Uneasy sleep and sheer boredom merged the days into monotony, the only thing that changed being the window which was a constant wall of moving trees. Everything else was the same, the same seat, the same walls, the same door handle, the same stare, the same silence. Ieros only sat there quietly while Azorin stared silently. The only good parts of the entire ordeal were the meals and the brief stops they had to relieve themselves, for those were the only times that Ieros was either enjoying the best food that he had ever tasted or outside of his prison.
And it was during one of these meals that Azorin finally spoke to Ieros, saying, “Do you like the food?”
Ieros stopped chewing his food for a moment as he met Azorin’s eyes and then looked away, nodding as he continued to eat, albeit at a slower pace. Azorin smiled.
“Good good, but do you know why it tastes so good?”
Ieros shook his head and Azorin said, “That is because the food is freshly made.”
Ieros furrowed his eyebrows, Azorin smiling as he explained, “I know, how were they just made when they were locked in a box this entire time.”
Azorin leaned in as his eyes glittered brightly.
“The answer is magic.”
At this, Ieros grew a little interested, although he didn’t say it aloud.
But, seeing his interest, Azorin said, “Magic is a wonderful thing my child, it allows for many things that you would consider impossible. You can summon fire,” as Azorin created fire, “make ice,” as he created ice, “and keep food fresh.” he said as he gestured to the storage box at the side of the carriage.
Silence followed as Ieros chewed on his food absentmindedly, thinking about what Azorin said.
Finally, he spoke, asking, “Can magic make you fly?”
Azorin nodded.
“It can but a sustainable spell for flight has not yet been created, it simply takes up too much mana. But...”
Azorin fell silent, seeming to brood over a possible idea.
Unable to contain his curiosity, Ieros asked, “But what?”
Azorin said, “Someone like me cannot fly for too long, only a few minutes at most but you, you might be able to fly for a long time.”
Ieros, the food forgotten, focused on Azorin.
“Really?”
Azorin nodded.
“Why yes, your blood has much more mana in it than mine, I’m sure that you can fly for at least 15 minutes.”
Azorin, with the madness beginning to return in his eyes, asked, “Would you like to try?”
But Ieros, excited about the possibility of flight, nodded. Azorin immediately commanded for the carriage to be stopped, exiting the carriage and helping Ieros off. He then took Ieros some ways down the road where there was more space and began to teach ieros the spell of flight. He carefully coached Ieros through the words, teaching them of their meaning as he repeated them. Just knowing how to speak the words was not magic in and of itself, one needed to understand their purpose in order to guide the mana to power those words.
Again and again, Azorin had Ieros repeat those words, telling him to try and imagine the meanings of those words, to let Ieros’s entire being speak the words rather than just his tongue. Again and again, even as the sun began to dip down below the horizon, Azorin kept on telling Ieros to repeat the spell. By now, Ieros’s excitement had died down but he was not allowed to stop, and so he continued. And as the night began to grow long, Ieros—whose sleepy mind, devoid of all other thoughts than the words that he was constantly repeating—managed to activate the spell.
He was awoken from his partial slumber as Azorin cried out in excitement, Ieros a bit confused until he realized that he was no longer on the floor. His body felt strange as if he was surrounded by warm water that wasn’t wet.
And, just as if he was in the water, he began to float up. No matter what he did, he just continued to float up, panic filling his mind as began to thrash around wildly. Azorin attempted to catch him by flying himself, but he was soon forced to halt, Ieros had floated up too high too fast, and he couldn’t sustain his flight with the mana he possessed. So, he could only try and coach Ieros down, although Ieros was too panicked to hear. And when Ieros calmed down enough to try and listen to Azorin, he was so high up in the air that Azorin’s voice could barely reach him. Then he floated out of range and was alone in the sky.
Panic began to fill his mind again, as he cast his gaze down to the land that was far below. H saw a great blackness that was only lit up by the soft light of the moon. He saw silver-topped trees, the winding black path that he had traveled down in the days prior, and off in the distance, black mountains outlined against a starry sky. And then, hesitantly, he turned his head and saw the great expanse of blackness, dotted with bright lights and the moon.
