As it was back in spring, the front desk of the House of Light is staffed by a young apprentice in brown robes. Unsure of how to deal with uninjured elves, they scurry through the interior door to fetch Rhaessa. Tric is pleased that they did not even have to ask for a consultation. Before long, a tan woman in her early twenties emerges. Her long, straight dirty-blonde hair hangs down upon her white robes, and she carries a staff topped by a swirling metal rose with a blue crystal mounted in its center. She recognizes one of the visitors. “Greetings, Hepalonia. Welcome back to South Tower. How may the House of Light be of assistance to you and your companion?”
Heppa returns polite greetings, and Tric tells Rhaessa that they are looking to refill Heppa’s apothecary kit. “We thought you might have some of the necessary ingredients and some other materials Heppa needs for brewing a medicine. There is also a separate matter of local concern we’d like to address, but first maybe we can discuss the inventory? We are, of course, happy to pay.” Heppa describes all the materials she is looking for.
Rhaessa escorts the elves deeper into the House of Light. They head up a staircase and down a hallway to a room lined with bookshelves and cubbies. A cluttered desk, clearly an active workspace, stands up against one wall. This is the library where Heledd and Kachen spent the dark hours of the night studying the Book of Rhys for weeks on his last visit to South Tower. Rhaessa gestures for Heppa to look over the bottles and jars in the cubbies. “Go on,” she says to Tric now that they are in a less public place.
Tric leans Kachen’s staff against the wall, freeing his arms up for gesturing. “We’ve seen shadowy mist coming up from the sewers. We know that is a by-product of shadow mages and necromancers stirring up trouble. It might be from an escaped shadow mage that we were tracking. We need to deal with this, and we know you’re capable of helping. We figured you are probably an interested party, as well.”
“My order, white mages, are specifically focused on healing people and combating the spirits of darkness that make the whole world ill. Necromancers, I know about of course, but shadow mages? I haven’t heard that term before. Tell me more.”
While Tric regales Rhaessa with tales of their time in the Grey Woods, Heppa finds everything she needs to replenish the standard alchemy supplies that came with Alric’s vest. There is not much dried powder left in the jar labeled dapper inkcap, so it is good for Kachen that Heppa already has her own stash of the mushroom. She has just enough coin on her to cover the costs for this upfront, but she can settle with Kachen later over the particulars.
“Shadow mages did this!” Tric pulls his collar down so that Rhaessa can see the lightning scar that extends beyond the part covered by Ash’s tattoo on his neck. “They are in some ways worse than necromancers. Necromancers at least admit what they are. Shadow mages do not believe they are necromancers. And they have given up some aspect of their humanity,” Tric embellishes, trying to prompt Rhaessa to action. “As long as they are not yet liches, necromancers are still human.”
Half listening as she loads up the vest Alric gave her, Heppa frowns a bit at that description. She is pretty sure necromancers have also given up their humanity.
“Shadow mages are something in between,” Tric continues. “Hence the ‘shadow.’ They appear human and sound human, may even seem human.”
“Shadows that can dress themselves up in human form?” Rhaessa murmurs, shuddering. She has heard from more experienced white mages about ghostly creatures called shadows. Those were described as deep red mist wrapped in flapping sheets with blade-like claws for hands. If such monsters can disguise themselves as people, then that is indeed a danger Rhaessa must do something about.
“We cleansed the Grey Woods of them, but two of them got away,” Tric tells her. Rhaessa is impressed. That area of Wesnoth has long been rumored to be haunted. “I’m worried that this mist is from at least one of them being down the deep holes under the city,” Tric continues. “They are known to consort with thieves and the like. I worry that they may have joined forces with some of the local underworld sorts. This is a serious matter that needs attention. They can summon not just ghosts, but wraiths from the ground!”
“Those poor souls who aren’t granted rest, forced to return to this plane as wraiths! It’s horrible,” Rhaessa says, a tremor in her voice. Tric notices that her arms are not just folded, she is embracing herself for comfort. The idea of being raised after death seems to really shake her.
