The Green Thief: The Land in the Void, page 7
“Well?” the man called as he climbed off his horse.
The conversation was broken up by the tower’s door. A loud creaking noise announced it opening for all to hear. It was set at the top of a stone staircase, and as tall as one that would fortify a castle’s main hall, but Edo remembered it being able to be opened by a light nudge. From the inside, anyway. Up the narrow stone staircase that led to the door, a sudden procession started. Appearing in the doorway, filing through it and then down the stairs, were the mages of the Shrouded Combine.
Edo watched as they came down one at a time. At the front was the Elemental Patron, followed by the Perennial, the Draught, the Wright, the Essence, and the Celestial. They all moved the same way, descending the stairs by first tapping the staff they each carried on the next step. There was a discordant rhythm to their walk, with each staff touching the next step on its own time, leading to a cacophony of taps. When all of them had descended the stairs, they formed a side by side line, and waited.
There was a hushed silence as the crowd took in the sight. Edo did as well, looking them over. Each of them stood in the same pose, upright with one hand on the staff that they each had to forge themselves. They were crystalline, made of three components: a headpiece and shaft of crystal, and a fitting to join them together. Their color and shape was dependent on how they were created. It fostered a sense of self-reliance, and also functioned as a final test for those about to join.
Edo remembered his own, the way the colorless crystal had begun to shift to green as he performed the enchantment ritual. How when he fitted them together, the smooth rod of the staff cracked and splintered, but then grew larger in places, something that the others said they had never seen before. There was a presence that Edo felt watching him at all times when he wielded it. He was glad to be rid of it.
At the far left of the line was Sevrun, The Elemental Patron. He was, as always, dressed in tattered white robes that seemed to compliment his wrinkled, ancient face. His staff was one long piece of red crystal with a red crown at the top, connected by a specially made silver band. The Perennial, Ainof, was dressed in ragged brown, covered in moss and damp like she was a log rolled through the morning grass. She looked beyond her years, much like Sevrun. Her staff was orange like a sunrise, but instead of a smooth crystal at the top there was a mangled, misshapen one holding an animal fang the size of a man’s hand, fitted into a band made of tangled roots. The Draught, Arkad, was dressed in an elaborate doublet of black and maroon with a gold medallion hanging down to her chest. Her staff was different, with a yellow crystal at the top but a base and band of pure gold that had covered the crystal shaft. She looked just as Edo remembered her, pale and sickly even in perfect health.
Edo guessed the next was the Wright, dressed in purple and silver, wielding a staff of purple crystal set into a silver band. Edo was surprised at this sighting, as this was not who he recognized. Pharroth, the former Wright, was an aging man, but this one was much younger, and much stronger looking. Next to him was the Essence, Stasim, who Edo did recognize. He wore dark blue, and wielded a staff of similarly colored crystal in both shaft and crown set into a band of stone. His eyes turned to Edo as he looked, and he gave one polite nod.
Next to him, last in line, was the one that had to be the Celestial, Edo’s replacement after he left the Combine. This one was an elf, dressed in an ornate green ensemble that, to Edo’s sudden shock, matched the staff he was holding. He recognized it at first glance. It was Edo’s own staff, the one that he had forged himself and left behind. He would know it anywhere, with the green crystal that matched the light that flew from his fingers, and the splintered pieces that had risen from the green shaft when he first created it. Why had they given it to him? As far as Edo knew, that was against their code.
“Why is he here?” Sevrun the Elemental sneered. A bony finger protruded from the hand holding the staff and pointed directly at Edo.
“I assure you,” spoke the man in the armor, “I do not know who this person is, or his intentions here.”
“VENWYL!” Sevrun’s voice bellowed much louder than what one would expect from someone his age. Edo saw several of the crowd to his right flinch in surprise.
“Yes, Patron Sevrun,” Edo gave a slight bow. Venwyl was the name he was given when he joined the Combine, as none of the mages kept their own.
