by Eric Vall
I raised my brows. “That’s impressive. I hope we can work with many more mages with your kind of credentials.”
“This one’s alright,” Kin said with a shrug as she jutted a thumb toward the mage on her right. “Bit of a pain in the ass, but he’s a decent Aer Mage when he’s sober.”
“Fuck off, wench,” the burly mage grunted back.
His wiry black hair was pulled into a tight braid down his back, and he had streaks of white splaying from his temples that reminded me of lightning. His brows were completely white and unruly, and his beard grew as it pleased in a black, bushy mass that reached nearly to his chest.
“He’s a real charmer,” Defender Kin informed me flatly.
“Good to meet you,” I told the gruff man with a grin.
“Name’s Defender Barnik,” he said as he leveled his bleary green eyes with mine. “Twenty years at the Order as well. Seventeen as a Defender. Too damn early for training if you’re asking my professional opinion.”
“No one gives a shit about your opinion, Barnik,” Kin sighed.
“She’s still pissed I got promoted first,” Barnik informed me.
Kurna cleared his throat and stepped between the two stone-faced mages. “And this is Defender Hulsan. Terra Mage.”
The man standing behind the others looked nearly sixty years old by my estimate, and he kept his head shaved clean like his wrinkled face. The other two mages Kurna had brought were dressed in their official Defender gear, but this guy wore simple breeches and a tunic that looked like he’d spent several years farming in it. He also slouched like the effort of standing was irritating to him, and he had a firm scowl beneath his bushy brown eyebrows.
“I’m a Terra Mage as well,” I told the man as I extended a hand, and the mage’s own was deeply calloused as he took mine.
“I’m retired,” he informed me, “and too old to give a shit about your mages.”
I glanced at Kurna. “Uh … thanks for coming then. I really appreciate it.”
“Didn’t want to come,” Defender Hulsan replied. “Kurna’s a friend, I’m just doing him a favor.”
“He’s a hell of a mage,” Kurna assured me as he lightly clapped the elderly mage on the shoulder. “My brother works in his fields in the west. Hulsan here was a Defender before Abrus ever became head of the Order.”
“Fucking Abrus,” the old mage snorted with contempt.
I grinned. “How many years have you been studying magery?”
“None,” he informed me. “I taught myself. Then the Order needed Defenders, so I signed up for a laugh. Got my gear first day in the Oculus. Served thirty-five years.” The man shrugged like this meant virtually nothing to him.
“Damn,” I chuckled. “That’s pretty amazing.”
“I’m not amazed,” Defender Barnik cut in. “He’s a lazy shit these days.”
“And you’re a drunken bastard,” Hulsan told him without batting an eye.
I tried to rein in the grin on my face as I considered the ragtag group in front of me. Knowing the amount of experience they all had between them made me feel like this day might go much better than I anticipated, and the fact that they all bore aged scars on their knuckles and a few on their faces showed the extent of experience they’d gained over their many years.
I couldn’t wait to see what they could deliver in terms of magery.
“Well, I don’t discriminate,” I told the three Defenders. “I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me with these mages, and if you guys can help in any way, I’m more than honored to have you.”
Barnik let out a guttural laugh that shook his beard and nudged Defender Kin hard in the side. “Here that? He’s honored.”
“Piss off,” Kin growled as she glared at the man out of the corner of her eye. “When do we start?”
Kurna was grinning with as much amusement as myself as I gestured toward the entrance of the fields.
“Right this way,” I announced. “First session should start in about ten minutes. Make yourselves comfortable and take a look around if you want. Is there anything I can get you?”
Hulsan shrugged. “Aldrin.”
“Ale,” Barnik grunted.
“Uhh … sure,” I replied and turned to Defender Kin next.
“Just keep that idiot away from me,” she muttered before she brushed past us all to head into the fields.
Kurna and I watched the rugged mages disappear behind the wall that encircled the two training fields, and he chuckled lightly to himself.
