Published at 24th of February 2024 10:33 am

Chapter 56

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Over the next week, I settled into a routine. I’d start the morning with Nermet, and periodically throughout the day, I’d come back to check on his recovery before I moved onto the next step. Then my new students would show up, with somebody bringing breakfast. I never quite deciphered how they decided whose turn it was, but it never ended up being mine, so I didn’t complain.

Then it was lessons and instruction until lunch, with each of my students slowly growing more competent. Shel led the class for range of mana sense, but Vhan beat her in being able to sort through what he was sensing, even if he couldn’t feel it from as far away. He tied with Ayaka when it came to actually manipulating mana.

Talik got further behind each day, and I got the sense that Shel was watching him and judging. She was probably planning on cutting him soon since he was falling behind, and I spent some time thinking about what I wanted to do about that. On the one hand, it wasn’t really any of my business and I didn’t care if he dropped out. On the other, this was my class and I was in control of it. Letting Shel decide to cut someone who wasn’t progressing fast enough would undercut my authority.

“Shel, do you have a moment?” I called out as everyone dispersed at the end of the afternoon lesson.

She paused in the middle of speaking to one of the Arborists who wasn’t part of my class, glanced over at me, and said, “Just a second.”

Oh how far I’d fallen. No apprentice would have dared disrespect their master like that back when I’d been learning how to do magic. I’d been primarily self-taught, but on those rare occasions when I could convince a real mage to impart some wisdom to me, I’d made sure to present myself respectfully. I’d known the value of the secrets that were being shared with me.

Shel finished her conversation and dismissed the Arborist she’d been speaking with, a full three minutes later. I reined in the temptation to light her hair on fire. She wasn’t a teenager with nothing better to do. She had responsibilities and subordinates.

That was all perfectly rational, but was still my time to teach and it was an exercise in willpower to keep myself from tweaking her nose. I’d done my best to be pleasant and accommodating, perhaps to my own detriment. Maybe it was time to limit exactly how helpful I was going to be.

“What do you need?” Shel asked.

I set those thoughts aside and refocused on why I wanted to talk to Shel in the first place. “It’s about Talik,” I said. “He’s struggling to keep up.”

“Yes,” she agreed. “I’ve let him know he’s going to have to spend some of his time outside the lessons practicing if he wants to hold his spot.”

“Yes, that’s what I want to talk to you about. This is my class. Talik is my student. I will decide whether he’s falling too far behind and what to do about it.”

One thing I’d noticed about Shel was that she never lost her temper. She always had a smile on her face and a pleasant tone in her voice. “It may be your class, but this is my arbor, these are my buildings, and Talik works for me. I’d say that gives me the authority to do what I want with him.”

“I disagree. If you want to work him to the bone until late into the night trimming trees or poisoning insects, that’s your business. From breakfast to lunch, he’s mine. Unless he comes to me himself and says he wants to drop out, he’ll follow my instructions and you will not interfere.”

“Gravin, your great magical talent aside, you are a murderer who is lucky to still be part of this community at all. If you don’t like the rules you have to live by, we can always revisit your situation. I promise that the outcome will not be as favorable to you as the current arrangement.”

She said it all like we were having a chat over afternoon tea. I could almost admire her ability to keep any heat out of her voice, almost, but not quite. Instead, I grabbed hold of her throat with greater telekinesis and dragged her down onto her hands and knees so we’d be eye level.

“You seem to be under the mistaken impression that you have the power in our relationship. Let me correct that for you. If I decide I’m not happy, I will take steps to correct that. I didn’t kill Noctra because he was an evil person. I killed him because he was a threat to my family. If you become a threat… well, use your imagination. Me living here is a convenience, not a necessity. Put some thought into making sure you don’t become inconvenient, Shel.”

I released the spell, allowing her to suck in a ragged, gasping lungful of air. The pleasant smile was gone from her face now. Instead, she looked scared. Good.

“I don’t go out of my way to cause problems,” I said. “This can be a beneficial relationship to both sides as long as you don’t start thinking you control me. Now, as I was saying, I will decide if and when Talik no longer meets my expectations, not you. Until that time, I expect him here every morning. You understand?”

“Yes,” Shel said shortly. “If there’s nothing else, I’ve got work to do.”

“That will be all the lessons I have for today,” I said. “Have a good afternoon.”

***

Karad was a lot more wary than usual that evening when he came to escort me to the village to harvest the daily Tithe. He didn’t mention the incident with Shel, but I noticed he kept a bit more distance than usual and he didn’t have much to say. He asked for an update on Nermet’s progress, but otherwise didn’t engage in conversation.

