Morning sunlight stretched across the abandoned district, illuminating cracked roads and forgotten storefronts that had long since surrendered to vines and rust.
To most people, it was simply another neglected corner of the city.
To Boss...
It was slowly becoming something else.
A wooden ruler tapped lightly against the folded district map spread across the hood of an old pickup truck.
Boss studied it in silence.
Small circles had already been drawn throughout the abandoned district, each connected by neat pencil lines that converged toward a larger ring surrounding the headquarters.
"...Too close."
He erased one mark.
"...Move this one thirty meters north."
He wrote another note beside it before folding the map with practiced precision.
Behind him, the large double doors of the headquarters creaked open.
John stepped outside, still buttoning the sleeves of his office jacket.
He paused.
"...Morning."
Boss gave a small nod.
"Morning."
John looked toward the stack of massive wooden crates resting beside the truck.
"...Those are the Mana Reflectors?"
Boss nodded once.
"They arrived yesterday."
John walked closer.
The crates were surprisingly large—almost reaching his chest—and reinforced with thick steel bands. Small labels marked each side with careful handwriting.
HANDLE WITH CARE.
KEEP UPRIGHT.
FRAGILE INTERNAL ALIGNMENT.
"...I imagined them smaller."
"So did everyone."
John turned to see Jaz emerging from the headquarters, carrying two mugs of coffee.
She handed one to Boss before noticing John's expression.
"They're heavier than they look too."
"You carried all of these?"
"Not alone."
She smiled.
"I asked the transport service."
John looked relieved.
"...I was wondering."
Jaz laughed softly.
"You thought I dragged eight of these all the way here?"
"I wasn't sure."
"...Boss probably would've asked me to."
Boss calmly sipped his coffee.
"I would've rented a trolley."
Jaz sighed dramatically.
"How considerate."
Another voice interrupted them.
"I knew it!"
Skinn strode toward the crates carrying a folded measuring pole over one shoulder.
"I told Karl these things weren't furniture."
Karl appeared several steps behind him, hands inside his pockets.
"I said they looked expensive furniture."
He walked around one crate before knocking twice against its wooden side.
"...Millions."
He looked at Boss.
"These are seriously worth millions?"
"They are."
Karl frowned.
"They're just boxes."
"The reflectors are inside."
"...Still."
Boss set his coffee down.
"You'll understand after opening one."
Without another word, he crouched beside the nearest crate and began removing the steel fasteners.
The others instinctively gathered around.
As the final latch came loose, Boss slowly lifted the lid.
Nobody spoke.
Nestled within thick layers of protective padding rested a circular object roughly one meter in diameter.
Its surface resembled polished gray stone.
Yet veins of silver ran throughout it in impossibly intricate patterns.
Tiny engravings covered nearly every visible surface.
Even stranger...
The engravings moved.
Not quickly.
Not dramatically.
But slowly.
As though the lines themselves were rearranging.
John unconsciously stepped closer.
"...Those..."
He frowned.
"...I've seen something like this."
Boss looked toward him.
"Where?"
"The Clanar Recall platform."
Silence.
John continued.
"The engravings."
"They kept changing."
"...These do too."
Boss gave a small approving nod.
"Good observation."
Karl leaned over the crate.
"...Why are they moving?"
Jaz answered before Boss could.
"They're compensating."
"...For what?"
"The world."
Karl blinked.
"...The world?"
"The Earth rotates."
"It revolves."
"The moon moves."
"The stars move."
She gently traced one finger above the silver engravings without touching them.
"Space is never still."
"So magical coordinates aren't either."
John suddenly remembered what the instructor in Manademia had briefly mentioned while explaining Clanar Recall.
The circuitry never stopped adjusting.
He simply hadn't understood why.
"...So these are constantly recalculating?"
Jaz smiled.
"Exactly."
Boss quietly lifted the reflector from the crate.
John's eyes widened.
"...That's..."
"...Heavy," Skinn finished.
Boss carried it without visible effort before lowering it onto a wheeled platform.
"Approximately one hundred and twenty kilograms."
Skinn immediately looked at Karl.
"I suddenly forgive the price."
Karl nodded.
"...Same."
Boss unfolded the district map once more.
"We'll begin with the outer perimeter."
He pointed toward several marked locations.
"Three here."
"Two along the western road."
"One beside the old reservoir."
"The final two remain near headquarters."
John studied the layout.
"...Why these places?"
Boss tapped the center of the map.
"Distance."
Another tap.
"Coverage."
Another.
"Future expansion."
John nodded despite understanding only half of it.
Skinn grabbed one handle of the wheeled platform.
"...Future me is already complaining."
Karl took the opposite side.
"Help me first."
"I'll complain after."
Jaz chuckled.
