Eldritch Assassin

by Adam Witcher

  “Looking for the page on lust potions?”

  She looked up and forced a smile, but there was an unmistakable grimace behind it. She sighed.

  “It wasn’t a great joke, but come on, it wasn’t that bad.”

  “I have a bit of a confession.” She closed the book and set it on her bedside table.

  “Okay.” Isaac sat up, his sleepiness fading quickly.

  “I’ve read this book.”

  “Wait, what?”

  “When I was just a girl, maybe ten, I found a copy in my father’s study. I don’t think he meant to leave it out. Normally, I wouldn’t have cared. My father was always reading giant books, but this one jumped out to me. I remember thinking it had some kind of energy to it.”

  “I know the feeling,” Isaac said. “When that old woman first gave it to me, it practically felt like it was buzzing.”

  “It was in the evening, and I heard him coming, and for some reason I just knew he wouldn’t want me to have it. So I ran out of the room and hid behind the door, then watched him through the keyhole. He saw it lying out and put it away in this secret compartment on his bookshelf. Then every night for the next week, I’d sneak out of my room, take it from the bookcase, and copy down as much as I could. Eventually, I copied everything.”

  “Wait.” Isaac stood from the bed and began pulling his shirt on. “So you have a complete copy of that book already?”

  “Yes, in the trunk at the foot of my bed.”

  Isaac laughed.

  “You should have seen how desperate Edwin and I were to copy that thing.” Isaac pulled on his pants. “We only had half an hour, so we were scribbling like mad men. Little did I know, we could have just borrowed it from you. Why didn’t you tell me this last night?”

  “I had to be sure it was the same book,” she said.

  She glanced at it again, then suddenly, her eyes went wide, and she looked at Isaac again.

  “Wait, did you say you and Edwin both copied from the book?”

  “Yeah. Yesterday. Or, yesterday for me anyway.”

  “Oh, gods.” She put a hand to her forehead.

  “Is that a problem?” He sat on the bed.

  “Yes,” she said. “A big one. Unfortunately, the story doesn’t end there. Once I’d copied the book, I started reading it obsessively. Sometimes the same passages over and over. But I was only ten! I couldn’t understand half of it. I just knew that it made me feel good.”

  “Feel good how?”

  “Good like… powerful.”

  “Makes sense.” Isaac shrugged. “It’s an instructional guide to dark magic, isn’t it?”

  Aerin bit her lip.

  “Well, I didn’t realize that at the time. What’s dark magic to a ten-year-old? I just thought it was a cool book. Trouble was, after a while, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I was obsessed. So eventually, I started practicing some of the things I read in the book. Just little things. I was especially intrigued by the section called illusion magic. I was really good. Not long after that, though, I grew up enough to realize that what I was doing wasn’t exactly ethical… or legal. But I couldn’t stop.”

  “Wait, you’re a mage?”

  She nodded reluctantly, then hung her head. “An illusion mage.”

  Isaac stood up from the bed, his eyes wide.

  “That’s amazing! I can’t believe you’ve never told me.”

  “Really, you can’t believe that? That I, the mayor’s daughter, didn’t tell my secret human lover that I was a dark mage? Isaac, we’ve only been seeing each other for a month.”

  “Okay, fair point.”

  While Aerin still sat, Isaac paced on her floor, chin in hand.

  “Wait, so you knew that your father was into dark magic. You could have at least told me that, right?”

  “I did know,” she said. “But I didn’t know the extent of it. I had no idea he was capable of human sacrifice. I never spoke to him about any of this. My father and I have never been close. And I have no idea what he was trying to do or what went wrong. Look, I’m sorry, but it all just came out of nowhere. You being alive, having that book. I guess I just needed some time to process it. It was only last night, after all.”

  Isaac shrugged.

  “Thanks for telling me now. Okay, last question. Why did you act so worried when I told you that Edwin and I copied some of the pages?”

  She bit her lip again and averted her gaze.

