The Third Step: Chapter Thirty-Seven

“Is there any way I could split them? Maybe I cou–” 

“No,” Meadow said firmly. “The point of the gate carving is to unify your mana-garden and channel your power as one into an ascension. Having two patterns splits that.”

“Doubling the difficulty of the ascension?” I guessed. 

“Closer to multiplying it by four, while also reducing the effect of both of the carvings to a quarter.”

“Ugh…. fine. You’re right. Having two effects at a quarter strength isn’t worth quadrupling the power of the ascension.” 

I looked back and forth between the papers in my hands, mumbling under my breath as I thought, then I looked up at Meadow. 

“What did you choose?” 

“None of them,” Meadow said, shaking her head. “I chose a carving that improved the power of my life magic. Given it’s my only gate, it made sense for it to act as a unifying factor across all my magic. But that’s not an ideal carving for you.” 

“Unifying factor across my magic,” I said, turning the words over in my head. Was there a unifying factor in my magic? 

It was enough to let me dismiss the conversion and concentration formations, at the very least. Concentration was a potent general ability, but it wasn’t the same as a unified ability. It might work well for someone like Ivy, who had so much of his magic built on the idea of being absurdly potent and powerful, but it wasn’t the right choice for me. 

Conversion was great for general quality of life, but I used too much of my mana in too many different ways. Far too often, I was Foxstepping, Fungal Armoring, and running meta spells all together, which meant all of my different types of mana were draining. There were instances where I had an abundance of one or the other, but they weren’t common enough to unify my garden.

That thought brought on the next option, for the pattern-carving. I used combination attacks a lot, that much was true. Chaining together multiple spells at once allowed me to trade blows with people whose gardens were more narrowly focused on something like fire, and I always Foxstepped around while doing it. Having those patterns ingrained in me would be a definite upgrade to my combat power, but did I want to define myself only as a combat mage? I was getting good at it, really good, but… I wanted to be more than a pure combat mage.

Which left me with the sensory improvement, the spirit-eye. 

Framing the problem less as a matter of power, and more as a matter of unifying my garden, I thought it made the most sense out of all of the carvings on my list thus far. The first spells I had learned were Analyze Life and Death. I had sensory spells that wound between two gates, like Vampiric Senses. I had weapons that utilized my senses in the eventually-to-be-upgraded Foxthorn and the current Kludde’s Weight. Even in my temporal mana, which didn’t contain an Analyze spell, I had multiple spells that worked together for the purposes of extending my senses backward in time via psychometry.

“I think I’m going to use the spirit-eye carving method. It unifies 

“A good choice. Though truthfully, there’s not really a bad selection. I think any of the ones you selected could work. But you’re right, I think for the purposes of unity, it was probably the best suited of your options. Plus, it will become incredibly useful if you become an Arcanist.” 

“Oh? I know my mana senses get infused with resonance, and they really expand because of that, but I can do that already.”

“It becomes much easier at Arcanist, to the point some degree of it is essentially autonomous. Even non-sensory focused Arcanists can cover a few square miles with their senses, maybe more with the right spells. You’re not going to be quite at the level of a dedicated knowledge mage, but you’ll still be a good bit further along than most other mages. Now, let’s work on this carving.”

We found a spare table in a gathering area, and she spent a while helping show me how to integrate everything I needed into the pattern. Adding in the representations for my mana types was easy, all save for hudau, which acted as both a mana type and the result of a bond, forcing us to overlay two types of pattern together. Eventually, we moved onto using the strange language that couldn’t be translated by the Mono spell that represented the phrase that I’d chosen. Even as I looked over the diagram detailing the completed carvings, though, I felt something itching at me. 

“It’s not right,” I said. Meadow made a ‘hm?’ noise, so I elaborated. “The phrase. I Fight to Make the World a Better Place. It’s not right. I can tell. There are portions of it that fit, but it’s wrong.” 

“Good,” Meadow said, and I raised an eyebrow. “It’s not meant to be a perfect fit. I already told you that people who go in with the idea that they’ve locked down their entire set of resonance enhancements fail. There’s conflicting evidence on whether or not having a more accurate attempt is helpful or not. As long as you’re not glued to it, but think it encapsulates you somewhat, you should be in an okay shape. Even once you’ve formed them, understand that they will be refined and strengthened as time goes on.”

“I see. So it’s okay that this isn’t right?” 

“I certainly think so. What Darius carved into his gates was radically off from what he selected, but he meant it. Do you mean to fight to make the world a better place?” 

“Yes,” I said without hesitation. “I like to fight. It’s not perfect. Not every fight I participate in is to make the world better. But I do fight to make the world better. I’ve saved fungal folk, pixies, coblynau, orphans, and more. That’s important to me. I want to be the person who stands up for those who can’t.”

