Caladin’s Climb—Part 18

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          Brorn waved his arms at the enemy soldiers, and his wall of darkness rushed forward. They continued to pepper spells at the darkness, but it swallowed up all their spells and kept going. The first soldiers to be touched by the wall let out a brief howl of pain before dropping to the ground, dead. Caladin saw one soldier surround himself and a small pocket of allies in an armamancy ward. It didn’t save them. The wall of lunamancy erased the glowing purple ward, then killed the lot of them with a single touch. Within seconds of Brorn’s arrival on the battlefield, a retreat was sounded. The forward momentum that had been about to swallow Caladin was completely reversed.

          “Retreat! Retreat!” someone shouted with an enhanced voice. “He’s too powerful!”

          “Nobody is leaving here alive,” Brorn declared in an eerily calm voice. He made a cutting motion with his hand and his wall exploded forward, expanding up and out at the same time. Briefly blotting out the sun. Caladin heard a brief cacophony of screams as the remaining soldiers’ lives were taken from them. When the lunamancy faded, all that remained was silence. Silence… and the sobbing of a single man.

          Brorn stepped forward and kicked a lifeless body off the crying man. Somehow, he’d been unharmed by Brorn’s attack. “Get up,” Brorn told the man in an imperious tone that brooked no argument.

          “P-please!” the man cried. “Please don’t kill me!”

          “Get. Up!” Brorn repeated, more insistent this time.

          The last soldier staggered to his feet, weapon discarded, hands raised in surrender. Though he was wearing enchanted armor and stood a full head taller than Brorn, he cowered before him. “P-please, I’ll do whatever you—”

          “Stop embarrassing yourself, boy,” Brorn said to him. “Look at me.” The soldier raised his head up, though haltingly. “Look into my eyes and tell me who I am.”

          Though the soldier shook with fear, he did as instructed. Caladin knew well how terrifying it was to look into Brorn’s bright green eyes that shone with unlife. “Are you… the Necro-King? Th-the one they call Brorn?”

          Brorn nodded. “I am. Now look around you. Tell me what I’ve done to the soldiers that were sent against me.” He flicked his hand disdainfully at the man. “Go on. Look.”

          The soldier turned a slow circle, looking at the unmoving bodies of everyone that had come with him. They were piled on the ground on top of each other. None were moving. “You… you killed them,” the soldier said.

          “Yes,” Brorn agreed. “Everyone sent against me is dead. Everyone sent against my apprentice, Archmage Caladin, is dead. A full cohort of your queen’s finest. Dead, because she dared defy me.” Brorn let his words sink in for a moment. “I spared you so that you could give your queen a message for me. Can you do that for me? Can you pass on my message?.”

          “Yes!” the man nodded enthusiastically. “Whatever you want!”

          “Tell your queen I complied with the agreement I previously made with her predecessor, Victus, but her and I have no such agreement. Freezing my account at Eldira Savings and Loan was bad enough, but now she sends soldiers against my property, which I established on neutral territory. I want you to tell her that I, too, am capable of violating the terms of that agreement. Tell your queen I’ve killed her cohort. If she would like to send another, she is welcome to. I will gladly kill them and raise them for my army. If she would like for me not to march that army against her, she had better read the terms of the treaty I signed with Victus Haedril and decide if she wants to start complying with it.” He snapped a finger. Caladin almost thought the gesture was going to snuff the life out of the man, but it turned out to be a perfectly mundane snap. “Go,” he said, shooing the man. “Go deliver my message.”

          “I will, your—uh—Terribleness!” the man said before turning and running back toward town. He nearly tripped over the dead bodies of his comrades as he went.

          Caladin dusted himself off and walked up to Brorn as his master watched the only survivor of the attack scamper away. “Terribleness,” Brorn said to himself. He blew an amused breath out of his nose. “I don’t think I’ll use it, but he gets points for creativity. Did you make it out okay, Caladin? You weren’t mortally wounded, were you?”

