I must have done something to offend some god or something. It’s the only explanation for this.
Sheena was damn near perfect. She was almost everything I looked for in a girl. A charming smile, red hair, curvy figure, good at magic. She was almost a work of art, some celestial masterwork of a god who had long since broken the mold. Her shy, awkward and clumsy behavior had captured my heart like nothing had ever before. Even for an elf, known for their beauty and grace, she’d stood out amongst any elves I’d ever met, and I’d met quite a few.
And then she had gone and clung to Alverd like a drowning man to a piece of flotsam in a storm.
Why? What possible reason could there be? Why else would the girl of my dreams simply walk into my life, only to continue walking right past me and into the arms of my best friend? I couldn’t reconcile it in my head. I went over my past actions, feverishly trying to recall if I had slighted any deities or gods. Sadly, there were quite a few potentials on that list. And that was only taking into account the immortals. The list of living people I’d offended was longer than I cared to think about.
As Alicia dragged me through the streets of Ethenia, desperate to keep pace with Alverd and Sheena, my legs refused to move in sync with my body. I had been drained of strength. I had no desire to watch my best friend hit it off with the girl of my dreams. Even if Alicia’s intention was, as I suspected, to act as chaperone, I still wanted no part in it. Just thinking about how Sheena would gaze at Alverd longingly at every opportunity was a dagger to my heart. Finally, Alicia stopped behind a cart and pulled me down next to her. She peeked over the cart, trying her best to be subtle. When I made no motion to do the same, she grabbed me by the collar and hoisted me up so I could see.
Sheena was pulling Alverd into some sweet shop. The woman behind the counter, a chubby, homely looking creature with a wide smile, handed Sheena two caramel apples. Sheena handed one to Alverd, who had no idea how to eat it; Sheena demonstrated by taking a healthy bite out of her own. Alverd followed suit, and the two left the shop in high spirits. Unfortunately, Alverd’s bite left a large smear of caramel on his cheek. Sheena laughed and used her thumb to remove the caramel, and the two shared a chuckle over it.
Another plunge of the dagger into my heart. I could feel a sickening feeling pooling in my stomach. I wanted to just curl into a ball and cry at this point. I had never felt this kind of pain before. Jealousy, I was no stranger to. But never before had I applied jealousy to a matter of the heart before. Girls had never really been interested in me, for a multitude of reasons, mainly because of my blunt personality and inability to get along with others. Not that I minded, all that much. Many of the girls in Marevar’s capital, Irinholm, were not only not my type, but were stuck up and pretentious. They regarded me as beneath them, simply because of my orphan status. So I brushed them off. My childhood friend Laura was the only girl to tell me that I had redeeming qualities, and that was a long time ago, in a distant memory that brought a familiar, bitter taste to my mouth. With some effort, I shelved the memory back where it belonged as I stalked the darkened streets of Ethenia with Alicia, as public service workers lit the lamps flanking the roads.
I really didn’t want to do this. I really, really didn’t want to be doing this. Spying on my friend was one thing. Spying on him as he was doing something with such a beautiful girl that I had feelings for? It just felt…wrong. I wanted to be anywhere but here. But I couldn’t escape the vice that was Alicia’s grip. She pulled me along, the frustration on her face growing by the minute. For once, I think I could relate with her.
We tailed the two for at least an hour. I hated every minute of it. I tried to distract myself any way I could. Alas, there were no birds or even insects buzzing about, and there were few people littering the streets despite the fact that the night was young. We only passed one guardsman, and he seemed quite bored. Sometime after passing him, something clicked in my head.
Only one guardsman? Surely there would be more as night fell. In a kingdom of magic, regulation of crime would be necessary. I looked across the street again as Alicia yanked me along. Somehow, the lone guardsman had disappeared. In his place, a few other people had now mysteriously come out of the woodwork. I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck stiffen. Something wasn’t right.
Although there were only a few, they were all dressed the same; dark, baggy cloaks that were designed for ease of movement and concealment of small weapons. Three had appeared on the opposite end of the street, and two more were walking towards us, in front of where Alverd and Sheena were still eating their apples. I casually looked over my shoulder, and saw another four behind me. When the four saw that I had sussed them out, they gave up all pretense of being bystanders and picked up their pace.
They also pulled wands from their baggy robes. Wands were like the concealed weapons of the magic world. They possessed only a fraction of the power of a staff, but their size made them useful for sneaking them into places where staves would be detected simply by the naked eye. Much like a normal assassin would carry daggers or knives as their weapons, these magical assassins used wands to launch their cowardly little sneak attack. Still, given that they outnumbered us, any shortcomings in the firepower department would be compensated by the good old rule of quantity over quality.
