Chapter Four

They had been walking for most of the day now and they had not even left the forest yet. Moving through the thick tree’s and underbrush was slow and it would be even slower when night fell so Ralisdor decided to set up camp once it started to get dark. They all sat around the small campfire eating whatever food they brought with them when Ralisdor broke the silence.

“So, what do you two know about Rockmarsh?”

Hmm. The Orphanage taught me the basics but I was never all that interested in history. Well lets see what I remember.

“Rockmarsh is the closest city to Rainsburg. It was created around a very mineral rich mountain by dwarves a long time ago. They have a lot of miners and blacksmiths and stuff.”

Ralisdor nodded in acceptance at her answer. He didn’t quite look pleased by it but he was at least not too disappointed. Then again, Ralisdor wasn’t the easiest person to read and Shuka wasn’t even that great at it on normal people.

“Well you don’t have any false information at least. Since nobody wants to live in a bog if they don’t have to the vast majority of people living in Rockmarsh are there because of the vast amount of precious ore and minerals hidden inside their mountain. Because of this they have a lot of miners, blacksmiths and jewellers but very little of everything else.”

“So, if all it has is stuff, we don’t need then why are we going there instead of just going straight through the swamp. If food is the problem, I’m sure I can hunt some animals in the swamp.”

“Well it’s mostly because there is a road that leads into and out of Rockmarsh and traveling on that will be much easier than walking through some random stretch of the bog. I was also thinking of getting you a sword now that it seems you might need it.”

Xorvos grimaced at the mention of a sword but stayed silent.

Quanso don’t tend to like using weapons that can kill like swords, but we don’t have many alternatives right now. Quanso weapons are too rare and expensive and learning any new non-lethal spells will take too long. Still, I should probably change the subject.

“Hey Ralisdor, what was that spectral horse you were riding?”

“That was my illusionary mount. It runs faster than a normal horse, never gets tired and if it gets injured, I can just create a new one.”

“Why did you get us normal horses if you can just make some of those for us?”

“They use up a lot of mana so I wouldn’t be able to maintain three of them for long enough to make them faster than normal horses in the long run. Even if they were faster I would hesitate to use most of my mana on mounts when we are being chased by a very powerful paladin who I might want to use some of my stronger spells on.”

“I guess if I had to choose between a faster horse and a spell that could save my life, I would choose the life saving spell too.”

Xorvos Decided to join in the conversation with his own question.

“If your illusionary mount is faster than a normal horse then how was Validus catching up to you.”

“Paladins are very adept at enhancing their body through magic and a skilled enough paladin can apply those enhancements to others. I believe his mount was under the effects of a spell that increases it’s speed and endurance.”

“I don’t suppose you have any spells like that?”

“Physical enhancement was never my strong point, illusionists like me tend to try to avoid fighting altogether so spells like that aren’t really a priority.”

“So, what do you do when you do get into a fight?”

“Mostly what I did earlier today, distract them with illusions and then run away.”

“What was that anyway? He just started swinging at nothing, I am assuming you made an illusion but if you did why couldn’t I see it?”

Ralisdor’s eyes lit up and he started smiling slightly.

Oh boy, that is the exact same look he gets whenever he gives me one of his magic rants. Looks like Xorvos is going to learn bit about illusions tonight.

“You see Xorvos, there are three types of illusions. The first is physical illusions. This is the type that most people think of when they think of illusions. In their most basic form these illusions are just mana made to look a certain way to create a picture in the air that everyone can see. More advanced illusions of this type can also be heard and even smelled but the basic concept is the same.”

Xorvos was listening intently, Shuka had heard this all before but it was all new to him.

“The second type are mental illusions. These are spells you cast on a target that makes them see things in their head that no one else can see. Since it is affecting their mind directly these illusions tend to be much more realistic, but they can only be seen by one person, so they only work when you only have to trick one person. They are also much harder to cast so they are a lot less common. I used this type of illusion on the paladin to make him think he was being attack by a monster while making sure you two didn’t panic from it showing up out of nowhere.”

