Wizard Tournament: Chapter 115 (Patreon)
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What stood out to Draevin about the illusion of Peter, was that it looked slightly younger and better rested than the more recent Peter. It was also still wearing the ratty old leather satchel Peter’d had when he first arrived—the one that had been destroyed by a falling piece of masonry. That had happened back in the first round of the tournament! Surely the illusion hadn’t been created so long ago. How could he have known…?
“This illusion is a spell of my own design,” Illusion-Peter explained. “This makes it a wholly unique type of tracking spell. Something which I seriously doubt anyone is prepared to defend against. Once my explanation is finished, this illusion of me will walk towards the last location where I have been.”
“What do you m—” Draevin tried to ask, but the illusion continued talking right over him. This wasn’t a two-way conversation.
“I designed it this way in case I was taken off-world, or being held somewhere with defenses against scrying. So, if I’m anywhere in the world you should be able to find me. If I’m not, then hopefully you can find some clue as to where I was taken. In the event I was taken through a portal of some kind, this spell will lead you to where the portal last opened. I hope my instructions have been followed about being prepared for a fight before activating this spell because it’s unlikely you’ll have time for anything from this moment forward.” He held up a hand with all five fingers upraised. “I will now give you a moment to confer with each other before continuing.”
The Peter-illusion started counting down fingers. Alex spoke up. “Now you can see why we waited for you, Draevin? If anyone here can fight, it’s you.” Sylnya loudly cleared her throat and Alex shot her a guilty look, but before he could offer her an apology the Peter-illusion continued.
“I’ll assume whatever allies my uncle managed to gather together are ready?” Peter-illusion asked the air. Draevin looked over at Alex in shock, but he had no time to address that revelation as the Peter-illusion barreled on. “I hope you can do better than just Tripla,” he said. “I’ll do what I can to make new allies during the tournament though, just in case. After all, it’s not a matter of if the Guild will try to stop us, but when the Guild will try to stop us.” The illusion looked to its side at something they couldn’t see. “Okay, I’m going to give you a quick minute to confer before I continue.”
“You’re his uncle?” Sylnya asked Alex during the pause.
“I’d heard he had an uncle that died back in Caldenia,” Taelshin said. She turned her head in Alex’s direction. Draevin and the others also looked at the aging human.
Alex squirmed under their gaze and held his hands up. “What? I can’t be the only one here that’s faked my own death before, can I?” He looked around. He was met with only silence until one of his muscly men raised his hand.
“I have,” he said. “Master was travelin’ and I got the shits real bad. They left me for dead, but I made it anyway.”
“Oh, I’ve done that,” Heph said. Draevin and a few others looked at him. He broke into a smile. “The shit part, not the other bit.”
The others laughed and Draevin elbowed Sylnya in the side. “Hey Syl,” he said, “what do you think about Peter’s friendship. Is it even real or just a manipulation?”
Sylnya scrunched her brows. “Didn’t he save you, like, a bunch of times?” Draevin blinked in surprise. Of course. She was right. Whatever plan Peter’d had going into this tournament didn’t detract from all he’d done. If Peter was in danger Draevin would help. If that made him a sucker, so be it. Sylnya looked like she was ready to follow-up with a tongue-lashing, but Draevin was saved by Peter’s illusion continuing its pre-programmed speech.
“Alright, that should be long enough. Now listen up. This illusion will walk at a normal walking speed and follow any paths when one is available,” the illusion said. “It will use doorways, but beware that if a door is locked it won’t wait for you to find a way around. It will walk right through and leave anyone behind. You’re only going to get one chance at this, so don’t mess it up. Be ready to fight any guards, break any doors, or destroy any wards that are in the way. If you lose track of this illusion, you lose track of any chance to locate me.” At this the Peter-illusion rotated until it was facing the arena. It pointed ahead. “It will be walking in that direction,” it said. “When it reaches its destination it will point directly at the spot and make an announcement before dispersing. It will be leaving in sixty seconds. Get ready.” The illusion reached over to touch something they couldn’t see and started tapping its foot while it waited to leave.
Sylnya patted herself down, feeling out the location of her various daggers, before announcing, “I’m all ready to go.”
Grrbraa jumped up and got into place next to Sylnya. “Me too!” he said excitedly.
“Oh no you don’t!” the blind dryad yelled at him. “You’re staying right here.”
“But mother-Taelshin,” Grrbraa whined. He pointed his nose at the ground and tucked his tail between his legs. “Friend-Peter is my very first friend. And it was my fault he was taken. Why can friend-Draevin and friend-Sylnya help but not me?”
His other mother patted Grrbraa’s arm gently. “Oh, Gerby,” she cooed, “it’s not your fault.”
Taelshin shook her head firmly. “It’s too dangerous,” she insisted. She gestured to the dryads gathered around the nearby fire. “We’ve got plenty of work to do ourselves if you just need to burn off some energy.”
Grrbraa’s ears and tail drooped. “But mother—”
“But nothing!” Taelshin shot back. “I won’t have you dying over this, they don’t need you.”
