The Lost Mage

by Difar, Amy

  “Yes, it’s a spot in one of the far reaches of Kwagl. You can’t miss it because of the absence of everything.”

  “Huh? The absence of everything?”

  “Yes, as you near the Void, you notice that there’s nothing there. No buildings, no people, no plants, no nothing. Not even light. It’s just a void.”

  “Sounds like a black hole or science fiction or something.”

  “It’s not fictitious. It exists. And I will now tell you the story of its creation.”

  “Okay.” Nora lay on her belly and propped her head in her hands, anxious to hear Darakin’s story.

  “A long time ago, before the Elemental Wars, a child was born. He was the first child and heir of the Lord and Lady of Krigil. They had despaired of having a child, as they were both advancing in years. This was probably their last hope of producing an heir. So it was with great excitement that they awaited the child’s birth.

  “It was a difficult birth, as the infant was breech and the midwife didn’t see the hair until the child was born. She looked at the baby’s silver hair and exclaimed, ‘A mage!’”

  “Wait, I thought your realm didn’t have elemental mages until after the Elemental War.”

  “I didn’t say he was an elemental mage, Nora. Most mages are capable of almost any school of magic. What they end up studying usually depends on the proximity of a school, an available spot and how much money the family has. Now don’t interrupt.”

  “Sorry.”

  The mage continued. “The midwife held the child up so the Lady of Krigil could see him. The Lady looked at the child and was at once filled with terror at the darkness she felt in his heart. She screamed and fell back on the bed, dead.”

  “What kind of children’s story is this?”

  “It’s one I was told many times in Mage School.”

  “Well, it doesn’t seem very nurturing.”

  “We were there to learn to be mages, Nora, not to be coddled.”

  “Oh. Sorry, go ahead.”

  “Anyway, the Lord heard the scream and ran in to find his wife dead and the terrified mid-wife trembling so bad that she was about to drop the baby. He ran and took the child from her. He looked at the baby’s face and swore that the child’s mouth twisted into an evil smile.

  “He was so afraid of the baby that he wanted to throw him off the nearest cliff. But he realized that if he did that, he’d have no other heirs because he would never consider marrying again, now that he’d lost the love of his life. So he let the baby live, hoping he could somehow ‘cure’ the child of his evil tendencies. He hired mage tutors to come and teach the child, but none would stay long enough to do any good. The child grew up without learning the primary canon.”

  “Primary canon?”

  “It’s the first thing all mages are taught and the hardest to learn, I might add. It’s where you learn to control the magic rather than letting it take control of you. And you do that by spending the first two years of your training doing absolutely no magic. You see, the magic is a strong force inside you. It wants to do things all the time. And it has no sense of morals. So, it’s up to the mage to keep it in check.”

  “So you could have been evil like this Krigil guy?”

  “No. I mean any mage can do harmful things, but it turns out that this child was a Dark mage.”

  “A dark mage?”

  “Yes, they’re exceedingly rare and they’re now executed as soon as it’s determined that they’re of the Darkness.”

  “That’s awful! You kill babies?”

  “Nora, there is nothing human about a Dark mage. It is pure evil in a magical being. Mages get their power from mana – a force of nature from within, but nobody knows where a Dark mage gets its power from.”

  “Okay, but don’t they need to be taught to use it, like you were?”

  “Sadly, no. The power seems to work of its own accord. Some believe it is a powerful demon that’s taken over the human child but nobody knows for sure.”

  “Has nobody ever tried to teach the human inside to control it?”

  “Oh, yes. Many years ago, still before the Elemental War, the Arch Mage of Korgiza tried. He took in two students who were considered dark mages.”

  “What happened?”

  “Well, they razed the school and killed every mage and civilian in the school and the surrounding town. It took an army of combat mages defeat them. And those children were only seven years old.”

  “Oh my word!”

  “And that’s why they’re executed as soon as they’re identified. Now, if I may get back to the story?”

  “Yes, I’m sorry. Again.”

  “As I was saying, the child grew up without learning the Primary Canon, although it was determined later on, after the Massacre at Korgiza, that it probably wouldn’t have helped. He was destined to be evil.

  “As soon as he reached maturity, his father died mysteriously. And villagers started disappearing. An investigation was done and it was determined that the new Lord Krigil, who had inherited his father’s title, was responsible. He was sent to exile in a remote tower.”

  “Why wasn’t he executed? I mean if you kill babies like him, why was he allowed to live?”

  “I believe it was a matter of politics. His estate was large and wealthy and the matter of who would inherit if he died became a hotly contested issue. The mages figured if he lived in their custody, when he died, his estate would go to them. Plus, they were afraid to try and kill him.”

