“Just a tiny bit stronger now,” Nora coached.
Darrel did it once more and the fireball looked much as Gavin’s had. It was soaked into the shield. His excitement was back and satisfaction rolled through his aura as well.
I watched as seven people were shown how to fire a fireball. As they were doing that I crafted a shield from my stream. It rested about chest level on my Personal shield and I made an opening on the far side with a weaker spot in the shield just as everyone else had.
At the base where my stream was I put a portal much like the one for my personal shield. This would allow me to turn the thing down to a passive level like my shield or open it to shoot the fireball.
“Ok, good job. Now Colin, I’m combining the fireball training with your first Source Pull so we will work on both levels at the same time. First I want you to make your shield, and then I want you to Pull very gently. We’ll see from there where the Pull needs to be adjusted.”
I opened the portal for the fireballer and reached down into the Source and Pulled with my mind. The power surged up and I steered it into the fireballer. I already knew it was too much before it hit the fireballer but I couldn’t do anything about it but let it go on.
The end of my shield erupted four times before the power was through.
“Crap,” I mumbled.
“Way too strong, Colin,” Nora stated, “but good for a first Pull. Now Pull softer and let’s see what happens.”
I Pulled just a tiny bit at the Source and the power flowed up my stream much slower this time. It filled my shield and ruptured like it should this time. The fireball flew straight into the target and was absorbed like the others.
“Very good,” Nora said, “Now there’s one more thing. Sometimes there is a need for a more powerful fireball than is standard and each one of you will have to find the highest output you feel comfortable with. Each of you will pick a target dummy and practice. Increase your Pull a bit and make the rupture stronger. But never make the rupture stronger than the shield or it gets ugly.”
She nodded at me, “Feel free to use the dummy you’re already facing, Colin.”
She turned to the group, “Do not look at this as competition, Some Mages are stronger than others. It’s a fact of life. What we want to know is where you are comfortable at in using power.”
I looked at my shield and made a portal on the other side of the fireballer, then changed my mind and made it like the other Mages did with the rupture.
Now is not the time for innovation, I thought.
The rupture I made was just a little bit weaker than the shield. I Pulled again about like I did the first time and power surged into the fireballer. It rolled around and around inside and I was beginning to worry a little when the rupture burst.
The fireball slammed into the target with a tooth jarring explosion. The shield soaked it up but I watched as the power flowed almost halfway up the Dome before dissipating.
“Holy crap,” I mumbled. I turned and saw everyone looking at me. I saw a mix of emotions on their auras. The predominant one was fear. In Gavin’s aura I saw jealousy and hate.
Why does he hate me? I’m just doing what I’m told. I guess I’ll never understand some people. We’re here to fight Demons. When you get a powerful ally in the fight shouldn’t that be a good thing?
What’s worse is he’s never even said a word to me. I’ve said hello several times to be snubbed at every turn. He just decided he had to hate me so his followers do the same. But they’re too scared to actually say anything.
***
“The greatest part to the personal shield is that it works as a privacy screen as well,” I said to Paige and Darrel, “The portal allows you to set the strength of the flow into it. Just leave a trickle to make a screen and open it wide for the shield.”
“Doesn’t closing the portal kill it all together?” Darrel asked, watching my shield as I pointed to the different parts I talked about.
“Nope, if you actually cut it, it will dissolve, but just closing the portal leaves it intact. Everything I weave from my stream is still there unless I actually cut it loose.”
“I can’t light it up like that though,” Paige said after concentrating.
“I’m not sure but that may be something special I can do. There’s so much I don’t know about my skills. Now that I can actually use the Source, I’m finding new things all the time.”
I looked at Paige, “With a memory like yours, can you draw what you see. I’ve never seen an illustration of the things we do. Wouldn’t it be so much easier to focus your mind on something if you could see what you want to create first?”
“Sure, I can draw this stuff. All the Mage things we are taught are based on simplicity. I’m sure someone has tried more complicated things before, maybe there are some things in the archives.”
Chapter 18
It was my eighteenth birthday and I was about to report to Tien Yueh for a new butt kicking session. I thought Kharl and Kyra had been tough, but Yueh is awesome. The man moves faster than a cobra and hits like a truck at the same time. It really is a good reminder to anyone that there is always someone better.
I’d been at the Academy for three months now, and I’d been to weapon training with Yueh every other day for at least an hour. I liked the sparring, even though it was painful in the extreme. When I’m sparring I feel alive, I feel an exultation I’ve only felt once before. When Mattie and I were fighting real Demons, I had felt this feeling. It’s like this is what I am made for. I don’t know, maybe I’m a little off.
I left my quarters to head down and looked up to find Regina Worthington closing the door to Gavin’s quarters. She looked back at me with a dazzling smile that would have melted me into goo if I wasn’t looking at the hate rolling through her ugly aura. I forced a smile in return and turned away, toward the elevators.
As I approached the Dome I could hear Tien talking, “You must always keep your focus. If you lose your focus you make mistakes. Mistakes will kill you when facing Demons.”
