Book 3, Chapter 24 (Patreon)

I floated across the brakvaw graveyard, my magic keeping me anchored against the wind that kept the island scoured bare of so much as a speck of dirt. Next to me, his ancient body hunched in on itself, Grandfather watched me deftly weave the fuzzy threads of magic to cast an advanced-tier spell. I still lost about a tenth of the mana, but the rest cycled back into my core to be used again.

“Well done,” the old bird congratulated. “I have no concerns about your capabilities at this point. However…”

I finished the thought for him. “Capacity. You’ve still got me outclassed in terms of sheer volume of mana, but I don’t see it being an issue to keep this spell flowing through me.”

“I’ll feel better if we test it first,” he said.

His concern was understandable. I hadn’t shown off my improved mana core to anyone outside my immediate family and those few incidental people who’d been close enough to feel my presence. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust Grandfather, but I wasn’t in the generally in the habit of revealing that kind of information to anyone. Knowledge like that could be used by anyone looking to assassinate me.

Even revealing my core to my parents was something I’d hesitated over. It wasn’t strictly necessary, but ultimately, it let them feel better about my safety when I left. Anyone targeting me would naturally view my family as a weak point to attack anyway, but I was confident there was no one like that within a thousand miles. I’d killed or suborned all of my enemies already.

Grandfather no doubt thought he had justified fears about my ability to hold the spell steady while he repositioned his physical body to the more hospitable eyrie below us, but I knew the magic was well within my capabilities. It would still be immensely draining, even with almost all of the mana cycling back into my core, but I’d be fine.

“If you’d like,” I told him. “I am calculating that I can keep this spell going for about twenty-seven minutes before I’m forced to tap into a mana crystal. I haven’t quite mastered lossless casting to the extent you have, I’m afraid.”

My best guess was that he recouped close to ninety-nine percent of his mana, and I suspected I might never reach that ratio. Size seemed to be a factor, and in that way, I was never going to match up to a thirty-foot-tall bird.

“How sure are you in your calculations?” Grandfather asked.

It was a bit odd to see him so nervous. We’d known each other for a year or so now, and he’d always been so confident when we talked. Then again, it was easy to play the part as the teacher, especially with a student who didn’t know enough to challenge him. As I’d learned more about the process, that relationship had shifted to its current status, that of equals.

Oh, there was no question that he was better at the brakvaw method of casting spells than me. Neither of us thought I’d surpass him there, at least not in any reasonable timeframe. But I had a breadth of knowledge about magic that Grandfather couldn’t match. In reality, though, what mattered right now was whether or not I could hold this holy place up in the sky for him.

“Completely sure,” I said.

“Very well. We’ll proceed with all due precautions. I’ve summoned a few of our elders to help safeguard the island in the event that we fail. They’ll only be able to give us at most a minute or two to try to stabilize everything if something slips out of place.”

“I understand,” I said. “We’ll begin after they arrive?”

“Yes. It should only be a few more minutes.”

I went over the spell needed to keep the island in place in the sky again at Grandfather’s insistence while we waited. We didn’t stop when the first brakvaw elder alighted nearby, nor the second. But that didn’t stop me from noticing the unfriendly look in their eyes. I wouldn’t have seen it six months ago, but with how much time I’d spend in their eyrie, I’d learned to read their expressions to a point, and these two weren’t going out of their way to hide their displeasure.

Presumably, they didn’t like me being here in general, and on this floating island, specifically. I wondered if Grandfather was setting himself up for some turmoil down the line, defying some brakvaw custom in teaching me and allowing me up here, or if it was petty jealousy that I, an outsider and a stranger without a single feather to my name, was showing them up by finally assisting their species’ patriarch in a way none of them could.

Nobody said it had to be just one reason. It was probably both, and maybe a few more I wasn’t getting, besides. As long as they didn’t try to attack me the moment I stepped into Grandfather’s place so he could relocate, I didn’t much care. Considering it was their floating graveyard I’d be holding up, I felt like I had good odds of coming out of this unscathed. Now, whether that remained true after Grandfather took up his new place down in the eyrie and reclaimed control of the magic was a different story.

If it came down to it though, I could handle two elder brakvaw. No sooner had I thought that then a third and fourth showed up, however. I was forced to revise my strategy from ‘overwhelm’ to ‘stall and retreat.’ It probably wouldn’t come down to that anyway, but I hadn’t survived this long by not being paranoid. I had contingency plans for everything.

“Good, everyone’s here,” Grandfather said. “Let’s get started then.”

  *

The plan went off without a hitch. The worst that could be said of it was that I was very aware of how vulnerable I was with my focus taken up by my part in the whole process, and I lamented that mind read simply didn’t work on these brakvaw. The young ones had simple thoughts, and even those were difficult to parse. The adults simply thought in manners too alien for me to translate.

