The owner gave me a look from behind the bar. “I should charge you for the extra occupant.”
I shrugged, “How much?”
He laughed, “I said I should, not that I would.” He shook his head, “It’s seven gold for the week.”
I pulled the coins out and handed them over, “Any news?”
“Strangely enough, no.” He shook his head, “Everything’s been quiet almost a month now which is very strange.”
“Thanks.” I hiked my pack up and left the inn. Within minutes my horse was saddled and everything stowed away. I mounted and resumed my journey to find my master.
The road was free of travelers, leaving me alone with my thoughts. I began to recall when Charon first found me, over a decade ago. At the time I had been a street rat, picking pockets to feed myself. I didn’t realize it at the time, but my ability to get away without being seen was because of my unconscious ability to manipulate the ether. It wasn’t until Charon caught me that I learned the truth.
My apprenticeship began immediately, but I was out cold for the first few hours. It wasn’t until I woke up in one of the seven Mage Towers that I found out I was to be trained by him. During my time asleep, my ether reserve was tested. Awake, I was put through tests to check my talent in manipulating the ether both in and out of me.
Charon observed the entire time, watching as I struggled through the tests. When they were over, he nodded once before telling me I was now a novice as I had completed the second level of tests. It was here he gave me a choice to train with him, or be trained by the Tower. I didn’t make my choice immediately, instead asking for a week to weigh my options. He seemed surprised, and agreed with a small smile. It was one of the few smiles I’d ever seen him give.
I spent the week in the Tower asking the other mages about life in the Tower. They told me about the different types of mage specialties. They mainly folded into twelve Disciplines,
After the week was over, I made the choice to study under Charon. He met me at the entrance to the Tower with a horse already geared up. We traveled for almost a year until we reached a secluded forest in an area untouched by humans.
There was a clearing, with a small cabin at the edge and various training equipment was staged throughout. A small corral with a stable was on the opposite side of the clearing from the cabin. Over the next decade I trained every day with Charon in both ether manipulation and physical combat.
There were no easy days in the training, but unlike my previous life I could count on there being a next meal. I learned about being a Destruction mage, and if it could be used as a weapon I fought with it. Sometimes Charon left for a week or two at a time, leaving me with a list of tasks I needed to accomplish before he returned. Despite the temptation I didn’t slack during those times but instead pushed myself farther than he would normally let me go. Every so often I would accompany him on a trip.
It paid off, even though I never once beat my master in a spar. It was the eleventh anniversary of him finding me that he released me from his teachings with a final assignment: to find him and judge him. At the time it baffled me, but when I reached my first town a few weeks later I found that last year he had killed almost every member of the ruling family.
Yulia found me a few months later, first trying to kill me and then attempting to interrogate me when that failed. After being convinced that I knew nothing about where Charon was or why he killed those people, we worked a few weeks together on a couple bounties. Three years passed in that fashion, with me working my way methodically through the land and seeing Yulia every year or so.
Chapter 4
A month of traveling the backroads put me in front of a cabin in between towns on a small stream. There were two buildings, the smaller one had the ringing of a blacksmith’s hammer sounding from it. I hailed the house, and waited for the owners to come out.
The blacksmith spoke, a hammer loosely grasped in his hand. “Good morning, what business do you have here?”
I watched him stand in front of his wife, daughter and two sons. “I’m looking to commission a blade set of master-level quality.”
“I’m just a simple smith, you’d need to go to a city to find a master.”
“Really?” I dismounted, and walked forward. “I would have thought the man who made Charon’s blades would be a master for life.”
The blacksmith’s face slipped a little, “How’d you know a thing like that?”
“I’m Charon’s apprentice.” I rolled my sleeve up to show a tattoo on my upper forearm. Usually it was hidden by either sleeves or bracers.
The smith turned to his family, “Go inside, we’ll be having a guest for dinner.” He beckoned for me to follow him to his workshop.
I entered into the sweltering heat of the shop, “Charon told me you might move here, and that I should find you, Mister Asham.”
“After what happened to the ruling family, I was asked to kindly leave and never return.” Asham turned to me, and I took him in. He was a little shorter than normal height, but his torso and arms looked to have come from someone twice his size. His face was clean shaven, and even though he spent most of his time indoors his skin remained a few shades darker than was normal for a natural born citizen of this country.
“Their loss.” I sat down on a stool, “Like I was saying, I need a blade set.”
Asham sat at a desk littered with designs. “What’s the material?”
I reached into my pack and pulled out three ingots of the same size, “Titan’s Bone.”
There was a pause, as he looked carefully over the ingots. “Hel-forged blades. These will take awhile for me to forge. Then there is also the price to consider when making these.” He glanced back up at me, waiting.
