Spellscribed: Conviction (16 page)

“What do you need me to do?” The wizard asked.

Talos pointed at the dragon in human form. “Tell him to let you pass.”

Endrance turned and looked at the High King. “You want me to order the High King, who I have only now discovered is an ancient and incredibly powerful dragon, to let me go?”

Talos paused for a few seconds. “Yes.” He said decisively. “That’s the short of it. Though you need to specifically say, for you to pass.”

Endrance sighed and looked to Mastadon. “I don’t suppose you’re in on this, are you?”

The dragon crossed his arms, glaring. Endrance closed his eyes and took a breath.

“Mastadon.” Endrance said aloud. “I order you to let me pass.”

High King Mastadon’s face scrunched up like he had suddenly discovered a foul taste in his mouth. Endrance felt a strange tingle of magic come from around the dragon. The High King nodded slowly, resisting all the way.

“As you command.” The ancient dragon growled.

Talos grinned. “It worked!” he exclaimed. “Fantastic.”

Endrance looked over to the Archmagus. “What would have happened if it didn’t?” he asked.

“I’d have eaten you.” Mastadon blurted, turning and walking towards the dome in the center of the chamber. “This way.”

Talos leaned in as they followed. “He would have attempted to eat you, at least.” He whispered solemnly. “I’m pretty quick on the draw with teleport spells, though. I probably could have gotten you at least out of his reach.”

“That’s… not very reassuring.” Endrance muttered, wondering just how much trouble he’d gotten himself into. “So, what is it that’s so secret you have to have a dragon guarding it?” he asked.

“It’s best if I show you.” Talos replied. The High King stopped at the dome and touched the side. Up close, Endrance could see the dome was made of a metal that looked almost like molten silver. A tiny pinhole opened up next to Mastadon, which silently dilated open into a passage inside. Brilliant light poured through the aperture, causing Endrance to reflexively cover his eyes and stop.

“Enter, but know that should this portal close, you will not be able to leave without my permission.” The dragon declared. “Even death will not allow you to escape.”

Endrance squinted into the passage. A tunnel of liquid silver, ten yards deep, led into a brilliant wall of light before him. “So… don’t touch anything?” he asked.

“Do not touch anything, unless the Archmagus gives you permission to do so.” Mastadon replied. “He has been told all the mandates, and is personally responsible for escorting you through the Bastille.”

“Got it.” Endrance said, and quickly followed Talos through the silver tunnel into the light.

“I don’t get it.” Endrance said, hesitating. “Why the sudden turn around? I mean, why are you doing what I say, when moments before you were enjoying terrifying the piss out of me?”

“You are Mercanian.” Mastadon answered with a grimace. “I must obey the orders of my masters, and by proximity, their children.”

Endrance tried to think it through, but Talos touched his shoulder. “We have limited time left.” He said. “We must hurry.”

They walked into the light, and the threshold was a very tangible thing for Endrance. It felt like he had walked through a curtain of water, but the pressure pushed at him from all sides, instead of just from above. Beyond the barrier, his skin started to crawl. Every nerve in his body tingled madly in reaction to the contents of the chamber.

It was one spherical room, the floor giving way to the bottom half of a perfectly round orb of metal. The outer surface was studded in Crystalphage spires, each fifty feet long and carved in arcane glyphs and symbols of entrapment. They glowed, thrumming with the resonance of the prisoner. Hovering in the center of the quicksilver chamber, suspended on the magic worked within the prison, was a perfectly round glass bubble.

In the bubble, as near as Endrance could tell from the distance, was a lone, naked man. He was sitting cross legged at the bottom of the sphere, one hand on his knee and the other propping up his head. His hair was light colored, and obscured most of the features of his body, as it hung haphazardly from his head. He wore only a pair of silver bracers over his forearms.

"That's..." Endrance whispered.

Talos nodded. They were standing on the only platform, which did not even reach as far as the spires pointing at the tiny bubble of glass in the distance. The power in the air was tremendous; Endrance felt lightheaded just standing up.

The man in the bubble turned his head, looking out from between the strands of hair that hung over his face as he noted his visitors.

"Are you ready to see him?" Talos asked.

Endrance swallowed, steadying himself. "Yes." he said, tucking an errant lock of hair behind his ear.

Talos touched the flowing metal handrail of the platform, and Endrance felt a lurch as it stretched towards the prisoner, the metal becoming more narrow as it reached out. It stopped only ten feet from the outer surface of the bubble, and Endrance could see the prisoner all the more clearly.

His hair was a pale, silver color, with hints of blue similar to Endrance's, but unlike the wizard, the prisoner's hair bore a metallic sheen and could quite possibly have been a real metal of some kind. He was Mercanian; every patch of exposed alabaster skin looked like it had channels and grooves carved in it where the meridians would lie, except they were twisted into spell forms just like the spellscribing that both Talos and Endrance had. Dim blue light pulsed through the grooves, following the beat of his heart.

Endrance felt a moment of confusion, a strange quickening of his heart. The Mercanian wore bracers, etched in runes and glyphs, and they looked exactly like the pair he owned except they had been made of the same quicksilver material as the prison, instead of normal silver. He noticed a few of the lines on the Mercanian's body were almost identical to his own, with only minor differences. The most notable being the markings on his right hand. How much of his tattoos were actually his own decision?

The Mercanian looked up and spotted the wizard standing next to Talos.

"What's this?" a voice echoed, sounding strong and commanding. "You brought another imitator to see the real thing?" The Mercanian's voice was a smooth baritone that belied his slight figure. "You must think this place a zoo."

"Zoo?" Endrance asked Talos, looking over to him.

"It is not a zoo, you know that." Talos said calmly, obviously inured to the prisoner's provocations. "But I did bring you a visitor."