“They’re rough,” the brawny mage admitted.
I grinned. “They’re perfect.”
By the time the first set of mages filed through the marketplace toward the fields, I was already returning from the house with a vial of pure Aldrin pollen Shoshanne had eventually handed over. It took many suspicious remarks, but once I convinced the healer I needed it for an old Terra Mage I didn’t want to piss off, she finally relented.
The healer was already pouring over her books in search of a suitable tranquilizer when I left, and I made a quick stop by the pub to get Barnik his ale along the way.
The old bartender agreed to keep ‘em coming hourly, and I left him a stack of golden coins even though he kept smiling and waving them away.
Aurora was speaking with Defender Kin when I arrived in the magery field, and from the looks of it, they got along well. I smirked as I realized they both had the same stubborn set in their chins when they were talking business, and I pitied anyone who tried to take those two women on.
I was practically bouncing on my toes as I made my way over to Barnik and Hulsan, and both men grunted by way of thanks. They stayed against the wall while they glowered at the crop of thirty young mages talking together in the center of the field, and while Barnik downed his entire pint at once, Hulsan took a dab of Aldrin on the tip of his finger.
I tried not to stare when he suddenly snorted the pollen right up his nostril, and as Aurora cocked a brow in my direction, I sent her a shrug.
This day was already becoming interesting, and the sun had hardly risen.
“So … ” I tried as I cleared my throat. “Are you two alright with the circuit idea I was mentioning earlier?”
“Nope,” Hulsan sighed. He was eyeing the construction of the wall surrounding the field with a furrowed brow, and he didn’t look too impressed. “I’ll just tell ‘em if they’re doing something wrong.”
Barnik belched. “Fuck it, I’ll do the circuit. Scare those little mages a bit. They look like they could use a rude awakening.”
“Sure,” I chuckled, “but just remember I am trying to help them understand their magery better.”
Barnik looked insulted.
“Fear’s the best teacher there is,” he growled, and then he gestured to my bloody tunic. “Looks like ye’ know that already, yeah?”
“You’ve got a good point,” I allowed, “but don’t run them off.”
Barnik snorted at my back as I headed over to join Aurora, and Defender Kin nodded a greeting to me as I approached.
“This Ignis is a talented mage,” she informed me. “Sounds like she just needs some time to focus on her craft. If you keep her workin’ too hard, you’ll stunt her own abilities, you know. Give her some days off. I guarantee she’ll double her maneuvers in a month.”
Aurora blushed as I sent her a wink. “Yes, ma’am.”
We had the mages split into groups based on their elements first, and then I had each Defender lead their own series of tests with the mages in their groups to get an idea of what we were working with.
Defender Kin stood with her arms crossed and her brows furrowed while one after another of the Flumen Mages demonstrated their skill, and she didn’t respond to a single one of them. Just nodded to the next mage in line to bring them over.
Hulsan and I led the Terra Mages, and while I asked them to run through a few basic maneuvers, the old mage beside me looked on in silent disapproval. I couldn’t blame him, really. Only two mages could lift a boulder
as big as themselves, and the others barely managed to make a crack in the ground, never mind pulling a full trench open.
The Ignis Mages accidentally lit a couple of their own robes on fire, but Aurora and Kurna were patient while they discussed the best approaches to use for each of them. I recognized Malika and Jenik, the boys from the library, among them, and I was glad to see they were a bit more prepared for the test than the others.
Only Defender Barnik had me a little worried. His Aer Mages kept falling to their knees, and after I zeroed in on the man’s gruff voice, I realized his test was simple, but a little intense. Each mage had to try not to suffocate in his hold for twenty seconds.
So far, no one seemed close to passing the test.
Barnik enjoyed it, though, and his low chuckle sent a chill down my spine every time he nearly left his mages unconscious. They sputtered while they recovered with blue lips and ashen faces, and when the last of them nervously stepped up to face the man, I began to wonder if he just enjoyed torturing people.
