---

The tavern that the… the… the Beard-Maiden kept was still open. As the three of them approached it from a few houses down, said woman came out, tossing two young men onto the cobblestones. She crossed her muscular arms across her chest.

“Don’t eat here if ya got no coppers. I ain’t keeping a charity, lads — it’s a tavern.”

Thadus looked at Linden. They turned to him and shrugged as if they hadn’t eaten with no money on them, either.

He found this matter hypocritical and incomprehensible. How come one could pay later, but the other got forcibly removed?

Though he admittedly did also not understand why mortals would attempt to dine without bringing a purse with enough money either. This was an unthinkable, incomprehensible practice. Had a spellcaster done so, it would have been scandalous.

“Fair maiden!” Linden greeted as they approached. “Is the business any good this eve?”

The woman turned to them, and the frown softened. “Ya back? Got me my money, do ya?”

Linden took out the pouch of copper that Thadus had given them. “I do! I would also like to buy some bread for what’s left after covering the expense. Do you have any? We want to feed this young one.”

The youth tried to hide behind Thadus. He had not agreed to this, so he just grabbed it by the arm and shoved the filthy thief forward before taking out his second to last clean handkerchief and thoroughly wiped his hand.

“Hm? Ya look familiar. Uncle is a miner, no? How is he doin’ these days?” Beard-Maiden asked.

The youth shook its head.

“So it goes. It can’t be helped. Ya hungry?”

It nodded.

“Get inside and eat whatever. We’re closing soon and there’s some food left for ya.”

Beard-Maiden stepped aside so the youth could scurry inside to eat.

Thadus was rather bewildered by this conversation. It made little sense to him.

Meanwhile, Linden waited politely for this interaction to pass before placing the pouch in her hand. “This is the money, and then some. It’s not much, but enough to cover a meal or two,” they told her. “We found the child in the slums. Can I bother you with taking them in? If it’s needed, I will send a yearly allowance to cover the cost. Would the equivalent of a gold a year do?”

Beard-Maiden returned the memento to Linden as they spoke. Thadus didn’t quite see, but it seemed to be a ring on the gold chain. “That’s too much. I can use the help in the kitchen. It will pay for itself.”

“Then I will only send over a small amount when I reach the next city and we can call it even,” they replied as they put on the chain once more and tucked into their clothes.

“Ya leavin’ already? Ya haven’t even been here a month. Hardly a fortnight.”

“I can never stay long in one place, unfortunately, and I have other obligations as well. But I appreciate the hospitality you have shown a stranger, maiden. You helped me a lot in the first few days when everyone was suspicious.”

“My pleasure. Ya always paid for the meals and did nothing funny, so there was no reason to doubt ya.”

“Well then,” Linden bowed. “May you and you father stay well, maiden.”

Beard-Maiden nodded. “Ya fare well travellin’ now. The weather in these parts is precarious this time of year. Go get some water out in the back before ya leave. It’s the least I can do.”

“I appreciate it, but I got no waterskin on me.”

“Where did they go? Ya had five when you arrived.”

Linden merely laughed helplessly.

She turned around and shouted in her deep voice, “Someone, go fill a waterskin out back for me! Hurry up!”

Thadus heard how several people got up to do so. He folded the handkerchief and wondered where to put it. The vine around his waist stirred, and he stuck it into his coat, the vine pulling it back to curl its tip around the silk.

“There’s no need for any waterskin,” Thadus said impatiently. “Water is everywhere.”

The tavern keeper gave him an odd look.

“This Lord has servants,” Linden explained. “He is unaware of how it is to travel alone.”

“I hear ya.”

How dare they mock him! He was correct. He could obtain water anywhere he wished. It was a simple matter. Mortals needed only do the same. How was this not the most obvious course of action?!

Thadus humphed and turned away to ignore them.

Soon two women had brought over a waterskin each to Beard-Maiden. She handed these to Linden, who bowed and scraped for them, saying, “I cannot show my gratitude to the lovely ladies enough. It is indeed my misfortune that I must leave tonight. May I have the great fortune to meet all the good ladies and fair maidens that I owe my gratitude in the future, when time is not pressing.”

Thadus found this display an absurd farce.

