Metal Mage 8

by Eric Vall

  “Most of Nalnora is divided right now,” I explained. “They suffered through a great war that caused the four primary Houses of power to break into ten. Those ten Houses all have their own armies, and the Master took down three of these Houses, so he gained a slew of soldiers from each one. He must have been abducting the rogue elves who live outside the Houses as well, though. I know he had a Flumen Mage with him for a while to help out because she abducted the son of a friend of mine out there. The Flumen Mage told me she had to drown the kid just enough that he wouldn’t die, but where she could still capture him and brand him. It worked.”

  “That’s terrifying,” Kurna said as he kneaded his hands on the counter’s edge. “Flumen Mages and Aer Mages have always made me nervous, but the Master is smart to use one. I would assume he’s taking the same approach here, then.”

  “Maybe,” I allowed, “but it’s different with the elves. For a mage, the elements can counter one another in an attack.”

  “Unless it’s an Ignis Mage against an Aer Mage who’s suffocating you,” Kurna growled. “Or a damn Flumen Mage drowning a Terra Mage. Or both. Aer and Flumen against one young mage, and we’ll lose the whole village in a snap of your fingers. The mages here are primarily inexperienced, and those who settled here originally are still mostly students with a lot to learn. There’s maybe … fifteen Defenders among us.”

  “He’s got a good point,” Haragh allowed. “Young mages are a tricky lot. Now that the Master’s taken to abducting, they’re putting us at a greater risk here.”

  “That’s why we haven’t posted any guards in the western woods,” Kurna explained. “Originally, we thought we’d build a wall, but that only blocks our visibility without protecting us against someone like a Terra Mage, for example. Ignis Mage can easily throw their flames over a wall … you see what I’m getting at. Then we thought of posting more guards out there, like Magehill, but no one in the village would know if something went wrong, and it’s too much to risk mages like that.”

  I considered this as I worked on my pint. “What we need is a system of defense that can’t be overpowered by the elements.”

  “Easier said than done,” Kurna sighed, but my magic vibrated eagerly in my veins as I realized I already had the solution.

  “Hey, Haragh,” I said as I leaned around the brawny mage. “You feel like making a run up to Orebane?”

  “What for?” the half-ogre grunted.

  “I’ve got a friend I want you to bring back down with you,” I told him with sinister grin, and dawning realization came to Haragh’s face.

  “Oh hell yeah,” he growled. “I’ll leave first thing in the morning.”

  I raised a fresh pint to the half-ogre, but Kurna remained thoroughly confused between us.

  “What friend? A dwarf?”

  “You’ll see,” I chuckled, “but consider the western woods handled.”

  Kurna smirked. “Yes, sir.”

  “Don’t do that,” I groaned. “Not you, too. No sirs, no nothing. Just Mason.”

  “If you end up as a captain of an army, you’ll be a sir in my book whether you like it or not,” Kurna assured me. “I respect order.”

  “Fine,” I allowed, “but I really don’t think it’ll come to it. No one’s led the mages like that before, and whether or not the citizens are ready to handle an army of mages in town hardly matters. The mages have to agree to it first.”

  “You never know,” the brawny mage said with a shrug. “The mages are nervous, and they need a real leader. Look at this pub. It’s full of young mages with no proper head of the Order to instruct them.”

  “That’s the other thing I’ve gotta do,” I muttered as I nodded my thanks to Raynor and pulled my next pint over. “We’re gonna go to the Oculus tomorrow and take a look around, see what the situation is. Temin wants me to track down Wyresus. He thinks he’s branded with the Master’s rune.”

  “Be careful,” Kurna warned. “The last time I was there, three large Terra Mages followed me around for nearly an hour. I don’t know what they were doing, but I couldn’t seem to shake them. I finally lit the stairwell on fire and slipped away. Haven’t been back since.”

  I furrowed my brow. “It’s that bad?”

  “I couldn’t say for sure,” Kurna admitted. “That’s only what happened to me, but I’m not taking any chances. I’ve got a little girl down in Eyton I’d like to bring up to Serin one day. I can’t afford to take the risk.”

