In the last few years he'd spent in that town he'd found no actual connection between Alouella's father and his mother's kidnapping. That had actually turned out to be coincidence.
Clarke came back to the Inn. The rowdy people, the suspicious glances arcing towards their table, the smells of reviving food. Gwen had ordered while Clarke stared off into space and he now found himself looking down at a suspiciously grey slab of meat he had no recollection of being put there.
Either the chef prided himself on leaving no scrap unturned or they'd made enemies just by coming into town at the wrong time.
“Does anyone want this?”
Gwen pulled the plate her way, mouth already full of the questionable meat.
“If ya really hure.”
She mumbled through her food, spitting little specks across the table. Dwarven constitution really was a marvelously sickening thing. If you couldn't feed it to a lizardfolk, feed it to a dwarf as the saying went.
Alouella waved at her many admirers, some pulling her aside to whisper something that she laughed at. Wade combed his fingers through his hair, rubbing his palms together to grind any dirt away. Even Gwen took a moment to adjust her braids and straighten her hair. Alouella had a seat at the table and Wade slid a small cup across the table to her.
“Here, I ordered you a bilge tea, just like you used to like.”
“You remembered.”
She took the cup, though she merely held it.
“Sorry, I probably can't drink it. People have been buying me things all week, trying to get me to go with them. It's flattering but it's not letting me get much rest. This might be the first that was bought without any ulterior motives though, thank you.”
Wade's face lit up and he tucked his hands in front of him, filled with a swelling sense of pride.
“And who is this?”
She referred to the gobbling dwarf. Gwen tried to cover her mouth, extending her other hand but unable to say anything that wouldn't spit food. Clarke made the introductions.
“Friend of mine from Deraforda. Gwen Koffee.”
She choked down her food.
“Very pleased. I am a huge fan of your adventures! And can I say, you are just absolutely gorgeous in person. You see it written and said but...wow. ”
Alouella bowed her head in thanks.
“I've heard that a lot lately but the way you say it sounds so sincere that I just might believe you.”
Gwen laughed and slapped a palm to her forehead.
“Heh, sorry, I'm not too good with words. You're just so darn cool.”
Alouella nodded her head again and took a sip of her tea, the muddy collecting of leaves at the bottom swirling around.
“So what brings you gentlemen, and gentlelady, out to see me? I've only seen either of you a handful of times since we left Rens and you've never sought me out first like this.”
It was funny how neither had the will to see her when all they wanted was to see her but Clarke felt a bother to her and Wade didn't feel worthy to sit in her presence. She was a true adventurer after all and deserved nicer company.
“It happened again.”
Clarke cut right to it.
“Like when my mother disappeared and the whole town forgot her. This time a whole event has been erased from...I guess you'd say erased from occurring.”
Alouella's eyes sparkled.
“Really!? You've got a clue?”
Clarke passed the record of her massive battle to her which she flipped through. She read quickly, flipping pages and letting her eyes hit on every third or so word instead of taking it in a word at a time.
“This is about me! You're saying this all happened and I have no memory of it?”
“He claims it happened.”
Wade piped in. He knew Alouella was one to rush to the aid of others. It didn't seem right to him that she'd drop her prosperous adventures and jobs to help a lunatic.
“Say what you want.”
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
“I will. Were you there when it happened?”
Clarke tensed. Sometimes Wade could actually use that brain of his.
“...no...”
“So it may not have even happened at all, let alone erased from history!”
Wade sat back in triumph and knocked back his drink .
Alouella was re-reading, nodding to herself.
“I'm not saying it didn't happen, okay? But listen to me Clarke.”
She waited until he was looking right at her.
“Maybe I could kill a horrible monster by expending more magic than I ever had before. But the clean up after, the rebuilding of everything exactly as it was, the wiping of all memories of the event plus the fact that people died and no one has died here recently. If this were all fixed with magic it would be ridiculously, astronomically powerful.”
His hands clenched but he held himself back. He could do that for her if not the others.
“Since I've been traveling I've learned a lot more than I ever knew about magic.”
She took out a memo book and motioned for Clarke's pen with a quiet, “May I?”
She drew a circle in her tight handwriting, all very sharp and angular when she added a symbol in the middle.
“This is the most basic magic, creating fire, one of the first spells ever created since it was so utilitarian for survival. It's just simple fire that appears in your hand or wherever you desire. Now let's say I want it to move and explode when I hit people with it.”
She began drawing sigils and new runes inside the mandala and it quickly became a mishmash of symbols bumping into each other, connecting in tendrils that snaked from one to the next.
