Eldritch Guidance

Cid was walking down Eld street after just talking to John. He passed by a strange man with a weird cane that looked kinda like it had a skull for the pommel. He got a strange feeling from this person, but pushed any curiosity he had about it out of his mind.

Since he met John, he had been coming to Eld street for over five weeks now. So Cid was used to seeing all kinds of weird people around here. This was the east end of the city; the majority of the city’s mutants lived here. If you wanted to see a fantastical array of characters, then this was the place to be.

You could find people with cat faces, dog tails, claws, extra limbs, gills, wings, strange skin and hair coloration, paws, scales, fur, etc. Every combination of human and inhuman traits existed here. So Cid quickly learned not to pay too much attention to the people around the east end. It might have come off rude if he gawked at every person he walked by.

He continued walking down Eld street, passing a few mutants. One of them having the head of a bloodhound who watched him go by. Some of them gave Cid a curious glance at seeing a university student walking around in the middle of the day, but most seem to not pay him too much attention. A few even recognize the Shroom Pact student from previous times he’s come around.

The people living around here were used to seeing university students come and go, but that was mostly in the evening. Students would sometimes walk through Eld street to get to the Red Light District, with the purpose of partaking in the unique activities offered there. So seeing someone like Cid during the day—when many establishments of the Red Light district are not yet open— could be seen as a little strange.

Cid eventually made it to the end of the street, just before getting into the Red Light district. He then turned towards the tea shop, Cait teahouse, the reason for him regularly visiting this street. He was to meet with the infamous Alexandria Scarlett at this place today, like he had been doing so every week.

He walked through the front of the store. The teahouse was devoid of customers with the exception of a goat man sitting by a nearby table. From his constant visits, Cid realized that the mutant goat person was more than just a regular customer, he had some sort of connection with Scarlett.

Along with the staff, the mutant goat man actively tried to hide and cover up the store's connection to the Scarlet witch. The goat man was likely just pretending to be a customer, but was secretly working for the same people helping Scarlett. Cid thought he might be something like a secret bouncer.

The people here hid Scarlett, but were clearly no friend to her. They held some sort of animosity towards her that was on visible display every time she was mentioned, which he didn’t understand. He had asked his “teacher”, Scarlett, what that was about, but she told him not to worry about it. She said they just dislike her because they purposely make her life more annoying than it had to be, so she retaliated by making their lives also difficult.

It seemed strange to him that people that seem to actively hate each other were working together, but decided not to question it. Besides, Scarlett wouldn't really expand on it when he asked.

Cid walked up to the counter and greeted the waitress, Lise, who was standing by the register.

Cid: “Good afternoon, Lise.” he said, in a friendly manner.

Lise: “Go fuck youself,” she aggressively responded.

For a while now, Cid was catching strays from the hostility the staff had for Scarlett, due to his association with her. He was pretty sure they didn't know the exact nature of their relationship, but due to the constant visits he keeps making to Scarlett, they knew he was important to her somehow.

Despite the hostility against Cid, he continued to keep his cool and be polite.

Cid: “Is ‘you know who’ in?”

Lise: “YES! She always fucking in when you show up! Just go to the back and see her already! You don’t need to come talk with me everytime you come to see her. So just stop talking to me and go fuck off already.”

Cid: “Nice to see you too,” he said with a fake smile.

Lise just flipped off Cid.

Cid walked to a door at the back of the store. He looked around the store one last time. Lise seemed to be still fuming mad, but the goat man and the other waiter didn’t seem to acknowledge his presence. He pulled open the door and made his way down to the broken freezer. He then tapped on the freezer wall in a specific pattern, opening a secret door leading into a secret underground area from there. He walked through the secret door and down the step into a dark hallway.

He was told before by Scarlett that this underground passage used to be part of an old insane asylum. She had discovered it years ago while she was still teaching at the university and used the abandoned underground tunnels to make a safehouse, where she used to store some of her more questionable materials, away from the university.

Cid walked by a number of steel metal doors until he came face to a larger metal door with a giant turn wheel on it. The number 1313 was carved into the frame of the door.

Reaching out to the turnwheel, he grabbed it in two places and slowly turned it counterclockwise. A loud clunking sound was made and the bolts of the door retracted back into it. Cid then just gently pulled the door open.

Inside was a room covered in purple velvet walls with a diamond pattern. It was brightly lit. There was a large fancy rectangular table in the center of the room with many chairs around it.

