Battle Mage, The Caves of Time

by Donald Wigboldy

  A slight frown crossed Ylena's features, but her eyes held a little bit of amusement that she wasn't bothering to hide completely. "I would have to check. I don't know every apprentice coming through here after all. Diplomacy apprentices are a smaller number and easy enough for the mentors to know, but I'd have to assist with more fire wizard training to know those two. Air also, of course."

  Katya slipped on her shoes. With dinner coming soon, she probably needed to climb to the next floor to store her books. There might be practice outside after lunch depending on Ylena's mood, which meant having to keep track of her books would be an extra distraction that she didn't need.

  "You know, Katya, that necklace is probably a little too valuable to just be flashing it around. Even here in the school."

  "It's as safe as anywhere on me," the girl replied. "I didn't go to the wall, but I think fighting in the war for Litsarin qualifies me enough to keep my brother's gift safe."

  Again the older woman sighed before saying, "Katya, you are going to age me before my time at the rate you are going."

  "You?" the apprentice questioned feigning disbelief. "You could be my sister, if she was a brunette anyway."

  An arm covered in a black sleeve went around the shorter girl's neck as Ylena half hugged Katya to her. "I could almost believe you that time. Maybe you're training is paying off after all," the woman chuckled as she smiled.

  "See? You were worried over nothing."

  Katya paused and glanced towards the office before asking, "Were you there because of a new student?"

  Again Ylena chuckled and she replied, "Don't worry. You're still my problem for awhile longer.

  "Now go on. Dinner will be soon. I assume that you want to put these books away before then and it's a long walk back again."

  Katya nodded and walked away from her mentor. Ylena was also her friend after the things that they had been through so far, but she did have other friends to sit with when they broke for meals. Still the girl probably needed to make time for Ylena more often she thought as the apprentice walked up the stairs.

  Chapter 3- White Hall

  Sebastian put off the effort of returning home for a few more days. There was still work to do in Kardor among other things.

  The gate opened but it didn't lead to one of the far off gates of Ashleen's home country. She was with him as usual, however, along with Elzen and Serrena. These were the three that had become his regular compatriots. Practically family, they helped him when he needed it and had been released to him by their respective guilds.

  Ashleen had joined him without worrying over permission from her people. Her master had died along the way and she had come close to it as well. Things had happened that had first separated her from those she served and Ashleen had even been trapped with him in a world beyond this one. It was the Silver World that had once been the prison of the Dark One. Emptied and nearly void of all but that silver light, the two had been left behind by his enemy Palose on one of a number of floating islands there.

  A little knowledge from some captured enemy warlocks with a minimum amount of knowledge of the spells mixed with what he had seen in use by Palose had eventually led him to figure out the spell to return them home. They had been trapped there for weeks and during that time had become much closer.

  There had been a spark between the two of them almost from the moment they had met. It wasn't just the fact that Ashleen was a lightning wilder either. If he hadn't still been pining for his first love, they might have done something sooner; but the mage had remained true to Yara even when he was separated from her. The temptation of Ashleen had remained until his previous love, Yara, had decided that their relationship wasn't working.

  By then, Sebastian was already fighting the obvious truth that he was also in love with Ashleen. She called herself his apprentice and stayed with him helping the owl with his work. While not everything he saw with his magic was easy for her, the girl had stayed with him doing her best and became as familiar as one of his hands. Soon she was someone that he couldn't do without.

  He had met her family recently. Her father was the duke of Kardor and the second most powerful man in the country next to his king. While he had done his best to make a good impression, it seemed like her family didn't approve of him since he was just a battle mage. Even with his new position as an agent of King Alain and an ambassador essentially, as well as his elevation of magic for his people; Duke Cerrus hadn't come around, but that hadn't been the end of it.

  When an enemy army led by an orc calling himself king arrived at the border of Kardor; Ashleen's brother, Daerdan, had been there to witness Sebastian's magical power as the battle mage had led the defense nearly single handedly. Though Ashleen and Elzen had been impressive as well, it was more important that they had at least won over Daerdan by the end of the battle. He was the only one there to help try to convince the duke and his family that Ashleen's choice of men was a good one.

  His eyes cleared of the portal fog and his senses picked up on the cool air swirling slightly in a small courtyard bordered by tall walls and towers with men looking down on his small group. Until the portal magic disappeared, the four would have been trapped in the security area created by the use of a specially made gate apparatus. Sebastian had been behind that bit of technology as well. It had grown from his recently learned line of magic involving runes.

  Releasing his energy, the glowing doorway evaporated letting them look through a large rectangle into the remainder of the courtyard beyond the gate. A smaller door made of wood banded with metal was set in another stone wall of older construction than the kill box that had been made for the wizards' gate. It was towards this that the four moved as Elzen gave the wizards and soldiers on the walls above them a courtesy wave.

  Inside was a hallway and three more doors. The one on the wall across from them led outside to the center of White Hall. It was the school for wizards, battle mages and soldiers being groomed for leadership. To the right was a door very familiar to Sebastian, though it had been years since he had used it. This door led to the building housing the bulk of the cadets training to become falcons, the first official rank of the mage corps.

