“There were many terrors that the Desolation unleashed upon us, ranging from fire raining from the sky to the very earth tearing itself apart, to the clouds of living death cresting over the horizon unexpectedly. Yet of all of the horrors that we were forced to endure, none struck closer to the heart than the Scorn. Hiding in the plainest of sights, these people effortlessly wove themselves into our societies wearing faces no different than yours or mine, that is at least at first. It was only when strange things began that we realized something was wrong, such as when precious cattle started to vanish without explanation, when births slowed down, if not outright stopped for a time, and when our precious crops withered overnight, that we became suspicious. Something that eventually led us to discover the true monsters hiding in our midst.”
—Unknown Journal Excerpt, Collections on the Desolation, Goric Strent, the Golden Age 4869
And that was how the next four days of Vincent’s life went.
Each day, he woke up early, even before the sun itself crested the horizon, and set off straight to the Archives to study, only returning to the clinic long after it had set and to promptly crash dead asleep afterwards. It was a stretch where Vincent not only gained confidence in how to navigate Everness on his own, or at least a route from the slums to the archives, but also learned just how the realm had changed in his absence.
He learned how its maps looked nothing like what his memories told him they should. He learned of the nations, kingdoms, and empires that had arisen over the thousand years of his absence. He learned of how magic had changed and how the people of the realm had changed in response to it. He even learned of Everness, discovering that in ages past, it had once been a middling sized city he vaguely remembered named Gweyr, and had been responsible for sheltering survivors of the Desolation.
The very realm devastating event that he now knew that he’d been responsible for causing, or if not that exactly, then failing to stop.
“All right, I’m heading out for the day again,” Vincent announced as he poked his head into Ayre’s office, seeing the man in the middle of preparing an elixir for a patient at an alchemy table. “I’m not quite sure when I’ll be back tonight, possibly late, possibly early. It’ll depend on how my hopes for the day play out.”
“Ah, is it that time already?” Ayre replied with a half a start, looking away from his work to flash an easy and fatherly smile in Vincent’s direction. “I must have lost track of my morning. Regardless, I hope the day pans out as you hope as well. We’ll keep a candle lit for you whenever you return.”
“Thank you,” Vincent replied, matching the mender’s smile and giving him a farewell wave before turning to exit through the clinic’s main doors as he had every morning since his first visit to the Archives. Today however, Vincent carried an entirely different weight along with him as he exited the building, one that immediately turned his smile the moment that he closed the door behind him and was alone once more.
And another morning where he nor Theo have said anything about my stay, Vincent said mentally, feeling an all too familiar round of guilt surge through him, one that had been steadily building until he could no longer ignore it.
When Vincent had originally arranged his stay with the menders, namely for the time he needed to carve away his soul melds, it had only been for a week, and he had paid for it with the Heart Crystals that had belonged to his two Shadowed Hand abductors. But now, he had essentially overstayed their agreement by going on five days now, which had included not only the place to sleep but more than a few meals as well. Granted, they had been friendly and understanding all the while, but he couldn’t help but feel that he was starting to take advantage of them and was eager to find a way to pay them back for their aid and kindness.
Especially since he knew he had to start thinking about moving on.
It had been a realization building steadily in the back of his mind with every subsequent day that he’d spent in the Archives, for despite all that he had managed to learn about the realm, Everness, magic, and beyond, he had hit a wall in his study. That wall in question being more specific knowledge about the Desolation, the Tyrants, the new era magic around him, and perhaps most importantly, the nature of dark mana. Sure there had been plenty of information for Vincent to devour when he had first started his research, and he could most certainly continue reading for decades longer if he wanted to study more mundane and esoteric subjects. But with the more he tried to learn about his chosen subjects, the more that he discovered that the information was starting to repeat itself. No matter how hard Vincent looked, he eventually hit a point where more in-depth information simply wasn’t available in the archives, and for a rather understandable reason too when his frustration had him asking one of the senior archivists.
“Because that kind of more specific knowledge, especially that of dark mana and magic, is not only restricted as a general rule to us Ascendants, but is also jealously guarded by those inclined to pursue that line of study in the first place,” the Archivist had told him in kind and patient tone, having taken a particular liking, if not pity, to him once Vincent had let it slip that he was a Fallen. “If you want to learn anything truly novel belonging to those topics, you’ll have to either do the research first hand yourself, or if not that, then earn or buy yourself into a place beside someone who already has. That is assuming you can even find someone even willing to share their research in the first place.”
