Published at 24th of February 2024 10:33 am

Chapter 51

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Solidaire advanced forward to grab me, but stopped at Karad’s outraised hand.

“Sellis’s boy?” Karad asked. “How’d you get in here?”

“Magic,” I said dryly.

“Don’t get smart with me,” Karad said harshly.

“Or what? You’ll throw me in a cell with my parents?” I asked.

“That’s exactly where you’re going,” Karad told me.

“No it’s not. You want to know why?” I asked. Without waiting for an answer, I said, “It’s because you want a mage for your village, and I’m the only mage you’ve got. Maybe you can send some people to Derro. Maybe they get there in one piece. Maybe they even convince a mage to come back with them. How long does it take? Two months? Three?”

“You’re a child,” Melmir said. “We haven’t even had a ritual night since before you were born, let alone one that resulted in someone in the village being blessed.”

“And yet, I’m a mage anyway,” I said. I held up a hand and spun mana into a cheap light spell. Instantly, it engulfed the flickering lights from the candles and bathed the meeting in cool blue highlights. A moment later, the light shifted to a warmer white color, then to a soft green. I left it on a yellow-white that mimicked sunlight and sent it up to hover near the lantern after extinguishing all the open flame with a bit of elemental manipulation.

“Some kind of monster from the wastes,” Solidaire declared. “It killed the boy and took on his form.”

He drew his sword and made to lunge at me. My first thought was to put him to sleep like I’d done to the others, but I wanted him awake to hear this. I blasted him in the face with a burst of elemental air to disorient him, clamped down on his foot with minor telekinesis to make him trip and stumble, and as he staggered forward, I moved past his outstretched blade to touch him just once on the forehead. That was all I needed to channel paralyzing grasp into his body.

Solidaire hit the floor with a thump and didn’t get back up. I held up a hand to stop Karad from attacking and said, “He’s fine. He just won’t be able to move for the next fifteen minutes or so. He can listen from the floor while the more reasonable people have a conversation. And no, I’m not a monster from the wastes, though I suppose it would be fair to call me a monster. I am the same Gravin that I’ve been my whole life… just… awake now.”

“What is he talking about?” Karad asked, throwing a glance back at Melmir and Shel.

“I don’t have a clue,” Shel said calmly. “But it seems interesting.”

“It sounds like a pack of lies. So a little boy got his hands on some trinkets and his daddy showed him how to channel mana into him. Bravo on learning at such a young age. That really is impressive, but no one’s buying-”

Melmir’s mouth kept moving for another few seconds as I cast silence on him, but he quickly stopped when he realized there was no sound coming out. Karad and Shel both stared at him for a moment, then Karad started laughing.

“What I wouldn’t give to be able to do that at some of my meetings,” he said.

“As I was saying, you’re all familiar with the concept of reincarnation?” I asked. Karad shrugged, but Shel nodded. I continued, “Imagine, if you will, that when you die, your soul is born anew as a baby to live another life, and again, and again and again, but you never remember your old lives. It’s a fresh start every time. Now imagine a mage so powerful and skilled that he found a way to keep his memories the next time he was born. Imagine he’s walking around, remembering every single bit of magic he’s ever known, capable of doing so much, if only he had the mana he needed to do so. That’s me.”

“That does not seem like the most likely explanation to this scenario,” Shel said.

I raised an eyebrow and gestured toward first Solidaire, who remained paralyzed on the floor, then Melmir, who was silently glaring daggers at me. I then looked up at the ball of light I was maintaining in the air, then to the candles and finally glanced over at my shoulder to the solid wall behind me. “How many demonstrations do you need?” I asked.

“Oh, I’m not doubting you know your fair share of spells,” Shel told me. “You’re obviously not a normal child. I’m not sure I believe your explanation for how you know this magic, but that’s not really relevant, is it?”

“It’s not?” Karad asked.

“No. This child is offering to step into Lord Noctra’s place and maintain the magic we rely on to keep us safe. I’m not suggesting we hand him control of the village, but if we were to monitor him and make sure he is doing as he says he can, it would certainly solve the current issue.”

“Well, funny story there,” I said. “That whole story you think my dad is trying to feed you, that’s all true. Noctra was in debt to a cabal of mages in Derro. The ward stone powering your barrier has been broken for a long time, probably since that incident that killed the previous governor, if the stories I’ve heard are at all accurate. It looks like somebody tried to fix it but didn’t have a clue how to. I can fix it for you though. Probably take about twenty minutes. Honestly, I’m not sure it’s really necessary. You’ve been barrier-free for well over a decade and things seem to be working out fine.”

