Xandar placed a cup of steaming tea on Mauriel’s desk, being careful to keep it at a safe distance from her slumped arm, which had been serving as a makeshift pillow for her forehead. He raised a finger to tap her gently on the shoulder but found his hand frozen in mid-air. She had requested him to wake her up, yet Xandar realized he lacked the heart to do so.
In hindsight, he recognized that he had dedicated a significant amount of time to planning how to sabotage Lorius’s spell but had given little thought to the potential consequences of said sabotage - what dangers and trouble might arise and how it would impact those around him. It was meant to be a harmless prank, a minor mishap puncturing a small yet effective hole in the wizard’s credibility. He had hoped this would prompt Erdrik to pull the plug on the entire operation, ensuring Lorius would have no additional excuses to loiter around their office. However, things did not unfold as he had anticipated. They ended up spending hours searching for the lecturer, Xandar reluctantly trailing behind Mauriel as she feverishly combed through the vast expanses of the cellar, and when that yielded no result, the entire university’s grounds. Mauriel even resorted to summoning Erdrik in the early hours of the evening, when it became increasingly apparent that a mere search-party wasn’t going to do the trick. None of them got any shut-eye that night, and judging by the length of time Mauriel spent in the university’s staff offices, Xandar suspected that neither did anyone else on the premises.
Distant footsteps heralded Erdrik’s return from his investigation of the far reaches of the cellar, and he soon appeared in the main hall, releasing the light globe that had been orbiting his large head like a moon.
“Did you find anything?” Blombo grunted from the far end of the room.
Erdrik crossed his arms, shifting his icy gaze between the two wizards. “I said to wait until I review the spell, didn’t I?” Xandar glanced aside and saw Mauriel slowly raising her head, picking herself up from the slouched position in which she had fallen asleep. “And let me guess, you didn’t even bother with the protocols?”
No one dared to answer. Mauriel yawned, discovering the steaming mug on her desk and turning to Xandar. “Why didn’t you wake me up?”
Erdrik covered his mouth with one large hand. “Where is the spell?”
Xandar recalled the scroll rolling into itself and falling to the floor once Lorius had disappeared. He shuffled through the items on his desk until he found it. “Blombo and I already tried looking for clues, but couldn’t find anything.” He turned back to Blombo, seeking reassurance. It wasn’t the entire truth. He pretended to examine it, with Blombo fighting to keep himself upright beside him, and only at Mauriel’s insistence.
Erdrik strode towards his desk, extending his hand. “I’ll review it again. Maybe it will suggest what might have gone wrong.” Xandar avoided his eyes as he handed the scroll over.
“In the meantime, go home and get some sleep. We’re already losing a good day’s work; better not extend it further.”
Mauriel sprang to her feet, all weariness forgotten. “And just forget about the fact that Lorius disappeared?”
“I don’t recall suggesting that we forget about it. I said that I will look into the spell for clues, and if I’m not mistaken, it was you saying that the entire faculty is on the case as we speak,” Erdrik said, and Xandar could feel once more the familiar tension beginning to rise between them.
Mauriel eyed him for a beat, then began making her way toward the exit. “I’ll check if the faculty made any progress.”
Erdrik followed her movement until she vanished into the corridor. When the door above them closed with a more resonant thud than usual, he turned back to the hall. “As I said, I’ll be looking into it. You two, go get some rest. Unfortunate as this is, we can’t halt all our operations just because a lecturer miscalculated a spell and got himself into trouble. It wasn’t our initiative in the first place.” He turned to Blombo, “The sun hasn’t fully risen yet; you might still make it back home before it’s too bright.”
“I’m not taking my chances. Besides, I recall we now have a nice, new waiting room with comfortable sofas. I’d better take a nap there,” he stood up as he spoke and began making his slow way towards the left corridor.
Xandar wanted nothing more than to retreat to his humble abode, crawl into bed, pull the blanket over his head, and let Alberon’s purring lull him to sleep. Still, there was too much at stake. Erdrik scrutinizing the spell wasn’t part of the plan, and Xandar feared his tinkering might be discovered somehow. Besides, Mauriel wouldn’t be pleased to learn that not everyone shared her concern.
It was some hours later that the murmur of muffled conversation seeped into Xandar’s dreams, pulling him back to reality. His back and left buttock felt numb, a result of sleeping on an armchair so soft that he feared he might sink into it and never find his way back. Blombo was peacefully snoring, sprawled on the couch beside him. With the stokey wizard covering the entirety of its surface, the couch seemed small. The sound of voices grew, echoing through the hallway until Xandar could discern the distinct tones of Erdrik and Mauriel.
“We’ll have a line of disgruntled clients outside our door tomorrow if you miss out on any more meetings,” Erdrik asserted.