          “No,” Caladin said. “You got here just in time. I mean… a few minutes sooner would have been ideal, but I’m just impressed with how easily you handled those soldiers.”

          “Yes,” Brorn agreed. “Lunamancy is quite powerful. It was fortunate they were unprepared to defend against it. If they had figured out your trick of throwing rocks, I would have easily run out of mana.” Brorn reached up and removed the silver circlet from his head. He hitched it to a loop on his belt, then found a nearby rock to sit down on. “The thing is exhausting to use,” he complained.

          “The crown?” Caladin asked. “I take it you figured out how to use it safely?”

          “I did,” Brorn said. “I was not sure it was ready for a test, but when you sent me word of the attack, I knew it was time. We’ll make that upstart queen second-guess throwing her weight around like that, won’t we? She can’t risk committing a larger force to deal with me while there is still a rebel king out there—which is fortunate, since that was about the limit of the mana I can handle wielding.”

          “How did you get it to work?” Caladin asked. “The crown, I mean. The last time I saw that thing was after it nearly killed the both of us and cost you one of your old bodies.”

          “It was a simple matter, really,” Brorn said. “I merely dismembered a few of my undead servants and forced them to wear the crown. Deaf, blind, and with no working limbs, Belorian’s Volantus was powerless to stop me from killing it over and over. Each time it dominated the mind of the servant I commanded to wear the crown, Belorian’s Echo weakened until there was no Echo at all. Without Belorian’s will infecting the crown, it is safe to use. As far as I can tell, it confers total mastery of lunamancy to whomever wears it. You saw the results. Quite devastating. It is an efficient harmonic to fight with, but absorbing all those attacks was not free. If I had not consumed so much mana before coming here, I would have been quite overwhelmed.”

          “I heard about that,” Caladin said. “Maggie told me you took most of the mana potions I had made. I guess you got the same idea I did. Good thing I started stockpiling mana potions.”

          “Who is Maggie?” Brorn asked.

          “One of your undead servants,” Caladin clarified. “The one who spoke up the other day. I Repaired her mind, er, Sensus and assigned her to manage your mana well. There’s no reason to have that well sit around all day not being used. Mana potions are valuable.”

          “So you put a Repaired servant in charge?” Brorn asked. “And you trust her? What are you doing to maintain such control over her?”

          “Nothing,” Caladin replied. “Nothing is needed. I don’t know what makes you distrust your servants so much, but not every restored undead is waiting to stab you in the back. Maggie has been completely trustworthy and very helpful. Having someone manage the mana well is useful, and she’s smart enough to understand that killing either of us will just mean killing herself. Her body is going to need constant maintenance to stay functional. She can’t do it herself. We don’t need to control her mind. She can’t live without us.”

          “Hmm,” Brorn said. “What is her natural harmonic?”

          “I don’t know,” Caladin said. “She doesn’t know any magic. She was just a human slave before she died.”

          “No magic?” Brorn repeated. “Very well. I don’t mind you Repairing a small number of undead, so long as they do not possess magic. Even a slight inclination for magical ability can become problematic on a long enough timeline, trust me.”

          “Well, in that case… I might as well tell you I’ve Repaired two more intelligent zombies. Both human. Neither knows any magic.” Caladin very deliberately failed to mention the dead soldier, Jaeryl, he had restored. That had been a disaster and would only reinforce Brorn’s claim that the practice was unsafe.

          Brorn narrowed his pale green eyes. “You did this already?”

          “Well, you knew about Maggie. You didn’t think she was the only one, did you? I needed a carpenter to build the store properly and a tracker to find this place. It’s useful to have a few intelligent undead that I can leave in charge when I’m not around.”

          Brorn let out an overly dramatically sigh. “Leave them in charge?” he said, shaking his head. “Very well. I suppose you will have to learn these lessons the hard way. I require rest. Can I trust you to clean up this mess?”

