The Torch that Ignites the Stars (Arcane Ascension Book 3)

by Andrew Rowe

  “But why would the Blackstone Bandit even agree to rescue Vera?”

  Sera shrugged. “She was deeply connected to the artificial attunement project. He might want information, or he might know her himself. Maybe we can ask him sometime.” Sera smirked. “I have a feeling we haven’t seen the last of the Blackstone Bandit.”

  ***

  The rest of the trip was free from any further complications. I saw Jin a couple more times, but I didn’t speak to him for more than a few moments.

  Going out of his way to get a flower to help Sera’s condition went a long way toward improving my disposition toward him. Rescuing Vera from what would have likely been a fate worse than death in Caelford was a fairly serious plus, too, if he’d actually done that.

  I considered asking, but I wasn’t quite ready to talk to him again. Not yet.

  Cecily and I finished the last of the batteries right before we arrived at home in Valia. I wished I had more time to work on additional enchantments, but even with more time, I lacked the materials. That was something I’d have to work on quickly after arriving.

  Before we arrived at home, Cecily did one final round of mana checks for each of us with the mana watch. I was a little nervous about getting my mana values again, given my prior obsession, but it was still good to see a measurement of our progress.

  Patrick’s mana was up to 140, which was a huge jump from the last time I’d seen it. Two trips into the spire had clearly given him a major benefit.

  Sera’s mana growth was even more impressive: she was up to 118, just inches from her original maximum. She looked noticeably more confident now that her mana was getting back into a higher range, and we both hoped her mana would get a huge surge once we used the elixir and continued the healing process for her throat and lungs.

  Mara, of course, absolutely stole the show: she was at 370, having continued improving even after she’d gotten the ludicrous boost from Keras’ elixir set that took her up to Sunstone. When we got back to school, I expected she’d be one of the top ten students in the entire academy in terms of mana capacity.

  And me? I wasn’t far off.

  I was up to 137 in my Enchanter attunement. I’d made a little less mana growth than Patrick, which made sense, since he’d done two tower climbs and I’d only done one. But my Arbiter attunement, which I’d used very heavily, had gotten a solid increase — all the way to 182. I suspected that a large part of that boost came from the time I’d taken the safety off my mana level to fight the copy of Keras. Between the two of them, I was well over three hundred mana now. Combined, I was almost a Sunstone. My Arbiter attunement was over half-way there by itself.

  Soon.

  I was feeling pretty good about how much growth I’d gotten on the trip, but I found myself eager to get back home. Caelford and the Unclaimed Lands had both been interesting experiences, but I found that I missed my own city streets, my own school, and my own shielded sky. And, of course, my mind turned to the people back at home from time to time, too.

  I wonder how Lars is doing.

  Thinking about the shopkeeper brought a smile to my face. He was one of the first people I wanted to visit.

  I should check in and see how Vellum’s recovery is going, too. And maybe see how Derek’s doing. Maybe he has a new place we can stay at for the next semester, rather than the dorms?

  I probably should do something nice for him, given how long he housed us. Maybe buy him a nice new door.

  It was a little startling to realize that there were people I wanted to see back in Valia.

  I have…friends now, don’t I? And mentors, and…

  I stepped off the train, thinking about the people I wanted to see, and unprepared for the one that I didn’t.

  Magnus Cadence stood waiting on the train station platform, resplendent in his long dueling coat.

  I walked toward him, my heart racing. “Hello, Father.”

  “Hello, Corin,” he said without inflection. He lowered his hands to his side, then brushed aside his coat to expose the belt that held his dueling cane.

  “Draw your sword.”

  THE END

  Appendix I – Recap on Kaldwyn’s Culture and Magic

  From A Lost Letter Attributed to Keras Selyrian

  I underestimated the complexities of teleporting over to another continent for a seemingly simple mission. I’ve never been great with politics or religion, but they’re omnipresent here.

  The defining factor is Selys — a single central goddess figure worshipped by all the major nations. She created six towers on various parts of the continent. Each tower, called a “Soaring Spire”, has tests for people who go inside. If someone succeeds at those tests, they can earn magic powers in the form of a mark called an attunement. It’s basically like what we’d call a dominion bond back at home, but more complicated than any dominion bond I’ve seen.

  Anyway, since each tower gives access to different attunements, you can imagine that there are some politics surrounding access to them. At one point, one of the powerhouse nations — Edria — conquered another in order to get access to their spire.

  Aside from granting magical powers, the spires also have tests to reach the top. Supposedly, getting all the way up top means you get to choose a boon from the goddess. It’s been done, apparently, but not in recent history. That’s probably what I’m going to need to do eventually, since finding my friends has proven challenging.

