by nobody103
Zorian quickly learned that Alanic loved fire spells. Even after Zorian switched from all-purpose shields to variants specifically designed to tank fire magic at the expense of performance against other damage types, he persisted in using them. After his initial barrage of weak, fast-casting, numerous fire projectiles failed to overwhelm Zorian, he switched to trying to steamroll him with gigantic, slow-moving spheres of fire that didn't explode and instead simply tried to envelop him in their flames. After Zorian managed to dispel them, he responded with more fireballs – and this time he wasn't holding back.
Zorian tried to counter-attack whenever he spotted an opening, but all of his attacks were neutralized with contemptuous ease. Trying to kick up dust and other visibility obstacles failed because Alanic could somehow cause a gust of wind to disperse such attacks away from him without making a single gesture or visibly exerting himself. Items were useless because he could telekinetically hurl all projectiles away from him with a simple sweeping gesture, and any magical projectiles were blocked, intercepted or dispelled. Even after Zorian started launching projectiles in complicated parabolic, zigzagging or spiral trajectories, the priest seemed to have no problems tracking them and responding.
Finally, Zorian was nearly out of mana and decided to go out with a bang. He put most of his remaining mana into a ray of force that he promptly fired at Alanic's face. The attack would have killed the priest had it really connected, though Zorian knew it would never connect. Sure enough, the man simply side stepped it and Zorian collapsed on the ground in exhaustion, his arms raised in surrender.
"I give up," he panted. "Whatever point you wanted to make to me, you've done it. Though if this was all for the sake of showing me I'm not the biggest fish in the pond, you needn't have bothered – I'm well aware how screwed I'd be in a face-off against a veteran battle mage."
"The point was seeing how long it would take before you started resorting to lethal moves," Alanic said, walking up to him and offering him a hand. Zorian internally debated the merits of casting the 'shocking grasp' spell and electrocuting the jerk, but in the end decided to be a bigger man and simply accepted his help in getting up. It probably wouldn't have worked, anyway. "I'm rather disappointed it took until you were on your last legs to go for the killing blow."
"Oh screw you, Alanic!" snapped Zorian. "What kind of nutjob tries to kill their opponent in a freaking spar!?"
"You?" Alanic tried, a smirk dancing on his lips. "You did try to kill me at the end, didn't you?"
"That's… I knew it had no chance of actually succeeding."
"Yes, and I'm certain you realized that a minute or two into the test. You should have stopped holding back at that point, or at least followed my lead in what is an acceptable level of force."
"Actually, let's refocus on that issue instead," Zorian said. "What if you had ended up killing me? Some of those spells you tried to hit me with would have put me into a hospital for months if I hadn't tanked them. Possibly kill me outright! The skills I used to survive your 'test' aren't something you had any right to expect of me!"
"I can control what my fires burn," Alanic said matter-of-factly. Zorian was honestly stumped at that. That kind of thing was possible? "I also have a divine artifact that can heal any burns so long as the victim is still alive. Regardless of how things looked to you, you were in very little danger. Still, you clearly thought I was being excessively aggressive and you still held back against me. That kind of hesitation will get you killed some day. As it almost did a few days ago."
"I knew this was about those riflemen I disabled," Zorian mumbled.
"Yes. Disabled. They tried to kill you, with an ambush no less, and you went out of the way to simply knock them out. There is being merciful and there is being stupid."
"Are you sure you're a priest?" grumbled Zorian.
"A warrior-priest," Alanic clarified. "Not every religious order is about peace and forgiveness. And even those that are usually make exceptions for self-defense, in practice if not in theory."
"Fine, fair enough," Zorian conceded. "But why do you care? Why is this so upsetting to you?"
"That's a stupid question. I don't want you to die, that's why."
"Um," Zorian paused, momentarily stumped for a response. What the hell was that supposed to mean? He really wished Alanic wasn't so utterly unreadable to his empathy. "Look, I'll be honest with you – I wasn't really being merciful. You're misreading the whole thing. I simply attacked them in the best manner I had available."
