The royal palace of Kilguana was in full swing, everywhere in the corridors, ramparts and halls were running soldiers and maids. The former carrying all kinds of equipment such as boxes and the latter carrying linens, books and parchments.
The housekeepers were all on the lookout, monitoring the movements of their teams. Libraries and archives were opened, read and copied for some before being sent to the east wing of the palace.
There, a group of about thirty people had formed around a large table. People of varying ages and appearances. From very old men with long white beards to those barely in their forties, muscular and drawn up to young people in white robes.
The assembly was in turmoil. Everyone seemed to read pages, discuss and debate with scribes writing down what they were told. The room was upside down with piles of papers and books piling up on the floor.
- "A new report claiming an elf sighting in Duchy Soleyris. Dating back to 200 years" a voice announced.
- "Check and cross the information with the reports of the second infantry battalion of the garrison and those of the military exchanges of the Duchy Meli" answered an old man.
Immediately, the assistants got down to work and took out various papers before putting them one by one on the table and then reading them.
- "What about the archives of the Duchy of Guey ?!" another man yelled, obviously an important soldier given his stature and tone.
- "The scribes are copying them, Captain" answered another assistant immediately.
- "Hurry up! His Majesty is waiting for a report" the man continued before plunging back into the pile of paper in front of him.
The great hall housed for a time the most influential people of the capital. Renowned businessmen, generals or captains to the elders and intellectuals to even novice mages.
All had received a specific order: "What was happening at the border?" They had been given full authority to look into this matter and submit a report.
A pre-emptive study had therefore been launched by the council of the Elders, amassing the greatest heads of the palace. Not only thinking heads but experienced ones as well. Looking for something inadequate, an action that stood out, that was the job of the military reading the many battle reports that took place.
They were looking for something that should be unthinkable. An elf? But that was an order coming from the King himself, so they had to obey.
After a whole day of researching, reading and opening the archives, an elderly man in a white robe entered the throne room, dark circles under his eyes.
Before him was the same formation of soldiers and the King this time accompanied by the Magus of the court. Both had their eyes fixed on the old man.
- "The study has not been able to verify the presence of an elf or an Archmage over the past few years. We have been able to unearth many cases but none of them seem to be relevant" announced the man.
- "So we still do not know if there really is an elf," replied the King in deep thought.
He wasn't expecting much from this study. Even if sometimes it gave surprising results, the latter only gave them contextual information without ever providing them with a stable answer.
But now the King knew what he was dealing with. A sanctuary thought to be impenetrable had been opened before an elf Archmage appeared. This foreshadowed a few conclusions.
- "So the elf would be the architect of the sanctuary?" Zachary said out loud.
This was one of the most plausible hypotheses and one of the conclusions that elucidated a major part of their questions. Where did this ancient place come from and who created it?
The King had a puzzled expression. He didn't know what to do with this information. Should he prepare for an invasion? Send a diplomatic delegation to Angremort, let them know, or just ignore the situation.
The last solution was obviously not possible.
As he looked up at the old man facing down to the floor, the voice of the Magus was heard in the room.
- "Why not send a procession of ten mages to the border to investigate with a military detachment?"
Kylis thought for a moment before nodding.
- "I would like to go too," added Zachary.
At this, the King and the elderly man turned to the Magus with frightened looks. After all, Zachary was an Archmage, the most powerful practitioner of magic in the whole kingdom.
What would happen if he left the capital or worse, died during his expedition? The consequences would be enormous.
The situation here was special. They had the presence of an elf in a land close to their kingdom, moreover in a place as mysterious as ancient. The curiosity of a mage was great, but that of an Archmage probably had no limits.
Especially since Zachary was a close friend of the King. Because of this, the latter knew full well that the former would probably stop at nothing to visit the shrine. If he wanted to, he could surely leave without warning.
Seeing the excited and determined face of his friend, Kylis sighed.
- "Prepare a detachment. You are leaving in three days. Take a Royal Guard squadron with you" he announced before quickly raising his hand. "Non-negotiable," he added.
Zachary, who was going to protest against the employment of a hundred soldiers, stopped. All they were going to accomplish was slow him down. But he didn't complain. It was already a miracle that he was allowed to leave, he wasn't going to ask for more.
Immediately, a light enveloped him and he disappeared into the air without a trace. The King sighed again before looking at the old man.
- "Do what is necessary for his departure" he said.
The man bowed again before leaving the room in reverse. Once the doors were closed, the elder sighed deeply. They were going to have several sleepless nights ahead of them.
Much further to the east, on top of a cliff, Isaac stood in front of a series of twenty arcana moving at various angles.
All of different size, shape, density and complexity swirled around a more compact and scaled-down version of the famous spiritual energy generator developed by Isaac.
