Chapter 72 – In which they bring light (5)
“Danger.”
That was all what Amara said before his hands started moving.
Under his fingers, a purple line was drawn in the air, as he drew on his mana and made a magic circle.
The circle was completed at the speed that would impress many mages.
The light enveloped Phlox and Alexandrit, who froze and didn’t dare to move a finger.
And then they disappeared.
The circle hovered in the air for a second, as Amara ensured the teleportation’s success, and then let it go.
He teleported the two to a prepared beforehand teleportation circle in the Temple of Forgotten and Dead Gods, but he couldn’t go there.
His destination was the Universe Temple.
With no one around, Amara didn’t hold back.
With one hand he drew another teleportation circle, with the other he drew a ‘Maintain’ spell circle, which would maintain the circle for the fixed amount of time, preventing him from being ripped apart during the teleportation.
As the Maintain spell needed a power source, he kicked the fireplace and revealed the mana crystal underneath that supplied the Fire spell before. He picked it up with his toes, congratulated himself on being smart enough to choose a shoeless dance, and tossed the stone into the magic circle of the Maintain spell.
Just in time when he finished drawing both spells.
The wave of colors washed over him and he teleported.
The next second, he found himself in his bed in the Universe Temple. The circle drawn on the sheets was illuminating the dark room.
He quickly assessed the situation.
In the corner stood pale Geod, the visible wave of relief washing over him as he saw Amara appear.
Outside, the stern voice of the head priest Rasin was heard.
He seemed to be lecturing someone. Amara could only guess that a small head, who told him not to worry, caused a problem to worry about.
Completing his assessment, Amara didn’t waste time.
He took off the special robe and mask given to him by the priests of the Temple of Forgotten and Dead Gods, the bedsheet with the teleportation circle and the puppet made in his image, opened the secret compartment in the floor, congratulated himself again on his wisdom in his past life, when rather than secret chambers, he decided to just put holes in every wall and floor tile, and tossed the items inside.
Then he laid down in the bed as if nothing has happened.
Just then, there was a knock on the door.
Amara sat up, held his head as if he was just woken up and wasn’t too happy about it, and motioned to Geod to open.
In the crack of the door stood Rasin with a hefty stack of papers.
“Your excellency.”
He bowed slightly, and Amara nodded to him to come in.
“What is it?”
He cut straight to the point, as he frowned very slightly at Rasin.
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The small head was nowhere to be seen…
Was he sent to bed?
“I’m very sorry for disrupting your excellency’s sleep, if it wasn’t an urgent matter, I wouldn’t wake you up like this.”
It clearly wasn’t an urgent matter, because Rasin wasn’t in any hurry to say what he came here for.
He first seated himself on the sofa closest to the bed , all the while sneakily observing Amara, as if looking for something.
But he didn’t seem to find what he was looking for, as he sighed and pointed at the documents he brought.
“It’s about a Gemma envoy that visited us recently. Allegedly, the one who brings light, the divine beast princess went missing. There is evidence to suggest it may be indeed the case.”
Well. Wasn’t that some good excuse to visit Amara in the middle of the night?
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“What happened?”
Saffra looked at Mimosa, who just returned from her trip to visit Golderodi’s old home, with surprise.
If one was to judge by the looks, Mimosa was no different from usual. Her cold elegance didn’t lose its edge.
And yet Saffra’s senses, honed through years of managing people both in times of conflict and peace, told her that something unusual happened.
Mimosa didn’t answer straight away.
She first sat down, took out the glass and then grabbing a gourd from her belt, usually hidden under the fabrics, she poured herself a generous drink.
The drink was red and smelled fishy, but it was all the same as pouring oneself a full glass of wine the moment one entered the house’s doorsteps.
Saffra looked at her with even more worry, but waited without interrupting. The two of them were alone, so she wanted Mimosa to relax as much possible.
Because there was no way she could do that in front of her subordinates.
A minute passed in silence, before Mimosa opened her mouth.
“I found something strange.”
