Mind Forged: Book One of the Enchanters of Xarparion (9 page)

Wait a minute
! Creeping up on me? Focusing on the person, I could tell that she was wearing black leather and a full hood. By looking at her magic I could who it was.

“
Nice try, Maya, but that’s not going to work.”

“
Crap! How did you hear me coming! A dark elf can sneak up on anyone, we’re totally silent hunters,” she complained, as she rose up to her full height and slid gracefully onto the bench beside me.

“
I didn’t hear you, I could see you.”

“
You weren’t looking at me and I checked for anything that could reflect my shadow, too. There is no way you could see me.”

“
You know yesterday when I closed my eyes and was able to block your strikes? Well, I’ve been practicing that skill a bit today, and I’ve gotten rather good at it. Now, I don’t even have to close my eyes.”

“
So now you can predict what everyone is going to do?”

“
Not really, at least at the moment. I think the reason why I could in practice was because we were in battle and I was sharply focused.”

“
You’re saying that your mage sight has a passive and an active part?”

Thinking for a moment
, “Yes, I think that’s exactly it.”

“
So in passive, you can see things without your eyes that are all around you, not just what’s in front of you?” I nodded. “Can you see through things, too?” I nodded again. Now she stopped and thought for a bit. “I think we could use this to our advantage at a later time. But for now, you still stink at sparring, so its practice likes normal.”

“
So what were you doing today, anyway?”

“
Ugh, part of my deal to stay here is to help train the local constables four times a month. It wouldn’t be so bad, but I can’t let the wrong people see my face. They would be the first ones to accuse me of being a spy. Then I would get dragged past all the halls for everyone to see on the way to the Headmaster.”

“
But why would they do that? You have permission to stay here.”

“
Yes, I do, but after seven years of that stuff, I just avoid most people now.”

“
Seven years? I thought you were close to my age.”

She
slid closer on the bench next to me, closer than I would have thought she would, but I didn’t mind at all. She adjusted her hood so people walking by couldn’t see her face, but I could. “Well, I’m thirty-two, but in dark elf years, I’m still nineteen. We don’t live as long as green elves like Rosa but we still live about four human lifetimes.”

“
Great, you two will still be young when I’m an old man.”

“
Not true, how old do you think the Headmaster is? He is over five hundred and is still a human. You will possibly out-live me.” That idea didn’t sound so great either.

“
Um, you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, I’ll understand, but why did you leave home?” I asked tentatively.

She eyed me harshly, but
her expression softened immediately and she nodded to herself. “I don’t know why, but I feel strangely comfortable around you…I suppose there’s no real harm in telling you some things. Our clan was one of the few that got along with humans, as well as the other races. But seven years ago, we were forced to join with a much larger and more powerful clan. I did not approve of their methods.” I could tell from the pain in her face that she was not giving me the whole story, but I think she was still trying to decide how much to open up to me. “I couldn’t live with what they were doing, so I left. Not long after that, I stumbled into Rosa on one of her laboratory ingredient restocking trips and she took me in, adopted me really, so here I am.” She sighed sadly. “In truth, I would love to see my family, but that isn’t going to happen anytime soon…so this is my home. How about you, Alex,” she said, changing the subject. She pulled out some strips of jerky from one of her pockets and offered me a piece.

“
How about me, what?”

“
Well, a few weeks ago, you were just a village blacksmith-in-training. Now you’re a full enchanter apprentice and managing to astound your Primus on an almost daily basis, and we shouldn’t even mention poor Darroth. You’ve got him talking to himself and drinking far more ale than is good for him. Even when I say you stink at sparring, I don’t really mean it; actually you improve way more rapidly than most of my students. Most people learn in fits and starts, two steps forward and one back. They have to fail occasionally to make progress. But you seem to somehow always move forward. It’s like you’re naturally good at everything! Were you born under a lucky star or something?”

