Mark lay in bed, scrolling through the internet, trying to corroborate Blackthorn’s words through independent research. It was not going well. Quark wasn’t having any more luck finding these things out than Mark had had.
Quark’s main housing and screen glowed silver on the desk, the readout saying, ‘Research in progress.’ It had been ‘in progress’ for the last hour. The most Quark had been able to find was a bunch of public-access forums where they spoke about magic and which were filled with theorists trying to make sense of the magic they saw out there. The site was called ‘Armchair Mage’, and it was the biggest resource Quark had been able to find, and it was also blacklisted by the Mage Guild. But Mark didn’t care about the Mage Guild, so Mark had been scrolling down those forums for a while, finding everything that Quark had found for him, and then finding even more that probably wasn’t true at all.
‘Mana crystallization’ was a known technique that went by a bunch of different names, but mostly there were a bunch of warnings not to attempt the magic outside of a school setting, because the most common side effect of attempting to hold more mana in the body than the body usually held was monsterization. There were warnings for spell creation itself, too. The most common side effect of badly-done magic was failure to cast a spell correctly and the spell would violently unravel inside of the astral body. This usually led toward internal injuries that cascaded externally.
But there wasn’t a whole lot on those forums.
Mark had only really been able to find out that different people made different mana, and that the process of going through Tutorial with the System imposed structure on a person’s astral body so that they could use that mana all the time in the form of a Power. Normal people, when they Awakened outside of the Tutorial, either through breaking the Curtain or other such means, usually ended up with a ‘natural imposition’ in the form of a Knack.
Mark had also managed to corroborate that creating a new spell always took at least a year of careful study and personal crafting of one’s own astral body into that new spell. These smaller-than-a-Power twistings, which is what spells truly were, could be undone and then redone into other forms of power, giving a mage a variety of skills available to them, depending on how fast they could twist and untwist themselves.
Also, yeah, the side effects of improperly made ‘Powers’ were always the most dangerous parts of creating a new spell. Like, making a speedster spell would usually tear a person apart.
As for how to actually make a spell? That wasn’t on the forums at all. The mods crushed all sorts of talks about actual functional magic.
That was all Mark had really understood after reading for a few hours.
Honestly, Mark wondered if he should disregard everything he was reading and never look online for answers at all.
One particular post was all a bunch of ranting in capital letters and smaller fonts about how there was an infinite number of Earths, but this slice of reality was locked away from all the other ones because the demons wanted a playpen for themselves, without the rest of infinity encroaching.
“The internet is full of liars,” Mark said to himself as he flipped to the next search.
Eventually, Mark felt a vector enter his sensory range, entering from the front of the house. Soon, Mark heard the front door open and felt someone who had to be Isoko walk into the house—
Mark heard grocery bags crinkle and great weights settle down in the kitchen, so he got up and walked out to help put the groceries away.
But then Mark entered the kitchen, and plans changed. Mark saw the platinum fading away from Isoko as she opened up some bags and Mark realized that he needed to tell her… a lot.
“Hey!” Isoko said, grinning. “You saw the archmage today, right? Got some questions answered?”
Mark made a decision, and said, “I got a lot of questions answered, yes. We barely talked about any of it, though. He made a declaration that there’s a 20% chance that what Leash said is true, that separating a dragon into the person and the demon can be done, and that the elves and their resurrection magics exist, and…” And there was a lot more, but Mark cut himself off there.
Isoko had frozen, her breath still as she looked at Mark, her eyes going wide.
Mark realized something else about the talk that he hadn’t realized until now. Mark added, “And he stayed away from the topic of perma-killing demons. He steadfastly refused to interact with that question. And there was… other stuff we talked about. He just told me about the resurrection and dragon-splitting possibilities. We didn’t actually discuss it.”
And then there was the other big issue of the day.
Mark’s adamantium secret.
