“Roll call,” Lukas said.v
Bowie: Befriending the locals and laying a foundation.
Eins: Busy.
Flukas: I’ve got a handful more meetings before I’m done here. Don’t worry, boss. I’m not Bowie.
Bowie: What the fuck is that supposed to mean?
Flukas: You know exactly what I mean. I’ll dispel myself when the job is done. Chasing skirts and getting drunk are low priorities for me.
Bowie: Blighted, killjoy.
Flukas: We’ll know I’m right when you finish up.
“Can we stay on topic?” Lukas sighed. “The body ascension is complete. I need to know who I can dispel and resummon without interrupting anything.”
Morph: Not relevant to me or Eins, then. I’ve got a date. Don’t wait up, boys.
Ace: Smite me, Lord. Smite me for I have been a bad, bad boy.
Zwei: I’m just downstairs working on an inscription boss. A quick resummoning won’t really get in the way.
Stalker 1: Plus one for smiting. I’ve not been bad, but I’m so very tempted.
Stalker 2: Same story. Hit me with some of that sweet, sweet tier-three.
Lukas dispelled the four willing clones and resummoned them straight away, starting with Ace and Zwei.
“By Yggdrasil’s juicy t—”
“Fucking hell, this feels good!” Zwei yelled, cutting off Ace. He bounced on his heels, clasped his hands behind his back, and then pushed them as high as they would go. A series of loud cracks rang down his back.
“If I knew tier-three was going to feel this good, I would’ve insisted we take on a few journal quests and knock this shit out of the park,” Ace stated, doing the same as Zwei. “I feel I could kick butts all day. Give me an illusion amulet and cut me loose on the pits—”
“Or Escape Portal him somewhere else to go nuts,” Zwei suggested.
The pair of stalkers formed next, both equipped with Alter Metal Mass. They had their instructions and raced out of the building, eager to not just test their new bodies but also the upgraded body ability and Create Quicksilver. Lukas wanted them to master the shaping and manipulation of the liquid metal. He intended to increase their focus on electromagnetic research sooner rather than later.
“As you were,” Lukas said, dismissing the clones. He still had a lot to do and glanced at the familiar floating around the room.
Assistant Spindle had proven invaluable. Its primary function was to allow Lukas to multi-cast or assist him when putting together long, complex spells. Initially, he had believed that the ability to hold threads of magic from attunements only the clones could access was a nice bonus. He didn’t predict it would prove invaluable for Shadow Clone’s growth. Lukas now had clone specializations for every attunement in his collection.
Stalkers for shadow. Stormtroopers for storm energy. Shadow Clone’s conjunction ability with Spellweaver had birthed Shadow Illusion, granting Lukas access to the illusion attunement, and he had created the Illusionist specialization out of it. Biomancy’s ascension to tier two had come with a big boost to Morph’s stores of life magic. Assistant Spindle had plenty of threads of it. Lukas used it to create the Vivimancer specialization. Now, he could create clones without Morph, who generated life magic alongside shadow and storm energy.
The life energy allowed Lukas to finally dabble in body reinforcement and enhancement magic, allowing him to evolve the Bruiser and Rogue specializations, which had gone mostly unused for the longest time.
Lukas had the new specializations and upgrades to thank for Shadow Clone’s growth through the ranks. He believed that adding one more to the roster would finally get him to the next goal, allowing him to upgrade the mid-tier ability. Unfortunately, no matter how hard he tried, he failed to make a specialization out of the divination-adjacent threads born of Fortune’s Favor. They worked as a substitute when casting basic divination spells, but he failed to do more with them. Ace, alone, retained the ability to make the most out of it.
Frustrated, he turned his attention to his second major project: perfecting the Shadow Step spell. Lukas stood, inhaled deeply, and then let himself drop into his shadows. After a handful of seconds, he dropped out of the walk-in closet, struggling for breath.
Still a long way off.
It was frustrating. Opening a doorway into the shadows had been a reasonably easy feat. Weaver’s lessons had helped him connect two of them. Lukas had no trouble transporting objects through them. However, Shadow Stepping proved a major challenge. First of all, neither Lukas nor the clones managed instantaneous travel. It took several seconds, but felt longer on the side. Worst of all was the sensory deprivation and lack of air during the journey. The spell was far from battle-ready.
Lukas returned to his desk, checked the pocketwatch, and scratched a big, angry ‘X’ next to the spellform. He added to the notes.
8 seconds, but felt almost a minute long. Reducing magic consumption isn’t worth it until the speed and duration of travel are fixed z.
It was a headscratcher. Weaver had offered assistance, but Lukas was determined to resolve the matter himself. It was a matter of pride, and he was sure the breakthrough would come with a significant boost to Spellweaver. He hoped to get the ability to the next tier as soon as possible, since Weaver believed it would make disentangling from the journal significantly easier.
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Spell development was a slow process, especially when dealing with something so alien and complicated. Lukas and the clones were taking it in stages, tackling one or a set of functions at a time. Whenever he finalized a section, they made several copies of the spellform for them to build upon. It was Flukas, the Arcane Chronicler’s job. He had prepared a fat stack of them before leaving for Iskander. Lukas started on a new version. He started by adding the energy supply script that had offered the best results. It sacrificed efficiency but offered the quickest point-to-point travel.
2 seconds. Felt like 5.
Frustration drove Lukas to check the source material. The journal’s pages transformed, reflecting the book on spectral movement that he had copied. Instead of deriving something of his own, he settled for copying a part of the script.
The base spell is designed to travel to a specter. So what if I give it a target follow?
Lukas shot a Shadowsteel spike across the room. It struck the center of the chalk circle that he was using as Shadow Step’s destination. He could sense the projectile without looking directly at it, making it reasonably easy to open the destination gate around it. Much to Lukas’s surprise, using intent on the section of the spell saved cost. Finally, he took a deep breath in and let himself fall through the Shadow Gate under his feet.