This was going to get ugly. I was lucky to still have my staff. Sheena didn’t have hers, so she would be unable to use magic. Alverd had his sword, and Alicia her hammer, but three against nine was not good odds. As we all kept walking, we made the odds worse; in just a few seconds, Alverd, Sheena, Alicia and I would be trapped between the nine assassins and we would be in even deeper trouble. I decided that, in this case, subtlety was not the best way to go about things.
I turned around, staff in hand, and pulled a spark of lightning from my body. The spark fed off the bioelectric impulses in my body, growing stronger as it pulsed in my hand. Magic had to come from somewhere; oftentimes, the best source for power comes from one’s own body. In this case, conjuring the lightning bolt I was about to throw by feeding it with power from my body was an efficient, quick and commonplace method to do so. Or it would have been, had I been using my own staff.
See, my staff technically didn’t belong to me. It was the staff of my late mentor. Because it didn’t belong to me, it made it harder for me to use magic, tiring me out more and requiring more of my focus to use higher level magic. I didn’t know what it took to carve my own staff, and even then, I had never passed the trial to graduate from apprentice level, so I couldn’t even consider carving my own staff. But I didn’t have time to worry about any of that now.
As I coerced the electrical energy from my body and into my hand, I could feel the familiar exhaustion tugging at me, as though I’d pulled a piece of myself out of the whole. By now, I’d grown accustomed to the sensation. There was simply nothing I could do about it. Instead, I focused through the fog and the slight pain that came with it, and unfurled my fingers, allowing the concentrated energy to take the form of a projectile.
The bolt took form in my hand. I threw it at the four figures still walking up behind me, unaware that I had anticipated their attack. Only one was able to react to my preemptive strike in time to erect some sort of protective barrier, a shimmering wall of glowing blue light that flared to life with a wave of his staff. The other three took the lightning blast as it forked at them and were thrown back, wands knocked from their hands as they sailed through the air.
I saw the last mage unclench his left fist, and his wand began to glow with a soft blue light as he directed magical energy to form in the palm of his hand. Instead of drawing it out of his body the traditional way, he was using a quick and dirty method of “speed-casting” his spell, feeding the energy into his hand by redirecting the impulses to gather in his hand instead of pulling it from across his body through the focal point at his chest. It was sadly an effective, if dangerous, way to speed up a process that was potentially just as fraught with peril to the user as the intended target.
I had enough time to time to catch the dumbfounded look on Alicia’s face before I dove at her, knocking her to the ground to avoid the surviving mage’s counterattack. A bolt of lightning, just as bright and intense as the one I had thrown mere seconds ago, flew past my head with a sizzling sound. Alicia and I hit the ground, me on top of her, in a sprawl. Alicia snarled and punched me in the jaw, pushing me off of her with more force than was necessary, scrambling to get to her feet and grab her hammer. As I rolled over, I glanced over at Alverd and Sheena.
Alverd had reacted quickly, just like I knew he would. The Sword of Evros was already in his right hand, the dormicite shield in his other. He had pulled Sheena behind him, and now he was staring down five men and women with wands, each about to throw magic at him. He neatly deflected a fireball with his new shield and assumed a defensive posture in front of the young Witch-Queen.
“Milady Sheena, stay behind me. I won’t let them hurt you.” He bounced another attack off the shield, an ice spike, and it zoomed off into the night and embedded itself harmlessly in the wooden entryway of a nearby storefront. He leveled his sword at the nearest mage assassin, who took a step back, waving his wand in as threatening a manner as he could.
Sheena, however, put her hand on Alverd’s shoulder. Her face was still as red as before, but now she looked quite serious. “I appreciate your concern, my dear knight,” she purred, before aiming her right hand to point at the men and women before her. “But I am far from a damsel in distress.”
Sheena then lifted her hands and screamed out a word, “Kelda!”. In a crimson flash, something materialized in front of Alverd, something big. A swirling cloud of fog condensed into the form of an animal, a red-furred wolf, except no wolf could ever have been so large. The beast was easily as big as a lion, and had teeth and claws that I bet could tear through flesh with ease. The wolf-creature darted forward toward the mages, its slavering maw open, gleaming white teeth on full display.
