Eldritch Guidance

Chapter 8: Meeting under Cait

Cid was feeling very annoyed as he walked past several stores.

It had been nearly a week since he tried to remove a potential annoyance and test his new abilities. However, it ended in failure. Cid knew there was a margin of error of 0.1% for it not to go the way he expected, but for that to come into play on his first attempt.

Cid: “I must be the unluckiest person in the world. No matter. I will deal with that issue at a later date. For now, I need to meet up with her.” He mumbled to himself.

Cid was heading towards the tea house that Scarlett had told him to meet at. The location was relatively close to Mr Li's store. Only a ten to twenty minute walk to and from.

The location made him wonder if Scarlett had some sort of connection to the crime syndicate of this city. Any establishment so close to the red light district would make Cid question its affiliation. Especially one to hold a meeting with one of the most wanted criminals on the continent. The staff at this location would need to keep their lips sealed, or it would turn bad for Cid if the cops knew who he was associated with.

Eventually he would arrive at his destination. It was a quaint little tea house called the Cait House. The design of the store was simple and didn’t stand out. The only notable thing was a black cat logo in the front windows.

“What a weird place to meet.” He thought before he nonchalantly entered the store.

The inside was just as unremarkable as the outside. There were about a dozen tables and a serving counter with various baked goods behind a glass display. The walls of the establishment were covered with bookshelves and a few pieces of random artwork. Two waitresses behind the counter were busily brewing tea and packing away baked goods for a customer. There were a few other customers seated at some tables eating food while enjoying some of the tea this place offers.

Cid waited patiently for the staff to finish serving the customer in front of him before he approached the front counter.

Cid: “Um, excuse me.”

Waitress: “Yes, how can I help you?”

Cid: “I'm supposed to meet someone here today.”

Waitress: ”Oh, OK. Did you and your friend reserve a table?”

Cid: “No, we were supposed to meet in the VIP room.”

As soon as he said that, the worker's demeanor became slightly more serious and looked him up and down. She was trying to assess who exactly Cid was.

Waitress: “Ok… who are you exactly meeting today?”

Noticing the slight change in behavior, Cid decided to drop Scarlett's name at that moment.

Cid: “I'm meeting Alexandria Scar—” He was interrupted by the worker reaching across the table and covering his mouth with her hand.

She glared at Cid and any illusion of a welcoming employee was gone. She had a scowl on her face and was obviously annoyed with Cid.

Waitress: “You're an idiot. Don’t say her name out loud.” She whispered aggressively.

The action that the waiter was doing did not go unnoticed by the other people in the store. All the ambient noise in the restaurant was gone and everyone in the store was staring at Cid. One of the customers, a mutant goat man, spoke up.

Goat Man: “Hey Lise, is that kid giving you trouble?” The large mutant man with goat eyes and horns said while standing up.

Lise: “Everything is OK Thom. Just a greenhorn who doesn't know the rules. Now then, let's get you to that VIP room shall we. Stacy, cover for me.” She said as she grabbed his hand and made their way to the back of the store.

The other waitress nodded and silently watched as Cid was quickly ushered away from view of the other partitions and led through a door at the back into a plain hallway.

Cid was guided through the hallway by the waitress. As he was led, he decided to probe the girl for some information. Cid wanted to know if this was going to become a bad situation, and whether or not he needed to take drastic action.

Cid: “Did the person I'm supposed to meet not say anything about me?”

Lise: “I don’t know anything and I want to keep it that way.” She said harshly.

“She was very forceful with that answer”. Cid thought to himself.

This wasn't a bad sign in Cid's mind. Nobody would normally ever want to willingly associate with someone like the scarlet witch. Those that do would limit how much information they knew, giving themselves some level of plausible deniability. It was a good sign that she was probably here, or at least used this establishment, however he still wanted to confirm it.

Cid: “Can you at least tell me if that person is even here?”

Lise: “You’ll see for yourself.”

The waitress continued to refuse Cid questions.

