Mark of the Fool
Chapter 616: Terrifying Solutions

“What?” Professor Jules cried, grabbing Hart’s arm. “You mean one of those creatures that took so many lives at the Research Castle?”

“Ya,” the Champion of Uldar said. “It was spotted to the north.”

“Was it seen near where Carey was lost?” she asked, dread in her voice.

“We’ve gotta go, I don’t have time to be standing around giving anyone long explanations right now,” Hart pulled away. “C’mon Alex, I’ll brief you on the way.”

Professor Jules looked as though she was ready to scream, but exhaled instead, making her way to the door. “You can explain to me as well while you’re on your way, Mr. Redfletcher.”

“What?” Alex said, following his professor. “You don’t mean to come with us do you?”

“Of course not. As I’ve said before, I’m of little use on the battlefield,” Jules reminded him, hurrying down the hallway. “I need something from my office. Come along gentlemen, it’s on your way.”

“Maybe we should speed things up a little then,” Alex raised his staff. “Planar Doorway should do nicely.”

“Fair enough,” the professor said, reaching toward him.

The teleportation magic awakened, joining with the Traveller’s power, and in a blink, the map room was gone and Professor Jules’ office was before them.

The white-haired alchemist blinked, surprise in her eyes.

“I should have known; I heard that you were teleporting Claygon all over the arena at the Games without even touching him. You’ll have to tell me how you’ve been able to do that sometime,” she said absently, unlocking her office door and stepping inside.

Moments later she emerged, clutching two runed stones in the palm of her hand, giving one to Alex.

“This is an improved model of the far-speaker I showed you last year. You can use it for communicating from a distance, much like the devices we’ve been experimenting with on campus,” she said. “Except, these are prototypes, they have better range, and can function outside of mana rich environments like Generasi. Keep in mind that there are only five of these available at the moment, so, please, handle it with care, Mr. Roth.”

As she pressed the device into Alex’s hand, she continued. “I’ll be listening in while you search. Press this rune to activate it and keep me informed as much as you can.” She pointed to an oval shaped runethen slidher finger down to a yellow one below. “This glyph cuts the connection, but fair warning, don’t you dare do that! I swear, if you shut me out, I will singe your eyebrows off, Mr. Roth. Now, go.” She turned to Hart. “You can explain what you’ve learned to Mr. Roth, Claygon and I. I must be kept informed.”

“Understood,” Alex said, gripping the far-speaker. “We’ll…we’ll find Carey, Professor.”

“We…will…” Claygon assured her.

“You had better. Now go!” Professor Jules said. “Oh, and Mr. Roth?”

“Yeah?”

“Keep yourself safe. You as well, Claygon, and you Mr. Redfletcher,” she said primly. “I understand that all of your unique talents make you qualified for this search, and even if I had kept you back in Generasi, Mr. Roth, I know the instant you heard, you would have started a search of your own, anyway. But for the sake of yourself and my sanity, please be careful.”

Her lips tightened to a single line.

“I don’t need any more young people turning up missing…or dead.”

“Where’s Theresa and the others?” Hart asked over the wind.

The Champion of Uldar, the Fool and his golem flew through the breezy summer night.

Moonlight was dim.

The cloud cover heavy.

And not surprisingly, it felt unnaturally cold.

“She’s on her way,” Alex said. “She had to take my sister over to one of her friends’ houses for the night—maybe even a few days—then go get the others. They should all be here soon.”

“I’ll tell you when they arrive,” Professor Jules said through the far-seeker. “Now, give us the details, Mr. Redfletcher. What did these sightings involve?”

“Mr. Redfletcher…never gonna get used to that.” Hart shook his head. “And it’s just the one sighting for now,” his deep voice rumbled. Thick fingers coiled around the hilt of his sword, his large eyes scanned the moors as they flew above them. “Some of the rangers were scouting around Nevington, which is about two days’ ride north of here. They met a troop of soldiers and were asking them if they’d seen Carey and Merzhin or anything else strange in the area. No one had seen Carey or Merzhin, but one of them had spotted Ravener-spawn in the distance about six hours ago.”

His jaw clenched. “The way he described the thing, it sounded like one of those hunting things from last year with those wicked looking claws.”

Alex swallowed, a lump of anger and fear lodging in his throat.

“If one of those things took Carey, then she’s…” Professor Jules started.

