Chapter 96: 96: Fun Party

“Raise  your chin.” Kala said, adjusting Calvin’s collar and the weird puff thingy underneath it. Calvin hadn’t bothered to learn the name. He’d been having too much fun – Been too dedicated to training his new spell – to pay much attention to the goings on recently. For this particular ball, he was going to smile and look good when Kala introduced him, then find a quiet seat in the corner where he could close his eyes and go back to Shadow Boxing.

“Now, this is an important party,” Kala said as she fussed over his clothes, straightening out wrinkles and brushing off imaginary dust. “I want you to mingle and present yourself and your company to everyone here, not just lay down on a table to Shadow Box with Karen until the party’s over.”

How does she know that?

“Yes, mooom.” Calvin said, earning himself a narrow-eyed look from the Gadveran royalty.

“Want a puff before we get started?” She asked, holding up her smouldering pipe. “In small doses it’s great social lubricant.”

Hah, lubricant.

“I’m good,” Calvin said, holding up a hand. “My social Skills level up faster if I do it raw.”

“Had to get in on that one, huh?” Kala asked with a raised brow.

“Pretty much,” Calvin said before offering her his arm. “Shall we?”

“I’m sorry, Calvin, but as a princess of Gadvera I can’t be escorted into a party by anything less than a baron,” She said archly, turning away from him.

Calvin’s heart fell a little, before Kala leaned in close and whispered in his ear, her breath tickling his skin.

“But if you were a Wizard-King, I could suck the freckles off your manhood.”

She turned and princess-walked toward the entrance of the mansion, leaving him standing there, jaw dropped, dumbstruck, at a complete loss for words.

Holy Shit!

For some strange reason, I want to be a wizard king more than I did a moment ago. Like, a lot more, Calvin thought as he gathered himself to head for the door, also strangely motivated to mingle.

Strange indeed.

Calvin glanced up at Ella, who was driving the carriage. She gave him a thumbs-up and a wink before turning the guar toward the parking area, where the other drivers were hanging about and chatting by a small fire.

The nights got cold.

Calvin watched Ella go for a moment before he went inside.

Well, we knew it was going to be awful, Calvin consoled himself as he scanned the room.

There was no music, nor laughter, no food, either, and the furniture was rickety and uncomfortable. The larger guests sat at their own risk.

The only sound was a soft murmur of genteel conversation to mask how bored everyone was.

Well, I guess I’d better dive right in.

Calvin walked up to a table where a small, balding man was speaking with an average woman with an above average mustache.

“Excuse me, folks, may I introduce myself?” Calvin said. “Calvin Gadsint, I’m the founder of the West Bole Trading Company.”

“Oh, the ambitious young man so full of piss and vinegar who’s trying to take Orson’s job! You must be the youngest Malkenrovian I’ve ever seen!” The balding man said, looking calvin up and down. “I’m Muck Temple and this is Maddy Temple.”

What are they, brother and sister? Elliot asked with a scoff.

“Muck and Maddy?” Calvin said to confirm their names as he, exchanged handshakes with each of them, sitting at their table.

“I’ve got to say, I respect your bravery, young man. The race to replace the Storm-Stretch group is going to be brutal one. I’m not a young man anymore, but If I were…I probably still wouldn’t try it.”

“So tell me, what do you do?” Calvin asked.

“I’m a patissier. She’s a baker. We make and sell exotic breads and sweets to people looking for a glimpse of what the royalty experience every day.

“That must be expensive to ship sugar and flour in from Iletha.” Calvin hazarded.

“It is! When we first got started we could barely afford to feed ourselves until our name got more famous. We do okay now, but we figured out a way to take the next step for our business.” Maddy said with barely restrained glee.

“Oh?”

“Ghuled Basaan has built two hundred new farm-plots connected to the main water-line. If we take out a loan to buy one, we can use it to produce enough sugar to offset the cost of the payment! More, even!”

“In just twelve years, we’ll have a thriving empire to turn over to our grandchildren.”

“Just to play Avashniel’s advocate,” Calvin said idly. “How do you know no one else is going to plant sugarcane and make sweets? If someone were to do that, you’d stand to lose a fair amount of profit margin and your plan might fall through.

“Oh…Oh…” Muck said, his furry eyebrows gathering together for a moment before he looked back up at Calvin. “Excuse us. We’ve got to do some reconnaissance.”

The two of them hopped away from the table and started mingling enthusiastically.