I chewed slowly and considered what she said
. “Maya, I don’t really know what’s going on with me. If you had known me six months ago, there is no way you could have claimed I was good at everything, barely adequate maybe. Perhaps this place brings out the best in me, or maybe it’s just that I have the best teachers in the world. It’s like I left the old Alex behind in Foalshead. I keep expecting to wake up and find out this was all a dream.”

She
frowned slightly at the word ‘dream’ and her eyes showed me that she was momentarily somewhere else, but she snapped back instantly. “Well, you do have the best teachers in the world.” She smiled and gave me a nudge with her elbow. “But I’m pretty sure I would have really liked the old Alex, too. In my experience, people don’t change their spots that quickly; you probably just needed some confidence.”

I took the last bite of my jerky
. “Hey, this is pretty good. What is it?”

“
Rock marmot. I practically lived on this before Rosa found me and brought me here. I’ll show you how to hunt them someday if you like. You need a shiny bauble to lure them out into the open. They are masterful at hiding but shameless thieves; their greed always gets them in trouble.”

I grinned
. “So what, you don’t just sneak up on them? I thought dark elves were totally silent hunters! By the way, what were you planning to do to me once you snuck up on me?”

She
smiled a mischievous smile. “Well, you will just have to wait ‘til I do to find out now. But I think you would have liked it!” She got up and walked away, and I watched her disappear into the crowd. My peripheral vision caught a glimpse of something on the bench beside me where she had been sitting. There was a paper handout for something called The First Day. The date at the bottom set this event for three days from now at the field between Earth Tower and Water Tower.

There
’s a celebration in three days and I haven’t heard anything about this? Well, I know two people who would, and I headed off to the dining hall.

Once there
, I surveyed the usual tables covered with edibles until I spotted my objectives. I grabbed a seed bun and sat down across from them, tearing off pieces while I tried to look nonchalant.

“
Julia, Lin, what’s with this ‘The First Day’ thing?” As one, their eyes bulged, their mouths dropped open and both dropped their food, looking at me with pure shock. Lin was the first to recover.

“
Alex, we all know that you live under an enchanted rock on a deserted island, but seriously, you don’t know?”

“
No,” I gulped. “No one ever delivers our news, and we don’t have a news board anywhere close to us…and I’ve been really busy, and…”

Julia interrupted with a snort of disgust
, “Ok, even I know what it’s about! And I’m too young yet to really do any of the fun stuff!”

“
What she is trying to say,” Lin added, “is that it’s a party to celebrate the first day Xarparion opened its doors. To do this, there’s a big feast and lots of shows and shops brought in from the outside, all manned by our staff, though. Best of all, there is also a huge formal dance, and because of that, it’s now a sort of a romantic holiday.”

“
And who are you two going with?”

“
You think we have boyfriends? Ha, you’re funny. No, Julia and I are going together for our first time. It should be fun even without boys.” The two of them hugged and giggled hysterically for a bit, hamming it up. “But really, Alex, you need to get yourself a girl. You’re too old to go by yourself and too good looking not to have a date.”

“
I’ll think about it. I think I might know someone I could ask.”

Lin frowned
. “Ha! Good luck with that! Anyone remotely pretty has probably been asked already, and three days isn’t enough time to sew a dress. If this mystery girl is taken, let us know; I know a few older girls in the Earth Tower who would gladly stitch together some banana leaves for a chance to go with you.”

“
Thanks, but I’ll handle my own matchmaking,” I said, feeling my face start to redden, and wondering how I lost control of this conversation so quickly.

“
You didn’t tell him about the rule. That’s the best part!” Julia squealed excitedly.

“
Oops! That would have been bad. Sorry, I almost forgot the guy rule. The rule is that the man must bring the girl a gift to wear and show off that they made themselves, emphasis on themselves. You just can’t go out and buy something. Halfway through the night, they will make an announcement telling all you guys to present your gift to your lady fair. Afterwards, if your girl wants, there’s a contest that they can enter to see who received the best gift.”

“
And what kind of gifts are we talking here?”

