Ethria- the Pioneer

by Aaron Holloway

  “Not that she hated Dazin, she cared for him in her own way. Just, not the same as her own children. More like, as if he were one of us cousins, rather then a son. Dazin never let it show, I never suspected that it bothered him he was not in line to inherit. But, apparently, it did. For him to turn on us, just for power…”

  I helped him carry the now fully human corpse over to where I had placed the shaman’s looted body. “Care to join me?” I asked as I pointed towards the necromancer's corpse. When we finally got to searching the robes and person of the necromancer herself, a contingent from the upper floors arrived.

  Ma’vone and Sir Barristan guarded by four rangers wielding knives as long as short swords entered the room, and began helping us set things to right. As the rangers and Sir Barristan began taking our dead from the place, and two of the rangers took the children promising sweats if they were good.

  “When you left, there was only a handful of the black covered undead, accompanied by maybe thirty-odd skeletons and one of the bone giants. The skeletons and the giant had simply walked out of a portal summoned, the priest thinks, by the fact that the place had become a sort of shrine to this dark god, Desh.” Ma’vone said, answering my question about what had happened above.

  “Tesh.” I corrected. “The god's name was Tesh.”

  “Right, well the priest thought they had been summoned directly from the Dark Lands, that's the elemental plane of dark magic, where necromancy and death magic is commonplace. Though not all dark magic is necromancy, it's just a common form of the element.” He explained hurriedly as if I might chide him for his lack of knowledge.

  “Anyway, so they came out of those portals and just waited around. Over the next few minutes, we started realizing that more of the black ones had begun congregating behind the skeletons. My father ordered a sally by the knights and rangers, supported by the archers from every window in both towers and the main complex.” The boy went quiet in contemplation.

  “I take it, it didn't go well?” I asked putting my hand on the boy's shoulder.

  “It was a mixed catch, half fish, half eals.” I gave Ma’vone a quizzical look before he continued. “Sorry Master Tear, it's a common saying among the fishermen of the town. It means the sally forth that my father ordered was successful but at great cost. Some might say too great a cost.” The boy air mage shook his head sadly.

  “The knights and rangers charged out, hit the undead lines, and before either the black creatures or the bone giant could respond they disengaged. The enemy had been bloodied, so to speak. I mean, they don’t have blood they’re made entirely out of bone and undead flesh.” I rolled my eyes and motioned for the boy to continue, as we piled anything that looked even remotely useful into the center of the room.

  There was a surprisingly good amount of loot that had not come directly from our enemies corpses. That's at least one thing that video games mislead me on. I mean, who carries all of their valuables on their person? I thought before focusing on the boy's words.

  “My father's charge angered them and caused them to attack. It gave us the opportunity to slaughter them through the windows, and doors. Whatever had given them such coordination before, seemed to have left them, as the undead acted in what seemed like mere instinct.”

  “And? The cost?”

  “Well, in total we lost nearly half our force.” I stood straight in shock, looking at the boy slack-jawed.

  “The undead, though instinctive, proved far deadlier than most of us realized. Beyond that, as soon as we dispatched the first wave of skeletal undead, reinforcements arrived. Another portal, more enemies then had been there before, and in the second attack? The black-clad creatures joined in.” I let out a breath I hadn’t known I was holding.

  “Both of the captains, the brothers Bardin and Ugin, held the towers. A giant menace each, and threatened to bring them down on top of the central keep where my father was holding with the majority of the men. Ra’thin’ax attacked and destroyed one of them, but the northeastern tower was left vulnerable.”

  “Wait, archery and infantry captains, they were brothers?” Ma’vone nodded.

  “They joined up about two years apart from one another. Ugin was the elder, he got Bradin the position in the men-at-arms under the previous captain. When he passed at the Battle of Laketown yesterday, no, two days ago now as we have passed the midpoint of the night, Bradin was the under captain and took over.”

  “Ah, okay. Please continue.” I said as I lifted a sack of something from behind the altar, and put it on my shoulder heading towards the growing pile of loot in the center of the room.

  “The brothers, they took down the third giant. Ugin blinded it with some special ability of his, and Bradin taunted it as he ran out the tower from one of the main floor windows. He lead it away, so the archers, Including Ugin, could pelt it with volley after volley. It was enough to weaken the creature, but not kill it. Bradin died taking out one of the beasts legs. Ugin, once he realized what his brother was doing, ran after him and kept Bradin from being overwhelmed by the lesser undead. Eventually, he was surrounded and slaughtered.”

  “So, how did you guys finish it off?” I asked, letting down the sack of what felt like mushrooms.

  “We let Ra’thin’ax take care of it,” he said with a shrug of his shoulders, as he placed a handful of incense sticks from a table off to one side I hadn’t seen during the battle, on top of the slowly growing pile of loot. “He sent a fireball sailing right over our heads and impacted the still blinded thing. It was perfectly timed too, you should have seen it! The ball went right into the bone giants open mouth, and exploded! Bone fragments everywhere it was awesome!” Ma’vone pumped his fist as only I had done since coming to Ethria.

