The train to the western canyon took a full day.
Lin Yuan learned for the first time that "led by a veteran member" sometimes just meant having someone who could play cards for twenty hours straight on the journey.
"Lost again." Macao spread his hands. "Dinner's on you."
The repairman sitting opposite him had gone pale. Not only had he lost his dinner money, but he had also swallowed an entire deck of cards down the collar of his coat when the train went around a bend.
Lin Yuan put down his last card. "You cheated."
"That's experience."
"You've still got two cards up your sleeve."
"Observation is also a required skill for A-rank jobs."
The repairman silently resolved never to play cards with a Fairy Tail member again.
Early the next morning, the three got off at the canyon entrance.
The cliffs on either side looked as though they had been cleaved apart by a giant axe, their grayish-yellow rock layers stretching as far as the eye could see. Wind surged out of the canyon's depths, whipping up great clouds of dust. On a distant ridge, the first signal tower was nothing more than a tilted black silhouette.
The trade route administrator who received them handed Macao a map.
"All seven towers have been out for half a month. We sent two repair teams, but the wind was too strong to get materials up to them. If this goes on any longer, all the caravans from the north will have to take a detour."
"Was anyone hurt?" Lin Yuan asked.
"Someone on the first team broke a leg. The second team turned back in time."
Macao put the map away. "We'll go to the nearest tower, number one, first. There's no rush to bring all the materials."
"How are we supposed to make repairs without materials?" the repairman asked.
"First, we find out why it broke."
The three made their way up the mountain path. The higher they climbed, the stronger the wind became, and the wooden crate was nearly swept off the cliff several times. Lin Yuan didn't take them straight across the canyon. Instead, he folded the distance ahead of them section by section, letting the gale slide past on either side.
The repairman had been clutching the wooden crate tightly. After walking a hundred paces, he realized he could barely feel any wind around him.
"Is this spatial magic?"
"For now, you could call it that."
"What do you mean, 'for now'?"
"The Magic Council hasn't settled on a name yet."
Macao added from the side, "They thought about it for ages, and in the end, they wrote down 'undeterminable.'"
"That's not the name of a magic."
"Which is why they haven't settled on one yet."
As they talked, the first signal tower came into view ahead.
The tower was built of dark stone, with a huge Magic Crystal mounted at the top to project the signal light. Its top now leaned toward the canyon, and only half of the metal frame holding the crystal remained.
Lin Yuan looked up at it for a while. "I'll set the tower upright."
"Wait." Macao stopped him. "Let's take a look around first."
A heap of rubble lay behind the tower, and drag marks, scattered by the wind, scarred the ground. Macao crouched down and felt the soil, then picked half a length of hemp rope out of a crack between the stones.
"The wind doesn't use rope."
The repairman examined the tower's foundation and soon discovered that all four anchor bolts had been loosened. He reached out and gave one a light touch, and it fell out of its hole.
"No wonder the tower was leaning. The bolts weren't broken. Someone unscrewed them."
Lin Yuan closed his eyes and extended his spatial perception along the tower.
The Magic Crystal at the top was still there, and its internal wiring hadn't burned out. The damage was concentrated around the mounting frame and the foundation, as though someone had wanted to stop the signal tower from working but hadn't wanted to destroy the expensive Magic Crystal outright.
"Can you fix it?" Macao asked.
"First we set it upright, then replace the bolts." The repairman opened the wooden crate. "It'll take at least half a day."
"Ten minutes," Lin Yuan said.
Black-and-silver magic power spread out from beneath his feet. The distance between the leaning tower and its original position was slowly erased, and the stone tower, weighing several tons, returned to the center bit by bit, as though supported by invisible rails.
The repairman immediately rushed to the foundation to replace the parts.
Just as the last bolt was tightened, a piercing whistle suddenly sounded from the other side of the ridge.
A crosswind far fiercer than before slammed into the tower.
Macao raised a hand and sent out a sheet of purple flame. The wall of fire met the gale head-on, and the heat burned the incoming grit red-hot, but it couldn't completely block the impact.
Lin Yuan folded the space around the tower into a sloping plane.
The gale rose along the stone wall and swept over the top. The signal tower, only just restored to its upright position, swayed twice before steadying again.
The repairman closed the last circuit board. Blue light shone from within the Magic Crystal, forming a beam that shot toward the second ridge.
But there was no response from the distance.
Tower number two remained silent.
A voice soon came through the administrator's communication crystal. "Tower number one is working again! But the light is pointing the wrong way-it's shining toward the abandoned northern route!"
The repairman climbed to the top of the tower to check, then retrieved a positioning dial from behind the mounting frame. It had been moved.
The marks on the dial that fixed its direction had been deliberately shifted by three notches.
"They weren't just trying to put the towers out." Macao looked toward the old trade route that had gone unused for years. "Someone wants to lure the caravans passing through the canyon north."
Lin Yuan looked at the drag marks on the ground. Windblown sand had covered most of them, but he could still make out how they extended all the way toward the next ridge.
Holding a loosened bolt, the repairman belatedly shivered.
"But the job request clearly said the signal towers were damaged by repeated windstorms."
Macao tucked the half-length of hemp rope into his pocket and unfolded the map again.
"The job request can only say what the client knows. And our job isn't just to repair seven towers according to what's written on a piece of paper."