The room was illuminated in blue. Ted’s punishment for Aiden was purchasing the most expensive rooms that the inn had to offer, but only for the both of them. Aiden looked around as he walked inside, closing the door behind him. It wasn’t as grand and nice as the one he’d had in Bandiv but he would be lying if he said that it wasn’t nice at all.
There was a single glass tube hanging from the center of the ceiling. That served as the chandelier. He walked over to it first. Standing beneath it, he took into account all the different enchantments within the glass, the things that made it work, that made it cast the gentle blue that coveted the room.
Who puts a dilation script at the heart of an illumination scrip, he groaned, the enchanter in him gravely disappointed in whatever artificer had made this happen. He took a step around it then cocked his head to look at another sigil from a different angle and paused at what he saw. Oh. I guess it was actually a smart thing to do.
There were actually more customized enchantments embedded within, designed to change the lights of the chandelier. The dilation script was designed to control the different colors in different ways.
Aiden walked away from the chandelier and took in the rest of the room. There was a reading table, a soft brown ottoman resting against a wall on the left hand of the bed. The bed was king size by Earth standards, an ottoman sat comfortably at its foot. Aiden pulled it open, unsurprised to find sheets within. He closed it back and sat down on the bed. The room was nice, definitely deserving of how pricey it was. Still, he was not pleased to be spending so much money on a room.
Look on the bright side, he told himself. This is a kind punishment.
Ted could definitely have chosen a more annoying punishment than this. Obviously beating him up was not a potential punishment because, between the both of them, they knew how a fight would end.
“Then again,” he muttered to himself, “it’s about the willingness to be punished.”
With everybody having a room of their own except Valdan and Melvet who were quite insistent on sharing one, Aiden was finally left to his vices, alone in a single large room. Getting up from the bed, he walked over to the only two windows in the room and began.
He moved his hands along it, picking out the enchantments grafted into them. With his class skill [Enchanted Awareness], Aiden had a vague idea of enchantments around him. It was something of a passive effect, but it was not an awareness strong enough to help him pinpoint exact locations. So, standing at the window, he activated the skill.
[You have used class skill Enchanted Awareness]
The room lit up into a world of vibrations. When Aiden had gotten a version of the same skill in his past life, enchantments lit up in colors. This time he had to deal with vibrations. He stood in place, waiting. His gaze panned around, sensing each vibration, some were stronger than others, some weak enough to be considered insignificant. Each vibration, he had already learnt, was an indication of the strength and complexity of the enchantment. And an inn like this had no business having enchantments with vibrations as strong as some of the ones he was sensing.
Aiden started with the strongest vibration—the one at the chandelier. Woven expertly into the scripts that served in creating the illumination was an auditory enchantment. It was designed to transfer auditory information through a linking sigil to a specific location that he did not know.
Impressive, Aiden had to admit, but he was sure Brandis used stronger ones in the palace, even if he had never taken the time to investigate them. He did not disable the auditory enchantments, instead, he grafted an enchantment into them without the assistance of [Modify Engrave]. It wasn’t long before he had integrated another form of sound enchantment around it. Its design was to muffle sounds that read as precise. In this way, whenever he spoke, it would sound as if he was trying to talk through a pillow.
His task was slow but precise. It took little out of him as he modified and supported enchantments in the room. Enchantments designed to protect him from intrusion, he beefed up, supported and personalized. Spy enchantments were modified, debuffed.
Before long, Aiden was standing at the center of the room, taking in the vibrations around him. They remained the way they were, some stronger than before, but they were familiar now with a feint sense of his touch on them. Certain that he had handled all the enchantments, he went and had a bath.
When he got out, he settled himself on the bed and pulled out a wooden cube from hiss storage space. A significant portion of his time was spent engraving the wooden cube with a new enchantment he’s been working on for a few days now. The problem was that all he had to work with was the main sigil, and that was the part he finally had down.
The real problem he was testing now was the runes and sigils he needed to work around it to create an actual working enchantment. It was the thing with enchantments. There was always something at the core. The others were designed to keep the said sigil controlled and directed. It made the sure that the outcome was controlled.
Just like that, he thought to himself as he carved one last line into the enchantment. Should work now.
He held the cube and studied it. He had never been more uncertain of an outcome in his life.
…
When evening came, Aiden was not the only one in his room. Melvet sat at the ottoman while Valdan sat next to him on the bed. Ted stood with folded arms and a blank look on his face. Aiden wasn’t sure if Ted was still angry about the whole thing that had happened with Telma a few days ago or not.
“So, that’s where we’re headed,” Ted said, pointing at a section of the holographic map on the bed. It was a valley between two mountain. “Looks like a tight fit.”
“It will fit everyone easily,” Valdan observed, eyes on the map. “The problem,” he continued, pointing out the mountains, “is that this will be a good place for an ambush.”
Ted leaned down to point out a section of the map ahead of the path they were observing. He moved the map and it obeyed, panning over to a point he wanted to touch on. He zoomed in on a rocky clearing almost as large as a town. “I thought all the fighting’s happening here.”
