190 — Book 4, Chapter 34 — The Grand Design, Pt 4

When Leo opened his eyes again, they were filled with lightning.

Not true lightning, of course. His secondary mana aspect was not the aspect of a storm, for all that he'd used it to form the blazing core of his new power. But that mana remembered. It remembered being a thing of torrential power, of gathered clouds and pouring energy. And contained within Leo, who knew of storms as thunder and lightning, it could express that remnant memory in one way only.

Electricity seemed to dance in his eyes, bright at first, then slowly dimming as Leo brought this new power under the dominion of his soul. Even then, it was violent, as all storms were. This new magic was surging, aching with the need to act, and it was only his own force of will and the labyrinthine twists of his original core that kept it suppressed.

"Leo?" Damien's voice was awed, though there was an underlying current of tension within it. It took Leo a moment before he realized that was because Eli and Mia had arrived, presumably while he'd been in the process of absorbing the power of the storm.

Just like Leo, Eli had magic pouring from his soul, though his power came as dense waves of heat that warped the air around him. It was intense enough that Leo could feel that heat from where he stood, though he was protected from the worst of it by the excess magic still radiating from within him.

"I'm back," Leo said. He took a deep breath, then found himself surprised by how crisp the air felt as it moved into his lungs. It smelled nothing like the musty depths of the labyrinth, though that was certainly where they were. "I hope I didn't take too long."

"Nah," Flia answered. She didn't take her eyes off Eli, though. "I'm pretty sure you broke all kinds of records there, and your parents only just got here, so you're right on time."

Leo raised an eyebrow. That wasn't strictly true, judging by the scorchmarks in the stone around his friends, but the fact that smoke still rose from the ground suggested they'd only had time to exchange a single set of spells before he emerged from his trance. Close enough, he supposed.

Yet despite all the energy radiating from Eli, there was an almost comical look of surprise and confusion on his face, and the state of his mana suggested that he'd stopped his spell mid-cast. His senses had no doubt alerted him to the new state of Leo's soul.

"You got a second core," Eli said slowly, like he was struggling to understand what he was sensing. A note of desperate hope slipped into his voice, entirely dissonant with the rage he'd been displaying. "What... what mana aspect is that?"

"Now you want to talk?" Leo snorted. "A little late for that, dad. I don't see any need to tell you."

"But—" Eli glanced at Mia, as if waiting for her to back him up, and something helpless flashed through his face for a fraction of a second when she stared blankly back. He'd forgotten, it seemed, what that Red Relic had done to his wife. "But if you have a second core, you might not be a wild mage anymore—depending on what aspect it is, of course. Even if it's a wild aspect, you have a second core. Do you have any idea how rare that is? The Grand Magus would accept us into Orstrahl's court with open arms just to get a look at you."

He hesitated. "I mean, we'd still have to capture your friends, of course," he said, shrugging helplessly. "But if you're one of us, we could make sure they're treated well. They're wild mages, son, you don't understand what they can do—"

Eli's words died on his lips, and he took a startled step backward, as if he'd been struck. Leo had been so distracted by what he was saying that it took him a solid few seconds to realize why.

He'd been careful to keep his expression controlled. It was placid and calm, because Leo saw no reason to let his father know that he was getting to him. But he was not yet used to the mass of power that now boiled within him, nor was he used to the way the two cores intermingled.

His control over his labyrinth mana had been perfect. They had an understanding with one another. But the core built from the distortion storm—the new core that had formed at palewater, and was thus full of his own untamed intent—it had surged at those words. It had reacted to his fury.

A tendril of it had snapped out from him, torn through Eli's blazing aura of heat, and wrapped around his throat to silence him.

"Oops," Leo said, though he didn't feel very sorry at all.

A new mana core would normally have done nothing to help them defeat a wyldfire mage, artificial or otherwise. Eli had a monstrous amount of mana to throw at them, and he could overwhelm any anti-fire defenses they managed by sheer virtue of the hierarchy that existed between them. His fire could burn even the Abyssal waters that Flia could summon.

