The Formerly Dark Mage

by D. L. Harrison

  “So it is that, the power you put into the summoning which dissipates and no longer can hold the elemental in our plane. The power the elemental uses is its own, it can channel magic like us, it doesn’t really run out at all. It uses that to power its… abilities.”

  My eyes glazed over. It couldn’t be possible could it? I mean, first the staff and now this, surely other mages have considered it before. It’s too simple, but I have to try it.

  Anna looking concerned said, “What, is something wrong? Thanks for explaining that…”

  I just whispered, “An elemental can channel magic energy.”

  Her eyebrows raised at this obvious statement and I grinned. “Follow me, I’ll show you why I am so poleaxed.” I led her back into the hallway and past the practice room and into the enchant room, where the swords that needed charging were brought. There were two weapons racks. One with charged, and one rack with no weapons charged.

  I took a dagger down and put it on the table, then doubtfully, summoned a simple air elemental. The intent I used was simple, charge the enchantment on the blade with magic. My grin grew as I felt the enchantment on the weapon strengthen, it only took a couple of minutes. Then I crossed my fingers and dismissed the elemental. The charge stayed.

  Holy crap.

  Anna asked, “Did that just happen?”

  I nodded happily and said, “Ask me questions anytime. Breakfast?”

  Maria was glad to see me a little more engaged this morning and we had a pleasant time together. When breakfast was finished I had a couple of hours before being stuck standing next to the throne for part of the day and tried out an experiment on an old piece of wood.

  I put two enchantments on it. One the typical dispel magic, the second, a half protective shield boosted with an air elemental. The air elemental’s job was twofold. Protect the wielder, and charge the enchantment. I was so sure it would work. However, when I activated it, the air elemental could only charge the dispel enchantment, I frowned, there must have been some law preventing it from charging the glyph that held it in this world.

  When I cast another elemental directly however it was able to charge both enchantments. So, they just couldn’t charge their own summoning glyph, despite the power of the summoning not being related to their personal power. So I could use elements to do it, but that didn’t fix the bigger issue of shipping the weapons back and forth or needing my presence to at least cast the elemental and leave it to its work.

  I hadn’t given up though, there was still the nagging thought in the back of my mind that a ritual could help here. Something that would make a huge difference. I let the elemental enchantment drain down then destroyed the piece of wood, I didn’t want my enchantments just lying around and I had no real use for that one.

  I went over to the throne room for my first stint of standing and trying not to look bored while at the same time staying vigilant enough to protect the king from the unexpected. The morning session was basically all about asking for things. The nobles would go first, then the commoners. Most requests were turned down, but if someone actually made sense, the king would grant it.

  It was harder than I would have thought, my mind kept wandering out of boredom and I caught myself staring at Maria a couple of times. I would have to watch that. The afternoon session was different, it was all about sorting out accusations of crime. At least I got to do something there, I cast the truth spell on both parties as they reached the supplicants position.

  It was still boring though, people knew the truth spell was used, so more often than not, the crime matched the reports submitted. On the rare times the accuser was mistaken, they were fined for wasting the king’s time. When the audience broke up I made a beeline for the library. I skimmed through the books I had read the last fifteen months, at least, the ones with advanced theory and ritual magic. There were a lot of them and I was getting annoyed with myself for not remembering.

  Not finding anything before dinner, but somewhat cheered when I went with Maria after back to her rooms. It was comfortable and familiar. We chatted about all types of things.

  After we wound down somewhat Maria asked, “So what are you getting up to?”

  I quickly explained my plans to improve enchanting to overcome the issues we faced. I also questioned if there was even a way, why hadn’t other mages done it?

  Maria said, “Because Silvia, you’re unique. Yes, there are probably other people as smart as you, but none of them go after knowledge like you, or experiment with new ideas like you do. At least, most do not. I can see it in Zand and most other mages. They are powerful and could defeat practically anyone. If another mage is more powerful, well, there is no fixing that. So once you learn all your master can teach, most mages just let it go at that. Also, most mages after they reach master level focus on the political instead of improving themselves. Trying to get better positions or advance in to the council, or possibly court mage.

  “Maybe it is part of what you went through, but nothing is ever good enough for you, which is fine. After all, because of that drive mixed with your intelligence, you have already done amazing things.”

  I blushed at the compliments, and the sincerity in her eyes.

  The next few days went mostly the same. Cast an elemental to charge, answer any questions Anna had, breakfast, library, audience, library, dinner, spending time with Maria. I was getting frustrated at not finding the ritual I was sure existed, but otherwise was content with the way things were going. I was still grieving but it was getting easier to wake up in the morning.

  On the fourth day in the morning I finally found it. I was skimming through a book called advanced communication spell craft. It was an old leather volume nearly four hundred years old. I wanted to travel back in time and strangle the idiot, didn’t he realize the gold mine he had discovered?