Mark had never told Isoko or Eliot about how he produced adamantium in his bones. He wasn’t sure how to broach that talk, either, but he wasn’t going to do it twice. If he decided to tell them, he’d tell Isoko and Eliot together, when Eliot got back home later. Lola, David, and a few others at Citadel Freyala already knew that Mark was adamantium blooded, but whether they knew what that was, exactly, was an open question. Had Lola known what Mark was? The designation ‘adamantium blooded’? Maybe. So the secret was out.
Maybe the secret should be out to his friends, too.
But for now he watched Isoko, as Isoko broke her stare. She turned and regarded the groceries, and then she put her hands on them… just holding them, not taking anything out or truly looking at what she was touching. Her vector was so far from this moment that she practically wasn’t even here. She was thinking deeply.
Mark began putting away the groceries and Isoko nodded a little, silently, before she went into the dining room and sat down at the table, still thinking.
When the ice cream went into the fridge, Isoko stood up and started helping Mark put the rest of the groceries away—
“A 20% possibility is enough for me to go to Endless Daihoon... You know. Eventually,” Isoko said. “Even a 5% chance is enough if I can get Riku back. How about you?”
“Yeah. I’d go on that low of a chance, too,” Mark said, as he put the chips into the pantry. Isoko had gotten all three of their favorite types of chips; cheddar for Mark, vinegar for Isoko, and barbecue for Eliot. Isoko cared, and it showed. She was a good friend. Mark added, “And I’d want to go with you.”
Isoko breathed deep, and then she set down a bag of meat and turned and held Mark, hugging him. She pressed her face against Mark’s chest, and Mark held her in turn. With his arms around the smaller woman, Isoko sobbed, just a little bit, and Mark held a little tighter, ignoring the tears in his own eyes.
Several moments passed.
And then Isoko chuckled, pulled back, and rapidly wiped away her tears even as she smiled brightly, saying, “It’s a completely crazy idea though, right? Endless Daihoon is impossibly large and filled with kaiju. Even if resurrection magics exist out there, then they’re… they’re too far away, yeah?”
Mark smiled softly. “Yeah. But it’s a nice dream, isn’t it?”
Isoko chuckled again, then she resumed unpacking the groceries and putting them away. She was silent. Mark was silent, too, thinking of what it would mean to walk up the north pole, or the south pole, into the auroras that led to Endless Daihoon, and then keep going, instead of turning back around and exiting onto Daihoon. Even that small jaunt into the twists that led between worlds was fraught with danger. They didn’t send convoys between worlds without those convoys being super fast and invisible the whole time, or absolutely packed with high-Powered people, able to defend the larger shipments. Actually going into Endless Daihoon was an ordeal.
An ordeal that most people never survived.
Soon the bags were unpacked and Isoko had popped some fried chicken into the oven to heat it up, while a big salad sat in the fridge. According to a text from Eliot he should be back in 10 minutes, just in time for dinner. The food would be hot by then.
Isoko went into the living room and turned on Super News while she waited, and Mark joined her.
Amid the background talk of heroes and villains and monsters from around the world, Isoko said, “It’s crazy to risk everything for a 5% shot at resurrection, right? Even if it worked, getting back home with Riku and your parents would be impossible. We’d be kitted out to survive it all, and probably have spent the last 10 years… doing something. So we would —ideally— be able to make it back. But they would be resurrected at their death, right? So 18 and dead in the Tutorial for Riku, and however old your parents were. And exactly as they were when they died.”
Mark hadn’t even thought about that.
Was the dream dead on arrival?
It was supposed to be impossible to traverse Endless Daihoon, and almost all the stories about the place corroborated that fact. Addavein had spoken about really exploring the place, now that he was a dragon and not an archmage, but he had admitted that even now he would still have trouble with the more dangerous parts of the place.
What would a dragon consider dangerous?
Something that would absolutely murder Mark and most humans, no doubt.
After a silent minute, Mark said, “It’s probably not a reachable goal.”
