Master mage ordained mag.., p.14
Master Mage: Ordained Magic: Book Three, page 14
Julian said, “You have no authority in my cities.”
“No, but I swore an oath to protect all of Texas, and you just tried to put all your mages under the command of a mass murderer and conquering dictator. You also and most importantly betrayed the oaths you gave to defend Texas in a limited mutual support agreement. That makes it my business, under that very narrow extension of all of our authority.”
Julian turned red in the face.
Gabriella said, “It seems the answer is to charge him with his crimes, and the mages that accepted the illegal orders to attack us too, with sedition and treason against Texas. Let the magicless court system have them. Then let the tri-city area pick their own new leaders, that last part isn’t something we can get involved in, I think.”
I nodded in agreement.
I turned to Franklin, “Fortunately for you, you just need to endure how embarrassing this must be for you, before we send you home in shame. Did you know I’m live streaming this, and for anyone who misses it we’ll put it up on YouTube later. I suspect you’re going to want to focus on winning the support of your conquered areas from now on, otherwise you’ll slowly lose all the cities. The way you punished any dissent with pain and death may just come back to bite you on the ass, since that won’t work anymore. You might want to just cut your losses, something tells me it’s a losing battle.”
I turned to Brett, “Can you have all our mages make a suppression enchantment, I doubt you have enough for the two hundred some odd mages that committed sedition and treason.”
Julian snorted, “You can’t do that.”
Gabriella smirked, “We can, and are, doing that. Both stopping war and stopping you.”
She tapped her lip while looking up, “You know, come to think of it, we have the death penalty don’t we. I mean, Texas does. What was the punishment for treason again?”
I snickered, “That’s so mean. I’m sure the ones that followed illegal orders won’t get the maximum penalty, but I suppose it’s inevitable in Julian’s case.”
I even felt a tiny bit guilty when the blood drained from Julian’s face. Not that guilty though, he deserved to pay with his life, because of the deaths he’d caused. Decided by a court of law, not me, but I was in total agreement that it should happen.
Franklin said, “I hate to interrupt your gloating fun, but do you really mean that. This spell will end war?”
“Nothing is forever, so I won’t lie. But for the foreseeable future, perhaps centuries, mages will rule on the city level only, as part of a city state, or larger states like Texas, run by magicless, or mages I suppose, but that sounds exhausting. Bigger is possible, but only by cooperation, so it’s unlikely to happen. Too many mages will want to rule, for one mage to gain that much power.”
The surprising part was Franklin didn’t look at all upset about it. I mean, he wasn’t happy he’d lost, but the concept of war being in the past obviously struck a nerve in the man.
He said, “I think that’s what got me started on this path, I just wanted to avoid being conquered by another as more and more squabbles between cities started to happen. To do that I needed a bigger kingdom with more and better trained mages.”
I kind of got it, but that had driven him to darker things, keeping it all together with fear, violence, and threats of violence to any that opposed him even in opinion. Still, if he led a better life after today, I wasn’t going to complain about it.
We declared the war over, which had lasted all of a few seconds, and that’s only because we’d had to cast the spell after the first attack because of Julian’s betrayal. We also sent home Franklin and his people first, since it took a bit of time to get all two hundred and thirty-four Dallas area mages that had betrayed us inserted with suppression enchantments. We’d made fun of them a lot less than planned, the unexpected pall of death had made the whole thing far less amusing than planned, but I was fairly sure that didn’t matter. The point had been made.
We split up the traitors between five cities, so as not to overwhelm any one city’s system with two hundred and thirty-four simultaneous arrests, including Julian. That was forty-seven for each city, except the last which only got forty-six. They were further split up so no precinct saw more than ten of them, keeping it manageable.
Logistics could be a pain but keeping them in mind made things easier in the long run.
It was a good day, but also a hard day, as I said goodbye to Laura, Jacob, and Kevin in my own private way.
Chapter Sixteen
Sunday late morning the new master spell was finished, placed in the personal master magic book, and delivered to Rosa. A single master spell encompassing the inertia-less drive, earth and fire shields to take care of the meteorites and radiation, and the communication FTL relay. If they leveraged that last correctly, then not only would it mean instant radio communication with mining control, but they’d also be able to send data over it, for web surfing, phone calls, and streaming video. I supposed it all depended on the quality and diversity of the technological communications gear they installed.
If it was just a radio, then that’s all they’d get.
The next couple of weeks I focused on pure magical research for the most part, but let me cover a couple of other things before I continue that thought.
As expected, the Peace spell was used widely around the world those two weeks. Not quite in every single city, but most of them, and I figured it was probably just a matter of time before the whole world was covered by it. Even small cities and larger towns were adopting it. The world was breaking out in peace, and truly evil mage governments were being constrained from their usual actions and harsh policies, if not outright being toppled. So, I supposed in that one exception, my spell was being used to conquer, and no sadistically controlling mage leader would ever rise again to a position of rule.
