MageCrafter - 4. Chapter 4

Esteemed guests of Duke Bertolde, ranging from lower nobles from smaller territories to members of Silbel’s Royal Family and visiting royals from other countries found themselves gathered in the central courtyard of the expansive estate. A buzz of interest was in the air after they had received an announcement sometime earlier that the Young Lord Baldric wished to show off a one hundred fold attunement magical item he had crafted. The reason was specifically stated by the estate’s head Butler Sargis that this was in commemoration of receiving a fledgling MageCrafter as his birthday present.

Pews had been brought out and evenly spaced for the crowd to sit, politely directed by the Maid staff that were out in full force to attend the needs of their guests. A royal blue carpet was rolled out between the numerous rows of evenly spaced pews, bearing the crest of Duke Bertolde upon it at even intervals and extending towards a closed off entryway with knights on either side.

Behind that door was a very nervous and slightly quaking Kotik who was still in his dancing attire.

“Hey cutie, it’s okay.” Shahnaz knelt down and gave him a reassuring pat on the small of his back. Kotik appreciated that she didn’t have her usual teasing tone in her voice and found that reassuring. “I know there are a lot of very important people out there. You’ve never had to deal with anything like this. The only thing you need to do is focus on what we practiced. This is going to be even easier than the dancing okay. Just walk down that carpet when we get the signal just like how I showed you, and settle yourself down where it ends. Make sure to sit down exactly in the way I mentioned.”

“I…” he was so nervous. He kept hearing about this Baldric person who he was supposed to be a present for, but he knew nothing about him. He hadn’t even fully realized what his burgeoning fear was until he found himself speaking the words out loud. “Wh-what if he doesn’t like me?”

He sounded so vulnerable right then. Shahnaz felt for the boy, helping him dry of the tears of fear and concern that were beginning to well up in his eyes. She had wondered when this would happen. He was a sheltered peasant boy who knew nothing of this world he had been thrust in. He was going to be given to someone that he had no knowledge of that would have a level of power over him that clearly terrified the lad from the very start.

“Oh honey, you don’t have to worry about that at all.” She reassured him gently. “I have never seen My Lord so excited to meet a person in my whole life. He has been fussing over every little detail of your first meeting to make sure it goes perfectly.”

Kotik was about to nod when he felt something bone chilling reveal itself in the room.

It had been hiding itself before then. Hiding itself so well that Kotik hadn’t even felt its emotions, something that frightened him greatly. Though he couldn’t really explain it, and he never tried to with other people, he could always tell when someone was feeling something strongly towards him or about him. It was a strange ability that he had always had, and he even used it to his advantage in places like the Tavern.

It had disguised itself as a slave boy who had been casually walking behind them before this point. Yet it wasn’t a slave boy. Now that it had revealed itself, Kotik knew it was something else entirely. When it had revealed itself, it didn’t do anything visually, nothing had changed in his youthful outward appearance. Yet it lifted whatever veil had been shielding it’s emotions from Kotik and let him see him for what he was. For what it was.

“She can’t see me or hear me Kotik.” The boy spoke as he stepped closer. Though he used a child's voice, the inflections and the way the words played on his mouth sent a shudder of panic through Kotik. He was about to warn Shahnaz before the boy waved a mocking finger at him and placed it at his chest.

“Ah ah ah. You say a word, and I’ll activate my explosion teleportation.” a cold smile played on the boy’s face as he stood beside the oblivious Maid and Kotik. She really couldn’t see him or hear him at all. His eyes, Kotik had never seen eyes so cold before. “You and I will be teleported out of here, and she dies in the blast. Do you want that boy?”

“Are you sure you’re going to be alright cutie?” Shahnaz asked Kotik, noticing him tensing up and staring into the distance.

“Answer her question or she dies.” The boy said ever so calmly into Kotiks human ear.

Kotik nodded to Shahnaz, not at all sure what to do. “I’ll be fine. I think I just need to be alone for a minute.”

