Biff volunteered to carry the chest, and he, the four Watch members on duty for this shift, two additional Brawlers whom I had not met before, and I accompanied the Majordomo to the Tower.
The others took up positions outside the Tower, but Biff entered with us. The door opened as Isaac approached it without a word or a gesture. I wondered if The Tower had a spirit of hospitality in it as well.
Yes. Bella said, and I swore I felt her blush.
Now THAT was interesting.
You will be unable to speak with me once you enter. The Tower has many wards of protection upon it.
I wasn’t thrilled with the idea that I would lose connection with her, but I guessed that The Tower was probably the most secure location in all the Shallowlands.
Biff and I joined the Majordomo, who led us through an interesting atrium with a couple of monstrous stone statues and eye-distracting paintings that made me want to stop and examine them.
There were three large archways that were similar in architecture to the one housing the main entrance. One of the archways led into a large garden, while the other two opened into stone passageways with no hint about their destinations.
But we did not enter any of the three obvious exits to the atrium; instead, we passed through a fourth, much smaller archway that was partially concealed behind one of the monstrous stone statues. Its passageway split into a nearby attached round room with magical runes and precious metal inlays upon the floor to the left and a spiral staircase in an open space that, with my brief glimpse, seemed to go up and down a couple of dozen levels each way.
The room we entered off the left tunnel looked like a far fancier version of the summoning circle in my lower level.
Like my lower level, the ceiling was at least thirty feet above us, and the room’s otherwise plain stony interior was perhaps forty feet across.
“I don’t feel like walking to the vault, so we are taking a shortcut.” He explained.
In a flash, and a lurching feeling that left me nauseous, we found ourselves in the corner of a different room.
A very different room.
The Tower treasure room, in fact.
My first impression of the enormous round room was of the mounds of gold in this colossal space, which was far larger than my shoppe’s entire main floor. While the ceiling was perhaps only fifty feet high, the length and width of the room were hundreds of feet in diameter. If the ceiling had not been so low, given its dimensions, the entire Arena could have snuggled into this space nicely.
The second object that drew my attention, or collection of objects, was a large magical sphere that seemed to show an image of a fuming hollow mountain, a volcano of some sort. The large central globe was surrounded by dozens of smaller ones that seemed to flitter around and flash different images. I caught images of people and places, but I did not understand their purpose or recognize features until I saw one that held an image of Keelwell Harbor, another of Watch Keep, and a third of my own shoppe!
And one giant pile of gold was not the end of the treasures. There were multiple locations of gold, silver, platinum, and even some copper coins that were simply piled in huge mounds with walking paths around them that led to the center of the room. Some piles were perhaps twenty feet high, while others were positioned so that you could see over them and around most of the room. The four walls, except for a double door entrance off to the right of where we were standing, had shelves overflowing with magical objects, manikins for armor, racks of weapons, hundreds and hundreds of potions, and so many chests of varying sizes that I could not begin to count them.
The room also seemed to have some marble pillars around three feet high that held either glass cases or floating pillows, on which magical objects rested. I immediately understood the inspiration for the same features in my shoppe. Some of the war masters must have been in here before.
Even by dwarven standards, this was an amazing horde of wealth and magical power. It represented lifetimes of collecting. In fact, it probably represented scores of lifetimes of collecting, given the age of the archmage.
“Please place the chest on that empty marble pedestal with the golden cloth upon it.” Isaac directed Biff with words and gestures after we navigated through the maze of paths around the coins and into an open space under all the floating orbs.
He pointed to a specific engraved circle made of platinum off to the left in a wide, clean space away from the clutter of coins and magical treasures. “Stand in that circle and you won’t feel any further negative effects. You will be able to communicate with it if desired.”
There were more than a dozen other engraved circles made of silver that surrounded this central part of the room. It almost looked like a meeting space of some kind, or a space meant to summon multiple creatures or objects at the same time.
Seeing that we were safely in the circle, Isaac approached and inserted the key. He must have had a better understanding of that kind of lock because it opened immediately for him.
For the third time in an hour, the robe rose from the chest, twirled, and then spoke, this time in a direct and petulant voice.
Where am I? Am I a prisoner?
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“You are in the vault room of the Imperial Archmage’s Tower, surrounded by magic and powerful artifacts to befit your station.” The Majordomo replied.
Let me out. Let Me Out! LET ME OUT! The robe screamed.
“Enough of that!” Isaac commanded. With a gesture, three silvery metal spheres the size of bowling balls flew from a shelf and surrounded and revolved around the robe.
They must have had a magical dampening effect because the robe still moved around inside the space created by the spheres, but no sound emerged.
Isaac walked back over to me. “What did you do to me, Gwydion?”
I smiled weakly. “Well, he had not behaved that poorly when the Gray Master gave it to me.”
His eyebrows shot up again. “The Gray Master gave it to you?”
“Well, not for free. It was the price of a commission, and he seemed to be happy to be rid of it, truth be told.”
“No kidding.” He deadpanned.
“Yes.” I agreed.
He stared hard at me. “What was your commission? And don’t give me any vow of silence doubletalk.”
“Yes, Bella chastised me for that already. I planned to tell you, but the robe’s personality needed to be experienced to fully understand the Gray Master’s motivations.”
He sighed. “Ok. I’ll ease up. But what did you make for him?”
“I gave him a Dwarven Copper ring with five sockets, and he placed five elemental 35pt gems into it. I adjusted the rings to give him elementals at his request and Blood Armor on command.”
He whistled. “You really need to be more careful how you use those powers.”
“I couldn’t turn down the Imperial robes. They are needed for us if we are ever to have a king or emperor again.”