But Leo had chosen his new mana aspect with care. The hierarchy of power was absolute, but it applied only to spells meant to counter or negate one another. Some magics did not interact with one another at all, which meant they could bypass one another entirely. And though knowledge of such interactions were rare, kept secret due to the danger that might result...

Well, Cale told stories, and Leo paid attention.

He was a very good student, after all.

Eli Ellistimus was a lot of things.

He was the first archmage in two generations from the Clovenhoof village, for one thing. He didn't like to brag about it, as he was a humble sort of man, but he'd been born with a great deal of talent with magic. His talent was such that he considered it his duty to pass on his magical skill, to show all the other minotaurs of his village what they could be, if they only tried. There was no need for their reputation as warriors and brutes—they could stand amongst the greatest of mages, as long as they listened to his instruction.

Alas, not everyone in his village agreed with him. In fact, many seemed uninterested, no matter how fantastical his displays of power. Not even ending the monsters that threatened their home had bought him much more than a few impressed nods and respectful handshakes. Magic was useful, but for many of them it was not necessary, and to his disgust, they seemed more impressed with his sister's flower conjurations and fertilization spells than they did his displays of explosive power.

It was only the threat of wild magic that seemed to spur them toward him. Stories of what wild mages could do filtered into their little village—stories of the storms they brought and the monsters they summoned—and for once, the people gravitated toward him, asking for his protection. It made his chest swell with pride. Finally, he thought, he was respected for his power; finally, they would listen to him when he spoke of how they needed to be a power in their own right, one that would be recognized by even the kingdoms of Utelia.

And so Eli Ellistimus was also the leader and chief of their village, selected to lead and protect them. Yet even with that position, he had struggled to find truly worthy mages amongst his brethren, and so he had taken it upon himself to pass down his power another way.

It was why he'd married Mia. There were plenty of women (and more than a few men) who had been interested in him, but only Mia had met his rigorous standards for magical talent. If he was to bear children, he wanted to be certain they held the same talent for magic as he did. Through this he could show the village that he was earning his place as their leader.

Mia was from a different region of Illwyld, but she was thankfully like-minded in that regard. They had fallen for one another quickly, and in no time at all, she bore his first son: Leo.

Leo had been promising at first. His mana channels were plentiful, and his mana core was sizable. His ability to sense and manipulate mana was—average, at best. He didn't seem to have inherited all the talent from his parents. But those were attributes he could train and work on, and Eli had remained hopeful until...

Well. Until that damnable natural affinity for labyrinth mana.

His own son, a wild mage. That was unacceptable. He'd built his entire platform on protecting Clovenhoof from the threat of wild magic. What would the village think if they knew? He would be the laughingstock of town, or worse! They celebrated Eli for the power he held, for his ability to uphold the traditional form of magic. He was dangerous, yes, but only to his enemies.

A wild mage like Leo could be dangerous to anyone around them, at any given time. Or that was the line that had been fed to them, anyway, and it was a line of thinking Eli himself had encouraged.

He knew, of course, that by the rules of magic Leo would not be able to do anything to him or his wife. They were both darkwood mages, and by default it meant their magic superseded anything he could do. Even if he accidentally cast a spell, even if he turned a small part of the village into a labyrinth, they could contain it. It would take a disaster on the scale of the Aspect Cascade to create something truly uncontrollable, and with two archmages living in the same home, the likelihood of that was essentially zero.

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But it rankled at him. It undermined everything he had been saying, and besides, the idea of his own son being a freak of a mage that couldn't cast basic spells like [Fireball] ate at his pride. What sort of mage couldn't cast a [Fireball]?

It barely mattered that Leo would be a labyrinth mage. Yes, labyrinth magic was especially dangerous to their kind, but it wasn't the danger of the magic that concerned him. All good mages were dangerous. It was the fact that Leo would stain his legacy.

Eli had imagined a bloodline of archmages that would all be recognized by the Orstrahl kingdom, enough that they would be offered a noble title and a place within the court. Leo had ruined those dreams by being a labyrinth mage. Even if they had a second child, the fact that the first had been a wild mage would forever be a stain on his legacy.

