“I didn’t expect them to have hundreds of weak mana hearts they were willing to trade for our assistance,” I said as we walked behind another of the Silent Ones.

My first assumption that the Silent Ones were some weird harem was proven wildly inaccurate with this one, seeing as he was a man. Then again, I didn’t know how this society operated maybe they swung both ways. Who was I to judge?

“That’s because you get too defensive,” Fiona added flatly, “Martin told me an interesting saying, you catch more flies with honey.”

I grunted, “I’m familiar with it. I just don’t like being lied to and manipulated.”

“Nor do I, but you should still try to be nicer to people, at least when Martin or I am not here to smooth things over for you.”

I couldn’t deny that, but I wasn’t opening up to people I hardly knew anymore. Not after what happened with Javier. Once bitten twice shy so to speak. I knew I was being obstinate but it kept my friends from being hurt I was fine with alienating others. But this situation was Fiona’s choice so I would support her.

The Silent One came to a halt and motioned toward a faded line running through the cobblestone street.

I walked over to see what he was pointing out. It reminded me of those dividing lines some cities used to have to tell you that you stepped across some imaginary point into the next country over. There was a slight curve to the construction and it took me a bit to estimate the size of the circle. A rough estimate put it in the five hundred meter range. It was in rough shape as thousands of years of wear and tear had worn away at the enchantment.

What I saw, I couldn’t make heads or tails of. For one enchanting was more geometric design than the flowing style that runic design contained. Sure I could have some geometric stylization in my designs but that was mainly for separating the runic components. Enchantment reminded me more of a complex mandala made from intersecting straight lines and a magical script that I couldn't even begin to understand. And this was one of the working sections of the city, I couldn’t imagine how bad off the broken sections had become.

We had only come here to see where the working locations were and Fiona thought I might be able to fix some to give us a better chance at trapping the spirit.

I stood up and shook my head, “there isn’t anything I can do, even if I understood this mess,” I said, gesturing to the ground, “it's too damaged to know where to begin.”

“The hard way it is then,” Fiona said as if she had expected this outcome from the start.

“So you do have a plan?”

“Nope, not really” she replied.

I stopped, “what do you mean, nope?”

Fiona came to a stop and turned to face me, then she shrugged. “Hard to plan for something you’ve never encountered.”

“Then how do you figure to pull this off?” I asked in astonishment.

“Well, first we need to check the rest of these enchantment circles. Then we need to see if we can intercept the shadow spirit before it strikes again. Depending on how it reacts, then we can plan or we can fight it until it makes a mistake and enters one of the zones.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose and sighed, “fine, but I may be able to increase our chances to make this work.”

She winked at me, “I thought you might have something up your sleeve.”

“Yeah, yeah, let's just get these sites checked out, and I'll work on seeing if my idea is feasible or not.”

I grunted in annoyance as she smiled and turned around, hurrying after our guide.

I didn’t particularly like being put on the spot to save these people but I had been thinking over the issue since the Chief told us about it. It wouldn’t be the first time I had created something that affected spirits. This would be on a much larger scale though.

While we walked my mind began to go through dozens of possible runic combinations and designs for an item that could help in this situation. Materials would be slim picking, but the items didn’t need to last long once they were powered up. The problem I was having was if they would have an adverse effect on the Silent Ones or even worse the sleeping spirits.

Fixing the enchantment circles or creating new ones using runes would be the best outcome but I had neither the time nor incentive to go that far. Another idea popped into my head and I smiled. I think I could help Fiona with this spirit capture as well as the town, without too much effort.

***

Mugat rode with me out to the fortress while Fiona stayed behind in Huran. With my staff, she didn’t have much to worry about if the spirit attacked her but I needed my workroom to complete the needed items.

I had to stop Mugat from approaching too close as I dismounted from the horse and deactivated the defenses.

“How does something so large and heavy fly?” he asked, getting his first up-close look at the fortress.

“Magic,” I replied simply, giving him a smirk.

The man looked back at me with a deadpan face.

“Well, I thought it was funny. It’s enchanted, but that’s as much information as I am willing to disclose.”

“Very well, and you are sure it can make it back to the city quicker than the horses?” he asked, eying the fortress skeptically.