A few seconds passed as I stared at him, “How much?”
“Normally I’d charge 20,000 for a full set.” He sighed, “You did bring the material, and Charon is your teacher so I’ll go for 14,000. Finding an Adept to assist will be difficult out here.”
I smiled, “I’m an Adept.”
“Of Destruction?”
“Yes.” Actually I was an Adept at all disciplines, but that confused most Commons.
“10,000. It’ll be a month before I can start as I have other orders to fulfill, and then half a year for me to make the blades.” Asham stood, “Looks like you’ll be a guest for more than just dinner.”
I stood and stuck out my hand, “I’m Gantz.”
“My friends call me Ash, you may do the same.” We shook and I followed Ash to his house.
There I met his wife, Lorraine who was a native and fair skinned. His daughter, Olivia was a couple years younger than me was a shade in between Ash and Lorraine. It gave her an exotic look that must have driven the young men wild. The two boys looked to be twins, and just entering puberty. They were almost identical in appearance, with the telling difference being in hair length.
I stayed in the guest room in the basement. Even though my instinct told me I could trust Ash and his family, I still set up my traps and wards. In the middle of the night I was woken up by the buzzing of my first ward. I kept my breathing even, slowly sliding my hand around my knife.
“Mr. Gantz?” It was Olivia. “I can’t seem to enter the room, or go back.”
“You’re caught in a ward trap. The first ward removes your ability to move backwards, and the second removes your ability to move forward.” I got up and walked to the entrance to see Olivia standing in her nightgown. “The third ward is the tricky one, as it destroys your perception of the space around you. You can’t move the rest of your body, because it feels like there is an enormous pressure preventing you.”
“Why are you telling me this?” She attempted to struggle, but true to my words only her jaw and eyes could move.
“Because you have the talent to be a mage. A Creation mage judging by the way the ether moves around you.” I crossed my arms and leaned against the doorway only a foot in front of her, “I only used the minimum amou
nt to restrain a Common. Use your power to get out.”
“I don’t have any magic.” Olivia struggled to move.
“Then I guess you’re going to have to explain to your father why you were coming to visit me in the middle of the night.” I shrugged elaborately, “Good night.”
I turned and lay back down in bed. My back was to Olivia as I felt her trying to manipulate the ether around her. The ether resisted her, unwilling to listen. Every so often I heard a groan as Olivia grew frustrated at her lack of progress. Finally, I flipped around, “Stop shouting at it. The ether listens to either force or you have to charm it. Trainees and novices don’t have enough power to force the ether.”
This time I watched as Olivia quieted herself internally. This time she reached out gingerly, and started to read the wards. It helped that I already explained each one to her, and she began to pick them apart. It took almost an hour for her to dismantle all three wards, and the effort made her nearly collapse where she stood.
In a short burst of movement, I caught her. “Not bad for your first time.” I laid her on my bed and sat in the chair.
After a couple minutes, Olivia sat up with an effort. “I don’t understand. How’d you know I could do it?”
“The ether reacts to Potentials differently. Commons seem to almost repel the ether, and any who have had training pretty much wear it like a cloak. Of course once you reach a certain level you can appear before others like a Common.” I adjusted my seat, “Your dad used to have the potential, but he neglected to train. Your brothers and mother don’t have the potential.”
“So what happens now?”
I sighed, “You have a choice: become my apprentice or go to a Tower and be trained there.”
“That’s it? I can’t just stay here?”
I shook my head, “Once a Potential is aware of the ether, they start to manipulate it. You could hurt yourself or others if no one is there to watch you and prevent you from causing a catastrophe.”
Olivia’s eyes grew wide and she almost screamed at me, “Then why did you wake me up?”
I didn’t answer, and for a few hours we just sat there until I heard the birds begin to sing.
Chapter 5
Over the next month my lessons with Olivia began after a long, long discussion with Ash and Lorraine. It was Olivia and Lorraine who teamed up to send Olivia off with me when the blades were finished. I closed my mouth and watched at that point, only attesting that by becoming her trainer I was promising to protect her until she graduated. Ash was less inclined for his daughter to leave, having already been on the brink of attacking me after seeing her in my bed.
The first lesson was about the dangers of manipulating the ether. I sat Olivia by the river, just out of sight of her home. “What do you know about the ether?”
She answered as I expected from someone who was raised as a Common, “The ether is the force that exists in nature. It is manipulated by mages to change the laws of nature.”
I nodded, “You’re half right.” I conjured a fireball in my hand. “What laws of nature did I just break?”
“I don’t know.”
