Jebidiah's Change Bk. 01 Ch. 05

Jebidiah really wanted to point out they were sitting right there but waited to see what Standing had in mind. "Senior Diviner Robertson, we find ourselves with a delicate situation and are in need of your assistance but not for what you might imagine. Master Overton here is being considered for bonding."

"Oh. That is quite unusual. Is that even legal? I was under the impression his Master certification was for an Artificer?"

This time Jebidiah couldn't help it and quietly muttered, "And he's sitting right here." Crystal kicked him under the table as unobtrusively as she could.

"Be that as it may Senior Robertson, it may also surprise you to learn Miss Stark is being considered for bonding as well. With Master Overton."

"Hrmm." Robertson said. "That actually makes more sense than just bonding Overton to anyone else, but a twofold bond wouldn't gain much potency for the group."

"Well, again, be that as it may, but we need you to scry the two to determine the likelihood of a strong match. And if you are also not aware, the two are under royal protection, so this entire exchange including the results of your divination are not to be discussed."

"I understand; we do have rules about confidentiality here. There's not going to be anything I can do though to stop what rumors will be added to the many already flying around about these two." Robertson finally addressed the pair directly. "Now, Master Overton, Miss Stark, please just close your eyes and relax. I need you to be as calm as you can be."

Jebidiah had been scried a couple of times before, and they always started the same way. Be calm, yadda yadda. He never understood why they did not use calming magic unless maybe competing magic would interfere somehow. He tried to allow himself to find calm and focus. It was a surprisingly hard thing for him to do. Part of their schooling had been meditation techniques in case their Talents would require it later, and Jebidiah always utterly failed to meditate. This time though he was able to immediately restrict his entire focus on Robertson. It was a brand new ability for him, and he nearly lost the state with the amazement that came along. He focused again and closed his eyes just far enough that he could still see.

Jebidiah watched as Robertson spoke the words for the spell while he waved his hands in a complex pattern. As his hands moved through the air, they caught on gold strands that materialized on his fingers. With more movement, more strands built until the gold glow engulfed his hands as he finished the words. The spell was cast. Through his mostly closed eyes, Jebidiah could not see the results of the spell, but he could tell Robertson was upset about something.

"Master Standing, I have to ask. Is this some sort of prank?" When Robertson asked the question, Jebidiah figured it would be safe to open his eyes. He looked over quickly to Crystal and saw a purple glow in the center of her chest. There were some thin strands of purple fiber leading to a similar glow on his own chest.

"I promise you, this is no joke." Standing replied. "Are you unable to get a response from your divination?"

"I've got a result. These two are a very good match for each other. So good a match that it appears someone has already bonded them. Recently. The bond is strong, and the residue is thick." Robertson answered with a displeased look.

"Senior Robertson, could you give us a few minutes of privacy?" Robertson nodded and began to leave, stopping at the door to say, "There's nothing else for us to do if this was the only scrying you required. You are free to use the room as long as you want and go about your day. I am not sure what is going on, but I will keep my promise to say nothing about this meeting." He shut the door after him.

"Well, Jebidiah, you are never short of surprises," he chuckled, then laughed a bit more. "I mean the absurdity of all of this. I feel like the only thing we can do is laugh or cry because there must be some apocalyptic prophecy somewhere spelling out our doom at your coming. Maybe this is how the Great Rending started."

"Master Standing," Jebidiah started. Standing interrupted with a raised palm, "When we are like this, please just call me George. Technically we are equals after all."

"I appreciate that, George. I'm not sure what to do next, what this means, how does this affect the others or us. How do we find any answers?" Jebidiah finished.

"I am going to need to do some very clandestine research on this. Do you know when this happened, as in the exact moment?" asked George.

"It was when we finished." Crystal spoke for the first time. "I know this may be out of line for me to suggest, but should we be sitting in the middle of the Diviner Hall to have a sensitive conversation? There are literal mind readers right outside that door."

"Of course, you are correct, my dear." George said. "Let's collect our escort and get you two back to the others. I leave it up to you to determine what to tell them about the situation."

