Magesty

Ch.2: Discovery

By Cameron Carpenter

     As the rest of the occupants of what I’d dubbed “Fort Survivor” stirred and began to ready themselves for the days work and chores, I still sat in the chair I’d sat in for over five hours. When Steven reemerged with Amanda in tow, I finally looked up from my tea, which had long since gone cold and slightly stale. I’d decided that I’d set out before noon to make for my own family. I got up and wandered back into the living room that had been my bedroom the previous night. I walked around the couch a few times looking for my pouch. After my third or fourth circuit around the couch I decided to see if anyone moved it. I ended up finding it next to the front door, packed full of supplies. I looked and asked around, but no one would own up to giving me such a generous gift. So I decided to make it up to everyone.

     I walked down into the middle of the fields and raised my hands. I focused hard, pouring all my concentration into gathering and shaping the ambient mana in the area, saving what was inside me for emergencies. Soon, my hands began to glow; my right, an earthy green, the left, an aqueous blue. I bent my knees and slammed my right hand into the dirt, seeing/sensing the mana shoot through the soil in a spreading wave. With my left, I held it out to the air, a fine mist started to collect around my hand and coalesced into a swirling ball, with a flick of the wrist the ball of mist flashed out over the fields. As I turned to walk back into the house to grab my staff and pouch, I noticed Steven watching my little display with a combination of amusement, awe and gratitude on his face.

“It was my way of thanking y’all for the hospitality, and for whoever packed my pouch for me. The soil will begin to draw nutrients from deep in the earth, and the mist will pull moisture into the plants.” I said, attempting to sound serene and aloof like the arch-mages at the academy.

Steven simply looked at the field and then to me.

“I guess that means we can skip watering the plants for a while” He finally replied.

“Only for a while, the enchantments I put on the field won’t last too long, I’d say a week maybe more, but don’t neglect them at all, you can skip watering, but don’t skip tending and weeding, because the weed’s’ll be shooting up double quick too. An unfortunate side effect that can’t be avoided.” I mused soberly.

     I noticed a Phendralis creeper vine crawling up over the wall. With a split second of focus and a flick of the wrist, a fireball shot out from my fingertips. It struck the vine, burning off a swath and causing the remainder to lurch back over the wall. The sentient plant wasn’t a threat to much of anything, but I know that they’re a nuisance. Mostly because they can grow to cover acres of land if local wild life didn’t love to eat them and the fact that they’re smart enough to avoid areas where it gets attacked. Steven had disappeared in that wonderful fashion he had. I’d swear up and down that that boy was a ninja or some kind of shadow-folk. Like that girl from last night. I went back to the house to get my pouch and staff so I could set out. I saw Steven and Amanda gearing up, strapping on armor and swords. I figured that they’d probably be going out to patrol the surrounding ruinous area or something like that.

“You two going out for a little search and destroy of monsters?” I inquired.

“That and we wanna make sure that our little mage doesn’t get skewered by a lone gobbo” Amanda replied and Steven tried to stifle a laugh.

“But really, you’re probably gonna go part of the same way we are, we’ll keep you safe for a bit” Steven chimed in, synching up his leather cuirass and checking his gauntlets.

“Thanks guys, it’ll also be nice to have conversation while I walk.” I said beaming with nothing but joy and gratitude in my eyes.

     We took off from the fort a little after nine thirty by their clock, walking through the gate, I was hit with a fresh wave of pressure and nausea, but I did my best to suppress it as we walked. We walked down the ruined road where once cars traveled, but now it was so broken and full of potholes it was even dangerous as a foot path to all but the most surefooted. There was grass growing out of the potholes that grew up to, and over our heads. Steven pulled out his katana and occasionally sliced some of the taller patches down to about waist height. Eventually the road deteriorated into a dirt path that branched every two hundred feet or so. And there seemed to be a clearing every quarter mile or so, almost like markers.

     As we neared where Steven and Amanda and I would part ways, we slowed our pace. We stopped at one of the clearings with a stream running through it. I sat down on the ground, taking in the surroundings, and the mana with it. I reached into my pouch, which really more than anything was just a messenger bag with runes inscribed into it. Without looking I slowly dig my way through the food and my few personal belongings to clench a silk bag. I pulled it out and beckoned Steven and Amanda over to where I was sitting.

“I have something for both of you,” I said with a mischievous look on my face, “something arcane and slightly illegal.”

