For the next ten minutes, I laid out plans and ideas for each leader as well as a pitch to have them recruit as many similarly talented individuals, both at the university and those who may have graduated already. There was no age limit, just skill, creativity, and a crazy work ethic. Our time could be limited to a week, maybe less, before the city was surrounded.
Once I began, I could see the smiles start to spread among the student leaders. The Keeper of the All Night Club got a huge round of laughs and applause when I called out his antics in modifying the Snap! game and turning harmless conjurations into chair-destroying and goblin-eating little terrors. He admitted that his grandfather was the conjurer who made the game, and as an artist, he painted most of the creature images on the cards himself.
“But they are very weak in the real world.” He said. “One strike and they disappear.”
“But it is somewhere to start,” I explained. “And if there were several hundred children working at the hospital that needed defending, and if each carried one or two or three of these cards, it could buy them enough time to escape or be just enough little monsters to overwhelm a group of goblins.”
I used that discussion to drive home what we were doing. “And that is the point of our Special Services team. I don’t have all the answers. I don’t even have all the questions. We need to come up with as many ways to protect our city and each other as possible. I’ve shared where we start. But I hope that we end up somewhere far better, probably crazier, and definitely more deadly to our enemies.”
By the time I was done, they had questions. Lots and lots of questions.
I held up my hand again. “Please, I don’t have time for all your questions, and I may not even have answers for half of them. As you think of a question or additional ideas for your own group, write them down. I want to meet with all of the leaders, just one per group this time-” there was some laughter, “at 2 PM today.”
People started to gather their things to leave. “Before you all leave, please listen to this last thought.”
They stopped and turned back to me. “The leader of your group may or may not be the most talented in your group. Your leader should be the best person to recruit, motivate, and train others. This is not a time for pride and fame. This is life and death. If you are not the right person to lead, then you are the right person to convince that other person to lead. Do you understand?”
Heads nodded in agreement. It was up to them to form their groups and work to perfect or outright change the plans to something better.
“Okay, stay safe, and I’ll see you all in a few hours. Remember, you are not to discuss this with others. Use your limited time between now and two o’clock to gather names, recruit others, and plan your own meeting an hour later for three o’clock somewhere private and appropriate for your own groups.”
As they turned to go, I called out, “Red, please remain here for a moment.”
A couple of engineering students chuckled and slugged one of their quieter members on the shoulder. They were all used to hearing that old Red would need to stay after class for getting into some kind of trouble.
Red approached me. He was average height, slightly athletic build, average to handsome good looks, but in pretty much all ways was average until you met his eyes. There was an intellect and a fire there that was unmistakable. He was a firecracker, and he knew it. He wore a sword at his side, as had several of the college students. After the attack by the undead, the laws around citizens carrying weapons in the city had been suspended. The sword he wore had a worn handle and sheath. Either he knew how to use it, or he had borrowed it from someone who did. It was not an ornamental weapon.
He crossed his arms and remarked, “I wondered why I was here. You had some cool ideas, but they were not really my thing.”
“No, I don’t suppose they were,” I said.
He frowned and then asked, “Should I go then, Patron Istari.”
“Not unless you want me to turn you into a toad.”
He took a step back and then smiled. “Good one. Then what do you want? Why am I here?”
I looked over to Biff. “We’re open for business again. I’ll be in meeting room one with Red here.”
He waved back that he heard me.
“Join me for a few minutes?” I offered.
Red looked back at the hulking form of Biff, who was staring back without blinking. Biff would not like me anywhere that I could not be protected by him.
Bella, do I have anything to fear from Red? I thought to her.
No, he is very curious and hopeful for the first time in many years. She added a little sarcasm at the time reference of mortals. Given her ancient age, human concepts of time seemed to amuse her.
Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
Please share that observation with Biff before he lays an egg.
She was silent for a moment as she tried to understand the reference and then laughed. And laughed deeply. When Bella truly laughed, every mind in the shop heard her. And then we all started laughing as well. It was more an unintended compulsion from her that we did, but it did feel good and left us all with a smile.
Red and I went into the closest showing or meeting room, and I closed the door. “Have a seat. Would you like something to eat or drink?” I asked.
He started to say no, saw the platter of bread and cheeses, and then walked over. “Sure, I’ll never turn down free food.”
“Good,” I replied, and I willed the walls to turn transparent in the room so I could see the entire shoppe. I took a seat with my back to the exterior wall that gave me the best vantage point of the inside.
“Neat trick.” He said. He stuffed a chunk of cheese in his mouth and walked over to one of the transparent walls and touched it. It was solid, and when you looked very close, it resembled a window with a slight heat haze brushing against it on a summer day.
He sat down in a comfortable chair across from me, his back to the rest of the shoppe and his attention on me. “You have to know that I have been in trouble, suspended, and moved around from department to department over the past four years. I am not exactly a model student.”
“The university president told me that you were one of the most talented, gifted, and creative students he had seen in all his years in higher education.”