“Yeah,” Isoko said, nodding. After a moment, she asked, “Is it selfish to want to resurrect them? Heavens exist, right? Or at least that’s what they tell us at church. We’d be pulling them out of heaven.”
Mark’s eyebrows went up. “Is there a way to contact them and ask if they want to be resurrected?”
Isoko shook her head—
She paused.
Isoko said, “There are Spirit Callers. It’s a Power that exists. It’s a Soul Power… Well. I mean. I’ve never thought about calling up and asking… I don’t know enough about this topic at all, Mark. Except I do know that you can’t even do that… not really, anyway.” All of the fight seemed to go out of her. She sighed. She said nothing.
Mark didn’t know much about this topic, either. But he did know that ‘Necromancer’ was a rare, yet normal-enough Power for a person to Awaken in the Tutorial, and that souls did exist, and that you couldn’t contact most souls at all because… because reasons. Mark had no real idea why contact with the dead wasn’t more talked about, or whatever, only that he didn’t know about it at all, outside of stuff he had seen on shows and movies, of course. That stuff was all fantasy dressed up as reality, though, and firmly draped in Curtain Protocol.
Mark said, “Maybe they have movies and shows about soul magics on Daihoon. Maybe they just know about that stuff more over there, than over here. There has to be a reason why we don’t contact the dead, looking to bring them back all the time, right? If resurrection magics exist in myth, then I am sure that people have tried to replicate that power in reality. I’m sure we can find out more on Daihoon.”
Isoko sat up straight, suddenly asking, “Is that why Blackthorn told you it was a 20% chance of being real? Maybe he knows people who have tried to replicate resurrection magics? Maybe he knows all about all of that stuff.”
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
Mark opened his mouth to say something, but a hovercar landed outside the house and a person stepped out of the vehicle. It was probably Eliot, since they walked right up to the house and opened the door. Mark said to Isoko, “I have no idea, but now that Eliot is here, I’d like to talk about… something closer to now.”
Isoko said, “Oh. Right.”
Eliot walked into the living room, asking, “Something happen with Blackthorn?”
Mark said to both of them, “So I have a secret that I haven’t shared yet…” Before the two of them could start thinking the worst, Mark continued, “I make adamantium. Like… I make it, somehow, and I learned how to make more of it today, thanks to Archmage Blackthorn. So I’m gonna be making adamantium and telling the world that I get it from other sources, and I don’t want to hide that secret from you two, because I’m pretty sure it’ll be impossible to hide soon enough, as soon as I verify what Blackthorn told me and then I start making adamantium.
“I’m not selling it, though.
“Soon as I can make enough of it for a weapon for you, Isoko, and for something for you, Eliot, I’ll be making enough to use myself and then spending a kilo of it at a time to get comprehensive answers about any topic I want from Blackthorn. That was the main deal today. He wants adamantium and he’s willing to break mage secrecy to secure a constant source of adamantium.” Mark added, “I’m pretty sure there’s some blackballing stuff that happens between the Mage Guild and mages who go outside of secrecy, but Blackthorn either doesn’t care about that, or he’s too influential to blackball. We didn’t sign any contracts. Just a verbal agreement. The first thing he taught me was what I need to do to start making more adamantium.”
As Mark spoke of producing adamantium Eliot’s eyebrows went high and Isoko sat rigid, but then Mark kept talking and they relaxed, and now they were speechless, and sitting with Mark in the living room. Mark hadn’t known how either of them would have reacted. People got weird around large sums of money, but more than that, people got weird about resources being hidden from them when they were on the same team. He had hoped for the best, though, and the best required honesty.
So he had decided to tell them.
Isoko instantly said, “That can’t be a good deal. It seems like he’s taking advantage of you.”
Eliot said, “There is no going rate for lessons from an archmage because there is no way to buy such a thing. It’s literally priceless information. Adamantium is priced at like 40 million goldleaf a kilo, though. It used to be a lot higher.”