He looked up as I entered the Dome, “Ahh, the Mageguard finally shows up.”
He’d taken to calling me that when I started training under him. I consider it a compliment. Most Guards have a low opinion of most Mages, but since they call me a fighting Mage, I’m accepted by them. It didn’t hurt that they thought Kharl and Kyra were my parents either.
“I’m only a few minutes late, Master Yueh.”
“A few minutes can be an eternity in the Soulguard, Young Man,” he admonished, “Today we will practice with the swords.”
Each day, it was a different style of weapon that he tested me with. Swords were by far my best weapon, but I had learned a great deal from Yueh about several kinds of weapons. Staves, daggers, clubs of various sizes, and even a huge battle axe that looks like it came straight out of a fantasy movie.
It was much too big for a normal person to wield but Soulguards are far above normal. It was actually pretty fun to use but the twin short swords are my favorites.
“Today I want you moving as fast as you possibly can, Colin. You have a bad habit of just moving fast enough to keep up with me. Today will be the test of your true limits,” Yueh smiled as two more people entered the Dome.
Kyra and Jack Riordan both waved at me. Then they both entered the ring with us.
Oh crap, this is gonna hurt, I thought.
“A Soulmage has a Soul stream more than twice the size of a Soulguard,” Tien Yueh continued, “It stands to reason he should be able to tap much more potential than a guard. Discovering that potential is what training is about.”
The four of us took our place in a very large sparring ring and a Guard approached with an armload of practice wands. He looked at me with pity as he handed me two of them. The others each took two wands as I stretched my muscles to limber up.
“3...2...” The world slowed down, “1...Go!” the Guard’s voice boomed.
We began the Dance and I was hit from three
directions. I sped up and blocked Kyra’s next swing, but Jack’s still got me as well as Tien’s. It's very hard to concentrate while three Elite Soulguards whale on you. Faster and faster we danced.
One hit caught me close to the kidney and it hurt. Rage flashed through me for a split second, but with it came a focus I’ve never been able to achieve before this. The world slowed to a crawl, my Soul stream pulsing with power. I spun from the middle of the trio and landed three blows into Tien’s midsection. Before he could react, I was behind Kyra to land two blows in quick succession and spun away from her return to land four cracks across Jack’s midsection.
I dodged around their swings and started to make another pass when I heard a voice speaking very slowly, “Halt!”
We all slowed ourselves back to normal. My chest was heaving and my muscles felt like they were vibrating.
“...You see that?...three of them...hit them all...fighting mage...” I heard whispers from the Guards who’d been watching.
All three Elites were sweating and breathing hard. Kyra’s aura blazed with pride.
“I told you you’d be better,” She said.
“I’m impressed,” Jack agreed.
“Not better,” I returned, “Just faster.”
I was amazed at what had just happened. In all the years of sparring with my mother, I’d never gotten past her defenses. And I’d just gotten past her, Jack, and the Weapon Master of the Academy. Amazing.
“That is what I was looking for,” Tien stated, “In America you are probably the best Mage with weapons. In the Far East, there are many more of what we call Mageguards. They train as a Soulguard, like you, and then a Mage. They have more leeway because they aren’t directly under the supervision of the Archmage.”
“He seems to think Mages are above this sort of thing and he’s powerful enough to make his feelings policy,” Jack agreed.
Kyra nodded and pointed at my hands, “You need to take a run to work off the excess energy you’re carrying. You’re vibrating.”
“I think I will,” I returned as the same Guard came to retrieve the wands. I saw amazement in his aura and a bit of fear. Why fear? I wondered.
I headed to the edge of the Dome and began running around the outside edge to work off the excess energy. I saw one of Gavin’s followers, Kurt Yarden, as I passed and his aura was showing fear too. What is the problem with everyone? I wondered.
***
It seems that my birthday was to be filled with surprises. I returned to my quarters that evening to find Paige, waiting for me. We’d been practicing with shields over the last few months and I had not only shown her the shield but taught her the way I made the fireballer. She was a lot higher in the standings now to become a Battle Mage.
“I heard it was your birthday,” She said softly, “and I owe you so much for all you’ve done for me. I thought I could do something special for you.”
I saw several things in her aura, none of them fear, and my eyes widened in surprise as she stepped toward me, wrapped her arms around me and pulled me close.
Sex amongst the Guard is not only allowed, but actually encouraged because of our need for secrecy. If it’s kept in house it’s much easier to deal with.
As she pulled me toward the bed, tendrils of our Soulstreams intertwined. I was clumsy at first but it’s a great advantage to be able to see the reactions of everything you do. We fell asleep in each other’s arms afterward.
I have to say it was the greatest birthday I’d ever had.
Chapter 19
“Not much is still known about the man who created the Soulguard around eight hundred years ago,” Nora Kestril said, “He was born around 1200 AD maybe a little later. He was a Knight in one of the Crusades until he came back from the wars to find his home ravaged by Demons. There had been some witnesses and Greyson Kent had started his own Crusade to find a way to battle these monsters.”
