Blood Magus

But what he found was something else entirely.

Out away from the buildings and roads, Zeth saw a large stone structure cropping up from the ground, looking completely new. It was made of gray brick, walls towering high enough that it seemed to be several stories tall, and wide enough to be classified as a complex, not a simple building—it was like an entire office building, except made of reinforced stone and with defensive ramparts at the top. How had they made this thing so quickly?

Zeth worried that the real reason they’d taken so many people prisoner under the guise of “interrogating” them was actually because they just wanted to put them to work slaving away on this gigantic outpost, but even that couldn’t have been the case. It was expertly constructed, not a single brick out of place; it couldn’t have been made by a bunch of people who didn’t know what they were doing.

He continued approaching, curious about the nature of this strange structure. As he rounded one of its corners, he found the entrance, with a small crowd of angry people in front of it. Several were shouting out for the Inquisitors to let the people go, or to leave this place and never return. Upon seeing this, he stopped, not wanting to continue closer and get involved with the protest. If it became a riot, the last thing he’d want would be for them to assume he was a part of it and attack him.

But as he watched from afar, Zeth realized the Inquisitors were taking a different approach to dismantling the protest. As the people shouted in front of the shut door, it suddenly opened up, and one of the Inquisitors stepped out, wearing their signature plate armor and unsettling mask. The moment they came out of the building, they approached one of the protestors. Zeth couldn’t hear what they were saying, but the protester argued with them for a bit before calming down relatively quickly as the other ones continued to shout pointedly at the new target. But the Inquisitor ignored the others, and after a moment, they finished speaking, turning and walking right back into the building, bringing the person along with them, and shut the door.

Hesitantly, Zeth continued walking forward, curious about what was going on. The crowd seemed smaller than he would’ve expected, considering what the Inquisitors had done—were they just pulling people in one by one to disperse everyone?

As he drew closer, he watched as the door opened once again. Now that he could see better, he noticed that as the door opened, several angry people attempted to push the soldier aside and shove their way in, but the Inquisitor clearly had more than enough Stats to shrug off their attempts to move them. The door also seemed to only open up into a small room which had two more Inquisitors guarding it, standing by another door that would let you further in. They clearly didn’t want people barging in here.

The Inquisitor walked up to another person, and this time, Zeth could barely hear their unsettling voice as they spoke to a random protestor.

“Do you have someone inside you would like to see?”

“Let them go!” the person shouted.

“Would you like to see anyone?”

“Y-yes, my brother. He’s got a family to provide for! Let him go, or I’ll—”

“You may enter.”

With that, the Inquisitor turned and began walking into the building, and the person hesitantly followed behind, the door shutting behind them.

Zeth wasn’t sure why the Inquisitors were bringing visitors in like this, but it seemed to keep the crowd relatively in-check. Splitting them up as they gave the people not what they wanted, but at least a small form of it, kept the crowd small and the people placated.

It seemed like, if he wanted to enter, he’d have to come in through that entrance, though, so he walked up and stood by the door, next to the rowdy protestors. He empathized with them, but doubted their shouts of anger would ever change the Inquisitors’ minds. With their powerful Classes, high Levels, and government sponsorship, there was nothing a few backwater peasants like them could do to threaten them, and Inquisitors didn’t seem like they were the type to listen to emotional reasoning.

After a few minutes, one of them opened the door and came out again, eyes landing on Zeth, who was calmly leaning against the wall of the building.

“Do you have someone inside you would like to see?”

“Yeah, a few. Is that alright?”

“You may enter.”

The Inquisitor turned around. Zeth shrugged, and followed them inside. In the smaller guarded room, the Inquisitors stopped him and searched him for hidden weapons, of course finding none, and asked him who he wanted to see. He told them his sister and mom, as well as Rosalie and Erza, and they didn’t seem to object to him visiting so many people, simply nodded and turning to walk him through the building.

Zeth examined the interior of the building as they walked, finding it to be made of the exact same perfectly square stone bricks as the exterior. The floor, walls, ceiling—all of it was made of the same stuff. The identical hallways felt strange; walking through them was surreal.

Or, no—he frowned. It wasn’t just the fact that everything looked the same that made this place feel so off. It was subtle, but there was an energy flowing through the place, he realized. Like the entire building, down to the very stones it was made of, was charged with mana. Not enough for him to see, but on the hairs of his arms, he could barely feel it tickling the edges of his person.

Before he could think about the weird feeling for too long, they arrived at their destination—a simple room with a couple chairs and a table inside.

“Sit,” one of the Inquisitors said curtly. Zeth still felt a little unsettled by these people’s appearances and general demeanor, but sat at the table as he was told, and they left him in the room, with one other staying inside to silently stand guard.

