After describing how he’d used his abilities to hunt the garoush, Murdin decided he needed to see Sen’s ‘Ceriddian magic’ in action. He was still too injured to spar, so instead of moving into the courtyard, the two of them moved off into the woods.

  Sen found it amusing that Murdin actually moved faster, now, injured, than he had only a few days before. The excitement in his voice whenever he talked about the little bit of magic he’d seen from Sen was obvious, but to see such a difference in the man was astounding.

  Most of the people Sen had met were easy to gauge. Those who loved the studying, the knowledge, they mostly stayed inside, or as far from combat as they could. That didn’t mean they were incompetent, but there was always something lacking in the way they appreciated a fight.

  Those who loved the combat, but not the studying, often seemed like brutes. They focused on one or two different skills that gave them the ability to fend off almost anything they fought, and ignored the rest. Naturally, their skill in a fight skyrocketed in comparison.

  Sen saw both of those in Murdin, but which was closer to the truth, he couldn’t tell. The mage seemed genuinely excited when he considered new magic, even one that he couldn’t use himself - though Sen suspected that was only a temporary limitation.

  On the other hand, Murdin was clearly a gifted warrior. He still remembered how easily the man had dismantled him, time after time, during their morning spars. He’d learned a lot, and could already point out numerous places he’d improved. He’d seen him dismantle multiple tanbinos, and easily outmaneuver a cockatrill. Even while injured, he’d managed to hold his own against the garoush for a time.

  Despite that, Sen knew he was still a long way off challenging Murdin to an even fight. It was poor luck that the man had gotten injured keeping Sen safe. Luckily, he seemed to be well on the way to recovering.

  They stopped about a mile into the forest, at a wide clearing that opened to let the sky shine down on a small grass field. Sen might need to be careful about controlling his fire, but thankfully the spell gave him the ability to stop fires as easily as create them. So long as he didn’t accidentally create a huge inferno, he should be able to stop anything before it caught.

  “Alright,” Murdin said excitedly. He pointed off into the woods. “In that direction, several miles away, is a small roc nest. I want to watch you hunt it using your magic.”

  Sen looked at the clearing, confused. “We aren’t just testing it out? I thought you wanted to see how it all works.”

  “Yes, absolutely, I do. But there’s no reason to point at a tree and see if you can hit it hard. No, I need to see you use this power.” Murdin got a greedy look on his face. “I need to see if you’re wasting your potential, Tane. Sen. Whoever you are.”

  “I thought the wardstone net kept monsters from living nearby.”

  “Yes, and no. Mostly, they keep monsters from wandering near the town. Most monsters don’t like to cross the net. I know about this one because they’ve set up not far past where the net’s effect weakens enough for monsters to stick around. It’s not entirely unusual, but it would be nice to clear them out, as well.

  Shrugging, Sen started walking. “I thought you were injured. Should you be out here?”

  “Don’t worry, I won’t be helping. This is all on you.”

  Sen had a sneaking suspicion that the Murdin he thought he knew was not the real Murdin at all. The man he’d met a few days ago, and the man he now worked with on a daily basis, seemed wildly different.

  “If I’d known we were going hunting, I would have brought a spear.”

  “That’s what your magic is for, isn’t it?”

  “Normally, we use inscribed paper - scrolls - to use our magic. And I don’t have many, right now.”

  Murdin looked at him, confused. “Why? From the sound of it, you don’t need them.”

  Sen didn’t have an answer to that, because it was a good point. His time apprenticing under Amery had never given him a specific reason that casting spells without scrolls - body-channeling - was as unpopular as it was other than that using scrolls was tradition. Maybe the biggest reason had been that scrolls allowed mages to use any spell they could feasibly inscribe.

  Inscribing spells, on its own, was not difficult. Sen could only inscribe a couple spells because those were the only runes he knew well enough to inscribe without inaccuracies. However, if he had a reference book, something that could serve as a guideline for other runes that he didn’t know, it wouldn’t be nearly as difficult to make scrolls for spells he didn’t know.

  He could feasibly cast almost any inscribed spell from a rune, but he could only body-channel spells that he knew well enough to inscribe on his own. Functionally, body-channeling a spell required ‘inscribing’ the spell on his mind while he cast it.

  When he looked at it like that, it made a bit more sense. He shared those thoughts with Murdin, who seemed to hang on his every word, like a child hearing a fantastic new story for the first time. The man’s face looked a decade - maybe two - younger just hearing about the short history.

  “Is there no trade off for using one style over the other?” Murdin asked him.

  “I’m… not entirely sure,” Sen said after a moment’s thought.

  “We should look into it,” Murdin said thoughtfully. “It would be a shame not to use your full potential. Regardless, here,” he said, pulling out several objects from his bag. Two of them were wooden branches, while the third was a blunt stone. He fiddled with them for a moment, before the three pieces merged together into a seamless spear.

