Mark of the Fool
Chapter 549: Seeds of an Imperial Court

“You were inside the demon?” Theresa choked, her hand squeezing Alex’s so hard, that it actually hurt.

“By the sapphire sea.” Prince Khalik almost spat out his drink.

“Alex, that is insanity,” Isolde gaped.

“In retrospect, but it worked, and results were all that mattered then,” Alex continued regaling his friends with stories of Jaretha. “If it weren’t for Claygon, Thundar, Ripp and the other mercenaries, I would have been dead like five times over: desperate measures were needed after a while.”

“I’ll say.” Thundar threw back a shot of whiskey. “At one point, this demon filled the hall with fire, it was like the whole place was a furnace, I thought I was a goner for sure.” He reached for a glass of water. “We have Celsus to thank for us still being here. I swear, I’m gonna keep praying for my ancestors to guide him to the afterworld. Him and Guntile both. For at least a year.”

“Oh, no, Guntile died too?” Selina asked sadly. “She sounded cool.”

“Yeah, she was,” Alex paused. “But, I’ll get to all of that. There’s a lot that happened.”

“It has…been eventful,” Claygon agreed.

“That it has, buddy, that it has.” Taking a deep breath, he continued the story.

Alex’s cabal, along with Claygon, Theresa and Selina, had gathered in the bakery’s apartment. The early evening reunion was intense: so far, they’d shared moments of laughter, tears, relief, and a lot of joy.

Later, there’d be mounds of food to look forward to, and the drinks would keep flowing.

But for now?

Alex needed to catch his friends up on certain developments.

He continued his tale, recounting how they’d escaped from Jaretha, the apocalypse Baelin and his cabal had unleashed on Ezaliel’s domain, then he slowed right down when it came time to tell them about the Traveller.

Alex glanced at Selina, remembering what he’d promised Baelin. He wasn’t supposed to tell anyone except his cabal and closest friends what he’d discovered about there being other worlds in the universe. But, that shouldn’t apply to Selina, he knew he could trust her completely. She’d never told anyone about Uldar’s Mark, so why would she tell anyone about this, especially if she knew she wasn’t supposed to.

“The Traveller’s from another world,” he blurted out.

Jaws dropped and eyes grew wide.

The word “what?”, seemed to echo through the room.

“She’s from another world?” Selina repeated, glancing out a nearby window.

“The Traveller…a more fitting name than I thought.” Khalik nodded.

“The theory is correct!” Isolde cried. “By the elements!”

“Yeah, but Baelin says we can’t tell anyone that. And you can’t tell anyone about this next part either,” Alex continued.

Theresa nearly fell from her chair when he revealed that the Traveller had returned to the world of the living, and how she’d blessed him with both power, and knowledge. Prince Khalik spilled his drink on his shirt. Isolde choked on hers.

Selina’s eyes were very, very wide. “If she can come back from the dead—” she started, her voice thrumming with excitement.

“No…I’m sorry, Selina,” Alex said, pain in his eyes when he looked at her. “It doesn’t work like that. The reason the Traveller was able to come back was because of her power, and because of our prayers to her. Both needed to come together. She can’t bring others back either, not as far as I know. I’m sorry.”

Selina blinked, anguish gripping her face. Then, as quickly as it appeared, it was gone. Her jaw hardened and she nodded without saying another word.

Alex reached over and took her hand.

His sister tensed for a moment, looking like she would pull it away, then she sighed, relaxing her hand in his. Her brother squeezed it, while Theresa squeezed his other hand, and he continued with the last parts of his story.

He finished to the sound of breathing, overlaying utter silence. No one spoke.

Thundar was nodding knowingly.

Then Alex abruptly broke the stillness.

“And when I got home, that’s when Lucia, the sky-gondolier, came out of nowhere with a lot of coin from betting on us in the Games of Roal. She’s rich now,” Alex announced dramatically.

“What?” Thundar cried. “No, you’re lying.”

