Chương 40: 36. Disaster Remnant

Marcus sat in Gaius's office, staring silently at the man in front of him. Gaius stared back, also saying nothing. The atmosphere would perhaps seem tense to an observer, but Marcus actually felt pretty relaxed. He didn't want to talk to Gaius to begin with. Even if this entire meeting turned out to be one extended multi-hour staring contest, he would be perfectly fine with that outcome. That said, Marcus was very surprised that it was just him and Gaius here.

It seemed completely out of character for Gaius to meet him alone, even if he was doing so in his heavily warded office, with a pair of guards just outside the door. Marcus grudgingly had to give Gaius some credit for having the courage to face him like this. But only a little bit. The man was still a scheming bastard.

"Why haven't you been answering my letters?" Gaius finally asked.

"I forgot," Marcus said flippantly.

"Just like you forgot to come to my aid." Gaius performed a big dramatic sigh.

"I knew it was all about that. You know that whole thing was just a big misunderstanding…" he began.

"Spare me. You knew what was happening and could have intervened at any time," Marcus said, narrowing his eyes at him. He didn't know what exactly Gaius hoped to accomplish by letting his academy get besieged, if he just wanted to put pressure on Marcus or something darker, but that had been a hostile move. He was certain of it.

"My students could have ended up dead!"

"Why were you not there, then? I thought we agreed you would stay in Great Sea's territory for the foreseeable future?" Gaius challenged.

"And I thought we buried our grudges at our last meeting, and would not be sabotaging each other like this," Marcus countered.

"What right do you have to question my whereabouts? I left in a hurry because I had to, and I thought I was leaving my students in friendly territory!"

"We live in chaotic, dangerous times, Elder Marcus," Gaius told him.

"Our manpower has been severely depleted by two major wars, and mustering a response to such a peripheral place can be challenging. All of this could have been avoided if you just moved your base and your students back here to Adria."

"I refuse," Marcus said simply.

"But why? I hear you brought your students here with you, and they seem to like the city. Surely it's better for them to benefit from our myriad facilities and experts than languish in some run-down ruin out there in the wild periphery?" Gaius pleaded with him.

"I know you don't like me, but think of their future. They need help from the academy to prosper and peers to befriend and measure themselves against. You also benefited from these things, and that is the only reason why you are here as you are. No matter how talented you were as a person, you would have never developed as you did without being sent to Adria from a very young age. Do you deny it?"

"I don't deny it," Marcus said.

"But that was because I lacked a powerful backer. You are a scion of a powerful and distinguished family, so your perspective of what kind of support an average apprentice would get here might be skewed. As far as facilities and teachers go, I'd say they already exceed what I had at my disposal when I was their age. As for the need for peers, what are you talking about? I have ten students. I don't see my actions as hurting them in any way."

Besides, Marcus did not believe Gaius had his students' best interests in mind when suggesting a move to Adria. Marcus had talked to a number of other elders since arriving back to the city, and most of them agreed that what Gaius was really annoyed with was being unable to spy on what Marcus was doing. His tower had too few people to infiltrate, and was too far away and warded too well for detailed observation. The trouble was, Marcus really liked that fact about his place.

"The city would be a healthier environment for them," Gaius said, giving him an annoyed look.

"You should consider my suggestion. Even your daughter-""Not you too!" Marcus loudly protested, exasperated.

"You, of all people, should know that rumor must be nonsense! I was only gone for six years! How would I get a teenage daughter in so short a time? Do you think I kept her in a time chamber to make her grow up faster or something?"

"I thought elves grew up weirdly like that," Gaius admitted.

"They don't. They grow up same as humans do, then stop visibly aging once they're fully grown," Marcus told him, calming down.

"Iris isn't my daughter. She's just a student."

"Why…" Gaius began, frowning.

"Why would elves send their child to a human teacher? I don't think I've ever heard of that happening."

"I befriended some elves back in the Eastern Lands," Marcus simply said.

"I don't think it's any business of your why they decided to let me teach Iris. It's a private deal between me and them."

"Fine," Gaius, clearly finding it hard to let go.

"And the dragon?"

"Go ask Elder Beortan about that," Marcus told him.

"I only know her because of him." Gaius leaned back in his chair, thinking.

"It seems I keep picking fights with you without intending to do so," Gaius commented, tapping the table with his fingers for a moment.

"Let's try this again. I have a gift for you." Marcus silently raised an eyebrow at him. Gaius got up from his chair and reached into one of the drawers in his office. He pulled out a small package, neatly wrapped up in white fabric and placed it on the table in front of Marcus. Marcus hesitated for a second before untying the strip of leather that secured it and unraveling it.

There were four things inside: several wooden branches, still looking and smelling fresh despite having been severed from their tree an unknown time ago; a small bar of gleaming silvery metal; a large colorful conch shell whose mere sight brought half-forgotten memories to the forefront of his mind; and a bottle containing a small sphere of rotating dark grey gas, occasionally flashing with inner light. They were all really valuable magical materials.

