In a dim barroom a day¡¯s ride from Eterna, a richly dressed man with distinctive lightning-shaped streaks of silver hair sat down next to a woman in combat leathers who was staring dully at the tankard in front of her.
¡°Go away,¡± the woman muttered, not bothering to turn to look at the man.
In deliberate contrast to the growled tone, the man kept his voice smooth and calm. ¡°My dear Kiera, is that any way to treat a colleague?¡±
¡°We are not colleagues.¡± Kiera drained her tankard of beer and immediately held it out for a refill. The bartender eyed her for a moment, judging her state of sobriety before filling it from the tap.
¡°We are working together towards a common goal, are we not?¡±
¡°Working? How exactly have you gotten off your pompous ass to do anything but drive little Miss Perfect deeper into Eterna? You said she¡¯d be out of my hair and in your fancy guild before the end of the year.¡±
Tristane¡¯s previously calm expression twisted into something ugly. ¡°Maybe if you would get me useful information instead of spending all your time hiding in this forsaken location, we would have more progress.¡±
¡°I already told you about how she¡ª¡±
¡°Your advice on how to approach her had me humiliated in front of all of the most important mages in the entire Guild Association!¡±
¡°How was I supposed to know she was going to react like that?¡± Kiera asked hotly. ¡°All she does is creep around like a little mouse, afraid of her own shadow.¡±
¡°What matters is that you get me something I can use!¡±
Kiera slammed her tankard down. ¡°There¡¯s nothing else, okay? She¡¯s so helpful and perfect and everybody just loves her. She won¡¯t even cause any trouble at the Games because she¡¯s learned to shut down her magic. It¡¯s over, okay? She¡¯s going to stay at Eterna as Veltyen¡¯s perfect little princess and there¡¯s nothing you or I can do about it.¡±
She got up, shoulders slumped in defeat. ¡°Don¡¯t come talk to me again,¡± she muttered as she left.
Tristane barely noticed the woman¡¯s exit, eyes thoughtful. ¡°Shut down her magic¡ Like she isn¡¯t even there¡¡± he murmured to himself.
***
Sery looked around curiously as Mindseye took her past the signpost that marked the border between Oslethia and Roswan. The countries within the Seven Kingdoms were so closely allied and interconnected that they shared a common currency and their internal borders were unguarded.
This close to the border, there was no discernable difference between the two countries. Sery looked forward to seeing Roswan¡¯s unique style of architecture, centred around the dark redstone that was plentiful in the region.
Around Sery was a small caravan comprised of the Eterna members who were competing in the Mage Games as well as Foria and several others who had volunteered to help with errand-running and organizational tasks. The Games rotated in location between the countries, and they were currently headed towards the coliseum outside of Roswan¡¯s capital of Erratia. The Games attracted thousands of spectators, and the road was busy with travelers of all kinds.
At that moment, Veltyen and Magewhisper caught up from where they had been patrolling at the rear of the caravan. It was an unnecessary task ¨C anything that could threaten a group of such high-ranking mages would be a national security threat ¨C but years of habit made him restless if he did not implement at least basic patrols.
¡°Here.¡± Veltyen leaned over and slid something into Sery¡¯s hair.
Sery touched her fingers to the item, careful not to dislodge Veltyen¡¯s work, feeling the smooth edges of worked wood.
¡°It¡¯s a hairclip in the shape of the Games symbol,¡± he explained. ¡°There was a merchant behind us selling them.¡±
¡°Thank you,¡± Sery said softly. Veltyen had a habit of bringing her small gifts on a regular basis, enough to fill a small treasure box she kept at home. He did not seem to consider them significant ¨C he often failed to recognize items he had previously given her ¨C but Sery cherished every one.
¡°Sery,¡± Ariela called, beckoning from the window of her carriage. Mindseye took Sery close enough to talk.
¡°I¡¯m sorry, my dear,¡± the guild head murmured, ¡°but I think it¡¯s best if we don¡¯t advertise your presence too much. Do you think you could tone down the magic emission?¡±
¡°Oh ¨C I¡¯m sorry,¡± Sery said, immediately thickening the walls of her enna. It was somewhat embarrassing that everyone around her could so easily feel her projecting her moods. She turned to wave at Veltyen, signalling that she had done it on purpose. It still discomforted him to feel her magic disappearing, but he was starting to get used to it.
¡°Not to worry,¡± Ariela said knowingly. ¡°Your young man is being gentlemanly enough to make any girl swoon.¡±
Not knowing what to say, Sery remained silent. Veltyen certainly was not ¡®hers¡¯; she would say that she was ¡®his¡¯ except that she knew it would make him uncomfortable to know that she thought that way.
***
Veltyen turned his head to locate Sery for the tenth time in ten minutes, feeling tense and hypervigilant. If she was going to keep her enna shut down from now until the end of the Games, he was in for a long, tough time.
It wasn¡¯t that it felt like she was in distress; he had adjusted to that with several practice sessions in Eterna. No, what he was coming to realize with a prolonged shut-down like this was that he had somehow developed a sense of Sery¡¯s location based on her magic emission, similar to her sense of him and other mages. That sense was now constantly screaming that she was missing despite the fact that she was right in front of him.
He needed to recentre himself if he was to have any chance of competing effectively at the Games. Closing his eyes, he inhaled, beginning a simple breathing technique that would bring him into a meditative trance.
He let his thoughts drift, not trying to control them. The first thing he realized was how long it had been since he had last meditated. What used to be a daily exercise in optimizing mana absorption had fallen away when Sery had fallen into his life. He made a note to make time to meditate regularly, the powerful clarity it gave him being just as important as his enna stores.
Turning to the other thoughts in his mind¡¯s eye, he examined them from the outside. Sery was everywhere. The powerful need to keep her safe, keep her happy, and all the complexity involved in Source magic, guild politics, money, even the current plan to compete in the Games. His own tangled, half-repressed feelings that only grew more snarled and knotted as she came into her own as an adult. The current sense of impending danger and doom that threatened to swamp him.
As he examined his thoughts and emotions, they quieted and became more manageable. His rational side came to the fore, addressing each concern head-on. He was already doing everything he was supposed to be doing to help ensure Sery would continue to thrive at Eterna, and worrying further was not going to help. His feelings towards her, well, he had very good reasons to keep them repressed, and they were not about to change any time soon.
As for the danger¡ Yes, he could not pinpoint Sery¡¯s location at every moment of the day, but did he need to be able to? He certainly managed to protect countless clients without such a sense, and besides, what exactly was he guarding her from? Yes, she was a target for any guild that wanted to increase its personal power, but it was not as if they wanted to hurt her, just have her join their ranks.
With one last exhale, Veltyen opened his eyes, no longer feeling like he was riding the edge of panic.
His gaze was inevitably drawn to find Sery. He smiled to see her riding next to the main caravan, bending her head to allow Foria to rearrange the clip he had haphazardly slid into her hair.
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***
Outside the city of Erratia, a tent-city was forming in orderly rows to accommodate the huge influx of people arriving for the Games. City officials assessed the size of their group and assigned them a plot of land to set up their own tents and sleeping pallets.
Sery looked around, absorbing the colourful tents and equally colourful mix of people. It was clear that some of the visitors were from some of the more distant of the Seven Kingdoms and even farther abroad. In the distance, she could see the market area that had formed to take advantage of such a large gathering, by far the biggest she had ever seen.
Sery wanted to explore, but at the same time, she found the dense, noisy press of people intimidating. She stuck close to the middle of Eterna¡¯s rest area, helping to unpack and set up their sleeping quarters while Foria supervised everything with preternatural efficiency.
In only an hour, they had erected their own small ¡®neighbourhood¡¯ within the larger tent area. Sery left her luggage trunk in the tent that she was sharing with Foria, then wandered around, looking for any tasks left to help with.
The web-mage spotted her. ¡°Shoo,¡± she said with an accompanying gesture. ¡°Everything is done. Go explore and have fun.¡±
Sery hesitantly stepped out of Eterna¡¯s assigned area into the busier thoroughfares of the tent-city, wondering where she should go. Her sense of the ennas around her was muted as she suppressed her own magic, though she could still clearly sense Veltyen in the direction of the river, presumably still returning from the water-collecting trip he had been sent on.
She picked a random direction and joined the flow of foot traffic, watching the activity around her. As she walked, the dedicated camping areas gave way to more open ground. Sery wondered why such large areas were fenced off, seemingly unused, until she saw groups of mages practicing for different events for the upcoming Games.
Sery joined a small crowd of onlookers next to a group playing a version of the sport known as whizzball, where a large ball twice the size of a human head had to be maneuvered through a series of rings on the opposing team¡¯s side to earn points. Sery knew the athletes to be mages based on the amount of silver in their hair, but none of them were actually using any magic that she could discern. This close to the competition, she supposed, everyone was conserving every drop of magic they could grab.
Despite the lack of magic being used, the mages were managing some truly impressive maneuvers, throwing, kicking, and carrying the ball through intricate passages between the rings that Sery vaguely recalled would add a multiplier to the points scored. She looked forward to seeing the actual competition, where the skilful application of kinetic magic would make the action even more dynamic.
Looking around, Sery saw more people practicing the athletic components of the upcoming competitions, but no actual magic use. Nobody was practicing for the competitions she was most familiar with, the ones her fellow guild members were competing in, but she supposed that, with the exception of Veltyen and Magewhisper¡¯s Chase event, everyone else was competing in a show of pure magic power and skill, where it was even more important to conserve enna stores.
Sery eventually wandered away from the athletics fields and ended up in the market section of the tent-city. It was larger by far than anything she had ever seen, merchants selling wares from all over the world, foods, jewelry, clothing, books, even exotic animals.
She wandered down the rows of stalls, shaking her head as peddlers called out to her with offers to try this or that gadget, touch a fine silk, smell a custom fragrance. She managed to mostly stay out of the way of faster-moving traffic, though it was impossible to completely avoid bumping into others in the crowd.
Sery halted in her tracks at seeing a flash of gray.
Before her were trays of semiprecious gemstones in gold and silver settings. Based on the shop display, they were designed as brooches that could replace traditional laces to fasten a mage robe.
The gray that had caught her eye turned out to be a set of three brooches, each a shiny gray that matched Veltyen¡¯s eyes in bright sunlight.
¡°The missus has good taste!¡± the shopkeeper enthused. ¡°These here fasteners are the latest craze over in Alossura, and they¡¯re sure to catch on quick in the fashion circles. How about these aquamarines over here?¡± he suggested, lifting a tray that held pale blue gems that would complement Sery¡¯s colouring.
Hearing of the exotic fashion trend, Sery decided to buy sets for Marielle and Tasielle, the twins having a keen interest in keeping up with all the latest modes. She picked out a set in green garnet and a striped tiger eye. In the end, she could not resist the gray hematite that had initially stopped her and asked for all three to be wrapped up.
Sery reached into her pocket for her small purse, only to find it missing. Checking her other pockets was equally fruitless.
Watching her, the merchant¡¯s expression turned sympathetic. ¡°Pickpockets get you, miss? They¡¯re rampant around these parts.¡±
Sery¡¯s stomach sank as she realized that during all the jostling in the crowd, her purse must have been stolen.
¡°Will you be okay to get somewhere safe, miss? Have lodgings all booked already?¡±
¡°Yes¡ I¡¯m with a large group¡¡± Sery said, distress lowering the volume of her voice until the merchant had to lean in to hear her over the crowd.
¡°Well, that¡¯s good. If you want, I can keep these set aside for you if you want to come back and pay for them,¡± the merchant offered.
¡°I-I think so. Thank you.¡±
Sery turned and walked back towards her guild campsite, mood falling lower with every step.
She was not concerned with the amount of money she had lost; she only kept petty spending money on her person, far less than she earned in a day of work.
No, she was upset because she had lost a wallet that Veltyen had gifted her.
Veltyen had brought it back to Eterna after a job last fall, a slim piece of leather that was just big enough to hold her mage identification card and a few bills. Its purpose was to allow her to transfer the essentials between the larger purses and bilfolds that Evodie constantly rotated in and out of her wardrobe as fashions shifted.
Her identification card! The sinking feeling in her stomach grew. What if she was refused entry to the Games because she could not prove she belonged with the Eterna competitors?
By the time Sery reached the Eterna camp, she was thoroughly miserable and convinced that she would be barred from the Games.
***
¡°Sery, what happened to you?¡± Foria exclaimed.
Veltyen interrupted the process of brushing Magewhisper and pushed between a pair of tents to find the web-mage with her arm around Sery¡¯s shoulders. Sery looked uninjured but her gaze was downcast and her shoulders slumped.
Her gaze flicked to meet his eyes for a brief moment before returning to the ground. ¡°¡I lost my purse,¡± she confessed.
¡°Are you hurt?¡± Veltyen demanded, gaze raking Sery¡¯s body and clothing for any sign of violence.
He felt himself relax as she shook her head. ¡°Just a pickpocket, then? It can happen in crowds like this, no big deal. Was there something you wanted to buy? If we don¡¯t have enough cash on hand, we can always head into the city to visit a banker.¡±
He was a bit surprised at how upset Sery looked, and had a moment of wishing the walls of her enna were down so he could get a feel of her emotional state. While a setback like this would have thrown her into a loop of guilt and self-recrimination when he first met her, she had recently been taking challenges more in stride, her confidence growing to match her expanding knowledge and experience.
¡°Well, yes, but¡ my mage ID was in there¡¡± Sery said, biting her lower lip.
¡°Oh, you¡¯re going to need that,¡± said Foria. ¡°Fortunately, I can find it.¡±
Sery raised her eyes at the confident statement. ¡°You can?¡±
¡°Of course. It has an information crystal on it that I coded myself. Scrying may not be my specialty, but I can at least find my own work in the local area. Let me grab my information screen and we¡¯ll go find it.¡±
¡°Don¡¯t leave without me,¡± Veltyen ordered. Foria was not entirely helpless when it came to danger, but he was not about to let her confront a thief without backup. Ducking into his tent, he retrieved his sword and strapped it on.
Returning outside, Veltyen found Sery standing alone, looking less miserable but not quite as relieved as he would expect. Again, he cursed the need for her to cut off her enna particle emission. ¡°Hey,¡± he said softly. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. We¡¯ll get your ID back.¡±
Sery nodded but her expression did not change.
¡°It¡¯s something else, then?¡± Veltyen guessed. ¡°Tell me.¡±
She cut him a brief glance. ¡°It¡¯s stupid.¡±
¡°It¡¯s not stupid if you care about it. Tell me,¡± he coaxed.
¡°¡I lost the wallet you gave me,¡± Sery confessed after a pause.
¡°I did?¡± Veltyen could only vaguely recall doing so. He enjoyed giving Sery things that he thought she would find useful or interesting, but individual gifts did not particularly register in his memory. ¡°That¡¯s okay, we can get you a new one.¡±
Sery¡¯s lips twisted in a wry expression. ¡°I told you it was stupid,¡± she said, regaining some of her usual spirit.
Grinning both at Sery¡¯s recovered mood and a sudden need to tease her, he nodded. ¡°You were right, it¡¯s stupid,¡± he agreed.
Sery¡¯s eyes widened and for a moment, Veltyen wondered if he had misjudged his humour. He enjoyed teasing her, but generally kept it very gentle; this was probably the first time he had ever said anything that could be construed as an insult.
Sery turned her head away and made a quiet sound that sounded very much like, ¡°Hmph.¡±
Veltyen laughed and wrapped his arms around her. ¡°Are you mad at me?¡± he murmured.
Sery relaxed against him. ¡°No.¡±
Foria came out of her tent holding her portable communincation crystal, the flat screen about the size of an open book. ¡°Really, Veltyen?¡± she said in mock exasperation at seeing their entwined position. ¡°We have work to do.¡±
¡°Lead the way,¡± Veltyen said, straightening his posture and releasing Sery.
It was a matter of seconds for Foria to locate the identification card, another twenty minutes before they walked to the location and retrieved it, thrown carelessly on the ground in the middle of the market area. Unsurprisingly, the purse and money it had been with were nowhere to be seen. Veltyen thought it was just as well they did not have to confront anyone about the theft; the legalities would be somewhat hazy due to their status as foreign citizens despite Roswanian law being nearly identical to Oslethia¡¯s.
¡°So, is the thing you wanted to buy near here?¡± Veltyen asked.
Sery nodded, gesturing at a booth several tent-blocks down.
¡°Oh, these are nice,¡± Foria said, inspecting the brooches on display.
¡°The miss is back!¡± said the merchant with a smile upon seeing Sery. ¡°Are these your friends? I have the selections you made already set aside.¡± He gestured to a plain box.
¡°Oh, which ones did you pick, Sery?¡± Foria asked.
The merchant opened the box to reveal sets in green, tiger-eye, and metallic dark gray.
¡°Are these for you?¡± Veltyen asked curiously, the colours being somewhat outside her usual palette.
Foria sighed dramatically. ¡°Seriously, Veltyen, how dense can you get?¡±
¡°What?¡±
Foria pointed at the gray set.
¡°What?¡± Veltyen repeated.
Foria pressed a hand to her forehead and rolled her eyes. ¡°Never mind. Sery, I¡¯ll get these for you. Also, please wrap up these ones for me as well. And these ones for Sery,¡± she said, pointing at a set of amethyst purple in blackened iron as well as aquamarine in silver.
¡°What?¡± Veltyen asked Sery as the merchant happily accepted Foria¡¯s money and wrapped up the extra sales.
Sery shook her head. The corners of her mouth tipped up slightly and she said, ¡°It¡¯s stupid.¡±
Veltyen groaned jokingly. ¡°You¡¯re going to make me pay for that comment, aren¡¯t you?¡±
Sery wrapped her arms around his waist. ¡°No.¡±
Veltyen felt his heart melting. There was simply no meanness in Sery, no sharp remarks, no emotional armour. It made him feel intensely protective and at the same time bypassed all of his own emotional defences.
¡°Oh, stop it, you two,¡± said Foria, ¡°Let¡¯s head back.¡±
Veltyen released Sery from their hug but took her hand before they walked back to camp.
Chapter 29
¡°Welcome to the fifty-second Mage Games!¡±
The magically amplified voice of the announcer rang through the enormous stadium, managing to cut through the roar of the excited crowd, a wall of sound that Sery could feel vibrating through her body. Paradoxically, the sensory overload of the cheering seemed to blunt her awareness of her surroundings; even Foria, sitting right next to her, disappeared unless Sery turned to look.
Sery¡¯s enna sense was locked down tightly as a result of her blocking her natural emission of mana particles by thickening her enna¡¯s walls. Out of curiosity, she had briefly opened the sense earlier, and the sheer number and strength of the mages gathered to compete had blazed in her senses like hundreds of small suns.
She had closed her magical eye after a single second, but it had seemed to her that Ariela¡¯s enna stood out even among these elites.
Hundreds of performers danced across the stadium in intricate formations while an enormous band played lively music, exciting the crowd even more.
¡°Please welcome our competitors!¡±
As the performers streamed out of the stadium through one set of gates, another opened on the opposite end and the competing guilds entered, carrying the banners of their guild emblems. The roar of the crowd waxed and waned as particularly famous individuals made their appearance in the procession.
All of the banners bore certain similarities: the background colour represented the magic of the guild head, electric blue for energy, green for life, deep purple for dimensional, and brown for materials. The symbol itself was usually depicted in a neutral black or white, though other neutral colours were used as the guilds attempted to stand out from the basic template.
The guilds were ordered from oldest to newest, and some of the most famous had been around since the aftermath of the Archmage Wars, some seven hundred years ago. Eterna, at sixty-odd years of age, was by no means a new guild, but newly established guilds rarely had the strength or the resources to compete, so their infinity symbol did not appear until near the end of the procession.
