The island Lad took them for training was a fairly close one to the central island, the biggest of the floating islands connected to the trunk of the colossal tree. They could fare with the gondolas commuting from one island to another but Lad argued that they were a complete scam and he wouldn’t let anyone spend a dime on a boat while simply falling could do the job.

Thankfully, what he thought of falling was more of a gliding this time.

They jumped off and drifted in the air until they gently landed on the destination. Off all the people there were, only Yel could truly ride the winds but simply floating was a doable job with enough practice. Widen your mana beneath your feet like a kite and you could float for a while. Not much as pure mana without an attribute didn’t fare well in the atmosphere.

After landing on a lower island beneath the central island Leviseus where the saint resided, they went to Naye’s estate. A small shack stood eerily on the edge of the island that was connected to Leviseus by a thin root.

The door was unlocked as always, the giant white wolf lying in front of the front yard was enough of a safety measure.

“Any intruders, Snow?” She smiled at the beast and the wolf shook her head.

Lia petted Snow’s head and entered the shack after Naye, just like she had always done. She liked wolves. They were noble and holy beasts, no matter how cliché their names were. One of the stories in the Codex even mentioned Vaella riding a giant wolf fighting the Viran.

Lad on the other hand growled back at the snarking beast. As their staring contest raged, Inni and Yel nimbly entered the room following Lia.

The walls of the shack were full of shelves and books. They weren’t orderly too, vertical and horizontal, with a few skulls and pelts stuck in between. It looked more like a hoard than a collection. Still, these books were worth gold in their weight combined.

The room was quite empty other than the shelves. A fireplace in the middle of a wall, a table between the fireplace and the door, and a bed to the right. A very humble place for a woman of her wealth.

Naye had grown up on Leviseus ever since she was a little girl and had been on more quests to the Nevran desert than most mages her age couldn’t even dream of. Considering all the loot and the rewards, she could be one of the richest people in the floating isles. Had she wanted, she could have gotten one of those expensive mansions close to the trunk of the tree.

“Sit down.” Naye pulled the two chairs from the front of the empty fireplace to her desk for Lia and Inni. “And sorry.” She shook her shoulders looking at Yel. “I don’t usually have more than one guest.”

“No problem.” Yel smiled, his eyes quickly scanning the room. He couldn’t believe he was in the Runemaster’s house and study.

As they sat down, she set the fireplace alight with a snap of her finger and threw her coat and the lion pelt on the table to the bed, where lay a pile of scrolls. She then put off her glove and threw it on the ground, folding the sleeves of her burgundy shirt, revealing the runes covering all of her left arms, starting from her shoulder to the fingertips. Similar to those on Lad’s face but unlike his, Naye’s runes brimmed with light and power.

She had carved those runes on her skin, deep in her flesh; all by herself. It was a painful experience, and a hard discipline to master but Naye did it, nevertheless. It was not a choice either, with a bounty on her head, strength was indeed a necessity.

On the table, there were many books and inked sheets scattered around but Lia recognized the one she gave Naye. It was placed at the centre, with other books laying around closed with multiple bookmarks.

“I can’t believe you let this book lay around in that castle for decades.” Naye leaned on the table, opening a few other books and checking the bookmarked pages.

Lad in response growled again, the door still wide open and him facing the wolf outside.

Witnessing the scene, Naye sighed.

“Could you decipher them?” Lia asked, peeking at the open pages. She saw multiple writing systems and from books of and parchments of different ages.

“Well, I could say I made some progress. I figured somethings and decided I needed to consult…” Naye looked at Lad again, nostrils enlarging with disgust. “An expert. Unfortunately.”

Each time Lad growled back at the wolf, something in Naye died even further.

Seeing her squirm in pain, Lia tried to divert the topic away from Lad. It would be hard to do it otherwise as Lad could still be heard very well but Naye usually lost her connection to the real world as she talked about the books and her theories. It shouldn’t be hard, Lia thought and continued.

“We’re listening.”

That was indeed all she needed to say. Naye started to enthusiastically but carefully started to turn the pages.

“I saw some early Razsas parts,” She pointed at the book Lia gave, with long columns of sentences, written upside down. “Just like the ones here.” She then pointed at a book of hers.

“I found this one at the western parts of the Nevran desert a few years ago and mostly deciphered it thanks to another parchment that a colleague of mine has found which was a trade deal that included both the Razsas and the Rasennan versions of the agreement. It’s the diary of a clerk in a city under siege called Alasarth which roughly translates to East Fort. As we also have some trade deal documents between the Old Empire and Rasenna it was somewhat possible to read the words.”

“And?” Inni leaned on, knowing well that without guidance she would talk off-topic and mumble about random things for hours. “Did you find out what’s in Lia’s book?”

“Oh. That was what I was going to say. The writing system is from Razsas, but I have no idea what this book says. The writer only used the alphabet and not the language of Razs.”

Why would he use a different alphabet for a different language? Lia asked herself. “Perhaps the writer was a traveller?”