“Ooo, what is it?” Amanda asked with childlike curiosity in her eyes.

“What the hell man? The bag is glowing! That stuff better not be radioactive!” Steven shouted seeing that the bag was indeed glowing a blue that was shrouded mostly by the bag.

“Naw man, it’s not nuclear, just magic,” I said as I reached into the bag and pulled out three glowing ice blue shards, “These are heartstones, they’ll let us find each other where ever we are if we need to, Just hold it and think about the person you need to find, and as long as they have a heartstone with them, you’ll feel drawn in their direction, and the stone will glow brighter as you get closer.”

“Sounds useful, wait why are they illegal?” Steven said with no small amount of skepticism about accepting the bright shard.

“First of all, it’s blood magic, which is all but forbidden to civilians, second of all, they used to be military equipment, and then organized crime rings started to use them to keep a handle on members. The ones that the military and crime rings used were more powerful versions called mindstones, which allowed people to communicate in a way similar to telepathy.”

“So why are these illegal too?”

“Because blood magic in general is considered grounds for execution, and any artifacts created through blood magic are illicit. I’m sure that if criminals hadn’t been using them like walkie-talkies to pull their shit, I wouldn’t’ve had to sneak around when I was making them.”

“WAIT A MINUTE! You MADE these?”

“Yeah, I had to give up some of my blood to make them, I want to be able to know that you guy’s’re still alive, so here” I thrusted the two stones, which I’d fashioned into necklaces towards them with an imploring look.

“So wait, those have blood on them?” Amanda asked looking like I’d lost her a while back.

“Yeah, not on them, but in them, it’s the blood that connect them so we’d be able to sense each other.” I explained

“So, then why aren’t they red or something?”

“That, I truly don’t know…” I had to admit shamefully, “They’re made by enchanting the crystal using blood as a locus for the mana. When the blood is poured on the crystal, it gets absorbed into it like water on a sponge. Then the crystal turns into a buncha smaller ones and then viola, heartstones.”

     After I finally convinced them that the stones were harmless, if not beneficial to them, they took the two necklaces and put them on. Steven tucked his into his armor while Amanda let hers swing free. I’d set them both on mithril chains to hopefully prevent them from getting lost. I was pleased that I was able to give them the heartstones, so at least the pint of blood wasn’t wasted.

     As I got up and was about to bid my friends farewell the sounds of battle rushed to our ears. It was mostly the screams of goblins dying, and the occasional yelp of pain from a human. My mind was immediately kicked into overdrive, and I tore off running after the sounds, scooping up my pouch as I ran. I pulled my staff off it the hook like holster and started to pool mana into the staff. As I neared the battlefield I saw that the goblins had already pulled their trademark bullshit, setting fires. In the shadows cast by the fires I saw a lithe figure cutting down goblins left and right. I stopped at the edge of the battlefield and harnessed all the mana in my staff. I had to duck as Steven and Amanda jumped clean over me, charging into the melee. I had to use complex aquamancy, that I wasn’t totally confident in, to pull off the spell I wanted, something to put out the fires, and hopefully drown the goblins, without in advertently killing my friends or the other person. I saw that my spell was working, my staff was glowing aquamarine with coalescing tendrils of mana waving about it. Stevens jump, which I swear was powered by aeromancy propelled him right behind a goblin with a torch and a two by four with a bunch of rusty nails driven into it. The next second almost scared me. As Steven landed he brought down his sword on the middle of the back of the goblins oval skull, neatly cleaving it in two and stopping at the base of the spinal column.

