Stars shined in golden light, illuminating the mountains covered in snow. The night was bright, and the surroundings were easy to see, especially from a high point such as the tower's roof.
Many people traversed the streets, despite the night. No one could sleep, and everyone wanted to somehow pass the time.
Some went around, delivering supplies to each house, or buying them from people with considerable reserves.
Yet another group of people went from house to house, offering their services. A number of them were physicians, who lost their practices alongside their homes and now needed gold more than ever. Some were seamstresses, tailors or shoemakers,- their services were widely needed after the long journey. Most people went by foot, after all, and their shoes weren't prepared for such an endeavour.
Apart from them, there were also people desperate for survival, willing to go far, for every coin...
While the poor fought for their lives on the citadel's streets, nobles, merchants and generally healthy people stayed in their homes, or the homes of their friends and worried about the future.
Worry was the privilege of the rich, something only people living in beautiful houses, castles filled with servants, or high towers could afford. Apart from them, no one else had the time to stop for a moment, and think about the future, they were too busy living in the moment.
One such place was a tower, located on the higher levels of the citadel, in its southern wing. It was a tall, majestic structure, with a rooftop balcony, and a small garden surrounding it from all sides.
On the said rooftop balcony, Adam sat in silence, petting Parcas and staring in the distance, at the waterfalls filling the plain with water. The wind subsided some time ago, and he once again could sit on the top of the tower, instead of in a dingy room.
Next to him, Sylvia and Cynthia played some card game. They lost interest in the disastrous phenomenon after changes stopped appearing, and the scenery became monotonous.
The one who was absent was Max, who went to the main hold to ask his father what would happen next.
"How can you be so calm? The water level is rising by the minute, the citadel will be eventually consumed by the element." Adam turned to the girls, without stopping petting the cat on his lap.
"It's a difference in perspective, you live in a distant town, suspectable to disasters much weaker than the one currently happening. We were raised in the capital, at least partially. The capital was the home to nearly all master mages in the kingdom, regardless of the danger, if they came out we would be safe." Sylvia explained.
"She is right, we have nothing to concern ourselves about, nothing we can do. Masters will control the situation eventually." Cynthia assured the ice mage, who remained sceptical about the whole thing.
"Why do you put so much trust in their power?" He questioned.
"Because they had never disappointed us. You just didn't see them in action enough, if you had, you would be as calm as we are." Cynthia stated.
"I haven't? I have seen two people raise a small mountain range with magic in a matter of hours. What more do I have to see to have realistic expectations about Masters' powers?" Adam asked with irritation in his voice.
"We watched as master mages turned the tides of a battle, one of them. While warriors in the same realm fought with the beasts and struggled against the opponents, the king arrived and the battle was practically over. Metal blades flew everywhere, heavy and sharp, cutting through every beast in sight and avoiding the warriors. A one good mage is better than an army Adam, here we have nearly ten masters gathered. There is nothing to fear. Even the nature." Cynthia told him, with deep admiration.
Adam stopped arguing, as he saw that it went nowhere. Instead of worrying though, he started to make some practical use of the time. He wouldn't be able to sleep either way because of the uncertain situation.
'What rune should I make first?' He thought. 'My first spell was [Icicle] but it's a fast and easy spell to cast, it's unimpressive and simplistic. Unworthy of being my first rune. There are also [Freeze] and [Sway] other spells that every mage who tries, and has the necessary affinity can master. Then, there is also [Shield], that's one hard regardless of the rank of the mage, apparently. Master Edgar was impressed by my use of it. I guess that's it, that will be my first rune.
Maybe it will be easier to control in that format, that would be very useful. Or, it will finally be fully physical?.... Nah, that's not possible, runes are created using spells, not the other way around.' Adam settled on making [Shield] his first rune, but to create it, there was a long journey still ahead. Relatively long.
Adam stood up and went downstairs, then out of the tower. Next to the structure, there was a small herb garden, made by the permanent resident of the tower.
"Sylvia! Come down!" Adam shouted upwards so that the girls would hear him. He remembered the promise he made to the fire witch, and summoned her as he was about to try creating his first rune.
"What?" A voice fell from the top.
"I will try to create a rune in a moment, come if you want to watch!" Adam responded.
No further communication happened between the two sides until Adam noticed the girls coming out of the tower. Despite her earlier disinterest, Cynthia came too.
Seeing that his audience arrived, Adam started to prepare his ritual.
Having much smaller mana reserves than Master Edgar, the young ice mage had to make the initial engraving on a small plate of ice, and sit down to reach it. Unlike his senior, who just created a platform to make it more comfortable.
The engraving he chose was a hexagon created with two triangles and a square. The two triangles were very pointy and had one side the same size as the square, where they overlapped on the top and bottom of said figure. The engravings were very shallow.
The moment he finished the plate, Adam realized that he didn't have his book with him. But considering that he wanted a separate one for his runes, he didn't go upstairs for his grimoire.
Now, came the time to cut his skin and fill the engraving with mana-rich blood. But how does one infuse it with said mana? And the spell?
Adam tried to just move his mana into the place he wanted to cut and then split his skin a bit. Barely to the blood.
Droplets came, but instead of the blue blood, like it was supposed to be after infusing with pure mana, the blood was naturally coloured.
"What happened?" Sylvia asked, seeing the annoyance on Adam's face.
"I failed to infuse my blood with mana," Adam said automatically. He didn't focus on the conversation, instead, he pondered deeply about the problem at hand, literally.
"Oh, how do you plan to do that?" Sylvia inquired, staring at the drop of blood, clearly visible on the blue plate.
"I don't know yet. If you stop talking, I may figure it out faster." Adam replied, this time more consciously.
