“I do not believe direction will be a concern for them any longer,” Tadry said, looking from the suspended spying panel toward her superior.
“Good,” Gaius answered, glancing across the myriad of displays, each centered upon one group or the other within the tower. Progress through the tower had been a slow affair, purposefully so, but it seemed that everything would arrive at its conclusion soon, one he hoped to shape into a workable outcome. “Continue to monitor and keep the groups separate. Competition over entry into event four will not be allowed.”
Tadry nodded, her eyes flicking between the three groups she was tasked to monitor. Gaius sensed the barest spark of contempt in the flex of her aura; she did not like to be told to do what she was already doing it seemed. Small matter, he could stomach a bit of contempt if it allowed him to reassert control of the trial.
He waded back to his own desk in the monitoring room. The basalt oval laid stacked with reports, readings, and sensor data that he had been at work stitching into something understandable, something actionable. To his side, multiple maps of the surrounding region lay replete with scrawled lines, scribbled inferences, guesses, and uncertainties. Eighteen circles each marked with their supporting data and likelihoods stood out to him. They were made by his hand but doubt still lingered in his thoughts about how accurate they might be. The evidence was just so little to go on after all.
The door to the outer chamber opened, though Gaius had long sensed the approach of the Guildmaster’s granddaughter. Arabella Willian strutted into the room, her goddess getup abandoned in favor of her armor, scales of shining metal that molded and flexed like a second skin. Two staves, the notorious Avalanche and Hoarfrost, stood out on her back, weapons so potent that they bent space around their ends and even suppressed dropped the temperature of the room. Effervescent hair, a flowing myriad of indigo, violet, and ice blue floated in the air behind her, framing a smiling face that had led more than one man to their deaths. It would seem that the Witch of Winter answered his call with all seriousness, good.
“My lady,” Gaius said, offering a slight dip of his head to the woman. She did not outrank him, but he was not beyond pleasantries when they were directed toward someone he might actually respect. “You look girded for war.”
“I am not the only one.” She looked him up and down, eyes lingering on the dawnash breastplate he wore, the unnamed sabers on his hips, and the Chain of Crescents which dangled from his neck–a difficult thing to look away from, instinct demanded one pay attention to such a lethal instrument. Perhaps not his full armory, but a proud display of his treasures; he only hoped that it might be enough.
“Yes,” he said, moving his fingers across the map. “I believe the adage states that preparing for war is the best path toward peace.”
“Is that what we engage in today? Peace.”
“No.” Gaius spun the map around on the top of his desk, allowing Arabella a good look at what he had written. “Sixteen hours ago, there was a change in the anomaly that we have been sensing. A fluctuation in the spreading of this menacing influence, enough that data could be gathered and dissected.”
In front of them both stood a map showing the entirety of the lands claimed and owned by Lord Terabrask, the Lord of Grim. Of course, Lord Terabrask was also the married-in son of the Grandmaster, and his role as lord of the city was perfunctory. The endowed nobility started to get a bit uppity when they perceived a simple guild of magicians as outright claiming that they controlled territory. An infantile rouse, one that all parties understood as such, but a necessary one it seemed.
Across the thousands of square miles mapped out stood his markings, most of which existed within the twin ranges that created the border of the Trial Path. So much ground to cover, so little manpower to do it.
“Within one of these places will lurk our culprit, the one that has made such chaos of our otherwise orderly trail of bodies.” Arabella tapped the map with one sharp nail.
“Like or dislike my approach to this task, that matters not. What matters is that a threat has been detected within our borders, and seeing as how that threat has been directly responsible for the fiasco that this Trial has become, it is our task as moderators to see to its dismissal.”
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“When my grandfather asked me to reinforce you in oversight of the trial, he asked me to keep a handle on things, not to go hunt unknown and powerful monsters,” she said.
Gaius roamed his eyes conspicuously up and down the woman. “For one that doesn’t want to go and fight unknown monsters, you certainly come dressed as if that is your plan.”
“It is your plan, no? I am merely here as the tool of the guildmaster. Direct me as you will.” Though, from the look in her eyes, Gaius could tell that there were things she was keeping from him. He would never know it from detecting thoughts or emotions through her aura, the woman had an incredible control of what it told, but it was more of a feeling. It didn’t bother him much, so long as she helped put this issue to bed, she could have her machinations.
