The Foolhardies 155 Join The Club

"Reunion went well earlier today?" Luca asked as he joined me inside the tent that the Starfall soldiers set up for our use.

"Yeah, laughs, gut-punches, buckets of tears, the usual," I said jokingly, although deep down I was feeling relieved that Ty had come home and Arah wasn't angry anymore.

"And… no one wondered where Ty's been this whole time? They just accepted he was back out of the blue?" Luca asked for confirmation.

I glanced sideways at my little brother who was looking back at me with a very serious face.

Of course, his unease was understandable. Luca was probably wondering what to expect after we freed him from a life of slavery. Perhaps walking home to find that everyone hadn't missed him and simply thought he'd been around this whole time could be his best-case scenario.

"Don't worry… it'll happen for you too," I a.s.sured him.

"I'm not worried," Luca said, turning away from me. "I believe in you…"

Well, that was possibly the first time Luca had ever admitted that to me. Perhaps the success of Ty's rescue mission had reinforced my brother's belief that I would free him one day. He needn't have worried. His freedom was my priority number one after all.

I patted Luca rea.s.suringly on the shoulder and nodded toward the scene in front of us.

"Someone looks nervous," I laughed.

"You were probably just like him the first time you met Aura," Luca reminded me.

I recalled my first meeting with my fairy partner on that night we made a pact to fulfill each other's wishes. Compared to that magical encounter, I thought Ty's was kind of lame. Still, I was happy Aura agreed to be his contractor. I couldn't trust his power to anyone else.

Ty was kneeling on the floor in front of Aura as they were surrounded by me and my team members with the exception of Qwipps who was guarding the front of our tent.

He raised a hand and offered her a small golden charm that was shaped like the a six-pointed star.

"Please take this, um, golden star, as a sign of my fealty and, um," Ty had forgotten what came next so he got a helpful nudge from Varda who whispered in his ear, "my desire to serve as a visere for the Trickster Pavilion."

"Y-yeah…" He gulped visibly. "My desire to serve as a visere for the Trickster Pavilion."

Aura took the charm from his hands and clipped it onto the necklace I'd given her so now there were two things hanging from it.

"I, Aurana, princess of the Trickster Pavilion, recognize your resolve, Tyberius Cruz," Aura answered in an uncommonly serious tone that was a contrast to the warm smile on her face. "And I accept you as my visere."

Varda pa.s.sed Aura a five-foot-long tree branch — taken from one of the desert firs in the battle oasis — which Aura then offered to Ty.

"Take this branch from my hands and know that it is both a symbol of friends.h.i.+p and power for it'll be used as a prime material in the making of your magician's staff," Aura explained.

Ty took the branch awkwardly from her hands. Afterward, he rose to his feet while the rest of us applauded.

"Welcome to the Trickster Pavilion," Aura said, clasping him on his forearm as she did.

As I clapped along with everyone, my mind went back to that night I became Aura's visere and I noted how my own joining wasn't nearly as serious as Ty's. There were no oaths to take with her, just a simple promise that we would both get the job done. Ours was far more intimate and that thought made me smile.

"Come with me, Luca," I said.

Then I turned around, opened the tent flap and walked out to my second viewing of the night sky.

Above me, Idunn was back in her place above the heavens, a new moon that shone down across the desert sands. Around me, a sea of tents covered our surroundings, many of them sporting the banners of units that serve the Starfall clan.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say we were sitting in the middle of a sea of enemies," I commented.

"Muddamit, I didn't need that image in my head," Qwipps replied.

He was standing next to the open tent flap and sipping on a cup of elf tea.

"This came for you," he said.

Qwipps pa.s.sed me the gla.s.s ball in his hands. I took it with both hands and activated the object that I knew was a scrying orb.

From inside its murky depths, I saw a gathering of storm clouds that dissipated like theatre curtains to give way to the news hidden within.

It was a bit like my visions when I astral projected, but instead of moving scenes, I was treated to a series of 3D snapshots of important moments happening in the Fayne at that exact moment. Of course, these images came with their own floating texts like that of a magic eight ball.

The headline caught my attention.