“The fighting hasn’t started yet,” Melvet pointed out.
“It has not,” Aiden agreed, “but when tensions are rising, a lot of things begin to work differently.”
Ted’s expression turned thoughtful. “You’re thinking of scouts?”
“You seem to have military knowledge,” Melvet noted. “I don’t think military might was covered in the palace.”
Aiden cocked a brow. “We had a lot of military might where we came from.”
“Your world sounds like a fascinating place every day,” Melvet said.
Valdan said nothing, turning his attention to Aiden. “How do you think we should handle it? Do you think there’s a way around it?”
Aiden was already shaking his head. “The path around it is too long to follow, especially now. And the monsters are a different ball game.”
“I’m confused.”
“They are stronger than they have any right to be.”
“And you worry that we cannot handle them?”
Aiden shook his head. “Fjord, Zen and his sister won’t be able to, but the rest of us can. The problem is that we can’t leave the others behind.”
“You forgot Telma,” Ted pointed out.
“Telma is in charge of Telma,” Aiden answered. “Her safety is not my problem.”
“And the giants?”
“I know the location of all the frost mountains this side and the next of Nastild,” Aiden answered easily. “Her absence will not make it impossible to find; it will just make it take longer. And time is something we have.”
“So, in summary, Telma can go fuck herself?” Ted asked with a smile.
“Yes, brother. Telma can go fuck herself.”
“In that case, let’s follow the monster path.”
“No.” Aiden shook his head again.
“Think about it.” Ted squatted down so that he looked up at them. “I’ve got a few very specific familiars, and Elami has some powerful healing skills. They will be fine.”
Aiden needed to know a thing or two about these healing skills that Elami had. He definitely didn’t doubt them, he was merely suspicious of them.
“I get what you’re saying,” he said, “but following the monster path is not easier than following the normal path.”
Valdan and Ted exchanged a look.
“So let me get this,” Melvet said, continuing only when she had their attention. “You think it would be better to navigate two warring people than to go through a den of monsters.”
“With warring people, all we need is to negotiate safe passage,” Aiden answered. “We either get safe passage or we don’t, at least we’ll know our odds then. With a den of monsters, all we have is a den of monsters. We will always be alert and our lives will be on the line at all times.”
Melvet made a face. “It is war, Lord Lacheart. We will always be alert regardless of the time of day.”
“Aiden is more confident with people than with monsters,” Valdan said.
“At fighting them or manipulating them?”
Aiden held back his sigh. He was not interested in having this argument with Melvet. Valdan and Ted were a different case. So, he turned his attention back to them.
“Is this another thing that we’re putting to a vote?” he asked.
Ted chuckled. “Zen and Fjord will say that we should go with whatever decision you make.”
“And Feira will argue for the sake of arguing,” Valdan sighed.
Aiden looked up from the map. “And Elami?”
“He’ll pick whatever Ted picks,” Valdan said. “And Ted will pick whatever you pick.”
Ted shrugged. “It’s something of an autocracy over here. Can’t say I don’t like it.”
“You know she likes you, right?”
Everybody paused at Melvet’s words. Eyes turned to her.
“I’m sorry, what?” Ted asked.
Melvet pointed at the door. “The Feira kid. She likes your brother.”
“Oh, that,” Ted made a nonchalant gesture. “That’s news to nobody.”
Melvet’s eyes settled on Aiden. “Is it news to you?”
Aiden frowned a little. This was not the conversation that he wanted to have. He was interested in planning and action, not drama. Was it news to him that Feira liked him? A little. Did he suspect that she liked him? Yes. Did he know for a fact that she liked him? No. It had been a subject he had refused to dwell on, focusing on the more important things. The drama of love and affection and lust was a life he had already lived. In this life, they were not even on the list of his priorities, so he just chucked the possibility up to him misunderstanding whatever interest she had in him and simply ignoring it.
“Looks like it’s not news to him,” Melvet said, crossing her legs.
Aiden looked at her. “I’m not seeing what this has to do with,” he pointed at the map, “this.”
“My student is quite visibly distracted by the very existence of you even in training,” Melvet answered. “That makes it a little difficult to get one hundred percent out of her in the training department. If I need her to be the best that she can be, then I will need said distraction to be dealt with.”
Aiden sighed. “How?”
“Tell her to fuck off,” Melvet answered. “Politely, obviously.”
“Can’t do that.” Aiden returned his attention to the map, now determined to see if there was an alternate route that the team could take. He still couldn’t find any.
“Why?” Melvet asked. “Do you have similar feelings to the one she has?”
“Emotions are not important right now,” he said. Ted made a thoughtful sound, and Aiden raised his head to look at him. “What?”
“I’m just wondering why you don’t want to let her down gently,” Ted said innocently. “I mean, someone of your recent behaviors shouldn’t have a problem letting a lady down gently.”
Aiden sighed. Personally, he was surprised that they didn’t see the reason. It seemed he had to spell it out for them.
