Chapter 70 - An Unexpected Encounter

“There must be more to it than that,” Hump insisted. “He couldn’t simply leave and say nothing. Besides, you travelled with us more than once since then. You’ve had time to press him for answers.”

Something on Vivienne’s face made Hump feel anxious—a slight hesitation and a shift in her eyes.

“What is it?” Hump said stoically.

“I did press him,” Vivienne said. “And he told me part of it. But he never did tell me the secret held within the book. The fool thought it would put me in danger just knowing it. He was attacked on the night he left, and while evidently he escaped, his soul was damaged. He’s been repairing it ever since.”

Hump frowned. “That’s not possible. I would have known if he was injured.”

“Damage to the soul is undetectable without magical means, and it wasn’t something he wanted people to know. You know how the Pantheon are about soul damage. Even if it’s nothing they’ll be shouting ‘warlock’ through the streets and calling up a riot before the day’s end.”

Hump slumped in his chair. “He kept so much from me. I don’t understand why. If I’d known, maybe I could have helped him.”

“Not even I could help him,” Vivienne said softly. “There was nothing you could do. While I don’t necessarily agree with his decision, I understand it. He wanted to protect you.”

“Maybe… I just wish I could speak to him. I’ve got so many questions, and no answers. Nothing makes sense, Vivi!” Hump pressed a hand to his forehead. “Two months ago, I was an apprentice hedge wizard with nothing but the clothes on my back. Now I’ve supposedly got one group hunting me for Master Sethril’s book, and these damned trials that will likely kill me. I can’t do this. Gods above, I’m not ready for any of this.”

“You’re not,” Vivienne said bluntly. “Most people aren’t ready when hard times hit them, and few people get hit by more hard times than adventurers. But remember, it’s when one’s limits are pushed that growth truly occurs. When you’re backed into a corner, it’s a chance for your true potential to come out. You’re not ready now—that’s a fact. That’s why you’re here. But you will be. You have to be. Understand that in your bones, Hump. Take that fear and hold it close. Do that, and it will push you to new heights.”

“I thought wizards aren’t supposed to let fear affect them,” Hump said.

“Emotions are only a problem when you allow them to control you. Essence responds to our will and intent, and emotions can cloud that, for better or for worse. While there are many challenges ahead, there is also opportunity.” She smiled. “How many people get their hands on a dragon egg after all?”

Hump let out a sigh. “You’re right. If I make it through this, I’ll come out stronger for it. ‘Better to burn bright and briefly than to never burn at all.’ Celaine’s teacher told me that.”

“It sounds rather reckless, though I appreciate the sentiment.”

Hump grinned. “That sounds like a good way to describe Vamir as a person in general.” His mind couldn’t help but wander back to the old man though. “Could the person that attacked Master Sethril at the academy have been responsible?”

“He’s dead,” Vivienne said. “Believe me, if he wasn’t, he and I would have had that conversation long ago. He was a Rank 6 wizard called Orlin Kith and vanished the same night Seth left. It was only years later that I confirmed the connection.”

“Master Sethril killed him?” Hump asked.

“Yes,” Vivienne said. “Though he paid a heavy price. While it had permanent no physical effect on him, the damage to his soul stagnated his growth until the end. He was in a bad place for a long time, which is why I was very pleased when I found out he’d taken you on as an apprentice. He needed something to get him out of his rut, and I think that was you.”

Hump frowned. “He never seemed to be struggling.”

Vivienne snorted. “Your master had his pride. I still wonder what was so dangerous that he kept it from me.”

“If I reach Rank 4 and unlock what’s inside, perhaps we’ll find the answer.”

“You’re adamant about keeping that book, aren’t you?”

He stared down at the book on the desk, The Binding of Thirteen formation open on the page. “As you said, where there are challenges, there’s opportunity. My master didn’t get rid of it, and I won’t either. Whatever secrets are held within, I want to know them.”

“I won’t deny I’m curious,” Vivienne said. “We live in a dangerous world, perhaps the risk of keeping it is worth taking. When the time comes that you do manifest your soul, I’d like to know what you find.”

“Nothing bad, I hope,” Hump said. “That would be awkward.”

Vivienne laughed—it was the first genuine laugh he’d heard from her since he’d arrived. Hump found himself grinning back.

“It does make me wonder how he got you away from your attackers,” Vivienne said. “Seth’s talent at illusions was little better than yours, and it would need to be a powerful veil to stop any pursuers from tracking you. A powerful veil spread over hours or even days.”

