The Lich Without a Soul Vessel

Over the next two days, Heathermere and the others were kept busy tallying up the spoils of the war, hauling away nearly every scrap of gold and silver. The supplies, however, they left for the elves — over the coming months, the elves would need them to survive. The sunken ships were salvaged as well, and the gunpowder cannons mounted on the gun emplacements. Word was the elves meant to repair the warships too, but that was a matter for later, and no longer any concern of Heathermere's people.

This expedition had turned into a windfall of war profits, and Heathermere and Roland couldn't stop grinning. The gold and silver alone, converted into supplies, would cover two years of Sky City's expenses. They were even weighing whether to launch another campaign. Hearing this, Evan couldn't help but think that capital had arrived in this world — and under the lure of wealth, even legendary mages perched above all others had begun to move at capital's beckoning.

Heathermere, meanwhile, simply exercised governmental authority directly and appointed Shailen governor of the Ice Isles. She had originally expected this to be nothing more than a mopping-up operation; she hadn't anticipated the elves actually occupying the isles. So she simply invested Shailen with the title of governor on Nabos's behalf. The place was far beyond Nabos's reach, but it belonged to Nabos in name, and from now on Nabos would have a foothold here. It was, in its way, another of Heathermere's balancing maneuvers — an expression of Heathermere's influence.

As for the dragon and its rider, under the combined pressure of Heathermere and Roland, they were forced to humiliatingly sign a new contract, becoming guardians of Sky City.

Shuang had been positively smug these past few days. Back in her little room, she had arranged several of the gold bars on her small bed and slept right on top of them. When Evan saw this, he could only shake his head, but she never tired of it — fortunate that Sky City kept an eternal, temperate climate, though whether the bars dug uncomfortably into her was another question.

"Scarlett, is today's honey cake ready?" Shuang called out.

Scarlett was one of the prisoners. As the story went, pirates had seized her from a ship; her husband had been killed, and finding her comely, the pirates had dragged her off to the island, where she'd endured no end of suffering before the elves rescued her. With nowhere left to call home, she'd been assigned to Sky City and taken on as a servant — and then caught Shuang's eye, purely because she was skilled at making sweets.

"It's ready, little mistress. Come down and eat," Scarlett called back.

The moment she heard the cake was done, Shuang shot out of her lofty little room and dove straight onto it. In no time at all, a cake of no small size had vanished into her stomach. Only then did she pat her round little belly — that whole cake having gone into so small a frame left even Evan a little doubtful; the proportions simply didn't add up.

"Delicious. So full. Scarlett, your hands are so much better than his," she said, pointing at Evan.

"How could I compare to the master? The master handles great affairs," Scarlett said.

"Why can't they be compared? Good is good. Oh, right, Scarlett, what reward do you want?" Shuang asked again.

"I don't need any reward."

"That won't do. Your magic aptitude is close to nil, and your knightly aptitude doesn't look like much either. Never mind — Wang, you teach her swordsmanship. She's got at least a bit of knightly aptitude to work with," Shuang said, looking Scarlett over before turning to Evan.

Evan suppressed a wry laugh. "Fine, I'll teach her swordsmanship. Actually, her build suits daggers better — I'll teach her dual daggers. Except I don't have a pair of daggers on me."

"I do." Shuang produced two daggers from somewhere on her person. Evan remembered now — there had been a stretch when Shuang and Jenny had been in charge of looting corpses. These were probably from back then.

Shuang handed the daggers to Evan. He took them, weighed them lightly in his hand, and said, "Scarlett, your build and strength suit dagger work — paired with your nimbleness, if you train hard, you could still make something of yourself."

Scarlett gazed at the two daggers in Evan's hands — each barely longer than a forearm, single-edged, their blades gleaming cold. A clear hunger showed in her eyes. It was hardly surprising; a woman who had survived what she had would naturally crave the strength to protect herself. When she'd heard she had no gift for magic, her heart had sunk — but hearing Evan say she was suited to daggers, something in her stirred to life at once.

Seeing that hunger in her eyes actually put Evan at ease. Had it not been there, he might have wondered what ulterior motive she had.

"Master, I'd like to learn dagger work," Scarlett said.

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"Shuang, set up a wooden dummy by the door for Scarlett to use as a target," Evan instructed.

"Why is it always me? I get it, this is payback — child labor, that's what this is. A little body like mine, how am I supposed to survive your abuse? No rights at all." Grumbling all the way, Shuang flew out and pointed a finger; a wooden dummy appeared before her. Evan couldn't help smiling at her muttering.

After they ate, Evan began teaching Scarlett dagger work. His own dagger skills weren't especially outstanding, but he was already a Great Knight, and for him, dagger work was simply a matter of swapping weapons — a weapon was, after all, just an extension of the limbs.

