by Cadman, Dean
“Don't worry. I'll be fine,” he tried to reassure her. “Could you remove my boot please? I'm not sure I can sit up yet, and it feels like it's bleeding quite badly. I can feel my boot filling up.”
At that Neala began to look even more worried, but she began to loosen his boot as he asked. When she was able to remove the boot and see the wound for herself, she was amazed how calm Lusam was. The knife had passed right through his foot, and left a nasty looking hole the full width of the blade. His boot did indeed contain a lot of blood—as he had said—but far more concerning, was the amount of blood now flowing freely from his foot. The knife must have cut through a blood vessel of some kind, and now it was pumping from his foot with each beat of his heart. Lusam concentrated on his foot with his mage-sight, and applied his new healing knowledge to the wound. First he had to reconnect the severed dorsalis pedis artery, which was responsible for pumping out the blood so fast. How he even knew the name of it was a mystery, but one he would ponder over at a more appropriate time. Bringing the two severed parts together, he fused them back into one piece with magic, before moving on to inspect the rest of the injury. He didn't find anything else too serious, and began knitting the wound back together from the inside out. When he reached the surface layer, he pulled the two sides of skin back together, before finally sealing the wound completely.
When he opened his eyes he saw Neala still staring at his foot with her mouth wide open, as if in mid-sentence. She noticed Lusam looking up at her, and still completely speechless, she simply shook her head, before almost diving on top of him, and enveloping him with a huge hug.
“That was amazing! Your wound just healed right before my eyes. How did you do that?” she asked in a shaky voice.
“It was amongst the spells I learned from the book, fortunately for me. I was hoping to try it out on someone else first, though, to be honest.” Tentatively he removed the spell suppressing the pain, and was relieved to find he no longer had any pain in his foot. He wiggled his toes and rotated his ankle to make doubly sure everything was working correctly, then with a sigh, he said, “I suppose I better go wash all of the blood out of my boot before I put it back on again.” “Oh, no you don’t! I'll go do that for you. It's the least I can do after causing the problem in the first place,” she said, reaching for his boot. “You stay right here and eat your lunch. I'll be right back.”
Lusam almost lost control of his stomach at the thought of eating anything. “I think I'll give food a wide berth for a little while,” he replied, still looking very pale.
Neala took the boot and disappeared up the stairs towards the shop above. After a few minutes Lusam began to feel much better, and sat upright to look around the room. He noticed the knife on the floor that had been inside his foot only a few minutes earlier. Reaching over, he picked it up to take a closer look at it. He was no expert when it came to knives, although, he could testify with absolute conviction at how sharp the blade was, but even he could tell it wasn't well balanced: the handle was much heavier than the blade. He decided to try and correct the balance while Neala was gone. He very much doubted Neala would give him a hard time, even if he did end up destroying the knife whilst trying to correct its balance. Not after what had just happened.
He formed a close fitting force-field around the knife, and began to heat the metal. Once it was molten, he simultaneously lengthened the blade, whilst reducing the length of the handle. He carefully reached out his hand towards the force-field, not knowing if the still molten metal inside would effect the temperature of the outside of the force-field. He was almost touching the force-field, but he couldn't feel any heat emanating from it, so he made brief contact with it to be sure. The force-field was as cool as stone to his touch, so he released the levitation spell and let it fall gently into his hand. Finding the half way point of the knife, he adjusted the length of the blade and handle, until it was perfectly balanced on his finger. Once he was happy with the shape and balance, he rapidly reduced the temperature inside the force-field to cool the metal. When he was certain it was cool enough, he released the force-field, letting the new knife settle into the palm of his hand.
After carefully inspecting the new knife, he was pleased with the results, and hoped Neala would be equally pleased. Almost as an after thought, he decided to add a small enchantment to the knife. It would strengthen the metal further, and keep the blade sharp and free from corrosion; no matter what.
He was keen to see how sharp the knife was, and spotted the food parcel over near the door. He hobbled over to the door wearing only one boot, noticing how warm the stone floor was on his bare foot. He picked up a piece of brown paper packaging, and tried the knife against its edge. The knife cut through the paper like a razor blade. Happy with the results, he looked around for more things to test it on, but there was nothing else around. He was just about to hobble back to the book room to await Neala's return, when he noticed the new target that she had made from the old table.
“How hard can it be?” he said out loud to himself, hobbling towards the target. He quickly decided that he didn't want to be too close, just in case the knife bounced back at him; one injury was more than enough for one day. Moving back another ten paces, he turned to face the target. Should he hold the blade or the handle? He had no idea. Settling for holding the blade, he took aim and threw the knife fairly hard at the target, giving it every chance to stick into the wood. He watched the knife fly through the air and miss the wooden target by a small margin. Cringing as the knife was about to smash into the hard stone wall. He thought he might have to quickly repair or remake the knife before Neala returned, especially if his enchantment didn't work to protect it.
