It was the next morning, and Gram entered the office again. Despite the slightly hectic last hour of the night before, he got some solid rest and even managed to unlock the door without fumbling the key.
Once inside, he looked around for a minute to make sure that no one was around, of course the report he left on the table was taken… Well, saying “of course” doesn’t make it less strange, but it was indeed gone.
Now assured that there was no obvious risk, he called up to the loft for Andromeda to come down, and that it was safe. This was met with a panicked snort and some rustling out of sight. Gram was surprised that she was still dead asleep this late into the morning, the children of town were already off to school by this time.
“One second, sorry.” Andromeda called down from the rafters. It wasn’t like Gram was in much of a hurry, just surprised.
“Don’t trip, I’ve taken that fall and I still feel it.” He said.
Gram walked over to the small kitchen he developed in the side room and started on making some coffee. He was feeling surprisingly well today and he wasn’t even sure he’d need the coffee. While he finished pouring the water over the filter, he heard a few uneasy steps down the ladder, then the sound of wood breaking, and then the sound of a body hitting the ground.
He put the pot down on a towel and rushed to the main room to see Andromeda face down on the ground.
“Are you hurt?” Gram asked. Andromeda achingly turned over to reveal her arm was twisted at a disturbing angle, the look of it turning his stomach instinctually. “I’ll take that as a no.”
He tried to reach down and help, but she stopped him with her good arm.
“Stand back.” She said. Then she pulled up the sleeve carefully on her bad arm and put her hand to it. A green energy passed through her arm and she groaned in incredible pain, to his utter amazement her arm reoriented itself and… healed. Once her arm was back in shape, she patted herself down and only winced a bit, then she pulled herself up to her feet and reached for a nearby chair to rest in.
“We can talk about that later, but right now I just want to take a minute and breath. Doing that hurts so much you wouldn’t believe it.” Andromeda said.
Too stunned to say anything, Gram simply nodded and walked back to the coffee. He tried to rationalize what he just saw in the best ways he could. Ever since his youngest days sitting on his grandmother’s lap, and clear to his days in the guard, he knew well and truly that only the Medea could heal. That was a fact of life.
But he just saw something that looked mighty similar to someone healing themselves, and that person was white in the skin and red in the eyes. Maybe he just misunderstood? That would make sense, if her arm wasn’t really healed, then it would work. She aligned her bone and reduced the pain… But… No… She wouldn’t be able to move it like she did even with pain being numbed, the muscles and tendons would still be shot.
He tossed dozens of ideas in his head, wards in the shape of an arm? No, they are not so flexible even among master mages. Perhaps it was a trick for sympathy? Not likely, the pain she felt was by all appearances genuine, and the angle he saw her arm at was not natural by any stretch. Maybe there was some breakthrough in Medean technology, something groundbreaking in the history of the world that allowed healing without a medea present? Not impossible, but something of that caliber wouldn’t be used so casually, nor would it be owned by a mage. His mind swirled, but he couldn’t focus on it forever. So he reluctantly set it aide and returned to making the coffee.
When he came back a few minutes later, Andromeda was looking better. He handed her a cup and prompted her to follow him to his desk.
“So…” Gram said.
“Yeah…” Andromeda responded.
Neither seemed to know the most graceful way to broach the subject.
“I’m going to go out on a limb and guess what I saw was part of that “Could ruin your life” bit you passed me last night.” Gram asked.
“Go out on a-” Andromeda started, making Gram realize how he phrased that. “Whatever, more or less, yeah. So let’s move past it, unless you want the whole story.”
“Fine, I’ll pretend I imagined it. Let’s talk about you, or at least what you plan on doing.” Gram said. Andromeda did as she does and squirreled around in her chair instead of answering. It’s not as though he was strictly surprised about that, but it was getting annoying.
“You’re a grown up, stop acting like you’re getting talked to by your sunday teacher.” Gram said. This small jab seemed to be enough to focus her mind with annoyance.
“You’re the one making this difficult on me, but sure. Right now my major issue is that I’m pretty much marooned in a city I know nothing about with no money or friends.” Andromeda said.
“I’m assuming that’s related to reasons I’d rather not hear?” Gram said.
“Yeah, so unless you have a quick and easy solution to it, I’d suggest you give me a bit of patience.” Andromeda said standoffishly.