"Please," Alanic scoffed. "I know very well how difficult it would be to take down a group that large non-lethally. Do you really expect me to believe that was the method of attack least dangerous for yourself that you had available?"
"Well, yes," Zorian said. "I guess it would help to know that I'm a natural mind mage. I sense all minds around me, regardless of physical obstacles or line of sight, and I can launch a crude mental assault on them if I so wish. Using that, I could knock them out outside of their shooting range, before they could pin-point my position. Actually killing them would have entailed entering their attack range so I could cast something more deadly at them. Which I felt was rather suicidal at the time."
Alanic gave him a curious look. "An interesting ability. I note that not all of the attackers had been disabled by the time the Guild taskforce had arrived. Did you simply not have time to go through them all or…?"
"It's a weak attack," said Zorian. "It's not hard to resist."
Alanic nodded. Zorian hoped the priest would not question him on the exact mechanics of his ability, as he was not sure he could deceive the man convincingly. Thankfully, it did not seem he would push the issue at the moment.
"What would you have done if no reinforcements had arrived?" Alanic asked.
"Tried to lure them into a mine field," Zorian shrugged. "So yeah. I was fully prepared to blow them up into tiny pieces if they continued to go after me. There's a lot you can accuse me of, but being suicidally merciful isn't one of them. You don't have to worry about me."
"I'm not so sure about that," Alanic grouched. "But it does seem I have misjudged you somewhat. Walk with me."
Alanic walked back into the temple proper and Zorian followed him. He soon found himself sitting in a small kitchen that he had never seen before, though that wasn't saying much. He had never really explored the site, fearful of drawing Alanic's ire if he stepped foot in some private sanctum that non-clergy were supposed to never witness. Most temples had at least a couple of those as far as Zorian knew.
"Misunderstandings aside, the test was quite real," said Alanic once they were seated. "I really did want to see what you were capable combat-wise."
"And?" asked Zorian curiously.
"You are better than I thought you'd be," said Alanic. Zorian preened at the praise. Alanic didn't seem like the sort of hand it out lightly. "But it's clear to me you're no legend in the making. I estimate that your natural mana reserves are average at best, perhaps even below-average, and your spells have the feel of a mage who has practiced a lot rather than those of a talented beginner."
Zorian scowled, his earlier pride forgotten.
"A mage as young as you should not have experience in fighting that extensive," continued Alanic. Uh oh. "I had suspected it for a while now and now I am certain – you are not some recent graduate going for a round of wandering before settling down. Or a traveling mage who stumbled onto something way over his head. You are someone who actively looks for trouble. Had been looking for trouble for a while now…"
Zorian said nothing. He was about to claim that it was trouble that looked for him, not the other way around… but when he really thought about it, that wasn't really true at the moment. He really was looking for trouble right now. It was one of his core goals in Knyazov Dveri. He had a good reason for it, but still.
"I'm not going to ask you to tell me who you are. People who start fighting as young as you must have started to get as good as you are aren't usually th
e trusting sort. You'd never tell me, and truthfully I have no reason to push you in that regard. No, what I want to know is what your immediate goal is here. I don't believe that you really stumbled upon Lukav's encounter with the boars accidentally, or that the soul marker stamped on your soul is really unconnected to the enemies after our heads. Considering how helpful both me and Lukav have been to you in this past several weeks, I believe we both deserve a little more honesty from you. What is really going on here, Zorian?"
"Regardless of what you may think, my reasons for coming here were exactly as I told them to you," Zorian said. "I really did get caught in the aftermath of a soul magic spell. I really did come to Lukav, and by extension you, because I wanted to understand what had happened to me. None of those were fabrications. But…"
"Yes?" Alanic prompted.