“Okay sweetie, just wait for the signal to walk down the carpet okay? You’ll do great.”

The boy chuckled as she walked away, “I agree, You will do great.”

“Who are you? What are you?” Kotik asked in a whisper as he faced the door. His eyes darted around the place, looking for anything, absolutely anything that could help.

“My name is Darzi. I am the Lead Warlock of Babica Preja. It was a pain in the ass to get to that teleportation carriage into this cursed place, but a few werewolves were worth the distraction. Now… I have a question for you Kotik. Did you want to be a slave?”

“No.” Kotik didn’t even hesitate at that question. He had did everything he could to stop himself from being one, and it ended up not mattering in the end.

“Did you know that your collar hasn’t been fully activated yet?” Darzi whispered into Kotik’s ear. There was something wrong about Darzi, whatever he was he wasn’t what his appearance indicated. He could feel the sensation of magic from Darzi, the same feeling he got when he was near a magic item. Yet Darzi didn’t seem to be wearing any.

“You do not need to be here Kotik. You deserve so much better than this place. Do you know how they see you boy. Look down for your answer…”

Darzi’s hand traced along Kotik’s bare stomach, causing goosebumps to erupt as he shuddered at his touch. Somehow he knew that hand was...it was…

“Why does your hand feel like a magic item?” Kotik didn’t want to say that, but it leaked out of his lips anyway in barely a whisper.

Darzi’s human face warped as he smiled wider, revealing just how strangely malleable his flesh was. Even his teeth seemed to be able to grow and shift in size, becoming sharper for the briefest of moments.

“That’s because it is a Magic item Kotik. My whole body is a Magic Item. Or rather, many magic items.” He spoke all of this into his ear, continuing to feel Kotik as he stood still, trying to figure out how to deal with this. He needed to warn someone.

“Babica has dominion over bodies, Kotik. She has the power to mold and shape you and I just like you can shape wood, or your Tiefling friend can shape silver. I am her most prized magic item though, her greatest Warlock. My eyes alone have been crafted by her seven times each. The pain is like nothing you could possibly imagine, I squeal like a stuck pig even now when she changes something in me. Yet it’s all worth it in the end. Do you know why?”

Kotik shook his head. He tried to find anything, anything at all he could use to send for help. He didn’t really know how to use his collar. Then he felt it. There was an ever so small amount of wood built into the fasten holding the black and silver cloth that bore Duke Bertolde’s symbol.

Yet he didn’t know how to make it into a magic item. He hadn’t been taught yet.

“It’s worth it because it’s my choice.” Darzi said with conviction and a barely controlled rage in his voice. “Babica’s Warlocks aren’t like these pets you find yourself with boy. These Maids and Butlers, do you know what this Kingdom turned them into?”

He let the silence hang in the air as he hissed his next words into Kotik’s ears.

“They are lapdogs Kotik. Pets that do tricks for their masters. They are trained to perform their tricks so well, but they’re still nothing more than panting mongrels when you get down to it. You don’t have to be like them boy. You are a True Dominion MageCrafter. Humans should fear you. Humans should worship the ground you walk on. You are a god compared to them boy. Yet look how they have you.”

Darzi turned Kotik’s face by his chin, gazing into his eyes as his body morphed and took on a green color. Kotik watched as the human slaveboy became what looked like a juvenile Orc, yet one who had the eyes of someone much older.

“They are treating you like a Pleasure Boy. A slab of meat to be fucked and toyed with. Outside these doors right now is the assembled leaders of many human territories. You have a choice here boy. You’ll either teleport with me when I blow up those human royals and nobles out there, or you die in the blast with them.”

The signal for Kotik to start walking down the carpet sounded. Darzi made sure he started walking like he had been trained as he continued to speak. The words that Darzi were speaking were hitting the Lynxian in such a strange way. He knew this strange shape-shifting orc was dangerous, and wanted to kill so many important people, yet he couldn't force himself disagree with the points he was making.

