Supreme Magus novel Chapter 40

"I wanted to give this a try since I gained the ability to change shape at will." Solus explained.

"It’s amazing! What you can do in that form?"

"The same as always. Store things and use magic you know by consuming your mana. If you allow me to do it, obviously."

"Then what’s the point? Last time we checked, our mind link was around 10 meters (10.1 yards). Sure, I could plant and use you as a bug, but then I would need somehow to retrieve you without raising suspicions. How far can you move on your own?"

"We are about to find out!" Solus started moving fast, first on the floor then up the wall, until she reached the ceiling. Then she moved on the opposite side of the room, putting 5 meters (5.4 yards) between them.

"So far so good. I feel I can move even further."

Lith opened the door of his room, checking with Life Vision that there was no one hidden in some corner or behind a secret passage he was unaware of.

Then he let Solus get further away from him. She kept humming the entire time, making possible to Lith to determine how the strength of their mind link changed with distance.

At ten metres (11 yards), it was perfectly clear, like she was still on his finger. After twenty meters (22 yards) it became muffled, he could still share her senses and communicate with her, but it required focus. At thirty meters (33 yards), her thoughts were barely a whisper.

"I don’t feel so good, I’m afraid that this is my limit. If I get any further, I won’t be able to receive your mana anymore and I will begin to consume my life force in order to move. My reserves are not depleted as when you first found me, but the idea of being all alone, bleeding energy at every step frightens me quite a bit."

Lith could understand her fear. She had already got very close to death once, and in order to survive, Solus had to pay a terrible price.

"If mana is the problem, let’s see if I can do something about it." Lith created a string of mana with spirit magic, and used it to connect to Solus.

Suddenly everything was clear again, he could even feel her little body perform a joyful dance. Solus was able to proceed swiftly until the distance between them was fifty meters (54.7 yards), the new limit of spirit magic’s range.

Sending her mana over a further distance required increasing focus and energy consumption on Lith side. It was like casting and keeping active several spells at the same time.

For Solus to reach the servant quarters, Lith required such concentration to became blind and deaf to whatever was happening around him, going into a meditative trance.

"This is completely unacceptable! I need to babysit the Count and his kids at all times. What would happen if we got attacked while I play the sleeping beauty? Not to mention how can I possibly explain to the Count my ’narcolepsy’ without either losing his trust or revealing Solus’ existence?"

Lith tried to open his eyes, to listen with his own ears instead of using Solus’ senses. It didn’t come easy, it was like pushing a car uphill, the slightest mistake and he would be back to square one. After numerous failures, Lith snapped.

"F*ck! If finesse doesn’t work, let’s go brute force!"

Lith forcefully awoke, his room was as he had left it, the door still barred from the inside since Solus had gone beyond his line of sight. He could hear and see again, but the burden on his mind and body was unchanged.

He could feel his mana being drained, his mind slower than usual. It was like trying to do mental calculation despite a commercial jingle you couldn’t get out of your head. The mind link was still there, but it was blocked.

"Seems at this range I can either use my senses or hers, not both. It’s not great, but still an improvement. I won’t have to fall asleep at the weirdest times at least."

After closing his eyes again, Lith asked Solus to come back, and after her return, they planned their next moves.

In the following days, Lith would stay with the three nobles at all the times, barricading themselves in the Count’s private quarters and surrounded by guards.

That way from the outside it would look like Lith’s arrival had changed nothing, but appearances couldn’t be more different from the truth.

Lith would make them drink only water he conjured, and before letting them eat even a single bite of any food, he would use magic to search for poisons and detoxify them.

He would also use Vinire Rad Tu, the light magic diagnostic spell, to cover up his use of Invigoration, his body strengthening/imaging breathing technique, to check up their bodies for slow release poisons they could have ingested before his arrival or any relevant anomalies.

The poison was mostly in the food, covered by spices and sauces and the only anomaly he could found was Keyla’s acne.

"Poor girl! This sh*t doesn’t cover only her face, it covers also her back and shoulders. I guess for her debut in society she will have to pick a dress that leaves a lot to imagination."

But while Lith was seemingly holed up, he was actually checking on his suspects, one by one. To avoid useless energy expenditure, he would establish his mind link with Solus before attaching her to a plate, tray or under a servant’s collar.

She would then travel to the kitchens in search of her target, and only then she would send a small burst of energy to signal Lith to start feeding her again. She would then follow the suspect during the day, hoping to caught him or her red handed.

Usually she would get nothing out of it, but just the gossip was worth the trip.

"Sigh, since the Countess left, so many bad things have happened." Said a maid in her late twenties.

"Yeah, first someone tried to poison the Count, and then he kicked out a lot of our friends! I get that he is scared, but that was unfair." Said a valet that was barely eighteen years old.

"Shut up, idiot! And thank the gods we still have our job and references. This isn’t a good time for slackers and whiners." Replied harshly a chubby maid over her forties.

"Personally, I have always considered her Ladyship nuttier than a fruitcake." Chimed in Poltus, the butler and head of the staff that had welcomed Lith at his arrival.

"Always nagging to the poor Count and asking for money. But this time, I think she may have a motive, that it pains me to admit, is almost justifiable." He said dramatically looking over his shoulder, like someone that knows too much.

"What do you mean? What do you know?" Soon Poltus was hard pressed to reveal his juiciest discovery.