“I don’t believe I have introduced myself. I am Lord Gunteviere. I already know you, Francis Donn!”
“That’s not my name.”
“Oh, um… Gerald Henway!”
“Nope.”
“Then what is it?”
“I am Master Reader Cole. I will tear you limb from limb with my magic once you release me.”
“Cole? Lame. And there’s no need for such violence. I only wish to take what you stole from us. This ‘corrupt’ magic.”
“I’m down, as long as you don’t mess up my face.”
“No promises.”
Lord Gunteviere led Cole down the mine again, his soldiers standing guard close behind to prevent Cole’s escape. At least that time they had lit up the mine with candles and wooden boards to prevent slipping. Cole’s eyes darted everywhere, trying to glean as much information as possible. Archers and spell readers stood at the top, watching down for any sudden movements. On every landing was a guard armed with a poleaxe, waiting for Cole to try anything. All the exits were covered and too many eyes were on Cole to attempt anything, so they kept up with the Lord until an opening presented itself. It was frantically obvious though that Cole had no option to escape as they were led into the large chamber containing the reservoir.
“We have expert scholars here to help. One actually specializes in niche magic. She has informed me that she is knowledgeable about corrupt magic. She will be the one leading this operation for me.”
“Operation?”
“Yes, she will tell you more, hueh hueh hueh.”
Fondling his hands, the Lord receded into the shadows lining the room. A tall woman finished her paperwork and stood up, studying Cole up and down.
“You are the one containing corrupt magic?”
“Maybe. I hope not.”
“Interesting… Let me grab my hoogadickybock and I will scan your magical aura.”
Magical aura?! This woman was on something. Cole needed to get out, but everywhere they looked several contingencies made sure they couldn’t leave. They had no other choice than to listen to the woman. She came back carrying a long glass stick. It was intricately imbibed with stones and magical materials with a thin strip of magical ink inside.
“Now hold still. AAAAEEEEEWOOOOWAAAAAAGAAAHEEEEEEEEEEEEEETOH!” she shook the stick across Cole’s body, wiggling a bit over their head before retracting and scribbling in her notebook.
“I see. So, you do have a corruption inside of you. I do have theories on how to extract it however.”
“Theories?”
“Yes. Take off your clothes, they’ll only get in the way.”
“Yeah, that’s not gonna happen.”
A side eye of the soldiers around the room told Cole that it would indeed happen, their choice or not. Cole sighed and gave in, stripping their light armor and robe.
“Fine, fine, but you at least could have bought me dinner first.”
“Thanks. I’ll make sure your clothes are taken care of. Lay down on that table over there.”
Cole followed orders, still on edge. All eyes were on them, and although the unanimous cat calls stoked their ego, it was hard to forget they intended harm. The woman returned with several items, placing them next to Cole’s head while she poked and prodded their body.
“Sorry, this will hurt.”
She brought a rune-inscribed wand over Cole’s chest and stabbed it in, chanting some spell as she held down Cole with unnatural strength.
“The less you struggle the easier it’ll be!”
A dark goo began climbing up the wand, glittering a light gold. The woman quickly placed it in a stone bowl, throwing other crystals and a small cat into the mixture. With another spell the bowl lit up, showering the room in light and blinding Cole as they tried to observe. Moments later it was dark again, except for a small shimmer of magic hovering in the stone.
“Pure magic. I can’t believe that worked!”
“What did you do to me?”
“I healed you. And extracted the most powerful form of magic known in existence; pure magic.”
“That was inside me?!”
“No, the corrupt magic was. That alone cannot be wielded due to its dangers. But with it one can form pure magic, ultimately powerful.”
“Is it done? Let me see,” Lord Gunteviere crept behind them.
He gazed down at the pure magic, a glint in his eye as he scooped the magical vapor with a chalice.
“Pure magic. All mine!”
He brought the cup before his mouth, taking time to absorb the momentous occasion. Cole couldn’t let him wield that magic. Pulling out scrolls from various hidden places, Cole sprung from their table and kicked the chalice out of Gunteviere’s hand, sending the magic violently across the room. With a string of words, Cole read a spell that lifted them off the ground, enveloping their body in flames. Fire lashed out at arrows, weapons, and people as they all came charging at Cole.
Their attacks were futile however as Cole finished them off with another scroll. Two more words toppled over the reservoir, sending a flood of magical ink across the cavern; it was obviously too dangerous to leave intact. Once in safety, Cole ended the spell and calmly descended back to the ground. Lord Gunteviere was the only one left besides the scholars who had fled. He cowered on the ground as Cole retrieved their belongings, taking care to ignore Gunteviere’s pained cries.
“Pure magic huh? Better make sure you don’t get any,” Cole smirked as they consumed the entire bowl of pure magic, glowing as it spread through their body.
