The Bestiary got its start well before the official Founding.
But since Cleobah and I are the only ones who recall it, we see little point in reminding folks.
Foundation Day ceremonies aren’t for us, the first students, they’re for the ones who came after.
From the personal journal of Ozora
Dean of Magics
The Bestiary
****
“How about ‘Cassyrra’s Arcane Arts University’?” Fraser said. “I’d think if a dragon is going to be the first and main professor, maybe it should have your name on it.”
++ All who knew me from before are dead. My name does not inspire as it once did. ++ Cassyrra’s mental voice filled my head, yet was not oppressive. I sensed the dragon put shielding between my thoughts and hers to protect my privacy. Only the thoughts she wanted to share came through, however her words often carried emotional overtones that triggered an echo in my soul. Sorrow and longing for missing friends brushed over me, and my heart squeezed. For that brief moment, deep and sharp anguish stabbed through me.
++ The only one from so long ago who would remember me remains our enemy still. ++ If I could still feel the dragon’s grief, so could I also sense her resolve.
Believe me, you will never encounter anything else more impervious to change than a dragon set upon her course.
++ There appears to be one bright spot. ++ She continued, sounding like her usual serene, confident self. ++ The Emperor is seemingly weakened in his advanced age. These are underhanded tactics. Sigils to ensorcel a city? Before, he would consider such trickery beneath him. He swept the world with his fleets and armies. Made the world cower to his might and he gloried in his power. Why should he hide his attack in this petty manner? Because he can’t muster a greater offense. ++
“Or he just got smarter with age.” Fraser quipped back. “He hasn’t shown his hand. That tiny group of ships he sent has to have been what he thought he needed to take Hastrior. It might’ve been what Duke Kiocinassa told him to send. Doesn’t mean he’s lacking in fleet or armies. Just that he only sent what he needed.”
++ Both things can be true, Fraser. The Emperor has learned new tactics, and he’s done so from a place of reduced power. ++ Cassyrra was gentle but firm.
“And we’re back on this argument.” Taenya huffed. “Can we get back to what we were talking about before Fraser sent us down his personal rabbit hole?”
“Which was?” I asked.
“That.” Taenya waved at the map of the city, shifting our focus to the not so pretty picture we’d uncovered mapping the high elf’s sigils. The picture it painted sent chills through me whenever I looked at it. No wonder I’d wandered from that conversation. I didn’t want to talk about it. It disturbed me intensely that anyone would craft such a spell.
Cassyrra and I had puzzled over it for days before deciphering its meaning. It was a sigil of binding and control splayed across all of Hastrior. Like a horrific art piece, it was at once elegant and depraved.
More than that, it was also a numin funnel. The son of a bitch had crafted the placement of every suggestion sigil in the city into one massive sigil. This aggregated sigil then bound every individual to the Duke of Kiocinassa through the little splinters of his numin—the copies of sigils implanted in the city’s residents.
“You said, Ozora,” Taenya turned it back to me. “That it looked like that sigil could somehow drain numin from …?”
“Everyone.” I finished. “Literally everyone who has one of those little sigil implants, like the one that jumped onto Fraser, is linked to the Duke. How much influence he can have on them I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure he can drain numin from anyone implanted with a sigil. And by anyone, I mean everyone. The amount of energy he has to spend maintaining the sigils is only a fraction of what he can get back from all the implants.”
Fraser turned pale whenever we talked about the sigil’s effects on the bearer. He knew he narrowly escaped the same fate. We’d learned once it lodged in a person, it was impossible to banish. Or at least, nothing we’d tried so far worked.
And we’d tried. We still held the men we’d caught along with Gordon, and they were all implanted. Any attempt to remove the sigil was met with resistance by the bearer and the implant itself.
Gordon’s sigil was next level, and we’d not touched it. We had no way for Cassyrra to examine him on Mayhem, and didn’t want to remove him from the protective wards.
“Maintaining?” Fraser asked.
“The sigils around the city lose numin each time they implant a person. The Duke has to renew them continuously, but with the funnel he’s set up.” I tapped the map. “It basically feeds itself and the excess spills into him. It’s genius. It’s also insanely diabolical. He can drain folks to a withered husk in moments if he wants.”
“You mean kill.” Fraser said. “He can kill everyone if he wants, just by pulling on their numin?”
I nodded. “In theory, yes.”
++ High elves are power. Their seemingly endless numin reserves are what made their Empire and kept them at their lofty peak for millennia. None would ever have resorted to such a perversion of their numin before the Sundering. They would not have needed to. ++ Cassyrra sounded thoughtful, as if considering what she said. ++ Begs the question, why would the Duke need such raw power? ++
“Anyone with power wants to keep it.” I said. “If the Duke is used to a certain level of numin, makes sense he’d do anything possible to keep from feeling a lack.”
