by Logan Jacobs
I cast another glance out the window at the gigantic harpy as I led the way out into the garden. It had begun to pace across the lawn, and with every step it took, the ground shook beneath us, and I just knew it was looking for us. Perhaps waiting for us. To help us maintain our element of surprise for as long as possible, I wove an illusion around myself and my guildmates to shield us from the harpy’s view while we got into position. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t be able to make us invisible for the entire battle, but I could ensure that we got our initial sneak attack in.
I waited by the corner as Maruk and Aerin approached the harpy and Lavinia took her place by the fountain. Lena moved out to Lavinia’s other side so that between the three of us, we could attack the harpy from several angles.
Even from about thirty yards away, I could see the light of Maruk’s mana flare up as charged the harpy to bash it with his shields. I understood his strategy immediately, and it was a good move. With enough force, he might be able to cripple the harpy’s leg and severely limit its mobility. However it had gotten to that gargantuan size, I knew it wasn’t going to be able to fly anywhere, so the only thing we really had to worry about was it running after us.
I had to let the illusion fall as soon as Maruk’s attack landed, but by then, the harpy knew we were here, anyway. It let out a deep, guttural cry of pain, shock, and fury and kicked out like a cockerel at the orc, who barely stumbled back out of the way of its talons in time.
Dark blood burst from its skin where Maruk’s shield had hit, but he hadn’t been able to break the bone this time. However, given that the harpy’s legs were as thick around as tree trunks, that would have been nothing short of a miracle, and he had at least injured it and gotten away himself without a scratch. Now the fight would really begin.
Merlin leapt forward and shifted in midair into the form of a black gryphon, and he soared up toward the harpy’s misshapen head and began to harass it with vicious pecks and talon-swipes.
I heard the twang of Lavinia’s bowstring and watched as three dark arrows cleared a perfect arc and embedded themselves deep into the naked flesh of the harpy’s neck. The monster roared, a chilling, half-human sound that I felt in my bones, and it struck out again with another kick at Maruk.
The orc was surprisingly quick for his size, however, and skilled in his unique, dual-shield defensive style. He brought up the larger of his shields to block the kick in such a way that he managed to drive one of the harpy’s twisted, overgrown talons into the bottom of its own foot. One of the sores burst as the wicked-sharp point of the harpy’s talon lanced it, and an explosion of pus burst out over Maruk.
The orc’s cry of disgust almost rivaled the harpy’s screech of pain, but the fight wasn’t over yet.
Lena called a warning to Maruk before she threw one of her homemade incendiary grenades at the harpy. The glass bottle smashed against the stone walkway that crossed the lawn and a bloom of red flame ignited and licked up the harpy’s leg with incredible speed. The harpy’s single humanoid eye widened in abject panic as it began to dance around in an attempt to escape the flames, and Maruk and Aerin had to run to avoid being crushed.
“Gabriel!” Lavinia called from the fountain. “I was thinking now might be a good time for one of your specialty arrows!“
I knew at once what she’d meant. Back when we had fought a dragon in the desert, I’d discovered that I could temporarily enhance my teammate’s weapons with mana the way I did my own. The mana weapons could pierce any armor, and they could bring down most creatures with one hit. Lavinia and I had only been able to practice the maneuver a few times since then, but we were a good team. I raised my hand out toward her, and the tip of the arrow that she had nocked and ready began to glow blue with the light of my mana.
The archer inhaled, focused, then released her arrow. It arced forward like a bolt of lightning and connected with the heavy tumor that sagged over the harpy’s right eye, and just as though it had been struck by lightning, the harpy’s body was outlined in a flash of brilliant light as its mana reacted to mine and exploded within it.
The harpy’s agonized screeches cut off abruptly, and it swayed a moment as if stunned before it fell onto the lawn with an earth-shaking thud. The air was filled with the smell of burning, rancid meat as the harpy’s corpse smoldered.
Lavinia laughed as she leapt down from the fountain and came over to me.