The young mage in front of him had her eyes bulging in panic already, but I was surprised to see she didn’t drop to the ground. Finally, Barnik raised a brow and nodded.
“Not bad,” the man grunted. “You might live through your first day as a Defender. Not your second, though. Back in line.”
Once the initial tests were all done, I decided to give the Defenders plenty of room to lead their groups as they saw fit for the circuit training, and I wasn’t very surprised to see all of the Aer Mages drop to the ground in unison right off the bat.
I sighed. “Is Barnik just here to kill my mages, then?”
Hulsan slowly turned his bald head and shrugged. “Doubt it,” he replied. “He’s only getting a laugh. What’s next?”
I led my Terra Mages through everything I’d asked them to try in the test while we joined in a full circuit, but Hulsan shook his head when I offered him a place in it as well.
The old mage was determined to only stand by and watch, and when we finally broke the magical connection, he gestured for me to come over as he snorted another bit of pollen.
“Three of them are getting it,” he told me, and he raised a tired arm. “That one could do the trench on his own by now, but the other two need to spend some time working with rocks.”
“How’d you get all that without being in the circuit?” I asked as I furrowed my brow.
“I was in the dirt,” he said with a shrug, and I couldn’t help but stare this time.
“You can do that, too?” I asked incredulously.
Then the old mage actually opened his eyes all the way, and he considered me closely for a long moment.
“Bullshit,” Hulsan finally decided. “You’re too young.”
I grinned. “Try me.”
The faintest smirk came to Hulsan’s thinning lips, and I felt his magic spark around me a split second before my own did. I sent my Terra Magic into the soil beneath us, and I almost lost my focus when I sensed something different there for the first time since I’d developed the ability.
I could feel the presence of the old mage sifting through the dirt as well, and it reminded me of some of the oldest roots I’d come across while I scanned the jungles in Nalnora. It was complex in a way I couldn’t quite grasp the distinction of, but it continued outward and beyond the walls of the field in an instant.
I furrowed my brow and pushed my own magic outward as well, and when I reached the furthest bounds of the village, the old man’s magic continued far beyond the scope of my own.
“Holy shit,” I chuckled as I broke the connection.
The old mage wasn’t smiling anymore, though.
“Who taught you?” Hulsan asked me with a skeptical eye.
“I taught myself, actually,” I told the man. “Aurora, the woman with the blue hair over there, has been a big help from the beginning, though. She was the first mage I ever met, and she was the one who told me I was a mage in the first place. We share what we learn with each other as our abilities improve, but I haven’t formally trained at the Oculus yet. Well, besides Abrus’ initial test, but he was mostly trying to embarrass me.”
I showed the man my Mage’s Mark, and when he abruptly caught my arm in his calloused hand, I jumped in surprise.
“What’s that?” he asked as he eyed my hand closely. The faint silver line running through the Terra symbol glinted more noticeably in the morning sun, and I pulled my attention away from the badly faded mark on the old man’s hand.
“Oh, I’m a dual mage,” I explained. “Terra and Metal magic. I haven’t met anyone else who can influence metal yet, but I’ve done alright teaching myself with that, too.”
Hulsan released my arm and stared at me in disbelief, and I shifted uncomfortably under the scrutiny while I waited for him to speak again. After a full minute went by, I finally cleared my throat and gestured to the Terra Mages, and when I returned to the group to continue the lesson, the old man kept a sharp eye on my back.
At the end of the first hour, I left the mages in the hands of the other Defenders and headed over to the weapons field to check how Cayla was doing.
The princess stood at the head of the field with all thirty mages in a strict line around the clearing. They each had daggers in hand and were practicing hurling them across the field, and from the look of it, they were doing pretty damn well.
“We need targets,” Cayla informed me when I came to her side.
“Deal,” I replied, and then I summoned my Terra Magic as I turned my palms toward the mages and raised my voice a bit. “Nobody move for a second.”
