The Ruin's Favor
"So magic circles have their ranks as well."
Chris went on, brushing the circle with the sole of his foot.
"Then this one stands among the better sort?"
"That, I don't know. I'm only throwing in with it because it's better than anything our tower has. At least that much."
"From the look of it, this circle was made a very long time ago. Why has it been left to sit until now?"
"Because everyone who went in died, I'd wager."
"Ah!"
"So the circle was forgotten and abandoned. And that's what made it precious."
"Precious?"
"A circle that hasn't been used in ages gets preferential treatment. It sends you somewhere comparatively safe, where the odds of finding treasure run high. The head of your organization must have been delighted to find this place."
Julien flicked a glance at Tower Master Hell and continued.
"The circles Hermann Magic Tower already controls have been used so often they drop you somewhere dangerous."
Chris was startled.
"Hermann Magic Tower possesses circles like this?"
"They do."
"Then the Tower Master could simply go through one of those..."
Julien clicked his tongue and cut him off.
"Have you been letting every word I say go in one ear and out the other? Use an old circle too often and the ruins start to slight it. You spend your strength and come away with no treasure. That's what I've been telling you."
"And if this one is used often as well...?"
"The quality drops."
"Do the keys have a cycle of use, too?"
"A key is single-use. Once you've used it, you can't use it again."
"Then that's the end of it, isn't it?"
"After a certain span of time, they appear again."
Chris was frankly astonished.
"Someone makes them and scatters them?"
"I don't know. All I've heard is that archmages who lived a very long time ago arranged it that way, for the sake of those who came after."
"You mean the ruins scatter them on their own?"
"Who can say."
"Who made rules like these? Horace?"
"No idea."
"A great deal of this is vague."
"What I've been calling rules are things mages of the past worked out over a long age of trial and error — or, to put it another way, through no end of sacrifice. They didn't learn any of it by laying hands on a manual. Bound to be holes."
Hell spoke.
"Enough chatter."
Julien nodded.
"Fair enough."
After that, no one opened his mouth. Julien bent silently to the work, and before long announced that it was done.
Chris spoke up.
"Excuse me."
The questions kept delaying the work, and Pearson's temper frayed.
"What!"
"You said that if the party grows too large, we fall somewhere dangerous. Wouldn't it be better, then, if the rest of us stayed behind and only the Chukhwan mages went?"
Hell said, "We are the stragglers behind the stragglers behind the stragglers."
"What does that mean?"
"It means that up to about ten people, the danger does not increase."
"Was that learned by trial and error as well?"
Chris pressed his lips shut.
Julien smiled, thin and easy, drew out his staff, and began an incantation. When the chant ended, light surged up from the magic circle, and a moment later they were gone.
His stomach lurched and his head pounded, as if he had spent a long day in a carriage over brutal roads. Chris braced a hand against a tree and dry-heaved. It was the first time he had felt motion sickness since he began training Iron Body.
He looked at the others. Mages of the Chukhwan realm stood perfectly upright, while those of lesser attainment were bent double as he was, their faces pale. Even so, no one was actually vomiting.
A Grandmaster can't afford to look pathetic.
He forced his stomach down and took in the surroundings. Trees stood packed tight on every side.
"This is the Horace Ruins?"
It was brutally hot, and wet with it.
"A tropical rainforest?"
For all that heat, no one was sweating. Chris possessed a Grandmaster's body, so ordinary heat and cold were things he could endure bare-skinned. That the mages seemed untouched by it was stranger.
He understood a moment later.
The robes.
They were high-ranking mages, dressed in expensive robes layered with all manner of enchantments.
There'll be a temperature-regulating spell on them.
Hell turned to Julien.
"Do you know this jungle?"
"No. Do you?"
"Neither do I."
Hugo muttered, "Unfamiliar country. This is going to be a misery."
The others looked troubled. Julien, by contrast, seemed pleased.
"Perfect."
"Perfect?"
"If it's unfamiliar to us, then there's no information. And if there's no information, it means no mage has been here and come back."
Pearson slapped his knee.
"So no one's already made off with the treasure."
"Exactly."
Eager now, they pushed off into the jungle. Every time they moved, clouds of flying insects rose and pestered them.
Apparently insect-repelling wasn't among the robe's functions.
Ethan and the other mages swept the bugs away by hand until the mosquitoes came on in earnest, and then they raised barriers and wrapped themselves in them.
Mosquitoes struck those barriers and came apart with dry little snaps. Chris's own skin was too tough for a mosquito to pierce, but he had no wish to show the others that, so he formed a barrier of his own. He had never learned the relevant spell. The result was crude, and weak.
Ethan saw it, and puzzlement crossed his face.
"Your level is..."
Chris grinned.
"My level is what?"
"It's too..."
"Too what? Low?"
Ethan nodded.
"Spy work. I spent all my time outside and never got a proper education. I'm better at other things, though I'd rather not get into it."
Julien looked interested.
"Better at what?"
"That's a secret."
Chris tossed the answer off and turned the subject.
"Do you actually know the way you're walking?"
