Lloyd was forced to spend another 15 minutes with Yaric, calming him down and partially explaining what was going on. It took summoning a ball of fire and making the room go dark for a second for Yaric to start believing that he was an arcanist. Lloyd had to lie a little as well, claiming that no curse could activate around him, before Yaric would relax and stop trying to leave.
Once Yaric had calmed down, Freda took him back upstairs to sleep, promising him he would be filled in on what had happened when he woke up in the morning. Liam left to fetch his family while Tarah and Douglas said goodnight and went back to their homes.
And Lloyd finally, FINALLY, got to get some food. He’d already skipped lunch and wasn’t in the best of moods when he sat down, but his mood kept improving as he received his bowl of stew, and then again when it was replaced with a plate piled high with roast meat and vegetables. A few good drinks throughout the meal helped immensely.
The hot bath was the icing on the cake as Lloyd almost drifted off, rousing himself enough to cast a drying spell, get dressed, and stumble up to his room.
A couple of warding spells later, Lloyd fell onto his bed. He was asleep in seconds.
----------------------------------------
Lloyd felt much better when he woke up. He sat up in his dark room, the light of the false dawn not enough to make a difference inside. Mage lights manifested in the corners as Lloyd stood up and moved to his bags.
'Should have changed into clean clothes before getting into bed. Hell, I should have put on clean clothes when I got out of the bath!'
Feeling presentable, Lloyd made his way downstairs. People were moving about in the kitchen, but the rest of the place was dark and quiet.
Lloyd went out the front door and around to the stables, manifesting new mage lights and quickly finding Jelly with his head poking out of his stall. Jelly snorted quietly as Lloyd made his way over, smiling and raising his hand to rub the horse's nose. “Hey boy, how have you been keeping? Getting some good rest?”
Jelly snorted again and shook his mane, turning his head for a neck rub. “Now now, we’ll probably be leaving tomorrow. You should enjoy the break while you can. Hmmm, your feed bag is still half full? Not hungry? Or more likely that’s your second bag, isn’t it?” Lloyd chuckled as he continued rubbing Jelly’s neck.
Looking down, he saw that some extra carrots had been teasingly placed just outside the stall, and shook his head at the stable boy’s antics. Raising them up magically, Jelly got more excited, lifting and dropping his legs in place as Lloyd slowly raised them higher and higher. Finally seeing them drop into the bag, Jelly lowered his head and started crunching.
“Hehe, I’ll leave you to your breakfast and come check on you later. Eat what you can!”
Lloyd left the stables and went back out onto the street, the sky lighting up a little more as true dawn was just around the corner. Making his way back inside and back to his table from the night before, Lloyd sat down and yawned. 'Maybe I can still have a bit of a break. I just hope they really meant it when they said breakfast would be ready at sunup!'
Ten minutes later a young man came through from the kitchen, carrying a tray of mugs. He paused when he saw Lloyd, and quietly called out back to the kitchen before he continued to the tables and started putting out the mugs in front of each chair.
Lloyd was relieved when a much younger teenager came out with a tray, piled high with eggs, bacon, toast and some kind of fried vegetables. He smiled gratefully when it was placed in front of him, and started shoveling the food eagerly, barely pausing when it was soon followed up with a pitcher of water, a cup, and a mug of tea.
Lloyd was halfway through his plate before the smell hit him and he realized it wasn’t tea. 'Coffee! Up here? Being a trading town obviously has its perks!' Lloyd chuckled at his own joke and breathed deeply from the mug before taking his first sip, the coffee hot and bitter.
'Alright, this little vacation is back on track!'
He slowed down before he finished his plate, slowly savoring every bite. A few more people had made their way in by then, and when the teenager next came past after delivering more plates of food, Lloyd stopped him to ask for another. The teenager hesitated for a second before mumbling something about checking with the kitchen, then hurried off.
