Ends of Magic

The Heirs moved in formation, keeping a careful watch in all directions as they followed Jaus through the city.

He brought them to a wide market square just off the main thoroughfare and pointed to a wide five-story building on the uphill side. His words were loud and boisterous. “The Golden Anchor. A big inn with a fine reputation, for the Oligarchs are fine hosts!”

Nathan eyed the establishment, noting the solid stone construction and faint burn-marks around some of the windows. “Fine, but we’re sleeping on the ground level.”

Jaus gave him a weird look but led them into the building without comment. The common area was only about a quarter full, full of the low chatter of people eating and talking. The crowd was diverse, with a broad range of skin tones, a few orcs, and a couple birdfolk in one corner. A few humans in aprons bustled around to serve food and drinks.

A heavyset man turned from a quiet discussion with one of the staff and bustled forward to meet them. “Jaus, my salt-brother! And your predicted guests, true as the tide.” He grabbed a cloth from his belt and mopped his brow. “We have a wonderful suite of rooms awaiting you on the third floor. They’re blessed by a great breeze and a view of the harbor! I’ll take you there right away.”

“We want a room on the ground floor.” Nathan said, holding out a hand to stop the man. “Not above it.”

The man pursed his lips, then looked to Jaus for help. The guard shrugged and rolled his eyes but didn’t say anything. The large man gave a shallow smile. “Apologies, but we have no guest rooms on the ground floor! It’s all storage and kitchens, and staff rooms.”

“A storage room will work,” Nathan replied, eyes calm. “So long as it’s large enough. We’ll pay extra.”

The man stuttered for a moment and shot a hopeless look at Jaus, who shrugged. “I - I think we can make that work. We’ll clear it out right away. Will you take a seat for dinner?”

Nathan shot a look back at his friends. “We’ll wait here, but take dinner in our room.” He led the way over to a table in the corner and sat, the Heirs silently trooping along beside him. They knew they were in hostile territory and were happy to let Nathan do the talking.

Jaus pulled up a chair, plopping down with an exaggerated sigh but keeping his distance from the Heirs. The seat groaned under the weight of his armor, the close-fitting metal scraping against the wood. “For people who can fight so well, you’re Endings-damned paranoid.”

Aarl snorted. “Easier to poison somebody than cross swords with them.”

“And why the ground-floor room?” The man continued with a puzzled expression, ignoring Aarl’s comment. His social skill prodded them for an answer, but the Heirs remained resolutely silent.

Jaus tried one more time. “Then why Keihonia? It’s a blasphemous voyage. If you seek adventure you should voyage to Esebus, they are attempting to cleanse the continent and need hired steel. In Keihonia you’ll be outleveled by their peasants.”

Nathan met Jaus’ eyes calmly and said nothing. He tilted his head towards the door in a wordless dismissal.

The other man grunted in annoyance and stood, walking over to the bar and calling out for a drink.

Stella cast a quick [muffle] spell and eyed their escort's back unfavorably. “I genuinely can’t tell if he fell to a soul eater.”

Sarah chuckled as her eyes flicked around the room. “Are we sure the oligarchs don’t desire our deaths? They might want the bounty.”

“The rulers of a city, engaging in assassination?” Outrage tinged Khachi’s voice, but Stella’s spell kept anybody in the room from noticing. “That is a blasphemous thought." He paused, some of the glow fading from his eyes. "But not an impossible one. Not here.”

Nathan frowned. “I hadn’t thought of Badud being able to bribe an entire city, but if he moved up an Ending it’s quite possible. The question is, do we want to just get the hell out of here? Come back later without as much warning, or go all the way to Agmon? They're still not technically at war with Gemore."

Aarl looked up from where he was distributing snacks around the table from his dimensional bag. “The assassins will catch up soon. We’ll need to keep moving. We could lose our hunters in Agmon. Though we might gain new ones. I would not like to fight a legion of orcs."

“We should speak to Eolinne again first," Sarah said. "If we leave then Litcliff might not let us back in.” She pooped a few small fruits into her mouth.

“I’m not so sure,” Nathan said. “I think she was watching us with magic after we left her ship and got ambushed. And Davion warned me about her. Said that she was a piece in the game of Questors, and made haste to get to Litcliff. Maybe to try to kill us.”

The Heirs digested that information for a moment before Stella hesitantly spoke up. “That doesn’t mean she is an agent of Badud. She could be working for Brox, or Sarya. Didn’t Badud need to negotiate with Sarya for the Ending? She would have sent somebody to understand what made Badud fart ice.”

Sarah was nodding along. “And the foreign assassins that attacked us couldn’t have been on her ship. They had ballistas hidden in carts. That would have taken longer than one afternoon to prepare. The same for the assassins that attacked us in Gemore and Giantsrest."

Those were good points. Nathan may have been wrong in judging Eolinne. “Should we go find her now?”

