I looked up as Briarthreads burst out around me and I Foxstepped a few feet forwards.

Soaring high above was a small flock of about half a dozen birds, spitting at us. The spit felt like an attack spell, but it was one of the strangest ones I’d ever felt.

It wasn’t that the mana was strong – I’d seen my share of powerful mana, hanging around Orykson, Meadow, and Ikki for as long as I had.

Nor was it that the mana was complex – I’d also seen a lot of complex mana types between my experiences with hags, vampires, werewolves, dragons, and Dusk.

No, this mana was strange because it felt… Layered.

There was the core of death mana that had been extracted from the flowers, yes, but there was a surrounding layer of life, tempest, and creation energy around it. It wasn’t a part of the death mana in the spell, exactly, but I also wouldn’t have contested that it wasn’t. The best analogy I could think of was how the energy arrays in the Foxstep drew on the body to help move me.

Beast magic was weird like that, but I didn’t have time to dissect it.

The glob of spit struck the ground where I’d been standing, and a black mist rose up around it.

I thrust my hand up to cast Fungal Lock, but before I could lock more than one bird, Azalea’s power swept out around us. Her mana reached up into the sky, and I felt power within her stir. It was also strange, reminding me more of an ingrained effect than any direct spellcraft.

The birds shifted, caught in the net of her arcanist’s power, and Azalea had them disperse.

“Is anyone hurt?” she asked, glancing at Kene and myself. I shook my head, and Kene said “No.”

“Good,” she said. “I can’t hold them off forever. The matriarch of the birds is a powerful fourth gate, and though she’s weaker than me, and is non-sapient, she’s more than strong enough to shake off my control in time. Let’s move.”

Azalea strode up to the water and withdrew a wand from her pocket. The wand rapidly grew to the size of a staff, which she slammed into the ground, and the water began to ripple.

A whirlpool formed on the surface, but instead of spinning horizontally, it spun vertically, creating a tunnel for us to move through.

“That is so cool,” I heard Kene mutter under his breath as we rushed into the tunnel. I glanced at them and grinned. I wanted to say something to tease them about their reaction, but I couldn’t think of anything.

“I can sense the smirk behind the grin,” they warned, and I started laughing more, but it quickly drew to a stop when Azalea shot us an annoyed scowl.

“This staff doesn’t have infinite power,” she said. “So let’s hurry up, shall we?”

“Yes ma’am,” I said, speeding up, and Kene followed suit.

At the bottom of the lake there was the entrance to a small cave, with heavy ward lines carved into the rock around it. They didn’t seem to stop the water, butt I ran my mana senses over it, and I had to admit, it was really impressive work.

Even though I could see the wards, I wasn’t able to sense any mana leaking off of them, and I wasn’t able to sense any potent mana or energy sources coming from within the cave.

I didn’t know if it’d be up to Orykson’s standards – few things were – but it was impressive to me.

“Do any of you have a spell to slow falling, like Flier’s Folly?” Azalea asked as her staff whirled the water out of the tunnel.

Dusk let out a glubbing-fish noise, saying she did, and Azalea nodded, then leapt into the cave. She caught herself on her own power, but clearly left it up to Dusk to keep Kene and myself from breaking a bone in the fall.

We followed after only a moment of hesitation, Dusk’s power swirling around us.

The tunnel, as it turned out, was more of a U-shape than anything. Set into the opposing wall was a series of steps, clearly carved out of the stone by raw force, and Azalea was already climbing. I waited to let Kene climb up, then joined them at the top of the tunnel.

Azalea slammed the staff against the ground again, and it shrunk down to wand size and was shoved into a storage ring again. Below us, I could hear the rushing of water as it filled back in the gaps, but I was more focused on the tunnel we were now in.

It was hot, nearly painfully so, and I could actually see the ripples where my aura defense pin was doing the best it could to fight against the heat. Kene’s own ward-hat was likewise creating a shimmer at the edge of its defenses, but Azalea seemed unbothered.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

I didn’t know if it was because she was a dragon, an arcanist, a dragon arcanist, or if she just had better heat defenses against us.

Probably both, I decided.

In addition to the heat, there was a heaviness that hung about in the room, a pressure that made me feel as if I weighed twice as much. My force shroud seemed to be doing a better job staving off the pressure than it was the heat, but I had the distinct sense that I was running on borrowed time here. My pin wouldn’t hold off these powerful forces forever.

At the edge of the cavern there was a pool of magma. It had crusted over slightly, with a black shell forming around it, but it was unmistakably the source of the powerful heat within the room.

Solar and telluric energy blended together in the magma, alongside other more subtle aspects, and formed powerful circuits of energy that reminded me of the complexities that existed in trees. It was old, slumbering, but unmistakably powerful. Was this the kind of force I’d have wielded if I’d chosen telluric mana instead of temporal?

Sitting atop the magma was the clutch of estragon eggs.

