The Power of Ten, Book Five: Versatile Wizardry

Briggs watched Fae shut the door with a darkly calm face, and turned back to the very attractive blonde in the white robes and stole of a high-ranking Acropolis member.

-Aligned?- he /asked Fae neutrally, certain the Muse would not sense Mark use inside the Source Sun that was presently around her, and was definitely discomfiting her.

-Purple. Dark, DARK Purple.-

Briggs affected a frown as he picked up the tea he had poured for the woman, looking thoughtful. -Elements?-

-Healing, Poison, Curse, Undead.-

Briggs sipped quietly with only a little effort.

“There... seems to be some problem between the Lady Fae and I, Commander Briggs?” the Muse asked diplomatically, trying to hide her unease.

“Yes, well, she was going to kill you on the spot. I think we can consider that a very, very big problem,” he agreed, giving the door another wary glance, as did the Muse’s guardian Knight.

Her blue eyes flashed with some deserved arrogance. “Well, she certainly has a measure of hubris, if she would attack a Muse of the Acropolis.”

“She doesn’t have hubris, she has a lack of fear of the consequences. She probably assumes that getting rid of a Dark Mage of your caliber, with the amount of blood on your hands, is worth the wrath of the Acropolis,” Briggs replied conversationally.

The cultured hands paused for just a moment as the Muse drank, sudden alarm in her eyes. She couldn’t wield any magic, nor could the now very-alarmed Acropolis Golden Sun Knight standing behind her protectively. Across from them was a monstrously large man with an overwhelming physical presence... and no magic to inhibit him, although he supposedly had access to very dangerous non-magical toys.

“I am curious to know where she received such information. I was not aware that my reputation had such scurrilous attachments,” Zishia waved it off with a small laugh.

“You met her eyes?” Briggs asked rhetorically, and the woman stiffened. “She took one look at your soul, and nearly went berserk with disgust and anger.” He set down his cup with dangerously precise dexterity and quiet, no awkwardness despite the fineness of the porcelain and the size of his hands and fingers. Sama’s work, of course, a QL 40 set of teacups that was probably the finest set on the planet, although he doubted the woman opposite him realized it. She was probably savoring the QL 35 tea instead.

Briggs watched the Knight’s eyes flicker uneasily as he glanced at his Muse, still tense and ready to spring into action... although what kind of action was definitely a question, with the Knight-Archmage having no access to his magic right now!

“Lady Fae is naturally the designer, adapter, and forger of the Spellhouse Scrolls and Awakening Pedestals. Sama and I merely handle other secular matters for her,” Briggs drawled in his deep voice.

The attractive blonde woman paused thoughtfully, her thoughts no doubt racing madly as she tried to salvage this situation. “Regardless of her thoughts about me, I do indeed represent the whole of the Acropolis here,” Zishia finally stated, straightening up as she exerted her authority.

“I was not aware a Divine Mother had been appointed yet, and your correspondence did not include such a title,” Briggs returned calmly, and didn’t miss the twitch in her eyes. “Ah, I am not mistaken. I thought for a moment that I had indeed been a total fool, and should have been much more dramatic and ceremonial in receiving you, Muse Zishia.”

He could tell he’d sparked some anger in her at the title, but it was hard to exert authority when your magic wasn’t available, and you were just a woman leaning on the protection of a very distant organization, facing a man who knew too much about you.

“The Acropolis’s position on the Spellhouses you are erecting is very official, Commander Briggs. We do not wish to see the Spellhouses for the Healing and Blessing Elements rise anywhere other than the Acropolis, and we would like to host the Psychic Spellhouse, as well.” She finished her tea, and her Knight nearly jumped in alarm when Briggs smoothly leaned forward to pour her more with uncanny grace and sure hands, just as he had before.

Briggs withdrew his Sun politely, finally releasing the pressure, and watched them take deep breaths as the magic came back. Of course, this was Coralost, a White Mana Zone, and they were taking a -20 Caster Level penalty here as unattuned mages. They probably realized they still couldn’t Cast, but they had personal items on them with some stored Mana that might get them out of a sticky situation... situations that didn’t involve a Source Sun.

“What would it take for the Acropolis to achieve its aims here?” Zishia asked calmly.

“Well, for starters, the removal of every single Dark Mage from the ranks of the Acropolis’s membership.” Her hand froze in mid-sip, staring at him in disbelief. “What? Does that sound unwise? You are, in effect, claiming control over two, possibly three branches of White Magic, while, if you are any example, the Acropolis is hosting numerous Dark Mages in positions of power within it.

“If you think Lady Fae is going to leave control of such sources of White Magic in the hands of an organization with such a deep stain of Dark Magic running through it, you simply do not understand how she thinks at all. Really, sending a Dark Mage of your caliber and past actions here is quite literally the biggest insult and slap in the face to her that the Acropolis could possibly have done.” Briggs managed to look very confused. “Did you misread the situation so badly, or did someone set you up for catastrophic failure, Muse Zishia? I will be blunt and tell you at this point that the situation is unsalvageable, as I rather doubt you and the other Dark Mages in the Acropolis are willing to sacrifice themselves and their careers just to get some Spellhouses for it.”

The Muse finished her tea smoothly despite herself. “You seem quite certain of your facts, Commander Briggs,” she said gracefully, smoothly deflecting the point of his argument.

