The Chancellor of the Magic Tower stood at front of the classroom, facing the rest of the room’s occupants. Nearly a month had passed since Rai had contacted her about arranging for the expedition to the Savage Jungle Isles, and today she would preside over the briefing and introductions of the various expeditionary members. In three days’ time, the people in this room – save herself – would board one of the magic-powered ships possessed by the Magic Tower and set sail to the east, beginning a sea journey that, if all went well, would take a week before making landfall on the largest of the Savage Isles. The actual expedition length was unknown, but she hoped they would be able to return before winter, giving them six weeks to explore the island.
“If I may have your attention,” she said calmly, and immediately she had everyone’s full focus. “While all of you have a fairly good idea of what the plan is, repeating it so that everyone is on the same page cannot hurt. Everyone here has gathered because they have volunteered to be part of an expeditionary force that will be braving the unknown wilds of the Savage Jungle Isles in search of ruins of the historical time period known in myth as the Tower Era. Our own Magic Tower of the Isle of Heaven’s Reach, where we are currently standing, is a tribute to the Magic Towers of this legendary age, where each such Tower served as the seat of rule for one of the Mage-Kings. Around each Magic Tower existed a city-state. According to the Record Tetra, a recording device recovered from a Tower Era ruin, the peninsula that existed where the Savage Isles are now was home to one of the Magic Towers. Our estimation is that what is left of the Tower will be found on the largest of the Isles, so that will be your destination.
“Now, I know that acknowledging the existence of the Tower Era is a controversial act. However, your expedition leader, Rai Flamme, was able to locate a ruin and recover irrefutable proof that the myth has basis in fact. While the myths are not completely accurate – for example, it was not a peaceful paradise – they are rooted in truth: Mage-Kings ruled from Magic Towers, and it was an age of advanced magic and magical technology. Thus, we will refer to it as the Tower Era, even if it differed from the myths. We are, after all, seekers of knowledge: we do not ignore evidence simply because it contradicts what we think we know.
“The fact that you are here means that you are willing to entertain the possibility of finding remnants of the Tower Era – and with it, magic and technology that could change the world. All of us here hunger for heretofore unknown knowledge. We are possessed of a powerful curiosity that drives us to even face life-threatening dangers. And make no mistake: you will be facing life-threatening dangers: hazardous natural environment, monsters, and even possibly unknown peoples. That is why I selected you such that the majority are capable of, at a minimum, self-defense.
“The duration of the expedition is unknown. If all goes well, the trip to the isle, taken aboard one of our magic-powered ships, will take one week. Similarly, the return trip will also take one week. That gives you six weeks on the island if you want to return by the beginning of winter. However, if you find yourselves needing more time, do not feel pressured to cut short your studies; it is unlikely we will be able to send another expedition to the Savage Isles anytime soon.
“Food and drink supplies should not be a concern so long as you do not lose the Cornucopia of Fruit, which can produce enough fruit to feed the whole expeditionary party daily, and the Endless Canteen, which conjures water from the air and can refill your own canteens. If you need protein, one of your number is a spirit mage and experienced hunter; you can rely on her to hunt you something; there will be plenty of beasts in the jungle.
“I shall now introduce your expedition leader.”
Rai joined her at the front.
“This is Rai Flamme. He may be young, but he is the one whose keen research located the Dragonia Ruins and whose skills enabled him to recover numerous artifacts from them. He is the one heading the expedition, and I expect you all to treat him with the respect he deserves.”
Rai placed his hand on his chest. “As the Chancellor said, my name is Rai Flamme, discoverer of the Dragonia Ruins, Tower Era scholar, and head of the Savage Isles expedition. I am a third circle soul mage and third tier combat artist. My goal for this expedition is to find Tower Era ruins, investigate them, and recover artifacts from them. With luck, we may find a Magic Tower, but even if we do not, there is an entire city out there. While most of it is likely to be completely overrun by the jungle, making our search more difficult, we will find something. We are scholars, which means our curiosity and intellect can overcome any obstacle.
“Now, I’d like to introduce my partner. I’m sure some of you have been curious about the presence of a kobold.” Rai gestured for Isa to come join him, and she did so. “This is Isa Bloodscale, third tier combat artist and third circle blood mage. She is a warrior of the Blackfang Tribe, one of the kobold tribes dwelling in the area that houses the Dragonia Ruins. Their myths place them as descendants of the inhabitants of Dragonia, which was filled primarily by kobolds, saurians, and draconids. She stands at the pinnacle of kobold-kind in terms of power, and hopes to evolve into a saurian. She may not be a scholar, but she is highly capable and quite intelligent.”
“That’s right,” Isa said. “I’m Isa Bloodscale, Rai’s partner. I’m a warrior, not a knowledge-keeper, but don’t take that to mean I’m stupid. And don’t mistake me for being a weakling just because I’m smaller than you, either.”
