Paranoia

Syndi secretly tries to give Muld's note to Allenaia.

3.

Paranoia

 

“There you are!”  Tadd exclaimed as Rick entered the building an hour after he left, “How’d it go?”

“Well…I don’t think we’ll have that wizard as a repeat customer,” Rick answered, looking around in vain for Muld. 

“What did you do?”  Jevon asked, looking up from examining blueprints.

He had no choice but tell them, but he stressed the rudeness of the elf wizard and downplayed his aggression to him.

“Heavens, Rick!”   Tadd said, “I’m not sure it was a good idea to stand up to a wizard like that.”

“Who would blame me?   I rode over there with the man.    He clearly hates everyone.    It wasn’t fair to the employees of Flapjacks either.”

“Did you try any of them?”   The Halfling asked, a gleam in his eyes at the thought of warm hotcakes.

“No, I figured I should get back in case he complained about me to Muld.    Where is he, anyway?”

“We haven’t seen him,”   Mutt answered, looking at the clock in the room, “He’s been gone longer than you.”

“You’ve just got to try their hotcakes, Rick!”   Tadd exclaimed, ignoring Mutt’s worry about their boss.

“I promised Shel I’d come back tomorrow morning and try some.”

Jevon looked up again, “Shel?”

“She’s the Orc assistant manager at Flapjacks.    She’s actually quite charming - she has a beautiful voice.”

“Oh, we know who you mean,” Tadd smirked, “She’s quite a looker for an Orc.”

Jevon nodded, cupping his hands at his chest with a sheepish grin.

“Yeah, she has a lot of nice curves,” Rick replied, for once not happily joining in with rude comments about a woman’s physical blessings.

His muted response surprised the other three men in the room and they glanced at each other as Rick began looking through a pile of paperwork on his desk.

“You said her name is Shel?”  Mutt asked after a moment.

“That’s her nickname.   She said her name was Shelyah, but everyone calls her Shel.”

“So what did you think of her?”   Mutt wondered.

“She was kind of pretty… for an Orc.”

Mutt raised his eyebrows, glancing at Jevon and Tadd.    Jevon began to say something to jest with Rick, but remembering his earlier foul mood, he restrained himself and shook his head at Mutt and Tadd.

“Well, we’ve got to go over to see Durvos about casting more canons and then enchant the contact plates on the second batch before we can work on them.   Oh, and all of us are invited at 2 PM to a limited tour of the Queen Eioldth.  She’ll be dedicated in two days, but King Eleazar put our names on the tour group.”   Jevon was preparing to mention more responsibilities for today when the back entrance opened and Muld entered.

“Hey boss; we were beginning to get worried,” Mutt greeted the guild master, and Muld smiled weakly, which usually meant that he was deeply in thought about something.

“Anything exciting happening this morning?”   The elf asked, which caused Tadd, Mutt and Jevon all to glance to Rick.

“Yes?”  Muld waited for Rick to explain.

“I probably caused us to lose a customer.”   He told the same tale that he had told the others, though this time he portrayed his own anger a bit more accurately.

“Well, I understand your irritation, Rick, but it still seems a bit… aggressive… for you.   Has something else happened?”

Rick’s face flushed, and for an instant he was angry that he had to share his relationship problems with his boss.    But the feeling faded almost at once and he related to him the letter that he had received.

“Ah, well, that explains it, I guess.    I’m sorry about that, Rick; that is rather cold, not telling you in person.    If you need some time off…”

“No, I’m alright, Muld.    I just let personal issues upset me for a while.   Honestly, I was rather anti-elf there for several hours.    It was very juvenile of me; I apologize to all of you.    Perhaps I should go and apologize to that elven wizard as well.”

“No, Rick, I don’t approve of his hatefulness.    He probably was a Faesidhe - many of them came here hoping to win favor with King Eleazar so they could receive land grants in the Faesidhe forest.    Apparently, when Marksylvania took over the Faesidhe kingdom, the corrupt nobles were deposed and many of their children are now trying to get their parents’ titles and lands back.”

“Well he seemed to hate everyone.    When he looked at Shel like that, it just infuriated me so bad that I had to say something.”

“I imagine Flapjacks is now quite fond of you for standing up for their assistant manager.”

Rick shrugged, “I don’t know, boss, but I do know that just because she is an Orc does not mean he has to be rude to her.”

“That is quite right.    I’m glad to see that this Orc lady is changing your perspective on Orcs.”

Rick nodded, “After our coach was ambushed at Orc Pass several years ago, I was not too keen on Orcs.    Lady Lysa and Captain Bruce seemed different, but I wasn’t around them very much.   Did you know, Muld, that Shelyah is Lysa’s cousin?”