“Does your bodyguard know he’s been Poisoned, Cursed, and consigned to an Undead existence if he dies to either, to serve you until your death as your bound slave, and possibly beyond?” Briggs went on casually, refilling his own cup again.

“WHAT?!” the Golden Sun Knight blurted out, glancing at his Muse in shock.

“You are in a White Mana field,” Briggs went on neutrally, before Zishia could say anything. “The magic you can wield sticks out in such a place like blots of ink on the cleanest white paper. Trying to disguise what you’ve done is, mmm, difficult against such a pure background. Sir Hermes, your body is literally infested with an eclectic combination of Curse, Poison, and Undeath magic stemming from the Muse you are guarding, like a wondrously subtle and deadly personal signature. While I am sure she can remove it all with a thought, she cannot do so here.

“Likewise, if she should choose to kill you, she can do so with a thought... but not here.”

The Knight’s eyes went back and forth from his Muse to Briggs in disbelief. She was frozen in uncertainty, not knowing what to say.

“Likewise, you now know that your Muse is a surpassingly powerful Dark Archmage with the Healing, Curse, Poison, and Undead Elements. I imagine she has kept those facts carefully hidden, and so you aren’t going to make it back to Greece alive... unless you get those spells removed from you, and probably abandon your Muse. Judging by your expression, she infiltrated them into you without your knowledge, and she can do so again if they are removed.”

Briggs drank down his tea slowly as Zishia frowned at him, while Sir Hermes looked quite pale. Briggs smacked his lips in the silence before putting down his cup again.

“Sir Hermes, if you care to exit this room and go across the hall, you will find a very disgruntled Lady Fae in the chamber there. Now, you’ve done enough bloody-handed stuff for this Muse of yours that Lady Fae is very reluctant to treat you, figuring that you deserve dying to keep your mistress’ secrets.”

Beads of sweat popped out on the man’s head. “C-Commander Briggs,” he began awkwardly.

“Regardless, she’ll do it. She can break every one of the spells on you without too much effort, and then see you out of the building.

“Where you choose to go and who you choose to serve after this is up to you. You cannot stay here, of course. I have little use for a man who would serve a woman like your Muse and do the things she has ordered you to do. Unlike her, I do have a sense of honor and general goodwill towards people, and this is all I am willing to extend to you.”

“Thank you, Commander Briggs!” the Sun Knight exclaimed in relief. Zishia glanced at him sharply, as if daring him to abandon her, but he spared her only the briefest sharp glance before striding quickly out of the room.

He was an Archmage, not a fool. The fact he was leaving his Muse alone in the room with Briggs clearly did not bother him at all.

---

“Well-played,” Zishia admitted with a charming smile as the door closed behind her Knight. “I see deigning to meet you inside this uncomfortable Domain of your little towers was not wise.” The loss of her Golden Sun Knight, an honor reserved only for the most powerful members of the Acropolis, did not seem to disturb her in the slightest.

“In truth, it changed very little, except your ability to do damage to my people and yours,” Briggs said, his demeanor and posture likewise not changing in the slightest, despite his much superior position. “The reason you are alive at all is your diplomatic status, which I respect and will not touch. If I had met you in the field or a dark alleyway, you would naturally be dead by now. The Dark Magic around you reeks horribly, it has been difficult for me to keep a straight face here.” He sighed as her nose wrinkled just a tiny bit at that description of herself, especially coming from someone looking like him.

“Now, what is going to happen here is that I’m going to dash off a reply to the Acropolis, stating the reasons their request is being refused. As it is on, well, religious grounds, there really is nothing you are going to say to change Lady Fae’s mind. I will note how severe an insult it was sending a Dark Mage like you to negotiate with her, and will direct them not to contact us over this matter in the future.

“What Sir Hermes does is his own business. Will he throw himself on the altar of repentance and report all the things he has done for you? I doubt it, but you never know. His choices are now his own, as is his soul. I rather particularly dislike the Magic of Undeath, by the way, although I must say how you had him caged and handled without him knowing it was masterful.”

“I find myself surprised that he believed you,” she replied with a nod at the compliment.

“I am Commander Briggs, not Smarmy Gladhander Briggs. I am who I am, and that level of duplicity and manipulation of the truth is quite below me, Muse Zishia. Sir Hermes recognized it, knew that you are anything but incapable of something similar, and he chose who to believe.

“The fact I was telling the absolute truth, and he is no doubt feeling it as Lady Fae removes the spells you had binding him, doubtless helped a small amount.”

She reached out her cup again, and with unfailing politeness, Briggs poured her another precise cup to the brim.

“Your tea is wonderful,” she complimented him after another sip.

“Thank you. I shall inform Sama of your regard,” he replied politely.

“I fear I will need a driver to shuttle me to my plane out of here, however, now that mine has departed.”

“I will drive you to the airport personally, Muse Zishia,” Briggs assured her sternly. “Have no fear for your accommodations.”

He noted the twitch in her eyes when the first of her spells controlling the Golden Sun Knight who had served her so faithfully was broken. Fae wasn’t much inhibited by a White Mana Zone at all, and indeed, the hum of her Sublime Chord was making the air tinkle with celestial chimes... chimes that were probably banging on Muse Zishia’s ears like little daggers.

Briggs just smiled to himself and continued the polite conversation.