MageLife (39 page)

“Have you always lived in Westhaven?”

“No, I moved here after the waves with my family, we came from haven but that got destroyed.”

I avoided looking east, the ruins of the city were clearly visible even from this distance. Shadowed stone towers that looked as if a giant had taken bites out of them. I'd been once just before I'd entered the academy. It hadn't been a fun experience. I occasionally had nightmares about it.

“Anyways we moved here, it's a nice town, but it’s just coming into its own as something other than a farming community. That is causing tensions. The fall of the nobles and the ineptitude of the wizard has caused others.”

“Ineptitude? You are going to need to explain that comment.”

“Pricked your pride did I? You will see the reasons for my opinion soon enough, I'm surprised that you don't have reasons of your own already.”

“They might not be perfect but they are better than the nobles.”

“Better? I'm not going to argue better with you, but I'm going to give you something to think on. The wizards have taken over but how often are they seen? How often are they serving the people?”

“That’s what we are for, that's why there are mages.”

“No it isn't. Mages are a step on the road to wizardry, they are not servants of anything beyond the magic's will. The wizards have set themselves up as the saviours of the people and while I will agree that life is generally better for the common man. How much of that is the wizards doing?”

I opened my mouth to respond, then I closed it and concentrated on the path, thinking about what he had said.

The wizards didn't do all that much, they set laws, they governed trade, and they drove this nascent empire from the top. Each move calculated and thought through. But their power wasn't in law, it was in magic and they didn't use it.

We Mages were the hands of the Wizards, the magic behind their actions, we were the ones that bled for the laws they created. It was us that made the advancements that pushed the empire forwards.

Just being without the nobles and letting the people go their own way was an immense improvement, no conscription no tribute. People are industrious, they will work for their own benefit without guidance. Yes there might be missteps along the way, but the world turned and the beat of progress went on.

We had come far since the mage king.

Once we were tribal living in huts, farming had been an unknown. There wasn't much point in cultivating fields to feed maybe fifty people, when a quarter of those could produce crops overnight if they expended a large amount of effort. Needing to be near water became negligible when you could summon rain in the desert. We hadn't settled because we didn't have a reason too. The mage-king saw more, a future in which we grew we built, and it was founded on blood like so many other things. The golem army woke terrors in all who heard the stories, it was part of the reason I chosen the form for Airis it would make people think twice before crossing him. But that age had ended with the nobles, people forced into towns and kept there to be used as a breeding ground for the next generation of soldiers in the never ending wars that they perpetuated. Our neighbours didn't touch us because we weren't worth the effort. We had magic, and they didn't. We didn't touch them because we had other things to worry about, like the constant conflict between nobles. The mage-king has set his sights on owning the whole world, he died before he could cross the sea. The nobles built trade between nations using the name of the mage-king, which ended with the waves. In the last ten years nothing had been heard from over the sea. Not a ship had been seen. For all we knew the world ended at the sea now.

And now, here, I was being sent to expand the reason of the wizards. I didn't know enough to know how much of this was Rysan and how much was the wizards command. But it was still a Mage being sent to do the work of the wizards.

“You have given me a great deal to think on. Thank you. But how are you going to train me, you don't appear to have a sword.”

“We will cover that later when night falls. We have a long way to go.”

He was right. The hard dirt path, led us through large stretches of fields. We didn't hurry, it was still early. But I guessed at making maybe twenty, twenty five miles a day, by nightfall I would be ready to drop.

(------)

Twenty miles isn’t as far as people think. It's a day's easy travel. Without magic, it had felt harder than it would otherwise have been.

Then setting sun found us out of the fields, and on the edge of a small copse of trees. Brendon had barely spoken for the rest of the day. I'd not had much else to say. I'd been enjoying the warm sun, the cool breeze and the open space. The freedom was so intoxicating, it almost overcame my weariness.

