Book 3, Chapter 7

Nothing that I was personally working on was time-sensitive, but I had some collaborative projects with Tetrin and Hyago. I went to Tetrin’s workshop first, mostly because I knew he’d be there. I’d need to find Hyago later, which would probably involve some scrying to track him down. He tended to roam around the valley, working on whatever caught his eye. Over the last few years, I’d helped him expand his repertoire of plant-based magic considerably, and at this point, it was anyone’s guess how he’d choose to use it on any given day.

The workshop was on the north side of the valley, almost directly opposite the cluster of buildings everyone else lived in. We’d chosen that location both for Tetrin’s desire for privacy and because experimenting with crafting magical items generally took a lot of—sometimes expensive—materials. There were a lot of kids who would happily snoop around if his workshop was easily accessed.

We’d set up enough wards to keep casual observers away, but everybody here had an ignited core and was progressing through lessons in spellcraft. It was possible, however unlikely, that someone would start picking their way through the wards and end up getting hurt, so we’d decided it was best to place Tetrin’s workshop out of sight.

Those wards did not stop me, of course. I judged that time was short enough to justify flying instead of walking, and when I landed, I passed right through the workshop’s defenses. I’d been involved in their creation and, to the best of my knowledge, was the only other person besides Tetrin himself who was keyed to them.

“Tetrin,” I called out as I entered the building.

“In here,” came his voice from the back.

I found him in his inscription room. Much like how I used my own crucible, Tetrin had a simplified version for inlaying runes into his creations so that he didn’t need to do it by hand. He was pretty good at it, good enough at this point that the crucible itself was what was holding him back. Unfortunately, a crucible wasn’t something that could be upgraded piecemeal and still work, so even if I wanted to go through the effort of making him a copy of mine, it would have to be created and completely installed before he could use it, and then it would be months or even years before he was able to handle the increased complexity.

“Did you see that group of people who came in by teleportation?” I asked.

“I didn’t,” he said, not looking up from where he was adjusting a strip of leather. “Were you expecting someone?”

“No, they found the platform near their village and figured out enough to dump a bunch of mana into it and activate it. It completely trashed our platform when they arrived, probably the one out by their village, too. I’ll have to go do some maintenance on that, but first, we’re sending some people to help thin out all the monsters that have been showing up and give them a refresher course on proper mana core shrouding.”

 “And you’re going with them,” Tetrin concluded. “Why?”

“My sister wants to put all her years of practice to work and kill a few monsters. She’s more than ready, but our parents wouldn’t let her go unless I accompanied her.”

Tetrin shook his head. “Weird how you act about your family. Your mindset, I wouldn’t expect you to care about blood ties.”

He wasn’t wrong. The list of people I loved and cared for started and ended with my immediate family. That part of my personality was Gravin’s donation to the mix. He’d loved his family fully and unconditionally before I came along, and for all the other ways he hadn’t yet developed habits or opinions on things, that part of him was rock solid.

“Unplanned complication to the reincarnation process,” I said. “I’ve found I quite enjoy it, though I do worry that I’m setting myself up for some heartache in a hundred years or so. Senica will probably advance to the point where she can extend her lifespan, but I doubt my parents will unless they change their minds and get serious about using magic.”

Tetrin grunted but said nothing. Maybe that wasn’t a topic he had a lot to contribute to, which was fine since I wasn’t here to talk to him about that. “You said you had the last collar done?” I asked.

“In the vault,” he said.

“Mind holding onto it for me until I get back?”

“Sure. You really think it’ll work?”

“As long as all the pieces are built right and properly aligned, it’ll work,” I assured him. “I’ve built plenty of these arrays, though it’s usually to keep mana out, not hold it in. Same principle either way.”

Scattered around the valley were twenty-two stone needles, each one six inches across and fifty feet tall. Tetrin had been given the task of creating the runes on a series of metal collars that would be attached to each pillar and would, when activated, create a ward that was impermeable to mana. The alchemist from Tetrin’s old cabal had used something similar for his reagent growing operation, but on a much, much smaller scale. To make this work, we’d needed a far bigger power source.

That was where the ember bloom I’d brought back with me came in. It was a tree so powerfully magical that, with careful cultivation, I’d readied it to become a living mana battery. It would propagate the spark of mana and hold the array stable while Hyago and I tended to it directly until the rest of the valley was so suffused with mana that the ember bloom was no longer needed.