“A hell of a traveller I should say.” Naye flipped Lia’s book until she found the page she was looking for.

“There is a mountain here and I believe this to be Ava Acredna.” Naye continued. “Very close to the place where you were hunting the spiders actually. You see the crown next to the mountain? That’s probably the Verdeth, the capital city of Credna and the birthplace of the Saint Aran and it doesn’t even end there.”

Naye flipped the pages hastily and showed a detailed sketch of a young Wyvern and a giant tree. The tree was awfull1y familiar. It was the one Lia saw behind the window. It was the tree of Levise, that was keeping the island they were in afloat.

“I have a theory.” Naye smiled, dark circles around her eyes. It was obvious she had been working on this ever since Lia gave her the book.

“You know that in Codex it is told that Lord Vaella frees the Wyvern riders from the tyranny of a Crednic king? I suppose you found the diary of a rider. That probably met Vaella himself. The man looked like he knew Vaella, right? That’s the only possible way.”

It made sense. When Lia told the man in the vision called the name of the Lord, he acted like he knew the person, not as a god but as a man. It was also in agreement with the Codex. Doctrine told that after the creation and the initial war with the Viran, Vaella fell onto earth feeble and amnesic. He lived a life as a man and even in his obliviousness, he united mankind against the threat of the Viran.

The author knew Vaella as a comrade, as a saviour. The reaction he had made now made sense.

“The man?” Yel asked and Inni looked with curious eyes as he continued. “What man?”

“Oh. I didn’t have the chance to tell you. I found this in a room in the castle Lad resided. But that’s not all. The book bewitched and took me under an illusion. I found myself in a room with a man writing in that book. He told me he was going on to war and wanted to leave his memories so that his loved ones can see him once more should he die.”

“Thoughtful,” Inni commented. “Morbid but thoughtful.”

“The reality of war, many don’t return. No matter how talented or strong they are.” Naye stopped for a brief second, her face frozen in thought for a second.

“But that’s not all. Tell them what did you see behind the window.” Naye looked at Lia as she continued, her passion for knowledge bringing colour and warmth to her face.

“It was Levise’s tree.” She pointed at the giant root of the tree that held the island above the clouds. “Attached to the ground.”

“Which also supports our theory that the book was written before the first ascension of Vaella. His ascension was what uplifted the isles, to protect the city from the destruction of Nevra. The dogma told that it was the Viran that devoured the souls of the northern continent and turned it into the crimson desert it was today.

During the silence that befell as Naye tried to take a breath after frantically talking non-stop, Lad said something, his words muffled.

When the others turned back at him, they saw his head completely inside Snow’s mouth. He had lost the staring contest, no matter how unfair it was.

“Don’t eat junk.” Naye sighed. “We have proper food. You’re going to get a stomachache again.”

Snow slowly let Lad’s head out, an intelligent fear in his eyes. Did he understand what Naye said?

“I was saying.” Lad squeezed the saliva off his hair. “When you write a diary it is not a bad idea to use a cypher. Leviseus was on northeast Nevra, Rasz was on west. Other than the riders there probably weren’t many who knew the alphabet and the initial riders didn’t know the language spoken in Leviseus.”

“I tried High Imperial already. It doesn’t make any sense.”

“Then try using high, high imperial. Prefferably when you are high.”

“What?”

“That’s not just a diary.” Lad got closer. “Eilar.” He sighed as he took the book off the table. “Kids these days.”

He opened the last page, it was empty. “This was the place of the runes that put Lia asleep… and invaded her mind. Very poor mental defence for a psychic by the way. And this one…” He turned the pages and opened the first one. “Which is clearly not empty, has another array of runes, invisible ones.” He touched the page and an array of rune circles shone in golden light for a brief second.

“When you try to read it plays with your mind but only enough to make you unable to read and not able to recognize the mind-boggling magic trickery it does. A simple trick actually if you disregard the fact that the language used is a few centuries older than High Imperial. If your mind is already disturbed by some kind of substance, I suppose the magic should show a lesser effect on you. It should register you less of a person, less of a threat. Flaws of an ancient spell. If you are high enough you should be able to read. The problem you have left would be you being high, but I suppose you can figure out a solution for that. The real problem you have to deal with is the breath of your dog. It smells like death”

“Then you probably shouldn’t put your head in his mouth.”

“I didn’t. He ate me. That was the only way for him to win. I never blink. Even when I sleep.”

To this, everyone stood silent.

“Anyways. You should go see Elev. He was working on a dictionary for a while. For High, High Imperial.” He gripped Inni and Yel on their shoulders. “Now, you two. I’ll need you a little bit. Shall we leave these two overly educated people to write some fanfi… theories about the dead wyvern rider?”

***

Alone in the room with Naye, Lia took her shirt off, revealing her back to the older woman. She was familiar with the process; this wasn’t the first time.

“This will not end well for you if you keep going on, you know that right?” Naye studied the circle of runes engraved onto Lia’s back. It was three circles between the scapula, with two V’s interlocked in, one upside down. It almost looked like a hexagram with the horizontal lines missing. It was Lord Vaella’s mark. Given to the royal family members upon reaching the age of fifteen, giving them health and strength.

