The tower stood in the middle of the lakeside city of Sutari, in the Sukairian Highlands. It was tall, narrow, and comprised of stone, with a conical top and small windows here and there. At the moment, it cast a long shadow across a public park, and glistened in the noonday sun from a brief drizzle that morning. The middle of a public park may have been an odd place to put a stone tower, but then, it hadn't been there long, having popped into place in the blink of an eye a few days earlier. This was odd, admittedly, large towers not generally being known for wandering from place to place, but then this was no ordinary tower. It served as the home, personal workshop, and laboratory for a young wizard named Thaniel, and he'd used a magical artifact to move it to its current location. He normally tried to avoid popping up in the middle of populated areas, as most people tend to be alarmed when buildings show up without warning. However, in this particular case, he'd previously (and completely unintentionally) moved the tower to the bottom of the rather large lake just next to Sutari, and he had decided upsetting the city's inhabitants was preferable to drowning inside his own home. The translocation crystal he used to move the tower from place to place had been severely taxed by all the teleporting they'd been doing, and it took a few days after their unexpected arrival for the gem to fully recharge its mystical energies. Thaniel, his familiar Mister Crow, and their client Ariella Shieldfall had spent the time since then alternatively working to dry out the tower and deal with the confused and mildly suspicious citizenry of Sutari. Thankfully, with Thaniel's magic on their side, repairing the water damage wasn't that difficult. At Ari's urging, Thaniel had reluctantly purchased the expensive reagents needed to cast a waterproofing spell on the outer walls of the tower, so that they'd never find themselves in that situation again, even if they moved the tower to the bottom of the ocean.
At the moment, Thaniel was up in his observatory, pouting. Much of the room (not to mention the things in it) was still damp, and there still came the occasional drip, despite their best efforts to dry the place out, but this was not what irritated Thaniel. He stood at his desk, facing a large mirror, which was displaying a face that was most definitely not his. The stony countenance of the Captain of the Sutari Guard was 'reflecting' out of the mirror, and if the man was impressed by this means of long-distance communication, necessary thanks to Thaniel's agoraphobia, he was hiding it very well. "This is outrageous!" Thaniel was saying, "The crystal was underwater, I didn't have time to be more precise! It was either move the tower here or drown at the bottom of your lake!" Sighing, the armoured man crossed his arms over his chest, wrinkling his nose and rustling the thick, bushy moustache he wore, as was the fashion in the land of Sukair. "I appreciate your emergency situation, mage -" "Wizard!" Thaniel interrupted with a huff. The guard captain raised an eyebrow. "Sir?" Thaniel started to cross his own scrawny arms, and then just leaned forward onto the desk instead, as though afraid the gesture might be taken as mockery. "I'm a wizard, not a mage," he said, "Different schools of magic entirely!" Across the room, Ari looked to a nearby bookcase with interest too sudden and too intense to be genuine. She was trying not to smile, remembering that when she'd made the same faux pas, Thaniel had cheerily admitted that he had no idea what the difference actually was, but that his diploma from the school of magic in his homeland read 'wizard', so he was very specific about that. The guardsman took a deep breath and nodded. "My apologies, sir," he said, with a deep, steel-hard patience that suggested he'd had years of experience dealing with irritating citizens of Sutari. "But the Earl doesn't take too kindly to wizards popping in out of nowhere and scaring innocent people," he continued, firmly, "There were children in the park, sir, what if one of them had been standing there when you arrived?" Groaning with frustration, Thaniel shook his head. "The transloc - the spell takes that into account!" he said, "There's no way it could hurt anyone! That's what I've been trying to tell you! I admit it could be startling, but it's no more dangerous than sneaking up behind someone and yelling 'boo!'" The Captain sighed, running his gauntleted thumb and forefinger over his moustache, smoothing it down, before he continued. "This is all well and good, sir," he said, "but that's why we, ah, invited you to come explain things at city hall, give your side of the story... in person." The emphasis he put on those last two words and the look that accompanied them were unmistakeable. Thaniel flinched, just for a moment. The reason he wasn't standing next to the man right now wasn't that he considered himself too important to go there, it was because the wizard suffered from a severe case of agoraphobia. Even after being flooded out, he could only bear to stand directly outside the tower, and only for a few hours. "With all due respect, good wizard, there are very specific rules and regulations to follow," the Captain continued, "and those regulations do not allow for such interviews to be given via projection crystals carried by talking birds!" Almost as an afterthought, his eyes darted down for a moment, as if he was examining Thaniel's desk. "No offence," he said, quietly. "None taken," came the disembodied voice of Mister Crow. Standing up straight, Thaniel sighed, closing his eyes and slowly shaking his head. "...Alright, alright, have it your way." Reaching into one of the voluminous pockets of his oddly patterned robe, Thaniel produced a coinpurse, which promptly vanished into thin air with a muted poof. "Crow, pay the fines and head back," he said, quietly, not looking at the image. The raven's voice came back lacking any of the sarcasm Ari had been expecting. "As you say, master." Looking back over at the wizard, Ari frowned slightly. Thaniel had some kind of mental bond with his familiar; if Crow was being this subservient, even using the polite title when addressing the spellcaster, Thaniel must really be upset.
Slumping down dejectedly into a chair that hadn't been there seconds earlier, Thaniel made a gesture that caused the Guard Captain's image to fade away, as though city hall had suddenly filled with fog, before the mirror displayed an actual reflection of the room in front of it. The wizard made no move to dismiss the mirror itself, fishing a squat, cylindrical hat out of a pocket and sticking it on his head, pushing it down over his eyes and sighing yet again. Turning away from the bookshelf, Ari hesitantly walked across the room, not sure what to say, yet instinctively feeling like trying to cheer up the wizard. Movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention, and she glanced up. The motes of light which gathered together to form the images displayed by the domed ceiling paid no heed to the frustrated spellcaster, and were doing what they always did when Thaniel wasn't actively using his magic to observe the world around the tower; floating around in curious patterns, rotating, twisting, and rearranging themselves for reasons known only to them, if indeed there was anything more to them than a soft glow. Moving closer, Ari sat on the side edge of the desk, and tried to force a smile. "...It's not that bad," she said, quietly, "I thought the fines were quite reasonable, all things considered." Thaniel said nothing, and she shrugged to herself as she continued. "I'm still surprised they had an actual law on the books that explicitly forbade teleporting into a public space." Thaniel groaned, looking up with shame and embarrassment in his eyes. "It's not about the money, Ari," he said, "It's about the fact that I could have made the whole problem go away if I'd been able to leave this tower and talk to them face-to-face. Damn my cowardly hide!" He suddenly brought a fist down on the desk, earning a satisfying thump - and making the mirror shake to the point where it tipped backwards and fell onto the floor, shattering into pieces. The sudden anger fading from his face, Thaniel blushed and averted his eyes as he muttered a command word that sent a teal-coloured bolt of energy from his outstretched finger to the shards of glass now spread across the floor. The pieces came back together in an orderly fashion, the repair so perfect that not even seams were left behind to hint at the mirror's destruction, and then he made it vanish back off to wherever he'd kept it in the first place with a wave of his hand.
The spellcaster slumped forward onto his desk like a sad schoolchild, staring off into infinity as he basked in his own dejection. Ari stood and turned around, bending over to place her hand over his, and he looked up with surprise, his cheeks still red. "It's okay," she said with a smile, "People can't help what they're afraid of. If it helps, I freak out like a little girl if wasps or bees are around." The wizard cocked his head to the side, raising an eyebrow. "Do you mean giant wasps and bees, or the regular kind?" he asked. The smile fell from Ari's face. "G-giant bees?" "You know, like the giant spiders that adventurers are always coming across," he explained, deadpan, "Except... bees." Ari visibly paled and stepped back, trembling. "Oh, gods above..." she breathed, "I didn't know those even existed! Tell me where in the nine hells they live so I can stay away from there for the rest of my life!" Thaniel smiled ever-so-slightly and shook his head. "It's very, very far away, if it helps, I don't think they've been seen within the borders of Rilodell in centuries," he said, before his smile fell away, "And to your credit, at least you were a little girl at one point. That's more than I can say when I have a panic attack just from walking out the front door." Ari stepped forward again and leaned against the desk. "You know, you seemed pretty in control when we were facing a hungry lasher," she commented, somewhat pointedly. Thaniel scowled and waved a hand dismissively. "Pshaw!" he said, shaking his head, "I was too busy being terrified of the beast to focus on being outside. The second you reminded me where we were, I panicked and called the tower without thinking, set that whole awkward chain of events into motion that nearly got us killed!" Grinning triumphantly, Ari reached forward and 'booped' the wizard's nose, much to his surprise. "Exactly," she said, smugly. Thaniel looked lost. "Wh-what...?" "You're focusing on the second part of that, when you should be focusing on the first," she explained, "You realized that I was going out to fight the lasher all by myself, and you were so worried that you leapt through a portal to help without even considering the danger - or the fact that it was outside." She shrugged. "Sorry to pry, but I asked Crow about that a while back." Standing up straight, she regarded the spellcaster with a warm smile. "You were able to function well enough outside to save my life from an angry monster, Thaniel, you didn't let your agoraphobia get the best of you," she said, "and that's the part you should really be focusing on, let it give you hope." Thaniel gave her a blank look for a few seconds, and then he slowly smiled at the noblewoman, clearly encouraged by her words. "Thank you, Ari," he said, softly, "That really helps." Unbidden, a thought came to Ariella. You know, she casually thought to herself, he's kind of cute when he smiles like that. She started slightly as she realized what she'd just been thinking, but before she could deal with it, a loud cawing and flapping announced the return of Thaniel's familiar to the tower.
