Light and darkness of the world

There was a lot of confusion in the roads Sesti, the capital of the kingdom of Cesio, pretty much due to Thirteen unleashing his magic and among its rulers for the assassination attempt, the man somehow averted.

There was of course a simple reason as to why there was confusion in the streets, it was due to magical sensitivity.

Pretty much anybody felt magic as a thing, from child to old men; of course with practice came a better sensitivity, like telling where the magic came from or a rough understanding of the nature of magic.

So part of the problem lied in the fact that every last pebble in the neighborhood where Etgas operated was showered with enough magic to render it to dust had a spell been cast with it.

So pretty much every last soul in town felt that power shift and wondered what the hell was happening.

There was no real harm to being simply exposed to magic no matter the amount, nonetheless being exposed to such power raised questions and fear.

It was also pretty much common knowledge that magic varied from person to person, generally speaking, most people able to cast magic were aligned to one element.

It didn’t mean they could use only said element, but that it was easier and more natural to use it rather than using another.

Of course, people attuned to using more than one element were a thing but as the number of elements considered grew the number of capable individuals shrunk.

There was a general understanding that someone with a dark aligned magical power was bad news and both Thirteen and Etgas flatly fell into that category.

It was a superstition of course, but given the fact that all undead beings that displayed magic had a dark aligned magic power, it wasn’t that far-fetched.

Magic was unleashed as stable and unstable pretty much due that some people drew magic from emotions, so if the emotions were particularly strong the person had little control over the unleashed power.

Add to that the pretty much widespread misconception that magic did not change, and you’d figure why people were freaking out, as they felt Thirteen magic switching from cold swirling darkness to warm soothing light.

It was of course a misconception due to the rarity of people able to use more than one element, but pretty much anybody with a bit of knowledge knew that it was pretty much a common thing, if one did not consider opposites like light and darkness.

Being able to use opposite elements was in the realm of sages, people like Limner or Talis, royal court mages that dedicated their whole existence to the pursuit of magic knowledge.

Such people were of course out of the commoner reach, and their knowledge was kept under strict secrecy.

The average citizen could pretty much tell their name, mainly because they were long dead legends or few living people one could count on the fingers of one hand so famous that everybody knew exactly what they looked like.

The talk on the streets was about who had unleashed that magic power and for what reason, given the fact that the town was still standing.

There was also to consider the deeply entrenched religion that had the goddess of creation as the main god of the pantheon, a being also called the goddess of light.

Being light associated with the goddess, pretty much each and every priest associated darkness as her opposition; making darkness a shunned element for the common folk.

This was, of course, a divide between mages and priests, since the first was more akin to considering magic as a tool rather than a gift from above.

And this was exactly where the second problem came in since apparently, not everybody was on the same page on the needs of the many.

Etgas managed pretty much to reconstruct the events that unfolded, mainly thanks to the fact that his place housed a major amount of surveillance.

While he was occupied talking to Selie Thirteen went into his room, got stark naked, and made weird poses and shouts, without raising his magic power even once.

Etgas had thought that Thirteen was uninterested in magic but was proven dead wrong since he then aligned those weird cards of his face up on the bed, and started placing them on the ground weirdly.

The attacker came pretty much at that time, killing the servants that were unlucky enough to be in his way, and plunging into the window Thirteen left open.

As the alarms started the man tried to kill Thirteen only to be met by the cards clashing like steel on his weapon as they raised starting floating, creating a circle around their user.

That was like the less weird part of it all, Thirteen himself had his eyes closed, not even caring as the assassin tried with all his might to bypass the barrier that stood in his way.

While this attack was going on, the first to notice the flow of magic was Selie, the poor girl fell on the ground shaking and peeing herself, totally terrified by whatever sensation fell on her.

Pretty much each other non-combatant beast-man had the same reaction in their cells, and even the battle-hardened beast guards of the prison were trembling in fear.

Etgas himself wanted to tank the goddess he was a human and as such his sense over magic was somewhat dulled, but he still could feel that death herself descended.

The scariest part, for him at least, was that he recognized that power and had to wonder how that swirling chaos became a stable aligned dark embrace, worse still it was growing out of proportion like it was about to swallow the capital whole.

Whatever Thirteen was doing he had to be stopped as soon as possible, and so Etgas, for the first time in a long while, ran.

He was not trained in the least but he didn’t feel fatigued, nor his ragged breath, he knew first hand that if that man had not been stopped in time the whole town might have been turned to dust on ha whim.

He witnessed the last of the battle first hand, as the door of the room slammed itself open and Thirteen power switched to warm and beautiful light.

If you hadn’t met the man you might as well believe an emissary of the goddess had descended, in Etgas eyes yet that was nowhere near the case.

He saw the assassin stripped of whatever magic he was trying to employ against Thirteen and tossed like a doll against the wall, with a force high enough Etgas could hear the sound of breaking bones.

The magic circle on each of the cards was shining as the cards spun around mid-air, even with the now seemingly benign aura there was a lurking danger, a deep-down menacing power.

After all, light was well versed as darkness in destruction, so there was no real difference if not in the way they healed.

Etgas wondered what the left arm magic circle was about since it didn’t seem active, but he couldn’t worry too much about that.

He tried to call Thirteen to reason and his voice reached out, Thirteen showed an unexpected control over the phenomenon, managing to rein in all that mana he released without actually destroying himself nor the city.

A learned person in the field of magic might have laughed at Etgas for the silly thought, but Etgas wasn’t learned, he knew pretty much the tools for his trade and that was it.

But he wasn’t a fool either, although Thirteen joked about it, for Etgas he totally and unmistakeably knew of the assassination attempt.

After all, why else use on him the rhetoric about fear, not even accusing him or demanding an explanation?

So him spreading his cards like that, that weird circle, that silly provocation was about learning his future, to see the events that were about to unfold and reacting upon them.

The culprit himself died, but not really by the hand of Thirteen, nor by the results of what Thirteen had done to him, but killed by a remotely triggered magic.

It seemed that the assassin was not alone and probably Thirteen meant that show of power as a warning to whoever placed a target on him.

That also meant that there was a very well-built movement operating in the shadows and that in itself was worrisome, to say the least.

The assassination attempt was a major hindrance for princess Sinalta as well, she would have him watched and dispatched in secrecy, but the mere fact that he unleashed such a display to deal with a single assassin made her reconsider her plans.

Etgas had to report pretty much everything to her, down to the last detail.

So she knew what he did and if he was indeed able to foresee the attempt on his life he was a force to be reckoned.

Worse if it was the case he made believe he was unprepared, luring a trained assassin to strike, she had to reconsider how to deal with that major pain of a summoned hero.

She regretted her actions now, but it was too late; summoning magic was a one-way ticket, after all an alignment of stars, moons, and other celestial bodies was required and it was not a small feat to gather components.

In the end, all she could do was to try her best to meet the requests made by Thirteen, the first priority now was to call for Limner.

Limner was old, way older than an average human could hope to ever get, he outlived many kings with alchemy, magic, and research and was the last living human to have personally seen the last heroes of mankind.

But even all his knowledge couldn’t hold back death forever, so in the end, he retired, to pass his last days quietly into his mansion surrounded by his grand grand grandchildren.

While his death could have taken days, months, or a year at best it seemed like his body endured better than anyone could guess.

There were rumors that he might have become undead, but the priest checked regularly upon him and he was pretty much still alive and human.

Out of respect for his many achievements and his age he was exempted from kneeling in the throne room and could address the king and princess by name.

In the end, the old sage moved about transported by a four-legged golem, since his body couldn’t move about as he wished, but his mind was still clear enough to command a simple artificial construct.

His carrier, so to speak, was as big as a pack mule so it was no problem to move in the large halls of the castle or across the big door.

The thing was adorned with magic gems and magic circles that glowed as they performed their tasks.

Limner himself was a bald old little man with not a single spot of skin without wrinkles, he had a long beard and was dressed formally in a magnificent robe befitting his status.

