“She still hasn’t given in to my charms,” I tell him, jokingly.
Daren laughs.
“No worries, take your time,” he says. “We have all the time in the world!”
Slowly, Daren’s smile fades away from his face and he adopts a more serious tone.
“Listen,” he says. “I know your heart is in the right place, but you know as well as I do that women simply can’t be born as mages. It’s not in their blood. I don’t know why she appears different from a normal banshee to you, and I don’t know why the banshee inside her hasn’t awakened yet, but it’s only a matter of time. One day she will turn into a banshee, and I want you to be prepared when the time comes.”
Daren takes a small device of his own out of his front pocket and hands it to me. It appears to be a magical transceiver. These devices are mostly used by soldiers, when they need to transmit information to each other over short distances, without having to shout to one another.
“I want you to carry this with you at all times,” Daren says. “If you’re ever in danger, just tap this three times, and I’ll come over to help as fast as I can.”
“Just promise me something,” I tell him.
“Of course!” Daren says.
“Promise me that you won’t try to purify her until you see her transform into a banshee,” I say.
Daren sighs.
“You’re asking a lot of me, Barry,” Daren says. “You should know better than anyone how hard it will be to stop her once she turns into a banshee. But if it means that much to you, then I’ll promise.”
He pauses.
“Come on, we should get going,” Daren says. “It’s time we wake up Kate so she can take second watch.”
As we descend towards the cave, my stat device starts beeping. I pull it out of my pocket, and I see that I now have six more points available to spend. There must have been a big fight somewhere in the vicinity.
Just as I’ve discussed with Daren and Kate earlier, I use three of my points to max out my speed stat, I use two other points to put into my reflexes stat, and then I use the last point to upgrade my ancient languages stat to its maximum level of three.
I then put the device back in my pocket, and I enter the cave. We wake up Kate and she goes outside to guard the entrance, as Daren and I go to sleep.
I wake up to Kate’s voice several hours later. She is whispering and making sure that Daren can’t hear us.
“Wake up, stillwater,” she says. “It’s time for you to pay your debt.”
It takes me a few moments to realize she’s referring to the discussion we had yesterday about her saving my life.
“And just how exactly do you want me to pay this debt?” I ask her.
“All you have to do is come with me and take a look at something,” Kate says. “It won’t take you more than a minute. Do that, and you can consider your debt paid.”
She’s being serious. This must be more important to her than she lets on.
“Why are you asking this of me and not Daren?” I tell her. “He’s the legendary mage around here, not me!”
“Because unlike him,” Kate says, “you appear to be very knowledgeable in the more obscure intricacies of magic. You don’t see many people these days that know how a stat booster works. Plus, I have something I want to ask you in private. So come, before we wake up Daren.”
We exit the cave and head for the trees. The moon is still pretty high up in the sky. It can’t have been more than two or three hours since I went to sleep.
As we walk in awkward silence for a few minutes, I figure I might as well try to start a conversation.
“So, how did you come to know the true function of the stat devices?” I ask Kate.
She gives me a pondering look, probably trying to decide how much of the truth she’s willing to disclose to me.
“The stat boosters were created on this continent,” she says. “I was born here as well. It is more common for people on this continent to know what these devices do than it is for people in the rest of the world.”
“Wait, you were born here?” I say. “Didn’t you come here as a participant in this tournament?”
“I was born here,” Kate says, “but I didn’t spend my whole life here. It is not so easy to return here once you’ve left, however. I used this tournament as a means to come back, because I have some unfinished business to attend to.”
“And I’m guessing this unfinished business of yours is somehow related to this thing you want me to look at,” I say.
She doesn’t make any comment, but her silence is enough to confirm my hypothesis. Kate decides to completely change the subject, instead.
She stops in front of me, and she looks me straight in the eye.
“There’s something that’s been bugging me ever since we met yesterday,” she says. “When you and Daren first saw me, you started whispering between yourselves for about a minute. You said you were talking about my looks and I was willing to take your word for it at first, but then a whole day had passed and none of you made a single comment about me being a banshee. Even after that bearded fool of a mage spelled it out for you when we were battling. It’s painfully obvious to me now that what you were in fact discussing that first time we met was whether I was a banshee or not, and as a result of this conversation you’ve decided that there was no need to purify me.”
She pauses a bit, before she continues.
“The question is why?” Kate asks. “I decided to seek Daren’s help because I fooled myself into thinking someone as kind hearted as him would not sentence me to death. But now that I have cleared my head and thought about it, I realize how much I’ve put myself at risk by showing myself to him. Why did Daren decide I wasn’t a banshee when all the evidence pointed to the contrary?”
This isn’t good… Kate still doesn’t trust me. If I tell her I’m the one that convinced Daren to spare her life, she’s either not going to believe me, or she’ll get suspicious of my motives and completely lose her trust in Daren. Maybe she’ll believe me if I tell her Daren was the one that decided not to purify her?
“Daren said he’d met a banshee before,” I lie to her. “He said he could tell you were different somehow, and that he was going to keep an eye on you, for the time being.”
