Beyond?

by Andur

  I dispel the spell and kneel down to listen for the other attackers, but there is nothing. Their ability to hide from my senses disturbs me. Or did they run away?

  One of the tiles on the roof makes a scratching sound and I turn just in time to block a knife coming down at me. To do so I used the throwing knife which I pulled out of my own hand earlier.

  The black figure kicks me and I take the blow, relying on the layer of mana around me. While doing so I grunt as the foot hits me with much more force than I expected, locking my wounded arm around it.

  I hurl my leg at the opponent's supporting leg and am rewarded with a crunching sound. He topples over and I shove his weapon aside and let go of his leg.

  He makes a futile attempt to hit me. The impact makes my head shake as I drive my own wounded fist into his chest, pouring mana into my hand. The pain is like a searing fire, but the adrenaline in my body lets me ignore it.

  His chest caves in and he is flung away like he was kicked by a horse.

  I don't wait for another attack and drop myself into the hole which was created by one of the attackers.

  Down in the house, complete darkness awaits me and I rely entirely on my ability to sense mana while I get up and hurry into the next room. It is a university building and it's not surprising that there is no one here at this hour.

  In the next room I relax for the first time and activate a healing spell to repair the damage to my hand. Then I wait. I don't think that it's wise to go out there and follow two people who can hide from me like ghosts. In here I have the upper hand because I can concentrate all my attention on the doors and windows.

  Plus, the longer they wait, the stronger I get.

  The minutes tick by, but no further attacks follow. After a while I sense multiple people encircling the area. Finally one of them decides to check the damaged building I took position in.

  He jumps down the hole in the roof and lights the area with a light globe.

  I recognize him through the open door to my room and decide to show myself. “Karsen.”

  30. ~By other means.~

  “Life-force or mana is a collective expression for all forms of energy which are present in all things. Even a rock contains a certain amount of it. There are places which overflow with this energy. Often those locations have a deep mystical meaning to the people who live there.

  Living creatures contain more of this power and are able to use it to influence their surroundings in some cases. But only those who are called magicians are able to use this power in all its glory and darkness.”

  -Papyri magicae.

  Free City States of Nict, Capital

  Azir

  I am in Ryland's office once again. “To tell you the truth, I am becoming a little agitated. Those people had very sophisticated concealment spells at hand. Those weren't just some untrained forces. It's true that their individual fighting force wasn't that high, but that's not necessary when you can walk up to someone and knife him before he realizes that you are there!”

  Slowly I look at all the people present. Stella rushed over when she heard of the attack. Karsen, Talia and Ryland met me at the site and grandmother Quarma joined us in Ryland's office.

  “Then why did they even try to knife you? And why would someone send seven assassins for you?” Talia grumbles. “Who would benefit from killing Azir.”

  Stella growls at my side. “It wouldn't have broken up the alliance between the Gejene and the Zait, but it would've been weakened. It would make no sense for another clan to kill Azir. They want him. It would make much more sense to go after me.”

  “Don't misunderstand me, but from an outsider's perspective you are just a damsel.” I tap onto Ryland's office table. “I am a well known prodigy and Stella is a second daughter without any publicly known accomplishments. The fact that they attacked me gives us another hint at their origin.”

  I start pacing around the room. “Let's assume for a moment that our theory about the dark magicians is true. Then this incident is another proof. We are dealing with a force from far outside the country. They are operating with very limited numbers and over a very long time-frame. Their goal is to keep the country's attention focused on itself. In order to do that they send us dark mages at regular intervals. They act like terrorists. Another facet of their strategy is to destabilize the country. Stella and I are a stabilizing factor. Our union brought the two strongest clans of the country closer together. If the Gejene and the Zait move together they could probably force all the other clans into action too.”

  Ryland lifts an eyebrow. “That sounds reasonable. But there is one point I don't understand. Why do you think that they are from far away.”

  I click with my tongue. “That's the important point. They are operating from underground and with limited information. Probably because they would be recognized as outsiders. We allow all of our neighbours to move freely within our borders as long as they don't wage war. They would have no problems to gather enough information. If they had, they would've tried to remove Stella and make it look like one of the clans did it.”

  “But they went for me. A sign that they don't understand the politics behind the clans. So they only have information up to the level of what a non-magician would know. And that's not much. Our enemy probably has hidden operatives amongst the commoners. It's almost impossible for them to place someone within the clans. Our family based system denies them that possibility. Placing a new rogue mage in our ranks is also a hard task since a person like that has to endure an intensive background check and everyone would investigate his or her lineage.”

  Karsen frowns and takes up my train of thought. “So basically they fucked up for the first time in a few hundred years and gave us another clue to their existence. I am sorry, but this sounds too good to be true. Why should they misjudge the situation like that after they did well for such a long time.”

