God of Magic

by Logan Jacobs

  “You can expect to be pretty worn out at first,” the elf went on. “Stay here and rest, we’ll go sell the rest of this stuff and see if we can get you some new clothes. Don’t worry, you’re not missing anything exciting.”

  Part of me wanted to go with them and explore the town, but I was half asleep as it was, so I nodded.

  I didn’t wake up until it was time to set off for Ovrista the next morning. Aerin had gotten some spare clothes for me, a plain white cotton shirt and dark trousers, but she assured me that I could buy some more items for myself once we reached the city.

  “I can go with you to the shops when we get there if you want,” she said as I pulled on my boots, “I’m really good at haggling.”

  I smiled at her. “Thanks, I’d appreciate that.”

  The morning passed pleasantly, and there was some cloud cover to provide relief from the sun as we made the last leg of our journey. Around mid-morning, there were enough carts pulled by various beasts of burden, some recognizable to me and some strange, that we were compelled to walk in the grass alongside the road instead of on it, and as the day progressed and we neared the city, the packed dirt was replaced by a paved street. The forest thinned, and hills began to dot the terrain. As we crested one such hill, there was Ovrista, spread out before us.

  A magnificent tower covered in panels of shimmering glass reached up into the sky, surrounded by a wide circular park. The city’s streets radiated out from it like the spokes of a wheel past innumerable rows of buildings, and the river that I’d sometimes glimpsed from the road flowed down to cut a path through Ovrista’s northern section. Even at this distance, I could spy the dots of carts and carriages moving in an orderly fashion along the road before us into and out of the city like lines of ants and the crowd gathered outside the gate.

  What surprised me, though, and drew my attention even more than the tower was the enormous wall that marched along the edge of the city. It was a formidable structure of gleaming white stone, and guard towers stood at intervals along the top. I remembered what Aerin had said about the civil war, and I wondered if the wall had been built during that time, to keep people like me out. I put up the hood of my cloak and drew it tighter around my shoulders as we made our way down the road toward the gates.

  Maruk must have sensed my unease because, a moment later, I felt the weight of his large hand on my shoulder.

  “Don’t worry,” he said. “There are so many people down there, no one will pay you any mind. Besides, you have the good fortune to be traveling with an orc and a ladona. Lavinia and I tend to draw the eye, even here.”

  I smiled. “Thanks, Maruk.”

  I felt somewhat less assured, however, when we finally reached the gates, and I saw why there were so many people gathered there. Multiple guards stood by on either side and watched people as they filed through. Occasionally they would draw someone aside and ask questions before they let the person pass, during which time the rest of the line was held up.

  “What’s going on?” Aerin asked aloud. I wasn’t sure if it made me feel better or worse that she hadn’t expected this.

  “Some new bullshit from the Mage Academy,” an old woman groused next to us. Her face was sun-weathered and wrinkled, and she had a large burlap sack slung over her bent back. “You know how they get, all uppity about rumors.”

  “Rumors of what?” Lavinia asked, and she exchanged a worried look with the orc man and elf woman.

  “How should I know?” the old woman answered. Then the line moved forward, and she shuffled ahead while she grumbled something about mages.

  “Hmmm,” Aerin hummed as she looked at me. “It’s probably nothing, and my amulet will help hide your aura, but maybe wear the hood of your cloak up.”

  “Alright,” I said. There was no way that anyone in the Mage Academy could know about my powers, was there? I had only just gotten here, this couldn’t have had anything to do with me. Still, if the Mage Academy were already on guard for another reason, I would have to be even more careful.

  I put my hood up, relaxed my shoulders, and made my expression neutral. I knew that the easiest way to infiltrate a system was to appear as though you already belonged there. I just had to look confident, like I was just another ordinary traveler and hope that the pendant Aerin had given me really could conceal my aura.