  “I didn’t know you’re a father,” I said as a hazy grin came to my face.

  “Sure am,” Kurna replied and puffed out his chest a bit. “Her mother runs a dress shop down there in Eyton.”

  “What are you doing way up here then?”

  “Like Raynor, I wasn’t aware I was a mage for a long time,” he admitted. “I thought I just had a tricky temper. Then I accidentally lit our house on fire, and we happened to have gotten in an argument the day before, so my ex-wife took it personally.”

  I snorted ale out of my nose, and Kurna nodded.

  “Not my proudest moment,” he mused. “We get along alright, though. Now that the train’s running, I’ve been travelling down to see Keela every week.”

  “That’s your daughter?” I clarified.

  “Yep.” Kurna waved Raynor’s next pint away. “She lit her friend’s donkey on fire last week. I’m quite proud. She’ll make an impressive mage one day. She’s got the spirit for it.”

  The idea of having a little Ignis Mage for a daughter made me grin even wider for some reason, and I tried to imagine how powerful a kid of mine would turn out. Maybe with blue hair and green eyes. She could end up as either a Terra or Ignis Mage, but what if she had Metal magic like mine, and Aurora’s incredible senses?

  Almost as if I’d summoned her, Aurora suddenly sat down at the bar beside me, and I spilled half my pint when I jumped.

  “What were you thinking about?” the half-elf asked as she cocked a brow at the mess of ale down my front.

  “Nothing,” I responded too quickly. “Thirsty?”

  “Sure.” Aurora shrugged. “This place is fantastic, don’t you think? I already stopped by the house and dropped my bags off, and four of my friends from the Oculus moved into a place together in the meadow just last week.”

  “How’s our house looking?” I asked her as Raynor swiftly hobbled over to get a pint for Aurora.

  “Nope,” she refused, “I’m not saying anything. You go look for yourself. By the way, I talked to Cayla and Shoshanne, and they want to go into Serin to buy a few things. Can we take the Mustang?”

  The half-elf batted her blue lashes at me over the rim of her mug, and Raynor smiled and shook his head as he wandered back down the bar.

  “Sure,” I chuckled. “What do you guys need?”

  “Nothing,” Aurora said with a cheeky grin. “We just want to buy stuff, and there’s more shops in Serin.”

  Kurna let out a deep laugh from my other side.

  “Well, have fun,” I told the half-elf, “but be careful, alright? I’ll unload the gold for you.”

  I sparked my magic and raised my palms to the south, and as I closed my eyes and sifted over the lanes and houses of Falmount Rift, I found the Mustang at the base of the small hill. Then I unfused the chest and carefully lifted it from the roof, and while I carried it toward Magehill, I reformed the roof to its original shape.

  “Which house is it again?” I asked while I scowled in concentration and let my Terra Magic spark as well.

  “The one with all the metal … ” Aurora muttered.

  I opened my eyes and cocked a brow.

  “I’m not saying anything else,” the half-elf insisted. “Just look for the metal.”

  I smirked and closed my eyes once more, but as I scanned the area, my focus was drawn like a magnet to a spot with what felt like a hoard of metal that was substantially bigger than what I had stowed in the trunk of the Mustang.

  I tried to hide my smile as I sent the chest of gold t
o the atrium in the center of the house, and as I slowly released the magical connection, I fought the urge to make Aurora tell me what the hell was waiting at our house.

  “The gold’s in the courtyard,” I told the half-elf when I opened my eyes. “Would you get something for Deya while you’re out? A welcome to Illaria kind of gift.”

  Aurora nodded and made to chug the last of her pint, and I eyed the steady pulsing of the muscles in her slender neck as she took long, deep pulls of the ale. My blood began to burn for her as a single drip of ale trailed its way down the seductive woman’s chin, and when she dropped the empty glass to the counter with a heavy thunk, she turned a satiated smile toward me.

  “I love you,” the half-elf purred.

  I let out a steadying breath while I reached over to swipe the small drip of ale away.

  “I love you, too,” I mumbled, but my gaze drifted to her cleavage without me realizing it.

