"Maybe he felt guilty?" Lacuna said.
Aureum had been standing there, glowering for a drawn-out moment.
"But why?!" Her hands flailed with force. "Why now? Does he think he can buy me off? How dare he!"
Lacuna shrugged helplessly. She didn't know what Mendax was thinking.
Aureum stormed towards his room and banged on the door.
No response.
"Aureum!" Lacuna said. "This isn't going to help!"
"What? If he's leaving money around, he'll not kill me!"
She banged again, louder.
Still no response.
Her fist raised again, with all her fear-fueled fury.
"Lady, he's already left."
It was the owner, the man whose name Aureum had never bothered to learn.
"What?"
"He checked out this morning. Or should I call it night? My wife was at the counter while we switched."
"He's gone?"
The portly man awkwardly scratched his neck and shrugged.
"I came here to give you this," he said, raising a letter. "Came a bit earlier while you were out, but I had to find where I put it."
To Aureum, it read, in a familiar lackadaisical hand.
"Please, no banging on the doors."
"Sorry."
He shook his head.
Aureum took the letter, and he moseyed back to his spot. She went back to her room.
"He's gone! Of course! Too much to wait for me to get a night of sleep after that revelation! Just had to go before I could confront him on my terms! Immediately!"
Aureum made a strangling gesture before flopping back on the bed. Lacuna watched, turning to look around the room awkwardly.
"All right," Aureum said, sitting up. "Here's what I'm gonna do. You get the money he left."
"Huh?"
"No huhs. I don't want it. Consider it an early wedding present if I can't make it."
"I'm missing the part where you decided you had to give me something."
"Oh, just take it. Free money doesn't come easily."
"Alright."
"And," Aureum said, "and then I'm gonna leave this stupid place. Probably."
Fueled by anger, hiding, as it usually did, a great many deeper things, she ripped open the letter. Like most of Spesavia's writing, it was short and to the point:
At Nodus' home on Old East Street on an errand, come find me.
Aureum stood up.
"Well, it looks like I'll be leaving sooner than even I thought," she turned apologetically to Lacuna. "Spesavia wants me to go to her, and I doubt she'll wait around for me to say bye to friends."
"It's fine, I can tell Sitis for you," she replied. "Anyone else?"
"No," Aureum said. "And I don't want you to be my personal messenger. I can take care of my goodbyes. I don't have anything to give Sitis other than money. Would he take that?"
"We can just share this bag," Lacuna said.
"Is there enough? Ah, forget it," Aureum said.
She opened the other bag and grabbed a few handfuls for herself.
"Travel expenses," she said.
Then she shoved the other bag into Lacuna's hands.
"Split that fairly."
"I don't need it. We don't—
"Everybody needs more money!"
Then she hugged Lacuna.
"I'm going to miss you, but I have to go."
"Me too, except I have to stay."
Aureum stood back and nodded. She took a good, long look.
Lacuna looked a little less tidy than she usually did, but she had the same black skin that shone when light touched it, and the same many small black braids pulled back into a ponytail. She was beautiful, but the best part about looking at her in that moment for Aureum was the surprise in her eyes.
If everything refuses to be right, at least I can do my best to sort it.
It was a bit foolish to give away so much, but she couldn't think of a better person for it.
"Will you be okay?" Lacuna said.
"At least I'm already packed," Aureum said. "So this will be easier."
And she pulled her bags, tent, and all over her shoulders.
Bag, spear, cloak, and the original but ever-diminishing funds, plus a few new funds…
Aureum went through her things, but besides a few books she had decided to leave to the inn, she was ready.
"Goodbye!" Aureum said, clapping Lacuna on the shoulder.
Lacuna had watched all this, waiting for the pin to drop, but this snapped her out of it.
"Will you be all right? Is this all right? I can't take all of this!"
"I'll be fine! It's fine! Goodbye!"
Aureum dashed down the stairs. Lacuna didn't get it.
Forget Mendax. He could crawl into a hole to hide as long as he wished for all she cared.
