ZENGHI – AGE 15 – FAYLENIAN MONASTERY, ATHENA, LESTOK
14TH FAYLENSHAE, SUMMER, 841 PBM
Zenghi approached the door to his training room quietly. For a year he had been living with Brother Turin in a small Faylenian monastery in some hills overlooking Athena, the capital of Lestok.
He knew Maragon was here and that his training session was to begin soon. Maragon being here was always exciting as it meant a strong possibility of moving to a new stage in his training. He approached the room quietly, as was his way. He could hear voices in the room already. Through the gap in the door he could see Brother Turin and Maragon involved in a tense conversation.
“There are so many warning signs that he is not suitable,” confessed Maragon. “I fear we have a made a grave mistake making him my apprentice. He lusts for power and knowledge and his ambition makes it too likely he will succumb to temptation at some point.”
“You know who his ancestor was,” replied Brother Turin pointedly.
“Of course. That is why I took him on when you brought him to me, and why I keep letting you convince me to continue his training,” Maragon chided back.
‘Who is my ancestor? I do not even remember my parents. I assumed they died, probably in some unsavoury way, and hence nobody ever talks about them. At this point, what does it matter?’
“Then you know two things, as I do. One – He is destined to be powerful. Two – He will have a meaningful destiny, one way or another. Either we shape and make use of him, or somebody else will…” there was a slightly pained expression from Brother Turin, before he finished, “Unless you want to advocate destroying him?”
Maragon’s head snapped around to glare at the old priest.
“Then if that is off the table, what other option do you have but to try and temper him into a tool that works for us?” asked Brother Turin.
Maragon seemed to be pained by his options, but he conceded and nodded his head.
‘Would he really destroy me? Do I flee? No, I would lose access to everything I need to train. Perhaps I will need to tread more carefully.’
At that point Brother Turin turned towards the door and called out for Zenghi to enter.
“Come in, child of Faylen. Take a knee on your mat.” the Brother said welcomingly. “Today should be a very interesting day.”
‘Why, because you decide whether you will destroy me today?’
“Today you will begin your next phase of training,” stated Maragon, moving towards his meditation mat and taking his position. The Brother did likewise. Zenghi reluctantly kneeled, but the position grated against his soul and he hated it.
“How are you finding it here?” Maragon asked.
‘Ahh. Small talk. Possibly my least favourite social convention. But I do not wish to be destroyed, so perhaps let us try some.’
“It is good, Maragon… I mean Master. I do not like the children much, so I mostly keep to myself and study my books,” Zenghi replied.
‘That was terrible. Why am I so bad at this? Probably because socialising is a pointless life skill.’
“It is important to build connections with other people, Zenghi. One cannot hope to achieve anything worthwhile in this life alone,” declared Maragon.
“But this way I use the feelings I get from them picking on me to further my knowledge,” explained Zenghi, trying to word things the best way possible.
‘They are simpleton fools, who’s opinion I will not need once I am one of the most powerful wizards alive. Their respect will be mine without my needing to grovel or beg for it. But I doubt that is the answer you want.’
“And this way it avoids us getting in fights where I may accidentally send them all of them into another plane of existence.” Zenghi smiled in what he hoped was a cute and loveable gesture.
Maragon shot a deeply concerned look towards Brother Turin, who gave his warmest smile back as though nothing were amiss at all.
‘I guess that also was not the right answer.’
He heard Brother Turin’s voice, and it took him a few seconds to realise this voice was only being heard inside his head.
‘Tell him you will try harder to make friends with the other children,’ Brother Turin suggested, ‘Tell him you understand you need companions as he has with the Seven.’
“I will try harder to make friends with the other children… Master,” Zenghi repeated. “I wish to learn to have companions as you do with the Seven.”
Maragon’s facial expressions softened. “Good. Please try to do that. Brother Turin, please help him do that. Instruct the other children to meet him halfway.”
“I will,” replied Brother Turin.
Maragon’s manner indicated he was now going to return to the lesson.
“Today would be a very significant day were you undertaking your training with the Colleges of the Ashar, as I did. It would forever fork the paths your magickal destiny travelled as the results from today’s test would control which paths you were allowed to go down with your training,” explained Maragon.
“Casting spells at target dummies is easy compared to trying to cast while something is casting back,” stated Maragon. “Today, you are going to demonstrate all you have learned about casting spells to defend yourself against magick attack.”
