“I’ve done all that can be done for her today,” Ketty was telling Jelvaic as Zeter and Damarys stood by.

Zeter wasn’t sure if he should follow after Emilie with Kasyn or stay where he was. He did have the elder tree wood for Ketty but he wasn’t about to hand it over right in front of everyone else since he wasn’t sure how that would be construed.

“I’ll expect you tomorrow, then?” Jelvaic asked.

“Yes, I’ll need to see whether or not the poison has been fully neutralized. There’s a few other potions we should be able to administer tomorrow as well to bolster her resilience and increase her chances for a full recovery.”

“I’m glad to see some good finally coming from you Sages,” Jelvaic said and it sounded like he was meaning it like a compliment. “And you’ve gotten rid of the ones who thought it was a good idea to attack my people?”

“Yes, I can bring you their heads if you like.”

“Just a couple of them. Nyla?”

The fiend, who’d been hovering in the guard room came out and nodded.

“Yes?”

“The Sages will be bringing a few heads for you to mount over the gate here. They’ll be a warning to any other Sages who think they can do whatever they want in our city.”

“Would you like them enchanted?” Nyla asked. “I can make them scream if any Sages try to sneak into the city. The Sages will be deafened by the scream and possibly run in terror.”

“Do it.” Jelvaic agreed. “Ketty here is allowed into the city once a day, along with one other Sage of her choosing to help treat Emilie.”

Nyla smiled at them both and then turned to Kamillus with a scowl.

“Imp, make a note of that and ensure it’s done.”

Kamillus bowed, grumbling under his breath, and then retreated into the guard room.

“I need to get back to the Sages,” Ketty said before withdrawing a small stone out of her pocket and holding it out for Jelvaic. “Speak into this stone if you need to contact me. Zeter, I have a few of Emilie’s belongings in our camp. Could you come and collect them for her? At your convenience of course.”

“I can come now,” he replied.

Ketty walked beside her horse with Zeter while the others went back into the city. Zeter didn’t say anything as they walked towards the Sage’s camp and Ketty hardly looked at him. It wasn’t until they were through the gate of the camp that Ketty sighed in relief.

“I can always feel that fiends eyes on me,” she said. “A lot of our usual means of avoiding detection haven’t worked on her and she’s been sharpening her nails in anticipation of catching one of us.”

The unspoken implication was that Ketty was still trying to sneak Sages into the city.

“At least I should have access to the city soon enough. That should simplify a lot of things.”

She led him into a large tent and he felt the air still as he entered, signifying potent magical wards against scrying. In the middle of the tent was a large table where an illusion of the city hovered. Ketty waved a hand and the illusion vanished. In its place, Zeter set the wood he’d collected.

“Very good,” Ketty bent over the specimens and began examining them. “I found references to this elder tree in the Sages archive, but nothing too specific. It seemed every time one of us got a sample, Akumu turned up and took it from us. No deaths, but there were more than a few Sages who had their memories of what they’d discovered removed…I wonder what he was trying to keep hidden?”

Should he show her the sap samples he’d collected as well? That was partly why he’d originally gotten them, but if Akumu wanted this elder tree to be left alone, that spoke to some unknown dangers. Then again, perhaps he just didn’t want people finding out the secrets to his city gates. That wasn’t exactly a secret anymore, so it shouldn’t hurt.

“I brought something else back with me,” he said, pulling one of the vials of sap out of his belt pouch. “Sap from the tree.”

Ketty’s eyes lit up, literally and figuratively, as she reached for it.

“I’ll charge my standard fee if you want to keep it,” he told her, not yet letting her have it.

As expected, she scowled at him at the mention of payment.

“Sometimes I think we made a mistake not inducting you into our organization,” she said.

“It’s too late now,” he replied. “My contract’s good for another three years.”

“Hmm, yes, though I believe there’s a clause in there for renegotiation if both sides agree.”

“For now I’m not interested in renegotiating since that would void the contract I have with Jelvaic.”

“He doesn’t have to know,” Ketty smirked.

“Unfortunately, he had me ratify my contract with Nyla once we rescued her.” He pulled down his collar and showed the small scar where Nyla had burned him to seal the contract.

“I see. Well then, here’s your payment for the elder tree wood,” she held out a metallic rod, several inches long, with runes etched into it.

Zeter accepted it and felt his magic focus in on the catalyst. With this he would be able to cast far more potent spells than on his own.

“Take a day or so to get the feel for it,” Ketty warned him. “You haven’t cast with a catalyst before and it can be a bit overwhelming at first.”