“Meetings can wait, Erdrik. Lorius could be in danger, and I have a right to know what’s happening,” Mauriel’s voice shot back, full of conviction. “Now, tell me what you found.”
They soon emerged at the entrance to the waiting room where Xandar and Blombo slumbered in the dim light of a small light orb. Erdrik uttered a word, and it grew in size and brightness, making Xandar’s eyes ache as he adjusted to it.
“I need to know if anyone other than Lorius worked on the spell,” Erdrik said without introductions.
Blombo stirred, the creaking of ancient joints accompanying his slow rise from the couch. He got up slowly, cleared his throat, and reached for his glasses, conveniently perched on the low table. “Is it morning yet?” he said, releasing a stream of moist chuckles in response to his own joke.
“I asked if anyone worked on this spell other than Lorius.” Erdrik repeated, brandishing the scroll. Xandar sat upright, his throat parched
Blombo adjusted his glasses and licked his lips. “I went over it the night before he cast it, Erdrik. Why are you asking?”
“Because, Blombo, we need to explore the possibility that someone made a mistake and sabotaged it.” Xandar cringed inwardly at the mention of the word ‘sabotage’, hearing a deeper meaning in it than Erdrik had intended to convey. A tense silence gripped the room.
Blombo was the first one to break it. “Not that I am aware of. Like I said, I looked it over the other night, but who knows, maybe one of his colleagues collaborated on it with him.”
Mauriel stepped forward, positioning herself at the center of the room. “I already asked every member of the faculty. No one even knew the details of the spell. Lorius was the only one working on it, and it wasn’t seen by anyone else.”
“But,” Xandar began, his voice a dry croak. He cleared his throat and tried again, “We all know Lorius is a little, well, forgetful. He might have left the scroll somewhere by mistake or even made an error himself.”
“I don’t know what you mean by that, Xandar. I saw him working hard on that spell. He even helped me with the room, and there were no mistakes when he teleported all this furniture here,” Mauriel snapped, her tone growing accusative.
Xandar had already planned his argument and was about to voice it, but he never got the chance. The air in the waiting room thickened with the unexpected scent of mold and chamomile, its intensity like nothing Xandar had experienced before. A momentary vacuum gripped the room a moment later. The portal emerged out of thin air, like a tear in a curtain, and Lorius spilled out onto the waiting room floor, eyes wide with confusion and steam rising from his disheveled clothes. He stumbled, nearly falling, only to regain his balance a moment later.
“And next time, try to knock first,” A familiar, dry voice crackled as the portal closed with a hiss.
For a suspended moment, silence lingered. Then, as if shaken from a trance, Lorius scanned the room, his gaze locking on Xandar, and without a word, he dashed into the hallway. He didn’t slow or pause, maintaining his breakneck pace until the heavy door leading to the first floor closed behind him.
“You see? He’s fine,” Xandar attempted to laugh but got furious glares from Erdrik and Mauriel in response.
“It appears we can finally return to work. I will speak to Lorius later,” Erdrik concluded. Mauriel, however, paid him no mind, trailing in Lorius’s hurried footsteps.
Xandar and Blombo did their best to return to their work. It was a day for copious amounts of strong tea and serenading yawns that stretched into melodic tunes. But for Xandar, it wasn’t just exhaustion hindering his concentration. Mauriel’s persistent prodding had coerced Erdrik into reluctantly investigating the waiting room for clues about what had gone awry, and Xandar was nervous as to what that search would yield. He considered feigning illness to escape home, but realized it would only prolong the excruciating wait.
He was in the kitchen again when Mauriel returned, her dark expression warning him to keep a safe distance. Her footsteps echoed down the hallway leading to the waiting room, soon followed by the familiar sounds of an argument pouring into the main hall.
“Refuses to talk about it?” Erdrik’s voice thundered from the darkness. “So he’s just going to leave us to clean up this mess ourselves?”
Xandar’s fatigue momentarily lifted, alertness taking its place. It seemed things were unfolding better than he had hoped, Erdrik’s wrath directed at the intended target, just as he had planned.
“He could have died, Erdrik!” Mauriel’s retort sliced through the air, her normally melodious voice transformed, resembling the clang of metal banging against the floor rather than wind chimes.
“I’ll go speak to him,” Erdrik said with a tone of finality. Xandar quickly lowered his eyes, pretending to be enthralled by the parchment before him as he heard them returning. He looked up again when Blombo voiced the question he had been too terrified to ask. “Did you find anything out of the ordinary there?”
Erdrik didn’t stop to respond. “Maybe,” he shot back as he walked towards the exit. “Looks like I won’t be done with this nonsense anytime soon.”
He intended to await Erdrik’s return but found his resolve waning with each passing hour as his tiredness grew stronger, finally drowning out any caution or concern. When Blombo’s son - a towering, soft-spoken hulk of a man - appeared at the cellar, sent by Blombo’s concerned wife and offering a ride home to both wizards, Xandar was too weary to turn down the offer.