An emotion read spell gave me some small comfort, though it did confirm that none of the elders were happy about my presence. Only one of them seemed willing to act on it, and I suspected that the primary reason he’d behaved was the other three wouldn’t have backed him up. Reading people’s emotions, especially those from strange, monstrous species, was tricky.

With everything completed, I left the island and returned to Grandfather’s side down in the eyrie. “You are satisfied?” I asked.

“I am,” he said. “Truth be told, I thought I’d die up there, and that it would be the end of my people’s ancestorial burial grounds.”

“It very well could be, when you go.”

“I would hope not, but I’m afraid you may be correct. None of my people have exhibited the interest I held in magic. None of them could take my place.”

I stood in silence with Grandfather while I considered the problem. As it currently stood, there was no reasonable solution. Enchantments couldn’t benefit from lossless casting, nor could inscriptions. Without someone constantly channeling the spell that held the brakvaw cemetery aloft, it would come down to the eyrie.

But if I succeeded in my plan to fix the world core, it was entirely possible to harness ambient mana to create a floating island. Plenty of mages had done it, and with whole cities perched on them.

“Pardon my rudeness,” I began. “How long does a brakvaw typically live for?”

“Oh, we are a very long-lived people. Perhaps eight or nine hundred years on average.”

“And… how old are you?”

“Almost a thousand, I believe. To be perfectly honest, I lost track a few centuries back.”

“Ancient by your people’s standards,” I said.

“Quite so,” Grandfather agreed unhappily. He cast a glance upward, though the island was hidden behind the clouds overhead. “My descendants will simply have to adjust once I’m gone.”

“Perhaps,” I said.

“You have an idea?”

I shook my head. “Nothing that I can implement in the next decade or two, I don’t think. It’s a long-term project I’m only just starting to work on.”

“If it works out for you, I’d be interested.”

“I’m sure you’ll know immediately if everything goes as planned,” I said. “I want to flood the whole world with mana again, like it was during my first life.”

“That’s certainly an ambitious project,” Grandfather told me.

“What do you know about life extension magic?” I asked, changing the subject.

“Very little. Our life spans are long enough naturally.”

“Another hundred years or so might be just what you need,” I said. “Let’s discuss the basics and see if we can adapt a few spells I know for brakvaw anatomy.”

  *

My obligations to Grandfather discharged, I returned to Sanctuary to catch up Tetrin and Hyago on my schedule for the next month or two. They knew their parts in my plans, and more importantly, they knew what was in it for them. Whatever else people might say about me, I knew how to motivate my contractors.

I wasn’t planning on doing a lot of alchemy or manufacturing of any sort of magical equipment while on the road, but I was producing record amounts of mana now, and it was foolish to let that go to waste. To combat that, I extracted all ten of the obelisks from my various workshops and labs, most of them empty. My phantom space had several tons of mana crystals by the time I was ready to go.

Mother and Father saw us off. “Here, food for your journey.”

“How long do you think we’ll be gone?” I asked as my eyebrows climbed up to my scalp. There was easily enough food to feed two people for six months in the baskets Mother had loaded down.

“Don’t argue with me, young man. I’ll feel better knowing you’re not out there, starving in some strange land.”

I couldn’t help but smile. “Yes, Mother. I apologize.”

She let out a fake huff and worked hard to keep her smile off her face, but I could see right through her. “I’ll miss you both,” I said.

“Ugh, stop being so sappy,” Senica said.

Our parents ignored her. Father thrust a backpack at me and said, “It’s a bit early for your birthday, but it seemed like you needed these.”

I peered inside and found a few sets of clothes neatly folded and packed. “I suppose I did,” I said. My current pants barely came down to my calves, and I was barefoot. My shirts fit, but only because I’d gotten some new ones. It simply wasn’t possible for the old ones to stretch across my torso anymore.

With an effort of will, I pulled the baskets and backpack into my phantom space. “Thank you,” I told Mother and Father. “And don’t worry about us. I’ll keep Senica out of trouble.”

“I think you mean I’ll keep you out of trouble,” she said. “You’re the one who’s always sticking your nose into things.”

“If you say so,” I told her. “Ready to go?”

“Been ready for three hours.”

“I heard her moving around, packing stuff up in the middle of the night,” Mother told me.

“You did not!”

I had to agree with Senica, there. I’d sound-proofed all the walls of our home. Mother almost certainly hadn’t heard anything, but I expected she was probably right, anyway. My little-big sister was practically bouncing out of her shoes to get started. She’d already said all her goodbyes to the other teens in our village earlier, including a remarkably tender farewell to Juby that I doubted she’d be happy to learn I’d eavesdropped on.

“Alright, alright,” I said. “It’s time. Ready?”

Senica brandished her wand and flashed me a grin. “Just try to keep up!”