Out of Darkness: Cirenthian Chronicles (Erotic Fantasy) Book 1

by D. R. Rosier

  She nodded slowly, “Yes, but… more than that. You will need to be cautious about who you trust.”

  I shook my head, “Why? And why are you telling me this?”

  She said, “The first part to get you to the city is my duty, the second is because you have already helped me do my job, the least I could do is pass on a warning or two. My point earlier in telling you about our families, is you don’t have that. You will be one of the most powerful, eventually, but right now you are almost helpless. You are also a lone power, which will make people nervous, at the same time they will feel free to use you without worrying about political backlash.”

  I almost rolled my eyes, “So they’d feel free to use or kill me without worrying about repercussions?”

  She laughed, “That’s a blunt ugly way of saying it, but yes. Without family they wouldn’t have to worry about it coming back to bite them. Still, most of us are not like that. Like the commoners we have good and bad, it’s just with the power the bad ones tend to be… very bad.”

  Sara the maid came in with a tea set. We sat in silence as she served it and quietly left the room.

  I asked, “Will I be trusted as a stranger?”

  She shrugged, “As much as anyone else, there are oaths to the monarch. The oath is you will defend the country, the king, and the people, in that order. You can’t lie during the oath, it’s just not possible.”

  I was old, and used to being in positions of authority. But the surprise of being a mage, plus the idea of having no choice but to give oaths was a big pill to swallow. What if she just thought I was a mage and was actually sensing that enchantment the goddess told me about?

  “Mage Serina, can you tell me anything about being a mage, or do I need to wait until I’m at the capitol?”

  She smiled, “Call me Rina, mages don’t use titles with each other. You aren’t one yet really, but I’d prefer it.”

  When I nodded she said, “Close your eyes, reach out with your senses. You should be able to feel the air around you, the shapes of things in the room based on the missing air. You should also be able to feel the water in the tea.”

  I felt a little self conscious, but I did ask so I gave it a try. I reached out and I could feel her magic, I could hear her heartbeat. But that was my powers as whatever kind of creature I was. I took a deep breath and searched for the feelings she mentioned. I thought about the fight for some reason, the arrow. I hadn’t felt the arrow at all now that I was thinking back on it. I had felt the air the arrow was cutting through. A small but important distinction.

  That thought seemed to open up a whole new world. I could feel the air around me. I searched for the tea, trying to focus on water. I thought I could feel it… water in the shape of a cup, but it wasn’t as clear to me as the air was, and I wondered if it was just my mind playing tricks on me.

  I opened my eyes, “I felt it, the air and maybe the tea.”

  She nodded. “Good, I’m a fire mage by the way.”

  She lifted her palm and a small flame appeared for a moment.

  She said, “Sensing is easy, getting it to do anything is what you have to learn. Even more than that, besides the element, or elements, that is your source of power, there are other spells you can learn. Some will be easier than others. For instance as a fire mage, I can cast a ball of light very easily and without using much of my stored magical power. For you it would cost more. But sending a magical message to someone at the capitol would cost me quite a lot more than it would cost a mage of air.

  “I don’t think it wise for me to train you to use your magic. You could hurt yourself without proper supervision in the beginning.”

  I shook my head, “I don’t understand how I could cast a spell requiring fire, like a light, if I’m water and air.”

  She frowned, “I guess I didn’t explain very well. Every mage has a well of magic that replenishes with rest. Think about it like stamina when you run, you can only run so far. This personal well, is what reaches out to the elements and commands them to perform a spell. When you’re personal well is completely used up, you can no longer control your elements, and draining yourself all the way is dangerous, it would take a lot longer to recover.

  “That’s why mages don’t use magic for everything, we save it for what’s important, or to defend our lives and the lives of those we are charged to protect.”

  A chill ran down my spine, the goddess said never use it all. This is what she must have meant, if my personal well of magic is dry, the enchantment that keeps me alive would falter. It would kill me. This just keeps getting better.

  She continued, “So, being a water and air mage just means you can reach out with your power and control those elements directly, without a spell. You are… aligned with them. That doesn’t mean you are cut off from fire and earth completely, it just means it will take more personal energy to connect and you can only do certain spells with those elements, you can never command actual earth or fire. But you can use a light spell.

  “Does that make any more sense now?”

  I was still reeling about the personal store of magic, I wondered at how wise it would be to mess with it. I’d be taking a risk every time I casted a spell. Granted, it was a manageable risk, but I wasn’t thrilled about it.

  I said, “I think so yes, although knowing what exactly a spell is might make it clearer.”

  She grinned, “Good question. The elements are intelligent, sprites for air, gnomes for earth, undines for water, and salamanders for fire. When you work directly on air or water, it will be simply your magic and will without needing the elementals to help. But a spell is just channeling your magic through words and a mindset. Your internal magic delivers those words to the elementals, then they do the work on your behalf.”

  I smiled, “Thank you Rina, can I ask one more question, or two actually, but one about magic?”

  She nodded so I asked, “How do I measure how much personal magic I have?”

