Shadow Mage

by John Forrester

Mistress Cavares nodded her head. “Go on.”

  Talis frowned, not knowing the first character. “This character”—Talis pointed at the middle one—“is the sun in full power.” The ancient language had three characters for the sun: rising, full, and falling. “The last character is…melting…or burning up?”

  “And the first character?” Her face held the expression of someone who’s caught a thief.

  “I won’t guess.” He scratched the back of his head. “I don’t know it.”

  Mistress Cavares puckered up her lips. “That’s because I’ve never taught it to you. It means contained or more accurately…focused. To focus the power of the sun and melt something. Nasty little rune.”

  How is it nasty if it just sits there and does nothing? Talis thought.

  “Now this rune you may have seen before.” She fingered a four-character rune.

  “A weak rune but very specific in nature. It means trap the intruder with a web of shadows. What exactly does that mean?”

  Crinkles formed around Mistress Cavares’s eyes. “Wouldn’t you like to know…” She waved the idea away. “Show me your abilities in casting. I’ve seen you work against those Jiserian sorcerers, so I know you have some skill as a wizard. But can you contain it in focused amounts?”

  “What spell should I cast?”

  “Do you know how to cast a binding spell?”

  Talis shook his head.

  “Bind one form to another. Bind an intention or thought to an object. You do know what that means?”

  “In theory. But I’ve never practiced it.”

  Mistress Cavares exhaled a hissing breath. “You blustering wizards, elemental magic…boom! All noise and hard power, but little internal strength. You’re all just surface deep.”

  “Teach me. I want to learn the spell.”

  “I’ll show you once. If you don’t get it, I won’t teach it to you again.”

  “But that’s unfair!” Talis couldn’t believe she was being so unreasonable.

  “Life is unfair. The universe is a hard, cruel place. Deal with it.” She raised a hand, aiming at a stone that lay on the table. “I will bind ice to this stone. It won’t be permanent, but it will last for a long time.”

  She closed her eyes. “In my mind I see chunks of ice floating down a mountain stream. Thick piles of snow lay at either side. I feel the cold. It sinks into my bones. I can taste the chill as it rolls around on my tongue. With this complete sensation, I focus letting it flow from my mind, out my hands, and into the stone. Go!”

  The stone spun around in circles. When it settled, frost slithered across the surface. Talis reached out and cautiously touched it. The stone was so cold Talis snapped his hand back in surprise.

  “Now do it. Since you’ve master Fire Magic, imbue the same stone with heat. Your mind, your imagination. Bind to the stone.”

  Talis concentrated on similar specific images: a blazing forest fire, the smell of roasted spiders, smoke in his eyes from huts burning, heat surging in his chest. He opened his eyes and released it all into the stone. The table sizzled and spat swirls of smoke from the heat of the stone. Mistress Cavares glared at Talis as if he were mad.

  “Where do you draw that kind of power from? The black crystal?”

  “It’s too far away.” Talis gestured towards the fire in the hearth. “Master Grimelore taught me to bring in power from flames. And what I saw in my mind was what I’ve experienced before.”

  “Like the ancient tongue, close to the original source of truth.”

  What did she mean by that? She was always talking in riddles.

  “You’ve succeeded in casting your first binding spell. It will be easier now for you to progress. But be warned, binding is all about your thoughts and imagination…so control yourself. A lazy, untempered mind makes a dangerous combination with bindings.”

  “What does this have to do with Rune Magic?”

  “It’s time for your first lesson.” She motioned at the table. “The ancient art of casting magical wards.” As she lifted a rune, slivers of silver light spidered out of her fingers and into the rune. “A magical ward is created through the combination of a rune and a binding spell cast upon the object on which that rune is drawn.”

  The light from her fingers grew stronger and bored into the characters etched on the rune. The clay tablet melted away into ash, and a faint glow of silver remained on the table. “The ward is locked onto the location where the rune lay. I’ve cast a Rune of Paralysis. The next person to touch this spot will be paralyzed. Care to try it?”

  Talis shook his head and found himself stepping away from the table. He heard a meowing sound and glanced over just as Kalix, Mistress Cavares’s cat, sauntered across the table.