After a few minutes, Zeth heard the rattling of chains, and when he looked to the door, watched it open, with his mom walking through. She wore her own clothes, but with light shackles placed around her wrists and ankles. The moment her eyes landed on him, her expression lit up, and she ran forward as quickly as she could with the restraints placed on her.

“Oh, Zeth!” she said. “I’m so glad to see you.”

She came close to embrace him, but one of the Inquisitors standing by the door watching them loudly said, “No physical contact. Sit in the chair.”

She stopped, hesitantly complying and sitting in the chair opposite Zeth at the table.

“How are you?” Zeth asked. “How are they treating you?”

She sighed. “Well, I certainly wish I was back home, but I suppose they’re treating us like people. I get fed, and I keep up with Sophie when I see her to make sure she’s getting fed, too. But it’s been really hectic so far, so I haven’t seen her much.”

“But you have seen her?”

“Yes, we all eat together in a common cafeteria, so I’ve made sure to find her each time we’re together there. There have been some other times they let us go outside to get some sun, and I thought everyone was given the opportunity, but couldn’t find her then. But she’s okay.”

He let out a breath he’d been holding in ever since he watched the Inquisitors take them away. “Good. So they’ve been giving you everything you need?”

She nodded. “We all get private cells, and they even let us put in a request for them to go to our houses and retrieve some clothes from our rooms so we have something to wear. I really wish they’d just let us go home, but it’s at least better than prison, which was what I was expecting. But speaking of home, how’s the farm doing? Have you been taking care of it?”

Zeth pursed his lips. “Not really.”

“Well, could you start? I don’t know how long it’ll be until I get back home, and the crops might die if it takes too long without anyone tending to them.”

“I can’t take care of an entire field of crops,” Zeth said.

“But—”

“No,” he interrupted. “I’m sorry, but this isn’t something you can argue with me about. I wish you were able to take care of it, but I can’t do the work in your stead. I’m busy, and I know you didn’t sign up to be arrested, but I didn’t sign up to do all that labor.”

She looked at him for a moment. “Zeth, this is our farm. It’s what my parents handed down to me. They trusted me to take care of it, and I promised I would as my mother lay dying. You can’t let her wish die like that. Please.”

He bit the inside of his mouth. As much as he disagreed with her, Zeth never wanted to hurt his mom. She just cared about something he couldn’t bring himself to care about, himself. “I’m sorry.”

“Could you at least get someone else to look after it? Those mercenaries I hired to protect us, they could—”

“Oh,” he said, “wait, where were they when you got arrested?”

“...They backed off when they saw the Inquisitors. Said they didn’t want to stop official business.”

“Okay, yeah, those guys have done nothing ever since you started paying them. If they wanna shirk their protection duties, they can do the farmwork instead.”

“You really should be more understanding,” she said. “We couldn’t have expected them to try and stop the Inquisitors.”

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“Yeah, well, I don’t really care. They’re still on payroll. So they’ll be in charge of the farm until you get back. How’s that sound?”

She sighed. “I suppose, as long as you make sure they take care of the crops right. I taught you how, and you were always good at it, so just make sure you watch them. Oh, and if they’re going to be distracted, you make sure you stay safe, alright?”

“Sure.”

“No, I mean it. Out there, all alone…You know, bandits and Wicked thralls target people who are by themselves far more often. So don’t let anyone know you’re in the house by yourself ever, okay? And if you ever see someone trying to hurt you, you just turn and run.”

“Okay.”

“I’m serious. They’ve got combat Classes—you won’t ever beat them. If you see strange shadows on the fields, or see a group of people coming up to the door, don’t even bother asking who they are and letting them know there’s someone inside. Just jump out the window and run for town.”

“Don’t worry. I’ve got it handled.”

She gave him a look. “It doesn’t sound like you’re taking my words seriously.”

“Mom, I promise. You don’t have to worry about me.”

There was a relatively strict time limit on visitations, so pretty soon, Zeth’s mom had to leave. But as they took her back to her cell, they brought the next person in, and Zeth’s heart truly rested when he saw Sophie sit at the table opposite to him. Even in the stressful time, he felt a smile spread across his face as she climbed into the chair, feet dangling above the stone floor.

“Have you been okay?” he asked her.

She nodded. “The bed isn’t too comfortable, and the food isn’t as good as mom’s, but it’s okay.”

“And the Inquisitors have been nice?”

“They’re really weird and creepy,” she said loudly, as though not caring one bit that there were several Inquisitors in the room listening to her. But none of them reacted. She continued, “They brought me into a room like this one and asked me about that time I saw the Blood Mage fight that monster and how he used that really cool fire power and stuff, but that was all. I only saw the fire power once and never saw it again, even though I wanted to see it again, so I couldn’t say much to them.”

