Chapter Twenty Three

It took an hour just for everyone to catch everyone else up to speed. Ralisdor had a lot of questions, and a few critiques, about what Shuka and Xorvos had been doing in his absence. What surprised Shuka though, was that Ralisdor wasn’t actually mad at them for entering the dungeon. She thought he would have reprimanded them saying something like ‘Dungeons are the playground of fools and morons, and any who enter have clearly taken leave of their senses.’ Instead, he just congratulated them on a successful dungeon dive. He had plenty of complaints on specific actions, like Xorvos getting into a fight with Videon and Shuka forgetting her disguise, but those were separate problems. A for what he was doing during all of this it was actually a bit more boring than what Shuka had to go through. He just spent a few days tracking, traveling, and then finding them. He saw the symbol Shuka put on the hideout before they left and was waiting for their return from the dungeon. Once all the explanations were given Ralisdor stood up and looked around the room they were in.

“Well this has been great, but we really must get going now. I don’t suppose you two still have your horses do you?”

“No… but wait, are we leaving already? Me and Xorvos just got back from the dungeon and I’m not sure if I have the energy to do much unless I have to.”

“Not to worry. I will arrange everything myself, all you need to do is rest here until I get back with some horses. We really must leave though. You have been seen and I don’t know how long it will be before you get caught.”

I can’t really argue with that. I’m worried about getting caught too, and now that Ralisdor is here we really don’t have a good reason to stay. Well, other than to recover from a near death experience, but I guess I’m getting used to those.

“Well I guess that’s fine. I just hope riding a horse doesn’t reopen my wounds.”

They still hurt. She could feel the spots where the harpies’ claws had cut into her flesh, but they weren’t too deep. Just deep enough that it hurt like hell, but not deep enough that she was in any actual danger. Aside from an infection, but Shuka had already taken every precaution to prevent that that she could, so now that was just up to luck. Xorvos didn’t seem to have any complaints about leaving either, even if his body did, so soon enough Ralisdor was walking into town in search of transportation.

*

It was a bit refreshing, traveling again. Two weeks straight of practically nothing happening. No people to talk to but her friends, no dangerous encounters other than sword training, and no paranoia and fear of getting caught. Well okay a little fear, but a lot less than in a town or city. And then she arrived. Lancrin, the city of magic. It was just as big as Rockmarsh, perhaps even bigger since it didn’t have a mountain in the middle, but it had a different air about it. White marble towers with roofs of every colour decorated the city compared to the stout and sturdy dwarven homes of Rockmarsh. There was even a faint magical aura surrounding the entire city that Shuka could see even from a distance. At any other time, she would have looked at this city with wonder and awe, but all she felt was dread. Just another thing ruined by the curse.

“Ahh, home sweet home.” Ralisdor said with nostalgia in his voice. “There is nothing wrong with Rainsburg of course, but there is something special about Lancrin.”

“If you love it so much then why did you leave?” Xorvos asked, curious.

“Infighting mostly. When the previous archmage of illusion died a few years ago a lot of mages were fighting for his title. I didn’t want to get caught in the crossfire so I decided to take a vacation in a small little town with a wonderful library for me to browse. I ended up staying a little longer than I had planned, but it all worked out just fine.”

“Who ended up getting the title? Someone you know?”

“Of course not, the new archmage isn’t even from the Celestial Empire let alone Lancrin. The whole fight they were having was just a pointless endeavor of futility. Not that I was surprised at the result. No one came even close to being as good as Sandrin, myself included, but they all deluded themselves into thinking they were his equal.”

There was a note of derision in his voice that Shuka knew he only used for those he truly looked down upon. Xorvos noticed how intensely he felt too, but since he didn’t know why he decided to ask.

“Did you know him personally?”

“Archmage Sandrin? No, but I respected his work. Of course, I had seen him here and there, but we had never talked at length. I had hoped to become his peer before his death but alas, it was never meant to be.”

They were approaching the gates of Lancrin so the conversation started to die down. Ralisdor had told her not to use her disguise illusion since the guards might notice it so instead, she just unbraided her hair and kept her bow and quiver hidden. Xorvos also took off his gauntlets since that was probably the only physical descriptor Validus gave other than ‘Quanso.’ Ralisdor was the only one of them that wasn’t wanted so he didn’t need to hide his identity at all. It also meant he was the one to approach the guards at the gate leading into Lancrin Shuka was tense. She got even tenser when one of the guards looked her way. He examined her, and then Xorvos, then, seemingly finding nothing of not, looked back to Ralisdor and continued talking to him. Shuka was too far away to hear exactly what they were saying, but it seemed to be going well. That didn’t make her any less nervous though. Then, after what felt like a eternity, the guard stepped aside and let them all through.

That’s one hurdle overcome. How many more am I going to have to go through though?

