Chapter 5 #3
Carcalla was unmoved that I wanted to kill one of his kind. “Revenge is not that complicated. Why does this elf in particular require potent magic?”
“Because he’s an extremely powerful mage himself, and nobody else, even the mighty Gaul Haddar, has been able to find, or even identify him.
From the skills he’s demonstrated, Haddar thinks he’s equal in might to a Councilman, something crazy like a rank fifteen or higher. Do you happen to know of this pirate?”
“It is rare for one of the most blessed of all races to turn to a life of crime, but unfortunately, those of us who have done so are not all acquainted.” Carcalla replied so cooly that he might have been lying right to my face, but who could tell with an elf? “Who did this pirate kill of yours?”
“My mom and dad, among a great many others, when he shelled our barge and left it to burn.”
Carcalla pondered my words, then stated, “Power and revenge are two motives which I both understand… and respect… Leave us, Joran.”
The subordinate nodded and departed without another word, taking the two wizards with him. Whatever Carcalla’s magical defenses were, he certainly wasn’t worried about unarmed, elementless me presenting any danger to him.
Once the door was closed, the gang lord went over to a cabinet full of liquor bottles. “Care for a drink, Mr. Carnavon?”
I figured there were easier ways to kill me than by poisoning. “Sure.”
He got out two glasses, poured some dark brown liquid into each, then handed me one.
“Thanks.” Though I wasn’t sure why he’d shown me the kindness of offering me anything.
His manner remained as icy as before. I took a sip, which burned and made my eyes water so bad, that for a second, I thought he had poisoned me after all.
I loved a good stiff drink as much as the next guy, but this was downright painful.
I was used to the beer the Argents imported for our barges because it was basically wet bread to help feed the miners and keep us content enough not to strike.
This stuff made the strongest drink in Fort Silver taste like water straight from the globe.
“Gwynfar Dragon Rum, distilled upon a lonely peak where the Elemental Plane of Life collides with Death and Fire.” Carcalla downed the whole glass in one gulp. “Ah. Refreshing.”
Sign of weakness or not, I had to cough.
Carcalla wandered to one of the maps on his wall.
While he did so, the magic window changed to a land of sand and dull red plateaus.
A distant caravan was crossing the horizon.
Even with his back turned, he somehow knew what the window showed, because he explained, “That view is of Ashen Harran, the Blood Drenched Sands of the Elemental Plane of Earth.”
“That’s where Gaul Haddar is from.”
“A harsh man, from a harsh kingdom. It might even be as inhospitable as the one you hail from.”
By my standards, the image looked rather pleasant. None of the mountains were squirting lava and the sky wasn’t covered in smoke. “I don’t know. It doesn’t look so bad.”
Carcalla was so effortlessly intimidating, he even managed to make studying a map seem like a threatening gesture.
“Both of those kingdoms are unforgiving in their own way. Yours by environment, his by the nature of the people who reside there. Ashen Harran has been consumed by endless war for hundreds of years. The various tribes live for war. Conflict runs in their veins. Of the thousand kingdoms, they are among the most capable. Orcs rage, lobs hold grudges, but you humans are relentless, and the Ashen Harran are the most so of all of you. To the Ashen Harran, war simply is. Your master is a product of this land.”
From what I knew of Haddar, that seemed accurate. “He is rather intense in person.”
“Haddar may not worship Saint Violence or Saint Murder, but he’s been blessed by the gods just the same.
The man has a gift for inflicting harm. His time studying magic here made him something of a legend in this city.
Which is why the idea that upon finally reaching the tenth rank, so long denied to him by the spineless weaklings of the Council, the fearsome Gaul Haddar would decide to become a teacher amused me so. ”
“Maybe he’s becoming more gentle as he’s aged?”
Carcalla turned to scowl at me. “You claimed you were not a liar.”
“Just throwing out a possibility.”
“An unlikely one.” The gang lord went back to his map. “I don’t understand Haddar’s reasoning in granting you this responsibility, but I have decided that you are not a fraud.”
“I appreciate that, sir.”
“You should. If I thought you were trying to rob me, I’d have you horribly disfigured and sent back to live as an example to all what happens when I am crossed.”
Having seen the occasional Slumper missing their ears, nose, or lips for just that reason, I was extra thankful. I took another sip of the loathsome liquor to calm my nerves and managed to not choke that time.
