Epilogue
The carriage rocked and shook, hitting seemingly every rock and dip upon the road, but Riley hardly noticed.
"I can't get a clear read on you; you're all jumbled up." Tobias prompted distantly as he gazed out the window while she struggled to remain centered on the padded bench across from him.
"Everything has changed again, like always," Riley temporized, kicking the can of conversation further down the rough-strewn road they were currently being taken down.
It seemed a fitting enough metaphor for her life so far in Calaria.
"We just buried Granda and met the presumptive heir. We're first tiers. Grey blades." Tobias looked down at his hand like it was something new.
Riley understood all too well what that was like.
"He was the first person that showed me kindness here. He's the reason I have you," She reflected.
Tobias could feel her smiling at him wistfully, even though she didn't have the body language for it.
It was just one of many things that had gotten strange since the fight with Chadrick and their ascension, along with a host of new abilities and ways of seeing the world he was only just beginning to understand.
They had the month, according to orders, to get settled into Astor Hall, their current destination.
"Yeah, we'll see how long that takes to change," Riley scoffed like she could read his mind.
Maybe she could. Tobias thought. He definitely felt like he could read hers sometimes.
Lately, it seemed like they weren't just bonded but knitted together.
"I only can some…" Riley caught herself just as the carriage began to slow, "Entwined souls, new ability."
Tobias grinned but said nothing, and in spite of her concentration in that moment, she could not parse him out.
"Holy shit, it's a witch's castle!" Riley shot to the floor, rising on her paws and resting them against the door.
Astor Hall came into view, taking up all of the small window of the carriage, providing Riley with a fleeting vista devoid of greater details.
A moment more and the carriage stopped. Riley scooted back, allowing the footman to open the door.
Two craggy towers skulked up into the air, made of a rough-hewn grey stone that also formed the walls, the entire edifice itself built into the flattened peak of a small mountain that overlooked the greater city of the Ashenvale.
"This should settle all accounts," Tobias said, passing the footman a silver.
The driver's eyes went wide, "For that much of a courtesy, we'd be happy to remain here for you, sir, if you won't be long."
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"If the haunted castle doesn't eat us first," Riley remarked, her voice a high pitched squeak.
"It looks like no one has been here in years. Yes, if you gentlemen wouldn't mind holding, there's another silver in it for you upon return to the Ashenrealm," Tobias offered.
Both of the men were beaming with smiles now, "Of course Sir knight. We'll be right here."
"Feeling spendy?" Riley projected to him alone as they approached a heavy banded metal door set into the portcullis.
"We've far more than we could spend, and it's a bit far to walk. I expected something more maintained, but this is going to take work." Tobias drew a key from his inventory and slid it into the lock on the heavy banded door. As if in testament to his words, it ground open with all the dulcet tones of a woman being murdered.
"Not helping with the creepy castle angle." Riley shuddered.
"Tell me about it. Maybe we should do what Chadrick did, rent quarters in the city, move the family there." Tobias proffered.
"We've got a lot of light on us right now. This may be exactly what we need until the world gets used to us. At the very least, it's more roomy than the apartment above the shop." Riley countered.
Striding across the parade ground, dust and debris collected at the corners. Four stalls for cockatrice lined either side but were currently empty, the wood worn and disused.
"It's like no one has lived here in a hundred years," Riley said to herself.
Tobias nodded absently, one hand on his now grey blade in testament to the instincts that a hard life had forged in them thus far.
Finally, they came to the main door of the keep, and another key appeared in Tobias' hand.
This time, it opened effortlessly, the hinge well-greased, only to reveal a room full of white sheets draped over furniture before a massive
staircase, leading up halfway to the second story, then turning 90 degrees left and right.
A massive portrait of the sneering Chadrick stared down upon them as if in judgment.
"I know the first thing I want to burn," Riley said.
Tobias didn't need their stronger connection to know she was absolutely serious.
"Me too."
"But it's glowing… kind of purple," She said in afterthought.
"It is..." Tobias squinted, his brow furrowing in concentration, as something whispered to both of them.
Ability: Augmented Reality, Passive
Sense magical workings, veils, and traps, as well as the auras of those around you.
Current level 1-0, 1%
Tobias strode up the stairs, then pulled at his magic.
Firebolt
The first tier bolt wreathed in white flame sailed and hit the portrait oblitering it into ash, leaving a lazy cloud of smoke to float ponderously up towards the ceiling.
"Hey, I wanted to do that!" Riley complained, only for her ears to go rigid at what lay behind the portrait.
A badly charred door collapsed inward, revealing a secret room just beyond.
"Come on, Riley," Tobias prompted, drawing his sword and holding it to his side in a low-ready position.
She called forth the magic as she hopped, readying her Celestial inferno spell, as a cramped, windowless study came into view.
Facing the door was a massive wooden desk, bifurcating a quarter of the room. Shelves lined each wall, even framing either side of the now nonexistent door.
"Stop!" Tobias urged his voice a strained whisper.
Before them, set into the floor was a complex magical circle, of make and model he had never seen.
"It's not glowing. It's magically inert; don't ask me how I know, but I know something about it feels familiar. Infernal, I think." She replied.
"Still, we move around the room until we're sure," Skulking around, hugging the edges between the complex geometry and the shelves, Tobias was heading for a perch set just beside the chair, with a makeshift work table before it.
An ancient book, similar to what they had each seen in the Library at Ranger Central, was open before it.
Tobias flipped it to its title page, only for his eyes to sparkle with surprise.
"Only one ritual, that one... It says there should be more, but the pages are blank," Tobias's face is knitted in confusion.
"But how can you read it?" Riley pressed.
Tobias looked up and to the left, as his prompts flared to life. "Entwined souls again. It's like some kind of helpful daemon is helping me parse this out?"
"Daemon?" Riley worried.
"A spirit, not a demon, Riley," Tobias explained before pausing, "Wait… how did I know that?"
"OK, we've got a little time. I think we should let this lay for now and go over our abilities on the carriage ride home. This is getting weird. Dinner at the Prancing Cockatrice?"
Tobias smiled. "This will keep. I could certainly use some tea."
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