Ends of Magic - Book 3: Chapter 60: Hunting Shadows

Nathan checked the academy around him, watching to see how it responded to a death. Last time there’d been no immediate reaction to a death, but he hadn’t stuck around long enough to see if it just took a little while. After thirty seconds, there was nothing. The sense of wizardry attention just drifted away in the moments after the man died, like it had stopped paying attention.

That’s convenient. Makes me wonder if Giantsrest has full control over the Academy, or is just able to whitelist people.

He shrugged and walked over to the body, making sure that Rilrar was completely dead. There’d been a notification, but it paid to be sure about these things. Sure enough, the man’s skull had been crushed when he hit the ground. Nathan considered trying to take something from the corpse, such as the mage’s mark on the man’s finger.

He decided against it, setting off back towards the low-tier residences. Rilrar had been using a strange [Fly] spell, and it was possible his death might be interpreted as an accident. That wouldn’t be true if anything was missing from the body. Furthermore, a mage’s mark wouldn’t do anything for him, since the Academy didn’t rely on them to identify people. It just tracked them directly.

Nathan increased his speed to a run, leaving the hall behind in moments. He dodged a couple of golems on patrol and snuck back into his room, then collapsed on his bed. It took a little while to go to sleep, with him turning over how much more time he’d need before he understood wizardry well enough to actually start climbing the Academy. He was making progress, but he wasn’t sure if he’d figure out anything worthwhile before his cover got blown.

Keep going. It’s worth the attempt to learn.

—

The gossip the next morning was spicy, and had a different theory about how Rilrar had died. Nobody seemed to believe it had been an accident, though many of the ideas were even more outlandish than Roni’s Quazian ghost hypothesis. The brown-haired boy continued to defend that idea, arguing with Yelun about the topic.

As they were getting up and heading to class Nathan overheard somebody at a different table suggesting it could be assassins from Gemore. Luckily, that idea didn’t seem to be gaining much traction. But he did notice that people were moving in larger groups, each clique of students unwilling to get too far away from any others in case they ran into whatever danger was stalking the halls of the Ascendent Academy.

Nathan flexed his stealth skills to avoid Bran’s eye in the practical lesson, and pretended to struggle with force mana for the benefit of his suitemates. He handed his homework to the lecturer on the way out the door.

The pudgy man flipped through it right there and then, beady eyes glowering down at the correct answers. He paused on the force weave drawing, then snapped the sheaf closed. “Work on your drawing skills. The Insight is there, but it looks like a splintered spell.”

High-tier Noticeability 5 achieved!

Then the lecturer turned away in clear dismissal, letting Nathan and his suitemates escape the room and hustle to lunch.

Eban was waiting in ambush again, but they ducked in through the side entrance to avoid him. The surly white-robed student came in half an hour later, spotting them at the table. He looked over angrily but didn’t approach. Everybody let out a relieved sigh.

The lecture class in the afternoon started out strangely. The lecturer was still Brardan dho Shisk, the ruddy-faced man who could make the Insight behind a [Fireball] boring. But this time he entered the room with uncommon energy, standing behind the podium instead of sitting as he usually did.

“The Ascendant Academy has lost a hand of the Giant. Rilrar dho Magoad was a wonderful mage.” He paused to sniffle slightly. “I sponsored him to high-tier, and hoped he would grasp the title of lecturer. He was brilliant beyond words, and developed a novel [Fly] Insight that should have seen him raised to Archmage.”

The lecturer scanned around the room, a tangible sadness in his eyes. “But now that Insight is lost, for it was never shared. Mourn, all of you. A brilliant work of magic has been lost today, and know that proper weight is being given to the investigation of his death.”

’d give his value at about twelve levels. That was kind of a lot for a high-tier student. I wonder what that investigation is gonna look like. I didn’t leave a lot of clues.

Nathan blinked at the line of thought. He’d been totally justified in killing Rilrar, since the man had tried to mess with Nathan’s mind, and would have exposed him regardless. But it was a bad habit to start thinking of people as sources of levels. That was the kind of thing that could lead to Kia hunting him down later.

After the surprisingly emotional eulogy, the lecture resumed its normal monotony. Given his late-night antics, Nathan had to use [Perfected Body] to keep himself awake. This time Brardan assigned homework, flicking a finger and casting [Force Fingers] to distribute the papers to every student in the class.

That evening, Nathan noticed that his original robe had been mended and cleaned. It was the one that Faline had given him, which had been damaged when he busted into the Academy. More importantly, it had been stained with the enforcement mage’s blood when Nathan had put a fist through his face.

Nathan stepped out into the main living space, shooting a quick look at the old slave who was heating up a few snacks for them. He still didn’t know her name. She hadn’t paid him any special attention today, but after cleaning blood from the sleeve of his robe she had to suspect something. He resolved to keep an eye out and joined the other students as they bent over their homework.

