When it became clear that Seline’s group had been sent to intercept them, the mage ordered them to position beta, a point where two other squads would cover their sides. They reached it just as Seline signaled a crossbow attack from the infantry advancing with her. The bolts ricocheted off armor and shield. As the mage prepared a counter and just as he unleashed it, a wall of fire erupted between them. That wall burned towards them. Flaming crossbow bolts igniting through the wall of fire continued to smack into the earthen barricade at their defense spot.
The mage chuckled and ordered Calvin and the others to huddle with him. An earth elemental flowed over them, sealing them off from the advancing fire. A minute later, the magical mud warmed and began flaking down around them as Seline’s group advanced over them. Everything sounded muffled and the mage conjured an image of their attackers focused on a replica of their position about ten yards from where they actually hid. Calvin readied to attack but the mage ordered him to hold. That chafed and Calvin choked back his protests.
At last, Seline’s entire group had moved past them and the mage allowed the mud to uncover them slow enough for their vision to readjust. As they came out, ready to attack the vanguard, he heard a voice from behind order, “Fire.” A barrage of crossbow bolts slammed into them and just like that, they were out. As Seline walked past him, she paused and said, “Good to see you again Calvin. Your mage has a reputation for tricks like this.” And then she was gone.
Though still beautiful, she had a serene almost joyous look on her face. Normally Calvin would take offense at words like that, but coming from her, with so much confidence, he just nodded. The red glow of ember fire in her eyes also unsettled him more than it should have. She had moved past him to an entirely different level. A twinge of jealousy touched him and he remembered Malcor.
The skirmish wrapped up. Calvin’s side lost. While they had successfully defended the initial attack, their enemy outmaneuvered and outclassed them at every other point. All four of their mages were “killed”. They had managed to only “kill” one of the other side’s.
In wrap up, they walked through the basics of the combat with each side explaining why and how they had lost or succeeded, what went well and what did not, and what they learned. At the end, Calvin and the others who had lost their mages were pulled into a review with the Mage’s Guild. As he sat down for what would no doubt be hours of chastising, he wondered what Seline would be doing, celebrating most likely.
A senior member of the Mage’s Guild entered the room. The five “killed” mages filed in behind and sat down. One by one, the mages described how they were killed and why it was not their fault. Calvin’s squad mage practically insulted them. “I did everything in my power to protect them but when we pulled the earth elemental back and they all leapt forth, we were mowed down by bolts. The enemy seemed to know and we fell without taking even a single one of them with us.”
Calvin seethed and stood to retort but was told to shut up and sit down. It went for several hours as the Guild representative grilled the mages. At last, he turned to the knights. “You have heard your failings. Now, before you have your own say, please think carefully. You will each have five minutes to speak specifically to the failings and what you need to improve.”
Five minutes?! Calvin’s seething became a knot of anger. When he stood to speak he had to fight to retain composure. “Honored members of the Mage’s Guild, I am Calvin, Order of the Shield. My squad defended him,” he said pointing at the mage. “After careful consideration,” he swallowed and at the last minute adopted a more tactful approach, “my failing was to let my respect and regard - for a veteran of so many wars - cloud my tactical judgment. I let my respect for him cloud my judgment and I scarified leadership initiative because of it.”
The guild representative looked down at Calvin from the stage and smiled. “Well said sir. While the battle mage has command of the magical battle, you have command of the mage’s protection and in such matters, you own the leadership role. These battle mages train solely for one thing – to retain spell focus amidst the chaos of battle. That’s it. They are not master tacticians. They are not knights. They cannot survive the wounds that you knights shrug off. But, they can cast spells while under duress. I agree with you Sir Calvin. Your failing occurred exactly at this moment. You allowed the mage to hide you and determine when you came out of protection. Had you come out when you felt you should, and remember, while we all serve the Goddess, we trust the knights to follow Her guidance and inspiration, you may have won, or at least taken many of them with you. Lets look now at Lady Seline’s report.”
