9. Where Do Mages Retire, Anyway?

The swamps to the north of San Aria lay thick and sodden, like ancient cloth left to mildew. A buzzing miasma of horseflies blanketed the grey bogland that stretched as far as the eye could see. Here and there, tufts of heather poked optimistically between stretches of muddy water, made glaring mirrors by the morning sun. Only a raised dirt track, winding like a serpent through the fens, offered any suggestion of civilisation.

Caela cast a last, wistful glance back at the receding layer-cake stack of San Aria, its towers and flagpoles hazy with distance. For the first time since her arrival, she found herself missing the city’s bustling crowds.

Her reverie was broken by a bellow of laughter from the front of the cart. Rose, lounging on the driver’s bench, dabbed a tear from the corner of his eye, while Hellebore - perched beside him - squeezed the reins in their tiny gloved hands.

“I’m sorry,” Rose managed, shoulders still quaking with mirth. “I’m glad you didn’t get hurt. It’s just the way you tell it.” He puffed out his cheeks and mimed an explosion. “Boom! Scattered like petals at a wedding.”

“It’s not funny,” Hellebore snapped.

Rose was still lost in his amusement. “The master cat burglar, thwarted by a rug!”

“Shut up! I’d like to see you do better, you oversized-”

The insult died unspoken as Hellebore noticed Caela listening. Rising to their feet, they nimbly vaulted the bench and pressed the reins into her hands.

“You take over,” they said peevishly. “I need a break.”

Having passed on their ordeal, they hopped off the laden cart to stalk along behind.

Caela moved forward to sit beside the still-chuckling Rose. “You really shouldn’t antagonise Hellebore,” she said, though a smile pulled at her lips. “They did agree to help us.”

“Oh, yeah? And what noble cause compels their loyalty, I wonder?”

Caela thought back to earlier that morning. In the paleness of first light, she and Lux had prepared to leave for Vozloc’s ranch on Menelaus’ cart. It had been a welcome surprise to find that news of their plans had leaked, and several of their new friends were there to join them. Hellebore had muttered about the valuables that could be found in the home of a retired wizard, while Valerios, ambitious as ever, had crowed about the influence such a quest would grant him within San Aria’s Council.

“So which is it for you, Rose?” Caela asked with a glint of mischief, fixing him with an owlish gaze. “Money or glory?”

He glanced at her from the corner of his eye, his smile and tone fading. “Neither, actually,” he said softly. “And that’s a first for me. I’m actually here for your friend, Lux.”

They both turned to watch the young paladin as he trotted alongside the giant warhorse Hayl and her equally-fearsome rider. The boy was peppering Valerios with a barrage of cheerful chatter.

“He’s a good kid,” Rose continued. “Tough, brave and, most importantly, kind. Granted, he’s young and dumb, but with a bit of training from yours truly, he could be really special.”

He paused. “He’s not got much of a self-preservation instinct, has he?”

Caela nodded.

Rose chuckled again, this time with less good humour. “Right. And he’s not going to get any of that from me. So watch out for him out there, won’t you?”

“Y-yeah.” Caela swallowed the sudden tightness in her throat. Of course she would look after Lux. But he wouldn’t need it, would he?

“What am I saying?” Rose said, more lightly. “I know a tag team when I see one. You’ll have each other’s backs.”

The tender moment was broken by a rumble from Rose’s toned stomach. “Damn. That’s what I get for skipping breakfast.” He leaned back, rummaging beneath the tarpaulin that concealed their surprise. “Good thing we brought- OW!”

He recoiled, clutching his fingers. “Something bit me!” he yelped, shooting a look at Caela. “I don’t think your lupine friend is properly trained.”

She looked from the offended Rose, to the supplies, then ahead - to the wolf, trotting happily beside Lux.

“That wasn’t the wolf,” she murmured, reaching for the knife at her belt.

At that moment, a blur of bright blue fur exploded from beneath the canvas. The creature - a vibrantly coloured, snarling badger - leapt onto the crates, its teeth bared in fury. Then, with a sudden burst of flowers, it vanished beneath a cascade of petals.

When the blossoms cleared, Caela’s Mages’ Guild saviour stood in its place, stretching languidly. Freija was just as colourful as before, fresh flowers woven into her hair and mischief in her eyes.

Rose looked about ready to fall off the cart. Hellebore, who had already drawn a knife, sheathed it with some disappointment.