It was a new creation made up of a tangle of arcana or runes like gears. Where the movement would be diffused, mana and spiritual energy is transported creating blue lines on the passage of the circuits of the structure.
"Penduleum"
It was the name Isaac had decided to give it. The structure in front of him was about three meters tall and emitted a powerful aura of energy around it. Up front, the young man was focused on observing the interactions of the channels.
It was the last idea that came to his mind. The Penduleum is actually the premise of a primitive computer. Indeed, since the runes could replace electronic circuits, that the arcana were only applications of runes in the air and that the computer was ultimately only a pile of calculation modules, the project was feasible.
Of course, he had not yet learned enough to be able to create a real computer, nevertheless it was something that he could use in the future to create artefacts.
But above all, Isaac wanted to integrate one into his grimoire and thus automate it, allowing him to add new features.
"At this speed, my grimoire will become a legendary object if it's not already" he said to himself, looking at the book with its innocuous cover.
The cover had been changed and stained with a white wood closed by enchanted lianas and the containment barrier. The power of the grimoire mixed with the energy produced and stored by the mutated mana flower was probably comparable to 5% of the garden's protection rune now.
Spiritual energy was truly overpowered.
The objective of his experiment was to see how much the arcana could interact with each other and see if these interactions had disruptive effects.
Thus, he had created a multitude of arcana without necessarily a certain logic and had noted the behaviors of the latter according to their neighbors.
With that, he got a pretty clear list of interactions and what to do and what not to do. Many were logical as for example, an elemental arcane of fire was strongly disturbed in the presence of water or ice.
However, some were more subtle like the core of the reactor which could be disturbed by the mana currents produced by the surrounding arcana. The Penduleum would have exploded on him if he hadn't quickly noticed and triggered an emergency release procedure.
Once his observations were noted and his experiments completed, he made the structure disappear and then sighed.
It had been several days longer since he had heard from his apprentices. He was starting to worry. "Maybe I should go see them?" he thought.
He didn't really know what to do. He couldn't go straight into town and he was sure that when he entered they would ask him to remove his hood which would cause a lot of uproar.
Isaac therefore decided against it.
But what could he do in the meantime? In his old world, he had video or internet games to pass the time. He could spend whole days on his computer. He was starting to miss it.
As he was thinking, a question came to his mind. A question about Rebecca and in particular her way of doing magic that intrigued Isaac.
Teaching him Isaac's many applied theories, the young woman still couldn't do magic like him. Indeed, where Isaac uses his aura and his own mana to manipulate his environment, formulate spells, create arcana and trace runes, the young woman has no aura.
Also, she uses a different way of magic that relies on extending her circuits, which Isaac couldn't. There was also Rita who could summon spells with formulas like prayers. The very fact of being able to "read" the magical inscriptions was a gift in itself.
But he had a presentment that the method by which he and the elder "read" the inscriptions was different. From what he knew, the mages were divided into several branches.
One branch that relies on its circuits like Rebecca to manipulate magic, another that relies on words and inscriptions like Rita, and another relies on their aura like Isaac.
It was a new theory he had to test.
So he decided to go ahead and resume his training in order to manipulate magic using his own mana circuit.
Above all, he began by analyzing his own mana circuit and the vessels that made it up. Its structure, density and flow, everything had to be taken into account in order to be able to deduce which vessels were the most powerful and which could be manipulated easily.
For two days and two nights, Isaac sat on his flying rock motionless. He almost looked like he was dead as he was so focused on his body.
Sensations, emotions and actions were recorded as well as the reaction of the mana vessels. Yet despite this, Isaac was unable to modify his mana circuit or expand his mana circuit or his vessels.
Something was strange with the way Rebecca did magic. Did she have a special gift? He was not sure, he would experiment once the latter returned.
Just as he opened his eyes again, he noticed the red window that had appeared in front of him. How long had it been there? Good question.
Immediately, the air around Isaac stiffened with mana. He didn't know he could enter such a deep trance that he would be cut off from his surroundings. How much time had passed? He had totally lost the sense of the passage of time and had fully immersed himself in his experimentation.
He then proceeded to read the contents of the window which seemed to be logs, unread notifications that were waiting for Isaac to read them.
[System] Authorized entity detected
[System] Distance before arrival: 3km
[System] Estimated destination: Garden of Origins
[System] Location: Azimuth 70 ° W
"Authorized entity?" Isaac wondered.
It could only be Rebecca or Artiel. After all, they were the only two he'd given access to keep them from being attacked by the golems.
Isaac was excited to be able to experiment on Rebecca before frowning as he read the rest of the windows.
[System] Unidentified entities on approach
[System] Distance before arrival: 3km
[System] Estimated destination: Garden of Origins
[System] Location: Azimuth 70 ° W
"Intruders?" Isaac thought.