“I call it Zero Stratum. The new lowest reaches of Fount Salt.” The Titan Witch proudly stated.

A cavernous chamber awaited them inside the doorway. Molded to mimic the ancient pickaxe chips in the walls of the nymph lair but crafted entirely of titanium. Nanri led them down the hall where a river flowed along the side of the path, the walls lit with dim blue light. There was only one thing missing.

“No takers yet?” Cira asked.

The witch pouted, “No… I don’t know what I’m doing wrong, it looks exactly the same as the real one!”

“I figured they just liked salt. What do you think, Lomp?” He choked, having suddenly been called on.

“That’s correct, as far as I know. But I can’t say anyone’s ever tried this.” He looked sick.

Nanri led the way as they traversed the catacombs. They were truly expansive. This is an insane amount of titanium. How could they possibly go through all this without a solid plan to move the salt nymphs?

“That’s why I’m glad they sent you, Cira.” Nanri put a hand on her shoulder, “I was beginning to think they didn’t have a plan.”

The flock of nymphs which had stopped multiplying after they entered didn’t seem too interested either. Nor could Cira tell if they even noticed they were anywhere right now. They showed no signs of caring about their surroundings as they slowly fluttered about until one bumped into a wall and looked at it funny for a moment before gliding the other way.

“What do you think, Nina?” Cira made a showy gesture with her hand, displaying the metal cave around them, “You want to live here?”

Nina blinked a couple times staring at Cira until she pulled her hat down over her head.

“Yeah, they don’t seem to like it here.” The sorcerer had no legitimate reason to care. This all looked like a slippery slope to enslaving salt nymphs, “Did you enchant these walls?”

“I sure did,” Her mask bobbed as she nodded, “Well, Lyren did. One-way spatial resistance. They can come in, if only they would, but they can’t leave.” She took off her mask and sighed, “I don’t even need this in here…”

Cira’s opinion of her dropped considerably. There’s only so much ignorance can cover for in her book. Still, she felt sorry for the young witch. She’d had a sheltered upbringing which deviated drastically from her own.

“How do you feel about this work, Nanri?” She wanted to hear her thoughts.

“I don’t think I understand the question… I mean, it’s work.”

“Yeah but, the goal is to trap a bunch of nymphs down here. How does that make you feel?”

The witch pondered the question, as if she had never considered it before, “I don’t know, I guess they’re kind of like bugs, aren’t they?”

Cira looked at Nina, who looked at her back. She wasn’t following the conversation, just staring at Cira. Are they like bugs? I guess it’s hard to say. She went to bop Nina on the head and the nymph pulled her hat down again.

“’The sorcerer who must rely on their power over others to get what they want is actually the weakest of them all…’”

“What was that?” Nanri asked.

“Oh, just something my father said. Pay it no mind.

They continued down the caves with Cira admiring the attention to detail and Lomp looking defeated, trailing behind. Meanwhile, Nanri was deep in thought. She paid very much mind to Cira’s words. Everything about this new witch was so far removed from what she knew, what she learned from the great Silver Witch.

She’d seen her wield two different witchcrafts on par with a full-fledged witch. Nanri had yet to see her geomancy, but ‘rocks, but anything really’. Did she actually say that? There’s no such thing as ‘rocks’. It’s all something. Can she mold anything? Even silver? Or gold?! The witch’s shackles… Is this what she meant?

“Say, Cira. What does it mean to be a sorcerer?” She asked, “I mean, what makes it different than a witch?”

Cira stopped and put hand to her chin, her blond hair hanging down as she looked up thoughtfully, “I think it’s a matter of perspective really. Let’s see… What does being a witch mean to you?” Cira honestly had no idea, so to give advice she had to start there.

“Well… Mother—I mean master said a witch is a witch because they were born blessed with power. That’s the same with you, right? We’re both casting magic.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“Not so,” Cira wagged her finger, “It’s true that we’re both casting magic, though as a sorcerer I wield it as sorcery. In short, sorcery is the study and responsible use of mana to produce magic. Some may be lucky enough to be born with enough mana to conjure such miracles, but it is by no means a blessing, nor does it mean you are ‘blessed’.”

Lomp had removed his mask to take a breather by this point and was leaning on the wall, far past the point of caring about whatever Cira was going on about.

Nanri wore a shocked expression like her whole world was a lie, “It-it doesn’t…?”

“Sorcery is a gift—the gift of knowledge. And the wisdom to know not just how, but when to use it. One could argue, in fact, that the spellcaster who wields magic without such considerations is no more than a common rogue. That you’ve been ‘blessed’ with high mana reserves means only that you’ve been given the privilege to learn.”

“Do you—“ The young witch stopped herself, unsure if she should continue, “Do you think I could be a sorcerer too one day?”

Cira felt awkward being asked that question from a young woman that could be either a year younger or older than her for all she knew, but to outright deny her would be a lie, “Something tells me that for you, Nanri, the path to true sorcery would be a treacherous one.” She was deeply involved in a shady organization, not even of her own volition. She was born into it. What’s more, Cira knew next to nothing about it. That made it difficult to speculate.

