Chapter 12 Trust

Alexander gently touched down next to the bloodied cadaver that was Sary Smith, the wizard he had just been engaging with and the magical half of Mr. Nobody. He peered down at her looking for any sign of life but found none. Her eyes were open and staring blankly into the ceiling of the large cavern Safeharbor was situated in. Blood leaked from the back of her head. Not enough for her cause of death to be a shattered skull. He poked the side of her head with his boot and her head rocked to the side limply. “Broken neck.” He said aloud and turned to see Isaac and Lenna standing over the other half of the Mr. Nobody problem.

“Definitely a doppelganger.” Lenna told the boys. “Skin isn’t right for anything else.”

“Not to mention it keeps trying to put itself back together. That’s not something that a creature with a defined skeleton can do.” Isaac added. The smith opened his eyes but they looked unfocused as they rolled around aimlessly. “Should I hit him again?” He asked.

Lenna shook her head. “Every hit is probably taking memories away.” She explained.

Isaac looked over to Alexander and saw him staring at them. “Got any way to keep this one from being a problem later?” He asked the wizard.

Alexander looked down at the smith and watched his arm twitch. “Not really. There is a reason their kind are killed on sight.” The wizard explained. “You can try interrogating him now and if you don’t get anything good just kill him. He’s a security risk regardless.” He gestured towards the dead wizard at his feet. “It would have been better to take this one alive.”

“She fireballed me.” Isaac replied as his excuse for what he had done. “Twice now that I think about it.” He nodded sagely with his hand on his chin. “Then there was the poison bubble trap, that sucked by the way, and she almost broke my dragon. She should be glad that she lived as long as she did.”

Lenna shook her head at Isaac before turning her attention back to the doppelganger. She planted her boot on its chest and stared down at it. Its eyes looked like they tried to focus on her but kept slipping off. “Were you working with drow insurgents?” Lenna questioned directly. The doppelganger just stared at her blankly. It was regaining focus by the second as its body was burning its own biomass to repair the damage Isaac had inflicted. “Do you have more than one warehouse?” She continued. Still nothing.

“Alexander,” Isaac began. “can you use memory magic on him to find anything useful?”

Alexander shook his head. “In a few hours maybe but not right now. That fight took a lot out of me.” He explained. “Maybe Lady L’Vore?”

Isaac cracked a smirk and raised an eyebrow in amused question. “Lady?” He asked. “Not just Jala?”

Alexander shook his head. “No. She is still a noblewoman and I do not want to be on a first name basis with the mad witch you have living in my basement, Lord Wexler.” He explained evenly.

Isaac laughed. “Yeah she is pretty crazy.” He looked down at the doppelganger. “I guess we can give Jala a new toy for her experiments. I hope she can get something useful out of him before she turns him into whatever it is she does to the rest of the poor creatures that end up in her lab.”

“I’m going to call a cleric.” Alexander told the duo. “The guards will need treatment and I want to ask our wizard friend some questions.”

“Ask her if she was working with any drow.” Lenna chimed in. “If so we’ll need a location at least.”

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Alexander nodded. “As you say Lady V’Nova.” He replied.

“How are you going to ask her if she’s dead?” Isaac questioned.

“There’s magic to consult the dead. It isn’t very effective most of the time but we might get something good out of her.” Alexander explained.

“What are the limitations?” Isaac continued his questions.

“The information the soul has collected during life is constantly being lost. The sooner the ritual can take place the more accurate and complete the memories. We’ll only have her soul here to question for around a minute before it won’t be recognizable anymore. The ritual has the side effect of degrading the soul much faster than it would naturally.” Alexander lectured. “The ritual also only works on souls that weren’t taken in by a deity. Those souls are safe from tampering or degradation but I doubt Sary Smith was very devout.”

“Why does it only work on the non devout?” Isaac wondered.

