Forgotten Mage (11 page)

That night as he slept, Bren once again
found himself drifting in the darkness. He had fought against it
the night before due to the anger and coldness that he felt within
its depths, but tonight it felt different. Almost as if it was sad.
Bren let the darkness fold around him and when it cleared, he found
himself standing in his father’s workshop.

“Bren is that you?” He heard his
mother’s voice say from behind him. Then suddenly, he was wrapped
up in her strong arms. “We haven’t received word in so long, I was
starting to fear the worst,” She said, as tears ran down her face
dripping onto Bren’s arms as he tried to untangle himself from her
grasp. “Where have you been?” She asked, allowing him to escape her
clutch.

“I was traveling,” Bren said, feeling
slightly ashamed of himself as he saw his mother’s red puffy
eyes.

Was?” She asked, using the palm of her
hand to wipe away the tears that still trickled down her cheek.
“Where are you now?”

“Safe,” Bren replied hesitantly. He
felt bad about making his mother worry, but he knew that the second
she learned his location, she would send a troop of guards to bring
him home and he was not ready for that. “I don’t want to come home
mother. Once everything is belter, I will tell you where I am at,
but for now can you just trust me?”

“Bren Thaddeus Farlane, you will tell
me where you are at this instant!” Maria said, her voice quickly
switching from tearful to anger, in the time it took to take a
breath.

“If I do, you will just send the guards
to take me home,” Bren replied stubbornly.

“Of course I will!” Maria said,
stamping her foot on the ground. “Home is where you belong. You are
not old enough to be off on your own yet.”

“I am fourteen mother.” Bren started to
protest, but one look from his mother silenced him.

“Fourteen or forty, I am your mother
young man and I demand to know where you are this instant!” Maria
exclaimed, her voice raising to a near scream.

Bren knew that when his mother got like
this, there was nothing to do but hide and wait for it to pass.
Focusing his mind, Bren tried to push the dream away, but his
mother quickly figured out his plan and he was pulled back in. “I
have been doing this far longer than you have, so don’t even try.
Not even your father could leave unless I allowed him
to.”

Bren closed his eyes tightly and tried
again, putting everything he had into the effort. He could hear his
mother yelling at him, but it quickly grew lighter and when Bren
opened his eyes, he was once again in his room in the Mage’s Tower.
He was drenched in sweat and the scar on his hand didn’t look as
faint as it had before.

After wiping down and a change of night
shirts, Bren once again laid down to rest. Now he knew what the
darkness was and he made a mental note to avoid it for the
foreseeable future.

CHAPTER IX

Bren found his first morning at the
Tower to be as unpleasant as the night before had been. Phena, who
was none too happy about the choice, had been tasked with showing
him and Faye around the facilities. Before they had even finished
breakfast, the young vathari had insulted them more time than Bren
could count. Bren hoped that Phena calmed down soon, because the
look Faye was giving her smelled of trouble.

As soon as they finished eating, Phena
escorted them throughout the Tower. There were numerous class rooms
for group study and just as many small ones for individual use,
though Phena explained that you still had to have an arch mages
approval to use them. “Most of the time, it is only the upper level
students that use them in order to practice more dangerous magic,”
Phena explained, as she ushered them toward the other end of the
Tower.

Most of the places Phena took them to
were common things that Bren was used to seeing. The only place
that really caught his attention was the massive library. It looked
like a maze, as rows upon rows of long shelves filled the room,
each one hosting more books than Bren had ever seen in one place.
The palace library and the library at the Royal School had been
large, but compared to the vast number of books that he now looked
upon, they seemed puny by comparison.

“Are these all about magic?” Bren
asked, as he ran his fingers along the spines of the books as they
walked past.

“No,” Phena answered, her tone still
cold and unyielding. “If you haven’t learned by now, I might as
well tell you. You can’t just wave your hand and do something with
magic. You need to understand how it works. Not just to use it, but
to use it in the manner you want. If you were to create a large
fireball in one of the halls for instance, what do you think would
happen?”

