The Enchanter (Journals of Evander Tailor Book 1), page 35
More than that, the force effect that he was standing on was large enough for five people, easily. At first, I’d just taken that as him having power to blow on it and wanting to have the space to walk around, but now I wasn’t so sure.
I sharpened my third eye to take in more details as I pushed against the power of the mental effect swaying my attention away from that space. Being able to see the magic helped me fight it, but it was like trying to push a boulder uphill with the force of just my muscles.
Maybe it was nothing. It could easily have been Sarai’s mother, hidden under the veil of the scepter.
But the king was hiding something there.
I redoubled my efforts and pushed against the veil. Oracle joined his own will to mine, but he was no mind spirit. The power of the scepter was immense, and our combined efforts seemed to hardly make a dent.
My vision swam around me, and I felt like my head was going to crack in two with the effort.
And then, for just a moment, I saw a tiny smear of black, about the size of a person, before my will broke, and I had to look away.
I took a few moments to compose myself. There was someone there—I knew that for sure. But my vision had been so fuzzy that I hadn’t gotten anything more than a lick of darkness. Had it been Sarai’s mother? Archmage Chantal’s Aura was an almost black color, and my vision had been swimming. I barely even noticed as the king wrapped up his speech.
“… All done so well. Congratulations to all of you.”
With that, he merged the force platforms that each of the victors was standing on with the larger disk, and all of us shot off towards Yesgol. It took us only a few moments to arrive, and the guards led me, along with the other nine victors and anyone else who was wounded, to the medical branch. I was given a cursory once over and a potion to drink for my cuts.
“Can I see Osheen?” I asked the healer, Jeffery, who I was now starting to see far more than I was comfortable with.
“He’s just out of Aura. It isn’t like he’s going to die. Even extreme Aura exhaustion isn’t fatal. At worst, he’ll sleep through the night. Do you know how his Aura recharges?”
“Heat,” I said, and he grunted.
“Then I’ll force-feed him a potion to help his recovery and then dunk him in a warm bath. Just keep an eye on him so that he doesn’t drown himself.”
I nodded, and a while later, a guard informed us, or rather me, since I was the only one of the two of us who was conscious, that we’d be able to pick our prizes an hour before the next round, so we’d need to report at ninth bell, rather than tenth. I thanked him, and he even helped me to bring Osheen back to my room, using a force disc like a doctor’s stretcher.
Once I was in my room, I drew a bath that was hot enough to scald me at the touch and then had the slightly awkward problem of pulling him into the pool. Once he was finally submerged up to his chest, I sat on my counter across from him, watching to make sure he didn’t drown himself. A flicker of my third eye revealed that his Aura was indeed recharging, sapping heat from the bath.
I wished that I had a fireplace in my room. It would have been much easier to just light one and bundle him in blankets near it.
While he was passed out, I had plenty of time to think. That black smear of Aura was probably just Sarai’s mother, but it could have been something else. A dark part of the back of my mind told me that it was almost the Spring Equinox—I cursed myself for not memorizing what day the Equinox was, and Paerús celebrated Solstices, not Equinoxes.
Should I tell the Ligature that I had seen something that may possibly have been the taint of the Starless Night?
I wasn’t sure that I was willing to commit treason over a smear of dark color that I’d seen while fighting the most powerful mental spell that I had ever seen—one that probably just belonged to Sarai’s mother.
I checked the water and blanched. It had gone ice-cold in the couple of minutes that I had been thinking. His Aura had drained all the heat dry and then some.
I drained the water as fast as I could and then refilled it with more hot water. I went through the cycle of filling and draining the tub two more times before Osheen sat up with a shuddering gasp.
“Gak!” he said eloquently. I stood up quickly.
“Osheen! Are you okay?” I asked nervously, fiddling with the hem of my cloak.
He took a few moments to compose himself, splashing some of the lukewarm water on his face and rubbing at it before he responded.
“I’m alright. Are you okay?”
That was Osheen alright, concerned with others through and through, even when he was the one waking up in the tub.
“I’m fine. Are you okay? You depleted your Aura way more than I expected. I’ve never seen you push that far before.”
He stood up and shook himself, then ran a hand through his wavy hair.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I spent more power than I expected destroying that…thing. Whatever it was, it leeched Aura out of me like nothing I’d ever seen. I wound up having to use Wraithflame.”
“Was that the wand?” I asked quietly.
“Yeah. Wraithflame, like a lot of the really powerful imbued items, bonds into your Aura. They can only be owned by one person at a time. They only pass on if the owner dies. Wraithflame has been in my family since we fought against Bradlewyr, three hundred years ago. My father has a spear that allows him to mix lightning in with his flames, at a fraction of the cost. So I got Wraithflame when my grandmother, his mom, died. He couldn’t take it when I left, or he would have.”
I didn’t know much about imbued items, but that would explain a few things. I was surprised that George didn’t have one like that. But since they took up space in your Aura, like a rune bond, I supposed that it made sense not to taint a Witch’s Aura.
“How rare are those weapons?” I asked out of curiosity. I couldn’t help myself. It was a serious conversation, but I wanted to know.
