Chapter 53: You Brought The Redhead (Patreon)

Jason watched Zed flirt with the lady in red that had walked up to him as he’d approached Abed. It was the same girl Oliver had pointed out a moment ago for watching him a little too discreetly.

Jason had sent Oliver to keep an eye on the bald tank of a man while he watched Zed, slightly distracted from any other task.

In the crowd, Zed maneuvered his way quite easily, sidestepping mages too arrogant to give space for another mage, deftly moving the box in his hand like a skilled waiter. Sometimes it was easy to forget that Zed was actually a mage with all his constant ramblings and jokes.

Seeing Zed switch up the way he did, having what might be a civilized conversation with a beautiful lady as he’d once done long ago in Hillview, left Jason wondering which of the Zeds was real. In the distance Zed looked like he was having fun, and the lady in red looked like she was enjoying herself more than Zed was.

“Baffling, right?” Chris said from beside Jason. “It’s like he’s a fool one minute, and the next he’s a high class gigolo.”

“I wouldn’t say gigolo,” Jason said.

“I would.”

“And while you’re using words that are not nice, care to tell me what that was about?”

Jason nodded into the crowd where Ned was striking up a conversation with two mages. Imani stood beside him with his hand on the small of her back.

“Nothing,” Chris bit out.

“I take it it has something to do with Oliver,” Jason said, pressing the case. “And while Oliver might not know it, I doubt there’s anyone on the team that doesn’t know what’s happening between the three of them. If anything, Ned’s the only oblivious one.”

Chris looked around, as if to confirm Oliver wasn’t near before she spoke.

“You should have heard her talk about it,” she said, bitter. “It was like she was playing them and enjoying it.”

“Enjoying it like an evil bitch or enjoying it as a girl happy to have two boys head over heels for her?”

“Evil bitch,” Chris answered without hesitation. “She didn’t even care that Oliver was hurting.”

“And what about Zed?”

“What about Bloodbath?”

“How did he take it?”

“The same way he takes everything,” Chris scowled. “Like it was some kind of joke he was using to entertain himself.”

A waiter passed Jason, carrying a tray in the same manner Zed was carrying his pizza sized box, and Jason slipped a glass of effervescent wine from the tray.

Chris watched him skeptically as he took a sip of it and Jason ignored the look as he lowered the cup from his lips.

“Have you ever considered that we might be wrong about Zed?” he asked.

“Not really,” Chris answered. “I already know he’s hiding something.”

“Not that, Chris. Everyone knows that. I meant being wrong about him entirely.”

Chris’ face scrunched up in a frown.

“No,” she answered. “We aren’t wrong about him. He’s a man-child who doesn’t know how to keep his mouth shut, and we’re right.”

“Are we really?” Jason asked. “Look at him. When he’s around us he’s a bumbling fool with the attention span of a fish. Then he goes up against a monster and goes full murderhobo on it, like a deranged axe man.”

“Still sounds like a fool to me.”

“Yes, but you should’ve seen him against the Moscovian sloth.”

“I didn’t have to. If I remember correctly, he fumbled it and almost got himself killed.”

“True, but you didn’t see him when he realized being a deranged axe man wasn’t going to get him his victory. When he found out, he fought differently. He was calculating, precise if a little confused, and he moved differently. His swings were more controlled, his attention sharper. It was like watching another person fight.”

“If he was so good, then how did he end up that way?”

“That’s what’s still confusing me,” Jason said, frowning. “It was as if he was fighting his way into a plan, and at the end he just fumbled it. Tried to take a blow to the arm he had no right thinking he could take. It was as if he was expecting a different outcome.”

“So he was stupid.”

Jason sighed. “Chris, you’re not listening to me. For just a moment, pretend he’s not the man-child we found in the woods and think with me. See how easily he’s controlling the conversation with that lady. I’m ready to bet at least fifty percent of the things he’s telling her are lies.”

“More like nonsense,” Chris scoffed.

“No,” Jason disagreed. “Not nonsense, just lies. If they were nonsense, I don’t think she’d still be talking with him. Do you see the way he’s guiding her? She stopped him for a conversation and now she’s accompanying him to his destination. Whatever he’s telling her, she finds it interesting.”

“Okay,” Chris said. “So what’s your point?”

“My point is maybe he’s not a bumbling fool. Maybe that’s just an act.”

“Then it’s a very dedicated one, if you ask me.”

“Maybe,” Jason agreed, running a hand through his hair. “Okay, think about his conversation with Imani. You said he took it as a joke, that it didn’t faze him at all. He was being his usual man-child, right?”

“Right.”

“Yet he stopped your hand before it got to Imani.”

Chris frowned at that, a slow realization dawning.

“You’re a Rukh rank mage,” Jason continued. “And he’s a category one Beta mage. There’s no mathematics that dictates he should be as fast as you. So there’s no way he could’ve caught your hand unless…”

“… he moved before me,” Chris finished. “The fool was watching me.”

“No. Zed was paying attention to the conversation. He just looked like he wasn’t. He knew you were getting angrier and was waiting for when you’d explode.”

“I’m not that predictable.”

“Your angry reactions are actually predictable,” Jason corrected her. “But you’re right. You’re not that predictable. Yet he predicted you. Do you still think he’s a bumbling fool?”

There was a slight hesitation before Chris answered.

“Yes,” she said, her voice coming out unsure. “It could’ve just been a fluke.”

“Alright,” Jason said, quietly. “Since you want to play devil’s advocate—because I know you’re not that stupid—I’ll give you another one. How long have you been in town?”

“Three years plus,” Chris answered.

“And how long did you study runes under Festus?”

