Chapter
5: Wolfe's Fate The Spy
The young mage motions to Wolfe and the pair silently retrace their footsteps as the magi in the room begin speak at once.
"So close..."
"This is useless..."
"I need a drink..."
"What was that blue thing?"
"The
orcs are already through I tell you!"
As the pair return to the North room, Wolfe says, "You guys are all crazy! Crazy I tell you! I paid my dues, now it's time for me to go."
Magnus says, "Good job Wolfe, now we will walk back to where your barracks are and I am going to speak to your commanding officer about allowing you to come to the tower for some odd jobs every few days."
Wolfe swears, "You lousy no-good double crossing whoreson! You said I could go free! I did everything you asked and you nearly got me killed spying on those other magi!"
Magnus motions of the other to lead as the thief grumbles, "Never trust a mage! I should have known better!" All the way out of the tower Wolfe grumbles.
Magnus says, "It's poor for morale to have soldiers idle, while they wait for the enemy to come charging at them. Now it seems as if you found a way to occupy your time during the wait, but I think I could come up with some ways that will keep your hands attached to your arms. Tomorrow, there will be a craftsman checking out the room to rebuild the couch that was destroyed by a miscast spell. You will be on hand..."
"Like hell!" Wolfe interrupts as he suddenly changes direction and runs full-tilt into the young mage. The impact sends the mage sprawling to the ground and the thief stumbling over him. The ghostly white arrows take off in random directions as the mage is hit and three glowing arrows streak off into the darkness.
One of which strikes the unfortunate thief as he cries, "Not again." Determined not to get caught by the overbearing mage he runs off full tilt between a pair of tents.
Magnus picks himself up and gives chase.
The two dodge between buildings and tents for several minutes before Wolfe doubles back and hides inside a tent. He waits for a few moments as Magnus passes him by and continues on into the darkness.
He heaves a sigh of relief and relaxes for a few moments.
"I see that my discipline has been a little lax" says a voice behind him.
Wolfe turns quickly to see the Commander rising out of bed he is sharing with a lovely young lady.
"I'll make sure that discipline is back to military standards and you're going to be the example. Guards!" The commander only half dressed hauls up the young thief only barely taking note that his entire left arm is encased in ice.
Two men enter the tent and salute sharply. The commander thrusts the young thief at them and says, "Take him away and hold him until morning when I will decide his punishment after roll call."
As the two men drag Wolfe away, the young thief lets out a string of curse aimed at all magi everywhere.
Meanwhile, Magnus eventually gives up the chase. The mage checks his pockets making sure the thief didn't take anything and makes a note to keep an eye out for Wolfe in the future.
Returning to the tower, Magnus heads up to his room to study some spells before going to sleep. He sets up his spellbook and begins to scribe the ice missile rune back upon his staff, taking extra care to make sure he is as precise as possible.
When he finishes the rune he examines it carefully making sure no mistakes were made. Finally satisfied that his work is good, he sets his staff down and begins studying a few runes.
The hour is late and the candles are merely burnt stubs by the time he closes his book. Stretching his tired body, the young apprentice proceeds to sleep and sleep heavily.
He wakes in the morning well past sunrise. Making sure he has plenty of time before midday, he grabs a few scrolls, quills and a bottle of ink before heading downstairs to where the pile of captured Orc items lay.
Setting his load down the first thing the mage does is speak a rune that seems more like a question than a command. Almost immediately there is an answer as a brilliant rainbow colored light appears briefly from under the pile, before vanishing quickly.
Puzzled as to why the colored light vanished so quickly, he begins sorting the items out by type looking for the items that should be glowing. When he has finally finished sorting them out he takes and inventory. Separated into different piles are three longbows, a ceremonial curved dagger with odd design, five long swords, one two-handed sword, three pieces of badly torn leather armor, one complete set of good platemail, six chainmail jersey (two badly torn), two maces (one the shaft nearly broken) an empty chest, and four empty small sacks.
He frowns thinking, 'I'm not sure where that chest came from. It wasn't here last time I checked.' Finally he shrugs thinking that perhaps someone else brought it down.
He looks around and decides he will start his inventorying with the bladed weapons. He picks up the ceremonial dagger. He studies its blade which starts off wide and straight at the hilt, then suddenly bends off to the left before correcting itself and pointing straight again and tapering off. The design on the hilt looks like a miniature orc skeleton with painted black eyesockets. The skeletons arms are holding onto it's head and it seems to be screaming or shouting. The reason is probably that there are odd protrubences sticking out of its chest and back that resemble nothing in particular. Below the chest the rest of the skeleton melds into the handle. The hilt flares out on either side of the dagger, coming to what would be sharp points except for the little balls at the tips. Overall the dagger would be quite unwieldy in battle. And as Magnus looks at the dagger, he can't guess as to what kind of ceremony it would be used in either.