  Looks like some of my mannerisms are catching on, cool! I thought. Also, have to remember, he's a boy, and quite impressionable. Best behavior Rayid. I thought as I went to find something else to steal.

  “How did the center fair? How is your father?” I asked as I picked up the large bucket of enchanted black daggers. It was the same bucket that the goblin had taken a dagger from to finish off the witch.

  “He held the front door single-handedly, while Sir Barristan kept the line steady and plugged holes that sprouted up in our defensive line. Unfortunately, if a little predictably, my father was injured..” Ma’vone said the last through gritted and frustrated teeth. “ Dagger, right through the shoulder. It was made of bone, yet somehow was harder than metal. I told him you know? He’s older now, can’t move like he used to. I was worried the entire time he would be knocked down and dragged out the door never to be seen again.”

  “But that didn’t happen,” I said trying to lighten the boy's mood.

  “True, but…” Ma’vones voice trailed off for a moment, and he stopped in his looting and wiped at wet eyes with his dirty blue robes sleeve. “... but we lost Rithgall.” After a moments pause, and thinking I didn’t know who the boy had been he said “My best friend, he was squire to Sir Barristan. Even if he was common-born, Barristan was going to raise him to knighthood soon. He had worked so hard, learned all the lore, he even taught himself how to read! Something most knights, particularly out here, never learn to do!”

  I felt like someone had just punched me in the gut. The young man had been not much younger than me, and he had seemed so competent and kind.

  I went over to Ma’vone and put a hand on his shoulder. “The world is far poorer for his loss than most people will ever know. We talked for a bit, I grew to know him somewhat, you know? Rithgall?” We stood there for a full minute while Ma’vone struggled with the grief.

  “Well, at least I still have Ra’thin’ax, right?” Ma’vone said as his he regained his composure.

  “Ah! Where is our baby fire-air elemental?” I asked the young air mage.

  “He’s upstairs, outside, playing with piles of ash, actually. He finds the mix of expended fuel that is so easily manipulated by wind fascinating. Speaking of your involvement in
his birthing process...” I held up a hand to stop him.

  “Don’t call it that. Just, just don’t. Let's call it his, awakening.”

  “I had the same thought, but I didn’t want to stop the whole ‘we’re his parents’ thing you had going. Anyway about that. I explained what both of our contributions to his, awakening, had been, and he seemed intrigued by you. Though he seems more attached to me as his actual summoner. I hope that doesn’t bother you Master Tear…” he said hesitantly.

  Master? Where did, oh, I see. “Is my technical mastery of fire magic why you seem like your tiptoeing around me?” I asked.

  “Uh, well sort of. Masters of Magic, any magic really, are held in high regard. They are rare, and most are, easy to anger.” I let out an exasperated sigh and rolled my eyes to the ceiling visibly. “Though you seem much more at ease around students like me!” He said hastily trying to stave off my anger.

  “Look, kid, I learned pyromancy by accident. I think. Unless this girl I know slipped me a powerful magical tomb on purpose. Which I suppose could be the case, but I don’t know.” I paused for a moment, lost in the tangent.

  I shook my head and tried again. “What I’m trying to say is, right now? With regards to the magic I've earned on my own through study and practice, without looking at the outcomes of this battle, I am a journeyman with 10 ranks in Force and 8 ranks in Light magic, that's it. That's the highest I've gotten. As far as I’m concerned? You’ve outstripped me by far! If anyone should be the respected one around here, it's you.” Ma’vone blushed and bent down to pick up something I couldn’t see behind the incense table he had been stripping.

  “You’re close to mastery in Force Magic. That's pretty rare, most people abandon Force Magic early on, as it's seen as nearly useless on its own in most magical pursuits other than some obscure aspects of enchanting and low-level war magic. So, any thought as to what you’re going to do to earn your Mastery rank?” He asked as he emerged from behind the table with what looked like a rug of some kind, walked over and tossed it onto the pile.

  “What do you mean, what am I going to do?”

  “Um. I don’t mean to pry Wizard Rayid, but, have you had any formal training, like, at all around magic?”

  I laughed something that at first seemed to disturb him. “Look, kid! I’ve had magic for like, a week! At most! I’ve read five books on the matter, that's it. And one of those books? Was the magic book that gave me the pyromancy mastery. Long and short of it? No. I don't!” I laughed again, and this time Ma’vone Traser the youngest son of Lord Traser of Laketown, laughed with me.

  When we had sobered, Ma’vone looked at me with different eyes. His demeanor was still respectful but instead of looking at me like I was some kind of Master and he was a student, it was the look of respect one had for a peer. “Well, in that case, allow me to enlighten you somewhat Wizard Rayid.” Ma’vone picked up what looked like jewelry from one of the many small alcoves that dotted the room as he spoke.

  “To gain a Masters rank naturally, that is through training and not through magical means as with a Magical Book or a Godly Boon, one must complete a great feat of magic in the given magic type. If Ethria acknowledges the feat of magic as one worthy of recognition, it will grant you Master status. The same is true for Grand Master, though there are other requirements, or so the legends say.”

  “Does that extend to Magic Schools as well?” I asked picking through some more debris.