The lifewood branches were harvested from special mutated trees that only grew in dangerous and distant inner regions of the Sea of Leaves. Star silver could only be obtained in small quantities from meteor impacts or Selenite traders, as it wasn't native to Tasloa at all.

Memory conches could occasionally be found washed out on the shore, but they were usually old and damaged in some way – a shell this pristine could only be harvested in the ocean's depths, and came attached to a very poisonous marine snail that could hypnotize even high-rank adepts with illusions. Finally, the gas sphere inside the bottle was a storm seed.

Actually not a very rare thing out in the wild, as many of them formed when a chaos storm coincided with an actual storm, but wild storm seeds were short-lived things, and faded away quickly. Going out into the chaos-infused storm in order to capture and stabilize one was no easy feat. According to rumors, Giant Thunder Hall had an entire academy group specialized in harvesting storm seeds.

They were very useful to lightning magic users, but since lightning magic was somewhat rare and difficult to train in, most factions, including Great Sea, had a very small supply of these. None of these were legendary treasures, but they were rare and valuable. More importantly, all but one of these were part of the list of materials he had given to House of Vulcan to find.

"I heard you are making a heritage record to preserve your foundational technique for future generations. A praiseworthy task that will benefit both you and the Great Sea Academy," Gaius said.

"Consider this a small gesture of support. Hopefully this helps make up for my shameful inability to help your students in their moment of need. I've added the lifewood branches since it seemed like something you might be interested in." Marcus considered it for a second. He could refuse, of course – he needed these, but it wasn't anything pressing and he could probably get them elsewhere later. However, the simple fact was, he didn't come here to escalate things. Refusing a gesture of peace would be too extreme.

"Thank you, Consul. I accept your gift. However…" Marcus took the lifewood branches and pushed them across the table towards Gaius.

"I actually have plenty of lifewood branches in my possession," Marcus explained.

"Since I travelled on foot through the Sea of Leaves in order to get back to the Silver League from the Eastern Lands, I encountered plenty of these trees and took the best branches I could find. If anything, I should be the one to giving some of them to you, not the other way around." Gaius looked at him incredulously, stunned into silence for several moments.

"You… went through the Sea of Leaves on foot?" Gaius asked.

"But why?"

'I wanted to feel alive,' Marcus thought. He almost answered Gaius with that exact statement, before his common sense caught up to him and he realized it would make him sound pathetic.

"It seemed like an interesting thing to do," Marcus said.

"And in my defense… it was."

"I suppose it is good you're already thinking about leaving behind a legacy, if you're going to continue being this needlessly reckless," Gaius said, massaging his forehead. This made Marcus wonder… did Gaius think he was making the heritage tablet in order to leave it in Adria? He did know this was intended for the Great Tree Academy, right? No, now that he thought about it, probably not. How could he know? But that, in turn, made him wonder how Titus expected to keep the tablet safe once Marcus made it.

Great Tree Academy did not have the defenses and experts necessary to protect something like this. Great Sea Academy in particular would be very motivated to take it from them, and as their overlord, would feel they have the right to claim such an important artifact made by one of their own elders.

Well, while Marcus was alive, the tablet could just stay at his tower, and the Great Tree Academy could simply send people over to consult it, but they better get stronger or figure something out by the time Marcus died or their heritage tablet wouldn't be theirs for very long. Gaius cleared his throat.

"That said, there are still some issues I'd like to raise…" The rest of the meeting was a lot closer to what Marcus had expected when he walked into the office. A lot of questions about what had happened during recent events, what Marcus was doing and planning, and attempts to foist a bunch of Great Sea 'advisors' to 'help him build up his academy'.

Marcus refused to say anything critical – nothing about a trip to another world, the mysterious space beneath his base, his conversations with Voyager, and other matters of similar importance. He definitely wouldn't accept any advisors. However, he did answer some of Gaius's questions, just so the Consul couldn't say he was completely uncooperative. Marcus really didn't understand what Gaius was thinking.

He disliked Gaius a lot, thought of him as underhanded and arrogant, but he didn't really get why Gaius was so concerned with him. He had already given up on competing with him, removed himself from Adria and its politics, and he'd made his position clear in their first meeting after his return. Gaius didn't seem to actively hate him, or if he did, he was good at hiding it. What was the issue?

Was the fact he had once competed with him for leadership so unforgivable that he just had to get back at him through any means possible, even by going after his students? He didn't think so, and the other elders he had spoken to didn't think so, either. Gaius was ruthlessly practical. He had worked and made deals with old enemies before, and didn't seem vindictive. Whatever his motives were, they concerned something relevant today.