  Turning left, Sebastian's party used the final door finding a surprising amount of noise. It was still reasonably early here, the mage realized, and many of the apprentices and cadets were gathered here for breakfast. A large dining hall, it was a gathering place for more than just eating. Many nights there would be musicians playing and the students of White Hall could dance putting off their studies to unwind.

  Since it was morning, breakfast was also the last moment to relax before the students went to their classes.

  "Sebastian!" a woman's voice called out sounding more like she was scolding him than merely calling for his attention.

  Hurrying towards the newly arrived foursome was a blonde haired woman dressed in the red robes of a fire wizard. Though she was only a few years older than the mage, the look on her face seemed like it came from a stern matron many years older. The petite woman only came up to his chest, but he could sense the wizard's aura and knew that she was more powerful than she looked.

  "Good morning, Wizard Haylee," Sebastian answered with a nod and polite smile. He knew her well enough to be more familiar, but as a proper greeting it served better.

  Releasing an annoyed sounding puff of breath before replying, the wizard mentor continued, "About time you came back, where have you been all this time?"

  Sebastian's eyes glanced beyond the smaller woman to a younger girl in the white robe of a wizard's apprentice. Red stripes marked her sleeves, collar and hem of her dress. The girl was slightly taller than the wizard in front of him, but it was easy to tell that she was much younger.

  "Well, I thought giving you more time to continue Shaylene's teaching was important to you as well?" he replied giving a nod to the younger girl before dropping his eyes back to Haylee.

  The apprentice smiled behind the woman's back but hid i
t quickly as her mentor glanced behind her a moment before looking at him again. "That is important also, but I thought that you planned on helping her learn more about opening portals. It was why you said that she had to accompany that... boy," she hesitated a moment before making a face of distaste.

  "Xander?" Sebastian asked rhetorically. It always seemed to be about Xander. He was a battle mage cadet with great aptitude for the new magic that the owl mage had come up with over the last two years. More important to Haylee, the boy was also Shaylene's boyfriend.

  Hazel eyes rolled behind the woman as the apprentice revealed her annoyance with her mentor's notice.

  "Of course, Xander, who else would I mean? You made me let her share her power to help the cadet try to learn portal magic. He can do it with her assistance. Shouldn't you have been working on teaching her the spell as well by now?"

  "You two have had equal opportunity to try the magic, but it is something rarer than healing magic as you should know by now. You've barely given it a chance also. If you wanted Shaylene to work on it, all you had to do was work with Xander and Kharrik. Where is he by the way? I thought you two had a good... working relationship now."

  Cheeks reddening slightly, Haylee paused a suspiciously long moment while Shaylene quickly hid a smirk behind her hand. "Falcon Kharrik..." she paused looking uncertain of whether she should continue, "has been busy training with the mage cadets. Apparently, Falconi Garrett thought that he would be more valuable teaching them right now instead."

  Sensing that there was more, he waited long enough for the wizard to grumble, "High Wizard Herrol must have agreed. They've been sending some of the other mentors to work with the falcon for most of the last two weeks, since you've been gone."

  Her emphasis on 'the falcon' was laced with something akin to hate, but Sebastian wasn't certain that was it exactly. Kharrik and Haylee had become rather close while he was working to create the new gate network in Kardor. First Haylee had invited herself along as chaperone to Shaylene, because she didn't trust the two alone; a silly notion since they couldn't have done much with the remainder of his team there and out in the frigid weather of the nation to the northwest of Southwall.

  Kharrik had been suggested as another mage that might be able to use portal magic and had been added to his students as a way to try and distract Haylee as she played mother hen to the apprentice while leveling disapproving looks at Xander. As a distraction, it had worked remarkably well and Haylee had shown an attraction for the new addition to their team too.

  Perhaps if Sebastian and his team hadn't become distracted with the business of training Kardor's wizards in the same magic, they would have all continued to be together. He guessed that suddenly having to share the battle mage with other wizards also wasn't sitting very well with the woman.

  "Are you jealous, Haylee?" Serrena questioned sounding a little too smug as she spoke up from behind the owl.

  The two women had a history. While Serrena had the typical temper of fire wizards, the other woman had adopted a much cooler disposition at least on the outside. The two fire wizards brought out the worst in each other at times, though there also seemed to be a degree of sisterly love there as well.

  "Jealous? Don't be ridiculous," Haylee answered crossing her arms defiantly. Behind the woman Shaylene looked like she didn't believe her and continued doing her best to hide her amused reactions to her mentor's discomfort. "What is there to be jealous of anyway? He works with other wizards on magic. I have my own duty to Shaylene as well so... so..."

  The fire wizard seemed to run out of words and simply went silent. Sebastian didn't even need to look at Serrena to feel the woman's smugness grow.

  Clearing her throat, Haylee changed the subject and asked, "So what brings you here this time? Do you need more help training these battle mages?"

