Chapter 55 Elequin Ter’Tra

“You know what, let’s get a job while we’re here.” Isaac told Alice and Lenna nodded her accent. “Anything good?”

Alice looked up in thought and chewed on her bottom lip. “Not really.” She confessed. “I know you don’t want to do escorts or intown bounties so we’re basically back down to just the spider quest. The difficulty of that one has gone up a bit now that it is mostly just jumping-spiders.”

Isaac shrugged. “That’s fine. We just need something to do for a few days and some spending money. I’d like to take it easy for a bit after all the intensity of the last few jobs.” He replied. “What’s the price looking like?”

“Fifteen gold a kill, two for the poison, fifty if you can get a teleport sack.” She replied offhand. “Some of the lower level groups are going for a kill a day so please don’t kill them all off.”

“Isn’t killing them off the point?” Isaac asked incredulously.

Alice waved her hand in a ‘sort of’ gesture. “It’s easy money for the lower level teams and some of them could definitely use it.” She replied.

Isaac nodded in understanding. “Okay, we’ll just keep pressuring them until they turn into phase-widows.”

Alice gaped. “Ph-phase-widows?!”

“Yeah. Jala said that she was using us to breed phase-widows. Or trying to at least. I’m not sure of the specifics but I know us putting pressure on them was part of it.” He explained. “Something about thinning out the weak or something.”

Alice shook her head in the negative frantically. “No, nevermind, please kill them all before they turn into phase-widows.” She all but begged.

Isaac shrugged. “Phase-widows sound interesting though. I kind of want to see one.” He commented.

Alice’s eyes got even bigger. “Please?” She pleaded while dragging out the word.

Isaac just shrugged again. “We’ll see.” He replied noncommittally. He turned to head upstairs to the library. He stopped after a few steps and looked over his shoulder just in time to see Lenna mouth ‘sorry’ at Alice and head after him.

While they were on their way to the guild library Lenna spoke: “It might be a good idea to clear them all out before they evolve again.” She advised. “If Jala really did find a way to force an evolution.”

Isaac shrugged and then nodded conceding the point. “Probably.” He agreed. “We could take a few phase-spiders though, right?”

Lenna winced. “If we have too.” She said obviously not a fan of the prospect.

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“What makes them so much more dangerous?” He asked.

“They go through armor.” She replied with a frown. “Their entire bodies are semi-corporeal. Wounds are deeper but less harsh for them unless you are using magic. The real problem is their fangs going through armor like it isn’t there.”

Isaac nodded in understanding. “That could be a problem.” He agreed.

“Also,” She went on. “their poison is ten times as deadly.”

Isaac’s eyes went wide and a grin showed on his face. “Ten times as expensive?” He asked.

Lenna sighed. “Probably more.” She conceded.

“Sounds fun.” He replied and then started looking for them in the monster encyclopedia.

Lenna sighed. ‘Sorry Alice.’ She thought to herself. ‘There’s just no stopping him when he gets like this.’

—

The following day the pair stopped by the Guild Hall to pick up Lenna’s new shiny platinum adventurer’s badge before heading out to kill some time by killing spiders. They went out the following day as well. Both days killing ten spiders before returning. The jumping-spider population had almost entirely replaced the regular spider population. If Jala was right then soon phase-widows would start replacing those. Jala had also said that there was supposed to be an even higher evolution called an ethereal-horror but she had never seen a corpse of one in person.

Finally it was time for some of their gear to return from getting enchanted. The duo hadn’t even left the Celestial Dawn after breakfast when a familiar elf all but teleported up next to them. The speed that he was traveling was fast enough to rustle clothes and leave the doors swinging in his wake.

“Greetings esteemed customers!” An elf with tan skin and green eyes in light traveling clothes said and leaned up against the bar just as Isaac was about to stand up after finishing his food.

It took Isaac a moment to place who the man was before it clicked. “The courier,” Isaac had to think for another moment to remember the man’s strange name. “Elequin Ter’Tra? If I’m not mistaken.”

The man beamed but somehow the smile didn’t reach his eyes. “The one and only.” He pulled his bottomless bag around so it would be in front of him and he could withdraw its contents but stopped. “Here or somewhere more private?” He asked. It was always polite to ask. Some people were secretive about the strangest things.

“Here’s fine.” Isaac replied and promptly received a pair of sword sized boxes. He opened them and saw both of the swords he had sent to get enchanted. They had runic filigree along their spines that seemed to pull in just the slightest amount of ambient mana and concentrate it into their blades. How exactly the enchantments worked Isaac had no idea but he didn’t really have to understand as long as they did as advertised. “They look good to me.” Isaac told Elequin who smiled and nodded.

He was about to go when Lenna stopped him. “Wait.” She said quickly before he could speed off. “How did you know who I was?” She questioned.

He just smiled innocently. “I have no idea what you are talking about Lady V’Nova.” He replied and then sped off.

Isaac had exactly a tenth of a second to make a decision and he went for it. He chain teleported after the courier. After the second teleport he had put out enough shadows to maintain invisibility while teleporting. He followed him across town and watched as Elequin ducked into the Couriers’ Guild building. The door closed before Isaac could follow him inside but doors never stopped him before. Especially now that Isaac knew he only needed the shadows to connect if he wanted to teleport to somewhere out of sight. He pulled himself through the shadows into the building and… he was gone.

“What?” Isaac said aloud, his shadowcloak keeping him silent to the rest of the world. “Where? How?” The dust was still all kicked up from Elequin moving so quickly. Isaac walked up to the far wall where Elequin had appeared and vanished through before and tried to sense any enchantments or runes but was coming up short. There was some kind of enchantment on the other side of the wall but Isaac had no idea what it did. It simply wasn’t one that he was familiar with and there were far too many for anyone who wasn’t a mage to memorize. “Shit.” He cursed under his breath. “I don’t like this.” He sighed and turned around.

Isaac teleported back outside of the building and then returned to the Celestial dawn via a mixture of jogging and teleporting. By the time he got back most of the way back he met Lenna and appeared a dozen feet in front of her. “Lost him?” She asked. It was pretty obvious with the clear discontent written on his face.

“Yeah. Courier building vanishing act again.” He explained and Lenna nodded in understanding. “I really don’t like how he knew who you were before we told anyone outside of Izen’s little court.”

“Me neither.” Lenna agreed. “I wonder if he is a spy too.”

Isaac nodded with a frown. “Who runs expensive items from town to town as a means to make money while delivering information?” He speculated.

Lenna shrugged. “It would explain things.”

Isaac sighed. “Yes, yes it would.”