‘Finally. This is one area there really is no way to practice on your own. Luckily Brother Turin has been a most willing teacher in allowing me to practice defending against the various fire-based attacks his God allows him to perform through prayer.’
Zenghi was about to make some comment like ‘about time’, but reconsidered it in light of what he just heard.
“I think I am ready,” he replied instead.
‘Which is to say I know I am ready.’
“You will first need to cast your ‘Sense Casting’ enchantment,” instructed Maragon. “Once you finish casting it, I want to you to keep the enchantment running by maintaining part of your concentration on it.”
‘Maintaining enchantments is something I am supremely gifted at. I can maintain more enchantments at once than any normal caster of my skill. This will be easy.’
Zenghi channelled the magickal energies from within to cast the enchantment.
“Extende aspectum meum et da mihi”
(Extend my sight and grant to me)
“Visio magica vertentes circa me”
(The vision of magical channelling around me)
While Universal was generally quite a boring sphere, Zenghi had worked hard on the elements to cast this sphere. It was crucial in magick vs magick duels, something that Zenghi was determined to be the best at. But he had also noticed the elements in Universal were very similar to those in Metamagick, and he suspected his strong base skills in Universal was why he was so comparatively good at the more advanced Metamagick sphere.
“Excellent,” praised Brother Turin. “Your spell weaves are exceptional for one so young. You have the potential to be a powerful mage one day.”
“I want you to concentrate on me and my casting,” instructed Maragon. “First I want you to just try to counter my casting attempt. Use cues from your Sense Casting enchantment and what you can see normally, to try and disrupt or destroy my spell weaves.”
“Counter-casting is often more difficult than deflecting the magick, but is often the more effective defence,” proclaimed Brother Turin. “Used correctly, this can save both yourself and those around you.”
Maragon began to draw in magickal fire energy, preparing to cast a simple ‘fire orb’ attack.
‘I can see he is slowly channelling fire energy, much slower than how he can do it. He is taking it easy on me. I will not accept his pity. Stop treating me like a child!’
Zenghi began to cast his Counter Cast spell, which would attack Maragon’s spell weave directly, but he would use Meta-Magick to manipulate and try to reflect the attack back at Maragon.
“Telum anti-magica quaero”
(A weapon of anti-magick do I seek)
“Ego te flammae globum retro ad te reflectunt”
(I reflect your orb of flame back at you)
“You can try to disrupt while they are still gathering the magickal energy, but this is more difficult, and likely just slows them down,” advised Brother Turin. “Best to wait until they start to cast the spell, and then you attack the spell weave itself… or corrupt and take the weave for your own.” The fervor in the priest’s voice grew and he added the second part as running commentary once he realised this was exactly what the boy was doing.
Zenghi could see the particles of anti-magick gathering through his Sense Channelling enchantment, and began to shape them into a net. Maragon began to cast his spell, but Zenghi waited until he had finished. Once the orb was sealed, Maragon propelled it towards him, and Zenghi threw up his net. Zenghi kept casting, focusing on the much more difficult Meta-magick components to seize control of the Orb.
The Orb hit the net, and magick flared into the visual spectrum as the net collapsed around the Orb, and white streaks of magick now streaked all over the surface of the flaming orb. The net had slowed the orb significantly, enough that Zenghi was comfortable the orb no longer posed a threat to him.
‘I hope you are ready to play defence, mentor dearest.’
There was a brief battle between the magic of the Orb versus the magick of the meta-magick net. But the weave on the Net was strong, and more magick had been deployed in its creation than in that of the Orb. The net won out, and Zenghi was able to whip the net around and then drop the net at the right point to fling the Orb back at Maragon.
There was a grim smile on Maragon’s face as he put up a water shield and easily defended against his own flame attack.
“Good,” commended Maragon. “a touch reckless, but very effective. You have passed the first part of the test.”
‘But did I earn your respect? Your praise? Why wont you acknowledge me!’
“Yes… excellent,” agreed Brother Turin. “Very few would be bold enough to attempt that on their first go. You are a wonderfully gifted caster. And your instincts are impressive. Does he know why you train him?” Brother Turin asked.
Stolen story; please report.
“To be a powerful weapon against evil,” answered Zenghi fervently.
“Exactly,” replied Maragon.
“One day I will join the Seven,” added Zenghi.
“That is indeed one possibility,” agreed Maragon.
“I will lead them, and we will destroy evil wherever we find it,” continued Zenghi.
