Ledas put on his cloak to hide his tattered clothes and moved through the castle. As he was about to leave the gates, he heard a familiar voice right next to him.
"Hey, noobie. Already running away?" Ledas jolted in surprise, seeing Smoothy right beside him.
"Please don't do that! Do you find it funny spooking me?" Ledas was a bit jarred by this behavior. Usually, kids acted like that.
"So, are you running away towards the sunset?" Smoothy behaved like an actor, completely different from Wraith.
"No," Ledas responded with a blank face.
"I got a message in that case. Your workday begins at noon tomorrow. But before that, you'll need proper garb, so visit a tailor at the intersection of five and fourteen named 'Suits and Robes' and pass him this. Just don't fight in those clothes; if you damage 'em, it'll be at your expense." Smoothy passed him a receipt and went back inside the castle.
It was already getting dark when Ledas entered the tailor's shop.
"Excuse me, we're closing soon. Please come back in two days," the old tailor said as he was cutting fabric.
"I was told to pass you this." Ledas put the receipt on the table.
The tailor glanced at it, his brow raising slightly upon seeing the royal receipt. "Oh, sorry, didn't realize. So, for what role should I sew a set?"
"Court mage," Ledas replied while looking at flashy attires on the mannequins inside. One of the costumes was quite similar to what Baron Karian wore when they first met during registration. Though, most garbs were three-piece suits.
"Do you have his measurements with you?" The tailor put his scissors aside, now giving full attention.
"No, but we can take them, I think..."
"Do you know how to properly take measurements? If not, come with the court mage when he's available, and we'll quickly take them."
"Um... I am the court mage." When Ledas said that, it felt strange to him, a bit surreal.
"Lad, do you know what the punishment is for wearing an official's garments?" The tailor looked at the receipt closer, examining the paper. He lifted his eyes to look at Ledas more carefully. "Hey, I saw you. Aren't you a street performer?"
Ledas stood for a second, thinking how to respond to this. He clearly didn't want another misunderstanding to happen.
"Yes," Ledas responded. He focused on his magic and released a bit of it into space, manifesting his aura using the air around him. Wind surrounded him, lifting his ashen hair and making his green eyes glow with magic. The whole workshop was filled with wind for a few seconds, only to calm down instantly when Ledas stopped pouring his magic out. It was a good ability his father had taught him to scare away animals or weak monsters on the road. It had other uses, but they had separated before his father could show them.
The old tailor hid behind the counter, slowly lifting his head when the wind stopped. He looked around. Everything looked intact aside from a few clothes falling on the ground.
"My apologies, um..." Ledas cut him short.
"No need. If you had told me I would be court mage three days ago, I would have laughed." Ledas put back the hats his wind had blown from the mannequins. "Shall we proceed?"
Gregory the Tailor took the measurements quite quickly and offered a few options. Ledas had no idea what was proper to wear, so he left his personal preferences aside and nodded along.
"Come any time after dawn; it should be ready for final adjustments." The tailor instantly started to work on the request. It was very obvious he valued his client from the royal chancellery.
Ledas went on a shopping spree, buying necessities for his new job. Coming back, he got lost a few times and arrived home almost at midnight, when Olaf was preparing to leave for his night shift.
Ledas removed the cloak at the entrance and yawned. "Good evening, Olaf."
"How did it go?" Olaf turned back to see the state of Ledas' clothes: burned, cut, tattered, with stains of blood here and there. "What the fuck happened?"
"Oh, nothing serious! I got the job and got into a small sparring match." Ledas had a smile on his face as he hung his cloak.
"It looks like you were murdered a few times!"
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
"Nah, it went perfectly. It could have been better only in dreams." Ledas was a poor liar.
"You know what, if you ain't willing to tell, don't. Just don't lie straight to my face." Olaf was frustrated but left the room without banging the door. Olaf had endless composure.
Ledas took off his clothes and now could see what made his friend uneasy. If he saw the clothes just by themselves, he would assume they were taken from a corpse. He laid on his back on his bed, feeling agitated and unable to sleep. He drew magic runes in the air with his fingers. He tried to recreate a spell that mages had used on him in the guild but said the words that the priestess had said in the temple.
"Slumber deep, fall into the night's embrace, sweet dreams." Target - Self... He decreased his heart rate with a spell and slowed his mind with what was usually an offensive spell, slowing down his cognition until his eyes closed and his hands fell from the air.
___
"Father, can you teach me how you did the sound barrier so people could not hear you from the outside?" Ledas inquired of his father, taking a seat on a stump near the beach.
"Where have you seen me doing that?" His father raised his brows, only to furrow them. "I ordered you before not to follow me when I am leaving."
"But you left me for a day!"