Freda popped her head around the corner shortly after, quickly spotting Lloyd and popping right back. Not a minute later Freda came through herself carrying another plate piled even higher, and a second plate with steaming bread fresh from the oven complete with big blocks of cheese and butter.
“This one is on the house,” she smiled, “and I’ll have another coffee brought right out.” Lloyd just smiled in return, not objecting in the slightest as she took his empty mug back into the kitchen. The teenager from before came back out soon after, a replacement mug filled with dark coffee in his hand.
“Here we are sir, would you like milk or cream?”
“All good, thanks,” Lloyd replied as he took a sip from his new mug. It didn’t escape his notice that no one had bothered to ask before, but then again no one had asked any of the other customers either. Lloyd was not going to complain about special treatment, not when it came to food.
The room was packed by the time he’d finished, almost every chair taken. The servers rushed around getting everyone their food, so Lloyd simply pushed his plates back and waited. The teenager from before finally came around to collect his plates and Lloyd got up as he asked, “Can another mug of that coffee be added to my charges? And brought out to the chairs at the entrance?” The boy nodded. “And don’t rush it, I’m stuffed. Bring it through once things calm down in here.” The boy nodded again gratefully, and rushed off, while Lloyd made his way back to one of the chairs in front of the empty fireplaces.
He was too full to do much of anything at the moment, and honestly far too satisfied to care anyway. But he was also able to watch the staircase while he relaxed, keeping an eye out for the mayor and his family. Assuming they’d done as he’d asked and stayed the night in the inn. People filed in and out over the next half hour, until most of the traffic was from people making their way out. A surprising number of people eating breakfast had been locals, very few were entering from the staircase after coming down from the rooms upstairs.
Half an hour later his fresh mug of coffee was delivered, and Lloyd savored slow sips in the now brightly lit room. Surprisingly, or perhaps not, it was Yaric who actually came down the stairs first, somehow in different clothes and looking around hesitantly.
He spotted Lloyd as he waved, and cautiously made his way over, sitting down across from Lloyd without saying a word. There was a short awkward silence, before both spoke up at the same time.
“Last night you…”
“So there…”
The boy closed his mouth and looked at Lloyd expectantly.
“As I was saying, there are a few things I need to tell you about. There are a few questions I need to ask you, but they can wait. You’ll also need to know some of things I must tell you before you’ll be able to answer some of my questions properly.”
Lloyd stared thoughtfully into his coffee for a moment, before he continued a little more hesitatingly, “Maybe we should wait for Freda to join us first? This isn’t going to be easy for you to hear, some of it will be a shock and much of it will be difficult to accept.”
Yaric shook his head firmly. “I don’t know anyone in town that well, and I can take care of myself. I knew before I sat down. You can’t properly cure me, can you?”
“That’s not it at all. Much of what you’ve been told your whole life is a complete fabrication, including your curse.” At the irritated expression on Yaric’s face he added, “I’m not saying you are making anything up, I know you really experienced everything you believe you have; I’m just saying that it wasn’t due to some curse.”
“Curses like what you believe you have truly do not exist.” Yaric still looked skeptical, waiting for Lloyd to continue. Just then Freda came through the door, heading for the reception desk. Lloyd waved her over and she changed direction. She smiled on seeing Yaric’s head come over the back of the chair as he lifted himself up and turned to see who Lloyd was waving at. Yaric however sat back down with a frown.
“Look, I really do appreciate what everyone has done for me and all, but I don’t need more rumors around town. If you know something about my curse, then that’s for me to know!”
Lloyd smiled, seeing something of himself in the boy. Freda stopped beside a chair, but chose to sit down when Lloyd waved at it.
“It actually has to do with the whole town as well. And I’m afraid that after what happened yesterday, everyone here will know soon enough.” Yaric seemed really annoyed at that but he didn’t move from his seat.
Lloyd hesitated again before continuing, “I’m honestly not sure where the best place to start is. All of this will be difficult to hear, and you are sure to have lots of questions.”
