Mark of the Fool
Chapter 682: The Hall of Roth's Fate

Relief ran through the breakfast crowd as they watched the backs of the annoying Uldarites go through the bakery door. Customers could finally relax, and they did; some were laughing, some murmuring to one another, others were busy thanking Troy, Alex and the mutton-chopped patron for pushing the irritants to use the door. Some made a point of offering the young wizard their sympathies, while others wanted to know all about ‘this Fool business’.

Alex answered, satisfying the crowd’s curiosity while allowing the bakery to return to the normal, busy morning flurry, before he and his family went upstairs to talk about the invading Uldarites.

“I can’t believe they’re saying those nasty things about you! Living in comfort? They’re the ones living here in comfort while you’re risking everything going back to Thameland to help our people.” Selina said.

“Bunch of hypocrites!” Theresa growled. “I wanted to slap the poultice right off that old priestess. You’re a better person than I am, Alex; taking her pain away would’ve been the last thing I would have done to her.”

“I know, but helping her made her look bad, and that’s exactly what I needed," Alex said. “She’s probably on her way to city hall to petition them to send me back to Thameland. I can’t stop her, but at least I can get more of the public on my side, in spite of her.”

“They…are…on your side…” Claygon said. “People…in the bakery…looked like…they were…father…”

“Hopefully they’ll talk and spread positive stuff about me around Generasi,” Alex paused, thinking about Councillor Kartika. “It would’ve been nice if this had happened a few days ago…but some of the councillors send their interns here to pick up breakfast. Maybe, some of them were here and saw what happened then went back to their bosses and colleagues with some juicy gossip to share.”

“We can always hope,” Theresa said grimly. “That’d be one silver lining in this situation.” Her death stalker expression was on full display. “The more help you can get with city hall, the better; if that priestess goes down there stirring up trouble, if you have people speaking up for you, it can only help you, right? I mean, thank the Traveller for people like Captain Fan-Dor, and Gel-Dor and their crew.”

“At this point, all we can do is hope,” Alex said. “Anyway, it’s time to get you to school, Selina.”

His sister frowned, then voiced the words she’d held back earlier. “Uhm…can I miss school today? I want to go with you.”

He shook his head. “No, Selina. You shouldn’t miss school over this.” The young man kneeled down in front of her, placing his hands on her shoulders. “Listen, things are going to be okay. No matter what happens, things are going to be okay. What I need you to do for me is to go to school, write your test, and do well. Alright?”

“But what if you don’t come back?” Her eyes were filled with fear. “I want to come with you. I can argue for you, Alex. I don’t want them to send you away!”

“And I want you to go to school,” he said, his hands gently holding her shoulders. “Listen, you’re one of the strongest people I know, and that’s a fact. It’s not fair that you’ve had to be so strong all your life, but—just for today—I’m going to ask you to be strong for a little longer, alright? So, please, go to school, do your exam, pay attention to your teachers and I promise, I’ll work this out. It’s just like when we went through the Cave of the Traveller together. I just need you to be brave like you were back then.”

She looked at him for a long, silent moment then nodded, lightly punching him in the chest. “You just make sure they let you stay, okay. But, if they don’t…come back…and say goodbye to me.”

Her lip trembled and he wrapped her in a tight hug. “I promise I’ll do my best, but if that’s not enough? I promise I’ll come say goodbye…and if I have to leave the city? I’ll be back. When the Ravener is destroyed and all of this ends, I swear I’ll be back.”

Selina simply breathed into his shoulder, fighting tears. “Okay. I’ll wait for you, no matter what, but please be careful, promise me.”

“I will. I promise, I will.”

###

The sun was bright over Generasi, slowly rising to its noontime peak.

It shone down on a group standing in the centre of the city.

There was Alexander Roth—broad shouldered and long haired—hand in hand, with his fiancee, Theresa Lu. The young couple’s expressions were grim as they waited in the shadow of Claygon’s polished four-armed form. Beside them, gripping a satchel of documents, was Professor Jules—the alchemist’s white bun was wrapped as tight as her face looked.

