The mage from nowhere, p.40
The Mage From Nowhere, page 40
“I am not wondering much anymore.”
“I am! And I am very confused, Ali, especially as all of this happened again soon after she became calm. She was gesturing for me to leave by the end of the next cycle, but she did so with kindness in her eyes. Illia once told me I made her crazy. I still take it as a compliment, but…” He blew out air.
“All right, that’s plenty.”
Tarak nodded. Then he saw Basael approaching.
“Tarak!” Basael boomed. “My grandson! Today I teach you many things.”
Aliana gave a single wave to Tarak and headed toward the stairs.
“I must eat breakfast right now,” Tarak mumbled to Basael.
“You must?” Basael questioned.
“Well, I would like to.” Tarak paused. “Actually, yes. I must.”
“You are seventeen?”
“Why?”
“When Caarda was seventeen, he only needed one meal a day and would sleep only half the night.”
“Maybe he should have spent more time eating and sleeping, and he might have developed a sense of humor.”
“Humor grows stale. It is determination, strength, and honor that matters after centuries.”
“Well, for now, since I am not centuries old, I will continue to enjoy humor.”
“You are defiant!”
Tarak’s shoulders slouched. “May I be excused to have breakfast now? Please?”
“You may never be as strong as me, but by the time I am finished molding you into the warrior you are destined to be, you will at least have Caarda’s strength.”
“Wonderful,” Tarak replied as he turned to the sound of a door opening down the hall. Illia emerged from her room. He called her name as he hurried over. Basael did not follow, thankfully.
“Tarak,” she said apologetically as he reached her. “I sorry. My sorcery.”
He nodded. “I know.” Tarak put on a charming smile and took her hands. Her guilt seemed to dissolve as she grinned at him. “You are beautiful,” he said.
“Thank you.”
“Uni ashi ya zey,” Tarak said.
“No, you make me crazy!” she replied in common tongue, surprising him.
“You learned that yesterday?”
She nodded and tapped her head. “I smart.”
He laughed.
Her smile faded. “Today, I leave.”
“Today?”
“Yes, if portal works. We go to portal in forest. Basael make.”
“I will miss you.”
“I will miss you, Tarak. Again, we…em. We make crazy?”
“Oh uh, I do not know if there is time.”
“Not now,” she said with a laugh. “Later time. Far later time? I see you later?”
“I hope.”
“Hope?” she asked.
“I want,” he said. “But I do not know.”
She nodded. “Hope. I hope.” She leaned against his chest, and he embraced her. She looked up at him. “I train sorcery. I train very. I learn control.”
“Good,” he said in relief, and they laughed together.
She leaned away. “You no, em, you no wait me. You make girl crazy. Girl not me.”
He nodded. “And you will make another boy crazy.”
“Yes. I make many.”
They laughed again.
“But you other. You…” She seemed frustrated as she pressed her fist against her heart.
“Special?” Tarak asked.
“What is special?” she wondered.
He held up her wrist and pointed to the bracelet he had given her.
“Yes,” she said. “You special. Always special.”
Tarak nodded. “You are special, Illia. You are proof that there is more to our connections than words.” He pointed at the bracelet again. “Sorcery is not here now, and I feel close to you.” She seemed confused, so he tapped the bracelet. “No sorcery.” Then he pulled her into him and embraced her warmly. “Still this. Us.”
She squeezed him tightly. “Yes. No sorcery. Us.”
He held her for a while before she pulled away. “I prepare leave.” She gestured at her room.
He nodded. She opened the door to her room, though she appeared to see something behind Tarak that confused her for a moment. She went into her room and closed the door after her.
Tarak was surprised to see Basael walking toward him. He held in a groan.
Basael said, “Your grandmother was a beautiful woman, and with a great big rump that would start a fire in my chest.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
Tarak didn’t know what bothered him more, this detail about his grandmother or the fact that Tarak was partial to the same part of women that his grandfather seemed to enjoy.
“Because even though your grandmother and I had passion, there was no love between us. Emphatic caring of any kind is a weakness.”
“I accept this weakness.”
“Then you are a fool.”
“Correct.”
Basael whipped his head back. “You care not that you are a fool?”
“I do not.”
Basael shook his head. “You have much to learn. I am disappointed in Caarda.”
“I do have much to learn from you, about sorcery,” Tarak specified. “But grandfather, were you not poised to kill me earlier?”
“We cannot say that would be certain.”
“We can certainly say there was a chance, and I cannot forget that so easily. I may have a lot to learn, but nearly slaying your own grandson means you have a lot to make up for.”
“I do not need to make up for anything when I do nothing wrong. I had no intention of hurting you.”
“I speak not of your intentions but of the possibility. There was an instance of the future in which you killed me. Caarda saw it. You saw it.”
“You cannot hold a man or even a god like me accountable for the possibility of an act. Think of your possibility to fight me. It is either equal blame or no blame at all. You can dwell on what might have happened or move past it. What choice do you make?”