“She said that this night was a time for conversation.” Khachi said with a thoughtful expression. “If she is an ally, we should heed her words, and speak with her tomorrow."

Aarl interjected his own take as he made a sandwich. “Hear me, staying in the city tonight seems dangerous, but I agree we should talk to Eolinne before we go.”

“Alright.” Nathan concluded. “Stay the night on maximum paranoia, then talk to Eolinne in the morning. Check any new ships after that, then leave if there’s nothing available. I feel dangerously exposed here. There was already one attack, and I expect more every day we stay here.”

The broad inkeeper bustled back into the room and up to the table, bowing all the way. Stella broke the spell and his words became audible. “...room cleared, follow me.” He shot a dirty look at the food they’d gotten out, then turned and marched back through a door in the far wall. Jaus watched them go with a sour expression, but took a deep pull of his drink without getting up to follow.

The Heirs followed their host through a few tight corridors, that required Khachi to crouch to avoid banging his head on the stone overhead. After a couple of turns the man gestured them to an open doorway, beyond which was a dark and chilly room that appeared to be partially carved out of bedrock. His voice was almost challenging. “Does this serve your desires?”

“It will do nicely.” Nathan replied with a grin, and Aarl flipped their host a faintly glowing green gemstone that made the man’s eyes pop.

The Heirs filed into the unlit room and closed the door firmly behind them. Stella conjured a ball of light and Khachi’s armor glowed brightly, allowing them a better look at their abode for the night. It was a clammy and dank room that was mostly underground, the rock walls showing clear tool-marks. Shelves were lined up, many of them showing signs of being emptied recently and in a hurry.

“What a fabulous room.” Sarah deadpanned, then sighed and started moving shelves to clear some space in the back of the room.

“It’s big enough.” Stella said, rolling up her sleeves and summoning earth magic to get to work.

Over the course of half an hour the Heirs turned the back half of the storeroom into a bunker that would give any attacker pause. Stella used earth magic to shift the bedrock and effectively divide the room in half, installing a new stone wall in the center of the room that was several feet thick. The only access point was a zig-zagging tunnel off to the side, and to even reach that any attackers would have to navigate the shelves jumbled in the front half of the room.

Position secured, the Heirs settled back to look over their handiwork. Sarah frowned. “A powerful mage could blast through that.”

“Or a powerful weapon could destroy it.” Aarl added, measuring the width of the wall against the black sword he’d looted from Brox.

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“I can prevent that.” Nathan said. “I’ll leave my aura around the entire room. Anybody trying to blow through that is going to have a bad time.”

“Only if you don’t break any of our items.” Aarl said distrustfully. “That would be an expensive accident.”

Nathan shrugged. “It wouldn’t be hard for me to stay awake all night tonight. I’ve been sleeping well recently."

Khachi slapped his belly, his gauntlet ringing off metal. “My stomach is a void! We are as safe as we can be, so let’s eat!”

At that moment Nathan caught the sound of the door to their storeroom opening up, and a voice called out. “By the maw of the deep! What have you done to my storeroom?” He snorted and turned to leave the bunker, slipping through the entrance to spot the master of the inn standing in the entrance with a heaping tray of food, looking around with befuddlement that was quickly turning to anger.

Nathan squeezed through the shelves to stand before the heavyset man. “Sorry about the mess. We’ll put it back the way we found it tomorrow, with another tip for your trouble. Is that for us?” He indicated the tray of food the man held.

Their host harrumphed, but he handed over the tray of food. It was a few deep bowls of fish stew, with a side of dark bread and something that looked like dried seaweed. “I’ll send more in the morning. You’re not supposed to leave until Jaus gets here to escort you.” He gave one more annoyed look at the mess that had replaced his storeroom and then stalked off, slamming the door behind him.

Nathan watched the man go, then turned to navigate the shelves. Now that nobody was watching he was much more comfortable using [Airwalking] to navigate the labyrinth of wood they’d left as a tripwire.

“Eating that is a prophecy of death.” Sarah said, pointing at the food as Nathan set it down atop the stone block Stella had left as a table.

Nathan chuckled, grabbing a spoon to taste the soup. “But it would be nice to know if they’re trying to poison us.” He proceeded to go through and taste every one of the dishes in turn, paying careful attention to the biochemistry of the food as translated through his talent. “No poison, though it might be slow enough that I can't detect it yet. Not very flavorful, though it’s been a while since I’ve had fish. ”

He was still the only one to touch the provided food, the Heirs contenting themselves with trail rations and a few cups of fruit juice. It had been a gift from Stanel in a rare type of dimensional bag that almost entirely prevented food spoilage. They were planning to ration it to last a while, but the harsh conditions seemed to warrant a little luxury.