  She shrugged, “It’s one of the harder things. That’s why you should have a teacher in the beginning. They will monitor it for you and stop you before you go too far. Eventually you just get a feel for it. It’s hard because you use your magic to feel and measure other’s magic. It’s very hard to discern when you’re using your magic to measure your own magic. It feels different. If that makes sense.”

  I nodded, not liking that answer. I’d have to depend on them with my life instead of just worrying about three or so days of bed rest. I decided I would try and figure it out on my own, maybe my skill to detect magic as a vampire would do the job? It was very strange thinking of myself as a vampire now, by definition I was something completely different, but what?

  I asked, “Any advice on getting to the capital?”

  She nodded, “There is a large caravan coming in this afternoon and leaving in the morning. I’d suggest based on why I asked you here in the first place you try to hire on as a guard. If they don’t accept you as a guard, tell them to come speak to me.”

  I thanked her, even though she had brought me nothing but bad news and responsibilities I didn’t want. She had been extremely candid and honest, and I couldn’t help but wonder if that’s why she was mayor in the town farthest from the center of power. I headed back toward the inn and wondered what Sienna would think of all this…

  Sienna stared at me like I had a hole in my head.

  “No, really, I need to go to the capitol and train to be a mage… If you don’t want to be the mistress of a mage I guess I would understand.”

  Her face went from confused to horrified, “Of course I do, are you sure you want me though? You’ll be very important and I’m just a simple girl.”

  I snorted, “You’re anything but simple Sienna. I’ll be depending on you even more now to keep me out of trouble. From what Rina said it’s going to be a cesspool of politics. I want you to be careful though, just keep an eye out. Anyone gives you a problem come to me.”

  I gave Tim another silver coin
when we ate lunch, for the room for one more day. He didn’t look all that happy about losing Sienna, but as she predicted he didn’t cause trouble.

  I said, “Let’s get you some clothes, a couple of nice dresses and something to ride. We need horses too.”

  She raised an eyebrow, “A couple?”

  I shrugged, “One a month after this, but if we are going to the capitol and where the affluent are, you’ll need at least two dresses to start with. Plus, I assume riding in a dress is a bad idea.”

  We spent some time going shopping, the dresses and riding clothes were just a couple of silver. The horses though were more expensive than I expected. It was ten gold each, for the horse, saddle and tack. That was half my coins right there. Then we had to get some saddle bags, a tent, and other necessities for a month of travel.

  Still, I’d gotten a better deal with Sienna than I would have without; watching her haggle was a fun experience. She had that sexy innocent look and somehow managed to look helpless all at the same time. The men she haggled with didn’t stand a chance.

  It wasn’t lost on me she hadn’t used any of those techniques on me last night.

  We spent the rest of the afternoon talking. She was an orphan; her parents were killed in a goblin raid from the mountains a few years back. She didn’t see herself very clearly, and didn’t quite understand why I’d want to keep her now as a mistress. But I felt I could trust her, and that was worth quite a bit to me right now. I surely didn’t care about my new station in comparison

  When word came of the caravan arriving I headed out there. A couple of questions later I was speaking to the caravan leader named Henry, one of the three merchants. The caravan was very large with many carts and wagons. All three were obviously successful at what they did.

  I asked, “I need to go to the capitol, was wondering if you needed another guard.”

  Henry nodded, “If you can fight.”

  He called someone over named Ari to test me. Ari was about five foot two and completely hidden under cloak and hood. I couldn’t even tell if Ari was a woman or not, but I was guessing so at that height.

  Ari pulled a sword and came at me without warning. I pulled mine and defended. She was fast, wicked fast. She was also graceful, her movements precise and beautiful. I was a sword master for many years yet I had trouble trying to fight back without revealing my speed. Taking the goddesses advice I allowed a stroke through my guard, there was no way to defend against it but enhanced speed. I wouldn’t hide it in a life and death situation, but I wasn’t stupid enough to flaunt it.

  Ari turned to Henry and said, “He’ll do just fine.”

  I raised an eyebrow, Ari was definitely a woman, and her voice was musical. I had a powerful need to hear it again, but she just nodded at me, her face completely hidden in the cowl of her robe.

  She walked away as Henry and I started to talk coin, thanks to Sienna’s counsel I had the job for four gold and food over the month long trip. There were also bonuses involved should there be fighting. We shook on it.

  Henry grinned, “Welcome aboard, let me introduce you around.”

  I met his two partners, Toby and Marian, two other Merchants who had made the trip out to Arinith to trade. They were reserved men in their forties and seemed to dismiss me as unimportant.

  There was also three other guards, Jace, Niol, and Kendra. Jace was older and looked like he’d seen a lot; there wasn’t anything about him that looked soft. Niol was a young man, maybe twenty, he looked green as the grass and he had a ready smile. Kendra seemed angry about something; I wasn’t sure what about though.

  The caravan troubleshooter, or fixer, was a middle aged man named Terry who seemed gruff but friendly enough. Denise was the last one I met, the cook. Denise was in her thirties and seemed welcoming.

  Jace was in charge of the guards even though Ari was noted as the best among them. She like me however, was signed on for a one way trip to the city. Considering where the caravan came from and her graceful speed I was wondering if she was an Elf. I was even more curious to see under that hood, but I had no idea if there were taboos involved, so I could hardly ask.

