The Thorn Left Behind
Sheikh spoke.
"You said your task was to keep any latecomers from coming through. Wasn't that it?"
"Yes. But I didn't have the skill to carry it out."
"No. You dodged the mission on purpose, didn't you?"
"I did?"
"Destroy the magic circle and the job is done. Why disobey the order and leave it standing?"
Chris led them to the place where the Divine Language was inscribed.
"Look."
As he said it, he watched the mages' faces with care while they read. Hal spoke.
"There's a line here. Destroy the circle, and you're punished."
"Yes."
For a fortnight Chris had turned the matter over and over, and he had guessed the Divine Language would say something of the sort. He carried himself as if he could read it.
"The warning is why I couldn't destroy the circle. I hid it."
"Did your tower master order you to hide it?"
"Yes."
"Then why break that order and tell us?"
"I don't want to die. And I don't want to be left behind alone."
"So you mean to use this circle yourself."
"Yes. Who would want to stay here?"
"Did you search that house?"
"Yes. There was no treasure in the one I went through."
"Truly?"
"I swear it on my mana. I found nothing."
"And the other houses?"
"Other mages searched those, so I can't swear to it, but there probably isn't any. If it still sits wrong with you, search them yourself."
"We will."
At his gesture, David, Peter, and Harvey went through the houses.
A short while later Harvey reported for the rest of them.
"Nothing. The pigs from Herman Magic Tower seem to have stripped the place clean."
"Good. We move."
Sheikh's manner turned cautious.
"Tower Master, wouldn't it be wiser to look into things a little more before we go?"
"We're already very late. There is no time."
"The Herman bastards may try something at the far end."
"They were late as well. Time is money. They won't sit on a magic circle for a fortnight just to check for stragglers who might never come."
"That fortnight is nothing but that bastard's own claim."
Chris slipped into the conversation.
"I swear on my mana. It was a fortnight."
Hal laughed.
"You do have a habit of scattering Mana Oaths about. In all my life I have never seen a man who swears more often than you."
He looked at Sheikh.
"You go first?"
Sheikh did not care for that.
"Me?"
"As you said yourself, there's no harm in being prepared."
"Send Randal."
"Randal is only Sikbae. Too weak."
Sheikh could no longer talk back to the tower master. He came up beside Chris and, without warning, struck him across the face. The slap cracked sharp and petty.
"Out of the way."
Chris clutched his cheek, his expression sour. Being used as an outlet for the man's temper left him speechless.
"I wasn't even in your way..."
"What did you say?"
"Nothing."
Chris bowed his head and drew back.
"I was at fault."
Sheikh checked the Divine Language before the circle once more, then started toward its center.
"Sheikh. I've changed my mind."
Hal stopped him and beckoned. The two of them muttered together for a moment, and the plan changed.
"Randal. You go first."
Randal's reluctance was written all over him, but unlike Sheikh he could not protest. As he walked toward the center of the circle, Chris spoke.
"Activating the circle takes fifty highest-grade mana stones."
Randal stopped, looking troubled, and the tower master handed him the stones.
"Thank you."
Randal gave his thanks and walked to the center.
The tower master turned to Chris.
"So that was why you demanded fifty."
"Yes. The circle required fifty."
"And if you'd had them?"
"I'd have escaped this wretched place long ago."
The circle activated then, and Randal transferred without the least mishap.
"William next."
The tower master gave William the stones. After William, it was Peter who went.
"Now I'll go."
As the tower master stepped forward, David spoke in a rush.
"I don't have any mana stones."
"Sheikh has them."
"Yes. I understand."
While the tower master set the circle working, Chris moved to David's side.
"So it was you."
The words came out of nowhere, and David frowned.
"What are you talking about?"
Light burst, and the tower master vanished.
"That's absurd."
"Hey. I'm Sikbae. You're Jenyeom. Speak to me properly."
David bit his lip and glared.
Chris clicked his tongue.
"The tower master gave Peter mana stones. He didn't give you any."
"Lord Sheikh has..."
Chris sent his words in Thought Language.
"No."
"No."
Sheikh came toward the two of them.
"What are you discussing so fondly?"
Chris still had the sword in hand. He waved it idly and smiled, all servility.
"A senior's kind words, for the man who's staying behind."
Harvey was following at Sheikh's back.
"Staying behind? What's that supposed to mean?"
Chris clicked his tongue.
"A Jenyeom of Mick Magic Tower, and not a scrap of sense. I'm Sikbae realm, boy. Mind your manners."
Harvey bobbed his head, barely meaning it.
"My apologies, mage of the Sikbae realm. I've apologized, so answer the question."
"Someone has to stay, don't they?"
"Then you stay."
"I've got the stones now. Why would I stay? I'm going through to find the treasure too."
Sheikh stepped in close.
"What made you think David would be the one left behind?"
"David is Randal's disciple. His protector has gone, so..."
