Eldritch Exorcist

I went back to Ophelia, who was now sitting with her eyes closed. I took a look at her aura. It was calming down, like a sea after a storm, with the waves slowly flattening out.

"Ophelia," I said softly, as being suddenly ripped from meditation was not a pleasant sensation.

She slowly regained her focus, opening her eyes. She looked much better, some color returning to her face.

"We will be going after the last guy. You can either stay with us, or we can get you an escort back home. Your decision."

"I'll... Will there be another fight?"

"There are no guarantees. But you'll stay in the car, so hopefully no more fighting for you."

She shortly considered the offer, finally nodding. "Then I'll go with you."

"Good decision. Let's go, this car is way too obvious, not to mention beaten up. We'll take the van," I said, pointing my head at the white van standing next to us.

She nodded and got out of the car, going toward the back doors of the new vehicle.

She then froze in place, seeing the tiger, who politely nodded at her. The freeze was momentary as she muttered something about this not getting any weirder and then entered the van, keeping an eye on the massive feline.

There was the tiger, and five more cats. Three were typical grey house cats, one orange cat with some scars here and there, and Q'Shar himself.

From the passenger seat, the old cat lady got out. She greeted us and got into the beaten-up sports car. Before I followed Ophelia, I heard the sound of tires screeching against the asphalt as the car spun 90 degrees in place and peeled out onto the road.

I shook my head at the scene and joined everyone in the van. The doors closed, and we started moving, with a man I didn't recognize in the driver's seat. I could sense freshly ascended second-circle power from the tiger and the orange cat. Q'Shar was in the second tier as well, but he was not a fighter. He mainly focused on the mind attribute as a negotiator and a businessman, and some fire magic, as it was the cat's heritage. The rest weren't mages.

"Where are we heading?" asked the man from behind the wheel.

"Go toward the eastern part of the city. Once there, go slowly. It isn't a tracking spell, so I can only get the general direction, and we don't want to run into the guy headfirst."

"Got it," said the driver, and we were on our way.

There was a bit of awkward silence as we were moving. No one knew how to start the conversation, especially with Ophelia struggling to keep her eyes off the massive tiger right next to her. I took a second circle crystal from my belt and started to draw in the mana, giving a smaller first circle one to Ophelia. She absorbed the magic instinctively. It was not the most efficient way of refilling one's reserves, but it would hopefully give her something to do.

"So." It was the orange cat that finally started the conversation. "Do we know who we are up against?"

"Hard to tell," answered Q'Shar. "The plan didn't seem like the work of any top clan or organization, but four second-circle fighters, that's surprising. Especially with three in one team."

The orange cat raised his eyebrows at that. "Three? You sure it's not a big clan?"

"Shouldn't be."

Ophelia lifted her head from gazing at the crystal. "Can someone please explain to me what you're talking about?"

I shot a questioning look at Q'Shar.

"Everyone here worked on the mana vein research. They're good," the cat reassured me.

I nodded and relaxed back into the seat, letting him do the talking.

My broker looked back at Ophelia. "So Sam told you that there are veins that provide mana to our world. You see, some are bigger and some are smaller. The bigger the vein, the faster the mana flows into our world. Some are much larger than others. It's like the difference between your blood vessels and arteries. Those 'arteries' we call pathways. There are many advantages to controlling something like that. Like filling higher-density mana crystals, like the one you are holding right now, a lot quicker. Or summoning massive creatures at a much lower energy cost."

Ophelia nodded, following so far.

"There are really only two of those pathways in the USA that are usable for a single clan, and one was recently taken over by Samuel here. And not everyone's happy about that."

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"Okay, I understood most of that. But what about the people who tried to kill us just now? Were those people considered weak in your world? I mean our world."

I smiled slightly at the adjustment to the vocabulary.

"They weren't weak individually. But they probably didn't come from a strong family."

Ophelia tilted her head, with her eyebrows furrowed. "How do you know that?"

"There are ways to tell. First, look at their plan. I know it might have looked scary to you, but in all honesty, it wasn't that well thought through. First, they wanted to separate us, and that was already a mistake. They must have heard that Sam is violent and looking for a good fight." The cat paused, looking to the side. "So they probably met him briefly or learned about him somewhere. This might have been at a Vatican sabbath, so probably lower-end families with enough clearance to have voting rights," he muttered to himself.

"Sabbath? Vatican?" asked Ophelia, even more confused.

