Wild Era 3, Ch 23: Trouble

After Kelin practiced with his new abilities for a while, he became comfortable with them. Then he headed back to the resort.

The Ocean of Storms was still peaceful and sunny, with only a line of faint blue clouds building on the horizon that promised its name would prove true soon enough. Until then, shining rays of sunlight set off the crystalline beaches and illuminated the emerald hue of the forests that bordered the shores.

He took his time, walking along the beach and testing out his Sage Soul clone. Soulfire flared with golden radiance as a figure that looked just like him appeared beside him. 

It only took a second. 

The Soul Sage clone was his height, build, and even wore the same clothing, except that everything was made of soulfire. He was also translucent and radiated a bright warmth like a fire.

As it appeared, Kelin’s mind split into two parts and he could see himself standing there as easily as he could see the clone.

It wasn’t uncomfortable, just a bit strange.

The clone was able to fly through the air like a flicker of light, almost like a sun ray, and it was as fast as a message spell. He couldn’t bend space yet, so it wasn’t immediate, but it could fly across hundreds of miles swiftly.

To test out its capabilities more, he sent the clone off on scouting missions along the shore, letting it travel for a while and see everything nearby. Instead of calling it back, he dissolved it and created a new one, which he sent off in another direction.

In that way, he managed to get an in-depth view of the surroundings and scouted the beaches with an aerial view. It allowed him to update his map of the region and to notice many details that he hadn’t seen before, from the location of dungeons to the travel of merchants and others along the roads.

It was a busy area that was highly connected to Stormhill to the south. Routes led to that city and others and were filled with wagons, adventurers, and people seeking rest and relaxation on the coast.

This area was a crossroads for the northern part of Celadon and a dozen different styles of clothing were on display, with everything from the white silks of Shimmerset to the colorful desert robes of Sarathia.

There were mana fluctuations across the Ocean of Storms that slowed down the progress of his spell, but he was still able to scout over it for a short distance before he gave up on it as inefficient.

After that, he stuck to the coasts and was able to cover an incredible amount of distance in both directions. He put together what he could see with information from the guild map and everything began to come together.

This area was at the southern edge of the ocean and roughly in the center. The coastline extended east and west for a few hundred miles in each direction before it curved northward. 

As the western side headed to the north, the coastline turned into the Jeweled Isles and the three Spell Cities, as they were called. They were named Sapphire, Shimmerset, and Spell Keep and were famous for their mages and magical arts.

The clothing from that region was mostly mages’ robes in sapphire, white, and silver, which showed up frequently on the guards of merchant caravans. The people of that region tended to have long hair with multicolored braids that were interwoven with talismans and beads that held protective spells.

Past those cities and even farther to the north, there was the edge of a dangerous region called the Free Pirate Cove and Siren’s Run, as well as some fiercely militant cities. 

That area stretched away from the coast to the northwest until it ran into a mana-filled mountain range called the Astral Reaches, one of the most intense sites of elemental and spatial energy on Lareth.

On the other side of the ocean, off to the east, the coastline was a verdant and rich land that held grapevines, fruit trees, and orchards, which covered a hundred-mile swathe of land between the ocean and the Empire of Sarathia.

It was like a border between the ocean and the desert, and it was the domain of free cities. People from that region went in for colorful silks, flamboyant hats, and jewels, which wasn’t too different from Celadon except that they had more motifs of orchards and fruits in the designs.

They were also famous for their tempers and apparently fought duels at the drop of a hat to appease their sense of honor.

Their eastern border touched the northwestern edge of Sarathia and the empire would have liked to take them over, but so far they had managed to keep their independence.

The average person there was a powder keg ready to fight at a moment’s notice, used to struggling against beasts and pirates day after day, and if neither of those were available, then they fought each other. 

He decided he would have to visit some day and see it for himself.

He wasn’t rushing, so it took him a couple of hours to get back to the resort. Once he was close, he let his clone disappear and headed to his villa. 

As he passed by Taren and Esla’s courtyard nearby, he expected to see Petru and Yaslen playing outside, but the place was silent. 

His steps paused and a frown flickered across his features. 

A quick scan told him that no one was in the villa except a few servants, but from what Taren had told him, they weren’t planning to leave for at least another month.

