Ch084-Big Words, Little Man (Patreon)

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Ch084-Big Words, Little Man

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Sylver racked his brain to match the faces to names, but even Spring was drawing a blank. Which meant that either Sylver had done a poor job when he created him, so unlikely it was impossible, or that Sylver hadn’t seen these three people before. All three wore matching black cloaks, oddly similar to the one Sylver was currently wearing.

Although they looked cheaper, uglier, and didn’t look like they were liquid, unlike Sylver’s.

“Gentlemen? Lady? Is there some reason you’re standing outside my home?” Sylver asked. He rolled his eyes as they all took far too long to get up from sitting on the steps, and almost immediately moved just a bit too close to him. They stood in a semi-circle, the woman in the middle and directly opposite Sylver, while the two men stood on either side of her.

The woman was shorter than Sylver, but not by a lot, while the two men were about his height. They smelt of smoke, and alcohol, as cheap as their cloaks. The man to Sylver’s left, with brown stubble and circular glasses that completely hid his eyes spoke.

“In the interest of keeping things civil-”

“If you were interested in that, you should have arranged for a meeting. Either through Shera in the adventurer’s guild, Ron at Ron’s rest, or my current employer, Lola Aeyri, or her assistants. We would agree on a time and place, and we would sit down and have tea and cakes while we spoke. Like civilized people. But instead, you’re standing here. Outside my home. Blocking my path to it, if you will,” Sylver interrupted. Although the three of them continue to smile, Sylver could feel by their souls they didn’t like what he had said.

“Then in the interest of keeping things short, we’re here to offer you protection,” the man with the glasses said.

“From?” Sylver asked. He looked around for a guard, but the street appeared uncharacteristically empty. It likely had something to do with the people hiding behind the corners and wearing the same black cloaks as the ones talking to Sylver.

“Fires, break-ins, theft, vandalism, and other extremely costly and hard to deal with damages. For an extremely low price of 500 gold a month, you’ll save yourself an estimated 11,400 gold per month worth of damage, time, and headache,” the man said.

“How did you come to that estimate?” Sylver asked. He wondered if everyone being so reasonable was the result of the general culture, or just that the existence of the system made it easy to see how difficult fighting someone would be.

[Human (Bladesman + Rogue) – 88]
[HP-???]
[MP-300]

[Human (Brawler + Armorer) – 81]
[HP-???]
[MP-0]

[??? (Guardian + Mage) – 86]
[HP-???]
[MP-1,840]

Sylver made a mental note to buy the next level of [Appraisal] when he had the time. They must have felt Sylver using the skill on them, or just correctly assumed, as all three leaned closer towards Sylver, with a grin on their faces.

“Experience. A great deal of experience. Then again, all it would take to make that number significantly larger is harassing any craftsmen that are hired to repair the damages, so it’s an extremely conservative estimate,” the level 88 Bladesman said.

Sylver thought it over and spent a moment gathering himself before he smiled with false confidence at the three annoyances. Although he was careful to have just a hint of uncertainty mixed into his smile.

“Thank you for the offer, but I think I’ll take my chances. I have two very excellent guards employed right now, and I wouldn’t feel right calling myself an adventurer if I couldn’t defend myself, or my home,” Sylver said as he took a step back and attempted to walk past the group, which moved a step forward to keep him closed in.

“Fighting monsters and fighting people are two very distinctly different things,” the man with the round glasses explained.

“I’m well aware,” Sylver said, still confident, but now with a slight irritation in his voice, as if to hide his nervousness.

“I would go as far as to say that a person that’s used to fighting monsters, would have a very tough time fighting people. Especially if they were outnumbered, and out leveled,” the man continued. Sylver looked around again, and genuinely flinched when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He had the cloak washed while he spoke to Novva, and now he would need to wash it again.

“500 gold is nothing for you. I wouldn’t be surprised if you had that much on you right now,” the man with the round glasses said. He didn’t put any force into the hand on Sylver’s shoulder, but the physical contact spoke enough on its own.

Sylver looked at each of their faces one after the other and focused on them. He gently pushed the man’s hand off his shoulder.

“I’m really curious. What exactly is going through your mind right now? Presumably, you know who I am, you’ve heard of what I’ve done, who I’ve fought, and who I associate with. And yet you three are standing here, blocking the entrance to my home, in my way, and demanding protection money? I hunt people and monsters for a living, what exactly is it that is going through your thick heads right now?” Sylver asked. The two men standing on either side of the woman stopped smiling and their faces turned neutral, while the woman’s remained with a grin.

