Chapter Eighty-Five: First Meeting…
“I am such a fool,” The healer muttered with clear frustration at herself.
‘It’s something you encountered two-hundred-plus cycles ago, I think you can be forgiven for the fact that you didn’t immediately remember it,” Greg countered calmly. He knew that it was just his teacher’s unease shining through due to the stress of the situation. They were currently seated around the table in his dining room, with both his mother and sister in the kitchen preparing something for them.
Almost half an hour ago, when his teacher had told him to get his family because they needed to run, Greg hadn’t wasted time. In order not to seem conspicuous, just in case there were people watching from above, he didn’t run. Instead, being as subtle as possible, he’d used earth step to get to his house quickly. Greg didn’t have time to explain to his family why they needed to run, but even if he did, he wouldn’t have been able to. He just implicitly trusted his teacher and her judgment. She had told him that they needed to run and that’s exactly what he planned to do, explanations could wait for later. And so, to get around the need for explanations, Greg had his familiar once again put them in a trance and have them calmly follow him to the infirmary.
With his family not being able to earth step, the trip to the infirmary was far slower than he’d have liked. Still, knowing that he needed to remain subtle, Greg didn’t make them run. He only sped up once they were inside the infirmary. When they got to where the teleportation room was, however, Greg was surprised to find his teacher standing outside it. He’d fully expected her to already have teleported over to her cave and be waiting for them on the other side. Even before Greg could ask, she offered an explanation. “They’ve activated some form of space distortion formation to cover a large area around the ship. The town is inside the area covered by that formation. Go back, I’ll go talk to the current Town-head and the other families. I’ll meet you at your home,” She had given new directions. Once again, without awaiting a response from him, the healer had set off to implement whatever her new plan was.
Greg had never seen his teacher so rattled. She maintained a calm façade and talked calmly but Greg could see it in her eyes that she wanted to be anywhere but here. If they hadn’t already expended all the mana crystals that they had during the fight with the abyssal creature and the aftermath, Greg suspected that she would have just flown out of the town at top speed. There was still the option of just walking out of town, but with how high profile the two of them were, if the townspeople saw them leaving it was sure to cause a hubbub that was sure to get back to their visitors, which was probably what his teacher was hoping to avoid. With both teleportation and flight out of the town eliminated as options, they’d just have to keep their heads down and try to weather whatever was coming. Back home, Greg had Olivia lift the trance on his mother and sister and asked them to prepare something as he’d be receiving a guest soon.
The healer didn’t keep him waiting for long. Just ten minutes after they’d parted ways at the infirmary, she was seated across from him at his dining table. Just like the last time that she’d been at his house, Greg didn’t take the head seat at the table in deference to the seniority of his teacher. Instead, he took the next closest seat to the right. “So, what’s going on?” Greg finally asked when his teacher took a seat across from him.
“Did you see the insignia on the sails?” His teacher questioned.
“Hard to miss,” Greg replied, remembering the image. On most of the smaller sails, there was just an image of a trident. The image on the main sail, however, was the most eye-catching. Instead of featuring an even more prominent trident, the trident seemed to almost be an afterthought here. Most of the main sail was covered with the image of a large monster with nine tentacles. Each of the tentacles was lined with so many spikes that if it were to be wrapped around a living creature, it would be gored to death even before they were crushed by its no doubt prodigious strength. One of those tentacles was wrapped around the same trident that was shown in the other sails. Greg wasn’t certain if the thing was drawn to scale or not, but the trident that looked massive on other sails looked like little more than a fork in the creature’s tentacles.
“Draknar, the undying king of the seas,” His teacher called out what Greg suspected was the name of the beast. “To kill it, you first have to cut off all nine tentacles before attacking the head. Or at least, that’s what rumors say as no one has yet managed to pull off such a feat.”
“Wait, that thing is a real beast?” Greg couldn’t help but ask. A feeling of trepidation came over Greg as he imagined what such a thing would look like in real life. After more than a year in this world, Greg sometimes thought that he’d gotten used to the new reality he was in. But then moments like this would come along and disabuse him of the notion. He’d suddenly find himself feeling like he was caught up in a surreal dream.
