My Best Friend is an Eldritch Horror - Chapter 276 (Patreon)

A yawning portal split open before them an icy chill washing out from within it. Moon’s plain stone cave looked just how Damien had left it. Desolate – but safe. Relatively, at least.

“What is that place?” Loretta asked. “Another room in Blackmist?”

“No. It’s… elsewhere,” Damien replied. “Safe, so long as you remain within the cave. Don’t go out onto the mountain. As long as you stay put, you should be totally safe.

“Okay.”

“And don’t touch anything,” Damien added. “It’s probably more dangerous than you think. All things considered, I think you’ll find that you aren’t there very long at all.”

Confusion washed across Loretta’s face, but she settled for giving him a hesitant nod. “Understood. I won’t touch anything, but what do you mean by that? Are you really going to be able to get Nolan to safety that quickly?”

“We’ll do our best,” Sylph promised, sending Damien a worried glance. Loretta took one last look at both of them, then stepped through the portal and into the cave. She turned around and gave them a terse, determined smile.

“Be careful.”

“We will,” Damien said, allowing the portal to close.

“Was that the Void?” Sylph asked.

“Yes.”

“Was that really the safest place to send her?”

“Where else?” Damien asked. “Nobody can reach her there, and Moon had it defended. Probably. I’m sure he had some sort of shielding in there with all the enemies he had.”

“Do you really think the Grays want her dead that badly?” Sylph asked, her scythes retracting into her back. “I’m sure your mother wouldn’t have minded watching over her for a few days, and I doubt they’d be going to Ardensford to hunt her down – not without a lead.”

“My mother?” Damien asked, cocking his head to the side. “Huh. I suppose that could have worked, but it isn’t as safe as the Void.”

“If you’re sure,” Sylph said. “Let’s focus on the Grays, then. I’m not sure we have the strength to take them head on – and I don’t think we can afford to kill that many mages, even if we could. The kingdom is already in enough danger from the Corruption.”

“Agreed,” Damien said. “The best thing we can do is get Nolan out with as little damage as possible. I’m certain the Grays have some really powerful mages – not the rabble they sent to take care of Loretta, but ones that would actually pose threats to us.”

“That should be a given,” Sylph agreed. “I can infiltrate their house if I’m moving on my own. I doubt they’ve got any defenses I wasn’t trained for. But it will be harder if you’re coming along.”

“Until you run into someone. It’s unlikely that Nolan will be alone. The chances of at least one fight are pretty high, and if you get surrounded, it could be bad. I can be stealthy.”

“I know,” Sylph said with a nod. “But we should probably double down on that. Any advantage we can get will help. If we go in together, I think the most likely result will be a lot of dead mages, which isn’t our goal.”

“Treasure Pavilion?” Damien suggested.

“Exactly what I was thinking. I’m certain we’ll be able to find something that can be useful there. The more leverage we have, the less of the Grays’ men we’ll have to kill.”

“Let’s go, then,” Damien said. “I’d assume the faster we get to the Gray estate, the better. They’re going to start wondering what happened to their agents.”

***

They reached the Treasure Pavilion in less than a minute, aided by their empowered movement abilities. Auntie sat in her chair behind the desk, leafing through a large stack of papers. When she spotted Damien and Sylph, her eyebrows crept up.

“I was wondering when you two would crop up,” she said, slipping down from the desk with a grunt. “Racking up contribution points like nobodies business. What in the Planes have you been up to?”

“We need something that will either cause a big distraction or help us be stealthy,” Sylph said. “The amount of points it costs is not important, and we don’t want to spend a bunch of time wandering around to find it. Do you have any suggestions?”

Auntie’s eyebrows crept up. “Would this have anything to do with the quest that Whisp assigned you?”

“You know about that?” Damien asked, a flicker of unease building. He instinctively reached for his Ether, but didn’t make any moves.

“She swung by just a minute or two ago,” Auntie replied, putting her hands on her hips. “Apparently, you did something real big for her. She was pretty secretive about it, but you’ve apparently got a total of thirty seven thousand and fifty contribution points between the two of you.”

Damien let the Ether slip back to its natural state in his core. “That’s a lot.”

“Whisp is going to bankrupt us if she gives points out like this,” Auntie said irritably. “Woman’s drunk, I could smell it on her breath.”

“It’s for a good cause,” Damien said.

“I’d like to ask for suggestions a second time,” Sylph said. “We’ll pool our points. Is there anything behind the gold door that would be useful?”

“Of course there would be,” Auntie snapped. “Those are some of the bests artifacts Blackmist has to offer.”

“What about something that explodes?” Damien asked, outstretching his hands. “And I mean a big explosion. Enough to bring down the attention of everyone in a small city.”

Auntie’s eye twitched. “Why do you need something like that? And, worse, why do you assume I’ve got it sitting around in the middle of Blackmist’s campus?”

Sylph cocked an eyebrow. “Are you telling me you don’t have anything like that? I’ve read that runed explosives have been used on the frontlines before.”

“I never said we didn’t have it,” Auntie said crossly. “You said you wanted something stealthy. How is an enormous bomb stealthy?”

Damien tapped his chin. “If they’re all running to an explosion, then they can’t see us.”