“Several reasons. But the main one is that I’m good at reading people,” the woman guardian said. There was something wrong with her throat because her voice was far too deep and rough for her otherwise feminine appearance.  Sylver straightened up at her words.

“Are you now? And what exactly did you read from me?” Sylver asked. The woman’s smile widened, as she leaned an inch or so closer.

“I know that there are two types of men that would break someone’s jaw open, in the way that you did. The first are the ones who get off on it. You know the type. Lex here would love nothing more than break a finger or two, and then cut your nose off just for the fun of it,” the woman said, with a nod towards the man with the round glasses.

“I’m guessing since you’ve attempted to talk to me, I’m whatever the second type is?” Sylver asked. The woman nodded.

“The second type, are the ones who are afraid of violence. The ones who think that if they bark loud enough, they’ll never have to bite anyone. Or in your case, the ones who think if they put on a show and bite hard enough once, that will prevent all future biting,” the woman guardian explained.

“I see… But what makes you think I’m not going to bite this time as well? To prevent the need for future biting?” Sylver asked. He lifted his hand and scratched his cheek, and made a mental note when all three of them flinched to reach for their weapons, but caught themselves. They were nervous. Good.

The woman had something on her back, the Bladesman had the sword at his side, and something on his other side, while the brawler had something up both of his sleeves.

“That you’re well aware how quickly a fight can turn south, and you value your life and safety much more than you would a measly 500 gold. We aren’t leaving without something to show for it, bribing guards is more expensive than you might imagine. But you seem like reasonable man, from what I’ve seen at least,” the woman guardian explained.

Sylver reached with his hand and scratched the back of his head, as he silently had a short staring contest with the woman. He blinked first on purpose and looked away before responding.

“What if I said I knew people in the Cord that wouldn’t be happy to hear I’m being extorted like this?” Sylver asked.

“Then I would say you should have picked a group that wasn’t an ancient fairy tale. Please. Have a little respect, I wasn’t born yesterday. So what are we doing here? Everyone walks away happy and with what they want, peace in your case, and a small amount of money in mine. Or are you going to see how well your tricks work when you’re outnumbered, and against professionals?” the woman asked, almost purring as she said the word.

“Alright… You have a point, 500 gold isn’t worth fighting over... Give me a moment, I don’t have any on me, but should have enough in my house,” Sylver said, as he tried to sidestep around the trio. The woman turned around and grabbed Sylver by the arm and held onto it as if they were out on a date. The two men didn’t move away, and if anything got even closer to him.

“I take it you’re not going to trust me to go and get the gold and want to follow me inside to make sure I don’t run away or something? I already know you can fuck with my home, I fail to see the purpose of this,” Sylver said. He didn’t try to shrug the woman away.

“Just an assurance that you won’t try to run away and go tattling to the guards. Nothing would come of it anyway, we’ve got friends in high places. But it would be annoying to deal with, and then we would have to hurt you, and I like your face and wouldn’t like to see it bruised, cut up, and battered” the woman guardian said.

“Could you at least send those two away? If I wanted to fight, I would have done it here, not inside the house I’m attempting to protect from damage. Even if I won, the repair cost alone would, as you said, much higher than 500 gold,” Sylver suggested. The woman adjusted her grip on his arm and Sylver counted at least 4 layers of armor beneath the thin cloak hiding everything. She pretended to think it over before shaking her head.

Sylver shrugged and waved his hand towards the gate to open it. It’s amazing how easy it is to get people to do something by asking them to do the opposite. If he had invited them inside, Sylver was more than sure they would have all waited for him here.

*

Inside the previously overgrown lawn was now neat, tidy, and bright green. Various corpses, of rats, birds, and priests had been carefully collected and burned. Sylver had held a slightly more formal funeral for the bodies of all the girls down in the basement, save for the corpses of Masha and Misha, as well as the previous home’s owner.

With the barrier that surrounded the house gone, the sunlight gave it a fresher appearance. It still wasn’t completely repaired, some windows and other minor architecture were beyond Sylver’s abilities, but everything was clean and cobweb-free. It was amazing what one person could achieve when he had over 300 shades working in tandem to clean something. The girls helped too, but mostly in guiding the shades and pointing out things they had missed.

