The candlelight was bright, and the silence in the study lasted for several seconds.
Asheida looked at Thales expressionlessly:
"Is this question so important that you want to know it so urgently?"
Thales smiled:
"Not necessarily, it depends on how much you want to see my 'trick'."
Aixida lowered her head and looked at the crumpled sky blue invitation on the ground.
"This is not a deal," his tone became colder, "let alone using your magic as a bargaining chip."
"Then this isn't a transaction," Thales said with a smile that didn't change, and his response was very quick and kind. "It's about teachers and students helping each other, and teaching each other."
After the words fell, Thales immediately felt something was wrong: the air around him slowly stagnated.
"And this is no joke."
The magician's face was expressionless and he spoke very slowly:
"Your magic power is weird and unpredictable, and the consequences are unknown. One careless step may endanger your life."
Thales gently raised his left hand.
Asheida's words stopped abruptly.
The sky-blue invitation on the ground has disappeared.
At this moment, it was held between Thales' fingers.
"Not bad," Aixida's eyes flashed blue repeatedly, "I'm very impressed."
"A few months ago, when I was forced to knock on the door to learn this trick," Thales put down the invitation in his hand and his smile gradually disappeared.
The patient chased him with a knife and played hide-and-seek all night long."
The magician remained silent while Thales continued softly:
"Because he stubbornly believed that I was the product of a conspiracy created by your 'Three Disasters Alliance' back then, even though I was born five years after the Year of Blood."
Aixida's eyes moved!
He spoke slowly, his tone cold:
"He discovered your secret?"
my secret.
Thales looked at Asheida quietly.
Damn secret.
"Don't worry, he's dead." Thales shook off the vicissitudes of life but the lonely figure in his mind and said nonchalantly.
Died a long time ago.
The young man's tone changed:
"But before that, he was not 'possible', but actually endangering my life."
"The reason why I can still sit here and listen to you preaching condescendingly instead of turning into a prince and cutting cakes..."
Thales lifted one side of his forehead, revealing a bare scar on his scalp.
"It's all because I lowered my head quickly enough."
Aixida looked at him silently, silent as before, not knowing what to think.
"So this is indeed not a deal, not a bargaining chip," Thales snorted, holding up the invitation and shaking it, "but I was framed by your 'glorious past', implicated by the sins you had committed, and was
Proof that old grudges that you knew nothing about drove you to a desperate situation and almost cost you your life!"
Thales' words seemed to disturb the residents on the ceiling, and the noise of rats scurrying around was heard sporadicly, but neither of them paid attention to it.
"This unfortunate incident made me realize that magic is not only about itself, but also about the magician."
Aixida didn't speak, but the lines on his face became sharper and more serious.
Thales took a deep breath: "Compared to the so-called 'weird and unpredictable' magic energy, maybe the things you concealed from me are a greater threat to me?"
"So, for the sake of my life, I need to know, I must know, I demand to know."
Thales held the invitation high and flew it to the other end of the room with a graceful movement:
"Now, who is Fryland?"
After the words fell, the study became quiet, and the two of them looked at each other in silence.
The Duke stood in front of the window, letting the moonlight cover his shoulders and leave a shadow on his face.
The magician stood in the room, the candlelight was bright, but it could not cover the blue in his eyes.
Only the sporadic sounds on the ceiling proved that it was not completely silent here.
After several minutes, Aixida moved slightly and said:
"You are indeed different."
Thales snorted softly.
"No matter how many times you repeat it, you are still the twentieth," the Duke shook his head. "There is no prize."
Rustling, rustling...
The increasingly tense atmosphere was suffocating, and the noises on the ceiling became more unsettling.
"What if I refuse?"
The magician said calmly, his voice still elegant and beautiful.
Thales put on an expression that was indeed the case and shrugged helplessly.
"Then there's nothing I can do."
"After all, you are the incomparably powerful magician, and I can't force you."
The next second, Duke Xinghu removed his smile and focused his eyes:
"But for the sake of my own life, and in order not to be trapped by your old debts, I can only try to save myself and use various means and channels to explore that period of history."
Asheida remained silent, and the only response to the Duke was the increasingly anxious sound above her head.
Thales raised his lips:
"And you know, there is an ancient library in the Sunset Temple in the royal capital. The royal guards of Fuxing Palace have left various records. Of course, don't forget the secrets of the kingdom."
Before Thales finished speaking, the Qi Magician's eyes moved and blue light flashed!
"Ah! Damn it!"
The dazzling light forced Thales to turn his head to avoid it, and raised his hands to cover himself amidst the curses.
Fortunately, the bright light in Aixida's eyes only lasted for a moment and then immediately weakened.
