Warded Mage (Reawakening Saga) (6 page)

“I see you have an eye for quality
, as well as women my friend. That is a Sha cloak. The Sha are very rare creatures that live in the deepest parts of our world. They are small little creatures but fierce. Like many of the unnatural creatures, they were created many years ago by wild magic. As you can tell no light can touch the cloak even on the surface at high noon the cloak would make the wearer seem as if he were walking in complete darkness.”

“Seems like it would be the perfect tool of an assassin, not something I would get much use of.” Thad said giving the cloak a final look. “You said they were created by wild magic, what do you mean?”

“You see when the twin god and goddess disappeared into the abyss their job of regulating the flow of magic went to the goddess’ children. The first few centuries were hard on them so they created their own creatures to share in their burden, but still it wasn’t enough. In truth the gods are only a pale comparison of their mother, but as the children of Moriudonius spread, the burden was made much easier. During the Fae war it was thrown in turmoil again, not only as vast amounts of the human mages were killed but also the rest of the god’schildren were slain in great numbers. The world is still recovering and as long as the children o
f
Moriudonius are hunted then the magic will grow increasingly unstable. I do not know what the future holds, only the gods know that and they have not seen fit to let me in on the secret.”

As they made their way back to the mage
’s tower, Thad contemplated everything he had learned that day. Nothing was as he had thought it was when he had been in Farlan. Gods might actually exist, that alone was hard for Thad to believe. Then there was the fact magic was growing increasingly more out of control. Shaking his head, Thad let all thoughts of such problems fade away. There was only so much he could do and the job of the gods was far outside his realm of possibilities.

That night Sae-Thae’s premonition came true as he found Bahia had found her way to his chamber. He tried to talk to her but she remained quiet. There was only one thing she wanted and it didn’t involve an idle chat.

CHAPTER VII

The next morning when Thad awo
ke, he was amazed to find that Bahia still occupied his bed. Most of the time whoever had shared his chambers were well gone before he chose to rise. “I see you finally decided to open your eyes, I thought you might sleep past your rite.” Bahia said with a slightly devious face.

“It is just so hard to make myself wake up when the first face I have
to see in the morning is yours,” Thad replied quickly as he swung out of bed.

“Quite the impertinent one this morning, makes me want to drag you back under the covers.” Bahia said in a near growl. “Sadly we need to get the Hall otherwise you might just miss you
r ceremony.”

Bahia insisted on escorting Thad all the way. It felt odd having Bahia on one side and Sae-Thae on the other. It was almost like a funeral march for a condemned prisoner.
Unlike the day before the hall was bustling with priests and priestess all wearing their finest garments. Thad was led to a large stone door that had archaic looking inscription covering it. “This is as far as we can accompany you brother, the rest you must do on your own.” Sae-Thae said giving Thad a slightly concerned look. As the stone door opened, all Thad could see beyond was complete darkness. Slowly he put one foot in front of the other until he was surrounded in darkness so thick he couldn’t see his hand if he touched his nose. His heard as the stone door closed behind him, locking him in and taking away his only means of escape.

With nothing else to do Thad sat down on the cold stone and waited unsure what he was supposed to do or what was going to happen. “What is the dark?” a detached voice echoed through the darkness.

“I don’t know.” Thad answered honestly.

“The dark is absence. All who seek the dark are missing something. What is the power of the dark?”

“Thad thought hard on the question remaining silent for a good time. “It can conceal the presence of things.” Thad said unsure of himself.

“Correct, the darkness hides what we wish to keep away from the world. Do you know what is hidden in the dark? Can you see what others wish to keep others from seeing? Can you see what others hide from their own hearts?”

Images started flashing through Thad’s mind. He could see himself as he had been that morning when he woke beside Bahia. The look on her face was serene. “I was hoping you would never wake, I do so enjoy watching your sleeping face, love.” Bahia said as she wrapped her arms around him. Then the vision changed to Sae-Thae’s study where Thad lay motionless on the floor. Sae-Thae held his staff in one hand and his sword in the other. “Why won’t you work for me? Am I not the better mage? I have worked tirelessly to get to my position and hone my skills and this young pup thinks he can outdistance me without even proper training?”