Seline’s mage entered the room. “The lady ordered us to intercept the squad here,” pointing to the map's alpha then beta position. “The knights and infantry kept pressure with missile assault that I augmented with illusion. As we drew near, I created a rolling fire wall to advance and Seline sent a forward unit with illusions to cross the area of interest. She ordered the rest of us to reload and wait.
"As soon as the fire passed with no casualties, we knew that they had hidden. Lady Seline ordered me to hold though I wanted to blast the area with more than a firewall. When she ordered the crossbows ready, I thought she must be insane. But she is Order of Fire and so I prepared defensive magic. We didn’t need it. They all fell to the crossbow volley. After that, we took heavy fire from the two units but with our unit at the center, we drew the entire line of attack and our cavalry outflanked and killed the others.”
“Why did you not capture the mage?”
“The lady gave the kill order. I did not question it.”
“Why did you not question?”
“I am a battle mage in the service of Tania. Lady Seline commands and I obey.”
The mage turned back to Calvin. “Look at that man there," he said pointing to Calvin's battle mage. "You did not command him Sir Calvin. Yes, he is a three time veteran of Bloodstone and multiple winter wars. Yes, he is a spell caster. This was your first time. You are forgiven. Do not make this mistake again. Sir Calvin, you are dismissed!”
Several days later, Calvin caught up to Seline at the Temple. He grabbed her arm and she whirled around. When she saw Calvin she smiled. “I hope you survived…?”
“Yeah, it was rough but I learned how you beat me. I promise I'll win next time. How have you been?”
“Well enough, I’m heading to a seminar. Join me?” She offered her arm.
Together they walked across the main chamber to a side area and on into an amphitheater that looked out over the city below. Calvin found her reluctant to talk about the specifics of what had happened but lit up when asked about the dragonterror challenge. Again, without specifics, Calvin noted that, like her quality of gear, she had experienced a fundamentally different rite than he had with Ynt’taris. Sometime later, the lecturer arrived, a Dar priestess who lectured about the concept of Time.
The priestess finally said something that caught Calvin's attention. "When adept as a paladin, or any hero class, you will be able to step out of the flow of time. By doing this, your attacks, defenses, your senses in battle will be sharpened. You'll be immune to lower level magical effects. You'll see and understand things at an entirely different level. It is overwhelming though. Our minds are not created in this world to comprehend that one. That world, the River of Time, is the threshold of the gods and the many realms outside of this world.
"If you have witnessed someone wield the River like a weapon, raise your hand please." Seline, Calvin, and a few others did.
"Tell me about it, any one of you please."
They each briefly described it. Calvin told about how Malcor had fought off a challenger. Seline spoke about a time during her training, before her Aging Ceremony, where her instructor had tried to show her. Most were like that, demonstrations of speed and agility. The instructor picked that up, "It can almost seem prophetic. The River Wielder knows where to go and what to do. In reality, they are moving so much faster than us that it only se
ems that way. Everyone who can, does. It is easy to get addicted to it. But, and this is important, assuming that each of you someday masters this, it is exhausting. The longer you stay the more your focus in this world is distracted, drained, and ultimately leaves you at risk. If you stay too long, you will fall back to this world weak.
"There are dangers there too. Only physical beings bound by time are visible in both the River and the real world. Magical creatures, immortals, gods, demons, very powerful heroes, and the like are able to mask their presence, even fight from the River. Some are more powerful there, others less. However, for us, we are always less powerful there. The farther we get from this world, the weaker we are. So, for us, the advantage of the River is speed and perception."
The lecture continued but Calvin once again lost interest until towards the end, he tuned back in. "The more time, the mightier the magic, the greater the challenge, the more a human is drawn is out of this world. The side effect is that aging can stop. I'm sure you have all noticed that our Dar priestesses and many of the R’Dar ones hardly seem to age? They appear locked in their late twenties, or early thirties – forever powerful and beautiful. Part of that is the Queen's grace, but it is also a side effect of their being drawn out of this world. They still age. They will still die of old age, but it will come suddenly and without warning. As such, I caution you. When you meet a cleric, of any faith, and they are in that age range, be on guard. They might be far more powerful than you think, or they could just be a young adventurer. Better safe than sorry."