Thales raised his head in embarrassment, blinking repeatedly, waiting for the afterimage in his sight to disappear.
"What are you doing?"
As soon as Thales finished speaking, he was stunned.
Aixida just stood there elegantly and calmly as always, looking at him faintly.
but……
Thales realized something and slowly raised his head.
Quiet.
No, it's dead silence.
I don’t know when, but there was no unnecessary noise in the study, leaving only an eerie silence.
Thales stared blankly at the ceiling.
"It's been cleaned up," Aixida's eyes slowly returned to normal and her tone was erratic, "There are a total of fourteen rats, including those in the nest and those passing by."
"You're welcome."
Clear, cleared it up?
It took Thales a few seconds to understand this sentence and couldn't help but swallow.
Damn it.
This, how do I explain this to everyone?
There's a new wild cat in Star Lake Castle? The kind that catches mice?
"If you want to be more thorough, I can look around the castle, including the rat nests in the fields..." the considerate Asheida continued.
"Wow, uh, thank you, thank you," Thales quickly stopped, "Well, there's no need to be so thorough, I have to give my men something to do..."
Aixida nodded happily:
"Excuse me, I was distracted by this matter, and what were you talking about just now?"
Thales clapped his hands.
"Oh, what I just said, in short, what I mean is, respected Mr. Sarkon," His Highness the Duke, who is in a powerful position, is smiling with a friendly attitude, "We are teachers and students, guides and apprentices. In the long journey of magic,
We are with each other on the long road, so it is necessary to strengthen communication and trust each other..."
Thales looked at the leader he respected and admired from the bottom of his heart, his eyes full of expectation:
"What do you think?"
The room fell into dead silence again.
It wasn't until a few minutes later that the magician spoke softly:
"Dear Prince, are you saying that you just wanted to blackmail me with yourself in exchange for my compromise?"
Thales coughed and removed his smile.
"Sorry, I only discovered it recently."
Thales exhaled and said as sincerely as possible:
"Using yourself as a bargaining chip is quite effective."
Thales weighed the "covenant" in his pocket and thought sarcastically.
After all, everyone loves Thales.
Asheida's eyes moved and she stared at Thales closely.
But a few seconds later, he suddenly laughed.
"You should really look in the mirror and see yourself right now."
The magician's smile felt like a puppet with a curve carved on his mouth, which made Thales panic.
"The mirror in the bedroom is broken. I don't know when it will be replaced." Thales forced a smile to match the magician's smile.
Depends on Maester Julio's ledger.
"Wait a minute, in addition to killing rats, you don't happen to know how to repair mirrors, right?"
The next second, Thales's smile hadn't dissipated, and the blue light flashed in Aixida's eyes again!
Thales felt a surge of force coming from him. He was caught off guard and was lifted up into the air, then fell heavily again!
Oh shit!
Looking at the ground that was approaching at an extremely fast speed, Thales stretched out his hands to protect his head and face angrily: I knew this grandson had a small belly.
Boom.
With a muffled sound, Thales opened his eyes and came to his senses:
His legs fell to the ground, his back was hanging in the air, and he was "sitting" in the void in an awkward manner.
And Aixida had already "sat" side by side with him, leisurely admiring the night outside the window.
"Then, let's talk." The magician said calmly.
"Old rule, don't leave notes."
Talk?
Thales reacted, frowned and touched the "air chair" under his butt.
He comforted his pounding little heart and looked in disbelief at Asheida, who suddenly became talkative.
Well, it seems that he is not so, um, small-minded?
"very good."
Thinking of this, the boy twisted his lips:
"But before you ask me to sit down, maybe you should ask first."
thump!
Thales fell heavily to the ground. He touched his butt and grimaced in pain.
Ahhhh, it hurts, it hurts!
"Then, may I ask," Asheida looked at him calmly. A blue light appeared on his left side, depicting the outline of a chair. "Dear Prince, do you want to sit down?"
Thales covered his butt and got up with gritted teeth.
How many seats do you have?
But as soon as the word "no" came to his lips, his peripheral vision caught a glimpse of the old crooked chair that belonged to the Duke and belonged to him behind the desk.
In the end, the noble and majestic Duke of Xinghu could only smash his mouth in displeasure, sulking, and sat down on the "chair" prepared for him by Asheida.
Made.
Chicken intestines.
"Freland Sanchet."
In the room, Aixida looked at the small patch of night sky locked by the window, her eyes misty.
"That's her name, at least the part I know."
Friland Sanchet.
Thales recited this name silently in his heart.
"She was born very early, and it is said that she has witnessed the empire at its peak. I guess even among fellow magicians, there are very few who can surpass her in qualifications."
