Chapter 113: Chapter 113

Before I headed out, I sent a quick letter via the Pipe Missive to Professor Urhei. While I doubted whatever formalities were associated with the process of me using the academy’s Attribute Chamber would let me use it today, I at least wanted to get the ball rolling.

I remembered Kostis’s advice. First, I needed to properly concentrate and meditate on why I needed a new Attribute. I needed to make my body and my soul actualize the necessity of an Attribute that didn’t cover a side of me and my progression that everything else I already possessed did.

Then, more mechanically, I’d need to undergo the Trial. This Trial was what would probably occur in the Attribute Chamber at the academy. I needed to clarify that last bit.

So, for a couple of hours before heading out, I got some meditation in. I wasn’t sure it was working. From all I had heard, the practice was supposed to be about emptying the mind, all zen and peace and refusing to let the world inside one’s headspace.

Unfortunately, with all my rapidly whirling thoughts, I was the last person for that sort of exercise.

Good thing the typical meditations I was aware of wasn’t what was required. Now, I did need to think. I had to concentrate on why I needed Thauma, on how it could help me beyond what Spirit could do. On how, if I could advance and progress in all sorts of things, I could also probably improve my breakthroughs themselves.

“We’re really heading to Ring Two?” Atholaine asked with no small amount of wonder when we finally got going.

“Yes,” I said. “But after I take care of a few things. Come on, we’ve got a bit of a trip on our hands.”

As much as we took care to keep things smooth for the sake of the residents of Ring Four, we had absolutely no reason to do that for the rest of Zairgon. As such, I didn’t even bother telling the Scarthralls to make themselves any less of a Scarthrall in any way. Sure, all the red eyes and pointed teeth and clawed hands got us some looks, but who gave a shit.

I realized that unlike Ring Four, the rest of Zairgon hadn’t had many dealings with the Scarthralls. Most of their assumptions came from their expectations of Scarthralls being lesser versions of Scarseekers.

“Is… that the Mage Guild, Cultist Ross?” Vandre asked.

“No…” I said. How embarrassing. “This is the Rat-Catcher’s Guild.”

“Why is there a Rat-Catcher’s Guild?”

“Do we even have rats in Zairgon?” Lujean asked.

“You know,” I said. “I asked pretty much the exact same thing when I first saw them. But anyway, they’re not actually rat-catchers.”

“Rats!” the Ogre standing guard shouted, heading our way with slow, heavy steps. His posture and demeanour were obviously not welcoming, and I could sense the others tensing. As he drew closer, his eyes squinted. “Rats with very sharp teeth.”

“Watch it, Rat Catcher,” Lujean said, baring his fangs. “Unless you want us to bite your face off.”

“Ha.” The Ogre thrust out his forearm, like he was offering it to the Scarthralls. “Go on, make my day. I want to see your stupid little fangs crack like glass.”

The Scarthralls tensed further, growling. Despite the numbers mismatch, the Ogre wasn’t daunted one bit. I was considering how best to defuse the situation when our apparent adversary suddenly frowned at me.

“You,” he said. “You look familiar…”

“And you look ugly,” I said.

Before he could reply, too taken aback by my response to immediately answer, I was drawing back to the street.

I briefly caught the anger rising up on his face, but I was already leading the Scarthralls away. “Sorry, I went the wrong way. Mage Guild is this way.”

Bound by his duty to guard the Rat Catcher's Guild, the Ogre couldn’t exactly give chase. I thought I heard him cuss us out and dare us to come back, but we got going pretty quickly. The Scarthralls snickered at leaving him behind pissed at the encounter.

The Mage Guild appeared before long. Most of my companions drank it in like they were at a festival, seeing magical sights for the first time in their lives.

“Do you think I could join the Mage Guild?” Vandre asked.

“That’s actually a good question,” I said. “We can find out soon!”

The hawk-headed Plumefolk barred the way when we reached the gates. Despite seeing the Silver-ranked guild pin on my robes, his eyes were on the Scarthralls as he blocked the way forward.

“State your purpose,” he said.

“I’m here to get my friends tested to become official guild mages,” I said.

He raised a feathery eyebrow. “Only the ones who are actually trying to be a mage may enter. The rest have no business here.”

“We do have business here!” Lujean said. “Don’t you have any idea how valuable moral support is?”

I snorted but the Plumefolk wasn’t impressed one bit. Nor did he move out of our way. I sighed.

“Vandre, come with me,” I said. “The rest of you, please stay here. Try not to eat our Plumefolk friend while we’re gone, please.”