Red actually stopped chewing for a moment. He said over a mouthful of bread this time. “He said that about me?”
“He did,” I answered. “He also said, given that, you were the biggest disappointment of his career.”
“Oh.”
“And he added that with what I am looking for, and what we are about to discuss, that you might just be one of the best hopes for the city to survive the coming ordeal.”
He just stared at me in total loss for something to say.
“You heard everything I had to share with the other students. What do you think?”
“I think that you have some nasty tricks in mind for the gobbies. And I think that it will not be enough and that we will all be their dinner in a week or so.”
“Why?” I asked.
“It’s a matter of numbers. They have what, ten to every person in the city?”
“Yes, if we count every baby and elderly, but for our soldiers, they probably have fifty to every one of us, since clearly our babies and elderly are not going to be much help in battle,” I replied.
“That’s even worse, then.” He said.
“Oh, it gets even worse than that. We have more powerful magic, but they have more magic casters. We don’t know how many, but if the ratios hold up, a LOT more casters.”
“That’s peachy.”
“And it gets even worse,” I added. “They are driven by their goblin god. We don’t know much about him except that he is a very powerful infernal.”
“A demon?” Red questioned in a scornful and unbelieving voice.
“Yes. And I’d wager an exceptionally powerful one to have escaped from Pandemonium to reside in our realm.”
“You are serious.”
“Deadly serious. And while it gets redundant, it is even worse than that.”
“How can it be worse than facing a god?” He asked, waving his hands in the air.
“It is not a god, it is an infernal. The Bishop and our Holy Order will do their part in that regard.”
He lowered his hands placatingly. “I didn’t mean for this to turn into a theology debate.”
“And nor will it. But you need to know your enemy, and we don’t need to give it any more power than it already has. Words are powerful, and it is best to be mindful in using them, whether around the powerful or the weak.
He contemplated my words. Eventually, he asked, “And how is it still even worse?”
“You cannot share this, but given what I have in store for you, I want you to know what I know.”
“And what is it that you know?”
“The archmage is missing.” I shared.
I let that sink in for a moment. The archmage, while an enigma and someone that is rarely ever seen or interacted with, was still a fixture in the city for more than a thousand years and was considered the most powerful mage in all the realm, perhaps in all the realms and across all history.
His known absence would send panic across the city, and I knew that Red understood what I had just shared with him.
In a quiet voice, he asked, “What do you have in mind for me, Patron Istari?”
“You have two objectives. First, to use that creative mind of yours to come up with weapons, engines, magics, strategies, tricks, deceptions, builds, whatever might help against the goblins. Price is no obstacle, but you will need to justify every copper to me. But you have a million coppers to spend. More if you need them. Many more if you really need them.”
“So no pressure.” He said sarcastically. “And what is the second objective?”
“To replace me if something happens before or during the invasion.”
“I don’t understand. I’m not a mage.”
“And I am not an engineer. Or an architect. Or a chemist. Or a historian. Or whatever other crazy knowledge you have accumulated in that encyclopedic mind of yours. Nobody is irreplaceable.”
“And if something happens to you and to me both?”
I shrugged my shoulders. “I guess at that point we can both look down on the city and see what happens next.”
“I think I might be lucky if I am looking down. I might be looking up from a warmer place.” He admitted.
I laughed. “Well, we all have time to change that point of view.”
“Let’s hope the view isn’t any time soon.” He added.
“I’d like for you to take a room upstairs to be near at hand when you are not out doing whatever it is that you will be doing. I want to catch you up on plans and resources. Then I’m turning you loose. I would like to keep you as secret as possible so you don’t become a target. I’ll be the lightning rod, and you can work behind the scenes.”
He nodded. “Am I to tell you everything that I am doing?”
“Yes, absolutely everything that you think, plan, do, and want to do. Unless, in your truthful and introspective opinion, I should not know. I can’t think of a situation that I should not be aware of, since I cannot advise the Duke if I don’t know what is happening. But likewise, I cannot reveal our deepest secret plans if I am unaware of them.”
He wrinkled his brow and then sat up in the chair, placing the plate of bread and cheese that he had mostly left untouched on a nearby table. “You believe that there is a spy among us. A spy for the goblins.”
“I am sure there is a spy among us. And I dearly hope it is only for the goblins. I fear it's far worse than that, but only because I don’t know yet what those threats are.”
“No more ‘it's far worse’ talk from you, Patron. I’ve reached my quota.” He said.
“You think we can do this? Against the impossible?” I asked.
A slow grin spread across his lips. I struck his deepest chord. If someone told him a thing could not be done, he’d see to it that if it was the last thing he did, he’d get it done.
“I don’t think that we can, Patron. I know that we can.”
I slapped the table. “Good! Then let me catch you up on a few things, get you a room, and let you get started.”
Red was a troubled kid. He was undervalued, underappreciated, and certainly nobody that a responsible authority figure would ever place in a position of authority. He was also brilliant, creative, driven, and had nothing to lose.
And that is how greatness gets made.
