My group and I arrived at the capital of the First Sothen Kingdom at noon and we were freshly rested with only half a day's worth of grime on us. We had pushed on because there wasn't much point in trying to delay the inevitable any longer than I already had. At least I didn't believe so at the time. My happiness about getting there and not needing a bath, quickly vanished, when I saw the ungodly monstrosity that was the Church of Light. Its towering spires were higher than every other building in the entire city, which included the castle. I shook my head and held in my anger over it, so I ignored it and intentionally went to the castle first.
The queen had told me days ago what had happened and that the Emissaries of Light were staying at their church and not at the castle. Diofra and I had tried a few times to find the green robed man using the same powerful locate spell with the cursed scroll, and we didn't have any luck. Either he was blocking us somehow, or the object wasn't enough of his property to do it more than once. That was annoying, mainly because I was going to have to hunt him down the old fashioned way to kill him. I wasn't adverse to that, since I had a lot of experience doing it; but, I was in a world with magic and it annoyed me even more that I couldn't just magically call for him and kill him.
That made me think about how magic worked. I knew the locate spell would find someone if you had something of theirs, and I wondered why we couldn't use that target to launch another spell or something. I had to assume that distance was a factor for most spells; but, the locate spell would let you find someone no matter where they were, as long as you met the requirements of a personal item and enough mana. Since I figured the cursed scroll wasn't enough of the green robed man's property to keep looking for him, I asked the queen for an item of his property to use.
Queen Celestina didn't ask me why I wanted it, probably because she was a very intelligent woman, and she sat beside her daughter as one of the court attendants brought a set of the man's green robes and his outfit to the meeting room we were in. I almost laughed at it, since I had expected a small personal item and not something he wore practically every day.
“Thank you.” I said as I accepted the robe from the man, then I turned to the queen and gave her a bow. “Thank you very much.” I said with as much sincerity as I could.
The queen's face flushed slightly red for a split second. “I hope it works this time.”
“Let's find out.” I said and looked at Diofra. “Before we do this, how much are mana crystals?”
“How much are... what are you going to do?” Diofra asked with worry in her eyes.
“I don't know if it will work or not; but, if I break the mana crystal, you have my word that I will buy you another one.” I said.
“O-kay.” Diofra said, disbelief clear in her voice and her eyebrows raised at me. “Should we...”
“I don't want to wait any more.” I said and pointed to a spot on the floor and I put the folded clothing there. Diofra placed her fully charged mana crystal on top of it and easily cast the spell. A two foot wide slightly green see-through bubble appeared over the top of the mana crystal and showed a small village, then it zoomed in and showed the green robed man as he sat at a table eating food.
“It worked.” Milly whispered.
With my target in sight, I bared my teeth at him and I placed my hand on the mana crystal. I knew that intent affected the mana and I let my anger out and funnelled my Presence and mana into the mana crystal to establish a connection. The bubble expanded to ten feet across and everyone in the room could clearly see him, now that he was life-size.
“No one is allowed to hurt the people I love.” I said in a deadly voice and shot Mana Presence Lightning into the mana crystal.
*
The green robed man had gotten clean away and no one had tried to follow or find him. He had been worried for the first few days, even though he had made a friend cast a very expensive anti-magic spell on him. After five days, his spies had reported that no one at the castle was trying to look for him, so he relaxed and didn't pay to have the magic renewed on the sixth day.
When nothing happened after that, he relaxed completely and started to contact people about getting smuggled out of the kingdom. He knew that the queen would have informed all the guards in the towns and cities about him being wanted, so on the seventh day he stayed in a small out of the way village. Inside a small house that had half of it converted to serve food like a restaurant, with several people at tables around him, he ate lunch while he waited for his contact to show up.
Without warning, a dozen dark green bolts of lightning appeared in the air right beside him and struck him all over, with the majority of the bolts hitting him in the head and the heart. Even though it only lasted for three seconds, the bolts of lightning had bored through his face and his chest to eat away at his brain and his heart to leave nothing behind. The lightning cut off and disappeared as the green robed man's lifeless body dropped to the floor.
His contact came into the room and saw the remains, ignored the screams from the other people in the makeshift restaurant that had just realized what happened, and he walked right back out of the room. He decided, for no reason at all, that he no longer wanted to be associated with criminals anymore.