Calvin watched them whisper to each other conspiratorially between visits to other loan-seekers, and sighed, about to stand up when the large double doors at the front of the mansion burst open.

Calvin tensed, half-expecting a fight. Sudden movements were starting to make him jumpy.

The doors slammed open to reveal a stream of porters, carrying everything from kegs of beer to glasses and furniture, followed by a rather authoritative looking Uleisian in a clean-cut uniform.

“Murak!” He shouted, piercing the air of the quiet ballroom as he walked in.

“This is supposed to be a ball, isn’t it?” He asked, panning the room with an exaggerated gaze. “Why don’t I see anyone dancing?”

The man stepped aside and Calvin heard them before he saw them, a half dozen musicians paraded into the room and took the stage, all the while playing a lively tune.

“Here’s the beer!” The uniformed man shouted, putting his foot up on the pyramid of kegs. “There’s the entertainment!” He pointed at the musicians. “Dance, damn you!”

The uniformed man snatched Maddy away from where she was talking to her husband and spun the squawking woman around three times before setting her down beside her spouse.

Muck Temple shrugged and the two started dancing.

Before long, it was an actual ball. Or perhaps something like it, given it’s relative low-brow clientele.

“I knew he couldn’t stand it,” a resonant voice said from behind Calvin.

Calvin glanced over his shoulder and spotted Kala standing beside a rather skinny old man. He had many of the signs of being poor: thin as a twig, wearing a patched up hand-me-down shirt and pants, but it couldn’t disguise the intensity of the man’s gaze.

“Calvin Gadsint,” Calvin said, offering his hand. “And you are?”

“Murak,” the gnarled man said, shaking Calvin with more steel in his grip than he’d expected.

“What was it that he couldn’t stand?” Calvin asked,

“To see something half-finished.” Murak said, nodding at the uniformed man. “Polluq is a perfectionist, through and through. I knew he’d finish what I started. It makes him an excellent right hand man, but a poor visionary.”

Murak turned his gaze to Calvin and then Kala, and in the short amount of time he looked at him, Calvin could feel the burning greed that had been baked into the man’s intent. He was already planning on how to take advantage of them.

Well, the feeling’s mutal.

“So, your princess has been giving me the details, but it’s best if I hear it from both parties. Can you tell me what you need, exactly?”

Calvin took a deep breath.

“I need six Glimmer to feed and house some two thousand five hundred employees as well as pay their wages for the next three months.” Calvin said.

“Six glimmer? That’s quite a lot of money. And how do you expect to repay the debt, should your company fail to make a profit? You’re not the only ones trying to re-establish a trade network to Boles.”

“Maybe so, but I bought up the contracts of all the caravaneers the Storm stretch Group used. The Bolesians will err on the side of familiar faces, I’m sure,” Calvin said.

“Quick, aren’t you?” Murak said, glancing at Calvin with more than a hint of suspicion.

“I guess so.”

“This is quite a large sum of money,” He said, turning to Kala. “Even with the mansion as collateral, I’m not sure I wish to place my money into your hands, but the infrastructure you’ve created so far isn’t completely without value. Would you be interested in leveraging shares of your company as collateral instead?”

“No.” Kala said immediately.

“Yes,” Calvin said at the same time. They met each other’s eyes.

What’s the big deal if he gets some shares waved in front of him? We’re not going to fail, and if it becomes a problem, I can always kill him or abandon the company entirely. It’s nothing but words on paper.

“Huh,” Murak said, gnawing on some scar tissue under his lip as he watched their reactions.

He looked at Kala.

“This isn’t the place to discuss something this important.” He glanced over at the musicians with mild annoyance. “Too loud. Perhaps we can have a sit-down and see if there’s a arrangement that will suit all of us,” He said, motioning for them to follow him.

***

“Oh, that kid and his girlfriend got an audience with Murak!” Maddy temple said, biting her husband’s shirt collar in consternation.

“I’m so jealous.”

“Envious, my dear. You’re envious.” Muck said, spinning her around on the dance floor.

“Whatever. I wish it were us.”

Just as soon as she finished speaking, an explosion rocked the mansion, followed by a smoking body hurling out the hallway, twirling over their heads and impacting bowling over the musicians, cutting off the music with a harsh screech.

***

Calvin followed the old moneylender down the hall, pondering the best way to convince Kala to let them offer shares without announcing to the world that he never intended on honoring the spirit of the deal.

Who knows, maybe Kala’s got a better idea. I guess we’ll see how it goes.

