“It’s a tier five spell, I think,” the woman said as she looked down at the tiles on the bottom of the pond. “I haven’t seen very many, so I can’t be certain.”
Jake was standing on the shore looking out at the woman. He was escorting a group of hunters through the green. With Ian and Sophia both away at Chicago, their hunting teams were being very careful. Although the woman was wearing a worn set of hunter's greens, she wasn’t a resident of Redfalls.
The woman’s strange response to his standard challenge threw him for a moment. He watched her scrape the bottom of the pool with the end of a spear for a moment or two. He found himself drawn to look down. The pond was lined in a multicolor mosaic of tiles. There were multiple shapes on the bottom. The only one he could see clearly was a dark green ring. When he lifted his eyes back up, he found the woman looking at him with a frown on her face.
“Let me get out of here.” She was completely unworried by his presence or the presence of the hunters in the trees around them. She waded across the pond and used her spear to balance herself as she stepped up out of the water. When she did so, Jake realized it wasn’t a spear but a walking stick. Actually it was a dark carbon fiber broom handle and he recognized it.
“Irene?” he asked. He only spent a few weeks in her presence years ago. His memory of her was vague, but he didn't remember Irene being as attractive as this woman was.
“Yes,” Irene responded, “and you are?”
“Jake,” he responded. “We traveled together from the Speedwell.” The subtle frown left Irene’s face.
“Jake,” she said enthusiastically. “I remember, you and Sophia went to a northern suburb. Are you two still together?”
“Yes,” Jake responded. “She and Ian have gone up to Chicago for the yearly leaders meeting,” he explained. Irene knew the yearly meeting was going on. She traveled with Greg to Chicago because he was attending as leader of The Heights. They arrived several days early and Irene left Chicago before the meeting even started.
“Ian?” Irene asked. “I met a man with that name a while back. He offered me dinner in Chicago, but I had prior commitments. He told me he was from a suburb called Redfalls.”
“That’s the same Ian,” Jake confirmed.
“Is he or Sophia the suburb leader?” Irene queried.
“Oh, neither. Kyle is our suburb leader. Ian and Sophia went up as part of the party,” Jake responded. He didn’t mention that this was the first time in years that Kyle decided to go himself. Their leader was alarmed at the increasing violence. Kyle went to speak to Darien directly about starting negotiations with the blues for peace.
“Is the suburb close?” Irene asked. Now Jake was uncomfortable.
“Yes, I’d invite you, but Ian doesn’t like unknown visitors when he is away. As head of the guard he likes to vet all newcomers himself. Especially in these uncertain times,” Jake explained.
“I understand,” Irene said. “Don’t worry, I know how to take care of myself.” For the first time Irene looked around at the hunters watching from the trees. “What is your group after?” she asked.
“We are just hunting for the pot,” Jake responded. “Most of our warriors are out at the tax stations, so I am taking a turn as a hunter.”
“I ran into an apple tree and a squirrel nest that way,” Irene offered, pointing off to the north. “I killed a couple of them before I scared the rest of them off. You’re welcome to them if they're still there.”
“You came from the north?” Jake asked. He tensed, wondering if Irene already found the square.
“No, I came from Chicago, but I ran into this series of ponds and started following them back. Each pond has a different image on the bottom. It is really fascinating,” Irene explained. She started describing all the images she found. Jake remembered how Irene was always staring at the walls on the trip in from the Speedwell. It appeared she was unchanged. The waterway she was following was cutting southeast. It was very unlikely that she’d find the square if she stuck to it.
After listening to this monolog for a while, Jake took his leave. He made the excuse that they needed to hurry over if they wanted to find the squirrels. Irene told him it was great seeing him. If he could visit later she planned to follow the waterway all the way to the south wall.
Jake signaled to the hunters that they were turning north. After they were out of earshot the top hunter came over to walk beside him.
“Is it a good idea to just leave her wandering around?” he asked.
“She saved my life once,” Jake responded. He wasn’t going to repay her with an ambush. “Besides, she is a wizard. Ian won’t be happy with us if he finds out we discarded an asset like that without letting him try to recruit her. If she shows up at the square, we will invite her in and keep her there until Ian is back.” The hunter rubbed his back as he considered Jake’s words. He gave a sharp nod as he agreed with the plan.
A call came back from their lead elements indicating that they found the squirrels. Jake came out into a small clearing to find eight dead squirrels littered around. A large apple tree stood on the edge of the clearing. It was heavily loaded with fruit. The presence of fruit explained the squirrels. It was late in the year to see that much still on a tree.
