Sorcerer… Cyborg???

Chapter 120: Trust

"What? How? Only those who are at the very least of the Advanced Rank know about the existence of other planes, and only those who have truly reached the limits of Eclat dare venture further." Tam looked hard at Kothar, his son had always been a serious and diligent child, but every child had a rebellious streak, maybe this was his way of vying for attention since he had been away for so long?

"Kothar, if you're trying to play some kind of childish joke on me, it won't work. Now be honest with me, what are you doing here?" Tam;'s voice filled with concern, sure his son had broken Simon out of prison all by himself, but that had been luck and during peacetime, why was his son roaming around Kalun during a war, especially when he'd be under threat as Tam's son. 

As all these thoughts of why Kothar had come to see him whirled about in Tam's mind, Kothar watched his father worry, and decided to save them both a lot of time and explanation.

He hadn't done this for Simon, but he knew that Tam could handle at least this much. Kothar lifted his arm up, and opened a portal in the center of the tent. 

Tam was filled with shock, his son was casting spells with such ease that was rare even among higher level mages, and had done so without any visible effort also.

"There's your proof, right there." Kothar said, sitting back down on his chair, Tam looked back and forth between Kothar and the portal, still processing what his son had done. Surely that wasn't a portal to another plane, his son had to be having him on, the portal would probably lead to some comical location, dumping him in a puddle or something similar.

Tam stepped through. The tent was quiet, and Kothar sat back and waited for his father to return.

[Was that really necessary? Aren't you revealing too much of your capability?] Silane said, she had always been extremely cautious and Krieg's betrayal had made her even more so.

[It may be reckless, Silane. But how long can anyone go without trusting a single individual. More accurately, how long can I go on as a human being without trusting anyone. If I was still being emotionally cauterized by the Alliance, that might be reasonable, but things are different now.] Kothar set out a tired sigh internally, the intensity of the past months was beginning to get to him, and though he had known tiredness before, when he had fought for hours and hours on end, the tiredness his mind felt was a completely new thing for him. 

Silane didn't respond, instead she was busy trying to decipher Kothar's response, her understanding of emotion had grown since their reincarnation, but it still paled compared to Kothar's.

A splashing, squelching noise emanated from the portal at the center of the room and Kothar turned to see his father, completely soaked through, grinning wide as he stood in front of the portal, a piece of seaweed caught in his long hair. 

"You really made it back! Even the most powerful beings on Eclat need assistance to travel from one plane to another, and yet you made it back here, unharmed, after being stranded with no idea of where you were." Tam's voice was filled with joy, he had always known that Kothar was an excellent mage and fighter, but knowing that his son had been stranded, planes away and made it back all by himself was astounding to him.

"It wasn't easy." Was Kothar's only reply, and he grinned back at Tam, before tossing him a towel hanging from a hook on one of the tent poles.

"I thought you were playing some elaborate prank on me Kothar, that you'd dressed up and come all the way here for that, and I'd be dumped in a puddle after stepping through. Though I guess you did dump me in a puddle of sorts!" Tam started laughing uncontrollably, tears of joy forming at the corners of his eyes.

Once Tam had dried himself off, he dismissed the men guarding his tent and sat down at the table with Kothar.

"Alright, son. You've proven your tale, now tell me more of this betrayal." Tam fell into his usual habit of resting his hand on the hilt of his sword when deep in thought, and he leaned forward attentively.

"While I was in Newport, I found an Artifact. It allowed me to do things with Spatial Magic that shouldn't be possible for someone of my level. My teacher discovered this artifact and wanted to possess it, and pushed me into a Spatial Rift, stranding me planes away. But the artifact returned to me, and I was lucky it did. Without it, I wouldn't have been able to return to Eclat." Kothar quickly summarized his story, getting straight to the crux of what had happened, a habit left behind from his debrief training.

Tam's eyebrow drew together, and his hand gripped his sword rightly, his knuckles turning pale, it took all of Tam's willpower to stop from letting his anger rage free, but he knew the entire camp would be alerted the moment he did. 

"He did what? How dare he?" Tam grit his teeth together as he hissed, no longer looking at Kothar, he simply stared off towards the opposite wall of the tent. His hand opening and closing

over his sword.

"Speak of this matter as little as possible, from what you've told me, this artifact is almost miraculous in its capabilities." Tam said after a long period of tense silence.

"And tell me, who knows that you possess this artifact?" Tam asked, wondering if there were hordes of people after Kothar. 

"Just you and Simon. Also, my mentor and the people he has told. I approached the King before I came here about sending a letter to the Academy, but didn't mention the Artifact." Kothar didn't mention Sandstrider or Xerev, not wanting to complicate things even further, after all, if they had wanted it, they could have taken it from him easily.

"You saw Rotan?" Tam's tone completely shifted, and his eyes narrowed.