Ends of Magic

Nathan considered himself an accomplished curse-breaker - though he cheated. His antimagic let him disable magic with a touch, as well as protecting him from the consequences of failure. But this time, he wouldn’t bear the consequences.

Like when I broke the spell on Stella.

If he messed this up, the young woman lying on the floor would die, decapitated by the exploding enslavement collar around her neck. It would also probably alert the entire building that something was up. Nathan wanted to avoid both of those things, so he was careful, mapping out the enchantment of the collar over the course of a few minutes

It was clear that this enchantment was different from the one that had been placed on Stella - the principles were similar, but the trigger mechanism for the failsafe operated on a different paradigm. If Nathan just deactivated the enchantment all at once, the explosive would sense the failure of a feedback loop and explode with whatever power remained.

And the housing of the feedback circuit protects the explosive section, right against the inside of the collar. This is a better design than the one on Stella - if not quite as powerful. But that one was only meant to be a decoy for the real spell lodged in her brain. As far as I can tell, this one’s only got the single failsafe.

High-tier Identify 8 achieved!

I’ll take that as a yes.

Nathan exhaled and reached down carefully. The woman’s eyes were rolling in panic, but he ignored her and narrowed his attention on the magical world revealed by his extra senses. Antimagic extended from his hand, threading through a small gap in the magical protections to make contact with the explosive enchantment. Doing it involved an inhuman level of Focus to tighten the aura down to a needle and bend it through the angles necessary to thread the other enchantments.

A mistake here kills her and will set off enough alarms to probably kill me. Focus is helping.

The thoughts didn’t distract Nathan from his goal, and he kept the tendril of aura steady as it slowly deactivated the explosive enchantment over the course of twenty seconds. Then he grinned and reached down to wrench apart the collar, violently disrupting the remaining magic and casting the fragments aside. The breaking metal scratched the woman’s skin but didn’t draw blood.

She convulsed violently before rolling away and shakily getting to her feet.

He stayed still, holding his palms out in an attempt to show that he was unthreatening.

I really hope she doesn’t scream and run. I am really not sure how I would deal with that.

Her mouth worked for a second, swallowing spit before any words came out. When they did, her speech was hasty and a bit frantic. “What are you going to do with me?”

Nathan stood up straighter, eyeing the door. She was closer to it than he was.

I don’t want her to get away, to warn anyone about me. I don’t actually know anything about her, or if she still has loyalty to her enslavers.

She saw his glance and tensed, eyes sharpening and hands coming into a spellcasting position.

“Nothing! Nothing.” Nathan broke out, realizing he’d started this badly. “I’m just here to kill mages of Giantsrest. More mages.” He gestured at the bed behind him which still held the corpse of the frail young man Nathan had killed.

Her breathing quickened, eyes going to the bed and face twisting into a snarl. Then her gaze snapped back to Nathan. “You want nothing? I am free?”

Nathan shrugged. “Yup. Do what you want. Just don’t set off an alarm - I’m not done here yet.”

She stared at him for a moment as if coming to terms with her sudden freedom. Then she walked over to the side of the room, opening a small dresser and quickly pulling out a set of robes. She stayed facing Nathan as she pulled them on. “They’re going to recapture me. Or kill me, since Jaxis is dead. He’s Exea’s grandson. He was Exea’s grandson” Her lips skinned back in a snarl.

The robes she was wearing were white - but cut the same as the robes Nathan was wearing. They fit well.

A mid-tier student’s robes? If they’re hers, how did she become a slave?

As Nathan was thinking, the young woman continued. “You haven’t freed me. Unless you get me out of Halsmet, I’m not free. They’ll just capture me again.” Her voice was flat, but shook slightly at the end.

“I can take you to a safehouse.” Nathan thought for a moment about the practical difficulties of getting her there. “The city is on alert. Will the detection enchantment find you now that your collar is broken?”

She winced. “... yes. I was denied my mage mark. I can find the one Jaxis had.” She glanced around the darkened room for a moment, starting to hyperventilate slightly as her eyes landed on the bed.

Nathan took a step forward, planning on trying to calm her down, or at least catch her if she bolted for the door.

She saw the motion and took a larger step backwards and jerked to face Nathan, controlling her breathing and glaring at him. “Can I trust you?”

“I freed you. What do you think?” Nathan asked bemusedly.

What does she think I’m going to do?

The young woman didn’t like that answer, almost spitting her next words. “You’re asking me to trade a rapist for a murderer.”

