City of inheritance

6 return

Return

And the morning started with a surprise.

Khiyat is gone.

“Will someone explain to me where this idiot has gone?” growled Liiran, glaring at the stone at his feet with hatred.

“Yeah, you still shout and stomp your feet,” an inner voice happily prompted. "Impress your subordinates."

“He said that he needed to go to one place, not far from here,” Tiyan answered sleepily. “He said he would be back soon.

“That bastard,” Liiran said with feeling. Who knew that Hiyat would want to walk alone in these not very safe mountains? - How long has he been gone?

“It was still dark,” Tiyan said indifferently and yawned widely.

“At least two hours ago,” Liiran groaned. We spent the night in a safe place, they say. In a dry cave, to her. Where did this idiot go?

A cheerful prospect - to lose a subordinate in the mountains. Just sleep through his departure. And who is to blame? Definitely not Tiyan. Liiran didn't say that no one was allowed to leave the cave until morning. So it's his own fault.

And Hiyata wanted to strangle. Here's the bastard! Everything is one to one. As if this water worker had specially dragged himself into the mountains in order to disappear in an unknown direction. Seized the opportunity, the infection. From the very beginning he went with his own, unknown to anyone, purpose. Or maybe someone arranged for him dead water, and the weather, which delayed the group for two days, and this accursed accumulator of yellow clay, so brazenly eating power from the sources of the Chanterelle River that even the inhabitants of the village of U Yama noticed it.

The accumulator of yellow clay… the very one that Hiyat needed so urgently and actually laid the foundation for this campaign. Great powers and their elements...

— Marika, where is this drive?! - Why scream? Surely not right. And even if he is right, there are no traces there. Because the person who made this drive knew exactly who would find it and when. On the other hand, if there are no traces, this is already proof. At least for a certain Liiran Vue. And it does not matter that for everyone else this evidence will be desired, presented as valid.

- Hold on.

Marika filed the drive without further words and questions. Beautiful thing. Someone obviously has artistic taste. It looks like a sunflower. But there are no traces. At all. It was as if this thing had fallen from the sky, and no hands had touched it until now.

“Damn,” Liiran said heartily. - Where is this bastard?

Yeah, where does he wear it? Why wear? What is he doing there? And why now?

Would kill.

It is very unpleasant to feel deceived by a person whom I still considered much more stupid than myself. It seems that this statement will have to be revised somewhat, for the sake of our own peace of mind. After all, the composition of the group will not change the kindest and noblest. She probably really gave what she could. I picked up people according to some signs that allowed team members to cover each other's shortcomings and enhance each other's strengths.

It seems to be exactly the way she should have acted. In this case, even the opinion of the council will not be of interest to her. Unless there are specialists in the selection of people for groups of novice magicians who have graduated from school and are now continuing their training in practice.

Liiran really hoped that the people in his group were indeed chosen carefully and thoughtfully. And not just to be. Even considering that for the same reason, it will not be possible to get rid of Khiyat. At least within the next year or a couple of years, depending on how lucky the graduates of the school are. Even if you are not lucky at all, and Hiyata will have to endure for a very long time, it would be better if it was that way. Because otherwise these groups are generally meaningless.

Liiran sighed.

How nice it would be if he was lucky to be born without a gift. Then he would have studied at a different school, and the choice of professions for him would have been much wider from the very beginning. But the gifted must. Must protect and prevent. They must study further, develop their gift, invent something new. Or at least spend a dozen years of your life on the fulfillment of various assignments of the council, or rather advice. You can not ignore the gift, which one day can help protect relatives, friends, and the city as a whole.

On the one hand, making groups that perform tasks that become more difficult as you gain experience is a very, very reasonable thing. In this way, the stupid, young, and not very skillful gifted are looked after, bring some benefit, and receive skillful teachers. On the other hand, the choice of a further path for people who fell into these groups is again not very large. It is foolish not to use something that so much effort and time has been spent perfecting. So it turns out that the boys who once dreamed of building houses become teachers in schools, join councils, serve as pathfinders, experts, turn into inventors, weavers, or remain part of the city's guards. And they don't protest. There is no need, and teenage maximalism is a thing of the distant past.

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Everything is reasonable. And it's nonsense that a certain Liiran Vue doesn't like it.

The city matters the most.

Khiyat returned only a few hours later. When Liiran was ready to spit on everything and lead the group back without this loss. It was then that Khiyat appeared, as if he had calculated the time on purpose. Smiling like that. Noticeably tired. With a bunch of strange-looking twigs.

“Here,” he said, catching the displeasure on the faces of the group. - Belozea dentate. A terrible rarity. But it doesn't grow here. A friend of mine asked me to pick it up.

And gave a smile from ear to ear. Clearly pleased with himself and the world. And the fact that they were already going to look for him, contrary to the order to immediately return and report, Hiyat does not care. Or does he simply not understand that the team of Liiran Vue will not be patted on the head for a willful delay?

- Belozea dentate? Marika asked confused. “The main component of the invigorating potion?”

