It was a cold night when I approached The Baron’s altar again. This time I had very clear instructions from Jalani, which helped. Bombasar had tried to explain how to pay my respects properly, but he had done a pretty bad job. 

All spirits seemed to enjoy respect and attention, but Baron Zamadi was even more particular about rules and such. I wondered why he and Jalani didn’t get along. It was clear from the way Jalani spoke of the spirit, that there was some friction. Either way he drew the ritual circle again and performed the necessary rites.

After that was done I approached the altar and placed a bottle of rum as well as a packet of pipe tobacco on the altar. 

“Here is a gift, Deep One,” I said. “Freely given. I would talk if you are not busy.”

Then I waited silently and inclined my head in respect. But when nothing happened, I nodded and started to make my way out of the circle. I was not to demand an audience in any way.

Just as I was about to step out of the circle, I found myself in the darkness again, and the smell of thick smoke made me cough.

“Welcome,” the Baron said. “You can speak freely now.”

I waved a hand in front of my nose. “You know, second hand smoking is really bad. Especially for a child.”

There was a creepy deep laughter and I turned to see the same crouched shape on the altar smoking a pipe. “Worry not of such things in the spirit realm, child.”

There was a snap of a seal and the rum on the altar uncorked. The Baron took a long swig.

“Ah, this be the stuff. Bombasar be a mighty fool, but his rum is good. You want some?”

“I’m three,” I said. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

The Baron let a low chuckle. “Old Zamadi thinks you a bit older than that.”

“What can you see about me?”

I couldn’t see the Baron’s face, but I could tell he smiled. “Many things. I saw your mind. Strange mind. This be your second life, but that is not the strangest thing about you.”

He let that hang between us as he helped himself with another swig of the rum.

“Now,” the Baron said slowly. “Come sit. Dice with me so we can learn from another.”

I sat down before the altar and two dice appeared on the floor.

“Cheater’s Luck be the game,” the Baron said. “Bombasar teach you?”

“No, sir,” I said.

“Simple game. We both take two dice. He who has higher numbers gets to ask a question, and the other must answer honestly. If you be dishonest, you will lose, and you will not be liking that.”

“Then why is it called Cheater’s Luck?” I asked.

The Baron only chuckled. “Let’s begin. I say ‘dice’ and then we both throw. Next round you say that.”

What was up with the rules? 

The Baron said dice and we threw ours. He got a seven from his dice, and I got the snake eyes.

“Unlucky,” The Baron said. “Mine be the first question. Why are you here with old Zamadi?”

I thought about and didn’t really have a good answer. “I don’t know. I want to understand the magic of the spirits, and you seem like the one who knows best. So I want to get to know you.”

“Is it greed then? You seek power? The Baron asked.

I tilted my head and smiled. “Only one question, right?”

“Oho,” the Baron said. “You learn fast! Good.”

We threw dice again and he got a five and a three. I got snake eyes again. I frowned and looked at the dice and then the pale glowing eyes of the primordial spirit. He let the silence hang, and I could sense a delighted malice in the pulses he was subtly sending.

“Bad luck again,” the Baron said. “Maybe this not be the game for you. Mine is the question.”

I activated my Mana Sight. It worked poorly in the spirit realm, but I saw residual mana dissipating from my dice. Oh… so that’s how it was. Cheater’s Luck, huh?

“Why engage with the spirits?” the Baron asked. “You already have strong magic. What more do you need?”

“That’s two questions, isn’t it?”

The Baron chuckled. “You may not be good with the dice, but you be having a sharp mind.”

Hmph, I’ll show you how good I am with the dice.

“I just want to learn. Well, you already know I’m a reincarnator.”

“That be interesting. Some old magic, that.”

“This is a new and exciting world for me. There’s all kinds of magic and skills and cultivation and who knows what else. I want to taste it all.”

“Curiosity killed the cat, no?”

“Hasn’t killed me yet,” I said.

The Baron laughed and took another swig of the rum. We threw our third set of dice.

