Battle Mage, The Caves of Time

by Donald Wigboldy

"Her magic seems on the verge of losing control, as if it is on all the time," Katya added looking at her brother. The girl's concern for her mentor was apparent. She had been watching Ylena closely since her changes and had been ready to use her magic to counteract any slips just in case the controller necklace failed to keep her power in check properly.

  Glancing at Ashleen, whose wilder power was on nearly constantly as the little shocks he received regularly when touching her skin proved, the owl considered the possibility. "She wasn't a wilder before coming to White Hall?"

  "She said that she wasn't," his sister replied.

  "I am right here and can answer for myself," Ylena complained. Her once gray eyes seemed to have grown even bluer since her change. Sebastian hadn't studied her looks much before, but even he could see that they weren't the same. It wasn't just her return to her youth that seemed at play here. "No, I wasn't a wilder, though my magic was in play to a point before I truly understood what was happening to me. I could... influence others, especially boys."

  She noticed Serrena's anger simmering underneath her exterior and added, "It might still be a little influential even with the stone governing my magic."

  Sebastian stepped closer to the wizard and the dark haired girl smiled a little more. Her right hand tugged at her collar exposing a little more skin and she asked, "Should I remove my dress, if you wish to examine me?"

  "That won't be necessary," the owl said coolly as he extended his hand. Understanding that she was supposed to rest her hand on his, Ylena looked a little disappointed as she took the extended hand in a loose grip.

  "Heal," the mage said and his vision of the world around him, including Ylena, condensed into the odd colors and darkness he felt when inside another's body.

  The first thing he noticed was the odd flow of the woman's magic. For most wizards and mages, magic more or less followed the blood stream as it circulated through their bodies. It passed near the extremities, but only truly extended through the outer layer or beyond once they performed a spell. Ylena had a variation that he had only seen in a somewhat similar fashion in Ashleen, a wilder.

  Small tendrils, mostly inert thanks to the draw of the pink stone on the wizard's neck, appeared to extend to her epidermis. Where sweat might flow when she exerted herself; the tiny tendrils appeared capable of releasing her power directly from the many points along her skin. Sebastian continued to explore and noticed a slight chemical change in the woman's brain as well and wondered if that wasn't at least partly the blame for some of her personality changes. They were minor in some ways, but Katya's continued worry had been shared with her brother enough to make him wonder.

  Releasing his magic, Sebastian's attention returned to his normal senses. As he removed his hand from hers, the mage noted a brief tether of magic between them that had nothing to do with his healing spell. Though cautious, he looked at her face and thought that he noted a brief glow that faded slowly as the tendrils slipped from his skin.

  Sebastian didn't think that he was any more influenced by her magic than he had been before, but the noticeable change to the light around her had nothing to do with the sun shining down on the wizard.

  "Katya, may I borrow your hand? I want to double check on another diplomacy wizard, just in case it has something to do with your similar power."

  His sister looked a bit confused, but gave him her hand and Sebastian repeated his use of magic. There were similarities, but the tendrils of magic reaching for the surface of Ylena's skin weren't repeated in his sister. He did, notice something similar going on near her throat. Her vocal chords were more charged with magic than other wizards or mages he had worked on before and he immediately wondered if part of a diplomacy wizard's magic came from how it affected the parts of their bodies which would have impact on others around them. Touch, sound, smell and texture could be used to influence how another might view them, so if Ylena's power extended to even her scent glands, it could be the reason that he observed the odd tendrils for her magic.

  Releasing his spell, Sebastian gave his prognosis, "Your magic seems to extend outward from the main path to your skin. Without the stone lessening the flow of power, you likely emit magic as a scent or with a touch. If you aren't able to control it perfectly, it will react like a wilder's magic. Katya's vocal chords are similarly charged like yours, but your magic seems to spread in other ways in a stronger way."

  Ylena frowned, "So I have become a wilder. I wonder why?"

  "I assume that you have been examined by the healers at White Hall from time to time. Perhaps they can tell you what has changed, since this is only the first time that I have ever tested you I don't have a proper comparison aside from Katya."

  The dark haired girl nodded lost in thought. Her eyes suddenly lifted and a new question rose to the fore as she asked, "Oh, what about this aging magic? Did you sense it in me still?"

  Shaking his head, Sebastian answered with a shrug. "You seem normal enough. You simply appear to be a healthy, young, female wizard. There is no sign of any ongoing physical changes, which is probably a good thing from what you have told me of the affects caused by this dust. Of course, your magic is on the wild side, but using your control gem should help you curb it like any other apprentice coming to White Hall with the problem."

  "What about..." Katya started lowering her voice and paused. Sighing she asked, "What about the way she's been acting? Ylena hasn't been acting like herself since..."

  "Since I changed," the diplomacy wizard finished for her apprentice in frustration. "I still don't see what you mean? I can remember my life as much as I could before my body changed. My mind is fine."

  Sebastian grimaced. "I do sense some extra lingering traces of magic centered on your mind. If the dust does have any remaining curve balls to throw at you, it might be related to any of these physical changes. Of course, part of your problem could just be the shock and getting use to the shifts in your power."