“I see,” Kate says with relief in her voice. “That’s all I wanted to ask. Let’s keep going, then.”
“Wait, why ask me all of this?” I say. “Why not ask Daren directly?
“Because Daren is the one that knows white magic, not you,” Kate says. “He is the one who would normally want to purify a banshee. I didn’t want to give him any ideas, in case the thought never occurred to him.”
“And why would you believe that I’m telling the truth?” I say.
“Because you’re not a very good liar,” Kate says. “Your face gives you away.”
Is that so?…
“Well, in that case, I also have a question for you,” I say. “You may not be a banshee, but you can’t be a mage either. Women can’t be born as mages. So, what are you, then?”
“Who says I was born a mage?” Kate says.
My mind goes blank for a second, while I try to make sure that I understood what she said correctly.
“Hold on,” I say. “Do you mean to tell me that you were born as a normal human, and that you later became a mage?”
“That is exactly what I’m saying,” Kate says.
“How?” I ask her, in perhaps too loud of a voice. “Did you get access to the Magium? How did you do it? I must know!”
I realize too late that I had let the excitement get the better of me. Kate is looking at me with an expression that shows both bewilderment and a sudden understanding.
“By the gods,” she says. “You were telling the truth, weren’t you? You really are a human, and you came here in the hopes of becoming a mage. Listen to me, I have no idea what could motivate you enough to go on this suicidal quest, but the only things that you’ll find a
t the end of your journey will be agony and despair. Quit now, and you might still make it out of this alive.”
“You speak to me of agony and despair,” I say, “but you chose to become a mage. Surely you must understand how I feel about this?”
“I do not,” Kate says. “Because becoming a mage was never my intention. And I have no intention of continuing this conversation, either. I gave you a warning. You can choose to heed it or you can ignore it. This is all I’m willing to say on this subject.”
Before giving me a chance to respond, she storms ahead, and I am forced to rush to follow her. We travel in complete silence for the next ten minutes.
As we get further and further away from the cave, I call out to her again.
“Wait,” I tell her.
“What is it now?” Kate asks.
“We’re getting too far away from our cave,” I say. “What if anyone attacks Daren while he’s asleep?”
“Oh, you don’t need to worry about him,” Kate says.
“Why not?” I ask her.
“See for yourself,” Kate says. “Go on, try and head back to our cave.”
Hesitantly, I start retracing my steps back towards the cave. Once I start walking, however, I get a powerful urge to go the other way. I try again and I get the same result. No matter how many times I try, I simply can’t keep going in the same direction. I keep turning in the opposite direction, sometimes, without even noticing. Is this some sort of spell? In all of my research, I’ve never read of such a thing.
“What did you do?” I ask Kate.
“I see,” Kate says. “Apparently not even someone as learned as you would be familiar with this spell. It is understandable. They don’t really use suggestion magic outside the continent of Varathia after all. The spell I used is part of a subset of magic called suggestion. What these spells do is that they insert an idea inside your head, and they make you think you were the one that came up with it. You may have noticed that something was wrong because you were specifically aiming to go in that direction, but most mages wandering around this area won’t even notice the spell’s effect.”
“But how do I get around it?” I say.
“In order to counteract the spell,” Kate says, “all you need to do is focus on the cave, and visualize it clearly inside your head when you head towards it. As long as you have a set destination inside your head and not simply a general direction, the spell won’t work on you. My knowledge of this spell was one of the only reasons why I was able to survive against banshee hunters for so long. It covers a pretty large area, but unfortunately I can only cast it about two times a day, and it doesn’t last for more than a few hours. Now let’s go, our destination lies not much farther.”
After about five more minutes of walking, we finally come to a halt. The area we stopped in is full of fallen trees, similar to the place in which we fought the bearded mage and his sons yesterday. Except this time there are no bodies. However, there’s clearly been a big battle here. Perhaps even the battle that charged up my stat device before going to sleep. I can still feel the traces of leftover magic resonating strongly in the air around me.
“This is where I wanted to bring you,” Kate says. “Please, tell me what you can find out by studying the magic in this place…”
As I concentrate on the nature of the magic around me, I start sensing strong traces of elemental magic.
“It seems there’s been at least one elementalist battling here,” I tell her.
“Yes, but can you tell which element the caster was using?” Kate says.
I try to focus even further.
“It’s uh… I’m not sure how to describe it,” I say. “It doesn’t seem to be any of the four traditional elements. If I were to put it into words, I’d say it would be… electric, in nature.”
Kate’s face slowly lights up when she hears my words. This is the first time I’ve seen her smile, even if only slightly, ever since we’ve first met.
“Thank you, stillw— Barry…” she says. “You’ve really been a great help!”
Her reaction took me by surprise.
“Wow,” I say. “This is the first time I see this side of you. I didn’t know you could actually be… nice.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Kate says.
“I just meant to say that you’re usually a lot more—”
Before I get to finish my sentence, a dart comes out of nowhere and hits Kate in her left shoulder, making her drop to one knee.
