Wizard Tournament: Chapter 98 (Patreon)

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          “Tomorrow?” Draevin repeated. He couldn’t believe what he had just heard. “You mean the Conflux. The Conflux is going to end the world?”

          “Do you know of any other cosmic events powerful enough to reshape reality?” Caelnaste asked. It was a rhetorical question.

          “Why have you been trying to kill me then!” Draevin yelled at her. “You could have just told me the world was going to end! You really think I’m just going to stand by and do nothing?”

          “Of course not,” Caelnaste admitted, “but telling you isn’t sufficient to prevent it.”

          “Why not? What happens?”

          Caelnaste pursed her lips. “If I tell you that you won’t help me prevent it.”

          “Of course I will!” Draevin insisted. “If the world ends I’ll die too. Just tell me what happens so I can prevent it.”

          “I can tell you what you need to do, but I can’t tell you more.” Caelnaste broke eye contact and looked back at the empty glass beside her divan. “You have to drop out of the tournament.”

          Draevin narrowed his eyes. “I get it now, this is just a trick. You’ll say whatever it takes to knock me out of the tournament. You just don’t want me to win.”

          “That’s not—”

          “Then why won’t you tell me anything more? Is it because you know I’d pick apart your lies? Or is it because if you tell me why, you know I wouldn’t help you?”

          Caelnaste sighed. “I know I haven’t done anything to earn your trust lately,” she said. “But I’m not lying about this. Ask anyone to look into the future and they’ll tell you the same thing. In two days there is no future. Nothing.”

          “Except you know I don’t know any other seers.” Draevin elected not to acknowledge the existence of the dragon emperor Tarrish. He could check with him later and see what, if anything, Caelnaste said was true. “I suppose next you’re going to tell me I’ll just have to take your word for it, right?”

          Caelnaste picked up a scroll that had been sitting on an end table next to her and offered it to Draevin. “You don’t have to take my word for it. In this scroll is instructions for the simplest ariolamancy spell I know. It shows you a vision of what the weather will be like tomorrow. Cast it yourself and see what happens after noon.”

          “Of course you’d have that ready for me. Do you think I was born this century? That spell will probably just show me exactly what you want it to.”

          Caelnaste let out a frustrated breath. “I could cast the spell for you, but there’s no way they’d let me out of here to do it. I could have made a spell scroll for you, but you’d trust that even less. If I recommended a seer you wouldn’t trust anything they said. Please. Tell me what you will believe and I’ll try that. This is the best I could come up with!”

          Draevin stood there for a moment and tried to think of something she could say that he would believe. “Well maybe if you’d tried a little harder to earn my trust instead of trying to kill me all week!” He snatched the scroll anyways and shoved it into his pocket, not caring how crumpled it became. “I’m not dropping out of the tournament,” he told her.

          “I know,” Caelnaste gave a sad smile. “Nothing short of death will keep you out of the tournament, but if you don’t drop out the world ends. What was I to do?”

          Draevin squinted suspiciously at Caelnaste. That was the closest she’d come to confessing to being involved in any assassination attempts so far. “Perhaps if you just told me what was going to happen we could work together on an amicable solution that wouldn’t result in the end of the world or either of us being killed? Surely there’s something else I can do,” he suggested. “The whole reason I came here was because I thought the Guild was going to force me to change my wish to something neither of us want. If your intentions are true, wouldn’t you want to work together to stop them? Just tell me what the wish is that ends the world.”

          Caelnaste kept her gaze directed at her side table and fidgeted with her empty glass. In a small voice she finally admitted, “I don’t know.”

          “Then what good are you?” Draevin asked her in an uncompromisingly harsh tone. “All you do is look into the future all day long and you can’t even tell me the results of the Conflux a few hours from now?”

          “I wouldn’t expect a cryomancer like you to understand,” she said, “but the Conflux is a little different from other natural phenomena.”

          “That’s pretty obvious don’t you think?” Draevin asked. “It’s not like a normal eclipse can grant wishes.”

          “What I mean is the Conflux is too powerful to look at directly. That’s just as true for my future sight as it is for any other magical sight. Attempting to do so would only blind my third eye.”