  “You know how I said I became obsessed? The first part of the book I copied was about illusion magic. It stuck in my mind. I never felt like I had any control—I had to learn it. Or I’d go crazy. I can’t be sure, but I think that’s because it’s the section I started with.”

  They were both silent while they thought.

  “What section did you two copy?”

  Isaac thought back, tried to remember what they’d so desperately scribbled. When it came to him, the irony was palpable.

  “The part about opening and shutting portals. About beseeching gods and goddesses for assistance. As for Edwin, I’m honestly not sure. We had the book open between us, but he had the pages lifted to copy a different section.”

  “Oh, gods. Well, it’s a good thing you have Saldana’s dagger then. Hopefully she guides you. But I don’t know about Edwin.”

  She stood up and changed out of her pajamas, then reached under her bed and pulled out a box containing a set of robes. Isaac had never seen them before. Though similar in color to the ostentatious getups of the other Whogaarden elves, it lacked the finely detailed gold adornments and flashy lacing that characterized them. It was a simple design, just dark purple lined with black stripes. She’d clearly had it since before womanhood, as it was too small for her curves. It left a clear and tantalizing view of her cleavage and thighs.

  “I take it that robe has some significance?”

  “Boosts illusion powers,” she said. “I figure it might come in handy now that the city’s fallen. Come on, we need to go see Edwin. It hasn’t even been a day for you, so the obsession hasn’t kicked in yet, if it even will. But Edwin copied down the book a week ago. We need to see if I’m right. If he’s okay. But first, I want to go look through my fathers’ things. See if we can’t find any clues as to what happened.”

  Aerin disappeared into the main part of the house for a moment, then returned. She gestured him out of the room.

  “Come on, the servants aren’t around.”

  She took his hand, then led him out into the hallway. They walked along a ruby carpet, passed portraits of long-dead family members and elegant landscapes. Aerin peeked around a corner, then led him to an elegant set of dark wooden doors carved with images of lions. Carefully, Aerin checked inside, then pushed through the doors.

  They were met with an enormous wall of books that rose probably twenty feet in the air on every side of the room. A tall ladder leaned against one bookcase. In the center of the room, a luxurious lounge chair with velvet cushions stretched out over an exotic rug.

  “Not a bad place to hang out,” Isaac said. “But how are we supposed to find anything useful?”

  “I just want to know if he’s alive. If he’s in this dimension or on the other side of those portals. It’s been a long time, but I think there’s a book with a tracking spell.”

  “And you haven’t looked already? It’s been four days, right?”

  She shot him a look. “I’ve been a little distracted, Isaac. And to be honest, well, I just now remembered it. A passage in the book reminded me. Will you look to see if there’s any hair on his chair?”

  “Gross, but sure, I guess. You’ll need it for the spell?”

  “No, I just want it as a souvenir in case I never see him again.”

  “Okay, okay, no more questions.” He put his hands up.

  While Aerin shuffled through the bookcases, Isaac knelt beside the chair and looked closely at the headrest. Sure enough, several tiny hairs poked out from the velvet cushion.

  “Found some.
”

  “Good thing he’s balding, I guess. I’ve got the book.”

  She jumped down from the ladder with a book that looked just as old as the Occultus, but much smaller. Tucking it under her arm, she approached another bookcase across the room which stopped at about waist height, then continued upward after a wooden barrier. She pushed in a book, and the entire bottom shelf flipped around.

  “Whoa, what is that?”

  The shelf had been hiding a green table with the image of a hand on it. Unlit candles lined the back. A few jars topped it. Aerin opened one of the jars, pulled out a pinch of some powder, then sprinkled it on the candles. Flames licked the wicks immediately.

  She flipped through the pages, and Isaac only watched in fascination. There was so much more to this woman than he’d realized.

  Finally, she found what she was looking for.

  “Okay, bring me the hair.”

  Isaac pinched the tiny strand of hair between his fingers and carefully brought it over to her.

  “Put it on the hand,” she said, and he did.

  “What is this thing?”

  “Enchanter’s table. What we’re actually going to do is enchant the hair, then burn it. It will burn blue if he’s alive, red if he’s dead or in another dimension.”