***************
Puzzled, the mage begins sorting the items out by type looking for the item that should be glowing. When he is done he has three longbows (no arrows or string, a ceremonial curved dagger with odd design, five long swords, one two-handed sword, three pieces of badly torn leather armor, one complete set of good plate mail, six chain mail jersey (two badly torn), two maces (one the shaft nearly broken) an empty chest (not sure where it came from, it the wasn't there last night), and four empty small sacks.
Picking up the dagger he studies its blade which starts off wide and straight at the hilt, then suddenly bends off to the left before correcting itself and pointing straight again and tapering off. The design on the hilt looks like a miniature orc skeleton with painted black eye sockets. The skeletons arms are holding onto it's head and it seems to be screaming or shouting. The reason is probably that there are odd protrubences sticking out of its chest and back that resemble nothing in particular. Below the chest the rest of the skeleton melds into the handle. The hilt flares out on either side of the dagger, coming to what would be a sharp point except for the little ball at the tip. Overall the dagger would be quite unwieldy in battle.
Looking around at the various piles of items the mage seem puzzled that none of the items are glowing. Even though one at least one of them glowed once before.
Returning upstairs he scribes the detect magic rune onto a scroll and heads back to work.
This time he casts the detect magic spell and several items flare to life, but in the pile with the swords there is only a brief flash before the aura dies out completely. He decides he will try that pile last after he has gotten his fill of the normal work. He separates the magical glowing items from the non-magical items so he can have a better look at them.
Starting with one of the bows Magnus finds a dim glow of an elemental flow after a few moments of study he guesses that it must be the elemental air rune flow. The more dominant flow is definitely a positive energy rune flow, and it takes him a while longer to determine that there is probably an enchantment flow, but he can't be sure.
Picking up the second bow Magnus mock pulls the strings that the bow should have had, half hoping for something, but nothing happens. After examining it for runes, he finds them near the arrow notch, but cannot decipher them.
He puts the bow down making a few notations on the scrolls and he moves on to the pile of the armor. After sorting through it he finds that the plate mail and one suit of chain mail are glowing. Oddly the flow combination on the plate-mail is almost identical to the one on the long bow except the enchantment flow is dim and the elemental air flow is dominant. A intensive search finds the enchantment rune on the inside of each plate of the armor, but none of the runes are decipherable by the young apprentice.
Magnus finds that the chain mail, however, has a third flow in addition to the first two. It has a dominant flow of elemental earth while the other two flows are dim but equal. After a complete search, he cannot find where the rune is hidden.
Setting the armor in front of him. The mage begins to massage his temples to ease the on-coming headache. Suddenly the fingers freeze and his head cocks at an odd angle as looks at the armor. Struck by inspiration he stands up his head still at an odd angle and walks around the armor to the other side. His headache flares to full intensity as the realization dawns on him that he has been looking at the rune the entire time!
Apparently either the magi makes armor in his spare time or he spent a lot of time with the armorer. The rune pattern is mimicked in the grain of the holes. Grabbing one of the other chain mail jersey he examines it. There is no doubt about it the normal chain mail is well...normal, but somehow the blacksmith managed to make a chain mail jersey very much like a complete rune. Hefting the normal chain mail he frowns and picks up the enchanted chain mail. Odd that the enchanted chain mail is actually much heavier than the normal version. Usually it's the other way around. Further study of the chain mail rune begins to aggravate the headache to near blinding intensity. He finally sets the chainmail down and tears his eyes away from it until he can calm his nerves.
After calming his nerves, Magnus moves on to the next set of items. A bunch of plain sacks. He thinks, 'Wasn't there something else here before?' Shrugging it off he moves on past the rest of the damaged goods to the set of swords lying down before him. He is sure there was a flash of light from somewhere in this pile.
Using the broken shaft from the mace he cautiously moves the swords apart and begins to search each one looking for runes. Trying not to touch each one with his hand he uses the shaft to move them around. After searching all five long swords he gives it up the search. 'Nothing here' he thinks.
He finishes up by separating the magical items from the non-magical and completing his notes before he heads back upstairs.
As he heads up to his room, something begins to bother him, but he isn't sure what...
**************
The young mage stops and rubs his temples thinking about what has just occurred. `The first time I cast the detect magic spell, there was the flash and then it was dissipated. It must have been one of the items in the pile with some powerful enchantments upon it to either absorb spell energy or to conceal itself from detection.'