          “This mess?” Caladin asked. He looked around. There were dead bodies everywhere, most of them still in full plate. The exception to that trend was the enemies Caladin had turned to bloody sludge with his custom visceramancy spell. Those victims left behind mostly empty, but very messy, suits of armor lying on the ground. “How do you expect me to clean all of this up? I don’t even have any mana.”

          Brorn looked around, then waved his hand as though shooing a fly. There was movement from within the pile of bodies. One of the slightly rotted undead minions Brorn had supplied for the battle pulled itself free of the pile and dragged itself over to Caladin. It was missing a leg. “This one can help you,” Brorn said. He turned his head, brows creasing. “And there are a few on the other side of the river for some reason.”

          “That was my work crew,” Caladin said. “They should all be undamaged.”

          Brorn shook his head. “Caladin,” he said, sounding disappointed. “I appreciate trying to protect my property, but in the future I expect you to use any and all undead servants to protect yourself. Do not sacrifice yourself for them! They are replaceable. You are not. You’ve got that Repair spell of yours, do you not? Just use that if any of the ones you like gets damaged.”

          Caladin bowed his head. He knew when arguing was pointless. “Of course, master. I will do better.”

          Brorn took a few steps closer to the field of dead bodies and peered down at one of the empty suits of armor. “Caladin,” he asked. “What is this?”

          “A dead soldier?” Caladin answered. “Can’t you tell?”

          “Yes, I can see that. Tell me. Why has the corpse been liquefied?”

          “I used that Rend Flesh spell you taught me,” Caladin said. “It doesn’t leave much behind. Why?”

          Brorn frowned. “You should use a different spell next time,” he said. “These bodies are completely unusable. And now there is a mess to clean before we can sell the armor!”

          “Sorry, master,” Caladin apologized. “I was sort of in a panic and had to come up with a spell that would kill instantly. My other idea was to fling them into the sky with gravity magic, but I was afraid trained combat wizards would be able to catch themselves before they hit the ground.”

          “Yes, they likely would…” Brorn mused. “I should teach you Daenor’s Instant Death if you insist on using visceramancy. It’s much more efficient: only severs the brainstem.” He looked down at the empty armor, nudging it with his foot. “Huh. I’m surprised their armor didn’t protect them from visceramancy. What an embarrassing oversight.”

          “It did,” Caladin pointed out. “But it didn’t protect against aeromancy, so I made a custom spell using both harmonics that bypassed their wards.”

          Brorn looked up at Caladin, eyes narrowing. “Hmm,” he hummed. “Another combination spell? Why didn’t you mention you were working on another?”

          Caladin wasn’t yet ready to admit how easy it was for him to make those custom spells. “Well… uh, it wasn’t ready yesterday. I only used it for the first time in this battle and didn’t even know if it was going to work. It was just a high pressure situation, and I do pretty well under pressure. I reasoned aeromancy would be a weak point in their wards and got lucky that I was right.”

          “Indeed,” Brorn agreed. “A spell like that, which can kill a man through nearly any defense, is very powerful indeed. You should write that one down somewhere. I would be interested in learning it. Probably unwise to sell at the store, though.”

          “Definitely,” Caladin agreed. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could make empty promises to Brorn about recording his spells in books. He didn’t even know how to do the hand signs that other wizards learned. All he could do was write down the rune signs.

          Brorn gestured out at the field of bodies. “Just strip off the armor and gather up the dead in a pile. I will raise them later. Now I really have to go. I need rest. That crown took a lot out of me.”

          “I’ve never known you to rest,” Caladin said.

          “It is not the same as the sleep you require,” Brorn replied. “It is just convenient to call it as such. Using Belorian’s crown was taxing. That is all you need to know. I will return to raise these dead on the morrow.” He turned and started to walk back towards the store.

          “Wait,” Caladin called out. “What about my mana? I’m all out.”

          “The soldiers were eldrin,” Brorn said without turning around. “They should have plenty of mana for you to draw on. Any apprentice of mine should know how to use every part of the dead. Consider it practice.” He kept walking and disappeared inside the store, leaving Caladin to clean up alone.