  There were only a few people before us in line then, the old woman with her sack, a surly looking man with a cart and cages of creatures that resembled chickens but had long, lizard-like tails and scraps of cloth tied over their eyes, and a young couple in sweeping silver robes. The guards waved them all through, their expressions slack with boredom. The noon sun was hot overhead, and there were sweat stains on their collars. They looked as though they’d been out here all morning, and I was sure they’d rather be anywhere else by now. Hopefully, I could take advantage of their weariness and slip by unnoticed.

  I stayed close to Aerin, Maruk, and Lavinia as we passed through the gate, and I thought we’d made it without incident when one of the guards called out, “Hang on, you four there, with the orc.”

  Maruk rolled his eyes as the four of us turned back, and Aerin approached the guard with a friendly smile.

  When she faced him, her eyebrows shot up. “Wait, you’re Brennen, right?” she asked.

  The guard looked her over with watery eyes and scratched his stubbly chin. “Yeah.”

  “It’s me, Aerin!” the elf said cheerfully. “We were in the same training program, but I dropped out halfway through to join a guild.” She pursed her lips. “Don’t you remember? We practiced sword fighting techniques together.”

  The guard frowned. “Err, right.”

  “So what’s going on out here?” Aerin asked casually.

  The guard shook his head. “Mage Academy wants guards at the gate,” he replied. His tone suggested that he also wondered why he had to be out here. “Looking for something.”

  Aerin raised her eyebrows. “Really? What are they looking for?”

  The guard shrugged. “They just said to look for anything suspicious.” His watery eyes flicked over to the rest of us. “What are you bringing in?”

  “We got a bounty, that old wraith up at the Kildon Ruins,” Aerin answered. “You know, the country up that way is so beautiful. If you haven’t been, you really should try to make the trip--”

  There was a shout from somewhere in the crowd behind us. “What’s the hold-up?”

  The guard wiped the sweat off the back of his neck and wearily waved us on, and Aerin skipped ahead with a gleam in her hazel eyes.

  “I didn’t know you were training to be in the guard,” Maruk commented when we were out of earshot.

  “I wasn’t,” Aerin replied with a grin.

  “Then how did you know that man’s name?” I asked.

  “I heard his partner call him before we went through,” she answered.

  I was impressed she’d lied so convincingly. “That was quick thinking,” I said. “Thanks.”

  Aerin’s grin broadened. “It’s what I do,” she replied. “Now let’s collect this bounty and get something to eat. I’m starving!”

  We stayed on the main street as we made our way deeper into the city toward the park and the tower of glass. I was glad I had guides because it would have been all too easy to get lost in a place like this. The buildings were all stacked three or more stories high, and if any of the streets were marked, I couldn’t see where. The best that I could say was that we were currently in some sort of market district. The lower levels of the buildings we passed sported wide windows to display the merchandise offered by the shops within, and as I passed, I saw everything from books to baked goods to, in one particularly memorable storefront, jars of pickled animal parts, apparently for use in alchemy.

  Vendors hawked their wares on the streets as well and offered ‘buy three, get one free’ discounts on assorted trinkets or arranged carts full of fresh produce. We passed by the man I’d seen earlier at the gate with
the cages of strange chickens and learned from the sign he’d set up that they were, in fact, basilisks. He glared at me when he caught me staring, and I wondered what sort of person raised basilisks… and what sort of person bought them.

  Eventually, we left the shops and the vendors behind, the crowds thinned considerably, and the architecture became grander. Unlike the mishmash of colorful shopfronts, the buildings here were of a mostly uniform design, all elegant white stone and curtained windows.

  “Are these the guild halls?” I asked, amazed. They were certainly fancier than I’d expected.

  “No, these are apartments for some of Ovrista’s wealthier citizens,” Maruk said. “They are beautiful, aren’t they? These people know how to live.” He sounded wistful.

  “They don’t like it when we come through this way,” Lavinia added with a smirk, “but it’s faster than going all the way around, and you’re less likely to get robbed. The guild halls are scattered throughout the city, better guilds can afford to stay in nicer areas, but we’re going to the charter office first to collect our bounty. It’s just across the river from the Arcane University Tower.”