“And how did I manipulate the ether?” I lazily spun the fireball, before tossing it up and down like it was a regular ball. “How can I hold an object of fire without burning myself?”
Olivia looked worried at her lack of knowledge, “I don’t know.”
“What do you know?”
“Nothing.” Her answer came out meek, expecting me to explode in rage at her ineptitude.
“Exactly.” Olivia’s head raised, questioning my response. “You haven’t been trained, and outside of formal mage training there is very little a Common will be able to glean from stories about the ether.”
“Then….”
I tossed the fireball up and let it hang in the air, and a second joined it. “The ether is something that exists in nature, most call it a life force but that isn’t entirely true either. Mages don’t live that much longer than Commons, no matter their mastery over the ether. So far the most apt definition of what the ether is…” I paused and sent the fireballs into the river, “... Is the threads that bind everything and can be manipulated by mages.”
Olivia waited in silence for me to continue. Instead of talking I sat in front of her and waited. For over an hour we stared at each other, until she broke, “I don’t understand.”
“You’ll be saying that a lot in the near future.” I checked the sun’s position. “About an hour, not bad. I couldn’t contain myself more than a few minutes before asking Charon a question.”
“How are mages able to manipulate the ether?”
I shrugged, “Something to do with our capacity at birth. We have a greater connection to it, allowing us skills beyond a Common even if we are never trained. Your father is a prime example. He never trained as a mage, but his skill as a smith is head and shoulders above most his age and experience. Most prodigies with a skill have the aptitude to become mages, and many decide to stick with developing those skills rather than take a break to study ether manipulation.”
“My brothers…” Olivia looked worried.
I shook my head, “They have no talent for manipulation, but back to the lesson at hand: Why manipulating the ether is dangerous.”
This time six smaller fireballs the size of my fist formed a dancing crown around my head, and I began to feel the strain of manipulating the ether with such complexity. After a minute of this, the fireballs merged and once more I sent it into the water.
“While manipulating the ether, it takes a lot of concentration and leaves mages vulnerable to attacks. Most use spells or items as a shortcut to lessen this weakness, but no system is perfect. The best thing to do is split focus between attack and defense, but the strain it puts on your brain and body is immense. If you try to overreach and use too much ether, the laws of nature you mentioned earlier will sap what you have in you to correct itself. We call it ethershock. The sudden cessation of ether in a body leads to a heart attack and usually death. You need to know your limits, and stay within them. Your body will give warning signs when you are overreaching, look for them and pay attention.”
I stood up, “Now stand.”
Olivia attempted to, but my ward was already around her. “I can’t.”
“Because you weren’t paying attention to me, but instead to the pretty light show I was putting on.” I waved a hand, “Get rid of the obstacles, like you did in your house.”
I began walking back to her home, “Supper will be ready when you finish.”
It was past sundown by the time Olivia showed up at the front door, almost crawling. We had already finished eating, and I was reading her little brothers a story before bed. As she opened the front door, and almost collapsed, I kept her upright with a little effort. “You’re late. Get some food and then sleep.”
She nodded, and my magic helped support her to the table where her food had gone cold. Another thought and the food heated up. I went back to reading the book, and decided it wasn’t enough entertainment for the boys. Instead I had two characters made of fire act out the scene in front of the hearth. The boys and their parents watched enraptured as I read from the book and a live scene played out before them in miniature.
When I was finished with the chapter, I looked up to find Olivia asleep on the table. Ash carried her to bed, and I joined him in his workshop once the boys were put to bed. I took my seat, waiting for him to break the silence.
He pulled out a bottle of spiced mead from a hiding place, one that tasted better warm and was kept in the forge for this very reason. He took a drink before offering me one. “What did you do to make her so exhausted?”
I hesitated briefly, hiding it by taking a sip. It was a good flavor, hiding the strength of the beverage. “She had to fight through one of my wards for every step back home, until the final one on your front door.”
Ash’s eyes grew wide, and he took a much larger drink, “That’s impressive magic fr
om one so young.”
“I cheated a little.” I took the proffered drink vessel, “I was using a rolling ward, one that moves with the person trapped inside. It changes a little each time, and matches the strength of the trapped individual. My master showed me how to make one. It’s for Commons and training. A Journeyman or above would be able to see how it works and get rid of it fairly quickly if they were paying attention.”
“Charon was an Archmage by the time he turned 40, and you look ready to surpass him.” Ash bit his lip, “My daughter?”
“She’s strong.” Another hesitation on my part, and another drink. “If she had started at the normal age, she’d be a Journeyman now. Maybe an Adept if she had applied herself completely during that time.”
The Crimson Road Page 2