Mageblood

by Christopher Johns

  I made my way toward Gage's house first, stopping one of the guards and asking where the army’s barracks and training quarters might be.

  “Oh, tha’s easy.” She yawned blearily and pointed northward with her larger-than-average arm. “Next ta the castle up yonder, go on an’ git there afore they eat so they’re grumpier than normal.”

  I blinked at her, and she snorted. “I’m teasin’, yer a wanderer, any of ye what’re interested in the army get treated like spun gold on account o’ yer magic. They’ll let ye train with ‘em.”

  “Thank you, ma’am.” I offered her my hand, and she scowled as she took it.

  “Don’t you be callin’ me that, I work for a livin’.” She winked as I scampered away from her while she chuckled at my expense.

  The area to the north of the larger squares was great. Like, swankier than my neighborhood and beyond. Verandas with nice furniture, butlers and maids with nannies tutoring young men and women in various subjects. A man sang a song that made me think of an opera my mom had tried to force me to, but his voice was so amazing that I found myself stopping to listen.

  I smiled and moved on my way when I heard a very different noise.

  “—please, I have nothing else, please, just go and leave my family in peace!” A man pleaded in a hushed whisper off to my right, a door slightly ajar signaling something might be wrong.

  I dropped down into a crouch and moved forward toward the door. The home was superb, like the rest of them, decorated in pastel pink with blue seashells and pearls painted along the sides over the wall. Windows were opened and inviting with cream-colored curtains waving in the slight breeze.

  As soon as I got to the door, I caught a glimpse of the only two troublemakers I had come across so far in this world. They stood with their backs to me. That damnable pair, the orc, and troll. I hadn’t learned their names, but as I leered at them from my vantage point, my Evil Eyes kicked in.

  Blasik Lvl 3

  Guilty GameZ Lvl 4

  Huh. That was different. The orc towered over a cowering man whose family, two little boys, human, and their mother shook in fright.

  I couldn’t attack them because combat in the city was against the law unless it was on the training grounds or a dual outside the city.

  That didn’t mean that someone couldn’t bring the law…

  I decided to wake Sundar, hoping she had been doing what she said—for once.

  —Sundar! Bring Gage to my coordinates, now! No time to explain. Probably wanna bring some guards.— I sent her my location with the whisper and hoped she would come.

  I steeled myself and opened the door, leaning against it to affect a look of almost casual interest. “Man, graduating from being general jerks and attempted blackmailing to actual robbery in less than a day? Not sure whether to be impressed or concerned.”

  The orc turned toward me and grinned. “Ah, the pancake has returned.”

  “As I recall, you got kicked out before that could even happen, so I’m still me, thanks.” I grinned, and a wave of nausea filtered over me, gripping my chest, clawing its way from the pit of my stomach into my throat, threatening to close my windpipe.

  I fought and struggled to move, gasping for air as the fear clutched at me.

  Fear debuff—paralyzed for 30 seconds

  Debuff time halved.

  Sonofabitch. I growled..

  “Yeah, your resistance isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, is it bitch?” The troll, Guilty, cackled in delight as he stepped forward, large serrated tusks sticking into my face. “What, you expected that we wouldn’t be able to find out about it? Well, knowledge comes from all places, and with it comes power. This game is going to be my stomping grounds for a while. And I have every intention of playing to my heart’s content. Blasik, kill this one, then rough up the old man until he decides to give up the good stuff.”

  The woman protested softly, her words lost under the growl escaping my throat despite the fear clawing at my body and mind.

  “Better thought, Guilty—how about we go for the ones he’s protecting?” The orc lumbered toward the woman, the boys squealing in fear.

  “Good idea, but the still quaking asshole first.” Guilty moved out of my vision, the sound of flesh hitting flesh and a grunt of pain from the man signaling that he must have hit him.

  A few seconds left, if I could hold out, I could try to help these people.

  7 dmg taken

  I fell onto my back after the huge fist collided with my face, my right eye filling with tears and bright flecks of light invading my vision.