It was certainly effective. I’m not sure we would have survived if he didn’t do that.

“what about the third type of illusions?”

“The third type are known as True Illusions, they are illusions that are so realistic that they trick reality and become real. This is the pinnacle of illusionism that even archmages have difficulty learning. There hasn’t been a mage capable of using true illusions in centuries and most mages forget they even exist, but it is still the undisputed best type of illusion.”

“But wait, what was your illusionary mount then? If you could ride it then it can’t be a normal illusion, right?”

Ralisdor’s expression of subdued excitement turned into a scowl in an instant. The thought of such a paltry spell being mistaken for a True Illusion was enough to ruin his good mood.

“You underestimate the extent to which true illusions mimic reality. As long as I knew enough about horse biology to recreate it, I could use a true illusion to conjure up a living horse that is functionally identical to a normal one. It would eat, breath and sleep all exactly like any normal biological animal and if I knew enough about neurology then I could also give it whatever personality and even memories I want. The horse you saw me ride was just a normal illusion that I added some planes of force to using abjuration. Honestly, I didn’t even bother making it look real, of course its not a true illusion.”

This isn’t the first time he’s gone on a rant about True Illusions. I wonder why he is so touchy about the subject though. I guess it is just one of his passions.

With his rant done Ralisdor calmed down and put on his calm and composed face again.

“Well, I think that is enough talk of magic for one night. We should sleep now, I want to leave early tomorrow.”

*

They reached the village around noon. It was an even smaller place then Rainsburg and no one in the group knew its name, not even Ralisdor. It was right at the edge of the forest and was small enough that it might not even have a name at all. It’s not like it would appear on very many maps anyway. As they walked through the village Xorvos noticed that they were getting a lot of dirty looks from the almost entirely human population. There was only about two or three dozen buildings in the village but before they were even past half of them a very authoritative looking middle-aged man walked up to them with a scowl on his face.

“The three of you don’t look like traders to me. What are you doing in my town? And it better be a good reason or I’m gonna have to ask you to leave.”

The man was looking at them with distrustful eyes.

I’m not sure if he is looking at us like that because of Shuka’s curse or if he’s just like that. Either way we have done nothing wrong and there is nothing to be blamed on us so as long as we are polite everything should be fine.

“Don’t worry good sir, we are not here to cause trouble we just want some directions and to buy some supplies and then we will be on our way. If you could simply direct us to where we may achieve our goals, we would be most grateful.”

“And why would I help you outsider.”

The man spat out the word outsider like it was the worst possible insult he could imagine.

“All you outsiders do is cause trouble, and I don’t want any trouble in my town so you best clear out before I have you arrested for disturbing the peace.”

“Arrested? But we haven’t committed any crimes. Simply asking for directions is not disturbing the peace.”

The mans scowl got worse as he stared directly at Xorvos and started yelling in anger.

“Your disturbing the peace just by being here you rotten Quanso! No one wants to look at your ugly face or hear your dumb questions and the longer you stay here the more likely you and your shady friends are going cause problems!”

Ralisdor sighed in annoyance but then put on a perfectly polite and well-meaning smile and gently placed his hand on the shoulder of the angry townsman. Xorvos could just barely see the flickers of magic coming off of his hand as he did so.

“We are all so terribly sorry for intruding on your wonderful little town and we will be leaving as soon as we purchase the goods we are looking for.”

Surprisingly enough the man actually seemed to calm down at that. his scowl turned into a frown and he turned to face Ralisdor with grumpiness instead of anger.

“Well if your leaving right away then the general store is right over there. I will be watching you though so you better leave right after or I will arrest you like I did the last traveller that stayed for too long.”

And with that Ralisdor gave him a polite ‘thank you’ and started walking towards the general store with Xorvos being quick to follow and Shuka was right behind him. When they got to the store Ralisdor turned and spoke to them.

“It would be best if I went in alone. One of you is cursed and the other is very clearly a non-human. I suggest you two wait for me here while I get what we need so the shopkeeper doesn’t kick us out over nothing.”