Eterna¡¯s banner was distinctive in that it boasted two background colours, electric blue for Ariela and brown to represent Devlin. The symbol was embroidered in bright silver thread that matched the guild mark on Sery¡¯s wrist, a subtle message for those few who knew how Source magic reacted to the mark.
The colour reminded Sery that the main reason Eterna had gone through all the trouble of registering, training, and competing in the Mage Games was to counteract the destabilizing changes her presence had caused. If it were not for the knowledge that her magic had also benefited the guild¡¯s earnings and boosted the town¡¯s economy, she might have left Eterna for somewhere her presence would be less disruptive, even if it meant leaving the safe haven Veltyen had created for her.
Her guilt faded as Veltyen smiled and waved at her as he passed their section of the stands. He had taught her that she had value, that she was more than just a magic source or a burden to be cared for. She waved back, somewhat surprised he had been able to pick her out from the crowd without being able to sense her magic.
After all the guilds finished a circuit of the stadium, a woman took to the main stage, the entire left half of her hair a solid silver. According to the programme, this was Cindra Asverei, the head of the Roswan branch of the guild association. She raised a sceptre carved with the four-ring symbol of the Mage Games. ¡°I declare¡ the Mage Games open!¡± she cried. A spark flew from the sceptre, and on cue, a huge fireworks display launched from behind her, filling the air with dazzling lights and adding yet another layer of sound to the clamour.
Sery applauded along with everyone else but was starting to feel exhausted from the sensory overload. Thankfully, while the band resumed playing, many spectators began to leave their seats and exit the stadium. Sery stuck tight to Foria as they navigated the packed crowds to return to their campground.
¡°Phew! No place quite as crowded as the Games,¡± Foria commented, fanning herself with a programme as they reached open air.
Sery nodded, listening carefully because it seemed that her hearing was fainter than usual.
The supporting side of the Eterna delegation returned to camp earlier than the competitors and got to work preparing a simple dinner; more than one person lamented that Maurio could not be in two places at once. By the time Veltyen and the others had returned, they had cooked all the ingredients to make a variety of wraps.
Sery had eaten similar foods before, but she had certainly never wrapped her own. The task looked simple enough, but somehow one side or the other was never tight enough to hold the filling securely and she ended up with half of it in a lopsided imitation of everyone else¡¯s neat wraps, half spilled over her plate.
A low chuckle that Sery would recognize anywhere. She looked up as Veltyen sat next to her, eyes bright with amusement. She smiled back, somewhat embarrassed at the contrast between her work and the two neat cylinders Veltyen carried on his plate, but pleased that he seemed to be less careful around her recently, unafraid to laugh at her as he would any of the other guild members.
Sery did her best to scoop the rest of the filling into the wrap and ate quietly as the guild discussed the events to take place the next morning, Taine¡¯s Bloom and Asher¡¯s Powerspeed competitions. The Powerspeed competition was one of pure explosive magic power and did not require outside support or any particular strategy once the competitor decided what spell he was going to use. As far as Sery could tell, Asher had not done a practice run of the activity since he had decided to compete, but he seemed extremely confident that he was going to win.
¡°Hey Sery, do you mind charging me up just a bit more for tomorrow?¡± the dimensional mage asked, and Sery willingly took his hand. As usual, it felt like the mana particles she pushed into Asher disappeared to somewhere else as soon as they entered his enna; it still seemed inconceivable that they had been transferred to the future and could be called back for use. Asher had explained that the further in the future he had to store the magic, the less efficient it was. He usually stopped storing magic more than three years in the future, where there was approximately a 50% loss in the act of moving the mana particles forward ¨C and another 50% lost when bring brought back. Judging by how much she was pouring in when he had already been at that mark, he was pushing past four years.
A second after Sery felt the lightheadedness that warned her she was overdepleting her enna, arms wrapped around her waist and wrist and pulled her back, breaking the physical connection with Asher. ¡°Enough,¡± Veltyen said, staring at the other man with a look halfway between a frown and a glare. Veltyen highly disapproved of the amount of magic Asher took in a single transfer, the energy loss associated with his method meaning that while he functioned as a five-star mage, the cost to Sery was several times as much as it took to restore a regular five-star enna.
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Sery took a deep breath as the dizziness faded, then looked towards the remaining food, now piled on a buffet table, the expenditure of magic making her hungry as usual.
Gaze softening, Veltyen gave her his second neat wrap and went to make himself another one.
At the other end of the gathering, Taine was carefully checking over the packets of labelled seeds he had brought for the competition, separating out the extras from the mix he would need to create his living art installation. Two of the helpers enlisted for the Games were going to participate in the preparation phase of the competition, hauling water, fertilizer, and a single statue while Taine spread the seeds himself.
¡°Let¡¯s all turn in early,¡± Devlin suggested. ¡°Good luck to Taine and Asher tomorrow.¡±
¡°And let¡¯s all do our best to support them,¡± Ariela added.
There was a chorus of goodnights as people dispersed to get ready to sleep. Sery finished her food and did the same, going through the unfamiliar action of crawling into a sleeping bag. The setting was unfamiliar, but after retrieving her horse plush, Whisper, from the foot of her bedroll, she was able to slowly drift off to sleep.
***
Veltyen accompanied Magewhisper as the stallion pulled his magical platform, now loaded with various gardening tools and sacks of fertilizer. Their destination was an area of clear land a fair distance¡¯s walk from the main stadium, separate sections marked off for each Bloom competitor by simple pickets.
Taine and his helpers were already in place, surveying their assigned plot and discussing last-minute adjustments to the overall plan. Despite the fact that the competition was about to begin, there were almost no spectators; people tended to gather to watch only after the growing phase was about to begin, as there was not much to look at during the preparation phase.
¡°Good luck,¡± said Veltyen as he unloaded the last pile of supplies.
¡°Thanks. Don¡¯t worry about sticking around; just bring everyone by when the magic starts flying,¡± Taine said with a good-natured smile.
¡°Will do.¡±
Despite his words, Veltyen did stay until the start of the competition was announced and everyone got to work preparing the ground and planting their seeds. Veltyen did not know exactly what kind of scene Taine was planting, but it was quite obvious even to his inexperienced eye that the healer-turned-botanist was placing far fewer seeds than the other competitors, who scattered handfuls at a time to cover large areas in between carefully spaced seeds that Veltyen assumed would be some kind of larger plant to draw focus. Taine¡¯s helpers also seemed to have several times more fertilizer to spread than the other groups, making Veltyen wonder what kind of plants Taine was using.
His only clue was the statue Taine had commissioned to use in the scene. It was of a young man down on one knee, staring upwards at something that seemed to catch his whole attention. The only guess Veltyen could come up with was that there was going to be something tall for the statue to stare at.
Shrugging, he made his way back to camp with an eye on the time so he could return as things started growing.
An hour later, most of the members of Eterna gathered at the site, along with a sparse crowd of curious spectators ¨C even the growing phase of the competition was not very popular; watching plants grow to full size over the course of an hour was not particularly exciting, and people tended to wander through the exhibits throughout the Games after the competition was over.
¡°One minute warning!¡± cried the announcer. ¡°Assistants off the field!¡±
While a few groups worked frantically to the last few seconds before the assistants sprinted off the plots of land, Taine¡¯s helpers had finished early, their job simple compared to other projects that required the placement of dozens of decorations. They took their gardening tools with them, clearing the space of everything except a large watering can and several barrels full of water.
Taine crouched in the earth, hands dug into a pile of soil. To Veltyen¡¯s eye, it seemed that he had basically buried the entire plot with a thick layer of fertilizer.
¡°Begin the growing phase!¡±
Within a minute, slender sprouts of green began to poke out of the ground all over the competition area. The judges¡¯ eyes seemed to snap to Taine¡¯s work in particular, and after a minute, Veltyen noticed the difference: around the healer¡¯s hands was a pair of slender saplings.
¡°Is it unusual to use trees instead of smaller plants?¡± he asked.
Beside him, Sery nodded. ¡°It¡¯s hard to get them to grow to full size,¡± she explained.
The plants continued to grow, not quite fast enough to see movement, but visibly taller if he looked away for several seconds. Taine¡¯s pair of saplings began to curve towards each other, forming the beginnings of a spiral as they gained height. In only ten minutes, they had surpassed his height, beginning to tower over the shorter plants of his competitors.
Looking around, Veltyen saw that while most of the competitors were deeply focused on their own work, a few noticed Taine¡¯s trees and became visibly unnerved. Based on how one man ran over to his supplies and began to scatter more seeds, he was even making last-minute alterations to plans that had no doubt been carefully drawn over weeks to months.
¡°That seems like a bad idea,¡± Ariela murmured, nodding at the frantic competitor, who now had his own sapling poking out of the ground. The mage seemed quite pale and unsteady on his feet, likely due to pushing his magic to the limits.
In contrast, Taine looked as serene as he usually did, generously watering his trees as he pushed them for even more height. At some signal he seemed to sense from touching their trunks, he left them alone after they were about twice his height and held his palms out to the rest of the plot. Dozens more saplings sprouted out of the ground; at this point, it looked like the judges¡¯ eyes were going to bulge out of their sockets. He guided them to growth just as easily as the two original trees, though they made less progress with his power spread between so many.
After a similar amount of time, Taine returned to growing the spiral twin-tree he had created, continuing to generously water his trees. He alternated between the twin-tree and the rest multiple times, the result a respectable grove of mature trees with a huge twin tree towering over the rest, one that looked several hundred years old.
After Taine was satisfied with the height, he sent climbing vines to blanket the twin-tree, thorny ones that bloomed with roses as well as more threadlike tendrils that seemed to bunch together and fall in a straight rope after they reached the top. At the place that they gathered, the twin-tree¡¯s branches began to bulge and reshape themselves, taking on the form of a young woman, the vines hanging from her head like impossibly long hair.
Taine crouched next to his statue, judging the angle and adjusting its positioning until it looked like the stone man and wooden woman were staring into each others¡¯ eyes. Almost as an afterthought, he populated the ground with small patches of grass and wildflowers, completing the picture of a piece of old forest straight out of a storybook, with a storybook scene to match.
¡°I didn¡¯t think Taine was this competitive,¡± Ariela murmured dryly, looking around at the other life-mages, who seemed quite defeated with the difference in the scale of magic between their projects and Taine¡¯s. The one who had started his own tree had not been able to make it reach the height of even one of Taine¡¯s lesser trees, and was struggling to finish his bird-themed exhibit.
¡°He always did like to get perfect scores on his exams, though, didn¡¯t he?¡± Devlin asked.
Ariela laughed. ¡°That¡¯s true! Good thing he entered something with a point-based scoring system."
¡°But¡ this looks like he used thousands of times more magic than the others,¡± Veltyen protested. ¡°How is this even possible?¡±
Ariela answered. ¡°Well, one, he¡¯s the only four-star mage here. Plant magic is lucrative but doesn¡¯t necessarily require much power if your main goal is to strengthen plants rather than force growth as your regular job. In addition, the reason he and I met in school was that we both had a particular focus on magic efficiency. In my case, I manipulate the waste heat from my previous magic effects to power the next reaction. In his, he lets the plant ¨C or body ¨C do a lot of the work itself, providing all the nutrients that are necessary and taking breaks for the tissue to catch up to the growth.¡±
¡°I think he magically enhanced the seeds beforehand,¡± Devlin added. ¡°It¡¯s not against the rules, but it is very difficult. Compared to his work on scar removal and hands-free surgery, though, it¡¯s very doable.¡±
¡°Time! Competitors off the field for judging to commence!¡± cried the announcer. Taine walked calmly out of his exhibit, slightly pale but nowhere near as exhausted-looking as most of the competitors.
The judges walked through each display with a clipboard to jot down notes. Veltyen felt rather sorry for the other mages, who had created interesting and pretty scenes that were now being literally overshadowed by the twin-tree.
The scores were announced by category and individual judge: ¡°Taine Sillei¡¯s project, Let Down Your Hair, Difficulty: 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100. Health: 100, 95, 100, 100, 100, 100. Harmony: 93, 90 100, 98, 95, 99. Overall score: 296.25.¡±
Eterna¡¯s group erupted into applause, which Taine acknowledged with a smile and a wave.
Chapter 30
¡°Please welcome our competitors for this year¡¯s Powerspeed competition!¡±
The announcer¡¯s amplified voice rang through the Games¡¯ main stadium, its seats nearly as packed as they had been for the opening ceremony. Veltyen took the aisle seat on the long bench Eterna¡¯s members occupied, protecting Sery and the others from the jostling of the crowd.
He watched in interest as each competitor was introduced by name. Twelve in all had registered for this year¡¯s competition; all of them ¨C including Asher, who had had his magic re-rated and received his five-star certification just before the start of the Games ¨C powerful mages ranked at five stars. Their names were generally well known as some of the most skilled and accomplished in their respective countries.
The rules of the Powerspeed competition were simple: Each mage had the opportunity to cast a single spell or attack at the measuring device in the centre of the field, which would convert the energy it experienced into a numerical value. The energy of a spell was not perfectly correlated with the amount of magic it consumed ¨C factors such as spell efficiency and interactions with physical and chemical forces could sway things considerably in either direction ¨C but it was not an event that one had any hope of winning without massive enna stores. The event was enormously popular as an opportunity to see some of the most powerful spells ever cast, as mundane work rarely called upon mages of this strength to discharge all their magic in one go.
Veltyen wondered what Asher had planned that made the dimensional mage so confident in being able to win this event. Enna size could vary by as much as ninefold within the same rank, and Veltyen doubted that Asher¡¯s artificial augmentation trick put him at the top of the five-star rank when his natural enna was only three stars.
The order of the competitors¡¯ tries was determined by lottery, and Asher was going second last. The first mage stepped forward, carrying a massive sledgehammer that Veltyen was not sure he could lift without magic. He raised his arm to greet the crowd and received a roar of approval. Based on the way he handled the hammer, Veltyen could tell that he was an energy mage manipulating kinetic energy rather than a materials mage altering its weight properties.
The competitor made his way to the end of the competition field, hundreds of paces away from the measuring device. On the signal to begin, he started running forward, accelerating at a pace that could only be achieved with magic until he looked like a blur streaking forward. After reaching top speed, he made a massive leap in the air that brought him even with the stadium¡¯s highest seats, coming down to smash the sledgehammer into the measuring device with devastating force.
Beside him, Sery braced for the expected impact, then frowned in puzzlement as the mage seemed to lose all momentum and land gently on the ground, hammer barely brushing the mana crystal device.
Veltyen grinned, remembering his own reaction to the uncanny sight the first time he had watched this competition. ¡°The device is designed to absorb all types of energy that come in contact with it,¡± he explained. He watched as the vertical display, a mana crystal rod that was almost three times his height, began to glow from the bottom up as a visual representation of the energy absorbed, the glow ending at around the three-quarter mark. The crowd roared its excitement and the mage waved before bowing to the judges, body language clearly pleased at the showing.
¡°I¡¯m glad Asher decided to take this competition,¡± Ariela murmured from several seats down. ¡°I just don¡¯t have the flashiness that would be popular with the audience even if I won this.¡±
Beside her, Devlin patted her hand. ¡°Your magic¡¯s beauty is in its pure efficiency, my dear. Let the young ones enjoy their flashiness.¡±
The second competitor summoned an enormous tornado whose energy was gradually eaten up by contact with the measuring device, followed by one who focused an incredibly intense beam of light, then another kinetic mage who shot a spear from her bare hands at such a speed that a small sonic boom rang through the stadium. The scoring was fairly close so far, all of them near the three-quarter mark on the display, with the light magic just edging into the lead.
Sitting on the competitor¡¯s bench, Asher looked just as confident as he had last night. Clearly, the performances so far were within his expectations and no threat to whatever he was planning on doing.
Shaking his head at the brash confidence, Veltyen asked, ¡°Sery, do you know what kind of spell Asher is planning on using?¡±
¡°Summoning, he said.¡±
¡°Huh. How typically esoteric of him.¡± Veltyen was not particularly well-versed in dimensional magic, but he knew the general principles of dimensionality. In addition to the dimensions of space and time, there were a theoretically infinite number of alternate dimensions with different properties that it was possible to access. The information dimension was the most popular, a group construct that allowed the storage and transmission of an almost infinite amount of records, but with the right connection, it was possible to find living creatures that did not exist in this world and temporarily allow them to manifest.
The magic cost of such a spell limited their manifestation to a few minutes at best, and the years of study it took to connect to even one such dimension were generally deemed a waste of time when whatever magical effects such a summoned creature could produce could generally be produced more easily and efficiently with a direct spell aiming for the same effect. As such, summoning was generally regarded as a relic type of magic from back before the four-type system of magic had been established, a time when the fundamental forces governing mana particle control had not been discovered and spells generally had much lower efficiency than they did today. As ¡°flashy¡± spells went, however, it was probably perfect.
The competition continued with a mage who summoned a cloud of plasma to attack the measuring device, only to dissipate as the crystal ate away at the energy keeping it in its highly charged state. Several more kinetic energy specialists did variations on striking with a weapon. The eighth competitor managed to concoct some kind of explosion from thin air that had the crowd roaring, scoring at the 90% mark on the display. Through it all, Asher seemed to maintain his unworried expression.
The ninth competitor appeared to be a rare materials mage rather than an energy mage as dominated this category. He took a stone and dropped it on the measuring device; Veltyen guessed that magic had gone into increasing the rock¡¯s weight by an incredible amount so that its fall would release an enormous amount of potential energy. The energy of the fall absorbed as it entered the device¡¯s field of influence caused it to take an eerie path downwards without any acceleration, rolling off the mana crystal panel before falling to the ground and sinking several inches into the ground. Veltyen took note of the magic and filed it away to experiment with later in case it would have a more practical application on field jobs in the future.
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The tenth competitor stepped forward, starting a spell that took many minutes and produced a single thunder-grey stormcloud over the stadium. With an oddly muted flash and boom, a bolt of lightning struck the measuring device and was absorbed.
The crowd went wild, cheering for long minutes at the incredibly complex magic that lit up the measuring device to just below the peak of the display rod. The mage smiled and waved, clearly confident of her victory.
¡°Asher still doesn¡¯t look worried,¡± Veltyen commented, shaking his head again.
¡°I¡¯ve never seen him make a mistake in his calculations, so I suppose he knows what he¡¯s doing,¡± Foria replied, though her tone was doubtful.
It took a while for the crowds to calm enough for the announcer to call up the next competitor, but eventually, Asher walked onto the field. He stood casually in front of the measuring device, then tilted his head towards the sky and closed his eyes.
Veltyen shielded his eyes and sheltered Sery against his chest as a second sun seemed to appear in the air, a light so bright and pure that the real sun seemed weak and yellow in comparison. The light pulsed and dimmed. At the same time that it grew dark enough to look at the sky, the air was flooded with ambient magic, a thousand times stronger than what Sery could produce even when she consciously poured her magic out.
Veltyen shuddered under the onslaught. It was too much, his body feeling like it was being electrocuted, mana particles pouring into his already-full enna until he thought he might explode.
Sery grasped the front of his shirt to get his attention. ¡°Veltyen, you¡¯re too full. Close your enna walls.¡±
Right, he could do that. Taking a shuddering breath, he thickened the walls of his enna until it was impermeable to mana particles, sighing in relief as the unbearable pressure eased. Sery remained tucked against him, although she was now holding him upright rather than taking shelter. He brushed his lips against her forehead in silent thanks.
Turning to his other guild members, he prompted them to do the same as he had, although Foria, Ariela, and Devlin seemed to have protected themselves without needing instruction. Everyone who had recovered from the flood of magic was staring, rapt, at the centre of the stadium.