He pauses and thinks about it, 'There were some swords, some maces, the armors, the bows, the dagger and the sacks. No wait there was something else, something he meant to use the mace shaft to open, the sacks? What was it? And how did he miss it?'
Curious and a little worried, the young mage heads back to the weapons room, hoping that he hasn't gone soft in the head at so young an age. He looks at the assembled items, and then begins to rearrange them away from the area they were just in.
He places the five long swords along the side of the wall. He gatherers the sacks together and places them in a corner. He turns around and pauses. Something is distinctly wrong. After a few moments her realizes what it is. One of the chainmail jerseys is missing as well as one of the bows. A quick look confirms the enchanted ones are missing. He places the remaining two bows along the side of the wall. Picking up the remaining chainmail jerseys he moves them to a pile along the wall. As he walks toward the platemail the mage stubs his toe on something hard. After hopping around for a few seconds. He turns around to see what he stubbed his toe on and sees nothing. Getting suspicious, the mage grabs the broken mace shaft and begins probing around after several minutes he finds nothing.
Grabbing the platemail and the remaining leather armor he cautiously places them away from the center of the room and looks along the wall to make sure nothing else has vanished.
After determining that nothing else has vanished he continues on with a plan that forms in his mind step by step.
He heads to the pantry returning with a sack of flour.
Taking one last look around he begins spreading it all over the floor. As he does this he hears a sucking sound and quickly turns around. At first he sees nothing. Then he watches as a long white sword-shaped object 'Hey wasn't there another sword before' he thinks, begins to drag across the floor toward a giant lump of flour that suddenly has a toothy maw.
The mage watches in fascination as the long white object is dragged toward the giant lump when the object flares in a rainbow aura briefly and begins moving away from the lump! The lump moves toward the white object leaving a rectangular trail in the flour.
Suddenly the mage feels the urge to help the long white object and moves to intercept the giant lump. After two steps he becomes confused and then decides to help the lump and moves after the long white object. He gets another two steps and confusion takes over, again deciding to help the long white object he moves to intercept the giant lump. After two steps more, the confusion takes over again. This pattern repeats it self for several minutes until the young mage's head is pounding like jungle drums. In frustration, Magnus flees. Everything is a blur as he flees through the tower. When he finally comes to his senses he finds himself in a far corner of his room clutching his staff before him for protection. Somewhere in the tower, down below, the sounds of a battle begin.
As comprehension dawns upon him, Magnus grits his teeth in anger at having been enspelled by some magical object. Gripping his staff tightly, the runes flare to life and suddenly five ice blue arrows appear like silent death waiting to strike.
The mage purposely moves out of his room and back down stairs following the sounds of battle.
He has not taken a dozen paces when another joins him.
"Ah, sound like a battle in the armory?", says the newcomer. "You know it could be enchanted weapons. It is a simple matter using one of the basic flows, the positive flow. One of the positive flows particularly, the enchantment flow could make anything from glowing pots to talking swords! Why in fact......"
Magnus moans inwardly as he realizes that Parawn is the newcomer. Pushing thoughts of the mage aside Magnus reaches his objective. Steeling himself against what he knows is coming, the mage unbolts the latch and gives the door a hard kick.
The door slams into the wall with a crash that is barely noticed in the din.
Greeting the eyes of the magi is an interesting sight. The flour has fallen off of most of the large lump to reveal a chest, but not an ordinary chest. The bottom of this chest has small legs that it moves on. Every time it opens its lid, bright silver teeth appear ringed around it. On the other side of the room is a two-handed sword floating upright about three feet off of the ground. In between the two is chaos as armor and weapons dance in the air periodically attacking the chest. A long sword darts in, but the attack is futile as the chest opens its maw and the sword is swallowed whole.
"Curious", Parawn says.
Magnus points the staff at the flour-covered chest just as Parawn steps in front of him entering the chaos. The arrows streak outward flying around the mage to land around the chest imprisoning it. The bottom of the chest is caught in the frozen ice.
Magnus fights the sudden urge to attack the sword but he feels his will slipping away when suddenly he feels supported. Something is helping him shoring up his mental defenses. Within moments the battle is decided. With the mysterious sources help, Magnus defeats the compulsion to attack.
Parawn however is another matter., "Yeessss.. I think I can destroy the sword, but what would be the point? It is such a beautiful specimen. I shall take it back to my room for study." As he walks to the sword saying, "No that chest is not a factor in this battle and isn't very interesting, you however are another matter.." He gets no further as a pair of leather jerkins suddenly descends upon him and push him to one wall pinning him against it.
Magnus feels the mysterious force in his mind vanish. The chest is quiet and unmoving.
***************
Magnus looks around for something and after a moment before giving up and turning to the sword. Approaching it cautiously, he says, "Can you communicate?"
