ImmovableMage
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225 Mage Hunt
🕑 Added 2025-01-25 00:00:00 +0000 UTC– Era of the Wastes, Cycle 219, Season of the Setting Sun, Day 18 –
Ying, Daiyu, and Siling were led by Matteo through a hallway in the Crafting Tower. It was still some way to the meeting room, but they could already hear a ruckus.
“You shouldn’t move your mana yet! You need to rest—!”
“Shut it! This is tower business! Who even invited all of you?! Why the fuck do you keep pestering me!” Apex’s barking could be heard even two floors down. “I swear, if you try and tell me what to do or not to do one more time, I’ll—”
“We’re here to heal you at the request of the Guardian. We just want your—”
“Which Guardian? Show them to me and I’ll squish them!”
“Uhh…”
“I hope she at least accepts their healing…” Matteo muttered wearily under his breath. “Seriously…” He shook his head and shrugged. “I guess if they’re still hanging around, they must get the occasional healing in. That’s… something.” He reminded himself to thank Terry for that intervention and for taking the blame in the eyes of Apex eventually.
A corner of Matteo’s mind was still baffled by what had transpired so far. Sure, Apex still appeared kicking and screaming and about as sociable as a hungry terror grizzly, but even so…
The martialist woman had almost thanked him and Terry for covering her after she had crushed the Martial Tower. At least she hadn’t brought it up, which might as well be a gigantic gesture of gratitude coming from her. Only a few years ago, Apex would have attacked whoever so much as dared interfering in one of her battles.
When the group finally reached the entrance to the meeting room, everyone’s expression changed at once.
Ying glowered when recognizing Apex from the time she had attacked Syn City. If looks could kill, the martialist would at least be severely ill.
Daiyu and Brynn smiled and nodded at each other as a greeting. Brynn pushed a few snacks from the table towards the pale elven woman. It was plain to see that the concerned mother could use a pick-me-up.
Siling’s eyes moved immediately to the figure at the other end of the table – the woman with a strange aura and fancy clothes. Mina, the tower master of the Spirit Tower, gave Siling only a cursory glance and then focused on Ying with piqued curiosity.
Matteo scowled when seeing Apex, who was lifting one of her designated healers up by the collar as if she was cussing out a badly behaved puppy.
“What?!” barked Apex with a challenging snarl.
Matteo rolled his eyes and sat down. “We’re all present now.”
“I’m sure it will be worth the wait,” said Mina amicably. Her gaze remained firmly fixed on Ying.
Ying took a deep breath and suppressed whatever rage he felt for the insane martialist that had harrowed his city. His daughter was more important. “We’ll see…” He chose a chair and sat down. Daiyu sat next to him while Siling chose a spot next to Brynn instead.
“Why am I here?” asked Ying. He had previously understood that he would be required to issue a challenge to the Spirit Tower in order to take control and ensure a unanimous vote to officially support the Freedom Cooperative’s defensive war against the invading Lich Kingdoms, which was a prerequisite to get the Union moving as a whole.
“To illuminate a few questions for me and reach a working solution for everyone,” said Mina with a bright smile. “I had to refuse the other tower masters…” Her eyes moved over Brynn, Apex, and Matteo. “Because taking their suggested action would be neglecting my duties as master of the Spirit Tower.”
Mina shrugged. “I have already explained my concerns to the other tower masters. From the newest reports, a second of the five has been directly involved in the conflict.” She furrowed her brow and searched Ying’s gaze. “I heard the Bloody Duchess escaped?”
“She did,” growled Ying.
“So far,” added Matteo.
“Meaning?” prompted Mina.
“Meaning that she is being pursued by one of the best mage hunters ever known to Tiv…” said Matteo. “As well as by the best sensor I’ve ever met.”
“The Spellcrusher, which also implies her spirit-bond, the Magebane, but who is this sensor?”
“My cousin Terry,” replied Matteo with a hint of pride in his tone.
“Ah, the famous Guardian of Freedom,” muttered Mina, which elicited a snort from Apex. Mina glanced at the Martial Tower Master and continued pointedly. “The other foul mouth.”
Before Apex’s returned glare could lead to another argument, Matteo hurriedly continued the conversation. “Yes.” Undeniably, his cousin had changed since their first days together in Tiv. “They will not lose track of her, but they’re also keeping an eye out for death whisperers to eliminate.”