I was building the next master spell as well, but spending half the usual time I did on that project, to fill out the first master spell book for the world. Sure, it was for me too, and I was up to a handful of personal ones at that point as well, which only my sister and I had access to. Regardless, the spell I was adding was highly complex so would likely take a month to finish at the slower rate. It wasn’t exactly critical, but it would be useful, and I’d already created most of the master spells that were time sensitive. At least, until the next emergency reared its head, but until then one spell a month seemed like more than enough over a lifetime. There’d be others doing this as well, in the future, and I was adding spells from Gabriella as well who wanted to keep a lower profile.
Anyway, the spell would essentially earthquake proof a city, and guard against hurricane and tornado damage. Which were the three most common natural disasters. Maybe one day I’d go after avalanches, rockslides, and mudslides, and maybe volcanos, but those disasters were usually out in the boonies, and there weren’t very many mages in rural areas. Even larger towns only had a handful of us there.
Lesser things like flooding and basic storm damage, could be alleviated by a mage with a single glyph, so I wasn’t going to address those at all. Those were part of the things that made a mage community, and it was the stuff we used to give back as groups in our society. I didn’t want to take away the jobs of mages any more than I did the jobs of the magicless, so that meant only using master spells to address issues or needs that were beyond a single mage at even apprentice level.
Back to the research which was my central focus at that point in my life.
It didn’t take me long to figure out the glyphs for life regeneration which was immortality, and a glyph for resurrection, in my investigation of the plane of light. Life regeneration wouldn’t just freeze someone at their current age, instead it would keep them at their peak health and prime age. It was like the restoration spell for my house, but instead for life.
I didn’t plan on using it unless I absolutely had to at the end of my life, if my research still wasn’t complete at that time. It was a better spell than my workaround, and if active would even guard from death, instantly regenerating any damage to the caster’s body. None of my desires had changed, and that included living a full life with Carlos, growing old with him and seeing my great grandchildren grow up.
As for resurrection, just… I didn’t know what to do with that at all. I kind of got why the gods hadn’t given us either of those light glyph spells. We were mortal, not meant to be immortal, and resurrection… I don’t think I’d ever use it, though I was sure I’d be tested by that decision in the future if I lost someone I loved.
I thought it might be okay, for someone that just died, though I worried even that would put the attention of the gods on me, and not in a good way. Still, longer term dearly departed would be a huge mistake, as returning them to life may not be what they want. Plus, if they’d reincarnated, I’d essentially be killing their current life and forcing their soul back into the body of their previous life. So a long-term dead person needed to stay dead, as their soul may have already moved on to the next life, either here or on some other plane of existence.
Those weren’t the only new light glyphs I’d learned, but all the rest had no application in the mortal planes. The spells were meant to be used inside the plane of light. Using them here wouldn’t accomplish anything, but the glyphs did give me a certain insight into the plane of light that I hadn’t had before. Esoteric things I won’t even try to explain.
The darkness side of things was even more disturbing, as I’d found a simple spell glyph to erase someone’s or something’s existence. Not just from the present, but completely remove their entire existence throughout time.
Besides being horrific and scary on the personal level, I feared that would also change our present, by modifying the timeline and all the other lives that person had touched throughout theirs. Essentially changing history. I’d use resurrection all day long, before I ever used that one once. Which is to say, never.
It was pretty clear why none of those had been shared, because there’d always be one dumbass mage who had more intelligence than sense, that would use them.
Lastly, I’d communed with a few beings of light, what humans would think of as angels or gods.
Those beings had not acknowledged me or answered my questions. Whether that was because they’d chosen not to, or there were rules forbidding the interaction, I wasn’t sure, but the result was the same. Still, it did allow me to understand them on a deep level, if not what they did, thought, and got up to, I knew what they were.
And I knew I’d barely scratched the surface, there was still so much more to discover and learn about the multiverse.
When I understood it all, I’d make my decision. Embrace immortality and perhaps goddess-hood, or I’d take a hard pass in favor of my next human life as a mage.
But I will say this, I was already coming to understand that being mortal was the most diverse experience the multiverse had to offer.
The gods of light were stuck with it, they couldn’t embrace the amorality of neutrality, or the darkness. If I chose one of those three, I’d either lose my ability to recognize light and darkness, or I’d become one of those two things.
I think I even understood why the gods of magic were dependent on mortal mages, because they’d chosen a fourth option to achieve immortality as lesser gods. The god of light magic wasn’t a being of light at all, he was just the chosen conduit of light for mages to access that sphere of magic in the mortal planes and universes he was present in. I’d have to do a lot more research before I understood it fully, but I suspected if I ever embraced the path of ascension, then I’d be following their example, because the thought of becoming pure light, pure darkness, or an absence of both, was a little revolting next to the richness of mortal existence, to be honest.
Immortality or not, I wasn’t sure living such a narrow life was worth it for immortality, not after living a rich mortal existence.
Only time and deeper understanding would tell.
