After Kalina left the home of her potential Disciple and finally freed herself of the disturbing presence of that spirit, she headed for the inn that Tercius had recommended.
She booked a room from the innkeeper and declined the offer of an evening meal. She climbed up to her room and looked at the bed she paid to use for the next day. It was true that she was tired, but she had other ways to deal with exhaustion. An eye-watering potion of energy later, and she left the room via the open balcony, her obscuring spells making sure that no one saw anything out of the ordinary.
Taking Tercius to his home was a completely unplanned move, but considering what happened just a day ago Kalina felt it prudent to listen to expert opinion.
She was sure that Tercius had gotten his lecture about the danger of Mana Metamorphosis as soon as he reported that he had gained the skill— and knowing who was his practical magic teacher, Kalina knew firsthand of the quality of that lecture. That meant that he had either chosen to ignore the warning or that he was so shaken that he didn’t even think of preventing the wild magic. Either way, it was worrying.
As she moved across the flat roofs of the town, as the sun slowly moved down, Kalina sent out very subtle and minute Energy traces all shaped into Runes that would convey her desire.
Customs were important to the magic society.
Mages had a custom for many things, some of which Kalina found frankly bizarre, but when she considered the age that the Pyramid had to accumulate these customs and the diversity that played part in their making, she would usually give a reluctant nod of acceptance.
Singing or knowing how to play a musical instrument was one requirement for all students to learn in their six-year curriculum. Learning how to dance was another. Those who struggled in their studies— Kalina herself had been one of those who had broken many a toe to learn to dance— got more specialized attention in later years when there were fewer students, but every future mage had to learn these things before graduation. Customs demanded it.
The request to speak was another custom that Kalina had found odd at first, but over the decades she had learned how good mages could get at hiding in plain sight. The variant she used was exclusively for Energy users more sensitive to Energy than she was. In this town, there was probably only one person who fit that description. A Master who was a peer of Mistress Prime.
Her part of the custom done, she waited to see if there would be an answer. Even in his youth Master Perdinar had been distant and solitary and he could just choose to ignore her, Mistress Prime had told Kalina.
But within a minute of her request, her nose twitched and she relaxed. He had answered the call. She smelled an Energy answer west of her and so she rose to fly. Houses vanished below her and soon a twenty meters tall wall loomed ahead of her. The call was coming from the top. There, leaning on the edge of the crenelated wall, was the blonde-haired Master for whom she was searching. She landed near him and gave a small bow while he waved away her attempts at courteousness.
“Why are you here?” he asked directly, not even looking her way.
Kalina was prepared for this. Mistress Prime had mentioned that her cousin preferred distinctness and succinctness so with her first words spoken face to face, she told him about the situation.
“—and that’s why I brought the boy here,” Kalina said.
“I see…” Master Perdinar nodded. “Tell me, do you happen to know of the writings of the Mistress— actually… the writings had been old when I was young. Let me just tell you the essence that has stuck with me for a long time now. And bear in mind that this was from before the schism. Many had dismissed the knowledge outright, merely based on that,”
He finally gave her a look, his piercing blue eyes clearly searching to see her mind on the topic.
“I’m willing to listen, Master,” Kalina said, genuinely curious about the topic.
Master Perdinar nodded, seemingly pleased. “A certain Mistress Cong Ming had a take on the way that wild magic manifested. From her texts, I gathered that this was quite a common belief back then,”
"I'm sorry Master, but isn't the way that manifestation itself occurs random?" Kalina asked. Wild magic was a combination of many factors, from the affinity to the amount of mana present at the time of the manifestation, but when it came to how it expressed itself a random factor would pop up.
Master Perdinar didn’t like interruptions, his face sour face told her. “Between a lot of completely unnecessary information padded into the book, almost as if she had been paid Repository Points by the word written, I had found that she was of the strong opinion that manifestations of wild magic were very good indicators of the mental state of the mage at the time of the wild magic manifestation,”
Kalina nodded slowly as a soldier passed by them, completely oblivious to their presence.
"Even though her writing skills could have used a lot of work, just for now let's say that the Mistress was right. What does it mean then for the boy's magic to wrap him in a statue of crystal with no air whatsoever to breathe?" Master Perdinar asked.
"I…" Kalina began but found herself at a loss of words. What did it mean? Or better yet, was Master Perdinar’s claim true?
“Of course, I might have misused a long-term memory to retain a whole lot of nothing…” Master Perdinar said with a shrug, mirroring her thoughts. “Just remember that we are talking about a woman who was part of the generation that gave The Planes that utterly nonsensical name…”
Kalina shook her head in disbelief. If this Mistress had been a part of that generation, then that meant that she had been alive close to three millennia ago, at a time when accessing the Planes had been easier than today.
Alignment of the Planars, the history books called it. An event on a cosmic scale that most counted as the major turning point in the magical society. Some historians cited it as a major if not the main reason for the global unification of the mages under the Repository. Before the Alignement, the Repository had been a major power block on the planet. After it, only the Repository remained almost intact.