  Unfortunately, none of the nations here are particularly accepting of outsiders, and I’ve already run into quite a bit of trouble when talking about the outside world. Oops.

  Kaldwyn has four major nations, which are referred to as the “Four Powers”, and a couple minor ones like Sytennia and Erawen.

  It’s a bit of an oversimplification, but I tend to think of the powers as covering the four cardinal directions of the continent.

  Edria is the entire south, and they’re a military powerhouse. Everyone seems to be bracing for Edria to try to conquer the rest of the continent, but it’s been about sixty or so years since the last time an actual war has occurred. It’s split into Edria proper (the original nation) and East Edria (a territory they won from Dalenos that used to be called Kelridge). There’s some tension between the two halves.

  Dalenos is the north, governed directly by one of the visages — those are basically the local equivalent of gods, but they’re really more like aspects of a single deity, depending on who you ask. It’s also famous for being a nation of artists and creative-types of all varieties, especially musicians.

  Valia is the eastern nation, and they’re best defined by magic. Every nation on Kaldwyn has magic, but Valia has Enchanters — a type of magic-user capable of creating magic items with enviable speed. Enchanters have allowed for large-scale magical infrastructure on a scale I’ve never seen anywhere else: wealthy nobles have magic showers, magic toilets, magic…well, virtually everything. It’s pretty impressive.

  Notably, Valia’s populace appears to be largely descended from immigrants (exiles?) from my home continent of Mythralis. I suspect the name Valia itself comes from the same derivation as our nations of Velthryn and Valeria — the worldmaker Velryn. (Valeria used to be called Velrya, but the name shifted over time. Linguistic drift and all that.) I’ve seen some notable family names that are connected to home: things like House Theas and House Hartigan, for example. They’ve even got a place with the name Hastings on it, so maybe some of Lydia’s family moved to Valia? Hard to say.

  Caelford is the western-most nation. While Valia focuses on magical innovation, Caelford is more about general engineering. They have advanced firearms, self-moving carts called “automobiles”, and all sorts of other gadgets. They’re also on the forefront of researching artificial attunements, although I get the sense that Valia is involved in those, too.

  Given that I’ve managed to alienate virtually every other nation, I suppose I’ll have to go to Caelford eventually. The Tiger Spire is supposed to be a little mo
re structured than the other local spires, so maybe it’ll be easier to make it to the top this time.

  I’m not holding my breath.

  Appendix II – Recap on Attunements

  From A Lost Letter Attributed to Keras Selyrian

  Okay, so, attunements. They’re probably the single most important thing about this continent, so I should probably go into a bit more detail about them.

  Attunements are marks that grant sorcerous powers that are obtained in the Soaring Spires during successful Judgments. They can also sometimes be obtained directly from a visage, but this is relatively rare.

  Each Attunement involves a physical mark that appears on the body of the attuned.

  Attunements grow stronger as the user's mana increases, changing in appearance and gaining new abilities. For example, most attunements begin to generate a shroud — a form of barrier of mana — around the attuned when the attunement reaches Carnelian level.

  Each attunement comes with an iconic function. These are generally called "unique" abilities, but in truth, they can sometimes be accomplished through other attunements or combinations of attunements. For example, the "unique" function of the Elementalist attunement is access to lightning magic...but a Summoner can still get access to lightning magic if they make a contract with a monster that can use lightning. Thus, the term "unique" is something of a misnomer, and it's more accurate to say that they're simply the function that the attunement is best known for.

  Every attunement gives access to two or more types of magic when it is first obtained, and generally gives access to a third at a higher level.

  It's commonly theorized that attunements are much more advanced forms of enchanting runes that incorporate several functions into a single rune, or perhaps collections of several runes that visually appear to be one rune.

  Artificial attunements have been made in Caelford, meaning that they can be reproduced with some degree of success, but the procedures for how they're made are not commonly known.

  Diviner Attunement

  Diviner Level

  Rune

  Quartz

  Carnelian

  Sunstone

  Guardian Attunement

  Guardian Level

  Rune

  Quartz

  Carnelian

  Sunstone

  Elementalist Attunement

  Elementalist Level

  Rune

  Quartz

  Carnelian

  Sunstone

  Enchanter Attunement

  Enchanter Level

  Rune

  Quartz

  Carnelian

  Sunstone

  Mender Attunement

  Mender Level

  Rune

  Quartz

  Carnelian

  Sunstone

  Shadow Attunement

  Shadow Level

  Rune

  Quartz

  Carnelian

  Sunstone

  Shaper Attunement

  Shaper Level

  Rune

  Quartz

  Carnelian

  Sunstone

  Summoner Attunement

  Summoner Level

  Rune

  Quartz

  Carnelian

  Sunstone

  Appendix III – Recap on Enchanting

  From an Unknown Foreigner’s Notes

  Enchantments are how people with an Enchanter attunement imbue items with magical power.

