A few days later, Gaius was spending a quiet evening in the kitchen. The store was closed, the imp went out for a lava dip and the northerners were still out. Gaius had only Isabella for company.

  Truth be told, when no ulterior motives were involved, he actually enjoyed spending time with the knight. She was a worthy drinking companion and had plenty of stories to share. Having her around sure beat sitting upstairs and obsessing over Gertrude's crazy ideas.

  The thought of being an automaton, an alef's slightly less ugly cousin, was as ridiculous as it was unnerving. Gaius was doing his darndest to keep it at bay.

  He did mention Gertrude's findings in his report to Vasily. Judging by the lack of response, the old man who hasn't technically been human for a very long time, didn't consider them quite as disturbing.

  That left Gaius with way too many questions constantly buzzing inside his head. And to help him forget about those, there were few distractions better than Isabella's tales of valor that went so well together with the sight of her bust barely obscured by the toga.

  By then Gaius actually knew that it wasn't just the one toga. Isabella had a bunch of them, all stacked in a trunk under her bed.

  There was a whole thing where she summoned him into her room. Quite comfortable around the knight by that point, Gaius took that as Isabella deciding to advance their relationship past mere drinking buddies. But then, when she excitedly presented him with a stack of identical pieces of cloth, he had the disappointing realization that Isabella's invitation to come "see her togas" was just that.

  As he was awkwardly pretending to adjust his belt, Isabella's sly grin and poor attempts to contain laughter made Gaius realize she was fully aware of what she was doing to him.

  Getting so subtly yet shamelessly mocked made him more excited about the prospect of at one point getting to test the knight's endurance in an activity that involved swords only when described by the most metaphorical of poets.

  For now, he was content with the occasional drink and a friendly chat.

  "What you're saying is, because you don't know how magic actually works, that makes you not a wizard?"

  That conversation in the kitchen was going for a while now, stretching late into the evening. It made Gaius wish Gertrude, her theories be damned, was there to show Isabella the difference.

  "Yes, something like that," Gaius said in a weary voice.

  "But you can use magic. You can feel it. You know how to weave spells together," Isabella said after slamming her mug into the table. Accepting Gaius as not a wizard wasn't easy for the Caladonian knight.

  "Yes," Gaius agreed. "But it's simple magic, small spells. And pretty much every child in Mystlund can sense it, what with how dense it is back there."

  "And speaking of children, don't you learn about magic in your Mystlund schools?"

  "Since when was school about learning?" Gaius snickered. "It's all about memorizing. Move your hands like that. Draw this symbol. Say the right words. Literally anyone could do it. Doesn't make them a wizard."

  "Then what does?" Isabella asked.

  Gaius closed his eyes and thought back to his homeland. A place so filled with magic that the air itself was electrified. A place where all sorts of wonders Caladonians could only imagine were so common, they were seen as mundane.

  "Real magic," Gaius said. "The stuff of legends. Elementalists moving mountains just to have a pleasant stroll without any detours. Witches that are just as soon to make you the luckiest man alive as they are to turn you into their willing slave. Thaumaturges creating indestructible constructs and wondrous beasts. Warlocks cheating death itself. That's what real wizards do. And no, they don't teach you that in a school, not that I wasted too much of my time in there anyway."

  For a man who spent most of his adult life on the road, suddenly Gaius felt a tinge of nostalgia. It reminded him of Vasily's invisible clock binding him to Siembra. Slavian magic. That was another branch of it, one that even Gaius knew very little about.

  He didn't tell Isabella about that one. Despite their newfound friendship, he still had to constantly remind himself that she was the biggest obstacle on his road to a cozy retirement.

  The knight must have noticed something in Gaius' face. She graced him with a barely perceptible squint of her eyes.

  Gaius was already working out a way to change the subject when a knock on the front door made him jump in his seat.

  Transitioning from a startled leap into an effort to get up with a semblance of dignity, Gaius said, "I'll go see who that is."

  Victor and Alessia didn't need to knock and Gaius wasn't expecting any other arrivals that night.

  For a moment he considered the possibility of Vasily paying him a visit after all, but then he realized that the old man would likely come in through the window as a crow. And if not, he for sure didn't seem like the type to knock.