“I would not want to be evil when you found it,” commented Brother Turin. “But remember, it is important we don’t become the evil we are trying to destroy.” An expression briefly flashed on his face as though he was going to say something, but then decided against it.
“It is now time for the second part of the test,” instructed Maragon. “I want you to understand the purpose behind this test. Amongst the Ashar, this test was used to separate a good combat mage from a bad one. And in this line of work, bad really means dead.”
“There are five attacks of increasing difficulty,” continued Maragon. “Defending against four or more of the attacks would see an apprentice recommended for a high combat path such as War Wizard. Two or more and you could apply for a high combat path, but you were recommended for something less militant. One or less, and you were forbidden from any of the combat paths for the rest of your training, and would instead focus on magicks which could be used away from battle.”
I suggest standing for this part. I want you to defend against these next attacks using your magick. Parry, deflect or evade the attacks as you see fit, but remember to choose the defence which works best against each attack, but balance how specialised you want your defence versus protecting against the unexpected.”
Zenghi happily stood. His physical form was small and frail, but he stood proudly as if he were a giant.
“I am ready,” he asserted.
“Just defend against each attack. I will send up to 5 attacks at you, one after the other. While the goal is to defend them all, almost nobody defeats all of them the first time. To pass you only need defend against one attack.” instructed Maragon. “Remember, provided the spell does not strike you in anyway, you are considered to have defended it successfully.”
Brother Turin looked at Maragon with a bemused look on his face, but said nothing.
‘He chastises you Maragon, for not following the true rules of the Ashar college. Physically evading the spell is not supposed to be one of the options. But you are a War Wizard, who values physical prowess as much as magickal prowess. So you see physically evading an attack as being the equivalent of magically evading it. But I am a true wizard of the Ashar, and I will not degrade myself with such actions. My magick will rule supreme in this challenge.’
Maragon could sense Zenghi had maintained his “Sense Channelling” enchantment, which was good and showed good judgement and mental control.
Maragon began to cast the first attack spell.
‘Flame Orb again? How very surprising, Maragon.’
As the flame orb began to take shape, Zenghi began to cast a ‘Water Shield’ spell, which was a defensive spell that was particularly strong versus a fire spell. There was a small jug of water with three glasses sitting on a small table near the back of the room. Zenghi drew water magick from there. Not because he likely needed to, but because he now always drew magick from his available sources if it was possible.
“Clypeo aquarum voco”
(I call forth a shield of water)
His weave was strong, and a water shield appeared in front of him. Maragon’s flame orb arched towards him and impacted against the Shield. Despite all of his secret casting in his room, Zenghi had cast very few defensive spells against real attacks. He reflexively flinched as the orb hit his shield. There was a loud hiss as flame hit water, and a small puff of steam. The orb disappeared harmlessly., Zenghi’s shield spell was also flickering out.
“Try to retain the Shield, child, if you can,” counselled Brother Turin. “Discard it only once you know the second attack cannot also be stopped by it.”
A valid suggestion. Noted.
Zenghi grabbed the weaves of his Water Shield again, and managed to maintain the spell.
Maragon quickly began the second spell almost the moment the first one failed. This time lightning started to crackle around him as he cast.
Going with lightning straight after fire. Is that just because that is your natural preference? My water shield is not the best for this, but it is still pretty good. I will keep it, and just make it thicker.
“Clypeus aquae me tueor te”
(Shield of water I enforce you)
The weave on the re-enforcement was strong, and Zenghi was glad he had kept the original defence and just made it stronger. He again drew what energy he could from the water in the room. The lightning arc flew towards him once Maragon had finished it. And it impacted against the thickening wall of water. There was another hiss of water and steam, followed just after by the crack of thunder. The water shield dispersed the lightning harmlessly across its surface.
Maragon accelerated the speed of the attacks, and was already casting the third attack. Looking through his Sense Casting enchantment, Zenghi could see a larger build-up of fire energy, and what looked liked three separate fire arrows being formed.
My shield is probably the perfect defence for this, but lets make this interesting.
Zenghi dropped his shield of water, but late enough that it was clear he had done so on purpose.
“Why not keep that? It was perfect for this,” queried Brother Turin.
“Sorry. Lost it,” blurted Zenghi, a total lie.