“
You know, bracelets, necklaces, that sort of thing. Last year an Earthie from our tower presented his girl with an albino yak that he raised himself. It was so romantic! Seriously, you should have the easiest time seeing it’s your job to make wonderful items. Speaking of wonderful, Julia, could you go find some of that really good juice? I think I saw some at the far table where the air slingers sit.” Julia nodded and ran off to find some. Lin quickly slid over to my side of the table and whispered, “Alex, could I ask you a favor? You see, the guy rule is mostly for the guys, but I went and made a necklace for Julia anyway. See, neither of us had any friends before we got here and I just want her to have a good time.”

“
Sure, Lin, what can I do to help?”

She pulled a very nice river stone necklace from her pocket
. “Could you enchant this quick, just, you know, to give its some shine?” I smiled; I could do that and more.

I carefully took the necklace from her and set to work
. First, I had to get the feel for the stone like I have to do with everything that is not metal. I noticed that Lin used her own powers to shape the stones which left plenty of leftover magic in the stones. This made it very easy to shape the flow of magic in the stones to do what she wanted. It didn’t take much to shape them into something that resembled a pearl; I also had enough energy to do a little something extra.

“
Wow, what did you do to them? I was only thinking to shine them up a bit,” Lin said breathlessly.

“
I did that and also gave them a small glow, and there’s more. With the extra magic that you put into them, I was able to make it so that whoever is wearing it will never get cold.”

She slipped
the stones back into her pocket and gave me a hug. “Thanks, Alex, you are the best. I can already feel the warmth in my robe.”

Just the
n Julia came running back empty-handed. “That was a mean trick, Lin; you know they don’t have juice at lunch!” We both burst out laughing. “Quit laughing, you two! I know a pigeon that will do my bidding, you know!”

Alex

After lunch, I went on with my day. But as the day went on, my thoughts were on a certain silver-haired warrior and not on my project. I couldn’t think of a way to ask her to go with me or a gift that she would like. Setting down my hammer, I went over to Darroth.

“
What can I do for ya, lad?”

“
I could use some advice.”

“
On steel? Hell, kid, you know almost as much as I do.”

“
No, not about steel. I need advice on girls.”

He tried to stand up
, but he did it so fast that he lost his balance and both he and his chair fell over. “By the god’s, kid! Why didn’t you start with that? Come with me.”

I followed him to one of the
nearby buildings that doubled as his office and showroom. He took a seat behind his desk and I took one of the human-sized chairs. He reached back and grabbed a tankard of ale from a shelf behind him. After making an offering gesture, which I quickly declined, he took a huge gulp, ignoring the liquid that dripped off his facial hair and began.

“
So what’s got your filly’s beard in a knot then?”

Definitely not the issue!
“Umm, no knots involved Darroth. I don’t know if you know about it, but in three days there’s a party. One of the rules is that the guy has to make a gift for the girl. The girls then compare gifts to see who has the best.”

“
I see, and you don’t know what to make for her, right?” I nodded. “Well, girls like jewels and pretty things, unless we’re talking dwarf women, then its ale and beard combs. But we’re not talking about a dwarf woman, are we?”

“
No, we are not.”

“
Your loss. Oh well, leaves the field wide open for me,” he chuckled, with a far off look in his eye. “So what’s the problem? With your skills, you could make the best dammed bracelet in this academy.”

“
The problem is that I don’t think she would like jewelry.”

Darroth slammed his hand down on the desk in triumph
. “So you’re going after Maya, then? Rosa told me you two were hitting it off. She’s a sweet girl, and she sure deserves a lot better treatment than what she gets around here. Of course I’ll help you out. So what were you thinking of making then?”

“
I don’t know.”

We sat there
despondently for a bit, both trying to come up with a good gift for Maya. I got the feeling that Darroth wasn’t a real deep thinker as the longer he thought, the more ale he drank, and the fewer ideas he came up with.

“
Alex, make her a sword,”
said Rosa in my head, but that didn’t sound like a bad idea.

“
What about a sword?” I said. The dwarf looked at me appraisingly, came to some sort of decision, and then started rummaging furiously through the papers on the desk.

