Dodi knocked twice on the large metal gate in front of Lord Kardo’s house. Like many middle class people in Aku’anda, they had a tall stone fence around their house, with a wrought iron gate in it, that led into a garden courtyard.
Dodi heard an older woman’s voice call for someone to open the gate, and he saw a young girl’s face pop out of the front door on the other side of the courtyard; Nyubi’s sister, not more than 12 years old. Her face disappeared behind the door and after 2 minutes, she walked out to open the gate.
“My sister doesn’t want to see you.” She said, Looking up at Dodi, grinning. Dodi smiled and handed her a piece of candy.
“She doesn’t want to see me… YET” He winked. She winked in return.
He walked into the courtyard and walked towards the front door, an older woman came out from behind the house into the courtyard, and seeing him, grinned and came to hug him.
“Heyyy, Good afternoon Lady Kardo.” He greeted her.
“Good afternoon son!” she smiled. “You’re here to see Nyubi?”
“Yes ma'am,” he said.
“She came in just an hour ago, very angry at everyone,” Lady Kardo said. “I don’t know what’s wrong with her!”
“No worries,” Dodi grinned. “I’m here to fix the problem.”
She grinned back at him, adjusted his jacket and left. Dodi walked inside the house, which, in Aku’adan style, was filled with exposed wood beams, white walls, and a sealed earthen floor. Almost every window had a daybed, some windows were actual nooks with mini-libraries. Dodi found his way to the kitchen/dining area where the Kardo’s had invested in a new fad called a kitchen island, which was basically a large table in their kitchen that was different from the dining table. The Fulbas didn’t have one, and Nyubi was always complaining about how it was a waste of money and space.
Dodi grabbed a stool and waited as his trusted accomplice, Nyubi’s sister, who was named Boba attempted to lure Nyubi out. She disappeared into the private quarters and after a few minutes, Nyubi rushed out smiling, she looked around and saw Dodi, her expression turned sour immediately.
Boba burst out behind her and ran off. “Sorry sis he paid me!” she shouted as she escaped.
“Well you’re gonna pay later!” Nyubi shouted after her.
Dodi grinned at her.
“Wipe that stupid smile off your face.” She said,
“I endure so much just to be your friend,” Dodi said, pouting.
Nyubi was silent. She walked slowly towards Dodi and sat on a stool next to him.
They looked at each other in silence.
“Hear me out…” Dodi began
“You’re fucking stupid for joining warfare dude.” Nyubi snapped, with a venomous expression. “You’re gonna get shipped off to some stupid war and get stabbed with a construction pole”
“It was a street pole.” Dodi corrected.
“Oh fuck off.”
Another silence.
“I think you should join warfare too.” Dodi said.
“Oh you’ve gone bonkers entirely.” Nyubi said. Laughing bitterly. “You finally lost it.”
“I know you think we’ll be sent into a battle and die if Pirun declares war.” Dodi said. “But you’re wrong.”
“What else is going to happen?!” Nyubi exclaimed, throwing her hands up.
“The war of peace was fought by less than 100 people.” Dodi said. “Out of those 100 people, over half survived. But the civilians? Gan in total lost over a third of its population.”
Nyubi continued to glare.
“The people who suffered the most were the civilians who could not defend themselves.” Dodi continued. “They kept being used as fodder, hostages, bargaining chips amongst godly warfare mages.”
Nyubi said nothing.
“In another war, the same thing will happen. Probably even worse. A warfare mage now is probably a force of nature. The best option is to be one yourself, so you can choose your own destiny. When you’re that powerful, you won’t even have to fight!”
“Dodi…” Nyubi began
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“Nyubi, listen to me!” Dodi suddenly exclaimed, impassioned. He held her arms with both hands. “I don’t want you helpless in any war. You should be able to fight or run, on your own terms!” His gaze was strong and determined.
“But what if I get sent into a deadly battle?” Nyubi said softly.
“Nobody sends a war mage anywhere.” Dodi said. “You would be one of the most powerful people in Gan. You will be asked nicely, and you will be able to say no.”
There was a short silence as they looked at each other. Dodi dropped his hands and sat back on his chair.
“You sound like you’ve put a lot of thought into this.” Nyubi said, raising an eyebrow.
“I’ve always wanted to be a warfare mage precisely because of this. You become extremely powerful, influential, and you get to choose your own destiny. It’s an amazing deal,”
“Yeah but it's hard.” Nyubi said.
“Not for you.” Dodi smiled. “You’re almost as smart as I am.”
