God Mage (4 page)

That night, Bren and the others were asked to
dine with the rest of the family. The setting for dinner was a bit
different than Bren was used to. There were no chairs, just thick
cushions for the guests to sit on, nor was there a table. Each
person got their own mini table that was brought by a young woman.
Another thing Bren noticed was that none of the women in the family
ate with them. In fact, the way the other men looked at the women
with him, made it easy to tell that they didn’t think much of them,
especially Brenda, who among all of them was the most
outspoken.

“More,” Brenda yelled holding up the small
glass that was used for the rice wine, which they often drank with
meals. “Don’t you have a bigger glass,” she said, picking up a
small glass decanter that held the wine and took a large drink.
Bren had thought her actions would make things harder, but oddly,
the elder man who sat at the head of the group laughed.

“Bring the lady as much as she wishes to
drink,” the man said still laughing. “It is not often that I see a
woman who can drink so much.”

As the night progressed, Brenda drank more
and more, and many of the others began to join in the merriment. In
the end, Bren and the other guards were forced to carry many of
their friends back to their room. Bren, who seemed to draw the
unlucky lot, was forced to take care of Brenda, who was not only
drunk but had wandering hands.

“You were such a cute baby,” Brenda said as
she leaned heavily against Bren’s shoulder. “Mother always talked
about you when she came back from a visit. She used to tell me that
she was going to arrange a marriage between me and you.”

“That’s cheating,” Faye said, grabbing
Brenda’s other arm and helping Bren carry her weight, though he
wasn’t having trouble with her. “I have been working on him for the
past year.”

“I’m cheating,” Brenda said, slurring her
words slightly. “I never took mothers words seriously. I mean Bren
here was just a little kid who I had only seen when he was just a
chubby baby. So my mother once talked me into going with her on one
of her state visits and there he was. He was still just a kid but
he was such a cutie,” Brenda said kissing Bren awkwardly on the
cheek.

“Hay, no kissing,” Faye said with a slight
chuckle as the entered the room.

“Jealous,” Brenda said pulling Faye close to
her and giving her a kiss full on the lips.

Even though he was more removed from himself
than normal, Bren was still caught off guard as Brenda pulled away
from him and grabbed Faye’s head and forced a kiss on her. Bren
fell to the ground as Faye pulled back wiping her mouth and
coughing. “Why in the nine hells did you do that?” Faye asked, but
Brenda was already sleeping peacefully where she fell.

After they put Brenda in bed, Bren sought his
own bed. A few seconds after he laid down, he felt the now common
feeling of Faye wrapping her arm around him as she pressed her body
close to him. “It’s not fair,” Faye whispered after a few
moments.

It was the first time Faye had said anything
after she had lain down, and Bren was not sure how to handle the
situation. He wished that this would have happened when he was more
himself, but there was only so far wishing could get him. “What do
you mean?” Bren asked, hoping that it was the right response.

“Brenda, Lillian, Phena, and Shariel, you
have all these other women around you. They all have their own
claims to you, and I am just some farm girl that you met on your
way to the tower,” Faye said, her voice sounding meek and slightly
concerned.

“Phena is my sister,” Bren replied, trying to
make his voice sound slightly upbeat. “Shariel is like an aunt, and
Brenda scares the living hell out of me.”

“I can see why,” Faye replied shyly. “What
about Lillian. She isn’t family, and she is downright beautiful. I
can’t even compare to her, and she…loves you.”

Bren could tell that Faye was worried about
her position with him. Although he knew it, he wasn’t sure how to
handle it. He knew that he cared about her, but it was hard to
really focus on that now. “She is beautiful, but I don’t think she
really loves me,” Bren responded, picking his words carefully. “She
fell in love with my father, and when he disappeared, she just let
her attachment switch to me. It wouldn’t matter anyway; she reminds
me too much of my mother.”

“If you say so,” Faye said pulling Bren in
even tighter than she had before. It was slightly uncomfortable,
but Bren didn’t pull away from her.