  I also didn’t think she would appreciate a gawker… Besides, I hadn’t seen her since she walked off and disappeared into the surrounding trees.

  I told Henry I’d see him at dawn the next day and then headed back to the inn…

  Chapter 6

  I felt powerless. Events were moving me, rather than me determining events. I knew I had to bide my time though, and learn about this world before I was in control again. All I knew was I was a mage, a helpless one, and mages needed to be trained by law. I knew almost nothing really about how the mage half of society worked outside of the few tips Serina had given me. I didn’t know the families, or the players in this game.

  Knowledge was power, and for now I was quite powerless. I had no choice but to go along with it. Perhaps it was foolish but I decided to experiment. I reached out and tried to feel the basin of water in my room at the inn as I had the tea. I could feel it there, I also with my other senses gifted to me when I was turned vampire, could feel my magic reaching out of me and to the basin.

  Unfortunately, I had no sense whatsoever how much actual magic I had. I frowned knowing I’d be walking a tightrope at the school, trusting a stranger to keep me alive until I did get a handle on it. Even worse is the stranger would have no idea my life depended on it, only thinking I would end up on bed rest for a few days.

  Wise or not, I tried to make the water do something, besides just feeling it. First I tried to mentally grab it and lift some from the basin. Then I tried simply to stir it around. Nothing happened. Even this wouldn’t be as easy as I had hoped.

  The door opening snapped me out of it and I looked up to see Sienna coming in. She had put on one of the dresses in favor of her older clothes and she looked elegantly beautiful. She’d even put her hair up and donned some makeup. It was apparent she was taking her duties seriously as a mistress down to the last detail. It would be difficult to remember she was doing this for a paycheck so to speak.

  She was also carrying a dinner tray for us. There was no table so we ate on the bed.

  She asked, “All set mage Marcus?”

  I cringed internally but smiled, “In private feel free to address me as you please, I believe I asked you to call me Marcus, or Marc.”

  She nodded. “Of course mage Marcus.”

  I snapped my head up and saw her eyes twinkling with mischief. It drew a smile out of me.

  I filled her in on the details of what happened over dinner. She paid strict attention to my every word which perversely made me lose my train of thought after a while.

  I asked, “Would you draw us a bath? It might be a while before we get the chance again. It’s about twelve days to Star’s cove and another ten before Hunter’s ridge. Eight more after that for Ciren.”

  She looked at me amused, and I realized she probably knew that already. I had picked it up when discussing the route we were taking with Henry.

  She put our tray out in the hallway and then started the bath water. Over a thousand years old or not, I couldn’t seem to tear my eyes off of her as she slowly removed her dress and walked over to me. She started to help me undress and lead me to the tub, there was a fire in her eyes that my body responded too.

  Our bath took a long time that night, and at some point we even got clean…

  It was drizzling in the morning as we ate a quick breakfast at sun up. The stable master had our horses saddled and ready. I took a moment to get the horse used to me before hanging the saddle bags and mounting up. We met the caravan by the main road outside of town.

  Sienna looked excited despite the rain and had a glow in her cheeks.

  “Ready to leave this place behind?” I asked a little teasingly.

  She tried to give me a look but it failed miserable as her smile widened.

  “Yes, I’m excited about the trip, and my new employer isn’t so bad either
.”

  I snorted a laugh and shook my head, “You’re too kind, be careful with that effusive flattery or I may get a big head.”

  Our banter was broken by Jace waving me forward and I urged my horse to join him, Niol, Kendra, and Ari. None of them looked very happy about the weather, but it hadn’t dampened my spirits, I was looking forward to getting on the road and doing something.

  Niol and Kendra nodded in greeting but Ari ignored me. I was getting the feeling she was aloof and private.

  Jace said, “Alright, were all here. Ari will take point first and scout ahead of the caravan. Kendra and I will take the sides, Marcus will be our rear guard, and Niol will be roving. To help us stay alert we will be rotating clockwise once an hour. There will also be training every night to keep us in form and work out any knotted muscles from riding all day.

  “In case of attack, follow my orders, if I am taken out Kendra is next in line. There are only five of us, but all the wagon drivers have crossbows so be aware of that. Any questions?”

  No one had a question so he sent us to our posts. That first day we didn’t have any problems. I worked on at least detecting air in addition to my other senses to pick up any ambushers, but the road was clear. Still, it was fun learning what the air felt like when a bird flew overhead, or a small animal moved in the undergrowth beside the road.

  After a while it was no longer necessary for me to look to identify what I felt. I could feel the branches on the trees as if it was dragging and cutting through air. I was starting to think that perhaps being a mage wouldn’t be a bad thing after all.

  It seemed redundant for detecting life, but I knew I’d need the practice with my element. I also knew from experience it could detect things my other skill couldn’t, like flying arrows. I spent some time getting to know the others at least a bit when it was my turn to rove around the caravan.

  When we stopped we set up camp and I sat with Sienna who brought me my meal. It was a little strange for me, being waited on as I was, but it would be something I needed to get used to. Still, I was used to doing for myself and it felt a little awkward for me at times.