– Era of the Wastes, Cycle 219, Season of the Rising Sun, Day 87 –
Glad my senses are getting back to normal again.
Terry could figure out that Rafael was going to visit him long before he heard the door handle move.
“Brother, why am I getting increasing stink-eye from the Arcanians?” The leopard-spotted felan barged in without a knock or greeting.
“Heh…” Terry snickered. “Probably because I told my family about everything that happened.”
Rafael’s face cramped. “Everything? I thought we were friends!”
“Everything,” confirmed Terry, but he decided against teasing his martialist friend. “Including how you helped against the cursed army and how you had my back afterwards.” He shrugged. “I’m pretty sure neither my parents nor my uncle and aunt are going to give you any trouble.”
“Bah!” scoffed Rafael. “As if I feared anyone. If they want to pick a fight, I’ll show them.”
Yeah right. Terry snorted. “That would be a lot more believable if my aunt’s constructs weren’t outnumbering the entire city population.” He rolled his eyes and shook his head. “What’s bringing you here?”
“Can’t a felan check on his brother?” demanded Rafael before grinning. “And I just wanted to tell you that the Icy Mountain is finally moving.”
“Zhang?” exclaimed Terry with surprise.
“The whole sect,” said Rafael, and shrugged. “Don’t ask me what got them riled up to fully commit like that.”
Terry furrowed his brow.
Might have something to do with my aunt’s presence. If they have people like Zhang over there, then they should be able to figure out that the Lich Kingdoms won’t stop their advance unless somebody pushes them back. They’ll hardly get a better chance of rallying everyone.
Is it possible that our plans with the Lands and rallying the whole Union have already reached their ears? Seems like they are betting on us and want to commit early to gain some face.
Terry groaned slightly. He remembered well that this sect also included other members with more irritating tempers and characters.
Just another round of fighting with questionable allies. Great.
“What are you up to?” asked Rafael, and looked over at the various books on the floor.
“I’ll have an appointment with body inscription experts soon…” Terry looked over the books further away and then picked up a stack of papers in front of him. “And I’m looking for some rope.”
“Rope?” Rafael tilted his head. “What for?”
“I saw my pa use some magic rope, and I figured it could come in handy,” said Terry absentmindedly while looking again over his options. He continued in a quieter mumble: “Although it’s a bit redundant with the bidirectional attraction, but still… rope…”
“...” Rafael appeared to wrestle with himself over something before he spoke up. “Actually. I might have something.”
“Huh?” Terry moved his gaze up from the papers.
“Well, after we got out of the trial, I…” Rafael considered his words. “I went looking for some of those dungeon rewards. Those imbeciles took them all, and I was sure I could convince them that we deserve a share.”
‘We’? Right… First I’m hearing of it.
Terry suppressed his desire to retort. As far as he was concerned, whatever Rafael recovered was his to keep. Terry himself hadn’t even considered looking for those items after all.
“Well, you were out of it and I figured the items were more useful to me, but since you’re recovering…” Rafael grinned sheepishly. “Most were useless anyway. Bunch of swords and shit no real man would ever use. The mana-rich ingredients kind of…” He cleared his throat. “Disappeared, but I kept something for you.”
Rafael retrieved a bottle. “From what I can tell, it condenses mana into a mana potion. I figured you were dumping so much mana to use for your bubble, and the people here also said you have an interest in mana containers, so…”
“Neat.” Terry picked up the bottle with excitement. He always appreciated additional means to store mana when he could spare it for the times when he had to use it all. But there was more to his excitement. He still remembered the intoxicating feeling of having liquid mana run through his mana channels. An opportunity to observe how his own naturalized mana compressed into liquid form should prove insightful – even if it was done by an artifact. “Thanks!”
“And since you were interested in magic rope, perhaps this…” Rafael retrieved a dull black bangle. “A weave that can be created, guided, and strengthened with mana. It attaches to shadows.”
Terry paused for a moment and looked carefully at the leopard-spotted felan, who was sharing treasures with him. It was hard to believe this was the same sticky-fingered felan Terry had first met in Thanatos. He almost felt bad for his previous mental retort and was glad he hadn’t spoken that particular thought out loud.
