The Patient Mage (47)

Chris chose the wood-attribute Evaluation Paper.

"Please teach me the spell."

"Hold on."

"What?"

"Rooted in the earth, drinking water, reaching for the sky — that much I follow. But it burns? If a tree catches fire, isn't that the end of it?"

"Look at me."

Chris looked at her face, crowded with fine wrinkles. The moment she opened her mouth, the creases at her lips sank deeper.

"What do you see?"

"An old woman."

"And what would an old woman like me know about spells? I'm only repeating something I picked up from my husband, long ago."

"So you're saying Donna's spell might be rubbish."

"I only recited it the way I was taught."

"Taught rubbish, and then—"

Donna cut him off, her face gone angry.

"Are you calling my husband a fraud?"

"Hard to say."

"My husband is a high mage. If he'd ever been properly unleashed, he would have chewed the kingdom up and swallowed it. A spell handed down by a mage like that — that's what this is. If you don't understand it, memorize it. Memorize it, no questions asked."

"Memorizing it blindly is a bit much, isn't it?"

"When you don't understand something, blind memorization is the best there is."

Chris kept cocking his head, and Donna's manner turned sullen.

"Then don't. But have you got another way?"

He didn't. That was the trouble.

Chris let out a long sigh and began to recite. After a dozen repetitions the words sat easily in his mouth, and he started drawing mana in through Iron Body.

I am a tree. A tree rooted in the earth...

Mana that had turned to the wood attribute — more precisely, mana Chris believed he had turned to the wood attribute — passed through his fingers and seeped into the Evaluation Paper.

Sss.

The feeling was different from before. He could sense the paper sucking the mana in. Certain of success, Chris kept feeding it. A green current lifted off the Evaluation Paper like summer haze and gathered itself into the shape of a tree, then broke apart as smoke does, and was gone.

"It worked."

Donna said it in a drained voice. Chris narrowed his eyes.

"You sound oddly disappointed."

"As if."

Donna clapped.

"Aigoo, wonderful. I'm dying of joy."

Then she smiled with nothing but her eyes.

"Now we get down to the particulars."

An old woman with wrinkles packed at the corners of her eyes, smiling that way — it made his skin crawl.

"What do you mean?"

Chris ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠asked, backing off two steps.

"We've established that you're wood-attribute. But wood doesn't mean only trees. It's the name for plants as a whole. Grass is in there. So are grains — rice, wheat, barley, sorghum — and root crops like sweet potatoes. Trees themselves divide without end: broad-leaved ones, sharp-needled conifers, fruit trees, and so on."

"You're saying I have to be judged down to the specifics?"

"Better if you are."

Chris's mouth twisted.

"It'll be expensive, I imagine."

Donna cleared her throat.

"Afraid so. A detailed Evaluation Paper usually starts at thirty gold."

"I'll pass. I'll be content with wood."

"Through Jenyeom you're fine. But if you mean to reach Sikbae, it's better to know the details. I'm not coaxing you because I'm greedy for money."

"Truly?"

Donna cleared her throat again.

"I am a little greedy."

She opened a small gap between thumb and forefinger.

"This much. No more, no less — exactly this much. Really, only this much."

"I haven't the money. I'm stopping."

"You've still got fifty. Hoard it and it turns to shit. When it's time to spend, spend hard."

"Wait."

Chris's face went flat.

"We agreed on four Evaluation Papers for the four great elements at thirty-seven gold. Add ten for the wood-attribute paper and that's forty-seven, so why would fifty be left? Fifty-three ought to be left."

A life spent with nothing had left him quick about money.

Donna ignored the protest.

"Take out the commission for going all the way to the capital to collect the money, and then the price of the spell I taught you..."

Chris couldn't hold the sarcasm back.

"A price for the spell? What is that worth? It isn't even the original wording."

"And you never learned even a scrap like that at the Tower, did you? Well?"

Harvey had never taught anything that might actually have helped. All he had done was dangle, at every chance, an invitation to join his experiments. The one useful thing had been the Mik breathing method, and Iron Body had made even that useless to Chris.

No proper rebuttal came to mind.

"That may be, but..."

"So the money is settled that way."

"I don't agree."

"You're truly not going to do the detailed reading? I don't think you understand this. Rising to Sikbae is hard. Really, truly hard. Ten times harder than going from Gyesin to Jenyeom. Know the seed's details exactly, and germination gets at least a little easier."

"Did you hear that from your husband, the great high mage?"

"I did."

"I'll do it later, once I've earned the money."

"Then there's nothing to be done."

Donna gave up on selling him Evaluation Papers. In their place she pushed a different ware.

"The gold you've got left — you'll be changing it for mana stones, yes?"

"I don't need mana stones."

"Use mana stones and you can drive your training speed up something dramatic."

"I'm not falling for it. Stop trying to hook me."

"Fine. I'll be generous."

Donna brought a wood-attribute mana stone out of the display case.

"Lowest grade. Six silver, if you were buying it. I'll give it to you. Try it as a test, and if the effect seems good... ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠you know."

Chris pocketed the stone for the moment.

"When I came before, didn't you say three or four silver?"

"That was an ordinary mana stone. Attribute stones cost more."

"And back then you said Brian Magic Store was high-end, and dealt only in expensive attribute stones."

"Those were prices from eight years ago. You don't think the cost of things has gone up?"

"So prices doubled in the meantime."

"You keep steering this toward me ripping you off. I am a genuinely conscientious person. I've never forced unneeded goods on anyone, and I've never gouged a soul on the price."

Donna put fifty gold coins into a leather pouch and handed it over. Chris took the gold and, quietly, pressed on the soft spot.