     As I slammed my staff into the ground, hoping I hadn’t messed up in the way I shaped the mana, I saw Amanda run through one of the green skinned little pygmy freaks with her katana and in one fluid motion kick it off her blade into one of it’s former friends. My boots felt wet, there was muddy water rising up out of the soil. I started to panic, I’d already cast the spell, there was no way to reverse it now, only try to control it. I took up my staff, it burned with an aura of dark energy. I charged into the fray wanting nothing more than to help my friends and that other person. Once I got into the middle of the fight I clubbed a goblin with me staff, a blow that alone wouldn’t have killed it, or even knocked it out, but once the staff made contact, the aura flared and the goblin shrieked, it’s eyes nothing more than black portals as it fell back and writhed for a second before expiring. Suddenly I turned to face the next goblin when a gout of water shot up out of the earth and enveloped it. I turned to see Steven standing in a pile of dead green skins, his sword and his armor soaked in blood, I hoped little, if any, was his. Fountains of water had begun to shoot up randomly out of the dirt, some engulfing goblins, some totally missing. As the bodies piled up, I had to do something to control it, so I did all I could, I sat and focused. I had to focus, Etherenasia, the mages sense, was telling me where the pillars of liquid death were going to strike next, since it was my spell, I had to be able to guide it, my instructors told me to never to mix elemancy with regular spell casting, and now I knew why. The sheer magnitude of what I was trying to control was horrifying. I started to channel the mana instead of bend it, thinking that if I could channel it, make it a part of myself, that I might have an easier time controlling it, so I began to try and channel my own spell, another thing I’d been warned against. Then I felt it. Pure unadulterated power, I could feel my body coursing with it, but not being able to get rid of it quick enough. I opened my eyes and looked to see what was around me, goblins, standing in a circle around me, with confused looks on their ugly faces. With a savage cry a torrent of water shot up around me, it pulsed in rhythm with my heart, and forced itself into the goblins lungs. There faces were contorted in fear, as they struggled against it. Once they stopped trying to fight I stood up and the waters around me crashed to the ground leaving the soggy corpses in a circle around me. The mana was still coursing into me, my skin was starting to burn, I had to expel it quickly before it killed me. I swung my arms at the fires sending waves to combat the blazes. I felt like I was going to die before the fight was over, I wasn’t going to see who I saved. Then it hit me, I took up my staff again and started to funnel the mana into it. The staff in turn began to once again glow with an aquamarine aura, but much more violently this time.

     The mana level in my body was stabilizing but I knew that soon my staff would break and I would have to try to live thought the mana shock that would likely kill me. I had to neutralize it. Taking what I could, I started to convert the water mana that was flowing into my body into electrical mana, for once using something my teachers hadn’t told me not to do, to cancel out the water mana. Water and electricity, fire and ice, light and dark, earth and air, they were all in balance in the world, and so I would balance them inside myself, and hopefully avoid death. I could feel my skin starting to cool, and with the heartstone in my pocket, I could tell that Steven and Amanda were still close, still alive. I’d know the last foe was slain when I, more sensed than saw, my two friends and that stranger come over to me. I slumped to my knees, and then fell backwards. The last think I saw was the face of a pretty girl I knew I recognized, then my world went black.

Magesty by Cameron Carpenter is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at magesty.wordpress.com.

Magesty

Ch.1: Sojourn

 

By Cameron Carpenter

 

 

 

 

     I was getting really bored. I mean, I can be patient, when I know an exact time to wait for, but not when I’m just left hanging. I had to entertain myself by kicking stones across the creek, throwing fireballs at the local wildlife, and then having to douse the fires I caused. Maybe he’d forgotten, it had been a long time. I heard a stone slip behind me and whirled around, staff in hand, to see the person I’d been waiting for. The tip of my staff was poking into the chest of my best friend, a human swordsman by the name of Steven, it’d been almost a year since we’d seen each other last, when I’d decided to leave for the Mages Academy in Rohrok. I remember that was before The Fall, before the rise of Lizardmen, He’d changed so much in that year, his face had grown stern. His tousled brown hair had grown into a more manageable, natural look. The jeans and anime shirts I’d grown up seeing Steven in were replaced by leather armor. I was so happy to see him again, to know he’d survived all this time, especially in a small town, well outside one of the citadels, while I, like a coward, was safely tucked away in a library researching spell and incantation, relying on the city guards to protect me. Seeing Steven with a sword, with small scars on his exposed skin, made me feel like I was just as weak as I was when I left. I pulled back my staff and grinned, seeing him with a smile on his face, realizing that under all of it, he’s still the same goofy guy I grew up with.“Greetings ner’vod,” I said.

“Yo, Cameron, long time no see,” He replied, glancing at my staff, “I guess you’ve got something to fend away gobbos and stuff now.”

“This,” I said, swinging my staff, “and these.” I raised my hand and it started glowing and shifting colors.

“Nice, lookit what I’ve got.” Steven said with a grin, unsheathing a shining silver katana with rubies set into the sheath and hilt.

