Time looked as if it had stopped upon the realization. In retrospect, the pieces were always there. I knew few things about the nameless author, but it was enough with the three pieces of information I had. The author was a mystic, they had access to forbidden knowledge, and it wasn’t an ellari.

I, once, briefly thought that Kashar, the elemental operating the leyline under the Arcane Sanctum, could have been the author. But that theory quickly fell into shambles as elementals were unable to have more than one affinity.

Soul affinity was rare. That didn’t apply just to the ellari, but to all races. And that elemental was strictly of Arcane affinity.

Before me, I had a dynasty of mystics that weren’t ellari. If there was anyone that fulfilled the profile of the mystic with access to impossible knowledge, they were the Houtz imperial family.

I bit my lips.

I had recently found that the author was, indeed, in Ferilyn as they had dispelled my overcharged Soul Sight. Or rather, he had dispelled.

But there still were two unknown factors.

His power and his location.

Judging by the quick reaction of the dispel and the vague abstraction of his soul size I had to obtain, I would put him around the eleventh star. And I couldn’t forget that he was apparently also dragonborn.

Caius, the mightiest dragonborn in the world, had fought Fynn in a ruthless exchange at Wyrm’s Landing. I doubted all dragonborn were as powerful as the Emperor’s Right Hand, but it wasn’t farfetched to assume they were at least around the tenth star in terms of power by default.

The prince was a mighty foe at best and a living calamity at worst.

And for his location…

That was the most mysterious of the unknown.

“That look…” The emperor talked to me. I had totally forgotten about the man. “You know something, don’t you?” His slanted pupils shone with expectation.

Accompanying the sentiment, I heard the hidden princess breathe heavily. Her father didn’t notice it, either because of his age or because draconid ears weren’t as developed as ellari ones.

“I do.” The man was a proficient mystic, I doubted I could hide the truth from him. Doing so would only hurt the very fragile relationship we had. “If I’m right, your son lives and is currently somewhere in Ferilyn.”

“How do you know it?”

“You could say your son and I have our history,” I revealed. “But I must tell you that this is only a theory of mine. I can’t assure you that is your son the one I identified.”

“What do you mean by that?” There was a hint of stress in his voice, having news of his offspring after this much time was taking a toll on him. “Haven’t you met him?”

“I haven’t,” I confirmed his suspicions. “There’s a powerful mystic somewhere in Ferilyn, and I have my reasons to believe that may well be your lost son.”

“Oh…” The old man’s legs faltered, and he dropped to the ground. “Truly?”

“I’m not hundred percent sure, but I’m inclined to believe that’s the case.”

“Can you tell me something about this mystic, to really check if it’s my son?”

“Gladly.” I nodded. “I haven’t met this mystic, but with my magic, I checked that they were alive and present on Ferilyn. I only know them by a book they had left at the Academy of Ferilyn, where they explained in great detail plentiful soul magic spells. Most of my repertoire comes from that book.”

“That… that makes incredible sense.” Amyr gasped. “That spell you are using, it’s Mystic’s Dominion, right?”

“Yes.” I frowned my brows a bit. I wasn’t hiding it by any means, how is it that he had just noticed?

“Then that mystic of yours is definitely my son.” His eyes burned with renewed fire. “That spell is a modified version of our dynasty of the ten-star spell Spirit Field. The only two people alive that could cast that spell are me and my son.”

“That would make us three, then.” I left Alatea out of the conversation. The fewer cards I put on the table, the better. “But Spirit Field, huh? I never have of it.”

“Haven’t you?” The mystic was actually surprised by my comment. “It’s the most popular ten-star soul spell out there.”

“Let’s say that there isn’t much documentation on the Soul element or magic on Ferilyn.”

“Ah, typical ellari fashion.” The man berated. “If we take you out of the Arcane or Force you don’t even bother with magic at all.”

I was going to point out his xenophobic comment, but damn, he was right. There were libraries upon libraries on the Arcane, but only enough books on the Soul that you could count them with your fingers.

“What are the differences between Spirit Field and Mystic’s Dominion spells?” I opted to ignore Amyr’s comment.

“It’s a bit complicated to describe, but if I had to say something… Spirit Field siphons power from the spiritual plane to boost the mystic a bit, whilst Mystic’s Dominion is the boost itself. It overcharges the soul temporarily to give it extra fleeting power.”

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“Overcharge temporarily?” That wording took my interest. “Aren’t dominion-type spells, or rather, field-type supposed to be permanently active?”

Amyr’s eyes shot wide open. “Are you constantly using Mystic’s Dominion?” He grabbed me by the forearms.

“Yes? The book told that it was meant to be used that way.” I replied with feigned calmness. His reaction shook me. “There isn’t anything on the spell framework that tells me it would be dangerous.”

“But it shouldn’t be possible…” He began mumbling to himself, the sounds coming from his mouth becoming fainter and more unintelligible with each word spoken.

I shifted my sight onto the spiritual plane. There was nothing wrong with my soul. Well, there was that aggressive overexpansion, as if it tried to take over the spiritual plane, but that has been there since I was a child. Far before I even learned soul magic.

If I had to comment about the wrongness of souls, Amyr and Salayah’s souls were in a rougher state than mine.

Hmm…

My soul-eyes focused on the emperor’s soul. It was white, with hints of grey. That was to be expected. His soul was also considerably big, but once again, expected for a ten-star mage, especially a mystic one.

But as I looked at his core, where the affinity resided, something felt off. The core was nuclear white, as all the previous mystics I had seen. Soul affinity did indeed manifest with a sickly bright and pure white. But in the core, there was a hint of another color.

