Zenith of Sorcery
Chapter 24: Special Exception

The observatory was a large building, tall and narrow like a tower, with a large dome at the top. Marcus had spotted it when entering the city, but had not recognized its purpose. Tasloa had observatories too, but Marcus had never seen one this big or grand. Then again, he had never been terribly interested in astronomy, so maybe he was just ignorant.

Once Darayaush led him inside, he found the observatory to be a hive of activity, with a small legion of workers and visitors wandering its halls. It was evening, but then again, it made sense that an observatory would get increasingly more active as night approached. Many complicated metal devices lined the walls, ticking and whirling and producing strange sounds. It reminded Marcus of the portal room Celer had explored during their first contact with this world, and was just as mystifying now as it was then. In some places, shelves full of books and stacks of paper could be seen. On Tasloa, records often included things like scrolls and stone tablets, in addition to books, but it didn’t appear like these things were in use on Sixth Manifold.

The building was clearly prosperous and well maintained, and had no shortage of staff and funding. It was probably one of the more important buildings in Behis.

Darayaush eventually led him to a large room at the top of the observatory. It was occupied, but Darayaush dismissed the workers inside and sent them away so he and Marcus could talk in private. He started pressing a bunch of buttons on a nearby wall.

The room was initially quite dark, and got even darker when Darayaush started adjusting things. Marcus wasn’t concerned, as he could see fine, even under such conditions. The reason for the darkness became obvious when a field of stars suddenly materialized in the center of the room. Thousands upon thousands of motes of light hung suspended in the air, slowly rotating. A complex illusion of light representing the material plane. A map of the cosmos, or at least the patch of it that the Sixth Manifold knew of.

Marcus walked around and through the field of stars, mesmerized by the sight. The illusion was resilient – though the stars dissolved when he walked through them, they quickly reformed back in his wake.

Darayaush watched him for a while, and then showed him how to manipulate the map to get more information. By pointing at the star in a particular way, he could bring out a magnified image of the planets around the star, as well as a whole lot of text. The text, of course, was useless to him, but there was a lot of it for most places he tried it on. That, in itself, was significant.

Darayaush could also change the map to display other information, such as adding various colors and strange symbols to the star map. He cycled though a few of this in search of something, before eventually causing the map to show thin filaments of light between the stars, forming something of a chaotic spider web between them.

“I thought the observatory would be looking at the stars through a telescope of some sort,” Marcus said, looking at this new map curiously.

“It does that as well,” Darayaush said. “But we also know quite a bit about the universe from the other worlds that visited us in the past. Naturally, we incorporated all of this knowledge into things we see in our night sky. You’ve probably guessed it, but the threads represent the connections between worlds. Well, connections as they existed during our Golden Age.”

“So this information is a thousand years out of date,” Marcus surmised.

“Yes, and also probably inaccurate in some places,” Darayaush admitted. “The original version of this map, the one made before the Sky Battle and the Severing, was lost. This is a recreation. My predecessors and I went through a lot of trouble to gather every account and salvaged archive we could, and made this from fragmented records and scraps of knowledge. It should be largely true, but admittedly some parts of this are… educated guesses.”

Though Marcus could not understand descriptions embedded inside the star map, it was easy enough to locate Sixth Manifold, at least. There was one particular star, roughly at the center of the map, that had far more connections than any other. Hundreds of threads emanated from it, reaching out to every nearby star, as well as many distant ones. It also looked bigger than the rest, probably to make it more discernible and easier to find at the glance.

Curiously, not all of the stars that made up the map were connected directly to Sixth Manifold, suggesting that this planet was once part of a wider network that reached far beyond this region. An important, well-connected part, but still. This was bigger than Marcus suspected.

“So why was it important to bring me here?” Marcus asked. “Don’t get me wrong, the map is fascinating, and I’m glad to have seen it. But what does this have to do with a sapient planet?”

Darayaush tapped at the central star, the one that Marcus had identified as Sixth Manifold, and it immediately expanded into a large rotating image of a planet.

It was the first time Marcus had seen how this world looked on a larger scale. It was surprisingly… normal? A large world-spanning ocean with several continents. It had less water than Tasloa, and looked a bit browner, but it otherwise looked like a fairly mundane planet.

Marcus had expected Sixth Manifold to have a giant face on its surface or something, considering it could apparently think and decide things for itself.

“Here, here, here, and here,” Darayaush said, pointing at green and brown patches in the middle of various landmasses. “See these huge dark green areas? These are patches of dense wilderness. As strange as it may sound, these vast areas are completely uninhabited.”

“Is that really so unusual?” Marcus asked curiously. “The entire interior of my home continent is covered in dense forest, also uninhabited. Barring a few isolated areas, only the coastlines are populated. Compared to that, these areas you pointed out don’t seem that big.”

Darayaush seemed to be at a loss of words for a second.

“Apparently your world is also unusual in many ways, brother Marcus,” Darayaush eventually said. “That said, the reason why Sixth Manifold has these large stretches of uninhabited forest is because every living being there is… how should I put this… a part of a distributed organism.”

