Sacrifice Mage

The first thing I did, when there were no further actions I intended to take against Uralivanth in the immediate future, was go and pay Sreketh a visit.

“You should be resting,” I said. I hadn’t found her in the infirmary. She was still close by, just strolling in the yard outside the small, sanitized building. But seeing her walking while wrapped in even more bandages than the last time I had seen her made me feel like I was having trouble breathing. “Can’t believe they’re letting you wander around just like that.”

“I insisted, Ross!” she said. Even through the bandages, her pout was visible. “I was cooped up in that—in the infirmary for two whole days.”

I wanted to remind her that she wasn’t even conscious for one of those days, but I decided against doing so.

“You should come back to the temple,” I said. “Ghistara said the worst of the danger should be gone now, so we don’t need to remain here. I don’t trust these guys to look after you.”

“For the seventh time, Ross, I’m not leaving.”

“Everyone misses you there, you know. Santoire was crying after he heard what happened, and then I had to stop Guille from paying a visit.”

“What?” She rounded to face me with accusing eyes. “Why’d you stop him?”

“Well, he had a few too many knives on his person.”

Sreketh sighed.

“I miss them too,” she said quietly. “I miss all of you. I was thinking I’d wait until the term was over and then I could come and stay for a while. But now…”

It hurt. I could see things from her perspective. Leaving now was admitting defeat in a sense. Sure, we were only thinking of it in terms of safety and comfort, all of which would be much better at the temple. But if Sreketh left now, she’d be admitting that the academy had gotten the best of her, even if her departure would have an asterisk the size of a planet attached.

Councillor Ghistara had assured us that she was recovering. If she really wanted to, there was nothing stopping her from continuing her stay and her education at Xokrist academy. She would be back to tip-top shape in two weeks or so, and then she could return to her usual routine.

Somehow, I suspected there was something being hidden from me. By the academy administration and healers for obvious reasons. They had heard what had happened, which had made them very, very wary of pissing me off further.

Thankfully, I could trust Ghistara’s assessment.

But I sensed even Sreketh wasn’t telling me everything. I knew why. She also didn’t want to see me even more enraged, nor did she want my estimation of Xokrist to sink even lower.

“Can I think about it, Ross?” she asked.

“Of course,” I said. “Take all the time you need. Just… be careful, please.”

She offered me a small smile. “Don’t worry.” Her voice lowered conspiratorially. “I don’t have plans on blowing up the Uralivanth estate any time soon.”

I returned her cheeky grin. “Any time soon implies you do have plans for later… and in case you do, I’ll be happy to go with you.”

She laughed, though she had to cut it short because her chest hurt. It hurt my chest too, though I controlled what my expression showed. “I’ll remember it, Ross.”

All I could do before leaving was impress on Ascelkos the need to keep a close eye on Sreketh. He agreed readily.

“I should have stuck closer since the beginning,” he said, his voice fiercer than I had ever heard. “None of them will get even close, and they certainly won’t start something against me directly.”

I was reassured, somewhat. Though, most of me still felt like kidnapping Sreketh back to the temple would be the safest decision. What I was also reassured by was the fact that the students who had attacked her were still suspended. Sad for her friends, who had only been trying to do the right thing, but I was okay with a few innocent sacrifices for her safety.

There was no immediate blowback I needed to be wary of. Uralivanth was reeling on multiple fronts, so I had some breathing room.

For one, one of their scions had been killed. That prick, Kaham, was apparently the third Uralivanth heir, the grandson of the current head, whose second son had sired Kaham. It made me briefly wonder how succession politics worked in Great Houses. Were they bloodthirsty affairs? Had I inadvertently helped someone by killing off Kaham?

It was none of my business, of course, and I didn’t care who came into power as the next Uralivanth. If they wanted to do something about me, they’d suffer the same fate.

House Uralivanth was also beleaguered in other ways. The blame for the debacle at their estate was falling very squarely on the Roaring Claws. We had thrown around so many clues at the estate that the city guards who had come over had landed on that conclusion in record time. In fact, they were requisitioning Uralivanth’s assistance in targeting and eliminating the Claws.

That news had almost made me laugh. Obviously, House Uralivanth knew it was me. I was the real perpetrator.

Yet, they couldn’t just disregard the very obvious misdirection. I had to remember to thank Silan personally for his assistance with that.

Over the next several days, my body remained jittery no matter what I did. I couldn’t stop my dumb mind from imagining knives flashing in the dark, an assassin dropping in out of nowhere, or somehow contracting some out-of-this-world “illness” that no one had a cure for.

That last one made me realize Zairgon was lucky I hadn’t brought smallpox and wiped out their civilization.

Well, they did have magic, so.

