From this point on, Sirius tried maintaining the cloaking all day long, but failed miserably. At most he could hide for an hour or so, after that Sirius' mind felt sluggish and he often stumbled on his way. Seth was of great help to him with this. The manasnake alerted Sirius a couple of times, helping Sirius avoid any pursuit by hiding or changing the direction of travels.
He stopped at the river creek to refill his water reserves and set a camp. Even with his tired mind, he could use magic to shape the earth into a small cavern to shelter himself from the wind. He took out the dried venison he prepared with magic a couple of days ago, and threw into a pot along with water to soften and cook a tasty broth. When he was searching his backpack for the remaining crackers, the arcane compass he acquired once again caught his attention. It shone with pale light in his backpack, and casting magic seemed to make it brighter. In deep thought he took it out and observed it in contemplation, while slurping the hastily-made soup. Usually he would complain for the food being a bit too bland, but now his mid was occupied with various theories once again.
He began linking his observations, experimenting on a compass during his meal. Like he noticed, any spell, or even a bit of mana he touched with his mind activated the device, making it pulse. Interestingly enough, the diagrams powered by mana stored in gold and copper did not trigger the pulsing, and the casting using purely his staff did so as well. This made Sirius believe that whenever he interacted with mana, he left a bit of his energy that could be tracked. The cloaking spell somehow separated the area around him from the rest of the world, stopping the mana tainted with his signature from seeping outside. Nevertheless, Sirius was annoyed.
"Why did they made this spell so hard?" Sighed Sirius in irritation, drawing Seth's attention. "All that mana conversions and vibrations are useless for me. They distort the sound, blur the vision a bit with dense air and everything, but I don't need all that!" In anger he hit the ground, leaving a hot steaming spot on the moist rock. Not noticing that, he continued his lamenting. "I should have studied it earlier! I spent so much energy for maintaining that complex nonsense in the middle of nowhere, with no one to hide from!" Once again he hit a wall with a fist, but quickly withdrawn his hand after scalding it a bit.
He once again was reminded to keep his emotions in check, since it made the mana go wild around him. It all started when he woke up in a hospital after the Cleansing forced uncle Verden cast his Final Flash. Since then it began happening more and more often, and recently any anger would shake the mana around, heating or covering in ice the surroundings. Sirius took a deep breath to calm down, and went back to his pondering. He wanted to separate this spell from him, maybe make some kind of tool. Despite being quite limited in his choice of materials, he thought that he had more than enough on his person. Metals would make a mana pathways, he could use herbal powders to replace the complex parts of the diagram at the cost of expendable materials, and the stone he could mould from the earth would serve as a base. After finally concluding his plan, Sirius washed the cutlery and began experimenting with what he had.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
His research was not easy. He once again delved into something Kingdom would consider blasphemy. Not that he cared for what they thought, anyway. He was now on his own, drawing thin lines on a flat stone slate with metal bars. Metal left too little powder on its own, so sometimes Sirius would switch to chalk. He drew, powered the circle, removed the burnt out focus points, and powered again, rinse and repeat. In the evening he was exhausted, unsuccessful, and angry. Even the simplified cloaking spell was too hard to convert into a static diagram. It required constant modification from the user to limit the passage of mana through a sphere around him. Sirius made himself a quick snack, and began munching it, drowned in the thoughts about his research.
His experiments tainted all mana in his little cave, making the arcane compass spitefully illuminate the walls in bluish light. Like a moth, Sirius was staring at the bright orb attacked to a circular slate made out of some ceramic, littered with metal bits sticking out of its base. Then suddenly the light began changing. It lost its blue tint, slowly becoming yellow, and then orange, as if a metal was cooling down. But unlike the hot iron, it only grew brighter and more menacing, becoming crimson-red and burning Sirius' eyes. He did not know what to do. He was filled with fear, his instincts pounding on his mind like a bell. When he felt a pull of mana, he quickly cast the simplified cloaking and began crawling out of the cave with his staff in hand. The danger was only drawing closer, and he would rather be in the open when it arrives, despite his knees shivering from fear.
In the dusk, crimson like the light of the compass, Sirius peeked from the edge of his hiding place, and saw people, five of them, all wearing the blood-red combat attire. They had no armour, just a bit baggy pants and shirts, wrapped tightly around their limbs and waists. Each their movement was machine-like, as they walked in a line, while clasping their hands. In the front walked the man in the same clothes, but adorned with a black and white cloak. He held a book in one hand, and the very same arcane compass in other, that was shining red and rapidly blinking with white flashes. As they walked closer, Sirius noticed that the eyes of the people behind were covered with black blindfolds. And the man in the front... was looking at Sirius.