Shrugging, the younger man replied, "Of a sort, it works for now. The inn is a close walk to the king's castle and the front desk is a way to leave messages for me as I come and go. They know that I'll get them eventually."
"Well, I suppose that it is better than trying to own a home. Your mailbox would be full or you'd need to pay for some servants to clean and watch your house for you while you are away."
Sebastian nodded.
"Was there anything else that I can do for you then? Have you found new magic and decided to settle here to teach yet?"
It was an offer that had been made or at least insinuated at least in the past. Falconi Garrett had been a surprisingly good friend and mentor to a cadet that should have gone under the radar of the head of the corps in White Hall, or so he had believed back then. The falconi obviously kept a closer watch on his students even if it came through second hand information from the falcons and falcondi that served under him as teachers.
Glancing around the room that was empty except for the three of them, Sebastian asked, "Have the others gone to lunch?"
A slight frown let the mage know the answer before it was given. "Falconi Martina and Falcondi Pikun went to head up the falcons sent to the mountains. I barely had her back from Litsarin and she was gone again."
It wasn't that the two falconi were romantically linked as far as the younger man knew. This was the lament of a leader constantly losing members of his team while still trying to run things in the school. This was likely why the man looked tired. He was running the place shorthanded and maybe the falcon downstairs was just one of those conscripted to help him maintain the school while the others went on this unexpected mission.
"I'm sorry to hear that, sir," he replied politely empathizing.
"Well, are you planning to eat lunch here then? We could maybe catch up over dinner. I can put this paperwork off 'til the afternoon. It isn't going anywhere without me unfortunately."
"I suppose we could. Originally I was thinking of trying to fly south first. I can set temporary gates along the way and return easily enough."
"We could just sit here where it's warm while you use the new magic you used to cross Kardor, Sebastian," Ashleen reminded him. While the Kardorian was used to the cold, like every northerner, being used to something didn't mean that they wanted to be cold after all. "It's faster too."
Looking wistful, the mage countered, "It's still more fun to use dragon wings and fly."
"Colder too."
Again Sebastian sighed. "You really don't want to fly there instead?"
Rolling her eyes, Ashleen said finally, "Do whatever you want to do, Bas."
The younger man's eyes flit over to see Garrett starting to grin. Giving him a less than helpful shrug, the falconi seemed to be taking great joy in watching the couple resolve this issue.
"Fine, I'll find a chair to bring up to the roof and ride the winds the boring way," he relented making sure that it sounded like it was more of an issue than it truly was. "You're the one who kept asking me to teach you to fly."
"I have flown," the wilder interrupted him. "Now I would just rather stay here until we can go there, while staying warm instead of freezing as we fly. Besides, you would have to teach Serrena and Elzen too, unless you planned on flying without them."
Raising his hands in defeat, Sebastian reminded her, "I already said that I would do it. You win."
A smirk crossed her lips and Ashleen noted Garrett's continued amusement before telling the older man, "I usually do."
"Well, he always was an intelligent lad. Making your girlfriend happy is always better than not. Take that as another lesson from your 'old' mentor," the falconi added with a laugh.
He moved around the desk and the three walked down the stairs on their way to the dining hall to eat and talk of less pressing matters.
Katya sighed as she rode near the head of the column of the unit that Ylena essentially led. They were the diplomacy wizards for this crowd, though the captain riding at the head of a hundred and fifty soldiers was the military head of it all. Without a diplomacy wizard to help mediate and maintain the morale of the various factions, such a large mass would tend to work against itself. Soldiers tended to dislike magic. Wizards often looked down on the mages and those without magic in them. It even seemed like each faction of the wizard guilds seemed to want to be the designated leader to prove that their order was better. At least that was what it often felt like to the apprentice and many others who had watched such companies eaten away by distrust for each other.
Still this was the military of Southwall and in the end perhaps they had done well enough even so. The Dark One was defeated and North Wall had managed to keep the enemy at bay for over a century, so they must have been doing something right.
"Stop it," Ylena said quietly with a shake of her head.
"Stop what?" the younger girl asked turning to her mentor in genuine confusion.
"Stop your sighing. You seem to do it more and more each day. You should be more excited to get out of the school. We might even have something ahead of us that will make for a great story, but if you keep sighing it is going to begin 'I was riding towards my destiny; sighing each step of the way'. It won't be a very good beginning that's for sure," the dark haired wizard said teasing her student.
"Sorry, it's just so boring. I'm riding a horse and my rear end is sore while I could be flying. I could scout ahead even."
It was Ylena's turn to sigh and the sound made Katya smirk. The older woman's eyes tightened in warning, however, so she didn't try teasing her in turn.
"Just because you also know dragon magic, which you weren't supposed to learn originally since you have much to learn of diplomacy even now; your job here is to keep the company in the proper spirits. You were brought in because of your diplomacy magic that was out of control, not dragon magic. Besides that, you've basically mastered that limited school of magic from Mar'kal, now you can hunker down and do your best to master the other schools of spells.