  The ritual was titled ‘communicating with a non-mage’ and called for two parts. The first part was the rather clever use of an illusion glyph. The person holding one would be able to hear and see an illusion of the person who was holding the other. That wasn’t the important part though, despite its cleverness. It was the second part, a complicated ritual that connected two items together. It was the way the illusion spells could interact with each other.

  And the really important information, since it passed magic the second piece could be given to a non-mage, because when the mage charged his enchantment, the ritual connection distributed that charge to both amulets through their connection. The ritual was complicated, and the idea of doing it for each and every sword, plus the amulets I planned to make for the royal family, would make even me give up.

  I smiled though, as I knew I could easily get around that issue, after all I had already done so with the portal staff/bracelet. For the next two days I studied the ritual in detail during my spare time. It involved putting one complex glyph on each object, then making sure the objects were touching I would have to cast forty three glyphs with a separate intent for each. Since I had a feeling I would be using it a lot, I decided to use the rest of the space on my staff to enchant the ritual. Then it would take seconds instead of close to an hour of painstaking work for each one.

  I figured it would take me about a week to finish the enchanting the ritual, and I would need supplies for all I had in mind. My first stop was the commander of the knights.

  When he let me in I asked, “I am working on a project, do you know how many enchanted weapons there are?”

  I knew there were a lot, since they had to be constantly rotated while keeping the eighty or so knights armed. I was still surprised by the answer when he said, “About two hundred forty.”

  I nodded in thanks, trying not to feel overwhelmed.

  Next, I went over to the palace blacksmith. I figured I needed about two hundred sixty flat plates one inch by one inch for what I had in mind and to have a few extra spares.

  I waited patiently while watching him hammer out a dagger. When he reached a breaking point he looked
up and said, “What can I do for you my lady?”

  I told him and he pondered for a moment before saying, “Well, I should have enough to make about ten molds. Would ten a day work? Should take about a month.”

  I agreed and thanked him. That meant I would already have seventy by the time I had the ritual enchanted and was ready to start. I didn’t really have enough time to run down to the city before the audiences started and on the way down to the throne room I thought better of it. They might not want an amulet. I would ask them if they wanted to use any jewelry or metal they already wore on a daily basis for the enchantments.

  When I met up with them I casted normal protection spells on them. I had started to do so the second day, worried that I would miss something if my mind wandered. I was a very focused person but I was not immune to the boredom.

  Chapter 13

  I said, “I want to make protection enchantments for the three of you. I was wondering if you had something you wanted me to use for that? I won’t be ready to do it though, for about a week.”

  Maria answered, “Surprise me,” with a grin on her face. I guess I’ll be going down to the jewelers later after all.

  The king and her father wanted to use their daggers that had the royal crest on it.

  The king asked, “Why a week?”

  I smiled and explained about remote charging and the ritual in simple terms.

  We walked into the throne room together when Zand showed. I took my place on the side of the dais. The first person to come up was introduced by the herald as Lord Timothy.

  Timothy said, “Your majesty, we need help in rockbend. There is sickness there. Some… have died already and that was two days ago. I came because the manor… it’s outside of town. I am pretty sure I do not have it. The people were getting sick fast.”

  There was a low concerned murmur throughout the room. I casted the detect spells I knew and whispered to the king, “He is not poisoned or diseased.”

  King Tristan spoke loudly, “He is not carrying anything, come back to order!”

  The king turned to me and asked, “Can you investigate this? We should be okay with your protections and Zand here.”

  I told him I could and asked Maria, “Was that the third town we reached?”

  Maria replied, “Yes, I believe so.”

  I turned and took in the lord, he was a mess and looked exhausted. I led Timothy out of the hall and then cast refresh on him before he fell over. He smiled wearily at me.

  Timothy asked, “Will this last two more days?”

  I shook my head and said, “It doesn’t need to…” I opened a portal to rockbend and led him through…

  It was quiet. The whole town, not a soul in sight. I took a guess and headed for the tavern, when I went inside I saw few people standing and a whole lot laying on the floor. The smell was bad. I cast the detections on the closest person. It was a disease, poison came up negative. I had never cast the spell before, but I walked up, touched his clammy skin and cast cure disease.

  It did work, but it took nearly two minutes for the spell to eradicate it. I also took the time to cast heal, I was hoping it would help with his body’s deterioration. I cast clean last while I wrinkled my nose, the man had fouled himself. The man got up, a little unsteady on his feet but looking better with some color in his cheeks and not being covered in sweat.

  He said, “Thank you lady.”

  I nodded grimly and moved to the next person. While I worked I asked questions of the first man I healed.

  “Do you know what started this?”

  He said, “No lady.”

  “Is everyone here?”

  He looked around and said, “If anyone is not here I don’t know who it could be. We are a small town.”

  I nodded, “If you’re not sure would you mind helping by searching all the buildings in town?”

  He replied, “Be happy to, if I find anyone I’ll bring them to you.”

  Lord Timothy said, “I’ll help him.”