  The procedure for enchanting an object involves making runes: physical marks that are powered by mana, which is the local term for sorcerous essence.

  In order to make a rune, you must carve it into the proper shape and then put in the right amount of mana of the right type. There are a few main categories of runes that are used in the enchanting process.

  Function Runes determine what the item can do. For example, a fireball wand would have a fire function rune.

  Example: Standard Life Rune.

  Activation Runes determine how the item is activated. For example, if the wand is activated by using some of your own mana, it would have a mana activation rune.

  Example: Motion Activation Rune.

  Recharge Runes are used to cause an item to automatically fill up with mana over time by drawing mana either from the environment or another source. These are not strictly necessary, but they are used in most so-called "permanent" items so that they do not have to be manually recharged.

  Example: Life Mana Recharge.

  Capacity Runes are used to govern how much mana the item can store. Without them, any item with a Recharge Rune will just keep filling up with mana over time until the object has more mana than it can hold and explodes. That would be considered bad item design.

  Example: Life Mana Capacity.

  Complex items may involve many different runes.

  For example, an item for creating a barrier may require mental mana runes for detecting incoming attacks, then runes to create a barrier when an incoming attack is detected.

  Similarly, an item designed to heal the user when they're hurt may require mental mana runes to detect when the wearer is injured. An even more complex healing item might have functions for searching for which wounds are the most severe and prioritizing which order they're healed in, or ignoring certain types of injuries that the item might not be able to heal properly.

  Since Enchanters do not have access to every type of mana, they often use items called mana crystals or rely on help from others.

  Mana crystals are exactly what they sound like — crystallized magical energy. An Enchanter can draw the mana out of these crystals and use them to power runes. Most mana crystals are found from the remains of monsters inside of the spires, but it's possible for people with sufficient mana shaping skill to make their own crystals from the types of mana they can use. Veteran Enchanters often learn how to make mana crystals so they can make more complex items.

  In order to cooperate with someone else to make a rune, an Enchanter must first make a shell that is used to hold the other person's mana inside the rune. This container prevents the mana from simply dispersing into the air while the enchanting process is performed.

  Making a shell is a mana shaping exercise that is similar to making a mana crystal, and thus not all Enchanters are proficient at it, especially early in their careers. Mana shells also have a capacity, meaning that a low-level Enchanter can't make a shell that can hold enough mana for something like an Emerald level enchantment.

  Well-trained Enchanters can also move mana from one rune to another rune. Completely removing all of the mana from a rune to power another is called “disenchanting”, since the existing enchantment typically ceases to function. This can be a dangerous process for low-level Enchanters because moving mana generally involves passing it through your body to prevent it from dispersing in the air. If you pass mana from another attuned through your body, this can cause mana poisoning.

  As such, only Enchanters who have sufficient shaping ability to move mana outside of their bodies or purify the mana inside their bodies generally are capable of safely moving mana between two different objects. (There are some exceptions where this is safer, such as being able to safely move mana between two items you created yourself, or moving mana that has already been purified by someone else.)

  Appendix IV – Attunements of Caelford

  From Corin’s Notes

  I didn’t actually spend all that much time studying the local attunements. Most of my efforts were spent on the artificial ones — which, I suppose, count as local — but I didn’t get much exposure to the ones that come out of the Tiger Spire.

  That said, I did get a basic list and some descriptions of each.

  Analyst: Analysts are experts at discerning detailed information about how something works, such as the mechanics behind spells, items, and traps. Mana Types: Mental (Primary), Umbral (Secondary), Transference (Tertiary)

  Architect: The Architect attunement is capable of
imbuing items with temporary magical properties. These tend to be stronger than permanent enchantments, but only last a matter of days. Mana Types: Perception (Primary), Umbral (Secondary), Enhancement (Tertiary)

  Biomancer: Biomancers are one of few attunements capable of safely influencing the inner workings of another person’s mana. They specialize in altering the target’s mana flow, potentially improving both mana capacity and increasing mana regeneration. Mana Types: Life (Primary), Mental (Secondary), Light (Tertiary)

  Controller: Controllers are specialists in mental compulsion, capable of forcing others to do their bidding. Mana Types: Perception (Primary), Enhancement (Secondary), Umbral (Tertiary)

  Forgemaster: Forgemasters have superior control over metal, allowing them to move quickly even in full armor by subtly altering the armor’s structure while they move. They also can strengthen or alter the properties of metallic objects. Mana Types: Earth (Primary), Fire (Secondary), Enhancement (Tertiary)