“Do you think she killed them all by herself?” one of the hunters asked another. Jake ignored the comment.
“Let’s get them processed. You two; gather some of those apples,” Jake ordered.
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Irene followed the water across half the green, checking the bottom of the pools. The series of images described a spell of last resort. It showed an expanding ring of dark green which killed everything in its wake. Irene thought she knew the symbols involved, but she couldn’t figure out the timing. The stream/water feature didn’t reach the south wall. It stopped at a final pond with a sandstone bottom. The water seeped through the sandstone and disappeared. She inspected every inch of the bottom of this last pool, but couldn’t find any spell hints in it.
Many times an area that held one hint for a spell would contain another for the same spell. Of course ‘area’ could mean something as large as a square mile over ten stories. Normally it just wasn’t worth the search. A tier five spell was something she didn’t think she could leave behind. Irene climbed a nearby tree and settled in for the night.
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“Do you remember Irene?” Jake asked Sophia. It was a week after his encounter with Irene in the green. The two of them were in their room at the inn. Jake was making a display of taking off his leathers, trying to catch Sophia’s attention. She was distracted tonight, traumatized Jake thought, by the loss of Kyle. He was happy when Sophia smiled in amusement.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“I remember her broom handle,” she responded.
“I ran into her in the green,” Jake responded.
“What?” Sophia sat upright, her eyes glittering. “We need to tell Ian,” Sophia jumped out of bed and threw some clothing on.
“It was a week ago,” Jake murmured. “You can tell him in the morning.”
“You should have said something as soon as we arrived,” Sophia demanded.
“Everyone was upset at the news about Kyle,” Jake countered. Ian and Sophia returned without Kyle, reporting that he was killed in a blue raid in the green just north of Chicago. There was something very ironic in that. Kyle was on his way to push for peace when he was killed.
Sophia threw open their room door and marched over to Ian’s where she banged on the door. In only a moment or two, a fully collected Ian opened it.
“There is an outside group in the green,” Sophia announced. “Jake just got around to telling me.”
“It’s not a party,” Jake responded, from where he followed Sophia into the hall half dressed. “It’s one woman.”
“A blue wizard,” Sophia countered.
“She mentioned you, Ian,” Jake said, in an attempt to justify his actions. “She said you offered her dinner in Chicago.”
“You didn’t tell me that!” Sophia said, turning on Jake.
“You didn’t give me a chance,” he responded. There was only one wizard Ian ever offered dinner to. Irene, the elusive daughter of the Londontown queen. Ian smiled. Jake was a little frightened by the expression.
“Irene,” Ian said with a strange satisfaction. “When and where did you see her?”
“It was about a week ago, she was west of here, looking at the bottom of a pond,” Jake responded.
“The bottom of a pond?” Ian asked.
“Yeah,” Sophia said with a laugh, “that is Irene.” This was the reaction Jake expected from Sophia when he started telling her this story. He thought she would find it amusing that Irene was still wandering around looking at the walls.
“She said something about it being a tier five spell,” Jake reported.
“Interesting,” Ian responded. “Has she been to the square?”
“No,” Jake answered. “I would have kept her here if she found us. She was moving south, following the water. One of the hunters said he saw her enter the southern halls a couple days ago.” Ian was feeling frustrated. Was this woman always going to slip through his fingers?
“There is a chance a fast party could catch up with her before she reaches Chicago. It is a much faster trip over the top.” Sophia offered.
“She isn’t going to Chicago,” Jake responded. “She came from there. I think she was on her way north to Moscow. She said she got distracted by the pond.”
“No need to track her down, Sophia,” Ian said. “Put the word out that no harm is to come to her. If anyone spots her on her way north, have them extend my invitation to her to join us in the square,” Ian told Jake. He turned and looked at Sophia, “A blue wizard could be very useful.”
Early in the morning Ian made Jake take him out to the pond where he saw Irene. Ian sent Jake back to the square to run the hunters while he inspected it. The tile at the bottom of the pond did include imagery. Studying it, Ian couldn’t see why Irene would call it a tier five spell. Ian didn’t get to tier four, now five, without figuring out a lot of spells from structure hints. If this was a tier five spell, Ian thought it must be here for him to find. Even though he only hit tier five a few days ago, he was the only tier five he knew of.