  The Mage’s Tower was no less beautiful or less imposing the closer I got to it. At first, I had thought the glass panes might be windows, but as we walked along the edge of the circular lawn that surrounded the structure, I realized that they were actually mirrored panels and reflected the surrounding city from hundreds of angles. Perhaps the design was meant to be artistic, but if I was being honest, it sort of creeped me out. It gave me the sense that I was being watched, and I was glad when I finally put it behind me.

  A wide pedestrian bridge spanned the river before us, and across I could see a building clearly marked “Charter Office.” When Lavinia had mentioned it, I’d imagined something small and unassuming, a place meant purely for function, like a DMV office, but that wasn’t what I saw. The charter office looked more like a small palace, set on a sweeping green lawn lined with flowering hedges, the wide, white roof supported by stately columns.

  As we crossed the bridge and made our way up the road toward it, I saw that the paving stones were marked with crests and names, which I realized must be those of each of the city’s resident guilds. There were more than I expected, even in a city so large, and I had to wonder if they were all active, or how many were there to represent guilds that no longer existed.

  When Lavinia opened the enormous double-doors into the office, I felt more like an imposter than I had even at the gate. For the first time since we’d come into the city, we were surrounded by people who looked like us… at least, more or less. Everyone was dressed in some sort of armor, and many others were laden with the spoils of their latest quests, just as we were. I pulled my cloak a little tighter around my shoulders, feeling conspicuous without any other gear.

  People clustered in groups all around as they laughed and shared stories, and I began to pick out signs of allegiance on their gear. The members of one guild all wore matching cloaks with brown fur ruffs which I thought must be sweltering in this heat. Another group had full uniforms of unique armor to distinguish them from the other guilds, and each of the members wore the same self-important expression. I caught the eye of one of the young men as I passed, and he turned away and pretended he hadn’t seen me. All the better that I didn’t make an impression, though, I supposed.

  Aerin cut through the crowds with surprising ease as she led us toward a line of desks, and I did my best not to lose her. When we reached the desks, she fished the rags we’d retrieved from the wraith from her pack and set them before the clerk, a small man with small spectacles perched on his small nose.

  He regarded the moldy, frayed fabric with open distaste and peered at Aerin with narrowed eyes.

  The elf was undaunted. “The Wraith of Kildon Castle,” she reported, “for the Shadow Foxes.”

  The clerk’s lip curled. “Cutting it rather close, aren’t we?” he asked in a somewhat reedy voice as he prodded the rags with a narrow iron bar. At the metal’s touch, the fabric briefly glowed purple, just as the wraith had.

  “We made the deadline,” Aerin asserted.

  “Barely,” came the reply, but the clerk took the rags and scribbled something onto a slip of paper, which he slid across the top of the desk to Aerin. Neither of them said anything else by way of goodbye.

  “We’re set for another month,” Aerin said as she folded the slip of paper and tucked it into her pack. “We can drop our gear off at the Den and get something to eat.”

  That sounded good to me, but as we started to make our way back toward the door, a young man in a dark blue scarf stepped into our path, flanked by six other people, each wearing a matching scarf.

  “Did I just hear that the Foxes took out the Wraith of Kildon Castle?” he asked. His smile looked fake, and there was a haughty look in his bright blue eyes. “How’d you manage something like that?”

  “It really wasn’t that difficult, Ren,” Lavinia replied as she stepped forward, her red eyes narrowed. Even though her glare wasn’t directed at any of them, several of the others in blue scarves stepped back with nervous expressions, and the corner of Ren’s mouth twitched. “Of course it helps if your guild isn’t made up of a bunch of sniveling--”

  “We really should be going,” Maruk interrupted as he pushed Lavinia behind him. He smiled in a placating way at Ren and turned back to Lavinia with what was clearly a warning look.

  She met it with a withering glare of her own, but Aerin took hold of her arm and began to guide her toward the doors. I was quick to follow, but then a hand on my shoulder stopped me, and I turned to face Ren.

  “You’re new.” Maybe it was my nerves, but it sounded like an accusation. “Where’d they pick you up?”

