"I didn't have to with you. I used only the basic resurrection spell, so if I ever do anything to make you angry I risk having you stab me still. Maybe I should have put a spell on you to make sure that you wouldn't do me harm?"
"That didn't save Atrouseon," she reminded him of part of the wards used to keep the necromancer safe from his creation.
Palose turned to Oween's lifeless body and contemplated the runes he had chosen for the woman. While he could use the same as he had for Nalack or chosen simple runes like he had for Sylvaine; the dark mage had something else in mind. Oween's words had sparked another test of what he had learned, but had yet to try.
"Atrouseon brought that on himself," Palose replied as he began to draw the new runes on the woman's body. Being nearly bare, the dark mage drew on her feet, but added a couple more along her legs to achieve the change he hoped to enact on the warlock. "I could have lived without having him killed. The stories of warning had always said that the creations had turned on their masters. None of them warned that a necromancer might become the one jealous enough to want to destroy the one he created.
"I saw him slowly growing more desperate to remove me as his competition. It was unfortunate, but I didn't want to return to death so I ensured that I had a way to survive."
Looking back at Sylvaine, he thought the color had returned to her face. She was beautiful and Palose had been glad that he could save her from her fate. "It worked out for you and the others too, of course."
"I wasn't complaining," the girl said with a smile.
Nodding to her with a small smile, Palose turned back to Oween. He started the chant and poured the blood onto the wounds. More went into her mouth as he mixed it with the blood still draining from his cuts. The ancient words were nearly the same for each resurrection. His use of different runes changed the outcome of any adjustments that he wanted to make. For Oween, he worried less about what he needed to secure in her mental state. This time it was the superficial the dark mage chose to change.
Sylvaine gasped as she watched from her chair.
"What did you do?" she asked in a quiet voice that was ignored by the necromancer working his spell.
Palose was surprised that as the woman took her first new breath, she sucked at his hand. Nalack hadn't needed extra blood. The original spell for the others had required his blood more than this conversion from wraith to full life.
Her hands covered both of his even as she sat up. Brown eyes looked at him with surprising longing. His runes had done nothing to encourage love of that kind like he had inadvertently caused in Talia and Stasia. Still the woman had changed with his spell more than the others and Palose wondered if that was the root of what was causing this reaction.
Palose felt an odd warmth in his hands and a moment later Oween released her grip, though the woman looked like she wished that he would keep touching her.
Sylvaine moved to the table with a frown on her face for the warlock and Oween turned to smile at the dark haired girl.
"Well, I feel different. I guess being a wraith for so long made me forget what it was like being alive."
She turned her legs to hop off the side of table and paused. "That's strange," the warlock said looking down at her legs. "Did I lose weight when you took the blood out of me?"
Her hair slid forward as Oween leaned and she started in surprise. Her formerly brunette hair had changed color to strawberry blonde. Looking up at Palose, the woman slid from the table and looked down at her feet. "I haven't had blonde hair since I was little. Even my feet look different and it isn't just the blood on me.
"What did you do to me?"
There was a mirror sitting on the large workbench set against one wall. Various bottles filled with powders that he could mix for spells and other items filled those shelves; but the dusty mirror drew Sylvaine to it.
The apprentice brushed most of the dust away with her sleeve before carrying it over to hold in front of Oween. She didn't know what to say and Palose had waited with a knowing smile on his lips.
Gasping at the image in the mirror, Oween exclaimed, "I look young. How did you...? I didn't know necromancy could do this."
Oween looked at the face and body in the mirror. A girl that looked roughly the age of Sylvaine looked back at her. The girl in the mirror looked both familiar and different from the warlock as a teenage girl.
Placing her hands underneath her breasts, the warlock lifted and released them saying, "They're a little smaller, like when I was her age. My skin is darker though." She looked at Palose wrenching her eyes from the sight of her new body which appeared ten years younger than before she had died.
"Why did you change me?" Oween asked but didn't appear angry so much as confused.
"You said that you wished you hadn't wasted your youth. I thought that maybe you would like a do over," he said with a grin.
She noted skin that looked perfect and stated, "I didn't look this good when I was young."
As the shock of the changes began to wear off; her skin started to ripple from the cold and Oween shivered. Looking for her dress, she hurried over to pull it back on despite the blood on her skin. She pulled at the cloth noting, "It doesn't fit me the same. Now I am sure that I have lost weight."
She sniffed at the cloth and added, "It smells like death."
"Talia can wash it. Maybe you can borrow one of the girls' dresses for now," Palose stated and started to turn towards the stairs.
His legs suddenly gave beneath him dropping the man to his knees. Sylvaine quickly put the mirror on the ground joining him on her knees, while Oween started towards the mage with concern. The warlock in her changed body stopped seeing Sylvaine beside him and recalled that he wasn't hers. She had been his only female wraith on the battle field and forgot that there were other women in his life.
"Sorry," he apologized to the dark haired girl in front of him. "I forgot to bring some food to replenish my reserves. Pulling the spirits out first added to the magic I used. Blood magic also wears out the user, even it is more powerful."