“You know; this could be the start of something nice. A capable mage like yourself, especially one that’s so rational could do very well for himself if given the right connections. You might not know this, but there’s a power struggle right now for the remains of the Black Mane, and you could stand to make a lot of money if you were to help us out on a few jobs,” the woman offered.

Sylver gently lifted his hand into the air as they walked, and made a turning gesture with it. The gates behind them slammed shut and clattered so loudly and violently that the Bladesman with the round glasses drew the sword at his side, as well as a strange double-sided dagger in his other hand, while the brawler punched downwards, and caused two odd-shaped knuckle dusters to jump into his hand, while the woman holding Sylver’s hand began to glow a pale blue light and tightened her grip around his arm.

“For your own good don’t be stupid, don’t-” Sylver didn’t hear the end of her sentence as he lost the ability to see. He heard the woman start to scream as he felt her attempt to keep her hold on his hand, but a very powerful force ripped her fingers off him and dragged her away.

“Don’t kill them please,” Sylver said, into the endless and deep dark void.

Sylver felt something splatter onto the bottom of his robe and rolled his eyes. Barely a minute later, the darkness receded.

The three people who had attempted to extort Sylver for money, we now all on the floor, unconscious and both of their legs twisted so that they pointed backward. The fingers on the woman’s hands were bent the wrong way, with the thumb bleeding from the ripped open skin.

Sylver looked down and saw that his robe was covered in blood again.

“Great job, thank you. I hope neither of you was harmed?” Sylver asked. Masha appeared a couple of inches off the neatly trimmed and now blood-covered grass.

“Are you going to interrogate them? Because I can see their memories, they’re part of a gang called the Left Tooth and they have 5 people waiting outside,” Masha explained. Sylver nodded and summoned several shades to dig through their belongings.

One shade disappeared as one of the woman’s pockets was rigged with acid, which killed the shade, and then started to burn through her armor. It stopped before it had reached the skin. Inside the destroyed pouch, liquefied paper spilled out.

“Sorry, she’s had it for so long she doesn’t even think about it. I’m good with recent memories, seeing something older than a week takes a while,” Masha said. Sylver turned to look at her. She looked like she was in mourning from how much black she was wearing. It appears she liked Sophia’s robe but had converted it into a slightly less conservative dress.

“It’s fine, I’ll sort this out later. If anyone tries to come inside to rescue them, don’t kill them either. Were they hired by anyone, do you know?” Sylver asked.

Masha stared at him with a blank look on her face before she answered. All three gang members let out a short whimper before becoming silent again.

“It’s hard to see when they’re unconscious… But no. Or at least not directly, someone hired them to find as much information about you as possible, and Deya here decided you’d be an easy way to make some fast money. You were also her type, and she liked the way you walked, very confident, which influenced her decision a surprising amount. She ran away from home 3 years ago with a man she intended to marry, but he left her, and she had too much pride to go back to her parents and turned to crime. Originally she worked under Poll the Green as a safecracker of a sort before she-”

“Thank you, but I don’t need her life story. The man who hired them, what did he look like?” Sylver asked.

“He’s a dwarf… I think, he had a robe that looked a bit like yours, but it covered him from head to toe. Other than that he only came up to Deya’s hip, and had a low-pitched voice, they don’t know anything about him. He found them, and hired them, didn’t say who or why. They got paid 2,000 gold for it. What they found was kind of basic, where you ate, what shops you visited, who you talked to. But it’s splotchy, you disappeared without warning a lot, and most of the time they got lucky when they found you. There’s also a different group that is following you, that got in their way. Adventurer’s I think, but it’s hard to tell,” Masha answered. Sylver looked down at the woman.

“Where did they meet the dwarf? Did he smell like anything? Could you copy his voice?” Sylver asked. He had forgotten how convenient having someone with mind-reading abilities was.

A figure wearing a pitch-black robe appeared a few steps away from Sylver. It was covered from head to toe, without a single visible discernable feature.

“You know what, I don’t even care. I’ve got too much other stuff going on to waste my time tracking down some sort of quasi-spymaster dwarf. Where’s Misha?” Sylver asked. Masha’s face turned sour at the question.

“Downstairs. She’s trying to remember everyone’s names, but she’s struggling with it,” Masha said.

“He didn’t keep a record? Oh… He did, but with numbers I take it…” Sylver said. He had guessed correctly, as Masha nodded. “You’re not going to try and help her?”

