Just before daybreak, Seren was relieved of his miserable duty. The interceding hours had run him haggard, but he’d managed to cover about half of the underground cavern in black stone.
“Don’t worry, Seren. I’ll host a tea party sometime soon so you can meet new people,” Lyse said in an attempt to cheer him up. Seren flashed a tender smile before leaving. She felt badly as she watched him slink away.
“Now then, let’s see how long this lasts. Maybe we’ve fixed the Light for good,” Egbert suggested. But before noon, the next aberration came right on schedule.
Lyse was headed to rendezvous with Alcede upon being summoned once again. On her way, she happened upon servants chatting amongst themselves. Using magic lessened the burden of the housekeeping, but it was hardly a panacea. Wind spells could sweep surfaces clean, but they also blew dust everywhere. And though magic could be used to wet and dry towels, scrubbing anything with them still required manual labor. All the waxing and polishing was done by hand as well. Water magic made washing laundry easier, but drying clothes with magic set wrinkles into the fabric and thus wasted all the hard work prior. Keeping the palace clean took a great number of hands, even if fewer than most other grand residences in the empire. The palace servants having and being able to use mana did indeed make their jobs easier. And now that more of them were back at work, things were less stressful than they had been in a while—as evidenced by the leisure they had now to stand around and talk.
“Do you know when the Light of Origin is going to return to normal?” one asked.
“They say His Majesty is working on it, but I’m not sure how much more of this we’re in for,” replied another.
“I don’t recall this ever happening before. It’s gotta be those foreigners marrying our people, right? I bet they’re anti-imperialists sabotaging the Light.”
“But the Light isn’t even affected by the monsters. How could mere mortals cause this strange phenomenon?”
Nearly a month had passed since the first aberration. Save for the increased effects of the Light in close proximity to it and the increased monster attacks, everything had since returned to normal—but that didn’t negate the people’s heightened tension or the vitriolic comments.
I suppose we can’t discount the frequent monster attacks either...
The more fighting there was, the more fatigued the fighters. Though servants were exempt from combat, the sword hanging over their heads didn’t make daily life pleasant. The longer the stressful situation dragged on, the greater their discontent grew. And who were they to blame if not the emperor and the imperial family who were supposed to be the protectors of the nation?
But everyone reveres Egbert. Respect for the crown has been drilled into them from childhood. I doubt anyone truly blames this all on His Majesty, which is why they’re looking for something else to pin it on.
The most obvious target was the recent influx of people from abroad. These people were strangers with no one to stand up for them. Still, it wasn’t right to make manaless foreigners into scapegoats.
I suppose now’s not a good time to announce that I’m a Light bearer, huh?
Lyse briskly made her way toward the aviary where the knights’ raptors were kept. She’d grown familiar with the place, as she frequented it from time to time to borrow a bird. When she arrived, she found Sidis and the others waiting for her.
“Ready yourself straight away, Miss Lyse. We must hurry there and back,” instructed Alcede. He had a backpack slung over his shoulders and was mounting a raptor.
Lyse didn’t even have time to ask about their destination. She simply did as she was told and prepared to take flight with the group. Alcede led the flock at such speeds that Egbert, Lyse, and Sidis chasing after him couldn’t communicate with each other.
“Perhaps Alcede is heading to the same cliffs where Sidis visited the other day,” she wondered to herself as she noticed him swoop eastward toward the shore after flying north for a time.
Ahead of them now was indeed the beach where Sidis had observed the spawning monsters. The group descended upon the very location. Lyse could tell because the black stone cliff face was scarred by Sidis’s magic from their battle.
“As we all now know, replenishing the black stones beneath the Light failed to stop the aberration,” Alcede announced with a straight face after everyone alighted from their raptors. Lyse had already read the report, and being reminded of the results put a damper on her spirits. “However, the invading monsters have decreased in number.”
“Really?” Lyse looked up from the ground.
At least their efforts hadn’t been for nothing. If Seren kept at it, the Light might even revert to normal eventually. This was promising news, to say the least. Even Egbert and Sidis seemed to take heart.
But then Alcede crushed the seeds of hope that had begun to sprout. “That said, it’s a negligible difference and, more importantly, we’ve now detected a new problem. At this rate, the Light of Origin is bound to collapse.”
“What?!” cried Sidis. Alcede affirmed that he’d heard correctly with a nonchalant nod.
“Now that’s a shocker. But why? It’s not like we’re missing anything from the formulae, right?” Egbert asked for clarification with a blank and stunned look on his face.
“It seems the spell circle they formed was a temporary one.”
“Temporary?!” Lyse, Sidis, and Egbert shouted in the same breath. It was but a small sign of how flabbergasted they were. A temporary spell circle was unheard of.
Even Alcede was showing signs of consternation. “Hey, don’t ask me, okay? I haven’t got the slightest clue myself,” he responded with a defeated sigh, figuratively throwing his hands in the air. “When we put the spell circle together, we noticed a few unnecessary elements. Karl spent yesterday deciphering them bit by bit.” That explained why Karl hadn’t been present at the experiment. “Based on how the formulae are assembled, we reckon that the magic was never meant to last. There’s a time limit on it, basically, so the Light will eventually extinguish.”
Sidis looked grim. “Is this, by any chance, related to the black stone reserve under the villa?”