Runic apprentice, p.7
Runic Apprentice, page 7
part #1 of The Rune Mystic Series
Strength of magic was important, but guile, cunning, experience, knowledge, and wisdom all got a vote too. He started to lose the feel of it, and he pushed the worries of the future life and death challenges out of his mind, and just focused on moving the magic faster through his channels, without it overflowing and harming his body.
It was deceptively easy, but he also screwed up a few times. He had to keep a constant focus on it. He hoped she was right about it becoming automatic, because he doubted that he’d be able to walk in that moment, much less have enough situational awareness to fight with a sword and cast spells at the same time.
It was all a bit overwhelming. He had a long way to go, and a lot of work ahead of him. Fortunately, he wasn’t lazy, he’d always been a hard worker, or he wouldn’t have succeeded at blacksmithing.
It was also self-reinforcing. Each time he firmed up his channels to prevent leakage and succeeded, he speeded up the flow, then firmed up the channels, and each success told him he could do it, which invariably made it easier as he started to trust in himself. At some point, he was unable to make it go any faster. He likened it to consciously taking in a deep breath, there was a point where the lungs simply couldn’t hold any more air.
He also suspected that limit would change, when his magic grew.
“I think I got it.”
Cassandra touched one of her necklaces, and her eyes went a bit distant as he felt her cast a rune spell.
She smiled, “Good, that’s perfect. Keep doing that until you start to feel fatigued, then slow it back to a trickle. You figured that out quickly. You also have a good amount of magic to be starting with. Not unusually so, but I’ve seen a lot worse.”
He said, “Maybe my past. It takes a lot of focus at the forge.”
It was true enough, scatterbrained smiths usually got burned, or put out subpar products.
She nodded, “We’ll do this every morning for a week. I suspect by the last day you won’t even have to think about it. You’ll subconsciously firm up your channels and increase the flow. Then we can get into actual spellcasting. As I said though, you’ll need to exercise your magic like this every day, unless you’re overtaxed already from actual practice spellcasting.”
It was maybe an hour later, the magic in his chest was less warm, and started to feel rather thin. It was also accompanied by a loss of energy, and he slowed his magic down to what it was before, a mere trickle, and let out a breath.
“I’m done.”
She smiled, “Good. Any questions?”
He smirked, “About a million, but I’d be getting ahead of myself. I don’t have any for practicing channeling, no. Although, I assume it will flow even faster, when it grows larger?”
She nodded, “Yes. Any more assumptions you want to verify?”
He laughed, “No maam, all my other assumptions are what you told me.”
She snickered, “Scamp. Get out of here. You have about an hour to rest, and it might help to get a snack. Then you have your sword practice class, for two hours before lunch. That will be in the arena.”
He nodded, “Then lunch, afternoon class with you, and dinner?”
She said, “Yes.”
He tilted his head, “I do have one unrelated question, Neal mentioned something about oaths?”
She nodded, “Two weeks, and a day from now. If not the king himself, someone from his family will be present for the arena competitions that take place each month. They or the king himself will administer the oath to any new apprentices that came in the last month.”
He nodded, “Will I be involved in that?”
She grinned, “Of course. It will be a learning experience. You’ll have almost no chance at all of winning, and only have a handful of spells at most after that second week, but a clever person can learn a lot from failure.”
He sighed, “A painful learning experience.”
She grinned wider, “Those are the best kind.”
He snickered, “Fine. Any advice on what I should focus on?”
She nodded, “Even if you could learn more than a handful, you won’t be able to cast more than that. I’d suggest researching earth protections, they have the best overall protective spell, which even helps if someone slips a physical blade through your guard. That, speed and strength for fighting, and you might have enough magic left over for another spell or two.
“You won’t be using your sword of course, you’ll be using the arena practice swords, which are rather dull but still metal and painful. They’re spelled to mark a person that would’ve been mortally wounded. In fact, I’d suggest leaving your blade in the tower for both practice and competitions, you should only take it with you if you go into the city.”
“Earth is the best protection?” he asked.
She lifted a hand and waggled it, “For someone that can only afford to cast one protection spell, yes. Obviously, water is a better guard against a fire spell, but Earth will blunt all the other elements, is the best physical protection, and is marginally effective against life and death. When your magic matures, you’ll want to be casting six protection spells, as each sphere is more effective than the others against one other sphere. In the beginning, you’ll just need to do the best you can. It’ll be a good half a year before you can afford to go in with all the best protections and spells.”
She gave him a shrug, and said, “And losing badly in the first few competitions will clue you into the best spells to use, and it may lead you in different directions. No two fights are the same, and no two challenges are the same. People are always looking for an edge, or a new tactic. If nothing else, it’s fun, it’s also sobering. Take it very seriously, it’s a big part of being prepared for when it isn’t a mere contest for bragging rights and the best posts and missions.”
“Well, at least my shield won’t be any worse than any of the earth mages.”