But the point was that paranoia wasn’t leaving me so easily, even when the objective fact was that House Uralivanth still didn’t have legal means of attacking me. And because we were all on supreme high-alert, they weren’t going to be able to take me by illegal means easily either.

The Scarthralls accompanied me almost everywhere, even taking turns to stand guard by my bedroom on the few hours I went to sleep. I myself had minimized any unnecessary travel. No wending my way through thin Ring Three alleyways in the middle of the night. No going anywhere near the Rat Catcher’s Guild.

We weren’t even taking new initiates without a good deal of scrutiny.

“Thanks for letting us create records of the new Rituals, Cultist Ross,” the new leader of the Wind Cult was saying. He was in a much better state than the last time I had seen him. “Cultist Favoile had always wanted to note them down. He was just… a little too egomaniacal when it came to you. Didn’t want your head to get even bigger.”

I wanted to chuckle, especially since the youth—Genarme—was trying to remain upbeat despite his long-missing predecessor. But his presence just reminded me of my suspicions about Favoile’s disappearance. “I’m glad you reminded me. I thought about recording them down somewhere as well, but with everything going on, I kind of got busy.”

Taken from NovelFire, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“Understandable. One can’t keep everything about the world in one’s mind at all times.”

I was happy to share the Rituals I had come up with. It wasn’t like jealously hoarding that information was going to be of great benefit to me, especially when the people who were eager to know were fellow cultists and citizens of Ring Four.

Now, if House Brasvay suddenly wanted to know everything about Rituals of Growth, Purification, Relaxation, and so on, we’d be having a different conversation.

“I’m sorry I got distracted from finding out what happened to Favoile,” I said. “I asked Thefris, but she got busy too... although she has helped me with a few other things.”

My restless energy had to be directed somewhere, so naturally, I went back to training. Even if my focus was shot half the day, I kept wondering what Uralivanth had in store and what their next move would be.

Revayne was keeping me updated about their status. They were too busy following up the obvious leads we had planted—which they couldn’t ignore without looking even weaker than they already were, funnily enough—while also dealing with the new case brought against them about their illicit underground monster-trading business.

I was a big concern for them, but for now, a somewhat secondary one.

Gutran’s hammering blow dented the helmet I was wearing. “Stop losing concentration, Ross.”

I pried the bent helmet off my head, soothing my skull with some gentle rubbing. Despite how the helm was practically useless now, my Gold-ranked Vitality had handled Gutran’s hit without any real issue. “Sorry. I’ll try to not be too distracted.”

“You said that the last time. And the time before that, too.”

“And the time before that as well, master,” Aurier added unhelpfully from his station.

“Right, right,” I said. “I’m sorry. I’ll try to focus despite being the most wanted man in Zairgon.”

Gutran attacked me harder. “Don’t go getting too big a head now.”

What really drew me back into the fight was the fact that Gutran was supposedly not holding anything back. Finally.

I was now high-Gold. A stage of power that was, on paper, around the same as Gutran’s. It was such an odd thing to realize, if I thought about it for too long. He had been a warrior and a blacksmith for a couple decades at least. And yet, within a year, I had basically caught up to him.

It made me feel powerful and grateful, and like I was cheating somehow. Which I was. Everything I was doing was cheating.

My Path was unique, and my main mana core afforded me an impossibly huge supply of magical energy. That went on to empower my Sacrifice Aspect so I could push myself in ways most people in Zairgon—maybe most people in Ephemeroth—couldn’t. Of course, I was as strong as Gutran within a year. Otherwise, it would have been a failure to capitalize on all my blessings.

When we were done sparring, Gutran almost looked a little winded.

I didn’t get any new ranks that day, though I did on the next. We spoke a bit about potential new Augmentations for when I hit Opal in my physical Attributes.

[ Rank Up!

Your Power Attribute has risen by one Rank.

Power: Gold IX ]

“You’re losing reliance on your physical Attributes, aren’t you?” Gutran asked astutely.

“I’m not sure I’d call it losing reliance,” I said. “So much as possessing a lot more options means their pure contributions aren’t as… well, no, I think I need their pure contributions just as much as I used to.”

Now that I thought about it, I did still bonk enemies as hard as I could on occasion, and that needed Power. I did end up needing to move and dodge, just as I had against Kaham Uralivanth, and that had required Agility. Without my Gold-ranked Vitality, I was pretty sure I wouldn’t come out of that battle as unscathed as I had.

The difference, as Gutran was pointing out, was that I could rely even more on my Aspects with their Affixes and my various Attribute’s Augmentations.

“I do use a lot of my Aspects in a way that needs me to kind of move around, you know what I mean?” I said.