“This adds some weight in the center, fuel to keep it burning for a bit, explosive abilities, flight capabilities. It's all very complicated. Plus casting magic, even if you know the correct symbols, won't work if you aren't skilled enough. So creating new spells that work is incredibly difficult because of the amount of time and skill required.”
She sighed when she looked at Clarke.
“What I'm getting at is that if someone destroyed the town, erased everyone's memories and brought everyone who died back to life as well as healing suspicious wounds, plus in a small amount of time it would require a level of magic several thousand years more advanced than what we can do today. The caster would also need mana retention abilities of monstrous proportions.”
“See, you are just a crazy orphan who was abandoned in our town.”
Wade reached over, sympathetically slapping Clarke on the shoulder and giving him the biggest shit eating grin he could muster.
Clarke looked at him, at Alouella. She was factual and plain spoken like his mother and that might have been one of the reasons he had become so attached to her. But right now it was pissing him off.
He took a deep breath, held it, let it out.
“What if only the event itself were erased? Say, someone changed the past so that the monster never got into town? Would that be any less impossible?”
Alouella looked down at her paper, making some notes and allowing Clarke to thread these new ideas into a tapestry of free thinking.
“It would be but only because it's a single extremely powerful spell and not several very difficult ones. But reaching into the past and changing an event like that would require incredible power. Time related spells don't exist except as theory.”
Gwen licked her lips, her plate clean and having filled her brain with their theories.
“So, spells can only be cast if you have the power for it?”
“Yes, Miss Gwen.”
She actually blushed. No one had ever called her miss before. It felt better than a lot of the things people called her.
“So let's assume that they didn't travel all the way back in time to when the thing was born and smother it dead in its monster crib. Hang on.”
She got up and walked over to the bar and the dwarf owner with the table watching after. There was a drink order, a few laughs from the barman and an exchanged fist bump before she returned with a mug in hand.
“There were a number of earthquakes over the past few months but they all stopped recently. About a week ago. It's not that earthquakes don't just stop and start but the times do match up.”
She drank a little, spilling some down her shirt.
“So that means that any clues about its being down there and whoever got rid of it are still there.”
She tilted back her drink, finishing a pint in a single quaff and blasting her boozy breath across the table. The speed her investigation had progressed had dropped two jaws. Even if impressed, Clarke made it a point to keep his jaw firmly attached to his face.
“Ahhhhh, that's good. So, who wants to check out the mines?”
Clarke was already standing.
“Let's go then. Thanks for the help Alouella. Even if all we did was chat, you really helped us out.”
Her face wrinkled up in confusion and she cocked an eye at him.
“What do you mean? It's not like we're splitting up. I want to go and we can finally go on an adventure together just like the three of us wanted.”
Oddly enough it was Clarke and Wade who looked at each other and without any words spoken they formed a resolve.
“You've got a lot more important things to do than traipse around in some mines. All these people are here to recruit you to look at flying castles and ancient lizardfolk temples long lost to the deepswamps. Our poking around would be boring to you.”
“And this guy!”
Wade jabbed a finger at Clarke, which he swatted away.
“I didn't know it before but after seeing two of our group die within seconds of each other, all while he watched with those dead, unfeeling eyes, I've started to believe it. He's the Bloody Pen. You don't wanna be around that.”
“I was squinting. It was bright with all the fire.”
The rest of the inn had gone quiet and every one of those angry, dagger eyes went wide, staring at the thin man in the big coat. The persona of the Bloody Pen had grown on its own, even beyond what Clarke knew and a few of the adventurers got up and left rather than sit in the same room as Death itself.
Alouella laughed.
“Oh, I knew that. They have the same handwriting. I saw an original transcript of his once.”
“And it's hardly his fault that he happens to be around stupid people or their incompetent leaders when they die.”
Gwen piped up, settling her part of the bill with a few coins on the table.
“Exactly. So let's get going. We have mines to explore.”
The ladies stood and headed for the door. The men glared at each other in a way that you usually only see in a boxing ring.
“If anything happens to her-”
“I will kick your-”
“You try it you piece of low-grade knight scum-”
“You come up here and say that-”
They left for the door with the whole place staring after, some wondering who could save their beloved wizard from two such horrible men. One man in the corner who'd been nursing a drink for about a day and cooling his tired heels nodded to himself. He stood and approached one of the grumpier tables who'd been pouring more effort into pulling the girl into their group than the others, losing quite a bit of currency in the attempt.
The man pulled back his hood, handsome elven features working their first impression charm.
“Hi there. Any of you care to make a lot of money very quickly?”