Wizard Tournament: Chapter 40 (Patreon)

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          “Of course! Anything else I can get for you Mister Getano?” Tenna’s tone had taken a sudden turn for the worse. She smiled at him but her sarcasm was unmistakable. Draevin realized his mistake right away.

          “Oh, I’m sorry Tenna. What was I thinking?” Her frown softened just a bit.

          Draevin dug back into his pocket and pulled out a few more silvers. “I said this would be my treat, right?”

          Tenna looked down at the money blankly. “Umm. Yeah, I guess you did.”

          “Okay then, I’ll see you up front in a minute.”

          With that Draevin signaled his guide to lead the way and left Tenna to head back out of the dining hall. He passed Anise on his way out and she looked to be wearing the same purple dress she’d fought in earlier that afternoon. She was being led by the arm by Zolt who looked recovered from his experience in the arena and had dressed up in a matching purple suit.

          Anise put a finger to her nose when she saw him. “I thought I smelled something,” she said. “Do you really have to come in here to do your refueling? Can’t you go out to a field somewhere and—”

          “Don’t say it,” Draevin warned her. He glared at Zolt and the man just ducked his head down to avoid eye contact.

          Anise smirked. “Getting under your skin that easily?”

          “No, it’s just so damn boring. You think you’re all so clever but every one of you has the same handful of insults. I swear it’s like you borrow them from each other or something.”

          Anise pursed her lips. “The thought never occurred to you that maybe it’s just youthat’s the common denominator in all these interactions?”

          Draevin didn’t have a quick comeback ready so he changed the subject. “I know what you’re planning with the queen,” he growled at her under his breath just loud enough that nobody else in the dining room could overhear. “You want to try to kill me? Well it works both ways sister.”

          Anise shot a dirty look towards Zolt. He cowered under her gaze. “I didn’t tell him anything about you,” he said defensively without taking his eyes from his feet.

          “It doesn’t matter,” Anise said. “If Caelnaste wants him dead it’s only a matter of time.” She turned her attention back to Draevin. “I may be new to this tournament, but I know people. I’ve just put in my application with the Guild, and I’ve been assured they’re going to fast-track it. Kill me if you want—if you can—but if you do your career in the arena will be as good as over.” She turned away before Draevin could even respond and snapped her fingers at her companion. “Come Zolt.” She stormed off in a graceful swirl of fabric and Zolt followed quickly on her heels.

          Draevin stood there for a moment to process what he had just heard. She had said Caelnaste wanted him dead. Not Queen Fayse. It didn’t feel like she had been trying to deceive him, but the queen was probably the only one with the pull to fast-track a Guild application before the completion of a new contestant’s first tournament run. So which was it? He shook his head and continued on his way. He had an appointment to keep. There would be time to sort this out later.

          When Draevin reached the front desk the Guild cerebromancer was waiting for him; he was more than a little relieved when he saw her race. “Thank the gods you’re a gnome,” he told her after they made introductions. They sat down at a secluded little table near the front door where they could speak more privately.

          “You’re welcome?” she answered in a questioning tone. She barely came up to his waist at full-height and sported a sparkly-blue bowtie on an otherwise masculine-style suit that looked professionally tailored.

          “I was just afraid you were going to be an eldrin,” Draevin explained. “Cerebromancy’s one of those delicate disciplines that they seem to do well at. If I have to see one more eldrin today I think I’m going to be sick.”

          “I see,” she said neutrally. “Well do you mind telling me why you called me in today?”

          “Oh, right. Some of my memories are a little hazy. I think someone’s been mucking around inside my head.”

          She hummed as she listened. “Hmm. Yes. You want it cleaned up?”

          “Yeah. Just tell me if anyone else has been poking around in my mind and if so what they’ve done.”

          The little gnome ran through a few hand signals while she listened. “Hmm. Yes. If you just stand still for me, I’ll give you a look with my Cerebro Sight first.” She finished her spell and her eyes lit up in a brilliant sparkly blue that matched her bowtie, which was a strange difference from the usual pink associated with cerebromancy. Draevin figured it was just a cosmetic affectation: flashy, but ultimately a waste of both concentration and mana.

