The Missing Mage

by Robyn Wideman

  Balthazar stood and walked over to a shelf on the wall, coming back with a large shallow bowl, which he placed in front of Nathan. “I know it’s terrible for a mage to brag about his magic abilities, but I always get a kick out of this spell. It truly is one of my most ingenious creations. I’m going to fill the bowl with water, and then you simply put your hands in the bowl and relax, letting your magic flow through you into the bowl of water.” Balthazar explained as he grabbed a pitcher of water.

  Once the bowl was full, Nathan dipped his hands in the water. Nothing happened immediately so he just sat there and focused on relaxing. He imagined his energy transferring to the bowl. Slowly, Nathan watched as the water began to change colors. At first it was a small swirl of pink surrounding another swirl of brown, then the two swirls mixed together before finally settling into a dark purple. Baffled, Nathan asked, ”So what does the water tell you?”

  Balthazar waited to see if the water would continue to change colors. Finally, satisfied that the change was complete, he answered. “You may take your hands out now. This bowl has been enchanted to give an indication of the magic one possesses and the nature of that magic. In your case, the water started with pink and brown swirls, then turned to a dark purple. The pink swirl indicates attraction, while the brown ones indicate earth, so no real surprises there. Attraction is complicated; we will get into that later. Earth is one you are already familiar with, your ability to mold elements to your will, or use bloodstones to store magic. The purple is a measure of your overall power, in your case a dark purple. Purple is …well, purple is interesting. With this spell, the final color represents two things. One how strong the magic is, represented by how dark the color is. Yours is very dark, thus very strong magic. The color also indicates what types of magic you have. Purple is a transition color, meaning the nature of your magic is not fully defined yet. It still is evolving.”

  Nathan was confused, “Is purple good or bad? What does it mean?”

  Balthazar smiled, “Relax, purple is fine, especially with someone your age. Purple by itself means very little, other than you possess magic and it is still changing within you. It is interesting simply because it is very rare to see a dark purple. Usually when I see purple, it is very light in color. I am not totally sure how your magic is going to end up looking. We shall have to try this test again in the future to see if it stays purple or changes color.”

  A knock on the door interrupted Balthazar’s explanation. “Ah, perfect timing. Nathan please go let our guests in.”

  Nathan walked down stairs and opened the door. Standing outside were Verin and Ava. “Hey Ava, Verin, come in. Balthazar is upstairs.”

  When they were all back on the second floor Balthazar greeted Ava. “Hello child, I am Balthazar. Did Verin tell you anything about me on the way over?”

  Ava took a quick look at Nathan than looked back at the mage. “Well, he told me Nathan has magic blood and that is how he found us when we were kidnapped; he said that type of bonding between humans is rare and that you would help us with it.”

  “Very good, that is a pretty good description coming from a non-magic user. No offense Verin.”

  Verin smiled. “None taken, I know when I am out of my depth.”

  “Allow me to elaborate; I was just about to explain attraction to Nathan when you knocked on the door. Attraction in magical term is just what it sounds like. One source of magic is attracted to another, almost like a magnet. Ava, you witnessed it first hand when you watched Nathan interact with the wolf. Now, because you and Nathan are such good friends you have a strong non-magical connection. That connection became stronger as Nathan’s magic grew. Sometimes the magical connection between two people occurs because both are strong magic users, or between a magic user and someone he physically connects with. In some cases, a traumatic event will cause a spike in a person’s magic. I believe when you were kidnapped that yours spiked, and enhanced your connection to each other. “

  Ava and Nathan studied each other for a while. Suddenly Nathan understood what he was talking about. “So you are saying Ava has magic too.”

  Ava looked shocked “I do?”

  Balthazar laughed gently, “Technically everyone and everything has a little magic, even Verin has some.”

  Verin joined Balthazar in laughter. “You leave me out of this. I’m quite content being a simple ranger.”

  Balthazar turned the conversation back to Ava. “To answer your question: yes, you do. Now let us find out a little more about it.” Balthazar quickly explained to Verin and Ava how the magic bowl worked while he threw out the water Nathan had used and poured in clean water.

