MageLife

by P. Tempest

  I wiped my mouth and stood on shaky and painful legs. The burning pain of muscles that protested their abuse sung through my body. I stepped heavily, all grace gone, to the makeshift pump. The cool water cleared my mouth but my mind was scattered.

  Where had the vision come from? Something Jase had said, he always warned us about overuse of our gifts he just never said why. Exhaustion is a common problem, I'd always assumed that it would be fatal or just seriously damaging, like after the foundry. But yesterday I'd not pulled that much power that I'd burned out my channels. I'd been constant and steady, no wild pulses or savage surges. I tried to examine my thoughts, but they ran from me like a flock of birds from a child. I couldn't just shrug and dismiss this. The vision had been intense and my reaction to it had felt normal at the time. Now it sickened me.

  I picked up my clothes and jammed my body into them.

  My blanket went into my bag and then that was swung over my shoulder.

  I looked back at the blazing crystals, momentarily thinking about charming them. There was no heat and it would fade shortly, I was a bit surprised they had lasted through the night. They would be frayed enough to collapse by the time the sun cleared the horizon. The circle could remain. It might give shelter to anyone else that came this way.

  I walked to Brendon, he waited for me at the edge of the trees.

  “Are we running today?”

  “There is no need. You did what you needed to do. We can walk now.”

  “Then I would like a few moments to attempt something.”

  “Very well. We leave as soon as you are ready.”

  I’d had an idea in the night. It wasn't as clear as I would like but if I didn't try I would never know if it could work

  I walked over to the road, well it wasn't a road but a track that was barely worn through the forest, there were small outcropping of stone scattered here and there. A type of granite that I'd never seen before last night.

  I headed to the nearest, the dark grey smudge barely visible where it just poked above the earth.

  I touched it and opened my senses. The stone shimmered in my sight, individual crystals in its structure catching, no producing its own energies. I pulled the stone up from the ground with my power. It was rough and large, far larger than id expected with a first glance. Larger than Brendon and myself combined. The loose soil shivered off in a cloud of dust. I set it down on the path then got to work.

  I charmed it.

  Enchantment would have worked if I’d had the time to work it out. Free form on a natural shape would have fallen apart in a bad way. With explosions probably. The charm was simple a repulsion, much like one that deterred pests, this one was tailored to repel the earth. Magnetism is a thing we learnt about at the academy. It wasn't magnetism I used but the idea of it. And movement. To push it along. I checked each thread they looked balanced. Bright and vibrant. The concepts were clear, their interactions looked to be straightforward. I charged it then stepped back.

  The stone lurched into the air a few feet. It then settled back down and hovered just above the earth waiting for us.

  “Brendon, we have transport.”

  “That is a rock.”

  “Correction this is a floating rock. It will carry us.”

  He walked over and poked it. The rock kind of bobbed. An unsteady wobble.

  “It doesn't look all that stable.”

  “It probably isn't, but it will do. I can hold it securely enough for us to mount. Get on.”

  He just looked at me warily.

  I smiled at him and nodded towards the rock.

  He placed both hands on the stone and pulled himself onto it.

  I exerted a bit of pressure to hold it still.

  He managed to get securely placed on it, although the nervousness of earlier didn't go anywhere.

  A small expression made a stair of earth for me to climb. I stepped up and sat next to Brendon.

  Feeling a rising sense of mirth as I looked at Brendon's face, his doubts and fears so clear to me. I shouted a line is heard my father say to the hunting hound we had kept when I was a child

  “Away. We hunt.”

  Brendon just looked at me.

  I smiled.

  The rock did nothing.

  My smile wilted, a touch. Not quite the dramatic flair I was hoping for.

  I looked down at the rock, calling up my sight.

  There didn't appear to be anything wrong with it, maybe I’d crafted a useless charm. Something that was never going to work. Power did seem to be flowing, so where was it going?

  I scratched my chin, needed a shave, but that's not important right now.

  The energies it was producing were being directed through the threads, they were going-

  “Brendon get off. Run!”

  “What?”

  “Go go go,” I said as I pushed him off.

  He landed on his face in the dirt.

  “Run, it's going to explode if I don't fix it.”

  Brendon didn't waste any time, he was on his feet running in a moment.

  I sunk deeper, I’d miscalculated the threads. They didn't have an outlet, and the power was building up.

  A shiver went through the stone. They crystals inside it vibrating, a low whine filled the air.

  I started ripping threads out and trying to place overflows and diversions. The power was feeding on its self-locking the threads into place.

  I wasn't going to get this done. It was going to explode.

  I jumped off, and I ran. My legs carried me further than id expected, not far enough.

  The whining in the air grew filling the forest with the sound of a million angry bees. Then a crack and another. Then more from my left.

  The stone splintered and exploded, shards flew at me. I felt a few hit my coat each impact hard enough to bruise.

  The sound didn't stop.

  I slowed and turned, the stone was gone but the charm architecture hung in the air, glowing.

  The buzzing bee sound continued.