He nodded. “It is half of what is needed. Although” he paused in thought, “I think the archmage knows where the Imperial Scepter can be found. He mentioned it in passing once but added that until or unless the robes were ever found, it was useless.”
“It seems like he knew a lot more about this than anyone thought,” I added.
Isaac glanced at me and then at Biff. “We’ll keep this all between us, though, won’t we, journeyman Istari?” His emphasis on “all” was clearly meant for me to keep silent about what the robe divulged when we were alone with it. Neither of us knew if it was true or false, but it was too explosive to be brought to light before the archmage had a chance to answer.
“Yes, Majordomo.” I responded since he referred to me in a formal manner.
Isaac nodded, and sensing he had been more abrupt than perhaps intended, he said. “So gentlemen, what do you think of the room?”
“Amazing!” Biff commented. “I can’t believe I got to see the Archmage’s treasure room. Nobody gets in here. There are so many stories about it that all this trouble was worth the price of admission.”
“Too bad you may never leave, now,” Isaac said with a sad frown.
Biff’s eyes grew large.
“He’s messing with you, Biff,” I said.
Biff looked back and forth between us. “I’m not getting in the middle of this.” He looked at the Majordomo. “Mind if I look around?”
“You may, but do not touch anything. There is more than one thing in here that could kill with a single touch, and many of them look quite innocent.”
Biff looked at me.
“I don’t think he is messing with you about that, Biff. Don't touch anything.” I said cautiously.
Biff actually put his hands behind his back and held them together. Given his muscular physique, that could not have been easy.
“And now, young patron. We must see to your reward. Look around, let me know what you are interested in. Not everything is available, but there is much to explore.”
I had no idea where to begin. The chance to choose an object from the Archmage’s shop was a dream of every apprentice. Probably every master mage as well.
From this central location, I began scanning the edges of the room. I could not make out a lot of fine detail given the distances, but I could easily tell the section of mage staves and wands, from swords and bows, to armors of every conceivable type and size.
There was a section of wall at least fifty feet long that just held shelves of potions. Based on the familiar splash of blues, reds, and yellows, a nice chunk of it held the adventurers' sets of magical restoration, healing, and skill recovery.
I was not that interested in armor, at least not of the physical kind. But magical protections could be good. Something along the lines of what I produced for the Gray Master. I was also not that interested in weapons or staves since I had my own. My staff ring pulsed warmly, once, on my finger as a result of those thoughts.
But then I recalled my training with the Servant of Servants and knew that I could choose a sword to accompany my staff. But my skills were at the most basic level. But the number of weapons was intimidating, even discounting the dozens of swords present. There were spears, bows, polearms, clubs, and lots of axes.
Offensive wands might be a good choice. Adriana and Wilma swore by them, and given what was coming, it might be a good idea to have some firepower behind me. But I also had wand blanks that needed to be made into wands. I could always use one of them, especially since the three that I made, if I wielded them myself, could also carry up to seven magical rings on each as an extension of my hands.
And of course, there was an entire section full of gems and magical jewelry. Who knew what could be found there? I could also use transportation. I saw several rugs similar to the one that Master Drammult flew into our guild hall for my trials.
And there was a section of wall that was three times the length of the potion shelves that was full of books and scrolls. Hundreds, probably thousands of magical books. And this was probably not the archmage’s library.
“This is all too much, Majordomo. I could spend hours, days, weeks here.”
“And longer,” he agreed.
“I trust you. You have been kind and helpful. You have seen so much across your career. What do you think I should consider?”
He walked over to me and looked me up and down. “You have a lot of raw power. Far more than is customary or even wise at your age. But you are weak in combat, and with the coming days, I fear that more will be done with blades than with staff or wand. I found it helpful to learn how to defend myself through more common and mundane ways. With magic diminished and restoration problematic due to Twilight, finding yourself a good blade could be key.”
“I studied the use of a one-handed sharp weapon, a longsword, I believe, but only in a single form and at the most basic level. I have favored a staff as so many other mages do.” I explained
“Who did you study under?” He asked.
“Actually, I never got his name. He was a warrior with a guild I had never heard of before, the Servants of Light.” I replied.
Isaac’s eyebrows raised. “Oh? That is very interesting. You have a lack of skill with a blade, but what skill you did acquire was introduced to you by a son.”
“What is a son?” I asked.
“They are a very old order of paladins, a brotherhood of holy knights and warriors. I had not heard that one passed by here in recent years.”
“I encountered him in the magical hallway at the museum,” I said.
Isaac’s eyebrows rose again. “I’m not sure why I keep allowing myself to be surprised where you are concerned; still, that is also notable.”
“Maybe learning swordplay is my next step,” I observed.
“Then that is what you need to remedy.” He led me over to a part of the room filled with armor, shields, and weapons. There were hundreds of varieties.
Isaac stopped short of the more shiny and showy swords and stood before a Dwarven Copper blade with seven sockets resting beside a sheath that looked like soft leather with hundreds of cursive runes upon it.
“Pick this up.” He instructed.
I carefully lifted it, not comfortable with such a large, sharp object in my hands. But I immediately felt comfortable with its grip and rotated its blade, pivoted in place, and went through a sword equivalent of one of my martial arts katas.
The dwarven copper brightened for a moment, almost as if it remembered the fire of its forging and shone with an inner, red hue.
“It is known as the Sword of the Servant. Whoever wields it with honor will fight as if he were a grandmaster of the blade.” Isaac recited from memory.
And suddenly I knew its properties. While I held it, I had the skill and knowledge of a Seventh Rank warrior with a one-handed sharp weapon. I did not possess all the additional specialized combat and defensive skills that a grandmaster would have acquired over the years, but with the sword itself, I was formidable.