“One way or another, I am not allowing these human scum to get another True Dominion on their side. Not when their Adventurers slaughter villages for sport, using their ears, MY PARENTS EARS as a way to claim a reward they waste on cheap Ale. I would suffer through any MageCrafting Babica would have of me if it meant I could get that much more power to wipe these filthy monsters off this planet.”

As Darzi had been speaking Kotik had entered a trance-like state focusing on that tiny piece of wood in the fasten. He used the method he had learned from Shahnaz, making the mental command to himself that he wanted to learn how to make a magic item. It had taken some time. He was slowly proceeding down the royal blue carpet towards the assembled leaders, leaders that would not have cared about him if he wasn’t a MageCrafter.

He wasn’t doing this for them however. Part of him, more than a small part, thought that Darzi was beyond justified for his rage. After all, Kotik himself had killed two men who dared to try and enslave him, two men who claimed to be Adventurers. He also knew all too keenly how anti demi human much of the human population was.

Again, he wasn’t doing this for them.

He reached out for the one person he could think of. The one person he kept hearing about. The one person who he was supposed to be a present for.

Kotik Spoke out with his mind, hoping against hope that this magic item was going to work.

“Lord Baldric,” He shuddered as he felt the connection meet its mark. He was almost shocked out of the link, but he forced himself to speak. “Lord, I have never met you. I… I am frustrated and upset about having my freedom stripped from me. If circumstances were different, I’m not sure I would have reached out to you at all…”

He paused before forcing himself on, he didn’t have much time. “Shahnaz and Sargis, the other maids, everyone I have met in this place are good people. They seem to genuinely care about each other, and they care about you. It is because of them and ONLY because of them I am doing this. If I am being honest, this country has done nothing to garner my loyalty beyond this. Behind me is a Warlock by the name of Darzi. He claims to be invisible to everyone but myself. He has a spell he called an Explosion teleportation. He plans to assassinate many world leaders here today. I am going to try to stop him, but I don’t know if I can. Please...If you are even half the person they claim you are, help me stop Darzi.”

Kotik almost feared he had thought those words into empty air, but his efforts were met with a powerful wave of desire the likes of which he had never felt before. The Lord he had connected his thoughts with had feelings of passion directed towards Kotik that was almost mind numbing and overwhelming. He had intrigued the Lord even more than he already had been, somehow Kotik could glean that even as he didn’t fully understand what that meant.

“You have done well Kotik.” For the first time, he heard the voice of Lord Baldric. It made his heart flutter and cheeks flush feeling those intense emotions wafting into his mind. It almost broke his connection from the dire situation. “I will be with you shortly, my lovely, brilliant present. It is time this Darzi sees what it means to cross Lord Baldric.”

Determination filled Kotiks eyes as his brief connection with Lord Baldric ended. He may largely agree with this Warlock, but he had threatened people he had grown to like.

That was unforgivable.

Darzi found himself in a state of shock as the Lynxian he had thought he had in a state of panic ripped off a pendant from his chest and punched it into the Warlock at a speed he had never thought possible without a magic item. Even as Kotik’s fist closed in on Darzi’s chest where he had indicated the MageCrafted teleportation item was, the wood within the pendant grew and warped at an alarming rate, blackening and gaining thorny spikes as he drove it straight through the Warlocks chest.

Assembled onlookers gasped as the cat-eared boy they had thought was making a normal ceremonial procession had turned around faster than their eyes could follow and utterly impaled an orc boy that had been completely invisible up to that point.

Darzi's eyes bulged and he coughed up blood as he looked at his chest in confusion. That wasn’t supposed to happen. He was fully alert. He had fought maids in full battle garb, decked out in with a full complement of magic items and come out victorious before. What was this boy?!

“If you hadn’t threatened Shahnaz, I’d have gone with you. I just wanted you to know that.” Kotik growled into Darzi’s ear, the seething hatred rippling out of each syllable revealing the truth behind those words, “Next time you want to recruit someone, ask nicely.”

