Mark of the Fool

“So, I’ve been doing some thinking in the last day or two.” Alex leaned forward, elbows pressed to the table, glancing over his shoulder at the room his sister and his girlfriend shared. “You’re getting bigger, Selina. A lot bigger.”

He looked at Claygon. “You’ve changed a lot too, buddy, and I need to make you a speakerbox or something that’ll let you talk, and since that’s going to be a big project, I started thinking that I’d kinda like to have my own workspace at some point. So, I’ve been thinking that it might be time for us to move into someplace with more room.”

Selina frowned. “You mean somewhere else in the insula? Like a bigger apartment? Can we afford that?”

“Pffft, you’re too young to be worrying about finances,” he said.

“Alex, what should I worry about? You said I shouldn’t worry about monsters, then you say I shouldn’t worry about coin? I’m not a brainless donkey, ya know. I know we’re not exactly rich, so I’m not going to pretend that we don’t have to watch our coin.”

“Well, that’s the thing, right?” Her brother said. “I didn’t have to worry about money when I was growing up with mother and father, and neither should you. I’d be a pretty bad brother if I let my kid sister worry herself to death about coin.”

“Well, I’m not going to sit here empty-headed, thinking about building blocks and clay all day.” She crossed her arms. “So. Can we afford it?”

“Right now?” Alex said. “Absolutely, we can’t—”

“There might be something we can do about that.” Theresa interrupted him. “Actually, this is as good a time as any to bring this up.” She tapped the pommels of her swords. “I think I might quit my job at the beastarium. Or, at least, ask if I can reduce my hours.”

The huntress smiled. “I’m thinking about doing some monster hunting. Actually, I’m thinking of doing a lot of monster hunting. It was too dangerous for me to do it alone before: if I met anything that my swords couldn’t cut, well, I’d probably be dead, right?” Her smile grew positively predatory. “Now? I can cut through stone if I put enough force behind my strikes: it’d take a really, really tough monster to resist them. So, with the right contracts, I could earn a lotmore coin for us than I do at the beastarium, and it’d be a whole lot more fun too. Isn’t that right, Brutus?”

One of his heads lifted from his food bowl, yapping in excitement.

Alex gave Theresa a look, one Selina had seen him give the huntress many times when he thought no one was looking. The strange thing was that he only seemed to have that look when Theresa was being particularly scary.

Ah well, her brother was just weird sometimes.

“You shouldn’t go alone,” Alex tone was filled with concern. “You’re an absolutely amazing fighter now, Theresa, but Baelin taught us, and we know what can happen if there’s no one around to watch your back.”

“It’ll be alright,” she said. “I’ll pick bounties that I know I can handle and I can ask you to teach me about the monsters I’ll be hunting. You can tell me their weaknesses and strengths. Plus, I’ll have Brutus with me and—” She smiled at Claygon. “If you’re up to it, you can come with Brutus and me sometimes. The three of us would be almost unstoppable.”

Alex turned to Claygon with a quizzical look on his face. “Would you be alright being away from me for a while, buddy?” He cocked his head, his expression growing distant. “Oh yes, I’ll be fine. Usually campus is safe: except for Carey’s rally, I’ve never been attacked here. And, there’re plenty of Watchers around to make sure I stay safe while you’re gone. So, by all means, go if you want to smash monsters with Theresa and Brutus, don’t let me hold you back. Okay? Aaaaah, perfect.

He looked at Theresa. “Claygon says he wouldn’t mind; it’d help him fight better now that he can think. And you guys can communicate using simple signs, or he can write things until I build his speakerbox.”

“Awesome!” The huntress cheered. “Now we definitely can get that bigger apartment. Should we go talk to Hobb?”

“Well, here’s the thing about that,” Alex said. “I thought of talking to him, but…I’m thinking that it’d be a waste to give the university even more money, now, wouldn’t it?”

“What do you mean?” Selina asked.

“Well, I mean, if we’re going to be paying more for our room and board, I’d rather be paying us instead of making Hobb’s abacus go clack, clack…or maybe not, actually. Come to think of it, I’ve never seen him use an abacus. Maybe he doesn’t need one, he’s a devil after all, and they have some amazing powers of logic and mathematical law—”

“Alex, focus,” Theresa said.

“Yeah, don’t start talking about random stuff halfway through a sentence, Alex,” the younger girl frowned.

“Oh yeah, right.” Alex shook himself. “Alright, what I’m suggesting is maybe…just maybe, we buy our own place. Our own little piece of Generasi. We want to stay here, don’t we? Don’t we?” He looked at Selina. “You want to attend the university when you graduate from the junior school, right?”

“Yeah,” she said. “I’d like to. That’s why I want to study hard and get a scholarship like you did.”

“Alright, then, we’re staying in Generasi for a while. At least…oh, you’re eleven and you probably won’t finish an undergraduate degree until you’re at least twenty-one. So that’s a full decade. Why keep paying Hobb for ten years or more when we could have our own place?”

“Alex…that sounds reasonable, but uh…how much does a place in Generasi cost?” Theresa asked. “I thought it’d be…thousands.”

He paused. “...well, I did some asking around. I think we’d want a townhouse, so we have enough room for all of us, anyway, I asked what prices are like. …and in some districts, a townhouse can run you like eighty thousand gold.”

“Eighty thousand?” Selina and Theresa’s eyes grew wide.

“Now, now, the good news is that we would want a place near the school, which is…cheaper.” Alex held up his hands, waving them as though he was trying to fan down a fire.

“How much cheaper?” Selina asked.

“Oh….about…” He shifted uncomfortably in his chair. “About sixty thousand.”

Silence hung in the air.

“You know…give or take.”