“It is. I’ve never had the chance to encounter it myself, but I’ve known an eighth-tier water mage that has. He barely survived the voyage,” She replied. “The creature itself, however, is of no importance right now. The reason the insignia matters is because it was the insignia used by the alliance I used to belong to. The same alliance that Thane and Senna are still part of,” She informed him causing Greg’s jaws to clench as he finally understood why she seemed so agitated. In a way, it didn’t matter who the specific persons on the airship were. The real danger was that the fact that Alena was still alive and in a weakened state might get back to her true foes. If this happened before she was ready to face them, then her fate would be sealed.
The healer continued with her explanation. “As I’ve told you in the past, Roka, this world operates on the principle of strength. The strong have their way and the weak can only hope they don’t get swept away in the machinations of the strong. The same is also true in the Merchant world. Individual merchants and even Merchant associations will either ally or subordinate themselves to a more powerful mage, or mage alliance to seek their protection against foes and competitors. There are different levels of protection. The insignia of the trident on the smaller sails is probably the insignia of whatever merchant group the airship belongs to. If the Image of the Draknar had only one tentacle hovering over the trident, it’d mean they were loosely associated but no formal agreements have been set between the two. If the Draknar had its tentacles looped in a circle with the trident in the middle, it’d mean that they were under the formal protection of the mage alliance. If the trident was the same size as the Draknar and drawn beside it, the merchant group would be signaling that they were allies on the same footing as the Draknar mage alliance. The trident being held in one of Draknar’s tentacles is to signal that this merchant group is a subordinate of the Draknar mage alliance.”
Greg went silent for a while, processing what he’d just heard, before speaking again. ‘But then, what would bring them here? We are in a remote town in the mountains, this isn’t exactly a major trade hub,” He voiced his confusion. “There’s no way they’ve come for you, otherwise I doubt they’d do so in a merchant’s ship. The teleportation restriction is smart if you’re trying to keep someone from getting away, but making such an ostentatious public arrival gives you far too much advance notice! The chances of you getting away are just too high. But if it’s not you they are after, then what could it be?” Greg voiced the thoughts going through his mind.
The room went silent as, by the look on her face, his teacher gave serious thought to the question. After all, if they figured out what these guests were after, they could stay one step ahead of them and avoid the healer’s existence being discovered and communicated back to her old mage alliance. The silence was broken as his teacher’s eyes went wide before a groan of annoyance left her even as she pinched the bridge of her nose. “Cleansing pearls,” She said after she had taken a minute to curse at herself for some perceived folly on her part. “Most convergences that link to hostile realms are usually closed before they open if they are discovered. If, however, there is a valuable resource in that realm and a willing mage alliance that is powerful enough to keep the hostile entities in the foreign realm from crossing over to this one, then they’ll be given charge of that convergence. That’s what happened with the last convergence I encountered involving the abyssal plane,” She laid out.
“One of the highest valued resources that the mage alliance used to delve into the abyssal realm for was something called a cleansing pearl. Not only was it capable of healing a whole list of magical maladies that only high-tiered healers could comfortably deal with, but it also had many other beneficial effects that had mages going crazy for them. Benefits like increasing the purity of one’s bloodline for bloodline mages for example. Or increasing the probability that one’s tamed beast will ascend to the next tier, in the case of beast tamers.”
“The one benefit that ensured that there was always a bigger demand than there was supply, however, is the fact that cleansing pearls are one of the few confirmed longevity treasures. A single pearl can extend one’s life by anywhere from fifty to a hundred cycles. And as if that wasn’t good enough, it extends the window for one to breakthrough. Do you remember that your familiar told you that the longer a mage lingers in a stage the harder it becomes to breakthrough to the next one? Well, cleansing pearls seem to turn back the clock and make it easier for even one who has been in a stage longer than is optimal to breakthrough to the next stage.
“But while the cleansing pearls were highly valued, no one knew where or how they were procured as it was a closely guarded secret of the mage alliance controlling the convergence between this realm and the abyssal realm. However, back when I was almost five hundred and fifty cycles in age, a disease started to affect the members of this alliance. They tried all manner of healing potions and treasures but to very little effect. At the rate that things were going, they would be too weakened to maintain control of the convergence. Other rival alliances, sensing weakness, began to test them both openly and through more clandestine means. Something had to change soon or they would go under.”