Though Seline paid close attention, the topic for the most part went over Calvin’s head. When it ended and he escorted her back to her mentor, he asked her if had made sense.
“Yes,” she answered. “You?”
“Oh, of course. Fascinating really. Time flowing like a river and at different rates for us. Sure. The applications to warfare and our service as knights is profound.”
Seline nodded with enthusiasm. “It was good to see you Calvin. There is my teacher. Good-bye,” she waved and ran over to a Dar priestess who nodded her head towards Calvin. For a second, he thought the priestess was nodding at him but then his own mentor called to him from just behind.
His mentor did not praise Calvin’s performance in the skirmish. The tongue lashing turned into a slap across the face turned into a challenge to fight to the death. “I told you the mage would try and do this. The whole thing, all of this, everything is a test! How many times must that be pounded into you?? You want something that isn’t a test? Look out over the city. Everyone there could be you right now except that you had this special something… and you are wasting it! You want a challenge that isn’t a test? Fine!” His mentor pulled Calvin’s sword and tossed it to him while aiming roundhouse kick at his chest. The kick connected just as Calvin caught the sword. A ring formed around them in the main Temple hall. “C’mon boy! Not a test!”
Calvin tried to parry his teacher’s punch and instead caught the full force of the blow along his blade, which knocked his sword back into his face. He suddenly felt clumsy and self-conscious. He tried to apply his skills and training but, like the skirmish, his teacher outclassed him in everything. Blow by blow, Calvin apologized and asked for surrender. The more he apologized, the angrier his mentor became.
Blow by blow, he saw his master’s growing intent to kill him. At last, Calvin dropped his sword and bowed in the formal fists on the ground salute. A brief pause gave him hope and then his master’s boot crumpled up into his breastplate and threw Calvin up and back into the crowd. “You, are my student no more!”
He heard steel drawn and saw his death coming. As the sword cut downwards, he waited to die, and then nothing. He hesitated to open his eyes. When he did, everyone in the hall had dropped prostrate. Dar Shara stood her finger just barely touching his master’s blade. His master had just realized who it was and dropped down prostrate on his face. “The young knight understands R’Dar. He is your student no longer. Remember, these are wards of the Queen. I free you of the boy’s shame. You are dismissed.”
Chapter Forty Five - Calvin Enters Officer Training
Shara touched Calvin’s head and pulled him to his feet. Calvin noted that the dread lord Armageddon stood behind her. For the first time, the dread lord regarded Calvin and they made eye contact. In that moment, Calvin felt his life pull up before the dragon and he relived Shara’s words at the ceremony, that his desire for knighthood was wrong. He felt the wrongness and remembering that moment, he looked up at Shara and said, “But I have come so far.”
She reached out and touched his cheek, “You have Sir Calvin. You have. Farther than most, but you lack the core insight and faith required to go much farther. There is no dishonor in changing course when confronted with the correct path. There is however dishonor in continuing an incorrect one. I offer you what I offered in your Ceremony. Be tried now and I will show you your destiny.”
As she spoke, the dread lord’s eyes ignited with crimson fire and grew relative to the giant’s head, consuming more and more of Calvin’s vision. “Your destiny as a knight,” Armageddon growled and suddenly, Calvin’s chest burst open and the dread lord removed his heart starting at it from different angles. “This is your destiny, but behold!” and Calvin’s heart wept blood falling across the hearts of other hearts beating and then they died. “Though you may be a shield, many will die because you lack heart.”
