“Ratified, my ass. She doesn’t have the authority under Reton law to do such a thing.”
Tanner waved his hand at the kneeling mages, “Take them away, give them a good view of the gibbet from their cells.”
Tanner nodded at one of the other mages, who cast a quick spell, and Talia’s spying spell was cut off as the enemy’s privacy spell took effect.
One of the mages, reluctantly asked, “Is that true?”
The queen frowned, “It is custom and tradition for an heir below eighteen to have a regent until they reach eighteen. It is not a law, however. I’ve been the queen since my father died, directly and immediately inherited by law, and there are other precedents where an underage king or queen ruled directly during other turbulent times in history. At the edge of seventeen, I’m even far from the youngest to do so. So no, he is either lying to muddy the waters, or misinformed. A coronation is a tradition as well, and has no bearing on the laws, but rather is a celebration and ceremony for the people. An official recognition, of what has already occurred, and an opportunity for me to give my own oaths directly to the people, oaths I have already made in private.”
Aubrey cleared her throat, “We also shouldn’t assume the time frame is true, for all we know those fifteen are already dead. The real question is, do they hope we’ll try to rescue them, and have a trap set, or are they already getting ready for battle? Just as Talia deceived them on our timing, he is doing the same. No one is stupid enough to declare the time they’ll attack.”
Talia quipped, “Not even Tanner.”
There were a few nervous laughs.
Aubrey sighed, “I told you, he would give a stirring emotional speech, but it was all from his deranged and ambitious viewpoint. It’s seductive, because he obviously believes the tripe he’s selling. Freedom is the right to self-determination, but it’s not being able to do whatever you want free of consequence. It’s the freedom to do what you want along with the consequences that is right and true. You have to earn it, work for what you get, or it’s not freedom at all.”
Jace asked, “Did you notice Kaitlyn, she’s terrified. I don’t know what Tanner threatened her with, but I’m sure she was one of the defectors, she just won’t be killed with the others. I imagine Tanner feared all the air mages would rebel against him if he did that. That’s what a dictator eaten with ambition does, do any of you want to live under his rule, where he even controls the rest of the council? The royal family has been wary with us in the past out of mistrust, but they’ve never been cruel, and have always been good leaders.”
He was relieved, when no one left, or looked won over by Tanner’s speech. Not after Jace and Aubrey put it in perspective, which seemed to wipe out even the few unsure and questioning gazes in the crowd.
Elisha said, “it’s time for that decision your majesty. I’d estimate we don’t have more than an hour before he attacks, if that long. I only credit that much time, because he’s probably hoping some of us will defect to his side, just as we were. If we’re lucky, he hasn’t killed those fifteen, and really did jail them. We can save them before they die, but only if we live through the next attack. Those attacking have forfeited their chance at life, our numbers will be gutted, but I would save as many on our side as possible, lest the enemy to our south gain advantage by that lack of numbers.”
Talia scowled, but didn’t say anything.
Vida stared at him a moment, a measuring thoughtful gaze.
“Do it. If he agrees.”
Elisha got up, “I’ll see to it, your majesty.”
Talia got up, as if to say not without me you won’t, but she didn’t utter the words out loud.
Olin bided in silence until they were out of the arena, and in the halls. They were in the spoke corridor heading toward the rune tower. He also felt a little off, he was alone with them, Lia had tried to go with them but was ordered to stand down.
He asked, “What’s going on, exactly?”
Elisha said, “The truth about the mystics, and our past, what we really know. The source of our stronger mages, and our permanent spells, the true power of the mystics. The true reason Vemor keeps attacking us, and leaves Dreston alone, despite their stated purpose in ruling all humanity and Dreston being much less of an obstacle. It is a secret you must keep, from everyone, including Lia, your intended. Patience, it’ll be easier to explain once you’ve seen it.”
He asked, “Tanner? Is it safe, the three of us alone, I mean.”
Elisha scoffed, “Doing what we’re doing right now, giving secrets and power to one so young and against council rules, would be so unthinkable to Tanner it wouldn’t occur to him we might do so. Besides, to stop us he’d have to reveal those secrets to his followers, which he’d never do.”
To his surprise, they didn’t go all the way to the tower, but instead turned into the council chamber. They moved to the back of the room, where Elisha cast a quick spell which opened up a hidden door. The door was literally part of the wall, the magic of the spell caused the stone to split in the shape of a doorway before opening up. It would be completely undetectable, when closed.
The three of them headed through the door, and down a circular stairwell. After a minute of it, he asked, “How deep?”
Elisha said, “About a quarter mile, but it’s a half mile of stairs to get that deep. It’s not too much farther. I suppose I can start at least. Many of the stories you’ve heard are true, and you know them to be true by your ability. The mystics are to mages, like mages are to non-mages. Set apart in their natural ability to understand magic, while us mages can merely wield it, if taught how to do so.
“Still, that wasn’t enough. They wanted to understand magic, its origins, source, and how it really all works. Why our mages, and the mages of the empire for that matter, were stronger than those of Dreston.”
