<<>>

It was late even the servants had gone to bed as I quietly entered fathers study.

“Good Lindis you have come, please sit we have much to discuss.”

Taking a seat in one of the two wingback chairs by the fire I watched as father waved his hand over the mantle of the fireplace revealing a string of runes before he too sat in the seat opposite mine.

“You may speak freely Lindis the Listening wards have been activated whatever you say will stay between us.”

“Thank you father I have complied a written report of my unofficial actions in the north but I fear we have more pressing matters to speak of.”

“Indeed by all means continue Lindis.” Motioning me to speak, I organized my thoughts before replying.

“Then I will start with the magic beast that attacked me on my way to the north. First why was it there; on a major roadway with a constant flow of traffic and regular patrols? I overheard Sin and Oldors’ conversation, Sin being ten years old mentioned she had never seen such a large magic beast before and while It is true that boar horse must have seemed quite large to a child it really wasn’t. That tells me there are no real magic beast threats near their village and yet I was attacked and the only victim just as I happened to be passing though?”

“It is strange though it could be chalked up to a freak accident.”

“Please there is no way that you the most cautious man of any I have even known would believe it to be just as it seems at first glance.”

My response elicited a soft chuckle form him.

“You know your old man well, I have already dispatched agents though I do wish you had used to dragons blood to inform me earlier.”

“Yes the dragons blood about that… I wagered it in a gamble, and one that seems to have paid dividends.”

“The boy?”

“Yes father surely you have read the reports of him slaying the dragon, but it is not just that this boy there is more to him I sense it a depth of character and a resolve that should not be found in such a small child. Father you always said that fortune favors the prepared and luck favors the bold. That we must weigh the two against each other before making a choice that lesson was hammered into me since I was a small child. The Allister family has long leaned toward prepared and we have the fortune to show for it but in this matter I will be bold. If you are correct then had I used the dragons blood to contact you we may have discovered a clue about them, but by giving it to him we may have made ties to a weapon that can destroy them when they do reveal themselves.”

“You have so much faith in the boy that you would gamble our lives on him? I agree that he is powerful but his methods are crude and haphazard this is not a bet I would like to take with you if I could.”

“he is reckless to be sure but there is more to it than that when I first awoke after I had been attacked I assumed that they had taken me captive and I lashed out…that boy managed to dodge a killing blow and even though he was severely injured he simply shrugged it off before launching a counter attack that surely would have been fatal had a healer not been standing by. Then I watch him take a man apart and subdue an entire crowd of armed men. His control was masterful he used the element of surprise, coordinated attacks, displays of overwhelming power, and intimidation, to forcibly bring these enraged men to heel with the minimal cost to him and his enemy. Then he finds the fucking staff of Oldor the father of magic like its nothing. That pillar had been there for millennia and even after it was made into a roadway hundreds of years ago with tens of thousands of people passing it by every year without even noticing. And this boy solved the puzzle in mere minutes the clarity, insight and reasoning he displayed were uncanny.”

“Huummm you may be right about the boy, very well but if he is to be our weapon and shield us from our enemies he must be stronger and we must be sure of our control over him.”

“Of course there is no use in a blade that does not cut and that you cannot wield thus I have already set plans in motion. While the princess may have granted him nobility sealing one of our strings to bind him to us as we can no longer adopt him but we have other strings to this puppet yet. The girl sin she seems to occupy a soft spot in the boys heart she can be used as leverage that was the whole point in bringing her along and even if the men I hired to transport her failed, to think her own mother would ask to let her come with us hahahahaha. Then there is the boy’s family he wants to give back to them so we will help him out. We can give them and their village financial aid that should buy us some good will. Finally I shall play the part of his friend and confidant and from what I have seen he takes good care of his friends. As to sharpening are weapon I would like to enroll him in the knights academy while his fighting style is effective he knows only rudimentary Ki usage and magic abilities.”

“Hahahahahaha as expected of my son to have planned so far ahead very well then we shall go with our plan and put our faith in Sir. Ass slayer, May he slay all our enemies as he did the dragon and line our pockets with gold.”

“I would toast to that, now on the subject of the dragon what theory do you have there? A five thousand year old dragon does not appear for simply no reason.”

“The public statement is that miners to the west disturbed the dragons nest and caused it to go on a rampage. The current favored theory amongst the more intelligent is that what with the princess arriving only a day before the attack, was that someone was using the dragon to strike at the royal family.”

“And what is your theory father?”

“…….I don’t believe it was an attack directly targeting the princess you have already stated how she so quickly snipped one of our connections to the boy. I believe she was sent here to act as a watchman over us as she reports on our activities while subtly sabotaging any of our attempts to gain power. Her being a member of the royal family will also make it difficult to move against her…”

“I believe she is part of a third power and they simply used the dragon to strike her and us at the same time two beasts with one blow if you will.”

“Father the wards our active no one can hear us you can use their name.”

“No son I dare not that name has power and we cannot move against them yet but the day will soon come when we will. When that day comes May you be prepared and be bold my son and I pray that both fortune and luck are with you. Now go the morning comes already.”

Rising from my seat I made to leave, my mind troubled sleep would be hard to find today.

<<>>

As I lay in bed staring at the ornately decorated ceiling I couldn’t help but start kicking my feet in restlessness after all there would be so many fun things to do from now on so many puzzles to solve.

As I think back on it Oldor was the one who taught me the greatest lesson and helped me find the greatest joy of my life. When he was just a baby we would play together and yet one day he suddenly spoke like a grown up and he was really scary but around everyone else he was just a normal baby.

