“No one will be up here for a bit, and I’ll know before they arrive. They’ll be coming from the other direction anyway,” the Registry Master explained. “Now, can any of you tell me exactly what happened while you were in the Challenge and what you’ve concluded? I want all of the details.”
“I’m sure you know the Challenge starts outside the building, in a forest with some of the corpsevine cuttings?” Dav answered immediately. He waited long enough for the Registry Master to nod, then continued. “We made it to the building without too much trouble; we’d been killing the cuttings in the forest before that so it wasn’t too bad. The only thing we noticed was that there were some that imitated humans; they weren’t really any tougher, and I didn’t think about it much at the time. Once we reached the building, we decided to check the entire exterior before we went in…”
Sophia looked over at Amy and shrugged. She got a wink in response. If Dav wanted to tell the story, Sophia wasn’t about to interfere and it seemed like Amy was just as happy to let him talk as well.
Feather line break [https://i.imgur.com/jKYxZpG.png]“...after that, it was an easy walk back to the Registry.” Dav finished the story with only a few questions from Registry Master Jessamine for clarification as he went. He didn’t leave anything of note out, which was fine with Sophia.
The only time the Registry seemed surprised was when he mentioned what the Feat and Wisp rewards were, but she didn’t comment on it beyond confirming Amy’s insistence that they were excellent and saying that they’d want to have a long discussion with Rensyn about what it meant for their future. Sophia took that to mean that it was unusual but not unheard of.
She also guessed that the Registry Master didn’t think Rensyn was the person who owned the bird pin. Sophia hadn’t really thought he was; his hatred and fear of corpsevines seemed real and she didn’t want to think that he was someone who’d set up what he considered a horrifying monster just to get ahead. He didn’t seem the type for that.
Not that she really knew what the plan was.
The Registry Master nodded at the end of the tale. “That was a good summary Dav, thank you. I agree; the pin was one of the things you needed to find, and was something we missed. I seem to remember seeing the rock display when we killed the original corpsevine crown, but I didn’t even think about it. There may well be another seed hidden there that you’ve prevented from sprouting by removing the rocks, but without taking care of the person behind it there’s a good chance this will happen again in a few years.”
Master Jessamine snorted and shook her head. “To think this happened under my watch. Sophia, I’ll need the pin.” She held a hand out towards Sophia.
Sophia blinked at that, then handed the bird pin to the Registry Master. It seemed like Master Jessamine wasn’t joking when she said she knew who they were. If she knew both Dav’s name and Sophia’s, she had to know Amy’s as well. At this point, Sophia wasn’t willing to bet that the Registry Master didn’t know Taika’s, and he was both a small animal and hadn’t been with them for very long.
“Thank you. Follow me, please.” The Registry Master’s words were clearly a courtesy; she didn’t look back as she led the small group through several small rooms to a larger stone room with a door that slid from one side and completely filled the opening they entered from. Once it was closed, it was very difficult to tell there was a door there at all; the only obvious way out was at the far end of the room, where a rectangular stone opening led to darkness.
It was only when Sophia saw the darkness that it occurred to her to wonder exactly where the light came from. It came from above, but there were no obvious lights or even light spells; instead, some of the stones in the ceiling glowed. They were weakly magical, but so was everything else. They were similar enough to the stones next to them that Sophia had to wonder if the apparent light was just as much an illusion as the rest of their surroundings.
It was almost enough to make one paranoid, but Sophia could see the lines of the spellform that surrounded them. If she had to, she could break it. It probably wouldn’t be easy and might have some bad consequences for anyone near the enchanted device that maintained it, but she could do it.
“I came as quickly as I could,” Halven’s words surprised Sophia; she hadn’t heard the apothecary enter the room. “I take it this has something to do with the Nexus Major Feat? I didn’t think we’d have to address that in a formal meeting.”
Sophia stared at the apothecary. He wore some complicated form of robe; it was clearly meant to be formal, but it didn’t quite seem to lie right, like he hadn’t quite gotten it on correctly. That was bad enough, but the fact that his formal robe seemed to be covered in ducks was a bit too much for her. That couldn’t be right. Surely she was seeing it wrong.
She closed her eyes and opened them again. Nope, those were definitely still ducks and geese, waterfowl of one sort or another. Some of them might have been duck-adjacent monsters, but the black and white one on his sleeve looked just like something she could have seen on a beach.
Could the pin be his? It was similarly bird-themed, though it definitely didn’t look like a duck to Sophia. She’d guess it was a phoenix, which was anything but waterfowl.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
Halven [https://i.imgur.com/c3jM4qF.jpeg]
Master Jessamine shook her head. “No, not directly. That will be a boon for us all, but we have some other things to take care of. Did you bring the chairs?”
“Ah,” The surprised look and slight red flush on Halven’s face as he patted his sides where there might have been pockets in another outfit made it impossible for Sophia to control her expression. She had enough trouble not actually laughing out loud.