He was given a private audience with the king, the princess, and the current royal mage so there wasn’t the usual flock of nobles and servants moving about the throne room.

The princess had surmised pretty much what she had done and the old sage had listened attentively and sighed from time to time, ushering her to tell him everything before speaking.

He talked slowly, with a feeble voice, taking a deep breath every so often, it was clearly a difficult endeavor for him.

He spoke still with many expressions of the old tongue of the empire, the precursor of the kingdom of Cesio.

“Talis, talis. wherefore didst thee not stand thy role?

thy fascination with … the ancient… rites is as dangerous as hers.

thee, of all, should have known… a willing sacrifice… is not the same. as a sacrifice”

The princess and the king both looked at the current royal court mage, a man in his thirties, with long blue hair and cold silver eyes.

“Whatever do you mean, master? How could I stop our princess in setting up a much-needed ritual?”

Said the man smiling, clearly feigning ignorance on what his role entailed; a royal mage was supposed to act precisely as the final stop in case the royals wanted to use or misuse a magic spell.

The old man sighed, shaking his head, slowly caressing his right temple with his skeletal fingers as he muttered something half voiced, nobody needed to hear that, he was calling his old disciple a fool.

“Mine own father… mine own mother... and several of their apprentices… those gents offered themselves, willingly… last time a hero was called.

Thee see, the man…Hiroshi. was sad, he did cry at which moment that gent learned … his calling caused so many people to go over yond…. I still remember … how that gent did pat mine own head as a child… and hath said that he wouldst honor their sacrifice… I strived… to see the day a new hero came, I desired and dreamed… and anon thee call me telling me… of such a mess…”

He said with clear anger and spite and as his tone raised, his magic power flooded the room, it was a raging sea of untold cold depths as he was the most prominent water mage of his time.

The old body contracted violently making him lower his power, his own body did no longer held the burden of releasing his magic, he coughed for some time before continuing.

“I at each moment told thee what power was… thee, in the end, did submit to indoctrination … and tales of faith… “

He shook his head as he sighed

“Such is the nature of time. you happily believeth I am but a senile fusty fool… so be it, what doth thee want this one for anon? “

The princess sighed, looking at her father, that gave her permission to speak.

“We would have you teach the new hero the basis of magic, it was a direct request of his to ask for a retired mage, we would like you to investigate on him if possible.”

The old man sighed

“I am not the only ...retired mage in town…. mine own liege, surely there’s someone younger.”

The princess nodded and explained her train of thoughts

“That is the truth, but none among them has your experience nor your knowledge, also you spoke with the hero that founded this kingdom and became his court mage.

There must be some detail that lord Hiroshi told you about that may help you understand if at the least he’s from the same world.

We can rely only on you for this matter.”

The old man sighed shaking his head and made the golem turn around.

“I can see why… that gent doest consider power but a tool … rather than a gift from above.

To somehow even demonstrate it… a very much brilliant demonstration.

There’s nay will… in power, but … thine own as thee use it.

If it be true half what thee said… then that gent may be … even better than me.

I shall nonetheless … instruct that gent as thee commend…

Beware thou, I might be giving chaps … to a dragon that had lost his own.“

As he left the throne room the king moved his cold blue eyes to Talis.

“Now then I cannot ask an old man on death’s doorstep but I can ask you, would you care to elaborate further on this topic about sacrifices?”

Talis kneeled to his king before speaking.

“It is the old belief, my sire; before the church of the god of magic was established. You see at the time there was the belief that whenever magic required living sacrifice, that sacrifice had to willingly offer himself like it would to the goddess at the temple.

It was a long time before my birth sire so I am not aware of the details, yet the crucial proof was that magic worked whit a willing or an unwilling sacrifice.

At that time the church recognized there had to be a supreme god overseeing the whole thing and as such the sacrifice had to be something he asked for particularly powerful effects such as summoning or the magic my master used to keep himself alive.

I heard that many of his disciples offered themselves to carry him to the present day, but well as time got by willingness came to question concerning magic.

Slavery magic and mind magic in general, charms and potions could sway a person's sanity, and as such many rites involving human sacrifices became heavily sanctioned if not outright forbidden.

Master’s magic has been limited so that only those with a blood relation may offer to sacrifice themselves, so at present, I believe only his nephews remain.

I do not know if they are willing to sacrifice themselves to keep master alive, but I know he would pretty much pass away before doing so.

Hero summoning magic is … let’s say a controversial topic to be polite.

The church condemns it as a whole, as it is seen as forcing the will of the goddess, but in the end, since it is a god that does allow passage, they pretty much bind themselves.

The current head priest of the church of the goddess expressed the will to meet the current hero once he knew he could use light magic of that magnitude my king.”

The king had a naturally stern face, due to how much it was gaunt and the scars he bore in plain sight.

He had been on the battlefield to stem the tide of demons and had been gravely wounded, losing his sword arm and now he was recovering.

Even with healing magic administered to him, he had to accept that someone his age and condition was no longer apt for the battlefield nor the throne.

He understood that him returning on a stretcher pushed her daughter to act on a myth that turned more true and grim than hoped.

He caressed his short beard that had long turned white from being blond like his hair and sighed.

Even in that withered condition, he felt imposing and menacing, and his amber eyes still were clear and unwavering.

“We pretty much understand their plight but tell his holiness Leovold the current hero does not have the proper manners befitting such meetings, so it will have to be informal, private, and very guarded a meeting if he still wishes one.

Talis, we task you to investigate if there were recorded… changes… on how magic behaves once sacrifices were changed.

Like if the outcome became less… let’s say favorable to the caster.

Also, your funds will be halved until this matter is clarified, you should have acted as a stopper, not an enabler of my daughter’s wishes.

Even considering the seriousness of the demon’s threat to our nation, or my condition, acting on shaky grounds at best is really foolish.

The god of magic might as well have decided to punish us, by giving us an individual such as that man.

This halving will be applied to my daughter allowance as well, for it is not her place to make any such grand decision, but mine or her husband’s once he’d be crowned king.

Sinalta I expect you to accept your duty to marry and bear an heir to your husband, a duty Leah, my wife, and your mother ultimately failed as she died in giving birth to you.

Choose a man within the month, I will allow you to consider foreign princes as well since it is unlikely our kingdom will survive this onslaught.

If you fail to choose I will choose a man for you, I will no longer tolerate your whims as to avoid men since you summoned a man to do your bidding. This is all, leave me alone, now. “

Sinalta and Talis kneeled and orderly left the throne room signaling the court supervisor it was now a good time to tend to the king by moving the healers and doctors from the back gates of the throne room.

Followed by her guards Sinalta moved through the corridors of the castle, back to her room, and once inside, alone punched the stone wall in frustration.

-Damn it! Who could've arranged a hit such as that? And with that timing of all?

It's impossible they already knew! There has to be a traitor or spy in the inner court! -

She laid on her soft canopy bed and closed her eyes.

- I hate when father talks about mother that way, I hate men and their selfishness, it's all about heir this heir that. I loved Xindi since I saw her, I want her in my bed, naked, to love her, is that so bad? Why can’t father understand me?-

She stuffed her head into the pillow as she sighed, trying to figure out the situation herself.

The uproar was calmed down by several official figures providing announcements that what happened was due to a hero’s awakening and in a matter of a couple of days most of the clamor and confusion had died down.

There were of course people that started swearing they saw said hero, but most of them were drunkards and known liars.

Thirteen himself was appeared unfazed by the assassination attempt, even daring to go strolling around into the inner court of Etgas’ place even in the chaos of those days.

He didn’t try to hide himself nor the mark on his right hand so those who were searching for such marks were able to spot him.

He appeared unfazed by the expressions of fear, curiosity, or pity pointed at him.

Well maybe strolling was a word too kind, he was quite literally trudging about, he couldn’t fully make a full round without panting heavily stopping and catching his breath every now and then, that was just how bad his stamina appeared to be.

His hair and beard had been trimmed and even if still long they now gave a feeling of care and self-respect they previously didn’t, well unless he sweated.

