The source of magic, p.9
The Source of Magic, page 9
He hugged her back and noticed the warmth of her seeping through his shirt. After a short moment she pulled back and smiled at him, looking up with her big eyes slightly misty. She ran her hand down across his abdomen as if to soothe his hard muscles.
“I’ve thought about what you said about joining you, and yes, I want to. Leaving my life with Grandma seems like such a big thing. I’ve wanted to get out and travel, but it was harder than I thought. It was a real decision I had to make. But when you were taken into the Hall of Magistrates and I had to wait, watching from the rooftops, I knew right away what my answer was.
“Isn’t it funny, you’re a stranger from a different world and I’ve only known you for a few days and I already feel safer with you than anyone I’ve known on this world. Is this what love feels like?” Melanie said.
“I don’t know, I’ve never been in love. But for what it’s worth, earlier today I was weighing up the pros and cons of whether I should try and go home or stay here, and I’ve just made my mind up,” answered John.
He pulled Melanie in close and cupped her face with one hand and ran his fingers back through her dark hair cradling her head, firmly pulled her forward and kissed her full lips which parted hungrily matching and then growing beyond his intensity. Melanie stepped forward, her body melting into his, her legs parting slightly as she positioned herself to wantonly grind up against his leg.
“Let's head back to your place and collect your things. I have a lot to tell you about and we have work to do. The first thing on our list is to find an apartment near the Academy of Light.”
Chapter 6
Melanie only had a few items to collect and was busy grabbing them in her room. The clothes they had purchased the day before had arrived neatly wrapped with paper and brown string.
John had expected some sort of resistance from Olga centred around stealing her apprentice away or warnings about looking after her. He was surprised when neither came.
“You have landed on your feet surprisingly well for someone who is new to the world, not just the city," Olga commented upon hearing the day’s events recounted.
“It’s more a case of light footedness. If I keep springing from one thing to the other, I don’t have time to sink in," John replied.
“I appreciate what you went through to keep Melanie out of harm’s way and distracting from the gentlemen making the collection. It can be useful to have friends who owe you favours when you get into a tight spot," Olga said.
John considered the large totem that Olga was in the process of carving from one of the large stones, having made a decision about one’s superiority over the other in spite of their near-identical appearance.
“If you or your friends need any more favours, I am at your disposal. I don’t know exactly what I’m getting myself into or how deep I’ll end up, but I appreciate you having my back in return.”John said.
“You’re not a subtle person, are you? Not entirely crude, just straightforward,” observed Olga out loud.
“Well then, I’ll be sending this totem to you along with some others. If you could manage to fill them with your magic, I would be indebted to you.”
Olga hoped off her workbench chair and moved a few shiny baubles on a shelf out of the way so she could slide a false panel in the wall aside. From the small hidden alcove in the wall she retrieved two purple glowing totems. The were small oblongs with a series of identical holes bored into them. Replacing the panel and items on the shelf she handed John one of the totems.
The stone was cool and a little heavier than expected in his hand and he ran his thumb over the holes and rounded edges.
“These two totems are carved for a spell which lets them send a message to the other, no matter how far apart they are,” Olga explained, holding her totem out in front of her with two fingers. "To release the spell, hold the totem upright and trace a circle with it three times. It will then glow brightly for thirty seconds. Anything you say while the totem is glowing will be captured within its twin to be heard by the other person. Once a totem has sent the message, and its twin has communicated it, the magical energy will be drained. So use it sparingly as a last resort.”
Melanie came down the stairs with a large cloth bag swung over her shoulder. She was a little more reserved than usual and went to hug her adoptive grandmother.
“I have something for you,” Olga said, returning to her workbench.
She pull back a cloth and retrieved from among her tools a dark brown wooden box the size of a thick book that was hinged to open in half.
“This is your own set of tools,” she said handing the box to Melanie. “You have been an attentive and apt student, now you have to have the confidence to learn by creating, failing, and trying again.”
“Thank you so much, Grandma,” Melanie wiped big tears from her eyes, her large cat ears drooping slightly.
The moment was interrupted by the entrance of a city guard to the store. He was young, freckled and nervous. His metal breastplate shone as if it were polished by someone who hoped keenness was a substitute for experience.
The guard saw John and stood to attention and then held an envelope out, his arm at right angles to his body. John took the letter quickly.
“Thank you, Lieutenant Chifly works quickly. You are dismissed.” John felt it was a kindness to excuse the young guard quickly and save him from the giggles of Melanie and the derisive looks of her grandmother.
Once the guard had departed John tucked the envelope under the tight strings on his clothing packages for safe keeping.
“Time to find somewhere to sleep. Olga, we’ll send word of our accomodation – please send up all the totems you have," John invited.
“You’ll be that busy in the bedroom, will you? Just make sure you don’t run out of … magic,” Olga said, with a mischievous grin playing across her face.
