The revelations from his pact vision left Hugo shaken for days. Not only were the Acomarians real gods, they knew him by name. They knew him by name. Every time he jumped into a new body, his Acomarian System displayed the name of the body he was using. But in his vision he heard the Acomarians call him Hugo Rebane, a name that no one else knew. He hadn’t even uttered the name the whole time he was in Lina's body.

Before this, he had a generalized faith in their existence. Now he knew they were real and they knew him personally. He pulled up his stat screen again.

Lina of the Brambled Wood [Ritual Domain]

Strength 21

Dexterity 20

Resilience 13

Regeneration 9

Intelligence 24

Wisdom 32

Charisma 13

Perception 13

Rank 16

54/1700 Points

Health 35/35

Mana 182/182

Skills: Mana Sight, Mana Dart, Inscribe 4, Fabricate 7, Solidify, Oblate

Lingua: Isibhozo, Zintathu, Choice available

Frequencies: 400-700, 1016-1032, 8-200

Elements: Mithril, Orange Osage, Titanium

Pact: Disciple of Acomar, Choice available, Choice available

It still showed his name as Lina on this screen. That meant that the system was some grand working of magic. It operated independent of the Acomarians themselves and just looked at the body or something. When he swore his pact, the Acomarians themselves came and looked at his soul. He shivered again. That kind of attention from a god was mind blowing.

He wondered if they had something to do with the ritual that brought people back in time. Were they trying to save the cities on the wheel, and using him to do it? That was a lot of responsibility. Their comment about seeing him seemed to support that idea.

Then again, if the Acomarians were involved with things like this, then it was their fault that the Black Marshal existed in the first place. The same ritual that formed Hugo into who he was today, was the ritual that allowed Botha to rise to power.

He really wanted to talk to someone about it, but apparently that wasn’t allowed. Sage Perot had stopped him when he brought it up. Not only was talking specifics about religion frowned upon within the ritualist community, talking about their pact was incredibly taboo. Hugo suspected it was because most gods didn’t directly talk to the ritualists. Maybe some gods weren’t even real and the faith in them was all that was needed to work the magic.

The Acomarians were real though. And he couldn’t talk about it with anyone in the school. It was maddening. The next few days of training from Sage Perot on how to create rituals didn’t go well. She was a great teacher, but his mind kept wandering back to the fact that gods were real and his worldview had changed.

Eventually, he just had to move on from his crisis. He spent some time hanging out with Mia and Lenna during lunch and after their classes. The two girls had gotten to be friends after Hugo’s letter to Mia. Their relationship had started out with the older girl mentoring Lenna in her path to create shimmer resistant vests. It had evolved into real friendship when they discovered that they had plenty in common. Mia particularly liked talking to someone she didn’t know well enough to predict their every word. Her classmates had long since grown boring to her.

Hugo knew both of the girls fairly well at this point and liked their company. He had told them everything, including his real name, and they had accepted him into their friendship circle. Tonight, the three of them were crafting together in the formations classroom.

“So, what do you think I should do about my dad’s mana cores? I mean I know he hasn’t bought them yet, but I don’t want to slag them like you did last time around,” Lenna said as she fabricated something within the crafting desk. Her creation wasn’t successful, instead it exploded into a sticky mess that soon evaporated. She slumped and swore.

“Let me see the equation you are working on,” Hugo said. She handed over a handwritten note and Hugo looked it over, “I see your problem. You inverted the vectors. You will need to start over.”

She snatched it back and looked the equation over before she said, “You are right. How did you find it so fast?”

Hugo shrugged and said, “I have a few more years of experience than you do. Plus, I think I have made more mistakes so I know what to look for.”

Mia looked up from her project, “That’s the same thing. If you aren’t making mistakes you aren’t progressing.” She smiled at Hugo and got back to work. He had provided her with a dozen rods of mithril and she was working on a project. She wouldn’t tell him what it was, but it looked like a metal cube. Whatever it was, she was happy to have the mithril.

