By the end of the next week, it was clear what kind of damage the Card of Rumors was able to do. Professor Lysander had been placed on administrative leave pending the investigation, an investigation that, according to what Juno’s dad had told him, already had a plethora of evidence. The card had done some serious damage, and the second rumor Alstiar started would need to be a good one.
Alistair still didn’t know he would be able to start a rumor about himself as a third rumor and get the card back.
Combat classes were canceled while they recruited a new professor to teach the classes, which meant that one of the Fledgling groups didn’t have a Coterie Aira in charge. In his downtime, and between unpredictable lessons from Professor Humboldt who continued along the academic track of detailing cards and their history, and Professor Vale, whose lessons mostly went over what students had done wrong in past challenges, Alistair trained.
Alistair trained hard.
He rose another level and his STR and DEX went up by a point. He leveled his new Cryptic Endurance skill, Alistair feeling stronger than ever. His morning jog became a breeze, he had already switched to heavier weights, Alistair noticing in his sword training that there was more power behind his strikes even in his mind, which was strange.
All of his summons had leveled up, and Noctarii had evolved to a Nightflutter Faeling, just as it hoped. Before leaving to take the rune railpath to Solaria, and after buying a small obelisk stone to recharge his preloaded wand skills if necessary, Alistair used the Status Stone to see where he was at stat-wise:
pName: Alistair Blackstar
Grade: Fledgling, Level Nine
STR: 11
DEX: 10
CON: 8
{Summons}
Sprite Class Ethereal Ripple Slime, Level Six
Sprite Class Nightflutter Faeling, Level Seven
Sprite Class Strigursus Onikuma, Level Four
{Skills}
Thick Skin, Level Two
Gem Gaze, Level Three
Dragon Claw Swipe, Level One
Cryptic Endurance, Level Two
{Wandbound Spells}
Mistmeld, Level Three
Aerial Burst, Level Two
Shimmer, Level One
Eclipse Claw, Level One
{Resonant Enchantments}
Card of Rumors, 2/3
It felt good to be improving to the point that Alistair hated hated that he had to go to the big city, where things could get out of hand quickly considering who he was set to meet. There is also the planned trip to Marrowstone to find Elyndra Grimmson, Kang’s mother, Ghosts’s adopted mother whom he called master.
Ghost insisted they bring his sword, and to travel with it, they had to get a sports bag from the campus shop. Since the shop didn’t have a back that met the exact specifications, specifications that Alistair was specifically vague about, they special ordered one from their supplier, Alistair secretly hoping it didn’t come in time for their trip.
It did. Which meant that he was now traveling to Solaria with a dead assassin’s sword, on a ticket paid for by one of the men that the assassin planned to kill.
“I still don’t know how we’re going to get this by Felix,” Alistair said as they waited on the platform. The mana-powered train was set to arrive in a matter of minutes, and there was a buzz in the air as people said goodbye to one another.
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It all seemed so normal until Ghost spoke in his head.
Ghost: I already told you my strategy for that. We don’t go directly to his mansion. Instead, we will get a room at an inn near his district. Worry less and trust me more.
“What if he has people waiting for us?”
Ghost: We lose them with Mistmeld. This is the sort of thing that we have been training for, Alistair. You are more than prepared to execute something of this nature. What I’m trying to say here is that you should have more faith in yourself, and by extension, me.
Alistair: I have plenty of faith in myself.
Ghost: Then you should have twice as much considering who is in your head. What you lack in confidence I make up for in cunning. Never forget that.
Alistair: I’m sure there’s some assassin quote about that, right?
Ghost: Confidence is a quiet blade that never dulls, culling the shadows tracing along its edge. Together, they make one invincible.
Alistair shook his head as the train slowed to a stop. “You always have something to say, don’t you?”
Ghost: That’s what makes me human.
Alistair was going to remind the assassin that he was in fact dead, but decided against it. It was useless. And Ghost’s plan to lose any of Felix’s Baronblades at the station in Solaria was possible.
Dangerous as hell, but possible.
****
The suite they were given on the train was absolutely fantastic. The space consisted of three rooms, one where meetings could be held, another that was the lounge which came with a kitchenette, and a bedroom with just about the softest bed Alistair had ever laid upon. He personally hadn’t seen anything like it before, but Ghost wasn’t quite as impressed.
“Do not be swayed by Felix’s show of wealth. It is a tactic, you know.”
Alistair, who sat in the lounge, caught a glimpse of himself in a mirror as Ghost finished speaking. He now wore his old hood, but that wouldn’t help disguise his eyes, at least not the light. The hood was just a bit tighter, a sign that he was developing muscle mass.
“You know that, right?” the assassin asked.
“Actually, I don’t. You were an orphan. You know what it was like. When would I ever have experienced anything like this?” Alistair motioned to the posh room. “And that’s not to mention resonant mana and everything that it entails.”
Squish.
“You too,” he told Ziggy. The slime was on the couch next to Alistair, leaning against him. “And while you have told me your plan for hiding the sword, what about the rest of it? You aren’t going to try to kill Felix now, are you?”
“As in tonight? No. That would be incredibly foolish, unless we are given a chance. Actually, maybe I should start considering this. Maybe that is the best way to handle them, a surprise attack. But I still maintain that using his own future paranoia to crush him will be better, and more painful.”
“Do you think he will want us to stay there?”
“Likely, but we won’t. We need to head to Marrowstone.”
“What will we tell him?”
“A simple no will do.”
“What if he insists?”
“Then we stay and leave in the middle of the night. He thinks you’re a thief anyway.”
“He still has your money.” Once Ghost didn’t respond, Alistair continued: “I still think it strange that he invited just me. Give me the creeps, actually. I don’t like him.”
“Nothing will happen to us. We have a dagger too, you know.”
“And my wand.”
“And we already worked on using the two together, plus the sword. Worry less and be prepared more.”
“I thought it was worry less and trust you more.”
“That too.”
Squish!
“I get the feeling Ziggy is starting to see through your bullshit,” Alistair told Ghost.
“Perhaps he is starting to see through yours.”
Something shifted in the corner of the door. Noctarii appeared. “I didn’t see anyone on the train that looked out of place. No weapons, and no one wearing masks. Although, I don’t think they would wear masks in a public setting.”
“You would be surprised,” Ghost told the fae. “We won’t have much time to scan the crowd once we arrive. We all need to be ready. There is no point making a scene, but if one must be made, we will do so. First, Mistmeld—”
“Then Shimmer,” Alistair said. “We have already been over this.”
“We have not been over the next part. You will move toward the right. Or I will. Either way, we continue toward the right. We are near the front of the train. If we must, we can reach the front, and then use Aerial Burst to leap to the next platform. We will continue on from there, toward the southern part of Solaria. They won’t be expecting that.”
“We can travel inside the train too.”
“Good idea.”
“And we still don’t know if they will actually be there waiting for us,” Noctarii said. “Weren’t they there last time?”
“They were,” Alistair told him.
“We should always operate with extremities in mind, going overboard, above and beyond, however you want to say it,” Ghost told Alistair. “That is how we stay alive. When we fail, we die.”
“How poetic.”
“I am living proof of that, or dying proof considering what happened back at the restaurant, when I was betrayed. Now, to switch back to an earlier conversation. Felix—we will try to kill him if we can, but as I keep telling you, I amconvinced that paranoia will kill him if we get the others first. Senka—her assassination be incredibly hard. Goran—perhaps a better next target, get the big man out of the way. Kang—likely not happening this time or any time soon. But that remains to be seen. Stick to the plan, Alistair. Sometimes, that’s all we can do.”