by P. Tempest
“You were supposed to learn that you are always going to be over matched. You are powerful in magic that is not a good thing. You have neglected the physical side. You don't even have much subtlety in your thoughts and actions. You are arrogant and fierce and as proud as a kicked cat. None of these things serve you well. You have unmatched sensitivity that I felt you use, but you never took advantage of it.”
“Took advantage of it how? It’s blinding. It’s overwhelming. It helps for little things the rest of the time, it give me a headache.”
“So? Excuses help no one, you want to live? To get back to your master? To whom ever else you have left behind? Then you need to focus on learning everything you can.”
I stood in front of him, my heart was pounding my senses still on overload.
(Beat)
A thrum went through the magic, so very slight that I wouldn't normally have noticed it, but my attention was drawn to my senses.
(Beat)
Another one. Each thread pulsed ever so faintly.
“What is that?”
“Never mind that. It's not part of my oath.”
“But you said I needed to learn. I want to learn this.”
“Not this. Never this. It's not for you to know. That way lies something you aren't ready for.”
(Beat)
“Fine, for now. I will let this go, but how am I supposed to learn if you won't teach me?
“I will teach you, go back to the fire. Set up camp while I dismiss my servants and revive the one you dispatched.”
I walked back toward the fire, my own fire gone. I felt cold. My sword hung limply in my hand, dragging along the ground. A thin line of broken earth followed in my wake. I couldn't bring myself to care.
The night had settled firmly on the land, the changes in the nature of the magic would have filled me with excitement at another time but now in the midst of training my enthusiasm waned. It always did. I love learning, I just hate being taught.
I sat heavily on the raised mound of earth I'd made before, rested the sword against it and closed my eyes.
The double vision of the solid and the magical worlds vanished taking a large chunk of the overwhelming information with it. My head eased and the tightness that id barely noticed loosened.
The tangle of Vesic and his creations remained where they were off to the side of my central focus. I concentrated, pulling threads of power free from their flows, I raised my hand slowly, smoothing the earth of our camp. The movement released a cloud of moisture laden scents: rich soil, dry leaves and the warmth of early night. The rustle of leaves as they moved to my will filled the air. Under the fire I made a hollow to contain it. Small stones from deep below the surface rose up to my call, to circle the flames. A slight ridge formed twenty paces from me, a boundary I could lay a warding on.
The blaze that was Vesic shifted, coming closed. The burning in my mind that accompanied him intensified, demanding subservience. It was easy to block out now that I knew what it was, an intrinsic part of being a god. But what confused me was the simplicity of his threads, each was strong and clear, bright and hot. But underneath it there was an absence that felt wrong. He was less complex than a man, stronger, clearer, less conflicted maybe. But it was worrying.
I heard his steps and his grunt as he reached camp.
“You used the time well.” he said.
I opened my eyes to look in to his eyes. Flickers of flame reflected from his gaze but his earlier anger was gone. Weariness was in his every line.
A tired god, strange.
I nodded to him, keeping my mouth shut.
He stepped around the fire pit. His steps left marks in the magic and the earth.
I pushed back my reading, I couldn't keep up with it anymore. I felt momentarily without all sense. A blankness that was frightening after all the light and colour.
“What have you learnt?”
I remained sat on the mound, thinking.
“I have learnt that this was a testing exercise, you wished to see how I handled myself in a combat situation. To build a lesson plan, maybe.”
“Very good. So you aren't entirely ignorant. Yes. I wished to see what you could already do. I needed to see how you handled being without your power. Magic ruins the balance of things, you can't determine skills with a glance, but combat can strip it all down. Show you the true core of a man. Out there you reminded me of someone I knew once.”
“What happened to him?”
“He died. He was mortal. He was my friend.”
An air of sadness around him stopped me from asking any more. Even his cloak dimmed, the tiny sparks lessoning in number. He sat on the edge of the mound.
“I'm sorry for your loss.”
“It was long ago. But I thank you. Now that I have an idea of your skills I know what I need to teach you and how. We should rest. You and Brendon have a long day tomorrow.” The fire cast deep shifting shadows on his face, he looked ancient and tired. Mortal. He looked towards me a strange expression on his face as if he wanted to say something else.
I picked up my bag and pulled out the blanket I'd packed. I laid it on the earth.
As I lay there looking up at the stars, I thought about what I had learnt already. Not much in solid terms but being open to information for combat was new.
“Thank you for coming with me.”
“I pay my debts. Sleep,” Vesic said as he stared into the flames.
I drifted off counting the stars.
Chapter 34
Light around me. Soft earth beneath me. Bright light, glimmers, ribbons of magic. I felt the smooth slide of the ribbons on my skin as they drifting through the air.
My eyes focused on the distance.
A tent of shadows and slivers of silvery light sat of the horizon of the open plain before me. The land between it and me was flat and dry, almost sandy but soft. My uniform was nowhere to be seen, but I wasn't naked.
I was clothed in an airy thing. I don't know what it was, but it hung on me as a shapeless, weightless mass. It didn't restrict or do anything really.