Gutran looked at me blankly. I explained how I normally used things like Starburst and Gravity Orbs, where I was physically moving to make proper use of the Aspects, thrusting my arms or throwing my hand or whatever.

“I suppose mana injection is already helping in that sense,” I said. “Kind of. Well, hmm, maybe not.”

I had come to my conclusion because by the time I was throwing out my Aspect—or Compound Aspect, in the case of Starburst—I had already created the Aspect. Further mana brought out by Mana Injection wasn’t going to help much other than to somewhat amplify the sheer flood my mana core had already summoned.

“You’re on the right track,” Gutran said. “Amplification. I’ve heard of mages amplifying their casts through specific motions. There’s a certain art to it, taught in the northern regions of Falsient. Entire Attributes built around martial dances that significantly heightened any Aspect use.”

“I’m not sure I want to take it as far as dancing.”

“Of course not. But the same principle applies.”

I nodded. “Right. Definitely something worth thinking about.”

We talked a bit about potential other options, but I kept returning to the idea of enhancing my movement using Power which would go on to enhance any Aspects I used through that movement.

Looked like I’d need to investigate these martial dances. Yet another reason why people moved around more when they started getting stronger. Not just for new challenges that new places could offer that would act as impetus for growth and breakthroughs for the Weave, but also, all the new things that could be learned.

I also trained my Icon. Manifesting it was far easier now. I was getting closer and closer to making it appear fully. I could feel it.

“You realize what that reminds you of, don’t you?” Hamsik asked when he was surveying my progress.

“Yeah,” I said. “It looks like a sun.”

I wasn’t kidding. There was a glowing orb the size of a beach ball in front of me, and its interior was filled with those helical strands of light swimming around like dreaming snakes. Spiky protrusions of silver emerged everywhere, like a pincushion. Then there was my most recent advancement that had its surface roiling in a way that reminded of sunspots.

“It does indeed,” Hamsik said. “That’s why it keeps trying to vaporize me.”

I laughed. “I’ll get you some nice shades I saw Linak use. You’ll love them.”

“Shades, is it? Thanks, but I’ll pass.”

Despite his seeming dourness, Hamsik was impressed with how fast I had been able to manifest my Icon. He had needed a whole year to bring it to bear, and even then, his one was significantly simpler than mine. I had needed just over half his duration.

“Well, don’t celebrate yet,” I said. “I can’t do anything with it, which means I haven’t really manifested it fully yet. There’s been nothing but silence from the Weave.”

“Yes, but I think you’ll get there before long.”

As always, as with nearly everything else about the Weave, I’d need a proper breakthrough to finally earn my Icon. We couldn’t tell what exact properties and powers it would have till it came into being for real. That was fine. The anticipation alone was enough to keep me working on it.

I could theorize, of course. But everything I could think of was just going off of what I was already capable of. Was the Icon going to be a literal mini-star? Couldn’t I already kind of do that with Protostar? It would be a little disappointing if that was the case, but I held onto hope.

A few days passed, and we still hadn’t found any reason to be even warier of House Uralivanth. This was good because I could keep focusing on the things that actually mattered to me. Like ranking up some of my other Aspects.

[ Rank Up!

Your Entropy and Leadership Aspects have risen by one Rank.

Entropy: Silver VI

Leadership: Silver III ]

Hmm. I still needed to consider proper Affixes for Entropy and Leadership.

“Our sales are definitely improving,” Linak said a couple hours later when he came to visit. He was all smiles now.

“Glad to hear it,” I said. “How many have we sold?”

“Seven now!” He scratched the feathers on the back of his head in embarrassment. “We’ve received orders for twelve more too, but I haven’t been able to finish them up yet.”

I grinned. “That’s not a bad thing. Demand higher than supply means we can make very decent profit.”

“True enough. The thing is that I’m trying to make sure we don’t do favourites. It doesn’t matter if the client is rich or not as affluent, if they’re noble or some nobody from Ring Three, I’m sticking to a strict first-come, first-serve policy. Even for Councillors.”

Admiring as I was of his fairness, it was the very last bit that dragged in all my attention. “We’ve got a Councillor for a client now?”

“We do indeed! Councillor Wargrog was fascinated by our little invention and wanted a taste of it personally. He was very pleasant about the fact that he wasn’t first on the list.”

I shook my head with a smile. It made me wonder how much Wargrog was intrigued by it because I was involved.

Things seemed to be going smoothly enough, but the first hiccup arrived in the next few days. I was ready for something from Uralivanth. An indirect attack of some sort, if not a bodily assault on my person, or maybe some kind of legal or financial annoyance I’d need to deal with. Pits, I was even prepared for some sort of blowback from Ring Zero.

What I wasn’t expecting was for Revayne to drop in with an official complaint from House Brasvay.