Melanie explained that there would be nowhere to stay in the third city district. Any the houses of the aristocrats were not accepting to guests and the various guild houses and schools, or at least those whose admission would include the highborn, would have their accomodation nearby such as was the case with the Academy of Light. There were comfortable inns in the second district and they looped around the city so that they could find something suitable near the Academy.
John was surprised at how long the walk took them. The academy was on the opposite side of the city, and even with cutting across the third district where they could, they were walking for almost an hour a half. John filled the time listening to Melanie’s description of the Academy of Light.
The Academy claimed to be the premier school of magic on the content. There was some competition for this title, though. Each of the five kingdoms, the Krongor Empire, and the handful of city states that existed on the content had some sort of magical community or establishment, sometimes several. Each of them boasted to be the most powerful or educated or attractive to join. John thought of them as universities on Earth, all vying for top spot in some ranked list or another that only they cared about. The difference being that the Dean of Mathematics couldn’t turn people into toads, no matter how much they wanted to.
The Academy consisted of five smaller schools each of whose focus was slightly different to the others. The Grey School was supposed to be the best. They dealt with magic that was on the edge of forbidden knowledge. Whereas all the other schools stayed firmly within the use of totems the Grey School would study, though not use, the ways of harnessing raw magical energy and the corruption that came with it.
Melanie worked in the Grey School dusting, sweeping and mopping. That’s how she had met Chloe and Selphie, the two acolyte sisters. She had been in the Gallery of Masters dusting the paintings of the original great mages. These were the mages who had worked for the kingdoms, and sometimes against them, before Melanie’s people had brought totems to the continent. There was a sense of awe about these people and what they had achieved. Now that humans believed anyone could be taught to carve and use totems, they restricted its teaching to the highborn. In the past, people had to be born with innate ability, which was far less discerning: some of the greatest mages were born to swineherds and milkmaids. From such humble beginnings, they had become literate and trained in the ways of magic.
The paintings were as much a warning to current magicians as they were a record of the past. Each of the subjects were shown with the signs of corruption upon them. Blackened desiccated skin covered their hands and was working its way up their arms, their eyes were yellow and bloodshot with pinhead pupils. The artists had attempted to capture the madness that was affecting their minds as well, often depicting beautiful and expensive robes and gowns that were in tatters and stained in places.
There were no records, either offical or through oral tradition, that told of a Nekovolk becoming corrupted. While the totems as an instrument of magic was a protection against such an undignified ending, many scholars posited that whatever real spark that allowed the great mages to access raw magical energy was simply missing in the Nekovolk.
It was under the mad eyes of the great mages that Melanie had been recruited assist with the spell at the minor convergence.
John was concerned about the idea of corruption by magic. And he made a note to keep an eye on his fingertips in case there was any sign of them turning black. At least Olga had described his abilities as generating magic, not accessing it, and he hoped that this was a significant enough difference to protect him.
They were approaching an inn that was a likely candidate for their lodgings when something occurred to John.
“If using magic directly causes corruption, does that mean you and the two other women are affected by it?” There was a note of concern in John’s voice.
“Selphie said that what we were doing was different. It was supposed to be an older magic of some sort from before the great mages. She drew runes and symbols on the convergence and that was supposed to channel the magic from the ley lines that came together at that point.
“The magical energy wasn’t flowing through us, and we weren’t summoning it forth randomly in the middle of nowhere. Selphie said it would be like when you cut a notch in a tree and the sap pours out. The sap was already flowing there under the bark, the runes were like the cut that kind of just … let it out.
“When you helped me, we had been knocked over when the spell was completed and the magical energy was released up into the sky,” Melanie explained.
The inn was called Noble’s Respite, and it was both more lavish as well as more expansive than the Patient Crow. John felt that the Noble’s Respite was not too far removed from Earth, or at least those parts of Earth that were called Ye Olde Inne.
There was a front desk which took their names and gave them a large iron key to their room. At first there was a look of reservation upon the clerk's face regarding Melanie; however, their ready coinage and willingness to pay in advance, much like with the clothes shop merchant, smoothed over any irregularities in the couple’s appearance. John withdrew the letter from Lieutenant Chifly and asked for their belongings to be taken to their room.
Upon enquiring as to the availability of a messenger service, Melanie gave instructions to a young teenage boy about how to find Olga’s shop and wrote down a note to giver her along with a silver coin for his troubles.
The Noble’s Respite had a dining room, rather than a combined bar and eatery, and as the evening was approaching John secured a table for the two of them.
Melanie fidgeted a little, unaccustomed to the formality of dining at a table with wait service. There was actually a selection of dishes on the menu and after ordering they began to make plans. The inn was relatively empty, with no travellers coming from outside the Egg the couple had the dining room to themselves.
“Are we able to get into the Academy the same way you would when you worked there?” asked John after some wine had been served.
