B3 Ch29: The Catch

(Note: I think you guys will like this next arc... You'll see what I mean by the end.)

Arthur was so excited he practically flung himself out of his Personal Space and back into real-time.

“Brixaby! Look what I found! It’s your card—"

But Brixaby had started speaking at the same time, equally excited. And his voice boomed over Arthur’s. “I have located the hidden combat cards, and I will now receive your thanks.”

“Wait, what?” Arthur asked.

“What do you mean by ‘my card’?” Brixaby demanded, again speaking over him.

Cressida slapped her hand on the desk between them. “Not all of us have time-warping storage abilities. One at a time, please. Arthur?” She gave him a look.

He was powerfully curious about what Brixaby had found, but Arthur continued. “I found a reference in this letter—" he plucked it out of his Personal Space to show them all, “of a Legendary level card that sounds like it’s part of Brixaby’s deck.”

“Is that so?” Brixaby buzzed around to hover over the letter and read. Arthur held it down so it didn’t flutter away. A moment later, the dragon reared back in surprise. “Call of the Heart? What use is that? I can already take from the heart deck.”

“That’s a romantic-sounding card name.” Cressida looked like she was trying not to smile at the immediately disgusted snort Brixaby gave to that.

“No, no look.” Arthur stabbed his finger down on the page, annoyed that neither one of them understood how important this was. “It says here that it might be enchanted to create a powerful treasure-seeking tool.”

“That might be a concern,” Cressida said.

“Why?”

She hesitated. “I don’t know much about enchanting—well, no one does. Enchanters keep their craft secrets under lock and key. But there are always rumors.” She paused again as if deciding if she wanted to say it but went on before Arthur could prompt her further. “The most potent enchanted weapons and tools require the destruction of the cards. It’s a rather controversial process.”

Brixaby reared back in shock though a moment before he was acting as if he didn’t care a whit about the card. One purple-black claw touched over his own heart.

“I’ve never heard that,” Arthur said, but then had to admit, “Though what I do know about enchanting could fill a thimble.”

“We will soon learn more, thanks to the books,” Brixaby rumbled. “But I doubt it’s true. I smelled no scourge or rot in the workrooms we passed. Surely, if the enchanters were destroying cards…”

“No,” Cressida said, “It’s not the same as letting a card go to rot. The destruction is clean at least. And it is only rumor…”

“If it’s true, it’s still card destruction,” Arthur said grimly. He felt a lot less excited about the prospect of learning enchanting now. It hit right up against the same moral quandary he had with Brixaby’s Call of The Void — and the main reason he had never used it for himself.

Then he shook his head. Worrying like this was putting the cart before the donkey. “But if there is some truth to the rumor, then whoever has it is working with a Legendary to create a one-of-a-kind tool. If that’s the case…”

“It will very likely be destroyed,” Cressida said.

Brixaby huffed. “Oh no. Not my boring, romantic card.”

Frowning, Arthur turned to him. “Brix, you know how powerful linked cards can become.”

That gave Brixaby a pause. “Yes, yes, very well then. But my information is still more interesting.”

Then he plucked out a small, hand-drawn map from his Personal Space and slapped it down on the desk in a way that would make any gambler with a royal flush proud. “The combat cards are not here, they’re kept at this point: right at the end of the peninsula that extends out to the salt sea.”

Eagerly, Arthur and Cressida both bent to look at it.

“You just… found it? Just like that?” Arthur turned the map his way and saw that, indeed, he recognized the shape of the salt sea. The free hive mesa was marked out just to the southeast, and he’d seen that peninsula on clear days out to the salt sea before. The maker of the map had helpfully drawn out a tiny x at the tip and noted, ‘Combat stash.’

It seemed much too easy for his taste.

“Is there a date on his map? Maybe it’s not current?” he turned it this way and that way as if expecting a catch to reveal itself. “Any description of security?”

“No, the map fell out of a dusty, boring inventory scroll. I believe it was hidden there,” Brixaby said, puffing himself up. “And I was the one to locate it. Yet I don’t hear any thanks yet.”

“Thanks,” Arthur said dryly. Hearing that it was hidden helped ease his paranoia a little, but this still felt off.