          “I’ve got plans later, so let’s try to be quick.”

          The little gnome beckoned for him to lean across the table and slapped two child-like hands on either cheek to study his face more closely. “Oh, my!” she exclaimed. “Someone’s definitely been poking around in here. More than one I’d say.”

          “I knew it!” Draevin blurted out. “Can you figure out who it was?”

          “Hmm,” the Guild cerebromancer hummed as she studied him some more. “This more recent one looks rather sloppy. The other one though…” She trailed off.

          “Hey,” Draevin snapped at her. “I asked you a question. Can you figure out who was in my head or not?”

          She took a moment to snap out of her reverie and pull her hands away. Her eyes still had that blue sparkle to them but she blinked it away. “Strange. You don’t seem overly concerned about the older enchantment. Am I to assume that was a professional job?”

          Draevin clenched his jaw. “You can assume it’s none of your business. Tell me about the more recent one.”

          “Very well.” She straightened her bowtie absentmindedly. “It is not impossible to identify a specific cerebromancer from the spell they cast, but with how degraded these enchantments are I would find that extremely difficult in this case. Now I understand you’re feeling a bit… touchy, but I’ll need you to tell me if either of those enchantments were put here on purpose or whether you’re fine with me removing everything.”

          “Actually,” Draevin said. “Do you think you could strengthen that other enchantment while you’re in there?”

          “Hmmm,” the cerebromancer hummed to herself. She fiddled with her little bowtie some more. “I’m afraid I can’t actually take a request like that from someone whose mind has been compromised. I only asked to determine what answer you freely gave while it was active. You understand I hope?”

          “Fine,” Draevin relented, “just get this over with already. And I have a friend who might be showing up soon. She might need to be looked at too when you’re done with me.”

          The little gnome started in on a few hand signs. Draevin remembered he still had his defensive wards up. “Oh, you might want to—”

          “Argh!” the little gnome yelled. She dropped backward out of her chair, gripping her forehead in a pained expression. “Why didn’t you tell me you had mental wards up?”

          “I was about to. Sorry about that.”

          The little gnome opened her eyes and Draevin was shocked to find they were now bloodshot. She blew out a breath and it coalesced into mist. “How did anyone get into your mind in the first place with wards like that?”

          With a wave of his hand, Draevin dismissed the protections in his spiked hair and it fell across his forehead like a deflating balloon. “I’m pretty sure they weren’t quite this strong when it happened,” he told her. He put a hand on the gnome’s forehead and dismissed the residual cold still lingering in her brain.

          “Oh wow, thanks,” she said, “that feels a lot better.”

          Draevin waited for a short minute while she recovered. “So… are you still going to…?”

          “Yes, yes,” she said. “You sure those wards are down?”

          “Totally dismissed,” Draevin promised.

          “Alright. Hold still here.” The little gnome worked on the same spell she had tried last time. She flipped her wrist in his direction. “Okay, I’m going to need you to count backwards from ten for me.”

          “Ten, nine…” Consciousness dropped away from Draevin like a bad dream and his mind drifted into the comforting embrace of oblivion.

          Draevin opened his eyes after what felt like a momentary blink. He was still slumped in the same seat as before. For some reason his face was wet. He touched one of his cheeks curiously to confirm.

          Tenna was standing next to him with a sad half-smile on her face. She was carrying a large bag that smelled like sausage and pasta. “You’re finally awake,” she said.

          He sat upright and his hair flopped into his eyes. “Did she fix me?” He asked Tenna. He saw the cerebromancer gnome standing nearby: he looked at her next. “Did you fix me?”

          “Diana did a great job unweaving your memory manipulations,” Tenna told him.

          Diana smiled up at Tenna before commenting. “Well, there wasn’t much to fix,” she said. She straightened her blue bowtie. “The enchantment was mostly degraded.”

          Draevin ran his hands through his hair while he re-applied his Brain Freeze armor so he could get the look just right. His hair popped back up into its usual frosty spikes. “Wait, did you say enchantment? Does that mean you left the other one alone after all?”