"I had done some research on the people behind my attack – the original attack that resulted in the marker on my soul, I mean – and uncovered some pretty heavy stuff. They are connected to Cyoria's leadership somehow, and have links to the local branch of the Cult of Dragon. As far as I can see, they are Ibasan in origin. One of the reasons I had for coming here, aside from seeking out your help, was that I wanted to get out of their territory."
"And you think our attackers belong to that group?" surmised Alanic.
"Considering how large and organized the Ibasan group was, I wouldn't be surprised if they had some kind of organization branch here. And the fact both groups make use of undead and soul magic is kind of indicative to my eyes. But I don't actually have any proof, and I'm far from certain."
Zorian wasn't comfortable about sharing everything with Alanic. For instance, telling him about the invasion or the primordial 'summoning' plot was out of the question, as Alanic would no doubt insist on notifying the Cyoria authorities about those and that could alert Red Robe about Zorian's whereabouts. He did, however, tell him about a lot of other things… like the other disappearances in the area. His own investigation into them had pretty much stalled for the moment, so he had little to lose by telling him about them at this point.
After several exhausting hours of back and forth, Alanic all but threw him out of the temple, claiming he had to think about things. Zorian was glad for that, as he was thoroughly sick of the entire conversation by that point… even if there was a good chance Alanic would want to have nothing to do with him by tomorrow.
Oh well, even if the man refused to see him after this, there was always the next restart. There wasn't that much time left in this restart anyway.
✦ ✧ ✦
Zorian was in the process of affixing a left arm to the wooden golem he was building when a human mind suddenly appeared in his room. He would like to say that he reacted immediately and decisively, but the truth was that he was momentarily paralyzed by surprise and fear, spent several moments fumbling for a response, and then realized that his mysterious 'attacker' was actually Alanic.
He glared at the priest that had just teleported into his room without warning, trying to set him on fire with his eyes. Sadly, that ability wasn't one of the things in his repertoire, and Alanic was completely unfazed at his glare.
Note to self: find a spell that lets you set whatever you're looking at on fire.
"What the hell do you think you're doing, Alanic," Zorian snapped. "I could have shot you if I hadn't realized who you were in time."
Alanic glanced at the half-disassembled rifle on Zorian's bed and raised an eyebrow at him.
"Well not with that, obviously," Zorian groused.
"You didn't turn up for your evening lesson," Alanic said with disapproval. "I felt it prudent to check up on you."
"I kind of thought I should give you some time," Zorian said defensively. "You seemed pretty annoyed yesterday."
"I was disturbed, not angry," Alanic said. "I needed some time to think. If I wanted you to skip on your lesson I would have said so." He looked at the half-finished golem and raised his eyebrow at Zorian. "A curious choice of materials for a golem."
"It's a prototype," Zorian said. "I don't expect much from my first golem, so I wanted to make it out of something cheap and easy to work with."
Alanic shook his head. "It doesn't matter, really. I suppose I can give you a day off from lessons for one day. Tell me, though – is there anything else you forgot to mention to me yesterday?"
"Not really, no," said Zorian. Nothing except things he had purposely kept to himself, anyway. "Although I'd like to ask you a question, if I may. As a soul magic expert, do you think it's possible to kill a soul?"
"No," Alanic said immediately. "What kind of question is that? Do I need to read you passages from the Book of Zikiel again?"
"No!" Zorian protested. "No, that will not be necessary. Yes, I know that's what the books say, but… the necromancer I told you about, the one who killed my informants?"
Alanic nodded, indicating he knew what Zorian was talking about. In truth he didn't know the half of it. For one thing, Zorian had never explained to the priest that those informants had been giant talking spiders. Still, Zorian had told enough of the story for Alanic to follow along.
"He claimed to have done more than just kill them. He said he killed their very souls to ensure they were never coming back."
"An empty boast. He was just trying to demoralize you," Alanic scoffed. "Souls are unkillable. Corruptible certainly, but you can't destroy them."
