Mana Mutation Menace (Journey to Chaos Book 3) (56 page)

“How long were you
there?”

“A minute or so. Are you
practicing a routine for another contest?”

“No, I was practicing
avatarcraft for a religious ritual of balance and harmony.”

Eric pulled out his own
staff and looked at the four lights inside.

“You mean these things?
You know how to use them?”

“Yep. God-like power
comes in handy for my line of work. You’ll have to learn how to use them too if
you want to defeat Nulso.”

Eric pressed his hands
together to dismiss his staff. “I thought as much, but right now, I need your
help with something else.”

He explained his problem
with Annala, his plan to solve it, and what he needed from her to make it work.
She asked if he was serious, and when he nodded, she laughed. Eric waited for
her to calm down, at which point, she agreed to help. It was crazy enough to
attract the fancy of Lady Chaos, and with her, all things were possible.

“Besides, I can’t let my
little sister down, now can I?”

One hour later, the
three of them stood outside a mansion in Ataidar’s northern district. The
divinity invested within Kallen’s yellow sphere enabled her to ride on a bolt
of lightning and travel great distances instantaneously. It was basically teleporting
but didn’t make Eric nauseous. However, it couldn’t be done within Dnnac Ledo
because the Chaotic Curtain interfered with it. Thus, it took them fifty-nine
minutes to arrange things with Ponix and get out of Roalt castle and less than
one minute to jump from the capital to the countryside.

The estate was old and
somewhat dilapidated. Paint was peeling off on the upper floors but it was pristine
on the first floor. There were flowers on the porch and in the windows, but
most of the lawn was unkempt. The trio walked through an honor guard of statues
that had been worn away by time and weather. The Noble House of Darwoss
couldn’t afford to keep it pristine since their second demotion.

Eric stepped up to announce
their presence. The doorknocker was polished to a high shine and the door
itself was professionally stained. This did nothing but highlight the poor
appearance of everything around them. He waited about a minute until the door
opened. A cat woman in a maid outfit greeted him.

“This is the residence
of the Noble House of Darwoss. How may I help you?”

 “This is Eric Watley
speaking. I’d like to speak with the young master of the house.”

This clearly delighted
the woman. Eric could practically hear her think, “The young master has friends
and they have come to visit him!” Aloud, she said, “On what matters?”

“It concerns the school
group he’s the co-founder of.”

“One moment, please.”

The door closed.

“Do you think his dad is
screwing his maid?”

“Kallen!”

“What? If he’s so
desperate to emulate his ancestors, it’s a reasonable assumption. At their prime,
they sired so many bastards, they filled up a sub-section of the house’s
guard.”

The cat maid returned
and said,
“The young master will see you.”

She led the trio into
the large and empty main hall. Its sheer size told of the once great riches its
master commanded, but its decoration was sparse. There was also a layer of grime
on everything. One maid couldn’t keep such a place clean by herself. Every
other employee looked more like a writer for the
Darwoss Herald
than a
household servant. After three flights of stairs and too many hallways, the
maid announced Eric’s presence. Norej opened the door himself.

 “Hi, Eric. Do you want
to join my club?”

“Yes, but that’s not why
I’m here. May we come in?”

“Sure.” Norej stepped
aside and made an exaggerated welcome gesture. “Welcome to the illustrious throne
room of the great and mighty heir of the barony!”

Emily giggled. Eric and
Kallen did not. Once inside, he closed the door and she cast the Lupine
Baffler. A gust of wind arose from nothing and whirled into every corner of the
room, sealing all sounds and smells within its borders. Norej plopped back into
his desk chair and said,

“If you want cloak and
dagger stuff, my usual rate is five hundred gold up front and then another five
hundred after the job has been completed.”

“What!? Really?” Eric
asked.

Norej spun about to the
Country
of Conflict
game on his computer.

“No. My family doesn’t
do that anymore, but try telling that to the media. They think my dad’s
newspaper is a front business for a spy network of underground necrocrafters.”

“That’s a pity,” Kallen
said. “If you weren’t joking, then this would be simpler.”

Norej paused the game
and spun back around.

“Okay, I’m listening.”

Eric cleared his throat.
“I want you to sneak into Dnnac Ledo and cheer up Annala.”

There was a moment of
silence.

“Are you serious?”

“Yes.”

“Hahahahahaha no.”

Norej swiveled back to
his computer and unpaused the game.

“I know it’s dangerous—”

“If I had a bodyguard,
then I’d tell him to throw you out.”

“There are five reasons
you should help me.”

Norej opened his desk
drawer, withdrew a pair of headphones, slotted them in, and pressed play on his
computer.

“I’m listening to Three
Windows Up so I can’t hear your insanity.”

Eric’s eyes slitted. He
yanked the headphones off Norej’s head and crushed them with the right hand of
the grendel. Transforming further, he loomed over the human boy and growled.
Norej was unimpressed.

“You know, you’re only
proving my dad right about ‘reformed’ monsters.”

“Listen to me while I speak. When I am finished, I will leave and
buy you a new pair of headphones. When I return, I want your answer. Is this
agreeable?”

“Sure.”

Eric took a deep breath
and recited Nunnal’s’ poem. He returned to human form and took a second breath.
Then he outlined his proposal. “1) I could smuggle out elven tech for you to
use or sell. Weapons, domestic appliances, production technology, or something
else you want. 2) The Mana Mutation Summit will reconvene in Dnnac Ledo and I
can provide exclusive information for your newspaper. 3) I know how much you
despise elves and you know how much elves value their security measures, so
think of how gratifying it will be to sneak in under their noses. 4) I hear
that the House of Darwoss has endured hard times since they were demoted from
Marquis to Baron. If you do me this favor, then I will put in a good word for
your family with Queen Kasile. She might consider bumping you back up if she
hears about your courageous act to bridge racial gaps and aid victims of mana
mutation. 5) You can help a friend. You can hardly start a school club together
and not become friends.”

