“He has ruined us!” Lord Arabambi wailed over the wave into Lord Daron’s ear. The latter stood beside one of the tall windows in Hall Bolak, which was now empty, watching the sun set over the Yemaye district.
“Thirty Elite Mages! The finest warriors in the north! He killed them all!” Lord Arabambi continued to wail.
“He ransacked our gold reserves! He killed the guards, blasted down our vaults and robbed us of years worth of gold! The Sungan economy is destroyed!”
“Lord Arabambi…” Lord Daron began.
"He is a curse, a blight upon this earth! What sins have we committed to deserve such torment?" Arabambi cried over the wave.
Lord Daron remained quiet, knowing better than to bring up the Sungan attack.
“My deepest… condolences, Lord Arabambi.” Lord Daron said quietly. “We have instructed the relevant authorities to remove all sanctions from Sungan going forward.”
Lord Arabambi laughed bitterly.
“Ah yes, you'll allow us to purchase dyes again, and what the hell will that do?!” He barked over the phone. “Without this gold, how will we care for the poor? How will we invest in enterprise? We will fall into poverty and perish!”
"I assure you, we will do everything in our power to assist Sungan through this crisis," Lord Daron spoke fervently.
There was a short silence, then Lord Arabambi said quietly. “You warned us.”
“That is in the past now!” Lord Daron said quickly. “Do not dwell on it! Pull yourself together, Lord Arabambi. Be a source of strength for your young king! We will persevere!”
“Thank you for your kind words, Lord Daron. I appreciate this.” Lord Arabambi said, sniffing.
The wave link faded away and Lord Daron pinched his forehead in worry. He tried to link with General Makon once more, but the wave was not picked up,
He decided to visit the hospital.
--
In Sungan, hours later, the Sun had set, and under the cover of the night, General Makon was preparing to leave Odan with Roe, they chatted as he bound his final spells into some of the few unused spell papers he had left in his bag, Roe, looking at him, noticed he was not only tall, but had filled his entire frame with massive muscles, She had seen dozens of war mages, even Elite ones, and General Makon was the only one she knew who was anywhere near that big. She asked him about it.
“My imposing figure is a deliberate misdirection of course.” He told Her. “While, of course, I didn’t choose my height, I used to be very lanky and skinny. I began to engage in body building exercises as I entered my early twenties.”
She laughed. “I honestly can’t imagine you as a skinny person.”
“Well, I used to be, Because of course, Advanced Warfare magic has almost nothing to do with one’s physical state. Even a frail woman such as yourself, could learn how to decimate entire armies within a decade.”
“Hey don’t belittle me, how do you know I’m frail?” She protested.
“First, you are a woman,” He said matter-of-factly, she rolled her eyes but he continued. “Secondly, a slight bump in the car caused your arm to shatter.”
“Okay it didn’t shatter.” She objected. “Clearly. It’s just a minor fracture, okay?”
“The hospital will decide that, not you.” He laughed. “But anyway, my sheer size has given me an immense advantage in battle, I have certain… unique spells that utilize my superior strength.”
“Yeah your sheer size is great and all but now how will you sneak around when you’re the size of an elephant?” Roe asked. General Makon laughed.
“I’m not nearly that big,” he said. “Now let’s leave this smelly place. My nose has ceased to function.”
She stood up and he packed the mat away and tucked it back where he had picked it from. Then they stepped out of the building.
--
“Hello, Segi.” Lord Daron said, closing the ward door behind him. Segi was resting on the hospital bed, near a large window with translucent curtains. He held a large bouquet of flowers in his hands as he walked slowly towards her.
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“I brought you some flowers.” he said, handing them over to her. She laughed.
“Nobody’s ever given me flowers,” She said. “Not even boyfriends.”
“Well, do you like them?” Lord Daron asked.
“Well… They’re great, I guess” She shrugged. “I’m more of a candy woman, though.”
“Duly noted.” Lord Daron chuckled. He sat down on the chair beside her bed, she put aside the flowers and turned towards him. They looked at each other for a while.
“How are you, really, Segi?” He asked.
“Not great.” She admitted. “Why are you here though?”
“I wanted to know how our top Warfare mage is doing. You’re one of our best.” Lord Daron said. Segi smiled.
“Well, I’m healing I guess.” She said,”I still can’t cast spells though. The hospital said they can’t remove the Arcanite residue.”
“That must feel terrible-” Lord Daron said.
