That future time would wait, however, as Ralto's iris's expanded a moment as her magic settled on the man. Nodding in agreement, the falconi noted Sebastian a little less aggressively before saying, "I can do that, if he can."
Without a word, the owl nodded in agreement, though Sebastian felt the caveat that the peace would only last as long as the falconi let it. He wouldn't be intimidated by the older mage, but he would do his best to avoid causing any fight.
"Good," the girl stated and looked at Oltus with her blue eyes exchanging understanding.
With things settled between them as much as possible, orders were issued to finish readying the camp to travel once again.
"I thought that your eyes were more gray," Oltus said moving closer to the dark haired wizard, "but I remember this face."
Smiling at the slightly taller diplomacy wizard, Ylena answered, "I don't know if it was the magic I was exposed to or having to use a training gem to bind my power, but they changed. Leave it to a wizard to remember such a thing, I suppose."
His eyes looked the young woman up and down before he asked, "How is this possible? The Ylena I knew is a couple years older than I am. Even if time has been good to you physically, she shouldn't look like this," he said gesturing with an open palm towards Ylena in front of him.
Looking a bit guarded for a moment, the dark haired girl stared at him intently as she confessed, "I am not certain how much the guilds are willing to share about it, but suffice it to say that we ran into... something new in the mountains. I've heard them refer to it as time sand as well as a few other things, but whatever the dust was that struck me it reversed time on me physically. My memory remains. At least I am pretty certain that it is still intact."
"You remember dancing with a novice, though I also dared ask again once I was an apprentice," Oltus said hoping that it wasn't a complete reminder.
A smile crossed her lips. "I remember that as well."
The older looking man glanced away a moment. His eyes stared towards a tent as it slowly collapsed under the attention of a pair of soldiers. It was one of the last standing, but Oltus didn't truly see it at all as his mind settled on an old memory.
Stepping closer to the diplomacy wizard, Ylena lowered her voice and added, "You told me that I was your first kiss. I couldn't say the same, but I didn't let just anyone kiss me, you know."
His brown eyes settled back on the beautiful young woman in front of him. She was as intoxicatingly pretty as she had always been his excellent, wizard memory told him. Only the color of her eyes was different, yet they fit her beauty now as well.
"I would like to believe that, but I was never certain why you allowed it."
"What can I say?" she asked with a shrug. "You were sweet and not that much younger than I was. I didn't understand then, like I do now, that we'd be leaving what had felt like home for so long or so often. First, we'd leave for a month or two at a time until we passed their tests. Becoming a full wizard, we changed homes every year or so it felt.
"I became used to leaving people behind and slowly I cared a bit less. When I could finally become a teacher at White Hall and stay in one place, it seemed like no one cared to kiss me anymore," she finished with a self conscious giggle. The sound made Oltus think that she even sounded like the girl she looked like.
"I doubt that," he replied to her point even as the man tried to wrap his head around the miracle that was in front of him.
"This dust..." Oltus began uncertain of what he wanted to ask her.
"There are two kinds of sand or dust," Ylena said quietly understanding that perhaps she was going too far with her old friend. "One type reverses time and I watched as a wizard our age reverted back through time until he no longer existed. He became a child, then a baby, and disappeared so quickly. If Katya hadn't pulled me away in time..."
Clearing her throat of emotions that she still hadn't fully dealt with, the girl added, "The other looks like black sand and causes people to age. I didn't see what it did, but Katya tells me that men and women aged to death turning to dust and bones."
Oltus looked thoughtful after hearing such things and after a moment the man asked, "Where did this come from? I've never heard of anything like it before."
"No one had, but we think people from another world crossed through to plant chests of it here."
"Why?"
"We're not sure, but maybe they planned for the sands to escape and destroy our world. When they touch they expend energy exploding like hundreds of wizards sending their fireballs into one point. That experiment nearly killed a research wizard who took precautions. It swept half of a valley down to stone when it exploded with just two pieces of dust."
Not certain what to say, they stood silently in thought before Ylena added, "Culmore told Sebastian that there might be more portals north of us in the mountains."
"Has the emperor's men found a new weapon? Could they bring him back with something like that?" he asked worriedly.
"That's something that I hadn't even considered," the girl replied feeling a shiver run up her spine at the thought. Could the dust reverse time bringing back the dead? Worse than that, did it mean that some of the emperor's people had created a portal south of the wall?
Such questions couldn't be answered for now, but they filled the diplomat wizards with dread that they had to stifle inside them as they readied to meet up with the nomads of the arkhein.
Chapter 23- Meetings
The sun cast its rays strongly onto a stone valley surrounded by mountains. A wall and a pair of guard towers on a rise to the east were nearly complete. Tents formed a small town beyond the man made barrier, while there was no presence upon the bared stone of the valley below.
Another light, much less bright and precisely rectangular formed on a jutting piece of rock high up the mountain roughly opposite the newly created defense. Both unnoticed by the eyes looking towards a pair of sealed caves and the senses of those capable of making the magic portals, the doorway opened releasing a pair of individuals from it.
