Leslie, Monica's mother, and wife of mister Henry Genfor, stood up from the frozen ground and shook off the snow from her jacket.
"Hello! Who do we have here?" She shouted to the group of mages standing below a tree some distance away.
"It's us!" Adam responded.
"Us who?" She asked again.
"Me, her, him and her." Adam counted out, pointing at himself, Sylvia, Max and Cynthia respectively.
"You, her, him and her, who?" The retired adventuress didn't give Adam any satisfaction. She was determined to win this ridiculous conversation.
"I, a man in an arctic-blue robe, her, a woman in a red robe, him, a man in a greyish robe with a crest of sorts, and her, a woman in a brown robe with green patterns." Adam continued, unyielding.
Miss Leslie crossed her arms and looked at Adam with a deadly stare.
Adam looked back, also raising his arms to his chest, he even put out one of his legs to the front.
Four people looked back and forth at the two, five if you counted Monica who was still sprayed on the ground, breathing heavily. Of the five, all were confused about the current situation.
"Okay, stop this charade." Mister Henry asked them.
In response, they looked blankly at him.
"Who is he?" Adam asked.
"He is he." Answered Leslie.
"He who?" Adam questioned again.
"A man, in a coat. And trousers I suppose." The retired adventuress responded.
Once again, they stared at each other. In silence, neither of them had an idea how to continue.
In the meantime, Monica got on her butt, from a lying position.
"Mom, Dad. This is Adam, next to him stands Max, and the two girls are probably their friends. I hadn't had the pleasure to meet them before." The archeress dissolved the situation, to her mother's and Adam's disappointment. As she talked, she eyed the arrivals with surprise and curiosity, not having anticipated any guests to appear during her ascension ritual.
"Oh, good morning Adam, Max, and girls. I am Leslie, Monica's mother. I heard about you boys, two mages in one team, Monica was being very lucky when she was picked by Steelarms." Hearing that one of the newcomers was Max, who was basically her daughter's employer, the woman changed her approach to a more formal one.
"Oh, no. She won the job by herself, there was no luck involved. You trained your daughter brilliantly, miss Genfor. As expected from such a renowned adventurer like yourself." Max awoken his diplomatic self, and praised the woman.
"Why did you come here?" Monica butted in the exchange of pleasantries between her mother and her boss, which irked her way more than the banter from before.
"To check on you. You are the only one from our team who is available at the moment, and we haven't seen you four for about a week. In fact, until this morning we didn't know if you left the capital with the caravan, or perhaps stayed behind." Adam explained.
"Watt did." Monica faintly answered.
"What did Watt do?" Inquired Max.
"He stayed behind. Or rather, he went in the opposite direction." The girl said.
Now, the group of mages had already neared the ritual site, where Monica sat, and along with her parents, they formed some sort of conversation circle.
Sparks flew through Adam's brain as he connected the dots.
"He went for his family, didn't he?" The ice mage asked, with not so icy voice.
"Yes, he did.... we tried to stop him, but he was impossible to persuade," Monica said, with her head hanging low.
"That's why his name wasn't in the registry..." Max realised.
Silence ensued, as the trio thought about their friend.
The rest of the group, namely Sylvia, Cyntia and the Genfor couple didn't know what to think, they didn't know who Watt was. Even more mysterious was his character, which made the situation not that surprising for those who knew him. The warrior would rather die with his family than let them go without trying to save them.
"Well, we can only hope he arrives before the catastrophe swallows him and his family." Adam reasoned, trying to ease the heavy atmosphere.
Leslie and Henry started to walk away.
"We are going inside already, come home in at most an hour, you have to rest. But you can stay with your friends for the time being if don't do excessive movements." Monica's mother addressed her as she headed towards one of the bastions sticking out of the citadel.
"Okay, I will be there in time," Monica promised.
When the couple walked away, the mages sat down on a relatively dry scrap of land next to the archeress.
"Hello, we didn't introduce ourselves, I'm Sylvia." The fire mage offered her hand to the newly ascended warrior.
"Monica." The archeress replied in kind.
"I'm Cynthia." The nature witch also revealed her name as she handed out her hand.
After the girls introduced themselves, Adam started to ask questions, not constricting his inquisitive nature.
"So, why did you perform the ritual today? I heard that going through it so soon is quite rare, despite the widespread ability to do it way earlier. Which is honestly ridiculous in my opinion." Adam focused on Monica, waiting for an answer.
Monica stayed for a moment, thinking about the answer.
"Mum said I can, and I didn't see why would I not." She explained.
"See! I told you they wait for nothing!" Adam shouted with fervour, his theory was right.
