Lord Enn Chensu was no stranger to conflict in Trurok. He was an early-stage Smoke rank, and a man over three centuries old. By this point, life before the Smoke rank, before becoming a Chensu branch family head, was like a distant dream to him. But he could still remember the conflicts clearly, even those before the rise of Inuvik Academy and the Lightning Corp. And now, a new conflict was marching up to his doorstep.
Trurok looked very different today compared to the land from his childhood. Nowadays the rolling plains in the center of the mountain-locked land was covered end-to-end with plantations, attempts by mages to exploit every drop of magical potential from their environment. But when he was a child, Trurok was a land of adventurers.
The Ascraeus Mountains to the south were fraught with danger, but with great risk came great reward. The mages of Trurok had plundered these mountains, dying in droves like flies in the pursuit of wealth and power. His branch of the Chensu Clan had originally been founded as an expeditionary arm of the clan, to pursue these treasures and bring them back to Severn.
That never panned out. While great treasure could be found in the Ascraeus Mountains, they were simply too deadly. Worse, the ambient energy in Trurok was too low for mages to make progress beyond the Wisp rank. The land was deemed unsuitable for cultivation, and any mages strong enough to cross the Nalep left.
And so the land gradually changed. The mages grew weaker as the generations passed, and fewer delved into the Ascraeus Mountains for treasure. Those that were left competed for the land they had, forcing the local mortals into work, creating plantations that grew not food but magical resources.
And Enn’s branch clan became a merchant family, shipping resources across the Nalep Desert to sell for profit in either Trurok or Severn. As a family of water mages, they had several unique, top-secret advantages to make the desert trade route safe and efficient.
Trurok may have had low magical potential, but bordering the Ascraeus Mountains could do strange things to a land. The Yathkyed River was the main source of nourishment for Trurok’s land, and the only thing stopping encroachment from the Nalep Desert to the north and east. It allowed certain crops and minerals to appear that could not in Severn, not the least of which was the Chaos Buds, which could only be found in Trurok. Many commonplace crops in Trurok were luxury items in Severn.
But Enn’s family did not control much land at all. They used to hold more, such as the town of Antigo, but continuous skirmishes with other mages had taught Enn how expensive it was to control land. For the past couple decades the Chensu had holed up entirely in Imiq, and Enn was starting to think that with a couple decades more it could become a city that rivaled Inuvik.
Enn had found it to be cheaper and safer to simply buy his trading goods than maintain the land and labor required to produce them himself. And by not participating in the constant jockeying for land, it should have left the Chensu Clan out of any major power struggles. He had no interest in those anymore.
Yet here the Grinn Clan was, headed up by the early Smoke rank mage Mintar Grinn. Enn and Mintar were long acquaintances, but even in times of relative peace had never called each other friend. Enn knew his refusal to join an anti-Inuvik alliance would anger the man, but didn’t expect this reckless move in response.
But like it or not, he would have to deal with Mintar. Imiq’s central rune array was tuned up to its fullest potential, but Enn was no runesmith. Inuvik Academy enjoyed a tremendous deal of security by possessing a Smoke-tier runesmith, as well as the absolutely ingenious Force Distribution System that throughout history had repeatedly repelled hostile mages well beyond the capacity of any individual at the Academy. Such as Silla.
Enn was working with none of that. His rune array would only be good for delaying Mintar, and not for very long at that. If the Lord of the Grinn Clan was truly determined to conquer Imiq, then Enn would have to face him in direct combat, a battle that would come down to whoever possessed stronger spells and artifacts.
Enn was fairly confident in his clan’s treasures, especially with the backing of the Cloud rank Chensu Lord back in Severn. If necessary, he even had a late-stage Smoke rank runic artifact he could call on for a single attack. It had been a gift from the main family clan head, and Enn doubted that Mintar had anything that could resist it. But using that would leave him terrifyingly vulnerable to attacks from Inuvik and the Lillwu Clan afterwards. It was truly a last-resort option.