“I would like to dwell a while longer.” Especially if that means you will leave me alone for now.
“Caarda warned me that your personality impedes your ability to develop your sorcery.”
“And your sorcery appears to have impeded your ability to develop a personality.”
“My personality is my identity. I am a god and a protector. Caarda wanted the same for you.” Basael made a fist. “I can shape you. Let go of your stubborn personality and accept destiny, and I will show you how to open a portal today.”
“Ah shit,” Tarak grumbled. He did want to learn that, at least. “Fine, grandfather. I will heed your advice for now, but I am not ready to let go that we almost came to a fight.”
Basael forced a laugh. “Fight, you call it? Does an ant fight a man? No, it is squashed. I will allow you to eat your breakfast, but you will absorb your first lesson as you do so. I will start you down the path toward mastery of mana. Then you will not need much food or sleep.”
“But I like food…and sleep.”
Basael gave him a look. Tarak sighed.
“Fine. I will listen.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Callie watched as Tarak and Basael entered the dining quarters. They headed over to the table with Caarda and Callie’s father. Tarak had a look on his face as if he’d rather be anywhere else. When he noticed Callie looking at him, he put on a tired smile and gave a two-fingered wave.
She waved back and stood up. She was about to leave Eden and Aliana behind when Eden made a remark, “Already off to take my advice?”
“What?” she asked.
“You know,” Eden hinted.
“Gosh no. I told you I will see this through with Trevor.”
“Yes, you did say that,” Eden agreed, though she was still hinting at something.
“Let her be,” Aliana interjected.
Callie left the table in a bit of a rush as she noticed Tienna entering the dining hall. The older girl was kind, but perhaps a little too kind. Callie felt the same way with Tienna as she did when speaking with Zarin. There seemed to be something each wanted from Callie beyond getting to know her or enjoying her company. At least with Zarin it seemed clear that he might be interested in a future marriage. She knew how to deal with that. Tienna’s goal, however, Callie still couldn’t comprehend.
Tienna waved to her and approached as if to speak, but Callie simply waved back and pretended not to notice as she came to the open bench beside Tarak.
“May I sit?” she asked the table, her gaze resting on her father. “I would like to ask Basael something, and I can be brief.”
Her father gestured for her to sit. She took her place next to Tarak, across from her father. On the other side of Tarak sat Caarda, who faced Basael. She still felt the same flutter in her stomach when sitting close to Tarak as she had last night, and like last night, she ignored it as best she could.
Callie’s father had seemed strange this morning. He had spoken to her about her outing and asked many questions. At first she had feared he was trying to entrap her and punish her for something, but when his questions started shifting to find out more about Tienna, she realized something else was up. She couldn’t quite figure out what it was, and when she began to wonder aloud, he shut down the questioning rather fast. This was particularly odd behavior for her father, who often didn’t stop until he got the answer he wanted.
“I apologize for interrupting,” Callie said. “Basael, I’m eager to find out how you spoke to me as I was falling asleep a while back.”
“An explanation? I am a powerful god, princess. You will see many feats that you will fail to understand.”
“She wonders what type of sorcery you used,” Caarda elaborated.
“It is a level of sorcery none of you can match. There is no point in wondering.”
“There is always a good reason to wonder,” Caarda replied. “Without wonder, we cannot expect them to improve and fight this ‘war’ you keep going on about.”
“There is war in the future! You see it.”
“I see fighting and death, and what could be war. I do not see these ‘gods’ from other realms and kingdoms in disarray. What I know is we must prepare just in case. As you have shown you can communicate across distances, do you not believe this is a skill that could be useful to the king’s sorcerers?”
“And I tell you there is no point. Only gods like me can use such a skill.”
Callie interrupted, “At least tell me why I was the one you spoke to. Why me?”
“That is a better question. You appear to be unaware that you have a gift.”
“I know of my talent with fire,” Callie said.
“No. With another type of sorcery.”
“Which?” she asked as she leaned forward.
Her father opened his mouth and put up his hand, but at least he had the decency to stop himself from interrupting. He had always been too worried about her involvement with sorcery. Even after she had proven herself useful during the war, he still had reservations about her training.
“Your instructor has failed you.” Basael stood up. He announced to the dining hall, “I will train you sorcerers from now on.”
“Hold on, Basael,” Nykal said, but Basael continued.
“I will ensure you are all ready for what is to come. Your first lesson begins today. All of you will join me as we journey into the forest. I will open a portal before your eyes and tell you about a type of magic none of you has discovered.”
He looked as if he expected…applause? Maybe cheering?
Leon stood up from his place in between the girls and the boys at another big table.
“What the fuck is this?” he said, glancing at Callie’s father.
Basael pointed at him. “You are the instructor?”
“I have instructed. Most of these young sorcerers wouldn’t be half of what they are today if it wasn’t for me.”
