The Duke's Hidden Betrayal

Story So Far

Verdastant's grimoire and the Book were used in the workshop to shape a broad-shouldered stone figure resembling Chumley, with a ring-inside-ring circuit pressed into its chest until the circuit warmed and oriented, and the figure's head turned toward its makers. The figure was named Stuart on the highland forecourt, asked to watch the dark city below, and it nodded, tracked a raised hand, and turned toward the city and back before taking its post at the forecourt's edge.

Over following weeks three more highland-granite automata were raised using Stuart's ring-inside-ring grammar, and by the second week Stuart learned to sense active carvings by proximity and mark them with upright flat stones, an innovation recorded in the grimoire. A cleared eastern lot was chosen for a modest school with one long room, two study rooms, and an open courtyard, and its first stone was set by hand without magic; the three new automata were left unnamed because names must be earned through demonstrated attention.

The school's courtyard and two study rooms were finished and the long instruction room was nearly complete, with a small cut across the left palm already scabbing and forming calluses on the hands doing the work. Stuart watched from the forecourt's edge while the three newer automata continued cataloguing shifted carvings in the city below.

One person walked east from the rebuilt streets with Stuart to test the working's reach, following the causeway and pale dirt road until the tower's hum faded to nothing about half a mile past the last rebuilt block, establishing that the working had a hard edge there. Returning to the vaulted chamber, the Book was opened and Verdastant's script explained that the boundary follows anchor reach, showed a tower-and-grid diagram with circle-and-line relay nodes, revealed dormant anchors beyond the edge, and instructed that rebuilding those anchors would extend the reach.

Stuart led the way to seven city sites where dormant carvings had changed overnight, and the three unnamed automata were found waiting in the highland market hall in self-chosen positions. The seven sites were logged in the grimoire, and the automata were named Ledger for its ordered stones, Warden for its watch on the road, and Finder for its study of a half-buried spiral; the dormant anchors at the working's edge still waited.

In the vaulted chamber a walnut-sized grey-white stone from the forecourt grit was taken, a small spiral pressed into it, and a light working set so it brightened with an outward gesture and dimmed with the reverse, needing no caster after the initial working. The stone was left on the plinth beside the Book at a low glow, Verdastant's awareness stirred without speaking, and a second stone was picked up.

Five fist-sized spheres of compressed force were raised in a flat forecourt clearing, set to orbit at shoulder height, and sealed with fire, ice, electricity requiring two rebuilt inner rings, earth, and force, each locked in an unbreakable outer shell. The five spheres continued to orbit, appearing unchanged to the eye but dense and bright in the Sight as fire-gold, ice-blue, white, grey, and colorless force, and Verdastant's awareness stirred behind the caster's eyes.

Back in the vaulted chamber with the five orbiting spheres, the city's name and fall were asked of the Book, and Verdastant answered that Aethenmoor was abandoned by its keepers, held for thirty years, and then began to forget. The name Aethenmoor was written in the grimoire, the spheres rested beside the walnut-stones, and Ledger, Warden, and Finder remained at their posts outside.

On the eastern forecourt a shallow circular stone basin was raised and the city's grammar set into a closed circuit through the tower, the streets, and the dormant anchors until the last thread seated, producing a miniature city with grey nodes visible in still water. Warden turned in announcement, and four or five distant figures were visible on the road to the east.

Chumley, Rolan, Brennan, Mira, and three strangers emerged from the highland haze before the basin map and orbiting spheres. Chumley halted at the taller tower, Rolan reported that letters had arrived and the Duke's reply was in the satchel, Mira studied her stone likeness, Brennan marked unreached eastern nodes, and Mira identified the strangers as Tam and an academy man and a cartographer. The figure on the steps said Aethenmoor needed more hands and told Rolan to leave the Duke's reply for later.

The city and its needs were presented to the assembled group, naming fields south, orchards east, a possible vineyard west, and the limits of magic, while the academy man watched and the cartographer wrote. The First of Aethenmoor were told they could have a home there if they wished, and Chumley said they were staying.