“Now hold on, don’t jump to that yet. Something weird’s happening here,” Hart said. “Drestra figures that, first of all; it doesn’t seem like monsters are what took Carey and Merzhin. We know Merzhin’s not the most fun guy to be around, but he’s not going to take shit from some monster either. Even if he got captured or killed, he woulda lit up half the mountain resisting. There’s no way he went quietly. No way.”

“Yeah, that makes sense…” Alex frowned, his mind working. “Look, we’ve been thinking that there’s some secret arm of the church, right? Would Merzhin have trusted a priest from some secret order?”

“Hard to say for sure,” Hart rumbled. “But he trusts priests: they raised him.”

“So, what are you thinking, Mr. Roth?” Professor Jules' voice came through the far-seeker as clear as day.

“Honestly?” Alex frowned, looking up at Claygon as the golem flew at his side. “I’m not sure. The thing is…we’ve been expecting the church to make a move at some point. But, this is surprisingly early: we haven’t really done anything against it yet, also how did they know that Carey needed to be targeted?” His frown deepened. “And at the same time, these Ravener-spawn just happen to appear? Right now? I’m thinking something’s off.”

Silence followed.

“Mr. Roth…you might have a point,” Professor Jules’ voice crackled through the far-speaker. “That would make for a very strange coincidence, wouldn’t it? Normally, I would disapprove of generating a hypothesis from a simple coincidence. But this seems like much more than simply an odd converging of events.”

“Yeah, those particular Ravener-spawn can track anyone who tampered with the dungeon cores,” Hart said. “And at the same time, the church grabs Carey? Yeah, something does stink.”

“It does,” Alex’s tone and mood darkened. “Something’s changed, and I think we’re a step behind whatever that is. Something about this also smells like a trap.”

More silence.

“We will…destroy any trap…” Claygon said. “Do you…have a plan…father?”

“Working on it,” Alex said. “Anyway, you got anything else to tell us, Hart?”

“No, that’s it,” the Champion said.

“Then let’s speed this up,” Alex said. “How far is the nearest fae gate that’ll get us there fastest?”

“About ten more minutes,” Hart said.

“Let’s make that about one.” Alex raised his hands. “Grab on to me.”

Hart and Claygon took the Thameish wizard by the sleeves, and instantly teleported through the night, leaping forward a thousand yards with each ‘jump.’

Soon, they arrived at a circle of mushrooms tucked under the shadow of a boulder.

“Through here,” Hart said. “Cedric and Drestra are waiting for us.”

“Ya made it!” Cedric called as the young wizard stepped through the fae gate. “Don’t y’be worryin’, there’re no priests close by.”

“Glad to hear that,” Alex said, looking around the forest.

The woods were hushed and dim, with the only light coming from the blue-white glow of a miracle playing around Cedric’s hand, and the sliver of moonlight peeking through the canopy.

“Alex,” Drestra nodded, stepping from the darkness, her reptilian eyes flashing. “Did Hart tell you everything?”

“Yeah,” he growled, scratching the back of his head. “And I don’t like it. Where did this soldiersee that clawed monster?”

“Just a few minutes from here,” she said. “But we haven’t been able to find its trail. I tried asking the fae if they’ve seen anything, but they said they hadn’t, so they’re either lying to me, not feeling particularly helpful, or they really didn’t know anything.”

“Great,” Alex said, his tone simmering with anger. “Just great. I hate being behind anyone, especially the enemy.”

“Y’got any plan?” Cedric asked.

“Working on it,” he said.

“I might have a plan.” Professor Jules’ voice emerged from the far-speaker.

Both Cedric and Drestra yelped, taken by surprise.

“Don’t scare me like that!” the Sage hissed, her voice crackling. “I thought we were being ambushed.”

“Sorry,” Professor Jules said quickly. “But, listen up, I just finished speaking with the Watchers and learned that there was another sighting of one of those clawed monsters, about half a day’s ride south of where you are.”

Drestra and Alex looked at each other.

“They’re heading south…toward Greymoor,” he murmured. “This feels coordinated, which makes it really feel like a trap.”

“I agree,” Drestra said.

“I know…but this trap might give us the key to finding Miss London,” Professor Jules said.

“How…?” Claygon asked.

“It’s quite simple. We know these Ravener-spawn can track people like Carey, Drestra, and Alex: people who’ve controlled dungeon cores. Or at least, we have very strong evidence to indicate that.”

“Right,” Alex said. “That’s why these monsters can find us, we can say that much.”

“If,” Jules said. “If I had the proper specimen, I might be able to isolate the organ that allows them to track you, and either reverse-engineer it, or even remove it from the creature to use as a type of tracking device.”