After that, the thirteen other people in the room mingled and introduced themselves to one another, as well as to Isa and Rai. There were three sailors (the captain of the ship they would be using and his two crewmates, all of whom were capable fighters of the second – or third in the case of the captain – tier; it being magic-powered meant that far fewer crew members were needed to run the ship), four pure scholars with no combat ability (including Miransa, the independent scholar), a spirit mage/hunter of the third circle and tier, two divine mages of the second circle, and three scholastic mages who possessed combat spells (two second circle and one third circle). All were either elves or humans – except for the large constrictor snake that was the spirit mage’s companion.
Rai familiarized himself with the spells available to the other mages. The scholastic mages had Mana Bolt, Flame Burst (equivalent to the fire version of his Fan spell, Flame Fan), Blazing Beam (equivalent to the fire version of his Ray spell, Blazing Ray), and Fireball for offense and various defensive and utility spells; the third circle mage even has the third circle spell Flight, which gave the target phantom wings and enabled them to fly for several minutes. The spirit mage had several spells that dealt with animals, as well as Recovery and Cure Toxin, and several other nature-oriented spells, including a zeroth circle spell that would tell her north at all times. And the divine mages had healing spells, Recovery, and some support spells.
“So,” Isa said to Yua, the elven spirit mage, “is your snake partner friendly?”
“She’ll attack if I give the order, but otherwise she’s just a big softy. You can pet her if you like.” The red-headed elf smiled. “Her name’s Serpa.”
Cautiously, Isa reached out and stroked the snake. “Huh. She really is calm.”
“Her kind usually are, to be honest, except when they’re hungry. And even then, they usually only go after small prey… though I have seen her squeeze the life out of creatures your size before. She won’t attack you, though, unless I were to tell her to – which obviously I won’t.”
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Isa continued petting Serpa. “I love the way her scales feel. She’s… soft.”
“I always wondered how sensitive kobolds and saurians were to touch.”
“Probably not as sensitive as you soft-skinned peoples, but sensitive enough. We’re just damage resistant; we can still feel stuff. Well, except when I reinforce my scales with magic. That dulls my sense of touch considerably. I can still feel pressure and temperature, but not other sensations, unless I will the spell to stop functioning temporarily on a specific part of my body.”
“I’m pretty sure that’s because you’re imbuing your scales with a forcefield of sorts,” Rai interjected. “I think your Enhance Scales spell has the same root as my Force Armor spell, except mine creates a semi-permeable film of sorts, while yours actually imbues your scales.”
“Probably,” Isa agreed. “Speaking of things we’ve been wondering, I know soul mages can’t cast the same spell twice in a row and blood mages injure themselves when casting spells, but what about spirit mages? What’s your limitation?”
“Well… we have to commune with the spirits every day, or we can’t cast spells. Also, every spirit we contract with had a rule that we can’t violate, or we lose access to the spells granted by that spirit until we make amends. I can’t wear metal armor or any form of metal jewelry, and I must offer a burnt offering of my choice of a variety of plants weekly.”
“What about divine mages?”
Yua shrugged.
“I overheard your conversation,” one of the divine mages, a middle-aged human man, said. “Each god or demigod has their own rules, but all divine mages must offer prayers to their divine patron. Often, gods require some sort of ritual to be observed on a regular basis. Some require offerings. And sometimes divine mages are physically marked by a divine entity, which… well, such divine mages are considered a different subtype than typical divine mages, and have a number of unique traits and limitations.”
“And then there are scholastic mages, which must use material components and/or foci to cast spells,” Rai said. “In exchange, scholastic mages are the most unrestricted in terms of number of spells they can cast. Rather than have a relatively small pool of known spells, if they learn a spell, they can cast it – the only limit on the number of spells is their intellect – and the number of spells actually available for them to learn, but generally that’s not so much of an issue considering the constant research they’re doing.”
The conversations lasted for hours, until eventually everyone made their way to their lodgings. Isa and Rai shared a room that was more well-appointed than any inn the scholar had stayed at. It had a shower and tub, water supplied by enchantment and eliminated by enchantment, a self-cleansing toilet, two beds, two desks, a magic ceiling fan, and several other small amenities. Knowing that he was going to be roughing it in the jungle for weeks in the near future, Rai made sure to bask in the comforts.
-x-
Derx growled in frustration, slamming his fists onto his desk. Despite his best efforts, the Dean of History had failed to plant any Eternity members in the expeditionary force. In fact, every single person he had recommended to the Chancellor had been rejected. He had secretly killed the mages she had brought back with her from Fairholm, and he didn’t think they had talked before he had done so. Perhaps they weren’t the only ones of the assassins/thieves that were captured. The only reason he held out hope that his identity as a member of Eternity hadn’t been exposed was because the Chancellor hadn’t confronted him. But he couldn’t rule out the possibility that she was letting him roam free to see what he did and figure out who else was part of the organization. She clearly didn’t trust him anymore, or she would have accepted at least one of his recommendations.
