I left the house feeling… I wasn’t even sure how to describe it. Disappointment? Resignation? Annoyance?
That wasn’t fair. Father had tried his best, but his advice had mostly boiled down to people learning to trust each other because they didn’t have a choice. Circumstances beyond their control forced them to take those risks, and the ones it had worked out for had survived. It might have been true, but it was also useless. I didn’t need to trust anyone else. My magic made sure of it.
Except, that wasn’t quite true, was it? I did need someone else if I wanted to ascend to stage nine. Sure, I had theories about other options, ways I might be able to manage the transition without outside assistance. But that was all they were: theories. And I couldn’t even test them.
So, those were my options. Trust someone else—Querit was the only real option—or let myself get stuck at stage eight for the foreseeable future. It could be decades before Senica gained the strength needed to assist me, and there were no guarantees that it would ever happen. She could take her life in a completely different direction long before she reached that point, or be killed doing something inane and reckless, as she was prone to doing.
Something in my demeanor must have given away that I was in no mood for small talk. Not a single one of the villagers I crossed paths with over the next hour did more than nod in my general direction before hurrying on their way. I checked the mana reserves in the batteries feeding the town’s defensive enchantments, confirmed there was no damage to any of the devices that would deploy themselves in the event that the wards were breached, and made sure the shelter’s independently-powered magic was in good condition.
It wasn’t that I expected any of this to be needed, but far too many people had access to the equipment to fully rule out an act of sabotage. I’d initially wanted it sealed away, protected from the townsfolk until it was needed, but the council hadn’t liked that idea. It was one of those things that I probably should have just overruled them on, but it was their town, after all.
Everything was in perfect working order, and the worst I could say was that the mana reserves had been slowly draining from upkeep costs. No one had bothered to refresh the enchantments, which was something I’d pass on to Father that people needed to do. That was half the reason they’d been giving access, in the end. But there was enough mana left not to cause any immediate problems. If a trio of archmages attacked the village, all the magic I’d placed here to defend it would be nothing more than a stall to give me time to react personally. For that purpose, everything was fully functional.
While I worked, the gestalt kept me updated on the three foreigners’ movements. Despite the early hour, they were all wide awake and active. It was probably much later in the day wherever they’d started their journey. It was one of those peculiar quirks of teleportation to all of a sudden go from it being noon to watching the sun rise in just a few moments when traveling via a chain of platforms.
It seemed like they were hard at work building themselves some sort of underground bunker out in the wastes. They’d chosen a ridge of modest height, twenty or so feet, and were burrowing into it like a colony of moles. Already, they were a hundred feet underground and were busy hollowing out a series of interconnected chambers.
Whatever they were doing, it looked like they were going through the effort of creating a permanent base of operations. I wasn’t thrilled about that, mostly because I didn’t need such dangerous neighbors so close to my family’s home. Admittedly, there wasn’t a lot of difference between one hundred miles and a thousand miles to a group of archmages, and it was entirely possible that they’d chosen this place to establish their camp simply because it was central to the populated part of the island. But still, I didn’t like it.
Worse, now that the basic shape was taking form, one of the trio had stopped transmuting and turned to warding. He produced a pre-built warding stone from somewhere and started attuning it to the cavern complex. In less than ten minutes, the wards snapped into place, blocking me from easily scrying their activity.
‘Can you get around this?’ I asked.
‘Easily, with your assistance. Bring some of us to the cave and get us inside the wards, and they shall prove no obstacle.’
Depending on what kind of wards the trio had put up, that might prove to be impossible. On the other hand, if they allowed me in, I could probably sneak a few passengers past their defenses with me. I supposed it was time to go meet the new neighbors.
* * *
I stood at the mouth of the cave and waited patiently for one of the archmages to come greet me. There was no doubt they knew I was there; I’d approached openly with a flight spell from the northeast, feigning my direction to be from my valley instead of the nearby village. Whether they’d been watching long enough for the deception to matter was a mystery, but it was worth it to me to go through the motions just in case.
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Bakir appeared in the tunnel, only just barely visible in the shadows even with a sensory invocation. I suspected that had something to do with the ward schema they were using, but I wouldn’t know for sure until I got a better look.
“Archmage Keiran,” he said politely as he stopped at the edge of the ward’s boundary, just shy of leaving its protection. “This is an unexpected surprise.”
“It seemed fair,” I said dryly, “after you unexpectedly started building a hidden base of operations on my island.”
“I was not aware that you had claimed the entirety of this region as your own,” Bakir replied calmly, unperturbed by my unspoken accusation. “We surely would have spoken with you first. As it happens, we’d hoped to finish setting up before inviting you for a visit.”
I translated that as a desire to impress me with their power and reach by showcasing how they could afford to lavish resources on a literal hole in the ground. Was that because they wanted to make a good impression, or because they were making a silent threat not to cross them?