“There’s something that’s been bothering me,” Hump said, recalling the moment of the attack. The sight of the small green figures amongst the trees, their ugly, evil eyes. “More and more I feel like I must be wrong, and that something other than goblins was behind Master Sethril’s death. But I saw them. I saw them in the trees. Heard them screeching and shouting to each other as they sprung from the bushes. I even pulled a goblin arrow from Master Sethril’s shoulder. How could it be anything else?”

“There are those that can command monsters,” Vivienne said. “Beings with sentience like goblins are easier than most, for they have the sense to fear the powerful. There is no need for mind tricks to bend a creature to one’s will, they will follow simply because they know they would die if they didn’t.”

“You think they were following somebody’s command?” Hump asked. “In which case, wouldn’t it still just be an ordinary goblin attack.”

“The senses are easy to fool. If I’m right and it was more than just goblins, perhaps the killer was amongst them; a shapeshifter or something else concealed by a veil. Or perhaps it was your mind that was fooled, implanted with a phantasm so that you would see what your attackers wanted you to see.”

Hump glanced down at the table, feeling a hollowness in his chest. “Or perhaps it was simply goblins and the old man just got hit with another bit of bad luck.”

“Yes, well, that’s always a possibility,” Vivienne said. “It might even be the best one, as dark as it sounds. In a way, I hope we never find out the truth. Not very wizard-like, but some things are best kept hidden.”

“I’d like to know,” Hump said. “If someone killed my master, I want to know who it was.”

Vivienne held his eye and frowned. “Vengeance is a dark path, Hump. I’m angry too—furious even—but you can’t let that feeling consume you. Seth wouldn’t have wanted that for you.”

Like it was that easy. The void left in the place of his master was hot with rage. Perhaps it was the dragon’s imprint exerting its will upon him, or worse, the part of him that used to worry about these things was gone, but he found he didn’t care what the old man would think. If someone had taken his master from him, he’d kill them, whether the path was dark or not. But for that he needed strength.

So he met Vivienne’s gaze impassively, not allowing his emotions to show on his face, and he told her what she wanted to hear. “You’re right. Best we focus on the job at hand.” He gestured at the books on the desk. “Shall we get back to it.”

He couldn’t focus much for the rest of the session, but he did what he could to help, scouring through endlessly boring books in search for the runes, then searching those runes for variations and potential meanings. Vivienne had him recount exactly what he’d experienced when casting the spell, and Hump had decided not to hide anything. He told her of the power he’d wielded, suppressing the dragon with his will alone. How he’d felt the dragon’s soul fighting to consume his own, and the burning essence that poured through him once he came out on top.

In the end, they’d found nine of the thirteen runes, though only three of those used familiar variations. As for the remaining four, they were blank pieces of the puzzle. The intent behind the seal was the key that bound them together and gave them function; figuring that out would take a while longer.

“It’s not as good as I’d hoped, but it’s better than I’d feared,” Vivienne said as they finished for the day.

She handed him a couple of books before they left. One named Understanding the Technicalities of Earth and its Subsidiaries, the other Spells of the Budding Wizard. The old man had given him the first to read in the past, though that had just ended in some very long naps. The latter Hump was unfamiliar with. Strangely, he was feeling more motivated to read this time around.

However, as he left, he realised Vivienne was wrong. It was not fear that drove him. It was anger.

***

For the first time in his life, the training came easily to Hump. He would even go as far as to say he enjoyed a run to start the day. Each morning, they would focus on the practical side of things, namely physical strength and ability application. They’d work through training exercises designed to help them get creative with their abilities or push them to the limits. It was exhausting, but even after only a week Hump felt himself becoming more comfortable with his new essence pool. He was less reliant on his bracelet for control and growing more used to objects swinging at his face from his quarterstaff training with Dylan.

The afternoons were spent on various activities related to the encroaching spirit attack. He and Vivienne would focus on the formation, while the others would go out into the lake and lay lines of essence beacons, ready for when they had a spirit to track back to the source. It was at the end of each day, when they were at their most tired, that Vivienne would use her aura to suppress them, training their souls through sheer force.

She hadn’t been kidding when she’d told them the training would be intense—the old man had never put him through anything like this. They’d leave the lighthouse each evening both physically and mentally exhausted. Strangely, it seemed Bud and Celaine had it worse. While they coped with the physical exercises more easily, they lacked the mental and spiritual endurance Hump had spent his youth training. By the day’s end, their essence pools were drained like never before, and their spirits had been crushed, while his were already recovering. It would have been funny if not for their foul moods. Even Bud seemed short on patience.

