Chapter 57: Tomechild

As Sen emerged from the portal, his status updated. Not only were his stats returning to normal, but he had leveled up. 

[Level Up]

Name: Sen Locke

Class: God of Magic

Level: 6

[Mana Aggression +4]

[Mana Encapsulation +3]

[Mana Protection +7] 

Strength/Mana Aggression: 114 — > 118

Speed/Mana Encapsulation: 123 — > 126

Magic: 149

Constitution/Mana Protection: 108 — > 115

Mana Points: 999,999,999+

[You have received ten stat points.]

[You have received a unique magic essence sphere. Sphere type: Temporal.]

Ten stat points brought his magic to 159, and the surge of power felt good, but it was nothing compared to the unique magic essence sphere. The existence of a temporal essence sphere shouldn’t even be possible. That type of magic was unique to him. 

No, he realized. He’d taught the technique to Orttha, and someone had used temporal portals to create bridges between several locations and Harpis Castle. Though he wasn’t sure if those portals had been present during the life of Harpis, or if someone had added them since. In hindsight, Harpies could simply fly to the island. But portals were always convenient. What mattered was, this was a valuable opportunity to do something he’d wanted to do since coming to this new time.

With this sphere, he could fix his broken temporal world. He could do more than fix it, he could expand it even further. They wouldn’t be at Brightsail Academy forever, after all. Eventually, they’d need somewhere else to rest. A properly structured temporal world was beyond compare, especially with his new reward.

He emerged on the other side of the portal to see a slew of familiar faces illuminated by torches that had been planted in the ground. 

Everyone from the three raiding groups waited for him. Professor Crosp and several students from the camp were also there, as well as many of the ones they’d rescued. Even Snake wasn’t far, leaning against a tree with crossed arms. When he saw Sen exit the portal, he rolled his eyes and walked away. 

Sen looked over his shoulder. He’d tugged at the right strings of the temporal space as he moved through it that any moment now…

The portal collapsed. The only way to or from Harpis Castle was by boat or flight now. Not that there was anything left to find. His spell had utterly destroyed it. 

“Welcome back,” Mori said.

Sikar sighed. He leaned against his staff. “We saved every one of the missing students. There are injuries here and there, but for the most part, everyone is safe. You led this mission well, Sen.” 

It was too dark to return tonight, so they decided to spend the night in camp. Plenty of campfires roared, and students gathered around each in number despite the late hour. Sen had a feeling most of the kidnapped students wouldn’t be able to rest until they were back beyond the walls of Bright Sail. Some wouldn’t rest even then. After all, that was where they’d been taken from. This campfire in particular, was surrounded by friendly faces. Susanna and Girch. His replica siblings, Mori and Ilm, sat to his left. Milim and Samara to his right. Joseia and Oliver made small talk on a log across from him. Even the students from Green Book and Fire Kite were present. Ano, Tonka, Marin, Dasai, and Alari. None of them knew many other Brightsail students, and they’d all fought alongside one another in Harpis Castle. He wasn’t sure if he could consider all of them friends, but at the very least, they were friendly enough. 

[Look at you, a real social butterfly. Perhaps it’s appropriate, considering that spell is what brought us here in the first place.] 

Ilm sat between Mori and Sen. Though there was plenty of room, she was practically shoulder to shoulder with them. He frowned, not because it bothered him, but because she should never have been put in this position. None of the students at Bright Sail should’ve. He should’ve hunted down the cult sooner. He shouldn’t have gotten complacent. Next time he would…

He paused as Milim leaned her head on his shoulder. “Hey Sen,” she said. 

He turned slowly, a little unsure of what to do. “Yes?” he asked her. He realized she was looking up at the moon. 

It gazed back at her, perfectly visible through an opening in the treetops. “Do you think…do you think the sun would go looking for the moon if it went missing?” she asked quietly. 

Ragmár used to ponder things like that. He’d ask questions that never made any sense to Sen. In a world of magic, one of the few men who had no natural affinity for it often came across as being one of the most mystical people Sen knew. Back then, he’d always said questions like this were silly. But looking back, Ragmár had been looking for something then. He wanted his friend to engage with him. To entertain a silly moment amongst a lifetime of war and bloodshed. He was ashamed now that he’d never given Ragmár those moments. He looked up with Milim.

“I think so. What’s the sun without the moon?”

That surprised her. It seemed. She sat up and turned to look at him. “I thought you’d say that. Thanks for coming to save me, by the way.” She paused, and a frown crossed her face. “Well…not just me, of course. I meant—”

“I came for everyone. But I worried especially about you and Ilm,” he told her. 

It was the truth, after all. 

Milim nodded at that. “Can we go on a walk?”

Sen met her gaze. He said nothing but nodded his consent. He turned to Mori. “Keep an eye on things for me.”

“Of course.”

Sen nodded at the others. Ano lifted a brow. Samara made an odd face and looked at Joseia, but he shrugged. No one said anything as they made their way out of camp. 

They walked in silence. Sen whispered a spell. “Seek beauty,” he said. A blue, sparkling light appeared in front of them and then casually floated ahead, creating a trail in the air for them to follow. 

