Supreme Magus

Chapter 4285: Lodestar (Part 1)

The golden veins formed elegant, neat patterns that gave the impression that an artisan had embossed gold decorations on the white marble. It was hard to believe that the inlays were part of the solid stone and that Menadion had achieved such a result just by assembling them.

At a more careful look, one could notice that among the natural golden veins there were strings of golden runes whose arrangement fitted in so well that it was nigh impossible to distinguish them.

Menadion had embossed several enchantments with actual gold, suppressing the mana they released and making them invisible to all mystical senses.

There were still a few patches of grey stone, but they were small and far in between. They impacted the curb appeal, but not so much that the tower could be considered ugly anymore.

It had become a majestic building worthy of a king or a powerful mage that just needed a few finishing touches.

"This is so cool! Your tower looks amazing, Auntie!" Aran’s reaction took the words out of everyone’s mind and made Solus sigh in relief.

She would never admit it, but she was still scarred from the vivid similes the young boy had used to express how unsightly the tower had become after its previous breakthrough.

"Thank you, Aran." Solus said. "Inside is even better. We’ll start our tour from the bottom of the tower, like usual."

A snap of her fingers brought everyone to a circular room. There was no tool or piece of furniture inside. Its only noteworthy features were the countless runes that covered every centimeter of the floor, walls, and ceiling.

Even more peculiar was the fact that the runes were arranged in groups of seven, each of a different color, and every group formed a magic circle.

"Is it me, or does this remind you of the Rezar’s ritual to get in contact with Mogar’s will inside the Fringe as well?" Quylla asked.

"Mom, this time you can do the honors." Solus stepped aside and pushed Menadion forward.

"It’s not you, Quylla. You have guessed the purpose of this room and where I took inspiration from it. Everyone, welcome to the Lodestar." She waved at their surroundings, and the magical runes lit up with prismatic light.

’Actually, I called it the Thinking Room, but Epphy says that I have a terrible naming sense.’ Menadion thought.

’Because you do, Mom.’ Solus replied. ’Also, our tower is now called Starforge. Lodestar is a much better-fitting and sounding name than your bland "Thinking Room".

’I couldn’t agree more.’ Lith inwardly nodded.

"This room has only one purpose." Solus chimed in. "To store and accumulate enough world energy to recreate the effects that we experienced when we visited a Fringe."

"Are you saying that the secret of Ripha’s success as a Forgemaster was her ability to ask Mogar for an audience whenever she wanted?" Friya was flabbergasted.

"How stupid do you think I am? Of course not." Menadion scoffed. "Lochra brought me to a Fringe whenever we were close to finishing one of our projects, and there was something off with them, or the final result was far below our expectations, even though the theory behind it was solid.

"We used the Fringe to try out our spells or perform test runs of our enchantments to check if there were parts Mogar sneered at. Then, we altered them until we got close to the solution enough that Mogar suggested the perfect runes."

"It makes sense, and it sounds like a great strategy." Lith rubbed his chin. "Yet it doesn’t explain where the sequence of runes on the walls comes from or why you never attempted an audience with Mogar."

"Lochra showed them to me at the end of a long day of experiments." Menadion replied. "She is the one who knew how to access the Fringe. I just tagged along. Lochra told me that once she offered her help to a tribe of Fylgja werepeople.

"They were desperate to get rid of their beast half, so they welcomed her among them and shared their ritual with her. Useless to say, it ended up in a colossal failure, and Lochra almost died for it.

"Even worse, the Fylgjas had no intention of letting her get out of the Fringe alive, even if she succeeded. They exploited her weakened state from the failed audience to attempt to kill her."

"Sounds like something even my tribe would do." Nalrond nodded. "Allowing a human inside the Fringe is rare, but sharing our sacred rituals with them is unthinkable.

"No clan of werepeople would let a human who knows how to commune with Mogar go. Lady Silverwing was too trusting and naïve."

"Those are her exact same words." Menadion replied. "Don’t worry, she learned her lesson, and during our short trips to the Fringe, we always kept our distance from the locals.

"The rune sequences you see here prevent Mogar from focusing too much on you. They don’t shield your mind during an audience with her. They keep Mogar’s mind out."

"This could be a great help for our research on stable Mirror Runes." Lith nodded. "Maybe we could finally find those we lack to conjure Mirror arrays. Can you give us a demonstration of the Lodestar’s capabilities, Solus?"

"No, I’m sorry." She shrugged. "The Lodestar takes quite a while to charge up, and when it does, most of the other floors of the tower are powered down. On top of that, you can’t use the Lodestar indefinitely.

"With the tower’s current state, the Fringe-like effect lasts for about one hour. Then, you need to charge it again."

"Shouldn’t the tower be almost fully repaired?" Elina asked. "Is the remaining damage so heavy, or is the Lodestar not as good as a Fringe?"

"Both." Menadion replied. "The damage affects the tower as a whole, and I limited the Lodestar by design. I did it to avoid Mogar from dragging me to the Mindscape and giving me a piece of her mind that might result in my death.

"It’s more like a safety measure." She shrugged. "Also, I didn’t want to get too used to the Lodestar. If you use Mogar’s help too much, your inspiration dries up. A mage’s creativity is like a muscle.

"If you don’t exercise it, you lose it. This is particularly true for young and ambitious Forgemasters." Menadion stared at Solus for a moment before her mind wandered off to her old apprentices, like Kolga and Bytra.

"I was afraid that prolonged access to the Lodestar would smother the talent of my students instead of nurturing it. If I have to be honest, I was also afraid of what they might discover if they practiced Forbidden Magic behind my back.

"Avoiding Mogar’s focus also meant cloaking my students from her scrutiny. As I devised it, the Lodestar doesn’t discriminate between normal and Forbidden Magic, only between right and wrong runes."

"It was a wise move, Ripha." Lith patted her shoulder. "Something like the Lodestar should be a last resort, not your to-go answer for everything. As Faluel taught us, if you don’t rack your brain before asking for help, you’ll end up narrowing your horizons and become unable to overcome your own limits."