No doubt, they’d figured out the transportation room, because any rune mage would recognize a gate spell. The arena safety spell room had far more unknown runes in it, but it also had recognizable ones, including the illusion spell, which is probably how they figured out it was the rune safety room.
They’d just assumed that it was more than that as well, a countermeasure room against betrayal, but it wasn’t. The new runes were new connector types, and he saw his own modified and fixed power rune was used liberally in the room as well. Honestly, he wished he could study it, but he suspected after he took care of Tanner, that they wouldn’t want him down there again.
Especially Jace.
Still, he could live with the disappointment, and he suspected anything he learned down there wouldn’t be applicable up on the surface. Sure, new rune connectors might come in handy, or new spells, but he could live without them if it kept the peace. He just wanted to be a member of the rune guild, serve a higher purpose, and have a future life and children with Lia. That was more than enough for his ambition.
The rune for collecting ambient energy to make a spell permanent, was probably the most worthless of all to him, even if interesting.
He had no wish to be all powerful but stuck beneath the ground.
“We don’t have time to waste, I’m sure, mistress.”
The honorific seemed to break through her indecision, whether because it was a reminder of her responsibilities, or just a sign of him showing her respect, he wasn’t sure. She stood up straighter and led him and Talia to the next room.
Chapter Twenty-One
He didn’t spend long in many of the rooms. He just felt, unfocused his mind and listened to what the runes had to tell him as a whole. It went against all his training, but it seemed to work to get an idea of things.
She didn’t skip any rooms, and even took him to the two she already knew what they did, just in case it wasn’t all they did. In the transportation and arena setup rooms he only spent mere moments, they obviously weren’t the right ones either. Though the transportation room did have a control interface of sorts, so that the mage could choose the destination village, but it was crude and obviously limited to just that.
The next room defined the structure of the arena and towers, the buildings themselves, and it was what made them constantly look new. The spells would also repair any damage the structures took, the buildings would literally stand on their world until the world itself died, and magic disappeared.
Unless of course, someone destroyed the rune spell rooms. He shuddered at the thought.
The next room controlled the environmental concerns. Kept the air fresh, the hot water for baths hot, and the rooms at a comfortable temperature. They also removed smoke buildup from magical fires and normal ones. He never really thought about it before, but the buildings were very temperate and didn’t change significantly with the seasons. Now he knew why.
The next several rooms were for the castle, all the same rooms except two, the arena safety spells and arena setup room, but they were also inactive. It was only when they entered the last room, all the way at the end of the hallway, that he let out a rueful laugh.
“We should’ve known.”
Talia gave him a questioning look.
He replied, “Haven’t you noticed the tingle on your skin growing less as we moved farther away from the node room. Of course they’d put the control spells in the room farthest from the ley lines and node, to minimize exposure to higher levels of ambient magic while they were down here, on duty shift, or whatever they did to counter any plans of rebellion in the mages and commoners.”
Elisha looked at him blankly, “Tingles?”
He frowned, “Oh, you didn’t feel that? Maybe that’s part of the mystic thing, how we sense raw magic. It’s why we can read spells mid-cast, and know what’s coming, perhaps. We can sense the raw magic forming into a spell. Anyway, I don’t feel the node at all from this room, no more than when I’m on the surface. On the other end of the hallway, my skin felt tight, and itchy, from the higher ambient magic field.”
It was also the room closest to the stairs up, perhaps another obvious clue. They’d worked backwards from the end. Still, it’d been interesting, if a waste of time. Who knew how long they had before Tanner attacked, and it was a good twenty minutes that they’d wasted. He couldn’t bring himself to regret it though, he’d learned more than a few interesting and new types of detection spells, even if he wasn’t allowed to use them. They were more complicated, but they worked at a much greater distance.
He also learned runes to cast spells at a distance, based on those detections. There were still limits though, the spells couldn’t protect the whole city after all, just the mage and royal complex of buildings.
The control room was incredibly complicated, but after a moment of feeling it, he realized it was split into three parts and that’s what was confusing him. It was still incredibly complicated though. One wall was used to control the other rooms. It could activate or deactivate a room entirely, which meant he’d already figured out how to turn the castle spells back on. Something he didn’t need to know. The second thing the wall did was act as a backup, if a room was damaged it would be fixed. Or… it could be fixed, if there was a mystic available to initiate the fix.
He wasn’t sure how that worked. After all, there were tens of thousands of runes in every room, how could one single wall in a command room duplicate that if it was destroyed, in several rooms. He figured out the rooms were mirrored, and if say one of the castle support rooms were damaged, it would rebuild it from the tower room using it as a template, or vice versa.
There were also two hidden rooms, disconnected from the hallway, which mirrored the arena setup and protection rooms. He didn’t fully understand how it worked, it’d take study, perhaps days, but that was the intent he felt behind it. It was kind of cool, but not what he needed to know, so he shifted his attention to the second wall.
