BECMI Chapter 67 – First Contracts

“Our naval strength is quite low,” King Antius admitted. “The merchants who ship our wares are typically of foreign birth. The Northmen take care to see that they control the waves, and aggressively sink any attempts at naval strength we try to build.”

“A great weakness for a kingdom with shores,” I agreed calmly. “So, you both need to build a navy and secure against raids from such. If you’ve the coin, I can help with that, and likely recruit some experts happy to take your gold and start a legacy.”

Fists slapped the table in relief.

“Now, allow me to instruct you on the manner of manipulating this Amulet to open up the Portal to my future. I will also be securing the third Amulet shortly, so there is no need to worry about another deciphering the secrets of the Portal and trying to make use of it, not that they can leave the Inn in my time.”

“About that.” The question was coming. “Is there any way you can share with us how that was done?” the wizard Marius asked me directly.

“I will not,” I stated unequivocally, causing all the men to frown. “It is far easier for someone to kill one of you to gain the secret than to kill me, and once revealed, it can spread with speed among those with the wherewithal to use it. It could conceivably lead to things like forced change of the Inn’s ownership and other problems I’m sure you don’t want to be facing.”

That relieved the frowns rather quickly. No, they didn’t want that to happen, either!

“I have given you the Amulet with the power to manipulate the Portal and the leverage that can provide you and your kingdom, sirs. Hopefully the innkeeper will be motivated to designate proper heirs for the future.” My dire tone made King Antius’s eyes flash, and I was sure that would be a priority!

“I am also going to be leveraging time here in the past for myself and my people… which means you will have access to my services, for proper remuneration.

“Now, gentlemen, let me first teach you how to use the Amulet. Then we will negotiate over other matters of value to the Kingdom of Darkmoor.”

I brought out several papers, distributed them to everyone, and began to go through what the instructions on them actually represented.

Entering the garden of Princess Brittabelle Erewahr was much simpler now, familiar with the Wards as I was, and with my Caster Level quite surpassing hers, if not my base Elven Level. She was a Twenty Elven Mage, and I was a Fourteen, owing both to my side Classes and taking up both paths of Elven advancement.

I also had a unique appearance and , meaning her guards recognized my magically singular person as I came strolling through the garden during the morning she normally had alone, before taking visitors.

“Lady Edge!” the startled Captain Elstraem called out, inadvertently announcing me as his hand tightened on his Sword at the unexpected intrusion. “What do you in the Royal Gardens?!”

“I have come to talk to Her Highness on some very private and very important matters, Captain.” I walked straight up to him and halted as he stared down at me. “They will be an EXCELLENT use of your time, Your Highness.”

“I see.” It was almost a sigh, the golden-haired fair elfin’s smile a bit forced. “Shall we walk, then?” She pointedly glanced at her guards, and I shook my head just slightly. She lifted an eyebrow. “Remain here, Captain. I will not leave your sight.”

He was unhappy but said nothing as the elven princess in her whites and blue layers fell in next to me in my reds and blacks. “You presume much on your talent and status, Edge,” she told me with a disapproving click of her tongue.

“Allow me to preface this chat with the statement that it has been forty years since last we spoke, Your Highness.” Her large violet eyes blinked at me in disbelief. “I was caught in a temporal trap and unable to leave it until the exit Portal opened after forty years. Naturally I had little to do but a great deal of magical research.”

“Forty years?” she repeated in some disbelief. “And you spent it in magical research…”

I took a coffer out of my sleeve and handed it to her. “For you.”

Curious, sensing no magic about it, she opened it carefully, and stared at the sheet of gold, with a single complex Rune on it.

Just laying eyes on it, she felt something seem to stab into her soul. She gasped, and clamped the lid shut in horror and disbelief.

She turned to look at me in shock and mounting rage.

“Open it back up and accept it. I will stand guard,” I said in the face of her mounting rage at such a betrayal.

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I had just given her the Rune of her Truename!

“What?” she asked, as I came at her from completely the wrong direction with it.

“Consider the Truename Rune. Once known, it gives you incredible, almost irresistible power over the individual or being whose Rune it is. Indeed, no lesser magic can stand before it. In addition, once the Rune exists,

Her anger started to slowly dissipate as she thought about what I was saying. “You are saying… that there are benefits to learning one’s own Truename?” she inquired archly.

“Exactly,” I went on, as unperturbed as ever. “No lesser magic can override one’s Truename Rune. This includes, for instance, the Witchcraft practiced by the Zorozo.”

Her wise amethyst eyes flashed understanding. “I see…”

“Furthermore, if one knows one’s own Truename Rune, then the power of someone else knowing it is effectively countered and neutralized. In short, if someone does not have one’s Truename Rune while one knows it, your mind, soul, and body are basically inviolate against magic seeking to control you. If a rival did own it… then matters are merely reduced to par as the Runes counter and neutralize one another, and the benefits on both sides are lost.