It certainly wouldn’t be the first time I’d seen someone try to use expensive magic toys to intimidate me. I still wasn’t sure where Bakir’s cabal stood, but until proven otherwise, the only reasonable thing to do was assume hostile intent and keep my guard up. I already knew Bakir wasn’t strong enough to pose a real threat, and even if his two companions were able to match my own abilities, I’d still be able to stall them long enough to flee.
“Might I step inside so that we can discuss this further?” I asked, keeping my voice polite so as not to betray a hint that I was considering how best I might go about murdering all three of them if they proved to be a threat.
“Of course,” he said after a beat of hesitation, giving me the impression that he knew exactly what was on my mind. He certainly wasn’t lacking for bravery, though. The wards curled back at his command and he stepped aside, gesturing for me to enter the tunnel.
“I’m afraid we’re not quite set up for visitors just yet,” he continued while leading me deeper. “But I’m sure you can understand the need for temporary accommodations for unexpected guests.”
“Certainly,” I agreed. I’d hid my own demesne from him when he’d come to see me, and not giving them the time to do the same was just one of the many reasons I’d shown up so soon after they’d arrived.
The two archmages must have been working frantically to put something together while Bakir met me. Based on the quickly-hidden dirty look one of them flashed him, I surmised that he’d been tasked with stalling me for a bit longer than he’d managed. Regardless, they’d put together something relatively impressive.
An elegantly formed stone table sat in the center of the room, four wooden chairs surrounding it. Each of them had an embroidered cushion on the seat, something that couldn’t have been made with a transmutation spell. A small stove had also been set up in the corner, upon with a kettle of water was just starting to boil. That might have been fabricated in the last few hours, but I had my suspicions that they’d brought it with them.
Both of the archmages waiting for us had phantom spaces attached to their mana cores, though I couldn’t tell exactly how big they were. Given the number of tables, benches, equipment, and personal effects the trio had already managed to stuff into their little hide-away, I was going to assume at least one of them was fairly robust.
I couldn’t see any of that from where I stood, however. The first chamber of their base was obviously designed as some sort of receiving room, complete with a teleportation platform in the corner. Unlike my own design, theirs was two plates aligned with each other, one on the ceiling and the other on the floor. It was a serviceable formation that allowed for significantly more space to carve runes onto it, but it required a lot more work to install, especially outdoors.
“Archmage Keiran, please allow me to introduce to you Archmages Adilar and Nevlac,” Bakir said, gesturing to each archmage in turn.
Nevlac appeared to be a middle-aged man with a beard just starting to go gray at the edges. He had a full head of hair and faint wrinkles starting to form at the corners of his eyes and around his mouth. Adilar, on the other hand, looked positively ancient, easily in his eighties or nineties. He was stoop-shouldered and had a cane gripped in both hands in front of him.
I would have said neither were happy to see me, but that was just an assumption. Other than that one quick scowl Nevlac had thrown Bakir’s way when we were walking into the room, both of them wore bland, pleasant expressions.
“Archmage,” Adilar rasped out, his voice low and rough. “Forgive us. We were not expecting to entertain you so quickly.”
“No? When were you expecting to do so?” I asked.
The old man paused and tilted his head in thought. “Tomorrow, most likely.”
Both archmages had their cores fully shielded, but I had other ways to gauge their strength. It might just take a few minutes. That would be easy enough to buy. “I apologize for ruining your schedule,” I said. “Believe me when I say I won’t hold it against you that you haven’t finished unpacking just yet. Let’s sit down, shall we?”
“Yes, of course. What point would there be to having such comfortable chairs if we didn’t use them?” Nevlac replied.
Bakir guided to my seat, then claimed the one to my left. Nevlac took my right, and Adilar sat across from me. Once all four of us were seated, I pressed my foot against the stone and released the hundred ants clinging to the side of my leg out into the cave. They scurried off in every direction, unnoticed by the three archmages.
“I suppose we should get the unpleasant part of the way first,” I said. “You can understand why I’m hesitant to trust you when I’ve caught you constructing fortifications so close to my own demesne without making any effort to announce your presence first.”
“Of course, but let me offer you my assurances that we meant no harm,” Adilar said.
“What assurances are those?”
His genial expression faltered for a second. “Pardon?”
“You wanted to offer me assurances. Go ahead. What are they?”
“It’s just an expression,” the old archmage said, his smile returning. It looked a lot more forced now.
“Try anyway,” I said.
The three of them exchanged glances, their expressions unreadable, and flickers of telepathic communication flitted between them.
What were they hiding here? Or what had they hoped to hide before I came calling? I was sure I’d know by the end of this meeting, one way or another. The gestalt would see to that.