Zeter pocketed it and then held up the sap once more.

“I’ll have another item for you in a few days time,” Ketty finally agreed and then snatched the vial from him. “There’s a stack of old books and some reagents Emilie left behind. Take them to her home. While your there, see if you can find me a recipe for something called Sages Brew.”

The hairs on the back of his neck stood up and his stomach turned. There was something wrong with this request though he wasn’t sure what. It wasn’t the casual way in which Ketty was asking him to steal from Emilie. He didn’t really have much of an issue with that. There was something more in the way Ketty had asked. A desperation, or perhaps hunger that he didn’t quite understand.

“You’ll make a rich man out of me for this one,” he told her.

“You get this recipe for me and you’ll need to write up a new list of items and spells for us to pay you with.”

Zeter began to laugh but the look Ketty gave him was dead serious.

“I’m not joking,” she assured him. “Get me this recipe and I’ll give you everything you’ve ever asked us for.”

His palms began to sweat. This wasn’t a simple academical theft like the ones he’d done before, stealing research notes from one Sage for another. There was something here he didn’t understand and his instincts were telling him to refuse. However, there was a lot of magic in it for him if he accepted.

“I can’t agree to it right now, but I’ll still have a look around when I deliver her belongings.”

“Fine,” Ketty pointed to the exit. “I hope to see you soon and with good news.”

Zeter gave her a cursory bow and left the tent. As he made his way out of the camp, he couldn’t help but notice the desperate looks on the Sages around him. They watched him like vultures, a strange hunger in their eyes as they paused whatever they’d been doing just so they could watch him pass. A few muttered behind obscuring spells and the entire situation made him all the more uneasy. He’d never felt this way before in all the years he’d worked with the Sages of the Mercurial Robe and he couldn’t help but guess that his discomfort with Ketty’s request was connected to the rest of the Sages reactions to him.

As soon as he was out of the camp he relaxed a little. He’d been walking as fast as he could and his bruised ribs were aching from the exertion. When he drew level with the gate, Nyla came out of the guard room and stopped him.

“I just need to inspect these so-called belongings,” she said.

Zeter handed them over and Nyla picked through them, one by one. As she pulled one of the boxes of reagents out, it flashed with a dull light and Nyla grinned wickedly.

“This one’s got a scrying spell on it,” she hissed and the box burst into flames. “The rest of this seems fine.”

She handed them back to him and moved aside to let him enter.

“Something’s wrong with the Sages,” he warned Nyla. “The entire camp feels like it’s on edge and about to lose it. I just don’t know why.”

Nyla turned her gaze towards the Sages camp and nodded.

“They’re warded against my sight but I’ve suspected as much. The air around them wreaks with desperation.”

It was an awkward end to their conversation but Nyla turned away from him anyway and returned to the guard room. Zeter took the rest of Emilie’s things to her home and placed them on her table. He could sense a few warding spells in the home to guard against scrying or intrusion but he was known to Emilie so her spells hadn’t gone off on him. That didn’t mean he didn’t need to be careful as he sifted through her belongings in search of the recipe for this Sages Brew. He wondered what it did and what connection it had to the strange behavior of the Sages. Emilie didn’t seem the type to be involved in any magical drug manufacturing, but stranger things had happened in the past and it would explain a lot. If she was the only source for it then it would make sense why the Sages were all on edge. How bad would it be if their supply got disrupted?

He found her potions recipe book and flipped through it. Nothing was labeled as Sages Brew, but if it was an elicit drug then he doubted she’d have labeled it as such. Instead, he took the book and stood it up on its spine and then let it fall open to whatever page it preferred. That would at least give him some idea of where she opened the book to most often.

Somallgna’s Beneficial Face Cream

He looked over the instructions and figured pretty quickly that this wasn’t the Brew he was looking for. Though it did make him wonder why this would be the most common recipe. Perhaps the vanity of aging Sages was as bad as he’d heard.

He flipped a few pages in both directions, checking the nearby recipes to see if they looked like likely contenders for this Sages Brew. Unfortunately, he had no training in alchemy so he couldn’t recognize the vast majority of reagents listed and he had no way of knowing if they were what he was looking for or not.

Passing his hand over the book, he tried to make a copy of it but the tome resisted him. It was a simple spell but Emilie had clearly worried someone would try and steal her work and had warded her book accordingly. Outside, a small bird began to chirp and he recognized it as a common alarm spell that would draw the attention of anyone who knew what to listen for.

That was that, then. He left the house before anyone could come to investigate and sent Ketty a brief message letting her know that he hadn’t found anything. She sent him no reply.