Immovable Mage

– Era of the Wastes, Cycle 214, Season of the Rising Moon, Day 91 –

A few days after they had taken the mana cursed introduction together, Terry’s group was waiting again at a dimensional gate to leave Arcana, but this time, a supervisor from the Guardians was waiting with them.

Eventually, a short old man approached them. He had a wrinkly face, a kind smile, and twinkling eyes. “Greetings, young ones.” He chuckled. “Or well, I suppose you are young ones? You look quite young. Then again, all you mana users do. Quite confusing that.”

The intermediary representative of the Guardians went first to greet the elderly client. “Good morning, Mister Kimutai.” The representative gestured at the three figures behind him. “These are Siling, Terry, and Calam. They have volunteered as your escorts to Biant, and we have vetted them for the mission. As always, you are free to examine the mission cards yourself if you so desire.”

“Oh, no no, that won’t be necessary.” Kimutai waved his hand. “Thank you.” He walked up to Terry’s group. “And thanks to all of you for accompanying this old one on his walk.”

The Guardian representative faced Terry’s group. “The beginning of the mission has already been recorded on your membership cards. We have also activated the temporary link between your cards and Mister Kimutai’s client card. If there is nothing else, then you are free to go.”

***

“Mister Kimutai?” Terry spoke up.

“Just Kimutai is sufficient, young one.” The elderly man smiled gently. “Speaking of politeness, please correct me if I should change my way of addressing you. I am in the habit of going by appearances, but for all I know, you three could be twice my age.”

“It is fine. We are— At least, I am as young as I look.” Terry realized mid-sentence that he did not know how old Calam and Siling were beyond the fact that they couldn’t be younger than him. Now that he thought about it, Kimutai was right. That was indeed confusing.

“It is fine,” said Calam.

“No objections here either,” said Siling.

Terry nodded. “I had a different question, but since we are already on the topic – previously you addressed us as ‘you mana users.’ Does that mean you have never accumulated mana?”

“Not consciously, no,” replied Kimutai and shook his head. “Never. I always thought life was too short to become a mana user.” He chortled. “All those years later and life seems even shorter now.”

Kimutai’s statement baffled Terry into speechlessness. He was trying to wrap his head around what he had just heard.

“Don’t most manaless take a carriage for such distances?” interjected Siling.

“Oh yes, but I enjoy the walk.” Kimutai took a slow and deep breath of fresh air. “Hiking and taking long walks are one of my pleasures in life. It is a nice counterbalance to the usual day-to-day hectic. I am lucky that I am allowed a few such eccentricities at my age.”

“What did you mean ‘life is too short’?” asked Terry, with a frozen expression of bewilderment. “Mana accumulation increases your lifespan, does it not?”

Kimutai laughed loudly. “That reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend once. I tried to convince him of the benefits that some light daily exercise could bring.” He smiled wistfully. “You know how it could make him live longer and healthier.”

Kimutai chortled to himself and shook his head. “At the end of it all, he looked me in the eye and said: ‘Jogging regularly may earn me some more years of life, but how many years would I have spent jogging? How many years worth of spare time among my waking hours?’” He continued smiling in reminiscence. “I thought his argument was a tad ridiculous, but oh well.” He shrugged. “I enjoyed jogging. He did not.”

Kimutai turned his gaze back to Terry. “I did not like mana cultivation or spellwork, though. I did not want to spend a significant portion of my waking life engaged in it. Most people don’t, actually.”

“Most?” Terry was surprised. “You mean most people are manaless?”

Siling and Calam were surprised at Terry’s surprise, and it was their turn to be stupefied.

“Well, d’uh,” exclaimed Siling. “How do you not know that?”

“Did you never activate your mana sight when you were growing up?” questioned Calam.

“I did, but there were no manaless,” mumbled Terry faintly.

“What?” blurted Siling with mouth agape. “How is that possible?!”

“Special upbringing, I presume?” interjected Kimutai, as if he had his own suspicions.

