SIXTEEN
“Fancy,” Alice’s loud voice echoed out through the dusty halls as Benny led them into his personal holdings in the mage quarters. Like everything on Oasis, it was built out and not up. Room after room that stretched out along the outer wall of the ward.
Kon looked at the sealed bookcase, a fortune of paper and wanted to tear out his eyes to see it so poorly treated. It should have been the premier showcase spot for a rich man’s fortune and Benny had his wedged into a corner and forgotten.
“It’ll do for now,” Benny said as he sealed the door behind them, a series of locks clicking into place. Alice had found a couch and proceeded to flop on it, cradling her new shield like it was a baby as she struggled to keep her eyes open.
“Thoughts on them?” Benny asked as he disappeared a moment before returning with a straight back chair which he sat across from Alice’s sofa. Kon was left standing with nowhere to sit, but feeling a bit impish he went and sat on Alice’s feet seeing as she was taking up the entirety of a three person couch. She arched an eyebrow at him but didn’t move.
“Beto is pompous. Could be overcompensation due to the central role Knights have versus the historical role that mages had. Loras is quiet but had good observations and Alexandra seemed intelligent and determined to impress you,” Kon summarized his thoughts on the three young mages.
“Old man was holding back against me and still packed a wallop. I don’t think I believed him when he said I’d beat him in my armor. At least now without some pain,” Alice said slowly.
“Alexandros is the most skilled mage on Oasis and likely all her attendant fleets. You’d have to go to Refuge or Bastion to find a mage as experienced and combat capable as he is,” Benny said. There was an unspoken question there, Kon could feel it. A challenge to keep pushing that line of thought.
“Alice is a talented and skilled Knight, but still young and with only three layers, not even a complete web and she can challenge the most experienced mage in an entire fleet to the full extent of his power. Mages are weak,” Kon said. He grimaced immediately and shook his head rapidly.
“I misspoke, not weak. They’re not as combat capable as Knight’s are. The versatility he showed was far more than any Knight or cultivator I’ve seen,” Kon finished. Benny nodded and looked toward Alice. She wasn’t as used to Benny’s breakdowns, but she had run something similar enough that she was able to hop into it without missing a beat.
“Don’t know how old he is, but with how many runes I saw going around him for his spells,”
“Formula,” Kon corrected. Alice slipped a foot out from under him and heel kicked him hard in the side with hardly a pause.
“Formula must take a long time to learn. Seemed fairly energy efficient if he managed to fight me with only E-Grade stones, but burning through six to eight of those to handle a single Knight would start adding up. Unless he has a way to penetrate my defenses and kill me instantly. He definitely has that,” Alice said after a moment. She frowned and let her head slump back and bounce off the arm of the couch.
“I won’t be able to learn it, will I?” There was no pain in her voice or wistfulness, just a flatness that was unlike her. Alice was always full of life and vigor, it infected her every action and word. Kon had never seen someone so full of just pure energy and happiness to be alive and kicking. To hear the flatness and see the blank look on her face hurt.
“I see no possible way of teaching you that path now that your runes are implanted. They’d consume the energy of body cultivation and without that, mage work would leave you crippled in less than a few decades,” Benny said. He didn’t sugarcoat his words or soften the blow, but neither was he cruel as he looked down at the young woman.
“Damn. Would have been nice to learn that cage trick. Wouldn’t have to run so much to chase people down,” Alice said in the same flat tones. Kon rolled his eyes and Alice chuckled herself a second later, but there had been a hint of truth in that bitterness.
“If, and I want to reiterate that word, IF, this path is possible for more than just Kon, then we’re going to need trainers of multiple disciplines to implement this fully. I don’t have the time to teach everyone and neither will Daniur. Alice Roose, you are young, skilled, and have shown an aptitude for training,” Benny said. Kon snorted and looked at Alice.
“Her? An aptitude for training? She gave me a rock, forgot to tell me how many enemies there were, and threw me at them. That’s not training,” Kon said, indignant as he thought over their time on Crucible. When he had thought she was dead he might have put a bit of a rose colored tint on the time. He had enjoyed parts of that, no doubt, but to say Alice Roose had an aptitude was a bridge too far for him.
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“You’re alive aren’t you? I even sacrificed my life to save you,” Alice said, sounding affronted.
“You’re alive, aren’t you?” Kon shot back. Alice scrunched her face for a moment and then sighed and nodded looking despondent.
“I’m too talented and beautiful to die like that. I’m sorry I couldn’t live up to your expectations,” she said solemnly.