By far the most convincing theory he had heard was that Gaius was afraid of Marcus eventually splintering off from the Great Sea Academy. Historically, such attempts all ended in failure – none of the other Great Academies were interested in tolerating a competitor, even if doing so meant the weakening of their existing rival. If Marcus tried that, it wouldn't just be Great Sea who would become his enemy. But, as Gaius himself said, these were chaotic times.

Great Sea was unusually weak, and Marcus was extremely strong. Some of the elders thought there was a credible possibility of him staging a rebellion, and were relieved when he'd assured them it wasn't something he was interested in. If some of the more paranoid elders had thought about it, Gaius likely had similar thoughts. Marcus was not willing to assure the Consul of his loyalty the way he clearly wanted him to.

He didn't want to move to Adria, didn't want to accept informants into his ranks, and he didn't want to give detailed reports about whatever he was doing. However, he did want to quell fears that he was trying to break off from the Great Sea Academy. If he lost access to the city and his fellow elders, everything would become far more inconvenient and dangerous. Well... he had already reached out to some of the other elders, and had also talked to Calvus from the Temple of Dark Waters.

Nothing of huge importance had happened in any of those meetings, but he would continue working on it in the coming months and years. That way, if he needed help, someone would still come to his aid, even if Gaius decided to play dumb again.

"Elder Marcus, are you listening to me?" Gaius asked him warningly.

"Hm? Yes, Consul, I am listening. You were talking about the letters you kept sending me these past few months," Marcus said. This felt a little like being a student all over again. Thankfully, Marcus had always been good at listening to boring lectures with one ear, even when distracted, so he could understand the general topic well enough to answer the teacher. Gaius gave him a complex, unreadable expression.

"So do you agree to reply to my letters in a timely manner in the future, then?" he asked Marcus.

"Yes Consul, I will reply straight away, the moment I'm able," Marcus assured him. He was lying, of course. But he would at least read them this time.

Marcus held several more talks with potential teachers for the rest of their stay in Adria, but with little overall luck. While there were plenty of people interested, most of them were too weak for his tastes, made unreasonable demands, or he suspected them to be spies for various factions in the Academy. Gaius was not the only person interested in bending him to their own ends, after all. In the end, he simply chose to hire Vitruvius, Hostia, Sabina, and Rufus.

They were not the ideal choices he had hoped for, but he could work with them. Vitruvius and Rufus were decent combat-wise, and could keep his students safe from simple threats, especially if they fought together. As for Hostia, well, she claimed she was just a simple alchemist who did not fight, which was hard to believe.

More importantly, he had asked around and found out that the reason she had gotten into trouble in Adria was that a high-ranking mage attacked her two students and she severely injured him while defending them. Details were scarce, but anyone that could severely injure a powerful logos mage while suffering seemingly no injuries themselves was bound to be someone powerful. As for Sabina, well, he owed too much to her grandfather not to hire her.

She seemed to have a lot of potential, so hopefully she would be worth the salary eventually… He also took the opportunity to sell some of the rare materials he had collected during his trip in the Sea of Leaves. His long absence made him unaware of some things, and his talk with Gaius reminded him to check up on the prices of various things. It turned that that the primary supplier of things found in the Sea of Leaves was Chaoswood Academy… which was utterly destroyed in the Academy War.

With their destruction, many of these had surged in price and rarity. At some point he would run out of things to sell, and he would have to figure out an actual revenue source for Zenith Academy, else they would go bankrupt or he would have to start personally working to pay for the budget. But for now, he still had plenty of valuables he had collected on his trip around the world, many of which commanded high prices.

He took his students, Vitruvius, Hostia and her two students, Sabina, and Rufus back to his tower via air, using the powers of the orb of flight to lift and carry the whole group. Along the way he stopped at the orphanage at Willowhill, hoping to speak to Old Pliny about Sabina, but he found the man curiously absent. In his place was a young woman from the Great Tree Academy, who was temporarily guarding the place in his absence.

"It's not that unusual," Sabina told him. She was clearly relieved that her grandfather wasn't there to talk to them.

"He has a life outside the orphanage, you know? He's probably dealing with some personal issue."

"It's true," the woman from Great Tree told him.

"Pliny does ask us to guard the place on a somewhat regular basis, while he handles his other affairs. I'm afraid he didn't say how long he would be gone this time, but he will probably be back in a few weeks at most." Curious. Marcus fuzzily remembered this sort of thing happening once or twice when he was a child, but Old Pliny kind of did live for the orphanage. He spent most of his time here. It was why he was surprised that he had a granddaughter. Still, it wasn't his place to pry in his private matters.

He gave the students who were from here a few hours to catch up with old friends, and give the rest some reprieve from the long flight, and then left. When the group finally landed next to the tower, the newcomers immediately started inspecting the place.