It was a disappointment, that was for certain, because despite not finding the answers that he was really looking for, Vincent had managed to learn just enough about those topics to truly pique his interest and feel that it was an avenue worth exploring even further. Unfortunately in order to do that, Vincent needed to not only do so away from the Archives, but he also needed to focus on ridding his physical riving so that he could truly begin again on the Path of Ascension. All so that he could start to gather the right kinds of influence, power, and attention to have a chance to find the knowledge and thus answers to the secrets he needed.
And that didn’t even touch on the matter of the Shadowed Hand who over the last few days had continued to kill one another in record numbers, making the odds of him recovering what had been stolen from him slimmer every day.
However, despite how tall that mountain of challenges and problems appeared, Vincent had no doubt that he could start finding a way to climb it if he could find enough money to help him do so. Or rather more specifically, if he could find the mana he needed to do so. So that was why today his journey wasn’t to the Archives to continuing studying whatever else he could get his hands on. No, instead he was going to put everything he had learned of the realm and the city so far to work, using it for the sole purpose of earning the mana that he needed to start him along his journey.
And when it came to doing that, there was no better place for Vincent to go than the Wraithgold Mana Exchange.
It may as well be a place that I could mint my own coin at if my plan truly works out, Vincent thought as he strode through the still mostly empty streets, which were only filled with the early risers such as himself and teamsters who were already busily driving carts laden with crates or produce to wherever they needed to be. Though I’ll have to be careful as to how much and how fast.
The whole idea that he was about to put into practice today had stemmed from his study on dark mana, specifically in how present it was in the creatures of the realm and by extension their heart crystals when they were slain. Apparently few creatures in the wild was truly free of its effects, its presence accumulating gradually over its lifetime, at least barring some truly exceptional circumstances, such as it luckily coming in contact with Aether mana. Because of that, each heart that was harvested always carried at least a trace amount of dark mana within it, the total quantity and density of which was reflected in its grade. The less dead mana that there was in a heart crystal, the purer it and the bright mana it contained was considered. This in turn greatly increased its value as no Ascendant wanted to willingly absorb any more dark mana than they absolutely had to and nor did any artificer want to risk contaminating their end product with an excessive amount of what was essentially useless mana.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Of course there were methods other than using Aether mana to cleanse these hearts, though Vincent understood it to be an expensive process, requiring the use of both complex artifice and rare reagents. Or if not that, then by someone absorbing a Heart Crystal whole, taking on the dark mana while coalescing the pure mana gained into a mana crystal. Neither of which methods could easily be scaled up in vast quantities. But while that proved to be a general rule and limitation for the rest of the realm, it wasn’t one for Vincent. Thanks to his incredibly potent Will, he was able to unbind and filter out dark mana as easy as its bright counterpart. A talent that his limited research so far showed was generally not something that even the most powerful of Ascendants could do, or if they could, it certainly wasn’t advertised.
Which is an advantage that I aim to make the absolute most of today, Vincent thought as the merchant district, and by extension the large stone building of the Wraithgold Mana Exchange and its adjacent bank bearing the same family name, appeared before him. Already the district and market square was starting to come to life, with early shoppers already lined up in front of their chosen bakery stalls, eager for their morning pastry. I suppose that even after a thousand years, there are some things that simply don’t change.
Feeling warmed by the thought, Vincent found it lifting the uncomfortable mood that he had started the day with and occupied his thoughts until he entered the mana exchange, the place being one of the few in Everness that never fully closed its doors for business. Striding in with all the confidence that he could muster, Vincent soon found himself greeted by vaguely familiar white marble floors and walls, having only seen a hurried snapshot of the place the last time he and Theo needed to cut through it. This time however, he wasn’t attempting to escape a disaster of his own accidental making and was able to make a straight line towards the exchange clerks, with many of them already busily serving other even earlier risers that had beat even Vincent here.
“Good morning, I’d like to see what Heart Crystal trades are available for these,” Vincent said once he’d arrived at an open clerk, pitching his voice, and choosing his words as to sound authoritative and confident, exactly what one would expect to hear from either an Ascendant or Noble. It was also why as he spoke, he made sure to place two dark hued mana shards on the counter that separated him and the clerk, each of which held all of the Shadow and Death mana he’d stored within his Soul Well.
“Certainly sir,” the man, one just shy of middle age, replied politely, his eyes flashing first towards Vincent’s hair before dropping down to look at his arm and walking stick, very clearly noting his disability. Yet instead of receiving a pitying glance, a polite smile appeared on the clerk’s face when he glanced back up at Vincent, signaling that he’d succeeded in guiding the man’s assumptions in the right direction.
