Chapter 4 - The Job

  It took a little while for Cal to get ready but when he came out of his room and down the spiral staircase to where Meliana was waiting, he looked like a completely different person.

  Cal had shaved to reveal a strong jaw. He’d left his side burns at earlobe length but completely cleaned off the rest of his face. His hair was still damp so it was straighter than normal and seemed to be long enough to reach his chin, but it was brushed to the right in a sweeping side parting.

  He had put on all of the clothes that Meliana had left out for him - after paranoidly checking that they weren’t magical in any way - and they’d fit him surprisingly well. The bottoms were comfortable, black cotton trousers, made more for manoeuvrability than for fashion or protection. Tucked into the trousers was a black silk shirt, it’s upper buttons left undone to give Cal a little air. It also left his amulet visible on his lightly hairy chest.

  It wasn’t a particularly nice or valuable accessory but he’d always had it with him. It was in the shape of the sun, similar to the god of the Dawn’s iconography, but with a sword and shield on top of it. As far as he was aware, it was the only memento he had of his parents.

  Meliana had left his boots out for him and he smiled, she would have been hard pressed to replace them with something better. They were dark brown, calf high leather boots. Incredibly comfy, but also, magical. Around the edge of the sole and up the back were a series of sparkling runes that had been engraved when they were magically enchanted to allow him to jump incredibly high or far with just a twist of the balls of his feet.

  After a quick look around, Cal fished a pair of leather bracers out of the trash, gave them a quick clean and added them to the ensemble. They weren’t anything special and if he was honest they didn’t go with the blue coat, but they were well maintained with very little damage and… well they meant a lot to him.

  Finally he Cal took a breath and reached his left arm out to one side. He poured his will into his thoughts and waited as the power extended down his arm and into his palm where it coalesced in a scar that ran across his skin. As the power reached it’s activation threshold he felt it warm momentarily before a flash burst forth. His sword in it’s scabbard appeared in it, transporting from wherever he’d left it.

  He attached the weapon to the belt that Meliana had left him - which was nicer than his belt - to finish off the outfit. On the scabbard was his void bag, which he unhitched and clipped to the new belt, it’s little Vanderheim guard insignia scraped away to hide it’s origins.

  Over the years Cal had experimented with what would come with his sword when he summoned it. A backpack wouldn’t come, but his belt and a coin purse would. It had been quite the boon when he’d realised that the void bag was as small as a coin purse and that it would hold all his worldly possessions. It meant he could more or less teleport anything he wanted anywhere he was.

  As he came down the stairs he carried the coat that she’d left with him - it was too hot inside where they were staying to wear it - but it was nice. Nicer than anything he’d worn in a while. Blue on the outside with a high collar and buckles that would allow him to add light pauldrons to the shoulders should he wish. Inside it was lined with black silk and had several pockets. It would reach down to his knees if he put it on.

  “How do you like the clothes?” Meliana asked as he appeared. “They look very good on you.”

  “They’re more than I deserve.” He admitted.

  “Well they’re yours, whether you accept or not. I’ll just add it to your tab.” Meliana joked. She was sat at a small table with some mugs of water and a salted meat and cheese plate. She motioned for him to join her.

  “Where are we anyway?” Cal asked, sitting down and taking a piece of salted beef. He hadn’t eaten well in months, he would savour it while he could.

  “This is the Azure Gem auditorium and hotel.” She explained, eyeing him inscrutably.

  Cal frowned. “I know that name.” He said, turning his head to the side to think. His brows raised and he looked over at her, a glint of mischief shined in her expression. “We’re in Westridge?!” He demanded. “We were in Vanderheim City yesterday! That’s almost twenty-five-hundred kilometers! There’s no way I was asleep for that long!”

  “No, of course not, I used a teleportation token to get us here.” She said, nonchalantly.

  Cal’s brows raised again. “How on earth did you get a teleportation token?”

  “My benefactor.” She said simply, shrugging.

  “By the Dawn, you are such a pain in the ass.” He exclaimed, throwing his hands up and letting them fall again.

  “Yeah, and very manipulative.”

  Westridge, like Vanderheim City, was an Alliance state capital, but of the state of Westcoast and by almost every measure it was inferior. The wealth inequality was disgusting. It was a city built on slavery in all but name. It was a place that traded in literally anything.

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  And it was where Cal was born and grew up.

  The city was a coastal city, built around a large bay framed by cliffs known as the bay of merchants, where many a merchant vessel waited out storms that would otherwise destroy them. The city was built in the bay area and upon the two cliffs that overlooked it. It was made up of three distinct sections. The lower city, which encompassed the bay area, the southern cliff and the outer ring of the northern cliff, where the poor people - indentured servants, criminals, people simply down on their luck - lived. The majority of all of the city’s ports and docks were in the lower city so many a sailor could also be found there.

  The northern cliff curved around the east of the bay until it met the opening in the south east. On the westernmost part of the north cliff, overlooking the ocean was the noble circle, a walled off area where only the most wealthy in the world and their servants were allowed to visit. Five families, merchant lords each, lived there, standing tall over the rest of the city.

