He was still impressing Ilsa into taking him on as her apprentice, of course. Cheap or not cheap, the man was incredibly frustrating and only tolerable in small doses.
He finished painting the glyphs on the corners of the card he was making and started binding the necessary spell combination. Kirielle, who was in the process of drawing a nearby vase of flowers, briefly looked up from her sheet of paper when she noticed him casting spells, but quickly went back to her work when she saw the lack of lightshows or other impressive visual effects.
He hoped that Benisek would keep silent about the source of the ‘rumor’ Zorian had told him. He probably would — Ben never revealed his sources if he could help it, since he liked to pretend he had some super-secret sources to draw information from rather than just spreading rumors from his fellow students — but Zorian had a contingency plan to follow even if someone with official authority came to confront him about the story. The fact that the aranea were currently spreading the same story in several different places should also help mask where exactly the whole thing had originated in the first place.
He was just putting the finishing touches on the card when Taiven burst into the kitchen and locked onto his position.
«Hey Roach, nice place you got here,» she said, plopping down to a seat next to him and peering closer to look at his work. «Ooh, I know what that is. I’ve been meaning to get some, one of these days, but I always end up spending my money elsewhere. How many did you buy?»
«None,» Zorian said. «They were too expensive for my taste so I decided to make my own. This is the only one I made so far.»
Taiven raised her eyebrow at him, looking amused at his claim. Zorian frowned, not liking the expression — she didn’t believe he could make a card like this? This was nothing! He thrust the finished card into her face with a scowl.
«Try it out,» he told her.
Sighing dramatically, Taiven took a deep breath and… frowned. Zorian felt a mixture of surprise and frustration burst from her and realized she had tried to burn the circle he drew onto the card and failed.
«You couldn’t do it, could you?» Zorian grinned.
«You made it wrong!» she huffed.
«Did not!» Zorian protested. «You just suck!»
«Do not!» she shot back. «Why don’t you do it if you’re so special, huh?»
«Hmph,» Zorian scoffed, snatching the card back. He positioned the card so that she could see the results of what he was about to do (and in the back of his mind he noted that Kirielle had decided to see what the fuss was all about and was studying the card as well) and then flashed his mana into the card in a practiced manner.
The circle — and only the circle — momentarily shone red from the heat before collapsing into ash. Zorian blew a gust of air into the hole to scatter the remains across the table and then smugly handed the spent card to Taiven. He crossed his arms and waited for her reply.
«Ahem,» a mature female voice interrupted the scene from behind him. «You will, of course, clean up this mess you’ve made on my table, won’t you, mister Kazinski? Oh, and I would like to warn you that I will bill you for any property damage you inflict on my material possessions with your… experiments.»
Zorian turned and gave Imaya a big, friendly smile. She rolled her eyes at him and gestured towards the ashes on the table. Hanging his head in defeat, Zorian went to get a rag from the bathroom, ignoring Taiven’s soft laughter behind him. Just for that he was tempted to blow her off when she asked him to accompany her to the sewers.
Briefly. The fact was, he definitely needed to go with her this time.
«So what was it that you needed from me anyway?» Zorian asked, sitting down next to Taiven again.
«Ah, well, I was wondering if you’d join me on a little expedition…»
Zorian patiently listened to her explanation before revealing he had contacts with the aranea and requesting that they try talking to them first before barging in, spells blazing. Much like in previous restarts where he had brought the issue up, Taiven accepted him hanging out with giant sewer-dwelling spiders easily enough, but this time she also had an additional request.
«Since you apparently think you’re good enough to walk around the Dungeon all by your lonesome, meeting sentient monsters and gods know what else, I would like to test your skills a little,» Taiven told him. «Plus, it doesn’t hurt to know what your actual combat skills are if you’re going to accompany me and my team into a potentially dangerous situation. You do know some combat skills, don’t you?»
«Plenty,» Zorian assured her.
«Good, so come to my place tomorrow at noon so I can test you,» Taiven said. «You’re sure they’re going to hand us the clock if we ask nicely?»
«If they have it,» said Zorian. «That guy who gave you the job doesn’t sound all that reliable to me. I don’t believe for a second that he didn’t know what the aranea are, yet he still sent you go get a pocket watch from them. Either he’s trying to get you all killed or… hell, I don’t know what his game is there.»
«If the watch is something very valuable or very illegal he might not want to send someone who could recognize what they are holding,» Taiven frowned. «Just how dangerous are these spiders of yours? I mean, even if sentient, they’re still bound to be vulnerable to burning and such. Maybe he thought we would just bulldoze through them without talking?»
«Aranea are all mages,» Zorian said. It wasn’t strictly true, as only a small minority of aranea was armed with a true spellcasting system, but psychic powers were versatile enough to count as a sort of specialized spellcasting system. «They are especially fond of mind magic, illusions and stealth. And they have a telepathic link to one another so they will know and remember you if you massacre some of their outposts. And then you’d have a bunch of magical spiders with a grudge looking to ambush you or lure you into a trap the next time you descend into the dungeon.»
«Shit,» Taiven said. He felt a spike of anger from her before she reined it in and forced herself to calm down. «That asshole better have been ignorant of the danger or I’m reporting him to the nearest police station I find. That’s practically a murder attempt!»
«Let’s talk to the aranea first and see what they have to say,» Zorian quickly said. He didn’t want Taiven to confront the man and then cancel the whole thing. «I guarantee they won’t attack you so long as you have me with you.»
Taiven gave him a long, unreadable look.
«What?» he asked.
«Nothing,» Taiven said. «it’s just that… I thought I knew you, but now it turns out you have this whole secret life I’ve never known about until now. It’s a bit unreal.»
«Yeah!» Kirielle suddenly piped in. She had been silent throughout their discussion, but apparently she had been listening to everything with rapt attention. «How come you never told your own sister any of this!?»
«Oh that one is easy,» Zorian replied smoothly. «I didn’t want mother and father to find out, so telling you would have been foolish. Do you have any idea how many times you’ve gotten me in trouble by spilling my secrets in front of our parents?»