A slap to his face startled the young man and he was forced to stop what he was saying to look at the girl.
"You were doing it again," Ashleen stated with a sigh. "Now that you have all this magic and knowledge, do you plan on lording it over those who once saw you as inferior? Isn't that the way Magnus used to treat you?
"The man I have been following for the last year used his magic to protect and help people. Who is this I am looking at now?"
"Sorry," he said again with his own sigh. "You're right. It isn't the right way to face anyone let alone as King Alain's ambassador."
Rolling her eyes at him, Ashleen shook her head as she continued, "You gained all this power and now everyone looks to you, especially other battle mages. Remember that."
Though he certainly didn't enjoy being reprimanded by the girl, Sebastian knew that she wasn't wrong. If he was going to be Alain's agent, he was going to need to remember to come at it with more diplomacy. The mage wondered if he needed to return to White Hall to train with the diplomacy wizards like his sister did now.
"It was a good thing you were there to deflect my ego," the young man stated. "I might have actually gone through with asking if he wanted to make it a contest."
"I might expect that of someone like Elzen. He didn't let me try and use diplomacy at Fort Delial. You reminded me of him with King Vardal too.
"You really need to be more careful. You actually kept your poise better with my family than you did with the king. I mean, he is my cousin too; but my immediate family had me more riled than you when they were complaining about my settling on someone that wasn't a lord."
Chuckling at the idea, Sebastian answered, "I guess that I felt more like I needed to give the best impression that I could to try and change their minds. You were also more worked up about their complaints, so maybe I was ready to be the calm one there."
Ashleen suddenly laughed seeing the irony of the two meetings. "Great, so you needed to keep me in check with my parents and I need to keep you from being stupid with the king. We are quite the pair, a wilder and battle mage."
He nodded. "I've spent half my life learning to fight and you've spent half of yours trying to rein in your magic. I guess we're lucky we have each other for added control."
"At least I had my childhood training to learn a little more about negotiating and diplomacy when they thought I would be the wife of a lord. You learned to calm your mind for combat, but there are times where I think that you forget how to calm it for everyday life or in this case for dealing with nobles without needing to fight."
Shrugging, Sebastian replied, "Maybe so. I do my best to keep my temper in check, but I can't say that I am always perfect."
Her hand rose to caress his cheek, the one which had been slapped earlier, and said softly, "No one is Sebastian. We're all human, even if some of us happen to have magic. That means we have flaws and moments that we'd like to get back because we know that we could have done better, right?"
He simply nodded enjoying her touch. His thoughts must have been easily read by the pretty blonde as she removed her hand to point with her finger at his face and said, "Later. Maybe we should eat and head back to the inn for an early night?"
Her secretive smile flirted with him as did her sparkling blue eyes. Their fight resolved, the two of them were ready to move onto the next stage of their lives.
Letting a smile cross his lips in turn at her teasing, the mage's mind moved to the next item on his never ending to-do list. "We can put off going to Interus and Velius until tomorrow. We'll need to inform your father and see if there are wizards that he will want us to test for aptitude with the magic.
"King Vardal will expect us to return soon for the first group of wizards there. The sooner I find a few, who can recreate the spells, the sooner we will be able to move on from that task. I have a feeling that we will be spending a lot of time working in both cities teaching light and darkness spells as well."
He paused and Ashleen waited realizing that he was still thinking. The owl had only been his mulling his thoughts aloud anyway so there was nothing for her to add.
"The ravens mentioned that our wizards have been unable to crack the barrier surrounding New Harbor. They didn't officially say if they had lost any men trying, but I would guess that there were those who tested if the runes would hold up against wizards. Even if they sent soldiers and mages through together, it was likely a one way trip.
"I can use a set of stones that I left behind on the trip to Sileoth a few months ago and set up a new forward base of operations for our people in one of the towns closer to New Harbor. Using dragon wings shouldn't take me that long."
Her eyes narrowed slightly as she listened to his thoughts as he voiced them for her. "Are your wounds healed enough to fly? Why not just use the air magic you used for moving the stones in Kardor? We can go with you to make sure that you are safe. There is no reason why you need to risk your health and isn't that faster than you can fly anyway?"
Sebastian considered her idea and answered from his own worry. "I told them that I might wait a few more days to finish healing; but it is still true that the closer to New Harbor I place them the more I have to worry that the wizards from the city might notice. If I fly them there in person, I can check out the towns to see how far Count Terris' influence has gone at the same time. If their rebellion has spread beyond New Harbor, we might need to consider remaining further away or creating a base outside of any settlements."
"But if you fly there, people can see you. You'll be putting yourself at risk... again," the girl stated with irritation. She was getting tired of him getting into trouble and too often running off on his own.
"Too bad you can't fly as well. Your need to be close to the ground to receive the energy from the earth would make you too sick to be that far away," the mage said considering her offer of at least having his team nearby.
She noted his eyes glaze over slightly as his mind wandered. It hadn't left the discussion completely, but Sebastian wondered if there might be a solution for Ashleen's condition.