Murak turned a corner in the hall and ducked into a cozy side room, Kala following in after him.

Calvin walked in and studied the room. It looked like a simple twelve by twelve foot room, an expensive hardwoord desk with two comfortable chairs facing it, marbled glass floor, a nice Bolesian rug and tapestried walls.

“Well,” Murak said, standing behind the desk as Kala took a seat in front of the desk, leaving the seat to her left open for Calvin. “After you.”

The walls weren’t real. Calvin’s Tarak skin placed the walls at three feet further away than he could see with his eyes, and behind those false walls were vaguely human-shaped lumps.

This is a trap. Calvin realized, the hair standing up on the back of his neck.

What? Elliot asked, his attention roused.

Tell Kala this is a trap.

“Are you sitting down?” Kala asked, glancing over at him.

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IT’S A TRAP! RUN FOR IT!  Elliot shouted at full volume, making Calvin wince.

Kala’s eyes widened.

A lot of things happened at once.

Kala leapt toward the doorway as Calvin backed out of the way to let her go first. The princess hit the side wall hard enough for her momentum to carry her partway up it.

“They’re bolting! Go!” A woman’s voice shouted.

The people behind the illusionary walls started into motion, an instant behind her.

Suddenly Calvin felt the gaze of no less than four people on him as a massive Genosian leapt out of the wall, aiming for him with a steel collar adorned with Nem-blue.

They know I can feel their gaze. That can’t be good.

Calvin backpedaled into the hallway, raising a hand.

Let’s see how you deal with wasps.

Calvinian Summoning

 

3/16 Bent remaining.

Over the grey man’s shoulder, Calvin could see a woman point at him, and a searing pain engulfed his palm as the Bent of the spell was shredded before it could manifest as anything at all.

Crap.

Calvin leaned left, putting the man’s bulk between himself and the woman who’d countered his spell.

Beli Ma

Calvin swept his other hand in front of the collar approaching his neck, dragging it and the fist holding it to the right as he dodged left.

Calvin took one giant step, pivoting and put his stinging hand on the vial of God’s fire he’d snuck in his vest pocket while his good hand aimed at the genosian who’d buried the collar partway into the wall.

I swear I’ll never come unarmed and low on Bent to a social gathering again. He thought with a fair amount of sarcasm. ‘it’s just a ball, Calvin, nobody’s gonna try to kill you there, Calvin, mah, mah, mah, mah.’

One more step to the side…Now. Now that he’d moved deep enough into the hall, the doorway was blocking sight between him and the wizard who’d countered the spell. No line of sight meant no countered spells.

That didn’t mean she couldn’t unravel the summons after they’d already been created, so if anything, Calvin decided it was best to use hard-hitting, instantaneous effects, along with some subterfuge.

If I see the flicker, charge forward. If I don’t, fall back.

Mass Multi Shaping.

2/16 Bent remaining.

Calvin shaped the god’s fire into a fist-sized ball of explosive goop right next to the Genosian’s chest while also targeting the steel of the vial to create a sword, and he also selected himself.

***

The world flickered.

Calvin was suddenly two feet to the left, a steel blade dropping into his outstretched hand.

I guess that means I’m the copy.

As he caught the sword with his tingling right hand, the god’s fire burst, picking up the Genosian, setting him on fire and flinging him down the hall, above Kala’s head as she sprinted for the main hall.

Nice, he hit the musicians, Calvin thought, charging forward, blade held at the ready, while the original dropped low and oozed backward, turning the corner as stealthily as possible.

I wonder if I got the tenth level in Stealth just now, he thought, stepping into the doorway to meet the woman charging him in hand-to-hand combat.

She was wearing a light breastplate of cured pebbly leather, with a belt of exotic tools that almost reminded Calvin of his own including a familiar pair of fingerless gloves. She charged in with a curved blade, forcing him to block high.

The woman’s strength was far higher than Calvin’s, and the blow forced his own sword partway into his shoulder.

“Gah, son of a bitch!”

Her hand whipped around behind her, and Calvin instinctively lashed out with his foot, kicking the two of them apart moments before a second blade passed in front of his stomach, nearly disemboweling him.

She went for a stab, and he diverted her blade with Beli Ma before catching her wrist, putting them in a lock position.

She reared her head back and slammed her forehead into Calvin’s face, sending him stumbling back into the hallway.

A second hit knocked to the ribs knocked the wind out of him, and while he was still trying to blink the tears out of his eyes, he felt cold glass snap around his neck.