          “Graaa,” the undead minion with only one leg groaned from the ground. He noticed it was also missing most of the skin on its face.

          “Ugh,” Caladin grimaced. “Just strip armor off these bodies or something. You shouldn’t need two legs for that,” he told it.

          “Is he gone?” Lenny’s voice asked from somewhere behind Caladin.

          Caladin whirled around to find Lenny peeking out from behind a large rock. He didn’t have a shirt on, and it was unclear if he had other clothes on behind that rock.

          “What happened to you?” Caladin asked.

          “I lost my clothes,” Lenny said. “What does it look like?”

          “I mean how?” Caladin clarified.

          “Burned up,” Lenny replied. “I was on the front lines with the rest of the undead and some pyromancer torched most of us. I thought I was done for, but all I lost were my clothes. Then I bashed his brains in. I’m glad you turned out okay.”

          “I had a powerful ward to protect me,” Caladin explained. “Sorry about your clothes. I cast a Fire Proof spell on you before the battle, but I didn’t even consider your clothing. You can, uh, help yourself to any of the dead soldiers’ clothes if you’re not picky. I can look away.” Caladin gestured to the battlefield where the corpses of most of an eldrin cohort were spread out. “Brorn wants me to strip the bodies anyway.”

          “Okay, look away,” Lenny said. Caladin turned around and studied his feet. He could hear Lenny patter past him, then the clinking of metal on metal as he started undoing the clasps of a suit of armor. “That was pretty scary,” he said conversationally.

          “Yeah,” Caladin agreed. “I see now why lunamancy is banned. It’s unstoppable. A hundred trained battlemages and they were helpless.”

          “Can you use magic like that?” Lenny asked.

          “I wish,” Caladin said. “I can’t find any usable information on that harmonic. If I could just learn one spell, I think I might be able to figure out a few more, but I can’t even find that much.”

          “No information, huh?” Lenny said. “Why not ask Brorn? He seemed pretty good at it.”

          “He’s not though,” Caladin said. “He was cheating. That circlet he was wearing is the only reason he could use the magic at all.”

          “Shame,” Lenny said. “Probably’d make them guards at that tower out in the woods a piece of cake.”

          “You’re not wrong,” Caladin agreed. “But it’s not like Brorn would just…” Caladin trailed off. Something occurred to him. “Hmm. Actually… he said he needed to rest…”

          “What’re you gettin’ at?” Lenny asked.

          “I was just thinking… maybe I don’t ask? I could just borrow it real quick, then put it back before he even wakes up. He doesn’t even need to know.”

          “That doesn’t sound safe,” Lenny said. “Isn’t Brorn dangerous? What if he finds out?”

          “Well, technically, I’m the one that gave him that crown,” Caladin pointed out. “If anything, he’s borrowing it from me.”

          “I doubt Brorn would see it that way,” Lenny said.

          “Probably not,” Caladin agreed.

          “Where did you even get something that powerful?” Lenny asked. “And why’d you just give it to Brorn?”

          “I ended up with it by accident,” Caladin explained. “I was trying to track down Tel’Andrid and ended up stealing that crown instead. Some guards were chasing me down when Brorn found me. It was the only place I could think of that they wouldn’t follow me. Giving Brorn the crown was part of how I got him to take me in as his apprentice. And it wasn’t that useful back then either. It was dangerous. I already explained all this to you last time. You just don’t remember.”

          “Because of the mind wipe thing?” Lenny asked.

          “Yeah.”

          “Okay. You can turn around now.” Lenny was dressed in a pair of canvas pants, white undershirt and was pulling on a pair of armored boots. “Think I should wear the armor too?” he asked.

          “Up to you,” Caladin said. “It wouldn’t hurt. It’s got powerful wards.”

          Lenny raised one eyebrow. “Didn’t help this guy much.”