“Anyway, to answer your question, Lenna, the only important thing is that Deva doesn’t get the mana cores. I think your father would want you to sell them to the highest bidder, but I would be fine if you just stole them yourself. You could just bring them back home after the New Years,” Hugo said.

“Huh. Yeah, maybe I will do that. It’s not like any of the guards will refuse me if I just walk right in and take them,” Lenna said.

Hugo nodded and got back to his own project. He was creating a ritual plate, carving out lines on a large section of wood he had fabricated. It was a rectangle three feet by four feet and he was hunched over it with his chisel. He had wanted to create the lines in the initial fabrication, but that had made the formula way too complex. It was easier to just carve them out afterwards.

“Whatcha making?” Mia said from right next to his ear.

Hugo jumped and gave her a scowl. When she seemed unrepentant Hugo said, “Why should I tell you? You are keeping secrets over there after I provided the materials.”

“Nah, nah. That’s different. I’ll tell you when it’s ready,” Mia said dismissively, “Come on, tell me. It looks like a ritual circle, only it’s square and the symbols are wonky.”

Hugo sighed. He might as well tell her since it wasn’t a secret. “It is a ritual circle. You have to tailor the ritual to the god you pact with in order for it to work. I am a disciple of the Acomarians,” Hugo said and shivered, “And they use ritual rectangles. The lines are called circuits. They connect concepts and runes.”

“It kind of looks like a tree, or a forest of trees branching off from your central square. Is that because you are riese?” Lenna said.

Hugo looked at the straight lines on his ritual in a new light, then shook his head, “I can see what you are talking about, but no. This is supposed to be mechanical, not organic. The Acomarians used magic and technology far beyond our own. I need to create a ritual that would make sense to one of them. A ritual is a request to the gods. It has to be in a language they would understand. My previous rituals failed because I was making something that I understood, not what the Acomarians would understand.”

At least, that is what Sage Perot had told him. His previous rituals had failed. He had copied most of a ritual he had found in a book, only changing a few things. It was filled with the sacred iconography of the Acomarians. Each of the ritual nodes had to have a rune on it because the Acomarian’s language was runic. He was taking the time to do it right, since each experiment was costly.

Other gods would accept sacrifices of mundane materials, leaves, wool, tapestry ash, ruby dust, etc. Not the Acomarians. They only accepted one thing. Mana stones. And that is just for the small rituals. If he wanted to create a medium ritual, he would have to sacrifice a mana shard, and a large ritual required at least a grandcryst. Being an Acomarian ritualist was mind-bogglingly expensive.

Hugo still thought that Sage Preot should have warned him about that. He wasn’t angry anymore though. He did appreciate the chance to commune with the gods that shaped the magic of the entire world. Plus, he could pick cheaper gods for his next pacts.

“What’s this ritual going to do?” Mia asked.

“If I get it right, I will show you,” Hugo said.

Lenna traced the lines in the wood, “What happens if you get it wrong?”

“If I get it wrong, probably nothing will happen. If I get it really wrong, the ritual will create unexpected magical effects. The ritual is basically a request to your god. If you ask for a ritual to make your crops grow, and you aren’t clear enough, your crops might grow tough and inedible. Luckily once you get it right, you can just copy the ritual for next time. I think there are a few growth rituals active outside the city walls so we can get several harvests in before the monsters get too bad late in the year,” Hugo said.

“Can’t you just copy the rituals in a book or something?” Lenna said.

“Most people do. But there aren’t a lot of reference rituals for the Acomarians. Hardly anyone worships them. Not even the nox. I want to create an enhancement ritual and there aren’t any of those geared towards the Acomarians. Or at least none that I have found in the library. Sage Preot found most of this ritual in a history book,” said Hugo.

He turned his attention back to his ritual. It was mostly done at this point. He had light and ignition runes linked to the central square via circuit symbols. Other ritualists would have to come up with a chant or prayer to their god at this point. Thankfully, Acomarians differed in that respect. He could just write out the effect he was hoping for on the central square. All of the circuit symbols led to that square. It was also the sacrifice plate.

