Nothing Comes Free
Chris traced four wide circles around the house site. In that time every mage woke and gathered, and they seemed to be arguing over where to go next. He was on his fifth circuit when Julien beckoned him over with a wave.
As he drew near, Pearson said curtly,
"Why call a Seed?"
Julien smiled.
"That one's no ordinary man. We ought to hear what an extraordinary man has to say."
The smile left his face, and he went on in earnest.
"Seed. Where would you rather we go?"
Chris turned his head left, then right, before he answered.
"I think we'd do better to stay here."
Pearson snorted.
"Not worth hearing."
The other mages ignored him, but Julien listened carefully.
"Why do you think that?"
"I can't say it for nothing."
"Heh heh heh."
Julien laughed, and the sound of it was strange.
"Why are you laughing like that?"
"Because I was right. You're no ordinary man."
Chris shrugged.
"That's the sort of person I am."
Julien's expression hardened.
"That wasn't a compliment."
Chris hunched his shoulders.
"It wasn't?"
Julien pointed at the Seed Cultivation mages of Hermann Magic Tower.
"Look at them."
Chris flicked them a glance.
"I looked."
"Notice anything?"
"Not really."
"They keep their mouths shut and do only what their masters tell them."
"Yes. They watch their step a great deal."
"The world of mages has a clear hierarchy. Those of a lower realm obey those above them absolutely. You don't."
"I'm not ordinary, remember?"
"Do you know what happens to a nail that sticks out?"
"I take your meaning."
"Good. Why did you say we should stay here?"
"I can't say it for nothing."
"This bastard really isn't right in the head. Do you want to die?"
"You'd regret it."
"Weren't you the one who said the two of us had grown quite close? Do you want to shove that relationship into the gutter?"
"You drew the line first. All I'm saying is that nothing in this world comes free."
A dangerous light flashed in Julien's eyes.
"If what you have to say is worthless, I swear on my mana that you die. And it will hurt. A great deal."
Chris swallowed, tense.
"Yes."
"Fine. What do you want?"
"Teach me how to get out of here."
"I will. Speak."
"Teach me first."
"Yes, yes. Give you an inch and you climb onto my head."
"There's one thing I've learned from colliding with countless mages."
"What?"
"Don't trust a mage."
Julien stared until Chris's guts went cold, then drew a black crystal from his spatial pouch and pressed it to his forehead. A little later he tossed the crystal to Chris.
Chris caught it and frowned, putting on a show of pondering while his mind raced.
Why hand me this? What am I supposed to do with it?
Julien said,
"I didn't tamper with it, so relax."
Chris kept turning it over, and Julien's temper flared.
"Are you insulting me?"
Hesitate any longer and an attack spell would come flying. After a moment's struggle Chris mimicked what the man had done and pressed the black crystal to his forehead. Nothing happened.
Damn it. What does he want me to do?
The curse rose on its own.
Should I just tell the truth — I've never seen one of these, I don't know how to use it?
They'd find that even stranger. A Seed Cultivation mage who doesn't know this.
Is nothing happening because the mask sits between my skin and the crystal?
The moment the suspicion formed, the knack of it came to him.
As if linking to the mask, Chris set his will into the black crystal and connected. In that instant a picture rose sharp in his mind.
A silver key engraved with a strange pattern
Send it Thought Language — the will to leave — then drive it into empty air and turn. A passage opens.
Ah. This is how we get out.
Chris pulled the crystal from his forehead and let out a breath.
"May I keep this?"
"No."
Julien took the black crystal back and tucked it inside his robe. Chris wanted to ask about it, but the answer would plainly be how do you not even know that, so he held his tongue.
"From last night until dawn, I kept walking the area..."
He squatted and scratched a drawing into the dirt with a jagged stone.
"This is the collapsed house site. Over here, the houses still standing."
He kept drawing.
Hell said,
"What are you doing?"
"Look. The positions of these houses are similar to the tower layout of the magic circle we used to enter the ruins."
Mages are clever by nature. Say that much and they all understood, crying out as one.
"A magic circle!"
Chris nodded.
"Yes. That's right. There should be a teleportation circle here."
Hell rose into the air to check.
"He's right. The layout matches the towers."
Chris had been hoping for a lightning strike. Regrettably, the sky did not change.
So a low hover in place isn't sanctioned.
As long as you don't actually fly off, it seems to be fine.
With that, he confirmed what he had suspected: Hell had already known the ruins' rule that one must not fly.
Julien's guess was right.
Once again the thought came to him that a single moment of carelessness and he would end up some grown man's cock.
I have to walk this like thin ice.
Judged by that standard, bargaining with Julien had been far too much of a gamble. But he'd had no choice. Getting out of the ruins was that desperate.
Julien looked at Chris and pointed at the ground. Chris asked carefully,
"What do you mean?"
"There's a magic circle buried under the ground."
"And?"
"We dig."
"Ah. I see. I'll do it."
"I thought you'd refuse, seeing as you're no ordinary man."
"I may not be ordinary, but work is still work."
Chris moved toward where the disciples had gathered.
"Let's do it together."
Ethan nodded.
"All right."
They shifted under Chris's guidance, and he stopped where he judged the center of the circle to be.
"Here."