          “Well they will against most types of attacks. As long as someone doesn’t throw a hybrid harmonic spell or lunamancy at you, I think it will be worth having. But like I said, it’s up to you. I need to go fetch Carlos and the crew. I’ll be back in a minute.” Caladin walked back through the store and to the other side of the river. A short walk to the edge of the woods brought him to Carlos and his zombies. They had felled two trees and were in the process of cutting down third while a few more zombies moved down the other two trunks already stacked on the ground and removed branches. Carlos gave Caladin a friendly wave.

          “I saw a bunch of bright lights, then a big black cloud,” Carlos exclaimed. “I’m glad you’re okay, Master.”

          “Yeah, well. I’ve got a new job for you guys,” Caladin said. “Stripping the armor from the corpses.”

          “You won then?” Carlos asked.

          “Would we be having this conversation if I hadn’t?” Caladin shot back. Carlos had a blank expression on his face. “Just go to the other side of the river. There’s about a hundred dead bodies with valuable enchanted armor and weapons on them. I want you guys to strip it all off and put it on display in the store. I think we’ll finally have enough stuff to sell to actually open officially after this. That’s going to be its own little nightmare, but I can deal with it later. I’ll probably need to Repair that guy who said he was a manager. I don’t know the first thing about running a store.”

          “I don’t even know how to read,” Carlos said with a shrug. “I just make furniture.” Carlos gathered up his undead crew with a whistle and started ordering them to put down their axes and come with him. Caladin left him to it, then returned to the battlefield to scrounge up any mana he could find. When he returned, he found Lenny had opted to take a suit of armor and an enchanted blade for himself. He had the helmet tucked under his shoulder, but if he put it on, Caladin thought he could easily pass as a member of Queen Fayse’s royal guard. Soaking mana from blood wasn’t something Caladin was particularly fond of, so he started going through the pockets of the dead. By the time Carlos and his crew arrived to strip bodies, he’d discovered a small mana crystal in one of the soldier’s pockets. The crystal was barely bigger than his thumb, but more than potent enough to get him back to Brorn’s manor to recharge. Before leaving, Caladin showed the crystal to Carlos and asked him to gather any similar items—or glowing mana potions—in his office. An emergency supply of mana at Brorn-Mart would definitely come in handy.

          “You fine to stay in charge while I’m gone?” Caladin asked Lenny. He was busy testing out his new sword, which had runes along the blade that lit up every time he swung the blade.

          “I never learned how to use one of these things,” Lenny said, not hearing Caladin’s question. “Do I look intimidating?”

          “Very,” Caladin told him. “Now do you mind watching the shop? I have to go back to the manor and get some sleep. There hasn’t been much time for it these last few days.”

          Lenny sheathed his blade and looked up. “Oh?” he said. “My memory doesn’t go back that far. You didn’t tell me you haven’t been sleeping, boy! Go on! Tuan knows you need it.”

          Caladin nodded and headed back to his office where the teleportation circle was. A quick hop brought him back to Brorn’s manor. He found Maggie there hauling in a crate of mana potions she was in the middle of stacking in the room’s corner.

          “Master Caladin!” she greeted him. “I’m glad you’re back. I was hoping I could get your opinion on something.”

          “Can it wait? I was really looking forward to some sleep as soon as I recharge my mana.” He continued out of the room.

          Maggie set her crate of potions down, then hurried after him. “It’s about the mana well,” she said. “Between you and Brorn taking them, I’ve run out of bottles. So I had to find different containers.”

          They entered the courtyard where the mana well was situated. “Is that a barrel?” Caladin asked. A wooden barrel had completely stoppered off the opening to the well. Not so much as a glimmer of light peeked out from beneath it.

          “Yes,” Maggie confirmed. “Brorn has a ton of them down in the kitchens. I think that one used to have wine. It took a lot of blood to make the mixture just right, but it seems to be holding mana just as well as the bottles. Is that okay?”

          “I don’t see why not,” Caladin said. “Might even be more efficient.” He waved a hand at the nearby zombie and ordered it to move the barrel aside for him. It had another barrel ready to go. Caladin slumped down on the edge of the well and watched the bars of his belt light up as they charged.