A glowing being had coalesced and was standing in front of Asher, listening to him speak with a serene expression. Enormous wings that looked composed of strokes of light extended from her back, not seeming to weigh anything or push air as she turned easily to face the measuring device.
The angel gently placed a glowing hand on the mana crystal panel. Rather than dimming as it began to absorb energy, her glow seemed to spread along the device, spreading across the crystal until even the display rod lit up like a lighthouse beacon. With a final pulse of light, the device shattered.
Turning back to face Asher, the angel smiled gently and placed her hand on his cheek before vanishing in a gentle ebb of light.
After a stunned silence, the crowd went insane.
***
Sery took shelter in her tent as the guild was besieged with visitors. From officials looking for Devlin to repair their extremely expensive mana crystal device ¨C thankfully, the twelfth competitor had forfeited and it would not need to be ready until the next Games ¨C to followers of the Luminari faith, who were torn between outrage and reverence at the summoning of one of their archangels in a ceremony outside their church, the guild heads had their hands full. Veltyen was around to make sure only invited guests were permitted in the area, whereas Asher had been sternly instructed to stay out of sight until everything had blown over.
Foria¡¯s voice came from the other side of the tent wall, the communal space created by the ring of their tents. ¡°Asher.¡±
¡°What? I¡¯m not going outside,¡± Asher¡¯s voice protested.
¡°You¡¯re in love with her, aren¡¯t you?¡±
A heavy silence.
¡°There¡¯s no way¡ª¡±
¡°You think I don¡¯t know that?¡± Asher snapped. ¡°I had to drain Sery four times to have enough magic to let her manifest for a single minute.¡±
Sery curled in on her bedroll, feeling uneasy about her accidental eavesdropping.
Foria¡¯s voice came again, much lower in volume. ¡°Sorry. We can¡¯t control our feelings.¡±
Footsteps came around the side of the tent before Foria entered through the entrance flap. Sery was stunned to see tears in the web-mage¡¯s eyes when she was always composed and unflappable.
¡°Foria¡¡± Sery said softly, getting up to wrap the older woman in a hug.
¡°I love him,¡± she confessed in a whisper. ¡°But I can¡¯t compete with that.¡±
Sery did not know what to say and simply patted Foria¡¯s back with comforting strokes until the web-mage regained her composure and straightened.
Foria smiled, the expression not reaching her eyes. ¡°Thank you, Sery. I¡¯m going to go to bed early today.¡± She got into her bedroll and lay on her side, back to Sery and the tent interior. Her breathing pattern told Sery that Foria was nowhere close to sleep.
Sery crept quietly out of the tent. Not having anywhere in particular to go, she visited the paddock that was marked out for Mindseye, Magewhisper, and the other horses the guild had brought to the Games.
Mindseye walked over to greet her. Though the mare did not need it, Sery pulled out the grooming supplies and brushed her silver coat until it was almost mirror-bright. Sery would not tell anyone else about what she heard, but she thought it would be okay to tell Mindseye, the horse being a very good secret-keeper on account of not being particularly interested in what mage-mounts generally considered the nonsensical complexity of human emotion.
Sery sighed. ¡°You¡¯re right, people make things complicated. But Foria¡¯s really hurting, and I have no idea what to do to help.¡±
Mindseye snorted and walked in a circle.
¡°¡®Move on¡¯?¡± Sery interpreted. ¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯s that easy¡¡±
¡°What¡¯s not easy?¡±
Sery clamped her mouth shut and turned to greet Veltyen. Her sense of him was fairly muted since her enna was locked down, and she had not distinguished his patrol movements from an actual approach towards her location.
¡°What? You won¡¯t tell me?¡± he coaxed with a teasing smile.
¡°It¡¯s someone else¡¯s secret,¡± Sery said solemnly.
¡°Ah. Well. Here, let¡¯s sit.¡± Veltyen pulled out a folding chair and set it up in the paddock before settling in and pulling Sery to settle beside him.
Sery breathed in his familiar scent while still thinking. She did not quite understand what Foria must be feeling, having never been in an equivalent situation.
If Veltyen loved someone else¡
A confused haze of emotions drifted across her heart. She would not be jealous in that situation, no, because Veltyen did not belong to her. She would be lonely if it meant he spent less time with her, but if it made him happy, she would want him to do so.
But a small, petty part of her wanted everything to stay as it was, where Veltyen seemed to enjoy her company and where she could be the one to make him happy.
He had told her he loved her, and it had given her the confidence to face the world.
¡°Veltyen?¡±
¡°Yes?¡±
¡°I love you.¡±
***
Veltyen¡¯s breath hitched at the unexpected blow to the heart. Letting out a shaky exhale, he tilted her chin up to read her expression.
Her face did not seem to convey anything that was not usually there, her eyes sincere and earnest. There did not seem to be a motive behind the words, no expectation that their relationship would change because of them.
He relaxed with a combination of relief and disappointment. If there had been, he would have been forced to reject her, the power dynamics that had built their relationship too uneven for him to ever feel confident he had not unwittingly manipulated Sery into wanting him.
He pressed his forehead to hers and closed his eyes. ¡°I love you, too.¡±
Apparently unaware of the emotional upheaval she had caused, Sery leaned her head against his shoulder and drifted off to sleep after a few minutes.
Veltyen swore under his breath, the word very quiet but utterly heartfelt.
Chapter 31
¡°Welcome to the first round of the Fortress competition, Eterna versus Redclaw!¡±
The announcer¡¯s magically amplified voice rang out through the huge open field set aside for the event, drawing a cheer from the gathered audience. Despite the fact that it was only the first round in a four-stage knockout tournament, the number of spectators was quite large, reflecting the popularity of the event.
The Fortress competition was a matchup between five-member teams, each having a base to defend. The objective was to destroy the mana crystal at the centre of the opposing team¡¯s base while protecting the home base. While on the opposing team¡¯s side, players could be tagged and from there would have to touch their own base¡¯s mana crystal before being allowed to venture into the opponents¡¯ territory again.
Matches were strictly non-violent, and the setup heavily favoured energy mages who specialized in speed magic. It was generally an exciting event of athleticism and strategy.
Veltyen reflected on this while participating as a token seat-filler because the rules did not allow teams of less than five people to compete. Beside him, Devlin, Asher, and Taine fulfilled similar roles.
Despite the lack of any speed mages on their team, Ariela and Devlin were currently arguing over how long to wait before winning the match, neither of them even slightly concerned about the possibility of losing.
¡°It has to be decisive and crushing,¡± said Ariela.
¡°My dear, the absolute shortest a match has even been was fifteen minutes. We will get booed for being boring if you end it immediately. Even worse, they¡¯ll probably assume some kind of mana crystal malfunction.¡±
¡°Well, I can¡¯t just sit around doing nothing for fifteen minutes. My powers aren¡¯t exactly suitable for non-lethal defence.¡±
Veltyen had a few ideas. ¡°You could drop them into pits,¡± he suggested.
Ariela¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°I could drop their whole fortress into a pit. That would suitably impress the crowd, right?¡±
¡°¡Maybe save that for the final match,¡± Devlin suggested. ¡°We need to build up excitement.¡±
¡°How about you slowly dissolve their fortress in a wave this time,¡± Taine suggested.
¡°Okay,¡± said Ariela. ¡°Over, let¡¯s say, two minutes?¡±
Everyone nodded. ¡°Focus on creating obstacles for the players until the ten minute mark at least,¡± said Devlin. ¡°We¡¯ll be here around the crystal in case any of them get through.¡±
Ariela rolled her eyes. ¡°Fine. Did anyone bring a watch?¡±
¡°I did,¡± said Taine. ¡°I¡¯ll let you know.¡±
Everyone took their starting positions around the base crystal. With a blow of a whistle, the match was on.
The opposing team had allocated two players to defending the base while three went on the attack, sprinting across the dividing line while widely spaced apart to make it difficult to target them as a group. In contrast to their haste, Ariela casually strolled around to the front of the cottage-sized building that served as their base. Seeing only one opponent, the enemy mages conserved their magic and ran forward at impressive but human speed.
The ground before all three of them seemed to waver before dissipating in a cloud of ash and they found themselves falling into pits deeper than their own height. While surprised, all three managed to land on their feet.
¡°They can easily jump out of there,¡± Veltyen warned, having had ample experience with the physical capabilities of kinetic energy mages in the course of his training and career.
Before any of them could do so, the pits tripled in depth, the earth again vanishing in a puff of ash that coated the mages in a layer of gray powder. As soon as they landed, the depth doubled again. The area immediately above the disappearing soil became misty with water vapour.
¡°I know,¡± said Ariela, ¡°I just didn¡¯t want them getting hurt falling.¡±
Seeing their teammates in trouble, one of the opposing players left on defence cast a spell that pulsed blindingly bright light, making the Eterna players squint and shade their eyes.
¡°Should we help, my dear?¡± Devlin enquired.
¡°Veltyen, be a dear and run over there and tag those players before they get out of their pits, would you?¡± Ariela requested. ¡°No need for a lot of magic use, just keep yourself safe out there.¡±
¡°Gladly,¡± Veltyen said. He tied a cloth around his eyes and used his magic to turn it into a translucent sun shade that cut through the blinding light before running out onto the field. He was rather glad that circumstances had allowed him to participate in a minor way, his mind having automatically started strategizing on what he would do if he were competing seriously. His magic was not particularly suited for the rules of this particular game, but in becoming a combat mage, he had gained a lot of experience with kinetic energy specialists, while they likely had no familiarity with materials magic in any kind of athletic context.
Under the cover of the pulsing light, Veltyen snuck up on one of the opposing players just as he reached the top of the pit Ariela had conjured. It was quite amusing to see the soot-covered mage¡¯s expression shift from surprise to annoyance as he registered being tagged right after all the effort of escaping the trap.
Veltyen immediately turned and sprinted for a second pit, but the first opponent called out a warning and his second target was prepared for him to try to tag her. What she was not prepared for was for him to soften the soil under her hands until they sank in to the wrists, then harden it, his recent experience in construction work unexpectedly helpful. He did not bother pouring enough power into the magic to truly immobilize her, just slow her for the fraction of the second he needed to tag her and send her back to her side of the territory.
The third attacking player had escaped his pit and continued his advance despite the loss of his teammates. No longer conserving magic, he ran, jumped, and dodged in movements that were difficult to follow with the untrained eye, causing Ariela to conjure new pits in the wrong areas to slow his advance.
Without speed magic, Veltyen had no chance of catching up by running. Instead, he slammed his hand onto the ground and sent a burst of magic that softened the field to the consistency of thick mud. The mage managed to jump into the air before the ground completely softened, but a second pulse of magic when he landed succeeded in trapping him for long enough for Ariela to drop him into a pit. Veltyen grinned and jogged over to tag him, forcing him to retreat. The light effect faded, the opponent choosing to save magic stores for the time being.
¡°Has it been ten minutes yet?¡± Ariela asked.
¡°It¡¯s been two,¡± said Taine.
She tsked in annoyance. ¡°I really don¡¯t want us accidentally losing because we were stalling for too long.¡±
¡°Dear, why don¡¯t you go up to the top of the building and pretend you are setting up for an elaborate spell?¡± Devlin asked. ¡°They¡¯ll target you instead of the mana crystal.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t have any chalk.¡±
Devlin picked up a stone and handed it to her, transforming its material properties in the breath that it took to complete the motion.
¡°Huh, free chalk,¡± Ariela joked. ¡°I knew I married you for a reason.¡± She climbed to the top of their base and began drawing random circles on the roof.
The first two opponents to be eliminated had returned to their base and were setting out for a second attempt. Deciding the ground was too treacherous to traverse, they used magic to launch themselves into the air, speeding forward like loosed arrows.
Veltyen moved forward to intercept the mage in the lead, only to pause when Asher said, ¡°I got it, I got it.¡± A second later, both of them were flying at the exact same speed in the reverse direction, Asher having completed such a flawless vector reversal that it took them a few seconds to realize what had happened and regain control of their flight. They retreated back to their base, presumably to confer with their teammates.
Taine looked at the younger men thoughtfully. ¡°You two would actually be good at this game,¡± he observed.
Asher shrugged. ¡°Maybe? It would only take a few tries before someone figured out how to get around me. Veltyen could do it.¡±
Veltyen grinned. ¡°You¡¯re too distractible.¡±
¡°That being said, we¡¯re operating at a massive advantage,¡± Asher continued, somewhat proving Veltyen¡¯s point. ¡°Everyone else is trying to win with the absolute minimum magic expenditure, since it will be four rounds to the finals. I haven¡¯t had a second thought about casting a medium-strength spell since Sery joined the guild. Just the fact that I¡¯m here after winning the Powerspeed competition, of all things, is completely ludicrous. In fact, all of us except Ariela are competing in more than one event.¡±
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Veltyen¡¯s eyes automatically cut to Sery, sitting in the audience next to Foria, who was laughing her head off, presumably at the sight of the mages flying backwards so suddenly. Sery¡¯s expression was warm and amused. Sensing his gaze, she smiled and waved. He smiled and nodded back before returning his attention to the playing field, alert for their opponents¡¯ next move.
¡°You are all supposed to be placeholders,¡± said Ariela, now drawing neat rows of diamonds along the edge of her main circle. ¡°The whole point of this exercise is to prove that our guild is to be reckoned with even without Sery¡¯s help.¡±
¡°I mean it¡¯s true that Sery isn¡¯t boosting us during any of the events,¡± said Asher, ¡°but it¡¯s hard to quantify the advantage we had simply because we could spend the last six months practicing rather than spending our every waking moment meditating, not even charging our own mana crystals to hoard every last mana particle we could store.¡±
¡°¡You¡¯re right, of course,¡± said Ariela. Glancing over at the other side, she dropped the advancing players into a single large pit while they were still on their side of the territory, casually demonstrating a terrifying range of phenomena interference ¨C Veltyen himself was limited to physical contact, maybe a few inches past his fingertips if he really strained. ¡°It¡¯s sometimes hard to remember life before Sery, even though it¡¯s only been what, ten months?¡±
¡°It will be ten months next week,¡± Veltyen confirmed.
¡°Regardless, it¡¯s time people learned to stop messing with us.¡± On the emphasized word, Ariela stood up and stared at the opposite team base.
¡°Don¡¯t forget to use some focusing gestures, dear,¡± Devlin prompted. At the reminder, Ariela moved her hands around in some typical gestures that many mages found helpful in directing their magic. The movements were so completely unrelated to the magic flows around her that Veltyen had to laugh.
¡°Um, it¡¯s only been seven minutes,¡± said Taine, though he clearly did not think Ariela would continue to wait.
The front of the enemy base began to crumble away with eerie precision, as if an invisible line of destruction were creeping slowly, inevitably forward, leaving nothing but ashes and dust in its wake.
¡°Um, what is your phenomena interference range?¡± Veltyen asked. The base was twice the distance away from the pit she had previously manifested.
¡°It¡¯s a good question,¡± Ariela said, eyes focused on her target but otherwise completely relaxed. ¡°I have never been able to target something without visual confirmation of its position.¡±
¡°¡So within eyeshot.¡±
¡°It works if she¡¯s looking through a telescope as well,¡± Devlin added.
Veltyen was completely speechless. Such an effortlessly destructive power with an unbelievable range¡
Devlin patted his shoulder. ¡°She¡¯s too lazy to destroy the world.¡±
¡°Think of all the paperwork,¡± Ariela joked. The entire front wall of the enemy base was gone, leaving a clear view of the mana crystal at its centre.
¡°Wait,¡± Asher said, ¡°Could you target the moon?¡±
Ariela snorted. ¡°Don¡¯t be ridiculous, Asher.¡±
She ruined the comforting words by adding, ¡°I¡¯ve never tried.¡±
Seeing the utter destruction of their base, the opposing team went on an all-out offensive, all five players running out and launching a variety of attacks. The rules forbade spells that would physically harm any players, but they endured bursts of sound, light, and wind intended to distract and interrupt Ariela¡¯s spellcasting. She simply closed her eyes and continued.
¡°I thought you needed visual confirmation,¡± said Veltyen, keeping an eye on their mana crystal so that it did not get damaged by the pebbles their opponents were shooting down to destroy Ariela¡¯s chalk drawings.
¡°Unless one of them can move that base, I already got it,¡± said Ariela.
Their victory seemed far more of a close call than it actually was, he and Asher deflecting a barrage of attacks on their mana crystal once the opposing team decided that there was no way to stop Ariela. In reality, they could have done nothing and the crystal would have weathered the attacks for long enough for Ariela to finish, as it was designed to absorb a considerable amount of kinetic energy before shattering and releasing a victory flare. Her line of destruction inched slowly forward until it hit the base of the enemy mana crystal, which immediately shattered and released the Eterna guild mark as a giant sigil in the air.
The crowd roared its approval.
***
¡°Hey, you¡¯re Veltyen Indei, right? You won the Fortress competition.¡±
Sery looked up at hearing Veltyen¡¯s name unexpectedly, on her way back to Eterna¡¯s tent area after a visit to the shower facilities with Foria. An unfamiliar woman had stopped him in the street while he was presumably on one of his casual patrols around the area. She looked about Veltyen¡¯s age, fairly wealthy but not a mage based on her dress, attractive in looks and confident about it in her bearing.
Veltyen did not look particularly happy to be recognized and attempted to disengage himself. ¡°Excuse me.¡±
The woman grabbed his arm. ¡°What¡¯s the hurry?¡± Leaning in, she said something next to his ear that Sery could not hear over the bustle of the crowd. She could only read his expression, which had shifted to one of distaste.
Following Sery¡¯s gaze, Foria noticed Veltyen for the first time. ¡°Oh dear, our boy has gotten a bit too famous. Let¡¯s go rescue him, shall we?¡±
The web-mage strode forward with a confidence that dared anyone to get in her way. ¡°Veltyen!¡± she called out cheerfully. ¡°Thanks for coming to get us!¡±
Veltyen looked up with visible relief, using the distraction to put distance between himself and the stranger. She did not look happy at the interruption, turning on Foria with an annoyed expression. ¡°Excuse me, we were talking.¡±
Foria pinned her with a thoroughly unimpressed look that Sery wished she could emulate. A second later, the web-mage turned to Veltyen, completely ignoring the woman¡¯s existence. ¡°Let¡¯s go, shall we?¡±
Sery slipped past the offended stranger unnoticed and fell in behind Foria and Veltyen as they returned to their tents. Veltyen automatically pulled her close to shield her from the jostling of the crowd.
¡°Thanks, Foria,¡± Veltyen said ruefully. ¡°That¡¯s the second one today.¡±
¡°We couldn¡¯t just ignore a damsel in distress,¡± she teased. ¡°Does our shy boy not like the limelight?¡±
¡°Don¡¯t you start, too. All I did was help stall so Ariela wouldn¡¯t end the matches too quickly,¡± he grumbled.
¡°Well, you did do all of the running around,¡± Foria pointed out.
¡°Ariela instantaneously dropped an entire castle into a twenty-foot pit from eight hundred paces away and then burned its stone to nothing, and people are concerned about my running around,¡± he complained, referring to the rather spectacular finals match that had occurred yesterday, where each team¡¯s base had consisted of a custom-built stone fortress with twenty-foot walls, only one of which was still standing.
Foria grimaced. ¡°Don¡¯t remind me. The Games¡¯ organizers are still trying to get us to pay for that castle.¡±
¡°What? That¡¯s ridiculous.¡±
Foria grinned. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, there¡¯s absolutely nothing in any rule or regulation that stipulated we couldn¡¯t destroy the enemy base during the course of the competition. If they whine at me for much longer, I¡¯ll sic Ariela on them. I dare them to keep whining while she slowly destroys their shoes or something.¡±
Veltyen laughed. ¡°Suddenly I feel sorry for them. I¡¯ll leave it in your infinitely capable hands.¡±
Sery kept her eyes lowered to match her subdued mood. If she had come across the earlier scene while alone, she did not think she would have been bold enough to intervene the way Foria had, even when it was obvious that Veltyen appreciated the help. It made her feel useless to not be up to the task one of the few times that he actually seemed to need or want assistance.