“Hey, that fixed my stomach ache!”
“The Lords of Edge won’t take kindly to this! They’ll kill you!”
“I can’t wait to see them try.”
Lord Gunteviere coughed himself to death as Cole stepped over him through the exit, claiming a scroll to fly up through the deep cavern and gracefully setting down at the entrance. Cole found a certain humor in knowing that even the Lords of Edge couldn’t defeat them. They were unstoppable, a true master.
⧫
We tried our best to come up with a plan, but even with Rose’s scouting there was no opportunity to free Cole from the Lords. Every plan was failing and even our own brains had gone. Kalbir stood in her tent singing “Woop! Woop! Woop! Woop! Woop!” while Rose flicked her finger between her lips, just sitting and staring blankly at a squirrel. I was nearly at the breaking point as well, and I was the last hope for saving Cole. I could feel my mind slipping with every unsuccessful idea. No! Please! AAAA! BLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBL—
“Um, y’all okay?”
We all stopped at once, staring at Cole in disbelief.
“You escaped? How?”
“I won’t tell my secrets. Let’s just say I’m good at hiding scrolls.”
We leapt up to hug them, knocking them over from our combined force. Tears of joy fell as we yelled in unison, “You’re okay!”
“What did they do with you?”
Cole gave us a run down that was obviously exaggerated, but despite the absolute ridiculous stakes and obstacles they claimed to have faced, it all would have been quite believable if we hadn’t been in the direct area. Unfortunately we were though, and so Cole’s claims that a mega serpent descended from the sky were difficult to believe given we hadn’t seen a mega snake attack. The rest was more mundane however, and we were all impressed with Cole’s abilities.
“So does the pure magic make you feel any different?”
“I’ve been really hungry since, but otherwise no. My stomach ache is gone though.”
“Do your spells feel more powerful?”
“Oh yeah, instead of just drawing magic from the ink, it’s drawing from me as well. My spells have had a huge increase in power.”
“Try one now!” Rose encouraged.
Cole extracted a tiny scroll from their robe, promptly casting a light spell from it. A ball of light appeared by Cole’s head, but it was blinding, shining through even the thickest objects and eliminating all shadow. We all protested in agony, demanding Cole to end the spell, which they promptly did.
“Sorry, I guess all my spells are going to be more dangerous now.”
“Do you even need the scroll?”
“Let’s find out. ‘Purkaah langah.’” Even without the scroll, the orb of light returned, this time shining at a normal level. Cole could cast without scrolls?!
We all stared with our jaws agape; Cole’s rare power wasn’t lost on us. Only myths could cast magic without runes of some type, but it seemed Cole had become legendary.
“Cole, you are legendary!”
“Oh thanks, I know! Oh you meant because of the pure magic? I mean sure. I have much more interesting things I’ve been working on though.”
“Cole, only three readers in the past thousand years have had this power, what could possibly be more interesting?”
If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
“Oh I don’t know, my theory of ambient scroll intersectionality? Or the linguistic work I’ve done to shorten scrolls across all magic types? Or my delvings into cross-class academic magic study? This is merely a party trick.”
“I don’t know what any of that means, so I’ll take the party trick anytime,” Rose laughed nervously.
“Oh that’s right, I said I would teach you. We should get on that, I know the perfect spot.”
⧫
Cole’s spot was pretty. Deeper in St. Louis, we were atop a mountain glade that started a grand waterfall that tumbled down the mountain. At the peak though, it was barely perceptible and quiet aside from the wind. A pillar of rocks stood in the middle of the pool, each inscribed with simple runes.
“I am so tired from jumping,” Rose gasped. She had indeed bunny-hopped all the way to the peak on the steep side, much against our own advice.
“You should have just gone around. There was an easy path up here.”
“It’s about the principle, Mortemer. I got here first anyways.”
“Yes, only because of your steely thighs.”
“Yeah, I’m thick. You won’t get these thighs by using a path. Aren’t we here to train me anyways? Like, whatever happened to that?”
“You’re right, let’s begin,” Cole removed their robe along with the rest of their clothes, revealing tattooed magical runes across their entire body.
“Um, should I also…?”
“Yes.”
Rose grinned and followed suit, following Cole into the water afterwards.
“You cannot cast magic if you cannot read its energy. You have to be able to feel it, connect with it. In these rocks are some starter runes. They won’t do anything besides leak magical energy into this pool. I want you to focus on feeling it.”
“Um, okay. When do I get to fireballs and stuff?”
“Later. Do you know the runes?”
“All I know is how to say hels.” She turned invisible. “Damn, hels. So, anything you say I’m not going to know.”
“What about the rune alphabet?”
“Nope.”
“Basic pronunciations and dictations?”
“Hardly.”
“Magical classes and their applications?”