Zeth stared at her, fighting back a smile as she sent him the most blatant secret message in all existence. But he doubted the Inquisitors would take her words as anything other than a kid being weird, especially if they’d interacted with her already and she was like this with them, too—which he had no doubt she had been. “Alright. Did they say when you’d be getting out?”

“No. I keep asking them questions, but they never answer me. Watch.” She leaned over to stare at the unmoving Inquisitors by the door and shouted, “Hey! Mister! What’s your name?”

They didn’t respond.

“Can you do any magic?”

Nothing.

“I’ll give you one of my pieces of meat from dinner tonight if you show me cool magic!”

“Yeah,” Zeth said, “I think they’re just focused on the Blood Mage stuff right now.”

“Well, they aren’t fun.”

“Have you been able to make any friends, though? Like, do they just have you sitting in your room all day, or what? Mom said nobody had any roommates, which I guess is good, but do you get lonely?”

She shrugged. “I don’t really talk to anyone but mom. Sometimes they let us outside to talk to each other, but that sounds boring, so I don’t go.”

“What do you do instead?”

“I just sit in my room.”

“What? Alone? What do you do?”

She shrugged, looking away. “I dunno. I just…sit around, I guess.”

Zeth stared at her. He’d known her long enough to tell when she was lying. She clearly wasn’t telling him something here, but couldn’t ask her directly in case she was trying to keep it hidden from the Inquisitors. “Huh. Well, alright.”

“Oh!” she said. “I actually saw that guy you work for, that Erza guy, earlier at breakfast! He was sitting on the other side of the cafeteria, but maybe he could teach me something about magic! Do you think he’ll teach me now that he doesn’t have anything else to do?”

“Huh. Actually, he might. Couldn’t hurt to ask. I’m actually supposed to talk to him after you, so I could put in a word for you. He’ll probably try to get some sort of favor out of me, but maybe I could—”

“Do it! Tell him he should teach me all the stuff he knows. I promise I’ll make it up to you, even if he charges you a million gold I’ll go and get a job and get the money for you once I become a mage!”

Zeth chuckled. “If there’s anyone who can earn a million gold by doing magic for people, I bet it’s you.”

“Yeah! So go tell him to teach me, right now!”

“You sure? I think we still have some visiting time left, so we can keep talking for a bit if you—”

“No, no, it’s fine. You should talk to him instead.”

Once again, Zeth got the sense Sophie was hiding something, and was maybe even doing what she could to make it obvious to him that she was doing so while keeping it a secret from the Inquisitors, but he still didn’t know what it was. Either way, it seemed like she just wanted to get back to her cell, so he nodded. “Alright, sure. But just, uh, be careful, y’know? Don’t do anything that would make the Inquisitors mad.”

She nodded. “Okay.”

After Sophie, the Inquisitors brought in Erza.

“Hey there,” Zeth said.

“I’m not paying you for this time,” he replied.

“What? I got you out of that stuffy cell. Surely this counts as working hours for me. I think I deserve my wages.”

He stared at him.

“How have the interrogations gone?” Zeth asked, figuring Erza wasn’t in the mood for banter.

“I told them what I know, which isn’t much. Obviously not every tiny detail—it’s not like they asked for every single person I’ve ever suspected—but all the important info.”

Zeth nodded, taking that to mean Erza hadn’t told the Inquisitors he had once suspected him. “Alright, good. Glad they haven’t tried beating anything out of people yet.”

He shook his head. “I doubt that’s why they’re keeping us. Seems like it’s a combination of extreme witness protection and so they can easily grab us if they ever need to know more about the original statements we made. Plus, I guess if anyone in here happens to be the Blood Mage, they’ll soon realize it, since all the incidents will suddenly stop for as long as the Blood Mage is in captivity. That’d make their job a lot easier.”

“I guess so,” Zeth said, wondering if it was worth intentionally laying low for as long as possible to try and throw the Inquisitors off. Though, maybe that ship had sailed now that he’d wiped out an entire bandit camp. “Uh, a little off-topic, but my little sister’s in here, and she was wondering if—”

“They imprisoned a child?” he interrupted. “Why?”

“Yeah. She was a witness to the fleshtaker attack, so they took her and my mom in for questioning.”

“Why not you too?”

“I wasn’t there at the time.”

Erza eyed Zeth with just about as much suspicion as a look could convey.

“Anyway,” Zeth said, pointedly ignoring the man’s gaze, “you remember how she asked about learning magic the other day, right?”

Erza nodded. “She wants to learn from me now that I have nothing better to do?”

“Yeah.”

“No.”

Zeth deflated. “C’mon, she’d really appreciate it. I would too. And she’s a really easy student, I swear. She gobbles up information like nothing else.”

