Under the Oak Tree

263 Chapter Idsilla came to see Maxi off.

“I had thought you’d at least stay for the banquet,” she muttered sadly.

Maxi paused from securing her bags to Rem’s saddle to give her friend a rueful smile. Most of the basilica’s pilgrims seemed to believe the mages had come to keep the Orthodox faction in check. Having expected a dramatic clash, they were clearly disappointed when the mages made preparations to depart so soon after arriving. Meanwhile, the Orthodox clerics watched them with a mixture of distrust and relief.

The reason Calto gave for their visit to Osiriya was that the mages were there to help the church investigate the recent proliferation of monsters. Of course, no one believed this. Even Maxi did not consider it a credible explanation as to why they were traveling north in the middle of winter.

“Why not wait until Aquarias (the season of water, equivalent to spring)? Don’t you know the cold snap will start in a few weeks?”

“It’s safer to travel now when monsters are less active.”

Idsilla flicked a skeptical glance at the shivering mages. Though Sidina and other northerners seemed unaffected by the cold, those born and raised on warm southern isles were already struggling.

“I think you should worry more about the cold than monsters,” Idsilla whispered into Maxi’s ear.

Forcing aside her trepidation, Maxi did her best to give a matter-of-fact reply. “We are braving the current conditions to conserve our firestones. We’ll start using them once the cold snap comes, so that should make it bearable.”

Even as she spoke, she silently wondered why the party was in such a hurry to move on. Calto had insisted on a hasty departure, claiming they were more likely to get embroiled in the church’s political conflict the longer they stayed. Maxi questioned whether this was the real reason. Perhaps the ruins in the Pamela Plateau were not the only sign of dark mages.

Maxi hunched her shoulders as the wind grew increasingly fierce. It was daunting to think that a terrible secret might be hiding somewhere in the north.

“In any case, I am grateful for your concern.”

She concealed her fear behind a brave smile and hopped onto her horse.

Idsilla rummaged in her bag for something. “Please take this with you,” she said, handing Maxi the item. “It’s a pouch of heated sand. I use it to keep warm during morning prayers, but I would like for you to have it. It’s rather heavy, so discard it when it grows cold.”

“Thank you.”

Maxi gladly accepted the gift and slipped it into her robe, where she felt its heat quickly warm her side. She sighed in contentment.

“Please be careful,” Idsilla said, her voice full of concern. “You can be quite reckless sometimes.”

“Idsilla… you are the last person I wish to hear that from.”

Idsilla chuckled at the irony. “We’ll meet again, won’t we?”

“Of course,” Maxi replied, smiling warmly. “Come visit Anatol… if you ever get the chance. You will always be welcome there.”

After asking her to give her regards to the female clerics, Maxi walked Rem to the expeditionary party. The earth mages had been assigned to ride next to the wagons. In the event of an attack, it was their duty to cast a barrier to protect the supplies.

As she led Rem to the last wagon in line, she studied the somber, black-robed knights in her periphery. With their gray armor swathed in dark robes and their cold, hooded faces, they looked almost demonic. If war ever broke out between the Mage Tower and the church, these men would not hesitate to ruthlessly root out heretics.

Maxi quickly pushed the terrifying thought from her mind. Even if that were true, they were currently working toward the same goal.

Kuahel Leon soon finished his inspection and signaled for their departure. As the knights began to file out of the city gates, Maxi searched for Ulyseon. He was usually at her side, refusing to let her out of his sight, and yet she had not seen him all morning. She began to grow worried that something might have happened to him when she spotted the young knight leading his horse out of the stables.

Maxi trotted over and gave him a questioning look. “Where did you run off to so early in the morning?”

“I went to see our informant, my lady,” he replied, mounting his steed. “I thought it best to update Anatol on our route so they can contact us if necessary.”

Narrowing her eyes at him suspiciously, Maxi said slowly, “They won’t… try to come up with an excuse to follow, will they?”

“No, my lady,” Ulyseon said, looking flustered. He avoided her gaze as if something was pricking his conscience before professing with a sigh, “By working with the merchants, Anatol has managed to create a vast intelligence network. As long as the place has a market, you can expect to find one or two of our informants there. In the event of an emergency, we can use that network to ask our allies for assistance. Our affiliates can make the necessary preparations to deal with whatever may arise if they are aware of our route.”

“But we have the Temple Knights. Even without help—”

“I do not trust the Temple Knights completely, my lady,” Ulyseon replied stiffly. He tilted his chin toward the head of the procession, where Kuahel and Calto were deep in discussion. “Just look at them. They’ve been whispering to each other throughout the journey. It is most definitely suspect.”

Though Maxi rolled her eyes, she did not argue. Ulyseon’s worries were bordering on paranoia, but she could not deny that her suspicions were growing too.

“Well,” he said, steering his horse around. “We should hurry, or we’ll be left behind.”