“Huh-uh.”
“Energy transferation and ink harmonization?”
“Why do you keep asking about stuff, it’s going to be a no.”
“I just wanted to get some idea of what you already know.”
“Well I don’t know anything, all I know is hels—hels dammit.”
“I see. Well, let’s start with this then. Scrolls are different from an amulet and your pronunciation is the most important part. With every scroll there are minute errors that could alter your spell, whether that be ink bleeding, shaky handwriting, those sort of inaccuracies. The only way to reliably cast a spell is to get your pronunciation right every time, otherwise those imperfections will be highlighted along with your wording mistakes. Do you know what these runes say? They’re the easiest to learn.”
“Barely, Cole. How. Many. Times. Do I have to say I. Don’t. Fucking. Know!”
“Okay, you’ve made your point. So this first rune is fesrhi, pronounced like, well that actually. Try it.”
“Fesrhi.” The first stone’s runes glowed.
“That spell simply releases magical energy from the ink. It can be used when extra magic is needed for a spell or to deactivate an ambient spell. You’ll find many more applications however. The second one is koli. Try that one.”
“Koli.” The second stone’s runes glowed.
“That spell is made of two parts, temperature and decrease. Ko- defines temperature and -li means down. Each sound can be used on its own, but you must make clear directions for magic to follow. For example the modifying spell word roh will make anything large. Adding it to koli as rohkoli will create a large decrease in temperature. Now the next one is the most basic elemental; water, pronounced as yul. Try that one.”
“Yul.” The third stone’s runes glowed, but this time it also wetted with the slightest moisture.
“Rohyul will generate a large amount of water. Koliyul will make the water cold. Give it a shot.”
“Koliyul.” There was no visible change, but Rose cursed loudly and jumped out of the water. “Cole, that's freezing!”
“That’s why pronunciation is important! Those runes have eroded over time, and the magical frequencies have changed, therefore your rusty pronunciation made it colder than you meant to. Let that be an example.”
“Okay, still doesn’t explain why we’re both naked.”
“Feeling magic interact with your body is very important for beginners. You should be able to feel the energy of every spell you cast through the water hitting your fur. Especially in a battle, managing your energy and picking the proper spells is important. Now that you know the basics though, let’s try a scroll…”
Cole’s teaching went on for another few hours and Rose was advancing quickly. She was evidently a quick learner as Cole breezed through their lessons. By the end, Rose had a few scrolls of her own and could cast a respectable fireball. She was obviously excited as she shot the fire into the sky, whooping as each one fizzled out. Cole attempted to join in, but their fireballs were absolutely enormous and scorched us all as they powered into the sky, putting Rose’s feeble flames to shame. After that, we decided it would be best to give it a rest.
“There’s a lot more to teach you, but that’s for another time.”
“Are you gonna teach me some actually cool spells next time?”
“Anything more than a fireball is dangerous for you, not until you get your pronunciations right. The one I taught you is already going a bit far…”
“Don’t worry, I can handle it. I know three languages, so I’m good at this stuff.”
“Rose I’ve only heard you speak three words of french and they weren’t even right,” Kalbir looked up from a book.
“Juis nuis?”
“No Rose, that’s gibberish.”
“Oh. Two languages then.”
“Well magic is like learning three languages, even more when you get into it,” Cole nodded.
“Then how the hell am I ever supposed to become a reader? This is going to take forever.”
“You’ve made a lot of progress already Rose, don’t get ahead of yourself. A fireball is an advanced spell and you’re already casting it with ease.”
“You’re right, just wish I could learn faster.”
⧫
We settled in a small cabin just down the path from the glade. It was small and cozy, yet large enough for the four of us surprisingly. Cole said they had built it to house their students.
“Rose gets the pool bed,” they called as we entered.
“Pool bed? Why’s it called a—oh.” Rose’s question was answered as we snooped around the second room in the cabin. It was a stone table with a small pool of water atop.
“Let me guess, magic training?”
“Yes, actually.”
“No way! My fur will get all matted and gross.”
“Yeah, and I have a de-matting spell.” Cole looked smug as Rose stared at them, shaking her head.
“I am not sleeping on that.”
“Okay, don’t become a powerful reader then. Suit yourself.”
“If that bed is all that’s separating me from being a powerful reader, I don’t know if I wanna keep going.”
“Fine, I’m sure there are other ways to refresh your energy and magica manipulation power.”
“Yeah, like sleep. Which, as I recall, can happen without a water bed.”
“Yeah but… You’re right. I’ll sleep there instead.”
We all watched as Cole uncomfortably laid down on the table, letting out a violent shiver as the water soaked through their fur. They were very still as they closed their eyes, obviously not happy with the sleeping situation.
“Well um, goodnight!” they said, shutting their eyes as if that would help them.
