The Jade Mage: The Becoming: Volume 1 (6 page)

“Shine.” Tartum whispered. The coin immediately shone in a very weak light. Tears sprang up in Tartum’s eyes. He had accomplished his first enchantment spell, and on his first try! It didn’t matter that the light coming from his coin was pitiful, he had done it! He had manipulated reality and changed his universe, if only a tiny bit. The success, after years of failure, felt better than when he opened himself to the magic. He smiled happily at his master, who returned the smile with much enthusiasm.

“Very well done, Tartum! Go get some rest, for tomorrow we celebrate! You’ve done incredibly well, my boy! I’m truly proud of you.” Isidor gushed. He knew he shouldn’t praise Tartum this much over such a small success. The enchantment really was a simple one, but he didn’t care, he loved the young man and was intensely proud of him. This one time he would allow it to show.

Tears ran, unchecked, down Tartum’s face. Never had his friend ever lavished such praise on him. Even when he was a child and cast his first spell, he had simply patted him on the head and told him to do it again. This was unprecedented and made the success that much sweeter. Walking back to the wagon with his master, they retired to their beds. Tartum had been running on adrenaline after the enchantment had succeeded, and now that he was lying down he felt exhausted. His coin was still in his hand, as he lay amongst his bed of pillows, glowing its soft, dim light.

Isidor was laying in his bed of pillows thinking about how far Tartum had come. His natural ability with magic was unprecedented. He fully expected his first attempt to fail. He had the words to a shield spell on his lips, when Tartum began. When he actually succeeded, he had been so impressed, he was afraid he would forget himself in the moment. When the coin lit up in Tartum’s hand, Isidor had been elated to his very core. He had never known anyone, in his entire life, he was more impressed with than this kid from this ratty little town, in the middle of nowhere. Over the years, Tartum had succeeded, even when Isidor expected nothing but failure. Each time he succeeded, Isidor would brush it off as a trifle and tell him to do it again. It pained him to belittle his achievements, but he needed his pupil humble and respectful. Now that Tartum was becoming an accomplished caster, and man, Isidor felt he could finally start letting him know he was doing well. Tomorrow’s celebration would be magnificent! Isidor would make up for his past discretions, no matter how unnecessary. Tomorrow, Isidor would show Tartum the greatest time of his life!

His mind made up, Isidor rolled over to sleep, when the light coming from Tartum’s bed disturbed him.

“Tartum, I know you’re happy with your new toy, but if you could extinguish it? I’m trying to sleep.” Isidor said, his old sarcasm and cynicism returning to his voice.

Smiling sleepily to himself, Tartum muttered the word, “Dull” and the coin went out.

CHAPTER 5

Isidor woke up early the next morning and prepared a breakfast of eggs and bacon. He sliced thick sections of bread and smothered them in fresh butter. Tartum awoke to the scents of the food. His stomach was screaming at him to feed it, so Tartum rose from his bed. Looking around, Tartum found his coin and uttered the word that would make it light up.

“Shine.” he spoke. The coin lit up, but the light was very weak. He could barely tell it was illuminated, until he cupped the coin in both hands and looked inside. Disappointed, Tartum went to question Isidor about it, and to get some of that mouth watering breakfast.

Finding Isidor in the kitchen, Tartum greeted him with his question. “Morning, Isidor! I don’t understand. My coin is barely lighting up. Last night it wasn’t brilliant, but it was definitely brighter than this. What is wrong with it?” Finishing his question, Tartum handed his coin to his mentor.

“Morning, Tartum.” Taking the coin, Isidor gave it coin a look. “Well, my boy, the enchantment you cast was a weaker one, and I don’t think you funneled enough magic into it to make it last long. To be honest, I’m surprised it’s lighting up at all right now.”

Frowning, Tartum took his coin back and spoke the word, “Dull.” The coin went back to its normal sheen, and he placed it inside his coin pouch. The change in the brightness of the coin was negligible.

“So what you’re saying is I need to funnel more magic into my enchantment in order for the spell to last longer. Is there any way to make the enchantment permanent?” Tartum asked.

