MageLife

by P. Tempest

  “I don't know but we won't win unless we find out.”

  “No one could command an army like this except maybe a wizard.”

  “That's it, a wizard.”

  “A wizard wouldn't do this.”

  “Do you know a wizard named Brak?”

  “The arch wizard's best friend, co-founder of the wizard's council, that Brak?”

  “Yes. Did you know he has gone rogue?”

  “What? Why would a wizard go rogue? That makes no sense.”

  “I don't know, but what I do know is the council are looking for him. He was behind the foundry explosion in Westhaven.”

  “Tristan, a wizard wouldn't be here. The magic is too damaged for them.”

  “Some of them could manage it, I'll bet Brak is one of them.”

  “You are betting, heavily. I don't see a reason for a wizard to set all this in motion. I can't let you go.”

  “But I know where he is.”

  “You don't know anything Tristan, you are guessing. This is all just guess work. There is no leader, no wizard here.”

  “I'm sorry Telsan but this won't end here. I have to go.” I pushed off from the wall I was leaning against and ran to the edge of the platform, the drop was only a few feet, but every little helps in a fight.

  The goblins had pulled back, they weren't assaulting the line anymore, they crouched at the base, growling and fighting among themselves.

  I couldn't slip through. Not unnoticed, their senses were too sharp.

  I racked my brains for an answer. Nothing came to mind.

  My sword flared with flame, casting deep shadows. The bright light made the goblins flinch.

  Nothing for it but to fight my way through. Hopefully Vesic’s gift wouldn't vanish on me.

  My shoulder ached from earlier but it was loose, that would have to be enough.

  I raised my blade and ran into the swarm.

  Arms and makeshift weapons reached out for me.

  “Cover him,” came a shouted command before bolts of fire and light flew into the mass from behind me.

  A hole opened in the clump of goblins. I ran for it. My legs pumping, arm lashing out to take out the goblins that tried to close it.

  Where were gnomes when you wanted them? The thought crossed my mind as I slashed and cut for my life. The absurdity of it all set off something inside me. A bubbling of emotions, my heart raced.

  I laughed.

  Blood flew through the air and still I made my way forwards. Laughing all the way.

  The goblins were taking a beating, the cover was clearing swaths of them. The stench of burning goblin is hard to describe, sweet and sickly with a hint of rot. Like burning wet leaves filled with honey. Disgusting but you can't help taking a sniff trying to work out what it smelt like.

  I angled my path to the king’s tower.

  That was when the earth elementals pulled their trick.

  The street rippled, cobbles rising in the air and striking indiscriminately.

  I pulled as much power as I dared, the sigil flared in my mind again. Its shape faint behind my eyes for a moment. Just like at the tribunal. This time though I knew what to do with it. I forced as much magic as I could into the flowing runic shape. It grew more defined and filled with colour. A shield formed around me, deflecting cobbles away.

  The feeling of power running through me that strongly made me feel invincible. I quickened my pace, my sword cutting all the while, blood sizzling down the burning blade. The runic shapes rising from the surface of the blade glowed darkly in all the colours of the rainbow. Blues bleeding into reds and yellows. Oranges and greens mixing with the near black blood of the goblins.

  A tingling in my head slowed me. A sense of something strange not far from me. The kings tower like I had guessed. Subtle pulses of magic.

  The forces thinned as I turned the corner. I could see the entry of the tower. The doors were still missing but the planks blocking the way had been removed. A pair of massive trolls guarded the door.

  The trolls looked out over the street, clubs in hands. They could have been ugly statues for they moved.

  Blasts weren't really my thing but with this amount of power running through my channels I could do something.

  The wizard might feel it if it was too strong so I would have to be subtle. Subtle wasn't really my thing.

  I opened my senses as wide as I could.

  The world exploded into light.

  The damaged dark flows flashed into view, each one starkly contrasted against the shadowed material world. They actually flowed now, power rushing through them in torrents all directed into and up the tower. A shape was forming at the top of the tower. A sphere of sigils, thousands of them in swirling patterns. A large chunk was missing but as I watched a few more floated out to join them. A huge spell. I couldn't even begin to work out what it did. But whatever it was, was building.

  The trolls glimmered with twisted light, strands filled every part of their bodies, holding them together.

  A small idea took root in my mind.

  I let my shield fall, I wouldn't need it for this. The spare power instantly tried to overtake my mind, whispers and visions swam across my senses, promises of everything I could want, peace, safety, comfort. I did my best to ignore them and put the power to good use.

  The earth elementals trick of throwing cobbles wouldn't work with trolls they recover too quickly, but maybe something slower mould work.

  I sent my power into the earth, softening the ground beneath their feet.

  Slowly they started to sink, they looked at each other but made no move to save themselves. Maybe they had been ordered to stand and watch for someone or something. This apparently wasn't it.

  It wasn't long before they were buried up to their shoulders. I hardened it quickly, it wouldn't hold for long but they were too big to get through the doors.

  I shut down my other senses and pushed the almost overwhelming power away. I couldn’t run the risk of over using it now. I wavered as it left me then took a deep breath and ran for the door.

