by D N Meinster
"I would think it'd feel longer," Aros remarked.
"It's better than sitting in a shop all day," Leidess said.
"I was glad to get out of that classroom." Aros was never the student Leidess was. He didn't enjoy reading, and he'd heard that some of his test answers were so horrible his teachers used them as examples of what not to write. He probably wouldn't have made it through class without Leidess. She always made sure to study with him, and he knew every passing mark he received could be credited to her.
"I don't think I've ever seen you smile like you did on graduation day," Leidess said.
Aros grinned just thinking about it. "True. Though the closest I ever get to being that happy is when I see you."
Leidess could feel her face turning red. She beamed at Aros. "Maybe you are crazy."
"Oh, thanks," Aros said, his smile fading.
"By the way, think you can tell me about your pet project now?" Leidess asked. "I already saw it earlier."
Aros had hoped to show Leidess what he had been working on once it was complete. But there was no reason to keep it a secret when she'd already seen it. "I'm working on a pair of blades using Ligold."
"Ligold?" Leidess said. "That must be a rare commodity, since we haven't traded with Faunli in nearly three hundred years."
"Ratch just had some sitting in his shop. Who knows for how long. He didn't mind me making something out of it. Don't think he intended to."
"That stuff is stronger than steel."
"I know," Aros said. "It's gonna be a pretty unique set when I'm finished."
"I can't wait to get a better look," Leidess said.
"You just love everything that has to do with the other kingdoms," Aros said. "Including that." He pointed at the Door.
Leidess ignored his gesture. "Are you glad you chose to be a blacksmith's apprentice?"
Aros thought for a moment. He had no idea what to expect when he made the choice after graduation. He didn't know if he had the skills that were required, or if he'd even enjoy it. It had just stood out to him on that list, and so he went down that path.
"I like Ratch," Aros said. "I'm pretty good as his apprentice. And I'm much better at this than I was at school. So yeah, I guess it was right for me."
"It's hard not to like Ratch," Leidess said. She had only met the blacksmith a handful of times, but he was one of the most amusing and personable shopkeepers in the city.
"That's why his business does so well," Aros stated. "Though I'm pretty sure he enjoys making weapons over pots and pans."
"Not many orders for them?" Leidess asked.
"Only the occasional one from the King." Aros let out a yawn, prompting Leidess to stand up.
She extended her hand to Aros. "Come on. We need to make sure you get some rest so you don't accidently burn down his shop."
Aros grabbed her hand and heaved himself off the sand. He really wanted to get some sleep for once. Leidess was right. His insomnia could have terrible consequences for his mentor. "Maybe I won't hear the voice if you're speaking to me."
"Or perhaps I'll hear the voice too," Leidess hoped.
"Don't count on that," Aros said. The two of them turned their backs to the Door and headed toward Outer Kytheras. "If I had told anyone else about this, their only solution would have been to pray to the Goddess."
"That's not so practical these days," Leidess said. "But it is my next suggestion."
Chapter Two
Inheritance
A bronze staff rested on the floor in front of Rikki's bed. It was a fairly plain staff, with only a thin ring at its center and a translucent crystal sphere at its top. Hatswick's staff was much more glorious.
The Grand Mage Hatswick had a deep black staff with symbols of previous kings etched into it with gold. While a crystal also adorned its top, the staff wound its way around it like a snake, exposing only segments of its globular prey. It was tipped with gold that, along with the designs of its body, still shone as if it were newly constructed. That was a staff that belonged on display. Rikki's deserved to be on the ground.
She stared at the bronze stick while lying atop her mattress. Rikki was never as strong as she should have been, and she blamed that unsightly abomination for her troubles. How could she live up to expectations when she was given a staff that belonged in Outer Kytheras? It had no place in Inner Kytheras, let alone the very center of the city. Castle Tornis was for marvelous staffs of black and gold, not third-rate metals that weren't even viable for currency.
Rikki's staff also clashed with her well-ornamented room, which was toned to match her dark magenta hair. There were shades of red everywhere, from the maroon rug to the crimson curtains. The walls were painted with swirls of pink and red, while the sheets she was lying on were dyed scarlet. Truly, anything that wasn't red stood out.
Pieces of wooden furniture were strewn throughout her sizeable room. The bookshelf was crammed with the faded bindings of old texts, while the closet was stuffed with outfits, some she hadn't worn in years. There was a desk opposite her bed where several pristine white candlesticks sat unlit. It always seemed a waste to use them. The light which shown through her window was more than enough during the day, and she could conjure up a light to use past dusk. The castle servants really needed to stop bringing them to her.
Tired of looking at her staff, Rikki refocused her eyes to the diminutive clock that was also atop her desk. It was almost time for her daily instruction with the Grand Mage. With a heavy sigh, she flipped herself off her bed and moved over to the closet in the corner of her room. She pulled it open, revealing a mirror hanging on the inside of the wooden door.
Rikki had light green eyes that contrasted with her deep eyebrows and eyelashes. Her nose was little more than a point in the middle of her face, and her lips blended in with her skin. Her somewhat curly hair stood out more than any other feature, not only because of its natural magenta but because it was so abundant, hanging below her neck and clinging to the sides of her face.
