by Eric Vall
“Just get her out of there and tell her the plan has changed,” the angry mage ordered. “He’s in the Oculus now.”
I glanced over my shoulder, and I could tell by Cayla’s expression that she’d surmised the same thing from the statement.
There was a good chance this “he” they were so concerned about was me.
“What if they’ve already found--”
The second mage gasped and froze in place when he looked down the aisle and locked his dark brown eyes with mine, and before I could blink, the shelves on either side of me ignited.
An arrow from Cayla’s bow flew over my shoulder as Ruela lunged out of my grip, and the three mages at the end of the flaming shelves bolted for the staircase.
I barreled after Ruela as calls of alarm rose up around the library, and smoke began to billow out around the dome from the shelves now fully engulfed in a raging fire.
As I neared the staircase, the three mages took bounding leaps to scale the steps ten at a time, and as another arrow skimmed just past their heels, they skidded to the bottom and sprinted for the doors without looking back.
Ruela was only feet behind them with her jaws snapping when a wall shot up from the stone floor ahead of her, and the beast crashed into it with furious snarls. I already had my revolver cocked and aimed from the landing halfway down the staircase, but as the last mage looked back over his shoulder, the stairs beneath me suddenly split apart.
I managed to spark my magic just in time to keep from falling into a chasm, but by the time the stonework was stabilized again, the doors of the library had already closed firmly behind the fleeing mages.
Everyone in the large chamber was in a panic now, and I whistled sharply to bring Ruela back to me as she began to get more riled by the agitation of the mages.
Then two Ignis Mages scrambled up the steps to douse the fire in the east wing, and as they dipped their heads to me, I realized I recognized one of them from the gathering of recruits at Magehill.
I turned to follow them while Cayla slipped her bow over her shoulder, and when I glanced down at the chamber one last time, several of the groups of mages had decided to leave the place at once.
The thought of the mages in the Oculus living in a constant web of agitation like this made me angrier than I’d expected, but now that I was surrounded by my own kind, and in a place where they all joined together in the hopes of improving their connection to their elements, I felt a growing need to ensure their protection.
I ground my jaw as the tension in the air grated on my nerves, and as I eyed the wolf prowling beside me, I realized my own hackles were raised nearly as bad as Ruela’s.
I swiftly scanned the second floor for anyone else, but to my surprise, the expansive floor was empty aside from the two Ignis Mages who had managed to douse the flames. Considering how many people usually frequented the place, I knew the looming dangers had already trained them to be quick on their toes.
When we joined the young Ignis Mages near the smoldering embers, the ancient volumes were nothing but ash on charred shelves.
“You were at Magehill,” I said as I held out a hand to the younger of the two.
“I was, sir,” the mage replied as he shook my hand nervously. “I’m Jenik, sir. You taught my brother how to use his magic.”
“I did?” I asked as I cocked a brow.
“Y-yes, sir,” he stammered. “I think so, sir. His name’s Odin, he’s a--”
“Flumen Mage,” I finished for him as I recalled the young man who had adjusted our fountain for Aurora. “No more sirs, though. Just call me Mason, and thanks for handling the fire. We were trying to figure out what those three mages were up to, but then they ignited the shelves.”
“Yes sir,” Jenik said. “I mean Mason! The three mages have been here all morning.”
“Everyone knew they were here and just left them to their business?” I asked in confusion.
“They’re Defenders,” Jenik explained. “They’re very good with their magery.”
“Defenders? You’re sure about this?” I clarified, and when the two mages nodded, my pulse quickened.
If the Master had full-fledged Defenders working for him already, the young mages at Falmount wouldn’t stand a chance against an attack. We’d lose them all to the Master’s rune within a week.
“Are there others like them in here?” I asked the Ignis Mages as I lowered my voice and tilted my head toward the stairs.
“Five this morning,” Jenik reported, “in the lower cellars, but they left in a hurry about twenty minutes ago. The lot that caused this fire started arguing just before you arrived.”
