by P. Tempest
“A full mage. Strong in earth, probably first knack. A touch of water too. Complex first blooming.” He muttered before raising his eyes to meet mine. “Sorry, I'm Guild master Terra. We could use a mage around here.”
“What was that?” I was incredulous. I had never seen or heard about magic like that.
The guild master just shrugged and released my hand. “Just a little quirk of mine.” he replied dismissively. He strolled back to his desk. Grabbing a glyph-screen and ignoring me.
Lyphia looked at me sympathetically as I stood there baffled by the exchange. “Father, can you pay attention please. Mage Tristan is here to help, you can’t treat him like this!” she squawked at him.
The guild master looked at her blankly. “Why are you shouting at me Phe?” he asked with what appeared to be honest confusion.
“Dad focus please. We have a mage. He doesn't know what you are like.” she pleaded.
I was watching the exchange, my confusion growing. What was going on?
The guild master looked at me. His eyes showed no recognition. A hand came out as if to shake.
“Dad, you have done that already.” she said, moving forward to block my sight of him. She bent forward whispering into her father's ear.
I couldn't catch any of it. Using my magic to eavesdrop when it wasn't needed felt wrong. So I just stood waiting. Feeling rather useless. This really wasn't helping my confidence.
Lyphia pulled away. Patted her father on the hand before gesturing for me to leave.
I carefully made my way out of the room. I waited outside the door hoping I wasn't expected to leave the building.
A few moments later Lyphia came out carrying a glyph-screen “Sorry about that let's go to my office” her earlier smile had died. All lingering amusement washed away.
“You have an office?” I asked
“What do you think I do here?” she retorted. Her eyes firmly locked on mine. A tensing of her shoulders betraying the anger that was missing from her tone.
“Um, I have no idea. You picked me up from the foyer. I thought that was your job.” I said earnestly.
“No that's not my job” she replied with a small laugh. The tension disappearing. “My job is far more, than picking up strays. I would rather not discuss it here.” she pointed to the door on the other side of the window.
I was left speechless. I hadn't brought it up.
She walked ahead of me, opening the door without knocking. This office was spotless. Plain stone and wood. Deep wooden shelves covered the walls. Stuffed with neat folders. She head straight for the desk, deposited the glyph-screen on the desk and turned to me.
“I guess you want an explanation about my father” she said fiercely. The passion behind it made me want to leave.
“If you want to explain. I’ll admit I'm curious but I don't want to make things difficult," I replied gently. I was doing my best to keep calm. This wasn't my thing at all.
“You may need to know.” she stated. Her earlier passion seemed to have shifted into something else. She leant against the desk, her arms folded.
“It’s simple really. My father was a bonded mage, who broke his bond. He is also the one who put up the dome to protect this town.” she said
I was shocked again. A broken mage bond. I had heard stories, but I had never encountered them.
“Can I ask questions please? I don't want to be insensitive but as you said I may need to know.” I asked. This was interesting. I watched her reactions.
All she did was sigh and wave for me to continue.
“The mage bond. What is it exactly?” I asked. I had a list of questions already bubbling in my mind.
“Well I don't know details but as my father explained when I was young. It's a magical oath. Between mage and noble. Knacks were conscripted. Exceptional ones were pushed harder and given extra training. Turned into mages. Forced by the nobles to take the oath. It binds them to service until they are released or either party dies," she answered blandly.
“It's an oath? You're sure? I questioned intently. Memories of my own master’s oath coming to mind.
“Yes. It's an oath.” she said with a look that said I was clearly brain-dead
“Alright, I guess I’d better get on with my next questions. What happened to him?” I asked hoping to redeem myself in her eyes.
“The simple answer is backlash. The more complex one is my father was tasked by the wizards to protect this town from the waves. They knew it was coming.”
I interrupted before she could continue. “Hang on. They knew? How did they know? I though the waves were random. How could anyone know?”
Lyphia glared at me. Her body tensing up. “Do not interrupt me!” she said through gritted teeth.
I guess she had a problem with it.
“Just because I’m the daughter of the guild master doesn't mean I didn't earn my position. I am not some mindless knack woman you can treat with disrespect.” she said. Biting off her words sharply. Her eyes bored into me. More green than brown when she was angry, I noted.
Pay attention to what she is saying not how pretty her eyes are. I commanded myself
I nodded slightly. I didn't want to aggravate her again.
Lyphia seemed to notice that my interruption wasn't intentionally designed to anger her. She continued. “Yes they knew. I don't know the details of it, but it was precise. So they sent my father out. It was against the nobles orders. That broke the bond. It’s not quite all the tale but the backlash damaged his mind and the later use of his power, to make the dome caused further damage. His quirk as he calls it, is from before. He is an amazing mage still. There just isn't much left of him.” she finished. A tear glistened on her cheek. She seemed to be pretending it didn't exist as it slid down.
The story still upset her after all this time. Trying to be careful in case I touched a nerve. I asked. “Who runs the guild then? Day to day?”
