Khalid al-Ashtar glanced at the piece of parchment. The mage would’ve been hesitant to take the message seriously if not for how exquisite the penmanship was. Whoever had written those handful of words in Caliphate-common, had done so as if painting a work of art. The al-Ashtar elder could scarcely believe this had come from just anyone, whoever had found the way to deliver a message into his meditation chamber was clearly well-educated.
The fact that the timing just so happened to coincide with patriarch Naru’s departure towards the capital seemed all too convenient as well. Had the message from the Yulvenir clan been fake? Or were they somehow involved? Khalid wasn’t sure, and that bothered him. As both a mage and an elder, he had many tools at his disposal, but political clout beyond the city walls was not one of them.
It was a lesson that hopefully Naru would learn without needing to die in the process, an unfortunate fate his father had experienced first hand.
As he approached the moon-tower, Khalid discreetly observed it through his magical senses. The structure’s enchantments did not show any signs of tampering, with only a few passive safety and self-sustaining functions currently powered. By all appearances, there should not be anyone within, for the alarms had not been triggered. Yet Khalid was no hatchling, he’d long since learnt that the enchantments in the towers had not been made to prevent a stealthy approach. An oversight he’d personally seen to correct within his family’s estate.
“Stay here. Let none enter.” He commanded his bodyguards as he entered the tower’s base, slowly and steadily slithering his way up the steps.
Khalid found his thoughts returning to the last conversation he’d held with Naru. The household patriarch had not been pleased, threatening to cut-off Khalid’s supply of aether outside of necessary combat. Even days after his departure, the elder felt a hot tingle of annoyance at the memory. A whelp, barely a couple dozen summers, not a shred of talent in knot-craft, and already thinking himself the sovereign of the household Khalid had built over the course of centuries.
Entering the tower’s main chamber, his irritations were set aside as he saw a man clad in cloth standing on the balcony.
“Mister al-Ashtar.” The stranger spoke in Caliphate-common as soon as Khalid closed the door. He bowed in an odd manner that the najasil did not recognize. The mage also noted a slight lack of accent in his voice, betraying that this person was likely a foreigner to the Caliphate. “I am Liam Carter, a pleasure meeting your acquaintance.”
Were this man a draxani, Khalid would’ve quickly assumed that the spoken family name hinted at the person’s roots being very foreign. But this was a human, pale as milk, with dark eyes and a body that appeared quite thin underneath the layers of cloth.
The question of where he hailed from was the obvious choice moving forward, but looking into the human’s eyes and mischievous grin, Khalid felt like this was not a meeting for pleasantries. “You sent the letter, and I am here,” he said instead.
“I will ask forgiveness for the rudeness, rest assured I have no intention of doing something so dour as threatening to reveal your secrets.” The young human’s grin grew ever so softly. “The letter was the least troublesome way to contact you without being hindered or spied-upon.” Leaning back, he glanced over the railing. “After all, most of those meant to follow you around have learnt very well to answer patriarch Naru’s questions.”
Khalid’s tail flickered in annoyance. He knew of Naru’s spies, but that this stranger brought it up meant something else was going on. The vagueness of the statements were also suspect, how likely might it be this was a swindler? “I have many secrets, yet I am uncertain of which one you claim to know.”
He chuckled. “Shall I narrow the list of possibilities for you, elder?”
“Possibilities?” Khalid’s eyes narrowed.
“For example, let’s say that I know exactly why you failed at tetrapod knot formation with titan golemancy. It could only mean that either I have more knowledge about magic than you do, or that I at least happen to be affiliated with someone who does.” The human smirked, pulling himself up to sit on the balcony’s railing. “Well, the alternative is that someone decrypted the four-step encryption in your research notes. And that should be impossible without knowing that the key-words happen to be the names of your step-siblings, right?”
It was as if the floor had very nearly given out underneath Khalid, there was a sudden wave of nausea followed by concern, indignation, with anger quickly following it. The najasil coiled for only long enough to realize his thoughts were all too eagerly aimed towards finding out how this stranger had intruded so deeply into the secrets of his magics. But the answer presented itself readily once he took a moment to calm himself.
“A God has sent you.”
There was no other way someone could’ve pierced through everything he’d built, none with the experience, let alone the capabilities.
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“In a sense you’re right, and in a way you’re not? I am here in Godly business, but rest assured that I alone was the one to figure out your secrets. It’s part of the service I’m currently providing.” Liam straightened a little. “Ah, would you wish for me to repeat myself after you activate your truth detection amulet? I see you brought it deactivated.”
Khalid bristled slightly, but kept himself from showing it. “It seems to me that against someone like you, it would only cause more confusion, not less of it.”
The human laughed. “You have no idea how right you are.”
“So?” The najasil pressured. “You made claims that you know why the tetrapod knot formation failed.”
