131, 2/2

Ophiels descended upon the mountains west of the Firemaw Volcanoes, far away from the deep lava pools and open, red maws of Firemaw itself. It was here that the land was still covered in black and cooled lava drifts, but green grew in the cracks. In some of those valleys, the green took up more space than black and brown, and tiny streams of water wound through nascent river beds. This place was a lush bit of land, where the Forest was a far-off idea to the north and west.

The Firemaws hadn’t opened in this place in centuries, and may not open here ever again.

This was a land of budding green, and many, many rock monsters. Elementals, mostly. Standard stone, but also rarer variants, like cutting obsidian that glinted in the sunlight, and light-weight pumice that rode the wind like a jumble of black sand. Mud elementals rested at the edges of streams. Water elementals rested in the edges of the streams themselves, cutting whirlpool-lairs out of the banks.

Mostly, the elementals ignored the other lives all around them, or perhaps it was more accurate to say the life around them knew enough to skirt around the elementals; to not disturb them into attacking.

Blackscaled fish avoided whirlpools, staying in the deeper parts of the black sandbed streams. Mountain deer, with their black glittering horns and their dark fur, avoided shiny rocks out in the sun, sticking to the green, shadowed parts of the mountains. Green birds stayed in the trees, or among the grasses, looking for food among the new growths.

It was a really nice place.

Which was probably why Tenebrae’s Castle floated in the distance.

Erick stepped onto the air above a nice valley. Poi stood beside him. Both of them held steady on the light under their feet while Ophiels darted in the windy sky and squawked in joyful violins.

It hadn’t taken that long to find the stone-based Archmage, not comparatively, anyway, but it had been a complicated thing that had taken longer than Erick had wanted it to take.

[Cascade Imaging] had returned blank responses for Erick’s searches for ‘humans’ and ‘rock people’ and ‘golems’ and even ‘castle’. ‘Humans’ was a long shot, since Tenebrae had obviously prepared against those sorts of scans, but as for the other ones, Erick imagined he didn’t understand the archmage’s rock people well enough to scan for them. There had been some false positives in all his Imaging, but Ophiel checked those out easily enough, and found nothing more than adventurers out in the world, doing what they wanted to do; Erick didn’t bother them, for none of them seemed in danger. After a while, and after a dozen more scans, Erick had been reminded of his search for Messalina. He had failed to find the Life Binder until the woman had allowed herself to be found in her cloud giant castle in the sky, in order to enable some convoluted scheme to find the people who had hunted her village in Nergal.

So, going off of that experience, and imagining that Tenebrae’s floating castle was invisible and highly [Ward]ed in special and similarly infuriating ways, Erick had his Ophiel sunform-step across the whole of the entire mountain range, each of them wielding [True Sight].

It hadn’t worked. Erick wasted thirty minutes doing that.

But then he remembered the cloud giants again. They were visible through the heat they emitted, though infrared light. He had his Ophiel manually scout the land again, this time with their sights shifted toward infrared.

This also didn’t work.

Erick had thought back to his freshly created [Sealed Privacy Ward]. He checked that out with infrared sight, and though he couldn’t see inside, he could see that there was something there. Maybe he’d have to remake that spell, now that two vulnerabilities had been found; scent, and light-sight beyond the norm.

But regarding Tenebrae’s Castle, Erick finally got a break when he shifted the weather of the entire thousand-kilometer wide area and called the rains. Brute force solutions! If brute force doesn’t work, you aren’t using enough of it.

Brute force worked. Erick suspected that if Ophiel didn’t have great experience racing through the valleys and mountains of this land west of Firemaw, if they were as slow as they had been the first time in their search, that he would have missed Tenebrae’s castle, for the archmage would have solved the minor issue of blocking the rain from reaching the ground.

And so, Erick found the [More than Invisible] castle, then dismissed the rains.

Now, the land steamed in the bright sun, elementals and animals came back out to do what they were wont to do, the greenery seemed a bit more green, and the castle had dropped all pretense of hiding. It was a normal-enough castle of solid grey stone with a few towers, but it was certainly built for war, and not for comfort. The walls were thick. The windows were small. The upside-down mountaintop that it rested upon looked solid, and the roofs matched that look.