Milim smiled, amazed by the light of the spell itself. But what was truly amazing was where it led them. A short, five-minute walk was all it took. Which was good, because he didn’t want to stray too far from camp. 

A river fed into a ten foot high waterfall that fell into a spring no wider than twenty or thirty feet. The soothing sound reminded him of the waterfall he’d kept in his temporal world before it’d been destroyed coming to the future. The moon had followed them, and its reflection was a beautiful copy in the spring. It was as if it had used the Perfect Replica spell to create a mirror of itself. Sen wasn’t sure which he found more pleasant. 

For a while, Milim just stared at the water. He could sense she wanted to say something, so he allowed the silence to stretch as he stared at the white sphere in the night sky. The stars danced around it, twinkling with natural magic. 

When she finally spoke, he already had an idea of what she wanted to talk about.

“I’m a Tomechild,” she said. As if that explained everything. 

He blinked. It wasn’t a term he was familiar with, but he had a guess. “Does that have something to do with the pink book I saw?” he asked her. 

Milim looked surprise. “How did —” But realization dawned on her. “You saw it during the ritual, I guess?” She nodded. “Yes. It’s a part of me. It happened when I was younger.” Milim paused for a second, turning her gaze from the water to him. 

Sen returned her gaze and nodded his encouragement. He was there. He would listen. 

“When I was a kid…my friends and I found a man outside the village while we were playing. He was in bad shape.”

A vision flashed across Sen’s gaze. A tiny Milim reached out to poke a man in white robes. He didn’t stir. Sen couldn’t see his face clearly. It was like the memory was distorted. The man had a brown satchel bag strapped around his shoulder. Where he’d fallen, a pink book had slipped out of it. As Milim stared at it, the book glowed. She reached for it, but the man’s eyes snapped open and her hand recoiled quickly. 

“Leave me!” The man shouted. 

Milim jumped backward, ready to run, but the man was already unconscious again. Her friends returned with some adults from town. 

Milim kept talking as the memory ended. As if she’d been the one telling Sen what had happened, and he hadn’t just had a vision. If this were magic, he was impressed. He took it in stride. 

“I visited him every day. He was in a little hut, and mom would send me with food for him. But he was always asleep. Until the fifth day. When I showed up, he was gone. The doctor was surprised, but everyone agreed not to send a search party out. They said it was obvious he didn’t want their help,” Milim said.

“Two days later they showed up. They were cultists, but I didn’t know anything about that back then. All I saw was a group of men in black robes coming into the village. So I ran to tell my parents. Father went to check. Mom and I watched from the window. A man with an orange beard led them. But his beard was almost like…it looked like it was on fire.”

Sen caught a flash of him. A hood covered his upper face, but his beard was alight with flames. His robes were black with purple symbols. His eyes widened. 

“Those robes, they’re just like Marrow’s,” he said.

Milim nodded. “They were. I haven’t seen them since, not until I saw Marrow in Harpis castle. I don’t know if they’re connected, but it’s possible.” She continued her story. “The man with the fire beard was yelling so loud we could hear him. He wanted to know where the man in white had gone. The village elder told them he’d left days ago, but the cultists didn’t believe it. They started setting houses on fire.”

Sen grimaced. He knew now why Milim had a hard time telling this story, and he was glad he hadn’t pressured her before. 

“Then—” Her words faltered. In their place, the vision came back. Milim was trapped under the burning wreckage of her house. 

She could hear a man screaming outside. “No! No!” 

Milim screamed. “Help! Help us!” It wasn’t the first time. Her voice was hoarse. She’d just given up until now. Wood creaked and groaned, but an old man ripped the wreckage away and pulled Milim from the fire. It was the same man as before. He lifted her into his arms and walked out of the house. 

“My mom,” Milim said, pointing back toward the wreckage. Her savior turned and scanned the wreckage for a moment, but his blurred expression turned grim. He turned and walked out of the house without a word. He took Milim into the street, where he slammed a hand into the dirt and pulled it towards him. With the same hand he packed the dirt down before laying Milim down on it. 

She was in bad shape. Her breathing was ragged, and she looked on the verge of falling unconscious. The man standing over her hesitated. “I can help you, but it will make your life hard. These men will come after you. You’ll have to fight. But if you train, you’ll be strong enough to protect yourself when that day comes. It’s your decision.” He reached back and pulled the pink book out of his satchel bag. “What do you want to do?” he asked her. 

Milim nodded her consent. 

He placed the book on her chest and then waited. It glowed and turned from physical to translucent, slowly sinking into her and wrapping itself within her soul. Her body started to heal instantly, drawing upon the power housed within the book.

The old man placed a hand on her shoulder. “It’s okay, you’ll be alright. I’m going to protect you. My name is Orttha.” 

The vision faded, but the shock on his face didn’t. “Orttha…he was the one who gave you the tome? Where did he get it?” Sen asked.

