“I didn’t initiate the soul bond. The mana reached out to me all on its own,” I said, looking at the two men in the corner. If the King truly decided to take offense at my behavior, I could be in a lot of trouble.
“These things happen,” the King said, brushing off the incident. As he spoke, I brushed my hands over the small fires that had been started in the wake of my soul bond. I smothered the flames with the palms of my hands, and the fire was extinguished within seconds.
“The staff must have been set to automatially initiate a soul bond whenever an individual with fire resistance touched it,” Lord Orion Arcturus said.
I looked at the chess board and saw that many of the pieces had been knocked over, either by the King’s unseen movement in stopped time or by my physical attempts to extinguish the fire.
The chess pieces had been scattered so extensively that one could not use the present location of the pieces to glean the state of our game. Though, I was not upset by this fact. References the mental snapshot of the game board at the forefront of my mind, I realized that I was losing the game against the King. In my emotional turmoil, I hadn’t thought to protect my bishop, and Theophrastus could take it in three moves without losing any pieces of his own. I was loathe to admit it, but the King was a better chess player than me.
“Let’s call it a draw,” King Theophrastus said with a smile, looking over at the chess board.
“That sounds good,” I said, picking up that ancient staff from where it lay on the ground. “By the way, there is one more thing I thought to tell you, King Theophrastus.”
“Hmm? What’s that?” The King eyed me curiously. He knew that nobles would often mention something immensely important at the very end of a meeting when it is hardest to further investigate the proffered information.
“I noticed something about that girl I met on the road. She rode a Caligan Hound. It seems pertinent. The only stock of Caligan Hounds for a hundred miles of here is controlled by House Polaris.” I spoke purposefully, making sure to never tell a direct lie within the presence of King Theophrastus or Lord Orion. It was an unspoken rule that the nobles of Etronia never lied to other nobles. You never knew when someone with [Lie Detection] was hiding behind a nearby column.
The thin veneer of affability masking the King’s face shattered, and a vicious expression motivated his features. King Theophrastus turned to the man standing next to him like the Old Testament God about to visit righteous fury upon the head of an unsuspecting sinner. Orion returned the King’s hateful glare with a look of confusion that, to my eyes, looked believable. Either he truly had no part in the attempted kidnapping of Princess Haydith, or he was an exceptionally good actor.
My job was done. I had left enough evidence to make it clear to the King that the Lich Cult had attacked his daughter. Hopefully, this would be enough to keep the Lich Cult off of my back for the foreseeable future.
“You may leave, Lord Thale,” said the King. “I need to speak to Lord Orion in private.”
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Staff in hand, I exited through the front gate of Castle Etron a few minutes after. I could feel the mana thrumming through the Staff of Imogene Drac like a steady heart beat. I wanted to cycle my own mana through the staff, but I knew that doing so would cause the staff to reach a temperature that would be harmful to most humans.
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I surreptitiously slipped the Ring of Etron onto my right hand and the Anti-Observation Ring onto my left, making sure that none of the guards had a chance to see the wild rose crest marking that ring.
As I walked down the main street toward the Merchant’s District, I remembered the stat block of the Staff of Thale Feldrast that could be acquired by the players after they defeated Count Thale Feldrast.
Staff of Thale Feldrast: This staff functions as an arcane focus that strengthens Sorcery. When the user is not soul bound to the staff, it will strengthen Sorceries by 25%. When the user is soul bound to the Staff, it will strengthen Sorceries by 75% and deal 20 Fire damage to the caster for every spell cast.
I raised the staff into the air and admired the glowing red ruby at its end. Even after hundreds of years in storage, the staff still felt solid in my hand. If necessary, I was sure I could use the staff as a club to beat any aggressors. The wood was still sleek and smooth, and it wouldn’t look out of place at a formal dining event.
Aesthetically, the staff looked like something that a villain would carry. The wood was pure black, and the gem at the end shone an ominous scarlet. On a meta level, it looked like that it because it was, in fact, a villain’s weapon. Thale Feldrast was meant to be a recurring villain for the Heroes to frequently butt heads against, and he had to look the part.
Though I couldn’t deny that the staff looked good in my hand, I didn’t acquire it for aethetic reasons. That 75% power boost to Sorceries was the kind of thing that most Mages could only dream of.
Beltane’s staff gave him a 20% power boost to Sorceries, and even that relatively small increase was significant due to the way spells worked. A Mage could only use so much mana when casting any particular spell. A 2-Point spell like [Wind Knife] took a minimum of 5 mana to cast, but the arcane formula would shatter if you used more than 10 mana to cast it.
Arcane foci like my staff empowered the existing mana rather than simply adding more mana to the equation. In my case, if I were to cast [Wind Knife] through the staff, my Sorceries would have a power boost of 100%, turning a 10-mana Wind Knife into a 20-mana Wind Knife without shattering the arcane formula.
I stepped into an unoccupied alleyway in the Merchant District in order to get away from any unsuspecting passers-by. It would be a problem if any civilians were in range when I tested out my staff.
Standing in the center of the alleyway, I took a deep breath and hammered my mana into the staff. Visible waves radiated through the air near the staff. The glove on my right hand caught fire from the heat of the staff. The heat would have killed a normal person, but it felt like the soothing heat of a warm summer’s day to me.
The moment was punctuated by a familiar thrumming sensation that filled my body and echoed against the tall walls on either side of me. I quickly checked my pocket watch and saw that it had been exactly an hour since the last pulse of mana.
Yes, yes, good job retrieving my staff. We need to depart this city immediately. Let’s just hope you haven’t killed us with your treasure hunting.
You seem to think something big is coming. Do you remember anything big happening in Etron when you were fifteen the first time around?
No, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that your presence has altered the timeline significantly.
I started walking toward the exit of the alleyway with renewed haste. If something had Thale spooked, it was enough for me to flee the city. My steps were halted, however, as a man dressed in chainmail and a bleached deer mask stepped into my way. I turned my head and saw a woman dressed in that same deer mask blocking the other side of the alleyway. The female cultist carried a wand in one hand and a handful of iron discs in the other.