Draevin thought about walking into danger without the hulking beast that was so willing to throw himself at anything that threatened them. “Well we can try,” Draevin told them, “but we wouldn’t have gotten this far without him.” He patted the werebeast on the arm softly. “It won’t be the same without you, Gerby.” He tried on the werebeast’s nickname for the first time and decided he liked it.
Grrbraa let out a high-pitched squeal from the back of his throat and dropped to the ground like a pathetic sack of dirt. “Oh Gerby!” his other mother said. She dropped to the ground and started stroking the top of his head. “Can’t you see how much this means to him?” she asked Taelshin.
Taelshin crossed her arms and turned her head away. “You know damn well I can’t see anything.”
His other mother raised an eyebrow. “So then… you wouldn’t see if he decided to go after all?” Taelshin didn’t respond, she just kept looking off to the side.
Grrbraa perked his head up. “Does that mean… can I go?” his tail quivered but didn’t quite start to wag yet.
Taelshin let out a heavy sigh. “I still don’t like it…”
Grrbraa sprang up to his feet. “I can go? I can really go?”
In a very small voice Taelshin finally said, “Yes, you can go.”
Grrbraa howled in joy. “Oooooowwwwuuuu!”
“But be careful!” Taelshin added.
The werebeast jumped on her and licked her face aggressively. “I’ll be careful, I’ll be so careful!” he promised. “I love you, mother-Taelshin!” He jumped over on his other mother and licked her in the nose and mouth. Draevin found the whole thing kind of gross but the dryad didn’t seem to mind. “I love you, mother-Oleno!”
“We love you too,” the bushy-haired dryad answered.
“Alright, sixty seconds is up,” the Peter-illusion announced. “I hope everyone is following.”
Grrbraa leaped up and fell into line with Draevin and Sylnya. “You better come back, Gerby!” Taelshin shouted after him.
“Yes, Mother!” he promised automatically.
Draevin and his friends followed after the Peter-illusion as it started to walk out of camp by the main trail. Thankfully the walk was slow and even—easy to follow. Alex huddled up to have a private chat with the small group of human toughs he kept close-by.
Sylnya patted the werebeast on the arm the same way his mothers usually did. “Don’t worry,” she told him, “we won’t let anything happen to you.”
Grrbraa stalked forward on all fours. “I’m not worried about me,” he said, “I’m worried about friend-Peter.”
“Wait up!” Alex called from behind them. The stocky human jogged to catch up with their little group. His muscle-bound toughs followed after him. “We’re coming too,” he declared quite firmly. His tone brooked no argument.
Draevin shrugged. “Well I won’t try to stop you, but try to stay out of the way when the fighting starts.”
“Where did Heph run off to?” Sylnya asked. “We’re probably going to need him too, don’t you think?”
Draevin looked around, only just now noticing his absence. He spotted Hephian right away near the outdoor kitchen stuffing his face full of rolls. “Heph! Pay attention! We’re leaving!” he shouted after him.
“Compfing!” Heph shouted around cheeks stuffed with bread.
“Now where’s Wix?” Draevin cursed to himself. He felt an immediate tap on his shoulder. He turned around to find Wixerna smirking at him.
“I’m right here,” she answered.
Sylnya laughed. “Haha! Who needs to pay attention now, Drae?”
“Har har,” Draevin said sarcastically. When Heph caught up to them at the camp gate he brought an entire armload of rolls with him.
“I heard that illusion say we should prepare for a fight,” he said as he passed Draevin a roll. “What better way than a nice meal?” Heph passed a few to Wix as well.
“Heph can be single-minded,” Wix said as she tore into one of the rolls. “But that doesn’t mean his ideas are bad.” Draevin took a bite and shrugged his shoulders. His mana pool was still decently full from the Guild engineers he’d borrowed from, but that didn’t mean a little food in his belly would be a bad idea.
“So,” Heph asked as he swallowed another roll, “Are we not taking the Black Prince on this little rescue mission? I thought his whole thing was that he’d be great in a fight.”
“Unless one of you knows how to get ahold of him I don’t see what choice we have,” Draevin said. “This spell isn’t going to wait around for us. We have to go right now or we’ll lose our chance.”
“The one time we might actually need him,” Sylnya grumbled.
Draevin noticed that Peter’s illusion had pulled up his hood to hide his face while he walked. That was probably a good thing. At this point in the tournament Peter’s face would be somewhat recognizable.
“I think we’re going straight towards the guildhall,” Sylnya said after a minute.
“It would be a good place to keep him,” Alex answered. “Nobody really even knows how big that place is on the inside.”
“Do you suppose we’ll just find him in a spare room?” Sylnya asked.
Draevin shook his head. After his conversation with their mystical dragon ally he found such a simple explanation unlikely. Though, if Peter was in Hell he wasn’t entirely certain how going to his last known location would help. Did Hell rifts follow consistent logic? Could they just open a rift in the same spot to find him? He didn’t have a clue how any of that magic worked. “I seriously doubt Peter is anywhere in Eldira. We should be prepared to go to Hell to save him if we have to,” he told the group.