The two women giggled, and one of them said, “You are so dashing. Do come by Rockforge again. I shall await your splendid return.”

What sort of splendid return could this fiend have? None! This was what Thadus concluded after receiving the misfortune to observe this questionable mortal.

“I am honoured,” Linden replied. “May you all be well for many years forward, strangers.”

Before the women could say anything else, Beard-Maiden chased them back inside, gave Linden a nod and Thadus a glance, before returning inside to handle her business, closing the tavern door behind her.

Linden turned to Thadus. “That is all I had to do for tonight, Lord Thadus. Shall we take our leave, or do you plan on staying at any of the inns meant for merchants?”

“I am not staying in this filthy, disgusting city any longer. It’s a humiliation to still be breathing this sort of air.”

Linden chuckled and responded, “I thought as much. Then, would Lord Thadus wish to learn more about Dart? There is not much I can explain, but may I implore of Lord Thadus to enlighten me, were he to have any conjectures of the matters I cannot explain with my limited knowledge?”

Thadus sniffed. “Very well. I shall dismantle your false notions about magic, and were I not to have the knowledge, I shall speak of the possibilities I may think of.”

Linden chuckled and brushed away dust off the cloak, before they unwrapped the shawl they had used as a dark hood and wrapped it around their waist like a sash, fastening the waterskins to this.

Then they pulled out the pipe out of their boot. Only then did the two set out to leave the district to head toward the gate from which Thadus had originally entered.

“What did you call it before, Lord Thadus? If I do not misremember, you claimed Dart to be a vessel for a summon?”

“That is how it appears to me,” Thadus said. “You sacrifice your so-called ‘dart’ to summon… dirt.”

“Dust. Dart’s horde form is called Dust.”

Thadus had inconveniently forgotten this was absurdity. Lunacy.

“Why? It’s nonsensical! Who names a summon ‘Dust’?”

“Dust named themselves,” Linden explained. “It is a fine name.”

Thadus had no way to argue back. If the summon chose the name for itself, there was no one who could truly complain.

But someone ought to have tried to convince it to have something more grandiose than ‘Dust’. Dust! What mockery! Such an offense to all summons out there!

“Now, let me tell Lord Thadus about Dart,” Linden said, interrupting his thoughts. “As you have noted, Dart is an enchanted dart. It can change to anything that has a similar shape.” Linden spun it into a staff. “I think it, and do the appropriate motion, and it will change shape. I can only do this with anything I am already rather familiar with. So Dart can turn into a rapier, a sword, a javelin, staves, a few kinds of polearms, and the like. All weaponry I have learnt to use since a young age. It cannot become items such as containers or pens.”

“That is reasonable,” Thadus said. “Enchanted weaponry does, according to the tomes, only work if one is knowledgeable of its workings or usage. This is true for my sceptre as well, although there’s no enchantment. If I did not know how to use it both as a long and a short item for my magic, it would remain its usual length regardless, but my tutors taught me thoroughly in all lengths, as high kin should know for versatility in magic.”

Linden nodded. “However, Dart has to practice, too. I need to explain and help it transform until it understands how its shape ought to be.”

How would this not be the common case? Thadus asked internally. One does need to learn how to control and thus hone one’s ability and thoughts to change the shape of an object, be it a sceptre for magic or an enchanted item.

He didn’t ask nor argue. If the mortal thought of it this way, let it be. All humans had their quirks, although mortals seemed prone to more absurd ones.

“It can hold the pipe form indefinitely, but it cannot hold form long for most other things. It also is so easily intimidated, that it sometimes regresses into a smaller form to hide. It is a rather cowardly dart.”

“What do you exactly mean that it’s intimidated? It’s an object. A vessel.”

“Objects can be intimidated too. They can like people or dislike them. They may purposely make trouble, or try to help. Not all of them, of course, but some do.”

Thadus paused in his step. He narrowed his eyes.

“Are you telling me that some, certain, objects have a character? An identity? And they ‘tell’ you about matters? Such as how to summon your… ‘Dust’?”

“Lord Thadus is not wrong. I did have to try to find the correct way of changing Dart to Dust. However, both forms are identities of the same item.”

Thadus fell into quiet contemplation.

