At night, the ship rocked up and down the seas, making it hard to sleep. Nathan got up and looked out his room’s porthole. He pondered what might be on the other side of the waters, what kind of animals roamed the lands, and the adventures he might go on; after being stuck in such a monotonous place, all he wanted was to run through plains covered in grass, forested hills, sandy deserts, and rocky mountains.

But he wouldn’t get to see any of this anytime soon. For now, all he had to contemplate was the moonlight bobbing up and down the sea. It hypnotized him and let him sink deeper in his mind.

Nathan thought of his life so far and why it had turned out the way it had. Although his father’s passing was a major reason for his difficulties, he wanted to know why the mage sent him to the mines.

Unable to hold back his curiosity and dread, he tiptoed out his room, into the captain’s cabin (Julia had yet to return), and down to the deck. Margarette wasn’t there anymore; there were only crates and a cell hidden in a corner. The mage’s eyes were closed, but his breaths seemed like those of someone who was awake.

“Mage Brian, tell me.” He hoped he wouldn’t be ignored like Julia. “What ideal is so great that it is worth your freedom?”

The mage opened his eyes and glanced at Nathan, but he didn’t speak.

Nathan hesitated to continue, but he needed an answer. “Please tell me, I don’t know what’s going on. I was raised on this island and never told more than the basics. I have no clue what’s going on, on the continent. I only know that I’m a noble mage, and that’s why you sent me to the mine.” Nathan’s quiet voice grew louder. He realized that even his father had kept him in the dark on so many things. “I don’t understand anything. All I was told was that noble mages were strong, that I was a noble mage and so had to be strong. But now, I’m hearing about a bunch of things.

You claim that I am an enemy of the Continent, and the people of this land claim that I am an enemy of it. Julia says I need to defend our ways of life, and the Overseer says that I have destroyed theirs. So, what is it?

I’m only fifteen and all I’ve done is dissect beasts, learn the basics of magic, and dissolve crystals.” Nathan begged, “Please, I just want one person to explain it to me!”

Mage Brian closed his eyes, and let his head fall back against the ship’s wall. Nathan’s blood flowed to his head. He was about to burst out in anger at everyone’s silence, but before he could, Mage Brian spoke. “What I did was wrong, but it was also right. I do not regret my actions,” those were his first words in Marian to Nathan.

“What do you mean by that?” Nathan was tired of being spoken to in code.

“Although you are a kid that has yet to do anything, you will surely commit those crimes one day. It is in your blood and nature. It cannot be avoided.”

Nathan’s hands balled up, and his knuckles turned white-hot. “What crime! What will I do, tell me!”

Mage Brian brought down his head and stared at Nathan. “The crime of not changing.”

“Changing?”

“Those you left behind in the mines, they’ll keep working and suffering, but you won’t do anything to help them. It won’t be any different in the Tower.

What you currently have is the ignorance of childhood, so I cannot blame you fully, and that is why I am wrong. However, every child grows into an adult, and no adult is innocent. That is why I am right.

Time is linear, but you must look at it as a whole, and I do not need to see your death to know what you will become.”

“Then I’ll do my best not to become that! I’ve never wanted to keep others down; I just want to ascend the Tower.”

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“To ascend the Tower, you must step on heads! Else it wouldn’t be a tower but a field,” his words were curt. “You can try not to be like them, but I know it will happen. It’s in your blood.”

“What do you mean? I’ve suffered all my life. I’ll still do my best to change, but still, my earliest memory is of my black fingers, frozen lungs, and now my hands covered in Grenold crystals.”

The mage scoffed. “The worse pain isn’t physical, but mental. The worse pain comes when you know that however hard you work, however much you suffer, it will never be rewarded.”

“Then I’ve lived through that as well!” exclaimed Nathan. “When you sent me to the mines, I thought I’d live the rest of my life there. I had even come to enjoy the work. I was ready to lose myself to the suffering of aimless work. Isn’t that why you sent me there? For your ideals? To prove a point? I haven’t done anything, why should I be hated by everyone? Even Julia, although she looks kind and smiles at me, she doesn’t mean it. Her eyes are colder than this land. I don’t have anything, nothing at all…”

Still, the mage dismissed Nathan. “But time is to be looked at as a whole and I can already see the adoration you’ll get from the young mages, the care all the grand mages will shower you with, and the privilege you will benefit from. Men change quickly and forget faster. I can see your future, and I envy you.” Brian leaned back onto the ship’s wall and closed his eyes. “But if you are to keep pestering me, I can say one more thing, a saying of your people. I believe it goes like do not trust what you hear and dismiss anything you are told, only trust what you see."

“Always take what you overhear with a grain of salt, and what you are told with a heap of it,” Nathan corrected him.

“Yes, that’s how it is said here. Now leave, I won’t answer any more of your questions. We will keep fighting, and you will forever be our enemy. You may swim in our yoke, but when a storm comes, and you are drowned in tears, it will be washed away. You are a noble, not because of what you did, but to whom you were born.”

A strong wave hit the ship, making Nathan stumble back. His stomach churned, and he wanted to puke, whether this was due to the ship or the mage he didn’t know, but deciding he needed to leave, he climbed into the cabin, and onto the ship’s deck.

At least here, the nightly winds soothed his soul. And there, on the ship’s railing, he remained until the sun got up.

“How are you doing?” It was Julia. She held a bag in her hand.

“I don’t know,” answered Nathan.

“Don’t worry, you won’t miss that empty land. It’s a shame your father didn’t show you to the Tower, but he would be proud of you. Here.” She gave him the bag. “This will keep your mind off it.”

It was jerky, something he hadn’t had since entering the compound. The kids back there would probably never know the taste of anything but salty, tasteless sardines.

He wasn’t hungry, so he didn’t open the bag. “How much do you know of the Northern Tower?” she asked.

“It’s one of the five magic towers. They invaded the North to mine Grenold crystals. That’s about it. My father was a mercenary from the Southern Tower, so he didn’t know much either.”

“She nodded. Recently there’s been a war. We lost many powerful mages, most of whom were nobles. This has led to the share of first-generation mages increasing.”

“Why is that a problem?”

“First generation mages are soft. They often stumble upon mana later in life and hold the values of the land where they were born. Like the mage who sent you to the mines, they do not respect the laws of the Towers and are just beasts that stumbled into humanity.

Normally their presence is fine as we can set them straight, however, they are now too numerous, and we are lacking people to guide them. At this rate we will not be able to properly integrate them and if these individuals gain any more influence, it will cause problems.

Although Mage Brian joined the Tower before this war and the influx of first-generation mages, he bolstered his power with their aid and gained enough influence to gain administrative control of Bregva. You saw what that led to. He did not acknowledge the rights of another mage. If we do not rein them in, this corruption will spread.” Julia’s face grew dark, a fire in her eyes. “Although this arrogance and contempt for those who gave him power led to his downfall, their scheming might improve. And so, if we don’t crack down on them fast, although the Northern Tower has just discovered this revolutionary crystal, we may crumble.

Now, I need your confirmation, as a noble mage, will you help us suppress the others.”

Nathan turned and looked at Julia and remembered Brian’s words. He had one last question, “Is there any noble mage who has ever refused?”

Julia looked into the sky. “Unfortunately, yes, and if I am honest, this movement wouldn’t be possible unless some amongst us didn’t try to use them to further their own aims. We have purged them, but it was too late. All we can do now is make sure that no such heresy spreads.” She looked down to Nathan, “Now tell me, what do you say?” She smiled; it was cold.

Nathan nodded, but the burgeoning doubt he had in the Tower had now fully taken a hold of his heart. He would have to see the state of the Tower with his own eyes.