He was almost… something nice.
The traitorous thought stung her. She wasn't so devoid of common sense that traitorous assassins came recommended as lovers. Anything she had wanted with him, she immediately shoved under desperation and left it at that.
Then he became a waking nightmare before he was gone.
She was still afraid, but as he had run away, she felt rather brave. How she would feel if he reappeared, she didn't know.
Most of her anger was bluster. Even she knew that.
But the greater fear, that of the old Cyclops, would be even more distant soon.
Lacuna couldn't get it if she tried. Aureum was leaving, going to some small, undiscovered ruins for probably months at a time with almost no one the wiser anywhere, with the strongest person she knew.
She would be fine, and with that hope of being, she ran the directions to Old East Street without regard to distance. A few questions about directions, and she found the building of this Nodus Spesavia had mentioned with no trouble at all.
It was a pleasant street, and Aureum walked along it in the sunlight, on edge.
Mostly, she was all nerves. Probably the nerves from yesterday that refused to calm down.
What if she had gotten the street wrong? Did she really hear the directions that clearly? She clutched her spear tighter to her body.
Then there she was. A little old woman of white hair and wrinkles, with a worn-out dress and an ever-present disapproving look in her eyes.
She was the best sight in the world.
"Spesavia!"
"About time you got here."
The older woman's face did light up. Her tone was mostly jest. Still, that was nearly all the greeting Aureum got.
The timeline of missing people for an immortal sorcerer was different.
"Come on, let's go in," she said.
She was standing by the time Aureum got to the porch.
"What are you doing here?" Aureum asked.
"Other than picking you up?"
"I meant at this house," Aureum said. "And why wait for me?"
"My knees hurt. And I need to know Nodus wasn't going anywhere. I can do that from his front door, but not at that little inn you stayed at. Didn't seem your taste."
Spesavia opened the door. Slowly, it creaked as it moved.
"As for why I need to make sure Nodus doesn't leave, it's because I need what Caenum sold to Nodus," Spesavia said. "It's very important. I tried to get it from this Caenum, but he was dead, which is a little earlier than before. I guess we can't expect things to be the same."
Aureum was confused as she followed behind Spesavia. Yet, Spesavia often spoke about things she didn't understand, so she brushed it off.
They went through an old but nice hallway. A middle-aged man startled in his seat when they entered his dining room. A delicious-smelling lunch was before him. It had eggs, sausages, and toast. It may have been a late breakfast. The man wasn't entirely dressed for the day with his slippers on.
"Who are you?"
Spesavia moved alarmingly quick for her age. Rather suddenly, she stood before the man, crossing the room in an instant.
"Nodus, I have come for the dragon egg."
Nodus stiffened, understanding lighting up his face.
"What dragon egg? I don't know—
"Please, Nodus. You knew it from the beginning. The first time you may have been able to sit on it without anyone knowing, and study it at your desire, but now is not that time."
"First time? Madam, I don't know who you are, if you could just explain—
"I am Spesavia, the old crone and ascended sorcerer." Spesavia flashed mana into her hands.
A trick that took too much skill to do. It glowed with the reflections of water in the air, but it wasn't quite solid enough to be water. She grasped her hand, and the light was gone.
"Now do you understand? You're dealing with things that are too much for you. I may have been first, but soon there will be people far worse. Hah! It would be better for you if you told them I had it. They might let you live."
The man quivered. He looked completely unprepared, with a tubby belly and a terribly colored green tunic. His shock was contrasted by how comfortable this part of his day should have been.
Aureum felt a little like he looked.
"I'll find it myself," Spesavia said. "A dragon egg has to contain some amount of mana. Aureum!"
"Yes?!" She said, surprised to be called on.
"You can help with the search. You seem more sensitive to these things than I remember. Though all other progress seems to have gone down the river. Sorry."
Aureum let most of the words wash over her. Spesavia was what she was, which was not very sensitive.
"Any specific type of mana we're looking for?" Aureum said.
