Squire of War

by M. H. Johnson

  “Later! After the meeting," Josie whispered, loud enough for everyone to hear.

  Jess smirked, and Jera grimaced.

  “Really?" Jacob sighed. "Is this the Circle of Midnight or a lover's den? Don't answer that. We all know the answer, I'm afraid. But let's pretend we're serious at least for tonight, shall we? I believe I have news that some of you might find quite intriguing!"

  Malek, also clad all in black, though it looked far more natural on him and less affected, laughed softly at this, even as he gave his beau's hand a gentle squeeze. Malek's dark gaze caught Jess's own for a moment, his teasing smile implying that his sister-in-arms would enjoy the news as well.

  Jess quickly finished her sandwich and grinned, her curiosity now truly piqued. She gazed politely at a pleased looking Jacob, happy to be the center of attention for once. For her part, Jess was eager for some interesting gossip from the arcane quarter of the college, happy just to get a taste of the goings-on of those with talent in the magical arts, even in the form of secondhand gossip.

  And who knew? Rumors, legends, and ancient practices could unlock a sea of possibilities if one was simply open to the chance of it. Even Raphael grinned at Jacob's exasperation. For all that Jacob feigned disdain at the romantic undertones of their groups meetings, he and Malek used the Circle's lair as their lover's nook quite frequently, the old abandoned library being one of the few places besides their quarters that the two young men could share their feelings without censure. The bonds of trust and friendship in the group were such that they felt able to relax in this one bastion of acceptance as they were in few other places, outside the most cosmopolitan of cities.

  Jacob glanced almost theatrically at the doorway, as if only now it mattered if there were prying ears about. He then gazed meaningfully at Jess, who smirked as she glanced at Twilight, though she had no doubt as to what he would tell her.

  “You can tell your dear over-dramatic companion that no, no one is listening at the door, and I don't detect any trace of scrying spell or thread of binding to any of you that would indicate someone is listening in." Twilight smirked. "As if your opponents hadn't grown bored with their futile attempts to spy upon us, ages ago. As if the masters of this college of war really cared whether or not you all go at it like rabbits, since you're all of similar rank."

  With a deadpan expression, Jess repeated this verbatim, the girls all flushing, the boys smirking.

  Raphael’s eyes twinkled. “Did your invisible familiar really say all that, dear Jess?”

  Jess grinned. “Every word.”

  Jera sighed. "Since we started our group, we've all been relying on her invisible kitty scouting for us, and half the time we don't even believe he really exists. Either he's real, or Jess has a magical sense of intuition. Twice Jess said her cat sensed someone trying to scry upon us, and we just shut up and left. And the one time anyone even bothered to explore this library, Jess called it way before any of us heard a thing, and we had plenty of time to clear out. No one has troubled us in ages, however, not since Alex made peace with the boy so eager to surpass him as a battlemage..."

  "We dueled, he lost," Alex cut in.

  Jess shared a smile with her shieldbrother. "A duel's always the best way to end a feud," Malek commended.

  Alex nodded. "And the Healers Wing assured that the bones set properly, and you can only see the faintest scar from the burns. Master Jevons was not happy about how much our little... exercise had cost him in time and resources, and Master Rens worked me so hard that semester I almost regretted the duel! Though now Henrick and I spar semi-regularly, having made peace long ago."

  Jera glared at her beau. "...And no professor has ever brought us to heel for our little meetings or demanded that we explain ourselves. So either Jess's familiar is as real as her intuition, which we know is sharp, or it's not, in which case it doesn't even matter, since no one has bothered with us anyway."

  “Oh, he’s real,” Alex assured, nibbling on his second sandwich. “I can sense the chords.”

  “What?” Jera's eyes widened with wonder. “You can see him? Why didn’t you ever say so?”

  Alex shook his head. “I can’t see him. Not yet. But I can finally make out some of the chords of power linking Jess to something. And as they spin off to infinity in the direction Jess faces when she talks to her cat, I will assume that is her de facto familiar. “

  Jess gasped, shocked. Even Twilight hissed. She had long been accustomed to Twilight being undetectable to anyone save herself. This was the first time she had ever heard of any definitive sign that he was detectable, or that she had any links to magic whatsoever.