She blinked and then smiled the tear gone as if it never was. The smile was weak but a good effort, “I do of course. You work for me. Do you have a problem with that?” a touch of steel had entered her voice. Almost daring me to object.
“No, that's fine.” I struggled out. This woman scared the magic out of me.
“Well now we have got that unpleasantness out of the way we can move on.” she said calmly was a wave of the hand as if brushing if aside. “Father said you were a strong earth knack. A touch of water too. We can work with that. Do you have any experience with building at all?” she asked, her smile growing.
I was barely managing to hold my own end of the conversation. “No, I’m a new mage. My experience is practically nothing.” it was a hard thing to admit but l felt lying about my talents would only end up with me out of my depth.
She looked at me as if she was re-evaluating.
“Good.” A large smile bloomed across her face. "I already knew that, but I had to make sure you would be honest with me. Most mages think they are better than us knacks. If you had lied I would have sent you away,” she said evenly. “Well the introductions are done. I think we can call it a day for now.” she looked over her desk as if searching for something. Seeming to find it she passed it over to me.
It turned out to be a shard, of a form I had never seen, as I touched it a small spark of magic leapt up my arm. My mind filled with images, calculations, designs things that I had no names for. Struck by the sudden rush of information. I dropped the shard. The flow stopped.
Lyphia laughed “Takes some getting used to, but study it before I see you again. You are no use to us if you can't understand what we need to do. Oh and be prepared to work hard. I will call someone to escort you out.” she activated her glyph-screen “Send someone to my office please," she looked back at me “They will be here in a moment. I look forward to seeing what a full mage can do.” a smirk curled her lips.
“I will do my best” I said. Looks like I was out of my depth already. Story of my life.
A knock at the door star
tled me even though, I had been expecting it.
“That will be your escort” she said to me before raising her voice. “Come in”
A young man he couldn't have been more than nineteen opened the door. He came in to the room. Stopping just a few steps from the door. He looked around uncertainly.
Lyphia smiled at him. “Hello, I haven't seen you before. Are you new?” she asked
The boy looked like he was going to faint. “Yes, I started last week, miss.” he squeaked out.
“Could you take the mage here down to the front door please?” Lyphia asked. A tilt of her head indicating me
The boy nodded and looked towards me. I doubt he could have gotten paler, but he made a good effort.
Lyphia turned back to her desk. I assumed we were dismissed by the air of intense focus she had around her.
The boy continued to look between me and Lyphia.
Unsure what else to do I turned towards the door.
The boy took this as a sign to lead me back to the entrance.
Lyphia didn't say or do anything to indicate otherwise.
We left her to her work.
Chapter 10
Back out on the street, the boy hadn't even told me his name before disappearing. The sky had darkened considerably. Street lights were just starting to turn on. I must have spent more time in there than I thought. I did my best to work out what had happened in there. I had seen a mage that had survived the breaking of the noble’s service as well as saved this very town and had a unique gift for reading talents, which I had never heard of beside a mage medi-table. I had been handed an enchanted item that seemed to place knowledge into directly into my head, also beyond my learning. I really needed to spend some time on enchant theory. With a flash of insight I realised, that it wasn't that different to how we implanted skills in golems or programmed certain systems. I just had never thought that it worked on living minds. Why, I had never realised was beyond me, other than the fact thinking wasn't how we were trained. Thought wasn't encouraged, mainly because it upset our emotional control. Which in turn affected our intellectual control of our power. I was different than most of the others I was trained with. Insight was my gift as such. Connections and flexible casting. I wasn't great at such structured castings. Enchantments were rote for me. But seeing such a wonderful idea made me think I should try harder with them. Once again I was thinking as I was walking. This was becoming a problem. Hence why I bumped into a man I hadn't even seen. He was under thirty, deep set black eyes to match his dark hair that was somewhere between black and brown. Not much shorter than me. His scowl made him look older. His robe was only slightly rumpled
“Mage! What are you playing at? I'm doing Vesic’s work.” he roared at me. His voice was smooth and easy to listen to despite the anger in it.
“I'm sorry I didn't see you there.” I replied apology completely absent from my tone. His anger annoyed me.
“How could you not see me? In other sight I have my god’s hand on me. Even you blind mages should be able to feel Me.” he said with a superior edge. A smug look all over his face. I wanted to hit him right there and then. Being looked down on is never fun. I had very little experience of it.
“Well I couldn't feel your god. Are you sure you’re not delusional?” I asked irritation making me bold.
“I’m not delusional” he spluttered. The feeling of power rose up in him.
“Anyways have a nice day” I said and continued on my walk.
“I'm not finished with you," he shouted.
I could feel a tingle of power welling up in him, a brief glimpse in other sight showed a slight trickle flowing out of him but a torrent flowing back from the magic. This was very strange. I had never seen anything like it. Even the fire surge hadn't been like this. I turned to face him.
“What are you doing?” I asked curiously.
“You will see” he smirked at me, his eyes blazing almost like a full mage. His face was slowly changing, twisting, his features seemed to shift. As if a mask was dissolving. The change was startling.
