Cherith, Michah, and Saul, along with Joel and Nathan, followed their mother out of the hall. Saul paused for a moment to catch a passing servant, leaving him with a message for the family steward, Jon. He caught up with his parents before they reached the monolithic Lazarus Building, the residence of the Viscount’s immediate family. Now that night had fallen, the imposing building’s uniform exterior was well lit by lights around the base and crenelations that made any subtle approach much trickier.
The family retired to the private sitting room on the second floor once the tower had been sealed for the night. Uncle Nathan was the only person outside of the Viscount’s direct family unit allowed to stay there at night, not counting a few core, trusted staff. Saul might also be allowed to stay when one of his sisters took over the family, but he suspected that other plans for him might have been decided by that time.
Once they were settled and isolated, Joel let out a protracted sigh, leaning back in the wooden glider and giving his brother a weary look.
“Nathan, I’m not surprised, disappointed, or even really worried about fallout, but why by all the angels and saints did you decide to put on that charade?”
“When I saw the Marquess’ gift I knew I needed to take things up a step,” Nathan shrugged, “how did Saul respond, by the way? I went to talk to Cherith while they were still talking.” He looked at Saul, “Michah had talked to you, right?”
“All she told me was to play along when you gave me your gift,” Saul replied, “I didn’t actually know what house was involved until Thaddeus made it obvious. I thanked him for the icon and said that I had already ruled out doppelganger.”
“And all that you and Mom told me was that there was something going on with the Marquess and to make sure Saul went along with Uncle Nathan’s plan,” Michah said defensively.
“He told me something about showing loyalty to their house and then that he needed to make a scene,” Cherith added.
“Ok, ok, I’ll acknowledge that I might have been more secretive than was really necessary,” Uncle Nathan said, holding his hands out placatingly at his three irritated niblings, “You’ve probably guessed something close to the situation anyway, but I’ll explain.”
“Just a moment,” Joel cut him off, “I need to speak with Saul privately for a minute.”
Everything around Saul seemed to become washed out except for his father, sound still coming through but now dampened somewhat. He saw Cherith sigh in exasperation.
“Saul, I need you to decide whether you want to try to succeed me or not.” Joel said seriously, “Cherith and Michah may have followed the tradition my brother and I seem to have created, but you can still compete for the title if you want, no matter what combination you choose.” Joel and his brother had sets that differed by only one Icon, giving them Assassin and Fool respectively. Michah and Cherith had done the same, giving them different versions of Fighter. “As things stand right now, I don’t think you would be markedly worse Viscount than Cherith. If your ambitions lie in that direction, I can still start scrutinizing you more.”
“I think Michah would be better, personally,” Saul remarked as he thought over his response.
Joel smiled, “I didn’t say that Cherith was in the lead.”
Saul nodded, settling on an answer.
“I’m still going to stay out of it,” he began, “getting an icon set that lets me use every kind of power has been what I want for a long time, but it’s more than that. It sounds like you want me to work towards being the next patriarch. I’ve always kind of wanted that as well, even if it does mean using a simple icon. If that’s what I’m working toward, then once I have my icons it will be easier for me to travel.
“Becoming a patriarch is a longer-term goal; it leaves me more freedom to see and do more with my power, and still be valuable to the family. The element icon makes the decision easier. Mirror and element are both really versatile on their own, so no matter how little a simple icon adds, I think I’ll still be happy with the choice.”
“I see. Do you know what element and mirror will produce?” Joel asked neutrally.
“No, I assumed you or Uncle Nathan did. I never seriously considered element since it's so rare.”
“Hmm, how about this,” his father said, glancing at the rest of the family, who could see only silent shadowy blobs, “As you know, with two proper icons and a simple one, your soul idol will be a creature instead of a saint. I believe there is one advantage to having a creature as your idol, an advantage that you told us all about yourself back when you started going to the Temple of Knowledge.”
“Right, yes, the idol of your soul can consciously shape the powers it gives you,” Saul said thinking back, “If you want a saint idol to do that, you have to join their church. One of the priests of the Scholar made an offer to that effect last year. But if it’s a creature, I only have to find one powerful enough and give it something it wants. The shaping is more general than a saint’s though, no specific powers.”
“That sounds like it could make for a good trip, does it not?” Joel asked leadingly.
“Yes! I would love to! What’s the creature? Where is it found?”
“I’m not sure either, we can ask Nathan in a moment. At a guess, somewhere in dwarven lands.”
“So he did get it from a dwarf, I thought he might have.” Saul said with satisfaction.
“Yes, he ran into a dwarven merchant somewhere near Elicaster when he was away a few months ago.” Joel confirmed, resting a cheek on his hand, “I’m not unsympathetic to your desire to travel. I haven’t had much chance to myself. I’m going to present your agreement to fully withdraw from succession as having been partially contingent on letting you take the trip, if that’s alright with you?”
“Sure, thanks.”
Saul leaned over to give his father a half hug, and Joel stood to embrace him. Uncle Nathan also chose that moment to use a cleansing light ability to break through the shadows.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“Oops.” He said, unconvincingly, “I was just checking for any hidden spies that might be listening in on your very serious chat.”
Joel and Saul both glared at him. Michah sighed behind them on the loveseat.
“Let me guess,” she said, “the competition’s about to heat up?”
“No.” Joel said firmly, then turned to his brother, “Sorry for interrupting you earlier Nathan, I’m sure Saul would rather be reading on his birthday evening, so let me just lay everything out without any more interruptions.”