“
I like it! And that’s the only thing that would suit her. But if you’re going to make a sword, then you’re going to make one hell of a sword! But time is short.” Finding the elusive paper, he ran to one of the many heavy cabinets lining the back wall. “I got this shipment in a few days ago from a friend of mine in Ocance. I ordered it to see what you could do with some real quality materials.”

He
held out three ingots of a dark gray metal that was far lighter in weight than they appeared and one block of an unusual metal that was almost white. I could feel serious magic flowing through the white block. Smiling broadly, he handed them all over to me.

“
These are for you. That gray stuff is true dwarven steel smelted in the deepest part of our underground capital. It’s several times harder than normal steel so be careful. The other is called mithrul, one of the very few ores that are naturally magical. If you do it right, any weapon you forge from them should be worthy of royalty.

I set to work, starting with the
steel. My plan was to get the shape of the blade done as well as get the mithrul laced into it before I had to leave for the day. As usual, once I found myself at the forge, time became irrelevant. My hands knew what to do and the metals sang softly to me. With time running short, I put the half-finished blade into the flames and headed home. After a long and rather quiet dinner, I could tell Rosa wanted to say something but kept holding it in.

“
What’s wrong, Master?”

“
Oh, it’s nothing, don’t mind me. But there is something I would like to ask.”

“
And what would that be?”

“
Do you know how to dance?”

Aw
, crap! I must have stupidly let my mind wander to the party and my project. Most of the time, it’s fine letting Rosa run rampant through my thoughts; this wasn’t one of those times.

“
Um...where did that come from?” I stalled.

She
smiled. “Don’t play dumb with me; you already know that I know that you are planning on asking Maya to the party, right? So if you’re going to be taking Maya to a dance, then you best know how to dance. See my point?”

“
But I don’t know how to dance; I’ve never danced in my life!”

“
I know, that’s why I’m going to teach you.”

“
And how exactly did you learn to dance?”

Rosa drew herself up to her full regal height
. “I’ll have you know, Alex, that in my two-three hundreds I danced frequently, and became quite good at it. I want to help you because I love both you and Maya very much, and if I can get her out of her shell by getting you two together, then I won’t stop ‘til it happens.”

“
You want us together that bad?”

“
Alex, I’m not giving you two a choice anymore. Now, come on, let’s dance!”

We danced long into the night until she deemed that I kn
ew what I was doing. I managed to only step on her foot twice. Close to midnight, I was sure that this was no longer practice for her and was now just for fun, but I let it slide - I could tell she doesn’t get to do this often. But a few hours past midnight, she collapsed in a chair, exhausted.

“
I think you will be fine now. You should get some sleep; you have a long day tomorrow. I think I’ll take a small nap here. Oh, and I need to start a new dress tomorrow, too,” she slurred slightly and was out. I grabbed a blanket and did what I could to wrap her up in it so she wouldn’t get cold, then went to bed.

The next morning
bright and early, Maya took me out into the forest just outside the walls to another of her private training locations. It was just a clearing where she had set up a few practice dummies and a shed. The morning light filtered through the trees, birds sang and even though I was running on next to no sleep, all was right in the world…at least until she whacked me for the first time!

“
Ok, Alex, today we are going to practice basic footwork,” Maya said. “I am not an expert in war hammers, but my people had enough altercations with dwarves to acquire a good bit of lore regarding attack and defense measures. We will be starting off slow and stepping it up from there. Now I know you’re getting good at the mage sight thing, but try not to use that unless I tell you to.”

We practiced for
hours; she showed me the proper forms that I should use for strikes and blocks. As the day went on, she loosened up a bit, too. It seemed that she was having fun teaching me and that made it fun for me as well.

“
You seem to be having a good day today,” I grinned, as my shield caught another of her sword flicks toward my torso. She stopped the pattern she was doing, lowered her weapon and stepped in closer, wiping a bead of perspiration from her forehead.

“
You know, you’re right, this is a lot more fun when you don’t have to worry about your students grabbing pitchforks and torches. That, and you seem to have a talent for this. It’s nice having a student who actually listens.”

