As I put the materials down on the altar, Bahruun began to sort them out for ease of use. He then looked up at me. “It might be better if I handle this myself. In your agitated state, it’s likely the ritual would go wrong.” I hesitated for a moment. I was tempted to snap at him for his suggestion. However, he was right. “Ugh, fine. I get your point, as much as I hate to admit it. Let me just drop off the items.” I dropped the crystal pendant, maps and tome onto the altar and stepped back.
As Bahruun began the ritual, I kept my distance to not interrupt him. First, he rolled out a map of the entire Midlands. Then he took the crystal pendulum I brought and touched the orb just long enough to let the crystal absorb some of the magic from it. Bahruun began the incantation. The pendulum began to glow and tugged Bahruun’s hand as it moved across the map. Then slammed down onto the region the orb originated from.
Bahruun leafed through the more detailed maps and pulled out a map of the region and repeated the process, this time getting the city in question. As he read the city name, I could hear him swear softly under his breath. “Morgana, bad news.” Hoo boy. “Alright then. Spill it.”
Bahruun leafed through the map pile and pulled out the map of the city in question. Of course, it was Mendir. What did I expect? I took a deep breath. “Alright then, keep the magic going, we can track the creator once we get close enough.” Bahruun nodded as I approached and glanced into the box holding the cursed orb. The wood was turning black as the curse began to work on it, but it would hold, for now.
I sent the maps and tome back inside, then nodded back towards the waiting carpet. “Just give me a moment.” I went back inside and over to the mirror. Allen wouldn’t like this. A few moments later we were in the air and heading west-southwest. Bahruun was sitting in the middle of the carpet, with Millid in his lap, maintaining the tracking spell. Soot and Winter were next to me while Midnight was pacing around the carpet.
Bahruun looked up from where he was sitting. “Didn’t you say you would tell Allen about it if the culprit was from Mendir?” I glanced back at him. “I did, it’s why we didn’t leave the moment you found the location.” Bahruun’s expression was unreadable. “I take it he didn’t take it too well. He seemed rather upset at the idea after all.” I turned my attention back to my flying. “It was about as well as expected. I told him I would handle it, and I intend to do just that, even if that means invoking the treaty.”
“You what?” I glanced back at Bahruun, who looked pale as he stared at me. “I am dead serious, Bahruun. The orb was used to harm Irrunin, a fae creature. Not only that, but at the time said Barghest was working as the shepherd’s hound on Appleridge, whose farmers are, lacking a better term, my subjects, as they work my land as farmers. Sure, I view them as friends and not subjects, but from a legal perspective, that’s what they are. That means that Irrunin the Barghest, a Fae creature, was serving a Fae Lord on the Fae’s Land when someone somehow got him to consume that cursed orb. That’s about as cut and dried as you can get. And so will the city lord think should he try to refuse helping to apprehend the culprit.” I could see Bahruun was uncomfortable with the idea as I turned my attention back to the front.
“Look, I understand it’s overkill; it’s like using a boulder to crack an egg, after all. But if I have to enact the treaty to ensure the safety of Appleridge or anyone else who is a subject of mine, I will. Of course, I hope it won’t come to that, but as a ruler, I cannot afford to let threats to my land or those who live on it slide. Even more so when forbidden magic is involved.” Bahruun was now slowly nodding as he got to grips with my argument.
“It’s fair, heavy-handed to be sure, but given the situation, if Mendir refuses to cooperate on the subject, it is your only recourse outside of open warfare, which you can’t do.” I could hear it in his voice. He was not happy about it, understanding but not happy. Then again, who would be happy to see an entire city wiped off the map?
The carpet was now out of the forest, and underneath us we could see the road heading north from Mendir. I took a turn further south, and after only a few minutes we could see the landscape open up into a hilly plain, and shortly after the walls of Mendir came into view. As we neared the city, the road underneath us became more crowded, and so did the airspace, as dirigibles were one of the major modes of transporting goods to and from Mendir itself.
The dirigibles were nothing like those from Earth, however. Instead of balloons, the dirigibles were built around large chunks of crystallized magic. By infusing these crystals with elemental air or gravity magic, the crystals could cause movement or lift. The crystals usually stuck out of the top of the dirigible like a smokestack would on a cruise liner, while the biggest cargo airships used multiple for the sake of structural stability. Because of this, it wasn’t too much of a stretch to call them “air boats.”
Bahruun looked at them as we zipped past. “I take it we will be landing at the aerodrome?” I pulled us up over an oncoming airship and glanced back at Bahruun. “That was the general idea, it would be far faster than landing outside the city and waiting in line for customs. Besides, dignitaries have their own landing pad, and this is official business between Lady Byrne and Lord Eredhide, unannounced though it might be.”
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As I spoke, we flew into the city and headed towards the aerodrome itself. Soot hopped onto my shoulder. “Considering the visit will be unannounced I am guessing we will have to put on a bit of a show to make the guards believe us. Want me to handle it?” I reached up and scratched him under his beak. “I hope it won’t be necessary, as that would be yet another delay. However, if need be you can play the role of herald if you’d like, you little drama crow, you.” Soot gave me a playful peck in retaliation for calling him a crow.