  Aurora’s giggle snapped me out of my daze, and the half-elf hopped up from her stool to leave a playful bite on my ear.

  “We’ll be back soon,” she murmured huskily.

  I watched Aurora’s hips sway as she headed for the door of the pub, and she blushed when she glanced back to catch me admiring the view. I could still hear her giggling to herself after she left, and I took another deep breath to collect the direction of my thoughts.

  Kurna was right. There were some things you just couldn’t risk with a kid around, and I tried to focus on the many other things I had to take care of these days.

  Even though blue hair and silver eyes would be pretty fucking cute, especially if the kid had both Ignis and Metal Magic. Killer combo.

  I cleared my throat loudly and decided to pass on my next pint, but when I turned back to the others, Kurna’s brows were knitted in my direction.

  “Am I mistaken,” he mused, “or did you just use your magic from across Falmount?”

  “Yeah,” I said with a shrug.

  “Wait until ye’ see him combat,” Haragh snorted. “You think an Aer Mage is terrifying … ”

  I rolled my eyes. “Spend a week in Nalnora, and you’ll be less impressed,” I assured the half-ogre, but Kurna’s gaze had narrowed on my tattered and blood stained clothes.

  “Is that what all that’s from?” he asked.

  I glanced down. “Some of it. Most of this is just from a deal I made with a buddy of mine.”

  “Do elves normally slice their buddies open?” the brawny mage asked uneasily.

  I was about to chuckle, but then I caught myself as I considered Dragir’s missing hand, and the stand off between Rhys’ dagger and an iron table.

  “I mean, sometimes, yeah,” I admitted. “The rules are a little different in Nalnora.”

  Kurna let out a low whistle and clapped me on the shoulder.

  “You look like you could use some peace and quiet,” he pointed out.

  “Yeah,” I snorted. “That’d be nice.”

  “Come on. I’ll show you what they’ve done with your place.”

  The notion that anyone had done anything to our house while we were gone kicked me firmly back to reality, and I kind of hoped only the metal I’d discovered there had been added. I quickly rallied myself as I waved goodbye to Raynor, and the barkeep’s fixed smile widened as his eyes squinted into oblivion.

  Haragh decided to stay behind at the pub and get some lunch before he headed to Orebane, and I nudged another of his pockets of gold to be sure he paid Raynor our due. Then I followed Kurna past the many filled tables of the pub and back out to the marketplace.

  The abrupt sunlight pierced my vision painfully, but I adjusted to the shift more quickly this time, and with a belly full of ale and a head full of pollen, I shuffled through Falmount and took in the new surroundings.

  All of the mages were bright eyed and bustling from one house or shop to another, and I could hear the strange balance of their many tones lacing over each other as we made our way across the dirt clearing to the lane.

  The new homes that had been added were humble granite huts, but through the windows I could see no one was living scantily here. Music drifted from several homes along with the static spark of magic here and there, and I even saw a few Terra Mages dutifully clearing the lanes of horse droppings to keep it all in good shape.

  “You guys have really kept the place up,” I told Kurna.

  “It’s been interesting,” he chuckled. “You ought to stop over at the mine when you get a chance. At this point, they’re just hauling out everything with no idea where to put it or what to do with it. We had a couple blacksmiths come out and sort out some of it for us, and the shelves at your shop helped out a bit. A man named Ogden volunteered to build them.”

  “Ogden made me shelves?” I asked as I furrowed my brow. I hadn’t seen the palace blacksmith in ages.

  “You’ll see,” Kurna said with a broad grin. He gestured to the base of Magehill, and a flicker of excitement shot through me when I caught sight of the entrance to our house.

  We’d hardly had time to settle in before we took the train to continue the railway south, but it still felt like home the minute I walked in. Someone had crafted a pair of fine wooden doors at the front, and directly inside the entryway, an identical pair of doors led to the atrium in the center of the house.

  Kurna pushed the two doors open, and when I strolled into the open-air shop, all I could do was laugh.