“Already a sixth-tier healer and well renowned at the time, I was one of the healers that the alliance called on to help. It was one of my more challenging commissions, taking me almost thirty cycles to figure out not only what was ailing the mages of this alliance, but also how to cure it. That, however, isn’t relevant. What is relevant is the fact that during this time that they were weakened, the secret of the source of cleansing pearls was exposed,” His teacher relayed.
“Abyssal oozes,” Greg stated with little doubt. While Greg wasn’t around at the time, it wasn’t hard to make this guess. After all, they had succeeded in closing off the convergence to the abyssal realm. Other than the residual mana contaminating the ground under them, there was only one thing belonging to that realm left on this mountain. Besides, Greg could remember his teacher’s reaction when he revealed that the black lake was actually a creature known as an abyssal ooze according to Morpheus. ‘Abyssal ooze… the name sounds familiar.’ These were the words that she muttered back then. She had recognized the creature, she just didn’t make the connection at the time.
Greg had to consciously school the features of his face to keep from snickering as the word ‘balance’ fleeted through his mind. Olivia’s true self had revealed that this was the principle by which Fate operated. Every time it tried to kill him and failed, it would be obligated to reward him in some way that was commensurate with the attack it had launched. This time, Greg had been forced to burn his longevity to beat the abyssal creature. And just conveniently, a creature with the ability to produce longevity-increasing treasures appears close by. He wouldn’t have believed this to be a coincidence even if his life depended on it. Sure, the abyssal ooze had come into existence even before the tier-five abyssal monster had crossed over into this realm, but this was Fate they were talking about. It wasn’t too much of a leap of logic to assume that it could see a range of possible outcomes and plan accordingly.
A feeling of grievance and injustice welled up in Greg as he thought about all this. Fate’s attack had come at him directly with no subtlety whatsoever. It had thrown a tier-five monster at him hoping to kill him. And yet, when it came to the reward that Greg was owed based on Fate’s own damn rules, it just threw it in the vicinity of Greg and left it at that. Whether Greg knew enough to recognize what the reward was or not, it seems, was not a consideration for Fate. So long as it has technically fulfilled the rule of balance, it was happy to watch Greg completely miss the reward he was supposed to obtain for surviving another attack! Now, if Greg still wished to obtain his reward, he’d have to contend with whatever this new force was for it.
“Exactly,” Not privy to the thoughts going through Greg’s mind, his teacher continued speaking. “For the life of me, I can’t figure out how they’d know that there was an abyssal ooze here. There is, however, very little doubt in my mind that that’s what brought them here. And even if it wasn’t, the moment they saw it, it became something they wouldn’t be willing to pass up. Unfortunately for us, that means that they’ll be hanging around for at least another three months. It takes around half a cycle for the abyssal ooze to produce a cluster of longevity pearls” She voiced.
Greg was silent for a second before his lips pressed together in consternation. “Then there’s no way to hide that there’s a powerful mage in town!” He stated grimly. From the sigh that left his teacher, Greg could see that she had already made the same connections that he had and come to the same conclusions. Even if one didn’t consider the amount of time these visitors would be hanging around, for the past three months or so, his teacher had been working on a large sealing formation. She’d been weaving it around the abyssal ooze to keep it contained so it could starve when it eventually ran out of abyssal mana to consume. His teacher had been taking her time with the formation as she wanted to make it as strong as she possibly could in her weakened state. It would have taken his teacher another two to three months to finish the project.
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The fact that it was still unfinished, however, didn’t matter. Unless they were absolute fools, there’s no way the people on the airship wouldn’t recognize that this was the work of a mage. They might start looking for the mage around the black lake, but eventually, they would turn their sights back to the only settlement on the mountain. All they’d have to do is ask the townspeople if there was a mage around and they’d all point to the healer. It was no longer a case of if they would be found out, but when. “Olivia, what’s the best disguise item in the shop right now?” Though Greg could mentally communicate with his familiar, he posed the question out loud for his teacher’s benefit.