Hector stepped forward and blew the soil away with wind. Once the topsoil was gone, a layer appeared that had hardened so firmly it would not lift. They could have torn the ground open with aggressive magic, wind blades and the like, but that might ruin the circle inside, so they went at it carefully.
Joffrey, Pearson's disciple and apparently an earth-aligned mage, scooped the soil away a little at a time, and Hector flung it far off with wind.
Chris watched from the side as the two worked their mana.
So that's how they move it.
It was more efficient than his own magic. He was stealing the technique when Julien spoke from behind.
"Seed. Are you playing around?"
A bitter taste filled Chris's mouth.
I've really gotten on his bad side.
"I'm a bit weak at this sort of thing."
He offered the excuse first, then built a frame of wood-attribute mana, bound wind-attribute mana over it, and shaped a wind hand.
He adjusted the hand with care and peeled the soil away bit by bit. Julien had forced him into it, but once he started, it was actually fun. Call it training, and his spirits rose.
Hell and Hugo were watching the same work and speaking in Thought Language. Hugo sent the first thread.
"That bastard's magic is crude from one end to the other."
"It is. Too suspicious to write off as a spy who simply neglected his education."
"Shall we kill him?"
Suspicious men were best killed.
"And break a Mana Oath?"
"I'm considering it."
"Don't."
"Why are you stopping me?"
"It might hinder you in binding one more ring."
"Julien said breaking a promise has never been an obstacle for him."
"You trust Julien?"
"Hard not to."
"That one may have broken a Mana Oath already, and be unable to bind any more rings by normal means."
"You think so?"
"Always remember that Julien can deceive us."
"I will."
Chris refined the wind hand still further, trying to lift the soil away one grain at a time. It did not go well.
Then Ethan shouted,
"A magic circle!"
At that the Ring Binding mages came running and stripped the soil away with their hands.
"It really is a circle."
With them joining in, the work sped up.
A short while later they were standing over the circle laid bare.
Hell said,
"The circle's small."
Hugo said,
"Entering the ruins from outside means crossing a long distance, so that circle is large. This one is only for moving around inside the ruins. Of course it's small."
Chris nodded. A fair point.
Ethan was still digging beyond the circle's edge. He said,
"There's Divine Language written here."
The mages crowded over. Shoved back by the Ring Binding mages, Chris looked at the script from behind.
So that's Divine Language.
He knew the Divine Language incantation used when sensing mana, and the one used when judging a seed. But he knew only the sounds. This was the first time he had seen the characters.
The letterforms were nothing like the continent's common script, and wholly unfamiliar. He could not begin to guess what they meant.
Chris called to Ethan.
"What?"
The reply was blunt.
"Does it say how to use the circle?"
No answer.
"You can't read Divine Language either."
The jab landed. Ethan bristled.
"I can read that much."
"Then what's written?"
Hell made a phlegmy sound in his throat.
"Khhhrm."
It seemed a signal to keep his mouth shut. Ethan closed it at once and turned away.
Chris clicked his tongue inwardly.
Tch. That's harsh.
Julien looked at Hell.
"Tower Master. Will you use it first?"
Hell shook his head.
"No. You use it first."
"Afraid it's broken?"
"It hasn't been used in a long time. It might be broken."
"Fine. I'll go first."
Julien walked the circle, inspecting it. Chris went to his side.
"Why move separately instead of all together?"
"It's for one person."
"Is that what the Divine Language over there says?"
"Don't be a nuisance."
"Yes. I won't."
Chris stepped back and watched him inspect. Now and then Julien traced a line and murmured an incantation, and Chris had no idea what any of it meant. He could not even catch the shape of it.
He sent Hell a thread of Thought Language.
"Is it all right to let him go first?"
"What do you mean?"
"He could go ahead and pull something."
"Pull something?"
"The moment a body is transferred, if he ambushes it, how would you withstand that? He's mid-grade, and you're low-grade. Picked off one by one, you'd all die."
Chris put on a meaningful look.
Hell frowned.
"Are you sowing discord?"
"It's a reasonable suspicion. Julien is a bit like that, isn't he?"
"What do you mean?"
"Julien didn't know the rule that you mustn't fly in the ruins. Isn't it strange that a mid-grade Ring Binding mage didn't know a fact even a Two-Ring mage knows?"
The remark did its work. When Julien finished his inspection and moved to activate the circle, Hell waved a hand.
"We'll go first."
"Why the change of heart?"
"You're alone, and there are more of us. It seems only proper that we test it first."
"A roundabout way of saying you don't trust me."
"Not at all."
"Fine. Do as you like."
The three mages of Hermann Magic Tower muttered among themselves, and then Pearson stepped onto the center of the circle. The rest withdrew.
Pearson raised his staff.
"I'll begin."
Chanting, he began to toss supreme-grade mana stones into the center. Light rippled along the circle's rim.
The circle demanded stones without end. Only after the count passed fifty did the light burst, and Pearson vanished.
Hugo let out a pained groan.
"Fifty supreme-grade mana stones. That's too much."
The circle had sucked in enough stones to sting even the tower's Ring Binding mages.
Even Julien grumbled.
"A hippo that gobbles mana stones."
Even so, he seemed to have plenty to spare. He moved to the center and chanted, and a moment later he was gone. Hugo went next.