The tent grew quiet. They all turned to Lucen. He studied the soldier carefully for a mont, thinking.
"Alright then, let’s go," he said finally.
The soldier ducked out of the tent. Lucen turned back to give Brock, Helie and the others a wry smile.
"I’ll be right back."
He walked out of the tent and followed the man through the encampnt the soldiers had built outside Castaway Valley. The valley spread in front of him, and ahead of it was the Grey Keep and the Void on the horizon.
The camp had been set up rather quickly. Silk tents and tal rods walked themselves to marked spots and assembled. Pits were dug from the earth for moats and firepits with spells.
Mounts neighed on their lines as they passed. Farrowmounts stretching their wings and drooling stupidly, Buckmounts clawing at the ground impatiently. And the white spider-like carriages that once brought him to the Keep, were lying on the ground, sleeping.
The soldiers watched him as he passed, their hearty voices and laughs fading. It wasn’t the amused glances he was used to, this was more like unwilling respect.
Chester’s tent was less grand than he imagined. Simple white material barely taller than the two giant knights standing at the entrance.
The giants lood over him, but Lucen could feel the real danger radiating from inside the tent, the guards outside were just a warning.
The soldier stopped in front of the two giants, and opened his mouth to state his business. But Chester interrupted him.
"Co inside, Lucen."
He frowned and walked into the tent. Not two steps past the entrance, he stuttered to a stop.
The interior of the small tent was massive. The roof stretched higher than what was reasonably possible, the back of the tent was divided, aning there was another section back there.
The place was sparsely decorated. A Bull wolf rug on the floor, so wooden chairs scattered around, and a big desk covered in maps and docunts.
Chester sat at the desk, studying a map, which had moving dots, and people moved all around him. The voices were low and rushed, but there were so many the tent buzzed with activity.
What type of magic is this? Lucen marvelled at the tent. Divine? But what category of spell would this fall into?
Lucen ignored the venomous glares Chester’s attendants shot at him, walking straight to his desk. He bowed and saluted Chester, but the man barely glanced up from his papers.
"How are you doing?" asked Chester, eyes still fixed on his work.
"Good, thank you sir."
"Good?" Chester chuckled, "after battling a Fiend as a Squire?"
"Brock did most of the fighting, I got lucky enough to land the final blow."
Soone dropped a ssage on his desk, and Chester reached for it, skimming over its content. He paused, frowning.
"The Sky Castle is coming here," Chester murmured. He took a plain piece of paper, and quickly wrote sothing down.
One of his attendants ran out the room, and returned with a crystal orb that floated over his hands.
"Address: Ainsel Castle. Recipient: Commander Luther," Chester recited to the orb. "Private. No one is allowed to read its contents."
The orb glowed, then a misty hand stread from the orb, gliding to the letter. Once the hand made contact with the paper, it disappeared in a puff of smoke. Then the orb drifted out of the tent.
Lucen’s eyes twitched. It was his first ti seeing a ssenger orb in action. How did it identify the person it was delivering the ssage too?
And what was Chester sending to the Sky castle? He ntioned the Ainsel castle in the alleyway with Koril. The Ainsel castle probably served the Redgrove region, can they just leave, and co here?
Chester shooed his attendant away, and finally gave his attention to Lucen.
"But I must congratulate you, you did sothing most people wouldn’t dare too at your age. I rember when I was a Squire, one of my cousins pissed himself in front of a Bloodseeker rat. Although my cousin couldn’t use the skills of a soul-bound weapon."
Lucen caught the question. "I wasn’t able to use the spear’s ability till recently. I did grasp the partial-activation during my fight with Korgath."
"Barth really loved that spear, he was the best in our class," Warren reminisced, "he graduated among the top ten at Crucible. He had a similar love of fire as Aya, talent-wise they are also a bit similar."
Lucen’s jaw tightened, his golden eyes fixed tightly on Chester. Heat rushed to his head. He touched his face, and tried not to frown.
Chester looked up at the rafters of the high tent, smiling, and thinking of tis past.
"You can’t represent us at Crucible, but your skill will bring back so lost renown to this family. But I must ask, where did you co across a wind spell?"
Lucen frowned, there was no compulsion to answer. Why didn’t Chester use his authority to make him answer? Did he suspect that Lucen could lie even when ordered to answer truthfully.
"I, uh, bought it from a passing Knight about three weeks ago," Lucen answered.
If Chester expected him to lie, he needed to make it seed unintentional. He looked away and stamred like he was lying.
"It’s a High-rank spell so I’ve spent a lot of ti mastering it."
[Will’s Breath] was actually easier to master than [Sinking Sand] and [Traveller’s Aid]. But Chester didn’t need to know that.
Chester’s eyes bore into him softly. He propped his elbow on the desk, and asked.
"The technique Koril gave you was High ranked wasn’t it. Made for channelling earth, water, and fire mana. But you use wind now?"
"The Knight also taught a Minor-rank channelling technique, it synchronises well with my current channeling routine."
Chester laughed softly. He obviously didn’t believe Lucen, but had no evidence of wrongdoing. It wasn’t illegal to buy channelling techniques or spells below High-rank from Knights, because they swore oaths that restricted them from distributing their powers to just anyone.
Chester could order him to tell the truth. But he had another lie ready, one rather close to the truth. It partially included Windy, but excluded her quest for him to hunt Peter.
"These things sell cheap, don’t they," Chester teased, "anyway, I wanted to award you personally. A High-rank spell."
Lucen’s eyes widened. That was actually really nice, but what was the catch?
Chester took out the fresh scroll and handed it to him. Lucen study the paper a bit carefully.
"It’s a fireball spell that I extracted from Aya daza," Chester said, "she has told many secrets, but she still holds so to herself. Let’s hope she breaks soon, so we can prepare for our crusade to the Red Keep."
Lucen bowed deeply, hands trembling against the scroll. "Thank you for your kindness."
"You may leave," Chester concluded. Lucen was just at the edge of the tent when Chester said, "There’s this quote from Havi the silent"
Lucen paused, not bothering to look back. For a mute man, Havi had way too many quotes for Lucen to believe he actually made them.
Chester’s smile stretched. "’Believe only what you have evidence for. But I am a betting man, and I trust my instincts.’ Interesting, isn’t it."
Lucen turned, smiling. He nodded briefly, and left the tent. The suspicion was unavoidable, but he was ready to take Chester down with him.
Honestly, he wished Chester would give him a reason to.
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