“Why? They’re gone. The things down there are just people-shaped beef jerky as far as I’m concerned. Lisa, Anna, Corry, Megan, all died down inside the cages, crying and cursing me with their last breath. If not for Misha, I would have used the bodies as fertilizer,” Masha said with a faint crack in her voice.

Sylver looked around the renovated garden and silently fixed his gaze on an empty spot near the edge that had a large pile of rocks with names etched onto them.

“I’m not going to ask you to make peace with your past, because I know first hand it isn’t always possible. But you should try to not focus on it. Let your sister deal with it how she wishes to and respect it,” Sylver said. Masha huffed and her form disappeared, as did the dwarf’s.

“Why are you here?” Masha asked. Sylver accepted that she wasn’t going to listen and didn’t waste his breath.

“I got what I needed to start the anti-teleportation spell. There will also be some guests coming over soon, so if you could fill the house up with some staff that would be great. They don’t need to do anything but hurriedly hide away. A friend of mine is looking for maids, butlers, a bard, and a chef right now, so this is just a temporary measure,” Sylver said.

A lineup of various men and women appeared in a giant group and moved into a semi-circle so Sylver could see them all at the same time.

“You the same mistake when I first came here. Her shadow is facing the wrong way, the knees on a man of his height should be a bit lower, his hairline is too low for his head shape and…” Sylver explained, as he pointed at each person in question and made Masha change them to look more realistic.

Nautis was blind, and his guard didn’t look particularly smart or attentive, but Sylver didn’t like taking chances with things like this.

After his false staff were good enough to fool someone who hadn’t spent more time than he cared to admit learning how to create lifelike illusions, Sylver went to the edge of the garden and started to carefully lay out the foundation for his magic. When Masha questioned why this was the first thing he was doing, above all else, Sylver spent the entire 3 hours while he was here, explaining why he didn’t like teleporters.

He would later learn, Masha had learned several new swear words from his explanation.

*

**

*

Sylver waited until Sophia had put her teacup down. The suns were about to start setting, but the garden patio was already beginning to light up with artificial balls of light.

“I’m going to cut to the chase. That cave that that man promised you, isn’t available,” Sylver said. A cruel smile crept onto Sophia’s face, which did little to hide the anger in her eyes.

“I will make it available. And I don’t remember asking you. Why do you care anyway? Is the Cord after it? What is this? Why?” Sophia asked, firing one question after another as her body tensed up and threatened to unleash all its force directly onto Sylver.

“It isn’t available, because there’s a very good chance the man will lose the perk in the process of me removing the curse,” Sylver lied. It wasn’t a very good chance; it was a certainty. The ritual was generally used to pass on bloodline abilities, Sylver was more than certain a perk would fall under that.

Sophia looked like he had just slapped her across the face, even if her expression hadn’t changed a whole lot. With the amount of suppressive jewelry, she was wearing, trying to get a read of her soul wasn’t possible, even for Sylver. Soul reading as a whole was an educated guess, Sylver simply had enough experience with it that he had it down to a science.

“Is it money? Time? What’s the issue, what do you need to cure him without making him lose his perk?” Sophia asked, earning a small smile from Sylver at the fact that her first response was trying to find a solution.

“A philosopher’s stone and the blood of an elder dragon? But in all seriousness, if I had the time I could do it slowly and carefully, and if I felt like he was about to lose his perk I could stop. Except whoever cursed him was smart enough to make sure no one would be able to stop the curse or slow it down. Even if you had someone who could suspend him in time to give me months instead of weeks, his curse would react to the time magic and would spread and kill him. There’s also a trigger in the curse,” Sylver explained. The best lies were always the kind that had some truth in them.

“A trigger?” Sophia asked.

“The curse is set to react to something. As far as I can tell, if a specific kind of magic were to be used on him, the curse would accelerate to the point of instantly killing him. My best guess is there’s some kind of healing magic that would be able to cure him, that’s been taken into account by whoever cursed him, so it couldn’t be used,” Sylver explained.

This wasn’t even a lie, technically speaking. Although he doubted the monks that could cure anything short of death were around anymore.

Considering Sylver was the one who killed all of them.

The ritual he was using now was partially one of theirs, their “cures” often involved transplants and using newborns as curse sponges. Quite gruesome, but as with most dark magic, effective.

Sophia leaned back in her chair, and then let her head roll back. It was lucky that her choice of dress today didn’t have an opening at the front, because everything would have spilled out from the way she was bent.