  “Does that mean I have some talent for the arcane arts I just haven't tapped into?" Jess felt immediately childish for even asking. Her friends had the grace to look away. All knew how Jess had once longed to have the talent to cast spells, to embrace the Great Art, and feel the awe and majesty of its power; to one day be able to call herself a wizard in truth. And all knew how profoundly inept she was at channeling even the most basic of threads.

  Jess immediately laughed off her query. “Forget I asked. I'm long over that childhood fantasy. Besides, I love playing the knight well enough, what need have I for a mage's tricks?”

  Alex had the grace to smile, taking no offense. “Mages tricks have their uses, Jess, as does your blade, and your exceedingly useful familiar. You are no elementalist, we know that already, but the chords that bind you to your cat are, well, strange. That’s why I’ve never been able to definitively sense them before. I’ve known for a while that there was something, but it doesn’t seem to fit into the magical paradigm as we understand it.”

  Jacob looked almost in awe. “Are you saying her familiar is a creature from beyond the bounds of known magic? Is the secret to true power here, hidden among us in plain sight, so to speak?”

  Alex rubbed his chin, gazing at Jess with a slight frown. “Not necessarily. The fact that her familiar is beyond my understanding of the arts and, I suspect, that of most practicing wizards today, just makes the phenomenon very hard to study. I simply recognize that there are chords involved. Not what they are, nor the nature of their resonance with Jess. Oh, another thing, Jess. You do know you’re already magical, right?”

  Jess found herself planted in her seat, poleaxed by Alex’s almost offhand statement, spilled milk all but forgotten. “What did you say, Alex? I’m magical?”

  Alex tilted his head. "Perhaps that's not the right way to put it. As you know, wizards have struggled for years to develop magics sufficient to gaze upon our own spellwebs as they form. Unfortunately, this has always resulted in failure, but not without some useful discoveries along the way. We have at least figured out how to peer into a fellow wizard's core and determine their aptitude for magic, at least to an extent. And before you ask, Jess, your previous professors never bothered because, quite frankly, it is a working only a master of his craft could accomplish. With such magics you could look at me, or Jera, and see dark pools of calm at our core. This is where we have learned to open ourselves to the True Art, developing the metaphysical equivalent of looms in our souls with which to weave the endless energies and threads of power drifting through the world into useful webs of magic. With you, it's different. I get no impression of any calm center within your soul where you could learn the knack of weaving together those webs colloquially known as spells."

  Alex's gentle smile was almost apologetic. “I'd be amazed if you had any knack for spells at all, Jess. Whereas Jera and I have pristine centers of calm, and Jacob and Malek, to a lesser extent, have similar gifts, your core appears to me as a constant brooding storm, crackling with a potency that's almost scary. But to be quite frank, I doubt you could cast a single cantrip worth a damn.”

  Malek and Jacob, Jess noted, looked a tab bit offended at being included as an afterthought, but were also caught up in Alex’s explanation.

  “What about Josie? I know she has talent as well,” Jess queried.


  Alex nodded. “She does. It’s very specialized, though. She is an exquisitely gifted healer, but the shape of her loom is very specific to channeling those energies that resonate most strongly with vitality and restoration. She'd exhaust herself if she ever tried to wield battlemagic, and perhaps injure herself as well.”

  Josie huffed. "I already know my limitations and my strengths, Alex. Thank you very much for illuminating the obvious."

  “You’re welcome,” Alex deadpanned, eyes twinkling with gentle mirth. “The point being that with Raphael and Jess it's different.”

  Raphael’s smile was good-humored, indulgent. “Quite all right, dear Alex. I know the life of a mage isn’t for me. I’m quite content being the well-educated heir to a vast and powerful trading empire. And should any of you, my fine and talented companions, find later in life that coin is as sweet a balm for success as magical accomplishment, I’d love to have you fellows at my side when I work to expand my father’s empire.” He then wrapped his arms around Josie who blushed and smiled. “I could especially use the services of a good healer.”