Ari stepped away from the desk, clearing her throat and blushing, wondering what in the world had come over her, as Mister Crow flew into the observatory, dropped the coinpurse that Thaniel had sent to him into his master's hand, and landed on Thaniel's desk, which had suddenly sprouted a bird perch. While Crow, being a bird, understandably went nude most of the time, at the moment, he was wearing a small necklace with a blue gemstone in the middle, the projection crystal which had been displaying Thaniel's image to the Captain of the Guard as the wizard conversed with the mirror. "I'll say this for those killjoys," the raven said, "They didn't even try to stiff me; you'd be amazed how many people assume the 'stupid bird' won't notice if they overcharge for things." In truth, Ari was more surprised that people would even try. Spending any amount of time at all in the bird's presence was usually enough to learn both how intelligent he was, and how sarcastic he was. Being raised in as formal an environment as a wizards' school (even if it was the aviary), Crow often sought to undermine any situation he deemed too stuffy or academic, as a matter of course. Usually with a hefty amount of sarcasm directed at whoever was in charge. Which generally meant Thaniel, naturally. Crow inclined his head as Thaniel gently lifted the necklace up and off, promptly disappearing it to one of his many otherworldly 'pocket dimensions', whatever that meant. "Thank you, Crow," Thaniel said, softly, sounding more genuine than he usually did when addressing his familiar, "I appreciate you taking care of such... transactions for me." The raven nodded idly, examining a pattern on the desk in front of him. "Yes, yes, it's quite alright... I still think we should have just moved the tower out of town, saved the money, but it's your call." Crow suddenly looked up, peering at the two humans. "Say, what are you doing just standing around?" he asked, "Aren't we supposed to be trying to find this gauntlet your ancestor cursed his bloodline with?" Thaniel and Ariella looked at each other blankly, as if they'd forgotten the reason they'd met in the first place. They'd been so preoccupied getting the tower back to livable condition the last few days that they hadn't really put much thought into their quest. "Oh! Right!" exclaimed the wizard, blushing again, leaping to his feet and turning to search the shelves behind him for something. Sighing loudly, the raven shook his head. "Humans..." he muttered to himself, as Thaniel turned around, frowning. "It must be in the closet, then," he said, rubbing his goatee'd chin. Snapping his fingers, he summoned... a door, which stood perfectly straight in the middle of the floor, just to the side of his desk. Opening it up, Thaniel revealed a rather ordinary looking closet jam-packed with strange and unusual things. Ari stared, trying to wrap her head around the nonsense occurring in front of her, when Crow alighted on her shoulder. "Trust me," the familiar whispered conspiratorially, "don't ask, I don't think he understands how it works." Thaniel stood up straight from rummaging through the closet, carrying what looked to Ari like an ordinary glass fishbowl. Stepping forward, the wizard extended his arms, and a dubious Ariella took it from him. "Here," said Thaniel cheerily, "Hold this." Examining the dusty orb, Ari frowned. "How... how will this help?" she asked, tapping the side warily, "Is this some kind of fortune-telling crystal ball?" Thaniel smiled at Ari in a way that made her want to smile with him, and gestured back the way he came. "It'll help," the wizard said, retracing his steps, "by being out of the way while I dig through the rest of the closet." Chuckling to himself, and leading Ari to realize how strange it was to see a bird laughing, Crow hopped down to Ari's wrist and stuck his head in the bowl, examining it closely. "I thought you got rid of this after your ridiculous experiments killed all the fish," the raven commented, "I still can't believe you tried to create a psychic connection with the little morsels." Glancing over his shoulder, Thaniel frowned. "That would have worked if you hadn't stopped me. Ah! Here it is!"
This time, when Thaniel turned away from the closet, he was holding a small leather pouch and a wand, about the size of the others he'd used, except forked at the end, and made of crystal. Suddenly realizing she was still carrying it, Ari put the fishbowl down on the desk as he approached. "Hmm, stand over here, would you?" he asked, absently, "The motes focus energy in the middle of the room, so it'll be easier to detect what I'm looking for." Ari did as he asked, but frowned, crossing her arms. "And what are you looking for, Thaniel?" she asked. He seemed surprised, but quickly shook it off. "Oh right, I skipped the explanation part again. Sorry!" He cleared his throat and made some vague gestures. "Curses are not omnipresent," he continued, "so there must be at least some trace of the spell on you at all times, or else, well, it wouldn't work when the time came." Not dwelling on that unpleasantness, he held up the pouch and gave it a little shake. "This powder will absorb some of the curse energy that must be imbued on your body. Now, that won't just suck up the curse and leave you cured, as handy as that would be, but it means I'll be able to detect the spell that cast the curse in the first place with this sensing rod, and that's a very important part of knowing how I'll be able to break the spell once we've located the gauntlet." Given how absent-minded and silly Thaniel was much of the time, it was almost strange for Ariella to be seeing him in his element, speaking with confidence about the magical arts, his distraction coming from his focus on his work rather than the scatterbrained-ness he sometimes displayed. "It can't, um, trigger the curse early, can it?" she asked, biting her lip and berating herself for it, "Couldn't you get an idea from what my great-grandfather wrote about the temple he took it from, or the etching?" At that, Thaniel glanced over to the side of the room somewhat sadly. There, a glowing sphere of orange energy was being emitted from a rather elaborate stand, and within it floated a very old leather-bound book. It was in fact the personal journal of Xander Shieldfall, a legendary adventurer, and the ancestor of Ari's who'd started this mess in the first place. It had taken some water damage when the tower was flooded, and it was a toss-up as to whether Ariella or Thaniel had been more broken up about it, as the wizard had idolized the hero as a child. He'd insisted on using his magic to try and restore the book to its original condition, though it was a very slow, gradual process, and Mister Crow had complained even more loudly than usual about it being a waste of resources, especially as the pages pertaining to the gauntlet had survived mostly intact. Glancing back to Ariella, Thaniel shook his head, a tight-lipped frown on his face. "Xander's writings helped to narrow things down somewhat, particularly with that etching," he said, a bit more subdued than usual, "but a spellcaster, he was not. We need to get a reading direct from the source, and I'm afraid the only way the journal will help in that respect is by leading us to the unholy temple the gauntlet came from in the first place. Something tells me the idea of walking into a church of the Black God thrills you about as much as it does me, so..."
Nodding resignedly, Ari looked down at her feet, feeling oddly self-conscious as Thaniel approached, fiddling with the pouch with both hands, the crystal rod tucked under one arm. Finally, lifting one hand high, he began to sprinkle a fine white powder above Ari's head, and she cringed despite herself as it began to settle on her hair. "Uh, this stuff will wash out, right?" she asked, careful not to inhale any of the powder, "Without turning my head green or something?" Thaniel made a dismissive noise as he casually answered. "Pffft, this stuff is harmless," he said, "but don't worry about it, there's no need in this case." Mildly afraid to move too much, she glanced to the side, frowning. "No need for what?" she asked, as he got rid of the last of his pinch of powder. Cinching the pouch shut and putting it down on a pedestal that had conveniently appeared just next to him, Thaniel palmed his hands together, smacking off the residue, before he took the sensing rod and began to wave it over her head, the clear crystal glowing from within with a bright, oddly reassuring yellow colour. As this happened, each and every flake of powder raised up from where it had fallen across Ariella, floating up towards that yellow glow, picking up the pace the closer they got, and coating the surface of the sensing rod, eventually bunching up around the tip of the crystal device. "No need for washing it out," finished Thaniel. "Oh," was all Ari could think to say, as she watched the wizard wiggling his fingers over the rod, which he now held down in front of his chest, eyes squinted, focusing on it intensely. "Oh dear," he muttered, mostly to himself, as the powder began to glow from within with a dark purple - no, a black light, as little sense as that made to Ari, that was the best way she could describe it. She heard a quiet whimper, and was embarrassed to realize it had come from her. "Griever beneath," she breathed, "That - that came from me?" Just looking at that 'dark light' made Ari's skin crawl, it made her feel fear in the pit of her stomach, and suddenly, she wasn't looking at Thaniel examining the powder, she was looking at her beloved Uncle transforming into the monster that would haunt her nightmares. "Gods!" she gasped, turning away, ashamed that there were tears in her eyes. She needed to be stronger than this if she was going to save her family, dammit! Suddenly, there was a hand on her shoulder. She wiped her eyes with the back of a hand before looking, to see Thaniel looking at her with concern written all over his face. "I'm sorry, Ari, I didn't think - I should have known this wouldn't be easy for you," he said, quietly, "You don't have to be here for this if it makes you uncomfortable. But yes, I'm afraid that's the magical aura around you. If it helps, it didn't come from you, it came from your father's father's father, and from the blasted gauntlet before that. It has never affected who you are as a person or the choices you've made." Looking down at the rod in his hand, and that ominous 'glow', Ariella sighed. "But someday," she said, "it will take all my choices away from me." The hand that still gripped her shoulder gave her a light squeeze, and she was surprised by the stony determination that had suddenly sprouted in the wizard's normally relaxed expression. "Not if I have anything to say about it," said Thaniel, and the confidence with which he said this actually served to reassure Ari, at least a little.
They'd held each other's gaze for a moment before breaking it off, Ari to go visit her horse Roland in the tower's basement, Thaniel to continue to examine the unpleasant sample he'd just harvested from the curse. He had tried to explain what he was going to do with that information, but it had gone over Ari's head. He eventually just waved her off, assuring her that it would be easier to just show her once he was done. So Ari found herself taking a quiet moment to brush her steed's mane, an activity that always helped to calm her nerves. Roland had been pretty shaken up, understandably, by almost drowning in the flooded tower, but he'd bounced back remarkably well, and nuzzled his great head into her hands, giving a relaxed huff as she moved her brush to the rest of his pelt. "I don't know what I was expecting when I left home, Roland," she murmured to the pleased horse, "but this adventure has barely started and I don't know what to make of it. I just hope that's the last near-death experience we have to deal with..." If Roland had any opinions on the subject, he kept them to himself. A few minutes later, Ari produced an apple from her pack, delighting her equine companion. As he munched away happily, Ari heard Thaniel coming down the stairs, and turned to greet him. He was smiling again, which was a nice sign, and holding up a small, pyramid-shaped crystal with what looked like a wooden handle sticking out the bottom, almost like a torch. "It's done!" he said, happily, "I wanted to show it off a little." Ari tilted her head to the side slightly, not sure what to make of it. "Great," she started, carefully, "...What is it?" Thaniel's face fell just a smidge, and he looked somewhat embarrassed. "Oh right, the, uh, the explanation didn't go over so well," he muttered, "Uhh... It's... man, how do I say this without getting technical... basically, it's like a dowsing rod, you ever see one of those? Forked sticks, they detect water underground? Except instead of finding water with a really low success rate, this, ah, dowsing crystal is attuned to the aura of the curse laid on your family. It will help us track down the gauntlet that started all this mess in the first place." Ari's face lit up at this news. "Oh!" she said, brightly, "So we can just follow that thing to the gauntlet and get this whole mess done and over with?" Now Thaniel was openly frowning, which discouraged her. "Er, I'm afraid not," he admitted, "it's not strong enough for that. Sorry." Before she could ask the obvious question, he continued, stroking his beard with his free hand. "We're going to use this to determine where it's been, so we know we're on the right path. An artifact that evil will leave residue behind; the longer it's been in a place, the more of that energy will be in the floors and walls. And I was hoping we could put it to good use at the museum your great-grandfather mentions in his journal. You said that it was robbed years back and the gauntlet disappeared, but if we can find traces of its energy, direct from the glove, maybe we can get a better fix on where it was headed." As he finished explaining, he resumed walking down the stairs, but as he got closer, the crystal in his hands suddenly gave a little shudder and began to emit a shimmering white glow, causing the wizard to halt in his tracks. "Oh right," he said, sheepishly, "Just as soon as I adjust it not to go off from the curse energy around you, or it won't be very helpful." Ari couldn't help but smile at the embarrassed grin on his face, and put Roland's brush away as she moved to follow Thaniel back up to his lab, where the modifications could be made.
