Silvertree Chronicles Bk. 07

The Queen finally sighed, "I am not going to get answers to that question until they are all adults then. Charlus is a gestalt, in a manner of speaking. He will be leaving in the morning to go to another training facility. I use it for the training of diplomats. We add a few every 50-100 years. He was tested and accepted the offer.

He said he was told he was destined to be a part of my Diplomatic Service. He came to the attention of one of his instructors who tested him. He was in fact extremely impressed by him. I wanted to ensure you had no issues with this. As he was told he is destined I would assume he is free to choose."

Gia nodded, "If his father told him that then that would be the course. There are several of them who would be more fitting champions, especially Serions Silvertree, the duke heir who is a battlemage Sorcerer gestalt. He is an arcane arsenal.

One of Kora's children. Ginnar is his sister and second oldest, she is a sorceress, paladin gestalt. My guess, if you will, as to who the next likely champion would be. Charlus is the youngest of the 7 of Serious's children, my youngest if you will who is interested more in reading and enchanting most days, though they are all versed in the sword."

The Queen nodded, "I would request that until we assign him to a position, even the fact that he is undergoing additional training, should not be known by anyone outside of your family. I know siblings do like to talk, but most of what he will be learning is stuff he cannot talk about."

Brima looked at the Queen, "I would like to talk to you alone for a moment."

She nodded and let Gia out and she resealed the room. Brima looked at her, "I know something is going on with Charlus. I have for a while. There are several texts on fighting styles and some are illustrated. One is even magical to demonstrate some advanced combat maneuvers and acrobatic feats. He is not just trained in the use of a sword; he can fight with two of them.

He has acrobatic moves that rival my husband's moves. Extremely dexterous. Zirra enchanted every symbol for every child but is not allowed to say what was put into each one. Divine direction. Once we saw they were all fused, we knew why Zirra's work was done the way it was done.

She seemed happy by that; like she knew that piece of the plan. I also know from my work for you that not all diplomats are diplomats. Some are spies. Did this test deal with things useful to a spy?"

The Queen nodded and pulled the book for the Knight Paladin. She sighed, "Like it, but different. He does not decrypt the page. He can read it."

Queen Goldeagle picked up a crystal, "Spy Master, I have a question for you. You said the best ever done before this was 20 years. What was the name of that student?"

He chuckled. "Funny you should ask that question; I had an urge to look it up as I read it a long time ago. The name was Heliar'Vasius Silvertree. He was an excellent diplomat and spy. He had a child with another member of the Knights network. The mother was also a talented spy with excellent memory skills and outstanding acrobatic abilities, Elara Strong Oak.

She was all rogue and fought with dual weapons. They were parents to the first Champion Eldar who had impressive memory skills according to this report from Jarron with the file. There is a report here from Amy Tryst that Jarron sent back.

She had connected to Eldar's mind and was extremely impressed with his mental abilities. Eldar's acrobatic skills were phenomenal if you believe what was written here. Talented in so many skills that a gold dragon, The King of them, sponsored him into the order that existed above it.

The first time a Gold took an interest. Believe it was the only time a Gold took particular interest in a non-dragon asset inside of the Knights. Heliar and Jarron were both members of that order as well, Order of the Dragon."

The Queen sighed, "Thank you. Ensure his travel is conducted safely and securely as always. I have been told by his grandmother that he is capable of fighting dual handed and has outstanding acrobatic skills that rival his grandfather's skills, and he was a Master Trainer Blade Singer."

The Spy Master responded, "If he can fight dual handed and is a battle mage, we can teach him to do the somatic part of his casting with blades in hand. We have plenty of time for that given his age. I just got a copy of the child's records. He is on the cusp of tier 8 spells. Am I reading this right?"

Brima nodded and responded, "This is Grand Master Brima Silvertree. His grandmother. There was no slowing his progression with magical spells. If he read it, he could transcribe it into his spellbook, on a couple of occasions he added it to his book years later when it was relevant. We discovered this after he had read the contents of the entire magical library. The contents of the library are well over 10,000 books.