Marcus frowned.

“It’s hard to explain, but every animal, every tree, and every plant in these regions is connected into a single unified entity that spans the entire planet,” Darayaush said. “Some say that she is our planet. That our planet has a living core and a soul, and that these strange forests are simply the tip of the iceberg – mere agents of her will. Whatever the case, she has been here with us since time immemorial, a primordial force as ancient as the reign of Lord Wisdom. She rarely deigns to speak to us, but we know she’s there and watching.”

Darayaush waved his hand, and the planet changed colors, becoming mostly black, but keeping the outlines of the continents. A dense web of glowing blue blotches and threads was suddenly spread across the entire planet, densest in the four areas Darayaush pointed out earlier, but having nodes all over the planet.

Including in the middle of the seas and oceans.

“I think I understand,” Marcus said.

Darayaush hummed indecipherably. “The planet rarely acts overtly, but she is a being of terrifying power. We don’t know why opening rifts to other worlds became impossible after the Sky Battle, but she is the most obvious culprit. The other popular theory is that one of the belligerents that fought in our skies laid down some form of suppressing field over us that has yet to dissipate. “

“And this planet-mind doesn’t answer your questions?” Marcus asked.

“Well, some people claim she already has,” Darayaush admitted. “But they disagree greatly in regards to what she supposedly said. In my opinion, these messages are all products of charlatans and delirious minds. If the planet wanted to make her will known to us, she would not contact beggars and carpenters at random to be her messengers. In any case, you cannot truly ask her questions. Rather, it is the will of the planet that comes to you whenever she feels like it, and she’s more fond of asking questions than answering them.”

“But then how does this explain my arrival here, or for that matter the initial rift that someone from here opened?” Marcus said.

“That’s for you to answer, Brother Marcus. You are the active world walker between the two of us, no?” Darayaush said. “Can you think of something that would explain this? I was hoping the star map might provide some inspiration.”

Marcus stared at the star map in front of him for a moment, lost in thought.

Opening a rift always required a start and an end point, and the two could never be on the same planet. People on Tasloa had tried to use the spell as a way to evade issues with teleportation magic, but it never worked – this restriction was absolute. Trying to turn the dimensional tunnel back upon its destination immediately unraveled the spell before it could take shape. There were other dimensional spells that allowed for transit on the same planet, including some that opened static portals that were superficially similar to rifts. They didn’t work on Tasloa, but Marcus knew they were possible on other worlds. However, the rift opening spell in particular required the two ends of the rift to be on two different worlds.

Although he wasn’t certain, Marcus suspected this had something to do with the fundamental way the spell worked. It seemed to require two anchor points in order to form the backbone for the dimensional bridge… and every planet seemed to have only one. When a person tried to make a rift to another location on the same planet, the spell tried to form a bridge that ended exactly where it began, and the whole thing immediately folded upon itself and collapsed.

Although Marcus had arrived to Sixth Manifold with the aid of a dimensional beacon, he was not immune to this requirement. In order to create a rift, he needed two anchor points: one for the world he was currently on, and one for the world he wanted to reach. His stone cylinder greatly eased this process and allowed him to reliably pick a specific spot on the planet’s surface to arrive at, but ultimately he still had to connect to the Sixth Manifold’s anchor point in order to create the rift that brought them here.

If there was some force or entity blocking or obscuring Sixth Manifold’s anchor point, then it would be trivial to ward off attempts by other worlds to connect to it… and obviously no native of the planet could connect to other worlds without first being able to connect to their own planet’s anchor point in the process.

However, Marcus didn’t feel any such block. Connecting to Sixth Manifold had been difficult, but he felt that had everything to do with the dead giant and the strange space they were in, rather than any inherent difficulty in connecting to this world. He certainly didn’t feel any issues with trying to connect back to Tasloa earlier when Darayaush asked him to make the attempt.

Based on what Darayaush said earlier, the natives of this world had no issues with sensing their planet’s anchor point. It was when they tried to connect to the other planets that they failed. Marcus, on the other hand, had no issues with that…

It would be arrogant to assume he, personally, was the exception to the rules that everyone here labored under. Marcus didn’t think he was that special.

Therefore, he could reach only one conclusion.

It was his world that was special. He already knew that Tasloa was unusually easy to connect to for some mysterious reason, so the anomaly was already there.

This would also explain why that dead man could form a rift to Tasloa, allowing Marcus to find out about Sixth Manifold – he succeeded where all of his fellow mages failed, not because he had some unique technique they lacked, but because he picked Tasloa in particular as his target.

Though, he had to have some kind of unique insight in order to do so, Marcus felt. Sixth Manifold knew of thousands of different worlds, and he doubted he chose Tasloa for no reason. It was really a shame that the man was dead, because he really wanted to ask him a bunch of questions right now.

He felt some regret at not examining the man’s corpse more thoroughly while he’d had the chance. What exactly killed him, anyway? Just regular spell backlash or something more? Dimensional spells did have some nasty consequences for doing them incorrectly…

Marcus turned his attention back to Darayaush.