“Then you have done well, but you appear to have reached your limit.” Basael gestured at Callie. “You have taught this promising girl nothing except fire when she is capable of so much more.” He flapped a hand dismissively in Tarak’s direction. “And my grandson is rebellious and overconfident. He does not take sorcery seriously.”
Leon made his way around the long table in his way as he spoke. “First of all, Callie is not and has not been one of my students. Second of all, I just met Tarak recently. His personality is more your doing than mine.”
“Tarak is mostly my fault,” Caarda said as he stood.
Tarak jumped to his feet. “I am starting to take offense to this!”
Basael ignored him. “I will duel you, mortal,” he told Leon.
“I don’t have time for you.”
“You will make time if you wish to remain instructor.”
Leon had made his way over to their table. “Instruct them, then! I don’t care. I have too much to do anyway. In fact, please do it. I want to see what you really know about sorcery because if you are anything like Caarda, then you had better hope these mortals are smarter than you are. Or they will have no hope of understanding you.”
“Leon is right, my father,” Caarda agreed. “You taught sorcery well to your offspring because we were already connected to the system of mana you created. Mana is different to these beings. You may understand how to control it, but explaining it is different.”
“Nonsense.” Basael pointed at Callie. “She is already connected to mana. All of them are. I am disappointed if you cannot feel it.”
Caarda squinted as he pointed his palm at Callie. Then his hand dropped. “I feel nothing.”
“You are young, Caarda. You have spent most of your life in a distortion of time. I have been across the world. I am connected to every type of mana that exists. This girl shares a trait with this one.” Basael pointed at Illia, who seemed to be nervously standing just within the entrance of the great hall with a tray of food in hand. She looked behind her as if expecting Basael to be pointing at someone else.
“What this?” she asked when she realized she was involved. “Tarak?”
“I do not know,” Tarak answered with a shrug.
Callie asked Basael, “Are you saying I have an affinity with curses?”
“Curses? No. It is mana of the mind and body.”
Charlie called out, “Mortal magic! We call it mortal magic.” He approached so quickly that he stumbled over his own feet and fell to his hands and knees, though it didn’t stop him from talking as he quickly got himself up again. “I have been working with Illia with the help of Zarin. This is very exciting for you, Callie.”
“It is?”
“Yes! We are calling the spell Magnia because it magnifies feelings. It is not a curse but it does affect the body in a similar way.”
“I can’t do any of that,” Callie said.
“Not yet,” Charlie answered as he stopped in front of her. “But if Basael is right, then you have the capability. Basael, are you saying that the way you communicated with the princess was through this mortal magic tree?”
“Correct,” Basael said. “I could have also reached this one.” He pointed at Leon. “Or the analyte.”
Callie already knew that Leon’s ability to heal minor wounds was part of this mortal magic specialization, but nothing she had ever cast had anything to do with healing or altering someone’s mood. Considering what she had seen Illia go through as she came to terms with her power, Callie wasn’t sure it was something she wanted.
Then she remembered that Basael could speak to her whenever she was trying to sleep, and she realized this was definitely not something she wanted.
Basael announced, “As your new instructor, I will ensure all of you reach your potential.” He lifted his arms. “Spread the word, my followers. Basael is godly. Behold his power and you cannot deny this is true.”
The tables in the dining hall lifted toward small black spheres, like the kind made by Tarak’s gravity spell. Bowls and silverware spilled off. Many breakfasts were ruined. Callie was among many of the people who were lifted off the ground, and, like the others, she expressed her annoyance audibly.
Basael’s hands shook. His teeth clenched. So this was the extent of his power. It was mighty, but he was not God.
“Enough!” Nykal yelled as he held onto a floating table in the air.
Tarak grunted as he moved his hands, and Basael’s spell suddenly came to an end. Everyone and everything fell with a crash, a din of groans reverberating through the dining hall.
“So I can stop the spell,” Tarak said, both wonder and satisfaction in his voice.
Caarda said, “Like with everything, destruction of mana is easier than creation. It is even easier if you have access to the same tree as the spell.”
Basael shouted across the room, “Arthur, gather my congregation. It is time for everyone to witness my true power as I open a portal to Castle Korrithin.”
Arthur started to hurry toward the exit.
“Stop there, Arthur,” Nykal ordered. He told Basael, “We did not agree on an audience.”
“It is no audience. My congregation consists of dedicated mortals. They have served me thus far and deserve a demonstration of their god’s power. Gather the congregation, Arthur.”
Arthur headed toward the exit before Callie’s father spoke again.
“Arthur, don’t. We need to discuss this, Basael.”
“What is there to discuss? They are my congregation, my followers.”
“They are people of Lycast, my kingdom.”
“Would you refuse a boy an audience of his father’s honorific participation in combat? I perform feats for the good of this kingdom. You will allow people to witness.”
