“Ugh, what is this place?”
“The well of consciousness. This is where we will find the trainers for each of the mages. A little voice inside their heads that will guide them as they mature.”
“Some spirit possesses them! How revolting, not to mention unfair.” Thelee protested.
“Nothing so dramatic. The mage will barely be aware of them. They will act as the voice of conscience. The mage will still have free will and can reject everything they say, just like one can ignore their conscious.”
“Still, it seems…barbaric.”
“The alternative is to leave them to their own devices and have them stumble onto their magic without guidance.” Ephaltus entered the cellar and took down a wand from a peg that was marked red in gold letters above it. He used the wand to spell the name Ilhana into the air. It sparkled and shimmered in mid-air as he wrote the name and then it floated down and faded into nothing. He placed the wand back on its peg. “That’s all there is to that.”
“The spirit will find her now? How will it know from all the Ilhana’s in the world?”
“Because only one of them is the red mage. It will find her.” They exited the cellar and Ephaltus chuckled. “See, this job isn’t all that bad. Now, let’s go see about the blue mage next.”
Part Five: Tamania
“I’ve been meaning to ask,” Thelee said. “Why do the mages have color designations? Red mage, blue mage and so on.”
“It’s just an easy way to keep track of the mages. Over the years, calling them by name became cumbersome, especially when two of them had the same name the same year or were called something similar to one another like Thelee and Rhelee.” Thelee smiled at him. “One other point, you don’t want to get too attached to these guys either, for that matter. That would be a mistake. It’s easy to get attached but difficult to detach when the tournament comes. Some will not make it out. Sometimes, only one survives literally.” He retrieved the blue orb. “You will see what I mean as we visit each one of them.”
“I thought it was always a fight to the death,” Thelee said.
“It’s not a requirement at all. The winner has nothing to fear from the losers. They can’t raise armies and take the win away from him. The winner is final for better or for worse and every god and citizen follows the rules.”
“What if they didn’t follow the rules?”
“It’s never happened. However, if it did, I imagine the gods of the losers would start a war or something. They wouldn’t let it stand.” He waved off her questions. “We’re wasting time. You will see the answers to many of your questions as we make our rounds. Are you ready to go?”
“Yes, I’m ready.”
When the orb finished its work, Ephaltus and Thelee were among the big evergreen trees of the mountains to the north. Ephaltus recognized them immediately since the area had not changed at all in the past one hundred years. “Damn, I should have thought to grab a sweater or coat. When the orb indicated Tamania, I should have realized we could have ended up in the mountains.” He conjured his staff. “Come, let us find the blue mage, verify, and get out of the cold.”
“You have no argument from me,” Thelee said.
They walked through the snowy evergreens until they reached a clearing. Ephaltus stopped at the tree line and inspected the area. “We can’t travel across here.”
“Why, I thought we couldn’t be seen?”
He tapped his staff into the snow on the frozen ground. “The snow will reveal our footprints. Before you ask, yes, that would be bad. We must get close enough to verify the blue mage. If we make the slightest noise or draw any attention, our footprints will lead them right to us, invisible or not.”
“What are the odds of that?”
“The odds do not apply here. We can’t allow ourselves to be seen or observed before we are ready. Once, about two hundred years ago, I was seen by a small child of about nine years old. I let her go about her way. She told her mother and she told her husband. I was discovered due to my snow prints. I had to reveal myself. I was verifying the red mage. Well, to make a long story short, the candidate was loved by all but was not too bright. The town’s folk worried he would not be able to win so they tried to hide him away, which is nothing to me since I can find him no matter where they stowed him. I tried to convince them that hiding him away would not keep him from the arena when the time comes. I told them they were actually doing him a disservice. So, by being caught, I made my job that much harder.”
“What happened then? Did he fight in the arena?” Thelee asked.
“No, not exactly, the black mage lived right across the border and as soon as he heard of the red mage hiding out, and as soon as he became aware of the tournament, he traveled across the border and eliminated his competition.”
“The black mage killed the red mage before the tournament?”
“Dead as dead can be I’m afraid. So, you see, being observed before we are ready can alter events significantly.” He peered through trees to the right and held up the blue orb. “Here, we can follow the tree line around the clearing.”
As they traipsed through the skinny trees lining the tree line, Ephaltus became more and more annoyed with the amount of noise Thelee was making. She had to flip and spring every tree branch she could get her hands on, or so it seemed to Ephaltus.
He finally turned and grabbed one of the branches out of her hand, “Would you please stop that?” He said. At first, he was puzzled by the look on Thelee’s face until he realized her eyes were fixed on something besides him. “Thelee?” He turned around to see a young man wearing hunters clothing and carrying a bow. The man appeared startled at first but quickly recovered and nocked an arrow onto his bowstring. Ephaltus worked quickly and used his staff to knock the arrow away and a return motion to relieve the man of the bow as well. The man bolted into the clearing. Ephaltus might have let him go if he had not begun to yell in Tamanian. Ephaltus was rusty with the language but he did make out the word witches.
