"Have you considered adding some light runes in the rest of the stairs?" Valthar took a bite of a plate Marcos had just heated up.
"I had them installed when I first opened Warmheart Inn, wanna guess why they aren't there anymore?" Marcos said while preparing the ingredients for next day's meals.
"Were they used too little?" Valthar said before taking a sip of wine.
At least in the Manaborn estate that was the main reason things got discarded, little value or no use.
"The opposite, too much use." Marcos chuckled. "The cheap rooms attract all kinds of people, some operate during the day but many like to visit the Emberheart's night market, so when the light runes were there complaints about noise came daily."
Valthar raised an eyebrow.
"I don't quite follow, light runes don't make enough noise to cause complaints."
"Hahaha, runes sure don't but people do." The old man points with his knife at the light runes in the ceiling."Bright lights, people stomp and talk loud, but in a deep dark hallway people whisper and tiptoe, funny ain't it?"
"It is…" Valthar mumbled as he lost himself in thought.
People really changed a lot based on what they perceived.
If this talk had been a month ago, when Valthar was tagged as a dark mage, would Marcos talk so friendly?
Or two months ago when he was still a noble from a powerful family, would the old man dare to talk with him casually?
In fact, if he was still a noble would the Church have kidnapped him forcefully then 'purified' his mana veins after a single quick talk?
Valthar was sure the answer to all the above is no.
"You good there?" Marcos's voice pulled Valthar out of his own head.
"Yeah just… " Valthar stared at the cup of wine and scoffed. "In the past I never thought the Church would act so tyrannical, can you believe they 'purified' me even after I had already been tested for demonic worship by another fire mage?"
It sounded like a bad joke when he spoke it outloud.
In a single motion Valthar gulped down the rest of the wine in one go.
Without words Marcos stopped cutting ingredients and filled Valthar's cup back up before pouring a cup for himself.
"You don't seem as mad at the Church as I expected." The old man took a sip. "If it were my mana veins that got burned I'd be cursing at their doors daily."
"Bold of you to assume I'm not." Valthar giggled.
Then his mood collapsed for a second, in silence he stared down at the wine.
For a second it felt like his soul had stepped out from his body, to look and see his own condition made him sad.
He might have been horrible at mana manipulation, but it had been a big part of his life for years.
To lose that capability was to lose a piece of himself, such a sudden parting of course left a bitter taste on his mouth.
"After what happened I hold no good feelings towards the Church of Burning Light, but if I had the power to snap them out of existence, I would not do it." Valthar sighed. "Without them our empire would overflow with demons, our people would die by the thousands and chaos would spread through every corner."
"If I don't have the balls to destroy them even if I could, what does it serve me to hate them?" Valthar added with a self deprecating chuckle.
"Fair enough, you are much wiser than you look Valthar."The old man said with an impish little grin.
'This guy…' Valthar side eyed the old man.
"And you have quite the youthful heart despite being in your twilight years."
The two stared at each other for a moment before they burst out laughing.
For a few more hours the two chatted away, as night slowly passed outside.
*
In the week that followed Valthar slowly adapted to this new rhythm.
During mornings he would walk to the treeline and collect life energy.
In the afternoons he would eat and take a nap and at night he would drink while Marcos cut vegetables.
Valthar was pretty sure he had drunk more than a month worth of wine in just a week, but the old man had made it clear he cared very little about the cheap wine.
Though not much had changed, Valthar felt the weight in his heart lighten.
He was far from his goal of becoming a great mage, still to form his life energy ring, but the progress gave him more hope than he dared to admit.
On that note another detail caught his attention in the last few days, the range of his energy sense was slowly growing as his first ring solidified.
The difference was small, no more than a few meters and he only noticed it because after multiple nights sleeping in the same place.
Just thinking about it a smile sneaked into his lips.
Like he guessed, life energy generated by the semi formed ring had grown in quantity as the ring solidification went forward.
It would take a couple of days at most to finally finish this first step.
Just then a knock echoed from the room's door.
'Little Jack.' Valthar recognized the little life force a moment later and expectation reared its head in Valthar's chest.
In this week the number of times Valthar had fallen to the ground was way higher than he would ever admit.
How could it be any other way?
His daily walks stretched for hours, his nausea hit hard whenever he forgot to eat enough and his weak body had less mana than a child.
The struggle was real and a cane would be very much appreciated.
With a click Valthar unlocked the door and a little happy voice announced the delivery.
"Uncle finally finished your walking canes Mister Valthar!" The boy raised two high quality leather sacks with his little hands.
Valthar had yet to see them, but just by the package he could tell the carpenter must have put quite some effort on making them.