will be busy,” Yen cut her off.
“Alright, alright, sorry, I will come in two days,” Luna quickly apologized.
“Good girl,” Yen smiled and left the room.
Luna slowly got up from the bed to get dressed and prepared to leave herself.
Luna headed back into the city.
What’s with this heat?
The air felt like it was a day at the start of summer, not middle of winter. The snow was thawing fast; water was pouring down from every rooftop and then down into the sewers under the streets. Otherwise, the city was busy as ever and nobody noticed her. That was good. Yet she noticed something, at first she thought it was random, but then she realized she often sees kids wearing black and having a mask over their face. A mask of a girl with brown hair and a huge mouth filled with pointy teeth going from one ear to another.
This seems awfully familiar.
When she realized there are lots of young boys dressed in more or less white clothes and armor imitations, she started having a really bad feeling about it. She decided to take a detour into the market district and see what the hell is this all about. It wasn’t hard to find. No, it would have actually been very hard to miss. A big sign was straight above the gate that led to the market district. It read:
‘ATTENTION!
RAVEN AND THE BEAST ARMOR AND WEAPON SETS NOW AVAILABLE!
Nine Heavens Smithery
Redstone street Nr.1
Jean Pierre Castagnet, Smith of the Nine Heavens’
Someone tell me this is a joke.
It didn’t look like a joke. Dread slowly filled her veins as she passed Raven and The Beast masks, Raven and The Beast toys, Raven and The Beast suits and dresses, Raven and The Beast cupcakes and now stood in front of Jean’s shop. The Raven and The Beast sign was bigger than the name of the shop itself. Behind the glass window, there were two sets of armor and weapons on display. They were pretty much the exact copies of what she and Raven had. The place was swarming with people.
“Why are you standing here? You already got yours! Make space for others!” a woman angrily pushed by her as she was trying to get into the shop.
I am the original! GRRRR!
Luna fought her way out of the crowd, then circled the house and climbed up to the first-floor balcony. The door weren’t hard to open and she went straight to where she expected Jean’s office to be.
“Are you out of your mind, Jean?” she shouted at him as she stormed into his office and found him there sitting at the table.
“Hello, Luna, I see you like my new product line,” he grinned.
“THE BEAST??? SERIOUSLY? YOU SELL ME AS THE BEAST?” she screamed.
“It sells well... drink?”
Yes! Luna took a bottle, opened it and chugged in a few large gulps.
“THE BEAST??” she shouted again.
“We did a lot of A/B testing of various names on different target groups and this ended up resonating the best” Jean explained.
“WE?”
“It is a coordinated effort. I have organized the other merchants to push a new thematic product line in synchronization. I believe you saw that almost everyone has something,” he smiled, his eyes shining with deep satisfaction.
Luna took a few more large gulps and sagged into the chair at the other side of the table.
Jean kept messing with something around the table, Luna heard the clinging sounds and kept drinking. She was at a loss for words, at a loss for everything.
“Counting the profits?” Luna finally spoke after a long while.
“Actually, yes, here,” he put two large sacks on the table.
“That’s your and Raven’s cut for now,” he said.
“More copper coins? I thought you wouldn’t give me shit and just use it to repay whatever I owe you for making of the armors," Luna stated in a disappointed voice.
“Not exactly. After all, the people down in the shop are here to place orders for when we restock,” he revealed.
Jean has a large stock. Very large stock of very expensive things.
Luna lifted one pouch and opened it. Inside lay a mixture of golden coins and gems. Lots of gems.
“Your armors have already been paid for; I have deduced that. Also, for the future payments, I will put them at the bank under your names since it will likely be too much money to move around by yourselves.”
“How? How is this possible? Half of the audience was vomiting during our match,” Luna breathed, utterly confused.
“But everyone remembered it. After the match, everyone talked about it and later in the evening, everyone who saw it told to those who could not. By the time count, Salazar did his stunt in the arena yesterday afternoon; I was already sold out. You and Raven have now become the faces of the tournament and I will make sure to keep it that way.”
So I will be forever remembered as the beast… the beast… beast. At least I get paid for this.
“I am taking this. And this and this and this” Luna said as she put the two large pouches by her belt and went to the cabinet to get a hold of three bottles of the what looked like hard spirits.
“Be my guest,” Jean approved.
