by P. Tempest
I spun threads from the reservoir throughout the entire foundation then up through the walls, to carry the effect and the power then I created the charm to strengthen and reinforce the building and wound it through the threads. I felt a pulse of feedback as the charm initialised.
Now to make it permanent.
I sunk to my knees and laid my trembling hand on the stone. The concepts near vibrated with eagerness, the connectives came to mind so quickly it was if someone was whispering instructions to me, but I couldn't hear the magic’s voice this time. It was closer to whispering to myself. My tired mind unable to connect where the information came from.
I felt the moment the last link fell into place.
The dregs of my power drained out of me. My vision clouded, and I felt myself fall. I couldn't move my arms up fast enough. I landed on my face.
It should’ve hurt, but I was beyond feeling.
Chapter 30
I ached. I awoke on cold stone laying on my face. The light from the window was dim but still visible. My ribs hurt.
“Wake up,” a cranky voice from above me said.
I blinked and pulled myself up, the stiffness in my joints slowing me.
“You done? You fell asleep on my floor.”
“How long was I asleep?” I asked as I rose to my feet. I wavered slightly.
“Not long, but I'm not happy about you sleeping on the job. I thought you mages were tough.”
“I’ve finished. It was a big job for one man.”
“Pish, the old mages could have done it if they’d wanted. They were more powerful than you lot.”
“No they were monsters, controlled by the nobles; they weren't more powerful they had less restraint- violence isn’t power.”
The old woman grumbled at being corrected and walked off without even thanking me.
I walked slowly out the door and was greeted by the sight of Sophia standing in the middle of the street, looking around. When she saw me, one of her wide smiles spread over her face
“Tristan, where have you been? I've been looking for you all over!” she said rapidly
“What are you doing here? Where is Airis? Why aren't you with Jase and Fion?” I asked with a scowl.
“Don't be so grumpy, I was bored, and I wanted to see you. Airis stayed behind to cover my escape. Don't you like seeing me?” she replied her smile fading as she went on.
“I always like seeing you silly! But you're not supposed to be out and about without supervision - or have you forgotten the gnome?”
“I remember the gnomes, but they can't get me here! There are grown-ups all around see?” She pointed at the few people on the street as if they proved her point.
"That's not what I mean and you know it, young lady!" I replied sternly, "But for now, let's just go home - I'm tired." I held out my hand for her.
"Sure!" she said happily, already back to her usual self, and took my hand with her own, small one.
We walked on unsteady feet down the smooth road. The evening air chill against me sweat dampened skin. The few people travelling the streets were bustling along. I spotted a fellow mage down the way. He was standing outside the doorway of a small house, gesturing wildly as he talked with the occupant. As we got closer, parts of the conversation drifted over to us.
“Pay me the damn money..." said the older mage in a threatening tone. I'd never seen him before, but with the sudden increase of mages in this town, that wasn't surprising. He was rather short, slim and his hair was cut very short. His left eye glowed with a reddish light, which usually meant he was a fire specialist, but that wasn't necessarily reliable information. More interesting was the large, twisted scar running down the right side of his face, running clean through his eye - it had no glow, but rather a normal, green colour.
The occupant, trying to cower behind himself, replied with a low, terrified voice, "W-we don't have that much..."
“Have the money by this time tomorrow or I won't be able to protect you anymore, and you wouldn't like that, now would you?” the mage hissed, his tone filled with anger. He took a single step back, raised his arm and a lance of fire shot out of his finger, burning a deep gouge into the wall of the building.
“Please sir mage, we have nothing to spare.”
“I didn’t ask for spares now did I?” the mage said, his mouth raised in a smirk that distorted the scar even further.
Sophia let go of my hand and ran over to the mage.
“Hey you can’t treat people like that!” she shouted at the man
"Piss off, midget. This is none of your business," he said and without even turning around, lashed out with his hand, an invisible force knocking her away and to the ground.
I rushed forwards and grabbed the mages arm.
He turned his magic on me, roaring air hit me. I clung on, my teeth clenched. His arm came around, he wasn't stronger than me. But he was better rested. My anger at seeing Sophia on the ground gave me strength when I needed it most but it wasn't going to be enough as I felt myself weakening. I used my already depleted power to shift the stone beneath his feet. His balance shifted. I swung my fist. I connected just under his chin. I could hear his jaws click together. He actually looked at me then. I don't know why he hadn't before.
“Walk away mage boy, this is your last warning, this isn't your concern," he said.
“You hurt my kid. You threatened this man. You’re my concern.” I hissed out as I readied a blast of my own.
“You can’t take me boy, I've been doing this all my life.”
“Doesn't matter if I can win, what matters is that I fight.”
I sent raw power down my arm, no fixed element or concept just the rawest unformed stuff, it was all I could manage.
It hit him but washed back on me. I let go of his arm in pain. My fingers felt burnt. I didn't look, I focused on the mage.
He took a step back, a sneer on his face as he looked at me. In his hands was a ball of bluish white flame.
I pulled all the power I had left over my body in a makeshift shield. The bracer sigil in my mind tried to come forwards, but the ball hit before it could.