“I am going to elect not to address that logic,” Auntie said, rubbing her forehead. “Listen, give me some more information to work with so I can properly help you. You need to be secretive for some reason. Why? Are you sneaking past monsters? Into the girl’s bathroom? The boy’s bathroom? I don’t care, although I’d be really concerned if your first thought to peep was to use a bomb. I much prefer a portable window.”

“No bathrooms,” Damien said. He exchanged a glance with Sylph, then sighed. “A noble house.”

Auntie’s eyes widened. “Ah. Trying to prank a noble? You wouldn’t be the first, but a bomb is definitely overkill for that. You’d be much better off – and wouldn’t waste nearly as many contribution points – if you just got some shadow cloaks.”

“No,” Sylph said before Damien could even ask what those were. “They’ll fail under powerful Truesight wards.”

“What in the Planes are you going to be passing through Truesight wards for?” Auntie asked, aghast. “Those are just in treasuries and core rooms. Whatever you’re planning, it probably isn’t worth it. Just get a useful artifact that’ll actually help you in the long run.”

“We’re trying to rescue one of our friends that got kidnapped,” Damien said flatly. “We don’t have time to do anything else, so I’m going to have to ask that you either help us or open the door to the Pavilion so we can look around for ourselves.”

“Kidnapped? A Blackmist student?” Auntie asked, her face growing stormy. She bared her teeth and raised a hand into the air threateningly. “What little shitstain of a noble house thinks they can waltz in here and steal a student? I’ll crush them myself, boy. Who are they?”

“You can’t do anything,” Damien replied. “It’s the Grays.”

Auntie froze. They stared at each other for a few moments. Then she turned around and pressed her palm to the golden door. Ether flowed from her palm and a dozen clicks rang out from within it.

“You’re going to need a really big bomb if you want to distract them enough to do anything.”

The metal warped and bent inward, opening into an enormous hall. Glittering artifacts lined the walls and sat on pedestals. They ranged from massive swords to staves filled to the brim with so much Ether that Damien could practically taste it.

Auntie snapped her fingers and the glass casing on one of the pedestals near the back of the room cracked, falling apart as a small orb floated out of it and flew over to land in her hands.

“This is meant for clearing out massive groups of powerful monsters,” Auntie said. “But it’ll do just as much of a number on walls, runed or not. I have to ask – how much damage do you plan to do with this? If you kill any major nobles…”

“We aren’t planning to kill anyone we don’t have to,” Damien said. “We’ll set the explosion off far enough away from any people that, hopefully, nobody will actually be harmed by it. It’s a distraction, not the main offense.”

Auntie nodded. She handed the small sphere to Sylph, who took it gingerly.

“Send some Ether – it doesn’t matter what kind – into the activation rune on that,” Auntie said. “You’ll have a minute to get away from it after that. There’s no stopping it either. It’s not a stable weapon. It’s not meant to be. I would not be letting you buy that under any other circumstances.”

“How much was it?” Damien asked, mostly out of curiosity.

“More than what you had,” Auntie replied flatly. “Consider the rest of it a down payment on the safe return of one of Blackmist’s students. We don’t have many of these weapons, and the person who makes more is very rarely around. If it wasn’t just one time use, it would be one of the most expensive weapons in the armory. Students aren’t the only ones who can use Blackmist’s contribution points. In fact, the biggest users are adult mages on the frontlines. Now, get out of here. I’m going to have to do a lot of paperwork to explain where that bomb went.”

“We’ll put it to good use,” Damien promised. He paused for a moment. “I’m not sure if we’ll be recognized, but it might be safest for you to say you don’t have any recollection of us passing through if anyone comes to ask you.”

“I’ve already forgotten you were here,” Auntie said, waving a hand dismissively as she climbed back onto her desk. She caught Damien’s glance at one of the guards and chuckled. “Oh, don’t you worry about them. They do exactly what I say and not anything more.”

The guards didn’t react, which Damien took as assent. He and Sylph stepped out of the Treasure Pavilion and headed toward the portal courtyard in the center of Blackmist’s campus.

“I just realized I have no idea where the Gray estate is,” Damien said, cursing and coming to a stop at the edge of the obsidian arches. “We’ll have to go ask Whisp.”

“No need. I know where they are,” Sylph said.

Damien jogged to catch up with her as she headed toward a portal at the edge of the square. “Why?”

“The Grays are one of the major noble houses in the kingdom,” Sylph replied, glancing over her shoulder at him. “If you recall my original profession, I needed to be able to deal with the princess. There was always a large chance she would have married into House Gray, which means I needed to know how to deal with them.”

“Duh. Sorry, I didn’t mean to bring up bad memories,” Damien said as they came to a stop before one of the portals.

“It’s fine. They don’t matter anymore,” Sylph replied. She cracked her neck and rolled her shoulders. “The arrival portal should put us in the fields near the Gray estate, but it’s still guarded. As soon as we show up, teleport away. It takes the runes a few moments to recognize that you’re there. If you’re fast enough and the guards aren’t paying attention, they won’t even realize you’re there.”

Damn. She really does know exactly how to break into the Gray house. Sylph is amazing.

“I don’t think that’s the response you’re supposed to have when someone tells you they know how to break into a heavily guarded noble house,” Henry observed.

Damien just grunted. Sylph stepped into the swirling disk of energy and he followed after her. Something told him that the Grays would very strongly regret the day they decided to get rid of Loretta.