  “No Kalix!” Mistress Cavares said, and scooped up the cat. “You know you’re not supposed to sneak inside my workshop.” She scratch the cat’s head and under his chin, and Kalix purred loudly.

  Talis smiled and went to pet the cat, but his movement seemed to spook Kalix. In a sudden jerk, the cat leapt from Mistress Cavares’s arms, and landed directly on the spot where the rune was placed. Kalix froze like a stuffed animal, eyes frightened, tail pointing straight up, body as rigid as a stone sculpture.

  “My poor kitty,” cried Mistress Cavares. She scrambled around Talis and held Kalix in her arms. “You must be more careful with Kalix, she spooks easily.”

  “Is she dead?”

  Mistress Cavares sighed like she’d had enough of teaching him. “Don’t you know what a Paralysis Spell does? It’s temporary. Kitty will be fine in an hour or so. This isn’t the first time he’s stepped on a ward. He has a nose for finding them. One day I fear he’ll step on the wrong ward….”

  She stared into the fire, then sighed and lifted herself up. “Now it’s your turn, prove your ability to cast wards. Choose the runes, practice on the table. And please try and keep your power down to a minimum. I don’t want you blowing up the workshop.”

  3. TANDRIA SCROLL

  That afternoon Talis meandered towards the Temple of the Sun, thinking of magical wards. Could he set wards around the city to protect Naru? Did wards activate for anyone, or could you set them to go off only on enemies? Questions spun around in his head. He couldn’t believe he was actually looking forward to his next lesson with Mistress Cavares.

  The Temple of the Sun looked aged and weathered perched atop the newly created hillside, formed at the planting of the black crystal. Although it was only six months old, the temple complex seemed as if it had been there for hundreds of years. Flowers and grass blossomed all around, particularly around the black oak tree. The spring still nurtured the meadows and gardens around the temple.

  Talis took a drink of the water and relished the sweet taste. As he stared up at the wooden temple, scenes of the old temple complex and the Goddess Nacrea played in his head. How he missed the Goddess. Her power and beauty and light. Would he ever see her again?

  The City of Naru stood as a shadow lingering in the background, but sunbeams shone on the temple. Even when it stormed outside, sun always seemed to strike the temple, bathing it in radiant light.

  Talis turned and spied Nikulo climbing the hillside. They clasped arms. “She’s a beautiful temple,” Nikulo said.

  “I haven’t seen you in ages…thought you’d abandoned me like the rest.”

  Nikulo chuckled. “Maybe I should’ve. You dragged us to the ends of the earth. And poor Rikar. Where is he now?”

  The vision flashed in Talis’s mind for a second. He sat, seeing Rikar’s sad eyes staring at him.

  “You alright?”

  “Sorry, I was remembering a vision I had yesterday in the swamplands. I heard Rikar calling out to me, calling for help. He was trapped inside a storm filled with tortured faces. What’s a vision like that supposed to mean?”

  Nikulo shrugged and sat next to him. “How did the vision start?”

  “The Surineda Map glowed and I touched it—Mara saw it too—the map show
ed us another world far away in the stars. I think he’s out there, on that world.” Talis glanced at Nikulo. “Rikar’s in trouble.”

  Nikulo waved the idea away. “Trouble, indeed. He made the wrong choice the moment he decided to follow that sorcerer. But enough talk of our old friend. There was a reason I came to visit you. Do you remember the scroll I stole from Aurellia?”

  Talis felt suddenly dizzy. The scroll, Rikar had said. “What about it?”

  “I studied the Tandria Scroll for months after we returned. Hours and hours of translations. I finally discovered a poison spell written within and mastered it after weeks of study. But I ignored the other parts unrelated to Poison Magic. I left the scroll alone for awhile, but a few weeks ago, I found something.”

  “This is just too bizarre….”

  “What?”

  “Rikar told me in the vision that the scroll you stole from Aurellia was important.”

  Nikulo’s face paled.

  “What is it?” Talis said.

  “Aurellia must have told him about the scroll. Why would he do that?”