The trip back proved uneventful. Standing left them at the outer guard room, and when they entered back into their communal space, Charlene and Stern were finally present. Joy began her rapid-fire questions. "What happened to the two of you? Why was Master Standing here? Where did you go? Are you in trouble for sleeping with each other? Did you find anything else out?"

"Easy, Joy." Jebidiah said at the same time Charlene exclaimed, "You two slept with each other? Like real sex?"

"We've been bonded," replied Crystal. The silence was deafening.

"Bonded?!?" Everyone asked in the same breath followed quickly with cries of joy, exasperation, questions, and even one that sounded like anger from Charlene.

In fact, Charlene looked furious. "Is that where you two went? Did you unilaterally decide you were going to be the prime, Crystal? Or did all this nonsense go to your head Jeb, and now you think you are going to be in charge of the Group? Who decided this?"

Jeb quickly summarized what they knew. "Neither of us decided, Char. It just happened. We weren't sure what was going on. I called for Standing, he got the inclination of what might have happened and took us to the Diviner Hall. A diviner checked us for compatibility and thought he was being pranked. Now we're here, and Standing is going to research it. That's all that happened Charlene."

"Except you fucked each other." Charlene shot back.

"It was an emotional day; Dana beat me up again. There was the whole assassin after me bit, for fuck's sake! Things got carried away, but I am not sorry they did. It's not like we can change things back. I really am sorry this upset you like it has." Silence stretched out again. Nobody else jumped into the conversation, so finally Charlene just turned her back to everyone with a huff and went to her room.

Stern walked up to Jebidiah and gave him a pat on the shoulder. "Something has been bothering her for the last few days. I'll go talk with her." He tried to give a small squeeze, which made Jebidiah wince and added, "I am happy for you." He left to follow Charlene.

Joy started up again, "Ok, so, what's it like? The bonding, I mean. Oh, and the sex too, definitely the sex too. It looked incredible..." and the room erupted into feminine chaos.

The end of the tenday finally arrived, and it was time to leave for the Academy. The Academy was located on the northwest side of the Tonstar river; the main gate into the compound was on the north side of the Kings Road only a few hundred feet past the river banks. The compound was immense, several hundred acres in size, containing the main academic buildings, dormitories, barracks, stables, cathedrals, and myriad other sundry buildings. The only way to reach the Academy from the Keep was to take the Kings Avenues across the Promenade to reach the Kings Road at the riverbank.

The Promenade was a huge expanse of stonework crossing the Tonstar river, stretching from one bank to the other, passing by the island that housed the Keep in the center of the span. The chronicles said it took several generations to complete, starting out as smaller wooden bridges until it reached its current proportions. Construction was slowed due to the deadliness of the fauna in the river waters, and the Promenade Memorial had been built on the docks to honor the names of everyone lost in the process.

When the first stone causeway replaced the wooden bridges, several inns and taverns were added against the northeast railing to support the larger number of visitors to the Keep. In time, shops were added as well to support the visitors to the inns until eventually, both railings were completely lined with businesses. Around 200 years ago, the causeway was widened on the southern side to become the current promenade with a total width of nearly 200 feet. Shops quickly filled the newest side, leaving two wide avenues between three rows of shops, inns, taverns, smithies, temples, and all manner of things in between. If you wanted to find anything, the Promenade was where you shopped.

Their procession moved to the northwest side of the river using the northernmost avenue of the Promenade. There was no need for mounts as their destination was close to the river banks, leaving everyone to walk on foot. A squad of ten soldiers led the way, dressed in the livery of the Royal Guard, clearing traffic before them. Stern led their group in the center of the formation with Jebidiah and Dana at the rear.

They all had shed the standard outfits the keep had provided. Stern and Jeb wore a light leather cuirass over cotton-padded tunics, light bracers, and leather breeches. Both were armed with swords, Jebidiah had the magic sword he had claimed from the assassin. The girls all wore the traditional kingdom dresses of long skirts that brushed the cobblestone with matching laced bodices and white arm-length sleeves. Those with Houses wore their house colors, insignias, and brooches. The houseless wore the common black, gray, and white color scheme. There were more soldiers to either side of their group, and another ten followed behind. Thirty guards seemed excessive to Jebidiah, but the Princess had insisted.