All of the mage halted practice with their daggers in hand, and I closed my eyes as I formed a mental image of the field with the position of every mage dotting the schematics. Then I measured twenty feet out from each of them, and in one motion, thirty pillars rose from the ground to a height of nine feet. I softened the substrate to be sure the daggers could impale the targets without dulling the blades, and when I opened my eyes, there was a series of targets in a semicircle around the back half of the field.
“How’s that?” I asked Cayla.
“Perfect,” she sighed. “When should I move on to firearms?”
“Let them work with the targets for another twenty minutes,” I decided as about half the mages managed to hit their marks. “I’ll help with the revolvers if you wanna take rifles.”
“Sounds good to me,” Cayla agreed.
“Where’s Deya?” I asked as I scanned the group of mages. “Has she not come back yet?”
Cayla sent me a grimace. “She’s here, but she’s back there in the corner. A few mages made some comments to her, and she decided to watch for this session instead. I’m not really sure what happened.”
I turned to find Deya sitting with her back against the wall while she absentmindedly turned a dagger around in her hands. So, I made my way over to her, and the beautiful elf’s eyes lit up when she saw me coming.
“What are you doing over here?” I asked with a grin, and Deya’s smile fell immediately.
“Oh, I just felt like watching.” The elf shrugged, but I wasn’t buying it.
“What’d they say?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Deya assured me.
“Like hell it doesn’t,” I scoffed. “Tell me.”
“They’re just young, Mason,” she sighed. “I really don’t care what they say, but I didn’t feel like being teased about it, so I will wait until the next session to join the practice.”
I nodded as I crossed my arms. “Point them out.”
The beautiful elf pointed to three mages who were probably eighteen or nineteen years old, and they were the only ones chuckling and half-focused on their practice.
I eyed the cocky grins on their faces as I tried not to smirk. “What’d they say?”
“They wanted to use my ears for their target practice,” Deya muttered, and I turned to see a deep blush on her cheeks. “They’re just being silly, Mason. Don’t bother with them.
How is the training going with Aurora?”
“It’s going well,” I replied, but I was already heading into the field.
I strolled over to the three mages who’d seen fit to insult the beautiful elf, and as I pulled a dagger from my belt, only one of them noticed I was approaching.
He was too late to warn his friend, though, and I caught the largest of the chuckling mages around the back to lock the edge of my blade at his throat.
The guy gasped as I buckled his knees for him, but his struggling only made the blade press more firmly into his skin, and he quickly realized there was no way he was breaking out of this hold.
“I don’t think we’ve met,” I growled. “I’m Defender Flynt.”
“D-Defender Flynt?” the mage stammered, and his tone suggested he recognized the name.
“That’s right,” I replied. “I just thought I’d come over and introduce myself since I heard the three of you have been talking to my woman.”
“Your what?” he gasped as I tightened my hold another measure. “Who?”
“The beautiful woman you wanted to use for target practice,” I growled.
The other two mages’ eyes went wide, and they immediately dropped their daggers in the dirt as they stepped back a few paces.
“Hey, we were only playing around,” one of them tried. “We didn’t know who she was.”
A single bead of blood broke across my blade at the words, and the mage in my hold squirmed in panic while his two friends backed away another step. Several other mages near us had stopped what they were doing to watch, and I could hear their nervous muttering as I kept a gaze on the mage in my grip.
“You look like a pretty stupid guy,” I told him in a low voice, “so I’m gonna make this real easy for your to remember. When you come into my town, you keep your mouths shut and your eyes straight ahead, got it? If I hear one word about any of you disrespecting my women, or any of my mages for that matter, I’m gonna line each of you up in the middle of this field for next week’s demonstration. We’ll be learning about slitting throats, but I’ve found it’s more effective to have live dummies for something like that. The amount of blood that spills dictates how precise the angle of the blade is. You get where I’m going with this?”
