"It seems weird to worry about regular spell imprints when I can grab another thirty soulspells without needing to even practice with them," Ran tried to protest, but Jair was adamant.

"Yes, soulspells are superior in every way to imprinted spells, but can you guarantee you'll be able to get your hands on the soulspells you need for any given situation? I don't think so. I don't know half the soulspells that would equate to the regular spells. Absorb and Reflect certainly don't have soulspell equivalents readily available."

"Readily available?" Ran laughed uneasily. "Should I be concerned about your methods?"

"What you obtain inside your soul is yours regardless of if the events that brought it about are reverted away. Therefore, there is no end too extreme to take when filling your soulspell, since it will be undone when we revert leaving you with the power and none of the consequences."

Ran slowly shook his head. "I don't agree. That's not something we're going to do."

"That? What do you mean by 'that'?"

"Whatever extremes you're imagining going to. I'm not going to coerce or threaten anyone to get their soulspell."

"You've got more potential than anyone I've ever met, and I've met more people than you can imagine. You're telling me you'd rather settle - permanently! - for something weaker just to avoid hurting your conscience?"

"Jair..." Ran sighed and sat up properly, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. "The consequences of our actions may be reverted for the rest of the world, but the impacts on who we are won't be undone. I don't want to become someone who'll..." he shrugged helplessly, "go to any lengths to take what I want. How is that any different from being a monster?"

Jair took a breath to continue arguing, then thought better of it. Some things, Ran would have to experience for himself before he came to accept and understand them as fact. They could debate the purpose and value of morality later. Right now, such an argument would serve no purpose.

"Alright," he said instead. "We'll do this your way. No coercion, no threats, no violence. Just skill and stealth."

Ran seemed surprised by the admission, squinting at Jair suspiciously. "You're not just saying that, right? This isn't one of those 'sure, Ran, we'll not go to the ghost moon, I'll just sneak off and do it myself while you're not paying attention' kind of things, is it?"

"No. I can't go sneaking off to do dangerous things any more, remember? You're the one with the reversion button. If I go get myself killed, my soul could be damaged or destroyed before you end up reverting."

Ran shivered. "That feels like too much responsibility. You're sure I can't give this back?"

"I don't think so. From what you've said, your power is to copy, not to steal. I think my soulspell broke for the same reason Maelstrom is rejecting me - we went back too far in time, before I received the Mageblade class, and my soul isn't sure what to do about that. The spell is missing its core, Maelstrom is missing its connection. Once we re-establish those, things can start to come back together again. It's not something you have the ability to help or hinder."

"Right. So, recruiting?"

Jair held up the protractor. "Not so fast. We need to get your spells drawn."

"I haven't decided--"

"Then decide fast or I'm deciding for you. You can't afford to play around with standard slow imprints any more. You need to move things up and fast. And, yes, that means exercise too. I know you're already in acceptable condition from your family exercise routines, but we're going to need to push a lot further than acceptable."

Ran groaned. "Why are you so insistent on this?"

"Because the events we're going to get involved in are extremely dangerous and require high levels of power and control to properly handle and survive them. The physical ability to move when and how and where is necessary can't be overvalued. The habits you establish now will serve you well your whole life."

"Fine, fine, we'll go crazy workout mode, sure."

"Good. Now, hold out your hands." Jair adjusted the protractor, holding a thin marker at the ready in the other hand. "Do you prefer palm, or back?"

"Does it matter?"

"Palm is more sensitive, so it'll imprint faster but feel strange. Back is more stable, so it'll take longer but be slightly more powerful. Palm is better if you plan to swap imprints regularly, back is better if you're confident of what you want."

"Absorb and Reflect?"

"Unless you have better suggestions."

Ran shook his head and held out his hands, loosely fisted to leave the backs smooth and accessible. "Go ahead."

Jair took several minutes to measure and orient the pathways, then drew the pattern in quick precise lines, shifting the measuring tools with practiced ease.

"Open your hands, I need the fingers."

Ran raised his eyebrows, but flattened out his hands as requested, fingers spread. Jair extended the pattern to the first knuckle of the middle three fingers, then motioned for Ran to flip them over. He continued the pattern up to the fingertips, then locked it off with a quick circle.

"You're going to need to practice precision imprinting to make these work," Jair warned. "Standard slow imprinting is heavy layering, rapid imprinting requires perfect accuracy."

Ran turned his Absorb hand over, staring at the intricate design while Jair worked on the other. "How does it work?"

"Do you want to know?" Jair didn't look up, but sounded amused.

"...Maybe not. How many other spells do you know well enough to draw out like this?"

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

"About a hundred fifty. I'm a qualified archmage, have seventeen interchangeable loadouts that can be swapped in under a month. The standard set I use is optimized for general utility and covers weaknesses that readily available constructs fail to cover. Gravity is notoriously hard to control without insane mana expenditures or specialized equipment."

"Is pseudo-flying really that valuable?"

"Yes. Never underestimate the power of mobility."

"Can you fly across channels?"

"No." Jair's answer came out sharp and immediate, startling Ran with its vehemence.

"No? I know everyone says it's death to even approach a river, but even you?"

Jair's pen stopped moving and he lifted it from Ran's skin, putting out one finger to hold him still, but his eyes were distant. "There's a reason everyone says what they do about crossing channels. I told you before that sometimes I wondered if other people could perceive time the way I do, see the repetitions." He looked up, meeting Ran's gaze with sudden intensity. "The water monsters, I'm certain of it. I've never once been able to repeat a crossing. Three times I found a single secure place to slip by, and every time I try to return in a different loop there's something waiting for me."