They were… bigger than I expected. The sea estragon that I’d seen before had been about the size of a midsize dog, so I kind of had expected their eggs to be the size of a chicken egg. Maybe a goose egg.

Instead, these were easily the size of a loaf of bread. They were a dark red color, with streaks of yellow and red running through it in an almost flamelike pattern, and speckles of purple sparks floating off them.

Kene was sucking in a breath as he studied them, but this time I couldn’t even try to tease him – I was doing much the same.

Even Dusk and Azalea, who were both powerful magical beings in their own right, were transfixed by the eggs.

“That’s the clutch?” I asked, and immediately felt stupid. Of course it was the clutch, what else would it be?

My voice seemed to break the trance that the eggs had over the room, though. Dusk opened a portal to her treasure room, and for the first time, I got to see the powerful wards that had been built into the key, then enforced by both bwbatch and fungal folk.

They were visible as little more than a ripple in the air, like the ones around Kene, but they were absolutely there, and they seemed to be doing a better job than even Kene’s third gate hat was doing.

Azalea sprung into motion, heading for the eggs. I let her do that, since there was no way my defensive spells would hold up against the actual magma. Instead, I entered the treasury and injected some ungated mana into just the right spot to cause the false wall to dissolve.

Azalea bounded through a moment later, placing the eggs down in the enchanted chamber, then turned to go collect more. Kene joined me a moment later, and watched as the dragon arcanist quickly filled the room. I resealed it with another injection of ungated mana, and took a breath of the cool air in here before we re-entered the magma chamber.

“I can’t wait to get some long distance teleportation of my own,” I grumbled, and Kene put on a pouty face before smirking at me and kissing my cheek. Azalea just smiled and withdrew her wand-staff-thing again.

The way back was less dramatic than the way there had been. We were still attacked one time by the spit-birds, but Azalea quickly drove them off again. We took a totally different teleport chain to get back to the city, which I could only assume was to throw off pursuers.

I wasn’t sure that anyone would actually be able or willing to pursue us, since the estragon eggs were still a secret, but there was no harm in taking the precaution – other than the slight tax it took on Kene’s stomach.

“Primes,” Kene swore when we arrived back in the shop and Azalea gave him a stern look before pointing at the trash can. Kene popped a second pill, and I gently rubbed his back.

"You can leave the supression bracelets with my husband," Azalea said. Her husband's head snapped up at the words, and he made a strangled sound.

"Honey! I just resized one," he protested.

Azalea's smiled softly at him, and he groaned and acquiesed.

Once Kene was feeling better, Ivy’s mom had gone back to work, to try and avoid suspicion, and Ivy’s dad was piddling around with our enchantments again.

“Four days,” he said. “That’s how long it’ll take.”

I glanced at Kene, rapidly consulting my mental calendar. I had training with Meadow tomorrow, then Ikki the following day. Orykson might show up on Liday, might not, but that would let me train on Liday either way. Then on Temsday, I’d be able to fly down here and pick them up, and meet with Kene on Phyday…

The boat disembarked from the capital on Solsday, so if Kene was willing to stay in the capital on Knoday and Cretday…

I ran through my plans with Kene, who nodded their agreement.

“That works nicely. I’d already cleared out my schedule and stocked a ton of backup potions for the shop, so leaving two days early isn’t going to change much.”

With that settled, Kene and I said our goodbyes, I told Ivy’s dad to give Ivy my well wishes, and we both flew back to our respective homes.

By the time I finally landed in the backyard, it was getting late, almost nine at night, but the door flew open and I was almost tackled by Liz, who shot out of the house like an arrow from a bow.

“Malachi!” she shouted. “Do you know how long I’ve been trying to find you?!”

She didn’t sound angry, mostly playful, but there was a bit of real stress leaking into her voice as well, so I held my hands up in a defensive position.

“Woah, woah. First of all, no, I don’t know how long. But I’m sorry, I got busy with Kene.”

For a moment, I saw Liz’s face torn between the desire to point out my phrasing, and her desire to actually address whatever it was that had her so anxious, but the humor won out in the end.

That actually made my breathe a sigh of relief, even as I turned red from her teasing. That meant that nothing too bad had happened, at least, if she was willing to neg me before she addressed what was going on.

“Alright, alright, enough!” I finally said. “What were you looking for me for?”

“We need to talk about – and do – some Idyll-Flume preparation,” Liz said, the amused smile lingering face. “Dusk, especially, I need to talk to.”

Dusk made a fish-flopping noise, and pointed at herself.

“Yeah, you,” Liz said. “I think you’re probably the greatest advantage that anyone’s going to have entering the competition.”

“I’m right here,” I complained.

“Hush, Dusk’s familiar bond,” Liz said. “The people are talking about the important things.”

“How about we go in for a cup of coffee?” I asked. “And I haven’t had a chance to eat except for a short break to let my broom recharge.”

Liz acquiesced, and we moved inside to talk.