“I also saw three heading for the tunnel on my way here,” the other added as he brushed his shaggy brown hair out of his eyes. “This was twenty minutes ago, too. I’m Malika, by the way, sir.”
“Mason,” I corrected again. “How do you tell them apart from the other mages?”
“They look like they want to kill us,” Malika said with a wry smirk.
I furrowed my brow. “How long has this been going on?”
“Weeks, sir.”
“Do the two of you live here at the Oculus?” Cayla asked next.
“We do,” Jenik said uneasily, “but we want to move out to Falmount Rift. My brother said it’s safer there, but there aren’t any free huts right now, and he already lives with four other mages.”
I nodded my understanding, but after hearing how attentive the two boys were, I had a better idea.
“Here,” I said as I pulled two daggers from my belt and handed them over. Then I untied my sword and gave it to Malika since he appeared to be the older of the two, and it was only a spare I’d pulled of a dead elf anyways. “Do you know how to use these?”
“My father’s a blacksmith,” Malika said as he secured the sword to the belt around his mage’s robe. “I do best with a sword.”
“What about you, Jenik?”
“I think I can figure out how to stab someone,” the young mage said with a shrug, “why?”
“I need you two to stay in the Oculus a little longer,” I explained. “Can I count on you to be my eyes and ears for another week or two?”
“Us? Really?” Jenik asked as a look of shock came to his face.
“Really,” I assured him.
“Of course, sir,” Malika said at once. “We’ll stay if you need us to.”
“Thank you,” I replied. “I’ll make sure you both have a place in Falmount when this is done, but until then, report to me at Magehill once a week. I need to know if any of those mages are staying here in the city, and if not, where they’re all going to. Also, if you see any more groups of Defenders like the ones I found up here, try and keep tabs on what they do, but don’t take any risks in approaching them. That was a good call on all of your parts. Got it?”
“Yes, sir,” the mages said with two eager nods.
“Excellent. Now, do either of you have any idea where the head of the Order is?”
The boys exchanged blank looks.
“No idea,” Malika admitted. “I haven’t seen him in nearly a month.”
I sighed and nodded. “Thanks for the help, guys. We’re gonna be looking around here for a bit, but remember what I said. Don’t take any risks, alright? Are you both signed up to train with us?”
“I am,” Malika said, “but Jenik’s too afraid to join the army.”
“I’m not afraid,” Jenik immediately countered as he gave his friend a solid punch in the arm.
“Hey,” I cut in, “no one said you had to join the army to train with us. If you want to learn, come out for the lessons, especially with that dagger. It’ll serve you pretty well if you know how to use it right.”
“Really?” Jenik asked, and his blue eyes practically lit up.
“Of course,” I chuckled. “We need every mage in the capital protected, but that doesn’t mean you have to join the ranks. The more you know, the better in my opinion.”
We left the Ignis M
ages to head back down the stairs, and I decided to check the cellars next in case any more of the Master’s mages were creeping around down there.
Most of the library was completely deserted now, and Ruela kept her hackles raised while she followed silently behind Cayla.
“Those other mages must have cleared out around the time we arrived in the Oculus,” Cayla pointed out as we came to a set of spiraling steps that led into the cellars of the library.
“Sounds like it,” I agreed.
“What sort of things would they be trying to find out from the books in here?” she asked curiously. “What could the Master need?”
“I can’t imagine,” I admitted. “I’ve never had the opportunity to do any research in here, but I know a guy who has. We just have to track him down.”
At the base of the torchlit stairs we came to a dungeon-like hall with multiple chambers on either side. Most of the doors were propped wide open to reveal hefty wooden tables and more shelves lining the walls of the inner rooms. This was clearly an area where the mages could do more secluded studying, and I could hear a few people talking to one another not far away.
When we passed the open doorway, four mages spared us half a glance before they did a double take, and then they just stared while Cayla and I waved and continued on our way.