Rikki's long, slender fingers touched several dresses in her closet as she searched for the right dress to wear. Her hand stopped on a navy blue top and black skirt, and she yanked them out of the closet.
As she changed into the selected attire, there were several knocks on the door to her room. She quickly unfurled the rest of her top and gave a tug at her skirt to make sure it wasn't going anywhere.
Another set of knocks began, but she pulled the door open before he could finish them. Standing in her doorway was a tall, unpleasant man with short orange hair and a nose that belonged on a horse. "Good morning, Ms. Nas – " he began.
"Linus, I tell you every day," she interrupted. "Just call me Rikki."
"It wouldn't be proper," Linus replied.
"I'm not royalty," Rikki said. "There's no need for formalities."
"You are the only one who believes that," Linus said, convinced she was to be respected as much as any royal.
Rikki shook her head. "I bet I can guess why you're here."
"There's no need for any games," Linus said. "The Grand Mage requests your presence in the first-floor classroom. Young Milo's lesson is almost complete for today."
"Exactly as I would have guessed," Rikki said without getting any response from Linus. She stepped outside her room, but the servant stopped her.
"I believe you are forgetting something," Linus said.
"Right." Rikki turned back and grabbed the bronze staff off her floor.
Castle Tornis was a monster of a building. It had been constructed with black stone long before the time of Aergo and occupied more than one square block of Kytheras. It was a nine-story behemoth that could be seen from anywhere in the city, but Rikki never got to see it from a distance.
Young mages were not permitted to leave Castle Tornis. They were brought to the castle right after they were born and kept there until they were properly trained. Rikki had no desire to be cooped up inside for a lifetime and made multiple attempts to escape far into the
city. Unfortunately, a powerful enchantment prevented her from moving more than a few feet outside the castle. She had tried breaking through with her own magic, but she just wasn't powerful enough. Whenever she thought she had succeeded, the enchantment would kick in as usual and fling her back inside the boundary.
Rikki didn't know why she was forced to remain here, but she hated it. Despite all the perks of living in the castle, from the fine food to the servants, she never felt like anything more than a prisoner. And she knew she wasn't the only one that felt that way.
Rikki's room was on the second floor, so she only had to descend one flight of stairs to reach the corridor leading to the classroom.
She was one of only two pupils under the Grand Mage's tutelage. It was often said that when the kingdoms were united, there were never less than ten young mages needing training. Thus a spacious classroom was required. Now they could be trained in a broom closet.
Before Rikki could even touch the doorknob, the classroom door swung open. Standing several feet from the opening was the Grand Mage Hatswick.
Hatswick looked incredibly good for his age, which was no less than 432 years. Mages were granted exceptionally long lives, but even for a mage, Hatswick was well past his expiration. Nevertheless, he had the appearance of a man in his early fifties. He was dressed in robes of black and gold, which loosely covered his gaunt body. His salt and pepper hair was mostly hidden beneath a narrow-brimmed trilby hat. Growing below his prominent nose was a well-trimmed mustache and goatee, with only speckles of gray hair mixed inside the black. And in the tight grip of his mighty coarse hands was the staff that channeled Hatswick's abilities.
Hatswick didn't even acknowledge Rikki as she entered the room. He kept his dark eyes focused on the child beside him.
Milo wasn't even eleven years old, but he hardly ever acted his age. He seemed to have an intense desire to skip over adolescence, and he had convinced most in the castle to treat him as an adult. No one coddled him or talked down to him, and that's how he wanted it.
"It's not that you're too young," Hatswick said. "Shifting is dangerous for any mage. I haven't instructed anyone in it since the Dark Reign ended. You will not be an exception."
Milo had a look of contempt beneath his messy brown hair. His head turned toward Rikki, and without even acknowledging her, he stormed passed her out the door.
"Sometimes he forgets he's just a boy," Hatswick said to her as she made her way into the room. It was a fairly open room, with stacks of dusty chairs lining the walls and only a few desks scattered about. Hatswick was standing in front of one such desk.
"I don't think he'd appreciate you saying that," Rikki replied.
"He's going to outlive everyone in this castle who isn't presently in this room. He'll have enough time to grow older and wiser. If there's any time to act like a child, it's when you're actually a child." Hatswick nodded, agreeing with himself. "You certainly lived up to such an expectation."
Rikki eyed Hatswick but didn't say anything. She knew he was referencing her many escape attempts. Perhaps he didn't realize they had nothing to do with being a child and everything to do with freedom. Milo had never tried to leave and probably wouldn't even if he was offered the chance. He lacked any rebellious instinct that would compel such an act. He followed rules because it was the adult thing to do, and he'd be lost anywhere outside the castle's walls. Rikki had never squelched her desire to leave, only kept it in check since she knew that she couldn't.
"I'm not encouraging another feckless act, am I?" Hatswick asked when she didn't say anything. "Come now, Rikki. You're nineteen years old. One more year and you'll be free to come and go as you please."
