One Night in Camelot – 2
Back in your main body, you’re pretending to sleep.
Smokey is watching you, a hint of DESIRE within him, but more drowned out by feelings of how cute you look. You’d be speaking with him if the poor man wasn’t a bit senile. He came in here three times and said the same story those three times.
It’s partly your fault.
Soulsight tells you he gets distracted looking at you and his brain blips a bit and resets. Rails, the pudgier yet younger of the pair of conductors, apologized on his behalf and said it happens sometimes. It’s cute and sad at the same time.
You consider using your blessing to help him out, but wouldn’t handing it out willy-nilly detract from its value? Well, no, maybe not. Didn’t Heysoos hand miracles out like miracles were going out of business?
Which, they did for a while after him.
Whatever, they’re back in business now! You promise yourself to be more generous with your blessings in the future. You’ve got the magic to spare anyways. You lean your head on the window just as the train zooms out of a tunnel. And your breath is taken away.
The train is chugging along the side of a massive crater heading towards a massive bridge. The crater is lush with greenery. A stooping prairie becomes denser with foliage the deeper the crater goes until a mile down, when the ground is completely hidden by layers of dense jungle canopy.
In the center of the crater, a plateau of white stone bursts from the jungle. On it is the most resplendent city you’ve seen. Modern high rises of glass and steel surround the edge, dwarfed by the titanic shale walls of an ancient city. A castle stands proudly within the center of the walls, standing proudly over its younger kin. Magnificent towers connect to the central building with enough flying buttresses and gargoyles to rival Anor Londo.
Your jaw drops at the sight. You marvel at it as the train crosses the bridge to approach it. There’s a flash of something below, and you swear you see a green woman on a branch waving at you. But just as quickly, it seems as if she’s melted into the tree. You blink a few times. How strange.
Once the train stops at Camelot as the morning sun reaches its zenith, you went to the conductors and thanked them, though not before whispering a blessing under your breath.
“I bless you with a restored memory.” The familiar sensation hurts a bit, yet the light in Smokey’s eyes makes it worth it.
You’re now in Camelot. Maybe walking around will get you some answers. There’s only a few dwarves and goblins, but elves and humans are everywhere. In fact, there’s more humans here than you’ve seen anywhere else in this reality. As you get closer to the center of Camelot, the modern high-rises shift to hybrid traditional first floors with modern extensions, then to old buildings entirely. There’s an even bigger shift when you walk through the big church in the center of the city.
Which is super weird. There are crosses and everything. The people in armor walking around make you uncomfortable. Maybe you should be using your unnoticeability charm… No, you’re just a normal goblin. Ignore the strange looks.
You hurry out of the church and enter a new, even ritzier part of the city. There are more and more people with their noses up in the air wearing ridiculous dresses and suits. Though you can understand why: these buildings are ancient and resplendent! Gargoyles line every roof, garden balconies spill greenery, and all the cobblestone paths wind further into the city, where several huge edifices match the opulence of the church.
Twelve towers surround a close-knit collection of marble buildings. Ostentatious barracks are carved from the mountain the city has eaten into. And at the very back, supporting the weight of the half-carved mountain, is a tree curled around itself that can only be the palace.
Prillia has got your realm beat.
You stop by a few shops, buying used books and records when you can. Walking around and observing the neat buildings, you lose track of your place. When you get close to the center, you realize you’re the only goblin around. Humans in their silly costumes are walking around glaring at you.
There’s DESIRE, but it’s drowned out by a combination of shame, jealousy, and superiority. You in the wrong neighborhood, gobbo.
A human woman and her cronies stomp their way over to you.
“What is a dirty greenskin doing in the upper echelons of Camelot? Shouldn’t you be cleaning chimneys or cleaning sewers?”
This is where you’re taken aback. She’s jealous, that’s obvious. You’ve been gathering looks since you passed through the first wall and into a part of Camelot with older buildings. And the racism is more overt than you expected. But couldn’t she work on better insults?
“What? Can’t speak proper Common, like a civilized woman?”
Are you even speaking Common? Everything else speaks the same language. Maybe you’ve got Alltongue. Part of you wants to hypnotize her and everyone else in this neighborhood into giving you oral.
Another part of you suggests crying crocodile tears and whining until a gentleman helps you. At this point, you’re just overwhelmed by the mean girls situation you find yourself in. You laugh out loud.
“Excuse me?! Are you mocking me?! Do you know who I am?!”
A stereotype? You laugh harder. Her ruddy pink face turns purple as she rages, eliciting more laughter.
“You! You…Temptress! I fathom you’re nothing more than…than a hussy!” There are gasps from the onlookers “You want to seduce a noble from around here and marry into money!”
At this point, you’re struggling hard to stay standing as peals of laughter echo off the cobblestone walls. A quick glance gives you what you need to get her to leave you alone. Through careful breaths you calm yourself enough to say something.
“Coming from the woman who is wearing a padded underwear, a fake mole, and a retainer…I don’t think I’m the one looking for a man! Are you keeping the cronies behind you to seem prettier, or are they there to make fun of you when you fail?”
