“Life Drain!”
Rai jumped back, and a gray-black beam of wavering negative energy, shot from above, passed through the spot where he had been standing. He looked up to see an elven man in robes standing on the edge of the rooftop, hand outstretched.
“Dimension Hop!” Rai cast one of his new fourth circle spells, jumping forward and vanishing mid-jump.
“Behind you!” Eliza yelled, and the mage spun around to find himself face to face with Rai. He thrust out a hand that trailed yellow lightning, but Rai simply dodged.
“Flaming Thunder Strike,” Rai said, his voice slightly blurring the words. His sword flared with flames and violet lightning as he activated his newest fourth-tier combat art.. He slammed the weapon through the mage’s chest and the mage was consumed in a flaming lightning storm, leaving nothing but a blackened husk when it died down. The corpse toppled off the roof down into the alley below.
Rai jumped down after it and dashed up to Eliza. His free hand shot out and grabbed the front of her shirt.
“So, should I interrogate you or execute you?” he said, his eyes narrowed. Her eyes widened with genuine fear. “You murdered an innocent man and tried to have two Masters kill me. I doubt that—”
A shriek rent the air. He turned to see a small group of people on the street, staring horrified at the scene.
“Help! Help!” Eliza yelled. “He’s going to kill me!”
Do I run? Rai thought with worry. The guards will think that I was the one to fireball them, so even if they survive, they won’t testify on my behalf. And I can’t heal them without wasting valuable potions. I… I… what do I do?
He dropped his sword and placed his palm on Eliza’s forehead.
“Shocking Palm,” he cast aloud, maximizing the (nonlethal) damage, sending lightning surging through her body. She convulsed, passing out.
“I’m not going to kill her!” he shouted, turning around fully. “She is a criminal who orchestrated an attack on me and the guards! I’ll prove it by healing the guards!”
I’ll only have three potions left after this…
Rai turned all three of the guards onto their backs, took out three red potions, and fed them to them one at a time. Their wounds completely healed almost instantly and they coughed, reviving. Rai stood up and stepped back.
The guards sat up, then scrambled to their feet. Rai held up the final empty bottle and shook it.
“I’m the one that just saved you,” he said, both the sparkles and his accelerated state wearing off as he spoke. “The fireball that took you down wasn’t me – it was the person who committed the murder.”
“And where is this other mage?” the woman said suspiciously.
Rai pointed to the charred, unrecognizable corpse. Two sharp intakes of breath came from the male guards.
“I’m pretty sure he was a fourth circle mage. He wasn’t the only attacker, though. That one tried to kill me, too.” Rai gestured at the swordsman’s body. “Not sure what his tier was, but he was very skilled.” Rai took out another potion, downed it, then took out one more and drank it as well, completing his healing. Only one potion left.
“I also knocked out Eliza, Mary, whatever. She’s behind you. You want proof that she’s part of a secret evil organization? Check her bicep. It’ll have the tattoo of ouroboros, just like the swordsman and mage… not that you can check the mage, what with how I turned him to charcoal.”
The female guard went to look.
“He’s right. This woman has a snake tattoo around her bicep.”
One of the male guards carefully walked around to get a look at the swordsman. “Same here.”
“So, you’re saying you were telling the truth? This secret organization is out to kill you, a scholar?” the third guard said incredulously.
“Yes. You can take the woman in for questioning, but she’s not going to talk. This organization kills its own members when they get captured. That’s how serious they are.”
“And why are they after you?”
“Because we’re both after remnants and relics of the Tower Era, the golden age of magic and magical technology. I don’t know why they’re willing to kill the competition, but they are. This is the third time they’ve attacked me, though it’s the first time they’ve involved people that have nothing to do with this.”
“Come with us to the nearest guard station,” the female guard said. “If you’re telling the truth, you have nothing to fear.”
“Well, unless one of their members has infiltrated your hierarchy. But I take your point. I’ll come give my side of the story.”
“I’ll bring the woman. We’ll have to leave the corpses here for now.”
Rai retrieved his sword, swapped things back into the ring, and followed the guards. The trip was made in silence. He was temporarily put in a holding cell in the guard station while the higher-ups were informed and the corpses collected. Eventually, the captain of the city watch was summoned, and Rai told him the full story of what had happened.
“If it were not for the tattoos, there is no chance I would even entertain your version of events,” the captain said. “But between those and the House Amit badge you carry, I’m inclined to at least question this ‘Mary’ or ‘Eliza’ character when she wakes. Until then, I’m going to keep you here as well.”
“I see.”
“Your bag will not be returned to you until you are set loose, but I won’t leave something so valuable just sitting out in the open. You see that chest? It’ll be in there. That’s kept locked with a set of three locks, all of above-average quality. And the chest is bolted to the floor. Your things will be safe.”
I highly doubt that, Rai thought, but he didn’t say anything aloud. He sat down on the bench inside his cell and leaned against the wall, closing his eyes. Might as well try to rest now. If Eternity sends someone, they’ll do so in the middle of the night.
