"Sort of."

 

 

 

 

 

Andy slipped his weapons away and gestured toward Mir, "Yes, she's a mirror imp, but no, she's not evil. Quite the opposite, just like the original." He gestured to himself, "Lawful good, by the way." He gestured to Stratos, "You, on the other hand, are an infernalist. The word they use for people from another world who have entered into pacts with dark gods."

 

Stratos quirked an eyebrow, "I haven't entered into a pact with any dark god."

 

"You sure about that? You sat across from the interviewer, correct? They went over your character sheet?"

 

Stratos paused, frowned, then scratched his chin, "Actually... yes. For several hours, to be exact." He gritted his teeth, "I didn't read the Disclaimer and-" He looked up, "Wait, are you from Earth... er... is the original you from Earth?"

 

Andy nodded, "Yes, and I read the disclaimer, I just thought it was a joke. I doubt you would have taken it seriously."

 

"HE read it." Stratos said pointedly, "Not you."

 

Andy narrowed his eyes, "I share half his memories. I remember doing it too. Stop splitting hairs." He paused then added, "And it doesn't seem to be HALF the memories, but half the experience. Some memories don't fall under experience, so we share those memories in total. Although... it's hard to properly define what is experience and what is just a memory."

 

Stratos nodded slowly, then shrugged, "Let's play a game and see how close I can get." He pointed at Mir, "She's a copy of a Mirror Imp, which means you have two mirror imps, can cast the spell yourself, or somehow artificially elevated her level so she could cast in on herself." He paused to gauge Andy's reaction. Andy just nodded, so Stratos continued, "She's at least fifteenth level, judging by her natural armor, so that means the original is at least thirty, with the level penalty to have her as a familiar, that makes the wizard at least... I want to say forty-five... maybe fiftieth level. Am I close?"

 

"More or less."

 

"But you? You're what? Fifth?" Stratos pointed at Andy, "However. you don't need to make a full-powered copy of someone, so my guess is the original doesn't trust having a copy of himself running around, so he left you depowered so you couldn't be a threat."

 

Andy sighed, "I'm a decoy. Annnnd... the problem is, all infernalists are usually a strange race." He pointed at the halo around Stratos' head, "And eleventh level when they first arrive, so people like you get killed on sight."

 

"Shit. I AM eleventh." He grit his teeth, "Why didn't those assholes tell me this before they sent me here?"

 

Andy was quiet as he walked over to lean against the wall, "I got a theory. Wanna hear it?" Stratos nodded, so Andy continued, "When I... err... when my ORIGINAL was first getting processed, I think he ticked off the... er... outline? The thing behind the desk." Andy scratched the back of his head, "At least he.. she... it? Whatever. It seemed annoyed at my character build. ESPECIALLY because I refused the cheat."

 

"He refused the cheat? WHY?"

 

"Uh... Because it's a cheat. DUH. Turned out to be a smart move, because people around here can detect your cheat. They have a device at every adventurer's guild that checks your stats and sees if you are an infernalist. If you don't have a cheat, you don't detect as one." Andy raised a finger, "It's a hidden sub-racial stat. It doesn't show up on your sheet, but can be detected."

 

"Well... I took the cheat so that's not the problem, but I DID argue with the... outline for several hours." Stratos looked up, "So you think they gave me a hard spawn point just to be petty?"

 

Andy nodded, "That's my guess. By the way, elves ESPECIALLY hate infernalists so watch out for them. Otherwise, from what I heard, other countries are less paranoid. Some unscrupulous nobles make bargains with infernalists. I heard there is some sort of secret organization of them, but I haven't-"

 

"Are you talking about the guild requests from the quest window? Yeah, I've gotten a few requests to Join A Guild. I didn't want to commit to anything until I got the lay of the land." He snapped his fingers, "Speaking of, I got a quest right here in town. Wanted to ask you about it, first."

 

"Oh?"

 

"Yeah, that one guy at the card table. The black haired lanky kid? He's secretly an elven woman." Stratos leered a bit, "Kinda hot, if you ask me. Apparently, there's a bounty on her head." He hooked a thumb over his shoulder, "I was planning on chatting with you, maybe collecting the bounty, then blowing town. I got a problem with knocking off a hot chick, but she did try to kill me." He shrugged, "Is there any reason I shouldn't?"

 

"Wait, are you talking about Noel?" Andy pushed himself away from the wall and straightened up, "He's an elf? And a she?" He paused then added, "Crap. I think I know who that is and... truth told, it'd cause me a lot of trouble if you killed her."

 

"How so?"

 

"She's here to watch for the original me and if you kill her, they'll send someone else. Plus... if it's who I think it is, she's had a hard life. It'd be bad karma to kill her." Andy took a few steps closer, "I'm asking, please don't."

 

Stratos took a deep breath then let it out slowly, "Well... okay. But I didn't put the bounty out on her, so someone else is bound to pick it up."

 

Andy nodded, "I get it. I'll burn that bridge when I come to it."

 

Stratos quirked an eyebrow, then shook his head dismissively, "Any clue where I can find others of my kind?"

 

Andy shook his head, "Not a clue, AND I need you to move on. I'm being watched, so you can't stay here."