"Oh, I see." the prisoner responded. 

He turned to regard the wizard. "Oh." he said. "Surprising. I wasn't expecting you here for another decade or so."

"You were expecting me?" Endrance asked.

"Yes." The Mercanian said, standing. His hair did not fall down enough to cover him, and Endrance did not divert his eyes in time to avoid discovering that every inch of his skin was carved with spell forms.

"Did the high and mighty Tezcath finally deem it fit to grant me my freedom?"

"I'm sorry." Endrance said, shaking his head. "But I know of no one named Tezcath."

Talos shrugged. "Tezcath was their god-emperor. He ruled over the Mercanian Empire when they were in power here."

"What happened to him?" Endrance asked. Talos shrugged.

"If he's still alive, and I strongly doubt that, he hasn't seen fit to come pay us a visit." Talos admitted.

“It’s just like them though, sending a half-breed messenger.” The prisoner said, a faint flash of a smile. At least his teeth weren’t carved. “Half-breeds hardly have anything I like.”

“From what the warden told us,” Talos muttered to Endrance. “Our prisoner was something of a criminal in their society.”

“Something?” the Mercanian replied. “I now hold a hundred and seventy eight lineages inside of me. All of them are progenitors.”

“What?” Endrance asked.

“I don’t know either.” Talos replied. “This is the most he’s spoken since I came into power.”

“Power?” The prisoner asked laughingly. “You have managed to grow from a flea into a dog, but you aren’t even that big of a pet.” He gestured towards Endrance. “This one doesn’t even have the power to be a servant of my people.”

“I wanted to introduce you to him, Endrance.” Talos said. “So there you have it.”

“That’s… him?” Endrance asked, feeling dizzy.

Oh, I see.
A voice echoed in the wizard’s mind.
You are one of my progeny!
Excellent.
The voice was the same as the prisoner’s.
Throw the other one off the side and set me free.

…What?
Endrance replied. He would have been uncertain how to reply, if not for his experience with Gullin.
Why would I do that?

You’re my child. You serve my interests.
The prisoner demanded.
So do it.

I am not your servant. And I am hardly your child.
Endrance snapped back.

True.
The voice replied.
You have hardly developed any of your powers and your body is still mostly human. That will have to change if you are to serve me effectively. Very well, be gone for now, and return when you have attained the power to release me.

The platform retracted, and Endrance fell to his knees as a wave of nausea swept over him. He clamped a hand to his mouth, his vision fading for a moment. 

I will soon be free, child.
The Mercanian whispered in his head.
Join me…

Distance from the orb relieved his head, and the prisoner’s voice faded outside of fifty feet from the bubble. The Mercanian resumed sitting and huffed to himself.

“I’m sorry, Endrance.” Talos apologized, helping him to stand. “I didn’t realize that he was able to use any mental attacks so completely incapacitated. Did he hit you hard?”

“Huh?” Endrance replied, blinking. “What hit?”

“Your nose is bleeding.” Talos stated. “He must have clipped you with a mental attack of some sort. I keep forgetting you haven’t had any of the training I’ve had to protect against such things.”

The Archmagus gave him a white silk handkerchief. Endrance mopped up his blood and nodded appreciatively.

“He was trying to get me to break him out.” Endrance said. “That’s all.”

Talos looked back at the prisoner, who shrugged from across the prison.

“He’s insistent like that.” Talos said. “I’m taking you back to your room.”

Endrance nodded. “Okay.” He said.

“Just wait outside the passage for me.” Talos said softly. “I need to check the defenses.”

Endrance slowly walked out, knowing that he was still safer in the room with an angry dragon, than he was next to the being who had fathered him. As he left, Talos looked down at the quicksilver floor. A bead of blood danced on a metal surface that rejected it. As Talos watched, the droplet of blood began rolling towards the prisoner. Frowning, he knelt down and produced another handkerchief, wiping it up. He hesitated before standing, and instead he touched his thumb to the point of one of his eyeteeth, pushing until he broke the skin. He squeezed the pad of his thumb until a droplet of blood fell and hit the metal walkway.

It splattered normally, as it would have falling on any normal surface. The Archmagus frowned. There was something strange about how the prison had reacted to Endrance’s presence, but he didn’t have enough information to figure out what. Perhaps it was his relation to the prisoner. He decided it would be best to not bring him to see the Mercanian any more than this one time.

Endrance was waiting for him when Talos finally returned. Mastadon had returned to his dragon form, and was adamantly ignoring Endrance’s attempts to get more information out of him.

“Why is my status of kingslayer so important?” Endrance asked as Talos approached. “I know that this is a big deal, but I can’t figure out why.”

“That’s not something he’s going to answer.” Talos said, putting a hand on his shoulder. “I am not able to say anything about it either.”

“Can you at least tell me why you can’t tell me?” Endrance demanded, scowling.

“No.” Talos and Mastadon said in unison.

“Great.” Endrance tossed his hands up. “So I suppose you still want to prosecute me anyway, even though that messenger was just a human?”

The dragon moved suddenly, slamming a claw down at Endrance. The mage leapt back with a yelp as a nail longer than a spear cracked the stone at his feet.

“Do not assume I am careless because of what I am!” the dragon bellowed. Sand drifted down from the ceiling hundreds of feet above them. “That man was close to my human family, and a sworn servant of the crown!”

Endrance blanched. “I’m… I’m sorry, High King.” He said. “What I said was inexcusable.”

“I have sat in at dinner with his family!” The dragon growled. “I had to deliver the notice of his death personally. Do not think I have no sentiment towards your human kind. I have been nurturing them for over a thousand years. You would do well to remember it, mage!”

The force of his words sent Endrance reeling onto his backside. “I didn’t kill him!” he exclaimed, terror on his face. “The Sha’hdi Jalyin did!”