“Bring me to Turep,” spoke a tall, imposing man dressed in a white robe adorned with streaks of black lightning.

He stood outside an ornate gate, within which was a luxurious mansion painted in gaudy reds and yellows. The two frightened servants he addressed hurried to please the man, with one running off to alert his master while the other invited the guest inside.

He was led to an extravagant dining hall, where the member of the Lightning Corp took a seat and reclined back in it as though he owned the place. Various servants rushed to attend him, bringing out various delicacies that he casually ate while waiting.

He wasn’t waiting long, however. A man dressed in his own elegant set of robes soon entered the hall, in just as much of a hurry as the servants that worked for him.

“Greetings, Magus Azaadi. I hope I didn’t keep you waiting too long,” he said, bowing deeply to his guest.

“Magus Turep. I hear you’ve had it rough recently,” Azaadi said, setting aside a bowl of grapes.

“Ah, that. It’s true my slaves were taken, but the plantation is unharmed. I promise, the next harvest of firelilies will be doubled to make up for this loss,” he said nervously.

“I don’t care about your firelilies, Turep. Master Silla allows you to sell them to Inuvik only because we have no use for them. I’m here to discuss the perpetrators of this attack,” Azaadi replied.

Turep noticeably relaxed at these words.

“Of course, Magus Azaadi. I believe it was a group calling themselves the Mage Hunters. They’ve attacked many plantations like my Triple Lily in the past years,” he said.

“I’m well aware. It’s these so-called Mage Hunters who I’m after. I believe one of their members killed Brother Tulimak.”

“Oh my! I’d heard rumors of Sir Tulimak’s death, but I never imagined… It’s a shame, losing such a skilled warrior, especially one who had devoted himself to a mage as great as Magus Silla,” Turep said.

“Enough of your drivel. I hear you unleashed a Chimera?” Azaadi asked.

“There was one present, yes.” Turep’s expression darkened. “It accomplished far less than I would have liked.”

“Where did you get it?”

“The Lillwu Clan, of course. Where else? They called it defective and sold it to me for cheap. I had hoped it was at least good enough for a simple rampage, but it was stopped immediately.”

“Describe who killed it.”

“I didn’t see it myself, but it was apparently some monster of a woman. Over eight feet tall they say, but I’m not sure I believe it,” Turep said.

“Mm. Good. That’s the one we’re after. But there’s one more – nothing more than a rat that slipped through the cracks. Did any of the attackers fit this description?” Azaadi said, sliding across a simple sketch of Levin.

Turep reached over, taking the image into his hand. He examined it closely for a moment before answering.

“I’m… afraid not. But if you’d like, I can bring in a few of the slaves who were present during the attack. They might be able to identify this person,” Turep said.

“There’s no need. We don’t suspect he was among the group this time anyways. How many of the slaves were you able to recapture after the attack?” Azaadi asked.

“I regret to say, only a couple. But I assure you of the veracity of their statements.”

“Good. Did they see which direction the Mage Hunters attacked from, or where they went afterwards? And when you’re done, take me to the battle site. I intend to examine it myself.”

***

Cho resumed transmitting to Levin’s Y-Link at exactly the time he expected it to. It was a little nerve-wracking to send Cho out beyond his range – if something went wrong, Levin would lose his most valuable tool without even knowing. But he didn’t have many uses for the bird right now within his range

Uki’s task to monitor Triple Lily was ultimately a simple one. Levin just had to give Cho a set of coordinates, tell it to circle there for an hour or two, and then review the data once it flew back into his range. He had repeated this routine countless times over the past month since meeting Uki, never questioning why she wanted him to keep spying on this place even after their attack. If it would get her to trust him, that was enough reason for Levin.

Well, he understood the reason now. Levin wasn’t sure if Uki predicted that Azaadi would show up on their trail, or if she merely thought something like this was possible. Either way, Levin could barely contain his emotions as he reviewed the footage of Azaadi being ushered into Turep’s fine mansion.

That was Andrew’s killer, and the man that had destroyed the Gate Beacons. Even without his Y-Link, Levin would not forget the face of the man that nearly took everything from him. Maybe he was just acting on Silla’s orders, but even so Levin burned to see him dead more than any other.

