CHAPTER 71: THE TRUTH IS...

When Halloway returned, the guild hall felt much smaller. His footsteps were heavier now, more deliberate. Marron looked up from her cold tea as he approached.

His shoulders are curved inward. Whatever he’s carrying, it’s heavy.

"We need to talk," he said quietly. "All of us."

Charity closed her notebook with a snap. Lucy shifted nervously on Marron’s shoulder while Mokko’s ears swiveled toward the guildmaster’s voice.

"What did it tell you?" Marron asked.

Halloway said nothing until they were safely inside his office. He sat on his plush armchair, and drank a swig of his ice-cold tea. For a moment, he looked older than he actually was.

"Your cart," he began, then paused. "Marron, do you know what you’ve been cooking with?"

She frowned. "It’s... my cart. From when I first arrived. I know it’s magical, but—"

"It’s a Legendary Tool." The words fell like stones into still water. "One of seven artifacts that have shaped culinary history for centuries."

The tea mug slipped from Marron’s fingers, clattering against the table. Lucy squeaked in alarm. Mokko’s massive head turned toward her, concern evident in his dark eyes.

"That’s impossible," Marron whispered. "It’s just... I mean, it helps my cooking, but it’s not..."

"Look around the guild hall," Halloway said quietly. "My office has a tapestry, but there are also paintings on the walls."

Marron took Lucy with her and briefly, they allowed themselves to look at the paintings hanging on the walls. She had admired them, but never studied them. Now, she could see what she missed.

In each painting, there were seven figures, each holding different kitchen equipment. There was a knife that looked sharp enough to cut through fabric. There was a wok in the middle of swirling storms. A silhouette held a ladle that dripped liquid starlight.

Each painting had different tools, though. Sometimes the wok was missing, there was a blender, and other inconsistencies. Regardless, there was one constant figure: there was always a silhouette behind a cart.

When they returned to Halloway’s office, he gestured to the tapestry hanging behind him. His version had silhouettes that looked like a:

- knife

- wok

- whisk

- saucepan

- pot

- food cart

"As the Tools are tales of legend, nobody can agree on what they are."

Charity nodded. "Makes sense. Even the merchants can’t agree."

"Different regions claim different artifacts." Halloway continued.

"Some say the knife was lost centuries ago. Others insist the wok was destroyed in the Dragon Wars. But the cart..." He gestured toward his tapestry, and turned his head to the door. Marron understood that he meant the paintings outside. "The cart appears in every single one. Every historical account and legend."

Marron’s hands trembled as she stared at the woven images. "But I didn’t know. When I arrived, it was just... there. With me. I thought it was part of being summoned."

+

"Unfortunately, the mimic confirmed it." Halloway’s face looked grim. "Dungeons spawn because of an influx of magic. We thought it was because of the mages and their experiments, but...for Whetvale..."

He put a hand on Marron’s shoulder, his eyes full of pity.

"The mimics went after Brookvale because it had two or three shops full of magical items. The mimic we captured didn’t go into too many details..." Halloway’s voice turned bitter here, like he was inexplicably angry.

It made Marron shake, because she had never seen him react so strongly before.

He noticed the fear in her eyes and caught himself, breathing deeply. "...sorry. They hunger for magical power, and you’ve been walking around with a large source of culinary magic."

The implication made Marron feel like someone had thrown a bucket of ice water at her.

I knew it was making my food tastier, but I didn’t know it was so valuable. Were any of the successful dishes mine? Or did I make as much money as I did because of the cart?

How much of it was me...and my skills?

"There’s more," Halloway said, his voice heavy with old pain. "I need to tell you about Juno."

Charity had been taking notes, but abruptly stopped when she heard the name Juno. She stared at the Guildmaster, eyes wide in shock.

Even the ambient noise from the guild hall seemed to fade.

"She was an apprentice in our Frostfall Chapter. Barely twenty, but already showing incredible promise as a pastry chef. Her soufflés were legendary—light as air, sweet as first love. The townspeople adored her."

Halloway’s jaw tightened.

"A mimic killed her and took her place."

Marron’s stomach dropped. "Like what almost happened here."

"Worse." Halloway’s hands clenched into fists. "The mimic copied her recipes, her tools, even her mannerisms perfectly. For months, it served the town, building on her reputation. But mimics can only imitate, not create. They can’t innovate or adapt."

"What happened?"

"Eventually, the townspeople noticed. We...we didn’t know what signs to look for, at that point. But Juno loved to bake, and make new pastries. Suddenly, she stopped making new things. But even more horrifying--the mimic hadn’t fully absorbed all of Juno’s memories. So she didn’t know how to make her earliest creations."

Marron empathized, because the same thing had almost happened to Balen. "The love was gone. I bet the town wasn’t happy when they finally found out."

Halloway chuckled darkly. "Not at all. When they realized their beloved Juno had been taken from them...replaced by a monster...they..."

He paused, struggling with the words. "They tortured the mimic. Then they burned it in the town square. The charred remains were thrown into a pauper’s grave beyond the town’s borders."

The silence stretched like a held breath.

"But the damage was done," Halloway continued. "Juno’s reputation was destroyed. People remembered not her genuine talent, but the hollow imitations that followed. Her legacy had been reduced to ’the talented girl who died because of a mimic.’"

Marron felt sick. "And you think the same thing could happen to me."

"The mimic thought that by replacing Balen, it could get close to you. Zehra suspected you had a Legendary Tool, and the mimic believed her. If it had succeeded in replacing you..."

He didn’t need to finish.

"But it didn’t," Mokko said firmly. "Marron saw through its deception."

"This time," Halloway agreed. "But the creature revealed something else before I killed it. The dungeon doesn’t just want to consume your cart’s power—it wants to grow. A Legendary Tool contains enough concentrated magic to expand a dungeon tenfold. It could swallow entire cities."