by Taran, David
After a week of almost constant practice she was able to reach the gateway as soon as her eyes were closed. A golden halo of light surrounding a wall of glowing blue mist loomed over her. Up until today, every time Sarena approached the wall she would find herself repelled by a strange force. She had tried everything she could to enter the mist, constantly battering her mind against the impenetrable barrier in front of her. Bypassing it had happened almost by accident.
Her frustration caused her to draw on Tyrus’ power in an attempt to calm herself. The blue mist stirred as she did so, beginning to whirl like a vortex for a moment before a wave of green specks of light shot out of it, filling her body with the wind element she had come to rely on so much. Instead of focusing on the wall in front of her, she had instead reached out for those specks of light, willing them to come towards the “body” she had created for herself in her mind. Initially she had just thought they were beautiful and a distraction from the seemingly insurmountable problem in front of her. But when she called out for one, surprisingly an entire wave of them rushed to her, surrounding and supporting her, before shooting forward into the blue mist while carrying her.
The entire process had happened so fast she almost couldn’t believe it. She had passed the barrier so quickly that for a moment she thought she was imagining it, but as soon as she saw the great ball of light that she was rushing towards her she knew she had succeeded.
Within a heartbeat she had reached Tyrus’ core once again, but this time she knew that she had to work fast. She could feel the tantalizing power that reached out for her from the massive ball of light, calling for her to stay forever. It took all her will to resist the promise of love and warmth it gave her, and instead she reached out with her imagined body, feeling part of herself enter the light.
As soon as she touched it everything changed. Whereas before the world around the light was a dark void, she could now see colors and shapes everywhere. Her mind couldn’t keep up with all the new information, and she could feel herself begin to crumble under the immense pressure. Right before her awareness had faded away, she felt something warm reach down and wrap itself around her. The colors became dull and grey, and the jumble of information that had poured into her mind was cut off as if it had never existed. She knew that warmth she felt was Tyrus protecting her, and she silently gave him thanks even though she knew he couldn’t hear her at the moment.
Withdrawing her hand from the light caused the world to return to the black expanse from before, with only the massive core in front of her. Except that held within the hand she had drawn back was a small, warm globe of light, miniscule in comparison to its original source. Knowing that she was running low on time, Sarena rushed as quickly as she could back through the gateway to her own body. As soon as she entered, the warmth that had protected her disappeared, and a world of pain surrounded her. She knew she had been gone longer than she should have been, but all she could do was ignore the pain as she raced for the center of herself. If she wasted this opportunity then she wasn’t sure she could work up the courage to try again.
It took less than heartbeat for her to find that empty void within herself, different from the void that surrounded Tyrus. This one had always given her the feeling that it was just waiting to be filled, while Tyrus’ simply felt cold and unyielding, similar to how the dungeons in Garland Keep had felt to her. She had only been there once as a child when she had been hiding from one of her tutors, and the memory always gave her chills.
She hurriedly placed the tiny globe in the center of her being, finally noticing that it had changed dramatically. Instead of a ball that could fill her imaginary palm, it was barely the size of her smallest fingernail. Its color had changed from golden with a blue mist around it, to a deep brown with streaks of green. Obviously the bond had caused it to convert to her own elements when she pulled it out, and just like Uckey had said, it lost most of its power in the process.
Knowing she would have time to examine it later, Sarena released her inner sight and returned to life for a second time that morning. She had been gone longer this time, and her body was cold and aching all over. Tyrus was pouring power into her, but she could feel it wasn’t having the affect it normally did. Something was impeding it so that only a trickle could make it through, and as a result she could barely stay conscious as she spasmed several times while sprawled on Uckey’s back.
It wasn’t until several minutes later that her body had finally begun to calm down, her ragged breathing taking on a more normal cadence. Sarena could still feel a deep ache in her bones, but it was fading quickly even at that moment.
“That was the most unpleasant thing I have ever done,” Sarena said while sitting up.
“But at least it’s done,” Tyrus replied. “And you don’t even need to worry about dying if you drop me now. I can feel my core within you already working to keep you alive. Why is it so hard to push my power into her now, Uckey?”
“This...This is incredible! You’ve done it! This is the first time in history that a being without magic has been given a core! Do you two realize what an accomplishment this is?” Uckey ignored Tyrus’ question in his excitement.
Sarena slapped the back of Uckey’s head, “Answer him Uckey. You owe us that much at least. Yet another side affect you didn’t tell us about until afterward I’m sure.”
“And how are we the first ones? Hasn’t there been a bond created before? Any pure mana mage should be able to create one,” Tyrus asked.
Uckey shook his head, causing his dark red mane to flip into Sarena’s face, “I never did explain that did I? The bond can only be made between one who has no magic of their own and a pure mana mage. I was researching it to deal with the rising problem of shavren born with no magic. My biggest issue was the fact that a bond can’t be created intentionally. Pure mana mages have instinctual knowledge of their power, but some of that knowledge only comes out when it is needed. Unless the situation called upon the creation of the bond for both of you to survive, I’m afraid it would never have been possible.
