The Lilliad ch 35

They wanted to go directly after traces of whatever magical catastrophe had happened in the city. Assuming that their scorpion informant was correct, there ought to be signs here.

“All of the city looks old,” Ser Alcuin said. They turned in an uncertain semicircle. “Elathor, do you know anything about the city?”

The wizard hummed.

Everyone waited.

Elathor glanced at them, frowned, and hummed again.

Lilli sighed. “We need to know which part is the old city,” she said. “We aren’t going to find it just by walking around. So we have to ask. Who would know?”

There was a short, unpleasantly weighty pause as everyone thought that over. They only knew a few people in the city. Would the prison guard know? Probably not, and he might cry if they went back.

The temple? Local history wasn’t exactly a point of interest. It would be a great place to go if they wanted to get roped into scrubbing sheets. Lilli’s ears flattened as she remembered a childhood of chores.

The most obvious answer was -

“The frightening magic woman,” Benk said.

Lilli nodded her agreement. “She’ll be well-educated, she’s local, she’ll have connections. If she doesn’t know, she’ll be able to find out.”

Elathor let out the most obnoxious sigh she had ever heard. Everyone ignored them.

“Where do we find her?” Lilli pondered. “We could ask around. She’s imposing enough that she must be well-known. We might upset someone, though.”

Ser Alcuin coughed gently. When Lilli looked over, she saw their fist was curled below their visor, as if to catch the obviously fake cough. “I believe I know who she is,” the knight said. “The eldest daughter of one of the most influential noble families was called to magical training and disinherited from the line of succession. It was a rather famous affair.”

“Okay,” Lilli said, uninterested in the backstory. “Her name? Where do we find her?”

Her name, it turned out, was Mairi. She was a daughter of the Crimonious family. That was a name that Lilli had already heard. So they went to an imposing black stone manor and asked after her.

“Good day,” Lilli stated. She glanced past the doorman to the vast lawn of stone and thorny berry gardens. It looked extremely haunted. “We would like to speak with the sorceress Mairi Crimoniois. Is she home?”

“There is no Mairi Crimomious,” said the door guard, on reflex. Then she bowed. “I’ll have the Sorceress informed that you ask for her.”

Lilli exchanged an uncertain look with Benk. When the door guard stood and murmured to someone out of sight behind the stone wall, he whispered to her.

“A technicality. Mages can’t inherit titles. The Crimonious name is an inherited title, she’s eldest so if she kept it, she’d be Lady Crimonious.”

Lilli nodded, and thought of her own living family. Her father’s sister wouldn’t allow Lilli in the house, for fear of low connections making it impossible for her own daughters to marry.

At least the sorceress was allowed home. They must have wanted her. Or maybe having higher connections made it easier to flout social rules.

She pushed down a twinge of useless jealousy. There wasn’t any resentment on her face when Mairi fluttered out to meet them.

“I did say that you might call upon me.” Her gaze flicked over all of them. Her lips curled up. “I did not expect it would be so soon. Why are you here?”

It sounded stupid and pretentious and delusional to say that the world was in existential danger and they were the best chance to save it. Lilli cleared her throat and said it anyway. “Have you heard anything about kytharys?”

Mairi gave Lilli her full attention. Lilli tensed. “Yes,” Mairi said slowly. “It destroyed the old city, and several surrounding cities. It was a plague.”

Lilli cleared her throat and glanced down. “Well. They’re around again. We’re from Yolathe. At least one district has been totally destroyed.”

It sounded fake. She risked a glance back up at the sorceress. Mairi was impossible to read.

“For some reason, the authorities are keeping it quiet. But it’s real and it’s bad and we have to find the source instead of treating the symptoms.” She gritted her jaw and looked obstinately up. “We know the last plague started here. We think there’s a connection, or at least something to learn.”

Mairi betrayed a hint of surprise at that. “Here?” She repeated. “Not in the desert?”

“Here,” Lilli said firmly. “We have an eyewitness account.”

She faintly pretended not to know why Mairi gave her an odd look. The last plague had been a very long time ago, past the lifespans of every common person.

After a while, Mairi hummed. “Interesting, if true,” she decided. “The plague would end on its own eventually, of course. You know this?”

“Yes, when everyone is dead,” Lilli said. It sounded like a bad option to her.

“No, no,” Mairi said dismissively. “It only kills the average person as an afterthought or for a place to lay eggs. They subsist on magic. If they’ve eaten all the magic, they’ll starve.”

Her gaze lingered on Elathor and what Lilli now knew was the symbol of their mage affiliation clasping their cloak shut. “It would be a very efficient way to get rid of the pestilent Mage Colleges…”

Lilli’s eyes went wide. She thought the words “they’ll eat you too,” and then thought better of saying it. It was true. But she was increasingly wary of how unstable and powerful Mairi might be.

“So!” Ser Alcuin said cheerfully. “Might well trouble you for some logistical assistance? Where is the old city exactly?”