Not exactly the same either, I wouldn’t be usurping their idea or position, I was sure there were a wealth of choices for gods anchored in the prime mortal planes, and likely at least one that would appeal to me.
I had all the time in this universe to figure it out, which was far more than I’d need.
For now, I had a lifetime to live, with my family, friends, apprentices, and who knew what was next for me.
The future was bright.
Afterword:
I hope you enjoyed the last book of Ordained Magic, if you did, please leave a review. Reviews are the lifeblood of independent authors, and I would greatly appreciate any constructive feedback or opinions.
This was the final book of three in the Ordained Magic series.
About the Author: If you have any comments or suggestions you can send me an email at dlharrisonauthor@gmail.com If you like my work, or even if you don’t, please consider leaving a review of this book. I can also be found at https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7456808.D_L_Harrison
Other books by D. L. Harrison:
http://www.amazon.com/author/dlharrison
The Formerly Dark Mage, by D. L. Harrison – This stand-alone fantasy book follows the life of Silvia and takes place in a world unique and separate to our own.
Silvia is a dark mage. Unfortunately, she finds herself about to be sacrificed. Someone must have told her evil master about her plans to kill him and take over. After that, things just seem to go downhill. She has no choice but to escape the kingdom of Zual, something that to her knowledge has never been done before. She will need to deal with many issues she never had to face before.
Among those issues, the white mages, and her conscience.
The Rise of a Dark Mage - This stand-alone fantasy book follows the life of Cassandra, it takes place in the same world as The Formerly Dark Mage, but happens three hundred years later, long after Silvia is gone and some shocking changes have taken place in the world.
Cassandra is a dark mage in the kingdom of Zual, she’s also a mage prodigy.
She hates both her kingdom, and her master. She wants him dead, not to take his place, but so she can leave and explore the world. Her ambition will drive her to rediscover the secrets of the strongest of magic.
She is determined to succeed, or she’ll die trying.
Celia Winters Novel Series
Witch’s Moon: A Celia Winters Novel Book 1
Celia Winters was raised by her single mother, and her earliest memories are of the store her mother owns and the nearby coven, who have always been her family’s close allies and friends.
She grew up believing her magic was weak, but she was satisfied with her life, and happy. She was a midwife, healer, and supplier of surrounding covens.
Then her mother died, and she’s about to discover she isn’t who, or what, she believes herself to be, not completely. She will learn that her entire life up until now was a lie. She’ll need to figure out her place, who she is when she no longer recognizes herself, and try to hold on to her closest friends as she gathers enemies for the simple crime of her existence.
She’s stronger than she believes, but will it be enough?
Power of Air Series:
Just a Psychic: The Power of Air Book One starts off this series.
Ben has grown up with missing memories of his early childhood.
He has known he was a psychic since his earliest memories, seeing the future and gaining knowledge with his gifts.
Is it possible he isn't just a psychic?
Ben's world is about to be turned upside down as he turns twenty-one, all is not as it seems.
Alicia Jones novels is a series that follows a bright young inventor and scientist named Alicia Jones. It is a space opera and light science fiction.
The first book is titled First Contact:
Alicia Jones is a genius, and a little odd. At just twenty-three years of age, she is close to finishing her doctoral dissertation. But when she tests her latest theory in the lab to generate a strong EM field, it has very unanticipated results. Results that lead to faster than light travel, and first contact with another race.
Her life just gets more complicated after that, when she finds out who she really is, and that the universe may not be as nice a place as she’d been told. Her determination to help keep Earth safe takes her to places more dangerous and strange than she’d ever envisioned.
Spirit Sorceress series, by D. L. Harrison is a new urban fantasy series. Miku is a spirit sorceress who spent the last one hundred years growing up and learning about her power in the forests near Seattle Washington. She’s about to make her debut in the big city, but not in a way she ever expected.
The first book is titled Spirit Sorceress:
Miku is a spirit sorceress who spent her unusually long childhood in the forest away from the city with her mother and father. After tragedy strikes, she finds herself alone and on her own. She knows that one day she’ll need to move to Seattle, and fully accept her birthright, and if necessary finish her training on her own.
But before she’s ready, and still in grieving, a rogue vampire and his band come along and change everything. She’ll need to learn her new place in the world, and find some allies quick if she’s to survive.
Katrina Baker Novels, by D. L. Harrison is a new series about a super named Katrina Baker. Problem is, she gets caught up in her mother’s plan, who is a mad scientist and supervillain, and gets herself transported to another world in the multi-verse. A world where mages, witches, clerics, and the gods are real. Not to mention the monsters…
The first book is titled Banished:
Katrina baker is a super. She has mental abilities such as telekinesis, telepathy, and others. Her parents are supervillains, and she isn’t all that sure she’s cut out for that line of work. Her empathy with others through her power makes it hard to be uncaring, much less mean or evil to people. Problem is, the last thing she wants to do is disappoint mom and dad.