"That's not an excuse. You will wait as much as necessary unless I tell you otherwise!" Zander shouted at the kid and lifted his hand, whispering words and moving his hands. Ledas knew this spell's effects too well, so he focused on finally deciphering how it was produced. The boy's body bent with pain jumping through his whole body, making him fall to the ground. He wanted to cry out in pain, but his body didn't obey him.
"When I tell you things, you do them!" Zander released the spell, making Ledas go weak on the ground with tears coming out of his eyes. He had finally figured out this spell: it had a vector, trait, two arrays, a function, and a loop with a break to stop the spell from hitting the caster back. Ledas stood up.
> spell_ChainingAnguish {
>
> vector: target_direction line trace
>
> If hit “get all objects with trait”: "muscle" if else - break.
>
> Create array[1]: all_muscles
>
> Create array[2]: affected_muscles
>
> function induce_pain() {
>
> for muscle in all_muscles {
>
> if muscle not in affected_muscles {
>
> randomly_induce_pain(muscle)
>
> add muscle to affected_muscles
>
> }
>
> }
>
> if all_muscles == affected_muscles {
>
> break
>
> } } }
“I understand. But will you teach me the spell?” the twelve-year-old kid cleaned up his tears after standing up. The pain spell looked very inefficient from a magic spending perspective, but
“Fine. But I will be showing it only once.”
“Sphere, get force, loop, apply force…”.
___
"Sphere, trait, get all force," Ledas woke up in silence despite his mouth moving. His hands were forming runes in the air. A sound barrier surrounded him. He cast the spell in his dream again. This hadn't happened in almost two years, but Ledas wasn't scared this time.
The last time he had used magic in his sleep, the troupe thought he was possessed, as he had hidden the fact that he was a mage from them.
This time, he needed to hide only one small thing, which was completely negated by two to three flame spheres a day during cold days or nothing during the summer.
It was more of a nuisance than an issue, but now he had a more comfortable solution. He conjured a flame to light up the room, but no sound came out when the flames began to whirl, slightly distorting the shape of the sphere of the sound barrier.
"Oh, the spell doesn't account for the difference in density and the speed of sound... that explains why it fails in water and during rain," he spoke, but no sounds came out of his mouth. He only heard parts of his voice as it vibrated through his skull. Aside from that, only the blood flowing through his veins was creating a sound ambiance.
"Right! I forgot to put an exception," he twisted his hand, changing a variable in the spell, and now he could hear his own voice. "I think I know how to counter sonic blasts now. Just need to make the sphere one-sided somehow if I want to attack with sonic damage too."
Ledas looked outside; the twilight of early morning seeped through the window. He went to the bathroom at the end of the corridor. He took a shower, heating the water pipe with magic. It was a delightful experience compared to putting the tips of his fingers into the flame.
Yesterday, he had bought good soap for a silver coin with a gentle aroma but was too tired to use it. The slight burning in his eyes was nothing compared to the feeling of cleanliness that a simple magic spell could not provide.
He looked in the mirror. A court mage was looking at him from it, and that court mage was slightly hungry. He went to the kitchen to grab something to snack on.
He put on his worker clothes and stuffed the tattered ones into a bag, then left for work while the sun wasn't yet in the sky. He wasn't planning to fight in his new expensive garb, so he needed spares.
He walked through the streets with a smile on his face. He felt free. He WAS free. He could cast any spell he wanted. He had almost forgotten the feeling of improvising magic. It was way more enjoyable than improvising magician's tricks.
The town felt magical to him as he moved through it. First, he went towards the tailor's shop.
The glow of a magical lamp was coming from it. He knocked lightly and entered when he heard "Come in" from inside.
The old tailor circled a mannequin wearing attire made of three pieces. "You're earlier than expected, but I am finished. Please try this on." Ledas felt surreal; he was changing from worker's robes to court mage's attire tailored specifically for him.
He put on the clothes without examining them at all. He just wanted to see himself in them.
The deep vest went up to the neck, forming flame patterns with brass and accentuating the neck. Light greyish robes with a tint of blue had magical symbols written on them reading as "Pure Human," "Mage," "Service," "Lord of Lords," "Ice," "Barrier," and "Runes," or as Ledas translated it to normal language: "Mage under direct service of the king. Cold Runeward." He enjoyed his outfit and was gushing over it, aside from the word "Ice."
"Why Ice?" Ledas was slightly discomforted by that word on his robes.
"I apologize if I made a mistake. My wife looked up how to translate your name, and it was mentioned that the archmage of old, Ledas Sander's name meant 'Icy' or 'Cold.' If you don't like it, I can change it by nine in the morning."
Ledas felt slightly stunned. "No need, it's great. Thank you! I didn't know that." It all felt like a sick joke, and he was the butt of it. He shivered slightly, trying to push these thoughts away as if something wicked tried to occupy his mind.