Mark of the Fool
Chapter 691: The State of the Empire and Journey’s Preparations

Several weeks had passed since the king of Thameland had pardoned the Fool. Several weeks had passed since Alex Roth was freed from the threat of chains, Thameish priests, and kings.

But he hadn’t spent that time resting, contemplating, or celebrating.

He’d spent it training.

By day, he’d attended class and studied with Professor Mangal in her tower, preparing for his first relational contract summoning. By night, his time was spent teleporting across the Prinean, the Barrens of Kravernus, or building golems with Toraka Shale.

It became his steady routine until he was finally ready to travel to the Irtyshenan Empire.

And—on the morning of the first weekend after midterms—he prepared for his first journey to find Kelda’s sanctum.

“Waterproof sleeping roll, check. Magical fire producer, check. Back up flint and tinder, check. Magical water purifier, check. Self-erecting tent, check. Potions, check.” Alex stood in front of his kitchen table, taking careful inventory of his supplies. “Enchanted rope, check. Week’s worth of rations, check. Cleansing supplies, check. Portable timekeeper, check. Mapping kit, check. Snow Blindness-Reducing goggles, check. Alright, I think this should do it. Oh right, and I can’t forget you.”

He picked up the aeld staff that he’d leaned against the table, its many crystalline blooms glowing. A new one would blossom each time Alex introduced new magics into it and much like its wielder, it had grown considerably.

The aeld staff was giving off waves of anticipation, seeming eager for this new adventure, almost as eager as he was.

But not everyone was as eager about the journey as he was.

“Are you really not taking me with you?” Selina asked. “I’ll be helpful, Alex. I really will. I mean, look!”

His sister was sitting at the head of the table—the only place not taken over by his supplies—watching him pack as Brutus rested one of his heads in her lap.

The young girl raised a hand and spoke words of power.

Alex felt a tingling warmth as fire-tinged mana surged.

An orb of flame burst into life, floating above her palm. It was a simple first-tier spell, but he felt sheer power and heat emanating from it. The flame shone with a bright light that was barely flickering; it was unnaturally uniform and controlled.

“See, I mastered Orb of Fire,” she smirked.

“I was there when you mastered it,” he smirked back.

“Yes, but it’s even stronger now. Look, the orb is bigger and it’s flickering less,” she pointed out. “I’ve got better control of its heat.”

Alex nodded. “That you certainly do.” He looked at his sister closely. “You’ve grown a lot haven’t you?”

And she had.

Months had passed since her twelfth birthday party and during that time, Selina Roth had entered a growth spurt. She was eating twice as much as she used to, and was looking noticeably taller each month. Her voice was more mature, her face more angular, and she was starting to embrace most of these new touches of maturity.

Her shape was changing, and—to her horror—treacherous pimples had started to erupt on her face like weeds in a flower bed. Luckily for her, Alex’s alchemy skills let him craft potions that kept her face from being a complete crater of angry, unwelcome, pus spewing bumps.

“I am growing,” she said. “That’s why I can be helpful. The empire’s cold, right? My fire can keep us warm.”

He frowned. “I know we should be spending more time together, Selina, but I don’t think the Irtyshenan Empire’s the right place for that. It’s dangerous, from everything I’ve learned.”

“But you’re not going into the Empire today, right?” she said, pointing to a map spread over the table. “You’re going to—” She frowned. “—Kymiland, right?”

“And Kymiland’s bordered by the Irythsenan Empire on three sides,” he said. “It’s also the most forested realm in the entire continent, and those forests are full of monsters.”

