“Your king has enough to worry about,” Annalicia began to scold him as they walked back through the streets towards the Sea Dragon. “You shouldn’t start fights with men that are his allies. It was a petty remark from the mayor, who is feeling both overwhelmed and alone thanks to our warning. You should have ignored him.”
He nodded but replied unable to completely bury his pride, “I should have, but he acts as if Sileoth has been involved in fighting the emperor. His nation has done little more than send a few supplies in over a hundred years. We certainly haven’t seen soldiers or wizards sent to North Wall or sent into the plains to deal with the dark armies or nomads.”
“Southwall, Kardor and Staron have managed to hem in the emperor and drawn his attention for two centuries. Your allies have had peace, but that doesn’t mean they won’t feel like you have let them down when they need you. That is just the way of nations. Kings need to get along, but the people will still have their individual beliefs.”
Unsure if she had actually made a case to argue with the mayor or not, Sebastian remained quiet. He certainly didn’t want to fight with his friend. Maybe that was at the heart of her argument. Getting along, even when you didn’t completely agree, made life better and most of the time he would look back on an argument only to realize that there had been no point to it other than to make one side give in or anger them.
“Now you know why I asked you to come,” he finally admitted with a sigh.
Giggling, Annalicia retorted jokingly, “You mean there are things that the owl isn’t wise about or things that he can not do?”
“Quite obviously,” Sebastian said with a bit of a smile though he merely looked ahead at the street and people walking between the buildings of the busy avenue. “I am a battle mage not a politician or ambassador. I don’t even know a lick of diplomat magic.”
Sniffing in disdain, Anna shook her head at the last and said, “Coercion magic is a poor method to get your way. If the wizard can’t remain to reinforce the spell indefinitely, when the one affected finally gains freedom of the spell it usually isn’t a pretty sight.”
“Even so, it could come in handy at times,” he chuckled trying to lighten the mood.
The girl just shook her head and sighed as they led her guards back to the Sea Dragon.
Chapter 26- Into the Void
Rilena felt the magic radiating from the room well before she arrived. Her shadow followed close by as she had for two weeks. Evie had been allowed to stay, though she had been to the mountain several times when Rilena had visited to see the progress achieved with fixing the fortress tunnels. Even Garosh didn’t seem to care if the girl wasn’t around, of course as often as the skittish girl turned into a mouse to avoid confrontation; it wasn’t much of a loss.
A mouse wasn’t much of a help or a good conversationalist.
For now, Evie was in her human form, though Rilena couldn’t seem to get her to wear shoes unless they went to the dining hall. The girl would only wear simple dresses that she could slip out of when turning into a mouse. No matter how much the mage tried to influence the girl, she couldn’t make her more civilized.
It was almost laughable, of course, since Rilena had to admit that dressing as a falcon probably made her the least feminine influence the girl could have; but still she tried.
Evie’s civility was the least of her concerns as the battle mage entered Garosh’s old tower room. It had been as much a prison as an emissary’s room, but few prisoners in the dungeon cells would have turned down the view from his window.
Two guards looked up from where they leaned against the door frame outside of the room watching for both those wandering in from the hallway as well as waiting for what might exit the gateway formed within the room. Darius had been experimenting for weeks, both with the travel to the fortress and delving into the world between gates. The place had been dubbed Silver World for obvious reasons.
As she stood at the entrance, the guards merely nodded at the two girls. Rilena was a regular assistant to Darius or at least in attendance during his experiments and Evie was her constant shadow.
Smiles were given by both men, though the one on her right seemed to linger on Evie. The pretty little redheaded girl had been the discussion of many people since she had appeared and quite a few men seemed attracted to her unusual looks. Blondes and those with shades of brown hair were much more common in Southwall, though she had met other redheads from time to time. Still it made the girl a bit more unique, that and her short loose fitting dresses that were little longer than a tunic as well as her typically bare legs and feet.
Two men held onto a stout rope coiled between them as they let out new lengths towards the open portal. Darius stood to the side letting a team of four wizards, a mix of his own and those from Southwall training to use portal magic; hold the gate open as he oversaw the operation.
“What are you doing now?” the mage asked quietly to avoid breaking the wizards’ concentration as they held the doorway open.
Smiling at the new arrivals, Darius replied in an equally soft voice, “Elzen is taking a look around Silver World. When wizards originally formed portals between worlds, there was no Silver World used as a go between. The emperor sent his creatures to our world, which they used in place of this void, to move his armies unseen by his enemies in the old world.”
“So his warlocks have simply substituted the void in place of Alus or his old world. I suppose having no one to get in the way makes more sense than using an inhabited world,” Rilena mused even as her eyes were drawn to the glowing doorway. She could see nothing beyond the featureless glow, but the mage felt the need to look anyway.
“The Silver World is still inhabited,” Evie stated surprising the two speaking already.
Darius raised an eyebrow questioningly as he asked the girl, “You are sure?”
The red hair wafted with her nod in slow motion and replied, “It is part of what is taught when studying portal magic. The emperor was thrust into the void by his enemies drawing away all that was under his control, whether it be land or soldiers. When he left the silver world, not everyone was part of the exodus. Those deemed unworthy or too difficult to control, like some of the beasts of his armies, were left there to fend for them selves.
