Downtown Druid

Book 2 Chapter 25: It's Really All Very Simple

Dantes walked along the hall, dripping wet in his disguise with his boots squelching with every step. The corridor he stood in was long with doors on either side, seemingly too close together to house actual rooms. He moved to the far end, and climbed the staircase up to the second highest level where tenured professors had rooms. Luckily the rooms were labeled with different names and titles which saved Dantes the trouble of knocking on one door after another until he reached the right one.

He reached the door labeled ‘Felix Fineman, 3rd Professor of Enchantment’. He rolled his neck, hearing a series of loud cracks from it as he did so, and shaped the branch in his hand into a fine point. Then he knocked on the door.

There was no sound on the other end of the door, almost as if it was empty, but just when Dantes thought he might not be there, the door swung open suddenly and Felix stood there in a thick comfortable robe with a pipe hanging from the corner of his mouth and a book tucked under his arm.

Before he could even realize what was happening, Dantes pushed into the room, grabbed his mouth, shoved him down to the ground, and pressed the point of his branch into his throat, kicking the door closed as he did so. The motion was smooth, practiced, and over in less than a second.

Felix’s eyes widened, and he started to scream until Dantes drove the point of his branch just deep enough to draw a small pinprick of blood.

“Hello Felix. You missed our last meeting.” He rested his knee on Felix’s stomach, putting his full weight on it. “I was beginning to get a little worried about you.” He removed his hand.

Felix grimaced in pain, but tried to speak. “How did yo-”

Dantes backhanded him firmly. “How did I get here? Easily and with minimal effort. Which you would do well to remember.”

Dantes stood, and hauled Felix to his feet before chucking him against a wall. Then he scooped up the pipe that he’d dropped and took a long inhale of it himself.

Felix yelped in pain, and Dantes slipped the pipe into his cloak.

“Are you going to kill me?” asked Felix, cowering.

“I should. You welched on a debt. Your death would be more than fair in return for that.”

Felix trembled slightly, and started to eye the door.

“Did you complete what I asked from you?”

“I…I did.”

“Show me.”

Felix slowly pushed himself off the wall and began moving further into his apartment.

Dantes followed closely, just at that moment starting to take things in. They were in a spacious sitting room, with a fireplace roaring in the middle, and a series of large and comfortable looking chairs scattered around, sitting atop a rich blue carpet with patterns traced throughout it in silver. The apartment was definitely larger on the inside than the outside, and the opulent nature of it made Dantes even angrier, but he stayed focused. Felix was useful, and a coward. He could be controlled, and if motivated properly, brought to heel.

Felix approached a desk, and opened a small drawer. He then reached his entire arm into it and began drawing out a number of items which he placed on the top of the desk. There were a half-dozen more keys, as well as a small craftsman's hammer. Dantes moved closer to the desk, and inspected each item. His fingers had been tingling the entire time he’d been in the towers, but he felt a slight spike in the sensation when he touched each object. He moved each item into his cloak, while Felix stood in the corner, his eyes pointed at the ground.

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“I…I suppose you’ll be leaving then,” he said, trying to find a bit of iron in his spine.

Dantes pushed his wet hair back. “No, no. I think I’ll spend some time in front of your fire, then you’ll come with me into the city to make sure that these work. I doubt they’d affect the enchantments here at the tower… unless you’d like me to make the attempt.

Felix’s eyes widened. “No! I mean, no, I can do that.”

…

After Dantes was sufficiently dried in front of the fire, he and Felix made their way out of the tower without any issue. It was much easier to leave from it, particularly with a professor leading the way. Dantes kept his branch at the base of Felix’s neck the whole time, making it look as if they were deep in discussion so as to not raise suspicions. After they were out of the tower Dantes simply made him move ahead of him as he summoned a perimeter of vermin to keep watch on the comings and goings from all sides.

“Couldn’t you test the items closer to the tower?”

“I could,” responded Dantes, and they kept walking.

Felix was growing tired, and increasingly nervous as they moved, which Dantes was well aware of. By the time they reached the edge of Dantes’s garden, he was trembling with both fear and weariness, having only rarely walked so far.

Dantes pushed open a loose plank he’d been using as a door to enter his garden. Gesturing Felix to move through, which he did after a brief hesitation. It wasn’t quite nightfall, but a small fire was burning at the center of the garden. Clay was pruning a small tree branch, while chatting with Wane and Orebus. Merle was at a different tree, his robes pulled off his chest as he lifted himself up and down, pulling his bearded chin over a branch as the tree shook, and Dantes could feel its clear displeasure.

“Oh gods…” muttered Felix as he saw them.

Merle dropped down from his pullups, clapping his hands together loudly. “Felix! Good to see you after all this time.”

Somehow, Felix managed to turn another shade paler.

Dantes patted him on the back. “Now, I bet you’re realizing now that I didn’t just bring you here so I could test those enchantments.”

Wane and Orebus approached as well, and Felix began muttering a number of creative curses under his breath.

“The good news is, I didn’t bring you here to kill you as I bet you suspected.” Dantes gave a wave to Clay who returned it with a smile as he continued working the garden. “The bad news is, I’m going to need you to remove our friend’s collars.”

“I-I can’t do that! I’ll lose my tenure, be thrown into the pit.”

“It’s not so bad,” said Wane. “You can still do some gambling down there, and the changeling whores feel just as good as the real thing.”

“Don’t worry child,” said Orebus, his tone sounding very different to what Dantes was used to hearing from him. “You won’t get caught anyway. You were a clever student, I bet you still are.”

“I…” Felix was breathing quickly, the rapidfire stress of his day catching up with him quickly.

“If you don’t,” said Merle, “We’ll just be killing you anyways.” He stretched, and pulled his robe back over his shoulders. “Won’t be able to turn you into a chicken like I did the last one though.” He looked Felix over. “Probably for the best. You look a bit stringy.”

Felix collapsed onto the ground, his eyes wide as he continued to pant.

Dantes moved over to him, and crouched down, putting his hand on his shoulder. “Listen, Felix. You don’t need to think too hard about this. It’s really all very simple. You owe me money, and I have enough enchanted items with your signature all over them that I can easily get your tenure revoked anyway. On top of that, you’re outnumbered and will die if you don’t cooperate. All that is scary, I know, but let’s talk about what happens if you do cooperate. First of all, you live, which is a great deal in and of itself. Secondly, I’ll start paying you for anything I need from you, just as I already told you I would. Thirdly, my plans don’t stop at being a two-bit criminal, they're far larger than that, and I’d be a good man to have as a friend.” Dantes gestured to the collared. “So would they, no matter what they’re planning, I’d certainly rather be with them than against them, eh?”

Felix nodded. “I… I suppose so.”

Dantes moved to his bag that he’d left in the camp and pulled out a small handle of rye. “Here, have a sip and take a breath. This is all easy. It was decided the moment you played cards against me. Fighting it won’t help anything. Just do your part, and we’ll all be better off for it.”

Felix took a long, deep swig of the whiskey and sighed. “And you’ll start paying me after this?”

Dantes smiled, “Yes.”

Orebus looked at Wane. “Are we sure he doesn’t have some kind of magic?”