“Ahh…” Realization dawned on Terry. “Oh…” He nodded to himself. “I guess my circumstances were a bit unusual.”

Calam and Siling waited with raised eyebrows for Terry to elaborate.

Terry shrugged. “I grew up in the Greenhouse.”

“Wait, what?!” Siling’s eyebrows shot up as far as her face allowed. “That freaky place where they try to breed the next magic sovereign or something?”

“I wouldn’t call it freaky, but yeah.” Terry furrowed his brows. “That Greenhouse. In retrospect, it was a bit odd, but it seemed normal when growing up there. It wasn’t exactly bad either.”

“I thought the Greenhouse kids would all go to Arcana Academy.” remarked Calam.

“I did,” said Terry while thinking nothing of it.

At this point, Siling and Calam both came to an abrupt halt. It seemed a miracle that they had not tripped over their own feet. They were completely flabbergasted and stared at Terry as if he had suddenly grown a second head.

Terry shrugged. “I managed to last a cycle before I was thrown out for failing all my spellwork exams.”

Calam creased his brows. “I never heard of anyone dropping out of the Academy before…”

“I alway assumed that bag of yours was some weird fan merchandise,” said Siling while glancing at Terry’s messenger bag.

“I was accepted because they failed to notice my aspect impairment,” explained Terry. “It was only discovered when we started proper spellwork.”

“And after the Academy, you went right to the Guardians?” interjected Kimutai with a knowing smile.

Terry nodded.

“Well, that explains your distorted view of the world,” said Kimutai. “Arcana Empire has the highest ratio of mana users among the remaining empires, but even here, they do not constitute a majority. Most people just want a normal life – a stable income so that they can start a family and enjoy their time. Life in Arcana can be pleasant enough even without mana.”

Kimutai moved his gaze over the horizon while talking. “Besides, it may not work any other way. I always figured life inside the barrier would get awfully crowded if everyone were to cling to life for as long as mana makes possible. There is some sort of balance in mana users living potentially longer but riskier lives.”

The group walked for a time in silence before Calam raised another question. “What exactly are you researching at Biant?”

“Oh no, I am employed as a scholar, not a researcher,” replied Kimutai.

Calam scrunched up his face. “What is the difference?”

“Well…” Kimutai considered the question. “I suppose a researcher gets paid to discover new knowledge. A scholar, by contrast, is expected to know existing knowledge. In my case, that means materials science and logistics or how best to allocate and move resources. The magic sovereigns have a new project scheduled near the city and I am hired to support them in their endeavor.”

***

The city of Biant had its own long-distance dimensional gate, albeit a secondary one. Thanks to this travel hub, the actual distance the group had to walk was less than during their trip to Bornais. However, they had to adjust their pace to the slow, measured steps of old man Kimutai.

They passed the time in small talk and idle chitchat. Occasionally, Kimutai would take some time to reminisce on his previous visits and how much had changed since then.

After a while, Terry started to use the time for training. He summoned a spare mana container and filled it up. He was careful to only fill it at the rate he was regenerating mana in order to always remain at full mana capacity, even while training his mana regeneration and accumulating a reserve of naturalized mana in the container.

Terry briefly considered practicing his mana crafting. He was lucky that his spell did not have any particular material requirements and, in theory, he could practice practically anywhere. In the end, he decided against it. He feared it might take up too much of his attention, and he could hear an imagined voice of disapproval inside his head. That voice warned him that he represented the Guardians when he was on a mission.

The voice sounded like Ma Isille.

Thankfully, their escort mission ended uneventfully. Kimutai used his personalized client card to confirm the successful completion of the mission. He thanked the three Guardians and then departed into the building in which he would stay for his own task.

“That was kinda nice,” said Siling. “Relaxing even.”

“Yeah, I can see why Kimutai enjoys these walks,” concurred Terry. “That was certainly different from other escort missions.”

