by Dante King
“You are not,” I said. You are free to go wherever you please.”
Winnie smiled salaciously. “Oh, you misunderstood me. I want to be your prisoner. In fact, I am more than happy to do whatever I have to do to repay you.”
I took a step toward her and smiled. “You want to repay me?”
Winnie nodded. “I make an excellent bed warmer.”
“Tempting,” I replied, “but what I really need is information.”
Winnie pouted. “How boring. What do you want to know?”
“Are you aware that a group of rogue mages stole the Terminus Seal from the Arcanum?”
Winnie stiffened slightly. “I’d heard.”
“From Kalazar?” Yarina asked.
“Yes.” Winnie kept her eyes trained on me. “But I don’t have any real information. You have to believe me. I was…Kalazar’s prisoner. He didn’t share any of his secrets with me, at least not his important secrets. I was merely one of his…experiments.”
“So you’re saying you know nothing at all about the mages that stole the seal?” Yarina asked.
“I don’t know whether Kalazar had anything to do with the theft,” she said hesitantly.
“You say you were his prisoner and yet you defend the monster?” Yarina said.
“I’m not defending him,” Winnie said quickly. “I’m merely telling you what I know. The seal is not a device for necromancers or conjurers. Only transmuters have something to gain by stealing the seal. But I did hear Kalazar talking about the theft.”
“What did you hear?” I asked.
“He mentioned something about a local cell of tainted mages,” Winnie told me. “At the Modification School of the Institute. I just don’t know if he was in league with them.”
I exchanged a glance with Yarina.
“The Institute,” I repeated. “We should start there.”.
“I agree.” Yarina nodded.
The two of us turned toward the door, but Winnie fell into step beside me.
“I’m coming with you,” she said.
I saw Yarina’s expression harden but she didn’t protest. Winnie did seem to know her way around the Mausoleum; without a moment’s hesitation, she turned left in the hall with the crypt doors.
“Coming with us is risky,” I said.
“You promise?” Winnie wagged her eyebrows at me. “In any case, I don’t have anything to fear. I’ll have my big, strong protector with me at all times.”
“Perhaps you should try protecting yourself once in a while?” Yarina said, eyeing Winnie with distaste.
Winnie eyed the rapier on Yarina’s hip. “Now, now,” she said, as she put her hand on my arm and trailed her fingers along my triceps. “I don’t mind sharing.”
Yarina gritted her teeth and sped up, turning right at the opening of a narrow passageway.
“It’s left,” Winnie called after her. “There’s an exit on the first chamber to the left.”
Yarina changed course wordlessly.
After the overwhelming darkness of the Mausoleum, it was a welcome relief to step into the bright sunlight. The abandoned town’s air suddenly struck me as the purest air in the world, I felt like I could breathe again.
“We need to make a pit stop before we head over to the Institute,” Yarina said, patting the satchel that hung by her hip. “Qilzid will be able to make use of the lanterns, and the sooner the better.”
“Qilzid?” Winnie piped up.
“Qilzid is none of your concern,” Yarina said without so much as a glance in Winnie’s direction.
“Is he a mage?”
“Something like that,” I said.
“We should keep Winnie here while you and I visit Qilzid,” Yarina said as we stepped onto the main pathway of the Grand Esplanade.
“What?” Winnie said, knitting her eyebrows together. “Why can’t I come?”
“Because we don’t know if we can trust you,” Yarina replied.
“Kurt knows he can trust me, don’t you, Kurt?” Winnie stepped out to block our way.
I glanced at Yarina, before fixing my eyes on Winnie. “Can I trust you, Winnie?”
She gave me a lascivious smile as she took a step closer and put both hands on my chest. “If you’re unsure, I’m more than willing to let you cross-examine me.” Her tail flicked from side to side lazily.
I met her smile. Her magic was very much like she was in general, playful and mischievous. The taint I sensed on her was only a shimmer.