  Talia gestures for Karsen to stop. “It makes sense if you take into account that their time-frame is becoming tighter. Their actions became more frequent within the recent years and we experienced one attack after the other. They tried to stage a large scale attack on the university when we were sent to the other world. If that had succeeded it would've thrown the country into chaos and weakened us seriously.”

  She takes a deep breath. “They wanted the country weakened, but the attempt failed. Now they are moving faster and with less information than they can handle. They are frantically trying to catch up to their plan. For that reason they took the chance of assassinating Azir when it looked like the power foundation of the country turned even more secure.”

  Quarma mumbles. “We tripped them when we prevented their large scale attack and now they are in a bind. They are grasping at straws. I'll talk to the Gejene and suggest to increase the controls of our borders and to look out for strange foreigners. They need to have at least some contact with our population.”

  I face Ryland. “What about the survivor? Did you get something out of her?”

  Ryland shakes his head. “She didn't say a word. I highly doubt that we'll get anything out of her with normal means. Some of my best mind magicians are working on her right now. They say that she is trained very well, at least at the level of a military agent.”

  “Where is she? Can I interrogate her?” Maybe I can get her to talk.

  “She is one floor under us. But what can you accomplish that a mind magician can't?” Ryland sounds doubtful.

  Shrugging my shoulders I head for the door. “I'll know that once I get to talk to her.” I open the door and look at Ryland. “So?”

  Ryland sighs and gets out of the chair. Then he leads our group one floor down into another room. The room is completely empty. One wall of the room is a single big window with a door at left side. Behind there is a second room with a woman. She is bound with magical shackles to a chair and several binding and sealing runes are on the floor around her. She looks like a hardened soldier and has a scar on her cheek. Her brown hair i
s cut short and her horns are curling down behind her ears.

  Three of Ryland's subordinates are standing around her, having their focus on her. The woman is smirking while the faces of Ryland's subordinates look very concentrated.

  Ryland steps forward. “We healed her and brought her here right after we found her alive. We recovered two bodies and the pieces of a third. So if there were really seven attackers, then that means that three got away.”

  Nodding I gesture at the three female officers around the prisoner. “I suppose that they know what they are doing? She has been resisting them for an hour and is still grinning?” Ryland nods with a grave expression.

  I tilt my head in thought. “Send them out and away.”

  Quarma complains. “They are still trying to break her mental defence.” Ryland shrugs his shoulders and sighs. “Which isn't working. Let's give him a try.” He walks into the interrogation room and sends his subordinates away, all of them come out and leave the room. I observe the prisoner for several seconds, but she keeps grinning.

  “I suppose this glass lets you see just in one direction?” I tip at the window. Karsen nods and confirms it.

  “This is quite sophisticated.” I enter the interrogation room and close the door behind me. The woman fixed me with her gaze when I entered. I don't care for her and look at the window from this side. It's just a white wall from here.

  Then I face the woman and try to sense something from her, but there is nothing. Mind magic is a bizarre phenomenon. It requires a high amount of concentration and time to establish a connection. From then onward it works like telepathy. It's almost useless in a fighting situation since the required time to defeat the mental defences of your opponent is always longer than it would take you to kill him with brute force.

  Even though you can kill someone with a single thought once his defence is down it's very hard to manipulate the mana within someone else, but exactly that is required to defeat someone with mind magic alone. It's much easier to apply an outer force, or to use illusion magic to fiddle with your opponent’s perception of reality.

  This woman is a complete black hole to my senses. This is really disturbing. I could kill her and take her soul apart to get the needed information, but I think that wouldn't throw a good light onto me. First I have to do something about that stupid grin of hers. It's annoying me.

  Stepping forward, I use my ability to form a small claw-shaped dagger in my left hand. I hold the dagger behind my back to keep her from seeing it. Then I grab her pinky and cut it off in one clean motion.

  Dropping the pinky in front of her I leave the room. While I am closing the door behind me the woman finally realizes what happened and starts screaming like a pig.

  On the other side I am awaited by my surprised companions. Karsen, Talia and Stella are a little shocked. Quarma's expression looks like she expected something like this from me.

  Ryland steps forward with a red face. “What was that for? You didn't even ask a question. We are no barbarians here!”

  I raise an eyebrow. “She grinned at me. That's not acceptable during an interrogation. She has to realize that her opponents aren't to be taken lightly. What she did with you guys is psychological warfare. The one who flinches first loses.”

  A look through the glass tells me that the woman stopped screaming. “You go in this time. Ask her one question. Don't wait if she doesn't answer immediately and come back out.”

  Ryland gasps. “That's not interrogation! It's inhumane! Everyone knows that torture isn't reliable.”

  I try to smile at Ryland. “These people tried to kill me. They killed innocents and they will kill many more if they aren't stopped. To be honest. I don't give a shit if I have to dice her piece by piece to make her talk. If she talks a few minutes earlier we might find their hideout and stop them from making another attempt.”