When they arrived at the tents, Foria surprised Sery by whisking her belongings out of her hands. ¡°I¡¯ll put these away for you,¡± said the web-mage, giving Veltyen a look before she walked off.
Sery looked back and forth between Veltyen and Foria, obviously having missed some silent communication while she was lost in her own negative thoughts.
Veltyen gently took her hand and led them to an empty seating area they usually used for dinner. Nowhere was truly private in a campground, but if they spoke quietly, people would be seen before they could overhear the conversation.
Rather than say anything immediately, he gathered up her long hair, still damp from the shower, and used a trick of his magic to make all of the water bead and drip to the ground. He called the water-repelling effect ¡°hydrophobicity¡± and she had not had a chance to study material science enough to fully understand how it worked.
¡°Hey,¡± he said gently, waiting until she looked up to meet his eyes. ¡°Are you mad at me from back there? Because I had no interest¡¡±
Sery blinked at him in confusion.
¡°¡and I was way off base,¡± he finished with a rueful chuckle. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡±
Sery did not quite know how to word her feelings. ¡°I wish I were brave,¡± she finally said.
¡°What? What do you mean?¡± Veltyen sounded truly surprised. ¡°Sery,¡± he said, taking her hand. ¡°You¡¯re the bravest person I know.¡±
Sery frowned, unable to reconcile the sincerity in his voice and the obvious untruth. ¡°I¡¯m not¡ Compared to Foria or Ariela, I¡¯m¡¡±
¡°Ah, I see what you¡¯re thinking. Sery, those two are more fearless than brave.¡±
Her brow knitted as she tried to distinguish the terms.
¡°Foria and Ariela are both supremely talented in their chosen areas. They know exactly what they can do, and because their abilities are fact to them, there is no fear or uncertainty involved. If you dropped them in situations where those skills don¡¯t apply, you¡¯d see that confidence drop off.
¡°But every day is still new for you. You¡¯re still learning your powers and your strengths, adjusting to a world that doesn¡¯t have a neat path for Sources to follow. And still, every day, you move forward. That¡¯s bravery, Sery. There¡¯s no one I admire more.¡±
He hugged her, and she let her head rest against his chest, trying to reconcile his description of her with her image of herself. It had not really occurred to her that much of her anxiety was related to unfamiliar situations, but in looking back, she realized how much comfort she had gained with Eterna¡¯s town and her daily responsibilities. She thought of herself as constantly anxious, but there had been weeks at a time that she had been happy and relaxed.
In the chaotic, noisy tent-city around the Games, only Veltyen could make her feel truly secure. As much as someone like her could be, he made her fearless.
¡°What brought this all on, anyway?¡± he asked.
¡°If Foria hadn¡¯t been there today, I¡¡±
He laughed. ¡°Oh, that? It would have been fine. I¡¯ve already fended off one overzealous fan today.¡±
Sery¡¯s mouth twisted. Veltyen was right, of course. He was not fiercely independent, but rather effortlessly so.
¡°Wrong answer? Sorry. Tell me again what was bothering you.¡±
¡°I want to, to be able to, do things,¡± she said, aware that that was not even remotely a coherent explanation.
Somehow, he understood. ¡°Like Foria and Ariela do?¡±
Sery nodded.
¡°They¡¯re certainly not bad role models to have.¡± He chuckled. ¡°I don¡¯t think you realize how much of them you¡¯ve already absorbed. Give it a decade, and you could be running Eterna, too.¡±
The idea of being in charge of anything startled her.
¡°But Sery?¡±
She met his gaze.
¡°Don¡¯t forget to be you. There are key differences between how Foria and Ariela might get the same task done, things that come down to their differing personalities and talents, their personal style. You don¡¯t need to copy the way they do things in order to accomplish the same things.¡±
Sery nodded, though she was sure she would have to think about what exactly her own personal style was.
He chuckled. ¡°Sometimes, you remind me of people who used recording crystals at the academy. They¡¯d store up the professors¡¯ lectures to study later. Except you¡¯re the student and the crystal at the same time.¡±
Foria emerged from their tent, walked over, and seated herself next to them. ¡°You finished begging for forgiveness?¡± she asked Veltyen.
¡°Turns out that Sery was more worried about her inability to scare people away,¡± he answered.
Foria made a face. ¡°It took you fifteen minutes to talk about that? Sery, if you see any annoying flies buzzing around Veltyen, just go over and hug him. They¡¯ll get the message.¡±
Sery blinked at the simple solution. She could do that. She nodded, her pragmatic concerns laid to rest.
¡°Wow. I really did waste fifteen minutes, didn¡¯t I?¡± said Veltyen with a laugh.
¡°I¡¯m sure you had a lot of noble ideas and abstract encouragement,¡± Foria said in a mock-comforting way, pegging Veltyen so accurately that he burst into full-blown laughter, Sery¡¯s favourite sound in the world.
Chapter 32
Veltyen double-checked the straps on Magewhisper¡¯s saddle, making sure everything was snug and comfortable. On the field, fourteen other riders made similar preparations, their partners all gleaming silver mage mounts from extremely distinguished bloodlines; he thought at least three of them were Magewhisper¡¯s first cousins, and another eight were also from Silver Meadows. The ancient establishment had still not lost its streak at having produced every horse that had ever won the Chase competition at the Magic Games, and Veltyen was hoping he and Magewhisper could add another win to that chain.
The Chase competition was a twenty-league obstacle race that would leave any regular horse dead of exhaustion or crippled with broken legs. With jumps higher than a mounted rider could see over, areas of treacherous ground and sucking mud, and a distance that would be a challenge to cover in one day even on flat ground, it was designed to push even mage-bred horses to their limits, needing intelligent strategy to conserve their endurance on top of peerless athleticism.
Magic that would interfere with other riders and horses was strictly forbidden, so riding ability was more important than a rider¡¯s magic abilities, but Veltyen had several tricks up his sleeve to help Magewhisper get through the course more easily, and he was certain the other riders had their own tactics as well.
The thought occurred to him that with a truly endless magic supply, it probably was possible to brute force a win with the horse¡¯s abilities alone. He kept that thought to himself with a small smile, imagining Sery and her pony-sized, first-generation Mindseye leaving all of these world-class mage mounts in the dust.
Beside him, Sery held a bucket, giving Magewhisper a last sip of water after their warm-up run. She had been assigned their assistant for the event so that she could quickly get to the stallion after the race, when his enna would be completely depleted from the gruelling run ahead. A seasoned veteran, the stallion only took small sips to avoid bloating himself.
Everything was in order. Veltyen swung himself into the saddle and grasped Sery¡¯s hand. ¡°You know your way to the stands?¡± he asked. The race course was a rough circuit that ended about a hundred paces away, but there was a small thicket of trees separating the starting area from the spectator stands that lined the straightaway for the final sprint finish. Huge mana crystal screens would broadcast the parts of the race that could not be seen directly, courtesy of a skilled dimensional mage who would scry and transmit the action.
Sery nodded.
¡°See you at the finish line.¡±
Sery¡¯s eyes twinkled as she said, ¡°Hurry, please.¡±
Her gentle humour never failed to make him smile. ¡°I¡¯ll do my best.¡±
With a last squeeze of his hand, Sery walked off towards the small footpath through the thicket.
Veltyen settled his shoulders and cleared his mind. It still bothered him that he could not sense Sery¡¯s presence with the walls of her enna closed, but he was going to need all of his focus on the race if they wanted any chance of winning.
¡°Let¡¯s bring back some gold, buddy,¡± he said to Magewhisper.
The stallion tossed his head confidently before settling down, not wasting any energy on pre-race nervousness.
The overhead announcement came to signal the competitors to gather, and Magewhisper joined the small parade lining up to be announced to the spectators before the official race start.
***
Sery made her way to the spectator stands, hurrying to get to her seat as the announcer introduced the horses and riders competing one by one. The path through the trees was small but well worn by all the recent foot traffic as the Games¡¯ officials set up the massive racecourse, and the sound of the cheering crowd in front of her told her she was heading in the right direction.
Her senses blunted by her closed enna, she only belatedly noticed a presence near her in the trees after feeling a sharp prick on her arm.
She looked down to see a small dart hanging from her sleeve. Almost immediately, a wave of heavy weakness threatened to sink her into unconsciousness. She wavered, her befuddled mind unable to decide between running back towards Veltyen and going forward to where the rest of the guild was waiting. She had only taken a few faltering steps before her vision dimmed and she slumped to the ground, the heaviness dragging her into a drugged sleep.
***
In front of the starting line, the illusion of ten glowing blue orbs was summoned. One by one, the illusions disappeared, accompanied by the sound of a bell, counting down to the start of the race. Veltyen forcibly relaxed his body, clearing his mind of everything except Magewhisper under him and the course ahead.
Three.
Two.
One.
Magewhisper accelerated smoothly into a gallop and they were off, the thunder of hoofbeats competing with the roar of the crowd for supremacy in the deafening soundscape as they settled into position just in front of the middle of the pack, Magewhisper choosing to use other horses as a partial windbreak rather than vie for an early lead, saving his energy for the obstacles to come.
They arrived at the first challenge, a thicket of carefully groomed trees spaced just far enough apart that a nimble horse could weave its way through. Veltyen jumped out of the saddle and ran after the stallion, allowing Magewhisper an easier time without the extra width of his legs to hinder him. The downside of this strategy was that he had to run fast enough to keep up with a horse¡¯s rapid trot, and only about half of the riders did the same, the rest adopting various trick riding positions to lessen their hindrance to their mounts. By the time Veltyen hauled himself back into the saddle, he was thoroughly out of breath and sweating, but all he had to do was hang on as Magewhisper accelerated back to a gallop and carried them to the next section, a series of irregularly spaced water obstacles that could be jumped and waded through or avoided at the cost of extra distance. Veltyen let Magewhisper make his own judgement on the most efficient way to traverse the hurdles and pools of water, only offering his input when his higher vantage point gave him some insight into the obstacles ahead.
The water obstacles culminated in a huge field of sucking mud with no way of avoiding plunging through, the area designed to exhaust even the fittest competitors. Veltyen¡¯s particular magic was invaluable here; by standing in one stirrup and hanging off Magewhisper¡¯s side, his other foot trailing slightly into the mud, he was able to solidify the ground in front of the stallion. In contrast to some of the other horses, who were plunging up to their hindquarters in mud, Magewhisper stayed nearly pristine, with only a small coating of mud up to his fetlocks. More importantly, his gallop barely slowed, and they were comfortably in the lead by the time they returned to solid ground and approached the next set of obstacles. These were a series of huge walls, long enough that going around was not an option, but high enough that neither he nor Magewhisper could see the ground on the other side until they had already jumped. Even if a normal horse had the strength to jump them, it would be suicidal to attempt opaque barriers like this without the intelligence and reflexes of a mage-bred mount to judge his own footing on the landing.
Veltyen had little to contribute to this section; all he could do is lessen the weight from his body and equipment and stay as perfectly balanced as possible so that he would not be a handicap to Magewhisper as the stallion burned bursts of magic to fuel the enormous jumps the walls required. There were one or two landings where he scrambled to stay on his feet, and he slowed to a more measured gallop, losing ground to a few horse-rider pairs who appeared to be using kinetic magic to boost their jumping abilities, a feat that required extreme magic control, years of practice, and perfect communication and trust between mage and horse. The treacherous walls took two pairs out of the competition as they fell heavily after a jump; Veltyen only briefly caught a glimpse of event healers rushing onto the field before they flashed past and he had to focus on the next obstacle.
Magewhisper was in fourth place as they came upon huge artificial hills made of unstable piles of shale, each step triggering small avalanches as they scrambled up and down the slopes. Unlike with the mud, it was very difficult for Veltyen¡¯s magic to stabilize their footing, it reading to his magical senses as countless separate pieces of material rather than a cohesive whole. The best he could do was immobilize the tiny bit of terrain directly under each of Magewhisper¡¯s feet as the stallion touched down, conserving his enna stores but exponentially increasing the complexity of the magic as he had to track four spells that were constantly moving in space at the same time. Even that was exhausting, and by the time Magewhisper skidded down the final hill, Veltyen was swaying in the saddle, the early signs of overdrawing his enna manifesting in the form of throbbing behind his eyes and heaviness in his limbs. They had managed to overtake two horse-rider pairs, and were in second place when they arrived at the next obstacle, a truly enormous hedge maze with walls three times his height.
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The rider in the lead launched herself into the air in a magic-assisted jump, high enough to get an overview of the layout of the maze, before hauling herself back into the saddle and taking off. This was a standard tactic, with the mage repeating a jump every time they had reached the end of the section of maze they had managed to memorize during the brief glimpse at the top of each jump.
Magewhisper came to a stop at the maze entrance, catching his breath while Veltyen placed his hand against the hedge and sent his magic questing through the structure.
Part of materials magic was the innate ability to sense the physical properties of materials as a sort of starting point to preparing to alter them. It was a passive ability that used basically no magic, which was very helpful in his depleted state, but it would have been impossible to translate what his magic was telling him into a complex, three-dimensional structure like a maze if he had not been spending the last few months practicing exactly that.
Four riders passed as Veltyen formed a mental map of the maze, but he ignored them, focusing on making sure he knew the correct path through. When he opened his eyes, Magewhisper took off at a gallop, following Veltyen¡¯s leg cues so they could navigate without tipping off the other competitors of the correct route.
It was difficult to say who was in the lead within the maze, the hedges busy with called directions, hoofbeats, and jumping mages, but he and Magewhisper emerged from the other side without seeing anyone ahead of them.
The final section of the race made up a full third of the course distance, an uncomplicated stretch of flat ground designed to exhaust every drop of magic the horses had left in a prolonged mage-gallop.
Simple physics dictated that the most efficient way to the finish line would be to find the maximum pace they could maintain and hold it. Magewhisper judged his remaining enna stores and sped up, not to the blinding speed he could reach when Sery was nearby but much faster than a regular horse¡¯s sprint. Veltyen concentrated on adding as little wind resistance as possible, keeping his head tucked and not bothering to look either ahead or behind; Magewhisper knew the route as well as he did, and even if one of the other competitors began to catch them, speeding up would only result in prematurely exhausting the stallion¡¯s reserves.
Though he was not looking, Veltyen could not help but hear the approach of galloping hoofbeats from behind, indicating their lead was about to be challenged.
When it came to magic and its maximal use, there was always some flexibility, and he found himself unwilling to give up the victory. Gritting his teeth, Veltyen activated his depleted magic to decrease the weight on Magewhisper. He was operating in the hazy danger area of below 20% enna stores but above the 10% where loss of consciousness occurred; it was certainly not good for his long-term health to stay in that range for long, but all combat mages trained to tolerate the side effects and gauge their enna stores down to the last particle, knowing that they could be placed in situations where a single extra spell could mean the difference between life and death.
Feeling his headache worsen and his arms start to tremble, Veltyen was reminded what a blessing it was to have Sery in the guild. The last time he had experienced these symptoms was maybe half a year before she had tumbled into his life, and he had gotten used to using magic with almost no concern for its cost. Even now, he knew he was willing to push himself closer to the limits of safety because he knew she would be waiting at the finish line, ready to undo the damage caused by his reckless actions.
In response to the decreased weight to carry, Magewhisper sped up, the wind whipping past becoming a tangible pressure on his skin and the ground below becoming a continuous blur. The roar of the crowd gradually blended into the soundscape of thundering hoofbeats as they approached the spectator stands.
An increase in the rhythm of the hoofbeats chasing them told him that their competitors were putting on one final burst of speed in sight of the finish line. Veltyen tried not to react, but Magewhisper either felt some extra tension in his body or heard the challenger himself because he put on a reckless burst of speed that Veltyen knew would also drop the stallion¡¯s enna reserves past the point of safety. He knew that once the adrenaline wore off, both of them would start really feeling the effects, but as they surged across the finish line in first place, he could not bring himself to regret their actions.
As Magewhisper slowed gradually to a walk, Veltyen pumped his fist in the air in victory. ¡°We did it, buddy!¡±
The stallion reared up, posing on his hind legs while the crowd roared its approval. He pranced all the way over to the stables with high steps and a beautifully arched neck. As soon as they were out of sight of the spectators, his head dropped and his steps became plodding.
Veltyen chuckled, assuming the stallion was experiencing the same pounding headache that he was. ¡°We¡¯re a sorry pair right now, aren¡¯t we?¡± Trust Magewhisper¡¯s vanity to put on that kind of display when he was probably a breath away from falling over. ¡°We¡¯d better find Sery so she can put us right.¡± He could just imagine her worried, reproachful look when she sensed exactly how low both of them had gone.
Veltyen frowned as he scanned the small stables attached to the steeplechase course and did not see Sery anywhere. Not only was she officially assigned as his assistant for the event, she knew that they were expected to have used large amounts of magic. There was no way her conscientious nature would let her be late to meet them unless something had gone wrong.
Maybe she had gotten stuck in the crowd on her way over? Veltyen removed Magewhisper¡¯s saddle and gave him a quick brush, wishing very much that he could use her mana particle emission to track her down like he usually did.
Even when he was finished, she had not shown up. ¡°I think we¡¯re going to have to go to the medal presentation without a boost from Sery,¡± he said to Magewhisper. ¡°Do you think you can manage?¡±
The stallion nodded, following his lead to the podium, a massive affair designed for horses and their riders. As soon as they were back in the public eye, his head came back up, for all the world looking like he could run the course again and still win.
Veltyen shook hands with the other riders and tried to pay attention to the medal ceremony, but a growing sense of dread was growing in the pit of his stomach with each passing minute. He spotted the Eterna guild section in the stands, but Sery¡¯s distinctive silver hair was nowhere to be seen.
There had to be a good explanation for her absence, he told himself. Maybe she had fallen ill and had been sent back to camp to rest.
After what felt like an eternity, he was finally free to find his other guildmates and ask about Sery¡¯s whereabouts. He quickly led the way with Magewhisper out of the restricted area of the event towards the road back to the main campgrounds.
Foria was waiting by the exit, to his relief. Before he could open his mouth to ask his question, she said, ¡°Sery¡¯s not with you?¡±
His fists clenched. ¡°I haven¡¯t seen her since before the race started. Has anyone else?¡±
Foria¡¯s expression became as worried as his. ¡°No. I need to scry for her.¡±
Hearing the urgency in her voice, Magewhisper used his bulk to shoulder his way through the crowd to the side of the road where they would not be interrupted, Foria and Veltyen following in his wake. As soon as she was safe from being jostled, Foria¡¯s glasses flashed opaque as she activated the mage crystal and initiated a call.
¡°She¡¯s not answering her communication crystal,¡± Foria said, her lips compressing to a tight, worried line. ¡°I¡¯ll scry for her location.¡±
Breath held, Veltyen waited for Foria to work her magic. When one minute stretched into two without an answer, he could not help but ask, ¡°What¡¯s taking so long?¡± With her level of skill, the dimensional mage could locate someone she was familiar with in a matter of seconds.
¡°I¡¯m getting no answer to my query. I¡¯m going to try her communication crystal and her GA card,¡± was Foria¡¯s brief reply, all of her considerable intellect directed towards finding Sery or any clue to where she had gone.
¡°Found both, about a quarter-league in that direction,¡± she announced, pointing away from the main road.
Devlin, Ariela, and Asher joined them. ¡°What¡¯s going on? Where¡¯s Sery?¡± Ariela asked.
