by D. R. Rosier
She had been avoiding me, as usual, all day. So her soft spoken word came as a surprise.
“Wait.”
I turned around and… waited.
She hesitatingly lifted her hands up to her hood, and then slowly pushed it back. Her face wasn’t hard granite this time, she had an almost unsure look on her face.
She said softly in musical tones, “I have thought over your offer and find it… agreeable. I will try to teach you our way of magic on the way, during our watch. I can do both quite easily so do not worry about me getting too distracted. But I cannot teach you the Elven way of the sword. It is forbidden.”
I thought one less hour of sleep might kill me, but it was worth it for this. I was curious about her culture as well, but I’d hold off until, or if, we developed a friendship. Who knows, we might want to kill each other in an hour or less.
I smiled, “What do you need me to do?”
She smiled back and I thought my heart would stop as the cold alien beauty turned to warm… alien beauty.
She gestured, “Sit, we must talk first.”
I nodded and took a seat, then waited for her to gather her thoughts. She seemed to switch back and forth between that cold powerful scary creature she seemed to be with an almost skittish attempt at making a connection with me. It made me wonder what they are told of humans when they are younger.
She sighed, “Just so you know, a Human mage has never successfully taken the path Elven mages travel. However I think it is because they usually have been taught the human way first. At worst, you won’t be successful, but will learn a little bit about my people.”
I asked, “Can you explain the difference?”
She looked thoughtful then said, “Spells are the same, the chanted spells sent to the elementals via your magic. If you use enough magic they hear you and make the spell happen. The elements you have an affinity for can hear you with barely a whisper of magic. Fire on the other hand, may take a lot of magic for you to bridge the gulf.”
I nodded that I understood, Serina had explained it in much the same way.
Ari continued, “It is the connection to your affinity element, or elements that differs between Human and Elf. Humans… in our opinion crudely reach out and manipulate the element directly.”
She frowned and said a little arrogantly, “Personally I think this is why they cannot learn our way. In doing it how they do it I believe they insult the elementals.”
I asked, “I see, and why would that be offensive?”
She sighed, “Because they only think they know what they are doing. To make a breeze directly, or even a tornado, can be done by a powerful air mage. But the thing about air is it’s all connected. If you change a breeze here without understanding the big picture, you could set off a drought, or a bad storm, a hundred miles away. Neither Humans nor Elves have the ability to take everything into account. Only the elementals do.”
I nodded, “I think I understand that well enough and it makes sense. So what is the Elven way to do it?”
She explained, “We too don’t need to use spells for the easier things with our affinity. But instead of doing it directly, we do it through an elemental. One that has bonded with us. To bond to an elemental takes time, and patience. The elemental is the one that does the binding, and you would need to win its trust.”
I wasn’t quite sure I had that, “But if we go through the elemental, isn’t that a spell?”
She shook her head, “Spells are usually used for the non-affinity elements and for the affinity elements when something is too complex to build it on the fly. I’m not talking about a spell. I’m talking about directly asking aid through a bond an elemental agreed to. It is fast as thought, no chanting or speaking required.”
I asked, “So why is that different, asking for a breeze and making one should have the same result right?”
She nodded. “Yes. So instead of asking for a breeze, you ask for the result, the reason you want the breeze. Then the elemental figures out the best way to get that result with the least amount of collateral damage.
“Let me give you an example. There is an arrow flying at you. Instead of trying to hit it with a breeze, you ask your bonded elemental to stop it with a thought. Depending on what is least impactful for that time and place, you may have it blown to the left, or the right, perhaps up over your head, or straight down pushing it into the ground. Perhaps even you will be levitated into the sky and the arrow will be left alone.
“With you and I it can be even more complex, ask for that arrow to miss you, and a chunk of ice may materialize in front of it instead, or in my case it may go up in flames. You’ll have two elementals that will work in concert to accomplish your goals in the best possible way. The Elven way is to focus on the results, not the how. The elementals are the true masters of the elements, not us.”
She ended her little speech quite passionately, and I couldn’t help but see the logic of it.
She frowned, “But if you do somehow bond an elemental. That would mean your mage training from the capitol will only be for spells, I’d have to continue training your affinities. I am not sure how they would react to that. I have a feeling if you tried it the human way with a bonded elemental. The elemental might get very… upset, maybe even break the bond.”
I said slowly, “I think I am willing to risk it, perhaps it would make me valuable in some way to them, although I have a feeling it will probably ruffle feathers too. Besides, you make a good argument. Who knows, maybe it won’t even work. What do I need to do?”
She smiled again, and this time her eyes lit up. I was glad I was throwing off her expectations and hoped I kept doing it.
She said, “Once you have your bond, it’s much easier to train the affinity. Asking for results is easier, and faster, than building them in your own mind. At that point it is simply being aware of what things are possible to ask for, which can take time. Much like a sword move that becomes muscle memory.
“The hard part is in forming a partnership with the elemental, and gaining enough trust for a bond. You can already reach out and sense magic and the air and water right?”