  “And you find my magic amazing,” Sen huffed.

  “Won’t be long,” Murdin said simply, “before you’re doing this, too.” Sen hoped that was true. Forging weapons out of mundane rocks lit a simple excitement in him that grew every time he saw it.

  Sen stopped not long after as he began to notice several signs of monster activity. It was comforting to know that despite how much his life had changed, the world still worked the same way. Monsters still decorated their territory as ‘colorfully’ as they did before.

  Unfortunately, that didn’t make it any easier to accept the losses. Amery would have probably loved glyphic enchanting just as much as Murdin already seemed to love Ceriddian magic.

  Murdin followed behind at a distance, and Sen could barely keep track of him despite knowing he was there. The mage moved quickly and silently through the forest, sometimes even appearing up in a tree. If he could move like this while injured, Sen couldn’t imagine what he was like at full strength.

  Soon enough, Sen heard the telltale sign of a roc nest. Several cries, like the sound of rocks falling from a cliff, sounded from the nest. Sen followed the sound until he found the nest. It sat at the edge of a large cliff, a handful of nests built from branches, leaves, vines, and other forest detritus. Three large eggs decorated the cliff, while several rocs sat guarding the nest. Another three flew in the sky nearby.

  Sen looked back toward Murdin, struggling for a moment to find him. When he did, the old mage gave him a thumbs up and a smile. Sen shook his head at the odd gesture before turning back.

  He hadn’t brought any scrolls with him this morning, so he only had himself and his spear. One of the benefits of scrolls was that spells required slightly less mana, and he hadn’t been doing any exercises to increase his mana. He might not have enough to tackle the entire nest, if he only body-channeled.

  Still, it should be fine. He wasn’t nearly as prepared for this nest of creatures as he had been for the garoush, but the danger of a nest of rocs, while not trivial, was nowhere near as high as the large wolf had been. He felt sure he could kill the entire nest with just a spear, and probably without even taking a hit.

  He built the rune for fireball in his mind. He felt the pull of mana, and guessed he would have enough for another handful of spells, but not much more. He let the flame loose, and the first roc died with little more than a squawk.

  He ran forward and jumped toward the next roc. His spear took it in the chest, and he threw it from the cliff, its corpse sliding off the spear. The last one shrieked, but he already had another fireball prepared. It took the creature full in the face, leaving little more than a smoking, headless corpse.

  One of the flying rocs screeched before diving toward him. Sen took stock of his options - he could use another fireball, but the bird was diving toward him at an angle, and he was afraid he’d miss. Or, the bird would die, the fall on him anyway. They were big enough that’d be like a stone falling onto him. Instead he held out a hand. This would take a bit more mana than a fireball alone would, and he’d have to adjust what he intended to do for the remaining rocs, but it would be nearly impossible to miss.

  Sen gathered the mana in his hand, waiting for the right moment. He needed to overcharge this spell, and he struggled to pack all the mana he could into the spell. The roc neared, claws leading as it attempted to rake at him. Sen let loose the shock gathered in his palm, and a blue spark leapt from his hands. The bird died instantly, the power of the spell leaving only an odd scent in the air and a handful of feathers.

  Sen felt a bit of exhaustion move through him, but the last two rocs moved to sweep down from the sky. Sen had just enough mana to finish them all off with a single spell, but it would probably take all of his remaining mana. He needed to use the mana, anyway, he figured.

  With a hand extended, he repeated the gesture and built up his mana into an overcharged shock. The spell ripped from his hand a moment later, and he found himself surprised that he’d managed to pack as much mana into it as he had. A blinding bar of energy ripped from his hand, jumping like lightning toward the two birds.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  With a crack, both birds ceased to exist.

  “That was well done,” Murdin said as he stepped out from the forest. “How many of those spells can you cast before you’re out? I assume there’s a limit.”

  Sen nodded. “I can’t cast anymore for a while,” he admitted.

  “Hmm. You probably shouldn’t have wasted all of your spells on the last of them. What if there were more in waiting?” Murdin slowly picked apart any mistakes he noticed in Sen’s approach as they gathered the gems from all of the remaining rocs.

  Sen had to admit there were quite a few small problems with the way he’d approached the nest, despite the relatively low danger to himself. Those issues needed to be dealt with, or it could bite him when he approached more dangerous creatures like the garoush. That hunt had gone better than it should have, really.

  Murdin broke the eggs before they headed back, ensuring no more rocs would come from this nest. He also ripped several gems from the dead birds that hadn’t been entirely disintegrated from Sen’s magic. “Those spells are impressive,” he said, “but you’re wasting a lot of power by destroying them entirely like that.”