"The Mana Helmet."

"..."

"You palmed a useless thing off on the prince, at a steep price."

Donna raised both hands.

"I lose. Ten percent off, for you. Brat — you know how to bargain."

"You ought to have started there."

Chris left the shop smiling. But the farther he walked, the stranger his expression became. Accepting the ten percent discount meant he had decided to buy his mana stones at Donna's magic shop. He had the distinct feeling he'd been had.

Chris was eating supper. Aside from the times Hailey sat down beside him, he usually ate alone, but today was different. Lai, the boy they called a genius, took the seat next to him and grinned.

"Mister."

Too much bother to care, Chris answered offhand.

"What?"

"I hear you're dating the ugly girl from Hall Three."

Food shot out of Chris's mouth.

"What are you talking about?"

"Somebody saw you and the ugly one on a date."

"A date?"

"They say you were loafing around a café."

"Oh, that. Friends having tea."

Chris caught the boy's cheek and pulled.

"Calling a senior ugly! A brat with no manners."

"Ow, ow. That hurts."

"That's why I'm pulling."

"Let go. Let go of me!"

Chris saw light gleam from the necklace at the boy's throat and released ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠him. He took it for a sign that magic was about to manifest.

Lai rubbed the pinched cheek and glared at him.

"And you, a moron."

"I'm a moron?"

"A moron, which is why you still haven't even had your seed read. You haven't a spell you can use."

"I'm a late bloomer. A great vessel is made slowly. That's how it goes."

"Hmph."

"But listen."

"What?"

"Alice wasn't the only one at that café. Catherine was there too. It never crossed your mind that I might be seeing Catherine?"

This time the water Lai had been drinking burst out of him.

And he jeered.

"Wahahaha!"

To Chris's irritation, every apprentice who had been eavesdropping on the two of them laughed as well.

"Why are you laughing?"

"Sister Catherine is the greatest beauty in the Training Wing. Why would a beauty like that meet a retard like you, mister? You belong with the ugly one."

They all nodded, as if they quite agreed. Chris's mood soured further. He moved to pull Lai's cheek again, then scowled at a thought that arrived without warning.

Frightened by the change in Chris's face, Lai changed seats. Chris left off eating and thought.

I'm getting Tom out of that prison.

That was plain betrayal. When the prince was murdered, the Tower had set out to kill every suspect. They had done it even over a matter they considered nothing much.

If he did something the Tower took seriously, how would they answer?

They might harm Alice and Catherine for no better reason than that he was close to them.

And if they used memory-extraction magic on the two of them?

The mere imagining sent a shudder through him.

I have to keep my distance.

Chris decided that after the meeting already promised a few days out, he would not see either of them again. Thinking he might never meet them after that, his heart hurt already.

He finished the rest of the meal in a hurry, went up to his room, and drew mana in and worked it by the secret of Iron Body. Unlike before, he kept the wood attribute in mind, and now and then he recited the spell he had learned from Donna. He did not try to take in only wood-attribute mana, though. There was never much mana in the air. Draw nothing but the wood attribute out of that small store, and the amount grew smaller still.

Telling himself that the mana he absorbed was turning into wood-attribute mana — that it had turned — Chris sent it down into his legs. Before the seed evaluation he had sent it mostly to his arms. Harvey's tests had left him no choice but to concentrate there. Things were different now. He knew what kind of seed he carried, and he no longer had any reason to stay tangled up with Harvey.

He meant to deal with the Black Spheres in his legs first, because a leg is, as a rule, stronger than an arm. When the time came to break the steps, a stamp with his weight behind it would do more than a blow from his fist.

Merely deciding that the mana moving through his body was wood-attribute ought not to have changed a thing. Astonishingly, it did. His efficiency was plainly higher than before. The blocked places did not, for all that, burst open one after another. He had never even dreamed of clearing them at a stroke from the start. One look at the black things jammed in there, and he felt without having to reason it out how hard the work would be.

Chris gnawed at the rims of the Black Spheres a little at a time. He stayed awake the whole night, and then he threw up his hands. It was like wearing a boulder down with a length of fine wire.

In what lifetime am I supposed to bore through all of this?

"At this rate it'll take a hundred years. Stupid Tom."

Chris resented Tom. He had resented him often enough before, but the grain of it was different this time. Before, he had resented the mere fact of being taught Iron Body. Now he resented that the man had not left him a proper method.

"I have to finish Iron Body if I'm going to break the steps, don't I? You sly old man."

At this pace, breaking the steps before Tom served out his sentence was impossible.

Chris laughed, hollowed out.

"The old man will walk free when his term is up."

The Training Wing was ringed with mountains, and secluded places were plentiful. When Chris led the way up into the trees, Alice laughed.

"Are you making a move?"

"A café has too many eyes and ears."

Her eyes ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠went round.

"That was a joke. You're actually making a move?"

Chris found a suitable spot and spread the mat he had brought ahead of time.

"Sit here."

"You want me to lie down?"

"I said sit! Sit!"

Alice and Catherine sat down, laughing.

"What? What's going on?"

"People saw us meeting at the café and got the idea we were dating. So I came where there isn't anyone. Nothing good comes of ending up in gossip."

"With who?"

"With you."

"And that put you in a bad mood?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"Not one of them thought I was seeing Catherine."

"Puhaha!"

Alice burst out laughing. Then, all at once, her face went serious.

"You're in a bad mood because there's a rumor about you and me?"

"Not exactly."

"Which means you did have the thought."

"A little. A very little."

"I am slowly starting to get annoyed."

Chris waved a hand.

"Let's drop it. It isn't important."

He dipped his head to the two of them and went on.

"Teach me some magic."