Chapter 29

The Splendid Seahorse Inn, Lazzure

Vella

As the stone’s glow stopped and Aren’s face faded there was a concerned silence for a moment broken by Sani asking, “So, what’s the plan Kraevos?” She grinned, “Dowe crash the party before or after the cake happens? I figured A big shindig like this is gonna have one heck of a cake, so maybe we show up, get cake, and then interrupt after the cake?” Vella couldn’t help but find her tone a little too jovial for the moment, this was a rather complicated situation after all.

Kraevos rubbed his temple for a moment, pondering the next play when he responded, “Actually, I believe we are going to let the ceremony play out. We’ll take the initiative that way,” he said very matter of fact.

The grin fell from Sani’s face and she grew more serious, “Hold up, what do you mean by that? I was joking about the cake, I don’t want Aren to get forced into this marriage. I’m not going to let him go through with this.”

“Calm yourself, Sani, I didn’t mean we’d let the whole thing happen, just that we have an advantage because of it,” Kraevos responded. This whole affair, the preparations, the wedding, and the festivities give us quite the opportunity. While everyone else is focused on this, which they surely will be, the vault will have as few guards as ever. This will allow us to slip into the vault with as little possible intervention and get what we require quietly. After all, who would be foolish enough to try and commit such a significant crime when all the muscle of Sacrotia and Lazzure is gathered in place?”

So what you’re saying is we’re the only people stupid enough to do this and that’s why they won’t expect it?” Vella cut in. She didn’t like what Kraevos implied by this and crossed her arms and tried to reason with him. “Besides the issues with that, what happens if we don’t make it back in time, what happens if the ceremony goes through and Aren ends up married?”

“I suppose at that rate we are committing a few extra crimes really, not only will we be stealing from the vault of Lazzure, but we will also be stealing someone's husband,” Kreavos said with mischief crossing his face. After all, what’s one more transgression added to our already growing list? It makes for a better story doesn’t it?”

Sani began to laugh, “Oh my gods, Aren would die. The story of the prince in distress, saved from his marriage. He’ll look so helpless.” She began to laugh and Kraevos joined in.

Vella on the other hand was not in the least bit amused with the two of them. “Cut it out!” She yelled. “Our friend is in danger and is risking his life and his safety because of us, more specifically because of you!” she said pointing at Kraevos. “If you weren’t so scatterbrained about where you kept your things we wouldn’t be in this situation. Besides, in case you’ve lost touch with reality so much, we’re not here to make stories about ourselves. Nobody else here is ageless, remember!” Vella’s anger cut the laughter from the others and they quickly understood how callus they were being. “I for one am not going to sit idly by and let my friend get married to some monster from Sacrotia and I’m certainly not going to waste time cracking jokes about it. Aren wouldn’t be cracking jokes if you were in trouble Sani, he’d be running off to help you plan or not.”

At this Sani’s head hung low, “You’re right, he’d have knocked down half the kingdom if he thought I was in trouble.” She took a moment, the guilt evident on her face. “Fine then, how exactly do we get into the vault Kraevos? Vella is right that we can’t just sit here and wait.”

Vella’s judging gaze now firmly locked onto him Kraevos replied, “That’s actually the easiest part, I can just teleport us to the vault. It’s simple honestly.”

“So why didn’t we do that right when we got to Lazzure?” Vella asked.

“Without a sufficient distraction, we would have been caught at the vaults, teleporting or not. I assumed when we got here we would create a distraction, but instead, this whole situation was waiting for us.”

“Hold up,” Sani interjected, staring in disbelief, “I thought teleportation was a myth. I didn’t think that was magically possible since the wild magic was bound.”

“Well that was my hope was that everyone would think that,” Kraevops said with a small smirk. “I may have spread rumors to lead people to this conclusion. In truth though, teleportation is indeed a very real, very doable thing. Don’t get me wrong though, it’s not something that every mage can just do instinctively. In fact, it’s incredibly intricate and complicated magic. That said, if you have had a few hundred years to work on the concept it is absolutely something you can do.”

“Which means you’re the only one who has had time to fool around and figure it out?” Vella said bluntly.

“As on the nose as ever Miss Vella,” Kraevos replied. “I am indeed the only one I know who can do this. This only comes from a long time of trial and error, heavy on the error mind you. So I spread the rumors to help others avoid some of my early disastrous results.” He shuddered, clearly remembering something awful that had seared into his memories. “Thankfully though, I know how to do it.” He kneeled to the floor and placed his open palm down. A silvery circle began to grow in the spot, magic runes twisting and moving in intricate patterns. “If you two would just join me in the circle I can get us to the vault entrance.”

