Chapter 172: The Ordinary Sort of Hardworking Genius

The first thing Theodore had to do was re-establish connections. He had become a bit of a social outcast after the dramatic and very public falling out to his first team, but he was the son of a gold ranker, and could relatively easily fall back into some edge sort of public good graces. He began to accept commissions for crafting again—for non-growth items, as they couldn’t be made casually even if he wanted to—and made weapons and armor with a quality that was worthy of being a connection.

With trembling hands (a volatile mixture of anger, shame, sadness, and resignation), he even sent a missive to his former teammates, offering to finally improve those weapons he had given them. It had been painful, and it would be some time before they responded. But it was done.

While he thought his parents would be proud of him, he did not tell them. He couldn’t help feeling shame for have taken so long to move on. He didn’t want Egil to smile at him as if he’d done something praiseworthy, or for Jago to thump him on the back.

Next, he attempted to ‘make friends’ with the members of the team in the only way he knew how: by being terribly annoying and in their face.

He used his revitalized connections to find their locations, he showed up, and participated in whatever activities they had been doing. He found Sen, surprisingly, at a gardening workshop, then at a pottery class. Sen held himself to a stoic politeness and every quietly pointed look he gave Theodore made him burn up a little bit inside. At the very least, he didn’t try to lecture him on the whole fiasco, his parents had done enough. Theodore felt like he got a lecture anyway, somehow.

He found Encio at a dancing club, who was very smug about all these proceedings, and was also annoyingly good at their local dances—the gammel dance and the village dance. Theodore did not specialize in crafting leisure equipment, and recommended Encio to a local cobbler for specialized dance shoes. If Encio’s smirk was anything to go buy, he may already own a pair from that shop.

He attended a performance with Eufemia, and had bribed the person next to her seat to move so he could sit there instead. She did not appreciate his presence, and seemed she would have preferred an empty neighboring seat to him. The disregard smarted, and they mutually huffily ignored each other as they watched the show in some sort of inadvertent companionship.

John, their healer, was often volunteering at healing clinics, and had become some sort of provisional priest. Theodore didn’t really know what was going on here: Was he a priest, or not?

Aliyah, he found perusing bookstores, sometimes with Nara, or at the royal library, which she had somehow finagled a pass to enter (It should be difficult to get permission. How had she managed it?). The look from the library keeper when he used his father’s pass was distinctly disapproving, but was still let inside with a scathing non-verbal warning that any misbehavior would get him instantly kicked out, and a word sent to his father about the misappropriation of his pass.

Nara, he never really found, unless she was with other people, although she often showed up at restaurants, street stalls, parks, and local gatherings of music and games. And running from someone trying to fight her—evidence of how poor his own fighting skills were that she’d hadn’t felt the need to avoid him. How infuriating.

He learnt a lot about all of them by watching, since they weren’t typically forthcoming with words to the one who had broken into their home—and stolen nothing, he’d only wanted a look! Although John was amiable once he apologized for his breaking and entering. The way to have Eufemia talk was to be infuriating in equal measure, and to be challenging in equal measure to Encio. Sen was amenable to the language of fists (a debate he accepted that he’d never win), although he shared a curiosity of other local to-dos, and seemed to be in some sort of drawn-out self-discovery process; Similar to him, in a way. Theodore admired the quiet way he questioned himself.

Nara was suspicious, and rightfully so, of one who had so passionately claimed he wasn’t her friend, then, as she would not let him forget, broke into her home (or at least tried, he evacuated himself from the premises rather quickly when he realized it was attacking him.)

When he did manage a conversation with her, they were watching the rather distasteful activity of mudwrestling, which, her friend Aliyah was oddly invested in, at least with the female contestants.

“Here to be our friend, are you?” she said with equal side-eye as her expression, although her tone wasn’t outright malicious, just incredibly doubtful.

“I know it's hard to believe anyone would want to be your friend,” he said, because he was still going to be contrary, and not a panderer. He couldn’t help it.

“Thank you for pointing out my distrust for me. So, what’s the deali-o, The-o? Got spanked by your parents for small time crime?”

He spluttered. “They didn’t spank me!”

She grinned, having successfully pushed his buttons. He flushed at her early verbal win. “A verbal spanking, then. I’m sure it was much more bearable for your dignity.”

He made a frustrated growl, and strongly reminded himself he wasn’t trying to pick another fight. He wasn’t. Banter, friendly banter. Apologies.

“If you’ll let me finish—” a fortifying breath, “—I meant to say...I should not have broke into your home, or forced a challenged. I was being an ass. I’m sorry.” At the end he trailed off, and looked away, his face flaming from embarrassment. But he got through it, in the end.

