Mother of Learning. Arc 3 Incomplete

Haslush raised an eyebrow at the request but nodded in agreement soon afterwards. He quickly set up some sort of spells over their table and then waited expectantly. He would have to get the man to teach him some of those protective spells in one of the restarts.

«I have heard there is a plot to smuggle war trolls into the city during the summer festival, after bombarding the city with artillery magic during the fireworks launches,» Zorian said.

Haslush immediately sat up straighter, so at least it seemed he wasn’t going to get dismissed out of hand. Now he just had to make sure he doesn’t get carted off to the police station.

«And I don’t suppose you’ll tell me where you heard that?» asked Haslush suspiciously.

«Can’t,» Zorian confirmed. «It seemed reliable to me, though.»

«I see,» Haslush sighed. He poured some more alcohol into his glass and took a sip. «I hate the summer festival, you know? Virtually all buildings have their warding schemes loosened while it lasts, the huge amount of visitors makes it hard to spot troublemakers in time, and the mayor and other bigheads want all sorts of stupid things done in preparation for it. It’s a perfect time for criminals and terrorists of all stripes to go wild in the city.»

Huh. Zorian didn’t actually know that until now.

«So how are these people going to smuggle in goddamn war trolls of all things, and what are they trying to accomplish?»

«Through the Dungeon,» said Zorian. «As for the purpose, I honestly don’t know.»

«Anything else you can tell me?» Haslush asked.

«Not really, no.»

«Then I have just one more question,» Haslush said. «Why are you telling this to me, of all people?»

«There are some very high placed people involved in this, and I’m not sure who I can trust,» Zorian said. «You seem like a fairly influential person who is unlikely to be involved. Also, I’m hoping you won’t drag me off to a cell for questioning.»

He didn’t actually know whether high placed people were involved or not, of course, but he felt it was a good bet they were. He failed to see how an invasion of this kind of magnitude could be organized without the cooperation of some very influential person inside city administration.

«I’m tempted,» Haslush admitted. «But all you’d really have to do is claim it was all a prank and I’d pretty much have to let you go. The mage guild was founded because mages didn’t trust civilian law enforcement to judge them fairly, and they guard their privileges jealously. They would get you out within days and perform their own investigation. You’d get a slap on the wrist for being stupid and I’d spend the next year being punished by my bosses for falling for a childish trick and getting the mage guild angry at us.»

«Um,» Zorian fumbled. Haslush sounded more than a little bit bitter. He didn’t know Cyoria’s police force harbored such resentment towards the mage guild.

«It’s fine,» Haslush said. «I’m not angry at you. I guess I’ll do some investigating and we’ll talk more about it after our next session. You try finding out more from these mysterious sources of yours.»

Zorian left the tavern in a good mood, though it was somewhat dampened by fear of assassins. Hopefully Haslush would be discreet in his investigation.

When he got to Imaya’s place he was told by Imaya that she got his message, but she was still fairly unhappy with him — apparently the paper plane rammed straight into the back of her head when delivering his message, and that was dangerous. What if it had rammed into her face and poked out her eye?

Some people were never happy.

The house was calm, the only two occupants currently present being Zorian and Kirielle… and thankfully, Kirielle was amusing herself with doodling into her notebook instead of pestering him. That was good, because trying to levitate a snail, like Zorian was currently doing, was not at all easy. Not only was the snail alive, and thus inherently resistant to magic, but it was also actively fighting the levitation effect, twisting and bending in the air in an attempt to break free of the unseen force holding it aloft.

He was cheating a little — he was actually levitating the shell, which was largely immobile and much more solid than the actual snail. The real test of skill would be levitating a slug or something, but… well, he was having enough trouble with the damn snail at the moment.

«Poor snail,» Kirielle remarked from the sidelines. «Why don’t you let this one go and find another one to torture? It’s going to end up traumatized if you keep this up.»

«I’m not torturing it,» Zorian protested, trying to split his attention between holding the snail in the air and talking with Kirielle. «It’s completely unharmed. I’m not even sure if snail brains are complex enough to be traumatized. The damn thing is as enthusiastic about escaping as it was when I started this.»

Kirielle looked as if she was about to argue but then just grunted and melted back into her chair.

«Where is he?» she said after a minute of silence.