"Oh, I don't know. But it should be in a clump and interact with the mana around it. Just send out some feelers."
"I can't let you search my house!"
"Perfect! Show us where the egg is then."
"I—I—
"You can choose to help us or not, but the result will be the same. Well, maybe one makes you less happy."
"This is robbery!"
Spesavia waved a spindly finger.
"Ah, ah, ah! Robbery, smobbery! More like, a reacquisition of illegally gotten gains. You didn't think paying a shady man for a dragon egg made it yours, right? The law will take my side."
Nodus sagged.
"It would have been my life's work!"
"Oh, get over it! Your life's work can be any number of things. Think of it as if your life begins from this moment. A rebirth!"
He muttered curses to himself. Yet, the force Spesavia imposed was enough. He shuffled himself into getting the egg while they followed.
It was in the corner of the room, covered by some old blanket. Spesavia was right. As soon as Aureum stepped into the room, she could feel the mana pulsing, centered around the large egg.
Spesavia pulled the blanket off.
The egg was a black oblong. Large enough to fit on a stool, but still able to be carried under one arm. Besides the size, it was not like a chicken or any bird Aureum had seen. Spesavia picked it up with nonchalance and walked out.
"If I were you, young man," Spesavia spoke, sparing a moment of her time, "I'd get out before anyone else came to find me."
Aureum followed with a glance back at Nodus. He held his head in his hands. Outside, the day had hardly changed. Spesavia's errand had hardly taken any time at all.
"Can we really carry it in the open?" Aureum asked.
"Tch. Put it in your bag then."
She tossed it to Aureum, who scrambled to catch it with one arm.
"Don't you need this?"
"It's living, though it may stretch the definition of the word a little. Don't put it in any items that warp space, and it won't die. Maybe it could even survive that. It's already been around longer than I have, so assume it will continue to be well."
Aureum slid her bag off and carefully placed the egg between the thickest clothes she owned. Spesavia waited, standing in the street, back hunched forward.
"Is it a real dragon egg?" Aureum asked.
Spesavia shrugged.
"It's not as exciting as that stint made it sound. It's a dragon egg, but it will never be a dragon."
"Why not?" Aureum said.
"Because there are no dragons left to fill it. It's at the stage before it was fed… form I shall say."
Aureum hoisted her bag back over her shoulders and hurried after Spesavia, who had started walking again.
"What do you need an empty dragon egg for?"
"I don't," Spesavia said.
"Then why…?"
"What I need is for everyone else in the world not to have a half-dragon. Whatever this little egg gives way to will be a monster, but somewhat like a bird, it holds its first person seen in high regard." Spesavia spat. "This will definitely be different from the first time."
"You've said that a lot, 'the first time'. Is it some era in history?"
Spesavia looked back.
"Did you forget? That would explain the stupid looks. The potion I gave you turned back time, not that I've given it to you yet."
"You knew?!" Aureum said.
Spesavia kept walking. She was undeterred, but slow, and soon Spesavia was walking alongside her.
"Yes? Is it some big secret?" The old woman bent her head. "I made the darn thing, I can at least tell when it's being used. Though I can't imagine how you would have thought you could hide it from an ascended sorcerer. We are slightly cut off from time. Though that theory hasn't been proven…"
"D-Does EVERY ascended sorcerer know?!"
"Hush! No need to scream about it in the street! I assume they do, because my peers are so chatty when it comes to sharing news that could bring them power. But how much they know? Eh, judging from what I've seen these past months, they remember the future. But if they had any idea what had caused it, they would have swarmed you or me by now. So no, not everything. Long as we keep our big mouths shut, we'll be fine."
"Oh, Malum," Aureum said. "Lord Nix must know."
"Seeing as you're not dead," Spesavia said, "or imprisoned. No. No, he doesn't."
Aureum began to panic again.
"I think he tried to kill me," Aureum said. "He must know."
Spesavia stopped, scratching her wrinkled chin.
"Well," Spesavia said, "that's not good."