“What they call me makes little difference. I’ve been called many worse things by my fellow magi over the years,” Marin replied, not looking up from the page as she continued to write down the information she’d spent the last few weeks collating. “Besides, what makes you think that I want being a healer to be my legacy, Hothar? I’ve certainly never emphasized that aspect of my skills, not in the last century.”
“Then why did you take the time off from your research to help me convince the king that this Association was such a good idea? Why did you spend so much of your wealth to build the buildings for the students and allow the use of your land?” the burly elven man asked angrily, gesturing around them expansively. “It’s been five years, Marin! You’ve had a dozen would-be apprentices in that time, and none have lasted a week due to your so-called research!”
At his words, Marin stopped writing in mid-word, her quill almost bleeding onto the page before she quickly pulled it away, setting it carefully aside before turning to face her fellow high mage. He was broad-shouldered and muscular, almost human-like in many ways, quite unusual for an elf, let alone an elven high mage. The brown-haired man flushed slightly, his green eyes darting to the side as he finally seemed to realize what he’d said.
“So-called research, is it?” Marin asked calmly, pausing for a moment as she firmly stepped on the surge of anger which his words prompted. While she’d heard worse insults, Hothar had always been polite about it before, even if he didn’t believe she could succeed in her research, which made this a little unexpected, if only a little. But even so, it helped her come to a decision, and she smiled thinly as she shook her head. “You can leave, Hothar. Rest assured, I hope to find an assistant this time, one who can help me prove my theories. In the meantime, I suppose I shouldn’t waste your valuable time.”
“Marin, that’s not what I meant! I just was saying—” Hothar began, but Marin cut him off with a raised finger.
“No, it isn’t. It’s what you meant, though. You feel that I’m wasting my time, especially at my age, and want me to do what you want me to do,” Marin told him, her voice level as she looked him in the eyes. “Unfortunately for you, I’m old and stubborn. I’ve spent my life on this research, Hothar. I’ve spent centuries gathering the information, and I know I’m almost there. That’s why I’m going to get an assistant, someone who isn’t as biased as all of you. I’m going to teach a protégé, and we’re going to experiment and write down what we learn. As for you? Instead of learning of it early, you’re going to have to wait to find out whether I was right or not. Now get the hell out of my library.”
“I . . .” Hothar paused, seeming to think for a few moments before swallowing what he was going to say, instead inclining his head and speaking gruffly. “I apologize for that, Marin. It was uncalled for. I do hope you find an apprentice who’ll be willing to put up with you. Good day.”
Marin watched him turn to leave, and once he was gone she murmured a word to fully raise her wards again. It wouldn’t do to have a prospective student or two barge in without an invitation. She was going to wait and see if any approached her on the morrow, after the other High Magi had made their presentations to the talented young men and women.
“With my reputation . . . at this point, the only people who’d approach me are the desperate, the power-hungry, and the truly curious,” Marin murmured under her breath, turning back to her page and picking up her quill to clean it and get back to work as she smiled. “The last are the ones I want.”
Slowly spindling the mana she needed, Marin flicked her fingers through a spell she’d once seen a lowly scribe cast, speaking the words of the spell carefully, and in moments the quill was clean, the ink dripping back into the inkwell perfectly, and she couldn’t help but smile as she spoke again. “So-called research? Hothar, you should’ve waited a day, and I would’ve shown you a whole new world.”
“You got back to the room rather late,” Damiya commented idly.
“Indeed,” Emonael replied, a smile on her face and feeling like she was almost glowing even now. The energy she gained from young mortals, especially from mortal magi, was almost perfect in many ways. The only way it’d be better would be if she drained the entirety of their life force in the act rather than a fragment, but that would just be asking for trouble. Besides, this way she could have fun with Christoff again. In her opinion, the Association was little more than a massive buffet.
Damiya visibly glanced over at the half-elf, and she smiled, shaking her head as she added, “Well, Christoff seems to be in good spirits. Did you have fun?”