  “I’m gonna enjoy this.” The orc growled happily as he loomed over me. His name popped up over his head tinted red, and made me mentally grin.

  He was in trouble now and didn’t seem to notice.

  He leaned down and grabbed me by the front of my shirt, lifting me into the air with his left fist cocked back. “Ain’t so brave now, without your pet bitch and the ogre asshole, huh? Getting us kicked out for a bit of business that would have gone over if you hadn’t so rudely interrupted?”

  He punctuated rudely with a punch to my gut that made me puke up bile.

  6 dmg taken

  1 dmg from acid

  Seriously, game? Bile counts as acid damage?

  “Well, I’d enjoy getting mine, but I have bigger and better things to do than to beat my irritation out of you.” He tossed me onto the floor and raised his foot, just as the paralysis wore off.

  I reached for the Aether within my body and snarled as I packed one bar’s worth of ice around my fist, lashing out at the knee his weight was on. The limb froze, and he cried out in anger and outrage as he fell, clutching it.

  10 ice dmg to Blasik

  Frozen debuff given – movement slowed

  “Guilty!” He groaned in warning, but I had a new toy to play with as his aura flared red, and some of it seemed to siphon toward me, my fist tinged red with his blood.

  Gift Stolen

  Intimidation – one target that you can see within twenty feet is affected by your sheer presence and may have difficulty attacking you.

  I thought about it as Guilty the troll stepped toward me with a dagger drawn and a grim smile on his face. “Gotta do something right every now and then, eh?”

  With a roar of anger, I willed the stolen gift to activate; red flared around me, and his forward momentum stopped wholly with a look of cautious observance.

  “How is this possible?” He spat, the dagger still in his grasp.

  “Good luck, I guess.” I grinned and called to my Aether once more, spending two of the bars to create a small cube of ice and lobbed it at his foot. Instead of it landing between his legs, he kicked it, and his leg turned into a solid block of ice. He lost his balance and overcorrected, pitching forward onto the frozen leg.

  It shattered loudly, like glass hitting the floor.

  CRITICAL STRIKE

  28 dmg to Guilty GameZ

  Severed Limb Debuff given

  Bleeding Debuff given

  Bleeding stopped due to frozen arteries

  That was interesting. He laid on the ground howling in pain as the door behind me splintered inward with Gage and Sundar entering with a cadre of guards behind them.

  “What is the meaning of this disturbance!” Gage lowed dangerously with his gaze casting about the room.

  “I walked in on these two robbing this family,” I explained hurriedly, but the look he gave me stopped me from going further.

  “Seize all of them,” Gage ordered to the guards who swarmed all three of us.

  “But Gage, he was trying to help!” Sundar put a hand on his bicep, but he shrugged it away.

  “Friends though we may be, the law in this is clear—fighting between wanderers in the city is forbidden without the proper protocols observed.” Gage hefted his arm and pointed squarely at me as manacles clasped around my wrists and legs. “His name is red, too; he is just as guilty.”

  “And what about me?” Guilty c
ried out indignantly, motioning to his leg.

  “There is no blood on your hands, but there is on your blade.” The troll looked down to see the man they had been robbing, smiling evilly as his hand bled.

  “What’s going to happen?” Sundar asked with concern on her face.

  “They will be taken for trial at the castle as soon as the prince awakens for the day.” Gage huffed. “I am sorry.”

  “Your hands are tied, I understand and so does she.” I offered him a polite nod and looked to Sundar. “Right?”

  “Yeah.” She stepped outside as the guards lugged a struggling Guilty through the door.

  They began trying to drag Blasik outside, but he struggled mightily, forcing the sergeant to step in and clobber him on the face until he passed out, and the guards could carry him away.

  “Thank you for going peaceably,” one of the other guards whispered to me. “The family you saved asked me to thank you.”

  “They’re welcome.” I smiled, and ‘though it was forced, I meant it to be relieving. “Could one of you pass a message to them?”

  Chapter Eleven

  The city steadily grew more monochromatic as we traveled north, color replaced by cream-colored buildings and homes that met a tall gated wall around the castle.