As Bren drifted off to sleep, he felt a pull
coming from his mother as she tried to pull him into one of her
dreams. Bren thought about declining her invitation but decided it
would be best to talk with her. In the end, his mother was going to
find him, and it was better to get it over with. At least in his
dream his mother couldn’t hit him too hard.

As the darkness cleared, Bren found himself
in his own room where his mother sat on the edge of his bed. Bren
waited for her to say something, but as the silence continued, Bren
decided to make the first move. “Mother,” Bren said softly.

“I didn’t think you would come,” Maria said
after a tense moment of silence. “I have tried to talk to you
numerous times, but each time I only ended up spending the night
alone in this room.”

“Things have been difficult,” Bren said,
moving over behind his mother.

“What happened to you?” Maria said as she
turned around and got her first look at him. She reached out her
hand and lightly touched his cheek, which was now bright silver.
“You look like someone painted your skin.”

“Like I said, things have been difficult,”
Bren replied. “If everything works out, father will be home
soon.”

“Thad,” Maria said surprised. “How?”

“I can’t tell you right now, but I am working
on it,” Bren said as his mother pulled him into a tight hug.

“I miss him,” Maria said, her voice filled
with her emotions. “I would give almost anything to see him again.”
His mother was holding him so tight that even in the dream he could
feel her strength. “But I would not trade your father for you. You
are my son, and though I do not always show it, I still love you
dearly. If it is dangerous then please promise me that you will
leave it alone….Please.”

“I don’t know if it will be dangerous,” Bren
replied telling his mother a half-truth. “But this is something
that I have to do. I am not doing it for father, or for you, but
myself. Ever since I was a child, I have seen the odd stares and
heard the half-concealed remarks. People have always blamed me for
father’s disappearance, and at some point I have started to blame
myself.”

“It wasn’t your fault,” Maria said pulling
back and looking her son directly in the face.

“At some level I know that, but I still want
to find father. It is just something I have to do.”

His mother didn’t say anything else. She just
gave him another tight hug and wept silently. Bren wrapped his arms
lightly around his mother and held her until the darkness started
to pool in around him to take him back.

T
he next morning,
Bren woke feeling a little more rested than usual. After a quick
exercise with Cass and a small breakfast, Bren decided he could use
a nice walk.

As soon as he headed outside though, he was
met by man slightly shorter than he was who wore a deep blue suit
much like Hayao wore. Bren started to walk around the person, but
the other man moved in his path. Once again, Bren tried to move
around the man but was blocked. “Can I help you?” Bren asked,
trying to sound polite.

“Yes, you cannot waste my time,” the short
man said, looking Bren over closely. “Follow me.”

The man didn’t give Bren a moment to think
over his words but instead turned and walked away from the house.
Without time to think, Bren followed the man. The further they
moved away from the house, the faster the small man began to walk.
For such a short man he was able to move quickly without making a
sound.

Soon they moved away from the city and into a
thinly wooded area. Even in the thin forest, Bren was finding it
hard to keep up with the man, who moved through the trees as if he
belonged there. Soon Bren found himself forced to run to keep up
with the other man.

When the man finally stopped, Bren found
himself standing in front of a small pond that was fed by a
waterfall. Bren looked down into the water, which was so clear that
Bren could easily see the fish swimming in the depths. It was
amazing. It looked as if the water continued down endlessly. Within
the pond were large bright fish that ranged from the size of his
finger to a few that were bigger than his leg, though it was hard
to tell the size of some of the fish that swam in the deeper
water.

Before Bren could ask what they were doing in
such a place, the man jumped onto a rock that was situated at the
base of the waterfall. When the man didn’t say anything, Bren
looked around and found another rock that sat underneath the
waterfall.

The water was like ice against his skin, but
Bren was easily able to push the feeling aside. After a few
moments, he felt something strike him in the back. Jumping to his
feet and turning around, Bren found the short man standing behind
him. With a push, Bren fell back. He tried to jump, but his foot
slipped on the rock, and he fell into the cold water below.

“Why did you do that?” Bren asked as he
bobbed back to the surface.

