"Please come again!" I call after the last customers of the day, relishing the fact that I'm finally going to get some rest. Being the son of a restaurant owner, I'm pretty much obligated to keep the show running while my dad is sick. It's not something I enjoy, but it does put food on the table, so it's what I do. Kieran is too young to help, anyway. Besides, I don't want him to waste his life the way I'm forced to do with mine.
I pick up all the plates and bowls still left on the tables, then bring them to the kitchen for cleaning. Once I'm done, I double-check all the locks, realizing I did, in fact, leave one window unlocked. Not a smart thing to do in a neighbourhood like this. Valhalla might be a relatively peaceful kingdom, and Polaris might be the well-regarded capital of its north, but this part of the city isn't too friendly. A lot of people here are starving, and would do anything to get some food in their bellies.
I pick up all the leftovers we have, then leave the small building. Then, I do the thing only I can do, touching the doorknob to do it. I channel a bit of my mana, and use it to enforce the lock, then the whole door and, finally, the building itself. The enchantment takes me a while, and uses up as lot of my mana, but it's a necessary precaution if we want to avoid being robbed blind. Magic isn't too common. People who possess it tend to live to do great things, either terrible or bad. However, my mother is not too fond of it. She refuses to tell me why, but the scornful look she gives all mages she comes across is the scariest thing I've seen to date. I'll never be able to tell her. If I did, I know I'd be free to do what I want, but then I'd be forced to leave Kieran here, and neither of our parents is really capable of protecting him.
I move down the street, heading home. I have two detours to make, which is why I closed half an hour earlier than usual. As I pass by Billy's alley, I put the bag with leftovers in it next to one of the building walls, then keep moving. I hear the homeless boy tear through the bag and devour everything inside, no doubt having been without food all day. Whenever we have something, I give it to the kid. If it turns out I sell everything, I usually at least steal something for him. A life like that is harsh, and no doubt what would await Kieran should my secret come out. I love my brother to death, but he's far from talented. Everything he knows, all the other kids know, too, and they learned it before him.
I step off the main road, and take one of the other alleyways, leading me to Old Lady Makena's. As I push past the blinds, the smell of sulphur hits me, telling me she's in the middle of a session. Like me, Makena is a mage, but she has a lot more experience than I do. In exchange for running some errands for her, she teaches me tidbits of magic. I know how to perform basic enchantments, and I'm a natural at healing, but I can't do half as much as I'd like to. Mages are mostly viewed as the superior race when compared to ordinary humans. Our talents vary, but a single mage at the height of his power is worth a small army. In my current state, I think I'd be able to take at least five guys on.
The second set of blinds is pulled back, and a weeping nobleman walks through, followed by Makena, whose tiny frame makes even me seem tall, and I'm just 5'2. You'd be forgiven if you confused me for a girl. It happens a lot. I'm short, skinny, and have a pretty face. Sometimes, I even flirt with guys to get what I want.
"Thank you so much," the nobleman, whom I identify as such because of the ridiculous amount of jewelry decorating his fingers, says, wiping tears from his eyes. "You have no idea what that means to me."
Makena reaches out and pats him on the shoulder. "There, there. Your wife is in a better place. There is no need to fear for her fate anymore. She wants you to move on."
The man nods, thanks her again, then leaves the house.
"I thought he'd never leave," Old Lady Makena groans, rolling her eyes.
"Did you really do it?" I ask her, and she waves me away.
"You know damn well such things are beyond even mages, boy. Don't be stupid in my presence, please."
I sniff the air a bit, confirming that it is indeed the stench of sulphur filling the air.
"Go on," she urges me, letting me know the testing has already started. She wants me to tell her what sulphur can do, as one of the most common ingredients mages uses.
"An easy tool for acoustic illusions," I reply quickly, knowing she hates being made to wait. She can get hands-on when she's grumpy, too, giving me extra incentive to be a model student. "You tricked him into thinking he heard his dead wife's voice."
She nods, not bothering with any sort of praise. That's fine. Praise isn't what I'm after. Power is what's in it for me in this partnership, and that's what I'm content with. "I don't suppose you've changed your mind?"