He was already starting to pull the energy for a teleportation defence. He had nothing he could use to power this within the room, so he used his internal reserves only. This spell would use up more reserves than was necessary as rather than just blink a short distance to make the spell miss, Zenghi wished to control exactly where he blinked to.
“Per dimensiones me velox gradus”
(Through the dimensions I quick step)
“Per voluntatem meam regere locum exitus mei”
(Through will, I control the location of my exit)
The weave on this spell was solid, but the weakest Zenghi had managed so far. The three arrows streaked forwards, fanning out slightly as they flew. Zenghi held his defence until the last possible moment then stepped, but rather than going 1 physical step, he blinked through another dimension, and re-appeared in front of the kneeling Brother Turin. The three flaming arrows impacted against the wall of the room. Smoke started to emanate from the wooden panelling.
Brother Turin laughed. Maragon grunted, but it was not one of admiration. Zenghi was thrilled. But he was also getting tired. This was now four spells which were at the limit of the most powerful spells he could normally cast. And this was one area where is thin, frail body limited him in ways that a stronger, fitter body may not.
“One more to equal your master,” encouraged Brother Turin, as he cast a quick spell to control the flames that were threatening to break out on his wall.
Maragon had already moved onto the next attack, and Zenghi watched as his master began to channel flame energy. But a lot more than last time.
‘An exploding Orb, mentor. With poor Brother Turin in the area. How could you?’
At this close proximity to Maragon, Zenghi decided to just counter-cast and try to disrupt the spell-cast directly. He immediately tried to create a spear of anti-magick to throw into the weave for what he thought was an exploding orb fire spell.
“Hasta anti- magicae quaero”
(A spear of anti-magick do I seek)
“Ut conteram hunc vertentes texere coram me”
(To break this channelling weave before me)
The spear was simpler magick than his last few spells, and the weave was strong. Zenghi took aim and threw it at what seemed like the weakest spot in the weave Maragon was forming. Zenghi had to admit, it wasn’t much of a weakspot, but he could still sense where the weakness was.
The spear flew true and struck the weave causing it to buckle.
Maragon grunted, but otherwise there was no reaction. Zenghi watched as he repaired the damage. The spear had not failed, it had bought him time, but he would need to think of something else. He noticed something odd in some of Maragon’s casting gestures. There was something there that was not a typical fire casting. He focused on his Sense Channelling enchantment and saw the Metamagick manipulations Maragon was also making to the spell.
‘What are you up to ‘Master?’
Zenghi looked more closely and saw the Earth manipulations being applied to the orb at the end of the flame arrow.
‘Is that a joke? I guess it makes sure you don’t kill Brother Turin.’
Zenghi began to conjure an Ice Shield. It would be water based, to ward of the Flame Arrow, but solid enough to bounce the pebble as well. ‘This isn’t even that difficult!’
Zenghi was almost disappointed.
“Clypeus glacialis voco”
(I call forth a Shield of Ice)
The Ice Shield weave was strong. He heard a hushed noise from Brother Turin which he took to be appreciation or awe at his efforts.
The flaming arrow struck the shield. The Ice hissed and a small part of it melted away, but the arrow dissipated harmlessly, and the stone bounced off and landed with a quite thud on the ground.
Maragon had no indications of praise or any other emotion for Zenghi. He was just casting the last spell.
The one that when I defeat, I will be better than you were at my age ‘Master’. Even in his mind, he said the word with contempt. He had no master. Or at least he had yet to meet one who was worthy to call such.
‘The last attack was supposed to look all big and scary, but the challenge was understanding the nature of the attack. Once that was solved, the defensive spell itself was not that difficult. This is a test of magick knowledge and mental agility. Not how big a spell can you cast. But there is no reason I cannot send a message by doing both.’
Maragon was casting, but there was not a lot of obvious spell signatures swirling around him. Zenghi thought he could feel the air being stirred though. He again focused on his Sense Channelling enchantment, and through it he could see a lot more information on whatever it was Maragon was casting.
‘Air magick, but there is also summoning energies in here too. You want me to think this is an air based attack, but actually it is going to be some kind of creature, which probably means it can avoid many of the defences I might try to stop it.’
‘Of course, if I just steal control of the creature, it won’t really matter what you try to get it to do.’
A grim smile of self-satisfaction came over Zenghi.
He began to cast a spell which would combine elements of both metamagick and summoning, which should allow him to manipulate the summoning spell being cast by Maragon and allow him to steal control of the creature as it was being summoned into this plane.