“Truly?” Khalik stared at the minotaur. “That is what you react to? Not the demigoddess returning from death, but to the sky-gondolier getting rich?”

“Well, I was kinda there for the ‘returning from death’ part, I didn’t know about Lucia’s coin multiplying like a bunch of ants in spring!” Thundar shouted. “I could’ve bet on us, ugh! I could be rich now!”

“What she did…while impressive…was an incredible risk,” Isolde said primly. “Any factor shifting slightly could have ruined our chances of victory, and cast her right back into pauperdom. Gambling is a bad habit. But I am shocked that she made that much from gambling on our successes. She is rich, you say?”

“Yeah, but she didn’t get there through gambling alone. Gambling gave her seed money. This is why you shouldn’t gamble, Selina,” Alex said.

“Alex, all that you have said so far has been a ringing endorsement of gambling,” Khalik pointed out.

Alex waved him off dismissively, watching his sister’s reaction. It was muted, her face was still tinged with disappointment. He’d have to talk with her later.

He went on to explain everything else that he and Lucia had talked about, he also told them about his conversation with Toraka Shale.

“Well, that’s pretty much everything,” Alex finished. “It’s been a crazy few days.”

“I can see that.” Isolde shook her head. “I must truly grow my power: some of what you went through in Jaretha…would have been the end of me.”

“So, the church’s secrets, as well as Hannah and Kelda’s legacy lie before us. And you have new power that needs mastering,” Khalik said.

“Yes,” Alex said. “With what lies ahead? We have concrete information now, so it’s time to build up our strength and knowledge. We have some direction, thanks to Hannah, but maybe going after the church or trying to go to the Irtyshenan Empire right away, might be too soon.”

“Indeed. We have to build on our foundation…your teleportation will be most useful,” Khalik thumbed his beard. “I’ll seek spells to compliment it. So, what do we do now, do we simply work with the expedition for the time being?”

“Not quite.” Alex looked at Thundar. “I’m going to talk to the Heroes next time I see them, and bring them up to speed about what we know. For now, we have to keep gathering strength. In the meanwhile…Thundar, how would you like to make a lot of coin?”

The minotaur blinked. “What kinda question is that? Coin can be exchanged for goods and services, and I love me some goods and services.”

“Perfect.” Alex rubbed his hands together. “I’ll be needing some help: I’ve got to focus on building this power for a while, so I probably won’t have a lot of time to go to Thameland regularly to get dungeon cores for new projects at Shale’s. Which got me wondering if maybe you’d be interested in going to get them with Claygon, and maybe Ripp and—” He looked at Theresa. “—you, honey.”

“Go on,” Theresa looked at him closely.

“You, Thundar and Claygon—if you want buddy—can get a share of my profits from any golems that you provide the dungeon core substance for. To put it bluntly, I’m getting rich, and you all should be rich too.”

“I do not hear you offering to make me rich.” Khalik glowered.

“Nor me,” Isolde folded her arms across her chest.

Alex gave his two richest friends an icy look. “Listen. Listen. The last thing you two need is more coin.”

“This is discrimination.” Isolde shook her head, a mocking look in her blue eyes.

“So sue me.” Alex fired back. “Aaaaanyway, Thundar, Claygon, and Theresa: I’d go with you sometimes, but if I can’t be there, I’d like to leave getting the cores up to you. If you need coin to hire extra hunters, just let me know. So, what do you say?”

“Well, I’ve been taking hunting contracts here in Generasi.” Theresa shrugged. “So this would basically be the same thing, except I’d be helping Thameland, it pays better, and I’d be helping my partner’s business.”

“Yeah, it’d be good training too,” Thundar agreed. “Without Claygon, I’d say we wouldn’t have the muscle for it, but with the big guy?” He nodded at the golem. “We’d have a solid chance, if we fight smart. What do you think?”