After he completed his ritual, he brought it outside to test it. Mia and Lenna followed him out. Once he set it on the ground, he prayed for success and cut himself. He dripped blood on the center square and it filled the channels he had created. The blood requirement was probably part of the reason Acomarians were not popular gods to worship. It didn’t bother Hugo, particularly after Sage Preot showed him how to cut his forearm where it would bleed quickly but also heal easily. He bet other ritualists thought that you had to cut your palm or something stupid like that.

Once the blood finished flowing, Hugo bandaged himself and set a mana stone in the center. With an effort of will, he poured mana through his connection to the gods with oblate. Whispers of the divine started to crowd into his mind. Thankfully, his wisdom was high enough that he could ignore them. The stone was absorbed into the wooden ritual.

Hugo thought at first this ritual was a failure as well. Then a small light appeared in the air above the ritual circle. A huge grin erupted on his face.

“That’s it? Just a light?” Lenna said.

“No, that just signifies it is working. Back up a bit and I will say the magic word,” Hugo said. Once the three of them were out of the way, Hugo said, “Ignis!”

Nothing happened.

Ten seconds later the light blossomed, filling the courtyard with a piercing glow. At the same time, a large fireball was created in the center of the ritual. The wood crumbled into dust after that, the magic having been too much for the material.

Hugo jumped up and cheered. It worked.

“Not to spit in your porridge, but isn’t that kind of a minor effect?” Mia asked, “I mean, you used up an entire mana stone. I could get a better explosion from a block of wood and some aluminum.”

“You will have to teach me how to make huge explosions one day,” Hugo said, “But the explosion wasn’t the impressive part. It wasn’t just an explosion of light and fire, it was a voice-activated and timed explosion. The ritual was primed to explode ten seconds after I said the word Ignis.” It would be a perfect way to destroy the ritual circle on the Deva shimmer vein. He could just create a few of them and have the golems place them. Once Hugo said the key word, he could just walk away and no one would think his ritual was a timed bomb.

“Well then. That is impressive,” Mia said and clapped him on the back, “Very impressive, big girl.”

“I told you not to call me that. You two are the only ones that know I am actually a boy. You can at least call me Hugo.”

“Well, Hugo,” Lenna said, “I for one am impressed with your ritual. I appreciate that you told us the truth about everything that happened to you. And I truly appreciate all your help with my armor.”

“You are welcome,” Hugo said to Lenna. He turned to Mia and dramatically said, “And you are not.”

He started to walk off in a huff, but ruined it with a giggle. Mia punched him and said, “You knew I was joking, Hugo. Don’t make me feel like crap. Gods. Or should I not swear around you now that you are religious? Oh, and another question. Are all high level ritualists priests? Cus I have said some nasty stuff about priests and I don’t want that to get back to me now that I know the gods actually listen to them.”

Hugo shook his head. “A ritualist can’t be a priest. They will never talk about religion with anyone. A ritualist’s faith is literally their power, so they have to manage their faith carefully. No talking to strangers who might try and convince you their god isn’t real.”

“Huh. Interesting,” Mia said, “I have the sudden urge to go curse out the priest near my parents house.”

Lenna grabbed her and said, “No, no you don’t. You need to stay here and help me out, not get expelled for being an idiot.”

“Yeah, you are right. I have gotten expelled lots of times, it’s never as fun as you think it will be,” Mia said and shrugged.

Hugo smiled and followed them back. He was excited to refine his ritual work.

Three weeks later, it was time to leave the academy. He was heading out to the train station soon. He needed to be present for his mother to win. The three of them needed to answer the challenge. He was looking forward to this whole mess with assassins being over. His mother had bought a powerful magical artifact, she should be able to easily win her challenge. And if not, he could come right back here and train with Sage Hanna. The school had proven to be effective in discouraging attacks.

He was disguised as a farmer but he was armored under his clothing. He knew that this was the most dangerous part of the journey. Anyone that wanted to kill him would know right where he was going to be. Hopefully he would be able to avoid any ambushes they had set up. Huntmaster Ramin said he had a few countermeasures in store.

As he waved goodbye to Lenna and Mia, his heart started beating faster. He suddenly didn’t have a good feeling about this.