“I think he wants to be
more than friends,” Kallen remarked.

This so flustered Norej
that he slipped out of his chair. “R-ridiculous! Wh-whyy would I fall for a
non-human like her? It’s appalling and I’m deeply insulted that you…”

Kallen smirked.

“….are not buying this,
are you?”

“Not a word.”

Norej stood up and wiped
pretend dust of himself. “Okay, maybe I have
slight infatuation
with
her. She’s pretty, smart and shares my prejudice towards demons. She calls
Revas and Oito ‘buffoons that require my tutoring’ and refers to orcs as
‘violent, law-obsessed brutes.’ All of this is in line with my father’s
ideology. Of course I’d find her attractive.”

Eric refrained from
pointing out that Revas and Oito were not the only people Annala tutored or
that everyone called orcs "violent, law-obsessed brutes," including
the orcs themselves.

“However, I’m sure it’s
just a mere high school crush. It will pass and I can focus my poetry on a
purely human subject.”

“You write poetry about
her?” Emily asked.

Norej's blush covered
his entire face. “That’s not the point!”

“It’s sweet.”

“T-thank you.”

“If you do this, then I
think she’ll give you a kiss on the cheek.”

Norej crossed his arms
and looked away. “I don’t care about that, but the other things Eric mentioned
sound interesting. I’ll think about it while you replace my headphones.”

The three of them left
the manor and Kallen teleported them back to Roalt. At the local electronics
store, Eric looked for the cheapest variety, but Emily said they should get one
of the more expensive models to show their appreciation. Kallen argued that
would offend him more than the cheap ones. In the end, they settled for
middle-grade.

Back at House Darwoss,
Norej handed Eric a list of his demands. It included several varieties of elven
weaponry, a couple of elven appliances, arranging for his personal safety
during the Summit, exclusive media rights to the Ataidar coverage of the event,
and a script for what Eric should say to Kasile on behalf of his family.

“This is a steep list.”

“You need me so you have
no room to argue. It’s like my father always says: ‘Water in a desert is worth
any price.’”

“
Touché
.” Eric
pocketed the list. “In accordance with your cloak and dagger policy, I’ll do
half of these now and then the second half after your mission is completed.”

Norej grinned and nodded.

Dnnac Ledo’s blacksmith was the trio's first target. Norej
demanded three daggers, two swords, and an axe along with two suits of body
armor. Kallen, Emily, and Eric put their heads together to decide how they were
going to steal it. While Emily was horrified at the notion, she admitted that all
of them together couldn't purchase even one thing on the list.

The smith’s tree was hard, dark wood. It breathed in the
smoke from the furnaces and returned oxygen to keep the flames burning bright. Once
again, this tree was bigger on the inside. There were twenty-two furnaces
inside, and these were just the ones they could see from the entrance. This was
beside the storefront, storage area, living space, and sleeping quarters. The
workshop was loud and foul smelling, but no one could deny that there were
beautiful things to look at.

Immortality and chaotic
insight raised the elven metalworkers above their mortal counterparts.
There
were products here that human stores simply didn't have, and couldn’t make.
From the exquisite metal blades with their magical runes, to a staff with
shapeshifting heads, to armor that could make its wearer immune to fatigue via
mana stimmulation, they were the finest works Eric had ever seen. Mounted on a
wall was a blade made of pure fire; a curved blade of red flame that sprouted
from a metal handle without heating it up.

That’s one of the things Norej wants.

The smith was right there working on another blade. He was
a well-built man by any definition. While he had the same golden-brown hair as
every other elf, his was blackened by soot and hardened by fire. Kallen
remarked that he was nicknamed “Sonic the Fire Hair.”

"How do you make this stuff?" Eric wondered
aloud.

Sonic paused, turned, and stared at Eric. "Would you
like to see?"

"Sure! Is it okay?"

“Of course. Not everyone in this village is a paranoid
human hater.”

Naturally, this made Eric’s stomach twist into knots.

Together, the three of them watched the smith hold a sheet
of water and bang it with a hammer. All the while, he sang verses about the
ocean, sailing, and chaos.
Smith magic...Just like Forge said.
Once his
song was finished and the sword was in the form he wanted, Sonic stuck the
blade of water into the forge. It retained its shape despite the heat. Only the
coals touched by the blade's point or edge were extinguished. Sonic nodded in
approval and placed it in a rack with swords of seven other classical elements.

“Say, you’re a grendel, aren’t you?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Don’t tell the Eternal Pest that I know this, but do you
also have a Seed of Chaos?”

“What’s your point?”

Sonic palmed a piece of ore and held it up to the light.

“This stuff is common iron. As good as it is, it gets
boring to use the same old stuff. I’ve heard rumors that a grendel’s hide is
made of a unique metal and I’ve wanted to use some of that stuff for six
hundred and eighty years, but they’re rare creatures. By the time I catch news
of one, someone else has stripped it clean! If you have a Seed of Chaos, then I
could harvest it without doing you any permanent harm.”

“You want to skin me alive?”

Sonic frantically waved his hands. “I’ll pay you, of
course! I’ve accumulated plenty of human money over the centuries and it’s not
like I have many opportunities to use it.”

“How much are we talking?”

“How much do you want?”

Memories of the pawnshop came back to Eric and gave him
pause. Discussing how much Pilaocv would pay him for Lunas’ influence choker
came out gibberish to him. He settled on a trade because he couldn’t comprehend
the economics. He’d rather not go through that again.