Bastard's Grove, Yaralon
32nd Ymiden, 719
32nd Ymiden, 719
The Coven, all things considered, was not as blatantly evil as Tio had thought it would be. The childish side of him had been expecting a huge, looming castle of black stone, with a swarms of dark mages in black hoods cackling madly about their latest schemes for world domination as they scurried through corridors like blood pumping through veins. Instead to his surprise the Coven's base of operations was surprisingly down to earth: rather literally in fact. It was a network of well moulded caves connect by tunnels (the work of a Defier no doubt) hidden behind a waterfall in Bastard's Grove, with simple but well-made furnishing, maps and charts pinned to the walls where works of art could have been, and piles of wooden crates stocked with provisions stacked up neatly in practically every corner. It looked more like a hidden military base than a mage's lair, which was concerning considering how many little signs there were about the place that the base hadn't been inhabited for very long. All evidence pointed to this being a temporary staging ground for whatever plan the Coven was cooking up; efficient and disposable, an asset they could easily afford to loose.
Which left the question: what was their plan?
The deal for new members of the Coven, like himself, was a pretty simple one to understand: each of them was given a chore or two to do that would keep the Coven running, such as procuring food or sweeping the floor, and in exchange were given free accommodation at the base and lessons in the mornings about the basic aspects of magic. In whatever time they had spare they could do whatever they wished, but were highly encouraged to do their own research using the Coven's resources or impress one of the higher ranked members into taking them on as an apprentice. He had been pretending to be nothing more than a weak, newly-initiated necromancer ever since his arrival, and had done his best to avoid attracting attention to himself despite his mask, which he passed off as a strange awakening. As he hadn't appeared to be very competent at much the chore he'd been assigned to was to man the bar in the break room, perhaps the one room in the base created for leisure, and otherwise left alone to be a quiet little worker bee while the useful mages were assigned to more important tasks.
That worked just fine for him. Alcohol was useful for loosening tight lips, and bartenders tended to blend into the furniture when people didn't need them. Over the course of the two trials he'd been here he'd overheard a lot of useful information from mages chatting over a drink when they didn't realize anyone was listening. According to their rumours the recent surge in activity by the Coven was a response to some quack Zuuda doctor rallying a ragtag army against them. Also many of the new recruits with some degree of skill in alchemy were being personally interviewed by this branch's leader, Eilwiche, about the alchemical formulas they knew, though none of them knew to what end.
It was useful information, but not nearly enough to figure out what was going on. If he wanted some real answers then it seemed like his only choice was to do some sneaking around himself.
"I get that you're trying to stay anonymous if you're seen, but the fact that your face is literally a bone mask with demon horns is a bit of a giveaway! Nobody is going to be fooled by this disguise." Tasha snipped scathingly, her lips pursed in a thin frown as Tio wrapped black cloth around the plain black Coven robes he'd been given, transforming the garment into something reminiscent of ninja clothes.
Tio shot her a bemused smile, like a parent about to patronizingly explain something obvious to a child. "I can't go sneaking around not dressed like a ninja. That'd be silly. You have to dress in the appropriate gear for things like this, or else you'll spoil the mood. It'd be like turning up to a fancy dance party in shorts and a vest, or not calling you Blondiepop when we have work to do."
"Actually I'd prefer it if you didn't call me Blondiepop either. It's very annoying."
"Haha, good one Blondiepop." Tio laughed, deliberately pretending not to notice how her face scrunched up in irritation. She made it too easy sometimes. "Anyway most everyone should be asleep by now, but if anyone does come by and asks where I am I need you to cover for me: tell them that I had to rush off and do something embarrassing."
"That won't be a problem." Tasha replied, her devilish smile letting him know that she was going to take this opportunity to get revenge for all the times he'd called her by her nickname, and would enjoy every minute of it. It was the sort of smile that belonged on the face of a serial killer. Her budding sadism aside, Tio was confident that he could rely on Tasha to play her part perfectly, and gave her a quick goodbye wave as he tied up the last bit of cloth to his ninja robes and slipped out of the room.
The stone floor was rough and cold beneath his feet as he crept along the tunnels. Braziers, no doubt enchanted to keep the small flames inside them flickering permanently, cast long shadows across the bare earth, and Tio silently prayed to whatever Immortals still liked him that nobody would come across him. There was nowhere to hide in these tunnels, and his shadow was far too noticeable. Placing each step cautiously in front of the other he advanced through the network of passages, using Omnivision to scan ahead for any incoming threats. A couple of breaks passed in silence as he navigated his way along.
That was, at least, until his attunement spark detected someone approaching up ahead. Tio made to double back to avoid them, but cursed in his head as he sensed another mage approaching from behind as well! He was boxed in! Clearly all the Immortals hates his guts after all! Panic wormed its way into his heart as his brain kicked into overdrive, desperately trying to come up with a solution! What could he do? There was nowhere to hide! There was nothing all around him but sheer rock and-...
Ah…
"Evening Jerry." One of the Coven mages called out as the two met in the middle of the tunnel. "Haven't seen you in a while. Where have you been?"
The other shrugged with a heavy sigh. "Chasing some super-fast moon rabbit brought over from Scalvoris. The boss needs it for her experiments, but the damn thing got loose during transport. Those things are bloody nightmares to catch, let me tell you."
"Can't be worse than that three headed wolf creature that ate Pascal. What does Eilwiche even want with these things anyway? I swear all it feels like we've been doing lately is recruiting and capturing magical beasts. How's this going to take care of the Zuuda?"