  The trolls saw me or heard something, their heads turned to me. Then as if they realised something at the same time they let out identical roars. The air shook with the force of it. I froze, my heart racing, fear flooded me.

  I swallowed it down.

  Only thirty feet or so to go. I forced myself to go on.

  The trolls struggled, the hardened earth cracking around their shoulders.

  I quickened my pace.

  Only ten feet to go, I was almost between them when the earth lost its battle with them. The one of the left raised its club as it climbed from the hole.

  I ran even faster my sword out to defend.

  The one on the right put out a hand to grab me as I passed.

  I felt it latch onto my ankle. I fell as my momentum forced me over

  I lashed out blindly at what was holding me. My sword met flesh.

  The troll screamed, its friend swung its club down to defend it.

  I rolled out of the way.

  It missed by inches.

  I scurried forwards on hands and knees. Putting as much speed as I could to get me through the doorway before the trolls ganged up.

  I made it.

  Just.

  The trolls roared in fury. A club was poked through the entryway.

  I managed to get myself to the side of the door. Out of their reach unless they knelt down. I stood, doing my best to slow my breathing and kicked off the weight on my leg. It was the severed hand of the troll that grabbed me.

  Looking around, I couldn't see anything more than last time I was here, if anything I could see less. It had been day then. Now Brendon's fire could barely be seen through the empty windows. The light was dim and uneven.

  The troll’s efforts to get me quickly ended once they realised that they couldn't reach.

  I waited a moment more, just to be sure, then moved to the stairs. Whatever was going on would be at the top near the mass
ive spell growing up there.

  As I climbed I thought about what I would do to stop it. Nothing came to mind. I didn't know enough, of magic, spells in particular to do anything. I didn't know why Brak was here or if he was alone.

  On the 2nd landing the king's hall stood empty, no sign of a struggle or anything out of place as far as I could see. I moved on to the next flight of stairs. My sword’s light had dimmed once my power stopped flowing, but it gave off enough to see, just.

  Vibrations pulsed through my feet from the stairs as I got close, dust trickled down from the ceiling as I got closer to the landing. Just off of the landing an open door way to the peak of the tower beckoned.

  “Good of you to make it Tristan, it’s always nice to have an appreciative audience for something like this,” the old brittle voice of Brak said from through the doorway.

  Chapter 40

  I stepped into the highest room in the tower, it took up the whole floor and some. Almost half of the space was balcony that wrapped around the top of the building. It created a wonderful effect of being open to the elements which was ruined by the three men here.

  Iason Aleres looked much the same, slightly more bedraggled but overall the same. His smug look made me tighten my grip on my sword.

  Lessor nodded at me respectfully, he didn't seem to be carrying a grudge about Vance.

  Brak was in the centre of the room, the two other men apart from him, dark smoke flowed from his arms all the time he just stood there looking at me with a small smile on his face.

  Memories of my imprisonment tried to show themselves but I shook my head and focused on the here and now.

  “Why are you here?” I asked.

  “You tell me Tristan, you knew we were here, correct?” Brak said. He sounded so much like Jase, in his lecture mode that I almost told him how I had worked it out.

  “I don't think that's how it works. I'm not your student. I'm not your friend. You have been declared rogue. The wizards are hunting you.”

  “The twins will be hunting me,” he corrected gently. “I doubt Velar would have sent anyone else. He won't have publicly declared me rogue. He trusts me as well he should.”

  “How can anyone trust you? You have killed and destroyed for...” I trailed off. I still had no idea why he had done any of it.

  “He trusts me because I've earned it. We have been friends for a long time.”

  “So why do any of this?”

  “You haven't figured it out? I'm disappointed, I had such hopes for you.”

  “I think I have but the foundry doesn't make sense.”

  “That was never part my plan.” he looked pointedly at Iason. “It was a price I had to pay.”

  “But why? People died. That doesn't benefit anyone.”

  “Ask Iason why if you must but this spell has to happen. I had help the last time we cast it, this time I have to do it alone.”

  The smoke, sigils, flowed from Brak's body and drifted out to join the rest of the spell. The strain of casting so many had started to show, he looked drawn and pale.

  “Iason, care to tell me why so many people had to die for you? Or how you could compel a wizard to do your bidding.”

  “I don't owe you answers.” Iason relied haughtily. “Count yourself lucky you still breathe.”

  “Don't be such a prick Ias, the boy deserves answers. He has been caught up in our plans far too often to not give him an explanation,” Lessor said.

  “He saved my father, he deserves an early grave.”

  “Boys this is delicate, I could do without an argument.”

  “Then forget the foundry for now. Why are you here and what are you doing? Commanding an army of monsters against helpless people, that isn't what wizards should be doing.”

  “I'm doing what needs to be done. You have figured out that a wizard would be here. But you have an education, the common people don't. They don't need to know. They will welcome the council with open arms. You and your friends down there will be hailed as heroes for coming to their defence in their time of need. Nelar secure, the trade route open and free to use. The man power to fight this war as it needs to be fought. Everything we need.”

