Waldo nodded. “They do, that’s what makes them such idiots.”
Alice shook her head. “Darling, you’re doing it again.”
“What?”
“Talking and not making sense.”
“All right, let me explain. The White Mages of Avalon have a philosophy based around, ‘Unity, Justice, and Peace.’ Their ultimate goal is to unite the Shattered Lands into a single nation and rid the land of strife and injustice. They dream of returning to the days of the Amoran Empire, before the Shattering.”
“That’s wonderful.”
“No it’s not! Can’t you see what they’re up to? It’s obvious!”
“Helping people?”
“It’s a plot to dominate the world! Those idiots go around telling people they’re serving a higher cause. They go preaching about, ‘Unity, Justice, and Peace’ pretending to have no ulterior motives. They offer advice to local rulers and help the subjects, all the while telling people about their ridiculous ideas and trying to convince them how much better the world would be if they would only join together under Avalon’s leadership! It’s all just one vast conspiracy to take over the world and destroy Alteroth!”
“Ah, could it be they just want to help make the world a better place?”
“Don’t be naïve, who thinks that way?”
“I do, I like helping folk.”
“You’re not a mage. Wolves don’t go around protecting sheep. It’s unnatural. It’s obviously all part of a conspiracy to secretly take over the world.”
“Darling, no one thinks the White Mages would do that. They’re just good people.” She paused. “Well, I have heard a few nobles and merchants say they shouldn’t be trusted.”
“Which only proves how effective their conspiracy is. They have almost everyone fooled.”
“People think it’s the Dark Mages who want to rule the world.”
“That’s just propaganda,” Waldo waved the idea away. “We’re actually happy with things just as they are. Conquering more land would just mean the seven families would be at each other’s throats over how to divide up the spoils. We don’t want to conquer the world, we just want the world to think we want to conquer them so they don’t try and conquer us.”
“Darling, you sound paranoid.”
“How is it paranoid to think the White Mages and everyone else are out to get us?”
Alice gently patted his arm. “It’s all right, I promise to protect you from the scary White Mages.”
Waldo sent her a hooded look.
“They don’t sound so bad to me.”
“Did I mention they would put you to death if they could?”
“What? Why? What did I do?”
“You were born a succubus.”
“So? I’m a good person!”
“That’s not the point. They want to create an ideal world; one without war, injustice, or strife. They also want a world without evil, which means no undead, no Dark Mages, and no monsters.”
“What do you mean no monsters? What would they do with all of us?”
“Didn’t you hear me say they would kill you if they could?”
“But… but… how is that just? Killing people simply because they weren’t born human? Isn’t that evil?”
Waldo shrugged. “Not to them. They are only interested in justice for their own kind. Their ideal world has no place for people like us.”
“I can’t believe people could be that cruel. It makes what Elsa did seem almost merciful by comparison.”
“In any case, my original point was that magic users are divided between White, Dark, and Independent. In general we and the Whites are the strongest because we are the most thoroughly trained and have access to libraries filled with arcane knowledge. By comparison, most magic users from outside Alteroth and Avalon rely on the apprentice system. How well trained they are and what spells they have access to varies wildly. A lot of mages will actually join us or Avalon of their own free will, just to get access to our knowledge. The weakest sort of Independent is referred to as a hedgewizard.”
“Most magic users will try to find a wealthy patron. They typically end up in some court or in the employ of someone rich. Hedgewizards, on the other hand, choose not to serve any particular master. They live on their own, often in the same place where they were born, and usually deal with only the locals. Often they are never even apprenticed and are self-taught or only acquire a few spells from occasional meetings with other mages. Since they lack any formal training, and aren’t in a position to acquire spells or arcane material, they are usually very weak. It’s not unusual for a hedgewizard to only know one or two rudimentary spells or how to brew potions or have a small talent for telling fortunes. In Alteroth we don’t see them as real mages. The very idea that someone like that could summon a dragon is ridiculous.”
“Well it was just an idea darling. If it’s no good that’s fine.”
Waldo looked unhappy. He considered for a long moment.
“How far away is Bittford?”
“Not too far I think. I never left Stratford, but it should be about a couple days walk to the west of here.”
That was going away from Middleton. Going there would add a few days to his journey.
“I suppose it’s worth looking into. Okay, we’ll go there first and then head to Middleton.”
“Really? I thought you said he wouldn’t be a real mage.”