Aixida's words tightened:
"Before becoming a magician, she was a magic apprentice in the Alchemy Tower. After becoming a magician, her threshold name is 'sensory'."
"Tower of Alchemy, I know," Thales raised his hand excitedly, "'leading to omniscience', right?"
But Aixida did not give him a positive answer:
"What did you say?"
"The Alchemy Tower, their motto," Thales recalled and repeated, "'Leading to Omniscience', is right under the strange eye symbol."
Aixida narrowed her eyes and looked at him strangely.
"This," Thales had no choice but to stretch out his hand and draw out an ancient imperial text in the air, "Tong, Xiang, omniscience?"
The magician was silent for a long time.
"Did they teach you Imperial Chinese?"
"Of course, what?"
"So, it's just you who failed?"
Thales' face darkened.
Would you like to try taking classes eight days a week?
What, where did the extra day come from, you ask?
Of course it’s squeezed out of sleep time!
Thales said doubtfully:
"Is there something wrong? Or is it better to translate 'omniscient' as 'omnipotent'?"
"The languages in this world do not have a one-to-one correspondence," Aixida said coldly, "If that's the case, then why don't we just learn each noun, and when we use it, we only need to say 'you, study, grammar, lesson,
'Idiot' is enough?"
Thales retracted into his chair and folded his arms numbly.
You, actually, really don't have to be so mean.
"And if you can be a little more generous and magnanimous, my noble, studious, knowledgeable and progressive prince."
Aixida said quietly:
"Slightly release some of your touching feelings about being diligent in government affairs, caring about your country and the world, and caring about the well-being of the people. Squeeze out a little bit of the fragmented time you spent standing in front of the window and sighing at the majesty of the kingdom, or slightly reveal some of your grandeur and fierceness as you follow death as if you are home.
If I have the courage of my bargaining hero and am generous and merciful in giving them to some boring grammar class that seems insignificant to you, then you may be lucky, coincidental, unexpected, and touching.
Earth, like heaven miraculously noticed an insignificant point in an inconspicuous corner: what you call 'leading' in this sentence is a simple combination of noun and verb in ancient imperial literature."
Thales felt dizzy after hearing this. It took him a long time to digest this long paragraph, and then he twitched the corners of his mouth and said:
"Well, you, you just say the last sentence, that's enough."
Asheida ignored him.
Therefore, the ancient imperial motto of the Alchemy Tower is not literally "towards omniscience".
For the sake of his academic dignity, Thales had to cheer up and start drawing in the air again:
"Then 'leading' is a noun, then it is not 'leading', but a 'pathway', or a simpler 'road'."
"Add the verb, 'the road leads to omniscience'?"
Thales looked at the guide expectantly.
Aixida didn't even look at him and spoke indifferently:
"Look at the word case for 'omniscient.'"
Thales scratched his head and continued to draw:
"Okay, let me take a look!"
Thales reacted: "So 'leading to omniscience' modifies 'road' alone! Well, 'road to omniscience'?"
Aixida snorted coldly.
"Look at the word case of 'road' again."
Thales frowned.
"Look again? But there are just a few of them," the young man's face changed again, "I understand, 'road' is a passive object, and it has a corresponding subject and predicate!"
But Thales immediately became confused:
"But there is no subject or predicate in this sentence..."
Asheida snorted again.
This time, Thales had an idea without any reminder:
"I remembered that in the poems and proverbs of ancient imperial literature, certain elements would be omitted based on context and logic, such as 'I' and 'I am'."
Thales slapped his thigh and said excitedly:
"So the Tower of Alchemy says 'I am on the road, and the road leads to omniscience'?"
Aixida's face was expressionless:
"Do you always talk like this?"
Thales coughed and adjusted his language:
"'I am on the road to omniscience', not simply 'towards omniscience', right?"
This time, Aixida said nothing.
Leading to omniscience.
I am on the road to omniscience.
Thales recited these two sentences silently, thinking of the strange eye symbol of the Alchemy Tower, and felt something in his heart: "They are different."
"There's a big difference." Aixida suddenly said.
Thales thought for a moment and nodded.
"I understand."
"The path to omniscience is like the number on a door."
"As long as you open it, there is omniscience behind the door."
Asheida was noncommittal.
"But, 'I'm on the road to omniscience' is more like a signpost halfway along the long road," Thales' eyes lit up, "You have walked through it, and you know you haven't arrived yet, but you know the direction.
That’s right, and then, then you move on.”
The former is a satisfied master who guards the door carefully.
The latter is a traveler who carries a heavy burden and has a long journey.
