Chapter 1197: Book 18-7.3: Magi of Bellemer

Elaine’s grin remained as wide as it could go as she watched Lucian’s sister, Amalia, blink in confusion. Or maybe not that, but something else? She had several relics on her person to aid her in seeing beyond the surface of things, and what she saw was not only interesting but also troubling. There was little doubt that Amalia had awakened as a magi, but that probably wasn’t the only thing that happened to her. Based on physical evidence alone, there was some aspect of body shaping, too. Whether it was limited to general features or if she could turn into a humanoid beast like the howlers down south, remained to be seen. 

She noted the spike of interest in the girl’s eyes, but it wasn’t placed where Elaine thought it would be. Less on the learning, and more towards when she said balance. Sure enough, Amalia asked just that. 

“What do you mean, restore balance to Irisvaile?” Her voice had taken on an intensity that was hard to deny, and Elaine found herself answering before she could even stop to think. 

“The seven nations of Irisivaile…if you’ve ever looked at a map, you’d notice how symmetrical they are. Or rather, were. Three nations on the west, Nurevia, Westenland, and Fiore. Three nations on the east: Rosen, Chiadon, and Solinar. And a single nation sprawled across the archipelago in the middle of the Inner Ocean, Sagebright. And even more compelling, the natural landmarks even divide along these lines almost perfectly, accounting for the years and erosion.” 

Amalia nodded without comment and urged her wordlessly to continue, as if to say, so what balance was disrupted?

“It doesn’t take an academic to realise that the situation didn’t develop organically. The seven nations were meant to exist as a balance, a way to see and measure the effectiveness of each method of governance. But there are other forces at play. Supernatural forces. You’ve encountered the Void Kindred, but they’re hardly the only ones who corrupt the balance.”

Amalia’s expression had turned blank, but Elaine pressed on. 

“There is another faction, one hidden away in the six border nations. They enacted a ritual that caused the very plane itself to reject Arcana Weaving. It is why spellcasting is so limited. But with more magi, Sagebright and its constituent Academies are fighting back. We’re bringing the horribly mangled balance back.” It was light on details, of course, but Elaine didn’t know the particulars of the Renover Project. 

After a long minute, Amalia snorted. “That seems a convenient tale.” 

“It does, doesn’t it?” Elaine chuckled. “The beginnings of it were far before my time. But the evidence is quite compelling. Half of the northwest is compromised by some kind of growth that’s taking over corpses and making them rise. The two southern nations fight every now and then for the oddest reasons while land changes hands…and Arcana wanes. The more it does, the more corrupted the world becomes.” 

The girl shook her head, then said, “I really don’t care about that.”

“Of course you don’t,” Elaine agreed. “It’s too far from you. But you asked what I meant, and ultimately, the academies are recruiting because they want to restore balance. It’s not really something I work towards, but it's behind everything we do. Either way, more trained magi means that the suppression ritual that convinced Irisvaile ‘that outward displays of power are vulgar and must be punished’ is slowly being eroded. Eventually, the perception will break, then we can move openly.”

“Punished?” 

“Yes, punished. Had anyone unenlightened seen what I did earlier, I would be marked. Eventually, enough marks will have the plane produce a cleaner, a monster, an accident, what have you, to take me out of the picture.”

“But what about those bloodsuckers?” Amalia asked. “They’re openly supernatural. They move fast, they hit hard.”

“That’s the thing. They’re using an energy source that directly counters the planar suppression.”

“Oh.” 

“I know you have more questions, but the answers to those could be found in the academy’s libraries. I haven’t memorised everything after all. I don’t want to feed you biased information.” Elaine grinned. 

“I see. Your pitch to get me to come with you needs a bit of work, though.”

Elaine stuttered in protest, while out of the corner of her eye, she saw Nemeo chuckle quietly. Amalia’s brother, however, looked more than a bit worried. 

“Amie…you have to…” 

The girl raised a hand. “I understand you want to help. It’s not that I believe either of you, but I do have…a desire.” Amalia tilted her head while she pursed her lips. The act was so cute that Elaine felt her heart twinge. “I wish…to see the other side.” 

“What side?” Lucian blurted out. 

“The other side of the plane. The eastern nations. That’s what I want to do.” 

“Understandable, and we could help you do that,” Elaine said. “Though we’d have to return to Sagebright first.” 

Amalia then gave her a pointed stare, “And be trapped there? It’s in the middle of a three-thousand-longstride wide ocean.” 

“Aye, but your other recourse is to go around the other nations. You can’t go north easily as the hordes of revived corpses. South to Fiore is just as difficult to traverse. There’s an ongoing civil war there. Any foreigner crossing the border will be watched carefully and further restricted.” 

Amalia’s right eyebrow arched up. “A civil war, you say? That may be more troubling to cross than slogging through hostile no-man’s land up north…”

“You’re actually considering that? It would take you months to a year just to cross the corrupted zone in Nurevia. The roads are blocked and broken down, not to mention the corpse horde. The Nurevian remnants won’t allow easy passage into their control zone either.” 