She laughed, “Good outlook, and true. Keep in mind not many use swords outside of us, and the life mages. It will give you a small advantage over new apprentices without a sword, as you can concentrate the magic you do have on the defensive and enhancement side.”
He’d have to give it some thought, even if he had enough magic to pull off two more spells, after shielding and enhancing his speed and strength, chances were any shielded mage would be far more powerful magically, which meant offensive magic most likely wouldn’t get through. Point being, he’d need to pick something that lent him surprise, and perhaps that wasn’t a direct attack.
“Maybe I should hit the library.”
She grinned, “Go for it. There’s no saying you can’t come to me with five or six runes when we start our second week, if you want.”
He nodded, “Those three, two of which I know already, and two more. I’ll have to do a little research, but I have a glimmer already.”
She raised an eyebrow.
He smiled, “I need to be sneaky.”
She laughed, “Go, and good job this morning.”
He was rather clever, but he wondered if he was being arrogant. He had no experience at this, what were the chances of him coming up with something truly original? Of course, that didn’t mean he wouldn’t try. He knew he’d never win, but the last thing he wanted to do was come in dead last.
He also knew to find ideas, and discover synergies between spells, that he’d need to learn all the spells. He decided then he’d learn the whole library, which of course would take him months of long study. Then he could decide on all the spells that would be best for him, and scribe those on bracers, weapons, or rods depending on what they were. If he had blank rods on hand, and knew all the spells, then if one came up that was needed, he could always scribe it on the spot.
It was insanely ambitious, and a hell of a lot of work he’d just set himself, but he’d never been lazy, and if he was going to do this magic thing, he was going to do it right. He didn’t mind a challenge, and diving into his new life might help keep his mind off his old one. Of course, his natural gifts as a rune mystic would help with that ambition, the one advantage was he could learn the runes much faster than others. Not only wouldn’t he forget what a rune looked like, he’d be able to feel if he’d scribed it wrong.
He’d just have to carefully research the spell theory parts, and not make any assumptions.
Of course, for the moment he’d focus on those three spells, and finding two more that could help him in the first competition.
Chapter Nine
He wasn’t all that optimistic when he left the library, but he’d found a couple of more earth spells that might be useful in a fight, indirectly. He’d be limited to those five spells by power, if not by learning, and planned to put them all on a bracer next week when he was allowed to. Any success past that would be from the physical sword fighting side.
It wasn’t just casting them either, it took a small amount of magic constantly to maintain a spell, then if the earth magic shield was hit by something it’d take even more magic to compensate. He supposed how long he’d last was directly related to how well he dodged.
He also wasn’t married to those last two spells, but if he didn’t find anything better over the next two weeks they would do. The next day he planned to start going through the library book by book, something that was definitely a long-term plan.
He left the library, and he headed down one of the spoke corridors to the center of the main building. The arena had seven entrances, fed from the spoke hallways leading inward from the towers. The place was vast, and it was sunken into the ground partially. The corridor led to an entrance in the stands, and he headed down the stairs to the arena floor.
The arena was intimidating, with a mock village and buildings, as well as trees and other obstacles a person could take cover behind. There was a large group of white robes on the end in the open field part of the arena, with a few other colors mixed in, so he assumed that was the class and headed that way.
There were only about eighteen people present, he guessed by those numbers it was less than ten percent of the life mage tower, of course many of their mages would be on assignment, on a mission. He wondered if his assumption was false about the monthly competition, there wouldn’t be five hundred mages on the field, a lot of those will probably be on assignment.
There were two brown robes for earth, himself for rune, and one each of green for water and black for death. Those four were standing alone on the outskirts of the group, clearly the towers not mingling was a real thing. Well, for most.
He smiled genuinely when he saw Caley and walked over to her. Her petite height, reddish brown hair, warm liquid brown eyes, and pixie beauty was unmistakable.
“Hey Caley, take over the tower yet?”
She laughed, “Olin. Nope, give me a week or two, how about you?”
“Oh, settling in okay. The tower’s a little small for four, but it will do.”
She snickered, “You’re in a good mood.”
He nodded, “I suppose I am. Where do I get one of those nifty practice swords everyone else seems to have?”
He found that he was, so far so good, and hadn’t missed his old life for almost two hours being preoccupied with channeling practice and study. Well, until that moment, he hadn’t.
She pointed at the closest building in the mock town, “Stock room for competitions, you’d better hurry, I think we’re about to start. I’m… glad you’re in this class.”
He nodded, “You too,” and jogged over to the building. Now that she mentioned it, he saw the rune on the building telling him what it was. He was curious about that, why was everything labeled with runes, when the rune mages were the smallest tower? Maybe he’d ask about it, if he ever thought of it while he was with the others.
It didn’t take him long to find a practice sword close to his. It was a sabre, and a half inch shorter, but a thirty-three-inch blade was good enough. The edges were dulled, and the point rounded and dull. No doubt it would break bones, but unless he hit someone on the neck or head it wouldn’t kill, and that should be easy enough to avoid.