“Betrayer!” Sevrun roared again. “You are cast out from the Combine! Never again will your proper name be uttered on these grounds or in this tower!”
“I...understand?” Edo shrugged. Sevrun was a slave to formality. Was this just something he had been upset he hadn’t been able to do when Edo first disappeared?
“Begone from these lands!” Sevrun flailed his ragged hand towards Edo, who felt a strong wind rush over him. It whipped his cloak back once, and then stopped.
“I accept my dismissal from the Combine,” Edo said, pulling his cloak back shut. “However, these lands are still under the territory of the province of Pinemire, and since no one here is a representative of a governing body of Pinemire, or the crown itself, my dismissal from the land will not be carried out.”
“My lords, would you like for me to personally cast him out?” The rebel at the front glared at Edo, his face looking serious.
“Can we move this along?” Arkad the Draught rolled her eyes. “There is much to be done.”
Sevrun glared at Edo another moment. Ainof the Perennial’s eyes were focused down at the grass, and Stasim the Essence looked to be holding back a smirk. The man in the armor just stood, but eyed Edo suspiciously.
“Very well,” Sevrun spoke again, and then held out his arms.
“Kaland of Eastmeadow,” Sevrun’s voice raised again, carrying over the field. “You are here because you have enacted the sacred Rite of Exchange with the Shrouded Combine. Present your offering, ask your boon, and we shall answer.”
Edo raised an eyebrow quizzically as he looked at who he now knew was Kaland. “Eastmeadow” was a name that was no longer used. Not for at least a decade by Edo’s memory. The King had renamed it to “Eastwells” in honor of the richness of the ground, or so was the reasoning Edo had always heard. Beyond that, Edo had never heard of this Rite of Exchange either. The entire time he was in the Combine, he spoke to no one outside the circle of mages. Those that approached the tower were usually limited to either curious onlookers, or superstitious peasants who would leave gifts and then flee. Edo would’ve gladly welcomed the idea of an exchange when he was in the Combine, if for no reason other than to bring some excitement to the day.
This Kaland seemed to know something Edo did not to make the Combine appear before so many people like this. Edo watched him as he bowed to the mages, and then turned toward the crowd behind him. He gestured to the crowd, and two men emerged carrying a wooden chest between them. It was sizable, something that someone who actually owned a wardrobe’s worth of clothes would pack them into when travelling. Kaland walked behind the men as they came forward and set the chest in the grass before the mages. Kaland then came up behind it, opened it for all the mages to see, and took two steps back.
Edo’s other eyebrow raised as he looked into the chest. The entire thing was filled, almost to the top, with large translucent crystals that shimmered in the sun. They weren’t gems, or any other kind of precious stones that would find their way into jewelry or other finery, these were a very specific type of crystal. The Combine used them to make the staffs that each of them wielded. Edo had been granted one when it was his time to make his own. It started out colorless, like those he saw before him. It was only during the ritual that the crystal itself had turned green.
This of course begged the question, where did these come from? When Edo was in the Combine, they were sealed in a storage room at the top of the tower. They had always just been there. He had never heard of them actually coming from somewhere out in the wild. And yet, there was an entire chest of them at the disposal of someone who looked like he would mistake them as just another shiny thing to try to pawn.
Sevrun slowly stepped forward, walking with his staff. He eyed the chest dismissively, but then raised his free hand with his claw-like fingers extended upward. Kaland plucked one of the crystals from the chest, and delicately placed it into Sevrun’s hand as if he were putting it onto a stand for display. Sevrun gave a quiet investigative hum, and brought it closer to his face. One eye closed to allow him to focus on it closer, and he turned it back and forth until he held his arm out.
The new Wright Patron stepped forward, and carefully took the crystal into his own hands, leaning his staff against his shoulder. The Wright was master of all things material, so his word was required. The crystal spun in his hands as he turned it, catching and glimmering the sun. He seemed to be looking at it less closely than Sevrun, but no doubt he knew what he was looking for, some unseen property that had to be felt in ways other than through sight. With a nod, he gave the crystal back to Sevrun..
