The room was small. The table had been fused to the ground, the legs blending seamlessly into the floor. The room, thankfully, hadn’t been made of the same materials as her cell. The mana flow was natural. She was glad that the jailers did not notice her ability to absorb mana through her bonds. Mirabelle stared at her with a mix of anger and concern. The gnome’s legs dangled from the chair.

“I don’t know,” Amie said, “I had a stupid idea.”

“Do you even know what you did?” she asked, while slapping the table.

Amie looked around the room for a little then shook her head. Mirabelle sighed and rubbed at her forehead with her hand.

“Don’t worry, they can’t listen in. I have some privilege as a grand master.”

Amie let out a breath and slumped in her chair, “I had a stupid idea that I read in a book.”

Mirabelle shifted in her seat, sitting forward.

“There were a few pages talking about preparations for portal use,” she continued, “I followed one of the guides included for basic mana corrections.”

“What book was it?” Mirabelle said, her face blank.

Amie told her the title of the book and the story of how she had found it in the bookstore. She gave vague details as to what she actually did for the ritual and an even more vague description about what else was in the book. She failed to tell Mirabelle about the notes of all the others that had held it before.

“The city’s passive shielding failed,” Mirabelle said.

Amie looked at Mirabelle with a strange look. The shielding couldn’t just fail. It was put into place to keep stray spells from wreaking havoc throughout the city. It was designed to put up with a lot of abuse and required very little maintenance.

“The whole shield?” asked Amie.

Mirabelle nodded, “The whole shield, so what did you do?”

Amie grew white. The sentence, if she was found guilty, was death. She probably wouldn’t be able to get out of the prison in her lifetime even if it were an accident. Mirabelle was certainly angry, but her face hadn’t shown anything one way or another. Could Amie trust her? There was one way to find out. Mirabelle was a grand master. What would draw her attention?

The metal aground Amie’s body started to grow hot as she found a stream of mana that she interpreted as red. She had trained herself to manipulate mana in a mana dry environment. As the strand of mana seemed to wheel lazily in the air, she tore free a chunk. There was an audible pop as it broke free, causing Mirabelle to jump to her feet on the chair. The shackle on her left hand started to heat as she moved the free chunk into her hand and tried to manipulate it. A small orb of fire materialized in her palm.

Mirabelle shouted in surprise as the fire burned in Amie’s hand. The fear from the unknown sound changed into something else.

“How did you do that?” She said, pulling Amie’s hand forward.

The chains clinked as they hit the table. Amie’s shackle had grown uncomfortable as her magic use heated up. She quickly dispersed the flame orb.

“You changed your affinity.” Mirabelle repeated slower, “You changed your affinity, no one can do that.”

“I did more than that,” Amie said.

Mirabelle looked at the shackles. A pained look crossed her face. There was conflict.

“You’re shackled,” Mirabelle said.

Amie nodded. Mirabelle cursed under her breath and she left, alerting the guards that she was leaving. Amie felt a little betrayed by the sudden disappearance. She let the guards guide her back to her room. They were rough, but as she wasn’t fighting back they easily lead her back into the cell. Amie fell back into her quickly established routine. She got very good at counting and her sense of passing time grew better. The pain of being alone in a room was crushed by her routine. She had managed to gather a large quantity of mana when Mirabelle had visited. It was enough at least to kill the headache that she had when she was in her room. She felt that she could still continue gathering every scrap she could. While she managed to keep track of the time, she lost track of the day as they started to pass her by.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

—

Qinran was a decent travel companion, Omar admitted to himself. He was entertaining at least. They did share a few intrests and Omar found him easier to talk to as they spent more time together. Qinran avoided talking as much as possible. When the pair passed other travelers on their trip south he only answered in short clipped sentences. Qinran had an accent. It was blended with a few other human accents, but the elvish tendency to hold onto vowels was still there. It might not be a problem when they reach The Second Tower, but here it was. Omar had found himself being the voice of the party more than once. Qinran’s pale skin was also another thing they had found they needed to explain away. If it weren’t the headwrap they would have to travel through the dense jungle.

“I first met Amie the first time I went to The Second Tower,” Omar said.

“I see,” said Qinran, “That’s the elementalist right?”

Omar nodded, “When we first met she had already been out of the tower for a year.”

Omar stumbled over a rock but was able to continue to walking once he steadied himself.

“She’s obsessed with The Wandering River,” Omar tapped his chin, “I think on her third visit I helped her realize the mana phenomena that controlled the river.”

“Do you know what it was?” Omar asked.

Omar shook his head, “I’m only good at using magic for combat.”

A few mana orbs appeared lazily circling Omar, before they vanished. He had been working on his soul inscription and his internal mana system. He tried teaching Qinran a few spells and how to use them, but it was far from effective. He couldn’t think of a way to help determine the elf’s mana or even his soul capacity. Magic was a pain, but useful. It would be nice to have someone that had the skills to match his own. It would be nice to have some preparations for fight some unknown force of an unknown calamity.

Qinran shared a story from one of his own loops and how he became a diplomat to some lost elf tribe. It ended in disaster. They were cannibals and took the the elven custom of exchanging diplomats as some kind of trading of meals. Qinran laughed at how confused the cannibals were after they cut his throat. The sea elves hadn’t liked the action, but Quinlan didn’t live long enough get to see any of the fighting.

Omar shared a story of how he entered one of Ulid Prince’s cities, pretending to be a traveling painter a week before the city was under siege. He hadn’t actually used any skill, but there was enough of a following bandit group dressed in finery that they were able to rob the palace and make it out a day before the enemy army arrived. Corin smiled. His camp had been drunk for a week straight and still had more to spend.

A few days later they arrived at a gate. It felt out of place, but that was only because it was built as a trading post for The Second Tower. A man shouted down at them.

“State your business.”

“Traveling to The Second Tower,” Corin shouted, cupping his hands around his mouth.

The guard went behind the wall. After a while, the gate creaked open. A trio of guards armed with spears greeted them. Omar explained that his companion was mute. One of the guards eyed Qinran suspiciously. Omar paid the entrance fee, knowing he was being ripped off, but both Qinran and Omar didn’t want any extra questions. After a little grumbling the suspicious guard broke away for a while, coming back with a few signed and stamped papers.

“Don’t lose those when you get to the mainland,” warned the guard that took their money.

Omar thanked them and the pair entered into the small trading post. They had talked about having Omar take the wizard test to try for a scholarship at the tower. It would certainly increase their chances of meeting with Amie when they entered the capitol propper, but the main drawback is that it would put too much of a spotlight on Qinran. While some elves were welcome in some of the stronger nations, the sea elves were generally feared. They were so feared that elves born with dark hair often dyed their hair or shaved themselves bald regardless if they were an elf from the floating island or not.

The first place they went was to change their funds to the paper currency that was so popular with citizens of The Second Tower. Omar knew he was getting screwed over with the exchange rate but all they needed was enough to make it across the ocean and then he could make money once they were ashore. If all else failed, he would at least be able to get himself a scholarship. It wouldn’t come to that.

Omar and Qinran rented a room at the empty inn. The elf went to their room and started practicing the meditation method that Omar had taught him. Qinran had just started being able to visualize his own mana system. It would take a little longer before Omar could teach him some basic mana controls. With Qinran gone, Omar set out to the docks to see about booking passage to the nation. He wasn’t expecting to get anything sudden, but it was more likely they would have to wait a few days before they would leave.