There was some mention of surgery, but Sera wasn’t willing to take the risk of making the problem worse.
The one new piece of information that came out of a more complete investigation was the extent of the damage. Sera’s lungs weren’t the only thing that was scarred - she had scarring all the way up her esophagus and throat.
That, not the mana scars on her lungs, was what was keeping her from talking.
That meant we had two different problems to solve, but it seemed to make Sera feel a little better. The esophageal and throat scarring was still going to be difficult to treat, but it was somewhat easier to handle with healing magic than lung damage.
The doctors still didn’t have the expertise to treat that on the campus, but they gave Sera a list of names of doctors that she could see about that type of surgery. While that was safer, Sera still wanted to find a different approach if possible, since the recovery time would apparently be weeks or months even with magical aid.
Also, throat surgery sounded pretty terrifying to all of us.
“You really mean it? They’re a real Necromancer?” Patrick was positively gleeful. I doubted he’d have been any happier if I’d given him a magic sword.
…Which I still intended to do. Eventually.
Patrick’s enthusiasm made me smile in spite of my nervousness about the whole situation. “Yep, sure are.” I turned to Derek. “Did you get a reply?”
“Of course. Deni said they’d come by in two days. You’ve got until then to come up with a really good story, and most likely an even better gift. Deni collects sources of forbidden knowledge, so that might be a good angle to consider. If you can teach them something they don’t already know, or give them an item made with forgotten techniques…”
“Forbidden knowledge, eh?”
I knew exactly who to talk to.
I found Keras playing a game of Crowns…apparently against himself.
I’d grown up playing Valor, rather than Crowns, but I was familiar with the game. It wasn’t as popular as Valor, but some people enjoyed the fact that each player chose a different set of pieces. The asymmetrical nature made it more engaging for the comparatively small number of players, but it was much harder to learn, and the unbalanced teams made it less suitable for tournament play.
At the moment, Keras was sitting on the left side of the table, holding the Katashi piece. He looked to be debating using it to take one of the tyrant’s sons off the opposite side of the table.
I didn’t know for sure, but at a glance, it looked like the tyrant’s side of the board was winning.
He looked up as I approached and set Katashi back down on the board, presumably in the same place he’d been before. “Corin! Care for a game?”
I considered that. “I’d like that, but maybe you could help me with something first?”
The swordsman nodded. “Sure, probably. What do you need?”
“Oh, not much. I was just hoping you could teach me Pre-Attunement Era sorcery.”
He blinked. “I’m not sure I understand what you mean.”
I wasn’t sure if he was being evasive or honestly didn’t know. “You haven’t told me about how exactly your magic works, but when I mentioned Wrynn Jaden, you said you knew her. She’s what we call a Pre-Attunement Era sorcerer, meaning she used magic in the days before the goddess gave out attunements. That kind of magic isn’t supposed to work anymore, but I think it’s what you’re doing, and why you’re so powerful.”
Keras shook his head. “I’m not like Wrynn. Not exactly, anyway.”
“What are you, then? I think Patrick’s guess was ‘ancient wizard king more ancient than time’.”
“Did he really say ‘ancient’ twice in there?”
I laughed. “He did. Is that seriously your only objection?”
“Obviously not. Wizard king is far too lowly a title for one such as me. He could have at least used ‘god emperor’.” Keras rolled his eyes. “But no, I’m not anything like that. Sorcerer is a good word, though. That’s what we call magic users where I come from.”
Now I was getting somewhere. “And can you teach me?”
He shrugged a shoulder. “I did say I’d teach you a few things, but I was thinking more in terms of fighting techniques. I don’t think teaching you sorcerous theory would do a lot of good.”
I took a seat opposite from him. “Can I politely disagree? Being able to use magic of any kind without an attunement would be…tremendous.”
“That’s just the problem. I don’t think you can. I could explain all the rules of sorcery, as they were explained to me, and I doubt anything will come of it.” He paused. “Why do your people think this ‘Pre-Attunement Era Sorcery’ disappeared?”
I knew how to answer this one. It was something I’d studied before taking my Judgment, hoping to find a way to gain power without an attunement.
Like many of the things I’d researched, it had amounted to nothing useful. At least until now. “There are a few prevailing theories, if they could be called that. Really, the first one is more of a legend. Some people say that before the exodus to Kaldwyn, the Tyrant in Gold stole magic from humanity as a way of securing his eternal rule.”
Keras nodded. “And other theories?”
“Others believe we just lost the secrets of how to use it, or that perhaps it was tied to the land we were on before the exodus, and it can’t be used here. Another theory is that our bodies have changed over time for any number of reasons, and we no longer produce enough mana to cast spells on our own.”
I took a breath, thinking before I continued. “A popular theory in Edria is that the goddess altered us deliberately, so that only the worthy could use magic. Thus, magical power would be a sign of greatness and the goddess’ affection. I’ve always suspected it’s more like Hadrix described, however.”
“Hadrix?”
“In his treatises on ancient magic, Hadrix noted that older works often refer to external places of power that we may no longer be able to access.”
Keras tapped his fingers on the table in what might have been an affirmative. “Dominions. I suspect that’s part of the problem. Might be fragments of other truths in some of the other ideas, too.”
“Might be? Meaning you don’t actually know?”
He shook his head sadly. “My sorcery, or magic as you’d call it, works just fine. And yes, some of the abilities I use draw from what we call dominions back at home. From what I’ve gathered from talking to others, I’m confident that your bodies are different from people where I come from — and that’s probably why you can’t use that kind of magic. I don’t know what caused that difference, though.”
“That’s still something we can work with. If our bodies are different, is there some kind of magic that could force a change that would let me use these dominions?”
“Probably, but that’s not the kind of magic that I use. Even if I knew how, though, it would be dangerous, and probably come with disadvantages. My people don’t use attunements. I’m not sure if they could use attunements. I’ve seen things that are similar back at home, but they’re nowhere near as complex, and they don’t seem to alter mana composition to the same extent as an attunement does.”
That made me lean toward the explanation that our body changes were deliberate, at least at first. But then I realized it was also possible that attunements were developed as a reaction to people losing their magic.
That did lead to an important question, though. “How common is your type of magic where you come from?”