Vella stepped forward into the circle followed by Sani. After a moment Sani began to question Kraevos, “Why did you say the entrance to the vault? Can’t you just bring us right into the vault?”

“Oh, that’s quite simple actually,” Kraevos replied. “I can only teleport us to someplace I have been and seen before.” He stood back up wiping his palm, moving his fingers in a winding pattern. His eyes turned to the sparkling celestial patterns Vella had seen when he’d used magic before. The glowing around them began to intensify and their vision began to buzz. “I just have to hope that they haven’t changed too much in the area in front of the vault. I would so hate for one of us to end up fused to the structuring or worse…” Kraevos said trailing off.

Sani and Vella quickly exchanged horrified looks, both instinctively trying to minimize the space they took up. “You know Kraevos,” Sani spoke quickly, “I’m not so sure about this any…” Her words were cut off as their bodies thrummed with magic and began to dissipate into the air.

As Vella’s vision and feeling came back she saw a massive iron door in front of her. She assumed this must be the vault they were trying to get into. She took a second to check herself, make sure she had everything she’d left with, ten fingers, ten toes, her clothes, and belongings. Then she looked to Sani and Kraevos, checking them each the same. They all appeared to be fine. Then after a moment, Vella’s stomach churned. It felt like she’d just been in a free dive atop Aegis as her stomach lurched forward. She held her ground and managed to stay on her feet, though barely. Sani on the other hand didn’t fare so well. She leaned forward and began to vomit uncontrollably.

“Ah yes, that,” Kraevos said, “I suppose I should have warned the two of you about that.” He put a hand on Sani’s back. “There is a chance that if you’re not used to such a violent motion the whole deconstruction and rebuilding of your form leads to well, what you’re feeling right now.” Vella tried to help steady Sani as she continued to vomit, in the minor breaths in between she was clearly trying to curse Kraevos.

By the time Sani had finished vomiting and collected herself, Kraevos had finished a sweep of the immediate area. “Well, as I assumed this situation is working out marvelously for us. There are no guards in sight. After all, the vault’s safeguards are more than enough to stop anyone short of us from getting inside.”

Sani looked up, glaring at Kraevos, “I am never doing that again,” was all she managed to spit out.

Kraevos had already moved on, paying scarce attention to Sani and Vella. He placed his hands on the massive vault doors and was met with the magic of swirling colors, all converging at his point of contact. “Yes, this was some of my finest work, I doubt if anyone else could crack this in such a short lifespan.” Vella rolled her eyes at him. She’d quickly gotten used to the form of vanity Kraevos had. She had come to believe this was the sort of vanity that drove people as intelligent as he was, always needing to be the smartest or most clever in a room.

At last, he spoke, “Aperios!” he said with a booming voice. A wave of silver magic rippled from his hands, slowly erasing each and every other color of magic it ran into until the whole door had turned silver color. The door shook open, despite their massive size they were silent in movement. The three began to walk inside and Vella couldn't believe her eyes at the sheer splendor of the insides of the vault. Her eyes began to dart from spot to spot, each one containing greater riches than she’d ever seen before. There was a massive golden statue of a Sacrotian Reaver to her left, to her right heaps of gold and jewelry that shimmered every color imaginable. Kraevos handed Sani and Vella each a stone, “Take these and contact the rest of us when you find the device. The stone will glow a bright silver when you find it. Now we split up and search, we’ll cover more ground that way.”

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This all seemed like the right idea to Vella as the vault seemed like the largest room she’d ever been in. Vella looked sternly at both Sani and Kraevos, “We get what we need and we get out of here. We’re not going to steal anything extra, right you two?”

“Well I mean, if I take something from here, nobody is going to miss it right, it’s just sitting here waiting to be freed,” Sani began.

Vella sighed and locked eyes on Sani, “Every second you take stealing something else brings us one second closer to Aren getting married and Emeria conquering Surren, do you want either of those?”

Sani’s shoulders slunk low in resignation, “Fine, I promise I won’t take up any extra time stealing other things,” she said, starting to run off. “But I can’t promise that I won’t multitask!”

