by John Bierce
Hugh didn’t feel ashamed in the slightest to admit he was intimidated by the office. The dossier had even warned him about the obsidian— she’d crafted the room herself using her magma affinity.
The last thing you saw was Abyla. By the time you finished taking in the sights, she’d had plenty of time to take your measure.
Abyla was a stern woman in early middle age. She made no effort to dye or conceal her white hairs, and she sat rigidly in a plain— though clearly expensive— wooden chair. She held a quill in hand, staring at Hugh as though he were interrupting her.
Hugh had an appointment, but part of him still felt like he should leave and stop wasting her time.
“I’m here to…” Hugh started.
“No,” Abyla said, “you’re not. Despite what I’m sure is a very convincing cover story, you’re here to try and persuade me that I should allow you and your friends to violate both Skyhold policy and centuries of tradition, because you claim to have a demon after you. While I understand that getting stranded in the depths of the labyrinth was traumatic for you and your friends, I unfortunately have to doubt your claims of running into the demon Bakori, given how public and complete his destruction by Kanderon was two centuries ago. And even if he did somehow survive, our security measures should be more than enough to keep you safe during the test. I’m sympathetic to your fears, but you’ll need to face them to get over them. I won’t be changing my vote.”
Abyla turned back to her desk and resumed writing.
Hugh just gaped at her. They’d expected the first level of cover story to be seen through, but they hadn’t expected anything quite like this.
“You may go now,” Abyla said, not looking up at Hugh.
Hugh found himself turning to leave almost without thinking, then stopped.
He couldn’t just leave with nothing. Maybe they should have just had Sabae come instead, if…
Hugh gulped, then turned around.
“You’re lying,” he said, his voice quavering.
Abyla stopped writing, set down her quill, and stared at him.
“Excuse me?” she asked, her voice flat.
“You didn’t vote against us because you don’t believe us, or because you care that much about tradition,” Hugh said, shaking a little out of fear. A large part of him couldn’t believe what he had just said, and was telling him to apologize and run away right this instant. He somehow ignored it and pushed on. “You voted against us because of Sabae, because you have a grudge against the Kaen Das family. You’re abusing your power to get petty revenge.”
Abyla stood up, furious. “How dare you speak to a council member this way!” she yelled. “Do you know what I could do to you…”
“Nothing,” Hugh interrupted. “One mage can’t punish another’s apprentice without taking them before the council. And when a councilor is involved, it has to be before the entire council, not just the academic council. And from what Sabae tells me, Kanderon has a lot more allies on the full council than you do.”
Hugh had, during the height of Rhodes’ bullying last year, spent quite some time looking through Skyhold’s disciplinary rules. He hadn’t found anything to help stop Rhodes, but he knew exactly the grounds he stood on here.
Abyla glared at him, turning red in the face. Hugh realized that the room was getting quite a bit hotter, and there was a glow coming from the obsidian surfaces in the room that was not reflected daylight.
“You little brat!” Abyla spat out. “Do you have any idea…”
She caught her breath, then laughed. There wasn’t any humor to it.
“You know what? You’re right,” Abyla said. “I did vote against the alternate test because of the Kaen Das chit. Her family is a blight, and if she gets killed down in the labyrinth, well, I wouldn’t complain. I don’t expect it to happen, however— what I expect to happen is that her damn grandmother will withdraw her from Skyhold first, or that she’d willingly leave the Academy herself. I had intended to change my vote after that happened to allow you to take the alternate test, but I think you’ve successfully taken that off the table.”
Abyla smiled widely. “You can leave now. Enjoy getting eaten by a demon— unless, of course, you want to withdraw from Skyhold. Oh, and I’m not sure if you’re aware, but mages affiliated with Skyhold can’t teach or aid dropouts in their education. Which includes Alustin and Kanderon.”
She sat back down and started writing again, ignoring Hugh. The heat from the obsidian had only grown stronger, and it was glowing a dull red now.
Hugh left.
Sabae and Talia just stared at Hugh in shock after he finished telling them about his meeting with Abyla.
“Talia has been a truly awful influence on you,” Sabae finally said.
Talia jabbed her in the side with a finger.
“I like confident Hugh,” Talia said.
“You mean insane Hugh, right?” Sabae asked.
Hugh snorted at that, sitting back down on his bed. “I found a convenient corner to have a panic attack in for a solid hour after the meeting. I don’t think confident is the right word here, but I wasn’t being crazy, either.”
“You threw away our chance of changing the vote,” Sabae said.
Hugh shook his head. “She was only going to change her vote if you left or were withdrawn, Sabae. That’s not good enough. Besides, our first priority isn’t changing the vote, it’s finding the traitor.”
Sabae frowned at that. “There are plenty of other agents working to try and figure that out, Hugh. We need to balance our goals here. Seriously, how likely is it that four apprentices will solve the problem?”
“Probably not very,” Hugh admitted. “But we just got our first piece of solid evidence in the case. I got Abyla to admit that she voted against the alternate test because of you.”
“We already basically knew that,” Sabae said, frowning.
Talia poked her in the side again. “If it were literally any other guess about the case you’d demand evidence of some sort.”