I kept looking into her eyes as she tilted her head further toward me; I wanted to pierce deep into her magical essence, see what she was made of. The core of her being was clear, she was impatient, joyous, hungry for life. The surface-level corruption could easily be extinguished.
I turned to Yarina. “She’s fine,” I said. “Remember, we had to trust my hunter sense. And I can see it with crystal clarity. We can take her with us to Qilzid.”
Yarina didn’t argue, she simply stepped around Winnie and continued walking along the esplanade. Winnie and I followed a couple of steps behind. Yarina’s stride was strong, confident, fast, the sure movements showing flashes of her perfectly shaped thighs through her flapping skirts—the tight trousers did little to hide her glorious shape from view. A stark difference from Winnie, who moved slower, tilting her hips from side to side with maddeningly sensual laziness, clearly calculated to attract the stares it did.
As we approached the line of bars just off the esplanade, Winnie grabbed my hand.
“How about we stop in for a drink?” she said. “I haven’t had proper ale in months. I want to see what you’re like when you loosen up around a girl.”
I paused. A nice cold brew sounded pretty good, especially after the morning I’d had. If Winnie hadn’t been there, it might have been me suggesting this to Yarina, though perhaps with slightly subtler innuendos.
“Just a quick drink though,” I said with a grin, clapping a hand on both Yarina and Winnie’s shoulders.
“Whatever you say, gorgeous,” Winnie said with a wink.
Yarina glanced toward the first alehouse in the row, and her hand fell protectively over her satchel. “We can’t stay too long…”
I glanced at the green glimmer; it was too slight to be noticed in the daytime out in the bustling city center. But she was right, we had to be careful.
“Understood,” I said with a nod.
The moment I stepped through the door after Yarina and Winnie, I felt a little gust of wind, and my stomach lurched as if I had dropped through a trapdoor. Winnie and Yarina flanked me on both sides, but we were definitely not in the alehouse.
“Qilzid,” Yarina said, a lopsided grin breaking through her worried face, her eyes twinkling with that hint of silver.
It had been a while. I was glad to see her relax a little.
She removed the satchel from her shoulder and handed it to me.
“How did I do that?” I said, glancing around at the familiar books, carpets, and organized clutter of Qilzid’s inner sanctum.
“The ring.” Yarina glanced at the turquoise stone on my finger. “It opened a portal. You must have been thinking about the workshop when you walked through the doorway to the deck.”
“I was,” I admitted.
“Who is she?” Qilzid’s leery voice echoed across the walls of his workshop.
Winnie openly gaped at the hundreds of candles floating above us.
“This is Winnie,” I said. “Winnie, meet Qilzid.”
“Qilzid?” Winnie said, looking around in much the same way I had done this morning. “Um, are we playing hide and seek here?”
“It’s a long story,” Yarina said. “All you need to know is that Qilzid is all around us, his formless consciousness powers the workshop. He is the workshop in many ways, think of him as a sentient workshop.”
Winnie’s eyes went wide. “I’ve never met a sentient place before,” she said, chuckling as she said “place” and slowly twisting around, her eyes darting across the
myriad impressions. “Gods, is that an onyx steel blade?”
Winnie had already stepped up to a couple of inches from the display case when a silken stole fluttered across the air and draped itself over it..
“I don’t know you,” Qilzid said in a reserved tone.
“Qilzid,” I said. “Winnie was the necromancer’s prisoner. She wants to help us find the seal. I think she has information that could help us.”
“I know what you’re thinking,” Yarina said, “and yes, Kurt has a soft spot for curves. But he’s a true mage hunter, strong and intuitive as our legends have it, and honourable. He has assured me again and again that Winnie is essentially good...but she may need some taming.”
I shot Yarina a grateful glance. All the same could be said of her, though she wasn’t a mage hunter.
“Very well,” Qilzid replied.
The stole slipped off the display case unceremoniously, but Winnie had already walked over to Qilzid’s desk and was staring at the maps detailed in dark-black ink. “This is a map of Trysca,” she said. “I’ve never seen one with so much detail. It’s amazing.”