“I have a suspicion, but before I say anything, I’d like to see if I can find my world here on this map of yours,” Marcus said. “The trouble is, I can’t read any of the names and descriptions. Could you teach me how to perform that translation spell of yours?”

“Translation spells, huh…” Darayaush said thoughtfully. “I don’t have an issue with this, personally. They are widespread all over Sixth Manifold, because Lord Wisdom personally encourages their spread through his priesthood. However, they can be tricky to learn. They require the logos of the Beacon of Wisdom to work, and you are not a practitioner of the Flame of Illumination or other foundational techniques associated with that logos. I am not sure if you can learn translation spells, Brother Marcus.”

“I believe I could,” Marcus countered without hesitation. “The Soul Tree Technique I practice can graft all things onto itself and make them work.”

“Hm. Tree of Life borders Beacon of Wisdom,” Darayaush mused out loud. “It could work, I suppose. I’ll ask around tomorrow and see if we can arrange for something with the priests. In the meantime, I can help you find your world. What did you say it was called?”

“Tasloa,” Marcus said.

He didn’t see the need to keep the name a secret. He was actually curious about what their records said about it.

Unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be any Tasloa on the map.

“Well, I did say this map is a recreation of the original and is missing some places,” Darayaush said, a little awkwardly, after trying and failing to find Marcus’s home planet. “It is possible that the man who opened a rift to your world actually found a location we do not know about. However, it’s also possible the name changed over the years and that what you now call Tasloa was called something else when these records were made. It has been more than a thousand years ago, after all.”

Something clicked in Marcus’s mind.

“Try Chaoswood, instead,” he told Darayaush.

It didn’t take long for the man to zero in on one particular star after that. It was located on the very edge of the map, very far from Sixth Manifold. The thread connecting it to Sixth Manifold was extremely thin and faint, and it would be easy to overlook unless one focused on it.

Marcus boggled at the distance – he didn’t realize he was connecting to a world this far away! If this really was Tasloa, then maybe the difficulty of opening a rift here wasn’t just because of the dead giant.

“Chaoswood,” Darayaush stated. “No map, no detailed information. Just a note saying: Connection severed. Avoid at all costs.”

He gave Marcus a curious look.

“No need to look at me,” Marcus protested. “I don’t know what that means.”

“Is this really your world, then?” Darayaush asked dubiously. “A world so distant, and so dangerous... that doesn’t seem to fit, does it?”

“I don’t know. I did hear our world used to be called Chaoswood,” Marcus said, frowning. “But there might be more Chaoswoods. Does the term ‘Sphere Builders’ mean anything to you?”

“No,” Darayaush shook his head. “What are they?”

“Our ancestors,” Marcus explained. “A powerful precursor civilization that colonized my entire region of space. Sphere builders is what we call them, because they traversed the void in giant spherical void ships that could hold entire cities inside of them. However, I don’t think that is the name they gave themselves.”

“That doesn’t remind me of anything in particular, but I will tell my scholars to scour the records for anything that could fit that,” Darayaush said. His eyes lingered on the star in question for a few seconds, is if trying to glean some kind of information from its brief warning note. “That said, and assuming this is the same Chaoswood you come from… what was your suspicion?”

“I suspect it’s not me or my method of rift creation that are the key, but rather some mysterious trait of my world,” Marcus said. “For whatever reason, I don’t think it is covered by the restriction you are laboring under.”

“That seems easy to check,” Darayaush said. “You only need to try and connect to one of the other, closer worlds we used to have a trade connection with and see if it works.”

“I could, but it seems unwise,” Marcus remarked. “You just told me that your planet has a mind of its own and is purposely blocking access to those worlds. If I try this, I might attract its ire.”

Darayaush frowned. “You’re right,” he said. “She might tighten the restriction and block you from returning back to your home planet.”

Or just plain kill him. He was confident in his battle skills, but he didn’t fancy his odds if he had to fight the very planet he was standing on.

“Please don’t take this as a threat, but I feel compelled to warn you: the powers back home would not take kindly to any incursion, no matter how good–natured. Unlike Sixth Manifold, Tasloa has an Abyssal beachhead and faces frequent invasions from them. Our adepts are pretty much always on the lookout for a fight,” Marcus told him.

Darayaush didn’t seem annoyed by the veiled threat, but also didn’t say anything for a while. He just stroked his chin in silent contemplation for an uncomfortably long time.

“We’ll talk more about this later,” the man eventually said in a dismissive tone. “For now, let’s explore other ideas. There is no point in getting fixated on a possible solution so quickly.”

Marcus shrugged. He was more than happy with that. It gave him more time to try and memorize the map in front of him for future use.

* * * *

Renatus had been filled with excitement for the entire day. These past several days had already been very exciting, what with them being in another world and having the chance to live in an actual palace for a change, but today was special. He had managed to talk Teacher into taking them to check out the city’s marketplaces, and had even exchanged some of his gems for local currency and given them a bit of money to spend. Although Master Marcus had warned them not to expect much out of the experience, Renatus’s imagination was consumed by the images of him finding something deceptively valuable to resell for a lot of money back home, or even better – a secret magic item that nobody but him recognized as a secret treasure.