I sigh. There she goes again, going on and on about the Festival of Death, our kingdom's oldest and most sacred festival. Every year, we hold one, in a desperate and mostly futile attempt at finding the Child of Light and Shadow, a long-awaited figure of legend. Supposedly, the Child will be a mage of tremendous potential, destined to save the kingdom from an evil imprisoned long time ago. Most don't believe in such things, but, though I am sceptical, I wouldn't go so far as to say I think it's all falsehood. There could be a sliver of truth in there somewhere. Ancient evils are very possible, since a lot of mages master the art of immortality, and have to be sealed away as a result. It mostly happens to the ones too nasty to be allowed any hint of freedom, and for all I know, there could be ways to free them. If I were imprisoned for centuries, the first thing on my mind upon release would be revenge against those who put me through that hell. Still, that's about where my belief ends. I don't believe the Child exists. It's just an old story passed down from generation to generation, just like the tales of Valerian the Fireborn, who slew a dragon by letting it eat him, then slashing its stomach apart with his sword. "You know I can't."
"You mean you won't," the old woman says, gesturing for me to follow her, which I do with hesitation. "Took you all of two weeks to learn enchantments, which aren't even the first rank of magic. Any one of those idiots serving our bloated oaf of a king would kill to be cut from the same cloth as you, and yet you choose to hide." She picks up a black candle, then lights it by channelling some mana, then giving it the attribute of fire. I can follow the trace of her mana now, which I wasn't capable of last time. "If you were to train under the magic knights, you'd become a holy knight in no time, maybe even an augur."
"That's not what I want," I answer her, only half-believing my words. I'd love to live a life of luxury and excess, but the law clearly states that Kieran is to stay with our parents until he turns eighteen. Unless he developed some magic of his own, he'd never be taken with me.
"Then our lessons are over," Makena says firmly, snuffing out the candle's flame, then setting it down on the table. She tries to leave her room, but I get in her way.
"What? Why?"
"I've no intention of teaching someone who refuses to be taught. You don't want magic? Fine, then don't have it at all."
"But we had a deal," I say, not raising my voice. Keeping your cool is a must for channelling mana, which is why this stubborn old bat made that our first lesson.
"Consider the deal off, then. It hurts my old heart to see such wasted potential, boy. Commit fully, or don't commit at all. I've no business with half-assery."
I nod, not giving her the satisfaction of seeing my anger. She's bluffing and we both know it. Without me, she'd have no way of getting most of her ingredients, since they're in places normal folk don't venture to. Wyrwood isn't a forest that's exactly safe to travel through. Either you have magic, or you have no business being in it. Most everything in it wants to make a meal out of people.
"Goodbye, then," Makena tells me, and I walk out of her house. She'll be sending for me again in no time. I'll just wait out this fiasco with the Festival of Death, and we'll be back to normal. I'll keep learning slowly and steadily, and she'll keep having an easy life until old age grips her heart and yanks it out of her chest.
As I make my way home, I can't help but shiver. It's not cold outside and I wouldn't feel it even if it were. Cold weather is my favorite â not that we get a lot of it here, in this sunny hellhole. The only other times I've shivered were moments before disaster struck. It's not something specific to mages, and is just a quirk of mine â like a sixth sense. This is why I tread carefully until I reach my home.
When I get there, I see knights around the house. What are they doing here? A woman â my mother â screams loudly enough to hurt my ears even from here, and then she's dragged out of the house by the hair, kicking and screaming. My first instinct is to go to her aid, but then I realize I wouldn't be able to fend off all those men, and duck in the alley from which I can see the house instead. Amidst the group of armoured men is a woman in an elegant white dress, long black hair falling down her back. Her eyes are an odd silver color, and the mana flowing through her body is strong. She walks over to my mother, then grabs her by the jaw. I miss the first sentence she says, but then I channel a bit of mana into my ears, allowing me to hear better.
"Where?" the woman asks, her grip on my mother becoming firmer.
"I-I don't know what you're talking about," my mother tells her, earning herself a slap across the face. My leg twinges just a bit at that, my body urging me to move forward. Not yet. I can't help her right now. If I go there, we'll just both be captured, and then there'll be no help for anyone. Why just my mother? Where are my father and brother? Did dad take Kieran and run?
