“You were supposed to flee!” Turginet shouted at Priscilla, while Zeek, Sirius, Penny, and Antone sat around the table.

Priscilla looked at him with pursed lips and narrowed eyes. “No, you recommended I flee. I declined to follow that suggestion,” she retorted as Turgi ran his fingers through his hair.

“You’re as stupidly loyal as that boy!” he yelled, pointing at Sirius, who was now drawing imaginary circles on the table. “How am I supposed to protect you both?”

“Oh, now I need your protection? Is that what you think?” she yelled back.

Zeek tuned them out, opening the Book of Spite and browsing the pages.

Progress:

Journeyman Tier 3

Task List:

1. There be treasure! Polish those spelunking skills and explore the undercity. (Complete)

2. Friends don’t let friends become sorcerers. Train another pure mage to mana tier 3. Oh, and choose wisely or you’ll die.

3. Previous tasks cancelled. Reach the center of the undercity.

Emergency:

1. Direct conflict with divinity. Training plan accelerated. Reach full mage as quickly as possible.

Zeek’s mouth hung open long enough for Antone to notice. “What’s the book say?” he asked.

Penny looked at him. “Book?” Antone ignored her.

Zeek started to speak when Priscilla interjected, “Sirius, go upstairs and wait for us.”

Sirius began to stand when Turginet spoke. “No, boy, you stay here and listen to this. I won’t let you run around blind.”

Sirius looked genuinely conflicted as he glanced between his parents. “Don’t listen to your father, go upstairs now,” Priscilla said again.

“Either he stays here and listens or I go tell him everything when we’re done,” Turginet scowled.

“Then I’ll leave!” she shouted back at him.

“Good! That’s what I want you to do!” he yelled.

Antone had a hand over his face, and he groaned loudly before rapping his fist on the table. “Enough! Sirius, decide what you want to do, but hurry. We have things to discuss.” Sirius looked at his mother and muttered an apology before sitting down at the table. Priscilla growled at Turgi then turned her head away and sat on the other side of the room.

“That’s the most surprising thing that’s happened yet,” Antone muttered, and Penny covered her mouth to hide a giggle.

A moment later, all the room’s occupants were sitting at the table, staring at Zeek in the candlelight. He coughed before speaking. “Well, what do you all want to know?”

“Just start from the beginning,” Antone replied.

So Zeek began with his testing ceremony, describing how the book formed from mana that flowed from the bowl. How no one but him could see it, and how it gave him instructions on how to become a pure mage. He described the first tasks he’d completed, and the rewards he received. Penny blushed when he recounted smacking her backside.

Then he talked about training with mana strengthening and mana vision. He talked about the duel with Sirius, and the mana cores of the mages he saw in the capital. He described the opening ceremony and the yellow-green sickly mana that came from the clergy members. He talked about the message from the Orthan family, the lack of records on them, and the book’s many functions.

His story went without interruption, but the room’s occupants went slack-jawed as he described the message device and the door. Turgi leaned over the table as if he wanted to leap from his seat when Zeek told him about the lectern in the Orthan house and the book’s instructions. He finished by reading the current task list and reward.

As if to prove his point, he formed a ball of mana and willed it to be stone. It was a different feeling than just thinking a command, something he’d learned when they’d fled the clergy earlier that night. He had to really want something for the mana to change. Feeling confident, he changed the stone ball to fire, then water, then shadow, then light. Sirius watched in fascination, the same look on his face as on Turgi’s.

When Zeek dispersed the ball, the room was silent.

Antone spoke first. “This answers many questions.”

“And creates many more,” Priscilla added.

“Can you show us the book?” Turgi asked.

“I’ve never tried,” Zeek replied. “Can you show yourself to them?” He looked at the book and it vibrated a moment but nothing seemed to change. Then Zeek noticed their faces—they were all looking at the book hovering above the candles in the center of the room. “Can you hide it from us again?” Turgi asked.

“Hide yourself from Turgi,” Zeek ordered. The book vibrated again.

“I still see it,” Antone said.

“I don’t,” Turgi replied.

