The ship was sailing swiftly across the vast landscape, with only land in sight, dry and flat. The young teenager had lain down, arms crossed behind his head, on the port hull. I was holding the ropes on the right side.
We were watching the sandfishes fly.
Well, either sandfishes or alels, they were hard to tell apart. Jets of sand that spread their fins in the air before plunging again. That sand only trailed from our boat: everywhere else was rocky and dead.
Our destination was Hashal.
According to human knowledge, when the realm started to lose mana, the best sages assembled at Hashal to find a solution. Legend had it that they were the ones who devised humanity's exile to escape the drain.
There was likely nothing to learn there that wasn't already known but my master insisted to go there.
He was telling me all about what he had found.
For example, when the realm started to lose mana, the best sages did not assemble. Or maybe they did but someone should have told the rest, because the first thing humans did was wage war on each other.
Another tidbit he had found. Those wars outlasted human departure. And yes, that meant that human creations kept the war going after they were all gone, but also that there were still humans left behind when humanity departed.
They had not just abandoned the trash and monsters. They had cast their own aside.
And then he had found something else, at a temple in the city of Rajlin. That was what he now wanted to show me and our first halt on the way.
To him this was unbelievable. To me it made sense.
The place humans had fled to, according to my master, was called Earth. And it was not a faraway place: it was still somewhere in the realm.
"I don't even know what to think anymore! It's like my entire life is a lie!" He complained as loudly as he could.
My master had still not fully recovered from his illness. I had asked him to put the seals back but he refused and just remained there, exposed to the realm in those barren parts.
"That's why you wanted to go back?"
"No kidding! You learn the whole world is irradiated, you are travelling in a hazmat suit and the only shelter is where you come from? I can't fight radiations!"
I vaguely understood what those words meant, I got the rough meaning at least and could not fault him. On the contrary. I had been the one exposing him, thinking I could help.
So, one more thing he had figured out: the whole sealing stuff.
In theory, seals kept the magic inside by essentially trying to remove the body from the realm. In practice, too much magic inside and those seals were powerless.
And even when the body contained a reasonable amount of mana - still more than this deprived realm could ever dream of - those seals could only do so much if the outside was too low. Which was the default.
For the weak, it was great. They lost a lot of potency but preserved most of their mana that way.
For the strong, it was forfeiting all powers to retain a slice of what they had.
"Eh, those fishes, they are dangerous?" The teenager asked.
He was excited at their sight. They were dangerous. But those monsters were content with just following the flow.
We were approaching Rajlin. The city had been a sprawling diamond made of uncounted glassy spheres that floated or hung together, or formed towers narrows and wide. The larger spheres formed domes at the center on which more giant beads pearled.
It had been that, long ago, maybe.
We started our descend in the vast crater that had torn it. The glassy spheres, broken and turned to stone, lay in piles as spirals along the slopes. Dust and debris kept them in place.
The domes had been breached but still dominated afar. That was where the beasts all gathered to survive the mana drought.
My master steered us to follow the crater's side, through ancient streets and what passages the destruction had formed. The ground itself had twisted under whatever cataclysm had hit the city.
"I bet humans did that." The human said.
He was straining himself holding that rope, sweating a bit but I could only let him. His dejected smile was almost comforting to see.
"I don't think so." I answered. "This looks like damage over time. Human warfare would not be so lenient."
"So, what did it?"
The mana drain. Obviously. However that city was built, it had fallen victim to its own design. Not that assuming anything was relevant.
The temple was there.
Okay, that was not a temple!
Master, you can't just call anything a temple because it suits yourself.
That had to have been an academy. A place for the talented to train and shine. Its spheres had formed a circle around the courtyard, with pointy roofs that back then where likely made of topaz.
Like everything else, it had been devastated, half-buried and cracked.
At the front of the highest sphere, defying time and fate, the academy's sigil still held, petrified.
We disembarked in what would have been the court. The teenager tried to walk but quickly stumbled.
"Master, you must rest."
"Can you drop the master bit?" He groaned. "I can do it, I'm not so beat up!"
"Try to stand on one leg."
He looked at me, looked at his body and, after covering his face, agreed to head back to the ship. I would have to find the records by myself.
It looked like I was calmly walking up the rubbles and towards a crack. Just a clay golem doing its part. But deep inside I could not even entertain the idea of learning where the humans were.
Should I even know that? Should that knowledge not be destroyed?
I mean, after my master went back home... After my master left...
Luckily, those considerations were not for golems to had. So I entered and made my way down.