“It’s not very clear how he learned to do the things he did, but he discovered how to knot his Soulstream and he trained anyone he deemed worthy to join his cause. He called them the Soulguard and they began the fight to save Humanity from these Demons. It’s not clear what skills he possessed, but they called him a Soullord. Maybe it was from being the man in charge or he may have been something other than a Mage.”
“Over the years the Guard has grown to a multi-continental organization. We have a central base on each continent, except Antarctica. There are two in Asia due to the size of the continent and the population there.”
“We are not subject to the rule of any government because our Mandate is to fight Demons, not other Humans. We don’t participate in Humanity’s wars amongst themselves. When a person joins the Guard, they swear the oath to the Guard. It is an oath that is enforced by every Mage and Guard. If a Guard or Mage uses their power against Humanity, they are permanently tied from the Source and exiled from the Guard.”
“If their crime is particularly severe, the penalty can be death by severing them completely from the Source. It is a horrible way to die. The body withers away and dries up into something resembling a mummy from Egypt. I’ve only seen this once and it was enough.”
***
“Come on, you know you want to,” I heard voices ahead of me, near the showers. I was supposed to meet Paige and go to dinner at the Mess hall together.
“I’ve seen you going into that Guard scum’s room. Maybe you should try a real Mage out for a change.”
“Not likely, you prick.” I heard Paige’s voice and the rage almost surfaced.
I’ve carried a rage inside of me for years. Very seldom does it surface, I keep it locked away because it scares me to know I can feel something so primal and revel in it. I had touched it at Morndel when the Demons had attacked but I never let it out completely.
It was surging dangerously close to the surface as I strode around the corner.
“Let go!!” Paige exclaimed, jerking her arm from his grasp.
“I’ll show you...” He began as he dropped his privacy shield to let her feel his Power.
Her Soulstream is about six inches in diameter and his is around ten. The power difference is more than that sounds. He’s actually about three times as powerful as Paige and he intended to intimidate her with it.
My stream is actually fifteen inches in diameter, I’d actually broken down and measured it one day, which means I’m probably about three times as powerful as he is. I did probably the dumbest single thing I’ve ever done in my life. If I’d known all the repercussions from this one act, I might have done things different. But I didn’t.
Paige saw me an instant before I reached Gavin Price. I grasped his shoulder and spun him around. He turned with a snarl, then a sneer as he recognized me. I let him get a good look and dropped my screen.
“Never touch her again,” I said softly, my eyes crackling with the Soulfire my rage was sparking.
His aura flooded with shock at what he could sense and then with terror as he realized exactly what I could do to him. He turned in terror and fled down the hallway.
“Oh my God,” Paige murmured.
She wrapped her arms around me and some of the intensity of the moment eased and I pushed my rage back down inside.
“Oh Colin,” she shook her head, “You shouldn’t have done that. He will never forgive you, now. There’s nothing but trouble for anyone who makes an enemy of the Archmage. And if you’re the enemy of his son, you’re his enemy.”
“I couldn’t let it go, I’m sorry,” I returned, the rage subsiding.
“You don’t need to apologize to me,” she laughed softly, “But there will be trouble for you after standing up for me. He couldn’t do anything more than intimidate me, or, Archmage’s son or not, he would face the penalty for abuse of power. Possibly stronger charges.”
“Sometimes I just can’t abide things,” I said, “and the bastard’s arrogance and attitude have been grating at me for months. I’ll face the repercussions when I have to. Now I think we
were supposed to have dinner together. I think I’ve had enough of arrogant Mages, shall we eat in the Guard Mess?”
“That would be nice, if they don’t mind the company of a couple of Mages,” she returned and locked her arm in mine as we walked down the hallway toward the elevators.
Chapter 20
Paige put her fork on her plate as she finished her dinner. She, Darrel, and I met in the Guard’s Mess hall every Tuesday and the Guards were used to us by now. Darrel didn’t really understand why I always wanted to eat there but he got along with the Guards much better than he used to.
“So, I found something interesting in the archives about Greyson Kent. One of the manuscripts mentioned that the way he chose his Soulguards was to look into their Souls. If they were deemed worthy, he recruited them. Maybe that’s part of being a Soullord,” she paused to take a breath.
I held my hand out to Darrel.
“Man, I hate you,” he said and handed me twenty dollars.
“What was that about?” Paige asked.
“He bet me you wouldn’t stop to take a breath for thirty seconds after you finished eating and started talking,” Darrel pointed at me, “I figured maybe ten seconds, but thirty?”
She glared at me then at Darrel, and back at me as the seconds counted down, “Piss off, the both of ya”
“Aagh!” I handed him back his twenty and he beamed.
“He also bet you’d not wait more than five seconds to give some rude remark, I chose fifteen,” He said snidely.
Her mouth dropped open and she turned to the Guard on her left, “Do you believe this?”
The Guard hid a smile, “I was shooting for fifteen on both bets.”
She turned back to us, “Hmmph, guess who’s sleeping alone tonight? Care to bet on that?”
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