“Reveal yourself to him again, and to the people in this room, but no one else,” Zeek ordered.

“What are you?” Turgi asked the book, but it didn’t respond.

“Show him the introduction,” Zeek said.

The book hovered in front of Turgi, who read it quickly and started to laugh. “The arrogance. If this isn’t magic from the Lost Age, I don’t know what is.” He reached out to touch it, but his hand went through the book.

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“So why does the kid have it?” Antone asked.

Turgi shrugged, “No clue. It’s attached to him alone and follows his orders. Something like this is impossible to create with our magic. I’d love to rush to Zeek’s home and speak with his grandmother.”

“That’s not an option,” Antone replied.

“You said there’s a map of the undercity, and it wants you to reach the center?” Turgi asked.

Zeek nodded. ”Show us the map of the undercity.”

The book unraveled and morphed into a large map, with the symbol of Orthan serving as a compass.. The title of the document was “Map of Lemnital.” Everyone stood to get a better look.

It was a massive city, buried beneath modern-day Lem. Zeek noticed a marker labeled Orthan Manor, with a few dozen others in various spots. There were streets, warehouses, laboratories, gardens, and multiple levels below each. Even farmland was notated, as if somewhere below the city were fields of wheat. Some of the labels indicated magic, such as platforms for ships and small buildings labeled “teleporter.” And there were no churches to be found.

“Where’s the center?” Zeek asked.

A red “X” appeared below the second level, where a small fortress stood on the bottom-most floor. They had only been in one manor on the first level. The city was probably larger than Lem if you added the floors together.

“Can you show us a map of the fortress?” he asked.

The map shimmered as the ink rearranged itself, and a fort three times the size of the kingdom’s current one appeared. There were vaults, libraries, practice chambers, alchemical gardens, war chambers, armories, and everything needed to survive or wage a long war. In the center was a rectangular chamber with two circles on the ground, one large and one small. The large one was labeled “Defense Control Center,” and the small one was the emergency evacuation portal. The “X” was blinking over the portal.

“Why can’t we access the defenses?” Turgi wondered aloud. Zeek asked the question, and the map answered with text on the bottom.

Requires three archmages to power. Insufficient strength to activate present.

Turgi rubbed his head. “I suppose we don’t count as archmages to this book. How long would it take you to reach archmage, kid?”

“According to the book, years. That’s if I’m fast. It won’t happen for a long time,” he explained.

“But why does it want us to go through a portal? We could just escape today if we needed to,” Priscilla asked.

Antone studied the map while he spoke. “We’d escape with nothing but the clothes on our backs. Turgi and I aren’t getting stronger, the kingdom’s magic system has made sure of that. But a safe place created by mages from the Lost Age? Maybe there’s something we can use to get stronger.”

“Then what?” Penny asked, as all eyes turned to her. “Wage war against the kingdom? Fight the church? What can we hope to do?”

“We need options,” Priscilla replied.

Turgi nodded. “If we flee, they’ll hunt us down eventually, or we’ll just spend the rest of our lives running. The only path is strength.”

“How much strength can one mage have?” Penny asked.

Zeek spoke up. “If the house’s defenses were a sample, a pure mage could get unimaginably strong.”

Turgi retook his seat and said, “The kid’s right. Look at this city, such a thing would be impossible to create now. Even if we only learned to teleport around, we’d be near invincible. If the stories of the Lost Age are any indication, and they seem to be truer than we thought, a mage can become incredibly powerful.”

“How do we know the portal still works? And how can you get down there again?” Sirius asked.

Zeek tapped the map. “Some of the buildings are collapsed on the map. I think the book was given this when it linked with the Orthan Manor. And it’s accurate.” He pointed at a few downed walls in the manor they’d explored. “These walls were down when we passed. If the map says a portal is there, it is.”

“So, what killed all those people?” Penny asked.

The room was silent at first, till Antone went to the shelves and grabbed a bottle of wine. “We don’t know how they lived, let alone how they died. But the people in the manor were ambushed somehow. At least knowing a threat exists gives us an advantage.” He took a grimy glass from under his chair and wiped it with his shirt, pouring wine into it.

