Vega and Dion stood on a soft carpet. It was a comfortable one despite just being fit for two people. Different from Professor Addilyn's boat, his can only fly at a fixed speed, at least, faster than walking or running. It also didn't require many magic crystals to power. While looking over the city from above, the blue sigil lit up from the edge of the corner of his eyes. Vega understood right away the sigil of air, which was common considering his meditation exercise contained a similar one.
"I hope the guild can teach us some sigils, right? They must have one book about it at least."
"As far as I know, the guild has existed even before Mernoralin came into power. By that, the conclusion is they do have the knowledge of the old tongue."
"How old is the language anyway?"
"In the west, they had been using the same characters for thousand years." Dion drew something on a piece of paper. Several simple lines whose meaning was too obscure, a language that didn't have the usual words but replaced with a symbol. "Fire. But without the correct materials, the talisman won't work." He used a little spirit, a little explosion, and the paper turned into dust.
"That's interesting. Probably useful to summon a little fire with that little spark, but it could create more than that, right?" Vega took something and gave it to his friend.
"Yes." Dion hid a blade around his waist. "We need to prepare for every possible scenario. Let's go. Let's just hope the Goldenhearts won't give us a hard time."
Vega activated the main sigils on the carpet, and the mana nearby surged and lit the second sigil, after a while, it lit up the rest. Gradually, the boat soared faster through the sky.
"Woohoo! This is fun!" Vega screamed from atop his lungs.
"The speed is not that fast, but fast enough compared to walking," Dion remembered his sword that could soar through the sky much faster, but he didn't have any power to even lift a sword and use it for fighting.
Vega stayed quiet enjoying the breeze to his face. The cold air overpowered the heat from the sun. His robe flapped around him but a sigil kept his feet stuck to the carpet. Not getting blown from the sky was really important, especially floating several meters above the ground.
Instead of taking several hours to reach the center, flying shortened the time to merely an hour. From afar, Vega started to finally see the shimmering glow keeping the guild safe inside.
Stopping, he could see how the island look from above. He even could see the whole noble's quarter from the sky and the majestic bridge connecting the guild straight with them. On the other side, he saw several fields taking over another part into a place to grow some fruits and vegetables.
"So we can fly in the capital but not straight to the guild." He controlled the carpet to descend just by the moat surrounding the guild.
He knocked on the door to the towering building. The door creaked open allowing them to come in. He saw the winding stairs and sighed. "I hate stairs."
"I'm sorry."
"No, it's not that. It's just scary you know." Vega looked down, shuddered, and drew back. "Imagine us falling down."
"I thought you liked heights."
"But that's only flying. Flying is different."
After got through the passages in the cavern several people already waited for them.
"They finally are here. That boat must've been the lowest quality." A bulky guy sneered.
"Tell me about it. Even my lowest magic items can definitely fly faster."
"Ah, you're talking about that rickety boat of yours? Even sailing the ocean the boat would break down in a second."
"You!"
"Okay, we heard enough, masters." Someone walked toward them. With an elegant white cloak, everyone turned quiet and nodded toward the guy. "I know some of you are impatient of getting your hands on Master Silverling's journal. But please, let's just enjoy the day first."
Four of them were high apprentices. The book told Vega that Silverling Goldenheart was a well-known master in the art of crafting. But even though he was famous, the other crafters at the same level were too proud of their own work to consult on someone else, even one of a Goldenheart.
The guild member led them toward a VIP booth on top of the auction hall. With three knocks, the door opened and all except Vega and Dion bowed toward the figure. But when they noticed, they also followed.
"Interesting. Only some weren't taught to respect their elders."
"We're sorry Master Goldenheart, we didn't know it was you."
"No problem. A red hair like that, I could totally see you as a Brighton. And based on the volatile mana around you, I guess the fire chose you too."
"Let me introduce everyone to Master Albertino Goldernheart, the new master of the house Goldenheart and the true master crafter." The guild member introduced the adept.
"That's a nice introduction. But you are correct, Silverling was crafty, pardon the pun, but in a decade, I would overcome him. We would overcome him."
"Are you talking about the secret plane that's rumored to open? But it's only a rumor."
"The Masini is known to contain the secrets of the ancient crafters. Besides the knowledge of sigils, they also have a secret fire from the Eight Flame Clan."
"But the Eight Flame Clan was extinct a millennia ago."
