ROTLE- Chapter 230- Why? (Patreon)

The next turn was a quick one. Rometo was already thinking too much from the blank expression on his face. But the thoughts were in his eyes, the way they wandered, taking in everything around them from the cracks on the wall to the little fine dust from the burrowed path.

“We’ve got to find a way to stop him,” Rometo said, mostly talking to himself.

Aiden couldn’t think of one right now. The [Mage] knew what he was doing. At least the [Mage] was going after them alone.

They took another turn and Aiden swiped his hand along the wall. [Unarmed Engrave] took effect as his fingers worked a quick enchantment.

[You have used Enchantment of Tremor]

The moment he activated it, the space around them shook slightly. Rometo glanced at him, and Aiden ignored him, already casting another one as they continued to flee.

By the time he had cast the fifth, debris was already falling from above them. It was in small pebbles, fine dusts, and the occasional chunk of rock.

Rometo was already frowning, but Aiden was sure the man could tell exactly what he had noticed. The [Mage]’s chase was reducing, slowing down. It was almost as if he was becoming unsure.

Aiden paid it little thought. The Acul tribe had always been aware of the mountain and the paths within the mountain. However, like miners with sense, they never completely trusted their structures. For all they knew, at any point in time the paths could threaten to come down, or they could simply just come down.

The [Mage] was most likely considering the possibility now. And at level two hundred and four, he was in no way ready or capable of surviving a mountain falling on top of him.

“He’s falling back,” Rometo muttered.

Aiden nodded, eyes darting to the left at another T-junction. “He’s out of my range of awareness.”

“He’s still within mine,” Rometo said.

Aiden turned left and Rometo followed. “What’s he doing?”

“Waiting.” Rometo did not sound pleased.

Aiden chose not to be bothered by it. As long as the man was within Rometo’s range of awareness, it was all good.

They ran on after that, losing some of the haste in their steps. It was up to the point that their sprint diminished into a simple run that in turn became a jog.

“He’s gone,” Rometo said after a while.

Aiden sighed with the knowledge that perhaps he could relax. During their run, he had cast two more instances of the [Enchantment of Tremor] just to be sure. He needed the [Mage] to be sure of what he thought was happening and leave them alone. The last thing he needed was the man changing his mind.

“That was smart, what you did back there?” Rometo commented in a bland voice.

Aiden knew a compliment from the man when he heard one. So he took it with grace. “Which one?” he asked, smirking. “I did a lot of things people would consider smart.”

Rometo shook his head in exasperation. “The tremors,” he answered. This time his voice was too flat. The man was fighting to keep the emotions from it. “How did you do it?”

“I wrote on the wall,” Aiden answered. His eyes picked up discrepancies in the walls as he ran now. They took a right turn now. Its walls had the ripple lines and signs of Ted’s familiar burrowing through it, but the left turn had something different to it, burn marks and signs that something had been gouging out a path.

“You do know that the Order is more than aware of your skills and their capabilities, right?” Rometo told him. “I’m simply just impressed at how you use them?”

Aiden cocked a brow at that. “How I use them?”

His mind focused on Ted and Valdan ahead. The two of them did not seem panicked anymore. In fact, they weren’t moving fast at all. It was almost as if they’d slowed down to a stroll.

“The speed and alacrity,” Rometo explained. “Your timing is almost impeccable. I often wonder if it is because of what you are.”

“What I am?” Aiden asked with furrowed brows.

Rometo seemed to think better of his choice of words. “What you are becoming would probably be more apt.”

Aiden shook his head at him. “I am not becoming anything.”

They took another turn. Again, Aiden noted the discrepancies in the pathways. The signs of what Ted’s creature had created and the path already in the mountain. He would’ve loved to take the old path, it was where they needed to follow, but they had to find Ted and the others. He also needed to remember to ask Ted what he had been doing with the summoning circle when the [Enemy of the Order] had taken him.

He also needed to deal with Elami. He was eighty percent certain that Elami had something to do with Valdan’s new mana affinity.

“Your arm would beg to differ,” Rometo answered, eyes no longer darting about. But Aiden knew the man was paying attention to everything.

“Where’s the [Mage]?” he asked.

“Not within my senses,” Rometo answered. “But do not change the conversation. I know that your speed also has to do with timing.”

Aiden paused, almost fumbling over his steps. His body oriented itself properly, adjusted, and continued down the path. “Timing?”

“It’s the way you use the skill,” Rometo explained. “You use it in that slight moment when nobody is watching or paying attention. You distract or allow something to distract for you before you use it.”

Aiden did not know anything about that. Yes, he did it sometimes, but it was not often enough to be a thing. For example, dealing with the [Mage], he’d had no reason to be looking for a distraction.

“The intrigue is in how attentive you are,” Rometo said. Then added, in a distant expression, “if only my students were half as perceptive as you.”

Aiden chuckled a little. “Really?”

“What?” Rometo asked, surprised.

“We are running away from a [Mage], and you’re still trying to recruit for the shadowy organization that not too many nights ago you considered might be pulling strings and manipulating us?”

“The master is always pulling strings and manipulating,” Rometo answered simply. “If there is anything to be worried about, it’s getting on the bad side of him. It is in his nature to pull strings and manipulate. It is not from a place of malice but from a place of simply being him. The only people that might not currently be under his manipulation are the [Sage]s.”

