I didn’t hesitate to latch onto the only other thing that would keep me valuable in his eyes, the only collateral I had to trade for my life.

“Your youth,” I said.

He stayed his hand. I continued. “I can make you young again, return you to the prime of your ability. It will be like the Naval Incursion again, and you would once again be a hero.”

It was obvious that he was using some sort of… ability to detect whether I was lying or not. He looked too sure of himself every time I said something. It was magic-adjacent for sure, but different. At any rate, I could count on him to believe me when I said I could do something.

And eternal youth… it was difficult. Truly difficult. A lot of research on aging tackled the issue on several independent fronts, and though magic would greatly reduce the need for bespoke tools and biotechnology, I still had to lock down absolutely everything before making an attempt.

Either that, or I could cast multiple spells piecemeal, to revert his age-related bodily damage from his telomeres to his bone integrity and everything in between. The same magic that gave him high Power would enforce his body, but the damage was still there, and greatly reduced its efficiency.

“You’re lying,” he said, his deep voice almost making my teeth tremble.

“I am not,” I said quickly. “I’m really not. I can-”

He inhaled sharply, and I stopped speaking. “You… are mad. I cannot trust your words, for no matter how much you believe in them, they could be lies. Such is the effect of madness.”

My mouth dried out. “I’m… I’m not mad.” But how could I prove it?

...Did I have to? No. Not necessarily. I only had to convince him that rolling the dice was worth it. He talked a lot, and I likely knew him on a level he couldn’t comprehend. He was ambitious to the point of ruin.

I only had to leverage that.

“You have your legs,” I told him. “Then what?” He wasn’t giving me much in the way of reactions but I pushed on regardless. “You said it yourself; all of Dhul Arsha’s successes can be traced back to a single thing; their exploits during the age of magic. You want their decadence, then you should be prepared to make the gamble of your life.”

“Madness practitioners are few, and there are fewer still that can create something out of nothing,” he said. “You could only be of value to me in such a case.”

“Forget lord. You can be king. You can be emperor. You can have what the Sky nobility have, and dare to look further than even that. They would sing your praises and you would ascend as well, deified for all eternity.”

The less he resisted, visible to my keen eyes, the thicker I laid it on. Reizenbrahm was a man that was fundamentally unconstrained by ideas of what he could and could not do, a narcissist made more sure of himself by his own fame and fortune.

And now he was in his twilight years, bitter that he had not reached nearly as far as he had expected of himself. He was a hero and a noble, but not rare, not unique.

I watched him wrestle between dismissing me or asking for specifics, knowing that if he did the latter, it would only embolden me, and subtly push him further on this mad gamble. He was afraid of giving an inch, fearful that he lacked the self-control to not take the whole yard.

When he did speak, it was not what I had expected. “What did you intend to do in Brunten?”

“Make a living,” I responded honestly. “Provide for my son.”

“And madness?” He asked. “You would leave it all behind for your son?”

I would not. I intended to make magic safe, not throw it away entirely. “Your understanding of what I do lacks nuance,” I told him plainly.

“But you are aware that I cannot trust someone touched by madness.”

“Madness does not hide,” I told him. “It is apparent. Apparent in action as well as speech. My mind is coherent, my thoughts rational, and an erudite gentleman like you would have picked up on something.”

“You play monstrously,” he said. “That was very much apparent to me.”

I hadn’t meant to. Contrary to my expectations, Reizenbrahm became very opaque while playing, and in a way, I had to force myself to lose every time while doing my best to enjoy the game out of sheer boredom, hoping my attempts were subtle enough to not alarm him. In that manner, I had failed miserably.

I closed my eyes and sighed. “Both my mental attributes sum up to seventy.” I said. His eyes widened drastically, but I continued. “I play monstrously because in a way, I am a monster. Monstrously intelligent and wise. Intelligent and wise enough to not succumb to madness, to run circles around you in board games, and yes, restore your youth.”

“But also to convince me of anything you put your mind to,” he said.

“My ability to convince you of anything is a function of what you would have already done,” I told him. “A god could not convince a mortal to kill a loved one, only threaten them. I cannot convince you to do anything that has not already been seeded into your mind, pushed forth by your very own volition. You are the master of your actions; I can only show you the path you can achieve with my help.”

He lacked the self-awareness to understand that he was still being manipulated, but in a way, I had not uttered a single lie. He wanted this. I was just dangling it in front of his face.

