Luna Read online

  Forbidden Arcana

  Luna

  Tamryn Tamer

  Copyright © 2019 by Tamryn Tamer. All rights reserved. www.smirkpublishing.com.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. Except in the cases permitted by copyright law.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  All characters are 18 years of age or older.

  WARNING: This work contains over the top graphic sex and violence.

  Contents

  Also by Tamryn Tamer

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Acknowledgements

  You may also like

  Also by Tamryn Tamer

  Forbidden Arcana Series

  Jinx (Book 1)

  Ariel (Book 2)

  Mirage (Book 3)

  Theia (Book 4)

  Sable (Book 5)

  Luna (Book 6)

  Talia (Coming Soon!)

  Chapter 1

  Diplomatic Discussions

  Jericho shifted uncomfortably in his seat like a child sitting at the adult table. Every few seconds one of the guild leaders would glance at him judgmentally before going back to their discussions. It seemed like everybody in the room was doing their best to make him feel like he wasn’t in the room despite the fact he was the topic of their entire discussion.

  “No,” Sapphire said as a flame sparked from her shoulder. The guild master of Ambrosia had rerolled to an azure haired elven sorceress and it seemed she had a knack for elemental magic. She’d also acquired all three of the sensory magics which tied her with Owl for the second most powerful mage in Forbidden Arcana, “There need to be consequences.”

  “There have been consequences,” Raven responded calmly. The petite grey-skinned dark elf somehow seemed more intimidating than Sapphire despite being almost two feet smaller. “Both sides have suffered significant losses. Tiamat lost nearly twenty million gold in property value.”

  “But he hasn’t!” Sapphire pointed at Jericho who grinned awkwardly.

  Raven gave Jericho specific instructions not to speak unless spoken to during the peace negotiations since Sapphire had a strong dislike for him. The only reason Ambrosia and Grim were willing to discuss peace was because Phoenix disbanded and left them in a difficult position. They certainly weren’t negotiating peace because they wanted to.

  “I don’t see why you’re so obsessed with him,” Plague said. The guild master of Grim was a tall gaunt dark elf with white hair and violet eyes. “Sin is a small guild led by a rash buffoon. Endgame is ultimately the problem. If left intact they will continue to grow until they become too big to fail.”

  “I appreciate your vote of confidence but don’t you think you’re a little paranoid?” Raven grinned. She’d never admit it but Plague was right. If left to grow, Raven’s natural talent for logistics would take over and she could eventually rule the world.

  “No,” Plague answered. “And you know I’m not.”

  “I think the important thing is we can all agree that Tiamat is not the problem,” Diana said happily. The red-scaled Ela woman snuggled up next to Jericho. Phoenix was her only enemy and with them disbanded she was on cloud nine. Even after the massive financial losses her guild incurred, she considered the entire thing a net gain.

  “Jericho needs to be punished,” Sapphire said. She glanced at Terra sitting next to Jericho. “And Terra as well for that matter. She’s been on a killing spree targeting members of Ambrosia.”

  “We’re at war,” Raven shook her head. “You’re trying to kill her too.”

  “It’s different with her,” Sapphire said as Terra stifled a laugh. “She doesn’t fight them when they’re out hunting monsters. She targets them on their way back from spending hours gathering materials.”

  “Doesn’t matter,” Raven said. “You can’t fault her for killing members of your guild while we’re at war. And none of this really matters. The question is whether we want to continue this war. Not whether or not it’s justified.”

  “It’s justified,” Sapphire glared as Raven sat calmly. “And if we still had Phoenix you wouldn’t be so smug.”

  “I assure you I’m not smug,” Raven responded. It was a lie, she was definitely smug. Jericho had seen her smug face a hundred times and it was definitely her smug face. “I’m simply happy to have the opportunity to end this war. Long drawn out conflicts are bad for everybody.”

  “But they’re worse for you,” Plague smirked. “Your guild burns resources faster. You need to maintain supply networks and purchase orders along with keeping your members satisfied. I’m perfectly happy hurting myself as long as you hurt more.”

  “Petty,” Diana mumbled as Plague scowled at her. The Ela woman playfully stuck out her long forked-tongue.

  “You can forget about peace unless Jericho pays for screwing us over,” Sapphire said. “He promised us all of the information he had on magic.”

  “He gave you everything he knew at the time,” Raven said. “And look at you now! You’re the most powerful sorceress in Forbidden Arcana!”

  “I know elemental magic as well as mind, body, and spirit magic. I want the information he withheld.” Sapphire frowned at Jericho. “Absent that, they can give up their manor.”

  “Over my dead body you crazy bitch!” Terra exploded at the suggestion. The busty elf ranger jumped to her feet and gestured wildly. “You think I was actively killing members of your guild before? I was doing that shit when I was bored! That was me waking up with nothing to do! But now, I’m going to show you what active really looks like! I’m going to start scheduling hours to you!”

  “Terra,” Raven smiled politely. “You promised you’d sit quietly.”

