Mark of the Fool
Chapter 596: Hunting Sparks

“Contestants! Welcome to the Great Land Hunt!” an illusion of the announcer cried, his voice rumbling through the forest. “Today you’ll be tasked with finding a most elusive and charming creature, one some of you will be familiar with if you participated in the Land Hunt last year!”

An illusion of a rolok covered in short, glossy, white fur materialised high above. “Spirit roloks are fast and quite evasive,” the announcer explained. “These gentle creatures wield innate illusion magic that allows them to be barely visible if they stay perfectly still! But when they’re on the move, watch out! The little monsters can achieve top speeds that could leave even the fastest horse in their dust! You hunters will have to make use of your wits, endurance and cleverness to catch the rolok, so be prepared for a challenging, perhaps, even lengthy hunt. The Watchers will release her somewhere in the beautiful Generasi countryside between the four starting points. Hunters can hunt alone, as part of your registered team, or come together as a larger group…but remember, there is only one rolok to capture! The two teams, or individual hunters closest to the rolok’s location when she’s finally captured, will take second and third place respectively, depending on who's closest! Ready yourselves, and remember, harming the rolok is, without exception, strictly forbidden! A hunting horn will signal the start of the contest, and another will signal the end!”

With a shimmer, the illusion of the announcer winked out.

“Here we go,” Wolud said. “Get yourselves ready.”

Wolud Ranier—graduate student and master illusionist in the making—crouched in a bush with his small team of close friends: the same group who’d formed his team last year.

There was tall Otis, portly Garflied and lanky John, all hidden with him, sporting overly relaxed expressions on their faces.

“I don’t know why you’re telling us to get ready,” Otis yawned. “You’re the one who’s going to find the bloody rolok in about ten seconds using your Wizard’s Eyes and illusionary screens, so what exactly are we supposed to get ready for…walking out of the woods?”

“Might be five seconds this time.” John leaned against a tree. “How many Eyes can you send out now?”

“Ten.” Wolud focused on his illusionary viewing screens, making sure they displayed the images the Eyes’ were seeing in real time. All visuals were clear and precise.

“Pfffft.” Garfield blew out a breath, taking a bite from a square of cold lasagna retrieved from a knapsack strapped to his back. “Then we’re going to be fine. You’ll penetrate the rolok’s invisibility, grab the little monster, and we’ll be at a food tent having lunch before we know it.”

Otis glanced at him. “I thought that was lunch.”

“There’s second lunch to think about,” Garfield said.

John rolled his eyes.

“What? It’s the best way to start off the beginning of the week. I hate the first day of the week.” Garfield bit off another hunk of food.

“At least the smell of all that garlic should keep vampires away!” John said.

“Quiet, I’ll do all the work, but let me concentrate,” Would eyed his illusionary screens carefully. “The horn’s going to blow any second—”

A deep powerful note from a brass horn soared through the forest, shaking the trees and signalling the start of the hunt.

All around, the forest came alive as hunters crashed through brush and slipped between trunks, forming groups and spreading out.

“Hurry!” someone called in the distance. “There’s not much time until Ranier makes his move!”

“Less time than you think.” Wolud smirked, sending out his invisible Wizard’s Eyes.

His viewing screens came to life as his spells glided between flora, giving him a clear line of sight of ten areas at once. Wolud’s smile grew.

“We love you, man,” Garfield mumbled, his mouth stuffed with pasta. “Get that prize for us.”

“Just give me a second,” the illusionist said, watching his screens with rapt attention. “I’m checking different areas: I should get a bead on—Wait, what in all hells?”

Suddenly, the entire forest exploded with cries of alarm and confusion.

Across his screens, pictures of chaos unfolded, images of hunters stumbling about in shock as packs of monsters raced through the forest; barking hellhounds ran free, air elementals spit lightning, zig zagging between trees, aervespetillos unleashed stunning sonic screeches.

“What’s going on?” Ranier’s brow wrinkled in confusion. “There’s—Oh. Oh this must be that tricky Roth’s doing!”

One of his screens went dark.

“What’s happening, Wolud?” Otis bounded over.

“Something took out one of my Wizard’s Eyes—”

Another screen went dark.

And the others began to shine with blinding red and gold light.

“That’s celestial fox light!” John cried. “Someone must have summoned one. I heard they can smell magic: maybe they’re smelling your Wizard’s Eyes!”

“If it’s Roth, he’s using those summons to blind me and search the forest.” Wolud glared. “We’ll—”

Before the sentence was finished, a single note blared from a hunting horn, catching everyone’s attention.

Commotion exploded all around them as scores of hunters emerged from the trees with a mix of emotions on their faces. Confusion, annoyance, scepticism, and amusement, were the most prominent ones.

“Attention hunters!” the announcer’s voice echoed through the wilderness. “The spirit rolok has been captured! The winners of the Great Land Hunt have been decided!”

Wolud’s jaw dropped.

They had already lost.

“Who the hell got that rolok so fast?” Garfield asked.

“I bet I can make a good guess,” Wolud said grimly. “Roth’s gotten really good at summoning, from what I hear. And teleportation too.”

“Oh…” Otis murmured. “You mean that second year, right? Well, I guess almost third now…he’s the one with that big, looming golem.”

“He beat Professor Hardass Ram in the Duel by Proxy.” John gulped. “And badly too. He was tough last year, but I guess working on the expedition made him even tougher.”

“He’s on the expedition to Deathland?” Garfield asked.

“What’s Deathland?” Wolud raised an eyebrow.

“Oh, you didn’t hear? A bunch of people went to that Thameland place to get some of that new substance that’s got the alchemy department going crazy—”

“I knew that part.”