They’d check in at Hestia’s Temple each evening and see how Albry was doing, though for the most part the priest refused to speak with any of them but Bud. Even Priestess Elowen and the rest of their order seemed to have distanced themselves from him, their lingering ‘betrayal,’ as Albry had put it, severing whatever bond of fellowship they’d once had.

It was nearly dark when they arrived back at town. There was not lighting in the square, so they had only the last of the twilight to guide their path. The streets were empty, though Hump heard the distant chatter of the tavern further up the road.

A group of five sat outside the temple with Albry. Judging from their varied armour and weapons, Hump took them to be adventurers, and pretty decent ones at that. For a moment, he wondered if they were the missing adventurers, but as he neared them it became clear that these were not poor vagabonds that wandered from town to town. Their armour was polished, their weapons well-kept and seemingly of high quality, and they carried an air of nobility about them.

“Ah, Robert!” Priest Albry called cheerfully. “I’ve been looking forward to your visit.” He gestured at the group sat with him. “Come, have yourself a seat and let me introduce you. You might be familiar with Lord Randall Ferrand, another Chosen of Kelisia. He and his party arrived this afternoon to help us with our witch problem.”

Lord Randall. Hump recalled a Chosen Sorcerer of Kelisia by that very name hassling a young alchemist back in Sheercliff City. It couldn’t be… Hump stopped dead in his tracks as he glimpsed the young lords face, then glanced up at the heavens. Gods above, you really do hate us wizards, don’t you?

“I don’t believe we’ve met,” Bud said, nodding a greeting. “It’s a pleasure.”

“The pleasure’s mine,” Randall said. “I’ve heard stories about the Blackthornes and the devastation they’ve reaped upon the undead. I’d be very interested in your take on the situation here at Fishers Lake.”

“I’m more than happy to catch you up,” Bud said. “First, let me introduce you to my party members. This is the Huntress Celaine and Wizard Hump.”

“Wizard…” Randall frowned, glancing at Hump.

Maybe he won’t recognise me— Hump winced.

The young lord rose to his feet, face going red with rage as he glared past the others and straight at him. “You!” he jabbed a finger toward him. “You’re the one from that damned herbalist!”

“What a coincidence seeing you again,” Hump said innocently. “How was the limerick cocktail?”

“The cocktail…” he clenched his fists, glowing with the same frostfire-blue that Bud did sometimes. “Do you have any idea how much trouble you got me in?”

Hump feigned afront. “Hold on. I didn’t get you to do anything.”

“Who is this guy?” one of Randall’s party members asked. She was a tall woman, armoured much like Bud, though with more plate than mail, and not a speck of rust on any of it.

“He’s the bastard that tricked me into buying those drugs,” Randall said. “It’s his fault we’re in this mess.”

“I didn’t sell you anything!” Hump said. He paused as both Bud and Celaine gave him an inquisitive look. “Honestly, I didn’t sell anything,” he said in a lower voice, so that just the two of them could hear. “He and his friend were giving the apprentice at one of the herbalist shops a hard time, so I helped them out a little.”

“What on earth did you sell him?” Bud whispered, shock on his face. “When did you even find the time? We were only in the city for a day.”

Celaine pressed her fingers to her brow. “When you went to meet the countess,” she told Bud, giving Hump an unimpressed look. “So this is what you meant when you said you poisoned a couple of Chosen.”

Bud startled. “Poisoned—?”

“Keep quiet,” Hump snapped. “Don’t make things worse.”

“Stop whispering,” Randall snapped. “I’m speaking to you.”

Hump gave him his best smile. “I assure you Lord Randall; you’ll find the only illegal part of your purchase was the limerick cocktail. Something I had no part in.”

“That sounds like a strong accusation,” the armoured woman said. “Perhaps you wish to rethink your statement.”

“You’ve caused me a lot of grief, boy,” Randall said. From the look of him, he couldn’t have been more than a year or two older than Hump. “Half the city was at that party and I… I…” His jaw clenched.

“Just spit it out, Randall,” another of the party said, slouching back in his chair. “You completely lost your mind and screamed to the whole room that the walls were closing in. We’re lucky punishment detail was all you got us.”

Randall stabbed another finger at him. “Shut it.” he turned his glare on Hump. “It was your fault. You made me look like an idiot in front of everyone.” He drew his wand, the weapon glimmering with icy light.

Hump readied his defences, but no attack came.

“I, Randall Ferrand, challenge you to a duel.”