The Shortcut

Chris pursed his lips.

"Can any of you even live another two hundred years? Your lifespans are hanging by a thread, aren't they? Isn't that why you let Tom go?"

Britney blurted it out, startled.

"Mick Magic Tower let Tom go? They didn't lose him — they released him? How do you know that?"

Chris grinned.

"I told you. I looked into Mick Magic Tower."

"Looking into a place doesn't mean you know everything."

"I'm not your ordinary spy."

Britney was about to press him when Carmen stopped her.

"That isn't what matters right now."

She looked up at Chris and spoke with a gentle warmth.

"We'll let you live. Give us the Motaro."

Daryl shouted.

"The Motaro is mine!"

Richard corrected her at once.

"Not mine. Ours."

Tension ran even among the Three Great Elders. Daryl's voice came out edged.

"You already got one."

Richard drawled, oily and unhurried.

"Two is better than one."

"You've got Alex in your keeping, too."

Chris muttered to himself.

So I was right.

It was certain now. Richard was the one who had shielded Alex. But what did keeping Alex have to do with the mess in front of him? He couldn't see it.

Shay, Carmen, and Britney were inching closer. Chris warned them.

"Don't move."

Perez glared at the Rafunian mages.

"That's right. Don't move."

Shay said, "You don't move."

The ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠voice boomed like thunder. Chris grumbled inwardly.

Did he boil a thunderstorm and swallow it?

"I have a question."

Carmen answered in a friendly tone.

"And what is our junior so curious about?"

"The shortcut for weaving rings."

Carmen's face went cold.

"How do you know about that?"

"I heard it from Elder Julien of Touleno Magic Tower."

Carmen clicked her tongue.

"I knew that bastard would cause trouble sooner or later."

Perez said, "When Julien used the shortcut without the standing to do it, we should have killed him."

For the first time, the mages of the two towers agreed.

Chris said, "So Julien was being kept at arm's length not only by his own tower, but by the others as well. I had a feeling that was the case."

Richard asked, "Why did you think so?"

"Flight magic is forbidden in the ruins, isn't it? Julien didn't know. He went flitting about and got himself struck by lightning for the trouble. Every Chukhwan from the other towers knows that as common sense. Even some of the Sikbae know it. I saw that and put it together. Ah — that man is being ostracized. It already smelled wrong from the moment he didn't travel with the Touleno party and wormed his way in with Herman Magic Tower."

"Julien entered the ruins with the Herman party?"

"Yes."

"How do you know that?"

"I guided them."

"Why?"

"They threatened me, the same way all of you are doing now. Guide them, or they would torment me for a long time and then kill me."

Chris sighed.

"What power do I have? I had no choice but to do as I was told."

"You belong to Herman. Why would Herman's mages threaten you?"

"You already know."

"No. I don't."

"Being of the same tower doesn't mean one heart and one mind."

"Are you saying the Herman mages who traveled with you defied their superiors' orders?"

"Yes. When your life is hanging by a thread, you don't meekly swallow an order from above. Mick Magic Tower is no different, is it?"

"We are no different? What are you talking about?"

"I ran into Tower Master Hal and his party from your tower. Judging by the greed carved into those skulls of yours, I doubt you ever told Tower Master Hal to enter the ruins... or am I wrong?"

"I didn't know you were versed in phrenology."

"To do it properly I'd have to peel the skin and study the skull up close, and I can't. This is quack work. Strictly quack."

"What happened when you met them?"

"Who? The Tower Master's party?"

"Yes."

"They were the spitting image of the Three Great Elders. The moment they saw me, they tried to rob me."

"You managed to escape, with skill like yours."

Chris indicated himself with his chin.

"Which is why I look like this. Fire magic burned every stitch of my clothes. The Motaro very nearly went with them. I'd be grateful ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠if you refrained from anything dangerous enough to ruin it. Now, back to the point. Tell me about this shortcut — the thing that got Julien so firmly on everyone's bad side."