“Probably,” the waterman shrugged indifferently, placing his bouquet on a flat stone near the stream. I didn't ask what it was for. They gave me a picture so that I wouldn’t confuse it with anything, and they told me to pick it up if I want to continue to receive help when needed.

Liiran took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. Exhaled.

Belozea is serrated, just think.

Quietly cursing under his breath, the group commander came closer to the returned loss. He carefully examined the sloppy bouquet, sniffed, and through the indescribable stench of a useful plant, he smelled the smell of burning.

Hiyat, did you collect this bouquet on the fire? Yeah, this muck only grows there. She also has blood-like juice. Reddish brown. There are droplets on the collar. At the bottom of the sleeve is generally a hefty spot. And on the pants, especially on the knee. It was as if Khiyat got right into a pool of blood with this knee, and then tried to clean it with improvised means. A bunch of grass, for example.

What is going on here?

And it's not recognized. Liiran understood this immediately. Even if Hiyata is tortured, he won't confess. Even if you put a drive under his nose. It's all just speculation with nothing to back it up. I would like to know in which direction to look.

Damned curiosity.

We need to get down from the mountain, until again no one is missing. Or something didn't happen. Or it didn't rain again.

And there is no need to think. And there is no need to look at Hiyata suspiciously. Despite the fact that he behaves very strangely.

Although Khiyat always behaves strangely, more precisely, most often.

I wonder why this moron climbed into the water? She's also cold. Suspicious somehow. Kneeling in a stream, as if praying to someone.

Or the blood is washed off the pant leg slowly, almost without attracting attention to itself.

Maybe he killed someone?

How did you find him? How in these mountains, such a half-educated as their entire group, can find someone? This is where professionals sometimes get lost. Or did the water tell Hiyat again? Or did it all happen completely by accident? This moron was tearing up his stinking weeds, and suddenly someone would jump out. And Khiyat, out of fright, will hit him with some kind of water mischief ...

I had to shake my head in order to slow down the wild fantasy rushing forward a little. And then after all, you can think of such a thing that it will be scary to sleep at night.

Liiran took a deep breath, nodded to his thoughts, and decided to put his foolish guesses aside for the time being. It's time to return.

He did not have time to voice this decision.

As if mocking the remnants of Liiran's common sense, a temporary portal opened a few steps away from the team, and the best rangers of the city emerged from there in full force. Paranoia lifted her nose proudly and smiled triumphantly. Doubt it, right? Didn't trust the premonition? Here you get it now. Something very strange really happened here, since even Koyan was pulled out of the tavern in which he poured grief after another quarrel with his wife.

Hangover-stricken Koyan did not stand on ceremony with Liiran's group. I quickly questioned my junior colleagues and sent them home with few words. Judging by the tone, most of all wanting to just send. Somewhere inappropriate for visiting.

"Repetition of the past."

Liiran chuckled, whispered this phrase several times, and stared darkly at the teacher.

Such a repetition to the cat! Some simply wanted something to do with the dangling groups of individuals who had not passed the adulthood exam. And this "someone" did not come up with anything better than to send them supposedly to prepare for that very exam. You also need to know history. Some maze puzzles are tied to history. As a result, overgrown boobies and dunce sit in schools, children are distracted. And the heads of the groups also sit so that the subordinates do not run away.

Liiran scowled at his subordinates. Perhaps it only seemed to him, but only Marika honestly listened, the rest slept with their eyes open. I had to look again at the history teacher. So it was calmer.

“So…” this respected man mumbled rather boringly. “The Emperor signed the petition and allowed the adherents of the god Mayar to eradicate the heresy. He was sure that this would help unite the empire into an indestructible whole. But instead got a civil war. Now no one will say for sure why Mayar’s servants decided to start eradicating from magicians and how they begged for troops for these purposes ... However, we talked about this last time, ”he looked thoughtfully at the ceiling. — And this will be your homework... And now about the founding of cities...

Most of all, it looked like the teacher was not only trying to convey something to the students, but he himself was trying to remember the details and not to miss the thread of the story. It didn't work out very well for him. Even Liiran, who has always loved history, has long been confused by what this man was telling.

And the topic, after all, is interesting, and most of the students are quietly dozing.

In fact, then, a long time ago, everything happened quite quickly. In the capital of the Empire of the Dawn, for some reason, the eradicators of heresy decided to smash the schools in the first place. It is brutal to smash, sparing neither the teachers, ordinary theorists, who are not very capable in practice, nor the children who studied there. There are documents confirming that the emperor did not like this very much, and he tried to withdraw his permission. And then, either he did not have time, because he mysteriously died, or changed his mind, because five of the six rulers of the lands and seas refused to support him. Probably, magicians also interfered with them. Liiran even remembered some political and economic calculations. Not very convincing.

