word: pseudology

pseudology

\ soo-DOL-uh-jee \  , noun;

1. Lying considered as an art.

******************************

                “You should let me go.”  Said the lithe, lanky man.  His voice was smooth as silk, and showed no signs of panic, fear, or worry, even though he was in chains.  “After all, I am an innocent man.”

                “Yeah, I’m sure you are.”  Lars said, rolling his eyes as the group walked. 

                The trio’s current job was escorting a prisoner named Alagon to a heavily fortified prison.  The officials who hired them said they didn’t want to attract attention by putting forth a large escort as they normally would, and so wished to hire a small, experienced group.  That had really meant that this man was either too important to risk their own men on, or not worth putting any real effort into his transfer.  Given his crime was murdering several high class people, it was probably the former.  A large group of fully armed soldiers would attract a lot of attention, and was at risk of attack by bandits or some such.  A smaller group was less of a target, and therefore more likely to make the trip successful. 

                “No really, I am.  I haven’t committed a single crime in my life.”  Alagon said. 

                “And I don’t really care.  We’re just here to take you to jail.”  Lars said.  Prisoners always said they were innocent.  He found it best to just ignore such pleas and finish the job.  The other two members of the group tended to agree with him on this point.  This time it was a bit trickier to do this.

                Alagon was a criminal of the most dangerous type:  a liar.  And not just any liar, a smart, manipulative one.  His was a tongue that was both silver and forked.  He was a man who saw lying not just as something one did to get out of something.  No, for him, lies were a form of art.  He killed not with knives and arrows, but with words.  He knew how to manipulate people with lies that were perfectly plausible.  He had reached such a mastery of the craft of falsehood, that he could tell a lie while still being completely honest. 

                That was what he was trying to do at that moment.  Technically speaking, he was being honest when he said he didn’t kill anyone.  He had however, used a web of masterfully spun lies to kill his victims, either by convincing them to commit suicide, or convincing others to do the job for him.  The only reason he was currently in custody was due to magical interference.  While Alagon could fool even the most powerful of truth spells, the same could not be said for those he manipulated.  One of the people he convinced into doing his dirty work had identified him, which lead to more evidence being found against him, which lead to his conviction. 

                “Now what kind of attitude is that?” Alagon asked.  “After all, would it not weight heavily on the consciousnesses of three such fine young people such as yourselves?”  It was the first barrage he used:  petty compliments.  The trio had been warned about his methods.  Still, his poisoned words were starting to have an effect.

                “How’s the research on the silence spell going?”  Caruss asked, leaning in close to Grena.  Her head was buried in a magic book.  She had wanted to learn the spell for robbing a person’s voice before the journey started, but the time frame the officials gave them didn’t allow for her to do so.

                “Almost got it.  I should be able to shut him up in a few hours.”  She said, not taking her eyes off the book for a moment. 

                “You know, I am rather influential.  I can offer you a substantial sum to secure my release.”  Alagon said.  It was another of his true lies.  While the man was indeed very influential, and exceedingly wealthy, most of his money was not accessible for various reasons.  The trio had been warned that he currently didn’t have any usable money, no matter what he said.

                “Yeah, sure you do.  Except it’s in other countries.”  Lars said, doing his best to keep from doing something he would later regret.

                “Ah, yes.  Of course.”  Alagon said simply.  It was hard to tell if he was angered in any way by his lack of progress.  His facial expression never seemed to change from a small, aloof smile.  “However that doesn’t mean I can’t compensate you for my release you know.  After all, not all that is valuable is money.  I know quite a bit of useful information after all.  Information that you can use to great advantage in the right circle.”

                “Oh man, can you guys imagine me blackmailing someone into nobility?”  Lars said jovially.  He did have to admit that it sounded very tempting though.

                “You’d never last.”  Caruss said.  “They’d run you out of town for getting drunk and trying to sleep with someone’s daughter.  Or wife.”  Grena smirked into her book at the thought. 

                “And what of you my good sir?  Or perhaps the lovely young lady here?  I’m sure you would look dashing in the position of nobility.” 

                Neither commented.  They were all picturing themselves living in large houses and wearing fine clothes instead of trapping around the wilderness in rugged leathers.  They hated to admit it, but he was starting to get to them, if only a little.  Alagon continued speaking, each word carefully chosen to get under the trio’s skin.  His smile widened a bit.  He knew it was only a matter of time before he could trick them into letting him go.  All four of them were so distracted that they didn’t notice a group of rough, armed men were standing in the middle of the road until it was too late. 

                “Alright then, let’s take out any valuables you lot might have.”  Said a very large man brandishing a crude short sword.  None of them reacted to the bandit’s threat.  Three of them were used to such things, and the other had nothing of value to give.  “You hear me?  Give up anything worth something you have, or we gut you and take it.”  The man said, holding his sword out menacingly. 

                “I’ll take the guys on the left, you take the right?”  Lars said, unperturbed by the threat.

                “Yeah, sure.”  Caruss said.  Both men went for their weapons, but Grena pushed past them before they could.

                “Excuse me, but I think I’m going to deal with this one.”  She said.  She had stuck her finger in her book as an improvised bookmark, and dangled her beads from her finger.  “Now, I guess you guys should want to run now.”  She said, smiling pleasantly. 

The bandits just looked at her blankly, obviously confused.  However, that soon changed as she started spinning the beads around her fingers.  A ball of arcane energy gathered around the end of it.  The bandits eyes widened and many of them looked around nervously at each other.  Grena had learned almost as soon as she started practicing magic that bandits were cowards that wanted nothing to do with a Spellsplinger of any kind.  As the ball of energy expanded, the bandits backed away slowly before turning and running as quickly as they could.  Grena chuckled as she dissipated the energy.

“I love doing that.”  She said, putting her beads away and reopened her book.

“What was that spell exactly?”  Caruss asked.

“Oh, nothing special.  Just a light spell.”  She said, once again pouring over the spell.

“Ah, a woman after my own heart.”  Alagon said.

“Oh shut up.”  She said. 

“Oh, I’m sure that there are many things we have yet to talk about.”  He said

“How’s that spell coming again?”  Caruss asked.

“Almost there.”  She said simply.

“This is gonna be a long walk.”  Lars muttered to himself.  

********************

It's been awhile since we've seen these three right?  Not really sure if it turned out ok though, but hey, not every one can be a winner, right?