God of Magic

by Logan Jacobs

  “We could stop somewhere for dinner on the way back,” Maruk suggested as we wound our way through the market district. “Vallabri’s has excellent lamb... so I’ve heard. Now we can actually afford it.”

  “You know Nesta would never forgive us if we did that,” Aerin replied. “She’ll be dying to hear how everything went. We can go out tomorrow to celebrate.”

  “I’ll hold you to that,” Maruk promised.

  Despite the heat of the late afternoon, the streets were just as crowded as I’d ever seen them, but I was glad for the crowds. Being surrounded by so many people made me feel less conspicuous, and I appreciated them all the more as we passed the Arcane University Tower with its mirrored panels that always seemed to be watching me. I didn’t think I would ever get used to that place, but as we crossed the wide pedestrian bridge and walked up the paved pathway to the charter office, my uneasiness abated and was replaced with renewed excitement over our recent success, and I could tell the others were excited, too.

  “Should we ask for all the reward money at once, or do you think it would be better to get it in monthly payments?” Aerin asked aloud, though I knew as well as Lavinia and Maruk that she was talking to herself more than to any of us, so I waited for her to answer herself. “The monthly payments are safer. We don’t exactly have a secure bank account at the moment, and we won’t be as tempted to spend it all at once.”

  “Good idea, Aerin,” I said, and she grinned.

  “I wonder how many tiers we’ll move up,” Lavinia said. “I think we might be able to pass the Vanguards?”

  Maruk raised his eyebrows. “If we do, I hope they’re there for it. I’d love to see the looks on their faces.”

  I didn’t know who the Vanguards were, but there were several guilds in the charter office when we entered, including, I was surprised to see, a few of the Stewards. Specifically, the earth mage who had injured her arm and the man who’d wielded the double daggers. They looked almost exactly as they had when we’d met them in the Shadow Delves, bloody and exhausted. The members of a few others guilds stood around them and asked questions or murmured condolences.

  “How did they get back here so fast?” I asked quietly though my question was directed at no one in particular.

  “They must have traveled all night,” Maruk replied.

  Suddenly, the Stewards girl met my eyes, pushed past the people gathered around her, and walked directly up to me. She didn’t speak right away, but her green eyes glistened with unshed tears. Her armor was dirty and bloodstained, and she no longer wore the matching blue scarf of her guild, but it looked as though she’d been able to get her arm healed. I could see the traces of shiny scars on her deep brown skin, evidence of magical healing.

  She swallowed thickly, but there was still a waver in her voice when she finally gathered herself enough to ask, “What happened to Ren?”

  Then all the eyes in the charter office were on us. Or rather, on me. I felt my stomach twist as I met the girl’s dark brown eyes. I felt like she deserved the truth, but at the same time, I knew I could never tell her that I was a manipulator and that I’d killed Ren.

  “I’m sorry,” I said softly, and for the girl’s sake, I resented everyone who was listening in. She at least deserved some privacy right now. “He’s dead. The Guardian in the cavern attacked him.”

  The girl’s eyes dropped, and her shoulders trembled as she let out a shaky breath, but her friend, the other Steward with the daggers, stepped forward with a suspicious frown.

  “You just left him there?” he demanded. His eyebrows were blond like the rest of his hair, and they were so light that they were almost invisible, but the frown lines between them were deep.

  “Says the man who fled in terror when the Guardian showed up,” I hissed, and the rest of the crowd turned back to him.

  “I--”

  “Yeah,” I continued as I gestured to the audience. “I dunno what story this asshole told you, but he ran as soon as the monster showed up.”

  “Uhhh--” he started to say, but then the woman interrupted him.

  “I know Ren promised you the medallion bounty we were hired to get.” She reached into her pocket, pulled out a folded slip of paper, and handed it to me. “Here. Maybe you’ll have better luck with it.”

  Another part of our winnings, due to our bet with Ren, but it was harder to be excited about it now that I had faced his guild. The girl began to turn away, and before I could second-guess myself, I reached out and stopped her. “What are you going to do?”