"Even if he had effectively unlimited time to figure something out?" Zorian pressed. "He did mention he spent decades within a time dilation field while he was ranting at me."
"Necromancers have been trying to destroy a soul for a millennium without much luck," Alanic said. "Finding a way to crack open the indestructible core of the soul to see what makes them tick and if it can be manipulated and duplicated has been the goal of many a necromancer over the ages. And many of those necromancers spent centuries pursuing their grisly work with little regards to morality or pity for the people they experimented upon. I sincerely doubt this one mage can do what a thousand years of necromantic tradition has failed at just because spent a couple of months in time dilation chamber. Provided he made use of such facilities at all, that is. Personally, I find it much more likely he's making things up."
"What if it's more than just months, though?" Zorian pressed. "Years, even decades?"
"You mean like that old drivel about Black Rooms that various organizations supposedly have?" asked Alanic. "Those rumors are almost certainly false. They are not impossible in theory, but much harder than they sound in practice. The logistics of time dilation chambers is very complex and require more than just capability to speed up the passage of time in an area. And that's especially true for things like necromantic experiments, which require a constant stream of victims to serve as experiment subjects. Unless your boasting necromancer has an access to something like the Sovereign Gate, his claims are laughable."
"Sovereign Gate?" asked Zorian.
"Never heard of that story?" Alanic asked. Zorian shook his head in negative. "Well, do you at least know who Shutur-Tarana Ihilkush was?"
"How could I not?" Zorian scowled. "My history teacher made us all memorize the first three chapters of 'The 13 Cities of Salaw' by heart. That would be the last king of Ikos, yes? The man who conquered all of the city states around the Umani-Re river and created the Ikosian Empire. What does he have to do with anything?"
"The Sovereign Gate is an artifact supposedly dating back from his time," Alanic said. "Like many great rulers, Shutur-Tarana has a great many fanciful stories and grandiose claims associated with him, and this particular one claims he either made or found a doorway into another world. Having found he did not age at all while on the other side, he spent '11 lifetimes' there, learning their secrets and honing his skills. Eventually, he grew homesick and decided to go back home. Once he was back in his own world, however, he found the doors forever barred to him. He stored the Sovereign Gate in his royal vault, there to wait for a worthy succes
sor who would repeat his feat and usher the empire in a new age with the wisdom gained from the other side. Or, well, resurrect it… since it is thoroughly dead at this point."
"An interesting story," Zorian said.
"But probably just that – a story," said Alanic. "It would have probably remained half-forgotten in some decaying tome as one of the many obscure tales surrounding the first emperor, but Eldemar's royal family is very fond of it, since they claim to have the Sovereign Gate in their possession."
"Oh?"
"Yes, though in all honesty I'm not the best person to ask about that topic. Personally, I think the whole thing is fabricated drivel which Eldemar royals thought up to give themselves some additional legitimacy. They never mentioned the Gate or any of the other Ikosian artifacts they apparently had until they had their ambitions and reputation dashed in the Splinter Wars. They probably just swiped one of the Bakora gates from somewhere and are trying to pass it off as a genuine Ikosian artifact with fanciful stories. You should probably find an actual historian for a proper discussion on the subject."
"Fair enough," said Zorian. "I was just curious. What are Bakora gates, though?"
"Also something you should ask a historian about," said Alanic. "To put simply, they are some kind of ancient teleportation network that predates Ikosian civilization by a fair margin. No one knows much about the Bakora, since they only left their gate network and a handful of other artifacts behind, but their reach was vast – the gates can be found all over Miasina, Altazia and even Blantyrre. Sadly, the art of actually activating the gates has been lost to the sands of time… or maybe their magics simply broke down a long time ago and they no longer work. Regardless of the truth, they are mostly just historical curiosities now – modern mages have their own teleportation network up and functioning, so most of the interest in the Bakora gates has dried up, at least on the mage side."