She took a deep breath.

Sighed.

Sighed again.

Then her whole body shook for a moment.

She then made a sound that was close to a sob, and then she lifted her arm to cover her face and promptly disappeared. Sylver crossed one leg over the other as he poured himself some more tea and dipped a ginger-flavored biscuit in it.

*

Sophia returned by the time Sylver was done with his third cup of tea. Her dress was different, her eyes were ever so slightly bloodshot, and she spoke with the kind of professional forced positivity healers tended to use when telling someone they were going to die.

“Could you cure him enough that he could use his magic?” Sophia asked. Sylver put his cup down and locked his fingers together over his stomach.

“As in, you want him to be well enough to transport a couple of you into the cave, without caring if he lives or dies as a result of it?” Sylver asked. Sophia answered without skipping a beat.

“Yes. I’ll pay you double, triple, however much you want if you do that for me. Anything you want, I’ve seen the way you look at me, just swear to me you’ll get my people there and I’m yours to do with as you wish,” Sophia said with increasing speed. She teleported and stood a mere inch away from Sylver. Even bloodshot and on the verge of tears, there was still something breathtaking about her.

Sylver stared into her eyes in silence for a few moments.

It would be so easy.

He didn’t even need Nautis, he could get inside Tuli and could just as easily get Sophia and whoever she wanted inside as well.

It was so tempting.

Sylver could see it now, going on adventures with her, helping him handle the few things his dark magic couldn’t touch. They would spend the days walking, flying, and then share a meal and then a tent as the suns went down.

He could even teach her dark magic.

When a woman like her said, “I’m yours” she meant it in every way imaginable.

But Sylver had been down this road before and knew what was at the end of it. Even if it was beyond tempting, he wasn’t going to make the same mistake for the 14th time.

“The sheer amount of painkillers he would need to be loaded up on to use his magic, in any capacity, would kill him. This is the only thing I can do; in the time he has. And I don’t mean that if you came to me a week earlier, I mean if he found me a day after he was cursed. This is very intricate magic, you would have more luck trying to cut him down the middle and hoping that the curse in one half is weak enough for you to grow a new arm, leg, lung, stomach, kidney, liver, and brain half. Even then, I’m all but certain you’d be back where you started,” Sylver explained.

Sylver learned from his mistakes. There was a reason he went with flesh and blood.

Sophia’s face scrunched up with each word, her head now close enough that Sylver could feel a faint tingling from where one of the silver ornaments in her hair brushed against one of his stray hairs. Sophia’s eye’s widened for a moment and then narrowed.

“You were there,” she said, as Sylver slightly cocked his head but kept his features perfectly neutral. “It matches, you returned almost at the same time as the other’s did,” Sophia said, each word barely a whisper as she slowly moved away from Sylver and straightened her back to her full height. He was sitting down, she was towering over him.

“Bald head, always had a mask on, you had to hide your hair color and your eyes, it makes sense… Your hair was shorter when you returned, I’m sure of it,” Sophia explained. She reached out with a hand as if she were about to grab Sylver’s hair, but she stopped before that.

“What are you talking about? Bald head? Why would I ever shave my hair, look how beautiful and lush it is?” Sylver asked, in an attempt to derail the conversation and her train of thought. Sophia took another step back and then disappeared.

Sophia returned a moment later clutching a bundle of faded pages in her hand. She snapped her fingers and made everything on the table disappear as she spread the papers out on it, and dug through them without saying a word. Sylver barely needed a glance to understand what she was going through. The cats all had slightly strange handwriting, it was hard to mistake it for anything else.

“There!” Sophia shouted, momentarily elated as she found the tied-together bundle of pages she had been looking for. She nearly ripped them apart as she read through them.

“It fits, the timing, bald head, everything fits! You’re Melo, the real Melo,” Sophia shouted, so loudly that Sylver could only hope that no one was around to hear her.

“Sophia, calm down and take a deep breath. What are you talking about?” Sylver asked.

“The duke that visited me two days ago… Novva of Pere, he’s one of the ones who returned, I’m sure of it. Tell me right now that if I were to ask him, he’d be a good enough liar to fool my [Sense Lie]. Or any one of the adventurers you allegedly partied up with during the time you were gone, it would be dead simple to make one of them talk. Or if they’re with the Cord, Kitty would step in and stop me, which would confirm the fact that you’re Melo,” Sophia shouted again. As she continued to read through the papers in her hand and Sylver could only hope whatever was written on there was close enough to the official story that he wouldn’t trip up over the details.