  Again he shrugged while wishing that he could give better answers.

  Katya's eyes widened and new worry filled them as she looked at the dark haired girl beside her. "Do you mean that she still might have memory changes as well? She could forget her future, or whatever, you might call it?"

  Wincing at the thought as Ylena looked at him with sudden concern, Sebastian replied, "I'm not certain. Obviously it is a good sign that your memory hasn't appeared to be impaired or had any time lost as far as we can tell, but it is hard to predict what this magic might still do to you even if the dust is inert now. We can just hope that it is simply your body adjusting to the physical changes at the moment."

  Sighing, Ylena mused, "I guess that I am lucky that I write in a diary regularly and have almost from the day I came to White Hall. At least I won't forget what I wrote in there, even if it might start to feel like another person wrote it."

  Katya moved to hug the other girl in concern.

  Sebastian released another sigh feeling bad to be the one to give her such news, especially when he had no true answers for what was happening to the wizard.

  "I wonder if this means that she'll live an extra thirty years or whatever," Elzen mused aloud.

  Ylena frowned angrily and complained, "I am only thirty-seven, not fifty, you idiot."

  It was another slip that the diplomacy wizard might not have had before her new chance at being a teenage girl, but as the others laughed, the complaint seemed appropriate at this time.

  With few answers to the strange dust or the magic which had created it, Sebastian walked back to camp with the others.

  Torva moved forward to peer around the stone protecting them. His magic pulled the shadows towards them as well to prevent any air wizards from finding his team easily.

  He had been woken by Effian as the wizard had the last watch of the night. With the Southwall troops so close, the four men had remained in nearly the same place for days. Their food and drink would only last one more day before they would have to retreat to Sanctuary. They had come
not realizing that they would also have to stay so long.

  With so many soldiers, mages and wizards this close to Sanctuary; Torva had considered it necessary to keep watch as they had not only triggered the traps in the caves, but witnessed the explosion set off by the single wizard. It hadn't been the man's power, but whatever had been inside the small glass cylinders. Effian had agreed with that assessment as the wizard had been watching from the winds.

  Effian's vision of the research wizard in brown had been blinded by the sudden explosion. The power of the magic was like nothing that they had ever seen before and had managed to drive the air wizard's mind back to his body from the shock. It was lucky that his connection hadn't been severed or the man might be brain dead instead of stunned.

  "They're building something," the man stated absently. His mind rode the winds once more watching over the camp and as much of the two valley's as he could at one time.

  "Building what?" Sandiyan questioned in annoyance at the brief report.

  "He can't hear you," Yelon answered from where the hunter sat leaning back against the stone wall behind him. Effian was only a few feet away sitting crossed legged and with his hands on his knees face up. It was his favored pose while riding the winds. Every time the wizard returned, he looked like an old man trying to work the kinks out of his legs and back though. "He's wind riding."

  His cousin seemed calm enough, Torva noted. They had been on different teams before Southwall had come to Ensolus and flipped the world on its side. It had led to the emperor's death and that of the empire as it had been. Torva had fought against a band led by battle mages like these. His hunters, as well as the wizards and warlocks from the school, had outnumbered the opposition; but Torva had seen what a prepared group of battle mages could do. Southwall had been entrenched and ready for the forces of Ensolus. His people had been dealt a crippling blow and only arrived at the emperor's tower after it was over because the enemy had disappeared using portals like theirs.

  It had been that day that Torva had developed a greater respect for these men and women believed too limited in magic to be a true threat to the empire. They had torn through the wizards and hunters while he had seen very few losses among the enemy. Adding insult to injury, many of their apprentices had simply been knocked out or put to sleep. The enemy had taken pity on the children and only killed the more deserving, he supposed.

  He glanced at Yelon. His cousin had his eyes closed looking like he was merely trying to nap. He was too calm and Torva kind of wanted to kick his feet just to get a reaction out of the younger man.

  "That man who came through the gate has been looking around and using his magic to search," Torva mused.

  "Maybe he's trying to figure out what happened here too?" Yelon suggested.

  Effian's posture changed and his eyes opened. "They are shifting the stone at the top of the hill between the two valleys. I think that they are making a stone defense, maybe a house or tower."

  "So they are planning to stay," Torva said with a frown.

  "You don't think that they'll start looking around, do you?" Effian asked worriedly. The wizard was one of those that had been brought here as the school fell. Many wizards not in the loop of those who had known about Sanctuary had come along as had most of the warlock hunters who had survived. Ensolus had no more human or elven wizards left there as far as he knew. It didn't mean that whatever had led the force against them to destroy the wizards and hunters didn't have great magic at their disposal, however. Their numbers in the school and hunter fortresses had been whittled down by the war in Litsarin, but their strength had still been significant enough. The orcs had crushed them with numbers that he couldn't have expected.

  That had left Sanctuary filled nearly to bursting while winter still held the mountains. More work had expanded their little sanctuary thanks to the wizards and apprentices. Families had come. Farmers and city folk had as well as many animals. They had come hoping to make a life out here in the middle of their enemy's country. The mountains were sparsely populated, but this intrusion didn't bode well for the survivors which had hoped to make new lives for themselves.