“It has been almost two hundred years, but it is believed that they still live inside the void on floating islands once held close by the power of the emperor’s control.”
Darius thought hard on the matter. He had been there to help drive the Dark One into his prison and watched as the emaciated creature had held on using his magical hold on his land and people to stop them. In the end, all that he controlled seemed to turn to dust and was pulled into the gate formed to send him away. Now he knew that not only had the emperor not been destroyed, but neither had his armies. It wasn’t that he hadn’t figured it out along with the rest of world after the Cataclysm, but the girl’s words were exacting. Evie simply reinforced what had been guessed at since no one could infiltrate Ensolus and get the truth from the emperor or his closest followers.
“Elzen said that he thought there were islands in the distance, like you once saw as well. He planned on using a vision spell to try and see,” the high wizard informed the girls who could see the rope passing through the portal. “I wonder why they are so far from the portals used. Could the emperor have altered his prison to be separated so far from his old followers that they could never try to follow?”
Rilena had different concerns as she asked, “How long has Elzen been in there anyway?”
“Less than half an hour, I had planned to pull him back in a few minutes. If he gets in trouble, Elzen is supposed to give two quick tugs. One tug simply means to let out the line further.”
Frowning, the mage asked, “And how many times has that idiot made you let him move further into the void?”
Though she didn’t truly believe that Elzen was stupid, he seemed to like doing stupid and reckless things. What the boy was capable o
f left her nerves a bit frayed and her words revealed her worry.
Appearing unconcerned, Darius shrugged as he judged the remaining length of rope sitting on the stone floor. “He has used over three quarters of the rope I would judge.”
“What is the point of this exercise, Darius?” the battle mage asked familiarly of the man she had been working with for a few weeks now. “We know that you need to know the exit or set a calling point with something that you have imbued with your magic. Don’t you understand enough about how they work to know that they will only be useful if we can manage to infiltrate the emperor’s capitol or at least we would need to send someone near enough to set a call point closer to the mountains at least?”
“We need to know what we are getting into when we pass through the Silver World,” the wizard said becoming more serious. “If the emperor has left guardians to deal with, then we may have to deal with them before we can hope to use the portals against him. I also want to know how long we can leave a doorway open. If there is a time limit that would strand travelers inside, that would be important to know.”
Evie spoke up and said, “As far as I have heard, you can leave a portal open as long as the wizards involved have power to maintain it.”
Smiling at the girl, Darius agreed saying, “That is what I have taken away from this exercise too. I have watched the stress on the barrier between worlds to decide if we are doing more harm, or not, using my instruments as well. The old councils thought the gates needed to be closed immediately, but I think it was more to keep other creatures from wandering into our world than that the doorways would actually ruin the barriers.”
The high wizard glanced at the glowing doorway and suggested, “If you want go inside to let Elzen know that we are ready to close the gate, it would be helpful.”
“Why don’t you just pull him back?” the dark haired mage asked.
“Momentum can shift from outside the gate to those inside. We would pull him out as quickly as we could should it be necessary, but if he is not ready the jolt might pull the line from his hands stranding him in the other world indefinitely.”
Sighing, Rilena took hold of the rope as she stepped through the gateway. The high wizard was always finding ways to get her to do things that she didn’t want to do in relation to his experiments it seemed.
The change from the dark gray stone and muted light of the tower room to the bright silver light of the prison world of the emperor caused the young woman to blink to get used to the much brighter light. Rilena was able to follow the rope as it drifted into the distance until she found Elzen looking like a small dot in the distance. She was surprised by the extreme length. Either they had used a very long length of rope or the void caused it to stretch, or at least appear to stretch, for hundreds of yards until the other battle mage looked tiny.
A tremor in the rope behind her drew Rilena’s eyes back to the portal where she spied Evie drifting along the rope far behind her. The younger girl seemed a hundred feet away though the dark haired mage had only just entered the void.
The thought of the word spurred the woman to call on her spell, “Hawk vision.”
As Evie now appeared closer to her sight, the young wizard closed the distance quickly since Rilena had stopped her progress. With a frown on the mage’s face, she scolded the girl, “What are you doing? I am just retrieving Elzen, and then we will be right back.”
Pulling herself forward horizontal to the gently bending curves of the extended rope, Evie suddenly released the safety line like she could fly. Rilena immediately saw that the girl’s attempt to close the distance along the line was in fact drawing Evie away though her movement had seemed to follow at first. The girl’s fingers reached for the rope realizing that something about the Silver World wasn’t consistent. It was already too late. Like their depth perception was useless, the world altered movements and distance.
Rilena moved quickly seeing that the slightest error equaled greater distance quickly and grasped the rope between her legs hooking her ankles around it. With the added reach, the mage caught the red haired girl’s outstretched hands pulling her back to the safety of the rope.
“What were you thinking?” she started to scold the girl and realized that Evie didn’t show any fear on her face. “What would have happened if I couldn’t have reached out to you?”