  “This isn't the way.”

  “It’s the only way, don't be so naive. Velar thought peace was the way too, but I'm showing him this war is unavoidable, we didn't start it but we will finish it.” The affable veneer started to crack as his exhaustion got to him.

  “What man power? There is no one here.”

  “Did you hear that boys, no one here. What do you think they trade for food? Dust? They have men, soldiers that hire out, sleepers but they have seen combat,” Brak said.

  “I was born here,” Lessor said. “I know how it works, the king's guard. Not that idiot downstairs but the mage king, Nelar was his home too. The very start of our way of life began here. We serve in the merc corps, every man over the age of blooming does his time to pay his way. That is an army that is needed. This will bring them out and strike a blow at the empire.”

  “So why the foundry? Why hurt the duchies? Your own people?”

  “To stir things up, to generate the emotion needed to fight a war. The foundry was Iason's idea, his price for his help. Westhaven should never have been a target. It got out of hand and for that I apologise,” Brak said sincerely.

  Lessor nodded at that but Iason looked unhappy.

  “Don't give him anything. No apologies' no nothing. Jase deserved it.”

  “Pull out the monsters, the civilians shouldn't pay the price for this.”

  “You don't know the half of the prices the people have paid. It might not be fair but that's how it is. The last war cost us badly, the nobles needed to be taken out,” he stopped a hitch in his voice. “We broke the world to save it. We did what we had to.” Brak said intently, it felt like he was trying to justify his actions to himself, more than to me.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “He means the waves Tristan, they were the first strike against the nobles,” lessor answered.

  “The waves were natural. There have always been waves.”

  “No they weren't and there haven't been waves on that scale, ever.”

  “But how? Why?”

  “You wouldn't understand, its wizard magic,” Iason spat.

  “Shush Ias, I'm sick of your attitude. You have been nothing but a hindrance to my mission all along. You have no understanding or care of what we are doing. I made a mistake with you. All you care about is some petty revenge against your father for something that wasn't his fault. Let it go and if you can't do that, just shut up.” Brak snapped at Iason before turning back to me. “Magic is a thing separate yet part of our world, it has its own rules, and it even has mass. It can act in all sorts of ways if you have the knowledge and insight to see. I researched a spell many years ago, this one, which makes a massive change in pressure, causing magic to flow from one place to another. It’s much more dramatic than that, once the event has been set off it builds until it creates waves, very much like on the ocean, peaks and troughs, once one has grown either high or low enough it touches on this world, affecting everything. It can destroy and warp, the results aren't always predictable. They have been settling for years but it's the perfect weapon to launch at the empire, they should be too damaged to retaliate.”

  “You caused hundreds of thousands of peoples deaths in the first waves and now you want to do it again? It's madness.”

  “It needs to be done, we can't fight the empire fairly, we are just too small.”

  “We have wizards and mages, even sleepers can fight, we don't need to do this.”

  “Tristan you are too young to understand but sometimes the hard choices have to be made.”

  “I know about hard choices, I've made my own. Please don't do this. There is always another way.”

  “I have to. And so do you. As a mage you swore to obey the council, I speak with the council’s voice.”

  “I swore to serve the cou
ncil, I will have no part in this. This is against the values of the council.”

  “You have no choice. I call your oath due. You will follow my orders to the letter.” A sliver of light slipped from his lips with his words, it floated into the air before twisting into chains of darkening light, it struck at me.

  I stumbled back, but it caught on my wrist. The chains slithered up my body, wrapping around me.

  I could feel the rising pressure in my head as the oath tightened around my links, compelling me to obey. I took a step forwards. Each movement slow and sluggish.

  I knew what needed to be done I just had to get there fast enough.

  “Tristan Sodden, Mage, oath-bound servant, your master’s call. Obey and submit.” Every word that Brak spoke bound me tighter, the chains growing heavier and tighter.

  “Give up Tristan, it will go easier on you,” Lessor said, compassion on his face.

  Pain started to dig its claws into my mind. I took another step. Magic wasn't an option now, my links were being choked by my oath.

  “Do your duty mage.” The wizard finished the final line, and the oath snapped taut.

  I smiled as felt my mind still. No thoughts, no pain, nothing. Just emptiness. I no longer fought, my duty was clear.

  I crossed the remaining distance, barely a few steps and slid my blade into Brak's side.

  “How?” A befuddled look passed over Brak's face, the rainbow eyes clearing for just a moment, then the spell that he cast was complete. The final sigil floated away to join the rest.

  It didn't go off dramatically. The sphere flickered into more than its parts, a solid ball of swirling colours then it flew away rapidly without sound, north. To the empire

  Brak still lived, the wound wouldn't be life threatening, he slid off my blade with a pained moan just as a step sounded from behind me. I turned my head to see the twins entering the hall.

  They knelt next to him, one on either side. One touched his wound. The other whispered in his ear.

  Brak smiled and sigils started floating away from him, they hovered in a ring around them.

  Iason and Lessor stepped into the ring, their shock at me stabbing their boss short-lived but welcome.