“Nice shot,” I told her with a grin, and she returned the smile as she leaned in to kiss me.
“Nice... magic,” she replied when we broke apart again.
Aerin came up on my other side, and I kissed her as well when she looped her arm around my waist.
“That’s all very well and good but did anyone notice that I am covered in - in - argh, I don’t even know!” Maruk cried. “Oh, this is positively revolting!” He flung his arms out in a futile attempt to flick off some of the pus and groaned.
“Hold still, I want to collect a sample,” Lena said as she approached the orc with an empty vial from her pack. Evidently, Maruk was too miserable to protest or to remember his earlier agreement with Lena about collecting samples from the harpies, because he just frowned deeply around his tusks and let the elf fill the vial with the goo that dripped from his green elbow.
“Aerin, can’t you do something?” he asked with a hopeful look to the healer.
“Sorry,” Aerin replied sympathetically, “but the only cure for that is a bath. You’ll have to manage until we get back to Ovrista.”
Maruk stuck his lower lip out as he examined himself again. “Well, let’s not waste any time then, shall we?”
We had the scroll for the bounty, and Lena had even gotten some harpy fluids to use in her alchemy for our trouble, so we set off back to our home city without further ado. Luckily for Maruk, we were able to get a ride on a passing merchant cart which saved him from having to walk for several hours in his state. Aerin must have pitied him, because she didn’t object as she usually would have about paying for a ride, and we reached the white walls of Ovrista before midafternoon.
“Gabriel, you and I should submit our tithes after we turn in the bounty,” Aerin said as we walked through the gates onto the main street. “Maruk can go get cleaned up while we do that, and then we can get lunch in the market.”
I raised my eyebrows as I met the redheaded elf’s eyes. “A ride back and lunch in the city? How extravagant,” I teased.
“Don’t make me change my mind,” Aerin replied.
“Alright, alright,” I said with a laugh. I detached Merlin from my shoulders and handed him to Lena, and he purred as he headbutted her cheek. “Aerin and I will go turn in the bounty, and we’ll meet you all outside the University Tower in two hours.”
“Sounds good,” Lavinia replied, and she gave me a mock salute as she turned to follow the other two down the side street that would take them to our guild hall. Maruk was already cutting through the afternoon crowds in his haste to get cleaned up, and Lena trailed in his wake and apologized to anyone unfortunate enough to have gotten in his way.
I grinned and took Aerin’s hand, and together we started for the shimmering tower that was the base of the Mage Academy.
Chapter 2
Even after all this time, seeing the Mage Academy Tower in Ovrista gave me chills. Of course, my reservations were reasonable, considering that everyone in the Mage Academy would demand my execution if they found out what I was.
I didn’t know if other people, which is to say, people who weren’t manipulators like me, thought that the mirrored panels that covered every inch of the spiraling tower were beautiful. Perhaps the design was meant to evoke wonder and awe in those who beheld it. Perhaps it was meant to stand tall as a shining beacon of knowledge with the hope that it could be seen from anywhere in the city.
Perhaps, but it didn’t have that effect on me. To me, the tower that overlooked every corner of Ovrista with its hundreds of mirrors just seemed like an ever-present reminder that I was always b
eing watched. I could imagine Ovrista’s Arch-Mage, Eamon Maderel, standing behind every window and constantly scanning the streets below for any sign of rogue mages like me. I had never met him myself, but I’d seen his portrait on my monthly visits to the tower to submit my mana tithe, as was mandated for every mage registered with the Academy, and ever since I’d first seen him, the Arch-Mage’s narrow, high-boned face and steely eyes had haunted my nightmares.
I deliberately ignored the portrait as I walked down the hall past it, but I still got the sense that those eyes were trained on my back, and I had to suppress a nervous shudder. Even so, I was still more composed than Aerin, my girlfriend and our guild’s healer, who I thought might never really get comfortable with me coming here. She was doing better than the first time I’d had to come to the Tower to register with the Academy, but she was still noticeably fidgety and talked too much and too quickly anytime someone asked either of us a question.
