Fairy Opera Chapter 36: Separation

 

Separation

A desk shattered as Jak flew backwards. He hit the wall and collapsed onto the ground. After a few moments, Jak got up, rubbing his back. “My god that was powerful.” He chuckled. “I feel like I’ve been kicked by a horse.” He cracked his neck.

I made an awkward smile. “I did my best to hold back.”

“If that was you holding back,” Jak held out his hand, “Then you really have been given an amazing boon by the God Emperor.”

We shook hands. Jak turned to look at the desk he had destroyed.

“Um, sorry about that.”

“No, no worries. It wasn’t a very nice desk anyways.” I bent down. “But, uh, now I need a new desk.”

“We’ll get you one.” Jak crossed his arms.

“I kind of need one to write my new spell.” I sighed. “Well, we can go search for a desk in the castle that I can borrow. I’m sure there are extras all over the place.” I stood up, brushing off my hands. “You want to help?”

“Right.” Jak, Tae, Ami, and Amber followed me out of the room. Ami and Tae went one direction, while Jak, Amber, and I went in another direction. We searched high and low for another desk. Eventually we found one in an unused side room.

Jak looked at it. “This is a nice piece of furniture.” He crossed his arms. “But it looks heavy. We may have some trouble getting it to your office.” He bent over and looked at its underside.

I laughed. “Did you forget that I’m a mage?” I pulled out a float spell—the same one I had used to float the crates during the attack on the Ultimar.

Jak tapped his forehead. “I’m an idiot for not thinking of that.”

“Yeah.” I cast the spell and the desk rose up and floated about half a foot off the ground. We carried the desk through the halls and back to my office, where Ami and Tae were already standing. They turned to face us as we came through the door.

“You found a desk.”

I set the desk down by cancelling the spell. The desk thumped as it hit the floor. I moved my chair up to it.

Jak, Ami, Tae, and Amber watched me as I took out a mage’s pen and started writing the spell. This was going to be a complicated spell that would draw upon at least three sets of libraries. I worked on that spell for the rest of the day. Amber and Ami began to play a game of cards. Jak lit up a pipe and smoked, staring out the window. Tae played with a couple of paperclips. When the spell was done, I lifted up the scroll and the committed it to my scroll storage pocket. I stood up.

“We’re good. I have what we need.”

Ami and Amber looked at me. Jak stood up. Tae lifted her chin.

We left the room and returned to Andrew’s office. He was inside, working on paperwork. When I entered he looked up.

“Did you finish creating the spell?”
“I did.” I put my hand on Andrew’s desk. “We should hurry, though. The longer we wait after the incident, the less accurate my spell will be.”

Andrew put down his pen and stood up. “Then let us proceed.” We left the office, left the castle, and returned to the spot where Jerimiah had been murdered. I knelt next to the remaining bloodstains and pulled out my scroll.

“Null Sensory. Supplication, assign variables to all individuals. Initiate function: where have the people gone. Exert.” The spell in my hand glowed, shooting beams of light over the area. A holographic projection appeared above the spot, showing Jerimiah just as he was being murdered. With a handwave, I paused the motion. Two masked men with swords had snuck up behind him and skewered him. I waved my hand in a specific motion and time began to go backwards. The masked men walked, backwards, away from Jerimiah. I followed them. Down the street. Across the castle grounds. To a small warehouse at the edge of town. The assassins had come from in there. We entered the warehouse. The place was deserted, but dust patterns told that someone had been there recently.

I watched as my spell expanded its scope. The masked men met with two people whose faces were indistinct, probably because they were so far from the spell’s casting location.

I held up my hand. We were just able to make out their words.

“You cannot fail us. The Rebellion must be crippled if we are to succeed. The Empire cannot fracture again. We must destroy all that come in between us and our goal of consuming the God Emperor.”

“Consuming?” The spell faltered, and then ended. The holographic forms disappeared. I turned to Andrew. “They want to consume him?”

Andrew shook his head. “It is as I feared. When you spoke of a fracture in the leadership of the Empire, I did not think that it would be this serious.” He put his fist into his palm. “But we can make use of this. The Rebellion set out to stop the tyranny of the God Emperor, but from your experience it seems like he really isn’t the core problem in this situation.”

“Right.” I thought for a moment. “We need to bring this information to the disestablishment party of the church.”

“That may be easier said than done.” Andrew shook his head. “I doubt they’ll listen.”

I rubbed my neck. “We can try. I think I can call up Rist, my contact with the disestablishment party.” I pulled out a communications scroll. However, when I cast it, the spell fizzled. “That’s strange. This should contact him.” I tried it again, and the spell fizzled again.

“It’s probably because there’s a barrier around the capital.” Andrew sighed. “We’re going to have to go there in person.”

