Even with the king there, it was surprisingly business as usual. I was relieved. During all of the chaos we had advised Caleb to hide the records of Tethia so we could examine it when we had time. Keane certainly had to be there. King Nero barely left his room and office so it should be fine to gather, but we would be meeting in the dye territory this time.

“Did you bring it?” I asked Caleb when I met him at the gate.

“I did,” he assured me and started activating the magic to send us through while the others all gathered, “I actually did a little research on it in my room-”

“Caleb,” I scolded.

“Hear me out,” Caleb complained, “I did everything carefully, and unlike everyone else there wasn’t much for me to do. Anyway, the records of Tethia seems to record the past or present of whatever person you request. It got my past perfectly, even the past that had nothing to do with Tethia.”

“That could be terrifying in the wrong hands,” I muttered, “Wait until the meeting to tell me more.”

“Sorry… I have just never seen anything like this before.”

We headed through the gate and everyone gathered at the meeting room in the dye territory. Everyone was focused on the large leather bound book that Caleb had brought with him. After giving them the same explanation he gave me, he set it down on the table with a heavy thunk. How had he just been casually carrying that around?

The title truly did read in elegantly flowing letters, ‘Records of Tethia’. “Who do you want to test this on?” Caleb asked Keane, since Keane was the closest to the head of medical research here.

Keane pondered for a bit before answering. “I want to know about the person who created this.”

“Let me read about the one who made you,” Caleb ordered the book and then flipped it open, “That’s odd. Why is it in first person? I see. I forgot to specify past or present. This seems to be current.”

“Then it can’t be an artifact,” Alois said, “The founders who made them are long dead.”

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“No they aren’t,” Caleb corrected, “The first head magician is still alive, at least.”

“What?” Alois asked, a bit taken aback.

I had never heard of anything like that either, but this was a world of magic so I shouldn't be too surprised… Okay, that was stretching it even for a world of magic.”

“But I do agree on one thing, there is no way the sleeping magician would become Prince Lann’s personal butler,” Caleb continued.

“Let me see that,” Rena demanded, “No way, it really does say that the person who created this book is currently Lann’s butler but… the more it records of current events the more it seems like he is Lann’s personal tormentor instead.”

“Is he abusive?”

Keane leaned over. “The words he is saying are philosophical but Lann seems to be taking them personally. It also says a ways back that the king hired him to ‘correct’ the ways of his son.”

“So he is definitely doing it on purpose.”

“What is someone with enough power to create something artifact level doing in Beraud?”

I looked over at the book just in time to see some new sentences appear. “The king came to inform Lann of the new alliance with Tethia? Is that what Nero has been doing?” I asked.

“Looks like Lann is being send over as a double test,” Alois noted, “His last chance to redeem himself, and our test of alliance to see if we really will stay on Beraud’s side.”

“This was a useful head’s up, at least,” Rena sighed and then looked at Caleb, “We seriously need to keep this book hidden. It would not be funny if someone else got a hold of it.”

“Definitely,” Caleb agreed and looked at Alois, “I know you report almost everything to the headmaster, but could you keep this one to us?”

“Of course,” Alois agreed easily, “There is no way I am giving him another way to spy on me. If he had this he would know I have been slacking off here and there.”

I had wondered this before, but just how much work was the Headmaster giving Alois? Alois was not the type to slack off, much less admit to it. He had too much pride in his image for that.

“We should head back before the king starts suspecting us,” I decided, “I don’t want the king to think we are sneaking around and hiding things.”

“Yeah,” Caleb agreed, putting the book into his dimensional bookbag. 

We arrived back at the trading territory just in time to run into King Nero himself, looking for us.

“There you are,” he said, giving a regal air, aside from the cackling duck under his arm, “I thought I should let you know that I arranged an alliance with Beraud and requested a personal visit from a diplomat to discuss things further.”

“I see,” I said, not quite understanding why he was going out of his way to tell me that.

“I arranged this mansion to be the meeting place,” he continued.

I froze. This king was not very good at giving notice! Or having the decency to ask first! I suppose there wasn’t anyone who would refuse him but the gesture would have been nice! I was starting to regret having chosen the border territory. Then again, this kept us close to the action so we might be able to do something.

“Thank you for letting me know,” I replied with a smile, “I will prepare everything for a diplomatic visit.”

I had to be careful not to let slip that I knew just who was coming as the diplomat. Even King… retired king Dalton would have found that suspicious.

Autumn had said that Lann was a villain not to mention the first prince of the classic medieval style country. That meant we were talking to the heir to the throne, not just some diplomat from Beraud. One wrong move and he was liable to proclaim war.

Once again my mind was in chaos as the king’s duck’s cackling followed me down the corridor.