Chapter Sixty-Five: Case Closed, Again

"Great! It's just upstairs." Trivi said happily, as she turned around and began to drag Meg towards some stairs across the room from where they were. The floor they were on seemed to be a living room, with messy furniture placed randomly around, and a clear line from the door to the stairs.

Heading upstairs, they found themselves in a much more well-maintained room. The circular wall was lined with bookcases, each one full of bound books, scrolls and unbound papers. Most of the floor was covered by magic circles, a large one in the middle, which was then surrounded by many more smaller ones that bore a resemblance to the power storing circles Meg had at the library. A large window in the ceiling allowed light to enter, filling the whole room.

"See? I have plenty of knowledge packed away in here!" Trivi exclaimed, pulling away from Meg and running across the room, before turning back and staring at Meg expectantly.

"Where did you get all this from?" Meg asked as she looked at the wide array of reading material.

"It was passed down through my family. My mother didn't like it though, and tried to get rid of it. But now I have it! It'd be such a shame to lose it all."

"How did you build this place?" Tim asked, looking around skeptically. "You can't have done it by yourself."

"I had the villagers help me in return for a reward."

"What was the reward?"

"They wanted to be able to make a better world for themselves and their children. So I moved them so they'd be able to do that."

Trivi smiled, and turned back to Meg. "Want to take a look?"

"May I?"

"Yup! Go ahead."

Meg went up to the nearest book case to her, pulled out one of the books, and began to read the first page while Trivi watched excitedly.

Tim looked around, still concerned with the unnerving feeling he was getting.

"Mind if I head back downstairs and take a look around?" He asked.

"Yeah sure." Trivi replied halfheartedly, waving him away.

Tim trudged back downstairs, closing the trapdoor that had been propped open behind him.

Trivi continued to watch as Meg read the opening pages of a few of the materials nearby. Meg herself, was becoming increasingly troubled with every line she read.

"You said these books were passed down through your family?" She asked as she scanned the pages of another book.

"Yup. It's the accumulation of hundreds of years of my family's knowledge."

"This one's about how to brand people with a circle that allows you to control them."

"Ooh, that's an old one! Mum didn't like that one."

"Right..."

Meg put the book back and cast her eyes towards the circle at the centre of the room.

"What's this do?" She asked, walking over to it to take a closer look. "I've never seen anything like it."

Trivi's face lit up even more, and her face was engulfed in her smile.

"This one's mine." She said with great pride in her voice. "Something I created based off of my family's previous research."

"...And what does it do?"

Trivi leant forward towards Meg, and said in a low voice.

"It converts the power of the gods into pure magical power."

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Tim arrived back on the living room floor and began to poke around. He searched the room for anything that was out of place, but quickly gave up, as it was clear that nothing in the room appeared to have any connection to the thing next to it.

The next thing he did was open up the trapdoor leading further down, where he found a large store of food and clean water, but nothing else.

His investigation of the physical attributes of the building pretty much completed, Tim sat down, and began to concentrate.

His desire to get to the bottom of the weird sense of familiarity with the power surrounding the building now eclipsed his desire to investigate the missing people, and he put all of his effort into this goal.

'Where have I felt this before?' He thought to himself, and began to think backwards through his memories to try and find it.

He thought back to his recent interactions with the gods, but they were far too recent. If it was any of these, Tim was certain that he'd have recognised it immediately.

He thought back further than that, it wasn't the magical power he had felt when the library returned. That was also too recent, he'd remember if it was that.

He thought back, before he met Meg, and before the long lull in activity that plagued him with boredom. He thought of the dragons, they were also beings of relatively high power, holding within them the power of air and fire, as well as their lives.

But the feeling they gave off didn't match either.

So he thought about the other major fights he had around the time he was exterminating the dragons. His fights with the God of War and his Representative. The God of War had been giving off significant levels of power during their fight, but it wasn't the same feeling as the power he felt now.

Tim was at a loss, his memory lost focus before the events leading up to his battle with the God of War, and it had been difficult for him to remember that period of time for most of his life now.

So Tim decided to think back to before the haze dropped over his memories, and search those for answers.

Memories of his family, the sound of bells, horses and yelling. The howling of wolves, the forest at night. Baby dragons hunting in a town, the taste of iron in his mouth, and hunger pains.

Finally his mind settled on an image. A bloody knife, cradled in his dirty hands as he knelt on the floor. In front of him, an outstretched hand, attached to a woman in a dress.

Tim's eyes snapped open, and he immediately headed back upstairs.

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"It converts the power of the gods?" Meg asked, wondering precisely how that would work. But before she could ask, Trivi continued.

"That's right! You see, the power of the gods is everywhere, in everything, and this circle can change that power into power usable in magic. Do you know why?"

"Well, because it's basically the same thing." Meg replied, recalling the knowledge she'd gained by working with Tim.

"That's right." Trivi replied, a little shocked. "How did you know? I only worked it out through experiments."

"I have... An alternate source of information. Not necessarily a reliable one, mind you."

"That's amazing. Did you know that dirt doesn't have any power in it?"

"Dirt doesn't? ...I suppose that makes sense. The Earth itself was around before the gods were awoken, according to themselves, so it'd make sense if the dirt itself doesn't hold any residual power from being created."

"Yeah, and that's why whenever you convert anything solid, dirt is always left behind."

"Convert anything solid?"

"Yeah. You know, objects. Like when you convert tools and clay, you get back power from the fire used to form them, but the item itself turns back into its original unworked materials."

