“Mm…”
Rai opened his eyes, then immediately squinted at the brightness of the light. Sand shifted underneath as he pushed himself into a sitting position. Looking around, he saw the drakes waking up nearby, Isa and Sylvie already on their beside them.
Braveheart hopped onto his lap, looking up at him happily.
“Desert… did we make it?”
Rai fished out his communication item from his pouch and activated it.
“Chancellor? Are you there?”
“…Rai?! You’re alive!” the Chancellor of the Isle of Heaven’s Reach’s Magic Tower’s voice came out from the bead on the bracelet, with more emotion than Rai had ever heard her use. “Is Isa…”
“I’m here as well,” Isa said, activating her own bracelet.
“How long were we out of contact?” Rai asked.
“You don’t know?”
“It’s a very long story.”
“It’s been almost two years.”
“So it’s the second month of spring?”
“Yes. Rai, what happened? You told me you were going to find the ruins, and then when I tried to contact you a few days later, it was as though your communication items didn’t exist anymore. I tried periodically over the following month, but it was the same every time. The Sun Knight eventually returned to civilization proper and made contact with me – they told me about the demons at the Ancient Tower, but they said they passed out after being possessed by the God of the Sun and when they came to, missing an arm, you and Isa were gone.”
“Let me check something quickly.” Rai conjured a floating light. “Excellent, my magic is working. Are you busy? I’ll be at your office shortly.”
“What? What do you mean? Where are you now?”
“Just outside the desert Tower. It’s a long story. I’ll tell you once we’re face to face.”
“I’m currently in a meeting, one that I’ve interrupted to speak with you, but I can cancel the meeting and be in my office in a few minutes.”
“Excellent. I’ll see you then.”
Rai turned off the communication item.
“All right, everyone,” he said. “Isa, would you mind giving Sylvie your Strap of Tongues? She’s not fluent in the modern common tongue yet, and it’ll be of more use to her than you.”
“Oh yeah, sure.”
Isa said a word and the headband-like strip of transparent cloth appeared on her face. She removed it and handed it to Sylvie.
“Put this on and say ‘activate tongues.’”
“Activate tongues.”
The strap sank into Sylvie’s face and disappeared.
“You’ll be able to understand and speak any language now – but we’ll still be teaching you to speak our language naturally,” Isa said.
“Yes, Miss Isa!”
“All right everyone. Gather up. It’ll take two teleports to reach the Isle of Heaven’s Reach, since it’s beyond my range from here – we’ll teleport somewhere closer first.”
They all grouped up.
“Teleportation.”
The world changed around them, and they found themselves standing in the middle of a town square. There were several shouts of surprise and alarm at their sudden appearance, but Rai didn’t hesitate, immediately casting the spell a second time. This time they appeared at the Isle of Heaven’s Reach’s harbor. There were some panicked shouts.
“What the hell’s going on? What’s the commotion?” a familiar voice cut through, silencing the other voices.
“Oh, Captain,” Rai said, greeting the approaching man. “Hey. Turns out we’re still alive.”
“Rai?! Where the hell have you been, lad? Do you have any idea what’s gone on these last two years?”
“Not a clue. We’re about to meet with the Chancellor. Would you mind watching our drakes? They don’t understand the common tongue, since they were raised to recognize a different language. Braveheart, will you explain to them that they need to stay here and behave?”
After a brief exchange between the carbuncle and the drakes, Rai grabbed Isa’s and Sylvie’s hands.
“Teleportation.”
With a slight jerk, the three of them appeared in the Chancellor’s office, which looked exactly as Rai remembered it: green carpet, dark wood furniture, marble busts, tapestries, windows, glass, crystal, silver, and gold. The Chancellor hadn’t arrived yet, so they made themselves comfortable, Rai and Sylvie sitting in chairs and Isa sitting on the carpet.
“Where are we?” Sylvie asked. “Is this a Ruler’s room?”
“Things are a bit different in the modern era,” Rai said. “While there are kings and queens, there are no Rulers ruling from Magic Towers. That said, we actually are in the nearest thing: this is the Chancellor of the Magic Tower’s office. She’s the most powerful mage on the continent… or was, before Isa and I returned. I think she’s a sixth circle mage. The level of magical technology is much lower in this era, and so is the power level of… well, everyone. There are very few people who are above fifth tier or fifth circle, and almost nobody who’s at fifth or sixth realm.”
The door opened, and the Chancellor walked in.
“How did you get in here?” she said in confusion. “The defenses weren’t breached. I did hear the alarm ping, but… wait. Did you teleport in?”
“Yes, we did.”
She shook her head in disbelief. “Incredible. So you’re fifth circle now?”
“Sixth, actually. Both of us are sixth realm.”
The Chancellor’s eyes went wide. “In two years?!”
“Like I said, it’s a long story. But before we begin, we have two people to introduce.” Rai gestured toward the carbuncle in his lap. “This is Braveheart, my familiar. The Sun Knight may have mentioned the carbuncles? This is the one that chose to stay with me. She’s a sweetheart, brave, and quite clever.”