FIRST HUMAN MAGICIAN IN A HUNDRED YEARS JOINS THE TRICKSTER PAVILION

The accompanying image was one of Ty sitting on the auction house's stage while a dark, unrecognizable ent.i.ty floated above him.

It wasn't a very flattering image and it didn't properly convey the terror of that thing Ty had summoned.

"We're not mentioned here," I noted. "It just says he'd been purchased by Madam Kallista of the Three Rings Auction House as a third-party representative for the Trickster Pavilion…"

"That's a good thing, right?" Luca asked. "At least no one's going to immediately come after us to try and steal Ty."

I nodded in agreement. "Yup… saves us the ha.s.sle…"

Although it really was good that the Foolhardies hadn't been revealed, it kind of annoyed me that we weren't mentioned. This was the kind of thing that helped to increase our unit's popularity after all.

I sighed, letting go of my disappointment and opted instead to swipe the orb to see what other news had occurred in the Fayne.

"Interesting," I said.

"What is?" Luca asked.

He glanced down at the orb in my hand. Inside of it was a 3D image was a walled castle with half a dozen spires being invaded by a group of soldiers. The headline of this image read; PILGRIMS INVADE ORDER OF JUSTICIAR ARCHIVES AND ESCAPE WITH PRICELESS RELICS FROM THE PERIOD OF THE LOST MONARCH.

"I never realized how active the Pilgrimage was before," I told Luca.

"They're the good guys though, right?" Luca wondered. "I mean, they even wanted to help us free Ty…"

I shrugged. "The way I see it, little brother, believing some big secret organization is altruistic is just going to bite us in the a.s.s… the only ones we can really trust are us."

Luca stared thoughtfully at the orb. By the glint in his eyes, I a.s.sumed he didn't heard my last statement. But I guess for a slave soldier like Luca, the sound of a human-centric group fighting for human rights in the Fayne was very appealing.

I swiped the orb a few more times, but the rest of the news I received was your typical increase in hostilities among fairy clans which were the norm in this age of warring states.

"Looks like the Scarlet Moon picked a fight with the Hermitage up north," I reported.

"That's Varda's former dwarven clan, right?" Luca confirmed.

I nodded. "Man, these Scarlet Moon guys just don't let up…"

"Those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds definitely put the 'war' in warmongering," Qwipps agreed. "And we've brushed swords with them three times now, Dean… what kind of messed up luck do you have?"

I almost laughed at his statement as I was wondering the same thing too. Still, I'd rather our enemies kept coming because beating them all was the fastest way to get recognized by the clan's leaders.h.i.+p.

"Oh, looks like Garm lost another oasis to the Sunspire Dominion," I reported after swiping the orb one final time. "It says here that the oasis was one of the largest in the eastern region of the Westersand desert and that it had a mana pool too."

"Losing a place like that's one heck of a fail on Garm's part," Qwipps laughed.

Qwipps was right, of course. The battle in the Westersand Desert between the Sunspire Dominion and the Trickster Pavilion was all about acquiring and controlling the many oasis found in the desert. These were highly strategic areas that could control the flow of supplies and trade in the area, and losing one with a mana pool in it was a big loss for our side.

"Looks like we'll get to see some action in the Westersand Desert after all… no way the Council won't deploy more units to take back what we lost," I reasoned.

"That means a ramp-up in military power in the region," Luca added, sounding almost like he didn't much like the idea. "Which means another big war is coming… doesn't it?"

I smacked my brother in the shoulder.

"What? Are you losing your nerve, Luca?" I joked.

He responded with a hard smack on my shoulder.

"You wish… I'm ready," Luca said, although his voice didn't sound so resolute.

"Good," I answered. "Remember, we're—"

"—Fighting to rack up as many accomplishments as we can to attain a wish from the clan leader," Luca finished the line I'd drilled into him months ago. "I know, Dean… I'm ready."

"Good… let's go then." I gave the scrying orb back to Qwipps. "Give this to Aura for me, will you."

Luca and I began walking away from our tent, but Qwipps called me back to ask where I was going.

I looked over my shoulder at him and said, "I've got a meeting with the Lord of Stars."