They panicked as the wolf closed the distance rapidly. They changed their target from Alverd to the wolf, but it was too late. The wolf pounced upon the closest one, and he screamed as the wolf wrapped its unnaturally large maw around the man’s neck. Alverd slammed into the next one with the dormicite shield, flooring him with a bash to the face. The shield made a satisfying thumping noise as it collided with the man’s jaw, sending two teeth spiraling through the air. A spinning slash put down the woman next to him, and Alverd whirled to face the last two mages in front of him, his weapon steady and his gaze steely.
A familiar. Sheena had summoned a familiar, a magical creature bound to her will. Any mage who had passed their rite of passage into full magehood had a familiar; the creature’s shape varied from person to person. I guessed in her case, it was this giant monster wolf. But at the end of the day, it was an ally, so I was glad to have it on our side. Speaking of the monstrous beast, it had finished dealing with its first target and took up Alverd’s flank, growling sinisterly at the two mages he was staring down. I honestly couldn’t tell who the assassins were scared of more: Alverd, or Kelda.
Behind me, Alicia was engaging the mage who had blocked my lightning bolt. He threw aside his wand and reached into his cloak, pulling out a small, baton-shaped piece of metal. A gemstone embedded in its middle flared to life, and the baton suddenly extended to the length of a quarterstaff, just like the ones used by Captain McFarlane and her soldiers. He was no slouch with it either. He neatly deflected Alicia’s attacks by predicting them through her huge wind-ups, although he made no move to go on the offensive. Instead, he held his ground and tried to push Alicia back by striking her elbows and shins, keeping her off balance.
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His fighting was a delaying action; soon, the three mages I had taken out with my lightning bolt would find their feet and rejoin the battle anew. My mind raced as I tried to find a solution to the problem.
As I did, I looked over my shoulder, only to behold something amazing. Sheena held her right hand out, palm up, and breathed out, a wisp of white smoke emanating from her mouth. It swirled into her hand, shining brightly, a cold, mirror-like sheen coating it. I wanted to scream at her, to ask what the hell she was doing, but I didn’t get the chance. Without any ceremony, she threw the iceball at the remaining two mages Alverd was facing. The iceball exploded with more force than any I could conjure, and the two mages were utterly engulfed, their screams cut short as they were flash frozen in the space of a second.
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Sheena had just used magic without her staff. It was a feat that no mage was supposedly capable of performing. Yet she had not only managed it, but she had made it as easy as breathing. She was not the Witch-Queen for nothing. Sheena gazed at her handiwork impassively, as if she felt nothing for killing her would-be murderers. The look in her eye was colder than the magic she had just conjured. I felt a shiver run its way down my spine.
Alicia cried out, turning my attention back to my original plight. Sure enough, the other mages had returned to their feet and were in the process of weaving spells. The three were combining their power to form a giant runic circle, which hung in the air, like a malevolent mirror. Even with wands, a spell powered by three different mages would still be powerful enough to kill several times over. With their headstart, I had no chance of beating them. Alverd was too far away to help, and it looked like Alicia and I were about to get blitzed by a magical assault.
And then the ground shook.
The mages stopped their spells, just as shaken as we were. The ground shook at steady, almost consistent intervals, like footsteps. There was a general confusion, followed by a mad scramble to discern the direction the noise was coming from. We were saved the trouble when, from a side alley, the biggest, meanest looking golem I had ever seen emerged, headed straight for the enemy.
A golem was what mages called a construct, an artificially created being powered by magic and given a purpose, controlled by one skilled in the art of puppetry. The construct was fueled by a tiny bit of the puppeteer’s soul, giving them greater control over the end result than a necromancer would have over his thralls. This “piece of the soul” was then placed within a powerful shell of solid steel or stone, shaped like a man, capable of incredible feats of strength. But when the hulking golem stepped into the illumination of the streetlights, I could see that it was crafted entirely of dormicite, its sparkling surface reflecting the surroundings perfectly. The golem was easily ten feet tall, with thick arms and legs, a head in the shape of a knight’s helm, and glowing red “eyes” peering out of the darkness of its visor. It took one look at the mages and raised its hand.
One mage threw a lance of ice at the golem; the projectile shattered against the golem’s dormicite skin like a snowball. The golem countered by shooting a similar lance out of its hand, skewering the mage and sending him flying back for several feet. The golem raised its other hand, and a golden bolt of searing lightning shot forth, electrocuting the woman next to him, leaving only two mages left.
I’d only read about golems in books. They were quite rare, even the ones made of stone. One had to be a high level practitioner of magic to create a golem, as well as have access to alchemical research and materials to form the golem’s body. For a golem to be made of dormicite would have taken near phenomenal levels of skill as well as a significant monetary investment. From what I was seeing, though, it was definitely worth every gold piece.