It had been several months since then, but just as I’d never gotten used to the mirrored facade of the building, I couldn’t get accustomed to tithing, either. The process was simple enough. All we had to do was place our hands on the surface of a special glass instrument called a siphon, and it would draw the mana from our bodies automatically. Then we signed the ledger next to our names, and we were good to go for another month. Throughout my time as a registered mage in Ovrista, I’d tried to think of it like giving blood.
It wasn’t that different, in principle. My mana would regenerate naturally over time, just like blood, and tithing didn’t even involve being pricked by a needle. Still, giving mana was somehow worse. It always felt as though my very soul was being sucked out of my body and into the glass orb of the siphon, and despite my experience with it, I could never help the knots my stomach twisted itself into when it came time to submit my tithe again.
When Aerin and I entered the room, the same woman was there who had been every other time we’d submitted our tithes. I still didn’t know her name, though, because she’d never introduced herself, and she didn’t strike me as the type of person who would appreciate being asked. I’d never seen her anywhere else in the city or the tower except behind this desk, and I’d never seen her expression change from the look she wore now as she watched Aerin and I walk in like we were tracking mud in right after she’d just mopped up. Her dark hair was pulled back in the same severe bun, and she sat behind the same immaculately clean desk with the same leather-bound ledger.
The siphon was just to the left of the desk. The large glass orb was suspended between adjustable silver rings atop a silver tripod, ready to receive our contributions of mana. I realized that someone else must have come before us today because a small ball of white light glowed at the center of the siphon. Raw mana. I found myself staring at it while Aerin checked in with the woman at the desk, and I wondered, not for the first time, how it was removed from the siphon and where it was stored. I knew what it was used for, at least. Our mana was collected like taxes, and the magic was used by the Academy for various public works projects, things like enchanting the city guards’ armor or in spells to keep the streets clean. That was common knowledge.
As Aerin moved over to the siphon and the woman with her, the redheaded elf threw a glance over her shoulder at me and gave me a smile. I wasn’t sure if she was trying to reassure herself or me, but I smiled back before she placed her hand against the glass surface of the siphon.
At once, a sound like rushing water filled the room, and the light of Aerin’s mana that glowed within her chest began to flow down her arm and into the siphon, and I flinched slightly despite myself. Of course, I was the only one in the room who could hear or see magic like this. In fact, I was the only person in centuries with the ability. It was a sense specific to manipulators, and all but me had been systematically hunted down and executed by the Mage Academies throughout the realms after the civil wars of years long past.
When the woman gave the signal and Aerin stepped back, it was my turn. I took a deep breath and tried not to think too much about what I was doing as I walked up to where Aerin had stood and placed my hand against the siphon as well. No sooner had the tips of my fingers touched the glass, which was still cool despite Aerin having had her hand on it seconds before, I felt the tug deep in my chest as my mana was forcibly drawn out of my body. The draining sound was now almost a roar in my ears, and my nerves crept up into my throat as I waited for the woman to give me the signal to step back.
It was only a few seconds, but it was always nearly unbearable. There isn’t really a tolerable amount of time to feel as though your very life essence is being sucked out of your body. When the woman finally nodded to me, I stepped back quickly and moved to sign my name in the ledger while my hand still shook slightly with adrenaline. At least it was over for another month.
The woman said nothing as we filed back out into the hall where Aerin stopped me with a light touch on my arm.
“Hey, do you mind if I head upstairs for a minute?” the elf asked. “I heard some of the apprentices have been working on a new enchanted armor polish, and I want to see if they’ll let me grab a few bottles cheap before they perfect it and start selling it at full price.”
“I’d never try to keep you away from a good deal, Aerin,” I replied with a grin. “But you want it even if it doesn’t work yet?”
Aerin returned my grin. “Lena can work out the kinks.”