He slept like a brick but awoke into the pre-dawn gloom with his heart pounding, as if someone had thrown a bucket of water on him, his mind racing. He was the first to arrive at their headquarters that day, too stressed to fall back asleep. The day was a series of nervous jumps. He perceived suspicion in every look directed his way, picking up on his name in every conversation or sound.
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Having spent the better half of the previous day up in the university headquarters, trying to gather whatever information he could from Lorius, Erdrik had dedicated a generous portion of the morning to investigating the waiting room and the hallway beyond it. Xandar, anxious to hear his findings, almost felt relieved when Erdrik summoned him and Blombo into his office upon return.
“Did you find anything out?” Mauriel raised her head just as Blombo began to slowly drag his chair back.
“When I know anything for sure, I will tell you,” Erdrik insisted.
“I have a right to know, Erdrik. It concerns all of us,” Mauriel shot back.
Erdrik rubbed his face. “Alright, if you must know, I might have found an additional spell at work there.”
Xandar felt the familiar lump of ice forming in his stomach.
“What do you mean, an additional spell? What does it do?”
“I’m not sure, but it looks like more than one spell was released. One, I’m assuming, being the spell Lorius had written, but the origin of the other one is unknown to me,” Erdrik explained, and Xandar could feel the cold lump spreading to his limbs, making them feel immobile.
Blombo cleared his throat. “Never heard of a spell going off on its own accord.”
“We don’t know if it was released on its own accord. It could have been planted there, and something in Lorius’s spell might have triggered it.” Erdrik looked from Blombo to Xandar expectantly.
“Maybe he made a mistake?” Xandar suggested, regretting it an instant later when Erdrik’s stern gaze met his.
“This isn’t something one does by mistake. This spell wasn’t described anywhere on Lorius’s scroll, so it had to sneak its way in somehow, and spells don’t tend to travel around on their own," Erdrik burst out with a humorless chuckle.
“Lorius could have planted it,” Xandar blurted out.
“And why would he do that? Why would he get himself teleported to gods-know-where?”
Xandar knew he was venturing into dangerous territory now, accusing Lorius of questionable motives, but he had little options left. “Perhaps it wasn’t supposed to work when he initially cast the spell.”
The atmosphere shifted as Erdrik’s expression darkened. “If that’s the case, then we’re dealing with a whole different issue,” he said, his tone turning somber.
Xandar was pleasantly surprised when Blombo added, “He is a necromancy lecturer, after all.”
“What exactly are you suggesting?” Mauriel asked with a cold edge to her tone, turning to him with a demanding glare. For the first time, Xandar discovered what it felt like to experience the full force of her anger. It was far from pleasant.
“I’m just saying, maybe he-” But his thought was abruptly cut off by Erdrik’s commanding voice. “That’s it. I’m calling an end to this fiasco!” he roared, the echoes bouncing off the hollow corridor, “Everyone, back to work, now!”
The silence that draped over the cellar acquired a new, uncomfortably sharp edge. A brief argument ensued following Erdrik’s announcement, during which strong allegations were hurled into the air - claims of Erdrik being inhuman and the work environment being unhealthy. Xandar feared either Mauriel would storm out, or Erdrik would command her to, but the tension subsided as abruptly as it ignited, leaving them all suspended in an atmosphere of alert unease.
When Blombo broke the silence, Xandar nearly leaped from his seat, his heart pounding. “Hey Xandar, how about we go make some tea?” the older wizard said, his voice a near-whisper.
Xandar rose reluctantly, realizing he had been glued to his chair for hours, but once in the small room, a wave of relief washed over him. The dusty little chamber became a sanctuary, shielding them from the charged air outside. Here, voices didn’t echo, and prying eyes didn’t follow every move. He found Blombo observing him, a lopsided smile on his face, causing him to erupt with a nervous laugh.
“Listen,” the older wizard began, his voice unusually soft, “I know you’re not a bad guy. And I can’t say I don’t get it. I mean, I don’t like that cocky lecturer either, and he’s not even after my girl, so…”
Xandar stared wide-eyed, the words dissipating into the soft silence. He wanted to object, to pull a brilliant excuse out of his sleeve, vehemently deny the accusation, even - appalled at the mere suggestion. Yet, he found himself only lowering his gaze.
“I didn’t think it would go this far,” he finally admitted with a sigh. When he looked up, he found the older wizard regarding him with an understanding smile.
“Well, for what it’s worth, your secret is safe with me.”
The weight in the air seemed to relent as they reentered the main hall, as if the storm had passed and a timid ray of sunlight dared to peer through the clouds. But the respite was short-lived. Mauriel marched her way into the hall, raising more clamor than seemed possible while still maintaining a semblance of civility.