Shades, maybe reflections of other places, passed through the landscape. Images of buildings that I’d never seen. People milled around. Different to any I had known. There were dressed in hides and leathers. They carried small tools on them. They all had a hardened look to them as if they could live in the wilds for all time. Their eyes shimmered with colour, not mage eyes but not mage eyes either. They were as if someone had made eyes out of glass and stained them with glowing colour.
I looked up at the sky, clouds of blues and greens scattered the starry night. The stars were large, far larger and brighter than normal.
A wash of heat filled the air.
I looked around.
The tent was changing. Flames were curling through the shadows, smoke rising into the dark sky.
I could see as if it was day, the night sky and lack of a sun didn't change the fact that shadows were showing it was noon.
The smoke drifted on the breeze, bringing with it sounds. Voices.
“Vesic, you can't mean to do this.” a woman's voice, sobbing could be heard underneath the words.
“Kneel, you will show respect to your king. You may be my sister but I'm still your king.”
“Mage-King Vesic, you can't unleash them. They are indiscriminate.”
“I must if we are to grow as a people then we must conquer. We must unite. The clans are ended, and all opposition must be wiped away. Fire will burn away the past and give us a future beyond living in the moment.”
“Sire, I beg you, choose another weapon. These things are wrong. They leave nothing alive. We can't thrive in a land of ashes. The chiefs don't want this.”
“I care not what the new nobles want. They are oathed. They shall do my will.”
“Sire,-”
“Enough! What would you have of me? The duty falls to me to make a better world for us. A land where we are more than a loose tribe of wanderers. We can be
so much more. I've seen it. If it need be built on blood and fire, so be it. I don't sleep, I'm so tired, but this needs doing. That's the price I pay for this.”
“Choose another way.”
“Don't lecture me sister. I've made my decision.” Regret and pain filled those words. So much so that I felt my chest ache in sympathy.
The voices drifted away beyond hearing as the tent burnt to the ground. In its place rose a spire of twisted smoke and stone, dark and grim. It stood in stark contrast to the bright land around it. A crawling sweep of shade spread from the spire. The people caught in it changed. Their eyes lost their brightness and their clothes turned to cloth, no longer hide and leather. They were diminished as individuals, their strength drained away, leaving them shadows of their former selves then they too drifted away on the wind.
“You shouldn't be here,” a deep voice came from being me.
I spun.
Vesic and Brendon stood on a small rise of soft earth. Glowing soil is strange. Not as strange as sun light in the middle of the night with no sun, but strange none the less.
“Where is here? This place is strange.”
“Welcome to our dreamscape.” Brendon smiled at me.
Vesic on the other hand looked at the smoke and stone spire, an unreadable expression on his face.
“Dreamscape? I've never heard of it.”
“You don't know everything mage, this land is old and steeped in magic. There are more things than you could ever learn.”
(Beat).
The whole place shimmered in time with the beat. A pulse within the otherworldly substance of the dream world.
“You must leave now. Get some real sleep, this place is not meant for you,” Brendon said gently.
“How?”
“Just close your eyes.”
I took one last look around at the land etched in light, soft and pure. It was heart achingly beautiful here even with the smoke and stone spires dark shadow.
There is no light without darkness. The thought echoed in my head. A realisation that was simultaneously terrifying and comforting.
I closed my eyes, took a breath of the magical air deep into my lungs and release.
The land frayed beneath me and I fell.
(---)
I awoke to a light dew covering the earth. The early morning sky was brightening, streaks of red raced around the dull grey clouds. I sat up and looked around, I felt stiffness in my backs and a kind of chill from sleeping on the ground. The camp-fire had extinguished, leaving a small charred mark within the circle of stones.
Brendon hadn't moved. It was clearly Brendon and not Vesic, there was no fire. He looked like stone, grey and unmoving, each line of his face was locked in stasis.
“Brendon, is everything okay?”
A flicker of movement went through him and a distinct cracking could be heard as he turned his head.
“Good morning Tristan. Vesic set the warding as you slept, he told me to inform you not to forget again. Do what you need to be ready. We leave shortly. We have much to do.”
I stood and rolled up my blanket and stuffed it in my bag. Then I walked over to set on the mound next to Brendon I looked at the earth beneath my feet, short grass grew in clumps, not really covering the dirt. I sent out small threads of my power seeking.
From a point between my feet a damp spot formed. It slowly grew to a puddle.
I pulled the water skin from my bag and dipped it into the puddle. The cold water lapped at my hand, gently filling the skin. I raised it to my mouth and drank deeply. I stopped the skin and wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. I offered it to Brendon
He waved it away.
“Can we talk about the dream?”
“You look ready. We have to run as much as you are able today.”
“Why the hurry?”
“It's not a hurry, it's to prepare you. Your physical fitness is appalling. We need to change that as soon as possible.”
I placed the skin in my bag, then stood and pulled the strap over my head. The bag settled easily across my back, the sword hilt within easy reach.