“The way to make an enchantment permanent is usually only possible if the enchantment itself says there’s a way. Does your spell book make mention of such?” Isidor asked.

Opening his book, Tartum scanned the spell again. As he was afraid of, the spell made no mention of any way to make it permanent.

“No, Isidor, the spell isn’t a permanent one. Is there no other way?” he asked.

“Then no, my boy, your only other option is to try to channel as much magic as you
safely
can into the spell, next time. It will not only make the enchantment last longer, but it will make it work better. In this case it will make the light brighter. You can try it again tonight, if you like.” Isidor said, sliding a plate full of bacon, eggs, and bread towards him. “For today we celebrate your success!”

...

The day was a good one. In fact, it was one of the better days of his life. Isidor spared no expense, and no extravagance was too exotic for him and his pupil. They went to the finest establishments in the small town of Zerous, ate the finest meats and pastries the market had to offer. They took in a show being played out by street performers, pretending to be a brave knight and a fearfully evil dragon. The act was immensely entertaining, and Tartum laughed harder than he had in years.

As the sun was setting, Isidor took Tartum to his favorite brothel for a bit of expensive female entertainment. Isidor was a bit of a scoundrel and had a lusty appetite for the pleasures of the flesh. Tonight, he would share his vice with Tartum. As they walked into the red velvet rooms of the establishment, Tartum was greeted by two extremely well endowed women.

“Well hello, lover!” they said sultrily, in unison. Clearly, these women had been doing this a while, but their open sexuality and their soft bodies pressed into his, made Tartum care very little about their pasts.

Isidor was already known and well liked by most of the women at this particular brothel, and as such, had a small harem of women around him in moments, all of which were enthusicastically flirting with him.

“Ale! Mead! Mama! I am celebrating with my young friend here! Drinks are on me, for us and all my pretty ladies here!” Isidor yelled to the fat lady, that clearly ran this business. “Mama” must have been her name, because Tartum heard everyone call her that, employee and customer alike.

The drinks flowed, and the night burned on. Tartum found himself drinking ale off of one whore’s cleavage, one moment, and being serviced behind a curtain, the next. The ecstasy he felt was pure heaven. At one point, Isidor jumped up on the bar and began his juggling act, whirling six ale mugs around in various pattern. As drunk as he was, Isidor still had no problem keeping the mugs flying through the air, while occasionally whipping out one of his hands, to grab at one of his many girl’s ample cleavage. They screamed in delight, when Isidor’s hand found them, and returned the favor by running their hands up and down his legs in a suggestive manner. There was no decency in this place, and Tartum was loving it!

Tartum took pride in his master’s skill, with his craft and with the girls at his feet, even though he was clearly intoxicated past any point of reason. It was when Isidor started singing a dirty love song to one of his ladies, that all control left Tartum, as wave upon wave of laughter hit him. The lyrics were quite filthy and just as hilarious. Tartum enjoyed seeing this side of his master and long time friend. Hell, Isidor was his only friend, Tartum admitted to himself, as he watched the man add two more mugs to his juggling act. The rest of the town populace had a strong curiosity of magic when Isidor was on stage, but a healthy aversion to it in any other forum. For the most part, Tartum was ignored by the townsfolk when he ventured out. They weren’t rude or unaccomodating, they just didn’t know him, and didn’t seem to want to. Tonight was the first time in a long time he had interacted with any of them, and he promised himself to spend more of his free time here. He found the interaction thrilling, and he also found he enjoyed the women pressed against him, more and more by the moment. In fact, he was finding these women ever more attractive, the more he drank. It was exhilarating!

The other patrons of the bar started to take up the bawdy song that Isidor was now bellowing at the top of his lungs. It wasn’t long before the whole building was shaking with the words to the song. Men and women alike, were pounding on the bar, keeping up with the beat of the song as it grew louder and louder. Encouraged to greater acts of showmanship by his gracious drunken audience, Isidor made the mugs fly at an even faster rate. The blur reminded Tartum of his sessions of combat training, when his master’s staff whirled with the same blur the mugs were flying around in now.