He adjusted his clothes a bit, taking one last look at the big mirror placed in their room, and then walked over to the corner where the caterpillars were happily munching on the bag of moss, unconcerned at the fact they were inside a palace on another world.

“Let’s go, Button,” he said, reaching out to his caterpillar. He was gratified to see that it immediately stretched out its stubby little legs towards him, eager to climb onto his shoulder. It was a gluttonous thing, but it still chose to abandon the mound of food it was on just to go on an unknown adventure with its master. He felt they were kindred souls in some strange way. It must have been fate that he picked this particular caterpillar out of the whole clutch.

“I can’t believe you’re taking that thing with you on this,” Agron remarked from the side.

“I can’t believe you aren’t taking yours too,” Renatus answered back. “Why did you even accept a caterpillar if you didn’t want one? I don’t think Teacher would have borne a grudge if you just refused.”

The tall boy said nothing, simply averting his gaze.

Renatus shook his head slightly. He didn’t know what to think of the White Dragon Clansman. He wasn’t rude or violent, but he was quiet and mostly kept to himself. He could be just a withdrawn person, but Renatus got the impression that he looked down on the other boys for some reason.

Oh well.

While he waited for Teacher to show up and take them to the markets, Renatus amused himself in studying the coins they had been given a few hours earlier. They were curious things, so precisely-made and regular. Renatus had never owned significant money in his life, and had definitely never held this many coins in his hands, so just looking at the small pile of coins made filled his heart with happiness.

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Curiously, the coins didn’t seem to be made out of gold, or even silver. Instead, they were made out of some kind of reddish metal alloy he couldn’t identify. The face on the coin was completely unfamiliar. Renatus had expected to see King Darayaush’s face on them, since he was the big boss of this place and he knew that rulers usually minted coins with their face on it… but no. It was probably an image of some famous historical ruler instead.

Button tentatively reached out towards one of the coins in his hand.

“It’s not for eating,” he told the caterpillar, pulling the coins out of reach.

He didn’t think Button could chew through a metal coin, but he’d rather not risk it.

“Bweh!” the caterpillar protested, but didn’t make an issue out of it and quickly lost interest.

Unlike the spiritlight roses from earlier, which seemed to have driven the little caterpillar into a frenzy of desire, the coin was just a casual interest.

Not long after, Teacher finally came back to pick them up, along with King Darayaush and a small entourage composed of two guards and a severe-looking woman. Teacher explained that the guards and the woman were for them, being basically their minders while they explored the market. Him, Agron, and Diocles were to stick together, but they were allowed to separate from Teacher and King Darayaush and check out things on their own, since the guards and the female mage would be there to translate for them and make sure they don’t get into any trouble with the locals.

Renatus eyed the three people that would be following them around. The two guards looked kind of bored, but the female mage stared back at him with an alert, scrutinizing gaze. It would be hard to slip things by her without her noticing, he felt. He really couldn’t use his abilities on this outing, then.

Not… not that he intended to steal in the first place, of course! He hadn’t snatched anything from the palace, either! But, well… if a really great opportunity presented itself, he didn’t think he could pass it by.

Renatus was painfully aware of his own limitations. He liked that Teacher was determined to push them to be as powerful as they could be, but Renatus didn’t think he’d amount to much if he went along with conservative, established methods. He was not some amazing talent, and couldn’t afford to ignore the obvious implications of his ability.

In fact he didn’t think his ability would be enough! He needed a stroke of luck, a secret treasure, something! He really hoped he could find something like that here, even though the odds were low. It was a whole other world, surely there was something interesting in there…

The group made their way out of the palace and into the city, Renatus trailing towards the back with his two fellow students, allowing teacher and King Darayaush to take the front. The group attracted a lot of attention as they went, with many people observing them curiously and gathering in small groups, muttering to each other in a language Renatus couldn’t understand. They had been in Behis for three days now, so Renatus suspected a lot of people now knew they were important guests of some sort, given that the ruler of the city had personally welcomed them into the city and was showing them around. Teacher warned them not to make any loud references to being from another world, so presumably this was not common knowledge, but even without knowing that, plenty of people were no doubt curious about them.

It almost made Renatus wonder if it wouldn’t be wiser of King Darayaush to bring more guards just in case somebody tried something, but he supposed that with two great mages being present, those guards would be kind of pointless. Back in Adria, Consul Gaius also seemed to walk freely around the city with little in the way of guards.

Their first destination was the city’s main market, located around a large public square. There was a large statue in the middle of the square, featuring an imposing robed man sitting on a throne and holding a sun in his outstretched hand, and a set of stone tablets in his other – Renatus knew enough about local culture by now to recognize it as a depiction of Lord Wisdom, the main deity of this world.

Around the square, there were a lot of different shops, as well as many different market stalls set up in the streets. A huge crown was present, and Renatus didn’t think this was because King Darayush was visiting and they wanted to catch a glimpse of him. It just seemed to be that kind of busy place, with many people coming here to trade.