As they moved along the hallway they came across a thick metal door to a walk-in freezer. Opening it revealed that it was completely empty and the temperature felt the same inside as it did outside.

Cid: “It seems your freezer is broken," he said jokingly to try and lighten the mood a little.

Lise ignored his comment and guided him to the back of the room. She tapped the back wall in a certain pattern and then a certain section of the wall shifted then slowly swung outwards, revealing a hidden stairwell.

It was surprising for Cid, but before he could say anything Lise grabbed his wrist and pulled him towards the stairwell. They both made their way down the stairs and as they did, Cid could hear the wall shifting again behind them.

Lise: “Your opportunity to run is now gone. Let's hope the person you're meeting is expecting you.” Lise said with a smirk.

Her sly threats left him unfazed. Cid would be scared if he knew Scarlett wasn't expecting him, but she was.

“I feel like I'm being underestimated, but I guess I'm a ‘greenhorn’ in her eyes”. Cid thought to himself.

After reaching the bottom they walked down a dark hallway with rows of metal doors on each side. There was no indicator of what those rooms contain or even what they would be used for other than storage. There were however four digit numbers painted in red on each door. As they continued to move down the hallway, the numbers on the doors were rapidly ascending.

Eventually they came to room 1313. It was slightly different in appearance from the other doors. It was a large thick metal door with a turn wheel on it. It almost looked like a door to a safe.

The waitress released Cid from her grip. She then put both hands on the wheel and started slowly turning it. The sound of gears and mechanisms moving in the door could be heard as she turned slowly, until a loud click was heard. She then slowly pulled the half meter thick metal door open, revealing the interior of the room.

The walls inside were covered in red tuff wall panels with expensive looking furniture placed about the room. At the center of the room was an expensive looking mahogany table where Scarlett was sitting, facing toward the door.

She paid them no mind as she was looking down at a bunch of documents while sipping from a strange tea set.

They both entered and Lise made an exaggerated coughing sound to try and indicate that Scarlett had a visitor.

Scarlett: “I'm not blind. You can leave the boy with me and go back to your duties.”

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Lise sighed and shook her head. Listening closely Cid could hear mutter under her breath “fucking bitch”.

Lise: “Good luck”. She whispered to Cid before leaving and closing the door behind her.

The door closed with a loud sound of mechanism locking in place, leaving Cid alone trapped in the room with the most wanted criminal on the planet. He didn’t know what to do so he just stood there for a minute.

Scarlett: “You don’t have to stand there gawking. Have a seat.” She said without taking eyes away from the document.

Cid: “Oh, OK," he said as he pulled out a chair and sat at the table across from Scarlett.

His attention was attracted to the strange tea set Scarlett was drinking from. It was completely black with strange white symbols he had never seen, yet at the same time he felt some strange familiarity towards it for some reason.

“Wait, didn't Mr Lee have a tea set like that at his store? I can’t remember.” He sat there thinking about that strange feeling of familiarity.

A minute went by and he couldn't figure out where he had seen it.

Eventually he decided to try and get a glimpse at what scarlet was reading , but the documents were upside down relative from where he was sitting, making it difficult to read. He could however make out two words - “Fieal County”.

“Fieal County? That’s my home town. Why would she be reading documents about my home town? Wait a minute!” Cid thought to himself.

Cid: “Are all those documents about me.”

Scarlett: ”Yup.”

Cid: “W-why?”

Scarlett: “Come now. Have you never heard about background checks for employment?” She said as she placed the document she was reading down and looked towards Cid.

Cid: “W-well yeah, but this isn't exactly a normal job.”

Scarlett: “Now why would you assume that?”

Cid: “You're not going to start telling me that you do payroll and pay taxes like a good citizen now.”

Scarlett: “A joke? My my, you’ve become more confident since our first interaction. Not afraid of me anymore.”

Cid: “I wouldn’t say I'm not afraid, but you did say you would never hurt another patron of Mr Li. Assuming you were telling the truth?”