 

Stratos nodded, "I get it, I get it. Alright. I'll move on." He stood up, "Anything before I get going?"

 

"Not really." Andy shook his head, then pointed at Mir, "Well, could you unfreeze her?" Suddenly he snapped his fingers, "Oh. Just curious. What cheat did you get?"

 

"Huh? Oh. Save point. I can save a moment in time, then reset back to it." Stratos grinned, "Cool, huh?"

 

Andy shook his head, "You got ripped off. You could do the same thing with Forced Dream."

 

Stratos snorted, "Psionics suck. Anyways, I won't be unfreezing her, because I'm going to do you a favor and give you an alibi." He gave Andy a pat on the shoulder, "I owe you one, but alas, you won't remember any of this."

 

 

"Restart."

 

---

 

Andy slowly made his way home. The front door of his shop was locked and the closed sign turned around. Not unusual at this time of the evening. Andy inserted his key and let himself in. The bell over the door let out a soft ding-aling.

 

Then he was standing in Karl's office.

 

He was surrounded by The Silver Hounds and Karl. Soldis was standing right in front of Andy with Karl off to the side. Outside were a bunch of other adventurers trying to look inside the room. Noel was front and center. On Karl's desk was a frozen Mir encased in Amber.

 

Andy looked around, "What happened?"

 

Everyone let out a sigh of relief. Karl called out, "IT WORKED!" There was a cheer from the crowd outside. A bunch of hands grabbed Andy and shook him. Otto spoke the loudest, "Gods Damn it! You had us worried there!" He lowered his voice and his tone became much more serious, "Do you know what happened to you?"

 

Andy glanced around at the outpouring of relief and goodwill, then shrugged, "I had just gotten home, locked up, and then... I was here." He looked at Mir, "Why is Mir in an Amber Prison?"

 

"You were in the same thing when Noel found you." Karl pointed out the doorway, "He saw an orange flash as he was out looking for the infernalist and investigated."

 

Elyin, disguised as Noel, stepped into Karl's office, "I couldn't see anything through the shutters, so I went around back and climbed over the fence. The back door was gone completely and someone looted your enchanting supplies. It was the only room that was ransacked, but maybe they snagged a few things here and there. You'll have do inventory when you get home. That... was four days ago."

 

Andy blinked, "FOUR DAYS??? Why didn't you just chip the damn thing away!"

 

"You can do that?" Soldis asked, somewhat surprised.

 

"Yeah! It's an amber prison! Basically puts you in stasis and covers you in a shell that has hundreds of hit points. It would take a while to chip it away, but not impossible. It's a rather versatile spell, but it's expensive as Hell to cast." Andy scratched his head, "Who'd waste a THOUSAND silver just to rob me of my enchanting supplies?"

 

"We assume the infernalist." Soldis shrugged, "Well, hold on while I break the spell on Mir. We didn't want to take the chance that shattering the shell also hurt the person trapped inside." He turned and walked over to Karl's desk.

 

Andy looked at Karl, "Did anything else happen while I was out?" He turned to Elyin, "Did anything else seem out of place?"

 

Both indicated a negative. Shortly thereafter, Soldis broke the spell on Mir. The crowd was happy to see Andy freed and most of the adventurers took this as an excuse to celebrate. Quite a bit of drinking then followed. Elyin hung out with the crowd for a while, pausing to mention repeatedly how valuable Andy was to the town and how they needed more than one Alchemist.

 

Elyin didn't push the point, just planting the idea for now. Instead, she made an excuse to leave, pausing only to inform Karl that she was going to be out of town for a few days. She hurried back to her room to get her stuff and a very special package. She would have preferred to have stayed in town and worked on becoming Andy's apprentice, but she had a more important mission. When she found Andy frozen in Amber, she did NOT immediately report it to the authorities but instead made a quick sweep of the house. She found the corner of Andy's bed messed up, so her instincts told her to search it. Under the pillow, she found a letter.

 

 

Dear Andy,

I know we have't met, but thanks for the supplies. As payment, here's a nugget of information. That Noel guy? He's a female elf using alter self to look like some nobody. I think she's here to spy on you. Just so you know, the quest board has a bounty on her head. She's wanted Dead. Period. Payout in bonus experience points. I know it'd annoy you if she was killed, so I won't tell anyone she's here, but someone else is bound to find her, sooner or later.

 

See you around,

- Stratos, Lord of Lightning.

 

 

Elyin's first impulse was to burn the letter, but then she realized it had been written by an infernalist. From talking to Andy and Mir at the party, she didn't think they had met Stratos or knew about the letter. Which meant the letter was left for Andy to find. For some reason, he froze them, stole the supplies, then left. But if he hadn't met Andy, how would the infernalist know what would or would not annoy Andy?

 

Either way, the letter was something that could be used to try and locate the infernalist. She didn't want to break cover, but she couldn't let this go either. She'd travel to Fort Tripplethorpe and drop off the letter with an explanation using a dead drop. A little selective cutting and it was easy enough to remove the parts that would indicate they were talking about her. It was a risk, but giving her old superiors a lead on an infernalist was well worth the possibility of them finding her. It would only take a few days, and soon she'd be back to getting an apprenticeship.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then all she'd have to do is figure out how to survive a bounty placed on her head by the most powerful group on the planet.