“Make sure to stick close to me,” the severe-looking female mage told them. He had learned her name was Pantea. “This is for your own safety. There are a lot of thieves here.”

“Surely no one would dare to steal from the party of the King himself?” Diocles asked.

“You would be mistaken,” Pantea said. “Lord Darayaush once had his favorite bracelet stolen by a bystander during one of the celebrations.”

“How did that happen?” Renatus asked, finding it hard to imagine how someone could pull that off.

Pantea shook her head. “To this day, I am not sure how it happened exactly. He was meeting with various citizens, shaking their hands and listening to their complaints, and one of them managed to swipe his bracelet off of him without alerting him. It was only an hour later, when the man was far away, that he noticed it was gone.”

Renatus silently admired the feat. He kind of wished he had that level of skill… instead he got caught over a bag of walnuts, of all things. The world just wasn’t fair.

For a while, they simply followed after Teacher, observing as he checked out various stores and listening to Darayaush explain various items while bragging about his city. Well, Renatus didn’t really blame him for that – if he had an entire city to call his own, he sure would brag about it any chance he got – but after a while it got a little annoying.

Magic items seemed to be far more common here than they were back home, as were complicated mechanisms. The local crafters often mixed the two. Renatus really liked the mechanical lanterns that needed no fuel, music boxes that could play up to two-dozen pre-recorded songs, a warming stone that automatically maintained a room at a specific temperature, and a device that would transcribe whatever you spoke to it by pressing small metal letters onto a piece of paper.

Then there were fancier things, impressive but completely out of their price range. A backpack-sized device that allowed a user to manifest four dragon-fly like wings and fly in the sky for up to an hour. Amazingly, one didn’t need to be an adept to use it. There was a humanoid golem imprinted with a dozen different martial arts, meant to act as a sparring partner for wealthy buyers; a large, heavy sealing disc made out of bronze and inlaid with silver, which could shut down all teleportation in an area when activated; a complicated sphere with many moving parts attached, which apparently served as a divination aid; and a large cube that could effortlessly dismantle most complex machines into their component parts.

As they went from store to store, Renatus began to notice there were small dragonfly-shaped machines moving across the skies, often stopping and hovering in the air to observe certain people, before resuming their inscrutable movements.

“Those are police flitters,” Pantea explained. “These are used by the market guards for surveillance, but they are frequently used all over the city and beyond. When you see those, you can be sure that someone is watching.”

After this, Renatus and his two fellow students separated from their Teacher and King Darayaush. Renatus was fine with following after them while they were showcasing wondrous devices and discussing valuable things like gems and magical materials, but when Marcus asked Darayaush to show him stores dealing with magical plants and seeds, Renatus insisted they go somewhere else. The last thing he needed was Button going wild on him because we wanted to eat something priceless again. He suspected the stores had much poorer defenses against ravenous caterpillars than the palace did.

“Any ideas?” Renatus asked.

“I want to see weapons,” Agron said immediately.

“Do they even sell weapons here?” Diocles asked.

As it turned out, they did. There were several weapons stores in the main market, though their wares were mostly out of their price range. They even sold those curious guns of theirs, not that any of them were interested in buying those.

Renatus was kind of curious that Pantea said nothing about them wanting to go to see the weapon stores, but she seemed unconcerned.

“Boys always want to see guns and swords,” she said dismissively.

“Who doesn’t like swords?” Renatus challenged, though she didn’t deign to respond to him.

Renatus did like swords. He often had mock fights with the other children back at the orphanage – they would pick up particularly straight branches, clean them up a little, and then use them until they broke. He even wanted to be a mighty warrior at one point…

Anyway, all three of them enjoyed looking at the weapons. Even Diocles did, and he tended to be a bit of a killjoy.

“I thought you’d ask about bows,” Renatus told Agron when they left the last one.

“I already asked beforehand. Archery is something of a dead art around here,” Agron said, turning over the knife he bought in his hand.

It was a large, well-made knife, mildly enchanted to be sharper and harder to break. Agron spend his entire allowance for the day to buy it, prompting Pantea to ask if he really wanted to spend all of his money this quickly, and on one item, but Agron was certain.

“Besides, bows tend to be the most expensive weapons back home in Adria,” Diocles remarked. “For all their crafting prowess, I doubt the situation would be any different around here.”

“Why are bows the most expensive?” Renatus asked, baffled. “Aren’t they just wood?”

“It can’t be any wood,” Agron said, putting the knife away. “Not to mention it takes a while to make a bow. Metal, you just beat into shape. If you know what you’re doing, it can be very quick.”

“Plus, I heard they’re difficult to enchant,” Diocles said. “But even mundane bows tend to be expensive.”

They entered the magical pet store next. Renatus didn’t really intend to buy anything in here, but he figured there was no harm in looking. With Pantea and two guards around, the storekeeper probably wouldn’t chase them away for wasting his time, and it didn’t seem like there were many customers.

