Chapter 3
A Magi’s Burden
“What do you mean, you don’t believe in the Timeran Prophecies?” Ideron demanded of his apprentice.
“Well, it all just sounds like a bit of a scam when you think about it, doesn’t it?” Eryn replied. His frank disregard for the entire purpose of their religion leaving Ideron speechless.
The two rode horseback along the great winding path up to the Heraldforn keep. The keep was a hovel of a castle when compared to the grand cities of Northern Urungeald, but considering the previous towns they passed on their journey here had all been little more than clusters of mud huts, Ideron was grateful to see a structure of actual stone.
Eryn seemed to sense his master's reluctance to continue the conversation, but that had never stopped him pressing a topic before. He fired on, “I mean, all the prophecies are so vague that they can be widely interpreted. And a lot of them conflict with each other also. So—”
“—Enough, Eryn! I am in no mood to discuss this.”
“But master, who really benefits from these prophecies?—The vindicators and the Prime! They are the ones who get unfettered access to knowledge across the kingdoms. They are the ones who get funding from the monarchies to train more magi”
“Eryn, I said enough! What you are saying is blasphemy” Ideron glared at his apprentice, the boy may have been talented in his command of the elemental surges but this constant belligerence to all the pillars of their Order would only be tolerated so far, but this. This was not belligerence, it was outright heresy. Ideron continued, “If you were a full magi, the vindicators would be swift in their judgment of you, Eryn.”
“Well that’s another thing,” Eryn badgered on, “they’re called vindicators, which would lead you to think their job was to clear a person of accusation. But they’re little more than executioners if you ask me.” Ideron pulled up the reins of his horse in anger, and opened his mouth to berate his apprentice. A cloud of sand dust kicked up from his horse’s tapping hooves caught his throat and his words were lost as he coughed violently in response.
“Bah! This accursed desert. I never thought that I would so eagerly wish to get inside the walls of Heraldforn,” he finally managed to splutter once his coughing fit subsided. Eryn had pulled up also, and was patting his master’s back. Ugh, he’s a good lad. He just needs to learn there are some things you do not say out loud.
“It’s a fucking ugly castle isn’t it?” Eryn oafishly observed. Like that… although the boy isn’t wrong. The castle was almost as ugly as Eryn was. Both were bulky, squat things and wholly uninspiring. The structure had always stood as the key military outpost for the southern front during the Wars of Descension.
Heraldforn’s current Lord had attempted to decorate it with the colourful banners of the Urungeald Alliance kingdoms but it made for a garish appearance making it look like a circus troupe had taken over the fortress. He’d even hired artisans to repurpose the former marshalling yards into decorative courtyards and walled gardens. In Ideron’s opinion, these ornate areas only made the uninspiring architecture of the castle more apparent.
“We will resume this conversation later. And while we are in the keep, you will keep all of your insightful opinions to yourself, Eryn.” Ideron instructed as they passed through the first of the ancient battlement gates.
The orange red stone slabs of the castle walls were still scarred by the fighting over a decade before. Ideron had never fought this far south in his service as a battlemagi.
“We are magi of Tal Eyne and you will conduct yourself as such,” Ideron instructed.
“Yes, master.”
“That means no gambling.”
“Yes, master.”
“And no drinking.” Eryn shook his head at this in disrespectful agitation, “But it’s a wedding, why the fuck can’t I have a drink? There’s nothing in our pillars to say magi can’t drink at a fucking wedding.”
“I’m saying you can’t,” Ideron replied sharply, “we have a job to do here. The savage’s princess Yamka is going to bolt from this keep on the first opportunity she gets.”
“Does it not all seem a bit weird though, master. You know, making a girl marry someone she clearly doesn’t want to.”
“It’s quite common to marry a child off to strengthen alliances. The Yashai people may differ from us in many ways, however even they can see the benefit of a union between their people and Heraldforn.”
“If it’s so common, what makes you think she’ll run?”
“Because the Prime said that she will try,” Ideron replied, “and as you know, the Prime understands the prophecies of Timeran more intricately than any other. So, as magi of the Tal, it’s our job to make sure that she does not.” He held up his hand to indicate that the conversation was over as a guardsman approached them.
Beneath their cloaks, the pair wore their magi robes; Ideron in the blue robes of his order and Eryn in the grey robes of an apprentice. There could be no mistaking them as anything other than Tal magi.