“Yes,” Emonael told her, smiling a little more widely as she settled back in her chair. “A little fun before getting to work always helps me to relax, I find.”
“I suppose that makes some sense. It isn’t something I’d want to do, but that’s me. The plan for today has me a little nervous, though,” Damiya admitted.
The prospective students were all in a large auditorium with nearly fifty seats, and most of them were clustered together, talking. Emonael had bowed out of a conversation with several others to sit, and she smiled at Damiya’s reaction, shaking her head.
“It won’t be that bad! We’re just going to be getting some presentations by the High Magi, as well as a basic test or two to see if we can use their forms of magic,” Emonael replied, trying to force the smile back. “It won’t be hard at all!”
“That’s part of the problem. We’re being tested for something which I can’t control, and I’m afraid that I won’t have a talent for any of their magic!” Damiya explained, shrugging. “I wish there was something that I could do!”
“My only advice is to calm down and try to relax. Getting tense won’t help your odds, at least as far as I know,” Emonael comforted her. “In any case—”
“Please find seats, all of you,” a deep voice boomed, interrupting the hubbub of conversation. Emonael looked in the direction of the speaker and couldn’t help a blink of surprise.
The elven man was big, with heavily tanned skin and shoulders nearly half-again wider than any other elf she’d seen before. Adding that to the incredible musculature she was seeing, she had to wonder why the man was in the Association, rather than a knight academy! The man’s intense green eyes played across the room as he slowly walked toward the center of the room, an odd grace to his movements, and Emonael’s eyes narrowed as she felt a hint of danger from the simply-clothed man. Something about him set her on edge, but she did her best not to react, barely noticing when Christoff sat next to her.
Waiting to speak until everyone was seated, the man finally smiled broadly and spoke in a loud, friendly voice. “Welcome to the Pharos Mage Association, all of you! I am High Mage Hothar the Shifter, and His Majesty has chosen to entrust running the Association to me. I sincerely hope that all of you are able to become highly skilled magi in your own rights, but unfortunately, the test that you’ve passed has only shown that you possess the talent necessary to wield magic, not that you have a talent which one of our members can actually groom. That’s what we’ll be examining today, at least on the very basics. Myself and three other High Magi are going to run each of you through the basics of our spells, and we’ll see if any of you are suited for them.”
Hothar raised a hand at the chorus of worried murmurs as he continued. “Now, before you get too worried, just because you can’t apprentice to one of us doesn’t mean you can’t find a teacher here. There are seventy-three full magisters who are members of the Association at present, each with their own field of specialty, and almost all of whom are looking for apprentices. For the next week, all of them will be present and ready to run you through basic tests, so keep calm and do your best!”
Emonael looked on the High Mage, concerned about her own safety for the first time since coming to Pharos. While she’d expected the High Magi to be fairly powerful, the man before her exceeded her expectations somewhat, and feeling any danger from him worried her far more than she was comf
ortable admitting. Still, so long as she didn’t give herself away, she should be fine, as her powers focused on concealing her nature.
“My magic primarily focuses on changing my physical form, and that of others as well. I choose to focus it on myself, however, as I’m the type to participate in combat quite directly. I achieved the title of High Mage when the Kingdom learned that I was capable of taking on the form of a lesser dragon.” Hothar’s words distracted Emonael, and she couldn’t help but notice the fascination of all the others as he continued. “While in many ways the art of shapeshifting isn’t as impressive as some other forms of magic, there is little in the world like being able to fly with your own wings, or being able to swim deep into the seas. There are few places you cannot explore if you master the art, and taking on the form of a beast to defend yourself while retaining your mind is immensely potent.”
