A deal worth making

It looks like a snowflake would look if it were turned into a 3D object by rotating it and turning the resulting surface into a puddle with a thin film of oil on its surface. I catch myself moving my hand a little bit to touch it, before my usual dilligence kicks in. Touching strange magical lights, especially those trapped in a recess of the cave wall lined with active runes is a bad idea. Marental put that in for a reason. Not necessarily a reason friendly to me, but it is even more of a reason not to stick my hand in there.

Still it is almost whispering to me. „What is that? It is incredibly beautiful.“ I speak with a subdued voice. Hildegard responds „I see only a yellow light. Like a standard magical message.“. Melo speaks up „It is addressed to him personally. It triggers his magical senses, which are apparently better than mine, even if he does not intentionally activate his sight. If he does not know the spell, I can convert it to the message. So can Zewrepa or Leuma.“ „No. Especially not Leuma“ I interject. Hildegard is tilting her head towards me. Leuma keeps her voice remarkably neutral „Don’t you trust me?“ I shake my head „This is not a matter of trust. Though this message is most likely intended for Hildegard. Marental is a crafty wizard. You surely have a safety feature you don’t know about. I certainly do not want you to cast spells on anything trapped by runes Marental has made. In fact I would prefer you not cast any spells on anything inside this cave.“. She smiles. Yet another test. This woman manages to annoy me and make me admire her by the same act. Melo offers to do a dry casting of the conversion spell.

Your Dilligence, my dearest Hildegard, your message came as a joyous surprise. Obviously I have passed it on to your family. The land is full of goblins, trolls and worse spawn of Loki and Fenrir, so waiting for a response has not been feasible. Hence it is my sad duty to inform you that your fiance has found an honorable death on the field of battle with his sword in his hand. May he make his name resound in Valhalla. Unfortunately your brother has been griveously wounded in the same battle. We are awaiting the delivery of specialised potions so that he may walk again. Your father’s standard flies above his castle and is busy salvaging as much of the harvest as possible. We are both preparing for a siege, so I cannot promise a secure line of communication. Nevertheless if you discover new information about the attack, let us know. I regret to inform you that neither I nor you father as far as I know have any allies with guest rights to call upon in the area you have found yourself. Esteemed adept, I thank you for defending my ally’s daughter. Unfortunately I see no way for us to effectively stand together beyond sharing our experience during this hard time. Signed: Ingmar of South Bothia

The message concluded with a complicated diagramm which we are making paper copies of after reading the message out aloud to Hildegard. She esponds with a strained laughter. „It seems I am no longer engaged. I was about to formuate a formal letter of renounciation on grounds of a lack of virginity of the bride. I am sorry. Excuse me for now.“. She turns around and rushes out.

Uta von Rabenstein enters her son’s chamber finding him playing chess with her younger daughter Gerda. „Your sister has survived. She has found an ally and escpaed the wizard who had abducted her.“ Her daughter almost spills the chess board on the floor, as jumps out of her chair „What has happened? How do you know.“ Her brother’s voice is warm, taking the sting out of his words „Self control, little sister. Mother will surely explain. This is fantastic news and the details while interesting don’t matter as much.“

I am feeding Julia. Does this message matter? I am afraid not. I might ask Hildegard’s parents for advice. But the guy whose nephew’s bride to be I have impregnated is listening in. It is possible that he is happy to have her out of his hair, lest he have to support a useless widow, but I am not ready to depend on that. I know nothing about those people. I don’t know him.

It is time for sword training.