Chapter 309: Partners, Spirals and Tempting Fate

“Nooooooooooo!” Alex screamed internally, shoving down the urge to scream out loud.

But, instead of doing what he really wanted to, he put on his most sincere smile and nodded at her. “It’ll be good to have an alchemist of your calibre with us, Carey. Welcome aboard.”

“Oh, pshah!” She waved a hand like he’d said the silliest thing ever. “I’m just a neophyte in all of this. I’m simply delighted that I finally get to be part of such an exciting venture for both the university, and all of Thameland!”

She looked around, her eyes twinkling with curiosity, and blazing with passion. “At last, Generasi’s knowledge will be used to break the enemy’s defences and usher in a resounding defeat of the Ravener! Isn’t it just marvelous? Truly capital!”

“Uh yeah, it’s, uh, good. Actually, it’s really damn good,” Alex said. Despite himself, he was finding his fellow Thamelander’s enthusiasm infectious, and most of his reasons for avoiding her had evaporated: she couldn’t exactly drag him to the priests here in Greymoor. And he hadn’t heard anything more about Campus for Uldar since Leopold’s first demon attack.

He could probably relax around—

“It’s a dreadful shame about the priests, though.” She said, looking around, a note of sadness in her voice and disappointment—hanging like a heavy cloak—on her shoulders. “It would be just lovely to see the holy servants of Uldar, proudly striding alongside the Wizards of Generasi. Magic, science, might and faith, all united as one! Perhaps I might appeal to the chancellor to relax the restrictions…”

—anyone that wasn’t her.

“I don’t think he’ll like that idea too much, Carey,” Alex said. “Anyway, I’ll take you to Jules and she can tell you who’s going to train you.”

###

“Alex, what a fortunate coincidence,” Professor Jules said, looking over reports on her desk. “You are the very person who I think would be best suited to briefing Carey and getting her up to speed. You’re both Thameish, after all, and former lab partners.”

Carey clapped. “Ooo! Like a reunion! Seems I’ll be in your care, partner.”

Alex’s mind began racing while swearing bloody vengeance on Jules. Maybe, if he was fast enough, he could toss her out the window with Val’Rok.

An amusing image of the two of them floundering in mid-air calmed him enough so he could lead Carey through the encampment and show her the most important parts of the operation without any visible signs of hostility. He saved the research tent, where the dungeon core remains were undergoing stress tests, for last.

“We’ve been making good progress with the stuff,” he said. “The data sheet already has a lot of numbers filled in, though some of them are preliminary while we run more tests.”

He tapped the side of a Mordant Pool: a reinforced glass globe filled with highly pressurised acidic and basic solutions churning around a sample of dungeon core substance. A researcher was jotting down observations in an ever expanding book of notes.

“Right now, we’re testing the substance’s acidity and how well it can tolerate acid or bases,” Alex informed her.

“Remarkable.” Carey leaned so close to the glass that the beak of her mask nearly touched the side. “Truly remarkable. I cannot believe we are finally gaining the opportunity to break the Ravener’s most evil servants into no more than mere lines of data.”

She rubbed her hands together. “Such information! Ooo! So exciting, my Lord Uldar must be pleased with both of us, and with everyone doing this good work for that matter!”

Alex pointedly looked away from her.

He had no idea if Uldar would be pleased with him or not. On the one hand, he’d run away from his ‘duties’ as the Fool. On the other, he’d brought a small army here to analyse the cores of his greatest foe. What would weigh more on the god’s scales? His flight away from Thameland, or what he’d triggered by his escape, and return.

In some ways, he didn’t want to know. Sometimes ignorance was bliss.

“Well, he dictated that the priests should educate the people,” Carey said. “But it’s my sincere belief that any of us doing the same is part of his will as well.”

“Yeah, I suppose so,” Alex said. “I don’t really give a lot of thought to Uldar’s will these days. I just kinda keep my eyes pointed forward and focus on our tasks. There’s a lot to do here. So, the next thing is—”

Alex continued the tour, until Carey was well-acquainted with all of the basic procedures, then he had her shadow him for the rest of the day, assisting him and Isolde with several tests they were running.

At the end of the work day, the trio emerged from the research tent together.

“Hoo my, that was indeed a long day,” Carey said. “Do our shifts normally last that long?”

“Sometimes even longer,” Isolde said. “There is much to do, and the demands do not disappear merely because we desire it.”

“Yeah, I’d thought we’d have less work now that Greymoor’s all surveyed,” Alex said, stretching.

Carey stared up at him. “By Uldar, have you ever changed, Alex! Goodness gracious…might I have a little touch?”

“Huh?” Alex froze.

“Oh sorry, that is so rude of me, it’s just so fascinating. I remember when we started as lab partners you were ever so…” she paused, looking for the right word. “...sleek, sleek shall we say. But now…you are as muscular as I imagine the Champion or Chosen to be! Oh! That reminds me!”

Alex saw Isolde turn away, fighting a smile.

Carey’s attention flitted to another subject like a hummingbird. “A little bird told me something delightful…that the Heroes had been here in Greymoor. Is that true? Did you meet them? What were they like?”

Alex and Isolde looked at each other while Carey’s head swivelled between them.

“Well, they are quite…brave,” Isolde said, turning away slightly. “They are powerful and strong of body, will and magic. Much as is to be expected.”

“Oh, pshah, I know all of that! Any legend could tell me that. But what are they like? Are they like us? Are they kind? Funny? Stern?”

She looked at Alex, while Isolde turned toward something in the distance and cleared her throat.

“Well.” Alex scratched his long hair. “They’re kinda different? Brave and strong, true. But Cedric’s definitely kind of the more casual type,” he took on a joking tone. “Like you’d more expect him to be cutting logs somewhere rather than wielding spells. But—”

“They all have strengths too, and minds. The Chosen, as it turns out, is no mere brute despite how Alex puts it,” Isolde cut in, still looking away.