Luna didn’t know what to say. So she said nothing and just left the office.
“Congratulations, Raven, you have officially become rich,” Luna announced as she got back to the cell and tossed the large pouch to Raven. He looked at her confused,“or should I say, Rael?” She sagged to the sorry excuse for a bed she had in here. She didn’t want to confront him with it yesterday, but now she didn’t care.
“How did this happen?” Raven asked, weighing the pouch.
>
“We are now Raven and The Beast, faces of Jean’s new product line. That’s our cut or a part of it at least,” Luna explained.
“What do you do with these?” Raven asked confused.
Right, he has no concept of money. He can’t even tell if this is a lot or a little.
“You buy things with them and the contents of this pouch are worth more than what most people earn in their lifetimes,” Luna explained, “anyway, care to tell me the story of the name Rael?”
“There isn’t much to it. I didn’t want her to see me as a slave, so I said whatever name went through my head first when she asked for one,” Raven conceded.
Didn’t want her to see him the way I did. Yes, in retrospect I was a total asshole about it. Kill me.
“I am sorry,” Luna whispered as she reached for the book she got from Jack.
“For?” Raven asked.
For not seeing you as a human without even realizing it. Again.
“Nothing,” Luna cut him off and dug into the book.
Anyway, now it’s the book and Yen. I literally have nothing else to do for the upcoming weeks.
The sword is supposed to be extremely famous. That means its wielder was famous enough to get into children books. I need to figure out to which historical personaes does this book relate to, study them in detail, start from the one who seems to be the most famous and go down until I get what I am looking for.
31
Iowen
Iowen didn’t know how long she had slept, but it was hunger what woke her up. The Albertti brothers were in the room playing cards and arguing sharply. Iowen was drowsy and her body felt stiff. She looked around in search of food. She remembered she is likely sleeping on it. Iowen went to rummage in the mess around where she made her bed and found some bread and dried meat. She took it and went on to taste it. It was old and badly kept. It was absolutely delicious.
Hunger is truly the best chef.
She ate whole loaf of bread and two large pieces of meat.
“What time is it?” Iowen tossed up into the air while finishing the meal.
“Wrong question,” Alfons Albertti laughed.
“What do you mean?” Iowen was confused.
“Time is pointless when you don’t know the day.”
“Okay, for how long was I asleep?” Iowen changed the approach.
“Day and a half, almost the record,” Alfons affirmed her.
“Ugggh, shit, when is our match?”
“Three days from now, we are right at the bottom of the bracket, so we fight dead last,” Battista Albertti explained.
“Hmmh…. good,” Iowen evaluated, “can I join?”
“Sure,” they confirmed.
Iowen sat at the table and they dealt her a hand for the next round. The game was complex, very complex; they called it Dragon Hoard and Iowen quickly realized how horribly outmatched she is. The Albertti brothers played it often, very often.
“Suppose I have learned to access my source of magic or however it is called, how do I learn to use it?“ she asked out of the blue. She knew that both Battista and Alfons are quite proficient at it, especially Battista and Iowen could have used some help with it. It wasn’t that Lucas didn’t try to teach her, she just wanted to try to get a second opinion.
“What does it look like?” Battista inquired.
“I thought it’s the same for everyone. It looks like a large swirling bubble,” Iowen answered.
“It is not the same for everyone. For example, the way I see my strength is a storm. I directed it to me to channel it into reality,” Battista offered.
A storm? All I have is a shitty bubble!
“Mine is a swamp,” Alfons joined in.
“Mine is a rainbow-colored pond,” Robert smiled.
“And mine a tree with a shining apple,” Erik added.
“Wait, you all have magic?” Iowen was surprised.
“Everyone does. It is just about learning how to access it and about figuring out a way to make use of it,” Battista stated.
“Please explain, this doesn’t fit how I understand the whole thing,” Iowen demanded.
“Magic fills the entire world. It’s like air, it goes through you no matter where you are and what you are doing,” Battista started.
So, Lucas wasn’t bullshitting me with this.
“Something within us catches a part of the magic passing through the world around us and keeps it into function,” he added.
“Something? Like what?” Iowen jabbed.
“People like to call it a soul. That soul thing exists thanks to the magic in the world. Now, what does the soul actually do or represent is a hot debate among magicians and scientists alike, but one thing they agree on and that is that it can mold magic so it can store it. Why does it do it? We have no idea, but nothing bad happens when you go and use that stored magic,” Alfons explained.