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People hide what they really are, for Oldor he hid his violent foul mouthed personality but what about others? I started asking lots of questions, I always made sure they were short easy to answer questions that people would answer out of reflex. When they answered out of reflex they weren’t thinking and I usually got honest answers and while the answers they gave might not mean much when you put them together you could see how people worked you could find out lots of things. And when they got angry or irritated from the questions I would see yet another side of them.

After a while I started hiding my inner self too if I acted clumsy by messing up the laundry or burning the food mom would stop whatever she was doing and come do my work for me while I went to play hehehehe that was the first time I learned to manipulate the secret person inside them to do what I wanted. After that I started practicing on the people in the general store and the old men in the tavern it was so much fun whenever I could get them to do what I wanted but it wasn’t that I wanted them to by me candy or praise me for being cute it was the challenge that I loved. Every person was different and I was learning to twitch their strings, I eventually figured out that for each action I made different people would make different responses but eventually I figured them out I could even get Oldor to play with me. In a way he was my favorite puzzle because to some of my actions he would react just like the men at the tavern but for other things I did he would act like any of the other village children I never could figure that out.

Eventually I ran out of people in the village I already understood everyone but Oldor so I started hanging around the inn so I could practice on travelers just to test myself. I was very good to after I heard about Oldor killing the magic beast so I convinced a group of traders to take me to see it. One of them even suggested that I go to Elfhiem with them afterward and he even gave me a pretty dress, I didn’t really wanna leave but I figured I could always go to see the beast and then convince one or two of them I didn’t want to go and they could stand up to the others even if they tried to make me go.

Once I saw the beast it was really cool and as I watched them take it apart I was very fascinated I was so engrossed that I didn’t notice Oldor approaching me. He seemed really surprised to see me and he clearly liked my dress so I started to tease him a bit I started to twirl and the hem of my dress rose higher and higher and as it went higher Oldors face went a deeper shade of red hahahahaha this was great he had never showed me this face before. So I decided to tell him I was going with these men to Elfhiem, he was so shocked I was elated two new reaction in as many minutes. What happened next with the men left me as the shocked one I knew Oldor was really violent even if he tried to hide it but I never thought he was that strong. I was the one who made him act that way, the thought that he would act like that for me… my heart started to pound and my breath caught. What was this? This felt fantastic.

Walking back to the village Oldor told me he was leaving for Elfhiem and that fantastic feeling went away instead I felt something like panic. No he couldn’t leave me he was the one puzzle I couldn’t solve, I started to think very hard I might be able to convince him to stay with me I knew he liked me maybe if I used my body he would be tempted to stay, mom always said that men really liked that.

Wait why would I want him to stay even if he did I would still only have my one puzzle but if I could get him to take me not only could I stay with him but I would get a whole new city of people to puzzle out and play with.

It worked but as soon as we left we had to come back after he found jack the magic staff but I didn’t really mind because I got my hands on another interesting puzzle it was a talking stick! But Oldor kept calling him a dick and while I knew what that was I had never seen one before. It was really scary there was no way something like that could go in my body NO WAY!

Then we finally made it to Elfhiem and Oldor immediately wanted to go back home because he was afraid of the dragon. In all honesty I was scared too but in my heart I couldn’t imagine Oldor losing to anything so I decided to convince him to fight after all I had accidentally made him fight those men so I was sure if I tried I could urge him to fight the dragon to.

Success he won but it wasn’t like in the story books his way of winning was a lot grosser but he still killed it like I knew he could I was so proud. Then we got to meet the princess I think like oldor and jack she will be another interesting puzzle to solve.

Aggghhh why can’t it be morning already I really want to play.

<<>>

After the audience with the princess I was exhausted and quickly fell asleep but after some time I awoke to jacks voice.

“Oldor, Oldor wake up we need to talk.”

I threw my pillow at where he was propped up in the corner of the room.

“Shut up this has been a really shitty day; no don’t say it that wasn’t a joke. I really have to sleep I might have slain the dragon only to die of a massive headache thanks to that demented princess.”

“Look Oldor this is serious I have been giving this a lot of thought and I think you are in danger.”

I sat up at that jack might be a dick but he had lots of life experience and there is typically a wisdom that comes with age.

“I keep thinking about the things that have happened since I met you and I have a very ominous feeling like we are about to be caught up in a shit storm that will make what that dragon did seem like a gentle spring rain.”

I threw my other pillow at him for bringing up that memory that I would just as soon forget, but I was wide awake now and I had to admit this whole deal was giving me bad vibes too.

“When you found me your buddy Lindis said that all the magic beasts had been exterminated when the road was built right? That’s how you got to me so easily but if that’s true and there weren’t any magic beasts then how did he get attacked by one just off that same main road?”

I had never thought of that I just assumed that since this was a fantasy world that magic beasts would be really common. Come to think of it the only other large magic beast I had seen was the dragon that was attacking Lindis home; Lindis…was attacked and his home was also targeted.

“Look Oldor I have been around for a long time and this whole thing smells like some kind of power play or conspiracy that or you have the worst luck of anyone I have ever met; either way you aren’t strong enough to survive normally I would tell you to go collect the rest of the equipment that the original Oldor sealed his soul into but I don’t think they would be as easy to find as I was.”

“my suggestion is this if your buddy Lindis really is in trouble he will be looking for strong allies so get him to help with your training while I update my knowledge of this modern world then before the shit storm hits we grab Oldor the originals gear and you can decide whether to stand by your friend or bail but at least whatever you do you won’t die.”

I nodded at that then fell back onto my bed but this time sleep did not come so easily.