The Supreme Mage in a Loser's Body

Ch 11 - The Man Who Sees Souls

Kael lowered the account book to the desk without looking away from Silas. The ring still lay beside the damaged contract, within reach of his left hand.

“What are you talking about?” Marcus asked.

Silas lifted two fingers. Somewhere beyond the office, a heavy door slammed shut. A second answered from the far end of the warehouse, followed by the scrape of metal across concrete.

Kael felt the magic settle over the exits. The office doorway remained open, but the doors leading outside had been secured by more than their locks.

“Nobody leaves yet,” Silas said.

Marcus stood behind his chair. “This is my warehouse,” he replied. “If there's a problem, we can discuss it.”

Silas ignored him and stepped farther into the room. The injured guard near the door dragged himself out of the way.

“Most people look at a face,” Silas said to Kael. “I see what lives behind it. The body and the soul usually fit together. Yours don't.”

Kael closed his fingers around the ring and slipped it into his pocket. Silas noticed the movement but made no attempt to stop him.

“You came here expecting a debtor,” Kael replied. “Now you're trying to frighten me because I found your accounts.”

“I came because Marcus's collectors reported a problem,” Silas said. “I didn't expect this.”

His gaze moved to Kael's lower stomach. Kael kept the core still, though he doubted the trick that had confused Evelyn's first reading would fool this man.

“That little core is new,” Silas said. “The soul holding it together is not.”

Marcus backed toward the filing cabinet. His eyes shifted from Kael to the account book, then toward the office door. Kael moved the book closer, placing it behind his hip on the desk.

He had only the power taken from the contract. Silas stood between him and the main floor, with two injured guards still within reach and a third beside the doorway. Fighting here would leave Kael no room to avoid another blow to his ribs.

“Let the others go outside,” Kael said.

Silas looked briefly at the men on the floor. “Why?” he asked.

“They're in your way as much as mine,” Kael replied.

“Then they should stay down,” Silas said.

He opened his hand. Three black lines stretched from his fingertips and passed over the desk toward Kael. They looked thin enough to snap, but Kael sensed the force inside them before the first touched his wrist.

He stepped sideways. One line missed him and struck the wall, while another wrapped around the baton in his right hand. The third caught his left forearm.

Kael pulled back, trying to gain space before it tightened. The cord gripped harder as a thought of it reaching his injured chest flashed through his mind.

Silas smiled and drew his fingers together.

Pain ran up Kael's arm. He stopped pulling and let the baton fall, freeing his right hand before the other cord could wind around it. The weapon hit the floor with a loud clatter.

“You understand what happens next,” Silas said. “That's useful. Most people waste time before they become afraid.”

The cord moved farther up Kael's arm. He fed a little power into the muscles beneath it, enough to resist the pull without tearing his shoulder. His small reserve began to drop.

Behind him, Marcus snatched the book from the desk.

Kael turned just far enough to see him hurry toward the door, holding it against his chest. Silas moved aside, letting Marcus stumble past him into the warehouse.

“You'll need me to explain the entries,” Marcus said over his shoulder. “Don't let him destroy the place.”

A moment later, the warehouse door rattled under his hands.

“Open it!” Marcus said.

Silas kept his attention on Kael. “You can wait,” he replied.

Kael took a slow breath. The account pages were already on Thomas's phone, but the original book held records they had not examined. He could not let Marcus disappear with it. He also could not wrench himself free without giving the spell exactly what it wanted.

The cord tightened when he pictured Marcus sending more men to the shop.

There was the answer. The spell reacted to fear, just as the ring and contract had fed on it.

Silas sent another cord toward his chest. Kael ducked behind the corner of the desk, letting the new line catch the wood instead. The movement pulled at his ribs, and he bit down before a cry could escape.

“Who are you?” Silas asked. “Tell me, and I might leave that body intact.”

Kael examined the cord around his arm. Small turns of power tightened against one another along its length. If he struck at them while they were under full tension, he would spend everything he had without breaking through.

He needed them to loosen first.

“You could have asked without this,” Kael replied.

Silas pulled him a step closer. “Would you have answered?” he asked.

Kael's hip struck the desk. His breath caught, and the cord immediately constricted.

Pain and fear were different things, but this injured body had learned to expect one after the other. Ethan's memories offered him the same response again: obey quickly, keep everyone calm, and perhaps nobody else would suffer.

Then he remembered Thomas sitting beside the bed.

His father had named the mistakes without calling his son worthless. He had asked Kael to stay well enough to think, not prove his place in the family by enduring another beating.