And he sweated and smelled a lot, but he appeared to had taken a routine of self-cleansing in the bath that he used thrice a day so it wasn’t generally really bad.

He talked pretty much to everybody willing to start a conversation with him, but he avoided big crowds and gathering places.

Once he understood that the room he was in was supposed to be used for orgies he requested to be moved to a room with a normal-sized bed, only to be placed into a room with a double bed and no windows.

Much to Etgas dismay, he continued those meditations of his but without deploying his cards and without ever actually releasing his powers.

Since Etgas feared what that man could attempt there was always somebody using daily magic for him, be it for washing his teeth, to dry up, or to have a piece of ice in his water.

That latter habit was not uncommon from the common folk to the richest of noble pretty much everybody tried to cope with the hottest part of the day and summer-like they could and being able to use water and magic was in itself a blessing.

There were magic tools that were scaled in power and size to provide cool air, but only nobility could afford those, and of course, Thirteen was granted use of one, provided he would leave to somebody else to charge it.

It was less dangerous to simply use one own mana to charge such a tool, and losing control in doing so was pretty much unthinkable, but Etgas was so scared of Thirteen lost control over his power that did not want to bear the risk.

Thirteen also asked to keep Etgas finances as a form of payment for lodging and his requests.

Etgas out of curiosity gave him his last year's worth of financial data, the complexity of calculations alone was a problem he had to tackle all year long to keep track of his work and was what kept him in his office most of the time.

Thirteen was able to run through most of it and even if he didn’t know how the kingdom levied taxes, he managed to get an alarmingly close figure in barely those couple of days, not even working full time on them.

He even managed to find out some mistakes Etgas had made that could have costed him dearly if discovered, so he got the job.

Etgas provided him with all the raw data he asked for, asking him to give priority to the data regarding the current fiscal year.

Etgas then called for a carpenter to craft a pipe for Thirteen and the result of his requests was a long and slightly curved smooth pipe, it was not an unusual order but many nobles wanted their pipes more decorated or complex looking.

It was more of a merchant pipe since commoners that did smoke chose a way shorter and unworked pipe, easier to smoke on the go and replace if damaged.

Unexpectedly Thirteen proved not to be a heavy smoker, choosing to smoke only as the sun was setting and stars showed themselves.

The carpenter provided also heavier and wider chairs for Thirteen personal use since he damaged a few of Etgas’ chairs.

Thirteen was very adamant about watching how the carpenter worked, and reluctantly Etgas allowed him to go to see the workshop under heavy surveillance.

Thirteen's visit was unexpectedly short like a flash, he pretty much analyzed what tools the artisan had at his disposal, covered his face with both palms puffing heavily, and got away shuffling his deck of cards, shaking his head.

That accursed item, whatever purpose it held, was pretty much always in Thirteen hands, he even told fortunes to some of the workers of the brothel.

Etgas interrogated them as he discovered the fact, and got shocked answers on just how accurate that fortunes were, and some were ready to swear that since they asked petty questions the prediction already came to pass exactly as foretold.

There was trouble in Etgas mind, regarding how to view it since for all he knew it had to be a magic item, but it defied his knowledge about magical items.

In a sense that deck of cards was a fractioned magic item with multiple parts, it was a category of items that worked mostly for divination purposes like the tools used by court diviners.

Priest used sets of magical items that together had a function, some adventurers also donned items that worked together it wasn’t unique as a category, it was almost commonplace if you had the money to afford them.

The real problem arose when you considered that magical items basically came in two main categories: those who everyone with magical power could use and those who required attunement,

So if those cards came in the first category, Etgas could have activated their power and made them float around, or just do whatever, but even if he tried he couldn’t.

He couldn’t understand how the reading came out as accurate considering nor the item nor Thirteen used magic while the classical diviner or his tools of the trade had to.

Etgas was positively surprised as his servants came to tell him about Limner’s arrival, he did expect that the princess had somebody sent over as soon as possible after the accident, but he didn’t expect to meet a living legend.

Etgas had to met Limner in the inner court, as the steps of his stairs and his doors were not as wide to accommodate the golem Limner used.

Limner listened to Etgas’ report, and listened to his opinions and thoughts, and was quite amused and concluded.

“Well that’s what to expect from today’s magical knowledge… but thee still might want a bit of knowledge before actually judging. You see nowadays there’s a deep misconception ... about magic in this kingdom. That gent is a wizard just like thee and me”

And then proceeded to meet Thirteen, the two talked quite a while until the latter came back to Etgas.

“I need that judging sphere of yours and access to your prison.”

Etgas raised an eyebrow but had learned how deceiving Thirteen could be, and before actually deciding he sent him to recover that magical item from his office, asking him to be careful not to break it.

Then as Thirteen moved to his office he got near Limner again, the old man sighed, probably understanding the reason behind Etgas’ act.

“In a sense, for us, that sir is a hero… nay doubt about.

Thirteen cometh from the same world… as Hiroshi came from, but not quite the same lodging.

That gent did explain like a neighboring nation's question but I think is like talking continents here.

It all makes sense, Hiroshi hath said Japan was not the name of his world, but the nation he came from, it just means there art in the world of Japan many nations to choose from.“

Etgas sighed, nodding before answering.

“So it’s like that huh? I heard travelers speaking about a sea, or an ocean with people on the other shore, but never quite believed it. But why he would want to go to the prison now? And just how much unlucky have we been?”

The old wizard slowly caressed his wrinkled face, before slowly putting up both of his hands.

“I don’t know, once I hath said that gent … I can’t show him how spell works since I am too fusty for it... that gent grinned and hath said that he wouldst work it out somehow.

Heroes art in a sense what thee wouldst call warlocks nowadays... their power comes from a contract of sorts with the goddess of the world. “

Etgas frowned at those words interrupting the old wizard

“Wait, then why exactly would the church want them … oh! You mean the stuff about warlocks is a ruse put up by the church to round up potential hero candidates?”

The old man slowly made a negative sign with a finger as he rested his hands upon the golem.

“Aye and nay; a contract mage is forsooth dangerous as the church suggests... those gents art only telling half the sooth.

As thee might imagine, a hero ...needs power to save our world after all… in the end might is a necessity... if thee believeth then so goddess provides.

If thee don’t believeth, then in the heretic’s pyre thee will burn nowadays.

I wish it be true worlds alone could save people like that gent hat said… but then again Thirteen is different than Hiroshi... I see nay respect for life in him.

That might at best be lip service … that gent saying he’s up to save live... that lad has nay respect for life.”

“He might as well have respect for nothing. What I don’t understand is why that person is not judged by that item“

Coldly commented Etgas as Thirteen made his return with the sphere, playing with it as he went to them.

As he mentioned, even though Thirteen was touching the sphere bare-handed, the item did not react to him.

Even Limner was surprised by the fact and was not given time to comment on it since Thirteen blurted out his next request as soon as he was around hearing distance.

“Now where do you keep death row inmates here?” Asked Thirteen, while getting closer, only to sigh as he saw their puzzled faces “I mean the slaves that by all means and purposes can be killed.”

“Listen Thirteen, I am running a slave market here, not a butchery.

True as it might be that their fate is death, so it’s all of ours as well.

There are principles and one of them is we don’t rush death over to people, so if it ain’t a life or death situation generally people are left alive and have to deal with the consequences of their action.”

Explained Etgas as he brought his right hand to his face slowly slapping himself out of frustration.

“I imagine thee want those folk ...to offer up their lives for me, right?

Don’t bother I did accept death a long time ago…. and anon I did see a new hero that hast cometh to our kingdom I can happily kick the bucket. There’s nay need for people to get me any fustier.”

Said Limner smiling, but thirteen smiled back evilly to both.

“What if I made them offer you not their full life, but part of it. Etgas may end up having to run an almshouse but none will end up dying now at least.”

“Fool thee wouldst treat a human life ...like a piece of bread or ham ...of beldams thee can take only a slice off?

If it be true there wast such a thing … all mages wouldst become immortals.

Nicely asking... with their superior power and knowledge... other lesser people a slice of life for their protection.

