Chapter 2 A Demigod?
Isaac stopped and half turned to look over his shoulder at Izen. He met the older man’s firm, assessing gaze. He looked forward again to see Edward looking at him. “Go on ahead. It shouldn’t take long.” Isaac told the Blade Master.
Edward nodded. “I’ll wait at the end of the hall.” He told him. ‘You probably shouldn’t be left to wander the halls’ was left unsaid.
Isaac turned to fully face Izen and Lenna got the door behind Edward. She had directly ignored the implication that she should also leave so Isaac and Izen could speak privately. Izen threw her a glance and then sighed. He resigned himself to her presence. He couldn’t fault either of them for being careful. The pair seemed to have a talent for making just as many enemies as friends if not more.
“Well, the night won’t be young forever.” Isaac told the Duke in order to get him to hurry up with his questions.
“Will you answer my questions?” Izen asked and stood up straight from his position of leaning forwards on the map table.
“Asking them costs only the time it took to ask.” Isaac replied with a smirk.
Izen nodded. “Who is Zei?” He asked directly with as much subtlety as an assassination attempt with a sledge hammer.
Isaac’s eyebrow rose and his smirk disappeared. “Someone you should not not even know the name of. Lenna and I were careless as we were not yet used to being around people again.” Isaac replied honestly without divulging any real information. Lenna moved to apologize but Izen either ignored her or didn’t notice.
Izen sighed. “Can I at least know why I shouldn’t know?”
Isaac shook his head. “No. Some things are best left alone. This is one such thing.” He replied adamantly. Zei being a divinity of reincarnation for humans was something that under no circumstances could be leaked. If humans knew that if they died then they could simply start over somewhere else then only the gods knew how large the mass suicides numbers would be.
Izen pursed his lips and nodded. He understood what Isaac was saying but he definitely didn’t like it. “Next question then.” He said and Isaac nodded that he was ready for it. “Are you actually a demigod?”
“You have as much subtlety as an earthquake.” Isaac commented before looking up to the ceiling in thought. He could lie and Izen would probably never know but what if his lie was actually the truth. ‘I traded my memories for the power of dark mana. They gave me a class that doesn’t exist. What if they did make me a demigod? Would I know? How could I find out without people asking too many questions?’ Those thoughts ran through Isaac’s head in rapid succession over the span of but a few seconds.
Isaac sat down on a chair made of solidified shadows and looked directly into Izen’s eyes. “I don’t know.” He told the Duke.
Izen blinked in surprise. He was taken aback by both the answer and that he had even gotten one. “You… don’t know?” He asked.
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Isaac nodded. “I have a class that shouldn’t exist. Power beyond what most could dream of and I’m not even level twenty yet. I am built, from the core, to be different from any other mage in the world. Does that make me a demigod? Do I just need to hit level twenty to know for sure? I could kill most mortals with a touch just like the rest of the demigods. You tell me Izen. Do you think I am a demigod?”
Izen staggered back a step and half fell into his chair. “I… I wasn’t expecting an answer…” He replied, his voice trailing off.
“And now that you have one it is worse than if you hadn’t asked at all. I told you that asking costs you nothing but I didn’t finish the saying. ‘A question costs nothing but the time it took to ask it, the answer is where the price is paid.’ It is a warning to young wizards that I read in a book a few weeks ago. A warning about seeking answers that one is not ready for.” Isaac monologued and then let silence hang in the air.
Izen nodded his head. The implications of him actually being in a room with a demigod were bad enough. Thinking about how Isaac could be a demigod in the making was something else entirely. No one who was willing to talk about it knew how a demigod was made or what set them apart from mortals. Everything about them other than their domains were usually left unspoken. He wondered why but his curiosity had never led him to go on a true quest for answers. Maybe Isaac was right. Maybe some answers were best left unknown. Ignorance could be a shield against powers that one was not ready to contend with after all.
Isaac gave the older man time to think but he did still have more things to do before they turned in for the night. “Any more questions? Edward is waiting for us.”
Izen nodded absently. He had gone over the questions he had wanted to ask a dozen times before they had arrived. He didn’t know when the next time he would be able to ask them would be. Implications could be thought about later. “Lady V’Nova’s subclass. I know she is a paladin but what kind? Is it some type that the V’Nova clan cultivates?” He asked, his voice near monotone as if he was reading from a script.
Isaac looked at Lenna. “You may answer as you see fit though I recommend some level of discretion.” He told her. She had turned to look at him when the question had been answered and Isaac had wasted no time answering her unspoken question.
Lenna nodded. “It is not something the V’Nova clan cultivates your grace.” Lenna answered with a nod but did not follow up with answers to any other of the duke’s questions.
Izen nodded. At that moment he was trying to absorb as much of what they were saying both audibly and not as he could. He would leave contemplating for a later time. “Last question if you don’t mind.”
Isaac nodded and rose from his chair. “Go ahead.” He told the older man as his darker than black chair drifted away in a breeze that wasn’t felt by any without an incredible connection to mana itself.
Izen swallowed. “Are you actually nobility?” He asked.
Isaac’s smirk returned with a vengeance. “Ask El’No.” He answered with his grin clear in his voice. He then turned around to leave and Lenna got the door for him.
“The elvish goddess of knowledge?” Izen asked Isaac’s back. Isaac only nodded. “Does this have something to do with her cleric in Outpost Charles?” He called as Isaac was walking through the threshold out into the hallway.
“Does it?” Isaac asked in return but only continued walking to meet with Edward. Lenna, always a step and a half behind him.
—
Edward hadn’t said anything in regard to Isaac and Izen’s chat but had simply led them the rest of the way out of the mansion and out into the street. He turned and walked a few buildings down to an old looking stone shack without any windows and only one heavy oak door.
“Aren’t we supposed to be meeting the court mage?” Isaac asked once they had stopped in front of the unassuming building.
“Wizard towers are an eyesore.” Edward responded and knocked on the door hard a few times. Isaac just looked at him in confusion for a moment before the door opened by itself.
Inside was an elaborate entryway into what looked to be a library with a few tables sitting out. One of them had a mound of books, one was empty, and the last had a silver serving tray with a tea kettle and half a dozen teacups sitting on it. Edward walked in and the other two followed him. Once inside they realized that along the side was a massive spiral staircase that rode the inside of the exterior walls. The staircase went up and up for well over a hundred feet. The little shack wasn’t any taller than twenty.
The tea kettle started to steam and then poured itself into four of the sitting cups before resting back down into the middle of the tray. One by one the cups were set out in front of the chairs that were surrounding the wooden table. Isaac and Lenna stared in wonder at the millions of books that rode the walls almost the entire way to the top. They watched as a man walked off one of the upper floors and began to plummet. He pulled a feather out of his pocket and spoke a few words that none on the ground could hear and soon his plummet turned into a gentle glide to the floor.
The man’s blue mage’s robes were slightly disheveled from the fall but his black hair at least looked better taken care of since the last time the pair had seen him. His emerald eyes took them in. “Guild Master, Darkness, Lady V’Nova.” He greeted them each in turn with a nod. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”