Sin of Mages_An Epic Fantasy Series

by A. J. Martinez

  “Well done, Cleyross,” Akielas said proudly, holding on to the saddle. He glanced back and saw the traitors flying after him, then he stared at the horizon and land ahead. The shores of El Nido. If I am going to stand a chance against them, I have to take this fight off the sea and on to the land. After all, earth is my primary element.

  “Cleyross, up ahead. Fly to the shore,” he commanded, and Cleyross increased his speed. The storm began to ease, and the rain became lighter. As Cleyross got closer to the shores of El Nido, the world seemed to change to a gloomy night under dark skies. Hills and palm trees zoomed in as Cleyross descended and landed on the sand. Akielas immediately unhooked his saddle, jumped off the dragon, and his boots sunk into the sand.

  For a moment, he felt calm walking on the sand and watching as the waves crashed and foamed on the beach. The smell of salt filled his nostrils. He inhaled pleasantly and felt relief. He turned to his dragon and said, “I dismiss you.”

  Cleyross grunted and growled, refusing to leave. The dragon wanted to be by its master and fight his enemies.

  “I know you worry about me, but I want to do this alone,” Akielas told his Eedahlan, his summon spirit. He then felt the presence of his apprentices getting closer. “You have done beautifully. Go back to your twilight. I promise that I will survive.” But Akielas was not sure. Cleyross looked at Akielas with its small white eyes. It rubbed its nose on Akielas’s face as a goodbye and then kicked off the ground, thudding its wings. As it flew away, the dragon shattered into golden dust and disappeared with a blinding white light.

  Once his dragon had disappeared, Akielas turned to the horizon and saw his apprentices flying to face him. The four descended from the sky like black clouds of smoke. They surrounded Akielas on the shore, clad in scaly black leather with wide cloaks. They each stared at him through those cracked openings of their white mask with one eye. Each mask had a different design of horns, the only thing that differentiated them.

  Akielas gazed up; the dark clouds were departing, and the sky became an ocean of stars with two arcane moons. He turned his attention back to his apprentices.

  “So, why do you wear these masks?” Akielas asked, facing Ember, who had multiple horns at the crown of her mask. “Those disguises, what do they symbolize?”

  “With these masks, we bury our past and are no longer part of this world,” Ember answered.

  Then he heard Hertha behind him, taking a step forward.

  “It is so ironic you are now trying to stop us from the very plan that you started,” Hertha said.

  “Are you still pretending that you don’t remember, Master Akielas?” Naunet added.

  “What is it that I don’t remember?” Akielas was puzzled. He could not recall anything from his past that could associate with their motivation. “How have any of my ideas motivated you to cause havoc? Tell me!”

  “You are pathetic!” Jairo said then pulled a long black sword from his cloak. It was pure black steel. Ember drew twin swords from within her cloak; they were blades of black steel as well. Naunet and Hertha also drew weapons of the same metal. Naunet wielded a spear and Hertha a scythe.

  Akielas grimaced at the sight of their weapons. He removed his cloak and tossed it on the sand. He drew a sword that hung from his waist. A one-handed sword with a blade two feet in length. It was light and fast, and he swung it as if it were at dagger.

  “Kaminyte steel,” Akielas said. “The black steel of the dark dragon god. Are you trying to cleanse the world with your darkness? Is that your plan? Darkness has become your answer? If you plan to kill me with dark magic, then I hope you have mastered it. Remember that I taught you everything you know.”

  “I am sick of your words, old man,” Jairo said.

  All four apprentices unleashed a wave of dark energy. Four blasts of darkness without shouting a word.

  “Illumnos tega!” Akielas shouted and created a crystal barrier. A hemisphere protected him from dark magic. The barrier was but a way to test their powers. As the four waves of energy scratched the crystal walls of his barrier, he could hear painful screeches of fiends. This dark energy is from Necrovania, Akielas thought. It is not their own. Their source of power is external. How sad. They’ve learned nothing.