There wouldst be nay need for heroes nor gods... for undead and the like wouldst rule... whatever they hath left of living cattle.

Aye, behold at me... it did not give me back mine own youth... it gave only more time to suffer and shrivel ... any longer than this and I shall become undead.

These fusty bones wouldst be only moved... by will and power high-lone.

In thine offer I heed the scream of mine own hubris … yelling, begging... someone as most wondrous as me should not disappear.

It is precisely wherefore I hath lived long enow.

Just show me how thee does that meditation of yours... that did cause such an uproar, and let’s be done with it.”

Thirteen frowned partly shutting his eyelids and giving a piercing glare to the old man, while keeping the sphere with his left hand he touched the old man with it, the sphere shone almost completely.

“It is considered an offense to test people with that at random, Thirteen. The fact that we can use such a tool doesn’t mean we will without a cause. “

Said Etgas reprimanding Thirteen sternly; the man sighed and gave the sphere back to Etgas before taking out his deck of cards.

“As I said, I don’t believe in randomness. “

He smiled, slowly shuffling those cards as the magic circle on their back began to shine, and his magic power rose, a swirling chaotic light ready to engulf everything and snuff it out.

“Besides those cards of mine tell me pretty much everything about anything I wish.

So should I drop my power out of consideration of demons?

Should I drop it in consideration of thieves, bandits, and criminals of sorts?

You know, they might have rights of their own, after all.

What I know, the sensation I get at least is that dear Limner here will need one last arrow in his quiver.

One more than he already prepared to protect his nephews after he went over yonder, whenever that is.”

Limner appeared extremely surprised by the declaration of Thirteen but the man smiling simply threw the cards in the air as they started creating a circle around him, and put up his index as he pointed up to his nose.

His irises slowly changed color under the rising light, becoming a deep dark green.

“All the elements around make a circle pretty sound,

there is balance, there’s awe as creation and destruction shape as fate.

Light and darkness watch and prowl, the victor over nothingness will be proud

time is hungry, or so he claims, as all his sons he finally ate.”

A deep crimson light was emitted by the mark on his right hand as the light started to gather around it from the cards surrounding him.

“Out again because of one, leads creation or so it goes.

New beginnings? Don’t be a steal, death is coming and she’s quite near

she will call you, as often goes, when fate reveals new foes

Time your prize, time your toll, heed the call; have no fear.”

The light fixated around his right hand and the cards started to swirl around his right arm as he reached out to Limner.

There was a lot of power concentrated all in one place, real magic performed flawlessly and without so much as a sweat.

“So thee couldst use it already, after all…. Nay, that discussion we hadst ...thee lacked that ?”

Mused Limner as he shook his head.

“So thee propose a deal with death in a roundabout manner… it’s not that what thee imply can’t be done.

Simply it’s... yet again so is for thee to know… and what thee expects out it?”

Thirteen smiled evilly, as he chuckled

“Well you made yourself a shield, you shaped your life for the protection of what you value above your own life.

The choices you make are yours alone no longer since you took that path; that’s my way to see them anyway.

Now a question, mind I know the answer already, who has the power to take your place?

When all will fail and the enemy will come that last spell won’t it be to send what you want to be protected where it can be?”

Limner sighed and looked at a worried Etgas as to say not to stop him and with slow movements he took Thirteen slightly shaking hand.

His body was surrounded by light, as Thirteen took away his hand and his cards obediently returned orderly on his palm.

Limner's body emerged from that light as the last of them returned in place, his body was still that of an old man, yet the change was apparent.

The wizened frail appearance was gone, leaving behind a composed and elegant elderly man that sat firmly upon his golem rather than lying and clinging on it seemingly prone to falling at any given moment.

He was still completely bald but now his long white beard appeared more ordered and strong.

Even his voice came back a little stronger if just from a struggling and to a normal soft-spoken tone

“So this is the shape of thee power? It’s like thee balanced out the outcome of the many rites I already did in my life. “

Thirteen smiled smugly.

“Something along those lines, after all, it was you that said that magic has no mold, only things it can generally do or don’t. I can see fate, so I concluded I can change it ‘round some small minor details.

Seems like I got a good deal of a power eh? Come we need to talk heroes and the past you know.

I need knowledge after all.”

He said shifting the deck to his left hand as he opened and closed his right with a pained expression.

Etgas was pretty dumbfounded to see Thirteen power in that form, so after all, it was a known fact that heroes’ power defied common sense and that made no exception.

The two of them moved away from him and only some times later as the sun was setting he was informed, in his office, that Limner wanted to talk to him, so he went to him again.

The old man looked at him with his strong wilful gaze and sighed.

“I never did see someone like that gent all mine own time, thee see the fact with opposite elements is that thee usually can’t switch midway. I intend, thee use one, both or combine those, it’s not very much outlandish, but thee can’t switch a fireball to a water sphere. That gent is able to switch midway like it’s nothing “

Etgas appeared preoccupied then he asked:

“what about… what he did with you?”

The old mage sighed.

“Well this is a theory of mine, but I believeth lord Hiroshi had a similar power, for his own use only. This sir? He hath used messing with others, so it’s natural as breathing to extend to others. How much? I can’t bid. Doth use caution”

He said as he left back to his home.

Three days in total was what it took for the princess to organize an open training session, but the generals had of course received the order from the king.

It was normally not a normal event for the troops to go about and show the way they trained, but with the menace of the demons coming to siege the capital there was little room for misinterpreting the reasons as to why this was done.

So, the next event for Etgas, right after the visit of Limner was an early morning invitation to the location set for such an unusual display.

Etgas, Selie, and Thirteen took the royal carriage dispatched to carry them for the occasion; the use of such a means of transportation had two-fold meanings.

The first being that Etgas’ carriage was recognizable, being him a sanctioned slaver and going around with it meant he was moving merchandise usually, otherwise, he could afford to rent a simple carriage quite easily.

The second was for a public purpose; it was self-evident that anybody riding on such a carriage and was not the royal family itself was to be treated as a guest of the family and under their direct protection.

No person would be a fool enough to question the people on board or think about attacking them, lest provoking a major response from the ruling house of the country.

Needless to say that riding in such a carriage put a certain pressure on the minds of the occupants, well if they weren’t total outsiders like Selie or Thirteen.

So while Etgas was sweating buckets, the two of them were totally chill and Thirteen was even teasing Etgas for his obvious discomfort.

Etgas had provided the best clothing for the three of them considering that all of the royal family was probably involved.

He chose a coordinated outfit light enough for the hot weather, a little unorthodox and nonetheless elegant with his mellow brown and light amber colors.

Selie had her fur-trimmed, mainly because of Thirteen suggestion, the girl was a bit dumbfounded that they suggested doing so and even more that they kept her fur.

In the end, it wasn’t a new thing for her, nor for Etgas himself, mainly because it was actually wool.

It wasn’t needed for humans to go out of their way to go and enslave Selie’s people to obtain it having cattle that produced it, and all in all, it wasn’t really of higher quality.

The problem, if there was one, was that Thirteen suggested it along with taking her to a horseshoer to file her hooves and fingernails.

It was troublesome to convince both the girl and the worker but all in all, it seemed worth it, for Selie gained a better standing position and a slightly better time getting grip on things made for humans.

For Thirteen to notice the posture and troubles of the girl and to care for their adjustment was nothing short of a mystery.

Outfitting her was not harder than outfitting a horse, well provided said horse could speak, slap you silly, or grab you by the collar.

So now, besides the new iron well anchored to her hooves, she was dressed in a long gown to mostly hiding her inhuman legs, a simple dress with an outer leather corset that outlined her figure.

She was dressed in between a servant and a brothel employee hired for her appearance alone and tasked to accompany a merchant to some public event.

It was a midway Etgas reached to avoid all the possible inconveniences had he fully dressed her in rags or nobles clothing.

Thirteen sported a simpler attire, he choose to dress in a light blue short-sleeved half tunic and donned light blue pants underneath.