That night, Nathan departed once again. He intended to make this a shorter trip, mostly to reduce the risk he killed somebody else. Two deaths in a row were suspicious and worth investigating, but three would definitely trigger a response.

I wonder if they know it’s an assassin, or specifically me. Badud might suspect, but he hasn’t done anything about it so far as I’ve seen except increasing the patrols. I need to be careful of those tonight.

Nathan’s next goal was to open the simplest non-residential door he could find, which led to the dining room where they had breakfast. It was a three-layer spell, and Nathan was pretty sure it would be a good next step. His real goal was learning to manipulate the wizardry without triggering the alarm. If he wasn’t worried about mages teleporting in, it would be a lot faster and easier to experiment with the magic and figure out more about wizardry.

My skills are helping a lot here. I’ve got [Antimagic Stealth] and [Wizard’s Intuition] that are making it a lot easier to mess with things without setting off alarms. But the real goal is to improve [Denial of Wizardry]. It’s letting me interact with the wizardry, and interfacing with Spell Redirection to let me actually manipulate it. But it’s more effective the better I understand the wizardry I’m targeting. Right now it’s like I’m trying to hotwire a car while wearing oven mitts.

He probed the lock carefully, slipping tendrils of antimagic into the structure and burning Focus to make sure he didn’t slip up and break anything unintentionally. Then he started gently poking it in various places and watching the response. He kept the impulses small, and every time a signal looked like it was building up too much he quashed the magic and waited for it to return to neutral.

After nearly an hour he was starting to feel comfortable with some of the individual modules and connections of the spell. It was analogous to measuring currents and voltage across different parts of a circuit to reconstruct what individual components did, though wizardry didn’t behave like electricity at all. Unfortunately his Focus was a limiter on the process. It regenerated even as he worked, but maintaining his aura’s shape and carefully monitoring the wizardry in the lock was a draining task. He had to pause occasionally to meditate and restore the resource, all while keeping on guard for patrols.

Nathan had just finished infiltrating his aura back into the lock when he heard the stomp of an approaching golem around the far corner. He had seconds before the construct rounded the corner and spotted him. He could hide from the magic of the Academy, but the golems had actual physical eyes that would spot him. Not only was he not on whatever whitelist Giantsrest had, there was a nighttime curfew throughout the Academy.

The problem was that his aura was still extended into the wall. If he ripped it out he’d mangle the door that led into the dining hall, setting off alarms and potentially busting the entrance in a way that screamed ‘an antimage was here.’ He looked around the bare corridor frantically before leaping into the air, teeth clenched as his aura fed out behind him. He got over the lip of the cornice and flattened himself to the vaulted ceiling fifty feet in the air.

He was half-exposed to the corridor below, but didn’t have the time to do anything else. His aura was still stuck into the wall far below, and the distance made it hard to maintain the complex shape. He slowly started disentangling his power from the wall, the task made difficult with distance. It was like lifting a heavy weight with outstretched arms.

Mid-tier Aura Manipulation 8 achieved!

The golem stomped down the hall below him, and Nathan yanked the last of his aura out of the wall and retracted it with a quiet sigh of relief. Then he turned his attention to the fifteen-foot tall statue below, using the opportunity to study it closely. It moved with greater fluidity than the Giantsrest golems he’d seen outside of the Academy, and wizardry was incorporated into its structure to make an artificial mana pool. The giant statue kept its gaze low, not looking up at any point.

He caught a faint thread of wizardry coming off the golem, stretching into the walls and connecting to the magic that flowed through the Academy. It wasn’t anything substantial, more of a data connection than anything capable of transmitting power. But it seemed to be the way that the golem stayed in touch with the greater magic of the academy.

Wizard Senses 8 achieved!

I wonder if I could snip that cord and then fight it. It’s obviously tougher than any golem I’ve fought before, and it would be good to know that I could take it. But there’s no need to take the risk right now.

Nathan sighed when the golem turned the corner, and moved to lower himself back to the ground. But before he did, he noticed something strange. The vaulted ceiling was painted with a colorful fresco, and the area he’d been pressed against had lost some of its vibrancy. There also seemed to be a slight indent where he’d been trying to push himself into the surface.

He stared at the spot for a moment, then retreated a few steps in midair and watched the bleached section. The color slowly started to return and the surface smoothed out, accompanied by a faintest tinge of wizardry. He poked a portion of the wall with a dense tendril of antimagic and saw the color drain away slowly. Now that he was paying attention, he could see the material of the school itself dissolving as he absorbed the local wizardry.