“And this is Sylvie, my apprentice,” Isa said, waving a hand toward the girl. “Warrior’s apprentice, not mage apprentice, though a certain someone said he saw her to have magical potential.”
“H-hello, Miss Chancellor.”
“…A ‘carbuncle’ and an apprentice. All right.” The Chancellor walked over to her desk and sat down in her chair. “Let’s start with the obvious question: what happened to you, and where were you these last two years?”
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Rai smiled. “If you weren’t already sitting, I’d tell you to sit down for this. I promise you that what I’m about to say is neither a lie, a delusion, nor a joke, and we have, ah, ‘souvenirs,’ to prove it. When we interrupted the demons’ ritual, it malfunctioned and sucked me, Isa, and Braveheart in. When we woke, we found that we were just outside the Tower… in the Tower Era.”
He paused, watching her reaction. She stared at him as though trying to gauge whether he was being serious.
“…You say you have proof?” she said eventually.
“Indeed.”
Over the next few hours, Rai and Isa told an abridged version of their story, complete with showing off all the treasures and magical items they had – and their hoard of gold coins, which were in their own dimensional money pouch (they still had about seventeen thousand left).
“This is… incredible. Impossible, but you have concrete proof. I… this is a bit much. May I see your Dragon’s Halberd, Isa?”
“Yeah, here.”
The Chancellor examined it with the upgraded version of Mage Sight, Discern Flow. “This is… insane. This is a fully realized nine-star halberd with an orichalcum blade and a silversteel haft. And you made this?”
“With help from Rai and Braveheart.”
The Chancellor shook her head again. “Insane. And with the magic items you brought back, we can advance our understanding and boost our ability to craft magical items by so much. But possibly the most valuable of all is the Archmage’s Record Tetra. You need to unlock it by visiting Towers, but that will only work once you wait a month, correct? Well, we’ve managed to find two more towers in your absence, so once the waiting period is up, you can visit them.”
“Speaking of that… since it seems our time was in sync with yours, since we arrived when we did instead of at the moment we left, I assume that a bunch of things have happened?”
“Oh, yes. There’s a lot to catch you up on. For starters, there’s the war between the Landsgrace and Herrutah. Then there’s the current situation with Eternity.”
“War?” Isa said. “The Kingdom is at war with the Republic?”
“I’m afraid so. Other nations have been providing military or financial support to one nation or the other, which has extended the conflict. The war started about six months ago, and initially I expected it to last a month, maybe two, but the interference by other nations has thrown things off my expectation.”
“What’s the cause?” Rai asked.
“Officially, Herrutah claims that Landsgrace send a saboteur in to sow chaos, assassinating officials and attacking civilians.”
“What’s the basis for that claim?”
“Eternity had a clash with the Sun Knight in Herrutah territory. Even though they’re missing an arm, the Sun Knight is still a force to be reckoned with, especially since they reached fifth tier. Anyway, Eternity had some members in high positions in the Herrutah government, which ended up putting the Sun Knight at odds with the government. Also, the Sun Knight attacked some slavers. Herrutah decided to blame Landsgrace when they couldn’t catch the Sun Knight.”
Rai sighed. “Why does this not surprise me at all?”
“The other issue is Eternity itself, which has decided to wage a quiet war with the Isle of Heaven’s Reach. It started a few months after you disappeared, when they used their members embedded in the Tower to kill a number of people. Don’t worry, your father and the star energy researchers are fine. Anyway, I conducted a purge, and from then on we’ve been fighting with the organization across the continent. We’ve had a number of deadly battles with them, especially on expeditions. The Kingdom of Sendwis now considers us enemies of the state due to the influence of Eternity.”
She sighed. “On the bright side, we’ve made a lot of discoveries and made strides in magical development as a result. The Tower Era is now officially recognized as a historical era by the Magic Tower, and thus, by a number of schools. This has led to various governments assembling their own teams to search for ruins, though as far as I know, they haven’t had much success.”
“And what about Rai’s reputation?” Isa said.
“The Tower recognizes Rai as the official discoverer of the first Tower Era ruins, giving him a certain amount of prestige, but considering you’ve both been missing for years, many have presumed you dead.”
“I see. Can you give us more details about the current situation with the Landsgrace war and the Eternity war?”
“Of course.”
-x-
“Tamed drakes are fairly rare outside of Kirilana,” the Chancellor said, patting Paxta’s neck. “You’ll definitely make a splash if you arrive somewhere on these.”
“Paxta’s a pacifist, so she doesn’t fight, but Isa’s mount, Skycloud, has a blood bond with Isa, and is a formidable fighter. But if we’re just going for making an impression, both of them will do a good job at that.”
“A pacifistic drake… that’s unusual.”
“Well, she will hunt small game if she’s not fed, but she won’t attack people, monsters, or large animals. Drakes are actually quite intelligent beasts. They can’t understand the modern tongue, but they know a fair amount of commands in the ancient tongue, and Braveheart can communicate with them.”
