The Gellers apparently have a compound out in the delta away from the city. Dailyn said he would get a message out to them for me.
Gary invited me to train with them for the morning. They were planning a proper workout now that they were not slowed down by Jason, who was only Iron Rank. We ran through to the Old City and they had a small exercise yard set up in the back of an alchemist’s place. We came in the back way so I didn’t see the name of the place.
I was sparring with Rufus and getting thoroughly beaten when a man came out the back door.
“Theo, I want you to meet Jory, the owner of this place,” Rufus said.
“Jory, as in Jory’s Hair Cream?” I said. “That is awesome. Very pleased to meet you. I do a bit of alchemy. Is there any chance I can buy the recipe for the hair cream?”
Jory looked a bit stunned, “You’ve seen my cream?”
“It is getting quite a following up in Kekie. It's very popular with Leonids. You should charge them more.”
“Really? You say you are an alchemist?”
“Beginner alchemist.”
“If you want to come and give us a hand, I can give you the recipe.”
“Absolutely,” and I had the best day of my life. Jory was a fantastic alchemist and shared what he knew freely. He specialised almost exclusively in Medicinal alchemy, and he had multiple recipes for health and mana potions made from cheap and easily available ingredients. I helped him make a batch and then some hair cream. He had people coming to him to buy healing potions and creams as they couldn’t afford a healer, and the Church of the Healer also cost here in Greenstone. Calling it a compulsory donation is just trying to make it sound better, but it wasn’t. Helping people who couldn’t afford it was his motivation for making cheap products. We got on very well.
Jory also made Crystal Wash, but that was way beyond me to make. I did buy some from him, but he said Jason bought most of his supply, and I should get in while he was away. This Jason seems to come up a lot.
I made plans to come and help Jory again tomorrow, with the exception of when I need to visit the Geller estate. Hopefully, Dailyn will have heard back from them.
I walked back to the temple quite late. The Gates to the Island section had the night guards, and I showed my resident Token with the Adventurer ID, which should have been enough.
“Please wait here until we get confirmation?” the bronze rank guard said.
“Confirmation of what?” I asked. “Is there an issue I should know about?”
“There are reports of a criminal in the city, and we are taking extra precautions,” was the reply.
“I have already confirmed who I am, so why are we waiting again?”
“Please just wait here, sir.”
Warning bells were ringing. Bat and Night Kai were already out and around. Venom Kai and the two Chitin Kais darted out.
“Please call your Familiars back, sir. It is not safe.”
“Yes, I am getting that,” I said as I created a shield, opened my Hunters Pack, pulled out my axe and clipped it to my belt. I probably should have spent the day making more of my armour rather than with Jory. I had my knives already on my belt.
“No need for that, sir,” the guard said as I stored my shirt and pants and clipped my bracers and greaves.
“Do you want to tell me what is really going on?” I said.
The guard was looking nervous, especially as his backup was only iron rank.
“Please come this way, sir.”
I didn’t move. “Do you want to tell me what is really going on?” I repeated with a hand on my axe. I had kept the shield.
A new soldier, backed by a squad of five bronze-rank soldiers, ran up to the gate. “Theodore Narelli, you are under arrest by the order of the Duke of Greenstone. You will disarm and submit to a suppression collar for trial in the morning.”
“And what am I accused of?”
“Murder.”
“Well, I haven’t murdered anybody, so this is obviously as set up,” I said.
“You will have an opportunity to present your case tomorrow. Stand down!”
“Are you a god-fearing man, captain?” While I was speaking, Ardisia wrapped me in vines like armour, especially protecting my neck where a suppression collar would go. “Do you fear Death?”
“Withdraw the vines and stand down.”
“Are you aware I am a Cleric of the Goddess of Death, Captain? The gate guards noted it when I entered the city, so if you are not, then it is you who is being set up.”
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“I am here to carry out an arrest order from the Duke. You will stand down and comply.”
“Yet all accusations against the servants of the gods must go through the appropriate temple.” The Intro to the Gods and the Rulers of Pallimustus courses show their worth. I might not have completed the Rulers of Palimustus course due to my sudden exit, but we had done the section on The Church and the State. “Has High Priest Dailyn been informed?”
“No, I have not, captain,” said Dailyn, arriving with silver-rank speed. He left Bat Kai a long way behind. “I would see the arrest orders.” he held out his hand for them.
The Captain reluctantly handed them over. Dailyn looked them over, “Very well, Captain. Theo will be confined to the Temple of Death until the inquiry at the first bell tomorrow at the palace. Please inform your superiors that a Priest of the Goddess Knowledge will be required to be present. The Temple of Death will arrange for this. Come along, Theo.”
