The Sorcerer, Part 46 - Planets

I sit at the library table, still too stunned to speak. Sharon is sporting a huge grin, her eyes twinkling playfully and she doesn't look a day older than when I saw her the last time and she did not look old back then either. Somewhere in the back of my mind I register Gil leaning closer to me.

"Isn't that the name of your..." he whispers and then trails off.

"What the hell," I say. Sharon laughs.

"I've missed you Oz," she says. "It's been, whoo boy, over a decade? What a fine young man you've grown into! Now, stand up so I can get a good look of you." I stand. My mind is finally catches up to the situation as I walk over to her.

"What are you doing here, Aunt Sharon?" I ask as I take her hands in mine. She pulls me into a tight but brief hug.

"Well, to see you of course!" she replies easily. "And because there is a dangerous sorcerer on the loose and you guys definitely need help with catching him."

"How do you-" I start but she cuts me off.

"I know all kinds of things," she says with a wink. I... really don't know how to feel about that. "One of the perks of being the Grand Sorceress of Geltoech."

"Of Geltoech?" says Percy, eyes widening. "Geltoech has a Grand Sorceress?"

"Why, yes," says Sharon. "It's not surprising you didn't know that, considering what the government did to all books concerning magic, especially the ones talking about Geltoech. Even as lovely as your library seems, it's rather unlikely you would have anything on that subject." Percy looks scandalized at the prospect of his library being lacking. "Now, Oz dear, why don't you introduce me to all your little friends, hm?"

I open my mouth and then close it again.

"Uh, alright," I say, turning to the others. "This is my aunt, Sharon, from my mother's side. Aunt Sharon, these are my... best friends, Gil and Alica." The two of them give more or less awkward waves. "And that is Percy, the school's semiofficial librarian and a selfproclaimed magic expert. Also, apparently, old friends with the dangerous sorcerer on the loose."

"Well then, you sound like an important character," says Sharon looking Percy up and down. "Yes, yes, quite crucial indeed."

"Okay, but why are you here, aunt Sharon? Why are you here?" I ask.

"How did you get to the window?" asks Alica, sounding a tad too excited. I glare at her for derailing the conversation again, but she just shrugs.

"That would be with the help of my trusted steed Stevie," says Sharon and walks back to the window, leaning out. "Stevie! Come say hi!"

There's a head in the window. A big head. A dragon's head.

"Γαμώ, αυτό είναι απίστευτο!" says Alica as the dragon puffs some smoke through the window.

"Okay, no fire in the library!" exclaims Percy, looking annoyed and slightly nervous. The dragon puffs some smoke onto him, and retreats his head. Percy has a coughing fit while Sharon laughs.

"Stevie doesn't like being bossed around," she says.

"I'll keep that in mind," mutters Percy, fanning off the smoke. 

"Can we please try to stay on the subject, please," I say and Sharon turn to me.

"Right, of course, I'm sorry dear," she says. "Here's the deal: this little friend of yours is wrapped up in something big, and unless we can stop him, the entire future will be compromised. If he is successful in his plan, it's not only going to influence every single thing in this country, it'll likely influence our neighbours as well, potentially causing world wide hatred of magic. And we have to stop it."

"Why us?" asks Gil. "I mean, I'm totally in to bring this fucker down, but why does it have to be us?"

"Because... it is meant to be so," Sharon says, sounding a bit unsure which ok is a little worrying.

"You make it sound like it's supposed to be set in stone," says Gil.

"It is. Kind of..." she pauses. "How should I explain, ohh... Time is... complicated. My powers come from Geltoech himself, and through his allseeing eye, I too have something of a futurevision. The only thing truly set in stone is the past, but the future is forever in flux. However, within that constant stream of time there are some paths that are infinitely more likely than others. And sometimes, when something happens, planets align just right or whatever, another thing after it becomes inevitable. For example when the war begun, thirty years ago, it needn't have been like that. The tension had been high strung between magic and non-magic folk, but it could have been worked out. However, when the assassination of private Jacobs happened, the war became essentially inevitable, quite simply because of the nature of the people involved."

"Ohhhh," I say. "There is something I should probably tell you about that...."

"About what?" asks Sharon with a frown.

"The assassination of private Jacobs," I say. Her frown deepens. "It, uh, never happened."

