03. Dinner with Trent

[katzepaw]

(Okay the whole thing is a whole ass hour 2:27:30 to 3:23:23 don’t listen to this, I’ll summarize and link the good parts)

Caleb and the Mighty Nein enter an ornate and incredibly magical manor of Master Trent Ikithon, Caleb’s former teacher who invited them to a formal dinner with Astrid and Eodwulf, two of Caleb’s childhood friends (though there is an 'exes' vibe between Caleb and both of them as well). Caleb’s mood is tense, terrified, brimming with fury and hate, especially when he sees the old man’s face, but he softens a little to see his two old friends into sadness; they have grown cold and hard, and seem to obey whatever Ikithon wants automatically.

The rest of the Nein are in full passive aggression mode. Caleb takes a seat next to Ikithon, across from Astrid, and then Jester and Veth busy themselves intentionally sitting down in chairs before Eodwulf gets a chance to sit. They do this until Caduceus, finally, pulls out a chair and offers it to him. Caleb watches this happen, torn between mortification and finding this hilarious, but maintaining a rigid, unsmiling face. When Trent begins to speak, Jester pretends she can’t hear him and asks him to speak up, leading to him to start speaking instead in a sinister telepathy directly into all of their heads.

(This part, 2:33:20 to 2:36:29)

“Allow me to introduce my companions for the night, of which you are familiar. Childhood friends of your companion, this ‘Caleb Widogast,’ or as we’ve known him, Bren.” He gestures to the woman. “This is Astrid.” And to the man. “This is Eodwulf.” He nods politely. “Now, I must say, I’m quite impressed how you all have come together and done so much in such a short time. What is, if I may inquire, the driving force behind your travels? What is your mutual goal?”

“Boy, that is a tricky one,” Veth says. “We’re driven by many forces, but mostly justice.”

“I think mostly we are just trying to leave the world better than when we found it,” Caleb says softly.

“Mm,” Trent says, appreciated. “So we are not too different then.”

“Oh!” Veth says, passive aggressively. “You seek to change the world for the better?”

“Well, what is the purpose of power if not to use it properly?”

“Much for us to celebrate together at this time,” Caleb interrupts, before this can continue. He glances at Trent, and then at Astrid and Eodwulf. “We have achieved peace after so much struggle.”

As soon as he glances at her, Astrid pipes up. “Indeed, it is a pleasure to meet all of these friends of. . . Caleb, just as it is good to see you as well, my friend, and I’m happy to get the chance to know those who have kept him companions and safe in the time we could not. Right, Eodwulf?”

“Indeed,” Eodwulf agrees easily. “Indeed, I have seen some of you at the sanatorium. Seems fate continues to draw us together.” He glances at Caduceus, the incredibly tall, thin pink-haired firbolg especially out of place at this table. “And what are you?” he asks.

“Vegetarian, so I hope the meal reflects that,” Caduceus says cheerfully.

Trent offers to let them ask a few questions, and Caleb tries to probe for his intentions for the fragile peace between the Empire and the Dynasty, but Trent feigns ignorance and uninvolvement. In return, he begins to try to probe them about their work for a rival member of the Assembly, which they refuse to answer. As the dinner goes on, it gets more and more difficult for Trent to continue to be amused by and tolerating Jester and Veth’s jokes and intentional misunderstandings.

(2:41:59 to 2:43:23)

Eventually, Trent leans in. “No questions, then?”

“So many questions,” Caleb says softly. “How’s the new crop, how are your children?”

“Well, the children are doing well,” he says. “Some more than others.”

“Not everyone has the stomach for it,” Caleb says darkly.

“We lost a talented prospect not long ago,” Trent says. “She was captured in Rosohna.”

They all glance each other, remembering the female spy who was executed in a prison there.

“Well, the Empire will always yield up more youth,” Caleb says. “I find hope in the quiet that was achieved at sea. Maybe I’m naive, I’m sure you think so. How wonderful it would be if the two sides could approach each other with that forthrightness always. You said that you make no decisions, you only advise. A thought experiment. Pretend that I am King Dwendal. Advise me. In your opinion, do we use this momentum going, or use it as a feint? And dig in harder in all the traditional ways? What is your advice?”

“My advice, oh great King Dwendal, is to use this momentum to rally the populace around the idea of your benevolence and your ability to keep them safe from outside aggression, but to keep a close eye in all the shaded places. There are so many lives and only so much land.”

Caduceus and Jester marvel at how well he refused to answer the question. Caleb glances at Eodwulf, asks him how he is doing. They all question Eodwulf about his activities during the war, his and Astrid’s, trying to get a sense of whether they were fighting on the front lines, but Eodwulf claims to be more of a scout, and neither he nor Astrid will admit what their job really entails.

“We’re doing what we do best, Bren. Ensure history walks the right path,” says Eodwulf with a smile.

“Have you been taking up hairstyling?” Jester asks. “Because Astrid’s got a pretty cool one. Did Eodwulf do that for you?”

