Tercius couldn’t believe that he had only been home for a day and a half. Somehow, it felt like weeks had gone by and he supposed that in a way it had— a lot had happened to him in the past day, two even.
Two days ago, in a matter of a few minutes, he got to experience a fear that he had thought left behind somewhere in the past and then he had to move past that fear to save his own life from his own magic. He had known that Mana Metamorphosis would bring some changes to his life, the teachers had warned of it, but he didn’t exactly understand just how much was hanging on him not giving in to his fear or other emotions for that matter.
Then he found out that he had a new family member through Mistress Kalina, which was difficult for multiple reasons.
Tercius knew for a fact that Petra's life had been put at considerable risk to give birth to that baby. He had been there when the healers informed his grandmother and he overheard that Petra should stay from any more childbearing, right after Leo was born. But he also knew that Petra, the sole child of her parents, had always wanted a large family of her own. The news that she should stop having children had not been easy on her, he remembered, but under Septimus's and Rona's insistence, she had agreed on it. Having a baby was a gamble for Petra, one in which the major losers would have been Aurelia and Leo, and he resented her that gamble. That he kept his mouth shut on the subject was mostly because he didn't want to add anything to the steaming pile that he had found when he came back home, and also because from Ciron he learned that it was his absence that was the main catalyst for that baby. Once Petra learned that she had been pregnant, she kept it despite strong initial protests from everyone in the family, Septimus included.
From his grandfather's few words on the matter, that he teased out the previous night, he even inferred that there had been a fight between the two spouses, possibly the first real one in fifteen years of marriage. A decade of knowing Septimus and Petra had taught him that while each held their own ground fiercely when it truly mattered they never hesitated to give that ground in favor of the other. When needed, the two of them had presented a united front against Petra's parents, Tercius and his siblings, and the world itself. He respected that kind of commitment even as he wondered how long something like that could last.
He also saw just how big a reach a mage like Mistress Kalina had.
Her network of information reached far and wide in a time when he thought that communication between two cities that shared the same river was tentative and unreliable. Which was true, when he took into account the average person on the planet, but also a complete underestimate when he finally saw some things about the world. This was not a world of equals, a fact he had known but never understood to the degree that he had now. His old world had not been a world of equals, only someone without two peas for a brain would think otherwise, but at least he had been able to see conceivably the disparity between the two extremes. There had been a… limit of some kind, or at least a limit as he saw it. He had known what to expect. It had been a somewhat predictable world. This world, with its mana and Energy… The sky is not the limit— the limit is… well I don’t think that there is a limit of any kind, at all…
Which was simply terrifying and yet utterly exciting, all at the same time.
The spells he had been able to glimpse in the past two days did inspire him, and when that was placed over six months of notes and thoughts about spells and skills… Well now that he was away from the Pyramid, he had a lot of tinkering to do. A smile of anticipation escaped him along with an ill-timed bout of foul wind.
Waving a hand to clear the air, he turned his mind to the absence of Septimus and Rona, an issue clearly felt in the past day or so and something that would have to be solved post haste.
If he wanted to rid his family of the troublesome shits that pestered his family, without creating any kind of permanent enmity, Tercius figured that contacting Lux was his best bet. From what his uncle told him, that organization into which he had been inducted under the code name Pinky had means of transcontinental communication. It would take a while, a few weeks most likely, and he was not sure where to send a message meant for Lux, the fifty-year-old man could be anywhere in the known world literally.
His uncle had been a vagrant ever since he left the army, traveling far and wide aided by his bottomless pockets.
Tercius shook his head. Contacting Lux was a good idea and a sound solution, but the foundations of this solution were shaky at best. Lux might not even be in the Capital, and his message might end up in someone else's hands. And even if he received a message, it would take months for any kind of support from that front.
It might be time to accept that there might not be any kind of peaceful solution… Tercius sighed.
It was evening and Tercius was emptying his bowels, and despite the smell, he was enjoying the time alone. The solitude gave clarity to his thoughts.
The noise of his family could be a handful to handle, at times, and he dreaded Aurelia and the children growing up. A single year had gone by and his little sister was… a bigger scamp than she had been. Little Leo was running around everywhere, by himself, while occasionally using his skill to avert attention from himself. Tercius shuddered to think what that little boy might do once he got older and the skill got to the level where people wouldn't even have the option to look at him when he wanted that. Despite his silent judgment of Petra's decision, he was glad that Petra had Portia. From what he saw, the baby was and would be Petra's rock in these hard times.
