NOVEL NEXT Vol 2. Chapter 58: For The Future
The three men climbed in silence. Each step echoed softly against the marble walls of the Magic Tower, spiraling upward toward a place few had ever reached. Lukas walked just behind Magnus, retracing the same path they had once taken the night before his own Graduation Ceremony—though back then, everything had felt so different.
That night where he had his final lesson with Magnus Elarion had been a night filled with awe, with dreams just beginning to form.
Tonight, Lukas wasn't sure what to feel. Should he feel dread? Excitement? The only thing Lukas did feel was nervous.
Jesse followed beside him, quieter than Lukas had ever seen him, his eyes fixed on the back of the Head Mage like a man following a thread of fate too fragile to disturb.
Lukas knew exactly where they were going.
Magnus was taking them to the Highest Floor of the Magic Tower. A place that not even the Archmages had stepped foot into. A floor not recorded in any of the tower's maps or books. There would be no magical scrying here. No enchantments. No eavesdropping.
Whatever Magnus Elarion wanted to say, it would remain between them and the stars.
By the time they reached the final step, Lukas' heart was pounding in his ears. The door opened without a word. And then it shut behind them with a sound that felt like the closing of a cage.
The Head Mage of the Magic Tower did not speak, rather he walked toward the center of the room—circular, empty, lit only by the great skylight carved directly into the ceiling above. And beyond it, stars stretched endlessly, casting a dim silver glow over the obsidian floor.
The view was ethereal, untouched, the cosmos laid bare in all its distant silence. It was a sight as breathtaking as the first time Lukas stood witness to it. But Jesse wasn't looking up through the skylight. The young dragonborn was looking at Magnus, breath held, fingers twitching at his side as if ready to conjure a thousand words to plead his case—but saying none just yet.
And Magnus, with his back still turned, finally spoke.
"Is it true?" the old man asked.
Lukas didn't understand what he was asking of him. Was what true? Then he realized that Magnus must have overheard his conversation with Ellion. Magnus had heard enough to know that Varian's death was unlikely to be due to natural causes.
The old man was asking him if it was true that somebody murdered his dear friend.
"Yes," Lukas answered firmly. "I believe it is."
The old King of Easthaven remained still for a long time, the silence stretching once more between them; heavy as the sky itself.
Lukas could feel Jesse growing more anxious by the second, eyes flicking between them like a spectator waiting for the judge's verdict. Jesse probably didn't even know what Magnus was asking Lukas. He was only waiting to learn if the greatest mage alive—the man who had invented the Written Language of Magic—would stand beside them.
Then, finally, Magnus exhaled. It seemed like Lukas' answer to his initial question was the final nail in the coffin.
"Then I have never," the old man declared as he turned to face them, "been more certain of the choice that I make today."
His voice was quiet and resolute.
"I will help you with the Shard of Obedience. I will help bring your vision to life, Jesse."
Jesse's breath hitched, and then he laughed. A single, startled sound that burst out of him like he couldn't believe it had escaped. There was no mockery in it—only relief. A raw, unfiltered joy that lit up his face like sunlight through storm clouds.
The risk Jesse had taken. The gamble he had made with the Shard of Obedience. The vision he had staked his people's future on—it was no longer a desperate dream that he had to carry alone.
With Magnus Elarion at their side, it changed everything.
Jesse was already stepping forward, gratitude tumbling from his lips before he could contain it, but Magnus raised a hand and the words caught in his throat.
Lukas saw the look in the old man's eyes. He knew that look.
It was the same one Magnus had worn the night he'd come asking for an alliance between the Kingdoms of Linemall and Easthaven, just before revealing the burden behind the honor. That hard gleam behind the kindness. The weight of a man who never gave without cost.
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There was always going to be a "but."
Magnus turned fully now, the stars above casting deep shadows beneath his eyes as he addressed them both.
"I will help you," he said again. "But there are things you need to understand first."
Jesse straightened, and Lukas remained silent.
Magnus continued, his voice calm, deliberate. "The Written Language of Magic has no known limits. It is—at least in theory—able to make anything possible. And yet, what you ask of me...it stretches perhaps beyond even my understanding of its boundaries."
He looked to Jesse now. "I do not know if this will work. And I do not know if I can create a runic configuration intricate enough to accomplish what you are setting out to do with the Shard of Obedience. What you're asking for is not just difficult—it may very well be impossible."