It was a good thing he was alone, or else Master Pilip or Kirima might have questioned the rage-contorted expression on Levin’s face. Though he sat in Master Pilip’s lab, the mage was nowhere to be found, as usual for this early in the morning. That was just as well, because now Levin had something he needed to do.

Altering Cho’s course, he swung the bird in the direction of the Mage Hunters’ mountain. They were inside Cho’s large but limited range, so it wouldn’t take too long for his avian messenger to arrive. In the meantime, Levin tried to settle his thoughts.

Levin was used to seeing the five youths training at the peak of their rocky, isolated mountain, but today it was just Takt and Mei, who were engaging in some light sparring. He flew Cho towards them, preparing to share the information he had just found.

The Hunters had grown accustomed to the sight of the mechanical bird, so they didn’t react much as he landed on a rocky ledge. However, Levin then realized it wasn’t just Mei and Takt here – Uki was sitting in the shade of a rock nearby, scribbling in her personal notebook. She wasn't usually out here, but it would save them some time today.

But before Levin could begin talking, Mei stomped over to him.

"It's impossible, Levin!" Mei exclaimed with a humph.

"Huh?"

"There's no way I can use a weapon art. This is a waste of time," Mei said.

“Ah, right. I did ask Takt to teach her. It’s probably a wasted effort like she says, though,” Levin thought to himself.

“Just keep trying for now.”

“Look, you can’t just order me – “

“Mei,” Levin interrupted. “I have some important info to share with Uki and Takt.”

“Whatever,” Mei said, rolling her eyes and stomping off.

Takt and Uki looked on, but they couldn’t understand the conversation taking place in Mei’s native tongue. Switching to the language of this land, Levin turned to address them.

“Uki, you were right to have me monitor Triple Lily. I found Azaadi visiting the owner.”

“Aha. So adding Mei to our ranks did get the Lightning Corp interested in us,” Uki said, a twinkle in her wizened eye.

“Now we just have to lure him out…” Takt said.

“What’s your next step?” Levin asked.

“Striking a blow against Inuvik Academy,” Uki said. “Silla’s imminent departure makes them our largest threat.”

“I heard about that. So Silla’s really just going to leave?” Levin asked.

“Yes. He’s quite vocal with his distaste for Trurok. Everyone is expecting him to go into closed-door meditation for his breakthrough to the Cloud rank sometime in the coming weeks. During that time, the Lightning Corp will be at its weakest. We’ll lure Azaadi in and destroy him while there’s no backup coming.”

Levin mulled over their plan. “Uki’s really thought this through,” Levin thought.

“There’s a problem, though. I’m confident that Azaadi will come after Mei, and we’ll kill him when he does. But suppressing the details of a battle against a Smoke rank isn’t possible, so all of Trurok will learn that Takt and Mei killed Azaadi. But we’ve kept Takt’s identity carefully hidden for over a decade, and now it’s become one of our most important trump cards.”

“Your first plan,” Takt said, the corners of his lips tugging upwards.

“Yes. And it’s almost come to fruition,” Uki said, smiling. “Once Takt has been revealed, the major powers of Trurok aren’t going to keep letting us hide away. Even if somehow we keep Takt’s name from spreading, killing a Smoke rank mage will make them all recognize that we are a real threat to the balance of power in this land. We run the risk of all of Trurok’s mages uniting against us. Which means we need to put ourselves in the most advantageous position possible before revealing Takt’s presence amongst us.”

“Which is why you want to attack Inuvik Academy,” Levin said.

“Right. Since we’re confident against Azaadi thanks to you and Mei, our best bet is to cripple Inuvik Academy. If we can do that without revealing Takt, Trurok is as good as ours.”

Levin glanced over at the powerfully-built warrior standing next to him. “Why is your identity such a big deal?”

“Because I’ve defeated multiple Smoke rank opponents at once before,” Takt said. “I turned Trurok on its head once, however briefly. And then, Inuvik Academy, the Lightning Corp, and each of the Three Great Mage Clans tried to recruit me. I turned them all down, obviously. The only one I even considered was the Chensu Clan, once they freed all their slaves. But then I realized that mages only attempt to win over warriors because they consider them a threat.”

“I see.”

