Within seconds he was thrown to the ground and treated roughly until the princess steeped between him and the female guard who was accosting him. “This man saved me I don’t think my mother would approve of him being treated so even if he is a male.” She then turned and quickly made her way into the palace proper, while he was helped up and led at sword point to a small but opulently decorated room room.
While he waited a bath and change of clothes were prepared for him. The bath was welcomed as he had not been afforded the change to take one since he had been at the Double Dove inn. The clothes while elegant seemed a bit overdone to him. The doublet was a dark red, with a lighter red trim, and the pants were dyed as dark as night, with silver trim running down both sides and across the midsection. There was also a deep black pair of boots with silver buckles that fit him well if a tad too big, and to top it off his hair his hair was pulled back with silver string into a tight pony tail that pulled at his wound.
Even after the long bath and tedious dressing and pampering by the horde of slaves that kept checking and double checking him to make sure he was ready, he still had plenty of time for his own worries to make their way to his mind. By the time he was brought to stand before the gold trimmed double doors to the audience chambers he had his nerves strung tight.
He was marched into the room flanked on each side by three royal guards. The queen sat on a large dark wooden throne decorated in gold leaf, she was beautiful wearing a sheer white gown with small diamonds sewn all over it making her sparkle, while the princess, now wearing a dark green dress that looked nice if a bit extravagant, sat on a smaller throne to the queen's right. Remembering the proper protocols he readjusted his sight to the floor and went down to his knees placing his head upon the floor.
“You may rise,” the queen’s voice was soft yet stern, who waited till he got to his feet. “I see, so you made your way to the capital young man, the name was Mark if I remember correctly.”
Thad tried to keep the fear from his face. “Your Majesty my name is Thaddeus Torin.”
The queen gave out a short laugh. “My young man do you think I spend that kind of money and don’t remember the occasion, honestly I thought you would have taken up with the bandits that attacked us, I am glad to see that is not the case, but now that you are back with us you will have to be properly branded of course, but I supposed we can forgo the punishment for escaping seeing that you saved my daughter.”
Thad bowed low again silently triggering the group paralyzing spell of his ring. He went into a crouching position in case any other threats presented themselves. “I humbly apologize Your Majesty I was hoping it wouldn’t come to this,” he could see the queen’s eyes shaking in rage, “but I won’t be a slave.”
Thad braced himself prepared the most powerful area paralyzing spell he could muster, his head throbbing at the sheer amount of magic pouring into him. Opening the door he had to brace himself against the frame as a multicolored array of colors danced on the edge of his vision. Outside everyone was frozen in place, as he made his way to the main corridor that led outside a loud alarm rang out throughout the palace.
Everyone was in a panic and no one stopped him until he reached the iron gates, where four guards barred his path. “Stop!” one of the guards yelled leveling a spear at his chest. Thad obediently stopped and raised his hands above his head, cursing silently to himself. Having little choice he starting a spell and was happy that unlike the story books he didn’t have to wave his hands in silly circles and use long incantations. He could hear the guard in front of him telling him something but in his current semi meditative state couldn’t understand what. The guard turned to one of his companions and said something and the other guard drew his sword and approached him. Hoping the spell was strong enough Thad let loose.
With a loud roar the ground below the gates exploded sending dirt and metal in all directions. Thad had barely got his shield in place in time before the shock wave washed over him. The guards not being so luckily were thrown down to the ground and the one with the spear had been impaled by a stray length of iron. Thad felt bad for the guard but his body was already feeling the effects from his overuse of magic.
He wasn’t sure how but one moment he was staggering through the streets and the next he was laying down on the hard floor of his home, with a small read headed form leaning over him. He panicked sitting up and backing against the wall. Looking around he noticed he was home and not in the palace dungeons. “What are you doing here?”
Ignoring him the princess sat aside the washcloth she held in her hand and began making a plate of food out of his stores. “You know mother is quite livid, she has every guard and soldier searching the town for you. They are to detain you only though, she won’t admit it she was quite impressed with you, but more importantly you lied to me.”
He futilely tried to stand finally giving up as the princess walked over and handed him the plate of food. “First you lied about your name, then about being a mage. Don’t try to lie again I may be young but I’m not stupid.”
“I didn’t lie about my name it really is Thaddeus, I left my old name behind. As for the magic, I’m sorry, but I won’t be a slave.”
The princess put her hands on her hips and tried making a stern face that looked more cute then fierce. “I know, I tried reasoning with mother even if they dragged you back we would never be able to control you without your cooperation, you already proved you could have easily killed us all yesterday.”
An uncomfortable silence filled the room until he let out a heavy sigh. “Guess it’s time for me to leave Arith.” He could follow the route Monique had left him in the hopes of meeting up with her, or he could make his was to Rane and wait on her.