He wasn’t the only one who felt that way. Cressida was frowning too. “If this person knows where the combat cards are kept, why haven’t they raided it?”

“Who says they haven’t?” Brixaby asked. “I can’t sense their heart. It might be filled with delicious combat cards — they may have plucked out the best out of the stash. Clearly, we should hurry before any more are taken.”

“Or they can’t get to the peninsula for some reason,” Arthur said, ignoring Brix’s impatience. Though he keenly felt it himself. “I don’t think they’d be able to walk to the spot without being seen, which means they’d have to get a ride on a dragon… and pay them with combat cards.”

“That feels thin,” Cressida said, then sighed, “but I don’t have any other explanation. Unless this map is wrong.”

“There’s one way to find out,” Brixaby said eagerly.

“Wouldn’t it be nice,” Cressida said with a smile, “if your Call of the Heart card was there with the combat cards. Two scourgelings, one stone.”

“No chance of that,” Arthur said, “the letter said it’s with another free hive. The…” He trailed off, realizing he’d gotten so excited about learning of the card he hadn’t read through the entire letter.

Quickly, he fixed that, scanning over the rest of the scrawled page. “The Free Hive of the Sea.”

“Of the sea?” Cressida repeated, eyebrows furrowed. She stepped around the desk and back to the wall with the large map, scanning over it. “Here it is. This archipelago.” Her well-shaped fingernail hovered over a spot in the ocean, bare except for a crescent of islands. “In fact, it looks like there are two free hives. The hive of the Waves and the hive of the Sea.”

Brixaby growled low in his throat. “The Free Hive of the Waves is where the assassin came from.”

Both whirled around to stare at him.

“How do you know—" Arthur started.

In answer, Brixaby plucked out one of the scrolls from his Personal space. “They had the enchanters look over his weapons to see if they could find an origin. They all agree: Free hive of the waves.”

Which meant that was likely where the Mind Singer had made her home.

… Which also meant that the Call of the Heart was within her grasp.

If she didn’t have it already.

Cressida and Arthur exchanged a look. He saw the same dark realization echo in her eyes.

“We need those combat cards,” Arthur said.

Brixaby held up his claws in exasperation. “That’s what I’ve been saying. We need to secure them immediately.”

“Yes,” Arthur said, “Tonight.”

“Why?” Cressida asked, startled.

“Because,” Arthur said, “If the Mind Singer has access to a card in Brixaby’s deck, we need all the help we can get. I’m taking all the enchantment books.”

****

Of course, it wasn’t that easy. After Arthur and Brixaby emptied the bookshelf of all the books, Arthur retrieved the ladder, and they climbed up. He considered leaving the hole there… but why make it any easier for investigators to know they were burglarized?

There was the chance someone would assume the books had simply been moved to another location. No need to make it look like a crime.

He and Brixaby’s mana reserves had somewhat refilled — at least enough to deal up the hole with a rock plug and then kick some dirt over it. That wouldn’t fool anyone with a higher-ranked earth sense card, but the spot didn’t look visually different.

As the two of them worked, Cressida walked over to speak to Joy.

Arthur had been too far away to understand the words, but he caught Joy’s excited tone. He suspected she was happy to get out of the dirt.

Finally, the hole was as good as they could make it. Which… wasn’t that great. They might have borrowed the Earthen Manipulation skill, but neither were practiced or leveled in it.

“That’s not going to last if someone walks over it,” Arthur said.

Brixaby shrugged a wing. “Someone may discover this breach, but it would be difficult to link it back to us.”

He had a point.

Arthur turned to Cressida and Joy. “Any problems, Joy?”

“I kept a real close eye out for the scouts, but I didn’t see them return. I was so bored. And dirty,” Joy added. “But then I got a quest! A really, really good one. But… I don’t understand it.”

“Oh?” Immediately, Brixaby hovered closer. Arthur suspected he was trying to barge into her aura and perhaps pick up on the quest himself. As with most meta powers, that was hit or miss.

“What don’t you understand, dear?” Cressida asked. “What is your quest?”

“It’s offering me the chance to raid a dungeon.” She practically bounced in place. “And the reward is my pick of combat cards! But… what’s a dungeon?”

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