The urge to escape was the natural first instinct when one was faced with an enemy that was far more powerful than oneself. To do so in their case, however, would be a misstep Greg realized. Escaping was only the correct move if your enemy was actually aware of your presence. Thus far, there was no reason to believe that they knew of his teacher’s presence in the town. In which case, any attempts to avoid their guests or even to outright escape would have the opposite effect of what they wanted. It’d be a lot like seeing a cop and then turning around to run. Even if the cop wasn’t after you, more than likely they would give chase as you are acting suspiciously. If they acted like they had something to hide, they’d only arouse the suspicion of those in the airship. If, on the other hand, they acted openly like they had nothing to hide, then their visitors would have no reason to spare them a second glance.
Before Olivia could reply, an answer came from his teacher. “No need,” she stated. Greg then watched as her face changed before his eyes. “You would be surprised how much of the work I did as a healer was cosmetic,” she stated even as the shape and color of her eyes changed. Her nose shortened slightly and her cheekbones were no longer as high as before. “The only thing that is anywhere close to the desire for power most mages have is their vanity. There are cosmetic potions out there, but only a skilled healer who knows what they are doing can modify one’s features in specific and permanent ways that most potions just can’t replicate,” the healer continued even as her lips grew slightly thinner and her laughter lines a bit more prominent.
None of the changes she made to any particular part of her face was drastic. A small nudge here, and a little tweak there, and yet, the end result was a face that was completely different from her actual face. The changes didn’t stop there, Greg didn’t miss the way her posture subtly changed, her shoulders became just a little bit more hunched, her breasts shrunk down a cup or two, and her usually lithe form became just a bit more pudgy. The transformation was so thorough that, had Greg not directly witnessed it, he would have been willing to swear on his life that the new woman before him wasn’t his teacher. Usually, his teacher looked like a woman in her mid to late twenties, Looking at her now, she looked more like a woman in her mid-forties with a more matronly air to her.
Seeing just how easily his teacher could change her entire appearance and demeanor about her, a question naturally formed in Greg’s mind. Whether it was her sharp intuition or the question was written all over Greg’s face, his teacher answered even before he could ask. “Yes, Roka, my previous appearance is how I truly look,” She said with an amused smile. “Now, how are we going about this?” She posed, clearly open to hearing about any suggestions he might have.
“What did you say to the three families and the former Town-head?” Greg asked, first looking to establish what those around them knew.
“Not much. If the mages are like most, they will want to take control of the town almost immediately. Resistance by a mundane to the authority of a mage often ends with a dead mundane. If they are really bloodthirsty, some mages have been known to wipe out a whole household for the slightest perceived offense. I just gave the three families and former Town-head two pieces of advice. The first was to comply with whatever these mages want. If they declare themselves in charge, let them be. If you are lucky, they’ll finish whatever their business is and move on without much fuss,” She laid out.
It was a good thing that Greg had asked as this first piece of advice to the three families and the former Town-head turned everything that Greg had been planning on its head. Thus far he’d been thinking of the people on the airship as guests that would have to abide by the town’s rules and laws. In reality, the reverse was the case. It felt wrong to Greg. That a stranger you’ve never met before could just waltz into town and declare themselves in charge, your opinion be damned. But once again, he realized that he was thinking like someone from his previous world. For most in that world, leadership was given by the decision of those being led. Here, however, if you were strong enough, then you could probably declare yourself King and those under you would just have to suck it up and take it. The people on the airship were probably powerful enough that if they wanted, they could wipe out this town. There wasn’t even a question about it.
“My second piece of advice to them was to speak nothing of me. They are free to try and win the favor of their soon-to-be new overlords however they wish, but they are not to invoke my name in that endeavor. If they do, then they won’t have to worry about what the visitors will do to them,” She said in a glacial tone of voice. Greg couldn’t help the dread that brushed an icy finger across his heart. Once again, he was glimpsing the monster that lay just below the calm demeanor his teacher always maintained. There was no doubt in Greg that people would die if anyone among the three families disregarded this barely veiled threat. The only question that remained was whether she’d just kill the individual responsible or if their whole household would fall with them. It was extreme, but in a way, he could understand. Her life was hanging in the balance. Unnecessary attention being drawn to her was the last thing she wanted in this situation.