“Alex, in what lifetime would we ever be able to afford that?” Theresa choked. “I…it’d take me years at my job…at our jobs. If I hunt monsters…what’s that like…forty mana vampires? No, no the one we captured had its bounty increase a lot, so that means it’d be even more, and besides, they’re not exactly common. I’d probably have to start looking for dragons to hunt, and while that’d be fun, I don’t think dragons are exactly falling off of trees around here.”

“Alex, you don’t have to worry about that kinda stuff,” Selina said, feeling a little guilty. Her big brother shouldn’t have to think of crazy, impossible schemes just because she was getting a little big for a bed. She glanced at her and Theresa’s room.

Maybe it was time to suggest that Theresa should move into Alex’s room, after all.

It wasn’t like Mr. and Mrs. Lu would get mad at her.

She opened her mouth, ready to make her suggestion.

“No, you won’t have to hunt a dragon,” Alex smiled, patting Theresa’s hand. “For you see! I have a cunning plan, and I think I can take the next step toward it thanks to Claygon’s evolution. That’s right, it’s time for the next part of the financial portion of Operation Grand Summoning Ascension!”

He raised his arms to the ceiling as he declared the terrible name for his plan, reminding Selina of a picture of a mad and dangerous ancient wizard summoning a demon in one of her textbooks. Of course, instead of conjuring a terrible creature, Alex was calling out a terrible name.

Theresa and Selina exchanged unamused looks as the young girl turned to Claygon, patting one of his lower arms. “If you ever have to name anything, Claygon, then don’t be like Alex.”

“Hold on now, I named Claygon!” Her brother huffed, putting his hands on his hips. “You’re not saying that he has a lousy name, are you?”

“No, because you didn’t name him, I did!” Selina puffed out her chest. “I thought Claygon was an awesome name, and you just agreed with me!”

“That’s not how it went!” Alex said. “That’s not the way I remember it at all!”

“You’re both remembering it wrong,” Theresa said. “Nua-Oge mispronounced ‘clay golem’: she said ‘Claygon’ and you thought it was brilliant, Selina. Alex agreed. So, technically, it was Nua-Oge who ‘came up with it’ and you both just agreed with her.”

“Oh, right,” Alex muttered, like his thunder’d been stolen.

“Mhm, which means you’re still terrible with names and that’s why Claygon’s name is perfect and not stupid,” Selina huffed.

“You’re not stupid!” Alex said. Then he froze. “No, no, waitwaitwaitwait—”

“Thaaaaaank you Alex.” His little sister grinned. “You should be nice to me like that all the time.”

“...I should let you stay in that room. Make you sleep on the floor.”

“Brutus would keep me warm anyway,” she said.

Alex glared at the cerberus. “You would too, wouldn’t you, you treacherous dog.”

Brutus barked happily.

“Yes, he would,” Theresa said proudly. “Because he’s a good boy.”

“A good, treacherous boy,” Alex sighed. “Anyway, the point is that we won’t be able to get our own place yet…but if the financial part of my plan works, we won’t have to worry about coin ever again. Unless we want to build or buy a castle, of course. And, well…one thing at a time.”

As Alex started going over the details of his plan, Selina gave her room a final once over. Briefly, she wondered if she should bring up the idea of Theresa moving into Alex’s room…but decided against it.

After all, he was right: they would be staying in Generasi for a long time, so having Theresa move to another room wouldn’t exactly solve their problems. Even if that gave Selina more space, it still meant they’d be paying the university a lot of money for way too long

Besides, it’d mean Theresa and Alex would be the ones cramped in his bed: her big brother had gotten bigger over the last year. She couldn’t imagine how annoying it’d be for them, bumping into each other all night.

And Theresa’s parents would be really mad too.

She shrugged, deciding against making the suggestion.

Of course, she had no way of knowing that—had her brother and Theresa known what she’d been thinking—their mournful screams would have been heard halfway across campus.

“And introducing—the new and improved—Claaaaaygoooon!” Alex’s voice boomed through Shale’s workshop as he gestured toward his golem like a farmer pointing to his biggest, and most beautiful, prized pumpkin.

Awed murmuring swept over the workshop’s staff gathered around the pair in a circle some three people deep. Crafters, assistants, salesfolk and administration all crowded each other, vying for the best vantage point.

Inside, Alex beamed; amused as he watched these grown wizards—all masters, or at least masters-in-the-making in their fields—gathered around like children excited for the country fair.

They ooo’d and aaaaa’d as Claygon simply raised his arms, turning in place like a young nobleman modelling his new finery.

Some of the crafters clapped, and Lagor was among them.

He, Sim and Carmen—Alex’s closest colleagues and friends at work—were pressed together by the crowd drooling over Claygon’s new form.

“I’ll be damned, can you feel the power coming offa this thing!” Lagor gaped as the golem raised his war-spear over his head triumphantly. “Feels like I’m standing next to the damned sun!”

“I’m glad Shaleleath doesn’t have to fight him,” Sim murmured. “If you enter the duel by proxy next year, I’ll be sitting it out unless I do a whole lot of upgrades.”

“And if he’s like this now…” Carmen gawked. “What’s gonna happen if he evolves again?”

Claygon’s head turned toward Alex.

They…do not…dislike me, father?

‘Oh, I think it goes a little beyond ‘don’t dislike you’, Claygon,’ he thought. ‘I think they adore you!’

They…do?

‘Oh yes,’ Alex thought. ‘You’ve drawn everyone’s eyes. And I do mean everyone’s.’

He glanced up at the catwalk and spied the very person he’d wanted to see Claygon the most.

Toraka Shale.

His boss of bosses.

And she was staring at his golem like he was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen.

‘Perfect,’ Alex thought. ‘The next step of the financial part of Operation Grand Summoning Ascension begins.’