Research had been suspended for the time being, which caused the Evergrass School scholars and the remaining independent scholar to decide to leave the city, to return at a later date; the fact that Lord Henrik’s mansion was attacked reduced their feeling of security, which also played a major role. Though no other intruders beyond those Isa and Rai had fought were found, there was a lot of cleanup to do, and Henrik was naturally concerned about his home security. Rai gave one of the Conference Pendant’s green orbs to the independent scholar and one of the Evergrass scholars so that he could contact them if need be in a quick and secure manner.

Three of the intruders had survived to be captured: the two mages Rai had attacked with nonlethal Crackling Rays and the one man that Isa had tossed and slammed into the floor. Rather than send them out to the city jail, Henrik decided to keep them locked up on the premises. When Torval asked why, Rai found out what happened to the two assassins he had defeated prior to meeting Henrik: they were found dead in their cells, apparently poisoned. Presumably, Henrik said, they had been assassinated by their allies to ensure they didn’t talk.

Two days after the attack, Rai, Isa, Torval, and Henrik sat facing the sole non-mage in the storage closet where he was being held. The man was fairly young, apparently in his early twenties, and like all the rest of the intruders, he had the ouroboros tattoo on his bicep. He sat silently on a box, hands tied behind his back and then to a metal hook in the wall, his expression wary.

“Do you know who I am?” Henrik asked. The prisoner remained silent.

“Do you know who I am?” Rai asked.

“You’re the scholar.”

“That’s right. I’m the scholar. This is Lord Henrik Amit, the owner of this estate. Neither of us are very happy about your organization’s attack.”

“So?”

“Do you even realize your situation?” Isa said. “You’re only alive because I didn’t kill you. Do you know what happened to the other guy you were with? I turned all his blood to acid.”

The prisoner winced.

“We are going to ask you some questions,” Henrik said. “And you are going to answer.”

“And if I don’t?”

“Well, I guess we could just let you die of starvation,” Isa said nonchalantly. “It’s a pretty terrible way to go, or so I’ve heard.”

“And what happens if I do talk? You going to let me go? Or am I just going to die anyway?”

“I am a gentleman, not a savage,” Henrik said, sounding offended. “I would never kill a cooperating prisoner in cold blood! Of course we’ll let you go – after a short waiting period, of course.”’

The prisoner raised an eyebrow skeptically.

“In a few days, the Chancellor of the Isle of Heaven’s Reach will be visiting,” Rai said. “After she has a chance to ask you a few questions of her own, we’ll let you go.”

Because she can use scrying magic, and if she meets you and we take a hair clipping to strengthen the spell, there’s next to no chance you’ll be able to resist it, which means we can spy on you, and through you, your organization, Rai thought.

“Now, before we start asking questions… Read Minds,” Rai cast. After a few seconds, the man’s thoughts came into focus.

Did he just cast a mind-reading spell? That’s not good. Even if I don’t talk, will he be able to read my mind? Are you reading my mind right now? Get out of my head! I don’t want you to read my mind!

“Calm down,” Rai said. “Just answer our questions, and everything will be all right.”

“Like hell it will!” If they know I ratted, they’ll kill me!

“Look, do you want to thirst to death?” Isa said impatiently.

“I’m dead no matter what I do! If I don’t talk, you kill me. If I do talk…”

“Then they kill you? Why would you join an organization like that?” Rai asked.

It pays good, and I had nowhere else to go. I was with them since I was a teen, the man thought, while aloud he said, “Why do you care?”

“I don’t, not really,” Rai admitted. “I just can’t understand wanting to work for somebody that’ll kill you for something that’s not your fault.”

“Screw off!”

“What’s the name of your organization?”

Eternity. “The Snakes.”

“Eternity, huh?” Rai mused. “You know, it’s not going to help you if you keep lying.”

So he is reading my mind! “Go to hell!”

“What is the purpose of your organization?” Henrik asked.

Hell if I know. “World domination. You happy now?”

“Really?” Henrik said, glancing at Rai. Rai shook his head.

“He doesn’t know. He’s just a grunt, so I suppose it’s understandable. What do you know about your organization’s goals?”

Tower Era research. Searching for mythical magic. “How should I know anything? I just know that they’re in the same business as you, scholar: they want to research the Tower Era.”

“Any idea why?”

The man shrugged. “Something about mythical magic.”

“That’s it?” Isa said. “I could have guessed that without your help.”

“Shut up, lizard!” Who asked you?!

“How big is Eternity?”

“Forever and ever,” the man said sarcastically. At the same time, he thought the word International.

“International? Do they cover the whole continent?”

Damn it! “Quit reading my mind!”

“Answer the question.”

“I don’t know! I just know that they’ve got members in all sorts of influential places. Now that the locals have failed to kill you with a little break-in in your protector’s estate, I bet some actually powerful people will take interest.” He smiled. “You’re gonna die, just like me.”

“Are there any members at the Magic Tower?” Isa asked suddenly.

Yes. “How should I know?”

