Sacrifice Mage-Chapter 20: The Fete

When I woke up in bed the next day, my main worry was my mana implosion timer. Less than two days. That was all the time I still had left. The fracture had grown inside my chest again, like my heart was turning into a belligerent porcupine.
I wrapped myself in my blanket for a moment and consoled myself that I at least had a good chunk of money now. By my count, it was twice as much as my monthly stipend from the cult, and that was from
one
job that had taken just two days to complete. If I could find more avenues of revenue like that, I wouldn’t need to worry about limited purchasing power.
The only concern that remained was whether I could buy the right stuff to Sacrifice and keep pushing the mana implosion back. So far, the most effective things I had Sacrificed had always been something emotionally significant.
A random purchase from any old store, no matter how costly it was, wouldn’t hold the same kind of sentimental value.
It would still work, of course. After all, just buying and Sacrificing those packets from the scammer had helped push back the countdown by a couple of days. And that had been with cheap, fake shit. Surely something more valuable would produce significantly better results.
I got up to practice my Gravity some more. In a new way, one that I had already tried
before
I possessed the right Affix to do so.
On my first day in the temple, when I had been following Enrico the sprite around, I had tried to use Gravity to lower my own weight. It hadn’t worked. I had later learned that it was because I only had Infusion as an Affix back then, which could only
add
weight. Siphon was what allowed me to draw out the effect of gravitational forces on any mass, but I had only acquired it afterwards.
Before promptly forgetting about testing on myself because of everything else going on. But! I now remembered. Mostly because I’d had a vague dream of flying.
Enrico greeted me by blinking brighter.
“Good morning, buddy,” I said. “I don’t think you actually sleep, but I hope you had a nice night regardless.”
Enrico flashed at me in response.
What even was the biological composition of sprites? Just another question about this weird new world I had ended up in that I really ought to ask or investigate at some point.
But Gravity first.
Flying
first.
Of course, I was positive that actually flying by using Gravity was a distant dream currently. No way was my Aspect strong enough, nor did I possess anywhere near enough mana. Although, I could counteract the latter problem by using the same trick I had at the Mage Guild, by Sacrificing my use of Gravity to boost the next cast of it, over and over again.
And then I’d end up shooting straight to the stratosphere, just like that glass cube had.
That… actually scared me. I had been
very
lucky a stray gust of wind hadn’t pushed the cube off course or something. What in the world was I going to do if that happened to me?
Nevertheless, I was determined to test it. In a limited fashion, of course. I didn’t have to go crazy like I had with the glass cube because I wouldn’t have a crowd some stupid part of me had been determined to impress.
Aright, it
wasn’t
stupid actually. It was annoying, was what it was. The looks I had gotten, the amount of scathing mutters of
human
I had heard… I had been a little pissed off, and it was normal to want them to shut up and stop staring like I was a child who had wandered into an adults’ meeting. My reaction was annoying, but so was the reason behind it.
Testing Gravity and Siphon on myself behind the temple helped relieve a good deal of the frustration. I was careful with it.
Threads of power burgeoned through my chest, the sensation of mass moving
out
of my body feeling weirdly like I was on a rollercoaster experiencing high g-forces, except at a much slower speed. As the void-purple threads flowed out of my body, I did my best not to lose balance. I didn’t try the Mage Guild trick yet. First, I wanted to see the limit of what I could do by myself.
So, after enough mass had flown out, I performed a tiny hop. And I floated.
“Holy…” I muttered and gasped as my feet left the ground, my body climbing higher and higher at a pace of about a foot every ten seconds or so.
I didn’t want to keep climbing. Right. I could modify the balance of the gravitation forces actively by using a combination of Siphon and Infusion, just as I had done with the cube. If I practiced properly, if I could feel it out just right…
There! I had it. I was now floating in place, at about the same height as the window in my room. This was—
this was
—“Amazing!”
I laughed. Sure, it was far from flying. I was essentially stuck in one spot. Hovering was a more apt description. But it was
progress
.
Most of the rest of the morning was spent just practicing that hovering. I tried seeing how long I could manage to stay afloat at my current capacity to channel mana and discovered that it actually depended on the height. The higher I tried to float, the stronger the hollow sensation of mana exhaustion grew within me.
And I couldn’t actually practice as much as I really wanted. My Spirit still wasn’t high enough and the exhaustion grew too high too quickly.
I couldn’t really move while I was hovering though, so it wasn’t actual flight. Not yet. Hmm, I’d need to think on how to achieve that.
Next time, what I actually needed to focus on was finding practical uses for it. I could climb to high vantage points pretty quickly, which would help scout over my general area. But my thoughts kept returning to that fight against the Thralls, on how it might have been useful there.