“It would burn,” Faye answered, her
voice unsure though still holding her usual sharp edge of
pride.

“Not for long it wouldn’t,” Phena
replied snidely. “Fire requires air to burn and it would quickly
exhaust that supply, being surrounded by magic fused rocks. Once
the air was gone, no one would be able to breath, but neither could
the fire. Fire might not be living, but it acts in much the same
manner. If you don’t understand how your magic interacts with the
world around you, then you will either wind up getting yourself or
someone else killed.”

As Phena stomped off back toward the
stairs, Bren and Faye were forced to quicken their pace to catch
up. After the night before, Bren had hoped that Phena would treat
them a bit more kindly, but that had seemed to be wishful dreaming
on his part. The vathari mage seemed as spiteful and full of anger
as she had been at their first meeting.

As they neared the bottom of the steps
leading into the main foyer of the Tower, Phena turned on her two
followers. “I am sure that you can explore the rest without my
aid,” She said angrily.

“What is your problem?” Faye said,
grabbing Phena by the shoulder as her temper broke.

“I don’t know about you two, but I have
much better things to do with my time than pamper a prince,” Phena
responded, slapping Faye’s hand away. “And I suggest
you…,”

Phena never got the change to finish
her sentence. Faye’s fist caught her squarely in the nose, sending
the much taller woman to the ground. Phena wiped her nose with the
back of her hand. She looked almost shocked at the bright red
smear. Bren thought Phena might use some devastating magic, but
instead the vathari mage tackled Faye.

As the two rolled around on the ground,
Bren was left standing on the side of the hall completely shocked.
All the young man could do was watch as the larger Phena pinned
Faye to the ground using her knees to hold down Faye’s arms. “At
least I don’t have to worry about messing up a pretty face,” Phena
said as she delivered a healthy blow to Faye’s defenseless face,
which was quickly followed by another.

For a moment, Bren started to step
forward to help Faye, but then the young farm girl disappeared.
Surprised by her now invisible foe, Phena was thrown to the ground,
but quickly recovered to her feet. “I’ll take that as a complement
coming from a saw tooth trollop,” Bren heard Faye’s voice say
before Phena fell to the ground, her hand quickly moving up to her
cheek where a nasty red whelp was already forming.

“Is that how you want to play?” Phena
asked, getting back to her feet and spreading her fingers. Small
blue shimmers arched across the tips of the mage’s
fingers.

As he watched the escalating fight, he
decided it had moved well out of control and stepped forward to
stop it before someone was permanently injured. He wasn’t sure
where Faye was at so Bren stepped in front of Phena, holding his
arms out wide. “Phena you need to…”

“Bren’s words were drowned out as he
felt something nudge him from behind. Off balance, he fell forward
and Phena stretched out her hands, her still glowing palms catching
him in the chest. The next few moments became a haze to Bren until
he found himself laying on the ground, his body twitching
uncontrollably. He tried to speak but nothing seemed to
work.

As his body spasmed, Bren heard Phena
huff which was quickly followed by her heavy footsteps as she
stomped down the hall away from him. Faye walked into his view and
for a brief moment, he was sure that she was going to help him
until he noticed the deep frown and look of anger etched in her
face. “Mind your own business!” She said, before leaving him still
twitching on the ground.

As the worst of the pain subsided, Bren
tried to stand, but his muscles still didn’t work properly. “She
has got some bite to her,” A deep voice said from beside him as he
was lifted to his feet. Turning his head, Bren noticed a young man
in his early twenties with short brown hair and grey eyes. “My
father always said that dealing with women was one battle no man
could hope to win, they could only pray they survived,” The man
said with a brash grin.

“I think your father might have been a
genius,” Bren said through gritted teeth.

“A lot of people have said that, by the
way I’m Cassius, though most the other guys just call me
Cass.”

