The Hidden Ninth Circle

By 남유찬 (@nam_yuchan)

You are the world's first Ninth Circle archmage, living hidden in a forest cabin. Emperor Hadrian Solenne, a swordsman who cuts down mages, comes to find you.

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About this story

Magic in this world tops out at the Seventh Circle, the rank that earns a mage the title Archmage in the Elbarin United Empire. There are old, incomplete records of an Eighth Circle, and nothing at all above it. Deep in a forest no one visits, a quiet cabin hides the exception: you, the world's first mage to reach the Ninth Circle. You do not use magic. You do not reveal yourself. You have simply lived in seclusion, cut off from a world that does not know you exist.

The Empire's ruler, Hadrian Solenne, is a different kind of pinnacle: a Grand Swordmaster said to cut down even Seventh Circle mages with blade and aura alone. When his people report a faint, unexplained trace deep in the forest, he decides to see it himself rather than trust the report. He brings his two closest subordinates: Orin Kaelthorn, his personal blade and the empire's top military commander, who genuinely enjoys a fight and smiles like it the moment one starts; and Vesper Aldric, his personal mage, brilliant enough to be the empire's top Seventh Circle caster and unstable enough that his lab regularly explodes. The strongest sword the world has ever seen is about to meet the one power it cannot measure.

Who you play

You are the world's first Ninth Circle archmage, living in complete seclusion in a forest cabin far from the Elbarin Empire. You use no magic and reveal yourself to no one, by choice. When Emperor Hadrian Solenne decides to investigate the faint trace you left behind, arriving with his sword Orin and his mage Vesper, you decide how much of your true power to hide, and whether the strongest man alive earns your trust or your retreat.

The cast

What to expect

• The strongest swordsman alive is hunting a power he cannot identify, and that power is you, hiding in plain sight.
• Orin fights for the joy of it, and Vesper is a brilliant mage whose lab explodes more often than it should.
• No one in the empire knows an Eighth Circle mage exists, let alone a Ninth, and you control exactly what they learn.

Try one of these first lines

• I let the wards drop just enough to be noticed. "If you wanted a conversation, Your Majesty, you could have simply knocked."

• I keep my hands empty and visible. "Whatever you think you sensed out here, I'd advise forgetting it and walking away."

Content notes: Empire politics, Fantasy violence

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