Darzi tried to lash out with one of his arms, making it morph into a claw-like shape to attempt to kill this creature before him. That was only met with the cat eared boy catching his wrist, crushing the Warlocks bones while never breaking eye contact with him. Darzi had messed up terribly. He realized that now. He had gone about recruiting this terrifying creature completely wrong. He had thought that Kotik was an impressionable and easily persuaded youth, but he was so wrong.

Kotik was just being polite.

Kotik leaped, pulling his legs back into his chest before shooting them both out like an arrow loose from a string. A resounding crack echoed throughout the stunned courtyard as the Warlock's body tumbled dozens of yards away. His arm had been ripped clean off his body and the bones in his chest had been entirely caved in. What the hell was this boy?

Darzi staggered to his feet as his body healed. The onlookers pulled back in alarm as a new arm grew in place and his chest went back into place. He was still in agony however, and the magic items that had been in those parts of his body were lost. He needed to get out of here.

He reached out his undamaged arm, charging a blast of sickly green energy to send at the boy. He needed to kill this creature now! He couldn’t let this being stand against Babica! Why had he been so stupid as to provoke him like this. He had thought he had this under control.

Suddenly, he felt his magic cut off from him. The air became damp and the light grew dark around the assembled people who were mobilizing their own defenses in response to the Warlock in their presence. Dark fog, sparking with electricity as if they were storm-clouds billowed from the ground and covered the courtyard, barely lifting more than a few inches off the ground as it did so. Storm clouds formed unnaturally overhead in an unnatural way, spiraling outwards from a central mass and blanketing the sky in darkness.

“Honored Assembly” A disembodied voice echoed through the courtyard as it addressed the nobles and royals who were watching everything taking place with confusion and uncertainty, “Leave the Warlock to me.”

With that, the fog that covered the ground shot upwards, creating a towering building forged of stormclouds that had a large Gateway at its top. It was made of thick sheets of white ice that stood in bold contrast to the surrounding darkness.

Kotik’s heart thumped in his chest as those doors opened, and he gazed upon Lord Baldric for the first time.

Steamclouds swirled all around behind The young Lord from behind the gateway. He appeared as if he were stepping into the mortal realm from an ethereal plane of existence that knew only steam and heat. He could feel the intensely scalding temperatures emanating from that place even as those same steam clouds began to broil outwards and create a stairwell for the young Lord to walk down.

Kotik couldn’t take his eyes off of him. He was wearing suit of pure white that was sharply back-lit by the intense light coming from behind him. A large top hat rested upon his head tilted to the side slightly. It was equally as white as his suit and the blue mark of the Bertolde estate was emblazoned proudly in its center. Though his face was in deep shadow from both being lit from behind and having shading from his off center top hat, he could still see Baldric’s features with his lynxian eyes.

His face flushed even brighter as he gulped audibly, feeling that heat go all the way down to his neck and heating up his ears. That feeling only intensified as bright amber eye that wasn’t covered by his bluish white hair met kotik’s gaze. As Baldric smiled down from his gateway, built into a tower of storm-clouds, the most powerful, forceful emanation of desire that Kotik had ever felt in his life shot right through his very being.

Though Baldric’s expression was that of a calm and controlled smirk, Kotik could feel the hunger, the need for himself that threatened to make the lad faint from the shock of it. He had never had anyone send such a powerful emotion inside of him before, it was everything he could do to keep his legs from buckling in on themselves.

Slowly, Baldric’s gaze shifted to the Warlock that was trying to back away. His expression hardened as he waved his hand.

The Warlock let out a shriek of pain as frigidly cold chains erupted out of the fog at his feet and gripped into his ankles, almost burning him with how cold they were. What was worse they had spikes that had pointed inwards, skewering his ankles and shredding the tendons. More chains snaked out of the depths of that dark fog gripping the Warlock and yanking the being into a forced kneeling position.