  “Go ahead Ava, its easy and kind of fun,” said Nathan.

  Ava, relaxed knowing that Nathan had already done this, put her hands into the water. Slowly the water started to change color; first, a swirl of white, which was soon joined by a swirl of green before the whole thing turned a light white.

  Balthazar looked at the bowl, then at Ava. “Well, I like that.”

  Chapter six

  THE BAR WAS DIMLY lit and grimy. Even thugs, thieves, and scoundrels willing to sell their mother’s eyeteeth and their sister’s maidenheads for a copper or two avoided it like the plague. Only the darkest souls, the most dangerous individuals dared come here, them and those connected to the right nobles. Anyone who entered, even those with the right credentials and the proper amount of gold, had a good chance of not coming back out.

  The duke did not have the connections, but he did have the coin. He sat with his back to the wall, keeping one eye on the crowd and one hand over his drink. He knew a single wrong step here and they would be throwing his cold, dead body into the back alley. However, the risk was worth it. For here, in the most dangerous bar in Morthon, were exactly the type of people he’d need to rise into power in this new city.

  A man dusted off the chair across the table from the duke, then spun it around, resting his forearms on the chair’s back as he silently stared at the duke. The handle of a throwing knife peeked from under one of his sleeves, a slight bulge under the other indicated more weaponry was hidden. While the man stared at him, the duke’s eyes never left the crowd, it was if the man had never even sat down.

  Finally, the stranger spoke. “I think you are in the wrong bar, probably lost. You’ll find a tavern just down the road more to your liking.”

  The duke slowly moved his head so that he was staring back at the cold eyes of his new companion. ”I like this bar just fine, friendly people and good whiskey. I think I shall stay.”

  “The whiskey is watered down horse piss and the last man to smile in this bar only did so after someone cut it into his face.” The stranger leaned forward. “Last warning.”

  The duke calmly leaned forward as if he was going to whisper to the man, then with a sudden lurch grabbed the man’s collar with his left hand and yanked him across the table. With his right hand, which was still holding his drink, he smashed his glass into the table then swiftly jabbed the broken glass into the man’s exposed throat. Releasing the glass, he used both hands to shove the man down to the ground. The duke sat back in his chair raised his hand to the bartender. “I need another drink, good sir.”

  The man on the floor convulsed, breathing his last as the duke and everyone in the bar watched without moving. Eventually the body stopped moving. The bartender walked to the table with another glass of whiskey, stopping for a moment to look the dead body before stepping over the not-yet-cold corpse to place the drink on the duke’s table. The duke pulled out a gold coin and placed it on the table, then another. “One is for the drink and your inconvenience, the other for removing the trash,” he said.

  The bartender picked up the coins, gesturing at two men standing in the corner of the bar; they silently walked up and pulled the body out to the back alley with well-practiced motions. The bartender addressed the duke, “Mind if I ask what that was about?”

  The duke lifted his glass and took a small sip of the g
od-awful alcohol. “He insulted the whiskey.”

  The bartender grunted and walked back to the bar. The duke might be a stranger but he was no fool to be trifled with. In a bar full of killers and assassins, he had just marked himself as a dangerous man, someone not to be taken lightly. He was now one step closer to building a reputation in the dark corners of Morthon, a place where he could begin his empire.

  Chapter seven

  THE OCEAN’S WARM salty water tickled his toes every so often, as the tides carried the wetness back and forth over his out stretched feet. From the backyard of their new home, a small path led down to a sandy beach nestled into an old smuggler’s cove.

  Nathan and Ava sat together, simply watching the waves. It wasn’t their pond back in the woods outside of Elderwood but it was secluded, cut off from the city by the high rocks and dense bush surrounding the small cove. It was also very peaceful. Nathan had always enjoyed being by the water, he found it calmed him, being here with Ava made it even better.