Muld shook his head, smiling at a sparkle in Rick’s eye that the young man did not even know was there.

“Boss, I hate to interrupt, but we really need to get back to business; we’re backlogged you know and we have that airship tour this afternoon,”   Mutt reminded them and that was all it took to cause them to focus on business.

 

***

 

All morning, Syndi tried to think of a way to secretly hand Alleania the note Muld had written, but she kept hesitating.    The Losasidhe princess could not help but feel like she was constantly being watched by the mysterious Wizard of Windhaven.  

But she feared that if she didn’t relay the message soon, Alleania would not have time to find the telepathy devices.

So after she had instructed them on protective shielding spells, Alleania gave Allea and her half of an hour to add the spells to their spellbooks.

“Lady, Alleania?”   Syndi finally had an idea.

“Yes, child?”

“I had an idea for the use of Faerie Fire, cast upon the ink of a note to make it readable in the dark.    I tried it on a piece of paper, but I don’t think it worked right, because the glow is hardly noticeable.   Since you have superior vision in dim light, would you be so kind to look at it in a dark room to see if it shows up at all?”

“Certainly, Syndi,” She held out her hand and Syndi handed her Muld’s note, holding her breath in fear that Alleania would unfold it right away.

“I’ll take it into the closet and look at it,” The Drow lady told her and she walked over to the storage closet in the room, opened the door and slipped inside, closing it behind her.

Syndi was anxious to see how Alleania would respond to what Muld wrote, but just in case that the wizard was watching her by scrying device; she didn’t want to look nervous.    So she went back to copying arcane text into her spellbook, forcing herself not to look up from time to time.

Alleania was in the closet for what seemed like a long time, and Syndi feared that this would look suspicious to a spying magic user, but there was nothing she could do.

Finally the door opened and the Drow sorceress walked out, rubbing her eyes.   The note was folded up and Alleania held something else in her hand.

“Syndi, it was a fascinating idea and I think it was a good use of the spell, but the Faerie Fire on the ink was extremely faint and it took me a while to read it.   But I want you and Muld to work on this idea.   There are several versions of Faerie Fire, and I taught you the most common version, since you don’t know the dark elven language.”

She handed Syndi the note, then opened up the palm of her other hand, revealing two rings.

“Child, these two rings are used by Drow parents to teach dark elven children in the Underdark several spells that most Drow know.    One of these spells is a version of Faerie Fire.    When you wear this ring and think about casting one of the spells encoded here, the wording of the incantation will be heard telepathically in your mind, helping you to recite it accurately and cast them.”

“I want Muld and you to wear these rings and learn the dark elven version of the spell, then try to recreate your idea of casting it upon the ink of a note like this one.    I think the telepathic method is exactly what Muld and you need to make this idea work.”    Alleania smiled at Syndi, their eyes meeting for a moment.

“Thank you, ma’am, I’m sure Muld will be delighted to learn a new spell.”

“I’m always glad to help the Practical Magicians Guild.   Now get back to your scribal work.”

Syndi bowed and slipped one of the rings on her finger, catching thoughts of Alleania’s satisfaction of her quickly crafted cover story before she left the range of the telepathy ring.     With Muld wearing the other ring, they would be able to communicate telepathically over any distance.

Though she was relieved to have received the rings, the paranoid feeling of being closely monitored remained the rest of the afternoon.

 

***

 

In the early afternoon, Syndi looked up in surprise upon hearing Muld’s voice speaking to a servant downstairs.    A few moments later, his head popped into the study where she and Allea were finishing their scribal work.

“Good afternoon, ladies,” He spoke to them with his usual shy smile, “I’ve come to retrieve Syndi for the tour of the airship named after her late sister.”

“I’d forgotten about that,” Syndi said in embarrassment.   After finding the note and her mission to get the telepathy rings, she had completely forgotten about the tour.

“Your parents didn’t get invited to the tour?”   Allea asked as Syndi closed up her book.

“You know, I never thought of that!   That is rather odd.” 

“Well, their first flight is to Losahome, so maybe they were planning on having a ceremony there, to honor your sister,” Muld suggested.

“I’ll hurry back as soon as we’re done,” Syndi told Alleania.

“If your copying is complete, that is all I had for you two today,” The Drow lady answered.

“I’m finished.”

“Then you are dismissed for the day.”

“Thank you, ma’am; you are so very kind.”

“Why thank you, child.   Now you’d better get going.”

