Chương 5: Ten Minutes To Live (2)

A door slammed open on the far side of the compound. An old man with thinning white hair hurried out of the hall where the mage candidate had been taken. His long dark coat moved around his legs as he crossed the compound in a rush. Two younger men followed him. Is that Edras? He'd better be, or I'm about to get roasted alive for the fourth time in a row. Teren's breathing quickened as he looked around, searching the rooftops and the gaps between the wooden buildings.

The fire should be coming any moment now, but there was still no sign of it. Where the hell is the attacker? He kept searching, his heart thudding in his chest. Still no fire. By then, the old man had crossed most of the yard and was only a few paces away.

"Step away from the assay!" he shouted. The guards obeyed immediately. Teren backed away as well, though he kept searching the rooftops and the gaps between the buildings. The old man reached the device and looked down at the dark crystal without touching it. The fire should have reached them by now. But the seconds continued to pass, and no white flames swept across the yard. Some of the tension went out of his legs, leaving his knees unsteady. He had survived longer than ever before.

"Who caused the reaction?" the old man asked. The scarred yard-master pointed at Teren." He did, Master Edras." The way he said it made Teren sound responsible for the crystal, the purple light, and probably every other problem in the compound. One of the guards nodded quickly.

"Went dead after he touched it. He musta broken it!" Edras gave them both a sharp look.

"Enough." His pale gray eyes settled on the yard-master. They were far more alert than the rest of his tired face.

"How bright was it?" The scarred man hesitated. Another guard spoke first.

"Crystal's gone bad, Master. It glowed purple, then died. I say—" Edras turned his head slowly toward him. The guard's mouth shut.

"How bright?" Edras asked again.

"Very," the scarred man finally replied.

"Full crystal lit purple for a moment. It glowed like nothing I've ever seen before." Edras looked down at the dead crystal.

"No one repeats that outside this yard." The yard-master shifted his weight.

"Master?"

"You saw an exhausted mana crystal discharge unevenly and produce a false color before it burned out. Nothing more. Is that understood?" The men around the device exchanged glances. The scarred man nodded first.

"Understood." Edras looked at Teren for a moment, then turned back to the scarred yard-master.

"Remove his ankle chains. I need to examine him properly." The scarred man blinked.

"He belongs to the intake rolls."

"He is now under my authority."

"I'll need a signed transfer for that—one approved by the Captain."

"You will have it before sunset." The scarred man still looked reluctant. Edras's voice hardened.

"Or I can explain to Marshal Keld why you kept a mage candidate chained after I ordered him to be released." The key appeared quickly after that. The iron bands were removed from Teren's ankles. For the first time since he had awakened in this world, he could take a full step. He almost stumbled anyway. Edras caught his arm before he fell.

"Careful." Teren pulled his arm free more sharply than he intended. Edras looked at him but said nothing.

"Can you walk?"

"Yes."

"Then come with me." Edras led him away from the testing device and the nearby guards. The two other younger men who came with the mage were told to stay behind. Teren glanced back across the compound. There was still no fire. The guards were alive, the buildings were intact and the sky remained just as blue as always. I am still alive... He had to clench his fists to stop his hands from trembling.

Once they were far enough from the testing device that the guards could no longer hear them, Edras stopped walking and lowered his voice.

"What did you do to the assay?"

"I... held the handle?"

"That alone would not have produced that reaction." Teren looked down at his hand.

"I also felt something moving through my arm. I pushed it into the handle." Edras stopped walking.

"You deliberately forced your mana into an intake assay?" Teren frowned.

"My what?"

"Mana. The energy you felt moving through your body." So that was the word.

"Then I suppose I did." Edras stared at him for a moment.

"That explains why the crystal lit so brightly and why the assay shut down," Edras said.

"You forced enough mana into it for the pulse to reach me inside the examination room." Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. Teren glanced toward the wooden building ahead.

"You could feel it from there?"

"If the pulse is strong enough." Edras studied him more closely.

"And yours felt unlike ordinary mana." His eyes narrowed.

"That still does not explain why the crystal turned purple." Teren looked back toward the dead crystal in the testing device, or rather, the intake assay.

"Is purple bad?" The answer came after a longer than expected pause.

"It is... unusual." Teren didn't know what to say to that.

"Who taught you to move mana?" the mage asked.

"Uh... no one." Edras remained silent for a moment, observing him.

"We need to go somewhere. I have to make certain of something."

"Where?"

"My research compound." Teren pointed at the wooden hall ahead.

"In that building?"

"That is only an examination room for mage candidates. My research compound is in the outer palace grounds." Teren looked toward the palace hill beyond the roofs.

"Am I even allowed inside a palace?"

"We will not be entering the palace itself. We only need to go to the noble district located on the hill." Edras turned and led him back toward the guards. When they reached the testing device, he pointed at the wooden tag hanging from Teren's neck.

"Remove that. He is leaving under my authority." The scarred man pulled the cord over Teren's head and kept the tag for the transfer records. Edras pointed toward four guards.

"You, you, and the two by the holding yard. Bring a covered carriage. No open wagon. Two of you ride escort." The guards hurried away. While they waited, Edras crossed to the clerk's table and looked over Teren's entry in the ledger. Teren stared at the yard—the perfectly normal looking yard. The fire had not come. Too much time had passed for it to happen now. If the attack was going to come at the usual moment, the yard should already have been burning. Edras's arrival must have changed something.

Either the attacker had seen the old mage coming and chosen not to strike, or the stronger reaction had done something Teren did not understand yet. He looked around again. Anyone nearby could have been responsible—a guard, a clerk, someone on a roof or watchtower, or one of the figures moving along the top of the city wall. The massive wall formed the entire left side of the compound, its battlements rising high above the yard.