  “I can see why.”

  “Now, if I may continue?”

  Nora nodded.

  “A group of mage wardens were used to erect a magical barrier to keep him in. Krigil was so evil, that even being in his presence was enough to unnerve most of mage wardens. After a time, none of them would even enter the tower to provide food and water for their prisoner. As the days wore on, they noticed the walls of the tower getting darker. It was as though the darkness inside Krigil was so powerful that he couldn’t keep it in. It penetrated everything around him. Nobody even knew if he was alive, but none would enter the tower to find out.”

  “So what happened? I mean, how long did they stay there guarding someone who might be dead?”

  “After a few years, the building had gotten so dark, that it could no longer be seen. One brave soul went to try and touch the walls to feel if it was still there, but as soon as he got close, he disappeared and was never seen again. Now, centuries later, all that remains is a dark void. No vegetation grows and nobody will enter the void for if they do, they’ll disappear.”

  “Well, that’s some story. They told you that story as a child?”

  “Yes, it was to warn us of the dangers of Dark mages, and to stress that we should learn to control our own magic.”

  “Okay, so now I’m thinking you come from a bunch of religious zealots who are always on the lookout for evil.”

  Darakin looked surprised. “Nothing could be further from the truth. My society seeks balance. Let me tell you the story of the Child of Light and you’ll see why.”

  “The Child of Light?”

  “Yes. About two or three years after the Massacre at Korgiza, a child was born in a nearby town. The midwife told the mother the child was a mage during the birth because she could see the hair was very light. However, once the child was delivered, it was apparent to the midwife that this was no ordinary mage. The hair wasn’t silver at all. It was white. But I don’t mean white as that of an aging person or an albino. I mean the brightest white of light. Like the white at the center of a flame. It even seemed to glow.

  “Now since the massacre, the Mage Council insisted on examining all mages born to see if they were Dark mages. Not knowing what else to do or what this little girl was, the midwife called the Mage Council.”

  “So this council gets to decide which children live and which are executed?”

  “Essentially, yes.”

  “I’m sorry, it still sounds barbaric.”

  �
�That’s because you haven’t heard the horrid details of the Massacre at Korgiza. I won’t disgust you with all of them, but to demonstrate, I’ll tell you that among the dead women and children in the surrounding villages were people who’d been turned inside out.”

  “Oh my God! Really? That’s horrible.”

  “It’s as disgusting as it sounds. Those two Dark mages joined forces and perpetuated the worst human-made atrocities my realm has ever seen.”

  “Okay, continue the story.”

  “The Mage Council went to examine this child and they were love-struck at the sight of her. She was beautiful and filled the hearts of those who saw her with nothing but love. They determined that she was no Dark mage, but no ordinary mage, either. It was arranged that one of the arch mages from the council would always be in residence in the town to provide any instruction that the girl might need since they had no idea what manner of mage she actually was.

  “A few years passed, and as the child grew, so did her influence. At first, it was only those who saw her, but soon it was everyone who lived in the town. In fact, about that time, the warriors from a distant militaristic city-state came to attack the town. Upon entering, they immediately laid down their weapons and stayed.”

  “Well, that’s good. She stopped them from killing her town, right?”

  “She may have stopped them from using their weapons against the town, but other problems were arising. You see, nobody in the town would kill. The butchers stopped working. The hunters stopped hunting. The cats even stopped killing the rats. Disease and starvation were starting to spread, not to mention the warrior city-state whose population depended on its fighters to bring home food and other spoils from their battles, was in bad shape.”

  “Well, I have a hard time feeling sorry for them. They were brutal murderers.”

  “Perhaps, but the women and children they left behind were dying of starvation.”

  “But what about the girl’s village? What happened there?”

  “By the time she had reached five years, even the surrounding forest was under her influence. Again, predators stopped killing, preferring to lie down and die rather than kill for food. The crops that the village had come to depend on, as they were all now essentially vegetarians, began to die as they were attacked by the insects that the other animals no longer kept in check.

  “Now, the problem was that nobody in the village saw anything wrong with this. They were blinded by the child’s goodness. Eventually, the Mage Council figured out what was going on, but only by compiling different accounts written by multiple sources because no one person would say anything bad about the situation.

  “The Council realized that the little girl, whose name was Arialia, was the universe’s attempt to balance out the evil acts of the dark mages of Korgiza. And they realized that something had to be done.”

  “Does that mean they were going to kill her?”

  “They weren’t sure. It went against their nature to kill something so good, but she was actually doing a great deal of harm. They spent months preparing a shield around the group that was selected to go to her.”