Nathan nodded, and Joel finally explained, “As you all know, neither the Marquess nor Marchioness are in the city right now. What you may not know is that Marquess Doug Enchre is making a push for full immortality. Reliable gossip says that he took on his second immortal icon, and can no longer comfortably come out this far for any length of time. The Marchioness is now the only one-step immortal the family has. As you know, she can’t stay in the city permanently due to the low-quality environment, and no longer has someone to switch out with every couple seasons. She apparently pushed herself to stay as long as she did this year and keep a lid on this, but now she won’t be back for some time.”
“Does that mean that Marquess Doug failed?” Cherith asked. No matter how prepared you were, full immortality hinged on some unknown quality some people just didn’t have.
“He hasn’t taken the final step in that time, nor has anyone else in House Enchre taken the first.” Joel clarified, “We don’t know the state of their finances, but we think that they don’t have enough for even a simple immortal-tier icon after buying two proper ones. If things are that tight for them, then the situation is unlikely to change soon. Even if Marquess Doug does eventually succeed, he’s mostly immortal now. It could be decades, we don’t know.
“What we do know is that House Enchre can no longer maintain a one-step immortal in this city on a constant basis, which they are duty bound to do. If we can get a second member of our house to take that step, it may be possible to petition Duke Elicaster for control of the city and elevate our title to Marquess. In order to make that more likely and secure the position however, we would need a third member of our house likely to reach one-step immortal soon. The matriarch is almost two hundred years old.”
Everyone looked at Saul, who was starting to feel a little less confident about his assertions to his father.
“Saul has already demonstrated a degree of proficiency with the generic power of the simple icon,” his father continued, “and can already modify cantrips using the tattoo that he developed. As you know, a few young members of our house have gotten it as well, and none of them have been able to use it nearly as well, if at all. Matriarch Gussy has told me that such an understanding is important in using the simple immortal icon.
“Therefore, I am pleased to officially announce, to the people in this room only, that Saul Ficial has withdrawn from competition for the title of Viscount. With the mirror, element, and simple icons, he will push toward one step immortality and securing the future of our House. His first step will be a journey to visit his soul idol and take the growth of his power into his own hands with the help of a…?”
Joel paused his proclamation to gesture leadingly toward his brother, and everyone looked his way.
“How should I know what creature it is?” Uncle Nathan said with a shrug, “I didn’t see any of this coming before today. I thought he’d use death.”
The Viscount sighed dourly and sat back down in his glider.
“God damn it, Nathan,” he said, running a hand over his face.
“I can check when I go to the Temple of Knowledge tomorrow,” Saul offered.
“Thank you son, please…do that.”
There was silence for a moment before Saul spoke again.
“Just to make sure I understood the situation properly, the hunger icon they gave me was a test of loyalty? And pretending to take three proper icons means I passed?”
“Yes and no,” Michah explained, “You are seen as one of the most promising members of our generation, which they were bringing attention to. When their weakened position becomes widely known, I think the hope is that our house and you specifically are seen as likely to try to take advantage. That way we’re targeted by others to try to stop us from seizing the exact opportunity that father described before they can. That kind of infighting will give House Enchre more time to get back on their feet.”
“It does make all the effort I’ve put into playing up that tattoo you came up with somewhat unfortunate,” his mother said unhappily, “it was looking like a decent new source of revenue and political capital too. You can stop making a point of using it in public places now, by the way.”
“We could assign someone to act as bodyguard,” Cherith suggested, “if we use that new peon Saul’s going to be negotiating, it won’t be a change in current assignments that might be noticed.”
“That could work,” Joel agreed thoughtfully, “Saul could even enact the contract with his own title. That would be permanent though, so it would be up to him.”
Saul, having been somewhat the topic of conversation, was still standing in the middle of the room, everyone else seated on the loveseats or gliders. He stepped toward the door, stopping between his mother and sisters.
“A personal servant would be a nice birthday gift,” he said, “but for now, I just want to wind down for the evening and read some of the gifts I got at the banquet.”
He leaned down to give his mother a hug.
“That’s fine dear, have a good night.”
Saul left his family to their discussion. It had moved on from the important topics, and Michah usually let him know if he missed something later. Returning to his rooms, he set out the gifts he had received on a table in the sitting room and put the empty storage satchel in the small cubby outside the door.
He took the two fragments and absurd three icons to his sleeping chambers for now, put the mirror rings in his study, and added the simple rings, halves, and quarters to his purse.
This left him with the conundrum of whether to bathe now and read in his bedchamber, or take a look at the dwarven cantrip book first. There was a slim hope that an academic text from another culture could have insights that might help him use the mirror icon for cleaning purposes. It was unlikely, and he would have the element icon soon, which would obviate the issue. He fed a quarter to his tattoo to make sure it had enough power to operate the bath.
Now clean, Saul took the dwarven book and contract documents to his sleeping chambers and secured the room for the night. This unsealed his personal vault, which just contained some important or personal records and the icon fragments and icons he had received for his birthday last year. While getting a single one this year was a surprise, let alone three, they were all but expected at twentieth birthday parties. It was a chance to show wealth, curry favor, and potentially gain the political clout of influencing the powers of a noble scion just coming-of-age. All of the icons and fragments were labeled with who they were from, and he would be expected to inform them should he use the gift in his own power set. He added labels to the new icons and the flesh fragment, then put the cloud fragment with the rest from House Mulward before closing his vault.
He added another note to the growing section in his schedule about the peonage contract. If the man was accepted, seemed reliable, and was personally contracted to Saul himself, then he would go through his vault to see if any of the fragments he wasn’t likely to use would suit his servant’s new soul. While icon fragments would be an unreasonably generous reward for even exceptional service, engendering loyalty in a person directly responsible for keeping him safe while expanding the power set with which they could do so was just good sense.
Rather than read through the information about the man tonight, he set the documents aside and reclined in the chair next to his bed with Direct Icon Ontology: Metal: Dark/Light (Translated).