“The gold plaque is treated with sanguinal. Read it, memorize it, and carry it around in your heart.”

She stared at me in disbelief, then at the coffer in her hand. I had researched her Truename, a huge vulnerability to her… and then immediately given it to her and explained the benefits of doing so.

“I trust you’ve done this with your own Truename, Edge,” she finally murmured. “That means you have entered the Fifth Circle, without needing to challenge me?…” she inquired hesitantly.

“I was literally three thousand years in the past, Your Highness. I am effectively the High Cryptomancer of three millennia ago, before the Tradition even existed. There is no conflict between us.”

“I… see.” She stopped in place, I did likewise, and she opened the coffer back up, to stare at the complex Rune there.

Understanding it, which normally might have taken a day or two, was actually quite simple, since it was her own Name. A trickle of blood came down her nose, but her eyes pulsed and filled with light as she actualized her own Name.

Then she brought the plaque up to her lip, and her blood flowed down onto the thin gold there, turning it a pale copper in hue.

A moment later, her gloved hand pushed the plaque into her bosom, and it vanished from sight, as if it was never there.

She looked up at nothing, the presence of her Name shining in her head. “This… is an extraordinary feeling, Edge,” she murmured, then raised her hand. “You will call me Belle from now on, as a fellow High Cryptomancer.”

“As Your Highness wishes, Belle,” I replied without blinking. “I would say to you that one benefit you might want to give your family and personal agents is their own Name-rune, but the time and research involved might get prohibitive.”

She pursed her lips as she closed the coffer and handed it back to me, whereupon it vanished down my sleeve. “That would indeed be a powerful benefit,” she agreed. “I will think on it. Is this something you might be able to research in my stead?” she inquired.

“For proper remuneration of costs, yes, given the time. I will naturally need a list of names and must meet those involved, of course… and naturally it is something I am considering for my own agents.”

Each such Rune needed to be researched as a proper spell of its own, just like all Runes. It was also the equal of a Valence IX!

“I understand. Is this the only matter you wished to discuss?” She knew better, of course.

“No. I also have this.” I brought out a weighty tome, three inches thick, eighteen by twelve inches. I set it on a I flipped up in midair. “There are over three hundred Runes here, ranging from the First Valence to the Ninth in relative power. As it turns out, there are Circle One Runes that range all the way up to the Eighth Valence, and Third Circle Runes that range up to the Ninth in difficulty. Diamonds and adamantine for the first, and Time for the second, among others.

“My Research into Second Circle Runes was somewhat proscribed by my circumstances, restricted to creatures I could Summon in. Doubtless you know variations on them already, but the book shows how to etch each Rune, or how to inscribe them in midair in a combat situation, as required.”

I opened the book randomly, and a Holo-pane of light appeared above the page. A picture of a red fox, with classic white breast and black feet, appeared. This faded away, and then a picture of a wooden slate appeared, upon which a Rune of intermediate complexity was first burned into place, then artfully chiseled onto a stone surface, then etched onto a metal plate, and lastly drawn with one hand and three finger strokes in mid-air.

I closed the tome calmly as we strolled along, several songbirds fluttering down to hop on the Princess’s shoulders and wide-brimmed hat, chirping merrily the while.

Wasps were circling warily around me, and then there was a flutter of movement as the songbirds zipped around me, nabbed some meals, and flitted off into the flowering bushes nearby.

“Here is the procedure for learning Rune Mastery, a skill to greatly increase your chance of drawing Runes successfully while imbuing them with magic.” A much thinner and smaller tome was set down atop the first one. “And these are methodologies to allow a devoted Cryptomancer to use Runes more often, to make them last longer, to affect a greater area, to maximize all random effects to their utmost, and lastly to draw a temporary Rune in but an eyeblink by will alone.”

Each such libraim was set down on top of the others as she stared in disbelief.

“Edge, do you know how much such knowledge is worth?” she gasped at me.

“They are largely usable by any of the Seven Schools, so incredible amounts. Perhaps a million gold, in total? Of course, nobody is going to pay for them to be dispersed, so I guess I shall have to sell them individually.” I didn’t smile as I opened the first page. “These are your copies… once you blood-bind them and are able to read them.”

The pages were naturally complete gibberish combined with chicken scratches over a background of childish pictograms bordered by doodles.

She looked at me, and then rolled her eyes. Drawing a knife from a discreet sheath, she cut her finger and dripped the first drop onto the page.

The blood sank in, and the whole tome glowed red. Lines of ink reformed to her eyes, becoming a swirling semi-illusionary page complete with vocal and holographic representations inside her head.

She slammed it shut, blinking rapidly. I calmly set it aside for the next Tome, opening it up to a random inner page.

She was still bleeding, after all.

One by one, she bound the SLA Tomes, as I called them.