Ruela was unphased by the group, so we kept our focus on finding Wyresus for now.
The next occupied chamber had two Terra Mages who were chuckling and rearranging the way the shelves were built while they split a bottle of wine, and I shook my head as I turned down the next hall.
There was no talking going on anywhere in this area, but I could hear the light scratching of a quill against parchment, and I slowed my pace as I tried to gauge where it was coming from.
Every door in the vacant hall was shut, but I could tell the majority of the chambers were unoccupied by the heavy silence looming around us. Still, the distinct scratching continued, and given that I only heard a single heartbeat, my interest immediately peaked.
Every mage we’d passed up to this point had stuck to the new protocol of moving in herds.
I carefully followed the sound of the scratching quill, but when my boot scuffed on a loose stone, the quill immediately stopped, and utter silence fell.
Then I caught the faint flutter of a heartbeat beginning to quicken, and I motioned for Cayla to be as quiet as possible as I slowly continued forward. When I came to the door of the pounding heart, I carefully reached for the iron latch, and my other hand gripped the revolver in my holster.
My fingers had just closed around the latch of the door when the atmosphere sparked with a rush of magic, and my lungs abruptly collapsed in on themselves.
I tried to gasp for air, but it was like a vacuum was connected to my esophagus at the other end, and I staggered a bit as I realized an Aer Mage had gotten a hold of me.
Cayla caught me by the shoulders as terror flashed in her blue eyes, but I gritted my teeth and took aim at the latch of the door before I pulled the trigger.
There was a yelp of fright as the wooden planks splintered apart where the latch had been, and I gave the door a solid kick. On the other side, I found a lanky man with milky blue eyes cowering behind a desk covered in stacks of books.
My pulse pounded heavy in my ears while my lungs refused to fill with air, but the moment I raised the revolver again and aimed it toward the man in the room, he suddenly popped his balding head up above the edge of the table.
“Mason Flynt?” the man squeaked in shock, and the hold on my lungs was promptly released.
I gasped to fill them with air as I braced myself on the door frame, and while my head swam from the brief strangling, Wyresus scrambled from his hiding place with his face twisted into a frantic scowl.
“G-Get in here!” he hissed.
Chapter 10
“You little shit,” I cursed as Cayla closed the door behind us, and I swiftly crossed the chamber in three strides to snatch the mage by the collar of his robes.
Wyresus had the wan pallor of a creature who hadn’t seen the sun in ages, and the stench in the room suggested he’d only left the chamber for a few necessities, but not all of them.
The table had at least forty books either stacked on one another or laying open to particular pages, and the hundreds of papers on his desk were carefully arranged before him like they’d been put there by a diligent secretary.
The man’s eyes bulged out of his head as I considered strangling him right there, but I roughly planted him in the seat at his back instead.
“You’re not possessed,” I growled. “You’re hiding. Like a rodent in a damn cellar.”
“Of course I’m hiding!” Wyresus snapped as he attempted to smooth his robes. “It’s a siege out there. Have you not seen the look in their eyes? Felt the anxiety? I can hardly sleep! I cannot show my face for fear I’ll be … ”
“Be what?” I laughed. “Do you even have the scope to imagine what they’d do to you?”
“Horrid things, I’m sure,” the man said icily. “Unthinkable things.”
“What, like peel your flesh from your bones?” I clarified. “Or maybe slit your throat and drop you ten feet under for good measure so you can twitch and bleed out in oppressive darkness?”
Wyresus's milky eyes went wide as he clutched his robes to his chest.
“Precisely,” he breathed.
“That’s shit I’ve done, and I’m not even possessed,” I barked impatiently. “What are you doing down here? Are you reading?”
“R-research,” Wyresus stammered, and he eyed the blood stains on my sleeves.
“Oh man … ” I sighed. “I thought I worked out all my tension last night, but you’re just bringing it all back. I kind of wanna rip your puny head right off your shoulders, and I’m having a hard time finding a reason not to do it.”