There were a variety of small creatures present, apparently meant as familiar creatures for wealthy buyers. Renatus didn’t recognize any of them. There was a red bird with long tail feathers, a white tortoise with an iridescent shell, an entire cage full of pitch black mice, and a brilliant green lizard with a colorful crest that didn’t appear to be actually restrained in any way. Renatus wondered if the creature was even for sale, or if it was perhaps the familiar of the withered old man sitting behind the store’s counter, silently looking at them without saying anything.

One thing that soon caught an interest of all three of them was a water tank full of giant leeches. They were black, with vivid blue stripes along the body, and seemed to sense their presence in the store because they soon stopped swimming and instead pressed themselves against the glass closest to them, their mouth stuck to the glass as if trying to get to them.

“Amazing,” Diocles said. “And here I thought Master Marcus was weird for giving us caterpillars as familiars. Imagine if he brought a bunch of these instead?”

“Our caterpillars are cute,” Renatus simply said, patting the caterpillar on his shoulder affectionately. “Don’t compare them to these… things.”

The old shopkeeper suddenly spoke something to them. Renatus and the others looked towards Pantea for translation.

“He asks how much money you’d want for that that caterpillar,” she said.

“Button is not for sale!” he immediately protested, outraged, shielding his caterpillar with his hand. Button seemed confused at the gesture.

Button was a crucial part of Renatus’s ascent to greatness! When he eventually reached spirit manifestation, the caterpillar was going to prove some kind of powerful, mysterious boon to him! That sort of thing couldn’t be measured in money!

The old man laughed uproariously at his reaction. It occurred to Renatus that the old man probably wasn’t serious about the offer.

They continued visiting the various stores and market stalls, checking things out. Diocles bought a bunch of souvenirs to eventually gift to his family. In Renatus’s opinion that was kind of a waste, but maybe if he had a family he would feel differently. As it is, he didn’t buy anything in the main market, mostly because none of it was the sort of thing he was looking for.

“Are you seriously not going to buy anything?” Diocles asked him incredulously. “Weren’t you the one most excited for this?”

“Well, it’s just that nothing here is catching my interest. I don’t want to waste it, you know?” Renatus protested.

“You’ll definitely waste it if you buy nothing at all,” Agron told him.

“Yeah…” Renatus agreed, sighing. He turned to Pantea. “Hey. So, um… do you know of a place where they sell something a bit more, I don’t know, exotic? Ancient artifacts, mysterious objects, that sort of thing.”

She gave him a knowing look.

“Nothing in your price range,” she told him bluntly. “However, if you want to waste your money on broken junk and blatant scams, I guess I can point you to a place.”

He took her on her offer. The place she took him to was in one of the smaller markets on the outskirts of the city. It was not really a seedy or dangerous place like he feared, but it was definitely not some prestigious institution. The outside walls were cracked and poorly maintained, and the insides were dusty and neglected. Once inside, they found the shopkeeper sleeping inside his chair. It took a few tries to wake him up, after which he suddenly launched into a sale pitch for various things, talking a mile a minute. Unfortunately for him, Renatus couldn’t understand a word he was saying. He had to rely on Pantea to translate for him, and she was translating maybe one tenth of the man’s words. Renatus ended up relying on his own inspection of various objects, which was probably for the best.

The items in the shop were indeed mostly junk. However, if Pantea thought he would regret coming here, she was thoroughly mistaken. This was, in fact, exactly what Renatus was looking for. He knew that everything he bought here could turn out to be fake and useless, but the chance he might stumble upon something amazing gave him hope.

In any case, he wasn’t just doing this blindly - he had a secret weapon. While his powers were mostly what he told Teacher – a way to transport things inside hidden dimensional bubbles – there was an aspect of his powers that he had since discovered while they were in Adria.

His bubbles could detect magic items to some extent, and without him having to reveal his powers either! Basically, if he instructed his bubbles to ‘taste’ a target, but stopped them from actually absorbing them, they would give him a certain level of feedback about it. After testing it on many magic items in Adria, he had learned to identify certain traits in items. At the very least he was confident he could distinguish between things that were genuinely magical and things that were just mundane junk.

This is why, when the man offered Renatus a ‘dragon egg’, he could immediately tell it was just an ordinary sculpted stone, but when he inspected a crude stone sculpture of some bird it felt inexplicably ‘heavy’ in some mystical sense, and he knew there was something special about it.

Seeing his interest in it, Pantea picked up the statue to inspect it herself. She frowned after a few seconds. The statue was actually pretty ugly, looking like it was made by an absolute amateur, so he thought she would criticize him for it, but he was wrong.

“You have a pretty good eye, young man,” she said. “This is, in fact, an ancient artifact. Though I don’t think it has much inherent value. It has some inherent magic, but pre-Severing civilizations were a lot more casual and wasteful about using magic materials for things. This is likely just an art piece… but that still have value to some people. You would likely be able to resell this for a better price elsewhere.”

“How is that art?” Agron protested. “I think I could have made a better bird, and I’m not even a sculptor.”