Seliana and Penelope… well they had proven somewhat useful around the house, especially with the children. Aurelia was glued to Penelope, absorbing stories about the Pyramid, the Academy, the mages, and spells like a little red sponge. When Seliana wasn't hounding Mistress Kalina for advice, she didn't mind keeping either Leo or Portia or even both of them. With the absence of able hands, her assistance proved immensely useful.
Once he cleaned himself up properly the Sogean way, an affair involving some vinegar, a sponge, some homemade soap, and water, Tercius escaped the little room, leaving it to air itself.
He knew that his grandfather was fast asleep in his room for hours now, completely passed out from just a few grains of that powder Mistress Kalina gave him. The old man had gone to sleep immediately after he woke up, only stopping briefly to eat like a starving bandit. The sooner he went to sleep, the sooner he would wake up, which was probably what Ciron was going for. With his hearing repaired, no more back pain to torment him with every step, and a skill that was only getting more powerful, Ciron would be a force to reckon with. If those men tried to enter even one more time…
Tercius was not sure that he could stop Ciron from crushing them into a paste. Frankly, he wouldn't even stop him, if it was left up solely to him, but his mother was right. If these people died and died in such a way that there was no shred of doubt of who did it, there would be trouble.
Seliana and Petra forwent immediate sleep, preferring to endure the aftereffect of that potion— a somewhat muddleheaded state that Seliana compared to feeling overly tipsy. The world was spinning but in a tolerable way, in her own words.
When Tercius reached the inner garden— whose green grass around the sides had been trampled into mush by too many present feet, he noticed with a frown— Mistress Kalina stood up from the stone seating.
“Tercius,” she called his name, seemingly glad to see him.
Considering that she was keeping company with Leo, Aurelia, and Penelope, and somewhat loopy-looking Seliana and Petra, he could see why she was glad to see him.
“Mistress,” he inclined his head.
She walked towards him with running steps. “I will be going now. Know that I left a little web—” she said and raised a single finger upwards. With Mana Sight he saw a thin mana string appear on that finger, two lines leading upwards. His head slowly trailed the lines and found a web of shrouded mana strings above his house. From where he stood it looked as if a giant spider had come and webbed the entire evening sky.
The finger came down and the shroud became stronger than what his eyes could pierce.
“— and should anyone try to enter…” Mistress Kalina said with a smile. “Well, that was a Paralyse spell and I placed temporary enchantments around the outer garden, to hold it in place until I dismantle it. If anyone walks more than a meter into the garden, from the outside in, you know what will happen. I have informed your mother, but I’m not sure that she understood,”
"That is…" Tercius said while looking up.
“I heard you spent the previous night awake…” Mistress Kalina said. “Rest easy tonight,”
“Thank you, Mistress,”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“It’s the least I could do, considering your decision about these people,” Mistress Kalina said. “I will come here in the early morning so there is no need for you to come for me. I will also bring that new attendant of mine. She could prove useful around the house and free you from all… daily burdens,”
"Mistress…" he whispered and threw a glance at Petra. His mother could have had help around the house, back at the village, but she had been in hiding and a maid would have been an unnecessary risk that could have led to discovery. Petra had spent years cooped up in the confines of their courtyard and stone-made house, rarely leaving. Even when they moved to Nurium, hiring a maid had been out of the question. When she had opened her shop a few years back… that was a move that Tercius categorized as enough was enough. She had spent years removed from the world and it had been difficult on her, which had culminated in an eruption.
Now that he thought about it, he didn't even know if his mother knew that the bounty on her had been lifted… Surely Lux had sent word of that?
“Your attendant, Mistress…”
“She is contract bound to never speak of anything she had observed in our presence, or while she stays in my employment,” Mistress Kalina said. “And I will ask her a few questions, under a truth spell, just to make sure she is… reasonably reliable,”
"That… you will have to speak to my mother about something like that, Mistress," he said and glanced at Petra. Her eyes were half-closed, seemingly ready to fall asleep at a drop of a pin. "But probably best to wait for tomorrow…"
“Hmm… I’m sure she will agree…” Mistress Kalina said. “My current plan is to observe everyone who imbibed the potion for the next five to seven days, just to properly document as many of the post-potion aftereffects as I can,” Mistress Kalina nodded. “I will take some time to help you practice your shapes and morphs. You have Crystal Shield, yes? Good. Also, two hours of Well development daily are mandatory, Tercius. Dead tired or not a mage must always move forward, regardless of what is going on in your surroundings,”
*********
The next day, his mother did agree to Kriti's presence and she allowed, reluctantly, the middle-aged woman to help in the kitchen and with various tasks around the house, from cleaning to watering plants.
But he should have known that things would not end there.
After Mistress Kalina and Kriti left, that evening, his mother’s true feelings shined through. Mistress Kalina’s refusal to stay at their home, combined with her bringing a maid to help around the house painted a picture that Petra interpreted as subtle insults.