Sitting in one of the chairs at one end of the table was Scarlett. In front of her was a teapot with an odd black and white design on it. She wasn't doing anything particular, just relaxing while sipping on some tea from a strange looking tea set. She looked up and greeted Cid.

Scarlett: “Hello. Ah, I see you visited John.”

Cid: “How can you tell?”

She pointed at the bag of herbs Cid was carrying.

Scarlett: “You can’t get those from just anywhere.”

Cid: “Oh, yeah. He told me to give this to you,” he said as he took a seat beside Scarlett and handed the bag of dried herb to her.

Scarlett: “He must really trust you to deliver these herbs to me,” she said as she received the herbs.

Cid: “Do you think so? Is there some meaning to this I’m not seeing?”

Scarlett: “These are leaves from an otherworldly tree and are beyond precious. You wouldn’t give this to just anyone to deliver. It would have to be someone you trusted enough not to run off with it.”

Cid: “Well, I wouldn’t have run off even if I knew it was worth a lot of money.”

Scarlett: “Heh. It’s not just that these leaves are worth a lot of money. These leaves are the key ingredient to brewing an elixir of immortality. Something that I think a lot of people would pay anything and kill for.”

Cid had a surprised face.

Cid: “T-these leaves can make you i-i-immortal,” he said, shocked at what he heard.

Scarlett: “Well, I say you can make a potion of immortality out of this, but it’s not true immortality. It just reverses aging, returning one to their prime while healing the soul. You still will eventually die if you don’t consume that elixir every century.”

The clarification Scarlett gave didn’t make these leaves sound any less impressive to Cid. Potions that could extend life were exceptionally rare. The most one could extend their lifespan was maybe a decade at most, and those potions had diminishing returns, becoming less effective the more you used them. They also didn’t necessarily reverse the effects of aging, they just made you live longer.

The kind of potion Scarlett was describing sounded like it could reverse the effect of aging, and could extend a person's life by a century, while possibly being able to be consumed indefinitely without it decreasing in effectiveness. If true, this would be the greatest life extending potion ever, something not thought possible. It was almost as effective as true immortality. Just one step below it.

Cid: “A-and I was just carrying this around casually!”

Scarlett: “I doubt many know that these kinds of leaves exist. Probably no one paid you any mind about it while you walked here. I bet even you thought it was just a common bag of dried tea. It was the same for me when John gave me those leaves.”

Cid: “Uh, yeah. I guess. But, he said nothing about that. Didn’t even hint at it.”

Scarlett: “Remember, he’s coy. Maybe he did hint at this and you didn’t notice, But, maybe it was more of a test of trust to show me that you're reliable.”

Cid: “Again, even if I did know what that was, I still wouldn’t run off with it.”

Scarlett: “Hm, good thing too. You’d be dead if you did.”

Cid: “I know. You or someone else would hunt me down.”

Scarlett: “No, that is not the issue. I would assume if you ran off with these leaves, you would be intending to use them to extend your life. However, you can't just pop these leaves into your mouth and you’ll live longer. You have to brew them in a particular way. Otherwise, these are deadly poisonous.”

Cid: “And I take it that these leaves aren’t easy to make a potion with.”

Scarlett: “Oh yes. You're very much correct. I’m not even entirely sure there is any human that could brew a potion with them. Well, not by themselves, but maybe with the help of a potentially powerful and otherworldly being,” she said as she looked at the teapot that John gave her years ago.

Cid: “Oh, this again. You still think Mr Li is some sort of ancient being, like an outsider.” he said, referring to a past conversation he had with Scarlett.

Scarlett: “Maybe not an outsider, but I definitely think he’s not human. Anyways, a little fox told me about something interesting that happened at the university. Was that you?”

Cid: “Hmm, I didn’t think the news would get out so fast.”

Scarlett: “It hasn't, I’m just really well connected. I know someone died, but not the details of who and how.”

Cid: “It was me. I killed Sorin Black.”

Scarlett: “Ha, so it was that bastard.”

Cid: “Oh, yeah. I forget that you used to work at the university. Did you know him?”

Scarlett: “He was just one of the many assistant professors working under Archmage Dakka Vinko when I was there. Not really the most outstanding of all of Dakka assistants, so nothing really notable to say. I just remember him leering at me one time—forever leaving a bad impression of him on me. And, not to sound upset or anything about this, since I don't give a damn what happens to the university, but why kill him?”