She's quiet, her lips pursed and she blinks.

"Come again?" she says.

"Hans Jacobs is not dead, actually," I say. I can see her trying to process this information. "He's, uh, here actually. Or rather, at the Lonchester castle, where he's locked up for trying to kill a girl." She's awfully quiet again. "Aunt... Sharon?"

"What??!" she all but screeches and I take an instinctive step backwards. The library door opens and Eclaise rushes in.

"I figured I'd find you here, master Woodsham," he says without as much as a hello. "The principal is awake now, and though he has a concussion he would still like a word, if you have time." His eyes land on Sharon. "And who might you be, ma'am?"

"Sharon Rey, Grand Sorceress," she says pleasantly and far too easily as she strides over to Eclaise with her hand extended. He takes it, somewhat surprised. "I'm Oz's aunt, and I'm here to help with stopping the impending end of the world."

"Jacob... Eclaise," says Eclaise. "And if by that you mean you're going to help us catch that lunatic running around in the Geltoech mask, then I welcome you. We really need experienced magic users, because I am well out of shape."

"You, out of shape? Hardly! Do you work out?"

"Aunt Sharon!"

"Right, right, sorry dear... We can talk about that later."

"Professor Eclaise," I say. He chuckles, slightly embarrassed and then turns to me. "The principal is awake? We should go right now."

"Of course," he says. "Let's go."

All five of us (and Zeze, to my surprise) follow Eclaise out of the library. I pointedly ignore how close to him Sharon is walking.

~x~

"Mister Woodsham! How nice of you to come here so quickly!" says the principal as we push through the doors to the hospital wing. He pauses when he sees how many of us there actually are. "I was rather expecting you to come alone, but that's quite alright. Although I don't recall seeing this lovely lady before..." He's looking at Sharon and I roll my eyes.

"That's my aunt Sharon, and she's here to help... isn't she?" I say before she has time to open her mouth. She gives me an innocent look. "More about that later, could you tell me what happened before you burst into the dining hall?"

"Well, there was this young lad that came to talk to me. He was a student, I think, though I don't think I know who it was.... I do feel like I've seen him, some time, but he was frankly so unmemorable that I couldn't place him. Anyway, he asked me to go tell all the teachers take their students into the dining hall, because he had something very important to announce. And I thought, well, he seems like a nice and reasonable young man, I'm sure we can do that."

"That's why the hall was so full," says Alica.

"Why did you do as he said?" asks Gil.

"Well, I..." the principal pauses. "I... I'm not sure, actually. Something about him just.... made me feel like I should do as he says." He seems genuinely confused about why he did what he did.

"It was probably magic," says miss Graysmith from the next bed. She's staring up at the ceiling with a stoic look of concentration on her face. There are reddish marks around her neck. "That little runt. That coward, who does he think he is, going around hurting people, if I get my hands on him I -!" She starts to cough uncontrollably, and one of the medics rushes over with a glass of water.

"Please, Jane, you should try not to speak, and definitely not shout, it's not good for your throat," she says as she offers Graysmith the glass. She takes it with a nod and downs it in one go. Then she slumps back against the bed.

"We need reinforcements," I say, dragging my eyes from Graysmith back to the principal. "Viper is strong, and in order to beat him, we're going to need other people who are strong. People with magic."

"Herbert!" says the principal. Good, he caught on quickly, despite the concussion.

"Exactly. It's not much, but we will need everyone we can get."

"Yes, yes, we must go get him right now," he says as he throws his feet off the bed. The medic is there instantly.

"Absolutely not, you are not going anywhere!" she says, pushing him back to bed. "You just had a very traumatic experience and a concussion, you are staying in bed until at least tomorrow!"

"But, they need me to-" he starts but stops when the medic glares at him. "Alright then. Jacob, you go with them. Tell chief Wismuth that this is a very unusual and dire situation and that I will take responsibility for everything. We need to get Herbert out."

"Very well, sir," says Eclaise.

"Yes, yes, you need to rest a bit more," says the medic. "All these people are not helping you recover at all."

We leave the hospital wing in a haste before she can physically throw us out.

