‎Chapter 18: In the corridors of Carcerus

The first thing Norman saw back in Carcerus was a blurred face hovering close above him. Had Jane kissed him to wake him up? Did she have a thing for him despite all the snide remarks? Maybe he should ask her...

His field of vision became sharper. Above him, he saw the curious face of the gargoyle who had just checked his breathing. When he noticed how Norman's eyes focused on him, he nodded in satisfaction: "You're back. Continue your journey now."

He turned around and strapped a travel basket to his back, which was already fully packed. Apart from the blanket on which Norman himself was lying, everything was already stowed away. Jane was quite a distance away, dozing comfortably on a piece of moss. Horst helped another Gargylen to check the rods of the carrying devices.

Norman was a little disappointed... "Tell me, why isn't anyone ever interested in how I'm doing? What I've been through? If someone next to me had lost their soul for a short time, I would have been worried. This is the second time now and no one has shown the slightest interest in whether I..."

The expression of disinterest disappeared from the Gargoyle's face and gave way to honest concern: "You summoned twice and kidnapped soul? You stupid? You stupid and betrayed the first time Name?"

"They already knew my name, after all, they're friends of mine. Well, we haven't known each other that long, but believe me, time at this university counts..."

"Friends summoned you twice? No friends!"

He stomped off indignantly. Norman looked after him uncomprehendingly and then went over to Jane, who had followed the loud dialog and was already coming towards him: "What's got into him? Did you insult him?"

"I don't know. I told him that I've been summoned twice and that my friends know my name."

"Maybe he's angry because your talk makes absolutely no sense. Hey! Big claw!"

The Gargoyle leader looked up and came towards them, wings flapping slightly open and closed. "I have names! I be..."

"Never mind. What does it mean when someone is 'stolen' twice?" She pointed at Norman with her thumb.

"He stole for the second time? He betrayed name?"

"What's with the name?"

"Summon randomly. You get caught, you have a very high chance of never being caught again. Once summoned already very unlucky. But you betray name, then summon you specifically. Summoned a second time, then odors from other world stronger on you. Summoned again, then stolen more often."

"What's it like with freeborns?"

"Don't know. I'm sure it's even worse!"

Norman gave Jane a pleading look, as he hadn't quite understood what the problem was. She patted him on the cheek: "Don't worry. We'll get out of here before it becomes a problem."

"Before what becomes a problem?"

"Additive aura disharmonization. This is... complicated. You can look it up in the university library once we get back home."

"Are you sure that..."

"Absolutely. Let's get packing! And on the way, you can tell me how we're going to get home."

*

Jane didn't take the news as well as he had hoped, but just as negatively as he had expected: "I thought we only had to find this Gargoyle and his amulet. Now we also have to track down an untraceable portal. Then we have to figure out a way to open it, and before that we have to catch the gargoyle. The Gargoyl that dozens of sharp-eyed, flying guardian monsters with the sense of smell of hunting dogs couldn't find. Or is there something else I've forgotten?"

Norman was about to reply something reassuring when she continued: "Oh yes, besides, the Lord Mage will probably kill us once he's tortured all the knowledge we've accumulated in our short lives out of us. Yes. I think that will be all."

The foremost gargoyle dropped back and hovered a little above the two students, who were hanging side by side from two different flying platforms, which in turn were carried by some of the other winged ones: "We're about to get to the distance you want. Close enough to realize when anger is coming. From here so what to hear clearly. Flashes of light maybe even to see. But far enough away not in danger. But we've already been here. Everything searched. Not a trace on the ground. No hiding place in the bushes. No tracks in the foggy river."

Norman began to grin. He had been thinking about the problem for a while until he remembered what he would have done in the Gargoyle's place: "He won't be on the floor. He'll be on the ceiling."

It wasn't just the Gargoyles who looked at him uncomprehendingly.

"The stone you have here disintegrates over time when it gets wet, which is why there is mud everywhere under the Misty River. Otherwise there should be at least the occasional stone in the water or the stream should flow over rocky ground. But I haven't seen that anywhere here. And nobody here uses rocks as tools."

"Because stone becomes brittle after a few weeks."

"That's right. Due to the high humidity. The Lord Mage's tower is certainly shielded against it somehow, but otherwise the stone continues to disintegrate. The veins contain water and spray it at regular intervals whenever one of these messenger lightning bolts passes through. They also serve as a source of heat. The warm air carries a good portion of the moisture to the ceiling. Has no one noticed that the rock up there is much more irregular than on the side walls?"

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Judging by the looks of all the listeners, who now wandered to the top of the vein, this was not the case.

"Stop me if I've got something wrong. But as far as I've heard so far, there are hardly any flying creatures apart from the gargoyles. Especially not intelligent ones. So there's almost never anything dangerous on the ceiling."

Horst now joined in: "It's like a blind spot. There's never anything there, so nobody looks. Clever."

Norman continued with his theory: "You can get your claws into stone yourself if you try hard enough. Especially where it's already weakened on the ceiling. He did that. He must have done it. Otherwise you would have found him. He clung on and tore out rocks. Again and again. Until he had a cave. A hiding place."

Jane sounded unsure: "Then we're looking for rocks and stones on the ground?"

"No. He will have done it directly above the vein. Not only does he have the best thermals there for his maneuver, the stones he breaks out of the ceiling fall right onto the vein. And what happens when something falls on a vein?"

"Anger destroys. Anger vaporizes with lightning. Nothing remains."

"So there are no suspicious boulders lying on the ground. No one has a reason to look up. The perfect hiding place."