Master Jessamine nodded. “Would you run downstairs and grab them? Please make sure Aymini knows we’re up here, as well.”
“Right.” Halven’s embarrassment didn’t seem to have faded any as he turned and hurried back into the dark corridor.
Jessamine had a grin on her face as she shook her head, but she didn’t say anything.
By the time the next person came through the opening, the room had completely shifted; the doorway even seemed to be in a different spot, in a corner instead of in the middle of the wall. Sophia expected that to be simply an illusion until a snake-man stepped through the new doorway. Was it actually moving, was it changing her perception, or was it simply concealing a larger opening? Any of the three options seemed possible.
Sophia really wanted to study the spellform that made it work. For once, her father’s obsession with spellforms, especially the spellforms for wards, made a lot of sense to her right now. He could take something like this apart and make it recognize him as someone who could control it, or at least let him through. All she could do was break it, and that was not nearly as useful.
Maybe the Registry Master would let her study it after the meeting? Sophia didn’t have much real hope in that, not when what she wanted to learn was how to break it. She could wish for it, but it probably wasn’t worth pursuing. She’d need to find something else to study.
It was disappointing, but right now she needed to pay attention to people like the snake-man who’d just entered. His outfit was also a robe, but it looked more like colored dyed leather than the shiny silk of Halven’s robe or the duller but sturdier-looking material of the Registry Master’s dress. A tail escaped from under the folds of his colorful robe. The presence of both hands and feet meant that he was far less snakelike than the descriptions she’d heard, but his head looked far more like a snake’s than a lizard’s.
Johan [https://i.imgur.com/nGnDmgf.jpeg]
Sophia hadn’t actually met the snake-man, but she knew who it had to be: Johan, the actual owner of the overpriced magic item shop in the Registry. Whenever she was in there, it was an employee, not the owner, who was visible if anyone was there at all.
Her guess was confirmed by the Registry Master’s greeting. “Johan. I wasn’t expecting you so quickly.”
The human-shaped snake gestured dismissively with his clawed left hand. “I was in the back, checking the records. I have not been able to buy anything of quality since that merchant came through; with the new Challenge, far more has sold than normal. I expect that to continue with increased Wisp awards for the next year.”
His voice was slightly raspy but completely without the hissing sound that movies tended to add to snake-people. His feelings were not obvious on his face, but his voice revealed his satisfaction with the current situation. His tone changed to concern as he continued. “We are not going to be discussing anything that will change that here, I hope?”
The Registry Master shook her head, but whatever she was going to say in response was lost as a clatter of running footsteps heralded Halven’s return. Once again, he wasn’t carrying any chairs; instead, he had a stack of small seat cushions. He handed one to each of them, but Sophia wasn’t quite sure what to do with hers until she saw Johan set his cushion down in midair. It supported itself in the air as it shimmered and expanded into a large, comfortable-looking overstuffed chair whose seat was exactly as high as the height he triggered it at.
It was an oddball of a magic item, clearly made to make moving seating easier, but Sophia wasn’t going to argue. She picked a spot against the wall where she could see everything, then set her cushion down and waited for it to expand. Dav picked a spot next to her, while Amy took her other side.
Sophia wondered how long they’d have to wait. It could be a while; Samuel was on the list, and as far as Sophia knew, he was still out at the temporary base they’d used while they were hunting corpsevines. Sophia knew the Registry had ways to contact people; she’d seen that when they met Rensyn and he was called to break up a fight in the restaurant. Samuel would still have to make his way back to the Registry and change, since “formal” apparently meant “wearing a robe.”
It would have made more sense for the Registry Master to call a meeting for the next day, wouldn’t it? A few hours’ delay might even have been enough.
As if summoned by Sophia’s doubt that he could get there in time, the next person through the darkened doorway was the foxkin fire mage. He looked anything but happy to be there, or maybe it was his clothing he despised. Sophia had to admit that while the black robe with red and gold accents probably advertised his specialty, the entire thing would have been better if it imitated a real fire the way one section near the bottom of his robe did. The rest of it simply clashed with his red hair.
Samuel [https://i.imgur.com/xye0Mkw.jpeg]
Samuel didn’t bother trying to question the Registry Master when he arrived. He simply snatched the pillow Halven held out to him, made a chair, and threw himself into it. His scowl never budged.
“What do you think got into him?” Dav leaned across the armrest of his chair and whispered to Sophia. “He’s usually so cheerful.”
Sophia shook her head and whispered back. “I think it’s the clothes, but maybe he just doesn’t like formal meetings or thinks he shouldn’t be here?”
If the bird really was a phoenix, a bird associated with fire and rebirth, it could belong to Samuel. That would explain his expression; he could be upset that his plan was upended by the completion of the Leveled Challenge. She bit her lip, then offered the thought to Dav. “Do you think it was his?”
Dav frowned, then slowly shook his head. “Can’t rule it out, he’s good at killing corpsevines, but he’s not egotistical enough.”