Sedder sat below decks as the Careful set sail for Hledola, as he tended to do to avoid having to look at all that water out there. At least the steamship didn’t rock around as much as human sailing ships did, even if they were now down one Water Mage. Still, it was a long, long journey to the other side of the world across the Open Sea.
They arrived at Hledola, hiding in the water near the port and observing the place. It was a vast city, one Sedder was surprised to see in this time period, almost rivalling Scalyr. Considering it was bounded on three sides by water, that was probably the source of most of their food. Still, that left him questioning: how did they support this many people with their primitive magic and technology? Was more than just the Empire lost when monsters wiped this place from the map?
“So, how are going to do this?” Keolah asked. “What sort of intel do we have on this place?”
“They hate wild folk,” Harmony said.
“That’s probably a given no matter which city in Albrynnia you’re talking about,” Amanda said dryly. “We will probably have to resort to violence.”
“Why are you so eager to resort to violence?” Kithere wondered.
“Because I know Hledola,” Amanda said. “They won’t respect anything else.”
“I’m not sure that I buy that,” Kithere said.
“Look, we can try things your way, if you have a better plan, but don’t say I didn’t warn you when things inevitably turn sour.”
“We can’t just steal the books,” Keolah said. “Remember what happened when someone tried to take one of the Astanic books from me?”
“Would the Albrynnians have put curses on their books quite that dire?” Kithere asked.
“I wouldn’t put it past them,” Amanda said.
“I really doubt that,” Harmony said.
“I’m still not sure I want to risk triggering them, though,” Keolah said.
“Agreed,” Amanda said. “We’ll need to kill whoever might ‘own’ the books.”
Keolah sighed. “If that’s really what’s necessary.”
“To be fair, from your perspective, they’re already long dead anyway,” Amanda said.
“Do you know where their library might be located?” Sedder asked.
“Probably in the middle of town,” Amanda said.
“Probably,” Sedder repeated. “We’re going to need better intel than ‘probably’.”
“Right, first order of business, find the library,” Keolah said.
“We won’t even have such an easy time just strolling through the streets here, either,” Amanda said. “In a city this size, there’s almost certainly going to be someone who can see through Sedder’s illusions. And I don’t see either of my cousins volunteering for this.”
Harmony snorted softly. “Like the Abyss I’m going to be setting hoof or paw in that place.”
“Yes, spirits forbid you’d have to look like a human to go in there,” Amanda said, rolling her eyes.
Sedder had been working on his ability to create undetectable illusions whenever he got the chance, and considering he had plenty of time to do that aboard ship, he thought he was getting pretty good at it. He’d asked Keolah to help, and although she was hardly an unbiased source, considering she was an inborn Seeker, she could at least tell when they were getting harder to detect. A non-inborn Seeker might not even be able to spot anything at all, at this point. And an inborn one, well, maybe he could slip by them if they weren’t directly looking at him.
“Alright, let’s get together a party to get into Hledola,” Keolah said. “Sedder and I are necessary. Who else is coming?”
“You’re not leaving me behind,” Hawthorne said. “Besides, you might need my wards or my ability to break things.”
“I’d probably be more of a liability than a help here,” Amanda said. “Someone might recognize my aura even if my features are hidden behind an illusion.”
Keolah hadn’t really thought Amanda’s aura was that distinctive, just the typical green of an Earth Mage, but now that she thought about it, it was a lot more ordered than normal. While most Earth Mages she’d known had auras that felt organic, like growing leaves and plants, Amanda’s was rigid, metallic, with crossbars and interlaced lines. Maybe this was more normal for a dwarven Earth Mage, but it was clearly distinct from the elves she’d seen.
“I’ll go,” Silver said.
“Alright,” Keolah said. “Let’s not have too many people running around drawing attention. We’ll call in backup if needed.”
“Luck of the Trickster be with you,” Delven said.
They went ashore via a concealed makeshift dock. Sardill didn’t seem willing to join them, but at least he made sure that their ship wasn’t discovered, which was good enough, really. Sedder appeared like he was fully human again, covered in an illusion that made him seem like he had skin the color of pale peaches rather than the usual plums.
Hledola was much like Sheenvale in some ways, and vastly different in others. The walls were still made of stone, and the flags that fluttered in the cloudy skies were cyan and blue. The east-facing walls were absolutely massive, however. It’s like they weren’t all that concerned about anyone coming by sea, but were adamant in keeping out any attackers coming by land. Fortunately, they’d been able to slip into the city by placing their magic dock at the end of an empty real one. Sedder kept them invisible until they reached an alley out of sight, and no one would be any the wiser about them sneaking in.