“I’m not saying he is, but even a hedgewizard will have a spellbook, or even just a few scraps of vellum.”
“Vellum?” Alice had never attended school, but felt like she was in one now.
“It’s a special sort or parchment that you can write magical inscriptions on. If you write them on ordinary paper they will light on fire when you read them.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Even if this Roger character is as useless as I think, it would still be worth visiting him just to get my hands on some vellum. At the very least, I could write down the spells I still have memorized and make a temporary spellbook. That’s worth a few days delay.”
Chapter 13
Second Best
They were trudging through the forest away from the river. There was no path and they were walking through bush and high grass. Waldo’s eyes kept darting about the underbrush and the branches overhead with ever ‘chirp’ ‘squawk’ and ‘caw.’
“What an savage place this is.”
“There’s nothing to be scared about darling. This close to Stratford there are no wolves or bears.”
“I am not scared.” Waldo said with great dignity as he stepped around a tree root. “I am a Corpselover and I fear nothing.”
“Of course.”
Though I’d rather not run into anymore of those horrible creatures with those deformed long ears. “I wish I still had my map. Are you sure this is the way to get back to the road?”
Alice nodded. “So long as we keep going away from the river we’re sure to run into it.”
Waldo grunted. So far the quest had been very much a mixed result. On the plus side he had actually succeeded in making a contract with a Great Monster. Something almost unheard of for a First Quest. Were the circumstances normal he would have turned right around and headed home. Returning with a succubus in tow would be plenty to cover himself in glory.
On the negative side he’d very nearly been killed by a bunch of commoners and lost practically everything, including his spellbook and wand. Almost as bad, he’d needed Alice to save him. A Dark Mage’s servants were supposed to fight for and protect him, but he was never supposed to be vulnerable.
He tried to imagine his mother under similar circumstances.
What came to mind was a picture of a whole lot of skeletons and zombies munching on raw peasant. That was how a Dark Mage was supposed to deal with things.
Whenever he tried to compare himself to his mother it made him feel utterly unworthy. His mother had always said he had great potential. She had actually told him that of all her children he
was the strongest raw talent. The ability to use magic was a rare trait in human beings; perhaps one in ten thousand were born with it. Each individual blessed with that precious gift was also born with the capacity to wield a certain amount of mana and with a particular ‘talent.’
Mana was a measure of magical energy. Every spell required a certain amount of mana to be worked. The greater the effect of the spell the more mana it required; no different than the amount of muscle needed to move an object. The amount of mana needed to lift a feather was less than that needed to lift a book which was less than what was needed to lift a boulder. Though the spell remained exactly the same different results required different amounts of energy.
The amount of mana a magician could wield varied from one person to the next. There were some who would never be able to do more than work the most basic cantrips and minor spells. While very few had the potential to work the deeper magics. A magic user could recover his strength with rest. He could train and study in order to reach his full potential. But in each was an inborn limit that could not be passed. The amount of mana a person could wield was determined at the moment of your birth and there was nothing you could do about it. Magical items like wands and staffs could strengthen the effect of your magic; much as a lens could focus light. Rings and scrolls could help you cast a particular spell. But the blood in your veins decided where your limits were.
Along with a limit, each magic user was born with a particular ‘talent.’ There were always certain spells that just came more naturally and easily. His mother’s talent was in necromancy. His brother Walter’s had been in summoning.
Waldo’s was in healing and protective magics. In other words, his talent was in white magic.
The Dark Powers have a sense of humor, Waldo thought. He was born into the Corpselover family with massive mana reserves and powerful talent. He should have been a prodigy, recognized as one of the strongest in his generation. But his own talent ran counter to everything that was valued by his people.
He was useless at necromancy and barely competent in most of the other schools; elemental, summoning, illusion, evocation, invocation, and divinization. For all his potential he had always been viewed as a failure.
XXX
Alice was walking alongside of Waldo.
She saw a faraway look in his eyes and could sense he was brooding about something. Not only her eyes but the feel in the back of her head told her so.
“You don’t need to worry you know.” She said quietly.
“What?”
“I said you don’t need to worry darling. Things may seem bleak right now but everything will work out fine. So please don’t be gloomy.”
“I am not being gloomy.”
“It’s all right if you are, just so long as you know things will be all right.”
“I am not being gloomy.”
“Of course.”
Waldo picked up his pace slightly. Alice had no trouble keeping up.
“Uh, darling?”
“Yes?”
