Chapter 87: 86. Secrets of a Worldhopper

Luis walked with the others behind Saphry as she led them to her room. She seemed different somehow, and her footsteps were heavier than they were before she had left. She hid it well, and had spoken with mirth and greeted the gates of Minua with smiles when they had come to welcome her back, but Luis could see it in the slight flickering of her eyes and the attentiveness she paid whenever they passed by a thaumaturge at work. 

 

That’s probably for the best. Luis thought. She was much too light before.

 

“Don’t mean to be ditching you guys.” Saphry flashed back a wry smile. “Andril wants to discuss some things before we settle though.”

 

“After all this?” Auro said with pursed lips. “Can’t it wait? You just rode all the way from Summark!”

 

“‘Fraid it can’t. Horribly important, I think. Even I’m curious about it! But I’ll be back in under an hour, hopefully.”

 

“Can you say what it is?” Luis asked.

 

“Probably shouldn’t…” She frowned, deep in thought. “Hopefully it was just a misunderstanding.”

 

“Endril’s so cruel…” Auro muttered.

 

Luis wondered what possibly could delay them from jumping straight into their beds. Even if there hadn’t been a battle in the middle Luis wasn’t sure he’d have the energy to attend some prince’s meeting, or to meet with friends after that. And judging by how few and subdued the returning men had been, Luis could only think that the battle hadn’t been quite the victory Prince Endril’s heralds had spoken of. 

 

“And if you aren’t?” Breale asked.

 

“Then come get me.” Saphry said. “As important as it is, I am quite exhausted…”

 

Finally, they arrived at her room, and they waited as she fumbled with her key for a time. After another quick apology, she left them to wait as she strode off towards the Duke’s chambers. Silst went with her, though curiously he galloped across the ground rather than take his usual perch on her head.

 

Luis hadn’t known whether to expect the ultra tidy room of a princess or the messy laboratory of a strange thaumaturge, but the reality of it satisfied neither. Rather, it wasn’t exceptionally unordinary by how the rest of the castle was concerned, nor was it posh and girly like one might expect. It had only one large red bed, a few carved items of furniture, and a veranda lit only with the light of the night time stars. The walls were half vertical planks and the bottom half were shortened whiteboard. A couple pillows stuffed in the shape of birds sat near the others, though one was almost half as large as Saphry herself. There were also dresses and clothes draped over the sitting table in the centre, though that was obviously an artefact of her hurried departure and it didn’t extend to the rest of the room.

 

On the other hand, there were also four bookshelves filled with messy books and journals, and a desk decorated with various curious stains struggling under the weight of yet more tomes and minor magical items. Several maps of Verol and the other Lmeri kingdoms were unfurled next to them, and even from the door Luis could see they were marked with pencil. Looking at this area, the room appeared to Luis to belong to some scholar or Phoenix Knight instead. In a way, it fit the Lmenli mage more than Luis had thought it would.

 

Auro was the first to glide forward, as if in some giddy trance. Luis watched as she took in the tables, desks, and bed, and how her eyes lingered on the bed and the stuffed animals.

 

“So this is her room…” She muttered. 

 

“Maybe she should’ve taken us to a sitting room instead.” Luis said as the others walked in. “She obviously wasn’t expecting visitors.”

 

Luis was also conscious that he was the only boy among them currently, though he tried not to think too much of it. Fredrick and Roland had opted to run some errand for the prince, and Hosi had accompanied her liege from the minute Lady Amelia had entered the city. That left just Breale, Auro, and himself to wait upon the princess, and Saphry was obviously someone who only flippantly took social norms into consideration when she could get away with it. Nor was leaving them here the weirdest decision Luis had seen her make. Luis had a small mental list of all the strange things she did or said, and inviting a young man to sit around her empty room was certainly not the biggest offender.

 

I mean, she’s been wearing her tiara backwards ever since I’d known her. Luis thought. Being oblivious and naive is hardly stranger.

 

“It’s neater than Auro’s dorm.” Breale sat down on one of the pillows by the sitting table and pushed one of the dresses aside. “I’d swear you were fortifying it, Auro.”

 

“She actually asked me when the maids would come in the other day.” Luis said as he joined her. “Completely serious, too.”

 

Auro sat down on the other side and jabbed his shin with a kick.

 

“How was I supposed to know that! You’d think with four nobles in a room they’d have some privileges…”

 

“I’m sure you’d get a lot of privileges out on campaign.” Breale said.

 

“Well I’m sure Auro will never see the dirt off a road.” Luis added. “She inspires pity like the Star our faith.”

 

Auro kicked him again, but Luis bore it with a grin.