“I don’t understand what you’re talking about. Why are you being like this? I’ve been nothing but helpful and supportive, why do you think I’m suddenly trying to go against you?” Sylver explained. He gently got up from his seat, but Sophia didn’t stop staring at him for even a moment.

“I’m going to have Novva come here, and I’m going to ask point-blank about the cave. And I might not be able to tell when you’re lying, but I’ll know the moment he so much as bends the truth. Let alone when I ask directly if you’re the one that got everyone out of there,” Sophia said. Sylver suppressed a reaction, but Sophia saw something despite his best efforts. She grinned with her pearl white teeth showing.

“I’m going to get him here even if I have to commit treason to do so, and you’re going to tell me everything. I don’t care what it costs me,” Sophia said, again with the kind of tone that Sylver understood meant she meant it.

It felt like a big overreaction to something she didn’t know about until a month ago. Or whenever Nautis made contact with them.

“Sophia, calm down and think it through. Even if you’re right, so what? What difference does it make? What are you going to do? Try to force me to do the impossible? Why would I purposely try to make him lose his perk? Just to fuck with you? What do I, or anyone, stand to gain from his losing something that’s apparently so valuable, that you’re willing to commit treason over it?” Sylver asked, keeping his voice relaxed and quieter than necessary.

Sophia took a very deep breath as if she was going to say something before she once again teleported away.

How rude it was aside, Sylver couldn’t help but envy how easy things would be if he could just disappear whenever he needed a moment to collect himself. A flowing cloud of smoke just didn’t have the same effect. Sophia returned before Sylver had had time to sit down, and calmly collected the pages scattered on the table into a neat stack.

“Does the name Sobek mean anything to you?” Sophia asked almost casually. Sylver very carefully considered the name before he shook his head no.

“Right… Please forget you ever heard that name… I apologize for the outburst. Is there any way you could hold off the ritual for at least 2 more days?” Sophia asked, with a slightly off-kilter tone that suggested the outburst wasn’t over and was simply on pause.

“Apology accepted. But why? What are you going to do?” Sylver said. Truth be told he had enough samples of Nautis’s flesh, blood, and bone that Nautis could run to the edge of the world and Sylver could easily track him down.

If Nautis decided something was wrong and ran away, Sylver would simply sell Novva and the other nobles the trackers, and then the best bounty hunters money can buy would all collectively start chasing a mage that can’t use magic.

“I need to… Consult some people over this, to say this is bad is a massive understatement. I’m sorry for shouting at you, but you can’t imagine how much is at stake here… Please see me before you start the whole thing, I’ll let you know if something changes before then,” Sophia said.

Sylver looked her right in her beautiful green eyes and tried to puzzle something out of them.

“Sure. But in two days, ready or not, I’m going to attempt the ritual,” Sylver said. The day the woman in white arrived last year wasn’t that far away, Sylver needed to wrap this up quickly and cleanly.

*

*

*

“I’ll look into it, but it’s going to take me a while. Have you checked the book of Ra?” Lola asked as she hid away the piece of paper Sylver had given her.

“Spent the whole night reading it, and nothing. Not even a mention of Sobek. But on the bright side, I understand her a bit better now. Most of the book is regarding what to do once you’re dead, the rest are tales of Ra and other various gods, and only a small portion has anything that could be interpreted as “laws” to follow while alive. As long as their bodies are burned and their ashes are spread somewhere with direct sunlight, there isn’t much else they have to do. There’s a thing here about their souls being weighed against a feather and that they should live guilt-free lives, so I understand why they’re so open about drinking, gambling, and whoring. They do enough ‘good’ that they don’t feel guilty for the other stuff,” Sylver explained. He put the recently printed book on Lola’s table.

“Sounds about right,” Lola said.

“Sophia never mentioned this?” Sylver asked.

“We have an unspoken rule not to get into the specifics. I keep the magic-related talk on the low and she doesn’t attempt to convert me into her religion. She also thinks I’m lying about being a high elf, but I can’t exactly explain to her that I am a high elf in body, but not in core. Because that would require explaining the fact that you’re able to resurrect people and then I would need to tell her about one of the high elves' best-kept secret, that you for some reason know far too much about,” Lola said. She snapped her fingers towards one of the chests, and it floated over onto her table.

