Not (Just) A Mage Lord Isekai-Chapter 77 - That Freedom Feeling

"That is acceptable," Kallum replied releasing my arm. "You are a far better negotiator than I had expected from such a young Magus Dominus."

"Got a bit of practice back before I got my magic," I replied. Was referencing dealing with customers and suppliers back on Earth, but it was true enough.

While I'd been dealing with Kallum, Vaserra had grabbed the Tethered who'd been watching, and had started the process of offloading their haul.

"The woods are full of prey," Vaserra said, taking a deep breath. "We could hunt for a week straight and barely make a dent. Perhaps there is yet hope to stop my father."

"I'll take whatever you're willing to share. We've got lots of room," I said, though I doubted that'd remain true at the rate Vaserra's pack worked. Still, I could always build a second cold storage. Or third, if Xoth had finished his work.

Had my doubts since we hadn't built a storeroom for him to enchant in the valley yet.

Just one more thing on the list.

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For a full week, things settled into a rhythm. Despite the cloud hanging overhead, spirits were good.

The jaunt through the forest with Vaserra was the closest thing I had to a break. My days were spent enchanting cold storage, using Bloom or the staff to build new buildings, discussing the design of the gliders with Inertia and using the remainder of my mana to work on my Astral Form.

Four days after Vaserra's arrival, I felt a shift in the air.

The cold, which had already made it dangerous to wander far beyond the warmth of the valley got worse. The snow, which had remained a light dusting, started falling in waves. The wind, which had sapped warmth, now ripped it away as though it was my old man, leaving anyone trapped outside lost and alone.

I'd already been wearing the cold weather gear as my new normal, so I was among the least affected, at least among the Tethered and the refugees.

Still, we'd been prepared for it to get worse.

Instead of the apartments I'd been thinking of, the refugees had decided to go for covered walkways. They'd been easy to assemble, and I discovered that the idea of discreet buildings wasn't a thing in Spellford. Spellford wasn't just named that because it was a great place for learning magic. It had been built on a water-affinity mana-well. The waterfalls in Spellford shot up as often as they did down, and very few people lived at sea level. Not because they all lived up high though, Spellford existed under the ocean as much as it did in the air.

That was what even the most ragged of refugees considered normal. This meant they were used to everything being connected by enclosed bridges, with only the communal green areas of the upper levels open to the outside. Which they had a lot of.

Still, the rush job meant there were a lot of holes in the enclosed tunnels. The refugees were doing their best to fill them, but even when successful, they ran into other problems.

The public areas of Spellford were enchanted out the gills. That meant that the refugees weren't used to dealing with things like smoke. Which could easily build up in the tunnels, if they were sealed too tight and they didn't vent the halls properly. Tresla had helped them solve the worst of it in a day, her pipe in hand the whole time.

The thick flurries of snow helped seal the tunnels even further, and while there was still the occasional issue with snow, mostly, the refugees were snug and warm.

Other than using Bloom occasionally, and using Minor Heal to cure the worst of the smoke inhalation, I hadn't been involved. The rapid progress of the refugees hadn't been achieved on their own though. The Tethered had understood that being left out in the coming storm would've been fatal, and they'd been running themselves ragged, doing all they could to help.

It helped that everyone was well fed, though I'd heard more than one complaint about the amount of protein we were getting in our diets. I was hoping we could open trade with Spellford or one of the other coastal Terra Vista cities soon. Grains should be relatively cheap and easy to transport.

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Relatively.

Might've even been reasonable if Terra Vista wasn't in the middle of a civil war.

Moments after feeling the shift, I was headed towards the peak.

It was tough to be certain with the weather, but I thought it was close to midday. When I emerged on the peak, I discovered it was a little earlier than that. Being able to visit the peak to get sunlight had become a popular activity for people in their offtime. It could've been horrible security wise, but it turned out the Keeper was even more hostile to people than Neta.