Kalina took a deep breath and banished her previous thoughts.
She had a troubled Disciple to think about.
*********
Crouched behind the stone wall, a rather tall parapet that ran around both the outer and the inner edge of the roof, Tercius observed the situation below. From his vantage point, he saw one person standing behind the metal gate and two more standing a meter behind him. While Tercius was the leading man completely from head to feet, of the two men behind him he only saw the heads while the rest of the body was behind shrubbery.
Mana Sight confirmed their positions. But then he noticed something strange across the road. Below his hood, Tercius frowned. There were five mana signatures in the house that he observed and four were in a horizontal, sleeping position, but one was crouching behind a window that had a direct view of the same thing that Tercius was currently observing. A spy or just a nosy neighbor? Who lives there anyway?
He knew the faces of everyone who lived in that house, but in the half a decade of living in the neighborhood, he had never learned the names to put on those faces. Then he shrugged. That was true for most of his neighbors. He knew someone who knew things like that and he knew that his mother would be happy to answer.
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Stealth [5] is now Stealth [6]
Every minute of use took a lot of mana to maintain, but with all of the Energy that was stuffed into his Well and body, Tercius was in no fear of running out any time soon. His mana regeneration rate was operating on an extreme level when his body had Energy running through it. There was a shadow to his hands, he noticed. Even the parts that received direct starlight and moonlight were darkened suitably to blend into the surroundings.
Stealth [6] is now Stealth [7]
Every level that was gained took some of the Energy from him, but Tercius was not overly worried about running out of Energy. The low level skill should become barrier-bound long before that happens. While he had been examining his cloak, he had realized that now was not the time to pull half measures so he had made sure that he, Amber, and his grandfather had plenty of juice for this.
The only visible figure spoke something in a low voice, but Tercius couldn't understand a word from his position. The chirping nocturnal insects didn’t help at all.
Under the revealing gaze of Energy Sight, the cross-armed Ciron was a beacon of white light, and just a few meters to Ciron’s right another beacon of Energy moved. Smaller in size, but no less dangerous, Amber moved across the grass and toward the wall. The little one was following instructions just as she had practiced with him. Tercius observed as she went for the small underground passage that his grandfather had made for her during the day. Like a rabbit entering its warren, Amber disappeared into a small dark hole that led downwards.
Well done, he sent via the Familiar Bond, as soon as he saw that she was in position. Now Wait.
Stealth [7] is now Stealth [8]
That stone-clad space that snaked under the front gate of his home had taken a lot of mana to make, especially as Ciron did all of it from a great distance. Still, it was good practice for the old man. With Rona away and his craft on a pause, the old man had been dour for months now, his mother told him.
Tercius took a slow and long breath as he crouched lower behind the parapet, completely hiding himself behind it. His mouth felt dry as he reached for the Familiar Bond and tried to do what he did just over a day ago.
It felt like falling.
One moment he was just there and the next he fell down a deep dark tunnel and found light on the other side of the planet. Amber's eyes were much more powerful than his, but not even she was able to see well in the current environment. Small columns of light pierced the darkness at regular intervals, made by the tiny holes his grandfather made for Amber to have fresh air and a way to enact the first part of their plan. Amber sat beside a tiny underground pool made of pure stone that was filled with delicious-smelling water. The walls were close to his—No. Amber's body— and he felt uncomfortable, but he could feel that Amber didn't mind it much. She was more focused on the delicious beverage near her.
Amber. No, Tercius said to her. That’s not for drinking. Remember what we practiced. Just do as we practiced and you’ll get that much and more.
Dust fell from above and Amber sneezed.
“What was that?” He heard a low voice say above him and Tercius urged Amber to keep calm and silent.
“… I didn’t hear anything…”
Tercius returned to his body and found out that his Stealth had disengaged while he had gone to visit Amber. With a single thought, that mire and sludge returned to give him a better camouflage, and he peeked over the parapet. The leading man was still talking at his grandfather, while the heads of the two men behind him had moved from their previous positions. Not far, but…
That needs some adjustment, Tercius thought.
With Energy Sight, he saw that Amber was now over a meter from the nearest person. He saw how she had positioned herself and he once more hid behind cover. Slipping down the bond, he guided Amber to the proper position and told her to wait.
Check and adjust, until he finally was sure that it would work. It had taken him a few minutes, but now the position was perfect.
Water Up, Tercius sent to Amber and looked at the area with Mana Sight.
A small pool of water suddenly became alive in his skill-induced darkness and through those tiny holes that allowed Amber to breathe, the water rose and engulfed the dirt around and below the men that stood there. Opening the two bags he carried with him, Tercius reached into one and pulled out a small stone ball, around one and a half centimeters in diameter. Then he waited. If the men realized that something was going on and turned aggressive, then he would rain stone-made projectiles on them. With his Precision at [39], misses were rare and these men would probably think that it was Ciron who was doing it.
