Mark of the Fool

Chapter 117: Gateways and Redesigns

What do you mean? Alex asked, suddenly feeling very afraid for Theresa, Isolde, Khalik and the others. Dodo you think the demon summoner is down there?

Baelin continued to watch the horizon. I dont know. Again, the magic existed for a mere heartbeat or less. Then it was gone. If the demon summoner was in there, then they either aborted their casting or they are extremely good at masking their magic.

W-we should go back! Alex said quickly, trying to fight down rising panic as he imagined demons stalking the passages.

No, you should not. I have summoned The Watchers and teleported them into the maze. They are investigating the incident even as the rest of the class finishes their practical session.

The class is still going on? Thundar asked.

It is, Baelin said. You might think it foolish, but understand, I am old. Very old, and I only felt the magic for an instant. It could be that one of you students cast the teleportation spell, or it could be that I simply imagined it. I have been searching for the culprit who summoned the demon for some time, after all: the mind can conjure all sorts of wants, tricks and desires if it really wishes.

Alex remembered that brief moment when he desperately wanted to escape the haunt in the complex and how his thoughts went to The Cave of the Traveller. His thoughts went to when he was younger, shortly after his mother and father had died. Sometimes hed wake up at night andfor one confused momentthink he could hear his father in the kitchen or his mother humming at the bar.

The mind could conjure all kinds of phantoms when it was over-taxed. Still, fear gripped him, and he took to pacing back and forth along the escarpment.

Do not worry, Baelin said. Even as The Watchers patrol the complex, I myself am examining it through divination magic. I have felt nothing unusual since that instantbut if I do, and if it is our culprit

He made a crushing gesture with one of his massive hands.

The group fell into silence behind him, and Alex continued pacing. Thundar eventually walked over to Grimloch.

Those tunnels were bullshit, werent they, eh, big guy? Thundar clapped the shark man on the shoulder.

Alex had been the receiver of many of the minotaurs robust back and shoulder claps, which were strong enough to send him stumbling, if he wasnt braced for them.

Grimloch didnt even budge.

Got lucky. We got him, the shark man chewed out his words and jabbed a thumb toward Eyvinder. Didnt even bother with tunnels. This guy looked at the rock and it just opened up for him. We just walked straight to the teleportation circle.

you lucky bastard, Thundar grunted. I nearly got torn open by skeletons becau-

More shimmering in the air.

Brutus began barking excitedly.

Caramiyus, Nua-Oge, Angelar, Theresa and Hogarth appeared next. Theresa was in no way bloodied, though they all looked like theyd been in a fight.

Oof! Theresa cried as Brutus tackled her to the ground and began to bury her face in a torrent of licks.

Ach, boy, you know youre not supposed to jump on people! She raised herself into a sitting position.

Youre not suppo-Oof! Theresa cried as Alex tackled her to the ground. Luckily, he didnt bury her face in a torrent of licks.

Alex, I shouldnt have to tell you not to jump on people! She pushed herself up into a sitting position again while Alex crouched beside her.

Even if you did, I wouldnt have to listen. Thats the beauty of being not-a-dog. He grinned. Im just really glad youre alright.

She frowned. Yeah, we arewas it that bad for you, with the skeletons, I mean?

He helped her back to her feet. Yes and no, but listen, some stuff is going on

As he filled her in on what Baelin was watching for, the rest of the class teleported back onto the escarpment. The chancellor turned his attention to them, explaining the situation.

Did any of you use a teleportation spell in the complex? Even a minor one?

Malcolm raised his hand. I cast Call Through Ice, to teleport a key that was on an altar so we could disarm a spinning blades trap.

Call through what now? Alex muttered, quietly thankful that his group didnt run into any spinning blades trap. It sounded horrible.

Isoldewhod appeared with one of the final groupsleaned close to him. It freezes two points in space and conjures a teleportation doorway through the para-elemental plane of cold. It is difficult to cast for anyone not specialized in ice magic, but it is one of the lowest tier teleportation spells that exists.