Furthermore, it was possible Mintar had a powerful artifact of his own. Panai, while at the Wisp rank, had managed to find an Immortal Phoenix’s Feather, after all. And with the Ascraeus Mountains so near, and the Grinn Clan the only group left that still seriously delved into them, anything could be possible. Enn couldn’t help but worry that some unknown artifact was the driving force behind Mintar’s confidence to come after him in force.
But Enn didn’t have the time to consider all the possibilities. Before him, a large convoy of mages was kicking up dust as they marched towards his city. At their head was a single mounted rider, wearing a flamboyant purple cloak over a set of pristine robes.
Enn took a deep breath, cycling his Force. He stood above the gate to Imiq, on the stone walls that wrapped the city. He had ordered them built for the sole purpose of outdoing Inuvik City, but thought now that the investment might actually pay for itself. Around him were his family members, many from his own direct line, and they lined up atop the sturdy walls.
Slowly, the convoy came to a stop, positioning themselves along the road a quarter mile from Imiq’s outer wall. They assembled into formation as their leader rode forward.
“Greetings, Magus Enn!” Mintar bellowed, his Force-empowered voice easily reaching Enn’s ears.
“Have you grown tired of the mountains, Magus Mintar?” Enn shouted back, projecting his voice across the distance as well. “If so, I think you’ll find that we city-folk can be quite hospitable.”
“I had thought the same, Magus Enn. So you can imagine how I felt reading your rejection!” Mintar said.
“Then I must apologize, but please know I only did it for the good of my clan. Please, there is no need to let politics and business come between us.” Enn had long since decided his opening move would be politeness and deference, hoping to feel out if Mintar really meant to attack, or just wanted to intimidate him into joining the Great Clan’s alliance.
“Is that all you think this is, Magus Enn? Politics and business? No, we fight for life itself! To secure our future! The Lillwu have already agreed to join us against Inuvik, so why must you stubbornly cling to the status quo?”
Enn grimaced. While there were a few others outside the clan that knew the Chensu could traverse the Nalep, none outside the clan knew the profits they enjoyed by doing so. Without that information Mintar could not understand how Enn benefited more from hanging back and staying out of the fighting, but Enn was certainly not about to reveal those secrets.
“The Chensu Clan has no intention to involve itself in any fighting in Trurok,” Enn said.
“I fear the Chensu Clan will end up involved in the fighting whether it wants to or not.”
“Is that a threat, Magus Mintar?”
Mintar chuckled. “I suppose it is! But must we really be enemies?”
“It is the Grinn Clan that has come to my doorstep! If you do not intend us to be enemies, why come here?”
“To convince you to join the fight, Magus Enn. It’s not too late! Join us against Inuvik Academy!”
Enn shook his head. “I refuse!”
“Then you are bringing this upon yourself!”
“Why must you foolishly expend your strength here, against me, instead of against Inuvik?” Enn said, voicing the source of his primary concerns.
“Without the Great Clans united, opposing Inuvik would be foolhardy! And so I am left with no choice but to bolster our power with the Chensu’s treasure!”
Enn maintained a cool expression, but inside he was sweating. Mintar seemed incredibly confident, and that only furthered Enn’s worries that the man had acquired some powerful artifact. Perhaps it would be better to antagonize Inuvik Academy and deal with the repercussions later than face potential destruction now?
“No,” Enn thought. He couldn’t be that weak. He and Mintar were at the same rank as mages, but it was Enn that had the superior backing. He would not compromise his plans over hypothetical dangers from a man of lower standing.
“We will not stand against Inuvik!”
“Then you will die!”
Mintar stuffed a hand into his robes, and Enn immediately began focusing on a Smoke-tier spell. He traced the lines in his sea of consciousness, forming the proper shape as fast as he could. As soon as Mintar revealed his hand, Enn would complete the spell with its chant and counterattack.
The earth shook, and a cloud of dust sprang to life between Enn and Mintar. Enn nearly fired his spell on reflex, but then realized something – he could detect no Force. Through the cloud of dust he could still feel the stable Pulse coming from Mintar, and he realized that this explosion had not been caused by his foe.
He waited, ready to fire his spell at any moment, but his Source-empowered senses told him Mintar was doing the same. They watched the cloud of dust, maintaining vigilance as it settled.