As the knife was about to strike the stone wall, a huge red flash radiated outwards from the impact, before dissipating all around the room. Lusam stood there staring at the wall, as if expecting it to do something else, but it remained just a wall. He looked at the wall using his mage-sight, and was shocked to see that the text carved into the wall, now glowed like the pressure points they had found outside the secret room. He still couldn't read the strange language the words were written in, however. As Lusam looked around the room, he noticed other inscriptions carved into the walls, all glowing brightly in his mage-sight, and also a few high above him on the vaulted ceiling. He remembered seeing some kind of pictures depicted up there when they had first arrived, but it had never been light enough to see what they were pictures of.
Returning to his normal-sight, Lusam created a light orb and sent it up towards the ceiling, curious as to what was above him. He increased its light level as it went up, and revealed the most amazing sight he had ever seen. Huge pictures of what looked like both dragons and men, standing together, next to the immense building and towers of some ancient long forgotten temple. In two of the pictures, the dragons had what looked like human riders on their backs. In others, it showed what appeared to be men and women cleaning and feeding them. One building in the picture grabbed Lusam's attention more than any other. It was a large domed-topped building with glowing red walls. It showed three figures standing in front of the building, each one casting what looked like magical missiles towards the walls of the building. When he studied it further, he noticed that although it looked like they were standing outside the building, in fact, they were actually inside, and the artist had just removed the front walls to reveal the interior for the benefit of the picture. Lusam let the light orb wink out high up above him. He stared back at the walls surrounding him, while thinking about what he had just seen. Were these walls like the ones in the picture above his head? What would be the point of magically protecting the inside of a building, when attacks would come from outside? None of it made any sense to him. Then with sudden realisation it came to him. These walls weren't built to protect the monks from outside attackers, they were made to absorb magic, so they could train here without damaging the building itself.
Keen to test his theory, he was equally keen not to
bring the roof down on top of his head, and so, decided to start off with only very weak basic spells. He chose a fire based spell, and sent a weak fireball towards the wall from a safe distance. As soon as the fireball made contact with the wall, the same red shimmer flashed around the room, dissipating the effects of the fireball. Lusam could see there were no visible marks on the wall where the fireball should have hit, so he increased the power of his spell, and sent another fireball towards the wall. This time the red flare was more intense, but still, there was no damage to the wall. He tried several more times, each time increasing the power of the fireballs he sent, and each time the walls flashed red and dispelled the effects.
Lusam was about to try other spells, when Neala returned to the room carrying a clean, but very wet looking boot. Handing the dripping boot back to Lusam, he took it and said, “Er … thanks … I think.”
“Sorry it's so wet, it took a while to get all the blood out of it. I thought you might be able to dry it with your magic,” she replied apologetically.
Searching his mind for an appropriate spell to dry his boot, he realised he didn’t have one. “Actually, I don’t know how,” he said, laughing at the crazy thought of being able to create gold coins and weapons, or bring down a building with a simple thought, but not being able to dry his own boot. “I guess I still have a lot to learn.”
“You're looking much better anyway,” Neala offered in a low voice.
“Yeah, I'm fine, don’t worry. While you were gone I altered your knife for you. It seems to have worked out quite well, but I'm no expert, you'll have to tell me what you think before I do the others. I also placed a magical enchantment on the knife, so it should be much stronger than before, and never need sharpening or oiling for rust protection,” he said, walking over to retrieve the knife, which was still on the floor near the target board. He picked up the knife, walked back to where Neala was standing, and handed it to her carefully. She twirled the knife in her hand, and flipped it over in mid-air a couple of times, before sending it flying towards the target board. With a thud, the knife struck dead centre of the heart shaped target.
“Perfectly balanced! Thanks Lusam,” Neala said, throwing her arms around his neck and giving him another big hug, as well as a kiss on the cheek.
“Great, I'm glad you like it. Five more knives to balance and enchant then. Does that mean I'll get five more hugs and kisses when I'm done?” Lusam asked, trying to keep a serious look on his face. Neala just smiled and winked at him, before going to retrieve her new knife.
“I've found a couple of very interesting things while you were gone too,” Lusam said, walking back to the area directly under the picture on the vaulted ceiling.
“Oh?” Neala replied curiously.
“Do you remember when we first arrived here, I noticed some paintings high up above where I'm standing now, but we couldn't see them because it was too dark?”
“I didn't see them, but I remember you telling me you saw something up there. Why do you ask?” Neala replied, walking over to where Lusam was now standing.
“Take a look for yourself. See what you think,” Lusam replied.
A light orb suddenly appeared high above him—illuminating the ceiling—and revealed the full splendour of the incredibly detailed artwork that had been previously hidden by the darkness. He heard Neala take a sudden intake of breath, as the whole image became visible. “That's amazing! It must have taken years to paint all of that,” she said in a whisper, almost as if she was afraid that one of the painted figures would overhear her comments.
“Yeah, I bet they had sore necks too,” Lusam laughed. “But, the part I wanted to show you is there on the left. That building in front of those mountains. The one with the domed roof and red walls. Can you see it?”
“Er … Oh, yes, I see it. It looks like it's under attack by those figures in front of it,” Neala replied, still overawed by the sheer size and scale of the painted ceiling.