The stairs finally ended at another door, which took another spell to bypass. He realized the spells themselves were more keys, than actually opening the door. Otherwise, she’d have used her hands.
The door opened up into a hallway, and they turned to the left. The corridor was carved out and polished, and they wouldn’t have looked out of place in the castle. There were several doors to the left and right that they walked right by.
He also felt a huge amount of magic, so much it made his skin itch.
Elisha paused at the door at the end of the corridor, and said, “Don’t go inside, it’s too dangerous, just look inside.”
She waited until he nodded, then she opened the door.
He blinked, at the brightness of the room, and it took him a while to adjust his eyes to really see what he was looking at. It looked like rivers of bright incandescent white light. There were three of them, and they met in the center of the room. There was a disturbance there, it looked like a small sun in that it was spherical in nature, where the three streams met, but it was also volatile.
It was then that he started to notice large crystals in the streams, and around the large sphere of magic where the three streams met. It was less a sphere, then like the meeting place of three rivers crossing each other at once. It was causing energy cavitation of sorts, to complete the simile, and the globe was really just the light being thrown out in all directions, for a short way. Past it, the three rivers continued in different directions.
“What am I looking at?”
Elisha smirked, “The source of magic on our world. The mystics called them ley lines. They run deep under the earth, and the places where the lines cross are called nodes. You can feel the strength of the magic they put off?”
He nodded.
She said, “On the surface, it’s much less noticeable, but there is an effect, and it’s stronger around these nodes. The magic they give off radiates out, upward, a field of magic so to speak, generated from these ley lines and is the magic that we recover ours from. An ambient field of magic, that we absorb and recover from all the time.
“There are many nodes in Reton, not just this on
e here. There is in fact, a node under every village, directly under where mages stay when they’re on missions, in the mage buildings. It’s why our mages are stronger. There are less nodes in Dreston, and even the few they have are mostly made from two ley lines crossing, three lines crossing are much rarer, which is why the castle, mage guild building, and the city of Highspire itself was built over this one.
“It’s why it’s a secret. If the mages of Dreston knew the truth, they’d never stop trying to take our kingdom, much like the Vemor empire. Vemor already knows, their ruling family are mages, and while they no doubt want to rule all mankind as they say, they really want to control all the nodes.”
He frowned, “Why?”
She smirked, “Power. Only mages living above a node can reach their full potential of power, otherwise their growth is stunted. They would decide who gets to have power, and who doesn’t. Of course, getting too close is dangerous, like channeling your magic without keeping it in its channels. If you got to close to it, the power would be too much for your body. Just the powerful ambient magic of it would destroy your cells, much less standing in the thing. Which is why I said not to go in.”
He nodded.
Elisha said, “Of course, that’s just the source of our greater power, one of the secrets they learned. It’s also how permanent spells are possible, but only near a ley line, or a node. Because the ambient magic so close to the lines, below the earth, are just as strong as the magic inside of a master mage, and that magic never runs low.
“All the mystics had to do was figure out how to power spells from a source other than themselves, to build that into a rune. Which wasn’t all that difficult for them, since they create runes.”
He snorted, “I imagine not. The crystals? What are they?”
She said, “Obviously, they couldn’t afford to work and experiment right next to the lines. At the same time, they had to, at least long enough to tap the power. The crystals are covered in runes that absorb and reroute some of the ley lines power. You could call them manmade ley lines, much less powerful and not visible to the human eye, but not nearly as dangerous to be around either.
“Practically, you could compare them to a well. Getting a drink of water from the water table would be dangerous to do, but if you dig a hole deep enough and allow that pressured water to fill a well through seepage or a spring, and it’s all good.”
She shut the door, and turned around, leading him to the first room on the right. They entered, and he saw another one of those crystals. But his eyes were far more focused on the walls, which were covered with runes, most of them he’d never seen or imagined before that moment.
Elisha said, “Each of the rooms has their own crystal, and a corresponding crystal in the node room, which powers the spells inscribed on the walls. This particular room, controls and maintains the arena safety spells. There are many other rooms, some we understand, like the arena layout room where we can rearrange the forest and mock town in the arena, most we do not. Ironically, there’s a room in here we call the transportation room. It’s capable of opening up a portal to any of the villages in the kingdom for direct and immediate transport, without draining one mage of their power.
“Of course, we never use it, because to use it means revealing the secrets that must stay hidden. Every mage building in the villages has a similar setup, though with less rooms, since there’s no arena to control and protect. The protections on the village rooms are more stringent however, to keep invading mages away from our nodes.”
He frowned, “Isn’t that a lost cause at this point. The entire inn tonight at least knows that there’s a secret of some kind, and if I can use this somehow to stop Tanner, without more dead on our side, won’t it be obvious?”