  As they walked out the door I moved on to the next patient. With about fifty people in here it would take me close to two hours to get them all. As usually I enjoyed healing people, but the obvious misery tempered that feeling. When I was done I checked both farm animals and the water supply, it seemed free of disease.

  I tracked down Timothy and said, “My lord, I am going to check the villages to both the East and West. Just to make sure this hasn’t travelled.”

  He was looking exhausted again but said, “Thank you, and thank the king. I hope you don’t find anything else.”

  I left the town on foot then cast clean on myself, then detect disease. It would be foolish to carry this disease myself to another town. I was clean however and opened a portal to the next town west. I went through the town and no one had gotten sick. I also tried detections and came up dry. It was the same for the town east of Rockbend and I was happy, but confused. Why hadn’t it spread at all? It didn’t seem like it came from anywhere else and I didn’t find a source either.

  I opened a portal to one of the rooms near the throne room. I estimated it was just after lunch. I walked in and on my way over to the dais I took in the room. There were three white robed master mages, and a black robed mage in cuffs, on his knees before the king.

  The king saw me and said, “Ahh, good. Report Silvia.”

  I gave the king, and the entire room, a rundown, concluding with my confusion at being unable to find a source.

  The king smiled and said, “I can help you with that. About fifteen minutes after you left we were attacked by this dark mage. May I compliment you on the protection spell? It had him frozen in about five seconds. We sent for these fine mages because we were unsure how long it would last. Anyway, this dark mage was the cause of the breakout. It was designed to draw you away leaving us helpless, a part of an assassination attempt.”

  I was gratified my spells worked well, but I was disturbed I didn’t know about the attack until so much later. I decided to figure out a way to make the protections notify me when they were attacked, for the enchantment anyway.

  The prisoner growled at the king.

  Tristan said, “I think assassinating a king merits death. Thank you mages for your assistance here today.”

  The mages all bowed and one said, “We will take care of it your majesty,” and they dragged out the prisoner.

  The rest of today’s audience went smoothly. I decided to run down to the jewelers in the city. It felt weird going without Maria, but then since I was getting her a surprise I could hardly invite her. I was in the second store before I found something I hoped she would like.

  It was a gold bracelet with a ruby and sapphire design.

  I also needed to find something for myself. Since I had decided the enchantments needed to tell me where and when they were being attacked, it wouldn’t help to have it send that information to a small plate on the wall of the enchantment room. I would need to personally hold and charge the connected objects.

  I thought about just using my staff, but I wasn’t sure what would happen if I used one object to connect to three others, and I wasn’t about to risk my staff if it proved a stupid decision. I eventually found something I both liked and would work.

  It was a sapphire and diamond bracelet. There were six settings and they were connected by gold links. Since it wasn’t one solid piece the six settings would be considered six separate objects. I would still have three settings to add anything in the future, and all in one bracelet.

  There was still a couple of hours until dinner and I had things organized so I went ahead and locked my room and started on enchanting my staff with the ritual to connect objects. When the two hours were up I saw I had fifteen out of the forty three done. More than a third done in one sitting. I guess I was getting better at carving glyphs.

  So much for taking a week.

  I was excited to get started during the next two days. I considered just finishing it, but I had other responsibilities, and I did
n’t want to give up my evening time with Maria either. Two days later I finished it with plenty of time to get Maria’s bracelet done before dinner, but first I tried it on two plain pieces of metal. I wanted to make sure the ritual on the staff worked and was done right before I risked Maria’s or my bracelet.

  I let out a deep breath when it worked as I suspected it would. I destroyed my test sample then got to work on the other.

  I carved the needed glyphs onto the back of one of the settings on my bracelet, then onto the inside of Maria’s. I laid the one prepared setting from mine against her bracelet, and activated the new ritual with my staff. A few seconds later it was complete and I could feel the connection form. I put mine back on. Putting Maria’s bracelet in my pocket I headed off to dinner with a smile.

  On the walk I pondered things. I knew I was doing a lot, perhaps more than expected of me. But outside the protection spells for the royal family all I was really doing was making my job charging things easier and removing the need to ship the weapons around for charging. When the passes are attacked it is at least a day even on a fast moving horse to bring word to the Palace.

  Also, I wasn’t making the swords stronger. I knew the council hated sending mages to help at the passes, and I couldn’t really blame them. I wouldn’t want to be stationed out there full time either. I started to consider different ways I could set up communications, perhaps even enchant an elemental to fight alongside the knights triggered by a ward of some kind.

  I wasn’t sure why I was so motivated to do these things, after all it was a temporary appointment. Part of it was of course because that’s what I did, find a problem and figure out a better way, more than that though, I grew up in Zual. The idea of my Lethians suffering at their hands if they should break through, well, that was worrying.

  When I walked in and saw Maria, all thoughts fled my mind. She was stunning tonight. It was getting harder and harder for me to resist my feelings which seemed to only grow stronger. I knew it wouldn’t be smart to give into my feelings, sadly, there was no future there. I assume she felt the same since she hadn’t either, but…