"Better than I feared," Hostia simply said, unconcerned at the state of it. Her two students, a boy and a girl roughly the same age as Marcus's students, said nothing. They seemed to be quiet sort, and simply clung to their teacher without interacting with others much.

"So long as I have a place to sleep and stash my stuff, I'm happy," Rufus commented.

"I don't intend to spend much time in the accommodations. When I'm not teaching, I'll probably be patrolling or visiting the nearby villages to see if they have problems they'd like for me to handle."

"It's a bit rough," Vitruvius said. He seemed to be the most critical one, which didn't surprise Marcus. If anything he was surprised Vitruvius had agreed to come to a place like this.

"I hope I'm not out of line, but I might suggest some… minor alterations. I just need some time to study the place better and understand what I'm dealing with."

"Sure," Marcus shrugged. In truth, he was relatively similar to Rufus in his thinking, and wasn't too attached to the academy's current form. If what Vitruvius proposed worked better, he'd gladly go for that.

"That said, I am quite amazed at your magic orb!" Vitruvius suddenly praised.

"To think an artifact exists that can so casually carry an entire group of people across the continent… wherever did you find such a thing? Or did you perhaps make it, Elder Marcus?"

"That is clearly Thunder Hall's orb of flight," Rufus told him casually.

"I'm shocked that they have not tried to get it back from you. I know you're a spirit manifestation mage, but this is their ancestral treasure and the traditional badge of office for their leaders. Aren't you afraid that you'll prove a response from them by using it so openly?"

"Why would he be worried? Teacher took the orb from them back when they were way stronger than they are now," Renatus commented from the sidelines.

"Besides, they already tried getting it back. Teacher just scared them off," Cassia added.

"That is the incident we heard rumors about back at Adria, right?" Sabina asked Marcus.

"The one where you squared off against forces of Crystal Mountain and Thunder Hall? What even happened back then? Surely we're allowed to know now, no?" Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings. Marcus thought about it. There were many secrets he intended to keep from them, but that didn't seem a particularly important one, nor very practical to maintain. Right now, very few people were aware he was a microcosm mage.

Many still thought of him as a spirit manifestation mage, even though he had told Gaius otherwise, since none of the people at that meeting were inclined to gossip. However, this incident was too public and too eye-catching… people knew there was something wrong with Marcus being able to deal with this on his own, and people outside the Great Sea Academy were also aware and would talk.

"Since you're now teachers here, I suppose it's only right to tell you this. I am actually a microcosm mage, and not a spirit manifestation one as most of Adria currently believes," Marcus told them. Most of them seemed suitably shocked by this admission, but Hostia… wasn't. She didn't react at all at the statement, looking vaguely bored instead. Hm. He wondered how powerful she really was. Was she more observant than he had thought? Or was she simply very composed?

"You rose two ranks in the six years you were gone from Adria?" Rufus asked incredulously.

"I've heard advancement has been easier lately, but that's ridiculous. Ah, I live in a time of legends and here I am, stuck at a measly rank of logos mage. This is so unfair…"

"No wonder teacher Magnus said you could help me," Vitruvius mused out loud.

"This doesn't really answer my question, though…" Sabina complained.

"You can ask my students for details later," Marcus told her.

"They were there throughout the entire incident, and arguably know the story even better than I do. For now, take some time to settle down, and… anything else you need to do. I'll go check with Helvran to make sure nothing urgent happened while we were away and check the wards."

He waited until he was alone in his office and he was certain no one was coming to speak with him for the day before he took out the scroll he had gotten back at the Healing Temple and opened it. The message in it was short, but serious. It said:"Don't ascend before you talk to me. There is a large bounty on your head, and you will be killed the moment you set foot on any of the spiritual planes. Not even elemental planes are safe."

-The Priestess There was no name attached to the message, but Marcus could only think of one priestess that could want to meet with him and referred to herself as the priestess… He invited Helvran to his office and showed him the message.

"What do you think? This is the same as your own warning to me that I have a bounty on my head, no?" Marcus asked.

"I wouldn't say they're quite the same," Helvran said.

"My message concerned itself with matters on this world. When I said you had a bounty placed on your head for practicing the Soul Tree Technique, I meant that someone wanted you dead here on Tasloa. In light of this new warning, I suppose this is simply an order handed down from the Outer Planes."

"Nobody acted against me, though," Marcus pointed out.

"You may have simply confused people with your actions," Helvran speculated.

"I don't think anyone expected that the first thing you'd do upon coming back was to take on a large number of students and create your own academy. Not to mention, they may not have realized just how powerful you have gotten in your six years of wandering. Perhaps your enemies are simply waiting for outside reinforcements."

"Hm," Marcus hummed, thinking.

"Do you think my enemy is someone in the Illuminated Temple, then?" No powerful outsider could operate on Tasloa without the approval of its council of gods. If some force from the Outer Planes wanted to get rid of him, they needed the blessing of the Illuminated Temple to act.