Thanks Madam Librarian, Alex said, grinning at her.

Isolde rolled her eyes.

Baelin was considering Malcolms explanation, stroking his braided beard. Hmm, perhaps that was what I felt. I was unaware that you or anyone in the class could use teleportation magic.

Its something I learned over break, Malcolm said, looking a little subdued. Been trying to learn some more spells that areless all or nothing after the vent-drinker class.

Right, Baelin nodded. And the rest of you saw no other teleportation effects or felt anything of that nature?

The rest of the class shook their heads.

I see. Baelin focused on the direction of the tunnels again.

The class talked among themselves until The Watchers of Roal arrived at the escarpment, then looked on as Baelin questioned them.

We found nothing, chancellor-one started to say.

Baelin, the chancellor corrected.

Ah, right, the watcher said awkwardly. Well, we didnt find anything. No traces of summoning, no teleportation, no sign of anything down there except for the undead and your students.

Baelin frowned. Hm, perhaps I simply felt your magic after all, Malcolm. Theelusiveness of this demon caller has weighed on me.

He gazed off in the direction of the tomb. Still. Curious. Very curious, indeed.

Alex looked at Malcolm. A slight suspicion began to grow.

Malcolmbeing a second yearwas one of the most powerful students in The Art of the Wizard in Combat II. He also specialized in cold magic, and had just revealed that he could cast teleportation magic, which was similar to summoning.

Alex remembered that the demon had appeared in fire, but there was also an element that it had been notably adept at using, judging from its attacks.

Ice.

He watched Shiani and Rhea talking to Malcolm. They were close. The demon appeared in fire and then used ice. Malcolm, Shiani and Rhea were ice and fire wizards.

Fire and Ice.

Alex tried to shake the thoughts away. He didnt know much about Malcolm and Rhea, but he liked Shiani. His sister did too: she still asked about the fire wizard sometimes.

Besides, none of them seemed powerful enough to cast the kind of magic someone would need to bring forth a demon, never mind the kind of demon that could give The Watchers of Roal trouble.

They just couldnt.

could they?

Perhaps they were keeping secrets, concealing their true power.

He ought to know about that.

As the class ended, Alex shook away the thoughts as ridiculous, but a lingering doubt continued to follow him long after.

He couldnt help but wonder if that doubt and discord was what the demon summoner had wanted to sew all along.

Alex! Selina cried.

Huh, wha-? Alex shook his head. What was that?

You were staring again, she said, then looked at him suspiciously. Youre not going to change the design again, are you?

What, no, no, I wouldnt! he insisted.

In truth, hed been thinking about his classmates in his combat class and how they might be keeping secrets of their own. He hadnt been able to completely shake the thought since the escarpment.

Still, there actually was a very good reason why Selina might have thought he was thinking of changing the golems design.

He glanced over at their work which had progressed quite a bit since the break. He couldnt deny it though, it wouldve been farther along if it werent for the fact that he seemed to change the design of his creation every three days. While the general size and emphasis on power hadnt changed, a lot of the aesthetic design and other elements had been altered.

The first golems almost always looked like mortals, Lagor had said while they were working one evening. He had been carefully forging the delicate brass fingers for a specialty golem. Giant, bulky humans, elves, beast folk: mirrors of whatever was creating them. Thing is, a golems physical form doesnt really matter for how well it functions. Not on the outside, at least. Youll want your mana structures proper, but the humanoid form isnt anything special.

Lagor had looked up at the specialty golem. While it was forged in the shape of an androgynous humanoid, the brass construct had six long, thin arms each with a hand that had seven fingers. Unlike most golems, the mouth of this one actually led to an airway that led to two mechanical chambers that mimicked lungs.

Apparently, a prominent duke had wanted it to play several musical instruments at once: essentially making it into a one-golem orchestra. That said, it would apparently be powerful enough to bend steel with its bare hands so it could also serve as defence.

Thats the thing with golems, the orc crafter continued. You can make them look like dragons or krakens or anything: whats essential to make sure of is that your golem core is sophisticated enough to coordinate all those limbs and produces enough mana to power them all.