To Maxi’s surprise, the knights were already out of the city, and it was now the wagons’ turn to pass through the gates. She looked over her shoulder one last time before following them out. Idsilla stood among the clerics who had come to see them off, waving enthusiastically. Maxi returned the gesture with equal vigor before spurring her horse on.

The expeditionary party left Balbourne and made their way north of Osiriya. Having been the heart of the old empire, Osiriya’s developed cities were closely connected by well-paved roads. It made for a relatively pleasant journey. They spent whole days riding at a brisk pace, stopping only at night to rest at an inn, then departing at daybreak. As they neared the border, the settlements grew sparse. Once again, they were forced to begin making camp in the evenings.

“We will start distributing the firestones tonight. Come, take your share.”

Celric began handing out quail egg-sized stones to the mages busily setting up camp. The magic stones appeared to be of poor quality as they only contained a sparse amount of mana. They were just powerful enough to lessen the chill.

When Maxi infused her stone with a bit of mana, warmth seeped into her body. She breathed a sigh of relief as life returned to her rigid hands. The cold had frozen the ground in the span of a few days, and the mages had been dreading the prospect of camping out in such conditions.

From then on, they were allotted low-grade firestones every three or four days. Maxi offered one to Ulyseon, but the young man scowled as though she had wounded his pride. Like Ulyseon, the Temple Knights also withstood the biting cold with nothing more than blankets, coats, and the campfire. Maxi was astounded by their endurance.

Noticing her staring at the knights in fear and awe, Armin said in a flat voice, “They are warriors who push their bodies to the limit. Their mana pathways expand rapidly once they reach a certain level. Us mages, we artificially develop our pathways by repeatedly infusing mana. On the other hand, knights train their bodies to absorb mana not as magic but in its unadulterated form. Once enough has accumulated, it enables them to use blade aura, which can even cut down monsters with powerful magic resistance.”

Armin pointed a stick toward the knights, who were tending to the horses and patrolling the area without any signs of exhaustion.

“Simply put, seasoned knights are beings who possess greater life force than your average human. There is no need for you to worry about them.”

Maxi tried to recall some of her lessons with Ruth. If mana was the energy that maintained the order of the natural world, magic was pure elemental energy resulting from extracting a specific element. In short, mana was divine will itself, while magic was the power derived from its willful distortion. Magic was no match for forces that used mana in its purest form — divine magic and blade aura.

“But… seasoned knights also die from illness or injury, don’t they?”

“And that’s why we’re here,” Anette replied blandly, tossing some of the kindling she had gathered into the fire. “It’s our job as support mages to heal the knights when they get wounded and make it possible for them to keep fighting. We must conserve our mana and energy until then. If you have time to worry about them, I suggest you spend it monitoring your own condition.”

“I-I am already doing that,” Maxi retorted sullenly.

She turned her attention to the pot dangling over the fire, stirring its contents with a wooden paddle.

The mages finished their supper before nightfall and rested inside their tents while the knights took turns standing watch. The next day, the expeditionary party finally crossed the border into Balto. Maxi’s breath misted out in a constant stream as she rode through a grove of frozen birch trees. After a night of snow, icicles dotted the bleak branches like diamonds, and frost clung to the ground.

“It is eerily quiet,” Ulyseon mumbled, studying their surroundings.

Maxi had noticed earlier too. The usual woodland sounds of chirping birdsong or rustling wind were missing. A chill ran down her spine.

“Do you think… there are monsters nearby?”

“I do not detect movement, but please be prepared to cast a barrier just in case,” Ulyseon replied, resting his hand on the hilt of his sword.

Maxi gulped and nodded. Tensing in her saddle, she was riding through the shadowed forest when something cold landed on her forehead. She looked up to see snow falling from the hazy sky.

“Should we not set up camp before the snow gets heavier?” one of the mages cried.

At the head of the group, Kuahel Leon reined his horse in and glanced up.

“We still have time before sundown. There is a village on the other side of this forest. Let us make haste.” ????n????????e????d.＆nbsp;????????????

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The Temple Knights followed their commander as he spurred his mount forward. The rest of the mages were forced to keep up. A fog began to form around them as they rode on, and Maxi nervously glanced about the dark trees.

Her lungs felt close to exploding each time she took a ragged breath, and her ears throbbed as if she had taken a blow to the head. Still, she had no desire to sleep in such an eerie place. She used restorative magic on an exhausted Rem and tried to encourage the mare to keep up with the knights’ warhorses.

After galloping on for what seemed like hours, they finally arrived at the edge of the Armund Forest. Maxi’s face broke into a wide grin at the thought of sleeping under a roof again.

Just then, those riding ahead abruptly halted their steeds. A shocked silence fell over the party, and some even gasped in horror. Baffled, Maxi pushed past the knights blocking her view. At the foot of a gentle slope, dark smoke billowed from the charred remains of a village.