Cid: “He was conducting necromantic experiments on students, turning them into undead puppets that were indistinguishable from living people. “

Scarlett: “Ho ho ho,” she said with a cocky smile. “Now why would he do that?”

Cid: “As I understand, he was using these undead students to try and control their parents, who were all powerful people.”

Scarlett: “Oohh my. I wish I could see Dakka’s face right now. Scratch that. I want to see the expression of all the university leadership. Once this gets out, it's going to make them all look so bad. This event is going to haunt them for years. Good job, Cid,” she said, while pointing her thumb in approval.

Cid: “Uh, thanks? I didn’t really do this to ruin anyone's reputation.“

Scarlett: “That’s a good point. Why did you do this? You never came across as the heroic type to me.”

Cid: “Thanks to the guidance I received from Mr Li, I was able to calculate the near future to a degree. I determined that Sorin’s undead would eventually bother Mr Li. I took it upon myself to remove the undead and the source before that happened.”

Scarlett: “Oh, I see. That makes sense. I take it that you made sure that Sorin's death couldn't be linked back to you?”

Cid recalled for a brief moment about the three people he let go, but he was confident that he scared them into silence. So he was sure nothing about him would be revealed.

Cid: “There shouldn't be anything to worry about.”

Scarlett: “Good. So it was through John you acquired the gift of foresight, based on the way you're talking about something that was to happen in the future.”

Cid: “Not really. It’s a lot more complicated than that.”

Scarlett: “Obviously. Things that involve John are always complicated . But what I'm saying is that at the base of the power you received, it sounds like some sort of divination. Unless I'm missing something?”

Cid: “Again, it is not even that. And just to be clear, I'm not hiding the power John gave me from you or anything. I just don’t know how to explain. It's like, we all exist in a giant mathematical code, and I can see it. Which allows me to sorta calculate the future by using numerology, but not really. Um, ugh. I’m not sure I described that right. I’ll try to think of a better way of explaining and tell you later.”

Scarlett: “Ah, don’t worry about it. I think I sorta get what you're saying.”

Cid: “I don’t think you do. The ability I received is not limited to divination. It’s more than that. But like I said, I don’t know how to explain it.”

Scarlett: “Call it my intuition, but it sounds to me the reason you don’t know how to explain is that you are still learning exactly what you received from John.”

Cid looked up at the roof for a brief moment and thought about what Scarlett said before speaking again.

Cid: “Hmm, you might be… no. You're definitely right.”

Scarlett: “I know I'm right. The signs of a master in their craft is being able to explain it to others. If you can’t do that, then you still have a lot to learn.”

Cid: “Sigh, yeah. It would be a lot easier if I could ask Mr Li directly about it. There are still a lot of things I don't completely understand, like why was my calculation off in some instances.”

Scarlett: “Can’t help you there. Whatever you got from Mr Li is probably something only he really knows. And he’ll only explain things in great vagueness, so I understand your plight. I often have trouble interpreting John's words as well. Actually, you just came from talking to John, did he say anything related to the power you received?”

Cid: “Um, I don’t think so. I just went there to tell him about what happened last night.”

Scarlett: “He probably already knew what happened.”

Cid: “I know. I did it out of courtesy.”

Scarlett: “How about we go over what he said with you. I spent more time with John than you, and have gotten pretty good at understanding what he tries to subtly convey.”

Cid: “Hmm. Where do I begin? Um, I told him I got rid of Sorin by saying I got rid of the source of the pest.”

Scarlett: “Oh. Was it your idea to refer to Sorin as a pest?”

Cid: “No. When I first asked John about what was going on with the undead at the university, he referred to the whole thing as a pest problem, and suggested for me to create a trap. Since I couldn't calculate who was creating these undead at the time.”

Scarlett: “He probably would look down at that whole situation as if it was just a cockroach problem,” she said, not realizing that John really did think it was just a regular cockroach problem.

Cid: “Yeah. Um, after I indirectly talked about Sorins death, he didn't respond much about it.”

Scarlett: “If a child steps on a bug, would you care, or even acknowledge it?”

Cid: “I guess not. After I said that, I think…I just told him I was going to meet you and he gave me that bag with the immortal herb stuff. Then I just came here.”

Scarlett: “That’s it?”