“An ass and a minor criminal. And you aren’t trying to be our friend to learn about our soul bound items?”

“…I won’t ask. I swear it on my family name.”

She turned her head enough that her expression was no longer a distrustful side-eye.

“Well... I suppose I should be appropriately moved but I have no idea what sort of weight that’s supposed to have. Are there any actual consequences for that, or is it just an honor thing?”

It turned out the side-eye was just an expression of confusion.

“If you took up your grievance with my father, he’d rightfully expel me from the family.”

“He’d have to believe me for it to matter.”

“He would. I’m hardly more credible to him now.”

She hummed thoughtfully.

“Then he’d actually have to go through with it,” she said in a tone that very much doubted his father would. And she was right—his father wouldn’t expel him over asking a question he swore not to ask. The only consequence would be any hope of reconciliation.

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“So? What are you saying?”

“I’m saying it’s a load of shit.”

“Doesn’t matter what you think,” Theodore snapped, “I’m going to be your friend, whether you freezing like it or not.”

“Stop saying friend like it’s an insult. It’s not very convincing of your intentions.”

“You started it.”

“Because that’s the mature thing to say.”

“That can’t offend me. I know I’ve lost my maturity long ago.”

“Well, well, well, good for you. Who’s a big boy now? Got tired of playing around in a pit of self-pity and decided you wanted some character growth?”

Theodore made a noise like a wounded animal (It was a pretty good comeback). He supposed that was accurate and warranted.

His internal pain was distracted by Eufemia leaning over to give Nara a congratulatory pat on the back, and a coin passing hands.

“Well done, disciple.”

“I’ve learnt from the best.”

Theodore was second-guessing his decision to be friends. (His internal fire told him he just needed to up his game. Sometimes he despaired why he was like this.)

*****

“How’s our other job for you go?” Encio asked Roscoe.

Roscoe pulled up a chair next to Sen and Encio. It wasn’t a meeting that was secret from the team, there just wasn’t a need for everyone to be at the same place.

“The blond celestine is Maelon Cern. A local guide, shady in my professional opinion. Kallid born and raised, but a bad sort.”

“How so?”

Roscoe scratched his head, “Well it’s all related to his guidin’, boss. It ain’t up to par. Every so often an expedition goes sideways, that’s how it is. Except for my expeditions, of course.”

Roscoe winked, full of confidence that may not be entirely baseless.

Sen Looked at him sternly, so Roscoe continued after an amused sigh.

“He’s done a clever job of it, but his ‘failure rate’ is a bit high. Or at least, what he touches rots. It’d be too suspicious if only his expeditions ran into issues. They still do, but not any more than any cheap guide.”

“Issues like mausoleum thieves.”

“Right-o. If only his expeditions ran into issues, he’d be out of a job. Contract or no contract, no one is staying with someone who’s got a reputation of gettin’ you robbed. There’s no evidence for me to show you, but I’ve got a sneakin’ suspicion he’s a conspirator of the unsavory sort.”

“Getting your contractors robbed isn’t the only way to sell your services.”

Roscoe rubbed his hands together. “I think we’ve got ourselves a spy. What do you think Maelon’s essences are?”

“Some sort of scouting set,” said Sen, too reasonably (Roscoe thought he was no fun).

“Well, aye, that. I know he’s got himself a Flea Essence. Usually, the cheap option for affliction specialist, if you can’t afford the pre-mi-er Blight Essence, buuuut,” he drew out for dramatic effect, “can also be used as a scouting essence. I reckon the sneaky bugger is doing some dirty work with his fleas.”

“We could try to kill every flea we sensed and still miss them,” Encio said, ignoring the puns Roscoe was rather proud of. “We should assume he’s heard and will hear everything in the mausoleum.”

“He doesn’t have that sort of full-mausoleum coverage, not at bronze rank,” Roscoe denied, twirling some fidget thingamabob he pulled out at some point, “but he doesn’t need it. He’s got the mausoleum schedule. If he knows which chambers are ready for trial, all he needs to do is prioritize the areas with the most chambers, or the ones he thinks we’ll go for, based on our party size.”

“Why hasn’t he been dealt with by the Society or the Kallidian Guard?”

Roscoe spread his hangs, shrugging. “As I’ve said: no proof. He could be using his fleas for the security of his own team, and it’s what he’d say if we ever cornered him about it.”

And so, the team gathered information on their new potential adversary, and made plans. All important information would be discussed in the cloud vehicle only, where any fleas would be snuffed by the passive defenses of Nara’s flask and racial ability.

They were also, through no fault of their own, wrong about the true nature of the threat.