Since his habit of carrying around his cards and to avoid trouble, he had also a neck purse that danced above his large belly.

He didn’t hide the scars on his left arm, that probably meant that his blood was the trigger to start whatever magic that magical circle held.

Etgas had made him observe and knew that he had just a weird iris color, if a lot of light hit it, even in ordinary circumstances the color was a deep green; if there was not enough light it seemed a plain back.

It took a lot of attention to recognize such a feat, but as weird as it seemed, it seemed not magical.

Thirteen joked about it telling he had the eyes of a sorceress, a notion that made no sense for Etgas because sorcerers had the same eyes as everybody else be they female or in the case of Thirteen, male.

Reminiscence and thoughts couldn’t deny reality, when the carriage stopped outside of town, in a large clearing not used for agricultural purposes.

There was a risen wooden platform, clearly built with haste but sturdy and large enough to accommodate at least a hundred people.

There was the king, the princess, and the closest generals, as well as some servants strolling back and forth, some using magic tools to provide fresh air and others catering drinks and snacks.

The king and a princess had a higher platform of their own and were the only seated figures among them all, even if a couple of generals were quite old and scarred themselves.

The royal guard was fully deployed around the structure and only the personal guards of the king and the princess were on the lower platform, alongside their masters.

Thirteen seemed very keen on touching the plate armor of the guards that stood under the scorching sun unfazed as to test if it was magical and it took a good explanation as to why he shouldn’t have.

He seemed quite against going on the platform but complied, agreeing to present himself to the king and princess before starting to speak with the generals.

He was reluctant since his focus seemed to speak with them and maybe look at how the troops fared, but in the end, he still saw reason in the protocol required.

-what a major pain in the ass-

Thirteen sighed as he kneeled in front of the king and the princess, he had already seen the king, as he was presented to him when he was summoned.

The man wearing the crown didn’t seem to fare any better from the last time he saw him, and it was a problem for him, but there was nothing that came to mind as to how to help him around.

Thirteen had more or less understood how magic worked, there were some major black spots for his understanding but in the end, he had to cope with them.

He was severely lacking sleep, after all, without his medications his condition was relapsing, and sooner or later he would’ve started going around a week without sleep.

It was like asking if the chicken came before the egg, he was depressed and couldn’t sleep, he couldn’t sleep and become depressed, then the mood swings came along, and the picking over himself only worsened up to him going to the hospital.

He had to find a solution for his problem, or well this time around he could've met the gods of that world and it would’ve been a heck of a problem.

“So you want to be called a number I am told, but sincerely I don’t understand why is that, and why that number in particular. Would you care to explain yourself to us, o hero?”

Said the king interrupting his train of thoughts, he puffed loudly causing a slight murmur in the crowd around him.

“There was once a warrior in my world, he wanted to serve it but failed.

He was captured and a scientist experimented on him, stripping him of his name and giving him that number.

He choose that number over his tarnished name as a warrior as he became free and could save the world once his chance came.

I saw it fitting, and after all, I carry his number on my left arm, just like he did.”

He said as he rolled his left sleeve with his right hand revealing the tattoo on his left shoulder, smiling smugly, it was a truth and a lie in the sense that the warrior came from a game story he particularly enjoyed as a kid.

The king looked at him with distrust reflected in his glare, but in the end, he couldn’t deny the plausibility.

“So you would put us on the same level as that scholar you mentioned?”

Asked the king partly curious and partly irritated by the notion.

“I don’t remember ever giving consent for being abducted from my home, so yeah that is a part of my purpose.

To tell the full truth, like I told your daughter Sinalta, it is also a number that represents inevitable changes, at least for me.

Since I have to change the tides of fate for you and your subjects I saw fit to call myself just like that; and besides, I met two people ‘till now that knew how the first hero was called.

I am pretty sure he did some awesome deeds in his life, and nobody seems to recall his name, so who cares about such a useless custom-like having a name?”

The king looked at him sternly, then sighed.

“We will allow it, for now at least. We Marud, as sixteenth King of Cesio, recognize your right to call yourself Thirteen in our presence and be recognized as such by our generals.

A word of advice, wrap up your charades as we are in dire need of results.”

Thirteen smiled evilly “I intend to do just that o King of Cesio.”

-I will give you results, but I am not sure you will like them .-

He sighed and started making rounds of presentations with the generals, but nobody seemed too keen on answering him regarding the situation on the front.

The most common hair color here was blue in most of his shades, followed by white and blond, there was the occasional red-haired person of course but nobody had a dark hair color like his own.

There were twenty or so young generals, but Thirteen tried to steer clear of them mostly because he sought somebody experienced and believed age was a factor he couldn’t ignore.

He couldn’t deny the possibility there was a reincarnated person amongst them, so he didn’t refuse to talk with them if they approached him, but all he got was small talk and empty praises.

There was a thing that didn’t escape his mind, it was that there were just two women besides the princess and her guard present on the stage.

- It seems that war is the job of men here, like medieval times huh? I expected a little more with a female god and all, maybe they created a line-up of male gods that perform key duties, who knows. -

He scratched his chin as he rummaged within his thick beard as he slowly moved down to its tip and pointed straight for the two women.

They were together with an elderly general speaking about odd topics, but

Those were a couple of middle-aged women, that like most of the men here had some eye-catching battle scars, one of them even lacked one of her breasts completely and since Thirteen was curious by nature he approached her first.

“A hero and a blood mage of all things? What are the odds?”

Asked the elderly general as he was about to talk to the girl he had in mind; he said a thing at least worth being sent to hell politely.

“I hope you can forgive me for lacking what seems common knowledge here, but would you care to explain what a blood mage is here?”

Thirteen looked at the old man with enough focus to see he was still very muscular.

He had short hair and a trimmed goatee, both white and a series of deep scars, clearly caused by a big claw that crossed diagonally his face, so wide Thirteen wondered how he managed to keep both his eyes.

He finally noticed pretty much every important-looking person donned pretty similar clothing, a blue jacket with golden laces decorations over light and white pants or gowns, black long horse boots that got up to the knee.

The clothing reminded him of hussars’ uniform but with five or so laces rather than a lot of them like in the pictures of the history books.

The servants that were going back and forth serving drinks and snacks also donned a pretty classical red sleeveless jacket over white long tunics.

The man replied smiling widely.

“It seems to me you have an idea on how it works already, well that’s pretty much it.”

Thirteen smirked raising the right corner of his mouth.

“Oh, I see. Now color me impressed, and allow me to ask: is it a practice shunned upon?”

The old general became serious all of a sudden, his clear eyes fixed on thirteen showed a central heterochromatic hue of both gold and blue colors almost mixed.

“Yes. It is a magic fit for monsters. As the demon, you choose to unshackle.”

He said, his voice becoming sterner and his gaze going to a pretty nervous Selie, that was the target of many a glare such as his.

Thirteen simply smiled fully, chuckling a little as he showed a little of his front teeth.

“You had my interest, now you earned my attention old man.

I am a monster, or I wouldn’t be called a hero, wouldn’t I?

Now quench my curiosity a little, what do you lack to stem the tide of kids like her that so much scare you, folks.”

The old general turned back and looked at him, and pretty much everybody else took a couple of steps back leaving a circle of void around them.

Alone one in front of the other the old general was shorter than Thirteen, his head reaching the middle of Thirteen’s chest.

“Guren, we do hope you remember you are in the presence of your king. Whatever he says you would do better remember he is a guest in more sense than one.”

It was the voice king, that rang sternly from the throne that made the man sigh, closing his eyes.

“You seem to have seen your share of battles, I’ll give you that. Still, be more precise, exactly what do you seek to know?”

Thirteen returned to a more neutral expression and raised both arms opening them and showing both palms in a present obvious posture.

“War, war never changes, does she?

In the end, any army needs supplies like food, water, and freshman to replace losses and crippled.

New arrows, new projectiles, and weapons are also needed, so are armors for not everything can be fixed by a military camp smith am I wrong?

Also well supply for the camp hospital that I do hope you people use, for first treatments like the amputation that your king went through.”

