Livy scrunched her face in concentration, pulling every drop of mana into the stone manipulation spell that was once so trivial to use. After the destruction of the Realmstone magic had become so much harder to cast and mages throughout the city found their powers diminished. Apparently this was what magic was like for mages casting magic  when not in the mana-rich influence of a friendly dungeon core.

When her mana pool ran dry she opened her eyes, and sighed. She’d been tunnel through this patch of debris for a week now, but the work was slow going. Before, the earth was like wet clay, easily malleable to an earth mage of even moderate abilities. But now it seemed like the stone itself had turned against her in spite. It refused to obey her and crumbled or cracked in all the wrong places the moment she turned her attention away.

Even after a two weeks of tunneling, she wasn’t deep enough. Anyone trapped under that pile of rocks was already dead. She’d already stretched her mind through the earth to listen for the slightest vibrations and found nothing. There was nobody alive for her to save.

Her father had been near the walls, on site for a recent construction project. He’d always been a very hands-on man, working just as hard as his lowliest grunt, despite his advancing age. Livy’s mother hated the fact that he was working on the day of the Trials. He’d given all of his people the day off, but Livy’s father couldn’t help but put a few hours of work in, despite the holiday. Her mother had gone to give bring him his lunch. That was the last time she had seen either of them.

It was sad really. She had been so casual to wave goodbye to her mother and father while she went with her mage friends for a viewing of the Trials at the school. She’d been so angry with them for so long over their constant insistence that she take over the family business. She’d been avoiding them as much as possible, and that wasted time stung. When the walls came down they buried the outskirts of the city in rubble, and that included the site her parents were at. Livy had found the location of the once-construction site and dug with all her magic, but found nothing. It was too late for either of them to be alive now. She didn’t want to find the bodies. She wanted to remember her parents as vibrant and healthy, not mangled corpses crushed under a mountain of rubble

She was an orphan now, like Mar.

If earth magic was still as easy as it used to be, the city would already be on it’s way to recovery. As it was, most of the mages didn’t think they’d be able to repair the defenses in time for the Imperial invasion that was no doubt on the way. Between that and the deaths of so many young mages during the Trials, the spirit of Orlem was in the gutters. Many were voicing doubts over whether the city could be saved. Some had already packed their bags and started looking for friends or family in other cities to stay with.

The League itself was in a precarious situation. With Orlem unexpectedly crippled, a huge power vacuum had opened up and every member of the League of Free Cities was eager to snap up Orlem’s holdings and position as leader of the League, as a result, the people of Orlem couldn’t call in mages from their allied cities to help them rebuild. Already there had been whispers that Volfsdown was assembling an army.

With her mana pool completely empty, Livy’s hands fell limply to her side. A slow and steady anger had been simmering inside her for these past two weeks, slowly building to a boil.

At first they thought the Realmstone had simply malfunctioned. Then they thought that one of the other cities had snuck agents into the trial to steal the Realmstone for themselves. After that the rumor was that an imperial spy had entered the trial in disguise and sabotaged the dungeon core.

Finally the truth was filtering down through reliable channels. A warlock was behind the destruction of the Realmstone, and all this destruction. The wielder of borrowed magic had likely destroyed it for his own malicious ends, or to serve his vile master in the abyss. Demons loved chaos, and this masterstroke was certain to cause a lot of it. Whether they were acting for one of the other cities, an agent of the empire, or simply causing chaos for his own perverse amusement, nobody knew. Livy hadn’t cared much for the gossip, but she devoured every piece of information on this topic that she could get.

According to descriptions, the warlock had been fairly young. Dirty blond hair, unnaturally pale skin, a thin wiry build, and most importantly eyes that glowed red with blood lust. At first the description reminded her slightly of Mar, in a morbid sort of way, but that was just her subconscious missing all the familiar faces that were now taken forever from her life.