This time I was paying attention. I had my Mana Sight on and saw a clump of unstructured mana particles swoop in from the shadows to touch my dice. It was really subtle, which is why I hadn’t suspected anything. The dice looked like they were naturally moving, but somehow they still managed to turn to show snake eyes again. I could sense the Baron smiling.

I was much less subtle when I attacked his dice. I had taken the bone cubes and just stopped them and turned them to show snake eyes.

The baron let out that creepy low chuckle again.

“Now you know the game,” he said.

“What do we do in a draw?”

The baron waved a long fingered hand and the dice vanished. “Then we can just talk. I asked you some questions, maybe now you ask Old Zamadi.”

“What are you?” I asked. “Are you a god?”

“Hmmm…” Zamadi said slowly. “I am the waves and the wind. I am the threshold where ocean meets the shore. I am the sea that is life giving and the sea that is death. I am the Deep One.”

“That doesn’t really tell me much,” I said. “You are a spirit. What does that mean to you?”

Zamadi chuckled. “This is how you will spend your questions? Do you not care what I can teach you and offer you? I can see your thirst for knowledge.”

“Oh, I want to know all about that,” I said. “But I don’t know who I’m even dealing with yet.”

“This answer pleases me,” Zamadi said. “This is something Jalani never will learn, and this is something Bombasar only partly understands. You might learn the fastest.”

“The nature of who you are?”

“This,” Zamadi said. “Was the right question. Not what I am, but who.”

“You didn’t answer,” I said. “You just spin words.”

“Astute, child.”

“I think the rum is you. That is not what you are, but who you are. The tobacco too, but that’s you more for the show than the taste.”

Zamadi let out a low chuckle. “You presume much.”

“Well you weren’t sharing willingly,” I said. “They’ve called me stuff too. Little God. But that’s for people who don’t know me. Those who do know I like magic, I love my parents, I like to explore… that’s me. Little God is just a title.”

“Hmmm…” the old spirit rumbled. “You be a strange one.”

“That’s what Bombasar says too.”

Zamadi waved an impatient hand. “He thinks he knows, but he is a fool.”

“Why do you give him power then?”

“I need someone to do my bidding in the living world. I have affairs I need mortals for. So I barter with him.”

There was something in the way the Baron said that…

“The bartering was his idea. That is his idea of dealing with spirits.”

“Yes… Very clever. Jalani fears the spirits. He wants the rules and the structure. I like rules. But I cannot respect a coward. Bombasar is no coward. He has an appetite and he tells you what he wants. This I can respect, but when he brings me rum, there is no friendship in it.”

I nodded. I was starting to understand.

“So how do you want to be dealt with?”

Zamadi chuckled. “This I will not tell. How will you deal with me?”

I shrugged. “I didn’t really come with a plan. Do you need help with something?”

“The Leviathan. It awakened when you fiddled around with the legacy of the First Ones. It grows and must be stopped.”

“The Leviathan is my fault?!”

“No, you arrogant boy,” Zamadi said. “The Leviathan is and always was. It merely slumbered, before the magic you activated awakened it.”

“But…” I trailed off. I had caused the awakening of the Leviathan? It had been rampaging in the Silver Sea for months. How many ships had it eaten? How many sailors had it drowned? Was all of that my fault?

I shook my head. I hadn’t known. There was some guilt and shame, and I let myself breathe with it. This felt the same when that warrior had been wounded in the battle against an awakened beast.

I couldn’t have known. I let go of the guilt. But now I did know. And something like this would likely happen again as I continued to dabble with magic. 

So I better damn learn to know. I needed to learn to predict the consequences of my actions. A generally useful life skill… 

I wanted to talk to Zamadi about this, so I shared my concerns.

“You have a good mind, child,” Zamadi said. “I think you be right. These things happen, and I never blamed you. If you had not awakened the Leviathan, it wouldn’t have culled many smaller predators. Maybe so far you saved more lives than you cost.”

I gave him a dry chuckle. “You really think so?”

I could sense his grin. “Maybe. Would you like it if I told you it's true?”

“I would call you a liar.”

Zamadi laughed and dragged on his pipe. “Here be the thing. You will grow powerful in this world, child. That means your actions will have great consequences. You will need to live with those consequences.”