“So,” Uki said. “You understand why I want to take action against Inuvik Academy now. I’ve already sent a couple scouting parties, but the tight security of their rune array has blocked all of our attempts to probe for information. So, Levin, if you – ”

“No,” Levin said. “Like I told you when we first met, I won’t help you against Inuvik Academy. I live there. I really like the mage that is taking care of me right now, and you would probably kill him. Not to mention it jeopardizes my magic studies. So whatever you had in mind for me, forget it.”

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Uki frowned. “I’m just asking for a report on their numbers. I won’t make you do anything. And if you work with us, you could get everything that Inuvik has to offer and more. Just imagine getting your hands on Lethridge’s supplies, or the Academy’s treasure vault. I’m sure that would do far more for your progress than remaining under another’s thumb.”

“I refuse. Our alliance is against the Lightning Corp.”

“You’ve been living with the mages for a month, Levin. You must know what they’re really like by now,” Uki said.

“I have my own goals, and Inuvik Academy is helping me advance them.”

“So the hundreds of slaves in the mines beneath your home don’t bother you?”

“No.”

“How heartless,” Takt said.

“Fine,” Uki said with a sigh. “You’ve already helped our issues with the Lightning Corp, so I won’t push you for more. But once Silla is out of the picture, total war is coming for this land. You won’t be able to escape it. I suggest you think carefully about who you want as your closest allies.”

“I’ll do what it takes to survive, and make it home,” Levin said.

Then Cho took off, soaring away into the morning sky.

***

Levin finished up his daily shift at Pilip’s lab, but it no longer felt like work.

Since receiving his first Chaos rune, Pilip had transitioned to simply monitoring Levin’s condition. If there was any sign he was developing Chaos Sickness, they would be abandoning the experiment. But Pilip explained that Chaos Sickness was caused by Chaos energies breaking down a person’s original Source, so Levin would be immune.

And that was proving to be the case. Levin felt no different than he had before acquiring Wave. But Pilip wanted to continue waiting and observing Levin before moving on to the next stage.

That might normally have made Levin impatient, but Pilip was using the downtime to teach Levin runesmithing. Master Pilip was helping him every day practice recipes, refine his techniques, and find mistakes that Levin hadn’t even realized he was making.

So Levin really had no complaints about being made to wait for the next round of Chaos. And he was beginning to truly accept that he would be living in this dimension for a long time. Unless he got incredibly lucky, Levin would need to become a powerful mage to even have a chance at getting home, which was going to take years and years of struggle. He could wait another month.

Especially since a lot of that waiting took place in a library, which he was stepping into now. But as Kirima leaped from her seat and bounded towards Levin, he realized he wouldn’t be doing much reading here today.

“Come with me, Levin!” Kirima exclaimed, grabbing him by the hand and pulling him outside.

“Where are we going?” he asked with a small blush.

“The spring! I have a surprise to show you!” she said, flashing a wide smile over her shoulder while rushing towards the Academy’s gate.

Levin let himself be pulled along, wondering what Kirima had in mind. It didn’t take them long to retrieve Nini from the stables and set off down Mount Inuvik.

Soon enough, they had arrived back at the location Levin had shown Kirima a week ago. He had seen her come out here regularly to meditate, sitting in an energy rune made from the ink Levin had given her. But now, that energy rune was nowhere to be seen, the ink all used up.

Levin decided to give her another one tomorrow.

Kirima dismounted, and Levin hopped down a moment later. Together, they walked up to the edge of the mountain spring, and Levin waited quietly in anticipation.

“Are you ready?” she asked, looking out at the calm, smooth surface of the water.

“I am.” Though for what, he had no idea.

“Okay! Here I go…”

Then Kirima fell quiet, staring out at the water.

The seconds began to stretch on, and Levin found his mind wandering. He looked downhill, towards the base of the mountain – towards the mines. But from here, all he could see were trees.

He had told Uki he didn’t mind the slaves under Mount Inuvik, but that wasn’t entirely true. He couldn’t support slavery, and felt bad for the people imprisoned down there. But he wasn’t willing to jeopardize his position here, and he didn’t think there was anything he could do for them anyways.

Looking at Kirima only reinforced his decision. As he watched, she finally moved, and Levin pushed the thoughts of Inuvik’s slaves away.

Kirima raised a hand up, and then opened her mouth.

“Cloud’s Gift; Hurtling Droplets; Raindrop Bomb!”