He still had the wherewithal to change the subject once more. “You are an aberration, a misfit that cannot integrate in any society, by virtue of your refusal to let go of your madness. You will never be safe nor settled, constantly under threat, and your son as well.” I resisted clutching him closer to my chest. “But you have done me a great favor already, and I owe you so much as it is. You should trust me to have his best interest at heart. I will not persecute him.”

Like I would trust someone I had only known for a day to know what was best for my own flesh and blood, my very own lifeline to this wretched world. Rage swelled up inside of me at his audacity, that he really thought I would fold like that. Farhaan was mine, mine!

The rage lasted only a fraction of a second, and my response was calm. “Think carefully about what you want for the rest of your life. You are on a path to mediocrity, you know this, and are you so feeble with age that you would spit on an opportunity of a lifetime?”

I needed to push him into a mindset of fatalism. “It’s glory… or nothing.”

He clenched his jaws and looked down at the untouched sjach board, eyes darting over every piece.

This would be it. It had to be.

And if I didn’t like the answer, I would make my own way. Though I didn’t have the opportunity to do anything to Reizenbrahm’s body but heal him, I had learned more than I could have imagined. The magical force that held his body together tautly, quantified as Power? I could replicate a similar effect to multiply my own Power, a spell that had just earned me five Intelligence and Wisdom where the pain nullification and bone manipulation spell only earned me three Intelligence and Wisdom each.

I used my magic as a substitute for Power, physically holding the particles of my body together and allowing it to exert explosive force, a temporary boost to my baseline that my Power would then multiply. It held to the theme of my cluster only by the skin of its teeth, which was why it earned me so many attribute points, but it certainly did the job.

I could pour all my concentration and gamble my sanity on a tenfold increase, or stay at a safe and reliable threefold, but with the former, I would have a guaranteed chance to defeat Reizenbrahm. His Power was functionally in his mid-twenties on account of the ravages of age, and if I forced a spear of bone out of my hand while thrusting forwards, I could nail him instantly.

Operative word: ‘could’. I still knew nothing about his brand of magic and how it affected his combat ability.

Talking it out was my safest bet, a guarantee that my son and I could walk out of this unscathed.

But I had options.

Hastily, I added my pent-up points into Wisdom, feeling an immediate lurch in mental acuity. I would increase the likelihood of succeeding a tenfold Power boost by a fair amount, but no better solutions came from my increased Wisdom. Perhaps Charm would have been the better investment in my effort to convince the lord, but I doubted that it would do anything but put him on guard even more.

There was a benefit to irritating him, challenging him with demands and the occasional direct insults. It gave him the illusion that I wasn’t good at convincing him so he wouldn’t block me out completely. If he lost trust in his ability to resist my words, he would never lower his guard for any reason.

“And you would not take the first opportunity to flee?” He asked. “When you know that your life is in danger?”

“If I can raise my son under your aegis,” I began, “And if I can borrow some of your resources as well, my goals would be met, and I would be available to help you push you forth in your path. Eternal youth is only one of the things I could provide for you, given enough time.”

If I wanted to legitimize and make magic safe for usage, I needed the resources of a king. What better way to have one beholden to you than to make one yourself?

He sighed. “Mr. Sheruna!” He hollered. “Change our course! To Altaluvia, post-haste!”

+1 Charm

000

We did not head towards Brunten. The driver made the right turn to the capital before we had even arrived at the crossroads, confirming Reizenbrahm’s decision as real, but I did not carry out another conversation with him for the rest of the ride, letting him come to terms with his decision and marinate in it. I wasn’t out of the woods quite yet. Not until I had a way to directly counter him in combat if he decided to turn on me.

But until then, I would remain honest and fulfill my portion of the bargain. I would scratch his back and vice versa, while I worked to protect myself from betrayal.

I Satiated my son, and Reizenbrahm raised an eyebrow. “Satiation,” I simply said. “I have conjured food into him.”

He looked dubious, but did not question me at all. He could have pointed out the incongruity with what I was doing and what I had told him about not drinking wine, but he likely supposed I had my reasons still.

Deciding not to sit idly, I set the groundwork for the biology manipulation spell. Bone manipulation was difficult at first, but when I figured it out, I was… underwhelmed by its effectiveness on opponents. At best, I could use it on myself, but that was purely for support rather than offense if I didn't have an easily detachable bone at the ready at least.

The principle was easily applied to muscle, blood vessels, some organic tissue, and finally, nerves. The latter was the most complex, so it did in fact manage to earn me a single point in both Intelligence and Wisdom. The others, nothing.

I invented a hair-growth spell, a spell to moisten skin, and a spell to reassert equilibrium that would help if I was physically exerted. Nothing.