“You comfy there Cole?”
“Yep. Totally. Never better. ‘Night.” Cole’s fake snores filled the air, attempting to expel us from the room and our ridicule.
“They’re gonna smell like wet dog in the morning,” Rose said from the other room, self consciously grooming her own fur.
“I can hear you! GOODNIGHT!” Cole cried behind the door.
⧫
The next day we were all up early, but still not as early as Cole. Despite their reassurances, it was obvious their sleep had been trash and bits of sea plants and mud was caked into their fur, matting it down into some kind of bog ecosystem. Rose barely held back a smug grin when she saw the mess, lightly patting Cole on the back while keeping her hand clean.
“Feeling magically refreshed?”
“Yep. Totally. I can feel the power coursing through me.”
A fly unceremoniously landed on their head while a fish leapt out of their right arm.
“Did you do that dematting spell?”
“Yes, but it’s not a bog-be-gone spell. I left that scroll behind unfortunately.”
Rose moved on to greet me next. I was huddled in a corner reading over the documents we’d found, looking for any lead. There were some promising reports I’d read, but nothing warranting traveling across the continent for.
“Find anything interesting?” she asked as she sat down by us.
“Hmm-mm. No matter how hard I look it seems their plans are all too innocuous to stop. Like there’s a fort they have where they’re studying food magic, what’s the point of traveling for a week to stop something like that?”
Rose said nothing as she peered over the papers, trying to spot anything I could’ve missed.
“What about that one? It says ‘Our most important plans to date, we are unstoppable. Nobody can defeat us ever while this plan is in place. This mission report is really important?’”
“Oh. That might be our next lead,” I said, surprised. Rose’s observation skills were highly advanced.
“Let me read it.”
Rose snatched the report from my hands and scanned it, her eyes growing with every line they moved across.
“Mortemer. This is bad, ‘Day 453, Operations Log. Lord Davis was successful in her diplomatic mission, the St. Louisans believe the western front at Hannus has fallen and will divert troops there, freeing the eastern front for the Virginians to advance their heavier units. Falder Pass has been collapsed by Lord Gutsh, so the Virginians can no longer direct troops to the town of Jilsburg. Our operations are having the same effect seen in my premonitions. With Lord Tarrish’s task underway, the St. Louisans and Virginians will escalate their tactics.’ It goes on about some battle statistics, but doesn’t it sound like they’re messing with the war?”
“Yes, I wonder if the King knows. Let’s keep looking for reports like these. Are there any locations or a sign where this report is from?”
“No, that part was conveniently left out.”
“We have to warn the King. He can work with the St. Louisans to de-escalate. I’m sure he’d change tactics if he found out the Lords of Edge were messing with the war.”
“You put a lot of faith in the people telling you what to do. Why should we tell the King? It’s not our war to worry about.”
“We tell him because we need to stop this. If the war really is going to escalate, even more of our people will die.”
“Maybe we should find this Lord Tarrish. If they’re going to escalate the war we should stop them.”
“You’re right. Look through these documents for mention of their name. Cole, can you come help?”
“Mortemer I smell like a BOG! Please let me calm down before you ask me to do ANYTHING.”
“Um, go wake up Kalbir. She’s good at this stuff.”
One sleepy but motivated Kalbir later, and we were whizzing through the stack of reports, scanning for any mention of the Lord’s name. Cole meanwhile did their best to wash out the bog from their fur, crying in dramatic frustration when their various spells backfired or simply didn’t have the desired effect. On one particularly loud groan, Kalbir launched herself up and began mixing several solutions to fix Cole up. Much to their detest of the vinegar smell, Kalbir managed to wash them down in no time, doing the job in minutes despite all of Cole’s labored efforts. Upon returning, neither Rose or I had found Tarrish’s name. It looked about hopeless until Rose lit up, pushing herself onto her feet and in a grandiose fashion announced her findings.
“Yo! Got it! Lord Tarrish right here!”
“What does it say?”
“According to their last report, Lord Tarrish was sent to the Virginia-St. Louis border to garrison a fort there. The Lords of Edge’s best blacksmiths are there and apparently they’re making a powerful weapon to supply to both sides.”
“They plan to escalate the war with this weapon then? We need to stop those smiths.”
“If we could get that weapon for ourselves I’m sure we could use the firepower.”
“No, it’s too dangerous. Whatever they’re creating has no place in the hands of man.”
“Yeah but I’m not man, I’m scherthara.”
“...”
“The hell is that face?”
“Rose…”
“Hey, Cole is a superweapon and we keep them around. I want one too.”
“They’re a person, not a superweapon.”
“I beg to disagree,” Cole smirked over Rose’s shoulder.
“Okay, then we already have one superweapon. We don’t need more.”
“Way to shit on a girl’s parade dude.”