So after an ill-advised attempt to... erase the records, so to speak. Eli had simply sent him away. The hope was that he would gain enough control over his magic to learn how to stand at the top of Orstrahl's mages anyway. If Leo had even a fraction of his talent, then it would certainly be achievable, and Eli could overlook the stain on his legacy so long as Leo never used or revealed what his aspect actually was.

His hopes had died over the years. Brightscale reported essentially no progress with his magic. The labyrinth aspect made attunement almost impossible, and the idea of fighting with it was basically laughable. All the standard combat spells were unavailable to him. What would Leo do in a dungeon? Throw a maze at the monsters?

So when he'd been called at last to return to Brightscale and had met his son only to find him cavorting with other wild mages... well, he'd been rightfully furious. To think Leo would throw away his legacy like that. He had given him life, and the little shit acted like he was at fault?

The only good thing about this was that the Grand Magus had had the foresight to prepare him for this. He'd taken Eli to the side, whispered to him that he knew he was conflicted about his son. Told him that if he could take care of him, he'd erase the records, help him and Mia get into the court.

Eli wasn't so heartless as to not give his son a chance to redeem himself, but, well, Leo had thrown that chance back in his face. As far as he was concerned, Leo had chosen this fate for himself.

And then Leo had tricked him. Twice. First into activating the Academy's wards, and then when he'd used the Grand Magus's gift to free himself, he'd somehow exploited the properties of a spell he didn't even know how to cast. What kind of mage studied magic they couldn't even use?!

And now—now there was this. Leo had found a way to give himself a second core. Which was unheard of, first of all, and Eli longed more than anything to know how he'd done it. The things he would be able to do if he acquired a second mana core. The king would practically beg him to join the court! Better yet, he could sense that the second core wasn't nearly as "sticky" as Leo's labyrinth mana.

He'd done it. His son had cured himself! Now all he had to do was get rid of his stupid little friends and come back home.

Eli didn't understand what was wrong with what he'd said. He didn't understand the raw fury he'd felt erupting from his son at those simple words, aimed at welcoming Leo back home. Didn't his son understand he was doing him a favor? Leo was clearly a genius that had inherited his talent; if he brought him back to Orstrahl, he could show exactly how great a mage he was and what his bloodline could do.

A second core. And what was more, the mana aspect he held... Eli wasn't sure what it was. There was something strangely familiar about it, but somehow Leo's soul—or perhaps his other core, the labyrinth one—warped and strengthened the aspect into something unrecognizable.

Whatever it was, though, it was powerful enough that Eli almost didn't care if it was wild magic. It was better if it wasn't, but he could find a way to spin the story. Perhaps he'd sell his son as the first wild mage to truly tame his magic. If he told it right, it would almost certainly be received well, and he would be applauded for all he'd done to help his son control his magic.

So lost was he in this fantasy of what would happen that Eli was stunned when it struck straight through his [Manaburn Barrier] and silenced him.

He stared at Leo, trying and failing to force words out from his throat. What was he doing? Did Leo not understand how much of a miracle this was? How grateful he ought to be?

And yet his magic... even if it hadn't silenced him, Eli might have stopped talking for the sheer force of the fury that seemed to rage within that mana. It made something within him turn unpleasant and cold, and it took him a moment to realize that the feeling had compelled him to take a step back.

It took him a moment more to realize that he was afraid. Something about Leo's expression unsettled him. It was foolish—there was no reason he had to fear his own son, especially since even the new core was only a palewater core—but nevertheless it was there, an unsettling sensation in his gut.

The silencing spell wore off, and Eli took the opportunity to speak.

"You're being ridiculous," he said, trying to reason with his son. He needed this to end sooner rather than later so he could cut the link with the relic and stop it from feeding any further on his wife. "There's no reason to fight. Look, if you really want your friends to be safe, I'll come up with some sort of story for the Grand Magus. He only really needs that girl over there, anyway."

"You don't get it, do you?" Leo asked, and Eli frowned at him. What was he talking about? There was nothing he didn't get. "I don't want you taking any wild mage, from here or anywhere else. The label is ridiculous in the first place."

"Obviously," Eli said, and he shook his head when Leo stiffened. "What, you think I just listen to whatever the Red Commander or the Grand Magus says? I'm not an idiot. Wild magic can be controlled, it's just a waste of time to do so. The fear is convenient, that's all. When people are afraid of wild mages, they realize just how important the real mages are."

