Lord Heleema Cosgrave was a stern woman. She had persevered through many trials to ascend to the head of her house, and to be worthy of the title of City Lord. One thing she was not prepared for, was the possibility of an Islangur incursion. If she had some notice, she would have been able to come up with a plan. However, she couldn’t make a plan without information.
Sitting in her office, she tapped her desk and looked out the window. ‘How did they get this far North without anyone noticing. It’s inconceivable for them to have avoided all contact to arrive here by foot. They must have been teleported. How many could there be?’ She wondered.
With a thought, she summoned her aide. Moments later, Ms. Chandler entered the office and waited for the Lord to address her.
“Has any more information been found concerning the Islangur raid?” Lord Cosgrave asked in a grave tone.
“No m’lord. The mages still have no clue how they managed to hide themselves for so long, but they have located them now. The army is preparing to deal with them. Scouting reports are in, and the men are being assembled.” Ms. Chandler replied.
“Someone in Dorchester must be helping them. We may have to enact the ‘Silent Vigil’ protocol. This may be a prelude to something more. Hold off on it for now, but be ready.” Lord Cosgrave said with a hint of worry in her voice. “Is there anything else we should be paying attention to, perhaps this is a distraction of some kind?”
“Nothing m’lord… Well there is one thing. The survivor from the merchant raid is of possible interest. The report the Captain on site said that the boy was odd. He took him to the Gate 7 intake Center to be evaluated. Other than that, The city is running as expected.” said Ms. Chandler.
“I want to see that intake report as soon as it’s filed. That will be all for now.” Lord Cosgrave said, then turned her eyes back to the window.
As her aid left, Heleema tried to see the angles. ‘The game doesn’t stop even if you don’t know the rules,’ she thought to herself as her brow furrowed in thought.
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After threatening to tell his wife about the testing I just went through, I enjoyed watching Nick panic. I gargled some coffee, took a bite of my bagel, and tried to remove the lingering taste of my breakfast’s second pass through my mouth.
Meanwhile, Nick quickly closed all the holograms on his machine and walked over with a ‘hey buddy’ expression on his face.
“Come on Nero, it wasn’t that bad. I’ll even clean up the mess,” he said.
With a wave of his hand, what looked like a ball of plasma appeared 10 feet away on the platform. There wasn’t even any warning. No smell, or heat. It looked like a finger of fire just ‘wiped’ the mess away, and now the platform was pristine.
‘Holy Hannah,’ I thought, as I looked at Nick with wide eyes.
He looked back at me, trying to see if that was enough to get him off the hook. Reaching up and mussing up his hair, he threw his fists in the air and screamed, “IT WAS FOR SCIENCE!”
‘Well, damn. It appears that I’ve been check-mated,’ I thought.
“Fine, it stays between us. BUT! You have to get me a link, and all the information on how to start my magic career. And the basics on pillars. Agreed?” I asked.
“No problem on the link and magic information. But the pillar primers and information are all in the public library and easily accessible through the dorms, you don’t need me for that. The magic school is complicated. But basic spells are no problem,” he replied.
“No, that’s not good enough. I want to be a tower building, army destroying, magic behemoth. I want to be able to wave my hand and rewrite reality. That’s a thing here, right?” I asked.
He rubbed his chin. “I haven’t really heard it described like that. But in the capital there should be mages like that. I knew a guy that leveled past 75, he was like 350 years old or something. He mastered elemental ice pretty deep, even had an ice pillar to really study it. That guy was a monster. I wonder what he’s up to…. Anyway, if you study magic long enough, and manage to live that long, you could be all that. It’s not easy though.” He said with a warning tone.
“Nothing worth doing is.” I replied.
He widened his eyes. “That’s great! Let me write that down.”
I laughed and enjoyed my bagel. It’s almost time for lunch. ‘Man, that sense-of-time thing really sneaks up on you,’ I thought to myself.
“Hey Nick, what time do I have to meet with Mrs. Salvatore this afternoon?”
Nick poked his head from behind a machine. “Why do you always call her Mrs. Salvatore and you just call me Nick?” He asked.
“Because while she demands a person’s respect, you demand a person’s scrutiny.” I said without shame.
Nick went back to what he was doing and I heard him mutter, “wretched little shit.” He finally came back and tossed me a small box. “Here’s a top-of-the-line link. The manual is in there, and you just have to attune it to your psychic signature. They’re really easy to use.”