*****

While it was surprising to Theodore that Aliyah had gained access to the Royal Library of Kallid, it was not particularly surprising to anyone who understood the caliber of Aliyah’s accomplishments, of which Aliyah could count on her hands.

1. Her mentor.

2. The Magic Society thesis competition judge who had awarded her an essence.

3. Knowledge, in the capacity she could count as a person.

4. Amara, Chelsea, Redell (and perhaps Laius, but he was not forthcoming of his own opinions), but she felt it unsporting to list them as separate entries on this list.

5.

6. Sen (provisionally)

7. Nara (also provisionally)

8. …and finally herself.

Aliyah took interest, as she often did, in the Going Ons of Magic around her. She had a unique opportunity to research the mausoleum; the Eilifyrstrum, the Eternal Storm; the Einvaldi; his knights the Manistrengja; and the mythical apocalypse, the Svartrsoelis.

Aliyah wasn’t typically interested in legends and mythology beyond a cursory academic interest (which, compared to someone like Nara, was thorough indeed), but Kallid had the irresistible pull of Artifacts, Ancient Magic, and Historical Sites. She had become an adventurer for the hands-dirty, feet-in-the-mud experience, and so she sought it out.

As Aliyah did when she got her hands on any academic work (and she had the rather necessary prerequisite of time), she double checked whatever she was researching. Aliyah wasn’t a genius, at least, not one of those born prodigies that understood everything with Just One Glance. She was an ordinary sort of genius, one that understood that humans were fallible, and geniuses were humans too, no matter how unintentionally or intentionally they elevated themselves above the common rabble and were not so divinely crafted they could not be reminded of their humanity by Mistakes.

Aliyan combed through observation data and found something far more concerning than a mistake.

She checked it once, to make sure the fates hadn’t decided to mess with her then, and that it was her time to be Mundane. She checked another time, to make sure she would not be brought low for Their humor and made a Fool.

“Oh dear.” She would have rather been a Fool.

She called for the Royal Librarian, an intelligent academic in her own right, and had her verify her findings. Acting on her authority, the Royal Librarian accelerated the matter up the chain of authority.

And up the chain of authority the matter went, until it reached the right person, and a meeting of councilors was called. The Ruler of Kallid, Tyranel Kallid, was also, imperiously, in attendance, along with her Table of Grand Dukes, and were also imposing but less so than Tyranel, because nothing could compare to a diamond ranker. Everything else faded in severity by comparison.

(Aliyah wondered what her life had become that she was unsurprised by diamond rankers.)

Somehow, against all expectations, Aliyah was the first to meet Kallid’s resident diamond ranker. She felt deserving: Nara had four diamond rank acquaintances pretending to be gold rankers (Aliyah wasn’t unobservant; she knew what they were), and Encio had his grandfather. It was high time someone else knocked Fate upside the head and reminded her that others were Special too, and that she should really stop picking a few favorites. Aliyah cared not if she was Special, but the budget of a diamond ranker was attractive (she missed out on those diamond rank coins!), and she wasn’t blessed with a loot ability (although she did benefit from two as long as they were close together). An actual diamond ranker as sponsor would have to do.

Aliyah, perhaps with a little more enthusiasm than was appropriate for the information she was communicating, pointed out that-which-had-not-changed-for-thousands-of-years had changed. It was a minor change, so miniscule that Aliyah did not blame anyone for overlooking it, and one would not have seen it unless they were comparing the change to the relative steadiness of all recorded history.

“The storm is expanding. It fluctuates, of course; I’ve accounted for that, and we would not all be here unless you agreed that I had accounted for it.”

The storm was cyclical as all things in nature were cyclical with the seasons, and the total area of the storm expanded and contracted with nature’s breaths. What Aliyah had found was that first fraction of a degree of global warming (not of actual global warming), but that something had caused the cycle to change, and the change was inauspicious. Even to those of the past, global warming was obvious, not only because of the gradual changes, as much as those in pursuit of profit chose to deny it, but also because of the rather reliable logic that increasing industrialization and population was bound to affect the global environment, especially when it already affected the environment on a smaller scale.

The nature of this problem was not global warming, but something else. That they did not know what the ‘something else’ was, was entirely concerning and a reason for distress.

And Aliyah, because she was smart, got her reward for being Special, which she felt she did not deserve in this case; it was a rather shitty reward. Or perhaps, that which was of myth was not so mythical after all, to the detriment of the entire world.

It was always quite distressing to hear the apocalypse wasn’t a myth.

Aliyah, because she wasn’t a prodigy, but rather the ordinary sort of hardworking genius, told her team about it.

(She did get a rather large satchel of gold spirit coins, and a diamond one, just for fun and because she had the temerity to ask Tyranel for one, so that was nice.)