Published at 24th of February 2024 10:33 am

Chapter 61

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I sat in a chair I’d made using stone shape on a big rock I’d relocated to my new home and watched my four apprentices play a game of catch. Instead of a ball, they were using an unrefined sphere of mana that held its shape only by the will of whoever was holding onto it. Every time one of them slipped, the sphere shrank a bit as streamers of mana escaped from it. It had only been ten minutes, and already the sphere was less than half the size it had been when they started.

The game served two purposes. First, it was a way for them to practice both their ability to sense mana, necessary in order to even see the otherwise-invisible ball, and their control of external mana to shift it back and forth. Second, it gave me a way to gauge their progress. Ayaka had taken the lead in the category of mana sensing, and I could see her track the sphere’s progress as it moved back and forth, not just when it was near her. She also had the best ranged control, and the sphere lost the least amount of mana during her hand-offs.

All four of them were ready for the ignition ritual. In my estimation, Vhan’s internal mana control would likely mean he had the best results, but all of them would pass well beyond the minimal threshold. Even if I held back from helping them, I suspected only Talik might have some problems keeping his mana in motion long enough to complete the ignition ritual. His early issues put him a week or so behind everyone else, a miniscule amount in the long-term, but a significant disadvantage when they had less than a month’s training.

Things were going relatively well. I had all the mana I needed and was almost finished forming my lattice. Soon, the first generation of apprentice mages would be unleashed on the village, though I’d still be responsible for teaching them some specific spells. Depending on how things went, they’d all likely cap out at basic spells. That was fine for brute force magical solutions, which was honestly all the village needed to survive as long as their ward stone didn’t break again.

Though it wasn’t like that had been all that useful any time in the recent past. I did have some concerns that an entire village of over a hundred mages might just generate enough magic to look appetizing to various monsters, but by the time they reached that point, twenty or so villagers would be able to keep their barrier running every second of every day without stressing themselves.

The mana sphere flashed into nothingness and the game ended. Without needing me to prompt them, they immediately started tallying up who’d lost the most mana and who’d lost the least. Getting an accurate summary of the results was also part of their training, with the idea being both to notice what everyone else was doing with their mana and to be able to multitask well enough to handle the sphere and keep four separate running totals in their heads.

None of them got it exactly right, but between the four of them, they got the shape of things well enough to determine who had actually won. Once they were done arguing about it, they turned to me in unison to get my official ruling.

“Don’t look at me,” I said. “You were supposed to be keeping track yourselves. Do you think you’re right?”

“Yes,” Ayaka said. The others echoed their agreement, though with less confidence.

“Then I guess you’re right,” I told them. “Have a little faith in yourselves.”

“That must mean we’re ready to receive our blessings,” Shel said.

“Probably, yes,” I agreed.

“Wait, really? Why haven’t we done it yet?” Vhan asked.

“Mostly because I have other demands on my time,” I said. “And because you don’t get a second chance to do this. Yes, you could do well enough to ignite your core a week ago, but you’ll do a better job of it today than you would have then, and next week, you’ll do even better. Isn’t it worth an extra week or two of practice to have a properly ignited core?”

“How much of a difference would it make?” Ayaka said. Always practical, that one. I was starting to think if there was anyone in the group I’d take on as a true apprentice beyond the ignition ritual and some instruction on novice spells, it was her.

“Last week, unaided, I would have said your ignition would increase your mana generation speed by six-fold. This week, I think you would have an eight-fold increase instead. If you keep working this hard, in another month, that’ll be eleven-fold.”

“At some point, it’s got to stop being worth the diminishing returns,” Vhan said.

“This is the foundation for the rest of your relationship with mana. The closer to perfect your ignition is, the more that power will multiply as you advance.”

That wasn’t really true for this particular group. I had my doubts that more than a handful of people in the village would advance past a stage one core. Of those dozen or so that made it to stage two, I doubted anyone would reach stage three without assistance. Even then, only two or three people at most would have the discipline and skill needed, assuming I provided the knowledge.

“What about your core?” Shel asked.

“Hmm. A somewhat personal question,” I said. Only Shel knew my origins as I’d laid them out for the village council, but in societies where many people were mages and knowledge was much more readily available, giving away that kind of information could be dangerous. It allowed mages to more accurately gauge the strength of their enemies. Here, my only magic-wielding enemies were already dead, but there was always the possibility of a cabal member interrogating someone for information on me when they did finally arrive.

“Let’s just say you’ll need a lot more practice if you want to match me,” I said. I didn’t tell them that I’d be helping their ignition rituals along to smooth out any flaws in their techniques. There was no sense in letting them know that they could slack off and expect to receive similar results. Besides, I still needed another day or two to finish my lattice.

