Magus Reborn [Stubbing in Seven Weeks]

395. Elves and sand

The meeting stretched far longer than Kai had expected.Part of that was because none of them had walked into the room anticipating so many pressing matters at once. The other part was that at least two of those matters were serious enough that they could not be handled with broad orders and quick decisions. Every step had to be discussed properly, weighed for consequences, and then fitted into everything else already moving around the kingdom.

The plague alone took a great deal of time.

Maps had to be brought out and spread across the table. From there, they went over each region carefully, deciding which groups of Enforcers, Mages, and Watchers would be sent where, and whether any of the trainees should also be folded into the fighting force. Kai left that final point mostly to Killian and Jacks. They knew the apprentices better than he did, and he trusted them to judge who could be useful and who would simply die if pushed too early.

Beyond that, they reviewed every corrupted creature that had already been reported.

Every weaver variant, every fiend, every unfamiliar thing seen inside the spreading dead mana zones was brought up and discussed, with Kai filling in whatever he could from his own deeper knowledge of dead mana creatures.

That alone proved useful more than once.

There were also the migration routes for civilians to settle, which roads could still be used safely, how to avoid turning evacuations into panic, and how best to move Enforcers into the corrupted territories. Not everyone could cross the kingdom through the air the way Kai could now. Even so, the sixth circle had changed what he himself could do, and he already knew that if needed, he could move whole teams to their assigned regions within hours.

By the end, they also went through the replies that had come in from the nobles and the church.

That part made something quietly settle in Kai’s mind—He had far more allies now than he once did.

The newer dukes in particular had already begun moving the way he hoped they would. Both women had taken his warnings about the plague seriously and had already started shifting populations out of danger rather than wasting time doubting him.

And they even used their Mages to preserve crops and stored food before the plague could ruin them. Duke Blackwood had gone a step further than that. He had personally moved to the edge of his territory to fight the weavers and fiends trying to cross in from one side, and his presence alone had been enough to pull the lesser nobles of that region in behind him.

So, in truth, things were moving better than Kai had first feared when the news reached him.

Once every detail about the plague had been gone over, the meeting broke apart quickly. Most of those present left at once to carry out the orders they had been given, while only a few remained behind. After that, Kai spent more time with Elias, speaking through the matter of Vanderfall and how best to make sure the kingdom survived this without splintering apart.

If war came after the plague, Vanderfall would not endure it.

Elias understood that too.

So even if the plan Kai laid out would, in the end, leave Vanderfall relying more heavily on him, Elias did not argue.

By now, the two of them had gone through too many near-death situations together for there to be much doubt left between them, and more importantly, Elias knew Kai was speaking with the commoners’ well-being in mind rather than trying to snatch power for the sake of it.

Because of that, Elias ended up being the first of Kai’s recent companions to leave Veralt, a day after the meeting. He moved toward his kingdom through the border as soon as everything was settled.

Once he was gone, only Veridia and Elder Caelith remained.

Caelith was simple enough. Kai was going to escort him personally back to Sylvastra with the Elder Tree seeds, so there was nothing to decide there.

Veridia, however, was another matter.

Kai honestly had expected her to leave the moment she had enough rest in her body to travel again.

But she was still here in Veralt.

He had gotten reports about her over the last few days.

Veridia had not been causing trouble. Mostly, she wandered through parts of the castle, watched the Enforcers train with the sort of look that made people work harder without knowing why, and at one point sent a letter to Loras, one of her apprentices who was apparently still in Veralt and had been waiting for her this whole time. But even after that, she still had not left with him.

Kai could not quite tell what her plan was.

Technically, most of the important parts of the mana oath no longer bound her now that their shared mission was over. Even so, Kai doubted she could truly do much to him even without it. That was not what bothered him. Her presence in the castle just felt like something he would need to address sooner or later, because leaving such things vague too long always had a way of becoming irritating later.

Still, when he finally went to speak with her, he found her in one of the quieter rooms of the castle with several books from the library spread around her.

Before he could say much, Veridia had already looked up and told him to leave her alone, let her keep the room for a little while longer, and trust that she would not cause any problems for him. In her own words, Kai already had enough to deal with.

That part, at least, was true.

So in the end, he decided to leave her be.

It was not as if she posed any real threat to him anymore. He had outstripped her too far for that. And because of that, once the most immediate matters in Veralt had been settled, Kai turned his attention to leaving for Sylvastra with Elder Caelith as soon as possible.

Before he did, however, he still had one more thing to handle.

The Enforcers, Watchers, and Mages who were being sent toward the corruption zones needed transport, and Kai moved to solve that himself. The spell he used was actually a fairly simple wind spell called [Gale Carriage]. It created a full carriage from condensed wind, sturdy enough for an entire party to sit inside, and let it fly by drawing on the wind-aspected mana already present in the air, which on most days was more than enough to sustain it.

The only limitation was that one Wind Mage still needed to be present to guide it.

Without a Wind Mage, the carriage would be hard to steer and could easily fall out of the sky, and accidental deaths were the last thing Kai wanted right now. Because of that, he spent a few hours personally teaching the Mages what to do and, more importantly, what not to do. Fortunately, Wind-Aspected Mages were common enough that there was no shortage of people to work with.

Once that was finished and the different groups had finally departed for the corruption zones, Kai wasted no more time.

He picked up Elder Caelith in one of his wind hands and left for Sylvastra at once.

Normally, the old elf might have grumbled about being carried like that, but ever since getting the seeds, Caelith had been in an almost absurdly good mood. More than once, he had even gone out of his way to hug Kai when he saw him, which was a far cry from how cold and suspicious he had been the first time they met.

Still, Kai understood it. After everything that had happened in the Earth Plane, he had not just saved the Elder Tree. He had, in a very real sense, saved Caelith himself and perhaps the future of the entire elven race.

