Death Comes To All (Book 1) (31 page)

Still,
Raiste should have known better than to throw them both into a battle
without first learning everything he could about the man he planned
on killing. He had said before that he always planned every detail
before killing someone, yet his actions had hardly been the carefully
planned assassination that his friend had taught him.

"As
I'm sure you already know, most people who possess magic tend toward
a single aspect. Their power is centered on one type of magic only,
and while a mage might be able to do other things with their magic,
anything other than their personal specialty will not have much
power. The more powerful the magic, the more focused it becomes. The
most powerful of the great mages can only do a few, very specific,
extremely powerful things with their magic. Other magic users have
less focus on a single aspect of magic, but a wider range of things
they can do with it. Some humans, and most of the non-human races who
were created by magic, can't use magic at all."

Roland
hadn't known most of that, apart from the knowledge that it was
mainly only those of human kin who could wield magic. Most of his
education had come from his mother, who spoke little of magic.

Roland
had always assumed that it was because she had little magic of her
own, and likely knew only bits and pieces of magical knowledge
herself. Her knowledge in other things of the world seemed quite
extensive compared to most people he had met before or since, but
that didn’t mean she knew much about magic. Still, he had no
intention of telling Raiste about his lack of knowledge. Instead, he
simply nodded.

I’ll
hear him out. At the very least I should learn something.

"For
some magic users their magic is extremely focused, meant for only a
single use and nothing else," Raiste continued. "Such was
the magic that I saw today. The magic that was being used is a type
of battle magic. It greatly enhances a person's fighting prowess. It
can increase the speed, strength, and stamina of a person in battle.
In your case it also enveloped you in a magic barrier, and used your
sword as a focal point against incoming magic. Had that fireball hit
you it might have been turned aside, but since you instead brought
your sword between it and the attack, it absorbed the fireball
completely, then fired it from your weapon as if you were the
original caster. Battle magic hasn't been seen in over a hundred
years, as far as I know anyway. It's extremely rare, and very, very
powerful."

"So
then who was this powerful mage that cast this battle magic over me?"
Roland asked. His anger had nearly faded completely, as often happens
when new information is posed to a naturally inquisitive mind.

"You
still don't seem to understand," Raiste said, shaking his head.
"This isn't a type of magic that is cast on someone else. There
are minor wards against certain types of magical attacks that someone
might cast on another, but nothing like this. Battle magic like this
can only come from one source, the man who is using it. It's part of
the reason it is so powerful.

“
Every
living thing, whether it can utilize magic or not, has a natural
defense against magic being used against it. Because of this, it is
difficult for a mage to use a spell directly against another being.
Most spells that attack another don't do so directly. For instance
the fireball that Sloan tried to use didn't attack you directly, but
instead heated the air and sent that superheated substance hurtling
at you. If he had instead tried to light you on fire your natural
defenses would have kicked in, and he would have had to overcome
those first. As such, the result of the spell would have been
considerably weaker than the total amount of energy put into it. The
stronger the mind that a mage has to overcome, the greater the amount
of energy lost in the transference.

"Magical
defensive or healing spells cast on another works the same way. Your
mind doesn't know what type of magic is being used, so it will
attempt to stop the magic no differently than it would a magical
assault. A mage trying to help you could drain themselves until they
are unconscious, and still not increase your fighting ability even a
fraction of what it had been during that fight."

"So
you're saying that whoever cast those enhancements on me had to have
been one of the most powerful mages?" Roland asked, trying to
grasp what his companion was telling him. "Because of the
difficulty in this transference thing, a normal mage wouldn't be able
to do it, right? Why would one of the great mages want to help me,
especially considering that I was with you at the time? It seems from
what you've told me that at least most of them want you dead."

"No,
I'm telling you that no one cast that magic on you today!"
Raiste answered in frustration. "No one could have, not even one
of the great mages. That magic came from you, and no one else. You
used that magic all on your own. You used it instinctively, so much
so that you didn’t even know that it was you that was using it.
You're a battle mage Roland, the first to walk the land in, well, who
knows how long."

Chapter
Eleven

"That's
impossible!" Roland cried. "I can't use magic! I'm a
sorvinian. We don't have magic. Not a single sorvinian in history
ever has!"

Raiste
had expected his friend to react that way. He probably would have
felt the same way himself if someone told him such a strange story.
Still, he knew without doubt that it was true. As the son of one of
the great mages, Raiste had studied the history of magic extensively
during his childhood. He recalled vividly his childhood aspirations
of becoming a battle mage himself one day, but of course that had
never been the direction his own magical talents had leaned.

"Your
mother was a human," he pointed out. "Most likely you
received your magical ability from her."

"You
mean that you think my mother might have been one of these battle
mages too?"

"No,
that's unlikely. While it is often true that parents with strong
magic will generally have children who have strong magic as well,
that is not always the case. Sometimes a child with powerful magic
could be born to parents with almost no magical talent whatsoever, or
a great mage might have a child that shows little magic at all.
Sometimes power might skip a generation or two, or power might appear
in a family that has never shown strong magic. There's not always a
family connection to it.

“
Even
in those cases where strong magic is passes on, what that magic might
do can be wildly different. There might not have been any battle
mages in your family history. Unless we can trace your family line
back, there's really no way of knowing."