The biggest oddity, though, was how the golem could use magic. A golem was an extension of its controller, so the idea of a golem using its creator’s magic wasn’t unheard of. But again, this was the first time I’d seen a golem in real life, so the awe and terror I felt were doing a good job in interfering with my thought process. As I gaped at the new arrival, the golem turned and started stomping towards new targets.
The other of the two remaining mages tried to turn tail and flee, but the red-furred wolf ran him down and leaped on him. I turned away as his screams were cut short by the beast’s cruel fangs. I was just in time to see the golem pick up the mage attacking Alicia in one of its hands. Without any hesitation, the golem smashed the mage against the wall of a nearby shop, crushing him like a rotten piece of fruit. I winced as the golem let go of the man’s lifeless body, allowing the corpse to hit the ground in a pulpy mess.
A man stepped out of the alleyway from which the golem had emerged. I recognized him as one of the twelve people I had seen in Sheena’s throne room. The man was an elf, but significantly older than Sheena. Crow’s feet pulled at his eyes and wrinkles ran down his cheeks to his lips. His graying blond hair was short and sparse, as though he were in the early stages of balding, and the diamond in his staff sparkled in the glow of the street lamps. He wore a white robe with a black and red trim, adorned with gold filigree. He had no trouble making his way over to us, so I guessed that his advanced age wasn’t hindering him yet. When he reached us, he bowed deeply, the dim light glinting in his dark grey eyes.
“My Queen, are you hurt?” The man asked. When she stood back up, Sheena returned the bow. “Thanks to your intervention, Lord Kertouli, I am unharmed. You came in the nick of time.” When she stood back up, she caught her giant witch hat before it had time to tumble off of her head, although she had to fiddle with the crown to get it back into place without tipping. I guess she really was self-conscious about those elf ears of hers. Not that I could understand why. Was there some kind of local prejudice against elves or something?
As Lord Kertouli spoke to Sheena, I saw that the golem had taken up a flanking position on our rescuer. I deduced that Lord Kertouli must have been the puppeteer controlling it. I came over to the conversation and joined by asking a question. “Um, not to be rude, but who exactly are you?”
The newcomer turned his attention to me. “Forgive my rudeness. My name is Emberal Kertouli. I am one of the Twelve Magister Lords, Third Attendant to the Council of Magic and Keeper of Puppetry, and one of Ethenia’s most powerful nobles. I am pleased to make your acquaintance, Master Kuro. Any guest of my Lady Queen’s is welcome here in our city.”
Lord Kertouli gestured to the alley once more. “Lord Necce! There is no need to be shy! Come and meet our new arrivals! You disgrace yourself with such a display!” As soon as he said that, a man slunk out of the shadows and sidled up to us. Unlike Lord Kertouli, this man was neither graceful nor refined. He was too skinny and pale, his hair was too messy, and his movements were jerky and uncertain. He sidled up to Lord Kertouli and growled at us under his breath. The ruby in his staff flared several times during his approach, as if reflecting the sinister glow in his shifty eyes.
Lord Kertouli was not amused by this. “Zajj! These are guests! Behave yourself as befits a noble of Algrustos!”Kertouli gave the man a stern look, and Necce growled again, but this time he settled down and stood up straight, clearing his throat. “My name is Zajj Necce…Ninth Attendant to the Council of Magic and Keeper of Elemancy. Just so we’re clear, I have no intention of being chummy with an Ishmarian princess and her little pets. Of that, you can be certain.” He emphasized by spitting on the ground, more or less in Alicia’s direction. She scowled, and I could see a vein come dangerously close to popping on her forehead.
Lord Kertouli shook his head and sighed. “Please forgive his rudeness. Lord Necce does not possess the dignity and bearing one would expect from one of his station. I will chastise him later. But I am still glad that you are unharmed, Milady.” He tilted his head reverently in Sheena’s direction.
Sheena waved her arm in our direction. “I owe such to my new companions. If not for them, I would not have survived long enough to be rescued by you. It would seem that I made the right choice about these mercenaries.” Sheena hooked her arm around Alverd’s again, pulling him close. “Especially this one! Oh, if only you could have seen him, Lord Kertouli! He was so brave! To see him in action was to see poetry in motion! My heart could burst!” Sheena let out another giggle of satisfaction as she nuzzled against Alverd.