"I'll guide the placements."
Boss looked toward John.
"You'll be recording measurements."
John accepted the notebook Boss handed him.
"...Got it."
Within minutes, the quiet district became unexpectedly lively.
The sound of wheels rolled across cracked pavement.
Karl occasionally grunted as the heavy reflector bumped over broken concrete.
Skinn insisted the left side was heavier.
Karl insisted Skinn simply wasn't pulling properly.
Neither convinced the other.
John followed closely behind, carefully copying the distances Boss called out.
"Twenty-seven point four."
He wrote.
"Recorded."
"Thirty-one point two."
"Recorded."
Boss stopped beside a weathered lamp post that no longer had a functioning light.
"...Here."
The reflector was slowly lowered onto a prepared stone foundation.
Boss knelt beside it, checking the alignment from several angles.
"...Two centimeters."
Karl sighed.
"...Seriously?"
"Left."
Karl pushed.
"...Too much."
He pushed back.
"...Perfect."
John couldn't help smiling.
Even something as expensive and mysterious as a Mana Reflector was apparently not immune to Boss's impossible standards.
As they prepared to move the second reflector, John glanced once more at the silver engravings.
They continued shifting almost imperceptibly beneath the morning light.
"...Boss."
"Hm?"
"Do these create mana?"
Boss looked up.
"...No."
John waited.
Boss returned to inspecting the foundation.
Karl smirked.
"They redirect it."
Boss gave a brief nod.
"Exactly."
John looked between the reflector and the abandoned streets stretching endlessly ahead.
"...So the mana was already here?"
Boss stood.
"It always was."
He brushed the dust from his hands before looking toward the quiet district surrounding them.
"...We're simply teaching it where to gather."
Nobody spoke after that.
For some reason...
That answer felt much larger than the question.
The morning steadily gave way to noon.
One by one, the remaining Mana Reflectors found their places throughout the abandoned district.
Each installation followed the same painstaking routine.
Measure.
Adjust.
Lower.
Measure again.
Adjust again.
Karl had already lost count of how many times Boss had asked him to shift a reflector by "just one more centimeter."
"...If you tell me to move this again, I'm leaving."
Boss looked at the markings.
"...One centimeter."
Karl slowly closed his eyes.
"I'm leaving."
"You won't."
"...I know."
With exaggerated reluctance, Karl nudged the reflector ever so slightly.
Boss glanced at John.
"Measure."
John crouched beside the engraved stone platform, carefully lining up the ruler.
"...Exactly one centimeter."
Boss nodded.
"Good."
Karl stared at him.
"You knew?"
"I estimated."
"...That's even worse."
Skinn burst into laughter.
"I've never seen someone lose to a centimeter before."
"I lost to him."
"That's different."
Jaz quietly smiled as she recorded the final coordinates.
"...Last one."
Everyone instinctively looked toward the final crate.
Compared to the others, it seemed almost insignificant.
Yet somehow...
Boss spent the longest examining it.
John noticed.
"...Is something different about this one?"
Boss rested a hand against the polished stone.
"It anchors the pattern."
"The others redirect."
"This one stabilizes."
John nodded, trying to picture it.
"So..."
"...it's like the center?"
"...Eventually."
Boss motioned for everyone to help.
The final reflector was carefully lowered onto a circular stone base that had already been prepared beside the headquarters.
Unlike the previous locations, this one was surrounded by dozens of shallow grooves carved directly into the ground.
Silver powder rested inside each groove.
Jaz knelt beside them.
"...I finished these yesterday."
John blinked.
"Yesterday?"
She nodded.
"While everyone was asleep."
"...You carved all of these?"
"It wasn't difficult."
Karl looked down at the intricate patterns.
"I suddenly feel lazy."
"You are lazy."
"I know."
Boss reached into a small wooden case and removed several translucent crystals, each no larger than a marble.
He placed one into a shallow socket along the reflector's edge.
Then another.
Then another.
Eight in total.
Nothing happened.
Boss simply stood.
"...Back away."
Everyone instinctively took several steps.
Boss rested one hand on the reflector.
A faint pulse spread through the stone.
The silver engravings slowly brightened.
Not enough to glow.
Only enough for the movement within them to become visible.
The shifting lines became smoother.
Almost...
Alive.
John suddenly felt a gentle breeze brush past him.
He frowned.
There had been no wind all morning.
Skinn looked around.
"...Did anyone else feel that?"
Jaz nodded.
"It started."
John instinctively looked upward.
Nothing.
The sky remained clear.
The abandoned buildings stood motionless.
Yet...
Something invisible had changed.
He couldn't explain why.
Boss quietly observed the reflector for nearly a minute before giving a satisfied nod.
"...Good."