The guard sputtered in outrage, which got worse when Atholaine said, “No way, bird blood tastes like rancid sewage water.”

Ignoring the Plumefolk trying to tell us off, I went in with Vandre.

It was strange, but it almost felt like we were drawing more negative reactions than I was normally used to. Of course, I had dealt with them myself before. But now, with a Scarthrall trailing behind me, it felt like the reactions had magnified.

We also got a lot of looks inside the guildhall itself, but we faced no opposition on the way to the receptionist’s desk.

“Hello, Silhatsa,” I said. “I brought a friend with me to get tested as a potential mage. He’s got an interesting Aspect that I think will fit.”

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Silhatsa’s eyes were a little wide. She had recognized that I had brought a Scarthrall to the Mage Guild. Come to think of it, maybe I should have given prior warning to at least Silhatsa of all people just to smooth things over.

But at the same time, it felt more and more annoying at having to treat the Scarthralls like they were biohazards that needed hazmat suits. Even the fact that I had done so in Ring Four with how I was treating their living arrangements, even if temporarily, left a bad taste in my mouth.

Thankfully, the Scarthralls themselves were taking it on the chin pretty well.

I explained the situation to Silhatsa in short order. “We can follow the normal process, right?”

“Of—of course,” she said. “One moment, please. Let me call in Kliezeg to get the testing done. Meanwhile, maybe you can sign the paperwork while you wait, Vandre.”

“I can’t read,” Vandre said.

Even I was momentarily stumped by that. I supposed, now that I thought about it, most people on Ring Four technically didn’t need to read. A lot of them—like Vandre here—apparently didn’t even get basic schooling, despite the existence of a school.

“I’ll read it to him,” I said, accepting the paper with the rules and guidelines from a somewhat flustered Silhatsa. I also made a mental note to start teaching the Scarthralls basics about reading and writing.

We went over it and Vandre readily signed up. He was even excited for attending Mage Guild classes.

“Go with Kliezeg,” I said when the tester Ogre arrived. “He’ll take care of all the testing. Just, uh, don’t lie on the test.”

Vandre raised his eyebrows in amused disbelief. “Are you speaking from experience, Cultist Ross?”

As Kliezeg led him away with a “Come, Scarthrall”, I decided to quickly take care of my personal business here. I was lucky to find that Professor Urhei was indeed at the Mage Guild then, so I went up and found her office. Once there, I asked her for the recommendation letter and about the timeline for accessing the Attribute Chamber, which she replied would take a bit of time.

After settling on a date in the coming week, I headed back downstairs after thanking the professor. She also said to visit the academy and try to convince them from my side too. All efforts would help.

They would generally be disinclined to assist someone who wasn’t a part of the academy, especially someone from Ring Four like me. I’d have to sweeten the deal.

Back downstairs, I headed over to Silhatsa.

“Sorry if I startled you by bringing Vandre here,” I said. “You’ve heard of the innocent Scarthralls right? The ones who were forcibly turned by the Scarseeker?”

“I’m aware of them, yes,” she said. She had regained most of her usual equanimity, though there was an edge about her that made me feel prickly too. “I just wasn’t expecting one of them to pop up here of all places. I can only assume you intended to cause a stir.”

I frowned. “I didn’t intend to cause anything. They’re innocent people who are trying to make the best of the hand they were dealt. It’s not their fault they were victims of a terrible crime and now everyone’s treating them like they’re escaped convicts.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it that way. I only meant that you’re smart enough to realize how others would react before you brought Vandre to the Mage Guild.”

I reined in my anger because she was right. Of course I knew how people were going to react. But it looked like I wasn’t prepared for how people I liked and respected would react the same way as people I didn’t care for in the slightest. And admittedly, I wasn’t helping things by treating assholes we met along the way exactly how they deserved to be treated.

Satisfying as that was, it didn’t make the Scarthralls look appealing all of a sudden.

“I just… don’t want any real problems,” I said. “The long-lasting ones, I mean. And the only way to remedy that is by showing everyone that Scarthrall or not, Vandre and others like him aren’t so different from you or me.”

Silhatsa considered that for a while and then nodded. She made a visible effort to reorient her stance, trying for a smile. “I understand. I’ll take care of everything as soon as Kliezeg—well, speak of the sun and it shines.”

I turned, following the shift in her gaze. Kliezeg was indeed returning with Vandre grinning triumphantly.

The test was a success. Vandre had an Iron-ranked, mage-like Aspect.

Silhatsa took care of the rest of the paperwork, and soon enough, she was handing the eager Scarthrall his official badge.