I wondered if she had been watching me at that question but just nodded.
She continued, “Well it is much the same, but when you reach out with your magic, you also want to reach out with an invitation, with your intentions to find an elemental to bond with as partners of sorts. If you don’t truly believe this is the way to go, an elemental won’t be drawn to you. It is impossible to hide your intentions or lie when doing this.”
I asked, “Should I try now?”
She shook her head, “Go to bed and rest, and think about it during the day tomorrow. Think about what I said about intentions and motivations. Why do you want to bond with an elemental and control the elements that way? All the reasons you want the power of a mage, not just the nice ones. Everyone, even evil men, want to protect themselves, some even want to protect their loved ones.
“But there are always selfish reasons. To make this to work you need to be honest with yourself, an elemental won’t trust someone who does not know their own motivations. You can give it a try tomorrow night if you think you’re ready. I think sometimes this is another reason Humans fail at this, they won’t admit to who they are or their more selfish desires. They can be self delusional.”
I nodded thoughtfully before saying, “Thank you Ari, I’ll think on what you said and talk to you tomorrow night.”
She nodded back and silently rose to her feet. I watched her melt into the night before I got up and went back to my tent. I knew right away why most men wouldn’t want to go the elemental route. It took the ultimate control away from the mage, and gave it to the elemental. The Elven way seemed to be to defer to nature’s wisdom, and only focus on the ends, not the means.
I was not a prideful man, or a control freak, but I wasn’t sure if I could defer to that level. I may have been older and maybe wiser than a very young man, but I was still
Human. I knew I had a lot of thinking to do tomorrow as I entered the tent and fell asleep…
Chapter 7
I spent a couple of days thinking about it while going through the same work day seemingly two more times. I could honestly say I wanted the bond to protect myself, those I loved, and those that couldn’t protect themselves. I was a killer, but I didn’t enjoy it, only doing it when necessary. These are all things I knew about myself, but as Ari told me, they were not the totality of my feelings and ambitions. I was far from a saint.
I also wanted the power of a mage so I could forge my own destiny. I was going to like being a part of the upper class, just as I enjoyed being a landowner and man of wealth a thousand years ago. That would be a means to protect myself and those I loved, but it would also be one of the goals so to speak.
Even more than that with my double affinity I would be feared by my enemies, which if I am lucky will get them to back down. Not that I had any here yet, enemies that is, but I surely would soon.
If a man has no enemies he is doing something wrong.
I also wanted the magic itself. I wanted to fly, or explore the bottom of a lake. Having magic will be fun in and of itself. Perhaps that was a bit of witch envy coming through from my centuries on Earth. This would also be a way to control a small part of my life in my current mostly ignorant state. I would be training with Ari, instead of the training I would be receiving normally for my forced magical education. Granted, that last one is a little petty, but true nonetheless.
There were three other reasons I wanted to do it. I wanted to do something no other human had done yet, I wanted the approval and respect of the elementals, and for some reason I also wanted Ari’s approval. That last one I wasn’t really sure why, maybe I didn’t want to let her down after going through all that trouble to start a friendship. Maybe I wanted to prove Humans weren’t all that different, and not all of us were unable to take that nature’s view of things.
I think all that is the key, focusing on what I want. My motivations were giving and selfish, and also both noble and petty. So what if I leave the way my magic reacts to the elemental, as long as the end result is met.
It was two days after Ari and my conversation, the fourth day of the trip. We stopped a little early, about mid afternoon at a medium size river with a wooden bridge. We went ahead and crossed, then pulled off the road into the clearing by the river to set up camp. I was pleasantly surprised to see Terry, the caravan fixer, or handyman back on Earth, setting up a secluded area under the bridge using tarps.
The water was shallow enough, and fast running enough, for everyone to take a bath. A fast bath, as the water was quite cold, but it was still good to feel clean and wash away four days of road dust. Before that we had been able to clean with damp clothes, but it just wasn’t the same. I’m afraid the conveniences of the twentieth century, and twenty first, had somewhat spoiled me.
We were eating dinner when our sparring partners got switched up. I ended up with Kendra. Kendra had kind of kept to herself and I didn’t know her that well. She was attractive enough, but tended to scowl a lot. We also rotated watch order. All moving up one. I got second watch and Ari third. It would split up my sleep, but at least I still had watch next to Ari so we could continue our lessons.
Kendra and I moved off after our meal, she didn’t look happy and I had no idea why. Maybe she hated mages? I surely couldn’t think of a personal reason between us that she’d be upset by. She was an aggressive fighter and immediately went on the attack without the usual feeling out part of the fight. It was a good tactic, but she should have backed off when surprise failed and she didn’t score the quick kill.
Perhaps I should have handled it better, but when she lunged I spun to the outside and stepped past, slapping her ass with the flat of my sword. I had done that before with men to prove a point, but I should have taken into account the pissed off person across from me was not a man.
She growled and attacked harder, as if she was really trying to cut me down.
I asked in a half pissed off and half confused voice, “What the fuck are you doing?”