Naye touched the sigil, with her warm hands. Too warm for Lia’s cold skin.

It must be hard for her to look at it each time, Lia thought. Had the winds of fate blown the other way around, Naye could have been the one wearing those runes.

“What? Fighting Avran? Or is Lad really that bad of a mentor?” Lia laughed with a pale face, paler than ever.

“I am serious, Lia. Your body isn’t suited to this.” Naye put her palms over her scapula “If you don’t stop...”

“I always have you, don’t I? I’ll be fine.”

“You know this is not healing, right? I am just … delaying the inevitable.”

“Delaying is as good as hea…” A sudden surge of cough rose from her lungs as Naye’s mana crept into her skin, moving across the sigil like a river flowing in its bed. She coughed for a while, covering her mouth with a handkerchief she reflexively took from the pocket of her trousers.

After a while, the cough episode calmed down as Naye’s mana took hold of her body and she continued, quickly hiding the blood on the handkerchief by squeezing it in a fist. “You could have waited until I finished you know that right?”

“I was trying to make a point. You can’t keep using magic.”

“There is no other way.” Lia at Naye over her shoulder and in her brown eyes, she saw worry. “Don’t make that face! I still have a long life ahead. I am not intent on dying yet. Especially when I got free from the nightmare called Priva.”

“I imagine he was a fun mentor to work with.” Naye raised her brows.

“Ah...” Lia palmed her forehead in cringe. “You can’t even imagine. I still can’t believe we got stuck with him for a year. A whole year. I am not sure what is more humiliating. All the masters avoiding me like plague, fearing that I die under their tutelage or my father making a deal with him to mentor us.”

“Just be thankful that you now have a new mentor.”

“Yes. Better than Priva that’s sure. But still, I’d rather you as my mentor.”

“Well, I don’t think that’s possible. I’m sure there are a few verdicts against me taking any students.”

Lia studied the bear pelt in front of the fireplace, trying to find some words to say.

“Don’t worry honey. You are not the one responsible. Also, look at the bright side, of all the masters, the one you have is probably the only one that wouldn’t really care if you were alive or dead. Or fear emperor’s wrath. Your father already hates him even more than he hates me.”

“Really? Who is he exactly? I get that he is strong but… he isn’t like other masters, but he is kind of weird. And disrespectful. Even by secluded mage standards.”

“I … don’t really know.” Naye raised a brow. “Actually, it’s really odd considering he never shuts up about himself. I swear every time that he opens his stupid mouth all he does is lie. Your days won’t be any better than with Priva, he is really hard to work with too but at least he is capable.” After a second thought, Naye continued. “Mostly.”

“Hmm…” Lia scratched her chin. “How did you two meets anyways?” Naye was usually secretive about her past, but these sessions seemed like breaking her walls down. Every time she healed her; Lia would ask her questions.

“I believe it was back when I was an apprentice. I was on a quest to retrieve a lost artefact from the desert. He had happened to be on a hunt for a mage with some unorthodox methods. We later found out the artefact I was looking for was at that mage’s hands, so we worked together for a while.”

“Oh. It was a coincidence then.”

“Definitely, but I can’t really tell if it were a fortunate one or not. I got the artefact, but it wasn’t the only thing I got. Do you remember the scar on my chest? You were asking about how I got it.”

“I remember.”

“If it weren’t for Lad the blow would have taken my head. But again, if it weren’t for Lad, I would have ambushed the guy and killed him before even he got a chance to retaliate.”

“It must have hurt.” Lia’s face soured as she imagined Naye lying down in a pool of blood.

“Not as much as this.” Naye pushed her hands against Lia’s back, and Lia felt her organs boiling for a second. She had been sweating since the first time Naye injected her mana but now, all the sweat had evaporated in a flash.

Naye took a deep breath after taking her hands away and gave her a glass of water, which Lia could barely grasp. The flames on the fireplace painted her sweaty skin a shade of orange. She felt weak.

“How long will you keep this?” Naye asked, helping her drink the water. “At what cost?”

“As long as it takes. Whatever the cost may be.” Lia took a sip and felt the cold-water creeping inside her upper body.

“It will be your life. Your very soul burns your body each time you cast a spell. Lord can be very cruel, to give a talent that can break its host. You can still live a long life if you return to the capital and stop practising magic.”

“Live? Or ornament my father’s halls? Or a lord that buys me? No thanks. I respect my father and I understand why he does what he does but I can’t be me with him. Not without strength to be me.”

“This is no power. I enhance your body so it can resist longer, but each time you come back you are ever frailer.”

“I know why you are telling me that. You think you are killing me, and it burdens you. I can feel it.” Lia smiled. “But you are wrong. You are only giving me freedom.”

Naye sighed. “You are almost as irritating as your father.” She laughed afterwards and tossed a few glass vials to Lia. “Don’t deplete your mana. Don’t push yourself too hard. And…?”

“Don’t die. I got it.”