“Also, I couldn’t face my sister and tell her that I killed her husband so that she could inherit everything and get her children back. She would never forgive me and neither could I. What I can do is to turn them in and ask for the maximum sentence.”
“Which is being tortured to death.” Jirni smiled. Killing them on the spot was actually the greatest act of mercy they could do to her assailants.
“Exactly.” Kamila nodded while recovering her communication amulet. “I’m not going to dirty my hands nor my conscience for these scum. They have made their choices and they will pay the consequences.”
“Excellent choice, dear.” Jirni said, putting the wand back inside her utility belt. “Do you want me to inform your sister about what happened to her late husband?”
“Thanks for your offer, but I want to be the one to break the news to her. She deserves that much.”
***
Expedition team camp, at the same moment.
During the four days necessary to restore Kulah’s levels of oxygen to the point that it would be possible to use fire magic within its premises, there wasn’t much Lith’s group could do.
Quylla decided to use that time to follow the physical training routine Lith had suggested to her and to learn a few tier four offensive spells. Lith and Phloria pooled their knowledge about runes and about Forgemastering to decipher the booklet from Huryole.
They didn’t make much progress. The ancient language was gibberish to them and even though Phloria helped him to convert some of the old runes into modern ones, her knowledge of Runesmithing was too shallow to understand the purpose of the blueprints just by looking at their pictures.
“Do you think I could show one of the pages to Yondra and ask her for help?” Lith said.
“It’s a huge gamble.” Phloria shook her head. “These kinds of runes are too advanced for the Odi, a Royal Forgemaster like her is likely to realize that yours it’s just a ruse. Even if she falls for it, she might ask you to share your discovery with the rest of the group, and at that point, you’re likely to get caught.
“Don’t forget that Runesmithing is a state secret. The army might confiscate the booklet if they knew it’s in your possession.”
Lith had to agree with her. Either he told Yondra the truth or he risked doing a lot of damage. If Yondra started basing her plans to counter the Odi on the booklet, it would lead her and the others astray and might cause their demise.
The more Lith discovered about the Odi, the higher the expectations to find a cure for his reincarnation problem. They had been raving mad, but their mastery in light magic was something that would have impressed even Professor Manohar.
Those days were the first real break Lith and Phloria had got in months. Despite the fact that they were near a death-trap, they both enjoyed the time spent together. They felt as if they were back at the academy, finally speaking with someone who could understand their respective problems.
Tista was too ignorant to help Lith in his experiments and Kamila wasn’t even a mage. That part of his life was quite lonely and up to that moment, Solus was the only partner he had ever had in his quest for knowledge.
Phloria had a lot of pent up stress due to her personal life in the army. Her rank, build, and family created a divide between Phloria and her peers. Her soldiers respected her, but they were no friends.
There were boundaries that had to be kept for discipline to be preserved. Between her job, learning Forgemastering from Orion, and improving her skills as a Mage Knight, her social life was almost non-existent.
Now she had someone who wasn’t intimidated by her rank or height. Someone who could practice both sword and magic with her and didn’t care about winning but just about learning.
The level of competition between the young Captains was akin to what she had experienced as a student in the White Griffon. All those below her in the rankings wanted to see her fail, while those above felt threatened by Phloria and kept her at arm’s length.
The only problem with their renewed friendship was that by spending so much time alone in such a confined space, rumors were bound to be born. Hence they made sure to spend as much time with others as well.
Phloria trained her soldiers and Quylla, along with anyone who was willing to improve their physical prowess, while Lith sought Yondra for knowledge. During dinner, the day after they had defeated the Golems, Lith asked:
“What’s that tuning fork you used to break the water tanks for?”
“Do you mean the Dampener?” She took the magical item out of her pocket and handed it to Lith.
“It’s one of my creations. As you have seen, it has the ability to prevent other enchanted items from absorbing mana.”
“That’s amazing.” Lith said while scanning it with Invigoration. Just like Phloria’s hairpin, it was covered in energy runes invisible to the naked eye.
“Why didn’t you use it against Kulah’s door or the Golems? It would have saved us a lot of time.”
“You misunderstood me, young spirit.” Yondra laughed. Her giving Lith the same moniker Nana used for so many years stung at his heart.
“Kulah’s door was solid and its array was fueled from the inside, just like the Golems. The tanks, instead, were made of a material that would have shattered after being hit by our spells if not for their ability to absorb our mana.
“My dampener simply jammed such ability so that our spells could demonstrate their real prowess. There is no such thing as a skeleton key for arrays, otherwise the Kingdom would have made me a Magus rather than a Professor.”
“Do you mind if I examine it with a spell of mine?” Lith asked.
“Be my guest.” Yondra smiled. “I’ll consider it as a proof of your goodwill in becoming my heir. You can tell a lot about a Forgemaster’s talent by how much information they can acquire with their spells.
“We and Healers have a lot in common. Diagnostic spells are the foundation for both specializations.”
Lith spewed gibberish before returning the Dampener.
“That’s truly a masterpiece. I can see you have infused it with at least ten spells.”
“Twelve actually, but still pretty close.” Yondra put it back into her pocket. Lith was actually capable of determining the number of spells held by an enchanted item by studying its pseudo core and mana pathways, but he preferred to play it close to the vest.
He’d rather like to be considered brilliant than threatening.
“Thanks, but one thing surprised me quite a bit. How come there are runes on it?”
“Your spell allows you to see runes?” Yondra was flabbergasted.
“A few months ago, I found this inside Huryole.” Lith took the rune covered sword out of his pocket dimension. “I’ve been studying its runes ever since, and after Professor Neshal’s explanation about the ancient runes, I was surprised that no one taught me about them at the White G…”
“Put it away before someone sees it, you idiot.” Yondra said. “You are lucky that no one is around.”
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