Lena was remarkably creative, and her skill in alchemy was unparalleled, but she often needed to be redirected from some of her wilder ideas toward more practical applications. Aerin had been working rather closely with her in the last few weeks as she developed potions, poisons, and other inventions for the guild, as well as a few others that we could sell.
“I don’t mind,” I said. “Let’s go.”
“Oh.” Aerin blinked. “I meant you could wait outside while I went. You know, just in case.”
“In case Eamon Maderel is scouring the apprentices’ potions lab for manipulators?” I asked. Despite the joke, I was careful to keep my voice down lest anyone passing by overhear. “I’ve been coming here for months, Aerin, it’ll be fine.”
Aerin pursed her lips slightly, but then she let out a sigh when it was clear I wouldn’t budge.
“Alright, let’s go,” she said reluctantly and turned right to go up the next flight of stairs.
The interior of the tower was beautiful. The floors were all polished marble in a deep, twilight purple that was flecked with glittering bits of white that resembled stars. The runners along the stairs and halls were sheer and embroidered in silver with constellations so that it seemed as though we were strolling through the night sky as we made our way through the tower’s winding halls toward the apprentices’ lab. I could tell when we were getting close despite never having been there before by the strong chemical odor that wafted down the hall, and I wondered why a tower full of mages wouldn’t have developed a better ventilation system.
Finally, Aerin turned left through a tall doorway beneath an arch of dark wood that featured a pair of robed figures who held vials in their carved hands. Inside, the sharp chemical odor was even stronger than I thought possible, and I suspected that if the apprentices weren’t able to perfect the polish for its intended use, they could market it as an inhalant to revive people who’d fainted. The long room was lined with tall windows, but softly glowing orbs of magical light above each of the apprentices’ workstations supplemented the natural light. There were fourteen long wooden desks spaced evenly throughout the room in two rows of seven. Four apprentices sat at each desk and measured out powders on tiny desktop scales or mixed mysterious liquids into beakers. It might have reminded me of my old chemistry class, except that the students here weren’t all human.
As was true for the rest of Ovrista, most of the mages here were human or elven, but I did catch sight of a few horned ladonae among the students, dragonkin just like Lavinia, and in the corner furthest from the door, some panthera apprenti
ces had grouped together for their work. The catfolk were easily distinguishable by the furry ears that stood upon the tops of their heads and their long, feline claws, but they stood out more here with the masks the four of them wore, no doubt as guards against the sharp smells of the ingredients that they were working with.
A short elven man patrolled the room and kept an eye on the apprentices to ensure that their magical experiments didn’t go drastically awry, and he gave Aerin and me a nod of acknowledgment when he saw us.
“Is there something I can help you with?” he asked in a somewhat reedy voice. He reached up to push his round spectacles back up his short nose, but they slipped down again almost immediately.
“We heard some of your students were working on an armor polish,” Aerin said brightly. “Professor Audra sent us to see how it was coming along.”
As far as I knew, Aerin hadn’t been sent by anyone, but I supposed the mages wouldn’t exactly approve of us trying to purchase their students’ homework, so the lie was necessary. Aerin knew what she was doing, anyway, because the elf nodded as though he’d expected us.
“Ah, yes,” he replied, and he waved for us to follow as he led us to a table where a group of apprentices were surrounded by tiny bottles filled with liquids of varying color and consistency. It was impossible to tell which were raw ingredients and which were supposed to be the finished product, and the students looked nervous as we approached.
Their instructor pushed his glasses up again and clasped his hands behind his back.
“Donan, would you give us a report of your group’s work?” the elf said.
A dark-haired human boy shrank down in his seat slightly, and he looked as though he’d rather do anything but deliver the report, but then he scraped his stool back noisily and stood.
“Um,” Donan started, then paused to swallow heavily. “Well, you see, it’s an armor polish that can, um, can protect against st-standard magical attacks. We, um, we’re still trying to figure out how to make it work against fire spells, though.”