Chp.8: Recruiting the mage

Isaac was busy as usual performing his duties as principal, which was filling out paperwork, reading reports from all the various school workers, listening to any complaints, and working out solutions. It was a fairly peaceful job: thanks to the fact that the school was practically in its infancy, no major work was needed on his part since everyone practically managed on their own and the classroom division system had not yet been implemented given that the students they were very different ages. Isaac therefore had to do nothing but read the teachers' reports and those few slips inserted in the suggestion box; certainly his job was much less demanding than what Bump, his now ex-boss, had to perform at the Academy of Magic when principal Hara was absent (therefore practically always). This left him with a lot of free time which gave him time to act as a teacher himself, though not as often as he used to. He liked that: teaching was her real job after all, and though she was currently acting headmaster, she couldn't wait for Maldor to come back and offload the job for her. After all, thanks to her intellectual abilities, the dragoness would have been able to do a much better job as headmaster than his; knowing her, she probably could have done it all and saved the time to be a teacher even if she had twice as much work as Bump.

At the moment, however, it was Isaac who had to take care of the paperwork, which was a rather tedious task. The mage had been repeatedly tempted to put his signature on any document he had under his nose, but common sense had reminded him that it was still appropriate to read it, and so he ended up spending entire days immersed in paperwork. Since the school was just starting there weren't many problems, so it was rare that anyone came to call him; therefore he was not a little surprised when he heard a knock on the door. Albeit with a moment's hesitation, he replied: "Go on!" and waited for his guest to enter.

He was even more amazed when it was not a teacher or a janitor or a student who entered, but a lizardman who certainly did not work in that school and who he and everyone else throughout Iluvatan City knew very well: Zamor Adelia, the courageous leader who more than once he had faced emergencies and resolved them (with a little... dragonish help). "Hi, Isaac. How are you doing?" he asked.

Isaac got up from his desk with a smile that didn't hide his confusion. "Mr. Adelia! Please, take a seat. And I'm very well, thanks for asking"

Isaac hadn't had many opportunities to interact with Zamor or otherwise form a relationship between them other than that between a commander and a subordinate, so he still used to call the lizardman 'Mr. Adelia' when he saw him. "Just call me Zamor. By now we know each other enough to put aside the formalities" the lizardman said sitting down. "Forgive me for my sudden arrival. If there had been time I would have warned you well in advance"

"Oh, don't worry. I don't have much to do anyway" Isaac replied putting away his paperwork and trying to sound friendly, but he was actually quite worried. He doubted Zamor had turned up to talk about school maintenance or teachers' schedules. The last time they spoke she was kindly dismissing him from his post as chief healer for an outbreak of a hitherto unknown disease. Isaac feared that Zamor's arrival heralded much trouble. "Can I offer you something? Wine, beer? Maybe some tea?"

"No, thanks, I'm not thirsty and I don't want to force you to give up your reserves for me" Zamor replied jokingly, then his smile faded a lot. "Besides, I think it would be best if you sat down. I'm about to give you some news that will upset you a little..."

The friendly expression on Isaac's face faded; the mage had many questions, but felt it best to let the lizardman speak before drawing any conclusions, so he took his advice and sat waiting to hear what he had to say. Zamor let out a slight sigh, then started explaining to him everything that had happened that morning. When Isaac learned that a new, hitherto unknown race existed directly beneath their feet, his eyes widened. "I can't believe it... they've been hiding all this time? Really!?"

"Exactly" Zamor answered.

"And they're shaped like... spiders fused with humans?" Isaac asked again, in a voice somewhere between curious and shocked.

The lizardman shrugged: "It's more complicated than that. The torso is that of a human being, or at least a humanoid, but they have albino skin and eight eyes and their hair looks like the hair of an arachnid. From the waist down instead they have the abdomen of a spider which, and I don't know if this applies only to our guest or to all the arachnes, also appear to be rather fat"

Isaac rubbed his chin frantically. He clearly wasn't quite sure what to think: he seemed to be in conflict between an academic desire to learn about this new people and their culture, history, civilization, and so forth, and between a concern about what the existence of such people would mean for Iluvatan City, for his students, for his employees and, of course, for himself. "And they say to come in peace..."

"It seems so" Zamor said. "Their ambassador didn't strike me as a liar, so I guess their intentions are sincere. I really think they don't want any conflict with us, what's the point in the end? They never gave a damn about the oasis for thousands of years, why should they care now? I believe their intent is really only to have peaceful relations with us. However, we cannot take that for granted; therefore I would like you to come with me"

Isaac raised an eyebrow. If after receiving the news of the existence of the arachnes he had had the expression of someone who had just received a punch straight in the face, now he looked as if a piece of the ceiling had just fallen on his head. "Me? Why?"