“That’s just how this style of art looks,” Pantea said, shaking her head.

In any case, while Renatus was gratified to see his ability was proving itself useful, he wasn’t really interested in being an art reseller and didn’t think they would stay here long enough. He continued searching through the shop’s collection, eventually identifying three objects he found interesting.

This first was a brass puzzle box. A palm-sized cube with many movable parts and sliding panels. It tasted really strange when he felt it with his bubbles, and he could tell it was something really unusual. The shopkeeper said the puzzle mechanism had never been solved by anyone, despite many attempts.

“I know this one,” Pantea warned him. “People have already used divinations to look inside and figured out it is completely empty. It’s really just an interesting toy, but I guess if you really like puzzles.”

“I know someone back home who likes puzzles,” Renatus said.

He could probably talk Claudia into helping him open the cube. He probably wouldn’t even need to bribe her for it.

The second was a seemingly mundane iron lantern, black in color and covered in dust. If it weren’t for his bubbles, Renatus would never have noticed it, as it had been shoved deep into the back of one of the shelves. Even the shopkeeper seemed to have trouble remembering what the story behind it was, eventually admitting it was one of the objects already inside when he bought the store from the previous owner. The lantern was slightly enchanted, but Pantea felt it was nothing special. Plus, lanterns like these were completely outdated in modern Sixth Manifold, and were no longer used.

His bubbles though… the lantern didn’t feel heavy like most magical objects, but rather weightless. Like it was just an illusion, and not really there. But Renatus could pick it up and turn it in his hands like any other object. It was weird and he had never encountered anything like it before. He ended up buying it.

Pantea ended up turning the lantern in her hands for several minutes afterwards, trying to see what made him so interested in it. In the end she simply handed it back to him without saying anything.

Finally there a strange magical scroll made out of parchment. First of all, the fact it was a scroll was already unusual, since scrolls were not commonly used in Sixth Manifold. Secondly, Pantea didn’t detect any magic off of it, and claimed it was just a regular piece of parchment.

But Renatus was certain the scroll was magical. The fact Pantea could not detect that, while his bubbles could, made it automatically interesting.

The shopkeeper claimed the scroll was a record of a powerful magical technique, but when opened, the only thing there was a detailed drawing of a strange spiral tower. There was no text, and no mystical symbols.

The scroll ended up being Renatus’s final purchase. There were a number of other objects that were also interesting, but they all had something that made him not want to bother with them for this or that reason. There was some kind of broken beetle-shaped brooch with a mechanical interior, but Renatus didn’t think he could fix the complicated mechanism inside. A twisted, blackened twig felt heavily magical, but also gave him an ominous feeling through his bubbles, so he stayed away from it. Finally, there was a statuette of Lord Wisdom that made him feel strange, but he didn’t want to bring an idol of a foreign god back to Tasloa, lest his own gods take offense and punish him. He heard they didn’t like competition.

Afterwards, they reunited with Teacher and King Darayaush, who seemed to have finished with their own business by now. Teacher actually bought a bunch of things, which Renatus hadn’t expected. He thought Master Marcus would refrain from getting anything, as he seemed kind of prideful and would likely not want look too impressed by anything. But maybe not buying anything would be insulting? In any case, it wasn’t like Teacher bought anything too eye-catching. He bought some kind of magical potted plant, an annotated map of the world, and a bag of cheap magical materials – the sort that were common around here, but were completely unknown back in their own world.

As he suspected, Pantea gave King Darayaush a report on everything that transpired, and showed him the items Renatus bought for himself. He was somewhat worried that King Darayaush, being on a much higher level than any of them except Teacher, would figure out these items were special somehow and confiscate them from him, but that didn’t happen. The man seemed amused by his choices instead, giving them back to him without hesitation.

“You have interesting students,” he commented to Teacher.

It sounded a little patronizing in Renatus’s opinion, but Teacher didn’t seem bothered.

“I have great hopes for them,” Teacher said.

“Teaching three students at once is quite a feat,” King Darayaush commented, stroking his chin while observing them.

“Ten, actually. I have another seven back home,” Teacher said.

King Darayaush gave him a surprised look. “Is that normal back in your home?” he asked.

“No,” Teacher admitted. “Most prefer to take a single student or two. It’s probably smarter that way, but I felt like taking ten at once instead. We all have our foibles.”

For his part, Renatus was glad Teacher had taken on so many students at once. He doubted a great mage like him would have taken him as a student if he could only pick one or two. Sometimes it was a good thing Teacher was a bit of a weirdo.

Renatus just had to make the most of it.

* * * *

Marcus and his students stayed in Behis for a total of four days. It was a productive couple of days, in Marcus’s opinion. He was not allowed to wander the city without a minder following him, and he suspected he was being watched even when he was seemingly left alone on occasion, but that didn’t matter. He still toured the entire city, and used his magic to project his sight all over the region to observe various things.

