As the Inuvik battlemages fell back, Levin let out a deep breath, one he hadn’t realized he had been holding. His heart was pounding, and he had no idea how Mei could be so relaxed in a situation like this. Rather, she seemed to enjoy these moments.

“Levin!” came a shout from further up the destroyed mountain, where the other Hunters had been preparing a retreat of their own. “Over here!”

There was an urgency in his voice that worried Levin. He pushed off from Mei, sending Cho flying off towards the others, where they stood huddled together. Cho grew closer, and Levin could see they were surrounding Miki, who lay on the ground, taking shallow breaths. The bandages on his chest were soaked through with blood.

“His wounds reopened and then some,” Takt said. “He’s bleeding out.”

He sounded worried, but looked at Cho expectantly, hiding the fear behind his eyes. But there was no need to worry. Levin had spent a lot of his free time strengthening the potency of his healing inks.

“He’ll be fine.”

The others sighed with relief as Cho got to work. With the hardened metal tip of Cho’s wing, Levin was able to carve out the shape of a rune in the rocky surface. He opened Cho’s beak, where a vial of ink had been carefully stored, and tipped the bird over to pour out the ink, completing the rune.

Takt carefully placed Miki inside the dimly glowing lines, and then Levin activated it with a control rune he had already engraved on himself. The rune burst to life with a brilliant yellow glow, and Miki took a deep gasp, rejuvenated. He felt at his chest for a moment, then ripped the bandages off, revealing there wasn’t even a scratch left underneath.

“Thank you, Levin,” Uki said.

“I’m not done, though. This rune still has ink left. Takt and Mei, you’re up next,” Levin said, gesturing with his wing at the only other injured members.

They both stood in the rune, and a moment later were fully recovered. The yellow of the rune had nearly completely faded, as the ink was nearly fully exhausted.

Everyone stood around for a moment in silence, still processing the shock of events. It was Takt who broke the silence.

“We should go. Inuvik Academy might come back with more forces,” he said.

“Where do we go, though?” Miki asked.

“We’ll need to find a new base,” Uki said. “We should go somewhere further south. There’s not enough water around here to support a militia.”

“You don’t know a place already, Uki?” Kana said.

“Hmm…” Uki said, placing a hand on her chin.

“Ah,” Levin said. “I just remembered. Mei and I know a perfect place.”

“We do?” Mei asked.

“Of course. That cave with the library and all the bodies, remember?”

“Oh, right. Good place,” Mei said with a nod.

“We’ll head there for now, then,” Uki said. “How far is it?”

“Few days,” Mei said.

“It’s outside the range I can communicate with Cho, but I can still have it lead you there,” Levin said, beginning to program a route for his robot.

“No,” Uki said. “Mei, can you get us there?”

“Sure. Probably,” Mei said.

“Good. Levin, I want you to send Cho to keep an eye on Silla. We need to know the moment he comes out of his closed-door meditation. Also, it’ll be important to confirm he actually did manage to reach the Cloud rank. Everyone expects him to, but there’s always a chance of failure when trying to break through,” Uki said.

“Sure. But their base is also outside of my range, so I won’t be able to inform you immediately,” Levin said.

“That’s fine. We won’t need to know immediately anyways,” Uki said. “After we settle in and recover our strength from today, let’s sit down and talk strategy for winning this war, Levin.”

“Very well. Until then, I’ll practice with all the new resources I just got from Lethridge. I also have a new idea for a rune I need to work on. See you in a few days.”

Uki nodded, and the Mage Hunters began to descend the mountain, following behind Mei. Levin nearly let them go, so mentally worn out he almost forgot that he had one more question.

“Mei!” Levin called out. She turned to look at him, and everyone paused.

Levin switched languages to Mei’s native tongue.

“Was that explosion caused by you?” Levin asked.

“Yes, I finally figured out how to use a weapon art. Just in time, eh?” she said.

“Congratulations, Mei. I wasn’t even sure it would be possible.”

She grinned, then waved to Cho and set off again, the other Mage Hunters following along.

“If Mei is acquiring energy from this world…” Levin thought, with a sense of foreboding. “...does that mean I will too?”

***

"Ugh, couldn't you have picked a place with fewer corpses?" Kana said, scrunching her nose.

"This is more than I expected," Takt said.

"What? Scared of bones?" Mei said with a laugh.

The bulk of the skeletons were located at the entrance, presumably trapped inside there, unable to get out before their final moments arrived. So as they dove deeper, the bodies were largely left behind.

Mei led the charge down into the cave. Really more of a tunnel – the smooth walls and tiled floor indicated the whole place was man-made. And the floor and ceiling were both inset with light-giving stones much brighter than the ones in the Hunters' old base. The difference between a raw ore and refined product.

Mei reacquainted herself with the place as they descended. There was a central hallway that sloped down into the earth, from which many rooms branched out. Most were living quarters or mess halls, and the cave had clearly been designed for many people to live in. She also noticed the small library that Levin had been so excited about.