“What did I do to you?” Wyresus asked innocently.
“What the fuck is your job?” I growled. “Do you even know what it is?”
“Of course I know what my job is,” he sniffed pompously. “And you would do well to show a bit of respect for that title. As a Defender of the Order, there is no excuse--”
“There are plenty of excuses,” I cut in. “I wouldn’t even know where to begin, but let’s start with Yvette just for fun.”
“Who?”
“Yvette,” I said sternly. “Long black hair, blue eyes, Flumen Mage.”
Wyresus curled his lip like I’d described a maggot or something.
“Yes, Yvette,” he mused darkly. “She approached me in my first week here. Completely untrainable.”
“You sure about that?” I shot back. “Because the Master had no trouble training her, and he didn’t even have to possess her to get her in line. I mean, he could snap his fingers, and she’d come running, what the hell were you thinking denying instruction to anyone? It’s your job to see that every mage who comes to the Oculus learns how to safely influence their elements and perfect their craft. By not doing so, you ensure they’re a danger not only to themselves but to others.”
“In some respect, you are correct, but in others--”
“And what about the rest of your Defenders?” I continued as my grip tightened on the edge of the desk. “Any idea where they are? Any idea who they are, or did you just stamp them on the head with a green check mark and decide they were good enough?”
“The Defenders are defending Illaria, I would imagine,” he said frankly, and behind me, Cayla let out a sigh of irritation.
I glanced back to find the princess pulling her rifle from her back.
“We are killing him, right?” she asked impatiently.
“I haven’t decided yet,” I told her as I turned my gaze back to Wyresus.
The man’s jaw was quivering in fear, but he abruptly straightened up with what was probably supposed to look like defiance. It really just seemed like he had a kink in his neck he couldn’t sit comfortably with.
“You have
no right to kill me,” he scoffed. “I am the head of the Order of the Elementa, and while I don’t know what a green check mark means, I can assure you I would never promote a mage to the title of Defender if I was not absolutely certain they were capable of doing their duty for Illaria.”
“Well, that’s a relief at least,” I muttered. “So, you can write down the name of every mage you’ve promoted since you took this position?”
I flipped a piece of parchment over and firmly placed it in front of Wyresus, but he only blinked and said nothing for a long moment. Then he carefully returned the parchment to its proper pile and folded his hands on the table.
“Mason Flynt, I do not know why you are so concerned with the names of the Defenders of an Order you have spent only a couple weeks actually working within,” he sneered, “but I did not welcome you into my workroom to be berated. I simply--”
“You didn’t welcome me in here,” I clarified, “I had to hunt you down at the request of a king who hasn’t heard from you in weeks. You’ve essentially abandoned your appointed post and left a gaping hole in the defenses of this kingdom. Without a proper head of the Order, the mages have no training, they have no protection, and the citizens of Illaria are vulnerable to an attack of any magnitude. The Order defends Illaria, you little shit. What the fuck were you thinking just hiding down here when you have a job to do?”
Wyresus blanched, but he continued stubbornly defending himself.
“I accepted this job with the understanding that the Order of the Elementa needed a hospitable face at the forefront,” he informed me pompously. “I was instructed to be proficient, to be dedicated, and frankly, to be unimposing. In short, the king offered me a secure and uncomplicated post which, yes, I accepted. However, the proposed position I agreed to in no way involved battling evil forces or harboring a clan of incapable mages in a safe port.”
“That’s exactly what the job involves,” I cut in as fury pulsed through me. “That was your only job. You had to protect the mages and train them. How difficult can that be to grasp?”
“They’re out of my hands,” he insisted. “They are gods know where doing unthinkable things and running all over the Oculus like a pack of drakes. Whoever is leading them is impossible to discern, and I haven’t the faintest clue as to why this is happening or who has been targeted. It’s a random and regrettable situation which I intend to remove myself from immediately.”