One of the girls that surrounded Isidor, was jumping up and down in excitement and drunken lust, at this point, and a rather large silver necklace she was wearing started bouncing around her ample cleavage. The medallion caught the light from the candles in the chandeliers just right and reflected it directly into Isidor’s eyes. The sudden shock of light completely broke Isidor’s concentration and sent the mugs flying, as Isidor lost his balance and fell off the bar landing in a pile of girls and laughter. Mama ran over screaming at Isidor about her broken mugs and threatening his life, if he had hurt any of her girls.

Tartum had an epiphany, at this moment. To his perception, the whole world stopped moving as he registered what just happened. The light reflected from the locket around the whore’s neck had stunned his Mentor! It shattered his concentration and completely collapsed the man. It was a weakness! Tartum realized that his new enchantment spell could do the same thing! But how!? What could he enchant that his master wouldn’t be suspicious about? Needing to think but not wanting to draw undue attention to himself, Tartum looked around for a location to escape the commotion of the bar. If Isidor noticed he was acting strange or deep in thought, Tartum was worried he’d become suspicious, start asking questions, and he would lose the element of surprise. He quickly noticed an open door to one of the many private rooms. He knew if he went in alone someone, most likely Mama, would notice and start asking questions. If he went in with a girl however, no one would be the wiser. Tartum quickly grabbed the closest girl, thrust a few gold into her hand, slipped into the room, and locked the door. The girl didn’t fully understand why Tartum had grabbed her, but she did understand gold and a locked door, and she busied herself with the task of undressing.

Tartum barely noticed, he was so wrapped up in his scheming. What metal object could he use for his enchantment? What wouldn’t Isidor notice? An amulet of his own? No, he would notice something like that immediately, and ask questions. He would probably make him take it off during their training, so it wouldn’t interfere or something. He couldn’t lie to his master. Not because he had any moral objection to such behavior, but because he knew his master would probably see right through his bluff, which would only serve to increase his suspicion. No, Tartum needed his master none the wiser to his ploy to beat him during their next sparring session. He needed Isidor to believe, as he always did, that he was going to win their match and carry Tartum off to recover.

The girl, now fully undressed, was slinking her way into Tartum’s lap and began to kiss him. The distraction was both pleasing and infuriating, and Tartum threw her off of him. He wanted the girl, but he wanted the victory, and his advancement in magic to resume, much more.

“I’ve changed my mind. Get dressed, and get out!” Tartum barked at the girl, who looked up at him from the floor. Her initial reaction to his rejection appeared to be hurt, but was quickly overcome by the anger only a woman, who sold her body for a living, could know. She left Tartum quickly, gathering up her clothes, and as she went out the door, said something pertaining to the small size of his reproductive organs. Her exact words, Tartum never knew, because the moment he had told her to leave, she ceased to exist to him. There was only the planning of
how
he would use this new insight to gain the advantage to win.

The girl, upon leaving, must have dropped one of the gold coins Tartum had given her, because it rolled across the floor and bumped into his foot. Absently, Tartum picked it up and held it, while he thought about what he could possibly enchant that wouldn’t raise Isidor’s suspicion. The gold coin in Tartum’s hand had a burr on it. The burr cut slightly into his hand, catching his attention and causing him to inspect the damaged coin. There was a spiral scratch on its surface, that trailed off into the burr that had cut him. The spiral scratch in the coin reminded Tartum of the gold spiral on his staff...The
gold
spiral!
HIS STAFF
! OF COURSE! He could enchant his staff! What better choice was there?! Isidor wouldn’t be suspicious of his staff! Obviously, Tartum would have it during one of their sessions! There’s no way he would know, or be the wiser, until it was too late!

The elation of the thought died, almost as fast as it came, when Tartum remembered what Isidor had told him when he first received the staff. It was already enchanted with a fortification spell. He had told him the staff couldn’t hold more than one enchantment at a time. And the fortification spell was not only incredibly important for the staff to be useful, but it was a
permanent
enchantment, and therefore he couldn’t just wait for it to wear off.