A little under an hour later, just outside the city of Calastor, snugly set in a lush valley between two wide, stout mountains, a stone tower came into existence with a flash of light and a satisfying 'pop' sound. Inside, Ariella stood near the edge of Thaniel's observatory, whose walls had taken on the illusion of transparency to allow a nice view of their surroundings. Across the room, Thaniel stood up straight, grinning to himself, clearly pleased that the translocation crystal still worked. "So," Ari said, still looking down at the city walls in the distance, "You stuck the tower out here so they wouldn't react the way the Sukairi did, right?" Walking over to join her, Thaniel shrugged. "Yes and no," he replied, "Yes, I wanted to avoid a repeat of last time, but most cities have a mage district, where they're more accepting of things like towers appearing out of nowhere. Sometimes you can even contact them ahead of time and reserve a nice spot. But here? Ah..." he squinted, looking at the vague shapes of the buildings behind those walls. Calastor was on the opposite end of Rilodell from where they had started, and the sun had already gone down here. "Let's just say that the Calastorians are a somewhat temperamental people," he said, gently, "They tend to have a lot of political unrest, and the people are a bit touchier than most." Ari turned to look at the wizard curiously. "What do you mean?" "Weeeell, it's not entirely outside the realm of possibility that they would have reacted negatively to the tower popping in out of nowhere." She raised an eyebrow at that, wondering what she was getting herself into. "Define 'negatively'." "Well..." The wizard hesitated, which mildly worried Ari. There was a flapping of wings, and Crow entered the room from the staircase. "The portal room is all ready for you, Thaniel," the bird said, nonchalantly, "If you're going to leave, I recommend you do so now, before the torch-wielding mob rolls in. Oh, look, it's night-time, they won't have seen us. Never mind, then!" Ariella turned to her host, somewhat alarmed. "Torch-wielding mob?! Aren't you worried about the tower?" she asked, before blushing as the bird began to laugh while he settled onto a wooden peg that was suddenly sticking out of the invisible wall. Thaniel shook his head. "Believe it or not, he thinks he's hilarious," the wizard said, "But I assure you, I took the greatest care in protecting my home, given my phobias and all. I'm sure you remember how hard it was trying to get in without my permission, and I think they'd have a bit of trouble setting fire to the foundation, what with it being solid stone, no?" Smirking at that, Ari followed the wizard out of the room, pausing briefly to stick her tongue out at the raven that watched them exit.
Soon Thaniel stopped at one of the many doors along the staircase, opening it up into a room almost as big around as his observatory, but with a much lower ceiling comprised of flat stone. The room itself was a great contrast to the exciting and generally crowded lab, containing nothing except a large engraved circle on the floor, surrounded by glowing runes, with two narrow half-arches sticking out of the floor on opposite sides of the circle, almost meeting over the center. Thaniel was muttering to himself as he approached the runes and knelt down, and Ari made one last check of her pack, making sure the family spear was held in place properly. The wizard held his hands over the runes, and Ari stopped her fidgeting, surprised to see the light from those runes slowly rise up from the stone they were carved into, flowing over the wizard's hands as he began to make arcane gestures. "Let's see, if the address Xander wrote in his journal was correct - and assuming that they haven't moved in the last few decades, it should be..." He continued to mutter to himself, no longer in any language Ariella recognized, and as she watched, the other runes around the room began to reshape and reorganize themselves, floating from one rock to another or changing into different symbols entirely. As the symbols ceased their movement, one by one, a low humming noise began to fill the room, growing louder and louder as each rune solidified into a given shape. Finally, as the last symbol, directly across from the wizard, chose a form and stuck with it, arcs of electricity suddenly crackled up from the floor along the surfaces of the two half-arches, which Ari had thought were carved from stone. The energy met in the empty space between them, and as it fell straight down, it seemed to widen somehow, changing from a narrow beam of energy to a wide, mostly circular surface, the bottom side flattening against the floor as the magical power seemed to fade into transparency, though it wasn't the other side of the room that Ari could spy through the gateway her friend had just opened. Even amidst this impressive sight, Ariella was taken aback for a moment by the realization that, yes, during the week she'd known the man, Thaniel had legitimately become her friend, and not just a hired hand. The wizard stood up and wiped the back of his brow with a sleeve, letting out a sigh of relief, and she realized he was breathing quite hard, his skin glistening with perspiration. The spell had apparently taken a lot out of him. He took a moment to prepare himself, then started to make a sweeping gesture towards the rift before a look of surprise came over his face. "Oh right! I forgot!" He made a gesture, and with a quiet noise like six or seven people inhaling sharply at the same time, the wizard's staff appeared in his hand. "That's better..." he said, "Now then. From the looks of things, I got it just where I wanted it, inside the museum. It'll be way after closing time, so we can just search the place without looking like terribly unsubtle thieves, ah, what's the phrase, 'boxing the joint'." Finishing the sweeping gesture, as though he hadn't been interrupted, he smiled. "So! Shall we?"
Ari grinned, despite her nervousness, and approached the portal. "It's 'casing the joint', and yes, yes we shall..." she said, "Just as soon as I work my courage up." She kept an eye on the wizard, but Thaniel didn't so much as snicker as he regarded her. "Oh come now, it's no different than being inside the tower when it moves..." he said, encouragingly, "Okay, actually there's a bit of a tingle since there isn't anything surrounding us, but it's not even as strong as your hand falling asleep." Blushing at her own reluctance, she frowned and regarded her friend. "Well, if it's so safe, why don't you go first?" she asked, pointedly. Thaniel shrugged apologetically. "Didn't I mention? I'm the one who cast the spell, so it'll close when I pass through. I always have to go through last." Allowing herself to pout in front of him, Ari turned towards the magical doorway. "Alright, fine, fine, just give me a minute to work myself up to it..." Behind her, the snide voice of Mister Crow startled her a little, as she hadn't even heard him fly in over the odd buzzing sound the portal was making. "So, shall I bring master Thaniel a change of clothes then?" he asked, "Seems like this will take a while." Before she could snap at the bird, Thaniel snapped his fingers, and Crow's plumage suddenly became a vibrant pink, much to his dismay. "You know, Crow, I'm already taking liberties with the wizard-familiar relationship by leaving you in charge of the tower while I'm gone," he said, sternly, "And as for Ms. Shieldfall's passage, well..." Without looking away from the festively-coloured raven, Thaniel pointed an arm to the side - and suddenly released a long tongue of hot flames that washed over the floor directly in front of Ari! She cried out in panic and instinctively leapt backwards - which took her neatly through the portal behind her.
Ari didn't even realize what had happened until she felt the tingling sensation across every inch of her skin. Stumbling, she caught herself before falling down, and found herself in near-pitch darkness, barely able to discern the outlines of vague shapes around her in the moonlight coming in from a nearby window. She was surprised that she couldn't see the portal from here, as she'd always assumed such magical doorways went in both directions, like, well, a doorway. It briefly occurred to her to wonder how they were going to get back to the tower, but she was more focused on being angry at Thaniel for scaring her through the gateway like that. She didn't have long to wait in the dark before she heard a strange noise and sensed a presence next to her. "Oh!" came Thaniel's voice, "Right, closed. Should have anticipated the dark. Just a second... Oh, here it is... rha tzo!" At those words, the room was illuminated by a small orb of light that came into existence above the wizard's hand, which was gently cradling a small sculpture of some kind. Turning towards Ari, who was rubbing her eyes against the sudden brightness, Thaniel put that charm into his pocket as the orb lazily drifted upwards and began to orbit the area above the spellcaster's head. He glanced over, his small smile disappearing upon seeing the glare coming his way from Ariella, standing there with her arms crossed. "Oh dear..." he muttered, toying with his hands; unlike most times this happened, Ari recognized those gestures well enough, the sort that comes from embarrassed nervousness, as from a child who knows he's at fault and that a stern lecture is coming. "Really?" she asked, simply, "Really, Thaniel? I was taking a while, so you shot fire at my feet? Seven sentinels, man, even just pushing me would have been better than that!" Swallowing audibly, the wizard hung his head in shame. "I - I'm sorry, Ari, I don't know what came over me," he said, softly, "I told you before, I don't get many visitors at the tower, and since you came to stay with us, I - I keep finding myself, ah, showing off, for lack of a better word. You're the first client I've had since becoming a wizard, most of my time was personal study and research, so I guess it's because I want to make sure you have confidence in my skills." He shrugged and looked up, daring to make eye contact. "And for the record, that was an illusion spell, you were perfectly safe, see?" He pointed his open palm at his face and a torrent of flame shot out, washing over his entire head with a crackling roar. When it disappeared, Ari was taken aback to see his face covered with an opaque layer of soot, save for his eyes, which seemed unusually bright by the comparison. Thaniel blinked a couple times, then coughed, creating a small ash cloud, before twitching a finger and causing the soot to disappear entirely, having just been part of the illusion. Despite her irritation, she found herself snickering at the silly performance, and couldn't help but smirk back as he winked at her. His face took on a serious appearance for another moment, though, as he sounded unusually frank, for him. "Seriously, though," he said, "I'm sorry, and I promise not to do anything like that again." Shaking her head, Ari sighed exaggeratedly. "Alright, alright, you're forgiven," the spearwoman said, "Let's get to searching, shall we?" As they started to walk down the dark corridors, Ari noted Thaniel suddenly taking a great interest in the dowsing crystal as he passed the window that had provided minimal lighting to their arrival area. "Are you sure you're okay?" she asked, the dark and silent environment compelling her to whisper, even though they were completely alone, "I know you're not comfortable going out, and I don't want you having a panic attack and summoning the tower in the middle of the museum." He held up a hand and made a dismissive gesture, but he didn't look away from the crystal. "Thank you, but I'm fi- I'm okay," he said, his tone as lowered as hers, "We're completely indoors, so that helps, and I'm more comfortable here in this academic setting, all the artifacts and displays around..." Ari wasn't totally convinced, but so far he did seem okay, so she left it at that. Thaniel, however, seemed interested in continuing to prove his calm, and gestured to a display case as they passed; it contained a pair of ornate daggers crossed into an X. "Look here, for example; when the hero of legend known as the Unseen One ran off with his beloved Princess Genesse, he left his blades behind, to show that he sought to live a quieter life with her," he said, suddenly reminding Ariella of one of the tutors her family had hired to see to her education when she was younger, "I remember reading that they were stuck through her wall, actually, holding up a letter she had written to the royal family explaining her actions. Shame paper doesn't age as well as Elven steel. Oh, and look over there, heh, it's a painting of your great-grandfather. I'm honestly surprised I didn't recognize the spear sooner..." Ari tilted her head at that and grinned. "I didn't realize you were so interested in history," she said, "I thought you magic users were all oblivious to anything that didn't involve spellcasting. Or do you make an exception for heroes?" Thaniel laughed softly at that, sounding much more relaxed, and turned to look at her as he opened his mouth to answer. Which is why he wasn't looking when he bumped into a man coming out of a doorless entryway into their corridor.