"So
why is it that the powerful families keep their power generation
after generation, while those born to lesser families rarely if ever
increase their position?" Tara asked. She had resolved for the
most part to stay out of the conversation, as magic was something she
knew little about, and it was obvious which direction this
conversation was going. Still, it seemed an important enough question
to ask, and it might defuse the strong emotions that were running
through the group. Much of their anger had faded, but she knew that
it could flare again at the slightest provocation.

"Magic
was the fuel that put the great mages in power in the first place,
but that's not what kept their children in power. The great mages in
ancient days used their magic to teach the races, to keep them from
killing each other when the Age of Learning began. This put them in a
position as leaders, but they never planned on their descendants
keeping that power, like the kings of old once had.

"At
first the descendants of those original mages, those that led the new
races of mankind into a more civilized society, followed in their
parents and grandparents footsteps. They tried to help the world
become a better place for everyone. Over time, however, those
families, or most of them anyway, became corrupted by the power that
they wielded. Instead of trying to help the other races they began
caring more about exerting their control over them. Over everyone."

He
picked up a flat stone and threw it over the pond, watching as it
skipped across its surface. Roland could tell that talking about this
subject pained the man, but he needed to hear all of it. Where he
went from here was already decided. He had made that decision the
moment he followed Raiste into Sloan's office building. Now he only
needed to know the reasons behind it, and all of this was a part of
it.

"My
father saw, clearly, the corruption that now exists in the families
of the great mages. We call them all great mages now, but truthfully
many of them no longer have the powerful magic that their ancestors
once controlled. That is a closely guarded secret, even by those who
still have powerful magic, like Bloodheart. Even with all his power,
he has no way of knowing if his children will share his strength, so
like all of them he holds to the lie they all live by now.

“
The
races are at a point now when they can rule themselves, without the
need of powerful mages to rule over them and keep them in line. The
mages rule now only because they wish to hold on to their power, and
for no other reason. Anyone who wants to let the people choose for
themselves what laws they should live by, or who should be
controlling them, are destroyed, just as my father was. This is the
reason I have dedicated my life to destroying this ruling class, not
only to avenge my father, but to take his vision and see it through."

"So
all that magic, everything that I did during that battle, it all came
from me," Roland said, numb with the comprehension.

It
was all me. All those men I killed. It was all me.

A
part of him had hoped that somehow the magic that had filled him had
also, in part, controlled him. That he had not been responsible.

But
no. It was all me. I’m the one responsible for killing those
men.

The
fact that he had not been given any choice at the time was a small
consolation. He has still taken another man’s life. Several
men, who he had killed in horrible, nightmarish ways that he would
never have thought possible only a day before.

It
was the magic,
his magic
, that had given him the power to do
that, but he could not blame those deaths on the magic. Even when the
magic was filling him he understood that it was nothing more than a
tool, no different than his sword really. He had thought at the time
that someone else was giving it to him, but that didn’t matter.

Giving
a carpenter a saw doesn’t build you a house. That’s still
up to the man who wields it.

Now
he knew that it came from him, that it was his own, but how he used
that tool was up to him. He had never used magic before, perhaps
because he never believed that he had any, or perhaps because the
type of magic he had was never needed in his life previous to that
moment.

Regardless
of how that magic came to him, it was his now, apparently, though he
had no idea how to use or control that power.

I
have to learn to control it. I can’t let this power control me.

When
he had used his magic he had not done anything differently though. He
hadn't even known it was coming from him, as if it was entirely
instinctual, just as Raiste had suggested.

How
can I control something that comes out by instinct?

It
at least explained why he felt so drained once the magic left him. It
was his own energy that the magic had been feeding off of.

“
Is
that why I was so tired after the fight?” he asked. “Because
it was my energy?”

Best
to be certain of these things.

"That
would seem to be the case," Raiste confirmed. "Some mages
can pull the energy for their spells from other sources, such as
other living things in their environment, and there are some mages
that have great amounts of energy that they can pass on to other
mages to power their stronger spells, but can't use that energy
themselves.

“
From
everything I've read, battle mages are not known to be able to use
outside sources like that. Their power comes from their own bodies.
However, since magic can affect each user differently, it's
impossible to say for certain if you might be able to learn to use
outside sources or not. Many battle mages were known to lose
consciousness after the magic leaves them, however your body has a
massive amount of natural energy already, likely due to your
sorvinian father. If I'm right, and this is just a guess mind you,
you might be able to fight longer and use more energy than any other
battle mage in all of history, just on the basis of how much raw
power you possess."

"If
that's true, how do I control this magic? The only time I've used it
was by accident. I didn't even know that I had used it at all. If
what you're saying is true, I could drain myself to death simply
because I can't shut it off."

"You
don't need to worry about that happening," Raiste assured him.
"Magic doesn't work that way. A mage will pass out long before
he expels enough energy to kill him. There were stories of power
mages, those who would give their energy to other mages to use for
spells too powerful for one man to cast on his own, dying because a
mage continued pulling from them after they lost consciousness, but I
don't believe it's true. All evidence I've read about it shows that
once a mage loses consciousness he can no longer transfer or use his
power, so he can't be killed that way.