Book 2, Chapter 34

I had two spots in mind for our new home. The first was a crescent-shaped plateau on the side of a mountain about a quarter mile wide. It didn’t have any trails leading up to it that I’d found, and if I did discover one later on, it’d be easy enough to collapse. As far as defensibility went, things didn’t get much better than that. On the other hand, it was a lot of bare rock with no convenient source of water, so a lot of mana was going to go into making it livable.

The second location was a valley deep in the mountains that nobody was finding without magic. It was actually the greenest spot I’d seen since being reborn here, which was why I’d singled it out. There were at least four different trails into the valley that I’d noted while using my old scrying mirror to check it out, which meant we’d be relying more heavily on a ward stone to keep our home safe, but it also had two streams running through it on parallel course and the mountains seemed to shelter the valley from the worst of the wasteland’s weather.

There was good soil and game to hunt there. I’d seen no sign of other humans in the area, which meant it was probably a relatively unknown pocket of life, and most importantly to me, it was on the east coast of this island, a hundred miles past the village and deep into the mountains. Without flight or teleportation, I didn’t see how anyone could possibly get there.

“This is where I want to set up our new home,” I told Father, who was getting ready for work while I scried. He glanced over at the mirror and his eyebrows shot up in surprise.

Everyone crowded around me while I manipulated the scrying spell to show the whole valley, then scan across its length while I pointed out a few good spots for building a house. “It certainly is beautiful,” Mother said. “And there’s already a lot growing there. If we could clean out any monsters in the area, it would be a good place to live.”

My stories of what I’d found in Derro must have been more effective than I’d originally thought at convincing my parents that the danger was real. Before I’d left the village a few months ago, they’d been much more reluctant to even talk about relocating somewhere else. Though, I also suspected my family’s treatment had worsened over the last month or two, not that we’d been well-treated to begin with. My actions had no doubt made things more difficult, even if my parents hadn’t mentioned it to me.

“I have a few things to take care of today, but we could be there as early as tonight,” I told Father. “I hesitate to bring this up, but… is there anyone else who also is worried about leaving that you’d trust to come with us? Ayaka, perhaps?”

“There are a few people,” Mother said, sharing a look with Father. “It might actually be better if we go as a group. I’ll go talk to them today.”

“Can I bring some friends too?” Senica asked.

“We can talk about that,” Mother told her, “but it will depend on their parents. It’s not the same as having a sleepover.”

“Aw. But-”

“Don’t tell anyone yet. Decide who you want to ask, and we’ll talk to their families together if we can.”

I smiled a bit watching my sister pout, but my mother had the right idea. It wasn’t that anyone could stop us when we left, but it would be easier if no one who might want to stop us knew it was happening until it was too late. This was going to be a one-way trip that would cost me a great deal of mana; I didn’t need complications making it more difficult.

“I’ll be back in the afternoon. I owe Shel a lesson in exchange for some work she’s doing for me, and I have some more alchemy work to do before that,” I said.

* * *

My supply of alchemical reagents was greatly diminished, at least in terms of what I could use to make my ointment, but I had a jar the size of my chest full of it now. That would be enough to last me about two weeks. I’d need longer than that to grow replacements, but that was fine. I wasn’t actually sure how well this batch was going to work out anyway. The supply I had now would be enough for me to get an accurate measurement of its efficacy.

I was in the middle of slathering it on when Shel opened the door and walked into the lab. “Sorry I’m late,” she said. “I had to deal with- ack! What are- Sorry! I’ll just… Yeah.”

She whirled in place and strode back out of the room in two over-large steps, slamming the door behind her while I tried not to laugh. I hadn’t been able to afford modesty for a long time, especially not with my first mother’s career of servicing men—and sometimes women—for money while I was in the next room. By the time I’d been powerful enough and rich enough for the luxury, it hadn’t much mattered to me anymore.

“Just give me a few minutes,” I told her through the door. “You’re too late to watch the alchemy, but we can do your lesson while we walk back to the arbor.”

After the ointment had time to do its work, I scraped off the dried remnants. While I waited, I spent the time and mana to leave a hidden, warded, teleportation beacon in the lab so I could come back and collect the equipment later.  By the time I was done, all that was left on my skin was a powdery residue, one that was easily cleaned with a bucket of water and a rag, both of which I’d made sure to acquire today. Then I got dressed and opened the door to see Shel leaning against the wall opposite of it.

“Shall we go?”

“Yes,” she said. It looked like we were pretending that hadn’t happened. Fine by me.

“Alright. Walk me through what you’ve figured out and where you’re trying to go from there.”

Shel’s progress was both more and less than I’d hoped. She’d gone off in an interesting direction and figured out a few concepts more advanced than the average apprentice with only two months of experience would have been exposed to, but at the same time, she’d missed a few fairly obvious foundational abilities.