“No. It’s out of the question. I suppose you wouldn’t know this, being as uneducated as you are, but you have to be careful about who you impart knowledge on. It’s not about how difficult it would be to teach her. In fact, if she’s as good a learner as you say, it would only make me more hesitant to do so. Knowledge is valuable, but it’s only as valuable as it is scarce. For my education to remain valuable, I must protect it. And not only would it mean a loss of commodity for me, it would also be plainly irresponsible. Magic is a weapon; not everyone should own it. So, no, I will not teach her. Besides, if she really wants to learn, it should be plenty easy in a place like this.”

Zeth frowned. “A place like this? What do you mean?”

“Hm? You haven’t realized? It’s made out of mana. Likely the work of a Creation Mage—they can conjure up materials to build with out of mana itself, and as long as they maintain the materials they create on a daily basis, they can effectively create an entire building in a single day, and keep it standing for as long as they need to.”

Zeth realized why this place felt so mana-rich. The stones he was standing on were mana. He’d heard of Creation Mages in passing before, but hadn’t realized that was how their magic functioned. “Huh. So you think she could learn by studying the building materials?”

“Quite frankly, I don’t. If she’s as inexperienced as you say, learning magic simply by sitting around in a building that’s technically made from mana would be just as ridiculous as learning to be an expert warrior by sitting next to a sword for long enough. But if she really wants to learn, maybe she’ll be able to find a way to unlock one of the basic magic Skills by messing around with the mana that permeates the air in here.”

Just as Zeth was about to respond, he suddenly heard one of the Inquisitors call out from behind him, “Citizens, leave the room at once.”

He glanced behind himself, worried he’d somehow done something wrong, but the Inquisitors didn’t look hostile. Well, it was impossible to really tell anything about them from their appearances, but they hadn’t drawn their weapons. Instead they just stood there, staring at him and Erza.

Zeth hesitantly stood. “I thought I had more time with him. And there was someone else I wanted to visit after him, too.”

“You may come back tomorrow, then.”

“...Can you at least tell me why I have to leave?”

“Come with me. I will guide you out of the building.”

The Inquisitor turned and began walking away, leaving the others in the room to go and grab Erza and walk him back to his cell. Not wanting to get in trouble, Zeth hurried to catch up to the one that was supposed to lead him out.

As he walked alongside the Inquisitor, he looked over at them. “Hey, seriously. I didn’t do anything wrong, did I?”

They just kept walking.

“Like, if I asked to visit too many people, you could’ve just told me up front I could only see three, not four. No reason to do this whole—”

They looked over at him, mask stuck in a neutral face, but body language signifying slight annoyance. “There is a guest who has arrived for questioning. All interrogation rooms were taken up by visitors. We needed room. As such, we have determined the questioning of that guest to be more important than your visitation, and removed you to make space. Come back tomorrow.”

Zeth sighed. “Alright. Fine, I guess.”

As they walked through the tight hallways, Zeth saw another Inquisitor walking toward him with a man walking behind them, dressed in familiar garb—it was someone from Otis and Roul’s, wearing the guild uniform. Though he didn’t recognize this man. From his skinnier build, Zeth had to assume the guy was an office worker, not a miner.

He almost assumed the guy must’ve been with the cabal just from the fact that he worked in the offices, but stopped himself. He didn’t actually know how much of the guild had been genuinely subsumed by the Blood Mages. It could’ve just been that only the higher leadership was with the cabal, and the other ninety percent was totally clueless as to who they were working for, like he had once been.

The Inquisitor Zeth was walking with saw the other two heading the opposite way down the same hallway they were in, and turned to flatten themself against the wall. Zeth realized why the Inquisitor was doing this a little too late, as in the skinny hallway, there wasn’t enough room for the pair of people to pass, and they came to a stop right in front of him.

“Excuse you,” the guild member said in an annoyed tone.

“Uh, right,” Zeth said, turning to let them squeeze past.

“Apologize.”

Zeth stared at whoever this guy was who worked for the guild. He glanced at the man’s chest, seeing a name tag that read ‘Clin,’ but not recognizing the name. “Seriously? I moved. You can pass by.”

“Do not delay,” the Inquisitor who was accompanying the guild member said, and continued walking.

He scoffed, throwing one more annoyed glance at Zeth, and walked by to catch up with the Inquisitor. Zeth had no idea what that was about.

Afterward, the Inquisitor finished leading him out of the building, unceremoniously dumping Zeth back outside, where he continued to hear the shouts of the mob.

He’d been interrupted early, but he’d at least figured out that the Inquisitors weren’t immediately a threat to the safety of his family. Which meant he was safe to purchase Speedy Rites, and get to work Leveling up. So that was exactly what he’d do.