Three people sat in a room, that lay plain and unadorned, the wooden floors and white walls spattered with dazzling blots of bright red blood.
Two of those three, sat facing each other, kneeling. The third simply sat leaning her back against a wall, her presence unmentioned, but not unnoticed.
“Um….What are you do-?”
“Nh….Quiet please, I’m not done yet.”
The Lord of the Katia wood scrutinized the girl. His piercing green gaze, pinning her in place. Paralyzing her, making it almost impossible for her to some much as fidget, no matter how much the impulse seemed to well up within her.
This occurrence had taken place at least once each day, after the day the strange man and his female companions had invited her into their home. As always it ended with the man either nodding or frowning.
Only the barest hints of the expressions actually making it to his stony face. If he smiled he’d awkwardly pat her on the head, like a dog, and hand her a piece of slightly off-tasting candy.
If he frowned, he’d tut to himself, mumbling as he brought out a whole stack of notebooks for her to read and memorize, following through with the instructions within them, in preparation for the next time they met.
“Nh...Very good. Very good.” said Billy.
Making Alessa wish she had the courage to ask, “what’s very good?”.
Today, was one of the days that he smiled. He pat her on the head and she ate the candy, because he always made sure she ate the candy, and then she felt herself being dismissed as his gaze drifted off of her, going to the other one who’d patiently sat by the wall.
*****
After a brief shower to get rid of the sweat and blood, she quickly changed out of her training clothes into more relaxed fair. She lay on her back staring up at the ceiling, wondering if she should get one of those posters that she’d seen in the markets of the big cities for her room.
Then with a start she remember that she had somewhere to be, jumping up into her shoes and heading for the front door of the Sorcerer's hut.
*****
On the other end of the village was the longhouse of the great grandmother and ancestor of the tribe, Alma of the Green Shawl.
A pleasant distinctly ranch-style affair, that like most of the other houses in the village, came equipped with water, heating and electricity, though that last utility went largely unused.
The old woman, sat in her sitting room, watching as one of the village women, bustled about, setting up the treats, cups and snacks for Alma’s afternoon tea.
“Oh, that’s wonderful, dear. As always, you have my thanks.”
The other woman simply curtsied, a suitably humble smile on her face.
“No, thank ‘you’, Green Granny. May you always stay in good health.”
The woman let herself out and Alma sat watching the clock. She turned towards an adjacent window and watched the village as it was bathed in the evening sun. If she closed her eyes she could hear the sounds of the children playing.
She could hear the toil and play of the adults. She could hear laughter, she could hear conceptions and was gratified as she thought of the future births.
She could hear the visitors who came to their village and left suitably impressed, but aware that this was not a place that armies could just come and go as they pleased.
Alma hummed to herself. Humming an old melody, a long forgotten song of the Aria’s unfortunate past. She looked within herself and found contentment and surety, things that she hadn't felt in decades.
Her judgement had been right, her gamble had been correct. So long as the Alma dwelled within the Forest Lord’s shadow they would prosper….She just hoped they didn’t through it all away in their blind ambition.
A door opened and in came the one that Alma had been waiting for. A young woman, who was formerly one of the village’s junior guardsman. A shy child who constantly stumbled over her words.
A girl with a good head on her shoulders, who old Alma had been planning on molding as a future elder if she hadn’t had to wrap her in the current elder’s most recent bit of foolishness.
*****
“Hello child.” said Alma.
“H-..Hi...Granny.” said Alessa.
The girl walked in and just like clockwork, she managed to knock something down as she crossed the room. Once that first bit of knick-knackery fell, she grew flustered, and whilst trying to clean up her mess she knocked down more things.
It would have almost been funny, were there not so much resting on the girl’s shoulders.
“Breathe child...What do I always say?”
The girl froze, took a long shuddering breath.
“One log at a time?”
“Yes, one log at a time and a strong cabin gets built. One cabin at a time and a strong village is formed.”
Alma waited, patiently letting the girl get ahold of herself. Watching as she quickly managed to tidy away her mess once she’d calmed.
Once the mess dealt with the girl sat across from the Green Granny. Her hands crossed. The very image of the well-behaved child that she’d been when she was younger.
“Well child, tell me...how goes things?” said Alma.
It had been three weeks since the odd sorcerer had chosen to take in the girl, and every week old Alma asked the same thing.
Part of it was concern, though both the old woman and the girl knew that if it was anything truly wretched the most that the old woman could do, would be to help the girl find a quick and relatively painless escape.
