Chapter 91 – The Uncorpsing of Arenthia

Three hours after waking up, she chanced to pass Lily as she headed to her next class and her roommate didn’t even turn her head. The disguise had certainly worked. Mirian crafted the replacement part for the train and scribed the fine manipulation spell she’d need to pick Mayor Wolden’s locks, then moved to start dismantling the wards by levitating small quantities of magichemicals that would alter the glyphs she targeted. Most configurations were designed to stop overload ward and dispel ward, but very few could detect a slight change in a single glyph that disabled the sequence. Funnily enough, it had been the train’s engine problem that had given her the idea.

She departed on the morning train with her three fake ingots. There, she tore the catalyst out of her spellbook so she could hide it, rebound the book, then scribed the spells she’d need: remote whisper, variable illusion, and major disguise. With a bit of extra time, she scribed a few other spells she might use. When she departed the train, she headed to the bank first, and left two hours later with the doubloons she’d need.

“I’d like to hire a ward specialist and two teamsters for a half-day job,” she told Ravantha, as soon as they were past the pleasantries.

Ravantha examined her. “You seem like you’ve done this before, but Nurea never mentioned you as an asset.”

Oops. She’d grown too used to the terminology and meeting, and accidentally changed the Syndicate woman’s reaction. “A new asset. And hopefully long term ally. I see a bright future for the Sacristar family.”

“Perhaps,” the Syndicate woman said. “And the job?”

“Stealing a body. It’s slated for incineration anyways, so no one will miss it.”

Ravantha raised an eyebrow.

“My client is very particular about this one,” she said, and then gave her the details of who she needed, where, and what time.

“Tomorrow? I can arrange it, but… a delay would be better. We don’t like rush jobs.”

“I understand. I wish I could have made it down here sooner, but the job can’t be delayed. My client is willing to pay an additional fee for the inconvenience.”

Ravantha tapped her fingers on the table while keeping her face neutral. She really did have the same mannerisms as Nurea. They must have gotten along splendidly. Likely, Ravantha was weighing the discount she wanted to offer to a new potential contact with the extra fee she wanted to charge for the added danger of the job. Also, she was probably wondering why anyone would want to pay so much for what she assumed was corpse-smuggling. “Fifteen doubloons,” she said.

Mirian placed them on the table, then put out her hand, and they shook on it, then swore the oath of secrecy the Syndicate demanded.

She went to the market next and purchased materials both for several of her ‘seeds’ and for the magichemicals she’d be handing Numo later, then a vial of scarlet dye. Then she went to meet Lecne. It was evening by then, so he was back from the market.

“Take a look at my soul,” she told him as they met at the door to the hidden temple.

“Did you want that… removed?” he asked.

He was looking at the disguise transformation, and had missed his own soul mark. “No, look closer. You’re looking for a soul mark along the fifth sinuous flow.”

Lecne’s eyes widened. Now he’d gotten it. “But that’s impossible,” he said.

“I can explain, but we may wish to go indoors.” Lower, she said, “There’s still time to save Arenthia.”

As usual, the priest of Zomalator needed only a short time to understand the implications of the loop. “What do you need?” he said with a note of desperation, after Mirian had finished explaining.

“I need to borrow a celestial focus and I need a scroll of shatter rune.”

Lecne blinked several times. “That’s it?”

Mirian winked. “You’ve already done the rest.”

That night, she crafted a special wand of her own design.

***

The next day, Mirian met Numo in a typical looking house on Second Cairn, one that apparently let the Syndicate borrow it from time to time. He was wearing a deep blue vest with silver embroidery, which was typical of guild arcanists. She also knew that while his credentials were forged, the forgery was impeccable, and the glyph-seal would pass any examination.

“The teamsters are in place?” Mirian asked him.

“Yes. Very easy to bribe, given what they usually make. I was told you have materials for me?”

She handed over the magichemical concoction. “Two drops of this on the sier glyphs, and two drops of this on the xolm glyph will transmute them just enough for my purposes. Here’s the map. Two are under the flagstones, one is in the wall. Each comes out with just a bit of force.”

“Good,” he said. “Good. Interesting. You know your alchemistry. Surprised you need me.”

“I’ll be busy with the other part. I’ll mask us both with an illusion until we get to the gardens.” She pointed to the map. “We’ll take this route here, which will take us through some dense foliage, then I’ll drop the disguise before we’re in the outer ward radius.”

Numo shrugged. “Sure.”

Mirian liked how he didn’t ask a bunch of annoying questions. She flipped to her major disguise page and cast.