Vella shook her head, “At least I tried,” she muttered. She started to gaze around, allowing her eyes to wander when something caught her eye. She walked forward to the only item that truly stood out as different to her. Standing atop a pedestal with a glass enclosure was a book. What caught Vella’s eyes was that nothing else had its own space, but this one book had no items near it for at least five feet. She approached the book letting curiosity take hold. The book looked old, but it was clearly still flowing with magic, a faint purple glow emanating from its edges.

“I cannot blame you for looking at this tome Miss Vella,” Kraevos said from behind her. Vella hadn’t realized how in her thoughts she’d become until she jumped forward, startled by his words.

“What is it? This seems like an odd thing to be in here," Vella asked. “If it has valuable information wouldn’t the High Arbiter want it for himself? Why would he protect a book?”

Vella turned to see Kravos standing a look of sadness across his face. “This is a book he cannot read and yet, it is the single most important, most valuable thing in this whole vault. It’s the whole reason this place exists as it does.” he stepped forward and placed a hand on the glass. The purple glow intensified. “Saeclase,” he said quietly. The glass began to dissolve at his utterance. He placed his hand gently on the book. He picked it up and closed it, handing it over to Vella. She looked at the book and saw one word on the cover, it was a name.

“Precia,” Vella read. As the name left her lips she could hear Kraevos catch his breath. She knew the name was familiar from something and after a moment she realized where she’d heard it. “Wasn’t that your daughter’s name?” she asked.

“Yes, Miss Vella, that is my daughter’s name,” Kraevos said, his usual exuberance gone from his voice. “This book was hers. This was the very book that she used to record everything we worked together to learn about magic. Everything that leads to the great binding of wild magic that leads to a safer world for humanity is in this book. That book contains the greatest wealth of knowledge about magic in the world, more even than what I know. She recorded everything we learned from all across Surren, from every person we met, each sage and scholar, and each mage that helped. They all contributed, but it is by her hand that the book was written.”

“My daughter placed all the wards and enchantments on that book that she could find. Even I haven't been able to decipher all of them. For all my greatness I still only understand magic so much compared to my daughter. You see I was blinded by my singular pursuit. Precia on the other hand was the true scholar, she was more in tune with magic than I will ever be.” As Kraevos said his daughter’s name a tear streamed down his face. “I helped with this vault mainly because of this book, I didn’t want it to fall into any other hands and I also didn’t trust myself with it. In the end, the vault became a convenient place to hide things, like the other item we’re here for, but it is this book that I helped make the vault for. And yet, with that said, I want you to have the book, Miss Vella.”

Vella stopped and looked Kraevos directly in the eyes, “But you just explained how valuable and potentially dangerous this was, why would you give me the book?” she asked.

“Because it clearly wants to be with you,” Kraevos replied. “You see it has laid dormant for quite some time. Part of the many wards my daughter put on the book was to make it unreadable by most. Clearly, that’s not the case with you.” He pointed to the name Vella had just read, “I cannot even read that, it obscures and shifts in my vision.”

“I can’t take this Kraevos,” Vella protested,” I’m, just a dragon farmer from the middle of nowhere.”

Kraevos placed his hands on Vella’s shoulder and stared intently at her. For the first time, Vella saw the man’s eyes truly focus with an intensity she was not prepared for. “Weren’t you the one who chastised me for saying such a thing?” Vella didn’t know how to respond as he’d used her own words against her. “My daughter told me that this book would reveal itself to those who needed it, to those who could use it correctly. She knew there would come times when this knowledge would help the world again. She understood so many things I could not. That’s why I began my quest with her. The magic was a part of her just as air fills our lungs, magic filled her being. She saw what would be and told me of her visions. Precia told me stories of people hundreds of years away who were destined to do great things and how this book would be theirs as it was hers. I can see now how right she was Miss Vella. For all of that, I ask you, no I beg you to take this book.”

Hesitantly Vella took the book, not sure how she felt about the idea of being destined for anything. That said she couldn’t help but feel drawn to the book, so she accepted. “Fine, I’ll hold onto this for now, but we’re not done discussing this Kraevos,” she said firmly.

Kraevos grabbed her and hugged Vella tightly. As he let go he spoke, “Thank you, Miss Vella,” all at once he seemed to realize the task at hand again, “But now we must resume our hunt, we shall discuss later.” Before Vella could get in another word he bolted off to another lane of treasure, leaving her.