  He shuts his mouth, but he still glares at me. Then he walks into the room and asks his question. The woman doesn't talk, so he comes back out again.

  Next I enter the room. She isn't grinning this time. I still take her left earlobe and send Karsen with a question inside.

  The game continues until I accumulated a set of non vital body parts in front of her. While doing so I used a little healing magic in order to stop her from bleeding to death.

  Upon entering the room once again she finally stutters something. “St... Stop... Why! You don't even ask anything. You just come in and...”

  She screams while I cut off a piece of her nose and drop it onto the pile in front of her. Then I leave the room.

  Once again I send in Ryland. This time the woman starts talking on her own, even before Ryland asked a question. He just stays there and listens to her nonsensical babbling about who she is and where she comes from.

  According to her story she is from a faraway land in the north and was hired by some unknown people. They brought her here through a red flaming portal and promised her and her comrades wealth and power if they managed to assassinate someone.

  If her story is true, then the portal is in an abandoned warehouse in the merchant district of this city. After a while she falls silent and Ryland leaves the room as instructed.

  I smile at him. “You can send someone to heal her up again. We need to repeat this if she lied.”

  Ryland just looks at me with a hardened face and leaves the room. “I'll inform the army. They'll check the situation.” Well, looks like my relationship with him took a little dent.

  I clean my hands and walk with the others back to Ryland's office to wait there for new information. There is a heavy silence over the room, but I don't feel anything about my actions. That woman tried to kill me in cold blood. I see no moral reason to treat her lightly. One hour later we receive the word from the military that the warehouse was surrounded and several people were caught while trying to flee through a red portal. Unfortunately the portal collapsed before they could determine where it led.

  Without any further reason to spend any more time in Ryland's office I stand up. “It looks like the military will take over from now on. Since they've proof of the portals and their danger now, they'll hopefully take action to prevent further incidents.”

  Quarma nods. “They'll find more clues about these mysterious attackers. I'll try to keep you guys informed. Since I am the former clan head of the Zait I have access to everything they find out.”

  I say my goodbyes and leave the room. Stella follows me in silence. Outside on the streets I decide to ask her for her opinion. “Do you think what I did today was wrong?”

  “~Hm?~ Sorry, I wasn't really listening. What did you ask?” Stella looks up from the street.

  “Do you think my actions were wrong?” I ask again.

  Stella shakes her head. “Sorry. I am not such a frail girl as to cave in to something like that. I was just thinking that I could've lost you. My mother prepared me and my sister for the necessities of ruling a country which is surrounded by enemies.”

  Then she whispers. “~Actually I thought that the assassin was taking away from our time together. How do you intend to make up for that?~”

  31. ~Life.~

  “Casting a magical spell has two requirements. First you need the power to fuel your spell, second it is necessary to guide your spell's effect. Providing the power can be achieved by the following means.

  Using your internal mana is the most common solution. It also holds the most risk for your own well being. Using your own mana results in weakening your own physical constitution. This effect is subtle at first, but as you start running low on mana it becomes more severe. In some cases it can even result in death.

  The second possibility is to use the wild mana from your surroundings. This is harder to accomplish, since you need to be good at sensing mana and manipulating it.

  The third possibility is to use other living beings as suppliers, or adding their power to your own through a dark ritual.

  To cast a spell you need a way to control its effect. Th
is can be achieved by casting it by speaking or thinking the chant, using runes or magical circles to describe the desired result, or shamanistic rituals. There are more possibilities to guide a spell, but these are the most common ones. All of them do the same. And that's essentially guiding the mana into the proper pattern to achieve the desired effect, changing the laws of nature.

  Casting a spell by voice or thought is the oldest form of this art. It is just a way to assist the caster in imaging the desired effect, thus changing reality to his wishes.

  Shamanistic rituals assist a chant by adding symbols and objects, thus increasing the control over the spell. This makes bigger and more complicated spells possible.

  Runes and magical circles are the most recent form of directing a spell. By forcing the mana to flow in a certain pattern you can add much more control and power to the spell. The downside is that this method is very literal minded and one small mistake can lead to catastrophic failures.”

  -Papyri magicae.

  Free City States of Nict, Capital

  Valeria

  My brother is a tutor! Finally an opportunity to spend more time with him. And the Vixen can't even interfere. It took me only a moment for the decision to join his course.

  So behind this door lies my paradise. I just have to shoo away the other pests who are sticking to him. Without hesitation I open the door and step into the classroom. What I find inside is simply shocking!

  Brother is lying on the teacher's table and snoring loudly. Twelve students are sitting in the first row with big books in front of them. Their faces are strained and full of fear when they look up in unison like a well maintained clock.

  “What's this supposed to be?” I attempt to slam the door shut, but one of the students throws her notebook with incredible skill between the closing door and the doorframe. The same student stands up and tiptoes over to my position.

  “Psst! Don't wake him up!” She whispers while recovering her notebook.