Using a subtle, fast acting poison, that would grant a death that mimicked illness.
And even ‘that’ would require some deliberation and thought, before she risked it. She wouldn’t have allowed the Elders this madness if she thought the Sorcerer the kind of person to abuse their youths, but if it had turned out that her judgement had been wrong, the survival of the tribe would still take priority.
The girl startled, mouth opening slightly, briefly revealing white teeth and a healthy pink tongue. Her face scrunched as she tried to think of where to start.
“Um….Well.”
*****
In a certain room, in a certain lounge in Nereida, seven wizards, seven higher officers of the Seven Sons Mage’s guild sat waiting.The door to the room opened and in walked three figures.
It was two women and a man, like the dossiers said, but they didn’t recognize the women. Instead of the half bird-kin woman, and the half-orc, there was a pale waif and a tall barbarian.
Her fierce, exoctic, looks marking her as such though she wore ‘proper’ clothes rather than the stereotypical hinterlander skins and furs.
The only one who matched what their collected intelligence had reported, was the man. Tall, but not too tall. Extremely young of face. Dark skin. Dark hair. Green eyes.
“William P. Maddoc, of the Bone Tree Company, I presume.” said Kasen. Leader of this particular party of Wizards.
Billy nodded.
“You presume correctly.” said Billy.
Kasen smiled, a fierce, disingenuous thing. He looked at the young women. His gaze dancing back and forth between naked lust and naked distain.
“And these two young ladies are…”
Billy seemed to pause, hesitating before he answered.
“Nh?...New hires? Or maybe assistants? Or maybe pupils?”
“Pupils?”
Kasen blinked, frowning at the young welp that stood in front of him. Aether cultivation could hasten maturity and reverse age, but true youth had a smell to it, that couldn’t be hidden.
He couldn’t see how a brat, who’d just barely rid himself of the stink his mother’s milk, could be already taking in students.
Either not noticing the other man’s look of doubt or not caring, Billy simply nodded.
“Yes, Pupils. I mean...eventually I’ll teach them a fair portion of everything I know. So yeah...I think pupil sounds about right...Right?”
Kasen distained the young fool in front him, sneering inwardly. Unable imagine it taking long, even if the young man were to teach the two, ‘all’ that he knew.
“Ah...of course. Well, I’m pleased to see that you are already introducing them to the caster community.
Kasen leaned forwards proffering his hand to both the man and his students. Taking extra effort to get in touch with the barbarian. The waif was pretty enough, but the people of the hinterland came in such wonderful…’proportions’.
Both parties sat on the opposite ends of the lounge, regarding each other carefully before anyone spoke.
“Well, Mister Maddoc, we’ve heard quite a few things about your company.” said the one female representative, amongst the Seven Son’s party.
Billy chuckled, the sound was good natured, though slightly jarring due to his lack of any expression.
“Only good things I hope.”
“Oh, quite good actually. We’ve taken a look at some your work and found evidence of application cosmic law that we weren’t even aware was possible.” said the Witch.
Billy simply sat, a ghost of smile, entering his expression.
“Why thank you. I’m afraid I’m just a dabbler really.” said Billy. His words galling several people at the table.
Kasen saw Henderson, one of the wizards who’d been on the board that had been assigned the task of trying to reverse-engineer the company’s work. The man looked like he was about to throw a fit, Kasen cut in to keep things from getting bogged down.
“Well...yes, your work is in fact very admirable. Your interactions with the Caster and Aetheric Scholarship Communities on the other hand…”said Kasen.
“......”
There was no interruption from the Bone Tree Company's side of the table. The party of three simply stared. The girls seemed to not know what was being talked about. The boy seemed not to care.
“Magister Maddoc….I can’t help but ask why you never thought to join the Seven Sons Council.”
Billy shrugged.
“I didn’t think it was necessary. As far as I know there were no laws requiring it.”
Kasen chuckled, finding a point of weakness and start for the real nitty gritty of why they were all there.
“Ah well, that would be where you’re wrong, sir. You see the charters of many kingdoms both on and off the continent, requiring Caster Ateliers and Workshops to be espoused with a mage’s guild for reasons of safety.”
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“Yes…Unattached, unconnected, unregulated, Ateliers and Workshops. The Bone Tree Company is a class-S corporate body and started out with full incorporation, sponsored both by the kingdoms, the KOG and the EITC, and was thus exempted from those rules.” said Billy.
Kasen blinked, looking through the folder that sat in front of him. He already knew what was in the folder, he was just killing time, trying to think.
