“The rabbit-eared one’s investigations have revealed that forty-seven of the towers are ‘living’ at present. The remaining thirty are leaderless after the deaths of the Grand Magisters who served as their keys, leaving the local people to scatter in search of other towers on which they can depend─” Zero snapped her fingers, and the thirty black pins transformed into tiny rabbits. “And we have decided to take these abandoned towers for our own.”
Har looked closely at the pins. “Those aren’t supposed to be me, are they?”
“Adorable, no?” was all Zero said before resuming her explanation. “As you all know, the towers are all connected by gates that enable instantaneous movement between the major cities of the New World. Once a week the gates are opened from dawn to dusk, to allow for the coming and going of merchants and for meetings between the keys─isn’t that right, rabbit?”
Har nodded.
“Those who pass through the gates must first undergo a rigorous inspection,” Zero continued. “As a result, any peddlers who emerge on the other side are considered trustworthy as a matter of course. We have decided to make use of this fact to spread word of the free district.”
“It’s so freakin’ stupid, though,” Kudo broke in. “One Grand Magister dies and suddenly their tower’s just a big pile a rock ’cause nobody else knows how to work the gate?!”
Har nodded, her expression deadly serious. “You’re absolutely right, I can’t dispute that. Our world has been far too dependent on the Exinov. Nothing can be accomplished without them, so we’ve had no choice but to do as they say. But now we have people here who are conversant with the sorcerous basis on which the gates operate─the so-called ‘witch’s path,’ in other words. Which means that we alone have a way to activate the gates in the abandoned towers.”
“And interestingly enough, it is not just ‘people’ who are capable of using the witch’s paths,” said Zero with a grin, looking over at Lily where she was sitting on the table diligently nibbling at a piece of fruit, surrounded by mice hoping for a stray morsel.
“Lily, she is speaking about you.”
At the priest’s words, Lily looked up with a start. “Oh, ahem. Um, Lily’s made a lot of friends even without taking the witch’s paths. See, there are lots of beastfallen in the New World who can speak with mice.”
The mice could, of course, use the tower’s gates to travel from city to city, too. Just as Lily understood their language, many of the beastservants─the New World name for beastfallen who had no human rights─could understand the speech of animals.
There exists a free district in which beastservant, Nurabehn, Ignas, and Exinov can live without discrimination─and if you wish, you can even emigrate to the Forbidden Land.
“Mouse. How fares the spreading of our message?”
“Hrmm… People seem to be believing it. But they’re still a little leery. They don’t know where the free district is, it’s far away, they’re scared…and if they’re going to fail to reach it, maybe it’s better just to stay put. That kind of thing.”
“Thank you. In other words, more or less as we expected. The mice have already laid the groundwork for us, successfully enough that the Exinov are even exploiting the rumors to lure Nurabehn to their harvesting facilities─which only lends further credence to our cause.”
“I will be carrying out this operation in partnership with Loux Krystas,” the priest put in. “I would also like to establish contact with those Grand Magisters who might wish to come over to our side.”
Los, who was reclining on the Staff of Ludens where it hung suspended in midair, let out a cry of “I can hardly wait!” and began swinging her arms and legs in enthusiasm.
Saybil blinked and looked at her. “You’re going, too, Professor Los?”
“Well, only to give a few paltry acting lessons. Father and I will train the players, provision them with goods provided by Seth, and send them forth to market. These eminently well-trained ‘merchants,’ with their products of excellent quality, will lean in and say to their customers in hushed tones, ‘Just between thee and me…’ And so news of the free district will spread. In short order, the rumors of this place will explode throughout the land!” Los got to her feet, standing atop the staff. “And then some will speak thus: ‘The free district ’pon the ocean is too far! We must create one of our own right here!’”
“But if we’re sending escaped Nurabehn back to the markets…won’t they just be arrested?” asked Saybil.
“They won’t, I’m sorry to say,” answered Har with a bitter smile. “To the Exinov and Ignas, Nurabehn aren’t even human. If they commit a crime they can be killed on the spot, and if they run away their whole village can be destroyed. That’s how Nurabehn have always been controlled, so there’s no government organ that distinguishes between them as individuals.”
“Umm… So you mean…they aren’t even registered as property, like slaves or something…?”
“Those permitted by Ignas or Exinov to live within the walls are registered as residents. But the Nurabehn who live outside the walls might as well not even exist.”
“That very contempt will be their undoing! Ka-hah! Marvelous! I have a great love for monstrous tyranny overthrown by the weak and puny!”
“That seems like so much fun, Professor… I’m jealous! I wanna help out, too!”
“But you’ve already got so much on your plate, Hort,” Saybil said. “Helping me make potions, keeping the peace in the free district now that the population’s growing so much…”
“That’s all so bo-o-oring!”
“You think that’s boring…? I’m the one stuck keeping track of provisions… Every morning I do inventory in the warehouse, confirm the number of residents, come up with a menu for the day… Maybe you should stop callin’ me ‘Mercenary’ and start callin’ me ‘Chef’ instead…”
“Listen old man, the only time you and Hort get to cut loose and smash heads is when we get into some giant battle, right? So the pair a you livin’ out the resta your lives doin’ boring-ass jobs means the world’s at peace!”
“Fair enough… But since I’ve been doin’ nothing but cook, I feel like I’m startin’ to get a belly…!”
Mercenary slumped forward onto the table and laughter filled the cafeteria.
And the wheels of their plan began to turn.
+++
THE MEMOIRS OF HAR BELL CHAPTER 1 HOW IT ALL BEGAN
My name is Har.
I once called myself Har Bell the Ignas, but I have decided to go simply by “Har” from now on. For many years I lived with the feeling that something was wrong. Born to Nurabehn parents, I lived my life as an Ignas and have been ruled over by the Exinov throughout─and came to feel a certain unease at the inequality of this world.
Now the day has come to set that inequality right.
I am not the only Ignas who sees the truth of the situation, and there are countless Nurabehn who are tired of living as slaves. All of them wished for freedom, for a way of living that rejected the inequality they’d known since birth, even if true equality remained out of reach.
A free district comes to those who seek out liberation.
With the cooperation of our visitors from the Forbidden Land, we accomplished three primary things:
1. Spreading rumors of the free district’s existence.
2. Distributing weapons to Nurabehn and Ignas to resist the Exinov.
3. Making known the ways a free district might be created.
With the materials at hand and the methods known, everything happened very quickly. Groups calling themselves ”liberation armies” sprung up all over the land, creating free districts of their own, which began brazenly and triumphantly making their presence known. There were small villages, startlingly large towns, campsites on the open plains, but all of them called for freedom and equality and rejected aggression and slavery.
Their weapons were magic potions with various spells sealed inside. Armed with these, even Nurabehn─physically weaker than the Ignas, and without any particular combat training─had a chance on the battlefield. That wasn’t all, though. Thaumaturgical devices in the free districts never ran out of magic: the mana recovery potions created by Saybil, the Abyss Sorcerer, gave them unlimited power.
So dire was the Exinov’s situation, meanwhile, that most of the soldiers sent to put down the free districts were forced to conserve their mana in combat. Every drop expended in the fight to destroy the free districts meant less for hospitals and other necessities. As the conflict slowly but surely exacerbated their mana drought, we waited for the right moment to make our proclamation:
“Mana potions will be available to all through the free districts alone─and the jurisdiction of any tower that attacks those free districts will lose its mana forever.”