Milim shook his head. “He’s never told me. But…I’ve never asked. We don’t talk about those days very often. After that, he started training me. He had a book of his own, and he figured out how to teach me some of its techniques. It’s how I learned Encapsulation. Before that, he taught me how to mask the power within me. He said there are a lot of people who seek out that knowledge to this day. Kingdoms, cults, factions, even academies. If it became known that I was a tomechild, then…they would come after me. It’s why Orttha started working at the academy. He thought it would be a safe place to lie low for a while. He started working there last year, and then I enrolled to join him recently.” 

This was a lot to take in. Orttha had made Milim a…tomechild? And this wasn’t her first run in with the cultists that wore black. Marrow and her might have more history than he’d realized. He might’ve even have been one of the other men in hoods that day. 

“Well, that explains some things,” Sen said. “So there are others? Tomechildren I mean.”

“There are. Orttha knows more. They started popping up about a hundred years after the God of Magic’s disappearance. Someone learned how to bond a tome to a living person. It worked especially well with children. Their natural magic could learn from the tome, and they developed unusual abilities depending on its content. They were especially strong, but that strength came at a price.”

“Others would come to steal the power,” Sen said grimly.

She hesitated for a moment, as if he wasn’t quite right, but before he could ask, she looked away from him suddenly and turned her attention to the spring. “You’re him, aren’t you?”

Sen turned to look at her. 

“The God of Magic,” she said, clarifying her question. 

Sen frowned. He turned to look at the water as well. “No.”

After a moment, he paused and added, “…and yes.” 

She glanced at him. “Both?”

“That’s what they called me, but I’ve always been and always will be Sen.”

Milim smiled at that. “I was hoping so. Are you…a thousand years old then?” she asked.

“I haven’t been running around this whole time. I discovered an artifact that allowed me to go to the future. It broke getting me, Mori, and Ilm here, but for us it was only a few minutes at best. I’m nineteen. At least for a few more months,” he told her.

Milim let out a breath. “I’m the same age as the God of Magic…it really makes me feel like an underachiever.”

Sen chuckled at that. “You’re right on time for your story. Don’t worry about anyone else’s.” It was odd telling someone his real identity, but Milim took it in stride. Honestly, she’d probably suspected it for a while. Orttha knew more about the different gods and cults than most. Not to mention her soul was bound to one of his journals, apparently. Unfortunately, he owed her an apology for that. “I never did much with dream magic, I’m afraid.” Unlike Orttha’s journal of hybrid stats, Sen hadn’t exactly passed much onto Milim. Sure, the raw energy had saved her life, but she hadn’t inherited any spells from him.

Milim shook her head. “I’m grateful for this power. It’s helped me develop my affinity for dream magic and learn it more easily. I can bend dreams to my will. Between that and the staff you made for me, I’m confident I’ll grow stronger.” 

Sen nodded. He’d already seen her potential; it was part of why he’d invested so much in her already. “I know, Milim.” 

He thought of the vision, of the man with the fire beard, and of Marrow. He thought of her fallen village. The fact she’d lost her parents. Now, the same people had almost hurt her again. Sen turned to look at her. “One day, we’ll find the people who did that to your village, and we’ll make them pay.”

Milim nodded. “I know we will.” 

Calabari

He’d been lucky to make it off the island in time, and though he healed the worst of his leg, he wasn’t skilled enough to fix it completely. Still, it had been enough to hobble to a boat and avoid…whatever that spell was. The magic had exploded so brightly that his eyes still hurt from staring at it. It was like looking into the sun as a child. The imprint of a white column of light still seared into his vision. If he’d left any later then he had…

He wasn’t sure if that was Harpis or some rival god who had showed up to join the fight. Either way, he was getting out of here. The problem was, he was in a rowboat, and the nearest land was…well, honestly, he had no idea. 

Something shifted, and he turned to look down at his belongings. The few things he’d had time to pack before joining the cultists here. Had something crawled inside his bag? He lifted his oars, setting one inside the boat next to him, and poking his bag with the other. 

The bag jumped. “What the?” he asked. He scrambled backward off his seat and fell, sending the boat bobbing wildly. The bag popped open and a blob of flesh crawled out of it. It grew larger and larger until finally it took the shape of a man. 

Marrow. 

It was Marrow. 

Calabari’s eyes threatened to pop out of his head, but at least it wasn’t some kind of monster. “What are you doing? Why were you in—how were you in my bag?”

Marrow grinned. “Almost died back there. Can you believe that spell? Tore me to shreds. I always keep a few spare bodies tucked away, but this was the only one that made it. You really saved both of us.” He looked around at the dark waters of the ocean. “Hm, well. This sucks. Oh well,” he said, leaning back with his hands behind his head. He pointed in a direction, seemingly at random. “Lands that way, wake me up when we get there,” he said.

Calabari scoffed. “So much for thinking I’d get some help!”

Marrow cracked open an eye. “Oh, I helped. If you kept going in this direction, you’d be stranded out here for the rest of your life.”

Calabari turned and looked over his shoulder at the dark horizon. He swallowed and quickly grabbed the oars, paddling in the direction Marrow had pointed. Well, things could be worse, he supposed.