  “He’s a master of deception. Perhaps he wanted you to find it. Think about it, he was leaving anyways.” Talis thought a moment, then stared at Nikulo. “How did you find the scroll out of all the ones in his library?”

  Nikulo looked nervous, as if he was caught in a lie. “I…I had visions of Aurellia before we reached Darkov.”

  “When? But you never told us a thing!” Talis couldn’t believe Nikulo had kept it from him.

  “He kept telling me about all he could teach me, about mind control and poisons…all the things I’m interested in.” Nikulo sighed and stared out over the Nalgoran Desert. “If we figure out how to decipher the characters on the scroll, we’ll gain a rare spell. The true discovery inside the Tandria Scroll…is the knowledge of casting portal spells.”

  “Are you serious? A portal spell? So we could travel anywhere we wanted?”

  Nikulo grinned. “Can you imagine?” He unfurled the Tandria Scroll, and tapped a finger on a part littered with archaic illustrations. “See…here are the portals. Going through walls, across rivers, to tall peaks. This looks like a summoning portal…calling someone to you.”

  “And what about this?” Talis pointed at an illustration of two figures aiming at a portal.

  “This seems like the lead sorcerer…maybe bringing someone along with you through the portal? I don’t understand all this.”

  Nikulo eyed cakes Talis’s mother had packed for him in the morning before he’d left for the temple. “Are those apple tarts?”

  “Pay attention! I thought you’ve been studying the scroll for months?”

  Nikulo grunted at the cakes. “Just one?”

  Talis rolled his eyes. Nikulo’s stomach was always more active than his brain. “So what don’t you understand about the scroll?”

  “The language constantly changes…characters I don’t know.” Nikulo crammed the cake into his mouth. “I wink I unwerstand awout walf of it.”

  “Can you not talk with your mouth stuffed with cakes?” Talis shuddered at the pieces dribbling from Nikulo’s mouth. “I think I know just the person to help us with this.” Mistress Cavares. If there was anyone in Naru who knew how to translate archaic characters, she would.

  Nikulo swallowed and drank from the spring. “Can you trust her? This is all Shadow and Poison Magic. You know it’s banned by the Order.”

  He had a good point. Even though Mistress Cavares was considered eccentric to most wizards of the Order, she still adhered to its principles. And that included a strict forbidding of Shadow Magic.

  “Maybe there is a way…without her seeing the Tandria Scroll.”

  Nikulo scrunched up his face and bent over like he had stomach pains. Talis stepped back, scared of what might happen. Toxic fumes. Nikulo waved a hand. “False alarm… So what’s your idea?”

  Talis led Nikulo to a side room in the temple where he often studied. A worktable contained hundreds of completed runes, blocks of clay, inscribers tools, and countless scrolls on Rune Magic. Nikulo picked up a scroll and frowned.

  “What’s all this?”

  “Rune Magic.”

  Nikulo coughed. “Why are you spending your time learning this junk?”

  Talis placed a rune—inscribed with the Praellic symbol for singing and one for a bird—on a chair next to the table. He cast a binding spell on the rune and it melted away.

  “Go ahead, sit.”

  “What? Am I some kind of experiment?” Nikulo glanced suspiciously at the chair.

  “Are you afraid of a little worthless rune spell?” Talis made a face daring Nikulo to try.

  Nikulo frowned and placed a hand on the chair, then slowly sat. Soon, with fear spreading across his face, he started singing a horrific rendition of “The Barkeep’s Plump Daughter” in a falsetto voice. Talis laughed as Nikulo’s eyes got wider. Nikulo tried to put a hand to his mouth, but couldn’t stop singing.

  He finally finished, but by now Talis cried with laughter, rolling on the ground.

  “You!” Nikulo shouted, his face red. “How could you do that? You’re really lucky I’m a good singer….”

  “You’re a terrible singer!” Talis chuckled, shaking his head. “Don’t ever try and become a bard. A comedian, yes, but never a bard.”

  “So the point of this is what? Runes can make people sing?”

  “What’s going on in here?” Mara said, peeking inside the room. “Was that a monkey dying?”

  “Saved by the beautiful and charming Mara.” Nikulo smiled and bowed low. “Talis has been giving a poor demonstration on the value of Rune Magic.”

