Lincoln and the Guild

The bulk of this story is set fortyish years before Mana Mirror begins.

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Lincoln Davis had only barely managed to scrape his way into the Sapphire Sea Guild by virtue of raw determination. 

In fact, he’d been turned away by them once already. His re-application had only passed because he’d managed to complete the Trial of Absolute Destruction.

Considering the trial was meant for newly ascended, pure desolation Arcanists, and he’d completed it as a early-twenties mid third gate with lunar mana, he’d have been more annoyed if the Sapphire Sea Guild hadn’t reconsidered his application.

Thinking about the trial made the glowing blue scars on his back and shoulders – which served as both a punishment for his arrogance and reward for actually succeeding – ache, though, so as he sat below decks, he thought about his guild and the future.

The guild was one of the medium ones in Mossford, with an outpost in the capital, and several along coastal towns. 

As a naval guild, it served to reinforce Mossford’s otherwise rather lackluster navy. 

They had a bit of an iffy reputation at times, since they made far more than any other guild their size, but the idea they were caught up with smuggling was probably just a rumor.

All things considered, it was far from where he wanted to end up. 

But as a first step? It wasn’t so bad. 

“Wake up, Davis!” someone shouted, and his eyes opened. 

“I am awake,” Lincoln said irritably.

“Then why aren’t you working?” the ever irritable quartermaster asked. 

“I was on nightwatch,” Lincoln grumbled. “My shift was over a quarter of an hour ago.”

“Sounds like you need to pull a double shift to me, then,” the quartermaster spat. “You’ll be on deck swabbing duty for the next shift.” 

Lincoln sighed inwardly and went to grab a mop. 

The rest of the trip to the wild city-state of Delitone wasn’t much better. He was the newest member of the guild aboard Olden Grace, and that meant he was the worst treated. 

So Lincoln was almost happy when the pirates attacked. 

Almost. 

Lightning split the sky like the wrath of an angry Magi, smashing against the ship wards. In the hull, the ward generators began to hum louder and louder until the whine grew deafening and the wards exploded. 

The lightning vanished then as a volley of force cannons unloaded at them from nowhere. An instant later, the illusion around the pirate ship dropped, and Lincoln got a good look at them. 

That look didn’t last long, though, as the force struck the ship and rocked it sideways. The ships defensive enchantments held, but they were never meant to be the main source of defenses for a ship. That was the now broken wards. 

“Battle stations!” Captain Elias’ voice rang out as she strode onto deck. She was a powerful fourth gate mage, and had been stuck there since she was in her twenties. 

Privately, he thought it was because she’d been stuck on finding out a way to guide herself and her power. A clear mind was needed to step from Spellbinder into Arcanist; a simple desire for power wasn’t enough. 

Irregardless of his personal feelings, she was powerful. She slammed her staff into the ship and a sphere of gray force, easily half again the size of a beach ball, appeared over her head. Lances of force shot out from the sphere, each one impacting the pirates with almost as much force as one of their cannons. 

All around the deck, proven battlemages began to cast spells and draw out weaponry, but Lincoln looked away. He had his own job to do. 

He headed to a cannon and began to load solidified physical mana into it. 

What a waste of his talent.

The battle was over before too long. The pirates had considerable enchantments on their ship, but their crew couldn’t stand up to the guild elite battle mages.

Once the battle concluded, Captian Elias took a group of her mages on board. There was a moment where privacy spells engulfed them, and when they lowered, the pirates were dead.

“They resisted arrest,” Captian Elias said.

A twisting feeling settled in Lincoln’s gut.

He made a few choice purchases in the wild city-state of Delitone, and on their return voyage, entered the Captian’s office.

“Ah, Davis,” she said, smiling as if she hadn’t extrajudicously executed a group of people a week ago. “How may I help my newest crew member?”

“Why did you kill those pirates?” he asked.

“It’s very simple,” she said. “If we had allowed them to live, we would have needed to spend a significant amount on containment wards. Then we would have had to spend more on food. More money on wards when they were taken home to be tried, unless we were able to fob them off on the Lightwatch. They could have provided testimony for the goods on the ship, and we would have been taxed on their sale and importation.”

“You executed them for… profit?” Lincoln asked in near disbelief. 

“It’s more than profit. What if they’d been let go? What if they’d continued to hurt and rob people? No, killing them was for the best.”

“You can’t kill people on a what if,” Lincoln said stiffly. 

To his surprise, the captian just smiled at him. 

“Ah, I remember when I had that stern, stalwart attitude. You’ll learn that reality can be harsh.”

Lincoln had to bite back a retort about knowing how harsh life could be, and instead stalked out of the cabin…

Recordimg crystal still clutched firmly in hand.

When he entered his room, he made a copy and stored it in his dimensional trunk. 

Two weeks later, he stood in the office of the Sapphire Sea Guild’s leader, Commadore Ulyse. 

“I see, I see,” Ulyse said. “This is quite a serious acusation. Do you have proof?” 

In reply, he removed the recording crystal.

“This has her confession,” he said. 

