Nathan was waiting a length of the hallway away from the door when Balrog emerged, shaking his head in clear disagreement with his commander’s antics. The wolf scowled in return, but softened a bit. Having time to think about what had happened was clearly wearing through his resolve.
“What are you thinking, Nathan?” the mage asked, rapidly closing the distance to his commander. “We need to help Lois as quickly as possible. If the magic already has a foothold in his mind then there is no telling how long we have until he is beyond our help. There are risks, but some risks must be taken.” “I do not argue that, I am trying to protect you. I do not need to know much about magic to realize that this spell you are discussing would require a lot of power.” He waited to let his point drift home, his tail sliding against the stones of the adjacent wall. “I know that you cannot cast powerful spells while maintaining your illusions. There is enough tension in that room without you revealing your secret.” “With all due respect, everything was rather calm until you had your outburst, sir.” The use of the title was as much for shock value as for actual respect. Although their respective ranks entitled Nathan to some amount of respect, Nathan had never insisted on any sort of title and Balrog never used one. “I do appreciate the concern, but you have already revealed your own secret. To insist on keeping my own out of fear would be selfish.” Shaking his head, the wolf nevertheless conceded the point. “All right,” he muttered. “I do not think it wise, but I know you well enough to realize that convincing you to abandon this folly is beyond hope. Rest assured, I will be prepared to intervene should things get out of control.” “Don’t,” Balrog insisted. “There may be shock, and weapons may be drawn, but I believe that these people are level-headed enough to keep their cool long enough to hear an explanation before decapitating me.” Nathan chuckled at the darkly humorous exaggeration, leaning his head back against the wall and pointing his muzzle towards the ceiling. “You had best hope that your theory is correct,” he commented. “I don’t think I need to tell you that any one of them could easily kill you.” “You assume that I would reveal myself without immediately erecting the strongest defensive spells I know,” he quipped, giving a sly wink. “A simple steelskin spell will at least slow a hasty blade.” For the first time in their conversation the black wolf gave a genuine smile and a wag of his tail. “I worry far too much about you, it seems,” he admitted. “As one friend to another, I would not have it any other way.” Balrog gave Nathan a playful punch to the shoulder. “Just don’t go stirring up unnecessary drama in the future. Remember, it’s more likely that I’ll save your life in a fight than the opposite.” “You save me, old man?” Nathan scoffed, giving an exaggerated roll of his eyes. “I’ll remind you of that after I’m finished prying Lucy off your face in five minutes.” Balrog chuckled and turned back towards the closed door to the meeting chamber. “Come on; if you’re going to be rescuing me from militant children in a few moments we had best start by provoking their ire.” Nathan followed dutifully behind his friend, his amused smile momentarily disguising his concern. He hoped that Balrog was right, but he would not be caught off guard if the opposite proved true. He briefly held the grip of one of his weapons, feeling the familiar texture of the decoratively carved wood, but released it after only a moment. He would honor Balrog’s request unless the situation truly spun out of control. * * * The return of the two companions from the hallway found the remaining Keepers already deep into the task of discussing the appropriate spell for their use. Balrog entered first, but all eyes were on the wolf behind him as the two of them entered. “I want to apologize for my outburst,” he apologized. “I merely wish to advise caution as we proceed. The last thing we need is for a spell to go wrong and create even more serious problems. If you feel prepared to proceed, I will defer to your better judgment.” “In matters of magic, it is often wiser to defer to the mages,” Lucy snarked in reply. Immediately growing more serious, she nodded to the wolf. “I appreciate the apology. I suppose it is as likely my fault as anyone else’s. If I hadn’t come here so early this morning we could all have enjoyed a little more sleep and avoided such tension.” A few nervous chuckles were the only response to her suggestion, but it still represented significant progress towards deflating the tension in the room. Balrog stepped forward. “What have you decided so far?” he asked, making an effort to quickly change the subject. “The spell itself I can create on my own with little problem, but actually casting it may be another issue,” Lucy replied. “Any way I think about it, I cannot see any manner in which it would not require a massive investment of power. While a fetish stone simply completes what the Curse already started, our efforts would be attempting to fight against the Curse. While I suppose that the countercurse might help a little bit, we still have to contend with the fact that Lois is evidently not doing anything to aid our efforts.” Balrog nodded his understanding while looking about the room. “I suppose that our efforts would be aided by an enchantment of some sort?” Lucy nodded. “For safety if nothing else,” she confirmed. “I should be able to draw the lines myself, but it may take quite some time. I don’t suppose either of you would be able to help in such an effort?” Julian shook his head as he responded, “No. I am a battlemage, nothing more. While I could perhaps sketch some rudimentary enchantments for myself, I hardly feel that I would supply any help to anything of this scale.” “Fortunately, I do have experience with enchantments,” Balrog replied. “As a matter of fact…” His hesitation was more than enough to tell Nathan what was coming. He stretched as he felt the nervous tension trying to lock up his neck. While he had promised Balrog that he would not intervene unless it was vital, he still made a point to put himself in an advantageous position. If things did snowball out of control, he did not want to be caught out of position. The hesitation also drew the eyes of everyone in