“That’s fine by me,” Alex said first.
“Me too!” Grrbraa added enthusiastically. Draevin wasn’t convinced the werebeast even knew what that meant, but he couldn’t argue with that level of excitement. Plus after what he’d done to a saber demon yesterday, it was clear he’d be useful to have around if that’s where they ended up.
“Does anyone here even know any sanguimancy?” Draevin asked. “You know, in case that becomes important.” There were nothing but blank stares all around. “Great. Just great.”
“We can just make a note of the location he points out,” Wix said. “Then send someone to go fetch a sanguimancer. If Kraelish is still at the embassy we could probably ask him.”
Hephian groaned. “Not that asshole! He’ll probably ask for money. Like, a lot of money.”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” Draevin said.
Sylnya turned out to be right. Peter’s illusion walked straight towards the guildhall. The doors were wide open and there were no guards in sight. Considering that their little group looked like a militia, Draevin figured that was probably a good thing.
When they reached the front doors they heard screaming from somewhere inside. Draevin rushed in first with Sylnya hot on his tail. He reached for his wand… When his fingers grasped nothing but empty air he remembered that he didn’t actually have it anymore. He cursed inwardly and readied his magic anyways. There were no guests or anyone else in sight.
Draevin and Sylnya followed the sounds of screaming right through the doors in the back that were reserved for employees only. They passed a pair of dismembered bodies on their way. The source of the bodies—and the screaming—became apparent when they turned the corner to find Istven. He had a vaguely familiar gnome pinned against a wall with one arm. Tendrils of shadow reached out of Istven’s hand and whipped around the gnome’s body, slashing at his face and arms.
“Where is Peter,” Istven demanded in a cool, level tone.
“I d-don’t know!” the gnome cried. There were little cuts all over the man’s face, and as they watched a little whip of shadow lashed out and added one more. The gnome screamed again.
“How do I get past the barrier,” Istven demanded next in the same level tone.
“I-I don’t know,” the gnome repeated.
“Then I have no reason to let you live any longer, do I?” Istven asked.
“Istven!” Sylnya hissed at him. “What are you doing? Let that man go. He clearly doesn’t know anything.”
Istven turned towards them, then tsked and threw the gnome to the ground like so much garbage. He stalked off down the hall. “Useless,” he said, “all useless.”
“Wait! Where are you going?” Draevin demanded. The gnome backpedaled away from them and tried to hobble away. Sylnya stopped to apologize for Istven while Draevin hurried to catch up.
Draevin turned down the hallway and came upon a horrifying sight. The next hallway was absolutely littered with dead and dismembered bodies. It had been a slaughter. Most of the bodies were cut up, but a few had pitch black burns. One had clear hand-shaped burn marks on its neck. Just beyond the piles of bodies was a strange barrier that shimmered between black and purple. The entire surface of the barrier flickered with white flames.
“What the…” Draevin trailed off.
“I tried to overpower the barrier with my crown,” Istven volunteered, unprompted. “I believe that is what they were expecting. It seems to have made the barrier even stronger.”
“I, uhh, what’s going on here exactly?”
“Peter was replaced with a Doll,” Istven said matter-of-factly. “Flesh shaped to look like him, nothing more. It fooled Grrbraa, but not me. I interrogated a few Guild employees and it led me here. This barrier seems to have been designed with my crown in mind.”
“So you’ve been trying to rescue Peter this whole time?” Draevin asked.
Istven didn’t answer. He just scowled.
Sylnya whistled appreciably when she entered the hallway. “You’re pretty good at this, Istven. You ever considered a change in career in case the whole ‘Emperor of Eldesia’ thing doesn’t work out?”
“Peter is on the other side of this barrier,” Istven replied in a level tone, ignoring Sylnya’s comment. “I am sure of it. Either he—” Istven stopped talking midsentence. His head followed a cloaked illusion of Peter as it walked into view. “Is that…?” he asked.
“It’s an illusion of Peter,” Sylnya clarified for him. “It’s leading us to the real Peter. You’d know that if you didn’t try to do everything yourself.”
“Well it will not be going any further,” Istven said. “That barrier is impenetra—” Istven stopped talking as the illusion of Peter proceeded to walk right through the barrier, like it wasn’t even there.
“You were saying?” Draevin prompted.
Istven actually bared his teeth this time.
“You guys, what are we going to do?” Sylnya asked. “We can’t lose that illusion or we might never find Peter!”
“I have been trying to break through that barrier for almost an hour,” Istven said. “It is not normal. Even my crown could not destroy it.”
“Obviously that’s because they were planning for you,” a voice said from behind them. It was Alex. Wix and Heph came around the corner with Alex and his human thugs right behind. “But I think I might just have something they won’t be expecting,” Alex said. He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a little black stick. It was covered in runes.
“I believe they call this thing…”
“Archmage Caladin’s Pyroclastic Wand of Destruction!” Draevin shouted in shock. “Where did you get that!”
Alex raised one eyebrow. “What? No. They call this the Boom Stick.”