The sentiment echoed my defiance of Orykson’s cold, calculating logic, and it felt similar to me. Meadow’s smile quirked up and she put a hand on mine. 

“You’ll be fine, dear. Now, should we go find Kene?” 

I found them leaving the gym, covered in sweat, and stared for a few seconds before he smirked and I blushed and told him about my pass on the tournament orb. They pulled me into a hug, and I hugged them back before I pushed them back. 

“Bah! You reek.” 

“You can’t have me covered in sweat and not stink,” they teased. “That’s great news, though!” 

After they had the opportunity to clean up, Meadow took us all out to one of the restaurants on the boat. This wasn’t a luxury liner, so it wasn’t a fancy upscale spot, but it was about the message behind it more than it was the fanciness of the food. Besides, cheaper or middle of the road could still taste better than fancy food, depending on where it was made. 

The next week and a half passed by easily enough. I started sparring with Ivy more than the others, as he had the raw physical strength to challenge me. Jinwei’s beast body combined with her strange half-ascension destiny mark meant she could overpower me as well, but it wasn’t her natural fighting style. She relied too much on trickery. Ikki’s own style was built on speed and precision, so while it was perfect for training my own skills, it wasn’t great for drawing out 

When I was low on mana, wasn’t visiting my family, and wasn’t doing anything with Kene, Dusk, or Dawn, I spent time carving the pattern into my gates. The spiritual chisel proved itself to be ideal for this. I messed up several times, and was forced to funnel ungated mana into the broken pieces of the gate to fuse it back together, which entirely reset my progress on the gate – frustrating, but part of the process, and was only called out when it came time for us to port in Fitiavana, Kijani.

Meadow gathered everyone together on one of the decks to host a meeting, giving us a quick run-down on what we needed to know. We wouldn’t be stopping on the island for long, only four days, but it was still best to get everything together.

“The Isle of Fitiavana is an interesting place, and one of my favorite countries in all of Kijani,” Meadow said with a soft smile on her face. Dusk whistled to ask if it was near where Meadow had grown up, and Meadow chuckled. “Oh my, no. I grew up several thousand miles away, practically on the other side of the continent. But I visited several times?” 

“What’s it like?” I asked. 

“The island itself is something you’ll need to see for yourself. But unfortunately, you’re not there to sightsee – you’re there to visit Deepfall Cemetery, and attempt to delve deep in and collect the components for an artificial soul.” 

“What do we need to know?” Kene asked. 

“Unfortunately, there won’t be much of a ‘we’ in this mission,” Meadow said. “You aren’t a death mage, and Deepfall Cemetery provides three functions. The first is as a place to lay the bodies and spirits of the departed to rest. The second is to visit and pay respects to those who have died. The third is a place to train up and coming umbramancers and ectomancers.” 

“Will I even be able to get in?” I asked, frowning. “The information in Aerde’s packet indicated that they will occasionally open the site to ectomancers who have visited it, but the deep levels for training aren’t open for most to visit.” 

Meadow winked and tapped the side of her nose slyly. 

“Well, I might not have a near bottomless well of silver and resources like Orykson does, but I do have connections. I knew the grandfather of the current site administrator from the Kijani Wars of Unification. You have an entry pass, as long as you agree to a couple of rules.” 

She removed a pendant made of densely forged telluric and abnegation mana and passed it to me. I took it and put it on without thinking, then grinned. There was a time I would have hesitated to wear a necklace, out of the fear it may make me look less masculine.

“The first thing you need to remember is that this is a site of death. Yes, it is used for training death mages, but it isn’t a training site like the Beastgate Trial Trail or the Crystal Pyramids. It’s a place of solemnity and calm. When you walk, tread with respect for the dead. In his own words: too many people coming from outside think of Deepfall Cemetery as nothing but a resource, rather than a ritual carried across a thousand years of our history. Any damage he leaves, he’ll have to pay for.” 

I nodded my agreement to the first condition, even as Hannah stirred within my mind and Arthur nuzzled against me. I tried to give respect to the dead, but I also knew that my version of respect tended to be more friendly than solemn. I would have to watch myself. 

“The second thing is that you may only enter once,” Meadow continued. “The third is that you may only leave with three things. Shades, ghosts, ghostgifts, natural treasures, mana sources, whatever it is. Three things. You’ll be checked.” 

She held up a hand to forestall any questions.

“Before you ask, I did not tell them about Dusk, but I ask that you don’t use this as a method to get around it. I know you had a good time plundering the Idyll-Flume, at least before you recognized what it was. This is not like that.” 

“I understand. I’ll give the site the seriousness it deserves. I know this is different.” 

“Good,” Meadow said with a smile. “Let’s get up on deck. Fitiavana should be coming into view soon.”