"What are you thinking?" the pretty girl asked.
He noted the redness in her cheeks and gestured towards the door leading inside. "I wonder if there is a way to alleviate your connection to the earth problem."
"It was your test that led to the discovery of my tie to the earth in the first place. How would you change that? I can't seem to turn off the connection I have to the ground. Where would that leave us? I get sick just being too far above ground even with the stone of a tower to act as a tie to the energy."
Nodding, the mage said, "I have an idea about that, but let's eat lunch first. Maybe the thought will fully come together before I am finished with my food."
Chapter 25- Alus Energy
The sound of waves lapping upon the shore carried to the four standing in the straw like grass that led from the sand to the tropical trees growing up enough to make a light forest. Jackets and other spare clothing lay in piles in the grass where Elzen and Serrena stood watching as Ashleen stood in front of Sebastian while the mage seemed to be both looking at her and through the girl at the same time.
"Explain it to me again," Elzen requested as the younger mage considered what had already been explained briefly by the owl.
Turning to look at his friend, Sebastian rolled his eyes as he had a feeling that the younger mage was only asking to annoy him. Elzen might come off as a goof off as well as a boy more interested in girls than being a mage at times, but few actually considered him unintelligent. His teachers could say that he probably hadn't ever fully applied himself, however, and Sebastian doubted that even Elzen would deny that.
"Ashleen's wilder talent comes from the fact that she is always tapping into the power of the earth."
"But that should kill her," Serrena interrupted as she spouted the rhetoric that every wizard had been taught. High Wizard Darius had even warned Sebastian of the dangers of tapping into the power running through the gr
ound at all times. To try and harness the power of the world was foolishness that would burn out the human wizard brazen enough to try. Legend said that some wizards had literally burst into flame during their spells when they had attempted to draw that kind of energy through them.
Shrugging, Sebastian countered, "It probably should, but something in her wilder constitution allows her to have it happen without her even trying. The power runs into her and out without doing any damage as far as I can tell.
"The problem with that is that she is so tied to the power of the earth that even climbing too high in a manmade tower made of stone frays that tie to the point that she gets weakened drastically."
"We tried the highest tower in Falcon's Keep and I felt so sick that Sebastian had to carry me back down far enough for my energy to return," Ashleen affirmed with a nod. "I was afraid that if we went further I might even die."
The owl continued saying, "I am not sure that any tower would cause a break that drastic, but we weren't willing to risk her health further. It was more of a test of a theory anyway and the idea of it was confirmed in a more drastic way that I had originally hypothesized."
Elzen glanced at Serrena as if to say that the mage was using too big of words for the younger falcon.
"Anyway," Sebastian said moving onward, "I think that I might have a way to let her move away from the ground without getting sick. She might be a good candidate for flying with dragon magic if it works."
Serrena frowned. "You're going to risk trying something untested on her? Don't you think that this is going a little far, Bas? You've pushed the boundaries of what is safe a lot, but usually you only endanger yourself."
"I am not just going to fly her as high as I can without first testing if there will be any limits to what I have in mind. If I am wrong, the rune I was thinking of shouldn't do anything to harm her anyway."
Elzen rejoined the conversation asking, "What kind of rune is this? Is it something new?"
Using his oval mark, the owl drew out a sheet of paper and unrolled it to reveal a mark. It was surprisingly simple in appearance and probably easier to draw than most of the runes he could already make thanks to the merfolk designs that he had copied.
"I used the White Hall library and one of the researchers there to find out the magic mark used for enchanting things with the power of earth."
Elzen shook his head and asked, "You plan to use a wizard's mark instead of something from the people who placed the runes on you?"
Sighing, Sebastian replied, "Like the runes from the Grimnal's shamans, wizard runes are just different ways of tapping into the magic. It is like comparing wizard spells to ours. They use gestures and words that don't match anything that we use today. Mages, on the other hand, can just say a single word and accomplish a spell as long as their minds are keyed to the magic that those words trigger.
"If my hunch is correct, this will free Ashleen from the need to remain close to the ground."
Moving closer to Ashleen, her hands pulled the folds of her dress apart enough to see the center of her chest. The inner curves of her breasts were apparent and attractive to him, but it wasn't like he hadn't seen them in their entirety in the past.
"Hold the cloth like that," he told the girl.
Ashleen's fingers pressed the cloth to her flesh as Sebastian placed the sheet of paper in his vision beside the bare part of her chest. His left hand held the paper as his right hand hovered over the rune. Closing his eyes, the mage used his power to copy the mark from the paper to the center of her chest as he placed his fingers between her breasts. Her eyes glanced to the mage's face as she held a pleased smile for him.
When he finished, Sebastian opened his eyes to see the new mark on her skin.
"I don't feel any different," the girl remarked as she glanced down to look at the blue rune. Like the other runes he made, a wizard or mage could use their magic to change the color to make it disappear by changing the color to mirror their skin. It wasn't truly invisible, but would seem like it. Not every mage made them disappear. Some liked the artwork, while others changed the color to suit their taste.
