Chp.21: Upgrading the invisibility rune

Maldor was as usual working on improving his spells, in particular he was trying to find a solution to the problem with the invisibility rune. Unfortunately, however, her work proceeded slowly and she, no matter how hard she tried, was unable to find efficient solutions. Even if she managed to enhance the invisibility rune, that still wouldn't solve the problem, since its own functioning was the cause.

The young dragoness was exasperated. She'd put so much effort into combining magic and math, and had been so happy when she'd finally found the formula, but now it was totally useless to her. He felt like he wasted his time. Even though she knew it wasn't true, the helpless feeling she'd been experiencing for several days was depressing her more every second. She kept trying and trying, drawing patterns and calculating and trying spells, but nothing seemed to fix the problem.

Maybe she just needed a break. After all, she had eaten little in those days, too busy with her work; maybe if she rested for an hour and had a good lunch then she would be able to think better about how to solve the problem. But as she was about to put away her notes Haku appeared in front of her, so suddenly that Maldor almost got scared. "Sorry, sister. Is it a bad time?"

"Uh... of course not, brother. Tell me" Maldor replied.

Haku seemed happy with that answer and approached; Maldor noticed that his eyes looked redder than usual. "How long did you sleep last night?"

"Half an hour. From time to time" Haku answered.

Maldor swallowed. "Brother, I don't think you should..."

"It's not important now" Haku stopped her immediately. "I'll get a good night's sleep when I have time, ok? Now I need your help"

Maldor wasn't sure Haku would ever find time to sleep as long as this situation persisted. Dragons were more resistant to fatigue than newcomers, so the fact that Haku had such obvious marks meant that he hadn't slept properly for at least three or four days. But she knew that her brother was too stubborn when it came to family, so she decided to just go along with it. "Fine. What do you need?"

Haku looked at her intently, "Sister, do you remember that once you and Kotaru met Hara while you were at the academy, and she didn't see through your disguise?"

Maldor's eyes widened. In fact, she had almost removed that memory. It was perhaps the only time a legendary level hadn't noticed the deception of the invisibility rune. "Yes... so at that moment there must have been something bothering her. She looked suspicious, but no matter how much she concentrated, she couldn't see the disguise...."

"Exactly. Now think: what was different than the usual in that situation?" Haku asked her.

"Well… we were inside a building" Maldor answered, then her eyes widened. "Of course! The glass!"

When she and Kotaru had met with Hara, they had done so inside the headmaster's room which was lit only by sunlight filtering through the windows. Which meant that light had to travel through the glass. And that meant it was being altered. And if the invisibility rune was also a change in light… "Hara may not have seen through the disguise because while the invisibility rune changed the light around my body, the glass changed the light in the room, making them similar!"

"Exactly" Haku confirmed. "I thought about this all the night. If my theory that the invisibility rune modifies light itself is correct, then just adding a modifier to the light of an entire environment will make the disguise undetectable"

Maldor was radiant. However there were still some details that didn't fit. "But inside the tower they saw you..."

"The tower was lit from within. There were chandeliers that created a light not at the level of that of the sun, but still powerful enough"

"And when did they catch you? Hara was aware of us for an instant despite the invisibility rune, but it was the middle of the night. There were no lights"

"You're wrong, there was the light of the moon and stars. But in any case, I don't think Hara noticed you at that moment because they had noticed the deception, but because the hearing of legendary levels is superior to that normal newcomers. In fact, not only did he miss you with his shot, but as soon as you were immobilized he let it go"

Maldor thought carefully; actually all the pieces seemed to fit now. "Indeed, this all seems to make sense. But how can this information help us?"

"Very simple" Haku answered. "We have a lot of adult dragon blood and a formula that can calculate the exact amount of mana. Do you think you can enhance the invisibility rune to encompass a large area around the user?"

Maldor's eyes widened. Of course! If all they had to do to deceive a legendary level was change the light of the entire environment around them, then they just had to power up the invisibility rune to give it a bigger radius! The rune could already create efficient illusions in a radius of five meters, and Maldor knew perfectly well how it worked; the main problem was the energy source, but adult dragon blood, which they had in abundance thanks to their parents, was almost certainly sufficient fuel. And since Maldor now had a formula that could calculate magic to perfection, he could create an invisibility rune powerful enough to have a radius of tens, perhaps hundreds of meters! Of course, maintaining such an illusion would require a lot of concentration, but for dragons that was no problem: thanks to the extraordinary mental abilities of their species, it was even a joke to them to fight while keeping an illusion active. Doing the same with a much larger radius would have required perhaps a little more effort, but nothing they couldn't handle. Furthermore, only the illusion of the body would have been the one needed to maintain; for the rest of the environment, it would have been enough to simply alter the light a bit so that it was at the same frequency as the aforementioned illusion. If they had done so, not even a legendary level would have been able to discover the deception: the only way would have been to fly in the sky and look at the enclosed area in its entirety, but what were the chances that this would happen?

Maldor's heart started pounding. Instantly, all the depression she had built up over those days vanished, replaced by an extraordinary sense of triumph. "I can do it! It'll only take me a few hours!"