¡°She¡¯s missing,¡± Foria said curtly. ¡°I need Asher with me to investigate in case we need a re-enactment spell.¡±
¡°What?¡± Asher said, caught off guard.
The guildmasters¡¯ expressions tightened. ¡°Do what you have to do,¡± said Devlin. ¡°We¡¯ll gather the others and meet at camp.¡±
They found both Sery¡¯s communication crystal and guild card discarded on the ground in a secluded field. ¡°Asher, we need to know what happened here,¡± Foria all but commanded, her usual brisk efficiency becoming something colder and more demanding in the face of a crisis.
Veltyen could not appreciate Asher¡¯s relative speed as he set up his spell field and activated the complex time magic that would allow them to view recent events in the area. The only thing that was stopping him from racing off after Sery was the lack of destination to target.
He gritted his teeth as translucent figures appeared in the field, ghostly representations of the people here before them. Two men armed like mercenaries were searching an unconscious Sery¡¯s body, eventually throwing out the magical devices that might help locate her. They then placed her in a clear-walled box that he assumed was mage crystal before placing it among more mundane crates and barrels in a wagon and slinging a tarp over it all, disguising it as a mundane supply wagon pulled by a nondescript brown horse. They got into the driver¡¯s seat and set off towards the west; if they continued in the same direction, they would eventually reach the border between Roswan and Oslethia.
¡°They have the money for a mage-crystal device that can block scrying and they¡¯re probably from Oslethia,¡± Foria summarized. ¡°They knew exactly what they were doing. We¡¯re looking for a rich, high-ranking mage guild.¡±
¡°But how could they possibly expect to get away with something like this?¡± Asher asked in disbelief. ¡°They couldn¡¯t exactly explain it away as her suddenly wanting to switch guilds if she shows up on their membership registration.¡±
¡°Maybe they¡¯re not planning on registering her,¡± Foria said grimly. ¡°After all, she doesn¡¯t need to accept jobs directly, does she?¡±
Veltyen was mounted on Magewhisper and about to take off before Foria got in the way and grabbed the stallion around the neck. ¡°Both of you, stop!¡± she admonished. ¡°You¡¯ve both overdrawn your ennas; you¡¯ll just pass out if you go haring off today. Sery needs us to think.¡±
Rationally, he knew she was right, but the idea of tamely going back to camp and taking a rest was intolerable to him.
Like a magical solution to all his problems, approaching hoofbeats announced the arrival of Mindseye. Not only was she fresh and running full of magic, someone had saddled up Sery¡¯s mage mount and equipped her with enough supplies for a week or more of off-road travel, including the levitating platform Magewhisper usually pulled on longer missions.
His mage crystal sword was looped around his saddle horn, and he grabbed it, drawing enough magic from its Source storage to ease his symptoms and no more, aware that he needed to return to the habit of saving every mana particle he could hoard in his enna if he wanted to get Sery back.
Mindseye nudged his leg and stood beside Magewhisper, clearly demanding that she get on his back. Veltyen swung out of one saddle and into the other. The pony was far better suited to Sery¡¯s height than his, but easily strong enough to bear his extra weight.
¡°Sorry, Mage, I think you¡¯re going to need to sit this one out,¡± he said to Magewhisper. Unlike him, the stallion had no emergency store of magic to draw on to aid his natural recovery.
Magewhisper gave a resigned snort and nudged him forward, urging him to get going.
¡°I don¡¯t think I¡¯m going to be able to stop you and Mindseye,¡± said Foria, ¡°but call me every day and let us know as soon as you know where she is so we can send reinforcements. Clear?¡±
¡°If I can,¡± was all Veltyen would commit to. If he had to act alone to ensure Sery¡¯s safety, he would.
Foria sighed but got out of the way as Mindseye took off, settling into a ground-eating gallop that she could sustain for the rest of the day.
Chapter 33
Sery frowned in instinctive unease as she slowly came back to consciousness, a dull ache throbbing in the back of her head. The air felt heavy and suffocating as she opened her eyes to an unfamiliar, windowless room with plain white walls and sparse furniture on rough wooden flooring, only a small table and chair accompanying the narrow bed she lay on. A single small mana crystal on the wall provided the only source of light.
She sat up, pushing aside the featureless brown blanket that was jarringly different from the intricately patterned quilt she was used to waking up to. The room had two doors. One led to a modern bathroom with running water but no heating spells over the taps.
The second door was locked. She tugged uselessly at the handle, the obstacle causing her to realize why she felt so suffocated: her senses could not detect even a single enna nearby.
Panicking, she threw open the walls of her enna and reached desperately outward with her senses, only to hit a barrier that surrounded the room in all directions, sealing her away from the rest of the world.
Shuddering, she retreated to the bed, hugging her knees to her chest and wrapping the blanket around herself. It could not ward off the chill that ate into her bones. She was alone again. Even her ever-present sense of Veltyen was gone.
Phantom pains ran through her body, electric shocks from a ghostly necklace, an angry voice shouting next to her ear, a bruising grip on her arm before a shallow cut that stung and burned. Her throat locked, old instincts keeping her silent because to cry would only make things worse.
A single presence appeared to her senses, bringing her partially out of her panicked fugue. The enna signature was somewhat familiar, so she was unsurprised when the locked door clicked and opened to reveal a richly dressed man with lightning streaks of silver zigzagging through his hair.
Tristane¡¯s face was twisted in an arrogant sneer as he looked down at her. ¡°Not so quick to run your mouth now that Veltyen and your guildmasters aren¡¯t running over to protect you,¡± he taunted with a smirk.
She stayed silent, a spark of anger igniting under the fear at the mockery of her beloved guildmates. It battled against the chill inside her, freeing her to think and move.
Her silence seemed to anger Tristane. ¡°What? You think you can just bide your time until your precious Veltyen comes to save you? Well, he won¡¯t. No one will be able to find you. I made sure of it.¡±
¡°What do you want?¡± she made herself say.
His expression turned gloating. ¡°A Source, obviously. If you¡¯d listened to me, you could have been a member of Inheritance, even as a commoner, but we had to do things the hard way. Well, now you¡¯re stuck in this room until we can manufacture an artifact that can seal your magic. This room won¡¯t let mana particles in or out. No one will ever find you. And if Inheritance members can suddenly fulfill more jobs, well, perhaps we made an advancement in meditation techniques.¡±
The chill inside her bones deepened. She was again trapped, reduced to nothing but a living power source. ¡°I won¡¯t help you,¡± she said quietly, sealing up the walls of her enna once more.
His grin was ugly. ¡°Maybe not now. That¡¯s fine. We need to lay low until Eterna stops looking for you, anyway.¡± He turned to leave, tossing a final line over his shoulder. ¡°You do need to eat, though. Think about that before you refuse to help.¡±
The door closed with a gentle click.
Sery lay down, still curled in on herself, rubbing her arms restlessly against the memories of pain.
Her fingers brushed across the bumpy, raised scar above her elbow, the one Veltyen had given her in the course of saving her life. Reminded of the piece of him that was always with her, her fine trembling stopped.
Veltyen would eventually find her, she knew. He would never stop looking, and Tristane had already shown obvious interest in acquiring her multiple times. The evidence would be there, no matter what magical contraption was cutting off her connection to the outside world.
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She needed to do her part to make herself easily found.
She had spent the last few months studying enna resonance. There was nothing, physical or magical, that could separate ennas in resonance because they were in effect one single entity.
She had spent the same period learning the unique signature of Veltyen¡¯s enna, a pure note to her senses that was as familiar as his rich voice or his warm scent.
Instead of listening as she had done all along, she began to try to ¡°hum¡± with her own enna, the note coming out weak and wobbly. Setting her jaw, she persisted.
***
He found the kidnappers after four hours.
They were not trying for stealth, instead driving their cart along the main road like all the other travellers, as mundane as possible in appearance. Blending in did not help them when he had every detail of their appearance, their vehicle, even the chestnut cart horse, all carved into his memory with painful clarity. The trip back to Oslethia was taken at a vision-blurring mage-gallop that slowed only to check the faces of every traveller they passed.
He recognized the cart and horse before he was close enough to check their faces and Mindseye was ready, forcing them smoothly off the road before they could react.
Veltyen jumped from saddle to driver¡¯s seat and struck one man brutally across the face before throwing him, dazed and bleeding, into the platform-box that he used as a portable prison at times.
¡°Wha-¡± said the other man before Veltyen armlocked him and forced his face into the wooden bench seat.
¡°Where. Is. She?¡± he asked.
¡°What are you talking a¡ª¡± The man¡¯s sentence morphed into a pained scream as Veltyen pulled his dagger and cut off one of the kidnapper¡¯s fingers, magically sharpening it so he barely had to apply any pressure to slice through tendon and bone.
Of the two men, this one had been the one to search Sery¡¯s body for her communication crystal and Guild Association identification, and it had not escaped Veltyen¡¯s attention the way the bastard¡¯s hands had lingered in inappropriate places, sick enjoyment on his face. Veltyen would happily carve him into inch-long pieces while he screamed, but he needed answers first.
¡°The finger can be reattached as long as you get to a skilled healer within the next four hours,¡± Veltyen said calmly over the kidnapper¡¯s sobbing. ¡°Now tell me where she is.¡±
The man in the platform-box spoke up, voice muffled from a broken nose. ¡°We handed her off hours ago! Man kept his hood up but you could tell he was money by the way he talked.¡±
Veltyen systematically questioned the broken-nosed man for every detail he could remember, which was not much, just a rich man on a good horse who was probably neither young nor old.
He was a few minutes into the questioning when the captive below him thrashed and bucked, trying to take advantage of Veltyen¡¯s distraction to escape. Veltyen contemptuously increased the pressure on the arm he held until the shoulder dislocated.
The scream was louder and longer this time. Veltyen found he could not muster a single shred of pity for the man or regret at his own actions. Veltyen¡¯s rage had turned cold and merciless in the frantic ride to this point, and he knew it would not thaw until he had Sery safe in his arms.
Veltyen threw his second prisoner into the back of the cart, ignoring the kidnapper¡¯s crying and pleading as his dislocated shoulder was roughly jostled. He got the cart turned around and had the man in the platform box direct him to the place where Sery had been handed over. ¡°I will have a time mage examining the site,¡± he warned the broken-nosed man in a frighteningly gentle voice. ¡°If you lie to me, your friend there will not be the only one missing a finger.¡±
The prisoner paled. ¡°I¡¯m telling the truth, I swear! Spare my life; I was the one who stopped Erlan there from feeling up the miss too much, wasn¡¯t I?¡±
It was the truth as Veltyen had seen in Asher¡¯s re-enactment spell, which was why the man still had all the function in his limbs and extremities.
As they travelled back along the road he had just raced along, he called Foria and reported his findings. ¡°I need Asher,¡± he said into his communication crystal.
Foria¡¯s lips tightened. ¡°We¡¯re coming, but Asher blew his mana stores on the Powerspeed competition and Sery hadn¡¯t gotten around to replenishing much past his natural enna stores. I¡¯m not sure how many more times he can cast it.¡±
¡°Put him in a carriage and tell him to pull that storage trick he has,¡± said Veltyen.
¡°Veltyen! You know that¡¯s terrible for his health.¡±
Veltyen just stared impassively into the mirror until Foria looked down. From outside the view of the crystal, he heard Asher speak. ¡°Foria, you know he¡¯s right. I¡¯ve done it for far less important reasons than finding Sery.¡±
Foria scowled. ¡°That doesn¡¯t change the fact that Veltyen has no right to demand it of you. How would Sery feel about all this?¡±
Veltyen did not need Foria¡¯s agreement, only Asher¡¯s. ¡°I¡¯ll see you there, Asher,¡± he said before ending the call.
Reaching the handover site, he made a rudimentary camp and prepared himself food that he ate mechanically, keeping his body fuelled without tasting anything.
The prisoner in the cart stirred. ¡°You have to take me to a healer¡ My finger¡¡±
Veltyen found his lips curling into a smile at the ludicrousness of this despicable dreg of humanity claiming that Veltyen needed to do anything at all to help him. It felt so odd to make such an expression without a hint of mirth or warmth inside.
The expression must have looked odd as well, as the prisoner shut up and lay back down so the cart¡¯s walls hid him from view.
Veltyen returned to his meal.
Chapter 34
Sery sat on the narrow bed with her legs crossed and eyes closed in a basic meditation pose, one she knew more about in theory than practice. Unlike most mages, she had not learned it in the course of maximizing the amount of magic she had access to, so her attempts to clear her mind were inconsistent at best.
It was too late to regret not getting into the habit now, and the stray thought was one of dozens that periodically crossed her mind and distracted her from focusing on the hum of her enna. She inhaled and exhaled slowly, trying to clear all the distractions.
It was hard. The magical barrier around her made the air feel suffocating, and hunger gnawed at the pit of her stomach. She had no idea how much time had passed in the windowless room, but she had had a period of fitful sleep before her current attempt at meditation, so she counted it as a day.
She was used to being hungry, she reminded herself. Just not in the last year. The logic did not affect the hunger pangs in any way.
Sighing, she again tried to clear her mind, reaching for the state where she could clearly perceive the resonance of her enna so she could begin to tune it to what she could remember of Veltyen¡¯s.
An unpleasantly familiar enna entered the range of her senses and her eyes were open when Tristane entered through the far door.
The smell of food hit her and her eyes were irresistibly drawn to the tray he held with a bowl of stew and a piece of bread, though she knew she should have been focusing on his expression and body language.
Fortunately, he was not trying to be subtle. ¡°Have you thought about how you¡¯d like the rest of your stay here to go?¡± he asked, stopping with the tray tauntingly out of reach. ¡°I might feed you if you ask nicely.¡±
He was repeating the threat to starve her into submission. ¡°I¡¯ll stop emitting mana particles if I get too hungry,¡± she pointed out, realizing that her magic was her main bargaining chip.
His expression twisted in ugly anger at her lack of fear. ¡°It¡¯s no loss to me if you weren¡¯t going to cooperate anyway. Maybe I¡¯ll take this back to the kitchen if you don¡¯t want it,¡± he said, turning to leave.
Sery had been in the hands of a similar man for many years. She knew that regardless of his threats, Tristane would not harm her in any serious or permanent way. She was much too valuable of a possession. That being said, she wanted him to be lulled into complacency, more likely to make a mistake that would let Veltyen find her more easily.
She needed to give him some of the deference his fragile ego demanded, but not change her attitude so quickly that he became suspicious. ¡°Please,¡± she said when he had a hand on the door handle.
He turned back, victorious satisfaction all over his face. ¡°That¡¯s more like it. Please what?¡±
Sery did not value concepts like pride or dignity in the face of survival. ¡°Please, may I eat?¡±
¡°Why, yes you may.¡± Expression once again smooth and outwardly charming, Tristane handed her the tray. ¡°Why don¡¯t you enjoy your meal and I¡¯ll be back later to discuss how we might make things more pleasant for you.¡±
Sery dug into the food as the prison door clicked shut. She had no fear that it was drugged or poisoned; again, she was too valuable for that.
With the distraction of hunger out of the way, she closed her eyes once more for another attempt at meditation.
***
Veltyen woke up from a cold, dreamless sleep, having forced himself to rest after taking care of Mindseye. Asher¡¯s second re-enactment spell had revealed a masked, cloaked figure on a nondescript horse who had wrapped an unconscious Sery in cloth to make it look like he was transporting luggage. In a supreme feat of talent, Asher had extended the spell to follow the kidnapper for a quarter league, just long enough to see him switch transportation and move into an equally nondescript carriage. It was clear that the man had expected to be traced by re-enactment spells, and Veltyen could only assume that he had made several more changes to his choice of transportation along the way to an unknown destination.
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Asher was truly burned out and would not be able to cast even a basic spell for a few days. Foria had attempted to help track the kidnapper, but with her lack of experience in manipulating the time dimension, could only produce hazy silhouettes of past events, and had difficulty honing in on the exact period they were interested in.
The only others in Eterna with skill in the time dimension and power of at least three stars were Galen and his mentor Brovan, though they had specialized in the very large scale observations of weather patterns. Veltyen also had two colleagues he had worked with on kidnapping cases, and Ariela was helping recruit local time mages in Roswan. Everyone that might be able to help had been urgently contacted and were on their way, but without mage mounts, it would take them days to arrive while the trail ran cold. Veltyen was well aware that a time mage could be hired to muddle someone¡¯s trail in the time dimension, and it appeared that the kidnapper was wealthy enough to do so.
He wanted to gallop off at top speed, to vent his fury and worry with violence, but he did not have a target.
After a tasteless breakfast, he pulled out all of his gear to clean and maintain just for something to do. He usually found the repetitive motions relaxing, but this time, his muscles remained tense.
Suddenly, his enna exploded.
The very air itself hardened and shattered around him as the usual defensive spells he had ready were activated with an ocean of magic. He had no way to gauge if it was a thousand times or ten thousand times more than he usually had access to ¨C it just felt infinite.
As abruptly as it started, it was gone again. Veltyen let out a slow, shaky breath. Looking around, it seemed like less than a second had passed, and people were just starting to look up at the noise.
He was surrounding by a perfect circle of fine, translucent powder. Touching it and probing with his power, he found that it was mana crystal programmed with the distinctive style of his own personal defence magic.
¡°What was that?¡± Ariela asked, coming out of a nearby tent.
Beside her, Devlin touched the ring of powder. ¡°Since when were you able to generate mana crystal?¡±
¡°I¡¯m not.¡± Veltyen attempted to describe what had happened, having to repeat himself several times while various mages gathered around.
Everyone was mystified. ¡°This doesn¡¯t match any phenomenon described in the current model of magic,¡± said Asher, ¡°not even hypotheses that haven¡¯t been experimentally verified yet.¡±
¡°This could just be wishful thinking,¡± said Foria, ¡°but any time something weird and unprecedented in magic happens, I immediately think of Sery.¡±
As soon as the suggestion was said, Veltyen¡¯s mind immediately latched on to it. He could only hope that it meant she was well and experimenting with her magic rather than suffering through something that had made her lose control.
¡°We can only hope that is the case and Sery will only be doing this to Veltyen,¡± said Ariela. ¡°The only reason nobody died was because all of his readied magics are entirely defensive. If the same phenomenon hit me¡¡±
Devlin took her hand and the couple exchanged a wordless glance before Ariela spoke again. ¡°I think I will have to withdraw from the search and aid at a distance. We have no idea if proximity is a factor in triggering this, but I can¡¯t afford an uncontrolled release of magic, let alone one at augmented power.¡±
No one disagreed, having seen only a fraction of her destructive powers on display at the Games. ¡°Where are you going to go? It¡¯s pretty clear the kidnappers went back to Oslethia, so you might be going closer if you head back to the guild,¡± said Foria.
¡°I will stay at the Roswian Guild Association headquarters for the moment,¡± Ariela said with a catlike grin. ¡°I think my presence will motivate them to aid our endeavours with their full effort, if they don¡¯t want me to extend my stay indefinitely.¡±
***
Sery had succeeded. Just for a second, but she had tuned her enna until it resonated with Veltyen¡¯s.
It was the sensation of being connected to him again that had snapped her concentration. She wiped at her eyes and realized she had been crying.
Lying down, she curled up in the bed, shaking with relief and fresh loss. She had no idea how long she stayed like that before Tristane entered the room with a new tray of food.
He seemed taken aback by her appearance. ¡°What happened to you?¡±
Sery did not have the energy to explain or try to put on a performance. She sat up stiffly and simply waited.
Tristane surprised her by walking across the room and sitting on the bed next to her. ¡°You¡¯ll be okay,¡± he said, his voice softer than she had ever heard it. His hand came up to stroke her hair.
The contact made her skin crawl but she looked down to hide her expression with her hair.