  Finally, on the curved part of the cliff was the upper city. A middle class district full of beauty and convenience. The people there would be considered rich anywhere else, but their wealth was eclipsed so heavily by the merchant lords that it was hard to see them as such. It was here that the Azure Gem stood. A beautiful monument to the arts, and one of the most expensive hotels in the Silver Starling Alliance.

  Cal had nothing but bad memories of Westridge. He never lived in the Upper city, nor the Noble circle. Never had family to look out for him, nor a friend in the world. He lived in the lower city alone, until he was eight when Varian had found him and taken him in.

  For a very brief moment Cal smiled, remembering stealing Varian’s dagger, then being tracked down and taken away. He’d thought the man was going to kill him, but instead he taught him to use the dagger, and other things.

  Cal sighed.

  He hated this city.

  “Now, you promised to hear me out.” She reminded him.

  He let out a frustrated sigh but nodded, turning in his seat to face the table and her. He had a feeling he’d be banging his head against it before long. “So… dare I ask; what’s the job.”

  She smiled and nodded, crossing one leg over the other and crossing her arms, suddenly becoming serious. “There’s a small mining village to the south-east of here, about two weeks ride, known as Silverdale - yes it’s a silver mine. We have reason to believe that they’ve recently unearthed the entrance to an ancient tomb.”

  Flashes of a wizards tomb five months earlier passed over Cal’s eyes, but he didn’t react. He’d gotten so used to those flashes that he just felt the fear inside without alerting others.

  He nodded.

  “We have strong reason to believe that this tomb belongs to an ancient wizard of necromancy named Dalag Bol,” Meliana continued. “A servant of a dark god known as the Shackled one. People have already gone missing in the area, and there are reports from my benefactor’s agents that the mayor is acting strangely. We believe that there is an artefact of great power inside that cannot fall into the hands of those who might abuse it. The job is to get into that tomb and collect or destroy the artefact. We must make sure that nobody else can get it, by any means necessary.”

  Cal listened through the whole explanation, nodding his understanding. When she finished he sat and thought for a long moment before asking; “What’s the artefact?”

  Meliana frowned and shook her head. “We think that it’s an item that lets you use necromantic powers at an expert level, even if it isn’t your affinity.”

  Cal whistled.

  Only the very best wizards could use multiple different types of magic at more than a very basic level. None in living memory, even elvish living memory.

  Everyone who could use magic - around a tenth of the population - had a speciality that was called an affinity. There were ten very specific affinities, like spacial magic, ice magic or fire magic.

  Cal had fire affinity, which meant that he was very good at setting fire to things, keeping himself warm, all of that. Sure he had a small selection of non-fire spells but none of them were as powerful as his affinity magic and they exhausted him to use.

  There was also a special eleventh category of magic called unaffiliated magic. It included things like sense magic and illusions. Things that wasn’t technically an affinity because anyone could use them if they had any magic, but there were a very small number of mages who had no affinity and so they trained in unaffiliated - flavourless as rude people called it - magic, and acted like it was their affinity.

  If someone could get something that would allow them to use a second type of magic as well as the first… it would certainly be powerful. Not to mention that in this case the second type was necromancy, control over undead armies. It was undoubtedly an evil artefact, just looking to find someone to corrupt. It was truly an artefact that any villain would kill for.

  “It does seem like a worthy goal.” Cal admitted, motioning towards Meliana then resting one ankle on the other knee and crossing his arms. “I just don’t see why you need me to accomplish it. Now don’t get me wrong,” he held out a hand towards her, as if to forstall objections, “I’m a decent adventurer - or, I was. But, I don’t see what special skills I could bring that you couldn’t get from any mercenary.”

  Meliana sighed, but nodded. “You’re right. You have a right to know.” She admitted. “What I told you earlier, that you fit the bill of what I was looking for, that’s true, but not because of your skills. It’s because I trust you.” Cal frowned at that. “The last few jobs I went on went south. I was with people I didn’t know, people who had been chosen for me by my… organisation.” She explained. “Each time it felt strange, like someone knew we were coming, or like sabotage.”

  Cal sat forward, this wasn’t where he’d expected this to be going. “If you don’t trust them to make the choices you could still hire your own people at a company or a guild or something.”

  Meliana nodded. “And I’ve done that. This isn’t a two man mission. I’ve got two people from outside, but I don’t trust them either. I want you to watch my back and bring in the last member.”

  Cal frowned and shook his head. “Liana, it’s been six years… what makes you think you can still trust me? Look at me- well, think how I looked yesterday. You found me in the dirt getting beaten by debtors.”

  She smiled warmly at him and reached across the table, taking his hand in hers. “Cal, you may have fallen on rough times but you’re still you. And you are one of the most eminently good people I’ve ever met. How do I know I can trust you still? Because you’re still Cal.”

  He let out a long breath, closing his eyes. All he had to do was say no.

  “Fine.” He said. “What do you need me to do? What kind of person do you need me to get?”

  Crap.

  “We still need a scout, someone sneaky.” She said, perking up, smiling. She threw a coin purse onto the table. “And I need you to gather everything you’ll need and be ready to go first thing tomorrow.”