Battle Mage: Winter's Edge (7 page)

             
“Good morning, Master Halthor,” the young mage greeted the large smith with a polite smile. Though graying and having a prematurely aging face from the constant life exposed to the fires, the smith was probably strong enough to break Sebastian in half were he of a mind. “I was wondering if I could borrow a few materials. I just need them for a brief experiment and will bring them back after unused.” Unless something strange happened during the experiment, he thought to himself, but figured not to push his luck as he explained his need.

             
Raising an eyebrow in slight confusion and appraisal, the smith replied, “I suppose I can hardly say no to something like that. What is it that you need exactly?”

             
“I was thinking of a couple different types of metal rods: iron, steel, tin and maybe bronze. Also if you might have a branch length piece of wood or as long as I can find so I don’t have to ride off to the woods and waste a morning on a horse ride, it would be appreciated,” he requested.

             
The man shrugged, “Stock’s over there. Take what you need. You might try the wood box out back to look for a piece of wood that long. Sometimes Caleb waits to cut pieces down for me until I will need them.”

             
Checking the stock rods, the mage was pleasantly surprised to find each kind of metal in approximately four foot lengths. Using a leather carrier usually used to hauls logs; Sebastian loaded the four rods and went out the back door with a brief thanks and goodbye to the smith. He even lucked into finding a decent piece of wood when he inspected the wood box. Nearly five feet in length and two to three inches thick, the lumber could make a decent walking staff if he were in need.

             
Thus supplied, the man went looking for an open courtyard. There were yards for training soldiers and even others for wizards testing their magic that were often strengthened against many of their potentially dangerous spells. Even though the dislike between wizards and mages was a matter of fact, Sebastian went looking for one of the warded mage yards. He figured both the time of day and the cold of the year made it unlikely that any wizards would be there to complain anyway.

             
Unpacking the materials onto a stone bench in the yard, the battle mage prepared himself. First, he wanted to tap into the energy he noted from trying Ashleen’s finger sparks. It was simply the beginning of where his research would start, but Sebastian was positive that it was the right way to proceed.

             
“Dance,” he ordered letting the flow of electricity begin to play in the palm of his hand and out through his fingers. The interplay of the sparks required power from the earth and also had a connection to the air, he knew. The main thing was that the mage felt for the power of the earth through the spell.

             
Power trickled into him from the soles of his feet all the way through his body in a controlled pull towards his outstretched hand, he noticed. Little strength came to him noticeably but in this case the mage figured the use of power he gave the sparks seemed to remain even with that of the earth being drawn into him. In the long run, he neither gained nor lost power as he held the spell, which was an intriguing notion.

             
“Increase,” the mizard ordered his mind to draw more of the earth’s force into the sparks and soon the lengths of the electrical tendrils became extended strands swirling like shortened whips from his hand. The strands thickened as he concentrated on pulling even more power and the twisting increased in speed. A small part of his subconscious mind wondered if he could take such a playful spell and create a true weapon out of it, but his main focus was still on feeling the flow of power.

             
The increased rate of electricity was trying to draw an equal amount of earth force, the mizard thought. As he continued maintaining the flow, Sebastian began to feel a new strain in his body. The power flowing through him was greater than he was used to, he believed, and it meant that his natural magic strength was largely unused so far. The strain, however, came as the buildup of energy from the earth continued. Sebastian actually thought that he could pull the earth’s power into him faster than he was using it. A scary thought crept into his mind. What happened if too much power did enter his body? If the release was less than the intake, what happened to the mage channeling the vast power of the earth?

             
He released the flow and the whips faded to nothing. Wiping sweat from his forehead, Sebastian smiled grimly. Despite the near freezing temperatures, the man was now sweating from the strain of holding onto so much power in a spell.

             
Walking over to the array of rods, the mage first took the piece of bronze. While doubting its inherent worth for this experiment, Sebastian had wanted to try as many variables as possible. Calling forth the dance spell, the mage tried to direct the flow of power from the ground through the bronze rather than through his body. The sparks began and he felt some of the flow coming through the rod, but the metal seemed to be fighting the flow. After a short while, the mage ended the test and tried the tin shaft next. Again his test of the flow seemed more of a fight than just using his body to draw upon the earth.

             
Sighing, Sebastian moved to the steel rod as he began to wonder if any of the materials could be made to work for him. The flow through the steel was stronger than the previous two he found, but again it seemed like there was something about the metal that fought the energy flow though to a lesser degree than the previous two. The control of the power wasn’t horrible, but ending it again the mage moved onto the next and final metal rod.

             
Iron, he found, drew the earth force very well. Unlike the rest, the magic seemed to follow the iron as a channel and flowed smoothly. He increased the draw of the electricity to the output of the thick whips while making sure to draw through the metal. Trying to monitor both his health and the flow, while also trying to figure out all the variables was extremely difficult, but Sebastian felt very satisfied by the time he stopped.

             
Nodding to himself, the mage thought maybe the connection had indeed begun to reveal itself as he had conjectured in the night.

             
Finally, he took the final test piece in his hands. The mage planted the long staff like piece of wood in front of him. Being longer and lighter, Sebastian didn’t have to lean over or fight the weight like with the iron and steel that were a bit too unyielding even in their rod forms, especially compared to the new staff.