“Everything is ready. I’ve checked, even if it’s just a vein touching the rune, it will work just fine. It might take a little getting used to, but you can summon the explosive anywhere you want, provided there’s enough space for it to get summoned. So if you want to insert it into the ground, you’ll need to make a hole first, it doesn’t displace anything when it’s summoned. You already know about the trigger mechanism, again just play around with it until you get used to it. But keep in mind it’s already primed and fully functional,” Lola said. She tapped the chest twice and it popped open.

Inside the velvet coated interior lay a black ribcage, polished to a shine and with the appearance of seamless onyx. A thin mesh lay around it, with small paper stickers indicating what went where, as well as the points of contact. The whole thing had a very delicate-looking appearance, some areas were full of holes and looked like they would snap under their weight if he lifted them up.

A piece of metal that was shaped like a conical seashell sat next to a similar-looking part, that had been twisted and turned until the opening was just barely visible. Sylver was almost afraid to touch it.

“I took a bit of a guess as to how you’re going to get these into yourself, but assuming the dimensions you wrote down are right, everything should be a perfect fit,” Lola explained. Sylver ran his finger along the piece that would be connected to his spine and gently closed the chest’s lid.

“This is all amazing, thank you. I don’t say this enough, but I’m really glad I have you here,” Sylver said. Lola had a blank look on her face for a moment before the tips of her ears turned a very pale shade of pink, as she looked towards another wall and made a thin and long box float towards her.

“Is this what I think this is?” Sylver asked, staring at the box as if it were alive.

“Your first instinct is going to be to laugh. But let me explain myself. It is covert and discrete, and while it’s inactive, even someone with Leke’s eyes wouldn’t be able to tell what it is,” Lola explained, as the twine that kept the box shut slowly began to unravel and untie.

“I like the sound of that,” Sylver said.

“And here’s more good news. Because of all the enchanting I’ve been doing, and supervising, my class changed. I am no longer a simple [Mythical Crafter]. I am now a [Restless Enchanter]. I’d say use [Identify] on me, but I don’t want to spoil everything by showing you the massive difference in mana between us,” Lola said, placing both hands on her hips and posing, for lack of a better word.

“I’m really glad to hear that. I’m proud of you Lola, and you should feel proud too. You were put into a very odd and difficult situation, and you not only survived but thrived. You’ve more than lived up to your name, and went above and beyond any expectations I had,” Sylver said.

Lola’s ear tips continued to change color into a brighter shade of red before she turned on her heel and used her sleeve to wipe away at her eyes. When she turned around again, Sylver was already holding the device in his hand.

The handle was made out of dull white metal, with faint black cracks that ran through it. The shaft was a perfect cylinder of polished wood, while the canopy was a very simple and stylish-looking black fabric. The end tip was the same as the handle, a white metal that had been sharpened like a pencil.

“You made an umbrella,” Sylver said, his voice completely devoid of any kind of emotion.

“When I finished it, it looked so similar to an umbrella I thought “why not make it look like an umbrella?” What do you think? And don’t ask me how much it cost, you don’t want to know. Salgok helped with the handle and tip, and the wood is imported and with a name so long and complicated, I didn’t even bother writing it down. The whole thing is as indestructible as something can be. But having said that, don’t try using it to block a sword, it will very likely break. There’s a ring on the handle, twist it to the left,” Lola said.

Sylver silently did as she asked, and the meter and a half umbrella folded in half, and then shimmered, as a sleeve of the same color as the canopy appeared over it. The previously curved handle turned into a small wooden stub.

“I have a perk that lets me… Long story short, don’t worry about lead or something touching it and making it explode while it’s hidden on your person. It has an internal battery that lasts for almost 250 charges. Instead of time, you can now block individual teleportation attempts. Amazing I know, but here’s the best part,” Lola said, as she gently took the folded-up umbrella from Sylver’s hand and turned the ring the other way, which caused it to change into its original form.

[Staff of Infernal Interference- ??? - Exotic Quality]
[Any creature inside the area of effect will be unable to teleport.]
[???]
[???]
[???]
[???]
[???]
[???]
[Charge Remaining: 249/249]

“Why can I only see one effect? Are there more?” Sylver asked, as Lola turned the ring again and the umbrella opened up. Except it kept opening and turned inside out. It flashed a deep red for a moment before Sylver felt the magic coming out of it surround him. He attempted to turn into smoke, but couldn’t. As Lola moved the point away from him, he felt it linger, before it disappeared.