"You shouldn't," he replied simply. "If this works the way I hope, then all this rune does is connect you to the earth, even when your feet no longer touch it at all."
His eyes glowed to those who could see magic as the mage checked to see if the results could be noticed from the new mark. It wasn't conclusive, though he thought that he sensed magic of an earth wizard in the rune.
"Well, only one way to be certain," he stated before calling his dragon wings with his magic.
Moving back from Ashleen a few steps, the double wings of a giant dragonfly began to flutter so quickly that a hum rose over the sound of the waves before he lifted a dozen feet into the air. "Dragon claw," he added sending out the crimson construct made from the magic of the che'ther. Appearing like red crystal that seemed to extend from his hand to clutch her waist, the claw held Ashleen securely as he lifted them higher.
As he went up, the claw remained the same distance from him lifting the girl each foot that he climbed. At about twenty feet above the ground, he asked her, "How do you feel so far?"
Ashleen's hands held onto the extension of his magic claw. If he were to release the magic, there would be nothing solid to hold yet it felt like solid glass to her fingers.
"I don't feel any different, but that was true when we climbed the tower at first. It wasn't until we were quite a bit higher that I noticed the change in the tie to the earth," she answered as she tried to truthfully judge whether her separation from the ground had indeed affected her.
Sebastian lifted upward on his wings and the wilder joined him only a few feet beneath him as he did. Thirty feet passed and he waited for her nod before adding ten more. By this height in the tower, Ashleen was already feeling ill from her weakened tie to the ground; but at her shake of the head they lifted another ten feet.
"How about now?" the dragon mage asked curiously. When they had climbed the tower, Ashleen's face had gone pale. Her legs had trembled with a lack of strength, but so far the girl appeared fine to his eyes.
They paused at around fifty feet and Ashleen closed her eyes to better assess how she felt. "So far so good," she replied.
With her permission, Sebastian pushed higher knowing that they had already surpassed the height of the tower in Falcon's Keep about a year ago. Perhaps one could argue that the wilder had changed a bit as she studied new forms of magic with him, even so he thought that no one would believe that she had changed so much that the more extreme distance appeared to have no effect on her at all.
"Do you want to go higher?" he asked. The wind as they moved higher tried to sweep his words away, but keeping steady helped Ashleen hear him clearly still.
"Whatever you did seems to be working," the wilder said and he could see that the color in her cheeks remained steady. If anything she was a little more red than usual, but that was likely from the pressure caused by the dragon claw holding her tightly.
Fighting the urge to just rocket upward, Sebastian gradually rose into the air. His wings' murmur would rise slightly as he increased their speed to lift to each new height for the girl.
Soon the two had risen to about one hundred feet in the air. Looking down at Elzen and Serrena, they were beginning to shrink as the height increased. At this height, the mage thought that he could be looking at something the size of a mouse. He gazed outward looking at the water surrounding the main island. Smaller islands stood out from the ocean. They were the places that the four columns designed to hold Gerid and those closely related to him had sat before he had broken their magic with Yara's help.
Roughly twice the height of the place they had climbed in a tower, Ashleen appeared to have no withdrawal from the separation between her and the earth.
"We could test your likelihood for being a dragon mage from here," he said teasing the girl.
"If you drop me, so help me..." Ashleen began her threat. "Garosh was
the one who tested wizards and mages out in White Hall. I don't think you have the experience of a gargoyle born with wings."
Sebastian drew the girl towards him shortening the leash of the magical dragon claw. When she was in arm's reach he turned her away from him. Bending the crimson claw around them, the owl mage secured Ashleen to him in a stronger hold than his arms could provide. It was also tireless, though he supposed that he could run out of power eventually.
"Ready?" he asked.
"For what?" she questioned warily.
"To fly," the mage laughed before lifting just a little higher into the air before initiating a dive. They fell more than halfway back towards the ground before Sebastian pulled out of the dive using the speed gained by using gravity to increase their velocity as he took them out over the water swiftly.
Lifting higher into the air once more, the dragon mage in him wanted to execute more complicated maneuvers than the straightforward ones he was doing so far; but he knew that some wizards who could qualify as dragon mages from their ability to handle heights and the fall from them, could get sick from someone else handling their flight. It was like those he had heard of who grew sick from the motion of a cart moving along the road.
Sebastian dove towards the water until he skimmed the waves. Reaching out with her hand, Ashleen cut through the tops of a few waves creating splashes with droplets still falling by the time she could reach the next peak to repeat the strike.
Pulling up, the mage lifted the two of them higher than she had ever been physically. The wilder had traversed the winds with her mind sometimes lifting to heights well above even a few hundred feet. Sebastian could lift to the same heights his mind had flown as well; but having removed some of their warmer clothing, he knew that the currents higher were often cold as well even this far to the south.
"You're holding back, aren't you?" Ashleen asked turning her head towards him as she was held securely to his body with his dragon magic. She had more support attached to him, than the mage had to his wings, he thought.
Battle Mage Bonds (Tales of Alus Book 13) Page 33