“A necromancer tried to do something like that to me, once,” Tric says lightly. “Didn’t go so well for him.” He holds out the hand that Mal-Vektor cast upon, turning and flexing it so that Rhaessa can see it is just fine. Rhaessa finds his manner reassuring. As a healer, she is used to dealing with all sorts of trauma. This elf is not afraid of these things, nor have they darkened his mind. He is comfortable talking about the topic without obsessing over it. Tric has fought these shadows and wraiths, but it has not dimmed the brightness of his soul.
Now that Heppa is finished packing away her purchases, she joins the conversation. She tells Rhaessa that since they last spoke about magic during the Spring Bloom Festival, she has had a chance to talk with a paladin. That has increased her understanding of how humans view corruption, but she still has more questions. “Corruption, that’s what it is called in fae circles,” she explains. “The paladin said he could sense that. Do you have a concept of that outside of people? And a way to cleanse it? How do you talk about it?” While some of her questions are on practical matters, she is still trying to work out some of the abstract concepts.
“Perhaps what we call darkness is equivalent to your corruption,” Rhaessa suggests. “This magic taints what it touches. But what you said about something outside… I don’t think an environment could do that to a person. It is in the seeking of this sort of knowledge and the attempts to control it that one gets tempted to inappropriate power. The lure of that power taints the soul, not something that you could just absorb in a misty place. The mists, the fog, the clamminess, the unnatural darkness during the day… those flow from whatever it is that these tainted—corrupted—casters are doing. If there is lasting damage to an environment after the fact, that might create conditions that continue to nurture unrest.”
“I see. It’s good to have the language for this worked out. My theories align with what you are saying,” Heppa observes happily.
“There have definitely been documented cases of places where liches were active and afterward undead continue to linger there,” Rhaessa adds.
“Do you have ways to deal with that? Theoretical or practical, either is fine.”
“Theoretical techniques are no use until they are proven to work,” Rhaessa says. Heppa remembers that in their conversation months ago, Rhaessa seemed more interested in practical applications than theoretical discussions, speaking of researchers with some disappointment. “But unfortunately, I do not know of any ways to clean, for example, a whole forest of this sort of corrupted state. I have very targeted magic that cuts to the quick these types of unnatural creatures. That is where my strength lies. As a white mage, I have learned magic that can unbind undead, burning them away with the fire of the Light.”
Heppa nods in understanding. That sounds similar to what Sir Inyc told her. Overall, humans seem much more focused on the individuals involved and less on the environment, in contrast to elves. Primal magic, the working of the fae, is more holistic. Nature itself is a series of interlocking components, and so is the magic that flows from it. Maybe the human perspective is a product of their short lives; they attach more value to their own personal experience and extrapolate that to their magic theory, as well. Elves, being long-lived, are more community oriented, and their sense of community extends to all of nature as well. It is the difference between treating sick people when water is bad and healing the whole ecosystem. Heppa finds this all quite interesting.
Tric clasps Rhaessa’s hand firmly, holding their arms up between them. “Together, I know we can vanquish this darkness,” Tric assures her, intentionally using the human term. “We’ve faced these shadow mages down before. We defeated their leader, though his lieutenants remain.” He cannot resist inserting some tales of the undead they have fought, including the necromancer who tried to turn them. “With the strength of our will, we can resist,” he says confidently. “Our steel and our magics are enough.”
And our bows, Heppa adds to herself.
“We can put down these threats, clean out your city! Make it safe for everyone,” Tric says triumphantly, getting a little too carried away for such a small audience. Rhaessa shakes her hand free.
“Well, what about the plague touch?” Heppa asks, less interested in recruiting Rhaessa than Tric is. Gaining more information would be just as valuable as gaining an ally. “Have you heard of that?”
“Yes, of course,” Rhaessa replies, more bemused than critical.
“Great!” Heppa lays out her ideas about how to prevent its spread. There is the medical angle to consider, as well as the alchemical. Those two areas overlap quite a bit in Heppa’s experience.
“It’s very hard to stop the plague touch in the field,” Rhaessa says, “but if someone can get the victim back to town, to a House of Light, the sufferer is usually able to die peacefully rather than change into a horrible walking corpse.”
“You have a way to cure it? Is that something you do before they die? Or after they die?”