I used a small expression of my power to pull a mound of earth up into a low bench, then I sat on it, I pulled off my boots and rubbed my aching feet. I checked for blisters, thankfully there weren’t any.

Brendon came over to sit on the bench.

“I won't be here for much longer, its Vesic's time soon. Please stay respectful, but don't worry too much he isn't a stickler for worship. When I come back in the morning be prepared for a hard day. We will need to be running to get you fit enough for your training.”

“Why are you going away? How are you going away?”

“I'm a Vessel, one of a few. This is Vesic's time. He loves the night.”

“Um, this is soo weird, I don't even know what to say to you.”

Brendon smiled at me then. “I know my own family have trouble accepting too, it will be fine. I will see you in the morning.” His face went blank as the sun sunk beyond the horizon, the dying light colouring his features with red. Little flares of his own light appeared around him and a shimmer of heat wavered around him. His face shifted, much like I'd seen before.

It took a moment, but he turned and looked at me, his eyes were pools of flickering flame. He blinked, and the flames receded to deep inside, you could still see them if you looked hard enough but they looked like normal mage eyes for the most part.

“Tristan, I see we made decent time. I recognise this area.” He raised his arm and pointed to the west. “There used to be a lovely inn there. Now there is nothing. The world changes. Time stands still for neither man nor god. How was the journey? Why didn't we take transport? I can't imagine you want to trudge all the way there.”

“Well transport apparently doesn't work in Nelar and there isn't a travel post there so the golems that we would be requisitioning wouldn't come back. The woman I spoke to this morning was less than forthcoming about reasons, she all but kicked me out the door.”

“Yes, Nelar is special.”

“What's special about it? No one will tell me and the records are really incomplete.”

“Nelar just is. It's been the way it is for hundreds of years. Maybe even thousands. But it got worse during the waves. It never used to be a bad place, just different. Now it’s broken in a way no one understands.”

“Do you know what I'm supposed to do there?”

“If I had to guess you have been sent there to die. A single man even a mage can’t change that place. It would take the wizards to do it and they have reasons for avoiding it.”

I sat in silence, the word of a god that I was being sent on a suicide mission, brings it all home. Rysan that bastard had sent me to my death.

“Don't worry about it now, we have a few hundred miles or so to cover before we reach Nelar, that is time enough to prepare you, if you show yourself capable of learning.”

“Time enough, I guess any time is better than none.”

“Very commendable attitude, I tell you that you will die and you are thankful for the time you still have. Very strange to hear from a mortal.”

I couldn't answer that. I'd known I would die in my service long ago. Maybe not so soon but eventually. I wanted to be a wizard, to reach the peaks of my profession, but a life given in service to the people was worth something.

“Silence is also strange from a mortal. Don't keep your thoughts to yourself, your Master Jase paid a heavy price for my services. You may as well take my experience. It costs you nothing and my well save your life.”

“How can I live then? If this task is going to kill me then I may as well give up now.”

“Don't think like that. There will always be opposition to your goals. It's how you handle it that defines you.”

“That has to be the least helpful advice ever.”

“Stand up.” Vesic stood and gestured, a tingle of magic travelled from his fingers to the centre of the clearing, a rush of light blossomed from the earth, as it faded a fire settled into place. It burned without fuel and didn't touch the ground.

I stood, I left my bag at my feet.

Vesic stepped away a few paces then set his feet and squared his shoulders. The fire that he had created leapt up, little flickers of flame swirled around him as if in a wind.

“I am not your friend, I'm here out of obligation. My advice is just that, advice. Take it or leave it, but don't insult me. Now your master Jase asked me to teach you to fight. If you won't use your mind as I had hoped then maybe you will be more willing once you know what you have to face. Now hit me.”

“I'm not going to hit you.”

“How are you supposed to learn anything if you don't try. Hit me.”

“I don't want to hit you.”

“Stop being pathetic. Hit me!” Vesic roared. Fire rose around him, growing with his anger.