“Maybe you should start with explainin' about the man you stopped yesterday? So the boy knows who you will be talkin' about?” Yaric’s frown deepened at being referred to as a ‘boy’, but he kept quiet. “I know I want to know more about that as well, but it would make explainin' everything else easier for him too.”
Lloyd nodded at that, took a deep breath, and started explaining the background to Yaric. “There was a mage, a few centuries ago, who was found to be using his magic to steal money from the Unconnected. During an investigation into his activities, it was found that he actually ran crime rings in multiple large cities, and used his magic to terrorize and extort people. He had even had hundreds of murders arranged by using his particular specialty in magic to frame people and have the authorities do his work for him.”
"You see, this man, Den Virgo, was a Mind Mage. He specialized in all spells involving the mind, changing what people saw or heard, creating illusions, altering memories. This kind of magic is very hard to detect, and rare enough that few Mages have any real experience with it. The Council came down hard, sending some of the most powerful High Wizards to follow up on the investigation and punish everyone involved.”
“They threw a lot of manpower at it. It wasn’t just the severity of Virgo’s crimes, but it also directly impacted the reputation and perceptions of Lekton and everyone on campus. The whole academy suffered for Virgo’s actions. Virgo’s entire organization was dismantled, and almost everyone involved was punished severely.”
“But Virgo himself was never found. Mages and High Wizard’s dedicated to tracking him down would go for decades without a whiff of his existence. And when they did dig something up, they were always months behind him. Most of the evidence they found was several years old.”
At this point Liam came down the stairs, following his wife and daughter. Sally looked far better, but all three still looked tired as Liam smiled to Lloyd, before ushering his family though the door for breakfast. Lloyd gave a wave before continuing.
“He likely would never have been found at all, if not for a High Wizard travelling through the right town at the right time. You see, all arcanists from full Mage to Arch Wizard are required to report their presence in any town or village they pass through. For as long as they remain a member of an academy, there are no exceptions.”
“When word got out that there was a High Wizard passing through this town, a particular woman rushed to lodge a petition. She was granted an audience and allowed to plead her case. Now, this woman claimed to be the sister of a man who had died three years earlier. His only sibling and only living relative. After three years of not hearing from her brother and having all her messages ignored, she was eventually able to arrange to travel there for a visit. Only to find out on arriving that her brother had died; he had choked to death in his home. And her sister-in-law, the man’s wife, had fallen down some stairs, in full view of a bunch of townsfolk, and broken her neck. This was just two days after her husband had died, and she was actually out making arrangements for his funeral.”
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“The reason she had lodged the petition though, was not due to the fact that she hadn't been informed of her brother and sister-in-law’s death, but because she had found out that the man’s house, tailor shop and life savings had been inherited by his ‘brother’.
“He had no other siblings but his sister, so it was obvious that some kind of fraud was involved. Even more so, she was being frustrated by the fact that everyone who knew her brother claimed that the fraudster was most definitely his sibling, many claiming that her brother himself had told them so, and that he'd been living with them for a few months before their deaths. Further, it was made more difficult by the fact that this fraudster sold the house and business, cleared out the man’s lifesavings, and left shortly after the funeral.”
“Now this particular High Wizard was on a different assignment, but by great fortune he had actually been one of the main investigators in the Virgo case during the height of the investigation. His time chasing a Mind Mage gave him some rare insights, and although he knew it was long shot, he decided to investigate the possibility of magic being involved.”
“Luckily this town, like most really, was not in the habit of dissecting the deceased to confirm the cause of death, and the sister had given permission for his grave to be exhumed. There was not much evidence left after being buried for 3 years, but the object that had choked him was right there, and low and behold, it was covered in magical inscriptions!”
“Right in front of everyone watching, the High Wizard placed the small ball on his hand, fed it some arcana, and ran some very simple tests. I know that amongst other things he tried piercing it, pouring some water on it, rubbing it between his hands, anything he could think of to trigger a reaction.”