That revelation had set Alexs mind afire. Hed thought about the silence-spiders with their multiple limbs, and how his force shield was able to block more attacks which allowed his arms to remain free.

And thanks to helping build that golem, hed learned how to design a golem core sophisticated enough to run at least eight limbs. However, hed still need enough room on his creations torso for so many limbs, which would call for an even bigger golem body than was practical for him to build.

So, hed decided to go with two extra arms so that he would have four, thick, sturdy, powerful ones containing nice, big mana pathways through them.

At first, Selina had been thrilled with the change.

Four arms is super cool! shed cried.

Her displeasure had started with the next change.

Hed hit upon the idea of applying some of the aspects of force redirection he was learning in Professor Rams class. Hed realized that making his golem look like a giant muscular manwhile unbelievably coolwould actually have made the golem less efficient at blocking enemies blows. Bare areas with pronounced pectorals, abdominals and the contours of musculaturewhile theyd look coolcould be a weakness for blades or claws to go for.

Instead, hed decided to use a design that he knew worked when it came to protection against enemy strikes: armour. Hed joined Isolde and Theresa on one of their trips to a weaponsmith to look at the armour they carried. Using The Mark to examine the plate armour carefully, he'd then returned to their work room and practiced making small sculptures and trying various armour sculpting designs for hours.

Hed finally settled on a rounded, sloped shape for the golems surface that perfectly mimicked the plate armour.

When hed shown Selina the design change, the colour had actually drained from her ten-year old face.

Its super ugly now! shed bluntly informed him.

Well, its practical, hed said. And thats what matters the most.

And so, theyd re-sculpted the surface of the golem to his specificationsonly for him to realize that shed been right. There was no denying it. It was super ugly and it honestly looked kind of stupid. Alex was practical, butin the endhe wanted his golem to look at least somewhat cool.

So hed gone back to his design, continuing with the armoured inspiration, but altering it to get the best of both worlds: a design which perfectly matched a hulking, armour clad warrior. The plan still retained the sloped, rounded angles of plate amourto deflect blows and force away from its centre massbut now, hed added extra details that actually made it look like finely crafted full plate, with images of filigree and designs of warriors and monsters throughout.

None of the designs were raised enough to catch blows or hook claws, while also looking cool. If the golem evolved from a clay golem, to stone, and then to an iron one, the armoured design would look even cooler in those materials.

Selina had been far more enthusiastic, but still expressed dread that hed make another big change and throw all their work away again to just end up making it look stupid.

Despite reassuring her, he couldnt really be completely sure that he wouldnt discover something else that would lead to another abrupt improvement to the golem plan.

Its fine, its fine, he said, somewhat to himself. I think were going to stick with this design this time.

She looked at him suspiciously. Are you sure?

Yeah, Im sure, he promised, though still not quite sure.

I hope so. She glanced at the head they were working on presently: which appeared to be the head of a giant with a steel helmet on top of it. The giant had a ferocious expression and sharp teethsimilar to the faces of the goddessesin The Cave of the Traveller.

Why are we making an extra hole in his forehead? she asked, looking at the deep impressions they were sculpting into the centre of the helmet. Are there going to be three eyes? Why three?

Youll see, was all he said.

He hadnt told her yet what the extra eye hole was for, nor the reason for the holes hed planned for them to sculpt into two of the golems palms.

Those holes would be the new homes for the fire-gems.

He just needed to make sure hed have the power necessary for them. He was still working that out, but he was sure hed eventually learn something beneficial, whether that was through his job, or his analysis of the dungeon core.

Alex paced back and forth in front of Cell-301, mentally counting off the lab time that was slipping away. The Watcher of Roal standing in the hall nearby gave him a sympathetic look. He glanced at his bagsuspended from his forceballwhich contained both his solid and liquified sample of the dungeon cores remains.

This was his second independent lab time and the second time that Amir was late.

Alex was starting to see an unfortunate pattern.