Beyond?

by Andur

  And regarding Valeria, she isn't on the same level as you. Neither in maturity, nor in ability. She has to wait until she is ready. If worst comes to the worst, you have to teach her. Given that you don't want to play the clan head.”

  I gasp. “Something like that is possible? Why didn't you tell me? And stop talking like you are going to die!” It's important to know if you can destroy your ability by overusing it.

  “Don't worry. Someone who isn't fully trained can't overuse his ability. And this is just a precaution.” She gestures for me to follow her and walks to the far left corner of the training hall. There she pulls away a stack of dusty training mats and places a hand on the wall behind them. “This is our clan's biggest secret, so keep your mouth shut.” A second later the floor cracks open and reveals a staircase.

  My eyes bulge. “What the... a hidden room?” I lived in this mansion for such a long time and would've never thought that there is something like that!

  Valda walks down into the darkness, summoning a light globe. After a moment I hear her voice from the dark pit. “What are you waiting for? Afraid of narrow places? Oh, that's right. There was something like that. Don't worry, this isn't a cave.”

  “Oh, damn!” I follow her and as I walk down the stairs, they fold themselves back into the walls and heavy granite plates flow back into their place. Valda continues to walk downwards into the earth.

  After a while she decides to talk again. “Activate your mana sight and tell me what you see.”

  I do as told and shrug my shoulders. “You, the stairs, the corridor, your light orb.” What else is there?

  Valda nods. “I see all that and the enchantments and mechanics behind the walls. I see the people in the mansion above us. What do you see when you look at me.”

  She can see mana through the walls? “I see you? A figure, glowing in blue. There are a few different shades, indicating how much mana you are emitting.”

  She turns around and looks at me. “I see the veins in your body, your muscles, your bones, your beating heart. Everything is there if I focus on it. I can even see the weak points in your magical seals, hidden under the surface of the door to your laboratory.” She smiles. “The problem with our ability isn't the control Azir. It's what we can sense! If you can't sense the mana, you can't use it.”

  My eyes widen upon the revelation. That's how she can steal my gathered mana! If she can sense parts of my mana which aren't under my conscious control, then she can assert her own control over them without much effort. “That's cheating... and it allows so many other possibilities.”

  My Mom forces a smile onto her face. “I guess I won't be able to best you after this. There are just a few minor tricks left in my repertoire. Promise me that you won't use this ability for something bad. It's more powerful than you can imagine.”

  I spread my hands. “Are you kidding me. The ability to see mana in such detail is cheating in itself. The control aspect is minor compared to that!” I halt. “Isn't that dangerously close to the rumoured ability of the emperor?”

  Valda stops and looks at me. “The Emperor's ability wasn't restricted to seeing. He immediately understood what he saw instinctively and could use it the same moment.”

  I notice her choice of words. “You talk like you know? And how can I train seeing?”

  She smiles. “The Emperor isn't important. What's important is this.” She points at a light at the end of the staircase.

  We continue to descend. The staircase led us at least two hundred metres deep. At the end of our little journey I enter a huge cavern, but it's not the cavern that's taking my breath. It's the unbelievable flow of mana which is circulating through it.

  I stand there in awe and start to giggle. “It's a mana stream!” A stream of flowing mana, created by the planet itself! “But so close to the surface? They are supposed to be down in a planet's core! How can this be so close under our mansion?”

  The ten metre wide stream of mana can be seen with the naked eye. I don't even need my mana sight. It exits a wall at the left side of the cavern and vanishes in another wall at the right side. My skin is prickling just from standing close to it.

  “It has always been here and it's the answer to your question. By stepping into it, you can blind your senses and train to see what lies beyond the stream. I'll guide you.” Valda explains.

  My smile vanishes. “That's pure mana! It's not exactly healthy to step into such a dense stream of energy.”