One of the first things she’d done was walk through the library and ask the bookkeepers where he was, but all of them said they hadn’t seen him since the day of the incident. Thankfully a new friend among the inquisitors she had made was able to get the address to the small apartment he rented.

Livy had put this off long enough. Mar spent nearly every waking hour at the library. If he hadn’t shown up over the last two weeks, it was because he wasn’t able to. She didn’t want to believe it, but it seemed as though he was doomed to become another name scratched from her life.

Even after requisitioning a horse it took more than an hour to reach the anywhere in the city worth visiting. Orlem, even partially in ruins, was far too huge a city to transverse by mundane means. Without the floating paths, mundane dirt and cobblestone roads were seeing more use than they had in centuries, and it showed. Many were in ill repair from disuse, and the fact that the Realmstone had been destroyed meant there was no easy way to fix them.

She’d been putting this visit off for days, knowing what she would find. In truth, the address where Mar lived wasn’t that far from the construction site her parents were at. It was also on the outskirts of the city, in the shadow of the wall.

Livy was surprised at just how filthy the area was. Even accounting for the damages of the recent weeks it was rare to see someone clothed in anything better than rags, and men openly gawked at her. It was likely rare to see someone clean and finely dressed in this neighborhood. She let her cloak flutter open, revealing her magus robes. Most of the stares turned away when they saw the war wand strapped to her belt, though she saw more than a few men fingering rusty daggers.

As she came closer to the walls the devastation to the outer reaches of the city became more apparent. The roads weren’t any smaller than elsewhere in the city, but the amount of usable space was steadily shrinking as she ran into tents and temporary stalls that and be illegally scattered by the side of the road.

The ground grew rough with rubble as she came closer to the wall. She passed through  a sad, sorry excuse for shopping center that went by the name of ‘Dirtflea market’. She was surprised to see that it appeared to be a bustling hub of activity, despite virtually everything else in the area being destroyed. It seemed that many of the residents around Dirtflea had turned to looting and were hawking their goods on the black market.

Beyond the market place broken stones from the wall and various buildings provided treacherous footing. There was no way her horse would be able to navigate through the debris, so she whistled at a pair of teenage boys who looked like they were trying to steal from an apple cart, one was too big and clumsy for the task though, and the other was failing at providing a suitable distraction. Livy knew that if she could spot the young thieves’ ploy the shopkeeper most definitely would. The young man was probably a recent orphan, trying to figure out life on the streets. Livy reached into her pocket and fingered a silver coin.

The boy trying to swipe an apple glanced at Livy when she whistled and waved for him to approach. He would have ignored the girl on the horse, only a few years older than him, if not for the expensive clothes and the glimpse of a warwand on her belt. Mage’s weren’t to be disobeyed. The boy approached and Livy tossed him a single silver coin, far more than a stable hand would have gotten.

“Watch my horse for me.” Livy instructed.

The boy’s friend started walking over to see why his friend had abandoned their attempt at thievery. Livy met his eyes.

“There should be an building around here. A friend of mine used to live in it. Help me find it and you’ll have the same reward your friend here is getting for watching my horse. I’m told it’s an apartment right next to a tavern named The Bloated Orc.” Livy frowned at the idea of a tavern with such an unappetizing name.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

The boy nodded though and lead the way for Livy. They had to hop from one upturned stone to another to make their way through the rough terrain. Many of the large crocks were precariously stacked and would tilt when they stepped on them, but Livy’s senses as an earth mage gave her a natural talent at avoiding unwanted landslides.

When the boy finally lead her to the building she was told Mar lived, she found nothing but a crumpled ruin. It had been too close to the walls and was hit even worse than the construction site her parents had been at. Dirty street urchins clothed in rags darted around the building, looking anything to loot. Anybody who had been inside that building when it fell was dead.

Livy stared at the ruin for a long while. She could sense rats with her earth magic, burrowing tunnels through the broken stones to nibble at the food and corpses buried underneath. She turned to the young thief and passed him a silver coin. “Thank you. I’ve seen what I wanted to see.” The boy clutched the silver denari in his hands and scurried off.

