78. Soldier II (Patreon)

“What are you exactly doing?” Fynn Albeyr asked me.

He had entered the room at some point, but I was too concentrated to even notice it. It didn’t help that Amira herself was able to do paperwork in incredible silence.

“Meditating,” I told him as a matter of fact.

“This doesn’t look like any meditation I know of.” It weirded me how he was able to speak to me this casually even if we were at each other’s throats the other day. Probably he thought I was inoffensive, or at least relative to him. And I knew why he would think so. The man was a living legend after all.

“It’s a subset of meditation centered around the soul,” I explained. “This way I increase the mana pool in my spirit instead of my physical body.”

“Is it useful?” He asked with a modicum of interest.

“To a mystic? Very much. Not exactly essential, per se, but incredibly useful.” Even though I talked with my eyes closed, I could see him well. “Other mages can still take advantage of this meditation exercise, though it’s not as fast or efficient as normal meditation. It does have its advantages though.”

“And those are?” I heard him sit down on one of the cushions littered around the office.

“Increase in spiritual resistance, better introspection, minimal augment in the natural regeneration of the body, accelerated healing of the soul, accelerated thought process, and the one what matters most to me right now, synchronization of body and soul.”

Though the one I cared more about was the size of my mana pool. I didn’t have as much mana as before and considering how easy it was to lose the physical mana pool, I opted for focusing on my soul, even if it was way slower to increase.

“Those seem like quite important advantages, don’t you think?” I couldn’t get the meaning behind his questions. He was too casual about them as if there was nothing wrong. Was this the mental fortitude of a military man?

“Minimal for most mages.” I finally opened my eyes. “Enhanced mana pool reservoir is far more precious than passive spiritual resistance to most. Not many mystics around there, you know?”

“Yet I have one before me at this very moment.” Right then, in that instant, I looked at the Ceaseless Storm right in his eyes.

The power in that gaze was a force to reckon with, yet I was more intrigued by those irises. They glowed and shifted in a bright blue with a tinge of energetic yellow, like a thundering storm. There was no innate resistance to soul magic, no training, just raw power.

“I have come here because you summoned me.” I expressed myself, talking slowly and calmly.

“That I have done, yes.” Command Sergeant Major Albeyr nodded. “I have looked into your story before summoning you, and I found some interesting things.”

I should have expected this much. I was now in the public eye after hiding for many years, I could just hope he didn’t find anything out of the line.

“According to your education, both in school and the academy, you have always excelled. Always.” He reiterated. “Top of the class, almost perfect qualifications until the academy, when the grades got more normal but still far better than average.”

The rustle from Amira’s paperwork stopped. Without tilting my head to look at her I could know she was hearing our conversation with great detail and expectation.

“Now, that’s normal. There are always geniuses and prodigies.” Fynn clapped his hands. “I have been told that every High Arcanist to this date had been far superior to their peers in most fields, so there’s plausibility for your intelligence, it isn’t unheard of. This could explain why you are a ten-star mage at your age. Having said so, I have to congratulate you. You are the first ellari to reach the tenth star at a such young age in all of history.”

“Really?” I raised my brows.

“Yes.” He nodded. “Though it become more interesting when I found you were thirty-two.”

“What?” Amira suddenly jumped from her desk. “Is that true?”

“I’m afraid so.” I replied to her.

“I thought you had to be at least forty-something. Thirty-two is certainly incredibly young for a mage to be at the ten-star…” She mumbled the last part deep in thought.

“Incredibly, but still plausible.” His partner confirmed. “And I have confirmed that you have had private tutors at the eleven-star, multiple tutors. So that would explain why a non-highborn, someone who doesn’t possesses unlimited resources, would be able to reach this level. But even then, this isn’t the part I’m interested in.”

I didn’t like the way he had said ‘private tutors’. He was mostly referring to Alatea and Kirielle, both of them who had reached the eleventh star not too long ago and had been very competent teachers. I doubted neither of them had said anything, so he must have talked to someone in the academy’s healing ward.

“What truly got me curious is how your parents never notified your school at Thal’mer about your soul affinity.”

I controlled my visage perfectly thanks to Mystic’s Dominion, not showing any emotion even if my soul had done a somersault in recoil. Did they never tell anyone about my soul affinity? Why?

“That out of itself isn’t a problem.” Fynn continued. “Stating a person’s affinity isn’t mandatory or enforced by law, to begin with. I have seen cases of noble houses who have never informed educational institutions about their children’s extra affinities because they pride themselves on their house affinity. Even if that secondary affinity is considerable. With a family that doesn’t have a mage on their name, though? That’s rare. They would like to brag as much as possible. And I have all the motive in the world to think your soul affinity is high, considering you are a ten-star mystic but only a nine-star arcanist.”

“What’s the point you are trying to make?” I asked showing no emotion at all. Only to notice that was only more conspicuous.

“No point.” The military commander added with a scoff. “Only a fun fact I found out.” Then accompanied with a smirk.

He knew I had a superb affinity, he had to. The electromancer was just playing with me. I will admit I hadn’t done a good job hiding it, but I wasn’t exactly a show-off either. But that was to my inner circle, outside observers may have another perspective.

“Now that I have told you all I know about you, well, your public self at least, considering what you had told us the last time we met, I think we are ready to begin.” The soldier cracked his knuckles and stretch his arms.

“Wait.” I also stood up. “That’s it?” This time my façade broke and showed astonishment.

