"Tiberium Letters" - Part Seventeen

Tiberium Letters

Part Seventeen

By Dwayne MacInnes

I made my official report to the Countess Aversfield. On my advice, she promoted Reyn to Captain of the Guard and she made Sleestak her new minister. An investigation into the disappearance of the Lizard-folk in the surrounding area began and many a guardsman found himself off to an imperial penal colony.

The Countess had the tunnels beneath the castle cleared out of any remaining goblins. Giland started to look like a model city in the Empire. However, I was unable to stay long before I had to be back at the Imperial City.

On my return, I was surprised to find the Shadow Fox inside my house waiting for me. He was sitting next to a crackling fire in my hearth. He motioned for me to take a chair next to him.

"I hear you did some mighty fine work for the Countess. How successful were you with your primary mission?" the Shadow Fox asked.

I looked at him closely, for some reason he looked familiar. No, not because I saw him previously, I know that somewhere I had seen him without the mask. Anyway, I shook my head to gather my thoughts.

"Sorry, it has been a long and exhausting trip," I reached into my inner pocket of my cloak and handed over the letters. "Here you go. Every last one I could find."

"Good," the master thief said, "You made sure they were authentic right?"

I nodded my head.

"Good, good," the Shadow Fox responded and he tossed the letters into the fire. "I do not know what was in those letters. But, I do know the Lady Tiber confessed everything to the Emperor and he has ordered them destroyed. They are too important for anyone to get their hands on again."

"Was there anything else? It appears that Brunis had his fingers in a lot of pies and nothing should be overlooked."

"The only thing I cannot identify is this," I said as I pulled the green icicle out of my haversack.

The Shadow Fox stared at it in amazement, "Do you know what you have there?"

"Um, I think I established that I did not," I replied a little irreverently. I was tired and maybe a little short tempered.

"That's a memory stick."

"Huh?"

"Powerful mages can capture someone's entire memory within it. The person gets amnesia, but will never recover because his memories are trapped inside a memory stick."

"I wonder who was unfortunate enough to have their memory trapped inside this thing," I wondered aloud.

"There is no telling. The only way to restore the memory to the person is to break the stick," the Shadow Fox continued.

I shrugged my shoulders and placed the icicle-like object between my fingers. I started to apply pressure then I stopped.

"How will the memories find their owner?" I asked.

"Memories are part of their owner; as soon as the memories are released the person who lost them will suddenly find them regained."

"Hmm," I said and snapped the green icicle but nothing happened. "I guess it was empty."

"No it wasn't," the Shadow Fox replied. He stood up and headed for the door.

I stood up and cleared my throat, "Um, not to be rude but I thought there was supposed to be some payment for my mission."

"Sorry, it slipped my mind," the Shadow Fox undid a pouch at his belt and tossed it towards me. "This is from the Emperor. The guild will send you its payment later."

Before I could open the pouch, the Shadow Fox had disappeared out the door. Inside the pouch were ten perfect rubies and six large black pearls. It was obvious the Emperor knew something about transferring large sums of wealth discreetly. Coinage makes a lot of noise and is heavy for delivering hefty payments. Gems and jewels were lighter and quieter.

I was beaming with excitement when I heard the knock on my door. I hid my new wealth under a seat cushion and opened the door. On the front step two well-dressed men stood.

"Are you Gwendolyn?" asked one of the men.

"Oh, I'm sorry I belong to a church already," I said reflexively.

"I'm sorry we are not here from any temple. We have the unfortunate business to tell you that the Mages Guild is suing you," one of the men said as the other thrust the summons into my hand.