I nodded. He was right. And I would not apologize for who I was. I wanted to learn magic. I wanted to wield it because it was supremely interesting and beautiful. But I also enjoyed the power. That meant I could learn more magic, eat bigger resources and give my family what they wanted. And nothing in life was free. I would have to accept the price. I was feeling better now. The Baron was right. I let this go for now and sighed to myself before refocusing to the conversation.

“What is it?” I asked. “The Leviathan.”

“A wreck, child. Spirits tangled together like ships smashed upon the same reef,” Zamadi said. “It is old. There be a spirit such as myself in that tangled mess.”

“So what’s wrong?”

“That spirit be a primordial. She be Tiamat, my sister. Long did she sleep and I had many guardian spirits keeping her in her slumber. But the pulse of magic from the First Ones awakened her, and now she is confused and hungry.

“Oh, she is ever hungry, that one. She be always restless. Too primal, too hungry. There used to be spirits, mighty spirits. And heroes of lost ages, great legendary spiritcasters. They could control her, although only for a time. But they were all too small for her. In the last Calamity, we managed to put her to a long sleep. If she grows… there will be imbalance and many will suffer from the chaos.”

“What was the Calamity?”

“This I shall not answer, so ask something else.”

“So Tiamat, your sister, is the Leviathan? So you don’t want her killed?”

“The Leviathan is but a mortal coil. Kill it if you can. Do not worry, there is no mortal alive with the power to kill Tiamat.”

“Then what can I do?”

“What you come here to learn of course, child,” Zamadi said. “She can be defeated with spiritcasting. Untangle the spirits and free her. This will destroy the Leviathan and allow her to choose a new path in rebirth.”

My face lit up. “Can you teach me spirit casting?”

Zamadi laughed long and hard and it took a while for it to settle into a dark chuckle.

“Child,” he said slowly and puffed smoke at me. “What you think all this is?”

I looked at the half drunk rum while Zamadi stuffed his pipe with more of the tobacco I had brought. The bone dice were sitting next to the packet of tobacco. I looked back at the conversation and good time I’ve been having with the primordial spirit.

“Oh,” I said.

“You been spiritcasting the whole time.”

“Right… I didn’t think about that. I was just having a good time, I guess.”

“That be very you, child,” Zamadi said. “And I can see this is true in your heart. So I have decided to grant you a boon.”

I perked up. “What kind of boon?”

“The Leviathan be strong. You cannot face it without help. Old Zamadi can make you better prepared. But power given for a task should be bound to that task. I propose a pact.”

“Hmm,” I said. “I don’t know about a pact. What do you mean?”

“I give you what you need to face my sister. You swear that until the Leviathan is settled, you do not abandon this island. You flee, the pact takes back what I give, with interest… You betray the task knowingly...”

His pale eyes narrowed.

“Then there be consequences.”

“Okay, but I don’t get it.”

“Get what, child?”

“You’re giving me this boon now, right? So you’re paying me upfront. So I just have to keep my end of the promise and help you. What do we need the pact for?

“You would refuse a pact with a god?”

I shrugged. “I’ll do it if you want, but if you’re giving me stuff now, of course I’ll help you with Tiamat.”

“Sometimes Jalani be right, child. Pacts have their purpose. A promise between strangers is wind.”

“But we’re friends, aren’t we?

There was a silence. It stretched out for a while. The spiritual pulses constantly emitting flashes of The Baron’s emotions ceased for the first time. The smoke around him stopped moving too. Zamadi dragged on his pipe, muttered something and the smoke started billowing around him in thick waves again.

He poured rum in a glass and flicked his hand and the glass appeared in mine. He raised another glass and clicked it with me.

“I suppose we be that, yes,” Zamadi said. “Now drink up. You be needing the liquid strength. Receiving the boon be uncomfortable.”

I drank and felt the hot liquid pass down my throat. I figured it was fine, since I was in the spirit realm, and I did want to share a drink with Zamadi. “What are you giving me?”

I could swear Zamadi was smiling behind the shadow of his hat’s rim. “Many things…”

The smoke around him started swirling ominously.