At the tower doorway the speaker said the home was for good and anyone coming must choose it willingly, and Chumley's face settled into relief while Stuart turned its head toward Tam and Tam noted it was looking at him. The group was invited inside, warned not to fear the walking statues as they would not attack first, and told dinner came first; Chumley picked up his canvas pack and moved toward the door.

In the tower's small kitchen Chumley made a hot pot from dried provisions and herbs, the group crowded the table and stairs, and Rolan set a sealed reply from the Duke's secondary office beside the bowl. The meal continued with the letter still unopened, Stuart's flat stone upright by the workshop door, and Warden, Ledger, and Finder still at their posts.

Three Light Stones with pressed spirals were set out on the kitchen table, demonstrated to glow outward and dim inward, and described by the academy man as practical trade goods. Tam was told to touch a Light Stone and brighten it outward and dim it inward; he held it as it lit his face, the cartographer studied a second stone's spiral, the academy man set the third back down, and Mira opened her notebook.

The group planned how to people the city: Rolan named villages east of Thornwall, the cartographer sketched a grid, Verdastant's test was described as being completely looked at, and Brennan reported the mace had sold for forty-two silver. The speaker said only people who passed Verdastant's inspection would be taught, the academy man wanted that explained before sending anyone, and the cartographer would walk every street and begin the map the next morning.

Safe lodging was offered and the sealed Duke's letter was moved to the desk; Chumley went upstairs, Tam followed the academy man to a shuttered upper room with a Light Stone, the cartographer left for the city with her map and satchel, Brennan went up, and Mira opened her notebook. The recipient broke the seal and read an unofficial reply about Aethenmoor and civic recognition, with a margin note warning not to move settlers before a talk because parties had prior claims to the highland ridge, and instructing the recipient to come to Thornwall soon.

A margin note marked with Verdastant's pressed spiral was studied as leverage, and a teleportation-circle plan was sketched linking the tower to Thornwall with possible anchors in the restricted library or the ducal administration building. A fresh sheet showed two circles joined by a line under the heading "anchor grammar."

Three sheets of notes covering node grammar, dormant anchors, and supplies were drafted alongside two versions of the Duke's reply, with prior claims and teleportation work omitted from the final short letter. The letter proposed a meeting at mutual convenience, was sealed with a dagger pommel bearing a faint spiral, and Rolan was named for the morning; five dim spheres hovered in the corner and Stuart stood at the forecourt's edge facing east.

On a cold bright morning after breakfast, three marked nodes in the rebuilt blocks were checked with the grimoire and Stuart, and each stone was recognized as a place where Finder had sat watching before. The group was told to pick a house or help build one, and someone said she would take the room above the study for now.

At the third lane node a faint cold thread in a worn flagstone matching the tower's circle-and-line working was found, sparked until its mark lit and locked, and then Finder led the way east where three more nodes were seated and logged in the grimoire. By midmorning four nodes glowed faintly, the hand was deeply tired though not injured, Finder waited at the next node, and Stuart stood behind.

Over reheated hot pot in the tower kitchen the academy man gave his name as Aldric Vane, and both Aldric and Tam were told about the nodes, the working, the school in the eastern lot, the automata, and Aethenmoor's forgotten past. Both were asked whether they wanted to join the work, told the final say was not the speaker's, and told any willing candidate must meet Verdastant directly and be Measured; Tam looked at Aldric and Aldric looked at the speaker.

Aldric said the test was unexplained and not his to administer, then said to show him, and Tam joined; all three went upstairs to the Books Room where Aldric and Tam were told to stand before the Book on its plinth, look at it, and let it look back. Aldric and Tam stood beside each other before the Book with the grimoire open on the desk and five low steady spheres drifting at shoulder height.

The Book's awareness opened and fixed its total attention on the group; Aldric went still with hands flat at his sides, Tam made a small sound and stood open to it, and the silence deepened for a minute or two before the awareness receded. Aldric exhaled, looked at the narrator unsettled and convinced, and Tam turned with bright eyes.