“There are?” Rai said in surprise. “Who?”

That lion guy. “I don’t know!”

“Lion guy…? You mean History Dean Derx?”

“I knew it!” Isa exclaimed. “I knew there was something off about him from the start! He was the one who proposed we keep everything a secret, using Eternity as a threatening figure to scare everyone in line. His little ‘errand’ before he left must have been giving the local members orders to attack.”

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Yeah.

“I see. Can we trust the Chancellor?”

How should I know? “Oh, no, definitely not. He’s in on it.”

“The Chancellor is a woman,” Rai said with a sigh. “Please stop being dishonest. I guess for now, I’ll trust her. Where do you meet up in the city? Where’s your HQ?”

No way am I telling you that. “No way am I telling you that.”

“Is there another noble involved in the local chapter of Eternity?”

Lord Bonrixa. “What do you think?”

Rai turned to Henrik. “Lord Bonrixa.”

“Bonrixa, hm? He is heavily involved with the Library; he’s also a scholastic mage. I’ve interacted with him quite a bit; it surprises me that he would be holding a secret like this. But I suppose that intrigue for you! Very exciting!”

Exciting?! Is this some sort of game to you, you noble dastard?! The prisoner glared hatefully at Henrik.

“What kind of numbers does the local chapter of Eternity have?” Rai asked.

Never seen ‘em all at once, so I don’t know. “Oh, dozens.”

“You don’t know, huh?”

“Quit reading my mind!”

“You know, if you just answered honestly, I wouldn’t have to.” Rai rested his elbows on his knees and his chin in his hands. “Twice now, Eternity has tried to kill me in my sleep. Twice now, I’ve survived. I don’t want to die any more than you do. If your organization hadn’t targeted me, I wouldn’t even know they existed. They’re the ones who decided to make an enemy out of me, not the other way around. Stop playing the victim.”

“Then stop pretending you give a damn about my life and just torture me already.”

“I have no intention of torturing you. Even killing people makes me ill. I just want information so that I can defend myself.”

“Yeah, right. You want to take the fight to Eternity.”

“Maybe a little,” Rai admitted. “But I’m nowhere near strong enough to do that. I’m only a third circle mage and a third tier combat artist – an elite, but no master and certainly no champion or legendary hero. Right now, more knowledge means better ways to protect myself, and that’s it. So help me out, and we’ll let you go. I think it’s a fair trade.”

“If they know I squealed, they’ll kill me. Letting me go doesn’t save me.”

“And why would they know you ‘squealed?’”

“Why else wouldn’t you have killed me?”

“…A peace offering,” Torval interjected. “We send you back alive with the message that if they leave us alone, we’ll leave them alone.”

“There’s no way they’ll believe that.”

“Do you have any other ideas on how you’re going to make it through this alive?” Isa challenged. “Even if it’s a small chance, it’s better than no chance, yeah?”

The prisoner considered Isa’s words in silence.

“Dammit,” he said at last. “Fine. I don’t know a whole lot; I’m just a ‘grunt,’ as you said. A regular minion. But I’ll answer your questions if I can.”

-x-

The two mages were far less cooperative, but neither the second circle mage nor the third circle mage was capable of casting spells purely mentally, so keeping their wrists tied together and their hands in mittens kept them from using magic. The second circle mage steadfastly refused to speak at all, leaving Rai to gather information from their surface thoughts alone. The third circle mage, however, managed to repeatedly resist the effects of the mind reading spell, and when the spell finally succeeded, he simply recited a book in his mind to block out any accidental subconscious leaks of information.

Over the next several days, Rai repeatedly tried to get information from the third circle mage to no avail. Finally, at the end of the week, the Chancellor of the Magic Tower returned and they filled her in on the situation.

She interrogated all three prisoners with Rai and Henrik present, questioning them especially about Eternity’s reach and Dean Derx’s membership. After collecting a hair clipping from the non-mage, she approved of releasing him. Then she insisted that she would take the two mages back to the Tower with her.

“Now, it’s time to make our work agreement,” she said to Rai with a smile. “Here is my proposal.” She handed a large scroll to him. He opened it and read it from start to finish.

“So, the gist of it,” he said, “is that while Isa and I retain ownership over everything we find without your help, I agree to let you study it when we’re not using it. Additionally, the Tower will have primary possession of the book of magic spell scroll pages, since you all would be the ones to benefit the most from it, though before any page is expended, I must give my permission. I will retain primary possession of the Tetra in exchange, with the Tower only researching it in my presence. Finally, the Tower will provide manpower to assist with expeditions to ease the financial burden on Lord Henrik. In exchange, any items recovered or discoveries made during a joint expedition will have credit and ownership jointly shared, though I will be recognized as the expedition leader. Is that about right?”

“That is a good summary. There are a few little details you glossed over, but those are the broad strokes of the agreement.”

“Unless Isa has any reservations, I think we should go ahead and sign.”

“No, that sounds good to me,” Isa said.