          “So just look right before, or right after,” Draevin told her. “Or try not to look directly at it.”

          “Normally I would look after; read a report about what happened,” she said. “But that’s the very problem—this year there is no after!”

          “What about before?” Draevin asked. “Surely there’s something we can—”

          Caelnaste threw up her hands in frustration. “The Conflux shines through both time and space, you dolt! It’s already too close to foresee anything clearly. Before the tournament started I was able to determine that your involvement seemed to be the key. That’s all I know.”

          Draevin barely kept the smile from his face. Caelnaste had just revealed that her foresight was effectively neutered. Nothing else she said seemed to matter next to that. That was a useful bit of information to hold onto in case he had to fight her again before this was all over. It also went a long ways towards explaining why she so rarely made it past the semi-finals when she normally seemed so unbeatable in the earlier matches with that bow of hers. Draevin’s competitive side almost felt sorry for her; it would be unfair if his cryomancy magic got weaker after each match. Except she was also a huge bitch so he didn’t feel that sorry for her. “So you don’t actually know what’s going to happen then? Just that it’s probably something to do with a wish?”

          Caelnaste shook her head. “Don’t be ridiculous. Only the Conflux could cause such a cataclysmic event and it always follows the same vision: you, in the final match, standing over your defeated opponent.”

          Draevin didn’t bother hiding his smile this time. “So I am going to win!” He practically cheered. “I finally beat Ka then? Did you see how I defeated Unit-17?”

          “I don’t think your opponent was entirely decided when I looked, but if you get me out of here I can try to look again,” she offered.

          “Nice try,” Draevin deadpanned. “Not gonna happen.”

          She shrugged her shoulders casually. “Can’t blame a girl for trying. And don’t expect me to help you beat Unit-17. If that murderous machine stops you maybe it could save the world.”

          Draevin shrugged his shoulders right back at her. “Can’t blame a guy for trying,” he mocked. “So. We’re down to me winning and wishing for something that ends the world somehow? Maybe I can try to submit a change, word my wish differently.”

          Caelnaste laughed in his face. “Oh Draevin, you poor fool! You really don’t know how things work around here, do you?”

          Draevin felt hot blood rush to his face. “You really expect me to help you while making fun of me? Do you want to figure out a solution or not?”

          “You were never going to help me,” she stated simply.

          “Certainly not with you acting like that. Why don’t you tell me how things ‘work around here’ then?” He asked her, making mocking air quotes with his fingers.

          “Very well,” she said stiffly. “It’s not like they can punish me for speaking out of turn now. The Guild isn’t going to let you submit a change of wish.”

          “Why not? Didn’t you just say the world is going to end if I go through with my wish the way it is now?”

          “The five founding nations of the Guild run this tournament. They take turns making wishes that are approved by council vote. Your wish was already voted on and approved. They’re not going to let you change it now.”

          It was surprising to hear Caelnaste so casually confirm the conspiracy theory Peter had laid out for them earlier. It was even more surprising to hear that a council had voted on Draevin’s personal wish. “How could they have voted on my wish?” He asked her. “I came up with it all on my own.”

          “Of course you’d think that,” Caelnaste chuckled. “That’s the whole point. Let me explain it in a way you can understand: it would be too suspicious to have only wizards sponsored by the five founding nations win. So on occasion the Guild likes to sprinkle in a few independent victories.”

          “I get that,” Draevin said, motioning with his hand for her to move the conversation along. “They hire some wizards to win without telling everyone they sponsored them. What does this have to do with me though?”

          “That’s not how it works,” Caelnaste stated flatly. “They don’t hire independent wizards. They arrange for wizards who already want the same things as them to win. And when that fails they arrange for them to want the same things as them.”

          This caused Draevin to pause. There was something about what she’d said that was shocking, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. “What are you saying?” He asked her.

          “I think you know what I’m saying.”

          “No I don’t, or I wouldn’t—”

          “That wish of yours. Seems like it would be pretty beneficial to Caldenia if you revived all their soldiers, wouldn’t it?” Caelnaste asked in a mocking tone.