“What if we try getting rid of the other sigils?” Taenya said. “Not the implanted ones, the sigils painted around the city. Maybe a sidewalk or brick wall won’t fight back like Gordon’s henchmen?”
++ I know of a spell that should banish a sigil, but I’m reluctant to try it. ++ Cassyrra had an all too human habit. She tapped her claws when she was conflicted or in thought.
“Now you tell us?” Taenya’s expression slacked. “Why haven’t we been erasing them this whole time?”
++ Because it’ll only clear one sigil at a time and with that feedback loop and funnel, the Duke will know instantly that we’ve discovered him and his works. ++
“So our tradeoff is we erase one sigil but we also alert the Duke that someone is onto his plan.” I summarized.
++ I’m hopeful it would also release all those linked to the banished sigil. However, it would take quite some time to clear the city, and I’m quite sure the Duke would not be idle once he felt us tamper with his works. ++
We presumed he hadn’t sensed our attempts on the men we’d captured along with Gordon. They were all still held aboard Mayhem, and Cassyrra had put a forcewall shielding around it to block any of the Duke’s spying eyes. So far, no one’s tested either the magical wards or Fraser’s guards.
“So what do we do?” Fraser asked. “You two are the mages. I’m just here because of my hippocamp.”
“Cassyrra, might there might be a way to, I don’t know…modify or adapt that spell to banish all the sigils all at once?” I asked.
The dragon tilted her head, her ears flicking like a horse’s would if it were listening to distant sounds. ++ I do not know if such a thing is even possible. ++ While her words weren’t encouraging, they held a sort of hopeful curiosity. As if the idea never occurred to her before. ++ I do not think such a thing as this … mass ensorcellment for control and numin harvesting has ever been done. Dragons have no need, nor do any of the other magic-wielding beings with the capability to cast at this level of skill. They either have no need or no will to do so. ++
“An old dog has learned new tricks.” Cleobah spoke up for the first time from her bed of piled pillows.
Which was the sphinx’s was of saying it was possible, and the Duke had figured it out.
I’d learned how to interpret some of Cleobah’s more cryptic utterances. When a topic strayed too close to future events, her statements became more erratic. But with practice, I could now discern some sense in them.
Sometimes. This one was relatively easy.
The corollary to that was—we might be able to figure out a way to banish every sigil at once.
Except…
“What would banishing the Duke’s sigils all at once do to the people implanted?” Taenya asked.
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Fraser just shook his head and held up his hands. “I’m out.”
I opened my mouth a few times, but had nothing. We couldn’t even figure out how to get rid of the sigils.
“I don’t know.” I had to admit.
Not even Cleobah had a snarky comment. Silence reigned around the table.
“Who’s ready for lunch?” Grace asked, balancing a platter on one shoulder. She walked out of the keep, followed by her daughter Leonie, carrying another platter. “Also, a guard from the Solar Gate’s arrived. Want him brought back here?” She asked as she slid the platter on the table, then stepped back for Leonie to do the same.
Fraser shook his head. “No. Put him in the front reception room and I’ll be there shortly.”
“He said it was important.” She said over her shoulder. “Something about the King’s emissary is demanding to see the person in charge.”
There was only one king close enough to Hastrior to send an emissary.
The King of Alurenth.
****
A few hours later, we were hosting the elegantly dressed and outraged most noble Earl of Belizar. We’d had the guard bring the emissary and his entourage to the keep and provided refreshments while we cleaned up and put on more formal clothing.
We weren’t running Hastrior. Technically, that was still the city council.
Who literally did nothing while Hastrior crumbled. We had contacted none of them yet because they weren’t in the city. Instead, they’d retreated to their estates out in the surrounding hills. Fraser had ordered some of Mayhem’s crew to protect the Solar Gate since the council members took all the city guards when they left.
Which was how we received the emissary instead of the council.
To those who come after and may disdain our actions or call them unlawful, you need only look to that same history to see we also averted disaster many times over.
The Earl minced across the tile floor, his high-heeled, high-fashion boots clicking a swift beat. He came to stand at the foot of the dais. We sat behind a long oaken table, looking down at our visitor. Taenya and I flanked Fraser.
The Earl doffed his feathered hat, eyes flicking around, taking in the bare stone walls and empty receiving room. With a sniff, he swept an elegant bow, bending low over his pale stockinged leg. The skirts of his long-tailed coat rustled as he rose with a glare fierce as an indignant kitten, fixed on Fraser.
My lip twitched, repressing a smile. I glanced to the back of the room. Two of Fraser’s men blocked the door with their pikes, keeping Quinn’s guards outside.