They stood looking up at the looming structure waiting for them to enter, like dwarves eyeing a titan.

The City Hall of Generasi—seat of the ruling council of wizards and its vast bureaucracy—was enormous, a monument to the power and advanced state of the ‘City at the Center of Creation’. The city’s great wealth and majesty was concentrated right here, and—to Alex—even more magnificent than Uldar’s sanctum.

Rising hundreds of feet in the air, the main dome—carved from a single slab of marble magically conjured—spread far and wide, covering the distance of an entire city block. Around the dome, standing equidistant to one another, were four hulking square columns where four massive dragon statues looked down on their surroundings. On the column to the north, a four-legged black-scaled, horned dragon sat, its bat-like wings were unfurled. To the east, a short-legged, golden, serpentine monster bearing long whiskers and horns like a crown, looked down. Coiled around the southern column was the form of an elongated legless serpent, feathered wings extending from its back.

The western dragon resembled a great hunting cat with scales of gold, the antlers of an elk, and a long, snaking tail.

Below the dome, the building spread for blocks. Messenger constructs flew to and from small windows in a swarm of shimmering metal, while wizards—on sky-gondolas, sky-boats, flying carpets, brooms or simply flying along on their own power—entered the building through a great stone docking bay, protected from the elements by an overhang with a host of gargoyles clinging to its sides.

No gargoyle seemed nearly as fearsome as the majestic dragons guarding the dome.

Though each wyrm differed from the last—facing a different direction—Alex felt as if he was being watched by their stony gaze.

He imagined them springing from their perches, swooping down, clutching him in their claws and carrying him off to do the church’s will in Thameland. He knew that his imagination was running wild, as it often did…but knowing so didn’t make it any easier to shake those images.

“Here…we are…” Claygon said. “If all goes well…you won’t have to…worry about leaving…anymore father…”

“If all goes well,” Professor Jules said solemnly. “I’ve been considering every possibility I could think of, but I just can’t generate a decent hypothesis on how they’ll decide.”

“They’d better let him stay,” Theresa’s tone mimicked what her hand said as it moved to the hilt of a sword. “Or I’ll have something to say.”

“Then you’d better not say it with those,” Professor Jules looked pointedly at the twinblade. “The ruling council’s members hold their place by nature of their wisdom, knowledge and popularity…mostly. But—make no mistake—they are also elected for their power; among the twelve members of the ruling council of Generasi, very few are battle mages, but you’ll find few wizards as potent anywhere, and that’s no exaggeration.”

“As potent as Baelin?” Alex asked.

Professor Jules snorted. “They’re not on that mad old goat’s level of magnitude…but they are powerful enough so the difference between Baelin and them would largely be irrelevant to wizards like us. My point, Miss Lu, is that those swords of yours are basically toothpicks here…even at your level of skill.”

“Yes, I know…” the huntress said, her hand moving from the sword. “It’s instinct. When I know a fight’s coming, I don’t feel complete without a weapon in my hand. But I’ll be sane…I won’t let anger and worry make me do something stupid.”

“We know, professor,” Alex said. “The only weapons we’ll be relying on today are words…not spells, or steel.”

“And we’ll use those words as best we can, Mr. Roth,” Professor Jules promised. “Now, come, let’s get in there before we’re late.”

The interior of city hall was much as Alex remembered.

He looked up.

A ceiling mural of wizards sitting in a circle; facing a centre painted to resemble the sun with the alchemical symbol for mana in the middle, greeted them in the atrium.

Towering walls displayed scenes of triumph from throughout Generasi’s history, including a mural of Noarc conjuring sheets of rain that ended the drought centuries ago. A host of different languages filled the air.

Though some words in particular—spoken in the common tongue by familiar voices—caught his attention the most.

