Fayd

  This is bad. This is very, very bad. No, this is more than bad. This is a disaster, an unmitigated, cromulent catastrophe! What was worse, I needed to tell The Mastermind the bad news; there was no telling what he would do to me. I must calm my nerves, he will not allow a member of the Circle of 13…I mean 12…to come to harm, yes, he would certainly find some way to protect us, that is what he does after all. The Mastermind always finds the way, even if he doesn't know. The ninth seat could sense that aught was amiss, I told him that I had grave news for The Mastermind and for the circle, he nodded, and allowed me to pass.

  Yes, after I speak to The Mastermind a convocation must needs be called, how long would it take the thirteen - I mean the twelve of us to gather. Weeks, for certain. I still can't believe it, everything was going so well up until now. My messenger wouldn't lie, not to me, especially not such outrageous lies as this; a good liar keeps it believable, I should know, as a fairly prolific deceiver myself. But then, more time passed, and more evidence mounted, and then I saw for myself. Right. My frayed nerves must needs be steeled. I entered the Mastermind's Chamber.

  "FAYD," he called to me, blowing wind as he spoke, "HAVE YOU COME TO REPORT ON THE DEATHS OF THE HUMAN MONARCH AND THE ELF PRINCESS?"

  "N-nay, O mastermind," I said, weakly.

  "THEN WHAT IS YOUR PURPOSE?"

  I gulped, "I bear ill tidings, great one. Both Princess Illiana and Queen Arabelle are still alive-"

  There was a shrill ear-splitting sound, the pale cyan light in the room brightened, "IM-POS-SI-BLE. YOU. LIE." A lash of energy struck near my feet, almost knocking me over - his psionic powers were considerable and I feared what would happen if one of those hit me.

  "Have I ever-" I stammered, "ever given you a reason to think I would lie?" I shook my head realizing the implications of that statement, "to you, I mean! Pray, probe my mind if you must."

  "EV-I-DENCE, FAYD. EV-I-DENCE!"

  "Evidence, um,"

  "WHAT MAKES YOU THINK THE PRINCESS IS ALIVE, IN DEFIANCE OF MY ANALYTICS, IN DEFIANCE OF INFALLIBLE CAUSALITY, AGAINST THE INEVITABLE, IN THE FACE OF THE STATISTICALLY IMPOSSIBLE ODDS?"

  I nodded, "I can start there as I received this news more recently, just this morning. I hadn't had a report from the other team, not since we had our last gathering, this struck me as odd, but I had guessed they were laying low. But weeks passed and I still heard nothing. Concern struck me and I sent out my spies. They reported that the second prince had yet to show his face, and not only that, there was a strange monument of whitestone where the princess' carriage should have been - it had a plaque with the names of people who fell there. Her name was not among them."

  There was a ponderous rumble. "MOST IMPORTANT NAME, MISSING. WRATH OF VALYRIAN, COLD. CONCLUSION: THE PRINCESS LIVES. LOGICAL."

  There was more, and it was worse, "Mastermind, there's more. Wylt, and the entire eastern contingent didn't merely fail: they are all dead. They were massacred. The First Prince also yet draws breath."

  There was another shrill noise and the entire cavern shook, threatening to send ancient carved stone crumbling off the walls. I knew telling him this would anger him, but he was the one person I couldn't afford to lie to. But have a care, great one, this is a very old ruin!

  "WAS NOT WYLT A FORMIDABLE MAGE OF DEATH AND DECAY? WAS IT NOT HE WHO INFECTED THAT LOGGING TOWN? HOW IS IT THAT HE DIED?"

  I grimaced, stomach knotted up, "when my messenger found his body, it seemed as though something had hit him, something very fast and very heavy. There were cart tracks near where he had lain, strange ones, thick ones. Whatever happened, he seemed to have perished in an instant. The others were crushed and unrecogn-"

  "I CARE NOT. DEVIATION FROM THE PLAN IS NOT ACCEPTABLE. DEATH IS FAILURE. I WILL HEAR NO MORE OF IMPOSSIBLE MATTERS IN ANAURA. SPEAK OF CARA."