Going through all the earlier steps, Adam found himself at the point of drawing blood. This time, he used much more mana, filling his veins to the brim. And then proceeded with the ritual, marking a new icy blue plate with his blood.
But aside from the fact that the skin broke much easier, due to the pressure it was under, and that the blood splurted out like a fountain, nothing changed.
"Ugh..." Adam sighed.
"Did you do everything like Master Edgar said?" Sylvia asked. Her perception of Adam was that he was a magical genius, so him not being able to accomplish something, confused her.
"He didn't tell me how to infuse my blood with mana, only that I had to do it," Adam explained.
"So you are going to just try all different methods that come to your mind until one works?" Sylvia asked, before turning to her left. "How about you? Can you tell us how to do it?" She asked Cynthia, having remembered that her female friend had long gone through her ascension.
"You give me too much credit, I have never created a rune." She responded, flabbergasted that someone would even think that was the case.
"Really?" Sylvia asked in confusion, a second time in a few moments.
"Well, my family had a lot of mages, but that's beside the point, most absorption techniques use Worldspoke runes. Only lunatics like Adam and overly cautious bloodlines use Spellspoke runes for their techniques." Cynthia explained.
"What about normal usage of runes? Don't you get that immaterial need to create a rune just for yourself? Because that's what drives me right now, I don't even have any idea what rune to create for the ritual, after all." Adam half-asked half-explained.
"No, I have no need for that. I don't use runes often, and even if I did, I have access to a huge collection of Wordspoke runes, there is no point in creating one..." Cynthia said.
Hearing that, a very weird expression formed on Adam's face. He just looked at her, trying to figure out why would someone not want to create their own rune.
'Why would someone not want to create a rune? That's... like the coolest thing ever... And why does she have her socks pulled over her shoes???...' Adam couldn't stop himself from staring, and noticing some peculiar things along the way.
"Stop staring at my shoes!" Cynthia reacted explosively seeing that Adam hung his eyes over her for a bit too long.
Adam didn't respond, he only turned around and started to create another plate in a blatant attempt of putting the situation under the carpet.
-------------------------
Seven ice plates and nearly a litre of Adam's blood later, Axigna had to stop his fruitless attempts in favour of talking with Max, who returned with the news, of what will happen next.
"There is nothing we can do. Dad ordered us to stay here and practice." Max said as soon as he arrived.
"What about the masters? Will they do something about the flood that nears us as we speak?" Adam asked in worry.
"Maybe they will do something. Maybe not. Dad told me that if the water rises to the level of the bastions, they will create a second wall, just outside the Citadel." Max explained, with a sour expression.
Adam sighed with relief and looked in the direction of still growing lake.
"Good, that's good..." He said.
While Adam basked in relief, Sylvia took a good look at Max.
"What's happened? You seem worried, even more than Adam was just a few moments ago." She asked, looking towards the metal mage.
Max sat beside Adam, who was lying on the ground at the moment. He sighed with worry, in contrast to the delighted expression on his fallen friend's face.
"Ehh..., the biggest problem isn't the disaster itself, the wave will eventually return to the ocean. But what it will leave behind.... will be a frozen wasteland."
"What do you mean?" Adam raised himself on his arms and asked with concern.
Max sighed, then pointed towards the barrier, defending the citadel city from the abrupt and vicious flood.
"There are massive amounts of water there, enough to spill above a four to five-meter tall wall. Now imagine the southern forest, the plains, or even the seaside. We are located way above the water level, and the water won't leave that fast. Even here it will take weeks until the barrier becomes obsolete." Max took a break, to swallow his saliva. "Now, imagine the ground underneath. It is soaking with water right now, and it will remain soaked after the wave comes back." Max stopped, staring into the distance as if he could see over the mountains, and his eyes could reach Derdanian plains.
"It will all be a one, big bogland, swamp unfit for human settlements..." Cynthia commented.
"And even before that, the infrastructure is ruined, forests devasted, and animals all dead." Max finished.
Silence ensued, as the mages realised the situation.
Some guy started to run while screaming something uncomprehensible after hearing their conversation through the wall, which separated the herb garden from the street.
"So... what's next?" Adma asked after a long moment of silence.
"Dad told me that we will consolidate the highland." Max paused to mark his words, moving his hand to show the area between the mountains. "Then we will move south."
"South?" Cynthia asked in surprise. "But that's empire's territory.."
"I don't know how, but Dad didn't seem worried about the relocation. Well, there is no point in worrying either way, he and uncle have to find a place for the citizens to live, the highland is too small for all of us." Max explained.
"It actually makes sense, he asked me if I wanted to become an emissary or an ambassador. Like if Derdania was about to come out of seclusion." Adam commented, remembering the conversation he had with Master Edgar earlier that day.
Max nodded, in agreement with what Adam said, he was there too, after all.
"Seclusion? We are not secluded, many merchants trade with the south. Even the dead husband of your uncle's new friend did that." Cynthia argued, seemingly offended.
"Nah, trade doesn't mean we aren't secluded. Look at the southern forest, you have to have considerable wealth, or power to cross it. The highlands are practically a different country from the Derdanian plains." Adam argued back.
"I agree with him, Cynthia. Most people don't even know what is the actual name of the empire." Sylvia joined the fray.
"For example, me," Adam said with weird pride.
"Seriously?" Cynthia asked, stunned slightly.
"Well, then what is the name of the empire, Miss Knowledgeable?" Adam asked.
"Eehh... I don't remember..." The nature witch mumbled.
"See?" Sylvia sneered.
"How about you, and you Max?" Cynthia hit back.
"Well, I meant myself," Sylvia stated.
"I know, but I won't tell you. You guys should know more about geography, especially you Adam." Max said, but it is unknown if someone believed him.