  “A shield?”

  “Yes, something that would allow them to think with their logical minds, not the heart and emotions that were so affected by Arialia. When they were ready, they went to the village. To their surprise, Arialia, who was now all of six years of age, met them and said, ‘it’s time, isn’t it?’

  “Well, they weren’t at all sure what she meant by that, but they said ‘yes’. Arialia nodded, went to her parents and gave them each a kiss. She told them it was time for her to go, but that they could look for her in the light. She then turned and walked out of town. The stunned mages followed behind. She walked for days, never stopping to eat or rest. The exhausted mages kept up as best they could. As she traveled, she began to glow even more. With each hour, she glowed brighter until it became hard for the mages to even look at her. Eventually, they came to a large field. It appeared to have been farmland at one time, but there was nobody tending it now and grains and flowers grew side by side.

  “Arialia waved at the mages. Then she turned and ran into the field. The glow intensified until she finally just seemed to break apart into light fragments which attached themselves to the branches and stems of the plants growing in the field.”

  “She … exploded?”

  “Well, that’s not exactly how the mages described it. What they said was, one minute she was there, glowing brightly, and the next, she was gone and all that remained were these light fragments. But there were hundreds, maybe thousands of them. In fact, an Arialia Strand is now one of the most coveted relics in the realm. It provides perpetual light without needing a fire. They’re guarded most closely by the Mage Council and the penalty for stealing one or even for entering the field without permission is death.”

  “This story doesn’t sound good. I mean the child died or exploded or something and people are killed for even going in the field. I don’t get it.”

  “It’s about balance, Nora. We’re not zealots looking for evil; we’re looking to maintain balance. You can’t have great good without evil or great evil without good. We just want things to stay balanced.”

  “Wow, those are some killer, pardon the pun, bedtime stories. Here, we try to make children feel safe and comforted.”

  “What could be more comforting than knowing that the Council is making sure that extremes that would cause great harm don’t happen?”

  “Geez, I don’t know, maybe believing that everyone will live happily ever after? That’s the way we end our fairytales.”

  “That’s not a very realistic view.”

  “Yeah, but what’s wrong with letting children keep their innocence for awhile. They don’t need to know about all of life’s hardships right away, do they?”

  “In my realm, we like to be prepared.”

  “Well, I guess your society is more practical than mine.”

  “Why all of the sudden interest about how we treat children in my realm?”

  “I’ve realized that I made some assumptions about your society based on the fact that you look like the cover of a romance novel. I just figured your world was the way it was described in those.”

  “Nora, how could those books possibly describe my realm if none of the authors has ever been there?”

  “They can’t. I was wrong and I’m sorry. I’ve realized that, so now I want to know what it’s really like. Or at least I did until I found out that you fill children’s heads with stories of evil massacres and starvation that happened because someone was too good. I mean, I wasn’t expecting that.”

  “But they’re not just stories, they’re history. Remember, if lessons are not learned from history, the dragon will fly over again.”

  “Yeah, if you’re going to stay here, you should use try to use our version. Remember? Those who don’t learn from history are destined to repeat it.”

  “Ah, yes. You’re right. I’ll try to remember that.”

  “Good, because that whole dragon thing, well it’ll make people wonder about you, you know since we don’t have any dragons here.”

  “That you know of,” Darakin said with a twinkle in his eye.

  “Oh, you!” Nora gave him a playful hit in the arm.

  He grabbed her wrist and pulled her down on top of him. “It’s too bad we’re out in public.”

  “Aye,” came the muffled reply.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  After enjoying their picnic lunch, Nora suggested that they walk around the park. Darakin, eager for something to do, agreed.

  “So, do they have pirates in your realm?” Nora asked as they walked.

  He chuckled. “Is this more from your romance novels?”

  “Yes,” Nora said, flushing red with embarrassment.

  “Well, you’ll forgive me for saying so, Nora, but pirates don’t seem at all romantic. They attack innocent ships and they kill, maim, rape and plunder. Why would they be th
e topic of a romance novel?”

  “Perhaps the authors have romanticized it a bit,” she said reluctantly.

  “I would say so.”

  “So?” Nora prodded.

  “So what?”

  “Do you have pirates in your realm?” Nora repeated the question.

  “Not really.”

  “No?” Nora was truly surprised. Romance novel settings aside, she imagined that in a medieval type realm pirates would be running rampant over the seas.

  “Think about it. Mages are forbidden to use their skills for criminal activities. Without a mage to summon winds to guide their ship, how would the pirates be able to prey on other ships?”