AK - The Alchemy Kingdom

Year 3, Spring, First Month, First Week.

“Release me immediately!”

The furious wind waves raged around the Mage, assaulting the light-blue barrier at all sides. Johann never felt so strong in his whole life, like he was the wind and the wind was him, which made staying in this cage even more suffocating. When he realized the change in his power, he got a little carried by excitement and started to sweep everything around him. The earth shelter resisted for a few minutes before being destroyed and revealing Johann’s real situation, he was imprisoned inside of a thick blue barrier in the middle of the Forest.

After attacking the barrier for ten minutes and making a lot of noise, someone finally noticed him and came to hear his demands. Unfortunately, the trembling girl didn’t release or told him anything besides “Wait until they call the Councilors”. Who in the Originless grounds were these Councilors?

“You better release me or else…”

“Or else what? Stop tormenting the girl… You’re the one who’s caged, not the other way around…”

The sudden appearance of Lew, who was angry for having his sleep interrupted, calmed the girl’s heart but only made Johann furious. Instead of stopping, he continued to curse and demand his release while throwing stronger attacks against the barrier. Fortunately, other Councilors also arrived at this time. Marlen ignored the man’s attitude and spoke calmly:

“Young man, please calm yourself and hear us... If you continue to threaten us, do you think we would release you?”

After hearing her logic, the anger in Johann’s mind receded a few levels. Why did he lose control so easily? Was his element influencing him? He always mocked Thundery’s lack of control, but now he was doing the same thing, maybe this was the price for a high affinity. Fortunately, wind was quick to anger but also easy to calm. The wind waves around him stopped attacking the barrier as he calmed down and looked for the woman who had said those words.

“So, explain…”

Marlen looked through the Councilors asking their approval, which they gave with agreement nods.

“Two months ago, you tried to attack us and forced us to defend ourselves… We found you almost dead and decided to save you, but we couldn’t leave a potential enemy free to hurt our people. So, we restrained you until you recovered and we decided what to do…”

Surprisingly, they didn’t saw anger in his expression, only understanding and some sorrow.

“How did you escape after killing her? Mas… the Wind Lord wouldn’t let you walk away… Did you do this to me?”

Marlen was a little confused, but Omero stepped in to help.

“He came… He even killed a few, but in the end, he gave up… He couldn’t bear the consequences of following us…”

The threats were deliberately placed in the sentence to show the Mage that there would be a cost with he chose to attack them. As for the crystal in his body, they finally got the confirmation that it was caused by the explosion. Omero wanted to establish a respectable position in the Mage’s regard to negotiate from a similar place, so he asked Karl to explain about the crystal, after all, even a Mage had to respect knowledge.

“We found you like this… You seemed to have formed a wind core, similar to wind beasts. However, the core ended up occupying more than it's seen on beasts and it’s still uncertain how much of your original body it replaced… We don’t know exactly how this happened, but it’s probably a result of the interaction of HQ energy and wind energy. The consequences are also unclear, but you should be able to manipulate wind naturally now.”

Karl's explanation was also formulated to bait him, but Johann seemed to be focused on another detail of the incident.

“He came? Did he looked for me?”

How could Omero miss the meaning behind these words? Without hesitating, he answered:

“No, he didn’t even ask about you, though, he seemed to be looking for someone else…”

“I see…”

The Mage’s sad response told Omero that his bet was successful. Earlier, when the Mage mentioned that the Wind Lord wouldn’t forgive them for killing someone, he sensed a trace of jealousy in his words. So, he had to strike while the iron was still hot.

“Now, let’s discuss your situation. Even though your previous Master probably wouldn’t accept you back, you could still reveal our position once you’re free… However, we wouldn’t mistreat you if you chose to help us…”

Johann tried to push away the pain of being rejected by his Master and focus on his trapper's words, but he couldn’t understand their purpose. Actually, the Council also didn’t know what to do with Johann, he was like a hot potato. Besides giving them information, which would arguably be of any interest to the escapees, the only other use they could make of him was as a hostage in case of an attack. The only reason why they kept him alive was that Karl asked.

So, Johann was just a liability and not even Karl knew what to do with him at this point. Because of their pressing priorities, he had been delaying the research on the man’s condition. The fact that he didn’t know from where to start also contributed to delaying the wind core’s study. Unfortunately, it appeared that he wouldn’t have time to look into it before they left, and bringing the hostage with them would be impractical.

“I don’t know what you want, but I wouldn’t help the Wind Lord… He didn’t care about me so, why should I do anything to help him… I also don’t care if you escape or anything, in the end, that explosion gave me something…”

However, Omero didn’t felt relieved. He would prefer for the Mage to attack them and be hostile, so they wouldn’t hesitate to kill him before leaving. They couldn’t allow any loose ends, not now.

“That’s good to hear, I hope you don’t blame us for maintaining you here for a few more days… If you could give us some leverage against the Wind Lord, it would help to speed your release…”

“Hmm… If His Gra… If he really gave up on pursuing you, you shouldn’t be facing any problems from his side, but the Wind Castle City Lord would have to account for the village’s disappearance and the problem with the tributes, so you might face some persecuting from his forces… The situation in the Wind region isn’t very stable, so they might just ignore you for good…”

The information couldn’t be trusted, but it ended up comforting the Councilors anyway. They left Johann and only the girl stayed to watch over him. Since he was being kept outside the camp, the risk of exposing their secrets was reduced, not that this made him any less of a problem. Sooner or later they would have to deal with him.