6. Letters and Magic
Ewan rushed over and, seeing that Veu was beyond his ability to heal, fell to his knees and began praying fervently, closing his eyes even in the face of three enemies.
Metis, wild with rage, took on the most dangerous form she could think of, and, as a panther, charged forward tearing at Alaya with her maw.
Burny let out a great shout of rage and grief and spread his arms, calling a thunderous force to spring forth from the arcane power coursing through him. He hadn't realized until that moment that he'd actually begun to care for the little rogue. So great was his anger that The Hammer, massive though he was, staggered back ten feet.
Alaya, already wounded from Althea’s arrow and Metis’s vicious bite, crumpled to the ground dead. Burny spat on her corpse.
“The Scale is dead!” shouted the Hammer towards Orion. “Get them out of here!”
Orion flew down, a pained expression on his face as he stared at the lifeless bodies of Veu and Alaya, but still he extended his hands and a wave of pulsing force rippled out from him, forcing Burny and Metis back and sending them sprawling into the grass.
Althea shot an arrow straight and true at The Hammer. It lodged in his chest but seemed to barely hinder his movements as he raced toward a small storage shed near the back of the Monastery, emerging moments later pushing a bound Hymnara before him. He hefted his hammer above her head.
“Leave now, all of you!” he exclaimed. “Or the druid dies.”
There was a moment of stunned silence as the party stared at the ancient druid, sitting seemingly so tranquilly beneath the massive Hammer of Law that was prepared to crush her at any moment.
And then the giant Aasimar’s jaw went slack, his weapon tumbled from his grip, and he collapsed on the ground revealing a very confused but nonetheless very much alive Veu standing behind him. The illusory duplicate that had been lying dead on the ground vanished, and Burny let out a scream of joy mingled with confused distress at the logical impossibility of it all.
Ewan turned to Orion, the only one of the three left standing, looked him dead in the eye, and said, simply, “Is this truly the justice you seek?”
Orion looked at his two dead companions, then over to where, a moment before, Veu had also seemed to lie. He looked down at his own hands and sunk to his knees. “What have I done?” he murmured. (Ewan rolled a natural 20 on Persuasion)
Tension evaporated from the party as they realized that the battle was won. Metis and Althea quickly bound Orion’s hands while Ewan and Burny crowded Veu. Ewan, after a brief examination, saw the burn marks around Veu’s throat from The Scale’s chain, but no other signs of injury. He cast a
Cure Wounds on her and breathed a sigh of relief to see her virtually unharmed. Burny meanwhile began pestering Veu with all manner of questions.
“All right you sanctimonious little goblin,” he began vehemently, “why didn’t you tell me you could do magic? And here I got myself all in a tizzle for you! I thought you were dead.”
Veu stammered. “I... I didn’t know I could... that is I can’t... I’m not sure what happened.”
Throwing his hands in the air and scowling to mask how genuinely worried he had been, Burny returned to the others who had begun questioning Orion. Veu followed a moment later, still stunned by the force of magic that had pulled her from harm's way, and with a strange image etched into her mind: that of a hooded figure, one hand outstretched to block its face, looming before her. She wondered who the figure was, and whether the magic had come from it or, somehow, from inside of herself.
“What were you doing here?” Althea asked Orion. “Why did you fall in with Alaya?”
“I was tempted,” Orion said miserably. “The Scale’s ideas were so glamorous, so revolutionary. And she exuded this confidence. It was hard not to go along with whatever she said.”
“Her ideas about what?”
“About Law! I’ve devoted much of my life to the study and enforcement of Law in service to Tempus, but never have I seen anyone with the fanaticism for it that she possessed. Her plans to rewrite the Codes of Ekrido, well, it’s all in there.” He gestured to the small shed in the back of the monastery. “You can see for yourself. They're beautiful.”
Burny and Veu quickly made their way to the shed while Ewan and Althea stayed to guard the captive. Metis had been working on untying Hymnara.
“Thank you, dear,” the elf said. “Although if you could remove this bracelet I would greatly appreciate it. It is quite irritating.” Metis noticed for the first time that there was a metal cuff around Hymnara’s wrist. She shivered to think of anything binding her in that way.
“The Scale has the key,” Orion said helpfully, overhearing them. Metis quickly rummaged through Alaya’s pockets, finding both the key to the bracelet and a small clay statue of a locust which she eyed suspiciously before pocketing.
Inside, Burny and Veu found a small improvised living space with three simple cots and a large writing desk. Riffling through the desk, Burny was quick to find a note of credit for 50gp which he stuffed in his pocket. Veu arched an eyebrow but said nothing as she came over to join him in examining the papers spread out across the writing surface. As Orion had said, they were revisions to the current Codes of Ekrido, and Veu sighed as she recognized Alaya’s zealous ideology in the papers.
The revised Codes banned all forms of thievery, bribery, and impersonation with very clear punishments laid out for each crime; they gave far more power to the military and established a standing police force to patrol the streets; they required all citizens carry “proof of purpose” if out after dark; and they abolished the role of Material Enforcer (the High Priest of Tempus), replacing it instead with the Vizier of Tempus who would be in charge of overseeing all the new protocols and would act as judge to arbitrate any disputes.