  *Smack!*

  Valda hit the back of my head. “Of course you don't simply step into it. You'll bend the mana around you, so that it blocks you from the rest of the world. I'll stay close at the beginning to make sure that nothing happens while you concentrate on your sight. Such dense mana can overwhelm you. And we'll train just half an hour a day, then we leave. I'll show you how to open the secret passage, then you can come on your own.”

  I nod and can't take my eyes from the mana stream. So much energy! And I sat right on top of it my entire life!

  50. ~Sides.~

  “And the Master governed over all magic. No spell bore a secret to him, as he saw it all. Only his beloved younger brother had a comparable power. Together they spread the Empire's rule far beyond the horizon.

  Armies were shattered by their will, mountains moved by their wish, even the earth itself reshaped by a thought.

  The Empire would've been eternal if the One hadn't betrayed the Other. But the One had found what his brother would never understand and so they fought and fell and the Empire with them.”

  -The forbidden Chronicle.

  Free City States of Nict, Capital

  Azir

  I have a headache, this is probably how it feels to have your head split by an axe. Taking a training session inside the mana stream every day is hard. Fortunately my mother is helping me to control the stream in order to not get burned to a crisp.

  Trying to remember the feeling inside the stream, her words flash through my mind. “It took me about five years to master my sight.” I take the cushion and place it on my face. Five years of headache! How can I get anything accomplished when I do this daily?

  Sitting up in my bed, I tear the cushion apart. Training with my father, handling the new technologies which I introduced, training my sight and going to university. I can't have headaches on top of that!

  Getting up, I put on some random clothes and leave the bedroom. My target is Stella's laboratory, no need to worry about my looks. Stella can prove her medical knowledge to me. At the second floor I stop in front of the door to her lab. Do I really want to know how it looks inside?

  But the headaches are driving me crazy, so I knock on the door and steel myself. After waiting for a few seconds I knock again and wait, the third time I knock louder. Strange, she said that she is in her laboratory. Did something come up and make her leave without informing me?

  I use mind magic to access the mana net and find her position. The net tells me that she is in our house. The user interface in my vision blurs and I rub my eyes with my forearm. Using mind magic while having headaches isn't a good idea.

  Pressing down the handle of the door, I open it and enter. “Hello? Anyone here?” There is no answer, so I walk further down the central corridor and look into the rooms to my left and right. The setup of this floor is the same as my laboratory, just the facilities are different.

  The first two rooms are filled with bottles, dried plants and other raw materials. Nothing spectacular. The third room though contains some cages with small animals. Probably Stella is using them as guinea pigs for her experiments.

  The fourth room is filled with plants. One of them actually turned its blossom in my direction upon looking inside. The thing isn't exactly small and so I back out slowly.

  Inside the fifth room I feel a little more at home, as I find it filled with a few big artefacts of various sizes and forms. But no Stella, I sigh and continue on my way.

  The sixth room is locked, so that leaves only one cho
ice left and that's the room at the end of the corridor. I walk into a big room with a surgery table in the left corner and a working table at the window to the garden. There is a big mirror to my right and various bottles are lined up on a shelf beside it. A few of them are bobbing like something is brewing inside them.

  But that's not what's troubling me, the troublesome point about this room is that the surgery table is occupied.

  “Ah, the Creator pays us a visit.” Ivy is on the table and smiles at me, totally ignoring the fact that Stella is bent over her with a sharp nasty looking knife. It's bloody and Stella is fiddling and pushing around inside Ivy's chest! A nasty looking tool is spreading her ribs apart and a set of infusion needles are supplying potions of various colours into Ivy's arms.

  “Don't ogle her! Pervert!” Stella glares at me. “Why are you even here? Normally you stay away from my laboratory.”

  I sit down on a nearby chair. “Like I could get turned on from looking at a maimed body!” Then I turn around and look into the other direction, waiting until they are done with whatever they are doing. “I just wanted to ask if you have anything for headaches.”