Guren looked at him, and his facial expression softened as he burst out in laughter.

“Well, Thirteen your people fight weird wars if they go around looping parts of your soldiers for medical care.

You seem to know your stuff anyway, yeah that’s pretty much the problem, we can’t resupply such things with ease at the border, and by the time war will come to the capital we can’t guarantee to be able to do so under siege.

We can only fight with all our might and hope reinforcements from our neighborhood will come and break us out of it before it’s too late for us.”

Thirteen grimaced a little and sighed. -thought as much thank you general obvious-

“Glad to see we are on the same page, finally.

So what I want to understand is why exactly is time, of all things, the problem.

I might be asking the obvious, but you people moved me a world apart, so my question is naturally don’t you have magic that can move things around your world at will? “

Gruren frowned making his scar all the more obvious.

“Well, I see where you’re coming from but sadly it’s a no. We move troops by foot and supplies by wagons. Still, it takes us two months to resupply the front.”

Thirteen sighed as he slapped his face with his right hand.

“So when your princess say we have six months she means four before the front falls and two before the siege of the capital, am I right? I heard many a person talk about dragons or griffins, so my question is how much a threat they represent? “

The old general sighed

“Well luck would have that dragons dwell in the mountain range, they do stay on their own unless disturbed.

They are intelligent beings and don’t take a side in the war, we have a treaty of sorts with their ruler, or so I am told and well they are left alone by both factions.

Griffins are another story entirely, the scar I have was made by one of their claws, the adventurers cull most of them but sometimes it comes to us in the army too, like when there is a village in peril or the adventurers take too long.”

Thirteen sighed grimacing as he scratched his temple and took out his cards shuffling them.

- so a blimp or airship is out of the question, it would be too much easy a target and might generate unwanted interest. Catching on air warfare in two months is too tall an ordeal.-

“Please do tell me there’s a big river or something along those lines that go in that direction…”

Guren looked at him puzzled

“yeah there’s Erigma, but what does it change? It’s either rowing upstream and exhaust our soldiers or exhaust our mages to provide a strong enough wind for sails. And even so it still troublesome as it gets shallower and stops being navigable about a week of hard march from the location where the main force of the demons is trying to make a breach in our defenses.”

Thirteen ceased shuffling the cards, caressed his beard with the left, and then scratched himself behind the ear with the same hand making a perplexed expression.

- go figure, I need to come up with a hybrid solution, still better than nothing with such a short timetable having to make things from scratch.-

“Ok I think I might manage things a little differently, but I will need a lot of manpower and resources. By the way, is there a village or town around the location?”

Guren nodded “Yeah, more than one village, but we pretty much took their men and brought women and children to the capital here already, there are a few old men that manage slaves to harvest and manage the crops to get something to eat for the troops.”

Thirteen sighed “Yeah I will need to seize a whole village or to make a new one, the closer to the last navigable water stream the better, I will have to clear out houses and maybe even cultivation fields, making the village into a midpoint fortification. ”

Guren frowned “Why would you do that in this situation?”

Thirteen smiled “I am glad you asked, let’s say that I can shorten travel time for a lot of people with little magic use. I would assume that your border with the so-called demons is not just wide a point, right? A midway relief station or maybe two is necessary to reach the frontier at any point in a reasonable time frame, provided we lay down a better infrastructure along the way.”

Guren caressed his goatee studying Thirteen.

“Don’t you think we already had such a thing in place already?”

Thirteen laughed

“Well I never said you didn’t, it would be dumb not to have a system to provide resources to your border in case of emergency.

There’s this little annoyance though, I HAD to be called here, to me it means the system has failed.

Mind you I don’t believe it has entirely failed, you have been so gracious as to tell me just enough an outsider could hear about it and limit your answer as supplies from here.

You also told me that you are using nearby villages to feed your people and as a levy, so it means the problem is to provide new blood to the front, as to allow soldiers to take a break.

In the end, it doesn’t matter how strong or tough they are if they end up being made to fight before their wounds have had time to heal.

I don’t picture common villagers being as good at warfare as trained soldiers, so it means you have a problem of sorts in bringing trained troops where they are needed right now.”

Guren slowly clapped his hands soon joined by a round of applause that arose around him as he realized most of the generals had gathered to listen to him.

“When we heard the princess wanted to hold a training session for the troops in this time and situation we dug up enough to learn it was your idea, we just had to participate to see if you had what it took.

From what I can assess you, whatever your name is, have the right ideas, with so little information it hurts us, veterans, over here.

You surely know your war, Thirteen, if you want to see how our troops move and fight for yourself, we will make all possible maneuvers we employ on the field and then we will

If you can deliver on the possibility of shortening the time it takes to move things and people, we might actually have a chance of holding the line enough for the alliance of human nations to come to help us.”

- I need to puke-

Thirteen waved at the crowd to disperse with his left holding the tarot deck, and with his right pressed on his mouth, he managed to reach a corner of the platform, even if his vision had majorly distorted and he was wobbling like a drunkard.

He didn’t need to puke of course it was just an illusion, a projection of his mind, in the end even here he couldn’t bear the burden of being in the middle of the attention of a crowd.

- The heck, won’t they go sasuga hero sama?! Well in the end it won’t change the problem, wouldn’t it? I can’t stand people, I can’t stand crowd of people… why am I even bothering trying ?! -

He held his head with both hands clenching his teeth almost on the brink of tears, from frustration more than anything else.

“I assume this is one of the reasons you look the way you do”

It was Guren that had followed him to the corner along with Selie that looked at the other with suspicion, Thirteen looked at him spreading his fingers just enough but keeping both hands in place.

“Something amongst those lines. So, you’re a senior officer in more ways than one I presume.”

The old man laughed heartily

“Yeah, you’re a clever one. So, I guess we will talk about the exercise we impose and how we move our troops and why as we progress this training”

Thirteen smiled, slowly removing his hands from his face, his mind regaining focus returning to a more predictable situation.

“well, I won’t ask better, after all, I am here for this.”

Said Thirteen as he and the old general observed the training.

The army had a mixed set of tactics, some were akin to historical strategies like the imperial roman testudo or the spartan phalanx while others reminded of guerilla tactics.

It seemed the more closed formation had a specialized mage in the midst able to cast a barrier, while the more open had the idea of guiding strong individuals to face each other to limit losses as much as possible.

It was a must in a world where magic was an everyday thing, nonetheless, Thirteen had to see exactly how magic was employed in the game of war, and what limits it had.

There were also little to no cavalry units, Thirteen did not expect it, but it seemed that, since movement boost was a thing anyone could master, a horseman was more of a large target than a fearsome unit.

There was an elite cavalry unit that used magical beasts rather than actual horses, but due to the toll, it took to raise or capture one of such beasts it was practically composed of nobles and deemed to be deployed only in the direst of situation.

Thirteen did of course ask why the current situation was not deemed dire enough and met with a pitying gaze by the general that explained that the leader of the unit was the king himself.

There was more archer than Thirteen expected, mainly because while magic was widespread its use took a physical toll on the average person, so rather than a barrage of magical projectiles it was more practical to use real ones.

There was no artillery to speak off, but there was a specialized magic unit with an area of effect attacks.

It was possible to imbue items with magical proprieties if only for a limited time, and common arrows were no exception.

All it took was an engraved or inked magical circle upon the item itself to be able to use magic for offense upon it.

Thirteen had talked to Limner but this only confirmed him something he suspected: there was a pattern, for magic to fully manifest there was a need for a magical circle or magical formation.

The only place he ever saw that was on the back of his deck of tarots, it had a very complex design representing a variation of the concept of Lemegeton, the lesser key of Solomon.

There were various layers to this design that hinted at the elements, the constellation, and divine meanings intertwined with darker ones focused on alchemy and demon summoning.

There was also written text in the first layer, generally printed so small Thirteen couldn’t tell what it was supposed to be.

All he knew was that featured the word Adonai in Hebrew written letter by letter on each vertex of a hexagram since the letters were bigger than the others, enough to be read and told apart.

