Novel Full Chapter 801: Sereth of the Ashen Quill (500 Words Added)
Chapter 801: Sereth of the Ashen Quill (500 Words Added)
[Marrowbay city, Faerunia – POV of Sareth, local mage working as Enchanter of clothes.]
Sareth completed the last pretty dress that he had to put a minor fire resistance and a minor sound-dampening enchantment on.
His work for the day had finished, with still light left in the day. It wasn’t early or late, 6.30 or 6.45 was the usual time for him. The shop he worked for was the third largest in Marrowbay. He was paid 60 silver coins a day. Pretty good as a first rank mage.
That day, too, like any other day, Sareth walked back to his house slowly. The cold breeze from the ocean was refreshing after being cramped up in a closed building for so long. Normally, thoughts of daily use spells and their different practical usage would have occupied his mind, but today Sareth had something entirely else in his mind.
’There is no reason for me to be invited personally by the Sanctuary; it had to be a mistake of some sort.’ Sareth reasoned.
Some fifteen years ago, Sareth had written a book called ’Practical Arrays for Daily Use,’ containing all the simple spells and enchantments he had learned in his life, and slightly changed their usage and created runic arrays for them for runesmiths to make those items.
But no one needed heavy runic items just to clean their houses or dry their clothes faster. Only a pathfinder could use them, and if it was a pathfinder, why would they need such tools in the first place for simple everyday tasks?
It was the same reasons people had always warned him against all his life, ’Don’t waste time on improving useless spells’, ’Don’t create useless runic arrays, make something useful to earn real money’, and many more similar things presented in different words, but the meaning of which boiled down to the same few lines.
They weren’t wrong. His taste and interest were weird, Sareth knew that better than anyone else. It wasn’t money he wanted through all these. What he wanted was.. Hell, even he had no idea what exactly he wanted through all this. But he was happy doing this simple job; he had no aspirations to do anything major.
He had everything a man might need. House, wife, kids, and even some respect in the neighbourhood with his strange yet useful spells.
Yet, when the letter had arrived at his house, Sareth felt like he was finally awake from a long sleep. But the thought was equally as scary as exciting. What if Sanctuary originally wanted to invite someone else, but his book was mistakenly chosen along with it in a bundle?
Suddenly, Sareth’s vision was barred by steel-armored, broad-chested men dressed in blue and orange.
Duke’s soldiers.
“Are you the enchanter Sereth of the Ashen Quill?” Asked the armoured man.
Before Sareth could even say yes or nod along, the other man spoke up, cutting him off.
“Come with us. Duke Marlov requires your presence.”
Without being able to say a single word, Sareth was dragged along with them and thrown in front of the Lord of the city. In his 35 years of life in Marrowbay, never had he seen the Duke so up close.
“Where is the letter?” The Lord demanded.
Sereth gave it up without any resistance. He was shocked to even be in the castle; everywhere he looked, shiny and costly items were seen. His senses were overwhelmed. Still, it felt like something had gone wrong.
“Is it real?” The lord asked his old advisor, Rouse.
“Yes, my lord.” Rouse replied, “There is no mention of any noble names. It’s indeed just for him.”
“Has the Sanctuary lost its mind?” The Duke roared. “By what right can they take my subjects without so much as a word to me? On top of that, they dared not send even the invitation?”
Sereth’s eyes opened wide. Everything was finally clicking together. Sanctuary did not send an invitation to even their lord? While he, the lowly enchanter, was invited to join the largest gathering ever in history with high honors?
Wasn’t Sanctuary just looking for trouble at this rate? The humiliation they put their king through wasn’t enough for them?
Sereth didn’t much care for the politics, but Faerunia was still his homeland. All the land they had fought for over these past years, however right or wrong their claim, Sanctuary had snatched it right from their hands and had not even kept them for themselves, instead returning it to the underserving Empire pricks.
His invitation letter was snatched from him, with the warning that made it clear what would happen to him if he tried to go. Sereth was thrown out of the castle.