“Those souls end up either in the hells, the heavens, or purgatory. All of those places are easy enough to plunder for the souls within. A god’s domain is impenetrable to the level of spells we are capable of.” Alexander finished. “Now if you’ll excuse me, we are burning memories.” He gave Isaac and Lenna a nod before taking out a sending stone that was easily the size of his hand and started talking into it. “Captain, it’s Alexander. I need a cleric and a few guards at…” Isaac stopped paying attention at that point and his focus was completely on Lenna and their prisoner.

“I guess we can just haul him there the hard way.” Isaac grumbled.

Lenna really wished she had some of the rope in her bottomless bag at that moment. “He looks heavy.” She commented.

Isaac kicked the man in the side. “Hey, make yourself easier to carry.” He ordered.

The man narrowed his eyes at Isaac. “No. I heard what you’re going to do to me.” He replied. His eyes then started darting around like he was looking for a weapon he could use.

“How resistant are you to lightning?” Isaac questioned and Kahtesh walked up next to them. “Unless you wanna walk? That can be arranged too.”

“Just kill me. It’s got to be better than whatever horrors that drow will think up.” He told Isaac defiantly.

“Yeah, I’m not dealing with this.” Isaac said and stomped on the man’s head knocking him unconscious again. He reached down and grabbed the man. He had to dial back his boosting as he was slowly running out of mana. This meant that the man was heavy and the deadweight was awful to carry but it was the best option. “Let’s go.” Isaac told Lenna.

The duo crossed town with the doppelganger. Every now and then their prisoner would start moving and Isaac would smash his head into the street. After the fifth time Lenna started to wince. By the twelfth she was glad that they were almost at Jala’s. The fourteenth time was into one of the stone tables in Jala’s laboratory.

“And what do we have here?” Jala asked as she walked over to her new toy. “A doppelganger?” She looked up at Lenna for confirmation and the younger woman nodded. “With how rough you are being with it I assume you just captured it?” Lenna nodded again. Jala grabbed the subject by the chin and looked into its face. She opened one of its eyes and watched as it tried to focus but failed. “Brain function is restoring nicely.” She quickly crossed the room to one of her cabinets and pulled out a small jar and a syringe. “I’ll need to sedate it so it doesn’t cause any problems.”

“That’s fine.” Isaac replied. “But first I need some information out of it. Information that you’ll have to pry out of its mind.” He explained.

Jala nodded slowly. “I am aware of memory magic but I have only ever used it to implant memories not retrieve them. It is useful for programming chimeras but that is the extent that I have had need of it.” She explained. “What information were you looking for?”

Isaac and Lenna shared a look. “If he had any drow contacts.” Isaac explained.

“You think my brother is behind this?” Jala asked rhetorically.

Isaac nodded. “I think there’s a chance he is and that’s enough to look into it.” He explained.

Jala nodded slowly. “He was never one to put all his money on one gladiator.” She frowned at the doppelganger. “I can try to check for you but you’d have better luck with a mage who specializes in it or has at least had formal training in the subject.”

“Just give it a try. If you don’t find anything then that’s that. I’ll see if Alexander can come by later to give it a go but if not feel free to dissect him.” Isaac told her. “I’ll leave him in your care. If you find out anything, send Lenna a message.”

“I will.” Jala promised. “How long should I wait for the young wizard?”

“Give him a day.” Isaac replied and turned to leave. “Don’t have too much fun.” He told her with a wave over his shoulder as he headed towards the exit.

Lenna gave Jala a long searching look. “We are putting our trust in you auntie.” She reminded the older woman whose eyes got a little wider before she nodded slowly in understanding. “Good.” Lenna replied. “Enjoy.” She said and joined Isaac outside.

Once the pair were alone again and walking towards the bar that Lenna had left Thomas at, Isaac asked a question that was also on Lenna’s mind: “Do you think we can trust her?”

Lenna frowned. She sighed deeply. “I hope so but I’m not sure.” She eventually replied. “Jallen is her brother. Her twin.” She shook her head. “Jala is not known for her loyalty, but if there was ever someone to make her do something stupid for loyalty’s sake…”

Isaac nodded and then finished her sentence for her: “It would be either Fen or her twin.”