“Oh you have no idea.” She interrupted. “It’s hell. Everytime I figure out a new spell structure, I can only cast it once before their spell locks me out.” She showed Lord Daron a grimoire she had hidden under her bed, flipping through the pages.
“Look, look at these spells.” She said, She attempted to invoke a couple of spells by saying the hook spells multiple times, absolutely nothing happened, it was extremely unsettling to Lord Daron, he developed goose bumps. She eventually threw her hands up in frustration and flung the book over the other side of the bed. It hit the floor with a thud.
“I thought it was some kind of skin tight spell dampener.” Lord Daron said quietly.
“It’s not.” Segi said. “It’s complete isolation from magic. It’s extremely depressing, I’ve considered ending it all multiple times.”
Lord Daron perked up. “Ending it all?”
“Magic is my life.” She said quietly. Lord Daron noticed a single tear had escaped her eyeballs and was streaking down her chin.
“Magic is my life, Lord Daron.” She said again. “Do you realize how handicapped I will be without the ability to use magic? I won’t even be able to enter my house once I leave here because it’s magically locked! I won’t be able-”
“Segi…” Lord Daron interjected. “We will stop at nothing to cure you. I will have five medical mages, the best we have, assigned to this problem.” Segi closed her eyes and shook her head, he couldn’t blame her, they still hadn’t even figured out how to stop his spell dampener bending trick after months of hard work.
He decided to change the subject to more personal matters. Asking about her family and her hobbies and tried to cheer her up with hand games. Eventually after about an hour, he left the hospital.
--
“He did what??” Mage Roska asked in shock at Hark.
He had gone to her office at the Magick institute, the same building where Mullam had gone months earlier to recruit her into the spell dampener problem.
He had then told her about the unknown man who kidnapped Segi, who had also intercepted a wave link.
Mage Roska held her head in her hands, pulling at her own hair.
“Explain to me again what happened. You waved to Segi?” She asked. Hark nodded.
“And then She picked it up?” She continued. He nodded.
“And you heard her speak?” She asked.
“I heard her heavy breathing.” Hark said.
“And then his voice became audible?” She asked.
“No, his voice completely took over the wave. It was a complete and perfect interception.” Hark said. Roska’s jaw went slack in disbelief.
“I didn’t even know that was possible.” She said in a defeated tone. “How do I start figuring out what that’s about?”
“Did you look into the multiple-way wave link Lakan observed?” Hark asked. Roska looked at him, biting her lip in embarrassment as she shook her head. “I didn't bother looking into it, I thought that was impossible too. Look I…” She trailed off, rubbing her face wearily.
A sinking feeling began to overtake Hark. Roska, arguably one of Aku’anda’s most brilliant scholars, was woefully unequipped to deal with this monster.
“I don’t even know where to begin.” She said finally, Looking into empty space. “I’ve been working my ass off on these field spell models. Building a rigid meta spell at scale is just… I don’t know how to do it. I can’t leave that to figure out how wave links are intercepted, Hark, or the multiple way thing, I don’t know, Hark, I’m sorry.”
Hark nodded and gave a tight-lipped smile. He stood up and left, walking out slowly and dejectedly. He didn’t even bother mentioning the arcanite poisoning problem-it seemed pointless now.
He noticed Hall Bolak in the distance outside Roska’s office, the sun was already starting to set as he walked towards the gates of the Magick institute, planning to go home and take a long nap. As he was about to exit the grounds, he felt a wave prod. He picked it up and Lakan’s essence came in over the wave. A minute later, his voice followed.
“Hello Hark, I’m planning to go to Saymor.” Lakan’s voice boomed over the wave, referring to the capital of Seyrule. “Wanna come?”
Hark paused for a few seconds. “Lakan… why are you going to Saymor?”
“To investigate Ganz.” Lakan said.
“Are you fucking insane?” Hark snapped almost immediately in a bristled whisper.
“Binko’s coming too.” Lakan said.
“Oh so you actually just didn’t learn anything from what happened to Segi then.” Hark snapped.
Lakan sighed over the wave. “Hark just meet us at Hall Bolak, We’ve been there for a while and we have an idea that might-”
“I’m going home to sleep, and when I wake up, I’m not going anywhere near bloody Saymor!” Hark snapped and cut off the wave.
“Are these people fucking kidding me.” he said to himself once the wave faded away. He called a Hovercoach and went home.