  She frowned slightly, obviously surprised that I cared to ask, but she didn’t have the energy to be suspicious of me. “We’re not going to disband or anything,” she replied. “Dylan and I will let the others know what happened to Ren, and when we’re ready, we’ll vote on a new leader.” She sighed, pressed her lips into a line, then turned away and rejoined her friends without another word.

  “Yessss,” Lavinia hissed as she took the bounty out of my hand. “We’ve got it.”

  “Now let’s go get our money,” Aerin said, and we turned toward the clerk’s desk.

  I could feel the eyes of all the other guild members in the office as we walked across the room, and there were a few excited whispers when Lavinia and Maruk heaved the chest up onto the desk. My chest swelled with warm pride, and I shared a quick smile with the beautiful dragon-woman as she stepped away from the table.

  “The Shadow Foxes,” Aerin reported as she laid Allowen’s wanted poster and the relic bounty document on the table, “returning the bounty from the Shadow Delves and an outstanding bounty for the necromancer Elor Cadigan.”

  The clerk was the same man that we had dealt with when we collected the bounty for the wraith, and he seemed no more pleased to see us this time around. He took the wanted poster first and inspected it carefully, going even so far as to retrieve a magnifying glass to more closely examine it. Then, after a few long minutes, he sniffed. “This appears to be in order,” he said in his reedy voice.

  He scribbled something onto a document and tore off a section that he handed over the desk to Aerin.

  “You may deliver that to the Mage Academy to collect the financial compensation promised by the wanted poster,” he told her.

  “And the Shadow Delves bounty?” Aerin prompted.

  The clerk raised one thin eyebrow and looked each of us over before he returned his attention to the stack of documents and the chest on his desk. He painstakingly went through the contents of the chest and crossed each of the items listed on the bounty documents off a list. I wondered if he was really so scrupulous or if he was purposefully trying to take as much time as possible, but finally, he checked off the last of the items and closed the chest. He filled out another slip for Aerin and passed it across the desk.

  “You can expect your guild status to be updated in the morning,” he informed us.

  Aerin glanced at the slip of paper that the clerk had given her and frowned. “Right, but what about the reward?” she asked. “There’s no name. Was it a private host or--”

  The clerk cut her off. “That bounty was also hosted by the Mage Academy. You can collect payment from them.”

  “Thanks,” Aerin replied with a slight frown as she pocketed the receipts and turned back to us.

  The clerk said nothing as we made to leave, but we’d only gotten a few steps from the desks before one of the other guilds’ members that had been hanging around stopped us. He wasn’t anyone I recognized though he struck an imposing figure. He was tall and broad-shouldered, and he wore a rich cloak of deep purple that I guessed was part of his guild’s uniform. There was a long scar across his cheek that bent his lip on that side into a permanent frown, and he glared openly at us as he stepped in front of us.

  “Is there a problem?” I asked in a level voice. I wasn’t in the mood to deal with any more assholes tonight, and I could tell that this guy was going to try to pick a fight.

  “Yeah,” the man answered boldly. “I’m stil
l trying to figure out how a shitty little guild like the Foxes managed to take the Shadow Delves bounty.”

  “Well, you never were the brightest, Riker,” Lavinia shot back. “I think I see some smoke coming out of your ears, don’t wear yourself out on our account.”

  “Are you calling me stupid?” Riker asked in a low voice.

  “What do you think?” Lavinia asked as she raised an eyebrow.

  The man’s lip curled into a sneer, and I figured I’d better try to defuse the situation before it got out of hand. I didn’t want us to land a fine for getting into a fight now.

  “Hey, look,” I said calmly, “we don’t want any trouble.”

  Lavinia shot me an annoyed look, but Aerin backed me up.

  “We got that bounty fairly,” the elf said, “just like any of you.”

  “I think a lot of us would like to hear Ren’s side of that story.” Another man came up to stand beside Riker. He wore a red shawl with an embroidered patch of a lion’s head on it. Another guild uniform, I supposed, but I didn’t know who they were.