Scarlett: "What I said back then was very much the truth. And despite my reputation, I don't casually go around burning people to death, so you have nothing to worry on that front. My pyromancy is reserved for those that would do me or my allies harm."

Cid: “Well I have no intention of causing you harm, so no worries there.”

Scarlett: “No offense, I really doubt you could bring harm to me with you being a Null mage and all. Not even the unique kind too.”

Her comment stung what little pride Cid still had. It was the first time someone had referred to him as a Null mage and it hurt.

A Null mage was the technical term for the kind of magic user Cid was. Someone who has no elemental affinity at all. This did not preclude him from using elemental magic, only that he would never excel at any of it.

The existence of Null mages was uncommon, but not rare. In some cases, Null mages could develop a unique type of magic that only they could use, making them invaluable to governments and organizations. Conversely, a Null mage without a unique magic was valued less than a normal mage and only a half step above a non-mage.

Not being able to effectively infuse any spell with elemental power makes the spells significantly weaker. This made spells Cid had tried to weave without elemental power pitiful.

Cid remembered during his affinity test that he tried so hard to channel any known element with his magic. In the end he was never able to channel any elemental power in a reasonable time and felt so distraught then. The future seemed so bleak for Cid back then, but now was different.

Cid: “Is me being a Null mage going to be a problem?”

Scarlett: “Not really. The main task I really need help with requires trust more so than expertise. However, what's a nice way of saying this?”

Scarlett put her index finger to her chin and stared off into the distance for a little while. She was carefully considering her words.

Scarlett: “Let's start from the beginning. You're a country bumpkin who gave up everything from friendship to family, all so that you could come to Graheel and get an arcane education. Beyond this fact there is nothing notable to say. You are the white bread of human existence, which is to say yours is a story that plays out all the time.

Cid: “Ok. That felt a little rude, and that feels a bit reductionist on your part. You don’t really know who I am, so I don’t get where you get to call me the ‘white bread of human existence’.”

Scarlett: “You were born in Fieal County to a loving father and mother with two younger siblings. At age 9 you were playing in the woods and got lost, where then the community came together and searched the woods and managed to find you safely. You made the front page of your local newspaper that year. At age fourteen you met your sweetheart Ember Jiss at Higgs High School, where you continued to date until you turned 19. At that age you decided to attend Graheel university much to your family's disapproval. You then got in an altercation with your father where he threatened to disown you if you went to Graheel. You ignored him and went anyway. You were disowned and due to your family's standing in the community, pretty much everyone from that county won’t talk to you now. The next three years you would take out loans to pay for your education while getting middling grades at the Shroom Pact college. Finally, at age 22 we find ourselves here with you being interviewed by the scarlet witch herself. Does that sum up a good chunk of your life?”

Cid paused and looked at Scarlett completely stunned.

Cid: “How do you know all that? Some of that information I can understand where you got, but the others.”

Scarlett: “I'm really well connected and I do my research. I haven’t even gotten into some of the even more personal information I managed to dig up, like your finance information, medical information, even the brand of underwear you have on right now.”

Cid: “There's no way you know what type of underwear I'm wearing.”

Scarlett: “You're wearing Diffs.”

Cid: “Fucking Holy Light! Why do you know that, why do you need to know that!?” he yelled.

Scarlett chuckled a little.

Scarlett: “I actually didn’t know. I took an educated guess. There are only two major brands of underwear you can get in this city. You also don’t seem like someone who would get custom clothing, so I had a 50/50 chance of guessing correctly, and your reaction seemed to confirm I was right.”

Cid's face turned a little red with embarrassment. Realizing that Scarlett basically tricked him into telling her what kind of underwear he was wearing, he quickly tried to change the topic.

Cid: “B-back to the main point. What are you trying to say about me?”

Scarlett: ”I'm saying you are remarkably unremarkable and I find that so curious. Why did John choose you?”

Cid: “I'm not sure I follow?”

Scarlett: ”Like I said. Yours is a story that has played out a thousand times in this city, it’s normal. The people that I know who were chosen by Mr Li are anything, but normal.”

