Chp.15: First negotiation (part 1)

Three days passed quickly. Since Black Vulture had said to present himself at the fixed point exactly three days after his capture, at dawn on the fourth a man appeared near the strange tower.

The soldiers noticed him from far away, and as soon as they saw him they came to attention, but still they waited. The man approached, revealing that he was a human with a muscular but very lean physique, about one meter and ninety tall, with blue eyes and a rather thick beard, completely wrapped in a dark cloak and with his face half hidden by a hood which cast a shadow on his forehead. But even through that shadow, the soldiers could see his serious, frowning expression and his eyes that looked like two endless wells that threatened to suck anyone into them, and that shone with a strange light that seemed like a mixture of anger and concern.

The traveler went on until he was almost at the foot of the tower, directly in front of the soldiers' camp, but he didn't even seem to mind their presence. If two of them hadn't come between him and his destination, he would have continued on without even glancing at them. "Who are you, stranger?" they asked him.

"Are you kidding me? How many travelers are there around here? Even more, humans? In a nation of beastmen? Newly conquered? Quarantined?" the traveler asked rhetorically in a rather angry voice. "Get out of my way. I have an appointment with the king and I'm in a hurry"

The soldiers narrowed their eyes. They had been told that the king's guest would appear in disguise, so they didn't have a reference image. "So you are him?" one of them asked. "Can you prove it?"

The traveler snorted annoyed, but instead of complaining he slipped a hand into his cloak and pulled out a parchment which he threw to the soldier. He opened it and saw that it was a highly detailed map bearing the royal seal, on which their current location was circled. "His Majesty's assassin left it when she took my brother, so I'd say that's proof enough. Could you get out of my way now?" the traveler grumbled.

The soldiers looked at each other, then stepped aside. The traveler snorted and passed them without even saying goodbye. Unbeknownst to them, however, that man wasn't at all indifferent as they believed: his mind was in fact working at full capacity.

The man was obviously Haku, who came using an avatar he'd created some time ago, this time in the guise he wanted. Though it didn't look like it, every inch of that body was made for fighting and killing. But that was not all: Haku had reproduced inside all the various vital systems of a living body, from blood circulation to breathing. Even if they weren't exactly real, they were still very similar. Haku didn't know how the 'life force sensing' that Rhaegal had told him about worked, so he decided to try to create a body as similar to a living one as possible. Everything inside him was identical to a real human being, except of course for all the artificial seams and connections which were clearly visible from the outside and therefore could only be hidden with the invisibility rune. It was a sort of experiment: on his way to meet the king he was assessing how well his disguise held up. For the moment everything seemed to be going well, so either the soldiers didn't have the strange magical device that allowed them to see through the invisibility rune, or the improvements he had made were working. There was also the possibility that the soldiers were good at acting, but Haku considered it very unlikely.

When he was in front of the entrance to the tower, which was at least fifteen meters high and without any doors, he hesitated for a moment. The eerie black stone tower looked even more sinister to him from so close. The entrance looked almost like a gaping mouth ready to swallow him. He couldn't shake the feeling that something was watching him. But after that brief moment of uncertainty, his determination returned with redoubled strength and ignoring his survival instinct he entered in the colossal building.

Inside, the tower was strangely empty. It didn't look like a temple in the slightest. There were no statues, braziers or ornaments; only a circular room at least fifty meters wide and almost thirty high, completely built of dark stone. In the center of the room was a pillar about seven meters wide on which there were strange symbols that kept joining together, and to Haku it reminded a lot of some kind of circulatory system, and even though he knew it shouldn't be possible, it almost felt like see the pillar pulsate from time to time. Along the walls were stairs leading upwards, and others leading underground. The tower must have been really huge if it also went deep. The room was illuminated by some chandeliers hanging from the ceiling and which were composed of strange crystals that emitted a light similar to the setting sun. He wondered what the purpose of that bizarre construction was, but at the moment he didn't have time to ask himself too many questions: the man he was looking for was, in fact, directly in front of him.

King Marcus was there in that room, halfway between the entrance and the strange pillar. Beside him were Hara and Thornag, both of them staring at him with a look that showed with complete certainty that they were ready to fight at the slightest sign of danger. Haku ignored them and walked towards the king, who was waiting for him with a smile. "Finally we meet again" he greeted him as soon as he was less than five meters away.

Haku wasn't quite as open to pleasantries. "Enough talking. Where is my brother?"

Marcus was silent for a moment, then nodded to Hara. The woman moved her scepter and the image of the bound and sleeping Rhaegal appeared before Haku. The dragon internally heaved a sigh of relief to see that he was safe and sound. "Where is he now?"