“These are what those around you keep hidden away. The desires and truths of their heart, they fight against what calls to them, love, hate,
and resentment. Both have received my blessing and both had to face what they keep hidden away. Now it is your turn. What do you hide from yourself? What do you shroud in the darkness?”

Thad looked deep within
himself and tried to picture what he might have kept from himself but nothing came to mind. Concentrating harder Thad found himself as a young child, his mother standing over him. “You shall train to be a good slave won’t you?” Thad’s child self simply nodded his head. Then he was in the academy each vision was of one of the mothers asking him to do something and each time he obliged without question. Finally he found himself in front of the Farlan queen beaten and near death from the treatment she had caused him and once again he is asked to set aside reason and he simply agrees.”

Thad remembered each moment and at the time it had seemed like the right thing to do but now looking at them all at once he noticed something
, he had never turned down a request from a female. He had never simply said no. “That is right Thad. You have been trained well by the mothers of the academy, so well you don’t even know that you are the perfect slave. They don’t need chains or whips to force you to work, they need but ask and you will bend your entire being to the task without consideration of what you truly want.”

Thad covered his ears with his hands as his mind reeled. It was true he had never wanted to be the queen’s slave. The time in his cell and the queen
’s constant demands for him to bow to her had not worked, yet he had quickly agreed once she had simply asked.

“To control the dark one must understand his own secrets. Can you master what the dark hides, can you master your own mind,
can you master your own heart?”

“Yes!” Thad replied vehemently.

“Child of Moriudonius, you have seen the truth and have accepted it. You have not denied who you were or who you are, yet you fight to become more. You are worthy of my blessings.” The voice echoed in his mind as a searing pain ripped across his right hand.

Gasping for breath pain shooting through his body Thad ran his hand along the wall searching for a way out. When his fingers felt the groves of the stone door he could have almost yelled for joy. He expected the doors to be heavy so he braced himself and pushed hard. To his surprise they s
wung open easily dumping him hard on the other side.

“Do you still have your wits about you brother?” Thad heard Sae-Thae
ask, though his voice seemed to echo in the distance. Thad tried to answer but his body felt heavy and the words seemed to stick in his moth as darkness shrouded his mind.

Thad woke in his own chambers. Due to the lack of a sun there was no telling how long he had been out. Lifting up his right hand Thad looked at the rune that now danced with magic on his skin. Sae-Thae had said there
was four different runes, one could be granted, but Thad still didn’t know how to tell them apart. He had long ago learned his lesson about playing with powers he was unaware of, it seldom led to anything good, so Thad decided to wait until he could consult his friend for advice. Suddenly the image of Sae-Thae standing over his lifeless body flashed back into his mind. Thad quickly shook away the thought. His friend might harbor some feelings of resentment but even the god said that he had hid them away from himself. How many things were there about oneself that we hated enough to bury it so deep we didn’t know about it ourselves.

Thad pushed himself from the soft bed and made his way up the long staircase to the top of the tower. His body still tired
, each step felt heavy as if he had lead weights in his boots. Opening the door to Sae-Thae’s study Thad found his friend sitting at one of his many tables hunched over one of his books, deep in thought. A part of Thad wished he had Sa-Thae’s resolve and ability to spend hours on end in study, but Thad knew he was too restless. His attempts at study always ended the same, he would find something that interested him then pursue it relentlessly forgetting about his original goal. The same thing had happened in the dwarven village. He had intended to go straight to the Vathari when he was better but had gotten caught up with the secrets of dwarven blacksmithing.

“Keeping your nose buried in books can’t be good for your eyes.” Thad said jokingly as he walked up behind Sae-Thae.

Sae-Thae turned around the look on his face was one of relief. “I was worried about you brother. I didn’t tell you before but not all who return from the rite keep their mind. The truth can be a dangerous thing, something many people cannot take. I had hopes you were strong enough of will to handle it but one never knows until they are tested.”

“I can’t say that it was the most pleasant experience of my life, but there are far worse thing to fear than the truth
, even if it is one we do not want to face. I did receive something for my trouble,” Thad said raising his hand to show of the rune, “though I am not sure what it does. I was hoping you could shed some light on that subject for me.”