Head swivelling around, Thaniel let out a gasp as he realized they weren't alone, staggering backwards in fear. Before she realized what had happened, Ariella found herself in between the wizard and this interloper, spear in her hands, ready for action. Maybe her skills were a bit better than she'd thought. The man who'd stumbled across them, an otter-kin from the look of him, looked almost as alarmed as Thaniel, though this mostly seemed to be because of the glaring woman with the gleaming spear in her hands. He stepped back, raising his furry hands and shaking them, a universal gesture for 'no'. "Whoa, whoa, whoa!" he cried, his voice tinged with an accent Ari couldn't place, "Please! I mean you no harm, I swear! Please don't hurt me!" The spearwoman suddenly felt oddly self-conscious, as the man seemed harmless, but she hesitated, wondering if he was just trying to get her to let her guard down. Still staring at the head of her spear, the man swallowed, removing the small cap from his head and toying with it nervously. "Please," he said, much more quietly, "I'm nobody, I work for the museum, and I've got five children to feed and look after... I would be with them now, but that - that angry bunch showed up before I could leave for the day." Her muscles relaxed, but Ari didn't move the spear an inch. "What 'angry bunch'?" she asked, cautiously. The man regarded her as though she'd suddenly grown a second head, his whiskers twitching in agitation. "What do you mean, 'what angry bunch'?" the stranger responded, indicating a nearby window, "that angry bunch! Did you just not notice them on your way in? They're kind of hard to miss..." Finally raising her spear, Ari walked over to the window, keeping an eye on their surprise visitor, and took a look outside. After a moment, she turned to Thaniel, lips tight, brow wrinkled in worry. "Uhh, Thaniel?" she said, "We have a problem..." The wizard hurried over and reluctantly took a peek, and muttered to himself as he looked into the streets outside. "Ohhhhh, crap..." he breathed, as he gazed upon the site of dozens, maybe hundreds of people running through the streets with torches and clubs, smashing public property, setting things ablaze, and generally wreaking havoc all over the streets of Calastor. It seemed they'd teleported right into the middle of a full-scale riot. As they stood there, staring in horror at the rabble-rousers, the otter walked up behind and between them, and sighed loudly. "Crap, indeed."
Ari's first response was to turn to the wizard, desperation in her eyes. "I thought you were kidding when you said there would be an angry mob!" she said, more a protest than an accusation, "Did you actually know this would happen?" "No!" insisted Thaniel, "Well, not exactly... Calastor is way out in the middle of nowhere, with no enemies in particular, so they tend to focus mostly on their own politics. Ah, to the point where they kind of lose perspective about the importance of events and blow things out of proportion. They do this a lot, they've overthrown their leadership over things like the name of a street or making a statue out of shipped-in bronze instead of local iron." Ari swallowed, watching the streets worriedly. "This was the real reason you stuck the tower outside the city, isn't it?" she asked, "Because you knew the chances of - of that happening were pretty good." Thaniel nodded wordlessly. "And you didn't tell me because we'd be in here and you didn't want to worry me." Another nod. Ari felt a tap on her shoulder and turned to see the otter standing there. He'd replaced his hat, and Ari now noticed that he was wearing a short cape that only went halfway down his back, which she assumed was the fashion in the area. "Er, pardon my interruption, miss," he said, "I've not the faintest idea what you lot are talking about, moving towers and such, but if your reactions are anything to go by, you got here without being outside first. I don't suppose you can go back the same way you came?" He cleared his throat. "And I don't suppose there'd be any room for one more on your way back? I don't actually live in the city, see, much too dangerous for my tastes, it's a village a few miles from here, so if you could get me outside the city walls safely, I'd be more than happy to forget I saw a couple of thieves wandering the museum's halls..." Ari cringed, belatedly realizing how they must look. "Wh - no, wait! We're not thieves!" she insisted, "Well, okay, we kinda broke in, but we're not here to steal anything, promise!" The otter looked back and forth between the noble and the wizard with a blank expression on his face. "So... you just wanted to avoid the admission fees? There are better times to see the sights than the middle of the night..." he said, "In the middle of a riot..." Thaniel spoke up this time, saving Ari the trouble of further embarrassing herself. "Look," he said, "we're here to investigate an artifact that was once displayed here, it seems there was a very powerful curse associated with it, and we need to find the artifact in order to break said curse." Ari moved to sling the spear onto her back again, then glanced out the window and thought better of it before she spoke up again. "Hey, you said you worked here, right?" she said, "I don't suppose you could tell us where the records are kept? We're looking for a right-handed gauntlet, made of - what'd you call it, Thaniel, darksteel? Darksteel. And it would have gone missing years and years ago." One of the otter's ears gave a twitch at that, and he tilted his head slightly. "A darksteel gauntlet, you say?" he murmured, "You're looking for the Night's Right Hand?" Ari and Thaniel exchanged a glance at that, the spearwoman raising her eyebrows as Thaniel asked the obvious question with his eyes. They looked back to this curious interloper and Thaniel began to wiggle one of his fingers, tapping one of his rings against the staff in his hand. It took Ari a second to realize he was just fidgeting, rather than casting a spell of some kind. This was hardly the time or the place for muffins anyway.
"The Night's Right Hand, huh?" asked Ari, "That's interesting. We didn't know it had a name. We were referencing the journal of the man who found it, and he just dropped it off at a museum since that's just what's done with ancient artifacts. He had no idea what it was called." Thaniel nodded as she spoke. "Indeed," the wizard added, "and it's somewhat curious that you would just so happen to know about exactly the artifact we were looking for when it was supposed to have been stolen, what, fifty years ago? Longer?" The man looked worried, eyes lingering on the staff and the spear, and began toying with his hands. "Well, I - I was down in the archive room just last week, supposed to be sorting old reports," he said, worriedly, "and, see, it's a dreadfully boring job, and I found myself lingering on the more interesting ones, reading up on some of them. And, uh, the most interesting one by far was the Night's Right Hand, also called the Lost Glove of Pitch and the Midnight Hand. Seems it was kind of infamous back in its day. There's two of them, you know, though no one's seen the Dusk Hand, I guess you could also call it the Night's Left Hand, in close to three hundred years. Well, at least if they have, they haven't told anyone about it... Look, I'm just a paper pusher, and it's just a lucky coincidence. I think I can even show you where the report said they displayed it, it's over in the antiquities wing, on account of it being so old." As the spellcaster and the spearwoman exchanged another glance, the otter whimpered. "Did I mention my five kids? They'd be lost if something happened to me..." He flinched as Ari laid a hand on his shoulder, then relaxed when she followed it up with a smile, as opposed to sticking her spear in his gut. "Relax, friend, we mean you no harm," she said, "If you could show us where this gauntlet was kept, we'd be happy to find you a safe route out, right Thaniel?" The wizard nodded somewhat distractedly, murmuring 'of course' while he looked down at one of his charms, and the otter sighed in obvious relief. "Well then," he said, "the name's Ben Calhoun, miss. It's good to meet you."
