by Jamie Davis
“After you? Wow, aren't we a little full of ourselves. I am the arch fire mage after all.”
“Yeah, and I am the mythical opponent. Now shut up and let me do my work.”
Closing his eyes and concentrating, Hal channeled is earth magic into the wound in Theran’s shoulder, casting a heal wounds spell to knit the flesh back together.
The other mage let out a sigh, as the pain from his wound lessened.
Hal opened his eyes. The wound closed, leaving only a puckered, pink scar in its place.
“You've been to Bronwyn, haven't you?”
“Yes, and to Ragnar before her. Now I need you. You all have to teach me what you know. That, apparently, is my special ability. I can use all the elemental schools of magic.”
Toby darted from the alley across the street and ran up to them.
“That was amazing. I can't believe you killed all of them.”
“What do we do about all these bodies?” Kay asked. “If we leave them here in the street, someone is going to get annoyed with us, or worse.”
“Tracker can take care of it,” Toby said “He can have a wagon come through and pick up the bodies within an hour. We should get off the street, though, before too many people see us. Come on.”
“Let’s go to your mom’s place,” Hal said. “I need food to replenish my energy after that fight. Theran’s going to need some, too, to help with his healing.”
“You promised me a hot meal, anyway,” Theran added.
“Have you changed your mind about me? Will you teach me fire magic?”
“What choice do I have? It looks like the two of us need each other right now until we get away from the mage hunters. There will be more around; you know that, right? These are just the common thugs they use to track us down. The real mage hunters use magic to counter us.”
“Yeah, I figured as much. Don’t worry, I’ve got plans to get us both out of here by boat, but it might take another day to line up the right captain for the job. Maybe you can teach me some fire magic spells while we wait for our ride.”
“There are worst ways to pass the time. Mark me, though. I have little patience for sloppiness when learning magic. Use of any magic can be dangerous. Fire spells are especially risky.”
“That’s fine by me,” Hal said. “You’ll find me a motivated pupil. I have too much riding on this to not pay attention to my lessons.”
“Then your studies begin as soon as we finish breakfast. Lead on.”
Toby took the lead, leading them all into the alley across the street, helping them escape the scene of the fighting.
Hal won Theran to his cause. He would learn fire magic after all.
Quest completed — convince Theran to teach fire magic
3,500 experience awarded.
20
Theran was a strict taskmaster. He had Hal working on exercises to connect with his fire magic ability again and again for nearly twenty hours straight. It was some of the most laborious work he had ever done in his life and, even after hours of work, he still was not successful in connecting with the fire magic he knew existed somewhere inside him.
One of the exercises was particularly frustrating to Hal. Theran had him close his eyes while reaching out with his hand over a short, stubby candle. The goal had Hal trying to capture the flame on his fingertips. All he managed to do was burn his fingers, again and again and again.
On what had to be the one-hundredth attempt at capturing the flame, Hal yanked his hand back, sticking his burnt finger in his mouth. He cursed aloud.
Theran chuckled at Hal’s frustration.
“Did you think learning to cast spells and use magic would be easy, lad?”
“Believe me, Theran, none of it has been easy.”
“And yet, you give up so easily.”
“I’m not giving up. I just need to take a break.”
“No breaks! There is no telling when those mage hunters will catch up with us again. Having another fire mage alongside me will go a long way to put those bastards in their place.”
“I’m not without skills of my own. You saw me casting ice and earth magic.”
“I did. I also know both are virtually useless in a battle. Fire magic is the god of the battlefield. There’s nothing like it. The rest pales by comparison. But, it takes control and control starts with you being able to capture that single, tiny little flame. Now back to work. You've had enough rest.”
Hal returned his attention to the candle burning in the center of the table. They were sitting in the back room at Toby's mother's restaurant. She had offered it to them while they waited to hear from Tracker about a ship to take them from Morton Creek back to Tandon where they'd have some protection from the mage hunters for a while.
Closing his eyes, Hal reached out with his mind once again, trying to see the flame with his inner vision while he sought it out with his hand. He was exhausted, both mentally and physically, but he pressed onward.
This time, perhaps because he was so tired, something different happened. When he tried to see the flame on the candle, instead of seeing the flickering yellow tongue of fire he usually envisioned, he saw a circular gradient of brightness against a black background. At the center of the circle of light, it was bright white. As the circle of illumination moved out from the center, it changed color from bright white to a deep violet at the outer edge of the circle where it blended into the blackness beyond.
At first, Hal thought he might have dozed off. Maybe he was dreaming. But when he reached his hand towards the circle of light, the image of his hand had a gradient of color to it ranging from an orange-red glow along his arm and hand out to blue at his fingertips.
Then, it hit him.
He was seeing the light in the infrared spectrum. He saw the flame and his arm as a thermal camera back home might with different shades of brightness relating to the strength of the heat radiating off it.