“Thank you, Rafael,” said Terry sincerely. He examined the bracelet and then paused. “Are you sure that’s all it does?” Feeling the different interwoven mana layers, he had the feeling that there was more than one function. Once again, he inwardly grumbled about the fact that martialist artifacts didn’t suggest their own use.
After his felan friend had left, Terry continued testing the shadow bracelet until he finally uncovered the hidden function. Aside from controlling the shadow rope himself and attaching it to a shadow, it also allowed him to bind a single item to the bracelet. The shadow rope could then seek the bound item, even over long distances.
Could be useful for navigation. I could bind a pebble and use it like a compass.
Anyway…
Terry bound his king spear to the bracelet. Whatever other uses he might think of, he definitely didn’t want to lose his main weapon, and the bracelet would help ensure that.
***
“They should be here soon,” said Brynn. She and Samuel stepped into Terry’s room.
“Thanks for taking the time,” said Terry with a tinge of guilt. He knew they were incredibly busy, which was also because of him. Because he had dragged them into a war with another empire.
Samuel simply nodded, while Brynn winked at her nephew. “Don’t forget that I have an interest in inscriptions, even if I consider the body to be the wrong place to put them.”
“And even though we would take the time no matter what, you can wipe that guilty expression off your face,” said Samuel. “You might not realize this, but the discoveries that you’ve shared will be important for negotiating with Arcana Academy.”
That statement just made Terry feel even guiltier. He had not thought deeply into what the presence of the two instructors signified. His uncle had told him that things in Arcana had calmed down compared to Terry’s last time there, but naturally, it was still far from normal for two instructors to be absent from their jobs for such an extended time.
“Don’t,” chided Samuel.
“We can see what thoughts are going through your head, Terry.” Brynn smiled and shook her head. “We don’t need you to worry about us.”
“And I meant it,” stressed Samuel. “The information that oscillating mana can facilitate the closing of veil tears is invaluable for the realm as a whole. Even if all the other specific properties of oscillating mana you have determined might end up as scholarly footnotes, that single property is of paramount importance. Not to mention that your discovery of same-naturalization spellwork and discharges is opening up a whole new field of research.”
Terry was not so sure. “I can’t see the Academy looking deeply into discharges.” Discharges are a tool of mana cultivators. Arcana Academy is for mages.
“Perhaps not,” admitted Samuel. “But that would be the fault of the Academy. Their loss.” He shrugged and subconsciously traced the parts of his face where his burn scars used to be with his fingers. “If they decide that my value in researching spellwork is not enough to accept me back, then so be it.” He smiled. “The idea of switching into researching discharge spellwork interaction together with Bjorln or with the Guardians doesn’t sound too bad.”
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Terry could not help but smile when seeing his uncle like this. There appeared to be a new peace inside the man. A peace brought by fulfilling his self-imposed duty of developing suitable fire-aspected healing spells in the honor of his deceased brother Olgorn.
“Given how many transport constructs are still seeking me out to evaluate the works of students and instructors alike, I’d say the Arcana Academy has no ground to complain to me anyway,” grumbled Brynn wearily.
And Terry felt guilty again. The workload of his aunt appeared insane. By comparison, he felt like a lazy bum. He clenched his fist and promised himself to work harder. He just had to find a way to do it without tipping off his healers and parents.
Terry was jolted from his self-reproach when he sensed the approaching signatures. “They’re coming.”
Soon after, his door opened and several people walked in. A few local crafters and a familiar human woman whose body was covered in tattoos.
Of course, Iris joined to see what I’ll end up with.
Terry greeted them, and then they went straight to business.
***
“This is the ink you want to use?” asked the wrinkled dwarven woman with a raised eyebrow.
“Yes,” said Terry. “That mixture feels right.”
The wrinkled woman nodded and took a sample to analyze before passing the bottle to the other crafters. They looked over the inscription candidates and, after they had done their tests, they removed a few of them.
“Won’t work…” mumbled the dwarven woman.
“Not with that ink,” agreed the middle-aged human man from the crafters.
Terry nodded. This whole idea was a long shot, anyway. He was glad that at least some options remained.
“This one is rather experimental,” said the wrinkled dwarf. “We can try, but I advise against it.”