He paused, recalling a passage from a book Baelin had quoted from over a year ago:

We tracked the rune-marked, and within the Western Borders of Kymiland, with all of its foul and treacherous barbarians and savage monsters, we lost sight of the light of Mount Titarsios and we slipped from the gaze of The Virtuous Gods within the vile trees,” the chancellor had read. “For days we wandered, battling the hordes of barbaric elves, savage forest humanity and even the foreign firbolgs. We were tired and our guards were down. Our guide—one of the Bloodwalkers—caught the movement before the rest of us. The beast was unknown to us: humanoid—as though its form were mocking us—stinger-toothed, and with great claws on its fingers. Its hide was like thousands of scabs and turned away good imperial steel. We lost Agreus, Zevchen and Bolg in the first few seconds. Our Bloodwalker went after it, and thanks to her enhancements, she managed to finish the beast off. She did take a mortal wound, and we had to retreat with her before the trolls came: they always arrive at the scent of blood.”

If the passage was to be believed, then—

“Kymiland is full of monsters, Selina, and—if Kelda was there—then she probably left traps or other things to stop the hidden church. It’s too dangerous to take you there right now, not until I see things for myself,” he said.

“Awwww,” she made a face. “Claygon gets to go.”

“Yeah, well, he’s over ten feet tall, made of metal and can probably pick up and throw this entire building. He can handle Kymiland,” he laughed. “Speaking of Claygon…”

Alex reached out mentally. ‘Did you and Theresa find our guests, yet?’

‘I did, father…we are on our way…home…we should be there…soon,’ Claygon said in his mind.

‘And you’re sure they don’t want me to just teleport them here?’Alex asked mentally.

‘No…father…they said they are fine…with coming there…the ‘old fashioned way’,’ Claygon replied.

He looked at Selina. “He said he’ll be here soon. Which means, we should be ready to go in an hour or two. Me, him, Theresa and Brutus.” He said pointedly.

“Ugh, I can’t believe everyone gets to go but me.” Selina rolled her eyes.

“It’s not so bad,” Alex chuckled. “It’s only a day trip, really.” He traced his finger along the map. “I can teleport a hundred and twenty miles at a time now, so that’s about sixteen jumps to get there using maximum power. That should leave me with plenty of power to get back home later.”

“Then why do you have all this camping stuff?” Selina asked.

Alex sighed. “Because you never know, Selina. You never know.”

Before she could answer, sounds of a door opening, followed by hushed voices and massive, metal feet coming upstairs reached them. “Ah, there they are. Welcome everyone!”

“Hello…father…” Claygon said, stepping into the dining room.

Behind him was Theresa, Captain Fan-Dor, First Mate Gel-Dor and Lucia. The shipping company head and the captain were already deep in discussion despite—as far as Alex knew—having met only an hour ago.

Good.

With the pair getting along so well, his plan would be easier.

“Welcome, sit down! Sit down!” he gestured to the table, then paused, remembering his pile of supplies. “Ooops, just give me a moment, folks.”

Holding up his staff, he summoned a swarm of Wizard’s Hands, and in no time, they gathered the camping gear, moving every piece of it out of the way.

Theresa giggled. “Now that the table’s available, make yourselves at home,” she said to the two selachar and the former sky-gondolier.

“Thanks so much,” Lucia said, sitting across from the captain and first mate. “And thank you for introducing us!” She gestured to the twins. “I’ve learned much about nautical travel in the last hour that I never knew.”

“And I’ve learned a lot about negotiations, pricing and currency exchange!” Fan-Dor said, cracking his knuckles and rubbing his hands together. “You really know your stuff, Lucia.”

“She does, doesn’t she,” Alex said slyly. “But we’ll get to that in a bit. Let’s get to the first reason I wanted you all to come here. Fan-Dor, Gel-Dor, while I get you all something to drink, can you tell me more about the current situation in the Empire? You’ve been there recently, right?”

The selachar twins quickly glanced at each other.

“Well, we’ve mostly been pirate hunting in Thameish waters for about a year, but before that we’d sailed to the Empire on quite a few occasions,” Fan-Dor said cautiously. “Theresa said you were heading there, today?”

“Oh yes,” Alex said. “We’re going to be looking for certain artefacts and information. If you have any insight you could share with us on the state of things there that’d be real helpful.”