“I…would like to help…destroy Thameland’s enemies…” Claygon said. “Raiding dungeons would be good practise…” There was a clang as he tapped the iron still covering him. “I was not…able to stop…Yantrahpretaye….I need…more skill…”

“That’s a good attitude. And don’t worry, buddy, I’ll be getting all that iron off of you soon,” Alex said.

“No.”

“Wait, what?”

“Do not take…all of it off…” Claygon said. “I want to leave some…as a reminder…of what happened…”

Alex scratched his chin, peering at the metal. “Well, if that’s what you want. I’ll at least take some of it off so that it looks better. I’ll treat it too: I don’t think you’ll be looking your best with a bunch of rusty iron attached to you.”

“Thank you…father…”

“No problem, buddy, no problem…” The young wizard peered at the golem, already mentally planning which parts of the iron to cut away and which parts to leave for the sake of aesthetics.

“I’d like to be rich too,” Selina said quietly.

Alex watched her face, carefully. “Why?”

“Why not?” The young girl looked at her brother like he’d asked the most ridiculous question ever uttered by mortal lips. “I’m not rich like Isolde and Khalik.”

“You’re also eleven.”

“Almost twelve.”

“If I’m rich, so are you, Selina. You’re my little sister.”

Her jaw tightened.

“I tell you what, if you come up with an idea—that’s not dangerous—to make yourself some coin, and you really want to do it and it won’t interfere with school, then I’ll help you all I can. Deal?”

“Deal.” Selina brightened, squeezing his hand.

Theresa squeezed his other hand, and winked at Selina.

Alex turned back to his friends..

“Listen. I think Lucia’s onto something. With a proper network and proper products? Dungeon core substance?” He looked at an open window, gesturing to the city beyond.“Give me a hundred years and I’ll own half the city.”

He grinned at Thundar and Theresa. “You two will own the other half.”

“This is ambitious, Alex,” his partner said. “And it’s going to be a lot on you.”

“And I have to do it,” the Thameish wizard said. “Listen, we’re going up against the church next, and I’m not stupid…most of the time, that is. The more we look into the church, the more it’s likely they’ll start looking into us. Into me. I told you about that spy that came to the encampment: I don’t think he’ll be the last, and all it’ll take for my secret to get out is for some ordained priest to walk past me with a holy symbol in his pocket.”

He held up one finger. “One second, and I’m gone, it’s all gone. The best way to counter that? Coin and power.” Alex nodded to Khalik. “Let’s say it was you that was marked, and priests wanted you, do you think Generasi is going to send a prince off like a common criminal?”

“It would be war with Tekezash.” Khalik nodded approvingly. “But, if you are an indispensable cog in Generasi’s economic machine, they would be reluctant to send you anywhere.”

“Exactly,” Alex said. “So we’re back to gathering wealth and building power. That sound good?”

Isolde sighed. “A part of me will miss the trips to the Hells.”

“Is that because you’ll see Cedric less?” Selina asked innocently.

The young noblewoman turned as red as Cedric’s hair. “I…training…it is important to keep one’s skills up!”

“And the thing about that is, we’re still going to be training with the Heroes,” Thundar assured her. “Don’t worry, you’ll still get to spend time with your big hunk of man meat.”

“I hate you. I hate you. I hate you all. You sicken me!” Isolde cried.

“Just give up, Isolde,” Theresa said. “You know they have you cornered.”

“Hmph!”

“Alright,” Alex said. “I’ll tell Lucia we have a deal for a trial period. It’s time to make some golems and some more deals. And…lots of coin.”

“Hmmmmm, coin….” Khalik’s eyes shone. “You know what occurs to me?”

“What’s that?” Alex asked.

“We did quite well for ourselves in the last Games of Roal,” Khalik mused. “How well would we do this time? Prize money? Fame? Perhaps the right bets placed by others who are not competing…but who are also our friends?”

Alex brightened. “Now there’s an idea I can get behind. There’s one hell of an idea, Khalik.”