MAGUS INFINITE

The glow of the Inscription on the ground rippled, and it emerged from the ground in a wave that flowed into the blade, and they settled into the metal without any restriction as if they were meant to be there, which was the truth... these blades were designed for this Inscription, from the hilt to the tip.

This was a new thing I was just noticing at the moment, that sometimes Inscriptions did not just depend on the skills of the Engraver, but the right materials were also needed, like this blade, for instance, that had the right length and shape to house this Inscription.

I had to learn material manipulation magic if I wanted to push the levels of my Inscriptions to a new level, but then an idea brushed past my mind, involving Lightning Edict and my Loom, but the inspiration was fleeting, and when I tried to hold on to it, the inspiration was gone.

If I were in any other place, I would pursue this inspiration, but I had to place it aside for the moment as I watched the blade begin to hum with the Inscription that was flowing into it.

And for a moment, I felt the entire network of weapons in the facility pulse in response. Then the blade went still, the glow fading to a soft, steady light.

The fox vibrated both with excitement and dread, "You did it, but... something’s coming."

I did not need to ask what. The cold wave of the Sovereign’s attention washed over me, and I felt the darkness begin to stir. Even with the many times I had felt this darkness, a part of me still feared it, just because I could not see any way for me to fight against it.

Was the gap between my powers and the Sovereign level so vast? Or was there something wrong with the power system of my world?

The darkness gathered at the far end and walked toward me wearing an old man’s shape. The shape had grey eyes... Sid.

I slowly came to my feet; the things you fear became much more manageable when they start, and there was no need to run away from them.

"You," Sid said, and his voice was curious, not yet angry. His grey eyes went to the blade, and then the floor-copy still pulsing with the last of my Anima beside it. There was a light of astonishment in his eyes, and I had seen him enough times to understand a part of his emotions, more than he would ever believe.

"You just left the vat, and in one hour, you have pushed a script into my network. A mastered script." The Sovereign gestured, and the blade flew into his hand. He ran a single finger down the length of the blade, muttering loud enough for me to hear it, "Edge and weight, folded, joined. I can see the mistakes in your work, all from a lack of experience. This is the first time you are creating these scripts... remarkable." He stopped a few feet off, and his head tilted, and I felt him reading me the way he must have read the blade. "In one lifetime. An Adept, doing Adept work on Arcanist bones, and doing it well. That should not be possible."

I shrugged, "You noticed, perhaps I am that much of a genius."

The Sovereign scoffed, "I keep the lights on, boy. I notice when someone rewires them." The grey eyes narrowed, interested and cold at once. "The last one who touched my work without leave was a Legendary Engraver; his head lies in this place, and for three thousand years, his Law Fragments have been drawn from his screaming mind. And here is a child doing the same thing... let me see what makes your little mind so remarkable."

I could see suspicion building up in his eyes, even now, a part of the Sovereign must be suspecting that I had escaped the cage of life they had kept me in, and I could not ever find it normal how quickly he was able to pick up clues from the smallest actions I did so effortlessly.

He raised his hand, and darkness appeared around me with no warning, or it might be said that I was always surrounded by darkness while in this place, but he was just making it visible now when he wanted to make a move.

Even this action of his was duplicitous, because I had realized that he could surround me with great darkness and press me into a stain, but I would not be able to see this darkness... even at the level of a Sovereign, it would seem that deception was a part of their tool kit.

The wave of darkness around me thickened. I felt the pressure begin to build, reminding me of the same pressure that had tried to crush me in the last loop.

"You are interesting," the Sovereign said, with an almost kind voice. "I will keep you, and learn what soil grows an Engraver like you."

"You don’t have to do that, Sid."

The word came out of me before I had fully decided to speak it. There was a history behind this name that I did not know, and I had used it on impulse, but it landed like a blade.

The darkness froze, and I saw his grey eyes go wide, then black with fury, the whole nave dropping in temperature at once, and his voice came out low and terrible.

"Who told you that name?"

"No one told me." I did not move. I kept my hands where he could see them and my voice level. "You did. Not this time. A time you don’t remember, because it never happened for you." I watched the fury on his face war with the speed of a mind thousands of years old, and my big mouth could not stop speaking, even when I knew I had given him the final confirmation he needed. "You’re working it out. Go on. It’s faster than I could say it."

He worked it out, and I watched it happen, as his rage drained into astonishment.

"You have died here," Sid breathed. "You have died here and come back. You know my name because a version of me gave it to you, in a world that no longer exists." The grey eyes fixed on me, and the darkness pulled back, forgotten.

"Now you’ve got it," I said.

I saw a thousand thoughts flash before his eyes, and as I expected, the one pushing itself to the front was greed; the old thing was going to call for me to kneel and acknowledge him as a master.

Which was not a bad idea if one did not understand how the relationship between Master and Disciple worked in Vorthar, the home of the Conclave, where it was more akin to slavery. The disciple would have to obey the master in all things, and this relationship was enforced with nearly unbreakable spells... There was no way I was doing that to myself, since these spells affected the soul, and I did not know if that would cross over with the loop.

I saw the resolve finalize itself in his eyes, and I sighed before stretching out my right hand and manifesting the silver flames of the Soul Forge.

"Let us make a deal."