It didn’t take long to reach the aerodrome itself, nor to find the sole unused landing pad. As we landed, it didn’t take long for security to arrive. “This area is off limits unless you are a dig-” Soot let out a loud and angry caw. The guard blinked, surprised about the sudden interruption, but before he could resume speaking Soot began his spiel. “You are in the presence of Lady Morgana Byrne, Ruler of the Wildwing Forest, Ferimal Swamp and honorary noble of both Summer and Winter Courts of the Sirdis Fae Court. We are here on urgent and official business and need to see Lord Eredhide immediately.”
The guards hesitated for a moment but then stepped aside. “We will take you to the Lord’s mansion, but we’ll be watching you.” I finished stashing the carpet, then walked past them without offering the guards a single glance. “I’d be disappointed if you didn’t, now let’s move, time’s wasting.” The trip through the streets was expedited thanks to the escort. A bit more high profile than I’d like, but time was of the essence right now.
As we arrived at the mansion, we were directed not towards the main building but to a smaller building beside it, where the lord held regular meetings with the bureaucrats and lesser nobles that helped run his domain. As we neared it, I glanced at the pendulum that Bahruun was holding. It was not pointing towards the building, suggesting the culprit was not inside. Good, that might mean surprise was still on our side.
As we entered the large hall, the room fell silent, their previous arguing about petty disputes forgotten by our sudden arrival. The assembled nobles gave us curious glances, but I didn’t really care, there were only three people in this room I cared about at this point. The Lord of Mendir, Lord Eredhide, his court mage, who would undoubtedly be a high-ranking member of the Mages Guild and the captain of the guard.
As we approached, Soot seemed ready to do the introductions again, but I gently tapped his beak, signaling that I’d handle the talking. “Assembled lords and ladies, I apologize for the abrupt and sudden intrusion into your daily business. However, because of an incident that has taken place I have been compelled to arrive before you to ask for your assistance.” The room remained dead quiet for a moment before one of the lesser nobles decided to speak up. And an old man who, by his tone viewed seniority above most other things. “And who might you be, to speak to your elders so casually, young lady?”
I glanced over at him. “Someone who’s over double your age, boy. Now be quiet, your elders are speaking.” He opened his mouth to give a reply, only to find he was struck mute. That got the attention of the court mage, as few people in the area could do silent magic, and fewer still that also matched my appearance. As the other nobles began to mumble loudly between themselves, she glanced at the mute and comically flailing noble, and I could have sworn I saw the hint of a smile for a moment. “Lady Morgana, that was unnecessary.”
I ignored the comment. “I don’t have time nor care to deal with overly self-important nobles right now, as the survival of your very city is at stake.” With a flourish, I opened the box containing the cursed orb, and the effect on the assembly was immediate. The nearest nobles went pale and fell back in their seats looking exhausted, while the court mage shuddered in disgust. Lord Eredhide sat up and looked at the thing with undisguised disgust. “I take it you have a reason for carrying such a horrid item, good lady?” His voice was strained but held an impressive amount of inner strength, as befitting a proper lord.
I closed the box again. “Someone from your city created this orb, or whatever it was before being an orb, and tried to use it against a farm within my domain. Not only is this an orb created using forbidden magic, but one worker on the farm where it was discovered was exposed to the orb directly.” The atmosphere turned to one of insecurity as several nobles, including Lord Eredhide, glanced at the court mage as if asking for confirmation of what the entire room now feared.
When she saw their glances, she took a deep breath. “Using a Gluttony rune combined with either a destruction or void rune is considered a crime worthy of a life sentence because of the devastation such an item can cause. However, using all three on the same item means whoever created it was only thinking of committing murder on a large scale. And in this case, the culprit is a citizen of our city and caused damage to a court Fae’s holdings. By rights, Lady Morgana could have just claimed a breach of the Treaty of Folk and Fae and moved on. I can only surmise the reason Lady Morgana hasn’t done so is that she is feeling merciful towards the city or particularly vindictive towards the culprit.”
You could have heard a pin drop in the silence that followed. “My focus is to get my claws on the culprit and make sure that they and their entire operation are shut down permanently. I would prefer not to hurt my income since most of my exports go through Mendir via Nekkal, but if I need to invoke the treaty so assure the safety of my subjects, I will do so.”
Lord Eredhide said nothing in response but glanced at the captain of the guard who nodded and stepped forward. “We will assist you to the best of our abilities, Lady Morgana.” He saluted and then hurried out to gather his men. The court mage moved closer to get a better look at the orb. “I will assemble the mage’s guild as well, we need to find and destroy the workshop the culprit used to manufacture that… thing.” She glanced over my shoulder at Bahruun. “I take it your companion with the Sand Devil is using that pendulum to track the target?” She knew about Sand Devils? I guess she wasn’t a court mage for nothing.
I gave a curt nod. “Indeed. Now we are on a bit of a timetable to ensure that the culprit doesn’t catch on, so if we could get a move-on?” She nodded and hurried out of the room. A few minutes later we were moving through the streets in force and at speed with Bahruun leading the way.
