It must be a mistake, perhaps my nerves getting to me? He must have a heartbeat of some kind; he is human right? But I could not hear his heart or breath at all.
“Let me just grab a quill, you have the paperwork with you?” the Guildmaster said as he reached for his writing implements.
Whatever he was I needed him to leave for a minute. If he was strong enough to conceal his presence like that, there was a decent chance that he would sense it if I tried to make a portal from within here.
Gnorfdul paused a moment and patted his side, “Rocks and boulders! I must’ve left them in the infirmary,” he exclaimed, “So sorry for the inconvenience Guildmaster Vincent, sir,”
I prayed to the Prime Divine that he would offer to go to the infirmary with him.
“Do not worry about it Gnorfdul,” The Inferno replied, “I’ll go with you, I’d like to discuss some things with Glenda myself,”
I nearly cried tears of relief as the imposing figure rose from his seat and began walking towards the door.
“Much appreciated Guildmaster, sir,”
“Think nothing of it, it is a good night for a stroll around the guild,” he said in a slightly different tone, “And I am not above doing some simple legwork to sign some papers,”
My stomach churned at his words as he exited the room with a slow glance back before shutting the door behind him.
Did he really know I was there? How did he know I was there? No, he couldn’t have… and yet…
I needed to get out of there.
My hands shook as I carefully conjured a portal just wide enough to fit myself through with the journal and papers. I emerged from a portal on the opposite end of the guild, leaving my findings in my pocket dimension.
“Reggie must’ve heard them enter,” I thought to myself, “He would’ve alerted Krimsun and Katherine,”
I made my way to the docks, where we had agreed to meet if things went awry. The clear night sky made for a pleasant view of the calm sea. Quite the contrast to my own disposition as I frantically tried to look for my co-conspiring teammates, dropping the occasional escape portal as I ran.
Finally, I heard the familiar sound of metal tapping against itself.
I cautiously peeked around a corner to see the team waiting behind a large stack of goods waiting to be shipped. Katherine was biting her lip and had her arms folded. Her finger was rapping against her iron-plated gauntlets and it looked like she was doing everything in her power to stay sitting. The moment I made myself visible she breathed a heavy sigh.
“You’re lucky you came back in one piece, if you didn’t, I would’ve killed you,” she said.
“I’m afraid that would’ve been quite redundant,” Krimsun noted, “Regardless, did you find anything?”
“I think so,” I said as I recovered the book and other papers from my pocket dimension, “These were behind the portrait above the window,”
She gave a nod of approval as she began to skim through the loose papers.
“So, he didn’t see you?” Reggie asked.
“I don’t think he did,”
“You don’t think?”
“Well, it felt like he looked directly at where I was hiding as he made some odd comment,”
“Do you think he could see sense you?”
“I don’t know,”
“Fantastic, anything else we should know before we are hanged for our crimes?”
“I’m not certain, but… I don’t think the Guildmaster has… a heart?”
“Excuse me?” he replied with a look that mixed confusion and possible condescension, “You mean metaphorically, right?”
“Well, no… or maybe that way too, but seriously, I could hear other stuff but not his heartbeat!”
“That can’t be good,” Katherine said.
“Perhaps it is the result of some battlefield injury? And he pumps blood with magic somehow?” Reggie suggested, clearly unconvinced of his own argument.
“Maybe?” I replied.
“Mak,” Krimsun interrupted, either unphased or unaware of what we had been discussing, “These documents date back centuries,”
“What?”
She handed over a page.
“It seems to be some sort of battle plan from the war between the ancients that used to inhabit this land and the petty kingdom that eventually became Regimendax,” she explained.
“Incredible, I thought that all original records of that had been lost in a fire five centuries ago!” I said as I scanned the page.
Reggie stroked his chin, “Why would he be hiding historical texts?”
“And these would have to have been hidden by generations of Guildmasters!” Katherine added.
Krimsun passed us the rest of the papers as she turned her attention to the journal, “Finish reading these, perhaps there is more to be learned from the journal of… General Acheron?”
The three of us split the papers and began to read.
Pages of battle plans in an old tongue that would’ve been nearly indecipherable had Aldan not insisted we study old texts as part of our education.
“Language is the heart of legends” he’d say, “If a language is lost, so too are its stories as there are some things that simply cannot be adequately translated,”
The plans seemed to outline siege tactics: surrounding the walled cities, barraging them, blocking supply chains.
“It is far more brutal reading the actual documents compared to the poems about it,” I said.
Launching diseased bodies over the walls, poisoning the water supplies, and using forbidden magics. The war between the people of “Mendax”, as it was called then, and the “Perditans”, what we called the ancients, was devastating.
I noted designs for several weapons, seemingly designed to chain down giant beasts.
“I think I know what those were for,” I said.
Reggie sighed, “Not that’d they would have done them much good. I’m struggling to imagine how the Mendax won with those indestructible horrors on the ancients’ side,”
“Many secrets have been lost to time,” I said, “Some of the tactics described here reference magic I don’t recognize,”
“I don’t think those things were on anyone’s “side” at all,” Katherine said, “Judging by what we’ve seen, they attack everything in sight,”
“Still,” Reggie continued, “I find it odd that they’d be able to suppress a rebellion of people that could summon a monster from their negative emotions,”
“It seems that the Mendaxi had the same concerns,” Krimsun said as she looked up from the journal.
“Really?” he asked, “Does that show a way to defeat the monsters?”
“No,” Krimsun shook her head, “It appears that they went for a more… direct route,”
“What do you mean?” Katherine asked in a wary tone.
Krimsun’s eyes returned to the journal as she began to read aloud, “We had thoroughly vanquished the loathsome Perditan army and driven them from their cities. Immediately, we began to establish a new capital for our glorious kingdom! However, I, having witnessed firsthand the destruction these vermin could unleash, knew that the security of our people was not assured. Something had to be done to make certain that the hard-earned peace and prosperity of the newly christened Regemendax would last forever. And thus, I met with the King in secret, and I convinced him and received his blessing to conduct my mission. A mission, of extermination.”
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