  Akielas expanded his barrier, pushing the waves of dark energy. His apprentices could not measure up to his divine magic. Shortly after seeing how futile their spell was, they ceased their magic and attacked with black steel. Ember and Jairo went first. Akielas clashed swords with both. He swung his one-handed sword accurately and with much strength in every blow. Although Ember had twin blades, she could not touch Akielas. He was faster and blocked each of their attacks. He allowed Jairo’s blade to slide over his, and then clutched Jairo’s wrist. He palm thrusted a mighty pulse wind, sending his apprentice flying into the ocean waves. Ember raised her speed to match Akielas’s.

  “I would have trained you better in swordplay, had you not betrayed me,” Akielas said and sneered. His only trouble was being able to see their weapons clearly in the night. Black metal was incredibly rare and the perfect steel for assassination. Hard to see in the dark and only the movement of their white masks helped him determine where they would move and swing next.

  Hertha joined the fight. She attacked from his left. Simultaneously, he saw Naunet hurling his spear. Akielas tilted his neck and felt the spear grazing his skin. Naunet reappeared with a cloud of black smoke and caught his own spear.

  “Pretty little trick,” Akielas said, his voice heavy with sarcasm.

  Hertha swung her scythe upwards, and her maju ran under the sand, creating a trail of spikes. Akielas hopped to the side as rock spikes erupted from the sand. She stomped and pivoted her foot, guiding her maju. Akielas’s feet sunk into the sand before they became rock solid.

  His feet were trapped, and as he tried to tug them out, Ember launched a spell. “Pikan ray!” A beam of red light jetted from her finger directly at Akielas, but the master showed no fear. He was able to stop the beam with his left hand and deformed Ember’s maju. The beam became hissing flames on his hands.

  “Amateur spell, Ember,” Akielas mocked.

  Ember replied with a grunt as Naunet lashed his spear at Akielas. The master slightly tilted his hand, and the red beam streamed in Naunet’s direction, striking the apprentice on the chest. Naunet screamed and flew away.

  Ember ceased her spell and disappeared with a cloud of smoke. Akielas flailed his left hand; it was red from the flames. Using his maju, he rendered the rocks trapping his feet and set them free. Like an arrow, Jairo flew towards him from the sea. Just before Akielas could launch a spell, he disappeared in midair with a cloud of smoke. For a moment, Akielas was puzzled, but he turned his attention to Naunet and Hertha.

  The young, masked girl with the scythe came at him, swinging her deadly weapon. Akielas was not sure how to stop such a weapon. Abruptly, he felt Ember’s presence behind him, and he spun around, only to find a cloud of black smoke. At that very moment, Hertha’s scythe caught him, and he was barely able to stop it. The scythe slashed his pauldron and wounded his shoulder. He slid his sword over her weapon about to strike her. Hertha’s body quickly covered in a cloud of black smoke before disappearing from sight.

  In the blink of an eye, as Akielas was distracted, Ember and Jairo reappeared with black smoke. Two swords striking. One from the left and two from the right. Akielas caught Jairo’s sword with his left hand and clashed swords with Ember, but she managed to wound his arm. Akielas held in a scream, and as he clutched Jairo’s sword, he pulled his apprentice towards Ember. Akielas jumped away from his foes and gritted his teeth, holding in the pain.

  His hand was bloody and so was his right shoulder. He did not have time to pay attention to the pain as another apprentice appeared from a cloud of smoke again. This time, it was Naunet, and he lashed his spear at Akielas. He parried the spear. It nearly cut his neck. He continued to parry, like dodging the stinger of a scorpion. Akielas enchanted his sword with
fire, and when he swung, he unleashed a horizontal wave of flames. Naunet summoned his water element and stopped the flames.

  Akielas was tired. He did not have time to cast a healing spell for his wounds. However, he still had more than enough maju in him. He did not remember ever facing foes as strong as himself. Well, of course, only my own students would be the ones to surpass me, he thought. He always knew he would have to fight someone stronger than him, but he never imagined it would be one of his children.

  “I was never good at weapon combat,” Naunet said, stepping away from Akielas and spun his spear playfully. Naunet was always the slick one. The seducer. Always trying to be one step ahead of his opponent.