Jesse's face paled slightly, but he nodded, lips pressed into a firm line.
"But," Magnus added, "What I can say is that I am going to try. I will give it everything I have. That much, I can promise you."
The old man let the words hang in the air, and then he turned to Lukas.
"And secondly," Magnus gestured vaguely, "my involvement in this…does not mean I am pledging Easthaven to Linemall's cause. I am not declaring war on your enemies, Lukas. I am not committing my people into a future of unimaginable bloodshed."
Lukas swallowed.
"I want to see the draconic kind free. Truly, I do. But war must always be the last option. And if you ask for my help now, I need your word that in doing this, you are not dragging Easthaven into a Second Great War. Do I have your word on that?"
Lukas held the old man's gaze, steady and unwavering.
"Yes," the Dragon Lord said. "You have my word that I will do everything in my power to prevent war. To find another way."
And Lukas meant it. He'd said the same thing to Valkari Ishtar and he said the same thing now.
War was the last thing he wanted.
If Lukas could set his people free without resorting to it, then he would. And with the Shard of Obedience, that made this ideal of a peaceful solution possible.
Magnus gave a slow nod—but Lukas wasn't finished.
"But I have to be honest with you too, old man," Lukas whispered quietly. "No matter what happens...I will see my people free. I'll say it again. I do not want to go to war. But I will not stop until every single dragon is set free of their chains and returned to Linemall."
Magnus studied him for a long moment. The stars above flickered in his silver hair, and for a second, the man looked older than Lukas had ever seen him before.
"That," the King of Easthaven finally decided, "is something I can live with."
Jesse stood there, blinking in disbelief, and then the reality of everything that had just happened hit him all at once.
Magnus Elarion was going to help them. The young dragonborn grinned so wide it almost looked ridiculous, and then he laughed—giddy, sharp, boyish. The tension that had been wound tight in Jesse's chest all this time finally broke, replaced with something electric.
Hope, now finally tangible and it felt realer than ever before.
"We're really doing this," Jesse breathed. "Great heavens, we're actually doing this—"
"Don't get ahead of yourself," Magnus interrupted, lifting a brow but not unkindly, chuckling. "If you think I have the time to walk you through every single principle of this language like a personal tutor, you are terribly mistaken. Lukas has had the opportunity of learning the basics while he acted as my Apprentice. I'm afraid not the same can be said for you, Jesse."
Jesse straightened up immediately, nodding fast—his earlier excitement grounding into something sharper, more focused. But before he could answer, Lukas stepped in for him.
"He'll keep up just fine," Lukas assured Magnus with a grin, his voice firm with certainty. "Jesse's the smartest kid I know. He'll give you a run for your money, old man. Believe that."
Jesse gave him a sideways glance, almost bashful at the praise, but then turned to Magnus, eyes gleaming with determination.
"I'll do my best," he promised Magnus. "Truly. Just the chance to learn the Runic Language…it's more than I ever could have asked for. Thank you, Magnus."
Magnus let out a low chuckle, a rare sound.
"Well then," the old man said, glancing once more toward the sky. "There's no time to waste, my dear friends."
The King of Easthaven turned back to them, and for the first time, there was something sharper in his voice. Something that spoke of the centuries of cumulated genius behind his calm demeanor.
"Our work begins now."
Jesse and Lukas exchanged a look. No words were needed.
They nodded.
Magnus, the Head Mage of the Magic Tower, moved toward the far wall where a smooth slate of stone began to glow faintly at his approach—like it had been waiting for him all along. With a motion of his hand, runes began to swirl to life across its surface, the first lines of what would become the most ambitious inscription ever attempted.
"We have years of work ahead of us," Magnus explained, not looking away from the shifting symbols. "Years of failure. Of trial. Of theory and correction. This will take every ounce of effort you can muster."
The old man paused, letting his fingers hover over the forming sequence, the Shard's outline already starting to take shape in glowing sigils.
"But if we succeed…"
Magnus Elarion did not finish that sentence. He didn't need to.
Because all three of them already knew what was at stake:
The fate of their people. The chance for their freedom. The end of their suffering at the hands of humanity and the god they all worshipped.
All of it was up to them.
So in the Highest Floor of the Magic Tower, beneath the endless stars, they began; began to set into motion the next few years that would change the fate of Hiraeth forever.