Beyond?

“Nict is a strange place compared to Quinn. It's confusing to see that the people who once ruled a vast empire are now focused on their own business, not caring for anything outside their country. Don't misunderstand, they were friendly and tolerated my presence on their streets. Though I always felt that I didn't belong there. The people of Nict seem very cold and calculating compared to what I am accustomed to.

Their clothes differ only slightly from city to city. Plain trousers and shirts for men and dresses with long skirts for women are a common sight. Their buildings are all made out of red bricks. There are only very few decorations and the streets are all straight without curves, looking all the same to me. I walked their cities for weeks, even using their Gates. By now I have to say that the big cities of Nict are just one big city in reality. The Gates blur the differences between their cities and since their use is free, going from one city to the next takes just a step.

When I entered this country I still believed in the rumours of the evil magicians who suppress the people without magic. But I've been travelling Nict for over a month now and I have to say I have yet to meet a single practitioner of magic. I saw no poverty or slums and even the poorest seemed well fed. The only contact I had with magicians was when an expensive looking carriage drove past me and everyone on the streets suddenly knelt down. This startled me and when I asked for information I got the answer that it was one of the protectors of peace.

So despite the rumours I heard in Quinn, I have to admit that the rule of the magicians in Nict is by no means evil. I even asked what would happen if a magician attacked someone without magic. All I got was a stupid expression and the answer that the offender would be severely punished by his clan head.”

-Touri, Citizen of Quinn.

***Free City States of Nict, Capital***

***Azir***

“So how does the magic circle for teleportation magic look like?” Professor Agate Eddin asks me with knitted eyebrows. She points at the chalkboard while she watches the rows of students inside the auditorium.

I sigh and take a piece of chalk to draw the answer onto the chalkboard. This stupid hag is the only teacher who still insists on my presence during lessons. She even tests me regularly, making her questions more and more complicated.

Agate is in her thirties and has a staggered set of horns on her head. She wears her red hair at shoulder length and always has a set of spectacles around her neck. I already deduced that the colour of the spectacles she wears on her nose represents her mood.

Sometimes I have the feeling that she wishes for me to fail. Hopefully the time will come when she asks me a question she herself doesn't know the answer to. Then I'll simply return the ball to her and ask if she can give me the answer.

I am eighteen now and my chosen field of study is to be an artificer. Karsen and Talia chose to join the military, so they are going down a different path than me. Louise is studying the mysteries of magic and Stella is now completely committed to her research in medicine and chemistry.

Finishing the magic circle, I turn towards Agate and wait. She continues to look at the board for several seconds. Finally she turns to the table and ticks off my name from her list. “Fine, you won. You are free to go.”

I bow to her and skip out of the auditorium while the other students glare at me. It became a daily ritual to bet my knowledge against hers. If I succeed to answer her question, I am free to go for the rest of the day.

Outside it's already dark. Whoever thought that it is a good idea to hold classes that late in the evening should be shot. No wonder that there are still people going missing. There were seven new cases of missing students. All of them happened at night, right before a favourable star constellation to hold a summoning ceremony.

So it is reasonable to assume that someone is dabbling in something that's forbidden. I don't have any hopes to find the missing people alive. It's not like I care for them, but since my friends are also at risk I've been trying to stop it.

For that reason I'll patrol the streets again tonight. I've been doing this for quite some time now. Unfortunately I never encountered the abductor. I close my eyes and use my skill to sense the mana all around me. There are street lights in this world, but their light is by no means sufficient. Someone could hide in the shadows of dark corners or off the streets.

I start walking while staying away from the lights. Whoever caught those students was skilful enough to make them disappear without a trace. So he either had their trust, or he completely overpowered them.

Taking off into the air I widen my search area while I drift there. Levitation magic is the most convenient form of travelling from one point to another. Of course I could also teleport, but the general belief behind teleportation magic is that it is too dangerous to do so without a line of sight.

The magicians of this world simply haven't found an algorithm to shift the exit point to an empty area.

I watch the streets and buildings under me. My clan's ability to control mana requires one to be able to sense it. Using this special sense, everything looks like a picture with different shades of blue. The deeper the blue colour, the more mana an object possesses. Plants, animals and people look like bright blue silhouettes. Strong mages have an aura around them. I suppose that's mana which is leaking out of their bodies. Dead objects are almost white.

My watch lasts for over an hour until I finally find something of interest. I sense a single bright aura walking down a street to my east. Another strong person is following that aura, but in a very suspicious manner. Far enough away to keep out of sight, while staying close enough to keep following.

I change my direction to observe closer. If it is my target I want concrete proof before I act. So I suppose I'll wait until he strikes.

The game of cat and mouse continues for several more minutes until the following aura finally catches up to the bright one.