“Are you two done?” Benny cut in and the banter dried up as he looked between them.
“I miss the UImna girl. At least she was deferential,” Benny groused. Kon thought there was a hint of happiness in his features though as he leaned back slightly in his chair and looked them over.
“Of course I will stay and it will be a delight to be training recruits again. Especially if this pays off my armor.” Alice managed to get them all back on track.
“We’ll need to find a true body cultivator and not just rely on what Daniur has picked up here and there. Basic combat training will be good for the mages regardless. A rock you say?” Benny had the beginning of an evil smile on his face and Kon felt bad for those three young mages.
“Why mages and not squires? There’s plenty of them floating around that we can scoop up for cheap. Chapterhouses are always overflowing with squires who need a mentor,” Alice asked.
“Why would that be?” Benny challenged. Alice groaned but closed her eyes to think it through.
“We don’t know how far the corruption goes and which Chapterhouses have started to move over to the Order of the Lion?” Kon asked. Benny nodded and rolled his hand to keep it coming.
“Why would they give up on the chance of becoming a Knight to become some type of experimental soldier? Seems foolish,” Alice threw in.
“Good point.” Was the only confirmation that he gave them.
“We’re not there yet, but once we get their foundations laid out, the basic body cultivation and early runes, they’ll be able to pick up the formula work much faster than a Squire would,” Kon said.
“Excellent. As you’re already learning a formula is precise. Not only the runes you need to channel, but the order and the intent of each of those runes as well. A mage lord like Alexandros or one of my parents would spend decades working on it.”
“You weren’t a mage lord?” Kon asked. Benny waggled a hand.
“Mage Lords can do major works, it’s what is the qualifier. I never did one before I started working on my Knight work, but I think when I was in my prime I could have. I won’t claim a title I haven’t earned though,” Benny clarified.
“They’ll pass me quickly enough in that aspect then,” Kon said as he thought of how quickly Diur had caught him with body cultivation. Those first few sessions would be harsh, but here in the heart of the fleet they’d be able to quickly secure all the ingredients they need to force the mages to E-Grade. That was easy enough, it was getting from E to D that required more specialized knowledge.
“For memorized formulas, yes. Again, you are the most intrinsic energy manipulator I’ve ever met. Then it’s just how hard are you willing to work to memorize those formula to catch up to them,” Benny said.
“Steel sharpens steel,” Alice said in a sing-song voice.
“Competition will help keep you motivated. Peers who can truly be rivals will help as well. People you can commiserate with are underrated. Diur is a good companion, but like Alice, she’ll never walk your path. These young mages along with a few Squires I’ll rustle up, will walk it with you. It will also give us a wider range of test subjects to see what works and what won’t.” Kon tried not to grimace at that part, because failing with the type of work they were doing would result in dissolution in a cultivator bath or an internal explosion as a rune’s energy raced out of control, or a formula detonating on them and leaving nothing behind but a crater and some chunks of meat.
“Sentiment,” Kon said after a moment of silence.
“Hmm?” Benny hummed inquisitively.
“They’re your people. What’s left of them. They are beaten, broken, left behind and a shadow of the splendor they used to be. We’re looking to move forward so we can go back home. You want your heritage, the remnants of those who sacrificed to save humanity, to be the ones to lead us home,” Kon said. His heart was in his throat as he looked at Benny’s cold eyes that had grown inscrutable, every emotion placed behind the mask of complete control the old man had.
“You are more perceptive than people say,” Alice said and it broke the momentary tenseness of the moment.
“Maybe you’re right. Maybe it is a bit of sentimentality. But is that wrong? Is it wrong to want to save the last pieces of your people?” Benny rubbed a finger over his mustache and shook his head.
“Tomorrow Alice is going to go and see how fit they are. You are going to get that treasure finished and ready for implanting. Don’t do it when you finish, you’re going to want to be fresh and rested when you implant a rune,” Benny said, patting Kon on the shoulder as he got up and started walking out.
“Pick a room, there’s fourteen or fifteen I think,” were his last words of the night as he slipped away.
“Think you made him feel vulnerable,” Alice said as she closed her eyes and draped her arm across her eyes, the other one still cradling the shield.
“Just going to sleep here? Not even take a shower?” Kon said as he looked down at her. She had slipped on some spare clothes, just an Oasis jumpsuit, but hadn’t returned Alexandros robes.
“I’ll do it in the morning. I need my sleep. Go and listen to that boring documentary you like so much.” Alice shooed him away and Kon went, tired and exhausted from a long day but still looking forward to tomorrow and trying to finish sculpting his first full rune.