He dropped back to the ground and repeated the process with a column nearby. Nothing seemed to happen, so he made the aura more concentrated and kept at it for a few minutes until he saw a tiny divot form in the stone.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

I guess I understand the wizardry well enough to start dissolving portions of the school itself? That’s… promising. But it’s slow as hell. Not really practically useful. I need more practice, and more examples to test myself against.

He returned to the low-tier student quarters, musing over his discovery and what it meant for his plans inside the Academy. It might be the kind of thing he could use to Develop his antimagic Talent.

He went back to bed, imagining burrowing through the Academy like a mole to pop out in Badud’s bedroom.

—

The next day was calmer, with everybody relieved that there’d been no fresh violence during the night. Nathan went to class and learned a few Insights of Giantsrest magic, continuing to use his skills to avoid attention without any hiccups.

That luck ended during lunch. Eban strutted up to their table, followed by an entourage of other mid-tier students. They didn’t seem thrilled to be there, and several of them were shooting Eban disbelieving looks, as if surprised he was actually going through with this.

But the seventeen-year old mid-tier mage sneered down at the four people sitting at the table. “Hello, low-tiers. I’m here to demand a prophesied debt.” He locked gazes with Nathan, “This one laid hands on me, striking me with his hands!” His voice was raised, and more and more people turned towards the altercation to see what was going on.

Hibor spoke up before Nathan could respond, snorting at the older boy. “Yeah, and you deserved it. I should have stepped on your face after you fell. It could only have improved your looks. Your birth was a sharp joke on your parents.”

Several of the spectating students seemed surprised to hear that the claimed fight had actually occurred, but they tittered at the insult.

Gee, thanks Hibor. I think I could have deflected this before you spoke up. After all, it was my word against his that anything even happened.

Eban flushed with anger, sparing a look at Hibor but then returning his ire to Nathan. “I demand a test of magic, to demonstrate how a true mage of Giantsrest fights! We will stand in a dueling circle and cast spells at each other. No mundane blows allowed. May your mana flow clean.” He spit the last words, clearly meaning the opposite.

Yelun had grimaced at Hibor’s words, and she quickly spoke into the silence after the older boy’s challenge. “Natad is lower-tier, and you are the challenger. He doesn’t have to accept.” She shot Nathan a warning look. “Even if he accepts, he may set the time and place.”

Nathan watched the older boy, trying to figure out if he could refuse this duel without consequences. He couldn’t care less about these stupid power-plays. He just wanted all of this to go away so it wouldn’t endanger his disguise. But part of being a student of Giantsrest was dealing with duels and challenges. He also had the suspicion that Eban would keep making trouble, and that engaging in this duel would be the fastest way to shut him up. If he could pull through it, then it would firmly enmesh his identity as just another student, and one worth leaving alone.

“If you refuse, I’ll report your base violence to the lecturers.” Eban said threateningly. “And your lack of any spells aside from that [Dispel] foolishness. I’m sure Bran dho Jast will see your lack of any offensive spell as a prophecy of death.” He raised his eyebrows. “Unless you have an offensive spell after all?”

Then he shrugged. “You don’t have to touch me to win. Simply outlast my mana.” A small flame kindled in his hand, and he bounced it up and down with a cruel smile.

Oh no, a very small magical fire, whatever shall I do?

Nathan spoke for the first time. “If I win, you leave me, Hibor, Roni and Yelun alone. You don’t even talk to us, or else we take a finger.”

People seemed startled at Nathan’s terms, but he knew they were valid because he’d heard them used in a duel before. Eban seemed startled as well, but quickly recovered. “A future favor to be claimed at any time. Up to a month’s service.”

From the reactions of everybody around him that was a high but reasonable request, and they watched Nathan for his response.

He considered the terms and had to repress a snort. The terms of this duel were dependent on the social contract of Giantsrest, and that certainly wasn’t something he gave a damn about. So Nathan faced Eban fully. “Agreed. Tomorrow before lunch, in the front dueling ring.”

Then he turned back to his food, ignoring the mid-tier students around them as they departed in a a storm of gossip.

Eban seemed annoyed to be dismissed that way, and he turned away with a mutter. “You’ll find your doom tomorrow.”

Once they were alone again, Yelun leaned over and whispered urgently. “Why do you seek a prophecy of death? You could have set it for months from now! Or even after you became a mid-tier student yourself!”

Nathan shrugged. “It’s not a big deal. I can cast smaller versions of [Dispel], and my mana pool is pretty big. I know how strong he is now, and I don’t want to give him time to figure out how to beat me. I just want him to stop being a problem.” Then he looked around at the other people at the table. “This might also be a great time to work on [Spell Redirection]. Will you help me practice that later?”

Roni’s mouth was full, but it didn’t stop him from making an agreeable sound.

Hibor chuckled with a glee. “To grind Eban’s hands into the dirt? Definitely.”