“If someone infected with the plague touch dies untreated, they will rise as a walking corpse,” Rhaessa clarifies. “We have no preventative; a complex ritual allows them to die in peace. On a battlefield, one can seldom replicate such peaceful conditions.”
That explanation puts Heppa in mind of what Kachen was saying earlier about needing security in order to teleport without danger. It seems that peaceful, calm environments play an important role in keeping human magic safe. Is it the state of mind that fends off the corruption? Or does that play into how they are accessing the magic with their lifeforce? Is it just the personal state of mind that matters, or a communal one? Hmm… Tric can use the energy of a crowd to do magic… Is that related? “There are some alchemical approaches that could help,” Heppa suggests. “Some treatments you could distribute so that if someone was going to die they could feel more peaceful. Hmm… But there might be other forces at play…” she continues, talking more to herself than to Rhaessa as she slips deeper into hypotheticals.
Heppa pulls out some paper to scribble down her thoughts, and Tric speaks into the opening. He realizes he was getting too carried away and tones things down. Rhaessa seems like the kind to take action, but she is more restrained and professional than he himself is. He apologizes earnestly. “I’m sorry. I get myself worked up sometimes. When we cleansed the Grey Woods, I swore to the woses there that we would deal with these shadow mages. One of them seems to have shown up in your city, and we are asking for your help in dealing with this. I didn’t mean to put so much pressure on you, but I feel personally responsible for this. And I think it is also something that you would want to deal with because you don’t want these shadow mages tainting your city, doing who knows what to the poor—the literally poor—denizens of the undercity. I was talking with a friend who knows people in low places. Beggars have gone missing, and others as well. I understand if this is not the kind of thing you want to deal with and I should take it up with the town guard. But you have the special expertise for dealing with undead, and we have that expertise, as well. And frankly, this is the closest human city to our forest. If there’s an undead problem here, it could affect us there, too.”
Rhaessa nods understandingly. “I agree this is a problem I need to address personally,” she says.
“We have a local guide,” Tric adds, “someone who used to know the tunnels. She would appreciate it if you don’t… pry.” He does not want Rhaessa pressing Heledd for details about her familiarity with the underground network. He has not talked to Heledd explicitly about helping with this yet, but he is confident she will be involved.
“When do you wish to go on this excursion?”
As much as Tric would like to go during the day, when they are alert, Heledd is a night person. They will have to wait until she is off work… or he can talk Alric into letting her off early. “Maybe tomorrow night,” Tric says. “Heppa still needs to do a bunch of brewing today, so we cannot go this evening.”
Conversation then moves to more tactical matters. “We’ve heard of things that bless weapons somehow,” Tric says. “Like paladins with their lances. Or Gweddry’s amulet. In fact, we’ve even seen vials of concentrated light used to offer protection against undead and turn necromantic power away. Would you have something like that?”
“I can produce such an item. How large is the party dealing with this?”
“I believe it will be four,” Tric tells her. “You, me, Heppa, and our guide.” After talking with Kachen this morning, Tric does not think he should do anything more strenuous than sit in bed for a few days.
“Hmm… I don’t think I can make that many…”
“Whatever you are comfortable with,” Tric tells her.
As they are about to leave, Tric reaches for Kachen’s staff, and a thought occurs to him. “Say… you have a staff. I presume you know how to care for them. We have a mage friend consulting on this project, but his staff has gotten damaged.” Thrandolil gave this staff to Kachen, so there is nothing nefarious about it. There is no reason to worry about leaving it with a white mage. He points Rhaessa’s attention to the smashed part and asks if she can repair it.
“Certainly,” Rhaessa agrees. She takes the staff and gives it a quick lookover. “And where are you staying in town?”
“You can find us at the Parting Glass,” Tric tells her. With that, the cousins take their leave, Heppa with a vestful of alchemy supplies, and Tric with a strong mint snatched off the platter on the welcoming counter. Kachen needs to eat things with strong flavors, he has decided. Though perhaps Dunefolk spices would be too much.
After escorting her guests out, Rhaessa returns to her library. There she more closely examines the condition of the crystal-less staff, wondering exactly what kind of mage these elves are working with.