Zenith of Sorcery

Interlude 1

Crystal Mountain

Crystal Mountain Academy had a long tradition of digging deep into the mountain upon which their academy sat, creating an extensive network of tunnels and underground facilities. The place was hard to navigate even for native adepts, and all but impossible to infiltrate by outsiders. Once upon a time this underground complex had been a true underground city, sheltering adepts from attacks by dragons and other powerful magical creatures, which used to assault adeptal strongholds quite often and viewed Crystal mountain Academy with particular ire and greed. However, dragons had become relatively rare in modern times, thanks to being hunted frequently by orcs, and so much of the academy was moved to the surface for more pleasant living and greater convenience. These days, the underground section of the academy was mostly used for special training facilities, as well as secure vaults holding the academy’s more sensitive resources.

In the deepest, most secluded meditation chamber, forbidden from use to anyone except the leader of the Crystal Mountain Academy, there was a man. He sat in the center of the chamber, his eyes closed, taking deep breaths at regular intervals. He was shirtless and barefooted, tall, bearded, and extremely muscular. Any outsider who saw him would likely assume he was one of Crystal Mountain’s warrior adepts, but he was in fact a mage. Crystal Mountain placed greater emphasis on physical fitness than other Great Academies, and their mages were known to be able to take a lot of punishment before being brought down, but even by their standards, this man was out of the ordinary.

The chamber was roughly spherical, and the walls were absolutely covered in multicolored crystals of all sorts. These crystals glowed faintly, and anyone paying close attention would notice the light strengthened and dimmed in a rhythmic manner, synchronized with the man’s breathing. As he inhaled, the crystals lit up. As he exhaled, they dimmed again.

Suddenly, the man’s large, bushy eyebrows twitched, and his breathing stopped. The crystals surrounding him flickered for a moment, and the sound of hurried footsteps echoed from outside the chamber.

The heavy stone door isolating the chamber from the rest of the Crystal Mountain’s underground complex suddenly swung open with a loud, ear-piercing screech and another man rushed into the room. The man was also bearded and relatively fit, but dressed in luxurious finery and not nearly as young. He was in fact quite old, and the fact he was still this healthy and fit in his advanced years was quite impressive in its own way.

“Headmaster Hishur! Headmaster Hishur! You must hear this! We-“

“I told you I was not to be disturbed,” Hishur interrupted, his voice harsh and full of annoyance. His eyes remained closed, and his pose did not change. Other than the movement of his lips, his body remained as still as a stone statue.

Despite being reprimanded by the leader of the Crystal Mountain Academy, the old man seemed unconcerned.

“I’m sorry Headmaster, but this is too important,” the man told him. “We found another student with a crystal affinity.”

Hishur’s eyes immediately snapped open. For a brief moment, his irises glittered with a plethora of colors, appearing as miniature gems, but then the illusion faded and his eyes became dark brown and mundane. He leaned forward expectantly, eager to hear more.

“Truly?” Hishur asked.

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“Would I joke about something like this?” the old man said. He walked up to Hishur and handed him a collection of papers, including test results, a background check, and a life-like drawing of the teenager in question. “Have a look.”

Hishur frowned internally at the fairly casual manner the old man was treating him. He had known Elder Tazitta for a long time, but they had never been friends, and Hishur couldn’t help but see it as another proof that his leadership of the Crystal Mountain Academy was somewhat of a farce.

But he said nothing. After all, he could be overthinking things. Hishur was very young, and had only recently become the Headmaster, so it was to be expected that many of the older elders had yet to warm up to him.

In truth, Hishur hadn’t even wanted to become the leader of the Crystal Mountain Academy. He was firmly dedicated to reaching the pinnacle of magic, and would have preferred if he was left alone to hone his skills, only being called during wars and emergencies. Alas, the academy was in a dire state lately. The hated Thunder Hall Academy, may the heavens curse them in every way imaginable, had inflicted horrendous casualties on them, killing many of their spirit adepts.

The academy needed a strong and powerful leader, and Hishur had become something of an icon in the academy during the Second Academy War, despite not actively trying to. In the end, Hishur was asked to take up the mantle of leadership and stabilize the beleaguered organization, and he was too dutiful to refuse.

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He read the profile of this new talent they found. His name was Elid, son of a small merchant from Sycaruse. His spiritual traits… well, they could be better. The boy wasn’t exactly bad, strictly speaking, but ‘average’ wasn’t going to cut it in a big academy like his own. Of course, they were still going to take him in. Him having an affinity for the element of crystal made up for all of his shortcomings. Still, Hishur couldn’t help but be greedy and wish the boy actually had a little bit of innate talent in addition to his affinity. As it was, his arrival was fortuitous, but nothing truly astounding.

Hishur suddenly frowned. Wait.

“How was this even discovered?” he asked Tazitta.