"It's hard to interpret this any other way," Helvran said.

"Though, the fact the Head Priestess seems to be on your side is encouraging."

"So you also think this is her?"

"It seems likely," Helvran nodded. They threw around a number of theories afterwards, but nothing that seemed convincing. The main issue was that necromancy was ultimately just an aspect of the River of Souls, and while it was usually restricted in most places on the Outer Planes, it was rarely outright forbidden. It was essentially the main type of magic in Oblivion Maze, and was thus hugely influential all over the universe.

It was hard to guess as to why the Soul Tree Technique acquired such a powerful and dedicated enemy, one that would hunt down practitioners all across the heavens. It couldn't be just because it was soul magic. The best guess Helvran got was that it might actually be other necromancers, of all things, that were after him.

"I've been asking my superiors about a few things while you were gone. Exchanging letters and such," Helvran told him.

"While I am not high enough in rank to be initiated into the deeper mysteries, I've gotten an impression that there is some kind of on-going conflict among factions in Oblivion Maze."

"That's not unusual. Don't all planes have this sort of thing?" Marcus asked. Some planes, like the Red Hell and the Sea of Chaos, were notoriously violent, but even the supposedly peaceful Celestial Mountain had its disputes over land and influence.

According to the official pronouncements of the Illuminated Temple, for example, one of the reasons why the gods couldn't turn all of their attention to the Abyssals was because they had to dedicate a lot of their efforts to maintaining their holdings on the Celestial Mountain.

"I'm not talking about regular squabbles here, but something bigger and more serious than that. Perhaps something existential. There is a reason why all priests are being pulled out of Tasloa the moment they get powerful enough, and it's not just because of the deal the Raven God made with the Illuminated Pantheon. We are needed for something at the Oblivion Maze, and I think your technique marks you as being part of that," Helvran explained.

"You might not intend to ever set foot in Oblivion Maze, but they don't know that, and might not care even if they knew." This situation was so obnoxious, Marcus thought to himself.

"That reminds me," he told Helvran.

"You said you wanted to talk to me about something before I went to Adria. I want to stay here for a month or two to make sure the new teachers are settling in and there are no problems, but once that is done, I'll be ready to set off again. Assuming helping you requires travelling, that is."

"It does," Helvran confirmed.

"I assume you're still keeping the details close to your chest?"

"Yes. I might just be paranoid, but I think we are being observed, and I'm afraid you're going to unintentionally give our intentions away if you know the details too early. Just take care of everything you need to do and then come find me when you're ready," Helvran said.

"We are being observed?" Marcus frowned.

"But the wards didn't register-" Helvran shook his head silently.

"It's just that my raven spotted some odd things while doing its daily patrols. Ghosts of animals do sometimes spontaneously form and linger in their old territories, but the frequency of that around the tower is worrying. It might be nothing, but I can't risk it," the priest explained. Marcus was quiet for a moment.

"It's going to be really hard to behave normally when you tell me things like that," Marcus pointed out. Helvran just smiled faintly at him.

Over the next two months, the new teachers began to settle into their new roles. This was a difficult period for Marcus, because it was all a dreadfully boring routine. His students had only recently become apprentices, and wouldn't be advancing any time soon. Any shortcuts used at this stage would come with major costs later. It wasn't worth it.

The simple advice they needed at this stage was something his newly-hired teachers were well equipped to handle, leaving him with little to do except provide new spells from his collection, and answer some of the more esoteric questions they had. This left him mostly directionless at the moment. Oh sure, he had long-term goals to pursue, but worrying about his students was what usually kept him focused on the present.

He almost wished some of his new teachers would cause some problems, just so he would have an immediate crisis to tackle. Oddly, the teacher who was causing the most complaints was actually Rufus, and they weren't even coming from his students. Whenever the man was not teaching, he would visit the surrounding towns and villages to look for anyone needing his assistance.

The snow and freezing cold outside the tower did not deter him in the slightest – as a fire magic specialist, he was extremely good at keeping himself warm, and didn't seem bothered by the weather at all. He was apparently offering his services at extremely favorable prices, more interested in the thrill of fighting monsters than in getting the most money possible.

This, in turn, caused the two nearby academies – the Harpy Feather Academy and the Academy of the Sacred Hearth – to send representatives to Marcus, complaining he was undercutting them and generally being unfair competition. Marcus might have been sympathetic to their plight, had they not just stood by when his tower was being besieged, clearly intending to swoop in and loot the tower once the fighting was done.

As it was, he sent their representatives away, telling them they should be thankful he hadn't done something similar himself. He was feeling pretty bored, after all. Alas, the monsters Rufus was tackling were just trivial annoyances to Marcus, and he would get no enjoyment out of beating them. He did summon Klukas afterwards to ask him about it.