Aiden did his best to hide his surprise from his face. “You speak freely of the [Sage]s?”

“Are you trying to act surprised, Lord Lacheart?”

“Isn’t speaking of them something of a no go area?” Aiden asked. “Should you be speaking so freely about them with someone like me?”

“Some one like you?” Rometo asked, confused. “You’ve already met one of them.”

Aiden opened his mouth to comment on how the [Sage] did not know that he knew what the man was when Rometo continued speaking.

“You were tasked with a mission by him,” Rometo said, making Aiden bite down on whatever he’d wanted to see. “Have you accomplished your task, or is this one of said tasks?”

Aiden paused. Task? [Sage]?

What was Rometo talking about? When had he met a [Sage] that tasked him? Where was Rometo getting this idea from? What did the master tell the man?

Aiden noticed the confusion creeping into his expression and replaced it immediately. It was an old trick he’d learned in his past life. Two emotions that could easily look alike in expressions. He switched out the look of confusion with one of suspicion. In the background, his mind worked through why Rometo would think he’d met a [Sage].

Rometo sighed. “While we do not share information with every single member of the Order, there are some of us who are aware of almost everything. You don’t think the master would not tell me about your meeting with a [Sage] when sending me to work with you.”

Aiden was more than certain that the master would in fact not tell him about his meeting with the [Sage] in Bandiv simply because Aiden had asked for him.

“You’re lying,” Aiden gambled. “The master didn’t tell you anything.”

There was a moment of silence between them, a hesitation that Aiden could see in Rometo’s eyes.

In the end, the man sighed. “You’re right. It wasn’t the master.”

“So, who told you?” Aiden asked, wondering why they had been on a straight road for a very long time.

Rometo looked away, clearly wondering if he should come clean.

“If you are unwilling to tell me the truth,” Aiden said, “how exactly am I supposed to trust anything you say?”

“Really?” Rometo gave him a flat look. “Emotional blackmail?”

Aiden scoffed. “Please. I’m not that stupid. To be emotionally blackmailed, you’d need to have an emotion.”

Rometo opened his mouth to say something, but no words came out. After a moment, he did something more interesting. He laughed. It was a slight thing, quiet, as if he was trying not to disturb the people around. Clearly, he didn’t want to draw the attention of the [Mage].

“I’m sorry,” Rometo apologized with a half-smile. “It’s just… I can’t remember the last time a child accused me of being emotionless. Don’t get me wrong,” he added, waving whatever he thought Aiden wanted to say aside with his hand, “they all think it. I see it on their faces, but they never say it to my face. Having you say it was funny.”

“Noted,” Aiden said. “Now the [Sage].”

“Yes.” All the mirth was gone from Rometo’s voice as if it had never been there. It made Aiden wonder if anything about the laugh had even been real. “The [Sage]. Torat told me.”

Aiden’s mind put all the pieces together, tracked his lies. It had been so long ago since he’d run into Torat, since he’d needed to lie about meeting a [Sage] in order to survive and ensure Ted and Valdan’s survival.

It was a little funny that the lie had already taken root, that it was growing. During his time as a spy, he had seen the power of lies, even if he hadn’t really been good at it. Like truths, they took root easily and spread fast. The only reason they spread faster and took roots faster was because lies were rarely less interesting than the truth.

“Where is Torat these days?” he asked Rometo, their cadence now in sync as they jogged.

Rometo frowned. “Hunting something down.”

Hunting something down. It was vague, but Aiden’s mind was already going somewhere. It was going to something he had been aware of after using [Unwoven Fate].

Spell Binder.

In this life, he was getting very accustomed to not having the weapon, but its potential importance was not lost to him. He still remembered how the master had looked at it in his past life. It had been something he had not cared about then, but understood now. Then how it had drawn his awareness to it in this life.

He pressed his lips into a thin line as he thought about it. In his past life the master had spent forever looking for the dragon in secret only to find it late. What if that was what Torat was hunting? For all he knew… he didn’t know anything. At least not about this portion of time. Although Torat had rarely left the Order to do much if not the petty outings here and there before the discovery of the dragon’s lair.

What if I’m not the only one who sensed Spell Binder?

He’d wanted to get the weapon, but there had been more important things than the weapon that he’d needed to get done. The [Enemy of the Order], the library of Living Truth. Getting Ted home was far more important than a weapon he had grown attached to in his past life, even if the weapon was a boon.

Then again, he could always let the Order get the weapon and then bargain for it later on. He was certain the master would give it to him if his bargaining chip was the enemy. The question, however, was what if the weapon would become useless to him as it had been to the master in his past life.

This time, Aiden’s frown was harsh, spilling onto his expression before he could hold it back. And it was not because of Spell Binder. It was because of something else he had noticed.

He needed to get Ted home.

All this was to get Ted home. What about him? Was he no longer interested in going home? Was Alobam’s speculation that he would not be able to survive returning to Earth beginning to dawn on him?

Can I really go back to living in a world with no magic? He asked himself. Where I’m a child with next to zero autonomy for a while longer?

His steps slowed a little, but somewhere in his mind, he forced his feet to keep moving. He still missed his parents, but it was no longer in so strong a way that he wanted to tear through everything and return to them. Time would do that to anybody. Eleven years on Nastild and he had all but grown accustomed to not having them around.

And yet, I still want to go back.

Why?