There were too many people moving along the top, and from this distance he could barely make out more than their shapes. Had the fire come from up there? Had the attacker somehow bent the path of the flames so they only appeared to be coming from the sides, while he stood safely up on that wall? Edras followed his gaze.

"What are you searching for?" Teren hesitated.

"I'm not sure." How could he explain that he had already died here three times? Even to an experienced mage, it would sound insane.

"I thought... something might happen after the crystal was lit." Edras watched him closely.

"What kind of thing?"

"I don't know. Heat. Fire. Anything."

"Why?" Teren looked away.

"Just a feeling." Edras studied him for a moment.

"You seemed remarkably certain for it to be just a feeling." Teren looked back at him. Edras's face gave away nothing. Before he could say more, the covered carriage arrived. It was smaller than the cage wagons, with reinforced wooden sides and narrow shuttered windows. Two horses were harnessed at the front. Edras walked around it once. He placed his fingertips against the rear door and made three quick movements with his other hand. Pale blue lines spread across the wood.

They ran over the wheels, beneath the carriage, and across the roof before fading from sight. Teren stared.

"It's a ward," Edras said.

"Are you expecting an attack?" Teren asked, thinking of the white fire that had killed him in every previous loop.

"I don't know yet. That purple glow was... unique," Edras said.

"I'm taking precautions just in case." He opened the door.

"Inside." Teren looked at the carriage, then at the compound. He had survived the fire this time. That did not mean he trusted the first enclosed box presented to him. Edras noticed his hesitation.

"Boy, I was an archmage long before you were born. If I intended to harm you, I would not need to lure you into a carriage." That was not especially comforting, but it was probably true. Teren climbed inside. Edras sat opposite him. Outside the carriage, two guards took the front bench beside the driver, while the other two rode alongside. The carriage began moving. Teren watched the military compound recede through the narrow rear window. No white fire followed.

Only when the compound wall disappeared behind a row of wooden buildings did he allow himself to breathe normally.

"Now," the mage said.

"Tell me exactly what you felt when you pushed your mana into the assay." Teren described the current as accurately as he could.

"It did not begin in my hand," he added.

"It felt deeper than that. Somewhere in the arm, perhaps. I'm not sure. When I pushed, more of it moved."

"And you had never sensed mana before today?"

"I didn't know it existed before today." Edras watched him closely.

"The intake ledger said you remembered nothing of your past. Is that true?" Teren could hardly tell him about Earth, and he truly remembered nothing of the life this body had lived before he woke up in it.

"Nothing useful."

"That is not what I asked." Teren looked through the carriage window. The cobblestone street outside was busy with handcarts, mounted guards, and people moving between rows of market stalls. Vendors called to passing customers while workers carried baskets and bundles through the steady traffic. Horses shared the road with those large iguana-like beasts, some ridden beneath saddles and others harnessed to wagons. None of it stirred even the faintest memory.

"No. I don't remember being taken captive or the journey to this city. I don't remember having this body either." Edras blinked, confusion crossing his tired face." This body?" Teren realized what he had just said. He could retreat from it. Or tell the truth and hope that an old man who claimed to be an archmage was more willing than most to believe impossible things. He chose neither.

"It somehow doesn't feel familiar. I don't know how to explain it." Edras continued watching him but did not press.

"What was that thing?" Teren asked.

"The testing device."

"A mana assay," Edras explained.

"The one in that compound is used to screen new arrivals—both slaves and free people." Teren nodded.

"Can everyone use magic then?" Edras shifted in his seat and settled more comfortably.

"Every living person—both human and of other races—carries mana. Most possess too little to use, or lack the sensitivity required to control it. The assay in the intake compound draws a tiny amount through the handle. Its internal lattice measures the mana, and the crystal displays the result."

"So... yellow means magic?"

"Yellow is just the usual color of the glow. A weak response means the assay detected a small but usable amount of mana. Enough to justify further testing."

"And purple?" Edras looked toward the shuttered window.

"Purple is... not a standard result."

"So the crystal was faulty after all."

"No, it wasn't. I set and tested that crystal myself this morning." Teren frowned.

"But it keeps stopping when I touch it." Edras's gaze snapped back to him." Keeps stopping?" Teren went still. He had said too much. Again. He needed to remember that, to everyone else, this was supposed to be the first time any of it had happened. Edras frowned.

"How many times have you used that assay?"

"Once." Teren looked away.

"The flow of mana kept cutting out while I was holding it. So I had to retry a few times. That's what I meant." Edras watched him for another moment, apparently deciding whether to believe him.

"The crystal shut down as a precaution because its measuring lattice overloaded," he said.

"The assay is designed to draw only a trace amount of mana through the handle. You forced far more into it than the lattice could process."

"Is that why it turned purple?"

"No. The amount explains why the assay stopped working. The color came from your mana." Edras studied him for a moment.

"I have my suspicions, but I need to test one very specific possibility before I say more. I have a device in my research compound built for that very purpose." Teren wasn't sure what to think about it. If the old mage had a device for testing this exact possibility, then the mage's suspicion was far more than just a guess. He would have to wait for an explanation though.

Teren shifted closer to the carriage window and gazed outside, finally having a chance to look properly at the city he had woken up in without worrying about a blaze of white fire coming from nowhere. The sight made him think of Earth, bringing a sudden ache with it. He missed his home, and everything familiar he had left behind—the streets, the buildings, his smartphone, all the modern gadgets, even the ordinary things he had barely noticed while he was still there.

But he knew of no way to return, or whether it was even possible to return. For now, Karthane is where I am. Might as well learn more about it.