“There’s something I was wanting to ask you about.”
“What?”
She was walking alongside him tugging at some of her long hair with both hands. Alice was trying to come up with the least embarrassing way she could to bring this up.
“What is it you want to ask me?”
Feeling uncomfortable she averted her eyes and spoke in a half mumble. “Before, by the fire, you saw them didn’t you?”
“Saw what?”
“My… my breasts.” She got her question out in a rush before she lost her nerve. “What did you think of them?”
“They were nice.”
XXX
He went another ten steps before noticing she was no longer at his side. Stopping he turned back around and saw her standing there, mouth hanging open, fists planted on hips, she was just glaring at him.
“Is something wrong?”
“NICE?!!” She exploded. “Nice? Is that all you have to say?!”
“What’s wrong with nice?” He asked not understanding her reaction. You would think he’d insulted her.
“My breasts are not nice! They’re wondrous! Amazing! Men have been staring at them ever since I was thirteen! I’ve had men come to the Inn and spend entire evenings just ogling them! They have ruined marriages! I once had a traveling bard compose a song for them! You are the first man to ever actually see them and all you have to say is that they’re nice?”
Waldo thought for a moment.
“They’re very nice.”
“Aaaarrgh!” Alice shouted in frustration.
She stormed off in a random direction.
“Hey! Where do you think you’re going?”
“Away from you!”
“What are you upset about? It’s a compliment! If I said that to any of the sex slaves they’d have been flattered!”
Waldo saw her stumble and almost fall. She turned about to stare at him in disbelief.
“Sex slaves? You mean there were soiled doves in that castle of yours?”
“Soiled doves? The only birds kept in the castle were ravens.”
“I don’t believe it! I actually thought I was going to be your first and only and instead it turns out you’ve been with other women? Just how many women have you had?”
“If you’re asking me about sex the answer is none, I am a virgin. I had never even kissed a girl until I contracted you.” He didn’t bother to explain that the reason for that had nothing to do with virtue or a desire to remain a virgin. It had been the fact that any girl he picked out would have been killed by Enver. He didn’t understand why Alice was reacting this way. In his family sex was nothing more than a past time for both the men and women.
Alice was looking at him with obvious doubt. “Most men who have seen a woman’s breasts aren’t still virgins. Usually the one happens right before the other.”
Waldo shrugged. “If that were true in my case I would have stopped being one a long time ago.”
“Hearing that does not make me happy.”
“Would it make you feel any better if I told you they were the second best breasts I’ve ever seen?”
Alice’s jaw dropped.
“SECOND?!!”
“I’m guessing that was the wrong thing to say.”
“I am a succubus! My body is made to enthrall men! Who could possibly have better breasts than me?”
“My mother,” Waldo answered primly. “Hers are spectacular.”
Alice just stood there unable to even speak. Her mouth kept opening and closing without any discernable sound.
“If it makes you feel any better I’m not the only one who thinks so. My mother has had songs, poems, and entire stage plays dedicated to her.”
“Aaaarrgh!!” She stormed off into the forest and away from him.
“Alice! I order you to come back. Hey! It’s a compliment! If you’d ever seen them you’d understand!”
Waldo chased after her.
Chapter 14
Not That Obvious
She could run very fast and was quickly gone from sight. With their bond he knew exactly in what direction she was going. He ran after her as fast as he could, even as he sensed her getting farther and farther away. He ran and he ran; following her even as he wondered to himself why he was doing so.
He finally came to a stop, doubled over and panting. Through their bond he could tell she was still moving away from him at full speed.
“Enough… of… this.” Without making hand signs or initiating a proper spell he just spoke a single word or magic. “Concalo.”
Instantly Alice appeared directly in front of him.
Running at top speed.
Her eyes widened in obvious surprise at seeing him but there was no way for her to stop her momentum. She plowed right into him knocking Waldo down hard.
“Ow!”
Despite knocking him over Alice was able to come to a halt without falling herself.
He stared up at her fr
om his spot on the ground. “I’m starting to wonder if Enver was doing me a favor.”
“Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” he grunted.
“How did you suddenly appear in front of me? Was it magic?”
Waldo slowly got to his feet and rubbed his lower back. “Well I certainly didn’t outrun you. I didn’t appear in front of you, that would require teleportation which is one of the deeper magics. I used a summons to bring you to me.”
The (sort of) Dark Mage (Waldo Rabbit) Page 15