He also negotiated with the priests in the Temple of Lord Wisdom, and was allowed to meditate in front of the sacred flame there, which allowed him to absorb enough logos of the Beacon of Wisdom to learn the translation spell Darayaush had been using. He had initially feared that the priest would guard their secrets jealously and refuse to help him with this, but they turned out to be way nicer and more helpful than he was used to.

“The Beacon of Wisdom is a bridge that connects all things – a thread that binds all worlds and people into a unified whole. A sun that shines selflessly upon every corner of creation,” the head priest explained to him. “It is associated with unity, harmony, understanding, and blessings of every sort. Of course you can assimilate its logos into your spirit. It is the mission of Lord Wisdom, and us, his servants, to spread its light everywhere we can.”

Curious. The temples back at Tasloa were far more secretive than this.

He also took the chance to create a handful of soul seeds and plant them in a bunch of animals across the city. A cat, a stray dog, and a pigeon. He was curious about what would happen when they died… would their soul seed make their way back to him, all the way from another planet?

He didn’t target any humans with the soul seeds.

He really needed to talk to Sacred Oak when he got back to Tasloa.

On the third day here, Renatus managed to talk him into organizing a shopping trip to check out the city’s markets. Amusingly, it turned out he wanted to check cheap junk for a chance at acquiring mysterious treasure! Ah, how nostalgic… Marcus used to do that too when he came to Adria as a young man.

Though, he really didn’t understand what the boy was thinking with that scroll. The puzzle box and the lantern he could understand, but that scroll was just a piece of mundane parchment with a tower drawn on it.

He supposed he had seen dumber purchases.

On the last day, just before Marcus was to open a rift leading back home, Darayaush invited him into his office for one last talk.

“I will be blunt, Brother Marcus,” Darayaush said. He carefully and deliberately placed the stony cylinder Marcus used to home in on Sixth Manifold on his desk, squarely between them. “I am not going to destroy your dimensional beacon. Instead, I want you to use this to eventually come back to Sixth Manifold. Preferably with a larger delegation of representatives from your state.”

A multitude of thoughts swam around in Marcus’s mind, fighting for his attention.

“Eventually?” Marcus asked after a few moments.

“From the way you talk, I understand that things are a bit complicated back on your end,” Darayaush said. “I’m being a little presumptuous, but I imagine it will take some time for you to arrange things. Take your time. We have waited for an opportunity like this for centuries. A few years more won’t make any difference. All I ask is that you announce your arrival at least a month in advance so that we can assemble a proper welcome.”

“How do I do that?” Marcus asked curiously.

“You connect to Sixth Manifold and start opening a rift, but then terminate the spell before it can finish. Our instruments will detect the attempt and we will know you are coming,” Darayaush explained. “It’s an old trick we used to use back when rift connections to Sixth Manifold were common.”

Marcus nodded. This was indeed a neat trick.

Marcus suspected he knew what Darayaush and his government was thinking in requesting this. They wanted to use Tasloa as a waystation that would allow them to sidestep their own restriction on world travel.

However, he didn’t bother bringing it up. Honestly, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to return here. There was a lot of be gained from such cooperation, but also a lot of risk.

Plus, it sounded like it would be very annoying to deal with. He gave up his ambitions of being a leader of Great Sea Academy. This didn’t seem like something he should be doing.

Argh! He would consider this in more detail when he got back home, preferably when his students were a little more grown and he didn’t need to worry about them so much.

At least Darayaush wasn’t interested in keeping them here against their will. That was something Marcus had feared when he realized how interested Darayaush was in his ability to bypass the block on world travel in regards to Sixth Manifold. It was one of the reasons why he was so willing to tell him of his theory that it was Tasloa that was special, not him.

After the talk, Marcus set up the rift opening ritual. His three students were waiting patiently behind him, and Darayaush and several subordinate mages were observing the ritual in the background. Renatus was carrying a mostly empty bag of magic moss in one of his hands – the caterpillars had eaten most of it, but thankfully the boy managed to preserve at least some of it from their ravenous appetites.

Marcus once again set up the stabilizing spell and used a bunch of valuable magical gems as additional components. He initially intended to be a cheapskate and try to save money, but if the star map Darayaush showed him was correct, Tasloa was very, very far way. Plus, a failed ritual may attract unwanted attention from the planet itself. He didn’t want to risk it. The ritual had to be successful right away.

“Get ready!” Marcus ordered.

His students immediately lined up behind him, tense and alert.

He opened the rift between worlds. It was indeed harder than it should be, and he felt there was some kind of force trying to collapse the dimensional tunnel, but it was nothing he couldn’t manage. It was easier than it had been when he opened the rift inside the dead giant’s cave.

He silently motioned for his students to go first, and they all immediately rushed into the rift.

Marcus threw one last glance towards Darayaush, giving him a respectful nod. Although he suspected the City Lord had his own reasons for doing all this, ones that went beyond trying to set up some kind of trade deal with another world, he had ultimately been a good host and had left a good impression on Marcus.

Then, he stepped into the rift…

…and immediately found himself back at his tower.

As well as in the middle of a siege!

The forces of Crystal Mountain and Giant Thunder Hall had surrounded his Zenith Academy.