the room, which was likely Balrog’s intention. He was clearly feeling a good deal of nervousness as well, but as a man who was so often faced with the need to diffuse situations gracefully he nevertheless remained composed. “There is one thing I have told very few people which I feel should be revealed to you now so that it does not cause problems later. Nathan already knows this, but this is a secret that I have trusted only to a select few people who I would call friends.” He walked a few steps so that he stood at the center of the room. “I will warn you in advance that this revelation can be shocking, so I hope you will respect my trust in you by controlling your reactions.” Before anyone could question him, he made a single gesture and cut the flow of magic that constantly fed the illusions around his body. While a few of the scars that marked the skin through his illusions still marred the true off-green hue of his skin, quite a few of them morphed and coalesced into a miasma of interconnected runes that ran the length of each arm, around the back of his neck up onto the dome of his bald head, where the lines joined to into a single, intricate sigil on his forehead. As the magic left them, the runes died from a radiant blue glow to show that all of them had been sketched by a knife, the scars arranged with remarkable precision across his skin. To those watching the important change was that the human man that had been working with them for more than a day changed utterly, showing that beneath an expertly woven illusion stood a lutin. Lutins were hardly an uncommon sight for them, but this was the first time in many years that Alex and Lucy had met a lutin that was not actively trying to kill them. To their credit, Julian was the only one whose blade emerged from his scabbard with a harsh whisper of steel against leather. While Nathan immediately placed himself between the moondog and the lutin, it was Alex who halted his companion’s actions. “Julian, stay your blade!” The moondog leveled a glare at him. “He’s a lutin, he’s the enemy!” He remained rooted where he stood, however, and made no move towards the lutin. “He is a friend. He has neither threatened us nor made a move to attack, and he revealed himself of his own will. Stand down!” “What of the war, sir?” Julian hissed. “Our war is against Nasoj and his scum, not lutins,” Alex replied. He took a breath to calm himself before continuing. “I realize that you have missed some recent events due to your recent escape from the North, but Metamor has begun to foster alliances with the lutins. Times are changing; you cannot simply attack any lutin who may cross your path.” “Thank you for your vote of confidence, sir,” Balrog said, nodding to the lynx. It was clear in a moment that his voice had not been modified by illusion at all. The gruffness was still there, but so was the impeccable, if accented, delivery of Common speech. He took a deep breath and played with his beard, another part of the illusion that proved genuine. “To tell the truth, I have been living among your people for far longer than the peace accords. I am nearing my twentieth year of living among humans, and I have never regretted it.” Lucy approached him slowly, her focus solely on the enchantment that the lutin had sketched into his own flesh. Balrog permitted her inspection, even helped her by showing her the marks on his arms. “These are scars,” she said. She looked appalled. “Did you do this yourself?” The lutin nodded. “All shamans of my tribe are heavily tattooed in this fashion, and it is considered a mark of weakness to allow another man to mark your skin for you. The process took me three days. My predecessors have attempted to do it in one night before, but many are the stories of those who died in the attempt, or were driven mad by the pain.” He smirked. “Also, few are those who have attempted to weave an enchantment over their own bodies as they worked.” Lucy shook her head. “How? I mean, your arms perhaps I can understand, but your neck? Your head?” Balrog winced. “That was another reason for the length of the effort. I was forced to use magic to sketch those lines. To do so without wavering while using magic and in pain was hardly a simple matter. As you can see, however, I was successful.” Lucy crossed her arms and shook her head as she marveled at the complexity of the enchantment. “Well, you can say whatever you will about him, but whether he’s a man, a lutin, or a giant, I would kill for a hand that steady.” She got an uneasy chuckle from most in the room. Even Julian finally relaxed enough to slide his blade back home in its sheath, although he did so with clear hesitation. Still, Balrog nodded to him gratefully, a nod which was returned with honesty despite Julian’s hesitance. Nathan continued laughing for a few moments after the others had stopped. “Well, I was expecting quite a bit more trouble than that,” he admitted as he made a clear show of removing his paws from his weapons. “I will admit that I was quite a bit more difficult to reason with at first than any of you, Julian included. Of course, the Keep had not yet been making open alliances with the tribes, but that is another matter.” A few more chuckles responded to this admission, and there was at last some semblance of peace in the room once more. There was still a great deal of uncertainty, understandably more than before the revelation, but it was nothing that could not be worked through. Considering the difficulty of the effort that awaited them, however, all could not help but fear that peace would not last. “Shall we begin?” Balrog suggested. “As has been said already, the longer we wait, the riskier this business becomes.” Lucy nodded. “Yes, you’re right. We’ll need most of the floor area for this; Julian and Nathan, if you would be so kind as to move Lois and the table to one side? I need to discuss the enchantment with Balrog.” Julian kept an uncertain gaze on Balrog for a few moments before nodding and collecting the cage containing the ermine. He set it onto a nearby chair, and returned to aid Nathan as he lifted the table and shifted it to one of the walls. Lucy and Balrog stayed to one side, the young girl quietly discussing her idea for what sort of enchantment they would need as her companion listened. The lutin stood beside her, quietly