With that, the three of them, lead by the otter, made their way downstairs, towards the other side of the museum, all three pairs of eyes flicking to the massive front doors as they passed the grand entrance. As of yet, no rabble-rousers were banging on it with pitchforks and torches, but the night was young. All was not tranquil, though; they could hear the sheer mass of the crowd outside as they yelled and argued and generally made a mess of their fair city, and the windows glowed with the dancing orange lights of distant fires. "I was wondering, Ben," Thaniel asked, averting his eyes from said windows, "How exactly were you navigating the hallways? I didn't see a light on you, and your race isn't known for night vision." As he spoke, the wizard gestured unnecessarily towards the orb of light still lazily circling above him. The otter glanced up at it and shrugged, pointing towards his face, which confused Ari until he explained himself. "Oh, the wife hates it when I leave a candle on to read at night, see, so I saved up and bought myself a pair of enchanted lenses," Ben said, glancing behind them towards the door, "You put them directly on your eyes, y'see, and they let you see in the dark as well as a cat-kin, or a dwarf, even. When I started taking the late shift I began to bring them to work with me, comes in handy in the winter when the sun goes down early." Ari nodded, her mind briefly going back to a tutored lesson where she learned that, building most of their cities underground, Dwarves could see in the dark almost as well as in the light. Then she remembered that it was her not-quite-late uncle who had given her that lesson, and forced her mind back to present thoughts, like how unpleasant she found the idea of putting something directly on her eyes. They walked the rest of the way to the antiquities wing in silence, Ari decidedly creeped out by the way the exhibits looked when lit from beneath by her companion's orb of light, an elaborate sculpture suddenly taking on an ominous character all its own, the empty eye sockets of an ancient animal's skeleton seeming to stare at her as she passed, waiting for the right moment to strike. When they reached the door, Ben rummaged through his pockets and produced a key before using it to unlock the door. It required a bit of fidgeting, and after a moment, he looked over his shoulder, grinning apologetically and slightly embarrassedly. "Heh... sorry, it sticks sometimes, old lock..." he said, returning his attention to the task at hand, before managing to get it open. Ben and Ari started to walk through, only to be halted by a hand falling on each of their shoulders. Thaniel had an odd look on his face. "Wait," was all he said, before digging in his pocket and producing the dowsing crystal. As he fiddled with it, Ari noticed that he'd let go of his staff to grab both of them, and the thing had stayed standing perfectly straight up, as if it was a tree he'd planted on that spot. Oddly convenient, that. She was mildly amused by this, and wasn't sure why. Thaniel looked up, a grim look on his face. "Look," he said, just as thorough as before, and held up the crystal. Inside was just the faintest hint of a shimmery light. "It's detecting already, there's definitely traces of the curse in this wing."
Indicating that they should remain where they were, Thaniel took his staff and gave the orb of light a nudge, and it floated through the door and began to illuminate the room beyond. Ari took in the sight of, well, an empty hallway, and then looked at Thaniel, who was leering into the room, eyes squinted in focus. Finally, she found the need to speak up. "...What are you doing?" she asked, simply. The wizard glanced at her and then back through the door as the orb continued wandering the halls, lighting up the doorless entryways to the main rooms in the wing. "I'm looking for traps," Thaniel deadpanned, "You never know what to expect when dealing with artifacts like this!" Snorting in surprise, Ben shook his head as he chuckled to himself. "Traps?" the otter said, incredulously, "You do know that this place is open to the public, right? The door was only locked because it's closed. People go up and down that hallway all the time!" The light was currently at the opposite end of the hallway, completing one of its wobbly orbits, but even in this dimness, Ari could see the blush on the wizard's face. "...Oh. R-right," he muttered, obviously greatly embarrassed, "S-sorry, I just - I guess I got carried away with the danger outside and how dark it is, it just sort of, um, felt like one of those ancient temples that Xander Shieldfall was always exploring in the stories about him..." He coughed, rubbing the back of his neck as he struck the floor with the bottom of his staff, and the orb reversed course and hurried back over to them at an unusually energetic pace. As Thaniel walked through the door, head hanging down, muttering something that was probably 'let's just go', Ben shook his head again. "Xander Shieldfall? What are you, nine?" the otter asked, crossing his arms, "I wonder if you'd even recognize a trap were you looking straight at it..." Ari's first instinct, as a noble of New Parsonus, was to correct the man's grammar, but shrugged it off and moved on to her second instinct, which was to put her free hand on her hip and frown at the only person who was actually supposed to be here, knowing he could see her expression in the dark. "Hey, lay off, he doesn't get out much," she hissed under her breath, "I'll have you know that Xander Shieldfall is the one who brought that stupid gauntlet here in the first place, he's very important to this - this case." She suddenly found herself wondering what, exactly, the word for this endeavour of theirs was, finding it embarrassing just considering the word 'adventure'. Ben held up his hands as if in surrender, a silent apology of sorts, and then followed the spellcaster into the Antiquities Wing. Suddenly finding herself alone in the dark, Ariella quickly followed.
For the most part, the wing was disappointingly non-ominous, filled with old pots and vases, tablets with astonishingly ancient images carved into them, but as they delved deeper into the halls, the wizard grew more agitated; he would walk, crystal held before him, around the rooms, seemingly at random, the light growing brighter or dimmer, though never quite as strong as it had been back in the tower when it detected the curse on Ariella. The thing she couldn't figure out was that it didn't seem to be leading anywhere in particular; they'd get a hit in an empty corner, then another one on the opposite end of the same room behind a bench, and then another one in a different room down the hall, on a pedestal currently supporting a child's doll surviving from an earlier era. It was like playing a game of 'hot and cold' with a child who didn't actually know where the goal was. She was beginning to worry that the gauntlet had been stored in some kind of otherworldly bubble like the 'pockets' where Thaniel kept his stuff while it wasn't being poofed into existence, when the wizard sighed and shook his head. "I have to admit, I hadn't anticipated this," he said, clearly cross, "The crystal detects the curse where the gauntlet would have been sitting, since the energy would have seeped into the walls and such around it. At first I thought maybe they'd displayed it in a room that's now behind the walls or something, but the hot spots I'm getting aren't forming any coherent pattern. Took me too long to figure it out, too, should have been obvious." Letting out a heavy sigh that was almost a growl of frustration, he turned to face the other two would-be adventurers. "It seems they didn't just display the thing in one spot, they moved it around from place to place while they had it in their collection, rearranging the exhibits for - for whatever reason. I'm detecting it in all of these places because it's been in all of these places, but it wasn't sitting in any of them long enough to leave a strong enough trace behind for me to recalibrate this thing." He let go of his staff to hold the crystal with both hands, practically pouting by this point, and grumbled to himself as the staff wobbled to and fro for a moment before righting itself and standing perfectly straight. Finally, Thaniel sighed, slumping his shoulders as he did so, closing his eyes and letting his face slacken. "I'm sorry, Ari," he said, quietly, "I was hoping that by getting a strong reading left behind by the gauntlet itself, I would be able to tune the crystal to be much more sensitive to it, maybe we could have tracked it across the land..." There was a moment of silence as this sank in; even Ben looked discouraged, and he'd just met them. "Well, I've half a mind to be a tad relieved," Calhoun started, "Reading about that particular artifact, I can't imagine any good coming of tracking it down... but I'm still sorry. The records didn't say anything about the display being moved, just that the Night's Right Hand was kept down here, and that it went missing without a trace some fifty years past. Seems one of the museum's curators also went missing at the same time, most assume that he stole the thing to pawn it off on the black market." He sighed, crossing his furry arms. "Apt name for a place that'd trade in things like that," he muttered, frowning at the thought of it.
The three of them stood there for a while, solemn as statues in the clean white light of the orb above them, still silently circling the wizard's head. Finally, Ari looked up, a thought having popped into her head. "Ben, did that report happen to say how the curator stole it?" she asked, "This place has a lot of locks, and I would assume that if the museum knew what the gauntlet was, they wouldn't just leave it sitting on a pedestal waiting to be snatched by any random thief like a loaf of bread in a bakery." The otter looked surprised, his whiskers twitching as he furrowed his brow in concentration. "Hmmm... there was supposed to be a file about the investigation, but a lot of their - our, I guess - papers from that time seemed to get lost in a coup, something about Calastor's written history being biased, they don't need much excuse to overthrow the powers that be in this town..." he said, "I did gather that they had absolutely no idea how he did it. He was staying the night to work on some research, and no one ever saw him leave the museum. Perhaps he used some kind of magical spell. Speaking of which, if we're not going to be able to track the Midnight Glove..." Ari wasn't listening anymore, though, clearly lost in her thoughts as she stepped away from the men, eyes far away and unfocused. "Damn..." she muttered to herself, "Double damn! If they just portaled out of here, they could have gone anywhere in the world, and the gauntlet could be anywhere by now..." Behind her, Thaniel spoke up, scratching his chin. "Actually, unless you're using a specialized room like the one in my tower, the range of a portal is extremely limited," he said, thoughtfully, "I mean, it would certainly get you out of the building, almost definitely out of the city if the spellcaster knows what he's doing, but teleportation magic takes a long time to learn properly, and I doubt a museum curator could hide the fact that he'd taken significant magical study. I suppose he could use a blink charm to get outside, but then I don't think he'd be able to take the gauntlet with him unless he was wearing it, and considering what it did to the man who just picked it up, I don't even want to know what... Ari?" The noble had started to turn to face her friend as he began pondering the problem to himself, only to stop mid-turn, facing one of the side walls of the room, which was dedicated to the military history of Rilodell (just down the hall from the popular displays of well-preserved weapons of ages past). Without looking towards him, Ariella beckoned the wizard after her as she slowly stepped forward. "Thaniel?" she asked, "Bring the light over here, would you?" Curious, he followed her as she walked over to the wall, intently focused on a rather large wood carving stuck on the wall, described by a nearby placard as a local artist's depiction of the Battle of Gundforth Pass, in which the Tebrunese army, lead by King Thaurr IV, were flanked while trying to assault the stronghold of the House of White Roses, one of the bickering noble houses plunging the nation of Gundywood into civil war, a war that had recently spilled over into the neighbouring kingdom of Tebrun, hence His Majesty's interest in the conflict. Although the scene was carved into a single, massive piece of wood, it contained dozens of individually detailed soldiers and warriors, the armour of the two armies distinctly different enough that even in this monotone image, the Tebrunese forces could clearly be differentiated from the flanking White Rose soldiers. "Miss?" came Ben Calhoun's voice from behind them, "You feeling well? It's a beautiful piece, to be sure, but this really isn't the time to be admiring the exhibits..." Ari silently lifted a hand and pointed to the centre of the image, where the most intricately detailed figure of all, the regal countenance of King Thaurr himself, was fending off a swordsman - while behind him, one of his soldiers had moved his shield to block a spear meant for the king, at the cost of being skewered by a second spearman since his own defence was gone. "There," Ari breathed, "that's Ilas Shieldfall sacrificing himself to save the King of Tebrun, it's how the family name came to exist in the first place."