             
The dance began once more and Sebastian let the staff direct the flow of power for him. He felt the ease of the flow being similar to that of the rod of iron, which surprised him slightly. Wondering if maybe the natural channels that carried water in a tree also served to channel the strength of the earth force, the mage continued to feel the flow through the wood. Trees grew from the ground as well and as such they must have a great affinity for the earth’s power, he believed.

             
Sebastian increased the flow of power and the tendrils extended outwards and the spinning increased as the mage pushed his skills as hard as any of the tests previously. He could feel the power increasing through the staff as well, but noticed much less stress on his body using the bridge. Some energy was taken in the control of the force, but if he were working the magic through just his own strength, Sebastian doubted he could have lasted even half as long.

             
Concentrating on the strands, Sebastian took all the twisting powerful tendrils and began to squeeze. The strands shortened but began to spin even faster. Trying to pull them in even more, the mizard never reduced the flow of power. Soon a charged ball of energy spun with a loud crackling hiss before him. The light inside the ball was a churning, bright, twisting tornado of blues and dazzling white electricity. When he felt that the ball could be strengthened no more without him losing control, Sebastian drove the furious ball of energy into the stone bench that held the rods being curious about the strength of such a thing.

             
A loud crack shattered the air as the scream of energy released tearing up the thick stone slab. Chips of stone struck him angrily cutting through his thick winter clothes in places and even drawing blood. Dust flew up around the courtyard and would have probably blinded him had the mage not erected the air shield earlier. Even so, Sebastian was thrown back like so much debris by the force of the release and the ensuing damage his attack had created.

             
As the din of the shattered stone settled back into quiet, the mage picked himself up wearily from the ground and assessed the damage. The bench had been made entirely of stone with the thick slabs all bound together. The seat itself had an overlap of a foot to the outer side of the slab. That was where the swirling ball had impacted and tore a nearly perfect round hole completely through the thick stone. It was a very clean cut despite the savage impact that had caused the damage. No real cracks left the point of the strike and, though it wasn’t completely smooth to the touch, the circle was all but perfect.

             
Sebastian nodded to himself happily. Not only had the mage answered the question of how to draw the power of the earth into himself, but he had even created a devastating spell that the mizard believed he could use in a hand to hand fight to great effect.

             
His attention returned to the staff and the mage suddenly realized that the wood had begun to show signs of charring. Apparently, the power that could harm him by such a dangerous draw would also wear on the wood in the process. The metals had not even gotten warm to the touch in the experimenting, but the branch having been organic must have much the same weaknesses as a man’s body before the great force that could be drawn from the earth.

             
As the tired mage began to pack up, Sebastian began to consider that if he perhaps blended the wood with a bit of iron it might be able to withstand the extra force acted on it. Noting the bench as the mage left the area, Sebastian wondered what the wizards who came here next would make of the strange circle carved through the seat and he began to smile.

Chapter 4- New Leap

              The clanging of a hammer on steel resounded clearly in the early morning winter air. The heat within the smithy was surprising since both ice and snow lay heavily on the roof of the stone building and remained pushed against the walls. Noise and heat were well known in that area of the keep and neither seemed to bother the smith Halthor, who was the main source of both. No, this morning it wasn’t any of the byproducts of his work bothering the man, but a young mage with too many thoughts in his magical head.

             
Sebastian had returned with the metal stock and Halthor had thought that would be the end of it. Unfortunately for the busy smith, the mage had instead moved over to one side of the room while Halthor tried to ignore him while continuing his business. Horses needed shoes, wagon wheels needed mending before the spring came back around and farmers needed them again, but Sebastian sat there wrapped up in a project and the smith just knew that he had to be working on something magical. Having rarely dealt with any wizards or mages, the smith found it hard to concentrate while the younger man worked with a staff of about five feet. The mage had borrowed it and then returned only to decide to keep it apparently. Even that would not have bothered him since one shaft of wood wouldn’t be missed from his burn bin, but still he sensed the mage at work on some mystery that Halthor didn’t comprehend and it worried him.

             
Even as the clanking of worked metal continued, Sebastian in turn did ignore the blacksmith, who still occasionally glanced over to see what the mage was doing with the piece of wood. Looking at the piece from the outside, the wood had blackened and appeared somewhat burnt from the coloring. The mage wondered at the extent of the damage and turned to one of his more draining types of magic. “Heal,” he commanded calling forth the magic that could both heal and examine. His senses slipped into the fibers of the cut branch to see what extent of harm he had done to it and also to see how the power would have flowed within the bark of the branch.

             
Taking a smaller piece of iron that the smith had thrown into a bin of scrap that could be reworked for later projects, the mizard repeated the process to examine the way the metal was created and its flow as well. Nodding his head as he completed the tests, Sebastian took a piece of his bread and cut a piece of cheese to go with it. Washing it down with some of the water, the mage prepared to try something that he hadn’t even read about in the books. The mage had never even heard of a wizard attempting the feat he felt could be done with the two materials.

             
First, he laid the piece of scrap iron on the ground and then placed the end of the wood atop the lump. Approximately two pounds of metal separated the wood from the ground as Sebastian began to set the path the spell would follow as during his next experiment.

             
The smith and his two assistants paused in curiosity and worry. They could feel something magical was about to happen and they were debating on whether they should remain nearby or run for cover. The average man of Southwall had little real dealings with magic and many were afraid of it and their protectors who could use it. Looking to each other for askance, finally the men shrugged and moved their work from the fire to watch this mage who was well known for being creative even among the laymen of the keep.