“No.” The word had barely left my mouth before I felt the rush of heat proceeding Vesic's fist. I stepped back in shock, the blow missed by a fraction.

“Good. You are paying attention. Now hit me.”

I clenched my fist and swung at his smirking face.

I missed.

He wasn't there.

I started to fall as the expected contact failed to appear. A sudden push from my left assisted me to the ground.

“Knowledge is everything. Know your enemy. Know yourself. Know the land and the air and water and the fire. Know all you can. You can't win if you are blind. You can’t fight if you don't know where you stand.” I heard him say from my position on the earth. I'd being able to cushion my fall slightly, but it had still taken the wind from me.

“Now get up, laying down will get you killed.”

I pulled myself to my feet. I stood hesitantly before him.

His hand moved to his side, flaring the cape of flickering embers that had formed around him.

I flinched away. The flare of light startling in the dim gloom of freshly fallen dusk.

Vesic looked over to the bag I had dropped.

“Before we eat, I wish to examine your sword. Bring it to me.”

I stood looking at him sideways, there was no glimmer of a man underneath. This was the god as if the transformation took time to settle firmly on him. His earlier friendliness now seems as ephemeral as a spark. This was cold hard face of an immortal being paying a debt.

I got my sword.

The cool stone of the hilt was smooth in my hand as I slid it from the straps I had fashioned that held it to my bag. I took a moment to reverse the blade, presenting the hilt to the distant god in front of me.

He took it with barely a flicker of expression. His flame bearing eyes looked intently at my sword, then with a tilt of his hand he had the tip pointed against my throat.

My heart jumped, and I held myself very very still.

“Why stone? More specifically: why the stone of the heart of your home.”

Heart of my home? I thought.

“You made this out of the stone core of your homeland. Why did you do that?”

“It's what was closest.”

He eased the sword from my skin.

“You could have chosen metal. I see you are ignorant of fire, but you have all the concepts of earth to choose from. You could have chosen water. But you chose the white stone of your home.”

“It's what came to me. I don't have an answer for you.”

“Do you honestly not know?” Vesic said. “Don’t answer that.”

I wasn't planning on it. Answering gods with swords that ask me questions never sprang to mind.

“Don't be flippant with me, it’s only my oath to your master that keeps me here. You don't know. Do they teach you nothing? Of course they don't. Far better to keep you ignorant and in debt to them. I would applaud but this now affects me. I have to educate you as we travel. Sit and prepare our meal. I will instruct you. Pay attention.”

I sat after breathing a small and silent sigh of relief. I pulled my bag up and rummaged around. I hadn't packed a huge amount of supplies, I had plenty of vegetable seeds, and the kit to hunt for some meat, if not the skills to do so but magic can cover for much. I did find the wrapped sausages that I'd picked up from the academy kitchens.

Vesic was swinging my sword almost casually, slicing the air with a finesse I couldn't hope to match. “The first weapon produced by a mage in a moment of need is special. They are all different, so just being special doesn't tell anyone much about them. This is made from the heart of your home, what that means is down to you to discover, but I would think it means something to you. Some part of you chose this. Not metal which is generally better for a blade.” He ran his thumb very lightly across the edge then grinned at the sight of blood welling from cut. “Although it carries a decent edge. The balance is fine, a bit light, but you aren’t very big. You don't need power. You need speed.” He swung the sword sharply through the air in a complicated spin that I couldn't describe. He started out facing me and ended facing me but the intervening time was a blur of movement and burning embers. He suddenly reversed his grip and plunged the blade into the earth, it sunk to the hilt in the soft loam of the rich fertile land.

The scent of moist earth and burning stone filled my nostrils. I breathed deeply of the wonderful scent. The cool evening air brushed past talking with it the heat of the fire god’s presence. I saw Vesic turn into the breeze, his gaze locked on something. His cloak of embers flowing behind him.

I looked where I thought he was gazing but I could see nothing in the gloom beyond the fire.