The second day of travel for Vista and Adrex continued much as the first, many hours in the saddle with little in the way of breaks. They had continued down river before turning north, taking them past a large forest that would have slowed their travel down by a couple of days. While Adrex was glad that the journey had been shorter, he was still in a fair amount of pain, he couldn’t help but groan, which elicited a chuckle from Vista. “Don’t worry Adrex; you will get accustomed to it soon.” She said, “Although I bet you will be happy to sleep in a proper bed.”
As she finished speaking the two of them crested a large hill, before them was an impressive grey castle. A large stone building took up the centre of the castle with a large tower rising from the roof, four towers on the corner of the centre building. Bridges connected the corner towers with the centre tower. Outside that was a wall, with several towers along it and further out was a courtyard with a few outbuildings. Beyond that was a second larger wall.
The castle was surrounded with perfectly flat land branching out; a couple of small villages were nestled nearby, but even from this distance Adrex could see magic users in the fields and courtyards casting spells. Adrex’s face lit up despite the pain as the two of them started down the hill, his head twisting this way and that watching the spell casters created lighting, fire, and other methods of attacking an opponent. “This is our advanced training area; some spells cannot be contained within the halls so an external location was needed.” Vista explained to Adrex as they started to cross the flat land.
Adrex kept looking left and right as they followed a path that weaved through the flat plain towards the castle; there were spells being created that had multiple, intricate glyphs and symbols. Some of them were large forming circles and squares of glowing red and orange light, some where the size of the tip of the finger, showing the control of the caster.
Vista led Adrex through the main entrance of the castle, through the outer section, again with magic users going through training, before heading into the inner castle. Two servants took their horses as they dismounted, Adrex managing to hold his feet as he dismounted, though he did still groan as he stood up. “Adrex you will be taken to your room and will have the remainder of today and tomorrow to rest and prepare.” Vista explained, “Then classes will begin.”
-
One of the servants escorted Adrex from the stables to the castle, as they walked past the buildings outside the castle the servant explained that some of the meisters who have families have them stay at the castle, so accommodation is provided, usually those with no families will stay in one of the towers. The Central tower was reserved for the teachers living and studying rooms and the tomes of knowledge that had started to be collected.
They entered the castle itself which surpassed its outside appearances. While the outside was a grey stone with little decoration, the inside was far grander, marble tiles from the Western kingdoms trades, paintings of rulers, nobles and battles hang on the walls in the entrance hall. A large centralised staircase was at the other end with various doors leading off of the hall. “That staircase leads to the classrooms and the central tower. The ground floor doors lead to the corner towers where the living areas are. You will be in the north east tower.” The servant said.
The servant took him down one of the side passages, Adrex assumed towards the north east tower, but he had no sense of direction, until they reached the stairs to start climbing the tower. Flat stone stairs that had been chiselled and polished to make it look nice, but not too smooth as to present a risk. The stairs circled up along the wall of an inner tower, and even from the ground floor Adrex could tell that there were several floors in the tower.
They climbed seven floors before they exited the stairwell onto a small floor with four rooms, each room had a bed, a small table and a rather plush looking chair. Adrex walked over to the bed, and the servant bowed, “A servant will come to take you to the mess hall for dinner if you are awake, or will leave some food here for you.” The servant said, and then closed the door.
Adrex fell onto the bed, it was soft and he felt as if he were floating. He could hear the footsteps of the servant getting further away before exhaustion finally overcame him and he fell asleep.
-
Bo let out a deep yawn as Inca sat down next to him. They had no more alerts last night, but the three they did have kept them on edge until the day shifts took over. Inca had again gone out of her way to add the alerts and extra protection, and just that little bit of stress from last night was showing. She looked slightly more tired than this time last night.
“Relax Inca; it was likely a wolf hunting pack. You know they get big up here, probably ran into the shield, knew it couldn’t claw through and tried to get past in other places.” Bo said
“You’re probably right; I just don’t want to take any risks.” She said
Bo didn’t want to worry her, but he too had a bad feeling about the three attempted breeches last night. It had kept them at a higher level of alert. “We’ll be fine; your shields will hold tonight, it will go back to normal. The Captain will be drilling his men in no time.”
Inca was just about to agree when the alert went off. Bo jumped to his feet, as did Inca a few moments later. “No, you rest. I’ll check it out.” Bo said, running off to the source of the alarm.
He moved quickly, gathering the magic he would need, just in case, though when he got there it was not needed. A glowing white scratch was visible in the shield and digging into the ground, though there was no sign of the creature that did this. Bo just released his hold on the magic when another alarm went off.
Bo looked, and this time he briefly saw it, a black hound like creature slowly slinking back into the trees. He ran to the spot where the creature had been only to see a scratch mark higher up the shield, all the way down to the dirt. It was about the size of an average human. That would mean this wolf was huge, Bo wondered if his magic would even stop something like that.