Given that their primary weakness was magical attack, Nathan took most of the watch after Stella recharged his Stamina. He noticed no ill effect from the meal and caught a few hours of sleep in the middle of the night when Khachi and Stella took over. He mostly sat quietly in the darkness, thinking about the Liber Physicae he’d unleashed upon Gemore and coming up with corrections to have Stella [Message] back to Gemore later.

We really did write what is basically a textbook in three days. It’s definitely got some rough edges. I think I explained salt batteries badly, but that’s because ion bridges are dumb. I should come up with a better explanation. But it's got to be short to fit in a [Message].

In the early hours of the morning he heard the door to their storeroom open once more, followed by somebody gasping in surprise. The voice sounded female, and younger, so Nathan didn't interpret it as an attack. Instead of waking the Heirs he stuck his head out of the bunker to see a young woman straining to hold up a heavy tray of food while she stared in confusion at what the Heirs had done to the room. A simple glowing stone hung from her belt, illuminating the space in flickering shadows.

Nathan waved to the girl as he slipped through the shelves. “Hi. Is that for us?”

Her head snapped around to him, she was just as bemused by his appearance as she’d been by the changes to the underground room, her openmouthed gape turning to a more puzzled look as she took in his plain clothes and lacking equipment.

Her accent had a strong lilt. “I thought you folk were supposed to be grand Adventurers. Ya’know, the best of Gemore. Are you their servant?”

Nathan grinned at her. “Looks can be deceiving. Thank you.” He took the tray, ready for some attack or trick. But there wasn’t any magic in the room aside from the enchanted light at the young woman’s waist and the bunker at Nathan’s back.

“A’lright” she replied doubtfully, then turned to go.

Nathan waited until she shut the door behind her and left him in almost total darkness to return to their makeshift fortress, considering the meal for a second before digging in. It was a set of bread bowls filled with stew almost identical to the day before.

He was halfway done with the first bowl before he felt a chill tiredness suddenly sweep through him. He gave a deep sigh and pushed the meal away, purging the poison from his body with a moderate amount of Stamina and some conscious attention.

Normal poison doesn't act that way and isn't that hard to purge. There were skills involved there.

He went to wake his friends. “Breakfast was poisoned with some kind of paralytic. They might be trying to capture us, but they’re coming soon regardless.”

Aarl popped out of his bed like a spring, a wry grin on his face as he rubbed his hands together. “A new day brings new adventures, and new people to kill.”

Khachi was not nearly as sanguine. “This inn is full of innocents. We must not endanger them in our defense.” His meaningful look panned over both Stella and Sarah. “Furthermore, I do not want to be buried in the rubble.”

“It’s solidly built.” Stella protested. “A fireball or two won’t break anything.” She started shoveling her nest of blankets into a dimensional bag and glanced at Nathan. “Are we ambushing them, fleeing or pretending to be poisoned?”

“Ambush.” Nathan said with only a second of consideration. “They might just stab us a lot if we pretend to be asleep, and it won’t be easy to get out of here if they're ready. I'd also prefer not to leave assassins alive to try again. Let's do our best to keep it quiet.”

The Heirs packed up quickly and prepared their ambush, leaving one magical light on inside their bunker. Aarl took the closest position, readying the sudden-death dagger they’d acquired from the assassin that had attacked in Giantserest. His armor darkened to blend into the shadows of the room while the rest of the Heirs stood in a blind spot behind the door.

Aarl’s whisper was barely audible in the darkened room. “Is this the oligarchs? Should we leave as quickly as we can?”

Nathan grimaced. The oligarchs could very well be responsible for this. They’d been the ones to arrange the Heirs lodging, and more and more of the evidence was pointing towards them wanting to kill the Heirs without being obvious about it. “We’ll see who attacks. Don’t hesitate if it’s Jaus.”

Status of Nathan Lark:

Permanent Talent 1: Arcane Nullfield 7

Permanent Talent 2: Immortal Body 6

Permanent Talent 3: Airwalking 7

Class: End of Magic level 733

Bottomless Stamina : 74100/74100

Indomitable

The Undeniable Strike of the Antimage

Stamina Burn

Momentum Mastery

Stoneflesh

Arcane Nullification

Galefoot

Close Quarters Mastery

Boundless Aura

Denial of Mysticism

The Ending of Magic

Aura Projection

Selective Dispel

The Living World

Class: Spellslayer level 510

Regenerative Focus: 5200/5200

Catastrophic Blows

Battle Stealth

Mage Infiltration

Forgettable

Sneaky Blow

Antimagic Stealth

Magical Manipulation

Lethal Index

Wizard Resistance

Magic Jammer

Controlled Failure

Utility skills:

Tranquility 1

Inspiration 8

Acceleration 10

Mystical Discernment 1

Alertness 10

Arcane Insight 2

Effortless Dodge 10

Mental Vault 5

Tutoring 7

Parkour 8

Visibility Control 4

High-tier Disguise 5

High-tier Battle Cry 2

Aura Control 3