It’s hard to take a man so carefully coiffed and painted as a serious threat. Even with my limited arms knowledge, I could see that the thin rapier at his side was for dress only. It would be better at cutting cheese than doing battle.
He straightened his heavily embroidered waistcoat and announced. “I am Quinn Cantrell, Earl of Belizar, here on behalf of and with the full authority of His Majesty, King Roland Balceran of Alurenth. I must inform you firstly of His Majesty’s extreme displeasure, along with mine own.”
“Is that so?” Fraser drawled. “What have we done to earn your ire, good sir?”
The Earl scoffed. “That you have to ask? Is not the state of the city I just had the misfortune to traverse not cause enough for concern? The King is also greatly distressed by the destruction of one of his towns, and I might add, my own. Emberglen is part of Belizar.”
“Indeed, loss of life is tragic.” Fraser managed to look sincerely sorry. “However, why does this bring the Earl here to Hastrior today?”
“The King wants to know just who is running this city, and when the regular tithe payments to the Alurenth Crown will resume.” Quinn rapped his thin ebony walking stick on the tile for emphasis. “Hastrior has been in arrears for years and has not responded to any previous attempts by the Crown for redress.”
All our history from five years past was still coming back to us in waves of consequences. We’d all contributed to the mess that was Hastrior, and now we had to clean it up.
The Earl’s next words caught me off guard.
“I will need an explanation why you are sitting there and not in chains. That man is a murderer.” Quinn announced to the echoingly empty room and pointed his elegant, manicured finger at Fraser. His voice cracked at the end and a blush of color flooded Quinn’s neck to stain his face bright pink as he glanced for his guards. Only to realize our own men were between him and his protection. He coughed and straightened his shoulders. In a somewhat milder but still firm tone, he continued.
“Last, His Majesty is curious about the two ships that came to attack his shores. And what burnt them to a crisp?” He asked. When none of us made any move to answer, he sniffed again. “I have come to determine if this is a violation of our treaty. The invaders demolished Emberglen but were, in turn, eradicated. We demand to know if Hastrior had a role in their presence here in the East.” I could tell from the way he said “Hastrior” he in fact meant “Fraser” but hesitated to go that far.
Pretty sure the upset Earl hadn’t even noticed Taenya or me.
I really only heard the first part of what he said before my temper got the better of me.
“That man is the only reason Hastrior, such as it is now, survived. It was he spotted the incoming fleet and raced ahead to warn the city and kept the invaders at bay.” I clenched my fingers into a tight ball on the table to keep them from drumming with irritation.
Or turning the arrogant Earl into a whippet.
I think he’d do well as a whippet. He sort of looked like one, with his thin limbs and long face and delicate constitution.
And the way he shook whenever Fraser frowned at him. Where did he get the courage to accuse Fraser?
Me, he was less impressed by, apparently. His pale grey eyes sparked with outrage and he sneered down his long nose at me. “Who are you again?”
“Someone you don’t want to piss off.” Taenya cautioned Quinn with a low laugh. “You remember who I am, right Quinn?” She asked, flattening her palms on the table. “We met many times at the Prince’s palace. Last time was at his Holiday Gala and we danced the waltz.”
Quinn blinked. Then again. “Taenya DeLange?” Shock broke through his brittle outrage. “Why are you here? How are you still alive? We heard reports you were one of Captain Fraser’s victims.”
She didn’t say a word, just leaned back and made a flippant gesture, brushing across her shoulders and glancing at Fraser seated next to her as if to say, “well, here I am.” Quinn gaped like a hooked fish.
“Well … The Crown …The Crown still demands answers.” He managed to get that much out. “About … all of it.”
“We’re not unreasonable people, Quinn.” Taenya soothed. “Hastrior wants to be a good neighbor, but at the moment, we aren’t in a position to pay our own people, let alone a tithe to your king.”
Fraser drummed his fingers on the table, his eyes hooded with thought, as if he were contemplating his next words carefully. “City governance was non-existent and we’ve been working hard to re-establish some regulation and safety.” The Earl’s delicately groomed brows rose. Fraser chose his words with such care, I wondered what he wasn’t saying.
“Here is my answer to your king.” His voice calm, but steely with resolve as he flattened his palms on the table. “Any prior tithing arrangements were with the prior ruling family. Which no longer exists.” Fraser added. The Earl’s shocked face went slack.
“Are … are you reneging on your treaty with the Crown?”
“We never had one.” Fraser was firm. “As my friends have pointed out, we have other, more pressing issues right now. We can discuss a new treaty at a better time.”
“More—more pressing than maintaining the goodwill of your closest, and I must say, most powerful, neighbor?” Quinn Cantrell stammered, taking much of the edge from his threat.
“Yes. Yes. There are more concerning things in our world than back taxes owed to your king from dead people.” I snapped. “Why are you here complaining about money when you should be seeing to Emberglen?”