He didn't want his family and especially his grandfather to be involved with these men. If a Peacekeeper came to ask questions, should something unfortunate happen to them, Tercius wanted for his family to be able to say with a calm mind: I have no idea what you are talking about.
So, if he couldn't strike at these pests at his house then that left theirs, but neither he nor anyone in his family had any idea where these people went after they finished with the harassment. It was here that step one of his master plan was born.
Reconnaissance.
Find out the hiding place of these people.
Stealth [8] is now Stealth [9]
The next question in line had been how to find this place. One answer was pretty obvious. Follow them back to it.
But he didn’t want to accidentally reveal to them that he was following. These people were trained for these things and Tercius was not willing to bet that his limited knowledge and clumsy skills were up to the task. His planning process was simple. Underestimate yourself and overestimate your opponents. Everything that can go wrong for you, will go wrong. Everything that can go right for your opponent, will go right. Plan accordingly. Create countermeasures and branching plans that never rely on a single path. He didn’t have nearly enough time to think and plan, so he only came up with two plans that he thought were viable enough. Amber’s actions were part of one redundancy plan.
The man below was still endlessly monologuing to his grandfather and Tercius’s lips tightened into a silent smile. Considering the old man's hearing issue, the man at the gate was literally wasting his breath. If Tercius couldn’t hear him, then neither could Ciron.
He took a moment to glance at the house across the road. The same mana silhouette from before was still there in the same position he last saw it. He swept his gaze on every house that was next to theirs, but every single mana silhouette that he saw was in a horizontal position. It was difficult to parse overlapping mana silhouettes, but he had some experience in doing it. Besides, he had Visualization to help him to go over these images once more tomorrow.
I think I know what my next barrier for this skill should solve… and I know just the thing that will help with Visualization… Oh, and a new skill to enhance my regular vision would be a welcome addition— Tercius halted his thoughts when he saw movement around the gate. Wait… are they leaving?
All three retreated together and all three passed over the muddy patch of dirt. Tercius heard one man utter a loud curse, but the other two immediately tried to get him to lower his voice.
Stealth [9] is now Stealth [10]
Tercius grinned.
The water that Amber had been pouring slowly into the dirt in that area was actually tea, brewed by Tercius and delivered into those tiny tunnels by Amber. The flowers used for the tea were native to northern Nogea and the main reason that Tercius chose it was its rarity in these parts. He was probably the only person in Nurium in possession of this flavorful tea. To Tercius the smell of the tea was sweet and simply pleasant, in neither strong nor weak kind of way, but to Amber— who had a good nose and an even better skill for plants, flowers, and pollens— the smell was overpowering. And thanks to its rarity in these parts, Amber shouldn't have a problem following it. He had no idea how long the smell would last and he worried about evaporation rate, considering how high the daily temperatures could go, but he figured that even after the water was gone the smell would linger on their footwear.
Not a very good plan, he reflected, but it was the best he could come up with in a short time frame.
One of the weak spots was that one of these men could realize that someone was onto them and then proceed to ditch their footwear, or even use the footwear as bait to trap him when he came looking.
But he had plans even for those eventualities. Sort of. It was a work in progress.
With Mana Sight, he followed the mana outlines up his street and then for as long as he could. Every once in a while they would blend into other signatures that he saw, but three moving vertical silhouettes were easily spotted in a sea of horizontals, even when he lost them for a minute or two. Nurium was a town of about ten thousand souls, give or take another thousand, and each of those souls had a mana signature that offered a temporary blending space for those men to hide. Cats and dogs, birds and rodents, everything provided at least some manner of cover. But Nurium was built on mostly flat areas and he was able to follow the men a fair distance away, even from the top of his home. Based on the path they took…
They were going for the Inner Wall, he realized.
A place where commoners like him needed permission to enter. He frowned. That made things a bit more complicated.
Amber, good job. Now Come, Tercius sent and put the small stone projectile back in the bag. Carrying the two bags full of projectiles with him he came down into the house and made himself comfortable in the dark living room. He slipped into Meditation and started tearing chains to restore the Energy he spent. By the time he opened his eyes, a few minutes later, his grandfather and Amber were by his side.
Tercius stood up and waved them after himself. They went down into the basement where he turned on a newly installed light and activated the silence enchantment for them to be able to speak normally. As soon as the bubble was in place he nodded to his grandfather.
“Did it work? Were you able to mark them?” Ciron asked in a loud voice.
“Yes,” Tercius nodded as he took Amber into his arms and started scratching the scales under her chin. The little kitten purred in satisfaction. “It went very well. Grandfather, do you know who lives in that house directly across the road from us?” he asked loudly.
“I have no idea,” Ciron answered with a shrug of his large shoulders. “Ask your Mother in the morning, she knows such things. Why?”
Tercius nodded. He had thought as much. “I think that we have a pair of eyes observing our home. I’ll have to monitor them during the day tomorrow. By the way, did you hear anything that man at the gate said?”
“No,” Ciron rumbled, amused. “No. I just pay attention when they move.”