  It was surprisingly small for a castle, only a couple of towers built almost into the far wall of the city that peeked out over the top of the wall above the city. A large domed roof covered the building in the center, the rising sunlight flashed off it. Blue sky with silvery clouds billowed behind it like a backdrop on a new screensaver. It was breathtaking.

  The matte-black gates swung open, metallic clanking as we trudged through the courtyard where soldiers gathered in a circle around some spectacle, shouting encouragement to those in the center.

  “Halt!” Gage barked. He stomped over to the circle and tapped one dark-skinned man on the shoulder. He was covered in dirt, his clothes torn, and bruises all over his face. A clean-shaven chin with a slash near the ear had me concerned about infection, then I noticed more and more small cuts and gashes along his arms and legs. Whoever he was, he wasn’t very good at not taking damage. Gage spoke to him quietly, and he wandered over to us with the Minotaur.

  “Sundar, could you heal him real quick?” I whispered to her, keeping his cut in view. “That looks like a nasty cut on his face, and the rest looks painful too.”

  She shrugged, and the totem raised as he stepped into the area of effect and froze.

  “It’s okay, Highness, it’s a healing totem,” Gage grumbled.

  The man sighed in relief. “Thank you. Those stung a bit.” He blinked at the three prisoners and motioned with a hand. “What are these ones here for? Two of them have warrants for fighting in city bounds, and the other is missing a leg. Sergeant, explain.”

  Gage did his best describing the scene that he had walked in on, graciously glossing over how he had known what was happening.

  “And you two were doing, what?” He stepped over to Blasik and Guilty.

  “Merely collecting what we were owed for a quest, Your Grace.” Guilty tried to sound sincere, but his voice held more malice than sincerity.

  “Liar.” The man stated simply. The troll looked like he was about to start spewing curses at the man, but the guard hauled Guilty off before they could begin. One of the guards even took special care to whack the troll in the nose for one of the insults I’d heard.

  “The two of you—someone rouse the orc, please?” A guard pulled a small vile out of his trousers and unstoppered it under Blasik’s wide nose.

  “Fuck!” The orc came to, gagging and almost vomited on the royal questioning us. “Who the hell is this tiny shit?”

  The man raised his eyebrows with a grin. “I’m the prince, of course. Who swung first?”

  “I did.” The orc answered, then looked to me. “Pissant.”

  “And this was because he had interrupted you robbing my people?”

  “That was because he’s small, and I hate him for other reasons.” Blasik sneered.

  “Ah, truth again, but avoiding a question is highly suspect, and you attacked first.” The prince lifted a hand and waved the soldiers holding the orc away. He roared and fought like crazy, slapping one of the soldiers away.

  Before Gage could move in front of him, the prince pounced on the man’s chest. Three rapid strikes with his fists saw Blasik unconscious once again, and the soldiers dragged him off.

  “Majesty—” Gage began, but the prince stopped him.

  “You were the reason I took up fighting, master Toomgarak.” His serene look at the Minotaur halted another attempted word from Gage. “Much to my mother and fathers’ chagrin, I intend to be more than a mere figurehead to my people. Thank you. Your concern is noted, but I fear not the wanderers.”

  He turned his gaze back to me. “and you.”

  “Your Majesty.” I bowed my head and took a knee before him.

  “Manners, excellent.” He clapped before his hands fell to my shoulders. I looked up to see him kneeling before me. “Tell me everything from your perspective from the beginning.”

  So, I did, it was a simple, quick tale, but I related it to him. He listened quietly and intently without interruption until the end. “So, you had been attacked by Guilty’s gift of fear, and were attacked, then defended yourself and the family as the orc was down and the troll came toward you with a knife. The only reason he didn’t attack you first being that you had used the gift you stole from this Blasik?”

  “Yes, Majesty.” He frowned at my answer but didn’t speak again for a moment as he stood and paced.