There was something akin to awe on the noble's face as her eyes wandered the carving, taking in every detail, every clash of wooden weapons, every fallen soldier and lost, broken shield, even the trees in the background and the far away parapets of the castle home of the House of White Roses. "I must have read about this battle a thousand times when I was a child," she breathed, "It didn't just create one of the strongest noble families in Rilodell, it was the beginning of lasting peace in the region, you hear historians endlessly discussing how things would have been different if Ilas hadn't sacrificed himself..." Thaniel smiled even as their otter companion kept looking at the windows nervously. "Please, gentle friends, we must get going, I'm afraid of what might happen if we linger..." he said, wringing his hands. The wizard reached out for Ari's shoulder, apparently agreeing with him, but stopped at an unexpected outburst. "Wait!" Ari cried, head snapping back in shock, "That's wrong!" Frowning, the wizard glanced back and forth between the image and the spearwoman, before just giving up and asking. "What's wrong, Ariella?" The heiress pointed to a rather tall man with a hammer standing at the edge of a group of Tebrunese soldiers, seemingly looking back over the ranks at the sacrifice of Ilas. Ari found herself rather irritated that she had to explain, as if it should be common knowledge, but forced herself to be civil, reminding herself that most people had no reason to study up on a centuries-old conflict, especially if they didn't live in the region. She suddenly wondered how many people in her own hometown of New Parsonus were even aware of the battle. Shaking the thought aside, she turned to the wizard and explained. "That man there, with the hammer, he's a knight named Sir Gillius, and he's a general," she said, "But he's on the wrong side! He fought for the House of White Roses, not the Royal Tebrunese Army. He didn't even have a surname, much less a noble bloodline, he'd never have been allowed to rise to the rank of general in the Royal Army back in those days. And look! Here!" She pointed to a different figure, a fellow carrying a sword in each hand. "This is David Toth, it has to be!" she said, frustrated, "See? He has the lion head breastplate that was a symbol of his family! And they put him on the wrong side as well, like they traded him to the White Roses for Gillius!" The wizard shrugged helplessly, a bit out of his depth. His obsession with Xander Shieldfall had not extended to the origins of his family, so he knew nothing about this war, though he vaguely remembered reading about the reign of Thaurr IV here and there. "I'm sorry, Ari, I don't know what to say," he admitted, "I guess the artist made a mistake, or they had the details wrong..." Ari shook her head, frowning. "No, no, no..." she muttered, "If they got the armour designs wrong or showed King Thaurr fighting Lord Thrace himself, that would be one thing, people make mistakes and there's such a thing as artistic licence, but these men were heroes of the battle! Gillius' unit fought to the last man to try and keep the King's men from encroaching on the castle, and Toth fought on even after taking two arrows instead of retreating to the medical tents." She put a hand on her hip and glared at the inaccuracy as if she could will the carving to correct itself. "To put Sir Gillius and David Toth on the wrong sides of the Battle of Gundforth Pass would be like painting a portrait of Bragus of the White Leaf and making him Human, or, or..." she trailed off as she continued to stare at the carving. Something was niggling at her about the errors. Sir Gillius wasn't ordering the men around him to charge, or pointing in shock at the death of Ilas Shieldfall, he was just standing there... with his back to the 'enemy' army. And Toth had his back arched, as if he was shrugging off the arrow sticking out of it. That may or may not have been an exaggeration, as the man fought on the frontlines for the rest of the battle and even fully recovered afterwards, but there were no archers behind him, on either side of the conflict. There was, however, a White Rose sniper, empty bow in hand, perched in a tree to the side, seemingly having just fired a shot at nothing, an empty spot on the battlefield, with soldiers of both armies clashing all around, none of them showing any signs of having been shot or blocked an arrow. And in between that spot and Toth, a pair of dead spearmen lay on the ground, their weapons fallen from cold hands to form a shape not entirely unlike an equals sign... in fact, as she looked closer, she realized that the spears were perfectly parallel. Having a sudden thought, she glanced up to Gillius, and saw an empty spot in the defensive lines of the White Rose army, preparing to clash with the charging Tebrunese soldiers... with a pair of fallen spears lying next to it.
Behind Ariella, Thaniel was saying something to Ben, no doubt trying to calm the man's nerves, but she didn't hear a word, focused intently on the scene before her, on the spears next to the misplaced soldiers. The tips of the weapons went just behind each of the figures, and as she continued to scrutinize the scene, she realized something strange; those particular spears, unlike all the other objects and characters in the scene, were carved into the wood, not sticking out of it; a clever trick of the carving made them appear to be projecting forward the same as any other spear, and both men were far from Ilas and Thaurr, the focus of the tableaux. Taking a deep breath, Ari reached forward and placed a hand on the miniature Sir Gillius. Behind her, she heard Thaniel gasp 'wait, what are you doing?', but she paid it no heed as she gently, though firmly, applied pressure to the right, towards the White Rose army... and the figure of Sir Gillius slid on well-hidden tracks until he was standing with his own men, facing the enemy Tebrunese, hammer at the ready to defend against their charge. As he reached the end of the tracks, there was a quiet, though distinct, click in the wall behind the carving. "Seven gods..." Ari breathed, "It's not an exhibit... it's a lock." "A lock? What do you mean, a lock?" demanded Ben, suddenly more curious than afraid. Ignoring that, Ari quickly grabbed the figure of David Toth and slid him away from the White Rose army and to the left, into the melee where the two armies clashed; suddenly, the two fallen spearmen were clearly his handiwork, having slumped away from the warrior's twin swords, and a man who had appeared to be belatedly drawing his sword was now holding it up defensively, as Toth recoiled from the shock of being shot in the back with a sniper's arrow, though Ari knew perfectly well that even with another joining it soon, it wouldn't be enough to stop the Tebrunese hero from performing his duty. There came another click as the scene was set back to historical accuracy, and then the blank wall next to the exhibit swung in on itself, revealing a set of stone stairs that descended into darkness.
All three of the motley crew looked down into the blackness, the men with somewhat dumbfounded expressions on their faces, Ari bearing the kind of triumphant, excited grin normally found on game-winning eight-year-olds. Stepping forward, she peered down past the cobwebs, but couldn't make anything out past the bottom steps and the stone floor they lead to. "It's a secret passage!" she cried, somewhat unnecessarily, "The curator didn't use magic to escape with the gauntlet, he just used this tunnel! Seven sentinels, I can't believe they kept this thing hidden for all these years with a 'please do not touch' sign!" Shaking his head behind her, Thaniel grinned, astonishment clear in his voice. "Incredible. The door must be entirely mechanical, none of my charms detected it at all," he muttered, "Well done, Ari! Very well done! If you hadn't been such a scholar of the Battle of Gundforth Pass, this trip would have been a dead end." The wizard turned to the otter next to him, his smile shifting into a delighted smirk. "Ah, I don't suppose there might be traps down there?" Suddenly looking a little embarrassed for mocking the wizard earlier, Ben Calhoun averted his eyes, studying his feet. "W-well, historically speaking," he stuttered, "secret passageways aren't known to have traps inside them, the t-trick is in knowing how to get in in the first p-place..." Impatiently, Ari beckoned the others after her. "Well? What are you guys waiting for?" she asked, stepping onto the first of the staircase's steps, "Maybe there's some kind of clue to where the thief took the gauntlet, and we can pick up the trail there!" She turned to hurry down the stairs, then remembered the obvious and stopped, blushing. "But, uh, maybe you should go first, Thaniel, since you've got the light and all..." Ari stepped out of the way as the spellcaster cautiously began to descend the stairs, waving his staff in front of him to do away with the worst of the cobwebs, the light revealing a smooth stone passage that continued forward into the dark, unremarkable in every way save for its highly unusual door mechanism. Swallowing audibly, Thaniel made his way further down the hidden corridor, Ari close behind him, spear at the ready (though to be honest, she had her doubts about using the lengthy thing in these close quarters). They'd barely gone ten feet, though, when the light behind them suddenly went away with the sound of grinding gears, and they turned to see the door closing back into place with a click, Ben standing next to it with his hand on a lever on the wall.
Ari turned around to face the otter, unconsciously coming to point her spear in his direction. "What did you do?!" she asked, not quite willing to accept what her eyes were telling her. "S-sorry," he said, "I just thought - well, there's that riot going on outside, and if they spill into the museum, now we'll be safe. N-now that you've shown me how the lock works, I'll be able to show it to the other staff... assuming the building survives the night." The noble shook her head, getting frustrated with the man's fearful nature by this point. Of course, she reminded herself, he was a scholar, and had even less experience facing danger than she did, so she couldn't really blame him. "Alright, alright," she muttered, beckoning him closer to the light, "just give us a head's-up next time... and you shouldn't go pulling random switches in creepy secret passages anyway, might be one of those traps you two keep bringing up." Looking suitably chastised, Ben nodded and followed closely behind them as they walked down the tunnel. The orb of light, which had automatically dropped closer to Thaniel's head to compensate for the lower ceiling, was doing a great job of lighting the area around the wizard, allowing them to see every chip and scratch in the walls, every wispy strand of cobweb hanging from the ceiling, and an uncomfortably nice look at a dead rat to the side of the passage at one point, but Ari found herself wishing the thing had a bit more distance to it, anything more than about six or seven feet away may as well not have been there at all. After a fairly long walk, the path before them began to change, the corridor getting taller and wider, as if making room for something. Then they came upon a large wooden door, looking quite sturdy and very well preserved, considering it seemed unlikely that anyone had been down here in decades. Thaniel and Ari exchanged a glance, and the spearwoman saw that her friend was just as uncertain about this as she was. The path continued on past the door, but it would be irresponsible, and more than a bit foolish, of them to just ignore it and keep going. They had to at least check. Finding herself whispering, Ari stepped towards the old ring handle, which only had the merest traces of rust here and there. "You'd better be able to fix me if this thing curses me into a toad," she muttered, aware of the fact that she was just procrastinating, "or erases my memory, or makes me bright blue, or worse, turns me into a man..." Cringing, she reached forward, grabbed the metal ring, and gave a good, solid yank, looking away as she did so, and - the door swung open easily and smoothly, albeit with a hell of a squeak from its old hinges. Ari found herself somewhat embarrassed after all the fuss she'd put up while working herself up to it, and coughed, looking down at her feet as Thaniel stepped through the doorway. "Oh dear," he said, softly, "Ari, you'd better take a look at this."