¡°The magic isolation device will be done by the end of the week, and I¡¯ll be able to let you outside,¡± he said. It appeared he thought she was feeling claustrophobic because of the physical walls, not the magical ones.
Sery simply nodded, acknowledging the words without accepting the assumption that she would let him put on whatever magical shackle he had designed.
Tristane stroked her hair for a minute before standing up and picking up the old food tray. ¡°I¡¯ll be back with dinner.¡±
Sery dug into the new meal, trying to collect her composure and her thoughts. The sight of her loss of composure had elicited far more sympathy from Tristane than she had expected.
She thought back to what she had observed of him, and Veltyen¡¯s stories of their youth in Academy Oslethia. He was a powerful mage, a high-ranking noble, blessed with wealth and good looks. He liked to be admired. She guessed that as long as he got the admiration and deference that he felt was his due, he could be quite generous. It was only when things did not go his way that the meanness of his personality was revealed.
That meant that the more harmless and afraid she appeared, the more freedoms he would grant her, with him deluding himself into the role of her protector.
Given how she felt with her wavering connection to Veltyen, she was not going to need to put on much of an act.
Still shaken, she decided that she would spend the period until her next meal just practicing meditation rather than trying to tune her enna to Veltyen¡¯s.
Chapter 35
Veltyen was slightly more prepared the second time his enna suddenly expanded into an infinite ocean of magic. Gritting his teeth, he choked off the connections feeding his readied spells, cutting them off completely rather than risk another uncontrolled release.
Or, at least he thought he had cut the connection. Though he managed to prevent a noisy explosion of mana crystal like before, the seams of his armour repeatedly burst and repaired themselves until the extra magic drained away.
The episode lasted about a minute this time. Near the end, he recovered enough presence of mind to start analyzing the magic. It felt as if someone had removed a wall in his enna and it had become part of a much, much larger vessel, so much so that he was not certain it had any limits.
It could only belong to Sery, though Veltyen had had no idea that she held such a raging storm of magic within her.
It was an utter relief that he could sense a direction where the other part of his expanded enna was, though he sensed nothing more detailed than westward towards Oslethia before the connection disappeared. The internal naming triggered his magical theory knowledge, and he recognized the phenomenon as resonance.
It explained why Sery had spent so much time ¡®listening¡¯ to his enna. She had been working on sharing her magic with him in the most absolute way for months. His sense of her absence sharpened so keenly that for a moment, he could not breathe.
Their investigation was making steady but excruciatingly slow progress. Several tracking mages had been dispatched through Roswan¡¯s Guild Association headquarters and they were taking turns tracing the kidnapper¡¯s trail, slowed by the fact that the kidnapper sometimes travelled in loops that confused his trail in the time dimension, seemed to have an endless number of horses to switch between, and once even set off a magical device that was illegal because its only use was to ¡®explode¡¯ in the time dimension and make it impossible to track or scry a particular event.
Veltyen was sticking as close as he could to the trackers without actively getting in their way, taking in every possible detail of every re-enactment spell, hoping for the slightest detail that would allow him to figure out Sery¡¯s location without having to laboriously trace her journey step by step.
There was something off about the kidnapper¡¯s mounts, something that niggled at the back of his mind without him being able to figure out what was bothering him. It was only when Magewhisper recovered enough from the Chase event and was able to join them on the third day that the irregularity was identified.
Within seconds of seeing the latest re-enactment spell, the stallion trumpeted an alarm, making the distinctive sign that meant ¡®birthplace¡¯, or ¡®Silver Meadows¡¯. With that clue, the pieces clicked together. ¡°That¡¯s a mage mount,¡± he realized in outrage and disbelief, ¡°one that can disguise itself.¡± Despite taking on different mane and coat colours, the kidnapper¡¯s horse remained the same in size and conformation through each transformation. He found it unbelievable that a horse from such a reputable line was involved in this kind of crime.
¡°What? I thought mage mounts could only use magic for running and jumping,¡± Asher said in confusion, not very familiar with horses in general.
¡°That¡¯s mostly true, but the Meadows family has been working on expanding their abilities. Mindseye is a full energy mage,¡± he said, pointing at Sery¡¯s mount. In no mood for side discussions, the pony was already nudging Foria, urging her to contact Silver Meadows for answers.
It took a while for them to locate Tyrone Meadows; upon realizing just how much ambient magic Sery produced, the family had purchased a farm right next to Eterna to house their pregnant mares while the rest of their facilities remained at the original site, and Tyrone was at the new branch location.
He listened to the story with grave concern on his expression. ¡°None of our horses or their partners should be getting into anything illegal; we run background checks on any prospective partners and check on them annually after they¡¯re partnered. But if you¡¯re telling me that this horse is casting disguise spells, it can¡¯t be anything other than a Silver Meadows pedigree, and one of the oldest lines, too¡ Is there any way you can send me an image?¡±
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Foria pulled a recording she had done of one of the re-enactment spells and transmitted it. Within seconds, Tyrone paled in recognition and worry. ¡°Silverlight¡¡± he murmured.
The name sounded familiar, but it took Veltyen a few seconds to remember. ¡°What, that mare that caused the commotion when Sery went to find her partner? I thought you declared her unsuitable for ever becoming a mage mount.¡±
¡°After the incident, she was very subdued, almost depressed. Then a young, rich noble came around, all flattery and affection. It seemed to do her some good. He didn¡¯t actually need a mage mount¡¯s abilities for anything, just wanted the prestige. I let her go, figured she could learn a thing or two in the real world. It¡¯s the biggest waste of any talent I¡¯ve ever bred, but I thought it was better to let her go with him and become a pretty riding horse than put her in situations where she might put her partner in danger.¡±
¡°Who? Who was it?¡± Veltyen asked, though he had a strong suspicion he already knew.
It took Tyrone a while to call the main farm and have someone find the paperwork, but eventually, the answer came: ¡°Tristane Everlei.¡±
***
Sery forced herself to eat the slice of cake in front of her while Tristane sat beside her and played with a lock of her hair. The contact made her skin crawl, but she kept her expression neutral and her tension confined to making a tight fist with the hand he could not see.
It had been disconcertingly easy to convince Tristane that she saw him as a protector and an ally, just a few forced smiles and compliments that felt flat to her, but were obviously what he wanted to hear. In response, his behaviour became increasingly affectionate towards her, bringing her extra furniture and amenities as well as fancy desserts with meals.
And the physical contact. It was not so much that he held her hand or stroked her hair that made her feel contaminated, but the fact that she had to force herself to stay relaxed, create the impression that she welcomed his touch. The resemblance to Veltyen¡¯s affectionate gestures only heightened the sense of wrongness, making her feel like she was coated in a layer of psychic filth that no amount of washing could remove.
Tristane was going on about places they could go together ¡°once her necklace was ready,¡± as if she were not going to be forced into a shackle that would cripple her magic. She nodded along, using cues from his tone of voice to make the expected responses rather than really listening to his words. She kept her mouth full of food so he would not expect her to say anything.
¡°Sery¡¡±
She looked up to see Tristane¡¯s face way too close, his expression ardent in a way that made her instincts scream.
She had a split second to react, to weigh her ongoing deception and chances of escape against what she wanted and very much did not want.
She dropped her fork, sending icing spattering over their clothing. ¡°Oh, I¡¯m sorry,¡± she said, using the excuse to pull away and wipe at her robes.
Her mage robe, made by Evodie, came away entirely clean with a few swipes of a napkin, but Tristane¡¯s garment did not fare nearly as well.
He was clearly annoyed at having his fine outfit ruined, but trying to be magnanimous about it. ¡°Oh, don¡¯t worry, I have dozens of these,¡± he said, stopping his own efforts with a napkin when it just made the smears of icing larger. ¡°I¡¯d better get changed. See you in the morning, sweetheart.¡±
The endearment as he left was an indicator of how well her deception was going, but also a warning that she was about to be trapped by her own lies.
As soon as he was gone, she curled up in bed, cold in a way that had nothing to do with temperature.
***
Veltyen¡¯s magic surged twice more the next day as Foria delved deep into the information dimension to track Tristane¡¯s financial activities over the last year, looking for clues as to where he could have hidden Sery. Each time lasted longer than the previous, giving him time to get an increasingly accurate read on her relative location.
He knew enough to start moving. He packed his gear and readied Magewhisper for riding, the stallion having recovered enough to run long distances as long as he did not magically augment his speed. Beside him, Mindseye stood, daring Veltyen to leave without her.
Sitting against a nearby tree, Asher opened bleary eyes, his skin dull and sallow in a way that told Veltyen he was pulling his magic storage trick. ¡°Where are you going?¡±
¡°Towards Sery.¡±
¡°We don¡¯t know where she is.¡±
¡°The hideout is going to be somewhere between Tristane¡¯s estate and the Inheritance guild headquarters. There¡¯s no other way he could manage to visit her without large, conspicuous absences. Once I¡¯m in the area, I¡¯ll be able to use the times we¡¯re in resonance to get a more precise read on her location.¡±
Foria saw his preparations and came over. ¡°You¡¯re leaving?¡±
¡°I¡¯ll ride ahead and try to track her by directional sense. Asher will keep working with the trackers to follow her actual route. You keep looking into his financials and anything else you can find in the information dimension. I¡¯ll have my communication crystal if you find anything that gives away her location.¡±
Foria did not attempt to stop him. ¡°Don¡¯t do anything rash.¡±
¡°I won¡¯t,¡± he promised. After all, when he killed Tristane, it would be an extremely precise, planned-out execution.
Chapter 36
In the bathroom of her prison, Sery splashed cold water on her face, deliberately missing spots as she towelled dry to hopefully look like sweat on her forehead. She blew her nose forcefully several times and rubbed her eyes until they were red and irritated before heading back to bed.
During her overnight reflections ¨C in what almost felt like Foria¡¯s wry voice ¨C she had realized that if she were going to pull a deception, she might as well go all the way and be smart about it. The perfect solution to making Tristane back off with physical contact while lowering his guard about her attempting to escape was to come down with a fake illness.
Illness was not something that she had dealt with since coming to Eterna; it was rare for mages of any power to contract minor ailments like colds unless they had seriously depleted their enna stores. However, she had plenty of experience with it in the days before that, weathering winters with indifferent clothing and barely adequate food, with a captor who would not waste money on healer¡¯s fees.
Sensing Tristane¡¯s presence just outside the door, she started a coughing fit just as he entered.
His reaction was exactly what she wanted: Concern, for her, and for himself. ¡°Sery! What¡¯s wrong?¡± he asked, walking in but not sitting down next to her as he had the last several days.
¡°I think it¡¯s just a cold,¡± Sery whispered, disguising the fact that her voice would sound normal at full volume. She shrank back as he reached to feel her forehead. ¡°You might get sick.¡±
He let his hand flutter uselessly away. ¡°I¡¯ll get a healer ¨C Oh,¡± he trailed off lamely as he realized he could do no such thing. ¡°I¡¯ll have to find medicine or something. Here, eat, I¡¯ll be back with supplies.¡± Leaving the food tray he had brought, he left the cell.
Floating with elation and relief, Sery settled down to eat her first undisturbed meal in days, her appetite far better than it had been since she had been kidnapped.
***
Veltyen and Magewhisper travelled down the road at a ground-eating canter, a pace that the stallion could sustain without drawing on his slowly recovering enna stores. They were in the area where they suspected Sery was being held, but the area was so vast that without her trick of the resonance, they would have no hope of finding her.
A wave of magic inundated him, swelling his enna to an unimaginable size. He had almost gotten used to the surge at this point, though random, unintentional magics still escaped him from time to time.
¡°Mage,¡± he said, alerting his partner. Magewhisper quickly turned off the road and stopped so he could dismount and retrieve his map and compass.
Closing his eyes, he turned until he was facing in Sery¡¯s direction as precisely as possible, then looked at his compass and read its bearing. Using the closest road markers as a guide, he found his current location on the map and carefully drew a dotted line in the correct direction with his magic.
It had been Magewhisper¡¯s idea to try and triangulate Sery¡¯s location. Veltyen had tried arguing with the stallion when he first took a road nearly perpendicular to Veltyen¡¯s sense of Sery¡¯s direction, nearly forgetting the intelligence the stallion had demonstrated in their long years of partnership in his state of agitation. There was a particular trick to working with an animal partner with such high intelligence but a limited ability to communicate exact messages, one that required keen observation and inference skills. It was something that Veltyen was usually good at, and the incident reminded him that he needed to get himself under control if he wanted all of his skills available to help find Sery.
The surge had not faded, and Veltyen mounted up to continue down the road. They now had six lines that intersected imperfectly around an area that was known to cater to nobles on outings to the countryside, full of cottages, hunting lodges, and lakehouses; his measurements were too imprecise to get an exact location.
Consulting his map, he directed Magewhisper along the most direct route to the town of Dova, an outpost that provided goods and services to the hundreds of privately owned cottages nearby. Foria was searching through the records of ownership and recent sales in the area, but unless she found a clue, it would mean hours or days of laborious zig-zagging searching as he continued using the periods of resonance as a guide.
Thankfully, Sery¡¯s skill was improving exponentially. She had managed four periods of resonance the day before, each lasting for over half an hour. It would make the search much easier.
Unlike him, her talent shone through even in this level of adversity. She had no one to praise or encourage her, no one to help iron out issues with her technique, no library to reference about the theoretical fundamentals. She was all alone, and she was still working to help them find her, using her formidable mind to escape whatever cell they had trapped her in.
Her strength reminded him not of stone or steel, but of a living tree. It might bend in the wind but never break, its roots growing deeper and its branches reaching higher every year.
They were close now, very close. His sense with the resonance gave him some measure of distance as well as direction, though he had had to travel closer before he had a frame of reference for the feeling of distance.
It had been over two hours before he arrived in Dova, but the resonance still had not faded. The sun was setting and he expected the resonance to end soon, so he looked for an inn with stables to rest for the night.
Stolen novel; please report.
The resonance did end around dinnertime, but to his surprise, it returned within a quarter hour and then lasted long past dinner and well into night, fading only as he prepared for bed.
It appeared Sery had mastered the trick of maintaining the resonance as long as she was not actively distracted or asleep. Counting the interminable days, it had been a week since the first connection, ten days since she had been taken.
As far as her absence went, it was an eternity. As far as mastering an almost mythical magic technique, it went beyond genius.
Smiling, he murmured into the darkness. ¡°Goodnight, Sery. You always exceed our expectations.¡± He would have to increase his efforts to match. ¡°I¡¯ll see you tomorrow,¡± he promised.
***
Sery breathed slowly and deliberately as she opened her eyes while maintaining resonance. When that was successful, she slowly stood and walked around the room, working on her ability to do other tasks while maintaining the connection. She recited the alphabet in a hoarse voice ¨C it turned out that if you did enough fake coughing, you would get a real sore throat.
Hope and anticipation were growing as Sery¡¯s sense told her that Veltyen was here, as close as if she were at Eterna¡¯s guild headquarters and he at the construction site at the edge of town. His path was meandering and indirect, but he was getting closer every hour.
In an effort to keep Tristane away as much as possible, Sery feigned a worsening illness, acting too weak to get out of bed and coughing up any medicine he tried to give her.
In her distraction, she misjudged how much worry she was causing and Tristane¡¯s reaction to it.
Tristane came into the cell, not with more medicine, but with a necklace with a large piece of mana crystal in the pendant.
Sery¡¯s blood ran cold and she lost the resonance for a moment before desperately pulling herself back into it. ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± she croaked, though she knew the answer.
¡°It¡¯s your necklace. I asked them to deliver it before all the decorations are done so we can take you to the healer¡¯s. Come, put it on and we¡¯ll go.¡±
Sery shrank back. ¡°I don¡¯t want to.¡±
Tristane made an annoyed sound. ¡°Don¡¯t be childish. We can¡¯t have you getting any sicker.¡± He moved forward, crystal in hand.
Sery curled up and wrapped her blanket around herself, using it as a barrier to keep the magic shackle away from her skin. ¡°No!¡±
¡°Sery, like it or not, you need a healer today. We¡¯re going.¡±
His hands pried at the blanket but she squirmed and twisted and held on with a grip borne of pure fear.
His patience was limited, and after only a few attempts, he shouted at her. ¡°Sery! I¡¯m trying to help you!¡±
What he was trying to do was seal off her magic and then move her to a different location, one that Veltyen might not be able to find. She had no idea if the resonance would still work with whatever artifact they had designed to bind her. Combined with her past history with magical shackles, she was not at all rational as she shrieked, ¡°No!¡±
Tristane cursed. ¡°You leave me no choice.¡±
Suddenly, the blanket burned away to nothing, leaving her skin scalded but largely unharmed.
She stared at him for a second that stretched on much longer than it should. He reached for her with the hand not holding the necklace.
In a final, desperate gamble, she lunged forward and grabbed him, pushing the largest pulse of magic she could manage into his enna.
***
¡°Wait, something¡¯s wrong.¡±
Veltyen paused and scanned the horizon as the resonance cut off, not in the controlled fashion he had come to expect over the last few days, but more like the uncontrolled attempts of the early days.
A few minutes later, an explosion rocked the peaceful countryside.
Magewhisper took off at a dead run without prompting.
Veltyen did not need the resonance; he could feel Sery again the normal way, though the ambient magic was low, so low. He prayed she had not been hurt in the explosion.
When he finally saw her running towards him, his heart leapt and sank at the same time. She was not wearing any shoes, and there was blood on the ground. The right side of her face and her right arm were scalded an angry red, and as they drew closer together, he could see blisters starting to form.
He threw himself out of the saddle and she ran headlong into his arms. He tried to be gentle, mindful of her injuries, but she burrowed into him, heedless of any damage she might be doing to herself.
¡°Sery.¡± The word was a confirmation of her presence, of relief, of gratitude that she was alive. All was not yet right in the world, but it was starting to right itself.
¡°I kn-knew you would find me.¡± Her voice trembled as it did when he first met her.
He kissed her uninjured cheek. ¡°You made it easy.¡±
He had almost forgotten about Tristane until Sery turned her head to look at the way she had come, expression fearful.
The energy mage¡¯s robes were in tatters but he was far less injured than Sery, his expression twisted in fury rather than fear. ¡°Veltyen! She¡¯s mine!¡±
Veltyen¡¯s rage was cold, hard, and endless. He lifted Sery onto the saddle with one arm, drawing his sword with the other and dissipating Tristane¡¯s lightning attacks with the ease of long practice.
They had fought many times as boys in the Academy, Tristane¡¯s petty, ugly jealousy growing each time he lost.
The older man had made Veltyen¡¯s life miserable for three years until he finally graduated, devastating Veltyen¡¯s heart as his last act of malice. Veltyen had never thought that their lives would intersect again.
But Tristane was no longer a petty misery; he had harmed a treasure he did not even have the right to look at.
¡°Sery, can you put us in resonance again?¡± he asked quietly. ¡°Don¡¯t worry if you can¡¯t; I¡¯ll have no problems dealing with him either way.¡±
Sery nodded and took a breath. Veltyen¡¯s enna expanded to an endless ocean.
He stalked forward, not bothering to raise his sword as the air itself hardened around him and repelled any and all energy attacks.
There was quite a lot of magic in those attacks, Veltyen noted dispassionately. Sery must have refilled Tristane¡¯s enna doing whatever she did to cause the explosion.
When Veltyen was three steps away, Tristane drew his sword and attacked. Veltyen did not bother to parry, the sword sliding off the hardened air just as the energy attacks had.
Veltyen reached out and grabbed Tristane by the throat.
There was one lesson taught to materials mages from the very beginning: Never try to alter the properties of living tissue.
It was a non-issue for most mages, requiring an extraordinary amount of magic to even try, but when it was successful, it always resulted in the death of the tissue being manipulated.