  “Uh-oh.”

  I could see other rocks buried in the earth with matching patterns. I could feel tremors.

  “Brendon don't stop we have to get gone.”

  “Why? The stone is destroyed?”

  “Don't be stupid. Magic is rarely so simple. Just run. Don’t stop.”

  We ran as fast as our legs could carry us through the forest that soon wasn't a forest. Shredded leaves and splintered wood filled the air with vast amounts of dust.

  Fire bloomed on all sides as we ran and the air grew hot. Like a furnace.

  The edge of the forest was miles away, and I had no idea how far the effect had spread.

  “The mage will think of something, of course he will. It just results in explosions and fire.”

  “Shut up,” I gasped out. “How was I supposed to know we was far enough away for sympathy to come in to play?”

  “You are a mage you are supposed to know. It's all in the name, you are named magic, what do you expect?”

  “I don't know but a bit of slack would be nice.”

  Our conversation was cut short by the roaring firestorm behind us. The air was being sucked into it. Smaller explosions could be heard over the roar.

  We ran, I pulled power to supplement myself, the cool flow took over. I ran like a horse, like an animal, natural and graceful. The roots and bumps of the forest flow didn't disturb me.

  Brendon kept up with no perceivable problems. There was something odd there.

  “What are we doing?” Brendon shouted of the fire.

  “We are running. Away from that.”

  “After that.”

  “If we don't get away there is no after that.”

  “Use magic then.”

  “I don't have fire, earth and water aren't going to do much against that.”

  “Then I'm going to have to call Vesic.”

  “I don't think he is going to be too happy about this.”

  “Me either but
you can't fix it. He can.”

  “Do it, quickly then. It’s over taking us.”

  “You can't outrun everything,” Brendon said, a strange note in his voice. Almost wistful.

  I didn't say anything to that just kept running.

  “Vesic I call on you to aid me, I beseech you to lay your hand over your vessel in this moment of need.”

  That was weird, the first time I'd met Brendon he had called Vesic silently. Now he was calling out.

  The transformation didn't happen, Brendon was still Brendon, but a glow hovered over him.

  Threads exploded out of him. Each going to a fragment of fire. The flames froze, and the air stopped.

  The explosions continued for a few moments.

  I turned back and looked.

  Black and burnt. We had covered maybe ten miles in our run. All that was behind us was burnt and ruined. Land torn, chunks just torn out. Trees just gone. It was all a smoking ruin. The firestorm hung frozen in the air. It’s reaching fingers drawing back in.

  Brendon let out a small moan and collapsed.

  The fires collapsed with him.

  All I could smell was dust and ashes. The level of destruction was greater than I could have guessed. More than I’d ever seen before. Smoke drifted on the wind.

  This looked like my dreams. Not exactly but close. Visions of the future weren't likely, the few seers there were went mad reading every little trace and permutation in the magic. There was just too much to see. Everything interacted. But the hopes and dreams of what could be twisted, all that expectation, emotion, can warp the magic. Even without magic all that pressure on people can do strange things.

  This wasn't even a magical conflagration, it started that way and was echoed in the magic plane, fire was there, lots of fire. But it would die down. The damage done though was mundane, nothing I could do about it. At least not without extensive time here.

  I looked down at Brendon, he had burnt himself out channelling Vesic's power without the god actually coming himself. All just to fix a mistake that I had made.

  This was a scar on the land, another one.

  Is this what my life as a mage would be?

  I fell to my knees over the still form of Brendon and stared off into the destruction I had wrought.

  (----)

  The rest of the day was basically sitting there waiting for Brendon to wake up. I did find a small bit of the granite that had caused all this. The crystals in it bled power into the air. Not a lot of power but enough to lock the threads into a feedback loop. Like a river starts as a tiny trickle and as it grows and joins tributaries it gets locked into its bed, changing the flow of a river is hard, it’s been done a few times in history but it normally involved building a bed for it to travel down and teams of mages redirecting each joining tributary. I saw my mistake though by not giving it a direct outlet right away id let it build. And sympathy, which normally isn't an issue because I’d never been away from home before. Out here though the granite was all born in the same moment, the same event. It would of course be all the same, and I stupidly didn't account for it.

  I threw the rock away in disgust with myself. I was stupid and cocky.

  I looked over the devastation again.

  This is what being stupid costs, the price doesn't land on me it falls on the land.

  I was disturbed from my thoughts by a groan.

  Brendon was stirring.

  I rushed over to his side.

  His eyes opened as his sat up. He saw what there was to see.

  “All this from a rock?”

  “Very funny you know it wasn't just the one.”

  “Why are we still here?”

  “I didn't want to risk moving you, your link was strange. It grounded into the land. It appears to be normal now, but I didn't know what moving you would do.”

  “We have to get going, duty deferred is as bad as duty ignored.”

  “Are you well enough to move?”

  “I have to be. I feel a bit worse for wear but I can run.”

  “I’d rather not run. I have another idea. I want to talk to you about it first though.”

  “Probably best, what is it?”