~x~

"It's you," says chief Wismuth as we finally make it to his bakery. Eclaise had convinced the stable hand to lend us all horses, so the trip is quite fast. "Finally. Been waiting." I exchange a look with Gil and Alica.

"You've been waiting?" I ask.

"You think I haven't heard of what happened at the Academia today? I've been expecting you to show up. You're here to take Cole away, ain't ya?" I nod. "Well, you can take him. I like my job, but even I know I'm in way over my head here. I ain't gonna get involved in a hunt for a crazy ass murderous sorcerer." He's dug out his keys as he spoke and then he ushers us out of the shop. "Figured you'd still want some kind of backup, preferably of the magical kind."

"Okay, this was way easier than I thought this would be," I whisper to Gil as we start on the shortish trek to the castle.

"Thank gods some things still are," says Gil, and I quite agree.

During the walk I explain to Sharon who it is, exactly, that we're here to free. She listens attentively, and I can see her tense when I get to the part in the story when he apprehended Jacobs.

"That's the same face you make," Gil whispers to me once I've told Sharon everything. I turn to him with a questioning eyebrow. "When you get pissed. And I mean pissed. I'm pretty sure she's just about ready to commit homicide when she finally sees Jacobs."

"Well then," I say. "Wouldn't want to be Jacobs. Although fear of death is a really good motivator to get someone to talk..."

"Oz, no," says Gil and I laugh.

"I didn't mean let aunt Sharon kill him, I just mean... let her intimidate him a bit. Pretty sure she is one of the last people he wants to see."

Gil shakes his head in an exasperated manner, but there is a soft smile fighting its way to his lips.

"Here we go," says Wismuth as he pushes open the castle door. We walk down the spiral staircase and into the cellar. "Cole first, or the other one?"

"Cole," I say. I want him out of that horrid cell as soon as possible. Wismuth nods and opens the door. Cole blinks in the light - it's not bright per se, but after complete darkness it's bound to sting - and shields his eyes. "Hello again professor! Some good new and some bad news, which would you want to hear first?"

He stays quiet for a moment, his eyes darting between everyone present as he stands up. His eyes land on Sharon.

"I assume the good news is you've contacted your aunt," he says. "It's nice to finally meet you, Mrs. Rey."

"Charmed, I'm sure," says Sharon with a smooth smile. "I've heard about your heroics, although somewhat briefly. Your research seems very... interesting, and I would be happy to discuss it in detail later, in a more comfortable setting."

"Aunt Sharon, please," I say and turn back to Cole. "I didn't contact her, she sought me out on her own, and is not the good news."

"I've had three days sitting in this hole to rewrite the history of the Battle in my head. I must say, you have been the most insightful of all of us that have been trying to understand what actually happened and I must apologise for prejudices I had towards you material in the past."

Sharon opens her mouth to say something but I cut in with, "Yes, this is all very nice, lovely meeting, but we have bigger things to worry about right now." Sharon pouts, just a little, but says nothing.

"Indeed, so what is the bad news?" Cole asks.

"Viper attacked the school today," I say. Cole looks shocked. And also slightly angry and very concerned. "He bust into the dining hall during lunch with the principal as a hostage. Miss Graysmith tried to get him to let the principal go, but he started to choke her with some kind of weird powers we didn't know he had..."

"Was she injured? What about anyone else?" Cole interrupts.

"No, they're alright now, I managed to get him distracted enough to drop her and then stalled until Eclaise..." I glance over at Eclaise, somewhat uncertain as to what exactly tell Cole. He looks at me, slightly panicked. It's really not my secret to tell, is it? "Eclaise managed to calm the situation. That's when Viper decided we were no longer of any interest to him and, unfortunately, he escaped."

"By gods," mutters Cole. "What is the situation now? Is there panic?"

"The teachers have been told to find all of their student and gather them in their home room," says Eclaise. Of course he's organized everything, thank gods. "After every student has been accounted for, the teachers are to make sure everyone stays calm, knows what is happening and then leads them to their dorm rooms, where they are instructed to stay until further notice."

"That's good," says Cole, relieved to know everything is under control. "And did you use magic to calm the situation?"

Eclaise looks surprised. There is a short pause.

"Yes," he says, and somehow he seems almost proud to admit it out loud.

"Well, given the law, technically, you should be joining me here in the cell," says Cole and gestures at the uninviting, dark room. "Although given the circumstances I would much rather be joining you out there."