“If I let her down,” he said, “then it will make her feel some type of way. She will share her feelings with Zen and that will be on Zen’s mind. Having that on his mind will lead to Zen’s inability to give one hundred percent to his training. That will then affect his training.”
Melvet gave him an intrigued look. “So, you would rather—”
“Yes,” he answered before she could complete the sentence. “I would rather Zen give a hundred percent to his training than Feira give a hundred percent to her training.”
“Maybe he doesn’t like her that much,” Ted said with a shrug, looking at Melvet.
“I like the girl well enough,” Aiden interrupted. “What I do not have is feelings for her. Case closed. Now can we come back to the matter at hand? I’m in support of going through the valley.”
“Ambush?” Valdan asked, more than happy to return to the conversation.
“A possibility,” Aiden confirmed. “But not if we do a good job of scouting ahead.”
“I have a familiar that can do that,” Ted suggested.
“Is it fast?” Aiden asked.
Ted nodded. “Faster than any of us at least.”
“That should work,” Valdan mused. “But what happens if they do not grant us the passage you are looking for?”
Aiden’s brows creased. “Then we look to the alternative.”
He really didn’t want to follow the path with monsters. What he wasn’t ready to talk about was the type of monsters they were going to have to deal with. Chimeras were a different breed of monsters. Killing them was tricky for those who did not understand how to and annoying for those who did. Then there was their strength. It could be… confusing.
“But not the monster path,” Ted said.
“No.”
Valdan gave Aiden a look. “What is it about these monsters that has you worried? You’ve never been afraid of protecting the others from the monsters.”
Melvet gave an intrigued look. “This is spectacularly interesting,” she said, getting up from the ottoman. She walked up to them and looked down at the map. She touched the alternate path and it zoomed in. “I assume this is the plot of land we are speaking of.”
“Yes,” Valdan said, looking up at her. He had a way of staring at her like she was the most important thing in the world. “Does the church know something about the monsters?”
“They actually do,” she said. “But…” her eyes moved to Aiden, “While I’m not at liberty to say, I believe I know the reason Aiden Lacheart is not willing to venture into that area.”
Ted rubbed his hands together conspiratorially. “This I’ve got to know.”
Aiden pressed his lips into a thin line, hoping the information Melvet would offer would be wrong. The only problem was that he doubted the [Thirteenth] would be wrong.
“It’s because if we venture into that specific area, we will be dealing with the Order,” she said.
Ted and Valdan looked at Aiden. Before he would’ve known that they looked at him out of suspicion. Now that he had informed them of his life, they were looking at him because they were worried.
“Unfortunately, the church believes the Order trains some of its recruits in that specific area,” Melvet continued. “Recruits gotten for a specific purpose, although we cannot prove the latter.”
“The purpose part?” Ted asked.
Melvet nodded. “The purpose part. It is said that it is almost impossible to get in there. So confirmation has been difficult.”
“What about the monsters?” Ted asked. “What can you tell us about them?”
Melvet gave him a surprised look. “The Order is not deterrent enough?”
“Let’s be honest,” Ted said casually. “The Order are just people.” He thumbed at Aiden. “My brother’s got that one covered. Looks like they are the ones he’s worried about.”
“Oh, I see.” Melvet tapped a thoughtful finger against her cheek. “If that’s the case, there are rumors in the upper echelons of that area about the monsters. And, if those rumors are true, I’ll be quite surprised as to how your brother is so very certain of potential rumors.”
“Aiden has always read and always had a spy information network the likes of which you would not be able to imagine,” Valdan said.
Melvet nodded. “I doubt it would rival the Order, but I’ll take my baby’s word for it. As for the monsters, rumors in the church has it that within those lands, constantly hunted by the recruits of the Order, are dastardly beasts with heads with two faces and faces without heads, tails that walk and trees that sing. I had a conversation with the [Hierophant] once, and he said that the one time he had managed to get into that area, he had lost a lot of men to a creature so terrifying within the light of the sun that it reminded him that there are worse things hidden by the light of the sun than there are lurking in the shadows.”
“These monsters have a name?” Ted asked.
Chimera, Aiden thought.
“Chimera,” Melvet said, “forgotten abominations created by the Order, refusing to die or stay dead.”
Aiden frowned at one simple realization. Even though they were rumors, not completely accurate, the upper echelon of the church knew more than they were supposed to.
Ted looked from Aiden to Valdan.
“So,” he said, dragging out the word, “I take it that’s a no to the monsters?”
Valdan nodded. Melvet shrugged. Aiden massaged his forehead with thumb and forefinger. Taking them through the chimera was not the problem, even relating with the members of the Order was not the problem. The problem was in the teaching. No matter how he thought about it, teaching the members of the group intent without getting killed or getting some level of protection from the monsters was impossible.
And there were two things the church had gotten wrong in their rumors. The first was that it was not Order recruits that trained against those monsters. The specified people were those well past level one hundred. The second was that they were not a special group designed for a special purpose, they were the group of people who were deemed talented enough to learn the one trick needed to survive an encounter against the [Enemy of the Order].
They were powerful people learning how to instinctively wield in combat the intent to sever the mana flow of a living being.