In general, what happened happened. The son of the deceased emperor was generally afraid to argue with his violent subjects, while they happily divided the spheres of influence and lands taken from the magicians. The attempt of the servants of Mayar to accept the lost magical souls into the bosom of their faith failed miserably due to the efforts of the ruler of the West, who decided to destroy all magicians in general, sincerely believing that they are the very embodiment of evil. The amulets of the imperial troops worked properly, preventing the mages from defending themselves, and at some point, flight became the best way out. True, they did not run anywhere, the persecuted magicians had such an advantage as instant communication and the ability to build fortresses from scratch in a few hours. And if you choose the right places for the fortresses, tie them into a single whole, turning them into a kind of amulet, then the imperial army will peck at the locked gates for fifty years, until you get the results. At that time, the young emperor no longer had magicians capable of cracking this defense. This is how the first city appeared on the nameless island of the Dawn Sea. At first, they ate almost one fish there. Then the imperial fleet got tired of circling around the island, and it became possible to import smuggled products from the mainland. And there they managed to turn bare rocks into flowering gardens and multi-level fields. They called this city first Nadezhda, and then somehow imperceptibly renamed Vodopadny. and it became possible to import smuggled products from the mainland. And there they managed to turn bare rocks into flowering gardens and multi-level fields. They called this city first Nadezhda, and then somehow imperceptibly renamed Vodopadny. and it became possible to import smuggled products from the mainland. And there they managed to turn bare rocks into flowering gardens and multi-level fields. They called this city first Nadezhda, and then somehow imperceptibly renamed Vodopadny.

The second city-amulet of magicians was the Big Stone, which grew on the central island of the Small Triangle. And many residents of the city were very proud of it. Building a new city, leaving the overpopulated Vodopadny, starting all over again, must have been no less uncomfortable than taking people out at night to the bare rocks at the foot of the fortresses under construction.

Then seven more cities gradually appeared.

Liiran sighed. The fact that at the moment these cities, if not at enmity, then keep armed neutrality, even small schoolchildren know. On the one hand, it's even good. The readiness to strike in response to any attack has already helped more than once in the attempts of the descendants of an empire that collapsed more than two hundred years ago to annex some city of magicians to their lands. In fact, it has been proven many times that against different kingdoms and tiny empires, amulet cities unite with great pleasure. But in all other cases...

No, they do not harm, remembering the past battles and the beginning of their history. They just don't help. For the strong must cope with their problems on their own.

Even if this strong one is currently the weakest of all.

And the Big Stone is weak now. He has no custodian. For almost twenty years now. And it certainly won't be for at least another five years. And amulets, as you know, work very poorly when there is no person next to them who is able to control these amulets.

Yes, there is no one to even feel the danger that the city knows about. Well, at least it does not work on defense in any way.

Liiran sighed again.

And how did the kind of previous keepers manage to exhaust themselves to the last person who did not leave descendants? Most families in the city have four or five children. Even at one time, there were rumors that soon the somewhat overpopulated Big Stone and the city of Wolf Jaws, which was brewing the same problem, would begin a joint construction of a new circle of fortresses. The place has already been chosen. But now it is impossible. The guardian must let go of his people, otherwise the other amulet will not be able to tune in to them. And the city, whose inhabitants are forced to run to the amulet tower almost daily in order to get permission to use the gift ... It's funny, really. Especially when this gift needs to be applied right at this moment. In order, for example, to prevent the structural weaving of the earth from dying out, turning stone into soil suitable for sowing and planting something there. And you won't make it in time you will have to start all over again, and before that, remove the remnants of what you did not have time to fix. Fun, in general. Who would agree to such a job?

“They united initially with the help of the wind,” the teacher continued to mutter in the same monotonous way. - And then they stretched more reliable lines underground and along the tops of the rocks ...

What he was talking about, Liiran, of course, guessed. But I didn't want to think about it. It made me sleepy anyway.

It would be better if the teacher gloated over how the empire that expelled the magicians fell apart. As the grandson of the emperor who signed the permission, he tried to pay for the inhabitants of the islands, who sincerely considered him an enemy, to charge army amulets that stopped working. The servants, both Mayar and the other gods, were unable to do this. I would tell you how the representatives of the empire were kicked out of the islands. How the rulers divided the once united country into parts, easily sweeping away the imperial troops accustomed to the fact that they are protected by amulets. And how, after another fifty years, they sent their children to negotiate for someone to revive the amulets that belonged to them. The vindictive magicians refused. And assurances that they consider the actions of their ancestors to be wrong did not help. So the six smaller empires into which one large empire was once divided did not last long.

At the moment, on that part of the mainland where the great empire once existed, numerous tiny kingdoms and sovereign lands were quietly squabbling among themselves. Someone tried to revive magic as a science, regretting that almost all books were once burned. Someone had to defend themselves from the neighbors living beyond the Dragon's Ridge. Someone continued to earnestly pray to the unresponsive gods. And most still believed that the escaped magicians were to blame for all their troubles. Like, they took with them untold riches, broke amulets, poisoned the emperor, sent diseases and persuaded the young empire to seize new lands.

People tend to look for someone to blame for their troubles.