"And that brings us to the good news," I chime in. "You're free to do just that."

Cole blinks. "Excellent," he says. "We have work to do."

And he strides out of his cell. That was... kinda boring really, I had been hoping for some shock or a dramatic burst into joyful tears, but it is Cole we're talking about and he has never been too interesting in the reaction department.

"You wanna talk to the other guy now?" says Wismuth.

"Oh, yes," says Sharon and the look in her eyes is slightly manic, I do see it now. Wismuth turns the key in the hole and pulls the door open. Jacobs frowns from his place, sprawled on the floor.

"Oh, great, you again," he says when he sees me. "What's this, brought backup?"

"Yes, indeed," I say with a grin. "This is my aunt, she insisted on having a chat with you. You might have heard of her, actually. Does the name 'Sharon Rey' ring any bells?"

Jacobs frowns for a moment, trying to place the name and it is so satisfying to see when he realises who it is. He goes very pale very quickly. Sharon cracks her knuckles.

"So, you're the little punk who caused a civil war, resulting in magic getting banned and my husband executed," she says with an overly sweet smile. Jacobs is quiet, staring up as her with wide, mortified eyes. "Would you prefer and open-casket funeral, or..?"

There is a high pitched shriek from Jacobs. He looks just about ready to crack.

As much as I'd love to watch him keep squirming, we are in something of a hurry, so I put my hand on Sharon's shoulder. "Auntie Sharon, please. Mind if I have a word with him?" She looks down at him with utter and unadulterated contempt, but she moves out of the way. I crouch down next to Jacobs. "Listen up, buck-o, here's the deal. We're on a tight schedule, so this is a one off deal. You tell us everything you know about anything we want, and I will personally make sure that you are not harmed, and that you get a fair trial for all the cowardly crimes you have committed. If you don't, well... I won't lay a finger on you, but I cannot promise the same for my aunt. I wouldn't want to piss her off, she's had a rough journey and she's still a bit testy."

Jacobs glances up at Sharon who flat out snarls. He turns back to me rather quickly.

"Fair trial?" he asks.

"Fair and square."

He considers his options for a moment. Then he rubs his eyes and sighs.

"Very well," he mutters. "You better keep your word."

"I always do," I say with a smile. "Now, why are you here?"

Jacobs shrugs. "I keep wondering that myself. I am a wandering shoe maker, you know, and I just got the feeling that this would be a good place to come."

"A feeling?"

"Yeah," he says, like it's obvious. "I often have these feelings, like in the pit of my stomach, telling me where to go next. They usually take me to good places, places I don't feel quite as uncomfortable in, but this place sure as hell was a bust."

"It's probably magic," says Sharon. Jacobs looks surprised, and skeptic. "People who have dormant magic often exhibit special skills or talents."

"Right, like heightened senses," I say. Alica told me about this, didn't she?

"So you're saying that the gut feeling I have is actually magic?" Jacobs asks, still sounding slightly unconvinced. "Why'd it bring me here though?"

"It might be magic. And there is an extremely powerful magical presence here, maybe you were instinctively drawn to it."

That could mean... "Do you know about Viper?" I ask. Jacobs turns back to me with a frown.

"It's a snake, ain't it?" he says, confused.

"No, not a viper, just Viper. A person calling himself Viper," I clarify. He snorts.

"What kind of dumbass name is that?" he says. "No, I ain't heard of no Viper. He some kind of magic folk, or something?"

"Or something," I say. I had been hoping that Jacobs could provide some kind of answers to Viper's plan or powers, but it really seems the two have no connection. The two appeared awfully close for it to be a coincidence, but I guess there was nothing there after all... "Okay then, what about thirty years ago? What happened then? Why are you not dead and why did you pretend you were?"

Jacobs sighs deeply and begins to talk.