"But if you fly high enough..."

Jair shook his head. "There is no high enough. The Imperial Skyways have an only ten percent casualty rate. The safest bridges ever to exist, built so high you need spells to help you breathe, and visiting the stronghold there's still a one in five chance that you'll die either coming or going."

Ran swallowed. "How is that possible? If the monsters have that kind of range, why aren't we all dead already?"

"They cannot leave the water." Jair stood and collected a sheet of paper, drawing a hasty diagram before returning to Ran. "The channel walls block their gaze and focus their breath."

He pointed out the angles, a V focused by the water level and the steepness of the channel walls.

"That's why the coasts are so dangerous, without channel walls, there's a much broader range of attack, and many more can target you at once from a greater distance."

"And there's no armor strong enough to protect you? No way to block their… whatever it is?"

"There are ways. Anything you can think of has been tried. Some are effective against some, but there is no protection that works against everything."

"Everything, being?" Ran leaned forward, engrossed. "The five types? Or are there more?"

"There are more. Just like dragons have near infinite variations within the major categories, so too do the water monsters. Some kill with eyes, others with breath, many with claw or spell."

"So why do we bother fighting, if it's a question of how soon you'll be killed rather than whether?"

"The war cannot be won, but it must be fought," Jair recited. "If they're not kept busy fighting us, they'll just eat the land. It's a fight to slow their advance, since we cannot fight them in their element just as they cannot reach us in ours. Always we clash at the edges."

Ran shivered. "Okay, no channel crossing. Got it."

"If there were any other option, the moons would be unnecessary. The power consumed in a single lunar passage is far beyond that of anything else."

"And regular transit is too risky."

"Yes. For all the reasons they tell you. I tried it a few times myself, thinking I could brute-force a solution to the problems that have stalled progress for generations, but..." Jair shrugged. "Turns out, generations of learning 'this isn't possible' were right after all."

"How? Did you...?"

"Cable connections, they wait until you activate, then drag the whole thing down or sever it if it's out of reach. Line-of-sight connections, they intercept. Not sure how. It felt like hitting a solid wall mid-transit. Next thing I knew, I was in the water, and... well."

"That's the end," Ran murmured in agreement.

"Exactly." Jair set the paper aside and reached for Ran's hand. "So, what do you want for your forearm slots?"

"Go ahead with gravity for now. If you think that's the most efficient setup, I'm sure it is."

"Not most efficient, necessarily. Best suited for me. I've built my fighting style around integrating gravity and electricity, but if you have something else you want to learn you don't need to feel obligated to follow in my path."

"Gravity sounds good whatever we end up doing. Electricity... I'm not sold on. Let's leave that one blank for now."

Jair didn't argue.

They spent the next hour slotting in the baselines for Jair's usual gravity loadout, the conversation flowing from topic to topic as they worked.

"We'll still have to loop in your father, if we're going to get the kind of resources we need."

"Yeah, I figured that much. These level of experts don't come cheap."

"Naturally."

"So what's your endgame?"

"How do you mean?"

Ran shifted around from where he sprawled on the sofa, tilting his head to stare back at Jair intently. "Retrieve Maelstrom, makes perfect sense as a step one. But afterward. You've dropped a lot of hints about stuff happening in the future. The king going mad with power, coups and uprisings, sorcerers and invasions and vampires... it sounds like the world is going to fall apart in the next few years, and you know everything about it."

"More or less. I wouldn't say I know everything. I ran an ongoing optimization route as I went, but I didn't loop back more than a few times once moving past each section. I'm sure there's plenty more to learn."

"But you haven't told me anything about them. Not specifics. Not details."

"Do you want to know?" Jair straightened, hands flat on the table, meeting Ran's eyes with intense focus. Enough that Ran looked away.

"I want to know, but I don't know if I should."

"You trust me?"

"Yes." No hesitation.

"Then I'll tell you as we go. Ask anything you want and I'll answer. If you don't ask, I'll let you know once it becomes relevant."

"General timeline?"

"Next few months are going to be calm. Next year things start to get a little heated. The trade conflicts escalate - which reminds me, we need to set up your investments again too. The profits from that mess will be well worth the effort. Single-handedly financed most of my later exploits, even when I had only a minimal startup capital."

"Okay. Trade conflicts. That sounds tame compared to... you know."

"Assassinations and uprisings?"

"Yeah."

Jair shrugged. "Shifting the course of the entire world isn't easy. If I left things alone, life would get very bad, very fast. Sekir's rise is only one catalyst in Veor's fall. Reskas withdrawal from the coasts..." Jair trailed off. "Huh. I wonder if the flooding thing is a result of that withdrawal, or the catalyst for it? I never had access to these months before now. We should definitely look into that when we head over to Orard. If there's a way to prevent Reskas from abandoning Orard's defence that would go a long way toward mitigating the later disasters."

"Half of me wants to ask for all the details, and the other half wants to wash my hands of the whole mess without looking back."

"Mmm... one thing at a time. Maelstrom first, then I'm at your disposal. We can go wherever you want, see whoever you like, visit anyplace and do anything."

They fell silent for a time, examining the chart.

"I'd feel better recruiting people from outside Veor,” Ran finally said. “The less connections to us any of our team has, the better."

“In that case, these two would be my first choice,” Jair pointed back and forth between ‘Lorsit AkTolue’ and ‘Yast Mebort’. “They both have straightforward recruitment methods; I know what they want and how to get it. Anyone else, we’d need to build up a bit more of a reputation first. It’ll add a few extra stops to our trip overall, but I’m confident you’ll agree it’s worth it.”

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