  “Rune Magic?” Mara strode over to the table and inspected the clay tablets.

  Talis told her about studying with Mistress Cavares, and Nikulo chimed in with the story about the Tandria Scroll. Mara’s face darkened as Nikulo told the parts about Shadow Magic.

  “So what mother has been saying about you is true? The black crystal is infecting your mind? Why are you studying dark magic?” Mara glared at Talis. “I thought you were a student of Light Magic?”

  Nikulo put a hand on Mara’s shoulder. “Talis isn’t studying this… I only showed him the Tandria Scroll just now.”

  “Well then, why are you learning it?” She shook his hand off her shoulder and stepped back defensively.

  “It’s just what I do.” Nikulo shrugged. “I used to be ashamed of studying Poison Magic, but since our trip…I feel it’s okay. It’s just another kind of magic. Right?”

  Mara frowned and stared at the wooden shrine at the end of the room. “Like light and darkness, death and life… Just another—” She shook her head. “Now I’m all confused. I don’t know….”

  “What about this?” Talis took a pen, dipped it in an inkwell, and drew on a piece of vellum paper. “Here is light and here is darkness on the other side. Above could be poison and below could be healing energy. Maybe the reason why Nikulo is curious about Poison Magic is because it’s the opposite of healing.”

  Nikulo nodded. “And the Shadow Magic portions of the Tandria Scroll, although I’m not interested in them, I thought Talis might find them of use, especially because you’ve master Light Magic.”

  “You do realize,” Mara studied Talis, “that if you continue in the direction you’re heading, you’ll be declared an enemy of your own magical Order? Do you want that?”

  “Not to mention Mara’s parents,” Nikulo said.

  Talis scoffed. “They hate me already. Learning a forbidden art won’t change that. But listen, this is different.” He tapped the Tandria Scroll. “The knowledge within here can teach us how to cast portals! The Order can’t teach us that—”

  “They can teach us to fly.”

  “Master Jai refuses to teach me the spell. All the wizards shun me except Mistress Cavares and Master Grimelore. Even the Goddess Nacrea summoned a portal! If Shadow Magic can teach us that, and the Goddess uses similar magic, how can it b
e all bad?”

  Mara looked unconvinced, so Talis tried a different approach. “Just imagine…we could go anywhere in the world we wanted… We could see each other without worrying who was watching us.”

  “I could get sweets in the middle of the night.” Nikulo burped and reached for the last cake.

  “Be serious!” Mara rolled her eyes. “Okay, I admit, casting portals would be amazing. If nothing but for not having to sneak around, that would be worthwhile. And speaking of which, I have to go back home before my parents discover I’m missing. Just do what you have to do…I won’t judge you…until you start sprouting demon’s horns. Then maybe I might have to kill you.”

  “Besides, who knows how long it will take us to figure out the portal spell?” Talis said.

  Mara shrugged and said goodbye to them. “Might be awhile before I see you two… I’m sure I’ll end up banned from leaving my house. Mother was furious when she found out we went hunting.”

  Talis waved at Mara as she left the temple, wondering if they really could master the portal spell. He glanced at the Tandria Scroll, recognizing a few of the characters similar to the runes. Maybe the answer could be found with Mistress Cavares after all.

  4. STORM AND SHADOWS

  “There are many uses for runes beyond what I’ve taught you.” Mistress Cavares studied Talis with her chilly blue eyes. “Tell me, what did you struggle with the most when you were first trying to do magic?”

  Talis sighed, remembering all his failed attempts. “I was terrible…I couldn’t do any magic for several years. In training dreams I could do it, but nowhere else.”

  “That’s not uncommon. Students often fail at the mental concentration needed to bring the magic into focus…to produce for the first time. Often an emotional event is needed.”

  “When we were attacked by the Jiserians, that’s when I first did magic.”

  Mistress Cavares nodded slowly, as if digesting his words. “Had you studied Rune Magic, you would have cast magic much sooner.”

  “Why is that?” Talis would have done anything at first to create magic. His first years studying at the Order of the Dawn were completely frustrating.