Max looked at his friend with a tired expression.
"That was a general rule, not accounting for exceptions." The metal mage retorted.
"Why would she be an exception?" Questioned Adam.
"Because her mother is an exceptional warrior. She had the right training and genes." Max explained.
"Huh? I still think that's complete bullshit." The ice mage didn't give in.
"..."
"What about your journey here? We were at the front so we didn't really see how the later parts of the caravan operated." Adam asked, after seeing that no one wanted to say anything concerning the earlier topic.
"We just followed King's lead. There isn't really much to say as no monsters attacked the back, I heard that the king and royal guards scared the beast enough. As for us, we just followed along. We had some shifts assigned as the eyes, but nothing much happened. [...] It was boring, but at least there were some nice views before the caravan entered the Southern Forest." After a moment of deliberation, Monica recounted the journey, and what she experienced along the way.
"By the way, weren't you injured?" Monica asked, seeing that Adam was well, entirely comfortable in a position that should pain him, considering his broken ribs.
"That healer was shit. He misdiagnosed me, with such calmness and sureness in his voice that I didn't go for a checkup in the capital, only to change my bandages. But when I was doing something later that day, I realized that I could move without hindrance, which led me to believe that the ratcat beast, or whatever it is called just left a flesh wound on me, without any damage to the bones." Adam didn't even realise when he started to rant about the faulty treatment he received from a village healer, which to be fair, was to be expected from someone from such a small place.
"So, you didn't go to check it with someone more reliable?" Monica asked.
"No. Though I probably should…" Now, Adam started to worry again. Maybe he had broken ribs, or something even worse?
Time flew by like a hawk, and soon, Monica had to go to the citadel and rest for the rest of the day. To be fair, she should have done that way earlier, but she decided to stay for a bit and talk, as she hadn't seen her friends for about a week. That time wouldn't be considered long if the situation wasn't so chaotic.
The group of mages walked Monica to the nearest bastion, where the company split into half, by gender.
Monica went to her parents, to rest after her first ritual while Sylvia and Cynthia headed towards the tower where the mages slept. They intended to train a little and look around the citadel.
The boys, on the other hand, went outside of The Fortress once again, to find Max's father, and ask him about the result of his conversation with the king.
Adam hoped the news would be good, and he would get to learn, while Max just went along with him, out of curiosity and boredom.
------------------------------------
"I can teach you some things, more than we normally tell those who become mages without any heritage." The metal master answered Adam's question, which obviously concerned whether would he be taught something.
"If I may ask, what are you allowed to teach me?" Adam was curious beyond belief, excitement buzzed in his head like a swarm of bees.
"Runes. Mainly runes, maybe some basics of rituals if you are worth it." As he talked Edgar stared in the distance at his brother, the king, who raised massive amounts of earth and formed a big hill. It was his turn, as Edgar went to greet his son and rest a little, from the monotonous mountain raising. Also, to recover his energy stores.
"What can I do to learn the rituals?" Adam asked. He was focused on the master mage, not noticing the surroundings even a bit. Even his friend escaped his perception while standing right next to him.
"Be a good student, and a Derdanian at the core. I won't teach you if you don't want to support this country, while it is at its lowest. Also, if you turn out to be stupider than I thought, there will be no point in teaching you." The master mage stated ruthlessly. He was nicer in Ferston, but apparently, the circumstances made him act more strictly towards those lower in status than him. Good, if a master doesn't have authority, the country would fall to ruin even without the 'second sun'.
"I will do my very best" Assured Adam.
"Yeah, yeah… Boys, do you know why we are building this barrier?" The mage asked.
"To block the disaster?" Max tried to guess.
Edgar looked behind, at two young men standing next to each other.
"How about you, Adam? What's your guess?" The master repeated the question.
Adam was silent for a moment, before slowly turning his head from left to right, repeatedly.
"I have no idea, apart from what Max already said." He confessed, somewhat defeated.
"Good. Baseless assumptions are worse than no assumptions. And my son's guess was as close to the truth as it was possible." Edgar moved his hand upwards, raising the earth in the form of three stone chairs.
"Sit down, I will teach you until my reserves are full, then you will go back to the citadel. You should stay too, Max, I'm not sure if I told you this before." The most senior of the three sat down in a chair of his making, welcoming the others to do the same.
"Let's start from something not related to runes, more of an anecdote than an actually useful piece of information for the current you." The master started.
"Do you know why stone buildings are so expensive in the plains? Despite the fact that we don't lack earth mages capable of creating stone?" He continued.
A moment of silence ensued, as the boys thought about appropriate answers.