*
In my head, I had imagined the view I saw in the green bubble was just like the viewscreen I had looked through when Ozahith died. At the time, I had inadvertently used the communication device on the long haul transport to kill her killers by using Presence Lightning and followed the energy trail to her room. This time, I followed the mana energy instead through the spell, and to my delight, it worked.
There was a loud cracking noise and I felt a buildup of energy in the crystal as both the spell and my lightning stopped, so I picked up the mana crystal and ran to the side of the room as I opened the window with a Presence Hand. I could detect that there was no one in the area near the window, so I threw the crystal and pushed it with Presence as hard as I could. It shot out of my hand like a bullet and it flew out over the cliff side and over the water. I closed the window just in time, because a second later the mana crystal exploded and little shards of it bounced off of the glass.
“HUNTER!” The queen yelled and stood with complete shock on her face at what she had just seen. Four guards ran into the room with weapons drawn and looked around for a threat to their ruler. Milly, on the other hand, sat there and had an odd look on her face.
“Please accept my apologies.” I said and opened the window again. I could see all the little shards that had hit the side of the castle and had fallen to the ground. I used Presence to pick them all up and threw them over the side of the cliff and into the water with the rest of them. “I didn't expect the results to be that explosive.”
“If I knew your full name, I would state it right now.” The queen said in a stern voice and Milly caught her breath. “Then I would lecture you on doing... things like that... in front of me.”
“I told you I was going to kill him.” I said. When I didn't say anything else and just looked at the queen with a slight smile, she sighed and waved away her guards. They left without a word and shut the door. I turned around and saw Imiryl's face before she could hide her expression, so I walked over to her and Allirynn.
“By that look on your face, I have to assume that Kara told you what happened with Ozahith.” I said, and they looked at me with blank faces, which meant they knew. “Do you want the real story?” I asked, and Imiryl blinked her eyes once and then nodded, so I turned to the queen. “Your majesty, before you have me ejected from the castle for what just happened, I'm going to break my rule about saving the details of this story for those closest to me, and I'll explain how I did what I just did.”
The queen felt a small hand take hers and she looked down to see Milly's nod. “Very well.”
We all sat down and I told them from beginning to end about how I had met Ozahith, how we had an instant connection despite not knowing each other, and how we had loved one another before she was tragically murdered for knowing me... and how she had ensured her death by helping me track down the blue-skinned alien that had killed my parents. With a quick explanation about a communication device that worked very similar to the viewing bubble of the locate spell, I told them how her dying for me let me discover a new attack, and how it almost killed me.
I slipped off my uniform coat and pulled up my long sleeved t-shirt to show everyone the circular pattern of scars around my heart. “I earned these. They can't be removed or healed and they will always remind me of my love for her and what she did for me.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
The queen looked to be close to tears and she held them back while Milly let hers flow freely, as did Imiryl and Diofra. Maylia and Afyne cried a little as well, even though they had both heard the story before.
“After that, I trained with it and taught myself how to master the technique.” I said and skipped over the part about being in jail while I did it. I told them how I had thought about magic and why I couldn't just do the same thing with the locate spell, since it made the connection with the target, and I wanted to try it. When I did, it had worked.
The queen whispered something about Black Laura that I didn't try to hear or asked her to repeat.
“That... is a much different story than what Kara told the others.” Imiryl said.
“I can just imagine what you think of me after her telling you I was a fugitive from The Order for a year.” I said with a sad smile. “Now that I know she did tell you her side of things, I'm a little surprised you went along with me after delivering the queen's message.”
“You told us that we were the message.” Imiryl said. “We were the ones that were targeted by those criminals. We wanted to find out why, and since you were the one to save us from them...”
“Did you examine the new list?” The queen asked, and we all nodded. “Then follow it back to Allirynn's homeland and you will find your answer there.”
I turned to look at the queen and she gave me a slight nod, which meant she saw the place where Allirynn was supposed to be. I nodded in return as a promise to make sure that he gets there.
“Hunter, you must promise me to never tell anyone that you can do this.” The queen said.
“I don't need to ask you why, obviously.” I said.
“This is... I need to think about...” The queen stopped talking and looked down at Milly, who smiled and walked over to me.
“If your power becomes known, people will come from far and wide to have you kill people for them.” Milly said. “They will make up stories and things about people, just to see if you can kill them.”