Juvenile, yes. Effective, also yes.
Maybe you shouldn’t use soulsight to search for people’s deepest insecurities. But you’re a demon, you’re allowed to pull shit like this.
Sure enough she bursts into tears. She runs off, crying, while her cronies chase after her. You walk over to a man and the others in the crowd move away from him. He looks at you nervously as you smile.
“Do you happen to know where the university is?”
“D-down until you reach Uther Street, and then left. Can’t miss it.”
“Thanks!”
His directions are sound; you arrive just as a tour is about to start. Again, its mostly humans and elves with a few dwarves and centaurs. A few scattered goblins trail behind them, enamored by the sights of Camelot. They look out of place.
A change of wardrobe is necessary. You walked around in a comfortable, casual outfit as a goblin, but all the people who belong here walk as if they’ve got a stick up their ass. Knee-high black laced boots, with elaborate black stockings clinging to your thighs. A tapered, multilayered white skirt with dark green highlights covers your panties while leaving you easy access. A black button vest hugs your body tightly, leaving your bust barely exposed through the laces holding it together, save for the hardworking buttons of the shirt. The frilly white shirt peeks through the vest, the sleeves reaching out to cover your hands. You summon a pair of jade colored half-moon glasses to complete your ensemble.
You now look like a nerdy goblin student, her wavy black hair and matching her black and white outfit. Her ears poke through her hair, though most of her face is hidden behind her bangs. A beautiful figure, but ultimately a hidden face. The type of girl you’d bend over the table and fuck until she turns into a gibbering mess.
Mingling in with the prospective students, the guide shows the dorms, the campus, the classrooms…
Very generic stuff…
The guide seems pretty proud to be part of the ‘biggest university in the world’. She brags about the state-of-the-art magic training facilities. She mentions how living in a city of millions is beneficial for social lives, especially for those to be well-connected among nobles. Finally, your group passes by the experimental facility.
She shows off what they’re doing with their grants, asking the scientists what they’ve got going. There’s interesting spells, potions, and even some sort of pedal-powered helicopter. But two things catch your eye. Well, the first catches your ear.
“Weren’t you working on a stasis chamber last year?” The guide asks a scientist looking over a blackboard of equations.
“Yes, but there were some problems. While the stasis chamber would keep patients alive in case of terrible injury, the parts lacked…cohesion. And the stasis was ineffectual, only keeping people alive, so long as it did not leak. I sold the schematics to an alumnus. He did seem a bit off, but I think it’s because he didn’t seem to blink. Classic case of coffee overdose.”
You remember the stasis pods you found, made with the aid of trilomorphs, back in Rastazan’s lair. You’re close!
The other thing of note was the giant golem in the back. It’s an enormous insect made of wood, but it looks like the one that communicated with Rastazan. You raise a hand and point at it.
“What’s that?”
A few of the scientists perk up, soulsight confirming excitement. It’s another who stands in front of it and explains.
“This is a work in progress. We have the schematics and the runes, but the magic necessary to keep it functioning cannot be contained via gems, runes, or glyphs without making it too big to fulfill its purpose. This model can fly with equal speed and agility as a typical goblin airbike, but only for fifteen minutes. Reducing the size is the only way it can find any use.”
Aevum is ahead of the curve.
“Moving on…”
The scientists keep their eyes on you as you leave, and once they break eye contact, you mingle in the crowd for a while longer until you get to the library. You hang near the back and wait for them to go on before entering the library. There’s a gruff-looking student at the front desk, but otherwise, the place is empty.
You walk up to him and smile.
“Hi, I’m taking the summer term and I need to finish a project in History of Prillia III. Can you help me find a book?” Here’s hoping bullshit pulls through.
“Sure, I hated that class.”
Yes!
“Student ID?”
No!
“I left in my dorm, but—”
“No ID, no books. Sorry.”
“I won’t even leave with them I just—”
“No ID. No books. Those are the rules.” He glares at you.
Assholes who get like this with any modicum of power.
You want to scream: ‘I’M TRYING TO PREVENT A GENOCIDAL MANIAC FROM DOING WHATEVER HE’S DOING’, but then he’d say the same thing before calling security.
You know how hard it is to get a student ID legitimately, and you aren’t going through the effort illegitimately. Stealing may sound like a good idea, but who knows what sort of magic they use to verify them? Sexing him in public could be even riskier.
“Can you look in a beautiful woman’s eyes and say that?”
“I. Said. No. ID. No. Boooooeeeeeeeuuuuuuuuh…” Nailed him.
You’re usually unwilling to use hypnosis. It only works on the weak-willed, after all. And it robs your victims of their freedom of thought, maybe permanently. But you’re on Aevum’s trail, and you’re not going to let a bit of administrative nonsense get in your way.
“Would you mind leading me to the alumnus records?”
“Sure thing.” And off he goes.
The library is massive. Shelves of books three stories tall reach up to the ceiling, arrayed from wall to wall of a room itself larger than any manmade room you’ve been in. It dwarfs your own library.
For now.