“Except I do not think what you are running is an academy either.”
“What are we then?”
“You’re the living manifestation of Gaul Haddar’s disdain for the Nexus Council.”
That description probably wasn’t too far off the truth. “Well… we’re trying to be an academy.”
“Indeed. Yet with your founder away, you have no resources. You lack knowledge. The only way to advance in rank is through increased aptitude, which requires spells. Real spells, not just the pathetic home-brewed experiments of rank-one amateurs. Learning new spells requires the formula and the magical elements to fuel them. You have neither, nor the money sufficient to purchase any. And there still remains the matter of the rent.”
“Yeah, about that—”
“By now, you have surely realized your academy has nowhere else to go. Tradition demands the Council respect a rank-ten master’s right to take on apprentices, but that is all they will grant you.
They will stymie you in every other way possible for the simple fact Haddar’s promotion offends them, as does your very existence.
If the Council’s disdain alone did not render your academy politically toxic, the fact magical experimentation can be dangerous to the property and bystanders would.
Even if you could afford to live elsewhere, there would be no home for your rejects in any other district of this great city. ”
I could see exactly where this was heading. “Except for somewhere the Council’s already forsaken and ignores.”
“Correct. I am the ruler of your only option. And while you may choose to be kind to those who cannot pay… I do not. Such weakness would set a terrible precedent for my business.”
I’d been a trapper, so I knew a trap when I stepped in it.
“You’ve recognized yourself we lack the money to even buy enough element to practice with.
We sure as hell can’t swing another hundred Obols a month to keep you from siccing Cutter Joran on us.
” I gestured at the image of Ashen Harran.
“For how dangerous you say Gaul Haddar is, your man sure don’t hesitate to threaten harm against Haddar’s students. ”
“Joran is a valuable servant, because he loves a challenge more than he fears death. I suspect he would enjoy fighting Haddar to the death. He’s defeated rank sevens and eights, but I don’t think he’s ever had the opportunity to fight a nine or ten.
I suspect a ten might even be beyond Joran’s considerable abilities to kill.
I’d prefer not to lose such a valuable and loyal servant, though.
Thus, when your master returns, I will gladly renegotiate a new deal with him.
Haddar demands respect. You do not. Therefore, you get the lesser deal.
For now, be thankful you receive any courtesy at all. ”
Carcalla had me there, because Haddar might not ever return.
He’d told me that the elf pirate was incredibly dangerous, so even if Haddar did finally manage to track him down, he might not survive the confrontation.
And in the off chance he did, he still might not come back to the Core City ever again, simply because he despised this place and the Council who ran it.
For all I knew, he’d already forgotten he’d ever founded an academy at all.
“What do you have in mind, Mr. Carcalla?”
“If you cannot pay your debt with coin, I will allow you and your students to work it off instead. Your options are one hundred Obols, or providing a service of corresponding value, per month.”
“That doesn’t sound like much of a choice.”
“There is always eviction and painful dismemberment.” Carcalla must have threatened so many people over the years that he managed to sound bored as he told me that.
“I believe I speak on behalf of all of our students when I say we enjoy keeping all our limbs attached. What manner of service?”
He seemed amused by my concern. “Simple tasks. Nothing too complicated.”
I really didn’t like what that implied. “There’s other ways we might be able to earn that much money.”
“Indeed. You and a few of your fellow Outcasts have earned a tidy sum fighting in the Slump arenas. It would be dangerous, but if you won enough matches every month, that would more than cover it. However, you forget who those goblin bookies work for. It would be a shame if every Outcast was suddenly and permanently banned from those establishments.”
Seeing as how fighting in the arenas was how we were barely scraping by at all, getting cut off meant being starved of food and element, and then getting evicted anyway. “That would be a shame.”
“Indeed. Come and look at this.”
I grudgingly got up and joined him at the map. I’d been dreading this part. Carcalla was surely going to ask us to do something nefarious and illegal on his behalf. “We’re not crooks. We’re not thieves or leg breakers.”
“Don’t flatter yourself, Mr. Carnavon. I have plenty of those already.” He pointed at a small island on the Core City’s southern bay labeled Korthican’s Warning. It had words written around it like danger, cursed, and here be monsters. “I am in need of adventurers.”
I swallowed the rest of the dragon murder rum or whatever it was called in one gulp. Unfortunately, it didn’t put me out of my misery.