He was already conflicted about going, now the decision had been made for him. Sereth gritted his teeth, sleepless in his bed at night, but thought it better to just let it go. This was just how things were.
But the day before the event, when he was about to leave for his work, a small crowd had formed in the street before his house. Three knights clad in blue and silver were the reason for the special attention of all his neighbours and people in the streets. They were coming straight towards his house.
The uniform, coloured white and gold, brought back memories Sereth did not want to remember at all. The three knights stopped before his house, followed by half the street. e
“Sereth of the Ashen Quill, as mentioned in the invitation, we are here to take you if you wish to come. Will you be joining us?”
“I.. uhm..”
Before Sereth could reply, a unit of their own soldiers rushed at his house from the other side, standing in the way of the Sanctuary soldier.
“You have no right to enter this city.” The second-ranker leader of the Lord’s men said with venom in his tongue.
It wasn’t very well advised. All three of the Sanctuary men were second rankers, while on their side, only the leader was one. And the three knights had a much greater presence than average second-rankers.
—
But the knight did not say anything in return to their disrespect. Only giving the paper in hand to the Faerunian knight without a word.
“Right of invitation.. Approved by the king of Faerunia…”
The knight captain’s eyes widened in shock. Sereth understood what it meant. The king and Sanctuary had already agreed upon this way before the event. Perhaps when the treaty was signed and the waygates were installed.
“Sereth, will you be joining us today?” The Sanctuary knight asked again.
There was a vast difference in tone compared to the soldiers who had dragged him to the palace. Still, Sereth was not one without pride.
“What if I refuse?” He asked back with defiance in his eyes.
The shapely-featured Sanctuary knight pulled out another paper from his spatial storage, reading something before replying.
“Scholar Veyra Dustbind lives in this city, too, right? Where can we find her?”
Sereth was confused, but he nodded mechanically. People around them told the knight the address of Miss Veyra. One of the best knights Sereth had ever known, she was retired now.
“Wait.. What about me?” Sereth asked, realizing his answer had gone unanswered.
The knight looked at him with a shrug.
“It’s just an invitation. Lord Keeper likes your book and wanted to have you. But it’s up to you in the end.”
The strongest runesmith in history likes his simple book that has barely any useful spells in it?
In the army, he never had a chance to talk with Lady Veyra about her famous book, The Practical Compendium of Adventuring Lore. When Sareth was still in his youth, the book was something he loved to read in the city library.
“Can I still..” Sereth spoke up before the chance might be lost forever.
“Of course, that is why we are here.” The knight replied with a smile. “I would advise you to get your whole family for your own peace of mind. As mentioned in the letter, food and accommodations for the week will be taken care of by us.”
Sereth nodded.
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[Somewhere in the western dragon empire, POV of Theren Emberwrit, Author of ’Flame in the Palm’, experiments with small fire-conjuring spells for cooking and campcraft.]
The distant stone mountain blurred in Theren’s vision. Blood dripping from his left temple. Every bone in his body felt like it was in pieces.
He wasn’t just anyone wandering from country to country, working on his research. Theren was the Empire’s proud knight once. Boasting the title of the strongest pugilist of Company 32 in the emperor’s army.
But the towering man, looking down on him, had not taken even a full minute to defeat him. And it was no simple defeat, Theren couldn’t even lift his arms anymore, couldn’t even form a fist.
The black haired man was wearing a dark cloak even in the intense heat of the empire’s desert. It was as if light could not reach the man at all.
The black haired man ignored Theren and searched the bags laden on his horse. After a few seconds of search, the man seemed to find whatever it was that had become the reason for Theren’s death.
The invitation letter.
Theren was losing his vision every second, yet he clearly noticed the folded paper in the man’s hand. He knew something that good wouldn’t come without strings attached.
However, Theren’s simple surprise turned to pure shock when the black cloak man with a malicious grin on his face slowly started to change his appearance right in front of his eyes.
With his last snippets of consciousness, Theren finally realized what the nefarious scheme he had unknowingly become a part of.
The man was going to infiltrate the Sanctuary using his face.