The opulent halls was lined with soft whispers of an unknown horde of restless men mindlessly building a road on the orders of only a few men. Their words betrayed the gold and jewels lining the railing, the deep crimson carpet that adorned the path to the throne, and penetrated the ears of the mage and queen. At Octana's order, Markus raised his head as 'M', casting their gaze together in acknowledgement. "I hear you have been quite busy in the short time you had left - tell me of the project, what do you have to say on the progression?"
"My queen, dear Octana, the road from here, the capital, to the wetlands of the south should near completion in three days at the latest."
"That is quite the claim, seeing as the men would need to stop to eat."
".... what if I were to tell you that those men and women are anything but that."
"Explain."
"Are you certain? I fear for my life if words were to be misconstrued."
Octana turned to the small gathered court, waving them away. Those who had decided to attend were not ones with something to do, the topic of the meeting was so bland it offered just a small entertainment to the nobles and diplomats. In the closing of the doors, the guards settled to their positions. "Speak now and know this is the last time I will do this if the truth does not warrant such a thing as now."
"As you wish... I summoned devils of the deepest pits, not mere fiends or demons of purgatory."
"Quite the claim..."
"It is, I expected more of a reaction from you..."
"Do not speak to me so casually, if you please."
"Of course not, my queen..."
"And from now on, you should be more discreet with your... revelations, this room shall never be silenced for your 'secrets' again."
"I beg your pardon, your highness?"
"It is as I said, if you believe that the faiths of the peasants and pious nobles are a matter of mine, you are sorely mistaken." Markus stared down in awe, his eyes wavering for a moment - a rush of confusion.
"Well... I suppose there should be no more harm in what I talk about... As far as I am now aware, in thanks to your own revelation, there are no topics too far out."
"Oh? Are you to tell me that an agent of the academy, whose name was struck down from memory holds no more secrets? How disappointing..."
"Haha... I did not take the queen as such a cunning spymaster, though..."
"Yes, it was not as hard, as I assume you are realising, to find a man with no name. Paintings of your graduating class still hang in the halls of the cadet academy, though it is odd that those who should intimately know you do not..."
"Indeed..." Markus gave a curtsy cough, "... perhaps we should return to more urgent matters."
"Yes", with a clap the doors were no longer crossed with spears and were opened from their locks to allow inquisitive nobles to return. Only a small handful of them came, even some new faces seemed to have taken an interest in the 'secret' meeting.
The rest of the debriefing was swift, the prince returning as the topic of future objectives came. "And what of the maintenance of the road?"
"Yes... that will be covered via the mountains where I sourced the materials for the road from. Surveys commissioned by the prince show a history of precious metals and other materials needed for other works. I would propose setting up a new mining outpost there."
"In the Turantala mountains?"
"Yes, prince, I know that place has a reputation. That reputation, however threatening, has always come with the trait of holding some bit of fortune. If no-one else, then I shall take it upon myself to search the deepest caverns that may appear, I shall assist in digging and, of course, maintaining of the outpost."
"Then what of the wetland villages?" The queens question was rooted from the thought of 'M' seemingly rushing or becoming single-minded to cover his mistakes. Octana was no fool, she would not have become queen if not for her cunning and ability to poke holes.
"That will be of no problem, that too will be under my supervision." Markus sensed an impending doom if he did not provide more answers, the queen was not someone to with-hold information from, especially after she seemingly questions the abilities of a 'manager' of such a large project. "It will be done using my spellcraft, my magical knowledge and of course, my ability to do whatever is needed."
"Are you a conman of sorts? First you summon hordes of devils and now you speak of managing two distant places at the same time? Simply moving between the two sites would leave you lagging behind information."
"Well... I am a conman of sorts, and a swindler of devils and monsters and the like as my former classmates might describe me... but I am an earnest conman." Whispers rushed as the revelation of devil summoning, and the queen and mage's terminology came into question or rather more-so accusation.
"Devils they say..."
"... a conman? Has she..."
".... heresy..."