"Oh, right. Well, I suppose the power has to be stored somehow."

"And the bigger or more complex the object, the more power you get from it. Plants and animals give loads of power."

Meg froze. The reason why they were here in the first place sprung back into her mind.

"Hey Trivi, when did you send away the people from the village?"

"Send away? Oh, when they we done helping me you mean? Hmm, a week? Two? Maybe a little longer? I don't know, but it was more than a week ago."

Meg looked down at the floor, and moved away from the magic circle in the centre of the room.

"When you use that circle..." Meg began, trying to find the words.

"It takes everything above it." Trivi responded happily. "But you have to be careful how you make the circle though. If you etch it into the ground it'll take the thing it's etched into as well. It's better to draw it on."

"...I see."

Meg slowly began to shift away from Trivi, and started to make her way towards the stairs.

"How did you manage to get the villagers to help you build this place?" Meg asked as she inched along.

"Well, to tell the truth, I was a little worried they would try to hunt me down, so I used the control spell you saw earlier. Oh, but I didn't brand them or anything! I just used ink, and then had the controlled ones do the same to the rest of the villagers. Then, once they'd finished, I had them tell me what they wanted. I was so happy when they told me they wanted to make this world better, that's what I want too! So now, they're helping me."

"...Helping you how?"

"Letting me research things faster. It's not like I'm going to live forever, and collecting power for experiments and spells takes time. So now, they're helping me make the world a better place by letting me constantly research, without having to wait for the necessary power to collect. Same with those people who came to where the village was since then, everyone wants to make the world better, right?"

Meg stared at Trivi in shock, Trivi's wide eyes staring back at her with a smile.

At that moment, the trap door burst open, and Tim came up the stairs with a dark expression.

"Tim!" Meg shouted and began to shift towards him. "She-"

"I know." Tim cut Meg off, and walked straight up to Trivi, who looked between the two in confusion.

"You killed the villagers." Tim said, stopping in the middle of the room in front of Trivi and glaring down at her.

"No I didn't. I merely changed them into power, they still live on in this building. You can feel them can't you?" Trivi replied resolutely.

"This might be a long shot, but I don't suppose you can fight, can you?" Tim asked, ignoring her question and pulling out a sword.

Trivi realised that Tim wasn't going to let her go unpunished, and with a snarl, she hopped backwards.

"I'm not defenseless!"

As she yelled, she swung her arm down and activated the circle beneath Tim's feet. Seeing what she was about to do, Meg yelled out.

"TIM MOVE!"

But Tim simple looked down at the glowing circle as it burst into action, turning the sword in his hand into clumps of dirt and ore, while his clothes began to turn to dust and his skin flaked away.

Clearly though, something wasn't going as planned, and Trivi stared at Tim in shock, as the destroyed flesh rebuilt itself just as quickly as it disappeared.

Tim curled up his nose in annoyance, and lifted his foot. Meg saw a flash of light illuminate parts of the floor beneath his foot that was still on the ground, and shouted out again.

"DON'T!"

But once again, Tim didn't listen, and he slammed his foot down, impacting the floor with a loud crunch. Cracks appeared all across the floor, as the structure beneath them began to crumble. The cracks broke apart the magic circles, and the conversion circle ceased to function.

The power storage circles, however, began to glow.

"Idiot!" Meg shouted at Tim angrily, and Tim realised what he'd done.

Recalling the conversation they'd had before they had left the library, Tim remembered Meg's comment that if a malfunction of power storage on this scale occurred, that would explain why the village was no longer there.

Quickly regretting not listening, Tim sprung into damage control mode.

Or rather, damage avoidance.

He jumped over to the wall next to Meg, and with a kick, blew the wall away. Grabbing hold of the stunned woman, he then leapt after the wall's debris as it hurtled across the marsh, landing down on the murk water, and pushing Meg behind a tree.

A second later, the tower ceased to exist.

A flash of blinding light assaulted Tim's eyes, but he kept looking anyway, and batted away any chunks of debris that were heading for where Meg was hidden.

Once the dangerous rain subsided, Tim went to where Meg was, and found her glaring at him angrily.

"What's the point in bringing me for my knowledge if you aren't going to listen?"

"Sorry."

Meg looked over at where the tower used to be while Tim put on some more intact clothing, and mulled over what had transpired there.

"She didn't have to die." She said, almost to herself.

Tim looked at her with confusion. "Why? She killed a whole village."

"I know... But, I don't think she understood what she was doing."

"Does that make it any less wrong?"

"I'm not saying that."

"Then what are you saying?"

"That maybe she could be made to understand that what she did was wrong, and have her work to make up for it. Instead of just killing her for something she didn't even know was wrong."

"I'll keep that in mind next time there's a bear attack, or some wolves ambush people in the woods."

"She wasn't a wild animal Tim, she was a human being."

"Who was a threat to other human beings, and now, she isn't."

"Which could've been accomplished in a more productive manner."

"Yeah, we could've taken her in. Taught her to be a respectably citizen, morally upstanding and ethically sound. Then we could've taken her into a city to be executed for her crimes."

Meg sighed. "I guess. I just, don't like the thought of having someone killed when they genuinely think they're doing the right thing."

"Yeah well, the executioners of old thought they were doing the right thing when they hunted down your family. Thinking you're doing the right thing isn't an excuse."

Meg kept her mouth shut. It wasn't that she couldn't argue further, she just couldn't bring herself to defend the ones who killed her family.

There wasn't much said between the two as they made their way back home.