The one out in front was Tower Master Hell. Hell glanced back, then ignored the question. Julien answered instead.
"First time through, and no map besides. How would anyone know the way?"
"So you're simply moving by feel?"
"That we are."
"Doesn't that seem a little careless?"
"We have to go somewhere. Keep moving like this and a path will turn up."
"Wouldn't it be better to go up, read the lay of the land, and then move?"
Julien wore a blank look for a moment, then broke into a rough laugh.
"I was so thrilled to be inside the ruins that I didn't think it through. You're right."
He shot skyward at a speed that caught the breath. Chris had never seen anyone move that fast in the air — faster even than flight on a carpet. He stared upward, mouth open in honest admiration, and in that instant lightning fell out of a clear sky.
The bolt hammered Julien, and he dropped at a terrifying speed. He looked unconscious. The jungle was thick with trees, but by rotten luck the place he was headed held no tree at all, only a rock. Hit stone at that speed and even a Chukhwan would be badly hurt.
Chris sprinted for the point of impact. Conscious of the eyes on him, he muttered as if chanting a spell, then tore the rock free and flung it aside by strength rather than magic. Into the hole it left, he poured water with a spell, hoping to soften the fall.
The ground and the falling man closed at a frightening rate. Chris raised a wind and tried to lift him. It may have done something. When the distance had narrowed to within five paces, Julien came to. A hard brake caught him. His speed fell off sharply, and he dropped into the pit.
Water burst from the hole and sheeted across the ground.
"Heh heh."
He climbed out wearing an empty little laugh, and asked, "You make that?"
"Yes."
Julien looked at him with an odd light in his eyes.
"Why try to help me?"
"Because you answered my questions in good faith."
He patted Chris twice on the shoulder, then went to the Tower Master, who had been watching the whole thing.
"Did you know that going into the sky brings down lightning?"
"No. I didn't."
"Truly?"
"Truly."
Chris studied Hell's face. It seemed he meant it. Julien appeared to think so as well. He flicked the wet from his robe and turned away.
"Let's move."
Chris followed, eyeing the robe, blackened by scorch and soaked through.
"I thought that robe was waterproof."
"It was."
"It's ruined."
"Lightning strong enough to knock a mid-grade Chukhwan unconscious. Of course the robe's ruined."
He bared his teeth in a grin.
"That was a rush."
Hell closed in at his shoulder.
"Why this direction?"
"When I was up there... that is, just before the lightning hit..."
Julien let the words hang a moment, meaningful, and then went on.
"I saw something man-made."
Hell's face brightened at once.
"Then we go there."
"We are."
"Good work."
They strode on at a quick pace with Julien in the lead. All at once he sent a pulse of Thought Language.
Chris was startled first by how sudden it was, and then by what it said.
Julien abruptly cleared his throat.
Embarrassed, he changed the subject aloud.
"Your barrier is pathetic."
"Yes. I know."
In that moment a peculiar ripple brushed past Chris, and his eyes flew open.
This is it.
When Chris had first met Agent No. 1 at the Dandelion Inn, No. 1 had released a strange ripple to take the measure of his ability. What Julien had just used was much the same.
"What was that?"
"What was what?"
"What you just used."
The ripple washed over him again.
"This, you mean?"
"Yes. It's a spell for reading someone's level, isn't it?"
"You say the oddest things."
"Did I get the name wrong? A realm-confirmation spell? A level-search spell? A realm-detection spell?"
"This isn't a spell."
"Then what is it?"
"The power of one's consciousness, put to use. We call it Willpower."
"Willpower, Willpower, Willpower..."
Chris turned the word over, and then asked, "What sort of thing is it?"
"You can use it broadly, in place of a detection spell."
"Is it an advanced technique? Like Thought Language?"
"Well. You could think of it that way."
"Would you teach me?"
"No."
Chris was disappointed. He had thought the two of them were on better terms after he helped Julien in the fall. Apparently that had been his own delusion.
The feeling must have shown, because Julien said, "What? Sore about it?"
"No."
"You look sore."
"If I'm honest, I expected a little. A very little."
"Why expect anything?"
"We're on good terms, aren't we?"
"Which is why I keep answering your questions, one after another."
"So ours is the sort of relationship where you answer questions, and I shouldn't expect anything beyond that?"
"Exactly. You're good at defining a relationship."
"Then answer a few more for me."
"Fine."
"Why did you just sweep me with Willpower?"
"I wanted to analyze your barrier."
"Willpower can do that, too."
Julien nodded.
"And the result?"
"Crude, just as it looked from the outside. Tell me — is your seed metal-attribute?"
"Ah. Well."
Chris put on a displeased face.
"Isn't it rude to ask about someone's seed?"
"It is rude."
"Didn't you just draw a line and say we aren't as close as I thought? That question crosses the line."
"I'm allowed to cross it."
"Why?"
"Because I'm far stronger than you."
Chris did not agree with far, but he let it pass.
"It isn't metal."
"Thought so."
"Is the crudeness of my barrier related to my seed's attribute?"
"It is."