Spacious rooms, arched doors and curved corridors. All petrified, exhausted and desert. What marvels those rooms contained had long turned to dust.
Yet there was still mana around, more than outside. If my master had come there once, this was probably what remained of his previous visit. And wherever there was magic, there would be monsters.
But really, how could there be records left in such a ruined place?
Down to the academy's hall, then down further to what must have been an amphitheater. All that remained was the semi-circular shape, the rows of seats themselves eroded to the point of fusing into a bumpy slope.
No. Wait. Something was wrong.
This didn't look like a theater. It may have been one but there were protruding blocks among the levels, as well as on the walls. Shapes of drains still visible underneath.
This looked like... a purification room?
The city of Shiranu had one, where water converged for the mass production of holy water. Because yes, give enough mages enough time and they come up with stuff like that.
Why would such a thing even exist in an academy? You didn't mass-purify the talented!
The hallways kept going down. Another floor yet. They had built a vast arena for underground, now an empty space with rocky walls on all sides slowly eating the space, turning it back into a cave. Row after row of monoliths covered the ground like graves.
Dampeners?
And another floor yet. The hallway there had been hurriedly dug and hardly decorated, compared to the ruins above. It opened on a large room, now decrepit, where mirrors probably had held. That had no place in an academy.
The room shook. The walls expanded. From the opposite side, rock formations came out, emerging to form hands, arms and then, a deer's head. Faceless. I already knew what I was facing.
That wasn't a monster. That was a golem.
Four meters in height, a body of steel made of a myriad of plates that flowed like skin. It wore an iron cuirass and barding. A centaur. Hooves shaking the ground. That thing was built for battle.
"Stand aside!" Said the small clay golem in front of that warmachine. "We serve humans, you will abide by their will!"
It exhaled from no mouth at all a thick mist and extended its arm. The stone below got sucked up to form an iron spear.
Maybe the drain had damaged its crystal, or whatever animated it; maybe that golem was just a husk of itself. Whatever it was, it wasn't just protecting this place by duty; it was hunting.
"If you still serve, answer me!"
It rose the spear and struck.
All it had was what little mana my master had shaved here. I had bathed in it for far longer and outmatched it in every way. But I had also learned my lesson: no matter how lopsided the odds, never underestimate a warrior.
And while I had barely had to move to avoid its strike, that human craft was tuned to kill.
First to disable his movement by cutting a leg, I cast my own weapon and I had already lost the fight.
One, I could not cast my weapon. That golem, while a metal one, also knew earthworks. And it outmatched me in that craft, badly.
Two, it knew earthworks. So while it prevented me from manipulating the ground, I had carelessly let its spear land close to me. And now my legs were stuck, ensnared by rock.
Or how to lose a fight in about four seconds.
Barrier! The massive spear cracked through my hasty spell, slowed down enough to fail to crack my arms. I had blocked and now, we were in contact. Lightning! The magic circle blazed on the tip.
It may not have been the best attack, but it was the fastest at my disposal.
And still too slow. The centaur had let the tip crumble to turn its weapon into a javelin. Crackling light burst in a waste as it lunged.
Barrier! I was overwhelmed, forced to watch that new tip holding against my spell, two dozen centimeters away from my badger mask. And now This standoff was depleting my mana. And the stone kept creeping up my legs.
What kind of pathetic clay golem could get beaten at its own game? Just how low could I sink?
No, actually, that was the answer.
Fine! I would sustain the barrier for however few seconds our new battlefield would take! Back to earthworks, to struggle vainly against its own art. Forcing it to block my senses, forcing it to wave and divert and block me at every turn.
I would squirm, I would struggle, I would push back like an infant!
Come on! Show my your supremacy!
Draw that square for me.
It only understand what was happening but too late and what could it do? To stop would be to release me and it could ill-afford that. That magic square was as unstable as it came and I didn't care, called on it and watched it flare.
Tremor!
Try and hold me captive now!
With the both of us debilitated I broke free, avoided the javelin but narrowly, dodged the falling blocks from the ceiling and my maul got blocked by his new spear. I could not wait for it to regain control, broke through in a swing and went for its torso.
Two hooves met me and sent me crashing near the entrance. I watched my arm fly away. The tremor, as it ended, let blocks collapse and bury me. I tried to move, felt my flattened torso resist. My senses scrambled.
So, how to lose a fight in under a minute instead.
My enemy had kneeled. Why? Because it had been mana-deprived, its body weakened and the fight taking its toll. It was fighting a hurricane! But that hardly mattered now. Because it was casting a magic circle of its own to finish me.
And it was too late for me to do anything about it.