  “No, Magic Schools are about your personal knowledge, not your strength in a type of magic. I was taught to think of Schools as one's mind or knowledge, and magic Types as one's magical muscle. A mage may know how to do something but might not have the strength necessary to do that thing. Or, a mage might have the strength to do it, but not the knowledge.”

  “That makes a lot more sense then what Ailsa was trying to teach me.” I stopped and thought for a moment before asking. “You seem like a smart kid, could you try and explain how the Analyze skill and the Analyze ability are different? Ailsa and a few of the elves have attempted to explain it to me, but I don’t seem to understand it, so I've been avoiding using either unless I'm in combat or about to face an enemy.” Ma’vone looked shocked at the question.

  “That, that is not normally a question asked by adults.” The boy went quiet for a moment, then rummaged around in the satchel before producing a small book that looked remarkably like the book I had borrowed from the elven children on our trek to Cutters Hollow.

  “This book helped me understand the difference early on in my education.” He flipped through the pages and found a small description that he read aloud, the words appeared in a notification window, added to my journal as he read them aloud.

  “Journal Entry Added: ‘...The Analyze Skill is often confused by foreign species. These species often have similar skills that operate mechanically differently then Analyze does for the average Torish Human. NOTE: Analyze is often confused with the Analyze Ability by children who have yet to learn the difference between active skills, and active abilities, usually toddlers. It is recommended in such cases that parents deny access to the use of active abilities for their children until an appropriate age, thus avoiding awkward public outings, and offensive accidental use of the ability on unwilling passersbys. Additionally adults with remedial education, severe intellectual and cognitive infirmities, or who suffer from severe head injury, may also experience difficulty with understanding this key difference, leading to awkward breaches in social trust. To clarify this, a description of both is provided below for remedial children, and foreign illiterates ...”

  Ma’vone winced at me. “Sorry, this wasn’t written with the kindest world view of foreigners such as yourself.” Annoyed I had essentially just been called a dolt and or retard by whoever authored that book, but still interested, I made the circular ‘get one with it’ motion. The motion seemed universal in human cultures, and Ma’vone continued.

  “The active Skill Analyze has more to do with an individual's ability to see, hear, taste, touch, smell, and understand those outward stimuli with their own minds then it does with the manipulation of the life force. Whereas the Analyze Ability actively uses an individual's life force, sometimes referred to as kie by foreigners and degenerate eastern worshipers who should be avoided…”

  “This goes on for a bit…” He flipped a page or two. “I’ll just skip his ramblings and get to the salient points. Here.”

  “The Ability known as Analyze is the most fundamental and most commonly utilized form of life force manipulation among the Torish. Though manipulation of the life force is also common among those who use skills and abilities requiring increased strength, speed, dexterity, or any other physical trait, such as knights and soldiers. The Analyze ability extends an individual's life force out to touch another beings life force, soaking up information about that individual and presenting it in understandable form to the user of the ability. It should be noted that lack of knowledge of the difference between the two is a key indicator of foreign origin with regards to either species or cultural and is often used by inquisitors to...”

  He snapped the book shut, slightly embarrassed. “Does that help?” Ma’vone asked.

  “Extremely, thanks! I’ll take a look at it again later to make sure I got it. By the way who wrote that book?”

  “Um, my original master did. He’s been dead for two years now of a heart attack. The book is actually rather popular among the northern nobility.”

  I grunted and turned back to the work at hand, muttering under my breath about noble xenophobes. Though I had to admit, in a world so different from Earth, filled with so much more danger and from so many different places, a little xenophobia might just be what most people needed to stay safe. To be honest, I was a little surprised that humanity wasn’t extinct on Ethria with how many dangers, but from within and without they seemed to face. Filing the argument away for another time, I stopped and realized that we were essentially done with stripping the room
of all of its valuables.

  It was just Ma’vone and I in the room, the others all having left to either help the children, make sure the rest of the place was safe, or take a nap in a quiet corner while we worked. Though, two men-at-arms stood guard at the entrance to the room. “Well, let's get started looking through it all,” I said as I sat down on one side of the large pile we had made. Ma’vone took a seat opposite me.

  We began by picking up each item and reading the descriptions we out loud to one another. After about ten minutes of it, and having only gotten useful descriptions on a handful of items, Ma’vone sighed.

  “This would be more fruitful if we had someone trained in item identification. That skill would give us more information about what each of these things can be used for.” Ma’vone explained after he tossed the last of the black daggers back into the bucket after it said “Black Magic Dagger” for the twelfth time in a row.

  “True, but do you know anyone with us with that skill?” I asked. He shook his head no and we continued. Most of the items were fairly mundane. Eventually, Ailsa joined us after having helped escort the children back up to the main camp that was being set up for the night. When she saw what we were doing she buzzed her wings angrily at me.

  “You realize I have a spell for this, right?” I opened my mouth to reply that no, I, in fact, didn’t know that and that we really needed to sit down and have a long team conversation about our abilities and skills before the next big fight, but she began casting. With a flash of purple-blue light, her expression went far away and she began reading descriptions as they appeared to her.