  Isaac shrugged, then kept watching. He’d never seen anything like it before. Aerin put her own hand over the image with the hair between them. She muttered a few words under her breath while looking at the book. Her hand glowed a faint purple. She then lifted it, grabbed the hair, and held it to a candle.

  It erupted into blue smoke.

  “He’s alive,” she said.

  Isaac choked on the scent of burnt hair.

  “Damn,” he said. “I was kind of hoping he was dead.”

  She shot him another look.

  “What? He tried to sacrifice me!”

  Once the blue smoke cleared, he noticed a tiny note tucked under one of the candles.

  “What’s that?” he asked, grateful for the distraction.

  She pulled out the piece of paper and unfolded it.

  “A note from my father,” she said. “Don’t know who it was for. It says the five talismans have been infused. We are ready for Scorpius.”

  “Talismans?” Isaac asked.

  “Protective charms,” she said. “A magic user can infuse something with a piece of his spirit. So long as the talisman isn’t destroyed, the user can never truly die. There’s a chapter in the Occultus about it.”

  “Damn, must be why your father’s still alive.”

  “Assuming the talismans are for him. They could be for someone else, maybe even Scorpius.”

  “Damn.” It was all he could say. “And there’s five of them? I guess we’d better figure it out.”

  “Agreed,” she said. “But first we need to go check on Edwin.”

  After checking to make sure the coast was clear, Aerin led him back out to the hallway and onward to the streets of Avalour.

  6

  The streets were eerily empty. No more elven guards made patrols anywhere. Isaac worried that traveling alongside an elf would cause trouble, but once they entered Dabow, they came across very few humans. Any political activities were likely taking place in the nights and evenings. Even revolutionaries had daytime chores, he supposed, or perhaps they’d set up shop in Cormea already.

  The elves they encountered crossed the street at the sight of him. Being feared was surreal. It made no difference whether or not he’d participated in the coup. They didn’t notice or care that he was traveling with the mayor’s daughter. The shape of his ears was evidence enough of danger.

  Remains of upheaval were present all over Dabow—dislocated bricks, shattered windows, defaced statues. The humans may have rallied in their home district, but they’d clearly ventured far outside. Dabow had the unfortunate luck of being right in between Homoken and Cormea. Isaac wondered if the humans had ventured to all parts of the city.

  Edwin’s home was relatively untouched. They knocked on his door when they arrived, but there was no answer. They waited thirty seconds before knocking again. Again, nothing.

  “Should we come back?” Aerin asked.

  “No, if he isn’t home, we should investigate. He’s a bartender. I don’t think he’s left his house before noon in years.”

  “Fine, I suppose we’ll have to break in then.”

  Isaac was surprised by her immediate willingness to commit a crime, but then again, he was learning all sorts of new information about her today.

  “My breaking and entering days are behind me,” he said. “I don’t have a lock pick.”

  Aerin’s cheeks reddened.

  “I might be able to help with that.”

  She held a hand over the lock and muttered something under her breath. A faint purple light formed in her palm, then entered the lock. She reached out and opened the door.

  “You can open locks with illusion magic?”

  “Sure, lockpicking is all about perception,” she said, momentarily forgetting her shame. “You only need the lock to believe the key is present.”

  She smirked and pushed her way inside.

  “Wait…” Isaac stroked his chin. “Locks don’t have minds. Surely something must actually be manipulating space for that to work.”

  “The lock is manipulating space,” she said. “It has no mind, but I can instill perception in it.”

  He began to raise another question, then thought better than it. He’d learn more soon enough.

  Edwin’s home was even more disheveled than last time. Now chairs were knocked over, glasses were shattered, and floors were covered in ash and stale ale.

  “I take it this isn’t normal,” Aerin said.

  “Not... exactly.”

  “We should look for his notes, right?”