     We spent the next hour catching up on what I’d missed since I’d left and The Fall swept across Shra. I found out that Steven and his whole family had been able to hold out rather well in his family homestead, although with quite a bit of upgrading to the fencing and other defenses. My family retreated to my grandparents. It saddened me to hear that many of the people I’d known had either fled to citadels or perished at the hands of those monsters; one of our other friends had simply disappeared, no body found, no communications, nothing. We both grew sullen at the mention of the honoured dead.

     Steven invited me to spend the night at the fort that his home had become, seeing as how my grandparents home was a good days journey from where we were. It had already grown late in the afternoon, and traveling at night was dangerous in groups, and near suicidal to do so alone. As we neared where he lived, I recognized the ruins of many building I’d seen in my youth, and seen how some of the buildings had been fortified against small attacks that the local monsters would launch from time to time. When we reached the gate to Steven’s family fort I noticed that the walls only stretched up around seven feet above the ground. Then it hit me like a hammer. The overwhelming pressure of heavy enchantments, I reeled back like I was struck.

“Hey Cameron, are you ok?” Steven asked, seeing me stumble back.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine, just a little…Off.” I replied.

     I wondered if it was that Steven was used to the power of the enchantments on the gate, or more likely, untrained and insensitive to mana and it’s intricacies. Steven clapped his palms together and pressed them on a seal on the gate, and it slowly swung open. I raised one of my eyebrows.So, Steven does know a thing or two about magic, or at least how to open an enchanted gate.I thought at we walked up to the large house.When we were about fifty feet from the house, a human girl only a little smaller than we were ran at full clip over to us and tackled Steven with enough force to knock him off his feet.

“Amanda…” I sighed, seeing that living under siege for almost a year hadn’t changed her attachment to Steven at all.

     She had leather armor of a similar design to Stevens, but altered to accommodate her ‘details’. Her brown hair had become slightly unkempt, but her eyes had that same piercing shine as they always had. Where Steven kept his sword at his side, Amanda had hers strapped across her back. It made me feel unarmed, with my staff set in a holster at my side, compared to the two swordsmen.

     As Amanda smothered Steven, I reached into my robes, fumbling in the many pockets for a piece of jerky. Finally finding it, I crammed it into my mouth and enjoyed the smoky, almost bitter, flavor. As I slowly chewed on the meat, Steven rose to his feet and the three of us made our way to the massive house. It had changed a lot in the year, it had gone from tan to browns and greens of camouflage, the barn close to the wall was stripped of most of it’s timbers. The vehicles were either stripped for parts and plating, or armored and upgraded. All of the windows on the ground floor were boarded over. I noticed that the windows on the upper levels were partially boarded up, and there were scorch marks all around the building, evidence of breaches in the perimeter.

     Inside, the house had changed very little, just updates to the photos and more recent movies in the stack, except it was much darker. The lighting was dim but effective, giving the house a sultry atmosphere. I reminded myself to ask how they were getting power, since The Fall, most of the power grid outside the citadels were gone, and long distance communications were almost impossible outside. I opted to wander around the house while the dinner was being prepared. The upper floor was much brighter, more like a house, and much less like a hold-out. I let out a contented sigh, feeling safe for the first time in weeks since I left Rohrok.

     At dinner I saw a beautiful spread in front of me. Steven sat to my left, with Amanda to his left. Stevens father had grayed significantly since I’d last seen him and there was obvious evidence of major injuries he’d suffered. I noticed that one of his sisters, I couldn’t remember which, had a med-kit and a tired look on her face. I was surprised when I saw Amanda’s parents come into the dining room right behind Steven’s mother. They seemed well. I was happy to see that at least there was a strong group here. Once we were all seated, Steven’s father said in a booming voice not at all diminished by time that we could dig in. I hadn’t seen such chaos at a dinner table in all my 18 years, nor did I think I ever would again, unless I stayed here again.