Daryl stepped forward.

"If we tell you, will you give us the Motaro?"

Not only Shay and Britney of the other tower, but Richard and Perez of her own, moved to stop her.

"No."

"Don't."

"You can't."

"Stop."

Daryl ignored every one of them.

"Sid. Answer me."

Watching her, Chris understood that of all of them, her remaining life was the shortest.

"I'll put you first in line."

"Only first in line?"

"Because I'm not convinced you can guarantee my safety."

"I said I guarantee it."

"I've been stabbed in the back too many times to trust anyone."

Perez said, "You think you're likely to die."

Chris nodded.

"Yes."

"Then why ask about the shortcut? If you die, that's the end of it."

"Even if I die when I die, I mean to have the question answered first."

He met Daryl's eyes.

"I was told the first three rings are meant to be woven by one's own power."

He started at the edges and worked inward, trying to draw the secret out of her. Daryl nodded.

"That's right."

"How do you weave the three?"

"I can't reveal our tower's secret."

"Then roughly. Roughly. I heard you weave them to match your own seed. If you hold a water-attribute seed — seawater, fresh water, cloud. That sort of thing."

"Yes. Some weave them as liquid, gas, and solid."

"Solid?"

"Ice. There is a separate ice-attribute seed, but that's another matter."

"Cold water, hot water, steam. That would work too."

"It depends on how you do it."

"Good. So you've made three rings matched to your own attribute. What about the fourth? How do you rise to the intermediate rank?"

Perez snapped, stern.

"Daryl!"

Daryl sent a thread of Thought Language.

She brushed his objection aside and looked at Chris.

"Weaving a fourth ring and rising to the intermediate rank is difficult."

"Why?"

"Because you have to weave a ring of a different attribute."

"So three is the limit for rings of the same attribute."

"Yes."

"Is a different attribute that hard?"

"When the attribute differs, it isn't easy. A compatible one is somewhat better. One that stands in opposition is especially difficult."

"I understand the gist, but it doesn't quite land. Would you explain with an example?"

"If you had a wood-attribute seed, weaving a ring of the water attribute would be the easier work. Wood and water favor each other. But fire? Would someone with a wood seed find it easy to weave a fire-attribute ring?"

"It would be hard."

"That's why the further you go, the more you come to rely on the shortcut."

"The further you go? You mean that even if you can use the shortcut, it's better to put it off as long as you can?"

"Of course."

"So if you have a wood seed, you weave three by your own power, and even after you learn the shortcut you still weave the compatible water ring yourself — and earth as well, if you can manage it, so much the better. Only when you come to the truly difficult fire ring do you use the shortcut. Is that right?"

"Yes. That's what my master taught me. From the way you talk, it seems you have a wood seed."

Chris almost lied. Then he nodded.

"Can you weave three rings of an attribute different from your seed as well?"

"No. Of a different attribute, you can weave only one."

"Three by your own power, and another three of whatever is most compatible. Become a six-ring mage that way, use the shortcut when you climb to the advanced rank, and when the shortcut fails, take Motaro's help to weave the rings — and that path, all the way to Ultimate Mage, is the proper road. The royal road."

"That's right."

"But mages who walk the royal road are few. Usually they turn to the shortcut when they cross into the intermediate rank."

"Did all of you?"

"I used the shortcut from the fourth ring on."

Chris turned his gaze aside.

"What about the rest of you?"

Perez and Richard gave no answer. Shay did.

"I managed four on my own."

Carmen's face hardened.

"Shay! Don't!"

Shay jabbed a finger at Daryl.

"That old hag is spilling it all anyway."

Inwardly, Chris brightened. Once they started competing, their mouths would open wider. He went for the heart of it.

"What is the shortcut?"

Silence.

"I'm not asking you to teach me in detail. A surface account will do."

Shay hesitated, then said it.

"You eat someone else's Klpandi."

"Ah. Yes. A Klpandi — you what? You eat it?"