“Envoys of the Tal Eyne,” Ideron said in greeting to the guardsman, “I am Ideron Amurri of the Order Litcus. And this is my apprentice; Eryn Ekstrom. We are here to graciously accept Lord Heraldforn’s invite to his son’s wedding”
“Do you have a writ of entrance to the keep?” the guardsman asked, he clearly did not consider either of the two a threat as he left his spear leaning against the portcullis wall. I could melt that helmet into your face, would that prove that I am who I say I am? Ideron thought as he begrudgingly reached into his horse's saddle bags and produced the written invitation with Lord Heraldforn’s signed seal. The invitation was not addressed directly to him but more of a general invite to a representative of the Tal. He knew it was the desert heat making him irritable, he wished only now for a cold room and shade.
“Thank you, Master Ideron,” the guardsman said after inspecting the document, “We have half of Urungeald all coming south for the wedding,” passing back the writ and holding up his hands apologetically, “Even a good lot of Librestran nobles have accepted the invitation and have been streaming in the past few days.”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“Not everyday a Urunian Lord marries a Yashai savage,” Eryn commented. Ideron shot him a sharp glance but the guard didn’t seem offended. “Aye, not many of her people seem to have come though. Not sure if that’s a good thing or bad.”
“She brought no retinue with her?” Ideron asked.
“About fifty of them marched up on the gate last month. All wearing those horned skull masks they do be wearing. We were worried they were going to storm the gate. And then this tiny thing emerges from the group and walks right up to my friend Alef. Can’t see her face or nothing, ‘cause of the skull mask, you see. And she says she’s the Yashai princess. And then half of the rest of ‘em just leave, you believe that? A full contingent of Yashai, more in one group that I’d ever seen on the battlefield, march all the way through the desert and then just turn around and leave their princess here alone without even coming into the keep”
“They are a strange people I’ve heard,” Ideron commented. Despite his interest in the topic of the Yashai princess, he had a more pressing concern of finding shade. “We have rooms, I assume?” he continued, sweating in his light dust covered cloak, the thing doing nothing to repel the heat of the sun.
“Of course, my—uhm” the guard replied, stumbling on his words. Folk out in far off reaches like this rarely ever knew how to address one of the magi, they were not by definition lords of anything, nor did they prefer the “sen” honorifics that one would use to address a knight. “Lord is fine,” Ideron clarified.
“Er—yes, my lords. Please” he waved them in, “The stewards, beyond the gate will show you to your rooms”
Within the hour, Ideron and Eryn were shown to their modest accommodations accompanied by an apologetic steward claiming that all the more luxurious apartments in the fortress were already occupied by other guests. It was a reasonable suite for a pair of Tal magi. A shared double room for sleeping and a larger lounging area. Thin slits of windows allowed for minimal views of the desert but kept most of the heat of the day at bay.
It did not take either of them long to settle into their rooms and Eryn was already eagerly engrossed in his afternoon study. Eryn’s ardour for his study of their craft was one of the reasons that Ideron tolerated his foul mouth and near incessant belligerence. Eryn inspected the delicate device in his meaty hands. It was a gaudy thing; three brass bands of metal curved and interlocked to make a sphere, with other metal inlays of silver and bronze that clearly had no benefit to the overall mechanisms. A blue gemstone that gave off a very faint illumination pulsated in the center of the device, suspended by some unseen forces between the metal bands. The other magi at the citadel had referred to the device as a ‘heatsink’ and true to its name, the device somehow pulled in the heat from the room making it a far more comfortable temperature than the tortuous desert outside, to which Ideron was most appreciative of.
“I can’t find these runes in here,” Eryn said with frustration flicking through a tome and tracing the finger of his other hand along runic markings on the bands, “I can read the marks for ‘fire’ and ‘air’ but there are so many here that are not in this book.”
“That is because the book you have is only an introduction to the science of mechanical runes” Irderon replied as he draped the cold cloth he had wrapped the device in over his eyes and reclined on the bed, basking in the comforts he had been lacking the past few weeks on the road. “It only contains the basic elemental runes and a few of the more complex procedural runes,” Ideron clarified.
“Seems like the writers were just lazy and didn’t want to give a more in-depth explanation of how this device worked.”