Thirteen had chosen that layout fully knowing the meanings and nuances, in a sense, he liked the idea behind, the standard deck being of seventy-eight cards in total, made of the seventy-two pillars and the six virtues needed to rein them in.

He knew the nuances hidden in the depiction and in the deck itself, but his problem was mainly he seemed unable to call up any form of magic or summoning he thought of.

So his main power seemed to have a deck of cards able to shift faces at-need and infer into the probability and causality of events.

The latter was a painful ability to booth, and not a practical one, but in the end, he could use it as bait for those that attempted on his life.

His prediction ability came out from logic rather than magic, but he held the deck in higher regard than before.

There was a thing that eased his worries, he seemed able to use general purposed magical tools and circles in that world even if he didn’t fully comprehend their layout.

All he needed was that someone explained what the thing was supposed to do; he wasn’t able to use prior or to a different purpose even if he tried.

There were of course more personal magical circles, an example being Etgas’ wand that had an engraved circle on his base or the one upon the back of his cards.

The last kind of magic-like effect came from magical items, those were items with no set engraving anywhere that produced an effect, like the judgment sphere, or the magic measuring device.

Those items were pretty rare, he had seen only those two so far, and he had destroyed one just by touch, for whatever reason.

Needless to say, he had to go and ask one of the mages what would have been the effect to write a magic circle upon a common item like a big rock, receiving a demonstration.

Even upon a material like wood, it seemed a long process, taxing and resulting in a likely failure, like the item disintegrating when magic was applied to it.

It seemed futile to try and develop artillery for the average unit of troops could move or break boulders big enough to squish the average human with their physical enchantments.

It wasn’t easy or perfect as it sounded, but at least the breaking part was easy enough to avoid death and dissuade an objective-driven mind like his.

Thirteen himself wasn’t able to replicate the feat much to his dismay, he seemed to be unable to use the same process as the soldiers at the least.

This was laughed off by Guren that said that it took practice with one’s magic and since Thirteen’s magic was still pretty off it was understandable.

-Yet in the average isekai history the hero seems able to pick it up pretty quickly, either I have to go through a different path or I am unable to use this type of magic, that would be a problem.-

Thirteen also discovered that one of the main reasons for the lack of female generals was the princess.

She asked only females for her guards or servants and since being close to a royal figure like hers was seen as a higher honor than the military many a noble sent had the daughters that didn’t need to marry to serve her rather than train them for battle.

The whole presentation took half of the day and when coming back the princess wanted to ride the carriage with him.

Since his father joined in Etgas managed somehow to weasel his way out, with the excuse of bringing Selie back to his establishment.

Once alone in the carriage, while the escort and carriage were prepared the king was the first to talk, looking Thirteen straight in the eyes.

“We were told your feat with Limner, would you be able to restore our arm with that magic of yours?”

-Down to business, I like him -

Thirteen scratched his head uncertain about the answer to give he took the deck of cards in his hands and shuffled it.

He felt it, it was a sensation, an electrical current like with Limner, he could do something about his condition.

He drew a card to be sure about the sensation he had, and saw exactly the card he feared, it was temperance reversed.

He drew a second card in doubt of what would happen otherwise and saw a similar result, death reversed, it made him grimace.

“Yeah I feel I could, I know also that if I did it you would then go and die on the battlefield soon after. Then again, you are to die anyway soon enough, am I wrong?”

Sinalta looked at her father surprised more than worried.

“Heh, if you were one of our subjects you would’ve been executed for being so rude to our person. You’d do well to make that dirty slaver you choose to pass you some manners soon. Truth is truth, in the end, yeah we are dying, it is a natural illness and the healers can’t do a thing about it.

We’d rather be remembered for dying in battle against the demons, than dying a useless old man in our bed.”

Sinalta looked at her father.

“Esteemed Father, why didn’t you tell anything about it?”

The king looked at his daughter

“To what purpose exactly? You are to follow our orders nonetheless, and it’s no place to talk about our things in front of a stranger.”

Thirteen smiled as he shuffled his deck of cards back together, he could imagine by the actions of the king and the princess’ shaking how the conversation would’ve gone if he pushed it any further.

“Pardon it if I sound out of line, but for what I know in my world royals are somewhat free to marry out of love, so would you have a problem with her choosing a person she loves rather than who you order her to marry?”

He caressed his beard, awaiting his answer that didn’t take that long to form as he watched mainly the princess.

“This is not your world, and those are matters that an outsider has no point in knowing.”

Thirteen simply smiled bringing his gaze back to the king.

“We are that distant, I see, then I have no purpose to heal you just yet. When I will need your sword for its last battle you will be healed.”

The king narrowed his eyes as he looked at thirteen.

“You’d dare defy our will?”

Thirteen laughed a little shaking his head.

“Listen, I don’t see you a fool big enough not to know the way I see it by now, given the fact that we talked, I talked about it to your daughter and your precious sanctioned slaver.

I said I will cooperate and even that I will help you die your sword in hand on my terms.

Don’t worry I will play to your tune in public, like this morning, but in private I am me.

Do I have to change my mind about it?“

The king looked at him in silence for a long time before saying.

“You seem to have impressed our generals with your plans, and like you stated you don’t seem able to use magic as we do.

For now, that is enough to warrant leniency, but like we said results are needed soon.

We will provide you with our kingdom’s artisans soon enough.”

Thirteen sighed

“I sincerely hope that it won’t be like today, anyway, I need only like the head carpenter the head smith, and so on and so forth.

I saw a common carpenter shop and it gave me goosebumps, if your kingdom is at that level we haven’t got a prayer to hold the frontier.”

The king seemed to mull something and then asked

“If we understand your request, you want something akin to participation in the artisan’s guild meeting, with their council fully staffed is that what you want?”

-thank god for guilds -

Thirteen nodded in the positive without feeling the need to elaborate.

“Then we will make it possible for you to be present tomorrow to the guild headquarters in place of our usual envoy “

Thirteen frowned lunging forward to face the king

“Wait you said I am not particularly strong in etiquette, are ye sure ye wanna send me alone? Even so, I would certainly need to exert your level of authority since I will need to allocate a lot of workers and a lot of resources.”

The king smiled.

“Yes, we heard the tale. It seems like you have in mind building something akin to a boat in roughly two months. And if we gathered enough information for our little demonstration you think it will be able to travel upstream faster than our current means of transport. You would then found a whole new fortress settlement near the last stretch of usable river. A very tall order, if we understood right.”

Thirteen scratched his beard again returning properly sat

“The only one I think workable, but you got the last part partly wrong if we are to do this in two months anyway.

I would have asked ye by your daughter or by Etgas to start working on the settlement by now if none was available next enough.

I’d say a day worth of walk is too far, but I am talking without a reliable map here so take my word with that grain of salt.”

The King brought his left hand to his chin mulling before inciting thirteen to proceed.

“Let’s say we have a farther location what time you’d consider and on what basis?”

Thirteen sighed moving his hand to scratch his right temple looking at the king.

“A clear path to the location, the straighter and leveled the better.

If my terrain knowledge doesn’t fail me, where a river gets shallower to the point you can’t sail a boat further there should be lots of mountainous terrain on the area, hills at least.

I’d say then within a day worth of travel on a carriage or a common horse toward the high ground without stressing the animals.

Before you ask I don’t plan on actually using horses, it’s just a figure of speech to make myself understood.

If you could’ve used horses to move your troops you’d already done it yourself.

I believe you use horses for relaying messages around your kingdom and your talking head nobles have their own you can’t really requisition for other purposes, not without losing face.

Merchants move stuff around the rest of your kingdom so it’s not a thing removing the ability to distribute things like food, clothes, and whatever to your populace either.

Well unless ye are planning to be dethroned by an angry mob, are ye?”

Thirteen smiled pointing to his neck as to imply the translation magic as one of the reasons he expressed himself the way he did.

The king looked at him, as if he could stare right through him then he nodded sighing.