  "Y-yes, mastermind. I have personal confirmation that the queen of Cara is still alive, for I have seen her. After my men failed to return, I sent my runner to the ambush site where he found naught but their remains - every last one of them is dead."

  The Mastermind grew louder, the ground shook with his anger, each syllable threatening to kill us both in a cave-in.

  "IN-CON-CEI-VA-BLE!"

  "I thought it beggared belief myself, but then I did hie myself to Caer Caradon where I gathered more information. As suspected, my insider had left a missive in our usual spot: it was adventurers, he did not know the details, but they had foreknowledge of the attack and the two of them-"

  Louder than before, I would need to find a healer for my ears, "TWO? TWO? TWO ADVENTURERS TURNED OUR STATISTICALLY CERTAIN VICTORY INTO A ONE-SIDED SLAUGHTER? OUR PLANS FORSEEN, IMPOSSIBLE. OUR FORCES FELL BY TWO? THIS IS. THIS IS. THIS. IS. THIS IS-"

  Well, we had managed to kill five of her men and one driver, but the mastermind was already upset and I didn't see the need to speak further. In fact he was more than upset, this was different. He'd ceased forming sentences and now was repeating the same word, over and over again faster and faster and at a higher pitch.

  "IS-IS-IS-IS-IS-IS-IS-IS-IS-ISISISISISISI-I-I-I–"

  In all my years of serving the cause of our god, the mastermind had never started doing something like this. There came a terrible shrieking, a sound like crackling lightning, then a sizzle like throwing water on boiling oil. All was silent for a moment, and the Mastermind spoke again; different, calmer, colder.

  "Logically, this is only a setback. As calculated, the rebirth of our god is unavoidable."

  Somehow, I preferred him when he was yelling - I'm one to talk but the way he was speaking, so slowly, so methodically, was really creeping me out. There was something in his eyes too - they were colder, somehow.

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  He continued, "we still have your asset in the royal court. Another plan will be formulated."

  I turned away, and frowned.

  "We still have your asset in the royal court." he didn't sound like he was asking. "Why do you not confirm the truth I speak?"

  This was going to be complicated, "That is because…"

  Gulp.

  Victor

  Ah, ain't this just the life? There I was, sitting on top of a stagecoach, with my hands on the reins. I had the princess ridin' shotgun, of course, and I'd let her borrow my hat. Where was my trusty Cadillac, you might ask? Why, it was rolling right behind us being pulled by a bunch of cavalry horses who had been in the service of a marauding band of fanatics with a despair fetish - don't worry, the noble beasts were given a full royal pardon. Yyup, the princess was able to save all of the horses, but unfortunately not all of the men; ten were severely wounded and lived but five were either killed outright or succumbed to their wounds before we could aid them. The queen's valet, Benoit I think, was put in charge of pulling the Cadillac; with the coachman dead I offered to drive the royal carriage in his place. There was a whole line of horses behind us, led by the queen's three remaining light cavalrymen, followed by the Cadillac, followed by two rows of the queen's light infantry.

  We were traversing through some narrows called the Needlepass, so the queen's men were able to guard our procession from the front and from the rear pretty well - it was broad enough to allow a carriage plus I would say three people to walk side-by side on either flank. In other words, we had full coverage on all sides. The Needlepass road eventually spilled out into the countryside, turned southwest, and linked back up with the main road between Caer Caradon and Balero. The embankments on our sides were steep, difficult to climb, so a terrible place to try and set up an archer attack. I reckoned I understood the logic of taking this route, and why the enemy spearmen had tried to prevent the carriage from bolting through - yeah, I could see the queen's guard blocking the way back and fighting valiantly to let her escape through the narrows. There were also a ton of passageways and if you had a map you could easily lose pursuers and get back into the open plains in virtually any direction you chose.

  We had been hired on as extra protection for the road, with full quest pay in addition to the base rate waiting for us at the guild! Assuming no monsters attacked this was slated to be a rather uneventful journey. I did have my rifle handy just in case, though. I needed to check my ammunition reserves again soon; I was fairly certain I still had at least seventy rounds of .308. As for .45 ACP I'd spent another eight rounds the day before; seven mag plus one in the chamber, of course, so I made a mental note to count it all up when we got back to Caer Caradon. God only knew how much gasoline I had used with that maneuver; probably not a lot in the grand scheme of things. After the battle we'd spent the rest of the day cleaning up; preparing the dead guys from our side for transport so they could get buried at home, digging a mass grave for the assailants, and of course taking anything valuable that wasn't shoved up their asses. I would later find out there was an achievement patch for seeking treasure in a rectal cavity, but I ain't telling you how I discovered that fact.

