“It was some kind of curse,” Donal said. “Two curses, really. One was making the poison worse, while the other was adding more poison to the first curse. The curse that kept making more of the other two couldn’t be cleansed until the other curse was cleansed, and she had so much of it in her when she arrived.”
“Too bad Jason isn’t here,” Jory said. “He’d have eaten it all like it was nothing.”
“Eaten?”
“He can be a little sinister,” Jory said, “but he’s a good man.”
“I hope you still think so, after today,” Jason said from the doorway.
“Jason!” Jory said. “We could have used you here a while ago. Something happened to my friend a while ago. I don’t know what, but it was bad.”
Jory and Donal pushed themselves to their feet.
“Curses and poison,” Jason said, looking at Sophie.
Jason was decked out in his adventuring gear, spattered with blood.
“Are you chasing what did this to her?” Jory asked.
“I’m chasing her,” Jason said. “I am what did this.”
104
An Outcome That Satisfies
“This is bad,” Jory said, pacing back and forth. “That’s what they’ve been doing? Ripping off the rich and powerful?”
Jory, Jason and Donal were in one of Jory’s treatment rooms, with an unconscious Sophie on the treatment table. She was mostly covered in a sheet, except for her head. Her silver hair hung off the side of the table in a tangled mess.
“Who is this woman?” Donal asked.
“Donal,” Jason said. “Janice is probably becoming concerned that no one is taking patients. Can you cover for Jory for a bit?”
“Do I get an explanation about all this later?”
“Yes, but I’ll probably lie,” Jason said. “Thanks for keeping her alive.”
Donal frowned, but made his way out.
“Lord, you were right about him being trouble,” Jason heard him mutter as he closed the door behind him.
“What about Belinda?” Jory asked.
“Remember my friend Clive? He caught her.”
“Where is she now?”
“We set up a discrete location to hold the thief while we figured out the politics. Hang on a bit and I’ll check up on her.”
Jason used his party interface to open voice chat with Clive.
“She's trouble,” Clive said, his exasperation coming through loud and clear. “Using an old Magic Society storehouse for our makeshift cell may not have been the best idea. The resourceful little minx almost broke out of the binding circle using random magic supplies. That shouldn't even be possible. It's all random, leftover trash.”
“You said she’s resourceful,” Jason said.
“I caught her decoding a barrier-ritual with half of a magic wand and a broken device for assessing the freshness of fish!”
“I wouldn't have thought there was a lot of crossover between a magic barrier and a fish.”
“There isn’t! This woman is a complete… hey! Put that down! I saw that.”
“I need you to bring her to Old City,” Jason said. “That clinic on Broadstreet Boulevard we visited the other day, but bring her around the back.”
“What? Old City? How do I explain to the bridge guards why I’m taking a woman I have in custody to Old City? They’ll definitely think I’m going to do something bad.”
“Yeah but you’re a Magic Society official, so they’ll let you through anyway.”
“What?”
“Look, Clive. Her name is Belinda. Tell her that… hold on. What was this one’s name, Jory?”
“Sophie,” Jory said.
“Tell her that Sophie was badly hurt and she’s at Jory’s clinic.”
“What else?”
“Just be honest. I don’t think lying’s your thing.”
“Don’t I have to lie to the bridge guards?”
“Yeah, but they'll just think you're nervous because you're a sexual predator.”
“What?”
“See you when you get here,” Jason said, ending the chat.
“What now?” Jory asked, almost jumping on Jason in anxiety.
“Obviously,” Jason said, “I have to turn in Sophie.”
Jory opened his mouth to protest, but stopped and nodded reluctantly.
“If it ever came out that you completed a contract and then uncompleted it,” he said, “that’s your Adventure Society membership gone. Mine too, for that matter, just for knowing about it.”
“We do have some room to move,” Jason said. “For one thing, the contract calls for the capture of a thief, not thieves. We caught them both because we were being thorough, but now we know they’re friends, we can cut Belinda loose.”
Jory let out a sigh of relief, although he still had stress to spare.
“I’m having Clive bring Belinda here,” Jason explained, “because I don’t want her running around causing trouble before I have a solid plan in place.”
“So, what is the plan?”
“We have to hand Sophie in,” Jason said. “That’s something we just have to accept. I’m going to need you to convince her friend not to do anything stupid. You need to keep them both here, without them running, while I fill in the gaps in the political landscape. Once I know how everything fits together, we can work something out.”
“Like what?”
“Have you ever read the service agreement between the city and the Adventure Society?”
“Of course I haven’t.”
“It has some interesting provisions,” Jason said. “Until I understand the political context, though, I’m stumbling in the dark. When Clive gets here with Belinda, just try and keep a lid on things until I get back.”
“Get back? Where are you going?”
“To get some context,” Jason said. “Do you know where Dorgan lives?”
“Dorgan? As in, the crime lord, Dorgan?”
“That’s the one.”
“Are you insane?”
“Probably,” Jason said. “I heard the Big Three all live pretty large, so it can’t be that hard to find.”
“They all live in the canal district,” Jory said. “Safe and neutral territory because of the Island interests that operate out of there. I don’t think wandering into his compound is a good idea.”
“Come on, Jory. Where’s your sense of adventure?”
“Where’s your sense of self-preservation?”
Jory groaned.
“Look who I'm asking,” he said. “The day we met, you picked a fight with a couple of priests and got knocked out cold. Fine. All of the Big Three live in huge compounds that used to belong to families who moved to the Island. Go to the Cavendish side of the canal district and look for the big walls with the big guards at the big gate.”
“Thanks,” Jason said. “I’ll be back soon.”
“If you live,” Jory muttered.
No one knew how physically vast the astral space supplying water to the desert was, as it had never been mapped. The goal of the expedition was to find whatever was causing the apertures to become unreliable. They found the closest stable aperture within the thickest cluster of unstable ones and had gone through.
The terrain inside the astral space was tropical rainforest; very beautiful and very wet. There was a smell of life to it, wet leaves and earth. There was no night, the sun just moving around on a circuit in the sky. The expedition made camp by a river and the expedition leaders, led by Danielle Geller, set out a search pattern. Multiple teams, splitting up to follow streams and trails through the wet, tropical forest. What they found was that they were on one of a sprawling chain of islands, close enough to see one another from shore.
Traversing the short distance to the next island was a trivial task, given the assemblage of powers in the expedition. They started systematically searching one island after another, sending out individual teams for the smaller ones. The most difficult aspect of the environment was not the verdant growth or the thick, humid air. It was the endless daylight. As what should have been days passed without the respite of night, the less disciplined members of the expedition became increasingly disgruntled.