          “Most of the cost of selling mana potions is the bottles, so I figured people could just bring their own bottles from home and we could fill them at the shop. I think it will save money.”

          “Seems like it,” Caladin agreed. “Smart thinking.” When his bars were charged, he sat up and motioned for the zombie to return the barrel to its spot, sticking into the top of the well like a cork. “Okay, I’m off to bed,” Caladin told Maggie. “See you tomorrow.”

          Moving through the motions automatically, Caladin climbed the stairs, then stopped with his hand on his bedroom door. He really wanted to sleep… but then he looked down the hall to where Brorn’s room was. Brorn was likely in there sleeping as well. The temptation to sneak in there and borrow Belorian’s Crown returned. It was a rare opportunity, and one he might not get again. How else was he going to clear out that wizard tower by himself? Brorn had already proven the power of that crown was more than enough to handle even a hundred skilled wizards.

          But his body needed sleep… His eyes were itchy, his mental focus kept lagging. All Caladin wanted to do was climb into bed. If he did, he knew Brorn would be up and about his business by the time he woke up. Perhaps… there was a magical solution to Caladin’s sleep problem? He knew an oneiromancy spell to induce sleep. Surely there was one to do the opposite. Caladin wracked his brain for every oneiromancy spell he could think of. Most that he’d read about manipulated dreams in different ways. Not what he was looking for.

          One oneiromancy spell seemed promising to Caladin once he remembered it: the spell controlled a victim by making them sleep walk and the controlling wizard could even use the victim’s senses while manipulating them. It wasn’t considered to be a very reliable mind control spell because it ran the risk of the victim waking up and seizing back control of at any moment. But what if Caladin used it on himself? In theory, he could let his body sleep while still getting productive work done. He felt like it was worth a shot. If it failed, he could just go to sleep normally and worry about finding a way to borrow the crown later. Pulling out a scroll, Caladin inscribed the oneiromancy spell, modifying it to both target and control the caster. He released it and waited to see what happened.

          “…more bottles. Even if we keep the potions in barrels, we can’t exactly sell them in barrels,” Maggie was saying. “Bottles are too convenient for carrying around. Hey, are you listening? Caladin? You look like you’re falling asleep.”

          “How did I get down here?” Caladin asked. He was back in the courtyard. The evening clouds were on fire. He couldn’t decide if that was a normal thing for clouds to do.

          “You just walked in here,” Maggie said. Her eyes were gouged out and long steaks of blood trailed down her face. Caladin blinked and she went back to normal. There was definitely something weird going on. The last thing Caladin could remember was using a Sleep Walking spell on himself. Would that cause the shrieks he was hearing filtering down from upstairs? “Why did you come back?” Maggie asked. “I thought you said you were going to sleep.”

          “I was… I am. I think I’m asleep right now,” Caladin told her.

          “How’re you talking to me if you’re asleep?” Maggie asked.

          “Sleepwalking,” Caladin explained. “I think this was a bad idea.”

          Maggie’s hair erupted into flames, her skin melting like wax. She didn’t react at all, and in fact her jaw opened to respond to him without difficulty. “What was a bad idea?” Maggie asked. When she opened her mouth, thick black bile leaked out for a moment, then all the horrifying imagery disappeared and she was herself again. Caladin flinched backwards. Maggie raised an eyebrow in concern. “You’re acting strange, Master Caladin,” she said.

          “I’m… fine,” Caladin said. “I just need to get used to this spell. If you’ll excuse me.” Caladin hurried out of the courtyard and back upstairs. “You’re dreaming, Caladin,” he told himself aloud. Hearing the sound of his own voice helped convince him that the patter of little children’s feet he heard coming from the upper landing was just another hallucination. “These are just dreams leaking through. People don’t keep talking when their face is melting like nothing’s wrong.” He had a mission. Get Belorian’s crown. He turned straight towards Brorn’s bedroom and slowly, carefully, pushed the door open.

