I also suggested any replies come straight to me magically. I doubted I’d get my mail forwarded by the castle staff.
I signed and sealed up the letter with wax, addressed it to master mage Niall, and then summoned an air elemental to deliver it to the footman by the gate of the palace. I didn’t have to identify the actual person, just the location and the way a footman’s uniform looked was good enough for the elemental to grasp the idea.
I could probably deliver it directly to Niall’s office, but that might be a breach of mage etiquette or something, which was another reason I’d asked him to send any reply directly to me.
It wasn’t like I’d been taught magical manners in Zual.
Chapter 22
The afternoon court was different. I needed to actually do something.
As the first group was led up, I hit them with the truth spell, along with a hidden magic glyph. Not that there were any other mages here to feel the magic, it was just a deeply ingrained habit. My personal mage aura was hidden as well per usual. Outside of my created glyph to disable but not harm guards with those three joined spells, my magic is pretty much always casted in conjunction with hidden magic when outside of battle.
Besides, for all I knew another mage was here, doing the same as I had been and hiding who they were. I was sure Niall hid his aura for a similar reason.
The herald read the charges, “This man Stephan is charged with the murder of his competitor, the charges were brought by this woman Claire to the attention of the guards.”
Stephan broke free of the guards hold, and rushed the dais. He leaped for the queen, and the protective shield I’d built snapped on, and he crashed into it. He bounced about two feet back and landed on his ass. The shield snapped off, and when the queen looked at me I shrugged like it was no big deal.
The guards grabbed Stephan and stood him up.
The queen asked, “Did you kill your competitor, and why did you attack me?”
Stephan growled, “Yes, I killed the bastard. He stole that slut Claire from me, and she helped him steal half my business. I attacked you because your just another whore that will take Claire’s side.”
I covered my mouth and coughed to conceal a smile. Maybe I wasn’t crazy after all. That guy was definitely crazy.
The queen glanced at me irritably, and then looked at Claire, “What do you have to say?”
Claire said, “He’s a mean drunk, used to beat me, and cheated his customers. I left him for a better man, and yes, I shared Stephan’s contacts with Lance. Lance didn’t cheat them, and gave them better rates.”
The queen nodded regally and made her decision, “Take Stephen out to be executed immediately for murder. Claire is free to go, and with our consolations for her loss.”
I released the truth spells, and waited for the next group.
A soldier ran in with a communicator and announced, “Your majesty, we’re being raided by mages in Woodmead.”
That… was the fourth village out from the capitol toward Sandoval’s border.
I opened a portal a thousand feet above the village, and stepped through onto an air elemental.
I changed into an eagle as the portal closed, and dismissed the air elemental as I took off.
It was a larger group that was attacking the town. There were sixty enemies, twenty dark mages as well as a demon and elemental each. I activated the four energy elementals on my bracelet, and the five on Silvia’s. Then I just flew in a circle as I watched the carnage. I did however, specify that they were to keep one alive.
It didn’t take long, not with nine elementals all with power four times my own. Even without them I might have been able to win, but I wasn’t about to play fair when there were people dying, every moment counted. They focused on the mages, and took out two each. One more, and then the last was captured as his elemental and demon were destroyed in blasts of energy.
I landed in the middle of the village and transformed.
Predictably, I was attacked. Perhaps wearing black was a conceit, since all the attacking mages seem to wear that color. Sure, they could have actually known who I was, but it could also have been mistaken identity as well. I considered the colors green and blue as I disarmed, tripped, and glued six of the knights to the ground. Then I walked over to a wounded knight.
“Calm down, I’m the court mage, I’m sure you’ve heard about me by now, and recognize me from when I came through with Daniel and Marie.”
I brought up a glyph of healing, and reached out and touched his forehead. Unfortunately, healing was one of the spells that needed physical contact to maintain the spell. The poor knight was terrified. I healed two more, but the rest were dead. There’d been twenty knights in the village, which meant eleven were gone.
I walked up to the mage and hit him with a truth spell.
I asked coldly, “Do you have any enchantments, spells, or wards active or inactive on you or your clothes, or any items at all?”
He growled out, “No, bitch!”
I smiled coldly, “You have no idea.”
I brought up a basic glyph that suppressed a mages magic, it was part of the knowledge given me by the gods. I hadn’t known it before then. This spell I cast with my full power, he was much weaker than me, but why take the chance of halving the power to hide the magic?
Another basic glyph bound his hands and limited how far his feet could move so he couldn’t run.
Then I opened a portal back to the throne room, dismissed all my elementals, and walked through dragging the mage with me.
The queen demanded, “What happened.”
I replied evenly, “There were twenty mages when I got there, and eleven knights had already died. I ended the battle, healed three of the knights, and brought this one back to answer questions. The rest of the enemy mages are dead.”
The queen thought about that for a moment, and then asked my prisoner, “Who are you, why did you attack the town?”
He tried to fight the truth spell, but the words were dragged from his lips, “Leo, because you’re weak, and we will rule you all! And, we needed more slaves.”