“Alright, good, we’re in,” Keolah said. “Stay alert, everyone. No one’s going to be looking specifically for us, and let’s try to keep it that way. What’s the best way to find a library in a city, anyway?”
“Ask for directions?” Silver suggested helpfully.
“Oh, that’s sure going to be inconspicuous,” Hawthorne said.
“It probably won’t be so bad,” Sedder said. “It’s a big place. People must get lost in here all the time.”
“And if that fails?” Hawthorne asked.
“Then we disappear, become someone else, and try something else,” Sedder said. “Come on, that looks like a fish market up ahead.”
Sedder couldn’t actually read any of the street signs, but it was difficult to mistake a sign depicting a fish for anything but a place where fish were sold. He pushed open the door and headed inside. The building was larger and more open than he’d expected, full of rows upon rows of fish laid out on snow. It had been chilly enough outside in the streets, but it was positively frigid in here.
“Looking for some fish?” bellowed a large man almost as pale as snow himself. “We got a batch of fresh-caught cod in today.”
“It looks lovely,” Sedder said. “But I’m afraid we’re just looking for directions. I think we took a wrong turn somewhere.” He chuckled.
“You take a wrong turn anywhere in this city and you eventually wind up at the docks or the wall, am I right?” the fishmonger guffawed. “What were you actually trying to find?”
“The library,” Sedder said. “Did I take the wrong side street off from the plaza? Hmm.”
“Ah, yeah, that you did,” the fishmonger said. “Just head back out the doors you came in and turn right, and then keep going until you see the statue of the man with the pitchfork. What you’re looking for is off of the Avenue of the Reflective mountains. That’s two streets to the right of this one, the one directly behind the statue. The building you want will be on the left. There’ll be a sign with a book on it. You can’t miss it.”
“I hate when people tell me I can’t miss something,” Keolah said with a grin. “I always wind up missing it.”
The fishmonger chortled. “Well, if you manage to miss it and find your way back here, you’ve got to buy a fish before you get more directions out of me.”
Sedder chuckled. “Thanks.”
The four of them headed outside again and made their way down the street following the fishmonger’s directions, and found the library in question in due order. Sure enough, a swinging sign depicting an open book hung next to the double doors, and three wide stone steps led up to the entrance. There were no windows on the ground floor, but the upper storeys boasted narrow windows to allow sunlight to stream in.
“Looks like this is it,” Sedder said. “Should we get more hands to carry the books out?”
“Let’s see what we’re dealing with first,” Keolah said.
No one immediately stopped them as they entered the library. This only made Sedder all the more wary. The most dangerous situations were often the ones that seemed innocuous at first, where everything going smoothly could quickly turn into the shit hitting the fan. They got up to the deserted third floor, and Keolah pointed the way to the heaviest concentration of mana in the building.
“Warded,” Keolah said quietly.
“Just like the one in Kebab-de-Garateck?” Hawthorne said. “Alright, I’ll see about breaking in.”
A robed woman came up behind them and accosted them. “What are you doing up here?” she demanded. “Visitors aren’t allowed past the first floor.”
“Terribly sorry,” Keolah said quickly. “We didn’t mean to intrude. I’m afraid I didn’t see it posted anywhere.”
The woman pointed to a sign next to her that Sedder couldn’t read. “Are you blind? It’s right in front of your nose!”
“Are you the owner of this library and the books in it?” Keolah asked.
“Yes, that’s me. Lilian Hrogansdottir.”
Keolah hesitated. Sedder understood. She’d never killed anyone before. She was young and naive, and even if she fully realized that this was necessary, still she hesitated. Sedder would hope that she wouldn’t hesitate if it were her life or the lives of her friends on the line, but he’d seen people do that very thing, much to their detriment.
Sedder wasn’t about to take that chance. He stepped away from the illusion of himself and invisibly crept up behind Lilian. He reached down and pulled out the crystal dagger hidden in his boot. One thought gave him pause, and that was that murdering the owner of the books and then taking them might be considered ‘stealing’ them from the perspective of their enchantments. There was no telling how they might have been set up. No help for it. He just wouldn’t be the one to touch them. In one swift motion, he grabbed Lilian around the waist from behind and slid the knife into her ribcage. The woman cried out, but no one would hear through his sound-ward.
“Shit,” Keolah muttered as Sedder lowered the body to the ground.
“Let’s get the books,” Silver said, not missing a beat even though both girls were still staring at the body.
Sedder wiped off his dagger and put it away, then double-checked his illusions to make sure they wouldn’t be disturbed. If nobody was supposed to be up on the third floor anyway, it wouldn’t be a problem, but he made sure to make the body invisible and put up a screen behind them just to be sure.
“Right,” Hawthorne said after a moment. “The books.” She took a deep breath and turned to the door. “This will just take a moment.”