"... The process is energy-draining, and eliminates the profession of masons if properly exploited?" Adam half asked, half answered.
"That's not the main reason, but it's good enough. What about you?" Edgar turned towards his son.
Max just shook his head from side to side.
"You see, it's mainly a problem with magic. Not one with ethics or personnel." The mages stopped for a moment to create a moderately sized piece of rock, flying above his palm. "While we can create structures out of mana, they are not eternal like a normal rock. This one will dissipate in a few days at most, the mana I made it from will scatter and the stone will disappear. There are methods of making magical structures more resilient to time, or precisely to mana erosion, but they are scarce, hard to master, and inefficient in comparison to other options. Do you know what other options we have?" Edgar questioned again.
This time, it was his son who responded nearly immediately.
"Manipulation of already materialized mana." He said.
Adam watched with intrigue as the master nodded in approval.
"Correct. Instead of creating constructs, we manipulate already existing ones. In this way, earth magic is no different than masons' work. Now, as you know this, can you tell me what we are looking at?" Edgar said while pointing at the massive wall standing some distance away. Built by the king, who rode a horse next to it while holding a staff above his head. The mana concentrated, and fell on the pile, becoming solid rock and fusing with the rest of the high hill connecting the sides of the valley.
The boys looked in that direction, focusing on the defensive measure, created by the king and his brother. They thought there was also supposed to be another mage here, but they were unable to find him.
"A hill-like wall, running across the valley. Created by your magic..." Adam started to explain but stopped in the middle as if he got a revelation. " It will disappear, doesn't it? You create it from the atmospheric mana, not from rocks lying around." He guessed, quite correctly.
"Yes. That's right, in about a month, mine and my brother's work will be nowhere to be seen, as the mana will dissipate. That's why we made it only now, even though I arrived at the citadel four days ago. We have to make a barrier that will last as long as it can, so we started making it at the last moment."
Edgar stood up, slapped his knees and went in the direction opposite the hill-like wall.
"Come, now I will tell you the basics of rune creation, which is the most fundamental thing in making a new absorption method, and in rituals as a whole." The mage welcomed his juniors to follow him.
"What is the reason for runes' importance?" Adam asked while walking after Max and his father.
"... What do you plan on doing after your half-year service ends?" Edgar answered the question with one of his own.
Surprised by the unexpected inquiry, Adam stumbled but managed to avoid crashing into the ground. After a moment to compose himself, he answered honestly.
"I planned to go south, see the world."
Edgar thought for a moment before replying.
"That's it? No other goal, or major desire?"
"Well, I guess I would like to make a family someday and settle down. Adventure isn't a trade friendly to children." Adam confessed.
The three of them walked for a while in silence, before Edgar stopped.
"I guess we can work with that, would you be interested in becoming an emissary? An ambassador of sorts." He asked the young ice mage.
"Maybe, from what I heard, it would be necessary to travel a lot, so it would suit my preferences," Adam answered after recalling what an ambassador is.
"Good, remind me to explain rituals after we end with runes. It's better to do them in order." Engar said while smiling, assuring Adam about his hopes. The master mage was pleased, soon Derdania would need people to connect the realm with kingdoms far away, and Adam was a good choice for an ambassador in Edgar's opinion.
"Okay, first of all, do you know what runes are?"
"A written representation of spells," Adam answered.
"Yes, runes are written spells, but more than that, they are written will of the mage who created them. Spellspoke runes that is, Worldspoke ones have nothing to do with mages. I will not dwell on the uses and history of runes, but there is one thing important enough to mention.
The difference between Spellspke and Worldspoke types is centred around their power, not use. While Worldspoke runes have set output and effectiveness, the other type is bound by its creator. If the creator is very talented, a Spellspke rune created by him will be vastly more powerful than a corresponding Worldspoke rune, if the creator is a retard, on the other hand. His rune will be far less powerful. That's why mages rarely create their own runes, as they prefer to use known Worldspoke runes."
Edgar ended his monologue, and stepped forward, raising his arm simultaneously.
"Now, about how to create a rune. Max, what rune should I create? Give me a simple one." Master mage asked.
"A cow figurine," Max said plainly. He stood somewhat to the side focusing on his father's words, he too did not yet learn about the runes.
"Okay, cow figurine." Egar raised his palm, at which a sculpture resembling a fluffy cow rested. "Like that?"
"Yes, just like that," Max answered.
The senior mage signed to the boys so that they would arrange themself in a circle.
"Now, I will show you how to make a rune, then I will explain and then the time for questions will come." Edgar addressed the boys.