Nathan blinked, confused even more. She was regarding him as a potential enemy for no obvious reason.

Well, not no reason - she knows nothing about me and I did kill somebody right in front of her. But I have zero regrets about murdering him. It’s not hard to figure out what was going on from context - a beautiful young slave naked in a guy’s room. If she’s going to be hostile and won't work with me, then there's no good reason to take risks to save her. She seems capable, I can just let her find her own way.

With a wave, Nathan shrugged again, keeping his hands to the side. “Trust me or not. You can come with me and I'll help you, or you can be on your own if you’d prefer. What’s your name, anyway?”

She looked around for the light crystal, sidling over to pick it up. “My name is Egall dha Ahan.” She shot a look at the small dresser where she'd gotten the robes from and for a moment it looked like she was about to burst into tears. Then she turned to Nathan and spoke softly. “What would your path be? If you had my hands and their contents?”

The question took Nathan a second to parse, then a moment longer to answer. He stopped thinking about the other people, the other mages, he was planning to kill tonight for their allegiance. He fell out of [Battle Meditation] and took a moment to look over at Egall. To really look.

What would I do if I was in her shoes?

Her hair was cut to her shoulder blades, brown and wavy. The white robe was a few shades paler than her skin, but the delicacy of her face was belied by her posture. She was unconsciously hunched, as if trying to hide from the world while setting her jaw aggressively to face it regardless.

I know nothing about her, except what I can infer. She could have been enslaved for years - since she was young - and I don’t know all of her motives. But all the evidence says she’s had a bad time. All she’s seen from me is violence, and snark. I did free her, but she doesn’t know how, or why. I can’t blame her for not trusting me immediately, even if I killed her captor. I like to think I have her best interests at heart, but I don’t. I’m here to kill mages, not to save slaves. Even if she does come back to the safehouse, that might just put her in the center of a battlefield.

Nathan felt his Rage burning hot. It wasn’t directed at Egall, but rather at her situation. She had no good choices, and neither did he. If he wanted to bring down Giantsrest the best thing he could do would be to use this window to kill more mages.

But he’d made a choice when he broke her collar. Now he needed to decide if he was going to follow through. He could send Egall away or kill her so he could continue his rampage. She would probably be recaptured or killed. Or he could try to convince her to come back to the safehouse with him, and give up his assassinations. That was a path with risk - she could betray him, intentionally or not.

Or she could say no, and go her own way. But this is the difference between my Paths, distilled to a single decision. I can do the safe thing, and keep killing mages. Level more, hit my next class Development, wipe out this entire floor of young mages whose only crime is how they were raised. Or I can take the risk to let my Rage, and the empathy that drives it, push me to make the irrational choice. I don’t want to lose sight of that Purpose, even as I follow my new one. I need to balance them. Maybe that means I don’t decide what happens to her. Maybe I let her decide. She probably hasn’t been able to decide much herself for a while.

He took another step away, biting his lip in thought before speaking. “My name is Nathan Lark. I was kidnapped by Taeol dho Droxol, archmage of Giantsrest. He invaded my mind.” Nathan felt his righteous anger channel into the words, and relished the satisfaction of having killed Taeol with his own hands. “He thought of me as a tool - a means to an end, a way to accomplish his purpose. His purpose, which involved gaining power to kill and dominate everybody lesser. I decided I'd kill anybody who tried to take my body and mind.”

Nathan looked back at the bed, and the body there. “I killed Taeol yesterday. And now I’m killing every mage of Giantsrest I can find. Mind magic is evil, and anybody who would use it on a person deserves to die, for turning people into things.”

Egall was watching him, her breath stuck in her throat.

He locked eyes with her. “I don’t know your history, Egall dha Ahan.” Nathan emphasized the two last words, which marked her as native to Giantsrest. “But I think regardless of what else you were, you have as much reason to hate them as I do. If you want me to get you out of here, I’ll help. I can get you to Gemore, where you’ll be safe. I’ll also leave you alone if that’s what you want - but if you go back to Giantsrest and help them, I'll kill you too.”

High-tier Earnestness 10 achieved! Congratulations, you have maxed out this utility skill! It cannot be improved any further. You must achieve Insight into this skill to develop it to the next level. As it is High-Tier, the kind of insight will greatly affect how it develops.

Dammit, I didn’t mean to use my skill on that. Now it doesn’t actually feel like her decision. But it’s not like it’s controlling her - it’s just helping me argue more clearly, and convey my honesty. And I'm being honest.