He held it up with a gleam of appreciative wonder in his eyes. “So I’m really a proper mage now? This is… I never even dreamed I’d become a real mage…”

I smiled. A quick glance at Kliezeg and Silhatsa confirmed they were seeing it too. They were witnessing a simple example of exactly what I meant.

Vandre wasn’t faking it. His hope for himself was genuine. The source of thɪs content is novel·fire.net

“Hope you aren’t minding the little detours,” I said.

“Are you kidding?” Vandre asked. “One of the detours made me an official mage!” He got a thump on his back from Lujean, which made him clear his throat. “Ah, right. Thank you very much, Cultist Ross. This wouldn’t have been possible without you.”

I waved it off. Sure, I might be facilitating some things, but I was simply extending the help that had been done for me when I was starting out. Passing on things like that was what kept the world revolving, after all.

We talked a bit about the Mage Guild as we walked to the next destination. I explained to Vandre and the other curious new cultists about the trade workshop, the job board, the fields outside where one could train and spar, and so on. I even told them about the magic festival Silhatsa had mentioned, and also that the Guildmaster supposedly haunted the place in secret.

“Once the rest of you start manifesting mage-like Aspects,” I said. “We can get you all registered too. The benefits are pretty nice.”

“The benefits do sound nice,” Jalais said. “Sad I can’t say the same about the people…”

That was the elephant in the room we still needed to address. It didn’t take a lot of brainpower to recognize that whatever prejudices humans received in Zairgon paled in comparison to the near-vitriol that Scarthralls were facing.

Even now, as we were walking through the busier streets of Ring Three, we received looks that were never friendly. People of every kind made sure to stay out of our way.

I wondered if this was why the Scarseekers tended to sequester themselves in their Ring Two mansions and the like. Were they afraid of facing this exact kind of animosity from just about everyone?

Maybe. Maybe not. The events that had occurred thanks to Glonek no doubt worsened everything a tremendous deal. I once again wondered just how people got their news on Zairgon, because if journalistic integrity wasn’t much of a thing here, then people were much more susceptible to biased accounts, which could so easily be influenced and propagandized.

Of course, this wasn’t to say newspapers and the like couldn’t be tools of targeted disinformation too.

We arrived at the Artificer’s Guild next, thankfully without getting lost for once. The only reason I asked the Scarthralls to stay back for a bit was because I remembered just how cramped it was inside the small guildhall.

“Hey Linak,” I said as I entered, a little bell tinkling on top of the door. “How are you doing?”

Linak greeted me with a caw. I noticed there was someone else there in the Artificer’s Guild as well for once, and it was someone else I recognized.

“Good to see you, Mage Moreland,” said the young Rakshasa mage.

I nodded at him with a smile. “Likewise, Mage Privant.”

“Yes,” Linak said with a beaky smile. He ruffled his rust-coloured feathers as he approached. “It’s been a while, Mage Moreland. I presume you aren’t here to avail yourself of one of our artifices?”

Now that he was questioning me, I was legitimately curious about his guild’s operations. The Mage and Adventurer’s Guilds operated around jobs and commissions, with other added factors like the trade workshop at the Mage Guild. Was there really enough of an economy surrounding artifices for the Artificer’s Guild to operate the same way?

Well, I supposed I could look around at the state of their premises and come to my own conclusions on that front. Not that I mentioned any of that to Linak.

“Actually, now that you mention it, I might take a proper look at some of those artifices one of these days,” I said. “But what I really wanted to ask is if you’re free to come with me to the academy. I know you’re probably busy with your guild duties, but I thought I’d ask.”

“Oh?” Mage Privant looked at me with interest. “We haven’t posted a job at the Mage Guild in a little while. Curious what business you’ve got at the academy.”

I told them about my intention to use the Attribute Chamber to gain Thauma. “I was hoping I could start the official process today, because I understand formalities mean I won’t be able to use it today.”

Linak and Privant exchanged a quick, slightly troubled glance.

“I’m afraid the academy is unlikely to allow outsiders to use integral facilities like that, Mage Moreland,” Linak said. “And we unfortunately do not have anywhere near enough sway to convince the administration that you’re worth it.”

“I figured as much,” I said, my smile never wavering. “But what if the administration had something to gain by allowing me to use the Attribute Chamber?”

“Gain what, exactly?”

“Information, basically. I’ve recently discovered a very intriguing facet of the Weave. Did you know that it wasn’t even the original System in Ephemeroth?”

The way both Linak’s and Privant’s eyes went wide at that assured me that I had struck gold.