 

“Why do you always gang up on me?” Auro aimed a pout at Breale. “You and Fredrick, Hosi and Saphry, even Roland makes fun of me sometimes! Why can’t we ally against Luis for once?”

 

“To be fair, you have to set it up quite well for Roland to have a go.” Luis said.

 

She glared at him.

 

“And Luis is always my second target.” Breale added. “But he’s only an idiot. You’re also cute.”

 

Auro blushed.

 

“Cute… Hey, I’m not an idiot!”

 

Luis and Breale laughed, and they continued speaking for a while longer as they waited. Eventually, Luis got to his feet and looked around the room again. He walked to the desk and looked about the titles

 

“You know, she left us in here…” Luis picked up a book and read the title. ‘The Silvered Alchemist’ shone back at him in black letters. 

 

Luis paused for a second. Alchemy? As far as he was aware, that was a sham art, useless in comparison to the powers of thaumaturgy. He couldn’t understand why a Lmenli mage would care about that.

 

He shook his head and turned back to the others.

 

“Have you ever been curious about how she spends her time?”

 

Breale looked apprehensive as she realised what he was implying.

 

“I don’t think-” She began.

 

Silently, Auro stood up and began rifling through the effects Saphry had left on the desk. Breale sputtered behind them for a few seconds.

 

“Guys? This is a little…”

 

“You haven’t, then?” Luis asked. “Never?”

 

Breale looked away.

 

“Well…”

 

“It’s not like I’m saying we sort her knickers or anything.” Luis chuckled. “She’s the one who didn’t clean up, after all.”

 

Luis watched as Breale’s curiosity fought her good sense, and soon she seemed to make up her mind and start looking through one of the armoires. 

 

“Oh?” Auro picked a thin red book out of the pile and opened it, only to giggle to herself. Luis caught a glimpse of a crude illustration of a shirtless knight and a blushing maid on one of the pages before she hurried flipped through it. The letters glinted silver in the lantern light, and Luis read ‘A Knight’s Maiden Quest’.

 

“Is that…?” 

 

“Nothing!” Auro hurried away to the bed, leaving the desk to Luis.

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Probably one of those romance novels I’ve heard are so popular. Luis thought. Though I wouldn’t have pegged Saphry as the type…

 

Luis returned to the maps. In truth, he was much more interested in what Saphry was studying than how she wasted her time, though he would definitely file that away for later ammunition.

 

No, what was actually mysterious was her role in all of this. Luis knew that she wouldn’t be helping with actual plans and strategies, but was it possible that Endril had given her some logistical tasks to solve? She had certainly proved her mathematical skill.

 

Luis’s hand brushed over one of the maps, and on a whim he chose that one to unfold. A map of Verol and dozens of scribbled remarks and lines greeted him, but what caught his eye was the six colourful circles drawn over certain areas.

 

He immediately recognised them for what they were: the projected landing sites of the Lmenli. It wasn’t exactly peasant knowledge in Verol, but just about anyone who had any kind of education knew these locations by heart. Luis had even visited a few of them, back when his family had…

 

Luis shook his head. 

 

A Lmenli mage is interested in the Lmenli. So what? He thought. That’s to be expected, isn’t it?

 

But something tugged at his mind, and Luis found himself chewing on his cheek. Something in his gut told him that there was more to this than the simple, and he read into the handwritten notes beside each circle.

 

Besides brief descriptions and references to further books, he found formulas and short poems written in the dwarven style beside them. Fortunately, the poems were in Veroline, though Luis couldn’t see any reason for any of them other than a tenuous relation to the Lmenli. On the other hand, the formulas were completely foreign to him, though given his weakness in the subject he couldn’t find that too surprising. No, it was the fact that they didn’t even look like standard numerals that confused him. Strange half-angle crosses, groups of letters enclosed in half circles, and short words with letters he’d never seen before decorated each one, and each one had the same two parallel lines near the end. It didn’t look like any dialect or language Luis had heard of, and given his upbringing that was notable itself. The ink was a silvery black of the Veroline type, and recently laid. Judging by the fading, Luis guessed they had been written in the last two weeks.

 

“Has Saphry ever said anything about what languages she speaks?” Luis asked aloud. “Like any eastern ones?”

 

If there was one gap in his knowledge on the subject, it would have to be the tongues of the eastern kingdoms. Such kingdoms had either fallen to the Gryphon or gradually pulled away from the west for centuries now, and it was an exotic rarity to see a merchant from even the nearby lands of Tresti or Falia. Luis could remember only a single time when a merchant had ranged from beyond into his family’s estates from a land the man had called ‘Cersir’, and after finding half a dozen translators between both the merchant’s party and the Duke of Ostip’s that man had professed to being just as surprised to be in Verol as we were to find him there. Certainly their written language was completely unknown among the Lmeri.