“Speak your boon,” Sevrun said in a normal voice to Kaland.
Kaland went down on one knee, and placed a balled-up fist on his heart.
“My lords, I ask for no boon but this,” Kaland’s voice was resolute. “In the coming conflict I will bring to this land, that you will play no part. Let you choose no sides, be they the kingdom I choose to wage war against, or my own. Stay your hand.”
Edo raised his eyebrow again. Perhaps this Kaland was not as smart as Edo was beginning to think he was. The Combine would have done that anyway, and he could have kept his chest of crystals to use as actual currency. They would still fetch a fine price if he sold them to someone who knew that the Combine might want them. Kaland stayed where he was on the ground, while Sevrun looked down at him. The silence hung in the air far too long for Edo’s comfort. Then, Sevrun gripped the crystal in his hand more tightly, and raised his staff off the ground.
“So be it!” was all he said.
Sevrun turned, and began to walk back toward the tower. He carried the crystal in his hand as he walked and started back up the stairs into the tower. The others turned to follow, except for the Wright, who came forward, shut the chest, and lifted it up by himself. Kaland remained where he was even after the Wright turned and began to carry the chest back up the stairs. Edo looked at him, and then back to the left. The only mage not entering the tower was Stasim, the Essence. Edo approached him cautiously, watching for any of the other mages to turn around. Thankfully, they didn’t.
Kaland and his train of followers began to move on. Most of those that had horses hadn’t bothered to dismount in the first place. Those that did saddled up. Some climbed back onto wagons or picked sacks of belongings off the ground that they had left there for a temporary reprieve from carrying them across the countryside. The entire crowd looked like a shiftless horde. Despite the questionable acquisition of the crystals, Edo was not impressed. The first time the King’s attention was truly fixed on them, they would be crushed, and end up carrying everything they had back home with the added burden of their own tails between their legs.
Edo walked the short distance to the stairs at the base of the tower, where Stasim was waiting. As he approached, Stasim drew a circle around his face.
“That’s still you under there, right?” Stasim asked, amused.
Edo raised a hand to his temple and tapped it with one finger.
“Can’t you tell?” he asked.
Stasim shrugged as he smiled a little. Edo reached up and pulled his hood and mask back. Stasim nodded as he stabbed his staff down into the ground. It sat upright as he reached out his arm. The two grasped hands and shook, right before Stasim pulled Edo in and hugged him with one arm.
“Glad you’re still alright,” Stasim said quietly.
“You as well.”
“I’m not the one with a reason to be worried, am I?” Stasim said as they stepped back, and began to pace around the tower.
“Were the others...angry?” Edo asked. It had been more than a year since he departed, but he was still worried about retribution, despite his mind’s insistence that the Combine wouldn’t bother trying to reach him.
“Really, it was only Sevrun,” Stasim shrugged. “He raged for a day or so, but it was nothing major. It’s probably the first time he was ever insulted.”
“Did you see that in his head?” Edo asked.
Stasim laughed, and Edo forced out a chuckle to match.
“Yes, but I’m pretty sure all of us did. No mind powers required.”
Stasim’s role as the Essence Patron had given him a certain uncanny understanding of the way living things thought. He could read thoughts, but by now he had read so many thoughts that he could get the idea of what people were thinking without trying. He had once compared it to having heard so many stories that you could guess the end of any story anyone was telling you. Edo sympathized, having dealt with enough people to know that there were only so many ways people would react. Edo had always guessed that was how they became friends. Edo appreciated someone who could acknowledge his dislike of people, and Stasim knew that Edo’s mind would always be a mystery, which was refreshing for him.
“Should I be worried?” Edo asked. “He hasn’t hinted at revenge against me?”
“At first he did. He talked about trying to find a way to destroy your staff.”