They are not the same.
Thales was a little lost.
"Muscle guys may be rigid and stubborn," Aixida said quietly, looking at the moonlight outside the window, "but they are also mages."
Thales came back to his senses.
"Muscle guy?"
The magician tilted his head.
"A derogatory term used by Soul Tower to mock them."
"I understand, then what do they call you?"
"Thinker."
"Thinker?" Thales raised his eyebrows, "Why not a nerd?"
"Because it's irony."
Thales narrowed his eyes.
Aixida snorted coldly:
"We use the most direct and simple derogatory name that they will not confuse and misunderstand in any case."
"And what they use to insult us is irony that must be understood in conjunction with context, history and reality, and with a layer of meaning."
Thales was in high spirits:
"Interesting, even if they refer to each other contemptuously, the Soul Tower and the Alchemy Tower, the logic they use is completely different! Right, thinker?"
After the words fell, Aixida looked at him expressionlessly.
The air around him became heavy.
Thales reacted and had to cough vigorously.
"Ahem, let's get back to the topic," the Duke said with a serious face, "So, Mr. Sacken, Fryland, she is a very experienced magician with senses?"
"Don't."
"Nothing else?"
The magician's tone instantly turned cold:
"Don't call her that."
"You can either call her by her mortal name, or use her full name of 'sensory magician'. You can even mention 'sensory' inadvertently in a paragraph."
The blue light in Aixida's eyes is extremely sharp:
"But, just don't call a magician by his name in such a pure, simple, and crude way when you know who you are calling."
Don't call...threshold by name?
Thales was confused for a while:
"Why?"
The Qi Magician was silent for a while, seeming to be considering something.
But he finally spoke.
"Because we don't know Fryland's current situation: whether she is sealed, whether she is complete, what her condition is, and whether she is still walking freely and existing in the world, we don't know."
"If you know what your words are referring to, and wholeheartedly call out the name of a certain magician, if everything is normal on the other side, you will feel something in your heart."
Thales looked stern.
Call the threshold name seriously, alone, and intentionally, and the other party will feel something?
That means……
"Once or twice, maybe it's nothing, but the number of times is too much... Believe me, no matter how quiet you are, no one wants to be knocked on the window for no reason." Aixida ended the sentence with a warning tone.
Thales had an idea:
"So magical? Then I'll try yours, I'll be angry."
At that moment, the surrounding air compressed like a mountain!
"No, no, no" Thales had difficulty breathing and turned red, waving his hands randomly, "Haha"
The next second, Asheida put down her finger, and Thales resumed breathing, gasping for breath in pain!
Grass!
He definitely did it on purpose!
"First of all, this move is not friendly."
Aixida snorted coldly:
"Secondly, remember that the Queens of Magic stand at the apex and pinnacle of the magic power. I deeply doubt that they can use some unimaginable way to sense and monitor the known threshold names. Once any magician is
Excessively call and react and bitches will notice something is wrong.”
Magic Queen.
Monitoring threshold name?
Thales pulled open his collar and said unhappily:
"So evil?"
The magician didn't answer, just looked at him coldly.
Thales had no choice but to continue asking:
"So, a name is like a website, I mean, an address? Once you call it, it's like throwing a rock at his window?"
"And the two emperors live in the tallest villa, and they are hunters who stand on the commanding heights with sniper rifles and crossbows. If someone's window rings, they pull the trigger and take them away with one shot?"
Hearing these words, Aixida took a deep breath and seemed not satisfied.
"Metaphors, analogies, analogies, always."
But he only paused for a few seconds before his eyes glowed with blue light:
"No."
"In a sense, Threshold Name is more like a gate with a sign, using signs to distinguish our territory and boundaries, and to warn others," the Qi Magic Master's eyes were bright and he didn't know where he was looking, "to prevent us from each other.
Conflict, strife, fighting.”
Distinguish territories and boundaries.
door.
Thales frowned and asked:
"But if calling the threshold by name will make the other party aware of it, then this is like a door deliberately set up to attract people to knock on it?"
Asheida turned her head:
“Isn’t this the reason why ‘door’ is stronger than ‘wall’?”
"It not only warns of separation and prevents intrusion," the magician's voice seemed to be distant and unclear, "it also leaves a gap for visitors."
Thales blinked painfully: "Somewhat complicated?"
"You'll understand."
The blue light in Aixida's eyes slowly disappeared: "When you understand."
Thales nodded and put on a fake smile.
Thank you for your nonsense.
But he suddenly discovered that after he showed off his magic power and firmly expressed his opinion "I don't want to be involved in your old debts", this time, there seemed to be more things that Asheida was willing to teach him.