"Also isn't it a little too cold to try flying?"
A breeze stirred the brown covered earth as the horses pressed the hibernating grasses beneath their hooves.
"Maybe a little," the girl acquiesced grudgingly.
"Well then, stop being so grumpy about not being able to fly and make sure that you keep an eye on the people around you. You never know where a problem might arise and often by paying attention we can head it off early."
"You talk like every mission is filled with fighting amongst us. I would guess that a really small percentage of them fall apart from fighting, with or without a diplomacy wizard to help keep them in line," Katya stated in counterpoint. "If it was that bad, we would have lost to the Dark One long ago, wouldn't we?"
"I suppose that you are right, but it is still best to keep an eye on things. It's what we're here for after all."
Katya's eyes caught the sight of a couple apprentices amongst the wizards. They were slightly familiar, but not in a good way. They were friends of the girl who had antagonized her in the common room several days ago. She watched as the two continued to talk to each other trying to pass the time as the horses plodded towards the Dimple Mountains and whatever might be found up there.
A team of wizards rode at the front consulting a strange apparatus from time to time also. Every morning breakfast they checked the magic compass and she had noticed that they did it again every night after dinner as if their quarry might shift in the time that they had last checked before the end of each day's ride.
With the leaders, Katya noted the only other dragon mage joined with them. Falconi Martina was a young, talented battle mage that had risen through the ranks. As a woman, it was quite impressive. It wasn't that Southwall wasn't fairly good at treating those of both genders similarly. They had the same opportunities in theory, but few women had made it to her rank and none had made it to the status of a raven ever. Perhaps it came from women choosing to have families by then that kept them f
rom reaching a rank that typically was held by gray haired men.
Martina was an inspiration to all female battle mages. Even the girls among the apprentice wizards admired her, Katya thought.
She glanced sideways at Ylena. The wizard was like an older sister to her. While she was a mentor and strict at times, there was also a sisterly kind of love between them. They got along well and Ylena took care of her almost like her sister Beatrice might have if she were a wizard too.
Martina, on the other hand, was all business; at least around the wizard. Though both had become dragon mages in a very small class of mages and wizards, they weren't close. While the falconi had history with her brother and would likely do what she could to protect Katya from harm in battle if she felt it possible, the girl had no doubt that any such protection would only come because the falconi felt she was valuable.
"You could try getting to know some of the apprentices on this trip. It isn't like there are a lot of you here. Since it might be dangerous, only those with more experience were brought along," Ylena suggested to the girl as her attention was on the leaders ahead of them again.
"Maybe later," her apprentice replied without committing. As Ylena had said, those with greater experience had been added to the larger number of full wizards. None of those were the friends that she had made in White Hall, however. Her class had less than a year of training. They had been in battle already, and a few of them had likely been scarred by what they had seen.
If Katya was honest with herself, she had been affected also; but the apprentice had managed to separate the fighting and killing in her mind from the reality of it. Perhaps it was another character of her kind of magic, but using her magic on an enemy was almost like a game to the apprentice. She had fought monsters and men in their armor. Neither felt human in a battle as Katya flew in and out of danger using her spells.
The friends who were likely strong enough to face more danger had still been left behind to train and learn more of magic.
Instead of trying to speak with her fellow apprentices, Katya urged her horse forward towards the other leaders. Among them was a group of four, the gate team in charge of finding this mystery use of magic.
"Has anything changed?" the girl asked as she moved alongside the rear pair of the team. Both were men, but the elder of the two was dressed in the black and brown of a falcon level mage. The other was a much younger, blonde haired wizard who was smaller and lighter looking even riding his horse.
The falcon frowned slightly more from questioning her words than appearing annoyed or angry. "Not that Ukor has said. Gates and rifts don't usually move."
"Nothing new has been opened either," the wizard beside him added with a smile for the girl.
"And this portal marker we're following is the same as last fall?"
The falcon glanced from the girl to the two wizards riding ahead of them apparently either ignoring their conversation or they were unable to hear with the breeze pushing into their faces. Heading towards the mountains, the wind should continue to blow from the front of the column making shouting more accessible to those behind her than ahead.
"I believe so, but Ukor is the one who knows what we are following best. He and Beyrieth investigated it last year. I was along, but they are the ones who close portals and rifts when they find them."
"Mercer is the muscle," the younger wizard chuckled.
It was Katya's turn to look a bit perplexed as she asked, "You only have one mage with you and no other guards? Isn't it typical that there are less wizards and more mages or soldiers to protect them while they cast magic, even among the gate squads?"
"We were in transition for this team when this gate opened," Mercer responded. Aiming a thumb at the younger wizard he added, "Blake was just added. We used to have two other mages and four soldiers with us."
"Did something happen to them?" Katya asked with a little worry in her voice wondering if there had been injuries or deaths. She had been in combat and had seen a lot of wounded as well as dead since the first time her training group had run into an army from another world. Even mental blocks could only keep her from feeling for those families who wouldn't see their loved ones again.