  I fought to contain my impatience. “We already told you what happened,” I replied.

  “Yeah, I heard,” the man said. “The Guardian got him, but then you all killed it, right?” He looked us over suspiciously. “I know it must have taken more than a couple of arrows. How’d you do it?”

  I would have liked to have been able to prepare some sort of cover story in advance, but I knew we’d only draw more suspicion if we refused to answer now.

  “Lightning,” I said quickly as I remembered the sparks that Ren had conjured during our fight. “I electrocuted it.”

  By then, several other people from various other guilds had gathered around, and they all regarded us with stony silence.

  “Lightning?” the man echoed. “I heard you were from some backwater town, where’d you learn air magic like that?”

  “I’m a quick study,” I replied. “We do have books where I’m from.”

  “Yeah?” The man’s eyes narrowed. “I’d like to see you conjure the kind of lightning you’d need to take down that monster.”

  Behind us, the clerk cleared his throat pointedly as a reminder that we weren’t allowed to use our powers here, and the man’s eyes flicked up to him.

  “Whatever,” the man said, though whether his comment was addressed to me or to the clerk, I wasn’t sure. Then he looked me over one last time before he turned away without another word, and Riker and the others followed.

  “What an ass,” Aerin muttered under her breath as we made our way back outside.

  “All these guilds think they’re so great, but the second there’s any competition, they start whining about it,” Lavinia said. “We’ll teach them not to underestimate us.”

  I said nothing as we left the charter office behind. I had no doubt that we would be able to make a name for ourselves like Lavinia said, but I knew that we had to be cautious and keep our wits about us, especially me. We couldn’t get into fights with the other guilds like we had with the Stewards and Ren. It wouldn’t take long for even someone like Riker to figure out that I wasn’t an air mage like I’d said I was. Still, I knew we wouldn’t be able to avoid them entirely, and I’d have to come up with a better cover story of some kind soon, or else some way to feign air magic.

  I wondered if I’d be able to cast an illusion that would make someone believe that I was performing air magic. That would involve more than controlling what my target saw, of course. I would need to be sure they could feel it, too, but even as I thought it, I felt sure that it was something I could accomplish with practice. I would have to study some air magic as well so that I had a few different ideas of what I could mimic in my illusions. I wondered if I’d be able to get what I needed from books alone, or if it would be worth it to stop by and observe lessons at the Mage Academy.

  I ruled that out immediately. It was too dangerous. Fooling someone out on the road was one thing, but deliberately walking into the University Tower was quite another. I had no doubt I’d be pressured to perform some magic there, and I knew it would be too risky to try to cast an illusion over multiple mages at once, particularly any of the head mages who were always on the lookout for people like me.

  The sky was clear and awash in soft watercolor shades of purple and blue as the sun sank below the horizon. The streets had finally begun to clear, and we weren’t jostled around as much as we passed through the market again on our way home. The heat of the afternoon had faded, leaving the evening air comfortable and balmy, and even the typical sounds of the busy city seemed muted and calmer somehow.

  We passed a bookshop that was closing up for the night, and I remembered Allowen’s spell books still wrapped up in the invisibility cloak at the bottom of my pack. I’d only had the chance to skim through them so far, but now that we were going to have some time to ourselves, I would be able to sit down and go through them more thoroughly. I could add my own annotations, too, notes and explanations specific to my manipulator and illusion magic, the sort of things that I learned from experience.

  I knew it was more than likely that no one else besides me would ever read those notes, and I knew I’d be much safer if that were the case, but I couldn’t tamp down the little spark of hope that had sprung up within me at the thought. Maybe there weren’t other manipulators now, but someday there could be, and I could help them learn about their powers. They wouldn’t have to figure it out on their own or piece together fragments of texts like I was. They deserved more than that.

