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11098Translator: Snorri
Proofreader: theunfetteredsalmon
There was a popular joke that circulated among the common people on this continent. “When the dear mages launched magics, they are not only showing how good they are at using the divine power they owned, they are also showing how good they are at throwing away money.” Even the cheapest staff demanded a standard parangon atop. The amount of money a precious or rare staff was worth could definitely bury any rival of its owner.
Amon didn’t hand the staff to Lynk right away. He was going to keep it until Lynk became a third-level mage so he could give it to him as a farewell gift.
……
The storm lasted for seven days and nights. The water level was just a few feet lower than the shortest section of the ramparts of Syah City. When the rain stopped and the first shaft of sunlight shone on the ramparts, the floodwater started to recede. Syah City was saved! Tens of thousands of people’s long-lasting cheers could be heard, breaking through the clouds.
Holding his staff, Golier walked down from the ramparts. He was exhausted. His shivering knuckles and nails were chalk-white, having been clenching the staff for far too long. Even a child could push him over with a finger. Tottering, he refused all attempts of help and walked back to the shrine alone with a firm stance.
People spontaneously cleared a way at the sight of Golier. The cheering crowd separated like waves split by a ship. Everyone more or less cried the same thing, “Thank the dear God! Thank Enlil’s blessing! Thank our dear great mage Golier!”
Cheers emerged from everywhere, replacing the thunder and flood of the previous week. It was a habit engraved in their souls to thank their deity for everything, similar to a grammatical prefix. Everyone shouted it without thinking. But people were indeed consciously thanking Golier. That was their true collective feelings.
Before today, Golier was respected by the citizens because of his social status and his achievement in magic. But now, for the first time in his life, he was received as a true deity not because of his nobility nor his official position, but because of what he had done for the city. People didn’t know if the deities had actually blessed them. What they saw with their own eyes was that Syah City was saved because of Golier.
Golier showed a benign grin to the citizens as a modest noble would do. Slow but determined, his figure ascended through the long flight of stairs before the splendid shrine of Enlil and eventually disappeared between the shadows behind the half-open gate.
Golier reeled to one side right after he entered the inner door of the shrine. He told Warret who immediately supported him with his arms, “Help me to my chapel and form a Cure. I need to take a rest… Then go help Schmul to take care of the victims and the afflicted, and all the other affairs. I now appoint you as the interim high priest. I will request the King to deliver the official order when this is over.”
Apart from the oracle and chief priest, which was Golier, there were three high priests in the Enlil Shrine of Syah, occupied by Cosman, Jeremiah and Schmul. Jeremiah was killed by Gabriel when ambushing Rod Drick’s caravans. Cosman was executed by Golier for abandoning his people in the moment of disaster. If Golier was not able to fulfil his duty, then there would be no one in charge of the shrine except Schmul, the symbolic high priest. Hence, Golier ordered Warret, his student, to temporarily take charge of the shrine.
The position of high priest was the highest next to the oracle and the governor of the state. It was appointed by the King. So Golier could only appoint Warret as an interim high priest. Nevertheless, if Warret could handle the post-disaster situation well, it would be natural that he accede to the position with Golier and Schmul’s joint recommendation. Warret would meteorically rise from an ordinary mage to one of the most esteemed lords in the state.
Warret had won the respect from the people of Syah and the other mages for hosting the colossal formation and helping Golier save the city. It was logical that he replace Cosman who had fled the field and abandoned his office. So Golier would give him this chance. For Warret, it was a big challenge to assume responsibility in such a crisis, for there was still a lot of work to do once the delirious jubilation in the city had faded.
The calamity-afflicted people who had swarmed into the city seeking refuge had to have their return to their ruined homesteads be properly arranged. They must have enough food and seeds to get through the whole year before the coming of next autumn’s harvest. The shrines of Syah had to apply for relief supplies from the Kingdom and neighbouring states, count casualties and losses as well as undertake the other restoration works.
The relief materials were mainly supplied by the Kingdom and the other states. Some of the supplies were to be reimbursed to their sources in the future, which needed to be well accounted for. Some of the relief were lendings from other shrines. The restoration was a difficult project, but it could also be a lucrative business. A corrupt and incompetent official could largely profit from this opportunity though they might provoke massive discontent and even riots as a result. Thus it was time Warret proved his administrative ability to Golier.
Though the flood had swept across more than half of the state, the most severely affected regions were mainly deserts and forests. The only exception was the town of Duc which had been wiped out completely. Along with Duc, what had also disappeared were the craftsmen who could produce the best refined iron and extract parangons for the Kingdom. It was a great loss to the Syah state and even to Hittite, but to others who had survived the flood, it was not their concern. In actuality, there was not a great number of victims for the shrine to take care of.