His fear was forgotten as he lost himself in the dark depths of the sky, the unearthly beauty of the lights beyond calling to him. Almost instinctively, he reached out to touch the stars, perhaps now he could touch them but they still remained beyond his grasp. He strained and strained, falling into the sky as the air began to grow colder and colder.
Meanwhile, on the ground, Azorin kept his eyes on Ieros as he flew higher and higher, keeping track of the time as he did so. When fifteen minutes had elapsed, he began to laugh, his eyes once again consumed by the fires of madness.
“Amazing... Simply... Utterly... Absolutely... Amazing...”
Ieros expended more and more mana as he climbed higher and higher, burning more and more of his blood. Soon, he had burned so much that he lost consciousness, his vision fading as the stars winked out of existence. He began to fall as the spell ceased to function, hurtling towards Agleon with breakneck speed.
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Azorin—keeping the time—marked Ieros’s fall at precisely the seventeenth second of the thirty-first minute, taking mental note of that time as he skillfully wove a net of mana, which gently rose up to meet Ieros’s body before it slowly began to decelerate, ensuring that Ieros’s landing was soft and without pain. Ieros’s body soon alighted on the ground as Azorin released his spell, Ieros now sleeping peacefully on the grass.
He took Ieros back into the carriage, laying Ieros down carefully on the seat opposite of him before taking a seat himself. Azorin then motioned for the carriage to continue, returning his focus to Ieros. Drinking a mana potion, he began to heal Ieros, using his own mana to stimulate Ieros’s body to accelerate the production of blood. For Ieros had burned up a lot of blood if his pale complexion was anything to judge by.
A few hours later and with quite a few potions consumed, Azorin was finally assured of Ieros’s recovery, making a mental note to conduct later experiments that would be less taxing on Ieros. It was lucky that Ieros only flew straight up and fell straight back down, he could have just as easily flown sideways for miles, which might’ve been too far for Azorin to attempt a rescue.
He had to be very careful with Ieros, he was extremely valuable to the experiments he wished to conduct in the future, oh, the things he could now do. As he lost himself to dreams of the future, he wrote them all down on the book that he always carried in his robes, a journal that kept track of every single discovery he made. It was the fifty-seventh journal that he had ever written, and if his ideas about Ieros were right, there would be many more journals to follow.
Ieros continued to sleep for the remainder of the journey, which was of some concern to Azorin. But, he was unable to forcibly wake Ieros here, he lacked the materials. All he could do was either wait for Ieros to awaken on his own or hasten to the Capital where he would have the means to wake Ieros. Either way, he had to be patient and maintain watch over Ieros.
And he did just that as the days past and they grew nearer to the Capital, casting healing spells several times a day over Ieros to make sure that his condition did not worsen. And in due time, Ieros awoke, just moments before they crossed the Outer Gate of the Capital. As he sat up, yawning tiredly, he looked around him in confusion, wondering just where he was.
“Ah, you’ve finally awoken, that is good, I was worried you would never wake up.”
Ieros blinked as he looked at Azorin in confusion.
“What?”
Azorin said, “I was a bit too hasty, the spell I taught you drained you of all your mana and you fell unconscious. You’ve been sleeping for the remainder of the journey.”
Ieros blinked again as he absorbed this information.
“Oh. Um, where are we now?”
Azorin answered, “At last, we are at the Capital. Soon, we will be at the Academy where your training can truly commence.”
At this, Ieros, excitement rising, asked, “Really? I can fly again?”
Azorin smiled.
“Of course, you will learn to fly and together, we can do so many more things. But, first, we have to get there and get you registered into the school, otherwise, the Conclave will nag at me.”
Ieros nodded as he looked out the window, his curious eyes jumping from sight to sight. He saw the bustling streets, the smooth stone buildings, and a wide assortment of people that he had never seen before. From the poorest of beggars to the richest of mercenaries who glittered with steel, Ieros saw them all, occasionally asking Azorin questions about them. Azorin answered, And then the carriage entered the Inner Gate, the bustling crowds giving way to pristine streets, gilded houses and equally gilded guards at every corner.