He has had his mother out at rare bookstores on a weekly basis for years adding to it. By the armload was an understatement. He steers clear of reading anything from the school of necromancy. Necromancy reference books are another matter. They have no spells but he knows what to look for and how to counteract them."

The Spy Master was surprised by the presence of another. He finally asked, "Your Majesty, this is a break in protocol."

Queen Goldeagle chuckled, "She does not have your name, location, the name of the instructors involved in his evaluation by your group. She has worked with some in your service before knowing what they do. She has been one of my best Blade Singer Agents over the years and was the mother of the last Champion.

She received additional training instruction from her husband who was a Master Trainer with three charges she helped to oversee and was married to that Champion. She has just never communicated directly with you. This affects her just as much as me. Put the child through the complete set of tests. I want to know how he progresses."

The Queen ended the communication and looked at Brima, "The Gods are having fun with this I am sure."

Brima groaned, "I just realized he read the Dragon Tomes. The Mythic Master spell book texts with the necromancy stuff encrypted from view. If he had that talent at that age, he could recreate the entire set of books!"

Queen Goldeagle sighed, "Go to the Academy yourself. Talk to him privately. Only ask him about that. Then let him know that the Queen and his mother are in agreement that he needs this training. No asking about who conducted his evaluation. In fact, you should pass to him that that is his first royal secret and order."

Brima nodded and left the room as the Queen sat back and her escorts came back in.

---

Brima arrived at the Academy and got him off to a side room and locked it down. "Direction from the Queen, Royal secret. You are not to mention your evaluation or who evaluated you. Your mother and the Queen are in agreement in allowing you to do this training. Did you decrypt the necromancy spells in the Dragon books?"

He shook his head, "Only been getting better at that for the last 5-10 years as I started reading up more on ciphers. I was told to avoid them. I listened. Even in my search for books for our library, no necromancy."

She nodded. "You could recreate the rest of the book?"

He nodded, "Could, but would only do that by the direction of the Gods. It would be dangerous otherwise given what happened with Father. Not a fate I would wish on anyone."

She nodded, "Good enough. Do you know why your father wanted you all to have blade training?"

Charlus shrugged, "To protect ourselves. We only have so many spells. We did not discuss why he had all of us doing it. I could guess it was like the holy symbols melding. Another means of protection. To avoid having some ruled out because of the lack of sword skills."

She nodded satisfied with the answer. She hugged him, "Learn and listen."

He hugged her back and thought, "The first misdirection. I can assume there will be many."

He heard in his head from The Lady of Dreams for the first time, "You answered her truthfully. You did not ask why all of you got weapons training. He did not volunteer it. Your guess was spot on and correct. No misdirection, as of yet."

Deca 19th 8587

The Queen was in her Audience chamber waiting for her guest when he arrived. She shutoff teleport, "Seal the palace teleportation."

She shut it off and looked across. "Spy Master, sit, and speak freely. How are your efforts going?"

He chuckled and set two crystals on the desk. She looked at them, "What is this?"

He smiled, "The most confounded devices I have seen. The communication crystals have quadruple triple-tier encryption on them."

She looked at him, "Should that not be twelve-tier encryption?"

He shook his head, "No, communication in EACH direction has 3-tier encryption with a 3-tier substitution cipher encryption. If you could break through the encryption on what you said you would still never hear the response. It contains 6 divergent books from different periods in time in 6 different languages including at least one ancient language in each direction. All spoken fluently by the creator and myself.

She looked at the Spy Master, "Talented enchanter."

He shook his head. "Silvertree."

She sat back, "How goes his training?"

He laughed, "The young man completed devouring what we had in our library in 2 months; reading only what he did not have in his library at home. Including all of the data collected on his ancestors. He has Eldar's talents for memorizing data. Also, conversations verbatim.

He speaks at least a dozen languages fluently; we are still assessing that as he has some languages that nobody knows how to speak in our group. That includes the sub-languages for chromatic and metallic dragons among many others. His combat skills and stealth are the only things slowing him up.

