Next morning, Tomas POV
“Tomas with a late report.” I said into the communicator.
“Current situation and reason for delay.” A bored voice replied after a few seconds.
“Situation mostly normal. We had a visitor come to the village a week ago. Barely survived, came from the Lost Lands. Shows signs of magical talent, unsure of training.”
“Unsure?” Came the surprised response.
“Subject shows normal mana control, very little leakage. Couldn’t enter meditative state. Unable to determine if faked or not.”
“Hold.” It said before falling silent, leaving me with my worries. There was a 90% chance that Terrance wasn’t going to be a danger, and that he probably knew next to nothing about magic. But I wasn’t stationed here because of that 90%.
“Confirming. Unknown person from Lost Lands with unknown level of magic training. Age?” A female voice had replaced the earlier one.
“Confirmed. Age has been given as 13, but looks younger. Arrived during a blizzard showing severe injuries and malnutrition. Could explain why he looks young. Also, he didn’t show signs of frostbite despite extreme cold.”
“Thoughts?”
“Could be an escapee, doubt it is an advance party.” I replied after a moment of consideration.
“Do you need me Tomas?”
“Elaine, I’m fine.” I said, letting a bit of warmth into my monotone report so far. “You don’t break the ribs of your advance scout and have him arrive as the snow is falling.”
“You can if you are sending in an army of undead after them.” Elaine responded.
“It’s been a week with no signs, and you don’t invade through a narrow mountain pass in winter. Even undead freeze. No, I think he’s running from something.”
“Alright. I’ll pass the report along. Any requests?”
“Yeah.” I said. “I don’t like him hiding his magic abilities. Can you have an Inquisitor stationed at the base of the mountain along with a few squads just in case?”
“Just at the base?”
“Yeah.” I answered. “No need to risk them coming up the mountain in winter. We’ll be fine as isolated as we are. But I want them to be able to respond as soon as the snow melts.”
“Done. We’ll pass on confirmation of their arrival with your regular reports. Keep an eye on the kid, but try not to make it obvious.”
“Thanks Elaine. Tomas out.” As I signed off and let the communicator die, I sighed as I placed it down to charge. Sometimes I hated my post.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Terrance’s POV
“Easy, Terrance. Easy. Ellie’s got you, and she won’t let you go. Wake up for me sweetie.”
I tried to sit up, but found myself immobilized. “MMMMPH!” I panicked, reaching for my magic as my eyes darted around trying to figure out what was going on. I froze when I saw the fear on Scott’s face. That acted like a bucketful of cold water, getting me to stop and take stock of what was going on. The bar across my chest was Ellie’s arm, and she was gently running her other hand through my hair. The bindings were the tangled sheet wrapping up around my arms and legs.
“That’s it, just relax. Ellie’s gotcha.” She cooed.
“I’m ok. I’m. Thanks.” I said.
“You sure? That sounded like a helluva nightmare.” Scott said, sitting down next to me on the bed.
“Yeah. Something was chasing me, and I was falling.”
“Aw sweetie.” Ellie said, giving me another hug. I still had no idea why her hugs helped me calm down, but they did.
“Your hands were glowing when you woke up. Is your magic coming in?”
“Huh?” I asked, looking at my palms as if they were someone else’s. “Glowing?”
“Yeah. You sure you haven’t had magic training? It looked an awful lot like you were getting ready to blast us.”
“I’m so sorry! I had no idea! Up until the other day I didn’t even know I had magic, let alone how to cast a spell.”
“Scott, leave the poor boy alone.” Ellie chided as she got up. “Go and draw him a bucket of water to heat for a quick rinse. He’s all sticky from night sweats.” Turning to me, she continued, “I’ll have the sheets changed by tonight.”
“Thanks Ellie.” I said, untangling myself from the sheets. She was right, I could smell the fear sweat on myself. Scott disappeared without another word, but I could tell from the straightness of his back and the angry gait that I would need to speed up my plans. They might not be as backstabbing as the people of Necropolis, but assuming everyone was an idiot was a great way to get exposed. Keeping that in mind, I stripped out of my clothes and took a spare set with me as I headed to the washing room.
Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!
Sure enough, as soon as I stepped in there I saw Scott with an angry look as he was pouring a hot kettle into a half empty bucket. “Listen up for a moment Terrance.” He said, placing the kettle down. “Ellie’s lived a somewhat sheltered life, but I haven’t. I was a soldier. Nobody important, but you don’t need anyone important or highly skilled to point a spear in the right direction. I’ve seen a lot in my time, and forgotten even more. You know the one thing I know I will never forget?”
“No.” I said, worried.
“Death mana.” He said, and it took everything within me to minimize my reaction. “All mana has a specific glow, and death mana glows the grey of dirty snow. I thought. No. I had hoped I had left that glow behind a very long time ago. I’m trying not to pry into your secrets, and I’m almost positive that you aren’t from their city sent to map out an invasion. But if you draw death magic on my wife one more time, I swear I’ll be taking you with me. We understand each other?”
“I understand.” I said, letting him slip by me towards the door. “And Scott?”
“Hmm?”
“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry. I don’t know what kind of mana I have, but I do know I didn’t mean to use it against Ellie.”
He stood there for a moment, looking at me over his shoulder. “Then like every warrior with a weapon, you had best start practicing to make sure you can control it at all times.” With that he walked out, leaving me to clean myself up for the day.
“Well, aren’t you guys clinging together.” I mentioned as I met Sheila and Nick at the field to watch the sheep.