“Stand back.” He said to Thelee before he raised his staff. He muttered a few words and his staff erupted with a cascade of lightning that went straight up into the sky and down on the running man. He basically exploded with the lighting struck him, smoldering and steaming in the pure white snow.
“You killed him!” Thelee said.
“Come on, we have to get out of here. We’ll come back to find the blue mage.” He took out the blue orb from his robe pocket, fumbled it, and dropped it in the snow. “Great, help me find it.” He started feeling around in the deep snow for the orb.
“He was innocent,” Thelee whispered.
“Don’t be daft, what do you think he was doing with that bow and arrow. It was him or us.”
“But he was running away.”
“Yes, he was. Yelling for help to capture and probably kill us. I’m not sure you speak his language but he was yelling witch. These parts are full of witches. I suspect our blue mage is one since his magic will use the four elements. Are you going to help me find the orb or not?”
People’s voices wafted over the snow. Several men speaking in the same language. They spotted the dead man’s remains and rushed to him.
“Here’s the orb,” Ephaltus said. He picked it up and began the spell. The men were heading straight for them, but he didn’t think they had seen him yet. He felt the familiar tug and the saw the flash of light and opened his eyes to the sanctuary of the Arsenal of the Way.
Ephaltus took a deep breath, “That was close.” He looked at Thelee who seemed to still be stunned by his actions. “Oh, come off it, will you! This job may be unpleasant at times. I have told you as much.”
Thelee nodded but said nothing.
“Besides, I have reasoned out who you are, why you were sent here, and what you are going to do to me. Would you like to talk about that?”
Thelee’s shock abruptly changed to curiosity.
Part Six: Ag Caderan
“Oh, who am I then?” The
lee asked.
Ephaltus calmed himself, “Forgive me, I don’t take what just happened lightly and I may have let my emotions get the better of me.”
“No, I think you meant it. You believe I am some kind of plant.”
Ephaltus rolled his eyes as convincingly as he could, “Don’t be ridiculous. Why would anyone plant you here?”
“You tell me!”
“We don’t have time for this.”
“You started it.”
“Well, I’m finishing it.” He went for the black orb and put the blue orb away. “You can either come with me now or stay here and debate what I said in frustration with yourself.” He held the orb up for emphasis.
Reluctantly, Thelee pointed to the orb. “I will come along.”
Ag Caderan wasn’t quite a desert, but it was an arid, dead place. The prairie grass, during the winter, was alive but colored yellow and brown, and the leafless mesquite trees were as sticks jabbed into the dry ground at random by giants. When Ephaltus thought of a kingdom in turmoil, he was hard pressed to think of Ag Caderan, with its farms and ranches but never the less this was by far the most conflicted of all the six kingdoms. Here, cloaked in family values, steeped in the kindness of neighbors, werewolves hungering for flesh.
“Have you ever been here before?” Ephaltus asked Thelee.
“Once, when I was very young. We were passing through on our way somewhere else.”
“Of all the six kingdoms this is my least favorite and the most dangerous. The people here are treacherous.”
“Oh?”
“They are the worst kind. They will smile and ask you how your family is doing while driving a dagger deep into your gut. You have to be on your toes at all times; nothing is straight forward or as it seems here. Especially in the court of the king. There, they are always plotting and maneuvering, jockeying for position, it’s just sickening to me.”
“It’s a good thing we don’t have to deal with them yet then.’
“We will soon enough. I dread the day.” Ephaltus said. He looked at the open campfire at the bottom of the hill. “It’s going to be difficult to get close enough for confirmation. Why don’t you stay here for this one?”
“Not a chance. You won’t be rid of me that easily. Especially if you’re going to think of me as a spy.”
Ephaltus frowned, “Just stay one step behind me.”
“Done.”
“I mean it, this place breeds the worst kind of people.”
“As you’ve already pointed out.
They both moved slowly toward three people sitting around the fire. In the glow of the flames, Ephaltus could make out two young men and a young woman. He pointed the orb to the backs of their heads and the orb indicated the black mage was the girl, then it hiccupped and pointed to one of the young men. “That’s odd.” He whispered to Thelee. “Did you see that? It pointed to the girl before it switched to the boy.”
Thelee shrugged and Ephaltus realized she wouldn’t have any idea if it were odd or not. She had no frame of reference. Ephaltus pointed back up the hill and Thelee started after him as he moved up it. When they reached the top of the hill, he stopped and gazed back at the campfire. “Something’s wrong.” A stunted mumble from Thelee got his attention. He turned expecting to see Thelee but instead he saw Thelee being held fast by a man. He looked immediately back to the campfire and found the people he had been watching were no longer there. The girl and other man appeared when he turned back to Thelee. “An illusion?”
The girl nodded. “The tourney master, I presume?” She said.
“I am,” Ephaltus told her. “And who might you be?”
“My name is unimportant.” The girl said. “You have come to identify and verify one of the mages who will fight in the tournament to rule the six kingdoms.”
“Obviously, your god has informed you it is so.” He looked at the two young men closely, “Cassany! Is that you? I have told you almost every century that this sort of thing will not stand! Using your divine powers to sniff out those who can use magic among your people and wait me out is cheating! It will not curry favor when for your man in the arena!”