considering her ideas as she spoke. Alex watched them, clearly impressed by the lack of hesitation shown by his party’s mage. She stood beside the lutin as though he had never lowered his illusion, speaking with him on thoroughly civil terms. While the lynx had spoken up on Balrog’s behalf a few moments ago, he still had no doubt that conversing with him in such close quarters would still be difficult. Balrog was hardly a bystander in the conversation either. Every few moments he held up a hand to forestall her speech and suggested an alternative. Although he could not understand their discussion, Alex could read Lucy’s body language well enough to see that the lutin’s suggestions had much merit of their own. Nathan and Julian remained by the table once they had finished moving it, the ermine in the cage to their side watching them in confusion. They stood in silence, Julian eyeing the lutin still, and Nathan glancing around the room with no certain focus. Alex caught Julian’s attention and stepped towards the door, away from the prying eyes and ears of the rest of the room. There was no need to take the trouble to be secretive, however; Julian again raised a shield against eavesdropping as he joined his commander. “You surprised me,” Julian admitted as he faced the lynx. “I did not realize that your trust extended to lutins as well as strangers.” Alex absorbed his newest companion’s quiet criticism without reaction. He would dictate the direction of the conversation. “I know that you are used to Nasoj owning the allegiance of every lutin in the North, but that rank is nothing but pretension at this juncture. Many things are changing; surely you must know the extent of Nasoj’s weakness more than most.” “Only the man’s allies are weak,” the moondog cautioned severely. “The man himself has lost none of his considerable power. I tell you, some may run from him now in fear of another failed engagement, but at the first word of a battle cry from the north they will turn back as quickly as they did at the first. The fear he commands is the truly dangerous thing about Nasoj, and the man is more than aware of it. He will allow you to seek out allies among his subjects without comments, because trusting them will make you hesitate to cut them down when they rally back to his banner.” The conviction behind the moondog’s words shook Alex’s confidence slightly, but he was acquainted with the responsibility of command, and knew that he could not show it. He stood his ground, intentionally waiting to give Julian some time to calm himself. The moondog tried to maintain eye contact, but he glanced away after a few moments of heavy silence. He shifted uncomfortably where he stood, putting his paws on his hips. “I believe you are earnest in your concern,” Alex assured him. “You know far better than I do the strength of our enemy. Although that may be true, however, I trust these men. If they wished to harm Lois, they could have done so at any time over the last day. They have provided real help in your investigation. Now, Balrog reveals this secret, which he knows could mean his death, without being prompted or suspected of anything.” “He might have been concerned that the attempt to save Lois would have put him under scrutiny. It could all be a gambit to keep our trust.” “You do not think I have considered that?” Alex asked pointedly. “I have decided to trust them for a variety of reasons, but not the least of those is that I trust you and Lucy to make quick, decisive decisions should a threat present itself.” “That is why I drew my blade,” Julian insisted. “I never criticized you for that,” Alex pointed out. “I merely took the time to assess the situation myself and decided that he was not threatening us. You have done exactly what I wanted you to do so far, but there is danger in remaining so clearly suspicious of him.” Julian snorted and shook his head slowly, but his downcast eyes were focused beyond the floor as he considered. “You want me to make him feel comfortable,” he mused to himself. “Exactly,” Alex replied. “I am aware of the possibility of danger here, but I am also aware that Lucy knows what she is doing. Many hands make light work; even if he does intend some trickery, Lucy will be able to see it coming. Until such an attempt is made, I trust her to make use of a second enchanter to accelerate the process.” Julian allowed himself a thin smile. “You’re harder to read than I expected,” he admitted. “This is not my first crisis,” Alex pointed out. “Be careful, but don’t be obvious about it. For now, strike up a conversation with Nathan. Talk to him about anything, but keep his focus on you. If something happens, I will need you to fight him on your own. As Balrog can sustain a powerful illusion for an extended period, I would be helping Lucy if he tries something.” Julian nodded. “Does Lucy know what you are planning?” he asked. “I haven’t told her about it specifically, but I trust that she knows to be careful. I may not have worked with her for very long, but I know that it is dangerous to be on the receiving side of her ire.” “Very well,” Julian muttered. “I will go to my assignment. I do not know how comfortable I can seem alongside a lutin, but I will do my utmost to be convincing.” “Good. If all goes well, perhaps we can teach you that not all lutins are out for your blood.” The two men ended their meeting, and returned to the room. Nathan was now sitting on the chair where Lois had been placed earlier, having moved the cage to sit on the table once more. He looked up as Julian approached, giving a small smile to acknowledge his presence. Alex took up his post beside the door. With an undisguised lutin standing in their midst, he didn’t want any visitors to enter unannounced. Balrog himself had moved to the center of the room alongside Lucy, both holding a small rod of chalk in their hands. Lucy had already sketched the central circle, and was instructing Balrog as to the pattern of curves the man’s hand would need to trace to join their halves into a working whole. The discussion was brief, and soon the two were meticulously fashioning the enchantment with careful hands. Alex stretched. Hopefully, the process would not take terribly long. --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus
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