He scanned the area again and when he didn’t find them, he broadened his search to the entire resort.

Gaius sensed his mood and joined in, harnessing the earth energy of the place to search for any life signatures that matched the merchant couple and their kids.

However, none of them were present.

A second search told him that the pirates were gone too. No one from their group was left in the resort.

Concern flared in his mind as he searched again, only to turn up the same result. He could have dismissed it, but he had seen too much to believe in coincidences.

His body blurred as he ran to his villa and searched for a note or anything else they might have left to tell him where they were going. If they’d left naturally, they would have done at least that much.

When he found there was no note or any sign that they had been by to visit him before leaving, his suspicions crystallized.  

He sprinted back through the resort to their villa and used a guest key that Taren had given him to get inside. That the key still worked meant the resort hadn’t booked anyone new into their place.

There was no sign the wards had been disturbed and when they opened easily, he already knew to expect the worst.

Inside, everything was empty.

It looked like they’d cleared out and the place was waiting for a new guest, but he could sense the recent disturbances of the area. There were tracks in the earth, impressions of soul energies and magical auras left on the walls and furniture, and other signs left behind.

Whatever had happened, it had been swift and disruptive, full of magic.

He searched through everything, analyzing it and sensing the details, as he walked from room to room. Gaius helped by scanning through the earth and everything touching it for anything that was out of place or hidden.

Within a few minutes, their combined work resulted in a scattering of small items on a table in front of Kelin.

The kids’ room had been cleared out, but he found a carved marble figurine of an archer that Yaslen had been fond of, a blue amethyst crystal Petru liked to call his mana crystal, a small scroll with a rune for Flame on it that Kelin had given the boy to study, a painted rock, and more.

They had been scattered under furniture and behind bushes, left at the base of a rock, and buried in the garden.

They were all things that were usually in the kids’ pockets and that they wouldn’t have left behind. If they’d noticed them missing, they would have demanded their parents turn around to get them.

There was also a scrap of blue cloth that had belonged to one of Esla’s dresses, and some scattered papers from Taren’s business, which had been shredded to almost nothing.

It wasn’t much, but it was enough to say they hadn’t left naturally. Someone had done a hurried job of cleaning up the area and left all of this behind.

As Kelin looked down at the collection, a wave of killing intent filled the air, radiating outward from him in a wave like sunrise. He’d been planning to rest, but his plans had changed. 

Taren and Esla were some of the few people he called his friends in this world and their children were bright and cheerful.

There was no way he was going to allow anyone to harm them. 

He’d been waiting to see what the pirates did, with the intent of fishing out whoever was behind them, but now he swore at himself for not dealing with them sooner.

He hadn’t expected they would stoop this low.

It was too late to change the past, so all he could was make sure that Taren’s family didn’t come to harm.

It looked like they’d been kidnapped, but not harmed yet, so he needed to track them down and rescue them. 

Then he would kill the pirates and everyone behind them.

He settled his mind and cast his senses out, searching across the distance. He had marked the pirates’ souls weeks ago to keep an eye on them and make sure they couldn’t escape.

That had been the right move.

Almost instantly, he found their signatures to the northeast, faint and distant. They were somewhere on the Ocean of Storms and already several hundred miles away, probably on a ship.

He couldn’t tell if Taren’s family was there, but he would find out.

Before his Evolution, he would have waited until night to use his cloak and follow the pirates, since it would be faster. Now he had another way.

A Sage Soul clone appeared in front of him, glowing with flames.

“Go,” Kelin said as he pointed to the northeast. 

The Soul Sage clone gave him a salute and then it disappeared with a flicker of light. Kelin tracked its path as it shot across the distance. 

The mana fluctuations on the ocean made it slower than usual, but it wouldn’t stop him. It would reach the location of the pirates within thirty minutes or so.

The clone was a copy of his memories and will, so to an extent it was able to act independently even if the connection between the two of them was blocked, but for now the connection was strong and he saw everything as it traveled.

The ocean blurred past beneath it. It was like a ray of flame and almost invisible to anyone watching, just a flicker in the air.

