On the way to the Hall of Healing, Serenity checked out his new Map. It showed all of the buildings, street names (where they existed), and what each building was used for - according to the city, at least. He was pretty sure that the “Fun Clothing Shoppe” they walked by was not actually a clothing store, unless you counted taking clothing off.
It didn’t show people; instead, the “Live Update” was a set of text notes that were clearly based on someone telling a Node what was happening. If he selected a note, he could even tell which Node it was entered at, and if it gave a location that would also be highlighted. Most of the notes appeared to be City Guard reports, at least at this hour.
Shortly before they reached the Hall of Healing, Serenity noticed a report from the nearest Node - which seemed to be at a local Guard station.
2 found unconscious on morning rounds. Currently on beds in Guardhouse.
That means 16 in the past 4 days.
Come to think of it, Guildmaster Irene mentioned a Council, but she didn’t mention the City Lord. “The rulers here are a Council, not a single Lord?”
“Oh, there’s a lord,” Hale replied. “He’s rarely ever seen. There are rumors why, but Father says none of them are true. They knew each other, back before Lord Stojan inherited the Lordship.”
“This sort of thing is what Lords are for,” Katya snarled. “Which is why you won’t see him here. He’ll show up when we’ve got this solved and claim credit - without paying us for it, either.”
“Hey, Father said Tasi’s not like that. And he really hasn’t shown up for anything in years, we only know he’s still alive because he’s still Lord.” Hale defended his father’s friend.
Katya shook her head. “He’s not Tasi anymore, he’s Lord Stojan. And a Lord who doesn’t show his face in town - well, something’s wrong with that.”
Serenity could think of some very good reasons for a Lord to not be seen in person, but that was a debate he didn’t want to have. “Isn’t that the Hall of Healing?” That’s what it was labeled on the map, at least.
“Yeah, good eyes.” Hale turned and headed towards the imposing stone building. It was smaller than the Mercenary Guild headquarters - perhaps half the size in each dimension - and only two stories tall. It was made of what looked like large blocks of marble, with a covered porch-like area around the building itself. A pattern was carved into the stone that made up the overhang as it ran around the building; it took Serenity a moment to realize that it was the word “Healing” in at least six different languages, probably more.
The front door was locked. Serenity turned to Hale; he’d seemed to be confident when they left the Guildhouse.
“Zan- gods. Do either of you know how to pick locks?” Hale started to turn then realized who he’d been about to ask to open the door.
Serenity sort of knew - he’d done it a few times in the past - but mostly he’d either had someone else take care of it, or he’d used the “firepower opens doors” method of dealing with locks. He also didn’t have any tools. He shook his head.
Raz was also shaking his head. “I don’t see a keyhole. I think it’s barred, not locked. We’re going to need a different way in.”
It was too bad they couldn’t just teleport through the - wait. Could they? This was a Hall of Healing, what were the odds that they hadn’t put a teleport ward up? “Katya? Can you tell if there’s a ward on the door?”
“What? Ummm.” Katya stared at the door, then checked the doorframe and the floor nearby. “If there is one, I don’t see it. Why do you - Oh! That short range teleport you have! Does it go through solid stuff?”
Serenity hadn’t considered using his boots. Come to think of it, he hadn’t tested that. “I’m not sure. Let’s find out.”
It didn’t work. Serenity had the feeling that the door was a problem primarily because it prevented him from knowing what was on the other side, but even if he’d known he wasn’t certain it would work. “Boots won’t work. Give me a minute or two to put together a proper spell.”
As Serenity started gathering his mana into the right patterns for a very small teleport spell, Katya asked, “Wait, you can teleport? With a spell? I thought that was a higher-Tier spell?”
When Serenity didn’t respond, she grabbed his shoulder, but before she could do more than that, Hale snatched her hand off his shoulder. “Don’t disturb a mage while they’re casting. You know better than that.”
“He’s not casting yet, he’s just thinking.” Katya pulled her hand out of Hale’s grip. “A spell doesn’t take that long anyway.”
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“I wouldn’t be so sure of that,” Hale asserted, “but either way, don’t disturb him. He wouldn’t have said a minute or two if he had a movement skill for it.”
Serenity didn’t see any of the interaction. He was completely absorbed in making the spell diagram from mana, then moving his mana through it to trigger the spell. He’d only ever done it with Path Skills before - there were Path Skills that were essentially packaged spells and even scaled with Affinity/Concept/Aspect, and they were much easier and faster - but since he didn’t have one for this, he had to do it the hard way. The spell framework twisted and argued with him, but he gently tugged on it until it fell back into position. He added the direction and distance he wanted to travel and even remembered to add the reciprocating teleport of air, so that it would make far less noise.