  It seemed so strange to him that his own magical powers, as uncontrolled and needing refinement as they were, had helped trigger something in Ava. Nathan was not complaining though, having someone to go through magic training with would be much better than going it alone. Even if Ava didn’t want to become a mage, she would have had to do some training, Balthazar had explained once he finished giving Ava her magic test. However, counter to the attitudes in her native homeland, Ava already had a very open mind to magic. Finding out that it was magic that allowed Nathan and Verin, along with Ashuna, the warrior from Venecia, to rescue them had given her a favorable opinion on its use. That and the fact that their new home was filled with magical items, both by pirates and his aunt, had made Ava very interested in magic. Nathan, although very curious, had not been inside the home yet, instead choosing to go for a walk with Ava. It had been forever since they had time just to themselves.

  “What did you think of Balthazar?” asked Nathan.

  “I don’t know. I like that he is going to teach us magic stuff, but he is a little scary too. His eyes are intense.”

  “I noticed that to, but if you look closely, that intensity only appears when he talks about magic, the rest of the time his face looks like he is almost about to smile, but he never does. Let’s see who can make him smile first.” Nathan smiled himself, Ava almost never turned down a contest. She was the most competitive person he ever met.

  “Pfft, like you got a shot, men always smile at my legs…” Ava lifted her new dress higher above her knee. Already she had pulled it up to keep it out of the wet sand and tide. Now that it was above her knees, Nathan noticed how soft her creamy skin looked. His eyes followed her hand it as suggestively lifted the garment. Nathan was brought back to reality by the loud eruption of laughter and the sudden tug as she brought her dress back down to her knees. “Jeesh, Nathan you are just as bad as those old men with their creepy smiles.”

  Nathan was flustered, he hadn’t meant to stare but he also wasn’t used to being teased like this by Ava. Ava had always been a tomboy, more likely to throw a dead fish in his lap or an apple at his head, than to drawn attention to her feminine side.

  Ava sensed his hesitation, and pushed him down, pinning him into the soft sandy beach. “You know you weren’t the only one that grew up while you were away. I am not a child anymore.”

  Nathan felt the soft curves of her body as she held him down; he certainly agreed she had changed in the last few months. Ava had always been his best friend, but before he had left Elderwood to hunt bandits, there had been moments where their relationship seemed to be moving beyond friendship. , He had left the village on bad terms with her and, despite coming to her rescue, was unsure of where they stood.

  As Nathan thought back, Ava was having similar thoughts about the past. “Do you remember when we kissed? Why haven’t you ever tried to kiss me since then?”

  Nathan squirmed a little, between the feeling of her body against him and her line of questioning, he was getting more nervous by the minute. “I recall the first time you kissed me, just a peck on the forehead while we were in the Great Swamp, and the last time when you your lips touched mine. That’s a moment I’ve thought about every day.”

  “If you thought about it so much, why haven’t you done anything about it?” Ava pressed him to continue.

  “Well the next time we talked, you told me you never wanted to see me again and to leave. I didn’t see you again until Pailtar. I was just glad to have you back and wasn’t trying to push, I did not know if you still hated me or not.”

  “Oh Nathan I never hated you, and I never said I didn’t want to see you again. I told you to just go. But, I didn’t actually want you to leave. You were supposed to stay. I was so mad at you. After you left with your uncle, I realized that you were going after the bandits to protect us and I regretted the way our conversation went. I was just so scared you would be hurt and never come back. I was scared you would leave and never come back.” Ava paused, thinking back to how she felt when he was leaving her before. Balta seemed so far away back then. “I was so caught up in my own loss that I ignored how much it must have hurt to lose both your parents. Eventually I realized that you needed to go with Verin, but it still hurt that you left me.”

  Nathan absorbed this and thought carefully before replying. “And now that we are here together in Balta?”

  Ava stared Nathan in the eye and spoke softly, “You are mine, no more leaving me.” Ava lowered her lips until they were pressed against Nathan’s. “But if I catch you looking at another girl’s legs I will kill you and have your aunt find me a suitable replacement.”

