Michael
The carriage rumbled over the road and made reading harder. Road improvements returned to the top of his priority list as he frowned and read the page again.
It wasn’t really the road giving him difficulties though, even if that was what he told himself. His thoughts were much rather still hung up on the assassin situation.
It had been a few days since they left the capital and split from Duke Wallsten’s party. Michael was continually on edge expecting another attempt from the archer, but nothing had happened yet.
These thoughts distracted him again, so he had to start the page all over again.
“Where are your thoughts,” Solon interrupted his third attempt at reading the same page. When Michael looked at him with a questioning expression he added, “You have been on that page for a while already, and you usually are quite a fast reader.”
“I am just pondering why people try to kill me all the time. I am just trying to help people,” he said while putting his book down.
“You are trying to help people, but the people that want you dead only want to help themselves. What you are doing is threatening their plans, so they try to get rid of you,” Solon explained patiently even if Michael should know that.
“I know ... I just can’t align this way of thinking with my own. I just don’t see the point; it is such an egotistical approach.”
“Like keeping a mountain range worth of resources for yourself,” the dwarf asked with an amused expression.
“I am not keeping it to myself! I have a duty to protect and serve my own people first and foremost, so I will prioritize them,” Michael defended himself.
“And now reduce that view of your own people being you and your own house and you have a great understanding of what they think,” Solon concluded.
Michael stopped and after a moment nodded, “That makes sense, I guess.”
“Things will become better once everyone settles into the new reality,” Solon tried to comfort him, but Michael wasn’t. Somehow, he felt like things would just get worse with every new plan and change he implemented.
The carriage suddenly came to a stop and Michael could hear Zeke give orders to the rest of the knights. He instantly tensed up, expecting an attack to have finally come but nothing happened until Sir Zeke’s voice appeared close to the carriage again.
“Lord Rowan, Kiran and two women are blocking the path. The mage asks you to come out to talk to him,” he said, and Michael could hear that the knight was very uncomfortable with the situation.
Michael on the other hand wasn’t and instantly jumped out of the carriage to see exactly what Sir Zeke had reported. Kiran was standing at the edge of a small stream together with a hooded woman and an elderly one who was grinning broadly.
He approached them with a curious expression. He could hear Solon talk with Zeke and Eydis whistling for attention.
“Hey Kiran, what’s the matter? Why are you meeting us out here,” Michael asked concerned at what the mage could say. There was no situation in which this was good in Michael’s eyes.
Kiran averted his eyes and suddenly a torrent of water shot out of the stream and enveloped Michael, Kiran, and the women in a large area.
Michael watched all that happen with a frown, he didn’t feel like he was in any danger, but he still didn’t like where this was going.
“What is this, Kiran,” he demanded of the mage.
“Just bear with it please,” he answered apologetically. “Pass her test and you will receive an ally who will be vital to your future plans.”
Michael stared at the old man when he finally looked back, and Michael nodded the moment that they made eye contact. “I trust you,” he said and turned to the women.
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Kiran
Kiran stepped through the dome of water he had created around Michael and the two other mages. His exchange with his pupil had only lasted a few moments but the knights were already charging the dome, ready to cut through it.
“Stay back,” Kiran bellowed with his mana-enhanced voice. “Your lord commands you to stay your hand and let him deal with this.”
The knights threw searching glances at their leader, but Sir Zeke didn’t seem convinced. “Out of the way, Kiran! I don’t trust this one second and I won’t stand by until I know that my lord is safe!”
The knight wanted to continue his attack on the dome when Eydis stopped him by grabbing his arm. He stared at the barbarian woman, and she signed with one hand. “Michael told you to do something, so you are gonna stay here and wait.”
“I won’t trust the mage’s word on this,” Zeke argued and the tension between the two of them visibly rose.
“If Kiran relayed the message, then I assure you that it is accurate,” she signed but let go of the knight’s arm. “He is one of Michael’s inner circle and he trusts each of us with his life.”
Solon simply watched the whole ordeal, seemingly not willing to intervene as long as Eydis was managing things.
Zeke fell silent while thinking about Eydis’s words and Kiran could feel the struggle vibrate through the knight’s mana. A revelation went through the knight even if Kiran couldn’t ascertain the nature of it and the knight relaxed.
“Stand down,” he said. “Our lord is in good hands.”
The other knights were hesitant but followed the order quickly.