“I almost feel bad that he paid for this,” said Calam with a wry smile.

“Don’t believe he paid himself,” said Siling. “Most likely, his employer is footing the bill for his ‘eccentricities.’”

“I do not think the magic sovereigns are hurting for mana coins,” quipped Terry.

“Fair point,” admitted Calam. “Onwards to Delwood Fort?”

Terry retrieved a time measuring device from his dimensional bag. It was a simple mana-crafted item. He also had a mechanical watch, but the mana-crafted device had several advantages. Most useful among them, it could adjust itself based on the position of celestial bodies in the sky, as well as through the mana signature emitted by Arcana’s barrier. Such a function was essential, because high-quality dimensional bags came with time-distorting effects.

“As nice as the walk has been, it also took longer than anticipated,” lamented Terry.

“What’s the hurry?” asked Siling. “We still have plenty of buffer time for delivering the item to Delwood.”

“No hurry, but looming deadlines make me uncomfortable – no matter how far away they are.” Terry took out a map with the marked dimensional gates.

“Back to the primary hub in Baia?” suggested Calam.

Terry nodded. “And then take the eastward gate towards Cannington – the first primary hub in the C-zone.”

The three trotted back towards the primary gate they had arrived at before.

***

“What’s up with the worry stones?” inquired Siling.

“The what?” Terry was puzzled.

Siling sped up to walk in front of him, turned around, and pointed at his hands. “You have been grabbing stones since a while ago.”

“Ah…” Terry looked at his hands.

“If you have sorrows to worry about, you can share, you know.” Siling slowed her pace and walked next to her two companions again. “My mom says that worrying alone causes ulcers.”

“That doesn’t sound right,” interjected Calam with skeptical eyes before he shrugged. “But I don’t know enough about biology to be sure.”

“No worries,” assured Terry. He opened his left hand. “Just a normal rock. I am practicing to imprint it with the Immovable Object spell.” He opened his right hand. “And whenever I go beyond my mana regeneration rate, I siphon back some of my mana from the filled mana container so that I stay at full mana capacity.”

“Mana container?” Siling’s eyes sparkled. “Gimme please! I would like to see. I thought about buying one.”

“Me too.” Calam observed the container curiously. “But I heard that the naturalized mana inside decays over time and then I wasn’t sure if it would be worth it.”

“My pa insisted I purchase some,” said Terry. “The stored mana indeed decays, but at full mana capacity, your mana regeneration would otherwise go to waste, anyway. Storing the mana at your regeneration rate still leaves you better off, even if some of the mana in the container eventually decays.” He looked at the container while talking. “I also find them useful for training mana regeneration. I can lend you one if you want to test them out.”

“Hmmmm.” Siling seemed lost in thought.

“Hmmmm?” Calam mimicked the noise as a question.

“I’m just wondering if I could use the Share Mana spell to store processed mana that can be quickly absorbed and naturalized by others,” explained Siling.

“Feel free to test it,” encouraged Terry. “Not with that one though. That already contains mana that has been naturalized by me. It would have to be emptied before you can use it, and that would be a waste of mana.”

“There seems to be quite the crowd over at the info board,” remarked Calam, and pointed.

They were presently in Cannington and one of the town’s info boards was on the way to the next hub on their trip. The three decided to head over and figure out what was going on. However, even after they had looked over the board, they still had no idea.

“Greetings.” Terry asked a passerby. “Do you know what all the hubbub is about?”

“A visitor are you?”

“Passing through would be more accurate,” said Terry.

“Heh, yes, that is about the best thing you can do around here. They’re all excited because of the tusked glacial deer sighting. Its appearance is unusually early this year.”

“What is so special about that deer?” Terry looked for the reports on the board.

“Nothing, really. Around here, it is a favorite game for hunters during the season of the Setting Moon. Its elongated canines are useful for some pills or something. The merry faces are most likely hunters expecting a profitable season. The unhappy faces are the rookies or manaless hunters. The appearance of a tusked glacial deer means that the icicle echidnas are not far behind. That spells the end of their cushy hunts until the Rising Sun will arrive.”

