Mana System Chapter 170: The lies beneath

I had to stop myself from leaping across the table and throttling the older man on the far side. It was a close thing, my rage barely kept in check by an almost imperceptible shake of Fiona’s head. I didn’t sit either, preferring to remain standing, my armor, and weapon at the ready.

I knew most of it was leftover adrenaline from my fight, but there was always the simmering pot of anger below the surface. It had been so long since I let my emotions out that I was ready to burst. I knew it wasn’t healthy but after Javier’s betrayal, it was going to be difficult to work my way back to normal. That had been another reason for this trip, mindless violence helped me get a grip on the caged beast and relieve some of the pressure. Apparently not enough if I was this wound up after what amounted to a friendly duel, even if it was done without consulting either of us.

“I understand your anger, outsider, but in order for you to help us, I need to tell you something only privileged people are allowed to learn.”

“And why would I bother helping you after that stunt you just pulled?” I asked, heat in my voice.

“Simple, because you are still standing here. But let me talk first, then you can decide if you truly wish to help, or you can simply be on your way. There will be no condemnation if that is what you chose.”

“Let’s hear him out, Paul,” Fiona added.

“Fine, but this better be worth it.”

I saw Mugat pull his chair back to sit next to the table as if nothing had happened. His armor looked rough but he was uninjured thanks to the match coming to an end.

“Very well, I will begin… at the beginning. Huran was established fourteen generations ago by Huran the Wise, a spiritualist of some repute back in his day. He chose this site, far from other towns or even roads for one simple reason, an ample supply of spiritual energy. His followers helped establish the small village that grew to what you see today. But somewhere along the line people lost their connection with the local spirits. Well, most people did anyway. As you may have noticed Mon Ying is one of only a handful of people blessed by a spiritual guide. And she only gained that blessing after her rise to level twenty.”

“I noticed,” I mumbled, glancing at the blond-haired beauty standing behind the Chief and off to the side.

The chief ignored my words as he continued his story. “We haven’t had a truly blessed child in two generations, one whose initial class is spirit touched. Not to say that Mon Ying or the others aren’t precious, as they certainly are. And not just for their levels but I will get to that shortly. This decline was noticed ten generations ago and was thought to be the result of people forgetting why they had chosen this location and their failures to properly rever the spirits in the land around us.”

“Why is this the first I have heard about this?” Mugat asked, interrupting the Chief, who glared back in disapproval.

“You were not vetted. Now let me speak and you will find out the full reason.”

Mugat grunted in annoyance but otherwise kept quiet. It seemed he wasn’t much happier about the situation than I was.

“As the power of the citizens’ defenders waned, we were set upon by other groups. This happened eight generations ago. The defenders were able to kill off the attackers at great loss to the spiritual experts at the time. That only seemed to hasten the decline of the city. So the remaining spiritualists and the chief got together and locked away the knowledge from those not touched by spirits.”

“Let me guess, the town was betrayed by someone from within, and that’s why you were attacked?” I cut in.

“That was the general consensus at the time as is written in the history every Chief and spiritualist receive access to. As the generations lived and died Spiritualists became a minority amongst the populous, then reduced even further to a few hundred, then a few dozen. Today our city only boasts five. Even I am not amongst those vaunted few and am privy to this information only due to my title.”

“That sucks and all but that doesn’t explain your actions,” I said flatly.

“I am getting there,” the man snapped back. “When I saw your friend's class, I thought perhaps you could help. But to help I first needed to relay this story. And before that could happen I needed to vet your skills as per rules set down and bound by magic long before my grandfather’s great grandfather walked among the living.”

“Alright, fair enough. So, what do you think we can do to help, considering you went through all this trouble?”

“The thing attacking people in the streets is a spirit of shadow or so I am told by the Silent Ones. It is searching for a host. It is the first spirit to actively seek a host since our earliest records. There were magical guides in place to prevent this sort of single-minded aggression from spirits but over time the wards have fallen into disrepair, all except a handful. We were hoping you and your friend could help guide this enraged spirit into one of these areas so we can determine who amongst our populous might be a fitting host.”

“That seems a bit like slavery… and what makes you think any of your people would fit these criteria anyway?”

“It is hardly slavery, a spirit and a mortal are like two sides of the same coin. For one to be here, the other must as well, yet we know not who it is. Someone young and without a class would be the most likely suspect but I can’t send out children to be slaughtered wantonly by this feral spirit. If our array was still fully functional the spirit and child would be able to sense each other and merge as one.”

“If it’s so dangerous why not kill it and be done with it?” I asked.

The Chief and Mon Ying both flinched back as if I had slapped them. “That would have dire consequences for everyone within this town. While the spirits no longer join with the citizens, they still slumber nearby within their own domains. They would clearly sense the death of one of their own kind and replace one problem with many, many more. Our best guess is our transfer to this world awoke one and caused it to seek out its other half.”

