Duke Cedric heard four sharp knocks. Normally, he would have told whoever was knocking to just enter — but the sound was coming from a door that shouldn’t be there.
He thought about ignoring it. A door in his reading room was a breach of protocol. Before, the butler would arrive through the main gates and announce his intent. This blatant display of familiarity seemed out of place ù not something Sebas would do.
“Enter,” he prompted, not hiding the irritation in his voice.
Sebas opened the door — his face flush with embarrassment and apology. The Scourge marched in afterward, ever his cheerful self. Five more people entered the room from the strange doorway — a single dwarf and four elves. They looked like adventurers and they were armed.
“I’m sorry, Duke. Someone wants you dead,” the Scourge explained as he sat on a chair opposite his desk. “They even hired me to do the job.”
Cedric frowned. The wizard’s words sounded like a threat — even a death sentence — but he knew from experience that it was probably not the case. The butler seemed apologetic but calm, and the five adventurers seemed courteous if not obeisant. The Scourge also didn’t bother to bring his staff, which meant this visit was more likely social than confrontational.
“Who is it who wants me dead?” he asked. He had a few names in his mind — more if his ties to the king were made known.
“Some wizard named Clarence,” the Scourge answered. “He gave me five hundred lives and a bit of gold to shorten your life.”
There was a glint in the Scourge’s eyes that he found a bit disturbing. It was like he was playing some kind of prank that would soon come to fruition.
“But you’re not going through with it right now, correct?”
“Of course not!” the Scourge seemed to dismiss the very idea. “I did my part days ago — with the cake.”
“You—“ Cedric couldn’t believe what he heard. He suddenly felt dizzy, overwhelmed by the slow-acting poison in the cake. “My wife and kids ate that cake with me. How could you?”
“What’s wrong with you?” the Scourge approached him. “It was only — what was that again, Sebas? Calories and cholesterol?
Cedric turned to the butler and saw him nodding in confirmation while also shaking his head and shielding his eyes from what was happening.
“How long do I have left?” he asked as his vision started to cloud. He wanted to write letters for his wife and kids — but he realized they would be joining him soon.
“Around twenty — maybe thirty years or so,” the Scourge answered. “More if you exercise.”
What the hell was the wizard saying? Even now he could feel death’s embrace and his very soul slipping from his body.
“Anyway this Clarence —“
“Ahem,” the butler coughed. “You might be sitting too close to the duke, Master.”
“What? Oh my… oh my! I’m so sorry your dukeness! Duke Cedric, duke, sir.”
Cedric felt better the moment the wizard stood up from his chair. The Scourge had a horrified look on his face, the butler was profusely apologizing, and the five adventurers were either shaking their heads or turning away in embarrassment.
“Sebas, explain everything!” he commanded. The butler was the saner of the two. He wondered if the wizard could even be considered sane by most standards. No, it wasn’t that he was insane — he just drove the people around him to insanity!
“There is going to be an attack on your estate tomorrow,” the butler calmly stated. “A wizard will likely summon demons to attack — which is why we would like you to find a reason to house these five adventurers within your home. The wizard could have spies within your estate or he might be using magic to scry the location, so we thought it best to come discreetly.”
“How did you come by this information?”
“Master Jeremy….” the butler hesitated, “intercepted a demonic summoning.”
Cedric frowned. The butler’s answer was outrageous but probably true — and surely confidential. He knew the Blackstaff and his men could track cultists like no other — it was probably because they could intercept the summonings.
“He deceived the summoner into thinking he was an otherworldly entity and accepted the assignment to shorten your life — which he did so by sending over cake,” Sebas explained. “Also, sugar and carbs like bread and potatos can be harmful to your health if you eat too much of them.”
He realized the talk of sugar and carbs was meant to distract him from the fact that it wasn’t a call to demons that the Scourge answered to but a call to otherworldly entities. This Clarence might be a powerful wizard capable of summoning more than demons.
“Your master doesn’t seem perturbed about the coming attack,” Cedric gestured to the smiling Jeremy.
“Master Jeremy is merely confident that the conflict can be resolved with minimal inconvenience,” Sebas explained. “He is also looking forward to meeting with the summoner so that he may bring him to justice.”
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
The butler’s words allayed his fears — but there was a lingering doubt on what the Scourge considered minimal inconvenience. The last time he helped the town, he razed almost a quarter of the western district. Did he count the damages as mere inconveniences?
“What about these fine adventurers?” Cedric gestured at the five. “What makes them so qualified to deal with the coming attack?”
While he didn’t doubt the capability of the Scourge’s people — he still wanted to understand their roles and capabilities. Four elves and a single dwarf — was their races and numbers crucial to the battle ahead?
“Dallarath’s team was personally trained by the Scourge,” Sebas explained. “Between the five of them, they have faced and triumphed over more than two dozen—“
“Three dozen,” the dwarf interrupted.
“Three dozen demons,” Sebas continued. “All done in the demons’ home plane.”
