The Privilege of the Key
Chris exploded.
"Why swear a Mana Oath you're free to break? Were you trying to deceive me?"
"It wasn't only you. We swore to each other as well, so no one was deceived. A Mana Oath carries a deterrent of its own. That's why mages avoid swearing them if they can, and try to keep them when they must. Forcing an oath on someone is deeply rude—rude enough that you could kill a man over it and be justified."
"What kind of deterrent?"
"They say it becomes a stumbling block later, when your realm tries to rise."
"A stumbling block? Then you shouldn't break it."
"I'm looking at death right now. I can't keep an oath for the sake of some obstacle that might or might not appear in two or three hundred years. I'm not that rigid."
"Two hundred years? Three hundred?"
"The first time I broke a Mana Oath, it sat very badly with me. I worried constantly that it would catch me by the ankle at the decisive moment. But nothing of the sort happened, even after I reached Chukhwan."
"Mage Julien, you're mid-level Chukhwan, aren't you?"
"That's right."
"Then it's all right to break them, at least up through mid-level Chukhwan?"
"I can't speak for anyone else. In my case, yes. Even so, don't break them if you can help it."
"You break yours. Why can't I?"
"You're young. Who knows how high you'll climb? Imagine standing on the verge of Ultimate Mage and failing because of some petty oath you broke ages ago. You'd be sick over it. So don't swear a Mana Oath unless you must, and if circumstances force you into one, don't break it."
Hell muttered.
"Maybe Julien never reached high-level and stalled at mid-level because he broke a Mana Oath long ago."
Julien's brow twitched with displeasure. He mastered himself at once and grinned.
"Could be."
"Are you really going to teach the secret?" Chris asked.
Julien answered while looking at Hell, Hugo, and Pearson instead of Chris.
"Yes."
"Those people are from a rival tower."
"You have a nasty habit of making a man repeat himself. How many times have I said it? I haven't much life left. I'm about to die. What does it matter which tower they come from?"
Chris understood. If it meant staying alive, there was nothing Julien would not do.
Hell swallowed and spoke.
"Teach us first."
"That won't do."
"I'll swear a Mana Oath."
"Why do you think I bothered talking to that boy? Because teaching amuses me? Because I was bored? To stir his intellect? To donate a little knowledge? No. Every word was meant for you to hear. When your life is on the line, what's breaking an oath? Don't try to tempt me with a Mana Oath."
"There is no other collateral, is there?"
Hugo caught Hell by the wrist.
"Wait."
"Why?"
"You're getting pulled along by Julien."
"How?"
"We might find treasure in the ruins more precious than the secret of binding rings. There's no need to negotiate right now."
"True."
Hell's brow creased.
"You have a gifted tongue."
Julien shrugged.
"Fine. We'll go inside... and decide later."
"You opened with an offer you could have made once the treasure was in front of them," Chris said. "That was hasty."
"I brought it up on purpose, to save time."
"Save time?"
"Who knows what will happen in there. I said it now so they'd decide quickly when the moment comes."
Julien looked at them and went on.
"Think carefully about my proposal."
Fifteen hundred supreme-grade magic stones, split into five heaps, lay where five hundred mercenaries and mages had stood. Fifteen hundred of them. Even Chris, who had once owned a considerable hoard, felt his head spin at the sheer volume. With that much, you could buy a country.
Under Hell's watch, Julien set to work activating the magic circle, and the other mages ringed the pair. Chris used the lull to question the mages of Hermann Magic Tower.
"Why were you watching Tom?"
Julien stopped working and shot the question back.
"Who is Tom?"
"You don't know?"
"I don't."
"He was holding something decisive related to the Horace Ruins. You truly don't know?"
Chris's eyes narrowed as he tried to call the man to mind.
"His realm was Chukhwan, and I heard he'd been locked in the prison of Mick Magic Tower for over a hundred and fifty years."
"Then it must have been an alias."
"Ah. An alias."
Chris clicked his tongue. Aliases everywhere. He had no right to complain, being an alias himself, but it still soured his mood.
"What was this decisive thing Tom was holding?"
"I wasn't assigned to Mick Magic Tower, so I don't know the details. I only know he was holding something truly important."
Julien looked at Hell.
"You don't know what it was?"
Hell started to shake his head, then stopped halfway.
"What does that mean?" Chris asked.
Julien answered for him.
"It means he doesn't know, but he can roughly guess."
"You seem to have a guess of your own," Hell said.
Julien ignored the question and looked at Chris.
"Was that what the Children of the Mask were doing?"
Chris laid his guess out as if it were fact.
"Yes. Watching Mick Magic Tower was the most important duty. If we'd poured our strength elsewhere, we would have found the magic circle long ago and entered the ruins much earlier. I think the priorities were wrong."
"Then it's clear."
"What is?"
Julien resumed the work as he answered.
"It seems Tom was holding the key."
"The key?"
"The Gold Key that opens the Horace Ruins."
Chris pointed at the magic circle with the toe of his boot.