“One of my many talents,” Qilzid replied, a touch of superiority in his tone. I did seem to detect some flattered pride too; Winnie seemed to be touching the right buttons.
“Tell me, Qilzid,” Winnie said, her eyes falling on the diminutive kitchen tucked in a corner next to the alchemy station. “What are your other talents?” Her whole being vibrated with that flirtatious edge that was starting to define her.
“I don’t think we have the time to go through the whole list of my abilities. You wouldn’t see sunlight for days.”
Winnie laughed. “Do your talents extend to the provision of refreshments?”
“What would you like?”
“A tall glass of red, frothy ale.”
“Easy.”
A large glass pitcher of burgundy ale materialized on the small round table in front of the kitchen. Three silver goblets and a platter with a variety of breads and cheeses soon followed.
Winnie clapped her hands together and rushed forward. “Very impressive,” she said, as she expertly poured herself a goblet.
Yarina walked over and straddled the bench to face Winnie, ignoring the refreshments. “Tell me everything you know about these modification mages.”
“Can’t we take a little break from mages and necromancers and just enjoy the ale? They’re all I’ve seen, or tasted, for way too long.”
“I think not. The point of you tagging along in the first place was that you could make yourself useful. So—make yourself useful.”
Winnie groaned and took another slow sip.
“Is that what I think it is?” Qilzid piped up.
I glanced at my bag and nodded. “Floating lanterns.. I I found another use for them: they make a mean necromancer-strangling device.”
Qilzid laughed, a deep but gentle sound, and some of the kitchenware seemed to rattle along with him. “I’ll keep that in mind. Place them on the shelf in that cabinet in front of you.”
The half-open doors of the wooden cabinet were carved with an intricate pattern of spindle-shaped leaves. I placed the floating lanterns in the middle of the only shelf in there and closed the doors.
“How will we make use of it to find the seal?” I asked.
“I will absorb their power,” Qilzid replied, his voice suddenly fuller. “It won’t take more than a few minutes. Ah, it has been a long time since I’ve been offered a meal of such potency.”
Somehow the renewed vitality in Qilzid’s voice brought the ladies at the table to mind. Yarina was still cross-examining Winnie in the corner, both simultaneously trying to best each other with pointed jibes and thinly veiled insults. Could it be that I was sensing some male competition, here where I least expected it, from this ancient artificer?
“She’s an interesting new addition,” Qilzid said after some silence.
I gave a start. His voice wasn’t coming from all around like before. It was as though he were talking in my ear.
“Can they hear you?” I asked, glancing toward Yarina and Winnie.
“Only you can hear me now,” Qilzid replied. “Handy, isn’t it?”
“Very.”
“She’s a necromancer?”
“She is. Her powers are young and heavily tied to her emotions, but there’s undeniable strength there too.”
“And the taint?”
“Minimal.” I paused to demonstrate my certainty. “She can be redeemed.”
“Hmm. They’re both powerful. And both come with vastly different skill sets. They’ll be invaluable to any mage slayer.”
I watched as Yarina flicked away one of Winnie’s long tails impatiently. Winnie just laughed and wagged the tail in Yarina’s face one last time. What a sight it was, Yarina’s classical beauty next to Winnie’s seductive voluptuousness.
“And how lucky for you that both women you decided to befriend are so…appealing,” Qilzid said. “But I’m sure that had nothing to do with your decision to ally with them.”
“None at all,” I replied. “I just got lucky. If anything, they found me.”
“Ah, what I wouldn’t give to be you right now. There is no greater pleasure than the sensation of a woman’s body surrendering to your hands.”
“Do you remember a lot, from when you were human?” Though he had assured me they couldn’t hear him, I had the impulse to whisper to make Qilzid lower his increasingly powerful voice.
“I remember the intensity of certain emotions rather than the details surrounding them. The pleasure of sipping wine, the comfort of a restful sleep, the thrill of working with my hands, and, above all, the ecstasy found in a woman’s embrace.” He paused for a moment. “My bed wasn’t often empty when I was human.”