There is no verbal response, but Magnus suddenly feels encouraged. He slowly extends his hand toward the hilt, he pause and says, "May I?" Again he feels strongly encouraged.
As his hands grasp the hilt, he hears footsteps and Torana's voice saying, "What's going on down here? Sound like you two are having a war."
Darkness encompasses Magnus. He looks around and finds himself standing on darkness. Looking all around there is nothingness. Suddenly there is light as red and yellow streaks of flame and lighting appear in front of him. They merge and rise up above his head. The flames leap and twirl until a vision of a giant creature of red flame, about the twice the size of an ogre with yellow horns. It has three fingers and yellow hooves the face is similar to that of a bull and the eyes are constantly sparkling.
"Who are you?", the creature intones in a deep resounding voice.
Before the mage can respond, the creature says, "Magnus Kane, human mage, apprentice to Torana, elven mage. Tell me everything boy."
Between the two images begin flicker in an out quickly. Magnus recognizes them as things he's seen.
The mage tries to say something and realizes his throat is frozen. He tries
to move and realizes that he cannot!
"Utterly useless, is there none here I can use?" An image freezes between them, it is a picture of Torana, "Your master....." The creature takes a step forward.
"Boy you lied to me! How dare you attempt to deceive me!" The creature stomps a foot and Magnus feels as if every bone in his body is about to break as he is violently shaken up and down.
The creature moves forward through the image toward a paralyzed Magnus, "I will make you tell me the truth." He raises a hand as if to swipe the mage, but stops and looks over his shoulder.
Everything suddenly dissolves before his eyes. A moment later Magnus sight is returned and he is back in the armory. Parawn is free and is joined by Torana and Charon.
But something does not feel right, to the mage it seems as if he is not in control of his body as he watches as his hand lowers the sword and he crouches into an attack stance. He feels something is happening, but isn't sure what.
Parawn suddenly walks from the room and Charon and Torana merely look at each other. They turn back to face Magnus who lets out a feral snarl.
Torana and Charon say nothing but seem to be concentrating. Magnus feels great pressure upon him. The sword tip lowers to the ground and the mageling slumps to one knee.
With a primal roar, the mageling leaps to his feet he thrusts the sword outward toward the two magi. The two jump to either side as a bolt of lighting streaks between them slamming into the stone steps beyond. There is a howl and a thump and a minute later Parawn tumbles down the steps his body twitching every now and then.
Torana lands lightly on the lid of the ice-imprisoned chest. Charon stands up and begins moving closer, his clothing a ragged mess.
Magnus swings wildly forcing Charon back and Torana moves forward.
The mageling feels power gathering within him. He knows what is coming up. He tries to shout a warning, but nothing comes out. The sword twirls his hand and in front of where Torana stands a black orb appears growing to five feet in diameter. The orb moves forward and there is a hiss and a howl that is silenced a moment later.
Magnus feels a surge of relief as the creatures' voice echoes in his head, "That was too easy! These magi are no match for me!"
The mageling whirls the sword around suddenly as he senses someone to his left. Surprisingly a pair of ragged gloved hands catches the sword in the air.
The voice says, "This fool shall die in a blaze of glory!"
Again Magnus tries to shout a warning that comes out as, "Die fool!"
Lighting crackles along the edge of the blade and blasts outward to the mage. A moment later the creatures voice says, "What!!?!?!"
Charon still holds the blade of the sword in his wonderfully crafted black gloved hands.
Magnus senses what the creature is about to try and struggles against him. If he affected the creature there is no sign. The black globe appears in Charons' chest. A moment later Charon, saved by his brand new black vest, twists the blade out of Magnus hands.
Magnus feels a horrid yank as his entire world is turned upside-down and part of him is ripped out. As he falls into the darkness, he hears a voice screaming, "Noooooooo!!!!"
As
he falls, he feels strong hands support him, then nothing.
***************
Magnus opens his eyes and immediately closes them again as the bright light nearly blinds him. He weakly moves a hand over his face and opens his eyes again. This time in the shade he looks around and finds himself in his own bed. At the doorway, Torana speaks to the craftsman hired to replace the couch.
"Upstairs to the 5th floor, the room facing the north. I want something comfortable, but not too soft and something that blends in with the rest of the room."
"I'll take a look and see what you got. You know this will cost you a bit."
"Of course, if you're as good as you say you are then it will be worth it."
"Ummm...whatever....this way?"
Torana nods and turns heading back into Magnus room, "If you have any questions just ask anyone you see." He looks down at Magnus and says conversationally, "Ah so good to see you've made it back! Parawn got a bad shock but he is recovering nicely and is already asking to examine that pesky sword."
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