  Nathan spun her around so he was sitting on top then began to tickle her. “Oh really? What if I don’t want you anymore? Your legs are kind of skinny anyways.”

  Ava, ticklish to begin with, could not help but laugh and cry at the same time as Nathan assaulted her rib cages with soft yet infuriating caresses. “Stop! You cad, mercy. Please that tickles…”

  Nathan laughed and stopped, grabbing both her wrists and gently pinning them behind her head. He stared into her eyes before returning the kiss she had given him earlier.

  When their lips parted once more, Ava said, “You know my legs are not too skinny. I saw the drool forming on your bottom lip, and besides you have no choice on wanting me anymore now that we’re connected by magic.”

  Nathan agreed this was magical, just maybe not the way she meant.Reluctantly, Nathan pulled Ava up from the beach; it was time for him to see his new home. Holding hands, they walked back up the path together. Now that he knew that his feelings for Ava were mutual, he wasn’t going to hide them. However, Aunt Avera was going to react, so the sooner she knew, the easier it would be to deal with.

  As they approached the front door, Ava turned and smiled at Nathan. “Watch this.” She turned to the door and spoke in a loud clear voice. “Roopa.”

  Nathan could hear the locks on the large, sturdy-looking front door open. He turned to Ava with a smile, “Magic locks?”

  Ava nodded. “The whole house is full of magical stuff, it is so fun.” As they walked into the large main corridor, Ava pointed out the magical paintings that moved and changed colors. Nathan was impressed.

  As they watched the painting of the trees, Avera entered from the kitchen corridor. Nathan saw Avera take in their clasped hands as they looked at the painting.

  “I see you two found the beach, you both still have a little sand on your backs. Ava, why don’t you take Nathan upstairs, show him to his room. When you get upstairs, don’t turn just go straight down the hallway until you hit the second corridor. Turn left and it’s the last door. I left it open. When you are done come down to the dining room, it is almost dinner time.”

  Instead of heading directly upstairs, Nathan and Ava headed back outside for a moment to brush off any lingering sand, neither wanted to start on the wrong foot with Avera by making a mess of her house. Once they were both clean, they headed back inside.
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  This house is huge, thought Nathan as they walked down the hallway. Ava was pointing out which door lead to the girls’ rooms and the hallway towards Avera’s quarters. Eventually they arrived at Nathan’s room and, as promised, the door was open.

  Compared to the girls’ living quarters, the room itself was small and modest. A nice-sized and very comfortable looking bed, two large armoires, and a dressing table with an etched glass mirror were the room’s main features. What made Nathan’s room unique was the adjacent room, a large spacious workroom. One wall was lined with shelves filled with books and small pieces of equipment. The other wall held a weapons rack with practice blades and open spaces for other weapons. A couple of practice dummies and a large table completed its furnishings. The room was perfect as far as Nathan was concerned.

  While Nathan checked out his new workroom, Ava ventured onto the balcony. She called him over, awed. Together they stood and looked at the view, from here, they could see the backyard with the ocean in the distance. The two friends could also see part of the cove’s beach where they had been sitting earlier. Even from this height, the beach was mostly hidden, but small sections were visible.

  The sun was just starting to touch the western waters, giving the far off horizon a warm glow. It was beautiful here. Nathan pulled Ava in close as they stood watching the sunset, after a long minute he spoke. “Come on, let’s go down for supper before they send a search party.”

  The dining room was large, and featured a huge table and enough chairs for a small army. With Nathan, the girls, and Avera they barely used up any of its seats. The group clumped together at one end of the massive table.

  “We never actually use this room, other than when I have house guests or a party. Normally I just eat in the kitchen with Maggie and Ruphus, but since it is our first meal together, I thought it would be nice to do it in here, ” said Avera. Before sitting down to dinner she had introduced Nathan to Maggie, Ruphus was still out buying supplies. Maggie and Ruphus were an older couple; Maggie did the house cleaning and cooking, while Ruphus looked after the grounds.