Sae-Thae leaned back in his chair and looked up at Thad and his offered hand. “Yes I noticed you had earned your prize when we had your unconscious body carried back to your chambers. Honestly I had expected you to receive the same rune I did but I guess that one fits you as well. As a mage who uses both sword and magic, the rune of a dark assassin might just aid you especially considering that you plan to face the Brotherhood.” 

The dark assassins, just like he had fought with back in the caverns with Crusher. They had been the hardest fight of his life. Not only were they skilled with a blade they could simply vanish in the darkness taking either part of their body or all of it. It made killing them extremely difficult. Their only real weakness was that in light, they were all but normal fighters. “I will need to train to fully understand the uses of the rune. Do you think it would be possible to meet with one of the dark assassins for a little help?”

Sae-Thae laughed, “I don’t see that it would be a problem, other than you are short on time.”

“Short on time?” Thad asked slightly confused.

“Yes there is a limit to how long a mage on his pilgrimage is allowed to stay within one of our cities. It is an old law set down by our god. You see
, cities used to try and delay the mages as long as possible to increase the chance to have more offspring. With the time spent reading through the different tomes and preparing your rite you only have four days left before you must depart.”

Everything Sae-Thae said made sense though he wished he had just a few more days to add to the time he had left. Four days seemed like such a short time to finish learning everything he wanted to. That always seemed to be the major problem in his life there was never enough time. “Then I better skip sleeping as much. When can I meet with the assassins?”

“I will set up a meeting for later this day. Using your blessing will take some getting used to. It is unlike using magic normally, though many of the feats you can accomplish using the gift can be performed through magecraft. The gift just allows you to use it with much less effort on your part. Once you get the hang of it using your new gift will become almost second nature.” Sae-Thae said as he went back to reading the book in front of him.

With little else to do until his meeting with the dark assassins Thad pulled
one of the many books he had marked for further study and began reading. It was one of the many books from mages way before the time of the Fae War, one that specialized in the earth element. He was extremely skilled and had devised a host of spells for all occasions, though most of them had few uses in battle. Just as Sae-Thae had said, it was looked down upon during the time of the mages tower to use one’s power to hurt others. While few of the books had spells he could use against the Brotherhood he was beginning to understand more about how the elements formed and worked together.

Time passed by quickly and Thad soon found himself standing in front of one of the many barracks that belonged to the Warrior’s Hall. It was one of the nicer barracks that Thad had noticed ringing the large central courtyard. The dark assassins were supposed to be the elite forces of the
Vathari warriors. Thad rapped on the entrance door timidly as his nerves began building. It was one thing to fight against trained warriors another to go to their home and talk with them, for some reason it felt as if he was walking to his death.

When the door opened Thad found himself face to face with an overly large
Vathari. Thad’s body tensed and the Vathari reached his hand toward him and gripped him hard on the shoulder. “I see our new brother has come to visit us.” The Vathari said his voice harsh and emotionless. “Come in.”

Once i
nside, the barracks opened up into a large common room where at least two hundred other dark assassins were gathered drinking and enjoying themselves. “Brothers I have brought our new brother to greet his family.” The Vathari said boomingly. The common room grew quiet and Thad could hear as many of the cups of ale were clanged against the surfaces of table, then everything erupted in a roar as the assassins came to greet him. Some of the warriors simply slapped him on the back while others grabbed and squeezed at his shoulders and a few punched him solidly in the arm hard enough that Thad knew he would have a bruise latter.

The festivities carried on until Thad was so tired he could barely stand. The dark assassins were not what he would have figured. Even the
Vathari stories told of the menacing fighting force of the assassins. Instead of finding a bunch of brooding killers, he was surprised to find a close knit group of soldiers who treated each other like family. After everything quieted down Thad found himself at a table with a half dozen of the assassins. Thad was brought out of his heavy contemplations when the warrior next to him slapped him hard on the back. “What has you so worked up brother?”

Thad looked over to the hulking giant of a warrior. “I must say it is not what I had
thought I would find.”

The warrior gave a dark laugh. “We are outcasts even among our own kind. We are feared and for good reason. We are trained killers not simple warriors. That mindset wears on a person and those around him so we band together with only those who can truly understand us, our brother assassins. Now
you number among our group. It does not matter what race you belong to, the road your gift will take you will be a bloody one. Be wary my friend, few will ever truly understand the burden that will weigh on your shoulders.”