, deeper and more difficult to understand?
In the study room illuminated by candlelight, two people, one large and one small, were hanging side by side in mid-air. One was quietly meditating, while the other gritted his teeth and crossed his arms, which looked extremely strange.
"So does the purification plan seven hundred years ago, which aimed to eliminate the records and history of magic, have anything to do with this?" Thales thought of something and asked immediately.
The magician turned his head.
"When there are fewer and fewer people who remember you, and the number of people who call you becomes more and more limited," the young man slowly sorted out the logic, and gradually realized that it makes sense, "then when your name is heard, it will be extremely conspicuous, making it easier for the two emperors to hunt and hunt.
kill?"
Asheida was silent for a while.
"Maybe," the magician said quietly, "but it's more than that."
Thales was about to ask a question, but Aixida had already spoken:
"Whether it is when demons confuse people's hearts and ask their victims to shout their names loudly, or when religions spread their beliefs, they ask believers to repeat the injunctions of praying to the gods, or even when the emperor rules the world, he makes millions of people shout long live the empire over and over again.
.”
The magician seemed to be immersed in his own world again:
"Calling on symbols is always the most direct way to strengthen connections, establish habits, and build authority."
"The same goes for demonic energy, even worse."
Thales was confused and confused.
"I actually, um, don't quite understand."
Aixida raised her head and was extremely sure:
"You'll understand."
"sooner or later."
Thales could only hold his arms tightly and laugh.
thank you.
Another nonsense.
"And this is why, Mr. Sarkon, you have been unwilling to tell me the name of the two emperors, including the magician who has not yet been sealed?"
"That's one of the reasons."
Aixida said solemnly: "And you have to be careful, especially if you have already had preliminary contact with magic energy, and even knocked on the door of a mortal and called out the threshold name. This is a completely different level than a magician who calls out the threshold name."
Thales snorted softly, turned over on the air chair, and turned to the guide.
"You know, you could have told me earlier. Just say what you can and can't do, otherwise it would be over." The prince curled his lips, "This has nothing to do with the magic energy itself."
The magician was silent for a while.
"Trust me, Thales."
Aixida spoke quietly, but Thales was a little nervous:
"Everything, everything, everything that happens in this world..."
"It's all related to magic energy."
It's strange that he has been so talkative today.
Thales frowned, but decided to turn over again and look at the ceiling. When he thought of the corpses of fourteen rats on the top, Thales had to turn over to the other side and face the door.
"So, even magicians themselves don't usually call each other by their first names?"
"one."
Thales frowned: "What?"
The ethereal voice of the magician sounded again, this time, his tone was mechanical and indifferent:
"As far as I know, since the advent of magic, there is only one, only one magician. He has no scruples from the beginning to the end, and he calls his colleagues by their names as a matter of course and even without doubt."
"As if that was our only name."
"It seems that that is his creed of existence."
For some reason, Thales was shuddered when he heard these words.
He turned around subconsciously and looked at Aixida.
"And every time, the feeling of being called by his name..."
I saw the Qi Magician lying in the void, his blue eyes flickering, staring at the ceiling.
But it's not like staring at the ceiling.
It's something above and beyond that... something else.
Thales rarely sees Asheida like this.
"Who is he?" The young man couldn't help but ask.
Asheida made no move.
But the next moment, there was a flash of blue light, and the blue light-filled sight of the Qi Magician had locked onto him.
This startled Thales.
It's like a comic book flipping through a book, changing to the next page in the blink of an eye.
"Fortunately, he and his brother have been confirmed to be sealed."
The blue light in the magician's eyes overflowed from his eyes and crawled up his face like cracks.
"Before they destroy the world."
Those two blue lights made Thales extremely uncomfortable, and he subconsciously turned his head to avoid them.
The next moment, the energy magician turned to the sky and called out one word coldly and numbly:
"exist."
exist.
exist……
Existence, existence, existence...
This word seemed to have some kind of power, and under Asheida's call, there was a vague echo.
The next moment, Thales seemed to have an illusion that all the sounds and colors in the world disappeared!
Even his thoughts stopped.
It's all over.
After an unknown amount of time, he felt something move somewhere.
Soon, the ceiling, floor, walls, doors...everything in front of my eyes and ears gradually and slowly returned.
The next second, the boy took a deep breath and turned over to sit up!
Thales finally came to his senses and found himself dripping with cold sweat.
And Asheida sat next to him, just like before, looking at him calmly, elegantly and indifferently.
Thales gasped for breath and blinked desperately.
everything is normal.
normal?
The only thing left over, or in other words, left over...
It is a burst of energy that is everywhere from the inside to the outside...