The second wall was even more confusing, but as far as he could tell it had to do with the other villages somehow. Perhaps a low-level monitoring system of the kingdom, or at least the node setups in the kingdom. He wasn’t sure how that range was possible, but maybe it used the ley lines somehow, which connected to all their villages and other nearby nodes. The other spells and functions, the other rooms, had distance spells he’d previously thought impossible, but they were at least limited to the same short range his spy spell worked at. This was… different.
It also wasn’t what he was looking for, so he shifted his attention to the last wall and felt it out.
His heart contracted, and it started to hammer. He hadn’t realized how much he’d been hoping his ancestors had gotten a raw deal in history, that perhaps they weren’t as bad as they were portrayed as being. But… given the spells in that wall, he wasn’t sure what else to believe.
Of course, any defensive spell, to defend life, would ultimately be violent. The problem was that these spells were all aimed inward, at the people and even mages the mystics had ruled over. Sure, a ruler had to protect themselves from rebellion sometimes, but this was… excessive, and oppressive in nature.
He activated a rune sequence. It felt a little strange, since the spells were fed by the ley lines and node. There was one of those new connectors, it acted like the knob on an oil lamp, merely freeing the oil to be burned. It took very little magic on his part, to power that one rune, which connected him to the full spell which drew power from the crystal in the room. No more power than one of his wards, he actually got back more magic than he was spending, just from his natural recovery.
He could feel all the mages, and non-mages in the castle and mage guild complex. He also suspected if there’d been mystics, they’d have been flagged in his thoughts as well. The spells allowed him to tell the discipline of the mages, but not much else. He couldn’t differentiate actual people.
He suspected that was because his magic wasn’t powering it, so he wasn’t fee
ling the magical signatures he was used to feeling. Perhaps over time he’d gain that insight with the system, they didn’t feel exactly the same, but they didn’t have time for him to figure it out, or to become accustomed to it.
He felt his way through the options reluctantly. He could initiate a communications spell with someone, speak to them mind to mind. Only this communication spell was different, it was enhanced with a truth spell. Meaning, the purpose behind it was to interrogate anyone that was detected in a place they shouldn’t be in, or something like that at least. It wasn’t meant to communicate, and it was a harsh spell, a violation.
The spell just wasn’t something a mystic would need to defend against an enemy, the spell was all about stirring fear in others and keeping their own mages in line. He couldn’t imagine living like that, wondering if one day from out of nowhere a mystic could question him and pronounce judgement. Not just on crimes, but on thought crimes. Who hasn’t ever railed against their life at one time or another, and not acted on it?
Then it got worse. Spells to suppress a mage’s magic, shield them, and incinerate a target, presumably if they were found to harbor rebellious thoughts. The shield was merely so no one near them would die, when they went up in a pyre of flame, it wasn’t to protect the target, of that he was certain.
This room spelled paranoia and ambition gone amuck, and fear.
It was an ugly thing, and as far as he could determine there were no spells at all to arrest someone. He could only presume their thoughts would either damn them or clear them, so there was no need for that, judgement was made on the spot, and executions carried out from afar. No mage, no matter how powerful, could fight off the spells of this room.
He knew it was stupid, but he felt ashamed of what he was in that moment. He knew it was a person’s actions that counted, and not how they were born, but he sincerely wished he wasn’t a mystic in that moment.
He’d never killed before, though he’d faced that prospect earlier today, the fight hadn’t reached the inn where he’d stood guard. It just wasn’t right what this room could do. There were worse spells yet, spells meant to harm and torture before death came, and he felt a little sick at the thought. Going up in a pyre of flame was the merciful option. There was only one option that would allow the queen to pass judgement on their enemies, and for them to be executed per the current laws, but he was entirely sure the mystics had a different purpose for the spell.
He tried his best not to think of a reason that would fit into this dark wall of spells.
He said, “I can stop them, but only while our sides are separate. I can target all the mages in the castle, right now, and end this. I can feel their disciplines, but I can’t identify individuals, that won’t help us when we’re mixed together, since there are defectors on both sides of Tanner’s rebellion outside of the rune and life towers.
“There are two options, I can kill them all, which doesn’t really work for me. After all, there was evidence Mistress Kaitlyn was under heavy duress. She should be questioned and judged before being executed or pardoned. I also can’t pick out the fifteen mages that were going to leave and join us, and I know they’re still alive. I can feel fifty-one mages in the castle, and if they were dead already there’d only be thirty-six left.”
Talia looked concerned, probably because of the tone of his voice, which was disturbed.
“What’s the second option?”
He took a deep breath, “I can burn them all out. Those pardoned can be healed and reconnected to their magic. At that point, all the undead they have in the castle will just fall, without the death mages powering them the spells will expire, and the guard should be able to subdue them easily. The risk in that is obvious, burned out and without a life mage on their side, who knows what Tanner will do. He could slit their throats out of spite.”
Elissa looked horrified.
He sighed, “The mystics weren’t gentle rulers. Trust me, you don’t want to know the other options. This system is alien to my thinking, I wasn’t expecting this. I… hoped to find better.”
