It’s a testament to Fizzbarren’s stubborn pride that we did not trigger the completion of my nemesis quest over the next week of mopping up. That click, click, clicking that you’re hearing in your head is the sound of dominoes falling in a well-designed pattern that spelled out the word revenge. I wasn’t surprised at the delayed gratification. I was grateful for it. I needed time to memorize and practice a lot of new spells. Even the king agreed to drag out the mop-up procedures once he understood what we’d be up against next.
We “found” body parts in most of the higher ups of the college including all the deans and the president of the school, who had stood there and kept asking for a lawyer like they existed in this world. The heart had been in Burnt’s kitchen, half-sliced up as if for steaks next to a sweet bowl of teriyaki marinade. The liver had been stewing in a batch of beautifully caramelized onions in Hammock’s oven. The president had been caught breakfasting on sausage that his kitchen staff admitted to making from a special leg meat we could all assume was from Alma’s corpse even if it wasn’t. The Underground consisted of hundreds of relatively low-level thieves that now had profession levels in every servant role we could place them in.
“You could cycle your guards through stable and kitchen duty as punishments,” I was suggesting to the king as we walked castle corridors to the throne room. “Or you could encourage hobbies with subsidies so they could gain levels there. Either way, you’d be bolstering their health and mana with extra levels.”
Intelligence +1
“We need our guards and army to be able to dominate in health, at least,” the king nodded, brushing crumbs from our recent breakfast from his formal robes.
“And now that you’ll have magicians in the army ranks, we can make sure that our borders remain as secure as our interior,” I agreed, automatically walking us through a wall of my Clean spell and touching up my hair with a little Glamour magic. “We just need to make sure that the magicians train with the army so we aren’t bumbling over each other.”
“That is music to my ears,” the king smacked my back jovially. “The college had insisted that they didn’t need the practice and would only work with the army in case of war.”
We paused at the door to the throne room as the king checked his appearance in a mirror behind the door. I gave him another bow and left to go to where I would enter the room. I met Dom around the corner, glad that the king had the pomp and circumstance all wrapped up in neat little bows. I straightened my own formal attire. I’d splurged at a very nice tailor in the noble district for brand new clothes that were princely. The king had suggested a dress, but I’d balked and he’d sent me to his own tailor for noble attire that didn’t look like it came from a vampire’s closet.
“You look fine,” Dom tugged at one of the strings that hung from the poofy sleeves.
“I haven’t been this nervous since I walked across the stage to get my diploma,” I admitted, because it was him and I could admit it with him.
“You earned it then and you’ve earned this now,” Dom kissed me on the forehead, and I leaned into him.
“Thanks,” I mumbled into his shoulder. “I still feel like they’re going to snatch it out of my hands at the very last instant.”
Dom gave a wry chuckle, “Your mind.” What he meant in that little shortcut phrase was a commentary on how my, as he termed it, fascinating mind could imagine defeat at the very moment of my success. Yeah, that was me.
The truth was that I’d given Fizzbarren’s story just enough to force him to allow it to come to a satisfying conclusion. Fizzbarren’s book went on for pages and pages on the pomp and circumstances of the dismantling of UNLV. All magic users, students and staff, had been stripped of their spell books and basically set back to level one, at least in their ability to use magic. They had player levels at thirty and they kept all their skills, but they’d been issued two new spells and banished from the kingdom. The spells were the level one version of Clean and Repair. They were restarting with more health and mana than I’d had when I’d started in this world. Priests had healed them of most of their ailments except for their age, but I figured they had enough wealth and stuff in their inventories to land okay out there. That ceremony had been completed last week.
Considering that I had liked some of the professors I’d had, the punishment might have been a little harsh, but I had another nemesis quest to complete after this one, and I couldn’t afford to have enemies close at hand that Fizzbarren could use against me. We very thoroughly cleaned house in that area. There was no one left from the college in this kingdom. We’d teleported each and every staff member of UNLV to the very edge of the kingdom, the limit of the teleport spell that had been one of the stash Dom had gotten for me. The ones that we’d swept up in the cannibalistic satanic panic case were escorted by the king’s guards with great ceremony. The rest had disappeared at the hands of the Underground.