So through most of the journey, Caelith kept talking.

He spoke about proposing that a statue of Kai be raised in Sylvastra for what he had done, and then about making sure human-elven trade flourished properly from this point onward. Kai rejected the first idea immediately, but the second was at least reasonable enough that he let the old elf keep talking while he focused on flying.

And now, with far deeper mana reserves and access to most fifth-circle spells, that journey was far shorter than before.

They reached Sylvastra in less than three hours.

The moment the thick fog of the island came into sight, Kai pushed through it, and not long after, he landed on the shores of the place. The last time he had stood here, ash had seemed to cover everything. Now, when he looked around, things were still far from fully healed, but they were noticeably better.

But the smell of burning bark was still in the air, and Kai knew that meant the Elder Tree was still being consumed even now.

Still, with the seeds finally here, that wasn't going to last much longer. Soon enough, things would be fine again, though Kai wouldn't be here to see it for himself.

Just as that thought passed through his mind, Elder Caelith, whom he had already set down on the shore, spoke.

“Are you sure you don’t want to come with me? I’m sure the elves would want to hear what happened from your own mouth.”

Kai shook his head. “There’s no time for that. You’ll be enough. And once they see the seeds, that should speak for itself. Just keep them safe.”

Elder Caelith nodded immediately, one hand going to the pouch at his side. “I will protect them with my life for the last stretch of the journey. Both of these seeds will restore the Elder Tree, even if it may take some time for the full effect to show.”

Kai simply gave a small nod.

He had given Caelith only two of three seeds. With how much damage the Elder Tree had taken, one seed might have been enough to save it, but two would make sure it returned not just to life, but to the peak of its strength. The third seed was not necessary for that, and because of it, Kai had kept one for himself.

Even now, he had no real idea what he was going to do with something that valuable.

But for the moment, it was better with him than anywhere else. He trusted himself to guard it more than he trusted the elves to keep an extra seed safe, especially after Maleficia had already managed to target Sylvastra once. Elder Caelith had agreed with that reasoning easily enough and had been more than content with the two seeds he had received.

Kai gave the forest around him one more look. Then he turned back to Caelith. “I’ll send my men here soon with drones. You’ll be able to communicate with us quickly from now on.”

Elder Caelith nodded. “That will be good.”

Then he gave Kai one last look before turning and making his way into the forest.

Kai stood there and watched him go, his figure slowly disappearing between the trees, and for a brief moment he let himself hope that the next time he came to Sylvastra, the Elder Tree would be whole again and the smell of burning bark would be gone for good.

After that, he turned and flew away, heading straight toward the Ashari Desert.

He wanted to check on the tribes there, yes, but he also wanted to see Amyra.

With Maleficia using the plague again, she was going to be important, maybe more than ever, and he doubted she even knew that he had returned from the Earth Plane. Enough time had passed that he also wanted to see how much progress she had made while he was gone.

But as he flew west of Duke Blackwood’s territory, one of the corruption zones came into view below him.

It was still small. Only about the size of a village.

And yet, from the air, it stood out like a bruise on the land. A dark stain in the middle of living green. Kai slowed for a moment and looked down at it properly. Even from this height, he could make out mana fiends and weavers moving through the corrupted area, their shapes threading between the dead growth below.

The sight made something in him go still. Because it reminded him too much of the future.

Back then, the dead mana zones had not merely corrupted the land. They had twisted it, fed on it, and in doing so made everything inside them more dangerous. Looking down now, Kai could already see the same pattern beginning here. The trees were wrong. Their trunks bulged in places they should not, branches knotting and growing at a pace that was visible even from above if one stared long enough.

Whatever was driving this plague forward—whatever thing had taken the place of the treant in spreading it—was not going to be some simple fiend that died easily.

Still, Kai didn’t turn toward it. He didn’t want to ignore it, but he couldn’t be everywhere at once. He had to trust his people. He had to trust Duke Blackwood and the men already sent there to handle what they could until he reached them.

So after watching it for another moment, Kai moved on.

He turned back toward the desert and kept flying, hoping things there had not already gone too far in his absence.

At the same time, his mind kept circling around other matters tied to the Ashari Desert, things he had not mentioned to anyone else.

One of them was the library in Valkyrie’s tower.

Kai didn’t want to go there for spells this time. At least, not mainly. He already had more than enough of those in his head, though a part of him still wanted to start building a few original spells of his own. No, the real reason was something far less glamorous.

Poisons.

Even as he flew, there was a faint sting in his right arm, and if anyone pulled back the robes covering it, they would see that parts of his hand had blackened completely. It was an aftereffect from the battle with Spirit King Vaelthoros. When Kai first escaped the Earth Plane and returned, he had checked his body quickly and removed every toxin he could detect. He had thought that was enough.

It had not been.

Some of it had remained behind, hidden so deeply that even his own senses had missed it. By the time he realized something was wrong, parts of his flesh had already started darkening. Even after that, he had not found a way to remove it entirely. All he had managed so far was to stop it from spreading farther.

That alone made it dangerous.

The worst poisons were not always the ones that killed quickly. They were the ones you could not identify no matter how much knowledge you had. This was one of those. It was not lethal in any immediate sense, but it was affecting his mana veins, which meant it was dragging down his strength little by little.

And that was something Kai could not afford to ignore.

He needed a solution as soon as possible.

But everything he knew had failed him so far. Even his master’s library held almost nothing useful on poisons, which left him with only one real option left: the library inside Valkyrie’s tower. Kai could only hope it held something that would help. Because with one problem after another breaking down his door and stepping into his life, being weakened right now was the last thing he needed.

With that thought lingering in his mind, he kept flying until the Ashari Desert finally came into view.

***

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