Now Rilena thought that the giant felt stronger. Like the other warlocks in the room, Garosh felt as powerful as the other men. It was like they had been linked to share their power, but the battle mage knew too little of wizard or warlock magic to know if such a thing could be done.
They would be no match for the emperor's power individually, but as a group maybe they could stand against him for a time.
She didn't want to grill Garosh for the answer, especially in front of Elias; but the question lingered even after they left the fortress. After almost an hour, the lord had settled Verian on the tasks for the next few days and the small group returned to the store room. Cutting his fingers, Garosh used blood magic to increase his strength enough to reopen the gate to White Hall. The wizards there would send them to Hala without requiring a blood sacrifice.
After another long day dealing with the Red Hall wizards, Sebastian was ready for a little relaxation, but before dinner time came he was interrupted as he sat in the inn's dining area. Ashleen noticed the newest visitors first and called out, "Rilena, over here."
The wilder waved over her friend before noticing those following the battle mage. In the shadow of the woman, she noticed a flash of red hair before the young changeling popped into view. Evie came around her friend grinning at Sebastian and Ashleen. She considered them like family since the girl had no known relatives, even north of the wall.
Standing up at the sight, Sebastian's eyes went wide as the doorway darkened with a massive shadow. Garosh ducked as he entered though the mage estimated that the giant had a couple inches of clearance. It was probably a force of habit for the man who was close to seven foot tall.
"Garosh?" the man questioned his eyes in such shock that he nearly sat back down again.
Nodding towards the mage, Garosh greeted him. "Hello again, Sebastian, I hope the world has been good to you since last we met."
It had been months since he had seen the giant and back then they had been enemies. While he had heard from Rilena and Elzen that the man had surrendered to join with Southwall turning against his master, it was another thing to see the man walk into the inn as if nothing had happened so long ago.
While Garosh had threatened and even hurt Rilena and a pair of wizards after they were captured, Sebastian guessed that he had been sincere in his apologies since then. He had made up for what had occurred as best he could and those he had wronged seemed to have forgiven him. Still it was the mage's first time actually seeing the giant since that trip through the mountains.
A second thing he noticed was the loss of the giant's power. He was still physically large and powerful, but the oppressive aura the mage had felt in the mountain was gone. It had been replaced by something more like a wizard on the weaker side. His aura also seemed... cloudy. The feeling seemed somehow familiar to Sebastian, though he couldn't quite place where he had seen something similar.
"It's had its up and downs, but it goes well enough," the mage answered looking up at the face of the man who also looked a lot like the Grimnal.
Again the man nodded and Sebastian noted a small group of men with the auras of warlocks.
"We've come to speak with your leaders. I guess they have need of something I know about," Garosh said without speaking of the true message they hoped he would bring.
"I know," Sebastian answered. "It was my idea, though I hadn't expected to see you here even so."
"Though we were invited, I guess that those who wish to speak found themselves too busy today. It will be an early morning meeting, but that gives us a little time to see the city, I suppose."
Ashleen's forehead wrinkled as she countered, "You want to see the city, yet you've come to a tavern in an inn."
Rolling his eyes, Garosh replied, "It's cold. We've been inside so much that I forgot just how cold the north gets."
Evie nearly danced on her tiptoes as she moved to Sebastian and Ashleen giving them hugs. Her state of dress was much more civilized, though Rilena had made the girl change once before they went through the portal. The red head grinned at Garosh and his complaint.
"It's just as cold in the mountains. You just hide in your rooms. If you joined me outside to run in the snow, you wouldn't have that problem."
The group moved to a pair of tables off to the side. Sebastian and the girls took their mugs of warmed cider that were already cooling. Garosh's warlocks took one table while Rilena, Evie and Garosh joined the three who had already been there.
Sebastian felt for the giant's chair as he sat. If the man had been fat, the mage doubted that it would have held his weight. Creaking and moaning, the wood told of the torture.
"Do you need a set of rooms for the night?" Sebastian asked remaining on the more mundane. The mage tried to set aside the feelings of dislike remaining from last winter as he realized that he had been the least harmed and should have the least to put aside. If Rilena could forgive him, then he should as well.
"I suppose we will," the giant answered. "I wonder if the gold we carry will spend properly without finding a way to convert it?"
"I can cover the cost for a night," Sebastian offered. "The castle will probably pay for it anyway. You are essentially a foreign ambassador and here on business for the king, so it shouldn't be a problem for them."
Garosh looked slightly relieved. The idea of hunting down a coin changer in the cold wasn't something to look forward to and having to change currency brought from Ensolus would have been hard to explain.
With the thought put into his head, the giant soon moved to the inn keeper's counter deeper within the room. Madame Hilda looked up at the man somewhat in shock, but took his order while the others waited.
"It is strange seeing him again," Sebastian had to say aloud after keeping the thought locked away the whole time.
Rilena nodded and added, "It was harder for me the first time. We were bringing him back from the fortress in the column of soldiers when he showed up at the campfire I was at with Elzen..."