He leads you to a massive book, pages yellowed with age. Flipping over a cover the size of a mattress, dust flies everywhere.
“Who are you looking for?”
Moment of truth.
“Aevum Emit Sisto.”
“Book, find ‘Aevum Emit Sisto.’” Runes dance over the pages and a hurricane of dust buffets you as the pages flip past. After a minute of flipping pages, it slows to a stop.
“Not a very interesting part of history, I can tell you that. Aevum graduated from the university 200 years ago. Huh, interesting, he was apparently from a village in what is now known as the Plains, south of the what were once dragon lands. Wow, he set the record for the tests at the time and got his degree in a year and a half. Insisted on taking the tests early because he had started a family in his town. Pity, had he stayed here, he could have left a very prominent mark on Prillia.”
As the librarian reads the story, you start putting the pieces together, and it feels like a shard of ice grows in your heart. This is not painting a pretty picture.
“What did he study? And did he publish anything?”
“He studied magic. Mostly theoretical and engineering magic. I could show you some of the books.”
“Please.”
He goes around the library, pointing out books, which you not-so-discreetly sneak into your bag.
“And that’s about everything. As for his thesis, it’s listed in the Forbidden section over there.”
He points towards a gate with a lock on it, separating the library from another, dustier library.
“I can only open it with the Dean’s permission, because there’s a strong barrier the deans have placed there even with the key unlocking the two-hundred and twenty-two arrays protecting it.”
“What does the key look like?”
“Like this.” He takes out a big brass key.
“Sleep.”
“Zzzzzz….”
Yoink.
Impressive that he sleeps standing up. You’ve heard horses do that, but you have yet to see somebody do it. You unlock the gate and put your hand on the invisible force field. Magicking up a shadow drill, you bore a hole, careful not to break the forcefield completely.
The less traces you leave, the better. The barrier tries to close itself, so you leave a donut of black magic to keep it apart.
Hoping there aren’t any silent alarms, you rush through the forbidden section, eyes moving faster than any mortal’s. A few titles interest you: ‘The Nature of Shadow and Dark Magic’, ‘Flesh Golems and You: Sewing a Happy Future’, ‘Space and Time Magic For the Beautiful Black-haired Goblin With a Nice Chest’, ‘Distilling and Fermenting’, ‘Soul Magic (And Soul Food)’.
You have to take them all. Especially the one that complimented you.
After a minute of frantic searching, you find it: ‘A Dissertation on the Correlation Between Life, Magic, Space, Time, and Magnets: How Life in our Universe Holds the Most Basic and Greatest Power Yet To Be Discovered.’
A bit of a mouthful, but his name is right there, squeezed between the title and the bottom of the book. You take it and leave behind a bag of gold. Least you could do, and it’s what it’s for
Time to skedaddle. You rush through the donut and dissipate it, locking the gate behind you. You hold up the librarian’s hand and put the key in there.
“Wake.”
His eyes tear open and he blinks a few times. He looks at the key in his hand and puts it back.
“As I was saying, don’t go in there without the Dean. Even disregarding the gate and the barrier, there’s a silent alarm on the books only the Dean will hear. He’d be here in about five minutes since teleportation is impossible inside the Academy.”
Fuck!
You try to go into Haven. It feels like your magic is hitting a wall. Seems like it needs more of a push, but something will break.
Double fuck!
This was supposed to be a covert op. Keep Calm!
“Thank you so much for helping with my project and showing me around. I’ve got to go, it’s due soon!”
“Oh…do you mind…if we have dinner together tonight?”
Triple fuck! Too much seduction!
“Sorry, the project’s due tomorrow! It’ll have to be an all-nighter for me.”
You don’t even know his name! Not that that’d stop you from fucking his brains out… You’re genuinely tempted into taking him. You can take him later, with a cooler head. You get horny and off-track when you panic. You focus on the librarian, flexing your hypnotism again.
“Look me in the eyes…”
“Yeah?”
“Once I walk through this door, forget about me, okay?” His eyes go out of focus again.
“Sure…”
You smile wildly as you back out of the door before hurriedly taking your amulet of concealment out of your bag. You run towards the exit, but a human with a beard, bushy eyebrows, and a red cape turns a corner, at full gallop, his hands ablaze blue arcane light.
He looks like a discount Buttdick Cuntcuminmysnatch.
He stops right as he passes you and looks around with narrowed eyes. Uh-oh. You hop in a shadow right before he unleashes a burst of blue magic. He looks around suspiciously before continuing running.
That was probably the Dean.
You hop back out of the shadow and look at your concealment amulet. It’s cracked. Whew. Also bummer, that was a gift! Rather than make noise running, you walk out like you belong. When you finally leave the threshold of the university, you heave a sigh of relief.
Exploring Camelot has been fun and all. Weird modern streets, a big church, and then all sorts of old historical buildings. And a massive Academy with towers that were at different heights this morning…? It’s getting late anyways, better run.
You find a secluded alley and slip into Haven. There’s probably a bit of heat on you, but laying low for a while before you sneak back in for clues on Trilomorphs should be good. One day in Camelot is risky enough.