“I have no trouble believing that,” I replied with a chuckle.
“Perhaps, with more artifacts, my workshop will gain enough power to allow me to form a body.. If that happens… you could bring me a woman, or two, to remind me what it’s like to be a man?”
I laughed, forgetting to keep quiet. Gods, was I glad that I got to have this conversation with the powerful artificer who created the Terminus Seal. “I promise.”
“Good.” Qilzid paused, seeming to try and leave behind these pleasurable musings. “By the way, if you think you could use an upgrade…you can take out your bearded axe, and see what the power the green lanterns gave me can bring about.”
I pulled out my axe eagerly. The moment I set it down on the large workbench in front of me, a faint silver glimmer appeared and engulfed the weapon, until it shone and glittered with magical potential. It lasted only a few moments; as fast as it had come, it disappeared again..
“There you are,” Qilzid said. “Now, as long as it is within a dozen-yard radius, the axe will always find its way back to you. You don’t need to call out for it l. You just stretch your arm out with an open palm.”
Immediately, several recent instances where this would have been useful came to mind. If the difficulty of our missions was going to increase, I would be needing powers like this one.
“Thank you, Qilzid,” I said, bowing my head.
“I live to serve,” he replied, with an edge of laughter in his tone.
I laughed out loud in response. It seemed the new female presence was making him more boisterous, more playful.
I grabbed my upgraded axe and walked over to Yarina and Winnie. “Are you ladies refreshed?” I asked them with a grin and a bow.
“I’d be more refreshed if you took me into that room over there for an hour or two,” Winnie said, nodding at the bedroom visible just around the corner.
“Another time perhaps.” I smiled and stepped up close, making sure she didn’t imagine I was closing any doors. “Right now, we have a job to do.”
Yarina stood up, and Winnie downed the rest of what had to be her second or third glass before doing the same.
“Thanks for the ale, Qilzid,” Winnie said, l
ooking up toward the candles before she turned to me. “I’m ready, handsome. Let’s go kick some ass.”
7
We arrived at the airship port in Trysca and dismounted. I looked up past the spires and rooftops. There was a sparsely treed outcrop that separated the city from the gold-brown rock of Grimgar’s Mountain. From down here, you could only see the mountain’s broad base and the streams that sprang from Spirit Falls at its peak and flowed down to join the Longscale River.
The Institute stood on a huge angling cliff that burst from the middle of Spirit Falls at the top of the mountain. I had never actually been there myself, but I had seen its likeness on enough paintings and commemorative banners to know what a feat of architecture it was. It had been created by a mix of magic from all three of the Institute’s separate schools, and it was a testament to the great things unified magic could accomplish.
There were two airships that ferried people from the city to the Institute and back every hour: the Goldleaf, and the Mirabelle. The airship port lay just beyond a stretch of trees and shrubbery at the end of the esplanade. We found a burly, potbellied man at the entrance booth. He was holding a large metal cylinder that jingled every time he moved.
“Good day to you, friend,” I said, as the man eyed me up and down. “My travel companions and I would like to book a passage to the Institute. Which airship leaves the soonest?”
“Goldleaf,” he replied gruffly, his eyes turning lazily to inspect Yarina and Winnie.
He took his time to do this. He did look somewhat disinterested, until he recognized Yarina’s guard uniform.
“You three don’t look like students,” he finally said, before looking back at Winnie. “Well, except maybe you.”
“I am a student,” Winnie said. “This is my boyfriend.” She hooked her arm through mine and sent one of her mischievous smiles in Yarina’s direction. “And this is my mother.”
“Passage for three people, please,” Yarina said, fishing out a small coin purse from inside the folds of her half-skirt.
Once our passage was paid for, the three of us made our way to the row of large moorage ports. The Goldleaf was the only ship anchored there. Its sails were being prepared for launch. We got on board the ship, and I led the band to the upper deck.