“You can adjust how concave it is, if you make it as close to a cylinder as possible the range is about 300 meters. Opened up like this, anything within about 50 meters will be unable to teleport. It doesn’t require any magic to be used, you could have one of your shades hold it for you… The question marks are because there are a bunch of behind-the-scenes effects and enchantments, that I’ve hidden away since they aren’t all that important. If you had some positive mana in you, you’d get a few small boosts, but I didn’t want you to think about that too much, so I hid everything irrelevant away,” Lola explained, as she closed the umbrella again, and twisted the tip.

It came off, with a very soft poof sound.

“Let me guess. Poison?” Sylver asked. Lola poked him in the hand with the tip, and Sylver felt something jolt through his body.

“Better. Stick that tip into something, and until they manage to get it out, no teleporting. I found a dagger that had this effect and transferred it into this. Pull the ring twice for the propellant to activate. It’s not powerful enough to stab through solid steel armor, but you could easily force it into someone’s arm, or leg, or back,” Lola explained, as she handed Sylver the umbrella and placed the tip back in place.

“It will recharge itself using ambient mana, but it will take up to a week if you use everything up. Again, if you had positive mana you could charge it yourself but…”

“Don’t even worry about it, it’s perfect. Thank you, seriously, thank you. It’s compact, unassuming, and doesn’t look out of place when I’m out in public. I’m just… I’m at a loss for words, I don’t even know what to say,” Sylver said. He continued to look down at the umbrella in his hands and shook slightly.

“Are you... Are you crying?” Lola asked. Whatever hesitation or nervousness she had at giving Sylver the umbrella was instead replaced by an uncomfortable shock.

“Yes,” Sylver said, as he wiped the forming tears out of his eyes with the back of his sleeve and let the umbrella get absorbed into his robe.

“So you like it? Really?” Lola asked.

“I don’t just like it, I love it. Do you know how much confusion I will cause when I pull an umbrella out in the middle of a fight? Mix that in with the confusion that comes from my opponent’s teleportation being blocked, and what you’ve given me is the equivalent of instant death magic, against teleporters. I’m almost giddy at the idea of fighting a teleporter now,” Sylver said, as he made the umbrella hidden up his sleeve jump into his hand and opened it with a single twist of the handles ring. Sylver dropped it as the handle changed shape and he lost his grip.

“I’m relieved to hear you like it. Also since you’re here, Tamay handled that thing you asked about. It’s rented in her name, but Novva already got in contact with the person they’re renting from, so everything is fine,” Lola said, as she walked over to her desk and placed a small sealed envelope on top of the chest that had Sylver’s ribcage and runes.

“Fantastic. I still haven’t heard anything from Sophia, so tomorrow morning I’m going to heal Nautis, and then I’ll become partially invincible, and then I’m going to confront the woman in white,” Sylver said, as Lola’s face changed. “What?” he asked.

“I’m just worried something will happen. I have a bad feeling about this whole thing. But I don’t see an alternative, so I don’t know what to do. You’re sending the guards and cats away so she doesn’t get scared away, but what if she kills you? What if she just runs away? What’s your backup plan?” Lola asked. She wrapped her arms around herself as she spoke and leaned back slightly.

“You are. If something happens to me, or if I have to chase after her, Ciege, Yeva, Benji, Faust, Bruno, Masha, Misha, will be under your care. You’re not just playing second fiddle here, I organized everything in Arda like this so if I’m for whatever reason gone, there’s someone I trust who will handle everything. We’re partners, just with different jobs,” Sylver said, as two shade swordsmen appeared and picked up the surprisingly heavy chest. Sylver hid the envelope with the address of the rented property in his robe.

“It’s bad luck to speak like this, but what about if you die?” Lola asked. Sylver considered her question for a moment and padded the chest as he spoke.

“How about this. After the surgery I’ll use the ribs and flesh I removed to make you a talisman. You’ll be able to track me down using it, and it will inform you when I’m gone. Not dead, I’m already dead, but gone. But I’m not going anywhere. I’m the greatest necromancer the world has ever seen, I’ve survived things far more deadly than some white wearing 9th tier psychomancer. You have a better chance of killing a true immortal than you do getting rid of me for good,” Sylver explained.

Lola’s fears seemed to be slightly alleviated by the overconfident answer, but she asked for the talisman regardless of the fact.

Not that there was much point to it, Sylver wasn’t going anywhere any time soon.