“How would you compare it to Denitel’s work on rare plants within the empire?”
“It’s far more detailed. Each entry takes up an entire page.”
One of Corrie’s eyebrows rose like a hoisted sail at sea. “I’ll be borrowing this one, then.”
“What about the other two?”
He approached the desk and began to explain the subjects that the other works covered, both of which piqued his friend’s interest in equal measure to the first. They spent about an hour leafing through their contents and discussing key ideas, oftentimes pausing to let Corrie read up on certain snippets that were relevant to the conversation. In the end, the eldest member of the Dozen stuck with his initial choice of the book on dangerous plants, deciding to leave once he finalized his decision.
“Hold on,” said Alistar as his friend made to leave the room. “There’s something else I want to give you.”
“What more could I possibly ask for?” came a dry response. “I came here to ask for advice, and I’m leaving with a grimoire and a choice read.”
Alistar retrieved a bundle of cloth from within his dresser’s uppermost drawer, which he then placed atop the desk and unfurled to reveal the dagger that Aglain had given him. Lacking a sheath, the dull, weathered weapon looked as ordinary as any other if not noticeably unkempt in comparison to the average blade.
“No offence, Alistar,” said Corrie, openly unimpressed, “but even I can afford a better dagger than this.” Shaking his head, he added, “Thank you, but I’ve taken enough of your things today.”
Paying his friend no mind, he picked up the dagger and injected some of his inner energies into it. The moment that he did so, Corrie’s eyes went wide with shock, his body tensing up as he looked around the room with a dark, shrewd gaze.
“Alistar?”
“I’m still here.”
Corrie didn’t seem to have heard him, a compliment to the muffling spell that the weapon had been enchanted with. As with the first time that he’d made use of it, Alistar was still completely visible to his own eyes and had also been overtaken by a slight, pervasive chill.
Fascinating, he thought as he watched his friend grow increasingly uneasy. So Aglain was right.
Not wanting to cause the other boy any unnecessary stress, he stopped fueling the dagger’s enchantments with his energies and then placed it back on the table.
“This…where did you get this?”
“I go out into the forest sometimes for my own reasons. I found it on one of those trips.”
“Where did you find it? There could be other treasures out there.”
“Trust me, I checked. There wasn’t anything else.”
Corrie didn’t take his eyes off of the dagger, his pale complexion gaining colour from a sudden rush of excitement. “This area of the Tall Mountains was supposedly the site of the last great battle of the Inverted Wars. There’s a good chance that this is a remnant from that time, possibly something left behind by a fallen soldier. If it’s an enchanted weapon, then it definitely could have avoided rusting even if it had been out in the elements for all those years.”
Alistar wrapped it up in the cloth and proffered the bundle to Corrie.
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“Go on. All you have to do is inject a bit of energy into the handle and you’ll completely vanish from people’s perceptions. You need to be conscious of your energy consumption, though. I’d say using it is about as taxing as creating a needle of ice every second.”
Corrie pushed the bundle away, firm reluctance on his face. “Then all the more reason you shouldn’t give it away. With your energy stores, you could keep it permanently activated.”
He shook his head, casual in his insistence. “I’m quite close to replicating its effects, actually. In a month or two, I’ll have no use for it.” He threw the bundle at his friend, giving him no choice but to catch it. “Honestly, I feel like this suits you better. Besides, if you have something like this, I can be a bit more at ease when I leave for Melsian. I’ll be counting on you to keep an eye on Anne and the others.”
Even though some of the Dozen had promised to help him on his quest to free Kaila, he had decided against getting any of his friends involved. How could he justify saving someone’s life if it came at the cost of someone else that was close to him? No, his best bet was to free Aglain from his confinement and then rely on the ancient hero to help him accomplish his goal. Once the curse of fatigue was lifted, the man would supposedly regain all of his former strength thanks to the effects of the curse of immortality. Once this happened, it wouldn’t be too difficult for him to break the seal that separated that dreary cave from the rest of the world.
For the first time since they had met, Corrie put on a guilty frown. “Alistar, this is surely a priceless treasure. Even a hundred grimoires couldn’t compare to its worth. Why not sell it to help fund your life after you take your friend away from the mines?”
Or for enough money to buy several hundred magic crystals, came a sudden voice in his head. No, he thought, selling such a thing would be just as risky as trying to use the golden coins that he’d received from Aglain. The last thing he wanted was to create a situation where the church became aware that someone else had discovered the deeply-rooted secret of the former hero’s fate.
“I’ll be fine. Kaila and I know those mines inside and out, so it won’t be a problem for us to help ourselves to some magic crystals before we leave.”
“Why not give it to her, then? You can use your own spell to avoid the eyes of others, and she can rely on this to do the same. Then you can leave the mines without any problems.”
Alistar felt foolish that the thought hadn’t occurred to him, but he still found more comfort in bringing Aglain along. Crystellum was one of the most important mines on the continent, let alone in the Baldor Empire, so it was extremely likely that the entrance had been bolstered with all sorts of enchantments that might alarm those inside to any unwanted intruders.
“I have another plan. Just take it, will you? You can pay me back by keeping Anne safe once I’m gone. And if my plan doesn’t seem feasible in the end, I can just borrow the dagger for a bit to do as you said.”
“Fine,” said Corrie in a grateful tone, excitement betrayed by the slight tremble of his hands. “Thank you, Alistar. Really. I’ll be sure to look after the others after you leave, I promise.”
“I’ll be counting on you, then.”
Staring down at the books in his hands and the bundle of cloth in his arms, Corrie cast a subconscious glance at the door that made Alistar laugh.
“I suppose you’ll be wanting to go off and take a closer look at those things.”
“Of course. With just the grimoire alone, I probably won’t see a decent sleep this week.” Clearing his throat, he added, “And I’ve got a feeling that Anne wants to talk to you. She’s been sitting at the top of the stairs for a while now.”
Alistar was surprised at his friend’s awareness, for the main staircase that connected the basement to the manor’s ground level was over forty paces away from his new room. “You can sense that?”
“Barely.”
“I think she just wants to hang out.” Opening the door, he lowered his voice and said, “She’s been hanging around the house a lot lately, I think to spend time with Uncle in case he stops by.”
“He’s still busy, huh? Weren’t you going to talk to him about that?”
“I did,” he admitted, “but he’s got a lot on his hands right now, so I don’t think he’ll have any free time for a number of months.”
Currently, Caedmon was overseeing the creation of thousands of books that contained lessons on letters, which he intended to distribute freely within the city by the end of the year. He’d also hired dozens of literate townsfolk to use these books to help teach anyone that desired to learn how to read and write, and they were set to begin their lessons at the start of the New Year. Not only that, but he and his colleagues at the collegia were beginning to place orders for certain parts to be made in order to set up their first large-scale model of the irrigation system that they had been working on for the past long while, which would be housed in a large cornfield to the west of the city.
“You should spend more time with her, then.”
“When did you get so talkative,” he muttered as they made their way to the staircase.