“Extremely. They’re usually the magnum opus of an enchanter. My family has two. The King’s crown is one, too, I think. But even some Archmage families don’t have one. I think there’s probably less than twenty in Paerús and Zheren together.”
If I was to bet, the king’s scepter was probably one as well. That thing had power on a ridiculous scale, even if it wasn’t intended for offense.
“What was a Starless Night monster doing in the forest?” I asked, trying to change the pace of the conversation away from Osheen’s family.
“They probably just missed it. Or maybe left it in on purpose. They did say that there would be monsters after all. Do you think it killed the spider?”
“Probably,” I answered.
Osheen took in a deep breath then and asked the question that I’d expected him to ask from the beginning.
“So,” he started, then stopped and tried again. “So. Did we? …”
My face broke out into an involuntary grin, and I gave him a hug, even as sopping wet as he was.
“We both made it into the top ten. I had to take out someone after you passed out, and we both made it!”
After that, Osheen decided to take a few more baths, to help recharge his Aura, and I didn’t object—one of the nice parts about living in Yesgol was that the water bill was included with my room. He’d taken to leaving a spare change of clothes in my room ever since we started dating, and so once he had reconstituted himself, he changed into fresh clothes. I bathed and did the same, and then we headed down to dinner. It was a bit awkward, with Lyn dragging Sarai away from us, but Victoria sat down across from us and let out a huff.
“You got in,” she said to us, with a mixture of pride and envy.
“I’m shocked you didn’t,” I said honestly, and she made a face.
“I used my big surprise in the first round. The rings weren’t supposed to be used except in an emergency. But if I wasn’t even able to pass the first round, then I wouldn’t be able to get much use out of it. Your cloak is ridiculous. It’s got to be at least a difficult Adept spell, probably on the level of an average Journeyman. Do you mind swapping our notes about our items once this is all done?”
She wasn’t bitter about it. Both of us had held back our final trick, in the hopes of it taking it to the finals. And indeed, if the first round had been different, then she may well have won instead of me.
“Sure,” I responded. I wasn’t about to hand over the book, but I could copy down my notes about the spell. “I should warn you the spell doesn’t explain how it works. I followed it blindly. So use it at your own risk.”
“Oh,” she said and made another face. She was smarter than I was if she wasn’t going to cast it.
We made idle chatter as dinner went on, and then Osheen and I headed to bed early. We both were nervous and excited about the next morning. When it finally came, one of the King’s Guard came to the door and greeted us.
“Mr. Tailor. Mr. Roark. Glad to see you’re both up and awake. The king’s selection of treasures from his private vault has been prepared for the victors. You will have two hours in which to make your choice, then you will be brought to the third and final round. Bring nothing with you that you don’t need in the arena.”
He bobbed his head.
“Good job to you both.”
Osheen and I scrambled to prepare. In truth, it was mostly just me scrambling to prepare since he didn’t have to do anything with his Aura refilled. Once I was ready, the guard led us down into the roots of Yesgol, into a twisting area that I had never seen before. It was full of old classrooms and huge carved-out areas, all totally cleared. Half of the rooms had spell arrays laid out inside, and many of the rooms had paper with a name on it on the side.
Oh.
This was where other students made their spells. I wished that I’d known about it earlier. Each of the rooms was the insane size of the classrooms and would have let me build three of my spells, easily. Well, that was embarrassing.
Finally, we reached a door that was slightly larger than the others. Inside, three long tables were set out and covered with heavy white tablecloths. Each of the tables was lined with items on the left and another on the right. In front of each item was a small sheet of white paper, presumably with the item’s description on it. The King’s Guard milled around the room, keeping an eye on the other winners, who I noted with some annoyance, had been brought before us.
The variety of items was staggering. There were exotic fruits imported from the jungles of another continent, kept on silver platters with glass domes on top. Strange contraptions of brass gears, copper tubes, and steel wire, imported from Elderglass. Beautiful blown glass bottles, filled with potions that glowed with every color of the rainbow. Weapons of every sort, from spears to pistols to daggers. There were hefty leatherbound grimoires, scrolls written on aged yellow paper, and pewter tablets with spells engraved on them. There were rings, necklaces, and bracelets; wands, staves, and crystals…
My eyes went wide, and I took an involuntary step forward. Beside me, Osheen did the same. I think that even the guard that had taken us down there took a step forward, too.
A moment later, the guard spoke. “Each of you may take one item from here. If we have any reason to suspect you’re trying to take more than one, then you’ll be searched.”
I nodded, and Osheen mumbled his agreement before he turned to me.
“I’ll keep an eye out for anything that I think may help you, but I think I’m gonna let myself get lost in the tables for a while. What about you?”
“Yeah, that’s a good idea. Is there anything you’re looking for?”
“Maybe something like Emilia’s wind barrier blade?” he asked, and I felt a trickle of guilt run through me. I really should have done more to help him—and my other friends. “What about you?”