As it headed toward the pirates, Kelin took stock of his talismans and equipment. He’d planned to rebuild his gear for the Second Evolution, but that would have to wait.

Once the clone arrived, he could swap places with it and destroy the pirates, but until then he needed to check other possibilities.

The wards on Taren’s villa should have blocked a surprise attack or at least shattered trying to. That they hadn’t been disturbed meant someone disabled them with a key.

Either the pirates had enough power to cover their tracks or the resort was helping them.

His bet was on the latter.

He took out the command medallion for his villa and sent a message, ordering the resort manager to come and meet him at the gate. 

There was no way he wasn’t involved.

The manager had enough influence that he was practically the local lord, but Kelin didn’t care about that at all.

He had been suspicious of the pirates here, since the resort’s security should have been able to find out who they were, but he’d chalked it up to an interest in profit, since many merchants would look past a questionable history if they were paid enough.

Now things looked much darker.

It didn’t take long for the resort manager to show up. He was a thin and twitchy man with opulent clothing and a boisterous personality.

He was flanked by a couple of the resorts’ guards, who were at a respectable Level 205. There was one mage and one archer, and they were dressed in well-used gear that wouldn’t have been out of place on adventurers.

The archer had a sword at his belt and a strung longbow over his shoulder, while the mage had a staff in his hand and wore a brown robe that glimmered with warding sigils.

Their expressions were carefully neutral, but Kelin could sense the alertness and arrogance that was radiating from them. They were rude enough to try to Analyze him, which he blocked with a flicker of will, and their faces darkened before they gave him a close look and then studied the ground and sky.

“My lord!” the manager said cheerfully, his expression fixed in a mask of hospitality. “How may we serve you?”

“Cut to the point,” Kelin said bluntly. “The family that was here is gone. They didn’t leave willingly. The pirates that were masquerading as your guests were also gone. Where are the pirates taking them?”

“My lord, this resort has never admitted pirates!” The manager looked shocked, even as his eyes narrowed and he gave Kelin a closer look, which was half hidden as he bowed his head even lower.

“These merchants, they are like that,” he added dismissively. “They left suddenly, probably to chase a minor profit. You know how merchants are. They are nothing like your noble self.”

“Most of the nobles in Celadon are merchants,” Kelin said. “You should probably remember that. I don’t care about your claims of innocence. You either failed to protect them or you helped the pirates to kidnap them. Which is it?”

“Sir, we would never!” The manager stood up, suddenly looking fierce as his face turned red. “I am insulted by the very insinuation. We have done our utmost to provide you a welcome stay here and we did the same for the merchants who were in this villa. It was their choice to leave. I do not try to keep anyone here, even if they leave in the middle of the night.”

“Not admitting it?” Kelin asked, raising an eyebrow. “You won’t mind if I search through your records then, including the ones related to those pirates and everyone else who’s visited here recently. Let’s head to your office. Also, show me the contents of all of your spatial items. I can see three of them on you.”

He was sure there was something in there that would be incriminating, one way or another.

“Please, baron,” the manager said, bowing again, even as anger flashed in his eyes. “There were no pirates here. How can you make up such false charges against an honest establishment? I’m sorry, but I cannot let you see any records or the contents of my spatial items, just like I would not let anyone see yours. Our guests’ security and privacy are paramount!”

The two guards beside him had their hands on their weapons and their knuckles were turning white from the pressure. Their expressions were unmoving, but they were clearly ready to back up the manager.

“I’d have appreciated that before you let my friends get kidnapped by pirates,” Kelin replied. “Now, you don’t get that courtesy. As a Baron of Celadon and as a Knight Commander of the Path, I order you to show me your records and aid in my search.”

His words rang out with a mystical force, turning into chains of runic symbols in the air that swirled through the area. 

They echoed with the force of natural laws and the Path.

Local lords had authority within their areas and Knight Commanders had even more. Now, Kelin was calling on the local energy to highlight his words. 

It wouldn’t force them to obey, but it told them he had the authority here, which was usually enough.

The manager blanched as he saw the laws appear and some of the anger in his expression turned to fear, but he didn’t hesitate.

“Guards,” he demanded suddenly as he stood up. “Please escort the baron off the premises. He is no longer welcome as a guest at this resort.”