  Three walls of the courtyard were lined with sturdy iron shelves about nine feet tall, and hefty chunks of steel were piled onto the majority of them. There were also lumps of silver and gold filling an entire set of shelves, and what looked like spare iron planks were stacked on another.

  “Holy shit,” I chuckled. “You stocked my shop?”

  “Had to,” Kurna admitted. “There’s just too much metal at the foundry these days. So, we figured we may as well get you set up for when you returned. Will it do?”

  “Yeah, I’d say so,” I said as I eyed the hundreds of pounds of metal surrounding me. “This will do just fine.”

  “Good.” Kurna nodded. “Then I’ll leave you to get settled in, I have a few things I must attend to. Oh, and so you know … ” Kurna walked across to another pair of doors on the other side of the atrium and opened them wide. “These are a gift from the town of Garioch in the far north. Bagneera got Krick to fix them up for you, but they have fasteners here at the bottom in case you want to lock them.”

  I shook my head as I considered the expertly crafted doors, and there weren’t even words for how grateful I was to be back by this point.

  No more sleeping on moss and waking up to sphinxes. No daggers flying out of nowhere, and no plants trying to fucking eat me. Only dwarven ale, fine furnishings, and an endless supply of metal to play with. Not to mention, a home for my women and I to wake up in every morning and have sex in all night long.

  Kurna left me in my reverie in the middle of the workshop, and I dropped down on the edge of the fountain that was still bubbling with fresh spring water in the center.

  I let out a heavy sigh of relief, and even though I could still hear everything going on in the village, my headache was only a dull roar. A solid buzz also had me feeling more content than I’d been in ages, and after a few minutes of calm, I got up and strolled through the doors Kurna had propped open for me.

  I took a tour of the home I hardly recognized, and the halls encircling the atrium led to three large rooms, with one being a kitchen, and another a bedroom I didn’t remember leaving an absolute mess.

  The last room was still unfurnished, and I sparked my magic as I pulled a few seats up along the wall. Then I added a little nook beneath the window where the women could lounge comfortably if they wanted to, before I dug several shelves out along the wall for Deya and Shoshanne’s books.

  Lastly, I carved a small cave into the further corner of the wall, and I softened the floor for Ruela to curl up on at night.

  I was just finishing forming a small table in fr
ont of the chairs when a familiar voice called from the front door, and before I could make my way over, Pindor let himself in.

  The cocky grin on his face when I entered the atrium caught me off guard almost as much as his sudden entrance, and the kid punched my arm by way of greeting.

  Which we hadn’t done before, but okay.

  I could tell he’d been working out, and his hair was disheveled in a way that made him look oddly similar to myself. His attempt at a beard wasn’t going so well though, and the scant bristles that made up his sort-of-goatee made me want to punch him for some reason, but it could have just been his whole vibe I was picking up on.

  Then Pindor opened his mouth to talk, and I actually had to remind myself it’d be shitty to punch a kid.

  “Hey man,” he said, “bet you’re glad to be back, huh? I’ve been keeping an eye on the place for you, and I borrowed your bed a few times. Hope you don’t mind.”

  I cocked a brow and glanced over my shoulder through the open doors.

  In the next room, our king-sized bed glowed beneath an open window with old sheets rumpled up on top of it, and I finally realized the various articles of clothing all over the floor didn’t belong to me or my women.

  “I do mind,” I assured him, but the kid only chuckled like I’d made a joke.

  “Don’t worry, I wasn’t with Mina or Deli,” he informed me. “They didn’t want to use your bed for some reason. Have you seen them, yet? They’re probably off bitching somewhere.”

  “Is that right?” I asked as I dropped down on the fountain’s edge and propped my elbows on my knees.

  Pindor was strutting around the courtyard like he owned the place, and he picked up a chunk of silver to toss it from hand to hand as he went.

  “Yeah,” Pindor snorted. “We were both wrong about them, by the way. They have seriously high standards. I’ve been making my way through the other mages lately, but I’m honestly thinking you got the only two decent ones here.”

  I eyed the forced swagger in his step. “Maybe they’re just unimpressed,” I told him flatly.