Having said so, he started to raise a pedestal from the ground between them, so that each of the trio has a good point of view.
Then, at the top, an image resembling a cow's head appeared. It was made as if someone engraved the lines on the podium. The cow wasn't particularly beautiful, it was more of a hieroglyph than art, meant to convey a meaning not to stun the audience.
Egar raised his head above the engraved podium, with a metal shard orbiting it. After a moment, the shard closed up to the hand, and cut it to the blood. The liquid was brown, it seeped from Edgar's wound with small droplets in regular intervals.
The mage waited for a while, as the blood flowed into the engravement. He took his hand back only after the rune was filled to the brim, but hadn't overflowed.
Afterwards, he used his other hand to mark his forehead with a bit of blood taken from the nearly overflowing rune. The mark was irregular, without any pattern.
Then, touching the rune with one hand, and holding his forehead with another, the mage started to recite.
"May the Blood recognise [Cow Figurine]!" Edgar's voice felt like a drum, banging at Adam's ears, making him nauseous. He recited quietly, yet his voice spread far and wide.
"As Blood flows, Mana remembers." He finished.
Adam stared in the distance, enduring the aftereffects of hearing a spell being cast. He had heard how spells played with the minds of onlookers, how the words were recognisable, yet different for each listener. But he never before experienced being on the other end of the equation. Nobody had ever cast a spell in his presence, a verbal one, that is.
While [Cow Figurine] was mediocre in power at best, the ritual conducted by a master mage was mind-shaking to onlookers regardless of its purpose.
Overcoming his stupor, Adam looked around.
Nothing changed, apart from Max, who now laid on the ground.
"He fainted from the pressure," Egar explained, seeing as Adam looked at his friend in confusion.
"But.. I didn't," Adam muttered.
Edgar looked at the young man with an inquiring look.
"Apparently, you are the more talented one. Wake him up, we don't have all the time in the world." He seemed unfazed by the state of his son as if he had seen him like that before.
Adam conjured [Freeze], without saying anything.
"Aaa!" Max jumped to his feet. "Three times in one day? can you please leave me alone!?"
"You managed to faint three times today?" Edgar asked, with a mixture of curiosity and concern.
"No! That dumbass shoots me with frost at every chance he gets!" Max replied angrily. He bent down and took a handful of snow from the ground, before sending it in Adam's direction.
Adam stepped to the side, avoiding the lethal attack and looked back at master Edgar, who eyed him while hiding his smile.
"What can I say, I am diligent in training." The ice mage shrugged his shoulders, before blocking yet another deadly barrage of snow with a [Shield], before it dissipated into the atmosphere.
"Good, keep up the good work, but now, stop fighting. I will explain what happened." Egar started. "Firstly, I created a mould in the shape of my preferred rune. Remember to be careful about its depth, as that too, is recognised and later matters..."
"W.." Adam wanted to interrupt, but Edgar looked at him scoldingly and continued with his speech.
"...Then, I infused my blood with mana the spell uses, and with my experience about the spell. It's a difficult technique, and there are no shortcuts to learning it, you have to go with your instincts to accomplish it.
Using already infused blood, which changed colour due to the type of mana I used, I filled the mould. Remember not to overflow, but keep it on the edge. If your blood goes out of the form, the procedure has to be repeated from the start.
Afterwards, I used the bit that stayed above the surface of the mould, to mark my forehead, and thus create a connection with my brain, where the soul resides.
Using the infused blood as a medium, I connected myself with the rune and started a chant. You don't have to say the things I said, but rather the meaning, the chant is not set in stone.
Saying the words, you have to infuse power into them. But that is actually very easy, you do it every time you vocally cast a spell, without noticing.
And that's it, the rune connects to my soul and my bloodline." When he finished the monologue as if to prove himself right, Egar conjured a stone plat above his palm, with the rune engraved on it.
"Max, infuse your mana into it." He commanded.
When Max did so, a stone cow slowly manifested on top of the engraved plate.
"Now, questions." The master mage said.
Adam found himself in his element and eagerly started to ask.
"How should I choose the shape of the rune? Should it resemble the spell imbued into it?" He questioned.
"There is no difference whether you make it a dot, or a dragon. the only requirement is that you should remember it, but that is easily solvable by having a notebook. But, you shouldn't make it three-dimensional, as it would be horrible to engrave things." Edgar explained.
"What about the usage? Can everyone use the rune you just created?" This time it was Max who asked.
"Everyone can, but not everyone can create it. You can create it as my blood flows through you, but Adam can't."
"Can I use the runes without creating a physical medium? Like that, for example?" Adam asked while shoving a version of the [Cow Figurine] rune made using his arcane, pure magic. Just like when he created [Shield]. The rune floated in the air, blue and translucent.
