Riloth 19th the 648th

What followed was a very long explanation of events. Now that Daulf and the rest knew that I was a sorcerer, I left little out. Trish found the revelation and hurdle of my post-inebriated state hilarious, and she and Dagmar joked about me being a lightweight.

* * *

When I reached the point at which I’d remembered the conversation with Levar about potions of clarity being a hangover cure, the alchemist broke out into a fit of uncharacteristic manic laughter.

* * *

“And when I went into the Parlor to try to win enough to pay for the potions, I found that I was suddenly terrible at the game.”

“I knew you were cheating!” Trish shouted, leaping to her feet. “The anti-magic field stopped whatever sorcerous trick you were doing to read our minds.”

I let out a heavy sigh.

“First, this is going to take forever if everyone keeps interrupting! Second, I don’t think I ever cheated. Third, whatever was making me win had nothing to do with sorcery. My theory is—”

“Not now!” Dagmar shouted.

* * *

Roland, for some reason, took offense at my recruitment of the town’s children to act as minions.

“I can’t believe you’d take advantage of children like that,” he admonished me. “That was a gross abuse of your position.”

“Hold on Roland,” Daulf interceded, “the tasks he gave them were not risky, and he paid them for their work. If anything, they had an easier day than I expect they’d experienced in months.”

* * *

“And then, I took another potion of clarity,” I said.

“Oh gods, you didn't,” Levar interrupted with a disbelieving whisper.

“Yeap!” Dagmar exclaimed, ”he threw up all over himself, had a seizure, and became paralyzed from the waist down after rolling around in his own vomit!”

Rubbing my face in frustration, I said “I never should have let her read the whole story. I was planning on keeping that bit to myself.”

“Continuing on, the next morning I woke unable to cast magic, and my vision faded to a hazy gray.”

“Gray? Fascinating,” Levar mused. “But strange. The magic was Will poisoning—obviously—but what could have caused that?”

“It was the manifestation of the still-uncontrolled ability to detect Will through—”

“Not now!” yelled both Trish and Dagmar in unison.

* * *

“And then I was enthralled by her magic, forced to stand vigil until the reset.”

“And he ate raw deer intestines,” Dagmar added helpfully.

“Yes, I did do that.”

Suddenly, Dagmar’s force disk disappeared from underneath her.

“Oooph! What was that for?”

“Strange, the spell must have expired,” I said.

“Strange indeed. The others are still active,” Levar said, missing the point and being ‘helpful’ in a similar fashion.

* * *

“Somehow, for I am still uncertain how, I altered the spell, and ripped the harpy from the sky. She landed with a bone shattering thump, and the two men were free from their enthrallment.”

Levar began to speak, “Fascina—”

“Not Now!” Trish and Dagmar yelled.

* * *

“Tilavo shone a brilliant gold, more brilliant than anything I’d yet seen in my Willsight. My magic did nothing to him, and he dispelled it with a thought. He lifted me by the neck with inhuman strength and began to scour through my thoughts.”

“Illunia’s children!” cried Levar, “Tilavo is a crystal dragon! Gods, it's so obvious. He doesn’t even try to hide it.”

“I wouldn’t say that obvious,” I defended.

“I don’t know,” Trish volunteered. “It seems pretty obvious to me.”

Strangely, her force disk chose that moment to vanish.

“Oooph!”

* * *

“And then this bear man led me back to the door.”

“Perfin?” Roland asked, interrupting for the second time. “I just met him the other day. Great guy.”

* * *

“Jimothy?” Trish asked, disbelieving. “That's bad, even for you.”

“That’s nothing. Did you know what he named his spellbook?” Dagmar asked. “Spellbook!”

The two women laughed, and I really began to regret the two of them ever meeting.

If I make Dagmar break her oath, she’d probably forget about the resets...

* * *

“I went to Ren Griffin’s Bane for training to incorporate my magic into my swordsmanship.”

“Hmm, wise decision,” Daulf said.

He’d been nodding and making approving and disapproving grunts throughout the story, but had refrained from interrupting.

“You must show me what you learned,” Bearskin added, him too speaking up for the first time.

“Wait. The Ren Griffin’s Bane?” Trish asked, a giddiness in her tone I’d never heard her use. “The Chosen of Tin Lan? She’s here? I love her!”

“Oh yeah. She’s great,” Dagmar said. “This one time, I pushed her out a window so Tal could read some books. We fought when we landed and then she killed me, cut off my head, and threw it at Tal! She has style.”

“Yes, that Ren,” I said, continuing with the tale.

* * *

The atmosphere had steadily grown festive as I continued my tale, and the smell of the meal Roland was preparing just outside the door to the clearing wafted in.

“Trish, this next part is important, but you should know it never happened again after this night.”

The mood stilled, and the sounds of Roland moving about outside quieted.