I moved forward, and the guards parted for me. I walked casually with Dailyn to the temple. Kai tracked the people who were tracking us. We went into Dailyn's private office, which is in the Godesses domain, and not even the other gods could access it.
“Why do you think you were ambushed?” Dailyn asked.
“My only thought is there was outside pressure from Kekie,” I replied.
“They are going to a lot of trouble over you.”
“Yes, I am not sure why. And I don’t know which group in Kekie,” I said.
“If that is what it is, then it is a group with political power in the country, as only that would sway the Duke here. How do you want to play this?”
“The arrest order was legit?”
Dailyn nodded, “Signed by the Duke himself.”
“Did you get in touch with the Gellers?”
“Yes, Danielle was ready to meet you tomorrow, and they have a gold-rank portalist in Vitesse who has been to their compound.”
“So we could go to her compound and leave the city on short notice?”
Dailyn nodded, “If you want to leave this all behind, you could.”
That was tempting. “Whoever set this up will have someone at the enquiry tomorrow. What do you think of our chances of finding out who is behind it?”
“Not good, really,” Dailyn said, “They will be low-level and not given any information beyond the basics.”
“What is the Duke like?”
“Not too bad for an aristocrat. He has been fine to deal with and reasonably competent at his job.”
“How will he react to being manipulated?” I asked.
“Hard to say. He has operated in the aristocratic circles since he could speak, so it will depend on who and what.”
“I am assuming it is Kekie, but Greenstone is buffered from them by Boko, so there is no shared border.”
“Yes,” said Dailyn, “but there is shared trade, and not all in Kekie’s favour.”
“What is valuable here, apart from the green stone?”
“Greenstone's largest export is actually Spirit coins. The low mana density means it is a great, stable place to farm low-value coins. There are a lot of farms out in the desert.”
I thought for a bit. “That is interesting but probably not relevant to this. If we want leverage, I need to find out why they want me and/or don’t want me but won’t kill me.”
“Which group is this likely to be?” Dailyn asked.
“I would imagine the same group that had me kidnapped. I am sure I was tracked somehow. I thought I lost them in the astral space, but the fact they are here so quickly means I didn’t.”
“This means the first thing is to get rid of any tracking magic.”
“Yeah, I should have asked about doing that as soon as I arrived,” I said.
“No problem. I will find somebody who should be able to help.”
I waited in Dailyns office while he went out. I hope whoever it is doesn’t mind late-night house calls.
“It is definitely tracking the mana signature in the blood.” the silver-rank ritualist said. “It is probably a skill from the blood or hunt essences, less commonly, the magic essence. I can sever it. It will work in 90% of the cases, but it is not pleasant.”
“There is no 100% option?” I asked.
“There is not. There are two many variations from different awakening stone and essence combinations, and even the attribute it is attached to causes variations. Then you combine it with various rituals… The fact I can sense it means I can probably remove it.”
“Let's get it done then,” I said.
She was right. That was very uncomfortable and invasive. I hope it worked.
We decided to attend this ‘Inquiry’ tomorrow on the chance we would learn something. Someone will be there to make the accusations.
“Theo, I want you to meet Danielle Geller. Danielle, Theo.”
We were outside the Duke’s Palace, and there were guards waiting to escort us in. Danielle was human and Silver-rank. She exuded a aire of extreme competence and authority. Her aura had no monster cores, and she seemed to never miss anything.
“Nice to meet you, Theo,” Danielle said. “Arabelle speaks highly of you. I have arranged a portal to Vitesse this afternoon from our estate.”
“Thank you. You are very confident I will be able to use that.”
“I am, aren’t I?”
Just then, a man in the robes of a Priest on Knowledge arrived.
“Priest Taziva, welcome.”
We all greeted each other and then made our way into the palace. The bronze rank guards were nervous. Both Danielle and Dailyn were silver, although Dailyn had used monster cores to get there. Taziva was a bronze rank like me and had no sign of monster cores. The most dangerous person here was obviously Danielle Geller.
The Duke was also silver-rank, but he used monster cores to get there. Two advisors and a plethora of guards were bronze-rank. Then I saw why. At the table the accusers were at was a silver-ranked Leonid with a bronze-ranked assistant.
I saw the Duke relax slightly when Danielle entered. I was sure the silver rank Leonid picked it up as well, which means the Duke showed it on purpose. I assume the high silver-ranked Leonid was putting more than political pressure on the Duke and the Duke was indicating that pressure as now countered. Danielle had not come here for me.
The smell of magic in the room was very mixed. I had a lot of trouble identifying the magic of both the silver and bronze-rank Leonids. Everything was to mixed. What was obvious was neither were core users.
One of the Duke’s assistants rang a bell, indicating the session had started.