Mirroring Rilena, Evie grasped the rope with her feet as she pulled off her short dress. Her speech muffled as the girl pulled the covering over her head, but she sounded excited as she said, “I can feel wind here. I want to try to fly.”
Bared of the only covering the changeling wore, the little redhead didn’t reveal any embarrassment since they had been to the bathhouse enough times to be familiar with the sight of each other. Before Rilena could begin to voice her protest, the wizard started a spell to change.
“Are you crazy, Evie? This place isn’t safe to try new things. Now put your dress back on. It’s bad enough I can barely keep you in human form or dressed properly, now you are acting like Elzen, who always wants to do crazy things.”
It was already too late as the girl shrunk magically. Feathers and wings quickly covered her body and a tiny beak and black eyes grew from the scrunched face. Brown and blue, the little sparfinch perch on the rope holding on with tiny clawed feet. Rilena couldn’t help thinking the little redhead had picked the mouse of birds. Tiny in form, the birds could hide in bushes and trees quite well and suited the shy and usually timid young wizard.
Chirping at Rilena, the bird acted as if she should understand. Tying the dress around her left arm for later, the mage complained, “I don’t understand bird, Evie. Come on. Just turn back and let’s get out of here.”
If the wizard’s brain had become that of a bird and could no longer understand her human speech, Rilena would have been less annoyed as the sparfinch flapped its wings and flew off of the rope. Cursing the girl for her sudden visitation with bravery, the mage watched as Evie lifted away quickly, much quicker than a normal flight of one of the birds. While she wasn’t a nature wizard or prone to watching birds regularly, Rilena had seen enough in her life and the sparfinch seemed much faster than she should be.
With a sigh, the mage could only hope that the girl could fly back to the rope or find her way back to the gateway before it closed. Barely able to maintain sight of her with her magically enhanced vision, Rilena hurried along the rope to find Elzen.
“Elzen!” she cried as the dark haired mage grew closer to the young man just drifting lazily at the end of the rope.
His head turned hearing his name and Elzen smiled giving her a nod before looking away as he waited for her to reach him.
“Elzen, Darius is ready to close the portal. You need to return now or you’ll be stranded here.”
The boy glanced back at her and asked, “What’s with the dress? Did you think I was naked out here? I would prefer pants and a shirt if I was. I’m not big on wearing dresses, though it might look nice on you.”
Barely remembering the last time she had worn a dress, Rilena complained, “It’s Evie’s, you idiot. She got it into herself to turn into a bird to try flying in here. I’m afraid she’ll get lost in this void and never get back.”
Elzen shook his head and she wondered if he was even paying attention. “She’ll be alright. I think she has the right idea. There are winds in here and with time she can probably figure out how to maneuver.”
He pointed and asked, “If you look over there with your vision spell, you can see movement. I think that there are birds in here already, so she won’t be the first.”
Rilena looked towards the nearest of the islands and thought that she caught the flicker of something in the air before it disappeared. Then the mage realized that the island wasn’t just a mass of stone floating in the air. There was greenery and even that seemed to move slightly in some unseen breeze. “Trees?” she questioned.
Nodding Elzen replied, “Garosh and Evie have mentioned that stories say that the
emperor and his armies were once trapped in here along with some of his land.”
“Darius was there and said that he saw the Dark One pushed into this void after everything his magic infected was pulled through the gateway first. When he left after the Cataclysm, it’s said that some of his people and monsters were left behind. From this distance, what looks like a bird could be something a lot nastier. I don’t think that it is safe to remain here for as long as you do.
“Now come back with me. Darius needs to let the wizards close the door.”
Elzen started to follow the young woman as she retreated along the rope, but he disputed her beliefs, “I’ve been in here a lot and I haven’t seen anything to worry about so far. The islands are far enough away that we’ve never been close enough to be noticed by anything living here. Even if something does see me, there’s all this empty space that it would have to cross to attack, if it’s even going to attack.
“You really do worry too much.”
Giving a sigh as Rilena followed the rope back towards the gateway, the woman retorted tiredly, “You don’t seem to worry at all, Elzen.”
“I don’t worry ‘cus I’m careful, Rilena. Besides nothing can exactly sneak up on me out in the middle of a void, can it?”
Watching out for the sparfinch, the battle mage worried less about arguing with Elzen than finding the changeling before Darius had to close the doorway trapping her in the vast void of Silver World. Evie was proving to be more reckless than the young man following her.
“So what makes you worry about me so much anyway?” Elzen suddenly asked only halfway back to the glowing doorway, if her depth perception was even half right.
“Why wouldn’t I worry about you? You’re my friend and a fellow mage. I worry about my friends, you know, especially when they keep throwing themselves into dangerous situations day after day,” the girl replied without looking back at the mage. How Elzen could spend so much time inside the silver light and not want to hurry back was beyond her. For Rilena, the endless void held the fear of being trapped and lost in here forever. She had been sent through a gateway by Garosh and was told to envision someone she knew well to find her way through the void. When her mind hadn’t been focused, she had spent several minutes trapped and fearful that she would never find her way back home.
Battle Mage: A Hero's Welcome (A Tale of Alus Book 8) Page 37