Elias knew he was among the voices of warriors who pushed through troubled times. He felt honored to stand within the room, a tour by such a brilliant young woman. He felt the clarity of purpose and the ritual of respect within himself. He thought to himself, “ Each of these books was written by someone as skilled as Evelyn.”
Atholin said, “How much time do you have?”
Elias replied, “I wish I had a whole year. Three days is the most I can spare. Elrock said my time was pressing.”
Atholin said, “Well then, three days you will have.”
32.
Elias sat in the chamber and read throughout the entire day. He spilled through incantations, written magic, tomes that read like spells made to enhance the reader directly. It was strange at first, but he felt the intention of the old magi. They spoke through the pages, calling him to step to a sharper pace and tune.
He read over battles and politics of the time. He sped through village antics and lingered through spells he did not understand.
He tried to manifest results. Some seemed significant, but many spells did not function as described. He complained to Atholin, who said, “The energy of that age is not the same as today. It takes a lot of work to find what helps and what cannot be applied.”
While Kanos and his new friends rested well and nested easily into the village, Elias continued to work around the clock. On the second night, Atholin brought him books that she clearly thought were special. “More spells in these books can be applied more effectively. Please take great care of these manuscripts, currently they are the greatest tomes we have.”
Elias settled in early on the third day. He opened up a book titled The Four Corners of Magic.
The first spell discussed a way to expand a box of energy around one’s hand to protect the fist in a physical fight. Elias held out his fist as he pushed a calm energy up his wrist. His fist began to glow, and a subtle box could be seen before it faded. Elias swung his fist toward the table with a swift rap, and felt much less harm to his boney knuckles. His hand was free of scratch or bruise, and he felt great excitement as he began to pour through the tome.
The tome spoke of a premonition of doom for the next age of magic, when the energy was predicted to become more powerful and stage more complex attacks, just as Atholin’s account discussed.
The book went on:
“In the last phase of the Great Defense, a great hero, Xanawa , emerged. She was a woman who became something beyond human, forced to fight a huge wave of the Scorch herself. The spells that follow come from Xanawa’s first teacher, Havia of Ovi, a magus of great orchestration.”
Elias understood those were the spells that nurtured perhaps the only Sovery Sol Ley of another age. He felt the profundity of every word.
He turned a page that left him staggering in thought. It was much like the first diagram of Evelyn’s he ever saw, which displayed the 7 harmonics of magic that all his lessons were based upon. The 7 harmonics that helped yield tremendous power to Elias in his earliest days as a mage.
Elias poured over the new diagram, which displayed a breakdown of the energy but in a different way. At the top of the page, it simply said, “The 4 Corners of Magic:”
1. Fortitude
2. Mending
3. Annihilation
4. Reality
Elias studied the substructures and the outlying factors. He scoured through pages of greater explanation. Elias’ mind was racing: “This is a structure that Evelyn did not discuss. Does she know of this, or can the energy of Avios be… split up differently … seen in different ways?”
Elias felt profound intrigue. He studied the series of charts and the spellwork without stopping for seven hours.
Exhausted, but quite riveted, Elias charged up the small staircase and stepped out of the library and a few steps into the grass. The evening was cool and no one was around, though he hardly noticed. Elias held up his hand, and with a great surge of energy, he chanted the words, “ Omnay Ovi amna Wray.” He moved his hand as directed, and the air began to sheer in a great circle before him. He reached out his hand as rivulets of energy pulled from his arm like ripples. The air in front of him shimmered a dim violet light. A seven-foot ring expanded before him, yielding no true surface — like a mirror that shined no absolute reflection. As the tome described, Elias then caused his energy to converge. He did not reach for one or two of the 7 harmonics. Instead, he pulled for a state of division described in the 4 Corners of Magic. He reached for harmonics he knew not to be there — as the realm of Avios within his mind became a different structure. He leaned very hard in one direction and attempted to splay the world by a different dichotomy.
The ring before Elias changed, and the fog began to clear. In front of him, as though inside a dream within the ring, a woman’s outline could be seen. She was dressed in dark clothes with pale hair, and the dim light exposed no feature. The woman walked slowly among the dark twisted trees around her. As Elias gazed, the woman slowly turned. She walked up towards the strange portal and simply stared. Elias could tell that the woman could not see him; her stare was blank and open. She merely said, “I think I… feel you watching.”
Elias slowly whirled his hand around, and a tiny brilliant light formed within his palm. The light seared, and finally, something in the air just popped. The woman in black gasped and uttered, “Avi! What are you doing?” Elias turned his hand, and the light lit up the passageway. The woman and Elias stared eye to eye. She saw his face. He saw her chiseled features and her strange eyes — irises so light grey they almost looked white. She reached out to meet Elias’ lighted hand. The seeping of air evacuated quickly. The ring of energy began to disperse.
The spell collapsed and left Elias leaned over drenched in sweat. His energy was sapped completely. He stood in the moonlight and slowly wandered to a place to sit.