“You trespass on my property...”

More howls as a spear of steam pierced his stomach, instantly evaporating his insides even as it tried to heal itself. The young Lord slowly descended on the stairwell of steam, his eyes locked on the Warlock as his face remained stone calm.

“You threaten my MaidStaff... “

A geyser like burst of scalding water shot into the air from beneath the Warlock, eliciting the most bone chilling shriek out of Darzi yet. Even as his skin tried desperately to heal the injuries that were stacking one on top of the other, it was evident that that power was slowing down. It was being overwhelmed.

“Worst of all,” He loomed over the now petrified orc as his next words made Kotik’s heart leap into his throat and his skin tingle like mad.

“You tried to take Kotik from me. MY. KOTIK.”

A snarl grew on The young Lords face even as he raised his hand to snap his fingers. The terrified Warlock felt his body begin to freeze from the inside out as he breathed in the air around him.

“Get off my lawn.”

To the astonishment off all onlookers, The Warlock after being frozen so completely, shattered pieces upon the snap of the young Lords fingers. As Lord Baldric turned, the billowing fog flowed away, up into the door he had come from. Even as this happened, the storm-clouds in the sky began to break apart, revealing pockets of sunlight into the still misty courtyard.

It wasn’t long before the gateway closed and dissolved in the air, sealing back up all the steam that Baldric had been enchanting within his lair for exactly a time such as this. He had ran one illusory simulation after another on how to extend the power of his lair outside of its confines. It took much research, but after that trial run it had born quite a lot of fruit. He was pleased.

He was even more pleased with the enchanting figure he was approaching. With no training whatsoever, he had figured out how to Craft a communication item and reach out to a being he had never met in his life. He had done this in what had to have been mere moments. He could wait no longer. The desire filling his very being wanted this fascinating person. He had wanted him long before he had even known what he looked like, and that had only magnified many-fold since then.

Kotik gazed up at the older teen with awe and more than a little fear in his eyes. This being controlled water. he controlled the clouds in the sky and the fog on the ground. He could make water erupt and scald a creature he had doubts about completely being able to defeat, and made that same Warlock crumble to the smallest shards of ice with a snap of his fingers.

This god like figure that walked out of the hottest, most imposing chamber filled with steam and did so without looking so much as sweaty.

Yet he wanted Kotik. Somehow, Kotik had caught the attention of this otherworldly being that was the closest approximation of a God he had ever witnessed, and that beings desire was for him. Why? What could possibly make him feel so strongly about him? They hadn’t even met yet, but from the way those emotions felt he had longed for someone like him for ages.

Kotik shuddered as a gloved hand took his chin lightly and tilted him up to face Baldric even more completely. The Young Lord who stood so much taller than the cat eared boy looked him over with concern.

“Are you hurt?”

Kotik couldn’t find his voice. His face felt so hot trying to hold Baldric’s gaze. He settled for shaking his head no while his hands shook at his side. The young Lord smiled at that, and before Kotik knew it he found the older teen claiming his mouth for his own, kissing him deeply and passionately while holding the back of his head. He found himself clinging to that white suit, bunching the fabric in his shaking hand as his throat let out an involuntary purring noise.

Kotik’s knees gave out and his eyes rolled at the first kiss he had ever had, and one done by someone who knew all to well how to make a boy’s brain go blank with pleasure. Lord Baldric did not mind at all that all onlookers saw him do this, and as he kept them locked he reached his gloved hand up and touched his Noble ring into Kotik’s collar, pairing the two items at last and activating the collars full effects.

By the time he broke that Kiss with Kotik, his brain had been fully overwhelmed and he had to lean onto Baldric’s chest for support, letting him wrap his arm around his body.

The Young Lord looked out at the assembly that had still needed to recover from the display he had done. He smiled at them in satisfaction as he spoke.

“Honored assembly. I hereby claim this MageCrafter as my present.”