The vendors were not used to seeing the royal guard on foot, so they stood outside their shops and stalls to see what was going on, drawing even more of a crowd. Stand a couple humans together, and a crowd naturally forms. The crowds grew thicker as they went, and the lead guard's cries of "Make way!" became louder and angrier. Eventually, everyone came to a stop as the guard could no longer advance. One of the forward guards came backtracked to the center of their formation and called to the rear guards, "We need a few bodies to help. There's a cart with a broken axle clogging everything up." This prompted a huddle by two of the edge guards and another of the rear guards.

Jebidiah was able to overhear most of their discussion. "I do not like this. We were all warned of the danger of an attack. This smells of a trap." Another guard concurred, "Aye, I have the same notion. It bothers me it is easily spotted." He spit on the street. "Should we withdraw for the day and gather more?" The rear guard spoke up then, "There's an alley near us. I say we cross over to the other avenue and see what's up. We can decide to continue on or withdraw to the Keep from there. We are a company strong, and they still think to spring the trap. Everything feels off."

In the end, they decided on caution, and the rear guard became the forward as everyone reversed course. They strung out and moved into the narrow alley to the southernmost avenue, then began spreading out once they were back in the open. As Jebidiah was leaving the alleyway, something in the distance caught his eye. There were two small red blobs waving in the air above a shop roof about a hundred feet to his right. Instinct took hold, and without ceremony or warning, he picked up Crystal, walking in front of him, by the waist in one arm. He turned and knocked Dana back with the other, pushing those around him back into the alley.

Now unseen by Jebidiah, the red blobs brightened, and a small orb of fire shot out, racing to strike one of the soldiers standing in the center of the avenue. On contact, it blossomed into a ball of flame setting everyone around him on fire and knocked those further away off their feet. The noise of the crowd died out into shocked silence then screams filled the air.

Several of the soldiers were rolling on the ground to put out the flames on their clothing. Two, including the one struck, did not move. The rest gained their footing or readied their weapons, several cranking on crossbows. Hands began pulling Jebidiah and the others further into the alley while more soldiers tried to get by to fend off the attack.

That is when the crossbow bolts started. Three more of the guards, all crossbowmen, went down immediately, and a few others cried out. Some of the soldiers managed to return fire. A hand grabbed Jebidiah's shoulder, shaking frantically to get his attention. A soldier was yelling at him. "We have to get you all to safety back at the Keep. We need to move! Now!"

Crystal, still in his arms, let out a scream of anguish "Nooooooooooo!" and struggled against him. Jebidiah looked back to a sight that would burn a deep scar into his memory. Henna must have been hiding at the corner of the shop at the alley entrance, out of Jeb's line of sight. Now she lay sprawled out on her chest over the cobblestone walkway. Eyes staring blankly to the side, a crossbow bolt buried deep in her back. Dana, drawn by Crystal's scream, saw and let out her own strangled cream. She started rushing for the street as Stern began yelling loudly from the avenue.

Something snapped within him, and he became hyper-focused, much like the level of concentration he was able to use on the diviner. His body calmed down, and he took in everything as time slowed. He found it easier to think. If the original trap in the avenue was so easily spotted, their attackers must have planned for them to backtrack through the alley as the safest path. That would allow them to have someone in position with the perfect spell while they were gathered at the alley exit. If Jebidiah was setting up the ambush, he would have predicted the survivors would reverse back through the alley and set up another attack there. Their safest path now was back into the first attack.

"Dana, help Stern and Charlene!" he yelled to Dana as she passed. He turned back to the soldier pulling at his shoulder. "We go to help fend off the attack we know. More will be waiting for us on the north side." He nodded in the direction they had come from. "Tenner, Joy, Polly! Follow Dana; we need to go!" He put Crystal down then charged into the avenue, drawing his sword as he went.

Stern was holding someone by their neck a foot off the ground, throttling them. When they stopped struggling, he threw the body into a group of two more trying to stab a guard. Jebidiah saw a bolt sticking through the meat of Stern's right thigh but otherwise looked okay. Charlene had a dagger in each hand and was engaged with yet another attacker. A third one circled to get behind her. Jebidiah roared and charged.