The party quickly decided that Giiaena should be the one to deal with Orion (she was, after all, his mentor), and that the evidence in the Monastery should be turned over to the authorities from the Temple of Tempus.
Realizing that it might attract suspicion to parade a fairly well-known paladin through the streets with his hands bound, they threw a cloak over Orion before returning to the Temple.
“Thank you for saving me the embarrassment,” the paladin said simply as they covered his face with the hood.
Giiaena had left word that they were to be granted immediate entry should they return, and as such they quickly found themselves back in the elf’s study. Seeing Hymnara, the two women embraced fondly, and the party related what they had seen and done in the Monastery, securing Giiaena’s guarantee that the priests of Tempus would handle the burial rites of the deceased and scrutinize the revised Codes that the group had been creating.
“I think you were right about Orion having a good heart,” Althea concluded, “but he was easily swayed by The Scale.”
“Yes...” Giiaena murmured as her apprentice quailed under her gaze. “And in this vocation a changeable mind can be a critical flaw. I trust that you are remorseful, Orion, but not that you have truly reaped the seeds of discord you were trying to sow. If others would come to harm through your actions, then they should write the Law against you.” She turned again to the party. “You will decide what is to be done with him. I will have no part in in.” Orion bowed his head at her verdict and in short order the group left, filled with the weight of responsibility placed on them by the Champion of Ekrido.
“This feels strange,” Ewan said. “Why would she put the onus of punishment on civilians? That feels out of character for a servant of Tempus.”
“
Maybe it’s out of character,” Althea countered, “or
maybe our interaction with followers of Tempus has been rather limited as of late. You know, with them trying to kill us. I think her decision was just.”
“Perhaps it’s out of character for a follower of Tempus,” Metis chimed in, “but it makes total sense when you consider that Giiaena is a close friend of Hymnara’s. Perhaps she is also trying to distance herself from the situation, as Orion is her apprentice.”
“Her motivations aren’t our concern,” Veu insisted. “We need to devise some suitable punishment for Orion. I think he should be forced to interact with the impoverished and the needy. Every day he should be confronted by people who are on the verge of stealing in order to survive so that he can see the harm his new Codes would have caused.” The party agreed to the wisdom of Veu’s proposal, and sent a letter back to Giiaena informing her that the punishment they’d derived was a month’s service to the poor in answer for the month he had spent in the company of The Scale.
Burny, meanwhile, had been hard at work
Identifying the objects that they’d found. The locust statues, of which they’d found a second one on Orion’s person, were revealed to be minor conjuration devices that could
Summon a swarm of locusts when crushed.
The bracelet that had been cuffed around Hymnara’s wrist was far more troubling. Burny's spell revealed that it blocked and nullified all forms of druidic magic for the one who wore it. Examining the bracelet even more carefully, his blood ran cold as he saw the stamp of the wizard who had crafted it. It was a stamp he knew all too well. Three elegantly scripted initials in silver, gold, and black: CSW.
***
Mortimer “Burny” Fizzlesticks and Copernicus “Spill” Whistledrum had been rivals ever since they were capable of comprehending what the word “rival” meant. In the same year of the academy at Laboratory X and with similar interests in explosions and innovations, they were engaged in a constant battle to outdo each other and had a standing wager over who would be the first to complete their first wholly original spell.
“Spill!” Burny exclaimed as he burst into the other wizard’s workroom. Spill was hunched over a number of bubbling test tubes, incanting arcane words and sketching runes in the air.
“Burny, I swear if you do not let me work in quiet for the next five minutes I will blow a gasket and you’ll find the contents of this test tube melting a hole in your boots,” said Spill, not so much as turning around.
Burny harrumphed, but leaned against the wall and began flipping through one of the books he always carried with him. He couldn't justify interrupting another wizard's experiment, even for a matter as grave as this. After ten minutes had passed, Spill threw down his goggles in frustration and turned to face the other gnome.
“Bah!” he shouted. “This is ridiculous.”
“Another failed experiment?” asked Burny archly.
“No worse than anything you’ve done,” muttered Spill.
“You’ve done something way worse this time.”
“What do you mean?”
In answer Burny merely held up the bracelet that bore his rival’s signature stamp.
“Where did you get that?” demanded Spill. “Don’t tell me the Tabaxi was commissioning it for you!”
“What Tabaxi?” asked Burny, thrown off guard by that unexpected bit of information.
“A Tabaxi commissioned me to make that. Gave me quite a hefty sum too,” said Spill smugly.
Burny shook his head, determined to not get derailed but making a mental note to track down this Tabaxi later. “Do you realize how vile a creation this is?”
“Vile!” exclaimed Spill, offense written all over his face. “Did you even look at it? This is a marvelously efficient, elegant, well-crafted magical item. Just because you’re jealous that you haven’t managed to create anything half as powerful as this—”
“I am not jealous!” Burny insisted. “And it is vile. To stifle someone’s magic like this? It goes against everything we’ve been taught about the freedom to evoke. What else was Azuth fighting against three hundred years ago when there were
Counterspell charms on every city to keep wizards from their work?”