“—well, did you hear that a bunch of folk got themselves killed running into caves full of monsters? The way I heard it, Thameland’s got these caves in the wilds that have these black balls in them, aye?”

“Dungeon cores, they’re called: my girlfriend’s friend talked about them, but she wouldn’t say much more than they’re this new, ‘revolutionary discovery.’ Wolud said.

“Yeah, well did she tell you that these black balls can make tons of monsters out of thin air?” Garfield asked. “Anyway, people went into those caves looking for a big pay-day figuring they’d get their hands on some of that substance and sell it, but they got themselves ripped apart like shredded meat instead. Some of the students have been calling the place ‘Deathland’ ever since.”

Wolud glowered at the screens. “Well, if Roth’s trained up in a place called ‘Deathland’, maybe we need to have some meetings. Make some alliances…I think we’re going to need allies if we expect to stand a chance in the Grand Battle.”

“They didn’t stand a chance,” Thundar laughed, clapping Alex and Theresa on the back. “You should’ve seen the look on Wolud’s face, all blown up on the big screen like that. He had this cocky smirk on his face, like the contest was already over, then all of a sudden, his face just kinda melted.”

The minotaur put on a look of shock and horror, drawing giggles from Selina.

“I would have given a lot to have seen that.” Theresa smiled, rubbing her partner’s thick bicep. “You know, this revenge thing actually feels pretty good: I think you’re onto something with how much you go on about it.”

“Yeeeeah, it feels good don’t it!” Alex stretched, grinning broadly. His fingers popped as he laced them together above his head. “You know, we should do a little mid-tournament celebration. Go to a restaurant or something, and have ourselves a good ol’ fashioned feast. Let’s call it a post-victory celebration combined with a pre-Grand Battle meal.”

“I’d like that,” Selina said, looking around. “Are we going to go to one of the booths? Or to the city? Maybe we could go someplace a little more private.”

Their large group was walking through the tournament grounds, drawing eyes from passersby. People whispered and pointed at the grinning Grimloch, watched Khalik and Kybas with looks of admiration, and stared at Selina’s big brother with awe.

Children regularly ran up to Claygon and Brutus, trying to talk to the golem and pat the cerberus, while their smiling parents watched.

All of this attention was…weird, to Selina.

At some point in their time in Generasi, she’d started to realise that the brother she’d thought of as regular and goofy, had somehow become famous; her classmates and friends often asked questions about him in the weeks before the semester had ended, and people always pointed and talked about Claygon when they walked down the streets of Generasi together.

She wasn’t sure if she minded that, but—today with so many people paying attention to them—she knew she didn’t like the idea of eating where random strangers could just interrupt their meal at any time.

“The solution is simplicity in itself,” King Aksuma said, his voice smooth and rich like his son’s. “We can retire to our villa in the countryside: there will be few places more private than that.”

“Yes, I would like that,” Queen Ishtar squinted at the crowd. “All of this bustle is a bit much: a break would be lovely.”

Selina’s eyes fell on the graceful form of Khalik’s mother, gliding through the crowd among her royal guards. There was something about the woman that drew the young girl’s eye…some hidden force that often seemed to draw her gaze.

Since the tournament began, Selina had noticed that the queen gave her special attention; she was always kind to her, as though she was a favourite niece of hers. Sometimes, Selina would catch Queen Ishtar watching her when she didn’t think she was looking.

And when she did catch her, the queen simply smiled and said nothing.

If most adults behaved like that, Selina would have probably found it awkward or creepy and asked Claygon to crush them…but there was something about Khalik’s mother that felt oddly familiar.

Comforting.

Fascinating.

Yet, she couldn’t put into words why.

So when Khalik’s father offered to take the entire group back to their villa, Selina felt a mix of both nervousness and elation; she wanted to find out more about this mysterious woman, whose burn scar seemed to cause her no self-consciousness.

She couldn’t imagine having an obvious burn scar like that and not feeling uncomfortable about it.

She was deep in thought when she spotted Shiani laughing and talking with friends of hers a little ways ahead along the path they were taking through the tournament grounds.

“Ah!” the young girl cried. “There’s Shiani!” She turned to King Aksuma, not trusting herself to meet Queen Isthar’s gaze. “Er, sir…” she said slowly, uncomfortable at addressing a king…even if he was pretending to not be a king.

“What is it, my child?” he asked, his smile as kindly as Baelin’s could be. It was the sort of smile she imagined Uldar might wear, back when thoughts of Thameland’s god still brought her comfort.

“Um…” Selina said slowly. “Our friend is over there.” She pointed at Shiani. “Would you…would you mind if we invited her?”

One of the guards cleared her throat. “Maybe we should—”

“Oh dear.” King Aksuma put his hand to his cheek in mock shock, interrupting his bodyguard. “Ishtar, did you hear that? We’ll have another mouth to feed! What shall we do? I think it might strain Khalik’s inheritance by half!”

“Oh yes, Aksuma.” Queen Ishtar said, wiping an invisible tear from her cheek. “We will have to allow it to make our guests happy, but we will no doubt go hungry.” She winked at Selina. “Of course, young one, you can invite a friend if you wish. It would not do to break up our son’s social group.”

“Mother…father…you are embarrassing me.” Khalik pressed two fingers to his temple.

“Good.” King Aksuma patted his son on the back. “You need to keep humble, son.”

“My mighty oak flower is humble and delightful,” Sinope said proudly.

Khalik groaned.

Alex laughed. “This is a great day and thank you for inviting us over. Let’s stop by our booth and pick up some sweets for dessert,” Alex said to Khalik’s parents. “And I also promised someone some goodies for their help during the Land Hunt. Yeah, it’ll be a nice way to spend some of our day.”

“Yeah, I think so too,” Selina smiled, shyly looking at Queen Ishtar again.

Within her, something sparked.

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