10. Criminal Activity

For a while I just work on Willard’s dagger in silence. It’s pretty easy now that I’ve calmed down a bit, and the precision is its own type of fun. A lot of illusions can be disruptive if the recipient isn’t prepared, and people are pretty rarely prepared if they’re fighting a non-illusionist. Still, the most reliable trick is to just throw something in their face since even knowing it’s an illusion usually won’t make it easier for them to see … usually. There are magics that can completely bypass the need to see normally, I think some wind mages can even do things like that by feeling the movements of the air or something similar.

I finish up the illusory parts, and move to start adding the Steel-leaf. About the same as the illusion magic, just different shapes and having to physically add the Steel-leaf into the right areas adds a bit of a twist albeit not much of one. I should at least try to strike up a conversation with Willard, he’s been polite enough to wait patiently while I work. “So … how do you feel about enchanting? I’d still be happy to show you the ropes more directly if you want.”

He blinks a few times, and looks over to me. “Oh right. I’ll be honest, I’m thinking it’s not for me. It’s certainly useful, but it takes a certain … passion for the craft that I just don’t have. I guess creating anything always sounds easier than it actually is, but hand-carving runes into steel takes far more dedication than I have.”

I shrug. “Like I said, I didn’t think I’d like it at first, but there really is something special about actually doing it, at least for me. That being said, you have the ability to do something more direct with your powers … so it’s not something where doing it yourself would be all that useful. It’s not like I could make something that could stand up to a Dark Mage.”

For a second I see anger flash across his face before he just sighs. “That’s the annoying part, you’ve said yourself that with the right materials … that it’s not impossible, just illegal.”

Yup, he’s planning to do something stupid. Great. “Or at that point you could just ask the church for help. That said, I presume you and them don’t get along for some reason.”

He seems a bit surprised at that, even though it was pretty obvious. “You’re not wrong … I know they’re important …”

It’s a bit tempting to keep him on the hook for the explanation, but I probably shouldn’t. “No I get it, just because they’re necessary doesn’t make them not infuriating. I’d replace them in a heartbeat if I didn’t think it would make everything go downhill at ludicrous speeds. Then again I’m probably biased, I’m sure if I had light magic I’d see things their way.” Maybe it’s just jealousy talking, but from outside it feels like Light Mages have it made.

Willard stares at me for a good few seconds before responding. “Has anyone ever told you that you’re a bundle of contradictions? For how gung ho you are with your guild I assumed that would translate over to your guild’s employer. I’m pretty sure the rest of the guild loves the church.”

I wince a bit, he’s strictly speaking not wrong. “I want what’s best for the guild, even if they don’t always realize it’s what would help them … and even then, I can’t say if they like the church because the church actually helps them better than anyone else would, or because there’s just not a better option for fighting Dark Mages than asking the group with a monopoly on light magic.”

Willard shakes his head. “Well regardless, you have the right idea, I don’t get along with the church. They’re not terribly supportive of anyone wanting to hunt Dark Mages on their own, and aren’t willing to help if I’m not a part of an official guild.”

Wait … he’s not a part of an official guild? That’s interesting … and not in a particularly good way. It hasn’t exactly been directly stated, but both he and Bridget have implied that I could be joining his group, a statement that requires him to have a group to call his own. Strictly speaking any group the church doesn’t trust is already looked upon poorly in the eyes of the law since there’s no way to confirm they’re not Dark Mages. Combine that with how weird Willard is … Still, Willard being a Dark Mage would be weird for a few other reasons, mainly his reactions to learning about potential power. A Dark Mage would be strong enough to not need a light magic weapon as desperately as Willard seems to. I can’t say I fully trust him, but that part seemed genuine, if only because it seemed like he was trying to hide it. “You’re not part of an official guild?” Whatever, subtlety is a bit beyond me at the moment.

He seems to realize what he said once I point it out. “I … not technically no. It’s more just a collection of friends than anything official. Still, I’m fully aware how I’m sounding right now with all this talk of the church.”

That makes me a bit more suspicious honestly, usually only guilty people will ever admit they’re acting suspicious. “It’s fine, I can understand why you might want to only work with your friends … though may I ask why you haven’t made your group into a guild, I wasn’t under the impression the requirements were all that stringent.” My best guess is that while they’re not Dark Mages, they’re probably criminals to some degree, since that’s one of the few things that could disqualify a group from becoming a guild, criminal activity.

He rubs his eyes a bit. “Honestly … all of us have our own reasons to not get along with the church. None of us really want to deal with them if we don’t have to. With everything you’ve been through I imagine you at least somewhat understand.”

That sounds like I’m right, at least to some degree. Still I’d have to actually meet the group to judge them, it’s not like all crimes are created equal, and technically some of what I’ve said in this conversation could be considered a crime if the wrong people had heard us. “Well perhaps it’s another thing we need to talk about at some other time. The knife is looking good, do you want to give it a try?”

He shakes his head. “Not right now, I’m much too tired to handle something that sharp outside an emergency. Frankly I don’t get how you’re so awake right now.”

Oh right … I have someone watching me work. And other people actually need to sleep. “Right, I lost track of time. Sorry for that, I can hide you getting out of here if you’d like just to be safe.”

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He raises an eyebrow at that. “I don’t know how you lose track of time this late at night, but I’d appreciate it.”

I really don’t feel like explaining the whole sleep thing to him, especially when I don’t exactly get it myself. “It’s complicated, now I’m going to use illusions to make you invisible. Once I do, even though you’re invisible, stay in my field of view. I can see through my own illusions, and making someone invisible gets so much more annoying if I can’t see my target. In contrast I’ll keep you silent so only I can hear the noises you make, but that’s a lot easier to keep up so long as you’re not halfway across the city or anything similar.” I don’t bother waiting for a response before wrapping illusion magic around him. As much as I’ve done this with myself, doing it on someone else is a bit weird. Still doesn’t make it particularly hard though.