There was a stiffness to her body language.

Was there defensiveness there?

‘Oh yeah, I guess it did kinda sound like I was talking down Cedric a bit,’ Alex thought. ‘In the way I phrased it. Nice going pointing that out, Isolde.’

“Yeah, let’s just say he’s not what you’d expect him to be in most ways. If you think ‘shining knight’ when you think Chosen of Thameland, you’re going to be wrong.”

“Ah, that is fascinating,” Carey said, tapping her chin. “And what of the Sage?”

“Definitely has her own wisdom and thoughts on things,” Alex said. “No surprise there. She told us a bit about her life among the other Witches in Crymlyn Swamp, but she mostly talked to Theresa about that kind of stuff. Theresa should be back for supper.”

“Aaaaah yes, Drestra of Crymlyn Swamp…did I ever tell you that I am from Wrexiff, near the Crymlyn?”

“Ah yeah, I remember that,” Alex said. “Speaking of that, how’s your famil—”

“Oh yes, and we used to tell each other such frightful ghost stories of the Witches: mere childrens’ tales you see,” she said, her voice dropping a bit. “But now, I must say I feel ever so bad about that. The Witches have been helping much of the war efforts in the west, and in many ways the Sage, of course, shoulders more burdens than the rest of us combined. I do hope that they are positively lionised after this cycle.”

“Yeah, I hope so too,” Alex said.

“You know, apparently Drestra was moderately famous among the Witches even before she was selected by Uldar,” Carey said. “Some of them came through the portal in the cave near Alric—long after my family—and my sister befriended them.”

Carey looked around conspiratorially. “Drestra was a very skilled user of magic from quite an early age, and truly had a positively over-sized mana pool from the time she was young. I suspect she might have become a famous Witch of Thameland even without being Marked. Now? I truly believe she will find her name in the history books as one of Thameland’s greatest Sages. I would hope so, at least: with how difficult this cycle has been, our Heroes deserve special recognition among the Heroes of past, present and future.”

“Hopefully, there won’t be any need for Heroes in the future,” Alex said. “I’m hoping we can stop this once and for all.”

“From your mouth to Uldar’s ears, Alex,” Carey paused, looking up at the sky. “That does remind me…I was told that you cleared out all of Greymoor during this past little while. Is that true?”

“Indeed,” Isolde said. “It took a concerted effort and the work of the Heroes as well, but we have made this area safe.”

“Good, good,” Carey said. “Well, I look forward to working on behalf of magic, science, and faith in the future. Though, I am rather shit in a fight, so I am very glad to hear that things have been made safe.”

“Yeah…” Alex said. “So far.”

He waited for a moment.

In all the stories, after a comment like that, monsters would come boiling over the walls and down from the sky to rip them all apart.

But—after waiting in silence for a bit—nothing happened.

There was no attack.

###

It had been a long day of socialising, work, and training Carey. Alex found himself looking forward to a stressless night of rest…

…or he would have if he didn’t have to grapple with Ito’s Spiral.

“Come on…come on,” he whispered in his tent, guiding his mana through branching paths in the spiral.

Sweat trickled from his forehead.

His mana shuddered inside the magical device. No, magical device was too kind of a word. More like the torture device. Everyday he became increasingly convinced that some devil had come up with it then cursed mortal-kind with this hellish-device. He really needed to learn who this Ito was…maybe he or she was actually a real devil.

But, in spite of the device’s devilish nature, he had to admit, it had pushed him through his limits.

It had taught him that just because he’d gained so much skill with mana manipulation so quickly in the past, that didn’t mean he could master everything involving the discipline in no time flat.

This exercise?

This had challenged his thinking.

This was tough, but it was worth it.

It forced him to try things with his mana that he could never have imagined doing before. Alex closed his eyes, blocking everything out.

As the spiral widened toward the funnel, the pathways kept branching out, becoming smaller and smaller like an ever spreading tree with an expanding canopy of narrower branches.

He’d been proud when he’d split his mana into five streams, now, he’d reached a point where he could break them into ten…then twenty. Each mana stream became smaller, narrower and more precise with each split.

And had to be controlled simultaneously.

The more he concentrated, the more a headache growing at the back of his skull throbbed, strongly reminding him of its presence. Minutes earlier, he’d split his mana into twenty-six tiny streams, but guiding them through the pathways as a whole, felt like his mind was bending toward madness. The Mark was actually keeping him from snapping and throwing the device into the bog as it showed him what he’d done right. Without it, even splitting the streams into three would’ve sent him looking for the bog.

“Come on…” he whispered. “Co—”

He jolted.

His twenty-fifth strand of mana glanced off the side of the pathway.

“No no no! Shit!” he swore as the device broke his connection with it, throwing his mana back into him. Taking several deep breaths to calm himself, the urge to either smash the device against the ground or drop it in the bog, receded.

“It’s okay Alex,” he told himself. “Breath. Breath. It’s not the end of the world. You’re not a five year old. You can’t just smash your professor’s toy.”

In the light of his forceball, he listened to the sounds of crickets outside. Folk had long gone to sleep. It was a new moon tonight, and—aside from a few light spells—it was nearly pitch black through the gap in the tent’s flap. It was a good thing he had a tent all to himself so he could practise late into the night without disturbing anyone. But for now, it was time for bed.

Alex didn’t bother stifling a yawn when he set the device aside. No more Ito’s Spiral for now.

He groaned while stretching and snuffed out his forceball then climbed into his bedroll, pulling it over his head.

In no time at all, he was sound asleep.

The attack came in the dead of night, shattering his peace.