"Me and Feathers were assigned into Kalehar for fighting. Prison guard duty, which is the worst especially since there were no criminals in there. That night we had someone in though, a sorcerer. He had been fooling around with his magic on the market earlier so we brought him in for the night. And then these three other sorcerers show up, getting all up in my face about how their friend was unjustly punished and that he was just a kid and all this other shit. It was annoying as hell and I told them to get lost. The did, eventually.
"Now, I really didn't want to be in the army anymore back then. That night I decided that enough is enough and hatched a plan to get me out of there, even though my gut told me it was a bad idea. Feathers had been really impressed by my last plan, so he was eager to help. All we had to do, was frame my death and I could get out scot-free, and we'd get some trouble for those three goddamn sorcerers that had been annoying me the whole evening."

"One of whom was my husband," Sharon says, voice icicles.

"Yeah... sorry bout that," says Jacobs, and continues,
"The plan was simple: let the sorcerer out of his cell, pretend to be dead when the guard shift changes, and dump all the blame on the other three sorcerers, while I sneak off and start doing whatever. The first part was easy, you know. Just open the door and the poor sucker will walk himself out. The second part was a bit more complicated. The next guard is not dumb, he will know the difference between a dead man and an alive one, but Feathers said he had a way. He has magic, see, so he could make me appear dead. And when the guard comes to report a dead private Feathers just whips up a report and the deed is done. It was all done so quickly they didn't even have time to bring in a medical examiner or anything.
"I left the town the next day, but Feathers stayed there, taking care of all the official business and such. He was a bit.. too impressed about the plan really, because he decided he wanted to do something as well, and started to cause all kinds of mayhem around the area, which in turn made the already scabby relations between magic folk and normal folk take a nose dive and eventually escalate into the civil war."

"And you didn't feel inclined to do anything about it?" I ask. He shrugs again.

"Not really my business, was it? 'Sides, I was dead at the time," he says and I really, really want to punch him. I do restrain myself.

"So, hundreds, if not thousands, of people dead or banished because you didn't feel like doing anything to stop it," Sharon says. "Amazing, truly amazing. You know, I still have half a mind to feed you to my dragon." Jacobs pales again. I look at her, pointedly. "I won't," she concedes. "But only because I would never do anything that would force my nephew to be unable to keep his word."

"Is that all?" I ask. Jacobs thinks for a moment.

"Yeah, pretty sure," he says. I nod.

"Well, this was a lovely chat, really, but we need to get going now. A lot to do, you know! You pray to your gods that you didn't forget anything, or we will be back. Bye now!"

Jacobs swallows and then Wismuth closes the door. I rub my face and then run my fingers through my hair.

"We best be going now," I say. "There's nothing more to do in here."

We leave the castle finally, finally, knowing what truly happened thirty years ago.

~x~

Since there' one more person than there were on the way there, someone needs to share a horse. Gil was already riding with me (he had absolutely refused to ride one on his own, because he was "not ready for it yet, not on his own, no way") so Alica ends up riding with Percy. It only makes sense, she is the smallest, although she is very vocal about her objections on having to share a horse. She does accept it, finally, but only after Percy promises she gets to sit in front. His face is beet red the whole way back as he's forced to hold onto Alica's waist, and it would be funny if it weren't so sad.

We drop off the horses, Will the stable hand looking surprised but happy to see Cole has returned, and we quickly make our way back t inside the main building. There's someone waiting at the front doors. Knute, and with him Tauria and Laelia.

"Knute, my boy!" I shout as we approach. "When did you get back?" I stop in front of him with a wide smile but he just crosses his arms.

"I told you to stop calling me 'my boy', it's still patronizing," he says and when has he ever told me that? We've hardly spoken two words during practices and outside them we - oh.

"Oohhh," I say. "You, uh, you guys go ahead," I tell the others who have stopped to wait. "I get the feeling we're going to be having a long conversation."

The others exchange looks, but continue inside. Except for Gil, of course, and Alica, who remain by my side like they always do.

"So!" I say, clapping my hands together. "You know."
____________________________________________________________________

I still have 11 minutes to spear, wooooo!!

Worry not, for I have a plan! And it is a good plan, and it is a sensible plan and it works. I can't believe how well it works all these little details, you know, and suddenly they're useful! Knute is useful! I'll tell you about that tomorrow tho, let's not yell spoilers in here, k?

This was a lottt of exposition again, but it's nearing the end and shit needs to get exposed. Four more to go! Your next topic is.... Bees? (I almost forgot to add my own topic whooooo boy, but I managed to sneak it in there haha)

Pie out.

P.S. 5 minutes!