“Huh…” From a quick spatial search, there were well over a hundred mages searching for their first mark in this village, while more regularly came and went. This had to be the busiest place on the island. “Just what is a mark? How am I supposed to find it?”

  This time Cira could see Eliza’s cheeks pinch as she grew truly amused, “How indeed…? I wonder. The answers you seek are all hidden within this village as well. Nothing and no one beyond these shelves will aid you in this trial. It all depends on you.”

  “I see…” This is not really what I was expecting for a trial. She tried looking into the books with Spatial Sight, but they turned blank as soon as she focused on one. A return inspection revealed that an entirely different book was in its place, which also became blank shortly after. “Perhaps I should revisit this place later. Is that all you wanted to show me here?”

  “Not quite… It is important to show you this before we reach our tour’s end. Just as this village is dedicated to the wisdom leading to the first mark, do you see that islet trailing behind us?” It was just a little smaller, and there were listless mages meandering about on it. Some picked up sticks or tossed rocks off the shore, while others just sat there staring into the sky. “That rock is called Isle of the Unmarked. Those who grasp for wisdom beyond their means end up there. No matter how skilled or brilliant they are, I’ve seen third marks land themselves on that rock. I understand you are excited, but do not take the Lost Archive lightly. Depending on the path of wisdom you find yourself on, I may even lose sight of you. It is no ordinary library, and I would never forgive myself if I lost Gazen’s daughter to it.”

  Can she make this library sound any more appealing? You’re telling me there’s so much knowledge there that I’ll turn into a vegetable if I learn too much? Is it truly possible for me to have such freedom? My studies are only limited by my own volition. The sky’s the limit, as it always was.

  “Gazen’s daughter this, Gazen’s daughter that.” Cira shook her head, approaching a random bookshelf and withdrawing a tome bound in purple leather. “I am also the Sorcerer Cira. If it comes down to it, I’ll simply teleport away.”

  The book in her hand was entitled ‘A Hundred Ways to Skin a Dragon’. Hm. She flipped through it, looked at a couple illustrations, then placed in back on the shelf.

  “Are we finally headed to the library?” Cira asked with clenched fists, “Or perhaps the alchemical storage?”

  Eliza laughed again with a smile that reached her eyes, “I’m not showing you the ingredients vault until you’re at least First Mark.”

  Something told Cira that as a ‘pureblood legacy’ she could see it if she wished, but didn’t see any reason to rub Eliza the wrong way. She had been kind so far and must have had her reasons. Maybe it has something to do with this ambiguous wisdom I’m supposed to attain.

  “Alright then, gimme a few days.” Cira chuckled in return. “Once I get my fourth mark, you’ll really be sorry.”

  There was something exciting about having things to learn and goals to reach. Cira was surrounded by mages—more so than she probably ever had been. She couldn’t help but be eager to indulge while time allowed. It could only make her stronger. And as her father used to say, wisdom was even more valuable than power in a sorcerer’s pursuit.

  “I’ll hold you to it.” There was a jovial grin on Eliza’s lips. “Shall we head to the site of the second trial, then? It is located at the spring.”

  “Ah, I was curious…” Cira followed Eliza as she again jumped off and rose up toward a more distant ring which ran diagonal to the last. It ran from the bottom almost up to Celeste. “I don’t sense a spring in the traditional sense.”

  “I would think not.” This islet was flat and much wider than usual, covered in a flowing lake from shore to shore. There were shallows and rocks with mages perched upon or dipping their toes in. Judging by the next ring in, Cira thought this islet would be in danger of crashing into a different piece of Earth. Since they moved so slowly, it was easy to imagine people jumping between them. “Our spring is not very traditional.”

  Beyond the tidepools, there were deeper spots with mages wading, swimming, or even sitting crosslegged on the lake’s floor, while some simply meditated on the water’s surface. It was difficult to discern what they were doing. Knowing they sought the second mark did little to help Cira figure it out.

  The flow of water was clearly coming from the center. It wasn’t a fountain, but more like an omnidirectional current from a single point. Also, it glowed bright cerulean. Dead giveaway.

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  “How strange… A source of pure water, but… It pulls directly from the earth around it to work as a spring.” Cira narrowed her eyes, inspecting the lake from above. She didn’t notice a brief flash of surprise cross Eliza’s face. “But I see no enchantments. As if done through will of a conjuration, but… Hm. Do you mind if I inspect it closer?”

  “Oh, please do. This spring was placed by Daedalus himself, though not even I know how it works past what you just said. If Fitz does, he’s keeping quiet about it. Probably a term of the wager.” This appeared to be a chance for the third mark arbiter to learn something new, so she readily encouraged Cira. “Take all the time you need.”