Freija finished her stretch with a satisfied groan, then cocked her head at the dumbfounded Rose. “What?” she said sharply. “It’s your fault for scaring me! I was napping, you know. Ever hear of beauty sleep?”

“This is a secret mission,” Rose managed at last

The floral interloper rolled her eyes and flopped down to recline on the canvas. “Don’t stress your big blond head,” she sighed. “Me and Caela are teaming up to look for the same old guy. We’re nature pals. And, as you may have noticed, I also happen to have a certain connection to the earth.” She gestured emphatically at her recently-transformed body.

She blinked at them, all doe-eyed innocence. “But if you don’t want me here, then I’ll just have to squelch my way back to San Aria. All on my own. In the mud.”

Rose gave Caela a despairing look. “Any other surprise teammates to know about? Don’t tell me the old wizard is hidden in this barrel!”

Caela shook her head. “No. Professor Tyrol is catching up later. He said he has a ritual to perform first.”

“Great!” Rose accepted his defeat. “More the merrier, I suppose. Who knows what we’ll run into in these swamps.”

—

The pale sun caramelised like sugar, turning through a palette of yellows and burnt oranges. San Aria had long since passed out of view, and the road seemed to wither without the city’s watchful eye. Here it was little more than a pair of wheel ruts bumping over uneven terrain. The rattling of the cart seemed to have worn down the exuberance of its passengers, and even Valerios was looking weary atop the plodding Hayl.

Only two members of the party remained buoyant, and it was they who first spotted the cottage. Lux and Caela raced towards the squat structure, tumbling over grassy tufts and splashing through hidden puddles. The fleet-footed elf slowed down just enough to let the sprinting paladin catch her. They fell, laughing, against the old cottage door.

“One day I’ll be faster than you,” Lux panted, wagging a gauntleted finger at Caela.

She smiled in response, then looked back at their distant companions. “One day…” she echoed, softly. “After we get back to San Aria tomorrow, you mean?”

Lux’s expression faltered. He looked down awkwardly. “Right. Sorry. It’s easy to forget we met just a few days ago. I suppose you’ll be wanting to get back to your folks once this is over.”

Caela held her hands up, flustered at having spoiled the mood. “No, no, I didn’t mean that! I was just wondering what everyone’s going to do afterwards. We’ve had such a fun time, and it would be too bad if we all never saw each other again. Especially for the people who don’t seem to have anyone else, like…”

She ventured a look at Lux, whose face had clouded. “…like Mr Valerios,” she finished lamely. “Not to mention Professor Tyrol, and Rose, and Hellebore. They act like lone wolves, but look how quickly they’ve decided to join a pack.”

“So what are you saying?” Lux asked warily.

“I don’t know,” Caela admitted with a sheepish shrug. “But… I see how happy Uncle is when he talks to Mrs Ren, and how their medusa friend Vyne lit up when we talked about their old team. And my grandfather, too. I think they had a really special bond. Something worth holding on to. Maybe…”

She trailed off, the thought still too fragile to speak aloud, but Lux nodded thoughtfully.

He broke into a smile. “Recruiting your own group, are ya? Think you can handle a self-proclaimed king?”

Caela grinned. “I’ll find him something to boss around.”

“What about a boxer who keeps losing his shirt?”

“I’ll pack spares in case he gets cold.”

“Self-taught wizard?”

“Sure.”

“Masked thief?”

“No problem.”

“A girl who can turn into a badger.”

“I’ve seen stranger.”

Lux’s smile broadened. “What about a damn fool with a sword, who can only halfway control a mysterious, glowing light?”

Caela smiled. “Halfway more than anyone else. Welcome aboard.”

—

While the others slogged through the last stretch of sucking mug and biting insects, Lux and Caela decided to take the initiative. Caela peeped in through the grimy windows as Lux rapped increasingly urgently on the flaking front door of the cottage. The knocks echoed into the house, but Caela saw no sign of acknowledgement from inside.

“Y’think he could be hurt?” Lux asked. “Maybe he’s sick in bed, or fell down the stairs and can’t get up.”

“Lux, it’s a bungalow. There aren’t any stairs.” Caela stared up at the mossy thatched roof covering the cottage’s single storey.

He screwed up his face in thought as Caela leaned in to take another look at the smeared details of the room beyond the glass. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Lux take a step back, tense his body, then lurch forward to deliver a crunching kick to the doorknob. The faded painted door flew off its hinges entirely, crashing into the dim interior.