“You wasted my time,” the man said
coldly.

Though he couldn’t see the man’s face, Bren
knew that he was frowning. “Then what do you want me to do?” Bren
asked curiously.

“I want you to feel,” the man said holding
his hand out under the water. “Feel each drop of water—how
t
he water feels against your skin. You
shut everything out, refuse to feel. You must learn to feel and
control what you feel and how you feel it.”

The man took his position back under the
waterfall without saying another word. Bren watched the man for a
few moments, but when it was apparent that he wasn’t going to say
anything else, Bren climbed back on his rock. This time instead of
blocking out the coldness of the water, Bren let it cover him.

The water was so cold that it felt like
little daggers digging into his skin. After a few moments, his body
was soaked to the bone, and his teeth began to chatter. One of the
few things that Bren could still feel was pain, but it was not a
common thing for him as his body now was hard to damage and healed
quickly. The cold was a different feeling as normally, he simply
pushed the feeling away. He didn’t know why, but he felt slightly
relieved at the feeling of coldness that washed over his body.

After a short while, Bren started to feel the
tug of the water. He felt calm and soothed, and he wanted to let
himself flow into it. Just to let everything go and become one with
the elements. Just as Bren was about to let go, he felt something
hitting him in the side. Opening his eyes, Bren looked over lazily
to see the short man yelling at him, though he couldn’t make out
the words. Suddenly, the man pulled out a weirdly shaped dagger and
jabbed it toward him.

Bren’s trance was broken as he quickly dodged
the attack falling into the cold water again. “Were you trying to
kill me?” Bren asked as he treaded water.

“I told you not to waste my time,” the little
man said angrily. “You need to control your feelings, do not let
them control you. You were letting the elements take you. If you do
that, you might as well be dead as you will no longer be among the
living. You need to feel everything yet maintain complete control
over your body. The elders wished for me to teach you control, but
that doesn’t mean that I will waste my time on someone who doesn’t
want to learn. Now sit under the water and feel it, but do not let
the feelings take control. It is just water; if you cannot do that,
then everything else will be beyond you.”

Bren didn’t know how long he sat underneath
the waterfall, but before he knew it, the sun had fallen out of the
sky. Numerous times the man had to hit him to get his attention,
but he never said another thing to Bren.

After Bren was able to sit underneath the
cold water for more than an hour, the man tapped Bren lightly on
the shoulder. “Better,” the man said when Bren responded to his
light tap.

“What is next?” Bren asked, shivering
uncontrollably.

“Next we warm up,” the man said, jumping back
across the pond onto solid ground.

Bren followed the man’s lead and tried to
jump across, but his stiff and cold muscles tensed on him, and he
landed in the pond. As he surfaced, the man gave a short laugh. “It
looks like it is a good time for a fire.” The man put his hands
together and took a deep breath, and a large stream of fire roared
from his mouth as he breathed out, catching a large pile of sticks
alight. “Help me gather more sticks for the fire we need to make it
larger.”

As Bren ran through the woods to gather wood,
his sweat mixed with the cold water and the evening breeze made him
shiver even more. As long as he kept his body moving, he didn’t
notice how cold he was, but the second he stopped moving, it
pounced in on him with a vengeance.

After Bren had made his seventh trip carrying
large piles of wood back to the fire, the man decided that it was
enough. Now that the fire raged large enough that it looked more
like a pyre than something someone would use for a camp, the man
casually walked across the burning logs into the center of the fire
where a small spot was left bare and sat among the raging inferno.
It didn’t take Bren long to notice a second open spot among the
fire.

The flames licked at his feet like hungry
dogs forcing Bren to move quickly. He knew that if he wanted to, he
could use his magic to walk easily across the flames, but he
figured that it was against what he was being taught. Once he was
within his little circle, he took a seat on the hard ground. Only
seconds after sitting down, Bren could feel the immense heat around
him. Large beads of sweat rolled down his face, and his body, that
only a few moments ago was freezing cold, now felt as if it was
being cooked alive.