“As for why you can’t use your power on her anymore, it is because the bond only works correctly on the magicless. Now that Sarena has a core, albeit an immature one, you won’t be able to use your power to assist her easily any more. Her body will reject it because it has its own power to draw on now, but she has so little to call her own that it allows you to provide only enough to keep her alive. The more she uses her power, the more it will grow until it is able to support her on its own. When that happens it will reject the bond entirely and shatter it, freeing her.”
Sarena couldn’t help but grimace when she heard Uckey’s explanation. With the amount of power she currently had, even killing a pack of goblins might prove a challenge.
“We will have to be careful going forward then,” Sarena said. “As long as we don’t encounter another rock ogre I think I can manage, but I’d rather not risk any more than I have to. My power is almost non-existent at this point.”
The sun continued its trek across the sky as Uckey ran forward, maintaining a speed almost double of what a normal horse would. Tyrus would warn them whenever they came across another traveler, slowing their pace to a more normal speed until they were out of sight. His horn had started to grow back shortly after the battle with the rock ogre, reaching its original length again the day before. Uckey claimed they should reach Stewrix within a fortnight if they continued as they were, but that only left a handful of days to find the grimoire after they arrived. Sarena was worried that it wouldn’t be where Uckey remembered, and they would run out of time before they could find it.
As the sun reached its peak in the open sky directly overhead, they came around a bend in the road and were finally able to see signs of a town ahead of them. They had passed through a few small villages along the way, but none of them had surpassed Tovern’s size. The trees around them died out several hundred yards away from the edge of the town, leaving a green pasture with herds of cows an
d sheep roaming around them all the way up to the stone walls surrounding the town. Even the road they were on widened and became paved as they drew closer.
Sarena could hear the rushing sound of a river nearby, and knew that they must have arrived in Millstone at the Teroban, the river that shouldn’t exist. There were far more shavren on the road than Sarena had ever seen, almost all of them staring at Sarena as she passed by. The normal scorn and pity was visible on their faces. She had become used to it after the third nameless village they passed through. So far none of those with the look of disgust on their face had taken action, but she wasn’t willing to push her luck. They made sure to never waste time while passing through, only stopping long enough to buy some food for the road before leaving.
In front of the gate to the town stood a guard in a set of leather armor with a large halberd at his side. His hair and eyes were a dull grey color, with a face that seemed all sharp angles. He watched carefully as Sarena approached, ignoring the rest of the people moving in and out of the town. When Sarena went to pass by him he swung the halberd over in a fluid motion, blocking her path and bringing her to an abrupt halt.
“Magicless aren’t welcome here,” was all he said.
Sarena had somewhat been expecting his reaction, but had hoped that the prejudice she had encountered wouldn’t be so prevalent in a larger town. Instead of letting her temper take a hold of her, she calmly reached her hand out to the left with her palm down. With barely a thought she called out to the earth and a ball of stone the size of a head erupted from the paved road below her, hovering in the air under her outstretched arm. Arching an eyebrow she stared straight at the guard. He gave a small jump in surprise at her action, raising his eyebrows before pulling his halberd back to his side.
“Sorry. I didn’t expect someone of your age to still have no signs of their power,” the guard said. “Still, you’re better off not entering right now. Any other time I would have let you pass with a warning to not waste time moving through. But there’s a bit of a problem with the bridge right now.”
Sarena let the stone return to the groove she had pulled it from, sliding in perfectly as if it had never left. The ease at which it had responded to her had surprised her almost as much as the guard. She couldn’t help but feel smug at the look on his face when she had done so. It had taken all of her self-control not to break into a grin at his reaction.
“What’s wrong with the bridge? Surely it hasn’t collapsed? A town of this size should know better than to neglect something that important,” Sarena said.
“No, bridge itself is fine. It’s the ogres. There’s a tribe of them that lives a few miles northeast of here. Dumb as rocks, but friendly enough. The other lesser races tend to stay clear with them around, and they don’t bother us much either, so we let them be,” the guard explained. “Problem is, the tribe got too big and decided to split, so now we’ve got a dozen of those big hunks of meat on the other side of the bridge demanding a toll so that they can cross.”
“Wait, so they can cross? Shouldn’t they be demanding a toll of people trying to cross this way?” Sarena asked in confusion.
“Like I said, dumb as rocks. They seem to think they can’t cross the bridge unless we pay them a toll. And obviously nobody is going to pay them just for them to cross into Millstone. So now we’ve got about a dozen ogres standing around the gatehouse on the other side of the bridge, blocking all the traffic,” the guard turned and spat on the ground to the side when he was done talking.
“Why not just fight them off? Millstone seems big enough to have the manpower for that,” Sarena said.
The guard stared at her for a moment before answering.
“You ever fought a full grown ogre? Maybe you’d have a chance with that stone magic, but none of us guards are strong enough to match up to them. One hit from their club and you’re done for, armor or not. A lot faster than you’d expect too. We normally have a capital trained battlemage here to deal with situations like this, but his term just ended and his replacement isn’t due for another week.”