The rock-man standing on the walls also looked rather solid. From a kilometer away, he waved.

Erick waved back. Then he started walking forward. An [Animadversion] held on his left wrist, and also on Poi’s. Erick was happy that he could share that spell with others, though the twisted-silver shield would only last 10 minutes in Poi’s hands. It might be enough to divert any sudden, magical disapproval regarding Erick’s visit.

Erick and Poi reached the edge of the castle with little fanfare, except from the rock man on the walls.

“Hello!” the rock guy called out. “Archmage Flatt, yes? Sorry for you to come all this way, but Tenebrae isn’t accepting visitors at this time. We are thankful for the rain, though. You have exposed a vulnerability that we normally have more time to prepare against.”

“I am glad I could assist in some small way.” Erick politely said, “Tenebrae owes me a bargain of trade, and I have come to collect. Can I please see the man?”

“He wishes you gone.” The rock man stood resolute. “Please leave.”

Erick maintained his civility, but he pressed forward, “He owes me a Gate.”

The topmost tower’s window slammed open, the glass cracking.

Tenebrae stuck his head out, yelling, “I ain’t owe you SHIT! Get the fuck off my property!”

Erick lost his civility. He called back, “Give me my damned Gate, old man! AND the plans to this floating castle!”

“Tell me how this new Particle Magic is supposed to work!”

“… I’m going to throw a spell at you now. Figure it out, but don’t use fire! It explodes if you do that!”

Tenebrae started sputtering. Defenses went up across the stone, like hexagons of grey light suddenly manifesting. Erick pointed, and cast. [Merciful Ether Slime] coalesced around the window like a bag of thick air, failing to make its way inside the castle’s window. Instead, it hung on the hexagons of light that covered the stone.

Tenebrae shot ice through his own barrier, at the creature. Ice locked around the ether slime, trying to hold it frozen in place, but the slime was an ethereal spell. It slipped out of the ice and kept trying to enter the room.

Fire came next.

This time, the slime exploded. It was a small explosion; barely more than a puff of fire and a thunderous crack sent through the air. The ice that failed to hold the slime lost its grip and plummeted to the courtyard below, in the center of the castle.

Tenebrae did not stick his head outside, but he did put his face to the edge of his barrier, as he called out, “What a shitty spell! That level of explosion wouldn’t hurt a child!”

“It’s a non-violent Particle—”

“Then it’s even shittier than I thought it was! You can’t call a spell that explodes ‘non-violent’! You truly are an idiot!”

“That would have put any breathing person to sleep, and without Mind Magic, but you destroyed it and you’re not getting another. I have fulfilled my bargain with you twice over! Give me my bargain of trade! Give me my Gate!”

Tenebrae sputtered curses as he retreated into his tower. The grey hexagons vanished.

Erick waited.

The rock man on the wall, who had simply watched all this time, said, “My Master does not wish to be disturbed. Please leave, Archmage Flatt.”

Erick sputtered, “What the— He just went back inside? He’s not going to get me my stuff?”

“That is correct. You may leave now.”

Erick spoke loud, saying, “Then I suppose I must ask the Headmaster about the honoring of bargains of trade.”

Tenebrae appeared at his window, calling out, “You damned bastard! Can’t you solve your problems yourself?”

“I am! I solve my problems by getting other people involved!” Erick called back, “What’s the problem, eh! Just tell me where the damned thing is and tell me how to make my own castle! You owe me both answers.”

Tenebrae muttered more curses in languages Erick did not know, then he called out, “Ransack a Cloud Giant city and take it for yourself! There. You got one out of two. Not bad! More than most! I ain’t givin’ you my Gate!”

“You said you were done with the damned thing!”

“I still want it! It’s mine, dammit! Find your own!”

“There are no more!”

“Not my problem!”

Erick glared.

