The Carnival at Moonbright

Into the afternoon, Leaf sat near the fireplace on the Divination floor. With everyone asleep, he spent time thinking of everything that had happened.

How did the hag get into the tower?

How did she bring her minions with her?

Orin…

His mind spiraled and twisted as he fought the intrusive thoughts. He knew there was nothing he could have done differently. Orin was one of the most powerful mages on Midgard, the Archmage of Cecela. Further, he had others to protect as well.

Leaf turned his head quickly as he heard one of the bedroom doors being thrown open. Myla walked in, her hair and clothes messy from sleeping, but her eyes were wide open.

“Change the walls!”

“What is going on?”

Myla shook her head. “I don’t know yet, but something is wrong.”

Leaf waved his hand and cited the quick incantation. The stone walls seemed to shimmer momentarily before turning clear as the late Divination Mistress’ magic flowed through the room. Leaf and Lyla stared in shock as the two-way mirror revealed the world outside the Archmage’s Tower.

Leaf stood on his chair to get a better vantage point. Around the tower, roughly fifteen feet back from the outer walls, were hundreds of people standing completely still. Hundreds of old and young humanoids stared at the building, holding up a single coin in their hands. All kinds of gold, silver, and copper pieces were held as if trying to show the tower’s inhabitants.

“It’s Ramona Moontremble.”

Madame Moontremble was behind it all… Though Leaf knew little of her, he had respected her abilities. Now, the thought of Ramona only angered him, fueling a fire of vengeance inside him.

We will find her and stop her at all costs.

“They’re all possessed in some form,” Leaf said.

“That’s it!” Myla exclaimed. She ran to the bedrooms and started pounding on the doors.

“Everyone, wake up!”

Leaf watched as everyone slowly opened the doors and entered the main chamber. Many of them were in a daze, wiping the sleep away from their face, before looking out and seeing the many faces staring back.

“What in the ever-loving fuck?” Mr. Muffins asked, confused at what was happening.

“That’s what the hag was talking about! The coins! Ramona is enchanting everyone with coins she gets and gives at the carnival!” Myla said, pulling her pouch out and looking through them.

“But how would we know which ones were enchanted versus normal?” Leaf asked.

“I may have a solution to that,” Mr. Muffins stated, stretching as a giant yawn escaped him. “It’ll take a few minutes, though. Everyone set your things here, and I’ll look.”

Leaf pulled out his money pouch and set it before him. Mr. Muffins said a quick incantation, then started rummaging through everyone’s pouches. He pulled four coins of various types from the pile and sat them down on the table, away from the rest of the coins.

“There’s a few things here.” Mr. Muffins said as he handed everyone’s money back. “Twins, Rhokhishi, and Leaf, it seems like she had found a way to put the coins in your possession. Everything else seems alright here. There are some magical items in that cabinet over there, and something about the stairwell seems off. We might want to check those things out while we’re here, just to be safe.”

Leaf walked over to the cabinet and tried to pull it open.

“It’s locked.”

“I could smash it open,” Lyla said, walking over to it.

“Let’s try not to hurt ourselves. Let me try something first.” Myla said.

She opened a small kit on her belt, producing a lock-picking set. While she started on it, Leaf went over to the stairwell. A stone slab appeared overnight, barring access where the steps would generally go down to the underground floor, of which Leaf’s room and study were. He wasn’t sure why, but it didn’t feel important then, so he returned to the cabinet as Myla finished picking the lock.

Inside were a multitude of various divination tools. Leaf first noticed the crystal they had used to place their memories the night before, then a list of smaller crystals, some fur, a container of salt, feathers, and a miniature clay ziggurat on various shelves. Leaf saw a few potion bottles filled with various ingredients on the top shelf. Taking them down, he read over the names and descriptions on the side of the bottles.

“I’m not saying all of these are useful in the current moment, but they might be useful later. Here.” He said as he handed out potions to the group. “It has a brief description on the sides of them.”

“So… I get that resources are worth looking into, but what are we going to do about them?” Rhokhishi asked. She pointed her thumb behind her to the people outside the tower, then gestured around them to make a point of them being surrounded.

“We have to figure out our next steps carefully. Running out wildly would be bad. We need to figure out where Ramona is, if the Queen is okay, and make sure we’re safe and unseen.”

“I could always get big and fly us somewhere from the roof.” Gisela piped up.

“That’s not a bad idea.” Mr. Muffins said.

“The perimeter wall might still have guards on it, but if we go to the roof, Gisela could take us one or two at a time. From there, we’d just have to sneak through the castle grounds and into the building. It’s probably the best shot we have.” Leaf thought out loud.

“Well, let’s do it then,” Lyla responded.

Leaf watched as everyone grabbed their things from their rooms, and they moved up the staircase, past the various floors. As Leaf reached the fifth floor, he stopped for a second, confused. The stairs kept moving up to another floor. Wondering if he had miscounted, he looked around to see that he was, in fact, on the Transmutation floor. He also noticed that the shimmer of the portal to the roof was gone. He ascended further, readying himself as they moved to the new sixth floor.

The area was clean and tidy. Leaf looked around and saw the familiar chair and desk he had worked at for the few years he had been in Moonbright. It was as if the entire underground floor had been moved, removed, and placed above the building. Across the room, he could see the shimmering portal, but he was distracted by a few pieces of paper on his desk. He walked over and saw that the documents had theories and sigils on them. On top of them was a letter with the wax seal of the Archmage. He opened it and took a glance, seeing his mentor’s handwriting.

Leaf, …

“What’s that?” Lyla asked him.

“Something for another time when we’re not risking our lives,” Leaf replied. He looked at the other papers and realized that Orin must have worked hard, restoring some of the lost sigils and information in Leaf’s original spellbook. Leaf took a moment to place the papers in his spellbook to add them to the list of spells he had already put inside.

“This way.” Leaf pointed to the wall and walked forward. He felt the lurch in his stomach, unsure if it was the teleportation or the letter now on his mind, but the cool autumn air hit his face, and he took a deep breath to calm himself. Around him, he watched and heard as the feet of his new friends landed on the stone roof of the Archmage’s Tower.

With this new vantage point, they could all see the immensity of the problem ahead of them. Hundreds surrounded the tower, reaching as far back as Haron’s Castle gate. Gisela would have to move quickly and quietly. From what Leaf could tell, none of the enchanted humanoids noticed that they were up there, which was hopefully the first of many fortunate situations before the end of the night. Gisela put her arms under Leaf’s and pushed off the roof.