Cid: “I didn’t talk to him for very long.”

Scarlett: “No hint’s or anything.”

Cid: “He didn't say anything else. Wait, um. I guess he told me to keep my head down.”

Scarlett: “Pardon?” she said, looking more attentive.

Cid: “He warned that there would be a lot of media attention about Sorin soon. Said I should avoid the public eye while that happens. Which I was going to do anyway.”

Scarlett: “Cid…what did he exactly say,” she said, starting to sound a bit more serious and concerned.

Noticing the sudden change in Scarlett’s demeanor, Cid straightened his posture and also became a little unnerved.

Cid: “Um, um, I think he said: ‘trouble is brewing at the university and to keep my head down’ were the exact words. I’m pretty sure he was referring to the media fallout that was about to happen at the university.”

Scarlett immediately stood up and walked over to Cid. He looked up at Scarlett, confused. She suddenly grabbed Cid’s face and pulled him slightly forward toward herself. Scarlett brought her own face close to his and then stared at him with her piercing red eyes. The intensity she was staring at him made Cid feel nervous.

Cid: “Um, what are you doing?”

Scarlett: “Quiet, I’m making sure there is no weird magic on you.”

Scarlett gathered aether into her eyes and activated her eyes of truth ability. The aether inside Cid became clearly visible to her. It looked kinda like a gray flame that's burning inside his body. She quickly pulled and turned Cid’s head side to side, carefully examining him.

She saw nothing strange, only that it seems Cid had absolutely no elemental affinity, as the color of the aether she saw determined that, and gray meant there was no affinity. But, she already knew that. What she was looking for was any other aether on him that was not his own, which would indicate if he was being affected by someone else’s magic. She couldn’t see anything like that and gave a sigh of relief. Glad to see she wasn't going to lose another disciple, at least not immediately.

Scarlett: “Good, there is no curse on you or anything else like that I could see.”

Cid: “What’s going on? Why would there be a curse on me?”

Scarlett: “It’s because of what John said.”

Cid: “But he didn’t—” he was immediately cut off by Scarlett.

Scarlett: “Cid you FOOL! I have never heard John give such a direct warning like this. He always feigns ignorance and hides his words. The fact he directly warned you like this must mean it’s serious.”

Cid: “W-what do you mean?”

Scarlett: “Cid, in the time that I have known John, he’s never expressed any concern about my safety. Even when I went into a dangerous situation, he never said anything like ‘stay safe or be careful’. I now know he never said those kinds of things because he knew I would be alright. But, that doesn't sound like it’s the case for you.”

Cid had a look of shock at what Scarlett just said.

Cid: “Really!?! I-If that’s true, what is it that I'm being warned about?” he said, fully buying into the idea that John's words were a great warning.

Scarlett: “I don’t know. The warning was clear, but the meaning is still hidden. Ugh, damn it. I wish he would just say what it was, instead of hiding his words,” she said as sat back down in her seat. “Let’s go over what he said again. What were his exact words? Be as specific as possible.”

Cid: “Um, trouble is brewing at the university and to keep my head down until the trouble passes. Is what was said, I think.”

Scarlett: “Hmm, so it's something to do with the university. So, maybe we should remove you from that place for the time being if that is where the danger is coming from. “

Cid: “John did say to keep my head down. So I can only imagine he was telling me to try and go unnoticed.”

Scarlett: “You’re probably right, so moving you might draw too much attention. Hmm, and he did seem to hint that this ‘trouble’ would eventually pass. So maybe just keeping a low profile like he suggested might be good enough. But, I feel like we’re missing something.”

Cid: “I-I’m sorry. I might not have remembered what he told me properly. I didn’t think too much into what he said at the time,” he said, regretting not paying more close attention to John’s words.

Scarlett: “Well, be sure to pay closer next time. Assuming, you survive whatever is to happen.”

Cid was starting to look anxious. Scarlett noticed this and spoke up.

Scarlett: “Don’t worry. You’re my disciple. I won’t let anything happen to you,” she said, trying to reassure Cid.

Cid: “Thanks…” he said, feeling a little bit better.

Scarlett: “Sigh, I’ll make some preparations to help keep you safe if something really does happen. But in the meantime, follow John’s advice and don’t draw attention to yourself.”

Cid: “Ok,” he said with a nod.

Scarlett: “Become a recluse if you have to. And, don’t stick your neck out for anybody right now.”