Tenebrae glared right back, then said, “I’ll give you a recreation. I got the thing copied years ago. You can have that—”

“NOPE. I want the real thing, and you’re going to hand over the location.” Erick offered, “You can come with us when we go inspect it, but Redarrow said you’d die if you came with!” Erick thought about, but did not tell the man, that if he didn’t come, then others would die.

Tenebrae glared. He glared for a long minute. Erick had no problem glaring right back.

The stone archmage frowned, calling out, “You’d die without me there, so fine! I’ll go. Idiot youngster.”

“I’m fucking 50!” 49, but whatever.

“Could’a fooled me! And I’m 90, shit-for-brains!” Tenebrae retreated back through his window, muttering about young stupid people and how they never changed.

Erick called out, “I’m leaving for the place today! In the afternoon! I hope that’s okay with you!”

Tenebrae slammed right back through his window, almost falling out, but easily preventing a defenestration, as he yelled, “Well NO SHIT we’re doing it today! Get your asses in here!” He relaxed, either unable or unwilling to maintain his anger. “We’re taking my castle.” He retreated back into his tower.

The rock man instantly turned and gestured to the courtyard down in the castle, saying, “This way, if you would, Archmage and guest.”

Erick pointed in a different direction, at Tenebrae’s window. “I’m not done talking with him. We have to pick up my daughter and my other guard, as well as make a visit to the auction. I only physically came here because he wasn’t answering my calls.”

The rockman said, “—

Tenebrae happily stuck his head back out the window, his voice turning pleasant, as he said, “Why don’t you go get them? Come back here when you’re ready and then we can leave for the Gate.”

“So you can vacate this valley and abandon your bargain? Maybe learn how to hide your castle better?”

A hateful look briefly crossed Tenebrae’s face, then vanished. His voice was full of sugar, “Ohhh. Nooo. I’d stay right here, for sure! Promise! I’ve got a few things to do before we traipse across the Forest, so we can wait for your auction to be over. Go ahead! Go be with your daughter!”

Erick weighed the possibilities of casual treachery and found them very high, but he liked Tenebrae pretending at being nice, so Erick decided to adopt a saccharine tone as well, either in mocking, or to keep the conversation at least partially pleasant. Maybe this almost-’Polite Society’ interaction would last past one verbal joust.

“I’d be ever so pleased to take some tea and crackers with you so we can discuss where to meet to venture into the Forest. That way, even if you aren’t there for some, I’m sure, completely valid reason, we can just mosey on in without you.”

Tenebrae almost spat some horrible words, but then he paused. He calmly said, “You’d never be able to find it without me.”

“Exactly. You are necessary, Tenebrae. I wouldn’t want to cut you out of any discoveries, either.”

“You can’t move it either! You can’t— Just! Just…” Tenebrae’s voice dwindled. He called to the rock man, “Get them a table and a room for—” He asked Erick, “How many?”

“Four people.”

“Four is fine. Good number. And I make five. Rocky. Get them their room.”

Rocky, the rock man, which if that was his actual name was rather rude or strange, Erick wasn’t quite sure, gestured behind him, to a building in the castle, saying, “This way, Archmage Flatt and Guest.”

Tenebrae vanished back into his tower.

Erick did nothing to stop that or to interrupt what was happening. They seemed to be moving in a good direction. So, he followed Rocky onto the castle walls, and then down a set of stairs, to the courtyard below.

Tenebrae’s Castle was a well-lit, austere sort of place, with a square curtain wall and an organized jumble of stone, box-like buildings inside that wall. The only bit of color in the place was a gnarled tree in the center of the courtyard, atop a small dome of stone. It wasn’t very tall, but it was brown and vibrant green, and the roots, small as they were, went everywhere, in every crack or along every wall of the stone. To Erick’s [True Sight] and mana sense, that tree was a beacon of light and air in the center of this heavy place.

It didn’t look like a [Familiar]. It looked like a natural tree. Highly magical, though.

Erick only paid a little attention to the tree, interesting as it was, for there were other rock men in doorways and windows of the castle’s buildings. Only a few of them stopped whatever they were doing to look at Erick and Poi as they passed through. Most of them were simply talking with each other. There weren’t many, maybe a dozen to be seen, but they all looked somewhat the same.