Brendon nodded and rose to his feet. He walked to the edge of the camp and stepped over the small ridge of earth. He broke into a jog. He looked over his shoulder to me then sped up.
I walked towards him, stepped over the ridge myself. Then I ran after him.
He was fast.
It wasn't long before I was panting and sweating. My chest ached and my legs burned. We devoured the distance. We must have done a ten miles in an hour. The land a blur as we ran.
Brendon made no sign of stopping as the sun finally climbed into the sky.
I pulled magic in and sent it to my muscles and lungs. My breath came long and slow. Each muscle worked harder and easier. I closed the short distance between Brendon and myself. Not with ease though. It still hurt, I was just using magic to make my body work at its peak.
Brendon looked at me, then his pace increased again.
I pushed as hard as I could, I felt the magic forcing my muscles to work better harder.
Then I was on the ground, my nose buried in the dirt.
“What do you think you are doing?” Brendon said from above me. His tone contained equal amounts of amusement and disappointment.
“Running, well I was. I'm now laying here. You tripped me.”
“I did. Vesic told you no magic. This is physical work. No short cuts. No cheats.”
“I wasn't cheating, I was using an advantage.”
“It's not an advantage in Nelar. It's a liability that will get you killed.”
“Why is using magic there such a problem?”
“You will see. Now get up and run. We run until midday, then we will rest and eat. Then we will run till nightfall and make camp.”
“Can't I just lay here for a little while?” I said hopefully, I was joking, but I really did want to lay here and catch my breath.
“You can lay there all you want, no one is stopping you but your duty waits for you in Nelar. Will you leave it waiting? Will you bear that shame?”
I was tempted.
But I rose to my feet shakily, my sweat had made the earth into mud where it touched my skin.
Brendon just smiled and took off at a jog. Again.
I ambled along, forcing my body to go faster. No magic though.
The day dragged by so slowly, each breath felt like knives of ice and blood in my chest. I felt sick, my mouth dry. My lips cracked and bled. Even my fingers hurt, why I had no idea, but it just topped off how I was feeling.
Brendon looked fresh. There was not a drop of sweat. No flush in his cheeks, his breath was light. His movements fluid and smooth.
I hated him.
“We will stop soon. Just push a bit harder.”
I struggled on through the burning pain.
Half a mile down the road Brendon motioned for us to stop. There was a small stream flowing, the calm lapping of its current on the smoothed rocks would have been lovely if I could hear it without hearing my own ragged gasps.
“You did well. Id expected you to drop a few miles back, but you dug deep,” Brendon said from above me.
I had bent over at the waist my hands on my knees, dragging air into my body as fast as I could.
“Don't fold up, we are going to walk to the stream and you are going to drink slow and steady, no big gulps.”
I forced myself to stand up, I didn't whimper. I may have let out a manly cry, I wasn't paying attention.
The air around the stream was cool, vapour rose gently into the air, giving it such a fresh and lively feel.
“Now take a handful, don't swallow just swish it around your mouth. Then spit it out. You don't want to be swallowing dust.”
I let myself be guided, I felt so weak.
“That's it. Now take a little more. We are going to walk around. Go slowly. Let your body relax a bit.”
Brendon took my arm and guided me around like an invalid. A few wobbling steps.
Then we stopped a bit further up the stream.
“Another handful.”
Our break consisted of this. I didn't mind. It took the pressure of self-determination away while I tried to recover.
“A few more moments then we will go again. Fill your skin. Eat if you are able, but light. No meat.”
I followed my instructions. A small piece of bread and another hand full of water to wash it down.
“Ready?”
I nodded, I couldn't waste the breath I would need it for running.
Brendon ran.
I tried to run. My legs moved, but it wasn't running, it was barely a walk. I tried to clear my mind of the pain. To enjoy the day, the cool breeze, the scent of flowers. The light misting near the stream. But no I failed at enjoying. I was stuck on suffering. My legs hurt. My feet felt as if they were burning and swimming in sweat inside my boots. My hip hurt where my bag kept hitting it. My hair came this close to getting cut off, and I loved my hair normally but now it just felt like a weight slowing me down.
Brendon slowed and let me catch up. He looked me over as we walked. Then he slowly increased the speed.
This time it came easier, not easy but easier. My legs knew what to do even if the rest of me cried out in protest.
(---)
“Set up camp. Vesic will be here soon. Once the sun sets you will start your sword training. Pay attention.”
The area we were in was mainly forested. We must have covered thirty miles today. I didn't care. As soon as Brendon had announced our stop I'd collapsed on the ground. I didn't even have the energy to groan, setting up camp.
“Tristan, this is all for your own good. Please just show some faith.”
I didn't move, my eyes closed and dived into my other senses. I pulled far more magic than was needed into my body. The wash of power filled my channels, taking my pain away for just a moment.
The ridge twenty paces away from me rose up from the soil. A small circle of stone, that I'd found deep below. The air filled with the grinding sound of moving rock.
I felt a smile stretch my lips as I found something I hadn't expected underneath the surface. A tunnel ran along an underground stream. Almost parallel but not connected.