“Yup, It may not be as fast as a horse at full gallop, but it doesn’t get tired. Here, store the horses in this,” I said tossing him the storage item I used to keep Bella in.

He easily snatched it from the air and looked at it in confusion.

“It’s like a storage ring but safe to hold animals.”

“Ah,” he said simply, getting off his horse and touching it to the item. Both creatures disappeared into the ring.

“How long can they remain inside?” he asked.

“As long as you add food and water, they can remain inside indefinitely. Although they still age, and it's not really good for their temperament to leave them cooped up too long. A few days shouldn’t hurt them though.”

“Very well,” Mugat replied, joining me on the ramp and following me inside.

***

Mugat had been understandably nervous about flying but he got over most of that fear and asked me questions about the fortress. I didn’t answer most of them, seeing as I hardly knew the guy. After a while, he gave up and the rest of the trip was a silent endeavor. I parked the fortress a few hundred yards from the city wall and Mugat disembarked.

After he was gone I headed up to my workshop and got to work building the devices to help Fiona.

The first ones were simple, just a small device that emitted an aura more annoying than harmful to spirits. It was based on the design of my weapon but in an expanded aura form rather than concentrated for attacking. When activated it would cover about a hundred-foot radius for about three days before the runes burned themselves out. If I were using mithril for the runic pathways the devices would last for years but this was fast, dirty, and cheap. I made twenty-four of the devices with the scrap metals I had within the fortress.

The goal was to surround one of the active enchantment circles with them, forcing the creature to flee in that direction. They were set up with a simple remote activation rune, similar to what I used on my barge keys. This way they could all be activated or deactivated at the same time.

The last item was a bit more complex. And I did use mithril in its construction. It was disguised as a simple lantern, mimicking the ones I had seen people carrying around Huran. It worked along the same principle as the gem Fiona was trapped inside. But it could only draw elemental spirits to it, to trap them within, and it would automatically release them when the person carrying the lantern entered one of the active enchantment circles within the city. Since spirits were mostly hidden from human eyes, anyone carrying the lantern would not suspect a thing. It would just be one more lantern among dozens of others that the city watch carried on their nightly patrols.

Although, for it to work, they would have to unknowingly get within a hundred feet of an untethered spirit. I only had the materials for two of these lanterns on hand so it would have to do. I got to work laying the mithril pathways on the two lanterns I “borrowed”. I wasn’t going to tell the chief about this item because I didn’t want him hounding me to make more for the city. Perhaps if friendly relations were set up between Saint June and Huran, some sort of trade agreement could be made. Lord knows they had a plentiful supply of mana hearts to trade.

I had asked the Chief about those, apparently, they grew in the hot springs near the city. Harvesting them wasn’t a high priority for the city though as they grew extremely slowly in the waters. It could sometimes take two to five years to produce one that could hold more than fifty mana. All the ones he promised Fiona and me for this work were even smaller, holding between twenty and twenty-five mana. Essentially useless for most things. But I knew how to combine them to get a much more useful-sized mana heart.

I had always wondered about mana hearts. The only ones I had come across had been in dungeon bosses. If that’s the only place they spawned, magical gear would be even more overpriced than it was now. But finding out there were naturally occurring mana hearts made much more sense. Making a good impression and scooping up a lucrative trade agreement would be my top priority for Martin when we returned. I couldn’t let a resource like this escape my grasp or let the Enchanter’s Guild know about it. It’s one of the main reasons I agreed to go along with Fiona’s reckless plan.

I quickly finished up my work and inspected the lanterns. I had three but only two were modified and I couldn’t see any difference in the items. The runes were hidden along with the mithril pathways. Whether they would work, I couldn’t say. I knew they should work based on my knowledge of runes but it was not always a guarantee. The lanterns also acted as a backup in case the first plan had unintended side effects.

I returned to the city to find Fiona. When I caught up to her she looked tired.

“What happened to you?” I asked in concern.

“Oh, not much. I managed to catch up with the spirit and it was angry about my meddling. We fought for a bit before I pulled out the weapon you gave me, then it fled. I’ve been trying to track it down ever since.”

“Wait, so you haven’t slept in three days?”

She shook her head in reply.

“Go get some sleep in the fortress, I got some things to help with the hunt, but I need you rested before I try and deploy them.”

“Alright, I’ll see you in eight hours,” she replied tiredly.