 

“Can’t say she has.” Breale said idly. 

 

Despite her earlier reluctance, Breale was noisily going through the princess’s armoire, and had started pulling out pieces to match together. Auro was similarly absorbed in another book as she laid on Saphry’s bed. After a quick chuckle, Luis returned to his map.

 

Has to be eastern. He thought. There hasn’t been a northern kingdom for untold centuries by this point. And it sure isn’t dwarven or one of the Lmeri languages.

 

But why, Luis thought, Would Saphry faln Astrian, princess of Summark, know an eastern language? The mark wasn’t exactly on good terms with the east, nor was it in the hobby of making pacts or diplomacy with them. It was an exceptionally strange and difficult hobby, if that’s what it was.

 

Luis glanced at the other two again before grabbing a spare piece of paper off the desk. He copied down a dozen or so of the symbols and one of the formulas and shoved it in his coat pocket. He’d have to ask the professors at the academy if they recognised it or not.

 

He began to roll up the map, pausing when he revealed a wrinkled slip of paper with some kind of recipe underneath. He drew it under the lantern light, reading the words carefully.

 

Potion of Portals and Dimensions.

To open a portal between Elys and the other, I have theorised an alteration of the recipe I used before. This one should be more stable and allow me to choose the target, which I feel is necessary given the severity of the previous incident. To that end, these ingredients shall be required.

 

A long list of ingredients both common and exotic ran down the page, some of which Luis didn’t know. One of the lines the author seemed to even abandon Veroline entirely, choosing to use again that strange script that had been used on the map. 

 

Portals? Isn’t that what the… Luis frowned. It couldn’t be.

 

Luis had only heard of one kind of person who searched for the extent of portal knowledge, and Saphry definitely couldn’t be one of them. After all, hadn’t she slain one herself? 

 

Saphry couldn’t possibly be trying to summon demons, could she?

 

Immediately, Luis found his mouth drying up. What other use could there be for portals? And searching for the Lmenli as well, however serious that was? And didn’t this note speak of ‘the previous incident’? What could that be other than… other than the demon that she killed in Minua. That they had summoned off more than they could chew and had to kill it. Or maybe that they had summoned something other than they were expecting. Could it have some relation to why she could use ice magic?

 

I’m being paranoid. There’s no way. 

 

Luis tried to shove the thought from his mind, but something about it refused to be silenced. Memories of his family’s own struggles with demons, of how they had… of why he was in Minua now, they refused to let him drop it. 

 

Can I just ask her? But why would she tell me the truth if she was?

 

Luis glanced at the others again as he debated with himself. Now having dropped all pretence of politeness or being even just relatively normal, Breale had moved into the dresser while Auro was hugging one of the stuffed animals.

 

“Hey Breale?”

 

“Hmm?” She looked up from the dresser holding a sock. “What’s up?”

 

“Do you know anything about-”

 

Before he could finish, the door burst open and Saphry strode in. She looked grim, as if she’d just watched an execution. As her eyes scanned the room, confusion gradually dawned on her face.

 

“Eh, what are you guys doing?”

 

Luis dropped the concern from his face and forced a grin.

 

“‘A Knight’s Maiden Quest’, huh?” 

 

Saphry went white, and she faked a cough.

 

“I, eh, don’t know what you’re talking about.”

 

“Saps!” Breale strode towards the princess and folded her arms. “You have some explaining to do.”

 

Saphry glanced towards the desk, and a brief flicker of panic went through her eyes. Luis stiffened, though his face didn’t change.

 

“Why were you going through my room?” Saphry accused as she took a step back. “Can I not trust you even that much!”

 

“You have perfectly good clothes here.” Breale continued. “So why in the Star do you dress so lazily?”

 

Saphry’s eyes widened, and this time the panic was clear on her face. She took another step back, and she looked as though she were deciding whether to bolt or draw her wand.

 

“I mean, I don’t…”

 

Breale’s hand snaked out and grabbed Saphry by the arm.

 

“Come on, I’ve picked out some good ones. I’d hoped we wouldn’t have to do this again.”

 

“Wait, stop! I just got back! At least let me sleep! Silst!” 

 

Luis gracefully extracted himself from the room as the shouting started. He had a lot to think about, and a proper welcome could always wait until Fredrick, Roland, and Hosi got back.

 

Though if she deserved one or not, Luis would have to decide that later.

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