Flames washed over me, my shield burning through quickly. The heat hit. The air felt like lava scorching my lungs. I screamed.
The fire stopped, I couldn't see. I could hear scuffling. There were voices.
I blinked my eyes started to clear, my magic must have protected my most delicate parts.
The mage was a few yards away. Surrounded by a mob, a small mob, but mob none the less.
I could feel the magic pouring out of them. Eight men and women of varying ages and sizes pouring out every shred of power they had. I could feel their links strain at the load but no one’s broke. The mage on the other hand was trapped in a circle of magic not his own, held by eight people. He threw fire and air in wild blows against them as a team nothing touched them. The circle of power they had conjured held against it all. The sounds of him raging filled the early evening air. I turned my head to see Sophia picking herself up from the stone. I pulled myself up and stumbled over to her.
“You okay kid?” I asked.
“Yeah. He's a bad man” she said. I caught sight of where he had caught he, a large bruise was blooming on the side of her face
“He's a Ventrastus, that's worse. We have enough problems without them," I said anger burned through me at the sight of her injury.
I held out my hand, and she took it. We walked slowly over to the circle. I looked from face to face. Each one looked grim but resolute. The mage in the middle was spitting and snarling promising all kinds of vengeance against them their families, everyone and everything. It soon reached the point where he made no sense. My anger refused to settle.
“Sophia, could you look away please,” I asked gently.
“Why?”
“I have to do something. It’s important but not very nice.”
“You’re going to kill him aren’t you?” she said. She raised he had to touch the swellin
g bruise on her face.
“Yes,” I said simply.
“I will look away.”
“Thank you.” I let go of her hand. Then I called the dregs of my power. The stone rose from the street into a slim pillar about the height of my waist. I touched it small cracking sounds came from within and then I wrapped my hand around the now shaped hilt of a single bladed sword. Thin and serrated, made of white stone. I pulled it from the shattered remains of the pillar. It was far lighter than I would have otherwise thought. I stepped forwards to the circle sword in hand.
The mage saw me. He started to laugh.
“Going to kill me boy? I think not. You have no right.” he spat.
I stepped forward to the edge of the circle. The knacks holding it shuffled around to give me space.
“I have every right. You threaten the peace of the mages. You abuse the citizens we are sworn to protect. Even now they are the ones who hold you, not I.”
“That because you’re weak. They are chattel.”
“And worst of all you harmed my apprentice,” I said ignoring his comment.
He paled at that.
“Under the laws of the awakened; to harm another's apprentice without leave is a death sentence. What is your name?”
“Selac Freant,” he said defiantly. He set his feet and squared his shoulder. His mismatching eyes locked on mine.
I inclined my head not in respect but in a formal motion that the solemn moment required. “Mage Selac Freant I name you Ventrastus, oath breaker, justice has come for you. May your next cycle be better. Go in peace.”
The circle was lowered, and I swung the sword.
Chapter 31
It was fully dark by the time we made it back to the academy, I still carried the blood stained sword I'd made. Sophia had been very quiet as we walked. I'd not said much either
The lights of the entrance hall were fully on. The receptionist from earlier was still at her desk. I was puzzled by that, they normally went home at night.
“Master Tristan, sir, a letter has come for you,” she called as we approached.
“A letter? Who uses letters nowadays?” We continued walking to the desk
“I don't know sir, it’s not my place to speculate.” She placed the tattered envelope in my hand “I was waiting for you, now that it’s done I can go home.”
Sophia looked as the letter then caught sight of the sword, blood still dripped from its tip. She paled and the words she was about to say died on her tongue.
No words were exchanged. Neither of us were in the mood.
We walked up to our apartment. Sophia ran off to her room. Rushing past Airis in the process. Airis looked to me.
“You are her companion and protector not her accomplice. The pair of you were to stay with Jase.”
Airis opened his mouth to speak, but I held up my hand and the bloody sword.
“No, I don't want to hear it. I have had to do something that I wish I hadn't because she was there. It is your responsibility to protect her in this case even from herself. None of this needed to happen.” I said the anger had faded, now I just felt tired and empty.
“None of this needed to happen” I repeated softly to myself.
“What happened? I'm sorry Tristan. I didn't think it would do any harm.”
“Sophia will need you tonight. Please don't let there be a next time.”
Airis nodded and shuffled off towards the bed rooms.
I was left alone, I longed to put the sword down but I couldn't unclench my hand from the hilt. It felt wrong to let go. I don't know why. The letter in my hand drew my attention. I raised it so that the light caught the gently curving glyphs, common glyphs minus the complicated connectives of mage glyphs. There was no clue on the envelope about who it was from. It wasn't official, that much I was certain about. I still hadn’t received my mage certificate, but I knew those envelopes were thick and creamy. This was cheap, simple. I wasn't in the mood for it right now. I wanted to bathe, to eat, to put down the fucking sword that my hand refused to let go of.
