Unknown Invitation

It was late.

Looking out at the Templar Knights patrolling back and forth with their torches held high, Sest took a deep breath. He was nervous. Before he had made a name for himself, his teacher had always told him how terrible this prison was, and those stories had left a deep impression on him. Even now that he was an archmage renowned throughout the world, he still felt uneasy facing the prison. Although he had prepared his magic, he had yet to make up his mind. Or rather, he was telling himself that the horror stories his teacher had told him were in the past, and that he was fully capable of dealing with them now. Despite trying to convince himself of that, he was still nervous. Unfortunately, the operation had already been decided on, and he could not easily abandon it.

But that was his beloved disciple in there. He could hardly leave him to die.

"I'd advise you not to do that."

Although a voice came from behind him, the old mage did not turn around. There was only one person in this town who could evade his magical search.

"Mr. Li Lin, I believe I have kept my promise."

"That's true."

Li Lin walked over to the old mage, holding Angela's little hand in one of his as he looked at the white prison before them.

"I'm very pleased that you kept your word, so I won't stop you from doing this. But what follows is merely my personal opinion. Those low-level mages are evidently not as stupid as I thought. They may not be very gifted, but they're still doing what they can in their own way. If you succeed in rescuing him, you could very well ruin all their efforts."

"What do you mean?"

Sest was somewhat surprised. He did not quite understand what Li Lin meant, so he asked. Rather than answer the old mage directly, Li Lin pointed at the prison before them.

"Do you know what they're doing in there?"

"Making and carving statues of the gods."

Sest naturally knew that. He had gone to great lengths and gathered considerable information in preparation for infiltrating the prison to rescue his disciple. That was why he was in such a hurry to get him out. After all, rough work like carving stone could easily injure the fingers. For a mage, damaged fingers were tantamount to losing half his life as a mage. It was no small matter.

"That's right."

Li Lin nodded.

"But these mages have tampered with the statues a little."

He added that immediately afterward.

It really was a little tampering. After all, the statues were carved by mages. If they were not inspected before leaving the prison and words cursing the gods were discovered carved into them after they had been put in place, the church would lose a great deal of face. As the Holy Knight who had guided Li Lin during the day had said, mages had tried such tricks before, carving blasphemous things in inconspicuous places, such as beneath a statue's legs. Naturally, they had been dragged out and beheaded. The Temple was no fool, and mages had always been known for their intelligence. It would have been strange not to take extra precautions. Dwarves, on the other hand, would have been much easier to deal with.

All these mages had done was add a few lines to the statues' hair.

That sounded like nothing unusual, but just as three lines could be arranged to form a triangle, those few extra lines formed a small magic rune.

"An Animation Rune," Li Lin continued, a note of admiration in his voice. "It's hard to recognize, and it's easy to get past inspection. The rune is easy to activate, too. A mage only needs to know the password, speak it, and then feed in magic power. I never imagined these low-level mages had such a method... Of course, each password is specific."

In other words, every statue the Temple took from here could very well bear such an Animation Rune, and naturally, someone knew the passwords. If someone had exceptionally good character someday, or got lucky and left, the temples would be in trouble. In religious temples like these, statues of the gods were invariably enormous; anything less than two, three, or four meters tall simply would not do. An Animation Rune, put plainly, merely made objects move. Of course, with enough power fed into it and precise enough control over the spell, it was entirely possible to make the statues moonwalk. Even if that could not be done, statues several meters tall coming to life could certainly cause considerable damage to a temple. Clearly, these mages were quite cunning. It had the feel of "as long as the green mountains remain, there will be no shortage of firewood."

Of course, not everyone would know the passwords. Nothing was harder to predict than the human heart. A mage might one day be unable to endure the hardship and trade this little secret for freedom, ruining all the preparations made over such a long time. Presumably, then, only a few people at the top knew. That did not eliminate the possibility of betrayal, but it made it much less likely. If Sest eagerly went into the prison now to rescue his disciple and succeeded, his disciple's life would naturally be safe for good. But once a mage broke out, life would become difficult for the mages left behind. To give their superiors an explanation, the authorities might even drag them all out and behead them. In any case, from what Li Lin had observed over the past few days, most low-level mages had no human rights. Presumably, no one would protest even if their heads were put on display.