“By killing me? Or without doing so?” Edo asked. The staffs used by the Shrouded Combine were bound to them through a very deep magic, and as such, could only be destroyed if their bearer was killed.
“First yes, then no. He thought you were dangerous to let wander, as you might be a spy for someone else trying to steal secrets,” Stasim chuckled at the idea, knowing Edo better than that.
“Like who?”
“The Academy was his first thought,” Stasim gestured vaguely to the south.
Edo almost wanted to laugh at that for real. The Academy of Planar Sorcery was a mockery to everything the Shrouded Combine stood for. They were one part imitator, and about nine parts charlatan. None of its members, be they students or staff, had any kind of magic whatsoever. The “instructors” at the Academy could light candles by flicking them with their fingers, or make themselves “levitate” about a foot off the ground if someone was standing still and watching from the right angle. That was the extent of their “powers”, and all were accomplished by simple tricks that anyone could learn with sleight of hand training. Whereas the Combine had for example the Perennial, who would turn a sapling into a fully grown tree with a bat of the eyebrows.
But, since the Combine was secretive and closed off to the world, many looked to the Academy for knowledge of all things that cannot be answered by normal experience. Nobles often sent their children there. Some in vain hope that perhaps their children were special enough to unlock great powers, others just to take advantage of the elevated status that graduates from the Academy enjoyed in the Backwater. Being both noble and having gone to the Academy meant that you may be employed as a representative for people like lords of townships, and even some provinces. From what Edo had seen, that role involved mostly standing around looking important, and occasionally giving vague answers to problems that arose.
“The Academy did seek me out,” Edo said, and then turned to look at Stasim, who looked back quizzically.
“You’d think being so powerful with magic, they’d be able to actually find me at some point. Rather than just leaving messages at a few towns for me to crumple up and ignore.”
Stasim laughed again, “Either way, Sevrun forgot all about you when his new glory-hound showed up.”
“I saw that. Who’s the elf?”
Stasim looked over his shoulder, as if someone were watching him from an invisible window in the tower.
“His name’s Ehfayr,” Stasim said quietly. “Or anyway it is now. He showed up at the tower one night, demanding entry. Sevrun talked to him, and the next morning he was our new candidate for replacing you.”
“How?” Edo asked. “I thought the whole process was for one to be sought out, tested from afar. All that.”
“So did I,” Stasim nodded. “But, Sevrun vouched for him, and we took a vote.”
“And you voted for him?”
“I could tell how the others were going to vote already, either because of indifference or ignorance. I thought it best not to stir up trouble within the group.”
“And why does he have my staff?” Edo asked, more forceful this time.
“Another of Sevrun’s decisions. He said it was an anomaly and worthy of study all on its own. But why he gave it to him and not the Wright is another question.”
“I was wondering about that, too,” Edo started. “What happened to Pharroth?”
“He died. In the winter,” Stasim said somberly.
“What? How?” Edo was taken aback. Pharroth was gray-haired, but he never seemed sickly or frail.
“We don’t know. We found him in his chambers one morning, cold as ice. No marks on him. Nothing odd about the room. He didn’t even seem to be in the middle of anything. He just...went in his sleep.”
“I don’t believe it,” Edo shook his head.
“Neither did we. Especially when we performed his funeral rite and couldn’t destroy his staff.”
“What do you mean?” Edo grew even more surprised.
“We tried,” Stasim shrugged. “But it just wouldn’t break. Pharroth was always working on the staff materials, so Sevrun assumed that he had done something to his own. But, he was still dead. I couldn’t even see into his mind. It was gone.”
Stasim gestured with one finger while holding his staff, pointing to a thick patch of overgrown plants of various colors a short distance away.
“We ended up burying him with it.”
“Odd,” Edo shook his head as he glanced at the thicket. He would’ve preferred the staff had been destroyed, as then one fewer object tied to the Void’s energies would exist. But, being buried in the ground outside the Combine’s tower was just as safe as being locked away in Edo’s vault, if not moreso.