First her parents, and now Mar too. This warlock was going to pay.

Livy headed back to the market, looking for her horse and the boy she’d paid to watch it. Neither of them where where she left them, and she had to look around the market. Being in this place gave her jitters, and she’d heard stories about other mages being attacked while wandering alone in the city. Her hand strayed to the war wand at her belt.

It wasn’t there. The street urchin must have turned around and sold it while she was off with his friend. Livy grumbled. Just bit of ill luck to add to her growing list. There was so much evil in the world. She’d been such a spoiled little brat before. How had she never seen it before? She shook her head. It was just as inquisitor Morvin had been telling her.

She found another horse quickly enough, though this one was an old mare that looked half dead. Still, it was better than walking, and it was only fifty copper denarii. She jingled her purse softly. She’d have to remember to be more careful about spending her money. Her parents weren’t around to give her an allowance any more. Either that or she’d have to start working on earning some. There were plenty of jobs to be had for an earth mage in a city that had been half reduced to rubble. Somehow though, Livy just couldn’t see herself sticking around.

Orlem seemed so much bigger now that she couldn’t zip about between her favorite locations by magical means, even though part of it had been reduced to ash and rubble. It also seemed less friendly. And so unfamiliar. The sights and sounds she knew were gone.

Eventually her panting horse took her to Orlem’s school of magic. For the first time in a century classes were out of session. Every skilled mage was needed for the recovery of the city, and that included students and teachers.

She wandered briefly around the campus buildings. With the destruction of the Realmstone much of the campus was destroyed. Being a school for magic, spellcraft held virtually everything together. Even the things that weren’t directly powered by the Realmstone had unraveled due to the sudden dissipation of the mana-rich environment maintained by the Realmstone.

She stopped by the library, which looked mostly intact on the outside. It had been established long before the Realmstone was powerful enough to be used for every menial task mages could set upon it, so even without reinforcing magic the stone of it’s walls was strong enough to hold on it’s own. Except for the levitation pads and the illumination spells, no standing magic was allowed in the library, for fear of damaging the delicate books.

Unfortunately for the librarians, without the levitation paths the majority of the books were out of reach. The librarians were scratching their heads trying to get the ladders back in functional shape, but with every carpenter or wood mage in the city fully task-saturated, they were left to solve the problem on their own. Mar would have been able to do it. He was always clever with his hands. She supposed she’d have to tell the librarians that he was almost certainly dead. Knowing Mr. Thoswallow, he’d probably be pleased.

Livy didn’t come here for the books, and she didn’t really care to speak with the the librarians either. With the library being one of the few fully intact public buildings on campus, many departments had set up their own offices within it’s confines.

Eventually she found the person she was looking for. He was a lean middle-aged man with a small mustache and a completely shaven head, though he covered it with the characteristic pointy black hat the inquisitors always wore.

Oddly enough, he was seated at the very alcove she and Mar used to meet at for their study sessions. The door had been left ajar, though Livy still felt it rude to walk in unannounced. She rapped on the wooden door frame.

“Come in, Livy my dear.” Said a surprisingly soothing voice.

“Hello Inquisitor Morvin. I wanted to thank you for figuring out where my friend used to live. I stopped by on the way here.”

The inquisitor smiled. “It wasn’t a difficult matter. We inquisitors specialize in asking the right people the right questions. Inquiry is in our name after all. But by the look on your face it seems you didn’t like what you found.”

Livy shook her head. “The building complex was right in the shadow of the walls. There wasn’t much left of it when I found it.” She’d always thought inquisitors were these scary, black robed mages that would drag you away in the middle of the night, but inquisitor Morvin was both friendly and incredibly easy to talk to.