  “Your wound from earlier is gone,” Akielas realized.

  “Good eye, Master Akielas,” Naunet replied. “Tell me, are you getting tired yet? Feel like dying? Feel like giving up? How does it feel to fight the very children you raised?”

  Akielas thought about it for a moment, but he did not answer.

  “Do you even have the heart to kill your own children, old man?” Naunet said hoarsely.

  “I will if I must.” Akielas replied, but his words were weak, no confidence in his tone. “All you are doing is tempting me. This battle won’t end until either one of us is dead.”

  “I don’t believe you, Master Akielas,” Naunet replied. “Frostass suz!” He launched a blue beam from the palm of his hands.

  It was ice magic. The beam was freezing cold, and Akielas dared not touch it. The master rapidly called upon his crystal barrier. The beam collided with his barrier and created a wall of ice, putting Akielas inside a frozen dome. While inside the dome, Akielas’s barrier vanished unexpectedly. That bastard Naunet is trying to make me use all my maju. “Pikan granda!” he yelled and punched the roof of the ice dome with a pillar of fire.

  He jumped out of the ice dome, and as soon as he saw the light of the two moons again, Jairo cast sharp winds cutting through Akielas’s armor. He fell and rolled on the sand. Akielas struggled to get up. His legs wobbled, but he was able to stand up. His chest plate protected him, but he found a shallow wound. He did not worry about it.

  All four surrounded him. They did not give Akielas much time to think and cast their dark magic again, this time shouting, “Odiams suz!”

  Four jets of dark energy aimed to drown Akielas in darkness and send his soul to the realm of the dead. “Illumnos Tega!” he shouted. His crystal shield protected him, once more, from its opposite attribute. When the energy waves crashed into his shield of light, he heard screeches like nails on glass and beastly shrieks from the dark realm.

  This was his opportunity. All four of them were attacking him, casting their dark spell on him. If I could somehow pull them closer to me, I could use one spell to finish all four of them. What would be a faster way to finish them…Ah! Yes! Electromancy. Nothing is faster than lightning. Here I go.

  “Trondas chain!” Akielas shouted. Without releasing his crystal shield, he was able to spark lightning with one hand, while maintaining his protection spell. Electricity chirped like a hundred birds from his hand. He pointed at the apprentice behind him. Lightning shot towards Ember. A string of electricity caught her and ceased her spell. As the other three released their dark spell, Akielas quickly shot another electric string at Jairo before he could fly away. Then at Naunet and finally he caught Hertha. All four of his apprentices were caught by a string of lightning, their bodies paralyzed, unable to retaliate. They could only speak and cussed at Akielas.

  It was a powerful spell that drained an enormous amount of his maju. Electromancy took a high toll on a mage’s body. Not only was he focusing his spell in four directions but, if he failed, he would have to fight his apprentices in a weak state. Let’s do this right or die, he told himself. Akielas pulled the electro strings, and they chirped wildly like angry sparrows around him. All four masked apprentices floated towards him helplessly in a chain of electricity.

  This was it. It was the time to finish them. All I have to do is enchant my blade with lightning and….he thought about it. It was very easy. Their lives were in his hand. Just four strokes of his sword and he could save the world from their terror. Come on, you can do it; they are too dangerous to be kept alive. But he felt their maju fading. His lightning spell was lowering their maju. If it continues, they will die. My children! No, I can’t let them die. Not like this. I can’t kill them. There has to be a better way.

  Akielas refused to end the lives of his children. The thought of spilling their blood hurt him. What can I do? What should I do? Imprison them? Seal them? Put them into a long slumber? Drain their maju? What should I do?

  His spell was weakening as he thought of a punishment. He could now feel them budging and trying to break free from the lightning strings.

  “You are weak Akielas,” Ember said as she struggled to free herself.

  Akielas finally decided. From now on, I will know wherever you are. Whenever you use your magic to hurt others, I will know, and I will find you. Then he shouted, “Llumvrem keen maju.”

