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Chapter 742
Alex came onto the fourth floor with one sheet of paper and set it face down on Beatrix's desk."Before you turn that over," he said, "tell me how Red Tower makes its money."Beatrix looked at the paper, then at him."Fire," she said. "Everything that burns on purpose. Every forge in the state runs on a Red flame-charm, and every one of those charms has to be renewed by a Red magician every month, for a fee. Same charm in half the kitchens in New Avalon.""Every month.""Every month, for five hundred years." She shrugged. "It's the best business in this country. Nobody stops cooking.""Black.""Cleanup and curses." Beatrix ticked them off. "You want a building taken down, a field cleared, a warehouse of spoiled stock disposed of — you hire Black, and they charge what they like because nobody else does that work. And then there's the other half.""Say it.""Curses." Her mouth thinned. "Hexes for hire. A merchant pays Black to put something on a rival's shipment and the rival's cargo ro
Chapter 741
Alex didn't move for a long time.The old man didn't either. He just stood there at the edge of his own path, hands still shoved in his pockets, waiting for whatever came next the way you wait for weather.Nothing came next. Not right away.Alex looked at the black shell where his place used to stand, and the thought that finally rose up through everything else wasn't grief.It was guilt.This was all about him.Monica was innocent. Yolanda was innocent. A dog and a bird that had never once wandered beyond this road had no stake in this fight. He knew it with sickening certainty: if he hadn't come here, they would still be alive.They were just people who happened to live in the house he came to.Caught in a crossfire that had started before they'd ever met him.And Alex already knew, standing there, exactly whose crossfire it was.Ragnar's grandfather.He didn't have proof. Not yet.This had the shape of that order all over it.He just couldn't prove it...."Tell me everything again
Chapter 740
Beatrix looked at Alex and whispered. "What did you give them?"Alex looked at her and smiled."The perfection of magic formula."Beatrix waited for more.There wasn't any more."That's it? That's the whole answer?""That's the whole answer.""Alex, forty people just knelt down in the dirt for that book. Nobody kneels for a formula.""They did."...Here is what she didn't know.For a long time now, Alex had been buying magic books.Not a few. Not the good ones. Every single one that money could reach.Public texts, first — the cheap ones, the school primers, the certification manuals any student could buy. Then private collections. Then auction lots he never bid on in person. Then entire libraries, bought sight-unseen from families who'd lost the last person who could read them, crated up and shipped without anyone ever asking who the buyer was.None of it went to a shelf.All of it went into his space inventory. And from there, all of it went to Gaia.The Mother AI had been recordin
Chapter 739
White Tower stood two hours outside New Avalon, at the end of a road the state had stopped repairing.Beatrix drove them herself."You should know what you're walking into," she said."I read the file.""The file's three years old. It's worse now."She wasn't exaggerating.The gate had rust on it. Half the outer wall was scaffolded, and the scaffolding itself looked older than the crack it was holding up. Weeds came through the courtyard stones in lines, following the joints, the way weeds do when nobody has pulled them in a very long time.Alex counted four people in a courtyard built for four hundred.Two of them were sweeping. One was asleep in the sun."Five hundred years," Beatrix said quietly. "This place taught magic for five hundred years.""How many students this year?""Nine.""Out of how many applicants?"Beatrix didn't answer that one, which was an answer.If somebody had told Alex the White Tower would close next month, he wouldn't have been surprised. He wouldn't even ha
Chapter 738
The pill went into production on Tuesday.Beatrix stood at the head of the line, sleeves shoved up, lab smell still clinging to her hair.The Mana Affinity Pill was powder first — a formula meant to be swallowed, pulling the mana already drifting in the air straight into whoever took it, sharpening their reach for it instead of the person having to hunt for it themselves.She weighed the first batch by hand. Twenty grams. Forty. Four hundred.Then every line came alive behind her — four hundred pills an hour, each one, running clean.She stared at the readout like it might change on her. "It's holding. Every batch. Exactly the same.""You sound surprised."“There has never been a pill like this here before.” Beatrix looked at the sticker Alex was working on."I watched you burn through four hundred failed talismans before this worked." She looked up at him.Alex rubbed his jaw. "Took long enough to find a formula that wouldn't break down at scale."The second product came off a differ
Chapter 737
Cornelius Hargrove hung there in Alex's fist and finally understood the question.“You won’t dare to hurt me," he said.“Any reason you believe you are untouchable? Because thsis mayabe your last chance to still alive. “alex said."Ferrowgate." Cornelius was talking fast now. Faster. " Ferrowgate. Was on my back, if youd are to hurt me. They will destroy you and Regetn group."Sixty miles away, in Ferrowgate’s glass office with a view of the whole city, a very old man listened to a tile on his desk.Silas Kessler was seventy-one. He had white hair, a good suit, and a face like a closed ledger.He had not raised his voice in forty years. There had never been a reason to."Charges are live, sir," the tile said. "We have three inside — the girl, the Steinmeyer woman, and the target. Hargrove's in there too with some magicians form tower.""Yes," Kessler said."Sir — Mr. Hargrove and the magician are in there.""I heard you."There was a pause on the line."Sir, we can give them thirty se
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