Honestly, I saw more spirits as a victory for the town. It meant more spirits to find bodies to inhabit. Then again, without these magical arrays, it would likely lead to many people dying before these spirits found what they were after. It also made me think their reverence toward the spirits was part of their initial problem. If the spirits had all gone to sleep, it was no wonder they weren’t bonding with anyone. It also explained why they only showed themselves to higher-level people.

Wait? Did that mean they forced Mugat to fight someone far above his level? How did he even win then? Unless she was only fighting at her strength to match his. Did that also mean Mon Ying was sandbagging me? I looked over at the woman and she gave me a small smirk in return.

Dammit, now I wanted a rematch while not hiding my full levels.

“If it can’t be killed how do you propose we drive it into these zones, and why haven’t you tried doing that yourself?” Fiona asked a question I dearly wanted an answer for.

The Chief looked uncomfortable at this question, which was good. If he answered it, it meant he was serious about needing our help. If he didn’t well, we would be on our way.

“We tried, and almost succeeded. But this spirit isn’t native to our homeland like the previous spirits I mentioned. While spirits seem to inhabit the same extra-dimensional space some can only enter into very specific worlds. This quirk has been known long before this city was established. It was because of this quirk that this land was so valued by the spiritualist founder. It was an open font for many different spirits, all capable of entering into our realm. Thankfully this connection wasn’t cut off when our existence was uprooted and moved here. In fact, it seems like more spiritual channels have opened, allowing for never-before-seen spirits to come and go as they please.”

The man paused to think about his next words as I watched him.

“While we know what a shadow spirit is, it is one of the more difficult spirits to capture as you might imagine. Able to slip away into the smallest shadow and reappear anywhere within the city. That is one reason I have had to deploy these chimes,” he said gesturing to an innocuous-looking windchime. “It can sense if hidden spirits get too close, a few days ago we had a visit from this hidden spirit, at the time i-“ Fiona held up her hand halting the man’s speech.

I wasn’t sure she should admit to being that hidden spirit but it was her choice.

“That… that was me, I was scouting your town,” she stated.

“You, but how?” he asked incredulously.

She took that cue to vanish from view, reappearing at the other end of the table only seconds later. The chimes tinkled softly the entire time she was invisible.

“One of my many skills related to my spiritual class,” she replied simply, walking back around the table to take her seat next to the shocked man and smiling Mon Ying.

“Well… Wait, does that mean you came from the flying rock?” he asked in astonishment.

She nodded, not offering any more information on the matter.

“Hmm… I’m not sure if this will help any, but it can’t hurt. Our main issue is corralling the spirit without getting the town riled up. It's bad enough they already suspect something and think I am doing nothing to resolve the issue,” he said, looking toward Mugat. Mugat flinched slightly in his chair.

I was aware of what had happened at the gate thanks to Fiona’s report so understood why the man was being defensive.

“You’re asking for a lot Chief. You want us to help wrangle an almost impossible to capture spirit, without killing it or alerting the town to its presence. All while offering little in return. Now I consider myself a decent fighter, but my skill set doesn’t lay in hunting down spirits or capturing them. And I doubt Fiona would have much more advantage in that regard. So, why us?”

“I understand your reticence and didn’t expect you to have a skillset to help aid our endeavors. But since this spirit is from your world so to speak, it should be drawn to your friend here. At least more so than it was with our Silent Ones.,” he replied.

I noticed he didn’t answer my question about what he was offering in return.

“So you want to use her as bait?”

The man bristled, “I wouldn’t use such a vulgar term to describe what we are doing, but essentially yes. She will act as a beacon to help draw the spirit out until it is safely within our still active wards.”

“Call it what you will, she is bait, what if this spirit decides to attack her?”

“That shouldn’t happen, the wards should curb the anger of the spirit until we can find the chosen.”

“…Uh-huh, but didn’t you just say that your wards are failing, what if you only manage to capture an angry spirit and the part that is supposed to pacify it is broken, what then?”

The man spluttered but didn’t have an answer.

“Fiona, this is your call, since you’re the one that’s going to be in danger here.”

“Could you excuse us for a moment, I need to converse with my friend alone?” She said, standing up and walking toward the front of the house and out of sight.

I got up and followed her.

“Well?” I asked as we were far enough out of earshot, not to be heard.

“It’s a risk, I won’t deny that. But…”

“But what, the man hasn’t even offered anything in return, I’m not even sure what he has to offer that would make this worth our while.”

She shrugged, “we just need to find out. It seems they are desperate for this spirit to save their dying order so to speak. Besides, if I’m in danger I could use your staff,” she whispered the last part, barely loud enough for me to hear.

I quired my eyebrows at this, “you sure?”

“It should be fine as long as I don’t hit myself with it, not that I’ll be all that graceful, but still, I can take a hit or two.”

“Alright, as I said, it's your decision. Let’s get back before they think we changed our minds then. I'll let you negotiate the reward.”