Kiran sighed relieved but still noticed the weird glances that Zeke was giving Eydis who had already turned to the dome.
“What are they doing in there,” she asked Kiran.
“He is being tested.”
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Michael
Kiran left the dome behind Michael, but his eyes were glued to the strangers in front of him. While the old lady was looking very relaxed, the hooded woman was much more tense.
“My name is Michael Rowan, but you know that already. With whom do I have the pleasure,” he asked while not taking his eyes off them. They were definitely dangerous, but the old hag was especially giving him the creeps. Something about her grin was telling him that she was dangerous.
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“My name is Rayakan and this is my student Pan, we are here to see what you are worth,” the old woman replied.
“Kiran said you wanted to test me. What kind of test would that be,” Michael continued prodding.
“Oh, the test has already begun even if you haven’t noticed,” Rayakan’s grin widened as Pan suddenly raised her hands from underneath her robes, a magic sigil glowing in the daylight.
Michael hadn’t felt the building magic at all, but he wasn’t completely unprepared as a torrent of air plowed the grass down while barreling in his direction. Mana was already coursing through his whole body, and he dodged the attack with blinding speed.
“Not very mage-like,” Rayakan commented from the back.
However, Michael had little time to spend on her ramblings as Pan fired multiple small wind arrows at him with one hand while conjuring up another large spell with the other hand.
He drew his sword with one hand and formed a mana sword. It wasn’t a true mana sword as he didn’t achieve this effect by augmenting and pushing mana into the blade itself but rather by pushing mana out of his body and creating a layer around his blade. This was a clumsy attempt to replicate the greatest weapon of an augmenter but low maintenance and effective for this moment. He also began constructing a sigil in his other hand while blocking the air arrows with his improvised magical weapon.
“Smart but not without cost,” Raykan continued to narrate their fight. She was of course right, even if Michael managed to destroy the cohesion of the arrows the fragments of razor-sharp and fast-moving air still hit him. It was barely noticeable through his augmenting, but he was taking little bits of damage.
Pan unleashed the same spell as before, but this time she tried to cut off his escape by firing her arrows in differing arcs so that they arrived in all his escape paths simultaneously.
He had no intention of running though and a wedge of pure light formed in front of him, parting the gale like a rock in a river.
Rayakan let out a surprised gasp which made Michael smile involuntarily. “It is true! You actually created a new sub-school of light magic?!”
Michael had no time to gloat though as he broke his barrier down and repurposed the light to fling two sharp discs at the wind mage. He had no illusions that they would be any danger to the woman, she was clearly a much better mage than he was, but he was sure he had an advantage in close quarters, so he charged her right behind the discs.
The discs of light shot at her with incredible speed, but Pan barely moved a muscle as another torrent of air redirected the attack in a harmless direction.
Michael was now nearly upon her, another disc of light in his hand. As he closed in, he met her strange eyes, they were yellow and had a horizontal slit as a pupil. He had little time to linger though as a shock wave erupted with Pan as the epicenter.
The pressure reminded him of his father’s aura, but he was much stronger now. He dug in his feet and reformed the light shield into a wedge to part the wind better. Step after step he got closer to the air mage, but she still didn’t move.
Just two more steps and Michael would be in striking distance when the pressure suddenly vanished and he tumbled forward surprised.
A flurry of fists made out of air, battered down on him and forced him back while he tried to regain his balance. A concerning thought crossed his mind while defending himself, he was sure that he couldn’t hurt her, but he wasn’t so sure if she was pulling her punches.
The punches kept coming as Michael regained his composure and began blocking them with sword and magic, but it was clear that he couldn’t advance anymore. He was still taking damage so he would lose if this kept on going.
Michael dropped his sword with the tip first into the ground so that he could easily retrieve it if needed and began strengthening and widening his shield to cover his whole body.
The speed and power of the strikes battering against his shield were increasing with every moment that it held. She was testing him and his magic, so he decided to give her what she wanted and pushed more and more mana into the shield.
He wasn’t just gonna take it though and prepared something in his backhand, that is when he noticed that her eyes were firmly planted on him. She wasn’t even blinking or twitching while he cast.
A smile crept on his face even while he tried to suppress it and he changed his plan; with one hand he continued building his javelin while working on his shield with the other.