  “I can make us golem shells. They would be expressions not charms or enchantments. They should be safe.”

  “Shells? And what's the difference?”

  “I thought you had all of Vesic's knowledge.”

  “No I never said that. I have seen his experiences doesn't mean I have the same understanding. It's the difference between watching someone swim and being able to do it yourself.”

  “Well an expression is a constant drain on me I would have to pay attention to it all the time. Charms and enchantments are set. I just do the work once and it carries on.”

  “You took a shortcut and caused all this?”

  “It wasn't a shortcut it would have been efficient if I wasn't an idiot.”

  “Can you do anything about the damage?”

  “I already have. Wood is the same everywhere. Different trees but they grow everywhere. I wish I was better with water or had any clue about air but wood I can handle. I've charmed a few trees that survived to increase their reproduction.”

  I pointed to a line of trees that I’d charmed. They were in bloom already. Ready to take back the area within a few days. The charm should last long enough to regrow maybe half the area in the next month or two. It wasn't a great solution, but it was all I had for now. I resolved to come back here and do more when I could.

  “And these shells entail what?”

  “Well I call the earth and focus it into shape and we sit on it. It will run for us.”

  “Don't. We will walk. That way you can have more time to think about it. Nelar is different. You don't want to be handling magic there.” Brendon stood and started walking, leaving the scarred land behind him.

  I took one more look back then followed him.

  (---)

  “How did you do what you did?” I asked.

  “I can't tell you.” Brendon answered, or not as it appeared.

  “Why not?”

  “It's not mine to tell.”

  “Oh. Do you think Vesic will tell me?”

  “I doubt it. He likes you but secrets are what he thrives on.”

  We walked gently through the remains of the forest. There wasn't much further to go before we would be out of it entirely. The mountains looming in the distance, every step we took taking us closer to my duty. Possibly to my death.

  My sword weighed heavily on me. It was the symbol of what had caused all this. Sophia, Lyphia, Jase and Airis all waited on my return and I couldn't even be certain I would return. My mission, I don't even know what I was supposed to do. Expand the reach of the council. Vague and unhelpful. Useless.

  “Do you know what I should do when we get there?”

  “Do you duty. That's what you mages are fond of saying isn't it?”

  “I hate that saying, it’s useless. Duty doesn't tell me anything. Do I do as instructed? Do I make it up as I go along?”

  “Do what you feel you must. You have orders, follow them.”

  “My orders don't cover anything. They are an end result they aren't instructions.”

  “Tristan, I can’t help you. I have very little control of my own life, I share my mind and body with a god. I didn't choose that. You chose to be a mage, why?”

  “I want to help people. I want the world to be better than it is. All I seem to be is make it worse.”

  “Magic isn't a cure all. It's a wonderful dangerous thing. You can’t fix the world with magic. There is no magic wand that will make people’s lives better, people will always be people, they will lie and cheat they will hurt others you can’t fix that with magic.”

  “Is magic harmful then?”

  “Tristan think about it. You are in the perfect position to know if magic is good or bad.”

  “It's a tool, it's the hand that wields it that defined if it is good or bad.”
>
  “Yes it is. And the hand that wields it is mortal. Do you really think it makes things better or does it just cause more problems?”

  “Both. It does both.”

  “Like any tool. A sword is a tool. With it you can protect or destroy. You could go out and kill indiscriminately or you could deter an enemy from fighting in the first place. You have to think Tristan. There are no easy answers.”

  “Magic helps people grow crops, it cleans water that would otherwise kill. It can heal.”

  “And it can do what happened back there. It can perpetuate wars and change people. Power corrupts all things.”

  “You think I'm corrupted?”

  “No, not yet. I think you lean on your magic to cover for you. It's the first tool you reach for. It’s all you know, and you think you can fix everything with it.”

  I wanted to be able to argue with him but he was right. I tried to fix everything with magic. Even though I knew it wasn't the answer.

  We fell into silence then. We just walked.

  (---)

  Dusk found us far from the forest. The mountains filled the sky. The air was cooling and bugs were flying around.

  Brendon said, “Make camp. No magic. Vesic will be here and he wants to talk to you.”

  I swallowed hard at the thought of getting chewed out by a god.

  I looked around the plains didn't have any cover. I just dropped my bag and pulled out my blanket and food. I lay the blanket on the ground and sat eating the hard travel meat and bread.

  Brendon was facing into the setting sun as I was starting to see was his habit. The transformation was different though, there was not gentle flowing into another form, this was savage. Actual sounds came from Brendon's body as it changed. On first look Brendon and Vesic were about the same size, it turns out they aren't. Vesic is a few inches taller and broader. The god was stretching Brendon's body like wet clay, with more crunch. The cracking of bones and the almost whimpering noises from their mouth made me want to go and help. But there was nothing I could do. There was no wound. No injury as such. There was just this transformation which if I understood Brendon correctly was natural for them.

  I remained on the blanket. I felt like a coward but anything I could do was likely to make it worse.