Slowly, a hulking form over eight feet tall was revealed, silhouetted through the thinning dust. Enn gasped – there was only one person this could be. And now the situation was infinitely more complicated.
Tulimak’s killer stood there, a titanic woman by the name of Mei. She matched the descriptions the Lightning Corp had published exactly. He had first thought the rumors to be exaggerated attempts to disguise the real manner of Tulimak’s death, but now dashed those thoughts. The Phantom Warrior was real.
As they watched, she marched over to the side of the road, and then sat down, plopping down on her rear and kicking up a second, smaller cloud of dust. Mei glanced between Enn and Mintar in turn with a smile on her face, watching them like a spectator at a sporting event. Enn wasn’t sure whether he should be amazed or infuriated, and felt a little of both.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Her appearance certainly put a premature pause to their battle. Enn couldn’t know what Mintar was thinking, but he imagined they both had the same thought – whoever’s side Mei joins will win. With the potential to be taking on two Smoke-tier opponents at once, all three were paralyzed.
It was enough for Enn to breathe a small sigh of relief. It was impossible to guess Mei’s thoughts through that easygoing smile, but the reports said she had joined the Mage Hunters. At that moment, Enn Chensu thanked his past self for the decision to release all the clan’s slaves. It may have mostly been a simple matter of cost concerns that drove the choice, but now it meant Mei was much more Mintar’s enemy than his own.
So Mintar had to break the stalemate. Enn watched as the Smoke rank kicked his horse into motion again, trotting over to where Mei sat. She turned her gaze on him, and Enn was glad it wasn’t him who needed to look up into those fierce eyes.
“Greetings, Sir Mei. Might I inquire as to your intentions at this particular point in time?”
Mei stood up as Mintar approached. “Greetings!” she shouted. No, bellowed.
Enn shivered. He could clearly hear her, yet detected no Force empowering her voice. It was simple lung-power that enabled her to shout on par with a Smoke rank. For the first time, Enn wondered if perhaps a beast even deadlier than Takt had awakened.
“If you intend to interfere, that means making an enemy of my Grinn Clan!”
Enn could at least respect Mintar’s courage to lead off with a threat. He had gone into the Ascraeus Mountains more than any other living Trurok mage, so he certainly had the most experience staring down terrifying monsters.
“Go ahead, fight!” Mei shouted with a laugh, pointing between Mintar and Enn. “The winner will be first to hear my weapon art’s name!”
Enn paled. Even if he could drive back Mintar, there was no way he could handle Tulimak’s killer right after. And Mintar losing to Mei would mean nothing if Enn had already died.
But Mintar was locked by the same logic. They both acknowledged her as an equal in power. So the only way out would be if he and Enn joined forces to attack Mei, but they were already past the point of cooperation.
So Mintar could only sit there and gnash his teeth. Mei had locked them into a perfect stalemate. And then, after glaring at Mei for another minute, Mintar turned to leave. His gathered mages followed without a word, and they all slowly marched off. Whatever artifact Mintar had, it wasn’t enough to fight both Enn and Mei.
Mei turned back to Enn, the same easygoing smile on her face. She gave Enn a thumbs up, then leaped away in an incredible burst of power.
All Enn had been able to do was watch in amazement.
***
The four days of travel – three and a half, to be precise – were the worst days in Levin’s entire life. It wasn’t even close. He was convinced the pain from his Chaos Sickness was worse than any torture Inuvik could have inflicted on him, and he could feel his body withering away more and more with each day now that he had Bolt. Even if he was rescued, he would not have very long to live.
They fed him decently enough, presumably since they wanted Levin to be able to put up a fight before dying to the Lillwu Chimeras. Levin could only hope it wouldn’t come to that, as he endured the questioning from Kodan. They seemed averse to seriously harming him, but Kodan still regularly struck him. Levin could barely feel the blows anymore through the aches of his Chaos Sickness.
