The ground isn’t shaking. It isn’t rumbling; it’s trembling in fear. The very earth is afraid of them as they stride forward, a smile on their face and a dragon skull slung over their shoulder. They don’t seem to notice the doorframe they shatter as they walk in and take a seat at my bar. They rip a tooth off of the skull with their bare hands, and drop it onto the counter. I don’t doubt it’s worth more than the whole inn. “A barrel of the strongest stuff you have for me, and a dozen rounds of your second strongest stuff for everyone else! Stop shaking barkeep, I’m here to celebrate!”
-A retelling of the tall tale ‘When the Paragon came to Party!”
Mark- three days before classes start
‘Intelligent life is defined by its ability to find the path of most resistance’, a quote from one of my favorite books. It comes to me now, as I sneak through cold stone tunnels with dirt smeared all over me. Because of course, me and Vreem were the ones to dig out the old tunnel entrance. I think back to half an hour ago, when Kira confidently answered Vreem’s question.
“We’re going to break into the archive,” she said, with a resolute expression and unshaken self-confidence. “It’s monitored but not guarded, and if there’s anywhere that we’ll find a copy of Kaelan’s letter or some other kind of evidence then that’s where it will be. We just need to avoid some administrator thralls, and maybe some light warding. I’m sure that with our combined talents, it’ll be easy!”
I didn’t miss how she only gestured to me and herself when she said ‘our’, as if Vreem would be dead weight. Instead he’s gone ranging ahead of all of us, slipping through these old sewer tunnels- unused since the installation of runic plumbing. Kira didn’t notice, but my night vision was superior enough to notice how his skin changed color slightly to match the background stone, and his eyes stopped glinting in the dark shortly afterward. Speaking of, I see him resting against a ladder on the side of the tunnel a few dozen feet up ahead.
Kira is tense, and I can hear the beating of her heart even louder than the crunching coming from Vreem. She’s blind in the dark, hands tracing along the wall of the passage, and I wait until we’re but a few steps away from Vreem before putting my hand on her shoulder. She jumps a bit, and I can sense a dull pressure on my neck- reflexive psionic defenses, utterly useless against this accursed, no, BLESSED body of mine. Gods above and below, I’m a mess…
“It’s ok Kira. That crunching is just Vreem eating a rat. Vreem, why did you stop to eat a raw rat?”
“I stopped because I found the entrance to the archive, and I assume it has one of those wards Kira mentioned earlier. I’m eating because I’m always hungry. Mark, you said you were an expert at enchantments. Get this enchantment out of our way.”
I’d appreciate a ‘please’, but I understand that Vreem’s had a bad day. In any case, he isn’t wrong- I’m certainly the most qualified of our merry band to be meddling with warding sigils and runes networks. Asking the other two to stand back, I slowly walk forward until I see the wooden trapdoor at the top of the ladder, and the runes carved into the stone next to it. They are very faint and filled in with dust the same color as the surrounding stone- I can barely make them out, and I know what to look for. How exactly did Vreem notice this? Regardless, they are fairly common security sigils, and so it’s a simple matter to extend a finger and scratch new connections between sigils, sending their own magic flowing into them from the wrong directions and in the wrong quantities. The trick is not to directly destroy the sigils- most wards will raise an alarm if they are dispelled. This way, it should still believe itself entirely functional. Really, it’s much like manipulating people- but slightly harder, I suppose. When my task is complete, I climb back down.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
“The security sigils are disabled, we’re clear to keep going. Would you like to take the lead again, Vreem?” I give him what I intend to be a reassuring smile, being careful to hide my iron teeth.
“Yes.” if he notices my smile, he gives no reaction either way. Still, I’ll keep trying to scrape away that prickly exterior- something tells me that I want Vreem as an ally.
“No. I sense thralls above us- they’re almost as empty as Vreem, but I can still sense them. Let’s just wait, I’ll tell you when it’s clear.”
I’ve noticed that when Kira speaks, it is with the authority of someone used to being obeyed- presumably because she grew up in a noble house surrounded by servants. I doubt that she'd admit it outside of the most dire of circumstances, but she has almost as many problems as Vreem. She just hides them better.
Crunch. It's obvious that Vreem is unbothered by the wait, simply continuing to eat the rat like a carrot. In the end, we wait for no more than two minutes before Kira gives us the whispered ‘all clear’, and she doesn’t wait for us to acknowledge it before climbing up and pushing open the trapdoor.
Following her, me and Vreem climb up into what I can’t help but think of as a strange kind of library. I see sturdy wooden shelves and stone walls arranged in random, labyrinthine formations; except instead of books upon the shelves, there are neat stacks of parchment with undecorated wooden paperweights holding them down. Kira immediately starts leafing through the stacks on the nearest shelf, muttering to herself in quiet tones that I don’t think were intended for me to hear.
“Index, index- gotcha. T for Triad…” she mutters, and I decide to help however I can.
“Vreem, could you keep a lookout for thralls? I’m going to help Kira.” I whisper to him, and notice that his skin is back to its usual color. His pupils are still narrow slits, however- curious.
“To my knowledge, there is no undead paper-pusher in existence that could sneak up on me.” Is Vreem’s reply, but considering how he stalks off to watch flank routes I take that as an affirmative. And so, with someone watching our backs, me and Kira get stuck into it, pouring through parchment and ink. Minutes pass, until Kira exclaims.
“Got it! A copy of a letter confirming Kaelan’s request to be placed in the same Triad as me, signed by… Headmistress Hoplix? But why would the Archmage be involved in the assembling of a Triad?” Kira’s voice is confused and concerned. Are we getting caught up in some kind of conspiracy?
“Why don’t you ask her yourself? You’re in big enough trouble to warrant a visit to her office, after all.”
Me and Kira both freeze, before slowly turning to see Proffesor Jensen leaning on the bookshelf at the end of the row. His smile is friendly, but the sparks dancing around his crossed arms brook no complaint. Vreem stands behind him like a soldier at attention- I didn’t peg him for a traitor, and he’s getting in trouble too!
“Vreem you traitorous little bastard!” It appears that Kira shares my thoughts, but not my restraint.
“Jensen defeated me over a week ago. By the Way of Things, I shall not stand in his path or interfere with his plans.” At that, Jensen looks a bit uncomfortable, but isn’t complaining.
“Calm down, all three of you are going to see Headmistress Hoplix- I just hope we don’t interrupt her dinner, for your sake. Unless of course,” the sparks dancing across his skin escalate into miniature lightning bolts, and the smell of ozone fills the air. “You three feel like resisting?”