I hadn’t trained in any sort of ranged fighting, so unless I figured out how to use bows and arrows—or firearms, if they were easily available here, which I doubted—it wouldn’t be
that
useful. Could I just raise myself to a great height and then fall on my enemies like a boulder? That sounded ridiculous and dangerous, but also
potentially
very effective.
No new ranks, but that was fine. It was obviously going to be harder to acquire them since I was well into Iron in most of my Aspects and Attributes.
For now, I decided to freshen up as the party was about to start.
###
“Ready?” Aurier asked as we headed to the main temple hall.
I nodded. “Keep up, Enrico.”
The sprite flashed with excitement.
“Enrico?” Aurier looked back at the sprite. “What an odd name.”
I shrugged. “It reminded me of the sun.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from NovelFire; any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Aurier looked at me questioningly, but we arrived, so I decided to explain later. Under Escinca’s guidance, we had set up a nice place. Pretty cloth with sun symbols hanging from the walls—to hide the fact that some of the walls were literally missing—and then tables laden with some of the food we had ordered the other day and even seating arrangements for people who didn’t want to stand for too long. It was honestly kind of neat.
I thought the food was meh at best, but Escinca believed they were fine. It was an assortment of crackers, those weird breadsticks, fried insects, mushrooms, and even soup with contents that I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.
Thankfully, I didn’t have to eat any of that when I could just Sacrifice them instead.
The first partygoers arrived before long. I greeted the woman whose daughter I had rescued. The little girl’s face brightened when she saw all the decorations and food. There was the old couple I had handed out an invitation to, along with a bunch of other people we had met.
Gutran showed up some time later as well. He had even divested his ratty smithing clothes and put on a tunic that looked like it had been recently washed clean. He grunted in greeting. The way he and Escinca conversed made it look like they were old friends.
Sreketh came in too, accompanied by a bunch of other children and a matronly lady bringing them along. Oh, right. She had mentioned something about an orphanage last time. Most of the kids were human, though I spotted a few other Scalekins and some Rakshasa too.
What was more surprising was the presence of guards. Revayne arrived to attend the party, as did two of her subordinates, all dressed in the standard black guard uniform with the gold epaulettes.
Like always, Revayne’s face was mostly hidden by her book. How she could walk with her nose buried in pages was beyond me.
“I don’t remember if I invited them,” I whispered to Aurier. “Did you?”
“Uh, well, the Elder said to invite as many people as we could…” Aurier said apologetically.
My whispered conversation with Aurier was cut short when she approached us. “Greetings, Captain,” I said with a smile. “Hope you have a nice time here at the temple.”
She flicked her weird eyes over the rim of the book once, then went back to reading. “Greetings. I shall take one of the seats if you don’t mind, and enjoy some nice and quiet reading.”
“Make yourself at home.” People were free to enjoy parties their own ways. Who was I to judge. “Still on the same book, I see.”
“It’s rather engrossing,” she said, before taking a seat away from everybody else and continuing to peruse through the pages of her book.
It was odd. Her subordinates actually decided to mingle, and neither were human. One was a Scalekin, the other a bird-per—no, a
Plumefolk
as I had learned they were called. They were both trying out the food, occasionally chatting with other people.
I did see some tension during conversations though. Most likely someone was asking about their investigation into the Thralls, and the guards were clearly uncomfortable discussing it.
Others trailed in as time went on, and I tried to be a good cultist host and greet most of them personally. There were a bunch of people I didn’t recognize, mostly humans from around the neighbourhood dressed in their finest, which was basically the cleanest tunics they had on hand. Enough of them were people I didn’t know that I could feel my social anxiety trying to rear its ugly head. But I was a cultist now, and I had to deal with this appropriately.
Most people brought in gifts too. Little trinkets and offerings, things they could spare. Aurier said that it was standard protocol for people coming to the temple to bring offerings.
The receptionist from the Mage Guild, Silhatsa, appeared too. So did even the gruff man we had ordered our food from at the Ration House. I did my best to be polite to them, though neither seemed particularly impressed by the party.
But the last people to arrive made me properly frown. That rude girl from the Earth Cult was here, as well as the two cultists accompanying her that day,
and
an older woman who I assumed was their leader.
Before I could ask if they had channelled their inner Ross Moreland and gotten lost, Escinca walked over and greeted them personally.
“Welcome, followers of Nyf,” he said. “To the Cult of the Sun. It has been quite a while.”
The rude girl blew a raspberry at me.