  Nodding, Sen filed the problem away for later. It would take a lot more control than he had to manage exactly how much power he could push into a spell. For now, it was all he could do to pack it with more mana. Modulating the strength according to that mana was beyond him.

  It was a frustrating weakness, but hopefully recognizing it would mean he could fix it soon.

  On the returen, they walked through the forest for only a short time before Murdin suddenly held up a hand. He looked around, eyes squinted. Holding a finger to his lips, he gestured for quiet. Still like a statue, he stood with his eyes closed, head tilted to hear better. Sen had heard nothing.

  Murdin turned. Sen followed him as the mage started to work his way through the woods, until they eventually found a small clearing. A small, monstrous wolf - an actual, flesh and blood wolf, not one of the stone tanbino wolves - sniffed around the clearing. It worked its way around a small stump that sat near the center of the clearing.

  Murdin pointed silently. Hunt it. Sen stepped forward, spear at the ready. He hadn’t recovered enough mana in the short walk to cast any more spells, but he wouldn’t need it.

  It was a short fight. The wolf, mundane as it was, held little challenge for Sen. Even compared to the rocs, it was hardly a fight. Instead of running away, the creature leapt for him as soon as he stepped into the clearing, spit flying from its mouth. Sen caught it on his spear, and it only took a single additional thrust to end the creature’s pitiful life.

  Murdin stepped toward the stump, inspecting it. “What is so interesting about you,” he said to himself. “A monster, and a lone stump, sitting in the middle of a clearing…”

  Murdin kicked the stump. It sounded hollow. It slid across the ground.

  It wasn’t real.

  “Pry this open for me,” he asked Sen, gesturing at the spear.

  Sen didn’t see any seams, but a good swipe with the spear left a rent that he used to pull the top off. Inside, a small envelope sat alongside a small bag of food. “That explains the monster,” Murdin said, checking the food and grabbing a handful of berries. He ate one as he inspected the small envelope.

  “How did you know this was here?” Sen asked.

  “Good ears. Back before the Crossing, my family had a bit of elf mixed in. Still got some of the benefits,” Murdin shrugged. “That wolf wanted this food pretty bad. He took the envelope from inside, then opened it.

  His face grew hard as he read the contents. “We need to get back to town, now,” Murdin said with urgency.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “You remember the mayor walking about reports of strange activity in the forest? I think I know what it is. A cult.”

  “A cult?”

  Murdin nodded, wasting no time in heading back to Shiren. Sen followed, confused. “This envelope contains plans for an attack,” Murdin said.

  “Against Shiren? How?”

  “The wardstone net. I should have suspected something sooner, but…” Murdin sighed. “Whoever they are, they’re planning to overload the wardstone net, then send a horde of monsters at Shiren.”

  Sen’s eyes widened. “How can they send a horde toward Shiren?”

  Murdin caught his gaze. “I’m not sure, but I’m not going to wait around and hope they can’t.”

  They moved through the forest quickly, arriving back at town soon enough. Everything still looked fine, but the new knowledge felt like a weight that could come crushing down on them at any moment.

  The two of them headed directly to the mayor’s home, where Murdin knocked at the stone door. A loud gong announced their presence throughout the house. Sen scanned the enchantments along the trim of the door, wondering which enchantments caused the effect. He was better able to pick out where one enchantment ended and another began, now, but almost the entire door turned out more complicated than he’d realized, one enchantment blending into the next with barely a gap.

  The door opened to present Tudan. He looked at them with a blank face. “How may I help you, Mage Murdin and Apprentice?”

  “I need to speak with Metra. It’s urgent.”

  The man hesitated a moment, then nodded. He waved them inside. “She is available now. Follow me,” he said before walking off further into the house. They passed by the study where Metra had met them before, then continued on through the house before stepping onto a porch at the back.

  Mayor Metra sat at a table in a small garden, immaculately manicured and with a colorful variety of flowers.

  “Murdin,” the mayor said in surprise. “What are you doing here? How are your injuries?”

  He waved the envelope in the air as he stepped forward to the table, setting it down with urgency. He tapped the paper, emphasizing his words. “You need to read this, Metra. It’s urgent.”

  Confused, Metra took the paper, then unwrapped the letter. Her eyes widened as she read, looking between Murdin and the paper. “Where did you get this?”

  Murdin glanced toward Tudan. “Can he be trusted?”

  Metra looked at her assistant, eyes narrowed. She thought for a moment, then sighed. “If Tudan can’t be trusted, then I’m not sure there’s any hope,” she finally said. “For now, trust Tudan as you trust me.”

  Murdin nodded. “I found this in the forest, just beyond the wardstone net. It was a stroke of luck, really. Whoever left this also left a small cache of food, which tipped off a monster. We dealt with the monster, and found this where it was sniffing around.”