“Well if the shopkeeper is anything like the last guy I don’t think I will be missing much at least.”

As he sat down with his back to the wall of the shop Shuka sat down next to him, scowling. She looked mad enough to kill and Xorvos found himself instinctively putting some distance between them.

It feels like I’m sitting next to a murderer. I know it’s just the curse making her seem scarier than she really is but that doesn’t make it any less terrifying. Maybe if I chat with her it will make it not as bad.

“Did you see the spell Ralisdor used on the man back there?”

“Hm? Oh yeah, I think it was just a calming spell to get rid of most of his anger. Normally that kind of spell is used to remove fear or anxiety, but it looks like it works on anger too.”

She didn’t even say anything all that sinister but I still got a bad feeling from her. No wonder people keep thinking she is up to no good.

“You know I’m kind of surprised you know so much about magic now. You never showed much interest in it before, so I just thought it was a passing interest when you apprenticed under Ralisdor.”

As Shuka paused to consider his words Xorvos noticed that she looked a lot less angry now. Instead of looking like she was on the verge of committing a bloody murder she now looked like she was planning on killing someone in a cold and calculated manner. It honestly wasn’t much better than before but at least she wasn’t as mad now.

“Do you remember Maryam?”

“Of course, the three of us used to hang out all the time before she got adopted.”

I almost feel offended that she thought I forgot about her… but it’s probably just the curse making me feel that way.

“Well, she always wanted to be a mage, much more than me at least.”

“I definitely remember that. she felt so bad for me when she learned Quanso couldn’t use magic that it took me a week just to convince her I wasn’t that sad about it.”

“Yeah well when the orphanage tested us, and she found out she was born with a condition that prevented her from using magic herself things got a bit rough between us.”

I certainly remember that. That was not a good time for any of us and especially not Maryam.

“The orphanage saw how much she loved magic, so they still let her take their magic classes even though she couldn’t actually cast any of the spells they were teaching. I ended up taking the classes with too, and at first it was fine, but once I had started to cast my first spells she started resenting me.

“Huh. I had known that you two started fighting a lot more around that time, but I didn’t know you were actually taking magic classes with her.”

“Yeah well I didn’t take them for long. Once I saw how unhappy it was making Maryam I dropped out. I decided my desire to learn magic wasn’t as important as the relationship with my friend.”

“That’s surprisingly mature for a twelve-year-old.”

“I just wish that maturity got me more than two years of friendship before she got adopted.”

Huh… the more I talk with her the less scary she is becoming. Am I growing a resistance to the curse or am I just getting used to it now? It’s still far from gone though, and I wonder if this ‘resistance’ will hold up in more tense situations. Still, it’s nice that we can still have conversations like this even with the curse.

“Anyway, after she got adopted, I thought about going back to the magic classes but since I was already behind by two years it would have just been awkward attending classes with kids younger than me. After a few years I pretty much forgot about wanting to learn magic but when Ralisdor moved into Rainsburg I decided to try my luck and see if he would take me on as an apprentice. I didn’t expect him to actually accept me but when he did it reignited my passion for magic that I thought I had forgotten years ago.”

Xorvos was going to reply but right then the door to the general store opened up and Ralisdor came through carrying a new travel pack that presumably held the supplies he went in there to buy.

“Get up, we’re leaving. I don’t want to stay in this place any longer than we need to.”

Xorvos didn’t need much convincing and from the looks of it neither did Shuka. They both got up and started following Ralisdor as he walked out of the small village. As they were leaving, they passed by a sturdy looking building made of stone instead of the wood the rest of the buildings were made of. It was only one floor tall but was much wider than the rest of the building and had windows with steel bars. What caught Xorvos’s attention, however, was not the architecture of the building but a face that looked out to them from behind one of the windows. The face was elven, male, and dirty with sunken cheeks and lifeless eyes. Looking directly at Xorvos he uttered only a single word.

“Help.”