Chris was aghast.

"How do you eat a Klpandi? What in the world are you saying?"

Shay had given the secret up first. Nothing restrained Daryl now.

"It means exactly what it says. You tear out another person's Klpandi and weave a ring upon it. The specific method I couldn't teach you even if you gave me the Motaro."

Chris was struck dumb.

Eat a Klpandi? Whose? The disciples of their own tower?

Perez, sensing the gap, looked ready to spring. Even in his daze, Chris caught the movement — thanks to the fundamentals of the Split-Mind Art he had learned from the fiend Tenbo and the ogre.

His mind snapped clear.

Don't let go of the thread.

One slip, and those hungry ghosts would tear him apart in the blink of an eye.

"Don't move!"

He brought the fireball close to the Motaro.

"Before the lightning can damage it, my fireball might destroy it first."

Perez clicked his tongue, disappointed.

"Quick eyes."

Chris spat.

"I heard Mick Magic Tower dresses its Sikbae mages in robes according to the attribute of their seeds."

"..."

"So the seed can be read at a glance. One look, and you know."

"..."

"To make them easier to eat?"

"..."

Shay said, "That's Mick Magic Tower for you. Utterly heartless."

"And assigning a Sikbae of the same attribute as master to a Jenyeom..."

Daryl cut him off.

"You must have heard a great deal of slander about our tower while you studied at Herman, but that part isn't true. Learning from a mage of the same attribute is simply the most effective, so that's who is assigned as master. And think. I told you that after you weave the rings of your own attribute by your own power, you use the shortcut for a ring of a different attribute. So we don't eat the Klpandi of a disciple of the same attribute. That only happens when someone unqualified, like Julien, uses the shortcut."

"Ah. So that's why you have to weave three on your own before they'll teach you the shortcut. So that, at the very least, you don't eat a disciple you taught yourself."

"That's part of it."

"Is there another part?"

Chris thought for a moment, then clicked his tongue.

"You trade them, and then you eat."

He was right. One who had woven three rings of the wood line exchanged disciples with one who had woven three of the water line, and they ate them. That was how a magic tower was formed.

"I thought the towers were raised to advance magic — to exchange knowledge and lift the standard. They weren't. You raised the next generation to obtain material for raising your own realm. You raised disciples the way people raise cattle, pigs, and chickens. For food."

He let out a long, bitter breath.

"I was taught to regard a master as a parent. What kind of parent eats their own child?"

Daryl muttered, "Once you trade, they aren't your own children."

"Even beasts balk at eating their own kind..."

The mages had done what beasts would not. On a vast scale, systematically, generation after generation.

Even driven to the brink of starving to death, people try not to turn to eating their own. More of them choose to starve.

"And yet their own children..."

A man with a thousand years ahead of him devours a disciple like his own child, for the sake of a hundred more. No such person could be in his right mind. No such person could be good. Of course the temper turned to filth. Even a nature once refined, fed often enough on disciples, could only grow foul.

"I always wondered why mages were so inhuman. Why their characters were so rotten. Now I understand. Eat your own children and stay sane — that would be the stranger thing."

When the upper waters are clear, the lower waters are clear. The Chukhwan who ruled the spirit of the towers were in that state, and the Sikbae who learned from them had their minds twisted in turn.

Suddenly he remembered what the ogre had said. Kanta had told him that what Chris had learned and the Acrian Magic Book belonged to different lineages. Had the magic the towers taught been steeped in that filth from the very start? Was that why their tempers soured even before they ate another person's Klpandi?

Daryl cut through the thought.

"I've told you the whole secret. Give me the Motaro."

"I have a few more questions. If you use the shortcut, do the rings weave easily?"

"They do."

"Does one person suffice?"

"..."

"Your silence says one isn't enough. Three?"

"At first, two or three will do."

"Judging from that, the more rings you have, the more Klpandis you have to eat. And Motaro?"

"One is enough."