  Just then, Aerin twined her fingers through mine and squeezed my hand gently as we moved through the narrow back streets to the Magpie, and I brushed my thumb over the back of her hand and smiled at her. It was easy to get lost in my own plans, but I didn’t need to worry about that right now. Now was our time to celebrate, everything else could wait for another day. We’d won this time. We’d defeated the monster and reaped the rewards, and I wanted to enjoy it.

  The tavern’s windows were lit up with a warm golden light against the encroaching gloom of evening, and despite the fact that I’d only been in this world for a short while, I realized at that moment that this place, this world, felt like home.

  Inside, the tavern was already nearly full, but I noticed that Nesta had reserved our table in the back. The cheerful sounds of people talking, laughing, and drinking drifted like soft music through the room, and the smell of spices and onions from the kitchen made my mouth water. None of the patrons paid us much mind as we entered, but the innkeeper gave us a friendly wave from behind the bar as we slipped up the stairs.

  “She’ll want to hear everything,” Aerin said as she waved back.

  “Which version?” I asked once we were back in the privacy of our tiny apartment. We’d never even told Nesta that I was a mage, and though I was sure she’d been able to guess at that much, I didn’t know if it was safe to tell her the whole truth. She didn’t seem like the type of person who would turn me in, but I didn’t know if it would be fair to burden her with the knowledge of who I really was, either. It might put her in danger as well.

  “We’ll tell her you used air magic to slay the Guardian,” Lavinia said. “Nesta’s trustworthy, but still, it’s safer the fewer people who know that there’s a manipulator running around. Things get out, rumors spread, the Mage Academy gets even more annoying.”

  “Got it,” I replied just as Merlin raced over to me and clambered up the side of my leg and onto my shoulder.

  The puca chattered in my ear in a distinctly lecturing tone, and I figured he hadn’t liked being left alone while we’d turned in the bounty. I rubbed him behind the ears to mollify him while Aerin placed the slips the charter office clerk had given her into a box for safekeeping, and the rest of us dropped off the last of our gear.

  “I wonder what Nesta’s made for dinner,” Maruk mused as he came over to scratch Merlin beneath the chin. “I’m positively famished.”

  “I don’t really care what it is, as long as
I don’t have to eat it sitting on the ground,” Aerin added.

  “Couldn’t agree more,” I groaned.

  When the four of us were ready to head back downstairs, I picked up Merlin and lifted him off my shoulder.

  “You have to stay here, little guy,” I told him. “I’ll bring you some food.”

  I expected the promise of food would be enough, but evidently, Merlin had had quite enough of being left alone for the day and as soon as I set him down, he jumped into Aerin’s arms instead and let out a pitiful yowl.

  “Aww,” the elf said, “he’s lonely.”

  “Too bad,” Lavinia said. “We can’t bring a puca into the tavern. It has to stay here.”

  Merlin shot the archer a glare and wiggled in Aerin’s arms so that it was all she could do not to drop him, but when he’d sorted himself out again, he’d transformed into a cat.

  He meowed peevishly at Lavinia and flicked his tail, and she blew out a sigh.

  I wasn’t sure if Nesta would approve of our keeping a pet in her tavern, whether he was a cat or a puca, but I knew Merlin could cause just as much trouble if we left him up here unsupervised than if we brought him down with us. At least if he was nearby, I could keep an eye on him.

  I made my voice stern as I addressed the puca. “If you come, you have to be good,” I told him. “You can’t steal from anyone or make a mess. If you do, you’ll have to come back up here.”

  I had to admit, I still felt a little foolish talking to the puca, but I knew by now that Merlin was more intelligent than most animals. As if to prove as much, he meowed again and then mimicked my voice, “Good.”

  “Alright,” I said, “let’s go.”

  Merlin seemed to understand that his presence with us was conditional, and he was on his best behavior as we made our way down into the tavern and took our places at the back table. As it turned out, Nesta loved cats and was overjoyed to meet Merlin. In fact, she greeted him before the rest of us when she came over, and she stroked his fur while she took our drink orders. For his part, the puca seemed to like her, too, and he purred continuously as Nesta continued to pet him.