86. Shift I (Patreon)

Once I became aware that the author I had been seeking for almost a decade had been before my very eyes all this time, I couldn’t help myself. I needed to meet him, to meet Eygaz. It was a dangerous and overall stupid move, but my body wished to see it, demanded it.

A part of me told me I was wrong with my assumptions, and if neither the author was Eygaz nor the book was the phylactery, I would be back to square one. I was compelled to see if that was truly the case or not.

I needed to see the truth with my very eyes.

I shifted back to my body in the Lan’el military camp. It was midnight and the Violet Sky shone dimly. My meeting with the head of the Houtz Imperium had taken a few hours.

With a bit of foresight, I donned my academy tunic.

The library of the Academy of Applied Magical Arts of Ferilyn didn’t close. It was open the twenty hours of the ten days of the week. It would be easy to infiltrate the building as another student because I had been once until last week.

I casted Concealment to hide my presence and a very scuffed Air-based Silence spell. I wasn’t Marissa, by any means, but as she had learned something from my soul magic, I did the same with her air control.

Right now, I couldn’t be detected by magical means or through sound, but I could still be seen.

I wouldn’t like to be seen by the guards overwatching the military perimeter, as I didn’t know if I was even allowed to leave. Fynn had said that he wanted me to be nearby him, so he probably gave instructions to not let me leave.

I decided to jump over a wall with a spellcast of Ungravity and a nameless Force cantrip. The only challenge was to avoid the gaze of the aerial sentries, who watched far up from those needle-thin towers.

With Soul Sight, I kept tabs on the handful of aerial sentries, and if some were about to notice my movements, I casted a lesser Force Unconsciousness with Mystic’s Dominion. It wouldn’t make them sleep, that would rise too much suspicion, but it would make them drowsy and distracted.

With an empowered force jump, I rose up to the skies in a silent yet fast movement and made my way out.

**********

Following Ferilyn’s canals, I made my way to the academy in only an hour. It did take a fair share of spells, gravity-manipulating, and healing ones to be specific. Muscle strain was serious when you run for a whole hour without stopping.

As I reached the academy’s gates, the single guard overwatching it gave me a weird look but didn’t pry any further. It wasn’t strange to see students coming in and out at such hours on a weekend.

I found a handful of students laying around on the campus as I walked toward the library. Some were alone, others in pairs, and then you had the drunk squad. I have never become drunk in this life thanks to my physique of a mystic, so I didn’t share the group’s enthusiasm for alcohol.

With a sigh, I continued walking.

I entered the library to be greeted by a drowsy librarian. Greeted may be too strong of a word, but the woman just nodded to acknowledge my existence and returned to her book. She didn’t seem to be an actual librarian but a student working here to get an extra coin.

Manite? I hate expressions. Extra coinage, money. She worked to get more pocket money.

In a trance-like focus and practiced manner, I directed to the section of the dark library that contained the soul anthology. I had come to this place many times over the years.

I grabbed the humongous book with both hands, as it was impossible otherwise. The somewhat new book was wider than my torso, though that didn’t express anything of significance as ellari were pretty slim.

I opened the book on the Phylactery Bonding spell, the last fifty pages of the tome. You know it was big when this section was way less than one percent of the whole book.

I inspected the framework with Soul Sight.

No results.

That was to be expected. If it was this easy, I would have found the author a long time ago.

“Hmm…” As I looked at the framework, I couldn’t fail to notice how now it felt more intelligible.

I had looked at the impossibly complicated eleven-star spell before, of course. But it was like trying to read a new language as the framework was the most complex thing I had ever seen. Mystic’s Dominion did not even get close. Not even that Nethergate ritual the draconid emperor had.

Elemental affinity became stranger the more I advanced on the elemental ladder.

The more I thought about the intrinsic knowledge affinity gave, the more impossible it seemed.

I sighed.

Phylactery Bonding was still beyond my grasp, but not as far as it had once been. I even believed I could cast it rather sooner than later if I began working now, but I wasn’t here for the succulent immortality spell.

I traced the ink of the pages with my fingers in a slow and methodical caress. Something had to be here, between these words of ink.

Soul Sight hadn’t told me anything, but it was a simple spell, a basic cantrip that could be intercepted by any practiced mystic or a sufficiently concentrated stream of mana. But I had something in my arsenal that was harder to catch.

I didn’t give the potential resident of the book enough time to react.

From the core of my soul, I unleashed an overcharged Soul Sight, both with mana and the touch of Mystic’s Dominion, as I had done a few days before. But unlike before, this time I got the ping that I wanted.

Not only had I found the location of the author, but I had it before me.

“Well done, you caught me off-guard.” A voice lingered in the air.

No. I twitched my long ears. The sound wasn’t of physical origins, it came from the spiritual plane.

“You are the author…” I sent my thoughts through the plane with the intent of being intercepted. This was a bad time to not know the Thought Relaying spell.

“Author?” The incorporeal entity spoke, then added a short laugh. “Well, certainly I am. Though I’m not usually called that way.”

I had difficulties seeing on the spiritual plane, it felt like I was inside a ball of light. Surrounded by ever-present radiance. Unescapable.

Even as I focused, I couldn’t find the origin of the voice. And I knew that the author was right in front of me. Such obfuscation abilities were beyond what I had seen before. Stealth magic was uncommon, and even my plentiful spells compared to the rest of the mages were pitiful before this distortion.

I didn’t remain silent for long.

“If Author isn’t to your liking… how about Eygaz?”

The silence echoed through reality.

“How?” It wasn’t a question, but an interrogation. A hint of anger filtered through his obfuscation spells.

It was easy to recognize the spell the author, or rather, Eygaz had used.

I was using it myself.

Eygaz pushed with Mystic’s Dominion, compelling me to talk, but it failed. I had withstood too much soul damage as of late, enough to kill thousands of people, to be submitted by such a simple pulse.

This wasn’t like the mental compulsions Kirielle had used against me to practice, but a more raw and instinctual attack.

My soul flared.

Tendrils of lavender spiritual energy cut through the radiance, expelling the compulsion again.

“I will not be subdued easily.” I fought.

“As expected from someone that managed to learn Mystic’s Dominion.” The invisible mystic flattered me. “I didn’t think this was going to be a simple exchange, either way.”

As the words ended traveling through the metaphysical plane, time slowed to a halt.

I tried to move, but I was unable to.

Out of nowhere, the ink of the Phylactery Bonding spell began to glow with ominous strength, ever-so-rapidly increasing, enough to leave me blind. The pages were fluttered around by a non-existing wind.

Mana littered the small corner of the library, strands of white permeating the air. It wasn’t the power but the finesse that surprised me.

“But let’s see how you hold on to the true meaning of souls.” The words came from everywhere and nowhere at once.

It was a single instant.

My vision faded as it was overwhelmed by the anthology’s light, overflowing in white.

And then…

My body was erased from physical reality.