[Mkguild] The Dichotomy of Curses and Gifts (2/?)

[Nathan Pfaunmiller]

That's right, two parts in the same night.  This is the continuation
of my earlier short story where it seems that the Curse is coming to
Midtown.  I hope you enjoy as I move along.

-LurkingWolf

_________________

	Peter Darius walked quickly through the town, making for the lord’s
house.  He had but to nod to the guards to gain entrance into the
modest mansion, and navigated the hallways on his own from there.

	The door to the meeting room was curiously unguarded, but Peter had
since grown used to this.  Lord Donel thought too much of himself, and
so would never be anywhere without guards within, not just earshot,
but eyeshot.  With this lack of convenience, Peter knocked on the door
twice before entering.  Anyone who did anything different was likely
to be treated quite uncivilly by the men on duty.

	The guards were still looking at the opening door when he pushed
through, but they went back to observing the meeting the next moment.
In front of them, the lord sat at a round table, two other councilors
standing at regular intervals.  Only lord Donel was seated, but all
three of them had glasses of wine.  The bottle was in the center of
the table, along with the key to the cabinet of wine that sat in the
left side of the room.

	“Hello, gentlemen,” Peter said, giving a small bow of deference to
the lord himself.  “I’m sorry I am late, I was just at the orphanage
to see the boy.”

	“How is he?  Any further changes?” the lord asked.

	“No, sir, I do not believe that the Curse works that way,” Peter responded.

	“That is all well and good.  Although it would seem to be the Curse,
we cannot be sure, and I would rather be sure.  In fact, I would
rather it wasn’t the Curse at all.”  He shook his head, leaning back
in his chair.  “If it is the Curse, it would cause some rather
unpleasant implications.”

	One of the other advisors, an older man with plenteous wrinkles and
graying brown hair, cut in.  “With all due respect, sir, I think we
need to assume that it is the Curse for the safety of our city.”

	“It would seem the best action at this juncture.  Already people are
beginning to leave because they fear what might become of them.”  It
was the third advisor, wrinkles standing in contrast to youthful black
hair.  His job evidently took something out of him.

	The lord ran a hand through his hair.  “I would tend to think so
myself, but I am no fool.  People already think that I seek to take
more power for myself.  If I assume it is the Curse, my next
assumption must be that the Keep has something to do with it.  No one
else knows the Curses like they do, and none have the access to it
either.  If it has come this far, then it is expanding far more
quickly than it has been to this point, and it must have been caused
by something outside of itself.”

	“Sir, I do not believe that such a conclusion is a necessity,” Peter
responded.  “We all have heard tales and rumors about the effects of
the magical wave during the Yuletide.”

	The lord nodded.  “Aye.  I slept through it, so I cannot say what may
have happened to me, but I heard from enough of my fellows before
Metamor tried to quiet it.”  Something about the turn of the lord’s
eyes and the slight quirk on the edge of his mouth made Peter doubt
the truth of this statement.  Still, there was nothing to be gained
from pressing him on it, except perhaps for an amusing anecdote.

	“At any rate, we know it came from the south, and it is doubtful that
they could have gotten mages of sufficient power that far south to
affect that kind of wave.”

	“All right, then, so what is our next step, assuming it is the
Curse?” the lord asked.

	“I still believe that we need to determine whether or not it actually
is the Curse.  Still, to be safe, we could find a way to accommodate
those who are moving further south.  After that, we just need to find
a way of verifying if it’s the Curse,” Peter asserted.

	“Yes, I agree,” Lord Donel replied.  “If we can keep the northern
farmers happy and then make sure that this is not the Curse, then we
may still be able to keep most of the people where they are.
Accommodations can be made easily enough; we could ask the people in
the southern farms to put up their fellows in exchange for work or
perhaps a few coins from the treasury.  The real trouble is how to
find out if this is the Curse or no.”

	“The obvious answer would be to ask someone from the Keep,” the older
advisor noted.  “I think we can all come to an agreement that doing
this would produce unreliable results, however.  We may not know if
the Keep has anything to do with this, but if they do then they will
likely not want us to know it, at least not yet.  The question is
then, who besides the Keep has mages familiar enough with the Curse to
tell one way or the other?”

	“Aye,” the younger advisor agreed, nodding.  “While they may not have
anything to do with this if it is the Curse, what small chance remains
that they may be involved would leave me much less inclined to trust
them at present.  As for anyone who may be able to tell us whether or
not it is the Curse, there may be someone in Marigund, but calling in
anyone from there would take a while, and I do not believe that we are
in a position to ask favors of them.”

	Lord Donel smirked for a moment, but nodded in agreement.  “So, we
cannot trust the one set of people who may be able to help us.  Is
there any other way of testing if this is the Curse?”

	The advisors looked around among themselves.  Only Peter seemed not
to immediately start shaking his head fatalistically.  There was,
perhaps, one way that they could check it, but he was not certain that
he liked the implications of the ides.  Lord Donel must have seen him
musing, however, and asked him to explain the look of consideration on
his face.

	“Well, sir, I simply came to think that we could use the Curse itself
as a test.  I have been told by some of the merchants who are allowed
in this city that once a person is Cursed, they will never change
again.  If he is truly Cursed, and we take him into the area of the
spell and wait for a few weeks, the magic itself could give us the
answer.”

	“The problem being that someone would have to go with him to
supervise him,” lord Donel observed.

	“Exactly, milord.  He may be of sufficient age to take care of
himself, but he is honestly quite lacking in experience, and would
likely be swept under by the strangeness of the Keep in addition to
his newfound freedom.”