Melmir rose from his seat and jabbed a finger my way. His mouth moved like he was screaming at me and his face was starting to turn red, but my magic stopped any sound from coming from him. I waited, a smile on my face, as he tired himself out. Karad and Shel exchanged a look, and she started laughing softly.

“The opportunity to learn that spell alone would be enough to keep me listening,” she said.

“That’s on the table,” I told her seriously. “I ignited Father’s core to save Nermet’s mind, but he’s sadly not interested in becoming a true mage. I was thinking I’d find two or three people who do have an interest to take on as apprentices, at least so far as learning the basics go. I’ll show you what your group ritual is trying to accomplish randomly and how to make it happen on purpose, and you can ‘bless’ as many people as you want with an ignited mana core.”

Everyone froze there. “Impossible,” Shel whispered.

“But Sellis can use magic now,” Karad argued.

I snorted. “Barely. I taught him one spell. I’m the one who put all those people to sleep. I’m also the one who killed Noctra, just to clear the air on that one. It wasn’t some monster that snuck in. It wasn’t my father. Iskara is dead too, by the way.”

Karad bristled at that declaration, right up until a force blast shot out from my finger and cut one of the candles on the table in two. “Let me make myself clear,” I told him. “I am more than capable of defending myself. Noctra used this town for his own ends the entire time he was here. Iskara was his keeper, a representative of the cabal he was indebted to. The best that could be said for him was that he killed the occasional monster that came around, and that was the actions of a shepherd protecting his sheep from the wolves.

“I’m not interested in being your shepherd. What I am offering is to teach you enough of magic to protect yourselves in exchange for a safe haven for me to exist in for the next ten to fifteen years and the release of my family. I’ll ignite a few cores for you and teach you how to do the same, repair your ward stone, and defend the village from external threats until you’re strong enough to do it without me.”

“Let’s say we believe your claims,” Karad said tentatively. “That makes you a murderer. You’ve admitted to killing two people. How are we supposed to trust you to keep your word?”

I shrugged. “Iskara was trying to kill me and Noctra was trying to sell my father. I suppose if you can refrain from doing things like that, we’ll get along fine. I’m not in the habit of murdering people who annoy me.” I shot a glance at Melmir and added, “No matter how much they do so.”

“We… we need a few minutes to discuss this,” Karad said.

“Certainly.”

I walked through the room and paused at the parlor door. Purely for dramatic effect, I snapped my fingers as I released Solidaire and Melmir from the enchantments. “I’ll be right outside when you’re ready. Take as much time as you need.”

Then I pushed through the door and closed it behind me even as Melmir’s voice rose in pitch. I smiled and walked across the hall to a sun room of some sorts, where I pulled a chair over so that I’d be visible from the parlor once someone walked out, then settled down to try to replace some of my mana.

I’d used up more than I wanted to, but it was important to make a strong impression. I already had my age working against me. I needed them to take this seriously, to treat me like I legitimately had something to offer. I didn’t care what lie they spun out to the rest of the village to hide the fact that a three-year-old was bullying them into doing what he wanted, just so long as they accepted the bullying.

If I had to go live off by myself in the wastes, I was going to waste too much time, effort, and mana just surviving. It would make the process of building my lattice go from taking two months to a year. Here, I’d probably lose a month, maybe two training some apprentices up to the bare minimum, but I’d be relatively safe.

Besides, it appealed to me to take this muddy little village and transform it into a bastion of arcane power. If everyone had an ignited core and knew a few spells, this place would change from one that was on the brink of disaster to an oasis in the desert. I didn’t know if it would compare to Derro, but assuming they suffered the same lack of ambient mana, which seemed a safe bet given Noctra’s relationship and mana debt to the cabal there, those people weren’t any more magically gifted than the locals.

Magic made the world a better place, and while there were plenty of counterexamples of dark, evil spells that would never see the light of day again if I had my way, at its fundamental level, magic was a net positive. This island that lacked it truly was a wasteland in so many ways. If I could get it started on a better course, I’d be happy that I’d done my part.

Of course, I was still going to figure out what cataclysmic event had scarred it so bad that it had been cut off from the world’s mana core. It had to be something that happened in the last few hundred years, else the land would have healed and ambient mana returned. But it was so unlikely that something this world-breaking would have occurred without me noticing it. I’d gotten more reclusive in my old age, rarely leaving the Night Vale in the last few hundred years, but it wasn’t like I didn’t still know what had been going on in the world.

The door to the parlor opened and Solidaire looked out. He spotted me immediately and scowled, but didn’t make any aggressive moves. “We have a few questions if you’d like to join us again,” he said shortly.

“Of course. I’d be happy to answer them,” I told him. I ignored the ungracious scowl on his face as he held the door open so I could walk past him.

***

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