Heir of Dust and Wind

Chapter 44 - Crazy Plans

"This is insane."

For once, Raban wasn't sorry that he had spoken the first words that came to his mind aloud. They were still sitting at the breakfast table. Orla had asked him and Gainor to stay for a short conversation before they left for their patrol duties this morning. It was then that she'd explained her plan of how Ava could gain more allies.

While Goblin had talked, he had watched the expression on Gainor's face shift from anticipation to utter incredulity, his own face undoubtedly displaying similar emotions.

"You know I really cherish your advice and I also know that your wisdom is far beyond my own knowledge of magic," Gainor finally said, after being stunned into silence for several minutes, "but I'm with Raban on this one. This is madness! If I recall correctly, you were the one telling us so in the first place."

The little librarian clicked her tongue at their words, obviously not quite happy with their reactions. 

"It is true," she conceded, "I did believe it impossible to break the seal, but ..."

"And very dangerous," Raban interjected, "those were your exact words."

Orla nodded grimly, "Again, you're right," she replied defiantly, "but if you'd let me finish, I'd have told you that the situation has changed dramatically since I first examined the seal and the spell."

Raban couldn't help but snort, feeling his temper rise even more. "Changed how?"

During their extended conversation on that first morning together, Ava and Trygve had told him about what they had found in the dungeons. His cell, with an already broken seal, and another door at the end of the corridor. Unlike the one in the room where he had been kept, this one had remained closed, the seal intact.

Upon learning that all the Fae had been hunted and killed, he had asked Orla about opening that closed door too. His hope had been to find others of his kind although he believed that anyone still incarcerated by Dunstan deserved to be freed no matter what kind of creature they were.

Back then, the Goblin had just looked at him with what he had believed to be true sadness in her dark eyes, telling him, that it was impossible to break the seal. 

"Even Ava's unique and strong power wouldn't be able to break it. In fact, you were probably lucky that your door was damaged by the force of the ritual she performed. Had it been the same spell, we wouldn't have been able to reach you."

"Also," she had added, "breaking the seal is extremely dangerous. The cleansing merely brushed the surface of the dungeons as they are separate magical entities that work independently of the land. It's ancient and powerful magic that no one fully understands. Dunstan could have kept some of his most unpredictable creations there. Once unleashed we wouldn't be able to put them back."

In the end, she had looked away from him, gazing into the flames of the fireplace. 

Raban had thought that she too had felt defeated about not being able to look for more survivors, but now he couldn't help but feel betrayed. If it had been impossible then, why was it possible now?

"I just told you," Orla answered, first traces of impatience lacing her words, "that I re-examined the spell after last night's events. Ava is in dire need of more allies, if she wants to be taken more seriously by the Council and if she intends to fight the Shadow Wielder."

"But didn't you say our wards were safe?" Gainor asked her face still full of bewilderment and growing more worried by the minute.

"They are – for now," the Goblin clarified. "If we can't figure out a way to put up a unified front, however, I fear that the shift towards dark magic isn't something that'll halt at our doorstep once all the other sorcerers and Dracaeni are defeated. This is a dimensional problem which cannot be solved unilaterally."

Raban pinched the bridge of his nose with two fingers and closed his eyes for a moment. "So far," he said, "I can follow you, but doesn't that still leave the problems of breaking the seal's spell and the risk of unleashing more dark magic within this dome?"

"Yes and no," Orla replied.

Raban had to grip the table, his knuckles white, to keep himself from snapping at her. How could she still speak in riddles?

"What does that mean?" Gainor asked instead and Raban was grateful for his calm voice.

"It means," Orla answered slowly, "that, yes, we still don't know what is behind that door, but no, there is a way to break the seal."

"How?" Despite his best efforts to not let false hope well up inside him, Raban couldn't quite hide the eagerness in his voice. Even though there still was a risk that they might find something evil lurking behind the closed doors, if there was a chance of finding more surviving prisoners, he would at least consider Orla's plan.

"Well, being a sorcerer himself, Dunstan made the seal sorcerer-proof, if you want to call it that. Being a paranoid bastard," she added, "is what probably made him make the spell immune to magic wielded by Goblins, Fae or any other individual magical creature."

She made a pause, looking at them intently as if she expected them to figure it out by themselves, the way Ava usually did. Neither of them did, though, and so she sighed deeply and went on after some moments.

"However, he doesn't seem to have believed that a substantial number of different creatures might combine their forces to so."

"So, you meant if all of us together worked at breaking the seal, we could succeed?" Raban wondered why the Goblin hadn't thought of this sooner, given that so many kinds of magical beings lived with Ava. And even if they could succeed in this, was it worth the risks? Was he being too selfish here in hopré to find more of his kind?

"It is," the Goblin confirmed his conclusion, "but there is a catch."

"Of course, there is," Raban heard Gainor mutter under his breath before he sighed. "Why can't these things be easy for a change?" he asked.

"Maybe not easy," Orla mused, "but not impossible either."

"What do we have to do?" Raban enquired.

"Well, this is why I wanted to talk to you before you went on patrol," she replied. "In order to succeed, we need at least seven magical creatures, all of them from a different kind, and so far, we have only five."

Raban groaned. Hadn't she just told them that it was not impossible?

"Why so frustrated?" The Goblin arched a brow at him. "In fact, it was you who gave me the idea."

Only then realisation dawned on him. 

"Faeries," he said hoarsely, "of course."

"Well, took you long enough," the Goblin remarked dryly and proceeded to put a map on the table in front of them.

***

Image by Rohan Mahecha on Unsplash