“My secondary talent is with earth magic, and I’m quite capable of scrying for metal deposits, digging trenches or pits, or even raising the earth in areas. Earth magic includes body reinforcement, which compliments my powers with shapechanging, and is considered an excellent utility power as it can even be used in constructing buildings if one knows the correct spells,” Hothar explained, pacing back and forth briskly. “Even if you pass my tests in the next few minutes, know that I have high standards and you’re unlikely to be chosen to be one of my apprentices. That being said, I’ve taught two other magi, and both of them are looking for apprentices, so you have options beyond me if it comes to that. Now then, enough of that, let’s get on with the enjoyable part of things, actually casting a spell, shall we?”
The mage flicked his hand sharply through the air, intoning the deep words of his spell quickly. It wasn’t a complicated spell, only a few gestures and words, but a moment later the man’s hand turned sky blue, and even Emonael smiled as several other students laughed.
“This is the first of the spells I’m going to coach you through. While changing the color of your skin may not be all that useful, it’s the simplest alteration spell I’ve come up with to test for my magic. I’ll add another spell for earth magic, but first we’ve got to see if any of you can manage enough of this spell to have a chance,” Hothar told them. “Now then . . .”
The mage began to go through the gestures more slowly, his hand’s color changing back to normal after only a minute, and Emonael listened closely to his instructions. As a succubus, she could shapeshift naturally, but only into a limited number of forms, so this was new to her. She likely had at least some talent for the form of magic, but she doubted that she could manage it easily.
Eventually, each of the students started to hesitantly fumble their way through the spell, Emonael joining them as she first practiced the gestures that he’d performed, then sounded out the words of the spell. Next to her, Christoff made a mistake in the second word, only to laugh at himself before trying again, and Emonael couldn’t help but smile at his attitude. It actually helped her relax, since she was somewhat worried that she wouldn’t be able to do this at all.
Taking a deep breath, the demon moved her fingers through the gestures of the spell, intoning the words as she channeled her mana . . . and absolutely nothing happened. Scowling, she murmured, “Well, that’s annoying.”
“I can’t get it to do anything,” Christoff growled, glaring at his hands. “I could have sworn I got it right that time . . .”
Emonael tried again, yet despite her careful enunciation of the words, she didn’t get the slightest flicker of color to her hands. The next moment, she heard a laugh from across the room. Looking up, she saw a young man whose hand was bright blue, rather than the lighter shade that Hothar had shown them.
“Not bad, though not quite the right shade. Still, you show some promise.” Hothar spoke approvingly, nodding at the young man. “Now, I’ll give you a couple more minutes to try it out, then we’ll move on to the earth spell.”
Emonael nodded and grimly went back to trying to cast the spell. Damiya managed to finally get a slight blue tinge to her skin, but that was all, and finally she had no choice but to give up with a sigh. “Well, drat.”
“You’re telling me. I was really hoping, since the idea of shapeshifting fascinates me,” Christoff said forlornly.
“I think it’s a little worse to almost be able to use it,” Damiya replied, watching Hothar hand out a simple round stone to each of them.
The second test was even simpler, as the High Mage’s spell was intended to lift the stone into the air. Christoff and Emonael had only begun to attempt the spell when the round chunk of marble in Damiya’s hand rose smoothly into the air, to the shock of everyone.
“Hmm . . . very nice. It looks like you have a very strong talent with earth magic, young lady. What’s your name?” Hothar asked, looking surprised and intrigued.
“I’m Damiya, sir!” the young woman replied with a blush, losing her concentration and dropping the stone to the floor with a loud thud.
“Very nice, though you need to work on your concentration. While I’m not looking to teach an apprentice earth magic, I’ll point the other two magi who specialize in it in your direction when we’re done here,” Hothar told her, chuckling as he stretched, then paused and looked around the rest of the room, asking sharply, “So, are the rest of you giving up after that display, or do you want to become magi?”
There was a sudden flurry of chanting and gestures as everyone turned back to their spells, and Emonael was no exception. With her second attempt, she managed to get the stone to tremble, and her third got it to rise into the air slowly, shaking unsteadily. She obviously didn’t have an enormous talent with earth magic, and she couldn’t help but frown.