  “That was before…” Terra stopped herself as Raven’s polite smile shifted into a murderous scowl. “Fine. But we’re not giving up our house!”

  “That’s fine,” Raven answered while waving her hand. “Besides. Any attempt to displace the fairy queen from her village could have ramifications similar to what happened in Kar Mograth. I’m sure you wouldn’t like that.”

  “That’s another thing that needs discussing,” Plague said. “If you have the ability to siege cities, that’s an issue.”

  “Yes. About that. In the spirit of peace, I will explain to you how it works. The fairy queen follows the same standards as other royal leaders. As long as you don’t harm the queen or the royal family, she is unable to initiate a siege,” Raven offered. “Jericho’s familiars are all potential heirs to the crown of Dayrose. Don’t kidnap or torture them and you won’t have anything to worry about.”

  “If he doesn’t want to give up the house then I want the information,” Sapphire said obstinately. “We saved his stupid village. The only reason he has a house or any of his familiars is because we saved him. In return, he screwed us over.”

  “Jericho?” Raven looked at him resentfully. She knew full well that Jericho had no intention of giving away information regarding magic. He’d kept his end of the bargain with Sapphire, she was the one being unreasonable.

  Jericho told her all about elemental magic and how to contr
ol it. He told her about mind, body, and spirit magic as well as where to find familiars. He even described how he’d found his information and familiars before so she’d know to value documents found in libraries, ruins, and dungeons. It wasn’t his fault that Mirage had withheld information on time, space, light, dark, life, and death magic. Or that she didn’t tell him about the library in Castle Black until after his meeting.

  “No,” Jericho said stubbornly. “I gave all the information I had at the time. I kept my end of the deal. If she wants more information just make Owl give her what he has. I’m sure he has something of value.”

  “Owl won’t part with his information,” Raven sighed. “In preparation for this meeting, I even threatened to remove him from the guild. He refuses to share his information. All of you mages seem consistent in that regard.”

  “Then there isn’t going to be any peace,” Sapphire said.

  “Thank god,” Plague said cheerfully.

  “So, the war continues,” Raven stared at Jericho like she wanted him to do something. She’d been complaining to him for some time about the war and the toll it was taking on her. Jericho cared about Raven quite a bit and hated that she was stressing herself out taking care of his problems. He did his best to help her relax but she was still spread thin.

  “Unless Jericho can find a way to make amends,” Sapphire said proudly. “But we all know he’s as selfish as they come.”

  “Why don’t you just give her some of the information you give us?” Diana asked. “I mean, sure it’s not information on magic but it’s information on various dungeon and ruin locations. We’ve acquired quite a few legendary and epic items from the ones we’ve explored so far. I can’t imagine her officers would be upset if a few of them got legendary items out of the deal.”

  “What?” Sapphire stared at Diana in disbelief. “He’s also been discovering new ruins and dungeons?”

  “Yeah,” Diana nodded. “That’s what he does for the alliance. He finds information on new ruins and dungeons and then my guild clears them. We bring along his guild members and they bring all the information they find back to him and he does it again.”

  “Goddammit,” Sapphire laughed in disbelief. “You know he’s using you right? He’s controlling the information flow.”

  “We’re using each other,” Diana said as she squeezed Jericho’s thigh. “He gets the information, we get the items. It’s not a bad deal. Some of my officers don’t like it because they believe we should have the information and the items but Jericho has a knack for connecting information. Like, I gave him a pile of documents one of my officers said were useless and Jericho located hints leading to four dungeons from them. I’m fairly certain the documents also revealed other things he’s unwilling to share, but that’s just the price.”

  “He also has access to unique recipes and blueprints,” Raven said. “If you decide to keep this war going, you’ll soon find Endgame to be much more difficult to deal with.”

  “I see,” Sapphire sat back down. “So that’s how your alliance works. Endgame takes care of all of the crafting and fighting, Tiamat takes care of all of the exploring and adventuring, and Sin is research and development.”

  “Hm,” Diana smiled widely. Jericho always found her serpent smile amusing. Between her giant black eyes and extra wide mouth, it looked comical yet profoundly innocent. “When you say it like that it almost sounds like we know what we’re doing. Really, we all just kind of do our own thing. I just like exploring dungeons. Raven likes business and player killing. Jericho likes information and magic.”

  “If you let them run rampant, they’ll grow faster than anybody can handle,” Plague insisted.

  Jericho didn’t respect Grim as a guild, they were sort of a third-rate Endgame, but he respected Plague. If he had stronger players at his disposal, he’d be a force to be reckoned with. Anybody who looked at Grim’s track record would say they lose far too many battles. But anybody who looked closely at the battles would realize that despite having weaker players they regularly came frighteningly close to winning. If Plague had a real army at his disposal, he’d be an undeniable threat.