The only escape Levin had from it all was in his Y-Link, where he had been able to make significant progress on a counter-ink – rather, a counter-rune – for the central rune array. Levin had guided the process himself, taking a far more manual approach by disabling many of the usual artificial intelligence entities in his super-computer. It didn’t speed up his progress at all – it probably slowed it, if anything – but it gave Levin something to focus on. Something to keep him sane amidst the days of constant darkness and chains.
But, eventually, they arrived in Lillwu territory. Levin had maintained his silence the entire time, trusting that Cho had been able to deliver his message. As long as it reached Uki or Mei before deviating from its route, it would be okay. Even if Levin never saw the bird again.
His hope dwindled the closer they got to the Lillwu Clan. He was certain the odds of rescuing him would be higher before reaching their destination, but Uki or Mei might not even know where he was. All he had been able to send in Cho’s message was word he was imprisoned. If they headed towards the Academy’s campus, then they would have already missed the Inuvik convoy heading south.
All Levin could do was place his faith that all the unknown variables would align towards his rescue. He quickly gave up any hope that selling out his comrades would save him – the Chaos Sickness would still get to him even if Inuvik decided not to execute him. His only way forward was to escape from their clutches.
And now, the time to escape was here. Levin figured the best chance he had on his own was to try and seek refuge with the Lillwu Clan, and was preparing himself to negotiate for asylum. But he had no idea how he would get away from Inuvik and a pit of hungry Chimeras – his only plan was to look for a chance and take it. Whatever form that came in.
Suddenly, light flooded Levin’s prison carriage, the first proper rays of sunlight he had seen in days. His eyes reflexively squeezed shut and teared up, but he had gotten a glimpse of Kodan climbing inside. He could hear the chain attached to the floor being unlocked, and then Levin was yanked out into the burning sunlight. Even with his eyes shut, the brightness felt overwhelming.
When his eyes finally adjusted to the light, he found himself standing beside Eliya and Kodan at the front of a column of horse-mounted Inuvik battlemages. Across from them was another line of mages, standing in formation, with a wrinkled, ancient old woman at the front.
They were seemingly out in the middle of nowhere, with both sides standing at opposite sides of a clearing in the trees. Mountains towered up all around them, but Levin’s eyes were drawn to the ground behind the mages before him. It was little more than a hole in the base of a mountain, but even from a distance he could hear the faint growlings of the horde of creatures within.
Levin shuddered, focusing back on the woman heading up the group opposite them. Hopefully she would be just as against the idea of throwing Levin in there as he was.
"Greetings, Magus Eliya," she called out. "I don't suppose you'd care for a cup of tea?"
"Ah, that would be wonderful, Magus Mumik. I’ve even brought our afternoon’s entertainment with me,” Eliya said, gesturing towards Levin.
Mumik scowled in response, glaring at Eliya. “We must have very different ideas of ‘entertainment,’ then. If you intend to – ”
Mumik cut herself off, head spinning to her left. Whatever had gotten her attention seemed to pique the interest of Eliya as well, because his head snapped to the side in nearly the same moment. They fell quiet, and Levin followed their gaze to the nearby tree line.
A person stepped out. A moment later, a wave of relief washed over Levin.
Uki stepped out of the shadow of the tree line, and all eyes focused on her. She had a faint smile on her lips as she swept her gaze over the two assembled crowds, lingering on Levin for a moment longer. And then Levin remembered Uki’s promise, that she would display her ability for him when they finally met in person.
Levin relaxed momentarily, but then mentally kicked himself. He discarded all plans to seek refuge with the Lillwu, and readied himself to flee with Uki.
He wasn’t the only one getting ready. Levin could see Eliya tensing up, almost certainly channeling some magic. But Uki beat him to the punch.
“I mean you no harm.”
Levin was amazed. The words washed over him the same way a mage’s chant did, imbued with power that even he could feel. But Uki’s speech carried with it something more, and it wiped away any antipathy Levin might have held towards Uki. He couldn’t even imagine how the mages, each one frozen stiff, were feeling.
***
The mages were frozen after Uki spoke, but she could feel through her Force that they would soon break free of her mental compulsion. Uki had no way to stand up to a direct attack from one of them, but she would trust that her ability would keep them bound while Levin escaped. No matter the cost – she had decided this boy was worth it.