“Hm…” Mina moved a finger in circles over the table while thinking. “A second duchess on the move makes the threat more credible and a request for allied help less… unpalatable. But…” She looked at Ying. “You rebuffed the Bloody Duchess and her army?”
“She got away,” growled Ying.
“Our victory hinged mostly on using the element of surprise and, well…” interjected Matteo. He glanced at Ying. “A dimensional mage capable of creating anchored gates.”
“I’ve heard about that, too,” said Mina. She sat up more straight in her chair. “Alright…” She crossed her fingers and straightened her arms. “Even if you – contrary to expectations – manage to hunt down the Bloody Duchess, her mere presence can be construed as minimal evidence and cause for at least a spurious alliance invocation.” She frowned slightly. “Although her being routed easily kind of spoils the narrative we would need.”
“I wouldn’t call that easily,” grumbled Siling.
“Perhaps not,” admitted Mina. “But I wasn’t there, and neither were any of the other people we will need to convince. I’m not trying to sabotage your plans, but I’m obligated to point out the flaws I see in our argument.” She shrugged. “In the end, we could claim that the Bloody Duchess has lost some of her infamous edge during her time of capture in Thanatos. Her presence still hints at this being an operation by the Five Unholy Duchesses collectively, which might prove workable…”
For a moment, Mina continued tracing circles on the table surface with her finger quietly, before she focused on Ying again. “That leaves our second major concern with getting involved: the Spirited Duchess.”
Ying frowned. “Siyu would never voluntarily act as the spearhead of the Lich Kingdoms. If we free her, then—”
“Please,” interrupted Mina with a raised hand. “I understand the sentiments of a father and mother.” Her eyes moved to Daiyu. “But I’m not going to risk our Spirit Tower over such sentiments. Perhaps the Spirited Duchess is open to switching sides if— What was that about freeing her? What’s trapping her?”
“A ritual and magic construct, we believe,” explained Ying. “I actually wanted to ask the Spirit Tower for an opinion on that matter. I have my own thoughts and other sources to confirm with, but…”
“Interesting…” Mina traced circles on the table's surface with her finger again. “And yes, we can do that.” She took a deep breath and returned her focus back to Ying. “Don’t misunderstand me. I may not share your faith in your daughter’s character, but I still believe we can come to an understanding. The point we take issue with is taking such a tremendous risk – the Spirited Duchess is the literal nemesis to most of our schools of magic – without a comparable reward.”
Mina smiled like a cat that got a whiff of a nearby tuna. “Fortunately, I have heard about just such a reward with the potential to advance our magic studies by bounds and leaps.” She held Ying’s gaze. “It was you that created the Spirited Duchess, correct?”
“Siyu is not just my daughter,” stressed Ying. “I’m not the only parent.”
“You know what I mean,” said Mina. “No need to be coy.”
“I did what I had to in order to save my child,” growled Ying. “Our circumstances were extraordinary. I’m not willing to see other folks turned into—”
“You are mistaken about my interest,” interrupted Mina with her hand raised again. “What you have done is… horrible, to be quite frank. Violating the highest taboo among our trade. If you were a subject of our Spirit Tower, you would not escape sentencing. No, it’s not the creation of elven soul spirits that I am interested in. My primary interest is the means by which you achieved the permanent externalizing of a soul spot. Of course, we are also interested in the mechanics by which you preserved independent agency and intellect.”
Mina leaned forward in her chair to rest her arms on the table. “If you are willing to teach us both, then our Spirit Tower is willing to agree to the war effort and to calling for an alliance…”
***
“By the Kings, damn it!” The vampiress cursed and scrambled desperately to escape.
Everything had gone so well.
The Hounds had prepared the ground in several smaller sects, towns, and clans.
The advance force had eliminated the local leadership deemed difficult by the Hounds.
Their undead had overrun the area and eliminated all significant combatants.
They had planted their own forces to take control and departed to regroup and continue towards the next quadrant.
All according to plan. Just another good day to hunt and advance the Lich Kingdoms' plans.
Right until the moment that everything went to shit.
One moment, she and the others had led the undead under their control to a checkpoint for regrouping their forces.
The next moment, some guy dressed in probably the most expensive magic equipment the vampiress had ever seen suddenly appeared right in front of her and blasted her with lightning. She was experiencing the suffocating feeling of mana suppression and a rotating mass of mana that was almost blinding in her mana sight.
If the vampiress had any less combat experience, she would never have chugged the potion of haste in time to even attempt to flee with her life preserved.