With a wave of his hand, the dishes in the sink started cleaning themselves. He then took my coffee cup, and poured what was left into a paper cup and handed me that. “And your meeting with Vera is at 3pm. She kept hounding me to remember to turn in my report before then. Which by the way will say what we already knew. You are a new soul that happened upon a body that was unoccupied and took it as your own. You didn’t kill anyone, and are not an undead. You pose no danger to anyone at all.” He finished.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“Hey! I could pose a danger. I’m dangerous.” I stubbornly declared.
“Kid, you don’t know any magic. You don’t have a single combat skill high enough to register a skill resonance. Hell, the ONLY skill you have high enough to register a skill resonance is something called ‘charades’. The word seems like some kind of children’s game but I don’t understand how it’s played. Nevertheless, I made a note of it. But even if that were dangerous, its level is still pretty low.” Nick said while dismissing my combat prowess with his damnable logic.
“Yeah, well…. I just got here. Give me a week or two.” I said full of false bravado.
He just chuckled. “Right. Take your coffee, let’s head out and get some lunch. I have a report to write, and you have… whatever it is that you have.” He said as he started turning off his machines with his link.
“That buff chick at the front desk of the dorms told me to sign up for combat classes or I couldn’t stay there. So that’s my afternoon plan. Then studying when I’m not having the meeting with Mrs. Salvatore.” I detailed my itinerary as we left the lab.
He thought for a moment. “You mean Cathleen? Black lady that looks like she could carve a turkey with her stare? Yeah, better do what she says. I’m a dab hand as a combat caster, but that woman scares me. I once saw her pound, and I mean POUND, an army Sergeant who said that living here in the South was just as harsh as living in the North. She challenged him to a duel on the spot. Moron just said ‘sure’ and followed her to the arena and his own destruction. Nobody could believe he was dumb enough to say ‘yes’. Funniest thing I’ve seen in forever.”
I smiled as we walked to what I assume was some kind of restaurant in the building. We took an elevator to level 2.
“She whooped his ass?” I asked, hoping for more details.
“The whole thing only lasted about 5 minutes. Most of that was her criticizing his footwork. Then BAM! Spin kick to open his shield while she followed with spear in a reverse grip. The spear went through his sword arm. Needless to say, he let go of his sword. Before the blade even hit the ground, she finished her spin, planted her feet and rolled his skewered arm over his shoulder. His entire body flipped and he landed flat on his back. On way through the air, Cathleen pulled out the spear and planted the butt into the dirt. She stood there like a war goddess passing judgment before he even finished planting himself in the floor. All of us watching were speechless. You forget how amazing people are when you see them everyday.” He said.
“Sounds like a one move victory. That’s pretty hardcore.” I said.
“Oh, that wasn’t the end of the fight. The guy stood up on shaky legs, with a bloody and torn right arm, missing his shield, and he tried to put up his fists. To be honest, I think it was reflex and not some supreme act of will. You could see in his psychic field that everything was dulled. Cathleen smiled and slammed the butt of her spear into the ground to keep it standing. She banged her fists together and said, ‘Good’. That was it, She charged him like a plontus heading for the last bundle of hay.” Nick was gesturing wildly while we walked down a hall.
“Hold up, what’s a plontus exactly?” I asked.
“Huh? Oh, it’s a species of cow that was crossbred with a monsterized bull held in captivity. It makes them larger, meaner, and always hungry. You know what a cow is?” he wondered.
“Yeah, but we’ll get back to the story. But remind me to ask you about monsterizing or whatever. And for the story you should go with ‘She charged him like a fat kid heading for the last piece of cake’, it’s funnier. But go on. What happened next?” I asked.
“HA! Fat kid heading for the last piece of cake… that’s good. Really rude, but funny. Anyway, what happened next was the ass-whooping of the decade. She shoulder charged the guy in the stomach. You saw her, she’s rather short right? Well he was a big guy, probably was a full unit taller than her. And she folded him in half like a sheet of parchment. When the back of his head hit the mat…” He looked at me with his serious face. “EVERYONE flinched. Then she hopped up onto his chest and got her legs under his hips to hold him in place. Then she started wailing on him. Tight straight punches and hooks. He tried getting his hands up, but it was futile. In no time flat, the mat turned red and match ended. The guy was out cold. If it weren’t for his soul signature, I would have sworn she killed him. Cool as a cucumber, she stood up and wiped her bloody fists on her pants. She walked over to her spear pulled it out and shouted ‘Medic!’. Then walked off like she just finished turning in an expense report. It was awesome.” He finished. I laughed.