I stay out of sight in a height of about thirty metres. After a while both auras start moving again, though they are very close to each other and look almost like a single aura. So one of them is being carried. I descend slowly into the dark alleyway.

There is no chance to hide here, so I cut off the path of the attacker and set up an illusion to stay unnoticed for as long as possible. Then I place a clone of myself on the ground to attract my target's attention.

If I cast something big or gather too much mana from my surroundings my target might sense that something is amiss and escapes. So I wait. Revealing the enemy's identity should be good enough. The magical community is too small to hide inside it once your face is known. One would have to be an extraordinary individual to accomplish something like that.

Finally I am able to distinguish one person carrying another one on his shoulders. At least I think that it's a man. He is tall and has broad shoulders. A hood is covering his head. The victim seems to be a female student, wearing the universities robes. I got a glimpse of her robe's colour when they passed a lighted window.

He finally sees my illusion image and stops. I will my phantom forward and it walks towards the hooded figure.

The hooded man reacts without warning. He raises one hand and a red spark of energy dispels my illusion.

But I deactivated my levitation magic at the same time and dropped to the ground behind him. Covering my hand in magical energy I strike at his spine, intending to paralyse him from the legs upwards.

My fist hits something hard and I feel the skin on my knuckles rupture. The mana I concentrated on my hand bursts outwards and adds to the force of my attack. This isn't the desired effect. Is that guy wearing armour?

But he isn't completely unaffected. I hear a deep grunt while he stumbles forward and drops his victim. Wasting no time I follow and get a hand on his back, placing a curse on him. It's a simple one which drains his mana and destabilizes his control.

He doesn't give me a chance to do more. His leg shoots out at my head and I duck away, striking at his supporting leg. This time I feel flesh when my magically enhanced hand digs into his leg. He grunts in pain. I try to create a connection to drain him of his mana, feeling multiple souls inside him.

A faint memory comes to my mind. I already dealt with a person like this once. A short mental duel takes place, but this time my opponent seems to be skilled at this art. He literally sacrifices the control over one of his souls to use it as a diversion against me.

Someone else's memories flicker through my mind and I feel a fist connecting with my jaw. The contact is broken and the hooded man steps back. Both of us thrust our hands at each other.

A small blue orb and a red ball of fire shoot past each other. My blue orb hits the man at his shoulder, breaking some kind of barrier spell and blasting his arm off.

The fireball hits me directly in my chest while I force all available mana into a thin layer around my body.

An explosion lights the alleyway and I am blown away like a doll, striking a house’s wall and punching right through it. The wall crumbles above me and I feel myself being buried under bricks while dust fills my lungs.

Only my shield protects me from being crushed. I stay calm and concentrate on my surroundings. I just have to keep breathing now. If I lose control I'll be crushed! This time I'll take my time to gather mana. The mana in my environment flows towards me and I feel my power being replenished. Slowly I push the pile of bricks above me upwards until I have cleared a nice little cavity.

A bubble of mana is surrounding me now. My mother's technique may be crude, but it's still the best method for defence I know. It takes a while to set it up and you alert everyone within a hundred yards, but once it's up you are like a tank.

I walk out of the pile of bricks, parting it in front of me. Outside I find four people in a protective stance against me. My opponent is gone. I raise both of my hands and let go of the mana around me.

“I come in peace! Don't harm me!”

“Azir?” Inspector Ryland steps closer, but doesn't lower his sword. “You realize how this looks?”

What? Don't tell me that you think that I am the offender? My attention wanders towards the other three people behind the inspector. I know them.

Karsen is holding the unconscious victim from earlier in a princess carry. Talia is holding a bow with an arrow ready, but she stopped aiming at me when I called out to them. Both of them are taking military classes and they are helping Ryland as assistants. So it's not strange for them to be here.

The third person is grandmother Quarma... great. The only member of my family who hates me. She is still pointing at me with her staff.

“I just happened to stumble upon someone who was carrying that girl on his shoulders. When I approached to ask what's wrong, he attacked without a word. We fought and he sent me flying into that wall.” I point behind me.

Ryland grumbles. “Can you prove your story somehow.”

I furrow my eyebrows while I am thinking about the problem. “Ah! I wounded him! Is that good enough? That's his blood.” I point at the bloody hand which I dug into my opponent's leg. “And I blew off his arm, maybe it's still lying around somewhere.”

Finally Ryland lowers his sword a little and signals Talia to search the vicinity. I sit down on the ground while enduring my grandmother's evil stare. Ryland steps closer and takes a few samples from the blood on my hand.

Talia returns shortly afterwards with a bloody arm, holding it as far away from her as possible. I doubt that she made the right choice when she went for a military education.

Ryland grabs the arm like a holy object. “That's the closest I've been to the bastard in many, many years! Finally a clue. Remains only one question...” He stops for a moment.

“Where is the rest of him?”

.