“Yes, that’s the one. I thought it was under attack too when I first saw it. But if you look closer, what looks like the outside wall of the building, is actually the interior wall. The artist has simply removed the front wall, so we're able to see inside the building,” he said, trying to point out the small, but obvious details.
“Yes, I think you're right. But why would anyone attack the inside of a building like that?” Neala asked, confused.
“Again, I thought the same thing when I first saw it, but it's not what it seems,” he said, extinguishing the light above them. “Come over here, I'll show you.” And he walked back to where he first discovered the walls innate ability to absorb impacts and magic. “Throw one of you knives at your target, but I want you to miss and hit the wall instead.” Neala looked at him as if he had gone mad. “But, if I hit the wall instead of the target, it would likely destroy my knife. Or at the very least, it would need a lot of attention afterwards.”
“Well … it doesn't really matter that much anyway. I'll be changing them with magic when I balance them for you, but I doubt it will be damaged in any case. Trust me,” he said, smiling at her.
Still not convinced by his logic, she decided not to argue, and just throw the knife like he'd asked. It took a surprising amount of self control for Neala to ignore the fact, that her new knife would probably be badly damaged after deliberately hitting a solid stone wall, but she put her natural instincts aside, and let the knife fly towards its fate. Just as the knife was about to hit the stone wall, a red flash erupted from the impact site, then dissipated outwards along the walls around the room.
“Wow! What was that?” Neala blurted out.
“I think that was the same thing we just saw in the picture on the ceiling,” Lusam replied, pointing up at where the pictures now lay in darkness. “I think this huge room was used by the monks who lived here to practise magic, and maybe other offensive skills. The walls seem to absorb the impact of anything that hits them. I suppose it makes sense really, when you think about it. If you need to practise potentially dangerous magic, you couldn't really do it out on the streets, or even out in the open air safely. Eventually it would hit something, and damage or destroy it, or even kill someone. Watch I'll show you,” Lusam said, turning around and sending a fireball hurtling towards the wall. As before the impact was completely dissipated by the wall.
“Wow! This place gets stranger every day,” Neala said, shaking her head.
Laughing, Lusam replied, “Yeah, I agree. It would also explain why the walls and floor are always warm in winter and cool in summer. It's because they are magical in nature.“ Neala just nodded her head, still trying to take in the strangeness of it all. “Looks like we will both be practising in here from now on in our spare time,” Lusam said, looking around the huge room.
“Practising?” Neala asked confused.
“Yeah. While you practise your knife throwing, I can practise what I learnt from the book. Some of the spells are a little confusing, and other are very complicated. This place seems like the perfect place to get some practice and increase my skills, with no chance of damaging anything accidentally, or being seen by anyone.”
Neala thought for a moment, then grinning widely, she replied, “That sounds like a good idea. But, I think I'll stay out of your way while you're throwing magic around in here. If you don't mind, that is? I wouldn't want to find myself suddenly faced with a stray fireball, or worse. Even if you do owe me one for that foot of yours.”
Lusam burst out laughing at the image that popped into his mind, of Neala being chased around the huge room by a stray fireball with a mind of its own.
“Sure, no problem. I can always practise after you're done,” he suggested.
“Yeah, that sounds somewhat … safer to me,” Neala said, laughing back at his sudden outburst. Thinking to herself for a few moments, she added, “I do have a question though. That fireball you just sent at the wall, could you create a smaller version, or something similar to cook food with? If you could, it would
vastly increase the choice of food I'm able to buy.”
“Hmm … I never thought about that,” he said running the possibility through his mind. “Yes, I believe I could. I could even levitate the food above the fire, so we wouldn't need any cooking implements. And if I placed a small force-field below the fire, any food drips wouldn't make a mess on the floor either,” he replied, feeling very pleased with himself. Suddenly, images of a slow-turning roast pig, levitating above a magical fire sprang into his mind, loudly awakening his stomach to the fact that he hadn't eaten since this morning. He was about to inform Neala, when she broke the silence.
“I know … I know … you're hungry. Again,” she said, rolling her eyes and going over to retrieve their lunch from near the doorway. Lusam just smiled to himself, content in the knowledge that she knew him so well.
After lunch Lusam found himself still hungry, as usual. Nothing seemed to fill him these days since he'd started doing more magic, or if it did, not for long. He spent the next hour adjusting Neala's knives using his magic, which only made him even more hungry, before returning to his book duties. Neala spent the afternoon familiarising herself with her new weapons in the large room, practising on her wooden target board. In the beginning, the constant thud … thud … thud of the knives hitting the wooden board, almost drove him to distraction. But after a couple of hours, it became an almost comforting background noise. He knew Neala was happy in there practising, and so, that made him happy too.
Later that evening, after Neala's reading lesson, Lusam returned to the large room and started practising his various new spells alone. Each day over the next few weeks followed a very similar pattern. The only difference was he got much better at casting his spells, and the size of the book mountain reduced substantially; to the point they both could see an end in sight.