The growling voice rumbled through Calvin’s pain and then another vision appeared. This vision showed him serving as a cavalier under a paladin. The vision flowed between his master, Seline, even Malcor. “These are known to you. As a weapon, as a tool in the emperor’s arsenal you are loved and precious. A hammer used as a saw is not loved. It is despised. You are a saw.” The vision shifted and spun to Calvin commanding armies in what had to be Bloodstone. “The mantle of leadership is most certainly with you. It allows you the things your heart craves. Companionship. Love. Friendship, Women, and popularity. Trading on loyalty. Knights are bound to absolute love of for my Mother. It starves your heart Calvin. A child of Morbatten, lacking heart, is only food. You want to be a hammer, but you are a saw.”
The vision passed and Shara let her touch drop. The circle around them had grown. His master had stopped by a raised doorway and watched. Shara stepped forward and kissed Calvin's cheek, “Choose the path of love Sir Calvin. You and your master are freed, but you can mend this by asking him for release.” Though her whisper seemed overly loud to Calvin, it did not penetrate their circle.
Calvin met his master’s gaze and stepped back, bowing deeply to Dar Shara and the dread lord. Though harder than anything he had ever done, he held his head high and walked to his master, and bowing prostrate, asked for release from the knighthood. His master nodded, helped Calvin stand, and together they walked to the Soldier’s Fort.
From across the chamber, Dar Niss and Seline stood together watching. Seline had rushed to intervene when Calvin’s master had nearly killed him. Dar Niss’ command to stop had stopped her though and together they watched as Dar Shara intervened. “Very few initiates make it as far as Calvin and then leave. Most are too prideful to withdraw. He will have a fantastic career as captain in the Tanian war machine. An officer who understands what it means to have been a knight is often more valuable to the emperor than having a knight. Skills, attributes, and heart - Dar Shara saw it correctly. Your friend lacks heart. Do you know why my student?”
Seline nodded and said without hesitation, “He gets too distracted by a pretty face and a kind word. He lacks single devotion to the Queen.”
“Indeed. That is correct. In Taysor, a knight like Calvin would become an outcast. All that training, talent, and skill would go to waste. As written in the Book of Generations, we must take a higher more divine view of a child’s potential and see the dragon within. Calvin’s heart is dragonliike but he requires more visible motivation than religion.”
Dar Niss took Seline’s hand and they returned to the Orde
r of Fire compound.
Chapter Forty Six - The Lich Meets Daryx
The lich stood on the other side of the large golden door with his vampire general. He felt the humans on the other side. Absentmindedly, he tapped the door and shook it to its foundation. His other hand summoned the ogres into undeath service. The scattered bones of the skeletons and others that had fallen, he knit into a twisted beast of gigantic proportions and then breathed the vanquished wraiths into it. Those bones chittered and seized as the two wraiths and the many bones became one settling into a carriage-sized beetle made of bone and suffering.
He tapped on the door a few more times and ordered the next area made ready. “I did not think this group would make it this far,” he mused with one last tap. He had watched the combat through the eyes of the wraiths. The dark-haired boy’s ferocity and initiative had surprised him. Clearly not an Imperic, it had also surprised him that the Imperics had accepted the boy’s leadership. Maybe he would add the boy to his menagerie. Still though, something bothered the lich about the wraith’s report. A touch of the eldar lurked around the boy and something partially-obscured his view of the boy’s true nature. As an eldar, he had never experienced that before except with the most powerful of the daimo’s house, like that Imperius-obsessed priest.
Also, something had started to trouble the lich. Though he chose to not sleep, he felt like something watched him. Dark green eyes and a skeletal ram head always flittered on the edge of his thoughts. Looking at the beetle monster, he noted for the first time how flecks of bone dust appeared to blow off the creature. Granted, the miniscule amount made no difference to its overall structure but it reminded him that the beast would not last forever. It would decay. It would die. He looked at his own hands and saw a part of himself detach as if a leaf in the wind. He tried to catch at it but it twinkled unattainable. His vampire Shiniba slowly blew away next to him. Compared to the tendrils of skin and energy ripping away from the ogres, it was nothing. The transience of it though bothered him.
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