A large orb of water soared high into the air from her hand, twinkling in the sunlight shining through a leafy canopy. The ball of water hung in the air for a moment before gravity’s hand came down, sending the projectile careening into the spring. With a splash, large waves rippled out from the center, overflowing onto the surrounding terrain.

“I did it!” exclaimed an excited Kirima. “Did you see that, Levin? I’m officially a level one acolyte now!”

“Congratulations!” Levin exclaimed. “That was impressive! Especially how long the chant was.”

But to his surprise, Kirima pouted and lightly punched him in the arm. “It’s only so long because I just learned the spell! Once I get better at it I’ll need fewer words.”

“Oh, sorry! I didn’t know that,” Levin said. Apparently he had been focusing too much on runesmithing. “But I was serious that it was impressive!”

“Okay, I forgive you,” she said. Then her beaming smile returned. “Thank you! I couldn’t have done it so soon without your ink!”

“I’ll make another one for you tonight. With me at your side, you’ll be a Wisp rank in no time!” Levin declared, putting a hand to his chest.

Kirima giggled. “I’ll need to start paying you back then!”

“No, Kirima. I’m the one paying you back.”

The two of them returned to the Academy soon after.

***

The days began to blend together for Levin as he delved further into runesmithing under Master Pilip’s instruction. In the blink of an eye, another three weeks passed, and Levin marked two months of living at Inuvik Academy.

In addition to making more inks for Kirima’s meditation, he began working with combat runes. He had not forgotten his goal of revenge, after all, even if he found himself happy at Inuvik Academy, against all odds.

Thanks to his Y-Link he was actually coming close to mastering acolyte-level runes, and then it would be time to learn Wisp rank runes. Only then would Levin have enough power to even think about planning out his revenge.

There was one problem. The money from Tulimak wasn’t going to last. He had already used up over half the money in the coin purse. Kirima had been right – runesmithing was expensive, and Levin was constantly buying more ingredients. It wouldn’t be long before he goes broke, especially if he starts buying Wisp-tier ingredients.

That hadn’t stopped him from giving Kirima another Five Crescent River ink yesterday, though.

Levin had a lot of knowledge to show for his efforts, but he had very few inks he could actually sell to recoup his losses. Learning a new ink was mostly trial and error because of the tiny tolerances and the unscientific recipe instructions, but at least Levin’s Y-Link would eventually give him a perfect success rate if he produced enough data with his failures.

So as much as Levin didn’t like it, he knew he would have to start spending time brewing the same inks he had already mastered over and over just to sell them for money. It made him want to go out and kill Azaadi now, so he could take the mage’s money and keep working on his new recipes.

But for now, he still got to expand his collection. And he was quite excited for the newest addition to it – an ink at the peak of acolyte-level magic, his most powerful and complicated one yet. It had taken him several days longer than other recipes to learn it, but his Y-Link finally had enough data to accurately guide him through the brewing process.

And now, he was determined for this to be his first successful Myriad Flame ink. Levin was inside Pilip’s lab, with his Master watching from over Levin’s shoulder. In front of him, an alembic over a few heatstones bubbled with a brown mixture. The distilled product, a bright orange, accumulated on the cap, then dripped down a glass tube and into a small cucurbit.

Levin nodded. He had finally gotten the right shade of orange. He turned away from the glass instruments, leafing through a small pile of firelilies to his side. Standing inside Pilip’s Force analysis rune, Levin examined them one by one with both magic and the sensing equipment hidden beneath his robes. He needed five or six of them, so he let his Y-Link work through all the different permutations for a combination that had just the right amount of fire-element Source.

This was the easy part. He ground up the firelilies with a mortar and pestle, reducing them to a fine dust. Then he sprinkled in dust from crimson gems – those were too solid to be ground by hand, so Pilip bought the crimson gems already powdered – and then dumped the powdered mixture into a glass vial. Both firelilies and crimson gems were the most basic fire-element resources in Trurok, so they served as the base for the ink.

Then Levin turned back to his distillation process, and the small glass cucurbit was almost completely full. He carefully removed the alembic from the heatstones, and then poured the bright orange liquid atop the ground firelilies and crimson gems. The combined mixture nearly completely filled the glass vial.

And then it went into the furnace. Levin counted out the proper amount of heatstones with the assistance of his Y-Link, to make sure the furnace would burn at the right temperature and for the right time. Levin tossed them in, starting the flame, and then closed the lid to the rotund furnace.

