“Ding ding, give the lady a prize.” Maryl said.
“What?” Madrona furrowed her brow, looking between the two. “What do you mean her soul is in the bracelets?”
“Well, just that!” Kassadi said excitedly. “That’s why we can’t get too far from each other, we start stretching her essence!”
“Uh-huh.” Madrona replied, understanding the words, but not really seeing how this helped them. “So it’s not a curse, we just have a soul between us.”
“Yep!” Kassadi smiled, seemingly enjoying all of this! She turned to Maryl. “What happened?”
“Well according to Valel’s notes she was apparently working on a way to enhance her magic, took two Bracelets of Spell Empowerment and linked them. Apparently she was gonna use them in conjunction to make her spells empowered ten fold… Or something like that.”
“Dangerous.” Kassadi said, taking her seat at the table again as she listened to the tale. “Spell empowerment can only go so far. You’re a conduit for the Arcane Energies that become spells, run too much energy through a conduit and you’ll burn out.”
“Yeah she said something about that in the notes.” Maryl nodded.
“Though I suppose if anyone could figure it out it would be someone like Valel Hex.” Kassadi added, tapping her chin.
“Apparently she thought so, too.” Maryl shrugged. “And apparently she was wrong.”
“Do you know what happened?” Madrona asked. “Kind of hard to take notes when you’re dead.”
“Oh but that’s the thing.” Maryl said with a chuckle. “I do know what happened. Valel clearly wanted her great triumph in gaining even more power recorded for posterity, so she set up a scrying orb to bear witness. I watched her cast some enchantment on the bracelets and bring them together. The bracelets thrummed with power and she started laughing, like it all went according to plan. Then the entire room shuddered and she got a worried look on her face.” Maryl leaned in, her gaze passing over all assembled. “I am the only person on this spinning rock that watched the death of the dreaded Valel Hex.”
“The power was too much for one body.” Kassadi said gently. “The flow of magic from her to the bracelets, it was too much. She couldn’t hold herself together and broke apart.” Kassadi pieced it together, years of Arcane Schooling aiding her in completing the puzzle. “Her soul got caught in the flow and dragged out of her body.”
“Yeah that’s what I saw.” Maryl said. “Never had the words for it, but that’s what happened. Then her body blackened, charred in an instant. She collapsed and turned to dust. Leaving behind only the bracelets.”
“The flow of energy through her body was too much, destroyed her from the inside” Kassadi explained cooly.
“Then, like seven hours later, some sort of creature came in. It was made of stone and metal, it found the scorch mark on the floor with the bracelets. It picked up the bracelets, put them in the chest, and locked them away.” Maryl frowned. “I spent the next year and a half looking for that thing, two hundred years later but it was made of stone.. It could still be there. Unfortunately the elf found it first.”
“You wanted the bracelets?” Kassadi asked, perplexed.
“Damn right!” Maryl cried. “Tey clearly had power, power that I wanted.”
“Power that killed one of the most powerful Wizards of her age!” Kassadi shouted, throwing her hands up.
“Whatever.” Maryl scoffed. “You went and scooped them up without concern.”
“We didn’t know what they were!” Kassadi growled. A fight was about to start but Madrona raised her hand to Kassadi.
“Do you know how to remove the bracelets” Madrona said flatly.
“Yes and no.” Maryl said, Kassadi was about to leap over the table. “It’s a power word!” Maryl said quickly. “But she never wrote down what it was, just referenced that it was her common one.”
“Okay, so that means…” Kassadi began.
“Travlona.” Madrona sighed, finishing Kassadi’s thought. “That means Travlona knows.”
“Well, she has the information.” Kassadi said, shrugging. “Maybe we can sneak into her library?”
“You think we can?” Madrona said with a raised brow.
“I think we don’t have much of a choice.” Kassadi said.
They ended up spending the night with Lidya again, they attempted to refuse telling the Goblin they had already asked too much of her, but it wasn’t being heard. Lidya insisted and the fact they were both drained of their magical capabilities until a night’s rest, there wasn’t much use in arguing. Maryl, however, did not let her mother to convince her to stay. With the bag of wands she had what she needed and made her way back to the road and back to the labyrinth. The following morning Kassadi and Madrona made their way as well. They thanked Lidya for all she had done, they wouldn’t have made it without her, and Lidya smiled insisting that the two of them kneel down so that she may give them a hug.
On the road again. The two were one more trekking north, though this time they would find themselves at the small path that lead into the forest and they would take it. They had a plan, well, the beginnings of a plan. About half a mile out Kassadi drew from her satchel an amber sphere carved to look like an eye, raising it above and gesturing with her hand she doubled the magic needed and cast a two person invisibility spell. The two women vanished from view, specifically they vanished from all other views, being able to see each other and themselves through the magic. They made their way and began moving slowly as they saw the house in the distance. It hadn’t changed at all fro the last time they were here and yet now it carried an aura of foreboding. They moved around the to the side of the house and found what they were looking for, the window they had both exited from two nights ago. It was boarded up, but that mattered little. It was both within range and a place the both of them had been. With a casting of Short Hop from the both of them they were in the house.
Hearts pounded in their chests, they glanced about. It was amazing, you couldn’t even tell there had been a fight in here. Kassadi distinctly remembered the claws of the hellhound gouging into the wood but there wasn’t even a blemish. What was also missing was all their stuff, but they expected that. They moved forward cautiously, pushing through the door leading to the upper landing. Glancing about they found no hulking Jotun ready to lop their heads of. In fact as they moved through the house they found it eerily lacking in any form of inhabitants. They glanced at each other, neither of them liked it.
They made their way down to the sitting room, where they had spoken with Travlona together. Kassadi mentioned that Travlona’s office was the next room after, figuring they would check there first. The idea was sound, the library was likely large and would take far longer to search than Kassadi had magic to maintain the invisibility. If they could get a clue from Travlona’s personal notes that would go a long way. They never made it to the office, however, as when they entered the sitting room they found two bundles. It was their packs, neatly placed out on a table in the center of the room. The women glanced at each other and moved to the bags.
It was their gear alright, and everything seemed to be there. Between the packs was a note written in an elegant hand. Kassadi read it aloud.
‘Ms. Weaver, Ms. Daee,
I am terribly sorry that I am unable to meet you there at the manor. I do fear, however, that the ensuing conflict between us would cause significant damage to the manor. Due to the fact that the manor is of historical significance as well as my home, I believe it best we convene in a place more suited for what you will inevitably attempt and just as surely fail at. Meet me in the Throne Room.
Ta’
Ellegen Travlona.
P.S. Do mind the Glyph.’
Kassadi’s eyes widened as she read the final words, glancing down at the floor beneath them. Sure enough the rug they stood on’s intricate design illuminated into a glyph trap. She shrieked and reaced for her pack, Madrona did the same. The trap was already going off, the table the packs were on exploding before them as they both attempted to move. The room shuddered as the glyph detonated, a thundering sound rocking the entire house.
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