Jackal Among Snakes

Durran opened a door, beholding the man waiting on the other side. His name was Traugott. As Elenore said, his skin was darker than most people in Vasquer. Even still, Durran had seen darker men in the Burnt Desert, and his other unusual features drew attention first. His hair was as black as ink, appearing soft and inhuman. It looked more like grafted strands of black silk than hair. And his shadow… it looked solid, almost tangible, and did not move with the light of the room.

Despite that, he had a pleasant and somewhat round face. That, coupled with his ordinary gray robes bearing the insignia of the Order of the Gray Owl, somewhat grounded the Magister Traugott back in the mundane.

With a white-toothed smile, Traugott inquired of Durran, “Hello. Who might you be?”

“Just some help for the princess,” Durran answered, opening the door wider. “Please, come in. We’re happy to have you here, Magister Traugott.”

“The princess? I see,” the Magister said evenly, stepping within the room. “Greetings, Princess Elenore. It’s currently rather nice to make your acquaintance despite the circumstances around us.” His eyes landed on another person in the room, and his expression slowly lost some of its cheer. “And… Magister Vasilisa of Quadreign.”

Magister Vasilisa stood in one corner of the room. She was a tall woman, blonde of hair and blue of eye. She came from the very distant north, part of the noble family of Quadreign—apparently, the majority of their members were renowned spellcasters. Elenore was happy to have this Vasilisa’s presence, but Durran was not.

Elenore, despite her haste in arranging this meeting, had not done so without some precautions. The princess had called in a lot of favors and spent a lot of money to merely have this woman present with them. Durran had complained that having two Magisters was more dangerous than having one, but Elenore had rebutted that at least this Magister was of proven character.

In the end, though Durran was not entirely content about this precaution, he had to admit it was better than nothing. Traugott came as an ally on paper, but he was still an unknown quantity. Indeed, the lack of information she was able to find was alarming. No one seemed to know anything about him. Vasilisa, contrarily, had an upstanding reputation. Traugott had already arranged to meet with her, too, so it wasn’t a disrespectful measure.

“Traugott,” Vasilisa greeted. Though she had been completely unenthusiastic before the meeting, now that it came she was at full attention, playing the part of a diligent escort.

“I’m glad I managed to get in touch with you,” Elenore spoke to Traugott kindly. “I thought I might facilitate your journey here. You intended to spread the word of Gerechtigkeit to your fellow Magisters, didn’t you? But some of my sources say that you had a personal support of Argrave’s cause. Please, have a seat.”

“Well… you’ve saved me some travel.” His face recovered from its change in demeanor quickly, and Traugott smiled as he sat down upon his chair. “I should ask—might I meet His Majesty, the King Argrave?”

Elenore raised a brow at his grandiose address. “His Majesty is absent from Relize at present.”

“Ah,” Traugott nodded. “Such a shame.”

Durran walked to stand behind Elenore, keeping his arms before him as he kept a close eye on the man ahead. Traugott didn’t seem to mind.

interested in meeting a man who could write something like this,” Traugott reached into his robes and pulled free a booklet. “So many… proofs, truths, each and all leading back to Gerechtigkeit. His Majesty must have made a formidable study of the situation. With this level of detail…

diligent,” Elenore nodded simply. “Castro

opened the booklet, fingers turning the pages gingerly. “I do wonder how it is the king managed to find all of these leads. I, myself, am quite a scholar, yet all of these things…

aware of and prepared for this

been deliberately suppressing things,”

“Then how, I wonder, has King

has been discovered. She

very reasonable,

sources tell me you had a personal support of Argrave’s coronation,” Elenore said quickly, hoping to change the direction of the conversation. “I thought you might be amenable to detailed cooperation,

good justification,” Traugott nodded

put,” she continued, “I wanted to discuss how you might use your sway in the Order

come to offer some help,” Traugott tilted his head. “But I’m

greatly uneased by the way the man talked. He spoke of how things were ‘plausible’ or ‘good justifications,’ as though

visit alone… they’ll have ramifications: namely, positive results for us. The title of Magister has

blonde Magister did give a

I long ago accepted. Everyone would be better off if they admitted they know nothing.

silence for a few seconds. She seemed just as perplexed as Durran was. Was the man trying to avoid answering them in an elaborate way? Durran could not be sure of his

spend too much time asking those questions, you stagnate,”

stagnating bad?” Traugott answered back. “Ah—I’ve made a mistake. I’ve made an assumption that you meant ‘stagnate’ negatively.” Traugott shook his head. “But going with that assumption I made… how should one live their life? What is bad, what is good? What’s the

a few moments, then answered, “You’ve stumbled onto why people have faith, I

chuckled. “Precisely so. These questions… a lot of people go around claiming that they have the answer to it all. They know how we get here, and they know how it’ll all end.” He shook his head. “But the word you used… it’s faith. People don’t know. They cling to assumptions, reasonable or unreasonable, without ever truly

being able to see anything. Quickly, he cast a spell of fire, but it, too, was consumed by darkness. What was up, down, and all around

unknown. Myself, I’ve always wanted to be steeped in it. Rather than leaving it be, nothing entices me more than heading into the lurking shadows and

that ate away the darkness. Durran struggled to stay on his feet—whatever this darkness was, it was not so simple as an absence of light.

could Durran be sure that nothing had happened to her? Tearing his gaze away and back

the other in a casual display. One might not think a Magister had spells prepared in his face. “And all of the information… I thought it came from Castro at first, but that isn’t the case, is it? No… it came from Argrave,” he said, the honorific address dropped. “There are so many places to visit in this little booklet. So many leads to follow, so many other proofs. Or so is claimed… I’ve yet to verify them. The arbiter of the world? Such an unknown quantity… so, let me ask you