Sabae glared at Talia— she was the least tolerant of being poked and elbowed by the redhead of anyone in the group— but it was fairly halfhearted.
“You’re right, I guess,” Sabae muttered.
“And?” Talia said.
“And what?” Sabae asked.
“Thank Hugh for having your back and refusing to throw you under the wagon wheels?”
“I didn’t actually find out that she was planning to…” Hugh started.
“Hugh, quit trying to diminish your victories,” Talia said. “You deliberately provoked Abyla in defense of Sabae.”
Hugh opened his mouth to respond, but Sabae beat him to it. “Hugh never would have needed to stand up to her if it wasn’t for me. It’s my fault…”
Hugh threw his pillow at her. “We had that conversation already, quit that. It’s not your fault Abyla is a raging jerk.”
Sabae caught the pillow in midair and sighed. “Sorry. I’m supposed to be the one reminding you all not to be idiots, not the other way around. And… thank you.”
A knock came at the door. Talia got up and opened it, letting Godrick in— who was carrying a cake.
“Happy birthday!” Hugh, Talia, and Godrick chorused.
Sabae just stared at them. “It’s not my birth…”
She stopped and did some mental math in her head.
“It is my birthday, isn’t it?”
The others burst out laughing.
Sabae sighed. “I think I might have too much on my plate right now.”
“You’re seventeen now, by the way,” Talia said. “Just in case you’d forgotten.”
Sabae made a rude gesture at her.
They pulled Sabae’s gifts out from under Hugh’s bed while they dug into the cake.
Godrick had gotten Sabae an enchanted blacksmith puzzle— interlocked metal shapes that had to be solved by rotating, shifting, and sliding them apart. They were deceptively complex, and each time this one got sol
ved it reshaped itself into a whole new puzzle.
Talia had painstakingly carved Sabae a pair of hairsticks out of the opalescent white outer layer of dragonbone. She’d even gone to the trouble of carving the traditional flames of Clan Castis into them— something done only for good friends of the clan. She’d also given Hugh a Clan Castis dagger for his last birthday.
Hugh had spent ages trying to figure out what to get Sabae for her birthday. He’d known that he wanted to craft her something himself— partially because his modest allowance he received from Alustin didn’t go that far, but mostly because he just really enjoyed making things for his friends.
For her birthday, he’d made Talia a protective ward circle on a strip of leather that could be unrolled anywhere. He’d briefly considered making the same thing for Sabae, but he dismissed the idea. As useful as a portable ward was, he didn’t think they needed multiple of them in the group, and he wanted to be a little more creative with his gifts.
The problem was, of course, that wards weren’t generally the best choice for gifts. Since wards were designed to apply to specific spatial locations, taking into account the movement of the planet, they didn’t tend to travel well. Hugh could pull it off better than most, since he could imbue his will into his wards, but that only worked while he was the one powering them. That had, in fact, likely been the only reason his old ward slingstones hadn’t exploded while he was carrying them around.
You could build a ward to handle travel better, which he was doing with his current ward slingstones, but it was tricky. Plus, it was tough finding a way to craft a personal ward-based item that worked as well as a comparable enchanted item.
Eventually, though, he’d settled on something. He’d bought Sabae a travel pack, then sewn a series of wards into the mouth of the pack— wards that excluded dirt, grease, and various pests from passing. Putting an item of clothing (or anything) into the pack would actually clean it. Not as well as actually washing it, of course, but it was better than nothing, especially while traveling.
Hugh had been pretty rusty at sewing— he’d needed to repair his own clothes often enough back in Emblin, though he hadn’t needed to since he arrived at Skyhold. He’d pricked his fingers countless times while working on it, and he’d needed to pick away the ward thread more times than he could count and restart, but he’d finally gotten it.
He’d had some difficulty deciding whether to have it powered by the user or by tapping into the local aether— wards, unlike enchantments, generally didn’t drain the surrounding aether to any noticeable degree, but if he did that, then it would be active all the time, and dirt would start getting trapped inside the ward as well.
Which he found out the hard way.
Eventually, he’d managed to rig the ward to be one directional, which had taken quite a bit more time.
His homework had definitely suffered for a while there, between that and crafting Godrick’s present, since his birthday was a couple of days before Midwinter.
Hugh didn’t mention any of that to Sabae, though. As much as he enjoyed monologuing about his wards, Sabae’s birthday was perhaps not the best time for that.
Sabae, thankfully, relaxed quite a bit over the course of the afternoon— by the time they’d finished giving the gifts, she was laughing and joking almost like normal again.
Hugh’s spellbook, unfortunately, decided that now was the best time to try and steal a piece of cake, which… didn’t go exceptionally well, especially for the spellbook.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Arrivals
Alustin and the Moonless Owl both returned to Skyhold within a week of one another.
Alustin arrived first, riding in on another Radhan vessel. Radhan traders made up a relatively small percent of the sandships travelling the Endless Erg (or on any sea, for that matter), but according to Alustin, they were not only the most reliable, but also the friendliest option.
He also returned with a broken arm and cryptic complaints about treasure hunters and unreliable treasure maps.
