Chapter 73: Creslan Departure
"My mom needs help in the shop." Theodore shifted his bag strap, eyes dropping to the cobblestones. "And my little sister’s starting at Magilea in two months. Someone has to help get her things ready, and Mom’s already stretched thin with the market season. So I might not be available to accompany you. Though I want to, but—"
"It’s fine, Theodore." Arthur kept his voice even, even though something sank a little in his chest.
Theodore’s shoulders dropped slightly. He glanced at the strawberry basket like it had personally inconvenienced him.
"You can go, Theo." His mother set the rabbit basket down on her hip and looked at him directly, her expression patient in the way mothers got when they’d already decided something before their children finished arguing about it. "I’ll be fine. Your father’s already making good progress with the carpentry work. We’ll manage."
Theodore’s head came up fast. "Really, Mom? But the shop, and Mira’s enrollment paperwork, and—"
"Don’t worry about any of that. Have fun with your friend. Go see the world while you’re young enough to enjoy it." She adjusted the strawberry basket on her other hip. "I don’t want my son just staying here helping us his whole break. You’ve earned a trip."
"But I want to help—"
"I know." Her voice softened, the edges of it warm. "But I can see it in your eyes. You want to go. You’ve wanted to go somewhere new since you were small." She nodded at him, final. "So go."
’Must be nice,’ Vexis said. Not bitter. Just flat, the way he got when something landed somewhere he didn’t want to look at directly.
Arthur didn’t say anything to that. He watched a mother hand her son permission for a trip she didn’t know the real shape of.
Crap. Actually, this isn’t a vacation. It’s a drug investigation.
Theodore looked between Arthur and his mother, hopeful and a little sheepish. Beside Arthur, Vexis was making that face again, the one that meant he had an opinion and was waiting to be asked for it.
’I think you should tell Theodore what you’re actually doing in Creslan.’
Yeah. I think so too.
Theodore sprinted off down the alley without another word. A minute later he came back at a dead run, a brown leather bag slung across one shoulder, grinning wide enough that it looked like it might cost him something later.
"Let’s go, Vex!"
His mother waved as the two of them walked toward the gate.
Cael was waiting outside the wall, a deep blue cloak over his shoulders, the hood hanging loose at his neck. A pack on his back. A small compass-like device hung from a chain at his throat.
Arthur raised a hand. "Cael, this is Theodore. He’ll be coming with us." He turned. "Theodore, this is Cael. Class A. Friend since we were kids."
"Oh—oh, hi, Cael." Theodore’s voice came out a touch stiff.
Cael looked at him, nodded once, and turned back to Arthur with a faint crease of confusion.
They walked beyond the gate. Theodore had started humming something tuneless and content.
Cael leaned in close to Arthur’s ear, careful to keep his voice beneath the level Theodore could pick up. "Why did you invite him? The Patriarch only assigned the two of us to this."
"He’s useful." Arthur kept his own voice low, matching the register. "His bellus can track and sense things in a way mine can’t. Plus the three of us look a lot less suspicious than two grim-faced second-years walking the border roads." He glanced sideways, taking in the cloak, the compass device, the deliberate set of Cael’s shoulders. "Speaking of which, what’s with the whole look? You’re basically wearing a sign that says scouting mission, do not approach."
Cael was quiet for a beat, processing this with what looked like genuine concern. "Do I look bad?"
Arthur studied him for a second, head tilted. "Not bad." A beat. "You look like you’re about to do something suspicious in an alley."
"Oh." Cael glanced down at his own cloak as if seeing it for the first time. He didn’t adjust anything.
Theodore tapped Arthur’s shoulder from behind, jogging slightly to catch up. "Hey, Vex. What are we doing once we get to Creslan? Are we finding Kreasial? I haven’t seen her since the culmination, it’d be funny to surprise her."
Arthur smiled, a little awkward. "Um. About that, Theodore. We’re not exactly going for a vacation."
Theodore tilted his head. His bellus tilted with him.
