"You did what?" Cassian asked.
"Rebeled against the Sun God." He shrugged. "As you can see from my current state it didn’t go very well."
"Well I can’t tell you that - the curse forbids."
"I thought curses can only affect living people? You shouldn’t be affected after death, especially since you’re technically a separate existence." Elira pointed out.
"It’s a bit more complicated." Sylara sighed. "Sun God’s curse affects everyone who knows certain things about them. Since a memic is essentially a collection of memories, the curse works on it as well."
"Which leads me to my next question - how come he can remember his own death? Shouldn’t he be aware only of things that happened before he was created?"
Antonio’s eyes sparkles.
"Ah, you see it’s an ingenious invention of mine - I called it ’post-mortem mind extraction’ - it’s a sigil carved directly into one’s skin, which allows for the memories to separate from the soul at the moment of death, and be transferred somewhere else."
Maya raised an eyebrow.
"Does that mean your soul is left without memories?"
"Oh yes, if the afterlife exists my other self is probably extremely confused, and will get a massive headache once I dissipate." The Fool rubbed his chin. "Conversely, if the theories about reincarnation are true, I just circumvented getting my memory wiped, and some guy is going to receive a dozen centuries worth of knowledge..."
"Yeah, were not here to discuss what happens after death." Sylara stated flatly. "First of all, tell me if you’ve been in contact with the Tower - or anyone else for that matter - and don’t even try lying to me, we both know you were just twiddling your thumbs for the hundreds of years you were down here."
"I do talk with the youngsters sometimes - most of them have no idea who I am, can you believe that!?"
"Uh-huh." She nodded. "Did you get something useful from them? The council refuses to speak with me directly."
"The council is much smaller than it lets on, that’s for sure, when I spoke to them they used nine voices, but there were only five presences behind them."
"I know that already, only a fool wouldn’t have noticed, anything else?"
"Hmmm..." Antonio scratched his head. "Ah, they have managed to create a spell allowing them to spy on the Serakhiin, quite clever but I improved it and it has beeny main source of entertainment-"
"WHAT!?" Sylara looked positively furious. "You’ve had detailed information on the enemy for CENTURIES, and you’re telling me about this just now!?"
"Now, now - no need to get aggressive Little Sy." He extended an arm, and a massive leather bound tome appeared in his hand. "Here’s everything I’ve learned about them."
The Guardian snatched the book, still eyeing her grandfather angrily.
"Wait." Maya frowned. "You spent hundreds of years journaling?"
"Oh gods no, I just created that thing."
"You’ve created thousands of pages of text - in a split second?"
"He’s made from memories Maya." Sylara reminded her. "Information is at the very core of his being, with the power of an archmage doing something is trivial."
Cassian thought of something.
"Can we get a second copy? We could use something like that, and I don’t know how long we’ll be staying here."
The Fool handed him a second, identical book.
"Why did you make this game anyway?" Elira changed the topic.
"Oh, that one in quite simple." Sylara responded instead of Antonio. "He didn’t have an apprentice, and no one in our family was interested in magic so he created this contraption to find a successor."
"And now that someone finally reached my tomb, there isn’t a single mage among you." Antonio added in a resignes voice.
"I mean there’s plenty of mages in the city, you can just choose someone and we’ll just pass on whatever you want to give them."
The Fool made a sour face.
"Originally I wanted to choose the other girl that came with them, but then I noticed the Moon already claimed her."
Sylara rolled her eyes.
"Yllarae won’t care, she always had a very hands-off approach with her chosen, I can’t imagine this time will be any different." She threw her hands on the air. "And even if she minded, you’re already dead - what’s the worst thing she can do to you?!"
"...you know what, that’s an excellent point."
Antonio snapped his fingers and five additional books appeared in Cassian’s hands, making him buckle.
"She doesn’t need your jokes." Sylara scolded him.
He reluctantly snapped his fingers again and one book disappeared.
"You’re really making things difficult for me Little Sy..."
"You’ll be fine - now one last thing, can we disable the enchament without destroying the crystal? It would be great if we could reuse it for something else."
"Yeah." Antonio nodded. "The magic redirection is static, once you move the crystal the whole thing will turn off."
Sylara looked her grandfather on the eye.
"It was good seeing you again."
For the first time since they’ve met him, the Fool smiled in a completely earnest way.
"Stay safe Little Sy - and good luck in finding a successor of your own."
The Guardian waved her hand and the magic crystal simply disappeared.
Antonio’s figure shimmered, and started disintegrating into sparkling dust - as the last of his silhouette disappeared, he made sure to bow one last time.
"I don’t think that’s this is the last time we’ll see him." Sylara said mostly to herself. "Anyway, any undead we missed will die in a few minutes, and the traps should be already disabled - let’s get out of here."
Maya squinted at the sarcophagus.
"Didn’t he promise us some sort of a reward?"
Just as she said those words, three small sacks fell onto the heads of the trio.
"I guess he at least had a pretty decent timing." Sylara chuckled. "You can open those outside."
"...and that was pretty much it." Elira finished explaining.
"That’s a lot of work in just five hours." Isara laughed. "We haven’t even finished adjusting the enchantment yet."
"You have time, Maya went back to headquarters to gather a bigger team for a general sweep of the catacombs, and Sylara won’t let us in to work until they’re done."
Calen who only listened so far, suddenly spoke up:
"I know I’ve read the Fool’s name somewhere but I can’t remember where..."
"He wrote a paper on channel shifting theory, maybe that’s why you recognise him." Isara suggested.
"No way, I’ve read that thing years ago, and I can’t even remember the authors of books I’ve read two days ago - besides I’m not talking about his real name, but his title."
"You’re thinking of the ruin entrance by the waterway in Asharil." Cassian stated.
"That’s it!" Calen looked at his friend. "How did you remember that?"
"We’ve spent so many hours trying to unlock that thing that I’m surprised you didn’t - although now I’m a bit annoyed that I didn’t recognise his name."
The ruin entrance in Asharil - a rather infamous place, all things considered - no one knew where those doors led, but because of the city’s ancient origins the theories were plentiful.
Some say it’s a secret passageway to an underground palace filled with treasures beyond imagination, others believe that on the other side of the stone lays a subterranean city, full of mysteries and dangers.
The most knowledgeable people - like Alarion - also have different guesses about what is inside, but they generally agree on one detail: the place was hide something in a way that even the gods couldn’t find it.
It makes sense considering that the doors are signed with pseudonyms of five famous archmages - if people like that work together, anything less than going against divine will would be a bit underwhelming.
The names on the stone slate were: the Fool, the Princess, the Huntress, the Hermit and the Devil.
Identity of the Fool was well known, mostly because he was a public figure who loved the spotlight, and Princess’ real name was also all but confirmed - however the other three remained anonymous.
"Am I the only one who thinks we have to go inside that ruin considering how the Fool died?" Isara sighed.
"If we manage to open it." Calen agreed. "It would be helpful to learn about the rest of them, but the Princess is long dead, assuming the theories about her identity were true, and we have no idea about the others."
"Can’t you just ask Sylara?" Elira asked. "If the Fool was her grandfather, then it stands to reason that she might have known the other four, no?"
"I guess we can try, but I wouldn’t hold my breath, the chances that Antonio introduced his partners in crime to his family are rather small."
Martha came from behind Isara and announced to her two co-workers:
"We’ve finished the design, could you check whether the model works?"
"A model?" Elira repeated.
"Well yeah, with a project this important we need to test it first." Calen gestured to one of the work stations. "Come, we might as well demonstrate how the thing works."