The crystal element was one of the so-called exotic elements. It did not have its own associated elemental plane, and occurred very rarely among people. As such, it was extremely hard to test for. The number of items that could detect it was so small that the Crystal Mountain Academy only had four of them in storage, and they were rarely brought forward for fear of being lost. In practice, the only way for a candidate to be discovered was for an existing student of the academy to show signs of having it after being admitted, after which they would be eventually tested by one of the few existing crystal magic practitioners.

Hishur knew every other crystal magic practitioner in the academy. There weren’t very many of them, and none of them were supposed to be anywhere near the candidates at the moment.

Tazitta visibly hesitated to answer.

“Tazitta?” Hishur asked. “What is the matter? Is there something wrong with the boy?”

“No, nothing is wrong,” Tazitta said. “It’s just that you aren’t going to like this.”

Hishur frowned. What was he missing? How could the boy’s crystal affinity be discovered if not by one of their existing crystal magic experts?

“It was Marcus King, that former general from Great Sea who went into exile six years ago,” Tazitta said, sighing. “He recently came back, and apparently met Elid and his father on the road to Crystal Academy. He tested the boy and then gave him a recommendation letter to show us.”

Hishur’s expression gradually became darker and darker as he continued listening. He had half a mind to publically throw Elid down the nearest mountain slope and sic the griffons at him for good measure, but… no. No, the academy needed every crystal magic adept it could find. And it wasn’t like the boy was really associated with that contemptible thug, if he understood Tazitta correctly.

“Just to be clear, this is the same Marcus who stole one of our heritage tablets, yes?” Hishur asked, unable to keep the anger out of his voice.

“He didn’t steal them, Hishur,” Tazitta said carefully. “We lent them to him as thanks for saving us from Thunder Hall’s siege.”

“It was extortion and you know it,” Hishur said. “Our leader had been killed in battle with Thunder Hall’s butchers, our supplies were utterly depleted, and Marcus had his army stationed in the very heart of our academy at the time. We both know that, had the circumstances not been so dire, the Elder Council would not even have considered his request.”

Tazitta looked like he wanted to argue the issue, but in the end he said nothing.

“The boy needs to be closely monitored at all times,” Hishur told Tazzita. “Even if it appears like he has no connections to Marcus, we must not take any chances.”

“Absolutely,” Tazitta said.

Hishur took a deep breath, consciously calming himself down. He was angry, but there was no point in taking it out on Tazzita. Blowing up at his advisors and subordinates over old mistakes wouldn’t do him any favors.

“I am impressed how calmly you’re taking this, old man,” Hishur told Tazitta. “This is quite concerning. The fact Marcus can detect crystal affinity in children means he has internalized a sizeable amount of crystal logos into his spirit. We need to recover that tablet from him as soon as possible, before he is able to ascend to the seventh rank and learn really powerful magic, such as Ebarti’s Crystal Spear.”

Tazitta smiled at Hishur, not bothered at being called an old man. “With all due respect Headmaster, that’s ridiculous. These spells you mention are fiendishly difficult to learn. Only three people in our history managed to do so, and they needed a crystal element affinity and knowledge of closely held secrets that are only passed down verbally from one elder to the next. Even if Marcus manages to reach rank seven in a decade or two, he doesn’t have an affinity for crystal magic. Or any other elemental affinity for that matter. He’s not learning anything except the bare basics of crystal magic.”

“If I remember correctly, the argument for giving him the tablet was that without a crystal affinity, it would be utterly useless to him,” Hishur pointed out. “We both know how that worked out for us. The sooner we get the tablet from him, the better.”

“I probably don’t need to remind you of this, Headmaster, but the academy isn’t exactly in the best shape right now. We can’t afford to get into open conflict with another Great Academy,” Tazitta said. “Gaius, the consul of Great Sea Academy has recently announced that he has advanced to the spirit unification stage, and you are still in spirit manifestation.”

Hishur knew of Gaius’s claim, but he wasn’t sure how much he believed it. Saying you’ve had a breakthrough was easy, but Gaius had never actually showed off his new rank on the battlefield nor made any demonstration. It could very well be that he was lying to put pressure on Great Sea’s enemies. It wouldn’t be the first time someone had tried that ploy. Although they were in much better position than Crystal Mountain, Great Sea wasn’t doing all that well recently either.

Even if Gaius was telling the truth, ranks weren’t everything. It was entirely possible for an adept of a lower rank to defeat one above them, depending on various factors. Gaius’s rapid advancement was strange, and Hishur suspected there was some kind of catch involved in it. Hishur, meanwhile, was unusually strong for a spirit manifestation adept… and that wasn’t just his pride talking. His skills were tested in countless battles against Thunder Hall’s own spirit adepts, and his victories over them were proof that he was better than most.

He’d be willing to try his luck against a spirit unification mage, if push came to shove.

“I’m close,” Hishur told Tazitta. “I can feel it. Soon, I will also advance to the Spirit Unification stage. Once I do, we’ll go pay Marcus King a visit.”