This was highly unusual. Not entirely implausible, but such a possibility was highly unlikely. Truly.

Who would have thought there was still someone who could do that?

Thadus knew himself to be highly educated. This he could never deny. He was a student of Paradise Tower, after all. As such, he had the greatest resources during his time of learning.

While many lacked his discipline and principles, Thadus was especially learned. He had studied many tomes and scrolls of ancient practices in magic and believed himself to be the most learn man of his generation.

Purely out of curiosity, naturally.

In this era, elemental communion was the standard of efficiency. He knew all the theory of the elements and was capable of using not only one or two elements, as many did. He had a specialty, naturally, and his fire communion was still far below decent in his own humble opinion. He was even familiar with the subclasses that existed.

And, as such, he studied ancient practices as well.

It was quite common for all spellcasters to carry a gold sceptre. A few kept a wand, even less a staff, but wood was not a good conduit for magic.

This had, however, not always been the case that long and narrow items were used for magic. The enchanted items that mortals and lower kin  used at times now stemmed from the practice of using other items, such and musical instruments or even weaponry or armour to cast spells. It was less efficient and lacked the same control, from what Thadus had understood.

It was also around this time that high and lower kin came to be called spellcasters. Although he could not be certain, Thadus had gathered it was likely that it have been around this time that spellcasters were persecuted, too.

That was, for all intents and purposes, irrelevant for this matter, however.

What was relevant was that by then, a small portion still practiced many other forms of magic. These practices were all gathered in the refuge of the spellcasters. Many far older that elemental communion, which was still a young practice at the time. And one of those ancient practices, possibly the first known to humankind…

“You’re no summoner; you’re a relic wielder,” Thadus said. “You commune with the object itself. It has no spirit such as with the elements, but it has a certain character that select people can connect with. It’s a skill that is quite difficult to explain, as it differs fundamentally from elemental communion, which makes use of the natural forces; this is merely what the tomes say.”

“Relics… Lord Thadus is not wrong. Artefacts can indeed have character. However, Dart is no relic. I have had it for three years. I got it from a witch in the mountains, who helped me. The bandits attempted to rob me, and I came to be poisoned by dart. To show my gratitude, I cleaned up the witch’s backyard, and she gave me an enchanted, broken dart. She told to me that this dart would be able to shift forms as its enchantment.”

“It could still be a relic.”

Linden looked up at him, their earrings glinting in the moonlight and their hair rustling in the night breeze. The indigo cloak fluttered behind them with every step.

They parted their lips to speak. Before they could say anything, a door opened, and a man stepped out of the opening. Behind him was a gentle glow of candles. He adjusted his jacket as he stepped down the stairs, and someone behind him closed the door.

His belt was simple and practical, with a sword at his hip. A great contrast to Gaudy-Fool indeed.

Linden looked over and froze.

Thadus motioned discreetly with his hand. A gust tugged at Linden’s cloaks, shaking it.

The man looked up. “Why, good evening, Sir. This was an unexpected re-encounter,” the guard greeted with a light bow. He looked at Linden, curiously. “Have we met?”

The wind calmed down, and the night breeze continued to gently caress the clothes of the tree standing on the streets.

“I am unaware if we may have done so,” Linden replied serenely. “I do not frequent the company of guards. It may be possible; I have been around these parts for a handful of days.” They motioned toward Thadus. “I met up with Lord Thadus and dined together, making acquaintances. We are going in the same direction at this time, so I joined his welcoming company.”

Thadus certainly had not welcomed this vermin to follow him!

Guard Properly-Dressed nodded. “Is that so? Then, may I ask how to address you?”

“To address me as an Exalted Lordship would not be an unsuitable title for someone of my modest stature,” Linden replied.

What self-importance must one not have to elevate themself this way?! Thadus was a spellcaster and had the decency to not elevate himself to this degree! Who dared to shamelessly call themself exalted? The audacity!

The guard paused and looked Linden over. His eyes lingered at their face, their earrings, the indigo tasselled cloak from which the wind had obediently removed the remaining dirt from.

They stood straight and looked at the guard with no hesitation.

“You must excuse my rudeness, but would you mind giving me your credentials, Your Exalted Lordship?”