“NO!” The princess’s shouted. “I won’t tell her where you’re at, and I can bring you some food from the palace.” Maria’s voice started to break and a tear ran down her cheek. “I promise I’ll get mother to grant you your freedom, just please don’t leave.”
To say he was stunned was an understatement. He couldn’t understand why the princess cared if he left or not, in truth he wasn’t sure why a host of guards weren’t already clasping him in chains. He could ask but for some reason that felt wrong too, finally giving up trying to understand the princess motives he just smiled. “Ok I’ll stay around, but I would like to know how you got down here without anyone following you.”
Maria ducked her hear her face turning a bright red. “There is a secret passage into the sewers in the basement of the palace. It’s so the royal family can escape in case the palace is ever under siege.”
It made sense to him, though he was sure he had searched every inch of the sewer. Shrugging his shoulder he took another bight from his plate. The princess nattered on about how boring the palace was, sneaking in questions about his magic in from time to time. He answered the questions as best he could, and when he mentioned that most people once trained could learn magic she became insistent that he teach her.
“Why won’t you teach me?” She huffed after the third time he politely refused her request.
He really didn’t want to tell her but it didn’t seem she was going to give her much of a choice. “From my understanding you shouldn’t train in magic until you have matured.”
At first the princess’s face was confused, then as understanding of what he meant sunk in her face reddened. “Oh.”
After making him promise to teach her as soon as she was “ready” she left happily promising to come back as soon as she could with food and supplies to last him until things settled down.
Maria was nothing like what he thought a princess would be like. She was outspoken, demanding, manipulative, self-important, but also kind. Laying back down he found himself oddly looking forward to her next visit.
The princess visited every day; her visits were always erratic, sometimes staying for hours other time just for a few minutes. She always brought the latest news, and the past few days all she talked about was th
e big party her mother had planned for her eleventh birthday. On her last visit she had let him know that with all the commotion over the party she wouldn’t be able to visit for a while, but also that the hunt for him had dwindled down to nothing, the queen sure that he had left the city and well on his way out of the Queendom.
The party was still four days away and he wanted to do something special for the princess. He had an idea for a gift but he was out of materials to enchant with, so he decided it was time to risk a trip into town.
The fresh air felt great outside compared to the dank air of the sewers. His first stop was at a shop where he purchased a small wooden box with a hinged lid, then to the jewelry store where he bought a small bar of silver, a small diamond, two emeralds, three rubies and a handful of amethysts, costing him a little over four gold.
Knowing he also needed more for Monique he stopped by the blacksmith getting a few bars of steel, then before heading back home he stopped at the small trinket shop buying enough crystals to last him a long time, as well as a few glass orbs.
Back in his lair Thad emptied his coin pouch into his hands. Three gold, a few silvers and a handful of iron pennies. At the rate he was going through gold he would be broke in no time. Resigning himself to cut down on his spending he began working on the princess’s present.
The box was simple but made of a dark purple wood that was very catching to the eye. Using a small amount of steel he made settings for the gems, and arranged them in the box. The rubies and emeralds circling the diamond and lastly the amethysts circling the rest, once everything was sat out he began focusing on the silver bar forcing it to thin itself out paper thin.
Magical manipulating metal was always draining and took the majority of his energy when enchanting. His head starting to throb he placed the silver sheet on top of the gems concentrating again allowing it to melt around them covering the entire bottom of the box, but still allowing the gems to be seen. With nothing else to do while he waited for his mind to rest he grabbed a block of wood and his dagger and began whittling.
It took him two days to complete the box but he was happy with the finished product. Unlike his other items the box didn’t use a key command but keyed so that when the lid was opened it triggered the magic. While the spells used were simple he was very proud of the core design; the rubies and emeralds fed magic to the amethysts and the diamond was set to regulate the overall magic flow. When the lid opened twenty small lights of a myriad of colors filled the area dancing around in a random pattern.
Now he just had to find a way to move around the palace unnoticed. It wasn't the first time he had tried find a way to go unnoticed and he had many ideas but he didn't have time to try them all. He needed something that would last a long time getting in and out of the palace was easy since he had followed Maria and to the secret passage. There would be a lot of people at the party, but few of them males so he would stick out like a sore thumb. Maybe an illusion to make him look female would work. He had thought of using it before but had never got around to doing it. Illusions didn't take a lot of magic and even without a ring as long as he kept his concentration up he could keep it going himself for hours, but keeping one's focus while moving around was hard and if anyone talked to him he wouldn't really be able to respond properly, and illusions took a vast amount of focus especially one on the scale he was thinking every detail had to be held in his mind, one small misstep and the spell would fall apart.