  Opening the door, Gaius expected to see a farmer with a fake limp and a need for a quick guilt-free potion to get him through the night.

  Instead, Gaius found himself facing Esven. The captain entered the store without waiting for a formal invitation, forcing Gaius to wonder what this was about.

  "Hey, Guy," Esven said as soon as the door behind him was shut. "Thanks again for helping out with that wizard thing. You did good work there."

  The captain's tone and his big fake smile screamed one thing. "You want something," Gaius said with a squint.

  Esven looked around, like he wanted to see if there was someone else Gaius was talking to.

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  "Me? Want something? Nova forbid. There's been a string of break-ins in your neighborhood lately. And I just wanted to make sure my good friend Guy wasn't having any new issues on that front."

  Gaius' natural instincts of a thief kicked in, prompting him to deny everything before he even knew what was going on. "I don't know anything about any break-ins," he blurted out.

  "It's a dangerous time for good honest merchants," Esven said. "Even your neighbor, the butcher, got robbed. Don't you think you should do something about it? You know, help keep the neighborhood safe."

  "And here it comes." Gaius stuck his index finger right to Esven's breastplate. When the captain took a step back, he continued, "Just like I said after that thing with Gertrude. I did what I had to once you put me on the spot. But that's it. I don't work for you. And I have precisely zero interest in chasing after petty thieves."

  "Well, that was a bit hostile, no?" Esven blew some air through his mustache. "I'm not forcing you to do anything, Guy. Just informing you of a real danger to your fine establishment. I thought you'd appreciate that."

  "Captain. Being coy doesn't suit you," Gaius said. "You want to share an ale or two? Sure, you come right in. But I want nothing to do with your investigations. Seeing how most of my clients are adventurers, collaborating with the guards isn't good for business."

  Esven waved those concerns away with a single swift motion of his hand.

  "Adventurers. Who cares what they think. And weren't you the one who told me all about the wonders of delegating?"

  "Exactly. But the idea there was for you to push the dirty jobs on your underlings. Not me."

  A polite cough came from the far end of the store. "And what's this then?" Isabella was propping the counter.

  "Lady Isabella." The captain immediately straightened his posture and turned stiff as a board. "I had no idea you were here."

  "I kind of live here, captain," Isabella said. "What brings you here?"

  "Just having a friendly chat with my pal Gaius."

  "About?"

  Esven took a few seconds to consider his words. Then, he told Isabella about the robberies and his plan to have Gaius go out and flash his money in the nearby taverns to attract the thieves. Who will then be apprehended by Esven in the act.

  That last part was news to Gaius, and just by the skeptical look on his face, anyone could surmise he was in no rush to participate in Esven's plan.

  Isabella, on the other hand, lit up like Siembra's skies on an alef night.

  "I commend you for working on this in your personal time, captain. And I want to formally offer my services," the knight said.

  "Are you sure? I don't want to bother you with such trite issue."

  "Are you kidding me?" Isabella sauntered closer to the center of the conversation. "This is a real investigation with a clear goal and an obvious path to victory. After months of doing nothing but pestering mostly honest travelers, I welcome a chance to actually go out and do something real." Looking at Esven, Isabella graced the captain with a series of energetic nods. "Nova herself must have guided you here, captain."

  "But what if it was Mallia?" Esven asked through a wide grin.

  "Even better."

  The two Caladonians found that exchange terribly amusing, making Gaius once again question the sanity of these southerners.

  Once the snickering stopped, Esven turned to Gaius and said, "Alas, my plan relies on Guy's help, and he doesn't seem receptive to the idea."

  "And why's that?" Isabella asked Gaius. "This seems fun."

  "That's because you have a very weird definition of fun," Gaius said. "The two of you are government officials. It's your job to deal with thieves, mad wizards, and other issues like that. I'm just a merchant with a business to run. It doesn't pay me to make enemies in the local underworld."

  Isabella crossed her arms and pouted her lips.

  "Gaius, by now we've swapped enough stories for me to know you're not really this useless coward you so enjoy pretending to be. Otherwise, I would still be staying at the temple. Quit acting like a baby, and let's go have ourselves some fun catching thieves."