“We finally have a true lead, and we can’t do anything! Even a strike team of elites wasn’t enough to take out that brat and his pet lizard in a nighttime sneak attack, despite the fact that they’re only third circle/third tier themselves. Granted, it’s rare for someone to be equally advanced as a combat artist and mage, so they are fairly strong, but even so, this is ridiculous. Now that bitch of a Chancellor is providing the brat with a full team to seek out an Elder Tower, and NONE of them are part of our group! Gods damn it all! Are we really going to have to deploy some of the Masters?”
The ring on his finger heated up, and he heard a voice in his head.
“Derx.”
“Grandmaster Wyrmfang. I hear you,” he replied in a respectful tone. “What are your words?”
“You have been exposed. The Chancellor knows you belong to Eternity. However, she seems content for you to make a move, so for now, you are to take no action. Continue to observe the situation. I know that The Scholar and The Lizard are heading to the Savage Isles and will be unapproachable until they return, so I want you to monitor the Chancellor’s actions: the so-called Conference Pendant will enable her to communicate with The Scholar, which means we may be able to learn some information from her actions.”
“I understand and obey. For everlasting glory!”
“For everlasting glory.”
-x-
Several days later, the expeditionary team boarded the ship. It was fairly large, being seventy-five feet from prow to stern and more than twenty feet wide. The top of the ship was largely flat, except for a raised prow and stern and railings (with magic lighting) along the sides, as well as a number of small pedestal-like protrusions designed to be used to tie things to. The ship also had an interior below the top deck, accessible through doors near the prow and stern, where the occupants of the ship could rest in relative comfort, complete with cots, a dining area, and a magically-outfitted shower room and toilet room. While the ship could be managed (turning, adjusting speed, and the like) from the top deck, the actual power source and controlling device that made the ship work were in the interior.
“This thing must have cost a fortune to make,” Rai marveled.
“That she did,” the captain agreed. “She’s one of only three ships of her kind owned by the Magic Tower. Newly developed by their researchers, engineers, and builders. The Sea Swan is her name. This’ll be the longest voyage I’ve taken her on so far.”
When the ship launched, Rai and Isa both learned the hard way what seasickness was. Fortunately, the Magic Tower had developed medicine that drastically reduced the symptoms to a mild discomfort, and even that was gone after the first couple days. The crew managed the ship while the rest of the expeditionary team relaxed both above and below, watching the ocean, resting, or playing card games. To everyone’s surprise, Isa turned out to be extremely good at all the card games she was taught and earned quite a bit of silver from gambling with the others. Rai, on the other hand, was terrible at any game which required deception or hiding information from the other players, and since the two of them were sharing a pool of coins, it evened out.
The first two days were sunny and smooth, but with the third day came rain, and on the fourth day they entered the domain of a severe thunderstorm that shook the ship violently with the waves the wind generated. This made seasickness return with a vengeance, forcing Rai, Isa, and a number of others to once again take medicine to avoid throwing up everywhere. The thunderstorm began around noon and lasted the entire day, making the sudden lack of waves around midnight a welcome relief.
The captain, however, was concerned.
“The waters are too calm,” he said. “The thunderstorm is still raging, so why are the waters so calm?”
“Captain!” the voice of the crew member who was currently manning the wheel sounded out from the bracelet the captain was wearing, a short-range communication magic item. “We’re surrounded by sharks, and we’re being boarded! It’s piscinars!”
“Shit!” the captain swore. “Rai, Isa, Rowan, Yua! Topside, now! Grab your weapons and get ready to fight!”
“What about us?” one of the scholastic mages said.
“Guard the doors from inside, and don’t use fire!”
Weapons in hand, Rai and Isa followed the captain, the other crew member and Yua, one wielding a sword and the other a spear, close behind. They burst out from under the prow’s deck to see – in the light provided by the magic lamps along the railings, which reflected oddly off the heavy rain – that the top deck was already covered by ugly green fishmen. They stood roughly five feet tall, with short fishlike tails whipping back and forth behind them to help maintain balance. Their hands and feet were webbed but had long, sharp claws, and their mouths were full of sharklike teeth. Some carried metal tridents; others looked like they were relying on their claws. There were sixteen of them on deck.
In the moment that the piscinars noticed them, the three mages cast their defensive magics, Rai and Isa silently and Yua aloud.
“Spirit’s Protection!”
Then, with thunderous rain striking deck and bodies alike, the battle began.