Comparing the Granbold City tower with what Master Uvithar had wasn’t particularly fair, but I made the comparison regardless. Obviously far more people would reside in this particular tower, so the absolute size difference wasn’t that important. The construction was immediately different.

  Instead of stone block construction- or perhaps covering it up- the outside of the tower was plastered and painted a deep blue. Probably expensive without dipping into some sort of royal territory. Graotan certainly had a king or queen or something. I should probably know.

  Anyway, the tower was obviously more adorned on the outside. The doors to the compound that held it were probably about half the size of Master Uvithar’s tower. Massive wooden things with metal strips and engravings.

  A guard was waiting at the doors by the miniature door laid into one of them.The guard had shiny equipment but I didn’t feel like the enchantments went far beyond that. Then again, I wasn’t that familiar with enchantments compared to active spells.

  Sir Kalman had a physical token to present so the guard knew who we were. Then the little door swung open to let us in. I had the feeling they didn’t get a lot of orcs here. A little more and I might have hit my head on it.

  We were met by an apprentice of some sort. He had wings and birdlike clawed feet, but otherwise looked pretty standard humanoid. ‘Birdfolk’ seemed like an odd name for people who shared barely two traits with them. Especially since he still had arms. I wondered if the floors inside were enchanted. They had to be, right?

  Not that we were going inside. Stepping into their territory was already enough. Zeb was here to help us have an excuse to not change location to somewhere inside.

  I did get a glimpse inside the tower as we stepped onto a different path. A more reasonable sized door than those outside the compound opened up, revealing a marbled inside with gilded furniture. Or maybe it was inlaid with gold, I couldn’t tell at the distance we stood. One was many times more expensive.

  Our small group was guided through some gardens that were pretty nice. I’d rate them just below some of those in New Bay I’d been to visit. All the plants were well taken care of but extremely local and expected. There were some hedges, roses, trees, and a little stream. I wasn’t sure if the stream was real. It was obviously water, but I was pretty sure there wasn’t a stream flowing through the city. At least not there.

  There were some more exotic plants, but they didn’t seem as if they’d been selected from as diverse of locations as Earth stuff. I was kind of hoping to see some magical plants, but maybe those were in a different garden. Or maybe only druids kept magic plants.

  We were taken to a nicely shaded area with ivy covering trellises and some comfortable seating. “Archmage Zenfer and his associates will join you shortly,” our guide informed us. “They should already be informed of your arrival.”

  Then he walked off, which bugged me. Not that he was leaving- I really didn’t care. But why did he have wings if he wasn’t going to fly? Maybe they just weren’t big enough, but I figured birdfolk had some magic going for them. Otherwise I would probably heard something about them not actually being able to fly.

  “So they’re just going to leave us here?” Izzy asked.

  I shrugged. “They can probably still see us. With the walls and tower.” Besides, were we going to attack the place suddenly? That seemed silly. It would only be if they gave us a reason… and then we’d be leaving as soon as possible. I didn’t want to find out if they were willing to Meteor Swarm their gardens.

  The first person to show up was a shriveled olive on a stick. No wait, a green raisin walking along with a staff tied with jangly bells. A bit closer and her features resolved into a goblin pretty well buried under a wide brimmed hat.

  “Hello,” she said.

  “Hello,” I replied.

  “H- bark!” Zeb commented. Well, I only understood that was the first part of hello because I was familiar with Bunvorixian. At least she caught herself.

  The rest of us who were supposed to introduce ourselves did, and Izzy introduced Zeb, Douglas, Sugar, and Tammy. As made sense for her as a beastmaster, because she was one, right now.

  The old goblin lady didn’t even look particularly surprised at Midnight speaking. Maybe she’d already heard. Or she was just used to weird magic stuff. “I’m Wrickle.”

  The name sounded vaguely familiar. I don’t think she was an Archmage, though. There weren’t that many of them and I thought I mostly knew their names. Probably.

  “Nice to meet you,” I said.

  She climbed up onto one of the tall stools available. There were a few of those- Zenfer would need one, and Izzy did too. Sir Kalman was large enough to get by with a ‘standard’ sized chair.

  Wrickle settled into her chair before continuing. “I heard you have been engaging in a lot of dimensional travel. Is that true?”

  “How much is a lot?” I asked.

  “For most people?” Her voice was small, though not exactly weak. “Why, I’d say once is above average. Being able to cast Gate is quite something. Do you have many upgrades to Gate?”

  “Two,” I said. “I sort of pushed it to cast it early.”

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “How delightful,” she commented.

  “There she is!” I turned at the sound of Zenfer’s voice. “Grand Mage Edgebinder, we told you that we’d be going together.”

  Something about that name…

  “Bah,” she said, waving her staff and causing a racket- clattering it against the table, stool, and ground while the bells jangled. “Then I’d be waddling over here for hours yet.”