But even with this positive factor, the work to do after the disaster exhausted Warret. Morton, the quaestor, had been complaining in private about Warret’s excessive demands of the most trivial of things, portraying him as “superior and immune to mundane distress”, and as “having no concept of money”. No one knew if he was talking about Warret spending or scrutinising too much the details of the budget. In the end, Morton could only at most grumble in the corner. Compared to his fellow, the late Cosman, he suffered far more under Warret’s baton.
Golier didn’t pay any attention to these insignificant affairs. He disappeared into the shrine, living like a recluse, and did not concern himself with anything that happened in the state. Even the regular ceremonies were all hosted by Warret. Normally, an oracle who absented himself from regular ceremonies might be considered as unfaithful and disrespectful to the deity. However, no one in Syah City would reproach Golier.
It was not until three months later that Golier first showed up in a public worshipping ceremony, performing his duty as the oracle in a symbolic way. His face was pale. His wrinkles deepened. But his eyes were more limpid and profound. Meanwhile, Raphael had accomplished his mission and returned from the capital. With the restoration works almost finished, Golier asked Raphael if he wanted to stay in Syah and take up the post of the high priest.
Raphael was young. He was only a fourth-level mage, not holding any public office. But he was not just an ordinary nobleman. His father was the former chancellor of the Hittite Kingdom. He belonged to the younger generation of a very powerful clan. He could have had a prominent life in the capital if he wanted to pursue political power. However, that wasn’t what he was seeking. Growing up in such a powerful family and having seen too much ugly intrigues and schemes, he was tired of political strife and quickly became deeply engrossed in practising magic.
As a member of a brilliant family, it was easy for him to find a supreme mage like Golier to be his tutor, becoming the youngest apprentice of the Elder of Hittite’s Magic Senate. The high priest of the Syah state was a post that many could only dream of, but Raphael refused it. When asked by Golier, he seemed to be hesitant, since he wanted to decline but had no courage to confront his tutor.
Golier could easily read his mind from his face. He smiled and said, “You are my youngest apprentice. Of all whom I have taught, you are the only one I have been taking care of since the power’s awakening. I know you well. You are not interested in mundane power and influences. You want to avoid the scramble for power and interests by learning magic with me.”
“But one has to influence some changes in this world. Magic practising is not seeking imaginary achievements. Even if you simply want to achieve the superior level of magic, it is necessary to experience this world and the hardship in it. Otherwise, there will be too many things you won’t understand. Syah needs a high priest and you need to get yourself involved in this world. Do as Warret did. Help this city and this state survive the misery of rebuilding after the flood.”
Raphael listened to his tutor’s advice. A fourth-level mage being the high priest of the Syah state was definitely premature at first glance. But when Golier’s recommendation for Warret and Raphael arrived at the capital, it was approved without any doubt or long discussion. Obviously, Raphael’s roots in his clan played a major role behind this.
Warret and Raphael replaced Cosman and Jeremiah. The first mission Golier assigned Raphael was to do delve into the marshes and fields created by the flood, observe and collect the information about these places, including changes in the reliefs and landforms. He was to record them faithfully and thoroughly using the magic artefacts, then report the results to Golier.
The work was difficult and dangerous. He had to traverse deep into some of the most inaccessible desert areas, now muddy after the water, with landslides and debris flowing everywhere and into places with starving wild animals that frequented them. For this, Golier had given Raphael some pieces of his collection of magic artefacts and scrolls so that his youngest apprentice would survive.
At the end of the day, Golier wanted Raphael to learn and become stronger from the ordeal. He certainly wasn’t sentencing him to death. He had to limit the difficulty to a bearable level for a fourth-level mage. Raphael came back four months later, with worn boots and clothes. But he had hardly used his tutor’s gifts except for some supreme air magic scrolls to fly. He returned the rest to Golier. The latter shook his head and told him, “You have done well, better than I have thought. You can keep these artefacts. You may need them in the future. I’m going back to the Academy next month. It will be a good while before I return to Syah again. I’m counting on you.”
Golier took all the information that Raphael had recorded with his magic artefact. Then, he returned to seclusion. The Syah people didn’t see him next month. Their chief priest was doing something very special. He copied all the information into the Terroculus on his staff, then activated it using message magic. A globe of light appeared in the air in front of him. In the light was a picture of the state of Syah after the flood.
The scene looked like the sand tables that the generals used when commanding a battle. But it was not made of sand. Instead, it was projected by magic. Every part of it could be enlarged and the relevant details would appear. Even the wind in the high air, the water flow in the rivers and the torrents through the valleys were faithfully recorded.