“Every time I try that it does something different. I mean, it is mostly related to what I wanted it to but not exactly what I wanted,” Iowen revealed.
“That’s why you need to practice it,” Battista smiled.
“How?”
“Well, for a start the main thing is to go there every day and use all of it. That makes it replenish faster and over time, it will start storing more of it, so you have more to play with. Secondly, you learn how to get in there fast so you can use it without needing minutes to access the strength in the first place. Lastly, the only way to learn how to control it better is to practice, so you want to do it every day,” Battista explained.
That sort of checks out… I guess there are no easy shortcut.
Meh.
“But how do I control it?” Iowen demanded.
“What do you want it to do? That is the first question you need to answer and be sure about it because the key to being effective at using magic is to practice one use a lot of times. That means you cannot practice too many of them because you simply don’t have the time for it in your lifetime,” Battista explained.
“How do you choose your focus? This sounds awfully limited, wasn’t magic supposed to be able to do pretty much anything? You know… spells and all,” Iowen challenged.
“Magic can do anything, but no single user can. For me, I am good at shooting lightning and summoning wind. If I were to put it into spells, I could do two where each has a few variations,” Battista announced.
“That sounds awfully disappointing, I mean, you are a famous wizard and everyone treats you as such,” Iowen hid the shock when speaking. The brothers all laughed strongly.
“He actually deserves that. Last time I checked he has six variations on the lightning and four on the wind. I have exactly two spells as well and but half the amount of variations,” Alfons added.
“Aha… what do you have Robert, Erik?” Iowen turned to ask.
“Nothing I would call a spell. I just eat the apple every day, it makes my muscles work well. Then I have one move – the large downward swing with my glaive,” Erik said.
“I swim in it, improves my reflexes, flexibility and makes me great in bed,” Robert smiled.
“Wait, you use magic for a... move? And you eat it?” Iowen inquired.
“Bat knows how it works, I just do it,” Erik tossed the answer to Battista.
“When you use magic, you start with a decision if you want to use it on others or yourself. When on yourself, you just put it into your physical body. It gets absorbed and has some effect; you don’t have to do much with it because it always does something useful and slowly accumulates over time if you do it daily. People like to call it talent or natural disposition. About the move, well, after absorbing the magical reserve you get a short boost in body strength. The best way to use it is to practice something with it, which overexerts the body and forces it to keep adapting, making everything related to what you practice work better,” Battista explained.
“How do you guys know all this? This is way too detailed and precise,” Iowen asked in amazement
. Robert smiled at her.
“We are children of Magnus Albertti, we knew how to access the magic reserve before we learned to read or write,” he smiled at her.
Is that someone famous?
“Come to think of it; you call yourselves brothers but, no offense, you don’t look like that at all” Iowen tried a sideways approach.
“Well, we don’t know. From what we got, we were found in a burning village in a magical circle. All five of us, barely two years old. Old man Magnus found us first as he came to investigate, took us in as his adoptive children,” Erik revealed.
“Five of you?”
“We got a sister, Lucia, she isn’t like us,” Robert answered.
“She isn’t like you in what way?” Iowen pursued the topic.
“She is smart, hardworking, calm and ambitious, so she is studying to pick up our father’s practice after he retires,” Robert explained.
Yea… that’s literally the list of things you guys are not.
“His practice?”
“He is a lawyer. If you ever get in legal trouble and have a lot of money, Magnus is the man to turn to,” Robert revealed.
“Ok, back to magic, I saw people use gestures to trace symbols in the air while using magic, what’s up with that?” Iowen pivoted back to the topic that interests her the most.
“Gestures are the best way to remember a complex use of one’s magic. There are many ways to achieve it, but gestures combine the physical motion with you picturing the symbol in your mind that is easy to associate with a specific way to mold magic and easier to learn. Also, it looks cool,” Alfons answered.
“The symbols don’t actually mean anything?”
“Not really. Legend has it that they were developed to be used for the magic to create specific spells, but if there was any rule as to which runic symbol is supposed to be used for which type of spell, it has been lost,” Battista stated.
“Why are the legends about magic wielders so different from how they actually are?” Iowen pushed lightly.
Legacy of Dreams: Freedom Page 20