	“And we’d likely never find him again,” the younger of the other
advisors commented wryly.

	Peter took a breath, staring at the man across the table.  “I am
aware that you are not fond of the boy, but I think he has as much
right to be respected as you do.”  The man held his hands up in a
gesture of innocence.

	“I said nothing of my respect for the boy, only my respect for his
ability to navigate.  If you hadn’t been given charge of him as soon
as you were, he may already have wandered all the way up into the
Valley, and we would only have to find him in order to see whether or
not we have reason to worry.”

	“You would be surprised,” Peter commented with a smile.  “The boy is
very intelligent, if somewhat behind his years in terms of schooling.
Given a few months, I’m certain he will remedy that himself before
long; I have been giving him books from my library to pass the time.
Despite his handicap, he has a very developed reading ability, and a
few of the larger tomes in my library can keep him busy for most of
the day.”

	“What tomes do you have that he could possibly want to read?” the
older advisor laughed.  “You’ve no wife or children; surely you don’t
keep fairytales in that stuffy office of yours.”

	“Indeed not,” Peter commented.  “The boy is quite interested in the
philosophers.”  He smiled at a recollection.  “My servants have asked
more pay from me simply from having to put up with his comments and
questions of the ideas he deems most interesting.”

	“This is quite interesting, but it does nothing to help us at
present,” lord Donel commented.  “The question is, who do we send with
the boy?  I could not pay any of my servants enough to be Cursed; many
would rather rot in the dungeons, and those who would go are as likely
to run for their own freedom as soon as they’re beyond my borders as
to look after their charge.”

	All of the advisors agreed.  There were people going to the Keep
periodically, but none would be trustworthy given charge of the boy.
Letting a servant go free as recompense was discussed, but ultimately
turned down as all parties came to the conclusion that no fool would
be so mad as to take such a declaration at face value.  There was
simply no way they would return to tell of the end of the experiment.

	“Well, Peter?  This is your idea, and it is arguably the best I have
heard all day.  Can you see some way to salvage it?”  Lord Donel
looked at him expectantly.

	Peter weighed his thoughts carefully in his mind.  There was much he
was unsure of in this situation, but there was something he was
certain of; he was tired of politics, and in need of a long rest.
This was not the first time he had considered asking to be allowed to
retire, but it was the first time that he had considered accepting the
Curse as part of it.

	It was not, however, the first time he had considered taking the
Curse willingly, even if his reasons had changed.

	“Milord, I actually might be able to offer a solution.  I have served
you here for many years, and I am growing tired of my work.  It is
always a pleasure to be of service, but I feel that I am falling
behind the times, and that both I and this council would be better off
if someone younger was found to take my place.  If you sent me with
the young man to the Keep to discover the nature of his illness, then
I would be able to take my rest, and you would be able to find someone
better able to represent the needs of this city.”

	Lord Donel mused silently.  “Peter, you may have spent many years
with me, but I do not believe that you have fallen behind the times,
despite what you seem to think.  If anything, I think of you as a
stabilizing force.  Your voice is thoroughly unique among my
councilors, and it would pain me to lose someone who has been both a
friend and an indispensable source of wisdom.  Still, I cannot deny
that you have done more than enough to deserve your choice of
retirement.  If it is truly your will to go through with this errand,
I will send you with my blessing, on only the stipulation that you be
willing to exchange messages with me from time to time.”

	Peter smiled.  “It is my will, milord.  And I will certainly exchange
letters with you.  I would have it no other way.”

	The other councilors looked at each other, but remained silent.  They
never had appreciated his presence in Donel’s inner circle.  Even if
the two of them should have been enough to turn his opinion when
needed, the older councilor had often outmaneuvered them through sheer
force of will.  At any rate, they did not feel comfortable either
giving him warm farewells, or expressing their satisfaction at his
departure.  Neither were likely to be well received, as Peter would
see the hypocrisy of the one, and Donel would resent the sentiment of
the other.

	The silence remained unbroken for a few moments, until lord Donel
finally spoke again.  “All right then, my friend.  I personally would
wish you to remain here for a few more days, but the urgency of this
mission demands that you leave at your earliest convenience.  Is there
anything I can do to ease the passage?”

	“Milord, I would not seek to take much with me.  What money I need
can be taken from my own stores, and anything else should not be
particularly noteworthy if our purposes are to remain secret.  Do not
worry, milord; I will be fine.”

	Lord Donel nodded.  “Very good, then.  When will you be able to leave?”

	“I only need time to gather my things,” Peter replied.  “I should be
ready to set out by tomorrow’s first light.”

	The lord of Midtown sagged a bit in his seat.  It was clear that he
had hoped for more time, but it was for the best that Peter be able to
leave so soon.  The sooner they discovered the nature of the spell
that had changed Alan, the sooner they could take an appropriate
course of action.  “All right, Peter.  I will try to be there to see
you off if I can.  Send word as soon as you are able.  I will not be
able to do the same until the result of our experiment is clear, but I
will contact you as soon as you have told me of your conclusion.”

	Peter bowed a bit.  “Thank you, sir.  I had best go and see to the
arrangements.”

	“Goodbye, friend.  I hope to see you again soon,” Donel offered.

	The other advisors offered quieter words of farewell, and Peter
walked from the room.  Had he done the right thing?  Would he be able
to bear the Curse?  Would this even address the issue that they were
seeking to solve?  He could not answer any of those questions.  Still,
he walked with his head held high.  The answers would come in due
time.  For now, he would go to face the questions without fear.

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