Commadore Ulyse held out his hand, and Lincoln placed the crystal in it. 

“I’m sure she’ll be punished quite thoroughly for this,” the Commadore said kindly. “Thank you for reporting it.” 

“Of course,” Lincoln said, relaxing some. 

The moment he stepped out of the office, he heard a cracking sound. He whirled around and tried to open the door, but it was locked. He banged furiously on it until the Commadore opened it, looking annoyed. 

“What?” he said. 

Lincoln took a moment to cast several spells at once, keeping his veils steady to keep the Commadore Ulyse from noticing. 

Under a cloak of shadow, he removed a recording crystal from his pocket and pointed it at the man’s hand, covered in crystal dust, then shoved it in his pocket. 

Then he dropped the shadow and threw his hands in the air, as if in anger. 

“You broke the crystal,” Lincoln shouted. 

Commadore Ulyse waved him into the office and shut the door behind him.

“Listen Link,” Ulyse said. “Accidents happen. Sometimes people need to do things that look bad for the greater good of everyone else. Am I understood.”

“No,” Lincoln said firmly. “You’re defending a murderer.” 

A wave of fifth gate mana rushed out of Ulyse, scouring Lincoln. Lincoln sent his own ungated mana into the recording crystal, containing it in a shell that he matched the best he could to the enviornment.

It was enough. Ulyse let out a snort.

“You should have come in here with a recording crystal too. See, things happen. Our guild is one of the most profitable for a reason. We can’t have you interrupting that. Now, you have two options. Either you and I can walk out of here willingly, and I can have Morgana place a geass on you… Or you can have an accident of your own.” 

Lincoln felt his jaw lock, like it always did before a fight. He tapped into the scars and allowed the power of destruction to run through him.

It hurt. Channeling raw destruction with his body as a medium always would. But he needed all that extra power if he was to survive fighting an Arcanist, even if it was a false ascension.

“You have two options,” Lincoln said. “Either you can walk out of here with me and turn yourself in. Or you can have a little accident.” 

Ulyse unleashed a blast of fire, and Lincoln pulled out his domain weapon and stepped into his own shadow, reappearing behind Ulyse. 

He cast an overcharged Force Pulse, and infused with the silver-edged power from the trial, it actually threw Ulyse forward.

It would have done serious damage to someone without magical defenses, probably even killed them outright.

But Ulyse had those defenses. Nobody became that powerful of a battlemage without them.

Lincoln couldn’t slow down. He couldn’t lose momentum for even a second, or Ulyse would rip him apart. 

He leapt forward and swung down with his domain weapon, at the same time overcharging and releasing an Acid Spray onto the man. 

He was moving again, slamming his sword into the door and unleashing another overcharged Force Pulse.

The wards cracked, but didn’t break, and Ulyse was on his feet now. Lincoln barely managed to shadowstep out of the way as Ulyse released a Desolation Wave right where he’d been.

Which was to say, in front of the door. 

The wards shattered and the door turned to dust, and Lincoln shadowstepped into one of the pillars inside the guildhall, where he’d left a shadow pin. 

Ulyse was already roaring about a traitor, so Lincoln let his scar’s power fade. Speed was what he needed, not power. 

He shadowstepped quickly.

He was only fifty feet from an exit when the building wards went up. At the same moment, someone rounded a corner. 

She was about his age. Shockingly pretty, she was an opposite to him in many ways. Where he was tall, she was short. Where he was broad shouldered, he was narrowed. And while he was panicked, she was calmly smoking a pipe. 

“You’re who they’re looking for,” she said. 

“Yes,” he admitted through gritted teeth. “Listen. The guild is corrupt. They’re killing for profit. They tried to kill me. I have recording crystals.”

She studied his face for what felt like a long time, though it was only seconds, then nodded. She put a finger to her lips, he felt lunar and mental mana swim in the air, and then she shouted.

“I saw him! I saw him!” 

A few moments later, Ulyse tore down the hall.

“Where?” he demanded, and she pointed outside.

“Just before the wards went up, he shadowstepped out. He was running south, towards the docks.” 

Ulyse nodded and pressed a wardstone to the doors. They unlocked, and he threw them open.

All without looking once at Lincoln. 

The girl looked at him and winked, then nodded to where she’d put her foot in the door to keep it open. 

“Wow, he really is stupid,” she said with a giggle. “I didn’t even have to describe you. But… you should go.”

“What’s your name?” he asked. 

“Alycia,” she said. “Now go!”

And he did.

…

“And that,” Lincoln Davis said to his adorable new grandchild, “is how I met grandma.”

The baby burbled happily and tugged at his beard, getting whiter every year. He smiled.

He had a good feeling about his grandchild. His kid… He’d made mistakes. He’d been fighting a legal battle against an entire guild, trying to establish one of his own. He’d had to fight in the Elysian Mastery Tournament to help clear some of those debts.

He hadn’t been there for his son as much as he should have been.

He wouldn’t make that mistake with his grandchild. Even if his grandchild never touched a weapon, he’d make sure to give as much support as he could.

No matter what.