“I’m grateful for your understanding and cooperation.”
“I have nothing to hide; I’m confident that you’ll do the right thing.”
Rai silently and without moving cast an alarm ward centered just outside his cell, so that it caught the chest where his things were stored in its radius. As the guardsmen moved in and out of the warded area, he heard mental pings, but as the night grew deeper, those pings grew less frequent and eventually stopped altogether. In blissful silence, he slipped away to sleep.
And then he was awakened by another ping. He opened his eyes and found the guard assigned to watch over the area was snoozing – and two people dressed in black and wearing cloth masks were standing nearby. One stood by the chest, picking one of its locks, while the other walked past his cell to the adjacent cell where the still unconscious Eliza was being held.
Unlock, Rai thought, casting the second circle spell of that name, one of his more recently acquired spells. The lock on his cell door clicked, causing the two Eternity members to freeze.
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“Celestial Hellfire,” Rai cast, sparks and wisps of flame dancing along his fingers as he twisted them through the air, standing. The person approaching Eliza’s cell jumped back, briefly blinking out of the material dimension as flames erupted up from beneath them and lightning stroked down from the ceiling above them, courtesy of the fourth-circle spell. They landed, eyes wide as they stared at Rai.
The other person looked over and noticed what they did not: that the floor and ceiling were glowing directly below and above the target of the spell.
“Look out!” the lockpicking rogue cried too late as a less intense repetition of the initial assault struck its target, who yelped in a high-pitched, feminine voice. Rai pointed at the apparent woman and fired off an Elbolt, a supernatural, non-spell beam of fire and lightning weaker than even a first level spell – but which had grown stronger as he gained more mana circles around his mana heart. She yelped again.
Rai walked to the door of his cell and shoved it open.
The would-be thief looked between his companion and Rai, then immediately turned and fled. The ceiling and floor continued to glow, and the woman took off after her companion only for the glows to follow her and blast her again with an even further weakened assault. Rai heard the flames rise and the lightning fall one last time, then stepped over to the guard and shook him awake.
“You were put to sleep; the enemy was here,” he said. “I attacked one of them. I’m not sure if they managed to get away or not.”
“I’ll check; you go back into the cell.”
It turned out the answer was “not.” The guard found the woman passed out not that far away and brought her back in, then went to alert the other night shift guards that were nearby. There was no other attack for the rest of that night, but the guards stayed near and on alert throughout the rest of it anyway. The woman woke up after an hour, but she was already shackled and so could not do anything.
Eliza woke midmorning, and the captain began his interrogation of the two. As Rai had predicted, they refused to talk. The fact that neither even attempted to lie to contradict Rai’s claims convinced the captain that Rai had been telling the truth, and the scholar was given his pouch and allowed to leave.
Rai immediately made his way back to the city gate where he had left the others, contacting the Chancellor of the Isle of Heaven’s Reach on the way to inform her of the situation.
“Welcome back. Were you attacked?” Isa said when he exited the city.
“I was. Eternity tried to frame me for a murder, then send two Master-level assassins – a swordmaster and a mage – after me while I dealt with the guards. I won, obviously, but I had to spend the night in a cell until the captain of the guard could interrogate the noncombatant I captured – Eliza Rynze; she was the one who orchestrated the first attempt on my life, too. Anyway, I also foiled Eternity’s attempt to steal my confiscated stuff and silence Eliza before she could be interrogated. I told the Chancellor, so if she wants to deal with it, she can, but I figure I’m putting it behind me.”
“You are not going to investigate?” the Sun Knight said in surprise.
“Nope. It would be a waste of time. We know almost nothing about the organization, but they are quite good at not talking, so there’s not much to gain. At least not for people like us, who aren’t trained in interrogation. It makes more sense to put as much distance between us and them as possible instead. I can talk about what I purchased as we travel.”
“If you think that is best, I will not argue.”
“At least they left us alone. I bet they were waiting until we were separated to strike.”
“Probably. Let’s get going, shall we?”
-x-
Their journey resumed without much interesting happening. Others on the roads avoided them, and the one time they encountered a bandit ambush, the bandits took one look at who they were about to ambush and called off the attack. A few times they fought aggressive wildlife, turning the encounters into a new source of protein, but the battles were all insultingly easy for them. Rai did discover that while he couldn’t put living creatures in his pouch, he could put dead bodies… and that, unlike modern dimensional bags, the interior prevented items from degrading or decaying, allowing them to store meat they didn’t finish for later consumption. Neither Rai nor the Sun Knight were skilled at skinning or preparing animals, but Isa was, so in addition to the meat they also ended up with animal hides.
Eventually, however, they reached the border of the Kingdom of Landsgrace and the Republic of Herrutah, and they were forced to take a detour away from the road to avoid the checkpoint where they would undoubtedly be denied passage – or so Rai assumed. There wasn’t much in the way of geographic features to divide the nations other than a mostly south-flowing river that was about a mile and a half wide, and Rai was now capable of casting the third circle spell “Flight,” which as his current power allowed the target to fly at about thirteen miles per hour for about ten minutes, which was more than enough for the three of them to cross the river.