“Oh that? It’s just a lack of wood mana.” The strange pale human shrugged. “Steel is better than iron, and all it takes is a little carbon in the mix. Proportion should be roughly three parts wood for every seven parts metal.”
“If you are trying to get me killed, you will have to try something else.” Khalid scowled. “Nothing but destruction comes from mixing that which cannot be mixed. Like oil and water, it all comes apart.”
“If you mix oil and water properly, you create something called an emulsion. It’s not easy, but it’s not hard either. Butter is an emulsion, for example, and you seem to be an enjoyer of it.” He cackled, legs kicking in the air as he dangled at the edge of the balcony, seated just a small nudge away from falling. “Well, not much of a surprise you wouldn’t know, I guess. You do seem the type.”
Khalid’s eyes narrowed. “The type?”
“Seeing how you took a brush to paint my character, I’ll do the same. You don’t strike me as a mage willing to see past the surface of things.” Liam leveled his gaze with the mage, snapping his fingers and creating a bright blue arc of electricity between them. “See this? This is neither a divine gift nor an enchantment. This is something I made on my own. All it took was paying a little bit of attention and recognizing the patterns.”
The al-Ashtar elder regarded the human, staring at the still sparkling fingers with a mix of apprehension and suspicion. This Liam fellow was dancing around in this conversation, leading him by the tongue and spinning him around, clearly attempting to get him to lose sight of things. There were a great deal of things about the human that were concerning, particularly that lightning he’d revealed, yet it was becoming clear this was a distraction.
“Who sent you, and for what reason?” The elder crossed his upper arms.
“Ah, and here I was about to make a comment or two about how your lack of curiosity are the reason that Bellisandre boy reached sixth circle within just a few decades, while you took centuries.” The human’s smirk grew as Khalid’s brows twitched in annoyance at the mention of that name. “Still, rushing to the point is boring, but I guess I can oblige. A Goddess of a previous Age is looking for a Champion, and I’m the guy running around looking for candidates.”
Khalid’s body tensed. “And you thought me a good option, thinking that because the Gods of this age killed my father, I would jump at the opportunity for vengeance?” Every word was spoken with a threatening hiss, lower hands caressing the hilts of the blades upon his hip. “Is that why you sought this secrecy? To hide from priests and temples?”
“You don’t strike me as the vengeful sort. But to answer your second question: yes, I don’t exactly think it’s good manners to knock on someone’s door and ask them whether they’d be interested in doing a little bit of heresy out where everyone can hear.” The human leaned back, body teetering over the edge, his leg hooked on the railing to allow him the anchoring. “Whatever the case, you have everything you want, you have no real reason to put your cushy position at risk. Hell…” His hand pointed up towards the sky, at a brilliant red star. “...I could tell you that the Gods of this Age are wrong, that the red star is going to hit, that most people in this city will end up dead in a good and proper war, and you wouldn’t care.”
“Even if it were true, there is nothing someone like you, or an old God, could do about it,” Khalid said. “Not if the Gods of this Age are as powerless or unwilling to change it as you imply.”
“See? No curiosity. You’re like hardtack, bland and boring.” The human sighed, leaning further out. “It was a pleasure meeting you, mister al-Ashtar.” Lowering his voice to a barely audible grumble, he turned his attention to the moonlit desert outside. “Even if it was a waste of my time.”
Before Khalid could say anything, Liam’s foot untangled, and he plummeted.
The najasil rushed, a part of him reacting in a vain attempt to catch the human, but too far away to do so in time. The following thought was of the suspension enchantment, one that should remain active, so though wary, Khalid approached the balcony and peered over.
There was nothing underneath. Neither suspended midair nor splattered on the ground below.
With the reassurance that the human had seemingly vanished, the mage pondered over the exchange, trying to figure out if he’d missed anything during the conversation. It had felt as if he’d opened a book that contained far too many things he did not know of, leaving him more confused and annoyed than at the start.
Frustrated and a fair bit irritated, Khalid slithered off.
He’d need to change the encryption method for his notes… and maybe try out a new line of experimentation.
----------------------------------------
“That felt like an unnecessarily dramatic exit.” Maridah whispered into Liam’s ear as he hung, invisible, a foot beneath the window, dangling in the air from a rope that also happened to be invisible. All of it thanks to the Goddess’ handiwork. “Are you certain this is the right path?”
“First, yes. Going in smoothly would only get us kicked away, brash and upfront is the better option. Getting in his nerves was inevitable, so I just leaned into it. Second, and more importantly, this is a perfectly normal level of dramatic exit.” Liam chided. He wriggled, trying to find some comfort. It was very hard to do so when all you had was the rope tying him to the balcony. He tried to pull himself up, but failed to summon enough strength to do so. “Now, could you help me get back up?”
“Rule one of dramatic exits, Liam, always make sure you have a backup plan.”
Her chuckle led to silence.
Liam dangled from the rope.
“Maridah?”