The falcon shook his head with a sympathetic smile and told the girl, "No, not really, we often change up the squads during the winter. Some of them will be returning to the squad, but took this time to return home to visit their families. Since most missions take us north of the wall, we can't close every window or rift right away because we'd never make it through the snow without suffering frostbite or worse.
"The monitors record any readings that might occur and we'll send out fresh teams closer to spring. This one just came up and is too close to be ignored that long."
"Especially after what happened with a similar portal last fall," Blake added before receiving a glaring look from the falcon. "Um, I mean..."
"I know that most people don't know what happened, even in White Hall," Katya replied understanding the warning look. "I was there, so you aren't hiding anything that I haven't seen in first person, falcon."
Mercer pulled back appraising the girl, while Blake said in surprise, "So you saw these things first hand?"
She nodded. "Maybe I am the one that isn't supposed to speak to you of what I know of the confidential stuff maybe?"
The men frowned slightly as Katya gave a secret look at them a moment before smiling and giving them a girlish giggle. It broke the brief tension as they realized she was teasing them. "I saw them, fought them and even used my magic to bind them to fight for me for a time."
"You bound them? So they could understand our language?"
"Diplomacy magic doesn't need to be understood as words. The magic just takes over as long as the subject can hear and is weak willed enough. Some can fight it, but what I say doesn't have to be in their language. Actually most spells use the words of power, which most people don't know and it still works."
Blake considered her point a moment before nodding. "So what did they look like?"
Scrunching up her face as Katya tried to think back on the memories she had of that battle and the monsters that an unprepared group of apprentices, cadets and their mentors had fought, she slowly described what she had seen. "They were like men merged with monsters or contorted versions of other races we know. Creatures with ox heads and others with ram heads fought alongside blue skinned goblin like things. They were led by a dark skinned elf or something similar to those except for the skin color.
"Also they had flying beasts that people are calling grayvens since they look like the griffins in the fairy tales."
"So you really were there or word has leaked out about them," Falcon Mercer judged.
Katya didn't even choose to answer or defend herself to the man, though her stare said all that was needed she felt.
Suddenly Blake laughed, "Well, even I know better than to offend a woman, Mercer, and certainly I wouldn't attempt to pick a fight with one that was a wizard. Maybe you should have chosen a better way to phrase your opinion."
As the falcon appeared taken aback by the younger man, Katya urged her horse forward to the next pair of wizards and asked about the status of their search once more.
Chapter 5- Wind and Fire
Sebastian sat on a bench on the roof of the school of White Hall with his eyes closed. While the mage appeared to be relaxing in the cool air, his mind was mostly extended well to the south as he forced his way through any resistance of the winds. There was a breeze pushing from the west making any turns in from that direction easier. If he was just wind riding like he had been taught, it would have helped his progress more; but the hybrid wizard mage had modified the spell to increase his speed weeks ago. It was just another addition to the list of new spells or changes to existing spells among many for the owl mage.
Sitting next to him with her legs crossed and a book in her lap, Ashleen watched over the man and a pack at their feet.
A door opened making enough noise f
or the wizard to hear and Ashleen turned her head even as she continued to lean back bracing her hands on the back of her seat. She was surprised that Sebastian had picked the bench. It wasn't particularly comfortable and had no back to it. There were others that looked better, but the pretty wizard suffered with her boyfriend for now.
A tall blonde haired, young man dressed in the red clothing of a fire wizard stepped out and glanced towards a bench with a back to it to his right before turning far enough left to see the pair all alone on the stone roof. He was familiar to the woman, even if Ashleen had been trained and raised far to the north. They had been to White Hall enough by now that the wilder knew a surprisingly large amount of people in the school after all these months of following Sebastian around from portal to portal.
The fire wizard noted her look and smiled. He was likely trying to be charming, Ashleen thought, and had to admit that Magnus was good looking enough to be considered quite the catch among the female wizards of White Hall. Even though she didn't feel that way, it didn't mean that she couldn't admit it; but the fire wizard's charm was still lost on her.
As Magnus moved closer, she noticed the wizard's silver eyes. They weren't just a light blue, but silver, a rare color that some wizards had due to the changes in their magic.
"Hello, Wizard Ashleen, is our friend with us?" he asked gesturing towards Sebastian who hadn't turned or moved since the door had opened and closed behind the fire wizard.
Her eyes flicked to the mage before setting her book aside to stand. Magnus towered over her by nearly a foot and would have made her defensive presence nearly laughable, if it weren't for the fact that she was a wizard of significant power.
"He is riding the winds right now, Magnus," the girl answered.
Sensing her slightly defensive look, the fire wizard held his hands out as if helpless before her and he said, "How long has he been gone? I heard that you two arrived hours ago. I was hoping to speak with my old friend while he was here."
Battle Mage, The Caves of Time Page 6