  “Odd. With plans this grand, you’d think they’d be a bit more…”

  “Capable?” Murdin interrupted.

  Metra only nodded.

  Murdin grimaced at the thought. “Unfortunately, we can’t assume this is a fake to push us into a reaction, not with something this grave. Sometimes, the answer really is that someone is incompetent.”

  “Let us hope so,” Metra said gravely. Sen glanced to look at Tudan, who sat with a blank face, despite how confused he must be. Sen hadn’t read the letter himself, and he was struggling to follow along even knowing the information Murdin had given him. He couldn’t imagine what Tudan might be thinking, especially after Murdin clearly questioned his integrity.

  The man stood silent, and without comment. Sen didn’t know how he did that. “Is there anyone you know who might be a part of this? People acting strangely? Any hints at all?”

  “There have been strange events, lately. Reports of odd activity.” She looked toward Sen. “Partially, that is why you were given to suspicion, after the garoush. But I didn’t suspect anything like this.”

  “I see,” Murdin said. “Do you have any leads?”

  “I have some ideas,” she said, “but nothing I can act on immediately. How long do you think we have until they attack?”

  Murdin grimaced. “It’s hard to say. The wardstones are not decaying at the normal rates, so any expected timelines I could provide may be incorrect.

  “I see,” the mayor said. “Then we will have to make do as best we can. I will send for some adventurers to root out the cult, if possible. Until then…”

  “There’s nothing we can do,” Murdin finished.

  “Yes,” the mayor said. Already, she had a paper in hand, writing out a note. She folded it, then sealed it in an envelope.

  “Tudan,” she held out the envelope, “if you please.” Without speaking, the silent man took the envelope and left the room.

  “Shiren’s in danger, and we’re not going to do anything?” Sen asked.

  Both Murdin and Metra turned to him. “And what would you have us do? Do you have any idea who is part of this? Who might be conspiring to attack the town? We have precious little to go on, and this is, at best, confirmation that something is coming.”

  “What about Tered’s prophecy?”

  “What about it?” Murdin asked. “It suggests something is coming, yes, but not how to stop it.”

  Sen looked out the at the garden, and the view of the town beyond. Sen hadn’t lived here for too long, now, but Tane had lived here his entire life. The thought of losing it all - that was a pain he never wanted to bear again.

  Sighing, he turned to the letter they’d found in the forest. “May I?”

  “Of course,” the mayor said, handing it to him.

  The Dust Mother greets you,

  Our work continues unabated. Soon, all will bow before the next step in the Cycle.

  We confirm great progress on the wardstone net. We anticipate its fall soon. However, be prepared. There are reports of repairs beginning on the net.

  Do not waste this chance - ensure the horde is ready when the time comes.

  You will be informed by the usual methods when the time is ripe. Follow protocol for the next message if the wardstone net has not fallen.

  From dust to Dust,

  May Durunia reap her harvest.

  “Durunia? Who is that?” Sen asked no one in particular.

  “Durunia is the goddess of death and rebirth. Her domain is the cycle of life and death.”

  A goddess of death? Sen could feel his face blanch at the thought. “And her cult is planning an attack on the town.” It wasn’t a question. No, Sen understood the implications of a death goddess’ cult attacking a town.

  Murdin nodded. Mayor Metra stood tapping a finger against the table, lost in thought. “Worse, Durunia’s cults care about little more than adding to the cycle,” Murdin said.

  “Adding to the cycle?”

  “The cycle of life and death. Durunia only cares that the cycle continues - that more people die, and move on to another life. Her cults take that to an extreme, and when they show up, it almost certainly means they intend a slaughter.”

  Metra stood, placing a hand on Sen’s shoulder. “For now, don’t worry about it. We can’t give away too much, or they might cut their losses and attack immediately.”

  “Attack immediately? What do you mean?”

  “If they think their plans are ruined, they may decide that any success is good enough. All they want is death - the only question for them is how many they deaths they can cause.

  “And there’s no way to find them? No way to stop them?”

  “You and I can’t stop them, not directly at least,” Murdin said. “But I can work on the wardstone net, for now. That will buy us some time. They want the net to break, first, before they send their horde of monsters. If we manage to buy enough time, then we’ll be able to get someone here to root out the cult.”

  “What about me?”

  “You,” Murdin said, “will be hunting monsters.”

  “Monsters? I’m not helping you with the net?”

  The mage shook his head. “You’d be a help, yes, but I’m too injured to deal with all the monsters that we’ve had around here lately. We’ll continue our training as best as we can, but for the time being, you’re on monster hunting duty.”

  The mayor turned to him. “Don’t let us down, apprentice.”