“Woah!” Siling’s excited exclamation reverberated in the air.

“Thank you for the information. I hope you will have a nice day!” Terry bid goodbye and joined up again with Calam and Siling.

“What is it?” asked Terry. “Looking to hunt deer as well?”

“What would I want with a deer?” Siling shook her head. “No, look here!” She pointed at one notice on the board.

“Bloody frogmouth,” read Calam. “Why are you getting all excited about a frog?”

“Not a frog. A mana-corrupted bird,” corrected Siling. “Nocturnal, which means good eyesight even at night. Blood-aspected corruption, which means increased health regeneration. Above all, it is one of the few minor corrupted that has life sense.” She almost seemed to vibrate with excitement. “Life sense! It’s perfect! When researching possible soul spirits, it was one of my top picks for replacing my falcon soul.”

Terry was overwhelmed when faced with this sudden bout of enthusiasm.

“Aww, you want to replace Birdbrain?” asked Calam sadly. “I will miss that soul.”

“I did not know they were nesting here…” Siling entered her own world of thoughts.

“How long would it take for you to prepare the replacement of a soul?” When Terry got no answer, he snapped his fingers in front of Siling’s eyes and repeated the question.

“Huh?” Siling was jolted from her daze. “In my current state, not long, but… I can’t be certain that our hunt will be successful and I would have to release my falcon soul first…”

“Losing the eyes in the sky would make the mark and recapture mission more troublesome,” Calam pointed out.

“That’s true…” Siling looked downtrodden, but then recomposed herself. “Ah well, now that I know the bloody frogmouth can be found here, there is no rush.”

“I mean…” Terry spoke up with a pensive expression. “This place isn’t too far from Corsteau. After wrapping up the mana cursed mission, we could come back here on the inbound trip. At that point, we won’t have any time pressure.”

“It’s already early evening. We could stop here for the night,” suggested Calam.

“Right,” agreed Terry. “We could spend the rest of the day visiting the local Guardian headquarters and gathering information regarding the mana corrupted. Once we have more information, we can decide if catching the beast is workable as part of this trip.”

Siling was beaming at them. “Pick an inn first?”

***

Late in the evening, Terry was sitting on the floor in his room at the inn. He summoned two metal gymnastic rings from his storage bracelets – one in each hand. He started to harvest mana.

After a while, Terry stretched out his left hand over his head. Then, he pulled himself up on the ring that was fixed in place by the Immovable Object spell. He repeated the process with his right hand.

If anyone were to observe the room, they would see Terry climbing through the air – up, down, left, right, forward, backward. First, Terry held his legs horizontally so that each leg formed a right-angle with the torso and pulled himself up. Later, he switched to handstands.

It was an exercise Terry had initially thought of as a counter to Lori’s Liquify Earth spell during their sparring sessions. It was inspired by some of the normal training exercises and equipment at the training grounds. He had tried to come up with other ideas, but all the really good ones required him to first master hands-free casting, and that was a skill still out of his reach.

While Terry could cast without finger movements, he was not able yet to precisely control mana anywhere away from his hands. He was also still training to have his off-hand performance catch up with his main casting hand.

Terry had grown to enjoy the transfixed ring training. Aside from the physical exercise – basically doing one handed pull-ups, dips, push-ups, and balancing his body. It served as an effective training for his spell control, mana sense, and timing.

Terry had to keep one spell activated until the next primed spell structure had been ignited. That often required him to reinfuse the active spell structure with more mana, especially if the parallel casting of the new spell ended in spell failure. With a successful spell casting, he could immediately cancel the previous spell and so forth.

Every evening, Terry continued this practice until his mana pool bottomed out. Every day, he tried to beat his previous record for successful spell activations and hand switches.

