Chapter 80 Dilly-Dallying

  “Can you do that to the rest of the arrays?” Isaac questioned Jala.

  “No.” She replied. “Though if I do this…” She began and prodded another specific part in the Attunement Crystal. “Outsiders should now be allowed in, as long as the person attuned to the crystal is inside as well.”

  “But no one is attuned to the crystal.” Isaac reminded her.

  Jala waved him off. “Of course no one is, otherwise, I would not be able to do this.” She scoffed. She prodded another part and there was a loud rumble and a crash inside. “Maybe they should’ve kept the place more clean.” She grumbled under her breath. Isaac had a vague feeling that she had just caused the arrays to be able to target any creature regardless of size. There was almost assuredly nothing left of some random insect that had slipped inside.

  “Jala, you don’t think she had a pet or something that just got vaporized do you?” Isaac questioned.

  “Hmm?” Jala asked and looked up at him. “What? No. Anything larger than your hand that might’ve been in there would’ve already triggered the array, well, unless it was specifically in an area or container that was designated as an exception to the array’s targeting. Your imagined ‘pet’ could still be alive if whoever made this wasn’t a total idiot.”

  “Good. Thanks.” Isaac told her. He had no idea what kinds of things might’ve been inside of Yarra’s tower and he was really hoping that Jala hadn’t just accidentally obliterated any evidence.

  Jala went back to her task and guided one branch of the enchantment over to connect with another branch. There was a slight quiver of mana as countless spells shifted their parameters slightly. “There.” Jala said triumphantly and hopped to her feet. She tossed the attunement crystal to one side and the ‘Golden Pen’ to the other. She strode over to the trap door and reached towards it without bending over. Her hand closed and mana shifted as an invisible force locked onto the iron ring that served as a door handle. She pulled back and the door swung open to reveal a ladder that almost reached to the top of the floor. It was clear that it was a wizard’s tower and not one made for those without the gift of teleportation.

  “Auntie are you sure-” Lenna’s words died in her throat as her aunt stepped onto the ladder and quickly began descending towards the first floor of Yarra’s tower. “Never mind, I guess.” Lenna sighed.

  Isaac shrugged. “I guess it’s safe now.” He commented and followed after her. Shamesh hurried to follow right behind his master and after that it was just Alexander and Lenna at the top.

  “I suppose we should join them.” Alexander thought aloud.

  “Reckless.” Lenna sighed.

  “Who?” Alexander questioned.

  Lenna sighed again and shook her head. “Both of them.” She replied, obviously meaning Jala and Isaac. It was clear that Shamesh was just following his master in order to keep him safe.

  Alexander chuckled which caught Lenna’s attention. The Court Mage always seemed like he was trying to force a constant state of total control. He often failed, but suppressing a chuckle seemed well within his capabilities at least, so it took her by surprise.

  “What is it?” She asked him curiously.

  “Ehm, sorry.” Alexander apologized. “It is just that you are stuck with both of them. I would not say that I envy you.”

  Lenna scowled. She wanted to be annoyed with his comment, because it just felt like he was being rude even if it was clear that he didn’t mean it that way, but she honestly couldn’t be. Sometimes it did feel like those around her lacked self preservation instincts and she was positive that if her hair was not already silver, then it would have turned grey by then. “Just go in the hole, Alexander.” Lenna ordered him flatly.

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  “Ehm, yes ma’am, um, my Lady.” Alexander agreed and quickly did as he was told. It was at that moment when he remembered why, despite being an acclaimed genius of the academy, most of the other nobles had passed him by in their search for a Court Mage. Serentia Von Arbencroft had taken an instant liking to the open frankness of his youth. It hadn’t been that long since those days but he had gotten quite good at keeping his thoughts to himself, with some guidance from the duchess, of course.

  Lenna only maintained her scowl until Alexander could no longer see her helmet. She knew that he couldn’t see her face but she was also aware that he could feel her scowl just from her body language. Once he was too focused on the ladder to notice her, she just shook her head and let out a silent sigh. Some days she felt like she was surrounded by children, maybe there was more truth to that than she would like to admit.

  The inside of Yarra’s tower was incredibly different from Alexanders. Her tower looked like a massive disorganized mess of an alchemy shop, a research center, a butcher shop, and a garden all at the same time. There were dozens of plants in various states of growth and in different lightings. There were freestanding and wall mounted chalkboards, corkboards, and massive sheets of parchment, all covered in diagrams and scribbled notes. There were at least three copies of every one of Jala’s alchemy and chemistry tools scattered about as if Yarra had just left them lying wherever she was once she was done with them. The thing that really stood out, the thing that Isaac and Shamesh had noticed immediately, were the people, well, corpses of people.