I nodded and knelt. “I know how dangerous this can be, especially since it worked.” I said. “Of course, it costs a mana crystal each time.”
“Will it always?” Milly asked.
“I used the bare minimum energy that I could to do it and it still overloaded the crystal.” I said. “You wouldn't know where I can buy a replacement, do you?”
Milly turned away from me slightly and looked at her mother.
“You can take another from the supply at...” The queen started to say.
“No, thank you.” I said and interrupted her. “I did this on my own and wrecked Diofra's mana crystal. I'll pay to have it replaced, no matter how much it costs.”
The queen looked at me for only a moment before she gave me a small smile. “There's an artisan just outside the castle walls. The person is only a single level below the top ability of my own people and they have a small shop on the side road that leads down to the docks.”
“Thank you.” I said. “We can stop by on the way out.”
“You really don't have to do that.” Diofra said.
“I know.” I said and looked at the queen. “Your majesty, can I introduce someone special to your daughter?”
“I believe she might burst if you don't.” The queen said with a full smile. “You can stop hiding, Afyne.”
Afyne peeked out from behind Maylia and glanced at the queen for a second and bowed her head. “Yes, your majesty.” She said in a subdued voice and came over to me. I still knelt, so she leaned against me and kept her hands at her sides.
“Young majesty Millicent, this is Afyne Ivoneth.” I said and took both of their hands, then put their hands together. “Afyne, this is Milly.”
“Hello.” Both girls said at the same time, which made them both giggle. The laughs had similar pitch and tone, too. Neither of them had lost that innocent child laugh yet.
“Can Afyne stay here and play for a bit while I go and handle some things?” I asked.
“Of course.” The queen said. “Milly, why don't you show your new friend the arboretum.”
“Can we feed the man eating plant?” Milly asked, excitedly.
“Only if you stay five feet away.” The queen warned, and Milly nodded.
“Come on.” Milly said and gripped Afyne's hand and led her from the room. “You won't believe how much it eats!”
Both girls started to chat as the door shut behind them.
“Fast friends.” Imiryl said with a smile and she felt Allirynn take her hand and give it a squeeze. She turned her head and looked into his eyes, and I could see the depth of their connection as they stared at each other.
“I'll be back to pick her up later.” I said and stood. “I didn't want her to be there for this meeting with Kara and the others.”
“I understand.” The queen said. “You aren't going to keep it from her, are you?”
“No, I'll tell her what happened, mainly because it will affect my life going forward; but, she doesn't need to see it first-hand.” I said. “Especially since I expect this to be a volatile meeting.”
“Don't tell them what you just did.” Maylia said. “They shouldn't have that information.”
“They will overreact.” Allirynn said.
“Yeah.” I said with a smile. “I can't wait to see what they do.”
“You shouldn't antagonize them or...” Imiryl stopped talking and smiled. “On second thought, I'll help.”
That made me chuckle, as did Diofra and Maylia.
“We have a plan then.” I said and motioned for everyone to leave the room. “Your majesty, thank you for listening.”
“I may still ban you for killing someone in my castle.” The queen said with a stern look on her face; but, her voice was calm and held no anger.
“That's your choice.” I said, also without any inflection in my voice. “I won't even argue that it wasn't inside the castle.”
Maylia barked a laugh. “Don't split hairs, Hunter.”
“Hey, I said I wouldn't argue about it.” I grinned at her and she shook her head.
“I do have to think about this and what it means.” The queen said. “Please stop in again before you leave the capital. I'll give you my decision then.”
“Of course.” I said and bowed to her. I walked over to the door with the others and opened it, then turned to look at the queen. “How many people have you thought about having me remove like that?”
The queen smiled a genuine smile. “Too many.”
“Me, too.” I said, gave her another bow, and left the room.
We quickly left the castle and went down the side road towards the docks, then we stopped in the little magic shop that the queen had told us about. The beautiful young woman behind the counter started to hyperventilate as we all piled into her little store. I wasn't sure if it was because there were six of us in the small space or because we were all better than average looking.
“G-g-g-good a-a-afternoon.” The woman behind the counter managed to say.
“Hi, there.” I said and swept my hair back behind my ear with my hand. Several strands of hair had come loose from the tie and I had forgotten to have Afyne fix it for me. “You wouldn't happen to have mana crystals for sale, do you?”
