“Man, where does your father stand on all of this?” asked a woman sitting at the back of the tavern.

“My father cares little about the archons’ theories of what happened and what might happen,” Man replied, his back now against the platform I was standing upon. “But he did say Leka An can only profit from finding the boy and Myriam.”

“How so?” asked Krysha.

“Elysia is a filter for all the bad things coming from the north,” he said. “I haven’t encountered them, but many of you were alive when the last raiders descended upon Nara. Those savages may wear the masks of civilized spellcasters but they do not abide by the laws of the Holy Order, and many of them get their magic from their own gods. As long as Elysia stands, it acts as a protective barrier from them. And, of course, Elysia is perhaps our biggest provider of magical items and all-around great for trade. My father wants to keep things going as they are.”

I remembered clearly the last time those barbarians descended on Nara. That was the reason why my parents were sent there with us in the first place. That was when my mother created the forest of memories for their dead, and when I met Myriam for the first time between the tree-graves of her parents.

“But how would us finding Kai help with what you’ve just said?” I asked.

“The Holy Order will hunt Myriam and Kai down,” Man replied. “They will probably comb all of their lands, because they have no idea that Myriam and Kai have probably crossed the Endless Sea. And when they do not find them, they will start looking at their neighbors. It is only natural that no nation wants armies of spellcasters scanning their lands and Leka An is no different. Yet we can only delay the inevitable for so long, especially as time goes by and the mana users’ ranks start to thin. If we find Kai first, we can ensure that things will return to normal, if what the archons said is true, and we will have great leverage for achieving it.”

“What did the archons say?” a man who was standing very close to the platforms asked.

“The archons can extract The Divine Essence from Kai and restore The Divine,” Seika answered. “They spent months researching and creating a complex spell, more like a ritual really, which can do just that. It is a ceremony requiring powerful spellcasters using expensive materials and complicated somatic and phonetic components in order to succeed.”

A silence spread through the halls of the tower as the realization kicked in. The Holy Order had a spell to restore The Divine. This meant there might still be hope for everyone who had not received their mana at the liturgy and this fact seemed to hit Kard the hardest of all.

I had of course been extremely displeased that I would never be able to become a warmage because of what happened with Kai but I’d found merit in combat with swords and tactics. Kard however could never abandon his dream of communicating with dragons and had previously been devastated that he would never have enough mana to be considered worthy of their presence.

“So is the king comfortable letting us handle the search?” I asked, with a hint of humor.

“Oh, definitely not,” Man answered honestly. “My father is meticulous about issues like this. He already has his people out scouring the land to find the two of them and most probably has done for a long time. His men operate with the cover of being merchants, so no friend of Elysia would become suspicious. However, I do not doubt he will let us investigate as well if I speak to him. We will, of course, need to operate covertly and he may request that I am accompanied by some of his men. I would not worry too much about that though, as this would not be the first time I managed to slide away from this proposition.”

“Even if we do go on this journey with your father’s blessing,” Krysha started, analyzing the situation, “chances are that the information inflow will stop at your father and not reach you. So even if your father’s men brought news of seeing Myriam and Kai, you would not hear about it.”

“My father’s people are my people,” Man replied, his usual confident smile having returned on his face. “Some of them grew up with me and others were traveling companions of mine. My father’s generation will no doubt keep me out of the loop on this issue, but my generation will feed me the information we need. Indeed, they have already done so.”

“What do you mean?” a woman shouted from the crowd.

“Do you already have an idea where they are?” shouted someone else.

More shouts were directed at Man as he retrieved a small scroll from one of the pockets of his oversized pantaloons. I was sure that Man was enjoying people calling him out and building the anticipation because he was taking his time unfolding the scroll.

“A woman with short red hair and blue eyes,” Man started reading, “and a boy of brown eyes and hair were sometimes seen in villages around the jungle city of Yubna. None of the locals have seen them for some time and nobody was able to tell us where their residence is, but they were sure that the woman, who went by the name of Brie, was a spellcaster since she sometimes sold magical items. They said they had never seen the boy perform anything resembling a spell.”

“That sounds like them,” I said, suddenly aware of how close we might have been all this time. “At least the color of Myriam’s hair matches, if not the length.”

“Wouldn’t she have dyed her hair with magic so as to appear inconspicuous?” asked a man sitting at the outer edge of the people gathered.

“No,” Seika replied. “She would never change the color of her hair. I remember her growing up, saying that her father was always complimenting her hair and how fierce the red looked. This must be them.”

“It is settled then,” Kard said enthusiastically, and gave his dagger a little flip in the air before continuing. “We leave for Yubna tomorrow.”