Soon we were walking into a fancy restaurant with a polished wood motif, white table cloths, and sported a hostess station and everything. We got a table with no wait. ‘Must be nice to be a guy in charge,’ I thought.
In no time at all, we were seated and being handed menus.
I leaned forward and said, “Hey Nick, you know I don’t have any money right? And I have no idea what any of these dishes are either.”
He looked up and waved like it didn’t matter. “No problem. Lunch is on me. I’ll just order us something simple. You’ll love it.”
I looked around at the fancy décor, and the nice silverware. Something seemed off, I just didn’t know what.
When the waiter came by, Nick ordered for the both of us. He also ordered a bottle of nice wine. He made small talk about the link and the opportunities for growth here at the Center while I was staying at the dorms. He even offered to get me into remedial classes through the link so I could remote study and catch up to my age group. That sense of something wrong kept growing. Maybe not ‘wrong’, but something is definitely not right.
As the waiter poured my wine and delivered our food, it hit me like a bolt of lightning. ‘I’m on a date?!?’ I realized.
My eyes snapped up to Nick. I was just about to accuse him of shenanigans, when the memory of my assumptions about the link being way off base popped into my head.
Aware that I might be jumping to conclusions, I took a minute to think things through, ‘OK… take a breath… you can figure this out. Vera is his wife, and she is smoking hot. Maybe they’re swingers? I can’t see Vera swinging. Hell, I don’t know how she puts up with Nick. He’s such a cool guy. Wait. Was he this cool yesterday? No. He wasn’t this laid back. He wasn’t Mrs. Salvatore rigid, but he was very focused. I don’t get any sexual vibes, it’s more like he wants to be friends.’
Maybe it’s because I was never that successful in my life back on Earth, but I’d never been wined and dined. This was a whole new experience for me. I didn’t understand it. Yet, it was the only conclusion that I could come to.
As I focused on my food, and the lull in conversation, my mind was filling up with all kinds of observations that I normally wouldn’t think about. Although this guy looks like he is barely 40, Mrs. Salvatore said they’d been married almost 50 years. That is a long ass time. He’s also the head of a division, so he’s successful. He’s smart, political, and old. He shouldn’t be acting like this. I don’t think he’s being really ‘fake’, I think he’s just playing up the friendship angle. ‘He’s mirroring me!’ I realized. This is the thing I saw on TV about how to act when you want to get into business with people. You take them out to a nice restaurant and be their ideal friend.
I couldn’t decide if I was emotionally hurt or not. I mean, to be honest, I had just met the guy really. He seemed nice, I liked his wife. They’re both professional.
His attitude subtly changed after he saw my results. No, it was when I told him that I had 3 stars saved up. It was after that when we started bonding. ‘The study he mentioned! He said it was a big deal, and took two years. My data is private, he can’t use it without authorization. HA HA… I got you now. He really is just a big science nerd. He is trying to get my permission to write a paper or something on my identity,’ I deduced.
I finished my meal while I double checked my conclusions. The mental math seemed to check out. ‘Time to check my hypothesis, better yet, I should wait to speak with his wife. She was ALL about a person’s path and personal journey. This afternoon might be interesting,’ I thought while pretending to focus on my meal.
As I patted my belly, I looked up to a smiling Nick. “Thanks Nick, this was nice. I better head out though. I have that meeting with Mrs. Salvatore at 3pm, and you have a report to write. I’m sure we’ll see each other soon,” I said.
Nick seemed to hesitate, then said, “Hey Nero, would you mind if I used some of your data for a paper. Since I’m writing that report for the intake committee, I could just make a second one for the Center’s Research department. I won’t use your name, and our deal still stands about us not talking about the stars thing and me getting you some books on magic.”
“Well Nick, I can tell this means a lot to you. Let me think about it, okay?” I said. Since they don’t shake hands here, I stood up and smiled. I gave a small bow, and walked off. “See you around Nick, it’s been a hoot,” I said.
‘There are very few things in life as sweet as having a legitimate reason to leave someone else with the bill,’ I thought to myself.