  The other two with Zenfer were a youngish looking dwarf and an old human lady. The dwarf was the exception to the age thing, really. He was maybe around the same age as Sir Kalman, though I didn’t know enough dwarves well to say for certain.

  They were respectively Mage Kilbrek Stonecrush and Archmage Rusul Ravinsis. Unsurprisingly, the first guy wasn’t so famous that I knew of him. I hadn’t known what the archmage looked like, though. She probably had a portrait inside the tower somewhere.

  Rusul enacted some magic before I could react, creating some sort of invisible dome over the area. Hopefully, I didn’t react too strongly because everyone else seemed to think it was reasonable. I did feel Midnight’s reciprocal jolt and start of mana gathering, but that was it. Zeb wandered around sniffing people, which might have been for spying purposes or could have been just her normal thing.

  The squirrels were around… somewhere.

  “Now that we have some privacy,” Zenfer said, mounting his stool and raising himself into view. “We can get down to business.”

  “No no no,” Wrickle said. Her staff jangled back and forth as she waggled it like a finger. “We must have refreshments first! A halfling like you should know better.”

  Halfling? Wasn’t he a gnome? Maybe at some point I mixed up my whimsical surnames. And he had a big nose.

  Wrickle waved her staff over the table and a half dozen platters appeared. Then little plates and utensils, followed by a steaming pot of tea. They weren’t conjured or anything, but pulled out of Storage. But everything ended up neatly arranged and right side up. I was more impressed by that than the quantity, which was kind of high but not unreasonable. I could carry more.

  Had she gone and picked up fresh tea before coming over? It had to be recent. I wanted to ask, but it didn’t feel like the right time.

  Zenfer grumbled only slightly. I very carefully selected some cheese and bread while waiting for Izzy to suspiciously sniff things. Presumably her eating some of it implied that she determined there was no poison. And I could tell on my own that it wasn’t enchanted which might have been worse.

  Maybe I didn’t need to be paranoid here, but this was exactly the sort of place I should be. Enemy territory, or the territory of potential enemies. Same difference, really.

  “Ahem,” Zenfer cleared his throat after appropriately munching on some of the available snacks. “The business we are gathered here for is for a matter of interest to us all. The disappearance of Grand Mage Ixius Uvithar. As for why we meet now when the incident itself is a year distant? We have recently come into some new information. Specifically, the whereabouts of one Mided Rolil.

  “Oh hey,” I said. “I know that guy.”

  “One would assume so, as he apprenticed under Uvithar with you.”

  I shrugged. “We didn’t talk that much though.” He was human and significantly older- even more than most of the apprentices. He’d easily been twenty when we first met. He didn’t react well to pranks. That was close to the limit of our interactions.

  “Regardless,” Zenfer said. “This is the information we possess. He made an appearance in Adrela.”

  Ooh, that was one of the other countries with a lot of mages. I wondered if the theoretical conspiracy extended there. Why was I even necessary in this?

  “We want you to try to track him down. Contact him if you think it safe.”

  At least Zenfer knew me well enough to be direct instead of beating around the bush.

  “Okay. Is there anything else I should know?” I felt like I could have just been informed with Sending.

  “Yes. We do have a lock of his hair.” Zenfer produced a pouch. “Scavenged from the rubble of Uvithar’s tower.”

  It was less of a lock and more a few strands of blond hair. That did fit Mided, at least. Why was I being handed hair though? Oh right, Scrying. And divination in general. Connections were good. I’d been getting pretty lucky with my successes so far without tokens like this.

  Probably helped to have a massive block of diamond.

  I made sure everything remained in the little pouch. I wasn’t interested in touching random hair.

  There were probably more things I should say. Fortunately, Midnight knew some of them. “What are your goals, here?” he asked.

  Rusul answered that. “I would think the disappearance of a Grand Mage should be sufficient. As for why Turlough is being called upon, he is the most closely tied that we are also certain is not responsible.”

  “Because I was weak,” I commented.

  “And also in another dimension,” Wrickle said.

  The old human lady nodded then continued. “We hope you will believe we have good intentions… but if not, at least we can trust you to do what you think best for your former master.”

  This was the sort of thing where I needed to rely on people who were good at reading others. Truth was something I could pick out occasionally. I really preferred villains who were straightforward about such things, though. If they didn’t think they needed to bother lying, it made my life easier.

  These people might just want me to find Uvithar to track him down and murder him. Or eat his soul. Or because he owed them money. He’d never told me they were friends. Then again, he hadn’t told me they weren’t. Probably not everyone was out to get him. Unless…?

  “Here’s the full report on Mided’s appearance,” Zenfer pulled out a small book. Earth had way better methods of transporting a few papers without them crumpling. Plus, there were digital versions.

  “Thank you. I’ll look into this, when I can.”

  I should just try Sending. Sure, it could warn Mided, but that might be good. Unless he was part of the conspiracy.

  It was going to be very disappointing if there wasn’t one. Especially since that meant people were restricted in how much they learned about how magic worked for no reason at all.