To be fair to his mother, even he could see it.
To help his mother understand Mistress Kalina’s decisions a little bit better and stop her from doing or saying anything offensive, he decided to consult Mistress Kalina about the spirit. When the woman arrived the next day, once more bringing Kriti with her, Tercius asked her if he could share the spirit’s existence with his family.
“How much does your family know about Energy exactly?” Mistress Kalina asked, switching the question and making him halt like a rabbit caught between headlights.
Knowing that she probably had that truth reading spell on, Tercius went with the truth, albeit one open to interpretation. “Almost everything that I managed to discover on my own…” he said.
Despite his desire to stay in the good graces of the Law, he realized that he had also grown to somewhat resent the way that this Law was imposed on him. He would be keeping that close to his chest, of course.
“As to how much that is, Mistress, I have no context to give an answer like that,” he finished.
Mistress Kalina nodded slowly and returned to his question. “Well, information about spirits is known in all religious circles, to certain degrees. Considering what you told me, your grandmother probably knows of them. By the time Priests and Priestesses become part of the senior staff they ought to have skills for partial interaction with Spirits and all of these skills are taught to children as young as five cycles. Skills like Spirit Sight and so on. However, only those with Wells of their own are capable of complete interaction and integration, when used in combination with these special skills. People like these, called mediums, usually end up living fairly short lives after they contract a mature spirit… The power coursing through a mature spirit is nothing to scoff at, neophyte. Knowledge about spirits isn’t restricted in any way, so you can share that with your family without any restriction, but… Our long-lost brothers and sisters deserve a modicum of respect for their perseverance on a road fraught with death so I hope you keep this in a small circle, neophyte. I have shared this with you because of the situation, but don't make me regret it. Understood?"
Even as Mistress Kalina spoke, Tercius linked the conversation that they had earlier and just then it dawned on him that Rona's stories of her deity helping her when she was a young girl had a dimension that was anchored in reality, rather than metaphor as he took it as initially. With her Well well on the way, and these skills already underhand, his grandmother had everything needed to become this so-called medium. A dangerous prospect, deadly even.
While those il’Drusus men kept coming every day, not one ever tried to enter and with Mistress Kalina there to block the sounds from the outsides, no one even bothered with their presence.
Later that evening, keeping his cool without resorting to Meditation, he took Petra and Ciron to the basement and activated the silence bubble. At length, he explained why Mistress Kalina had chosen to sleep elsewhere and why Kriti was with them. To say that his mother and grandfather had been spooked by his revelation would be an understatement. But after he explained that until the spirit matured it would have no way to influence anyone from the family, they settled somewhat.
“This… this reminds me of something from way back in my youth,” Ciron said and Petra and Tercius settled into their seats to listen. The night was long and the three of them were alone, at last. “Something I won’t ever forget. It was over five decades ago. I had been a lad of nine or ten, an apprentice to my grandfather, a master stonemason,”
"There was this temple to the north of Spheros, on a small peninsula along the eastern coast, made up of steep and sharp rocks rising just above the sea level. The temple was a mighty tower of pure stone the same color as those mountain tops that you can see above the city. Its height was such that you could see that white and gray tower from any part of the city— you just had to look up and there it was. I lived on the southernmost outskirts of the city and even I saw it from my window. Every night there was a great beam of light from that tower, a guide, and a call for ships to come to Spheros from far and wide. And let me tell you, it was a sight to see," his grandfather said, looking down at the stone floor, his eyes clouded with memories.
Tercius had never seen a tower like that in Spheros, or its vicinity.
“A temple was in the name of a sun deity… Api, or Alle, or something like that. The name is of no matter anyways. Not anymore,” Ciron shook his head, with a heavy sigh. “It had been an old religion from even older days— pre-Empire, I remember my grandfather saying. A dozen priests of the Deity remained in the grand temple… and other than an occasional seaman, few adhered to their faith. For centuries under the Empire, new religions had been cropping up and old ones…” Ciron inhaled deeply and then exhaled slowly. “Were falling out of favor,”
“Why do I mention this… Well, a new Governor had come from the Capital and took command of the city— a pompous fool by all accounts. Barely a day or two had passed from his welcoming when he took three hundred soldiers and marched to take the temple for his own purpose, whatever it might have been. But I heard that from others and they heard it… you know how it goes.
"What I know is this— It had been midday and I had been shaping stone into proper forms at my master's workshop when suddenly there had been this… high pitched sound— a whistle of some kind— and as I turned to search for the source of that sound a bright flash came from the tower… and a moment later the tower collapsed into rubble, gone from my view. I was stunned. That tower had been there for as long as I remembered.