It wasn’t like he hadn’t expected the answer, but somehow the man’s manner was putting Kasen off his game. A conversations with a inquisitorial board of the Seven Sons shouldn’t have carrying on quite so amiably. Kasen felt like he and his fellows were being taken light of.
“Well...be that as it is...though the laws don’t require it, it’s a highly recommended practice, that companies and ‘corporations’ received the endorsement of the mage’s guild. I have to say that your actions were quite atypical and ill-advised.”
The young man smiled and this time it wasn’t a ghost of smile. The corners of his mouth curling upwards, as he raised his palms in a look of playful helplessness.
“Ah...well, my apologies for being an atypical person.”
Kasen found himself growing more and more irritated, he was just about toss aside his pretense when one the wizards suddenly fell forwards, His head dropping onto the table. At first Kasen thought the old fool might have fallen asleep, then he saw a pool of dark red pooling out his head, pouring out of his eyes, nostrils and ears.
“Garf? Garf?” cried the Witch. Fretfully trying to rouse fallen her colleague.
Kasen looked at the man, his aetheric senses able to see that the old Wizard was already no longer with them.
“Just what the hell was that? Do you know what kind of game you’re playing, boy?” said Arturo. Another of their Wizards.
“Playing? Game? I’m afraid I’m not sure what you’re referring to. As to what I did, I felt your psychic friend over their trying to pry his way into my head, all ‘I’ did was simply acquiesce and allow him entrance. Unfortunately the inside of my head is not a very hospitable place for outsiders….My condolences, by the way.” said Billy. His tone genuine, and full of an innocence that tasted of candied poison.
“Ba-...Bastard…..” said Arturo. He ground his teeth, his expression livid, his face turning purple-red. His Cat-kin whiskers trembling.
Johnson, the heavy hitter amongst them, didn’t bother with words. He threw out a layered curse of petrifican, paralyzation and force. The windows of the little room, shattering as the ball of aetheric energy shrieked across the room.
The spell hit the man and his companions but then nothing happened. It was like it was simply gone. Even the energy that had bound the spell together was gone. Like the man had somehow eaten it.
Five seconds passed and then there was another explosion sound and shrieking wind. Johnson, Agatha the Witch, both barely had time to scream, before they exploded into a million deadly glass splinters. With Arturo taking some collateral damage from the shrapnel.
Kasen had seen enough. He leisurely stood and sent out a bolt of captured thunder, watching the coil of plasma, hotter than the sun, lash out. Waiting to see, the little fool in front of him char and disintegrate.
Taking time to aim properly, in hopes of leaving the two young ladies alive. The boy was always dead, especially seeming far too cocky for Kasen’s tastes.
He’d already decided long before this whole farce started that one of the girls would get to go back to their little rinky dink outfit and tell the rest what happened when you trifled with the Seven Sons. The Other Kasen intended to keep as a pet.
The bolt of lightning lashed around the man, but there was no fizzle, there was no scream, there was no smell of charred flesh.
Just like the other spell, it too simply disappeared, travelling the length of something that looked like a tail and getting swallowed by the man’s shadow.
The tail lashed out with enough force to shake whole building and make even an old hand like Kasen flinch. Arturo cried out as whatever spell he’d been about to utter was killed within his throat. The bladed tail slid up and the man fell into two pieces.
Kasen stood, staring, shocked but still not afraid. He glared at the presumptuous young brat in front of him. His aura crackled as he called up his strongest spell. He forgot about the meeting, and about why he was there. He forgot about the building and all the other patrons.
The only thing mattered was his rage and his dignity as as Sorceror of the Fourth Realm. Then the boy’s aura rose as well and all ‘that’ was forgotten as well.
Kasen wasn’t sure when it happened, but he suddenly found himself on the ground. A line of warmth running down his pant leg while blood dripped from his nostrils.
He gazed up and found that it was no longer two young women and a young man who were seated across from him. Instead it was two young women and a monster.
An abomination that shouldn’t and couldn’t be. A thing of nothingness and hunger, that roared at him despite never uttering a single word. Its shadow dancing swallowing up everything.
Still Kasen was a Mage of the Seven Sons and while he wasn’t sure why he’d fallen, or whose piss he was sitting in, he knew that as a Sorcerer of the Seven Sons, he had an image to maintain.
“You!...Are you trying to start a war?” said Kasen. His tone severe, like he was lecturing one of his students.
The young smiled, a subtle, genuine thing, both beautiful and awful to behold.
“Yes, actually. That was sort of the plan.”