“No. That was the warm-up.” Fynn said with an uncanny confidence. “What bothers me is an inconsistency with the testimony you gave us.”

“Inconsistency?” I frowned my brows. “I was absolutely truthful with my statement.”

“Truly?” He added with a subtle intimidating voice. “You said you killed Private Natas because he had killed a friend of yours, am I right?”

“Yes.” I responded with absolute resolution; a hint of rage flashed inside me as I recalled that moment.

“Then how it happens that I haven’t had a single report of any death here at Lan’el?” Oh. “Not even Lan’el. There has not been any student declared missing by the academy. Unless you tell me that your ‘friend’,” he added with a heavy quotation, “isn’t part a student of the academy but an outsider that was illegally trespassing the military zone, then how’s it that you killed one of my soldiers in revenge when no one even died?”

Alright. Alright. How do I explain this to a powerful mage like him without having even more sights on me, or being downright executed?

Fuck. I was never with sudden questions in stressful situations.

How do I defuse this situation?

I looked at Amira, who looked back at me with eyes gleaming in pity yet didn’t save me from my conundrum. The Arcane Veil also wanted answers.

“My friend died.” I maintained my unwavering resolution.

“You don’t seem to understand me.” The Ceaseless Storm said. “We have conducted a search over the leyline perimeter and haven’t found a corpse beside that of Ikail Natas. Not that of your friend or of the supposed ten-star mage that you also fought. Not even this mana capacitor you mentioned.”

Uh… It would seem I had obviated some key parts in my testimony.

“I can answer all your questions. Well, all except one.” That last addition didn’t put me in a great light as I saw his visage twist, yet I continued either way. “Maybe you haven’t found the corpse of the cryomancer because she was a few kilometers away from the leyline, perhaps it was too far from your search perimeter. That part I think I did explain.”

Fynn gave an inquiring look to Amira, who reciprocated with an affirming nod.

“I can let pass the corpse of this mysterious mage for now, but what about your friend? And the artifact?”

“As for the artifact,” I began, “I left them with draconids.”

He looked at me with a deadly gaze but didn’t actually try to kill me. That was a good first step. I continued as his eyes told me to do so.

“I did it because the capacitator was so full of mana that I thought that if it was to explode, better happen to the imperial family than back at Ferilyn?”

Amira gave me a horrified look, yet Fynn almost approved of my actions. Almost.

“You left a powerful and unknown artifact at the hands of another nation?” The electromancer accused me.

I wanted to joke about how the artifact had no owner, so it was technically mine to do whatever I wanted with it, but I kept my mouth shut to not escalate the situation further.

“An unstable artifact at that. I have already explained I was in a bad place back then, alright?” I intentionally elevated my voice. “If you really want to recover it, it’s easy for me to do so.”

“Yes, how?” Fynn expressed in mock. “Are you going to fly back there and assault the imperial palace again? Boy, you were lucky the Emperor’s Right Hand wasn’t present back there.”

Yeah, lucky.

“I can recover the capacitator,” I repeated once more. “For some very complex reasons I don’t fully understand myself, my soul is bound to the artifact, so if I wanted, I could recall it back here.”

My explanation rose brows all around the room, enough so for Amira to finally intervene.

“Recall how?” She said. “As in teleporting it back to you?”

“No, no.” I dismissed that thought. “I could just order the artifact to fly over me.”

“Over the Icatal sea?” The arcanist added.

“Yes.” I responded.

She just rolled her eyes in response.

“One question less then.” Fynn brought himself back to the conversation. “But what about your friend? Your whole alibi depends on the death of your supposed friend.”

Amira gave a very hard look at Fynn as to how he could say that to the mourning child in front of him, but he ignored his partner.

This was the part I was afraid of. I had to take this very slowly.

“I…” This was difficult to say, “…resurrected my friend.”

They looked at me with amazement and disbelief alike.

Then they shared a look, talking to each other in a wordless exchange of blinks and minimal facial twitches. Were they communicating by telepathy, or could they truly understand each other this well without words?

Anyhow, the Arcane Veil was the first who talked back.

“Resurrection as reanimation, or…?” Her voice slowly faded as Amira asked for confirmation.

“Resurrection.” I shook my head. “I brought her from the dead.”

I don’t know if it was my serious tone, but my words evoked a physical response from the Ceaseless Storm as he loudly slapped the table before him.

“I can understand fighting against all odds and beating two ten-star mages and flying over to Tilean. Even confronting the imperial family, damn it!” Fynn hit the table hard and stood up. Regardless of his reaction, his posture remained composed. “But you truly think I will believe you brought someone from the dead? A mage of no renown making a feat unheard of? Only of legends and myths?”

There were plentiful answers I could have given to him. The most sensible one was to say that he was the one to choose if I was telling the truth or not. An argument that didn’t seek confrontation but still didn’t undermine my bold declaration.

Yet in my tiredness, my next words came with defiance.

“A mage has no renown until they show their worth.” I stood up from my seat. “I have stayed inactive for a long time, now when I step up to the main stage, you will see my renown grow.”

It was only then when I stopped talking that I realized the severity of my words. Amira and Fynn showed me only expressionless faces as if they had synchronized themselves purposely.

Then the military man walked towards the door. Only a few seconds later he turned back to look at me.

“Come on, what are you waiting for, soldier?” The Command Sergeant Major ordered. “Follow me.” The stern voice filled the room with complete confidence and overwhelming power.

Was all of that a test? I felt blind as I could not read the man in front of me. I obeyed the man, hoping I didn’t sign up for something horrible.