Unfortunately for the vampiress, even her hastened state wasn’t faster than Terry. To add to her immense misfortune, Terry’s disruption domain was not as immovable as it used to be, either. No matter where the vampiress rushed, she could not escape.
Terry swiftly switched between straight disruption rushes following his target and back to rotation to adjust course or surround the vampiress during combat. His frequent practice with his smaller disruption fields and grinders was proving very beneficial to his mobility during this ongoing mage hunt.
“SHIT, who are you?!” screamed the vampiress madly. Even despite the obfuscation from the mana suppression field she was trapped in, she could still perceive that other battles were raging around her. She was not the only one in her group under attack, but she found it difficult to believe any of the others were having as hard a time as she. “WHAT are you?! Why do I have to be facing YOU?!”
I very much doubt you would fare better against the Magebane or Spellcrusher…
Terry fluidly created a gap in his disruption domain and immediately filled the gap with a powerful divine hammer to smash his target into the floor where he had aimed the spell imprint to liquify and then harden the earth around the vampiress.
While darting over, Terry quickly sieved through all the different signals from his mana perception. The fact that Amelia and Dargones were still fighting was all he needed to know that they were not in full control of the battlefield yet.
No time for mercy.
Terry finished off the death whisperer from the Lich Kingdoms without another thought. Even if they wanted to interrogate anyone, they could do so with the last defeated enemy soldiers.
Then again, Terry wasn’t sure what to even ask. The questions that were really on his mind, he could either not speak out loud or doubted he would get a useful answer. Anything related to Siyu was off-limits.
Anything regarding the Bloody Duchess, on the other hand, appeared… pointless.
Terry could sense her soulstain. He had already faced her in battle – when she had still been at full power and with all her life-preserving artifacts at her disposal. Admittedly, he hadn’t been alone, but they had also had to deal with a lot more than just the duchess at the time.
Terry hadn’t felt the need to inquire any further, and neither had Amelia and Dargones so far.
They would track the Bloody Duchess while making sure that she couldn’t join up with other forces. They would hunt down roaming death whisperers from the Lich Kingdoms along the way.
At the beginning, Terry had been unsure if the Bloody Duchess might be able to compete in reach with her vampiric life sense but by now, it was clear that his mana perception paired with the soulstain he had marked her with beat whatever sensory abilities their enemy might have.
Terry outmatched the Bloody Duchess in perception range while Amelia outmatched her in travel speed, and the Spellcrusher could bring the other two along – Dargones as her spirit-bond and Terry by including him in her unanchored spatial transfer.
***
Ying cracked his knuckles and stared at the device on his desk in the room they had prepared for him in the Spirit Tower.
He hated this.
He hated this waiting.
He hated having to teach about the worst memories of his life. Every piece Ying shared was like clawing at the deepest wounds in his body.
The withering of his little Siyu right in front of his eyes.
The utter helplessness.
The despair.
The shame of attempting to break the most sacred taboo among soul spiritualists. The inner turmoil of attempting it on his own daughter.
The hope.
The self-loathing.
The agonizing pain of ripping out half of his soul.
The futility and emptiness when he had failed, regardless.
Failing, only to discover that he hadn’t failed after all.
With a low growl, Ying stood up and began pacing around his room. He was not cut out for this. Knowing his Siyu needed help while he was stuck here waiting and teaching.
Teaching?
It felt half like teaching and half like confessing all his sins. Like he was exposing his most sensitive nerve for others to claw at.
Every fiber of his being rebelled against being cooped up in this room. In this tower. In this country. In this place where he couldn’t directly help his daughter. He wanted nothing more than to fly to the Lich Kingdoms, to tear the empire down brick by brick, and to bring Siyu home.
Home.
Wherever Siyu might choose it to be.
Deep down, Ying hoped Siyu would accompany him to Syn City so that he might try to atone for his failures as a father. To help her become happy in a safe place away from all harm.
Ying forcefully shook his head. Hope had betrayed him too often in life. He would not allow it to linger in his mind.
Ying’s eyes drifted back to the device he had placed on his desk. It was a magic item he had crafted together with Saul and the Progenitor. A dimensional letter box that was part of a pair.
The second one was with the lich in Syn City.
Ying wished he could quickly travel back to Syn City to talk with his lich friend. Unfortunately, the distance was too far for him to cover, with only a few transfers. The travel would cost both time and mana. Both were things he couldn’t afford to waste.