That suited me just fine. This nightly chore was a burden I was looking forward to offloading on one of my new apprentices as soon as they were capable of handling it. That was the goal for just about everything I did, really. My first-generation apprentices would take over much of the work I was doing for the village while I taught the second generation. Soon, they’d be igniting the cores of new villagers and there’d be nothing left for me to do.

I was working myself out of a job, but by the time that happened, I’d be too strong for it to matter. By the time I was done pretending to be a Collector, I’d have built up enough reserves in my mana crystal to start constructing my lattice. At that point, I’d turn my efforts towards creating new tools, maybe a nice staff or a scrying mirror.

That night, Father came to visit me. The Garrison guard stationed outside the door let him through with a scowl, which Father ignored as he greeted me.

“How are you doing out here?” he asked.

“Everything is going according to plan,” I said. “Well, the new apprentices are considerably behind where I hoped they’d be, so I’m expecting to need an extra month now before any of them are ready for a core ignition ritual. But otherwise, things are proceeding as I expected. How are things for you?”

“The same, just with a bit more fear than normal. Your mother has been hard at work getting our garden back up to her standards. You’d have thought that friend of hers from next door might have done something to preserve it, but no. I’ve been helping her in the evening now that I have so much extra mana.”

“I’m sure it’ll be flourishing in no time,” I said. “What about you?”

“Nobody wants to work in tandem with me, but it doesn’t matter much. I have the extra mana now to do the work of two men, so I still finish my section faster than anyone else. I think it’s driving the overseer crazy, but everyone knows I’m blessed now.”

Father paused and let out a chuckle. “You should see Cherok. He’s practically choking on it. I overheard a few of the other fieldhands talking about how he was agitating the Garrison to get me taken back into custody, said he was afraid for his safety now. Karad laughed him out of the building.”

“He’s not taking it out on Senica, is he?” I asked.

“No, no. At least, she hasn’t said anything. And I think she would, at least if she talked about anything besides mana. I guess that little bit you taught her went to her head, and now she’s the school’s ‘mana expert,’ which is also driving Cherok crazy. She’s better at sensing mana and manipulating it than he is.”

That surprised me. I’d thought she’d lost interest. She’d never come around during any of my lessons, but then again, I supposed she was in school while they were going on. “She’s still practicing?”

Father nodded. “She’s been bugging me for a few days to come out here so she can show off, not that she’ll admit that’s why she wants to visit. But, uh, your mother and I talked, and we think it’s best that Senica waits until she’s older to ignite her core, alright?”

“I agree completely. It would be irresponsible to give a child that age access to that much mana.” I paused and thought of my own new students. Being shown up by a six-year-old might motivate them to try a bit harder. “She could join my morning lesson one day if she wants.”

“I’ll discuss it with your mother before I agree to anything,” Father said wisely. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a book. “By the way, I finally managed to get ahold of a book for you.”

“Oh, perfect!” I said as I accepted it.

It turned out that everybody could read the written language in those books, and they just accepted it as the written version of what we were all speaking. Apparently, they thought their language was pictographic and everyone just memorized the symbols for individual words instead of learning an alphabet. That made sense since it was a completely different language, but I was at a loss as to how to explain how it had happened. Never in two thousand years had I come across such a strange phenomenon.

It had to be deliberate, but a knowledge suppression spell on that scale was hard to imagine. The Enotian language was one of the most common ones in the world, so erasing the written version of it would not be an easy undertaking. That was the kind of magic that required a celestial convergence to pull off.

I’d already tested my own knowledge of written Enotian and found it to be intact. Something about my reincarnation had insulated me from whatever had happened to it. But now, if I wanted to read anything written down here, I needed to figure out this new language. On the bright side, it definitely had an alphabet and that meant I could ask what words meant and start decoding it. But it was just one more project I didn’t need making demands on my time.

I’d work on it when I had some free moments, but it wasn’t a priority. Chances were good that the books available here wouldn’t give me any clues about what had happened to the world while I was gone anyway. Between this linguistic phenomenon and one of the moons going missing, it sure seemed like something had gone wrong.

If it weren’t for all the other similarities and the fact that I’d already reviewed the invocations I’d tied to my soul to ensure they were working, I’d have thought I’d been reborn into some sort of mirror world. I’d already confirmed that wasn’t the case, but it still bothered me.

One more mystery to solve someday after everything else. I set the book aside and put it out of my mind.

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