“What do you mean?”

“Hmm, how to put it… Being a sorcerer is often a thankless job. Or, even if you get rewarded you pay yourself twice the price in trouble. But you’ve done so because you knew it had to be done. It was the right thing to do. Lives wholly unrelated to you hang in the balance and sometimes incredible burdens are placed upon you for no apparent reason,” She looked at Lomp who was conveniently staring straight ahead to the opposing wall, “But you are a sorcerer. You can’t shy from the responsibility just because you didn’t ask for it. That’s the burden of your so-called ‘blessing’. If someone not so blessed needs help within your reach it falls upon your shoulders.”

Cira was enjoying the chance to regurgitate her father’s words that she heard so long ago. She was a truly clueless child, but Gazen ingrained a code of ethics in her from the moment he took her in. Cira would watch him work and his actions molded her into the sorcerer she was today.

Nanri was fully engrossed. “How do you know what’s right…?”

“The sorcerer’s code takes a lifetime to hone,” Cira shook her head, “Meaning I’m still learning. You must live with empathy for the weak, for lack of better phrasing. Follow your code and don’t be swayed by another’s will. Some may call you cold or thoughtless. Some may even call you a traitor. They won’t understand until you’re far above the clouds. Listen to yourself, not some orders from the sky. The only orders a sorcerer takes are from the heart.” She tapped on her chest.

Cira attempted to make a wise Gazen quote at the end there but cringed when it didn’t sound cool at all. Even Lomp made a face. Luckily, Nanri took it to heart, “Incredible… Just like the stampede. Being a sorcerer sure sounds intense. No wonder you’re in the high coven.”

In the what…? “It’s not always so serious. Most of the time I’m just looking for a good meal or conversation after long months on the winds. Sorcery comes with a certain freedom to do whatever you want a vast majority of the time—the hard work comes and goes. I can’t help the whole sky after all, just whoever falls in my path.”

Nanri was deep in her own head, and Cira was thinking of fond memories, so Lomp finally stepped up and said something, “How long are we going to wander around these caves? How far do these go anyhow?”

“I was hoping the little nymphs would warm up to the place, but…” Nanri looked behind and they were all still blankly hovering at a constant distance behind Cira, occasionally bouncing off the walls but pulling along all the same.

She made it sound like trapping the nymphs was bad… I need to figure out why. Perhaps the essence of sorcery lies behind that. The witch was hard at work solving the puzzle. ‘I would never enslave this creature’, she said… She even gave it a name and a little hat. Are they more than bugs after all?

“I’ve designed this place to be the size of the entire first stratum. It’s a near-copy of the nymph’s lair.” Lomp’s eyes grew wide, and he went pale for the hundredth time that day. Cira didn’t have time to worry about his anemia as there was a glint in her eyes of something shiny.

Even the small man looks sick. Is it really so bad, what I’m building? Then why has Cira come to help me? “What can I do for this place if trapping them is no good?”

Cira raised an eyebrow, “Hmm… If you can’t reach the answer, it means your approach is wrong. You’re building this place because Earth Vein wants the prima salts, no?”

“That’s correct…”

“Build it because the miner’s pushed the salt nymphs down to the bottom and they’re running out of room—” Her jaw dropped and she ripped Lomp off the ground by his bulky jumpsuit, causing him to yelp. “That’s it!”

“What?!” He cried, “What’s it?!”

“They’re running out of room! The nymphs!”

“Huh…” He wasn’t convinced, “I don’t know. They wander wherever they want when they’re feeling fine. They’re always taking our old mineshafts and what not too. You saw them up in the city, they were acting crazy until you swooped in.”

“Exactly! It’s all coming together.” Cira shook him and he wondered why she was still grabbing him. “They take over the mineshafts for the same reason, but before going mad. Look at these things, they don’t care about anything, but they look annoyed when they bounce off these walls. Earlier in their lair, they would repel each other. If they clump up too much and can’t keep from bouncing off each other, perhaps they get stressed. That’s when they ‘go mad’ and the whole cluster escapes. My Staff of Springs only quelled them from this state.“

The guard put a finger up to refute her, then lowered it, falling into thought. Nanri just looked at Cira with starstruck eyes, “You’re amazing, Cira! That’s what I have to do. I have to give the salt nymphs a home! One where there can… do whatever it is they do happily!”

Lomp’s mouth hung open as he looked at the witch in shock, then at Cira like she’d just pulled off the magic trick of the century, “I… I think that’s a great idea, oh Titan Witch.” For what it’s worth, he was quick on the uptake.

I can tell she’s holding it back, but Cira is definitely grinning right now. Even the small man thinks it’s a good idea. Could that have been the right answer?

Unbeknownst to Cira, a strangely sorcerous seed had taken root deep within the young witch’s heart.