章節 20: Chapter 20: The Ruler is in trouble!

The rest of the trip to the grand spiral staircase that served as the tower's entrance was mercifully devoid of any surprises.

As we began carefully climbing the stairs, I drew as much mana as I could possibly handle, making sure to have a bit of every Aspect. There was no real reason why mages almost always made their home in towers other than tradition, but one thing they always had in common was that they were trapped and warded to high heavens.

I had made sure to counterward both myself and Sarjay against the likeliest effects. Still, I knew the Adept had me beat in Fate, and given my barely apprentice-level grasp of Dimension, he almost certainly outmatched me there as well.

Fights between mages tended to be a lot like strategy games, but there was an element of gambling as well. You needed to predict what defenses your enemy would use, and attack through whatever avenue was the least defended. Knowing your enemy's specialties helped enormously, but you could always bluff, leaving your biggest weakness undefended wasn't an uncommon gamble, since the enemy would generally assume you would concentrate your defenses there.

The spiral staircase was connected to the outer wall of the tower — we could see some of the inner chambers as we climbed — libraries and laboratories, mostly. As we climbed, I grew warier and warier — we had yet to engage any trap, and we were a good halfway up already, by my count. It wasn't that there were none, I could feel a number of wards anchored through the walls, and their potency was nothing to scoff at. But they had let us pass, and this puzzled me greatly.

I had assumed Thaos to be antagonistic, especially given his link to the gods. This did not fit in my scenario at all — we had come here armed and weapons at the ready, which in any reasonable world would have prompted a defensive response. Was he simply not worried about us? Maybe he'd reached a high enough level with Fate to discern the outcome of our meeting?

I wasn't sure which option bothered me more.

Court Mage Thaos was sitting on a countertop, his feet dangling off the edge, when we finally reached the top floor. I had turned the top of my tower into a cozy observatory, but the Adept seemed to have made a bar and lounge out of his. He held a half-empty bottle of some spirit in one hand, and an empty shot glass in the other. He looked me straight in the eye as I entered and gave me a wolfish grin.

"Archmage Crane! So good to see you so soon. A bit early, though, are you not?" He tilted his head quizzically. "Not very polite, you should have sent a messenger if you wanted to come sooner."

His demeanor caught me entirely off guard. "Early? You were expecting me?"

"Did you forget?" Thaos frowned. "We were supposed to meet here in the afternoon. And right now it is—" he blinked a few times and I could feel a thimble of Dimension mana flowing through him, "—just about nine in the morning. Quite a bit early," he punctuated.

I remembered now, his invitation during the dinner. It somehow felt so long ago.

I wasn't sure why he was suddenly so strict about propriety, given recent events, but I decided playing along would be for the best. "You have my apologies for that, Adept. The circumstances in the palace below have made a mess of my plans."

"Yes, indeed — I've had to remake my plans over and over because everything just kept going wrong!"

Thaos let out a weary sigh, taking a gulp straight from the bottle.

"At least everything is on track now, finally. You know," he began as he pointed his bottle at me, eyes forming into a glare, "you didn't make this easy for me at all. Like, what the hells? What kind of Dark Lord are you even supposed to be?"

"...excuse me?"

Sarjay circled around me, moving to stand further inside the room, ready to attack the mage if he tried something. I motioned to him to be cautious, wary of the strange mage.

"Like, seriously," Thaos continued, ignoring the silent communication in front of him, "I gave you all the reasons to come kill the bastard — and you just, like, don't?"

My eyes widened in surprise. "You sent Vinara with the letter?"

He snorted. "No, Illvere did. But I told him to do it. And he thought it was a good idea! Anyway," he took another mouthful from the bottle, "I then went and did it for you — framed you perfectly too! — and you tried to make peace with the terrible three, of all things?"

Thaos rubbed his face with the back of his right hand, spilling the contents of the shot glass on his face. He winced, continuing. "Fuck, that stings. Anyway, at least the lion bitch is dead now so you can't get out of it now."

...Had he just confessed to both murders? Also, wait, what?

"Get out of what?" I stammered, incredulously.

He glared at me again. "Are you dense? Taking over the duchy, obviously." He dropped the glass and the bottle, then, taking out a silvery coin from his pocket, he spun it around a few times, thinking. "What else was there? Oh, right." He grinned, jumping off the counter and giving me a mocking bow. "My Master sends their regards. Compliments of the Fox."

Then he crushed the coin in his left hand, which unleashed a stream of incredibly thick mana — Origin? — while drawing an activation sequence with his right hand — I felt the wards permeating the building shudder.

"You've some kick-ass wards around you, so if you don't survive you've only got yourself to blame!" Thaos yelled, finally, as the Origin mana engulfed him completely. A moment later, he was gone.

I only had a moment before I realized what he'd done — he had supercharged all the wards in the tower, effectively setting them to detonate. Before I could cast anything to shield myself, the world went white.