I did my best to steer her towards filling in some of those gaps and showed her a few exercises to practice while I debated whether to offer a spot in the upcoming emigration out of Alkerist. Having an Arborist or two would be useful if I wanted to continue making my ointment of aging, which I did. On the other hand, once I was done with this business in Derro, I expected to have a lot more free time to tend to my own business.

Shel was also a member of the Council as the leader of the Arborists, which meant that telling her what we were up to could lead directly back to the people who could give me a hassle finding out. Since she was in a position of authority and responsibility here, it also didn’t seem likely that she’d be willing to leave. I couldn’t really picture her just giving up on the arbor she’d been tending to for decades.

We talked the entire trip to the arbor. After setting up my little corner of the greenhouse with some fresh seeds I’d imbued a bit of mana into in the hopes that my next crop would do better, I went over how to care for the delicate plants again and gave her some instruction on how to harvest them if I didn’t return in time to do it myself. I figured I was good for one more trip to the village in the near future, if only to collect all the alchemy equipment I’d need to leave behind to make room for personal possessions in my phantom space.

Thankfully, Shel had her own work to attend to, otherwise I might never have shaken her loose. She liked to ask questions, and the answers always sparked follow up questions. It was an excellent quality in an apprentice that I had time to mentor, but an annoying one in a casual acquaintance I was trying to trade favors with. She was definitely getting the better end of all our deals.

Once I was free and on my own, I walked back to my parents’ hut. It was time to see how much of an undertaking this was going to be.

* * *

I’d barely made it to the edge of town when Karad found me. He appeared from around a house, cutting through someone’s garden to hustle over to me with his sword slapping against his leg the whole way.

“Gravin,” he said as he approached. “I’m glad I caught up to you. I wanted to talk about your plans.”

“What about them?” I asked cautiously. I specifically didn’t want to talk to Karad since I fully realized that taking even a small fraction of the village would hurt them, especially since that fraction included my father. He generated enough mana to contribute probably thirty times as much as any other field worker with a dormant core could.

“How long they include staying here.”

Ah, then he hadn’t heard. He just wanted to know how long I was going to be a headache for him. It must have been a bad look for the Council’s authority to have me walking around the village freely when everyone knew I was an exile.

“Good news. I’ll be gone by this evening,” I told him. I waited a moment just to see his shoulders visibly relax, then added, “I’ll be back for another visit in a month or two, depending on how things work out.”

“Why’s that?” Karad asked, giving me a hard look. He hadn’t been amused by that pause I’d put in that statement.

“I’ve got some business to take care of,” I told him. “I’ll also be leaving some equipment in the manor for the time being. I’d appreciate it if you ensured it was left alone, both for my sake and the safety of anyone who stumbled across it.”

That brought Karad up short. “It’s dangerous?”

“Not if it’s left alone. I’ll be locking the doors, so no one will accidentally stumble across it, but if someone decides to get nosy and pokes around in there, I don’t want to be held responsible for their safety.”

“If it’s so dangerous, you need to take it with you,” Karad said. “Allowing you back in the village to visit your family was… controversial, but I managed it. Leaving dangerous magical equipment behind that could hurt somebody who stumbles across it is a different matter entirely.”

The alchemy equipment locked in that room wasn’t actually dangerous, but it was delicate. I was more trying to scare off Karad from investigating it and potentially breaking something than anything else. The manor had been so dusty when I’d arrived, especially the east side where I’d set up my lab, that I doubted anyone would accidentally stumble across it.

“The equipment stays. Half the reason I came back was that I needed a place to set it up. It’s tucked in a room nobody uses, in a section of the manor nobody even goes to. Just don’t tell anyone it’s there and don’t go snooping around yourself, and you’ll be fine.”

“Not to put too fine a point on it, but what’s in it for us?” Karad asked.

“Not to put too fine a point on it,” I echoed, “but I’ve killed something like thirty mages and adepts who were part of the cabal that’s targeting this village. It would be very, very easy for me to just not go back to Derro and let them do what they wanted to this village. How many of your men do you think they’ll kill the next time a pair of mages come strolling in?”

“Why are you helping us at all then?” Karad asked.

I shrugged. “I have my reasons.”

Those reasons were mostly that I wanted access to the cabal’s archives and their mana, and I wasn’t adverse to taking what I needed from bad people. Whatever had happened to this area, those mages hoarding the mana of everyone and everything they could get their hands on was undoubtedly slowing down the healing process.

We arrived at my parents’ hut and I said, “Was there anything else you needed?”

Karad grunted and glanced past me, possibly looking for Mother. I’d beaten her back though, and when he didn’t find anyone else, he just shook his head. “Next time you come for a visit, come to the Garrison first so we can make arrangements.”

“Of course,” I agreed, though I had no intention of honoring that promise. The next time would hopefully be the last time, and I’d only be there long enough to harvest my last crop from the greenhouses and pack up my equipment. Karad wouldn’t know I’d even been there until after I was gone. “If that’s all, have a nice day.”

I slipped through the curtain without waiting for a reply, then smiled to myself when I felt his mana move away down the street.