  With the ancient words, Akielas’s hands glowed with the symbol of the divine dragon god. He pulled Ember towards him by his lightning strings. He then pressed his palm on her neck, and she screamed. White steam rose from her neck. Akielas sent a shock through her body then tossed her, and she rolled over the sand, her body chirping with small sparks. Akielas did the same to his other apprentices. He branded them with the symbol of divine magic, an arrow pointing up with a dash through its shaft inside a circle.

  Akielas tossed their bodies on the shore. They twitched, their bodies too stiff and weak to stand. Not even Ember, the strongest, could get on her feet.

  Whenever they use their maju, I will be able to sense them and see where they are. My third eye will show me. I will no longer have to hunt them down. Their dark magic will be weakened, and if they try to remove the brand from their necks, it will be futile, for only illumancy will be able to remove the brand.

  Akielas took one last look at them before he left. They were still weak. He could kill them, but he chose not to. Naunet was right; I don’t have the heart to end the lives of my apprentices. I hunted them down for so long and watched them cause destruction, yet I can’t do it. At least now, I will know wherever they are with little effort, and they won’t be able to escape from me so easily.

  “Illumbos Cleyross!” he called upon his dragon again. The magic circle tattooed on the back of his hand, which he called a mandarak, glowed. He pressed his hand on the sand, and the glowing illustration expanded twenty feet long, shining beneath his feet with the symbol of divine magic. It was the summoning magic he learned from the king of fairies. “Cleyross rise!” he shouted and heard a roar coming from the dimension of the mandarak. His silver dragon flew out of the glowing illustration.

  “Take me back to the sanctum,” Akielas told his dragon. Cleyross descended, its wings caused the sands to billow. The dragon lowered its head for its master, and Akielas sat on the saddle. He spurred the dragon, and the creature ascended with loud thuds of its wings. As he rose higher into the sky, he stared down at his apprentices. “Perhaps, I am a fool, but I will find a way to prevent you from causing havoc,” he whispered. Cleyross flew into the night and disappeared under the two moons.

  Auron

  The sun blazed in the summer of Burnahdujf, the northern country of the eastern continent. Barinos, the capital city, was crowded that day. It was the perfect day for the crowning of the new king. The people gathered just before the Sainos castle. Knights stood by the edge of roads, making sure that people moved in an organized manner. A phalanx of drummers marched in front of the crowd, and ahead, trumpeters sounded their instruments. It was a celebration for a revolution. The people were confident that their new leader, Darmang Sainos, would change the country. No longer would the Sainos dynasty have absolute control. Darmang wanted to give the people of Burnahdujf more freedom and rights. Darmang would do something that many of the previous
kings feared so much. He would trust his people. That is why Auron Fox stood by his side.

  Auron Fox had become good friends with Darmang. In fact, he had always worked closely with previous kings of the dynasty. However, he really trusted Darmang and was looking forward to the changes that were to come. Auron was the right hand of the king and stood next to the throne. He stared into the river of people celebrating the new laws. The line coiled long from the capital city to the front of the Sainos castle. Dancers, women in colorful gowns, men wearing gold and silver, even foreigners followed the parade for the king. When the parade finally arrived at the crowning area, Auron’s heart pounded with bliss. This feels so different, he thought. I have seen two Sainos become king, and I have never seen the people so happy. They are not here for the money that they can make out of this celebration or the free things that are given. No. They are here for their new freedom and rights. I can feel the energy. Darmang will be a great king.

  “Are you feeling alright?” Darmang asked, sitting on the golden throne. Auron did not respond as he gazed at the crowd with a smile. He tapped Auron’s pauldron, trying to get his attention.

  “Oh! Sorry, I was just deep in thought,” Auron responded.

  “Aren’t you always?” Darmang said and chuckled.

  “This feels very different. What did you do to win their hearts, Darmang?” Auron asked.

  “I did what many Sainos feared to do. Show them love and give them hope. It is what people truly want, and I will do everything in my power to make sure that they have a good relationship with their king. That is what makes a strong country,” Darmang answered and smiled, gazing at the sea of people with Auron.