"You really don't expect me to write back, do you?" Marcus asked rhetorically. "You will get your brother back after you meet certain conditions of mine. Please come closer. This place has a big echo, but I don't like talking to you from this distance"

Haku's expression became more menacing, but he still obeyed and moved forward. But while he was still halfway Thornag got in the way. "Wait, Your Majesty. You cannot tell if he has any weapons on him"

"Can't you see it yourself?" Haku asked almost nonchalantly. "From what I understand you legendary levels are supposed to see through illusions. Or you could use that mask. Why don't you call your assassin here… what's his name? Black Vulture?"

Haku seemed to be just making fun of them, but that wasn't the case at all. His every word was the result of careful thought to force humans to give themselves away and reveal their weaknesses to him. And that's exactly what they did: both Hara and Thornag looked a little more tense when he mentioned the possibility of them seeing through the invisibility rune. The fact that they didn't answer him confirmed his assumptions: as he had theorized some time before, legendary levels could perceive the illusion, but only within the limits with which dragons perceived it, indeed probably even lower ones. If the illusion didn't match the body, then bringing together all the other senses except sight could see the deception… but if it matched perfectly, they couldn't see it. Haku noticed that Thornag seemed to be concentrating and looking at his reflection in his eyes he noticed that from his point of view his image seemed to flicker slightly, as if he was immersed in water. This showed that however, if the legendary levels concentrated hard enough, they could become aware of the illusion, even if they could not see the real body. He had to find a way to counter that flaw in the invisibility rune.

'Wait... maybe I finally understand!' Haku exclaimed in his head, being struck by an epiphany. 'The rune of invisibility is light magic, which means it deflects the light around me and reshapes it to my liking. But light doesn't work in the same way everywhere... if I take an object and immerse it in water, or any other liquid, the light that hits it will act differently, because it is deflected by the water in which it is immersed. If I looked at it from the outside I wouldn't normally notice it... but if I concentrated hard enough, I could figure it out. It's the same here: for some reason, the light hitting me is in a different state than the outside, so it's possible to notice the illusion. But if I change it enough so that my light is identical to the one that normally illuminates the rest of the world, then not even a legendary level could detect the deception anymore! Yes, it can work! I just have to figure out how... I'll have to think carefully about it as soon as I'm out of here'

He couldn't have the absolute certainty, but he thought he was right. He would have had to experiment more to determine, but he was pretty sure of his reasoning. The doubt remained whether Black Vulture's mask worked in the same way... to know it he would have had to have that killer in front of him.

But Marcus wasn't as easy to fool as his subordinates. He knew that Haku didn't talk out of turn and that he thought carefully before he acted. Even though it seemed like he was just making fun of them, it was clear that he had something else on his mind. "Black Vulture will be taking care of your brother as we speak, so she won't join us" he answered to his question. "And anyway I don't need to inspect you or anything like that. Let him come close. He won't dare do anything to me as long as his brother is in my hands"

Hara and Thornag stepped aside, the former immediately, the latter somewhat reluctantly. Haku as he passed by him gave him a killer look, which the man returned. Then he looked back at the king, who was now half a meter away from him. "You have really chosen a strange place for our meeting" he said. "Why here?"

"Oh, there are several reasons. The most obvious, which is also the one that convinced me to use this place as a meeting place for our reunion, is that it is the most isolated building in the region. No one has noticed that there are several wyverns and amphitrites flying around here. Few people would venture here even during times of peace... but now that everyone is afraid of a false plague, there's no risk" Marcus answered. "Oh, and then there is also a legend about this tower. It is said that those who have a conversation inside a temple of the God of Knowledge experience an increase in their intellectual abilities... although this would appear to be limited to its believers. I'm not one of them, but... you never know"

"Mph. Ridiculous. Even if it were, what would be the benefit of it? If the legend were true, I too would suffer a brain boost, and I doubt you want that" Haku pointed out.

Marcus smiled. "True. But as I said before, that blessing works for those inside the temple. But you're not really here, are you?"

Haku let out a snort. Actually what was in the temple was only an avatar, not himself. "Why is this temple so isolated? And why is it shaped like a tower?"

"Oh, I have no idea. No one knows, not even the very priests who built it. The temples of the God of Knowledge have sprung up where he commanded his servants to build them, in the shape he desired. Some of them are in the middle of the cities, some are on the plains, some are in places so inaccessible that it is almost impossible to reach them, and some are even on the bottom of the sea" Marcus explained. "No one has ever understood the reason that prompted the God of Knowledge to build his sanctuaries like this, and the priests don't talk about it. Very often they don't know anything either"

Haku's mind was more and more in turmoil. The God of Knowledge became more and more mysterious as she learned more about him. "Where are the priests now?"

"In the higher floors of the tower. I don't know what they're doing" the king answered. "We were allowed to speak in here, as long as we don't shed blood or desecrate this place. So please, let's avoid violent acts"

Haku clenched his fists. "There will be no violent acts" he said. "I came here to get my brother back, so stop wasting your time. What do you want in exchange for him?"