Astrid pours herself a glass of wine and begins to drink. “No, this is. . . this is my own design. Do you not like it?”

“No, I love it. I love it,” Jester insists, but turns down Astrid’s offer to do her hair similarly. “It’s so original, I wouldn’t want to steal your thunder.”

(2:50:01 to 2:55:30)

Astrid leans away from the others towards Caleb. “So, Bren. . . we miss you. We’re glad to see you’re safe and doing well.”

“I have good friends,” Caleb says. “They’re good people.”

“Are you trying to invite him back?” Veth asks. “Is that why we’re here? Are you asking him back into the fold?”

“Oh, I’m not doing that, no.” Trent leans forward in his seat. “I’m more - just wanted to express my. . . pleasure with Bren's - " he stops himself, and laughs - "Caleb’s advancement as the prodigy I always knew he was. While some students take direct tutelage and study, some are unique in how the best develop: through self-discovery, or others inspired through hardship. Historically, the most talented mages have indeed walked this path, for the greatest ambitions come from those who have endured the dark and crawled their way back.”

No one seems to be sure how to take this little speech.

“So. . . you’re apologizing, then?” asks Veth.

“No,” Beau says, “It sounds like he’s trying to take fucking credit.”

“Yeah, didn’t sound like an apology to me,” agrees Caduceus.

“Of my handful of vigilant reaches, I’ve had a fondness for you three.” He gestures towards Caleb, Eodwulf and Astrid. “Eodwulf and Astrid are skilled in so much. Everything one could seemingly want in disciples and associates. But, and I mean this with all due respect to the both of them, their potential is limited. Unlike you, Bren. You have the eventual makings of an Assembly member yourself. And don’t think my eyes are the only ones upon you for this reason. Some out of curiosity, others a threat." He takes a deep breath, sounding at least somewhat contrite. "Forgive me, Bren. I could see your gifts, and your faults and limitations. To truly grow, you needed to broken and left to build yourself. It took longer than we anticipated, but when you were ready we turned on the light and showed you the door.”

And he takes something from his place setting, and it drifts over across the table and lands in front of Caleb's plate. Caleb stares at the religious symbol, the symbol of the Arch Heart. He feels sick, he feels revulsion welling up in him.

“This is why I am not dead,” he says softly.

“Of course,” Trent agrees. “If we wanted you dead, there would have been no escape. And I cannot tell you how proud of you I am. We are. And I know you hate me, Bren. Hate what I’ve put you through, and I accept those feelings. For it was a hard choice for me to make. What I did, though, I did out of love.”

"Ugh," says Jester.

Caleb seems to be spiraling off into his own thoughts, still staring at the holy symbol, feeling a little like an insect caught in a spider's web, no control over anything he does. “To what end? To use me?”

“No, to show you what you are capable of. It was your parents’ wish when I told them of the spark I saw within you. They asked me to do whatever it took to help you realize it, for the glory of your family and for the Empire. I did just that, as much as it hurt to hurt you. It is the greater man who puts the needs of others over himself, Bren, and this nation needs you.”

He flicks a glance over in Astrid and Eodwulf’s direction. Neither seem to have liked what Trent just said, the easy way he dismissed both of them, but more than that they seem intent. Astrid seems subtly nervous, wary of Trent, whereas Eodwulf seems to be hanging on his words.

(2:58:13 through 3:09:31)

“You will have to walk me through the logic of this long con,” Caleb spits, “Because I do loathe you, deeply. But you do nothing flagrantly. Everything is very careful. So how would you hope to use me as a tool?”

“This isn’t to use you as a tool, Bren,” Trent says. “And there isn’t a word I could say that you would find yourself able to believe, correct?”

“It’s hard to forget the past,” Caleb says, bitterly.

“Then do not forget it. Use it. If I am to be the focus of your hatred, I accepted that long ago. But what you are now, what you’ve accomplished, those you’ve drawn around you, and where you go. . . that is because of what you’ve endured. Not because of a book you read in some hall with other sniveling, rich children. You made yourself. But it took that path of pain to accomplish this. And you’re not the only one of us in the Assembly to have been through similar trauma and been defined by it.”

Caleb stares at Astrid as he answers, “And you think that my mother and father, our mothers and fathers and children, should serve as grist for the mill in this way?” He wants to see her reaction, wants to see some sign that she doesn't think the murder of their parents was an acceptable cost.

Astrid responds quietly, “Whatever it takes to keep the people of this Empire safe. The wants of one do not outweigh the wants of the many. Right?”

Eodwulf leans forward and adds, “Our parents made a sacrifice, yes? Like any soldier does on the battlefield.”

“If we cannot protect our own, then all of it is a failure,” Caleb says lowly, trying to persuade Astrid and Eodwulf more than Trent. “Why did we get into this? Why did we serve with such vigor, if not to protect?”

“You see,” Trent interrupts, “when talent rises from nothing, then nothing truly is lost. You are far more than where you came from.”