“Then he simply held it with his thumb and forefinger wrapped all the way around, just so he could hold over his head and get a clear look. Right before everyone’s eyes, the ball suddenly grew in size and stuck fast to the High Wizard’s skin. Nothing would remove it. The High Wizard was stuck for hours. He didn’t want to damage evidence, so he waited for the arcana he’d supplied to run out.”
“This was no evidence of mind magic being involved mind you, but the High Wizard now knew some kind of magic was involved, regardless, and decided to pursue the case. He had enough evidence to have the man’s wife exhumed as well, and for the first time found true evidence for the involvement of mind magic.”
“Three of her vertebrae had been crushed to powder, and two ribs were broken and bent in such a way that they would have pierced her heart, which should not be physically possible. None of this could have happened from a fall down some steps. Yet multiple witnesses all swore she just tripped and fell. Right in front of them. Mind magic had to have been involved in some way.”
“The High Wizard had many of the fraudster’s acquaintances summoned, and even though most only knew him in passing, and not for very long either, he finally got the breakthrough he had been looking for!”
Yaric and Freda were leaning forward in their seats by this time, when Tarah and Douglas came through the front door. Lloyd wondered if they were a couple for a moment as he waved them over. “Sorry, the fewer people I need to repeat myself to the better. In fact, you two will have to fill them in on what I’ve told you so far.” Both greeted everyone as the arrived at the chairs, sitting down as Lloyd drank the rest of his coffee and just continued where he’d left off.
“The fraudster had wanted a new leather jacket, but his ‘brother’ didn’t work with leather, so he introduced the fraudster to a tailor that did and who he was on friendly terms with. It was this tailor that mentioned the intricate tattoos on the fraudster’s arms, the description of which confirming that this was not just any mind mage, but Virgo himself.”
“The High Mage was three years too late, and no one he interviewed had any idea where the fraudster had gone next, but he had a full and detailed report on everything he had found sent straight back to Lekton.
Lloyd smiled widely as he added, “For what it is worth, this High Wizard also had the couple’s cause of death changed to murder, had the sister officially listed as the true next of kin, and arranged for Lekton to pay her triple what she should have inherited, had the murder been discovered from the start. Not much compensation for losing a brother, but he tried to compensate her as best he could, considering she was also a victim, and the crime was committed by an arcanist.”
“Now, in this case the Council actually responded quickly, and Mages and High Wizards were dispatched to many towns and villages, looking for similar stories.” Lloyd’s smile dropped. “They found sixteen. That we know of. One was less than a year before that time, though most were decades old. Virgo had been hiding by moving from town to town, coercing locals into claiming he was family and letting him live with them. Almost always people well off, and usually owning a business involved in a trade of some sort.”
“Once he had established himself firmly as a family member, each and every other family member in the town had various ‘accidents’ over a short period of time. Of course, some were always public to prevent any suspicion falling on Virgo. Virgo would inherit their entire estates. Not long after, he would sell everything and move on. The Council was able to piece together a fairly detailed account of where Virgo had been over the years, but the gaps made it obvious that there were also many more murders that we never found.”
“Since then, we’ve tracked where he had been dozens of times, but always at least a few months behind, and never with any idea of where he had gone next. Mind magic made everything particularly difficult, as even the hints and clues that people did remember often turned out to be false trails Virgo had purposely laid.”
“We are quite certain that if Virgo doesn’t know we’ve been able to start tracking where he’s been, at the very least he’s become a bit suspicious. Over time, more and more people have had wildly conflicting memories. Physical evidence has started turning up for the first time as well, and every time, the path it’s led us on has turned out to be fake.”
“No one has ever so much as caught sight of him, not even once; not until yesterday.” Yaric’s breath caught as his eyes widened excitedly, “You found him? Here? He was in our town?” Then he frowned slightly. “Wait, you think he was the one who cursed me? With his mind magic?”