“Flighty little bastard wasn’t he?” The gaptoothed woman asked, glancing over her shoulder at the counter-speller quickly before she kicked the sword out of his hand and began tying Calvin’s wrists together with fine spider silk rope.

“What gave us away?”

“Don’t talk to the target,” the wizard said, approaching cautiously as she stepped out into the hallway. “You never know if he might have something more up his sleeve.”

That’s the one I need to get rid of, Calvin thought, watching her as he blinked the stars out of his eyes.

If he kept up the charade long enough, he might get the opportunity to get close enough, then he could use blade body to deliver a critical blow to the wizard, paving the way for his win condition.

“Careful! That’s not the real one!” The half-burnt Genosian said as he leapt out of the pile of musicians to bring his crystalline axe down on Kala’s crystalline…pipe. The impact sent a ear-splitting, yet musical chime through the hall.

“What?” the gaptoothed woman asked, frowning as she glanced up at the genosian.

Well I guess I’ll have to settle for the other fighter.

Calvin lunged forward and aimed an elbow at the fighter’s chest, jutting a knife out of the bone of his arm.

The blade popped through a rib before it somehow turned intangible, sliding through the woman’s body without causing harm, then popping out the other side.

What now? Calvin thought as he rolled to the side, his second blade jutting out of his wrists and slicing through the woman’s fancy rope in an instant.

He glanced behind him and saw that there was another wizard leaving the room, his finger fixed on the rogue, who was clutching her bleeding chest.

“What the Abyss was that?” She demanded. “What the Abyss is he?”

“A shell game,” the counterspeller said, pointing at Calvin.

Crap, gotta dodge. He braced his foot against the wall and shoved off with everything had, busting through the door behind him in a shower of broken glass.

Why does everything gotta be made of glass around here? Calvin thought, jumping to his feet and aiming for the ceiling.

***Kate***

“No, I mean what the hell was that? A fucking knife came out of that kid’s arm, out of his arm!”

“Prosthetic?” the Matthias said with a shrug. “It wasn’t an illusion, I’ll tell you that.”

“It was real.” Suppan said as they dragged Kate to the main hall, where they could see in  all directions.

People were screaming and beating their fists against the exits, but Polluq had long since locked everyone inside the mansion. That was what his role was, after all.

“He’s using Dupdomancy, and a much higher tier than someone his age he should be. Third tier at least. We collared a construct, which doesn’t give two shits about having its Bent drained.”

“But what about the arm?” Kate wheezed. Oh, gods, this hurts.

“Here,” Matthias said, kneeling down and placing a hand on their rogue’s chest. “This is illusionary flesh, and when it’s gone the wound will come back, but for today, you should be able to keep fighting.”

The illusionist said so for the thousandth time since Kate had known him. it was like giving that cautionary sentence was forged into the man’s behavior.

“Thanks,” She said, hauling herself to her feet. The kid had been slower than her, weaker than her, and unable to use magic. Coming out on the losing end of that exchange was infuriating.

Invisibility.

13/15 Bent remaining.

Undetectable.

Kate’s body disappeared under her own gaze. Leaving her feeling like a ghost as she leapt toward the bannister and started climbing up to the second story.

I’m gonna get that bastard back.

***Ella***

“So get this, On a dare, my friend was riding the Joyega through the forest upside down and naked, nothing standing between her and pincers the size of these carriages if she falls off.”

The dirvers were listening with rapt attention, their breath held in their lungs.

“So what did you do?” one asked quietly.

“Eh, I watched her get eaten.” Ella said with a shrug, downing one of the beers the city guards had brought to liven things up.

“Oh,” the mood turned morose after that.

A sudden pang of anxiety rocked her like a slap in the face, and she followed the pull of the Guya, glancing toward the mansion where Kala nd Calvin were trying to ‘secure a loan’.

Ella didn’t know what ‘getting a loan’ entailed exactly, but she was absolutely sure it had just gotten violent.

“Excuse me, it looks like I’ve got some business to attend to.” Ella said. “I’ve gotta go help my friends secure a loan.”

Iron Skin

13/14 Bent Remaining.

Ella’s skin turned shiny red and she grabbed Calvin’s belt from the carriage and threw it over her shoulder before she began sauntering toward the mansion. There was an explosion from inside, and shortly after, people began to bang on the walls like mad.

A city guardsman stepped in front of her and put a hand on her shoulder.

“That’s far enough, ma’am. Let us handle it.”

Ella bit his hand off.

Macronomicon

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