Gasping at their precarious position so high up; a slim woman with auburn hair reached for the boy's arm beside her. The boy was taller with a light frame and likely was nearing his full height though he wasn't quite finished growing.
"You're perfectly safe, Narissa," the boy decided placing his other hand onto hers clutching his arm still. It wasn't a death grip, but her fingers would likely leave a lingering mark on his skin. He looked amused, ready to laugh, but refrained. Not everyone could stand hundreds of feet up on a steep rise without vertigo or fear. Perhaps she should have seen this though, the boy thought with further humor. Narissa was one of a small, clandestine faction called Visionaries, people with the ability to see into the future.
She surprised him and didn't speak right away. Many would deny their fears to another or perhaps accuse him of trying to make her afraid, but the seer knew the boy well enough to know better. Kolban didn't waste time teasing. If he wanted to make her afraid, the wizard had many ways better than this. He had never been cruel to her though, but the woman also knew him well enough to know what he had been.
Her eyes spotted the guardian wall and towers in the distance squinting slightly in the bright sunlight. Such light wasn't unusual in Mariport, a city on the southern tip of Southwall. "Did you bring us here to see that?" she asked curiously while her voice expressed her disbelief.
Gray eyes looked at the woman taking in the side of her face as she continued to look towards the towers. She wore a lightweight brown dress that looked more like a robe designed to cover her after a shower. It barely touched her knees and split below the black belt holding it closed. Her breasts caught the sunlight and his teenage body warmed a little as the back of his mind considered how little material truly masked her attractive frame.
Gesturing with his hand pointing towards the mountain south of the valley, Kolban replied, "I didn't even see it in my visions. That is the place that was so important."
"I
t's a mountain," she stated with a slight frown. Though she was the Visionary, Narissa wasn't the only one with the sight here. Kolban had sent an emissary to find her, but his dreams had led him to send him out in the first place. The man who found her wasn't even the designated one asked to find one to interpret his disturbing dreams. Such was the power of the former emperor's visions that they came together in spite of the distance between Mariport and Ensolus.
Words uttered in another language came from the boy's mouth. Narissa gasped again as Kolban pushed the spell onto the seer and her vision changed. Focusing in and moving her sight closer to the base of the mountain, in a way beyond the capabilities of her natural vision; the wizard said, "That is one of the two caves I saw. They're sealed for now."
"Remind me of what you saw in your dream," Narissa requested gently. Brushing at her hair disturbed by the strong wind pushing through the mountains, she still kept hold of him with the other hand. He looked half her age, but the seer felt more for Kolban than she had admitted to him so far. Whether others would look at them and reproach her for falling for a teenage boy or not didn't bother her. His looks were deceiving and the truth of what he was confusing to say the least.
Kolban was an entity roughly a millennia old, that had been reborn less than a year and a half ago into a body that had been required before it could be brought to maturity. So the one called the Dark One and emperor was three ages at the same time holding much of the memories of his previous being, but there had been a subtle change caused by the transfer; or at least that was what it seemed to Narissa from getting to know the boy who was supposed to be the most hated being to attack her world.
Letting out a breath in a sigh, Kolban's free hand lifted to muss his hair in contrast to her attempt to tame her own. "I don't think it was a vision this time. I felt the power of new magic, something that I have never felt before. Though it feels somewhat familiar also, time magic of this kind seems to be both unnatural and yet the pure, simplistic base of all time in a way."
"The dream...?" she asked again trying to focus him as he had her vision. His spell had already relinquished its hold restoring her vision to what her thirty year old eyes could provide. Narissa wondered if her eyes had weakened already, but dismissed the errant thread of thought waiting for his answer.
"I felt time being reshaped. Death and new life were released. They touched shattering everything in a release of powerful energy."
"That doesn't sound like a vision," complained the seer at his explanation.
"It wasn't something that I need explained," the boy with the light brown hair answered even as his gray eyes looked across the valley. He could see both caves using his magic, but Kolban had noted that those from Southwall weren't the only other beings in the nearby valley. "The vision I had was that of a strange gate opening soon releasing beings that could control this powerful magic material. It will happen in the morning, I believe."
"You aren't sure which day though, are you?" Narissa countered and frowned slightly. While she knew of visions and Visionaries said to be able to meet an important person on a certain road at a certain time, she had never been able to narrow down such a thing with anywhere near that kind of accuracy. Kolban had been working with her for less than half a year. She doubted that he could be more accurate than her after refining her abilities for half of her life.
Looking at the woman beside him again, he replied, "I am not here for those responsible for the caves. I am here for them," Kolban said pointing towards a rise to the west.
Narissa guessed that where he pointed, if there was someone there, would be a decent vantage point to watch what the wizards or Southwall were doing without being easily spotted. Even looking where the wizard pointed, the woman called seer couldn't make out who he was trying to show her.
"Who?"