Fan-Dor said. “It’s the least we could do since we still owe you for saving the Siren, after all. Right, so the Empire. Basically, what you need to know is war’s brewing. The new emperor’s looking to flex his muscles and show that his spine’s nice and sturdy, their gods—up in that big mountain of theirs—are looking for more worshippers, plus the lords and ladies of the realm, as well as the governors are keen to prove themselves to the new rulership by expanding.”

“Kymiland’s resisted being conquered for thousands of years, and I’m willing to betthe Empire’skeen to bring that realm back into their territory, permanently.” Gel-Dor added. “Which means, the Guild’s getting aggressive.”

“The guild? What is that?” Selina asked.

“Oh, that’s what we call it,” Fan-Dor said. “Its full name is the Guild of the Red Mouse. It’s uh, a thieves’ guild.”

“Why would thieves need a guild?” Selina said.

“To organise themselves,” Gel-Dor explained. “They’re not so much ‘thieves’ as they are an organised group who want to obtain and trade goods that might not be exactly…legal. They’ve stolen from one noble and sold to another, they offer ‘protection’, but they—most importantly—smuggle weapons. Word has it that they’re getting aggressive, trying to smuggle as many weapons in and out of the Empire as possible before the borders tighten even more. I suspect the guild’s going to be in Kymiland.”

“Right, I’ll keep that in mind.” Alex prepared cups of hot cider for everyone. “Well, here’s where we’re starting,” he pointed to the map. “Right here, in the town of Tursinki; it’s near where we’re going to begin our search.”

“Ah yeah, that’s on the western border of Kymiland and the western part of the Empire,” Fan-Dor said. “Careful. They’re a port town, so they’ll be used to some outsiders, but war will make them more cautious.”

“Thanks for that.” Alex passed out the cups of cider. “Now, for the other reason I invited you here. Lucia, I would like to recommend that Captain Fan-Dor join your company—”

“Oh!” Lucia said. “We already discussed hiring the Red Siren.”

“—they’re an experienced, brave crew, who’ve sailed just about every sea there is—” Alex continued, launching into the speech he’d prepared.

“Yeah, if she wasn’t going to offer, I was gonna ask,” Captain Fan-Dor said. “Her operations sound like they could work great for us, and it’ll be steady work.”

“ —and Lucia’s company is one of the best in the region, you won’t be able to do better. I think together—” Alex kept going.

“We were already working out a verbal contract and pretty much all we have left to do is get everything down in writing then sign on the dotted line,” Gel-Dor added.

“—then you’ll be unrivalled on the Prinean and beyond. And—” Alex finally stopped. “Wait, you already made an agreement?”

“Yeah, I mean we are adults, after all,” Fan-Dor pointed out.

“O-oh. I was…I was planning this big pitch,” Alex said. “I thought, it could be like…a thank you for how much you’ve helped me in the past couple of years…”

Silence fell on the room.

“I’m sure they appreciate the thought,” Theresa stifled her laughter.

“Stop,” Alex groaned, his cheeks blazing.

“You should continue with your big speech, Alex, it was fun to listen to,” Selina grinned.

“Somebody, please kill me,” the young wizard groaned, looking sheepish.

###

“Alright, are we all ready?” Alex asked, looking at Theresa, Brutus and Claygon.

They were standing on the roof of the bakery, sheathed in protective magics and flight spells. Behind them, Selina was seeing them off.

“I…am ready…father…” Claygon said.

“Me too,” Theresa said.

Brutus licked his hand.

“Be careful, okay?” Selina warned.

“We will,” Alex promised. “And we’ll be back by nightfall. If we don’t, get a sky-gondola and go to Khalik’s.”

With that, the young wizard looked up at the clear, blue sky and called on the power of the Traveller…

…then the wizard, the huntress, the golem and the cerberus vanished.

The journey to find Kelda’s sanctum was starting.