I shook my head with a sigh. Looked like Escinca had invited the other cult personally. This was going to be interesting…
Actually, there were a few other cultists from different cults too. Aurier pointed out who they were group by group. There was the Sea Cult, followers of Los, dressed in very pretty robes that were aquamarine like the ocean itself. Then we had the devotees of Pil, the Wind goddess, wearing pure white robes. Finally, the flame-coloured robes indicated the apostles of Uqi, the fire god.
Escinca clearly wanted to keep pretending that the different cultists didn’t have any trouble getting along and there wasn’t an actual gang war between us all. But my eyes told me a different story. I could feel the tension sparking off every single one of them like corn kernels about to pop in a microwave.
Still. No one was
doing
anything actually troubling, so I continued acting like the Elder was right.
Speaking of whom, now that everyone had gathered together, Escinca called everybody’s attention by tinkling a spoon against his glass. The elegance of the action clashed bizarrely against the fact that the glass held a drink that looked like sewage water.
“Greetings, friends!” he said, beaming at everyone. “I’m glad so many of you could make it to this little fete of ours. The Cult of the Sun welcomes you with open arms.” He chuckled. “And lots of food.”
Several people cheered at that, though it was mostly from the humans in Ring Four.
“Please, avail yourselves of the pleasant company and merriment that we have to offer,” Escinca said. “This is a celebration of our community, of the strength we possess together. We as the cult ask nothing from you, not even a prayer for the Great Arl, other than to have faith. Not in the Banished Gods whom you may or may not believe in, but in
each other
. In your fellow citizens of our great city of Zairgon.”
That was all he said for his little speech, and I was honestly impressed he had held back from any religious invitations.
“That comes later,” Aurier said in a low voice. “For people who want it. The rest of the fete is for everyone else to enjoy.”
And enjoy they did. People ate and drank and chatted with each other. I tried to be personable too.
At one point, I found myself chugging down the strange drink that Escinca had brandished earlier with the two guards and a few men from the neighbourhood. Apparently, it was
supposed
to be vile, and everyone was playing at a contest of seeing who could choke down more of the stuff. I gave up after the first try. They laughed at it, and honestly, I did too.
It was… kind of nice. Not just for me, but for everybody. Even the cultists from other cults were happy to get along, if not with each other then with everybody who
wasn’t
a cultist.
I moved around and enjoyed myself and helped everybody do the same. When Gutran and Escinca drew me into their conversation about the state of trade in Zairgon, I hemmed and hawed like I had something meaningful to add. When Sreketh dragged me over to the other orphanage children with sibilant laughter, I helped them all have some fun with Gravity.
Of course, I couldn’t affect the kids’ weights directly with my Aspect, but it worked fine enough when I manipulated the effect of gravitational forces on stone blocks that they sat on. They hooted and shrieked with laughter as they rode the blocks higher and higher. I made sure it never went to a height where they could fall and injure themselves. Some of them actually dared me to do so, but I wasn’t that irresponsible.
Still, it was nice seeing people have fun. It was nice seeing them enjoy themselves. It was also nice when I was rewarded for it.
[ Rank Up!
Your Fervour Attribute has risen by one Rank.
Your Path of the Acolyte has risen by one Rank.
Fervour
: Iron IV
Path of the Acolyte
: Iron III
]
Huh. It wasn’t that I had been aiming for them, because I still wasn’t sure how those two actually worked. But now I was starting to see how… community-oriented they seemed.
“Ah, excellent timing,” Revayne said when I drifted to her. She was busy chatting with Silhatsa. Or rather, Silhatsa was trying to talk to her while she was still buried behind her book. Now, however, I had arrived to save her. How gallant of me. “You, Ross Moreland, can continue where I must take my leave.”
“What?” I said. “And when did I ever tell you my full name?”
She ignored me and got up to leave, navigating through the crowd so well that I was tempted to think her book was transparent.
Silhatsa waited until Captain Revayne had walked off. “Is she always like that?”
“As far as I’ve seen,” I said. “Pretty much, yeah.”
I frowned as I continued staring. Revayne wasn’t walking randomly. She was unerringly following a couple of people at a non-suspicious distance, even when the two of them went into the temple, giggling scandalously.
“I’ll be right back, Miss Receptionist,” I said.
“Oh, you’re going too?” She hadn’t spotted what I had, apparently.
“Be back in a bit.”
I caught up to Revayne just as she went into the temple and was about to ask her what in the world she was doing, when she turned around.
“If you must follow, then keep up silently,” she said, voice hushed. “We might have a situation on our hands. A potentially deadly one.”
Crap. Before I could ask for clarification, she hurried off. Heat thudding in my chest, I followed quickly.