The queen glared at me, and then ordered the knights, “Take him away and execute him at once.”
I frowned, “One more question, where are you from?”
The mage cursed me fluently, and then said, “Zual.”
I looked meaningfully back at the queen. By the shadow of doubt on her face, she’d understood my message. She was judging all mages, and the ones that might side with her, because of the attacks of an enemy kingdom.
It wouldn’t be enough of course, I wasn’t naïve, but it was a chink in her surety and pigheaded thinking because of fear and hate. Prejudice.
I turned my head, “Wait, how are Zual mages getting here?”
He struggled and spat curses, but he answered, “Portals.”
After he was gone from the room there were a few moments of silence.
Maria said firmly, “Today’s court is finished. We’ll have to get the other cases tomorrow,” she turned to me, “Will you help get relief knights to the town?”
I nodded my head, “I will. Hopefully, I’ll find an apprentice soon, so these interruptions won’t inconvenience the court judgments.”
She gave me a look that said don’t push it, and I suppressed my smile and walked to the garrison.
It didn’t take long, Michael had it all organized by the time I got there. I opened a portal and eleven knights went through. They all gave me either nervous or angry looks, but I wasn’t worried about it.
I noticed there were eight marble arches over on the side just big enough to fit a wagon, and I went and looked at them out of curiosity. They were enchanted portal rituals, I couldn’t say where to, they were also damaged, although I saw the charging glyph was still good on them.
It looked like someone took a hammer and chisel to most of the glyphs though. What a waste. Well, I wasn’t going to restore them. I wanted to foster more dependence, and even grat
efulness toward mages, not make it so I wasn’t necessary anymore. Still, based on the number of arches I’d guess they’d probably went to all six towns and the two passes. I shook my head and wondered why they’d destroyed them, but had kept the communicators and swords.
Idiots.
After that, I headed down to the city, to a tailor.
I wound up with an assortment of robes of several shades of blue and green. White was out of the question, and although I liked the way yellow dresses looked on me, a yellow robe was terribly ugly. I changed in the back of the store into a dark blue robe, and tossed the black. It wasn’t out of shame, or because I thought dark mages were all bad. I just knew it was a perception problem.
I think dark mages were considered evil because Zual’s system was evil. There was a stigma using dark magic, but the truth is all the mind magic I’d used lately to stop violence was dark magic. It had its place in the scheme of things.
I pretty much had the afternoon off thanks to the attack, so I retired to the mage wing and sat in the library. There’d been no reply from Niall, but it’d only been a few hours since I’d made the request. I tried to bend my mind toward the apprentice issue, but decided it was too dangerous for now. Even if I recruited a mage out of Sandoval or Mendell who didn’t hate the Lethian people, chances are they’d get killed the first time they left the safety of the mage wing without me as an escort.
Apprentices, especially in the beginning, were too weak and vulnerable.
No, that needed to wait, and I needed to do this alone for a while longer. Most likely a great while longer.
Chapter 23
The next day during the morning audience I tried to figure out what my next project should be. I was still waiting on Niall to get back to me, but honestly I wasn’t worried about that. If he let me copy books, that would be easier than the memory writing ritual.
All I’d need to do was duplicate the ink from one book to another. Which would take five glyphs, one to choose the book to copy and what book or books to copy it to, a water glyph to read the ink, another glyph to find the blank spot in the books I was transcribing too, the transformation glyph to write it, and the dry glyph to dry the transformed ink. The shortest ritual yet.
The truth was though a court mage had a lot on their plate already. I had to serve during the court audience in the morning, and for the court judgments in the afternoon. I was also responsible for assisting and protecting the royal family, as well as to assist military if asked. Theoretically, I’d also have apprentices to guide, but that was off the table for now.
That left a lot undone, but not all of it was critical. I’d already taken care of the weather, which used to be micromanaged by many mages across the kingdom before the fall out between the royal family and the mages.
Mages supported society. Probably the biggest lack just then would have to be the absence of healers. Most other things could be dealt with. Mages that didn’t work for the royal family or court, just had normal jobs for the most part. Sure, they’d be better at logging than a normal person, but a normal person had a saw, and could get it done.
Healing was the big one. The question was, did I want to take something like that on in addition to my duties. Maybe one day out of the week, we had two days off a week with no court duties, I could spend that in the city as a healer. Maybe even go out to the six villages a few hours each month. I wasn’t all that thrilled to take on that duty, on the other hand, it would most likely make the commoners more accepting of mages.
Which was one of my goals, simply convincing the royal family really wouldn’t be enough.
So yeah, master court mage, and healer of Lethia, the whole damned kingdom. No one could say I wasn’t ambitious. Stupid maybe, but definitely not lazy.
The morning’s audience finished with no one trying to kill me or the queen all morning. It was about an hour before lunch, so I went down to the business office.
The functionary looked at me and was obviously confused.