The woman looked around briefly and asked, "Where is Elzen? I would have thought his day would have been the easiest and shortest. He only had to run a message to the castle."
"I thought he would have been back by now also. Maybe he ran to the city garrison to check in with our superiors?"
Before Garosh finished at the desk, the door to the inn opened again revealing the very man they were speaking about, but Sebastian felt something else. Once more the light through the door was blocked by a massive figure. Gerid was almost as tall as the other giant, but his new beard and mustache made the immortal look much older. His silver-white hair was that of an old man, but Sebastian knew that after more than a millennium of life, there still were no wrinkles on his face.
The voices in the room settled into a hush as Garosh turned to see the man. Their eyes locked across the room sending the two men towards each other slowly. They moved at a normal pace, Sebastian thought, but he felt the tension had nearly stopped time.
Gray eyes met brown, but more than just their size rang familiar. Meeting on Garosh's side of the room, the giant greeted the immortal saying, "You must be the one called Grimnal."
"My name is Gerid Aramathea, or it was before I became so old that my name became synonymous with that castle. I didn't build the thing. It's actually older than I am," he added with words that should have sounded good natured, but both men couldn't help frowning at the other.
"I am Garosh," the taller man replied with a nod. "I believe that we have someone in common."
"Hmmph," Gerid grunted at the thought. "The Dark One might be someone everyone in the north has in common. He stole almost two hundred years from me on that island, but that wasn't the only thing taken from me.
"Everyone who knows you thinks that part of what he stole went into you. Is that possible?"
Noting the eyes on them, Garosh gestured towards the table held by Sebastian and the others. "If that is true, then perhaps we can speak about it while we drink, grandfather."
&nb
sp; The last was a common enough greeting for one's elders, but Gerid frowned and retorted, "I think that I'll wait to see if we're that close."
His comment elicited a short laugh from the other man who led the way back to the table.
Sebastian heard both of the giants' chairs complain, but the men ignored them looking at each other with stern looks. With new tension in the air, the mage thought that his long day wasn't going to end.
Chapter 10- Bonds
No one dared interrupt the two men staring at each other. Even Evie seemed to understand that they needed to air out what was unsaid between them. The stillness in the large room remained as men and women ate and drank quietly.
It was Garosh who broke the silence and said, "I was born a young man birthed from a large glass chamber. The emperor's magic was sent into me and some of his knowledge. While I can't say that I was given specific knowledge of how I was created, I do know that his warlocks had tried many things to create a body for him to transfer into.
"The emperor might be extremely long lived, but he isn't immortal like they say you are."
Grunting with a little satisfaction, Gerid replied, "I don't know that anyone is truly immortal, but I have lived long enough to wonder when it might all end. At least, we have one edge over that bastard warlock.
"If you were some test for finding a way to cheat death, then why did he give you life and not use you?"
"I witnessed several test subjects that came after me," the younger man said skirting the answer as he sought to give more insight into the matter. "The others he tested held less power than he imbued into me and most burned out often before they could leave the chamber. Kolban knew what he was seeking and usually destroyed the bodies that he found inferior. His warlocks continued on and kept working off what they had tried before to make bodies worthy of the emperor."
Gerid frowned as he noticed the avoidance of the answer to his question. "But why did he let you out of the chamber? I am guessing that you were flawed or you wouldn't be here... or would be him, I suppose?"
Nodding to the silver haired man next to him, he replied, "Some of the paths chosen were to take specimens from subjects of strength or magical power. While I never went to your island prison, I do know of it. You weren't just left on the island without seeing any of the emperor's men."
Another grunt, one of disgust, made the hairs of the Grimnal's mustache shift angrily. "Over two hundred years, I only saw a few black ships. They had threatened the remnants of my crew to secure me, but I think that his warlocks and soldiers were still afraid that I would decide to fight back. A couple of his most powerful warlocks bound me and anyone close enough to me by blood to that island using barriers. No one could break through to destroy them, so I sat until Sebastian came with his magic."
Gerid noted Sebastian's former girlfriend, a healer, was not with him and chose to avoid speaking of her involvement in breaking the magic holding him on the island. "The few that did come would have their men hold my people at spear point to keep me from choosing to fight back, the cowards. If I couldn't break free and my family was stuck there, I had little reason to fight. I was trapped, so when they came with needles or used their knives to cut away at my flesh, I did nothing.
"I think many of the emperor's men chose the most painful ways that they could think of to get their samples, but once they were done I healed. They only came a couple times to do that though, but you were talking about a chamber and what they made there?" he finished suggesting Garosh continue.
Giving him another nod, the giant went on. "From what I have been able to learn of the experiments, some warlocks thought that the answer wasn't necessarily using a subject who could use magic; but someone who could resist it equally. You are known for your resistance to spells not just your ability to heal and long life.
"Added together, they hoped that maybe making a clone of you and imbuing that with the magic of the emperor would be the solution. It was a failure, but I am pretty sure that I am the result of all those trials."
Gerid's face remained a blank slate as Garosh finished. The brown eyes of the younger man probed his elder with both questions and a degree of hope, Sebastian thought as he watched the exchange.