"Yes, and one of their known secret planes was starting to lose its power. The guild and the combined power of our family, the Goldenhearts and Skidbladnirs, have decoded the old sigils around the plane. Imagine what could we find to further our crafts inside."
"I'm in."
"I'm in.
"Count me too!"
Dion shook his head. "What's the catch? Surely several high-apprentice crafters can't help an adept such as yourself."
"Bright like a true Brighthorn. Yes, we need you to distract the guardian while we are going inside. Of course, besides the journal, we're going to offer you something else, my own spell models."
Vega recalled the ceremony where Mistress Vin gave her spell models to some apprentices attending the ceremony. One of the reasons why inner apprentices and adept families have more power compared to regular apprentices. Even though he was a commoner, he had the luck to be an inner apprentice of an elder to get a slight knowledge of the spell models making him absorb the mana around him faster. Even though he couldn't recall the exact spell models, it seemed to help him in some way or another.
"Of course not without you lot leaving the premises without signing the contract. And when you sign it, the book would be yours. You could divide between ourselves who are going to have them. Remember, I need you three to hold off the guardian, so no one dies today."
Master Albertino threw five identical batches of contracts right by their feet. "Sign it or you won't leave here alive."
All of them stared at each other and without any choice took the contract and read it carefully. The contract was only a simple statement for them to offer their service in a decade in exchange for a journal of the late Silverling Goldenheart and a piece of Master Albertino's spell model.
Vega couldn't take out his magical tome to check for any invisible terms. But without any way out, he was forced to sign the contract or rot here to die. He pricked his fingers and signed the paper with a slight touch of his mana. He heard when someone broke a contract or didn't sign it with both their blood and his mana together, the contract would suck their life force until they were only a pile of skeletons.
Dion and all the other apprentices did the same.
Albertino waited until the contract took hold and made sure no one did a dirty trick, he took out the journal and left the room together with the member of the guild.
All the apprentices stared at each other. As soon as they sensed a movement, the other moved and grab the journal together. They pulled the old book until the book couldn't really hold the combination of power and almost rip into several pieces.
"Stop, please." Dion massaged his head. "We have to work together and I can offer you guys the best alternative. My friend here can read the book first and I assure you he read fast and can memorize the content. After that, you can try your effort to work together on the book. I know all of you know each other and will work together in tandem."
"But how can we know you're not lying? All the Brighthorn are the same. Climb the seat with their power of deception."
"But I'm not them. I wasn't even born in the capital. The external houses were more willing to work together even with commoners."
"But still, your friend could be beneficial for us. With an eidetic memory, we could get all the knowledge from the guild."
"Ah that too, we won't be able to stand in your way from tomorrow onwards until our contract finally starts to work, we're going to join the guild."
"Ah that changes everything. Alright, we're going to stay here until your friend finishes his reading. We won't take any chances when the guild is involved."
Vega nodded and took the journal and hoping that his book will record all of the content from the journal.
As a personal journal, the writings were unreadable in some parts. And all the symbols were too difficult for him to decipher. Luckily the index will help him later to decipher some of the sigils listed. Crafting was too similar to potion making, without a precise control of his hand, with slightly more expensive materials, he could even create his own magical items.
Several more pages describe a list of materials including the stalintines and their uses to even create a stronger weapon with only a pinch of the stalantines. No wonder his blade broke down only to scrape a little bit of the dust.
After he finished reading even the tiniest note at the edge of some papers, he closed the journal. "Here you go. Thanks for giving us the time to read this. It's pretty interesting, to say the least, but I'm not a crafter so even though I memorized them, I don't understand what's written there."
"Thank you, kid. It's interesting how can an external noble found a servant with a very rare eidetic memory. Pay him well, will you."
Dion nodded. "Thank you. I'll say good words about all of you to my elders. They could use your brain to create their own personalized magic items. Goodbye, and we'll meet again."
Back in their room, Vega asked Dion. "How could you be sure that your recklessness can get us the first chance to read the journal?"
"A noble's word." He smiled. "And even though Brighthorns are usually known for their knowledge of fire, but we are also known to be caring and the most likely to deal with commoners," Dion said while glancing knowingly at Vega. "Even though I'm from the outer house, we retain the personalities of the Brighthorns."
"Damn, you. I'm not your servant."
"I know. You are my very, very good friend."