“So you’ve sent me off like a windup clockwork toy to serve the Empire,” Caleb mutters. “Am I right? What if the thing to do now is to supplant you, to pull you up like a weed and do better? You comfortable with that idea?”

“Nothing would make me prouder,” Trent says with a smile, and there is a sense that whatever else, he genuinely believes this.

Caleb looks at Astrid again. “When he is out of the picture and you and I carry the torch forward, will we mangle more children to feed the fields of Wynandir?”

Eodwulf sits back and crosses his arms and looks at Astrid; Astrid says easily, “well, if you were to be the bannerman of this tower that we are charged to, then we do as you say. If you want it to end, that’s your command.”

“What about you, though?” Caleb asks. “When we spoke last, I had the impression that you were being groomed for this seat.”

Astrid immediately looks at Trent in fear, and he leans in a little bit, interested and amused. “My ambitions. . . and the paths laid before me are not always congruent, Bren,” she says, looking at him seriously, obviously begging him to stop talking about the possibility she would replace Trent.

Trent leans forward, grinning, getting more curled and confident. “It’s alright. Any man of my position assumes that everyone I keep close is just waiting for me to turn my back. Every person in power knows that feeling, lives by it. It’s the rare one that gets to choose. I just hope you don’t disappoint me, Bren.”

“That is a lot to absorb,” Caleb says, his voice a little vague and distant, like he’s still wrapping his head around all of this. “It’s been an interesting decade, to be sure. I often feel like a failure and a success within the same hour.”

“Then you are learning,” Trent says gently.

“I have dreamed of murdering you with my bare hands many nights,” Caleb continues. “So I hope it’s not just flowery language you are throwing around the dinner table, Master Ikithon. This place, this country could do better. It could do with less blood. Everyone at this table knows that struggle is inherent to life.” He glances at Astrid. “But this way is not the only way.”

Astrid doesn’t respond, only glances at Trent, frightened now.

“Then take care of yourself, all of you,” Trent says. “For the struggle never stops. And because you don’t want bloodshed doesn’t mean every other person that wants what you have doesn’t. History and moral nature prove this time and time again. If you are not sometimes the first to cut, you are the first to receive the blade. I’ve spent my life bearing knives. Let’s hope you live as long, Caleb Widogast.”

Caleb laughs, unsettled, on the verge of hysterical. “I feel as though I have been dominating the conversation. Does anyone else have any questions about me being. . . groomed as the antichrist?”

“I actually had a question,” says Veth. “If you don’t mind, Caleb, about your past. You know, thank you so much for sending him to us in your weird psycho way. We do appreciate making his acquaintance, however dark and creepy the origins were. But you know, if my memory serves, he was locked away for a while in a sanatorium. He would have stayed there forever, right? If someone hadn’t freed him?”

“Most likely, yes,” Trent agrees.

“Who freed him?” she asks.

“Well, who do you think?” Trent says. He gestures to the holy symbol.

“What he’s saying is he orchestrated it,” says Caleb.

“So he imprisoned you and he freed you,” says Jester.

“He left me shut off and then he turned the lights back on,” says Caleb.

“Wow,” says Jester. “That’s very kind of you, very generous.”

(3:21:41 through 3:23:23)

“Didn’t need those ten years,” agrees Caleb. “Well, this has been very informative. Illuminating. I don’t wish to overstay our welcome. We do have business to attend to and preparations to make.”

“It has been a pleasure to get to see all of you,” Trent says. “Thank you for accepting our invitation and for this quaint bit of conversation. I will take my leave.”

“May I say before you go,” says Caduceus, measured and polite as always. “I think perhaps you are one of the most powerful mages that I’ve ever had the pleasure to be in the presence of. And for this, I would offer a gift. I think it has been a long time since anyone has pointed out to you that you’re a fool. Pain doesn’t make people, it’s love that makes people. The pain is inconsequential. It’s love that saves them. And you would know that, but you have none around you. You said so yourself, you surround yourself with lies and deceptions. And I wish for you, in the future, to find someone who will mourn you when you are gone. Respectfully.”

“Good night,” Trent says, and then he vanishes.

Astrid and Eodwulf are left behind, sitting there awkward, both slightly alarmed at everything that just came out of Caduceus’ mouth. Jester starts to ask them to come get a drink with them, and Caleb joins in, encouraging them to come, but they will only agree to walk outside with them, not go any further, and both clearly act as though they expect to be spied on the whole time. Jester starts trying to apologize to Astrid for being a mean girl about her hairstyle, while Eodwulf pronounces that he likes Caduceus, but he should be careful what he says to people like Trent.

“Oh no, I wouldn’t if I had to live here, no,” says Caduceus. “Woof.”

As they break away, Astrid quietly asks Caleb if he really meant what he said, that he intends to stop Trent.

“Ja. Nothing is set in stone. Not for you or anyone.”

Astrid looks back at him for a long moment, and then very quietly says, “race you to the top.” And then turns to go. Caleb stares back at the house and up at Ikithon’s tower for a while after, before they all turn to go.