“I don’t expect them to defy the mages if directly questioned, but I expect them to only answer the specific question asked and to offer no more information beyond that,” the healer clarified her stance. “In other words, we have a short window in which we’ll remain hidden. At least, until they come across my formation around the abyssal ooze. We need to make the most of that window if we hope to come out of this unscathed,” She relayed.
Greg didn’t immediately answer as he did his best to collate all the pieces of information they currently had and try to plot out the best path forward. “Okay,” he finally said after a while. “Here's what we’ll do…”
***
Lothar stood ramrod straight at the head of the boat-shaped flying vessel as it slowly descended toward the small town below. The layout of most mundane towns and villages were the same so he was reasonably certain that the largest building at the center of the town was where the leader resided. Behind him, his sister and fiancé stood side by side, and behind them were four guards. Two of the four were the third-tier mage guards assigned to him by his father. His sister and fiancé each also had a single guard coming along with them. In any other situation, bringing along four third-tier mages for what was probably a mundane town would have been overkill. However, if the prophecy that brought him out here was to be believed, death was a possibility on this trip and Lothar wasn’t about to take chances with his life.
In truth, there was little of interest in this town. Lothar just needed information on two things and he’d move on to the true prize on this mountain. The first and most important piece of information that he needed was about the abyssal ooze at the top of the mountain. Given that they hailed from a different realm entirely, they weren’t just something you expected to find on a mountaintop. There was a story to how the creature got here and he wanted to know it. Walking blindly into a strange situation was a quick and easy way to get oneself in trouble. If there was any trouble to be encountered on this mountain, Lothar wanted to be aware of it far in advance. The other thing he wanted to know, though far less important, was simple logistical information. The people in this town would more than likely know all the best areas to hunt from. Who knows how long they’d have to hang around for? If it turned out to be longer than expected, then the information would allow them not to worry about sustenance at that time.
As one brought up in a prominent family that was constantly in competition with other similar families, Lothar immediately recognized that he was looking at three different families in the group that stood on the ground waiting to receive them. A large muscular man barely contained in his robes, and a young boy, with an equally athletic build standing beside him. These two were probably father and son and reminded Lothar of body-enhancing mages. Next to them was a tall man with fiery red hair, standing with three girls who were each identical to the others. Next in line was a man in a wheelchair flanked by a girl and a boy who appeared to be about the same age. The unique black and white color of their hair marked them as related, probably brother and sister, both direct children of the man in the wheelchair, if their resemblance was anything to go by.
Standing behind the man in a wheelchair was another young man with a wooden mask on. Lothar didn’t miss the damage to the sides of his face and so could only assume that he'd been disfigured and was trying to obscure this fact with the mask. Given his positioning, he was probably a servant who pushed the wheelchair-bound man around. Last in line was an older couple. The man’s posture was slightly bent forward but not with age. He had the look of a warrior in his eyes and from the several scars crisscrossing what parts of his body were visible, Lothar could see that past injuries were responsible for his gait. Beside him stood a woman heavy with child. From the look of her, she would be delivering any day now. Lothar knew men who had a thing for pregnant women but that had never been his thing. And yet, there was a strange magnetism to the woman that not even he could deny. With his fiancé close by though, Lothar had to force himself to only look for a few seconds before turning away.
Oddly enough, it was the injured warrior in the last group, the pregnant woman’s husband by all appearances, who stepped forward to welcome them when they stepped off the flying vessel. Lothar would have expected more rivalry between the groups present, but they seemed content to let the man be the first to approach. “To have friends from afar land on my doorstep is a fortuitous event,” the man spoke with a genial smile, offering a slight bow in greeting.
Ah, so it was because the large house belonged to this man that they allowed him to be the one to receive them, Lothar realized. But with those injuries and a slight limp in his movement, could he really be the leader here? Lothar wondered, even as he offered a smile of his own and bowed back. “I thank you for your warm welcome,” He answered diplomatically. Years as the son of a merchant, even if just in name, had taught him that a softer approach got people to open up far easier than if one flexed their power right from the start. What’s worse is that, once people have formed an image of you in their minds, it’s next to impossible to dislodge it. It was better to start off being thought of as friendly as the people you interacted with were less likely to close down. If the need for more force presented itself later on, it was easier to go from a light touch to a heavy-handed one than the opposite.