“Professor, that’s brilliant!” Alex cried. “But wait, we have specimens of those things at the Castle. Can’t you use one of them?”

“No,” she said. “The specimens we currently have are problematic for two reasons: first of all, they have been brutalised. Secondly, they are dead. In order to properly study one of these organs, I will need one alive.”

A hint of burning steel entered her voice. “I usually abhor vivisection, but this is one case where these monsters deserve it, and Miss London cannot afford for me to be squeamish.”

Alex swallowed, nodding grimly. “If that’s what you need, we’ll make sure we get you a living specimen. I’ve got some sleeping potions in my bag. They’ll do the trick.”

“There is one potential flaw with the plan,” Professor Jules said. “I suspect these ‘hunter Ravener-spawn’ will be accompanied by the petrifying ones again, as they were before. Remember, they have the ability to self-destruct, and if they do so, any specimen we’re hoping for would be destroyed.”

“Hmmmm,” Alex said, deep in thought. “I should be able to teleport one of them away if that happ—Wait…hold on a minute.”

He thought back to the petrifying monster that attacked the Research Castle during the winter. He remembered feeling something deep within the petrifier—a mana-charged organ—that allowed it to self-destruct.

…if that organ was removed...

A memory of a conversation he’d had with Baelin a long time ago returned to him.

“I found myself working as a hunter of these assassins for a time,” Baelin had said. “Of course, by the time monarchs had seen the wisdom in hiring wizards and priests to guard them against such magical threats, any assassin with foresight had concluded which way the wind was blowing and either retired, or moved on to different methods. Still, some of the younger, less experienced ones tried to keep the trend alive.”

The ancient wizard had burst out laughing. “I swear, Alex, you do not know comedy until you see a young man—dressed all in black leather in the summertime—confidently saunter across a crowded ballroom with a smug expression on his face and a knife in his hand, convinced that no one can see him. Ooooh the look on his face when my first disintegration spell hit him.”

Alex’s eyebrows had risen. “So, one moment he’s walking across the ballroom, and the next he’s dust?”

“Hah! Well, at least a part of him was! You see, if you become very adept, you can gain a certain finesse with a disintegration spell: you can actually choose which parts of something you want to turn to dust, and which parts you want to remain intact. With enough practice, you can use it with the precision of a sculptor.”

Alex had swallowed. He hadn’t been sure he’d liked where the conversation was going. “So…this young assassin…what did you do to him?”

“Hah, I disintegrated his skeleton and left the rest! You’ve never seen a human body lose all of its skeletal integrity just like that, have you? Ploop!” Baelin had snapped his fingers for emphasis then made a motion with his hand like paste splattering on the ground. “It becomes no more than a mewling pile of meat!”

Alex remembered something else: there was someone in Generasi called a deleo whose job was to punish the guilty by specific means. They were wizards with mastery of the spell ‘Disintegration’, who carried out the court’s will by executing criminals who’d committed capital crimes.

“Professor,” Alex said. “Do deleos have pinpoint mastery over ‘Disintegration’?”

There was a pause. “Why?” she asked. “They’re not combat mages.”

“Doesn’t matter. Do they?” he repeated.

“Some do,” she said.

“Excellent,” he said. “Then I need you to do me a favour: I think I can stop the ‘self-destruction’ problem. But to do it, I’ll need one of Generasi’s executioners. Can you make that happen?”

“I can certainly try. “Gemini might be able to commission one, considering the emergency.”

“Please ask her, Professor,” Alex said. “With a deleo? We can make your plan happen.”

“Understood, and good hunting Alex.”

Her voice faded from the far-speaker.

Alex looked up to find the Heroes staring at him.

“What’s uh…what’s ‘vivisection’?” Cedric asked.

“It’s like dissecting a body,” Alex explained. “With the difference being, the subject’s still alive at the time.”

Cedric paled. “That’s kinda sick. Aye, the Ravener-spawn deserve it…but can’t believe you’re not even hesitatin’ over doin’ somethin’ like that.”

“It has to be done,” Alex said plainly. “These bastards crossed a line. So we’ll make them wish they never did.”

“Yes…father…” Claygon echoed.

“You can be a dangerous bastard when you want to be,” Hart said. “It’s almost like you’ve done something like this before.”

“I have.” The Fool of Thameland looked at his golem. “You should’ve seen what I did to a mana vampire to make Claygon. Now, come on. We’ve got monsters to capture. The professors’ scalpels are waiting.”

His hands balled into fists. “And let’s pray to the Traveller, Merzhin and Carey still are.”