He jogged back out just in time, and he moved over to the group as an older man approached the group in white robes. He noticed right away Caley’s face was flushed, and she didn’t look nearly as happy as she usually did. He looked around, and he saw a couple of disapproving looks sent their way as he neared Caley.
She suddenly seemed a little uncomfortable with his proximity, but there was also shame mixed up with that, as if she hated feeling that way.
Damn, did someone give her shit when he was gone? For being friendly with another tower, and a male at that? Maybe he wouldn’t get to keep that friendship after all, not if it would cost her a lot of problems. His assumption could be wrong, there was no time to ask what was wrong however, as the older man in white robes started to speak and all side conversations shut down immediately.
He didn’t blame anyone, the guy was as intimidating as hell. He was about forty-five, give or take a few years, and his whole body looked chiseled, including his face. He had black hair, gray eyes, and had two wicked looking hand axes hanging from his belt on either side. Even his deep voice was gravelly and held authority.
“I am Master Mage Jaren, the weapons instructor for the mage guilds. Many of you know me, but I see a few new faces in the crowd, so will reiterate the rules.”
There were no moans or complaints about this, even if he imagined many of them had heard it more than once.
“Rule one. Magic is not to be used in this class ever. Speed and strength won’t matter at all, if you can’t wield a sword with grace and precision. My job is to make those that will work hard for it, into sword-masters the equal of the royal guard without magic. Out in the field, with magic, you’ll become that much deadlier when magic does come into play.
“Rule two. Any problems, hurt feelings, or inter-tower rivalries, you will leave those off the field and out of my class. If I catch anyone trying to harm anyone else out of personal dislike or for a vendetta, you will be removed from my class immediately and never allowed back. This is training, but our weapons are still deadly, and you will respect them, me, and your classmates.
“Rule three. After class, your practice weapon will be cleaned, and returned to the racks. There are no servants here, and it’s a part of the class. You must take care of your weapons, at all times, lest they betray you out of misuse and mis-care. It will become habit, just as the sword forms will become a part of you if you work for it.”
Jaren paused for a moment, and looked at the two earth mages, “You two may use your magic for that part only. The point of it is to train you in habits, and no doubt out in the field you’ll be sharpening, cleaning, and caring for your weapons with magic. Obviously, that will have to wait until you’ve learned the spells involved.”
Huh, apparently, he and Caley weren’t the only new people in the class.
Jaren said, “Good. Now, we will go through the sword forms. Those of you who are new, just follow along the best you can.”
The class moved into formation, giving everyone around them plenty of room to swing without anyone else in the way, and he and Caley moved to join them. He didn’t think he did too badly, many of the sword forms he knew already, Cain had taught him all the ones that he knew, but there were a few new ones that he was unfamiliar with and did his best to reproduce. Twenty altogether. He suspected his form wasn’t as good as he thought though, it never was the first time he’d done one before.
He was at best, already a decent swordsman, but the standards at the mage school obviously aimed much higher than that. The royal guardsman were said to be the deadliest sword wielders in the kingdom. It would take him years to get that good, he suspected he’d be a mage, then master mage, before he’d reach that goal.
Jaren ran through the forms three times, and then he split up the class and had people start to spar. All except him, Caley, the two earth apprentices, and the water apprentice. They were called off to the side.
Jaren said, “Our first task will be to teach you the forms, and for you to perfect them. This will take hard work, boring and repetitive work, for weeks, until your body knows them perfectly. Then and only then will you join the sparring practice. The forms are the base, the beginning, learning to combine them into a weaving offense and defense of constant movement will be our true task. That can only happen with experience. Any questions?”
Before anyone could answer, Jaren barked, “Neal! That was sloppy.”
Jaren turned back to them, and met each of their gazes, then nodded.
“Very well, first form.”
It wasn’t very long before he learned the true meaning of perfection. Jaren’s corrections weren’t harsh or blistering, but they were firm and constant for all of them. They worked on the first form only for the next two hours, until even his arms felt like a couple of noodles, and he was strong enough to work a forge all day.
Still, Olin gave no thoughts toward quitting, though he did need to double down on his stubbornness and desire to become a sword-master. It was no longer a matter of defending a smithy from thieves, he’d be a mage of Reton, on missions for a king. No doubt that was a more than a little bit more dangerous than defending a forge from a petty thief.
He knew one thing, Jaren was an excellent teacher, if a bit of a sadist. His only consolation was he was a little bit ahead of the others, at least he knew some of the forms and was a decent fighter. But clearly, decent wasn’t going to cut it in his new home, or his new life.
At the end of class, he cleaned his sword and put it up. He and Caley had exchanged a few glances throughout class, and before they left the field, but they’d exchanged no more words. He suspected he’d been right, that someone had given her a dressing down for associating with a mage of another discipline when he’d stepped away to get his practice sword.