“You!” he shouted at me. Even his voice had changed it sounded like two voices at once. A deep strong one and his normal voice as an echo. “How dare you insult my vessel? I am Vesic, lord of flames. And you shall pay for your temerity!” he thundered. Flickers of flame appearing around his form.
There was a rising sense of heat in my mind. A compulsion to bow down to this being was trying to force me to my knees. Pushing through that took a lot of strength of will but the academy had given me a lot of that. Doing my best not to show the strain I answered him calmly
“I mean no offence but a god, really? You don't feel like a god. You feel like an elemental.” I asked confident in the defence of my shield if it came to a fight.
“I am a god. My vessel is but a man. He cannot channel my full power.” he replied dismissively but still very loudly as if that answered the question. His face fully manifest now. A shifting weave of shimmering lights. Over his vessel’s own feature. His eyes were what told the tale. Darting glimmers of flame that shifted through every colour I had ever seen fire make.
“I meant no offence. I did not see your vessel. He got angry before I could apologize.” I said contritely. I didn't want to face a god even if it was just an elemental. I was in the middle of town. Avoiding casualties was my main concern. Add that to my mounting uncertainty that what I knew was accurate.
“Vessel, Is this true? Did you summon me unneeded?” Vesic said. He clearly wasn't addressing me. The flames died down immediately.
I couldn't hear the reply although judging by the strange things happening in other sight it confirmed what I had said. The magic seemed to just drain out of the priest in a sizeable chunk, warping his link in some undefinable way. He collapsed on the paving. His face his own again. Tears streamed down it.
Once again I had no idea what to do. So I just carried on with my day as best I could. Old mages, strange enchantments and gods can really take it out of a guy.
My way back to my apartment was very quiet, except for the constant rush of people through the town. Activity was on the rise clearly.
Once home, I ran through my physio motions and thought patterns. They had been given to me by my assigned medic. Magic flowed through me in constant cycles. Cleansing the energy debris of the day from my system. There was far more than I had expected. A trace of earth from the stone guild. A large amount of fire, I assumed from the god I had bumped into. Going over to my small work desk in the corner. I took out a containment crystal. Trying to grasp the odd collection of energy, I pushed it into the crystal matrix for later study. My recovery from the foundry incident had taught me that some things couldn't be ignored. One of them was the accumulated debris that attaches itself to a mage. I wished I had been taught this at the academy. Carrying around every mark of my magical interactions can get dangerous. I had been infected with my gnome encounter as well as my first attempts at imbuing that water device. The battle in my system had reduced my ability to fight off my exhaustion that the channelling for my shield had cause. Basically I could let the debris collect but get enough and my powers would be warped by these outside influences.
I had spoken to Jase about it when I’d had my medical. All I had got out of him was in the early days it was how starting mages learnt new abilities by mimicking and working around these influences. I had got angry as I'd not gotten told anything about it. Which hadn't gone well. I got strapped to the table, had the medical torture as normal and a rather chilly and uncooperative Jase to deal with. So now I had set myself rules, I would cleanse and store my collected energies. And work out what each would be able to teach me. Then when I had free time I would work with it to add effects to my repertoire. Just thinking about some of the things that could stick to me made my skin crawl. It also made me think about some of the stories I had heard about as a child, contaminative curses and haunted places.
In a land where the very stones could contain magic, it
made sense. Horrors committed by the mages in the noble’s service had left marks all over our land. I couldn't name any though the gaps in my education were showing, I should never have been raised to mage so soon. There wasn't much I could do about the position I was in. I owed the wizards four more years of service. My duty was to serve in any way they deemed fit. The godly taint was weird. A brief examination told me there were multi layered concepts twined around what felt like a core. I couldn't wrap my head around it. The containment crystal shimmered quite nicely. Almost as an afterthought I placed a divider in it to keep the influences as pure as I could. I had learnt my lesson about magical accidents. I had no desire for a meltdown in my apartments, it's where my stuff was. I had finished my exercises and calmed myself. I prepared for bed. Too worn down to bother with folding my uniform, I just dumped it in the hamper at the foot of my bed. It should be clean and pressed by morning as the enchantment took care of that for me, with a soft command “Lights off” the lights dimmed and I crawled into bed. I was asleep almost as soon as my head hit the pillow.
Chapter 11
Something about my encounter yesterday had done something to my sense. I awoke groggily my dreams filled with visions of old parts of the town. Horrible things had happened. Doors shattered with magic. Sinister men with glowing eyes were burning and drowning poor knacks. Children taken forcibly from screaming parents. A few families even fought back their links broken wide open much like the fire surge from my own experiences. I dragged myself over to my basin, drawing the water to wash my face, the idle thought that it would wash these visions from my mind. The glimmer of enchantment was everywhere. I was being bombarded with concepts that I barely understood. Definitely time for a wash. I scrubbed the cool water roughly into my face half drowning myself as it went up my nose. The snorting and gasping seemed to have closed my senses at least, although it hadn't done much for my own wellbeing. Spluttering was not a good start to anyone's day.