Lloyd’s expression changed to one of pity as he looked at Yaric thoughtfully. “Yaric, how many people do you know with large and intricate tattoos on their forearms?”
Yaric thought for a few seconds and shrugged as he responded, “Only my uncle, I don’t know many people in…” Yaric slowly trailed of as he noticed everyone’s expressions, and his face slowly turned from one of confusion to one of shock, then horror. “No! You’re wrong!”
“Yaric,” Lloyd said softly, “Virgo had a tattoo of a rose on one forearm, and a swan on the other”. Yaric started shaking his head rapidly, tears forming. “I know the man you think of as your uncle has them too, because when I followed your screaming into the mill yesterday, your uncle was standing over you and casting a spell, as you lay writhing on the ground in front of him.” Yaric stopped shaking his head while tears began falling down his face.
“When I tried to stop him, he fought back with magic, primarily mind magic. Yaric, I saw the tattoos on his arms clearly and closely, there is no doubt at all; it is certain that he is really the Mind Mage known as Den Virgo.”
Tears were flowing freely as Lloyd continued even softer than before, “I need you to also realize the implications of what this means. That Den Virgo was pretending to be your uncle. It’s not just that he faked your curse with his mind affinity. I know that’s been a big part of your life, and what he’s been doing to you has been horrific.”
By this time, understanding of his curse was starting to set in, and Yaric was starting to breathe in short, rapid breaths, almost hyperventilating. Now speaking so softly it was almost a whisper, Lloyd added, “Yaric. I need you to think for a second. You’ve just heard Virgo’s past, you know some of what he’s done, and you know how he did things. Your parents…” Lloyd paused as Yaric looked up sharply, deep pain evident in his grey eyes, before he dropped his head to his knees with his arms wrapped over his head, his body wracked with sobs.
Freda quickly dropped to her knees beside him, leaning over him and wrapping him in her arms. The others looked on awkwardly as Yaric was overcome with grief. Tarah and Douglas seemed a little shocked too. They already knew the broad outlines of what had happened, but seeing the impact in person like this always hit harder. Crimes have victims.
Freda eventually got Yaric to stand, and slowly navigated him around the counter and into a small room behind it, Yaric crying into her shoulder all the while. The awkward silence between the remaining three didn’t last long, as Liam came in with a wide smile, followed closely by his wife and daughter. Liam’s smile dropped a bit as he noticed the mood.
“Sorry, just had to tell a kid his life has been a lie. Dealing with people close to a victim is usually as hard as dealing with the victim themselves. When there are victims still alive anyway.” Lloyd’s voice trailed off again, “In this case, I guess the boy is both.”
Liam nodded understandingly and sat down, his wife and daughter taking seats on the other side of him. He gestured to them as he said, “This whole event is going to rock the entire town, but my first concern right now is for my family. Is our house safe yet?”
“I really don’t know; I’m going to have to check it thoroughly first. Don’t worry, if there is any danger, I will find it. The only complicating part is I don’t know exactly how the poison was administered, or even why he would risk exposure by poisoning you in the first place. Tarah and Douglas have indicated that he’s almost never seen in town, so he would have either used magic to move through the town unseen, or had an accomplice, both of which would complicate a search.” Tarah and Douglas both nodded.
“And I’m fairly certain he didn’t make the poison on someone else’s behalf; he would never have let anyone know he was an arcanist in the first place.”
Tarah leaned forward at this point, “Also, I have been thinking. About what you were asking the other day? We have also been very bothered about the situation with the livestock pen. Everyone swearing that they saw the drainage being dug when it so clearly was not. Could that have been the mind magic you keep mentioning?” Lloyd froze at that. “It is so far out of character for any of those men. Both with them not doing the work as well as lying about it after. It makes no sense at all.”
“Hmmm… he definitely could have. But why though? The spell would be easy enough for him but why go through the effort to cast such a wide spell. Especially as he’d have to make sure to catch different shifts and everyone coming and going. Why go through the effort? He has nothing to gain.”