Every day, Golier repeated one thing with his staff. If someone was standing beside him, they would find that the scene in the globe of light changed with time, like real rivers and mountains evolving in nature, but at a much faster pace. Golier was actually performing uncommon magic — the Divination.
Divination was a kind of foreseeing magic, and foreseeing magic is nothing but detection magic and message magic combined and pushed to its limit. In any of its nature, it was not supreme magic. In the legends, only the deities mastered this magic, but actually, even an ordinary advanced mage could perform it. The difference laid in its accuracy. It was meaningless for an advanced mage to perform Divination because either his magic power wasn’t enough to support the long-lasting process, or the result would be too vague and far from reality.
Foreseeing magic relied on detailed information about the target. The performer needed to collect as much information as possible about what he wanted to foresee and learn more about how it evolved or developed. Then he could start to visually deduce its coming trend under some preset conditions. Priest Cosman, who had abandoned his duties when the disaster was coming, had tried to perform a Divination, and the result he had deduced was proven to be wrong.
Judging by the overwhelming flood and the poor conditions of the ramparts, Cosman had concluded that the city was hopeless. Hence, he fled for his life. But what he hadn’t foreseen was Golier ordering his death with no hesitation, and that he would manage to save Syah City. One’s knowledge could also be too limited to foresee the real future.
An advanced mage was able to perform the Divination, but to perform it effectively, the requirements were extremely high. Even most supreme mages could not guarantee its success. The key was to build a realistic and reasonable model from a vast amount of information, which demanded an excellent level of information filtering and integrating skills. Only some ninth-level mages could handle the subtlety and display a small part of this marvellous magic.
Golier was an eighth-level mage, but now he was performing the Divination. His target wouldn’t have many disturbances, but he needed a great amount of information to describe, thus a great amount of magic power and a great deal of time. Golier had been exhausted during the fight against the flood, but he restored his health after just three months’ rest. His magic power had grown significantly compared to three months earlier, which was something he hadn’t expected.
After a month’s derivation in his vault, Golier came to a conclusion. What he foresaw was the geographical and climatic change that was going to occur in the flooded region, including Duc and the surrounding areas. He finally understood why Enlil said that the flood would be his blessing to this world.
The most direct impact of the flood was the temporary blockage of land traffic among Hittite, Ejypt and Bablon. The northern part of Syah was now a vast marsh that prevented all caravans and travellers from passing. Hittite could only trade and exchange with Ejypt by sea, which could last for years.
The economy of the Syah state could be impacted detrimentally. On the other hand, it would be secure from military attacks. Syah was on the border to Ejypt and Bablon. But if the latter two attacked Hittite by the sea, Syah would be the last to feel the effects.
The damage to the economy and trades would be overly compensated since, in the future, the geography and climate in Duc and its surrounding areas would be drastically different. The flood had created vast marshes in the low lying lands. A branch of the Euphrate River was intercepted and broke the valleys in its southwest, pouring through the Charcoal Forest, forming a giant lake in the lowlands to the east of the Syah Desert.
The enormous sludge had filled up the Charcoal Forest, which would eventually become the most fertile soil. The northern part of the Syah Desert would also transform into a vast grassland. Most importantly, the change would be permanent. The flood had drastically changed the geography of the region such that the local climate would be different forever. The lake would have an influence on the range of temperature and the humidity, resulting in a significant increase in the precipitation of the region to the east of the Charcoal Forest.
Stable circulation would be established. The new river would irrigate the lands on its borders. A vast expanse of fertile land centred in where Duc used to be would emerge in several years. It would be a region of about two hundred miles from west to east and three hundred miles from north to south. It contained hills, plains, lakes and grasslands suitable for farming. Before the flood, Duc’s natural resources could barely support two thousand people, but the new land could sustain a much larger population.
Though the craftsmen of Duc were gone, the mines remained. They were still at the foot of the mountains to the north of the new fertile land. These were the high-quality iron and parangon mines that every country on the continent would contend for. Simply the parangons would make this land a sanguinary battlefield.
It was common law in most countries that slaves couldn’t touch parangons. In most places, the extraction of parangons had to be done by the primary mages. But Duc was so remote and barren that no mage could bear the hardship to work there. So the existence of the Ducians as craftsmen that opened the parangons had been tolerated.
In the future, the land would be able to sustain a large city with a population of hundreds of thousands of people. A good governor could even found a country of a million people on this land. It would be a new and powerful country, despite its size.
However, the possibility of the birth of a new country was fairly low. The neighbouring countries would never let such fertile land slip away from their greedy mouths. This unmanned land was mostly the territory of the Kingdom of Hittite, governed by the Syah State. But its position was unique, like a gem wedged into the heart of the continent. In the near future, wars would occur in this area of high strategic importance, its eventual prosperity would be built on countless bodies and rivers of blood.