Sarena frowned, “Is there no other way across? I don’t have the luxury of being able to wait for a week just to cross a river.”
“Might be able to convince someone to ferry you over,” he said while glancing at Uckey, “But there’s not many that can carry a horse like that across. Ferrying isn’t exactly a good business when there’s a perfectly good bridge to use. I suggest you make up your mind quickly instead of staying here though.” His eyes returned to watching the incoming travelers, signaling the end of the conversation.
Sarena pulled the hood of her cloak up as she passed by. She preferred to keep it lowered so that she had a wider field of view, but in a town of this size she felt it was better to try and attract less attention, especially after the welcome the guard had given her.
“How can a bunch of ogres scare the guards of a town this size into hiding behind their walls, Uckey? Shouldn’t an entire race capable of using magic be able to deal with that?” Sarena whispered when they were far enough away from the guard to not be overheard.
“Usually guards or mercenaries are metal users of some kind. They’re great for fighting most monsters off, but ogres are cut from a different cloth. You were barely able to beat that rock ogre, even with strength close to a Highmage. A regular ogre might not be anywhere near as tough, but their brute strength tends to counter most internal magic users as well as metal mages,” Uckey said.
“But what about all the other elements? I can fight with both wind and stone, surely there’s at least someone in this town who could fight them off,” she asked.
“Having a single element suitable for combat is already rare you know! The core you gained from Tyrus is already twice as strong as a normal shavren’s. It’s not enough for you because of the excess amount of power Tyrus was always filling you with. Just because you meet someone who can use wind like yourself doesn’t mean it is useful for fighting! They might only be able to make a breeze with it, or maybe they can fly,” Uckey explained. “It’s the same with stone. I’ve known stone mages that could turn themselves into an unbreakable rock, but be unable to move. Another could make stone harder or softer, but couldn’t move it or shape it at will like you can. Shavren magic is always the most unreliable of every race! They produce both the weakest as well as most powerful mages in the world!”
“Sounds like you were pretty lucky, Sarena. Both of your elements suit you perfectly,” Tyrus said with a chuckle.
Sarena scowled as they continued down the wide street. Even with her hood up, she was still getting glances from the people around her. It wasn’t exactly a cool day, and she could already feel sweat forming on her brow under the heavy hood. Uckey’s horns weren’t very inconspicuous either.
“Might as well check out the situation with the ogres first,” Sarena mumbled. “No point in wasting money on a ferry if there’s no need.”
Millstone had a fairly simple layout, with the main street going from the gate all the way to the bridge across the river. Sarena had been able to see it before she even entered, but the distance had masked just how massive it truly was. As they drew closer she could hear the sound of the river grow louder, while the arching stone bridge grew larger and larger in front of her. She stared at the marvel ahead of her.
The Teroban wasn’t the small river she had been expecting. Instead of a simple stone bridge spanning a river wide enough for a small boat to travel, she had found a raging half-mile wide force of nature. Arching gracefully across was the Millstone bridge. Wide enough for at least three wagons to stand next to each other, it was formed out of seemingly a single piece of smooth granite. It rose gently all the way to the midpoint before slowly coming back down to ground level at the other side, causing the center to be so high above the water that no ship had to be concerned about clipping a mast. Two massive support pillars lowered themselves into the water about a quarter of the way out from each end.
“What are you tw
o just standing there staring at?” Tyrus asked, making Sarena realize her mouth was hanging open. Even Uckey had stopped moving at the incredible sight.
“It’s nothing,” Sarena said while shaking her head. Tyrus didn’t need to know what he was missing out on. Her short experience with seeing the world from his point of view made her feel pity for him. He would never be able to witness sights like this the way they were meant to be seen.
Uckey was strangely silent as they started moving again, stepping almost reverently onto the immense structure.
“Seven hells, Uckey. How did a river of this size just suddenly appear and disappear?” Sarena asked.
“I...I don’t know,” he said, sounding truly lost. “I just can’t understand it. There’s no magic that I know of that could create and destroy something like this. This bridge shouldn’t be possible. It’s one piece of stone! Not even the dwarves could make something like this with just one stone!”
It was the first time Sarena had heard Uckey not sounding completely confident in everything he said. She couldn’t help but wonder if the unshakable gnome was finally starting to doubt his knowledge. It would be quite the wake-up call for him to realize that not everything in the world conformed to his wishes. Her spirits couldn’t help but raise at the thought.
“The almighty Uckey has finally found his match in the form of a bridge? I never would have seen that coming,” she said.
“I have not met my match!” he shouted indignantly. “Theoretically creating the bridge and the river is possible, but the power it would require is so far beyond what any race is capable of!”
It didn’t take long for them to reach the other side. At the end of the bridge a tower rose up, with a portcullis and gate underneath it blocking the entrance. Obviously the tower wasn’t part of the initial construction, being of a different color of stone and much cruder. At the top of the tower stood a single soldier, who watched them approach before calling down to them.