Linden took out their leather case and extracted the token. They held it in their palm, the flower facing the guard.

Guard Properly-Dressed took it carefully in both hands and studied it in the moonlight before handing it back with a deep bow. “My sincerest apologies for the indiscretion to have to ask the Exalted Lord to do such a thing.”

Linden shook their head. “It is no matter. I am not offended by due diligence.”

“Then, Your Exalted Lordship, Lord Spellcaster, may I escort you to where you are heading? There are many robberies at night in Rockforge, and it would be my greatest shame not to ensure your safety, even when I am merely on the way to my shift.”

“We are leaving the city-state,” Linden replied with a slight smile.

“Allow me the honour to escort you nonetheless.”

Linden looked at Thadus before they said, “Very well. You may do so if Lord Thadus is willing to agree to it.”

What was Thadus supposed to do? Refuse? He would not voice such a thing. He was above bothering with mortals and their frivolous rituals. He huffed and continued on his way. He heard Linden tell Guard Properly-Dressed, “Lord Thadus expresses his consent on this matter. May I trouble the gentleman with this?”

Who exactly gave consent?!

---

Guard Properly-Dressed brought them through the city-state and to the gate without any difficulties or encounters.

On the way, the lack of Thadus’ ornament was, once again, noted, although the guard was more tactful that Linden had been. Thadus simply said he had been quite inconvenienced by a thieves, and was then reminded of the silversmith in the slums.

With a heart full of grievances, he told Guard Properly-Dressed, “There’s a smith who sells stolen goods in the slums. I have already retrieved what had been lost, but he deserves proper punishment. I would like to have the fence sent to the United Territories so the consequences could be properly dealt upon him. Have this handled for me.”

“Do you want… him sent to your estate in the Fifteenth City of Eden?” Guard Properly-Dressed asked in an uncertain tone.

“No, have him sent to the house of the same name in the First City of Eden.”

Guard Properly-Dressed merely nodded and agreed, “As you will, Sir.”

“I’m in no hurry,” Thadus added. “Let him suffer through what he needs to here in Rockforge first, as long as he’s alive and survives the journey so justice can be handled appropriately in Eden.”

Because of this comment, Thadus had to sign yet another document by the gate before he could leave with a lightened heart, and in the meantime, they opened the gate for him and Linden alone.

The guard bowed his farewell to them, and Thadus was about to leave when he heard Linden say, “Guard, you are diligent and honourable. Your status is so low; it is truly a shame when buffoons have high positions when someone such as yourself deserve a more honourable station for your competence.”

“I am deeply honoured by the Exalted Lord’s words, but I am unworthy. My station is good enough for someone such as myself.”

Thadus watched as Linden looked thoughtfully at the guard.

“If times ever find harmony in the future, instead of the current unrest suffered in my homeland, were you ever to rethink this, I implore you humbly to go to Rosecrest. Say that a wanderer in indigo sent you, and even without token, there will be those who can vouch for your character.” Linden bowed their head slightly, but looked up at the guard afterwards. “May we meet again, gentleman. Until then, be well.”

They turned around and walked toward the gate. When they were by Thadus’ side, they said, “Let’s leave, Lord Thadus. You need not remain any further, and this city no longer welcomes me as it used to.”

Thadus nodded, too fatigued after a day and a night of Rockforge’s mistreatment of his superior self. The mortals were unaware of how fortunate they were he was always as restrained as he was and had caused no commotions, unlike other spellcasters had in other city-states. He was too magnanimous to cause any troubles for them. It was too kind to offer them such benevolence, yet he had.

As he thought this, he and the strange, too knowledgeable, relic wielder walked through the gate.

Thadus remained a step behind the figure with the dark cloak and fiery hair.

A gust blew hard as they stepped through. The indigo cloak behind Linden billowed. Loose strands of their fiery hair was ruffled and almost shimmered like stars in the night.

The gentlest of glow was on the horizon to the east, the moon still high in the sky, accompanied by many stars far away.

Dawn had indeed not quite arrived yet.

---

Author’s Note

And that’s the end of the Rockforge arc! Please look forward to the continuation of Lord Thadus’ insufferable person and Linden’s mysterious being.