“Maybe this is stupid, but what about the noise? They worked on the irrigation for the first two days, hammering apart large rocks, before whatever happened derailed everything. The livestock pen might be on the wrong side of the river, but it is still very close to the mill," Tarah queried.
“Well, if you can bring a few of those people over, I can check for any signs that might remain. There’s no guarantee I’ll find anything though, even if he was responsible.”
Tarah looked relieved as she smiled, “Thank you, I will have some come over today. People will feel better being checked over anyway, once they find out what has been happening. I think I am starting to understand why you say these mind mages can cause so much unease.”
“Have them meet me at the livestock pen then, say in two hours. I’m going to examine Liam’s house first and at the very least set his mind at ease, but I don’t want to intrude on his home or here at the inn any more than I must. Scanning the workers can be done outside, and doing so where it would have happened is probably best as well.”
“Great, I will get started spreading the word.” At that Tarah stood up and went straight for the door, walking quickly and purposefully.
“Do you think he tried to poison Liam over the livestock pen?” Douglas asked.
“No. It seems unlikely he’d go to such lengths. Not when he had already resolved his problem - if Tarah is correct regarding the noise. Virgo was the kind of person that would enjoy fixing a problem the way it seems that he did. It’s also not like him to wait so long when it comes to things like revenge. It's the whole poison episode that makes no sense to me. We will probably never know what was going through that psychopath’s head.”
Liam looked to Lloyd and asked, “Could we go and check my house now? Sally can stay here and get some more rest, we’ll probably eat out somewhere for lunch too. But I can’t put off work further than tomorrow, and, well, having our own home back would mean a lot.”
Lloyd smiled, “Of course, we can go right now.” He stood up and turned to Douglas, “Sorry, I’ve actually never asked what you do here, so I don’t know your occupation or position.”
“I’m in charge of public works. I help with town planning and any public construction work or maintenance.”
“Would it be too much of an inconvenience to wait here for the boy to come out? I want him to take as much time as he needs, but I suspect he will still have questions when he feels up to talking again. I also still owe him some answers on Virgo’s death, not to mention the reparations owed to him by Lekton.”
Douglas and even Liam seemed a bit confused by that. “Virgo was still a Lekton trained Mind Mage, and one we have failed to catch for a long time. Yaric will be entitled to compensation.”
Sally’s head snapped up at the mention of his name. “Yaric? What happened to Yaric?” She seemed slightly panicked, and Liam, still looking confused, wrapped his arm around her and asked, “You know the boy? Well, I know you know him, I mean are you two close?”
Sally started blushing as she stammered, “We’re not close close. But he IS my friend! Where is he? Is he ok?”
Lloyd pointed to the door behind the counter. “He’s in there right now, with Freda. We just had to give him some very upsetting news about his parents’ deaths. And he also just found out that he wasn’t really cursed. In fact what has been happening to him almost his whole life is much closer to what happened to you yesterday. He’s understandably very upset right now.”
Sally turned her eyes up to her dad. “I want to go see him. He shouldn’t be alone.”
“But he’s not alone, he’s with Freda?”
Sally stamped her foot and retorted, “That’s not the same. He doesn’t really know her. He should have a friend.”
Liam smiled slightly at his daughter and let go of her. “Go see if he wants company. Just knock first.”
Sally ran to the side of the counter and behind it to the door. She knocked loudly, and everyone watched as she paused for a couple of seconds, then mumbled something inaudible through the door. A moment later she looked back, waved to her dad, and went through the door, closing it behind her.
“Well, your daughter seems to be busy, how about we go take a look at your house now?”
Liam shook his head wryly and made for the door, while his wife stayed seated. “I’ll wait here for Sally.”
Her husband nodded his understanding from the doorway, and seeing Lloyd following, turned back and onto the street.
“Right! Let’s see to your house, shall we?” Lloyd rubbed his hands together, in a much better mood than the previous evening. "Perhaps some answers to a few mysteries await!”