"Where is the amulet?" the woman in white asks calmly, then curls her fingers a bit. I see the mana inside her stir, and then a spell I don't recognize hits my mother, drawing another scream from her.
"I'm telling you the truth! I don't know anything!"
The woman mage sighs, curling her fingers some more. The same spell hits my mother another three times, and she screams more loudly after each one. "A reliable source has told me that this is where it was last tracked down. Do not bother with lies, human. I know how to see through them." She makes a whipping motion with her hand, and a large gash appears across my mother's back as the mage channels some air magic. My mother screams yet again, then falls to the ground, weeping. "This will not stop until you tell me where it is. Even if you hold out, we will eventually find your sons, then put them through the same punishment. Any further actions of antagonizing me would be ill-advised. Tell me where the amulet is, or your sons die screaming."
Before the woman can hit my mother again, I channel a bit of mana, then realize there's nothing I can do with it. I don't know a single long-range spell, apart from simple telekinesis, which is easily sensed and blocked. That mage has a lot more experience than I do, and would see through it right away, then catch me, and that would be that. Instead of attacking, I just shrink back some more. What to do now? Ask the neighbors for help? It beats standing here doing nothing.
I enter the house behind which I'm hiding, and can immediately tell something is off. There's usually a lot of life in here, considering the couple has nine kids, but now it's dead quiet. There's no fire anywhere, and it's too early to go to sleep. Something is wrong here. Something happened to them. I start walking through the house, but find nothing in the living room. As I move unto the bedroom, I nearly throw up at what I see, my gag reflex only halted by Makena's teachings. Corpses. There are eleven corpses in the room, all dried up with their mouths hanging wide open, looking like they've been dead for a while. Two parents and nine kids would be eleven. They killed them. The woman outside must've killed them.
My mother screams again, and I start running. I don't run toward her. Instead, I run in the opposite direction, heading straight for Makena. If anyone can help me, it's her. She's not magic, and she's got experience. She can take on the woman in white and save my mother. I ignore the screams I keep hearing, but then a shadow stretches before me, stopping me in my tracks. A figure dressed in white starts coming out of it, and I feel mana inside of it.
"A spy, huh?" the woman before me asks, looking slightly like the one in white. The eyes are different, though. This one has golden ones, and her hair is much wilder. She looks just slightly mad, with massive bags dragging her beauty down. "Saw what I did to that family, did you? Nasty business, I admit, but it had to be done." She shrugs, taking a step toward me. I instinctively move back, knowing I can't take her. She's got even stronger mana than the one torturing my mother. I turn around and run again, heading into another alley. Even if she has magic, she first has to catch me. I have the home field advantage, and this part of the capital is easy to get lost in. So many of the houses aren't properly situated on the roads that it looks like someone randomly threw them all over the place, just hoping they'd stick where they landed.
Another shadow appears before me, and the woman in black armor jumps out of it, whistling. "Nice instincts, kiddo. Not many people are smart enough to know to run right away." Another shadow appears in her hand, this one taking the shape of a sword, and she starts walking toward me. "As a reward, I'll make it quick. Nothing you can do for me, anyway."
So they don't know what I look like. Well, that's not entirely true; They do know what I look like, but they don't know what my mother's son looks like. Also, she doesn't seem capable of telling I'm a mage. I doubt she would've lived long enough to learn all that shadowy stuff if she wasn't at least capable of sensing magic, so it's got to be the fact that my reserves are too low. I look like a regular boy to her. She brings the shadow sword to her lips, then licks across its edge, her eyes widening a bit. "You are a delicious one, though. Maybe I'll play around for just a bit."
Then she strikes, swinging the sword at me. It stretches forward faster than I can react, and makes a small cut across my cheek. My hand flies up to touch the spot where I was hit, and my fingers get coated in a bit of blood. I turn around and run again, but the woman slashes across the back of my knees, bringing me to the ground. I yell just a bit, since I'm used to dealing with pain.
"Now, now," the woman says, and I hear her feet clamping on the ground as she prowls toward me. "That wasn't very nice of you. You shouldn't run. You should stay here and play!"