That wasn’t worrying out of itself, it would mean another considerable affinity. But mystics couldn’t have meaningful secondary affinities, Soul affinity took preference before all of them. I was an exception thanks to my dual superb affinity (emphasis on the was), but even I was paying and had paid the price for the elemental clash of affinities.

No, this color didn’t feel like a secondary affinity, it didn’t like an affinity at all, as a matter of fact.

Creeping and lethargic, the black tumor waited patiently.

Necrotic magic.

“Hey!” I switched back to the corporeal plane and snapped my fingers at Amyr.

The snap didn’t make any sound as my Astral Self’s fingers were incorporeal, but the distracted emperor awakened from his trance-like state.

“Oh, sorry.” Amyr apologized. “I don’t fully comprehend why you are able to maintain Mystic’s Dominion active in a constant manner. It’s just a boost, not a permanent upgrade.”

“That doesn’t matter.” I dismissed him. “Have you noticed the vestiges of necrotic magic on the core of your soul?”

“Necrotic magic? What do you mean?”

So, he didn’t know…

“Yes, someone has casted necrotic magic on your soul.”

Guided by my instinct, I inspected the hidden princess. As before, my soul-eyes focused on the soul, yet this time I felt an uncanny zoom as she was further away than her father. The spiritual plane was strange, I could look at Salayah as if she was a finger away from me when her body was tens of meters away and a wall separated us.

As I suspected, the imperial princess had the same trace of soul magic as her father.

“Your daughter also appears to be affected by it,” I added. “I don’t know what it might be, but this necrotic magic doesn’t give me a good feeling. It feels like a backdoor.”

“Backdoor and necrotic magic?” Amyr noticed something, I felt it with my dominion. With a piercing gaze, I incited him to continue. “What you are telling me, honestly, sounds like a modified version of the Charm spell. One of the forbidden dynastic spells.”

Such a spell wasn’t mentioned in the anthology.

“Then that means…” I also realized.

“That this spell was casted by my son before he disappeared.”

Without warning, a loud wailing was heard behind us.

“What in the ancient's name is that sound?” Amyr jumped in surprise.

“That sound is your daughter, it appears she was overhearing our conversation, and she hasn’t taken lightly this little revelation.”

This wasn’t my fault. I didn’t know that the truth would affect her this much or where the conversation was going to lead to. Though I could understand her reaction. She and her father had compulsion magic placed on her soul by the brother she was dearly looking for.

“Do you need me to get her?” I offered. “I can teleport next to her with my Astral Self.”

“Don’t.” The man lamented. “I will talk with her later, let her cry for the time being. This new information is quite troublesome, but I still want you to find my son as soon as possible. If you do so, you’ll have my unconditional support.”

“I don’t disagree with your terms, but I don’t know where I should begin looking,” I explained. “He’s been undetected for two whole decades. And my prior attempts to find the author have proven fruitless endeavors.”

“Eygaz wouldn’t be alive otherwise.” Amyr sighed. “I cannot fathom what the ellari would have done to him if they caught it bellow that dome.” Then he realized who he was talking to. “Em… I hope I haven’t offended you. I haven’t had any ellari emissaries since… well… decades.”

“No offense taken.” I smile at him. “Though I prefer if we keep with the matter at hand.”

“Yes, of course.” The emperor added with a slight bow, typical of ellari culture. “Eygaz was powerful for his age, an eleven-star mage in his mid-seventies. But he didn’t know that many spells.”

I almost dirtied my pants when he told me about the imperial prince, but I was only a magical construct. An eleven-star mage and a dragonborn, and that was twenty years ago.

Wait a moment…

“Mid-seventies?” I realized. “Don’t draconids only live to their mid-hundreds?”

“We do indeed,” Amyr confirmed. “But dragonborn have a higher life expectancy, around the two-century mark, half of that an ellari.”

“If I may ask, how old are you then?”

“I fear I’m nearing my death bed, I’m one-hundred and thirty-four years old.”

Damn.

Just damn.

This old man was as old as my mother, and she was young. I got swept by a reality check. And humans only lived half of that.

Suddenly, the imperial prince’s age didn’t feel as striking as before. Eygaz should be around a century old now, which did arise questions about when the emperor had his son and why did he only have two children in a position like his, but the prince’s age made much more sense to me. In ellari years, he should be two hundred years old, around the same age as the Ceaseless Storm.

“I won’t deny I’m interested in draconid culture, lifespan, and such, but please, do you have any clues on how he may have hidden?”

“There’s only one-way Eygaz may have remained hidden this long on that island,” Amyr told. “He must be staying in the spiritual plane. The only way to do so permanently without being hurt by the forces of the spiritual plane would be with the eleven-star spell Phylactery Bonding.”

I didn’t even need True Recall to remember that spell. It was the only eleven-star spell in the anthology. It allowed the caster to bind itself to an object, a phylactery, and achieve immortality.

“Then the issue at hand is to find the phylactery,” I responded.

“That would be the case, certainly.” The old draconid nodded. “Don’t you have any clue where Eygaz may have put the phylactery? It would need to be a place with a lot of natural mana, and the object in question would need to have the spell framework embedded.”

“No, I can’t even think where he might ha…”

But I did.

A place where the prince could not only have access to virtually unlimited mana but also be able to communicate with other mystics. What better place but the Sin’fal district, where all the mana and knowledge of Ferilyn gathered?

And then, an object where the Phylactery Bonding spell was already written.

I laughed.

The author had been in front of me all this time.

The soul magic anthology wasn’t authorless after all…

Eygaz was the book itself.