Chapter 38 Fen Killed Him
The first level of Jala’s tower was finally done and it was time to unload all of her ‘research material’. Thankfully her tower had a bathroom but unfortunately it lacked all other amenities. Twenty thousand gold went to digging out the space, reinforcing the walls with magic, making a bathroom, a few bookshelves, some tables, and a simple anti-teleportation enchantment. As far as Isaac was concerned it was horribly overpriced. Jala on the other hand was not concerned at all. To her money was only worth how much it could further her research so in her eyes it was money well spent.
Isaac, Lenna, Jala, Fen, and Alexander all stood around in the middle of the mostly open space that was the first floor of her tower under a tower. “This is going to need at least three more floors of equal size.” Jala commented.
“And a food service. I assume they don’t want us walking into the closest restaurant a few times a day.” Fen replied. “The looks we got from the walk here were bad enough.” He tsked. “Ignorant peasants.” He grumbled under his breath.
Isaac looked on in disbelief. “Jala,” He said to get her attention. “Double the prices on the list of information to sell to Izen, again.”
“Okay.” She replied simply and continued to inspect the solid stone tables.
“Double?” Alexander asked. “Again?”
Isaac nodded. “Yes.” He confirmed. “Izen had an opportunity to pay for this himself, give me a small cut for the trouble, or pay for half of this and get anything that comes out of here at little over operating cost.” He shook his head. “Instead he stuck me with the bill. In its entirety.” His irritation was clear. “And for that, I’m going to get every single gold coin I can get out of him.”
Alexander winced. “Why do I feel like a lot of that is going to come out of my budget?”
Isaac sighed. “Because it probably is.” He looked over at Alexander. “Blame your boss.”
Alexander’s shoulders slumped and he nodded. After a moment he realized something. “What about everything I’ve already learned from Mr. L’Vore?” He asked.
Isaac smiled at him. “Favors don’t have to go through Izen.” He explained. “I would like a way to cast Identify with only dark mana and have the information projected in a small illusion like the clerics to El’No can.”
Alexander nodded. “I can have that done within a month if you don’t mind how big it is.” He replied easily with a nod. It seemed like he already had something in mind.
“How big are you talking?” Isaac asked.
“A ritual rug, ten feet by five feet.” Alexander explained.
“A ritual rug?” Jala questioned as something had finally peaked her interest.
“Yes.” Alexander began. “It is a simple but extremely well made tightly woven rug. The gold for the ritual is doubled then turned into thread to be woven into the mat in the pattern of the ritual. They usually last for around twenty spell levels which isn’t preferred but they work well enough.”
“I see.” Jala nodded. “That allows you to bring the rituals to any flat surface large enough for them pre-made. Is this a military invention?” She asked. “I can see the siege applications already.”
Alexander shook his head. “I have heard of some of the more eccentric nobles having them made for repairing damaged walls in the event of a siege before but mostly the logistics simply aren’t practical.”
“Why not?” Isaac asked. It seemed like a great idea on the surface.
“Firstly, the surface needs to be perfectly flat which is incredibly hard to find on a battlefield unless you are the ones defending.” Alexander started listing off. “Secondly, even for defenders, the conjured walls will be weaker than the magically reinforced ones that had just been severely damaged. Thirdly, the ritual rugs can be damaged too easily for anyone to take them anywhere without dimensional storage of some kind. And finally, they still require a mage to activate them and mages are never on the front line to begin with so they can just make the rituals on site.”
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“Oh.” Isaac replied sadly. “It was a good idea until someone tried it I guess.”
Alexander nodded. “Indeed.”
“So about all of Jala’s… materials… where should we dump them?” Isaac asked. Isaac had decided to just give Jala the shadow-wolf glands as getting custom magic items made wasn’t in the budget with her tower now being a concern.
Jala shot up and looked over at him. “Please do not ‘dump’ them anywhere.” She hurried over and held out her hand. “Just give me the bag and I will take everything out one thing at a time.”
Isaac shrugged and Lenna handed her the bag. “Suit yourself.” He told her and then turned to leave. “We’ll be back for the bag sometime before our next bounty.” Jala looked at him like a child who had just been told that dinner was going to be bread and rat stew for the millionth time. “Don’t give me that look.” He told her. “Make some money and buy one yourself. I still have to figure out where you are going to stay and how you are going to get food. Besides, don’t you already have one?”
“Mine is full of books.” Jala pouted.
Isaac gestured at the bookshelves. “Make it not full of books.” He told her exasperatedly. ‘I swear she is a five hundred year old child.’ He added internally.
—
A messenger from Izen arrived just as they were leaving with a letter. In the letter Izen had explained that they could use the first floor of a guest house a block away from the tower for fifty gold a month as long as they didn’t break anything. There was also an eatery just a block further that was cheap enough that Isaac should be able to afford feeding two extra mouths.