Fortunately, the dimensional letterbox they had crafted to communicate while traveling on behalf of Syn City or the Progenitor was still functional at this distance. Transporting a letter was a lot less costly and risky than transporting living beings.
Ying had sent a letter explaining Siyu’s situation – while hiding the fact that they had been in direct contact with her. He still didn’t like hiding such information from his friend or his benefactor, but he wouldn’t go against the agreement.
He couldn’t betray Siling’s trust.
He had already betrayed her too much.
Ying impatiently waited in his room. When he finally spotted something pushed through the letter slot, he pounced on the letter like a starving panther on its prey.
His happiness at recognizing the Progenitor’s handwriting was immediately destroyed by the contents of the message.
Don’t do anything rash, my friend! Wait for me to…
‘Wait.’
Ying’s mind ground to a halt at that hated word.
Unfortunately, it didn’t stop at a single occurrence of the loathsome term, either. Among the direct answers to Ying’s questions about the Heart’s ritual and the possibilities of it tying down a being of pure soul, the letter kept repeating the one request that Ying simply couldn’t grant.
It was impossible for Ying to wait.
Not while his little Siyu was suffering.
***
“Are you sure?” asked Amelia with a curious raise of her eyebrow. “You can still sense her at this distance?”
[Yes,] said Terry while staring absentmindedly in another direction. He subconsciously accompanied his speech with subtle finger runes for Dargones to follow the conversation. The magebane could only hear the voice of Amelia, who was spirit-bonded with him, and Terry didn’t want to leave Dargones out of his part of the conversation.
“That’s great.” Amelia heaved a sigh of relief. “I used to be the main sensor of the mage hunts I was involved in and that jump left my range.” She slapped Terry on the back. “Good to have you with us.”
[The Bloody Duchess must have caught on,] signed Dargones.
“Yeah, I didn’t expect her to have any more transport artifacts, even if it was a short jump as far as long-distance goes,” said Amelia. “Last ditch effort and if she is willing to use them now, then we must have spooked her. From everything we’ve seen so far, she couldn’t have sensed us, so I guess she has grown suspicious of not being able to regroup with anyone besides mindless undead.”
Terry nodded. They had used the fleeing duchess to discover different checkpoints used by the Lich Kingdoms. They had extrapolated her direction and then teleported ahead and around to scout until Terry detected the lurking death whisperers, which they then assassinated before the Bloody Duchess could reach them.
She suspects that she’s still being followed. I guess the hunt will reach an end. I hope we eliminated enough of their support line to buy the Freedom Cooperative and the surrounding territory some more breathing room.
Terry took a deep breath. He never would have thought that he would ever be part of a mage hunt, much less one led by Amelia the Spellcrusher herself.
Terry couldn’t help but imagine what it would have been like to be the target of proper mage hunters himself. The thought sent a shiver down his back.
Focus.
Terry took another deep breath. They had used their primary target to root out others, but it was time to follow through. They were getting quite far from the Freedom Cooperative. Their target had been spooked. Even if the Bloody Duchess was still without her support, even if the mana she was using for flight and other self-enhancing magic was eating into her regeneration, she had definitely recovered a sizable mana supply by now.
Time to end this…
It was time to take down the Bloody Duchess.
***
Comments
ImmovableMage
Thanks for sharing your thoughts! I put a character glossary on Royal Road after every arc. The last one (after arc 7) is here https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/39344/immovable-mage/chapter/1893662/arc-07-character-glossary I hope this helps!
Justin
I officially need an appendix for characters. Ive read too many things and the names are just a blur now that the cast is so massive
Storyhunter
I'm half expecting the notebooks to come out.
Storyhunter
The bloody duchess hunt is quite fun. Terry stretching his mana muscle's. After having them charred by lightning. Apex being the apex of the martial artist world in every way, including additude is quite appropriate. + Ying ...... Poor guy. He's in a giant pickle sandwich. He should wait. But...... His emotions are definitely not in the mood. Now in my opinion it's possible to get someone with the mentor/ matriarchal additude to.... Knock him down a couple of pegs tell him. 1 your an excellent target for a heart string trap. 2 she has been in this condition for how many years. So setting up her extraction to be perfect and safe should be high on the priority list. Even if it takes more time. 3 if you had a friend in a situation similar to this what would you do?
Sesharan
I’m getting a little worried about Ying. Desperation is not a good mindset for anyone involved in a joint defense. I had hoped he would get better after some time with Siling and Daiyu, but it feels like instead he’s getting worse.
Aurora1325
terry under estimating him self again
