Brian Pratt - The unsuspecting mage

“Look man, we don’t want to hurt you, we just want your gold,” another one tells him.

“You don’t want his money,” a voice comes from behind them. The three toughs turn to see a well dressed man in his middle years approaching with sword drawn.

“We don’t want any trouble with you,” the first tough tells the newcomer, menacing him with his knife.

“Then you better leave before I come over there,” the man says unimpressed. All the while he still maintains the same steady pace forward.

The three toughs look to each other, realizing their knives will be no match for a swordsman and then make a break for it down the road. The newcomer comes over to James and sheathes his sword.

“Thank you stranger,” James says with relief when the man draws near.

Waving away the comment, he says, “Are you here to meet someone?”

“Yes I am,” he answers.

“Then follow me,” the man says as he turns to return back the way he came. “This isn’t where I expected to find you. You are lucky you weren’t killed, this is no area for strangers.”

“Yeah, I gathered that,” James replies. “Where are we going?”

“Someone wants to meet with you, just be quiet and follow me.” The man continues down the street and then turns down another to the left. They soon come to a dilapidated looking building where the man walks up to the door, opens it, and then gestures for James to precede him inside the building.

He enters a poorly lit hallway and the man tells him to continue on down to the second door on the left. James reaches the door and is directed to open it and enter.

When he opens the door, light from the other side bathes the hallway. Passing through, he enters a well lit room wherein he finds three people, two being most likely guards since they are dressed similar to the man whom had escorted him. The third man is sitting behind a table with a single, empty chair situated across from him. He gestures for James to come in and sit in the empty chair.

James nervously crosses the room, taking a seat in the chair as he looks around. He hears the door close behind him and glances back at the two guards taking up positions around the room while the man who had brought him there remains by the door.

He returns his attention to the man sitting across from him. Appearing to be middle aged with hair just beginning to grey about the temples the man holds an air of command the single scar running along his left jawbone doing little to diminish it. Reaching down to the floor beside him, the man brings up the hood containing the remaining boards. “You know about these?” he asks.

“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t,” James replies nervously.

“It would seem that the other night, four people died in a house not far from here. Two others were seen leaving that very same house around that time. Those same people were also observed to go and bury these in a refuse pile not too far from here. Interesting wouldn’t you say?” The man sits back in his chair and looks at the reaction his words are having on him.

James shifts nervously in his chair, eyes flicking from the man, to the boards and back again, but doesn’t say anything.

The man continues, “Now, we know that the people who died in the house were working under the orders of someone working on behalf of a Lord Colerain from Bearn, whether they knew it themselves or not. What we want to know is why Lord Colerain has an interest in you?”

“You’re not with the city guards?” James asks.

Laughing, the man replies, “If we were, you wouldn’t be here now would you?”

“No, I suppose not. Why this interest in me?” he asks.

“Anything of interest to Lord Colerain, interests us,” the man answers.

Gesturing to the boards, James asks, “What do you plan to do with those?”

“Probably throw them away,” he replies. “They were merely instrumental in gaining your attention. Now, why this interest in you?”

“I really don’t know,” James explains. “For some reason he’s been after me since Bearn. I was unfortunate enough to accidentally be on his estate several days ago. He saw me there and ever since has been trying to get hold of me.”

“So he is after you because you are a trespasser?” he asks with disbelief. “You don’t really expect me to believe that do you?”

“As far as I know, that is the reason,” James repeats emphatically. “I swear it!”

The guard who escorted James crosses over and whispers into the man’s ear. The man’s eyes widen slightly and then slowly nods. He sits back a moment and appears to be considering something. “I believe you.”

“Just who are you guys?” James asks, more confident now that it seems they mean him no harm.

“Who we are is no concern of yours,” the man says. “How did you manage to kill those men?”

“Me and my friend took them by surprise and killed them,” replies James.

“Hmmmm…” the man says, “doesn’t seem likely, but then again, they are dead and you are here. You can go,” he tells James. “Just be careful, Lord Colerain wants you in a bad way it would seem.” Motioning to the guard who brought James in, he says, “Orrin, see that James is escorted to the city gates.”

James gets up to go and suddenly realizes the man said his name. How does he know me?

“Yes, sir,” Orrin says then comes over to James and says, “Let’s go.”

Once they left the building, James asks Orrin, “Who was that?”

Orrin doesn’t offer a reply, simply escorts him down the road toward the gates into the city proper. He tries several times to engage Orrin in conversation but the man remains quiet, failing to respond to any of James’ questions or comments.

Just before they arrive at the gate, Orrin says, “This is where I leave you,” then abruptly turns about and returns back the way they had come without so much as a goodbye.

“Bye Orrin,” James says as Orrin goes down the road.

James enters through the gate and follows the now somewhat familiar street, through the middle wall, until he once again is back at the Silver Bells. When he enters the room discovers Miko has already returned.

Miko hands James a letter, “When I got to the gate, they had me wait while a guard delivered Perrilin’s letter to the Archive Custodian. I sat there and waited for about an hour before they returned with this letter and told me to get out of there.”

Turning the letter over, James sees that it has a wax seal bearing the imprint of a feather. Perrilin glances at it when James shows him the seal and says, “That’s his seal alright, no one else would dare to use it but him. Go ahead and open it.”

James breaks the seal and they quietly wait as he reads the letter. “He says to come this afternoon to the Archives for a meeting,” he announces, then looks up at the bard.

“You will find him a very nice fellow,” Perrilin says, “if a bit of a stickler where his books are concerned.”

Smiling, James adds, “Yeah, I know someone that’s like that too.”

“Did you meet with whoever sent the package?” Perrilin asks.

“Something going on?” Miko interjects.

Turning to Miko, James explains, “Just after you left, a package was delivered. Within it was one of the boards that I used to kill those guys the other night.”

“How did someone get those?” Miko asks anxiously.

James summarizes his meeting with the man for Miko and Perrilin. “So I am not too sure just who they are, or why they are concerned with the goings on of Lord Colerain. At least they seem to hold no ill will toward me however, for which I am grateful.” Just then his stomach rumbles loudly and he realizes he is quite hungry.

“Miko, go downstairs and have them send up some food for us. I’m starving and want to eat before I go meet with Ellinwyrd,” he tells him.