The roar of the crowd in the throne room announced the king’s entrance behind me. It wouldn’t be long now. I buried my head in Dom’s shoulder and wrapped around him, not caring if it mussed me up. I was more terrified now than I’d been against the fire elementals in the Eroomtsim dungeon. The cusp of victory churned my stomach like I’d eaten raw fish that wasn’t meant to be sushi. Dom let me hold on for only a minute, then turned me toward the doorway.
Constitution +1
I didn’t get the standing ovation that the king had gotten but my appearance wasn’t overlooked either. I’d been so used to being invisible. My nerves jangled. I was much more used to being on the cusp of victory only to have it dashed out from under me. Fizzbarren could pull any number of tricks on me at this point. He had god cards in his pocket. I squashed that thought.
Will +1
“Karma,” the king called from the throne. “Come forward.”
I strode like a bride down the main aisle toward the dais upon which the throne and king stood, giving what I hoped looked like a humble wave to the clapping crowd. The king stood and I turned to face a crowd that didn’t upset me. I’d never had stage fright, per se. My nerves were based on a certainty that this too would be snatched from me.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Acting +1
Exp +10 (3,149,134/5,985,462)
“Karma,” the king announced in the speech he hadn’t let me help plan. “You have more than fulfilled the requirements for nobility in our kingdom. You own six businesses and are acknowledged by the Merchant’s Guild with the title of Landowner. You have served the crown by uncovering a plot of treason and helping to root out every rotted limb of that conspiracy. Either one of these things would have fulfilled the requirements in our kingdom for the title and privileges of noble, therefore I hereby grant you the title of Noble of the Realm.”
The titles were racking up and I liked it. They each came with not only ranks, but privileges and duties. As a Landowner, I was granted the right to those pretty little cash register counters that the Merchant’s Guild had used in Chester’s and Mabel’s establishments. I caught Lily’s eye in the crowd. Dom had personally teleported our friends from our original village which now had the status of village, complete with the name Karmical in honor of, well, me. I’d tried to talk Lily and Chester into moving to the Capital, but they’d said they’d gotten used to watching after my little cottage, so I’d granted it to them. I also had access to the accounting system that came with those counters, including an inventory tab that allowed me to sell my own products more efficiently.
“As a noble, you have the right to lease land within the noble district,” the king continued once the applause had died down a bit. “In return for your services to the crown, we shall grant you any of the houses of the condemned criminals that you helped us eradicate, with all leasing fees waived as long as you or your descendants serve the crown.”
I’d already picked out our house in the Capital. While it might have been easier to choose Alma Greyn’s manor, with its easy access to the Underground, Dom and I had opted for the President of UNLV’s mansion near the castle gates. We were already in the process of digging the Underground access which included an escape tunnel for the king should disaster strike the kingdom again. We had confiscated much of the artwork and furniture of various criminals, and while we’d paid a stiff tax on the loot, we’d gotten the lion’s share of the fortune that had been contained in the houses of those the kingdom had exiled. We’d gotten a good chunk of experience for it too. We’d gotten double experience for each person we’d exiled.
“And as a hero of the realm and the highest-ranking magic user in the kingdom, the Realm recognizes you as the Royal Vizier to the crown,” the king put the cherry on the sundae. “With this title, you are charged to rebuild a magic training system for our realm so that this sort of corruption cannot infect our kingdom ever again.”
Nemesis Defeated
Checkpoint Saved…
The cheering was subdued by the thundering relief in my very soul. A new checkpoint meant I could relax in the spoils of a true victory. I wanted to collapse into a heap. He’d let me win. Fizzbarren had liked the story enough to let it culminate in a victory for me. I’d half expected the evil fairy to appear and curse the baby. I stuffed that thought as deep as I could into the darkest corner of my mind. As Kat would have said, there was no reason to give the enemy ideas.