  “Alright then, I’ll be back.” Cira trickled away in a flash of blue, gently precipitating into the lake below. She wisped against the current until her liquid essence met the inexplicable ball of water mana.

  This was the same sort of inspection she did on Paradise at the ale spring—a sort of assimilation one tier lower than she would place ‘Spring Sense’, but for some reason, it resisted her a great deal. So much so, it actually kind of hurt. Cira felt her authority over the element fading away and tried to escape in a panic, but she was pinned.

  Something was holding her in. On closer inspection, it was present throughout the entire lake and Icarus’ rings.

  Have I fallen into a trap…? What’s going on here? Cira thought it was too early for desperate measures, but this was incredibly concerning. Despite her body having turned to water, she could feel her heartrate speeding up—or something like it. That was the worst part. She turned into water, now something else seemed to have a higher control over it than she herself did. It was as terrifying as it was unexpected.

  Pain wracked her body and she could feel her aura burning up just trying not to disperse.

  “Dammit, just what the hell are you?!” Cira discharged another bubble of condensed light, burning up the surrounding water. Now that only she remained, it was a quick decision to return to flesh. Having her body manipulated as if she were someone else’s conjuration was unsettling on a level she never imagined. It struck an instinctual fear in her and she found herself floating away with the sun at her back.

  The mages all scattered to the opposite island’s shore in a panic, but Cira was focused on the gurgling spring. From it rose a tendril of water, which branched out into multiple more. It rose up like a gelatinous cerulean tree while each shimmering branch grew a face. It was like a radiant slug hydra and the mana pouring out in fury made Cira’s skin tingle.

  “What am I?!” A raging voice echoed through the sky, “Just what in the deep skies are you?! Some kind of abomination—I can tell you feasted on one of my sisters, or maybe more? Attempting to do the same to me will be your last mistake. Prepare to meet your end, gluttonous one.”

  “What…?” Cira didn’t have time to think as a tentacular spear shot through the air faster than she could trace. If it weren’t for all those barriers she cast earlier, she may have been impaled through the heart. There were a few left in poor shape, but Cira rushed Aquon out to add a few more specialized layers.

  This isn’t enough. Cira watched another spear coming straight for her head when she desperately called upon the Third Pillar of the Sage. “Perma!”

  A staff of glacial bedrock appeared and intercepted the attack. The mental strain as the spear hit ice was almost enough to knock her out, but Cira watched frost grow from the point, crackling all the way up as ice travelled toward the undine’s body. As if in desperation, this aggressor broke it off and tossed it to the sky.

  “Interloper, I will make you regret coming here.” There was no way around it. Cira had induced the aggression of a ridiculously powerful entity. To be fair, she would have felt really weird about turning herself into water and merging with Undina. It even felt really uncomfortable when she tried earlier, but how was Cira supposed to know this spring was a greater spirit?

  Cira felt something warm drip on her chest and realized her nose was bleeding.

  Alright—I can’t stay conscious long enough to whittle this thing down, and I get the impression I shouldn’t kill it. This is life or death, but… that’s why I brought out Perma, isn’t it?

  As the densest form of water, it would take a stray elemental to overpower this staff. Cira didn’t believe an undine could be so many times stronger than Undina of Acher, but all water present froze as snowflakes fell upon Icarus.

  I just need one good shot. The mithril disk Conduit appeared not behind Cira but in front, displaying her target in its center. Aquon threaded through to form a crosshair and wisped up like cerulean flames. Her control could not falter here. Another spear broke through her barriers as she sidestepped, throwing her staff forward like a javelin.

  “You need to chill!” Like shards of ice scraping against each other, a shrill whirring echoed through the sky and a pillar of cerulean light flashed to the distance behind and ahead of Cira along the path her javelin took. The frigid staff lodged itself in the frozen lake, pinning a remarkably lifelike ice sculpture of an undine hydra to it like the preserved specimen of an insect.

  Cira fell from the air, colliding against solid ice for lack of mana. She pushed against it with a forearm to look up at the undine. Its necks creaked as the heads all focused in on her, slowly, but surely.

  “You dare…” Each head’s voice overlapped, “try to stop me… holder of ill-gotten strength?”

  This spirit had enough power to resist even the frost of Perma, and quite frankly, Cira was scared for her life. Powerless on the ground, she felt like she may actually run her aura out if she had to fight any more. Perma was thirsty and survival was unclear.

  “It was a gift…” Cira could hardly keep her eyes up any longer, “You bitch.”