"No idea, but I'm not gonna be the one to question her to her face."
"Amen to that. Well see you around." The two mages passed each other and continued their walks, neither noticing the suspiciously humanoid shape of the rock next to them. When they were both out of earshot the rock cracked and crumbled away, as the thin layer of dirt and stone Tio had wrapped around himself last minute fell to pieces. He muttered to himself under his breath as he patted the dirt off his clothes.
"One of these days I won't forget that I'm a magician until the last second. One of these days…"
Still he'd managed to avoid being caught once, and emboldened by that success Tio resumed his sneaking a little bit faster this time. After a few more close calls where he pulled the same trick Tio finally arrived at his destination: the private laboratory of Eilwiche.
If there was one weakness nearly all mages shared, is was that they focused on guarding themselves against other magicians so much that they sometimes forgot to protect themselves from non-magical threats. The door to Eilwiche's lab seemed to have been enchanted with a number of abrogation spells to protect it against magic, but when push came to shove it was still just a door at the end of the day: one that worked on a standard lock-and-key mechanism. Tio whipped out his lock-picks and got to work fiddling about with the lock's inner workings, until finally he was rewarded with a satisfying pop as the door clicked open.
The room inside looked more like a butcher's shop than it did a study. The carcasses of tempered fauna from all corners of Yaralon, and a few others he believed came from other countries, were strung up on racks suspended from the ceiling, many of them cut open or with large parts of them missing. Unusual rabbits, bears, bees, even some kind of freaky giraffe-monkey thing, were all reduced to nothing more than slabs of meat; their blood dripping into trashy buckets on the floor beneath them. In the center of the room was a circle of plain metal tables, all cluttered with books, scientific apparatus and cut off chunks of creatures floating idly in jars of strange coloured fluids. Tio stalked over to the tables and began flicking through the titles of the books.
"Blood Alchemy for Dummies. Fifty Shades of Red. From Pet to Potion: 100 easy recipes to turn your household pets into enchanting elixirs." They were all books on alchemy, specifically the field of using blood and body parts to transfer the abilities of one creature, or person, to another. Alchemy was by far the mildest, most acceptable form of magic for the general public, but even so blood magic came with a pretty nasty reputation.
The next set of books were plain journals filled with pages of notes, most of which were in different handwriting. They seemed to be recipes for various alchemical potions related to enhancing strength, speed and other physical qualities. Some were very basic, but as he read further on the recipes became more complicated and produced wilder effects; extendable claws, poisonous breath, camouflage, the list went on and one. These books seemed to be the compilations of all the formulas for magical potions the Coven could get their hands on, added to all the ones the recent recruits had donated. Throughout the book someone had gone over the notes in red ink, highlighting parts and scribbling down notes that didn't make sense without context.
The final texts were not books, but rather a pile of loose sheets of paper. They seemed to be forms of some kind, all with the names of the various new recruits on them and other details. Tio picked up one sheet that lay to the side, beneath a small vial of red liquid, and read through it.
Name: Markus Du'Caine
DoB: 19th Cylus, 690
Spark: Becoming
Blood Extracted: Yes
Testing:
Tio looked down at the red vial, finally clicking just what it was: becomer's blood! That was a very dangerous thing to leave in the hands of a blood magician. He'd heard stories that they could make potions out of mage's blood that could temporarily grant normal people magic powers. So all the new recruits were being asked to donate blood so that the Coven could build up a wide stock of various types of magician blood? That definitely could not be a good thing! It also meant that his infiltration was on a time limit, since he couldn't afford to be around when they asked him to donate. He still had no idea what that brand new spark The Eternals had given him did, but it was a safe bet that letting the Coven get their hands on it would lead to disaster.
Tio slipped the vial of blood into his domain bag, and then on second thought shoved in the books and notes about blood magic as well. He still didn't quite know what the Coven was planning to do with all this research they were gathering, but it was undoubtedly something that'd be a big problem for the Seekers. He needed to delay this project as much as he could, and setting fire to the contents of this room would be as good a start as any. It would almost definitely cause the Coven to suspect a saboteur was in their midst, in which case they'd most certainly start checking the new recruits like himself, but the though that it could be just an accident would stop them from making any extreme moves. Alchemy was famously volatile after all, and accidents in the lab happened all too frequently. What was important was that it would delay them, giving him time to properly read through the books and figure out what their plan was.
It was as he piled one of the last books into his bag that something caught his eye: a small sheet of paper that'd been hidden beneath the books. Curiously Tio picked up the letter and scanned through it.
Eilwiche
Things are progressing on my end as expected. I have acquired suitable bodies for the procedure, and moulded them into fine stitchborn. It has been difficult to obtain strong, young bodies that nobody will notice missing, but I was able to arrange for a tragic accident to befall a young group of mercenaries which I assured their families resulted in the corpses being devoured.
It is pleasing to hear that things are progressing on your end as well. I apologize that the work is so stressful and time consuming, but assure you that it will all be worth the effort in time. I believe our next test will prove to you that we are not on some wild goose chase here: that our work will yield the desired results in time. I have assumed control of a old Necropolis half-submerged within the swamps of Maiden's Refuge . Meet me there on the 40th and we shall see how close we are.
Have faith, if not in me then in the power we possess.
Regards
Tio froze, his blood turning to ice as a name he never though he'd see again stared back at him from the page. He'd half hoped that one day their paths would meet again, but not like this! Why was he involved in this whole affair?
Zavious Smitt
His necromancy master.