  She tried to sound like she didn't care, but a certain hopefulness crept in even so.

  "Actually, I came to see my sister. Everyone has been mentioning checking in on my family who lives somewhat close to White Hall, so I thought I would see if Katya was interested in going also."

  He looked over the shorter wizards in front of him seeing if he could spot the girl mentioned, but he didn't see his sister off hand.

  "Ah, word must not have reached you in Hala or wherever you have been. She was one of several apprentices chosen to go on a trip to the Dimple Mountains."

  "At this time of year?" he questioned. It was technically the second week of spring by the calendar, but the weather was far from warm and often colder near the mountains. "Are they training already?"

  Eyes suddenly appearing troubled, Haylee shook her head, "I am not certain of the specifics. There has been an unusual amount of excitement around here since shortly after we returned. Perhaps you should speak with Falconi Garrett or White Wizard Herrol, if you want more information. It doesn't seem like a typical training mission from what I can tell, but we weren't invited after all," she finished once more sounding slighted.

  Rubbing his chin disappointedly in thought a moment, he glanced to his friends and said, "Why don't you all grab some lunch and catch up for a bit? I'll see if I can find the falconi. I had planned on checking in on him anyway."

  "I'll go with you, unless you mind," Ashleen suggested and brightened slightly at his nod.

  "We'll meet you back here in a little bit," he said to the others and started across the cafeteria passing by tables continuing to fill with the students that hadn't been called away on the mission which had taken his sister away apparently. Not knowing how many would have been here at this time normally, the mage was unable to tell the difference from the regular size of a morning cafeteria crowd. Sebastian wondered how many had actually been chosen to go.

  Without seeing the man he had in mind or the high wizard, the second of whom he had rarely noticed eating with the children he supervised; Sebastian and Ashleen passed through into the far hallway. Directly before them was a wall with a few windows restricted by curtains on the other side. He had seldom seen them open at night, but occasionally some would be pulled aside during the day.

  This was where the sick and injured went to be healed. The apprentices training to become healing wizards trained here when their magic was far enough along to be of use. Beginners would work with skilled mentors to help keep people healthy. They also handled the bumps and bruises of the mages and soldiers that could pick up injuries during their weapons' and physical training. Sebastian hadn't needed the wing often as a cadet and felt a little amused that apparently he had become more accident prone since being promoted.

  Enemies were partly to blame, but Ashleen would remind him on occasion of his accident involving the testing of his second Hollow Sword.

  "So this is where you trained and formed the basis of the man who would become the owl," Ashleen said both dramatically and with some amusement in her voice as well.

  "Well, mostly that happened in the courtyard where we arrived or the ones beyond the security wall actually. We trained in here only when it was too cold to make it practical or safe," he replied thumbing over his shoulder in the direction of the cafeteria and the doorway that they had used to enter the school. It wasn't like this was the first time that the two had been here together, however, so this information was hardly news to the pretty blonde walking beside him.

  His strides were longer than the shorter woman's and Sebastian heard the difference in their footfalls on the stone echoing slightly in the hallway as they turned to walk beside the infirmary walls. Moments later they came to an intersection. Doors to the right sealed the building against the cold outside. The school's center courtyard couldn't be seen through the windows set high above their heads. Even though this was a school, there had been a certain amount of practicality to the build of it that accounted for a land that had seen war since before its creation.

  Stones could be shifted easily enough by wizards to fill weaknesses in the walls though, he thought. White Hall also hadn't been attacke
d in generations perhaps dating to the days before North Wall had been built to seal off the southern peninsula from the hordes serving the Dark One. Sebastian wondered if it wasn't time to create new windows lower down so that the students could look out while studying in the large common area set between the offices, classrooms and the exit door. If they could trust the peace that existed south of the wall, then making it feel less like a fortress and more like a traditional school might be nice.

  His thoughts turned to the trouble with New Harbor to the south. The Dark One had slipped seditionist agents into several of the southern cities inciting them to rebel against the king. So far, only New Harbor and its lords had chosen to break from Southwall. His thoughts of making the school brighter with glass windows made him wonder if the possibility of true peace south of the wall wasn't just a wishful dream.

  Turning left, away from the outer doors, they passed into the common area noting more than a dozen students dressed in the white outfits of apprentices. Some wore pants of different colors. Most of those were male while the girls tended to wear dresses with stockings thick enough to keep their legs warm.

  It was supposed to be spring, but the chill remaining in the air outside made the stones within convey some of that to those living inside of the school walls. Long sleeves and long dresses covered the students whose eyes lifted here and there to see the two walking between the couches and chairs to either side of the main walkway.

  Their destination was opposite the entry doors. A pair of closed doors was visible before them and Sebastian led Ashleen towards them trying to ignore eyes that were showing interest. He was known to these people even if he was a mage and they wizard apprentices. Ever since the wizards' tournament the previous spring, Sebastian had developed a reputation. He had also been to White Hall several times since then bringing his knowledge to wizard and mage alike. His magic would have made him a celebrity alone, but that wasn't the only part of his reputation, he knew.