          The cerebromancer frowned and looked to Tenna. Tenna shook her head. “Upon closer inspection I decided it wasn’t a good idea to tamper with those other enchantments at this time,” the gnome said. “But I deemed them… harmless.”

          “So can you tell me what the manipulation was exactly?” Draevin asked. “The one you removed, I mean.”

          Diana tapped her chin with a single finger in thought. “Hmm. A rather simple spell. You had some friendly memories inserted of a woman named Caelnaste and a man named Tomrha along with a compulsion to never suspect either of malicious intent. Just your standard Friendship spell with only a few minor tweaks.”

          “Inserted?” Draevin asked. “Was anything removed?”

          She shook her head. “No, only new memories. There was a woman in your memories as well. A dryad friend of yours.”

          “Sylnya!” Draevin said. “Yeah. Has she shown up yet?”

          Diana shook her head. “Not as of yet. This Sylnya seems to have been involved as well. I just thought you should know.”

          Draevin shook his head. “That’s ridiculous. Sylnya and I can’t stand Caelnaste…” his mind started to wander to his memories of Sylnya and Caelnaste hanging out during the current tournament: compared to last year that behavior felt so out of place now.

          “I told you that new friendship was weird,” Tenna said.

          “Yeah. I wonder what Caelnaste is playing at,” Draevin agreed. “We should probably run and find her right now.”

          Diana coughed into her hand. “My payment?” she asked.

          “Right.” Draevin pulled out the requisite gold and paid her. “If I bring Sylnya to you, would you be able to fix her mind too?” he asked.

          Diana tucked her payment away and straightened her sparkly blue bowtie some more. “Hmm. She will probably be a more involved job,” she guessed. “My rates would be much higher.”

          “Sure, sure,” Draevin said. “Can you wait here at the guildhall while I go fetch her?” Diana coughed into her hand again. Draevin harrumphed but slid over another gold coin. “Will you wait here for me to return with her, please?” he asked.

          Diana squirrelled the coin away with the others and patted her pocket happily. “I suppose I could stay for a few hours,” she said cheerfully.

          “You should try the tomato soup in the dining hall,” Tenna encouraged her, “I just had it and it was amazing.”

          “Great.” Draevin turned to Tenna. “You coming?”

          Tenna looked surprised. “Me?”

          “Yeah. We need to find Sylnya, don’t we?”

          “I guess I could come with you,” Tenna said. “Do you know where she might be?”

          Draevin shrugged. “How much trouble could she have gotten into in the last hour?”

          They left the guildhall together to see if they could find her. The first place they checked was the last place they’d seen Sylnya: the booth Caelnaste had paid for. When he’d left Sylnya there Caelnaste and Istven were still in an argument over Caelnaste’s Dred’Sylnt bow. There was no sign of anyone now. Just a few acolytes cleaning up.

          While Tenna was looking around a red-skinned goblin crawled out from underneath one of the seats and tried to grab the box of food she was still carrying. “Hey! Shoo!” Draevin called out. The dirty little creature hissed at him and planted its feet rather than scattering.

          “Wait,” Tenna said. She held up a hand, “It might have seen something.” She leaned down to get closer to eye level with the creature and it relaxed a bit. Its nose twitched and it didn’t take its eyes off her box of food. Tenna held up the box in front of it. “Have you seen a dryad?” She asked it. “Green skin. She might have a black cat with her. If you can tell me where she is I’ll give this to you.”

          The goblin seemed to consider Tenna’s words for a moment, then scampered away. “Wait!” she called after it.

          “So much for that idea,” Draevin said. “Let’s check The Pot. I’m sure somebody must have seen her.

          They made their way back down the stairway, but before they turned towards The Pot they were surrounded by dirty little goblins. One of the creatures stepped forward from the rest of them. He was wearing a woman’s tiara encrusted with diamonds, dozens of gold necklaces and enough silken shirts that he had to waddle as he walked. He held up a black-runed wand on a hand covered in gold rings. It could only be Boom’ba.

          “I see green stabby girl,” Boom’ba announced as dramatically as his shrill little voice could manage. “What you have trade?”

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