  "If this place is the only distraction for them, hopefully they won't look any further. We do have the towers to try and blind any who look at least, but we don't truly know the limits of these people," Torva replied soberly.

  "Got any other sanctuaries we can slip off to, cousin?" Yelon questioned lazily as if he wasn't taking the threat seriously.

  "You know all the places that I do, Yelon," he replied to the man who had helped find the site for Sanctuary. It had taken them many days of flying to find what he felt was the safest and best choice of land for the new school, which had branched out to become a town surrounding it.

  "Well, we better hope that they don't get bored and keep looking then," the hunter replied and rolled forward to get to his feet.

  The stone walls were already almost twenty feet high. Chalman and the other earth wizards had been hard at work after deciding where they wanted to make the guard house. They had walked the land and set up markers.

  Sebastian looked at a dozen wizards working together while soldiers and mages watched. Those not as strong in earth magic leant their power to those manipulating the stone around them to make these walls.

  Potentially it would be a larger project than at first proposed. Chalman had suggested a building just to give the sentries remaining behind a place to keep warm and sleep. Since then, they had offered to make a pair of large buildings with a wall between them. They also wanted to put in a gate that could stop an enemy from attacking from the west.

  To Sebastian, it was overkill. Likely it was just Southwall's natural reaction to any threat. 'Build a wall to keep it away' had been the idea behind Northwall after all.

  Standing near Captain Anon and Martina as the two watched the project growing in front of them, the owl asked, "Did you want to send some of the soldiers back to White Hall or whichever of the guardian cities you hail from, captain? I have the markers that I can set, so the wizards in any gate city can send back up if necessary. They can also send other research wizards, if they wish."

  The man looked a bit uncertain. Even the use of earth magic had him a bit nervous, but it didn't require the trust that would be needed to go through a magic portal. Rumors that one could get stuck between worlds had been circulating among the men for awhile now also.

  That he had been stranded in Silver World with Ashleen for a time wasn't as well known, but he supposed that it wouldn't help quell such rumors.

  "I suppose that we don't need everyone just to stand here watching over the wizards," the man admitted cautiously.

  "It is up to you," Sebastian replied with a shrug. "If you think that there is a reason to send out scouts or something, then feel free to wait for reinforcements or a future door. I have a feeling that the wizards' guilds will be wanting to come here at least for awhile to try and understand the magic left here. They can take small samples away with them, but if something goes wrong, we're far enough away from even the closest mining towns and farms to avoid other casualties."

  The suggestion that other wizards would be tampering with the dust that had destroyed the other valley made the man start. He hadn't considered the possibility of more dangerous, untested magic being used around him here.

  "Perhaps once the wizards have a better idea of what they need for a time, we can decide. That is if your offer will remain, Owl Sebastian."

  "I can make more than one trip and keep checking in here for a time anyway," the mage replied without letting on that he had been pushing the soldier towards this conclusion. He knew that many were ready to leave and, if they didn't need to ride for a week to White Hall all the better.

  "Can you send Wizard Nyus and a few of us back to White Hall, Sebastian?" Martina asked. "I can leave Pikun and a platoon of mages here for the night and reinforce again tomorrow, but I would like to get word back to the high wizard and Falconi Garrett about what
we found. I am betting like you that the high wizard will want to send more wizards here to investigate."

  He nodded.

  "You might want to send Ylena and Katya back as well," the falconi added. "I am worried about the wizard and I'm also not certain that she should be trying to lead or stand in the middle of any arguments at the moment. Her... mental status seems a bit skewed from the norm, wouldn't you say?"

  "Being turned into a teenager at her age, likely isn't easy," he stated. "Can you imagine going back to the age you were as a cadet all of a sudden?"

  Frowning at the younger man, Martina retorted, "I'm not that old, Sebastian!"

  "But can you imagine being reduced to a child in an instant?" he asked ignoring her blurted resistance. "She's still a teenager, but not even fully grown. Ylena was taller before this happened and her magic isn't exactly the same either, I don't think."

  "Is she the same mentally then?" Anon asked reiterating the falconi's earlier question.

  Sebastian kept a stone face as he thought of how to answer. "She isn't the same as before the accident, but I don't think Ylena would have a problem leading if she needed to. Her temperament is slightly less calm, but can anyone blame her after what has happened? No one's ever had something like this happen to them as far as I know.

  "Maybe High Wizard Darius could be sympathetic being an immortal, but even that is far different from being torn backward in time physically."

  Sober eyes looked on the mage and his judgment. Martina decided as Anon agreed with a nod, "Then she should certainly return to White Hall, if only to be checked out by the healers there."

  "The healers here have checked her also," Sebastian reminded her. "They don't seem that concerned as long as the controller gem is helping her. She knows her spells and can still contribute like normal. She also has Katya to back her up just in case."

  "I don't like 'just in case' when it comes to magic," Captain Anon said with a scowl. "Magic is too dangerous to ignore and hope that no one makes a mistake."