No other alarms seemed to be going off, so Bo returned to his seat with Inca. “Correction, the wolves get huge.” He said, trying to put her at ease.
It didn’t help his fears though.
-
The first few days of classes had been interesting, but had mainly been going over what had been taught to Adrex when he was growing up. It was nice that they were all brought up to the same level of knowledge though to keep things even for all the new students, all ten of them.
Today however was different, today they were being taught how to cast. Or at least that’s what their Mage had said should happen. “To begin first you must learn how to create spells, when you start getting more skilled you will not need to go through this every time, but for beginners like yourselves it is essential.” He said in a slight Western Kingdom accent.
He drew back the sleeves of his robe and held his hands in front of him. “First you will need to bring the magic forward as you did for the tests you took, but then push it beyond while controlling it. It is this delicate balance you must find to create the spell.” He explained, and then he rotated his hands clockwise, drawing two curves of light in the air in front of him. He then brought his hands together, his wrists coming together, fingers curled to face the classroom. He rotated his hands in the opposite direction then pulled them apart forming another line, then rotated once more to form a large circle in the air with a cross in it.
“This spell is the basis of most of what we teach; it is a simple push spell so even if you do get it you won’t hurt anyone if you cast it.” The Mage said as the spell appeared to fizzle out.
The class stood up and held their hands out mimicking the Mage, Adrex closed his eyes, and imagined the pool of magic inside him; he brought it to his fingertips as he had done during testing, and then tried to send it beyond. He furrowed his brow in concentration; almost pushing he could feel a stretch in his arms as he focused. He could feel the build-up of magic now pooling in both his hands, then it jumped out.
He looked up to see light explode from his hands, the shock sending him stumbling backwards a few steps. He looked around, no one was looking at him, and a few others did the same. The others just stood still, nothing happening.
“For those who just shot out light you have pushed your magic out with no control, for those who have not got to that stage you need to push harder.” The Mage said as he walked amongst the students.
Adrex held his arms out again and closed his eyes in concentration focusing on the pool of magic, noticing that there was less of it than last time, but sending it down his arms anyway. Again it pooled in his hands, and he pushed again, pushing harder and harder. He could feel it starting to slip out and tried to hold onto the control, snatching at the magic that escaped and watching as again light burst in front of him. He looked around, sparks burst from the hands of some students, some formed little balls of light that then burst apart or fizzled out.
“Remember that this is about control, from beginning to end. If you pool too much and try to then hold it back it will be like a dam trying to withstand a flood, too little and it will be like a stream drying out. You want control the entire way.”
Adrex closed his eyes again, focused on his pool of magic, now feeling very depleted. He focused on its path to his hands as he had done before, this time not letting it build up and rush as he had done previously. He kept thinking about control, even whispering it under his breath “Control, control, control.”
He tried to ease it out, opening his eyes to see, nothing. He pushed for more, perhaps he had held back too much. A couple of flashes to his left indicated another failure. He could do it. Perhaps he just needed more. He could feel power surging in him, it was too much, he tried to hold it back. Light exploded, with flecks of black fire.
The Mage looked over at him, one eyebrow raised quizzically. “Control, young man. Of everything.” He said.
He walked to the front of the class then gestured for everyone to take a seat. “Your pools of magic will most likely be depleted by now, most of you will only have enough currently to try two to four times. This will increase as you train; it is like any muscle in your body. You will try this control training each night until you can demonstrate it to me several times,” He said addressing the class, “once you can prove that we will begin training you in some new spells. Only then you will be assigned to a Meister.”
-
Adrex’s afternoon class was history. It was a belief that every Mage and Magae should know the history of each land, how each was formed, the conflicts that arose, and why the schools formed as a way to keep the peace. The Magae teaching also tried to add some life to what most would see as a dull class, including using her talent in fire to create little projections of the events. Unfortunately Adrex couldn’t get into today’s class on his own Castle’s history; he had heard it several times before.
“The Castle itself was built around a large quarry, formerly Mount Blackhill.” The Magae said, using the fire to create the appearance of the mountain. “The first people who came here set up their homesteads around the mountain and after years of work built up large fortunes. The black rocks, how the mountain and castle got its name, plus other treasures found in the quarry were sold to the other four kingdoms of the land, bringing in much needed food and wood supplies as the town grew larger than local resources could support. The river was even used to ferry slabs at one stage, though this practice fell into disuse as road-bound caravans became safer and more reliable due to banditry down river.”
The images flickering around the Magae showed the Mountain slowly getting smaller and the fort taking shape until the small but impressive Castle Blackhill took its place.
“As the years went on the population grew and a central fort was built over the quarry entrance. This was constantly upgraded until Castle Blackhill was completed, with the quarry extending down beneath it like a gaping cavernous dungeon.
“The wealthy folk of the city had built their homesteads around the eastern and northern hillside under the castle. As the population expanded the town had spilt over the river with the poorer townsfolk finding space to build their homes and businesses on the more level ground. As time passed, and as folk grew more impoverished the area downriver on the outskirts of the town grew to a slum city, with buildings haphazardly spanning sections of the river to cling wherever space could be found.”
