After a moment of consideration, I re-sheathed Selys-Lyann and pulled out the Jaden Box. “Retrieve: Transference Sword.”
I used that sword to cut out the section of floor that had been enchanted. I’d used the other sword because Selys-Lyann had a chance of freezing the whole thing, which I didn’t want to risk. Moreover, a cutting aura was more suited to this sort of job. Sawing at wood with a sword blade would have taken forever, but the transference sword’s aura made it easy.
“What are we doing with that?” Jin sounded curious now, rather than scared.
“Store: Transference Sword.” The sword vanished. “We’re going to trace it back to the source.”
I hadn’t just learned the Arrow of Direction spell to find Sheridan — I’d learned it because it could trace the connections between magic in general.
Using Trials of Judgment to find Tristan was one option, but that wouldn’t work as long as he was inside the spire.
Tracing an enchantment to an anchor, though? That was basic stuff.
I slipped the enchanted floorboard under my coat and we headed out of the room, locking it behind us.
“Let’s go find some trouble.”
I was pretty excited about using the Arrow of Direction spell at first. Seeing a glowing line that led straight toward whoever had planted the enchantment in my room sounded great in theory.
In reality, though, we had two major complications.
First, distance. The enchantment was much further away than I’d expected. My initial Arrow of Direction spell didn’t work at all.
With some effort, I managed to cast the Citrine-level version, rather than the Quartz one I’d been practicing. That found the target, but the spell still only lasted a few seconds.
I didn’t have the mana to cast that repeatedly.
So, after we walked for a bit, I stopped and changed my plan.
“I’m going to try to make a second enchantment on the floorboard that traces the first enchantment.”
It was almost identical in concept to what I’d just made for Keras earlier. I didn’t have the second item to use as an anchor, but I didn’t need to – the two items were already connected.
I still couldn’t make it stay on all the time, but by making it an enchantment, I could pass it to Jin and he could use his mana to activate it. That way, we could share the mana costs by passing it back and forth.
The enchanting process was a little shorter this time, since I didn’t have to make the anchor part, and I’d just done something similar earlier in the day.
“You sure this is going to work?” Jin asked.
“No,” I admitted, “But I want to know if it will.”
If it did, maybe I could eventually modify Trials of Judgment in a similar way. It would need to be a much more powerful version of the enchantment than I was capable of casting right now, but anything that fed into my longer-term plans like that was useful.
The enchantment worked perfectly.
I was almost surprised, honestly. I’d been in such a bad frame of mind after what happened with Vellum’s class that I’d been beginning to doubt my abilities as an Enchanter in general.
Seeing that glowing line appear when I turned the enchantment on… there was something magical about that.
I grinned and passed it to Jin. “Try it yourself.”
“This rune?” He asked.
“Yeah. Just a bit of gray mana.”
Jin activated the rune, then stumbled back a step in surprise.
I laughed. “Yeah, the arrow is a little startling at first.”
“Indeed.” He chuckled, straightening his stance. “Shall we go?”
We followed the arrow for an hour. Then another hour.
I felt bad for Keras, who presumably was still following us.
After a moment of questioning that, I reached into my pouch and tapped the anchor, casting an Arrow of Direction. I knew anchors could be traced in reverse now, so…
….Yeah, Keras was still behind us. I couldn’t tell the distance without a different spell, but it was clear that he was following the same path that we were, rather than being in the direction of the mansion or something.
I gave him a silent thanks as Jin and I continued toward our unknown destination.
Most of the walk had been relatively quiet, but I didn’t mind that.
I was getting used to working with Jin again, and I was pleased to have someone with a better stealth skill set for this kind of mission, even if I didn’t entirely trust him.
“Any idea if we’re getting close?” Jin asked.
I shook my head. “There’s an Evaluate Distance spell, but I haven’t learned it. It’s on my list.”
We walked a little further.
It was sort of nice, for a while.
“Corin, I’d like to apologize again. I should have been honest with you.”
I sighed. I’d hoped this wasn’t going to come up, but I’d known it was probably inevitable. “I still can’t forgive you, Jin. I’m not sure if I ever will. But I’m willing to work with you on this, at least. We’ll see how that goes.”
Jin nodded. “I will endeavor not to disappoint you again.”
Our destination was not what I’d expected.
I’d imagined a lot of possibilities.
The Vice Chancellor’s office seemed plausible. He was one of the few people who knew about what we were up to at all, and keeping tabs on us made a degree of sense.
A mansion for a noble, like Elora Theas or Lord Teft, also seemed like a strong possibility. Both of them had the means and potentially the motivation.
I’d even considered the possibility of running into my mother, and learning that she was back in Valia and watching me from a distance.
Also, I may have pictured a wizard’s tower and a cave with a dragon.
So, when we exited the campus and headed into a residential area, I was a little surprised.
I was doubly surprised when I found myself wandering into an area with run down older apartment buildings.
I was triply surprised when we headed into a dark alley adjacent to one of those buildings.
I was not, however, surprised when the dark figures dropped from the rooftops and surrounded us.
That part I’d been counting on.
Jin reached into his coat.
Someone in the front of the group — they were all wearing hoods and black neutral masks, so details were tough to discern — spoke up. “There’s no need for that. Don’t start anything and we won’t need to, either.”
Jin slowly nodded and removed an empty hand from his coat, opening it to show that he was unarmed.
The leader stepped forward. As they drew closer, I noticed a single green gemstone in the center of the forehead of the mask. “You’re a long way from school, kids. What brings you out here?” Something was altering their voice when they talked, giving it an unearthly quality. Maybe the mask itself, if I had to guess.
I decided to be direct. I tossed a glowing floorboard into the gap between them and us. “That.”
The leader snapped their fingers. Another figure stepped forward, knelt down, and picked up the board. Then they walked back and whispered something to the leader.
The leader spoke again. “Ah, that. Just a routine bit of work for hire, nothing personal.”
I shrugged. “Okay, nothing personal, then. Just point me toward whoever hired you.”
I heard a chorus of laughter from all around us.
More laughter than there should have been, given that I could only see six people.
I turned my attunement on, but that didn’t reveal any invisible watchers. Every one of the cloaked people was attuned, though, and showing Sunstone-level.