They bid the Sorceresses farewell and exited the building.

As they walked down the street toward the Westmark Airship yard, Syndi remembered the rings.

“Muld, I showed Alleania our idea about casting Faerie Fire upon ink in a note, and she took the note and examined it in a closet, but she said that the glow was very faint.”

“Oh really?”   Muld understood what she was telling him and played along seamlessly.

“She thought that it was the type of Faerie Fire spell that was to blame.    The Drow have a different version, and she gave me two rings that Drow parents use to teach Faerie Fire spells to Drow children.     She wants both of us to wear them to quickly learn the Drow pronunciation of the spell, since neither one of us knows Drow.”

She squeezed Muld’s hand and he returned the squeeze, acknowledging that he understood.

“Yes, I’d love to learn their language, and that would be a good start.”

Syndi pulled out the other ring from her belt pouch and handed it to him.   Muld slipped it on immediately.

*Well done, sweetheart!* his thoughts filled her mind as clearly as if he had spoken them to her.

*So we just think what we want to say to each other?* She asked, though she knew the answer.

*Yes, so don’t think anything bad about me, or I’ll know!* He kidded and she felt his love for her along with his thoughts.

*I can feel your emotions too!*

*The rings are probably the type that share emotions as well.   They are the most advanced of the telepathy rings.    Alleania is quite a woman - she’s very sharp to keep everything secret.*

*She had the rings in the very closet that she went into - that was very lucky for us.*

*Well, this might be for nothing - we don’t know if this wizard is watching us or not, but it’s best to be safe rather than sorry.*

*We’d best talk to each other, if the wizard is watching by crystal ball, or he’ll wonder why we’re not talking.*

*You’re right.*   Muld turned to her with a smile, “So, how has your day been, sweetheart?”

“It’s been alright, but I keep wondering about that note that we got this morning.”

“You haven’t told anyone about it, I hope!”

“I’ve not spoken a word to anyone!”  She said truthfully, for she had simply passed a note to Alleania.

“Good; we’ll just have to wait until tonight to see what this wizard has to say.   Until then, let’s not worry about it - it may be nothing.”

“Alright.”

 

***

 

They reached the shipyard a few minutes later to find the rest of the guild’s ‘inner circle’ waiting for them.    Soon they boarded a hovering lifeboat and were taken up into the air where the nearly finished Queen Eioldth hovered about 15 feet off the ground.

They were greeted very cordially by the chief architect, the new ship’s captain and his first mate.     They were especially delighted to see Syndi and told her that they considered it very good luck to have the ‘beautiful sister of our ship’s namesake’ aboard to inspect the majesty of the new airship.

For nearly an hour they were informed about the advanced arcane technology of the vessel, which greatly interested Muld.    It had an amazing 10 vacuum engines, cannon ports for thirty guns, and wonderfully large and comfortable crew quarters and even guest rooms.

“It will have a crew of fifty and can accommodate twice that many if there is a need to haul troops or other passengers,” Captain Hathowern told them proudly, “It can be piloted by one man with the steering and propulsion controls and our hold can carry 10 tons of cargo.”

“Quite impressive, Captain,” Muld said with a smile, “It is an impressive example of practical magic and I am delighted that such a powerful warship will be patrolling the skies, keeping Marksylvania safe from pirates.”

“That is our goal, sir, and we all are inspired by your own valiant actions this last month.”

“You are most kind, Captain.   You mentioned that the ship can be piloted by just one man?”

“Yes, indeed, Master Muld.   These vacuum engines are revolutionary.   They have rudders behind the exhaust portion and by closing them or turning them to various degrees, the airship will turn.   It is similar to the same principle of a waterborne ship’s rudders.”

“I had theorized something like that - how wonderful to see someone putting it to use.   Another idea I had was to use canvas sails as brakes on one side of a ship.    The wind resistance would slow that side of the airship causing the ship to turn into the direction of the applied brake.”

The captain nodded, impressed at the idea, “You know, combined with the rudders, that might make an airship turn sharper.”

Before the conversation could progress into experimental steering ideas, a messenger wearing the badge of the king came up to the group, bowed and then turned to Syndi.

“Your Highness, I have a message from King Eleazar.”   He handed her a sealed piece of paper, then bowed again and hurried over to one of the ship’s rope ladders that he had used to board the craft.   A moment later, he was descending to the shipyard below.

All eyes fell upon the Losasidhe Princess as she opened the seal and read the message.   Near the end, the blood drained from her face.

“What is it?”   Muld asked, and she handed him the note, while leaning in close for comfort.   As he read it, he put his arm around her.