The three of them signed and pressed their bloody thumbprints onto their signatures, activating the magically-binding contract – a highly expensive magic item, as it relied on fifth-circle magic. Then Rai gave one of the Conference Pendant’s orbs to the Chancellor, and she left, taking the captive mages with her.

-x-

Rai spent most of his time the last couple weeks of summer using the Record Tetra to learn as much as he could about the Tower Era, as well as locating the next ancient Magic Tower that he wanted to investigate. Further investigation of Dragonia would require passing through the Dragonbreath Tribe’s territory or contesting Eternity, assuming Brak was a member of the organization, which made it currently a bad idea, hence looking for another Tower. Any Towers that lined up with currently populated areas were obviously no longer there, so he crossed those off the list. The two most promising potential sites were also two of the most challenging to reach: the one in the Desert of Death and the one in the Savage Jungle Isles.

“Of the two,” Rai said to Isa and Torval, “the less lethal environment is the Savage Jungle Isles. However, there are a lot of wild beasts and monsters there, and it’s very difficult to traverse and fight in. We also don’t know what sort of peoples might live there, since if any do, they have no contact with the continent. On the other hand, the Desert of Death is completely inhospitable, but monsters are rarer – even if they might be more powerful – and you have much better sight range and freedom to move in combat. There are peoples that live there near oases, but its hard to find them and they aren’t known for being friendly – they’re so-called monstrous races.”

“Are the Magic Tower people going to want to go to either place?” Torval said. “I mean, aren’t there other places you could go?”

“There are… but they require going to other countries rather than places that don’t belong to any nation. That would complicate things. We’ll do it eventually, of course, but for now, if we want to be completely free of Eternity’s influence, going to one of those two places is ideal. Isa, do you have any preference?”

“It’s just a matter of which order we explore the areas, right? In that case, I think we should do the Jungle Isles first. It sounds like we’ll get plenty of combat experience there, which should toughen us up for tackling the Desert. I’m already itching to get back out there and challenge myself; I need to build myself up as much as possible to prepare for evolution, since I’m already at the realm cap for kobolds. I still don’t know what the exact requirements are for evolution, either. It’s possible that I’ll have to push myself to the limits of third tier and/or third circle; I can’t advance either my qi core or mana heart, but maybe trying to will be what it takes to evolve.”

“Well, just so you know, I’m not going to go with you,” Torval said. “As exciting as it sounds, I’m not a fighter and I’d rather not die.”

“Fair enough,” Rai said with a smile. “I guess I should contact the Chancellor. I don’t think I can contact only her, so I’ll have to talk to everyone else who has an orb from the pendant as well.” He took the pendant out of the pouch and slipped it on, tapping the main orb to activate it.

“Hello, this is Rai Flammne. Everyone hear me?”

Isa and Torval heard no reply, but Rai heard the responses as clear as day.

“This is Carl of Evergrass, I hear you clearly.”

“This is Miransa, itinerant scholar. I hear you both.”

“This is the Chancellor of the Magic Tower. I hear you all. I’m a little busy at the moment, so please make this quick.”

“I hear all of you,” Rai said. “I have decided on the next expedition location: the Savage Jungle Isles. There should be a Magic Tower ruin somewhere in the archipelago. Due to changes in geography, I cannot be certain, but I suspect that it will be on the largest island. Due to the difficulty and expense of reaching the Isles, I would like to request a partnership with the Magic Tower of the Isle of Heaven’s Reach for this expedition.”

“The Savage Jungle Isles? Why aim for such a hard-to-reach location right away?” the Chancellor asked.

“Two reasons. First, it is highly unlikely that the secret organization called Eternity will be able to intercept us… unless agents hidden within the Tower join the expedition. Second, it’s not under the jurisdiction of any recognized nation, which means we don’t have to worry about potential political issues. Well, I suppose there is a third reason: Isa wishes to use challenging situations as a way to unlock her true potential and evolve into a saurian, and part of our partnership pact is that I assist her in achieving her goals as she assists me in achieving mine.”

“I see. An expedition to a place as dangerous as the Savage Isles will not be easy to quickly assemble a team for, especially when we have yet to work together on this project and make it visible to people.”

“We don’t need a large team – in fact, a small team would be better, as it would be easier to ensure the survival of all members. For a place like that, we need most members of the expeditionary team capable of defending themselves. A large group of noncombatants would be a liability.”

“This is not as simple as you are assuming it will be.”

“With all due respect: why not? Surely you can ask for volunteers from combat-capable scholars.”

“…One month. That’s the quickest I can organize the expeditionary force. We’ll set out from the Isle of Heaven’s Reach and make our way across the ocean to the archipelago. I bring you and Isa here when we’re within a few days of setting out.”

“Very well. Thank you for your understanding.”

“I can make it back to Fairholm by then,” Miransa said. “I’d like to join the team.”

“So it’ll be me, Isa, Miransa, and the members from the Tower,” Rai said.

“Yes. Now, as I said, I’m busy, and I need to get back to what I was doing. So if you would kindly deactivate…”

“Sure.”