With an exasperated sigh Vella looked down at the book in her hands, “I think your dad is crazy nuts Precia, but that’s probably not news to you. My name’s Vella by the way and since I’m a girl talking to a book I guess I’m crazy too.” She placed the book in her bag, securing it tightly into its own spot before she began to search the room. From time to time the three would run into each other and make sure of who had searched what section. The room seemed never-ending and Vella was growing ever more concerned about how long the search was taking.

After what seemed like forever Vella heard a yell from a nearby lane and her stone lit up, “I found it!” Sani’s voice yelled out. Vella ran over to where she heard Sani and saw Sani standing over a pile of what appeared to be random pieces of metal. “The stone says I found it,” Sani exclaimed, “But what exactly did I find?”

“You did indeed find it,” Kraevos said with a grin, “First though I need to break the illusion around it.” Both Sani and Vella looked quizzically at the old mage. “What, did you believe I would leave something so valuable just sitting out in the open?” Both women nodded their heads in unison. “My pride is slightly wounded ladies,” Kraevos replied to them both. He pulled back his right hand and balled it into a fist, “Now this one I made very differently from my usual illusions. I didn’t want anyone who knew my usual magic to figure it out simply.” He then unleashed a punch into the heap of metal parts.

The illusion shattered quite literally which surprised Vella and Sani. Like a mirror breaking into a thousand pieces the magic around the item broke and disappeared. After a moment the actual item revealed itself. What surprised Vella the most was that the item looked dingier and less impressive than the pile of scraps the illusion had shone. It was just a small outline of a metal gauntlet that had a faint white magical glow around it. “Perfect, it’s still here and in such good condition,” Kraevos said gleefully.

“So that’s it?” Sani said unenthusiastically. “I was kind of expecting something, flashy, or deadly looking or well, impressive honestly. You kind of have a braggadocious style Kreavos.”

“I would say I have a flair for the dramatic thank you,” Kraevos responded snarkily, “Though I do get your point. It did take me a century or two to develop my style of magic though. This is a very early piece, so there was more of a form-over-function mindset here.” He looked it over, clearly still happy with himself. “We take this with us, go to Horath and I can craft what we need to defeat Emeria. That said, we have far more pressing matters at hand. I do believe we have a wedding to crash or prevent now, don’t we? That’s an occasion where I can put that “braggadocious” nature to good use,” he said, sticking his tongue out at Sani as he walked by.

Sani began to laugh as she followed Kraevos out of the vault. Vella, following behind, couldn’t help but notice that Sani's bag seemed a great deal fuller than it had been when they entered the vault. Given that she had in her possession what Kraevos had deemed the “most valuable” thing in the vault, Vella decided not to bother bringing it up. Besides, they had found what they had come to get and that was what mattered most.

As they exited the vault Kraevos took care to reseal the doors and set the wards he’d washed away back on. Though for good measure he decided to add a few more to keep the High Arbiter and his people out just to taunt them.

“So where exactly do we go from here? I know there’s a wedding but like is it in the middle of the palace or what?” Sani asked.

“Actually it’ll be on the farthest extending dock,” Kraevos replied. “Ceremony being what it is, any of the major marriages of the High Arbiter’s house happen as deep into the ocean as the palace allows, which means the farthest and oldest of the stone docks extending from the palace.” He began to lead them away from the vault and to a window gazing out across the ocean. “So for perspective, the wedding is out there,” Kraevos said, pointing away from the palace. Sani and Vella both looked out and saw what Kraevos meant. Indeed there was a gathering there, but this dock was massive and long, and as far as you could see there were ships, guards, and everything else that they did not need to deal with right now.

“And how exactly do we get there unnoticed Kraevos?” Vella asked. “Are you going to make a distraction and we slip in and get Aren or what?”

“No, that won’t do,” Kraevos replied with a shrug, “You see the problem is, out on the water like that the High Arbiter is at his strongest. He has control over the tides after all. But I do have a way to get us there.”

“Oh no, no no,” Sani began repeating nervously, “Please tell me you don’t mean…”

Kraevos cut her off, “Yes, that is exactly what I mean. After all, I have been to the farthest edge of that dock where the ceremony would be held. I’ve been to many a wedding here, albeit with different faces. After all, parties like this have the absolute best food.”

“There has to be another way,” Sani protested.

Kraevos kneeled to the ground and the silver circle surrounded the three of them. “There is no better way to get there and certainly no faster. Don’t worry though, I’m told it gets easier each time you teleport, why you might not even vomit this time!” With that, the world around the three began to swirl and their bodies disappeared.