Could he be imagining seeing all of this?
No, Hal was sure it had to be significant. Moving his fingers carefully towards the circle of bright light that was the candle, Hal tried to imagine the heat from his hand connecting with the heat of the flame.
It worked. He touched his fingers to the circle of white-hot light that was the burning candle and lifted it on his fingertip while maintaining a separation between the head gradient of his hand and the searing heat of the flame.
When he pulled his hand away, slowly this time, the circle of bright light came away with it and yet his fingers didn't burn. Hardly able to believe he’d managed to make it work, Hal cracked open one eye to peer at his hand extended before him.
There, right before him, was his extended hand. A tongue of yellow flame hovered over his index finger. Next to it, the candle sat, the wick still sending up a wisp of smoke after Hal extinguished it by taking over the flame.
Understanding now how the heat from his body connected to the heat of the flame in some way, Hal tried to make the yellow flame grow larger by feeding it heat from his own body.
As if he turned up the wick of an oil lamp, the tongue of fire hovering over his finger grew larger and larger until it extended three or four inches above his hand.
Quest completed — learn to use fire magic.
6,000 experience awarded.
“And to think you almost gave up.”
Holding the image of the flame in his mind to maintain it over his finger, Hal turned and looked at his teacher.
“I didn't give up. Why didn't you tell me to imagine seeing this as if I was using an infrared camera?”
“What the hell is an infrared camera?”
Hal shook his head.
“Never mind. I guess I figured it out. That's all that matters.”
“You haven't figured anything out,” Theran snapped. “All you have learned is the most basic of fire spells. If you think you know everything, go ahead and put the fire out.”
Hal smirked and returned his full attention to the four-inch flame hoverin
g over his finger. With his mind, he commanded the fire to extinguish.
Nothing happened.
He tried using a spoken command.
“Off.”
Theran laughed.
“You think you can just ask fire to go away? Fire is destruction. All fire wants to do is destroy and consume everything around it. It will never just go away as long as there is fuel, air, and energy to power it. Think, lad. Use that brain for something other than making clever comments.”
Hal scowled and stared at the flame hovering over his finger. Unable to come up with anything else to do, he closed his eyes so he could see the heat gradient again. The first thing he noticed was a line of white-hot power flowing up his arm and into the flame like a wick of energy. It was as if he was the source of the fire after he removed it from the candle.
Maybe he could give it back.
Moving his finger back over the candle, Hal touched the tip of the wick trying to give the flame to the candle's wick. When he pulled his hand away he was disappointed to see now there were two flames. One hovered over the candle, and the other remained over his finger.
That didn't work.
Hal thought back and remembered something he learned in middle school science class. Fire required three things: oxygen, fuel, and heat. If you removed any of those three things, fire could not exist.
He thought about the flame hovering over his finger. He couldn't take the oxygen away, not without suffocating himself and everyone else in the room. He wouldn't know how to do it anyway.
He wasn't sure what fuel the fire was consuming. It wasn't burning his finger, and he couldn't see anything else fueling the fire. He couldn't take that away.
That left heat.
He could see the heat. There was heat coming from the flame. There was also heat coming from his body.
Then he realized what he was seeing. That line of white energy traveling up his arm to the tip of his finger was the heat energy traveling to the flame.
Focusing his mind on the tip of his finger, Hal willed the white heat extending through his index finger to the flame to return to the same blue heat level of his other fingers. It took him several tries to find the right combination of mental commands. Slowly the flame grew smaller and then winked out entirely.
“Very well done,” Theran remarked. “I am impressed. It took me nearly three days to figure out how to shut the flame off. I set fire to my clothes and even my beard several times before I figured it out.”
“I'm glad that didn't happen to me. So, what's next?”
“For now, you practice starting the flame without using the candle. Once you can do that, you will be able to summon fire whenever you want. I'm going to bed. You can go to sleep once you've successfully summoned fire ten times in a row without failure. I’ll see you in the morning, provided you don’t kill us all in our sleep.”
Quest Accepted –– Create Fire
Theran left Hal alone in the back room and headed upstairs to the bedrooms provided to them. Despite being exhausted, Hal continued to practice. It took him more than an hour to successfully summon the flame over his index finger ten times in a row.
Quest Completed –– Create Fire
New spells learned: Summon Fire; Control Fire
10,000 experience awarded
Level Up!
He was proud of his accomplishment and wanted to tell someone, but everyone was asleep. Instead, Hal called up his stats menu and looked over his new abilities with fire magic. He immediately placed two attribute points in his wisdom score increasing his spell success rating.
Satisfied with how things looked, Hal dragged himself upstairs and crawled into bed. He was asleep within seconds.
21
A messenger arrived from Tracker during breakfast the next morning. He handed Hal a sealed envelope and hurried off. Breaking the wax seal with his thumb, Hal unfolded the letter and scanned its contents.