I peered into the starscape of madness and filled my mind with more forbidden knowledge. This time, I stayed there for longer than I ever did before, possibly fifteen minutes. I was finally beginning to master the surface, and though the waters were still very deep and tumultuous with currents I wasn’t currently capable of handling, I had gotten enough already.

The ensuing spellmaking attempt at biological manipulation had me focusing on the manipulation of all organic particles within my body. I made no distinction between bone or muscle, blood or nerves. With my current knowledge, I wasn’t fearful of failure at all.

I merely worried that my rewards will add up to ‘not enough’.

Spell creation complete! You have invented an entirely new spell! You are awarded +1 Wisdom and +1 Intelligence. You may name this spell. Remember to share your findings in a World Obelisk for additional rewards.

Level up!

The last bit certainly confirmed that I was now getting two attribute points per level, not just for any special achievement made during each level.

I could boost Power, my Endurance was infinite with Rested Body and Mind, leaving behind Coordination as the only other attribute I had yet to augment. I knew that it involved the acuity of information gathered by nerves and an enhancement to motor neurons. Neuroscience was… not the wisest field to tinker with eldritch witchcraft, especially not on myself, but it was a challenge.

And only challenges rewarded me.

With crystal clear acuity, I thought back to when Reizenbrahm moved his body with such speed and control that I could only stare at him in wide-eyed fear, locked in my own body while he acted freely. It was likely a combination of high Power and Coordination. I recalled the memory of his innards, how electric signals surged with such force while his brain seemed to process everything like he had a second mind to offload the effort to.

...The second mind angle was an interesting one, but not immediately important. My problem was that I had a fast enough mind to handle any high-speed maneuver, but my body lagged behind. Even with Boost Power, I still couldn’t compare with someone that had higher Coordination. I would be too wide, too imprecise.

I had to overload the sensitivity of my nerves and the activity in my cerebellum. Again, electricity was only barely within the scope of what the system would consider the theme of my cluster, but with mental precision, I managed to lock down the relevant lump of flesh that could help me react faster with a few cursory jolts, and only when I was completely certain of success did I activate the spell.

Reizenbrahm hadn’t noticed any difference, looking at the untouched board of sjach, wondering if he had played into my trap no doubt. Manly pride would reassert itself, and remind him that he never made any mistakes. It was his destiny after all to rise up.

I, meanwhile, felt like a dozen puppeteers worked in concert to move my body as efficiently as possible, with no wasted movements, tremors or waste of strength. I was intimately aware of my body now, my joints shining like beacons, from my knees and elbows to every finger on my hands and toes on my feet.

Spell creation complete! You have invented an entirely new spell! You are awarded +1 Wisdom and +1 Intelligence. You may name this spell. Remember to share your findings in a World Obelisk for additional rewards.

+1 Spell Point

Level up!

Already, the attribute boost spells were beginning to diminish in rewards, but I felt like I was approaching true strength now. Reizenbrahm was likely a force to be reckoned with in Filomena and Aellia, but I practically matched his Power in my lowest mental attribute while he was in his prime.

I looked at his meaty hands, the same hand that had clamped my throat shut, the same hand that was only a twitch of his forearm muscles away from destroying me in an instant. Indignation flared, but I quelled it.

Exerting my Boost Power tenfold was somewhat safe now, and when I added my pent-up two points into Wisdom once again, it went up to reasonably safe.

I wracked my brain for more ways to make my numbers go up like a dog tearing a backyard up, and in seconds, I invented as many borderline useless spells as I conceivably could, from manually growing and manipulating my fingernails to increasing or decreasing the mass of my bones at will. The physics-defying spells tended to reward me higher, but even that had only given me a single point in Intelligence.

In a single fit of panic and paranoia, I had completely unearthed the basic applications of biomagic, and my searches for more uninvented spells fell flat as I realized that now, my only task was to dig deeper. Eternal youth was still out of my grasp, the Intelligence required being astronomical in scale, more than I could conceivably rack up ever.

I finally hit the point where I needed to offload mental tasks to bespoke tools like a mathematician that found a problem that exceeded the bounds of their mortal mind, like Alan Turing and the Enigma. Like them, I now needed a computer.

But I was safe now. In a fight at least. Reizenbrahm had left me alive long enough for me to grow my fangs. There was no turning back for him now.

When I finally came to, my mind mended itself naturally as my Wisdom reasserted logic and cold rationality on the damages, healing the fractures of my lengthy immersion into otherness.

We were also arriving at the capital of Aellia on our way to the lord’s household.