"We can go in through here. Why does the key matter? Is it because they begrudge the stones the circle consumes? Watching the Tower Master spend supreme-grade stones like water, I doubt it. It's also strange that Mick Magic Tower kept him locked up for over a hundred and fifty years, and strange that Hermann's elders spied on it in secret."
"The other magic circles only work properly once the door is opened with the key."
"Ah. So that's it?"
"Yes. I'm told that if you travel by magic circle before the door opens properly, you don't arrive at the ruins. You end up somewhere else—somewhere so dangerous that even a Chukhwan would struggle to survive."
Chris nodded, convinced, then soon tilted his head.
"Then instead of locking Tom up for a hundred and fifty years, they could have let him open the door with the key and followed him in through the circle. If he stole a key that belonged to Mick Magic Tower, that's insolent, sure—but wasting a hundred and fifty years imprisoning him still seems unnecessary."
"The elders of Mick Magic Tower are not the sort to waste a hundred and fifty years over insolence."
"So there was a reason."
"There was."
"What was it?"
Julien stopped working and stared at Chris.
"Why should I tell you?"
"There's no reason not to."
"There's no reason to, either."
"We're on the same side. I've cooperated actively this whole time."
"And in return, I've given you a great deal of information."
"You made a show of speaking to me, but you were really handing those words to the mages over there."
"I said plenty to you as well."
Chris scratched the back of his head.
"Our abilities are far enough apart that I doubt it, but is there something you want from me?"
"There is."
"What?"
"Give me one of the treasures you obtain."
Pearson objected at once.
"He belongs to our tower. Why are you coveting that?"
Julien let out a short laugh.
"To be precise, Sid belongs to the Elder Council. An elder who keeps the likes of you shut out."
"One moment," Chris said. "Does that mean I can take part in the treasure hunt as well?"
"You're going in too. Of course you can find things."
"Finding and owning are separate matters, aren't they?"
"Practical, aren't you."
"Suffer enough from childhood, and you become a practical person without trying."
Chris raised both hands and went on.
"Even if I find treasure, I don't have the strength to keep it. I'll give it to you, Julien, or to anyone else—just give me a little information."
"You'll give it to me first, won't you?"
"If you actually give me the information."
"The one who enters first with the key receives a privilege."
"A privilege?"
"He drops into a safe place. One with treasure nearby."
"Reading between the lines, that means there are also dangerous places with no particular treasure nearby."
Julien snapped his fingers.
"Exactly. That's why the key is precious."
Chris muttered.
"So letting him go after a hundred and fifty years was..."
Hell cut in.
"Let him go? What are you talking about?"
"A spy who infiltrated Mick Magic Tower reported that something was off—that it looked as if they'd abetted the escape."
"So the elders of Mick Magic Tower were desperate too," Julien said.
"Desperate?"
"Looks like they don't have much life left either."
"Ah."
"So, however much it stung, they gave up on seizing the key and let him go. The ruins had to be opened before they could follow him in."
"Um..."
"What? Something else you want to know?"
"I heard Tom escaped four years ago. The Hermann elders, and you as well—why move so late? You should have gone in as fast as possible, before someone else claimed the treasure."
"Explaining the rules will be faster."
"Rules?"
"I just told you about the privilege."
"Yes."
"The one holding the key can enter the ruins first. He drops somewhere safe and close to the treasure. If your intelligence is right, Tom's party took that. Second is following through the door the key opened, before it closes..."
Chris cut in.
"That's possible?"
"It is. The door stays open for about half a day. If your report is accurate and they abetted Tom's escape, the elders of Mick Magic Tower who were watching him would have taken that. They don't arrive in the same place, though. They drop somewhere more dangerous and farther off than the key holder. There's a limit on numbers as well."
"A limit?"
"The more companions you bring, the farther and more dangerous the place you land. Or so they say."
"And third would be traveling by magic circle, like us."
"Right. But follow too quickly, and you drop into an extremely dangerous place. That is precisely the key's privilege."
"So the destination isn't fixed?"
"Correct. You don't know where you'll land. The transfer is random."
"Following quickly is dangerous, then?"
"Yes. Anyone entering by magic circle has to wait until the time is right."
"Even so, four years is far too long, isn't it? Wait too late, and the ones who went ahead will have taken all the treasure."
"Which is why choosing the right moment matters. Less dangerous, but not too late."
Julien shrugged and continued.
"That's why it's so complicated, and why your spies watched Mick Magic Tower. Seize the key if you can. If you can't, follow straight through the open door."
He gave a bitter smile.
"Fail even at that, and you end up using a magic circle, like this. By that measure, your spies failed their mission."
"So the optimal time to enter the ruins, calculated that carefully, is around now."
"Not quite."
"What do you mean?"
"Depending on the magic circle, it might be. And it might not."
"And what is that supposed to mean?"
"Touleno Magic Tower has a circle that leads to the ruins as well. So why would I bow my head and travel with the Tower Master of Hermann and his party?"
"Why?"
"Because our magic circle is crap."