That was a good question. The way I saw it, I lacked a handful of things, but more than anything, I needed offense and defense. My cloak provided me with a powerful defense, but it wouldn’t stop an area spell like the force ring. My knife was a useful offense, but it wasn’t going to break any force armor spells. My consumer glove could, with time, but that was good at wearing them down. It couldn’t break through a wall on its own.
“Offense and defense are both useful for me. Preferably artifacts since my Aura is too low to get much use out of foci.
Osheen nodded and then wandered off in the direction of the weapons. I had to suppress a smile as I watched him go, and then I turned my own attention to where I wanted to go. I already had more spells than I could handle, between the books that Travis had recommended, the spells that Tara had lent me, and A Most Practical Guide to the Creation of Enchanted Artifacts.
The potions could be interesting. If they were supposed to be on par with everything else in the room, then they were probably more powerful than any artifact or foci since those could be used more than once. Speaking of things that could be consumed, though…
I wandered in the direction of the fruits and examined the paper in front of them. There were more than fruits there—there were vegetables, mushrooms, plants, and more. Most of them were intended for use in rituals or potions, but they were too specific for me to recognize most of them. I did recognize blue blood-cap, which I’d used in the summoning of Oracle. With none of them particularly useful for me, I moved on to looking at the wands, staves, and crystals.
As I flicked on my third eye, I bitterly regretted that I wasn’t able to bring in my journal and copy down everything that I saw in the hall. Even if I’d only had two hours, I could have copied down two, maybe three artifacts. I’d only have been able to guess at the components that had been used, but it would have been amazing for my enchanting.
Instead, I focused on looking for the small details that the descriptions didn’t have. I was able to get a more accurate gauge of power that way. I probably spent a solid forty minutes just looking at the wands. They suited me best and seemed to be generally stronger than the crystals, though not as powerful as the staves. I just couldn’t reasonably carry around a large staff.
The wands held foci and artifacts in equal quantities, with every sort of attack spell under the sun, from lances to orbs to pillars. There were defensive spells too, with walls and shields and barriers. I was a bit overwhelmed with all the options, but I did note one force shield foci, in particular, seemed to be designed with more efficiency than the others. A good choice for Osheen.
A few of the staves did catch my eye. Most of them were foci that produced attack spells of some sort. Given the quality, I had no doubt that they were extremely Aura-efficient, and many of them could pull off tricks that I didn’t know how to do yet like allowing you to alter the length of a beam spell. There was one artifact that was able to enhance the power of a strike with a force effect and supposedly was able to crack many armor spells. It recharged based on time, which a lot of the artifacts seemed to do for some reason, and it took three hours to recharge. A polished red maple walking stick held a rather unique artifact and foci combo. It produced a fire lance on its own, but if the wielder poured extra Aura in, it could add to the power of the lance. A third was capable of generating a wind barrier, much like Emilia’s, but it was a foci, so I noted that down for Osheen.
One of the crystals nabbed my eye, too. It was a foci, but it didn’t take much power as it wasn’t intended to do much on its own. When powered and used as a component in a scrying spell, it would heavily amplify the power of the spell. I was sorely tempted to take it, but I put it down with a sigh.
Needing some time to process, I wandered to look at the potions. My hunch about their relative power was correct. Most of them were intended for Sorcerers, such as the grey liquid that deepened the connection to the force rune or the orange liquid that would increase the heat of the fire that the flame rune produced. One of them caught my eye, though—it was designed to provide a large increase to the Aura density of whoever drank it. I wasn’t a Sorcerer, but I was still sorely tempted by it. My Aura was weaker than everyone else around me, and this could help me operate foci better than before.
But I put that down too and met back up with Osheen. He was grinning.
“Find anything good?” I asked him.
“Everything,” he responded, “but, yes. I found a chain shirt that was imbued. It was enhanced to provide resistance to force magic. Plus, the defenses of a chain shirt. On top of that, I also found a ring that was a force armor spell, with a recharge based on heat, so it would refuel the same as me. I found some stuff for you, but let’s finish me up first?”
“The best things I found for you were an extremely efficient force shield foci wand, a wind barrier like Emilia’s, and the last…well, it doesn’t work quite as well, but there was a potion that would enhance the heat of the flames that you produced.”
Osheen nodded and then we walked around so that I could point them out to him. He moved on from the potion fairly fast, but he gave the other two due consideration. Maybe he’d already drunk the elixir? I wouldn’t be surprised if his father had stuffed him to the gills while Osheen was still the heir to the house. He then showed me the armor and the chain shirt and asked for my opinion. I studied them with my third eye. I didn’t know much about either artifacts or imbued items, but even I could tell the chain shirt was a real steal. There was a faint set of extra runes that glowed around the collar of the shirt that would help it resist metal Sorcery—or so I thought. They were faded and flickered a bit, which may have been why it was put here for us, rather than being given to a soldier. Eventually, he picked it out and took it to the guard to note his choice.
Then it was time to go over the things that I had considered. He insisted on saving his finds for me for last, so I led him to the potion first. When he saw it, his face turned into a carefully neutral mask.
“You don’t want this,” he said quietly.
I blinked. I’d only seen Osheen like this a few times before.
“Why? I figured that a lot of nobles would be given several potions like this to strengthen them up.”