Again my heart sank. Watching how close the two of them were, I knew I didn’t stand a chance. After all, I was just a lowly mage apprentice. I was short, weak, pathetic and unnoticeable. Depression settled into my mind again like a fog as the two Magister Lords split off from the group, offering to escort us back to the Ivory Palace.
However, I did need to know one thing. I approached Sheena with my question. I also tried my damnedest to keep the depression out of my tone when I addressed her. “Hey, Sheena? How was it that you were able to use magic without a staff? No mage could ever accomplish such a feat!”
Sheena was about to answer my question when all of a sudden her wolf lunged and landed on top of me. It knocked me to the ground and started growling, baring its huge teeth at me. Its menacing growl echoed in my ears, and I could see the predatory gleam in its eyes. I hadn’t the strength to push the oversized wolf off of me, and fear paralyzed me nonetheless. The teeth came closer and closer, and I could feel the wolf’s hot breath on my face. It was seconds away from tearing me to pieces the way it had done to the assassins.
But then I heard Sheena’s voice. “Kelda! Bad girl! Heel!” The wolf turned its head, and finally the beast moved off of me and trotted back to her master. As if things weren’t bad enough, she even sat in front of Alverd, panting like a dog. Alverd even pat the creature on the head, and the bloody beast let him, as though it were the most natural thing in the world. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Just another heap of indignation on top of everything else.
I picked myself off the ground. Sheena looked apologetic. “I’m so sorry, Sir Kuro. My wolf, Kelda…she gets so playful sometimes. But she’s usually a better judge of character…I’m sure there’s a good reason why she almost chewed your head off…”
My jaw fell open. “YOU THINK?!” I yelled hysterically, not caring that doing so might have been too much. I stared at where the wolf was now letting Alverd play with her face. I sighed again, then posed my question to Sheena once more, as calmly as I could manage given all the crap the universe was throwing at me at the moment. “Well…anyway, about your use of magic. Shouldn’t you be dead? Or at the very least, incapacitated?”
Sheena laughed. It was a nice laugh, not condescending or anything, and it was melodious to the ear. “Well, you have a good point. Yes, I should be dead. But in my veins flows the blood of the royals of Algrustos. That blood carries the power to use magic without a staff, at least, the lower and middle tiers of magic. Higher tier magic still requires the use of my staff, but I am far from helpless, as you can see. My ancestors attributed this power to a pact with an ancient spirit, but it could be a fairy tale for all I know.”
It seemed plausible enough. I had heard that people could gain power through deals with spirits or demons, and that said deals could pass down family lines. I didn’t have any evidence to point to the contrary, so I was willing to accept it as an explanation. I was going to inquire further into the topic, but then Alicia cut in.
“You two! This wouldn’t have happened if you two weren’t just walking down the street completely oblivious of your surroundings! If you would pay attention, we never would have walked into that mess!” She waved her hammer menacingly at Sheena. “I’ve almost had it with you and your cavalier attitude! You need to get it through your head that your life is in danger! Use your head!”
I really, really, REALLY had to resist the urge to take Alicia’s hammer and smack her with it. She was berating the one person who could decide whether aid would be given in her quest to retake her homeland. Like a shortsighted fool, she was jeopardizing any chance she would have in defeating her lunatic sister. I shot Alicia a look, but it did little to deter her. “And on the subject of that…” She continued, ignoring me entirely. I gave up and decided to think instead about things that might actually matter.
I barely noticed Alicia’s ramblings on the way back. I was lost in my own musings. I grappled with my unpleasant thoughts, thoughts I knew were wrong to think, but thought anyway. Even as I was brought to a guest room, even as I settled into bed, I lay awake with those thoughts. As Alverd drifted off to sleep in the bed next to mine, those thoughts kept me up the better part of the night. Finally I managed to shift my focus to something more productive.
The assassins we had encountered had pulled us into a trap. We had been attacked with no chance or time for guards to assist us, and we had been hit in a narrow street where we would have been unable to flee should the battle have gone sideways for us. As far as plans had gone, it had been pretty good, all things considered.
Sheena was right. There were indeed wolves in the flock. Her own people were ready and willing to raise arms against her, their Queen, to go to war with Ishmar. If we didn’t get to the bottom of this, she would likely have no choice but to declare war on the dragon tamers…or die to appease her subjects.
It was a no-win scenario either way. I pulled the covers close. I lay there for another hour, thinking, thinking, thinking. But the more I lay awake, the more my mind lingered towards the jealousy I harbored toward my friend. Finally, exhaustion overwhelmed me, and sleep came to claim me.
That night, I dreamt of caramel apples. The bitterest caramel apples in creation.