Tales of magic: grimoire of transmogrification
Chapter 20
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Arc 2 - "The hunter and the beast"
Chapter 4- "War strategies"
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The war council room was filled to the brim. All senior military commanders were present and so was the Sovereign of the nation.
"Commander Reid, what do you think we should do?"
"It's too early." The middle aged man said while looking through the window.
"This man is stupid. Who appointed him to be the commander of the southern division?"
"I did." The king said with a thunderous voice.
"Mr. Reid, give me your honest opinion. The enemy has us outnumbered and outmatched. Do we stand a chance?"
Reid reasoned for a minute.
"We should still try to access the situation. There has to be more intel we can sponge out that just might give us the advantage." ~ From the days of Edmund Sharpside. Pridon 1783. War of Gordon.
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April 30th, 1886.
15:21
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Outside the hospital, a blonde musician was walking with his hands in his pockets. He whistled a tune in such an 'enthusiastic' way that the most individuals went out of their way to avoid him.
A young man with braids ran out of the hospital as though he was being chased by wild animals.
Lancaster shrugged the moment their eyes met.
"You made it, Quill."
Jordan walked with Lancaster. They were both headed through the alleyway in between the hospital and the adjacent building.
"Are you sure they'll be okay?" The teenager said while looking at the hospital's direction.
"If they aren't okay, then they'll have to visit a doctor. Jordan, you don't have to worry about your parents like that. At your age, they are still taking care of you more than you're taking care of them. Don't forget THEY are the adults, not you."
'I beg to differ. I'm almost 18 years old....And I don't trust you, COUSIN.'
He rotated his head so he would be facing forward.
Journal, I'm just going to play along with him for now. If it turns out that they really are in danger, then I'll just have to do something about our little contract...
"Where are we going?"
"Temporary hideout. Somewhere Hunter can't find us."
"Why? I mean, we just decided to kill him. How would he have known about that?"
"He wouldn't. But he started this war before we did. According to the intel I've managed to piece together, he was sent here by the Crown to kill us. We were the target, but we couldn't be killed until we became Mages."
"And now we're Mages he can complete his mission. I know...but why wait two days?"
"He'll wait until he had the perfect chance to attack."
'What does he mean by perfect chance? What chance is more perfect than being helpless in the spirit world with my physical body completely open to attack?'
"Why can't he attack us right now?"
"Humans...I mean, people."
'I'm officially confused.'
"It's also the reason why he won't attack your family. They are surrounded by people. The hospital has too many witnesses. If you suddenly drop dead, it won't be pretty....the only chance he has to attack us is if we are alone, or if it's the middle of the night."
"I have a feeling your logic is flawed, teacher."
The two of them had just crossed the road, towards Eich street, in the mid western region of Weidson. They were now in the open market place, where so many people were either busy rushing around, announcement their wares or just looking for what they came to buy.
Jordan frowned as he entered the market.
'Well, if William hates being around so many people half as much as I do, Lancaster made a valid point.'
A small black dog crossed their path. Jordan stared at it for a moment, but Lancaster didn't even give it a second glance.
"I don't think you really understood me. Jordan, if normal people got to know about magic it will complicate things for us. The Crown wants to keep the magic hidden as much as possible. I don't think she is above killing innocent people if it means the secrets of magic and the demon, are kept secret."
'And we don't want innocents dead either. It's the same reason why I'm hiding this from my parents.'
The two of them took a detour around a cetain area of the market.
"I'll ask again. Where are we going?"
'I'll keep him busy explaining things like this, while I formulate a plan. I can't really trust Lancaster too much; I have to know what his intentions are. It's obvious that he is Lancaster, but he's not exactly the Lancaster I knew. Yes, four years is a long period of time...but he shouldn't be this changed.'
Journal, I'm about to implement a plan that will help me figure out who this man really is.. I'll simply ask him. What? It's a stupid plan? Fine. I'll ask him indirectly, and without him even realising a thing. It will be like making small talk, but I'll try to extract as much information as possible from him.
Yes. I'm the greatest, I know. What did you just say, Journal? I'm not? You're joking. You know I'm the best.
The mages were leaving the marketplace when Jordan had figured out what to say.
"Do you remember, Lancaster? Back then when we used to run around the market causing mischief for people..."
Lancaster gave Jordan a look.
'Hold on, Jordan. This guy isn't who he says he is. You really shouldn't be this scared. Deep breaths.. Happy thoughts.'
"I didn't realise you were so nostalgic. It's been more than ten years since those times, Jordan. I don't remember most of it. And I don't care."
'So he does remember. He remembers me, but completely forgot Lisa? Hmmm, let's try something else. There was more than one memorable interaction between both of them. If he shows any signs of knowing it, then I'll conclude he was lying earlier and that he's probably just the same old Lancaster..'
A dog crossed their path again. It was barking at them like crazy for some reason before it left.
'It's the same black dog from before.'
"Remember that time way back when we snuck into the woods at night?"
"You pissed yourself. You were scared of ghosts and monsters. And you were thirteen." Lancaster almost laughed. He stopped himself from doing so, managing an awkward cough instead.