The group started up another game while I continued my painstakingly slow work and enjoyed the view of the arbor. It was no Night Vale, but considering the village was located in a wasteland and none of the Arborists had any real magical capabilities, they’d built something impressive. If the trees were a bit scraggly and the underbrush was thin enough to see the occasional wildlife scampering through, well, I imagined the place would look very different within a year.

For now, the black-barred hawk perched on one of the trees got to enjoy an easy view of its potential meals. I’d noticed that one particular raptor had claimed most of the arbor as its territory and I rarely saw any other birds.

“Admiring the hawk?” my guard asked, nodding up towards where it was perched on the north side of the clearing where the Arborists lived.

“Hah. Yes, I am. I should be watching my students though,” I confessed.

“No harm in it,” the guard said. “Standing out here makes me think I went into the wrong line of work. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have a problem being part of the Garrison, but there’s a lot of beauty in the arbor.”

If only he knew what he was missing. The arbor was something special, but only because the Arborists tended to it and kept it thriving despite the harsh conditions here. There were some truly awe-inspiring views in this world that only a select few were lucky enough to behold. I doubted the arbor would ever be one of them, but I might help it along a bit once things settled down here.

“We’re lucky to be here right now, too,” the guard went on, oblivious to my inner musings. “I was talking to Luthra, that’s my cousin who works here in the arbor, and he told me that it just showed up a few days ago. He’s been an Arborist for nine years now and he’s never seen that species of hawk before.”

I froze in place for a moment before turning my gaze from the hawk to the guard. “Is that so?” I asked, doing my best to sound casual. “Has anyone else seen a hawk like that before this week?”

“I wouldn’t know. Why?”

Maybe it was just a coincidence. Animals did exist, after all, and not all of them were man-eaters. The arbor was the perfect place for regular, non-threatening species to make their homes, at least compared to the wasteland of rolling hills full of nothing but scrub grass and the occasional muddy stream winding its way down from the mountains.

Then again, I had been waiting for Noctra’s cabal to show up. An animal familiar spying on the village was a reasonable opening move. It was too bad there was no way for me to tell without capturing the hawk to inspect it, and if it was a familiar, that would be tipping my hand. I was already preparing for an encounter, and letting them know I was onto them wouldn’t do me any favors.

“No reason,” I said. “Just wondering how lucky we really are.”

There were a few people who needed to know so they could prepare, but putting the Garrison or the Barrier Wardens on high alert would just give the game away. Another two weeks would have been about perfect, just enough time to prepare some weapons and defenses for myself. I’d thought I’d have more time than this, and in hindsight, some useful equipment might have been a higher priority than reaching stage two.

If the hawk was a familiar, and if the mage bonded with it was here, that meant an attack could come anytime between an hour from now and another week. If I was wrong and the bird was just a bird after all, then I had an unknown amount of time to finish my lattice and construct myself a few defensive trinkets.

No matter how I looked at it, the more time I had, the better off I’d be. My first group of students were only just now reaching the point where I could work on other projects while they practiced, and my personal growth had stagnated because of the time I’d spent tutoring them. Unfortunately, any variance in the routine could alert the unknown mage that he’d been detected. I would need to continue as I had been.

It looked like I was going to be in for a sleepless night finishing up my lattice, and I’d need to carefully consider what I worked on next. It would be foolish to construct any sort of weapon while letting my opponent spy on me. Nor was a weapon the best use of my time. A reactive defense to save me from an unexpected ambush was more important. As long as I had mana at my disposal, I was confident I could beat any other mage in a duel.

The lattice came first, then a shield ward of some kind, then some sort of scrying amplifier to help me find the enemy mage. It was tempting to flip that order, to find and strike first, but in terms of time and mana spent, the shield ward would be the work of an afternoon once I had enough mana generation to keep it powered, while a scrying amplifier would take days at minimum to put together and had no guarantee of success.

All of this might still be a false alarm. “Shel,” I said as the students wrapped up their game. “I need you to do something for me.”

“What’s that?” she asked.

“Find out if that type of hawk sitting up there in the trees is natural to this area, and if so, how long it’s been here,” I said in a low voice to prevent anyone else from overhearing.

“May I ask why?”

“I’m probably just being paranoid, but mages can bond with animals and use them to spy. I think we have more time before Noctra’s friends come looking, but I want to be sure that hawk showing up is just a coincidence. Don’t spread this around. If it is a familiar, we don’t need to alert its mage that we’re onto him.”

“Got it,” Shel said. “I’ll have an answer for you in a few hours.”

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