The others fanned out behind her to explore in more detail, but Mei continued heading down. And at the very deepest chamber lay the main laboratory, or whatever it was. Aside from a wall-mounted shelf running the perimeter of the room, the room had only a single furnishing.

Or rather, three of the same furnishing, all laid out in a row. Three pods, each large enough for a person to sit inside, and with a glass top on a hinge and dark runic lines criss-crossing the inside.

The first time she and Levin had come here, they had little clue as to what these were for. Now, though, Mei had a fairly good guess. They were contraptions for making Chimeras.

She smiled, reflecting back on her first time here. It was down here that Levin confronted her about the reality of her language situation. She had been resistant to his suggestions then, intimidated by the prospect of learning a language from nothing. She was so stubborn that he had been forced to trick her into accepting a teacher, but all she felt for that now was gratitude.

But then again… it was strange how Uki could just give language to Mei. She still needed study and practice, but whatever it was Uki did was greatly accelerating her progress. She’d never asked about it – for a while, she hadn’t been able to ask about it – and eventually she started taking it for granted.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“Uki, your power?” Mei asked.

Uki had been following behind Mei even as the others explored, accompanying her to the deepest chamber. She was in the back, inspecting a small group of wooden tablets on the shelf which she set back down before looking at Mei.

“I do have an ability,” Uki said. “It lets me nourish my children.”

Mei frowned, unsure what she meant. “You are mage?”

“No. A mage’s power is always a stolen good. My ability is born of my own strength.”

“A weapon art?” Mei asked.

Uki chuckled at that, and Mei figured as much. Uki was in good shape for her age, but hardly a warrior. Mei had never heard her use a chant or repetitive motion, either. So what was Uki?

“Mei, now that you have a weapon art, have you thought about what you want to name it?” Takt asked, appearing in the doorway.

“No,” Mei said.

That wasn’t true. Mei was just embarrassed about how warriors here named their techniques. But she knew exactly what her weapon art’s name would be.

"Oh, Uki, is that what I think it is…?" Takt said as he stepped inside the room.

Mei glanced at Takt, expecting him to be fixated on the Chimera-making equipment. But he wasn’t – instead, his eyes were fixed on the three corpses around the room, and their piles of silver-white, glittering scales.

“Scales,” Mei said. She had done a thorough investigation of the corpses on her first visit.

“Not just scales,” Takt said, voice hushed. He crouched down and examined one of the bodies closely, picking up a scale and holding it closer to the light.

“These are dragon scales,” Takt said in an awed tone.

Mei nodded. Levin had mentioned the library was a bunch of dragon-related nonsense. Well, he would probably never call any book ‘nonsense’, but apparently there weren’t any dragons left. So it might as well be nonsense.

But Uki was much more surprised. “Really?” she exclaimed. “Are they usable?”

“Yes. I’m going to take these to Goro,” Takt said, standing up.

“Good. Mei, take me to meet Levin tomorrow, once we’ve rested. And let’s bring these,” Uki said, holding up one of the tablets along the back shelf.

***

“Oh, I completely forgot about those,” Levin said, bringing Cho in close to inspect the tablet Uki was holding out. “Back then, I didn’t even know what they were. By the time I knew about data tablets, there was too much else I had to think about.”

Data tablets were one of the foundations of magic society. While books were preferable for long-term storage – they would never run out of ink – the runes on data tablets could instantly record thoughts and let them be read by anyone. And if you linked two data tablets together, so that the information in one could be read on the other over a great distance, you had a transmission tablet.

“I couldn’t read them, though. They’re out of ink,” Uki said. Mei had carried her to a spot within Cho’s range, which was fairly far from the new cave that the Hunters had only just begun to call home.

“As long as the creators used the same ink formula as today, that’s an easy fix,” Levin said, scooping up the bag with Cho.

“Would you be able to make transmission tablets from them? Meeting here will be inconvenient,” Uki said.

“Sorry, but that’s impossible. The Academy tightly controls the resources for making transmission tablets. I think they’re worried about spies being able to send information out. And they require a couple unique ingredients, which weren’t even at Lethridge.”

“There’s no helping it, then. Let’s focus on what we plan to do next,” Uki said.

“What’s your plan?” Levin asked.

“First, we lay low until Silla is confirmed gone. If a Cloud rank mage sets his sights on us, we stand no chance even with Takt and Mei,” Uki said.

“Do you think he’ll leave immediately, or try to track us down first? We did kill his best men. Won’t he want revenge?”

“No,” Uki said, casting her gaze down. “I doubt he cares enough about them to seek revenge. The Lightning Corp has always been nothing more than a tool for Silla.”

Levin nodded. Her quiet tone made Levin think she knew him better than just through rumors and stories, but he didn’t pry. If the Hunters just hid underground, Silla would never be able to find them anyways, even if Uki was wrong.