Klukas and his group of independent adepts had gradually integrated themselves into the operations of the tower to the point that Marcus was considering assigning them some kind of official position – while he personally had little need for their services, his new staff often ordered things from the group, treating them almost like travelling merchants.

"Those two compete all the time, but they also have some kind of agreement regarding prices," Klukas told him.

"They never go below a certain point, and they drive away any outside adept that tries to compete with them by offering more favorable rates. They even went after us a few times, but we're too small a fish to really scare them. Rufus is a logos mage, so it's no wonder they've gotten worried."

"Logos mages are not rare, though," Marcus pointed out.

"Perhaps in a place like Great Sea they aren't, but in a minor faction like those two? I imagine they have ten logos mages each, at most. Sacred Hearth only has a single foundation mage. Harpy Feather has two, but one lives in Adria, and it's rumored he only comes by twice a year to pick up his share of the money." Huh. Those two were even weaker than Marcus had imagined. As for the other teachers, they were just doing their jobs.

Hostia, who he half-expected to be trouble, was mostly just setting up an alchemy lab in the tunnels beneath the tower. She showed great interest in the moss he was growing to feed the caterpillars, and she claimed a good portion of it for some of her experiments – to the great annoyance of said caterpillars. It didn't take long for her to notice the sealed-up tunnel leading deeper into the underground caves.

Marcus had personally erected a ward on the entrance to make sure none of his students and staff wandered in and got lost in the dead giant's space trap, but he never bothered to explain what was there to the new teachers. He still didn't choose to explain it even when Hostia asked him about it.

"It's one of the secrets of the Academy," Marcus told her.

"It's very dangerous, even for me, and you may very well die if you force yourself past the seal. And also, I will fire you if you survive."

"I see," she said, accepting his warning without any outrage. Thankfully, she took it seriously, and didn't attempt to sneak in. As for Vitruvius and Sabina, they were the ones most active in teaching his students. Vitruvius was far better at it, but Sabina seemed to be far more approachable to his students, probably because she was closer to their age, and Marcus had noticed they often sought her out when they had more unorthodox or casual questions to ask.

Sabina was also the teacher who wanted to speak to Marcus the most. The other three were fairly self-reliant, and could manage their affairs on their own. She, on the other hand, wanted his guidance and opinion on everything. On what she was allowed to teach his students, how to acquire specific food and other basic supplies, on the basic layout of the land, and even on his opinion on alternative classroom layouts.

Most of this was stuff that he felt a teacher should be able to handle on their own, and if he wasn't so dreadfully bored at the moment, he would have told her to ask Vitruvius and Rufus for help. However, some of the things she came to him with were truly bizarre. Like her asking him about the exact date when the first foundation stone of the tower was laid. Or wanting him to rearrange the walls inside her dwelling with earth magic 'to improve the flow of astral energies' inside.

"Why is it always you who comes to me with this nonsense?" Marcus asked Sabina, giving her a lazy look. As usual, she just barged into his office to bother him with this.

"The answer is no, of course."

"But the top of the tower is obviously the best place to set up a telescope and other stargazing equipment," she protested.

"This room is the place to set up an observatory."

"It's also my personal office," Marcus pointed out.

"Well you can continue using it during the day," she said.

"I only need it at night, when you go to sleep."

"I sleep in my office," Marcus said. She paused.

"Really? I don't see a bed anywhere," Sabina said, looking around curiously.

"I sleep on the floor," Marcus admitted.

"I'm used to it."

"I see. And here I thought I was weird…" she muttered to herself.

"Okay, I guess that isn't happening then. What about the merchant idea I brought up last week?"

"I already shot that down then and there, didn't I? We aren't letting merchants set up shop next to the tower," Marcus said. He wasn't even sure if any of them would want to do so. There weren't really that many people living here to justify the expense, so they would probably want all sorts of concessions.

"But why? This current situation is so inconvenient!" Sabina protested.

"I have to trudge through ice and snow to the neighboring village just to get anything, and half the time they don't have what I ask for or overcharge me!"

"You knew what you were signing up for when you came here, or should have at least," Marcus told her.

"A big part of setting up here is that it's isolated and there is little to distract my students from honing their skills, the other part being the wild forest that surrounds us. Neither Rufus nor Hostia have any issues with the arrangement." Vitruvius didn't seem interested in buying much. He seemed to be a shut-in with modest demands, and spent most of the time in the library, reading various books that Marcus populated it with, or drawing up complicated-looking schematics for some kind of device.

"Rufus is immune to cold, and Hostia has a pair of minions that she sends out on errand whenever she wants something," Sabina protested.

"No merchant is going to suddenly uproot themselves and move here in the middle of winter," Marcus pointed out.