Elias laid down on a bench and closed his eyes. He woke up having never moved once all night.
The next day, Elias stirred quite slowly. He felt his mind was exhausted but made his way to the dining table that never seemed to be absent of food. He pulled down several bowls of porridge and ate two round rolls. He sat in the chair among the fair breeze and didn’t bother moving until Atholin approached.
Atholin saw the exhaustion and said, “Brakkish magic is different. You are quite advanced to forge that magic in a single day. I can see it got the best of you.”
Elias said, “The tomes are amazing, Atholin. The way they divided the harmonics… I would have never thought. I guess our magic is based on how mages… see the world. We can learn whole new structures.”
Atholin said, “Of course! I learned the manifold structure of West Hills. My teacher lives beyond that forest over there. What magic did you try?”
“The 4 Corners of Magic. I tried spellwork from the Corner of Reality.”
“And?” said Atholin.
“I don’t know exactly what happened. I thought I saw another place, another world, or… someplace else.”
“Wow,” replied Atholin, “I have made the glowing fist as the first spell said, but I can’t use the whole structure. No one here can…”
Elias replied, “It’s different but not dissimilar from the way my teacher showed me. She also divided the world into harmonics, seven of them. I learned from a true master — if I hadn’t met her, I wouldn’t know true magic. I envy your village and the life you have lived.”
Atholin seemed intrigued, “So the boy who learned no magic became a slayer of giants. Well… Grahdo will be quite surprised to find out you can cast the spells of Havia of Ovi. As far as our village is concerned, Xanawa was the greatest mage who ever lived. And you’re… doing her magic.”
The two sat in silence for a moment. Atholin asked if Elias needed a copy of the spellwork. He said that it could help, so when Grahdo and Kanos arrived, Atholin said hello and left to copy the text for Elias to take with him.
Grahdo’s eyes glistened as he saw how tired Elias truly wa
s. “We have guarded the tomes for thousands of years for this very reason. So that on this day, a mage like you could turn the pages and reinvoke the ancient wisdom.”
Elias said, “I am beyond grateful. What I have seen could have not been understood without this great help.”
Grahdo said, “I hoped you might spare us a favor as well?” He pulled out the four yellow stones. “I would like to manifest an enchantment on these stones. I know you have power that far exceeds my own. These stones, if done properly, could help protect this entire village from the barisee. They are an incredibly rare material fabricated by a Brakkish mage. I wish I had more of them, but four will do.”
Elias asked how he could help. Grahdo said, “I will hold up the structure of the enchantment, and you can infuse power by pushing your energy into the stones behind it. It will mend the enchantment deeper to merge with the intent of the stones as they were created.”
Elias said, “I have never enchanted.”
Grahdo said, “I see the light around you, a light I see around no one else. It would be good for you to learn enchantment — while you might have better things to do with your energy, knowledge still is the greatest power.”
Elias agreed, and Grahdo wasted no time. He pushed the dishes to the end of the table and began to incant the stones in the clearing. “I am building a spellwork of shields that should make our village nearly invisible to the barisee. They can feed on lifeforce… this spell can slightly alter the way they perceive.”
Grahdo slowly conjured an elaborate structure of energy lines in the air around the stones. The energy grew yellow and then tightened into a subtle yellow orange. Elias waited for some kind of guidance but heard no instruction.
Grahdo built up a network of energy structures that connected into a rim, which connected the four stones. From the rim grew a web, and the web expanded like a large bowl.
Grahdo’s energy was intense, and his voice was commanding, his chest holding great friction. “Your greatest white light, Elias, down the from the air, straight through the funnel.”
Elias stood back, and his arms reached above. He pulled his strongest energy from the air. His will for the protection of the village grew strong. He felt the gift of Avios pour from his will, as an overwhelming sensation of awe and care took over his mind. Grahdo said, “Please find your deepest fountain.” Elias began to reach with great endurance; 60 feet in the air, a great ball of light shined brightly and began to beam down below, directly into the center of the energy structure.
“Another push, Elais,” yelled Grahdo as the turbulent noise sped onward.
Elias complied and sent below another great surge. Kanos watched the array of spellwork fold another layer into the stones.
“Another push,” yelled Grahdo.
Elias sent down a massive push that grasped every last structure of light from around the stones. The stones began to vibrate and shine with great yellow light. The great sphere of white energy pushed down the last trail and closed the spell with rumbling noise.
Elias was surprised; his energy was awake and lively. His great exhaustion seemed healed — as he tried to understand how that happened, Grahdo began yelling.
“We’ve done it! We’ve done it together!”
Grahdo explained, “The placement of the stones around the village will create an energetic refraction, which can obscure the vision of dark barisee.” He also added, “I hope you feel a bit better as well.”
The men sat down and handled the stones. They were remarkably brilliant in color and shine, and from inside, there burned an eternal gold light.
33.