He wouldn’t have dared to try the spell without his high Affinity and Concept.
When he finished the spell structure, he pushed Spacetime-Affinity mana into it and the spell drank it quickly. It was an expensive spell, and took about a quarter of his enlarged mana pool. As he landed on the other side of the door, he could feel that the mana drain hadn’t just affected his available mana; he felt slightly lightheaded at the sudden drain. It reminded him of donating blood; not serious, but sometimes noticeable.
He hoped that was because of how large the spell was and how recent his latest evolution was; if that was normal for spellcasting, he’d have a problem.
The moment passed quickly, and he turned to examine the door. Raz was correct; there was a bar slid across the door in a pair of holders. He lifted the bar and the door opened easily to the sounds of the continuing squabble between Hale and Katya.
“-silent, unPathed spell? How did you know he could do that? That’s not-”
Serenity smiled. They must be feeling better to be picking at each other again. “We can talk about spellwork later, Katya. For now, let’s explore the Hall, see if we can find the healers.”
“I’ll go first,” Raz volunteered as he hurried into the Hall.
Serenity wasn’t sure if Raz was more interested in getting away from the argument or watching for traps. Based on the time in the dungeon with him and Katya, it could have been either. Raz and Katya didn’t specifically dislike each other, but they weren’t ever going to be close friends.
Raz led the way into the Hall of Healing. The place was cheerful and welcoming - or, at least, it would have been cheerful and welcoming if there had been anyone present. They spent a couple of hours searching the entire bottom floor and found no signs of anyone having been present in several days. There were several half-completed projects in the various workrooms, including two batches of what looked like they’d once been intended to be potions or salves that had spoiled from being left out, but everything looked like it had simply been set aside “for a while”, then people were gone longer than expected.
Most of the first floor seemed to be set aside as rooms for patients to be seen in by healers, though a number seemed to be set up for longer-term care. They were all empty.
There were three sets of stairs in the building, and once the first floor was explored, they started checking the second floor. It was only half an hour later when they found the Guildmaster’s office and the first signs of a fight. It wasn’t subtle at all; there were large, person-sized holes in two of the walls, the doors to both the office itself and the waiting area were on the floor, and the entire room looked and smelled scorched.
“Guildmaster Hollis is a Lightning mage as well as a Healer.” Hale looked around the room. “I don’t see anything that says what happened other than what he did, but if he’d won we’d know.”
Serenity felt something strange as he entered the room. The Death mana was denser than it had been elsewhere in the city, even though it was still lower than Tzintkra’s surface, but even more than that … it had an odd flavor. It was almost tingly, perhaps electric?
And the Guildmaster was a lightning mage?
They needed to know what happened here. If only they could see the past. They’d need a good Time mage for that, and Time mages were rare. Now, if Rissa were here-
Serenity mentally shook himself. What was he thinking? He was a Time mage. He needed to get used to using Affinities other than Death and maybe a little Void or Energy, or he’d never truly move beyond it, no matter what his Quest said.
“Something strange happened here, and the mana is still affected by it. Can you all step out in the hall? I’d like to try something.”
Katya started to say something, but Hale hissed “Just watch” at her as he tugged her out into the corridor.
Serenity pulled his chalk out of his pack and sketched a quick Illusion rune on the floor. He’d have to link it to the spell he cast, but it would be far easier to do that than to manage a second spell to handle the illusion. He’d always been terrible at illusion spells anyway, and his Affinities for that sort of magic weren’t any higher than they’d been before.
The spell structure for the Sight Across Time spell he was building was similar to Time’s Eye in some ways, but the time it had to cover was longer and it was into the past rather than possible futures. Fortunately, he could use the disturbed mana in the room to set the timeframe; he decided that “soon” before it started would be good, and that it would end “soon” after the mana stopped being charged.
For this spell, it wouldn’t be a simple, single discharge of mana; instead, both the spell and the rune would cost mana for each moment he kept the spell running. He wasn’t back to full since he hadn’t actually sat down to try to recover his mana, but he was close; it ought to be enough.
The moment Serenity finished building the spell, he linked it to the rune.
Suddenly, Serenity could see in color again; he must have built the rune to use normal human senses instead of his own, and inside the spell itself he could perceive it the same as anyone else. He would have to remember that later; if there was a way to - even temporarily - be able to see with magic, he would be very happy and this might be a clue for a way to do it.
A man with short blond hair, dressed in the same sort of clothes Serenity had seen on the streets of the Shining Caverns walked up to the outer door and knocked on it. If there was a response, they didn’t hear it, but the man opened the door anyway.