“It sounds like you’ve been here a few days, have you not looked around at all?” Gram asked. Aeroae wasn’t a small city by any means, but being lost and confused for three days didn’t seem realistic.
“It’s complicated, I’d like to, but I can’t just go around making myself known.” Andromeda said. She reached into the inside of her robes and retrieved the mask Gram saw her wearing when he first saw her.
“What’s this?” He said, Andromeda handed it to him and just from a touch he could tell it wasn’t just any kind of mask. He turned it over to look at the inside, to his surprise the mask was almost perfectly transparency on the inside. You could wear it without disturbing your field of view in the slightest. However, there was no strap or anything to hold in on, he very clearly saw her wearing it on her face in such a way that it wasn’t being held up.
“How does it work?” He asked.
She took the mask back and put it on her face. When she did, he could see a small glow around the edge of the mask where it touched her skin. The glow faded and she pulled her hand away.
“Go ahead, try to pull it off. Just don’t pull too hard or you might pull my face off.” Andromeda said. Against his better judgement, Gram reached forward and tried to get a grip around the edge of the mask. It didn’t give at all, almost like her skin was attached to it.
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“I use Arcanism to make little threads of mana that hold it to me. If I don’t mess with it, I can even sleep like this.” She said.
“That’s a neat trick, I don’t know much about magecraft, but I do know your lot can do some pretty impressive tricks when you put your mind to it.” Gram said.
“I’m just a novice, barely, until recently I was going to school to learn more. But things came up and I had to leave.” Andromeda said. She averted her eyes, and Gram understood why. With robes as finely crafted as hers, it was most likely she came from Cylas. He wasn’t surprised she was lost and alone. It was a miracle that anyone came away from that unharmed.
“That’s understandable, I won’t push for more.” Gram said, “However, we’re getting off track. What do you suggest we do to solve this problem, I’m sure you don’t want me to just give you a tour around town, right?” Gram said.
“No, that’s too much of a risk. Is there a library in town? I could get what I need from the public information.” Andromeda said.
“We have an archive up at the courthouse, but I’m not exactly sure what books are going to do for you there.” Gram said.
“Trust me, If I can get my hands on some maps, I’ll be golden.” Andromeda said. Gram wasn’t sure what she was planning, but she seemed pretty sure of herself. He didn’t have a better way of improving her situation so he thought it couldn’t hurt.
-----
A little while later, and one breakfast courtesy of Gram later, they were standing in front of the “Aeroae Grand Betelian Court of Law”. However, it seemed as though there was more security than either of them expected. There were magisters and guards at every corner and at the doors.
“Is it always like this?” Andromeda asked.
“No… Usually there is barely a soul anywhere near it.” Gram said. As they stood there, Gram reached over and got the attention of a man who was walking away.
“Hey buddy, do you know what happened up there?” He asked.
“Not sure, the mayor got his drawers all bunched up and locked down some government buildings. It’s been like that since this morning.” The man said. Gram let the man go and groaned.
“Sounds like this is a bust, we can try the regional office but that’s in the next town over.” Gram said.
“Hold on, maybe it’s not. I think I can get us in there.” Andromeda said.
Andromeda pulled him along until they were standing beside the building tucked around an odd corner of an alley, far away from where anyone could see them. She eyed up the wall and looked around on the ground for something Gram wasn’t clear on.
“What’dyo have in mind? Are you planning climbing up the side?” Gram said with a chuckle. Andromeda shook her head at the joke.
“If it was just me, I probably could. But I don’t think you have it in you to climb a 50ft wall without help.” Andromeda said. Her blunt response caught Gram off guard. By the way she said that he didn’t feel like she was kidding. He always took mages and the weak squishy sort. Too wrapped up in books and experiments.
“Alright, then what are you planning?” He asked.
Instead of answering, she breathed a sigh of relief and walked over to another section of the wall. Then right before his eyes, the cobbled bricks of the wall dissolved at her touch. Just enough that a small whole one could look through. She surveyed the inside of the building through her newly created opening.
“Alright, it looked like nobodies inside. Stand back.” She said. Gram did as he was told and backed up against the wall on the opposite side of the alley.