She gave Lux a pointed look, but he just shrugged. “Man could be hurt.”

They stepped into the cottage.

The evening light struggled to push through the murky window panes, leaving the rooms cold and dark. The air was damp and musty, like it had been forgotten by everything but the swamp that surrounded it.

Caela carefully explored a living area, cramped even for someone of her short stature. The soft furnishings showed no sign that someone had sat in them, and the fireplace held neither logs nor ash. She returned to inspect the door-frame, teasing splinters of rotten wood from where the hinges had ripped free.

“Not much of a retirement gift,” Lux observed. “I know Mr Tyrol said wizards aren’t all made of money, but damn. If this place was back home, the folks would help rebuild it, outta charity. It’s uninhabitable.”

“It’s uninhabited,” Caela breathed.

She turned to see that the others had finally caught up, beginning to duck through the low doorway. “This is definitely where the Archmage said the ranch would be, but something’s… off.” She couldn’t quite put her finger on it yet, but pushed more confidence than she felt into her words. “Let’s make camp until Johannes gets here, then plan our next steps.”

The party began to hole up in the abandoned shack. Valerios lit a campfire in the cooking pit and set to boiling a hearty stew, while Hellebore perched crow-like, warming themselves by the flames. Several times the big man caught the thief trying to spear pieces of meat from the pot with their knife, and batted away such attempts with his heavy hand. Lux showed hidden talents by producing a battered flute and playing a jaunty reel, which soon had Freija dragging Caela into a dance. Rose clapped and shouted advice on their footwork.

Now that the mysterious cottage had been filled with light, warmth and life, it almost felt comfortable. Not too long into the night, the jangling of riding gear could be heard approaching the house, and soon after, Johannes poked his grey head through the open doorway. Rubbing his hands, he strode towards the fire and unburdened himself of his scratchy woollen overcoat.

“Aha, excellent! It gets terribly chilly out there once the sun goes down,” he huffed.

“Good spellcasting, my wizened friend?” Rose asked, sliding another log into the flames.

Johannes nodded, spreading his hands proudly. “Indeed, Master Rose,” he proclaimed, “The ritual was a complete success. My Beast was summoned from the aether to do my bidding.”

Rose’s eyebrows raised, and Valerios looked up from his defence of the stewpot.

“This is indeed impressive, to have commanded such a daemon,” the moustachioed knight observed. “May we see it? I would be curious if an army could be levied in such a way.”

The wizard hesitated. “Ah, well, an army would be a legendary feat indeed. My Beast is not a fighting creature, more of a…”

He was interrupted by a rustle from inside his sleeve. A fuzzy brown head poked out from it, then the creature retreated up the sleeve, popping out of his collar completely to perch on his shoulder.

“A rat?” Rose asked.

“A weasel,” Freija blurted.

“A baby!” Caela exclaimed.

The mage recoiled at the overlapping assault of interjections. He puffed up defensively, twisting his moustache. The weasel scurried up his arm to nose at his beard, rather spoiling the effect.

“This,” Johannes announced with as much ceremony as he could muster, “is my Beast.”

He deflated at the ensuing chorus of laughter. It was hard to tell, but there might even have been a raspy guffaw from behind Hellebore’s mask.

“It will prove a most useful… that is to say, it will grow stronger over time…” Johannes attempted vainly. As the heckling continued, the Beast zipped down his torso and slipped through the legs of Caela’s very bemused wolf companion, disappearing into a dusty corner of the room.

“Now look what you’ve done,” the wizard said reproachfully to a struggling Lux. The boy swallowed his chuckle and got to his feet.

“My bad, Mr Johannes. I’ll help you find him,” he said, stepping over sprawled legs to try and locate the small furry shape.

“Hey, King V,” Rose muttered, elbowing Valerios. “Think you could knock over a city with ten thousand of those little guys? Wearing tiny helmets?”

The paladin chortled. “Perhaps if the city was San Aria! I was thinking of something a little bigger. I would be afraid Hayl might accidentally tread on a whole brigade.”

Lux led Johannes away from the wisecracking strongmen and into the adjoining room. It was mercifully free of the clutter they’d had to clear out of the front room in order to make their camp.

“That’s mighty odd,” Lux mused, as Johannes peered around the empty room, trying to locate the source of a faint squeaking. “The floor’s a lot cleaner here.”

