Mendax scouted out the Dragon's Burned Hoard. It was two days before the agreed meeting, and deep into the night. The hope was that Aureum was asleep.
Not that he didn't watch himself as he entered. Despite wracking his brain, he couldn't conceive of any feasible way she could have figured out his movements so accurately.
There were ways that she could have done it, but she would need control of mana beyond her years. Mendax understood the history of her pearl, that she had one before this new one, but even those extra years didn't account for the amount of control. She was either a genius or Mendax was missing something.
In his experience, geniuses were rare. And if she was so talented, why did her pearl break in the first place? So it was likely the latter.
What it was he was missing was the question. Thinking further gave him no results, and entering the academy was her only daily activity. He could not avoid her and go there.
How she knew his movements, therefore, remained a question mark.
Mendax walked inside with no small amount of trepidation then. He met with the regular amount of staring, however, and so proceeded with his business.
For an establishment chosen by Aureum, it was not what he was expecting.
A smaller place, with more exits, might have been it. Or maybe the drinking hole next to a barracks, where the guards took their leisure.
Although the last one might get in the way of her reaching an agreement with him, so maybe not.
He didn't know what she had in mind.
As it was, this was a place for levity, with far too much light and loud conversations. Worse, there was no table right next to any door.
It's a place Nivis would frequent.
Mendax's lip curved down. He returned to his original thoughts.
There may be advantages to the noise.
After all, if it was difficult to hear at times, then it would be difficult for anyone else to hear them.
...There was no bright side to how he stuck out like a sour thumb here.
Mendax managed to find the table closest to the back door. It wasn't in a corner, which was a shame. But the only other door out was the double front door. Which would be the first place an ambush would be placed at.
He just had to hope Aureum didn't have enough friends to watch the back exit as well.
Unfortunately, his task was done, and he had to come to a final decision of what his plan was.
Was his goal to attack her? Entreat her to return home?
At this point, should I just ask her to run away with me?
He sneered at his own joke.
No matter what he did, Flos would be furious at his long absence. Which meant that the Great Lord Nix may choose to look upon him.
Never a comforting experience.
At this point, no choice that would keep him sitting pretty.
Being positioned as Mendax was, he had perfect view of the front door. Part of the point of picking it. Therefore, he could not miss the most recent guest.
"Nivis?"
The blond young man strode in like the owner. Mendax waited.
Even with his face covered, it was inevitable that someone he'd known his entire life would recognize him.
There it was. Nivis halted in visible shock as he spotted Mendax.
It only lasted a second before he walked over to Mendax's table.
"Hiems! What gnarly task were you sent on to be out here?! I didn't think this sort of place was your scene?"
"It isn't."
Nivis slid into a chair across from Mendax. He already felt a headache coming on.
"Not even going to greet your brother? Aren't you rude?"
"Better than being a layabout."
"I prefer it to the lapdog lifestyle," Nivis said.
He waved a waitress over as he spoke. After ordering a meal and drink he looked at Mendax.
The two couldn't seem more different.
Nivis was in finery, a heroic prince from legend, and Mendax? Mendax was not. Not only in rags with his face covered, but shorter, rougher, and covered in patchwork scales the few places his skin could be seen.
Only the blond hair and green eyes revealed the resemblance. Even then, there was deviation.
Nivis' hair was colder, while Mendax' had a reddish tint.
"What would mother say? Looking at us now?"
Mendax crossed his arms. He knew where Nivis was heading with this.
"She would understand duty to one's people."
Nivis bent his head. Mendax could see he was enjoying this.
"Really? Do you think your brutish acts have anything to do with duty? You think our mother, a general, a soldier, would consider you someone of honor? Just because the Great Lord Nix tells you to be a thug, doesn't mean there's honor in it."
"What do you want, Nivis," Mendax snarled.
Nivis relaxed into his chair and smiled.
How much does he get away with his looks alone?
Still, Mendax relaxed himself as Nivis backed off.
"Nothing. I didn't even expect you to be here. Nothing premeditated on my part. Just checking in. So how's your health?"
"Why are you here?"
"Eh," Nivis deflated and sunk further into his chair. "My fiance ditched me. So I'm here to mend a broken heart."
The waitress came by with Nivis' meal. Nivis leered at her assets as she passed.
"Just shattered over it I see."
"Utterly. Aureum, my dear, why did you have to wake up to my many flaws? Who clued her in?"
"Aureum?"
Nivis may as well as stabbed him. His ears were useless after that. Nivis missed the expression on Mendax's face under the coverings.
"Aureum Zizan, that was the girl I was going to marry. Pretty little thing. Smart and sassy too. She didn't seem to have any ambitions…
But her pearl broke. I guess I can't blame her for deciding she wanted something else from life."
Nivis peered at Mendax, expecting a reply. It took a moment for Mendax to repeat in his head what Nivis had just said.
And then another.
He couldn't get past Aureum's name appearing here.
If I didn't know her, what would I say?
"Good for her."
"Did I interrupt something? I almost thought you dozed off!"
"Just waiting for you to realize I didn't care about your love life."
"My engagement got called off, and your reaction is to congratulate her? What about me?!"
"Obviously, she can do far better."
"You haven't even seen her!"
"You think she can't?"
Nivis let his head fall to the table.
"No. Anybody would be mad to marry into our house. We got the forsaken cyclops looming over everything, after all."
Only Nivis would speak about Lord Nix that way.