“Yep! I finally wore her down.” Nick said proudly, giving her a small squeeze while Sheila just shook her head. “Ready for another boring day watching sheep?”
“About that.” I said. “Mind if we have a bit of a talk? I could use your guys’ help.”
“Sure.” Sheila said, noticing how serious I was. We headed down to the pond again, this time in silence as Dax ran darted about. His happiness was infectious, just like Argos’ was.
“So, what’s got you down?” Nick asked, plopping into the chair and pulling Sheila into his lap.
“Nick!” She slapped ineffectively at his hands.
“It’s ok.” I said. “A little affection between you two isn’t going to bother me.”
“Then what is?” Sheila asked.
I took a deep breath, then explained what had happened this morning as quickly as I could. I framed it as fear forcing me to activate my mana, and that I almost used it on Ellie. How scared that had made me. I didn’t mention death mana, hoping Scott would keep that a secret. Death mana was a great way to get an Inquisitor to visit and seal your mana forever.
“So. Do you guys think I could try that meditation thing today?” I finally asked. “I’ve got to get ahold of this mana. I don’t know what kind it was, but I can’t run the risk of hurting Ellie or Scott. There. There hasn’t been a lot of people who have been good to me through my life.” I was surprised to find myself sniffing a bit at the end and fighting watery eyes. What the hell? Why was I about to cry?
“Of course we can.” Sheila said, and I was surprised to find my hands in hers. “If you need any help at all, let us know. Tips, tricks. The most important part of meditation is that you can’t force it. Sit there and let your mind clear itself. It’ll take a long time at first, so don’t be discouraged. Just let it be.”
I nodded at her, and closed my eyes. Her tips were surprisingly good, but I didn’t really need them. Still, there are no shortcuts in the game so I sat there and ‘practiced’ while I tried to figure out my next moves. There was no doubt in my mind that Scott was going to pass something on to the priest, so I would need to be able to counter that somehow. I didn’t know how close the nearest Inquisitor was, so I would have to reveal my other mana source. I also had to hope that they would buy that death mana was my minor affinity. If not, well. Let’s see what happens at the end of the day first.
For the next several hours I sat there, not doing anything but slowly losing my mind. Just after lunch felt like a good time to actually drop into meditation, and I wondered about their mental scape these people described. The necro system, or what I was going to mentally call my former system, relied on feeling mana instead of visualizing it. Of course, you were also supposed to be holding a mana crystal of that type, seeing if you could react to it. Well, I had an afternoon to kill and plenty of time to work on things, so why not give it a try.
But what to envision? If I had a mana crystal.
Suddenly I was no longer on the mountainside. Instead I was in the middle of a strange stone room. Surrounding me were several torches, all releasing the pale blue light of mana flames. Not to be confused with fire mana, which was red, mana flames were created from unaspected mana. In the center of the room slowly turning was a massive mana crystal. It was a hexagonal prism in the center with a hexagonal pyramid on each end. The central core of the pyramid was unaspected mana. The central prism area that wasn’t covered by unaspected mana was evenly split between what I knew were my two major affinities: death and spirit. Death was exactly as Scott described it, while spirit mana was a light pink. Oddly though, there were small portions of the pyramid that had no color. Did I have more affinities I hadn’t uncovered?
The shock of everything forced me out of meditation, and I almost fell completely backwards. This startled Dax, who had been resting with his head on my thigh.
“Bah, damn dog!” I muttered as I tried to fend off the onslaught of his tongue, because apparently movement meant play time.
“Dax! Heel!” Nick chuckled. “And welcome back. How did your first visualization go?”
“How did you know? And thanks?” I replied, sitting up and using the bottom of my shirt to dry my face.
“Easy. We all did the exact same thing when we did it. I’m surprised though, you managed it in a day. Took us a few weeks to get it down.”
“Eh, my tribe has something similar to meditation called reflection.” I shrugged it off and immediately went into a lie. “Basically we are supposed to think over the decisions and actions of the day, and how we could improve them going forward.”
“Ah, that makes sense.” Nick nodded. “So. What mana colors did you get?” He asked, practically bouncing on his feet.
“NICK!” Sheila scolded.
“No worries.” I chuckled. “I only got a flash of it, so I’m not sure. One little bit looked like a sickly grey, the majority was a bright pink.”
“Grey and pink?” Sheila asked. “Hmmm. Not sure of the grey, that’s just weird. Pink almost sounds like life. Have you ever felt like you could feel other people’s emotions or thoughts?”
“Not even close.” I shook my head. While spirit mana could help with emotional connections, mostly it was used to find the driving emotion that would power an undead. Anyone channeling fallen spirits would need it as well.
“Ah well, that’s why I’m not a teacher.” She shrugged. “It’s close enough to the end of the day, let’s head back to town and fill in Father Tomas. He’ll know about your mana types and can give you the best guidance on how to practice them. You’ll probably get the full on meditation lecture as well.” Nodding at her, I headed back with them to face the priest. I was a lot more nervous than I let show. I was going to have to assume that Scott had told him at least that I had mana, and most likely that it was death mana. One thing luck did leave on my side was that I already knew I had a second mana type, and I could hopefully pull off saying the spirit mana was a major affinity with death as a minor affinity. That combination should be unusual in these lands, but it wouldn’t be enough to become a true necromancer. You would need them reversed for that. Hopefully they knew at least that much about their sworn enemy.