Egall exhaled slowly, and stood up a bit straighter. She closed her eyes for a bare second, then opened them and nodded to him. “I’ll take your hand. I don’t - I can’t - trust you completely. But I trust my fate to be dire without you. How do we escape? This building is guarded, unless you killed the guards.”

“No. We snuck in, that’s why I’m wearing this robe. Is there another door besides the main one?”

A shaking head was enough of an answer. “I can make us invisible. We might be able to sneak out if somebody opens the door.” She braced herself before sliding the mage mark off clammy fingers and slipping it onto her own finger.

So she is a mage. And with some good spells - invisibility isn’t one that most mages know, much less can cast on others. But that’s an ‘intermediate student’ robe. Hmm.

Nathan grimaced. “That magic won’t work on me. But I can be sneaky. How about this - we go to the front door, where I come up with an excuse to open the door and talk to the guards. You sneak out invisibly, then we meet on the other side of the square. Next to the clothing shop?”

A quick nod was his only answer, and they only paused for Egall to cast [Mage Armor] before slipping out into the hallway together.

New goal - get her out. I’ve killed three mages so far tonight, which isn't bad. If this goes flawlessly maybe I come back afterwards. Though I don't think I can take on the four slave-elites guarding the door without Faline, even if you ignore the enslavement mage. Funny that the mage is the afterthought for me, while they're the core of Giantsrest military doctrine.

They walked back down the hall towards the stairs. Nathan strode confidently forward, while Egall was a half-step to his right. Their steps were muffled on the soft carpets as they entered the lounge area.

There was a man in a red robe standing in the center of the room. He was frowning at the wall near where Nathan had disposed of the enslavement mage. His head snapped around as they walked into the room, and he studied them suspiciously for a moment.

Engage or ignore? Let’s try ignoring. We’ve got the right outfits, and a war mage might be a bit much. I don’t want Egall to get caught in the crossfire if I fight somebody trained to fight armies.

Nathan’s [Battlefield Meditation] was up, and he was pushing [Noticeability] to emphasize their status as a pair of Giantsrest mage students walking through their home.

Mid-Tier Noticeability 3 achieved!

The man’s hostile expression relaxed, and he reached out a hand toward Nathan. “Student. Hold. I was to meet a peer of fingers here - an Enslavement Mage named Codius dho Den. Have you seen him?”

Nathan turned toward the man, shaking his head as he continued walking towards the staircase. “No, we’ve been busy studying.”

“Studying. Indeed.” A smirk formed on the man’s face as he watched them. Then he frowned. “Is that… Jaxis’ slave? I thought him a jealous master, from how he refused my most generous offer.”

Nathan caught Egall twitch in his peripheral vision, and changed direction to walk towards the red-robed mage. He lengthened his stride and closed on the man, leaving Egall behind.

Too observant. He’ll notice the missing collar or follow-up with Jaxis. I think we’re blown.

The man noticed the hostile approach, reacting nearly instantly with lethal magic.

[Wind Blast]

[Ice Spike Storm]

The paired spells overlapped, the incantations ringing out in a weird echo. A wall of wind rolled through the room, blasting furniture towards Nathan and ripping the carpet from the floor. Wrist-thick spikes of ice were carried on the wind like a volley of javelins.

Nathan leapt forward, dodging under the carpet and deflecting a flying armchair. He ignored the spikes of ice, which evaporated as if his aura were a blast furnace. The tiny icicles that penetrated left tiny rips in his robe but didn't mark the skin beneath.

The mage seemed shocked as Nathan cleared the wave of spells, but it didn’t slow his reaction much at all. He whipped his hand forward, and three dagger-sized pieces of enchanted metal flew out of his sleeve, targeting Nathan’s head, chest and groin.

Nathan jumped with the full strength of his Rage, flipping to catch himself on the ceiling with his feet. His [Focus] allowed incredible control over the movement, making it feel like everything was moving in slow motion.

High-tier Tumbling 4 achieved!

The blades curved sharply to follow him, but only the one targeted at his head was able to make the adjustment, cleaving through the side of Nathan’s neck in a shower of blood.

Then Nathan propelled himself downwards at the mage, who had started channeling a powerful fire spell in his other hand.

That’ll kill Egall - her [Mage Armor] is an order of magnitude weaker than his.

[Maximized Heat Fireball]

Nathan reached out with his aura as he crashed bodily into the war mage, quashing the spell in a projected fist of antimagic. The heat had already started blacking the floor, but the spell sputtered and shattered in Nathan’s immaterial grip. The absorbed Stamina completely replaced what Nathan had spent healing the lethal neck wound.

