The Legend of Eli Monpress(334)
“Being at the center of so much attention, I feel like I should be more entertaining,” the thief said with a grin. “How about this? Free my hands and I’ll show you a card trick.”
Miranda gave him a stony glare and said nothing.
When he realized this approach wasn’t going to work, Eli let out a long sigh and slumped back against Mellinor’s restraining water.
“You know, I’m actually very impressed,” he said, his voice surprisingly sincere. “That was a neat little trap you pulled off back in the river. Of all the people who’ve chased me over the years, you’re the closest thing I’ve ever had to a real rival. There’ve been so many bounty hunters who’ve come after me, so many traps, and yet no one has come quite as close quite as many times as you, Miranda. Back when I first started this whole million-gold-standard bounty thing, I always envisioned a great rival, some famous bounty hunter who would track me all across the Council Kingdoms and give me a real run for my money. But I never in my life thought it would be a Spiritualist.”
Miranda frowned, not sure how to answer. Fortunately, she didn’t need to, for Eli kept going.
“I just don’t see what you’re getting from all this effort,” he said. “You’ve already achieved more than most Spiritualists do in a lifetime. You’ve got nearly two full hands of rings, position, power, a Great Spirit at your beck and call. You don’t seem to care about money or fame, and you’re not the type who enjoys the chase for its own sake, so far as I can tell. I keep waiting for you to give up, go home, get a Tower, write some long-winded treatise on spiritual ethics, but you never do. You keep coming after me. Why is that?”
“Is that a trick question?” Miranda asked, keeping her voice carefully flat.
“No,” Eli said slowly. “It’s a sincere one.”
Miranda leaned back, resting her head on Gin’s ribs. “Because it is my duty.”
“Nonsense,” Eli said. “It’s the Council’s job to catch thieves.”
She gave him a long look. “That may be, but the Spirit Court cannot ignore your actions. You go around using spirits to steal kings without even trying to hide it. Every job you pull is a production, a grand sensation to build your reputation as Eli Monpress, the wizard thief. The Spirit Court exists to promote two goals: the ethical treatment of spirits and building the public’s faith in wizardry. In case you’ve forgotten, wizards used to be seen as tyrants, hated by spirits and people alike for abusing their power. For the last four centuries, the Spirit Court has worked to change that by taking down those who abuse spirits and by holding all wizards accountable to a moral code, whether they want to be held accountable or not.”
“You can’t force your morals on the whole world,” Eli said.
“We don’t,” Miranda said. “We force them on other wizards, because if we didn’t, the bad times would return faster than you could imagine. Spiritualists swear to uphold the Spirit Court’s code of ethics precisely so that we never go back to those dark days. That is why, when you decided to abandon those morals, to use your power as a wizard to flout the law for personal gain, it became my duty to stop you. Your actions throw a black shadow on all of us and undo the hard work of a great many good people. It’s so much easier to tear down a reputation than to build it, to inspire fear and suspicion rather than trust. That’s why I have to stop you, to protect the work of all the Spiritualists who went before me and save the trust they built, which you now take advantage of.”
Eli heaved a long, hard sigh. “You remind me very much of someone I used to know when you lecture like that,” he said quietly. “How is it Spiritualists can turn anything into a matter of duty?”
“It’s called having principles,” Miranda said, crossing her arms over her chest. “Some of us don’t have morals as flexible as yours.”
“Well, no one could ever accuse you of flexibility,” Eli said dryly. “Unfortunately, I fear we will never come to an agreement. Your world is far too black-and-white for me.”
“There’s no agreement to come to,” Miranda said fiercely. “Don’t forget who’s up to his neck in water.”
Eli smirked and started to answer, but he never got a chance. At that moment, the door exploded.
Miranda screamed in surprise, throwing up her arms to shield her face as bits of wood shot across the room. She fell to the ground as Gin slid out from under her, leaping to his feet with a snarl, his patterns swirling madly as he turned to face the door, ears flat back against his skull. For a moment, she couldn’t even see what he was growling at through the dust and debris. Then the man stepped into the room, and Miranda felt her skin grow cold.