“That one is unusual,” said the human man and pointed. “Useless on its own.” He handed it to the other crafter, who began nodding. “Very specific.”
“Specific and supplementary. Missing the starting point, which also makes it narrow.” The wrinkled dwarf nodded when seeing the inscription and moved her gaze to Terry: “You must have read that the only recorded effect was miniscule. What made you consider this one?”
“If it works, then the prerequisite won’t be a problem,” explained Terry. “And if it doesn’t, then it would still help me better understand something.”
“And what would that be?” asked the old human.
“My spell and mana,” said Terry with a wide grin.
The wrinkled dwarven woman cackled. “Using our services for a test in research.” She and the other crafter looked at each other before she placed the paper on the floor again and nodded. “Normally, that would be an eccentric lavishness, but for Freedom’s Guardian…” She grinned and deep wrinkles formed around her eyes. “Free of charge.”
“Then we should start with this one,” said the human crafter. “It’s narrow, which increases the chances of it working out as you desire.”
“Yes,” agreed the dwarven crafter. “The narrower the better if we want to avoid interference with orthodox magic in an unstudied aspect.”
Terry took a deep breath and his mind wandered while his aunt and uncle continued discussing the details. He knew that Brynn played with the idea to craft a ring that could inscribe a skin-level body inscription template onto Terry’s fingers.
Even though the famous crafter was comfortable with giving a manual touch to her constructs, she felt differently when it came to her nephew’s body. Instead of letting the body inscription experts directly lay hands on Terry, she wanted them to create a template in a ring.
This would allow Terry’s family to check the template repeatedly before it would reach Terry’s body. It would also remove any risk for manual error during the body inscription process itself.
Perhaps most importantly for Terry, he could keep such inscribing rings which improved the trade-off of skin-level inscriptions. If he ever noticed a problem with the tattoos, he could burn them off. If they ever got damaged by accident, he could recreate them with the help of the rings.
The idea appeared very intriguing to the crafters, but Terry himself was zoning out during their conversation. His interest was in the body inscription and its promised effects.
Using mana to move a linked plane along a single axis.
An eccentric effect that presupposes the existence of a linked plane. A prerequisite that would normally require complex magic to manifest for even a weak link. The creator had apparently been somewhat of an escape artist – or rather a thief who frequently wound up in prisons or traps. Given the nature of some of her predicaments, she had looked for a way to bypass the requirement of shadows for stepping into the shadow plane.
The goal had stuck with the thief long after she had switched to more defensible lines of work. Her attempt to move the shadow plane relative to her position in the regular plane had proved both possible and very much infeasible. The amount of mana required for even the slightest wobble of a millimeter in the relative position was completely prohibitive, and that did not even consider the ridiculous preparation required to link to the shadow plane sufficiently to begin with.
Even though the creator had found her created body inscription unsatisfactory for her desired purpose, Terry believed himself justified in putting his hopes into the magic tattoo.
Terry’s current understanding of his mana and spell revolved around a sequence of shifts of an object’s particles to a colliding plane of existence. If that was accurate, then his naturalized mana itself should inherently link to the plane in question.
The remaining question was if his understanding was correct… and, if so, how much naturalized mana it would cost him to move an immovable object’s plane.
***
“My property in the Lands of the Four Towers is ready,” announced Brynn. “And Mia will set up the gate for us.” She playfully twirled an inscribing tool through her fingers and glanced from Emaldine to Matteo. “So, how do we best go about it? You know more about the country than I do. Should I quickly crush the Crafting Tower today to get the ball rolling? Do you want to announce your challenge to the Elemental Tower?”
Terry smiled lightly and clenched his fists. The way his aunt so casually talked about challenging an entire country was something to behold. More impressive than the audacity was the fact that no one present held a single shred of doubt that she had the ability to follow through.
Terry subconsciously traced the joints of his fingers – the location where body inscriptions were taking shape. He would claw at whatever means he could find to one day earn similar confidence when stepping forward and taking on such audacious amounts of responsibility.
“Are you really sure you’re up to this?” Emaldine looked at her accepted brother with concern.
“Yes,” replied Matteo firmly, even though he couldn’t keep all the dread from leaking into his tone. The prospect of returning to the place of his haunted past was truly dreadful.