“I-I-I-I d-d-d-do.” The woman said and kept hyperventilating.
“Let me handle this.” Maylia said and eased me aside as she stepped forward. “How much are mana crystals?”
The woman just stared at her with a slightly open mouth.
“It looks like normal-looking people need to take over.” Diofra said with a laugh and eased both Maylia and me aside and stepped to the counter. “My mana crystal broke and I need a new one.”
“Hm? Oh. Yes, okay. Just a second.” The woman behind the counter said and walked into the back of the shop. “Does it matter what element is the primary?” She asked with a slightly muffled tone.
“I'd prefer neutral if you have one. If not, I'll take fire.” Diofra said.
I watched the woman as she rummaged around and I saw her move several different colored mana crystals aside to get one that had almost none, like the last crystal Diofra had.
“You're in luck.” The woman said and came back to the counter. “I have one neutral left.”
“Does it matter what the element is for the crystal?” I asked.
“Technically, no.” The woman said and gave me a huge smile as she switched over to teaching mode from selling mode. “Depending on the spells mages use, neutrals are the best for not interfering with other types of spells. If they cast mainly fire, getting one already attuned for fire would make the spells stronger and easier to cast.”
“What about crossing elements?”
“If you cast an ice spell with a fire attuned crystal, it will still work, only not as well or be as powerful as a neutral or ice attuned crystal.”
“Is the locate spell element based?” I asked, curious.
“No one ever asked me that before.” The woman said, surprised. “Everyone just assumes that certain spells are neutral and use them that way.”
“You're going to tell me that it's air based, aren't you?” I responded and she nodded.
“The mana in the spell uses the air itself to form a path from the caster to the target.”
Just like electronic signals that pass through air making a path, the mana from the spell does the same thing. I thought and let a huge smile spread across my face, and she gasped.
“Do I have to take you outside?” Maylia asked with a laugh.
“Sorry. I'll try not to seduce every woman that I meet.” I said. “Mostly.”
Maylia punched my shoulder. “You better not!”
“Okay, okay!” I said and held my hands up in surrender, then looked at the woman behind the counter. “How much for the crystal?”
“It's a gold and twenty-five silver.” The woman said and Diofra gasped. I assumed because she had been gifted the crystal and hadn't had to buy it.
“What about the element attuned ones?” I asked.
“A gold and five silver, unless you buy a couple of them and I can give you a discount.” The woman said and laughed at her joke.
“I'll take the four air attuned ones that you have as well as the neutral one for Diofra.” I said and put the money on the counter. “I'm tempted to grab a few of the miscellaneous ones; but, we might find more neutrals and air somewhere else.”
The woman just stared at the money on the counter.
“It's all right, I know you were joking about the discount.” I said and pushed the money across the counter. “Five mana crystals, please.”
“R-r-r-right away!” The woman practically flew into the back of the shop and brought out the four air attuned crystals and wrapped them in cloth and put them in boxes for me.
I stored them and Diofra took hers.
“Y-y-you... you have to...” The woman tried to speak.
“...attune them to mana as well.” Diofra finished for her. I could see that she was shocked as well; but, she didn't let it color her voice.
The woman behind the counter nodded and pointed at her. “Y-yes, th-that.”
I held in my laugh at her reactions. “Thank you for your help.” I said. “The queen knew what she was talking about when she recommended you.”
“Th-th-the queen?!?” The woman asked, surprised.
“We just came from the castle. She said you were only a single level below her best artisans.”
The woman's mouth opened a little and she stared at me.
“Have a good day!” I said and waved to her as I led everyone else out of the shop.
“Oh, that poor girl!” Evus said with a laugh. “She's going to be in shock for a while.”
“So am I.” Diofra whispered and hugged her bag of holding.
“Can anyone tell me which way to go to get to that goddamn ugly thing?” I asked and pointed to the Church of Light, whose spires could be easily seen.
“Over to the main road, then down to the street near the barracks.” Evus said. “It's close to the outskirts of the city on that side.”
“Great.” I said and walked faster. “We can stop and visit the captain of the guard to drop off all these creature carcasses before I have to meet with... them.”
Maylia took my hand and we all walked off into the afternoon sun towards a meeting I was not looking forward to.