  This was the first time Isabella opened up about her decision to move in. Gaius always suspected her reasons extended past a mere disagreement with the priests. And if he was reading the room correctly, he was that reason. Gaius was beginning to think he really needed to learn more about Caladonian dating customs.

  But that didn't change the fact that Esven's plan felt like an unnecessary risk to him.

  "Listen," he said. "Just because I'm good at staying alive, doesn't mean I should want to throw myself in harm's way."

  "Doesn't it?" Isabella's simple question was oozing playful goading.

  Esven joined her by silently stroking his mustache.

  "Why do I feel like you're ganging up on me?" Gaius asked.

  "Come on, it's going to be fun," Isabella insisted.

  "No, I'm going to bed." Gaius made a few steps towards the staircase. He could insist with the best of them. "You two crazy kids have fun."

  His back was turned to Isabella, when she said, "You know, I could just anoint you."

  The noise Esven made upon hearing that was filled with giddy excitement.

  Gaius stopped in his tracks. "And that would be what exactly?"

  "I could bind you to the service of the Order of the Moon," Isabella explained. "You will essentially be an acolyte serving under me for the duration of this task."

  Even though Isabella clearly emphasized the "under me" part, Gaius' thoughts were in another place entirely.

  "You can't do that," he said. It was a weak argument.

  "Sure, she can," Esven said. "All high-ranking knights are authorized to anoint civilians at their discretion."

  Before Gaius could come up with just the right amount of indignation, Isabella covered the distance between them in three large strides and placed her thumb on his forehead.

  A jolt of energy radiated from his head all the way down to his fingers and toes, letting Gaius know that this anointing thing wasn't a mere custom. There was definitely magic involved.

  "What happens if I refuse?" he asked, rubbing his eyes. It was starting to dawn on him that whether he wanted to or not, he was about to go looking for thieves with the Caladonians.

  "Don't worry about it. You'll be perfectly fine," Isabella said. Then, in a lower and more ominous voice, she added, "As long as you don't disappoint Sister Moon."

  "Great," was all that Gaius had to say to that.

  He was thinking. From whatever little he knew about alchemy, one thing they taught you early on was that you should never mix different recipes. He wondered if that applied to curses as well. Because even though the source of Isabella's power may have been holier, at the end of the day, it worked exactly as Vasily's spell. Do what you're told, or else.

  Not feeling any side-effects just yet, he said, "I'll go grab my things."

  "Look at all the drama. A stranger would think we were sending you to the gallows, Guy." Esven was having the time of his life with this.

  It was unclear if she felt any remorse for what she did, but Isabella said, "You will be compensated for this, you know." Gaius didn't even need to see her face to feel the wink that accompanied those words.

  "You really think I'm that easy?" Gaius kept walking up the stairs.

  "I'm sure you're not," Isabella said. "But it never hurts to sweeten the deal, right?"

  "I swear if we go up to your room and you hand me a coin purse..." He didn't finish that sentence.

  "Maybe I will, maybe I won't. You'll just have to see this through to find out."

  By then, Gaius gave up trying to figure out what was and wasn't a romantic signal with Isabella. For all he knew, that was exactly the point, or maybe, she simply enjoyed keeping things ambiguous.

  So, he turned his ire towards an easier target.

  "What are you looking at?" he asked Esven who was being awfully quiet.

  "The Moon is a fickle mistress," the captain replied with a shrug.

  "And what's that supposed to mean?" Gaius snapped.

  Esven adjusted his shades, straightened his mustache, and said after a quick cough, "It means I'm not getting between whatever this was just now. I have a wife at home. And between her, Nova and Mallia, I have more than enough women in my life. I'm just here to do my job. But don't you worry, I'll be leaving the specifics of your compensation out of my report."

  "I'm fairly sure I didn't mention any specifics, captain." The way Isabella said that, you'd think Esven just insulted her grandma.

  "Good. And let's keep it that way," he said. "Now, Guy. Stop stalling and go grab your stuff. We have thieves to arrest."

  Story Facts - Chapter 20