The trip felt much swifter than before. Lukas checked the clock before excitedly adding to his notes.
2 seconds.
He wasn't sure what had changed. The clones had attempted the same approach with a different version of the base spell, and they failed miserably.
Flukas will need to track the changes and get to the bottom of this. What's different?
The spell was still far too expensive and needed to be faster. Two seconds was an eternity in battle. But it was a start. It finally felt like he was making progress. Lukas couldn't help but wonder whether the Body Pillar’s ascension had granted him a fresh perspective.
The journal had a message for him.
Spell Weaver has progressed to rank 7!
Lukas didn't intend to stop with the current version. It has a major weakness. If enemies figured out how the spell worked and knew to follow the projectiles, they could predict where he or one of the clones was going to emerge. Firing a barrage of multiple projectiles and then Shadow Stepping to one of them was an option, but felt inefficient. Lukas was sure he wasn't going to be satisfied until he got the spell precisely how he wanted it. The next tier that he envisioned, Shadow Gate, needed a perfected Shadow Step at its base. Lukas intended to create a lesser version of Escape Portal that would allow him and his companions to travel vast distances with whatever equipment or materials they desired.
Lukas firmly believed that he didn't need to reach incredible tiers to achieve godhood or have incredible power. They would extend his lifespan and eventually grant him immortality, but that wasn't the end goal. The clones and high mobility would help him get as close to omnipresence as possible. Robbing his enemies of the ability to track or ever lock him down would make him seem like a god. They'd forever be questioning who the real him was. Godhood would come soon after as Fracture and its resources became easily available to him.
Access to the Gray’s best libraries and forbidden literature had taught Lukas that the lands held untold riches. Their monetary value meant nothing to him. He cared more about how they'd strengthen the body, mind, and heart. It was part of the reason he was seriously considering alchemy as his next endeavor. Tortuga was to alchemy what the Gray was to arcane smithing. It was the perfect place to learn and master the craft. In the meantime, he had charged all the powerful merchants he knew with finding powerful alchemy shards. But first, Lukas needed more clones.
The journal vibrated, prompting Lukas to check it.
Zwei: Get down here, boss. We got guests.
“Who is it?”
There was no answer.
“Great.” Lukas sighed. “Just as I was getting somewhere.”
His mood improved as soon as he reached the main stairs and got a clear look at the mostly open-plan ground floor. It wasn't the leader of another small guild or merchant organization. The much-awaited guests had finally arrived.
Lukas shot a shadow projectile at the floor behind his target. It was intangible, soundless, and mostly untraceable. The Stalkers had come up with the idea when tailing someone. It sacrificed all qualities for the ability to remain undetectable. Now, Lukas had a reason to work on the range. He Shadow Stepped to the impact point, stepped in close behind his target, and whispered, “Boo.”
“What the—” Mira spun on her heel, swinging her staff at Lukas’s face. He caught it before the hooked end containing the magic crystals could make contact. Her eyes lit up. “You did it!” She exclaimed, releasing her staff. It hovered in place as she clapped and bounced. “I didn't hear or sense you at all.”
“Good job,” Penelope said, flashing Lukas a tired smile from Eins’s workstation. His latest project, a focus scepter for Flukas, sat on the table in front of her. “I sensed the exit gate, but a touch too late. You're close.*
Lukas nodded. “Time and energy flow issues still need ironing out. The current version consumed too much magic for regular use—”
Mira turned Lukas around, stood on her tiptoes, and kissed him. It wasn't a peck. There was intention and heat behind the caress that Lukas had sorely missed. “Sorry,” she whispered afterward, her breath heavy. “I know you wanted to keep things under wraps, but I couldn't wait any longer.”
“Were you trying to keep things secret?” Penelope's familiar, Bass, commented. “I sniffed you two out two visits ago.
“So you've known for six months and didn't say anything?!” Mira demanded, glancing at her teacher.
Penelope shrugged. “I didn't particularly want to talk about it or have you share details. Lukas and I've settled on a professional relationship, and I'd like to keep it that way.”
“Still.” Mira pouted. “It was eating me up inside. I hate keeping secrets.”
“All the more reason why. You need to get good at it. Being a fledgling dragon-blooded mage is hard enough. Having two flames in your lungs, and that too from the rarest and most dangerous dragons to exist, makes you a target far too many parties will want eliminated.”
“How was the mission?” Lukas asked the sorcerer, leaving an arm around Mira’s waist. “Where’s Shae?”
“Keeping an eye on things.” Penelope’s shoulders sagged as she leaned against the work counter. “There is no way around it. War is coming, and the city is going to remain blind until it's too late. Even though it's not the kind of thing I do, the conclave wants me to help the city prepare and survive. The mines and the Loom are too valuable to us.”
“Can’t you have this conversation with a clone?” Mira asked, leaning against Lukas. “We haven’t seen each other in almost three months. I’d like some alone time.”
“No. Sit down, or I’ll put you outside in the cold.”
“I’m just going to go upstairs and have a bath.” Mira rolled her eyes. She pecked Lukas on the lips before ascending the stairs.
“I’m guessing you want my help?” Lukas crossed his arms.
“I know you’re done with this city and would like to move on. But let's talk. I have an idea, and only you can help me with it. I’m sure I can make it worth your while.”
“Fine.” He sighed. Lukas waved to the sitting area in the corner by the fireplace. “Would you like something hot to drink?”
“It doesn’t have to be hot,” Penelope replied. “Just strong.” She held up a finger. “I need something stiff that won’t take long to get me buzzed.”
“I’ve got just the thing,” Zwei announced, rushing to the basement.