“Still don’t know who you are, or care. Stay out of what doesn’t concern you.” Quinn sneered.
Gold sparks spat from my fingertips and danced across the table, sputtering out as they fell off the edge.
“That wasn’t very smart.” Fraser muttered.
“Funny, I lived in Emberglen a year and never saw you there.” I smiled sweetly. “The longtime residents knew you, though. They called you the King’s Tax Man. Because they never saw you in Emberglen except at tax time.”
Quinn’s lips twisted, and I knew I must’ve hit a nerve. He pulled at his collar, loosening his elaborate cravat, and cleared his throat. I’d rattled him, but he recovered fast.
“You know so much about Emberglen? Hmm?” His voiced oozed condescension. “Do you know what kills from above with blasts of fire hotter than a forge? The Crown’s investigators could come up with but one explanation when they examined the wreckage of the ships. But it made little sense, so I dismissed it.”
The King chose his emissary well. He didn’t blink as he continued.
“I think you’ve got a new sort of fireblast spell that you’ve managed to carry aloft. This is the only rational explanation. While it seems that in this case you acted in Alurenth’s best interests, even if too late for Emberglen, I need to ensure you cannot be a threat to Alurenth.” Now the foppish male displayed a ferocity that belied his finicky mannerisms and extravagant dress.
Maybe that rapier wasn’t just for decoration after all. Fraser would intimidate anyone, but it appeared Quinn had a backbone after all.
“I assure you, we don’t have such a spell, and Alurenth is in no danger.” Taenya said, a small smile on her lips. “The Crown investigator’s conclusions. Why didn’t they make sense?”
“Because all the dragons are dead.” He spat, his sneer dismissive. “Everyone knows that. All the draconic researchers agree.” He shook his head and waved his hands. “I’m not here to talk about fantastic tales. I’m here to find out why Hastrior has failed to adhere to its terms in the Crown’s treaty. If you helped Emberglen, even after the fact of their destruction, it will go better for you, but you must divulge your new magical weaponry.”
Fraser crossed his arms, shaking his head. He hated having to repeat himself. “There is no more treaty because there is no more ruling family. It died with Prince Crummey. If you want to talk about a new treaty, you can take it up with us later. Right now, like Ozora said, we’ve got more pressing issues.”
He really did look like a hooked fish, down to flapping his gaping mouth silently a few times before saying, “His Majesty will not be pleased with this flippant dismissal. Goodwill has reigned between Hastrior and Alurenth for centuries and yet you will throw it all away?”
“You’re missing the point, friend,” Fraser corrected him. “We have nothing to throw away. Your treaty expired with the Prince.” He repeated, shoving his chair back. “Unless you have something more productive to say than old news about old treaties, then this interview is over.”
Taenya held up one hand.
“Listen, Quinn here might be slow to catch on to the facts here in Hastrior, but that’s not fair to him. He’s not exactly in possession of some of the most pertinent ones now, is he?”
Quinn stuttered. “Taenya I protest. I am the King’s Under Secretary of Intelligence. It’s my job to be up to date on facts.”
“Then you might want to check your spy network security because if the things you’re saying here are a reflection of what they’re telling you then you are wasting your money.” Fraser told him bluntly.
Taenya grinned. “Let’s take him out back.” She stood to show she was sincere. Fraser didn’t budge, but he uncrossed his arms to put them on his hips.
Closer to his daggers.
“Quinn, you need to expand your perspective and come up to speed with a few things. Then maybe we can have a productive conversation about Hastrior’s new relationship with your king.” Taenya said, matching Fraser’s placid but firm tone.
Fraser’s frown deepened, and I tilted my head to toss Taenya a questioning look. It’s not like we could hide that a massive ancient dragon now lived out here on Hastrior’s point, but did we want to announce it to our neighboring kingdom?
Although, in reality not many here in Hastrior had noticed. The keep was somewhat remote from the rest of the city and Cassyrra had done little flying over land. She loved fish and kept herself well fed without disturbing local stock keepers.
Absent governance, and city law enforcement, no one had come knocking on the keep’s door demanding answers. Until now.
We knew that all sorts of rumors were running around, some of the more outlandish ones were quite entertaining. None came close to the truth.
In all fairness, I’m not entirely sure what the full truth was. About anything. It wasn’t like we had a plan for any of this. We were making it up as we go.
“Cassyrra says she’d love to meet him.” Taenya’s smile just got wider. She stood, walked around the table, and jumped off the dais to land in front of Quinn. Gesturing to us to follow, she hooked his arm with hers. “Come on, we’re old friends. I’ve got something to show you that’ll hopefully yank out that stick you’ve got shoved up your ass.”