  I said the first thing that came to mind. “Kassal.”

  One of the member’s of Ren’s guild snorted derisively, and Ren grinned. “Yeah? And what do you do?”

  I knew that I couldn’t tell the truth, but my mind was blank.

  “Worried he’s an air mage, Ren?” Lavinia taunted. “Concerned you might have some competition?”

  Ren’s grin faded, and he glared at Lavinia. “Anytime you Foxes want to go head-to-head with us, Lavinia, you just let me know,” he replied stonily, then he and his guild swept off toward the desks, and I quickly followed Aerin, Maruk, and Lavinia outside.

  “What were you thinking?” Aerin hissed at Lavinia, her hand still wrapped tightly around the other woman’s arm. “We’re still paying off that fine you got us last time you tried to pick a fight in the office.”

  Lavinia wrenched her arm away. “He wouldn’t have done anything. Ren’s too much of a coward,” she muttered testily.

  “You shouldn’t have provoked him,” Maruk warned, “or said anything about Gabriel being a mage. We need to figure out a cover for him.”

  “What? It’s not like I said he’s a manipulator,” Lavinia shot back.

  Aerin rolled her eyes. “Look, if you want to pick fights, don’t do it with the guy who already wants to see us lose our charter.”

  “Whatever,” Lavinia replied. “Let’s go home.”

  Chapter 5

  ‘Home’ ended up being almost all the way back by the gate, in a part of the city that seemed to be constructed entirely of back alleys and dark corners. The buildings with their old and crumbling facades seemed to leer over the narrow streets. The streets, in turn, were uneven and puddles of foul-smelling water were gathered in the divots despite the lack of rain. While part of me was glad that we weren’t going to be too close to the daily chaos of the market, it was almost too quiet here, and I found myself peering into the shadows every time I heard the clatter of a pebble or creak of a door. More than once I caught someone peering back.

  At last, we came to a small pub set between an apparently abandoned locksmith’s studio with a broken window and a dimly lit curio shop with a collection of dust-covered items on display. The pub itself, the Magpie, according to the faded si
gn, looked pleasant enough. Unlike most of the surrounding buildings, it looked well-cared for, and a cheerful glow shone through the windows.

  “We’re on the top floor,” Aerin explained. “We call it the Den. Well, we don’t, but Nesta always does, and the name kind of stuck.”

  “Who’s Nesta?” I asked.

  “She owns the Magpie,” Aerin replied. “We couldn’t afford the rent for one of the proper halls, but Nesta lets us stay on the top floor here.”

  With that, Lavinia pulled the door open, and we filed inside.

  The interior of the pub was snug and homey. Multiple lanterns cast a warm orange light over the clusters of worn wooden tables and chairs carved with images of magpies. A stone hearth stood against the far wall before a sitting area with a frayed rug, and I could see the staircase that led to the upper stories off in the corner. An assortment of bottles stood along the shelf behind the bar above a cluster of wood barrels, and although it was only late afternoon, there were already a few patrons seated on the stools.

  A golden-haired young woman who I supposed must be Nesta was tending the bar, but she wiped her hands on her apron and came over to us when we entered.

  “I hope you have my rent,” she said, her expression stern.

  Aerin smiled in her friendly way. “We missed you, too, Nesta,” she said as she dropped a small purse into the woman’s open hand.

  Nesta weighed the purse in her hand before she tucked it into her pocket. Then she looked us over, hands on her hips, and seemed to notice me for the first time. At once, her expression softened, and she swept back a loose strand of golden hair behind her ear.

  “Oh, I’m sorry, dear,” she said quickly. “Are you here for a drink?”

  “He’s with us,” Lavinia answered.

  I held out my hand. “My name is Gabriel.”

  Nesta took my hand with a warm smile. “And you’ve joined this lot? I hope you know what you’ve gotten yourself into.”

  I wasn’t sure how to respond, but Aerin said, “We’re going to get Gabriel settled in. Do you think you could make us some of that fish stew?”