Sylvaine took his hands and turned them over. Gasping in surprise, she said, "Your hands are healed already."
Palose looked to Oween and asked, "You're a healer?"
Shaking her head, the woman replied, "I wasn't before, but I did feel a strange need to hold onto your hands. It was like I could feel your pain or maybe the broken skin?"
"We'll have to see if your new life comes with a new gift as well," he mused.
"Later," Sylvaine cautioned helping him back to his feet. "We need to get you upstairs to feed you to get your strength back.
Oween hurried to help with one arm as Sylvaine helped from the other. The stairs were too narrow for all three of them to move upward at once, but Oween dropped behind them placing her hands on the small of his back. Energy flowed into him strengthening him without her even realizing it and Palose knew that he had found something special.
The evening had gone much like any other. Dinner was followed by dancing. Sebastian enjoyed dancing with Ashleen, though he pretty much enjoyed anything with the girl. If he wasn't so busy with everything else, the mage thought that she would be the kind of girl that he could get lost in.
He had known friends, even among busy battle mages, who had seemed to disappear for a time. Love overshadowed their lives. Sometimes it interfered with their work as well, while others seemed more capable of balancing it all.
Ashleen was an amazing woman, but the mage had duties to perform and an allegiance to his people that made it impossible to fall that far. Still their time together was always the brightest point of his day. He didn't regret his work, but there were certainly times that he wished that they could just slip off to the island for an escape.
He had sent Elzen to the king's castle early in the morning with a message for Gerid. His talk with Ashleen had pointed out that he had the power to bring the man's distant home to him or he to it with the cast of a single spell. It wasn't right to deny the man, wh
o had given so much of himself for North Continent and Southwall's people, a chance to see his family.
Sebastian would have gone instead, but the Red Hall contingent had booked his time at the forge. While they had gone over a lot of his new magic and Hollow Swords, Gefflen and his team demanded more. There was still more he could say and a single afternoon was hardly enough time to truly cover everything; but he would have preferred to avoid yet another day of dealing with the wizards.
As he returned to the forge with Ashleen and Serrena, Rilena left to report in to the portal wizards for a trip to Windmeer. She had new business there with High Wizard Darius that required the mage to leave them for a time. While Sebastian knew why and was even somewhat responsible for her having to leave, he would miss the support of his friends.
It seemed like the fall and winter continued to whittle away at the good friends he had made while heading to the wizards' tournament. While he wasn't alone, the continuing changes to his life seemed to separate the owl from those around him. Sebastian almost wondered if he continued to keep busy just so he wouldn't notice the separation as much, but there were times that he couldn't help be aware of the fact.
He wondered if men like Raven Leros felt the same way.
The forge was already radiating heat at the door despite another cold day when Sebastian arrived. It was midmorning, but the smiths often began their day before dawn now that the winter days had grown shorter. The sun was still hidden behind gray clouds. Even hidden inside he could feel the cold gray light. The light cast from the windows just continued to remind the inhabitants of Hala that they were in winter's thrall.
Ashleen removed the outer layer of her robe dress and hung it beside the jackets of the smiths. Her brown, leather shorts and boots would protect her from stray cinders which occasionally floated into the air. Hot metal and heavy items would still likely cause pain if they landed on a foot, but for that the wizard hid the protection runes that Sebastian only wore on his arm. Her magic could react out of self preservation like her lightning and spark the protection runes into existence to save her foot.
She wore another bodice that fit like a corset covering most of her stomach and chest. It was made of cloth that was likely too light for the dangers of a forge, but it was lightweight enough to keep her body cooler. Unlike the men in the forge, the wizard could hardly work without her shirt like many did, though she still pulled her leather apron from the wall to cover her front.
Sebastian had an apron as well, but didn't bother with it right away. He doubted that he would get time to actually work any metal on the forge today, at least not while the Red Hall wizards were there.
The thought made the mage notice that they had yet to show. While he preferred to be early for his appointments, especially those in the king's castle, apparently not everyone shared his work ethic.
"Hmmph, they're late," Serrena noted aloud what they were all thinking. "Considering how pushy they were being yesterday, I would have thought they would have been here early as well. 'You have so much magic to give us. You must tell us everything.' Like we need to drop everything for a bunch of wizards from Red Hall," she finished after raising her voice into a higher pitch to make fun of Gefflen and his people.
"We're still early," Sebastian stated looking over at the men working furnaces or beating metal with their hammers. There was so much activity in the king's foundry. It hadn't always been the center for blade building and still had men working on other things of a more mundane nature.
To one side there were a series of racks converted to hold the swords the smiths believed followed Sebastian's desires. The mage had gone through multiple formulas looking for steel that roughly matched the better grades made before the Cataclysm. Like so many things, the mixtures of the masters had been lost to time. He had been forced to use his original Hollow Sword to get an idea of what would be necessary.