Rai found it quite interesting how differently the spell manifested for the three of them. When he cast it on himself, a pair of hawklike wings made of fire and lightning (the left was flame and the right was lightning) appeared to sprout from his back. For the Sun Knight, shimmering translucent golden angel wings appeared; the Sun Knight’s horse had great feathery eagle wings. And on Isa, leathery crimson draconic wings that seemed to fade in and out of existence were the magic’s appearance. In all cases, the wings were purely cosmetic, and the power of flight existed independent of their motion.
But more than the visual manifestation of the magic, what truly captivated Rai was the feeling of flight. The wind in his hair, brushing against his skin. The sensation of weightlessness. The ease with which he could adjust his path, tilting this way and that as he soared above the rushing waters. He swooped down low, dipping his hand into the river as he rushed by, his hand like a blade that knifed through the water. With a whoop, he arced upward, looping vertically before steering to the left and right, laughing like a child. So much of his magic was intended for combat or mere utility; it was exhilarating to experience the pure joy of the impossible made real.
According to Rai’s projections, it would take eight days to reach the edge of the desert if there were no delays. Unfortunately, the first of those delays happened on the very first day. For convenience, they had moved back to the roads once they were clear of the border, and just as night arrived and they were thinking of setting up camp along the roadside, they spotted what looked like a halted caravan of boxy wagons from a distance. Despite Rai’s hesitance, they continued toward it at Isa’s insistence.
“They might need help.”
“They’re probably just stopped for the night.”
“But why wouldn’t they stop in a village or something?”
“Maybe they timed the trip wrong.”
“Maybe. Or maybe they’re having trouble.”
Rai frowned.
“Look, maybe they need help, maybe they don’t,” Isa said, “but either way, I want some interpersonal interaction.”
“That’s strange, coming from you. Weren’t you the one who thought I was being a weirdo chatterbox when we first met?”
“Yeah, well… okay, I’ve got nothing. But I’m not a loner. I interacted with my fellow kobolds plenty when I lived back home. And I trained with Lord Henrik’s guards all the time. And when we were at the Tower…”
“Okay, okay, I get it. But we’re in the Republic now, so the situation is a bit different. Lord Henrik’s backing means nothing here… or very little, at any rate. If we get caught up in trouble, there could be serious consequences. Consequences beyond just us.”
Isa raised an eye ridge. “And ‘beyond just us’ matters because…?”
“While I doubt our actions will cause a war or anything, they could definitely result in international strife.”
“Again, we should care about that because…?”
Rai sighed. “It could affect a lot of people. If you say—”
“And that matters because…?”
“You care about helping others in front of you, right?”
“Well, yeah. But why should I care about nations? Individuals, and individual communities, matter to me. Countries? I still struggle with the concept. Besides, if we do something that isn’t bad and it causes the Republic to react negatively, that’s on the Republic, not us. Even if we could have predicted their reaction.”
“I couldn’t agree more to that last statement, Warrior,” the Sun Knight said approvingly.
“That’s an extremely irresponsible approach to take.”
“But is it wrong?” Isa challenged.
“Just… can we at least try to not cause problems?” Rai pleaded.
“I make no promises,” Isa said.
“It depends on what we’re faced with,” the Sun Knight said at the same time.
“You’re both infuriating,” Rai said flatly.
Isa grinned and lightly shoved him, which still caused him to stumble due to her incredible strength. “You know you love me.”
It was when they got close enough to see clearly that they realized just what kind of caravan it was: the boxy wagons were shaped so because they weren’t just wagons – they were cages.
“Slave merchants,” the Sun Knight growled.
There were three wagons, one of which was a normal covered wagon and two of which were large metal cages on wooden frames. At each top corner of the cage-wagons was affixed a magical light, a simple white orb encased in frosted glass, and together they illuminated the occupants. In one cage a was a mixture of elven, human, and beastfolk men, women, and children, packed together with scarcely enough space to turn around. In the other cage were several kobolds and saurians, three seven-foot humanoids seemingly made of cracked stone (one of whom had the glow of magma shining from between the cracks), two anthropomorphic eagles standing five feet tall, and one girl seemingly carved from wood with leaves and ferns for hair holding a small potted sapling.
“Rai,” Isa said, her voice deadly calm.
“Yes?”
“We’re not near a town or city.”
“That’s… a true statement.”
“That means there’s no one to cast blame on us for our actions,” the Sun Knight said.
“Exactly what I was thinking,” Isa agreed.
Rai was silent for several seconds.
“Go ahead,” he said at last, activating his equipment ring, his sword appearing in his hand. Isa activated her own ring a moment later. “Let’s liberate some slaves.”
“By the glory of the sun! Hiya!”
The Sun Knight charged.