She came at me harder and I was done screwing around. I was faster and better, but no one should discount luck and she was out of control. I parried her next wild swing, adding even more momentum and then flicked out my sword, smacking her wrist hard. Her sword went flying.
I said coldly, “We are done here unless you calm the fuck down and explain your attitude.”
She growled and walked off after picking up her sword. I looked around, spotted Jace and walked over.
I explained what happened and his face was shuttered. Finally he sighed and gestured me to follow.
Jace said, “Kendra’s parents were killed by a mage. Most of em are good mind, but some are meaner than snakes, and because they are mages they’re untouchable to normal folks. I’m sure you noticed she’s been ignoring you, I’d hoped having you two spar would help with the nonsense. It wasn’t your fault, might as well blame every human too while she’s at it. Looks like I done made it worse though.”
I nodded as my guess was confirmed. It was probably paranoid but I said, “You know she’s on first watch right? She’s plenty mad and not thinking straight, I don’t fancy her waking me up with a sword stroke.”
Jace nodded, “I’ll go talk to her, make sure she blames me for it. I think she just wanted to draw blood. She isn’t the crazy murdering type. At least, I don’t think so…”
I shrugged, “She never had a mage that didn’t have power yet so close by either.”
When I went to the tent to turn in I tied a few pieces of metal to the tent flap which would make enough noise to wake me up. I gave Sienna a long deep kiss. I gave up trying to quantify our relationship. She was taking care of all our stuff and me, acting as a loyal employee in front of the camp. In the tent at night though, our relationship was very relaxed.
We were getting comfortable with each other more and more on a casual level. We were treating each other as if we were dating almost, sharing our pasts and future hopes. It felt right, so I went with it. I learned that she really did want to settle down soon, I figured if I didn’t claim her in that way in the first year she would move on. I was surprised how disturbing that thought was, we’d only been together six days.
Still, I’d give it at least a couple of months before thinking about it seriously. We were in that weird honeymoon phase where the other could do no wrong, and paying her as my mistress just added complications to that. A lot of what she was doing was part of her job. Would that stop if the title changed?
I stopped thinking about it when she kissed me passionately and initiated sex. She got me hard with teasing hands, then straddled me and impaled herself slowly. She arched her back and put her head back with her eyes closed and started to grind circles on me. Her generous D cups were swaying slowly, following the motion of her body.
I just laid there and watched as she moaned and brought herself slowly to bliss on my manhood, as if I were just an inanimate object to pleasure her. She was going slow and grinded on me at different angles, I didn’t want to screw up her rhythm or the beauty of it by moving. She was giving off a raw sexuality and sensuous need that I just couldn’t take my eyes off of. She was stunning in her seemingly insatiableness.
I gasped as I felt her flood my pole with her honey, her wet warmth undulating and milking me, her body begging me to fill it. It was my turn… I reached up and tweaked her nipples, drawing out another gasp then pulled her down to me for kiss. I held her ass up a little with my hands, bent my knees, and then started to stroke up inside her hard and fast. She didn’t move as I rolled her into orgasm number two and her breasts were bouncing and slapping my face as I ravaged her from below.
She mewled in pleasure in my ear as I squeezed her ass hard and picked up the pace. I felt the surge begin, the tingle in my balls followed by numb legs. The sweet wet friction of her molten core was rapturous as I moved my hands to her hips and pu
shed down as I buried myself hard up into her and released my essence within her ready body.
She kissed me softly, her eyes a little wide as she ground down against me. I was still buried deep within her when she shuddered and trembled having another orgasm as I fell from mine. We cleaned up after we came down. She didn’t bother going back to her bedroll; she just put her head on my chest and fell asleep.
She was so intelligent, beautiful, and captivating. The sex had been amazing so far and she was insatiable. Unless I was really blind to something bad going on, I had a feeling I wasn’t going to escape this one… This brought up another concern.
The goddess had pretty much affirmed I was still immortal. Eventually the truth would come out; it couldn’t fail to do so. Mages were fairly rare percentage wise to the population; it would be hard if not impossible to hide.
If I did fall in love and marry, could I watch her grow old and die? It hadn’t been much of a concern as a vampire, as a rule sex led to drinking and it was too easy to lose control. Despite the movies it was very rare for a human to walk away from sex with a vampire. The next question of course, stemmed from the fact vampires could make new ones with their blood.
Was there a way to pass on this immortality, if I so wished, to the ones I love in this world? I didn’t think a blood transfer would work here, but is there another way? Would that be right or wise? I eventually fell asleep while these disturbing questions ran through my mind…
My eyes snapped open at the slight tinkle of metal. Glad I was a light sleeper I put on my boots and sword before warily stepping outside. Kendra didn’t look happy by any means, but she was back to ignoring me instead of attacking so I was good.
I had my senses out, both air and water. Halfway through my watch I felt the prow of the boat cutting through the water of the river. It ran aground two hundred yards or so upstream. I concentrated on air, all I could really feel was multiple people leaving the boat and heading slowly in this direction. I quietly woke up all the other guards and pointed upstream.