I ordered, “I’m the court mage. Open a business for me, I just need a small working area, and a waiting room. Specifically, a business for a healer.”
He frowned, “I can’t…” he cut off when I held up my hand.
“Just do it, don’t argue with me.”
He cleared his throat nervously and said, “Of course master court mage Cassandra, let’s get you set up then.”
He grabbed a form and started to fill it out. When he finished I actually paid the taxes on it for a month, and then walked down to where it was. It was ugly and worn, but it would due once I’d fixed it. I brought up an earth elemental glyph along with a hidden magic, and set it to work on repairing the stonework, and getting the inside clean. I also had the words, mage healer, carved into the building, along with the one day a week and the hours I’d be open.
I tried not to mind the panic on the street as the stone building ground noisily and changed from dilapidated into perfect condition.
I was also sure the queen had caught wind of my antics already, but I didn’t care, it was something else I was just going to do.
Not much changed over the next month.
The queen only spoke to me when she wanted something, usually during court, but she was always polite. Her son Timothy hadn’t spoken to me again, not since the argument we had during that first dinner, he simply ignored me as if I weren’t there. The other nobles avoided me like the plague. The only ones who warmed to me at all in the castle were the guards, and specifically the head knight, Michael.
At first they were angry and embarrassed at how easily I’d taken them down without doing harm, but they realized quite quickly how much help I was in a fight, and getting them to the towns and back to the city quickly.
As I suspected, my memory writing ritual came in handy regarding other things other than spells. While I worked in my healer shop, I’d just take a silver for services, get their name, and heal them. At the end of the day, I’d use the memory writing ritual to log every person, how much they paid, and what ailed them. It was a lot more efficient than doing it manually after each visit.
Especially because in those first few weeks I’d healed a lot of people that were afraid but also desperate enough to chance dealing with a mage. They’d been living with ailments for years without relief. Those healed, spread the word around the city.
The soldiers were also happy to help me organize in the villages. The sick would show up at the town inns at certain times, and I could visit and heal the sick in all six villages in just a couple of hours.
Healing was perhaps a weird enterprise for a dark mage, but between that, the fountain, and the rainfall that was being reported all over the kingdom, the commoners were slowly responding in a more positive way.
I just wished the nobility were as receptive.
As for Marie, we talked almost every night. She was a good friend, and one of the bright spots in my days. It wasn’t all that bad, I was still enjoying myself, had no doubts about my plans, or how I wanted to use my power. Still, what good was power if I couldn’t enjoy myself too?
Over the last month they’d finally arrived at the capitol in Mendell, and stayed almost three full weeks there while discussing the treaty. Marie seemed a little bored, and apparently wasn’t getting along with Lena like she had Elidy.
I worried about Daniel a bit, Marie would answer me when I asked about him, but I got the impression she was hiding something from me. Regardless, when I spoke to her last night she indicated they were ready to leave and come home. Which meant Marie must’ve told him what was going on back here by now.
The only other thing that really changed over the last month was that Niall allowed me to copy a small portion of his ritual books. Between those rituals, and the ones I’d learned from my master’s spell books from Zual, I was able to fill up ten more books. I had a decent library for an apprentice now, if I could find one and manage to keep them alive that is.
That didn’t include ritual sacrifices
, or my weather ritual. The first I wouldn’t teach, no more than I’d use them, the second was too powerful. I’d come to the conclusion that all rituals had been created by master mages bold enough to ask the gods for the knowledge of glyph language. It made sense, how else could they have been made?
I also came to the realization, that human sacrifice was probably created by a perverted asshole that liked to cause pain while taking a life. As I’d proved with the weather ritual, it was possible to enhance the power of a spell without taking life. I didn’t believe dark magic was inherently evil, but some of the uses it was put to are obviously evil. Human sacrifice was definitely one of them.
As for the second. A mage abusing the weather ritual could take out a kingdom slowly by starvation, or even just heavy rains and floods. So I’d left those out, and only had them in my personal advanced magic book. But the palace library did have the book copying and memory writing rituals. I was still pretty proud of those. They were simple, but useful. Most rituals were completely useless outside of the one thing they were created for.
Niall himself was polite, and nice. But I got the impression he didn’t care for my actions in Lethia. I believe he agreed with my goals, but not the way I was going about it by seizing the position.
I didn’t see any alternatives, not when the ruling family was prepared to see some of their people starve rather than accept mages. Not when they’d enslave families. At that point, the only workable course of action would be unreasonable.
Right?
Either way, I didn’t let his judgement bother me.
Chapter 24
I sat at breakfast the next morning, and worried while I ate.
Marie hadn’t contacted me last night. It’d happened before over the last month, but I worried if she’d told Daniel and he’d overreacted. Who knew what he’d do? I didn’t think he’d hurt her of course, not directly, but I did believe he was capable of stupidly taking away her protection necklace to stop her from speaking to me. Which would put her in danger. Although, maybe he swapped protections?
The Rise of a Dark Mage Page 13