I gritted my teeth. “Then let’s get there. If we can make an ally out of the disestablishment party, then we may be able to push our win conditions.”

Andrew lifted his chin. “Then go. Bring who you need, and take our fastest ship. We’re going to negotiate an alliance with the part of the church that is against these people. We may be able to sunder the entire church into pieces.”

I turned to Jak. “Will you come with me?”

“Of course.” Jak grinned. “I’m always willing to go on an adventure with you.”

We left the warehouse. Andrew called up some of his people to search the place and see if there was anything we could use. We returned to the castle and Andrew wrote a letter, which he handed to me.

“Keep that sealed. Hand it to the person in charge of the disestablishment party.” Andrew took my hand in his. “And don’t die. We need your power to fight the final battle.”

“I understand.” I took the letter. “I won’t fail the Rebellion.”

Andrew nodded. “I’ll negotiate with the Syndicate to give you a contact in the capital.”

I nodded. “Thanks. We’ll need all the help we can get.”

Jak, Tae, and I returned to the docks, where we boarded the Titch, the fastest ship currently in port. About thirty sailors came with us. We cast off from the docks and headed out into open sky.

The capital was three week’s sail away, past numerous heavily-populated islands, as well as through many well-traveled merchant routes. We hoisted a flag of a merchant trading company, so hopefully we wouldn’t be too suspicious, but there was always a possibility that some Imperial vessel would stop us and then see through our ruse. We sailed for about one week before it happened.

An Imperial guard frigate approached us and ordered us to stop. We stopped. The ship pulled up next to us and a boarding dinghy was dropped. Five Imperial men, including an Imperial officer, boarded the Titch. The officer tapped his cane on the deck.

“Can I speak to your captain?”

Jak, who was acting as the captain in this capacity, stepped forward. “What can we help you with, sir?”

The officer grimaced. “My name is Officer Maldo. I’m with the Imperial anti-smuggling brigade. I’d like to take a look at your cargo.”

We had filled the ship with fleece to prepare for this exact situation. Fleece was a very low-danger trade good. Officer Maldo went belowdecks and examined our storage.

“Your fleece has not been sectioned by the grand office.” Officer Maldo wrote something on a piece of paper. “We’re going to have to impound these goods and bring you and your ship to port Denithan.”

We couldn’t do that. We didn’t have enough time. Going off track by so much would derail our entire plan.

I motioned to Jak. He nodded. The crew members in the room, as one, tackled the officer and his men. Without much effort, we managed to tie them up with ropes. I pulled out a scroll with a memory wipe spell on it. When I cast it, Officer Maldo and his men became very suggestable.

“You’ve found nothing of note on this ship.”

Maldo’s eyes were glazed over. “I have found nothing of note on this ship.”

I nodded. “You are going to let us go.”

“I am going to let you go.”

“Good. You will forget everything except what I have told you.”

“I will forget.” Maldo’s eyes flickered.

We untied them and dragged them up to the deck, where I ended the spell. Maldo looked around, a questioning expression on his face. “Oh. Right, right. I forgot to give you the goods pass.” He stood up. “My head hurts.” He wrote something down on a piece of paper and handed it to Jak. “You’re good to go. Sorry for bothering you. You see, there have been a lot of smuggling attempts recently. Something about problems brewing in the church. But don’t tell anyone I told you that.”

“We won’t.” Jak pocketed the paper. “Have a good day.”

Officer Maldo and his men got back into the boat and floated across to the Imperial frigate.

Jak leaned over and whispered to me. “You did a banger job, Rock. I couldn’t be more proud of you.”

“Right. I just did my part.”

We sailed away from the ship, heading towards the capital. We passed by numerous merchant ships, but didn’t encounter another guard ship. Two weeks later we arrived at the capital. It was a gigantic island, about ten times the size of Gagna, covered in buildings. We headed for the eastern dock complex and moored our ship there. We chose a few of our more savvy sailors to deal with the fleece. In order to not draw attention we needed to act like we were a merchant ship, and that meant unloading and selling our fleece.

Jak, Tae and I got off the ship and headed for our Syndicate contact. He approached us at the edge of the dock, wearing a hood.

“You’re the people?” He pulled back his hood to reveal that he was an elf. “I can smell the power of you.” He pointed to me. “Yeah, that’s right. You’re the one’s I’m looking for.” He brought his hood back up. “Follow me.”

We followed him into a small alleyway, where he opened a side door. We came to a stairwell, which we climbed to the third floor of the building. There was a small number of rooms. We entered the last room along the hallway.

Two people were already sitting there. One of them was clearly a member of the church. The other was a member of the Syndicate. The elf sat down.

“My name is Elco.” The elf pointed to the church member. “That is Rabar.” He pointed to the other Syndicate member. “And Cliss.”

Both Rabar and Cliss bowed.

“Pleased to make your acquaintance.”

 

37

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