Isoko asked, “How much adamantium do you make, Mark? How fast?”
Mark felt warm and good inside that this was their reaction. Mark said, “I don’t know. I need to do some things, first, like corroborate the information he gave me. Might be a kilo every month.”
“Holy shit,” Isoko whispered.
Eliot told Mark, “You could buy a real mage education. That would make the answered questions from Blackthorn a lot more valuable for you. Did he try to point you down that route? Does he want to make you an apprentice?”
“I don’t think so— You two can’t tell anyone. You know that, right?”
“Of course not!” Isoko exclaimed.
“Never,” Eliot said— He gasped. “Oh my gods. You’re an adamantium monster! Like they keep in those zoos!”
Isoko’s face contorted. “The fuck, Eliot?”
Eliot backpedaled, “I didn’t mean it like that! I didn’t know people could make adamantium! But they try to keep adamantium monsters alive if they could and they keep them in zoos. I saw pictures and I even made up some mock zoos because that’s a thing that every city has if they can get it…” Eliot paused. He looked at Mark. “It’s usually only mithrilkinetics who make mithril, right?”
Isoko paused. “Mithrilkinetics can make mithril?”
Mark said, “That was one of the first things Addashield told me, when it turned out I could make adamantium. Mithrilkinetics usually make mithril. Adamantiumkinetics almost never make adamantium. I assume orichalcumkinetics can maybe… make orichalcum? I’m honestly not sure what orichalcum does, though. Never seen it and barely ever heard of it.”
Isoko sat there, thinking.
Eliot sounded like he was asking, “Orichalcum is used in mage light enchantments? Artifact work?”
Isoko said, “I have no idea. Why bring up orichalcum?”
Oh.
Because orichalcum was part of the trifecta that Blackthorn had spoken about, when it came to that gold, platinum, and osmium stuff.
Mark said, “Maybe I wasn’t supposed to talk about that part.”
Isoko stood up, and said, “I think dinner is ready, and then, yeah, I want an adamantium-edged sword. Eventually. We don’t have to talk about where it comes from ever again, but thank you for trusting me with this secret.”
Mark smiled and felt warm inside. Isoko was already in the kitchen pulling out the chicken from the oven. Mark stood and moved a bit slower than her.
Eliot was saying, “I don’t need any adamantium… Unless it actually counts as human-made? I never tried to Manipulate your adamantium, but I know from other experiments that I can’t manipulate magical metals at all. Someone else needs to work with those and then slot them into the systems I make.”
Mark handed Eliot a small cube of adamantium, saying, “Test it out.”
Eliot raised his eyebrows… and then he held onto the cube. He stared at it, and then frowned, and handed it back, saying, “Not happening— That’s Addavein’s metal anyway, isn’t it?”
“Oh. Well…” Mark slipped the adamantium back onto his wrist, saying, “The stuff that Addavein gave me got mixed all up in my own adamantium, so yeah.”
Isoko looked a little uncomfortable, and then she said, “Let’s not talk about big secrets too often, okay? People are listening all the time.”
Eliot scoffed, “I put up anti-scry wards!”
Mark chuckled. “Can you keep out archmages already?”
“… Probably not,” Eliot admitted.
There was no more talk of adamantium over dinner, because Eliot had his own announcement.
“We’ve got a start date! The first week of January for final arrangements, and then we leave on the fifth!” Eliot said. “What we all expected, you know.”
“Shit.” Isoko sat back in her chair. “I’m still a few tests out from getting my hover license.”
“You can still get those done,” Eliot said.
“Maybe…” Isoko said, “I’m going to Tokyo for Christmas, though.”
“You can get those licenses done at the settlement,” Eliot elaborated.
“But what does it mean to start, though? What exactly?” Mark asked.