Talia shook her head, and answered, “They already knew there was a secret, and that there are permanent spells. The only new information they’ll have from their point of view is that the permanent spells can be controlled by a mystic, in ways that it can’t controlled by the mage council. They won’t know how, or what powers the spells, or anything else you’ve just learned. There’s no clue in that, to the origin of magic, or to why our power as mages are greater than in Dreston. You would respect the secret, would you not?”
He nodded, and sighed, “Alright, I get it. The important things will still be hidden, and they won’t even be aware it exists.”
Talia smirked, “Don’t worry, Lia will understand that you can’t fill her in. What I’m worried about most is how they’ll all see you after this, and of course how tapping into so much power will affect your soul.”
He blushed.
Elisha said, “The protective spells in this room, we believe they’re variable, and directly controllable as to response. The secret of the mystics is that they really were iron fisted rulers. This kind of setup is good for only one thing, total control over the mage towers and the castle. It won’t protect the borders from encroaching enemies, or even the city of Highspire from being sacked, it will only keep the castle and towers inviolate.
“Extreme power, but also very limited in scope. Obviously, there are good things, the arena safeties, the transportation system even if it’s not to be used, and others. Regardless, you should be able to access the more… stringent spells that are currently inactive in this room.”
He shook his head, “Wait, you said castle and arena?”
She nodded, “The rune mystics used to rule, the castle has similar permanent spells and protections in a room down the hall, though they’ve been dormant since the mystics were overthrown. Only the arena safety spells seem to be permanently on, by design. I suspect the other spells require a mystic to control them directly, someone who can read and understand the spells, and activate them. Any rune mage could probably activate them, but that would be foolish without being able to read what they do. They could accidentally kill every mage in the towers.”
Right, he saw the problem there, it was clear enough. Without him to read the runes, and figure out what the spells did, how to target them, and so forth, the control room was worthless. The room was incredibly complicated however, and he worried it would take hours of study, if not days, to figure it all out.
Sure, he could learn a rune’s purpose at a glance, but the purpose of a single rune was worthless. He needed to figure out how they all interacted, and were controlled, that part would take time.
The problem was he didn’t have days. Could he do it by feel? How the runes felt, and just let them guide him? There was danger in that.
“How did you figure out the arena setup room?”
She smirked, “It’s a scale model system. We literally just have to move things in the model, and the spells take care of the rest and mirror that change in the real arena. I imagine the first to discover the room after the mystics left thought the risk of trying it was acceptable, since it is kind of obvious.”
Enough delaying, he was just wasting time he needed to use to get a handle on this. He thought he understood Talia’s objections. He was more than willing to save their side, and stop Tanner, his loyalty wasn’t in question. But, he was feeling responsible for all the mages’ lives above him in that moment, if he failed and they died it would wound him greatly.
It also wasn’t his job, that’s what the tower masters were supposed to be taking on, protecting those under their care and power. He supposed he got Jace’s worry too, there was a lot of temptation in that room, in so much power. It was easy for him to shrug off though, such power had never tempted him overly before that.
But then, it was also stupid. To truly rule with the power of the permanent spells, with the earth’s magic powering it, he’d have to stay down there forever. As soon as he left, to catch some sunlight, or for whatever reason, one of the other master mages could just kill him. He suspected that’s how the mystics of the past were overthrown, they must’ve had one of them on duty at all times to avoid that fate, but one of them failed their duty.
Perhaps a mystic
had simply fallen asleep while on duty. A whole lot of power, but completely limiting at the same time, and impossible for just one mystic to truly take advantage of. Plus, he’d lose Lia, no, he wasn’t tempted at all. The larger concern in his head was the responsibility of it, Talia’s concerns. If he failed, many would die, and he didn’t have time to play it safe, and fully understand the rune system, Tanner would attack far before he could achieve that.
On the other hand, he knew a deadly rune when he saw one, the chances were extremely slim that if he did wing it, that he’d actually kill anyone on accident.
Still, there were tens of thousands of runes on the walls. He didn’t know where to start. He had to stop thinking, and to start feeling. He closed his eyes and felt the runes around him. The spells were complicated, but he could feel and see possibilities.
One rune structure would activate if a fire spell was detected, and they sensed burning flesh. It would douse the spell in overwhelming water magic, and then it jumped to another rune structure which would cover that person with a red aura.
Another rune structure for bleeding, another for lack of breathing, another for… it just went on, hundreds if not thousands of rune structures. He tried to relax, and not look at anything directly with his ability, and just feel.
It hit him a moment later.
He shook his head, “This is the wrong room. This room is entirely automated, and all about arena safeties. If there are more proactive measures possible, they were controlled somewhere else. There’s no control structure in this room. Just various detection spells to watch the arena for every type of trauma to a human body possible, with a counter spell that automatically launches when it’s detected. Then those counters all lead to the same illusion spell which puts a red aura around the target.”
Elisha frowned, “Are you sure?”
He nodded, and pointed out, “You did say you only understood two of the rooms, transportation and the arena layout room. I need to see the others.”
Rune Mage: The Rune Mystic: Book Two Page 16