Human-sized bodies, with thick arms and thick legs, they all looked like someone had attempted to sculpt a person but stopped when they had gotten to the ‘human-looking’ stage. There was definitely some sort of ‘uncanny valley’ thing going on, but at least they were all slightly different looking, but none of them wore clothes. None of them had visible genitalia, either, but for some reason, Erick got the impression that they were all male.

‘Rocky’ led them to a building on the other side of the tree; a small house built into the curtain wall, with a nice little porch in front, where sat a table and a few chairs.

He said, “This is our guest house. Meetings will be conducted at this table outside. Master will not venture inside while you are a guest. We ask that you respect his privacy as well; do not go past any black lines in the stone. Other than that, please avail yourself of any amenities you might find in the Estate. Also: do not adjust any of the stone with any Shaping; it is all thoroughly enchanted, so you shouldn’t be able to, but please do not try. For the duration of your stay in this Estate, you will be cooked for by the same chef who cooks for our Master. Dinner is served across the courtyard in that building there. If you wish for more food, then it will be provided, or, you can acquire it on your own terms and bring in back here. There is a kitchen and other such amenities inside the guest house. I, or someone else, will always warn you when our Master is coming. We Stone Men thank you in advance for bearing with his eccentrici—” A pause. “Master is coming right now. Any quick questions before he arrives?”

“Is your name actually ‘Rocky’? Are you being insulted every day?”

Now that Erick looked again, Rocky seemed like a person. He had a soul, but it was a thin thing. Thicker than Ophiel’s. Maybe Rocky was a summon, too?

Rocky smirked, only a little, the stone of his face moving like the metal of a wrought, but rougher. “I am still a member of the collective and have yet to differentiate my self or my name. All of us here are like that.” Rocky gestured to the table. “Please, take a seat.”

The collective? Well. Okay…

Erick found no reason not to comply, for he had checked out the place rather well with his Ophiel flying all around in their tiny bodies. The stone seat was not comfortable, but it would do. Poi took his place standing behind Erick.

Rocky stepped away, to the side, but he did not leave. Another Rocky came forth with a plate of small sandwiches and a glass pitcher of cold tea, with three cups. He set them down then walked away, but not too far, right as Tenebrae opened the courtyard door of his tower.

Erick put on an easy expression with a slight smile and relaxed shoulders. By now, the [Animadversion] had expired from Poi’s arm, but it remained on Erick’s as a twisted silver buckler. Erick silently asked Poi if he wanted another. Poi shook his head.

Tenebrae walked around the courtyard, spitting, “Show me that damn thing on your arm.”

Erick paused. Then he held up his arm as Tenebrae stopped in front of him. Erick forced politeness and kindness out of his mouth, “Why of course, Tenebrae. I can show you some functions of it, too, if you wish to tell me about your castle.” The silver buckler extended a few thorny snowflake-like arms, but Erick kept them small. “It’s just an [All Reflection] spell.”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Tenebrae leaned over, slightly, and stared at the buckler, his eyes roaming across the thorny silver protrusions. He flickered with a few spells, but Erick couldn’t quite tell what they were.

Ophiel whistled in unsure guitar thrums.

Tenebrae said, “Looks like you can give it away like it was a normal [Conjure Weapon], but it’s a shield. I approve. Probably the best thing you’ve ever made!”

While Erick was suddenly dumbfounded, Tenebrae ignored the shield and sat down on the other side of the table. He served himself some tea, but did not do the same for Erick. He picked up a small sandwich, took a bite, and stared. He hadn’t even set the pitcher of tea close to Erick, or even halfway; he had set it directly in front of him, on his side of the table.

… Erick stood up and reached over to grab the pitcher. He served himself some tea, then set the pitcher halfway down in the center of the table. He sipped the tea. It was good.

Tenebrae said, “The Gate is inside a Twisted Vision of the Forest.”

“I assume it’s more complicated than that, and that there’s a reason you can’t just kill the Vision to get the Gate.”

With a deep frown, Tenebrae said, “You don’t know what a Twisted Vision is, do you.”