He is where he should be at for 5-7 years in combat training. He came in with 3. His stealth skills are taking the longest. He is about where we would expect a new trainee to be in those areas. He is wearing mithril-chain and casting through his blade which he already knew how to do. A book in the Silvertree library.

He 'figured it out' according to him. It is not a state secret in how to do it. There is a text on the subject but not everything is covered in it. He 'filled in the gaps.' I have some staff crying or screaming. They spent months or in many cases years on new encryption mechanisms and he broke them all; pointed out the flaws in each one.

Most do not know how he did what he did with the crystals in front of you let alone a way of breaking through it. To activate all 6 tiers in each direction both parties have to have the 6 books memorized. Hence the one set. They were books he and I both had memorized they would only work for the 2 of us.

He asked me to give him a list of 10 books I had memorized in different languages. We believe these answers the question of how the drow lock their communication crystals. We held a few captured ones; pairs. Without activating them he gave us three books they appeared to be tied into.

Once he and I knew the texts in memory we could both activate the one set we tried. He activated all three sets himself to identify the given books. Two others are trying to learn the other books. He knows them already, obviously. The young man is an enigma and I have assigned that name to him in his coded file. He scares me if he ever got captured and someone got through his mind."

He picked up the crystals and set a book down with another crystal. The Spy Master sighed, "He said if you memorized that book you could contact him directly. It has the three-tier encryption in each direction and one substitution cipher set for both directions. This is one we are considering putting into production for our group.

Currently, he is the only one who can enchant them. He is working with an enchanter in the group to do the substitution ciphers into the crystals, but he is frustrated at the enchanter's limited knowledge in acceptable books.

You have to know the book or books in question. He brought that book and crystal to me just an hour ago; which is why I asked for this meeting to be moved up. He also asked me for a drop of your blood!"

Queen Goldeagle looked at him, "What for?!"

He chuckled, "Another enchantment project dealing with crystals. He said he would tell you about it if you brought him in or memorized that book. It was wrapped by his hands. I do not even know which book as he knew I would be seeing you today."

She shook her head, "Not this trip. I will take a look at his book. Let him expand his mind. Let him help. Keep challenging him."

The Spy Master laughed, "He is the one challenging us!"

She nodded, "Tell him he is falling behind on his stealth skills. See what he does."

He stood, "Thank you, Your Majesty. I am staying at home this evening and I will leave the city via normal means."

She nodded and turned off the teleport blocker and he was gone. She locked it and opened the book. It was a blank spellbook. She found a note tucked into its pages. "Jazzia gave a distress code to the Dwarven King and human Queen of Grand Falls. What was the phrase? This is not in any book I have, but I know the answer, Your Majesty."

She chuckled and went to her journals from past rulers and she knew which one had the Knight Paladin as she loved reading about him. She tracked back from that one and found an entry. "A duress phrase was suggested to the Human Queen and Dwarven King that they were going to use if they ran into an issue." She could not help but laugh at her sense of humor. 'The champion is off chasing pink unicorns.'

The Queen laughed and picked up the crystal and thought of the phrase.

It activated. She was surprised but only a little bit. Queen Goldeagle laughed, "Funny reference, young Silvertree."

Charlus responded, "Yes, Your Majesty. If you are alone, I will tell you what the blood was for."

She laughed, "I am secure and alone."

He responded, "Your Majesty, communication crystal like the one you are holding are unfinished. The triple tier encryption anyone can use. A passphrase can be stolen from the memory or if someone writes it down.

To have both of those and to be tied by blood to the user so it can be used only by their hand is yet another challenge. Add in the last step that it could never be used if held in an aura of necromancy. The complex version I did for the Spy Master was a proof of concept that for those with great memories we could make encryption that would be unbreakable."

She smiled, "I will keep this one, for now. You are very talented from what I hear in enchanting these. Tell the Spy Master I said to let you use a drop of his blood. Get a set working with the two of you. He has a necromancy ring and a non-detection item to test it against."