The queen snapped her fingers, like ordering dogs to quiet down or for a sly cat to focus on a treat. Attention turned to Octana as she continued to speak. "... then I can trust that you will use whatever means you must in-order to complete this fool's errand?"
"Fools errand?" The prince was in shock, betrayed by words of someone he was to be married to soon. "... you call me a fool?"
"I do, the fact is... well... I shall leave the answer for more private times, for now we must finish this meeting."
"But-"
"Quiet now, we are not yet married 'prince', that title of yours is under heavy strain, as it has been for almost a few years now."
"Yes... my dear."
The meeting ended with Markus offering his sincerest promise, and leaving. The room quickly emptied out, some nobles approaching Markus with offers of many kinds, most preposterous or foolish for anyone to accept. In the end, Julius had to step-up to brake away the tiny group of nobles from around Markus. The two would walk towards the mage's room, where Kassandra waited for their arrival.
"I trust today was more pleasant?"
"It was... thank you."
"Shall I ask for your dinner to be brought here? Walking must be quite tiresome after your expedition."
"It is, thank you, it would be wonderful." Markus poured over the texts as he moved through his room, the plan was finally, seemingly, coming to some form of progress. How many years of someone's life must have been wasted on this work... not more than two, I hope, if the prince is the first to try this. No, some of these notes could very well be from over a decade ago, perhaps even longer... The project was a pipe-dream, built-up through generations of upstarts or ill-prepared individuals. It always ended before it could be even started, so far Markus had gotten past that, but there were some exceptions from what the mage could find evidence of.
Markus was not the first to try for the Turantala grave to be used as a staging-ground for road construction, but back then the area was much more stable and the rocks would have been quite much harder to gather. It would have taken more than summoning devils or lying to everyone about the nature of how they were brought forth, which itself would have been quite impossible if predictions in the mage's mind were to be believed. None of this would have been possible without the efforts of you all... I wonder what happened to you, in the end.
FInally Markus' food arrived, forcing him to put down the notes and journals in-exchange for plates of fried greens and meat. It was nothing to compare towards a simple meal at the mage academy, the quality of the meat and vegetables was leagues beyond, but at the same time the rich sauce was not as rich as what Markus had grown used to. Perhaps in the lower markets... Markus wondered with his mind towards the poorer sectors of the city, places where the food may have been tougher, but the flavor would always make him warm.
With a full stomach and busy maids, Markus found himself to wanting to walk around. The royal library was said to not be too far off from his own quarters. Perhaps the queen or prince thought it would be best, or maybe it was something the head butler or maid had arranged. Either way, it was a blessing, though the library now seemed a bit disappointing. The ceiling did not stretch as endlessly and walls could be seen while standing by the opposite one. The books were enough to counter such kill-joys though, holding in them more regional information and some outdated books with information not often found in reliable material.
"Why read something like that?"
Markus turned to see a young man with pointed ears, "... I would ask why an elf would even bother to ask about human records."
"Rude, though that is what I should start calling humans... barging in here and all..."
"... I'm reading this to see if there's anything interesting about the region. Sometimes outdated information gives a better picture than updated ones."
"Well well, I suppose even humans can appreciate the 'old and gone'?" Markus paid the elf no mind, he knew he must have harbored some dislike for humans, whether that be reasonable or not.
Humans and elves, while appearing similar, differed in instincts and some experiences. Elves were, by their origin, quite far-off from human with their blood tracing back to forest spirits that managed to mingle with humans. This individual looked to have been born from a bloodline or a circumstance where a spirit placed its blood inside a human, so a 'forest' elf. If the elf had been born from a spirit, they would be considered a 'high elf'. High elves or forest elves... guess they both feel the same way towards us...
"Yes, and if you really are that familiar with our kind, please try to keep your thoughts to yourself."
"No-one asked you to read my mind, uh... what is your name, anyway?"
"And no tact either... tisk-tisk. My name is Quint, that is all you need to know."
"It's 'nice' to meet your, Quint. My name is Ma- Sorry, my name is 'M'."
"... interesting, what were you so close to saying?"
"Nothing important... but could ask you what you are doing here?"
"... nothing important."
Oh... I see what's going on here, damn it.