Tristane¡¯s eyes bulged in shock and his mouth gaped as he tried to gasp for breath. Veltyen let go and he fell to the ground, his belly heaving at he fought desperately for air.
Not a whisper of breath passed in or out.
Veltyen got into Magewhisper¡¯s saddle behind Sery and they set off for Dova.
¡°What did you do to him?¡± Sery asked quietly.
¡°I removed the elasticity from his lungs,¡± he answered just as quietly. ¡°Does that scare you?¡±
She shook her head and her acceptance pulled him back from the cold rage.
He confessed the rest of his sin. ¡°I plan on saying that I had poor control of my magic because of the resonance. It has the benefit of being true, but it had nothing to do with why and how I killed him. Does that bother you?¡±
She shook her head again.
He wanted to kiss her so badly that he thought he might go insane. But she was tired and injured and did not even have shoes to walk away if she wanted to leave him. He settled for kissing the top of her head.
Chapter 37
¡°This is an outrage! You expect me to overlook the death of one of my guild members? I won¡¯t stand for it!¡±
Veltyen kept his face and body language as Inheritance¡¯s guildmaster continued to rant and bluster, encased in the same cold anger he had experienced before he had executed Tristane.
He was not worried about the consequences of his actions, one, because he would do it again even if it meant being imprisoned, and two, he did not think he really would face such consequences.
Archmage Renglan¡¯s face was visible over the three-way call. It had slowly lost its usual amiability as Ariela and Devlin laid out the sequence of events, backed by irrefutable evidence from the mages¡¯ tracking spells and financial information Foria had found that showed that Tristane had been backed by funding by Inheritance. With the ongoing bluster going on and on, Renglan¡¯s expression turned merciless, the predator behind the mask coming to the fore.
¡°Drustan Lethei.¡±
The Archmage had not raised his voice in the slightest, but it cut through Drustan¡¯s yelling like a knife, silencing the guildmaster mid-sentence.
¡°Let me get this straight. Inheritance guild planned and executed the kidnapping of the registered member of another guild, the first Source known to Oslethia in over fifty years, during the Mage Games, on the sovereign territory of another nation, and you refuse to ¡®overlook things¡¯?¡±
¡°That¡¯s¡ª¡±
¡°I¡¯m tempted to open a public inquiry just to see how quickly your guild would crumble,¡± Renglan continued, the threat in his voice quiet and deadly.
¡°While you¡¯re at it, Renglan, please authorize duelling between our guilds,¡± Ariela added. ¡°I promised someone that we would do so if he messed with one of my guild members.¡±
Drustan was nothing if not a coward. Under the cold gazes of the two most destructive mages in the Seven Kingdoms, he paled and fell silent.
With Drustan properly understanding who was going to control the situation, Renglan proceeded to lay out the course of action. Inheritance guild was going to be forced to pay huge reparations to Eterna, the Roswan branch of the Guild Association, and Sery herself, as well as being banned from recruiting any new members for the next five years. The public reason for the punishment was going to be listed as merely ¡®illegal smuggling¡¯, but the loss of prestige and inability to grow was going to cause many of its members to leave, and the guild was going to quickly fall down the rankings and lose most of the lucrative contracts it held. Veltyen wanted the guild entirely gone, but he thought having it languish in obscurity would actually be more painful to its guildmaster.
As for Veltyen himself, the Archmage merely extracted a promise that he would ensure his magic was entirely under control, even in resonance, within a year. Veltyen knew Renglan was far too canny to believe the story that Tristane¡¯s death had been an accident, but the Archmage did not seem inclined to investigate the matter further.
After Drustan left the call, Renglan said, ¡°I would like to speak to Veltyen alone.¡±
Ariela made a wry smile at being kicked out of her own office but left without comment, Devlin and Foria filing after her.
Veltyen met the Archmage¡¯s gaze through the communication crystal, the man¡¯s usual affable expression back in place.
¡°Mr. Indei, have you given any thought to my previous proposal? I can¡¯t guarantee I could have completely prevented this incident ¨C it¡¯s quite hard to predict what people will do when they¡¯re stupid enough ¨C but it does illustrate why you might want Ms. Holdei to have greater protections than she does now.¡±
Veltyen did not have any doubts. ¡°I definitely appreciate your offer, but Sery and I would like to stay with Eterna.¡±
¡°Oh? So you asked her?¡±
¡°I did.¡±
Renglan sighed but did not seem particularly surprised or upset at his answer. Veltyen had been bracing himself for veiled threats and insidious logic, but the Archmage gave every indication that he was going to let the matter be. It occurred to Veltyen that not everyone who played political games did so with malice or greed.
¡°The offer does remain open, but I won¡¯t hold my breath.¡±
¡°Thank you, my lord. I owe you a favour. If there¡¯s anything I can ever help you with, please let me know.¡±
At the offer, Renglan suddenly smiled like a satisfied cat, making the hair on the back of Veltyen¡¯s neck stand on end. ¡°I don¡¯t think you¡¯re ready yet for what I want from you. Contact me when you figure it out.¡± The screen went blank.
Veltyen frowned in confusion as he collected Foria¡¯s communication crystal and slowly left the office. How would he know what the Archmage would want with the likes of him?
Downstairs, Ariela and Devlin were chatting with Foria as they sat by the front desk.
¡°So? What did he say?¡± Ariela asked as Veltyen returned Foria¡¯s crystal to her.
¡°He repeated his offer for me and Sery to join the Guild Association headquarters. He didn¡¯t seem particularly surprised or upset when I said no,¡± Veltyen commented, wanting the guildmasters¡¯ input on the Archmage¡¯s intentions.
¡°Renglan¡¯s a fox, but one that only uses people the way they want to be used,¡± Ariela said, clearly having dealt with him before. ¡°He¡¯s going to get whatever benefit he can from Sery being here rather than try to force her to move.¡±
Veltyen nodded, glad that her assessment matched his own.
The conversation lapsed into contemplative silence. They were all back home, the Mage Games a distant memory and the threat of Inheritance guild settled, yet nothing felt the same. It would take weeks for Taine to finish treating Sery¡¯s burn scars, and while Veltyen very much doubted anyone would try and pull off such an unhinged plan as kidnapping, she would always be a vulnerable target.
¡°Why can¡¯t Sery charge mana crystals?¡± he asked Devlin.
The craft-mage exhaled and ran his hand through his hair. ¡°Don¡¯t think I haven¡¯t thought about this problem in exhaustive detail.
¡°A regular mage¡¯s enna is like¡ a container with organic walls that keep mana particles from escaping while also capturing new ones from the environment. It¡¯s attached to a ¡®valve¡¯ so to speak, the shape of which determines the kind of magic they can manifest. It takes a certain amount of ¡®pressure¡¯ to force the mana particles through that valve, which the mage generates by ¡®squeezing¡¯ with the walls of their enna.
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¡°Sery¡¯s enna is like¡ a pool. Well, more like an ocean in size, but it doesn¡¯t have walls that keep mana particles in. Obviously not, which is why just being around her helps us recharge faster. All the mana particles she generates eventually overflow from her enna and spill into her surroundings. She can direct the flows to a certain extent, but she can¡¯t generate enough ¡®pressure¡¯ to manifest magic, nor does she have a ¡®valve¡¯ to shape it.¡±
¡°I can see why she can¡¯t actively use magic, but why can¡¯t she charge mana crystals? Shouldn¡¯t it be the same thing as recharging someone¡¯s enna?¡±
¡°A mana crystal¡¯s walls are entirely impermeable to mana particles. When you charge one, you are essentially forcing them backwards through the valve they come out of, which requires the same ¡®pressure¡¯ as casting a spell. Of note, she actually can charge crystals patterned after her Source magic, since they aren¡¯t blocked by a valve, but of all the people in the world, she¡¯s the last person to need extra magic stores.¡±
¡°There has to be a way to create mana crystal that can absorb particles through its walls,¡± Veltyen said, though he was far from certain this was actually true.
¡°You can certainly give it a try if you want. The current form of mana crystal is by far the most stable and magic-efficient to create that¡¯s been discovered, but the need for magic efficiency is completely out the window for you.¡±
Veltyen was reminded of the feeling of limitless enna stores that never fully left his mind. Sery kept up the resonance all the time now; it appeared to give her a sense of security, a connection between them that could not be severed by any magic known to man, so it was not even a consideration for him to think about whether he wanted the power or not. He thought he had known what it was like to not have to conserve magic when she first came into the guild, but now it took conscious effort not to cast spells. He might as well put the power to use to create something that might help Sery. ¡°If you could teach me how to make basic mana crystal, I¡¯ll do some experimenting.¡±
***
Sery¡¯s skin tingled and itched as Taine¡¯s magic caused it to grow many times faster than its natural state. She rubbed at her face, grimacing as flakes of dead skin came off as new skin grew underneath it.
¡°Don¡¯t rub,¡± Taine commanded, applying a soothing cream that both calmed the itch and helped ¡®exfoliate¡¯ the dead skin, whatever that meant.
She washed off the cream and looked at her face in the mirror. Compared to the thickened, raised scarring that had affected the left side of her face and left arm in the immediate aftermath of the magical explosion she had caused by overloading Tristane¡¯s enna, it was much better, just some fine, white lines marking the edges of where skin had torn or blistered, barely noticeable with her pale complexion unless you looked very closely. Still, Taine believed he could completely erase the scars with a few more weeks of treatment, and she wanted them gone if possible; unlike the one on her arm from when Veltyen had saved her life, which she bore with pride, the idea of being permanently marked by Tristane left her stomach churning.
She looked up and smiled at the door just before Veltyen came through to pick her up from the healer¡¯s temporary infirmary in Eterna.
He brushed his fingers across the cheek that had just been treated, his concern for her well-being palpable. ¡°How is it going?¡±
¡°The fibrosed scarring is resolved and we¡¯re moving on to correcting the hypopigmentation,¡± Taine reported. ¡°At this point, we should go down to weekly treatments to allow the skin to rest from all the forced growth I¡¯ve put it through. Use this cream every night and wear sunscreen as well as a hat and gloves every day.¡±
Sery nodded and accepted the jars of products that Taine gave her to use at home. She was lucky that Taine actually had a specialization in advanced burn and scar treatment; the fact that he had been able to start the healing process in the right way had minimized the initial damage and sped her progress to this point in mere days.
¡°Are you heading back to Nottagan, then?¡± Veltyen asked. ¡°Your practice there must be hurting with you gone for so long.¡±
¡°Actually¡ I¡¯ve been considering leaving the Nottagan clinic to Melayna and moving back to Eterna.¡±
Sery¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°¡Because of me?¡± she asked, not wanting her troubles to influence the healer¡¯s decisions.
Taine smiled. ¡°No, dear. I never really wanted to live in Nottagan in the first place, but there was a shortage of healers there compared to its population size. I¡¯m getting to the age that being woken up in the middle of the night to deal with bar fights and stabbings is tough on me, and Melayna is going to pass her final exam for independent practice this summer. I¡¯m much more suited to a smaller town like Eterna, and any advanced cases that require my expertise can be referred over given that it¡¯s still relatively close to Nottagan.¡±
Veltyen clapped the healer on the shoulder. ¡°We¡¯ll be glad to have you back full-time. It¡¯s always a bit unsettling not to have a specialized healer around and have to rely on other types of life-mages for emergencies.¡±
She and Veltyen made their way back home, their usual comfortable silence slightly strained by the fact that they were both trying to avoid thinking too much about recent events.
¡°Are you sleeping okay?¡± Veltyen suddenly asked. ¡°I know repeated healing sessions can wear you out, so rest as much as you need to.¡±
She was not sleeping well at all, her rest interrupted by vague dreams of feeling trapped and helpless that left her waking up in a cold sweat. When it happened, she needed to leave her bedroom for the larger living room, sometimes stepping out into the hallway just to remind herself that she could leave the apartment whenever she wanted to.
More than once, she had needed to stop herself from reaching for Veltyen¡¯s door. She did not think he would be annoyed if she woke him up, but there was no need to ruin his sleep as well. He had been in a state of hypervigilance for nearly two weeks now, slowly returning to normal but with a residual leashed tension that was wearing on him. If anything, he needed to rest more than she did.
She nodded, to acknowledge his advice rather than confirm that she was sleeping well.
Veltyen always seemed to read her almost magically well. He scoffed to himself. ¡°¡®Are you sleeping well?¡¯ What a dumb question.¡±
He wrapped her in a hug, the warmth and strength of his arms feeling like the safest place in the world.
¡°Anything I can do to help?¡± he murmured in her ear. ¡°Would it help if I stayed with you until you fell asleep?¡±
She shook her head. ¡°It¡¯s just that I keep waking up,¡± she confessed.
He paused. ¡°Would it help if I stayed with you overnight?¡±
She was certain that she would sleep soundly with Veltyen next to her but she said, ¡°You don¡¯t have to.¡±
***
Veltyen was not particularly religious, but he felt like a character in an old parable being tempted into sin when he saw Sery in a nightgown.
Designed by Evodie, the garment was not sheer or low-cut, meant to be comfortable and functional rather than seductive. Nonetheless, it highlighted her delicate beauty in a different way than her daytime clothing, made her look soft in a way that his fingers itched to touch.
They had gotten into the closest thing to an argument they had ever had over their sleeping arrangements. Sery flat out refused to let him stay with her if it meant he stayed awake overnight, her eyes steely with resolve regardless of what he said to try to convince her.
They had settled upon him bedding down in her living room on the couch, her bedroom door open, with the hope that the closer proximity would be enough to keep the nightmares at bay.
Physically, he was comfortable enough, the cushions of the couch soft but supportive. It was the awareness of where he was that kept him awake, ingrained propriety and etiquette clashing with what Sery needed from him, all confused by the attraction he could resist but not ignore, one that grew whenever she demonstrated that she could hold her own against him.
He was finally dozing off when a sharp gasp from the bedroom snapped him awake. ¡°Sery?¡±
She stumbled out of her bedroom as if escaping from a prison.
He sat up and opened his arms and she came into his embrace, a measure of tension leaving her body as she did so. He rubbed her icy hands, trying to warm her up.
¡°Sorry,¡± she murmured.
¡°This is why I¡¯m here. Have you been having this happen every night without telling me?¡±
¡°It will stop eventually,¡± was her non-answer.
He sighed, not wanting to scold her when fine tremors shook her frame. Thankfully, they stopped within a few minutes, her body warming up in the same period and the tension entirely leaving her body.
¡°¡Sery, are you asleep?¡±
Only slow, even breathing answered him, exhaustion clearly pulling her back into slumber as soon as fear abated. She had fallen asleep sitting up, her head leaning trustingly against his chest.
¡°I¡¯m either going to be nominated as a saint or go to hell,¡± he muttered to himself as he gave in to the inevitable and lay back down, pulling Sery with him and tucking her under his blanket.
Chapter 38
Veltyen closed his eyes and let his materials magic run through the sample of unprogrammed mana crystal Devlin had given him. The structure was somewhat complex but somehow elegantly efficient to his magical senses, stacking and repeating to form its crystalline structure, its shape allowing it to trap and hold mana particles in a way that no other material could.
Trying to keep the structure in his mind, he called upon his magic to create. Unlike every other time he had deliberately used his power, he was trying to make something out of pure mana rather than alter an existing material, and it took him several attempts to activate it correctly. Once he did, however, the pattern of the mana crystal seemed to seize momentum, magic seeming to flow out of him without effort on his part.
He opened his eyes to find that he had created a veritable brick of mana crystal, no smaller than the bricks that had been used to construct the ten-story apartment complex he had helped build in Eterna. It was much lighter than the equivalent size in stone, but he was still impressed with the heft of it as he held it up for examination.
Devlin took the crystal and briefly closed his eyes to examine it with his own magic. ¡°It¡¯s the real thing,¡± he proclaimed. With a wry twist of his mouth, he added, ¡°I have no idea what you¡¯d do with a piece that big except maybe power all the lights in a city for a year.¡±
¡°The pattern seemed to grab me,¡± Veltyen admitted sheepishly. He was still not accurate in gauging how much magic he was using when he was in resonance with Sery but he knew that it had been well over what would have previously knocked him into unconsciousness.
¡°It¡¯ll do that. Normally, exhaustion would stop you before it got anywhere near this size,¡± Devlin said with another wry expression, ¡°but you¡¯ll have to learn to control it. The crystal pattern tends to form rectangular prisms of these exact proportions and you¡¯ll need to control its edges well to get any other shape. Keep in mind that mana crystal can¡¯t be reshaped once it¡¯s formed.¡±
¡°Got it. I¡¯ll practice,¡± Veltyen promised. ¡°Um, what do I do with this one?¡±
Devlin stared at the giant crystal and ran his hand through his hair. ¡°¡I guess I¡¯ll teach you how to program it for a basic heat spell and we can put it in Sery¡¯s apartment. Even if you only fill it a third of the way, she probably won¡¯t need anyone to recharge it for the rest of her life.¡±
¡°Sounds good.¡±
¡°Our other option, of course, is to try to sell it, sowing economic chaos and political infighting across the Seven Kingdoms, as well as an international manhunt for its creator,¡± Devlin added casually, nothing about his tone or expression indicating he was joking.
¡°¡Let¡¯s go with the first option,¡± Veltyen said.
¡°Right. So on to crystal programming¡.¡±
***
¡°Sery, could you come with me, please?¡±
Sery followed Veltyen into his equipment room. She had been in it before, of course, and was familiar with its visible contents, as Veltyen usually left the door open, but it was not a place she spent much time in.
Bypassing the magical weapons on display, Veltyen took down a case from a shelf on the side. Sery leaned in, curious to see what he kept inside.
The answer was a variety of short blades in plain leather scabbards. To her limited knowledge, they looked well-made but not decorated in any way, their hilts perfectly maintained but with miniscule scratches that indicated they had seen real use.
Veltyen slid one such hilt into her hand and she held it carefully, assuming he needed help carrying it somewhere. She realized the assumption was wrong when he rearranged her fingers to a grip that looked like one of the ways he held a dagger during practice, one finger extended over the crossguard. He squeezed her hand with his much larger one and she followed his lead, exerting enough pressure on the weapon that it felt secure in her grip.
Nodding, Veltyen took the dagger and replaced it with a different one, approximately the same length but with a slightly narrower blade and hilt. Sery did her best to recreate the grip he had just shown her, finding that the smaller diameter made it feel more secure in her hand.
¡°These are some of the training weapons I used when I was younger,¡± Veltyen explained. He gave her a longer blade next, one that extended the length of her forearm without including the length of the hilt. He showed her a different way to hold it and she found that her fingers felt strained, a warning that they would start to ache if she held the position for too long.
¡°Hmm,¡± Veltyen said consideringly. ¡°Your hands are smaller than mine were when I started training at the Academy. I¡¯ll have to ask Kiera¡¡± his voice trailed off, his expression dimming as it always did when he thought about his formerly close friend. ¡°I¡¯ll ask Foria to ask her.¡±
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She touched his shoulder with her left hand, wanting to distract him. ¡°Why do you need weapons for smaller hands?¡± she asked, wondering what kind of new project he might be starting.
¡°We need to find something that suits you so I can teach you how to fight.¡±
She blinked at him, taken by surprise.
¡°Well, defend yourself,¡± he corrected himself. ¡°By no means are we trying to turn you into a combat mage, just give anyone who might try to harm you a very nasty surprise.¡±
Despite seeing Veltyen practicing nearly every day, it had never occurred to Sery to ask him to teach her any combat art. She was not tall, or strong, or fast, and she certainly did not have Veltyen¡¯s amazing defensive magic. In a guild full of highly specialized mages who excelled by developing their unique talents, she saw her path as developing her Source magic as much as she could and helping Veltyen and the other members accomplish tasks that required more magic than they normally had access to.
