Minutes later, most of the knights stood outside of Callipho’s shop. In the back of said shop, the princess sat, flanked by two of her knights across from Callipho, Tahir, and everyone else. The princess sipped the freshly brewed tea, and looked down into her cup thoughtfully for a moment before she set it down on the table.
Despite how tense everyone else must have looked, Callipho leaned back with a relaxed smile, as if he didn’t have a care in the world. “Now, I believe this meeting here today is based on a misunderstanding, brought about by misinformation presented to you, your highness. If I may, I would ask that you give those accused the opportunity to explain, before things progress a bit too far to take back.”
The princess narrowed her eyes, though Callipho looked unfazed. “I’m not sure I like what you’re implying with that last statement, but very well. I’ll give you a chance to explain before I decide to take you in.”
Tahir suppressed a sigh of relief, as Callipho glanced his way and gave him a knowing nod. Thankfully, the alchemist seemed to have a similar train of thought as Tahir had when it came to what would probably happen if he let them do as they pleased. He took a deep breath as he gathered his thoughts, working out what he wanted to say in a way that wouldn’t potentially set the princess off again. “Well, I suppose to start, could you tell us what the collective says we ‘stole’ from the ruin, your highness?”
The princess’s gaze moved to him, cold, searching. It seemed like she tried to size him up, as if she couldn’t believe he blocked her strike. She didn’t need to know that it took nearly half his aura to do so, or without the earth spirit she certainly would have sent him flying. “An ancient book, a staff, and a few other items they said they hadn’t had the opportunity to properly catalog. We were asked to confiscate whatever we could find that looked to have Vudranian origins, like that of your cloak.
“Right, they were sure about the spellbook and the staff, but not anything else.” Tahir said, mostly to himself, but he cleared his throat before he could get lost in the thought. “To put it simply, the Mage’s Collective lied to you. We certainly obtained many items from the ruin, a staff, a book, and this cloak included, but we obtained these before the collective even knew the ruin existed. We, and by that I mean Theo, Metilia, and I, were the first ones to discover the ruin, and we cleared it of any threats and took our share of loot, and left the rest for the collective.” Better to lay everything on the table than try to dodge the main issue here, Tahir thought. “And if you want proof, I submitted a report to the Redclouds when we completed a Platinum scouting mission involving void corruption.”
“I can corroborate.” Callipho added, leaning forward to pick up his own cup of tea that he had on the table. “I was the one who actually submitted the report on their behalf. As I recall, they left the report at this establishment and took off for the ruin as I was returning from a trip outside the city. Esharia certainly has no law reserving the delving rights to ruins to the collective, as much as they like to pretend that they do.”
The princess listened to them with rapt attention, glancing between the two as they spoke. Her gaze softened to something unreadable to Tahir. Once they’d finished, she took another sip of the tea before she spoke. “Very well. This is something I will have to confirm with the Redclouds, but I am curious, why wasn’t this a conversation that we could have had while you were under custody?”
“If I may, your highness-” Meti spoke, and continued at the princess’s nod. “The general procedure would have us being detained, our belongings seized, and anything reported to be stolen from the ruin taken to be subject to confirmation by the collective itself, yes?”
“That is correct.”
“Well, even if we explained the same events, if they happened to take the seized items and return to us somewhat convincing fakes with superficial similarities, who would you be predisposed to believe if we tried to argue about it?”
The princess didn’t respond immediately, instead glancing down at the table as her mind raced. “I’m well aware the collective isn’t the most upright of organizations, but surely they wouldn’t be so shameless? How would they even guarantee that you brought the things they were looking for?”
“Having worked under them for quite a bit, I will admit that we do have items worth going to such lengths, an ancient spellbook in particular that they would certainly be willing to kill for. In any case, with all due respect, your highness. I believe they were depending on your rather forceful personality to bring us in without stopping to have this chat.” Meti answered.
“Quite.” Callipho added. “I’m well aware my status caused you to give pause, but I’m also sure you know that I have no intention to make waves where they aren’t warranted, and on the assumption no harm would have come to them, I wouldn’t have stopped you from taking my apprentice and her friends away. Something else seemed to make you more inclined for conversation, a factor that the collective couldn’t have anticipated.”
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The princess brought the cup of tea to her lips. The way she gripped it made it seem like she was going to shatter the porcelain. “The nerve.” She finally said, after several more seconds of silence, and then her gaze turned to Tahir. “I’ll be looking over the reports from the Redclouds that you mentioned, but yes, I will admit that I was taken aback by meeting someone else who can use quintessence. Even moreso that you could still take my blow despite only being a gold Redcloud.”