His hands moved in a quick set of signs and Kolban uttered the words she had heard back in Mariport not that long ago. A doorway opened in front of them and the wizard guided her through the new portal disappearing from sight.
Men jumped at the creation of the golden doorway and readied for a fight.
Kolban stepped through beside the beautiful woman with his left hand held up before him. An unseen shield of magic erected between him and the guarded men in dark gray.
"Peace," the boy stated looking at the three men. None looked particularly familiar to him, though Kolban had an inkling that he had likely met a few of them in his other life. All three were elven in lineage, but they were his or more accurately they had once served his empire.
The tallest of the three men held no noticeable weapon, but darkness released like smoke around his fingers. Shadows at his feet shifted and were darker than would occur naturally even under this kind of sun.
"Peace?" Torva couldn't help question the sudden arrival of this pair. The woman was pretty, but didn't wear clothing meant to roam through mountains. Her shoes had thin soles and looked like little more than slippers.
"You are a wizard hunter, are you not?" Kolban asked sounding oddly formal.
"I... was," the blonde haired elf responded. Shadows were still gripped by the warlock and the two with him still held their weapons ready.
Kolban noted that one of the men at the wizard hunter's side was another warlock as well. He felt their magic easily, but knew that they must be confused seeing him manipulate a portal when his real power was most likely completely hidden from them. The emperor knew of magic that few others did and the trio of rings on his left hand was the source of this masking of his power.
Turning his head away from the men as if he didn't fear them in the slightest, the boy looked across the valley towards the Southwall camp.
"What have you seen here?" he asked.
Wrinkling his brow, the youngest of the hunters, the other warlock asked, "Why would we tell you anything?"
The question wasn't even voiced argumentatively. Yelon was genuinely confused by the boy's question and couldn't believe the audacity needed to ask something of complete strangers that he had already identified as wizard hunters. They were men that weren't supposed to be south of the wall and, if he was a wizard of Southwall, Yelon would have thought this boy would consider them an enemy at first glance.
"I could ask more pointed questions like 'Why are you here?" or perhaps how? You are a long way from home." Nodding with his head towards the valley and those guarding it, Kolban asked, "Have they found the ones who seeded the caves yet?"
"Are you from Southwall?" Yelon asked receiving a frown from his commander.
The question made the boy pause to ponder it. "I suppose I am now, though I sort of choose to follow my own path more than follow someone else's orders for my life. You can probably understand that, can't you?"
Kolban's eyes rested on their leader again as he asked the last.
A slight, slow nod was barely seen, but the former emperor knew how to read people beyond the ability of most. He pointed with a less authoritative gesture as he wiggled his hand and forefinger towards the valley. "Did you see what was in the caves?"
"Before I answer any of your questions, why shouldn't we kill you instead?" Torva asked without fully threatening the boy. The woman took a half step back, but she held onto Kolban's bicep with both hands before shifting slightly behind him.
Gesturing with a tilt of his head, the former emperor replied, "The noise would bring our friends over there pretty quickly. Do you think your shadow magic will hide the three of you enough to get back to your people? You do have more people, I am assuming. Admittedly I would have to use stronger magic than I have so far to probably trace where you came from, but it is possible. I haven't used that spell in a very long time though," the boy finished noting that it had probably been centuries since he had used the tracking spell and that hadn't been with this body, of course.
"Who are you?" Yelon asked ignoring his repeated request for answers.
Releasing an exasperated sigh, the boy retorted, "You first."
&nb
sp; The tallest elf echoed his sigh and revealed, "I am Wizard Hunter Torva, a former team leader until we were forced to flee Ensolus. This is my cousin, Yelon, and my comrade, Sandiyan. Now who are you?"
"I am called Kolban and this is Narissa."
The eyes of the three men widened slightly and Torva asked, "You were named after the emperor? You definitely aren't from Southwall originally then. Such a name would be too hated here, if any even know of it."
"Which could make it a happy coincidence," the boy replied with a smile.
"Are you boys still going to fight?" Narissa asked appearing a little emboldened. She took a step over onto a rock and hissed. Pulling on Kolban to catch herself, the emperor had to shift slightly to help her.
Sandiyan lunged forward with his sword thinking to end the problem swiftly. Hitting an invisible wall hard, the weapon was torn from his hand even as the elf was thrown back onto the ground about the same place as he had started.
Turning with a frown at the men, Kolban stated darkly, "I will forgive you once. Try something like that again and I'll break you before leaving you for the guardians across the way to find. Whoever you might wish to protect will be quite compromised then I fear."
Torva felt the power in the shield only a moment before the magic seemed to disappear again. This wasn't a mere child with a little magic confronting them. While he couldn't feel the true power of the boy in front of them, the warlock had a feeling that he was easily more powerful than the three men put together. Sandiyan didn't have magic, but his sacrifice to find this invisible barrier had given his leader the clues to put that much together.
"I can tell you what we have seen, but I will tell you nothing more."
Kolban held his ground quietly for a moment before giving a nod saying, "I can live with that."
Battle Mage, The Caves of Time Page 30