Talia shuddered.
He wasn’t sure what to think. The mystics had done a lot of good things too, the arena safety spells where mages could practice in relative safety and gain experience. Of course, training and maintaining buildings had very little to do with ruling, while the spell wall he was connected to in that moment did. So that’s what counted most in his mind, the good things certainly didn’t excuse the bad.
Elissa said, “Let me go pull together a force, when you feel our mages leaving the arena, go ahead and hit the enemy before we get mixed together. That way Tanner won’t have all that much time to do something when he realizes just how badly he lost. Without magic, we should be able to capture them easily enough.”
He nodded, “Alright, but I’ll act sooner if I feel them move toward the mage complex.”
Elissa replied, “If it comes to that, have Talia send me a message,” then moved out quickly.
Talia asked, “Are you okay? This is what I feared, that this act will harm you.”
He sighed, “It will save lives, and at least I don’t have to act as judge and executioner. The innocent among them will get their magic back.”
Removing someone’s magic was a misleading way to describe it, it wasn’t possible to remove someone’s magic, at least not without killing them. What the spell did was burn out a very tiny portion of someone’s brain. The part that controlled their channeling of magic. So, the magic would still be there, sedately channeling itself through their bodies at its normal resting rate, the mage just wouldn’t be able to control or access it anymore, not even subconsciously.
A life mage could heal the brain, which would restore that control.
He wished he had better control or understanding. The sense of the mages’ locations was vague at best, giving him a sense of distance and direction. That made it easy to figure out who was in the castle, and who was in the mage complex, but not where they were in those buildings. He imagined it would take him days if not weeks to figure out how to translate to specific locations from the vague feelings. Between that, and not being experienced enough with it to recognize who he was feeling, the thing was almost worthless.
If he had his way, he’d never get that familiar with the system.
Talia said, “You don’t look convinced.”
He nodded, “It’s harmful. The innocent will get their magic back, and be pardoned, but it will also be a huge shock to lose their magic even temporarily, I think. They’ll feel vulnerable, like I did when Tanner put me and Lia in jail with no access to our rune inscribed equipment, but on top of that they’ll also feel violated. Make sense or not, they’ll wonder if one day someone else won’t just take their magic, and they won’t see it coming.
“Still, it’s the lesser of two evils, and better than even one more innocent person dying. Just… where does that line get drawn? I’m sure the men and women who built this wall felt justified about its use. All its uses.”
Talia said, “They’ll also be relieved at being rescued, and the one’s on Tanner’s side will be far more worried about their trial and execution.”
He laughed, “There’s the bright spot. See how easy it is to justify it?”
Talia smirked, “We do what we have to, to keep our people and kingdom safe.”
He nodded, “I imagine the mystic that drew the spells on the wall told himself the exact same thing, to justify their horrific and violating actions.”
Talia snickered, “Stop it.”
He asked, “Stop what?”
Talia said, “Turning all my words against me.”
He replied cheekily, “Yes, mistress.”
Talia laughed, “Glad to see you still have a sense of humor.”
He sighed, nothing was ever easy.
“They’re moving.”
Talia raised an eyebrow, “That was quick.”
He shook his head, “Not our people, Tanner’s.”
&nbs
p; Talia sighed, “Of course, they are.”
He snickered.
Talia said, “That should help, they’re leaving fifteen people behind? Bound and in the dungeon perhaps?”
He frowned, and shook his head, “Maybe they’re going to use them as hostages, or leverage in some way? They’re all going.”
Talia looked thoughtful for a moment, then bit her lip, “Maybe.”
He sighed, “What am I missing?”
Talia said, “It could’ve all been part of the show. Maybe our plan to make some of them defect completely failed. And Tanner was putting on a show to misdirect us. Maybe those fifteen aren’t on our side after all.”
Oh, he hadn’t even considered that.
“What would that gain them?”
She shrugged, “Surprise in numbers, or maybe they’ll pretend to be hostages until showing their true colors will be most effective. Or… maybe you’re right, and they are hostages to shield the enemy and make us hesitate to give them an edge. Almost nothing is certain in war.”
He nodded, “There’s also about two hundred undead, but those will just fall when I act.”
She cast the spell to talk with Elissa. That took a minute or two.
“Our people are heading to the complex gate, hit Tanner’s group right before they get there, and our people will swarm out and capture them.”
He nodded, the timing would be a little close, on who got their first. No matter what happened, he’d hit Tanner’s group before they opened the gate into the arena building. The single point of entry to the whole arena complex and all seven towers made things easier that way.
Technically, he wouldn’t be killing anyone, but that was sophistry. He’d be responsible for thirty-one more mages dying, assuming the fifteen could be saved, perhaps sixteen with the air mistress, and that was far from certain. Still, it would protect their side from any more losses. At least, that was the plan. He’d been so sure their people would come out ahead last time, and they’d gotten their asses kicked.
Rune Mage: The Rune Mystic: Book Two Page 17