“This is different entirely,” Spill persisted. “Druids don’t do real magic anyways. Can you really compare their earthen mummery with the dedication to the magical arts practiced by wizards?”
Burny shuffled his feet and thought of Metis and Hymnara. True, he didn’t understand them, and Hymnara’s ataraxian philosophy rankled him, but he nonetheless knew that the kind of magic Spill had created here was
wrong in the most basic moral sense.
“I’m sure my mother would like to hear about this,” he said.
“Ha!” exclaimed Spill, sensing victory. “I’m sure your mother would like to know how you got your hands on a magical item that I was commissioned to make. And besides, she has no special love of the druids.”
Burny squinted, knowing that what Spill said was true. “I heard you did well on your last exams,” he said, changing tack.
“Better than you, if I recall. Oh, and Burny, about that wager? I’d make sure you keep a couple of extra gold on hand. For when I win.”
“Well,” answered Burny, gesturing to the test tubes on the counter that were slowly starting to spill a green slime onto the table, “keep up the good work and I’m sure I won’t humiliate you too badly. I’ve heard that many great wizards graduated second in their class.”
Burny turned and walked out quickly, unwilling to let Spill get in another jibe. Veu had accompanied Burny to Laboratory X, and the wizard had left her in the library where she had taken out a number of elementary books on magic. Returning, he found her bent over one of these studying carefully.
"Trying to become a wizard?" He asked, only half-joking.
"I'm just trying to figure out what happened to me back at the Monastery," said Veu. "And see if I have any natural talent for magic," she added slowly.
Burny glanced down to see what she was reading. “Oh please,” he scoffed, “that book is for babies.”
Unperturbed, Veu glanced up at him. “I didn’t understand the terms in the more advanced books. I wasn’t raised with magic like you were.”
“I could teach you more in an hour than you’ll get from that book in a week,” insisted Burny.
Veu simply shrugged and went back to her reading. Burny scowled. It seemed he couldn’t get a rise out of anyone today. His natural talent for pestering must be growing dull. Suddenly, he recalled the coded letter that Metis had asked him for help with. He swore profusely. He had forgotten all about it in the excitement of visiting Denzonen and then in the subsequent rush to find and free Hymnara.
He raced back to his quarters, and in under an hour had managed to break the cypher. He grinned as he saw some recognizable words in Common, but much of the letter was still jumbled nonsense. On a hunch he cast
Comprehend Languages, and hummed merrily to himself as still more of the letter revealed itself to him.
‘Primordial,’ he thought, ‘who would go through the trouble of transliterating Primordial using the Common lettering system?’ Still with only about seventy five percent of the letter decoded, he sought out Metis and showed her what he had accomplished.
“I can’t figure out the rest of it,” he said. “It seems to be in Primordial, which I don’t speak. My guess is it’s some sort of slang or words that don’t have literal meaning in Common, hence why my
Comprehend spell won’t translate it.”
Snatching the letter back, Metis studied it carefully. “It’s Primordial wordplay,” she said with certainty after a couple minutes. “It’s been many years since I’ve spoken the language, but I think I can figure it out. Thank you, Burny. You’ve done me a huge service.”
“Think nothing of it,” the gnome said modestly, still embarrassed that he’d forgotten about it for so many weeks and hoping that Metis would assume it had simply taken him that long to crack it. “I don’t mean to pry,” he continued slowly, “but there are some things in that letter that are... troubling.”
“I know,” said Metis. “I think I need to go to Xey.” Once she had finished translating the letter, she stared down at the words written in her sister’s hand. Her sister, Ariadne, who had accompanied Metis when she decided to leave their noble life in Liport, and who had then run off with a common boy named Kepler three years before, leaving Metis alone. She read the letter over and over and over again, until she had committed it to memory.
My dear Meti,
I write to you in the code we created as girls for, were this letter to fall into the wrong hands, I fear it would spell danger for the both of us. Even so, I must be vague about where I have been and what I have been doing. Please forgive me this, as I hope you have forgiven my absence these past three years. Kepler has introduced me to the most amazing people, Meti. Of course Kepler is not his true name – again I ask your forgiveness for that. I believe that we are going to shake this world to its core and change it forever. Our plans will soon come to a head, and I can no longer pretend that my life is not at risk. I think of you every day, and it would have caused my spirit no end of regret to know that I had perished with you eternally unaware that I was fighting for a cause. In many ways I am fighting for you. What our parents did to you was unthinkable, and I now work tirelessly to ensure that each of us may choose our own destiny rather than having it dictated to us. They never told me the truth, of course, but I know your mind like I know my own and it was only too obvious what they had done. That, more than anything else, is why I chose to come with you when you left home. I knew you could never be so cold as they were. I cannot tell you where I am, but, if you wish to find me, I’ve left word with one Curtis in Xey to aid you in any way he can. It would be my joy to see you even one more time.
-A