The javelin easily cut through the wind, but he hadn’t been very subtle while doing it. Pan casually began ripping it apart while it approached her. It didn’t take more than a second before the light javelin was gone but that moment was enough. Pan’s eyes returned to him and in that moment the shield exploded toward the woman.
She screamed surprised, the first sound she had made in this whole fight, and covered her eyes reflexively.
Michael was already halfway toward her, with his sword back in hand, when she regained her composure and began blinking in his direction, still mostly blind.
His sword surged forward; he was so close when suddenly a massive amount of mana began moving in front of him. Michael’s eyes widened as he grasped that she was about to blast him with all of her power.
“Enough,” Rayakan ordered, and building mana got ripped to shreds by a foreign power. Michael was breathing heavily; his whole body was throbbing slightly from the hundreds of small impacts. He was staring at the yellow eyes in shock. From this close up they reminded him of those of a goat.
“Just because he can use a special kind of magic doesn’t mean he won’t use the normal light mage tricks,” Rayakan admonished her student. “You got too comfortable in your greater abilities and nearly killed the boy.”
Pan bowed her headfirst to her master and then to Michael, “My apologies, I lost control.”
“It is alright, no one got hurt,” Michael answered, starting to regain his center.
“You seem to be more of an augmenter than a mage, boy,” Rayakan said, which sounded more like an accusation than an observation. She came closer to him and inspected him from head to toe.
“I try to blend the best of both worlds,” Michael replied, uncomfortable under the old woman’s gaze.
She snorted and shook her head, “The arrogance. Well, you pass my test … barely.”
The dome of water fell a moment later and Kiran, Solon, and Eydis joined them while the knights stayed back at the carriage, throwing suspicious glances over to them.
“What the hells was that mana build-up, Rayakan,” Kiran complained. “You said your pupil knows how to hold back.”
“Reflexes are difficult to suppress when a sword is coming for one’s neck,” Rayakan shot back annoyed. Michael watched the exchange with interest as they bickered like an old married couple.
“Enough with your whining. It’s time for me to properly introduce myself,” Rayakan cut Kiran off and pointed to Michael, Solon, and Eydis who are watching them with clear amusement.
“I am Rayakan de Frey. One of the most powerful human mages in existence and founder of the Brilliant Magical Society,” she introduced herself with an elegant bow that refused to fit her appearance.
“There is a full-on magical society,” Michael echoed surprised.
Kiran scoffed and clarified, “To call it a society is like calling a group of bears living in remotely the same area a village. It is more like a group of mages that know each other than anything substantial.”
Rayakan looked sad at Kiran’s words but didn’t disagree. “We tried to make something stronger, but the inquisition found out and set out to smash our efforts fourteen years ago. We had no support, so many died and the rest of us had no choice but to run and hide.”
Fourteen years ago? That was probably the reason Kiran went into exile, Michael thought but he knew better than to mention it.
“So now you plan to try again here. Under my protection,” Michael assumed.
The old woman nodded, “I am playing with the thought at least. Being a mage is not against the law and the church will have difficulty pursuing us if the lord of the land is protecting us. The question is, are you ready for that? It will put you in confrontation with the church.”
“I was planning on doing something like this anyway, so yes I am fully ready to head toward confrontation with the church,” Michael answered instantly. Gathering mages into his service was his plan all along so having someone to vouch for him was just an advantage.
Rayakan seemed impressed by his resolve and said, “Good. I am not saying that I am convinced yet, but you are handling yourself better than I expected.”
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Kiran
“So, what do you think of his abilities,” Kiran asked his old friend and rival. They were trailing behind the carriage at a reasonable distance to not be overheard.
“His talent for magic is average at most. His casting speed is good, and his mana well is absurd, but he lacks control, complexity, and imagination. He would be a reasonably good earth or fire mage, relying on throwing huge spells around but you need fine control to make light magic work on higher levels,” Rajakan said. Kiran nodded; her observations mostly overlapped with his own.
“His special type of magic is intriguing though. It is strange that someone that lacks fine control over his magic could do something that not even that monster Grandel Thule could do,” she continued. “He seems to know more about the workings of light than others and his battle sense is much sharper than most people I saw.”
“What do you think of his future,” Kiran prodded when she fell silent deep in thought.
“I don’t think that he will ever be a great mage, but he will be a monster of an augmenter as soon as he manages to get a firmer grasp on his new ability,” she concluded.