Leo stared at him, and something twisted in his lips—disgust, Eli recognized, though he couldn't for the life of him recognize why. "That was your reason for working with the Red Hunters? Is this why you're jealous of Aunt Lis?"

"I am not jealous of your aunt," Eli snapped. "Her magic is ridiculous. The whole village worshipped her for conjuring pretty flowers and fertilizing the crops, and they barely spared a glance for the archmage in their midst. Use your head! Is that how things should be?"

Leo exchanged looks with his friends, for some reason, then slowly shook his head. "The most powerful mage I know would give anything to be able to do just that," he said, his voice oddly soft. "You don't get magic at all, do you?"

"What are you talking about?" Eli was getting sick of this. He started preparing a spell—something that would burn through all their magic so he could capture them. It was ritual magic, so it would take time, but it wasn't like Leo or his friends could do anything to stop him. "I am the greatest archmage in Clovenhoof."

"Would you like to know something interesting?" Leo said, and Eli was about to shoot back that he did not, but Leo's magic snapped out through his barrier and froze his words in his throat again. How was he doing that? It should have been impossible! His magic burned anything that tried to cross his barrier, and at wyldfire, nothing could punch through it.

"It's about the intersection of labyrinth magic and library magic," his son continued. "They're kind of similar, you know? A big enough library is kind of like a labyrinth, full of twisting shelves and all kinds of books. But they're not the same thing, not really."

What was Leo talking about? This was all obvious. A child would know this. Eli focused on his spell, deciding to ignore this strange habit his son had developed.

A part of him, however, could not help but listen.

"The thing is, there's a place out there in the Great Realms where a labyrinth and a library are the same," Leo continued, stepping forward. "Cale calls it the Akashic Realm, though it has a few other names. The Unseen Library. The Record of the Lost. If you merge library magic and labyrinth magic in just the right way, you can gain access to it, and, well, here's the thing.

"Normally, library magic is vulnerable to fire magic. Someone tried to burn the whole Akashic Realm down once, during something called the Planar War. A meeting between the Monoliths was called, and they decided they couldn't allow such a thing to happen again, so they made a provision in the Source.

"Akashic magic does not interact with fire magic. One does not touch the other. Akashic mages don't really exist, but if they did, they'd be completely vulnerable to fire magic—kind of ironic, really—because the fire would just pass through their barriers. But the same is true in reverse, of course. An akashic mage could bypass fire magic without ever interacting with the Hierarchy."

Eli frowned. Was that how Leo kept bypassing his barrier? Why would he tell him such a thing? Now that he knew, he could simply attune to a different aspect—

—but he found that he couldn't. His mana had frozen within him, suddenly heavy and strangely loose; beside him, his wife collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath.

"That spell is called [Akashic Cage]," Leo supplied, his voice oddly distant, though he had crouched down in front of him. It was just that Eli could barely hear it over the roaring in his ears, over the confusion that muddied his mind. The relic—where was the relic? He could no longer feel the raging wyldfire within him. "I had to call in a favor to learn it, but apparently Asterion is feeling generous.

"Sadly, it has some limitations. Any kind of foreign magic interferes with it, so it would only ever work on someone whose defenses are down already or on someone who only uses fire magic. But if someone does rely exclusively on fire magic and I catch them in the spell, I get to redefine a few details about them and their magic.

"I can, for example, set you back to plainroot and change your natural attunement to empathic mana." Leo stood back up and stepped away to join his friends. "Don't worry, though. It's only going to last for as long as you're in that cage. I'm sure Akkau will find you by then, and then you'll be his problem.

"But do me a favor, dad." He turned just enough for Eli to catch the anger in his eyes, and that anger seemed to light his mana on fire; he could feel it all around him, could feel the pain and anguish and all the scars that had stoked that flame. "Never speak to me again."

Eli tried to call him back, but once more, the words caught in his throat, and he was forced to do no more than watch as his ticket to power walked away from him.

As his son walked away from him.

Only then did he understand what he'd done.