“I’m alright…” Kate says, although she’s clearly lying.
She is breathing heavily and seems to be struggling to keep her consciousness.
I can hear a man laugh from behind the trees. His voice is high pitched, and could be easily mistaken for that of a woman, if you weren’t paying attention.
“As expected of a banshee,” the man shouts. “Even an expensive sleep dart such as this is not enough to bring you down. But you are barely standing. The outcome of this battle is clear. Surrender now, and we’ll show you mercy. We’ll grant you and your human companion a quick and painless death.”
Yet another enemy who doesn’t believe I’m a stillwater. I’m starting to doubt that this bluff was a good idea after all.
“Is this a joke?” Kate says, trying to be menacing, but barely managing to articulate her words. “I can sense that there are at least a hundred of you hiding behind the trees all around us. And yet none of you are mages. Do you seriously think you can win against mages by outnumbering them?”
“Mages are no gods,” the man says. “They bleed just like the rest of us. If they bleed, they can be killed. And so can you.”
After he finishes his phrase, he blows a very loud horn which drowns out all other sounds in the woods, and suddenly a rain of crossbow bolts comes flying towards us from every direction. Kate quickly makes an ice dome around us to block their shots.
“Barry,” she says. “You need to listen to me closely, because I can’t hold this dome for much longer. I need you to go back to our camp as fast as you can and call Daren. There’s no way we can win this fight otherwise.”
As she speaks, one of Kate’s eyes is twitching, and there is sweat dripping all over her face.
“You can’t be serious!” I say. “You’ll never survive for that long. You’re barely even keeping yourself awake.”
“I’ll manage,” Kate says. “I’ve been in far worse situations and made it out alive. Plus, even if I get injured, Daren can heal me when the fight is over. Now hurry up, time is not on our side.”
I stand there paralyzed, unsure of what to do for a few seconds. It does not take me long, however, to realize that there is only one path for me to take, if I want us both to make it out of here alive.
“Give me an ice dagger,” I tell Kate.
“What?…” she asks me.
“You heard me,” I say. “Make an ice dagger for me. I’ll deal with them myself.”
“You’re insane,” Kate says. “What are you planning to do? Talk them all to death? Do you even know how to fight?”
“Either you give me that dagger, or I’m going in barehanded,” I say. “The choice is yours.”
Once Kate understands that I’m not going to change my mind, she reluctantly forges an ice dagger with her magic and then she hands it to me. When I grab it, I realize that the hilt is also made out of ice, but its shape makes it easy enough for me to hold on to, and this is not the time and place to whine about how cold it feels in my hand.
“Perfect,” I say. “Now open up the dome. And make sure you keep it closed until I’m done. Just stay on the defensive for as long as you can. Don’t take any stupid risks.”
“Are you sure about this?” Kate says.
“As sure as I can be, given the circumstances,” I say. “Do it.”
She creates an exit just wide enough for me to fit through, as I step out and make a run for the forest.
When I reach the woods, I notice a man behind a tree, reloading his
crossbow. His back is turned to me, and he didn’t hear me coming yet. I stealthily approach him, and when I’m close enough, I put my dagger to his neck and slit his throat right open. He attempts to scream, but all he can manage is a weak gurgle, as he drowns in his own blood.
This is the first time I’ve killed a man. It was… easier than I thought it would be. I was afraid I’d hesitate at the very last moment, but the thought never crossed my mind. My hands just instinctively moved the way they should have, and there were no awkward movements. This is a relief. I’ll likely have to kill a lot more people before this tournament is over. It’s good to know it isn’t going to affect me.
The weak gurgle that the man let out before he died seems to have been enough to attract a fair bit of unwanted attention. Five of the men that were shooting Kate are now rushing towards me, to see what happened. It will only be a matter of seconds before they see me. I need to act fast.
I quickly look around to see what my options are. I notice that the crossbow of the man I killed is in fact a repeating crossbow, and it was just reloaded with exactly five shots. If I aim my shots right, I might be able to take them all out.
I grab the crossbow from the ground, and I jump right in front of the five men, aiming for the one in the middle. I shoot him directly in the head, and before he even drops to the ground, I shoot one of his comrades as well, this time in his neck. As the two of them fall to the ground, lifeless, I hide behind a tree, while three crossbow bolts fly right past me.
Three shots. I’ve only got three shots left.
I jump out from behind the tree, and I try to aim for the ones that are still alive, but there’s no one in sight. I realize that they must have hidden themselves as well. As I try to figure out where they’re hiding, one of them quickly pops out from behind a tree and shoots for my chest. Luckily, I saw him before he took the shot, so I had the time to get out of his bolt’s way.
I shoot my attacker right through the heart, before he gets the chance to hide back behind his tree. I then spot one of the two other men, just as he jumps out to attack me. This time, my crossbow bolt hits my attacker in the stomach, but the shot takes him out, regardless.
Magium: The Mage Tournament: Book 1 Page 4