Aura of Antimagic 3 achieved!

By extending his aura to catch the fireball, Nathan had withdrawn the extension of his antimagic away from his skin - so [Mage Armor] still slowed him down as it detonated in a flash of light. The uninjured mage landed on his back only mildly dazed as Nathan caught himself on his feet.

These new Talent ranks give me more antimagic to go around - so unless I really extend the aura it’ll still apply to my body.

The Giantsrest war mage looked up at Nathan with a horrified expression. His hand twitched to bring the flying blades back, and his mouth opened. “What in the nightmares of Giants…”

He never finished the sentence before Nathan stomped on his skull, sending gore spraying in a small radius. The blades clattered to the ground.

Assassin has leveled to 22! Congratulations, you have killed the War mage Dierc dho Nhir

Nathan turned to check on Egall, finding nothing but a shifting heat haze at the top of the steps. He reached out with his magical senses, confirming that it was an invisibility spell.

“What…? By the Giants. Are you going to live?” Egall’s voice came from the invisible figure as Nathan looked at her.

He touched his neck, smearing blood away from smooth flesh. “I’m fine. We need to run.”

Egall’s voice was just on the edge of panic as she clattered down the staircase. “Are you immune to magic?”

Nathan leapt over the banister, using [Slow Fall] to land smoothly ahead of her. “Yup. Aura around me.”

Don’t need to give her the full story. What I said implies that once you get past the aura I’m vulnerable to magic, which is the opposite of true.

He scanned the open area at the bottom of the stairs. There was nobody in sight, though that probably wouldn’t last long with all the sound that the war mage had made. A cracking sound came from the side, and a golem peeled itself off the wall to land at the base of the staircase. It shook away rock dust as it turned to attack.

Nathan waved Egall to the side of the room. “Stay invisible. Keep going, I got this.”

At least until the slave-elites show up.

More golems awoke from the statuary around the room, and Nathan fought them as Egall skirted around the edge of the room. A few of the golems clearly noticed her through her invisibility, but Nathan struck down any who turned in her direction.

The golems should have been terrifying combatants - their flesh was stone and their strikes carried incredible strength and momentum. But Nathan’s [Notice] let him keep track of the dozen enemies around him, and burning [Focus] gave him the reaction time to stay ahead of them. Rage and movement skills gave him more than enough speed to dodge the deceptively fast blows.

High-tier Dodging Footwork 7 achieved!

Beyond powerful attacks, each golem should have required incredible damage to put down, distributed enchantments keeping them operational long past where any human foe would have died.

But they each had a core holding the magical energy and intelligence that animated them. The cores were distributed in different spots in each golem, and armored with layers of enchanted metal. But they were clear to Nathan’s [Magical Perception] and [Vital Targeting]. With his latest rank-up he could extend [Antimagic Aura] nearly four feet from his hand, and [Vital Targeting] also subtly helped him shred the core enchantments of each golem.

Nathan stepped away from the last enemy as it collapsed into pieces, leaving the center of the room splintered and broken underneath the coating of statuary.

You know, I’ve never considered myself a vandal, but that was some museum-worthy sculpture. Mobile and evil sculptures, which probably disqualifies them from curation.

The sudden silence let Nathan hear the heavy clunk as the door unlocked from the outside. He faced it, cracking his neck and checking on Egall to see that she was still invisible and pressed up against a side wall.

Time for some more fighting I don't feel guilty for. I'm freeing somebody, and they're trying to stop me.

Status of Nathan Lark:

Permanent Talent 1: Aura of Antimagic 3

Permanent Talent 2: Perfected Body 6

Talent 3: High-tier Slow Fall 9

Class: Implacable Antimage level 144

Deepened Stamina: 4318/4620

Antimage’s Impassivity

Antimagic Momentum

Raging Thrill

Implacable Inertia

Unarmored Resilience

Improved Antimagic

Strenuous Agility

Hand-to-hand Expertise

Class: Assassin level 22

Focus: 82/220

Vital Targeting

Stealthy Movement

Utility skills:

Battle Meditation 7

High-tier Earnestness 10

High-tier Sprinting 3

Magical Perception 4

High-tier Notice 6

High-tier Identify 8

High-tier Dodging Footwork 7

High-tier Enhanced Memory 9

Mid-tier Lecturing 9

High-tier Tumbling 4

Mid-tier Noticeability 3