The evening was spent in rest for everyone, and Elias and Atholin found time to walk around the village together. They spoke in great warmth and lamented that life would drive their paths apart again. She gave him a series of pages folded and tucked in a small leather case. “Since you have seen the ways of enchantment, I have put in some spellwork that may help with that. Also, here is a note that will help you somewhat with defense. It can almost… vitrify a portion of your shield, which can distort an incoming blast while you send out an attack. Ovi called it a graph.”
They found a nice place to sit and lounge while Kanos and Grahdo milled in his workshop. Kanos really enjoyed seeing the ways of a magical craftsman. He wanted to learn how objects like swords could be fused with magic. Grahdo entertained his every question in exchange for displays by Kanos of what could be done with a magical blade.
The warm afternoon faded into a crystal-clear evening. The great blue moon never seemed so bright, and the small orange moon shined brightly, giving Avios its subtle blanket of pale night glow.
A long farewell was said by everyone, and Kanos and Elias were given painted mares to travel more quickly. They were fine white horses with deep amber patches. The gratitude by the men was deep.
The two mages were quite revived and began to head west through the fields.
As they rode slowly, Elias scanned over his spell pages, while Kanos led the way. His mind was fixated on the stone in his pouch. In his mind, he ran over designs for the perfect sword to bear the stone.
Later that night, the men camped on top of Bir Ridge, a deep feature that pronounced the border of Provang. They crossed the border into the nation of Szorah, a land of rocky valleys and small shorn hills. The odd terrain was the very reason the Donway Valley Market was lodged within its grasp. The routes of entry were diverse and offered little opportunity for easy sabotage. The neutral stance of Szorah in politics also led many alternative marketers to flourish. The market was said to police itself, as the Szorah government was small, since the population was quite small as well. That was the reason Provang was taken from the nation as a province by the aggressive people of Goyaah Tribe who push the borders of Provang wider.
As Kanos and Elias finally passed a stream, they allowed their horses to graze on the thin and sparse bevelweed, and they were forced to watch closely. The absom flower was dispersed throughout, and while edible to humans, a trace of poison in their petals was known to accumulate in horses and cause the slow onset of blindness over years of feeding. The men took turns waving the horses away from the small blue flower.
Elias took a moment to ask Kanos about the way forward, and he replied, “The map will take us around the valley, but I believe we can cross that low-lying ground. It should give us a path that is more direct.” Elias agreed, and the men took their time getting on the horses and began to set out again.
The low path was not ideal, but they managed to pull the horses up a couple awkward climbs. They found a hill to walk down, and the horses kicked loose much slag, but finally they all made it to the clearing of the alternative path.
The men rode on through the afternoon and onward into the settling light of dusk. As the air began to cool, and the horses rode slowly — the men’s heads rolled side to side in a sublime trance.
A second layer of shifting gravel could be heard beside the noise of their own horses. Elias looked back first — he turned forward once again and said to Kanos, “There are horsemen behind us, 200 yards away.”
Kanos did not look back for a while but finally turned and stared quite intently. He said to Elias, “I believe those men are not normal travelers.” Elias agreed. They rode on another hour as the six horsemen slowly gained upon them.
Elias said, “We should stall our horses and shift our packs.” They slowed and turned and put their backs to open air, in order to prevent being cornered against the valley wall.
The horsemen plodded forward quite slowly. They were serious men; their cloaks were of dim weathered color. The horses looked hard-traveled; their muscles were quite sharp and well-carved.
The horsemen began to push onward and pass beyond the two men. As the middle horse came across the foot of Kanos, the line of horseman stopped. They turned at once, and a horseman spoke with a grave tone, “We know you are mages and would like to avoid a bath of blood. I am also a mage, as are these men.”
The man said, “Szorah is in a difficult time. Our resources are limited, and our people are in much need. I regret to say, we require a donation for your entry into our nation. It is an unfortunate tax — nothing less and nothing more.”
Kanos said, “I will gladly contribute a piece of silver. It is an honor to help a troubled people.”
The horseman said, “A gracious offer accepted with many thanks. Our tax however comes from a percent of ownership. We must take your blade and also… this man’s staff. We will leave you the horses.”
Kanos looked at the man directly, “I see… your need does exceed my interest.”
The horseman said, “Your blade or your life, traveler.”
Kanos slowly nodded towards Elias, and he slowly pulled out his blade. With great sorrow, he said, “I suppose my blade shall be yours, but his staff will stay his. It is a fair negotiation.”
The horseman smiled, and his expression was cold. There was an air of satisfaction to his dominance. Kanos slowly approached and held out the handle of his blade.
The man reached out to take the handle.
Kanos very calmly rolled the blade around, and with a single move, he sliced off the hand of the horseman.
All six horsemen wailed at once. Their cloaks flew back, and the hoods flowed off. The men were enchanted, as though by a phantom energy. Wild wisps of energy flowed off their bodies, and dim energy flowed around their faces.
Elias raised his staff and uttered a single word, “Dominahh.”
The horsemen shrieked and pulled hard against the reigns as they all swooped into a circle around Elias and Kanos.
Mages of Avios 2. Battlemage Page 11