The girl gave both her companions an amused smirk. “Who are you talking to an old man? Cassany is not among us here. I have never found the god of my people chatty by no means. At least not to the likes of me.”
“You take me for a fool, child? There is no other way for you to know of my presence here or my purpose.”
“Seize her.” The girl commanded. The two men took Thelee. Ephaltus moved to help and the girl stopped him with something very sharp pointed under his chin. “No, no, tourney master. Stay still.”
“You poor misguided little girl. Your god or informant has betrayed you with ignorance.” With a wave of his hand the girl removed the sharp eagle talon from his chin and jabbed it into her own shoulder with a yelp. Another wave of the hand and the ground rose up to her feet holding her trapped. He knocked her aside and she cried out in pain when her legs could not bend in the direction he pushed her. The two men instinctively let go of Thelee and Ephaltus cast them aside as if they were rag dolls. One stood up defiantly and Ephaltus took out the black orb to make certain it wasn’t the black mage, an action he regretted immediately.
“So, it’s the black mage you seek!” The girl said.
“If you or your men had the magic of the black mage, you would have already known that.”
“It was my illusion that tricked you, old man.” The girl said. “Does that surprise you?”
“Illusion is hardly the magic of the black mage, wench.”
“Sarren, maybe we should…”
The girl turned acid, “Quiet Kalb, you knew how this might go.”
“You should listen to your boyfriend,” Thelee said.
Ephaltus turned on her and shook his head adamantly.
Sarren pulled her feet from the ground. Ephaltus was impressed. “Odd, you do seem to have some magical ability.”
“I am to be the black mage then?” Sarren asked with a satisfied grin.
Ephaltus shook his head triumphantly, “Thankfully, not.”
Sarren’s eyes narrowed angrily, “But I have the magic!”
“You have some magic, girl. Many people do and they fall short of being one of the six mages. How do you think magic passes on through the years when there is no tournament?”
Sarren squealed and at first, Ephaltus thought she was seeking comfort in the arms of her male companions, but instead she used the eagle’s talon to slit both of their throats. Blood gurgled up through muddled speech as they both fell. “I will not let one of them be the black mage if I am not!”
Ephaltus backhanded her and she fell to the ground. “Get behind me, Thelee.” He commanded and she quickly complied.
A ghostly white fog covered one of the men and then flowed over to Sarren. She convulsed and writhed for a few moments before finally settling down.
Ephaltus produced the orb and it glowed at Sarren. He put it away. “I will not forget this, wench. What you have done is despicable.” He spit at her and she turned away. “Come, Thelee. I told you the people of this land were treacherous. It’s sickening!” Thelee followed Ephaltus as he walked away from the girl called Sarren and they traveled back to the Arsenal of the Way.
Part Seven: Equal and Opposite
“Master, how did the girl become the black mage? I thought you said it was predestined.”
“You are back to calling me, master?”
She nodded. “The orb shimmered when I first pointed it at her. I think she was always meant to be the black mage but I wasn’t about to tell her that. The boy also had the ability and could have been the black mage instead. It isn’t always so clear.”
“Who told her we would be there?”
“It was one of the gods or one of the god’s prophets. Cheaters, liars, and thieves, the people of Ag Caderan.” He replaced the black orb. “That is enough for one day. The sun will be in its cradle soon. Time f
or supper and bed: we will resume our task first thing in the morning.”
“Will we return to the blue mage first?” Thelee asked.
“No, we will keep the original schedule and visit the green mage next, then the white, grey and return to the blue mage last, since we had to skip him.”
“Oh.”
Ephaltus let his staff go and it dissipated, “You seem distressed. Did you want to go to the blue mage first?”
“No, it doesn’t matter one way or the other to me.”
Ephaltus nodded. “Come, the dryads will have supper on the table in the Earth Chamber soon.”
Thelee followed Ephaltus into the Earth Chamber where the dryads already had supper on the table. They poured cups of wine as soon as the two sat down. The supper consisted mainly of green vegetables and vegetable broth soup. Ephaltus explained that the dryads preferred not to cook or prepare meat if they could help it. They would, of course, if commanded, but they preferred plants.
“I wonder, master, will the girl who killed the black mage have a chance to win? I mean, it seems odd that she would be rewarded for cheating.”
Ephaltus took another drink of wine and then another, “It doesn’t matter in the slightest. That’s why I despise Ag Caderan and its people. This isn’t the first time they’ve cheated and put forth their own choice instead of natural selection. That’s how they knew it would work.”
Thelee got up and grabbed the carafe of wine. “Here let me refresh your glass.”
“Thank you,” Ephaltus said. He let Thelee pour his glass before he drank deeply. He finished off the wine and placed the glass on the table. “Well, we have a day tomorrow. Time to get to sleep. The dryads have prepared you a place to sleep in the library.”
Tournament of Mages: Commencement: Tournament of Mages 1st Series Short (Tournament of Mages Series Shorts) Page 3