Not only was such behavior petulant, it was pointless. It had been a long time since Mendax had ever expected anything close to personal feelings from the man.
"And what are you doing here? Something dreary and completely unable to be talked about, I presume?" Nivis lifted his head as he continued his questions.
He must have been bored.
"I thought I was here for duty," Mendax said. "But it looks like I was just the scullery maid again."
It was difficult to display how angry Mendax was. He didn't feel like breaking what was closest at hand. No, he didn't even want to punch Nivis, who usually was such a tempting target.
Just a cold, empty pit cut out where his heart would have reacted.
He should have felt shame for being so used, but he was too numb to it.
"Ugh. Don't say that. I don't even want to imagine you in a dress. Well, if you're free, want to come with me?"
Nivis meant trouble. Not of malicious intent. Whether by design or nature, Nivis simply was trouble.
"Where?"
But Mendax found himself with a surprising amount of free time suddenly, and no desire to refuse.
Anything to get him out of his own head.
———————————————————
Where is Vitreum?!
It was Aureum's first confused thought.
Aureum woke up to pain. When she went to reach for her side before she remembered anything, she noticed two things: that she had been bandaged, which was good, and that she had been chained. Which was not so good.
"Urgh!"
She cried out in a combination of pain and frustration. A fist slammed against the cold wooden wall, but it did nothing to calm her. It just made her hand ache.
It's curved?!
Every breath made her side ache. She tried not to breathe too deeply, but she couldn't not breathe.
As she stretched out her feet, they brushed against something.
Aureum snapped back her senses into focus. There wasn't a ray of light in this place, but there was still air. And people around her. A lot of them.
A few seconds of painful panicked breathing commenced as Aureum tried to feel them out.
It was difficult to get a complete picture of them. They felt light. Each had a heavy chain next to them.
They were her fellow inmates.
"Excuse me?"
Nobody replied. Talking was painful, but Aureum needed to hear them speak. In the dark, having so many people nearby but in silence was a weight on her.
"I'm Aureum!"
"…Hello."
A weak and weary voice replied.
"Does anyone know what is going on?"
"We're trapped—
The voice was broken by his coughing.
"Ugh. What else is there to know? We can only wait."
"I'm not trapped."
Aureum's voice pitched in panic. Each breath stabbed her side.
Not a single person responded.
Calm down. Don't take deep breaths. Calm. I can be calm. Calm.
She grasped at something to make light of the situation. Anything to stop the coiling snake of fear from devouring her innards and sense. Her hope lay in this.
I'm not imprisoned by Calducus Nix.
She tried to sense the chain. It would take a great effort to move it with air. That wasn't her objective though.
She reached with invisible fingers because her body felt like separated pieces of pain at the moment. Tediously reaching across it, she found the keyhole.
She let out a breath, only for it to turn into a piercing wheeze.
At least I can get at this.
When Calducus found out Aureum was picking the locks of her chains with the wind, he put the chains through the wall. Even for her, reaching with the wind through the cracks of the door to circle the wall of her cell only to pick the iron locks protruding through was… difficult.
Not that anything's impossible.
This would be easy by comparison.
Easy meaning it needed a few hours of her time. That she would have to bet on her having enough time for it to be worth it. And that it would make a clattering sound the entire time she fiddled with the lock's pins.
While the floor was rocking beneath her.
Aureum was beyond cursing.
She forgot and took a deep breath, only to be cut by the pain.
Then, after all that, I have to figure out how to stand. When every breath hurts.
While figuring out the layout of where I'm at, and the general locations of the guards.
The panic rose in again.
Stop it! There are more important things.
She didn't know if Vitreum had made it to Sitis'. Until she knew that, she didn't have the luxury to panic.
This would take time. She closed her eyes. Not to try and sleep, but to focus on her eventual escape.
———————————————————
Through the depths of a bobbing wooden cage that could only be a boat, and past the dock, dirty hallways wound themselves out between storerooms of goods. Some rooms were as pitiful as where Aureum herself, and others were piles of treasures.
Pearls from beasts, medicines and poisons, weapons of all kinds, and even further miscellaneous enchanted tools hung on the walls and piled out of boxes. Treasures from all ends of Aeternitus collected dust as they waited to be sold.
Yet the least of these were given better conditions than those who held the most value. The soon-to-be slaves were hidden and left to rot in the dark. For they would be transported away from Fluentem.
Even further beyond these rooms was a plush interior auditorium, where the objects for sale could be displayed for auction. The entire building rested next to the sea so that the audience, merchandise, or sellers could quickly catch a boat onto the river.
This was the mouth of Fluentem's black market, a maw that ate many.
Mendax frowned at the crowds in the auditorium. There was a stand for souvenirs nearby.
He could even hear a baby wailing somewhere.
He shook his head.
"You can find sweets further in," Nivis said.
"I'll pass."
"Come on, I know you're usually neck deep in these things, but try to see it from the other side for once. A few old tools aren't worth the notice of the law."
"You think you understand what this place is?"
"Heh. I wouldn't go that far. But it is convenient."
"Convenience always has a price."
"Try to have fun."
"We'll see what happens."
Mendax regretted giving Nivis a piece of his time with every step he took.
Perhaps I'm wrong. He thought. There are depths to deviancy.
Not every criminal is a murderer. Not all murderers are criminalized. This wasn't Nix. Perhaps this market kept itself to old artifacts. He took a seat but refused any number.
He was here only to watch.