Sigille had always reminded him that the carnage he committed as a demon had not been his fault. Even though Matteo could never fully convince himself into believing her words, he always believed in his accepted mother and refused to let her down when it mattered. Sigille might be dead, but she would forever be with him. He would not shrink back from what had to be done.
“I’ll issue the first challenge,” said Matteo. “I suspect mine won’t be as straightforward as yours, so even if I issue the first challenge, you can already proceed with yours.”
“I’m sorry about this,” said Daiyu. She could tell that the man with the grey-ish skin and purple eyes was pained by the task. “It’s our family’s matter that dragged you into—”
“Stop it, Daiyu.” Isille cut her off. “You don’t have to apologize for anything. You helped with our son. We will not leave you alone when it comes to rescuing your daughter.”
Terry clenched his fists even harder than before and he glanced at all his friends from Arcana. They had all come for him. They had not hesitated to cross empires and follow his family to a besieged city state. He would be damned if he failed to live up to such concern. Siling might not be his sister by blood, but she was definitely family. All of them were.
“Have you heard back from Apex?” asked Matteo.
“No,” replied Terry with a wry smile. He didn’t know if that meant she hadn’t received his communication or if it was just Apex being Apex. Even in the folded space when they had worked together to get rid of Vicious, the martialist woman had been far from open or forthcoming with her thoughts.
“It would be easier with her there to challenge the tower master directly, but if we can’t count on her relying on her rights as a former direct disciple, then we’ll have to figure something else out,” said Matteo pensively.
If we conquer the tower without Apex, before she enacts her revenge, we can count on her being pissed beyond belief. Terry grimaced at the thought.
“Perhaps some of your fans can be persuaded into attempting the teacher-disciple challenge.” Emaldine smirked at Terry.
“Please don’t call them my fans,” groaned Terry.
“Sure, ‘Venerable Elder’,” teased Emaldine. “Right after they stop questioning my ‘intentions’ and asking me all sorts of nonsensical questions about you.”
Terry frowned and tried hard to ignore the giggles from his siblings and friends.
“What about the Spirit Tower?” asked Terry in a transparent attempt to shift topics away from his martialist fan club. “Will Amelia be able to go to Syn City to ask Ying for help?”
“Soon, it’s just that…” Matteo’s voice trailed off when he saw the reaction on Daiyu’s face. Quickly, it wasn’t just him that noticed the change in the elven face.
The weight of all inquisitive glances jolted Daiyu from her state of disbelief. “Did you say Ying? You— You know where he is?”
There was a pitiful tremor in the pale woman’s face that caused Terry to wince with a dawning realization. He wondered how he had never considered it before, but then again, Syn City was literally at the opposite corner of the unwasted world.
When Terry had first met the mayor of Syn City, he hadn’t known that Siling’s father had turned himself into a vampire.
When he had learned about the unorthodox mana uses, he had assumed that soul spirits were more common outside of Arcana and thought little about Ying’s abilities.
When he had heard about Ying’s loathing of the Lich Kingdoms, he hadn’t known that Siling’s family was connected to it.
When he had talked to Siling about Ying, he hadn’t known that Siling had her memory wiped with all memories connected to her years with her father erased.
Wasted mana, I don’t… Terry glanced from Daiyu to Siling and back. He didn’t know what to say.
With all his helplessness at the front of his mind, a quiet voice lingered further in the back. A voice of suspicion. Something about everything triggered his distrust honed by a year in a martialist asylum.
I can’t believe Ying would abandon his daughter. Daiyu had said he wouldn’t. A man that turned himself into a vampire to save his daughter wouldn’t. A man that hated the Lich Kingdoms wouldn’t. The man that Terry had seen wouldn’t. The man being upfront with the Deathguard and fighting for his city against the Divine Division wouldn’t.
How exactly did Ying end up at the other end of the habitable realm?
It was a long way from the Lich Kingdoms to Syn City. Sure, it could be chalked up to Ying’s desire to get as far away from the Kingdoms as possible, but suspicion gnawed at Terry’s mind, unconvinced that this was all there was to it.
Subconsciously, Terry clenched his fists again. Even if he hadn’t fully recovered, it was time to return to proper training schedules.
***