Eliot nodded. “It means the shipments of stuff from Memphi are getting loaded up at the settlement airfields starting on the first and getting sent off toward the South Pole on the fifth. I’m leaving with that first flight, probably on the 5th of January. It’s 20 days to fly to the settlement site and then probably 5 days to secure it so I can start building there while the settlers secure the location. If you guys need anything just let me know, okay? I plan on us being in one of the main buildings in the middle of it all. We’re still going for that plan, right?”
Isoko nodded, but her vector was elsewhere. She was thinking and making plans.
Ahhh… There’s so much to do. Quark’s AI housing, go meet Sally at her parent’s new house after Christmas, and I need to get some metals, too… Hmm.
Mark asked, “Can you get me 5 grams each of platinum, gold, and osmium, Eliot? And not ask questions about any of it, while knowing that it’s probably a very big tell for that particular information to get out?”
Eliot caught on fast. “Oh shit? You need actual metals to grow adamantium?” He thought. He said, “The osmium is tough.”
“Yeah. I looked it up and I couldn’t buy it anywhere.”
Eliot frowned. He stressed, “Nowhere?”
Isoko’s eyebrows went up. “That’s a known quantity of metals, isn’t it. Platinum and gold are easy enough to get, but osmium… osmium is rare. And if all adamantium blooded need those three to grow… Oh yeah. That’s tracked.”
Mark said, “Mithrilkinetics need to eat the same stuff to grow mithril, so it might not be that tracked.”
Eliot shook his head. “A trio of metals? Known to enable biometal growth? That is absolutely tracked by… someone, for sure.” Eliot grinned. “But don’t worry. I can get it, and without tracking. Not an issue. 5 grams of each, you said?”
“That’s what I was told.” Mark was a little surprised. “Where can you get it?”
“The last resort is that I can get it from my family. We’ve got weird resources and that includes metals of all kinds.” Eliot waved a hand. “But I should be able to refine some of it from one of the testing mines I’ve been working in, to see how far I have been able to stretch my powers. That’ll be my first test, and I’ll see if I can get it to you by tomorrow, along with the platinum and gold… And that’s it? 5 grams each?”
Mark smiled. “That’s all I was told. Thank you.”
Isoko asked, “Have you tried taking in those metals from your surroundings, Mark? Breathe in the osmium, breathe out the… carbon? You have lots of excess carbon.”
“… I never tried?” Mark had a thought, then shook his head a little, saying, “I wouldn’t breathe out carbon. If it’s just an intake of something small, then I can take it in, relax, and let the Union fade, without the backstroke.”
Isoko asked, “But what about—”
“No no no no,” Eliot said, “You two talked about Union all yesterday. Let’s talk about Castellan!”
Isoko clicked her tongue and said, “Fine fine!” She said, “So you’re a miner, now? When did that happen?” She rolled her eyes and tried not to grin even as she made her voice drip with sarcasm, “Are you filthy rich, yet?”
Eliot grinned. “I’m working on it!” And then he began a story, “A few weeks ago I began lessons on trench and city wall creation. It was part of the whole underground segment of the Hearthswellian construction lessons. Grandma always told me never to dig down too deep and to always over-engineer everything I build underground because collapsing rock walls are a Big Issue. She was, and continues to be, correct. Collapsing walls are horror stories of trapped people in holes in the ground, crushed to death and unable to move at all. Kaiju bunkers need to be built at least 5-times stronger than basic underground structures, and even something as small as a two-meter-deep, meter-wide hole is enough to trap and kill someone, if the walls collapse upon them...”
Mark and Isoko listened to Eliot talk about building stuff and the horrors of bad construction over dinner, and it was nice. Oh yeah, it was horrible to hear about that stuff, but Eliot had grown up wanting to be a bard, in the classical, Daihoon-sense of the word. A historian tale-teller. Eliot clearly had training for that sort of thing. Telling a story in person, off the cuff, wasn’t what he excelled at, since what he usually did was publish edited videos, but he was still good at it. He had a nice voice.
Mark liked his friends a whole lot.