There were two basic dagger grips: the forward grip, blade edge aligned with the thumb, and the reverse grip, blade edge aligned with the pinky. Building on these two grips, combined with technique, the basic dagger strikes included thrusting, stabbing, hooking, slashing, ripping, parrying, gouging, and cutting, all tied together with footwork. The dagger was a close-quarters weapon — after bare fists, probably the most intimate of all.

Evan taught Scarlett the basic techniques, and then, tailoring it to her physical and mental disposition, passed on a visualization method to her as well — not the Centaur Visualization, but one belonging to an elemental sprite, a wind sprite. If she succeeded with it, her speed and related attributes would surge dramatically.

Evan had compiled this visualization method himself. In the library at Heathermere, he'd come across a peculiar book, one that defied easy classification. Call it magic, and it showed no outward effects beyond sharpening the practitioner's speed and dexterity. Call it not-magic, and yet it employed a visualization method — though unlike the orthodox knightly visualizations. It centered on a wind sprite holding a dagger in each hand. The book itself existed in the form of a spellbook, filled not just with text but with moving images, and in particular, the two daggers seemed to flicker in and out of existence within the later pages.

From this, Evan had distilled his own visualization method. He considered it something like an unconventional martial art, since it was practiced through visualization within the body, ultimately aiming for the practitioner to merge with the vision itself.

Scarlett was fortunate to have crossed paths with Evan. As a magus, he had no patience for walking her through the visualization step by step in words — instead, he formed the image directly in thought and simply told her what to do. Anyone who wasn't a mage couldn't have managed it this way; had the visualization needed to be described purely in words, there was no telling how long it would have taken, and it might never have succeeded at all. Scarlett, though, had been handed a shortcut no one else could have reached.

Once he'd finished teaching her, Evan gave the matter no further thought. It had been a passing whim on his part, really — a favor extended for Shuang's sake, nothing more.

Since Shuang had promised to help Roland with his experiment, Evan took advantage of Roland being on Sky City to bring her along for a visit. Master Roland happened to be in the forward magic tower of Sky City this time, and when he heard Evan had brought Shuang, he came out to greet them. "Ha! Wang, you sly one. Did you think I couldn't manage without a demiplane? You're wrong — this experiment doesn't need one. Since you're here, come to the laboratory. I'm all set up."

Evan had indeed come with exactly that intention in mind, and hearing Roland call it out so plainly left him a touch embarrassed. He laughed. "Master Roland, I brought Shuang along out of the goodness of my heart, just to get her familiar with the place, and here you are assuming the worst of me. Well, fine — if it can be done here, all the better. Let's do it here, then, and spare you fretting over Shuang day and night."

Shuang rolled her eyes. "Old man, aren't you going to invite us up? If you don't invite us up right now, hand over the gems — we'll consider this visit done."

"Ha ha!" The two men laughed and went up together, not by teleportation magic but climbing floor by floor. The first level was vast in scale — the magic tower's connection to what was called the Water Plane. At its center, a pool of clear blue water rippled gently, thick mist curling above it, the sight alone enough to soothe the mind.

The second level formed one of the tower's cores. In principle it should have connected to the Fire Plane, but with Sky City's own core present, that connection was impossible; instead, it drew vast quantities of energy borrowed from the core itself to keep the tower running.

The third level was the control center, mages bustling about inside, monitoring the steady operation of various parameters. Evan and the others didn't pause there, going straight up to the fourth level — an ordinary alchemy chamber, likewise busy with students and mages at work. They didn't linger here either.

On reaching the fifth level, the space appeared strikingly empty. Evan knew this for the illusion it was — a great deal of equipment lay hidden within. The moment Roland stepped onto the fifth level, he made a gesture with his hand and murmured a few syllables. Silently, a glow surged forth, and in an instant, towering rows of shelving rushed into being all around them, as if they'd been transported into the heart of some vast library. The whole thing seemed to spring from nothing, startling in its suddenness.

Roland took it all in stride. Evan looked around at the countless shelves and realized these weren't bookshelves at all, but something more like an archive of specimen racks. He pulled open a drawer and found inside a fossil, accompanied by a written description.

"This is a virtual archive. What you're looking at is the fossil of a fiend — a kind that appeared during the Dark Age. It only has a designation, no name, and by now it's likely extinct. But the information here is genuine. What you're sensing can be called real — there's no way to distinguish it from truth," Roland explained.

"What does this have to do with Shuang's experiment?" Evan asked.

"You really don't know? When Shuang flies, she scatters motes of light. Those motes can reconstruct these fiends' bygone days," Roland said.

Evan genuinely hadn't known this. He'd only known Shuang's light motes had healing properties — he had no idea they carried this function as well. "I really had no idea. So this is another power Shuang has."

"Shuang, following you around — what a waste of a treasure," Roland sighed.

"Old man, what did you just say? Does this immortal exist only to help you with your experiments? This immortal is a superior intelligent life form, not your hired labor," Shuang grumbled, displeased.