  Isaac nodded, and they commenced a search. For half an hour, no furniture went unturned, no corner went unchecked. They learned a few amusing facts about Edwin. Namely, that he had a fairly extensive collection of dwarf-on-elf erotica and a half-written manuscript for a romance novel. Isaac got a good laugh out of that. He made a note to tease his friend if he ever saw him again. Tease, then encourage his artistic expression, of course.

  However, there was no sign of the copied pages. Nor were there any other clues to guide them.

  “Damn, where’d you go buddy?” Isaac sighed and sat on his friend’s couch.

  “Maybe he’s just out doing something.” Aerin put a hand on his shoulder.

  Isaac shook his head.

  “No, even he wouldn’t leave his house in a state like this. All the doors are locked, but there was obviously a struggle.”

  “So what do you think happened?”

  “Honestly, I think one of those portals opened right here in his house and took him. It’s the only thing that makes sense to me. I don’t want it to be true, but it probably is. He’s dead.”

  “You don’t know that for sure,” she said. “Even if he did get taken, you have no idea what those things were doing.”

  “Yeah.” Isaac’s voice went flat, defeated. “Maybe he’s getting a four-tentacle massage.”

  She didn’t laugh, but he didn’t want her to anyway.

  “You guys were good friends, huh?”

  “Yeah,” Isaac said. “We were close.”

  He cleared his throat and stood up. “No use in crying about it. We should probably keep searching the city.”

  Aerin stood up and hugged him. “Isaac, if you need to talk about it—”

  “No, no,” he said. “We should go. Let’s get to Cormea. If there are any clues to what happened, that’s where we’ll find them.”

  He moved toward the door, but hesitated.

  “I don’t suppose you have any idea how things are looking over there, do you?”

  “In Cormea? No, I haven’t ventured far from home. There have been rumors though. I’ve heard it isn’t a good place for elves right now.”

  “Ar
e you going to be safe?”

  She lowered her hood and closed her eyes, then took a deep breath. She was still for a moment, then began chanting. Her ears twitched. The pointed tips rounded out until they looked human.

  “I am now,” she said.

  “You’re a shapeshifter, too? My gods, what else have you been hiding?”

  She laughed.

  “I didn’t really change the shape. Feel them.”

  Isaac reached out and touched her right ear. In the space just above the top, where the point would be, he felt its original form, now invisible. He was surprised how much of a difference it made. There always seemed to be more physical differences between humans and elves, though they’d always been hard to pinpoint. But with just this one alteration, she easily passed for human. He admired her good looks once again. Strangely, he couldn’t tell if her being human made her more or less attractive.

  “Very impressive,” he said. “Can you take any form you want?”

  She laughed and kicked lightly at him.

  “Don’t get any ideas, okay?”

  He hadn’t been thinking of her magic that way, but now he certainly was.

  “I can’t anyway,” she said. “Not yet. I can make minor alterations in my appearance, but realistic, full-body illusions are beyond my abilities. Maybe someday. To be honest, I haven’t practiced in a long time.”

  He shrugged. “You’ll get opportunities soon. Come on, let’s go check out Cormea.”

  The rumors Aerin heard were an understatement. Cormea was indeed not friendly to elves. Arguably, it wasn’t friendly to humans either. The city center was a war zone. Half the government buildings were no longer standing, and the others had human guards standing outside. Other humans patrolled the streets in elven armor—stolen from the guards, he presumed—waving bows and swords awkwardly. These were clearly new weapons for them.

  “Gods,” Isaac whispered when they were nearby. “How many of the elven guards got taken?”

  “Most of them, I think,” she whispered back. “About half the elves in Cormea were taken. And there are more guards here than anywhere else in the city. Were, anyway.”

  They headed toward the temple. Isaac was not surprised to see that only two of the walls were still standing. A few humans wandered or loitered outside, but none paid close attention. As casually as they could, they approached it. Two human men stood outside the main doors and passed an enormous bottle of ale back and forth. It wasn’t yet noon, but they’d clearly been at it awhile. They watched Isaac and Aerin pass through with bleary eyes. One of them opened his mouth as if to say something lewd to Aerin, but the thought apparently passed. They went through unchallenged.