Chapter 228: Hell's Kitchen
Dinner was already laid out on the table by the ti Emma returned; a heaping bowl filled to the brim with hearty lamb curry. Noah was at the table, having laid out two servings; evidently, Elizabeth had communicated her absence ahead of ti. The latter was expected, given the circumstances, whereas the forr...
"How'd you manage that? I've seen you make curry before, it always took at least an hour to cook through."
Emma was expecting an answer along the lines of a new high-powered stove of so kind, possibly with a degree of magic involved. Even so, she wasn't prepared for Noah to summon a thin black plu of flas, barely visible as it hovered above his outstretched hand.
[Balefire: All things have a boiling point, even causality.]
"Dad, why are you using Balefire to cook?"
Even just looking at it, Emma felt the urge to activate Null Zone to smother the fla; it felt dangerous in a way that defied description, sothing at the back of her brain urging her to run or lash out, whichever was quickest in the mont.
"I haven't had much free ti lately, whether to cook or to practice magic, so I figured, why not kill two birds with one stone? I burned more than a few steaks to begin with, but I've got it down to a science now, and it's a lot faster than the gas cooker. My spells cost less mana too, which is a nice side benefit."
[Um.]
Emma couldn't help feel that there were a few problematic parts in that, but she was unsure how to tackle it, and instead began to eat. Admittedly, it was a very nice curry; warm, fragrant and with enough spice to be punchy without drowning out the subtle flavours in a lake of fire. If Noah hadn't ntioned it, she'd never have realised there was anything more to it than a deft hand and a good recipe. Before she knew it, her first bowl was empty, quickly followed by three more. Only after they were both full, and the leftovers packed away into Noah's storage item, did Emma broach the more important matter at hand.
"Is there anyone who'd benefit by removing you from the festival?"
"In what context?" Noah frowned, cradling his chin in thought; it wasn't an imdiate denial, which was already sowhat worrying.
"I found a trapped parcel left outside the tent earlier. It held so sort of stasis spell, enough to trap soone in ti for a week before running out of juice. My anti-magic stopped it easily, and Edith agrees it wasn't aid at , so that ans it's either for you or Mom, and Mom has barely spent any ti here since we arrived."
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
"Ah. Well, that's troubling. You're sure it was specifically to make miss the festival? Not an IED to take out of the picture more permanently?"
[They wouldn't dare. It's one thing to temporarily lock soone away; in magical terms, that amounts to little more than a practical joke. A blatant lethal attack, on the other hand, would be a slap in the face to the festival organisers; it would imply that my peers couldn't keep guests in their hospitality alive.]
"Right," Noah sighed. "In that case, I've got a fairly good idea what's going on. You know I more or less stayed away from magical society for the most part?"
Emma nodded non-noncommittally; she'd seen enough by now to realise that her past was complicated, through instances of sealed mories and unfortunate magical interactions, but Noah's statent held true for the most part. Her childhood, what she rembered of it at least, was mostly mundane.
"In light of recent events, I have been made aware of a lot of old family knowledge. To put it bluntly, there are certain inheritances that run in the family, so from a very long ti ago, ones that have been stashed away for decades because nobody has claid them. Weapons that last saw use during the London Blitz, as a more benign example. The annual gathering at the Solstice is one of the few opportunities during the year to claim them, as it's a ti for taking oaths, legal and magical alike."
"You said it yourself, they've sat in a vault for what, eighty years at least? If soone was interested, couldn't they have gone behind your back to claim, them rather than getting you involved?"
"There was probably never a need," Noah shrugged. "Life has been peaceful until now, so any other claimants were happy to let sleeping dogs lie. Not so much any more, with over ninety percent of humanity dead, at a generous estimate."
"So, soone wants the goods, and probably has so level of claim to them. A weaker one than you, so if you were present to contest the issue, they would lose, which is why they tried to make you go away for a week. In an ideal outco, by the ti you were freed, their claim would already be a done deal."
[You know what they say; possession is nine-tenths of the law.]
"It still seems rather reckless," Emma decided after thinking it over. "Neither of us are without allies, so of them very powerful, even if we're both new to the scene. What's so valuable for them to risk the attempt?"
"You know how the Knight family first earned its na?"
"Through great deeds accomplished for King and Country during the height of the Crusades." Emma recited from mory, having spent many a night listening to what she now realised were sanitised versions of family history.
"Exactly. Now, the mundane aspect of that ti is more or less as is commonly known. The magical aspects have largely faded into history by design, but at one point, our family was legendary in the manufacture of magical weaponry. Swords that can split the sky from here to the horizon, mirrors that show a target's greatest weakness and are invisible to defensive wards, poison that can compel the drinker do whatever you want, to na but a few. I never saw a reason to lift the lid on any of this, but clearly, soone wants to force the issue."
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