'And that was exactly four years and five months ago. You must've remembered that Lisa was there too.'
"It's been so long. My memory is a bit hazy. Do you remember why we snuck out in the first place?"
'This is it. You have to mention Lisa here. There's no way you could explain that if you don't mention her. She was the one who lost dolly in there after all. She was the reason.'
Lancaster frowned.
Damnit Journal! He's on to us. He knows!
"We have far more pressing matter than that, Quill. Remember, your life and the lives of your family members are at stake. My life included. Honestly, I want to catch up and reminisce with you...but not if it would jeopardize our plans."
'Great way to dodge the question again, my friend. You gave a nice logical reason for not answering a simple question. But then again, you are Lancaster.'
"But we can still talk. We have time.."
"No, we don't. We've arrived at the destination. Quill, welcome to our new temporary base of operations."
It was an abandoned warehouse out in the southern end of Weidson. It wad also old and decrepit.
There was this musty smell of rotten wood around it.
Quill pulled a face.
"What the heck is this?"
"I'm not wasting my words." The other Mage simply pushed the wooden door. It took a moment for it to open, making an uncomfortable creaking noise as it turned.
'I have no choice. I'll have to enter this dump.'
There were old wooden boxes inside the small wooden structure. A few other old things were scattered around.
However, Jordan noticed that there was also a bag that did not look old to him.
"Get comfortable, Quill. If things work out the way they should, we would start living here soon." Lancaster stated as he sat down on a huge barrel and turned around to face Jordan.
Jordan wasn't smiling.
"Bloody hell we won't."
"We will. It's time I give you the details on my plan."
'I'm not stopping you. Lecture away, teacher. Just know that when you're done, I have a few words of my own to give you.'
"Hunter is too powerful for us to face in a fair fight. Also, our Power supply is greatly affected by my problem. We hardly have enough Power to fight him, and even if we did fight him at full strength I doubt we would stand a chance. I recognise power. And William has it in abundance."
'Nice one. Just keep on praising the enemy.'
Lancaster coughed, then he continued.
"If we want to defeat him, we don't need him to be in his element. We need to change the name of the game, and beat him when se have the advantage.. The game we will be playing today is 'hide and seek.' It's a common children's game. You know the rules, right?"
'Hide and seek, huh? Interesting.'
"I know."
"But we're not using the normal rules. Instead, both of us are hiding and seeking at the same time. If we happen to find him before he finds us, we win the game. Though the same is true for him."
"So we're not only trying to hide from him, but we're also trying to find him. Alright. That shouldn't be impossible."
"It isn't. Infact, It's far easier than fighting him head on."
"Big problem though. How will a few wooden walls hide us from him?"
"It will, if none of us have been here more than twice. We don't have any strong ties to this place, so his special abilities are not going to instantly grab us out. We're better off hiding here than anywhere else. If we hide in a crowd, he could eventually start to track our location. Also, I've made sure to prepare Wards that will defend this place by diverting people before they arrive. It should work on Hunter as well."
'Wow. I was really belittling him. He actually thought this through.'
"How did you manage to do all of this yourself? And send me that 'message' too?"
"I don't have too much Power left. The 'message' wasn't a spell though. It works very much like how you travel across worlds using your Title. My ability as Bird- which I call free Movement - allows me to anchor my soul to specific location and drag myself to it. My ability also allows me to drag myself away from the material plane a bit, so I couldn't be restricted by some of it's laws. Hence, if I really wanted to, I could fly."
'Damn he's lucky. A title like that is just...too overpowered.'
"...I used the same principle to craft a magic that allows me to talk to people over long distances. See, if I link myself to you, I could drag myself to your location. I could also drag you to mine. It takes Power to tug on the links like that, but thanks to our contract, that's not a problem for me. All I had to do was say your name about a few times. And once I was connected, talking to you via mental connection became easy."
'I'm guessing he got something from Crow too. Let's see if he's willing to share.'
"I wonder what abilities you got from the Crow Title. You don't exactly have it completely yet, but..."
"Curses. I thought I told you before? Anyways, I curse people and things around me. When I told you that I wasn't in control of it...it was a lie. The curse activates without my input, but I've discovered how to harness it's power and activate it when I want to. I'm sorry I withholded such important information from you, I guess I subconsciously decided to hide things from you..."
"Oh. And also, if I touch a particular body part of my enemy, I could localise the curse to that location. Say for instance I touched your eyes and you became blind for a few seconds."
"You'll also become blind as well, since the curse affects you too?"
"Good student. You listen properly. Yes, It works that way. But, awhile ago I discovered how to delay my curses from activating. It's part of the fact that I can bend the abilities of Bird so much. My Titles are very flexible in nature."
'Yes. Lancaster you are an absolute powerhouse. You're also on my side for now, right?'
"Thanks for telling me so much."
"Not informing you could prove detrimental to our plans.....You were unconscious for more than an hour after returning to your body, we have to find out why."
"Yeah. How do we go about doing that?"
Suddenly there was a loud continuous creaking sound. Jordan looked back to see the door fully open and a small black dog standing infront of it.
'It's the same dog?'
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