When I’d brought Shaper Kallum and his grimoire to Keeper’s chamber, Kallum had been thrown straight out of the room without getting a single word in. The Keeper hadn't even touched him. It had been as though something had grabbed the shaper by the back of his robes and lifted him right out of the room. His grimoire hadn’t joined him, and I’d barely caught it before it caught the floor.

Neta also proved that I'd been right to give her space. We'd had a new Shaper arrive while I’d been busy, a Pegasus-soul battlemage. While I'd been working on a fourth cold storage room, he'd tried to steal something from her workshop.

At least, I had to assume that's what happened. When his remains were found, all that was left were his bones, his ring and his staff. The bones had even been sucked dry of marrow. Neta had done the same to him as she did to the bones placed on her workbenches.

"Neta, we're not supposed to eat people," I told the rope-cat, even as I gave her scritches behind the ear. Mixed messages, that. But she didn't actually listen to me.

I would've felt bad about the man getting himself killed, except I'd already closed off easy access to the workshop. He’d literally had to climb over a wall with only a foot and a half gap at the top, then shimmy under another that was just as low to even make it inside. And there'd been warning signs.

Couldn't fix stupid.

After I gathered his belongings, Neta had followed me out of the workshop. She'd pawed around at the golems, and I'd decided it was time to seal all of it off. At least until I was ready to fix up the attendants. I was tempted to close off the entire mountain other than the Waygates, but people treasured those few minutes of sunshine. A few waves of Sculpt Stone later, the labs, bathing chamber and workshop were all sealed off to keep away the idiots.

All that had been over a day ago, and Neta had been following me around since.

Despite the dangers, the peak had a dozen people eating lunch atop it when I arrived. The Tethered had built a hanging scaffold so there were dozens of places to sit or hang, as they preferred.

Every one of them looked towards me as I burst onto the roof. I spotted Shaper Kallum eating with several of the refugees before I turned my gaze outward, looking for visible changes in the storm or anything else that might be out of place.

The changes were visible immediately. All across the storm, lightning raced over the roiling clouds. However, it was especially bad over Mistvale. As though someone'd taken live wires and connected them all to the battery that was Mistvale, then revved the engine into the red.

Considering Vaserra was currently on a hunt in that very valley, that could be a good sign, or a very bad one.

Having gotten sick of trying to track people down by running all over the place, I simply asked one of the Tethered serving as sentries in the main crystal chamber for Inertia's and Calbern's locations. I'd asked Calbern to help find me an assistant, but he'd told me that was a task I'd have to handle myself.

In his words, "If they intend to serve as your personal assistant, you should select them personally."

Tresla had been slightly more helpful, gathering a list of people who were willing to serve as my assistant from the refugees. Unfortunately, the list was already over a hundred people long, and growing longer by the day. Even Xelinda had put her name on the list.

The sentry didn’t even have to go anywhere, letting me know Calbern was out of the village with Fang, and wasn't expected back for over an hour. Inertia was in her workshop.

My thoughts came back into focus as I pulled myself up the ladder that now extended past the edge of the chasm. No more struggling over on my belly. Hadn't even had to install it myself. I'd simply mentioned it chafing to Tanis and he'd had the extension installed an hour later. Then Myris had straightened out the nets so there was a straight route from the Waygate to the top.

Inertia was exactly where I needed her to be, and Tresla was even with her when I came in.

"Bad news?" Tresla asked as I jogged inside, the rope-cat right behind me, batting at my ankles with her rope-tendrils.

I wiggled my hand. "Could go either way. Either Vaserra's moving up in power, or her father showed up."

A sharp hiss escaped Inertia as she set the latest glider design to the side. She'd customized it a great deal, not happy with my basic fabric and bone design. It now looked more like the wings of a bird of prey. To the side was a simpler version that had passed a single flight test from the top of one of the trees in Mistvale, to prove the concept. A test done by Calbern.