However, he wasn’t in Arcana City. He was in a foreign location, and therefore, he remained cautious. After the training had emptied his mana pool and he could use the internal pull to increase his pool size, he immediately reabsorbed some mana from his filled mana containers.

After his training, Terry washed himself off. Before going to sleep, he used his Guardian card to flash the links with his family members to indicate that he was okay. In the morning, he would do the same.

***

Two days later, Terry’s group arrived at Delwood Fort. Now, they only needed to locate the proper target destination for delivering the storage item.

“I am still wondering what is inside,” remarked Siling curiously. “Who knows what kind of riches we are carrying?”

“Unprofessional to look inside.” Terry pointed out. “And prevented by the personalized nature of the storage item.”

“You’re no fun,” whined Siling.

Terry shrugged. “I don’t believe anyone would hand over riches to some greenhorns like us.”

“Maybe they are trying to be clever and think no one would pay attention to us?” rebutted Calam.

“See?” Siling gestured at the blonde elven man. “Calam gets it!”

“More likely some supplies of basic mana-crafted items and some boring paperwork,” said Terry matter-of-factly.

“That paperwork could include important spy reports,” suggested Siling.

“Or secret missives to start a revolution,” added Calam.

“Revolution?” Terry raised an eyebrow.

Calam shrugged. “You know, like in the old eras. Empires breaking apart. Kingdoms joining together to form a new empire. That sorta thing.”

Terry shook his head. Isille and Bjorln had once said that the only people dreaming of war were those who have only ever known peace. Given some of the things described in the Path of a Mage as well as some of the stories from his instructors, a war inside the barrier… Terry recoiled at the thought. If he had to entertain one ridiculous fantasy, he knew which option he would prefer to discuss. He looked at Siling. “Spy reports on what?”

“Conspiratorial plots!” suggested Siling. “Enemy infiltration of the Council! Price fixing in the merchant quarter! Scandalous relationships among the magic sovereigns!” She shrugged. “I don’t know.” She pointed at Terry. “That’s the point!”

Terry tilted his head and slightly narrowed his eyes at the dark-haired elven woman. “I believe I can see now why you have been neglecting the courier missions…”

“Not sure anyone would dare to spy on the magic sovereigns,” remarked Calam skeptically.

“Maybe our client will satisfy your curiosity,” said Terry while shaking his head. “Once we have found them, that is.” He pointed. “Should be this way.”

They turned around the corner.

“Although, if I were you, I would brace myself for disappointment,” said Terry to manage the expectations of his excitable companions.

“Hmph.” Siling grumbled quietly.

“Terry is right,” interjected Calam. “No self-respecting spy handler would simply admit to their trade.”

“Right,” agreed Siling and tapped a finger on her lips. “If they don’t tell us, then it serves as proof of a conspiracy.” She giggled happily.

One reason Terry appreciated Calam and Siling as travel companions was that they rarely encountered awkward silences. With Calam, he could talk for hours about legends or folktales from past eras. Siling, on the other hand, was well-versed in mana-corrupted beasts and, even if Terry would never be able to use soul spirits, he nevertheless found the topic fascinating. The elven woman also had a knack for sparking seemingly random conversations – an ability that Terry envied very much.

They eventually arrived at a counter where a gruff guard greeted them. Terry reached his hand into his dimensional bag and retrieved the storage item they were supposed to deliver. The guard accepted the storage item and acknowledged the receipt. He was much friendlier afterwards, almost cheerful.

“Pardon if it is rude to ask, but do you mind sharing what was inside?” asked Terry.

“Hm?” The inquiry surprised the guard, but he indulged their curiosity. “Sure, it is not exactly a secret. Some raw materials and tools, waterproof boots, cold wear, blankets, tea bags, ear plugs, noise cancellation items, and heating pads. A recent lightning storm has messed up some of the fort’s formations and spell imprints. The troops are getting grumpy if they cannot get a good night’s rest.” He exhaled sharply. “Your timely arrival is much appreciated.”

***