Bracing herself, wondering what she'd gotten herself into this time, Ari tentatively followed Thaniel through the door, into a very large room with a few tables and shelves. It distinctly gave her the impression of a storeroom, though she wasn't honestly sure why. She could see what the wizard had been troubled by, though, as he was standing directly in front of a chair that was still occupied. "Oh dear indeed," she said, in an equally hushed tone. Ben, walking up beside her curiously, said nothing, but he frowned, whiskers twitching, and he removed the little cap atop his head and held it over his heart. They had discovered a corpse, one that was either human or something close to it, and it had been there for a very, very long time, mostly just bones and dust by this point, wrapped in long-faded old clothes. The body had both hands pressed to its right side, and the shirt there was covered in a large, noticeable brown stain with a cut in the middle. None of them said what they were all thinking; this man had been stabbed and managed to get to this chair before bleeding out, lost and forgotten in this lonely tunnel. The three of them just stood there, perhaps observing a moment of silence for whoever this poor devil was, before Ari finally spoke up, voice hushed, almost reverent. "So... what do we do?" she asked, "Do we tell someone? We'd have to tell them where we found the body and what we were doing here, and the murder probably happened decades ago..." She tensed up a moment as she felt Thaniel's hand fall on her shoulder, embarrassed to realize that for just one split-second, she'd worried it might be the man's ghost, come to take vengeance against the living. It wouldn't be the first time, after all. But the wizard just shook his head, eyes still locked on the corpse. "Even if we knew who to tell about this," he whispered, "I believe you'll find the city guard, the constabulary, all the powers that be in this city rather have their hands full at the moment." Ari nodded, but she frowned as she looked back to the body. "Still doesn't feel right..." More quiet introspection, and then, as he slipped his hat back on, Ben leaned forward curiously. "Oi, what's that?" Ari followed his thumb with her eyes and realized there was an envelope on the table in front of the body; it hadn't been immediately apparent in this light because years of neglect had faded the paint on the table bone white, and that, combined with the dust covering the table, the envelope, and the remains, had served to make it oddly subtle. Clearing his throat, the wizard studied his shoes. "I nominate Ben to pick it up," he said, to the otter's dismay, "he's the only one here wearing gloves." Calhoun's eyes widened in protest, but before he uttered a word, he sagged down in surrender, whiskers twitching with the agitation so obvious in his eyes. "Oh alright, fine," the civilian grumbled, "but all that crap she said about getting cursed goes double for me!" Reaching forward, cringing, the short furry man gingerly took hold of the envelope and, lifting it, gave it a good shake to disperse the dust that had collected thickly on its surface. Turning it over revealed the letters "A.H.", the ink still dark and legible, perhaps because it had not been exposed to the stale air. Opening it, and finding it was either unsealed or had been there so long the glue had decayed, the otter removed the paper within, unfolded it, then squinted and began to read.
"To whomever should find this letter and my body; If I am very recently deceased, I'll cut right to the chase and tell you that my murderer is likely taking the eastern road to Biggson, and encourage you to try and find him, that justice may be done. However, if, as I consider exceedingly more likely, many years have passed since my death, know that I was once Artesh Hortmeyer, locator of antiquities and proud curator at the Historical Museum of Calastonia. The room where you have found me was constructed by me and a small group of like-minded individuals who recognized that certain of the artifacts that the city would blindly put on display like trophies or medals could be used by those with ill intent to no small amount of harm for the world. So we devised this hidden storeroom to hide and contain the artifacts until such time as the local guard give up on the search, at which time the back half of the tunnel could be used to spirit them out of the city and into the hands of those who would hide them from the world, to keep the people safe. Unfortunately, a group of the very miscreants we operated in fear of, a cult known as the Seekers of the Forsaken, have somehow worked out the location of our storehouse. Sadly, I only realized this when the bastards came storming down the hall in pursuit of me. I was no match for them, having let my guard down upon taking the artifact they sought into the tunnels, an ancient gauntlet of awesome, though terrible power known to most as the Midnight Glove, but referred to by them as the Night's Right Hand, brought to us by a wandering explorer who found it deep in some kind of ruin. At any rate, where the blasted thing came from isn't as important as where it's going. The fiend who did me in was good with a knife; we both knew this was a fatal wound, and so he and his men ignored me, as they did the other meagre artifacts we had yet to evacuate from this place, but it left me with just enough life to crawl to this chair and pen this final message. Whoever you are, however much time has passed, I beg you to heed my words: I overheard the brigand who murdered me speaking with one of his compatriots, clearly not caring if a dead man heard their words, and he said that he planned to betray his clients, believing now that he saw the glove that he could get a much higher price for it on the black market. For once, a thief's loyalty could work in our favour, for if he spoke truly, it means the Seekers will be unable to get their hands on the gauntlet, and be unable to enact whatever dark plans they had for it, for at least a little while longer. I can feel the end coming now, so I will beseech you, as the reader of my last words: follow the trail to Biggson. Track down the gauntlet. Keep it away from the Seekers of the Forsaken. The kind of power contained in that glove could bring catastrophic harm to Rilodell, perhaps all the world. Only when it is destroyed will my spirit rest easily. Only when it is destroyed will we all be safe."
"After that, there's just a fancy signature, 'Artesh V. Hortmeyer'," Ben finished, quietly. Ariella had been glancing back and forth between the body and the otter as he read, envisioning the man's final struggle in her mind. Thaniel leaned against his staff, stroking his chin, no doubt engulfed in similar thoughts. "And all this time," she said, "Everyone thought he just stole the glove and ran with it himself, no one had any idea he was down here or that he'd given his life for a cause. Poor Artesh..." To her side, the wizard sighed, shaking his head and frowning. "I feel for the man," Thaniel muttered, "but his message is decades out of date, and I don't understand all of it. Calastonia was renamed Calastor a while back, so it follows that the Historical Museum of Calastonia became the Calastori Museum of History and the Arts, but these other things he says... I'm unfamiliar with any town named Biggson in the area, to the east or otherwise, and I'm most perplexed with this cult that was after him." Finally seeing fit to put her spear back in its sheath on her back, Ari crossed her arms and humoured him. "Why's that?" she asked. Thaniel just frowned even harder, not looking directly at anything. "He says he was being pursued by the 'Seekers of the Forsaken'. Well, I'm not exactly an expert in the Black Script of warlocks, but I consulted some books to make sure my translation was accurate, and they're not mentioned anywhere in the rubbing Xander made of the pedestal he found the gauntlet on in the first place. It did mention a group called, uh, the Brotherhood of the something something, but no Seekers." On Ariella's other side, Ben hummed, whiskers twitching in concentration, brow furrowed in thought. "Hmmm... there is a city to the east of here, North Nolan, that was created when a bunch of smaller towns in the area grew big enough to join together under one leadership," he said, "I couldn't name any of them off the top of my head, but maybe one of them was Biggson. Never heard of that cult, though." Thaniel nodded gratefully at the new information, and Ari felt that thin ray of hope once again, that maybe this was going somewhere, maybe they really could find a way to break the curse. "Thanks for the help, Ben," she said, genuinely, "Say, can I have that letter? It might help our investigation later." The otter nodded congenially and handed it over. "Here, take the envelope too," he said, glancing back at the body, "You know, I actually feel a bit guilty about this." Finally looking up from his ruminating, Thaniel raised an eyebrow. "Why's that?" the wizard asked, "He was dead before you were born." Ari gave him a Look, the kind of withering glare all females are secretly capable of, but said nothing. Ben just glanced over like he'd bitten into something sour. "Not the murder, you - Look, I've studied some of this man's work from before he disappeared, he was the one who wrote up the report for the museum in the first place," Calhoun continued, "I should have suspected his intentions to keep the artifact from the hands of villains who would use the glove for evil." Ari walked over and put a hand on his shoulder. "It's alright, Ben. Nobody knew," she said, softly, "Artesh tried so hard to keep his secret that it backfired on him after his death. The truth will get out now, though, right?" The otter smiled slightly at that. "You're right," he whispered, "when things calm down in the city, I'll see about setting the record straight, and getting Mr. Hortmeyer here a proper burial." Thaniel cleared his throat, indicating the doorway. "Well, now that we've got that settled, I don't think there's anything more we can do here," he said, gently, "so we may as well head down the other side of the tunnel to find this exit Artesh mentions in the letter."
* * *
A short time later, a long-ignored grate on the side of one of Calastor's city walls slowly creaked open, and after Ari peeked out and took a good look around, finding only tall grass that hadn't been cut in months, perhaps years, the trio emerged from the depths, Thaniel somewhat reluctantly, given the wide-open space they found themselves in. "Well, Mr. Calhoun," said the wizard, "this has been a most interesting, ah, collaboration. I'm glad we were able to help you." Ari beamed at their ally and nodded. "That makes two of us. And thank you for helping us!" she added, "Be careful on the road, Ben, I don't hear any rioters, but it could be dangerous." Ben pshawed at that, waving a hand dismissively. "Oh, I'll be fine, don't you worry about me, I know these roads like the back of my hand, and my village is straight down that path, through the forest," he said, cheerily, "Best of luck to the both of you, really... you'll need it if you're going to be breaking a curse." They thanked him politely, and then Thaniel made a series of gestures and summoned his tower to the adjacent field, rather impressing Ben, who waved goodbye as they walked in the front door, Ari returning his wave and Thaniel doing his best to look nonchalant and resist flat-out running. When the door had closed behind them, the otter turned, a smile on his face, and started walking into the woods, whistling casually to himself. He'd only been walking for about two minutes when he caught sight of the tall robed figure standing just to the side of the path, under a tree, shaded from even the moon's subtle glow. Ben did not seem the least bit put off by this ominous character, and in fact even clicked his tongue as he approached.