“We will pass your petition regarding Mr. Alex Roth through the appropriate channels,” a bored sounding clerk was saying, “Are all signatures listed beside the corresponding printed names?”

“Yes,” Troy said, standing at the head of a line of staff from the Roth Family Bakery. They were cued in front of a city bureaucrat’s desk. “We’ll sign twice if we need to.”

“That will not be necessary,” the clerk said. “Your documentation is all in order, so it will be processed appropriately. Is there anything else I can help you with—”

Alex gaped as he and his companions walked through the main hall, his eyes on Troy’s group standing at the clerk’s desk. He would have stopped…but thought better of it, the meeting with the council was scheduled to start soon, being late was not an option.

“I can’t believe this,” he murmured. “They came all the way down here on their lunch break…I had no idea.”

“They must have…decided to help you after what happened with…that priestess…”Claygon said.

“Listen, I swear if you don’t give them a raise, I will,” Theresa said, with gratitude on her face.

“Are you kidding? I’ll build personal golems for them if I get through this,” Alex said, shocked. “I really do have the best staff in the city.”

“Part of me can’t help but view their actions with a degree of cynicism—your staff could also be eager to protect their jobs, after all—but it’s just as likely that they truly care for you, Mr. Roth,” Professor Jules said as they neared a floating platform at the end of the hallway.

On the platform—but off to the side—a uniformed attendant stood erect, with the disciplined bearing of a soldier.

“Let’s hope their efforts help,” the alchemist said, stepping onto the platform and looking at the attendant. “Top floor. Council chamber, please.”

The woman studied the short alchemist with a calculating eye. Alex noticed a wand sitting in a holster on her hip; powerful magics were emanating from it. “Names and appointment time?” she asked curtly.

“Alex Roth,” the young wizard announced himself.

“Professor Vernia Jules, Head of the Alchemy Department at the University,” the alchemist followed.

“Theresa Lu,” the huntress said.

“Claygon…”

The city employee quickly drew her wand, and—with a flick of her wrist—displayed an image of the day’s schedule.

Alex had an idea that schedules weren’t the only magic it was capable of.

The attendant's eyes snapped back to them. “Only Alexander Roth and Professor Vernia Jules are listed here as having a noontime appointment with the council. Anyone accompanying them must wait in the waiting room. No weapons are allowed. Understood?”

“...Yes…”

“Yes,” Theresa said reluctantly.

“Good, then we will proceed to the top floor. Professor Jules, Mr. Roth, you are ten minutes and—” The woman took a timekeeper from her pocket. “—thirty four seconds early for your meeting, which is preferred. Better early than late.” Her tone was harsh. “I will take you to the top floor.”

Alex was glad they hadn’t stopped to talk to Troy and the others. From her tone, it sounded like being late was an act punishable by death.

She pointed her wand at the floating platform, and a humming noise began as it lifted off the ground, hovering in place. “Please keep all limbs within the radius of the disk as it’s moving. Do not attempt to dismount until we have come to a full and complete stop: invisible force walls are erected when the disk is in flight for your safety.”

The attendant pointed the wand toward the ceiling and the disk began rising, accelerating as it did.

Entering a stone shaft, it moved upward, rising to the top floors of the building, passing floor after floor—hall after hall—climbing hundreds of feet in the air. Just when Alex thought their ascent would never end—the disk began slowing, stopping before a shining pair of sealed brass doors emblazoned with the image of a circle of wizards. Each one held a staff pointing toward a capital letter “G” centred in the circle.

Without warning, the doors began opening in an eerie silence on their own power.

Behind them, a small army of well-armed wizard-warriors clad in shining plate armour blazing with magic, waited. Some wore glowing swords through their belt loops, and crystal shields on their backs.

Others bore crossbows nocked with bolts of light.

And among them stood two iron golems.

Two iron golems Alex recognised.

Two iron golems he’d recently built for the city in Shale’s Golem Workshop.

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