The thought was enough to put Shuka in a bad mood for the rest of the day, but then she looked around at where she was. The streets of Lancrin were filled with market stalls and storefronts glowing with lights and pictures showing their wares. Illusions of every shape and size made to dazzle and impress and even to a lesser extent, inform. They showed everything from sparkling arms and armour, to exotic and odd materials that could only be spell components, to even colourful crystals. Some of the storefronts even had pre recorded magical messages advertising on loop. It was enough to fascinate even Shuka out of her fear.

No wonder Ralisdor found so much work here. I’ve never seen so many illusions before, even the food stalls have them. And so many of these merchants are selling magical items, there were only a handful in all of Rainsburg, and most of them belonged to Ralisdor. Oh, is that stall selling wands?

Shuka had always wanted a wand, but Ralisdor was against it. He said it was a crutch and if she learned to use magic with a wand then she might not be able to use it without a wand. She already knew how to use magic though, so now she could buy whatever wand she wanted. Or at least she could if the cheapest wand the stall was selling wasn’t five hundred gold.

Okay so maybe Ralisdor just didn’t want to spend the money. I guess this is why mages aren’t more common. Magic is expensive.

Ralisdor didn’t even glance at any of the wares on display, he just walked straight through and Shuka and Xorvos struggled to keep up. He wasn’t going particularly fast, it was just hard to resist the urge to browse. Eventually they left the very mercantile street for a more subdued one with less distractions. Shuka was slightly disappointed the whole city wasn’t coated in pretty illusions, but not too much. She knew how much work must have gone into making just that one street like that, even for a city of magic. Still, the rest of the city was only bland by comparison. Most of the buildings were made from a white stone similar to marble, and the roofs still had the multicoloured tiled roofs that she saw on the towers in the distance. She even walked by the entrance to one of those towers on the way to whatever destination Ralisdor clearly had in mind. When they got there, Shuka saw that it was an inn, and not a shoddy one either. The Radiant Fox Inn was a large building, not made of stone for once, but a pale-yellow wood. If you looked closely, you could see carvings of fox’s playfully jumping all around the building. The windows to the inn were a bright golden yellow that almost seemed to glow from the light of the interior. Above the door was the inn’s name in golden cursive letters and a similarly gold fox curled up in a ball, sleeping. Both the name and the fox were both glowing with light, obviously produced by magic.

This is an inn? It’s so beautiful I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a nobles house. Wait, maybe you have to be as rich as a noble to stay here. Can we even afford this place?

Ralisdor seemed to have noticed her worries because he was quick to assure her.

“Don’t worry, it’s not as expensive as it looks. There are plenty of travelers that find their way to Lancrin so there are plenty of inns. Combined with the ease at which you may enchant your establishment in this city the standards for inns are a bit higher than other places. After all, why would you ever go to a plain inn when you can stay in one that glows. The truly luxurious inns have entire teams of magical familiars for each guest and serve magic food. This one just has a glowing sign and windows.”

“Huh… wait, why are we even staying in an inn? Don’t you live here? Let’s just go to your house.”

“While I would love to show you around my abode, it is currently… occupied. You see when I left this wonderous city I knew I would be gone for at least a year, possibly more. Since mages can sometimes disappear without a trace in some sort of magical experiment, the council of Lancrin decided to repossess buildings if they are unoccupied for more than a year. To circumvent this, I decided to rent out my house to an aspiring mage to keep it occupied in my absence, and make a bit of coin while I am at it. The original contract I had with him was for one year, but when I decided to stay in Rainsburg for longer I extended it. The longer I stayed the longer I extended the contract and right now there is still seven months left. As such, my house is currently occupied, and there simply isn’t enough room for all of us, even without the fact that I don’t want to get in his way, or bring trouble to his door. Especially since it’s actually my door.”

I suppose that makes sense. I’m surprised I’ve never heard of this guy before, but I guess it wasn’t too relevant in Rainsburg.

The small group finally decided to enter the establishment and found the inside was just as spectacular as the outside. As much as Shuka wanted to stay and look around, Ralisdor decided to go straight for the innkeeper. She was a middle-aged woman with long blond hair and a golden furred pet fox resting on her shoulders.

“Excuse me, but we wish to rent two of your rooms. What are your prices for one small and one medium room, preferably close to each other. We will be booking the rooms for a week.”

“A small and a medium? One gold five silver. If you decide to book for a whole month though, I will knock the price down to five gold.”

“Just one week please.”

Ralisdor took out the money and paid the innkeeper. She then gave him the keys to their new rooms in return.

“Come on then, let us unpack our things an discuss our next course of action.”