Bren pulled back from Cass’s hold and
steadied himself. He body still jerked slightly and everything
tingled as if it had been asleep. “I am Bren,” He replied, trying
to give a courteous bow that came out jerky and
unrefined.

“Why don’t we get out of this den of
magic and go a place where men don’t have to wear dresses,” Cass
said, before giving Bren a sly wink. “I like your sword, it looks
as if it is well made,” Cass continued as they walked out of the
Tower and through the streets of the town.

“It was my fathers,” Bren replied, his
hand brushing over the crescent moon that adorned the sword’s
hilt.

“My people always believed that a sword
is one of the few possessions that should be passed along to future
generation. My sister has eyed my fathers for a long time, though
the way he holds onto it, I am sure that he will carry it to his
grave,” Cass said laughing.

Bren was led to a large set of building
that reminded him of the barracks that housed the Royal Guard.
Outside of the buildings were dozens of stone circles covering a
massive field. “Jacob, we have a new recruit,” Cass hollered over
to a large balding man, who stood outside one of the stone circles,
as two men inside it sparred. At least Bren was sure they were
sparring. It looked far more intense than anything he had ever
witnessed before. The men shifted and moved with grace, and each
strike was made with great precision at high speeds. Bren could
hear Jacob yelling out mistakes, though Bren himself could find
none in the other men’s movements.

Jacob yelled at the two men to continue
their training and walked over to where Cass stood with Bren. The
older man looked over Bren intensely then gave an approving nod. “A
bit younger than most the applicants this year, but he’s got the
build of a fighter. Cassius, grab two practice swords and let us
see what your new friend can do.”

Cass ran off immediately, but quickly
returned carrying three swords. The sword that was given to Bren
felt and looked like a standard long sword. Bren was amazed at the
detail and weight of what the man had called practice weapons. Bren
shrugged his shoulders, and stepped into the center of the stone
circle.

Bren watched Cass closely as he twirled
his duel short swords in his hands. Bren could tell by the way Cass
moved and held himself that he was confident and skilled. Bren
wasn’t sure how skilled, so he decided to play it safe and wait for
an opening instead of jumping in.

Cass didn’t seem as cautious as Bren
and moved in fast with a quick forward thrust. Sliding his outside
foot back, Bren let the sword pass and quickly brought his other
foot around to reset his position. Cass nodded his head at Bren,
then came in again, this time both swords sticking at different
angles. Bren once again slid back and to the side, letting one word
strike only inches in front of him while he swung his sword down
and to the left parrying the other blow.

Though using two swords, Cass moved
quickly and with precision, never leaving any part of himself open
for more than a heartbeat. The third attack, Cass struck hard with
his right, while sweeping at Bren’s feet with the left. With a
practiced step, Bren once again pivoted on his foot, letting one
sword pass harmlessly by as he knocked the other away from his
body.

Cass drove in for the fourth time,
acting as if to do a repeat of the same move, this time though his
offhand sword aiming for Bren’s head. Unconcerned, Bren repeated
his past movements, allowing his legs to do most of the work, but
as he pivoted to the right, Cass spun on the tip of his toe and
brought his lead foot around, striking Bren hard in the
side.

Bren gasped as the breath was knocked
from his lungs, but refused to go down. Bren watched as the tip of
his sword seemed to disappear into Cass’s shoulder, leaving a
bright red glow where it had struck. Confused, Bren didn’t react in
time as Cass drove in again. He quickly knocked one sword away, but
the other drove straight into his chest.

Looking down, Bren was amazed to see
Cass’s hand holding the hilt of the sword as it protruded from his
chest. He felt a warm sensation rush over his body as his whole
body began to glow a bright red. It was an eerie feeling, seeing
the blade removed from his body, and Bren quickly ran his hand
where he had been stuck to find no sign of damage. His knees
buckled and Bren fell to the ground laughing.