—

Nathan’s attention was caught by the afternoon lecture, where the red-faced lecturer began talking about mental techniques that could be used to help channel mana precisely, and better understand spells. Some of them sounded something like his [Wizard’s Intuition], but less powerful.

That’s not a surprise. I’ve Developed that skill several times.

That evening his suitemates helped him practice [Spell Redirection], which was actually Nathan using his aura to redirect various spells back towards predetermined targets. He was both practicing that skill, and how to disguise it as a spellcast in front of a smaller and friendlier audience then he’d have tomorrow.

Yelun had put up a few [Force Block] spells that served as targets, and he practiced redirecting [Fire Bolts] and [Force Blades] that were targeted at him. It was tricky at close range because he had so little time to react, and he couldn’t manage to aim the [Force Blades] very well, but the [Fire Bolts] moved slower and were easy.

The practice didn’t provide any rank-ups, but it did impress his suitemates and make Nathan confident he could play off his antimagic in the duel.

Excellent. That should defuse this whole bully situation enough for me to focus on the whole assassination thing.

—

After a few hours of sleep, Nathan woke up and left to roam the halls of the Academy once more. He’d played games using [Perfected Body] to allow him to go without sleep before, but this time he was looking for something sustainable. He wasn’t planning a few sleepless nights, but instead potentially weeks of effort with only a few hours of sleep a night while he needed to maintain his disguise as a hapless student of Giantsrest. It was a work in progress.

If I fully dedicate myself to it, I might be able to come up with an Insight and Develop [Perfected Body] to eliminate the need for sleep. But I’d much rather chase the Insight that lets me use Focus to regenerate even if I get knocked out in one hit. The problem is that I think the only way to implement that Development is to use the Insight to come back from an otherwise fatal blow. Which means I need to keep the Insight in mind during every fight with a handy supply of Focus ready, just in case. Given that I haven’t taken a deadly blow yet, it might take a while.

Nathan sighed and turned his attention back to the question at hand. He had considered just finding an unobtrusive corner and trying to refine the ability to dissolve the structure of the Academy. But what he needed was to understand the wizardry, and he’d made strides in working on the obvious locks of commonly used doors. It seemed to be helping with sensing the background wizardry that permeated the walls as well. It was all part of the cohesive whole of the Academy.

So he went back to the dining hall entrance and sunk his antimagic into the familiar wizardry of its lock. This time he was going to open the damn door, and get access to the mana within to recharge his Stamina without anybody watching. He’d walked through this door daily when accompanied by his suitemates, so he knew what the proper activation protocol looked like. Now he just needed to reproduce it.

The trick was figuring out which parts of the signal were important, and which ones weren’t – he couldn’t perfectly reproduce what happened inside the lock with his antimagic. But with trial and error and his understanding of what each component did, he was getting close to triggering the opening sequence.

Nathan was careful to listen out for any approaching golems. There’d been a few, but they were easy to avoid if he heard them with enough warning. It was annoying to keep getting chased away from his working area, but he didn’t want to fight one of the giant constructs if he didn’t have to.

After nearly an hour of effort he succeeded, though it wasn’t as simple as giving the lock the right tap to open. He had to use his aura to carefully massage the wizardry in a series of inputs that would result in the proper signal. It was a bit of a surprise when the door suddenly flexed open in front of him.

Wizard’s Intuition 9 achieved!

More of a shock was the blue-robed mage sitting thirty feet away on the other side of the door, casually munching on a late-night snack. Standing behind the man was one of the giant golems of the Academy, the enforcement mage’s escort.

Both golem and mage turned to look at Nathan when the door opened.

Well, shit. This won’t be quiet.

Status of Nathan Lark:

Permanent Talent 1: Aura of Antimagic 9

Permanent Talent 2: Perfected Body 10

Permanent Talent 3: Airwalking 5

Class: Void of Magic level316

Deepened Stamina: 6822/9750

Void of Feeling

Antimagic Momentum

Raging Thrill

Implacable Inertia

Unarmored Resilience

Magic Anathema

Airborne Agility

Hand-to-hand Expertise

Voluminous Aura

Denial of Wizardry

Mana Severance

Class: Magekiller level 159

Regenerative Focus: 1523/1690

Catastrophic Blows

Battle Stealth

Mage Infiltration

Forgettable

Unsuspecting Strike

Antimagic Stealth

Spell Redirection

Lethal Index

Utility skills:

Battle Meditation 10

Inspiration 1

Acceleration 4

Wizard Senses 8

Alertness 6

Wizard’s Intuition 9

Effortless Dodge 2

Mental Fortress 9

Tutoring 2

High-tier Tumbling 10

High-tier Noticeability 5

Mid-tier Disguise 6

Mid-tier Battle Cry 7

Mid-tier Aura Manipulation 8