"Great. I'll use it next time I meet the king, so we can test its efficiency" Haku replied.

"You are brilliant, brother!" Maldor exclaimed. She knew that Haku was extremely intelligent, but he surprised her every time. However there was something that didn't convince her. "But... exactly, when did you think about this? Didn't you say that you would think about the negotiation for...?"

"I did, and I'm doing it even now. But that doesn't stop me from focusing on our other problems as well, and the invisibility rune was one of them" Haku answered.

Maldor bit her lip. "Let me understand" she said worriedly. "For all this time you have been thinking both about how to emerge victorious from the negotiation and about how to improve the rune of invisibility?"

"And I also looked for a way to counter the power of Black Vulture's mask, I kept investigating to find the place where they locked up Rhaegal, and..." Haku continued to say, but Maldor stopped him before he could continue.

"This is absurd! You're going to have a brain clot at this rate!" the dragoness exclaimed. "Haku, you need to stop at least for a few hours and get some sleep. Now"

Haku looked surprised. Evidently Maldor, who was normally very shy, was the last person she expected to hear those words from. "I'm fine. I don't need to..."

"Haku, stop being stubborn for five minutes and think with your brain! You're not okay!" Maldor screamed. "No one can constantly think about so many complicated topics without even sleeping and come out unscathed! You need to rest!"

Haku let out a snort. "I can't do this. Not until we get Rhaegal out of there"

"Why can't you? Rhaegal is fine! He contacts us every six hours and every time he assures us that nothing has happened! And the king even showed you his picture!" Maldor pointed out to him. "They drug him sometimes, so what? I don't think sleeping hurts him! He's not going through hell right now, so why don't you take a break?"

Haku didn't answer. The reason, of course, was the same as it had been a few days ago: he had a bad feeling about Rhaegal. He didn't know why, but since he'd come out of that tower he couldn't get the thought out of his head that maybe his brother wasn't as safe as he believed. And Rhaegal had also seemed slightly more tense lately when she asked him certain questions. Although he didn't know why, he felt the urgency to reunite with him as soon as possible, and for this reason he slept little and had no appetite. He had often told himself that he was just paranoid and that there was no evidence that something he didn't know was going on, but his instincts kept telling him otherwise. But he didn't want to tell Maldor that, or he would just worry her unnecessarily.

Maldor took his silence as a surrender, so she said: "Now go to sleep. You will think of all our problems when you wake up"

"Okay, okay!" Haku grumbled, tired of hearing her. "I'll try to sleep, okay? Now stop scolding me". However in reality that was a lie, because Haku already knew that even if he were lying down and closed his eyes he wouldn't be able to sleep.

Maldor smiled satisfied, then a shadow passed over his face. Haku noticed this and looked at her suspiciously, but before he could ask any questions, she said: "Brother, listen... maybe I can ease your burden a little bit"

Haku didn't understand. "What do you mean?"

"Well, you have all these problems to think about. Finding Rhaegal, spotting loopholes in the negotiation… well, maybe I can help you with that" Maldor answered. "I thought about it and... I think we could offer the king an alternative. We keep our knowledge of the runes and in exchange we give him my mathematical formula"

Maldor had thought about it for a long time. Compared to the runes, the mathematical formula he had discovered was less important: it only provided a greater understanding of the spells already known and facilitated their improvement, but it didn't allow to invent new ones from scratch. Consequently, giving it to the king wouldn't have increased his military power. In contrast, runes were ready-to-use spells that would completely revolutionize the Jurao Kingdom's army. Of the two evils, it was better to choose the lesser: the mathematical formula would have given the king and his nation enormous prestige, so he had no doubts that he would have accepted.

Haku shook his head. "Yours is a noble gesture, but it can't work. The king will also want to know who invented that formula. I could pretend it was me and suggest him to use a figurehead, but it wouldn't work. That formula will attract the attention of the entire world when it will be revealed, and the person who claims to have invented it will be under the light for all his life. Everyone will want to know how that person got that formula and will keep an eye on him to see his work. If the person in question is not an excellent mathematician and expert mage with superfine knowledge in various magical fields and with a very clear idea of ​​what he wants to accomplish, the deception will eventually be discovered, and in that case it would be a terrible scandal..."

"I know" Maldor said. "So I thought... maybe we could give him the inventor too"

Haku looked at her for a moment, and them his eyes narrowed like two slits. "No"

"I'll use an avatar, of course!" Maldor said quickly. "And since we've solved the invisibility rune problem we can..."

"It's out of the question!" Haku growled. "I said no!"

"It's not for you to decide, brother" Maldor pointed out. "And I want..."

"Instead it's up to me to decide until I'm the one who goes to that tower to negotiate for our brother's release!" Haku exclaimed. "And I will never offer a member of my family to the king, I don't care if she's outside or inside an avatar! I won't endanger any more of us!"

Maldor could have answered him, but Haku's stern eyes melted her fighting spirit. In the end she lowered her gaze. "Okay. But at least think about it, okay?"

"Mph. As you wish" Haku replied, then he turned and walked away furiously. Clearly he mustn't have liked that proposal. As she watched him go, Maldor wondered if he remembered that he needed to go to sleep.