But all of that would have to wait a few more days while I saw to the other responsibilities imposed on my time. Now I needed to locate Hyago and confirm everything was ready with him, then I’d be ready to depart.

“I’ll see you when I get back in a few days,” I told Tetrin. He waved me away, more interested in returning to his work than in exchanging parting pleasantries.

  *

Finding Hyago wasn’t terribly difficult. There were a few places he spent the majority of his time, and I got lucky enough to spot him at one. If he’d been walking the trails, it would have been more of a challenge. Unfortunately, that was where my luck ran out. There was a whole grove of trees withering away, and despite Hyago’s efforts, he hadn’t been able to halt that.

I had him guide me there while we discussed potential problems and what spells would work best to diagnose and treat the issue. Every tree had the potential to produce a huge amount of mana, and we’d been working zealously for years to improve soil quality and get them to the point where they could survive without using all of their mana. The overflow would leak into the air around us, where it would normally dissipate.

If everything went well with my mana array, that wouldn’t happen. For the first time since I’d been reborn, there would be ambient mana. It would be limited, but proving that the idea worked was an excellent first step. From there, they could start setting up arrays in other forests, though that wasn’t a winning proposition long-term. It was just a way for me to gather the huge amounts of mana I’d need to really fix things.

Despite the delay of over an hour working on the grove, I still made it back to the teleportation platform before everyone was ready to go. When I arrived, the chosen mages were gathered in a circle checking over their gear and ensuring everything had as much mana as they could spare. The preparations were overkill for such a trivial job, but none of them had ever fought monsters before. I left them to it and went to find Senica.

She was standing apart from the adult mages who were going, near our parents. Whatever lecture she was getting, I wanted no part of it, so I stood off to the side and waited. Once Senica got free, she hurried over to me, practically bouncing with each step. I tried to remember if I’d ever been that excited when I’d been young the first time around. It didn’t seem like it.

My introduction to magic had been rife with danger and uncertainty. The memory was old and faded now, but I could still distinctly recall the thrill of victory as I’d confronted the thug who’d been controlling my life and burned him alive. Unsurprisingly, things had only gotten worse after that. I’d truly been a blundering idiot when I was a child.

“We’re almost ready to go,” Senica said. “You… you said you had some stuff for me?”

“I did.”

The first thing I pulled out of my phantom space was an alabaster pendant. It had served me well for a year or so, but I’d replaced it with a copper bracelet at some point. The metal was layered to give it extra room, creating a band about a quarter inch thick made of three pieces. Not only did it protect against even more than my old pendant shield ward, it had three times the mana reserves.

For a mission like this, my old pendant was more than sufficient to keep Senica safe. At least, it would be as long as she remembered to keep it charged. Shield wards could be mana-intensive, but they were well worth the cost. Nothing else really compared to the sheer variety of defensive measures contained in such a small package.

Senica knew what it was as soon as I held it out to her. “I don’t need to tell you that this is only useful if you keep it full of mana. It should always be a high priority to maintain this,” I said. She nodded along mutely, and I let go of the leather strap the amulet was attached to. It fell into her hands and she quickly slipped it over her head.

Next, I pulled out my personal storage crystal. Compared to anything anyone else here could make, it had an absolutely massive reservoir, more than five times as much as the various personal mana crystals I’d taught people to create. “This is a loan,” I told her, “not a gift. Use this only as a last resort if you run completely out of your own mana. I’m expecting this back when we get home.”

Senica accepted the storage crystal, which I’d shrunk down enough to fit in the palm of her hand. Originally, the stone had been over three feet tall, and it consumed a steady trickle of its own mana to stay portable. It was well worth it for the extra storage capacity.

The wand I’d made for her would do for her preferred offense. It had been built to improve both the accuracy and efficiency of her fire-based conjurations. The shield ward and mana crystal covered defense and stamina, not that those should be a factor. She just needed one last piece, a last resort tactic to flee danger.

I’d had a few things in mind when I started building a kit for Senica, but ultimately, I’d decided to keep it simple. The last item I pulled from my phantom space was a slip of paper with dozens of runes painted on, all so tiny as to be practically indistinguishable.

“If you get into real trouble, tear this talisman in half,” I told her. “For thirty seconds, you’ll be able to walk through walls, levitate into the air, and have increased speed. That’s all I was able to put into one object, but it should be enough to get you clear of any problem.”

“I understand,” she said solemnly, but the tone didn’t match the look on her face.

With a sigh, I said, “Come on, let’s go find out how much longer it’ll be until we can leave.”