53th of Season of Air, 161st year of the 32nd cycle

  The interrogation lasted ten days. Fortunately, there were a lot of people to go through, and by the time the hunters got to Newt, they were already bored with skimming through so many people. They asked their questions mechanically, not even thinking about going for extra details they had already heard dozens of times over.

  Besides, the story was normal. Expected. Survivors of a battle against the cultists banded together with their closest allies, then ran for their lives and hid. The celestial phenomenon was recorded all across the summer kingdoms, even if the burst of mana wasn’t.

  Or to be more precise, the phenomenon wasn’t recorded in detail. The groups waiting to ambush the cultists had made a similar report. It was less precise, the mana ripple less clear, since they were further away from the source than the alliance of Swordpeak, Tidebreaker, and Explorer’s Gate.

  With everything normal, the heresy hunters’ staff were as polite as one could expect from inquisitors. The group that had returned represented one of the few survivors of the disastrous mission in which far too many people had died while killing all too few cultists.

  From what Newt could gather, the cultists had expected the imperials’ trap, and while some had failed to escape it, most succeeded. The emperor was livid, furious with the incompetence of those whose job was to attack the cultists from the rear, while at the same time praising the brave souls who had perished as the real heroes of the empire.

  Newt smelled politics and wanted nothing to do with them. Once he left the heresy hunter’s compound, Newt headed straight for the adventurers’ guild.

  “Good day, Lord Mageknight,” the clerk greeted him, and Newt nodded.

  “I’m here to inform you that Dandelion Blackfist has perished in Summersweald, and that Newstar Salamandra has authorized the unsealing of his will. Please inform the branch in Glory City; they have the sealed will.”

  When Dandelion had told Newt about the convoluted preparations he had made for his death, Newt thought them silly. The man had already prepared a whole spatial pouch with everything Newt should know written down.

  But, apparently making redundancies upon redundancies wasn’t without merit, and Newt should consider it in his future endeavors.

  “Yes, Lord Mageknight, I have written down the instructions. Is there anything else I can do for you?”

  Newt stared at the youth. Second realm, mage or mageknight. He was scared and in awe that someone beyond the fifth realm would deign him a word. Newt didn’t think he was ever like that. Possibly because he didn’t know how huge the gulf in power between him and Lady Alabaster was at the time.

  “No, that would be all. Thank you.”

  Newt left the guild, and once the interrogations were over, the groups took the highway, departing for home. Two days later, it was time to split up, and Newt once more drew Dandelion’s Privacy Screen to say goodbye to Maelstrom.

  “Take care and stay safe, please.”

  She nodded. “You too. Nothing flashy for one hundred and sixty years, just like Dandelion had asked.”

  “I called him Dan once,” Newt blurted out. “That look he gave me. I thought he would throttle me.”

  “That’s nothing. I called him Dandy.” Maelstrom laughed, and Newstar joined in.

  ***

  Nearly two years after leaving, the Explorer’s Gate expedition returned to their island, decimated. Ironically, the order’s core power was preserved, not a single mageknight at the fifth realm and above had perished.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  They had lost the majority of their students, but even that wasn’t too bad. As Newt scanned the crowd gathered to greet them on their return, he saw that Gatemaster Greenthorn had already gathered twenty-three fourth realm elites and about a hundred second and third realm outer students.

  Did he hide the most promising candidates he found, and keep them outside the order so they could avoid getting drafted? Clever.

  Newt caught himself thinking that, and his lip twisted.

  They have become numbers. Hiding away those you found important and sending the rest to die… I should think it’s despicable, not clever.

  “Why are you scowling?” Lady Alabaster asked her former student.

  “I’ve grown old,” Newt muttered his conclusion without bothering to explain how he had reached it, and Lady Alabaster laughed.

  “Maybe by the commoners’ standards, but you’re still a kid for most of us here. It’s good to see you, by the way. How was the trip? Can you tell me all about it?”

  “Sure, if you don’t mind getting the abridged version.”

  Newt gave his former master a short version of the events, omitting his attempt at diplomacy with the dragon exalt, as well as the two weeks that never happened. Since both incidents were completely isolated, without effect on anything else, nothing seemed off about Newt’s story.

  “Something strange happened while you were in the Summersweald,” Lady Alabaster said. “On the day the mana phenomenon had happened, every seer died. Their brains turned to mush. It has been confirmed that anyone with the gift of far-sight just dropped dead, whether they were newly initiated disciples or grandmasters. The imperials accused the cultists and claimed it was their attempt to blind them.”

  Newt’s skin crawled. He had a completely different theory. What if all the seers were agents of the outer god? Or perhaps unwitting eyes and ears. If that was the case, what Dandelion mentioned about the cultists guiding the future towards their desired goal not just made sense, but seemed likely.

  Did he plan this too? Probably not. He never mentioned it. In fact, he told me to stay away from seers.

  “Did anything else interesting or surprising happen while we were in the jungle?”

  “Well, the gatemaster brought in all these new students one or two at a time from various hiding places. It’s obvious he had stashed them away, but there’s no proof. Various friends and subordinates of the order had recruited them, and then sent them to us when the order emptied out and there was a surplus of instructors and a lack of students.”

  Lady Alabaster shrugged. “It’s a plausible story, and he probably wasn’t the only one who had made a move like that. So, the imperials should look the other way. Also, since our grace period has ended, and we were short on champions, various neighboring forces have been pushing to claim our territories. Such disputes are usually handled through spars of the junior generation, but since we lacked the students for a battle, that was what they chose. I’m still not sure whether the gatemaster intends to fight. Probably not, since our rivals are targeting lower-value areas first to nibble at our strength and build momentum for later…”

  Newt listened and nodded. He was faced with politics once more. Apparently, the lower realm awakened were bound by their lack of strength, while the higher realm ones were mired in politics, neither ever having the freedom to do as they wished.

  Why is that? Why does an exalt like Greenthorn allow himself to be chained up like that instead of being free and doing what he wants?

  Newt burned with the desire to ask, but could see the question touched a topic too personal. Instead, he thought about the problems an exalt might face. The most glaring one was what his master described as an inability to expand his realm naturally and to swiftly regenerate mana he had spent.

  Assuming that’s the case, someone with an organization obviously had a higher survivability. In fact, anyone as strong but without a support mechanism sounded like a walking treasury, not just because of their accumulated wealth, but because of their knowledge as well.

  Is that why manabeasts have a similar conical hierarchy?

  Newt left Lady Alabaster’s home, still meditating on the subject. His mind wasn’t really focused on it; he just let ideas flow freely, observing them and either discarding them as false or adding them to the heap of conclusions.

  The adventurers’ guild didn’t have members at the seventh realm and above, but they presumably had some at sixth. Someone who reached the sixth realm all on his own probably has the motivation and the ability to reach the seventh too.

  What happens? Do they realize something? Does someone, presumably imperials, make an offer they can’t refuse, forcing them into servitude?

  The other guilds have higher realm members, Newt knew for a fact.

  So what’s the difference? Why do combat-focused mageknights have to leave the only combat-focused guild?

  There’s something there. There obviously is, but I’m missing something, one or more crucial bits of information. It could be just numbers and odds of something happening, but I don’t think that’s it.

  Newt realized he was heading to his master’s residence and instead turned back for his own.

  I’m at the sixth realm, and I’m sensing the wrongness about the whole situation. I guess those who have to climb through their realms as adventurers are even more aware of it.

  They probably start digging while still at the fifth realm, but what do they discover?

  Newt couldn’t guess yet, but he knew it was an important truth.