Inquisitor Morvin shook his head sadly. “I was afraid of that, after hearing the location. The senate is primarily concerned with surveying the damage to the inner city, repairing the shops and residences for mages to make the city livable for our kind. They forget that with our limited magic we will have need of manual labor once again. They would do well to win over the common folk in the outer city whose homes have been reduced to slums.”

“What about the warlock who caused this whole mess? Shouldn’t you be hunting him down?”

“I’m afraid that isn’t our job anymore, my dear.” Inquisitor Morvin shook his head sadly.

Livy looked at him in confusion. “But… aren’t you an inquisitor? Isn’t hunting warlocks one of your specialties?”

“Indeed I am young miss. Or at least I was. Now I’m afraid I don’t know what I am.”

Livy looked at him quizzically. “The inquisitors have protected Orlem for over three thousand years.”

Recruiter Morvin shook his head. “I’m afraid that time has ended. If you had asked the question this morning, perhaps I could have arranged an apprenticeship, and a full membership once you finished at the school. Unfortunately the Order of Inquisition for the Purity of Magic and the Protection and Prosperity of Orlem was officially dissolved this morning by unanimous vote of the senate. Right before they elected Lord Verandon as Magus Supreme, granting him dictatorial powers to deal with the present crisis.”

“I understand appointing a single leader, but why disband the inquisitors?”

Recruiter Morvin shrugged. “Somebody had to take the blame for this disaster. And so we no longer officially exist. Those do-nothing politicians. It’s not like we didn’t tell them multiple times that the Realmstone was far too vulnerable during the Trials. But they never listened. Tradition they said. And now when things go wrong they blame everything on us.”

“What about pursuing the actual perpetrator? The demon who caused this whole mess?” Livy asked nervously.

Recruiter Morvin waved a hand. “That’s being given to a new task force, specifically designed for the mission. They’re calling themselves the Bloodseekers. Both overly pretentious and overly morbid if you ask me. Once that’s done, I have little doubt they’re meant to fill our old role once we’re gone. Unlike us, this one is under the direct oversight of the senate. Those politicians have been wanting to cut us out of court for years, and this was their chance to finally do it.”

He leaned forward and whispered. “Now that I’m no longer a public employee, I can speak my mind, and truth be told, I’m not sure how long Orlem is going to last like this. Our supposed allies are lining up to devourer everything we have left. Volfsdown, once our obedient lapdog, has decided it’s fangs have grown long enough to challenge us for leadership of the pack. The other cities are certain to follow their example. And if infighting amongst the League doesn’t do us in, then the Imperial invasion that is on the way surely will. I’d suggest packing your bags, and leaving with your family to some place in the countryside.”

Livy’s melancholy returned. “I don’t have any family. Not anymore.”

Recruiter Morvin gave her a sad look and took a long sip from his mug. “I figured as much Not many would seek the company of an inquisitor unless they had no other choice. Let me just say that I can sympathies with you. Most of us inquisitors do. It hurts now, but new names and faces will fill the void, given time.”

“Where are you going?” Livy asked the ex-inquisitor.

Recruiter Morvin shrugged. “As I suggested. I’m running off to a small hut in the countryside with my family, now that the inquisitors are officially retired. To live out my days in humble harmony with nature and whatnot.”

“Family?” Livy asked. “But I thought you just said…”

“Oh no, I’m most definitely an orphan. My fellow inquisitors are my brothers and sisters.”

“Would… do you think you’ll have room for one more orphan?” Livy asked.

Recruiter gave her a long and steady look. “You’re serious about becoming an inqui-” Recruiter Morvin stopped himself “Of becoming one of us?”

Livy nodded.

Recruiter Morvin leaned back in his chair. “It’s possible that my brothers and sisters don’t entirely intend on retiring to a cottage by the sea shore. It’s possible that many of us still believe in our cause, even though our patron city no longer believes in us.”

Livy nodded again. “I’m ready to leave.”

Recruiter Morvin smiled. “Good. Sleep well tonight, and replenish your mana pool. You start combat training first thing in the morning.”