  The queen announced that the division of spoils could wait until her treasurer had a chance to assess it. With the exception that we got to keep the arrows and two longbows right out of the gate. The crown would bestow our share after paying compensation to the dead men's families, taxes, and things of that nature. Yeah when the princess saw those longbows she practically squealed because they were master-craft longbows, made by a notable wood elf craftsman; sort of like the Stradivarius of the archery gear world. They were a serious upgrade for the princess apparently, and she wanted me to have one as well - fair, I did have a merit badge in archery though I was way out of practice. There she was, stroking that thing lovingly.

  "It's a mighty fine weapon," I said.

  "You understate it," she said, smiling, "Talrin only makes very few of these each year - he is dedicated to his craft. Where did this evil organization get ten of them?"

  "Ya got me, so hey I've been wonderin'. When you saw that dead elf, you immediately said you recognized him as a wood elf. How could ya tell?"

  "Woodborn, Sir Victor. His hair, generally. Ah, I suppose to a human the difference might be easy to miss with his particular hair color."

  "Blonde?"

  The princess shook her head, "not in the way a human might be, and not golden the way a highborn elf might be."

  She stroked her own hair to demonstrate, allowing the sun to glisten off of her golden tresses.

  "Woodborn elf hair is always leaf-colored or flower-colored in some way; in the case of the commander, the hornbearer, his was the color of aspen leaves in the fall. Some have green hair, others bright red like maple leaves in the fall, there's even a prominent family with lilac-colored hair. But since yellowish is a familiar color among your folk, one might be forgiven for mistaking fall-aspen for highborn golden, or even human blonde."

  I thought that was pretty cool, so I reacted accordingly, "Ahh. I'm learning more about this world by the day."

  The princess giggled, "so um, how was my driving?"

  "Ya did all right, for a first timer! Driving straight is just the first step but it is an important one. Reckon I can teach ya advanced stuff once we get this fuel problem resolved."

  She drooped a little, "how many miles do you think you have left?"

  I did some math in my head, "reckon just over 200. Doing lots of back and forth is gonna be a problem. We got what, a month until the ball? How about we go do some quests on foot for awhile?"

  She stretched and yawned, "yeah, but we also need to go buy some nice outfits for the ball. We need to look the part, right?"

  As part of my plan to capture the traitor, we were hiding our status as the queen's saviors until the right moment.

  "Yep, just two regular old guests of honor." I gave a start - as we rounded another bend, there was some lovely landscape just ahead of me. I now understood why these narrows were called the Needlepass - there were numerous pokey rock formations that reminded me of chimneys or pipes of some sort. These ones were sort of pink or coral-colored and were probably made of limestone or clay; I obviously didn't have time to check.

  I turned to the princess and said "hey, couldja hold the reins for a sec?"

  She took the reins from me without hesitation, and I quickly snapped some good photos with my smartphone's camera, before taking them back.

  "Much obliged," I said.

  The princess pointed at my smartphone. "So, that smart-phone thing our new acquaintance, Miss Karga, really seemed to like it!"

  I nodded, "yeah I guess pattern mages are real into storing…well, patterns. So what I did with my armor," I thumbed myself, still wearing my new American Flag Brigandine, "was also somewhat of an experiment. I wanted to see if pattern mages could replicate things visually first - next I want to see if it can interact with the storage media inside the phone itself without looking at it."

  She gave a wry smile "For a fighting-man you sure do enjoy talking about magical theory, O Lord Party Leader."

  "Well, O Lady Healer, magic is one of those things that is new and interestin' to me; we didn't have it back in my world, you know. But if I can use my modern knowledge to do something cool with it…"

  She nodded as I trailed off, "I can't wait to see the results of what you have in mind."

  "I'll give you a hint-"

  What I said made her do that sparkly eye thing. You'll find out what I mean later.