"Yes, you can. That is actually a major part of ascension rituals. And their hardest part, at least for the majority of people..." Edgar was amazed, seeing the flawless rune floating in the air. Controlling pure mana was considered to be the hardest form of magic.
The questions piled on, mainly from Adam, but also from Max from time to time. The Steelarms grew to be terrified by Adam's curiosity, and ability to ask intelligent, yet bizarre questions like 'If you perform two rune creation rituals at the same time, would they work separately, or would they need to be used together?', to which Edgar had no idea how to respond.
"Okay, stop. I have little time left until my reserves are all filled, so I will brief you on the basics of rituals before we have to split." The senior mage stopped the barrage of questions and moved to another topic.
"There are two types of rituals, those which need runes, and those which don't. The second type is scarce, and even I know only a few of such, apart from the rune creation ritual. Each of them differs, but they are generally easy to perform.
The second type, in which we can put the ascension ritual, is more complex, but also all of them are similar. Apart from rituals, more complex spells also belong to this category.
Just as I said before, the main part of rune-based rituals is creating runes in accordance with what we want to accomplish. Most of the time we use runes on some plate or other physical medium, but in situations like the ascension ritual, where the mage's body is involved, the runes must be created just like you create your shield spell. From the ethereal form of mana." Master concluded his lecture.
"You will understand it better after Max goes through his ascension, for now, this must be enough for you." Edgar turned to Adam.
"Thank you, I couldn't possibly learn this much by myself." Adam foregoed his curiosity and expressed his gratitude.
"Good, now go to the citadel. Duke Malmond's convoy should arrive at any moment. The wave after it." The master mage ordered.
Just as they were said to, Adam and Max headed towards The Fortress. After crossing the bridge and going through the gates, they went towards the tower they slept in, where they met the girls.
"So, how was it?" Sylvia asked the arrivals.
"Good, Master Edgar is an incredible teacher." Adam praised.
"Did you learn anything? Or are you just being nice?" Sylvia questioned, with an inquisitive look as she scanned the ice mage from head to toe.
"I learned how to create runes! And I am going to try it out tomorrow." Adam stated proudly.
"Oh, nice. Will you show me?" Sylvia asked.
To answer her question, Adam turned towards Max, with a questioning look on his face. Seeing that his metal-bending friend nodded his head, Adam assured the girl that she will be by him when he will try to create his first runes.
As the time flowed, and darkness neared, the group of mages went to the roof of the tower, waiting for the arrival of Duke Malmond's convoy. They were not left disappointed, as the first carriages started to appear from the small gap between the hill-like walls some time after they returned to the roof with their supper.
When the carriages entered the citadel, the four mages could finally see Malcolm's crest, a bear's head sliced in half by a sword, with each half pierced by yet another pair of blades. About at the same time, the gap left for the road started to close, as the caravan entered the plains before the citadel.
"How will we house so many people? The Fortress is full to the brim as it is." Adam asked, seeing the huge number of humans following the Duke.
"Yeah, even the towers are nearly full, despite housing only the mages," Cynthia commented.
"I think the squares will be made into temporary lodgings," Max added something from himself.
"That's a viable option, but there is still too little space," Sylvia stated.
They had nothing to do or just didn't want to do anything, either way, the mages stayed on the roof to the nightfall.
They observed as the king and Master Edgar finished the wall, and as the third mage, who disappeared somewhere returned by crossing the hill-like wall. Together, The trio returned to the citadel and no one was left on the plain between the finished barrier and The Fortress.
Fate was merciful today, no one died when many could.
Sometime after the master mages returned to the citadel city, the wind grew to a speed unheard of before.
I a bright night, illuminated by the moon, and reflective snow that covered the world, trees bent in half, and snow flew around.
Everyone had to find a safe place for themself, as staying in the streets was a death sentence. The same was with the roof, and the four friends had to find safety in the boy's room, from which they had a clear sight of the barrier raised by the royals, basking in the moonlight.
Soon after, water started to pour from above the barrier.
Waves upon waves fell into the valley, making it into one big basin. On one side of the small lake was the hill-like wall, on the other was the citadel.
"So that's what you meant when you said a wave will arrive," Adam commented, looking at the top of the barrier with fear. "If the king's barrier fails, we are majorly fucked..."
Silence ensued, as the mages stared in the distance.
The water stopped arriving in waves from behind the wall. Instead, a few waterfalls became a thing, by which the basin's water levels started to rise.
If it went on, The Fortress would find itself underwater in no time.