I hope this message finds you in good health. I have secured you and your friends passage on a ship leaving with the evening tide. The Sea Sprite’s captain is expecting you. His name is Josiah Barnes.
I have arranged payment in advance of the profits I anticipate from our future joint ventures. Fare thee well.
Tracker
Hal passed the letter to Kay. She could read it while he idly snapped his fingers several times, summoning a flame above his hand with each snap, then extinguishing it.
Theran came down the stairs and noticed his pupil practicing.
“Good, you seem to have mastered that skill well enough. With a few more months’ work you will be ready to progress to some real spells.”
“I don't have a few months. I'm ready to progress to more advanced spells now.”
Theran started to say something then stopped and seemed to reconsider what he was going to say.
“If you are who Tildi thinks you are, then perhaps you can progress faster than I did at your age.”
“I’m glad you have such faith in me.” Hal tried not to roll his eyes as he said it, but he was sure Theran got the gist of what he was trying to say. The mage sighed and sat down across from Hal and Kay.
“You don't know what it’s been like over this last year. The Emperors thugs have hounded me from place to place relentlessly. They destroyed my tower, my country house, and every place I've stayed in since. I'm tired of running.”
“Good. Stop running and start fighting. Ever since I came to Fantasma the first time, it hasn't been just me fighting back. I had lots of help from ordinary people who just want a better life. None of them had the skills you have, yet they still found the strength to stand up to the Emperor and his minions.”
“I’m not sure my skills matter that much anymore. I've heard about the Emperor’s new invention, fire sand. With power like that at his disposal, he won't need fire mages at all anymore and neither will anyone else.”
“Fire sand, or gunpowder as we call it in my world, is very potent. It’s not just a weapon; it’s a history-changing innovation,” Hal explained. “Warfare as we knew it changed once gunpowder was invented and began to see widespread use. Swords and arrows were insignificant compared to bullets and cannonballs.”
Kay jumped into the conversation.
“You’ve said this before with regards to fire sand. I have a hard time believing that swords will cease to be useful anymore simply because some people learn to utilize this new weapon.”
“It won’t happen overnight, Kay. Where I come from, swords remained in use for centuries after gunpowder reached the battlefield. Eventually, though, gunpower weapons developed to the point that swords and arrows were obsolete except in ceremonial uses.”
Hal shrugged.
“I honestly have no idea what those changes will do to your world. It will probably take decades or longer to play out. It doesn’t matter much to us in the here and now. First, we have to stop the Emperor. That starts tonight when we board the ship Tracker found to take us back to Tandon. I think we'll be safe there with Duke Korran long enough to figure out our next steps.”
Theran laughed, though it sounded forced. “We may not have until tonight. Those scouts for the mage hunters we killed will surely be missed. Someone will come and investigate why they haven’t returned from Morton Creek. I’m surprised they haven’t attacked us already.”
“All the more reason for you and me to continue my lessons. Let’s return to the back room for some privacy. You can try and teach me the next level of fire magic skills.”
“Very well,” Theran sighed. The mage grabbed a plate with a stack of pancakes and followed Hal back to their study room.
Hal shut the door and prepared to work through the day until it was time to leave. It would serve dual purposes. He’d get more training and practice with fire magic and it would keep both he and Theran out of sight until they had to go out in public again. With some luck, they’d escape the city without confrontation.
———
By the end of the
day, Hal had mastered the ability to control five jets of fire on each hand, one for each finger. He could raise and lower the intensity and once nearly set the curtains on fire when he was a tad overzealous in his application of energy to the flames. With the mastery of this skill, Hal had seen another pop-up showing him that he'd learned the fire spray and fire resistance spell, gaining 3000 experience. He was progressing his mage abilities, but he needed to move faster.
There was a tap at the door and Kay poked her head around the door.
“Toby says we should probably go. The tide will go out in an hour or two and he fears the ship will leave without us.”
She looked around the room and spotted several scorch marks on the drapes.
“How’s it going? I see you didn’t manage to burn the place down, though it looks like you tried at least once. Did you pick up anything new?”
“A few things,” Hal said. “I’ll show you once we get to sea. I’ll be happy to be heading back to Tandon and a place I can relax in relative safety for a change.”
“Fair enough. I’ve got all our packs already loaded up on a cart Toby found for us. All we have to do is walk down to the harbor.”
“Excellent. Then I suppose we should be on our way.”
Kay led the way to the front of the restaurant and out to the street where Toby waited with a small, two-wheeled cart. It held their backpacks, as well as a bundle of belongings Toby fetched for Theran from his nearby hiding place in the shack.
Together the four of them started down the cobblestone street towards the harbor. People crowded the route and they had to stop several times to let wagons loaded with cargo pass.
Each time they stopped, the hair on the back of Hal’s neck stood on end and a chill went down his spine. He felt like someone was watching them. But as soon as they started moving again, the feeling went away.