Now a map appeared growing to show the progression of the years, first with the castle and surrounding buildings, then expanding out into the wider region showing the lower classes and the slums.
“As the town grew larger, the original families began vying for power to decide on who would be in charge of the burgeoning city spanning the hillside and surrounding plain. The disputes slowly grew to bloodshed, with several of the families hiring mercenary bands to fight for them. Eventually, one family managed to gain the upper hand, after taking control of the quarry itself and forming a chokehold on the towns outgoing trade. Thus ended the Kingmaker War and the First King of Castle Blackhill was named, King Anduras Colman.” The Magae said, by this time Adrex had mentally drifted off, more focused on where the extra surge of magic had come from during the morning training.
-
Vista sat at her desk; elbows perched on the hard wood with fingers pressed together as she leaned forward. Several of the Mages and Magae assigned to teaching had been summoned. “Meister Alard, please describe what you witnessed.”
“Thank you Grand Meister,” Alard started, “It was on the boys’ third try with the basic push spell that we teach, and both times previously he had forced too much magic out without the control. This time, not only did he shoot out orange magic, but there was black magic too.”
“Thank you Meister.” Vista said.
She leaned back in her chair, thinking about what to do. “We have ten new students this year, we will be informing the Meisters that will be mentoring them, but I will be taking the boy. I’m concerned about this black magic and I want to keep an eye on him.” Vista informed the others.
The other Meisters nodded in acknowledgment then stood and left the room.
-
Adrex looked around the room; several of the students had started to form the basic circle symbol, some with sparks flying off it, and some holding the magic still. They had been practicing this for two weeks now and Adrex was starting to understand how difficult magic was. Long gone were the fantasies of casting magic at evil armies at will, now all that remained was the need for control. He held out his hands and felt the surge of magic, before he had pushed from his power, pushing it through his body to his hands.
Now he pulled it through, keeping control over how much was required. He let a small amount pool in his hands before releasing it out. Not pushing it as he had done previously, but letting it flow out and keeping it from flying away.
Orange light emitted from his hands and he started to slowly make the symbol, first the two curves of the circle, then the vertical lines. He could feel the push and pull of the magic, trying to surge out, again the thoughts of control came to him. He held the power in check as he finished the symbol, holding it in place in front of him.
Meister Alard walked past and nodded in approval. “Alright Adrex, do it again. Faster this time. This must become second nature to you.” Alard said.
Adrex nodded and released the spell, then held out his hands and began again; he started drawing the spell in the air again until it was fully formed.
After a few more practices Alard brought the class together and stood in front of them. “Alright, now that you are starting to master the control to create the push spell we will begin to advance it.”
Alard held up his hands and formed the basic push spell, then twisted his hands and shrunk it down from a full size to the size of his palm. “Your next step will be to condense the spell; you must do this without releasing any of the magic. Only once you master this step will you have an idea of how to create this without going through the longer process.”
Alard dropped the spell then created a second push spell straight away, the symbol seeming to materialise out of thin air.
-
“Very good Gennel, great form on the push spell.” The Magae said, as Gennel formed the spell in front of him with a pale glowing blue light.
Gennel’s face lit up with a smile as the spell dropped away and he sat down. Of the seven students that had just started at the defensive school only Gennel, Livia, and one other student had managed to create the push spell.
The Magae walked in front of the classroom as she spoke. “The Push spell is one learnt by all magic schools; it forms the back bone of a lot of what we do. The same with the offensive magic school. However while they use the push spell to attack their opponents we use it as an opposite force to stop incoming attacks.” The Magae said. “This is why each student will need to master this technique before they will pass, don’t worry though we will get all of you to pass.” She added soothingly.
She stopped her pacing and stood in front of them all. “Well, begin again. Once you can produce the push spell we can work on the more complicated spells.”
The class all nodded and soon the familiar blue glow of magic being cast illuminated the classroom as students started the casting process again. Livia already felt herself becoming faster at casting it, feeling the flow of magic within her becoming more stable, at first it was a fight to gain the control, but now, after only a few weeks, she could feel the magic flowing smoothly. That level of control that had been requested was now starting to form.
Livia could also, slowly feel herself becoming stronger, at the start she could only try this spell two times before tiring out, now she was able to cast it multiple times in succession. One of the Meisters teaching theory had said that it was like any muscle in the body, the more you use it the stronger it gets.
Livia looked over at Gennel who seemed like a natural at this, his disappointment at not being a battle mage had evaporated and he was now casting the push spell without the waving of his hands. The brief thought about battle mages brought her mind to Adrex, she wondered what he was doing, how he was coping, he didn’t have any of the ward mates with him so was cut off from his old friends, and that strange black fire at the testing, that had shaken him. She hoped he was doing well.