“And how long will a passage take…say to the northeast?” 

Elaine shrugged. “Ninety days by ship to Sagebright Archipelago, and the same amount of time to reach Orstedh in the Rosen Empire.”

“Half a year.”

“Well, and a few more months in Sagebright to arrange passports and visas.” 

“I see.” Amalia shrugged. “Then I accept, I suppose. But I’m currently wanted in Rakkisgrad. I don’t think arranging passage to Sagebright is going to be easy, or quick.” 

Elaine sighed. “No, it isn’t. Criminals are excluded from the treaties, and we’ll have to arrange to smuggle you out.” 

Amalia shrugged again. “So what does that mean exactly?” 

“Well, I’ll have to arrange some things, and I still have the rest of the list to go through. I’ll—we’ll be travelling around the districts, and possibly to the other cities. No schedule or certainty for it right now, but the timeline suggests it’ll take until Augustus before we head to the port district, and take our chartered ship to return to Bellemer.”

“So, another month?” 

“Mid-Augustus, so probably six-seven weeks.” Elaine reached into her pocket and retrieved a pager. “We’ll keep in contact through here, and since you’ve managed to throw off pursuit so far, you can make your way to District 2 on your own. That way, the delegation wouldn’t be tarred by the same brush as you were.” 

“I appreciate it. But I might just seek passage away from Sagebright when we get there instead of formally joining.” 

Elaine nodded. “That’s fair, I suppose.” 

Amalia took the offered pager, then asked, “You’re going to use this to track me as well?”

“We don’t have the authority for that, but if you’re worried, keep the pagers off. Messages can be received as long as it's within a day of sending. So open it up once a day, and you’ll receive notice of when we’ll be on our way.”

Amalia nodded, “Then, thank you.” 

“You’re welcome!”

Without another glance, Amalia spun on her heels and left. Lucian attempted to grab her shoulder, but the girl was too fast. “We’ll talk once we’re on the ocean,” were her parting words. 

The frustration was quite evident in her new student, so Elaine tapped his shoulder to draw attention, “Let’s return to the safehouse. She’s right. We have to limit contact for now. Weissnacht isn’t the most forgiving of clans.” 

Lucian sighed even as his gaze followed his changed sister until she left the rooftop. That she did it by jumping over the side rather than going through the stairs was quite heartstopping, even if it revealed that she was more than an awakened magi. The girl’s words that she was what was left of her former self were more than concerning, but she saw the academy’s sigil, so she had the potential to weave. 

That, more than anything else, cemented her position to try to recruit the girl. Though another weaver was always better, even if they weren’t aligned with Sagebright. 

____________

Yuriko wasn’t quite certain of the truths that the woman, Elaine, gave out. Irisvaile felt like it had been deliberately shaped; that much was true, but the erosion of the ages had worn away the observable symmetry. Though she supposed it was just as easy to advance time to flow that much faster in a realm that was already detached from the normal flow. 

She wasn’t so sure about what the magus said about a ritual that convinced the plane to restrict Arcana Weaving. Mostly because it was her Animakinesis that suffered from that particular rule, and that her own spells had not been tested by having an audience. 

Radiant energy, sunblades, and Ennoia expressions didn’t trigger that repression, she felt, nor did she feel any kind of censure. Still, she only used spells when she was alone, and she felt Radiance was strong enough to override the repressions. There was probably a reason why it was absent from the plane after all. 

The reason that the Radiant Sun and the Luminous Moon were absent probably had a lot to do with how the realm was detached too, but she wasn’t really sure she needed to do anything about that mystery. If she stayed here and studied it, she had little doubt that it would further her insight into the Laws of the World, which could then be funnelled into crafting her personal Truths, but her purpose here wasn’t about learning or study. She was here to retrieve her unknown children. Twins, she knew, male and female. Why they were separated, she could only wonder, and she also didn’t know why they were here. If her suspicions were correct, they were made by the Ishodirians, the empire that was at odds with Bresia. 

She was content to leave all of that behind, if not for this. And she had a sneaking suspicion that she wasn’t done with that place. 

Hmmm, if circumstances developed because of a Damien fragment, then it was her duty to clean it up. Though she hoped it wouldn’t lead to another incarnation split. Three was already quite taxing, considering everything else, and she really was three Ascensions too early to properly make use of them. True Incarnation was the step above Dominion, which was the one after Manifestation, and she could only guess at what else it entailed. 

Well, all that aside, she needed to find a new place to hunker down in, at least until she finished forging a couple of satellite swords. She found an empty apartment easily enough, and she broke her fast with her stored food and plain water. She had limited resources, and she had to live for at least another third of a Season before she could hope to leave. She didn’t fancy her chances of getting on a ship otherwise. 

Perhaps the overland route would be more promising then. It shouldn’t take her that long to reach the northern border, and she could see for herself whether that would be better than waiting. 

Once she was settled down, she consumed her first droplet of Ambrosia. The resulting flash of Radiant light bleached the walls white and almost melted the glass windows.