"Never mind. Ask Sam about those later. As for the plan, they thought a second circle fighter with three first circles would be enough of a threat for Sam to tell us to leave while he fights them. But if not for the fact that we wanted to draw out the main force, he would probably just tell us to wait to the side while he deals with them. No separation, and their plan goes to shit, all that's left is a direct fight."

Everyone in the car nodded slightly, agreeing with the analysis so far.

"Another problem is that the crux of the operation was emotional manipulation, but from all possible targets for that, they chose the worst one possible." The cat chuckled after saying that. "So they don't know him that well and don't have that much access to personal information."

"So you wouldn't listen to other demands even if they caught us?" asked Ophelia, looking at me.

I shrugged. "Probably lie to them about giving away the pathway, disappear, and then have them disappear. That is, if I allowed them to somehow take you hostage in the first place."

Ophelia's eyebrows shot up at the solution I proposed, as the cat groaned.

"My point exactly. You don't want a pissed-off mage proficient in curses hunting you down. And doubly so if his family name is Alhazred, so the point of the plan was just dumb." The cat now furrowed his eyebrows. "But four second-circle fighters, that's unusual."

"Why?" Ophelia asked, trying to make sense of it all.

"Second circle mages are costly to train. Before now, there was no way to refill a mana crystal, so resources were scarce. The way it works, assuming you are good at controlling magic, is that one mana crystal holding energy of a given density will be enough to fill up someone's empty reserve of the same tier, once." I explained.

I then took out two small stones from my belt and showed them in front of me. They were similar but not identical. "Of course, it varies, as different people hold different amounts of mana. Additionally, as you can see, crystals of the same grade can vary in size. But where it truly matters is using denser crystals for refilling lower-level magic."

I shifted in my seat, pulling out a second-tier crystal. "One crystal of a higher tier will be enough for three refills of a one tier lower. Then nine refills for two tiers lower, and so on. So, assuming your family had sixth-circle mages in the past, and they left you sixth-circle mana crystals. Each of those will be enough for a first circle mage to cast a full range of spells, 243 times, but only 81 times in the second circle, and so on. Moreover, as you will soon see for yourself, the first circle is easier to train. Its orbit sits directly on your spark, making it much easier to build and allowing for a larger size. So, one set of first-grade spells is around 12 to 18 casts, before you need to use a crystal. But for higher circles, one set of spells is usually around 4, up to 6 when the orbit is fully finished, some starting with as low as only one."

Ophelia nodded, listening intently.

"Add to that the difficulty in learning spells, the mana needed to build a new orbit, and second circle mages can cost as much as training multiple first tiers. So normally only the main members of families get to use that many resources, most having only two or three mages at the second tier. But now we were up against three that were not recent ascensions."

The cat nodded at my explanation, before continuing himself. "So, the first team is easy to explain, a small family lured in by resources. But the three in the red car were unusual. That is the force of a big clan. And if they were mercenaries, the cost of hiring them and getting them involved in a fight between families, with Alhazreds no less, would be massive. Not something a small clan should be able to afford."

Ophelia pointed at me and asked. "Why would fighting Alhazreds be such a big deal? He is in the second circle like the fighters, right?"

"Circle isn't everything. It is more or less common knowledge that Sam was trained like a mage of old. Normally, even at the second circle, people know one or two spells or techniques max as trump cards. I don't want to know how many he knows."

"A bit over 20," I said proudly.

The cat choked a bit before continuing. "Add to that his extremely high mana control, which translates into casting speed and accuracy, knowledge of multiple attributes, and the family reputation that follows him. Hearing Sam's involvement is usually a massive deterrent. If you have access to that information, that is."

Ophelia nodded, taking that in, as I smiled proudly, looking at the cat. It just rolled its eyes. I was about to point out how sweet he was to say that, but I felt something change. "The curse has stopped moving."

The cat looked at me, back to being serious. "We should get in the area but wait until he's on the move again."

"You sure? What if he is with the people responsible right now?"

The cat shook his head. "No. If our analysis is correct and they are mercenaries, then I would assume they have some sort of safe house. Right now, he should go back there to take care of his wounds, and then go to the client to argue that the job was done and to give him the rewards, or to simply try to take the reward by force. If whatever was promised warranted involving that many strong people, I doubt he'd let it go. So his second stop is what we should be interested in."

"What if he is a member of the family trying to take over the pathway?"

"Then he will not leave any time soon, and we will have time to react anyway." The cat sounded sure of himself, so I just shrugged. The plan sounded good, although I would prefer just to retrieve the information directly if I were being honest.

I went into meditation as I heard Q'Shar explain mana veins and the basics of magic society to the curious Ophelia.

Now began the boring waiting game.