He had practiced many hours hacking at targets of light armor stuffed with hay. He knew even though a sword might be sharp, it took a lot of strength to cut into leather; most of the damage came from the impact of the blade leaving bruises or broken bones. These attackers had studded leather, large steel pieces riveted onto the leather pieces designed to turn aside blades but still allow freedom of movement. Jebidiah swung with all his might, hoping to at least break the attacker's arm. At his roar, the one sneaking up on Charlene turned in time for Jebidiah to see her face. He could tell she was a pretty girl, even through the frozen look of shock she now wore. He would normally have considered asking her for a dance in better settings. Her shocked expression stayed on her face as his magic blade sliced through her shoulder, descending diagonally across her chest, to come out the other side. Her face softened as her eyes fluttered and rolled up into her head. She fell over in a spray of blood.

The one engaged with Charlene saw Jebidiah's attack and lost his footing. Charlene took the advantage and stabbed him in the thigh, then followed up with a second blade in his side. He crumpled as well. With his fall, they were temporarily in the clear. Stern and Dana had pummeled one of the two he had knocked down with his impromptu weapon. The guard they aided had dispatched the other. "Stern!" Jeb shouted, "We need to continue to the Academy. Grab Henna from the alley on the way; we'll be beside you." He turned to the remaining guard "See who you can gather; we need to keep moving."

The guard started to argue and tried to take control "No, our orders were to get you back to the keep in case of an attack. We need to withdraw; everyone else can cover for us."

Jebidiah shook his head. "They knew when we were coming. They knew which way we were coming. They had enough people to cover the number of guards. They were smart enough to lay a double trap, the rest of which would have set off on the north side when we tried to retreat." Just then, as if in support of Jebidiah's logic, another fireball explosion lit up the air of the northernmost avenue, back on the other side of the alley. "I figure that was the rear guard engaging that group. They will know what the fallback plan is and will have more laying in wait. The last thing we were expected to do was reach the Academy. It will be the safest path. Let's go. Stern, Dana, lead the way."

They began to move back past the blast zone at the alley entrance, past bodies of attackers, soldiers, and civilians caught in the fight. There were a lot of groans and some movement but no one else looked able to fight. Stern gently picked up Henna's body and began to move down the now empty avenue. Jebidiah, his apparent time dilation and focus still active, was scanning around when he spotted a gray haze moving about, reminding him of his Mila's gray form. He called to the others to be ready to fight and pointed towards the figure but everyone looked at different spots, not sure what he was seeing. The red glows started again and he realized it was the person's hands waving in a spell. Not knowing what else to do he yelled "He's casting a spell!"

Everyone ducked as twin bolts of light streaked out and hit Polly square in the chest, throwing her backwards with the impact. The wizard, having cast his spell, became visible to the others and the guard let loose the crossbow he still carried, the bolt was close enough it tugged the sleeve of the wizard as he began waving his hands again, slowly regaining their red glow. Everyone tried getting out of line of sight while the guard kept cranking his crossbow for another shot.

To Jebidiah's eyes everything was happening in slow motion, Charlene was the only one still in the open when the wizard's spell came to a close. Jebidiah dashed from his cover, shouldering Charlene aside as the twin bolts of energy shot out. Even with their speed he had time to observe the bolts, seeing red tendrils surrounding them as they closed in on Charlene. His instincts kicked in again. Without thinking about what he was doing, his hands shot out to grasp the red tendrils with his fingers and somehow caught the missiles. The energy bolts strained against his hands to reach their intended target. The guard finally fired again and his bolt struck the wizard in the head. With the wizard's death, the source of the bolt's magic left as well and they vanished.

Charlene looked up at Jebidiah with wild eyes. "What the fuck was that?" Jebidiah reached down and picked up Polly "Don't know, don't care. Keep running!" he shouted and they all took off. They sprinted several hundred feet around and past abandoned carts to finally reach the end of the Promenade. A reaction force of soldiers appeared then, coming to investigate the explosions.