  Yarra had half a dozen corpses in various states of disassembly with their blood entirely drained into glass jars that were set out of the way against a wall. The corpses were one thing, maybe they had just died and Yarra had decided to do research on previously deceased bodies, but no, reality was rarely that kind. There was a young man, entirely stripped of clothing and locked in what looked like a glass coffin. There were runes set into half a dozen iron plates that were set around the coffin and all of them were active. He almost looked like he was dead but as they stared at him for a long moment, they could see his chest slowly rising and falling at less than half of the normal speed of a sleeping person, which already could be quite slow.

  The layout of the tower was anything but a vertical construction. There were only two levels. The first one covered half of the bottom as well as six feet out from each exterior wall to allow a walkway to entirely line the circumference of the tower. There was a massive hole that could be seen from almost anywhere in the tower which was where the laboratory was. The top floor was where the suspended young man was, as well as an impromptu kitchen, and an almost barren sleeping cot. The kitchen was blown to bits by what looked like an explosive force and half a dozen Stars of Doom where the defensive arrays must’ve noticed a bug or something. It was very obvious that Yarra never left her tower unless absolutely necessary.

  “What was she trying to do down here?” Isaac wondered aloud.

  “Create life, well, recreate life.” Jala informed him. “She was going about it all wrong though. You cannot start with sentient mortals and expect to get it right in a reasonable amount of time. There just are not enough of them lying around that can be used for research purposes. The general process, minus the part where a soul under divine dominion is necessary, should be the same, unless I have somehow missed something incredible. There can be a zombie snake, wolf, dragon, elf, dwarf, or human. Why experiment with mortals when plenty of them will get upset about it? Wolf corpses only cost a few gold and living ones only cost twice that.” It was clear that she was just thinking out loud for the rest of them by the time she was finished, and professor Jala was most likely not going to be taking any questions.

  “I… see.” Isaac replied after a moment. He turned to ask Jala another question but she was already across the room.

  Jala was quickly skimming through Yarra’s notes but as she moved she started looking more and more disappointed. Jala was not the kind of person to entirely shut down a human's ability to innovate. She instead just saw them all as short lived idea machines that often lacked the power, lifespan, or expertise to see their ideas to their conclusions. She was hoping that Yarra had written down an idea or information that would be useful. Humans were prone to stumbling across the correct answer after all.

  “Alexander, what do we do?” Isaac questioned the Court Mage. “I feel like this has all just gone from ‘potentially my problem’ to ‘completely the government and its employees problem’.”

  Alexander’s face was stuck in a frown as he took in the tower that had been turned into the villainous lair of a mad pseudo witch. “If there is anything here that you need for your quest, then it is fair game. Otherwise, please leave everything as it is. I will contact Sir Solomon and Duke Arbencroft to see how I should proceed.”

  “How long do you think the weather will stay like this?” Isaac wondered.

  “At least half an hour after the spell has finished.” Alexander replied. “At that point, the weather will start to go back to normal. I doubt the snow will be gone by the end of the day however. It is towards the beginning of winter. We were in the middle of a warm spell but now it is likely to truly feel like winter in the city.”

  “That’s good, for us.” Isaac said more to himself than to anyone else. “We should be able to spend a few hours going through all of this in search of clues before we move on.”

  “What about those prisoners we left in the CSC basement?” Lenna wondered.

  Isaac froze. He felt his mana regeneration and noticed that he wasn’t missing any of it, at all. He swallowed. “Well, they are probably free at the moment.” He met Lenna’s eyes. “Do you think that Sir Solomon is in a state to handle the Guard Captain and the CSC Store Manager? Maybe with some corrupt guards?”

  Lenna shook her head. “Absolutely not.” She replied. “Alexander, when you contact Sir Solomon, ask him if he has met up with the Guild Master yet. If so, then he can use Heitor and his connections to handle everything else in the city.”

  “If not, then we will have to stop dilly-dallying and get to work.” Isaac added. “Also, inform him that there were prisoners in the CSC basement but they have most likely escaped. It might be a good idea to raid the building for evidence regardless.”

  Alexander nodded. “I will contact him now.” He assured the duo. “I am beginning to be very glad that I have such a competent lord and live in my own tower.”

  Amaranth Serentia V'Nova Wexler