“I will literally smack you.” Nyubi snapped, a smile sneaked out of her lips. Dodi laughed, the rivalry was back.
“There she is.” He said. “So you’re joining, yeah?”
Nyubi took a deep breath.
“Yeah… But anything goes wrong or strange and I’m out!” she said.
“Sure.” Dodi winked. Secretly relieved.
“One last thing though.”
“What’s that?”
“Forgive Boba.” He said.
Nyubi rolled her eyes.
--
"Mage Hark," Lakan greeted with a nod, "Mage Lara."
They acknowledged each other's presence amidst the bustling Aku'andan market. The narrow roads were lined with tall buildings, some even floating, connected to those on the ground by stairs. A large crowd of people thronged the area, buying everything from food to household items.
"My contact here is moving large bales of cloth from Sungan to Pirun," Lakan said in a low voice. "Their carriage will stop over here in twenty minutes. We'll hop in and stay hidden. At the gates, we'll turn invisible, then rendezvous at the Black Tap tavern."
"I'm unfamiliar with the Black Tap tavern," Mage Lara said, her brow furrowing. "But I know Redtooth Street."
"Black Tap is nowhere near Redtooth," Mage Hark corrected her.
"But you've both been there," Mage Lakan interjected. "So we'll all meet at Redtooth Street."
"There's a hotel on Redtooth with a wooden horse carving," Hark suggested. "Let's meet there."
They agreed, and waited. 20 minutes later their carriage arrived, it was a wheeled carriage. Mage Hark cringed when he saw it. Mage Lakan chuckled. “You’re spoiled my friend. Hovercoaches are rich people vehicles.”
“Literally all of Aku’anda uses Hovercoaches.” Mage Hark retorted. “My whole body is going to be sore by the time we get to Pirun.”
“Aku’anda is a rich kingdom my friend.” Lakan said. “You really should do more field work. Let’s hop in.”
--
Mullan, Binko and another mage named Altey stood around a table in front of a large black board in one of the classrooms near hall rosseyu, each holding chalks. Several runes and diagrams were drawn on the board. On the table there were several pieces of paper scattered around, some were intact pieces of white paper used for writing, others were spell paper, some were empty, others had runes, and yet others were half burned pieces with aborted spells on them.
“This is impossible.” Binko said, throwing her chalk on the table. “The spell itself powers the dampener. They interact no matter what.”
“Altey, are you familiar with the bent field?” Mullam asked. Altey Nodded. “Modelling the spell dampener as a bent field is pointless because it collapses eventually.”
“But we might learn something.” Mullam said.
“We’ve generated over 3 spell models already.” Binko said. “The physics just doesn’t check out.”
“You’re frustrated.” Mullam said.
“Yeah no shit!” Binko snapped. “This is foolproof magic. This ended a war!”
“I’m pretty sure spell dampeners did not end the war of peace” Altey laughed. “It is impressive magic but come on.”
Binko shrugged.
“Maybe we’ve been thinking of this entirely wrongly.” Mullam said. “Is it possible to draw power from the spell dampener itself?”
“How is that supposed to work?” Binko said. “Each spell contains its own energy.”
“I don’t know yet.” Mullan said. “I assume bypassing a spell dampener requires novel magic which is hard to discover.”
“Yeah we just have to keep looking.” Altey said. “First of all we should probably get familiar with the latest studies on magic models.”
“Arrggh, we’ll have to talk to those snotty scholars again.” Binko said. Wrinkling her nose.
“Hahaha, They don’t like us very much either.” Mullam said. “But remember they’re the ones that usually become the Lord mages.”
“And whose fault is that?” Binko asked. “Lord Magery is open to everyone in the elite fields, but you people don’t apply.”
“They don’t get anything done.” Altey said. “I’ve attended a few of their meetings, it’s wild. All they do is talk about politics and laws and… economics?! It’s nothing like our meetings.”
“Don’t let them fool you.” Lord Mullam said. “They have immense power and influence in Aku’anda. Those ‘boring’ meetings have been determining Aku’anda’s destiny for decades. There’s a reason we are the wealthiest and most powerful kingdom in Gan.”
“Well then it sounds like they’re doing a good job and should continue without our help,” Binko said. “I’ll be visiting the scholars to talk. We should meet again here in two days.”
“Alright. I’ll see if I can model a bent field dampener in the meantime. Just to see if we get anything.” Altey said.
Binko and Altey then left, and Mullam cleared up the room and wiped down the board.