“Very good. But when pouring the partial ink over the powder base, it would be better to go slower. If we see visible impurities in the result, it will be because you poured too fast. The most potent form of Myriad Flame ink is completely free of any suspended particles,” Pilip said.

“Yes, Master Pilip.” Between the statistical analysis of his Y-Link and the experienced eye of Master Pilip, Levin was able to iron out issues in his runesmithing quite quickly.

And best of all, Master Pilip was supplying all the resources for these practice sessions out of his own pocket.

A few more minutes passed, then Levin used a pair of tongs to pull his bubbling ink out from its suspended position in the furnace. He passed over it with the analysis rune at his feet, and broke out in an excited smile – he really had succeeded at one of the most difficult acolyte-tier inks. Pleased, Levin copied the data into digital storage and passed the tongs over to Master Pilip.

Master Pilip held the vial up to the light, examining it closely. As he had predicted, there were visible impurities that lessened the quality of the product. And though Levin couldn’t sense it, he was sure that Master Pilip was also using his Force to analyze the ink. Proper runesmiths didn’t need a rune underfoot just to do that.

“Good. Your improvement this past month has been stellar. It was worth training you to be a proper assistant, after all. You’re now ready to be my assistant on brewing Wisp-tier inks. Though I will be continuing Chaos on my own,” Pilip said.

“Thank you, Master Pilip!” Levin exclaimed.

“This is also your first batch worth selling,” Pilip said, pocketing the vial. “Academy policy says assistants can get twenty percent of the profits for the inks they brew. But, well… Let’s just say, if I can find anyone still willing to buy from me, you’ll get your cut.”

“...Thank you, Master Pilip,” Levin said. Levin didn’t particularly mind Pilip taking his inks – he was bankrolling the training session in addition to devoting a lot of his own time, after all.

But hearing Pilip had no buyers for his inks was surprising. He had noticed that his master didn’t have a particularly stellar reputation at Inuvik Academy, but it was to the degree they wouldn’t even buy from him? Wasn’t verifying the quality of inks a fairly straightforward process? Reputation should affect it little.

“Surely he should at least be able to sell below market price…” Levin thought to himself. If not Levin would have to sell his inks on his own, but that might reveal he had his own source of capital. That could prove troublesome.

“Did something happen in the past, Master Pilip?” Levin asked slowly as he began to clean up from his runesmithing session.

Pilip didn’t respond at first, only sighed after a long moment. Levin remained quiet; he definitely did not want to push a clearly sensitive topic. But Pilip decided to speak anyway.

“Just once,” he said. “It was a mistake no runesmith should ever make. It’s been decades since then. I’ve learned from it, but haven’t ever gotten the chance to prove that. I’ve been stuck with doing the Academy’s odd jobs, like admission testing in Inuvik City. Who knew that I’d find my golden opportunity doing just that.”

Pilip turned to look Levin in the eye.

“So I promise you, Levin, I won’t make the same mistake with you. For both our sakes, I will turn you into a powerful Chaos mage, and a skilled runesmith.”

“Thank you, Master Pilip,” Levin said, bowing deeply. He could sense his master’s determination, and once more felt genuinely grateful it was Pilip that had found him.

“That reminds me, tomorrow will mark exactly one month since I applied the Chaos rune Wave to you. You still show absolutely no signs of Chaos Sickness, so as planned we will be presenting you to all the Smoke ranks tomorrow. Once you finish tidying up, you’re free to go for the day. I’m heading out now to wrap up my written report.”

“Understood, Master Pilip,” Levin said, watching as Pilip left the lab.

“The Smoke ranks, huh?” Levin thought to himself as he put his equipment away. He had finally finished fully cleaning and organizing everything in Pilip’s lab and the supply closet, so the equipment slotted nicely into its proper location.

“I already met one of the Smoke ranks – Lord Hann – when Master Pilip went to get approval for his Chaos research. There’s also Lord Panai, who has a massive statue out in front of the Smoke Hall. He’s the one who founded the Academy over a century ago, and apparently he’s ultimately in charge. I don’t know much about the other, Lord Eliya, except that he handles a lot of the Academy’s day-to-day stuff.”

Levin was quite nervous to meet them.