"Because you are the best magician in the whole community" Zamor answered. "I intend to use this opportunity to extract as much information from the arachnes. I want to know as much as possible about their strengths, so that I can form an effective defense in case of an attack, which we hope will never happen. I don't understand anything about magic, but you can; you can see their weapons, understand their spells, study their potions, and much more that I wouldn't be able to do"

"You know I'm not a specialist mage" Isaac reminded him. "If magic was too advanced, I wouldn't be able to understand it..."

"That's true, but you'd still notice it. That would be something" Zamor told him. "The fact that you're not a specialized mage is an advantage in this case: I can't take too many people down there with me, so I can't look for a wizard, a potion maker, a witch and so on. You alone can do the job of all the others. I don't need you to fully understand their magic, just to notice it and speculate. You can do this, and I'm sure you can do it quite well. It would be essential in getting to know better the people we are going to meet; although I doubt they will show their secret weapons or something like that, an estimate from you based on the quantity and quality of the magic items you see would be fundamental to imagine the actual war potential of the arachnes"

Isaac considered it well. What Zamor was saying was not without sense: although the arachnes were unlikely to parade showing them all their weapons and demonstrating their capabilities, they could still learn a lot simply by observing how they lived and how much they used magic. For example, if instead of simple torches the arachnes had used mana-powered lamps, as was the practice in many noble houses of the Jurao Kingdom, then this meant that those people must have enough mages at their disposal to use several of them to light up cities. And based on the quality of the spell, Isaac could gauge how skilled these mages were and then try to estimate the skills that mages employed in the military possessed. Zamor's idea wasn't bad at all: as he himself had said, even if the arachnes seemed to have peaceful intentions, it was still better to prepare for the worst. However, Isaac was still very insecure. "Haku will be an ambassador just like you, right? He's much better than me at noticing certain details. What's the point in me coming too?"

The truth was that Zamor didn't trust Haku's intentions, and that therefore he wanted to have someone to help him find out what the arachnes people had to offer to attract the dragon so much, but he certainly couldn't say it out loud in front of Isaac , so he simply answered: "Haku isn't a mage. He lacks that... how shall I say? Ability to think outside the box like those of your class do. He will be able to notice every detail for sure, and will no doubt use his ineffable logic to understand whatever he will see... but that's where he will stop. After what he sees surpasses his knowledge, he will no longer be able to explain it and will simply wait to find new data to help him understand. You, on the other hand, may be able to imagining something new, a mechanism never attempted before. This is something that Haku can't do. If we had Maldor... yes, she would be fine... but she's not here, and therefore I need a replacement"

Isaac seemed convinced by that answer, and he began to reevaluate his thought. "If you're asking me, a mage, to come, I guess you'll be recruiting others as well..."

"Yes, that's right. I've already spoken to Tzegorn and he has assured me that he will find the warrior with the most skilled enemy analysis ability in Iluvatan City. He will be tasked with studying the arachnes' armaments and their ability to combatants, as well as to evaluate their physical strength and their military preparation" Zamor replied. "And there are others that I intend to recruit as well. Each of you will be like a piece of a completely white puzzle that fills with color while down there, and which we then reassemble upon returning to the surface and thus obtain a general picture of the civilization of the arachnes. So, are you in?"

Isaac gagged and bit his lip. "I'm a principal now... I can't leave when I please..."

"I'm sure your employees will be able to do a great job in your absence. I doubt you have much to do as school is just starting. I know from very reliable sources that you still have time to even practice as a teacher" Zamor said. "Don't make excuses. Just tell me if you want to come or not"

Isaac let out a sigh. He wasn't exactly an adventurer: the thought of venturing underground scared him a little. Even though he'd been through a lot of crazy events recently, he'd always been in the company of at least… well, pretty much the entire community. This time however, even if he wouldn't have been alone, he would have had far fewer people to defend him when necessary, and from what they had told him the underground was full of beasts that it was better to keep away. Besides, he didn't really see himself in the role of ambassador: he wouldn't even know what to say or how to behave, or even just how to move. On the other hand, however, what Zamor said was easily understandable and he fully shared it: someone who could study and understand the magic used by this hitherto unknown people was needed, or opposing them in case of conflict would have been impossible. And try as he might, even he couldn't imagine a better person at the moment, since he was the only expert in many branches of magic. "Okay. I'll come" he finally said, and his tone almost sounded like he was declaring a surrender.

Zamor pretended not to have noticed that last detail and limited himself to nodding satisfied. "Very well. See you in the morning, then. Be punctual" he said as he stood up, then politely said goodbye and left the room, leaving Isaac alone to reflect on what he had just agreed to do.