“Anyway, it was the talk of the city for weeks and months that people had seen the Governor and the soldiers go to the temple, but not a single person that went with him ever returned. No priests survived to tell the tale, as well. We got a new Governor within half a cycle and…
“Stories didn’t stop, of course. A ship had been close to the tower when it collapsed and there had been people on that ship who swore that a giant flaming bird of prey had flown over the soldiers, roasting them alive by its mere presence and melting rocks as if they were butter. I never put a lot of credibility into these tales— seamen are heavy on their drinks as you know, often seeing things— but now that you shared this…” Ciron nodded to himself, seemingly encouraging himself to continue. His grandfather was never one to string so many words in a small time frame.
“To that spot, where the tower had once stood proud, people never went after that. There was an occasional fool who had gone and tried to salvage whatever had remained… but without fail, all died within days of returning back, becoming husks of their previous selves. The last I heard… the name that it now goes by is…” Ciron said in a deep voice, the silence of the deep night giving his words more dimension. “The Withering Rock,”
Ciron looked up, meeting Tercius' eyes. "Tercius, fifty cycles ago people knew who did what. But not even a decade after that, tales spoke of mages doing blood rites and all kinds of vile rituals, and all who said anything to the contrary… fell out of favor. That was why I never stood in your way when you wanted to go to this Academy for mages,"
“Daughter… Grandson… once upon a time, my wife had been a priestess in training to one of the last old religions that still stands in the open to this day. Luckily for all three of us here,” Ciron smiled. “She had given up on that path, but she had never given up on spreading the faith. Even as we spent cycles together, I always told her that she was only inviting trouble by doing it.
“All of this had begun before my grandfather had been born and his grandfather before him. You see, I… was not completely honest with you. None of you. I don’t refuse to join my wife’s faith because I prefer it that way…” Ciron halted, gathering his thoughts.
"Not even Rona knows this but… I already have one. An old one, like hers. I don't know anything other than the name of that deity, everything else has been lost in time, so I can only be counted as a lay member… but a member I am, and perhaps the only one remaining. When I found out that she was a priestess of Balance… and she found me, a distant offspring of some long-forgotten priest of the Architect… well, I always fund it amusing," his grandfather chuckled to his private joke, while Tercius and Petra listened to everything with their mouths ajar.o
Turning to Petra he said, "I had forbidden Rona from teaching you anything about her faith because I always thought that she and I would one day end up in a ditch somewhere and that if you proved ignorant you needn't share our fate… The tale that my grandfather told me before he passed away was short. Imperial religions, with their so-called Fathers and Mothers for everything from crops to storms, had taken painful steps to undermine the old and usher in the new for a long time, according to my late grandfather. The Architect's priesthood had foreseen this and went into hiding, just in time. Honestly, I counted the tale as ramblings of a deranged old man even as I memorized and kept every word close to my heart. As I grew older, I did see signs of what my grandfather spoke of, here and there. From what I know, Imperial religions have only truly prospered in their Capital, while the other continents prefer not having any religion. It might have been my wishful thinking, but I always thought it a sign of a subtle resistance passed down to us from our ancestors. No daughter— let me finish, please. I bore this alone on my shoulders for far too long.
"I had always wondered why the Imperials stopped when just a few old ones remain in plain sight in Spheros. But if what you say about spirits is true then… The power of the old ones is weakened but not spent… The Imperials might just be waiting for them to die naturally, rather than lose more people. Picking off from the sides slowly, rather than risking a head-on collision," Ciron said, his eyes narrowing. "Daughter, grandson. I share this with you today, just like my grandfather passed it down to me. Remember it well and pass it down along the line,"
While saying that last part, Ciron looked at Tercius with eyes filled with pride. On his neck, numberless tiny feet crawled. Some things were better left unsaid, he decided instantly. There was no need for the old man to know that his line through Tercius's loins was as barren as the desert to their northwest. There might be an oasis somewhere in it, according to Mistress Kalina, but… a lot of sticky sand would have to be traversed to get to it.
Sand better left undisturbed.
Still, considering that he could theoretically live for uncountable millennia, his grandfather had found an excellent person to entrust this with. Looking at the emotional old man, a rare sight, and his emotional and still reeling mother sitting next to him, Tercius knew deep within himself that he would not allow this old man to leave the world early. None of them were allowed to do that.
Laws be damned, mage or otherwise.
Tercius made a few decisions then and there. Sort out the tinkering with skills that he had planned for the past few months— especially the skill/spell thing. Accept Mistress Kalina's offer— even if she denies him the truth that he was after. And then… grow.
Grow to such a size that people would walk around him on their toes.