I look up in time to see her bringing the shadow sword down again, but then a blast of light slams into her, knocking her off her feet. She rolls across the ground, and then someone picks me up and starts carrying me. When I look into my savior's face, I hope to see my father, but am instead faced with a stranger I've only seen once or twice before.
"Makena's," I whisper. He's one of her other students, which must be how he just did that. The mana inside him is a lot warmer than those of the two women, making me feel even safer than his arms are. The man nods, not stopping for even a second. He takes a few alleyways, throws a few illusions over his back, and then finally takes me to Makena's place.
"Put him down," my mentor orders, and they take me to her couch, where she quickly proceeds to heal my injuries. "I could feel it from here, boy. You should've run the moment you laid eyes on that devil mage. What on earth do they want with your family?"
"I-" I open my mouth to speak, then remember the nature of our relationship. It's not like we care about each other. She's just my teacher, and nothing more. I don't know if I can trust her with any details, and I need to be smart right now. "I don't know."
"Royal knights," the man who saved me tells her. "A whole squadron, and two magic knights with them."
"At least seventh in ranked at that," Makena adds, finished with my wounds. "Don't just sit here, boy: You need to run."
I look into her eyes. "I don't know-"
"Yes, you do," she interrupts. "You know what you have to do. You know where you'll be safe. They don't dare attack you out in the open."
She's right. The two have no idea I'm a mage, since they couldn't sense anything, and they have no idea I'm my mother's son. They don't have any reason to suspect I'd be going to the palace. In fact, the royal knights' headquarters is where they're more likely to head to, trying to find anyone who might've attempted to file a report.
I nod, then stand up. I hope my brother and father are safe, and hope my mother at least survives, but this is a long game now. I can't beat magic knights just like that, and no one's gonna believe my word over theirs, even with several bodies as proof. I'll be dead before I can even file half a report.
"Thank you," I tell Makena, and then she quickly rushes off into another room. I hear her digging around something. The man who saved me just watches the window in silence, ready for a fight. "Can the shadow one still fight?"
"Yeah," the guy says, not bothering to look at me. "That's the only attack spell I know, and I'm not tough enough to beat one of them."
"One of them?" I ask, and he finally spares me a glance. It lasts a full second, and then he's back on watchdog duty.
"The Apostles."
Oh. Those were them. What would those people want with someone like my mother? What the hell could she have hidden from them? Is the amulet an Amplifier? If so, that might explain why mages are after it. If it's a particularly powerful one, most would want to get their hands on it, no matter the cost.
Makena returns to the room, carrying with her an old urn. She approaches me, barely keeping herself standing with the speed she's moving at. She practically throws the urn at me. "You pay the djinn a visit before you get there, you hear me? The capital is large, and the festival won't be starting until a week from now. You'll need a place to stay, and you'll need to practice. I can't do much more for you, but the djinn can."
I look at her, then at the urn, and realize what she's asking me to do. "But isn't that blasphemy?" Trapping a djinn would be both dangerous and difficult, and would make me an enemy of the rest of them. They were king enough to provide us with fire ages ago, and might rescind their kindness after several transgressions.
"They're not the gods. They did us a favour one time, long ago, but that doesn't eternally put us in their debt. You take one, boy. You need to keep practicing. Your Magus Crown won't awaken on its own, and you're not likely to live through the Festival without it."
I don't really know anything about Magus Crowns. I know they're something each individual mage has, but I don't know where they get them, or what purpose they serve. Their appearance is lost on me, too. Just goes to show I was right to run away.
"Now, you go, boy," Makena tells me, pushing me through the door. "Ban will go with you. Can't have him be seen around here anymore â not if one of the Twelve got a good feel of his power. That'd bring them knocking on my door in no time, and I can't fight them off â not in my old age."
I look at the man who saved me, unsure if I want to travel with him. Strength in numbers is all well and good, but trusting strangers isn't exactly something I'm good at, and this guy is a fighter. If he aimed that light spell at me, I'd be fried to hell. Is their relationship not entirely professional, then? He's too young to be her husband, and their skin colors are proof enough of there being no parent-child relationship between them, either. Ultimately, I nod, and he starts walking out the side door, not bothering with goodbyes. I give Old Lady Makena one more glance, then follow after him.
I wanted my life to get interesting, and now I guess I got my wish.