Cid: “So, I'm too normal in your eyes?”

Scarlett: “Yes. Too normal for me to see where you fit into John's plans.”

He wondered what she meant by “John's plans”.

Cid: “You're acting like Mr Li does things with a deeper purpose than he says. It's obvious to me that he just wants to help people. Regardless of whether they're special or not.”

Scarlett: “You're like the others. You're not seeing the big picture. Why would such a profoundly powerful being act with such simple desires? There is more to it.”

Cid narrowed his eyes towards Scarlett. He did not like where this conversation was going. There was an implication of malicious manipulation from John in her words. Despite associating with Scarlett, he still believed in his heart that John was a genuinely kind person, and he didn’t like that Scarlett was suggesting otherwise.

Scarlett took notice of Cid's changing demeanor and could immediately tell what was going through his mind.

Scarlett: “Oh come off it. I'm not suggesting anything malevolent on John's part. It’s more like he subtly pushes people in the right direction for the most desirable outcome. Like a parent guiding their children just enough for them to be able to do something by themselves.”

Cid calmed down after hearing that.

Cid: “OK. As long as you're not belittling Mr Li's kindness.”

Cid then put his hand on the book he had hidden under his robes. He recalled the day he received it from John and how traumatic it was at first.

Cid: “Although, your idea of what constitutes a ‘subtle push’ is very different from mine.”

Scarlett: “It’s relative. From his perspective, changing fate and bending reality might be nothing for him.”

Cid: “Hmm. Maybe so.” He said while thinking back to the truth the book had shown him.

Scarlett raised an eyebrow at his response.

Scarlett: “I get the sense that you know something more. What did John reveal to you?”

Cid: “I’ll tell you some other day.”

Scarlett: “Huh, anyway about the job. You'll mostly just be helping me clean up after my experiments for the time being. Something that even a Null mage could do, is that acceptable?”

Cid: “That should be OK, but what am I specifically cleaning?”

Scarlett: “My failed attempts to reconstitute the dead.”

Cid: “Necromancy!!” He yelled out.

Scarlett: “Um, yes? Is that really so surprising at this point?”

Cid paused and thought about it.

Necromancy was the manipulation of flesh and spirit and highly illegal. Its ban was due to the corrupting force it has on the user, and the cruel nature of binding souls to the living world. An arcane practice that only a black mage would engage in. A black mage like the one he was about to work for.

Cid: “OK, maybe I shouldn't be that surprised, but give me a break. I was only a normal student about a week ago. Also, I thought you were a pyromancer, not a necromancer.”

Scarlett: “Best get used to this. Your life can only get stranger from here. And, I am a pyromancer, but there is no reason that I can't dabble in other arcane arts, like necromancy. Anyways, do you have any more questions about the job?”

Cid: “I still have a ton of questions, but I think I'll ask them when they come up.”

Scarlett: “OK, any other question you want to ask about me then.”

Cid: “Um, no? I already said I'll ask later.”

Scarlett: “Not about the job, but me. Is there anything you want to know about me? It's only fair since I know so much about you already.”

Cid: “Um, not really?”

She sighed.

Scarlett: “OK look. You might not believe that John says and does things with greater meaning, but I do. And, I think he sent you to me to help work through my… trauma.”

Cid: “Right, OK. Um, I'm not a therapist, but I can listen and give you some general advice if that's what you want.

Scarlett: “I don’t need a therapist. I have trust issues. I push people away when I really should be relying on them, and it’s hindered my work. So I need you to help me get over this.”

Cid: “If that is true, what happened? You said it was trauma, right? So, something had to happen, causing you to distrust people so much.”

Scarlett took a deep stuttered breath and exhaled.

Scarlett: “Look, that is not easy for me. I need to work myself up some more before I can tell. Ask me something else for now.”

Cid: “Right, um. Where did you learn magic, how about that?”

Scarlett: “Well that is a bit easier. Where do I begin?”