“Tuam vocationis famam subvert”
Your spell of summoning I do subvert
“Meus meus erit novus dominus eius”
My will shall be its new master
‘This may well be the boldest and most impressive way anyone has ever defeated this challenge. My legend begins.’
“Oh, may the Gods of magick be praised!” elicited Brother Turin giddily as he watched Zenghi cast his defence up close.
Through his Sense Channelling, Zenghi could see his spell-weave form quickly, and he began to interject it into the weave Maragon was casting.
This spell was difficult. More difficult than anything an apprentice of Zenghi’s experience should even be considering. And as he started to combine the very complex elements, it was clear it was taking longer than Zenghi expected.
He tried through sheer force of will to speed up the process up, but he knew mistakes were starting to appear in the weave. He focused on making sure his weave was strong enough to disrupt the weave of Maragon’s. His imperfections would be in the summoning aspects, not the metamagick aspects.
His threads successfully punched into the thread of Maragon’s spell, and began to intertwine themselves. The final result was probably some of Zenghi’s best work ever, and he knew it.
By the time the final blast of air magick took shape, and flew forth from Maragon’s outstretched hand towards Zenghi, his metamagick threads were thoroughly entangled with those of Maragon’s original casting.
Zenghi raised his hand and the small air elemental, only barely more visible than a normal wind would be, stopped as instructed as began to hover near Zenghi’s outstretched hand. It had worked. The elemental was no longer under Maragon’s control.
Zenghi instructed it to turn around, a broad grin spreading across his face.
The elemental did not turn around.
Zenghi re-issued the command. The smile on his face receded slightly.
The elemental did not turn around.
Zenghi could now feel it fighting for control. It was angry at having being summoned here. It was angrier that Zenghi had subverted control of it after it had arrived.
Zenghi now focused entirely on exerting his will over the creature.
He could see through his Sense Channelling enchantment that his spell weave was fracturing. The summoning elements had too many mistakes. The elemental was breaking free. Zenghi wished he had a summoning circle around the elemental right now, so that it would be trapped even if it did take control.
He quickly shot a look at Maragon and Brother Turin, hoping they would intercede.
Brother Turin was standing and in total awe of the whole scene. He looked incredibly pleased, but with a hint of madness in his eyes. Maragon looked sternly disappointed. Which to Zenghi seemed most unfair. At worst, he had failed only at the last step. A step Maragon had himself failed at.
Zenghi looked back at the elemental. He was sure its eyes were now glowing a cold blue. He attempted to cast a spell which might repair his original summoning threads. He had no idea how to do such a thing. His spell failed badly.
And his original threads of control broke. The elemental was free, and with a push of both airy arms it threw his small form across the room, as a child might throw a toy during a tantrum.
Zenghi slammed into the wall reasonably hard, knocking the wind from his frail frame, and breaking his hold on his Sense Channelling enchantment. He was not seriously injured, but he was badly winded, and unlikely to cast a spell anytime within the next few seconds. He tried to scamper to his feet, but could not stand. He tried to crawl away. Anything to escape to the elemental that must surely be about to strike him again.
As the seconds passed, his levels of panic grew. He was quite frantic by the time his rational mind had recovered enough to realise there was no alarm at all in Maragon or Brother Turin. They were in fact calmly making their way towards him.
“You have done very well, my son!” exclaimed Brother Turin proudly. “You passed four parts of the test. And I daresay made one of the boldest attempts at the fifth in Ashar history.”
“You are equal parts extraordinary, and a fool,” spat Maragon with mildly subdued contempt. “Your talent is on a level I have never seen. Your poor judgement is on the same level. And you refuse to learn from your mistakes, or your hubris.”
“I did as well as you did at this test, ‘Master’,” replied Zenghi resentfully. “But you will never acknowledge how well I have done. I think we both know I am better than you were at my age. And I think that makes you jealous.”
“Please… this should be a great moment. Let us not fight,” pleaded Brother Turin.
Zenghi looked like he wanted to continue. Maragon acknowledged the request and calmed immediately. He offered a hand to help Zenghi up. Zenghi bit his tongue and accepted the proffered hand.
“Brother Turin is right,” conceded Maragon in a conciliatory tone. “Today is an important part in your training and your result was excellent. You would have had your pick of the assignments for the next stage of your training had you been a student with the Ashar.”
“Thank you,” Zenghi said, pleased to finally get something that actually sounded like praise from Maragon.