Andromeda put both hands on the wall and he watched as the stone disintegrated into dust at her feet. Just gone. It was like somebody just took a handful of the walls like wet clay and threw it away. She stepped through the opening she made and waved for him to follow. Despite his shock, he found his feet moving him forward.
Once inside, they found themselves in an office. There were a few desks and filing cabinets, as well as some cubicle dividers.
“I think this is the file clerk office.” Gram said.
“Where would we have to go to get to the archives?” Andromeda asked.
“We’re on the ground floor, and they make up most of the third floor, so we need to head out into the main foyer.” Gram said. Before they could leave, they heard someone call out from the door that led into the hall.
“Hey, is someone in there?” The voice called.
“Crap…” Gram said. Andromeda whipped around and with a flick of her wrist the wall restored itself as if nothing happened at all. Then she pulled her mask out and put it to her face. Just as it sealed on her the door was thrown open and an armed guard walked in.
“Hey, what’re you doing in here. The building is off limits to the public.” The guard said.
“We were looking for the bathroom, my friend here is a bit lost.” Gram chipped up. As he said this, he witnessed the man’s eyes glaze over, just a little bit. He waited an awkward length of time to speak up, but when he did it seemed as though he was a dazed.
“Uhh, sure, you head down the hall that way and it’s the third door on the right.” The guard said.
“Thanks bud.” Gram said.
That was too easy, if this place was locked down like they thought then he wouldn’t have let them go so easily, especially because Andromeda beside him was not the most covert of people. Her robes being stark white and red. If clothes could speak, hers would be hollering.
“We need to move quick, if too many people get a look at me, we won’t be able to get upstairs.” Andromeda said. Then she left out the door without much more than a thought. In his mind, Gram was starting to wonder what kind of person he had gotten into cahoots with.
Now outside, Gram knew the layout of the building and led Andromeda around. He had been here quite a few times since he started this job, both for the peace and to look up public records. The staff recognized him well enough to not draw suspicions, and when that wasn’t enough he would flash his associate ID.
What was strange was that nobody really seemed to be bothering about Andromeda. They would look at her and a few would give a crooked look, but just as quick they would turn away as if they didn’t notice her at all. They got as far as the third floor just before anyone gave her a second glance, and that was a magister of all people.
“Your ID is fine, but what about that one?” The Magister said, pointing at Andromeda accusingly.
“She’s my assistant, no one else seemed to need her ID.” Gram said.
“Well, that’s good for them, but I’m not them. If she doesn’t have ID or a good reason to be in the archives, then she can’t come in.” The Magister said.
Now at a loss, Gram wasn’t sure how best they could make this work without causing a fuss. But then Andromeda stepped forward and motioned for the man to bend down so she could whisper something in his ear.
She silently whispered something and a look of shock came over the previously intense looking magister, the blood drained from his face so much that you would swear he was a Medea. He stood back up and bitterly swallowed.
“G-Go ahead…” He said. Then he opened the door and ushered them through. They walked inside, and Andromeda instantly made for the nearest bookshelf.
As he watched her wander around and pick up various random books, he couldn’t escape a strange feeling that was rising in the back of his mind. She could dissolve walls, desks, pots, and apparently the rain itself, she could HEAL herself, had the capability to bind things together, make a Magister soil his pants like a child, and through all of it nobody seemed to bat an eye at her. Combine that with her dodgy attitude and unwillingness to be transparent, and you had an enigma.
“Hey, you don’t have to tell me if it’s too much trouble, but what did you tell him to let you through?” Gram asked.
“Oh, yeah, I told him that I was Arch Mage White.” She said.
Gram laughed, “Ha, they must let the greenhorns out early out nowadays, I can’t believe he would fall for that.”. Andromeda gave him a dead look.
“Ha… Yeah, maybe I shouldn’t be saying that so loudly. Don’t wanna let them know how much we pulled the wool over their eyes.” Gram said.
“Do you really think a Magister would lose it like he did if I wasn’t telling the truth?” Andromeda said.
“What do you mean?” Gram said. He heard her well and clear, but from the way she said that it sounded like she meant that it wasn’t a lie.
“I didn’t lie.” Andromeda said.
“You-”
“-didn’t lie? Yes, I am telling the truth. I am Arch Mage White.” Andromeda said.