Melanie sniffed at her glass of wine experimentally as she spoke. “We might be able to sneak in. A guard or a porter will be at the servants gate that I would use. They might not realise I don’t work there any longer.”
She took a sip and then, surprised at the sweet fruity flavour of the white wine that John had ordered started to gulp the rest of her glass.
“You might want to take the next glass a little slower," John recommended as he signalled to the waiter to fill up her glass again.
“Then we get started tonight. I’m not sure yet how we are supposed to find something strange in a place filled with magic but we can start by poking around and seeing what turns up.”
The meal went well. It was a new experience with both of them unused to the dishes. It turned out the Melanie was most interested in the desserts and anything sweet on the drinks menu. As they waited for something akin to a chocolate soufflé, John opened the letter and began to read out loud.
“Dear John,
“Within this letter I lay before you those facts about the current hostilities between the Kingdom of Cambria and the savages of the north as I have access to and I deem to be of greatest importance in informing you current endeavours.
“Those people who are collectively called ‘the savages’ are in fact a collection of semi-independent clans of peoples who owe allegiance to no king, emperor or council. They are given to random acts of hostility and violence which are more often than not directed towards one of their neighbouring clans as to the kingdoms of the civilised world.
“The current war began almost five years ago, though the specific cause of their aggression is open for conjecture. Efforts had been made to solidify amicable relations with one of the larger clans whose lands were situated closest to the kingdom’s borders. The goal of such actions was to ensure the safety of those villages and peoples of the kingdom situated at the peripheries of our lands and we hoped that the savages would act as a buffer to attacks by their kinsmen in other clans.
“Some believe that it was our efforts of diplomacy, which were seen as weakness, that facilitated the state of war which now exists between us. Others say that it was the prospect of gaining the wealth of our kingdom that proved too attractive and was the incentive for war. Whatever the cause, the first attack occurred when a diplomatic mission of wizards from the Academy of Light, along with the king’s ambassador, Lord Kline, met with the savages’ most powerful magic practitioner.
“All that we know is that the attack upon the diplomatic party was sudden, unprovoked and brutal. A number of wizards and Lord Kline were killed in that first attack. Only a small number of the original party survived to make a hasty retreat to our lands while under constant attack. Among the survivors number was Lord Detier, with whom you are acquainted.
"Believing themselves to have the advantage and using such knowledge as a rallying cry, the savages were successful in uniting all the clans in attacking the kingdom further.
“With greater numbers and a frenzied blood lust, the savages taking advantage of surprise quickly took ground in the new war.
“The wizards were able to slow the savages’ advance; however, they do not have monopoly on magic. Though the savages do not use totems as the civilised peoples do, they are able to access a kind of magic which has proven to be most effective in their assaults.
“On the subject of their magic I have little to offer other than I have heard in passing that the wizards refer to it as ‘portal magic’, and is different to the power wielded by our own Great Mages of the past.
“After a number of decisive losses it and upon recommendation of the Chancellor of the Academy of Light that the King made the decision to withdraw what scanty forces remained to the Capital and erect the Egg for protection.
“This decision has kept us safe for a year now and the decision to wait out the savages until they lose the will to fight and return to their lands remands steadfast in light of the successes of the Egg.
“If further information regarding specific battles or other details become relevant in the course of your endeavour, they can be made available to you.
“Yours sincerely,
“Lieutenant Blackwell.”
John turned the page over to see if there was anything further on the back and, finding it blank, reread the letter to himself.
“So we’re supposed to believe that because someone took a piss in their holy water the savages, who were all friendly up to that point, managed to put their infighting aside to launch and win a war against the kingdom. Doesn’t that seem like a bit of an overreaction to you?” John asked.
Melanie paused with a spoonful of fudge halfway to her mouth. “Grandma wouldn’t like me saying it, but everyone says they are called savages for a reason.”
“In this instance I think I’m inclined to agree with Grandma. If our worlds are anything alike, people who are different are called names that make them seem less sophisticated. Yeah, they might have less technology, but it always leads to people underestimating them – and then General Custer is left scratching his head over why he’s standing at the Pearly Gates.”
Melanie understood about half of what John was saying, so she shrugged her shoulders and returned to her fudge while John stared out a window in thought.
At the end of the meal, once they had their fill of food and wine, and Melanie had worked her way through three different desserts, the messenger boy approached their table.
He was red in the face and looked a little out of breath.
“Sir, there is a delivery for you in your room,” said the delivery boy who then retreated to a side door.
“Should we see what it is?” asked John, standing.
Melanie laid her hand onto the forearm he offered and the walked of arm in arm to their room, Melanie’s tail twitting happily the whole way.
The room was lavish with a separate area for two armchairs by a window, and a private water closet for, to John’s mild curiosity, a chamber pot. Red-and-gold-striped wallpaper complemented the Saturn counterpane on the bed. An additional perk of the Egg, other than protection for giant magical monsters, was that the best room in the inn was available at discounted rates.