She unsheathed her sword, not that it was actually necessary to use Zarnith’s mana, and walked up to the door. Sedder really hoped that this was the right room, but then, even if it wasn’t, the most heavily warded room in this part of town probably at least had something interesting inside of it. After several minutes of intense concentration, the door snapped open with an audible crack.
“Those are the ones,” Keolah said, stepping into the room.
“I’m going to stay out here for the moment,” Sedder said. “It might be best if I don’t touch them.”
He had blood on his hands that Keolah’s eyes kept falling toward every time she looked at him. Self-consciously, Sedder wiped them off on Lilian’s robes.
“Claim the books,” Silver told Keolah.
“That’s what we were going to do, yes,” Keolah said.
“It might help to do so verbally,” Silver said.
“Okay then,” Keolah said. “If you say so.” She cleared her throat. “I, Keolah Kedaire, hereby claim these books as my own.” She blinked. “Well. I guess that did do something. I wouldn’t have even noticed it if I weren’t paying attention. It wasn’t even really mana, just… I don’t know.”
“Old magic,” Silver supplied.
“At any rate,” Keolah said. “I hereby give you three permission to do as you like with these books, as well as those on the steamship Careful.”
“Hopefully that will be sufficient,” Silver said.
“I think so,” Keolah said. “At least, that’s the impression I get? I’m not sure the vocalization was really necessary, so much as the intention? I know how Talents work. I don’t know where to begin in explaining this ‘old magic’.”
“No one used Talents before the League of Wizards,” Silver said.
“Sedder, come help us pack these up, before someone notices we’re here,” Hawthorne said, pulling out books from the shelves.
“You don’t think they’ll kill me because I murdered their previous owner?” Sedder asked.
Hawthorne rolled her eyes and dumped a stack of books in his arms. “No, I do not.”
Sedder sighed in exasperation. “Your concern for my well-being is staggering.” He put the books into his pack.
It was difficult for the four of them to get all the books, and Hawthorne wound up having to carry half of them herself with the assistance of Wind Magic to reduce their weight. Sedder hoped that they didn’t run into more trouble on the way out, and adjusted the illusions covering them to completely conceal the fact that they were carrying books at all.
“Is that all of them?” Sedder asked.
Keolah nodded. “Looks like it.” She spared another long look at the cadaver laying on the ground before turning away and heading for the stairs.
They made their way down the city streets with as much haste as they could without drawing attention to themselves. It looked like they were going to be able to make it out of here again, when a watchwoman looked directly at them.
“Seeker,” Keolah hissed.
“Monsters!” the watcher yelled. “Guards! Dispel! They’re using illusions to sneak into the city.”
“Abyss,” Hawthorne uttered as their illusions unraveled around them. She drew her sword. “Wards up!”
“Can we make it to the ship?” Keolah asked. “How far is it?”
“At least another few blocks,” Silver said.
“We’re not going to be moving very fast carrying all these books,” Sedder said. “We need backup.”
“On it,” Keolah said. She raised a hand to the sky and let out a bolt of fire, which shot into the air and exploded into a shower of sparks. “That should get their attention.”
“If it’s a fight these guards are looking for, let’s give them one,” Hawthorne said.
Sedder scowled. He hated dealing with Seekers. He cast an illusion at the watcher to cover her face in shadows. For a normal person, this would blind them, but for a Seeker, he had to put every bit of skill he’d learned with creating undetectable illusions into it. The watcher cried out in surprise and rubbed her eyes. He wasn’t sure how long he could maintain the blinding spell, but it was at least enough to get her eyes off of them for the moment.
Hawthorne charged into the middle of a squad of guards, swinging her sword and letting her wards deflect attacks. Most of these people weren’t mages, and Sedder hoped that any combat mages in the vicinity stayed out of this until they were safely aboard ship again. A spike of ice descended from above and shattered against Hawthorne’s shields. So much for hoping there weren’t any combat mages nearby. Sedder spotted the Frost Mage on a balcony, preparing to cast another spell.
“Keolah!” Sedder called out, pointing to the attacker.
Keolah turned and sent a bolt of flames toward the Frost Mage. He didn’t have room to dodge. He let out a scream as his robes caught fire and burned his skin, and frantically tried to channel Frost Magic onto himself to put out the flames. Sedder had to be gratified that when her life was on the line, Keolah hadn’t hesitated, even if she was wincing at the sound of the man’s screams.
“I’ll take care of it,” Silver said, raising one hand to shoot a lightning bolt at the Frost Mage. Part of it forked and destroyed the balcony’s railing, but it took out the Frost Mage in the process. The charred body tumbled down into the streets below.