Will +2
“Thank you, my king,” I bowed to the king as I was supposed to do and turned to the crowd. I was expected to say some words, but I waited for them to settle before I did. The crowd wasn’t actually friendly toward me yet. While they knew I was a hero of the realm, they were as leery of my leadership ability as any sane person would be when a sixteen-year-old is given great power. “As Royal Vizier, I intend to reinvent the Mage’s Guild, and while I know that you are all anxious to see what we will be doing with it, I can reassure you with a few ideals that will be the foundation of this kingdom’s new policies about magic.
“First, and most importantly, we must allow anyone from all walks of life to attempt to become mages,” I continued, my voice carrying over the unnerving hush. “The monopoly over magic must be broken. Spells will be available at local shops, and not just ones owned by me. If you can learn to create scrolls like I did, you will be able to sell your wares through the Merchant’s Guild. If any person can master both the magic of a scroll and work up the mana to use it, they have a right to that magic.”
This time, the clapping was a little more enthusiastic, and I hoped to build on that, but I only had three more paragraphs to do it in. The Nemesis Engine was set to limit villain speeches to five paragraphs, and in Fizzbarren’s world, I was still classified as a villain.
“But that will only be for the basic magic,” I warned them. “We have set a certain number of relatively passive spells for use by the general public, including spells like healing, buffs, or general crafting or cleaning spells. A list will be available at your local adventuring store, and some very useful spells can be earned through quests provided at the local guard houses, the Mage Guild, and bulletin boards for those who might want magic but are unable to afford it.
“The Mage Guild will request that interested citizens of the Realm who gain enough levels in these basic spells sign up for our service that will match you with a trained and certified magic-user who can then assess your talents and match you with spells that will enhance your abilities as a magic-user yourself. The Mage Guild is working closely with the crown to create and later to enforce laws for magic use for the safety of our non-magical citizens and to make us all feel safe and yet be allowed to grow in each of our unique ways.
“To that end, I have accepted a quest by the crown to scour the Capital and the extent of the kingdom for my own apprentices who will then serve to teach others in the future. The details of all these changes are available on newly placed bulletin boards in all areas of the Capital that will also be placed at every city, village, and pit stop along every road in the kingdom. Please go to your local bulletin board to check out the details of this quest and others that every one of you can take to join the ranks of the new and improved Mage Guild!”
Charm +2
Pontification -1
End villain speech. See? That wasn’t so bad. I took my bows, fielded hundreds of handshakes, several wink-nudge attempts to curry my favor, and settled into the feast that the king had ordered for the occasion. Dom, as a semi-recognized noble in his own right, stood at my side and deftly redirected bribes into coffers for the Underground. He was methodically tagging nobles as upright or corrupt. Between Dom and Cumbers, they were rewriting who had power in this Realm.
Nobles feasted in the castle, but tables of good food were set up in courtyards all over the city where the proclamations were repeated by criers who read them from scrolls provided by us. The whole city was on holiday, and it was marked as the Festival of Magic, something we planned to repeat every year, with subsequent years including magic duels, mage sign-ups, and apprenticeship awarding ceremonies.
It was all a bit bittersweet to me, but I forced myself to forget that it could all be undone by my next quest. This was the beginning of the world I wanted to create, but the end of one story was the beginning of another for Fizzbarren. What would he and the engine corrupt to make the next one?
“I recognize that look,” Terra rubbed against me, and I could sense a bit of cat nip in her glazed eyes. “You said we’d enjoy ourselves, at least for one night.”
“I know,” I said, the haunted look in my eyes dimming slightly.
“Drink more,” Terra suggested with a mental slur. “I’m going to chase some very soused crows.”
I answered with a mental chuckle. Dom’s murder of crows had been drinking red wine out of any goblet left on a table long enough to creep up on it. Crows are cool when they’re sober. Drunk crows are like watching flapping windmills that can snatch a gem out of a person’s ear and drop it in someone else’s pocket. Terra giving chase to them entertained the nobles enough that they didn’t notice the light pilfering from only those nobles Dom and Cumbers deemed corrupt. Were they really drunk or were they just having fun with a bunch of drunk nobles? It didn’t matter, this was still the basis of the world I wanted to recreate when it was all said and done. I soaked it all in, so that I wouldn’t forget a single thing.