And then, he saw it, a miniature city within the Capital, with pristine white towers and roofs of gold. It was the Royal Palace. Noticing Ieros’s awe, Azorin snorted.
“Nothing but a golden facade. Listen to my words Ieros, nothing good comes of associating with Royalty. They ask for your help and in return give nothing but empty promises. I will protect you for as long as I can, but one day, the King will ask for you to bend the knee. But I hope by that time, you will have become strong enough to resist them.”
Ieros nodded as he looked at the Royal Palace again, this time noticing the cracks in the wall and missing roof shingles.
He pointed this out to Azorin, who just said, “That was the result of the previous King, who would rather spend his money on frivolous parties than the upkeep of his nation. The current King is much better but he has his flaws.”
Ieros asked, “Frivolous?”
Azorin waved his hand dismissively.
“It means doing something without good reason, something that you must never do when it comes to magic. Everything has its purpose, even if you did not mean to do it and sometimes, that purpose can have dangerous results.”
Ieros nodded again, it was the same thing that his parents had taught him back home. He had to be careful and respect nature, otherwise, he could end up burning down the entire forest. Although he still didn’t understand what Azorin said about the Royal Family, only that they seemed to be bad people.
The remainder of the ride was spent in silence, until the carriage came to a stop and Azorin looked at Ieros, saying, “Stay by me. Do not get lost.”
Ieros nodded again, doing just that as Azorin exited the carriage and began walking towards the entrance of the Academy, the golden gates opening as the guards bowed their heads to Azorin. They directed a few curious looks at Ieros but soon returned to their duties as the two passed, the gates closing, shutting Ieros in.
But Ieros didn’t even notice, the grandeur of the Academy’s grounds stunning him into silence. Here, he saw things that he only heard in legends, floating crystals, glowing flowers, and living statues made of silver and gold. But grander than them still was the great statue at the center, a statue that towered over everything, its imperious gaze looking down upon Ieros, making him feel even lesser than he already was.
Azorin’s call startled Ieros out of the statue’s gaze, Ieros hurriedly running to catch up with Azorin as he cast a look back at the statue, wondering if suddenly the statue’s head might turn to look at him. It didn’t and soon, it was out of sight as Azorin entered a building.
Ieros’s eyes were practically assaulted by the strange and mysterious sights that only mages had the privilege of beholding, catching only a glimpse before they were replaced by another, the only constant being Azorin’s silhouette in front of him and Ieros’s own two feet. Everything else was a roiling sea of fantastical images... until they weren’t.
The sights were gone, replaced by stern marble walls and paintings of people who Azorin explained were renowned mages of the past. Azorin named them and their titles as they passed, pointing to a man whose stern and rock-like features aptly earned him the title, “Thaldwin the Unbreaking.” He then pointed at a woman whose face Ieros couldn’t quite make out, although he was certain that she was beautiful. Her name was Hecate the Illusive, unparalleled in the illusory art. There was Welvern the Wise, considered to be one of the three wisest sages in the history of the Academy and perhaps the world and so many more that continued to line the walls. And then there was Zofiar himself, Zofiar the Peerless.
He, Azorin explained, was a mage so proficient in the arts that there was no one who could be considered his equal. He possessed the largest mana concentration of his time and was the first to master silent incantations and the creator of multicasting. He was and is the Pinnacle of Magic, although Azorin added,
“Although, perhaps it may not be so for long.”
Before Ieros could ask what he meant, Azorin suddenly stopped, turning to Ieros.
“Now, I want you to be quiet. You are not to say a word, nothing at all. Just follow directions and remain silent.”
Ieros nodded and Azorin said, “You are going to meet Conclave, all the senior teachers and mages will be here and I don’t want you to make a terrible first impression.”
Ieros nodded again, nervous as Azorin turned back to the doors in front of them, opening them and walking inside. Ieros, taking a deep breath, followed him inside.