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The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/PepperAntique on 2024-09-27 22:12:50+00:00.

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Writer’s Note: So ends the Mage City Arc. Next up is the Sike. I’m not telling you. Arc.

Enjoy.

Lord Mattis' face was a study in veiled wrath as he sat in the chair and inspected the vest sitting on the table in front of him. Attached to it at numerous points were small plates of enchanted metal with smaller pieces of light-quartz embedded in them. It was a simple design really. A bit of channeled magical energy would focus from the plates into the crystals and cause a light to flare that was something at least visibly similar to the Divine Luminescence that Joseph Choi would create while healing people. A pair of matching gloves and similar devices hanging from a pair of spectacles accomplished the same for the hands and eyes.

"So I'm guessing that the healing of the people brought before you was superficial?" The city lord asked. "And that also explains the bouts of weariness after each person." He added with a nod as his jaw jutted out a bit.

"I've never been terribly good at healing." The Soothsayer Ravyn said as she smiled at him.

Mattis sighed and rolled his eyes as he heard the subtle affirmation from the witnesses in the room next door in his left ear's earring.

"So then the question becomes; Why do this Mrs. Dellstone?" He asked. "What was the motivation that convinced you to aide a person of interest in escaping the city?"

She shrugged, her face almost neutral if a bit amused.

"Ekron asked me to help Mister Choi." She said as if it was the only reason she needed. "Besides, I'm a soothsayer. A pathfinder. Why do I ever do anything?"

Again, Mattis' earring chimed an affirmative.

"So what?" He asked after a long exhale of annoyance. "Not helping him would have caused some great calamity? Would the city have been destroyed by some great disaster if he remained."

"Oh yes." She said confidently. "There would have been great destruction and violence." She looked sad for a moment. "And an already broken soul would have been broken further. And nobody should have to suffer that."

Still the room's enchantments were telling the witnesses that she was speaking the truth.

He would have cried nonsense. Accused her of madness. But Ravyn Dellstone was one of the most accomplished seers in the nation. Maybe even the world. Indeed her powers, and attachment to whatever gave her her sight had even allowed the city ample enough warning to survive the Day of Dying Sky with minimal impact when other cities had been destroyed entirely. Even the Capital of Estland had suffered greatly to the sky's wrath that day. But Ostielle had been all but unscathed.

He even remembered the day she'd come bursting into his keep, scrambling past the guards and legionnaires, her hair and clothes in tatters as whatever she'd seen had woken her from a dead sleep and consequently sent her running through the city streets. She'd been screaming her vision like some kind of stricken animal.

And yet his city's survival was thanks to the forewarning of the woman sitting across from him with a small smirk on her face.

Mattis's hands were tied when it came to Ravyn Dellstone.

He closed his eyes and ground his teeth for a moment.

"The King requests your services in the capital Mrs. Dellstone." He said, and it was true. He'd been requesting her services for years. But it had only ever been requests. Requests that Mattis was now making into orders. "You are to report to him at the first chance and aide the kingdom for as long as possible."

"Of course." She said with no change in her demeanor. "And I imagine that duty will keep me from Ostielle for many years."

"Likely the rest of your life." He said with a fake smile.

"Then it is my pleasure to serve the Kingdom." She said, matching his smile.

Mattis looked at her for a moment. He hated dealing with seers and fortune tellers and what not. Especially when their skills were real.

They always made it impossible to actually upset them in any meaningful way.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Oh fuck off!" Nesvee said as she was pushed roughly through the door to the Mercenary's Management building of the city, which was significantly smaller and less appointed to other branch offices she'd been to in other cities. "I can walk my own damned self."

The Clerk, an older Aquian, who was missing the gills on one side of his neck in favor of a massive patch of scar tissue, looked up at them as he set down his paperwork.

"Ah this must be the one you warned us about yesterday." He said as he stood up with a folder in his hand.

"Nesvee Wanderson of the lowlands." The legionnaire on her left said.

"Of the Red Wanderers." She added with an annoyed huff.

"Yes." The Aquian said as he looked at her file a bit more, not that there was much to it. "And we have their status request from a month back. As well as he check in a few days later.... statement of reason for contract change as well as new terms hence."

"See?" Nesvee said as she held up her manacled hands. "Told you I was just doing business."

"And here is the City Lords's formal complaint with the Red Wanderers." The Legionnaire to her right, who was a sergeant, said as he held up a scroll with Lord Mattis's seal on it. "As well as a request of formal inquisition into their actions in this city and how it has been contrary to the official needs of the kingdom."

Nesvee winced. No mercenary wanted to bring an order of inquisition into their company's affairs. Her status as a freelancer would be reined in and she would likely have to serve several years amongst the rank and file mercenaries until she could work off the trouble that would cause the higher ups.

In short her great grandfather was going be furious with her.

"I was doing as my contract required." She demanded.

"And your employer is being accused of treason." The Sergeant said with an angry snarl.

The Aquian sighed. "Inquisition request acknowledged." He said as he held his hand out for the scroll. The Sergeant handed it to him. Then he used it to gesture at the door off to his left. "Holding quarters are through there. I'll send for her company's representative as soon as I get a letter written."

"Oh come on!" Nesvee complained. "You can just send me out of the city. I'll report to the company." But the Cobalt Legion soldiers didn't pay her any heed as they pushed her through the doors and toward the locked bunk rooms beyond.

There was no way out of this for her. Not in this city. It wasn't like she COULDN'T report in if an official inquisition was going to be underway, especially if it was her fault. Not reporting would make her an outlaw and her status as a mercenary would be abolished.

Still, she was shoved into a room with four bunks and little else besides. Then the door was locked behind her.

"Gods dammit." She said as she stomped over and sat on the bed.

She looked over out the barred window at the bustling city outside.

"Better make it home you damned idiot." She said before flopping over backwards.

She was going to be in this room for a long time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Cobalt Legionnaires stationed outside of Ekron's lab/home were more than a bit confused at the noise coming from inside.

The elder mage was on house arrest pending an investigation into his activities and loyalty to the crown.

His lab had been thoroughly ransacked in the search for Joseph Choi, and most of its defensive enchantments had been forcibly deactivated.

Even now he had restraints on his hands and wrists, and an energy diffusion band on his head. He had to report to the guards outside every hour on the hour, even at night.

In the next few weeks it may well be determined that he would be executed, if the investigations and questioning turned south.

And yet... he was laughing maniacally.

This went on for several minutes before the Sergeant on the guard detail got confirmed orders to find out why.

She and two others entered the still disheveled abode with short swords drawn. She tapped a message on her helmet to have a set of healing mages on standby in case the mage had opted to kill himself instead of face his punishment.

They followed the laughter to a stairway leading down and into the basement and storage rooms. None of their armor lit up with anything other than the occasional warning of mild enchantments, such as for the water pipes or heating runes scattered throughout most buildings in the city.

What they found gave them pause.

Sitting amid a pile of wooden splinters and next to one of the crates in the storage room, all of which had been opened by the search party just in case, was the high mage. And in his hand were a few pages of parchment on which was written a note.

Ekron was on his side, still laughing as he used his sleeve to wipe tears from his eyes.

"What is the meaning of this?" The Sergeant asked as the three of them approached with their swords still out.

"IT-" Ekron tried to say before having to suck in a deep breath. But then he started laughing again, curling in as he did. "IT'S SO-"

"Settle yourself traitor!" The legionnaire to the left said as he took a half step forward before the Sergeant. held out her hand to stop them.

Ekron held the letter up. 

"It's so-" He said again as the Sergeant snatched the papers out of his hand. "It's suc...
***
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