“
You mean that we’re almost done with the basics?”

“
Basics! You blew past basics hours ago. I give you a week and you will be as good as any dwarf you are likely to meet. I would already hate to meet you on the battlefield. I’ve never seen anyone take to any weapon as quickly as you have…it’s like you were born for it.

“
Well, I do have the best combat teacher in Xarparion.”

She smiled
primly, “Yes, you do, and you better not forget it!” We practiced for a bit longer before I could work up the courage to ask.

“
So do you have any plans for two nights from now?”

She
stopped to look at me with a puzzled face. “No, why do you ask?”

“
Well, if you don’t have plans, I would like to ask you to go to the dance with me.”

There was a long pause
as she got a stricken look on her face. “You want me to go to The First Day dance with you? This is not some kind of sick joke?”

“
No, I really would like you to go with me.”

She took two steps back, and
I could feel a sense of fear from her. “Why?”

“
Why, what?”

“
Why do you want me? I’m a dark elf, everyone hates us, and you deserve a girl of your own race. You would be hated as well by everyone there, just for dancing with me.”

I took a few steps closer
. “I don’t care about them. I’m not the most popular guy as it is, so don’t worry about them. And I’m not asking any of them, I’m asking you.”

“
You really want me to go with you?”

“
Yes I do. You’re my best friend here and I want to take you.”

She eyed me a bit longer
and began pacing back and forth nervously. She started to say something and stopped, looked away, then back at me with a frown like she was going to tell me off. Talk about warring emotions, this was an epic battle! I must have made a pathetic face or something because just as she was about to explode, she stopped and just looked at me with a bit of concern in her deep, green eyes.

“
Ok,” she said. “Before I decide anything, a few things have to be cleared up. I would have to wear my hood the entire time and that wouldn’t look good at a party.”

Sensing a slim chance of success, I brightened considerably
. “Don’t worry about that. Rosa said she thought of something that would help you to look human and, of course, she will outfit you in a dress that will help you fit in and stand out.

She wince
d at the ‘look human’ comment and I felt my chances plummet. Now I know how the rock marmots feel when they almost reach the shiny bauble and instead get the arrow!

“
But I’m not human, Alex! Are you sure you want to do this?”

I reached out and took her hands gently
. “Maya, the hood is just a tool, so is Rosa’s enchantment. And there is no one else I would even consider taking to the party, so please do me the honor of being my date.”

More silence as she thought things over.
“I take it she has been helping a bit?”

I think
I blushed but knew I had to tell the truth. “Yeah, and Darroth, too”

She nodded
, “I’ve never been to one of these, so I don’t know what to do or how to act.”

“
Neither have I, so we’re even on that ground.”

“
Ok, just one last thing, a dance for you doesn’t mean…well, it’s different for…” She stopped and tilted her head as if listening to an emotion long forgotten. “You know what, that doesn’t matter right now. Right now, if you want me to go with you, then we’re going to spar for the remainder of the lesson.”

So we spar
red, and this wasn’t like last time either. No strikes were made on each other, just sword on shield and hammer tap on shield. In a sense, we had been dancing like this for weeks, and we loved it. Maya was even happier than she was earlier, and I was literally walking on air. We just enjoyed each other’s company as we dueled until it was time to leave.

Rushing through
lunch, I dashed back to the forge to finish Maya’s blade, even more determined that it would be perfect. But when I got there, I couldn’t find the dwarf anywhere. Not having time to worry, I set to work. Retrieving the half-finished blade from the embers, I could hear some sort of buzzing. After looking around, I couldn’t find anything that would make that noise but I could still hear it.

“
So you’re the new enchanter, huh?” queried a small female voice and it was close, but I still didn’t see anyone. “Down here!”

I looked down at my anvil
, and sitting there with her legs crossed, was a six-inch tall girl with dragonfly wings and long elf-like ears. She had bright red hair that was braided and went down to her waist and very large, green eyes. She wore a yellow dress that looked to be made from a flower. All in all, she looked kind of cute, for a six-inch tall girl anyway.