Shuka was a bit disappointed to be leaving the common room so soon, but she also wanted to get rid of the curse as soon as possible, so she followed Ralisdor to their rooms on the second floor. They entered the medium room which was as nice as the rest of the inn, which is to say it was the nicest room Shuka had ever been in. The beds were large and cozy and instead of candle or a lantern the room was lit up by a magical orb of golden light that could be adjusted by an artifact attached to the bedside table. As excited as she was to explore the city, Shuka was a bit tired from traveling so she laid down in one of the two beds in the room and found heaven in its sheets.

The city can wait, I need to relax. First bit of luxury I’ve gotten in the last month and I am not letting it go to waste.

“Enjoying yourself, Shuka? Well I suppose its for the best. After all your curse would just complicate matters outside, you should probably stay here where it will be much harder for it to get you in trouble.”

This broke Shuka out of the almost trance like state she was in and caused her to sit up and look at Ralisdor.

“Wait, you’re not leaving me out of this, are you? This is my problem; I can’t just let someone else fix it for me.”

“While I agree with the sentiment, The fact of the matter is you cannot have prolonged social interactions without the curse causing it to all go awry. I know this city and its people, so let me do this for you, and if you really feel you must afterwards, then you can pay me back later. But I must insist you let me do this alone.”

“I’m not going to try doing everything myself, but at least take me along. How am I supposed to just twiddle my thumbs in a comfy bed while you do all of the work for me.”

Ralisdor was beginning to get frustrated, but then again, so was Shuka. It was Xorvos who spoke next though, although not without some emotions of his own.

“Isn’t endangering yourself because of your pride a stupid move Shuka? Staying here is the smartest move.”

His words reminded the young woman of what she told him just two weeks prior. It wasn’t a good feeling having your own hypocrisy shoved in your face.

“Fine, I’ll stay in my room. But make sure you tell me everything that happens as soon as you can.”

“Of course. For know I think I will ask some of my previous associates if they know of anyone who may be of assistance. Then, if that doesn’t work then tomorrow I will search the library for anything that pertains to our current situation. Xorvos, I believe you should stay here with Shuka in case of trouble.”

If I could just leave this inn, we could do both of those things today. But I suppose their right. A bit of speed isn’t worth another encounter with someone like Validus.

*

It had been an hour since Ralisdor had left and Shuka was finally starting to relax again, but she was still going over the conversation in her head. The comment from Xorvos especially. Their relationship was a bit… tense since the dungeon, but it had healed somewhat. Shuka had certainly forgiven him at least, but she wasn’t sure how much he had forgiven her.

Maybe I should say something. No, I definitely need to say something, the question is what? Do I apologise for being stubborn? Or should I thank him for looking out for me? I should probably just say both now that I think about it.

She was just about to open her mouth and have a real heart to heart with Xorvos when a loud crash echoed up from downstairs. The sound of yelling soon followed. It sounded to Shuka like a fight had broken out and she immediately thought of the worst possible outcome.

Is Validus downstairs searching for me? Or maybe its someone from the thieves guild. It can’t be just an ordinary bar fight, this doesn’t seem like the place that would have them. Maybe it’s unrelated to me, but I can’t just bet on that and do nothing. I have to get out of here.

Shuka went to the window to try and open it, but found it was locked.

Shit, now what? Am I going to have to sneak out through the common room? It might work if whoever is down there is distracted fighting… whoever they are fighting.

With a plan in mind Shuka rushed to the door nervous, but determined. She was driven by fear, but driven all the same. Xorvos blocked her path before she reached the door.

“Shuka, were are you going?”

“We have to leave Xorvos. I don’t know who is down there, but I’m not taking any chances, we have to be out of here before they finish their fight.”

Xorvos looked at her in confusion, and then fear as he came to the same conclusion she had.

“Do you think they are looking for you?”

“Yes.”

Xorvos hesitated for a moment but then nodded and moved out of her way. It didn’t take long to reach the common room where the sound of combat was still emanating from. It looked a bit different from when she had walked through it an hour before though. Broken tables and chairs littered the floor, which was slick with spilled drinks. Joining the debris on the floor were several rough looking men either dead or unconscious. Shuka didn’t see any blood though, so she guessed it was the latter. In the center of all the carnage was a woman, although she almost seemed like a beast. Danger radiated off of her like it was a tangible thing. She held the last man in the room still standing by the throat, fingers pressed into his skin before slamming him hard into the floor. And just like that, the fight was over with Shuka standing out in the open, not hidden by a thing. The women’s head turned to stare directly at her with deep purple eyes with slitted pupils. Not like the alligator eyes of swamp elves, but something else. Shuka had never seen a dragon before, but she knew without a doubt that if she had, its eyes would look exactly the same. When the dragon eyed woman spoke, it wasn’t with a deep terrifying voice like she expected, but an energetic and cheerful one. But what surprised her more was what she said.

“Shuka?”

She knows my name? And why does she look and sound so familiar too? No… it can’t be.

“Maryam?”