“Personally, I think Skycloud is even more unusual,” Isa said, stroking the drake’s neck. “He’s chivalrous. He actually saved me from falling to my death when I tried to break a different, violent drake. That’s how I knew he was the one I should partner with.”
“I see. Drake riders, sixth realm… even I am just sixth circle, not sixth circle and sixth tier. Of course, I can cast more spells than you two can, since I am a scholastic mage, but even so. The two of you, like me, fall into the Legendary category. And you’re both so young…”
“Well, I need to reach tenth realm, which is higher than even the Rulers in the Tower Era,” Isa said. “To evolve into a dragon.”
“Somehow, coming from you now, that seems like a lifelong challenge rather than an impossible dream.” The Chancellor shook her head. “When the Tower announces your survival, we’ll be sure to mention your tier and circle.”
“Before that,” Rai said, “I want to assemble a team to perform the resurrection ritual. We need a total of twelve ritualists. They need to be at least third circle. Only Isa and I will be entering the afterrealm to retrieve Mizeiya’s soul, but we need ten other people to help perform the ritual.”
“You said that the chances of success at sixth circle are low due to the high dangers.”
“Correct, but we’re significantly stronger than most sixth circle mages, which I think will make a difference.”
“It still seems crazy to me that you can confidently compare yourselves to ‘most’ sixth circle mages, given their rarity in the modern era.”
“Well, they weren’t exactly commonplace in the Tower Era either; they were the best Masters. But given the huge population of the Tower Era – seriously, hundreds of thousands of people in each Tower City – there were enough for a comparison.”
“To answer your request… you want ten third circle or higher mages to assist with the ritual? I can arrange for that. I’ll be one of the people assisting, of course. How long does the ritual take?”
“The ritual to open the soul portal should take between two and three hours, depending on how difficult it ends up being to actually direct the magical energies. There is some setup required, however, that may take up to a day to complete, mostly drawing magic circles and runes.”
“And how long does it take to retrieve the soul?”
“That I’m less certain about. I do know that the ritualists who remain behind need to continue to keep the soul portal open until we return, but from what the instructions say, that could be anywhere from a few minutes to a few days. Keeping the soul portal open is fairly simple, though, and as long as you have at least a single ritualist manning the portal at all times it should be fine.”
“I see. In that case, why don’t I give you a space for the ritual and you can get started on the setup while I get some volunteers.”
“That would be great. But, um, I need one more component for the ritual: a piece of the remains of the deceased.”
“That means you’ll be going home, then. Your lover’s grave is in your hometown.”
“Yes, that’s right.” Rai’s face took on a wistful expression. “I haven’t been home in… five years, now. My family… I wonder how they’re doing.”
“You’ve never really talked about them,” Isa said. “I know your father works here at the Magic Tower, but…”
“I have a sister, mother, and grandparents. My father… is… not close to my mother anymore. And it is my mother’s parents who live in my hometown. I’ve never met my father’s parents. My mother had a married brother, but they both died during the attack.”
“I see.”
“Well… if you could arrange for the room, Chancellor… one of the classrooms, cleared out, should be big enough.”
“Of course. And Rai…” the Chancellor smiled warmly. “I’m glad you’re alive, both of you. I’ll refrain from making the official announcement of your return until after the ritual, just in case something goes wrong – and to prevent Eternity from trying to break in and sabotage it.”
“Thank you.”
The Chancellor turned back toward the Tower and strode away.
Rai turned to Isa. “Are you ready to meet the rest of my family?”
Isa grinned. “How freaked out will they be to see a saurian?”
Rai laughed. “Well, they’ll be surprised; that’s for sure. But they’re my family; they’ll trust me when I vouch for you.”
“Then let’s go.”
“Alright. Everyone gather around.”
Nobody noticed when two invisible spirits briefly became visible and darted away just before Rai teleported everyone.
-x-
A figure cloaked in shadows sat upon a throne, glowing red eyes gazing out over the empty hall. The room showed signs of long neglect and disuse, from the cracks in the walls and floor to the spiderwebs wherever two planes met. The only source of light, apart from the figure’s eyes, was the luminous crystal ball that floated in the middle of two rotating metal rings, neither of which was attached to anything.
“Grandmaster Wyrmfang,” a voice came from the crystal. “I have an urgent report.”
“Speak,” the shadowy figure commanded.
“It’s the Scholar and the Lizard. They’re alive. Our surveillance at the Magic Tower spotted them with the Chancellor.”
The figure’s eyes narrowed. “I see. So they’re back.”
“You knew they were alive?”
“Troublesome pests like them do not just die on their own. Until we have killed them ourselves, I will never assume their deaths.”
“What are your orders?”
The figure stood. “I will have Xenir, Alcis, and Shan kill them. But first, we need to locate them. Are they still at the Tower?”
“I don’t know. They left the Tower itself with the Chancellor, and the Chancellor returned alone.”
“Surprise attacks have not worked in the past. This time, we will bait them out. I will send a message to the Scholar when he sleeps tonight. You need do nothing else. For everlasting glory.”
“For everlasting glory!”