Found on his journey to find the Grimnal, he had taken a broken sword given to one of the immortal's grandsons and reformed it into the first Hollow Sword. The metal had resisted weathering for over a hundred years, something no current steel was likely to achieve. If he had managed to discover the correct formula, then the weapons being made for his fellow battle mages might be passed on for centuries. That meant that they would have to survive the battles that they would be put through and the strain of magic in their runes.
Running his fingers over some of the blades in front, the mage used his magic to reach into the metal checking to see if the smiths were able to achieve what he needed. The mage had used magic after a certain point, so he often worried that his formula only worked because he had cheated to a certain degree. While the metal he had created did work and was based on current smithing techniques, he was a battle mage. The mizard some had called him until the owl became widely accepted. A mage or wizard could go beyond what regular smiths could, so how could it be cheating if the runes would require magic before the swords were finished anyway?
He drew a sword that caught his fancy.
"You're going to build another Hollow Sword even though Gefflen might arrive at any time?" Serrena questioned at the man's choice to take the blade from the organized racks.
Ashleen smiled, but rolled her eyes at the fire wizard and said, "You're actually surprised? Sebastian gets bored very easily, if you haven't noticed by now. Playing with his magic also calms him, so it makes sense that he might want to do this before the Red Hall wizards do get here."
Realization crossed the other woman's eyes and the wizard nodded her head making her auburn curls flutter slightly in the warm air. A little perspiration on her brow made Sebastian wonder if the woman would have to disrobe or leave the heat of the forge. Not everyone could take the heat, though she was a fire wizard.
The owl mage looked at the door standing partially open to let in the cold air to temper the atmosphere of the forge wondering whether he would have the time to actually make the runes to activate the qualities of the blade. Giving a shrug, he took the blade to the room that they had used the previous day letting a couple of the apprentice smiths know to direct the wizards there when they arrived.
One blade couldn't hurt, he thought, and besides the supply of fresh swords was building each day making him further and further behind. If he had the time to make another sword, the mage figured that he might as well do it.
Chapter 7- Travel Plans
Rilena stepped through the silver light and faced a high, stone wall. It took a moment for more to register to the mage's eyes thanks to the quick rush through the different dimensions. As the portal's magic was released behind her, the woman looked up at the wizards, mages and archers ready to attack. She was known to some of these people and didn't have to truly worry, but it made her see the strategy behind Sebastian's locking portals was likely to work in almost any case.
It would be hard to use the common portals to infiltrate with enough numbers to overwhelm their defenders and without knowing about the locking rune, she doubted that even the Dark One's warlocks could break free. A simple choke point, the use of the enemy's magic would make it a kill box.
Walking through the usual check point after the glow of the gate had disappeared; Rilena wondered where she would find the man likely to transfer her to the next gate.
"Do you know where I can find High Wizard Darius today?" she asked one of the wizards in the off chance that they might know. Windmeer was both a large castle and a small city also. If the wizard wasn't in residence within the castle walls, the mage's job was going to become much harder.
The man in blue shrugged. A water wizard, Rilena thought absently as her hopes fell.
"I would check with the wizard's guild," the wizard replied showing less distaste at having to answer a falcon's questions than some of his kind might. Being a water wizard might make it easier to sympathize with those of weaker magical power, since some wizards considered water to be one of the least useful types of magic. While Rilena knew that there were limitations wit
hout a large water source like a river or lake, she had seen their magic at work many times in battle and respected them as much as any other wizards.
Nodding to the man rather than pushing any harder for information he undoubtedly did not know, the dark haired mage moved towards a doorway leading to one of the castle walls. This gate had been moved outside the castle and its courtyards. Where once they had made use of the enemy's portal points inside of the castle where they had infiltrated to try and kill Garosh, they had been more than happy to build the new gates outside their walls. The old gates had been guarded day and night. Wards designed to kill had been placed on the others, but the mage doubted that anyone had truly felt safe with them inside.
When she reached the castle, Rilena found one of the servants. Unlike wizards and soldiers, these people always seemed to know where to find important guests of the castle lord and Darius was about as high profile a guest as they could find. The woman was one of those who cleaned up after the guests besides and after a lengthy retelling of what she had heard through a handful of other servants, Rilena was pretty sure that the wizard had been closer before the conversation started.
Apparently Darius was visiting with the high wizard of the castle and the upper echelon of those leading the individual schools of magic. Unlike the mages, the wizards were split into eight main schools. Each had a leader that reported to one of the white wizards, who had mastered several schools of spells. There were more politics to it that Rilena didn't know, but it was a wonder that the wizards could run anything when it often sounded like they were divided against themselves.
The guards to the wizards' wings, which the water wizard had referred to as their guild, didn't look at her with friendly faces either. They were wizards from the lower ranks, but the men were still quite powerful in magic. By the swords at their hips and the way they carried their weight, Rilena guessed that they were well trained to fight. After hearing stories of what Sebastian had done to wizards in close combat as well as seeing some of what he had done in duels, the mage knew that despite their powerful auras she was likely the one that would win should it come to a fight.
Battle Mage Visions (A Tale of Alus Book 12) Page 9