  Stella answers pointedly. “I have to close her up first, then I can take a look at what I have.” For a while nothing happens, then I hear a crunching sound. A few slimy noises add into the mix and in the end a whizzing sound adds even further to my discomfort. A bone saw?

  In the end the noises stop and Ivy's voice urges me to turn around. “Look, look. The Sup... Stella embedded my mechanical part deeper in my chest. Now I look almost like a normal person. This'll make my efforts in discovering organic behaviour much easier.”

  Turning around I find out that Ivy is healed and cleaned up. Fortunately she is clothed too, that spares me another remark from Stella. Though Ivy is wearing a deep cut maid outfit. Her real body is now almost completely gone, just a small metal gem protrudes from between her collarbones. The wonders of healing magic...

  It was really fortunate that I made her from a rust free iron and gold alloy. I can be wasteful with materials since I have an almighty Supplier at home.

  Stella steps to a bowl beside the surgery table and starts washing her hands. “So what is your problem?”

  I grimace. “Headaches! Healing spells don't work, I already tried that.”

  Stella tilts her head in thought and walks over to the shelf, there she picks a bottle with small, white pills inside and gives it to me. “Just one a day, they are strong. Recently you often have headaches, what are you doing in your family's mansion?”

  I smile wryly. “My mother decided to teach me more about our clan's ability. She helps me with my training and the method isn't pleasant at all.”

  Free City States of Nict, Capital

  Adala

  “They are mobilizing their army.” Saana looks with a grim expression at the latest reports. “They are even rebuilding their fleet. This looks grave.”

  I shake my head and lean back on the sofa. “The civilian population has no idea what's going on. I don't think that Nict intends to go to war. The incident with the Black Magicians alarmed them and now they are preparing for a possible attack, maybe we are too hasty to assume that this is directed against us.”

  Eliot isn't of my opinion. “Even if it's not directed against us, this incident woke the rulers of Nict up, we can't afford to take this lightly.” He pauses. “What if their newly gained interest in the world causes them to send their fleet farther to the north. Their ships will surely land at the ports along the coast. Then they'll learn about our war. Do you think they'll ignore the opportunity to attack us?”

  Nikita speaks up. “I don't think that the situation is that far out of hand. Everything we've seen shows that the people of Nict have a huge disinterest in the world. If Nict was interested in expansion, then they could've taken the southern nations long ago. Excuse me if I say this, but the longer I stay within Nict, the more I believe that our southern allies sold us bullshit when they informed us that Nict is planning a war against us.”

  Padma nods. “I compared their historic records of their wars with what our so called allies told us. Note down that I strongly doubt that Nict changed them before our arrival. Those are public historic records. The civilians would complain if they were edited by the government.” She looks around. “The interesting part is that if you believe their records, Nict has far more reason to attack the southern nations than us. The only ones who benefit from a war between Nict and Dwem are the southern nations.” She starts counting with her fingers. “Our past relationship with them may have been hostile, but we mostly ignored each other while closing our borders. The southern nations however attacked Nict several times in open warfare. That's why when you travel to Nict's southern cities it feels more like you walk through a castle than a city. There is also the point that the southerners acknowledged Nict's attempts to make peace for the first time in history. It stinks, to say the least. I say it's best to lean back and wait.”

  Saana massages her temple. “If you put it like that it sounds logical. We can't stop Nict and the barbarians, even if we wanted to. Yesterday the Great Shaman sent me a report that our troops at the border to Nict will be relocated to the front. That'll leave us utterly defenceless.”

  Nikita crosses her hands in front of her chest and shrugs her shoulders. “There is another point. If Nict intends to attack us, they are acting utterly stupid.” She smirks. “If they really prepare for war against us, they would've silenced Dwem's observers within their country, namely us. We are a target, they would need to take us out first to ensure that we don't warn Dwem. Instead they let us be, to watch their preparations. They are not even trying to hide them.”