"And frankly, I'm not sure I want them here. You will have to manage." Since Marcus had so much free time, he amused himself by pursuing long-term projects, such as reading through Kasir's notes on slimes, trying to communicate with the mechanical beetle, or fiddling with the soul amethyst. Actually, communicating with the beetle was quite easy. With his translation spell, he could understand what it tried to tell him easily enough. [I am a class 3 navigation scarab from the Windswept Empire, ready for service. Attune yourself and input a destination. Warning – the warranty on this device has expired. Use at your own risk. Do not reply to this message. This is an automated response triggered by your scan.] Windswept Empire? Marcus had never heard of such a state… but it was uncannily similar to the Windswept Realm, one of the habitable planets in the system. Perhaps they were related?

Even now, Selenite traders periodically brought merchandise from the other two planets in the system to Tasloa, so a device from them wasn't too unusual. Although it was slightly risky, Marcus attuned himself to the navigation scarab. The beetle immediately sprung to life, powered by his own magic, and skittered onto his arm. A bit of experimentation revealed that it obeyed thought-commands to move around without resistance, and could easily climb up walls and cling to vertical surfaces.

The strange ivory-like substance it was made from was extremely tough and light, and it felt almost weightless hanging off his clothes. What Marcus couldn't figure out how to do, was input a destination. Simply thinking one at the beetle didn't work, and there was no more automated messages describing proper operation of the device. He also tried to bring up some kind of map or navigational chart from it, but that didn't work either.

Two weeks after they came back, Beortan arrived to divide the magic items they had looted from the dwarven vault. Marcus placed all of them on the table in his office, except for the black feather, which he couldn't provide anymore due to Regulus having absorbed it already. He explained the situation to Beortan, along with everything else he found out about the items. Well, almost everything. Some things he couldn't easily explain how he knew.

"Since Regulus absorbed the feather, I will consider that one of my choices," Marcus said.

"Great," Beortan agreed.

"And you probably already predicted this, but I want the storage bracelet." Marcus immediately pushed it towards him. Beortan took it with a happy gleam in his eye.

"I will also be honest and say I want the bottle," Marcus said.

"As I said, I feel there is something special about it. I don't know what, but I'm willing to risk never figuring it out."

"I actually have the same feeling about the cursed necklace," Beortan said, pointing at the string of petrified eyes. He pushed the bottle towards Marcus, and pulled the necklace towards him.

"So there. Another selection made."

"The two most useful items are clearly the ring, with its defense magic, and the navigation scarab," Marcus said.

"I think those two are fairly equivalent." Beortan attuned himself to the scarab and tried it out, having it skitter around the table and watching it intensely, trying and failing to make it perform any navigation.

"I think you should have the scarab," Beortan said.

"It seems like something that would be far more useful to you than me. And I can tell you're more interested in it than the ring."

"Was I that obvious?" Marcus asked, slightly embarrassed at how easy he was to read.

"Yes," Beortan confirmed.

"Alright, so that leaves the rune dagger and the mana crystal. They're both basically trade goods, and I don't care which one I get."

"Me neither," Marcus admitted.

"Let's just throw a coin and let fate decide." The coin landed on heads, meaning Marcus got the rune dagger and Beortan got the mana crystal. In the short term, he felt like Beortan got a slightly better deal, since the crystal was more useful to a mage in its raw state. But if he had to guess, the rune dagger was more valuable to a right buyer. Once the division was made, Beortan bid him farewell again and left.

Afterwards, Marcus went to Sacred Oak to talk about the fruit he had gotten from the frozen tree in the vault. He expected Sacred Oak to be shocked at witnessing the item, and he was not disappointed. The oak was actually stunned into silence for at least fifteen minutes once Marcus produced the item from his storage bracelet. He ended up sitting down next to the roots as he waited for the tree to start talking again.

"My apologies. I was just thinking," Sacred Oak finally spoke.

"I assume you intend to absorb the fruit?"

"I've never seen you quiet for this long," Marcus commented. The tree said nothing.

"Yes, I definitely intend to do this, but I'm worried about mental contamination. Who knows what manner of traps and tricks the fruit contains."

"I don't believe it contains any traps, but you are right to be worried. We trees can live for thousands of years. The sheer weight of years could easily overwhelm you. Your personality could be altered, even overwritten. You could forget yourself and come to believe you were a Grandfather Tree possessing a human body, and discard your current goals and connections to pursue a dead tree's dream."

"So how do I avoid that?" Marcus asked.

"I actually think you are extremely well equipped to handle a problem like this," Sacred Oak told him, his voice sounding unusually upbeat.

"After all, are you not practicing a foundational technique that is all about assimilating life experiences from the dead? To be clear, I do not think you are ready to absorb the fruit now. Even if you avoided mental contamination, you would have to discard vast swathes of information stored inside… and what a waste that would be. What I would advise you instead is that you continue practicing by absorbing soul seeds of ever increasing complexity.

Eventually, your soul should be powerful enough to swallow the fruit whole, with no or little ill effects."