Willard looks at his hands before looking back up at me. “This is … this is … can you hear me?” He’s speaking a bit too loudly, but it’s not like it matters at the moment.

“Of course I can hear you, you don’t need to shout.”

He touches his throat. “This is incredibly weird, I can’t see myself, but worse I can’t hear myself speak. It makes talking a bit difficult.”

Interesting … “I see, I guess I’ve never noticed that part, normally I use this on myself, and I can hear through it, so it’s not nearly as disorienting. Anyway, just follow me. The one time I tried invisibility on someone else they mentioned it’s a bit hard to do fancy movements without being able to see your own body, but you should be able to walk fine.”

He seems to think for a second. “Could you take away other senses? Like making someone unable to feel where their own body is because that would be a pretty useful way to cripple someone from attacking.”

“If that’s the case I’ve never heard about it, I would think that’s covered in illusion’s inability to create an illusory sense of touch.”

He shrugs. “You’ve said plenty of times that your magic can’t actually hurt anyone, have you ever just tried it?”

I guess I haven’t. I might as well … as a thought experiment if nothing else. Forming magic is almost pure instinct, but with enough practice in crafting I’ve gotten pretty good at doing it with intention. Pretty quickly the issue becomes obvious, there’s not a shape my magic can be put in or more accurately no matter how I shape my magic it’s not going to achieve that … except … that’s not quite true. That’s what my intention is telling me, my instinct is screaming something else at me. In terms of my experience these shapes shouldn’t work, at best they’ll create a visual effect under someone’s skin. I’ve done something similar before turning invisible, but if I’m trying something new … I might as well let instinct take over. I cast the spell on instinct, and predictably nothing happens. I don’t know why I bothered.

Willard cocks his head. “Th…i…s…i…s…re…ll…y…s…t…ra…n…g…e” He spaces out each sound really weirdly and they’re barely the right sound at all … wait. I cut off the magic from my last spell and he shakes his head as if to clear it. “Interesting, I guess that’s not a touch sensation then. I’m not sure how useful it would actually be, but it’s nearly impossible to talk like that. I still had some muscle memory, but I had to sort of guess where my tongue was each time … it might have been easier if I could’ve heard myself talk though. It at least might be worth considering trying to find a use for it.”

I look internally at the spell I just cast … ah, well I think I see where my logical brain messed up. Adding in a variable can always break how calculations work out. “It also almost used up my entire supply of magic … so it’s probably not a good idea in an actual fight.” Hopefully he buys that lie, neither of the spells I’m keeping on him require more than the barest amount of magic, so I can at least justify keeping them up.

“Ah, still it’s another weapon to add to your arsenal, maybe with enough practice it’ll get easier.”

I’d rather he just drop this whole thing … I don’t really get the effects of being tired, but maybe he’ll forget about it or something. “Hopefully. It still doesn’t do anything direct though, and that’s not going away anytime soon.”

He just shakes his head. “You really need to work within your limitations. Ugh, sorry … I’m exhausted. I shouldn't be getting so preachy about things like this.”

I shrug. “No worries, let’s get you out of here so you can get some sleep.” I end that off with a fake smile, I could give this guy lessons in lying with how bad he was at it before, a good lie would function as the truth if the situation was just slightly different. It’s amazing how often people forget that simple rule.

I walk him out into the darkened guild hall, it’s rather pretty even if the moonlight doesn’t really reach into here well. As soon as he leaves the ex-shop he stops. “I … don’t know if I can navigate this place without seeing myself. I really don’t want to figure out if I’ll catch myself from falling without seeing my hands.”

I guess … it’s not really that dark, but being invisible is apparently fairly disorienting. “Sure, hold still for a second.” I grab his hand. “Just move with me, and take my pace, I’ll keep you from running into anything.”

The two of us silently move out of the building, and out into an alleyway a few doors down from the guild. With that done, I dismiss the illusions around him and he looks at his hands. “That’s … really unpleasant. No offense.”

I shrug. “None taken, it’s sort of just the way it is for other people. Nothing I can do about it.”

He laughs. “Well I appreciate it. Maybe it’s just the exhaustion talking, I do hope you join our little group at some point, I think you would do quite well if you gave it a try.”

“I’ll think about it later, for now just get some rest. I should have your things ready within two days, we can talk then.”

He nods, and turns to leave, after a minute or two he’s out of view, and I put together invisibility and silence on myself to sneak back into the guild. It’s not like I’m forbidden from coming and going nowadays, but I really just don’t want to risk talking to someone right now.

I’m not an idiot. Amazingly I’ve had a lot of experience in how my magic manifests itself, and more importantly how it doesn’t. All the magic I’ve learned I figured out by feeling out different shapes with my magic, and I’m certain the shapes I used shouldn’t have worked in the way they did. Maybe Willard was faking, but I don’t see what he’d gain from that, and it wouldn’t explain what I felt in those symbols. Out of curiosity I try to convince my instinct to use magic and shoot a bolt of destruction into the nearby wall … nothing of course. Even if I’m right, that's just not an option … I think … I’m really guessing at things. What about an illusion to cause stabbing pain? My instinct grabs onto that despite it being impossible and I cast the spell instinctively into my finger. I feel it try to take hold, even though my senses go through my own illusions there’s still a hallucinatory stabbing sensation in my finger. I let the spell fade, an illusion mage just can’t do that … correction a normal illusion mage can’t do that. An illusionist Dark Mage absolutely could.