"Like you do?" Rikki responded. She couldn't imagine Hatswick leaving the castle. Even inside the place, people were astounded when they ran into him. How would anyone outside feel running into the mage?
"Oh, I get around," Hatswick said, suppressing a smirk. "I just don't go parading about like some imbecile."
"Leave the staff at home, do you?" Rikki said, turning her attention to the sparkling gold.
Hatswick tapped on the staff. "No one would know a mage from a farmer if it wasn't for this."
"You think you'd be recognizable, seeing as how you're in all the history books," Rikki noted.
"The pictures of me are rather ill drawn," Hatswick stated. "Not to mention how I've put on a few years since anyone was interested."
"A few? You've set a record."
Hatswick had indeed lived longer than any mage before him or since. He was proud of the achievement but had lost his tolerance for any joke about his age. He had been putting up with such jokes for over a hundred years.
"Time has enhanced my perspective," he said. "It's why I regret my few rambunctious moments when I was a child."
"Maybe you'd have more if they kept you here as long as they're keeping me," Rikki suggested.
"It's only a five-year difference," Hatswick said. "That's nothing."
Rikki didn't expect the Grand Mage to sympathize with her. He was well beyond the point in his life where he'd remember what it was like. Mages were once only kept in Castle Tornis until they were fifteen, at which time they were let loose to explore the kingdoms and train in more practical matters. Fifteen was the age where mages were considered experienced enough to control their magic on the outside. Now it was twenty. Rikki despised this change.
"Tell me again why they're making me stay here longer than anyone in your class," Rikki insisted.
Hatswick looked at her disapprovingly at first, but then his eyes lit up. "You know that's a dull story. How many times have I told it to you?" Bounding with sudden excitement, with a slight smile on his face, he spun around to the other side of the desk. "However, here's one you haven't heard. It's actually quite perfect for today's session."
Rikki gazed at her instructor suspiciously. "You realize just because you haven't told me doesn't mean I haven't read about it."
"Given how you don't have access to Belliore's library, it's unlikely you've stumbled across a book with this one. At least, you won't know the whole story."
Rikki crossed her arms. She'd gone through several volumes on the history of the Five Kingdoms during her detention. Many of them even predated Hatswick. It was doubtful he'd have anything new to share, other than the names of individuals who hadn't been worth transcribing in a book. "Go on then," she said.
Hatswick began in his deep, crisp voice. "Several centuries before King Aergo came to be, when an unwise king sat upon the throne, and the conclusion of every war led to the precipice of another, there was a mage with the intelligence and guile who would shape our world for centuries to come. Any guesses?"
"I'm pretty sure I've heard you use those same terms to describe yourself," Rikki stated.
"I am not referring to myself in the third person," Hatswick stated. "Well, not this time." He paused, giving Rikki a chance to guess, but she was waiting for him to continue. "It was Grand Mage Cranford. Heard of him?"
Rikki tried to recall the name from her books. It was familiar, but there was nothing in her mind that stood out. "I might have," was all she said.
"Cranford had gotten word from the scientific haven of Belliore that they were conducting experiments on a material they had discovered in the Enduring Mountains," Hatswick continued. "The Bellish believed they had stumbled upon a substance that could expand light. The possibility to light up an entire room with a single candle was surely a fascinating prospect. But this is not what intrigued Cranford. The Grand Mage sought to expand his own abilities and hypothesized that this new item could be the way to do it.
"Cranford traveled to Belliore and met with Valal, the researcher in charge at the time. Valal showed him the new substance, which turned out to be a transparent rock, also known as a crystal."
Rikki could not hide her delight as she figured out where this story was going. She gaped at Hatswick. "The texts don't mention any of this," she interrupted. "It's just glazed
over."
"That's because the old historians didn't find it important. But it is." Hatswick cleared his throat. "Allow me to carry on.
"Valal was intrigued by Cranford's theories but found them not so easy to prove. Light could be measured, whereas magic was an unknown quantity. The Bellish usually ignored magic and had no intention to start playing with it. But Cranford was persuasive, or he used his abilities to persuade them. Whatever the case, he offered himself up as a subject in their experiments in the hope of being able to utilize the crystal.
"I was told Cranford didn't speak much of what they did to him. It must have been the worst kind of pain to keep him silent. The Bellish were the smartest, but also the coldest. They pursued any path to achieve knowledge. And they had never had a mage volunteer to be their test subject. All I know is that Valal concluded from these experiments that the crystals could be used by mages. From that moment on, we were all given one of these." Hatswick tilted his staff toward Rikki so she could better see the crystal.
"And I thought they were called channeling crystals because they channeled our gift," Rikki said. She had never learned they could direct light as well. The possibilities for such an object were enormous. "But they have more uses than at the end of our staffs."
"The Bellish found other means to light up rooms," Hatswick stated. "But there was no equal for their use to mages. So after the first crystal was given to Cranford, every mage from then on received one. They were mined and given out haphazardly. It wasn't until your great-grandmother that the limitations of the crystal were realized."