Even as he spoke, Chris quietly set his mana moving.
"The one who takes the loss..."
The mana slid down into both legs and both hands.
"...can't be helped."
In that instant Chris moved like lightning. He closed in the space of a blink and struck Sheikh with his left hand. The distance was far too short. Sheikh could not dodge.
Palm met body, and the impact detonated. The ring on the middle finger of Sheikh's left hand shattered. In that same sliver of time Chris's right arm moved, and the sword in his grip drove into Sheikh's side.
Another blast tore the air, and this time the ring on Sheikh's right hand broke. Chris kicked upward at once with his left foot, swearing inwardly. Damn it. Defensive magic tools are infuriating. His foot swept the right wrist that still clutched the staff.
A necklace crumbled under the blow. It could not erase the impact entirely, though, and the staff flew from Sheikh's hand.
Two strikes of the hand and one kick, and the whole of it took almost no time at all. To the eyes of a Jenyeom mage like Harvey, the movements barely registered. But that moment passed, and the time to answer it arrived.
"You bastard!"
Sheikh had been preparing his reply all through the one-sided beating. Now he roared and cast. He was Chukhwan. A staff was better, but he could work magic well enough without one. A black line scored itself through the empty air and came to cut Chris to pieces.
While his body attacked, Chris's mind had already been shaping a spell. He set wood-attribute mana at the core and bound earth and metal over it, raising a barrier.
The black line sheared into the barrier. Chris met it with the sword steeped in mana. The blade cracked, but it stopped the line.
Harvey was already running to recover his master's flung staff.
"David! What are you doing!"
Chris charged Sheikh again and shouted.
"You going to stand there useless and get left alone? If you don't want that, join in."
Sheikh kept glancing at David. Then he opened his mouth.
"Graaaah!"
Black smoke poured from his lips. Caught in that, a man would not come away whole. Chris changed direction and swung wide to the side, and while he dodged the smoke that way Harvey snatched up the staff and threw it.
"Master! Here!"
Chris packed the sword full of mana and hurled it. The blade flew hard and struck the staff, and sword and staff shattered together.
Sheikh spoke.
"You think you'll win just because I don't have a staff?"
"You're one ring, aren't you?"
"And?"
"I figure I can beat a One-Ring."
"You find Chukhwan amusing?"
"No. Chukhwan is terrifying. What I find amusing is the kind with a single ring."
"Why do you think I have only one?"
"Do you know what my profession is?"
"Something besides mage?"
"There is."
"What?"
"Spy. Given the nature of the work, I know a fair amount about how things stand at Mick Magic Tower."
"I thought you seemed sly."
Even while they spoke, the black smoke Sheikh had breathed out kept chasing Chris, trying to wrap around him. Chris kept running, slipping clear of it.
"I'm not sly."
"Why did you attack me?"
"I expected you to kill me."
"Why?"
"A moment ago you slapped my face just to vent. Then the tower master called you over, and the two of you muttered. That was when I understood. The only ones who swore a Mana Oath were the tower master and me. He probably realized it then, too. You never swore, so you were free to kill me. That's why he changed the order of departure. He left you the task of killing me and used the circle first."
"Sharper than you look."
"I couldn't tell you why, but people tend to look down on me. I must seem ridiculous."
Sweat beaded on Sheikh's brow, and the black smoke grew faster and faster.
"You slip away like a rat."
Chris's speed rose to match it. He went through the motions of laying a strength-enhancing spell over his legs.
"When I was learning magic, I practiced running hard."
"So it seems."
Caught and never quite caught, Chris stayed just beyond him, and Sheikh's irritation mounted.
"I was meant to kill you after you transferred through the circle. That was a mistake."
"Yes. Join forces with the tower master and you could have had me. But even if you went back to that moment, you still wouldn't have chosen it."
David cut in.
"Why not?"
"If I transfer, the fifty highest-grade mana stones the tower master gave me get used up. Kill me here and you take them back. No need to waste good stones. There may be more call for highest-grade stones later. You save what you can."
"Use the stones again?"
"There might be another transfer circle to use. Leaving you behind is partly about saving stones, too."
"Bullshit!"
"The way I see it, it isn't only Sheikh. The tower master doesn't like your master Randal either. Why bring a man you dislike all the way to the ruins? I don't understand it."
"He doesn't dislike him. Lord Sheikh..."
"So you do admit that Sheikh dislikes him?"
David hemmed and faltered.
Harvey gathered his power and shouted.
"David, stop talking and attack. Bind his feet."
The ground shuddered under Harvey's magic, and Sheikh cried out in haste.
"Stop! You idiot!"
At his master's anger, Harvey went blank.
"Master, why..."
Chris clicked his tongue.
"Stupid bastard."
Harvey flared, hot as fire.
"Who the hell are you to call me stupid, you son of a bitch? You're the stupid one. You piece of trash."