Chapter 160: The Gasini

The darkness covering the figure’s face shifted, and a smile slowly appeared within it as though the veil had decided that much was safe to reveal. Jaxir remained balanced on the branch across from him, his staff resting loosely in one hand while the last of his amusement from the fight with Maelis faded.

The stranger seemed content to wait until Jaxir’s attention settled completely on him.

"Hello, Jaxir Chance." The voice belonged to a man, though the veil distorted it enough that Jaxir couldn’t guess much beyond that. Jaxir raised an eyebrow and looked over the shadow from head to toe.

"You are?" Jaxir couldn’t see a name, Level, Class, or anything else that might have made the answer unnecessary.

The man’s smile widened slightly beneath the veil.

"Unimportant, but you seem to fit our needs quite beautifully." The stranger shifted his weight against the trunk behind him, showing no concern about how quickly Jaxir’s expression flattened. Jaxir rolled the word around for a moment before deciding he already disliked where this was going.

"Who is our?" He watched the man’s smile twitch as though another irritatingly vague answer was already on its way. "And if you’re planning on responding with ’unimportant’ again, we can just be done with this conversation."

A low chuckle came from beneath the veil, and the stranger inclined his head in acknowledgment. "I am unimportant, but our goals and my organization are not, so I suppose I can give you that much." He straightened from the tree and spread one hand toward Jaxir.

"We are the Gasini, and our goal is quite simple." The name meant absolutely nothing to Jaxir, which wasn’t particularly surprising considering how many organizations in Divinity seemed to exist without ever appearing in public information. The man gave him another faint smile before continuing.

"We would like to give the gift of magic to the world."

Jaxir’s eyes narrowed. That sounded impressive until he spent half a second thinking about it. Everyone in Divinity already had access to mana through their Class, so unless the Gasini planned on turning the entire world into Magic Class users, he had no idea what the man was talking about.

Then there was the more obvious problem that plenty of people probably didn’t want to become mages in the first place. Jaxir had met enough tanks, archers and idiots with swords to know they seemed perfectly happy with their poor life decisions. The stranger chuckled before Jaxir could ask.

"You don’t need to overthink it so much." The man’s gaze moved toward Jaxir’s staff, lingering there for a moment before returning to his face. "The important matter for now is that we would like to invite you into our organization because you are an Archmage."

He paused, and for the first time his smile faltered as though something he could see through the veil had changed. "My apologies, it seems our information has already fallen behind." His amusement returned a moment later. "Grand Archmage."

Jaxir’s fingers tightened faintly around his staff. "You’re going to have to explain your organization better than that. So far you’ve given me a name and a slogan." He tilted his head. "Neither one means much."

"Fair enough." The stranger folded his hands behind his back, and his tone lost some of its earlier playfulness. "The Gasini exist to disseminate the secrets of the Natural Race to the rest of the world."

Jaxir’s gaze flickered.

"The Naturals have hoarded those secrets for far too long, especially those concerning how mortals can fight against the gods." The stranger’s smile returned, but there was nothing particularly warm about it now. "We intend to find a method of sharing what they have kept for themselves."

Jaxir didn’t answer immediately. One particular little Natural entered his thoughts before anything else did. Was this stranger appearing now a coincidence, or did it have something to do with her?

"And how exactly do you plan on doing that?" Jaxir kept his expression loose while he studied the veil again. "The Naturals are very powerful from my understanding."

The man’s smile widened. "All we have to do is wait for the key to awaken."

There was enough confidence behind the answer that Jaxir doubted the man was speaking metaphorically just for the sake of sounding mysterious. Unfortunately, that didn’t make the sentence any more useful.

"The key?" Jaxir waited, but the stranger only chuckled and shook his head. The movement was small, almost apologetic.

"I’m afraid I cannot tell you more until you choose to join us." The stranger didn’t bother dressing the refusal up any further, which Jaxir appreciated more than another speech.

"And what does joining entail?" Jaxir shifted his feet slightly on the branch as his glider disappeared fully behind him. "I’m assuming you didn’t hide in a tree just to ask whether I’d like a membership card."

"It’s simple, really." The stranger lifted one finger. "You need only be an Archmage and defeat one Mage-level creature of your Level or above."

Jaxir’s brows drew together as he searched through everything he’d recently read from the government’s files. Their information covered hidden bosses, strange encounters, Naturals, training methods and enough obscure nonsense that Nick had nearly lost his mind going through it, yet Jaxir couldn’t remember a single mention of Mage-level creatures.

"Where am I supposed to find something like that?" Jaxir asked. The stranger seemed to have expected the question.

"If you agree to our test, we can direct you toward one." He paused for just long enough to let the offer settle before adding, "I would say the rewards for defeating such a creature are considerable, but even those will pale beside the benefits of joining us."

Jaxir’s eyes narrowed. Something about that pitch didn’t sit properly.

If these Mage-level creatures gave rewards worth mentioning, why were the Gasini handing their locations to prospective recruits instead of killing the creatures themselves? The obvious answer was that they didn’t need whatever dropped from enemies this weak, and that seemed further heavily implied by the second half of the man’s words. But did they really not have low level members of their own that they’d like to use this on? Why use something so valuable on a recruiting test. Wouldn’t that force them to give valuable information to people that had no stake in their little game yet?

The shadow laughed again. "You really do think too much." The stranger shook his head with what sounded like genuine amusement. "You’re correct, though. Nothing a Mage-level creature this weak could give us would be worth the trouble."

Jaxir waited instead of filling the silence for him, and after another moment the man continued.

"There is little more I am permitted to tell you before the test." His smile slowly widened beneath the darkness. "But if you succeed, you just might learn a few secrets related to the Mage Gods."

Jaxir’s gaze sharpened immediately.

The Mage Alchemic God and Mage Combat God were already accounted for within Heresy in Threefolds, leaving the Mage Formation God as the only missing Legacy Fragment in the first leg of the quest.

Jaxir had been preparing to search half the world for some ancient remnant without the slightest clue where to begin, and now a man had dropped out of a tree offering information tied directly to the three people he needed to investigate. Maybe the Gasini’s sales pitch wasn’t complete shit after all.