“If you say so, then okay. And if the rumors are true, his breakthrough should be complete in just a few days. You won’t need to be hiding for very long.”

“I never said we hide,” Uki said. “I said lay low. It’s time to gather up all the people who’ve pledged themselves to us in the past. I’m not sure how many will answer our call, but the raid of Lethridge and Takt’s victory over Azaadi should help galvanize people to our side.”

“Right. Do you plan to keep attacking Inuvik Academy?” Levin asked.

“We’ll see. We’ve already succeeded in weakening them, but the goal is still to get the Great Clans to fight against Inuvik. If Inuvik’s position is still too strong for that, we may need to strike them again. In the meantime, we will gather forces and train.”

Levin frowned. That may be a way to win, but how long would it take? And if the mages all burned themselves out fighting each other, there would be no precious treasures for Levin to loot. It was even possible an artifact that could help Levin get home would get used up in battle. He couldn’t live with that possibility.

“And Kirima will never rest in peace if we don’t deal with Amaq ourselves,” Levin thought to himself.

“I have a different idea. I want to bring down Inuvik Academy before the war starts,” Levin said.

“That’s suicide!” Uki immediately exclaimed, staring at him in shock. Over to the side, Mei grinned and gave him a thumbs up.

“You said the same thing about attacking Lethridge,” Levin said.

“That was different. We had no idea you were so accomplished at runes back then. But Levin, even if you bring down the Academy’s rune array just like you did at Lethridge, we still would get annihilated attacking Inuvik Academy. Even an entire army of warriors capable of weapon arts would lose to their battlemages,” Uki said.

She sighed, taking a deep breath. “We need to let the mages weaken each other, and find moments for Mei and Takt to eliminate the Smoke ranks. I had mostly intended the army to go around sabotaging places of value, not clashing head on against mage armies.”

“You’re forgetting something,” Levin said. “The Lethridge resources. I can turn that entire tower of ingredients into runic artifacts your people can wield. They’ll be able to fight and win even against the mages, as long as I’m on your side.”

Uki closed her eyes and rested her chin in her hand, brows furrowed.

“Why?”

“What do you mean?” Levin asked.

“Why do this? Why must you go this far? This goes beyond simply wanting revenge. When I first met you, you wanted nothing to do with fighting Inuvik Academy. It was the Lightning Corp that had wronged you and Mei. This entire time, you’ve been hiding something from us. I know you’re trustworthy – you’ve proven that to us – but keeping secrets makes it difficult. You haven’t even shown yourself to us in person.”

“I’m sorry,” Levin said. He felt a pang of guilt for it. “I never meant to deceive you. But when we first arrived in Trurok, we were immediately attacked… I didn’t know who I could trust, and what it was safe to tell people. But you deserve the truth. I don’t know if you’ll believe us, though.”

Levin paused. How did he explain this? These were people who probably didn’t know the first thing about outer space, much less alternate dimensions…

Mei interjected instead. “Not from here. We from other…” she trailed off. She probably didn’t know the word for ‘dimension’ in her new language – if there even was one.

“Another dimension,” Levin said. His universal translator could figure out how that would be phrased for Uki. “We come from a different world, with a different people, and different stars in the sky. Mei and I want to return home.”

“Speak for yourself,” Mei said.

“Sorry. I really want to go home, and I’ll do anything to make it happen.”

Uki raised an eyebrow. “That… is hard to believe. But coming from another world does help to explain why the both of you are so… exceptional.”

Levin smiled. It felt good to be completely honest and get that off his chest, finally. He would forever regret never being able to tell everything to Kirima, and didn’t intend to make the same mistake again.

But that was only part of the truth. Levin had also not told the Mage Hunters about Kirima, the reason for his sudden change of heart. Nor had he disclosed his status as a servant, being used as a guinea pig in Chaos experiments – he did not have the freedom to visit Uki in person.

Levin explained it all now in detail, holding nothing back. There was a great sense of relief in doing so.

“I understand,” Uki said when he had finished. “Thank you for your honesty. Levin, I told Mei this already, but any who have been wronged by the mages and fight for justice is one of us. And to be one of us is to be family.”

“I appreciate that,” Levin said. He definitely did not have the same feeling, but it would be helpful to have allies in his quest to leave this world behind.

“But while I empathize with your reasons for wanting to attack Inuvik Academy, it’s still impossible.”

Levin frowned. Uki did know a lot more than him about the exact discrepancies in power between the forces of this world. If she said they stood no chance, then he might just have to accept it. However, the creation of his first counter-ink had taught him quite a lot about the mechanics of runes. If he could build on that experience to make something even more advanced…

“To make a counter-ink in the first place, I need to get a sample from the rune I want to destroy. I intend to at least do that much. Afterwards, I can tell you whether or not it really is impossible.”

“And how will you do that? Surely someone in your position isn’t allowed access to Inuvik’s most precious tool,” Uki said.

“You’re right. But the Academy’s chief of security has access. And he won’t be needing his identity token for much longer.”