"Of course, if you can rescue all these mages in one go, I have no objection. Everything I've said is just my personal advice."

Li Lin had no intention whatsoever of rescuing these low-level mages. In his view, it would do them good to suffer a little more.

After listening to Li Lin, Sest fell silent. Emotionally, he very much wanted to rescue his disciple. But given his position as the most influential of the wild mages, he could not bear to see the efforts of these young mages destroyed in an instant. After all, even with his abilities, getting away with his own disciple would probably be his limit. Li Lin could do it with ease; he simply could not be bothered.

At last, Sest let out a long sigh without speaking. Clearly, he still needed to think it over. Li Lin said no more and turned to leave. Just then, Sest called him back.

"Your Excellency, Mage Li Lin."

This time, he used an honorific. Li Lin turned around to see Sest bow slightly to him, looking very respectful.

"Although I don't know who you really are, if you truly are a mage from the time of the Magic Empire, please allow me to make a suggestion. Whatever you intend to do, I hope you will visit a small town and meet someone. That person has an exceptional interest in the Magic Empire and will presumably be of help to you."

"Who?"

Li Lin thought for a moment before asking. Unexpectedly, however, Sest shook his head.

"I don't know that person's name, Your Excellency. I don't even know whether that person is a man or a woman."

"Then how am I supposed to find this person?"

"I don't know."

"All right, Mr. Sest."

Li Lin flexed his fingers unconsciously.

"It's late, and everyone is tired, so I'd like to make sure I heard you correctly: you think someone can provide us with the help we need, but you don't even know their name or whether they're a man or a woman. Is that right? Then where can we find this person?"

"I don't know, but I believe that person will surely come looking for you."

Li Lin stared at the old mage in silence for a moment before concluding that he was not lying. If it were a lie, he could have used a more natural reason and explanation to persuade him. People were often more fluent when lying because they were making things up out of thin air and could readily say whatever they wanted, so long as it was convincing enough. People telling the truth, on the other hand, often stumbled over their words or were even vague. They frequently had to check their memories to verify things and answer questions, making them more likely to arouse suspicion than liars.

"Where is this place you mentioned?"

"Head southeast from here and you'll reach the town. It's called Yinkalan, a very prosperous and quiet little town."

Hearing the name, Li Lin's eyes widened slightly. He stared at the old mage for a moment, then nodded.

"I understand. I'll go and have a look."

"Master, why did you agree to his suggestion?"

On the way back to the inn, Angela could not resist asking.

"No particular reason."

Li Lin answered as he gazed with desire at Angela's soft, long hair.

"For one thing, we really have nothing to do, and our only lead ends here. All we can do next is travel around and try our luck. For another, that name caught my attention..."

In fact, after a thousand years, most city-state names had changed. Usually, they became simpler or more descriptive. Half-Moon City and High Stone City, for example, were typical cases of geographical features being incorporated into names. Half-Moon City was named for a crescent-shaped lake within its territory. Then there were commercial cities like Dika, which had not originally been called Dika. Many such cities had later been renamed after famous people, as Dika had been in honor of the Dika Family that founded it. As for many cities with ancient-language names, their names had in fact been transliterated, with names chosen at random, because the original pronunciation was complicated or impossible to translate. For example, Wensains meant "place of punishment" in the ancient Magic Empire Language. But now that no one knew the name and Wensains was cumbersome and awkward to pronounce, it had been renamed the Magic-Banning Prison, a convenient and descriptive name. Yinkalan was evidently a transliteration of the latter kind, and that was precisely what had caught Li Lin's attention.

In the ancient Magic Empire Magic Language, Yinkalan meant "wait, until forever."