I walked past the table and threw the letter on to it. It landed on the edge. I continued on to my room. Outside my door I could hear muffled conversation from Sophia's room. I could guess what was being said. My dark mood told me exactly how badly I had failed Sophia. I entered my room and left them to their conversation, I wanted no part in it right now.
My room was dimly lit the lights on their lowest setting whilst still being on. It matched my mood, dark and shadowed. I sat on my bed and laid the sword over my knees. It was the only white thing in here. My eyes were drawn to the beautiful ugly thing. The sharp serrated edge. The long straight spine. The dark, so very dark, stain of blood stark against the gleaming whiteness.
My mood darkened further. A life I had taken in rage. I failed to protect Sophia. Her bruise was all the evidence I needed that I couldn’t give her what she needed. I couldn’t be a parent. I hadn't even spoken to my own for years. I remembered the fights we’d had about me becoming a Mage. ‘A life of blood, shed and spilled,’ my father had called it during one of his more eloquent rants. My last year at home had been uncomfortable. It had been three years since I'd even mirrored them. As much as I’d hated my training here, it had been an effective excuse to avoid them.
I had done this all of this, I could blame no one. I chose this life, again and again at every hurdle I had chosen this life even with the possible bloodshed and pain. I’d never envisioned a child stuck in it with me. I cared for Sophia deeply but I could never give her the peace I wished for her, I couldn’t take the pain of losing her parents from her, I couldn't fix it, all I had to offer was magic and more pain.
I stood and walked over to wall there was a weapons rack next to the bathroom door. I'd never considered that I would even need a weapon but when given the choice between taking the Ventrastus for judgement I'd chose blood. What that said about me I don't know but it wasn't anything good. I hung the sword on the rack then walked through to the bathroom.
I shed my clothes unhurriedly all the passion and haste I normally felt was gone, I wasn't a man anymore I was a shell. Burnt out.
I went through my ablutions slowly and with extra care, my mind blank as I did the routine task of cleaning myself. My fingers stung as I washed. The back flow of my blast a lingering reminder that I would have failed it the people hadn't helped me. I'd not even asked their names. They had burnt the body there and then on the street. The thick greasy smoke had risen straight up, a darker mark against the dark sky.
Sophia had been silent as a statue, her face as grim as I'd ever seen her. Her childhood was being stripped away from her piece by piece and it was my fault. I clenched my fist in the steaming water. The burns hurt, but it was a good pain. A sharp reminder that I wasn't equipped for this. I needed more training and Sophia needed someone else. Someone that could give her a normal life.
I reached for a towel automatically, my body going through the motions while my mind was elsewhere. I walked back to my room, the bright light came from the open door to my room a shadowed form stood at my doorway the light spilling around the shape but not illuminating the person.
“Tristan, oh my Tristan. I heard the whole town is abuzz with the news,” Lyphia said. She hurried forwards to embrace me.
“Don’t, I killed him. Don’t touch me.”
She stopped halfway across the room
“Tristan, be honest with me. Was there another way?”
“I could have taken him for judgement, Rysan, Orb and Jase could have served. I don't need to execute him.”
“From what I hear you did the right thing. He was exhorting the people. He hurt a child. He’s done worse,” Lyphia said.
“Maybe but I didn't need to be the one that did it. He hurt Sophia.”
Lyphia closed the distance, she ignored my feeble nudges. Her arms wrapped around me in a tight yet gentle embrace.
“You protected your daughter, you protected the people, and you did the right
thing,” she said softly against my chest.
I could feel my emotions waking up, her gentle touch stirred something in me. My eyes itched.
“She isn't mine. Her parents are gone. I just saw her hurt, and it broke something in me.”
“You are her father in every way that matters right now. You love her and what the best for her. That is why you did what you did.”
“It’s’ not enough, I can’t give her a quiet life. She’s a mage now. She hates magic. I can’t be a father to her, I barely know mine. I walked away from my parents to be a mage.”
Lyphia pulled back and looked up at me.
“Tristan you know how to be a father, I've watched you with her. You are doing fine. Her being a mage increases her need for you. No one else can understand her like you can.”
“I killed a man for hurting her. It wasn't justice. It was revenge. I couldn't stand the thought of him getting away with hurting her. I cut his head off because I could. I was so angry.”
“Tristan you know how to be a father, someone hurt your little girl, you made sure he could never hurt anyone again.”
I had nothing to say to that.
“Now you have something you need to do.”
“I do?”
“Yes, you need to get dressed and you need to talk to her.”
“What if she hates me? What if she turns away?”
“Stop it. No what ifs. We aren't playing that game. You are going to go in and comfort that little girl that looks up to you. That girl needs you and unless I'm much mistaken, you need her.”
I was led to the wardrobe Lyphia picked out some clothes for me and I numbly put them on.
“Now go. I will arrange a meal for us all.”
I walked to the door in a daze.
“Can Airis eat?” Lyphia asked.
I halted trying to make sense of what had been said. “What?”
“Can Airis eat? I know he's a golem, but he's a boy too. It would be nice if he joined us for our meal.”
“He can eat, he doesn't need to but he can. I've not actually tried.”