  After a while I come to the conclusion that Padma's and Nikita's reasoning is very good, though it leaves a bitter aftertaste. Spinning the story further means that our good and noble allies in the southern nations aren't so reliable after all. Something which we suspected, but having certainty is sometimes worse than being left in the lurch.

  51. ~One step behind.~

  “The Dwemer are the faithful citizens of the country Dwem in the mountain range Dwem. Smaller than the other races in height, they make up for their shortcomings in cleverness. Using their wits to build formidable structures and cities, their capital Dwem is one of the biggest wonders on this continent. Though we have to admit that our sense of naming things isn't the greatest.”

  -The writings of Dwem.

  Free City States of Nict, Capital

  Adala

  A blast of light and an explosion wake me from my sleep. My mind is still struggling to comprehend what's going on as I hear glass breaking and I wince as a new series of explosions occurs nearby. Finally I manage to open my eyes and stare at the tip of a blade coming down at me.

  I jerk my head to the side and the sharp weapon cuts my cheek, barely avoiding my left eye. I kick blindly at where I assume my attacker to be. My foot doesn't find its intended target and I continue to roll away from the blade, dragging the sheets of my bed with me. A dark figure follows and hacks with a short sword at me. Using the blanket as protection, I block the weapon once more just in time. Then I use the short pause to wrap the fabric around my right forearm. I start a ritual as I continue to deflect a series of wide swings by the assassin. A few of my hairs provide the needed catalyst for my ritual. The blanket in my right and the hairs in my left I start singing while I concentrate on the mana within me. “Ieah huul nos ferdent ...”

  My opponent realizes that a thick sheet of woven fabric provides adequate protection against a blade and changes his tactic to trying to stab me. He follows me as I am pushed back into a corner of my room. My eyes flick towards the door and the window, but the attacker is in a perfect position to cut off my retreat.

  I continue singing as he stabs once more at me and I block with my forearm. The blade sinks into it despite the protecting blanket. The pain is horrible, but I don't falter. One syllable of the ritual spoken wrong and every
thing was in vain. “... sumos el zeench!” I press my hairs onto the blanket and pour my mana into both of them.

  My attacker retracts his blade and the blanket comes to life as my hairs weave into it. He stabs once more at me, but this time the fabric holds, reinforced by my mana. Then the sheet unwraps itself from my arm, guided by a will of its own and shoots out, enclosing the man. He swings his sword wildly and screams in horror, but to no avail.

  I sink to my knees and lean against the wall, holding my wounded arm. The man's voice turns muffled as the sheet covers him completely. Then his scream turns pained and gets a high pitch as his bones break. Blood starts seeping through the fabric and the man turns silent. Then the blanket lets go of him and flows back to me, wrapping around me.

  The Ritual of Grobosch is named after the shaman who invented it. It imbues life into an object and programs it with the will to protect the caster and attack all those whom she or he sees as a threat. Normally someone would use a doll made out of clay or wood, they work best. Though in dire situations anything of adequate size works. The ritual is very convenient since it stays active until the caster stops supplying his servant with mana.

  New explosions occur and I get to my feet. The others, surely the assassin wasn't alone. I hurry out of my room and find Eliot in the corridor, he is struggling with a man of almost twice his size. Pointing my finger at the man, I pour all my anger and hate at him. This attack at night took us totally unprepared and those dishonourable bastards think that we'll simply lie down and die!

  The blanket responds to my wish and flows away from me, forming a long spike and propelling itself at the man like a crazed animal. It takes him from behind. The man is dead and the blanket on its way back to me before he hits the ground.

  “Adala! You are fine, thank the gods!” Eliot limps towards me, looks like he didn't have a nice wake up call either. Then a door opens into the corridor and one of the dark clothed men steps out. His blade is bloody and my heart sinks as I realize that he stepped out of Nikita's room. He blurs and the next moment my blanket moves on its own to block his blade. Eliot's fist connects with the newcomer's chin and he goes to the ground. “Snap out of it!”