“Your inexperienced mind would crumble beneath the more advanced texts that describe how that device works. You would grow bored and uninterested as you struggled to grasp the meaning behind the concepts of energy diffusion and matter conversion. So study the basics as I have given you and do not complain.” Eryn seemed to accept that answer—albeit grudgingly—to which Ideron was grateful. In truth, Ideron had little knowledge himself of how the device worked or the meanings behind those runes. The Order Inovatus were the authority in the creation of such devices, the Order Litcus—to which he belonged—was more specialised in political matters.
“And do not become attached to the thing, it is a gift to the Lord Heraldforn,” Ideron said, wishing that he could have been granted a second one for the journey home.
“A gift?” Eryn asked.
“Yes, a gift. You heard me the first time, you’re not a parrot, Eryn, so don’t behave like one.”
“It’s just—I thought only the magi were permitted to own magic relics”
“This is true,” Ideron replied, “the gift is not the device itself, the gift is the licence from the Tal to possess it for as long as we allow.”
“But it still belongs to the Tal?”
“Yes”
“Even though he will have it?”
“Yes”
“And can use it any time he wishes?” Eryn countered, in his usual quick-fire manner. Ideron sighed, “Yes,” he snapped, “but it is still owned by Tal Eyne. We have rights and dominion over all magic relics in Urungeald.”
“And the vindicators execute anyone else who tries to own one?” Ideron rose slowly from his position, gently folding the now warm cloth.
“Listen to me, Eryn,” he said with tired exasperation, The vindicators are not executioners,”
“Master, they—” Ideron held his hand with a stern face to indicate he wished for silence and Eryn sullenly obeyed.
“I know of your family’s history with the vindicators—Of course, I know this—I was told everything before taking you on as my apprentice. Eryn, it is vital that you put aside your preconceived notions of the vindicators and the Tals. The things you have been saying are extremely dangerous.” Ideron did his best to appear every inch a concerned guardian. “I understand that this will be difficult for you to do. But my responsibility is not only to train and educate you, but also to be your guide. Questioning the methods of the Tal is a good thing; examination, questioning, re-assessment, these are stages through which we all improve the Tals and our knowledge of the aether, but there are some things that are far too dangerous to question. You will put a target on your head if you continue too far down this path.”
Eryn opened his mouth to interject but Ideron again raised his hand for silence.
“The vindicators’ responsibility is to uphold the integrity of the Tals,” Ideron continued. “The Order Discar, must uphold our laws and yes it’s true that many vindicators flock to this order. But all vindicators—in fact all Magi—must stand by our principles; our belief in the Timeran Prophecy, our conviction in the Prime’s decisions and that everything we do is for all of humanity’s betterment across Vega, for all people from Librestran nobles to Bhalasi slaves.
We may not always agree with a vindicator’s judgement, but they are the right hands of the Prime, and we must trust that they are always working toward a larger plan that we cannot see. Even you, Eryn—I do not doubt—there is reason for what you have been through and that has brought you to the Tals for a purpose. It is the same purpose that has brought the both of us here to this damnable desert. Sometimes the terrible things that happen in our lives are exactly what put us on the path to the best things that will ever happen to us.”
“So it’s fate?” Eryn retorted, “you’re trying to convince me that it’s fate that brought us here? We’re here Master because a savage princess is going to try to flee from being wed to her enemy. We’re here because the Tal is part of Urungeald and the Prime can see the political advantage of the wedding.”
“It is fate, Eryn. I know that you cannot see that now but if you try to think about this logically. Let us address what we know; we know that the princess will run, we know this because the Prime has told us that she will. The Prime has foreseen her fate and can see a greater plan than us, we are his tools to execute this plan. You have spent these past years focusing only on the knowledge of harnessing the aether, but now you must learn the purpose of why you have been given this gift.”
If Eryn had any rebuffal it was interrupted by a horn sounding outside, a long loud tone that sounded like a trumpet, drawing both of their attention. Ugh, some arrogant Librestran noble, no doubt, Ideron thought with disgust. They will likely be given a room with a balcony and servants to boot.
“Think on what I have said, Eryn,” Ideron concluded before moving on to the task at hand, “The wedding is not for a few days but there is much to do between now and then. We must acquaint ourselves with the other arriving nobles, we have a task here but we are still envoys of the Tal and should conduct ourselves as such.”