“Three months, give or take. Two months, full time, when I was waiting for my hunter exam and once in a while for a month after I passed.”

“And how many runes do you know?”

“Eight.”

“And how many can you use in combat comfortably?”

Chris shrugged. “Maybe one.”

“Zed’s only had a few weeks with Festus and he can already use two runes in combat, comfortably,” Jason said. “Festus suspects it might be three but he’s not a hundred percent on that one. How many do you think he’ll be able to use in two months?”

Chris opened her mouth to oppose but nothing came out.

“And before you talk about distractions of spellforms,” Jason continued. “I already asked Festus if it was normal since Zed didn’t have any spellforms to distract him and he said it wasn’t. According to him, the difference between a mage with spellforms and a mage without is that a mage with spellforms usually quits after a while. So the only difference between you and Zed is that you quit and he put in much more effort than you. There’s no affinity for runes involved.”

“So what exactly are you saying?” Chris asked, her tone serious.

“What I’m saying is that Zed might not be the fool we think he is.”

“You going to tell Heimdall about this?” Chris asked, looking around as if searching for someone.

“Heimdall was the first to suspect it,” Jason answered, giving her a strange look as he talked. “He thinks Zed talks a lot so that we get confused and won’t know when he’s doing something crucial.”

“Crucial to us or to him?” Chris asked, now standing on her toes in search.

“Both,” Jason answered. “And what are you looking for?”

“Ash,” Chris said with a frown. “I can’t find her anywhere.”

Jason looked around once more and noted three things. First, Chris was right, he couldn’t find Ash anywhere. Second, he couldn’t find Oliver either. And third, the bald man he’d set Oliver on was missing.

“Shit.”

………………………………………

Ash snuck out of the building quietly. The constant bustling and growing chatter in the auditorium did more than enough to hide the sound of her boots as she made her way through the crowd of mages. She did nothing to mask her aura from the others as she slipped away. With so many mages around and subtle auras flaring every now and again, it would take someone of Ivan’s level to sense hers without kicking up a fuss.

She spared a glance at the others before she left. Jason stood talking with Chris, engrossed in whatever conversation they were having. Oliver, to her surprise was nowhere to be found, and while it worried her, what she was about to do was for the greater good. Besides, she reminded herself that he was the stronger of the both of them and was more than capable of handling himself until she went in search of him.

Imani and her boyfriend stood with another couple likely talking about mage couple things while Zed had his time occupied by what was arguably the finest dressed lady in the room. With all that primping, Ash was more than certain she was suspicious.

Ash slipped out of the building and into the night. The skies were a soft black with countless twinkling stars that littered its vast expanse. She walked beneath it, navigating her way with the light from the auditorium, stepping away from the sandy path and into the grasslands.

As the light from the auditorium faded into the distance, the grass rose as high as Ash’s waist. She’d been waiting for this moment for a long time, ever since they’d learned of the arrival of the VHF. The only issue she’d battled with for the longest time, standing in the way of her plans, was finding a way out of town to establish contact. She’d contacted the person she was to meet through a proxy in Hillview from the moment they’d gotten to the town asking questions no one was willing to answer. But someone had answered her, given her the information she’d needed, and she had paid him handsomely. Then she’d promised him extra if he delivered a piece of information for her.

After that, Ash had gone back for an update and found the man waiting with a response. All that was left was to find the time and place to meet, far enough away from prying eyes yet unquestionable. When she’d heard of Abed’s invitation, it was as if the God Oliver’s parents worshiped was smiling down on her.

Ash had spotted her contact barely thirty minutes into their arrival at the gala and he had since given her the signal she’d been looking for an hour into their stay in the building. Thus, here she was, out on a night waiting for a man. If this had been before the second Awakening, Oliver would’ve cracked a joke about her meeting a sneaky link, whatever that was.

Ash pulled her aura tighter around her as she waited. She may not have learnt how to completely extinguish it like the really talented could, but she knew how to keep it as tight to her skin as possible. It was the next best thing to aura stealth she could find.

“I see you were able to make it.”

Ash snapped to attention immediately, turning around, hands held before her as she conjured a spellform to mind, her core coming alive as it did at every sign of combat. When her eyes landed on her assailant, her shoulders relaxed and her hands came down.

“Did you bring what I asked for?” she asked, trying to effect calm and disinterest in her voice.

The man slipped his hand inside the jacket he wore and brought out a spherical disc the size of his palm. He offered it to her.

“You’re just going to give me this?” she asked, suspicious. “I was expecting a paper map for the price you called.”

“And I was going to give you one,” he said in a gentle baritone. “But things have changed.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Just take the map and run along, child,” the man said. “Don’t you still want to find your mother? You said it was what you wanted in your notes. I believe it was an attempt to appeal to my humanity. Most people don’t use it because they think we Olympians have no conscience but they are wrong, we are as emotional as any other mage out there.”

He dipped his hand into a second pocket and brought out another disk.

“And what’s that for?” Ash asked, reaching out to take only the first disk.

“A communications device,” the man explained. “You might believe you don’t want it right now, but keep it handy. My contact is the only one on it. I won’t call you, but should you ever need to find me, you can reach out with it.”

“I won’t,” Ash said, slipping the only spherical disc she’d taken into her pocket.

“And what happens if your map goes missing? What happens if you find yourself in too big of a trouble?”

Ash thought about it for a moment. Considering what she was about to do, a lot of variables existed. Anything could go wrong at any time.

Frowning, she reached out to the hand still patiently waiting for her and took the second disc. She slipped it into a different pocket from the first.

“What changed?” she asked again, as the man turned to leave. “Why all the extra?”

“That’s simple,” he said over his shoulder. “You brought the redhead.”