“Some men saw you on the floor and pulled you into a back room. They recognized you, and you them. They looked to be from Lakeside. I ran after you, but when I caught up, you had already been killed. I’m sorry.”

Trish didn’t say anything at first, she only stared at me, brow slowly furrowing until at last she spoke. “Can you show me these men later?”

“Of course,” I said with a slight grin. “I found a knife that might prove useful.”

* * *

“Dagmar smelled so bad. At first, I thought she was a man. It’s crazy that I even thought for a moment that she could have somehow been the mastermind behind any of this. If you think she smells bad now, you should have seen her before I learned Clean. Honestly, it's a blessing from Riloth that I haven’t lost my sanity this last year from the smell alone.”

Dagmar, not appreciating the turnabout, threw a knife at me.

“Bo,” I said, throwing a Shield up to block it.

The attack had been half-hearted and slow, and probably wouldn’t have killed me if it hit, but it had been going straight for my heart.

“We are jumping to that I guess,” I continued. “When I finally confronted her, she thought I was a demon and killed me.”

* * *

“We went back to the harpy’s lair to get equipment. The armory below was filled with runed weapons and armor made from Nerestet.”

“No,” Levar said with disbelief. “So close to my home, sitting untouched?”

“Don’t worry, I can take you there later,” I reassured him. “We’ll take the Kituh, which I’m about to get to. I think you’ll like it.”

* * *

“Eventually we had to give up on our attempts to take the Dahn when they proved fruitless.”

Dagmar interrupted, “You forgot to mention the first fire.”

“That’s not important.”

“I’d like to hear about it,” Roland yelled from outside the Dahn as he cleaned up the remnants of the meal.

“I really think you don’t.”

* * *

“After much deliberation, we decided we had to go after Fanos and his charge for their spellbook.”

Daulf let out a disapproving grunt. I did not go into a lot of details on the battle, but I could tell he was conflicted.

“Afterwards, we found a letter on the wizard to the Tower, requesting they strip you of your authority.”

“Leslie, the slimy worm,” Daulf cursed. “He ought—”

“Wait,” I said, interrupting for once. “His name is Leslie?”

Dagmar and I broke out into laughter in unison.

* * *

“The wand wasn’t enough, and we spread out in search of more knowledge, where I ran into some assassins—which were waiting for all of us just outside of town. I’m pretty sure had I not slept in, we would have all died before this began. After dealing with them I made it to the next town over and ran into our demonic acquaintance.”

“You see Daulf,” Trish asked, “I told you drinking can solve problems.”

* * *

I went on to explain the early run-ins with the demon, and the mood darkened once more.

* * *

“Eventually, we moved on to canvasing the town while the demon burned the world around us without ever showing his face. Ren killed and beheaded Dagmar at this point, and eventually we settled on robbing Lord Barion’s residence in the Master's Den. We employed Trish to pick some locks in a secret room full of booty—or was it loot?—and it turns out he orchestrated the infiltration of Landing in exchange for magical knowledge from the dragon leading the cult.”

“THAT BASTARD!” Daulf erupted, grabbing his sword and moving to the door.

“Wait! Stop!” I yelled, trying to stop him. “We have time to deal with him later.”

Daulf slowed as he approached the door, his head catching up to his heart as he processed the reality of the situation.

After a moment, his posture softened slightly and he spoke, “You are right. We have higher priorities at the moment. But that man will not live a day past the end of all this. We can get what information out of him we need in the coming todays, and send him to his imprisoned god tomorrow.”

“Woah,” Trish whispered to Dagmar, “I like this side of him.”

* * *

“And that brings us to the fight with the demon that we all partook in together,” I said ending the tale. “Any questions?”

Levar’s hand shot up.

“You don’t have to raise your hand.”

“Thanks,” he said, lowering his hand. “I was wondering if the offer to examine your ensouled sword is still on the table. From your story, I think I’ve earned as much.”

Experimentally, I tried to Conjure the sword to my hand, but nothing happened, just like in the battle.

“I think you will need to direct that inquiry to Trish. It doesn’t seem to belong to me any longer.”

All eyes turned to her. I’d left the details of her own ensouled weapon and its accompanying celestial out of my story, for it wasn’t my secret to share.

“What do you mean?” she asked skeptically.

“I mean that I think it's begun to Bond to you already. I used to be able to summon it to my hand, but no longer can. Aside from that, you drew out more of the sword's ability in a single battle than I was able to do in two years of these resets. Clearly, it prefers you.”

She drew the weapon from her belt, and examined it closely. In my Willsight I could see icy white lines streaked through her royal purple aura.

“Are you certain?” she asked. “This was your father’s.”

“From what I know of ensouled items, my opinion is irrelevant, but even if it was, you will put it to better use than I ever could.”

She didn’t say anything, only staring at the blade.

The room grew quiet once more until Levar spoke up again, “So, umm. Does that mean I can examine it?”