"Inertia says we shall go crush the slave-binder. She reminds you that she helps not because she is your guide, nor out of obligation to cleanse such filth, but because she would be upset to lose such a wondrous…" Tresla stopped, turning to look at Inertia before pulling out her pipe, blowing streams of smoke. It only took her a few seconds to put it away. "I guess I did hear her right. She doesn't want to lose a friend."

"You sound surprised," I said, even as I fought to keep the warmth in my chest from showing on my face, stepping forward to take the simple glider.

"I can count the number of people Inertia has declared as a friend on two fingers," Tresla said, holding her fingers up. Then she pointed to me, saying, "One," then she thumbed at herself, "And two."

"Friend," Inertia confirmed with a loud clang, her hand landing on my shoulder in a firm but not overly heavy pat. It only sent me stumbling forward a single step, causing the glider to fall forward, partially unfolding.

"Thanks, I consider you guys friends too," I replied as I righted myself, picking up the glider.

Tresla shook her head, but I saw a glint of blue from beneath her hood.

Then we were off, down into the Waygate and emerging atop Mount Aeternia. There was one other thing I'd done over the last few days. I'd modified my shield to be similar to Nexxa's. It didn't have the Storm aspect she preferred, which meant it wouldn't shock those who struck it. I’d used Air instead. Which meant I'd still have fresh air while being insulated from the cold and since my Storm affinity was only good, the lack of outputting damage meant the Air Shield was nice and cheap.

It would also, I'd discovered during my early testing, work somewhat like one of those gliding suits I'd seen in Youtube videos. It wasn't enough to fly, but combined with a glider, it was enough to steer. In theory, I might be able to recreate an entire glider with the effect, if I had the time.

Of course I'd put off testing that theory because it was as insane as… well, jumping out of a perfectly good airplane.

Or off of a perfectly good mountain, strapped to a simple glider with a single tier-3 rope tied around your waist.

"Fly," Inertia ground out a half-second before she jumped off the ledge, the rope trailing behind her.

I didn't wait for her momentum to pull me off the roof, running forward and blasting myself with Gust. It was just as bad as when I'd attempted it in my Memory Palace. The difference was, I threw myself out where there was nothing to hit, with even the air itself barely providing any resistance it was so thin. It took me a few seconds to stop flailing and hold myself steady. Which was the moment Neta smacked into me. The rope-cat was a fraction of her normal size, yet the weight still sent me spinning. I'd barely managed to recover from the rope-cat wrapping herself around me when I felt the tug of the cord connecting me to inertia yank us upward. Which caused me to lose my balance yet again.

I found out later that Inertia hadn't even felt it when she started dragging me behind her.

When I finally gained control, moving upwards behind Inertia, I was suddenly struck by a memory I'd nearly forgotten about.

Back when I'd still been in school, I'd been invited on a trip with some classmates. They'd invited the whole class, and somehow, I'd gotten the old man to sign the permission slip. Or maybe I'd forged his signature. He'd had me doing that at the shop for ages, and that was honestly more likely.

Either way, I'd ended up going to a lake along with the rest of my class. There'd been a boat, and we'd all taken turns water skiing. It had been embarrassing at first, my legs refusing to cooperate and stay in the water like they were told. I'd almost given up.

But the other kids had been having fun. I wanted that too. I wanted it so hard, my teeth hurt. So I'd tried one more time. My legs trembled, and I almost went down.

But then… then I'd finally made it to the surface. And the feeling, even as I was pulled along under the boat's power…

The feeling had been so unlike anything I'd felt before. For a long time, I'd associated that impossible feeling with water skiing. Then the old man had croaked, and I'd found myself.

It hadn't been the water-skiing. It'd been the freedom. That freedom feeling, that for just a moment, nothing could drag me down.

That was how it felt now, as I forced my limbs to obey. Even as I soared over clouds wracked with lightning, I felt free. Freer than I'd felt since coming to Ro'an. Freer than at any part of my life on Earth. It was an intoxicating feeling.

I just wanted to stay in the sky forever.

Of course, that was the moment Inertia spotted Vaserra and we went crashing down.