"My father’s tasked me with investigating something there. A drug operation, suspected production site." Arthur clapped both hands together once and bowed his head slightly. "I’m sorry I didn’t mention it earlier. It could get dangerous, so if you’d rather not get involved, you can head back and help your mother. I’m really sorry."
Theodore went quiet. His eyes sharpened.
"A drug." He paused. "Is it the same thing that happened to Elias? I heard he’s still recovering."
"Exactly that. It’s dangerous, and it’s being moved through the kingdom, possibly through the whole empire. The Allright Council’s been trying to find the source for a long time. No real lead yet."
Theodore’s expression settled into something firmer.
"It’s fine, Vex. I still want to come." He shrugged the strap of his bag higher. "We’re just investigating, right? I’ve taken mercenary jobs that involved that kind of thing before. I’m not new to it."
’You sure about this?’ Vexis’s voice dropped, no humor in it at all. ’Kid almost died once already this year.’
I know.
’I’m not saying don’t. I’m saying know what you’re doing.’
I know, Vexis.
Arthur’s whole face lifted, the conversation in his head folded away behind it. "Thank you, Theodore."
Up ahead, just outside the kingdom walls, a tall tree leaned heavy over the road and a mid-sized carriage sat parked in its shade, the horses already harnessed and waiting.
"This is the transport the Archmagus arranged." Cael was already climbing in, ducking his head under the low doorframe. "The journey takes roughly a full day at this pace. Feel free to sleep if you need to."
Arthur climbed in after him, settling onto the worn cushioned bench. Theodore followed, his bellus immediately curling up in his lap. The interior was warm in one corner near a small heated stone and faintly cold in the other, the two halves never quite agreeing on a temperature no matter how much money had gone into the build.
The carriage lurched forward, wheels finding the road, the academy walls already shrinking behind them.
Cael reached into his pack and produced two bundled sets of thick padded clothing, wool layered under leather.
"What’s this for?" Arthur asked.
"Creslan. The temperature drops to negative sixty once we’re past the border."
Cael glanced at Theodore, opening his mouth to offer the same, but Theodore beat him to it. "Oh, don’t worry, I already packed one. I knew Creslan got cold after the Pale Wyrm attacked the kingdom a hundred years ago."
"A hundred years ago?" Arthur asked.
"You didn’t know about this, Vex?" Theodore’s bellus perked up at his collar, small ears swiveling toward Arthur. "The Pale Wyrm. One of the twelve great dragons that lived on this continent, back when the world still had things like that walking around openly. It went senile sometime after the Great War, nobody really knows why, and attacked Creslan completely unprovoked. Just turned and flew straight for it one night."
"I’ve never heard any of this." Arthur leaned forward slightly, genuinely interested despite himself.
"It’s in the history texts, third-year curriculum usually." Theodore shifted in his seat, warming to the subject the way he always did when he got to explain something he actually knew well. "They say it released a final breath in its last moments, right before the Lestilaut general at the time finally brought it down. The whole Creslan border dropped in temperature that same night and never recovered since. People call it a curse because nobody’s ever managed to undo it, not in a hundred years of trying."
"During winter the cold compounds further," Cael added, his voice carrying the same flat precision he used for everything. "Whatever the underlying mechanism behind the curse is, it stacks with the natural season. Winter’s approaching now, which means it’ll be considerably worse than usual by the time we arrive at the border."
Arthur sat with that for a moment.
A dragon. Huh.
"You ever hear about this, master?"
"Verul killed it," Roz said from his shoulder, flat and entirely unbothered, as if this were an unremarkable fact about the local weather rather than a centuries-old continental catastrophe.
"Your second caller—"
Theodore leaned forward, elbows on his knees. "You call your bellus ’master’?" His head tilted, ears practically following the motion, genuine curiosity rather than teasing.
Arthur blinked, caught off guard that Theodore’s hearing had picked that up clearly over the carriage wheels and the wind outside.
"Oh—uh, yeah. Long story. Don’t mind it." He turned fast toward the window, grasping for literally anything else to talk about. "Whoa, look at that. A curving tree!"
Theodore leaned over to look anyway, easily distracted, and the carriage rattled on toward the cold.