Hugh was certainly happy to see him— not least because he was ready for Alustin to take over their lessons in the Library again. The librarian that had been covering for him— a copper mage always surrounded in floating, intricate patterns of wire, which she could redistribute heat through rapidly, or use to ensnare recalcitrant books— was interesting to listen to lecture about the ecosystem of books in the library, but she was no Librarian Errant.
Hugh was definitely getting rather attached to the idea of joining the Librarians Errant.
Alustin’s reaction in regards to the news from Hugh’s visit with Abyla was somewhat mixed— he was certainly pleased at the confirmation of his hypothesis in regards to her motives, but he thought Hugh had taken too much of a risk. Even with a patron as powerful as Kanderon, there was still plenty of trouble Abyla could cause him.
Hugh and his friends spent the afternoon of the Owl’s arrival waiting for it at a harborside teashop. Alustin had informed them fairly precisely when the sandship was due in to port, but Hugh was feeling too antsy to get anything serious done.
Alustin joined them about a half-hour before the ship arrived. Skyhold’s healers had fixed up his arm easily enough, but he was still favoring it quite a bit. Healing might be magic, but it wasn’t by any means perfect or instantaneous.
Hugh wasn’t really paying attention to the conversation, spending most of his time watching the horizon. He’d already mistaken several other sandships for the Owl already. Even when he didn’t say anything to anyone else, it was still fairly embarrassing— the Owl was highly distinctive. It was fairly low and wide as far as sandships went, and instead of traveling on runners, it slid along its broad, sled-like hull instead.
Hugh caught a glimpse of red hair in the crowd on the docks and frowned. He could have sworn that was Captain Bandon from Theras Tel, but…
He shook his head and turned his attention back to the conversation at hand.
“There’s a reason most mages don’t carry that many enchanted items with them, Talia,” Alustin was saying. “Either you have to supply mana to them yourself or they tap into the local aether, which can interfere with your own ability to refill your mana reservoirs, even in a place as aether-rich as Skyhold. I really don’t recommend carrying more than two or three at a time.”
“And what if you’re only planning to use the ones you’re powering yourself, and only for very specific situations?” Talia said. “It could greatly improve your versatility, couldn’t it? And some enchantments even have their own mana reservoirs built in.”
Alustin sighed. “Yes, but that’s the sort of thing you’re usually better just developing your own magic to help you do. Most affinities are far more versatile than you’d think. Also, Skyhold only produces a handful of enchanted items with their own mana reservoirs each year. They’re hellishly difficult to make, and there’s an enormous waiting list for them. I’d feel far more comfortable about all this if you’d tell me exactly what sorts of enchanted items you’d commissioned.”
Talia considered. “I’d really rather it be a surprise, honestly.”
“How can you afford that many commissions, anyhow?” Godrick asked.
“You know I can just go over your head and get the information from the enchanters directly, right?” Alustin asked.
“My clan’s been raiding and pillaging for ages, and it’s not like we have that much to spend it on. We live way up in the mountains, and we’re pretty self-sufficient. We have a huge hoard that’s just been sitting there for generations. How do you think my family could afford to send me halfway across the continent to a school as expensive as Skyhold?” Talia said to Godrick, then turned back to Alustin. “And you could do that, but that would be a hassle involving lots of paperwork for you, and it’d also ruin the surprise.”
Hugh just felt bemused at all of this. Talia had been dropping hints about her commissions for days now. She might intend it to be a surprise, but whenever she did sh
ow them her new enchanted items, he was fairly sure they were going to be a bit of a letdown after all this.
The Owl’s arrival went about the same as the last time— Avah was nothing if not quite public about her affection, and the crew of the Owl were, as usual, endlessly entertained by Hugh’s embarrassment.
So were his traitor friends, too. Hugh felt a moment of gratitude towards Talia, who at least was pretending like she wasn’t seeing anything to give Hugh a little privacy.
Hugh was thankful he wasn’t in Alustin’s shoes right now, though. He’d rather deal with a little public embarrassment— which did have its upsides— than with the lecture Alustin was receiving from Deila about keeping Avah and Irrick safe while they were staying here.
Irrick and Avah had packed surprisingly lightly, bringing only a single small bag apiece. Or maybe not so surprisingly, considering that they lived on a cramped ship year-round.
Godrick, of course, immediately picked up both bags and refused to let anyone else help. He was, as always, essentially incapable of not helping people when they had something to carry.
Hugh, partially to be helpful and partially to get back at Godrick for enjoying his earlier embarrassment, promptly cast a levitation cantrip on the bags to lighten them— not enough that anyone else would see, but enough that Godrick noticed immediately.
Alustin led the group up through the passages and stairwells of Skyhold to the student dormitories where Talia, Godrick, and Sabae slept, and where Avah and Irrick would be staying as well. The rooms were all individual ones, and there were always extra unused rooms— Skyhold’s population was higher than ever, according to Kanderon, but it seemed to never run out of empty hallways, classrooms, dorms, or passages.
There were supposed to be secret rooms and passages all over the place, too, but Hugh and the others hadn’t really found any, beyond his room and a hidden entrance into the Grand Library.