The two guards had been waiting for the command and they leapt forward instantly. They also didn’t hold back.

The archer’s bow flashed as it appeared in his hand and he fired an arrow at Kelin that glowed with mana. Despite the manager’s command, the spell on it was a deadly one that was designed to pierce mana shields.

On the other side, the mage raised his staff and a cage made of a thousand spiraling threads of water rose from the ground and air around Kelin, which swiftly began to close around him. Despite being made of water, the threads were sharp on the edges, more than capable of tearing through flesh, and they showed no sign of stopping as they approached.

Both of them were trying to kill him.

As the spells closed in, Kelin raised his hand. 

A wave of mana flared out from him, disrupting the structure of both attacks and froze the arrow in the air, which he reached out and grabbed before it could fall.

“Then we’ll do this the hard way,” he said as he looked at it and then at the guards. His face was expressionless. “For you.”

The guards were already attacking again and the manager joined in as well, showing off his own Level 210. 

They shouted as they attacked, their words crashing with force as mana fields raged around them. The attacks were even more fierce this time. 

They weren’t holding anything back.

A rain of a dozen arrows fell from the sky, each of them a shining bolt that could tear through armor and skulls. One of them had enough force to level a field of First Evolution soldiers and tear the entire area to pieces, and if that wasn’t enough there were a dozen different killing effects woven into their structure. 

Behind the areas, a wave of raging water rose up like a tide that boiled with force. Echoes of the ocean thundered from inside, sounding like the crashing surf and a raging sea. It was a wave that could drown a village, wiping out all life and scouring the earth.

At the manager’s command, whipping vines covered in long ghostly thorns rose up from the earth and covered the area, swiftly turning into walls and hedges that blocked the area. The mana radiating from them was disruptive and dangerous, enough to disrupt some low-level spells, and the thorns held droplets of a faint hissing liquid that made the hairs on Kelin’s skin rise.

The combined force of three Second Evolution adventurers was enough to shake the area and send the local mana into turmoil. If the attacks landed, they would do devastating damage.

The wards on the house were strong enough to survive, but anything inside was going to be destroyed.

“This is all you have?” Kelin asked, raising an eyebrow as he glanced at the attacks. 

Another wave of Spell Disruption sliced through the attacks approaching him. The arrows disintegrated, the wave fell apart, and the vines shuddered as they were turned to motes of green light.

The mana in the area raged in turmoil, turning into a hurricane of chaotic force, but Kelin raised his hand and pressed it down to the earth, his own mana field finally spreading out. 

In response, the mana shuddered as it slammed to the ground, unable to move under the superior pressure. 

Glowing sparks of soulfire swirled through the air, commanding the space like the lords of mana. Wherever they went, the other mana froze and submitted.

Beneath them, everything was still.

The manager and the two guards were unmoving, their expressions frozen just as much as their mana as they struggled under the pressure of Kelin’s mana field.

“Did you think you could kill me and hide your crimes?” Kelin shook his head as he looked at them. “At least you saved me the trouble of finding anyone else.”

He reached out and pulled the manager toward him, where he forced him to his knees. His hand wrapped around the man’s head.

“Did you know I was once called the Archmage of Souls?” he asked calmly. “One of my favorite spells to use on an enemy was a soul search. It can read your memories and show your true intentions, especially the things you care about the most.”

Strands of glowing soul energy appeared around Kelin’s fingers and swirled around the manager’s head. Then they began to sink in.

The man let out a howl as he tried to struggle against it, but the only result was his veins standing out on his temples and his face turning red.

Kelin’s grip tightened and the soul energy sank in faster, spreading throughout the man’s mind and soul. 

Now and then, the progress slowed down as the man’s soul fought back, but it didn’t stop. The main result was that the manager shook in agony.

“At the Second Evolution, it’s not perfect,” Kelin admitted, “but my mana field is strong enough to suppress the emanations of your aura and make it work. That means it’s unpleasant at best and can completely destroy a mind and soul, especially if you struggle, like you are now. 

“I usually refrain from using it on humans, but I’m willing to make an exception for people who try to kill me, so I recommend you cooperate. Now enough games. Show me what happened to Taren’s family and where they are.”