“He’s so in shock he won’t even talk to me,” she grumbled, letting her bag drop to the desk with a heavy thump.
A foreboding throat-clearing emanated from Erdrik’s office. “Visiting Lorius is not part of your assignments. If you insist on doing so, please save it for after you’re done with actual work.”
Xandar didn’t need to see Mauriel’s expression to know that hell was about to break loose. He could feel it in his bones. The lightning had finally struck, coursing through the electrified hall, and thunder was fast on its way, ready to shake the ground beneath their feet. He leaped to his feet, lacking a plan but understanding he needed to pacify Mauriel before she did something they would all regret. She turned at the sound, and at that moment, the portal opened, capturing them both in a locked gaze.
It happened faster than Xandar could grasp, the peculiar blend of mold and chamomile filling the chamber and the tear ripping through the air between them and sucking the dry air out.
“I just realized where I recognized you from,” the familiar voice emerged, resembling the dry crackle of fire over dim embers. “You reached out to me once before, with that dark elf friend of yours... Listen, man, I’m flattered and all, and the sacrifice attempt was pretty good, really, but I just accepted two new followers last week, so I’m flooded with sacrifices and honestly, I don't think I have the time right now. But you know, I’ll reach out if anything changes.”
Warm, arid darkness flowed out of the thin portal that had materialized and all Xandar could discern through it were a pair of glowing eyes. It took him a moment to comprehend what was happening, but when he did, he felt his stomach plummet.
“I wasn’t trying to-” he began to say, looking around the room and realizing all eyes had been fixed on him. A strange hum sounded from the darkness within the portal, and the voice resumed, now tinged with hesitation, “Oh, didn’t realize you had company... We’ll talk some other time.” With that, the tear closed, and instead of the yellow eyes watching through the darkness, Xandar was met with a pair of almond-shaped ones, staring at him in disbelief, and for some reason, that was much more terrifying.
The door to Erdrik’s office was a robust piece of solid wood, hanging on heavy iron hinges, but even that couldn’t fully muffle Mauriel’s voice coming in from the main hall as it wove through a myriad of curse words - both in Elvish and Common. Erdrik, avoiding eye contact, paced the confined space in front of Xandar. “Start from the beginning.”
Xandar cleared his throat. “Elderon and I inadvertently opened a portal when we were trying to identify the language of that book we were translating, when we just-”
“I remember,” Erdrik interjected, rubbing his forehead and staring intensely at the wall.
“Then do you mean when Lorius-”
“From the beginning.”
“That incident with the book was the only time I encountered that... entity, or whatever it is that lives there, if that’s what you mean. It seemed to have known Elderon, but for me, that was really an honest mistake,” Xandar said.
“What did he mean by sacrifice?” Erdrik asked, still averting his gaze.
“Oh, that. Well,” Xandar began, stalling for time, though a part of him knew there was no point. He lifted his gaze, staring at Erdrik imploringly before the sealed expression in front of him wore him down. There was no sympathy in the icy gaze that met him, but at least he had his full attention.
“For a while now, I started to realize that I am developing an interest in Mauriel,” Xandar said, forcing the words out at first and then finding that they flowed effortlessly, as if some cork had popped. “And when Lorius appeared and managed to somehow steal her attention, I was quite upset. I didn’t mean to cause any harm to anyone, just to sabotage his spell enough to ensure he wouldn’t have any cause to come back here again.”
Erdrik remained silent.
“That’s the whole truth, nothing more. I’m not working for some deity from the lower planes, nor do I wish to. And I wasn’t trying to harm Lorius. It was a stupid, irresponsible prank, which I realize now that I shouldn’t have done.” he added when the silence became uncomfortably prolonged.
It took a few more moments of cold scrutiny, but Erdrik eventually sat down, resting his large head in his hands and rubbing his temples. When he finally looked up, his voice was calm. “You know I should fire you for this, right?”
Xandar swallowed hard. “I know.”
“I just don’t know how I could trust you after something like that. You’re supposed to be my lead wizard; I want to be able to let you oversee things without me having to watch over you. But if you let emotions manipulate you like that, how can I?” Erdrik went on.
“I understand,” Xandar repeated, “And all I can promise you is that if you find a way to forgive me, I will never repeat a mistake like this again.”
“I need some time to think this over,” Erdrik said, getting up from his seat. “Go home, come back tomorrow and we will talk. I’ll lead Mauriel away to allow you to exit safely.”
Xandar squinted when Erdrik opened the door, the medley of enraged screaming and cursing abruptly intensifying before turning muffled again. He waited until the hall had turned quiet. Blombo was alone in the cellar when he finally felt it was safe to come out, following him with a mournful gaze.
“I hope this isn’t the last time I see you,” he said as Xandar collected his things to leave, and the words kept echoing in his mind the entire way home.