Which was that he was indeed a Fallen Ascendant, and not a maimed Dormant who could have very well stolen the shards he’d just placed on the counter.
“I just need to perform a grading and density assessment first, then we can see what we have on the books for trades,” the man said as he indicated the first of the two shards. “May I?”
“Of course,” Vincent answered back with a relieved nod, watching the man then gently pick up the shadow mana shard and place it on a small device that shared the countertop between them, one that during his research Vincent learned was a Mana Scale. Curious to see the work of artifice in action, Vincent heard the device emit a faint buzz the moment that the crystal touched the plate, followed by a purple light appearing on its far end that faced the clerk.
“And we have here a Pure Grade, High Density Shadow Shard,” the clerk announced as he glanced down the scale, moving on to exchange the shard on the scale with the other that awaited on the counter, the light then changing to a deep grey-black. “And the second is a Pure Grade, High Density Death Shard. Very strong options to work with. Are there any particular aspects that you might be looking for in a trade?”
“One of the base aspects would be preferable,” Vincent said, already having planned ahead as to what he was looking for, which in this case was either Fire, Air, Water, or Earth mana. “And grade is not a factor, only quantity. The more the better in fact.”
“Well, if that’s what you’re looking for, then you’ll certainly have quite your pick,” the clerk answered as he brought out what Vincent identified as a rectangular cut sheet of glass from behind the counter and immediately poked a rune etched in a corner. As he did, the glass almost instantly sprang to life, with flowing golden letters appearing across its surface.
So that’s what a Lightscribe looks like, Vincent thought with no small amount of curiosity, having learned about the near wonderous work of artifice during his study, which used light mana and runically etched glass to display pretty much anything its creator wanted. It’s…wonderous! I’ll have to see if I can learn how to make one myself. I mean, if I can ever find the time to.
“There are currently several dozen open requests that match what you have to offer,” the clerk continued as he pressed another rune on the Lightscribe’s surface and caused the text it was displaying to change, turning it so Vincent could see. “I have it displaying the trades with the largest quantities of mana, irrespective of grade. Please let me know if anything stands out or if you’d wish to change your preferences.”
Trade Offer #1:
Quantity: 100 Heart Crystals
Aspect: Fire
Grade: E
Density: Low
Request: 2 B-Grade or Purer High Density Shards. Or Heart Crystal Equivalent, Any Aspect
Trade Offer #2:
Quantity: 50 Heart Crystals
Aspect: Water
Grade: D
Density: Low
Request: 1 B-Grade or Purer Shadow Shard. Any Density. No Heart Crystals.
Trade Offer #3:
Quantity: 15 Heart Crystals
Aspect: Earth
Grade: E
Density: Low
Request: 1 B-Grade or Purer Death Shard. Standard or Higher Density. No Heart Crystals.
Trade Offer #4:
Quantity: 200 Heart Crystals
Aspect: Air
Grade: E
Density: Weak
Request: 2 C-Grade or Purer Heart Crystals or Shards. Average Density or Higher. Any Aspect.
“Hmm,” Vincent mused as he scanned over the list, first to familiarize himself with the terminology that it used, then second to take in its actual contents. As he did, his attention couldn’t help but focus on the very first trade that had been offered, which unless he was completely off in his assessment, was a particularly desperate one, even when he accounted for the requested grade difference.
Which is exactly what he said to the clerk.
“Ah, yes. I would agree. Unfortunately it is an all too common occurrence of late, I’m afraid,” they replied with a vaguely distasteful expression on their face. “While I can’t go into specifics as to what a client’s situation may be, there have been quite a number of foundries and forges feeling the effects of…uh, recent events in the city. If you understand my meaning. As such they are either paring down their operations or are selling off assets to meet their debts.”
“I’m afraid I do,” Vincent said, not needing to hear anything more to piece together that the Azurewind and Ironsong feud was the cause. “Though even so, I’m not the one to pass up an opportunity. I’ll take that first trade, assuming that I can of course inspect everything and arrange transportation afterwards? That’s certainly a larger trade than I was expecting to make this morning, and as I’m sure you can see...”
Vincent trailed off as he moved to indicate his arm and leg.
“Of course,” the clerk replied with another polite, and wholly understanding smile as he took the Lightscribe away. “This early in the day we’ve plenty private rooms available for our clients exactly for that purpose, and I’m certain I can find you one for as long as you need. We’ll sort the details first to lock in the trade, then I’ll book you a room for the porters to bring you your crystals. How does that sound?”
“Perfect,” Vincent replied with his own matching smile, happy with how easily everything had gone so far. “That sounds absolutely perfect.”