He had been working on an idea to allow him to use his spells fast with minimal focus. He had an idea but it required a very detailed enchantment, using himself as the core. Taking up one a small tile of wood covered in a thick casing of steel he began to work. The enchantment book had been specific that not everyone could enchant - it was an inborn talent where a person could infuse magic with objects and bend them to their will. So most of his enchantments only took as much magical energy as casting the spell placed on the item, aside from what he expended to shape the metal, as all he was doing was making the item memorize the spell. This time not only did the item have to memorize the spell but it had to take its magic from him which was a much more complex, but if it worked he could cast his spells the same way his rings did; quickly and continuously that is until he passed out from the strain.
After four hours of work it was finished, since he planned to make more of them for his different spells he carved a small design onto the tile. In the stories he read mages always used runes for their spells so he considered that it would be a good a name as any for his new toy. It still needed to be tested and what better place than the city.
With his disguise on Thad made his way to the Double Dove inn with a letter for Monique in his hand. The letter was only a small reason for his visit, the main one being testing his disguise on the innkeeper. The woman he had remember as mean and cold greeted him warmly asking him if he would like a room. He politely decline handing her the letter along with three copper coins to keep it until Monique was able to make her way back into town.
Having lived off of smoked meat and fruit for the past few weeks his stomach grumbled at the smell permeating throughout the inn. He had little planned for the rest of the day so he took a seat at a table was promptly greeted by young sandy hair waitress. “What can I get for you miss?”
“What is the special for the evening?” Thad’s throat itched as he tried to keep his tone soft and feminine.
The waitress beamed happily at him. “We have a great beef stew served along with a fresh loaf of bread.”
“That sounds fine, I will also like a bottle of cold juice to go with my meal please.” He had thought about ordering wine but didn’t want to mix his magic with the effects of alcohol.
The food was brought out quickly and was good but made his stomach ache since it was a fair amount richer that his usual fare. Well-fed Thad made his way through the market stopping and chatting to various vendors. The experience was much different that his other visits to the market there were no sneers; vendors called out to him, and offered him fair prices, and everyone smiled at him. If nothing else his disguise would save him a fair amount of coin next time he needed supplies.
Wanting to test how long he could hold the spell before the backlash started to get to him he decided to see if they would let him in the school. He had purposely made his illusion of that of a fifteen year old girl thinking it would allow him the most freedom of movement.
He was happy that no one stopped him as he entered the school, having thought of no excuse as to why he was there. The library was easy enough to find thanks to little plaques on the wall pointing the way to various places of interest within the school.
The library was huge easily twice the size of that of the academy’s. He found the section on history and ran his finger across the book’s spines as he read the tittles. All the books were organized by date so it didn’t take him long to find the few books on the Fae Wars, and imperial history.
He knew his time would be running out soon as he had already been in his disguise for over two hours, so he tried to make a mental note where the books were located and began to make his way back to the entrance in the squatter’s district. Shortly before reaching the sewer grate his head started to throb slightly letting him know that his magic was starting to take its toll.
Looking around to make sure no one was around he dropped his disguise smiling. It had worked perfectly with any luck he would be able to make his way into the palace with little trouble. Walking back to his lair he began to think about what he should do next. He still wanted to make himself a staff but for that he needed a lot more gold then he had but maybe he could make something that functioned in the same manner as a staff. The staff worked in much the same manner as his runes with the exception that it also worked as a conduit for the magic to lessen the strain of casting as well as strengthen of the spells. If he were to fuse cores with him the same way he did the runes he could tap them and channel them into the different runes allowing him to use then
to augment his own strength. He wasn’t sure if it would work but the theory seemed sound. The only down side is that crystals wouldn’t be able to handle enough magic to make them worthwhile and gems were expensive, if he wanted to continue on with his experiments he needed more gold.
The next day he donned his disguise and once again made his way to the market the party was later that night and while he could make a illusionary dress everything he performed with magic increased the strain so if he bought one it would increase the amount of time he could hold the spell before he started to feel it's effects.
He had brought along two of his magic lights made to look like candles that gave off a bright blue light to sell. While he had promised Monique to limit how many he sold, he needed gold, and it was the only thing he had of any value. He went to the most expensive looking jewelry store in the market. Inside the lady behind the counter gave him a questioning look, her eyes asking the question before her mouth, what was he doing there. “I’m from the Rose Trading Company and was here to see if you would like to buy some magical rings we just got in.”
The ladies eyes widened as soon as the words were out of his mouth. “Ah yes Lady Monique sold us a few of her magical trinkets when she was last in town.” The lady stopped as if waiting for him to say something then cleared her throat. “Yes well let’s have a look.”
Thad placed the two magical candles on the counter turning them each off and on, the lady not one to be fooled did the same. “I don’t know where your company is getting these but if you could get me some silver candles like these I would be willing to pay a hefty sum of gold. As for these I think five gold apiece would be a fair price.”
Inexperienced Mage (Reawakening Saga) Page 7