Charlus responded, "I already did that test. In the set with 6 books that I use with him. He has all of us wear a non-detection item. I know that works. I just need to see if he can get it to work with a necromancy ring on, Your Majesty."

She laughed, "Where did you get a drop of his blood?"

Charlus chuckled, "Your Majesty, weapons training. Off the end of a practice sword, I used it against him during my initial evaluation. I surprised him with one of my acrobatic moves. Just grazed his chin but he was shocked. He thrashed me after that with his practice sword."

She chuckled, "You eluded to the fact it was not written down anywhere on your side. Where did you hear it?"

There was a moment of silence. Finally, he responded, "The night I entered the Academy. We were all visited by our father. It was something he recounted to me. I thought it was unique and funny, as did he."

She sensed there was more but did not want to put him on the spot. Then thought again, "Does it serve a purpose? Can you recite it back to me?"

He responded, "Yes, and no, I cannot recite it back to you. I can think about it but I cannot say it."

She sighed, "This has something to do with the sword."

Charlus responded, "It has to do with things bigger than the blade. It is about my father's unfinished work. My life will be in the shadows, Your Majesty."

She smiled, "You were honest with me. At least as honest as you can be for now. Work and learn. Best of luck, young Silvertree."

She let the crystal go silent. She went to grab a crystal for Majisa and a voice startled her, "Do not bother contacting her and stay seated."

She looked up to see the Lady of Dreams. The Lady looked at her, "Stop looking for answers now. The answers will surprise you when they are revealed. He is very clever. He never spoke it or articulated the phrase but still found a way for you to find it. You did do one thing we did not expect in trying to push him to see what he can do.

He can do more, he was instructed to hold back some by his ancestors. His father's work is important for the future. Once it is in place, we may be able to step back for a long time. Your Kingdom will be in far better shape in the future but you need to stop pushing for answers immediately. His father's work cannot be completed by him if he is hunted as his father was."

She disappeared. The Queen reached for a different crystal. The Spy Master answered, "Secure, your Majesty."

She looked at the crystal, "Work with the boy but do not push him. Not yet. No need to rush him into being too gifted too quickly. I got his crystal to work. He already tested the blood with you. Did he switch crystals with you at one point?"

He chuckled, "Yes he did. How did you know?"

She smiled, "Because he had a drop of your blood from the practice sword used during his evaluation. He needs you to try it with a necromancy ring on. The one you built for creating the aura. He does not know you built one to generate the aura to test our guards with.

He may have developed an unbreakable encryption method. Correction, a very tough one to beat. A compulsion would still be an issue unless he has addressed that and not told us about it yet. Then ask him for psionic as well. See how he answers that question. That should keep him busy."

She heard him chuckle as she let the crystal go dark. She thought, "If what Brima said holds true he could end up with the sword and not be the champion. Best to let it go for now."

She unsealed her room after putting everything back in order and her personal guards escorted her to her shelter. She stopped at the door and thought, 'The sword and shelters. The sword is the key. He is likely to have the sword but not be the champion as the sword is the shelter key, to all of those shelters put up since Jazzia. He can also do incredible enchanting. He is likely only just begun with what he could do with that.'

She smiled at herself for having figured it out.

Mia 26th 8506

The latest round of border clashes appeared to have ended a few weeks prior. Nothing Field Marshal Silver Wing was not able to bring to a very quick halt. She had a note from him letting him know he would be retiring from the field as he was in failing health.

He had set his will to have any remaining funds returned to the Silvertree trust. He was infertile and had never had a family. She looked at the will for Brima Silvertree who died during this conflict. She had held off on this until now. Intrigue mounted around some of her children that had created a new House.

Rumors were rife that they were likely to fail soon without assistance. They had gambled on a long war and with it cut off so quickly, it left them holding a lot of debt. She shook her head as the Silvertree family members called out in the will arrived and came into the room.

Queen Goldeagle looked at them, "This is all informal and her will was really simple compared to her husbands. She divided her assets across her children evenly; even those who died or moved into a new house.