Kael let himself feel the fear instead of spending strength pretending it was absent. Thomas and Elena were at home. Maya was with them. He had sent the records. Silas stood in front of him, and the cord had a weakness he could reach.

Those were the things he could act on now.

His breathing steadied. The black line stopped tightening.

Silas frowned and pulled again, but this time Kael moved with the cord instead of fighting its whole length. He rested two fingers against one of the small knots of power and waited until its grip slackened.

“You're still afraid,” Silas said.

“Yes,” Kael replied. “That doesn't mean you choose what I do.”

He pressed a thin thread of magic between the overlapping turns. The weakened knot separated, and the cord came apart around his forearm.

Silas jerked his hand back. Kael stepped around the desk toward the doorway, using a brief strengthening flow to keep his injured leg muscles from failing under the sudden movement. The second cord swept after him and tore a strip from his sleeve.

He reached the main floor before Silas could block him.

Marcus stood at the loading doors with the account book tucked beneath his arm. He had abandoned the handle and was searching the wall beside it for another way to release the lock.

“He won't open it for you,” Kael said.

Marcus turned as Kael approached. He raised the book, ready to strike, but Kael caught its spine with both hands and pushed it toward Marcus's chest. The sudden pressure drove Marcus against the door. Kael turned the book sideways and pulled it free.

His ribs burned. He had used too much of the small reserve keeping his arm intact and breaking the first cord. Only a trace remained, and the strong source beneath the floor was still beyond his reach.

Silas emerged from the office with both hands raised.

“You broke one,” he said. “Let's see how many times you can manage it.”

Four cords spread across the aisle. Kael moved behind a stack of cartons, keeping the book tight against his side. One line struck the stack and pulled it apart. Boxes fell across his path, forcing him to stop before he could reach the next aisle.

A cord caught his ankle.

He went down on one knee, unable to spare the power needed to break another knot. Silas pulled, dragging his leg out from under him. Kael landed on his good side and pushed the book ahead of him so it would not be trapped beneath his body.

“Being calm doesn't make you stronger,” Silas said.

Kael caught the edge of a wooden pallet. His fingers slipped once before finding a gap. The cord kept pulling, but without his panic feeding it, the grip remained loose enough that his ankle had not broken.

Silas formed a fresh line between his hands, thicker than the others. He aimed it toward Kael's throat.

At the loading entrance, metal struck metal three times.

Silas looked toward the sound just as a narrow strip of white light appeared between the doors. The magical pressure holding them shut faltered. One door opened far enough for Evelyn to step through with a flat metal device in her hand.

“Get behind me,” she said.

Kael could barely rise. Evelyn saw the cord around his ankle and brought the device down beside it, pressing a switch with her thumb.

A pale sheet of light spread between them and Silas. The ankle cord broke where it passed through the light, releasing Kael's leg. The thicker line struck the barrier a moment later and flattened against it before dissolving.

Evelyn braced her wrist with her other hand. Three small lights on the device glowed green; one changed to amber as Silas attacked again.

“Can you stand?” she asked.

Kael retrieved the book and dragged himself upright against the pallet. “For now,” he replied.

Evelyn shifted to keep him behind the pale barrier. The device gave a low warning sound when another cord struck it.

“Don't step outside the light,” she said. “It breaks the spell where it touches. It won't protect the whole room.”

Kael stayed close. The equipment was built for this kind of attack, and she handled it without having to look at its controls. Then she touched the small earpiece beneath her hair.

“Shaw requesting containment at the warehouse,” she said. “Active magic user. Civilians and evidence inside. Send a second team to the Cole address.”

Silas lowered his hands slightly. His gaze moved from the device to Evelyn's face.

“You should have stayed outside,” he said.

“Put your hands down and move away from him,” Evelyn replied.

Kael watched Silas glance toward the far end of the warehouse. A smaller door stood beyond the last row of cartons. The magical seal over it was already weakening.

“He's opening the rear exit,” Kael said.

Evelyn took one step forward. Silas immediately swept a cord toward Marcus, who had crouched beside the loading door.

She turned the device to intercept it. The black line dissolved against the light, but the movement left Silas free to retreat into the aisle.

Kael could not pursue him. His core held barely enough to sense the spell moving away, and without Evelyn's barrier he would not survive another direct attack.

Silas paused beside the rear door as it opened. He was looking at Kael again, with none of the surprise he had shown in the office.

“You took the ring,” Silas said. “Did you think the crest inside it was there by chance?”

Kael's hand moved toward his pocket before he could stop it.

“Whose crest?” Evelyn asked.

Silas stepped backward through the doorway. “Lord Varyn's,” he replied. “It was placed on that ring to find you.”

The door slammed between them, and his footsteps faded beyond it.