          Inside, Caladin found his master lying still on a mattress with no blanket, eyes open and vacant, as unmoving as the dead. He hesitated a moment at the threshold before realizing Brorn was unconscious. The crown wasn’t on his person. Nor, after a brief inspection, was it anywhere near his bedside, or in his desk. “Damn,” Caladin said to himself. That meant he must’ve stashed it somewhere safe before going to sleep.

          Caladin returned to the courtyard to find Maggie cracking open the lid to the barrel still sitting on the mana well. She was wearing a perfectly normal dress this time, though he briefly thought the zombie standing behind her was eyeing her with malicious intent. He glared at it pointedly, forcing the reality of the drone’s vacant stare to reassert itself. “Back again?” Maggie asked.

          “I wonder if you saw where Brorn went when he got back,” Caladin asked her. The courtyard was in the middle of the manor, with windows opening into most of the hallways.

          “He went upstairs,” Maggie said. “He said he needed to sleep.”

          “Before that,” Caladin said. “After he got back, did he go anywhere else before going upstairs?”

          Maggie scrunched her face. “I don’t know. But he came from over there when he came in to get some mana.” Maggie pointed from the corner opposite Brorn’s study.

          “Interesting,” Caladin said. “Thank you very much. Don’t tell him I asked.” Caladin left the courtyard in the direction Maggie had indicated. That was not where Brorn’s study was located, which should have been where he’d come in after using the teleportation circle. That wing of the manor was where his lab was located. It made sense: it was the most secure room in the building.

          The lab had a lot of magic wards to keep it safe from any errant spells, but also to protect the manor from those same spells. To an outsider, those wards would have kept them from entering, but Caladin had been entrusted with the security protocols so he could go in there to practice spell work. Caladin placed his palm on the door and spoke the passcode. “Sembius.” The thick iron door, brimming with enchantments, swung open.

          The tables in the center of the room had been cleared away since Caladin had last been in the lab. Now a silver circle was embedded in the floor. Resting inside that circle—under a bubble of armamancy wards so thick Caladin almost couldn’t see it—was Brorn. Caladin blinked his eyes to make sure he wasn’t dreaming again. He’d just seen Brorn upstairs in his bed… and now he was down in the lab, too? Two Brorns? It was a scary thought, and the first time Caladin had considered that Brorn might be occupying multiple bodies at the same time. The version of him lying in the lab was the same body he’d been favoring recently; with short black hair he wore slicked back and a dark goatee. He also had Belorian’s crown hooked onto his belt, just as Caladin remembered. The wards surrounding him were so potent they made the hair on Caladin’s arms stand up.

          Caladin cautiously stepped inside, eyes scanning for signs of any additional security measures. Brorn was definitely of a mind to just set traps that would murder any intruders. Aside from the bubble around Brorn, there didn’t seem to be any. Caladin approached the bubble and studied it for signs of weakness. There had to be some combination of spells he could use to slip past it. He tried probing with a few simple cantrips to see if anything got through. Vocomancy, no. Kinomancy, no. Aeromancy, no. Even using geomancy to control the stone floor that the circle was mounted to failed to do anything. Brorn had obviously been paying attention when Caladin had told him about exploiting vulnerabilities to bypass wards. He’d never been all that trusting to begin with. Now he was being downright paranoid. Honestly! Who sets up a decoy body in their bedroom to sleep? It was like he didn’t trust Caladin!

          Well, Caladin thought to himself, I am trying to steal his crown right now. He huffed out an annoyed breath. If he couldn’t find a way to pierce the wards, he’d have to resort to a brute force attack using the mana from the well outside. That would work, of course, but would almost certainly wake up an angry Necro-King. No doubt Brorn had designed the wards to be disabled from the inside and the inside only. Just in case, Caladin tried using the same deactivation code of “sembius”. It didn’t work. There had to be a solution Caladin wasn’t thinking of. What was a harmonic nobody would think to block?

          The answer came to Caladin like a jolt of lightning: he didn’t need to slip through the ward when he could bypass it entirely with the spell he was already using! Wards didn’t extend into the dream world.

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