Rief's Story

Chapter 8:

Rief looked out the doorway of the treasure room into the bustling center of Gemini City’s noble district.

“A Displacement Spell?” Rief asked.

“Yes, I’m surprised you know about them. I long considered it a dead magic.” Thaum replied.

“I’m sorry to disappoint you, after all I’ve been in the business of working with magicians for awhile. I’ve had Displacement Spells used on me before, but I’ve never seen someone displace and entire room before.”

Rief and Thaum exited the room and closed the door behind them, replacing the inside of the bakery Thaum used with it’s usual store. Apparently no one noticed that a bakery held mass wealth one minute and then bagels the next.

“What’s the plan?” Rief asked, “Normally I just pick a rooftop and jump into the manor, but I’m not sure you’ll be able to keep up. No offense intended.”

“Well we could storm our way into the mansion and cause a big mess, or we could simply walk right through the front door.”

“I’m not following you.”

“You forget who I am. My mere presence here is enough to gain us entry. I’ll simply inform the guard at the door of my name I’ll tell him I wish to see Mr. Sterling. After the guard finishes trembling I’m sure he’ll let me in.”

“You’re sure of yourself. But what about me?”

“You’re my servant of course. Once we enter the castle you’ll be excused to wait in the servant’s quarters. From there you’ll be free to search the castle for my crystal.”

“How will I know which crystal it is?” Rief asked as they strolled through the streets towards the manor.

“It will be filled with magical energy. I highly doubt you’ll be able to mistaken it.”

At this, Rief and Thaum reached the castle’s front gate. Thaum leaned to Rief and whispered “Put your weaponry away boy. I don’t think they’ll accept a servant who is so heavily armed.”

Rief quickly stuffed his daggers and quiver under his baggy shirt. Unstringing his bow, he hid the string in his pouch and in a quick motion, shoved the rest of the bow down his pant leg, giving Rief the appearance of a hunchback with a limp.

“Well, that’ll have to do.” Thaum said knocking on the mansion door. A young guard came to the door and slid open the peephole.

“What is your business with the mayor?” The guard asked.

“My name is Thaum Cigruta, master magician, this is my poor dilapidated servant. I seek an audience with Mr. Starling. I am very impatient and filled to the brim with explosive magic.”

Rief had to hand it to Thaum, he was right, the guard did tremble hard enough to have trouble with the door.

“If- if you w-will please wait here s-sir, I’ll go get Mr.- I uh mean, Mayor Starling, uh sir.” And with that, the guard stumbled out of sight.

“This will be easier than I thought.” Thaum said to himself.

After a couple minutes of waiting in the luxurious room, the guard returned much more composed and in control of himself than he was a couple of moments ago.

“Ehem,” The guard said as he superfluously cleared his throat, “Mayor Sterling will see you now Mr. Cigruta.”

“If you don’t mind, it’s been a long journey and my poor servant is rather tired. Would it be too much of a bother to let him to wait in your servant’s quarters?”

“Not at all, the servant’s quarters are down that hall there.” The guard pointed without ever taking his eyes off Thaum. “Now then, if you’ll come this way.” The guard led Thaum out of the room, leaving Rief by himself.

“As it should be,” Rief grunted.

Rief headed down the hall while replacing his daggers to his hips and his bow and quiver on his back. Rief jogged down the hall and turned the corner to face a large regimen of armored men guarding the corridor. They turned towards Rief with various looks of surprise, paying extra attention to Rief’s large amount of weaponry.

“Everything looks good down that way,” Rief said while patting the nearest guard on the back and moving through the group. “Keep up the good work now!” Rief saluted as he passed the confused guards and turned the corner.

“Man, I almost forgot how stupid regular guards were.” Rief thought to himself. Abruptly a shrill shout of “Get him!” came from around the corner behind him.

“Damn,” Rief cursed as he bolted down the corridor. Turning the corner, Rief notched four arrows onto his bow and did an about-face, sending the arrows into the first four guards that turned the corner. Rief unsheathed his daggers and planted one of the blades deep into a guards chest, the dagger cutting easily through his chain mail.

Rief used his other blade to deflect the attack sent at him by another guard before wrenching his first dagger free of the other guard and plunging it into his attacker.

Unexpectedly, time froze around Rief. Realizing his instincts must have put him a hyper-state, Rief turned around to see one of the guards that had been hit with an arrow trying to put his sword through him. Rief jumped into the air and hovered upside down on the ceiling before consciously deactivating his hyper-state.

The guards looked around in confusion. To them, Rief was there one second, then gone the next.

“Hey!” Rief shouted from above, “Up here!”

The guards looked up in surprise as Rief cut the chain holding up a nearby chandelier, sending it crashing down on the remaining guards.

Rief dropped to the ground and looked at the mess. “Thaum‘s gonna be pissed.” Rief told himself as he bolted through the halls of the citadel, searching the rooms with a glance when came to a large study with a massive hearth at one end of the room. Rief looked at above the fireplace to see a strange yellow gem glowing faintly. It looked normal and indistinct, Rief could feel a mass amount of magic coming from the room. “It makes sense really,” Rief thought, “If you steal something from the most powerful magician in all the lands, why not put it on your mantle?”

Rief jumped into the air and hovered up the crystal. Rief unsheathed his dagger and cut into the wall beside the crystal, prying it free just a regiment of guards, much larger than the previous one, barged into the room.

“And so the fun begins.” Rief muttered.