Time to Read:
Thadus watched as the not-thief — the devil named Linden — played with a stray cat in the opening of an alley. They had yet to leave the Northern Market district and instead the not-thief had idly spent time as the sun slowly set, hood covering as much as possible; fiery hair covered, earrings hidden and eyes shadowed.
As he stood there, a horse-drawn carriage approached. He raised his hand to his face as he looked at the indigo sash trailing on the ground. He sniffed and kicked it aside, so it wouldn’t get trampled by the filthy beasts these supposedly elevated mortals, for some inexplicable reason, insisted on using within their cities.
Even spellcasters had beasts of burden to assist the agricultural casters, or for those who inexplicably were fond of riding, but no one would have the mind to make the streets uninhabitable by keeping them within the settlements.
The fiend looked up at him, glanced at their sash, and then turned to the carriage.
“Ah. True. They don’t use palanquins in Rockforge. I forgot. I spent most of my time in Rockforge in the alleyways. They can’t fit carriages, and no one in the Lower City would try to lead horses and oxen through them.” They watched the carriage, still playing with the cat, then turned back, adding, “And the roofs only have bird droppings and moss.”
Thadus would have asked why the mortal would know this, but he had already seen them travel across wall ledges and on top of roofs, so he hardly needed to ask to have his answer.
“After several days, I suppose I got used to the rancid odour,” they said almost helplessly.
They reached into their collar and took something out, sniffed it, and held it toward Thadus. “A perfume pouch. It contains dried flowers, cedar tree shavings and a bit of fragrant incense ash. It should make things a little more bearable.”
Thadus gave it a suspicious look, but took it none the less. He rubbed his index finger and thumb against the fabric and smelled them.
It seemed to be truly made from wood and flowers. It wasn’t overwhelming.
The wind sprite snatched the pouch just as the carriage moved past.
Linden blinked in confusion as a gust of wind flung their perfume pouch on top of the carriage roof. Thadus couldn’t blame them.
“…”
“…I did not do that,” Thadus said, indignant when the mortal looked at him.
“So Lord Thadus is telling me the perfume pouch simply leapt away from him on its own?” they asked as they stood up. They brushed off unseen dust from the trousers, then looked at the back of the carriage. “So be it, but I’m not letting go of any more possessions today.”
They took a few measures steps forward, the back before they ran after the carriage jumped up to grab the ed of its roof, flipped up, grabbed their pouch and jumped onto the roof of the nearest house lining the street. They then crouched to be as small as possible up there as the carriage stopped and someone stuck their head out of a curtained window.
“Who was that?! Who dares!”
Thadus took a few steps into the shadow of the alley, remaining relatively unseen. The wind spirit tossed gusts as the carriage.
“Your Lordship, there is no one here,” came a second voice from the carriage. The coach looked around, and even if it’s possible Thadus was seen, the coach continued on their way after a moment.
The not-thief crouched along the roof until they were back at the alley and quietly got off the small house.
“Here you go,” they said as they held the pouch toward the spellcaster once more. “Please, do not let it jump out of your hand once more.”
Thadus quietly put the pouch into his coat, chastising the wind spirit for its mischief.
He had told it to wait! Why was this foolish thing not going elsewhere? He wasn’t familiar with this spirit!
“We ought to withdraw from this alley,” Linden said as they bended down to pet the cat. “The guards will probably appear soon. That was the Madam Minister’s carriage, so any disturbance, however small, will be looked into. It also appeared a foreign nobleman was with her, so it might have been a family member from an allied state.”
They moved into the deeper darkness of the alley. Thadus followed.
“Why do you need to walk through the allies?” he asked.
“I am avoiding the guards, Lord Thadus. It is in my best interest not to make a scene.”
Before Thadus could say anything, they added, “And they are cleaner and less crowded.”
To that, Thadus could likely not claim untrue.
They walked for a while, Thadus feeling rather lost after many turns. Eventually the little devil stopped at a crossing of narrow, cobblestoned alleys which seemed especially dark.
They pulled out the enchanted pipe out of their boot and spun it, turning it into a wooden staff; this one different from when they tried to keep the crowd away in the Artisan Lane. It looked gnarly in form, but without adequate light, it was indeed difficult to see more of it.
“Lord Thadus may excuse my conduct,” they said as they measured up a circle of empty space with the gnarly staff.
They hummed before they began to drag the end of their staff on the cobblestone, turning in a full circle in place. Without lifting their staff from the ground, they pulled it closer and make a smaller circle around them. After this, keeping the staff touching the ground, they stepped out of the circle.