A resounding roar echoed from the direction of the docks, and an enormous creature bounded toward the party. Guards scattered before it as its swept three heads around, biting at them. One head was a lion, one a dragon, and one a goat for some reason. That could only be Harmony. Behind her stomped a golem made of cobblestones, punching any guards that came close. A harpy swooped in and clawed at the guards’ faces.
A crack like thunder split the air, and a guard dropped dead. Sedder would have thought it a firearm if it hadn’t been rapidly followed by five other shots. But when he got a clear view and looked over, Amanda stood in the center of the street, wielding a gun smaller than any he’d seen before. Bystanders fled in terror. The guards scattered, some of them trying to drag their wounded to safety.
“Let’s get out of here!” Keolah yelled, taking the opportunity to make a break for the docks.
“I’ll reload and cover you,” Amanda said.
The guards, with their bronze swords and longbows, had no idea what firearms were. The watcher had recovered from the blindness spell, but after having witnessed her guards struck down by something that clearly wasn’t magic, was quick to call for them to fall back and for all civilians to evacuate the area.
Two Lightning Mages from opposite sides of the street attacked them from rooftops as they approached the docks. Amanda paused to pick them off one by one with her handgun without even batting an eye. Sedder had originally thought Amanda was the least scary of the three ancients, but he was starting to revise that assessment. The woman was cold.
The party raced down the dock to where the ship lay hidden, Harmony pulling up the rear, and hardly paused long enough to let her board before casting off. The gnomes had been prepared in case of needing to leave town quickly, but now that they were gone, there wasn’t anything in this time that could catch them short of magic.
Once Keolah caught her breath, she took the books down to the library and deposited them there with the others. The ship’s cabin wasn’t really intended to be a library, but it got the job done in holding them, at least. When they got back to Torn Elkandu, they could join the Astanic and Mibian books at the School of Thought. But Keolah wasn’t sure that she liked the price tag this set of books had come with.
“You got them,” Amanda said. “At least you got your hands on them before running into trouble.”
“Amanda,” Keolah said, sighing and slumping against the floor. “People died for these books.”
“People who weren’t us,” Amanda said.
“They were defending their city,” Keolah said.
“Let’s not pretend they were in any way innocent,” Amanda said. “They attacked you because they were racist bastards.”
“People died for the sake of us completing our book collection,” Keolah said glumly.
Sardill snorted. “Be assured that should you continue on your current course, you will kill for far more petty reasons than this.”
Keolah glared at him. “Is that supposed to be an assurance or a warning?”
“Do you feel guilty about what happened here today?” Sardill asked.
“Yes, absolutely!” Keolah replied. “Sardill, you were involved in a number of bloody wars. Don’t you ever feel guilty about all the death and destruction you’ve caused?”
Sardill lowered his face. “Yes. Every day.”
Keolah looked away. That hadn’t been an answer she was expecting. “But you still believe it was necessary? You’d still do it all over again?”
“You need not guess at my mental state,” Sardill said. “Nor presume that I am so callous as you might believe, like my cousin here is.”
Amanda rolled her eyes, but didn’t deign to respond to that.
Keolah sighed. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to assume. I just have to wonder, how do you deal with it? How can you justify it to yourself?”
“I have long since lost count of how many I have seen perish,” Sardill said. “No one can ever be on the same side. No one can agree on everything. To aid one is to hinder another. To save one is to kill another. Inaction is still an action. If I have caused suffering, it is because I believed that the alternative was worse.”
“I see,” Keolah said, more gently this time. “I guess I can understand that, then.”
Sardill nodded tersely. “Do not think ill of me without knowing the full story or the reasons behind it.”
“I’d argue with you, but I don’t care to start an argument that ends in the ship being blown up,” Amanda said. “Let’s just worry about learning Tinean and getting back to when we started from.” She turned on her heel and left the cabin.
“It’s difficult to imagine how much history is behind that all,” Keolah said quietly.
Sardill chuckled. “History is not yet done. The future is not yet written. You will make your own history. You already are.”
“That’s a funny thing to say when we’re, what, three thousand years in the past?” Keolah said.
“Whenever we are is the present,” Sardill said. “If we cannot return to the time where we began, we can still access Torn Elkandu from any period or timeline we wind up in.”
“That’s true, I suppose,” Keolah said. “But what about the timeline we originated from?”
“Would you miss it?” Sardill asked.
“Well… no, not really,” Keolah said. “The only thing I had there that isn’t with us here is my mother. But I’d still rather try to return to it, regardless.”
“As you will,” Sardill said. “I am merely warning you again that we may not be able to return to it, but that such a situation will not impede what we are attempting to do.”
“Understood,” Keolah said.