“Now we see why our daughter and other servants beg us to keep you alive even considering your antics.

You give us a wider range than we expected, but yes within that there are several more possibilities, using an existing village is less time consuming and more practical.

We ourselves need to talk to our cartographers to know about the other part of your request.

The question then becomes do you really think you can build a river-faring boat that can travel upstream ?”

Thirteen laughed nodding

“Well yeah, for starters if you get the itch to kill me do so, don’t abstain.

Using words you might understand the people in my world sail the sea without sails, well to move things and lots of people anyway.

We sail the sky too and move around with carriages that don’t use horses.

I think I can replicate the magic that we use by making your artisans cooperate, but since your sky is a little too crowded for comfort I believe the safest and most reliable way to get people alive to the front is by the river for now.

I will work to build a boat and a carriage, but it is more than likely the ability to turn will be bad if there will be one at all for starters. “

The king once again narrowed his eyes.

“We are sure that with your knowledge such a problem can surely be overcome.”

Thirteen laughed a bit harder shaking his head.

“Tell me, o king, what are the words I am about to say: differential gearbox”

-now this will be fun-

The king remembered his premise and looked at his neck

“We understand, even if you have said knowledge it is difficult to pass it on if we don’t have the necessary words”

Thirteen puffed

“Ye are no fun, but yes ye are correct.

Also, it’s a matter of materials, in my world we mastered heat and can freeze or melt almost everything.

We learned to compound materials even, so yeah it's a really complex combination of technology and technique I am not sure I can replicate here.

I saw practically every soldier with some order of metal equipment witch gives me hope still I wonder if we can produce steel strong enough or resort to casting bronze.

I think this will be a big ordeal ”

A knock came from the carriage door and a soldier announced loudly that the carriage was ready finally to return to the castle.

“I have a request, drop me by Sesti’s main forge I have to prepare a thing for the conference, I mean the meeting with the artisan’s guild. “

The king agreed, proposing Thirteen an escort to go back to Etgas, but thirteen flatly refused.

The trip took few minutes and was a mere deviation from the road to the castle, so their conversation was considered over even if king Marud

Being dropped by the royal carriage eased the process in the forge about getting permission to meddle with stuff.

If anything disturbed him was the fact that the forge was a very lively place full of people, but mostly they were minding their work and so it was somewhat bearable.

There was a smelter, alongside the regular forge Thirteen had hoped there would be, it seemed that it operated forcing magic out of slaves.

-Now what, you smart-mouth? They can smelt metal, now what excuse will you pull out for your failure? The problem is they are working with iron for all I know, how are you supposed to make steel if you don’t provide carbon with coal? Probably they use compounds I don’t know of, their blades and armors seem sturdy enough.-

Thirteen brought his right hand to his head, the main reason for that was that while he knew the general workings of a steam engine and all of the mechanisms involved, the knowledge and skill needed to put one together was another story entirely.

In the end, he managed to convince a smith to build him a metal tea kettle, a pinwheel, and a spoked wheel with a pin on one of her outer metal parts near the outer part of the wheel.

All from scrap of metals collected from the cut or damaged parts that would’ve been recycled anyway.

He managed to convince the smith to send the stuff to Etgas establishment since he didn’t carry any money with him.

Then he exited the smith and had that tingling sensation, he picked his deck and looked at a card, it was the tower.

-Now that takes the cake-

He puffed, looking around to the people walking and minding their stuff as they went by, he smiled giggling.

- It will be interesting to see the faces of the heralds of destruction-

Still, with noticeable wobbling and effort, Thirteen moved to the back streets navigating the town trying to find the place where the sensation was stronger.

The grandeur of the streets where carriages roamed free was now far away, the streets became narrower, the houses looked in progressively worse conditions.

It was late, and unsurprisingly for him at least there were women, men, and even boys and girls whoring around with desperation-filled expression.

Some had either willingly found clients for themselves or were dragged into the dark kicking and screaming to please the shady-looking guards of the road.

Since they were doing stuff In the open it was possible at times to at least catch a glimpse of their acts.

The streets themselves reeked of human wastes of all kinds, seemingly any form of sanitation was either ignored or outright sabotaged.

Considering his clothing was made for well-off citizens many offered their services, putting him in a progressively worse mood, his head started to ache badly, his sight distorted slightly.

Probably he was giving an expression so pissed that people on the street started running away, shutting themselves in their houses and stopping whatever act they had going on to run for their lives.

Thirteen smiled as he stopped where the sensation was at the strongest, there was a clearing amidst buildings, and a big ruined stone building, a rare sight in town.

Someone had built a big patchwork of a building using the foundation of stone, scrap iron, and wood.

A knife soared through the air grazing his skin coming from the building as a warning not to approach any further.

Thirteen smiled and reached for his deck of cards, it was hot, it was akin to touching a live wire with low enough current to endure the discharge.

All he needed to do was to give the deck a little push and the whole thing dispersed around him rotating, each of the cards' faces was like a small led light floating and dancing slowly around him.

It was a sight to behold, it felt unnatural, scary, exciting, funny altogether, the problem was if anything he didn’t know where to go from there.

-Now let’s hope they don’t come down to call on my bluff -

“Parlay?”

He shouted at the top of his lungs only to see a sphere of flames large enough to engulf him flung his way, he sighed

- Idiot they don’t have pirates here on the mainland. And even if they had they may use as well another word entirely. -

He sighed closing his eyes fully expecting to be burned to a crisp, but besides a temporary rise in temperature, he felt nothing.

He opened back his eyes to see the flames disappearing, doused by the force of the wind that might have been generated by the circling cards.

He felt suddenly tired, and his headache became a stronger pounding sensation, his vision blurred a little.

-Magic barrier huh, figures I find a way to survive failing to die like the nobody I am. Now tell me how to turn off the damn thing and let me fucking die if I have no attacks at all.-

Thirteen looked up the sky sighing and went back to the ragtag building that was attacking him.

“Very funny, now come down here before I get more pissed than this, resistance is futile.”

A man or woman in a dark cape fully hooded and with a white mask hiding most of his features exited the building, the mask had a fox shape like a fox.

-Come on can you guys get more of a… wait a minute a traditional Japanese festival mask?-

Thirteen raised an eyebrow a little surprised but didn’t recall his cards out of his idea of a ruse rather than a real utility or desire of being protected.

“Now this is something funny to see, you still wanna hide from me?”

Thirteen smiled widely trying his best to sound confident, a couple of knocks came from behind revealing a couple of robed people behind him, as he moved from where he was seeking a place where to see all the figures a fourth figure emerged from the ground with a blade pointing upwards.

Thirteen raised an eyebrow as he ducked and rolled avoiding what appeared a purposely slow swing of the blade toward him pushing him to the boundary of his rotating shield of cards.

-So it’s vulnerable from below, nice thinking man.-

He rose, panting, looking around to see if there was a way out, and then he noticed the lights had changed to repeating figures he could recognize.

The major arcana of his deck was there to be seen in a repeating pattern, but of the twenty-one arcana only thirteen were present and some were copies of the same card.

There was a possibility to choose between the fool, the magician, Strength, The Hermit, Wheel of Fortune, Justice, Death, Temperance, The Devil, The Star, The Moon, The Sun, and Judgement.

The card that had more variation was the magician that appeared weirdly as the juggler and the pagad, the other versions of the first arcana even if he originally had a Rider–Waite deck back on Earth.

“Dudes don’t give me the silent treatment, please. Gods are silent as it is, if their messengers' wannabe does the same where’s the fun?“

Thirteen fully knew that the pagad and the juggler illustration alluded to the darker mundane representation of the tarot and darker interpretations.

The magic shows on Earth were sleights of hands, illusions, and well-thought tricks that each mage closely guarded even if there were some notorious exceptions.

His right hand reached to the figure of the pagad, the representation of trickster of the little history he narrated a while back to Etgas and Selie, and the shining rotating halo shrunk suddenly disappearing.

He saw it a little too late, the world rotating upside down, he could see his chubby legs, as a long blade was cutting him in half.