“I go by the name Jarfa, former head of this town. This is my wife…”
“Former?” Lothar had to call on his years of experience as a negotiator to keep his features placid when his sister’s cold voice cut the man short. Just because she didn’t know why exactly he had come all the way out here didn’t mean she wouldn’t try to sabotage him in some way. Still, he knew that breaking the façade that they were a united front would give an unnecessary advantage to the people before them. If they thought that they could play them against each other, it’d make it hard to know whether what they said was true or just an attempt to win favor with one party as opposed to the other. No, in front of these people, they would present a united front. But when they got back to the airship he would have words with her.
“Yes, former,” The man repeated, while the smile remained, Lothar could see that his gaze was a lot less warm. “As you can see, the injuries I’ve suffered don’t allow…”
“Who is the current leader?” His sister once again cut the man off, in a tone of clear disinterest as to what he had to say.
There was a long awkward silence following her question. Lothar had to fight the urge to clench his jaws, even as the man before them regarded them coldly. Being a second-tier mage, Lothar didn’t fear the man, but a poor first impression would lead to many unnecessary issues later on. This man might be the former Town-head, but that didn’t mean he was inconsequential. He probably still held a lot of sway with those in town and perhaps even with those gathered here.
The silence was broken by the sound of a wheelchair being pushed forward. The servant with the mask was pushing the man in the wheelchair forward. “I am,” The man in the wheelchair answered, much to Lothar’s surprise. He’d have expected the burly man who was barely contained in his clothes to be the leader. It might not be the mage world, but even mundane people valued strength.
“A cripple?” This time, his sister did sound genuinely surprised. That, however, didn’t reduce the venom in her tone in the least. Having known her as long as he had, Lothar knew that his sister could be perfectly charming if she wanted to be. This persona she was putting on was an intentional attempt by her to undermine any future relationships between them and the locals. She didn’t care about them and worse yet, hated him, so if everything was ruined right from the start, she wouldn’t care. If anything, she’d be happy to see him fail at whatever it was he was planning to achieve here.
“The young lady has keen eyes,” The man in the wheelchair answered. Unlike the first man who seemed to be easily provoked, the man in the wheelchair barely even reacted to the jab by his sister. If anything, the subtle sarcasm in his tone of voice made it sound like he was congratulating a child for making an observation that was obvious to everyone else. This time, Lothar had to fight the urge to smile. It would seem that these people had some spine to them.
Strictly speaking, the man’s words weren’t an insult, leaving his sister with very few options for reprisal. With a dark look in her eyes, she continued to speak. “Starting this moment, you are the new leader of this town. I will not have a cripple reporting to me,” His sister declared, her gaze turning to the burly man standing with his son beside him. Despite his dislike of her, Lothar had to admit that his sister was every bit as crafty as their father. Despite being put on the back foot on their first exchange, she responded masterfully. With a simple sentence, she had not only answered the subtle dig at her, but she’d also created a divide in the ranks of the locals.
Despite them standing together, it was already clear at a glance that they belonged to different factions. Taking power from one faction to give it to another was the perfect divide-and-conquer move. While it might earn them the enmity of the faction that lost power, it would win them the favor of the ones that gained it. Best of all, the faction that was now in power would lean on them if they wanted to keep this newly gained power. Young she may be, but her sister was most certainly not dumb!
The reaction from the newly appointed leader, however, left Lothar feeling like there was something he was missing. It was only for a split second, but he noticed. When assigned the role of leader, the burly man didn’t look at the man in the wheelchair as would be the natural first instinct. Instead, he glanced at the young servant in the mask standing behind the wheelchair. In the man’s eyes, there had been apprehension, as if he was afraid of the reaction from the one in the mask. Lothar turned to his sister to see if she had caught the strange reaction. His sister, however, was too busy looking down at the man in the wheelchair with an air of superiority after demonstrating just how easily she could strip him of his claim to power. Again, Lothar had to fight the urge to smile. Despite her sharp mind, his sister was still far too young and inexperienced. Lothar had no plans of pointing out her mistake. She was, after all, trying to sabotage him. But while she had transferred an empty title, Lothar suspected that the real power in this town remained firmly in someone else’s hands…