     After the feeding frenzy, I felt like I was going to burst, so I decided to tour the outside of the property. The open field that we’d played in had transformed into a growing vegetable patch, and the barn, now that I was looking at it, had some chickens and other small livestock. So this is how they live so well, they grow what they need… I thought with a grimace, remembering I wanted to ask about how they were powering the lights and appliances. By the time I was finished with my little walk down memory lane, it was well past sunset and I was getting really tired. I stalked back to the house and, due to lack of space, put up on a couch to sleep on for the night. It was a night to remember for many reasons…

I was tumbling down a hill of mud and bones, terror coursing through my veins as I saw rusted weapons and armor piled at the bottom. I fell faster and faster. As I neared the pile of rusted metal I fell into a deep pit. I saw nothing but black, and then a loud wet crack as I hit the bottom, I coughed and blood followed the air, followed closely by my pained screams. I tried to summon my powers but whenever I gathered enough mana to heal myself, a fresh wave of pain shot through my body and shattered my concentration. In the next instance I was floating, no pain, no blood, I looked around and saw tides of something that looked almost like water, but as it ebbed and flowed it shifted colors and I was filled with fear, and an entirely inexplicable sense of comfort, like I was an infant in my mothers arms. I blinked and I was sitting back at the Academy, in my old dorm, and I looked down to see myself bleeding from my navel. I tore off my tunic and tried once again to heal myself, but to no avail, for some reason, there was no mana around, nothing for me to pool to try to use. So I rushed into the dorm bathroom, leaving a trail of blood, I started to feel weak. I slumped down next to on of the paper towel dispensers, tearing most of the roll down with me. I tried stuffing my navel with the towel, but nothing seemed to slow the flow of blood down. My vision swam and I fell over onto my side. the moment my head hit the tiles, I was standing on top of a mountain in the Eransus chain, and a dragon flew up to me and sat in mid-air for a moment, then it lunged at me.

    I woke up in a cold sweat, relieved that I was back on that lumpy couch in stead of being a dragons snack. I decided I wasn’t going to sleep any more tonight, for fear of seeing something worse. I pulled on my denim robes, tunic and pants, and threw my silk cloak over my back, and strapped on my boots. I stopped at where my staff lay, it was a wondrous piece of Bloodwood, crimson in it’s color, instead of the usual maroon. I held out my hand and willed the staff into my hand. It leapt up and I griped it strongly. As I slowly and quietly stepped out of the house I wandered over to the barn and climbed up onto it’s roof and sat there looking at the stars. I wondered what that dream might’ve meant, but I decided it could just as well have been because I overate. I looked around seeing how the trees had somehow gone into a state of overgrowth while I was away because there were many more than I’d remembered. But one of them had a strange growth on it. I couldn’t see what it was because of the darkness so I pulled out a small journal I had, full of all the spell I knew but didn’t feel the need to commit to memory for quick use. I flipped a few pages looking for the incantation of cat’s eyes, which would give me much better vision, and by the moonlight read out the spell.

“Mhi parjir a’den” I said under my breath and I felt the world grow brighter and sharper.

     I looked back again at the growth on the tree with my newly improved vision and didn’t believe my eyes. It was a girl, a human girl, standing on the branch of one of the trees. She looked like she was standing for a bit to rest while surveying the surrounding area. Then she looked at me and she froze. I was looking at a beautiful girl, in my opinion. She had short dark hair.(don’t ask me what color, it’s just a little hard to distinguish them with cats eyes) Her features were soft and timid looking, yet oddly comforting. She was wearing a dark kimono, which I though was quite strange for this area. And a short sword strapped to her side. Our eyes locked for a split second before she lost her balance slightly and wobbled, regaining her balance, she seemed to melt into the tree, and even with my improved vision, I couldn’t see her. I was pulled out of the staring trance by a stone hitting me in the back of the head. It was Steven, probably wondering what I was doing up at this hour, and on top of his barn no less. I climbed back down and explained to him my horror story dream and what I’d seen moments earlier.

“Sounds like your magic might’ve been messing with your mind, Cameron.” Steven said, slightly weary.

“I’ve done this spell dozens of times before, I know it doesn’t screw with my mind, just makes me more sensitive to light and sharpens my vision.” I replied matter-of-factly

“Jeez, calm down, I’m just saying it might not be what you think it was.”

“If not, then what? I never knew there were dryad/siren hybrids.”

“All I’m saying is, you might’ve seen something, or whatever gave you that fucked up dream might be screwing with you now too.”

“Shit dude, I hope not, I might wanna meet that girl, she was a cute one.”

     With that, Steven turned on his heels and started back towards the house, I followed him so far as the kitchen, where I spent the next 4 hour until everyone else was up and active, sipping hot chocolate and trying to meditate. Just to make sure I wasn’t still dreaming, I went outside and tested a lot of my regular and offensive spells. Once I was sure I was awake, I went back inside and tried to relax without falling asleep

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Magesty by Cameron Carpenter is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at magesty.wordpress.com.