Looking at her blank surprise, Veltyen¡¯s expression turned rueful. ¡°I should have asked you if you wanted to learn first, shouldn¡¯t I? Sorry, I got ahead of myself. If you really don¡¯t want to, I¡¯ll keep working on other security measures.¡±
¡°Do you think I can?¡± she asked softly.
His expression turned warm, somewhere between humour and affection. ¡°I think you managed to give some people a very nasty surprise without any training whatsoever. Hopefully, this just gives you more options, one that doesn¡¯t involve you getting hurt.¡± His thumb brushed over her injured cheek.
It was yet another gift he was giving her, his belief in her abilities leading her to accomplish things she never would have dreamed possible in her previous life.
She put down the weapon she was holding so she could hug him with both arms.
¡°I take it that¡¯s a yes?¡± he murmured, his arms coming around her with familiar warmth. ¡°It¡¯s so odd not being able to read how you¡¯re feeling.¡±
One of the consequences of being in resonance with her was that Veltyen could no longer read the flows of ambient magic that came out of her. She tried to add some humour to the situation so she would not cry and make him think he had upset her. ¡°Do I have to start getting up at dawn again?¡±
He laughed and kissed her cheek. ¡°Yes.¡±
***
Veltyen walked the steps up to Kiera¡¯s second floor apartment in Eterna. The previously familiar route between their homes had changed, storefronts updated and one building having added a third floor. It made him realize that it had been nearly a year since he had made the trip.
He knocked, trying to keep the uncertainty he felt out of his body language. When Foria had told him that Kiera wanted to see him in person, he had not quite believed his ears.
It was another shock when the door opened and he saw her apartment nearly bare, most of the furniture missing and the artwork gone. The only remnant of her personality left was the light green paint on the walls, something he had helped her with when they had both first moved to Eterna.
¡°Come in,¡± she said, leaving the door open and returning to her kitchen, where she appeared to be packing some glassware into a crate.
¡°Kiera, what¡?¡±
¡°My old training daggers are on the counter,¡± she said, pointing her head in the right direction without looking away from her task. ¡°Take whatever looks useful.¡±
He absently placed a hand over the pile of daggers but did not examine them. ¡°Kiera¡ Are you leaving?¡±
¡°Yes.¡± She still had not made eye contact with him.
¡°But¡ Why?¡±
Her mouth twisted and her hands stilled. ¡°I betrayed you and I betrayed Eterna.¡±
Confusion and disbelief swamped him. ¡°What are you talking about? You¡¯d never¡¡±
¡°I was talking to that moneybag. Not with the most recent thing, I never imagined he¡¯d go so far, but back when he was trying to lure your princess to his guild with money and promises.¡±
He muddled through her unclear words. ¡°Tristane?¡± he asked, a thread of anger weaving through the disbelief. ¡°How could you?¡±
¡°Why not?¡± she cried out, defensive anger rising to the surface. ¡°She could be a little princess just as well in one of those snooty noble-only guilds as here!¡±
He just stared at her, feeling empty and cold. This was not his friend, just some stranger filled with selfishness and jealousy. ¡°I¡¯ve heard enough.¡±
¡°I had nothing to do with her kidnapping!¡±
¡°I assume that¡¯s why you haven¡¯t been sanctioned or arrested,¡± Veltyen said quietly, leaving the pile of weapons as he made his way to the door. He did not want Sery touching anything that Kiera owned.
¡°Veltyen¡¡± she said, a pleading tone in her voice calling to their long years of friendship.
He paused at the door and looked at her, cold anger warring with pity at her lonely figure until he simply felt nothing for her. ¡°I¡¯m glad you realized you did something wrong,¡± he said quietly. ¡°Have a good life.¡±
He left, feeling empty, his understanding of who he was fundamentally altered by the loss of a close friend in a way he never could have imagined.
He found himself wandering without a destination, not wanting to go home or the guild, anywhere he might have to pretend to be okay. Instinctively avoiding crowds, he found himself on a random residential street, just walking.
Eterna was growing, but it was ultimately a small town. Faced with the decision between going on to a noisier road or turning around and loitering suspiciously in the neighbourhood, he simply stopped.
The other half of his enna began to move towards him. Hampered by buildings and fences, it made a few false turns and had to backtrack, but eventually, Sery¡¯s distinctive silver hair was visible down the street.
¡°Sorry,¡± he said when she was within talking distance. Belatedly, he wondered if he was apologizing for not protecting her from his own friend or for making her wander around town looking for him.
She did not reply but grasped his hand, treating him carefully, as if he were fragile. When he did not pull away, she enfolded him in a gentle hug.
He wrapped his arms around her and held on, knowing he was squeezing her too tightly. ¡°Sorry,¡± he said again, his face pressed against her sweet-smelling hair.
She did not protest the confining embrace, her hand stroking the back of his neck in a comforting gesture.
They garnered more than one odd look from passers-by as they stood there for long minutes but Sery did not seem to notice or care, her focus on him in the moment. She did not ask him what had happened or if he was okay.
When he felt like he had rearranged himself into the semblance of a whole person again, he forced himself to loosen his grip, though he did not let go of Sery, still feeling shaky within himself.
¡°Sorry,¡± he found himself saying yet again. ¡°Thank you.¡±
At the second phrase, she smiled.
Chapter 39
It¡¯s okay, Sery,¡± Veltyen said in his most soothing voice, holding an arm out in her direction. ¡°Come at me.¡±
Sery willed herself to move but nothing happened except trembling that became more pronounced the more she tried to make herself step forward and attack.
Her lessons in self-defence had been going wonderfully up until this point, Veltyen an observant and patient teacher who always found a way to explain things in a way that made perfect sense to her. She had surprised herself by quickly picking up the many maneuvers that might allow her to escape someone¡¯s grasp or disarm someone coming at her with a dagger ¨C none that were likely to work against someone even half as well trained as Veltyen, but would do for untrained individuals who were not expecting any resistance on her part. She had even grown accustomed to holding the dagger Veltyen had custom created for her out of mana crystal, light and deadly sharp and perfectly fitted to her hand.
Now they were supposed to be moving on to basic knife fighting. Neither of them had been expecting her to completely freeze at the idea of attacking Veltyen.
It was absolutely ludicrous to be worried, she knew. Even without his defensive magic, it was laughable to imagine that she might even land a scratch on him.
The knowledge did nothing to help her white-knuckled grip on the dagger or the trembling that continued to run through her.
Veltyen reached out and slowly grasped the blade of her dagger, his skin making an unusual rasping sound against the crystal and completely resisting even being indented by the razor-sharp edge. ¡°See?¡± he said, opening his hand and showing her the intact skin on his palm. ¡°I promise the magic is on.¡±
Sery nodded jerkily and told herself to get a move on. Her trembling simply worsened.
Rather than becoming impatient, Veltyen¡¯s expression was full of concern for her. He reached for the dagger again, this time gently loosening her fingers¡¯ death grip on the hilt. ¡°This is the wrong approach. Let¡¯s stop for today and I¡¯ll think of something else.¡±
Disarmed, she could breathe and think again. ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± she said, hanging her head in shame. She had wasted so much of his time over such an irrational fear.
¡°Sery? No.¡± He nudged her chin until she met his gray eyes. ¡°No apologies. You didn¡¯t do anything wrong. Okay?¡±
He held her gaze until she had to look away, a blush rising to her cheeks as she nodded agreement. There had been a subtle change in the way he treated her ever since her nightmares had settled down; she could not pinpoint exactly what, but it seemed like he no longer treated her as fragile.
They headed into the dining room for breakfast, the low murmur of conversation amongst the dozen or so guild members scattered throughout the room washing away any residual tension from her aborted lesson.
Foria waved at them with a hand holding a butter knife and they made their way over to join her. ¡°How are things going?¡± she asked while applying some of Maurio¡¯s handmade apple jam to a slice of toast.
Sery was feeling down about her unsuccessful lesson, but not enough that it kept her from reaching eagerly for her own slice of toast and fruit spread. A burst of intense apple flavour spread across her tongue, tart and sweet.
¡°We ran into some technical difficulties moving on to knife fighting,¡± Veltyen said in his diplomatic way. ¡°I¡¯ll figure something out.¡±
Foria raised an eyebrow. ¡°Does Sery need to learn hand-to-hand fighting to avoid being kidnapped? Sorry, Sery, but I think if you¡¯re reaching the point where someone trained and ready for you to attack, you don¡¯t really stand a chance.¡±
Sery did not disagree and just nodded while continuing to eat. She was lighter and smaller than everyone except the children in Eterna and had not grown taller in the year since arriving.
¡°I see your point,¡± said Veltyen, ¡°but some basic familiarity with a weapon can¡¯t hurt. Besides, what would you suggest instead? We¡¯ve already gone over disarms and grab breaks.¡±
Foria made a vague gesture with her butter knife. ¡°You know, kidnapping stuff. Escaping from a locked room or getting free from being tied up. She should have hidden tools on her that would escape a basic search.¡±
¡°Huh,¡± Veltyen said thoughtfully. ¡°You¡¯re right. That was actually helpful.¡±
¡°What do you mean, ¡®actually¡¯? You want me to stab you?¡± Foria threatened.
He chuckled. ¡°Go ahead,¡± he invited, serenely unconcerned with coming to harm.
¡°Insufferable,¡± she grumbled. ¡°Sery, stab him while he¡¯s sleeping. Same for kidnappers.¡±
The two combined orders stymied Sery¡¯s ability to answer with a nod and she paused, trying to think of an appropriate response.
Veltyen patted her hand. ¡°No need to respond to Foria¡¯s nonsense.¡±
¡°We¡¯ll see who¡¯s full of nonsense after I finish my spell to turn people inside out,¡± Foria threatened.
Sery¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°Can you do that?¡±
Foria¡¯s eyes twinkled in humor. ¡°It would be a bit challenging defining the levels that constitute ¡®inside¡¯ and ¡®outside¡¯ as well as the simultaneous vector directions along the surface of the target but I could probably do at least a fairly good approximation of it, which is more than enough to also reverse their state of living. You understand, it¡¯s not something I¡¯ve ever practiced given the ethical considerations.¡±
Veltyen shuddered. ¡°Please don¡¯t come up with any more terrifying ways to kill people.¡±
¡°Oh, I don¡¯t need to come up with any more when there are so many already. There¡¯s the classic ¡®half teleportation¡¯, its cousin ¡®half direction reversal¡¯, blood flow reversal, throwing them into a random alternate dimension, time stopping the air¡¡±
Veltyen grabbed the stack of toast Sery intended to eat and the jar of apple jam. ¡°Let¡¯s escape before I lose my appetite,¡± he whispered with a mischievous look, handing Sery the jar and gripping her free hand. They fled outside to finish breakfast with Magewhisper and Mindseye.
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***
¡°Sery, could you try this on?¡±
Sery held her hand out and he slid on the mana crystal bracelet he had crafted. He had mastered creating the crystal in any shape he chose and could program it for the standard kinds of spells popular for mana crystal devices, but he had yet to create a modified crystal structure that could absorb Sery¡¯s magic without melting down or exploding.
Still, there were plenty of devices that relied on touch activation and this was one of them.
He pressed the hinged section closed and the bracelet hugged Sery¡¯s delicate wrist with no gap, made to fit her exactly and be impossible to remove without opening the hinged section. A touch to a spell activation node and the illusion of translucent green jade washed over its surface, making it look indistinguishable from the bangles commonly worn in the eastern lands made from a single piece of stone. The hope was that anyone trying to disarm her would consider the bracelet impossible to remove without breaking it open and completely harmless, therefore not worth the trouble.
¡°Is it too tight?¡± he asked, turning her wrist over to see if it would interfere with her movements. He would have to make a new one entirely from scratch should it need to be enlarged but the time and effort was not even a consideration when weighed against the risk of injuring her skin.
Sery shook her head.
¡°And it doesn¡¯t bother you otherwise?¡± he asked worriedly. He knew she was wordlessly terrified of necklaces after her experiences in captivity; bracelets were not as bad but she still never wore them voluntarily, her only day-to-day jewelry being the delicate earrings that she preferred.
She shook her head. ¡°It feels like your magic,¡± she said with a soft smile.
The boundless trust she had in him still made him catch his breath from time to time. He pulled her close for a hug, stealing a dose of her soft warmth before returning to business. ¡°Feel these bumps?¡± he said, guiding the fingers of her opposite hand over the barely perceptible protuberances along the band on the inside of her wrist. ¡°Just tap them one, three, two, three, three, three to get the hinge to pop open.¡±
Sery followed his directions and the bracelet opened as designed, the jade illusion hiding the break in the stone and making it appear it had been carved in that configuration.
¡°Be careful,¡± he cautioned. ¡°The end of the hinged section is very sharp. If you¡¯re ever tied up, it should be able to cut through even metal shackles with enough time.¡±
¡°Can I try it?¡± she asked.
¡°Sure.¡± He had a bit of leather cord and wrapped it around her wrists, using his magic to fuse the ends together seamlessly rather than bothering with a knot.
Sery carefully wriggled her thumb around to reach the bracelet and methodically tapped out the activation sequence. The hinge popped open, the open edge sharp enough that the cord broke without any additional action.
Sery looked quite pleased at the result. ¡°Can we try with a real rope?¡± she asked.
¡°Uh, sure,¡± Veltyen agreed, a vague sense of unease spreading over him as his mind caught up with his mouth. While the leather cord was thin enough to snap just by flexing the wrists, he had now agreed to truly restrain her.
Still, it made sense to test the bracelet against a more realistic kidnapping scenario and he went into his gear room to find a length of rope.
Sery readily held up her hands to be bound together, not a hint of discomfort in her eyes nor awareness of what it might mean to be so helpless in front of a man.
Swallowing against a suddenly dry mouth, he wordlessly looped the rope around and tied a simple but effective knot.
With more bulk impeding her movements than the thin cord, it took Sery longer to activate the bracelet¡¯s opening mechanism. All her focus was on her hands and he tried to focus there as well.
A few minutes later, Sery broke free with a victorious smile, her cheeks flushed in excitement.
He cleared his throat. ¡°It works. Excellent. Let¡¯s just put away the¡ª¡±
Sery apparently was not done. ¡°Can you tie my hands behind my back?¡± she asked, moving her arms accordingly. ¡°How about my feet as well¡ª¡±
¡°Sery,¡± Veltyen interrupted, guiding her hands back to her front. ¡°I can¡¯t. I¡¯m sorry. We¡¯ll get someone else ¨C like, um, Foria ¨C actually, Evodie would be a good choice. Evodie. Yes, she¡¯s good with knots. We¡¯ll ask her. It¡¯s probably time to go get your summer wardrobe updated anyway. Yeah. We¡¯ll take a trip to Nottagan.¡±
Sery stared up at him, likely unused to hearing him bumble his words so much. He resolutely coiled up the rope and put it away, not just on a shelf, but into a saddlebag so it would be out of sight.
Some nefarious deity was definitely trying to send him to hell. Or maybe he was already there.
***
¡°Are you ladies heading out?¡±
Sery looked up to see Galen lounging in the entrance to the guild headquarters as she, Marielle, and Tasielle were exiting.
¡°Duh,¡± said Marielle, rolling her eyes. ¡°Did you think we were going to walk to the door and then turn around and head back inside?¡±
Tasielle proved herself the more diplomatic twin as she answered more helpfully. ¡°We¡¯re going shopping.¡±
This was the first time Sery had spent any significant time with the twins since departing for the Mage Games. In the flurry of activity surrounding her kidnapping and its aftermath, the guild members who had not been directly involved had only been given basic information on how an incident had occurred involving Inheritance Guild where Sery had been injured and a mage had died. Sery had been so preoccupied between her healing sessions with Taine, her poor sleep, and her new self-defence lessons that she never noticed that she had gone from doing activities with the twins a few times a week to not seeing them at all. It was only when they had hesitantly reached out a month after her return that she realized what a neglectful friend she had been.
The twins were not upset with her; on the contrary, they had been concerned that they might be pressuring her to resume a routine she was not ready for.
Sery had realized then what it meant to have a friendship of peers. Veltyen and Foria meant the world to her but they were intrinsically her seniors in experience and knowledge. Their care and support were priceless, but the experience of growing and learning together with Mari and Tasi was similarly invaluable.
¡°Mind if I join you?¡± Galen asked.
Sery was anxious for her first outing back with the twins to go well so unease washed over her when she saw nearly identical expressions of distaste on their faces at the proposal.
Galen¡¯s expression darkened as the wordless refusal. ¡°What, am I not good enough for you ladies?¡± he asked, turning the last word into a sarcastic insult.
The twins stiffened, their postures taking on a regal bearing. ¡°Galen, I find you extremely rude,¡± said Tasielle with uncharacteristic coldness.
¡°Don¡¯t pretend we¡¯re the ones with a problem,¡± Marielle added. ¡°You have an inferiority complex about the nobility larger than the entire town. Get over yourself.¡±
Sery looked back and forth between Galen and the twins, unsure of how to resolve the situation or even if she should intervene.
Marielle took her hand. ¡°Let¡¯s go, Sery. Clearly there are no gentlemen around to escort us,¡± she said as they swept through the doors.
¡°Sorry for that unpleasantness, Sery,¡± Tasielle apologized when they were outside. ¡°Galen has always been quite standoffish with us, and I¡¯m told it¡¯s similar with anyone with any relation to nobility.¡±
¡°He¡¯s such a hypocrite, though,¡± Marielle complained. ¡°Always dressing up in fancy mage robes and fussing over cutlery and all the most archaic noble traditions. You¡¯d think he¡¯d try to be nicer to nobles if he wants to play at being one of them.¡±
Sery remembered Galen¡¯s hostile behaviour towards Asher at his birthday induction into Eterna and wondered how he could be so kind to her while treating others like that. Still, she was hesitant to criticize him and remained quiet.
¡°Either way, he needs to give up,¡± said Tasielle firmly. ¡°He has no chance.¡±
¡°Chance of what?¡± Sery asked.
¡°Chance with you,¡± Marielle answered. ¡°You¡¯re way out of his league. Plus, next to Veltyen, he looks like a mange-ridden dog.¡±
Tasielle choked, trying to contain a shocked laugh. ¡°Mari!¡±
Marielle was unrepentant. ¡°You know it¡¯s true. Veltyen is just dreamy, and so much nicer,¡± she sighed. Looking at Sery, she added, ¡°Not that either of us like like him, of course. Veltyen is definitely your man.¡±
Sery¡¯s eyes went enormously wide and stayed that way. ¡°I¡¡±
¡°Shush, Mari,¡± Tasielle admonished. ¡°Veltyen would never act that way towards a minor in his care.¡±
¡°Well, no, but Sery¡¯s about to turn seventeen. Another year after that, and poof, no longer a minor.¡±
It had never occurred to Sery to think about the future in such terms. Did Veltyen expect their relationship to change once she was a legal adult? What if he expected her to leave his care and make her own way in the world?
¡°Sery? Sery, don¡¯t listen to Mari¡¯s nonsense. Your relationship with Veltyen is none of our business,¡± said Tasielle, pulling Sery out of her anxious thoughts.
¡°Though if you want to talk about it, we¡¯re always here,¡± Marielle said with an unrepentant wink.
Sery smiled, her nerves settling. She knew that whatever changes came in her life, there were people she could count on to help navigate them. ¡°I¡¯m really glad to have you as friends,¡± she said softly.
Marielle grabbed her in a hug. ¡°Ah, you¡¯re so cute I can¡¯t stand it!¡± she exclaimed.
Tasielle shook her head. ¡°I swear Mari, your manners get worse every year.¡±
Laughing and chatting, they made their way to the shopping district.