"You're smarter than you look."

"Um... Thank you?"

The Gargyls weren't exactly sad to be able to switch to the better thermals above the veins. Five messenger bolts, accompanied by the usual wave of moisture, raced through the vein before they found the spot. Now that the Gargyls knew what to look for, the fugitive wasn't even helped by the rock-colored, dust-covered blanket he had masterfully stretched over the entrance. The winged warriors had been created as guards, warriors and scouts and nothing escaped their keen eyes.

They circled below the spot, while three of the gargoyles headed straight for it. After their attention was drawn to it, they were able to make out the camouflaged entrance with some difficulty. The first one slammed its claws into the ceiling next to it and let the momentum of its flight hurl it in. It bounced back after hitting the woven wood construction that held the gray fabric ceiling taut. The next one corrected its approach and broke through. Nothing happened for two breaths, then two gargoyles fell out of the hole. Closely entwined and wrestling, they fell straight towards the vein. Norman cursed himself for not recognizing this danger beforehand, but the third of the gargoyles had anticipated it and adjusted his approach accordingly. He went into a dive as soon as the two had left the hideout and grabbed one of them in flight. The students couldn't tell which of the two gargoyles he had caught, but it didn't matter. Even though he had to let them go again as soon as a dagger blow injured his arm, he had dragged them far enough for them to fall past the vein. The surface of the blue tube flickered briefly with a kind of St. Elmo's fire as they narrowly missed the kill zone. Then the pair separated and both spread their wings to avoid crashing to the bottom of the path. The gargoyles carrying the students frantically began a landing maneuver and the gurneys were shaken more than a little. The gargoyle they found roared a battle cry and lunged at its attackers, claws outstretched. By the time the students were rudely set down and the remaining gargoyles could throw themselves into the fight, it was all over.

All three were skilled and trained fighters and even though the free Gargoyl was slightly bigger and stronger than his opponents, it was not enough to make up for the superior numbers. When the rest arrived, two were already pinning him to the ground. The third crouched on the ground a short distance away, trying to keep his blood from oozing out of a four-clawed gash in his stomach. To Norman, it didn't look like he stood a chance. He was still frantically trying to remember the correct dressing pattern for a tourniquet, but Jane was much quicker. She rushed to him, put her hand on his shoulder and ordered him in a clearly inappropriate commanding tone to lie on his back and breathe as shallowly as possible. Then, unimpressed in the least by the gushing blood and other fluids, she placed her hands on the wound. The long formula, which she intoned in a melodious but somehow "dark" sounding language, showed Norman that she was using a normal spell. And not one of the short but powerful invocations she had already used to cast the magic that should have far exceeded her knowledge.

I'm not allowed to translate it because, as always, she doesn't want anyone to understand her spells. You wouldn't understand the words anyway. Pretty complex medical stuff.

The gargoyle flinched as if it had been shocked with a defibrillator. Then the blood disappeared and the wound closed. Jane propped herself up heavily on the floor and Horst had the impression that she had gone paler from one moment to the next. When he tried to help her up, she waved him off: "Vitality. Élan Vital . Do you remember your lessons? I gave some of mine to speed up his wound healing. I'd better sit down for a while."

Norman nodded reluctantly and walked over to the prisoner, who had been tied up tightly in the meantime: "Hello... Gargoyl. I hope the boys didn't hurt you too much..." He broke off when he saw the multitude of cuts in his clothing, blood seeping from numerous places. The gargoyle's face had several wounds, a visibly broken nose and a bloody lip. Not to mention the black eye.

The Gargoyle just looked at him silently with narrowed eyes.

"Okay... You are hurt. You are hurt. We're all tired and annoyed. The Lordmage oppressed your people and you tried to destroy the Nexus in return. Get over it. Let's just start again from the beginning. So I'm Norman and what's my name..."

"Destroy Nexus?!? You stupid! How a single gargoyle destroy huge place? Why destroy safe place? Brothers and sisters there. I killed lord mage. Soon brothers and sisters rise up and destroy apprentices of lord mage. Apprentices weak. Reign short. Brothers and sisters free! You kill me, but do not change future!"

"You have stolen the seal of creation. Without this seal, the wrath of the veins will smash the Nexus to pieces with lightning and kill everyone there. At least that's what they told me..."

The gargoyle sank down a little in the hands of the gargoyles holding him, when he suddenly stopped struggling. "Nexus too big..."

"Too big to be destroyed by a Primordial God?"

The Gargoyle was silent for a moment and looked into Norman's eyes for a long time. Then he nodded: "Truth in your eyes. How do you prevent the death of brothers and sisters?"

"You could tell me where you hid the seal."

"Buried, over there under the bush."

Norman, Jane and the other Gargyls stared at him, stunned. Jane was the first to regain her composure: "Just like that? He gives us the seal without torture or discussion?"

Norman put his hand on the Gargoyle's shoulder: "You made the right decision."

It only took a few minutes to find the seal. When everything was ready to leave, one of the gargoyles approached the bound prisoner. His hand, claws extended wide, hung loosely at his side. Norman stepped into his path: "I suppose you want to take off his shackles and let him go, right?"

"Lord Mage commanded all renegades must die."

"He has given us back the seal. He is no longer an apostate."

"That... That's for lord mages to decide."

"Exactly. But if you kill him now, he won't be able to decide. Then you've decided for him. Do you think that's a good idea? It could upset him, couldn't it?"

The Gargyls looked at each other uncertainly. Then they took a few steps back and discussed excitedly for a while. The decision they made was not unexpected.