          “Of course it would,” Draevin admitted, “but I came up with that wish on my own. I thought it would be popular with my Caldenian fans.”

          “But that’s not why you wanted it,” Caelnaste continued.

          “Are you saying I was brainwashed?” Draevin asked her. “I’ve already had my mind cleared of your meddling. I would have found anything else if it was there.”

          “Come now, you’ve seen firsthand how unreliable cerebromancy can be,” she told him. “Why bother, when there are easier methods? Methods that can’t be magically detected or dispelled. And the way you walked the same route every evening. Didn’t you ever wonder why the assassins weren’t eldrin? It would be a simple—”

          “No!” Draevin cut her off. “You’re lying!” He banged on the door behind him. “Let me out!” He screamed at the door. “I want out of here!” It had to be a lie. She must’ve looked into the future and seen what the worst thing she could say was to make him upset. His own nation wouldn’t do that to him just to make him ask for a wish they liked.

          “If you’re so sure I’m lying then why are you so upset?” Caelnaste laughed while covering her mouth with her immaculate fingers. She relaxed back into her divan and gave a friendly wave to the guards as they hauled the door open. “So nice chatting with you Draevin,” she said before the doors slammed shut.

          “So, did she say anything incriminatin’?” The judge Dag asked right away.

          Draevin shook his head. “No, she danced around actually admitting to anything and then made up a bunch of lies to rile me up. I never should have come, I don’t know what I thought was going to happen.”

          “Well fuck me sideways,” Dag cursed. “This was a gods-damned waste of time then.”

          “Not a total waste,” Draevin told him before he could storm off. “She did admit to a motive. That’s not nothing right? Could a motive help in a trial?”

          “I’ll take anything at this point. Out with it.” Dag commanded.

          “She said that something bad was going to happen if I won the tournament, and that she knew nothing short of death would keep me from competing,” Draevin told him. “She thinks my wish is somehow going to end the world.”

          Dag’s mouth twisted sideways in contemplation. “I suppose your testimony can’t hurt,” he finally said. The way he said it though… It almost sounded like the case against Caelnaste already had similar testimony from other people. She must have told the same story to the judges earlier when she tried to convince them to cheat for her.

          “We can only hope,” Draevin said.

          The guards returned Draevin’s wand and escorted him back to the lobby where Istven was still waiting.

          “You are back,” Istven said simply. “Did you learn anything?”

          “Just a bunch of lies,” Draevin grumbled. He glanced over his shoulder at the Guild guards behind him. “I’ll tell you about it later.” He gestured to the door and headed out. He still had an appointment at the Caldenian embassy. After everything Caelnaste had said about the Guild manipulating events he didn’t feel comfortable talking in front of anyone who worked for them. Peter’s paranoia was starting to make sense.

          And then there was the thing Caelnaste had said right at the end. She had strongly implied that Caldenia was behind the shadowmen assassins that had… that had... The assassins that had attacked him that day. That had killed—

          “You look unwell,” Istven said from Draevin’s side. The eldrin prince stopped walking and looked directly at him. His gaze was unsettling. “There is something you did not tell me.”

          Draevin’s breathing increased. He couldn’t seem to catch his breath. Aelaniss had—why would Eldesia have hired shadowmen? Why not send their own eldrin assassins? What Caelnaste had said was starting to make a sort of twisted sense. Just about the only nation that would be unable to hire eldrin assassins was… Caldenia. The world was spinning out of control. Aelaniss. She was…

          “We have to go to the Caldenian embassy,” Draevin said, suddenly feeling calm. He knew what he had to do. “I have some questions for them.”

          “What kinds of questions?” Istven asked. Draevin didn’t say anything, but somehow Istven seemed to know exactly what he was thinking. “I know that look,” he said gravely. “You are going to kill someone.”

          Draevin tried to protest, but before he even opened his mouth Istven stepped forward and grabbed Draevin by the shoulder. In a second everything went black. Draevin’s head snapped up. He was floating in a black void with Istven standing in front of him. All else was darkness and the only light that filled the space came from the black prince’s glowing eyes. “Letting you talk to her was a bad idea,” Istven said. “Peter underestimated Caelnaste.”

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