After a minute, Hothar finally interrupted, casting a spell which picked up all the stones and pulled them back to the sack he’d pulled them out of, his voice loud. “Alright, that’s it for me. As I said before, I have very particular standards, and I’m afraid none of you passed them, though a couple of you could learn a lot from some of my students. Valis, it’s your turn.”
“Thank you, Hothar.” A man’s calm voice came from behind them, and the temperature in the room rose as everyone turned to look at the next teacher.
Lord Valis Firestorm was quite handsome, Emonael noticed, perking up at the sight of the dark-haired, fine-boned man. Compared to Hothar, he looked almost delicate, and the elf was wearing a black outer robe with a flame pattern and a crimson inner robe. The man slowly walked to the center of the room, noticeable heat surrounding him.
“My name is Valis Firestorm, and as my title likely told you, I wield fire magic,” the man told them, smiling slightly as he looked around the room and nodded as if in approval while Hothar left the room. “I’m always looking for apprentices with which to share my passion for fire magic, so should you have the talent, I would be delighted to teach you! I’ll admit that this does tend to reduce the amount of time I can spend with individual apprentices, so be aware of it in advance. Now, then, fire magic.”
The mage rapidly chanted the words of a spell, and a ring of fireballs suddenly began to orbit him, spinning around him at a dizzying speed as he wove streamers of fire through the air of the room, controlling them with a breathtaking skill that caused Emonael’s eyes to widen. Most demons had an affinity for fire magic, but she’d only met a handful who could manage what the elven mage was doing seemingly effortlessly.
“Fire is a two-edged sword. Without fire, we would not have civilization. We couldn’t forge tools from metal, we wouldn’t have the warmth of a hearth in the winter, nor would we have many other things,” Valis explained, continuing his display of magic. “At the same time, it’s one of the few forms of magic that’s difficult to use in non-destructive ways. Most fire magi are involved in wars for a reason, after all, and there’s no reason for me to deceive you. Yet even as deadly as it can be, it’s only a tool. It’s up to the user to determine what use to put their magic to. The only limit is how well you can control it, and
your own limits.”
With a snap of his fingers, the flames went out and Valis smiled broadly. “That being said, what I showed you is far beyond mere starting apprentices. I must show you a spell that you could potentially manage, to see whom among you has the talent for fire. With that in mind, I’ve prepared a simple spell, one which conjures a candle-sized flame above your hand.”
The man demonstrated the spell slowly, but Emonael couldn’t help a smile as she saw the flamboyant elegance of his gestures. The mage’s passion for his art was obvious, and this was a subject that she could enjoy far more than the others since she could already use fire magic, even if his particular spell was unfamiliar.
Casting the spell was easy, though the color and intensity of her flame differed slightly from the High Mage’s version of the spell. Only a few moments later, Damiya managed to light a weaker flame, and then Christoff as well.
“Ha! Looks like we have a trio of talented youngsters over there.” Valis laughed, grinning as he glanced around, nodding approvingly as he continued. “As well as a couple of others. Not too surprising, if I’m being honest. Fire affinity is fairly common, in my experience. Give it a few more tries, all of you. This isn’t something to rush, not if you don’t want to be burned.”
That prompted a laugh from Emonael, and she couldn’t help but smile as she banished the spell and tried again, with the same result. It was a bit entertaining to watch the others, but in the end, the teacher wrapped up with a smile. “That went well, I think. Now, should any of you who successfully cast it by the fourth try want to give fire magic your attention, you know where to find my tower.”
The man gave them a friendly nod before heading out of the room to make way for the next High Mage, Reesa Greenglow. The woman was slightly shorter than the others, and Emonael was only slightly surprised that she was a half-elf. The stocky woman was all business, and her test was quite a bit harder than the others, as she handed out small pots of soil and a few seeds. Her spell was one which would allow the seeds to germinate quickly, and her instructions were simple. If a person could make a seed sprout within ten minutes, and then could keep it alive for a week, she’d take them as an apprentice. Otherwise, they weren’t of interest to her.
Marin's Codex Page 3