Thadus looked at it curiously. It reminded him much of some of the more advanced spells he had seen in Eden. Ritually, not lifting one’s pen was common in many older spells that performed more advanced actions.
Circles, especially, were used in large-scale performances or summoning. Magic tools, such as his own sceptre, could replace these older practices to some degrees solely because they were better at detail work and controlling spirits.
So, seeing this practice now, of someone not lifting their staff, yet dragging it as if drawing something with a sole line.
Linden began to move the end against the ground, between the two imaginary lines, seeming to almost write. The movements looked unfamiliar. The end still remained to the cobblestones stubbornly. As Thadus watched this with great curiosity, it began to vaguely glow in a cyan shade. The more the devil continued their “writing”, the stronger the glow.
Thadus paused, studying this phenomenon.
The calligraphed glyphs began to be clearer and Thadus considered deeply what this could be.
Some enchanted items would need an incantation or similar to unlock its full potential, and this Thadus had also seen, although only in part, as it was not commonly taught or practices. Incantations were much faster and often considered accurate.
After doing their writing, they began drawing shapes within the inner circle, and the staff began to glow in the same cyan light as the array.. The not-thief finally stopped moving the staff as their unbroken line finally had reached its end. They raised the end.
“It is I, your humble one. Each day, I serve you and nurture your spirit. Now I implore you to heed my request in turn — Dart, change appearance, turn to dust.”
They let go of the staff which stood upright in the centre by itself, and it turned, in fact, into… a dart.
It wasn’t a big dart, where it was, hovering above the array, perhaps the length of Thadus’ palm, and thin. It was made from wood and metal, with some thread around its body and feather fletching.
The thread around its body began to slowly unravel, hanging down from its body. The moment the thread touched the ground, a magenta flame engulfed the dart. As the flame died out, Linden reach out and caught the falling part. Its body was cracked and the moment it fell onto the mortal’s hand, the body fall apart, into two bigger and a few smaller pieces that could have been irrelevant in any other setting.
Linden closed the fist before opening it again, the dart in even more splinters and pieces. Each of them slowly, one by one, began turning into a magenta light that rose from the mortal’s hand, like glowing dust above their hand.
The circle turned first purple before it turned magenta as well, and the dart had fully disappeared.
No matter what… To Thadus, this looked akin to summoning with a sacrifice. He had only read about such a thing before. Spellcasters in Eden did not learn this craft, ever. It simply was not a craft that Paradise Tower had use for.
The not-thief studied the dust before they retrieved their hand.
“Dust, it is I, the horde master. I shall command, and you will follow. Be my eyes, be my ears, and seek my token that is lost.”
Thadus found this mortal quite silly. Who did not know that summons were prone to causing harm if one was not careful? Carelessness was the name of the person who tried to command a summoned spirit.
The glowing dust bounced.
…in excitement?
“Go now, dust; return when you find something.” Linden paused. “But not something that has nothing to do with my token. We need not complicate matters. And only in this district. If you go elsewhere, I might accidentally leave you behind.”
The dust began to travel in every direction along the alleys.
The not-thief turned to Thadus. Both of them were silent. Thadus had many questions he wanted answered, but he didn’t know which one to start with. He considered whether to ask the mortal where they learnt to summon, or why they gave their pipe as an offering.
They moved to sit on top of a barrel that they flipped over. They pulled up one knee to their chest, resting a boot on the barrel while the other leg was relaxed. They looked at Thadus, tilting their head, just studying him for a while in the glow of the array before them.
A wind blew through the alley, pulling at Linden’s sash and hood. They reach up to keep the hood covering their head.
“When you do not scowl, Lord Thadus, you are not quite so unpleasant to look at.”
— Search!
— Search!
— Street!
— Stone! Walls!
— Search!
— We search for Horde Master!
— Horde Master!
— Master!
— Search!
— Sleeping! Child!
— Silver coin!
— Wrong silver!
— Help Horde Master!
— We help!
— Gate! Not this way.
— Other way!
— Moving other directions.
— Music!
— Speech!
— Dark windows!
— Human!
— Tavern.
— Human.
— Human!
— Music.
— Share Rumours for Horde Master!
— Horde Master listens?
— Listens!
— Listen to humans.
— Found a coin!
— Leave behind!
— Tell Horde Master what is said.
— Street!
— Alley.
— Food!!
— Another tavern!
— Music!
— Bard!
— Listen!
— Listen, listen!
— Dirty shoes.
— Hole in pocket!
— Look in more pockets!
— Pockets!
— Walls!
— Boots.
— Drinks!
— So many boots.
— Search pockets.
— Search!
— Listen.
— Horse droppings!
— Copper coins!!
— Leave behind.
The Anny Blog 