He followed the water course down the slight slope to the south. It ended at a large round pond with a sandstone bottom. There was no sign of Irene or her passage. Ian was not surprised, the green regenerated even faster than the halls did.
Ian walked the length of the stream in a couple hours. If Irene lingered here for several days before entering the southern halls, she must have been searching for more hints. Ian considered all the hints and oddities he saw in the area recently. He remembered a collapse that was below the green. It was three or four stories down. From memory, Ian thought it was about in this area. It was odd to find a collapse that low in the structure.
Ian pulled up his map and found it. Pulling up through the floors he found the collapse was directly below this pond. That could not be a coincidence. It was a long complicated route to get to the collapse from the south halls. It was actually faster to go to the east end of the green and come at it from that direction. Ian decided to go down and check it. The collapse was a complex mess of stone, steel and copper wiring. If Irene thought it was a spell hint, she would linger there for some time.
He could feel the faint echo of a blade ahead of him as he neared the collapse. He cast camouflage on himself so he could assess the situation before making himself known. Irene was standing inside the collapse. Drops of water were falling down from above, wetting her hair. They were rolling off the integrated hunter’s outfit she wore. The green color of it looked muddied. She was holding her broomstick up measuring distances with it. She would measure a distance, move over to a notebook set just outside the ring of wet and make a note and repeat. She was slowly making her way around the collapse. Ian watched her until she stopped measuring and started studying her results. He stepped back out of the area and dismissed his cloaking spell.
He approached the collapse again, making no attempt to hide his approach. He expected Irene to be watching him as he stepped into view. Instead she was still lost in thought, studying her notes.
“I thought I might find you here,” Ian said, as a way of introduction. “Jake told me you were interested in the ponds above.”
“Isn’t it beautiful?” Irene responded, as she looked up at him. “It’s like a deluxe version of the abstract statues in the grand staircases. Of course there’s no spell ribbon, but I think the bronze wire spacing is the spell timing.”
“Oh?” Ian responded, looking up at the debris tumbling out of the hole in the ceiling.
“Look here,” Irene said, using her stick to point out a ring around the pile. “All the oxidized wires pass through this level in a vertical position. If you plot them out they are a near perfect circle, but the spacing between them varies.” She shifted around, stepping into the falling drops of water. “These six here,” she said tapping the wires close to her, “All twist around and emerge from this side of the central figure. The other six emerge from over there.” Irene danced around to stand in front of the pile. She balanced her staff against a shoulder and held both hands up.
“She is casting with both hands,” Irene said, pushing her hands out infront of her and slightly to the sides.
“What spell is it?” Ian asked, as he studied the position of the wires with Irene's demonstration in mind.
“The pools above describe it as a kind of ‘take them with you’ spell. The graphics made me think of a nuclear weapon, killing everything in its path.”
“How big of an area does it affect?” Ian asked.
“I can’t tell,” Irene responded. She grasped her staff and used it again to point out the shape of the debris. “Above it looked like some kind of ring of death, but I think the water falling down from above and the round arches on the wires here are a warning that the effect is actually spherical.”
Ian remembered that Sophia called Irene odd. She wasn’t odd, she was brilliant. Ian got the feeling not many people could follow her thoughts. He remembered thinking she could be a spy for Londontown. He thought that unlikely now. She spilled information far too easily. If she was a spy, she was playing a really deep game.
“If this is the timing,” Ian said, “what are the symbols?”
“Oh I got them from the pools above. The problem I have now is deciding which way it runs,” She went back to stand in front. “If I was designing it, this wire here,” she said tapping the front wire on her main side with her staff, ”would be the first symbol. So the spacing to the next wire back,” she moved her staff to tap it, “would be the timing to the second symbol with that hand.” She shifted to her off side and tapped the first two wires there.
“That would make this spacing the timing for the first two symbols on my other hand. However, everything is always backwards from what I expect, bottom to top not top to bottom. Which makes me suspect the spacing on the first wires back there,” she said, turning to point to the wires behind the central figure, “are actually the timing on the first symbols.”
“I know what you mean,” Ian said. “Like how all the directional pointers indicate south, but we were raised with a north arrow.”
“Exactly,” Irene responded. “I’m hoping there is something on one of these four wires that marks it as the primary. Ian got the impression that Irene would crawl over every inch of this debris looking for her clue. He spent most of the day looking for her. It was getting late and he missed lunch.
“I want to invite you back to the suburb for dinner,” Ian explained. “We can make it before dark if we leave now. The statue will be here in the morning.”