  “Ooh, does my poor prince have an injury he needs healed? Perhaps I could soothe your aches.” Josie’s grin was indulgent as she wrapped Raphael’s arm around her and sighed, her head resting on his shoulders.

  Alex smiled. "Offer noted and appreciated, Raphael. As I was saying, our good friend here, talented and brilliant individual that he may be, does not have the knack to open his soul to harnessing and weaving the strands of ether that permeate every facet of our universe. His soul, like that of the vast majority of people, is simply closed to it."

  Jess felt the full force of Alex's dark-eyed gaze upon her once more. "With you it's different, Jess. Your soul is filled with potency. But it’s not something I really understand, let alone can quantify. You have a way with plants, right? Perhaps it’s some sort of nature magic that I sense, which would explain your knack for herbcraft.”

  Josie nodded her agreement even as she snuggled close to Raphael’s side. “There’s no doubt of that, dear Jess. The herbs you pick for me are the most potent I’ve ever worked with. The beneficial properties of the potions hardly need enhancement with my arts. Indeed, I know for a fact that Master Jevons will use your potions for wound cleansing without needing to enhance them at all. He’ll just add his own powers to aid a person’s natural recuperative abilities, and the patient almost always makes a full recovery.” Josie smiled encouragingly at Jess. “Either we have the fortune of growing the most potent herbs I’ve ever heard of, or you’re a natural greenmage.”

  “Greenmage, dear Josie?” Alex quipped.

  Josie smirked. “Yes. Greenmage. A mage whose arcane aptitude is aligned to growing things. I just made it up, and it fits Jess perfectly. The plants she nurtures are the most potent this college has ever seen. That’s a fact. You, dear Alex, have just shown us that Jess is magical, even if it’s not something the college can get a handle on. So, it only makes sense that it’s some kind of growing magic, or greenmagic, let’s call it. Something present day wizards can’t do well, or our kingdom would never have to worry about crop failure or starvation ever again.”

  Alex chuckled softly. “Actually, Josie, Druid is the term you are looking for. The land we now call Erovering supposedly had more than a few Druids at its disposal many centuries ago, before the elementalist tradition took firm root. Men and women with great power over the living world, who ruled it like kings and queens. Yet for whatever reason, as powerful as those beings were, the old traditions were lost. Some suspect it was simply because those with the gift were trained in the elementalist tradition as soon as the principles of that tradition had been fully realized, as it was so useful for war. And as the power of the storm and the art of growing things are so different, once a mage’s gift is shaped in one direction, it is unable to flex into another. Thus, sadly, their secrets died out centuries ago, or so the story goes.”

  Jess frowned. “So because I developed a knack for understanding the plants in my father’s garden, it blocked my ability to understand the art of storms, calling lightning and thunder?”

  Alex gave an enigmatic shrug. “It’s just a theory. Or perhaps the gifts just work differently. In any case, the mantle of Druid does fit you rather well, Jess. Of that there can be no doubt.

  Twilight, however, gave a firm shake of his head. "Your gift with plants has nothing to do with your inability to channel the wispy magics of this realm, my beloved Jess. Put simply, their magics are as delicate as gossamer strings; easily broken, unable to survive the cauldron of your will." Her cat grinned. "You're no more suited for casting elementalist magics than a bull serving as proprietor in a glassworks shop."

  Jess grimaced. “Thanks for implying I’m a clumsy bull, Twilight. I feel so much better now.”

  Raphael kissed Josie’s cheek. “Brilliant, my dear Josie! We have rediscovered a lost school of wizardry and its sole surviving practitioner by dint of careful observation and deduction." He then turned to Jess, smiling warmly. "I do hope you will consider visiting my family's demesne after you graduate, Jess. Our House does considerable trade in the more exotic herbs, but we have a dickens of a time getting them to grow locally, and lose quite a bit of profit having to import them at considerable expense. If we could engage your services in setting up a local nursery for them, I think we could devise an exceedingly lucrative venture. I have no doubt my father would be quite amenable to the arrangement, and we would make sure your family profited handsomely from our enterprise as well."