  “Seems like they’re growing anyway,” Sapphire sighed dejectedly. “And we are here to make peace. Loki and Phoenix are gone. We can keep fighting but my guild will start to lose members if they have to keep fighting. A good portion of them just want to farm in peace and I’m less than a day away from increasing my noble rank in Dawn if I can just go about my day. If Jericho can offer valuable information, I’d like to make this happen. Even if he is a troublemaking asshole.”

  “It’s a mistake,” Plague sighed. “But if you make peace, I won’t be able to fight them on my own. So, it’s up to you.”

  “What kind of information do you have?” Terra looked at Jericho. She was privy to most of what he found but Jericho always kept quite a bit of information to himself. It wasn’t because he didn’t trust her, but information shared by two people was half as secure. “Anything you’re willing to part with?”

  “Hm,” Jericho grinned as he looked around the table. He pulled out a single scroll. “You know, I may have something.”

  “And what might that be?” Sapphire asked staring at the scroll. “Did you bring it anticipating this?”

  “I don’t really anticipate anything,” Jericho smirked. “I play it by ear. But this scroll contains the requirements of a new class, Battle Dancer.”

  “Jericho!” Raven snapped and jumped from her seat. “That’s mine!”

  “Don’t worry,” Jericho said tossing the scroll across the table to Raven who greedily snatched it up. “But I have it memorized. When you think about it, information on magic is just information on the mage class. Giving you information on another class should more than make up for it.”

  “Bastard,” Raven glared. “If this were magic related you wouldn’t be giving it out. This was supposed to be mine in exchange for helping save Jinx.”

  “It’s still yours,” Jericho said. “And as far as sharing information, let’s be honest, if you had information you could give Sapphire about magic, you’d give it to her despite my objections to broker a peace.”

  “Fair enough,” Raven said looking over her shoulders as she peaked at the scroll. “Holy shit that’s a lot of requirements.”

  “I’d prefer the information on magic,” Sapphire seemed to be thinking about it. “But my officers would be more intrigued by a new class. And if we’re not fighting all of the time we can focus more on exploring ruins and doing my own research which will help me advance in magic.”

  “So,” Jericho said pulling out a parchment and infusing it with the Battle Dancer requirements. “Truce?”

  “Yeah,” Sapphire said coldly. “It’s what we came here for. But this doesn’t make us even. And I still don’t like you.”

  “This is unfortunate,” Plague glanced at Raven. “I suppose this means we’re at peace as well.”

  “Oh Plague,” Raven grinned wickedly. “I’m happy to keep warring with you if that’s what you want. Without Ambrosia backing you up, I’ll have you wiped out in a week.”

  “You’ve said that before,” Plague smirked. “Never seems to happen. But let’s give peace a chance.”

  “Great!” Diana said excitedly. “Now we can focus on finding loot!”

  “Hm,” Terra leaned back. “I’m going to need to find something to do other than hunt Ambrosia peons.”

  “Oh, poor you,” Sapphire scoffed.

  “You could always clear some dungeons,” Jericho suggested. “Take the guild lowbies on some runs instead off forcing Tiamat to take them all the time. They’d be happy to keep some loot for once.”

  “Hey!” Diana got an inch from Jericho’s face. He gazed into her dark glassy eyes as she scowled. “We have a deal big boy. Tiamat clears the dungeons and gets the loot. Are you planning on cutting us out?”

  “No,” Jericho chuckled. “I never said I’d give you all of the dungeons or ruins. I promised
a steady supply.”

  “I don’t like it,” Diana rapidly flicked her serpent tongue on Jericho’s nose. “You’re going to save the good dungeons for yourself and I’m going to get the leftovers. Then I’m going to have to deal with my officers being pissed at me again for trusting you. None of them like you. They all think you’re a selfish prick.”

  “Diana,” Jericho said countering her tongue flick with a peck to her nose. She was always particularly vulnerable to his flirtations. “That’s just because they’re all jealous of our relationship.”

  “Relationship?” Diana giggled, completely forgetting what they were talking about. “What is our relationship? How would you define it? Tell me.”

  “We’re good friends,” Jericho smiled as Diana’s face shifted from excitement to frustration. Jericho immediately realized he’d made a grave mistake. He should not have said that.

  “You are a tease!” Diana snapped while pushing him away. “You are just the worst type of tease! And don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing! Whenever you want to get your way you act all sweet and flirty but then once you get your way it’s back to the same old Jericho! My officers are right about you!”

  “Teases don’t make good on the fucking,” Terra interrupted while trying to calm things down before they escalated. “I’m pretty sure that Jericho has fucked you.”

  “I feel this is getting off track,” Raven tried to interject.

  “He’s an emotional tease!” Diana said brusquely. “He always acts romantic and sweet and loving but when it comes time to commit, he runs away with his tail between his legs. Friends? Just friends? Every single time! Is this because I’m an Ela? Because you said that didn’t bother you. I bet you’d at least introduce Raven as a friend with benefits! But not the Ela woman! Heaven forbid somebody thinks you actually like an Ela!”