Cedric nodded. The feat of slaying demons in their own plane was indeed remarkable. There were talks of planeswalkers — wizards who chose to roam the outer planes to delay the corruption of mana in their bodies, allowing them to hold on to sanity for a few more decades. He doubted the five were such. Aside from their arms and armor — which looked fairly new — they seemed like run-of-the-mill adventurers. Sure, very few adventurers could boast that they defeated demons in battle — but having the Blackstaff’s son on their side might have made things a bit easier.
“I assume the five of you will hold off the demons while the Scourge deals with the summoner?”
It was a proper strategy — holding off the mob while killing the head. Without the summoner, the demons would be banished back from whence they came.
“Oh, I won’t be killing Clarence,” the Scourge answered. “Dal and his party would have to contend with the demons until they manage to send them back to hell. Clarence and I will be having a long talk regarding summoning demons and sacrificing people.
Cedric couldn’t help but shudder as he imagined all the tortures the Scourge would inflict on his prey. It would likely involve a lot of talking. After five of his stories, the poor wizard’s brain would likely be addled permanently.
***
Jeremy smiled in anticipation. Tomorrow was a big day. Preparations were in order and the necessary actors were ready and willing to play their roles. The location was not exactly the best — but he had little to no choice on the matter.
Shelby was probably underground tidying up. She even brought her golem along for company. It would probably take half a day to finish the work — but the results should be astounding.
If things went as planned, he should have an additional fourteen golems before tomorrow’s day ends. Even now the farmhands were harvesting dandelion juice and filling vats with the substance — using their newly-acquired gravity skills to squeeze the dandelion roots dry. Either that or they managed to train the little snails well enough to follow complex commands.
His musings were interrupted by a familiar call. Clarence was summoning something again. Jeremy donned his skull mask and willed himself to get summoned.
It was a different room with more or less the same matrices and runes scribbled on the floor. The summoner seemed surprised at his appearance — which was understandable considering he was summoning a succubus from the runes on the floor.
“Clarence, Clarence, Clarence,” Jeremy wagged a finger. “Didn’t I tell you to have faith in me?” He made sure to intensify his life ward by two levels for extra impact.
“Mister — Lord Death,” Clarence stammered. “I was merely summoning a demon so I could collect the souls of the prisoners and present them to you.”
“Why would you think I would like that?” he asked, making sure to make his voice a bit raspier. “I prefer to do the killings myself.”
“Of course, of course,” the wizard looked like he would break his back from bowing continuously. “Their lives are yours, oh pale one. I only ask for the Duke’s life to be cut short.”
“I have already taken steps to cut the duke’s life short,” Jeremy intoned in his most menacing voice. “Tomorrow’s attack will surely end in death.”
“The demons will open a path to the duke and kill what’s left of his family,” Clarence revealed. “There should be no impediments once your deathness takes the field.”
Your deathness? What kind of idiot would call an agent of death such a name? The wizard deserved to die right there and then — but doing so might endanger the five hundred people he kept prisoner.
Freeing them would earn him a bit of gratitude — maybe even enough for them to work for him. He was not going to let that opportunity end up in a useless gem of five hundred souls.
“Just summon me when the time comes,” Jeremy said dismissively. “The location of your prisoners should be enough payment.”
Once again, his form dissipated into nothingness as he awakened in his room. He shook his head. Clarence was a sad excuse for a mage. Killing the duke was child’s play. He could think of a multitude of ways it could be easily done — two of which involved hamsters!
Opting for demons was a sign of lazy planning and lack of imagination. Jeremy wondered how Clarence even managed to capture five hundred people.
Oh, he would enlighten the poor wizard tomorrow. He would show him the error of his ways before giving him a proper send-off. Then he would go off to save his potential employees.
It should probably take an hour or so — which was a bit irritating. He was bound to recruit at least a few dozen grateful workers, but they paled in comparison to his tireless golems. Humans needed to be housed, fed, and paid wages! All his golems needed were proper commands and some of his mana — which was a limitless and renewable resource.
Then again, humans could provide a proper front for his endeavors. It would shield his golems from prying eyes and he wouldn’t have to answer sensitive questions like where his golems came from or what they were.
Perhaps having human workers was not so bad after all.
***
Boot kicked the ball between Warden’s legs. He was unfamiliar with the game — but the rules were simple. All he had to do was kick the ball into the wall on the opposite team’s side.
His body seemed to remember how to run, jump, and kick. He was moving across the field with such speed and grace — it seemed like the game was made for him.
The snails were easy enough to avoid with his jumping and rolling ability. He could hear his team cheering for him as he neared the opponent’s wall.
It was then that a red streak crashed into him. He fell to the ground clutching the red golem in his arms. He was sure it was black just the other day.
The boys seemed shocked by the accident. It wasn’t a hard hit — and the golem was surprisingly soft. Sure, he would probably have bruises — but that was normal in any sport.
He offered his hand to the golem to help it up. It felt tingly to the touch — like when standing too close to a fire that your skin turns red. There was no redness though when he checked his hand afterward.
“What happens now?”
He didn’t know if the game would start from scratch or proceed from where he was tackled — and it seemed like the boys didn’t know either.