"So now what?" the immortal asked with a face as still as stone, "Am I supposed to welcome you like you're my lost son?"
Darkness dropped across Garosh at the man's words and he said, "I didn't come looking for you as a father. You asked if I thought that I was related to you. That is my belief, but I also haven't known you my whole life. The closest family I have tried to kill me because I wasn't good enough for him. Of course, being good enough, I still would have been killed.
"Whether you welcome me as family or not, it seems like we are that in some sort of way."
The immortal pointed to a pair of girls sitting with his guards. "Those are my granddaughters. They are family, but I am not so certain that something given life by the dark bastard makes you one of mine. Even King Alain can trace his ancestry to mine making him more family than something made in a jar."
Sebastian expected Garosh to grow angry, yet he sighed. "I don't expect you to feel any tie to me. I don't know you as anything more than a name. Kolban hated you for a time for helping imprison him. He used to believe that you and your people had no business interfering with his old world. He brought down the Cataclysm and then killed thousands more with his armies.
"You are bound to hate something with part of him inside as well. If it makes you feel better, Kolban came for me and took all his magic from me. What memories I have aren't of a life as someone I am not, but I am not going to fight to make you believe anything more than you want, sir."
Gerid listened to the man and didn't appear to register anything. He didn't reveal hatred or love or anything in between as far as the mage could tell. Sebastian believed that he was good at reading people, but the immortal had even him stumped.
When the man looked at him, it was another question that he wished answered, "Elzen said that you could send me home and retrieve me any time you wish using magic now. Is that offer still open?"
The mage nodded. "I have an anchor there. It wouldn't be hard to open a gate to send you back. I can open one any time you wish to return just as simply."
"Good, my granddaughters miss their parents and I would like to see Sherari again. I don't know how many years I will have left with her, but I do know from my life that they are always too few."
"When do you wish to go?"
"I was going to ask to leave tonight." The immortal looked at Garosh and asked, "When is your business here going to be resolved?"
A look of surprise crossed the younger man's face and he answered after a moment's hesitation, "I am not certain, but I have a meeting tomorrow morning. Depending on what all they need of me, I might be done tomorrow some time."
"Good, then send a messenger to find me when you are done. If you can't do it yourself, have one of these kids do it for you. They always seem capable of finding me, even when I am living on an uncharted island," he added glancing at Sebastian to reveal a glint of humor. "You will join me as my guest. If you ever expect me to think of you as family, then I guess I will need to get to know you."
Garosh's nod was very slow in its movement and he replied simply, "Yes, sir."
It wasn't the result that Sebastian had foreseen, but he had to add, "I can put off heading to Red Hall until I send you home, but I can't wait too long. I am supposed to go there in the morning."
"You can stall?" Gerid questioned without any worry over the possibility.
"Sure," the mage replied thinking that he would prefer putting off the trip for awhile anyway. He had finally found a little break in his schedule to rest, but now he was being ordered to leave for the other school. It wasn't that it was more work, but the mage had gotten spoiled with being able to do his projects as he wanted rather than having to follow someone else's schedule. Still, Gefflen couldn't do much about it if he made them wait and wha
t was another day if it came to that.
The discussions degenerated into the normal talk as the afternoon lengthened into dinner time. Elzen returned from his time at the battle mage headquarters in the city with little to speak of concerning what he had done. The boyish falcon made light of it calling it the 'usual boring stuff', but as he talked Sebastian noticed his eyes on Rilena and Garosh beside her.
Though Sebastian had heard a few things concerning the relationship of the three of them, he still had an unclear idea of whether Elzen wanted to be with Rilena or whether the woman would want to be with him. If he had to guess, Elzen liked her a lot, but had been pushed away after a short period that might be considered romantic by battle mage standards.
Rilena, on the other hand, was harder to read. She still had feelings for Elzen, but put them off as friends or a sibling type relationship; while the woman also appeared to have feelings for the newest arrival. Garosh should have been her enemy, and he had been for a time until they got to know each other better and patched things up. Doubting he could have forgiven so easily, Sebastian decided to stay out of things that he knew little about and was too clueless at his own relationships to give others advice.
Food was eaten and the evening's entertainers found their place on one side of the large room. Tables were cleared and moved to the side as more revelers began to show from the surrounding neighborhoods to dance. It was typical for the Black Smith Inn that tried to keep good musicians on hand to enhance the income from their bar.
Watching Garosh draw Rilena onto the dance floor, Sebastian caught Elzen's disappointed look. It changed quickly as the young mage looked over to see Gerid's granddaughters. Sisters, the two looked similar. While Elien was older by just a few years, her hair remained blonde though it had darkened as the winter lengthened. She was pretty, like her younger sister Melura, who looked very much like her older sister save that her hair had a touch of red mixed into the blonde. The other major difference was their eyes. Elien had blue eyes like her grandfather's tending towards gray, while Melura's green eyes must have come from her mother's side.
Battle Mage Visions (A Tale of Alus Book 12) Page 14