"I was wondering if you were going to show," Ben said, casually, "Beginning to worry you wouldn't keep your end of the bargain." The figure did not move, did not look out from under that hood as he responded, his voice cold and clinical, though not detached. There was a very quiet irritation in his tone, like the man was extremely angry but had it firmly in check. As far as Ben could tell, the man always sounded like that. "You'll find, Mr. Calhoun, that we always live up to our word, even if our business associates do not," he said, managing to make it sound like a threat, "I assume you come with the information we sought?" The otter crossed his arms, not terribly intimidated by the figure's melodrama. "Yeah, that's a pretty safe assumption," he said, "You were pretty clear last time, with your little 'come back with the details or don't come back at all' speech." Sighing, he shook his head. "Alright, I can tell you're not really one for chit-chat, so I'll make it quick," Ben muttered, "Found bupkis in the museum, but it turns out there was a hidden path below the place, lock mechanism hidden in a display, very adventure novel. We found a dead man with a handy letter, said that the double-crosser who stole the gauntlet back in the day was headed east with it, somewhere called Biggson. I'm thinking it's one of the little villages that got absorbed into North Nolan. Here, I jotted down the important stuff in case your memory isn't as good as mine." He held out a piece of paper, and after a very deliberate pause, the hooded figure uncrossed his arms, removing his hands from the opposite sleeves, and reached out with a thin, pale hand to take the paper from the otter. "Who is 'we', Mr. Calhoun?" the man asked, his hands disappearing back into his voluminous sleeves. Ben sighed exaggeratedly. "You're welcome, it was no problem," he said, making a face, "Really though, that's the part of that explanation you focus on?" The man remained silent, so Ben rolled his eyes and continued. "So I slip in the back door and start looking around, no easy feat with that blasted riot going on by the way, and I just about jump out of my fur when I find two more people wandering around at the same time," he said casually, examining one of his gloves and frowning as he found a loose seam, "I swear, if I'd been paying more attention, they'd probably have gone down with throwing knives in their eyes before they could even gasp. Good thing, though, as it turns out, because they were looking for the same thing I was!" Ben was still looking at his hands, and so did not notice that at this, for the first time, his contact lifted his hooded head and looked directly at him, the man's eyes cold and focused, glowing ominously in the darkness that concealed the rest of his face.
"I told them I worked for the museum, passed the intel you gave me off as me doing research because I was bored," continued Ben, "and lo and behold, the three of us end up actually uncovering some valuable information. Feel just a little bit bad that I won't actually be telling anyone at the museum about that tunnel, or the dead man in it. Ah well, it's a good thing I met them, really; much as I hate downplaying my own skills, I don't think I could have found that passageway on my own, at least not with the time I had. Speaking of which..." Finally tugging off his gloves, Ben held up his right hand, the back of which was glowing with an arcane symbol. "I may have had some help, but I didn't spill the beans about our little arrangement, and I got you what you were looking for," he said, sternly, seemingly unconcerned that the man he was speaking to had glowing eyes. "So, with all due respect, friend, now I'd like you to live up to your end of the bargain. I mean, after finding out what happened the last time you hired a thief, I suddenly understand why you'd feel the need to protect your investment, but I still think putting an explosive rune on the back of my hand was a bit much!" The hooded figure remained staring at the otter, but once again pulled a hand out of his sleeves. Holding it up, he snapped his fingers, and the arcane symbol on Ben's hand winked out of existence. The thief breathed a sigh of relief and shook his head. "Thank you," he said, perhaps making a point about etiquette, "I was starting to worry it would go off while you were wasting time being all scary and ominous." "You would be surprised what it takes to motivate your kind, Mr. Calhoun," the figure said, quietly, "We used to have so much trouble in threatening their families, their friends, their accomplices. Seems some of you would sacrifice just about anything for more wealth. But what thief doesn't value his hands?" Crossing his arms again, the otter snorted, silently conceding the point. "Now," the man continued, "Tell me about these others and return the item we so graciously granted you to make the task easier, and I'll deliver the payment, as promised." Ben frowned, sighing regretfully as he retrieved a key from his pocket. "I'd been hoping you'd forget about this. I'd thought these were just a myth told by amateurs who can't pick a lock. Imagine what I could get up to with a key that could open any lock. Came in real handy at one point, by the way, not sure how I would have explained a museum employee having to pick a lock in his own workplace." He tossed the key to his contact, who reacted with impressive reflexes, one hand snapping out and grabbing the enchanted item in mid-air before returning to his usual stance once again. Without waiting to be prodded for it, Ben glanced back the way he came, feeling a minute spike of guilt for this part, something that surprised him.
"The other two were a pair of humans, a woman named Ari who carries a spear, high-class background from the sound of her voice, and a very odd wizard named Thaniel. Seems they're looking for the gauntlet so that they can break some kind of curse. Since I'm guessing you're more in the business of creating curses than breaking them, I don't think you have to worry about them beating you to whatever punch you're planning. Honestly, they seem a bit in over their heads. I played the coward card so they'd buy my cover story, kept fretting about the riot in the streets spilling into the museum. Kind of embarrassing, truth be told." He frowned suddenly, wrinkling his nose in agitation. "Oh, and by the way, thanks for telling me only you guys call that thing the Night's Right Hand," he snarked, "when the dead man's letter mentioned that, I thought for sure they would catch it, but they must not have thought too hard about it. Anyway, I'm certain they believed me from start to finish. Nice people. I wonder how in the world they got mixed up with the Midnight Glove." Ben's contact narrowed his eyes slightly, as if taking stock of the thief, before he uncrossed his arms, this time producing a bulging pouch of gold sovereigns from his sleeve and tossing it to the otter, who unashamedly opened it up right in front of him, grinning at the sight of all the money. "Now that's what I'm talking about!" Ben chuckled, "I've got five kids to feed, after all." The other man's tone remained as flat and neutral as ever, but Ben could swear there was a hint of condescension in it. "The last time we met, mere days ago, Mr. Calhoun, you said you had three children," he said, mildly embarrassing the thief, who hated being caught in a lie, "which I found interesting even then, as our background checks indicate that you have yet to father any offspring... that you know of." Ben shrugged his shoulders and smirked. "Okay, maybe I just like money, and having kids makes one sound more legitimate. Sue me. You got what you paid for, didn't you?" He cinched up the pouch and tied it onto his belt, then took a step back as his contact unexpectedly threw his hood back, exposing a human head, completely hairless and pale as the moonlight, with some kind of sigil carved painfully into his forehead. The man looked directly at Ben, maintaining eye contact, and the thief finally felt a little intimidated as he realized that the man's glowing red eyes never blinked. "Indeed I did, Mr. Calhoun, and the Seekers of the Forsaken thank you for your efforts in our name," he said, really putting the otter off with the sudden passion in his tone, "We will reclaim what is rightfully ours, what was taken from us fifty long years ago, and what we deserve as our birthright from our righteous forefathers in ages past!" Ben had no idea what that meant, but said nothing, wondering if the warlock was about to betray him the way his sect had been betrayed five decades earlier. But no, the man merely sniffed and re-crossed his arms. "These 'nice people' you mention, Mr. Calhoun," he said, in a much more quiet, restrained voice, "Judging by your obvious... affinity for them, I assume you ingratiated yourself in a similar way upon them? If their plans and our plans do not coincide - and I find it exceedingly unlikely that they would - we could use that to our advantage, allow you to get close to them to remove them from the equation. Speak plainly, otter-kin, you have proven your loyalty and will likely be called upon to serve the Seekers again. But if we should ask you to eliminate this wizard and noblewoman, would you have what it takes to see the job done?" Despite his contact's fearsome visage, Ben smiled warmly once again, crossing his arms - and suddenly producing a pair of wicked daggers that had been hidden in sheaths tucked under his armpits, hidden by the half-cape he wore. "If the price is right, my friend," Ben said, eyes glinting, "They won't even have time to scream."
Having narrowly avoided becoming permanently waterlogged, Ari and Thaniel continue their quest by investigating the museum that once housed the gauntlet that cursed Ari's family so many years ago. It's dark, there's a great big commotion outside, and there isn't much to go on, but they're a clever pair, and they've got a curious new friend to aid them.
So I felt it was high time I got the next chapter of Shieldfall posted. The bad news is that this one is the most recent chapter I've written, which means it'll definitely be a while before the next one. The good news is that if the ones I've already posted gather enough interest, I'll be encouraged to get around to writing some more. I hope you like this chapter, seemed to be my mother's favourite. n_n
Well, I'm not sure what you mean by the first line there, and I can't say why the Seeker reminds you of Judge Doom (though I love the comparison XD), but I'm rather glad you liked this chapter. n_n
Well, I'm not sure what you mean by the first line there, and I can't say why the Seeker reminds you
I'm afraid I'm not familiar with that particular author's work, but I'm flattered you would compare me to a published writer like that. Thanks, friend. n_n
I'm afraid I'm not familiar with that particular author's work, but I'm flattered you would compare
If this were the first three chapters to a published book, damn, I'd so buy it!
It has humour, the world setting and characters are unique, believable and very like-able, and the story has just all the right plot ingredients for one of these epic quests that I so love this entire genre for :)
I guess many fantasy novels use the same set of basic ingredients - stick a healer, a wizard, a fighter, a thief/rogue and a fool for the jokes together in a party on an epic quest - (sometimes with some of the roles filled by the same individuals at once, while one of them is "the hero")
That scheme seems to be the archetypical base for almost anything that fits somewhere between "the lord of the rings" and "the last unicorn" -- I think it's not avoidable when writing fantasy - yet I haven't seen any teleporting towers as the parties main means of travelling ever before! That's a bold design, immense power balanced delicately by the wizards fear of being outside as a character weakness, which makes it work really well in the story so far! (although I don't think many DM's would let me play that particular wizard in roleplay though, it'd be just too convenient to just pop in a fortified tower every time the party faced armed opposition ;) )
I also really liked the way you did the intro to everything using this shepherd, it's such a vivid and detailed picture, its almost as if watching the beginning of a great movie ;)
makes me want to watch more of it :)
btw, just a question: the exact nature of this family curse, did you know what it was going to be from the start or did you make this up on the fly as you wrote chapter 2 and interrupted Ariella over and over again? ;)
If this were the first three chapters to a published book, damn, I'd so buy it! It has humour, the
Thank you for the high praise, friend. I'm glad you liked these stories so much, I've got another chapter I need to get around to putting the finishing touches on, and it's comments like these that always encourage me to do so. n_n
To answer your question, yes, I had the nature of the curse planned from before I started writing chapter 1, which is why there's a reference in that chapter to her uncle being a touchy subject, though I admit not everything was pre-planned, like the story of how the Shieldfall family got their name, for instance.
I'll try to get chapter four ready soon, and I thank you again for reading. n_n
Thank you for the high praise, friend. I'm glad you liked these stories so much, I've got another ch