“Spotless. And yet the Beast is still hiding somewhere,” the wizard replied. “Perhaps… aha!” He knelt unsteadily, and pointed at what looked like a knot in the wood. Lux joined him, and saw that it was a small hole, cut - or gnawed? - clean through the floorboard.

As they watched, the weasel scurried across their view, his claws producing an odd scratching sound. Johannes stood, retrieving the palm-sized orb from his jacket pocket.

“What has my Beast found?” he asked nobody in particular. “No matter. Perfect chance to test out our connection. Let me take a look.”

Johannes stared into the orb, his expression growing slack and distant. After only a few seconds, his head snapped up. One wizened hand clutched Lux’s shoulder.

“I looked through my Beast’s eyes,” he explained urgently. “It has found something under the floorboards. Here, boy, help me.”

He looped his fingers through the hole in the boards and tugged. A square of wood a few feet wide lifted free. Lux slid his fingers into the gap and heaved away the board.

Wordlessly, they stared down at what had been revealed. It was unlike anything else in the cottage - shiny, clean, solid metal. It was, however, very similar to something they’d seen blocking their way in the Colosseum.

“Well, I’ll be,” Lux murmured. “A hatch.”

He raised his voice to call to the others. “In here!” His tone must have betrayed his tenseness, because the wisecracks were done by the time the group was crammed into the room. The false floor and revealed hatch spoke for themselves.

“Is it locked?” Hellebore’s mind was immediately on the practicalities. “Because that’s either a big safe, or the secret tunnel Freija’s been waiting for.”

They crouched by the hatch, patting around the hinges and the heavy bolts that held the wheel in place, then put a hand to the wheel lock. It spun easily, silently - well-oiled. With Lux’s help, they lifted the metal door to reveal a hole beneath, metal rungs stretching down into the abyss.

“Well, what are we waiting for?” Freija’s impatient foot-tapping broke the tension. “There’s obviously some shady business going on down there. So let’s get going!”

She moved towards the ladder, then paused. “Hm. Actually. Who wants to go first?” Taking a step back, she pointed at Rose. “You can be my meat shield.”

Rose opened his mouth to snipe back, just as Lux and Caela stepped forwards in the same moment. They locked eyes over the opening.

“I’ll do it,” Lux insisted. “There could be something dangerous down there.”

“Lux, I can see in the dark, and you can’t. If there’s anything waiting for us at the bottom, I’m the only one who would see it coming.”

Lux did not move.

“I’ll be fine,” she pressed reassuringly. “You’ll be right behind me.”

He eventually nodded, though he didn’t seem convinced. “If you’re sure.”

Lux stepped back, allowing Caela to descend the first few rungs. As she reached eye level with the curious wolf, it nosed at her face. She gently pushed it away, smiling.

“Sorry, boy, you can’t come down here with me. I don’t think you and ladders get on.”

With that, she descended into the dark.

—

The metal ladder didn’t creak under her weight, but every step echoed loud and clear through the hollow dark. Caela breathed a sigh of relief - at least the rickety chaos of the house hadn’t followed her through the hatch. Despite living in trees her whole life, she was not immune to gravity.

Fortunately, the hole wasn’t as deep as she’d feared, and she touched solid ground a few dozen feet below ground level. In the monochrome of night vision, she could just about make out her surroundings: a narrow corridor which ran a small distance underground before turning to the left. Its walls looked strangely smeared, like soft clay pushed by unseen hands, but felt rock-solid and cold to the touch.

There was a faint glow visible some way down the corridor. As the others made their way down, Caela crept ahead as silently as she could. A prickling fear was beginning to rise in her. It could have been the faint scent of decay hanging in the air, or a barely discernible rumble through the earth. But her hunter’s senses told her something was approaching.

The corridor twisted and turned, following no plan she could make out. Every blind corner accelerated the pounding of her heart, but the light grew stronger and stronger. Finally, she came to what had to be an opening.

Remembering the ambush they’d run into on their last venture into an underground workshop, she took out her bow, silently nocking an arrow, before peering around the corner.

At a sudden clattering sound, the group rushed to catch up with her. Caela was staring into the room, stealth forgotten, bow fallen to the floor.

“What is it?” Lux asked warily. “Another monster?”

Caela opened her dry mouth.

“It’s people. They’re experimenting on people.”

10. Experiments >>