“Ah, well, to clarify, your highness, one of the reasons I came back to Balrech was to qualify for platinum - not that it matters much. More importantly, I can’t really consider myself a ‘quintessence user’. I can’t freely manipulate it, and I’ve only really used it once, involuntarily. The best I could do was sense that it was coming and give enough force to block it. I’m just glad you were only trying to knock me out.”
“You cannot freely manipulate quintessence?” The princess asked, fixing him with a more curious gaze than anything. “I could have sworn I felt it from you when you blocked my strike, and then continuously in a small amount up until we all entered this shop.” Now it was Tahir’s turn to look curious. The only other thing he remembered happening between him taking the blow and entering the shop was releasing his bond with the earth spirit. “Well, you may just passively use small amounts of it whenever you use aura or mana, or something to that effect. There is much we do not know about quintessence and how it can be fully utilized.”
With that, she stood, and looked between everyone. “I believe I have overstayed my welcome. I apologize for nearly falling for their ploy. I’ll personally make sure that the collective does not bother you any further. Thank you for the tea.” With a nod to her guards, she left Callipho’s shop. As everyone made their way back to the front, the group let out a collective sigh of relief.
“For someone who was ready to knock you senseless, she certainly gave up rather easily.” Shukri noted. She had a scowl on her face, and looked to the direction that the princess and her retinue of guards moved away from the shop.
“Thankfully for us, she was more interested in saving face than satisfying her ego.” Callipho replied. “Also, she doesn’t want to be the reason a potential recruit like Tahir forms a negative opinion of Esharia over this debacle.”
“Potential recruit?” Tahir asked. “Oh - because of quintessence.”
“Indeed. As she said herself, people who can use it are rare and there is little understanding of it as a whole, but the power of those who have any degree of mastery of it cannot be overstated. She may not even fully believe that the collective plotted to trick her into gaining access to your spoils from the ruin, but she would likely rather scold them and bar them from interfering with you than risk you gaining an unfavorable opinion - or heavens forbid being an enemy of Esharia in the future.”
“Huh, why didn’t she just try to recruit him now, then?” Hasio asked.
“Well it would have been pretty rude to ask to join her knights or whatever after she tried to knock him out.” Theo answered. “But still it’s good to hear we won’t have to worry about the collective anymore.”
“This might yet bring more unwanted attention in exchange.” Meti said.
“It’ll be fine, I’ll take the royal family’s attention over the collective’s.” Tahir said. “And hells, maybe I’ll actually work with them from time to time if they pay me well enough.”
“A good mindset to have, certainly.” Callipho replied. “Fully allying yourself would tie you down to Esharia in a way I’m sure an intrepid adventurer like you wouldn’t enjoy, but both you and the kingdom can enjoy some of the benefits of a mercenary relationship. I’m sure they’ve realized that your recent quarrels with the collective will color your judgment in dealing with them, but that likely won’t stop them from coming to you with a tempting offer in the future.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks, Callipho.” Tahir said with a yawn. “Well, I don’t know what I was expecting when we rolled back into Balrech, but it certainly wasn’t that. We hadn’t even finished unpacking.”
With that, the group moved to set down their belongings in a place that wouldn’t take up too much space in Callipho’s shop. Mostly Theo’s room and the singular guest room that Callipho already used as storage, for the most part. While they did, Tahir thought about the day’s events, lingering on the princess’s words. How she sensed him using quintessence up until a certain point, and the only thing the timing lined up with was him closing his bond with the earth spirit. He also checked his sword, making sure that it hadn’t gotten damaged when he blocked the princess’s strike. It hadn’t, thankfully. Meti’s sword held up impressively well against what had to be an incredibly expensive sword. Likely enchanted, and maybe even one made of actual mithral or adamantine.
It made him think back to what Merrenthyl told him about quintessence. So rare and powerful that most of the royal lines of the various kingdoms in Itera probably started from someone that could use it. For someone like the princess, even if she was like him, and had no affinities, the royal family could afford to expend a staggering amount of resources to be able to make sure she experienced steady growth. Tahir himself had experienced some exponential growth considering he went from the average silver to qualifying for platinum in just a couple of months, but he couldn’t help but wonder if Esharia’s royal family would also give him that amount of support if he decided to ally under them.
Probably not, unless I pledge myself to their service or something. He thought. But I shouldn’t overlook what they’d give me for just agreeing to work with them.
All he had to do was stay on friendly terms and see what Esharia was willing to offer him.