As everyone stared at her incredulously, Uki reflected on her life. The Mage Hunters had saved a great many people, and it was the faces of those freed slaves that floated into Uki’s mind now. Most recent were those imprisoned at Triple Lily, numbering nearly two hundred, all set to labor harvesting firelilies.
Those two hundred faces flitted through Uki’s mind, every detail of each person. They had all been saved as a result of her actions, freed from their shackles and then shuttled off by the Mage Hunter’s network to places they could live a free life. Uki’s mind and soul expanded, and she could perceive the threads of Karma that tied her to these people.
She tugged on those strings, and their emotions washed over her. Many held gratitude for their freedom, grief over their losses, and anger at the mages. Those feelings filled her with power, and she tapped into them fully as the mages arrayed against her recovered from their stupor.
“There is no need to fight. Release Levin from his chains, and we can all return home.”
Kodan, peak Wisp rank, was the one holding Levin’s shackles, and Uki could see his hand twitch. But he did not release Levin, and instead glowered at Uki. To his side, Eliya seemed unaffected. Her opponents were cycling their Force, washing away her compulsions with their own power – she would need to tap into more Force herself to overpower them.
“Who are you!” Eliya shouted. “Are you with the Mage Hunters?”
To the other side, Mumik Lillwu seemed content to hang back and let the scene play out. Which was fortunate for Uki, because the Karmic threads to the slaves of Triple Lily were already fading, the debt for their freedom paid. She could never draw on their power again.
She reached back further, before Mei’s arrival. The Mage Hunters had been freeing people from their shackles for years, even before the five young men and women had been recruited, back when it was just her and Takt. Thousands of faces flashed through Uki’s mind as Karma connected her to people alive and dead, and the emotions they had felt when regaining their freedoms.
“What right have you to imprison lives!?” Uki cried out.
The assembled battlemages staggered under the weight of her power, and even Eliya cringed backwards a little.
“Release the unjust fetters!”
Kodan reached into a robe of his pocket, removing a key. With glazed over eyes he bent down to Levin, sliding the key into a lock on one of the cuffs. Eliya glared at Kodan and his body shook violently, but the Smoke rank mage was glued to the spot. He reached a hand out, but an unseen resistance dragged him back, preventing him from stopping the first of Levin’s cuffs clicking free.
Kodan then moved to the second shackle, and moments later Levin was free of all his chains. He walked forward on wobbly legs, and Uki suddenly noticed that his skin was beginning to wrinkle and shrivel all over his body. She frowned, but couldn’t afford to think about it now.
Eliya plodded forward with great strain, and Uki could feel the Force from her ability running dry. The Karmic threads to all the slaves of Trurok faded away, and the faces of those men and women slipped from Uki’s mind. If she ever wanted to tap into Force from those people again, she would need to save them once more.
But before Uki had been a Mage Hunter, she was a mother. Through her orphanage she had saved many children, almost all of whom had grown, lived, and passed away in the time that Uki had lived. Their faces flooded her mind in full clarity despite the decades upon decades she had last laid eyes upon them, and the warmth of familial love filled her mind.
But one Karmic thread stood out more than any other, glowing in Uki’s mind with a brilliant luster. It connected her to a wild, black-haired boy named Silla. She had taken him in and raised him like her own child, and wished him well when he set off on the path of a mage. Worried, of course, but overjoyed he had found his passion.
It was Silla that took her orphanage from her. In order to establish himself he claimed all the children as his own, promising Uki he would take any more she found. And then her children had been trained as mages, and sent to die in the Ascraeus Mountains on the same expedition Silla came back with twisted black lightning.
It had devastated her, but in the wake of all that loss she Awakened to the powers in her Soul.
Silla owed Uki a debt higher than any other. She pulled hard on his Karmic string, and a rush of power from the Cloud rank mage filled her body and lungs. For all the fighting and struggle, she had only one dream. No mage would stand in its way.
“We are the free!”
Eliya, Kodan, and the rest of the mages could do nothing but watch as Levin simply walked away, disappearing with Uki into the tree line.