  Josie’s grin was ecstatic “Wouldn’t that be something, Jess? You could come with us to Raphael’s family villa! We wouldn’t have to separate after we graduate. Maybe we can arrange for the whole Circle of Midnight to stay together.” She then looked a bit forlorn, squeezing Raphael as if for reassurance. “That is, assuming we’re not just a third-year fling?”

  Raphael chuckled softly under his breath. “My dear sweet blossom. How could I ever tire of savoring your delicious scents?” He began softly kissing her lips, working his way down her neck, seducing Josie into a blissful swoon. “What man would be so foolish as to let go of such a precious treasure as yourself? I fear it is my duty to disabuse you of that notion, and drive home how much I want you.”

  Josie’s chuckle turned thick and hungry and she and her paramour began kissing deeply, in earnest. Jess smiled fondly at her friends, knowing where this was going to go, and seriously considered turning in early for the night, before things got really serious.

  Their romantic entwining came to an abrupt halt when Jacob started tapping his table with his now empty flask. “Can you two not curb your passion for just a few minutes? I haven’t even told you my news!”

  Raphael rolled his eyes. “I give up. What news would that be, brave explorer of the darker arts? Have you uncovered some secret new path to undreamed of power that will lead us to true dark glory and perhaps unimaginable riches, if we can market it correctly?”

  “Well, no,” Jacob conceded. “But I did find out that the head wizards are about to send out a call for adventurers to come to the college! Something is up, my friends. Something fascinating. Perhaps there is some dark, undiscovered chamber deep within the bowels of this keep, fraught with lost tomes filled with forgotten wisdom. Or perhaps a realm of Shadow or Regio is overlapping our own, and only Delvers have the ability to enter those strange worlds of living dream and explore their lost secrets before something terrible happens to the school.”

  Jacob's features lit with excitement. “Think of it, my friends! A call for adventurers, here! Maybe not all of us are the most talented of arcane practitioners, but who is to say we don’t have heretofore undiscovered talents as Delvers, able to traverse those realms of Shadow and dreams made flesh? Imagine the wealth and notoriety such a gift could bring one.”

  Raphael whistled, and Josie looked as impressed as Jess felt. Malek smiled in satisfaction, also savoring the news. Jera just sighed, and Alex cleared his throat.
<
br />   “You’re half right, Jacob. The Heads of the Arcane College are putting out a summons for Delvers, and there is considerable coin to be made for anyone who has the talent necessary to assist them. It is good money if you are a commoner, but for those with title and wealthy families such as ourselves, it’s hardly worth risking our lives for.”

  Alex's gaze was almost sympathetic. "Believe me, I understand how much a number of us wish to be free of the burdens and demands we feel society and our families place upon us. And while it is true that adventurers have more freedoms and liberties than other commoners, and far less social expectations to adhere to than nobles, there are reasons why the Arcane College refuses to test students for Delving ability. The most fundamental one being that very few overlapping fragments of dream or Regio slide through this part of the kingdom; those Shadowrealms, as you put it.

  Alex held up a placating hand before Jacob could interject. "Yes, you all know the tales… questing knights traveling through a strangely quiet valley with nary a settlement in sight, only to see what appears to be a majestically shining palace in the distance. A palace that, as one approaches, turns out to be but a dilapidated tragic ruin; its former glory but a mirage. Yet were that same knight to give it one last forlorn look as it fades back into the distance it would appear a glorious, pristine castle once more."

  Alex's voice pitched low and solemn, as if for dramatic effect. "And we all know the other tales. Tales of those rare souls who could do more than just capture sight of a lost kingdom's forgotten glory in the distance. Stories of how brave fools with a certain knack, much like a bard's flare for conjuring tales so real it's as if he summons dreams sprung to life entire, can hold on to that majestic image in their mind's eye, and somehow approach that castle in all its lost glory. Approach that mirage, as if it were as real as the leather chair you lounge upon at this very moment, Jacob, even as that adventurer appears to fade into shadow to any awestruck villager staring his way."