“Either way, I’d rather fight than run. For once, we’re free. There’s no going back to the kingdom now, no plot to hunt for, no clergy to smile and lie to. We’ve been labeled traitors for uncovering their secret. I plan on seeing this through to the end,” Antone said, taking a sip.

“So what’s the plan?” Zeek asked.

Priscilla snatched the bottle from Antone’s hand and took a swig. “We create chaos. Give them something else to worry about. Bolster our ranks. Then raid the undercity.”

Turgi took the bottle next. “I suppose you have a plan to do all those things,” he said.

“Yes, but unfortunately we need the succubus to return first,” she replied.

“Aunt Irith is involved?” Sirius asked.

“Yes, I sent her a message when we fled. She’ll probably return in a week or so,” Priscilla answered.

“I thought you said she was weak, mother,” Sirius said.

“Much weaker than your mother, of course,” Priscilla smiled.

Turgi rolled his eyes. “Well, out with it, what plan did you hatch?”

She turned her smile on Turgi. “The summer solstice is coming up in a few weeks. It just so happens the king plans to give his yearly speech at the Festival of Light. And the Resistance wants to send a message.”

“Of course you made friends with the Resistance,” Antone groaned.

Priscilla shrugged. “I may have promised archmage support in the recent plot. The succubus agreed to it before she left.”

“As long as no citizens are harmed,” Antone said firmly.

“I won’t ask you to do anything that soils your pretty soft hands,” she replied, and he glared at her.

Turgi coughed. “What about bolstering our numbers?”

Priscilla looked at Penny. “Our young friend here has been spending time with the war mage candidates. I think all of them except the Thers girl would participate. With a little prodding.”

Sirius raised an eyebrow. “Aury and Felix, sure. They aren’t very loyal to the kingdom. But Mord and Vale come from noble families.”

“Dear boy, they come from landless noble families. None of them have any hope of rising above viscount, and their fathers are as unhappy with the king’s policies as the overtaxed commoners. Who do you think funds the Resistance?” Priscilla said.

“They do what?” Antone said suddenly, glaring at her. “You knew they were involved with the Resistance and said nothing?”

“I don’t recall admitting anything,” she smirked.

“You know I was sent on raids of Resistance hideouts. I found it very suspicious we never seized any gold,” he replied.

“Very fortunate, isn’t it? Now you’re captain of the traitors and you have helpers flush with gold.” She smirked again. Turgi was blushing for some reason, which confused Zeek.

“Accursed woman. Turgi, I told you she was trouble,” Antone muttered.

Turgi pulled at his collar, turning his flushed face away from Priscilla. Antone rolled his eyes when he noticed. “Either way, we have a plan. Now we just need to lie low for a week and see if our friend can train a few more pure mages,” Turgi said.

Zeek looked at Penny. “Are you in?”

“And if I say no?” she asked him, ignoring the stares of the others.

“I’ll still protect you, as best I can.”

“Then I’m in. I don’t want to be protected forever,” she replied, as Priscilla’s eyes twinkled from behind her bottle. The twinkle disappeared as Sirius began babbling about all the things he could learn now that he’d be a pure mage.

The meeting ended as the group left The Dancing Shadow in pairs. Zeek still hadn’t asked why Sirius was in a dress, or why Penny was in a suit. He figured they’d tell him about it later, and it wasn’t exactly pertinent to the talk of age-old secrets. He sort of thought Penny looked quite attractive in a suit, something he had no intention of admitting.

He understood an hour later, as he walked into a bawdy house filled with cross-dressers and a goat. After a brief introduction to the owner, they were herded to a basement area that turned out to be a barracks. Despite all the questions he had, and the many plans to make, and the endless magic to learn, he fell asleep immediately.

He had the same nightmare he’d had since childhood. Of the steps, the burning, the cracking rocks, and the darkness. He woke up once, sweating, to see Penny and Sirius passed out in their bunk beds. Turgi and Priscilla were cuddling in another, and Antone was hugging his sword and scabbard near the door. Zeek turned over and tried to sleep again, this time succeeding.