“My plan indeed,” he said. With a pen, Gaius cut the map in half. “We will be taking no chances in the pursuit of this unknown entity, but neither can we be slow in our approach. All that we know for certain is that there was a disturbance in the makeup of its effect, an effect so incredibly difficult to measure in the first place that we have had no previous hope of locating its source. It could mean a few things, but we will be hoping that the unknown entity was at home when this fluctuation occurred.
In this tower, we have two rank four magicians, yourself and I, and thirteen rank threes. You and I will take a compliment of five each and begin to investigate each of these possible locations. We have no idea what might be responsible for this effect, but I will take no chances with whatever danger it might pose. If you find something, obliterate it. If you find yourself overwhelmed, pull away and call for the guildmaster. I dare say that if either you or I cannot handle this threat even with support then it will require such a force.”
“My grandfather hasn’t left Grim in more than a decade,” Arabella said, her playful smile replaced by a serious line. “You seem to be expecting that this is caused by some unknown creature, but could it just as easily be a natural phenomenon? With the scale of the magical influence, would that not also be a rather likely possibility?”
“My luck has never been so good,” Gaius said, his turn to smile, though his was a grim thing. “If you find such a natural phenomenon, I can trust you to contain it?”
“For what it’s worth, I am the second best at spellcraft in this room,” she said. In fact, it was worth a considerable amount. “I also wish to see this put to an end. My father has told me that the effects have begun to be felt back in the city. The influence there is even more subtle, but with a city of tens of thousands of people, the effect is incredible. Makes me wish that my grandfather would just put an end to it.”
“He is,” Gaius said. “We are his instruments to do such a thing.”
“I suppose we are.” With a slide of her nail down the page, Arabella divided the map into two neat sheets, rolling up the left. “Do you require a craft to carry you and your team to your destinations?”
“No. Thank you for the offer.” Gaius rolled his own piece of the map up and stuffed it into a bag. “I have a craft, but even as advanced as it is, this task will take a good time to complete.”
“We have a lot of distance to cover,” Arabella agreed.
“Best get to it then.”
She took a step back, looking to the edge of the room where five men and women stood, guild veterans all, ready to escort her. “Will the tower continue to run the evaluation while we are away?”
“I’ll be in charge of that.” Sitting in a corner of the room, Taessa Calana, the regality of her goddess uniform somewhat spoiled by the slump with which she sits, waved her goblet of wine toward Arabella. Arabella did not recognize the goddess she was portraying, some obscure cult, that would make sense for Taessa. “I will keep things spinning nicely here while you two step away. Not to worry, I will only give the pups a bit of a thrashing, nothing that will leave long-lived scars.”
Arabella frowned at that, looking at Gaius out of the corner of her eye. “So, you really are set to go forward with that kind of test.”
“Not much of a test really,” Gaius admitted. “But we are going to find ourselves short on staff leading into this final part of the tower. Facing a rank three magician will prepare them for what it is like to stare down a rank three monster, something that you of all people should appreciate.”
“You are trying to pick at my old wounds, but you will find only scars there now,” Arabella said, but she could not help but think back to her first encounter with such a creature. Fighting against her uncle in the circle had done little to prepare her for that, but it was probably better than nothing.
“We are all scarred in that way,” Gaius dismissed. “Besides, the winner gets a soul cage, a nice one.”
Arabella sighed, shaking her head at what she perceived as evident foolishness. Beating up children was not to her taste, but evidently Taessa felt the need to do so. “Nothing permanent,” she said, staring down the woman in the corner.
“Of course not,” Taessa huffed. “I am not some monster.” The woman took her goblet and filled it once more with wine from the table she sat at. “Should you two not be moving already? Did you not read the basic tenants; they abhor wasting time?”
“Very well.” Arabella directed her attention toward the five at the edge of the room. “You will find my craft attached to the platform on the roof. It might be a tight squeeze, but it will get the job done.” The five gave a half-hearted reply, filing out of the room, jostling each other good-naturedly. Arabella looked back to Gaius. “I take my leave.”
“Good hunting, Arabella.”
“Good hunting, administrator.”