Then she recounted how the house remained untouched all those years, how she tried the method Saffra told her about and found a strange symbol, and about the feeling she got when she drew it…
“I didn’t even know exactly what the ‘danger’ was, just that it was very dangerous and that I needed to destroy that circle as quickly as possible…. And then there was that scream.”
Mimosa frowned as she traced back her memory.
“It couldn’t be a living creature. I or my subordinates would have sensed it. And yet, there was clearly something there….”
“Perhaps ‘something’ was connected to that magic circle around the inverted sun symbol.”
“… Like a type of living energy source?”
“Yeah… Though the ‘something’ we’re speaking about was probably already dead. When the building and the circle was destroyed, it would finally and truly ‘die’.”
Mimosa considered it with a grim face.
She knew enough about magic to understand a principle behind Saffra’s hypothesis, but the simple idea of it sent shivers down her spine.
“Even Rubrun bastards aren’t that cruel…”
She mumbled, and then poured herself another drink.
Then, as if she just thought about something, she looked up at Saffra and asked:
“Do you want some?”
Saffra glanced at the dark blood in the glass, and shook her head with a smile.
“Thank you. I’m fine.” Then she chuckled. “Not in the mood for blood-drinking today.”
The corner of Mimosa’s lips also curled up slightly.
Saffra then returned to something that bothered her.
“But inverted symbol of the sun, you say…”
She took out a paper and very carefully drew a symbol with a charcoal.
It came out a little crooked in her opinion, but it would do.
“Was it something like this?”
She showed it to Mimosa.
Her older sister inspected it carefully and then nodded.
“Indeed. It’s exactly that symbol, but there it was inverted.”
She looked at the drawing with a bit of pride in her eyes.
“Impressive, I only roughly recognized it was some kind of sun holy symbol, but you immediately guessed which one it was from a short description.”
“It’s nothing much. During… In the past that I remember, it was a very important symbol. And considering the area we’re in right now, I guessed it may be the one.”
“Considering the area?”
Saffra nodded and took out the map.
In the instant she found a small dot on the map, close to the border of Purplus and Sidus, a kingdom that went completely silent for the past 200 years.
She pointed at the dot.
“You should know this place, right?”
Mimosa’s eyes lit up a bit when she saw where Saffra’s finger landed.
“Of course. This is one of Her Majesty’s great relics. A beautiful piece of architecture that has yet to find its match…”
But her eyes darkened quickly.
“Though these days it’s better known as one of the stops during Saints’ great pilgrimages. And because no one but the throne’s rulers families can access that place, not many people were able to bask their eyes in its glory.”
“Right… So actually it’s a grave of the highest priest of the sun gods.”
“….”
“….”
Saffra did not know how to answer the silent questions that were pouring from behind Mimosa’s dark glasses, so she just turned her head away. Her cheeks burned a little.
“At the time, the Sidus Kingdom was a home to the most powerful sun god in the world. All other sun gods were considered avatars or descendants of that god. The symbol used for them was exactly this symbol.”
Saffra pointed at her drawing, as she continued her explanation.
“And the one buried here….. She was an extremely powerful priest. Even after death, her body didn’t lose warmth and healing light she brought through a ritual didn’t fade…”
“… That garden- grave is known for its miraculous water that can cure numerous diseases… Heh, I suppose I now know why.”
“Indeed. It appears that her light didn’t fade to this day. The longer life expectancy in this region serves as evidence.”
“The plague also didn’t spread there… Then Golderodi’s parents died because of this inverted symbol? It canceled the effects of the ritual?”
“It appears so, but there is something very bothersome about it…”
Saffra paused as she looked at the map, and Mimosa didn’t disturb her.
She had her own thoughts to sort out.
After a moment, Saffra mumbled as if to herself:
“The magic and mystical arts are in their basic principles the same and can even be used interchangeably… An adept mystic or mage can in theory use the same tools in both arts… Cancellation is just a basic… if you’re a true master, you can seize control over magic with ‘belief’ or poison a ritual with mana to inverse its effects…”
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