He learned that Izen could deduct the rent directly as the duke and owner of the bank so as long as Isaac still had money in there the lodging would be covered. In all, Isaac was really hoping that Jala’s information would make him some good money. A few days later good money was made. The group had sat down with Izen and Tim to go over all of the information that they had to sell. After some tense negotiations and Izen clearly trying to lowball them, they left with a rather large sum. Enough to add another layer to Jala’s tower and then some.
Unfortunately for Isaac, all that money was spent within a day. His cut was nice but only really enough to keep him from worrying about any of their lodging for a while.
Finally after what, to Isaac, felt like forever, but was only a little over two weeks, it was time for the pair to take another job. Walking into Adventurers’ Guild The pair greeted one of their favorite receptionists. “Hey Alice.” Isaac greeted her. “Happy the L’Vore’s are out of your hair?”
She sighed with obvious relief. “You have no idea.” She told him. “Does Jala even sleep?” She asked exasperatedly.
Isaac chuckled. “Probably not. Lenna doesn’t either.” He replied and leaned on the counter. “Speaking of my wonderful companion, she has finally given me leave to resume fighting for a living.” He told the pair of brilliant blue eyes that were looking up at him.
“Oh? Finally back to work?” Alice asked to which Isaac nodded.
“Any bounties for us?” He asked. He wanted something good and not just spiders so it was easier to just ask her as she always seemed to have every bounty memorized.
She shrugged. “There is one that we would really like you two… three? To take care of.” She explained.
“Three?” Isaac asked with slight confusion.
“I keep hearing about a dragon.” She confessed. “Something about it living in your shadow.”
“Oh!” Isaac exclaimed. “Yeah, want to meet him?”
Alice’s eyes sparkled even though there was still a hint of fear buried within. “Can I?” She asked.
Isaac laughed. “Sure but you should come out from behind the counter so you can get the full spectacle.” He advised.
Alice did just that and stood beside him and Lenna as they stared at the open area of floor in front of the bounty board and the receptionist’s desk. “Kahtesh.” Isaac spoke aloud and pulled on his connection to his own shadow and the dragon dormant within. His shadow turned pure black and moved out in front of him before changing into a circular shape.
One bony claw and then another reached out of the void and grabbed onto the hardwood floor. A few small scrapes were added to the floor’s battle scars as the talons found purchase. Soon the tip of the dragon’s nose was visible as he pulled himself out of the shadows. Once he was fully out of his resting place he stretched and shook as the void returned to Isaac’s normal shadow. Bone scraped and rattled as Kahtesh moved and flexed. Once settled he looked around as Isaac had commanded him to make sure that he was familiar with all of their surroundings and then slowly started walking over towards Isaac.
Alice had looked like a ten year old watching the knights duel for the first time. Her stature didn’t help her image at all at that moment. She looked so childlike and innocent that Isaac couldn’t help but chuckle and Lenna couldn’t keep the smile off of her own face watching to pure excitement coming off the girl.
She backed up a step once Kahtesh started heading their way but Isaac crouched down so he was closer to both Alice’s and Kahtesh’s height. “Hey buddy.” Isaac greeted the dragon as he stopped just in front of Isaac. Isaac reached out and scratched Kahtesh’s head like he was a dog or a well trained cat.
Alice looked on in wonder. Kahtesh hadn’t spared more than a quick glance at Alice as he wasn’t told to do anything more than look around and go to Isaac. Lenna reached down and patted his head twice but otherwise didn’t interact with the dragon. She and Isaac were mostly sure that there wasn’t any real consciousness inside Kahtesh but that didn’t stop Isaac from treating him like a puppy.
“What is it?” Alice asked in wonder.
“That is a tough question to answer.” Isaac told her honestly. “He’s mostly a construct made in the image of the dragon that his skull came from. There are some residual bits of the original dragon in there somewhere but they don’t come out very often. Most of what he does I told him to do ahead of time. Like stretching and looking around when I call on him.”
Alice reached out and brushed the side of the dragon’s face. “So the original is truly gone then?” She asked.
Isaac sighed. “Yeah. Fen killed him for one of Jala’s experiments.”
Alice’s face took on a look of horror. “The poor baby!” She cried and looked like she was about to hug the dragon before controlling herself.
Isaac chuckled at her outburst. “My thoughts exactly.” He rose back up to his normal height. “But alas, there is nothing to be done about it now.” The void opened back up and Kahtesh curled up in the middle of it like he usually did before sinking back down into the void.
Alice looked concerned as she looked up at Isaac. “You said some of him is still in there right?” She asked and Isaac nodded. “His soul, is it gone to wherever dragon souls are supposed to go or is it trapped in there?”
Isaac smiled sadly. “It’s gone. I am almost completely certain that there is no soul in that body. I had to make most of the body myself and from what I can tell, anything that is left is just an impression of the original.” As much as he would like to have a living dragon that could make its own decisions as his familiar, it was simply not meant to be. Not yet at least.
“Good.” Alice added. Being stuck in a body that he couldn’t control sounded like the worst nightmare imaginable.