Karl folded his arms.
"...That's it?"
Boss looked at him.
"...Yes."
"We spent the entire morning carrying one-hundred-kilogram rocks..."
"...for a breeze?"
Skinn nodded.
"...He's got a point."
Boss picked up the empty crystal case.
"You expected fireworks."
"...Maybe."
"There won't be any."
He looked across the district.
"This will take years."
Silence settled over everyone.
"...Years?" John asked.
Boss nodded.
"Mana moves."
"It accumulates."
"It disperses."
"It reaches equilibrium."
"We're changing that equilibrium."
John slowly looked back toward the reflector.
"...So nothing happens today."
"No."
"...Tomorrow?"
"No."
Karl frowned.
"...Next month?"
"No."
Jaz laughed softly.
"I told you."
Boss wasn't discouraged by their reactions.
If anything...
He had expected them.
He walked toward the district map resting on the truck and spread it open once more.
"The world leaks mana."
He drew several arrows across the map.
"It always has."
"Most of it dissipates."
Another line.
"Some gathers naturally."
Another.
"Some gathers around mages."
John watched quietly.
Boss continued.
"If left alone..."
"...eventually enough accumulates."
He circled a small section of the map.
"...and phenomena begin."
Skinn tilted his head.
"...Phenomena?"
"Urban legends."
Karl blinked.
"...Seriously?"
Boss nodded.
"Ghost sightings."
John's eyes widened.
"Impossible sounds."
Jaz continued.
"Places that make people uncomfortable."
Boss added another.
"Objects moving."
"Strange lights."
Karl looked unconvinced.
"...You're saying those are..."
"Usually mana."
Nobody spoke.
John suddenly remembered years of internet videos.
Security cameras.
People insisting they had seen figures where nobody stood.
News stories that never found explanations.
"...Science..."
Boss answered before he finished.
"Measures what it knows."
"It doesn't know mana."
John quietly absorbed that.
Somewhere...
Someone might have genuinely seen something impossible.
Not because ghosts existed.
But because mana had quietly bent reality just enough.
Boss rolled the map shut.
"We're reducing that."
John looked surprised.
"...Reducing it?"
Boss nodded.
"If mana gathers here..."
"...it gathers less elsewhere."
Karl looked toward the empty streets surrounding them.
"So..."
"...we're making this place weird..."
"...to make everywhere else normal?"
Boss gave a single nod.
"Exactly."
Silence lingered.
For the first time...
John felt like he understood what Boss had been building.
Not a fortress.
Not a secret base.
Infrastructure.
A system.
A quiet solution to a problem most people didn't even know existed.
The distant sound of a car engine interrupted the conversation.
A sleek black sedan rolled into the district before stopping beside the headquarters.
Karl smiled.
"...Mom."
Ruth stepped out wearing a charcoal business suit, a leather folder tucked beneath one arm.
She looked every bit the successful executive.
Nothing about her appearance suggested she had once been feared as the Ruthless Weaver.
"Good afternoon."
She greeted everyone politely before walking straight toward Boss.
"I've narrowed the list."
She handed him the folder.
"Three possibilities."
Boss opened it.
Each page contained photographs.
Employment history.
Addresses.
Notes.
"They're all awakened within the last six months."
Ruth continued.
"Only one has shown any interest in joining a group."
Boss stopped at the second page.
"...This one."
"I thought you'd pick that one."
"Why?"
"He declined two clan invitations."
Boss closed the folder.
"...Arrange a meeting."
Ruth nodded.
"I already have."
Karl laughed.
"...You knew."
"I hoped."
She looked toward her son.
"Have you been eating properly?"
Karl immediately sighed.
"...Here we go."
"You didn't answer."
"I have."
"What did you eat?"
"...Food."
Skinn looked away, already trying not to laugh.
Ruth smiled knowingly.
"I'll send more ingredients."
"...Mom."
"No objections."
Karl surrendered instantly.
"...Yes, Mom."
She gave him a satisfied nod before returning her attention to Boss.
"I'll contact you once everything is confirmed."
Boss simply nodded.
"Thank you."
She returned to the sedan almost as quickly as she had arrived.
Within moments...
The vehicle disappeared beyond the abandoned streets.
Skinn watched it leave.
"...She works fast."
Karl scratched the back of his head.
"...That's why our family's business still exists."
Boss looked once more across the quiet district.
Eight reflectors.
One headquarters.
A handful of newly awakened mages.
Hardly impressive.
Yet...
The pieces had finally begun to move.
John followed Boss's gaze.
"...What happens now?"
Boss answered without looking away.
"...We wait."
"For what?"
A faint breeze drifted once more through the empty streets.
Boss's eyes remained fixed on the district.
"...For the world to answer."