"How do I know when I'm ready?" Marcus asked.

"I do not know," Sacred Oak admitted.

"You should at least wait until you have learned how to handle the life experiences of an adult human, or something equivalent. A Grandfather Tree is bound to be at least as complex as that, if not more." Marcus thought about it for some time.

"You know, I expected you to be… well, greedier. Do you not want the fruit for yourself?" Marcus asked.

"I have indeed considered that option in detail," Sacred Oak admitted.

"The truth is that I am also worried about what might happen to me if I were to consume it. I may be older and more capable than you, but I am also a Grandfather Tree, and therefore much more susceptible to mental contamination from it. I think I would actually prefer for you to absorb the fruit, and then for me to absorb the information from you. So work hard my child, and be careful. For both of us."

Eventually Marcus had handled everything that he felt was particularly pressing, and he was confident that none of the teachers had any nefarious plans, or were grossly incompetent. He invited Helvran into his office and told him he was ready.

"Now tell me what this is about," Marcus told Helvran.

"Very well. Do you remember that bone golem we fought when we went to rescue Livia?" Helvran asked him.

"Of course," Marcus nodded.

"The Raven Temple has been tracking the movements of the necromancer who made him. She is a woman without a known identity, and far more powerful than we first realized. If you recall, I knew immediately that she has to be at least a spirit-rank mage, due to her ability to make such powerful golems. However, it now appears she is not even just a spirit manifestation mage, but at least a unification mage."

"And your temple doesn't have anyone capable of dealing with someone like that," Marcus guessed.

"Yes. Normally we would ask one of the other powers for help in putting her down, but she moves a lot, and lately she has chosen a really troublesome location to base herself at. Troublesome and worrisome. Have you heard of Kerig Island?"

"Yes. It's a small island off the southern coast of Silver League," said Marcus.

"It has a mysterious ruin located on it, and little else. I visited the place once, before my exile, but found nothing. The ruins may be mysterious, but they are just ruins. Not even magical, as far as I could tell." Helvran gave him an unamused look.

"Kerig Island is forbidden to visit. No adept is allowed to go there."

"Yeah, I know. That's why I went there," Marcus said, nodding.

"Imagine my disappointment when I found nothing at all." Helvran loudly sighed.

"There is no use in lecturing you… and since you've already agreed to help me, I might as well tell you. The ruins on Kerig Island are the remains of a castle belonging to the Blood Moon Ancestor – an extremely powerful ancient necromancer that transformed himself and his followers into blood-drinking fiends. He and his followers were a constant threat for a very long time, but he eventually allied himself with the Abyssals and was… defeated."

"Just defeated?" Marcus asked.

"They couldn't slay him?"

"So it seems," Helvran said.

"Are you saying he is imprisoned on Kerig Island?" Marcus asked.

"Is that why the island is forbidden?"

"No, no… there would be guards there if he was, and much tighter security," Helvran said.

"As far as I know, the ruins on Kerig Island are as you said – just a ruined remnant devoid of any magic or treasure. The island is forbidden because the Blood moon Ancestor was such a terror that, even after reducing his headquarters to rubble and scouring it of any sign of magic, the victorious army were afraid of any lingering influence they might have missed.

They felt it was safer if the island was left permanently uninhabited and forbidden to visitors, and this resolution has been maintained all the way to modern times, even though most people don't remember the Blood Moon Ancestor anymore." It helped that sailors considered the island cursed. They claimed there were a lot of ghost sightings around the island, and no ship would agree to take people there. Marcus had had to fly in order to reach it. He wondered how this necromancer woman was able to disembark there.

"But despite all of this, this necromancer thinks there is something to be found there," Marcus guessed.

"Clearly," Helvran said.

"My superiors think she's just wasting her time. That there is nothing there but some ghosts, and that having her there is good because there are no living humans to prey upon on the island and they could potentially stop her from leaving by sinking the ship she stole to get there. But I am more paranoid. She went there for a reason. She's been there for months, excavating the ruins with her bone golems, never growing discouraged. She knows there is something important there, somehow.

I also think she's worried about you, specifically, because there are ghost animals watching the tower at all times, and I think that's her doing. I don't have a lot of proof for this, and I feel a bit crazy asking you to do this, but please help me confront her. I have little chance of even getting there on my own, and none to apprehend her with only my own strength."

"I will help," Marcus confirmed.

"To be honest, I kind of think you should have pushed for a response sooner. Aren't you afraid she has found what she's looking for by now?"

"No," Helvran said, shaking his head.

"Raven Temple might not be concerned much with her excavations, but they are monitoring her. She is digging all over the ruins. Whatever she is searching for, she doesn't know where it is yet. And besides, what I'm asking you to do is quite… bold. I felt it was best not to push my luck by being impatient."

"Better late than never," Marcus said, nodding.

"Let's go to Kerig Island."