  “I am sorely tempted to see you taken out of those shackles and freed, young Kyvir.” The prince glanced at Gage, his countenance and bearing unreadable. “Were it not for the stringency of our laws concerning this matter, I would see you freed and rewarded for your bravery. You protected my people from worse harm.”

  “Majesty?” I asked with a raised hand. The guard to my left, grasped my wrist and tutted, so I dropped the hand and continued. “I respect your laws, and no matter your decision, I will hold no ill intent toward you or your people. I like this place, and I look forward to my apprenticeship.”

  “Move aside!” I heard an angry Brit snarl at the guards at the gate, barging through with an enraged Monami hot on his heels.

  “Forgive them for what’s about to happen, your Majesty,” I whispered and the man snorted, before I greeted my friends. “Hey, guys!”

  “Don’t you ‘hey guys’ us, you silly wanker!” Albarth hissed, taking everyone around us with a glare. “What are the charges against my friend?”

  “I don’t give a damn what they are, release him right now!” Monami’s demand ended in a very lion-like roar resulting in several of the soldiers in the ring stopping their cheering and turning to see this new spectacle.

  “I’ve got this, Gage.” Sundar put a hand on the Minotaur’s chest. “You two need to calm the hell down. Kyvir did something dumb, but brave—and in the presence of royalty, it’s customary to bow or curtsy!”

  The two of them frowned and Sundar motioned to the prince, who seemed annoyed.

  They did their best to bow and curtsy as they would, but the prince huffed. “Please, stop. I observe no such formality in the courtyard. While I am royalty, by my garb and visage, I am no different from any other man or woman in this yard at this moment. This is not court, there is no pomp and circumstance here—only action and the right by toil and arms to better oneself.”

  “I am proud of this new side of you, Highness,” Gage grumbled proudly, his eyes filled with the pride he felt looking at the smaller man.

  “The law is simple but absolute—those who break it must pay.” The prince sighed. “I will see you within the hour, young Kyvir. Gage, take him to the court yourself, and stand by for judgment.”

  “As you will it.” Gage nodded his head and lumbered forward and grasped my shoulder gently. “I know he will not fight this, High
ness, are the shackles necessary?”

  “They are.” The prince stopped the others with a knowing gaze. “If for nothing other than the perception of safety and control. As he said, he will respect my decisions. I tasted no lie.”

  I nodded, and Gage led us toward the castle itself, the looming red oak doors open at the bottom on the left with a smaller, more-manageable entryway, making me realize how large the place actually was.

  The halls inside held cases of trophies of monster heads and limbs, snarling beasts that looked to prowl the land surrounding the city.

  “It is a barbaric practice,” Albarth sneered, his nose uplifted.

  “I would neglect mentioning that to the queen, she sees it as a testimony to her strength, and battle prowess,” Gage advised with a wry grin. “She is the warrior of the family, though it was she who discouraged her son from following in her footsteps.”

  “Why?” Mona asked, and Gage took a breath to answer her question, but Sundar shook her head and pointed down at me. “Why can’t you do things normally? I asked for some time to think, and you go out and try to play hero?!”

  “Not to mention getting himself arrested.” Albarth sniffed, then grunted painfully after a meaty thud. “It’s true, you ruddy she-devil.”

  “Shut up, Al.” Sundar growled fiercely, and he yelped in return.

  “I wasn’t playing at anything, Monami,” I replied tiredly. How had things changed so drastically? “I heard someone who needed help, and I got caught up in a technicality.”

  “Breaking the law, even on a technicality—oof.” Gage grunted then sniffed. “Why must you bully me so, my dear?”

  “This is their conversation, damn it!” Sundar’s exasperated voice would have made me smile if I wasn’t so worried about Mona. Though she did seem to be smiling at him indulgently.

  “Look, this wasn’t anything to do with you needing space, I heard someone who needed help and interrupted a robbery that would have likely turned into a murder if I hadn’t stepped in.” She turned her head away, and I grabbed her arm to pull her closer to me, whispering, “A family, Mo. Two little boys watching their father being pummeled and robbed in front of them. You think for a second that you wouldn’t have stepped in?”