“What?!...Do you think you can afford to offend us with only your rinky-dink little company as backing!? The Seven Sons Council can and will crush you young man. You and all who stand with you!”
Billy just shrugged.
“Perhaps...”
“Madness...Do you even understand what you’ve done here? Do you even know what will come of this?” said Kasen, seeming genuinely regretful. Somehow managing to find it in that big heart of his, to feel bad for the deluded young man.
“I understand exactly what I’ve done here….While I didn’t come here ‘looking’ for a fight, I expected that one would be sold to us. After all its not like your Seven Sons came here with any genuine offer other than one requiring the Bone Tree Companies Submission, yes?”
Kasen simply glared.
“And so?!...If we ask you to follow in line and join us, you should be honored, you foolish whelp!”
Billy just closed his eyes, that same slightly saintly, slightly heretical smile, still sitting on his face.
“And there it is, right there…..Whether it is men, or swords, or countries. Newly formed things of a certain nature, can only be considered complete once they’ve been tested. My ‘company’ is institution similar to yours, similar to KOG, similar to EITC, similar to the church, Similar to the Kingdoms, Similar to the Ministry. By this point in time we’re as a much an institution as you are, even if we’re still young and a little small. Thus it was inevitably that someone of your nature would eventually come out of the woodwork. Power and status aren’t things that one can just claim. Acknowledgement isn’t something you can just ask for...No...Power and Status are things you prove and then keep proving till people ask you to stop...And if my Bone Tree Company seeks to be acknowledge it is natural that we go through a trial.”
“What are you-?…What are you saying?” said Kasen. Wondering who was the real mad one here, the upstart or himself. He had a sense that the world had been set spinning on its head. The feeling growing stronger as the young man stood and strode forwards.
Kasen heard a fearful cry and felt more warmth flooding his pants. Then he saw the man open the door. Wordlessly indicating that the young ladies should follow him.
“Mister Kasen...Rejoice. Consider it a grand wager, where the winner takes all. If your Seven Sons Council wins, they’ll gain much and it’ll just prove that I was exactly the fool you think I am, and my Bone Tree Company was never going to amount to anything. And if the Bone Tree Company wins, the Seven Sons will have earned themselves a permanent footnote in history. As a cautionary tale of what happens if you trifle with us.”
*****
Alessia finished her tale and Alma considered the contents. The Deaths of the Mages was ignored because it was only right that someone who challenged the lord of the forest would fall.
The pending conflict with the Seven Sons was similarly ignored because their type had nothing to do with the people of the Hinterland.
The only that stuck with her was the fact that the eccentric young sorcerer had named the two girls as his pupils. Alma didn’t know about the other girl, but having a tribesman of the Aria learn under the forest lord was some very good news indeed.
Alma closed her eyes as she thought and planned and then when she opened her eyes she clapped her hands together.
“Hm...Very good….Very good.”
Once again, Alessa found herself wishing that she could dare ask what so ‘very good’.
“Just to be sure he called you his pupil, yes?” said Alma.
“Yes...and he’s uh...actually, been teaching me...I think.”
Alma’s brow rose.
“He has!? Why didn’t you speak of it before?”
“I...I did. I think? Um..maybe I didn’t explain it properly.?” said Alessa. Shrinking into her chair a bit, as if trying to make herself smaller.
Alma frowned, sucking her teeth. Then she smiled again, nodding once more.
“Very good...In that case if the great Sorcerer will tutor you in finding the power to protect the Aria, then I shall tutor you in finding the wisdom to lead us.” said the Old woman.
She found new hope and new energy. For once she didn’t begrudge the elder’s their foolishness because in this case, things had panned out for the better.
She had no idea why it was Alessa who had been chosen out of all their youths, but perhaps it was all for the best.
The girl was one of the few that Alma would trust with such an opportunity for great loss and great gain.
Whilst making all her new plans she stared at the girl, noting the gawkiness that would one day become grace. Nating the chubbiness that was slowly becoming a robust, curvaceousness.
“Very good, you’ve made your grandmother proud and have done your people a great service.”
“Yes, grandmother.” said Alessa. Bowing her head. A solemn look replacing her usual look of anxiousness and consternation.
Alma stared at her grandmother again, pinching on her cheeks.
“And if…’if’...you find it not impossible to do so, perhaps it ‘would’ be a further credit, to both the tribe and your ancestors both living and dead if you could get the young lord’s seed.”
“G-, Grandma?!” said the girl. Turning pink, as she choked on the tea she was drinking.